If you are lucky enough to live in the Portland, Oregon area, or happen to have an Internet connection (which I suspect you might if you’re reading this) then you had the opportunity on Thursday May, 6th, 2010 to tune into the Paula’s Picks program on KBOO FM during her program and hear her present “You Have To Be There” performed by Helen Sjöholm from the musical “Kristina.” “You Have To Be There” is written by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA. Paula Small is a friend of mine that I went to high school with and she moved to Portland and one of the fun things she does out there is host a radio program on the first and third Thursdays of every month for KBOO.

The last time I saw Paula was when she was back in town to visit some family at the end of 2008, so I took Paula to see the Xanadu production at the La Jolla Playhouse, and when I saw her online on Facebook and I said hello using the chat feature of Facebook, we ended up discussing some music. I was so excited about the live album “Kristina At Carnegie Hall” coming out and I’d just gotten it in, I sent her “You Have To Be There” to share my excitement about the show. Paula really liked the song and we both commented about how it starts out similar to “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” but ends up being a much more powerful song. Paula thought it might make a great addition to her show the following night.

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To most of the rest of the country, Sonic Drive-In restaurants are a common, everyday sight and experience. Perhaps, one hardly worth taking note. However, they are relatively new here in San Diego, with their first store appearing in Santee about a year ago. I still have not visited that location, but on my way to my Post Office Box in Carlsbad I was driving through Vista and found they had put in a Sonic Drive-In near the recently redeveloped Main Street area. In fact, it’s really close to the old Peppertree Frosty shop that has an amazing variety of milkshakes and other ice cream treats.

I decided to give Sonic a try as I haven’t done a “drive-in” experience in years and thought it might be fun. I pulled into an open stall, decided on what to have then pressed the button to call the store to let them know I was ready to order. Once the order was placed, I loved the fact I could just pay with my Debit card (using it as a Mastercard) right at the menu board right next to the speaker and within a few minutes a young girl on roller skates was out to deliver my order and receipt. It was really cool. I know once the drive-thru was introduced, the drive-in’s were pretty much existing on borrowed time and nearly disappeared permanently, fortunately Sonic has been able to revive the format and make it accessible to folks who might never know the concept ever existed.

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A couple of weeks ago, I received an invitation via Socializr.com from Mike Trueblood inviting people to come celebrate the birthday of his partner, Robert Shadbolt at Disneyland. The date was for January 15th, a Friday, which normally I wouldn’t be able to do because Friday nights start my week of work at the casino. But that could be easily fixed with a time off request for a night off. I don’t usually get the chance to use my pass with friends as most of my friends have Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 type jobs and I work the middle of the night inclusive of weekends, so I jumped at the chance to share a day at Disneyland with Mike and Robert.

My requested night off was approved and I changed my “Maybe” to a definite “Yes” that I would be attending and was able to coordinate some details with them ahead of time when I saw them both at the bar on Wednesday night. The rough plan was that the guys would be there at 9 am and that I should call them around that time to coordinate locations. I was planning on being there early, but I was coming from my parent’s home in Temecula instead of from San Diego as they called me for some help setting up their brand new television for use in their home entertainment system. My folks wouldn’t let me leave in the morning without breakfast first, so I didn’t get to leave as early as I wanted.

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When Roku first introduced the Roku Netflix Player in mid 2008, the only service it accessed was Netflix. For a Netflix subscriber, it was a relatively no-brainer addition to their homes because it was a one time $99.99 purchase for the box and it would allow them to stream Netflix’s Instant access library of movies and tv shows directly to their televisions for no additional cost to their Netflix subscriptions. The box is prepared for any kind of connection to the television with outputs including HDMI, Component Video, Composite Video, S-Video, and even audio outputs in both analog and optical. And it can be connected to the Internet with either an Ethernet cable or it’s built-in wireless connection.

The first available movies and television shows on the Roku Netflix Player were all older titles. Eventually Netflix partnered with Starz to bring more recently released titles to their instant viewing offerings. Roku, the manufacturer of the box, promised the box would be able to access additional sources of content in the future. In early 2009, Roku added access to Amazon’s Video On Demand service which allows the owners of the box the ability to purchase or rent movies or television shows on a per-title basis. This allowed people with the box the opportunity to enjoy the most currently released content right on the box as soon as the day of release for most titles. And both Netflix and Amazon were offering the opportunity to watch content on the box in High Definition. The HD streaming is only available if you’re connecting the box to your television or entertainment system through an HDMI connection.

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I got to have my first look the new house my parents moved into in Temecula, California on Thanksgiving. I was a little sad to see the old house in the process of being packed up and ready to go last week when stopped by. (Click here to read about that visit.) But I was excited to see the new house even though it’s considerably further away from where I’m currently living.

My first look at the house wasn’t actually when I drove up, when I got the e-mail from my mother with the new address, I checked it out on Google’s maps using the street view feature. The photo was not unlike the one I took that’s shown above. The house is definitely bigger than the older house and as my mom tells me, it’s approximately 1000 square feet bigger than the old house, but because lacks the same level of storage space of the old house. Understandable considering the old house, my folks had “California Closets” installed in all the closets to maximize the closet spaces and a full set of storage cabinets inside the garage. The new house has just the bar to hang clothes in the closets and from what my folks told me, the garage wasn’t even drywalled when the bought the house. So eventually the closets will get transformed into California Closets and cabinets added to the garage, but it’s not a priority.

