UPDATE 1: Ok, the What's New section has been fixed and looks like the Daily Update archive. I can't re-publish the site because it wants to wipe out the main index page. I am going to have to do some hard core template work in order to prevent it from going away. Thank Goodness for backups!

More updates when it has been resolved!

Some highlights:
Cleaning up old duplicate Daily Update entries from a 2008 upgrade of Movable Type.
Upgrading to Movable Type 5.02 from 4.32

If I get ballsy, I will try and start putting static pages into Movable Type. Personally, I think I need a vacation from my real job just to work on this site!

I'll post a quick note when everything is supposed to be back up and running 100%.

I am excited for a few reasons - first, I will get a chance to see my friend Susie who I haven't seen for a few years! She is in College Station, and we will be meeting up somewhere. Second, I will get to visit three new states! I have never been to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, so this will put my states total to 36. Finally, I will get to visit Hershey Park - someplace I have wanted to visit ever since I learned they have a chocolate ride!

It should be a grand adventure, now it is just getting the hotels and rental car squared away. I already have reservations for our first few nights in Philadelphia (que Bruce Springsteen or Bill Conti). Now just to plan the other 3 nights near Harrisburg/Hershey and wherever else we end up.

Looking over the list of possible things to do, I know we need to edit to get a good taste of what there is to offer, and not get overwhelmed.

Must do's? Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Amish sightseeing, Hershey Park. Try to do's? Atlantic City and the Flight 93 memorial.

More as it develops...

First up, can we talk earthquakes?? We had another mild to moderate quake on July 7 that registered M5.4. It is the third M5+ quake in So Cal this year, and the second 5+ aftershock to the M7.2 Easter Sunday Sierra El Mayor Quake. I have to admit, I was disappointed I missed the majority of the shaking of the 7.2 since I was in my Dad's Chevy Tahoe at the time, but I have not missed the other two. I am fascinated how the Sierra El Mayor quake broke north and has now triggered quakes in the LA region. Of particular interest is the Elsinore/Whitter complex as well as the San Jacinto faults. I think it is just a matter of time before we have a large-ish quake either on the Ft. Tejon section of the San Andreas or on the other two faults. I am glad I am in a 2009 constructed apartment complex! Now is the time to get those quake survival kits up to speed and refreshed!

Next up, let's talk about AT&T UVerse. When I moved into the new complex, I was bummed that I could not get DirecTV due to the fact we face North. It seemed like the best option was AT&T UVerse and after getting a package deal it actually was quite reasonable. For the most part, the service has been good. I am enjoying the HD on Daniel's new TV, but the DVR functionality leaves a bit to be desired, especially after so many years using TiVo. Note to TiVo, please get your service to work with UVerse!!

This month, we have suffered through two major outages. First up, our DVR died while watching the 25th Anniversary special of Dollywood. One moment she is singing "My Country, My Home" and the next it freezes. After rebooting, it comes up with a big Red X on the screen. We had to wait a few days to get it swapped out. Sadly, all the recordings were gone, but since the settings and scheduled recordings are stored on the modem, all was not lost.

A week later, I was in the middle of working on a web site for the Adriatic Vascular Summit, and right after I pushed a first version live, everything went out. No Internet, No Cable, and no Phone service!! It was a frustrating three days full of repeated calls to Customer Service and tech support. The worst part was that no one really knew what was happening and they had no ETA. After several tweets, I was contacted by one of the AT&T service reps who forwarded my contact info and concerns "to the highest levels". After someone from corporate contacted me, the service finally came back online the next day (although I am sure it was just coincidence). I was able to get a service credit for it being offline as well as super-slow for a few days after the outage. To my delight and surprise, someone followed up with me a few days after and offered to increase my service credit and gave me his contact info should things go horribly wrong again. He also told me that it was a software glitch and that is why no one knew where the problem was.
In the end, I was happy with the resolution, but it still set me way back on my projects, not to mention I almost started reading books again!

Things are now back to normal, and I once again started to unpack and get situated. This past few off days, I unpacked most of my books (some who made the move might end up being donated after all). I am still struggling to find an elegant media storage solution. I really want to unpack all my DVDs and CDs to clear up closet space and make my room a bit more, well, roomy! Perhaps I should just digitize all of them and go the virtual route. Of course, this still begs the question what to do with all the physical discs?? Maybe underbed storage??

Don't know, but part of the problem I have is deciding what to do!

