Club Josh Daily Update

Thanks Dad!
Originally uploaded by Club Josh.

With some elbow grease and rubbing compound, most of the damage is gone. The remaining scratches are deep and will require some paint work down the toad. But for now, I can drive happily.

Posted by Josh at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why I can't have nice things
Originally uploaded by Club Josh.

Yesterday someone misjudged the spot next to me and hit me and left a 7 in scratch. Of course there was no note which sucks Not that I'd get after them, but this happened at work where you think people would have better courtesy. Hopefully, it can be buffed out or its off to the Body Works.

Posted by Josh at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This next week should be full of fun and challenges. My final presentation at work is on Wednesday, and I finally received the new HTML template for the new Charo web site.

I still need to get a new suit, practice some more, and just generally relax to prepare.

On the Charo side, I mainly need to do some cutting and pasting as well as a bit of development before I can show the new site to Charo and some friends for feedback. Thanks to Oszie who really helped put my ideas into being with style.

I do find it interesting that my involvement with the new Charo site and my management training program have been side by side since last November. Sometimes it just freaks me out!

In unrelated news, it appears Spring has disappeared from SoCal. I think we might have had one or two days this year. Now we are right into Summer/Fire Season.

Posted by Josh at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know you are killing time when you start to pick up things around the house and cleaning. I am working on a presentation and every now and then I get distracted and wander off and I have to force myself to get back to it.

Posting on my blog is another thing I do when I should be doing something else.

Hmm maybe I will just reminisce and watch one of my favorite Disneyland Parades of all time:

The Mulan Parade featuring George Takei!

Posted by Josh at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I kept heading out to the parking lot of my complex tonight hoping to see the last total lunar eclipse until 2010. Sadly, mother nature had other ideas and the sky was mostly cloudy. I did get a brief glimpse of the moon just before it went total, but then I started to get cold and went inside. Oh well. Some random neighbor of mine asked me if I was looking for the eclipse, to which I replied, "Yeah, but the clouds are not cooperating". What I really wanted to say was, "No, I am trying to see if I can see bits of expensive military satellite are about to collide with our complex", but alas I felt like a big enough dork as it was.

Tomorrow FedEx is delivering my first new computer in over seven years. Woo Hoo! I have begun backing up my files onto DVDs. I still don't know how I am going to handle all the mp3s and DVD video files I have stored on the second drive in my machine. I was toying of the idea of putting it back into the external enclosure I bought for it back in 2004 (for the old laptop), but I will probably just try and transfer it over the network.

It is not like I can just abandon my PC just yet. Until I get a copy of Adobe CS so I can use Photoshop and Dreamweaver, I will be limited on the web design work I can do. I will stick to the laptop for the time being to help with the little things I need to get done. I am excited about trying to rip some of the Charo archive footage I have on DVDs from David. Also, I can get Roxio Toast so I can convert some of the old TiVo recordings I have to DVDs as well.

What did I get? Just this little jewel:

Posted by Josh at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Not much going on in the world of Club Josh these days. I have been busy with work. The biggest thing I have been agonizing over is the purchase of a new computer. I pretty much have settled on a new iMac, its just a matter of getting up the nerve to actually press the buy now button on the Apple web site. I wish I could just go into an Apple store, but if I purchase it online, I get a discount through work.

Today I decided to wipe the old computer my Dad gave to me and install a fresh copy of XP. It is still a faster computer than the one I currently use as my desktop, and I will be able to use it as a media server once I get all of the drivers and such installed on it. I also might just give it back to my Dad when I get the new iMac. One thing I will try to do first on the other Dell machine is see if I can quickly rip video material for the Charo site. That way I can get started on my new design for the site. One thing that is cool is that my original machine can be donated to Goodwill (sans hard drives of course) and I will be able to get a tax deduction. I can also have Dell Recycle my machine for free as well. No longer will I have old computers hanging around in my house.

So once I get everything all squared away I will be much more productive!

While I was working on the computer, it had to install 90 updates to Windows XP - holy crap!

Posted by Josh at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems I hardly knew you 2007. I can really say that this year was dominated by three events and that is about it. One was all consuming, one snowballed out of control, and the other is just an amazing surreal thing that I am still trying to put my mind around it.

First up: Nemo!
Never in my life have I worked so hard and been so proud of something I have brought to life. I was so lucky to be part of something that the likes of which will not be seen again in a long time. I was featured in an Annual Passholder newsletter and took home a bunch of swag. It even got me tickets to the World Premiere of Pirates 3. I made connections and friends that I hope will last a long time. When Nemo finally opened I was worried that I would fall back into routinesville, but luckily every day has brought out something interesting and challenging for me to deal with and I think I have learned a lot and grown as a person because of it.

Europe!
This trip was simply amazing. Amazing in its length. Amazing in its price! Despite visiting some new places and old favorites, this really was a great trip that I enjoyed immensely. Three whole weeks off and in Europe comes at a price, but it was well worth it. All the stories and the crazy things that happened - trying to find the hotel in Edinburgh, experiencing Disneyland Paris from an insider point of view, listening to Sara Cox on BBC 1, driving my beloved B150, and most of all having a great time with Daniel. I think we have never spent so much time together without getting on each other's nerves and it is a testament to our friendship.

Charo!
After a year of waiting, my connection with David finally paid off as we we pressed into service by Charo to promote her show in Laughlin. It all culminated in what I think is the beginning of a great relationship. I hope we can continue to stay in touch and help her out whenever she needs us.

And how about 2008? So far it is promising to be a good year from what has been set up in the last few weeks of 2007. The only downside? All that cigarette smoke in Laughlin has caused me to get sick. I hate being sick to start a new year, but hopefully I will recover soon enough and get back in the swing of things. In the meantime thank goodness for Emergen-C and Echinacea!

Posted by Josh at 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been quite the eventful finish to 2007!

- I was accepted into the Emerging Leader program at Disney. This is an incredible accomplishment that I could not be more proud of and I look forward to all the new challenges at work that come with it. For the first time in six years I will not be involved in attractions - this makes me nervous, but at the same time I am really interested in how other units of the park operate. Hopefully, this is the beginning of something great!

- I had a great Christmas! My Dad's side of the family all trekked to Disneyland to see me working at the Subs. Granted it was one of the busiest days of the year, and they did not see much else, but they all loved the ride. It made Christmas dinner a bit tame since everyone was pooped, but being able to drive a sub for my family was great. Reminds me of the first time I drove the Casey train years ago when my Mom's side came to visit.

- Charo and I shared some quality time in Laughlin. How does tip-toeing across Don Laughlin's Celebrity theater's stage while full Catholic Mass is going on with Charo, her husband Kjell, and David? Pretty crazy, but David arranged a meeting with Charo and Kjell and if I can pull things together in the next week or so, something great is going to happen. I can't get into too many details, but it promises to be amazing. Lunch at Spago's is just around the corner...

Posted by Josh at 9:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

and then late for others.

I was surprised today with an early Christmas present from Daniel:

Its a Canon Powershot SD850 IS - 8.1 MP digital camera. After the many problems I had with my old S400 on my recent trip (losing photos, and other misc problems) this will be a welcome upgrade. I will continue to use the S400 for work related stuff. I am excited about is all the new features on the camera such as face recognition and tons of in-camera effects. Of course, I think I will need a new computer to handle the larger files!

On the other side of Christmas, I have been trying to work on a project to give everyone for Christmas, but I am woefully behind. Hopefully, I can get it finished soon and reduce the time after Christmas we will have to wait to get the projects.

