Now that 2009 has come to a close and 2010 has begun, I can safely say that it’s a year that has been very challenging and although I am not the least bit sad to see 2009 go, it certainly was not without some really incredible experiences for me that I would like to highlight before wipe the slate clean and start fresh with 2010.

This list was especially difficult to narrow down since 2009 was the year I kicked my blogging into high gear. I had started Ryan’s Incredible World in 2007 didn’t actually start blogging until 2008 and I would maybe make no more than five entries a month. So picking my highlights of 2008 was relatively easy since there wasn’t so many blog entries to go through to pick out the defining moments.

I had joined a couple of 30-Day blogging challenges which requires 30 blog entries in 30 days and it essentially got me into the habit of making almost daily blog entries. Now it’s pretty safe to say that each month sees about 25 new blog entries. The constant blogging has actually helped bring a bigger audience to my blog, so if your first time reading any of my writing has been in 2009, then no doubt something I wrote in 2009 caught your eye and is why you’re here reading this entry now. I am grateful for the many folks who’ve read my blog and left me comments, it’s been a pleasure to hear your feedback throughout the year. In any case, I looked through every post of 2009 to select what I feel were the 10 Most Incredible Things about 2009 that happened for me. You’ll note I combined a few complimentary things to narrow it down to 10.

I do hope you enjoy my reflection on 2009 and continue to join me on my quest to find the most incredible things of 2010. Without further ado, in no particular order.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Christmas 2009 was special in many ways this year. First off my mom and dad were in their new house in Temecula. Also this year my brother and his wife came out from Nashville to spend Christmas here in Southern California. And my grandfather on my mom’s side also came down from Calgary to spend the holidays here. It’s first Christmas in a while that many of us have been together.

My parents’ new home in Temecula looked great with my mom’s Christmas decorations. Some of the things that weren’t yet finished when I last visited at Thanksgiving were finally done such as the backspashes in the Kitchen. The cabinet doors for the cupboards in the kitchen were finally back with the center sections of them cut out and glass inserted to replace the wood removed. The old iron bed frame that was in the lower level guest room had been completely repainted to a metallic grey color and the new mattresses for both the lower level guest room as well as the upstairs bedroom had arrived. About the only thing that still hadn’t arrived yet were the blinds for all the windows.

I came over on Christmas Eve to take my dad and grandpa to the Xanadu production in Costa Mesa. This gave my mom some time to do some errands without my dad and grandpa in her hair. My brother and his wife were arriving late Christmas Eve and I since I had to work I decided to stay over at my folks place, go to work, and then return to my folks place first thing in the morning after work. I had volunteered to have my schedule changed at work in order to work Christmas Eve so that my usual night off could be given to someone on the shift with kids. As I’ve gotten older it’s become less important to enjoy Christmas morning at the earliest possible moment, it doesn’t make much difference to me if the festivities begin at 6 am, 8 am, or 10 am when I’d be back from work. Small kids on the other hand, every extra hour they’d have to wait for mom or dad to come home from work would feel like an eternity so I didn’t want to deprive one of my co-workers from the chance to spend an early morning Christmas with their kids.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

The year 2009 has really raced by way too quickly. It really seems like only yesterday the year just began and here it is so close to the end. While it’s been both a good and challenging year, Christmas time is the perfect time to take a moment out of it all to just think about family and friends.

This year, I kind of hit a milestone. This was the first year in ages that I’ve actually been in the mood to listen to Christmas music at Christmas time. I’d worked discount retail for far more years than I care to admit. Let’s just say Christmas time brings out the public’s worst behavior in discount retail stores and the non-stop playing of some of the worst versions of Christmas music non-stop during the month of December in the stores I worked in, I haven’t been in any mood for Christmas decorations nor Christmas music since the early 1992. I thought I’d never find the desire to hear another Christmas song at Christmas time again, but this year I actually wanted to hear some. It’s been six years since I last worked a Christmas in retail, so I’m guessing there’s hope yet for me to find the Christmas spirit again. It could take several more years, but I’m pleased by the sign of hope I had this year.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

When I was last at my local Wal-Mart and was in their Christmas section, I came across a display of CDs and some DVDs. To my surprise it seems this year, Sony Music got a little creative with their holiday music. They’ve reissued a lot of their most popular holiday albums, except not as CDs, but as DVDs. Now the videos on the CDs is not of the artists, it’s of a fireplace scenes.

Normally I might think this is a rather shameless attempt to make people buy yet another version of a holiday album they probably already own. Surprisingly I actually thought it was a cool idea. Some people do like those DVDs of aquariums and fireplaces to throw on, and since the DVD player is likely connected to a surround sound system anyway, why not have a DVD with fireplace scenes that feeds the sound of your favorite holiday albums to the speakers. They had all kinds of choices in a variety of genres, such as Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, John Denver, Brad Paisley, Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, Kenny G, Il Divo, Kenny Chesney, Bette Midler, Johnny Cash, and more.

It’s a relatively cheap concept to make since Sony Music has access to the records and they only need to film the fireplace once and set the same footage to each holiday album. Kind of a neat idea and not something I’m going to take part in buying, but I do like the concept of it. If you like any Sony artists with holiday albums, you may want to check out this line. Sony calls it the “Christmas Classics – The Yule Edition.”

(more…)

Share on Facebook

If you’ve ever been a fan of the Original Star Trek television series featuring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy from the 1960′s then you’re probably familiar with the communicator device. The communicator was amazing futuristic technology then when it was first imagined and it’s been said that modern flip phone cellular phones were inspired by this piece of fictional futuristic technology. Well there is an officially licensed communicator that you can now buy that really does work as a communication’s device.