I have spent many entries and updates hoping for changes here and there, and someday I hope to actually do them. The web continues to evolve as I have, and my priorities have shifted, so there is no telling which direction the site will take. Fear not, there will always be a Club Josh, even if all digital media gets wiped. It certainly would make a nice coffee table book.

Thanks for continuing to visit, and hopefully I will get some time and do something real exciting soon.

I was somewhat gun-shy about re-upping for two more years, but contrary to most people, I have not really had many issues with AT&T. I do not make a lot of phone calls on my iPhone and basically use it as an iPod, SMS sender, and Internet access device. I have had my share of dropped calls, but that is why they invented the Call Back button. I just hate to be tied down and like the idea of being able to do what I want.

Seeing the sneaked shots of the left behind prototype just made me want the new version more. It was gorgeous and faster so who could resist. Not wanting to repeat the mess of two years ago, I tried and was able to pre-order an iPhone the first day they were available to be pre-ordered - June 15. It was a mess and took several times, but I did finally get it pre-ordered by 4:30pm. I selected in-store pickup thinking I wanted to test the phone out first before I took it home should there be any issues. I also suspected that the pre-orders would have less of a wait and it would be relatively painless.

So naively, I waited until release day - the 24th. Daniel had managed to get a pre-order too and so we set out to the Brea Mall to get our phones. We were a bit behind schedule, and arrived at the store just after 7am. I was blown away by just how many people were waiting already (although, in hindsight, I really shouldn't have been). Daniel told me to head to the back of the line, and I stubbornly thought that the huge line must be for the standby, and that the pre-order line was smallish and in the AC of the mall. Nope, Daniel was right as usual and the pre-order line was twice as long as the standby line. At first it moved quickly as they moved people into the mall to station outside the door.

After 1.5 hours, I started to get nervous about work and called in explaining that the line was not moving and that I was going to be late. Apple had been issuing Danishes and Umbrellas and Coffee to the queue to help nourish us and give us shade.

Three hours later, we had made it 3/4 the way down the length of the Macy*s Home Store and Daniel decided that he needed to go home and get ready for his shift. I was left alone for about 45 minutes and by the time he returned I had made it inside the mall. Daniel brought my work clothes and I changed into them in anticipation that it surely wasn't going to be longer than another hour. WRONG!

Daniel decided to leave a short time later and I had to fend for myself. Thankfully he was able to start the chain of texts which eventually got me a ride from the Mall when I was finished. I got a text from Paul indicating I should try and get Daniel's phone since he had reserved it and since I had his vital info, I should be able to do it. The Apple Queue Hosts did not think I would be able to, but told me that when I got inside the store to ask a Genius.

At the 7 hour mark, my neighbor in line sold her spot to someone else, and that replacement person offered me some cold McNuggets to help nourish me. I took them and another person offered me a Creme Soda. It was just what I needed to get over the hump to get into the store.

At the 8 hour mark, I finally made it into the store. I was a bit delirious after all that time in the sun (5 hours outside the mall, 3 hours inside the mall), but made quick work of setting up my new iPhone. It was pretty amazing and I was very happy! To boot, we were able to get Daniel's phone purchased and set up thanks to some last minute phone calls to verify account info. My phone was activated and my total time at the store was 15 minutes. My ride was waiting for me and I headed to work with both old and new iPhones, awaiting activation. It took an hour for the new iPhone to start working (after a reboot, I think if I had done it sooner, I would have been in business earlier), and I started playing with it.

Overall, I was amazed at the screen quality and how quick the overall phone experience was compared to my 3G. Simply amazing. I was glad I got a bumper accessory in the store, because in my exuberance in staring at the screen, I dropped the phone from 4 feet onto the street. Thankfully, there was no damage!!!

Once I got home I headed to bed, but set up the new iPhone to re-synch all of my old data and apps. When I woke up in the morning it was all ready to go. I was amazed at the new camera, and multitasking, and have just begun to play with all the new features. I did manage to try FaceTime with Daniel and it was very cool and lots of fun. I hope there is Skype integration soon!

I have had no issues with a yellow screen or antenna issues, and I consider myself to be very fortunate. I did discover tonight that my car charger does not work through the bumper due to a small size difference in the plug width. (Not the actual interface, but the decorative plastic part). I am going to look at several different options before I figure out the best way to proceed. I might just lift up the bumper to provide easier access.

I can finally get some sleep, and hopefully resell my 3G now that it has been restored to factory freshness and upgraded to iOS 4.

That's it for my upgrade story. My key learning is that next time, I am going to have it shipped to me!!