Don't forget Charo in Laughlin the last week of December!

Posted by Josh at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally after several weeks of working and being lazy, I am back in the swing of things around the house and here are some of the highlights of the past week or so:

Thanksgiving with the family was pretty good. Everyone enjoyed the trip photos, though I think they were having trouble staying awake through all 500 or so photos. The food was good and it is always nice to see everyone.

I am also trying to cope with the sticker shock from my recent vacation and as a result, I have scaled back on some future plans to try and save some money. Nothing too major, but am certainly being more conscious of what I buy and where I go.

Personally, I can't believe November is just about done. I guess with coming back in the middle of the month along with the holiday right after that, it has left me a bit discombobulated.

The next week or so will be nice and slow before the holidays pick up steam, and hopefully I will get caught up.

Ooh - one last thing. I am working on something super cool for Christmas. I don't want to give much away, but if I can finish it this weekend, then I will reveal more later.

Posted by Josh at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been a few days since I made it home from Europe, and to be honest, i have been super busy. I only had one full day off before I returned to work, but I think it turned out for the best. I think I am more jet-lagged from this trip than I have been, probably due to the fact I was gone for three weeks. It is really funny waking up wide awake at 3am and struggling to stay awake past 8pm. It actually reminds me of testing and the first few months of opening shifts at work this last summer.

I am slowly integrating my clothes and souvenirs into my already crowded house. In the meantime, i have been trying to add tags and captions to my photos on Flickr. So far, I am almost done with my London photos which means I am about halfway done with them. I did notice in the first few uploads from Europe, I basically uploaded all the photos - duplicates and all, so I am going back and deleting some of the duplicates and some of the photos that just don't make any sense.

Today I have to make a DVD slide show for the family which is always fun. One thing that strikes me about being back in my apartment is that I have way too much stuff. Considering I was able to live out of a suitcase for three weeks, I think I should be able to just throw things out. I know, I know I say this a lot, but hopefully this feeling will stick and at some point over the next few months I will do another purge.

Posted by Josh at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Daniel and I spent the day Saturday out and about hitting the Golden West College swap meet and then traipsing up to LA to hit our favorite store Flight 001. We were on a mission to get some info for our trip next month as well as shop for smaller luggage. Since we want to incorporate some discount airlines in our plans, we want to make sure we have lighter luggage to take with us. Of course, this means doing laundry overseas which can be an adventure!

We ended our night with dinner at Bob's and then a walk around downtown Burbank and a stop at a few Ross' for some formal clothes. When we returned back to my place, I knew there was trouble a foot. The street next to my complex was shut down for some unknown reason and from the looks of things my complex was without power. Sure enough as I went back around to the other entrance, my whole complex was without power.

Thankfully, it wasn't that warm out, but the damage to my fridge was done. All the ice cream was melted and the food I just bought two days ago was all thawed out. I walked to the 7-11 to get some ice to see if that could save some of the food, but in the end I decided not to risk it and just threw it all out. On my walk, I did see a car had smashed into one of the power poles on the street. This one pole seems to be the Achillies heel of my complex since it took out both power and cable. I got home at 10pm and it wasn't until 9:11 the next am before the power was back on and then 11am before the cable worked again.

In the chaos of it all, I discovered my lighter did not work (again 7-11 to the rescue!). Since September is Emergency Preparedness Month, I think I need to go out and get a survival kit for the house including some battery operated lanterns and some more canned food and water. Also it helps to have a fully charged Nintendo DS Lite since Daniel and I were able to play Mario Kart DS among other things by candlelight to keep ourselves amused.

Posted by Josh at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I have lost my cell phone so if you are trying to reach me you will get the lovely out of service message. Just drop me an email or IM if you need to get a hold of me. I am going to wait until Tuesday to see if the place I lost it at gives me a call that they found it. Otherwise, I will go ahead and replace it. Too bad this isn't June, I would go ahead and get an iPhone. I wonder if I could survive two months without a cell phone and just get one then.

The last two weeks I have been extremely busy with work - working 12 hour+ days that start at 3:30am. This has left little time to write the Update or do much else for that matter. Last weekend I got to hang out with Tiffany and Madyson watching ABBA videos among other things. I also got to hang out with Mandel and I was finally able to take him out for his birthday over two months late. He did show me a bunch of cool vintage Disney videos including the classic "Sandy in Disneyland" where we played follow the glass eye. The rest of the videos were all given the same critique: "You know what would make this sequence better? A glass eye!!" It was nice to chill and hang out with my friends on the weekends - it helps recharge the batteries for the long work week ahead.

I did manage to make it to Legoland for the first time. It was pretty cool - despite the advertised lack of rides for grown ups. I think with my lowered expectations it made the trip more fun. It certainly is a different theme park experience and it reminds me how far ahead we are at Disney. Legoland does need some TLC maintenance and paining throughout the park and it is certainly on the Six Flags caliber of experience (except geared for kids). I think with some good investing it could really be an International Caliber destination. One thing seemed to bother me was the encroachment of the business park or condos around the area. It seemed that you could practically rent a place and look over Legoland. I like the whole berm concept and it really seems jarring to see a office building rising over a Medieval Themed area.

Well off to search for a new phone.

Posted by Josh at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Friday night Daniel and I dusted off the bikes on the patio and headed out to do a lap of Mile Square Park. It was the first time since I moved down to SoCal that I actually went somewhere on my bike, and I was glad that I finally did it. Honestly, I should have been riding to the beach all the time or at least around town and not being a lazy slob. I think the burgundy bike needs a bit of TLC. Both bikes have rusted a bit since they no longer get to stay inside like they did in Davis and in Studio City. I think with a little oil and perhaps a service at a bike shop they will be as good as new.

My blue bike has never really been used (sad I know). I bought it in Woodland at the Target back in the day that Roger and I were planning on using our bikes a lot. I even managed to get someone to buy the burgundy one, but at the last minute the buyer backed out. I have had this bike since I was 12 and have been hit on it as well as fallen down in a mushroom cloud in Pleasanton.

Hopefully we will stay motivated and keep on riding!

Posted by Josh at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This past week, I was recovering from allergies and some sinus issues and discovered that thanks to the Patriot Act, whenever I want to use a decongestant (the kind found in Claratin, Sudafed and DayQuil), I need to visit the pharmacist and sign my life away that I will not use it to make Meth. I am all for making criminals work harder to do their business, but really. I was very embarrassed when I had to go up and sign just to get some Claratin D. After doing some research I found out that the Meth Act was a rider to the Patriot Act.

Even worse, I do not remember having to go through these hoops the last time I bought Claratin or DayQuil (which apparently has changed its formula so it can still be purchased over the counter). It makes me wonder just how old the medicine is I have in my cabinet.

Posted by Josh at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week I am working the night shift to support the show folks. Its the first time in months that I have not been at work at 7am so it is nice to sleep in a little. The only drawback is that I usually get off at 1am so it feels a lot like my first summer at Disneyland when I rarely did anything outside of the work-sleep-work cycle. It also might have to do with the 12 hour shifts I have been working, but in the end it will all be worth it.

Posted by Josh at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a dream the other night that I was with Daniel and Tiffany in the car and we were heading into the San Fernando Valley to go to a store that sold Charo's stuff. I just remember being very excited and that I was worried that we had a late start and we were going to get there after it closed. From my mental geography I think it was in the northern Valley area - somewhere near the 405/5 split.