The actual working Star Trek Internet Communicator is not a cell phone, it’s a Voice over Internet Protocol device (VoIP) which will allow you to make phone calls over the Internet. The communicator isn’t wireless, it’s got a cord with a USB connector at the end of it so that you can plug it into your computer and talk to your friends and family over the Internet. The communicator recreates the look of the original series communicator right down to the famous Moiré pattern which lights up with a backlit LED. The communicator also recreates the “chirping” sound of the communicator when it’s flipped open and is said to have over 21 sound clips built into it. The Star Trek Internet Communicator is compatible with Macs and PCs running XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Junior’s Cheesecakes make the best desserts and wouldn’t you love to share an amazing cheesecake with your family this holiday season? I would never have considered getting one myself without having gone to New York and tried a slice of Junior’s Sugar Free Cheesecake, it was so incredibly delicious that I ordered a whole cheesecake shortly after I returned home to San Diego.

Sure the cheesecakes aren’t cheap, but they taste incredible. For my Belly Fat Cure friends, Junior’s offers two cheesecake options that are okay to have on the Belly Fat Cure program. A Plain sugar free cheesecake and a sugar free cheesecake sampler. The sugar free cheesecakes are made with Xylitol, an all natural sweetener so you don’t have to worry about any of the toxic artificial sweeteners. While this does leave out the option of getting one of Junior’s more creative cheesecakes like the Christmas cheesecake pictured above, trust me you won’t be disappointed. It’s a special treat you’ll want to savor and it can be completely guilt free.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

When Amazon.com first listed Jorge Cruise’s Belly Fat Cure book it was being offered at the price of $13.59 at a savings of 32% off the list price of the book at $19.99. The new current price of the book is $10.00 exactly, at 50% off the book. If you’ve been hesitant to consider purchasing the book, now is the best time to pre-order the book.

If Amazon decides to drop the price even more, then you’re covered by their pre-order guarantee which will automatically drop the price they charge you to the lowest price between the time you order it and when the book is released. I had my copies of the book pre-ordered with Amazon since September 7th, and even though my original order was placed when the price for the book was $13.57, my order now shows it’s locked in at the new $10.00 price. I placed my order when I wrote my blog entry giving a first look at the book. I was fortunate enough to be one of Jorge’s clients in a test case group for the book and was given the opportunity to help edit the book and my first look was based on one of the final drafts of the book before it got sent to the publisher. Click here if you’d like to read my review of the book.

Do keep in mind that if Amazon does decide to raise the price of the book between now and December 29th when it gets released, you can only get the $10.00 sale price if you lock in your order now. I know it’s the holidays and you want to focus on Christmas right now, but now is the best time to order it and it will arrive at your door shortly after Christmas when you’re ready to start focusing on taking off the holiday pounds. Take advantage of the incredible sale price for the book and you’re protected regardless of whether the price goes up or down before the release date which is less than a month away.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

If you saw my blog entry on October 29th, 2009, then you saw Jorge Cruise is offering a free Audiobook download for his Belly Fat Cure book that will ultimately be coming out in stores right after Christmas. The offer was originally going just to people who pre-ordered three copies of his book, but he’s since extended the offer down to anyone who buys one copy of the book. All you have to do is pre-order it from any book store online or off, and e-mail a copy of the receipt to 3bfc@jorgecruise.com.

To sweeten the deal for people purchasing three copies of the book, Jorge is adding more bonuses to to thank them for their purchases. In addition, to getting the audio download, people who purchase three copies of the Belly Fat Cure book also get a PDF of Chapter 2 of the book (this is the chapter that explains the program) and a video on how emotional eating effects can sabotage your ability to maintain or lose weight. But you have to act fast because Jorge Cruise is closing the opportunity to get the bonuses tonight at midnight in San Diego time.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

If you’re a fan of the rebooted Doctor Who that’s had Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant in the title role, then Amazon has a great deal for you, but you have to act now, because the deal is for today only!! If you’re like me and previously though the DVD sets from the BBC are considerably overpriced, then today is your day!

Amazon has the box sets for each of the four seasons of the show on sale today for $32.49 a piece. That’s 59% off the list price of $79.99 and 50% off of Amazon’s regular price of $64.99. I’ve been hesitant to buy the sets myself because quite frankly I felt they were a complete rip off at their regular price. The show has been remarkably good and I definitely wanted the sets but I’m sorry $65 to $80 a set was way too much money in my opinion for a show that only does 13 episodes a season. Maybe if they were 26 episode seasons like most American shows, it would be a reasonable price, but for 13 episodes, forget it. So for literally half price today only at Amazon, the sets are actually affordable.

The show is brilliant and well written and getting all four sets is truly the best option if you’ve never seen it. The way the show ends in the fourth season ties back to the entire series in such a well thought out way that you get the feeling the ending was always in mind when they established the series. Few shows pay off and spread out the storyline over so many seasons that you’re going to be amazed and wish American shows would do this. Lost may eventually pay off in this way, but we won’t know for sure until the final season completes it.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

If you pre-order three copies of Jorge Cruise’s Belly Fat Cure book, Jorge wants to send you a free Audio download you can put on your iPod or other MP3 players or even burn to CD that will explain the program and help you get started right away. The book doesn’t hit stores until right after Christmas, but you can get the download right away. There is no official Audiobook version being recorded for the book, so the only way to get this file is by buying three copies of the book.

When you buy three copies of the book, you get one for yourself and two that you can give a couple of friends or family members that may also be interested in losing some weight with the program. Trust me, when the weight starts to come off, people will be interested in what you’re doing and it’ll be handy to have an extra copy of the book to give away. It’s the one thing that frustrates me most about having done so well on the program is that when I get asked about what I’ve been doing, I can’t help people get the book right away. They have to wait until the end of December.

(more…)

Share on Facebook