Of course, I still need a desk to get everything back to 100%. One interesting thing is that I totally have discovered years of failed Club Josh redesigns on scraps of paper here and there. I'd love to scan them and create a gallery of the designs, and maybe just do one. When I was packing I placed them all together, now if I can only find out which box has it....

I took a different approach this time, giving me more time to move in and sift through all of my accumulated stuff. I think I did a great job weeding out what I needed and what I didn't (although I am sure some people will insist that I did not go far enough). Even though our new apartment is bigger than my old one, there are two of us with all of our stuff, so space is at a premium and it forced me to be aggressive with what I donated or just plain threw away.

Let me say this, Goodwill of Orange County in Santa Ana and the folks at 1800-Got-Junk were invaluable in their assistance. No matter how much junk I dropped off, they took it with a smile, and the Got Junk folks were awesome in stepping up when the Salvation Army dropped the ball.

I still have some stuff in the new place, that I will eventually donate and remove from the apartment, but for now I am taking a break and just recovering from the trauma and stress of the move.

Some of your favorite items from my apartments past that are gone: Oak Entertainment Center, the futon, the couch, the desk, CD and DVD racks and cases, coffee table, end table, bookcases, and the 2003 refrigerator. Also, my state of the art mid 1990s entertainment system is no more. I still have some of my NHT speakers, but those will eventually get donated since I don't think I can re-use them.

I still have plenty of books left, and I think once I get the new bookcase and desk setup, I will weed those down to the bare essentials as well. Later on, there are thoughts of getting rid of the King bed since my bedroom is considerably smaller than any I have had in awhile. Just takes money to redecorate and remodel, and I am trying to avoid just going all out and maxing out the credit cards.

It has been nice the last two days to just relax and go grocery shopping and settle into normal life. Hopefully within the next week or so, I will finish putting the place together and we can welcome our first guests.

If you haven't followed me on Twitter yet, check it out as I have lots of comments and stress from the move on there that you may have missed out.

Instead of writing blogs, I have tweeted some of my feelings, and have been taking photos of my apartment in various stages of disarray. I can't wait for the big change next week.

More soon!

Of course the flip side is that I have to pack and pare down all of my stuff - and as anyone who knows me will tell you that is no easy task. Unlike my last move, I will be motivated to get rid of furniture and other items that have been sitting in boxes for years (some dating back to the early 1990s!).

I will attempt to document the challenges as we get closer to the mid May moving date..

First up: Moving. I hate it! I just re-read some blog posts from 2002 when I was trying to find a new place. Ugh, it brought back the frustrations from then which are combining with my frustrations now. My main issue is that I have way too much stuff! Now that I have been in my current apartment for 7 years, I have accumulated so much stuff that the mere thought of moving just makes me want to avoid the issue.

When I moved in 2003, it was sort of a forced move, and I always thought of this current apartment as a temporary space, never quite unpacking everything or hanging art on the walls and what have you. Every year since then, I have wanted to move to a better place, but either didn't have the money or got cold feet at the last minute (this turned out to be a good thing since the place I was going to move nearly burned down last year!).

So I have much anxiety this year. Where am I going to move, what type of place am I going to get, how am I going to pack all of this, what am I going to keep, what am I going to give to Goodwill. All the usual questions continually bombard me. I have an idea of where I want to move, and the type of place I want, but the two have not been matching up exactly. One of the options is a few mega-apartment complexes which are closer to work, but at the same time have way more people around. The search is still early, and I want to lock into something soon just so I can focus my efforts on packing.

In the background of the moving, I am still waiting to hear at work where my next assignment is going to be and for how long. I'm excited that I have the chance to do something different and new, but at the same time I am OK if things don't work out right now - I just want an idea of how to budget my rental dollars.

Some thoughts on events of the past few weeks: I have been in Earthquake heaven watching all the events unfold in Haiti and Chile. I find it fascinating how two different societies were affected by similar tragedies. Also, how about that tsunami alert for Hawaii. I personally thought it was cool that they had YouTube videos galore. I can't believe we suffered so long with just newspaper stories and a few TV clips. Now everyone documents everything and it's so cool to see - even when it is in a foreign language. I also enjoyed the small 4.4 we had centered in Pico Rivera - nothing like a 4am quake to keep it interesting!

I had an amazing time driving to the Bay Area with Daniel and Leslie. We didn't do anything too crazy, but we did a lot and I really felt like we had a great adventure. Next time, we need to just fly to some random city and explore! I think I really need to take more random weekend trips!