We arrived at the store and the sign in the store said that they were open until everyone left. So we went in and had a field day. There was a whole rack of Santa outfits that Charo wore on the cover of this album. There were also a bunch of different trinkets and stuff (now that I think of it it reminds me a lot of Mickey's of Glendale - the WDI Cast Member Store). At the end of the dream I remember finding an album cover place mat of a record that I had never heard of before. When I looked at the back side it said that it was from a record sold in South Florida in the late 1980's. The lady that ran the store then said that everyone else was gone and once we were done she would be able to leave.

I then woke up. I am not sure if I got any Charo items, but I do remember falling back asleep and looking at the actual record - not just the cover - of the never before heard of album. I wish I could remember the title, it was actually kinda of cool.

Posted by Josh at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The cable guy came yesterday and could not figure out what was causing the issue with my TV so he ended up giving me the HD version of my cable box. This version has an aspect ratio setting so I can force my TV to the correct 4:3 ratio. Of course, being an HD box, it processes a much cleaner signal to my television and I even get to see the HD signals. My TV is HD-Ready which means if I have the correct converter I get an awesome signal. So I am pretty happy with the change of boxes, but I am still not certain if I will be paying a higher price per month.

I picked up JMJ's The Symphonic Jean Michel Jarre which is a full orchestra rendition of some classic tracks. It sounds pretty good and I think it is a great add to my collection. I was surprised that it was supervised by Jarre himself and not just a crop job by some random hack with a two-bit orchestra. If anything, it helps bide my time until Teo and Tea gets released next month.

Other than that not much going on around the house. Today I managed to pay one of my credit cards a second time. It sucks because I really cannot afford to have that much money down in my account, but at least I will not have to make a payment next month. I will probably try to do it anyways so I can be a bit ahead on my account. Needless to say, it will be a tight couple of week until the rent is paid. I guess it is better than NOT paying..

Posted by Josh at 7:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went into the breakroom at work today and Fox News was having a discussion on whether the whole "Global Warming" thing was a sham since there was a record breaking freeze in the mid section of the country. Sadly, Fox News apparently has not heard of a warm spell in Southern California. It is the middle of Winter and I am beginning to think that the poles really are shifting...

Today's Weather Highlights:
Embarrass, MN -42 Degrees F
Grand Forks, ND -30 Degrees F
State College, PA (Chaos) 4 Degrees F
Chicago, IL (Kris) 11 Degrees F
New York, NY (Nathan) 19 Degrees F
Geneva, Switzerland (Jonathan) 46 Degrees F
Sacramento, CA (Matt) 66 Degrees F
Club Josh Resort, CA 82 Degrees F
Brisbane, Australia (Chris) 86 Degrees F

It is interesting that my weather is more like Brisbane than Sacramento...

Posted by Josh at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Visited the dentist today for my semi-annual cleaning and checkup. I never mind going to the dentist, because I like the feeling in my mouth after everything is polished. I had a different person this time then the previous two and she really gave me the hard sell on flossing. She also noticed that I miss a spot when I brush my teeth and I should try and do a better job brushing.

Mind you, when I went in at the end of 2005 after skipping the dentist for two years, I didn't get any lectures at all. Oh well, at least they are not prepping to drill for cavities. Another hard sell was an electric toothbrush. I have never been sold on them since there are so many different varieties out there and I have no idea where to start. The dental assistant gave me some pointers and afterwards I headed out to Target with my coupon.

I wasn't about to get the $100 version, so I settled on a sub $20 version that ended up being less than 15 after my coupon. I chose the Oral-B Vitality Sonic since I always liked it when my dentist in Davis would clean my teeth with an ultrasonic device. I charged it up when I got home and took it for a spin. It takes some getting used to, but I am willing to give it a go and see if there is a nominal difference in July when I have my next check-up.

Posted by Josh at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After drooling over the $400 deluxe weather station at Fry's, I settled on the $19.95 LaCrosse Technology WS-9013U. It is pretty basic, but does provide MAX/MIN storage and wirelessly transmits up to 330 feet (without obstruction). I think when I do eventually get a house I will upgrade to the pro station that automatically updates current weather readings to the internet, but for now I am happy.

The device is currently calibrating with the US Atomic Clock and also calibrating the outdoor sensor so by this time tomorrow it should be running on its own.

Posted by Josh at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week at this time I was noting how hot it was. The high temperature was 80+ degrees and we were all wondering what happened to winter. Well, the old man heard us and now the lows are in the low 30s and the highs are barely making it into the 50s. Supposedly, the weather should return to normal sometime at the end of the week, but I am not holding my breath.

One of the things I would like to get is a wireless weather station. I used to have one of the old corded ones many years ago. I would think that 20 years later they would all be wireless, but alas, they are still made. Actually prices for full-fledged professional weather stations are in the low $200s and we were talking at work about getting one complete with the deluxe anemometer and self-emptying rain gauge for the lead office.

But until then, I would like to be able to monitor the Climate Change from inside my apartment.

Posted by Josh at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is January and it is 80 degrees outside. It is the same temperature in LA as it is in Sydney, Australia and they are in the middle of their summer. I do not know what is going on except Nathan reports that it has yet to snow in New York this winter. Of course the year I went to NY it had a record blizzard.

I have never been one to jump on the Global Warming/Climate Change band wagon but lately I do wonder what is going on with the earth. Of course, I still hold out for the fact that we are just at the peak of warmness and then we will be heading towards an ice age. "Day after Tomorrow" anyone?

One of the other things we are overdue for is a re-orientation of our magnetic field. This phenomenon switches the North Pole with the South Pole and usually wreaks havoc on just about all aspects of life. Maybe the reason we are having Summer in the middle of Winter is due to the fact we are really in the Southern Hemisphere.

Then again, maybe we really are messed up and I need to find some property that is at elevation 25 feet and start planning beach-front condos.

I do hope that Northern California gets hammered by rain and snow so that we at least will be able to drink water this summer and be able to flush the toilet whenever we want.

Posted by Josh at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the things I wish to accomplish in 2007 is to get my financial life in order. I don't expect to become completely debt free in 2007, but I at least want to have a plan to reduce my debt and start planning for retirement. I have about 30 years plus of productivity left in me before I decide to live in a mobile home and travel the world.

One of the things I have had since I was a kid was savings bonds that my dad and grandfather gave me every birthday and Christmas. They are tucked away in a safe deposit box so I rarely think about them. I have half of the original bonds since I had some financial difficulties in 1994 which forced me to cash some of them. This morning as I was looking into various online financial stuff, I decided to check the balance of them. I keep an inventory of the bonds in the house and when I looked it up, I realized the last time I checked the bonds was in 1999. Since then, four of the bonds have matured and are no longer earning interest. The rest have dropped from 6-7% interest to 4% in the last 7 years. It looks like I need to cash out those bonds and roll them into something more dynamic. What? I don't know.

Also, I have a few thousand in an old Edmunds 401K that is not really doing anything for me other than keeping me from spending it on a new Sony Bravia TV (a good thing).

My plan is to get all these misc/other financial resources together and see what I can do about getting a much higher return for my investment. One thing I would love to get is a house. I think I could get a pretty good return in real estate, I just need to get over the hump of down payment and then figure out an affordable monthly payment.

Whatever happens, I will need to have a plan in place by October!