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The big news in town this week with a lot of my friends, especially the ones from the Midwest and East Coast, is that a Five Guys Burger And Fries shop has opened in San Diego. It apparently opened about three weeks ago, but the reason why it was not really discovered until this week with my friends is because this first location in San Diego is tucked away in the food court of Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado. They aren’t advertising to the public because it’s on a military base and as a member of the general public you can’t just go on to a military base just because you want to try their new burger joint. You need someone with a Department of Defense sticker on their vehicle to get access to the base.

I wasn’t originally planning on heading out yesterday, but needed to head down to the county courthouse for some information and saw that one of my local friends, Dan Baggett, was planning on going and was looking to see if anyone wanted to join him. He said his friend Jack was going to join him and I decided I would meet up with them so that we could ride over to the base and check it out. It definitely sounded like a must try event since my other friend Joe Gray has posted to his Facebook account that he’s already been there twice in less than 48 hours and that in June when he was in Tennessee he went to a Five Guys three days in a row for lunch. So with that kind of recommendation, I had to check it out.

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As part of my birthday celebration, I planned to get a room up in Anaheim for the night of September 2nd, so that on my birthday I could get an early start at Disneyland. Since went ahead and booked a room through Priceline and got a great deal on a hotel, the decision to be made was should I just head up early in the afternoon, or go up in the evening. I thought I might consider going into Disney a day early but didn’t really want to spend that much money as a day at Disneyland isn’t cheap.

After passing by the discount wall at work, I saw they had coupons for Knott’s Berry Farm that would drop the admission price down to $29.99 from the regular $52.99 price, so it sounded like it might be worth doing since I haven’t been to Knott’s Berry Farm in at least a decade or so. It could be fun. Well the only thing that had me a little concerned was I wasn’t sure what time I would get to the park because I had a few errands to run after work before I could finally hit the road and get there. The concern was due to the fact the park was only staying open until 6pm. This just seemed crazy to me as it’s still technically summer, and labor day isn’t until this coming weekend, so the early closing time sounds a little premature.

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I just got in the mail a brand new t-shirt from the makers of Zevia. Zevia is the amazing sugar-free, calorie free, soda that’s made with all natural ingredients that I have been enjoying on the Jorge Cruise’s Belly Fat Cure program. For a lack of a better term, I’ve been nothing but a cheerleader for Zevia since trying the brand. With the amazing flavors and all natural ingredients, it’s been very easy to kick the habit of diet sodas loaded with Aspartame. Zevia gets its sweetness from Stevia, a natural herb from South America.

If you haven’t tried Zevia yet, you really ought to give them a try. The six currently available flavors are Natural Cola, Natural Twist (a lemon-lime soda), Natural Orange, Natural Root Beer, Natural Ginger Ale, and Natural Black Cherry. Once you try them and taste how flavorful the sodas are you’ll never look at the major brands the same way again. You’ll see them for the toxic chemicals they really are. You won’t want to drink anything other kind of soda. The all natural ingredients and lack of artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners are a refreshing change from what you’re used to.

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Garnier Nutrisse Cream hair coloring has partnered with Chantal Kreviazuk for her upcoming tour that will support her new album, called “Plain Jane” coming out later this September in Canada. As part of the promotion where Chantal has filmed a commercial promoting the hair coloring, fans have the opportunity to enter a contest to win tickets to the upcoming tour, and can vote for the Garnier Nutrisse Hair color that Chantal will wear during the tour. The best part for entering the contest is for the first 5,000 people who enter the contest, they will have the chance to download “Ordinary People” a song that will appear on Chantal’s upcoming album.

To enter enter the contest, just point your web browser to http://garnier.ca/extraordinary/ and fill in all the required entry blanks. Technically the contest is limited to Canadian residents as you’re suppose to enter your Canadian postal code, so if you aren’t a Canadian and want the song, you’ll need to have a postal code to enter. (Just Google any business in Canada.) Fortunately, I still have family in Canada and just entered one of their postal codes. I doubt I’ll win tickets and it’s unlikely I’d be able to go anyway. As for the required phone number entry I just entered my cell phone’s number and it took it just fine despite the number originating from the San Diego area. I just want the song as Chantal is one of my favorite artists. (In fact, she’s playing in Los Angeles next week on July 13th, at the Hotel Cafe).

Chantal is also previewing her lead single, “Invincible” from the album which gets released to Canadian radio next week. It’s available to be listened to on her Myspace page, which you can get to by clicking here. And she’s also previewing a video clip showing the recording of another upcoming song called “Today” on her Facebook page, click here to visit her Facebook page. (more…)

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As of June 13, 2001 at 12:01 Eastern Time Zone (US East Coast) Facebook is allowing users the opportunity to pick their own username URL. You could essentially call it a vanity URL. So instead of a user name being a very unrelenting random series of numbers, you can actually get one in your own name or nickname. It makes it easier to share with others.

For example, my previous Facebook URL was (and technically still is) http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan-Cameron/690149531. As you can see it’s a little relentless with the numbers, but it won’t connect to my page without the numbers.

Now that the vanity URLs are available, my new URL is http://www.facebook.com/RyanCameron. This is a definite improvement.

Thank you Facebook for finally getting with the program, as now my Facebook URL is now as easy to remember as my Twitter URL (http://www.twitter.com/RyanCCameron), my MySpace URL (http://www.myspace.com/roxabba), and of course, my blog URL (http://www.RyansIncredibleWorld.com).

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