Speaking of weekend, I am going to go out and enjoy the rest of this one! Since they opened a Farrell's in South OC, Daniel, Tara, and I have been going their monthly. I am looking forward to seeing how their sundae compares to the Ghirardelli one I had two weeks ago!

IMG_1387
Originally uploaded by Club Josh.

Daniel, Leslie, and I headed up the California Coast in March 2010 via Highway 1 through Morro Bay, San Simeon, Big Sur, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Cupertino, San Francisco and finally Sonoma.

Check out the full album!

I can certainly see why Cast Members and Guests like Space Mountain. It is fast-paced and fun and makes your day go by fast. Despite that, I don't think it is the end-all be-all that some people would like to think it is. A good attraction? Yes, but there are better experiences in the parks. Of course, I am completely biased as I have a great deal of personal pride about the attractions that I helped open.

Some notes from the last few weeks:
I enjoyed Mary Poppins! It was not what I expected, but was surprised at how much I really got into it. It is most certainly in the recommend column if you are thinking about going to see it.

I was very excited about the unveiling of the iPad at the end of January. I really want to get one so that I can have something fun and light that I can easily post blog entries and photos from on the road. I am leaning towards the WiFi only version, but I have a few nagging issues. First, if a new iPhone comes out this year, I would 100% want that before an iPad, and I am pretty sure I cannot swing both in the same year. (darn fiscal responsibility!) Second, it is not that big of a leap from the mid to high level iPad to a MacBook, and part of me thinks that might be better for traveling and writing updates and surfing the web, etc. So I think as much as I want to be an early-adopter, I might have to be on the sidelines for a bit.

It looks like this will be a moving year! Finally after talking about it for years, I will be moving to a new place hopefully in May. This of course raises all sorts of financial burden questions as moving is not cheap. However, I think in the long run this will help me cut costs and be able to pay down the travel debt.

Speaking of travel, San Francisco will be on the docket in March, and possibly a trip to see the family in Arizona come Late March/Early April. Hopefully with savings and some extra work here and there, I will scratch enough together to be able to meet up with Mom in Croatia for one of her meetings. I guess I better get working on that awesome iPad app so I can make some travel money!

One more thing, as I await the word of new assignments at work, I am learning another peak in the Disneyland Mountain range. Yup, after years and years, I am finally learning Space Mountain. It's my second coaster (after Matterhorn) and my 18th Disneyland Attraction. I look forward to the challenge, and it is nice to have something new to focus on over the next few weeks/months.

At any rate, this January has been a bit melancholy for me. Not sure why, but it has been fairly slow overall. I think I am still recovering from the excitement of the Doctor Who finale on New Year's Day, but I think its that post-Christmas hangover everyone gets.

Not much has been going on other than I am back as an hourly again at the park. Nothing new there, since this is the time of year it usually happens. I like the fact that no matter where I go in the park, people miss me or are glad to have me back. It is nice to feel like a part of so many teams. Hopefully, this will be the year that things start to pay off permanently, and if not, at least I will have the challenge of whatever is thrown at me.

On the nerd front, I was unusually interested in the Consumer Electronics Show this year. I had forgot how much I used to drool over this show back in the late 90s and early 00s. I have felt out of touch technologically, but following the coverage, I feel back in the mix. I am super excited about all the new TV tech and home video tech coming soon to a living room near you. I am hoping this year I can get a new TV to replace my 36" Sony Wega, and of course now is when they announce 3D TV!! I will wait and see, I am still fond of what my Wega can do with an HD signal.

Of course the other big thing I am anticipating is the new Apple device that theoretically will be announced at the end of the month. I hope it is a super-cool tablet/slate/ereader or whatever the heck it is. Last year, I really wanted a netbook to replace my laptop for uploading photos and writing my travel journals. It reminds me of when I had a Sharp Zaurus 5000 that I used to have and thought it would work for traveling. I loved the Zaurus' portability but it was severely lacking in the Internet access department. A netbook seems to be a natural offshoot of the Zaurus, and hopefully a new tablet-like device will be everything that I wanted the Zaurus to be with a touch interface and way better software!

Finally, I will be attending a concert with Daniel next week as well as heading to the theater to see Mary Poppins. I am excited to see MP since we missed our chance in London back in 2007.

Oh and have you seen all those earthquakes recently? Eureka, CA (m6.5) and Haiti (m7.0) within a few days of each other? We are definitely entering a more seismically active period. One wonders if we will get something closer to SoCal on that magnitude!