Posted by Josh at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Years 2007

It has been a few years since I posted my list of things I have done on New Year's Eve, so I figured that it was time:

1990-1995 Disneyland

1995-6 Universal CityWalk

1996/7 Disneyland

1997/8 Club Universe

1998/9 Dad's House

1999/2000 The crazy disco Hollywood sign affair

2000/1 Santa Barbara

2001/2 Working at Disneyland

2002/3 Working at Disneyland/Horrible Club in Hollywood

2003/4- Quality Time at Home

2004/5 - Sick at Home

2005/6 - Working at Buzz

2006/7 - Quality Time at Home

I think I should plan on doing something next year. I am overdue for going out and having a blast ringing in the new year. I should note that it was sad to see Dick Clark struggling to speak on the set of New Year's Rockin' Eve. I think it is just a matter of time before this constant in my life is gone.

My brother, his wife and my nephew braved the New year's crowd at Disneyland. I was a bit jealous - I had wanted to go with them, but these days I like to spend my weekends recharging rather than going all out.

As for New Year's resolutions, I am still working on them, but I think I am going to give up candy. In the last few months in the office I have been snacking on them a lot so I really want to cut it down.

I will reflect on 2006 a bit later.

Posted by Josh at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i feel like I have been washing clothes non-stop for the last week or so since my new washer-dryer was installed. Due to its low capacity, I have had to do numerous loads just to try and cut through the mountain of laundry that I have. I might have to break down and send some to the laundromat - especially since I practically had to wash my flannel sheets separately - one load for the fitted sheet and another for the flat sheet. Of course, now if I have accidental food spillage on myself (a more than routine occurrence) I have a quick fix. One thing that continues to elude me is ironing. I tried it on Tara's iron and ironing board, but I just am not any good at pressing my clothes. I am going to try and send my shirts to a cleaners to see if they can press them.

In the non-laundry front, I have been working lots of hours and it seems like Christmas has snuck up on me again. Since I moved to LA in 1999, I haven't really noticed that Christmas approaches since the decorations are up at the end of October and I keep thinking that it is way far away. Black Friday usually gets me into the shopping mood, but usually for myself. So the first few weeks of December I begin to think I should really get going and start buying gifts, but alas I always wait until the last week.

This is the point when Christmas turns into a chore because I always want to give everyone a thoughtful gift that they will really like and I always struggle. I certainly am glad that they invented Gift Cards. Some people think of these as cop-out gifts, but I actually like them - as long as they are from places I like to shop. Therein lies the challenge - pick stores that people will actually go to and shop.

Sometimes I feel like I have isolated myself from the family. You would think that these are the people closest to me and I should know them the best. However, I think that as we grow older and we drift apart into our own lives that it actually makes them the hardest to buy for since there is a bit of pressure to get them something more personal. Arrg.

How about this? We should all just go buy our own presents and then wrap them. Then we can all sit around the tree and tell stories to our family about why we wanted these items and what they are and how we are going to use them. Wouldn't that be great? That would be a cool combination of getting close to your family as well as getting good presents. Of course it sort of gets rid of the real reason behind Christmas presents - to give a little something to someone out of the goodness of you heart. Perhaps this is where gift cards come in - we all give a list of places we like and then it would be a surprise what stores we get. Maybe we can have a gift card grab bag. Everyone puts in a card and then we take turns pulling them out - hoping we get that Home Depot card and pouting when we pull out the Panda Express card (OK, maybe I would be pouting since I don't care for Panda Express, but you get the point).

The best part about the Very Special Club Josh Christmas Idea(tm) is that if you don't have a lot of money for Christmas this year, than you don't buy yourself a lot of things.

At any rate, I am heading off to Phoenix for Christmas Weekend. I will probably have to work on Christmas Day, but I am holding out for a Miracle on Harbor Blvd and I will be able to get out of my shift and stay an extra day. I decided to drive out because I really am over airports. I flew to Australia, Sacramento, Phoenix, and Alabama already this year and I know how much of a pain Sky Harbor Airport is during the holidays. Plus I am looking forward to some deep thoughts and iPod goodness on the way.

Posted by Josh at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the first time since 1994, I have a washer and a dryer in my apartment! Yes, not since the brief stay in Chico do I have the luxury of doing my own laundry. I actually don't mind doing my own clothes, but I hate doing it in a in the washers that my apartments have or even doing it myself at a laundromat. Since I moved to Orange County almost 4 years ago, I have been taking my laundry to a fluff and fold service. I love it because all I do is drop it off and it is ready the next day folded and hung up - ready to put away and wear. The problem was that my laundry would stack up and by the time I took it there were two huge bags.

Hopefully, I will get back into the habit of washing clothes regularly. It almost makes me want to wear a costume at work so I don't have to go to costuming so often. At any rate it is going to take me a few days to wash all the clothes I have accumulated (I was at the end of a cycle and ready to go to the fluff and fold service). Also, I think when I want to wash blankets or other large items, I will still need to go there since I have a small capacity stackable unit.

And to think it only took 4 and a half months for them to install the washer dryer.

Posted by Josh at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been a rough few weeks since my return from Mobile and Mark's wedding. First out of the gate, the week of Thanksgiving my eye problem from last year re-surfaced. Nothing major, just another stye on the same eyelid as last year and it started almost the same day. Luckily, I had some of the ointment from last time around and it was still good so it went away fairly quickly. Unfortunately, I caught a bit of a bug - probably from the airplane despite my Emergen-C and Echinacea regimen. So for the last two weeks I have been balancing work with sickness and just a general malaise.

Some good highlights:
- I finally replaced watch bands and batteries for my backwards Goofy and Mickey Mouse date watches after my Timex indiglo watch from Mom finally had the face plate fall off. I have no idea when it happened, but Paul at work told me that he had noticed it for a few days before I realized it and pointed it out to him. I went a few weeks watchless, but now I feel whole again.

- I went and saw Casino Royale with Daniel. I thought it was pretty good, but hope that this "reboot" of the Bond franchise does not jettison all of the classic Bond elements (esp. the cool gadgets) that seemed to be missing from this story. It did feel a lot like Dr. No and From Russia With Love and I enjoyed the basic feel. Daniel Craig did a great job, but one movie is not enough to start the "Is he better than Sean or Roger" debate - we will see if he lasts a few movies.

- I am trying to enjoy the Shatnerrific "Show Me the Money" on ABC. I think that if there were a few trims here and there and the pace was speeded up a tad, it would be a blockbuster. Unfortunately, it is difficult to stay interested past 30 minutes so I do not think it will last a long time.

- This past week I had a chance to meet the new President of the Disneyland Resort Ed Grier twice. The first time was at the family holiday party on Monday and the second time was at a Cast Member Forum I was picked out to attend. He was much more personable than I expected and since I am working on the Nemo Project, I think I will probably see him again and hopefully he have a positive remembrance of me. Who knows where you can go if you network with the right people.

- As I posted earlier, I also met Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company at the Family Christmas Party. Honestly, I was thrilled beyond all believe that I actually got to chat for a quick minute and get a photo. It was way better than being in the foreground of a photo with Michael Eisner and never actually talking to him. I like what Bob has done for the company and the direction we are going, and I hope his success continues. And yes, I forgive him for canceling "Twin Peaks" back in 1991.

- Finally, work has been going well. After months of waiting, Test and Adjust is just around the corner and I am getting busier and busier. Hopefully I got my sickness out of the way and I can go head on into working on the project. Every day I am amazed at the progress being made and I really think we are building something special. All the attractions I have worked on have been special (yes even Pooh), but this one has a little something extra. Maybe because of the complexity or maybe its the passion of the workers. Who knows but I can't wait for it to open and everyone gets to see it.

That's about it for now!

Posted by Josh at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been a whirlwind week and a half of birthday celebrations. Not like the good old days when it was just a big party with some friends, nowadays it is mainly a smallish group of friends and then a family affair - both taking me out to dinner. i did manage to go to two of my favorite restaurants - Miceli's and Outback so all is well. I also got some good staples from the family including a toaster oven. You know you are getting old when you get excited about receiving small electrics as a birthday present.

Mom and Gary sent cookies as well as a gift card to the Gap to replace my long-destroyed pair of pants - Yay! I also finally got a new wallet from Daniel. I still need to get a watch band for my watch but other than that it was a good year for presents. I already spent my Best Buy gift cards and purchased a Cruzer Mini 4GB flash drive. Retail: $169.99 after discount and gift cards it only cost me 47 bucks!

On Friday night, the gang got together and sang Happy Birthday to me and Leslie and we made pizza and watched movies. Tiffany couldn't be there because she had her baby on Monday via C-Section so she is recovering. Daniel and I made a mad dash to the hospital on Monday only to arrive as everyone was leaving and visiting hours were over. Tiffany's mom snuck us in for a quick peek and then we left. We decided to give her a bit of breathing room and wait awhile before we go out to Hemet to visit.

All in all a good week or so. Work has been going well as I like to say - "We are at a very interesting stage!"

Posted by Josh at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amazing its clean!
Originally uploaded by Club Josh.

I spent all day Friday cleaning up my apartment. I think it is the best it has looked in years and now the struggle will be to keep it clean until Mom and Gary visit in two weeks. Still on the plate: The office as well as a few minor bedroom issues.

Posted by Josh at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For a while I have been wanting to buy new business casual clothes for work since I am now working 2 days a week not in costume. I made it over to South Coast and found a couple of nice outfits and $200 later I walked out. Now, I have been trying to cut down on my spending to try and help pay down some debts and get my financials in order so spending like this is just something that I try not to do.

I felt pretty good about the clothes I bought and decided that I wanted to wear them the first chance I got. So I got all spiffy and went to work and actually got complemented a few times on my outfit. (After someone pointed out that I forgot to remove a sticker on the pants). It was not until I got home that I realized that I had leaned against some paint out at the construction site and basically ruined my new $50 pants. I was so mad. I immediately began looking on the Internet for ways to get this type of industrial paint out of my pants. I wish it was just small spots - then I wouldn't really worry about seeing it - but these were light khakis with a big bright blue spot.

After several remedies failed to remove the spot and other marks, I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I had just blown $50. In a last ditch effort I took it to my laundry mat and they were going to see what they could do, but they didn't think there was anything. So if they are not successful, I will now have a nice expensive pair of pants to wear to my dad's work.

My apartment is back to normal and I have begun trying to clean things up for Mom's visit in a couple of weeks. I still need to vacuum as well as clean out the tub, and if I am duly inspired tonight, I will try and get some decoration **gasp** on the walls (It has only been 4 years). Then again, I don't want to put anything too nice on the walls since it would probably fall and break.

Posted by Josh at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a great time in Sacramento. It was so good to see everyone again and to drive past all the old stomping grounds. I decided on my last day up there to take photos of all the places I lived in Davis and Chico. I might post them to Flickr, but I might just keep them in an obscure folder on the computer.

The exciting news at home is that my apartment complex has decided to give me a washer and a dryer in my patio storage room. I am excited because I will end up saving money by doing laundry at home. The downside is now I have even more boxes that need to be thrown out or sorted through. I started the other night and was able to eliminate 1 box. I think I need to be more aggressive on what I am going to keep vs. throw away. I need to eliminate 6 boxes in order to fit all the boxes in the other storage areas of the apartment.

One of the boxes I opened contained all of my old college papers. I am torn as to whether or not to keep them, after all if I become world famous some library might want them. I am not even sure if it represents the complete UCD career or if its just Geography classes. At any rate, some thinning needs to happen.

The goal is to have my apartment back to normal by Saturday. Actually, I still have CDs and DVDs to re-organize after having to box them up for the termite heat event last month. I still am not 100% certain I am staying where I am since there are some new apartments in Anaheim that include a washer/dryer that are opening soon. Also, my current place has offered me the chance to move into an upgraded unit - the catch is that they are downstairs and more expensive. Right now, I am leaning towards staying put (unless Coder wants his own room in which case we will be shopping for a place) and then hopefully next year or so I will be able to move into a condo.

Posted by Josh at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the first time in at least 5 years, I have returned to Sacramento. It was a melancholy experience. I was coming to the area to attend the internment service for my grandfather's ashes as well as a reception for all of my grandparent's friends from Paradise. But on the other hand, I was excited to see my old stomping grounds and some of my friends from Davis.

I arrived in Sacramento last night and the first thing that struck me was the new parking structure outside Terminal A. When I was living here, Terminal A had just open and there was a huge surface lot that you could usually park near the front and then get on a plane without any trouble. Driving to my hotel, I also saw how much the area around Natomas had sprung up with homes.

This morning, I got up early to meet my old boss and friend Reed for breakfast. After a quick bite to eat it was off to UC Davis to see my old co-workers and to see various new buildings and items of interest on campus. I had a great time seeing the gang again. It made me think back to those years working on the map book and all the other projects around campus. I also thought about how I was coming full circle at Disneyland since I am working in a capacity on a construction project. At that moment I really missed life in Davis - how you could drive out of town in 5 minutes and be in the middle of fields. Driving around with Reed I was also amazed at all the new developments on campus. It was nice to see that today's UCD students get so much more than what I got when I was there, but it still retained a lot of its charm.

We stopped into the bookstore on campus to see if there were any souvenirs that I might take home, but I opted to pass them up. It was time to say goodbye as I was off to the airport to pick up a family friend to head up to Paradise. We chatted all the way up and it didn't really seem like an almost 2 hour drive.

Arriving in Paradise, we had just a short time before we headed up to the cemetery for the internment ceremony. It has been 2 months since he passed away, but it was nice to see him finally be put to rest in one of his favorite places. They put his ashes into a marble wall made up of little alcoves that are covered up and sealed. We had a small service that I thought was perfect, despite the 100+ degree heat. After all was said and he was sealed up in the wall, I said my final goodbyes. Tomorrow we have a reception with 40-50 people in a park where we will all gather and toast him one final time.

Afterwards, we chilled in the hotel lounge and then had a fine Mexican dinner at one of my grandparent's favorite places in Paradise. Dessert was Foster Freeze and after some more chatting in the lobby it was finally time to go to bed.

After tomorrow's remembrance, I will head back to Sacramento to see another one of my friends who I haven't seen in over 2 years - Matt. I am not sure if I am going to go down the hill tomorrow night or if I will just stay the night and then return on Sunday. I have decided that I will try and stop by all my old houses (4 in Davis, 1 in Chico) and take some photos since I don't have any. By the time I go back to So Cal on Sunday, I will be pooped!

Posted by Josh at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So the stitches are gone. 11 removed by the doctor and one decided it didn't really want to be in the place it was at decided to leave on its own accord. I respect its decision. I have had some problems with the largest area (home to 8 stitches!). This area had to be steri-taped by the doctor since she felt it was still sensitive. This area also tends to ooze and leak blood (or puss or god knows what) in small amounts - but enough that after a long day working in a white shirt tends to look bad. So today the bandages came back and it still managed to leak through. I am going to try the mondo bandage that I stopped using a week ago to see if it helps. I am not sure why I am still having this issue, but needless to say and to ease Mom's concerns, I will go back to the doctor if it gets any worse or does not improve over the next week. Part of the problem is that I have been working through all of this with little or no down time. The things we do for beauty.

My expedition to WDI was pretty fun and I am glad I got to walk in yet another place that Walt used to roam inspiring his artists to give their best. I kept having to put my eyeballs back into my head with so much to see, but none of which can be publicly discussed. Just know that it is all very cool and there are some very talented people that work there.

Overall work has been very challenging with working on two attractions at once. The one thing I need to work on is delegating to other people and trusting that they will give their best. I guess I just want everything to be the best that it can be.

Posted by Josh at 8:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

15 years ago, a bump first started to form on my back - the result of a huge zit that I had Greg squeeze the puss out of back when we were roommates in college. Over the years, I hadn't really given much attention to it other than I knew eventually I'd have to remove it. I also had some skin tags I wanted to get removed, and since one of our family friends is battling some aggressive cancer started by a melanoma, I decided to head down to the dermatologist to get everything checked out. Now mind you, I thought they would just drain the cyst on my back and quickly make work of anything else, but boy was I in for a shock.

Some background - when I was in 7th grade I had two moles removed off my face in what I can vividly describe as one of the scariest and worst experiences of my life. Needless to say, I was nervous when I went into the office. The Dr. gave me a once over and said "Oh yeah the cyst has to go" and then her eyes lit up as she spotted a black mole on my back, "Yeah we should get this one too" and then she agreed that the skin tag would be a nice conclusion.

I knew they had to numb the area, but for some reason the skin tag felt like she was giving me an injection to my spine! When everything was numb they came back and started to hack away. I asked the nurse if she was using the dull edge of the knife cuz it felt like she was sawing at my tags rather than cutting them. She kept trying to make idle chatter with me which I obliges, save for the few moments I went, "Jesus what are you doing". My cyst was pretty deep and turned out to be two on top of each other so in the end I required 10 stitches there and a couple on the mole and skin tag.

So now I am totally grossed out by it all and that has been the worst aspect of it. It itches constantly but doesn't hurt. I just hate cleaning it out cuz I just get reminded of the fact I have them and I just don't like that knowledge because it makes me squeamish. Work has been a bit of a pain with it since my mobility is slightly limited. I have discovered occasionally I will crack the scab and it will send a nice sharp zing to the nervous system, but so far so good.

The biggest obstacle has been applying Hydrogen Peroxide, Neosporin, and the bandages. Have you ever tried to do this in the mirror? It is not easy and almost everything on my bathroom counter gets knocked to the floor. You really know who your friends are when the offer to help. I would have been lost the first few days without them.

So now it is recovering nicely. July 7th I have an appointment to get the stitches taken out and I can't wait!

Posted by Josh at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the strangest things ever happened today. I received a notice last week that to combat a termite problem, the complex has hired a contractor to come in and heat my apartment to 150 degrees. Never in my life had I heard such a silly thing. What really caught my attention was that most sensitive items in the house - photos, CDs, DVDs had to be prepared for the heat by either massing them in low spots next to furniture that could be covered, or removing them completely from the house.

After spending a few days packing, I was finally ready. Coder got kicked out of the apartment around 8:30 (I was already at work). When I returned home, I could not believe how hot things were. The thermometer was maxxed out on my thermostat so I relied on a thermometer/travel alarm that Daniel got me last Christmas. According to it, it was 106 degrees in my apartment. Everything was warm to the touch. Even the Twinkies were warm and kind of disgusting. It took me over four hours with the windows open and fans blowing and the AC blasting to get the temperature down to 85. By that point I had to go to bed. Man it was warm.

I had planned on moving to a new place so now my DVDs et. al. I have toyed with the idea of getting a storage space for a bit since with all of Coders items here in the apartment it is feeling a bit crowded. The packing of the media seemed like a good time to pull the trigger, but its just way to expensive to get a storage spot - money which could go to rent on a bigger place.

Posted by Josh at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So my roomie (the one on the couch) has smashed his car. It has been a minor inconvenience but nothing more to carpool until his dad comes out this week to assess the situation and then get him back up and running. He hopes his dad will co-sign for a new car for him, but his dad is leaning towards just fixing the old one. To top things off, he has to go up to the High Desert to resolve a problem with his bank account since someone tried to use his account from Norway. I tell you he has a swath of destruction following him around. I am convinced he mad a pact with the devil and now he is collecting the dues.

I finally decided to throw the towel in and just move the Trip Diaries section over as-is minus some of the photos just for the sake of getting the move done and to get back on track writing entries. I hope to get this accomplished this week. The anniversary is coming up and I want to be able to proclaim a re-launch by then.

Tomorrow is my first for real project shift and I am excited to say the least. I can’t wait until I’m there 100% of the time.

Posted by Josh at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been an interesting month to say the least. I have been reluctant to post to the site since it actually still exists in two different locations, but I can't hold it in any longer.

In the home front, I have someone residing on my couch for the first time since Susie crashed back in the mid-90's. So far things are going well, and it is a temporary thing for the summer and then we can decide to get a place together or if he decides to move on. So far things have been going smoothly since we have different schedules and also we get along well. Check in again later this summer and see if things are still going well.

Last week I went to my first concert in several years. I had wanted to go see the Madonna tour when tickets went on sale, but I just couldn't get over the hump. The week before the concert I really started to hear good things about it and decided to go. The only problem was that I didn't want to go by myself, so I actively recruited people to go with me. I finally ended up convincing Daniel and Tyger to go and we all had a blast. The show was great – only two songs that I didn't care for and the rest were all amazing.

I was particularly impressed with was the quality of the video screens used in the show. I can't believe how hi-res the images were. We've come a long way since the first Jumbotron. I also love the fact that Madonna sings her heart out and that it isn't always perfect. The Forum was a smaller arena than Staples Center and it added more intimacy to the setting (if one can have an intimate setting with 16,000 screaming fans). All in all a great show!

Also many people have been asking, but yes I will be commanding a fleet sometime next year and I am very excitedly looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead in the next 12 months. Not that I don't want to live in the moment, but my brain is already thinking about my future beyond the next year and I am trying to figure out what I want to do and where I want to go. I just keep reminding myself to stay focused on the task at hand and then everything will work itself out.

That's about it for me. I did see some movies recently so I will post a few reviews.

Posted by Josh at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have got part of the new server up and running, and am probably a full day of work away from completely moving the site. However, personal issues have cropped up and everything is on hold.

My grandfather, William Holgate, 79 passed away on Tuesday morning so I am in Phoenix helping mom and my grandma get everything organized and done. It was wierd going to his assisted living home and packing up his things, but he had been suffering from an aggressive form of Parkinson's (sans tremors) but it basically had taken his body away and left his mind sharp. I know he was frustrated in the last year as things progressively got worse, so in a way I am glad his suffering is over and he can join his parents and other friends wherever he ended up. Maybe we can get Derek Acorah and the Most Haunted team here to see if he has any messages for the rest of us.

At any rate, I am hoping by the end of next week to get everything squared away and resume operation of the site.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and support.

Posted by Josh at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before I left for Australia, I had done my taxes on the free Turbo Tax site. This is the first time in 7 years that I can fill out the 1040EZ since I did no business with SeaGranite last year. I had a number in my head for how much I owed on the taxes and when I logged in today to finish them up, I realized it was only half of what I owe. Gadzooks! I need to figure out a way to change my W2s so that this doesn't happen every year.

So now I have the debt of the trip plus the debt of taxes hanging over my head. Oh, and let's not forget the fact my car lease is up next month. Personally, I can't believe I have been driving the CR-V for four years, but I guess time flies when you have a mostly trouble-free car. The worst part is that I don't know what I am going to do. I had planned to trade it in and get something else, but there really is nothing out there that excites me other than cars I can't afford. I'd love to get a hybrid (and no not so I can be smug) but at the same time, I love driving the CR-V. So I might just end up refinancing the balance of the payments and then waiting until something that catches my eye comes out. (Editor's note: As I was in the process of writing this, the American Honda folks called and wanted to know what I wanted to do with my car, they offered to extend my lease up to 24 months! It is on a month-to-month basis so it gives me plenty of time to find something else and wait for all the new cool things that are coming out in the fall! Gloom factor reduced!)

If that is not enough, I am still in limbo over my future plans at work. Next week is a big week, but my senses are telling me it might be another week before all is said and done and I know what the heck I will be doing in the near future. I hate the uncertainty of all of it. Of course, I should know better since I just returned from vacation. I must say, the longer the vacation, the more dramatic a shift in my life happens. The past month has been HUGE. It does feel like 2003 all over again (eww!) but I think I am stronger person inside and I just have to stay focused.

All is not doom and gloom in the world of Club Josh. There are three people that have really been guiding lights and have made the last month bearable. Chris, Coder, and Sean have all provided support when I needed it. Sean has been a busy bee, but has offered what little time he's had to chat and provide advice. Coder, well, we just call him the Columbus of Curacao now and he really doesn't like Mr. Romanaov at all. Finally, there has been Chris. My beacon from Brisbane who makes me laugh and gets me out of the deepest funk. It is rare that I actually make new friends and to have three this year is just amazing.

Speaking of friends, I really miss my out of town friends. I yearn for the good old days when we all lived close and could drive over to each other’s house and have a lazy day or a party to remember. At least we are all in the same country now. We have to figure out a way to all get together again. Mark is getting married in November and I think that might be the best opportunity yet.

Posted by Josh at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I used to drive all the way home from work to Studio City every night, I raced to get to the McDonald's on Riverside and Lankershim before 12 midnight. That is when the Ice Cream Machine at McDonald's goes into self-clean mode for the night. I guess they want to make sure that they have the ice cream ready in case someone wants a hot fudge sundae with their hot cakes at 6am. When I raced to get my McFlurry, I almost always got there a little after 12. Sometimes the attendant would tell me that they still had it, only to wait in the drive-thru for 10 minutes and discover that they didn't.

I had a hankering' for an Oreo McFlurry the other night. It had been awhile since I actually went to a McDonald's after work and when I pulled in I looked at my watch. It was 12:10. I didn't really have the money to get food and a McFlurry, but I asked anyways. Sure enough, the Ice Cream machine was in self-clean mode. Damn you Ice Cream Machine!!

Posted by Josh at 1:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well it has been a week since I have been back from Australia. It hardly seems like only a week, it feels like a month! Returning home to an empty house is never fun after spending 24-7 with travel companions. I jet lagged the first few days and was glad to get back to work – just so I could have something to do. I will admit to it being strange to be back at work as if nothing happened at all. I guess I always hope that something will have fundamentally changed since I have been gone, but in reality nothing does.

There are some changes while I was gone and not all of them good. Some of the problems I can’t go into details on such a public forum, but rest assured they don’t have to do with me. However, they are a bit of a downer to me, since I had gotten my hopes up that certain things would fall into place for people and they haven’t. Also at work, things are up in the air since they have not settled our union contract and we are working on a day-to-day basis with the old one. I guess no one in the union cares about us since there is no communications or updates that are easily accessible to the rank and file. Just a random flyer that says a federal mediator is involved. I don’t think we will go as far as a strike, and in reality it is just a bit of a pain for everyone involved.

One thing that has happened in Australia since I left is that Cyclone Larry hit 50km south of Cairns and basically leveled the place. I don't think damage was extensive in Cairns, but I think of people like Hans-Jorg as well as the lady who sold us the Quicksilver tickets and all the rest of the residents we came in contact with and I hope they are all OK and managed to weather the storm just fine.

On the home front, I was glad to come home to a clean-for-me house, which I promptly messed up. I have had a lot of free time these days. Seems most of my friends have been busy or otherwise working opposite schedules so I have been being a bad boy staying up to all hours of the night. One of the bonuses of staying up is that I get to chat with Chris from Brisbane. He is usually coming home from work at the same time I come home when I close at Disneyland late. We usually chat online, and he’s actually called me as well with his phone card. I need to get a phone card to return the favor because lord knows how much it would cost if I called him direct. It sucks that we live so far apart – I think we would have a lot of fun if we got to hang out.

I think the important thing I need to do with my free time is to not waste it by just vegging out or sleeping in to all hours of the day (Ok, I am still working on the sleeping in thing haha). It is difficult because of the hours that I work. This time of the year I open early on the weekends and then close late on Monday thru Wednesday, which doesn’t leave much time to get projects done. It is almost like I should take an extra day off sometime and work around the house – assuming I don’t just sleep in and be lazy.

On the Club Josh front, I have found a new hosting service Text Drive. They have a package called Mixed Grill where you can get 2GB of hosting space plus a 9GB storage area, and a hosted application suite called Joynet. All for the low price of $499 lifetime! That means in two years or so it will have paid for itself – and it will allow me to move stuff like Charo and Doingworld to their own domains.

Posted by Josh at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since I got back from the Wedding of the Century, I have been getting over a nasty cold. I promise to post the photos from the gala event as soon as possible - hopefully tomorrow!

Posted by Josh at 6:09 PM | Permalink

So the whole giving up soda thing is turning out to be harder than I had imagined - but not for the reasons I thought. You see I had a bout of food poisoning this past week, which rendered me cranky and liquid for most of the week. The one thing I really wanted was some 7up or Sprite to calm my stomach down. One of my managers recommended seltzer water as an alternative, but I was determined to do it without soda of any type. I made it (it wasn't easy by a long shot), but when I went to the store last night I noticed something very disturbing.

It seems that carbonated soda alternatives like Hawaiian Punch and Lemonade have just as much sugar as soda, if not more! If you get diet HP, then the sugar level is way low. I then had a crisis in faith. Why exactly was I giving up my beloved Root Beer and the occasional Coke to get me through the day? I had reasoned to myself that I wanted to drink more water and in the process loose some ancillary pounds in preparation for my vacation in March. But now I was not sure if not having soda was actually doing anything to help me. Then I got on a scale. I have lost 5 pounds in two weeks. I haven't really done anything special (though the loss of appetite for a few days from the food poisoning might be the real cause of the weight loss). Whatever the cause, it was enough for me to keep going for now.

As for the rest of the New Year it has been pretty uneventful. It is the season of no guests at work so I am enjoying every moment of it I can before the crowds roar back to the resort. I am convinced it will happen any day now.

Still trying to hammer out the details of my March vacation, and when it is all settled, I will post details here.

Al Pacino was on the ride the other day. The best I got out of him was a "Thank You". I had to laugh when greeter called and asked if Al could come up the exit. I pretended to thumb through a list and said to them "Yes, Mr. Pacino is on the A-List send him up." We have a long-standing joke at the ride as to who gets to come up the exit and who gets to go through Fastpass. In reality, most VIPs use the exit if they ask and if they don’t most are willing to go through Fastpass.

Posted by Josh at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been a nice Holiday season. We celebrated twice - once on Christmas Eve and the other on Christmas Day. Both nights were essentially the same core - Dad's family plus my aunt and granny. On Sunday night, Sarah and Ray showed up and the big announcement - they're preggers! Nothing makes you feel old like your younger sibling having a baby. All in all we had a lot of fun.

Work has been amazingly busy. We have closed the entrance gates every day since Christmas. Most of the crew at the ride is exhausted, but they keep trucking along. We have been performing amazingly this holiday season, and I am plotting something good to reward them.

Now in the freaky skin item of the week: So this year I have had two bizzaro health issues - the bacterial infection in July and the amazing sty of Thanksgiving (I think that is a good name for a chapter in my autobiography). Both of these were uncomfortable and embarrassing. Finally, I have something that is just personally embarrassing and not publicly embarrassing. It seems I have broken out in Hives. I am not sure why though. I have not changed detergents or worn anything new (except for the shirt from Granny). I have not eaten anything unusual or done anything different (except for my first trip to the dentist in three years - no cavities!). Hmm maybe an allergic reaction to something at his office? I dunno. I had suspected that the downstairs neighbor's dog had fleas and was attacking from below, but Daniel has not had any what we call "Lady Lumps" (See the Black Eye Peas song "My Humps") and he's been over watching movies. Thank got for itch cream! The initial outbreak was Wednesday, and I have changed my sheets and since then there have been no further lady lumps. Whew. At least it’s cold enough to wear long sleeves.

So on the 27th of December I finally accomplished my New Year's Resolutions for 2005 - visiting the Doctor, the Dentist, and the Eye Doctor - Woo Hoo! I have decided to better myself for 2006 I am going to challenge myself and drink a lot less soda. I want to get rid of it completely, but after asking a few people they told me that once or twice a week is ok, just not all the time. I think this will help me lose a few pounds (one cast member lost 20 pounds by eliminating soda and eating healthy on a regular schedule) as well as promote healthy teeth. And the whole benefit of looking and feeling better when I go on vacation in March is just a bonus.

I have now seen more movies than the last time I posted so my first order of business is to write some mini reviews and get them up on the site.

Posted by Josh at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow. Four entries in December is way behind the curve. I wish I could say that there have been huge momentous events going on, but really, more of the same old. Fortunately Christmas mixes things up this week. For most people, it means time to kick back and spend time with the holidays. I am no exception, though my time is rather short.

Last weekend, we had the annual Christmas Dinner at Zibibbo in Encinitas, CA. Long gone are the days when we would all traipse to someone's house, have a big meal, and gather 'round the piano and sing carols. I think my generation in the family has all gone their separate ways and no one wants to step up and take over. Plus the fact that the main Dieli line is getting harder and harder to shuttle around.

This weekend, its a nice Christmas Eve Dinner at the Father-Units. Other than that there is a TON of hours at work. Of course, it is no surprise to me since our motto is that we work while others play. My vacation is really in January when everyone goes back to school and a nice gentle breeze blows down Main Street and the guests are happy.

I treated myself to an early Christmas present - two DVD/CD sets from Amazon.fr: Jarre in China and Solidarnose Live (the Gdansk Concert). These are the last two Jarre concerts from 2004 and 2005 and I am awaiting their conversion to a format for my viewing (via my laptop). The audio on the CDs is excellent, but it is funny because most of the tracks are from the Aero album, so I think that the concerts will be the main reason for getting the sets - not the audio.

Oy and I have so many movie reviews to post on the site. At least 6 or so including Harry Potter, Casablanca, and Brokeback Mountain. Tomorrow, I am supposed to finally see Narnia, but it looks like Chicken Little and I have a date for DVD.

Posted by Josh at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So a few months ago, I noticed this weird sticky substance on the floor in the kitchen near the side of the refrigerator that faces my desk. This is the same area that I keep my Clorox Mop (the kind with the pad and the bottle of liquid that squirts on the floor to get it clean). So naturally, I assumed that the bottle had some sort of trauma and had caused havoc. The sticky fluid was also on part of the refrigerator and I really never thought about where it came from until Tuesday night.

Normally on top of the fridge, I have some phonebooks (why? I don’t know) and also my stock of paper towels. Over the weekend, I put the last roll on the holder on the counter so the top of the fridge was missing a big piece of what is normally there. As I was staring blankly into space, it suddenly occurred to me that I don't remember opening those cabinets above the fridge since I moved into the place in March 2003.

My curiosity piqued, and I got the stool out and proceeded to open the cupboard which revealed a bottle of Midori, Triple Sec and most puzzling - a 12 pack of 7UP. I was like wow a whole 12 pack undiscovered for 2 and a half years. I asked myself, "Does Soda go bad?" I decided to get it down to put in the fridge for possible experimentation later.

As I reached to pull down the 12pack the world suddenly slowed around me. Join my thought process:

12 pack
Midori bottle sticky
Weird patterns in the bottom of the shelf
(Lift 12 pack which is oddly light)
Box is sticking to shelf
Hand wet

Then it occurs to me. My treasure is responsible for the mess. It appears that one or more of the cans have erupted up in the shelf - perhaps to call out to anyone that they are still there. Calls that went unanswered until now - and way, way too late. I also spotted my Mickey Mouse Ice Cube trays, something I had thought about but obviously never actively searched for in ages.

The 12 pack made it into the sink where it sits to this day. I have some serious cleaning to do on the shelf. (Not sure if that is mildew or just green box residue up there). It is so important that I even put a sticky note on the cabinet door that says "Clean Me" and around here at Club Josh, that is a serious note! I also need to do some CSI work on the 12 pack to determine exactly how many cans erupted. Once I find out, I will be certain to post the details.

Posted by Josh at 2:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ugh. I can think of no other way to express it. After the worrisome bacterial infection of the past summer, the sequel has reared its head, except this time it is around my left eye. It seems that I have some sort of stye/spider bite thingy that has swollen my eyelid. To boot, the bumps near my eye are particularly painful. Personally it feels like there is a huge piece of sleep trying to get out. So off to Urgent Care I went.

The doctor kind of gave me the "I can't believe you are here for this" look before prescribing an antibiotic and some creme. The worst part? I have to put this stuff that looks like Neosporin in my eye three times a day. It had better be worth it!

I am so over having these things in highly visible areas. How about something I can hide from plain sight so that people of work don't stare and hurriedly take their children in the opposite direction?

And of course the kicker is that Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I have to fly over to Phoenix. Great. Now I am going to be scaring children and I will get extra security scrutiny because I have an Evil Eye. I think Mom mentioned something about family photos to boot. Kind of like that photo of the 50th celebration with my last facial blemish. Is there no escaping it??

Posted by Josh at 12:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I finally bit the bullet and started going through some of the eyesore boxes that still clutter up my house. I still have a goal to be clutter free by '06 and time is running out.

First up: The huge wardrobe box in the corner by my bathroom. This box has been unopened since March 2003 when I moved into my current apartment and had most of my posters and other wall hangings inside. After a thorough review, 90% went into the dumpster. It was tough saying goodbye to some of the posters which have graced my walls since high school, but I decided to just keep the nicer Disney Attraction Posters and a select few movie posters. I also kept some cartography and technical drawings that I made in high scho