I know this review is a bit late and I still need to get to my reviews of the “Kristina” shows from Carnegie Hall, but I’m trying to fit in the time when I can. So apologies to my readers anxiously anticipating my reviews.

I wasn’t expecting my chance to see Kylie Minogue in person to be such a last minute affair, but I had been hoping my new Blackjack Training program I am I developing would not only be released long before this concert, but it would also help brining in the funds to purchase much better seats for the show. But as the concert has come and past and the project is still not yet ready to launch, I ended up scrambling last minute to make sure I had the night of October 4th off work, and purchased some tickets. I decided I wasn’t that fussed about having great seats, as I felt it was just more important to be there. So I bought a couple of the cheapest tickets available so my good friend Rod Reynolds and I could see the Australian pop diva bring her first ever United States tour. I didn’t know it at the time I bought the tickets but they were second row seats……second row from the back.

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Having hit a little bit of music boredom with the more limited selections on my iPod Touch, I decided to bring out the iPod Classic which is loaded with over 11,000 audio files. I let it play on random and one of the things that came up was “Hooked On Classics – Part 1 and 2″ from the original “Hooked On Classics” album by Louis Clark and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

I ended up taking the iPod off random and played the full album. It’s been a very long time since I last listened to it. I don’t remember when exactly I added the Hooked On Classics albums to my iPod as the last crash of my iTunes wiped out the date added for every track I added prior to December 10, 2008. In any case, I was happy I had it on my iPod to enjoy without having to dig out the CD.

I remember having worn out two cassettes of this album back in the early 1980′s. I loved it. To me it was all the good parts of classical music without so much of the really boring stuff. And I suppose a disco-esque drum track didn’t hurt either for helping keep those classics going at an upbeat pace. I remember Hooked On Classics being very popular when it was originally released in Canada. It was released on the K-Tel label which I always had some collections of popular music from them. Probably my favorite of which was “Raiders Of The Pop Charts” which capitalized on the Indiana Jones theme which was current at the time.

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Ryan’s Incredible World has gained what is called a “Favicon.” A favicon is the icon image that appears on browser tabs and/or appears next to the search bar when you visit a site.

In the case of Ryan’s Incredible World, after figuring out what the little image is called in a Google search, I set out to design one for my site. It seems several of the sites that make them easily can convert them from several different graphic types, so it was just a matter of picking something. The first attempt I made I just used a photo of me to try out the process, but felt I would need to delete the background around my head if I was going to use that and since I’m due to take a few more updated skinnier pictures of me thanks to the weight loss I’ve enjoyed on Jorge Cruise’s Belly Fat Cure I didn’t feel like using a photo for my favicon.

I decided to add the stylized “R” from the font of the main title of the page. I had attempted several different looks, including doing a “RIW” however in such a tiny icon, the font the text is in, was making it look like “ROW” So I figured an “R” would just look better, plus I think it ties in better with my site (please leave a comment below if you like it or have suggestions on what you think I should use).

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Amazon Kindle Owners can now take Ryan’s Incredible World with them to read on their Kindle devices. Amazon recently approved the publishing of this blog in a format compliant with their Kindle devices. All that’s needed is an Amazon Kindle and a monthly subscription. Amazon currently has my blog priced at a monthly subscription price of 99 cents, a great bargain to cover the wireless delivery of every new blog entry as they become available. Click here to sign up for Ryan’s Incredible World, the Kindle Edition.

Unfortunately, at this time, the Kindle version only works on Kindle devices, the Kindle applications for iPhone and iPod Touch do not yet work with blog subscriptions. If you’re interested in purchasing an Amazon Kindle, they’ve recently had a price reduction to $299.00 for the regular size model and $489.00 for the DX (larger sized) model. Click here to visit Amazon’s Kindle Store. (more…)

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Amazon has recently expanded the usability of their Amazon Kindle devices. The Kindle device is best known for being a reader for electronic books and the ability to subscribe to newspapers and other regularly updating content sources. Well Amazon has expanded this subscription option to now include blogs. For blog site owners who choose to participate, giving their site’s visitors an additional avenue to read the blog on the go.

The service will not be free, as Amazon will charge approximately 99 cents or $1.99. It hasn’t yet been determined what prices they will charge but essentially consider the cost as covering the Kindle WhisperNet wireless delivery system. I have gone through the process of applying for Ryan’s Incredible World to be carried by Amazon’s Kindle Blog service, but it will be Amazon that determines the price, I have no say in the matter. This site should be listed in the next couple of days and I’ll post an update when that occurs.

Unfortunately, the subscription content is not yet available through the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch Amazon Kindle Applications, so it’s strictly for actual Amazon Kindle users initially. It’s nice to have an additional avenue for people to find and enjoy this blog. If you’re interested in purchasing an Amazon Kindle, they’ve recently had a price reduction to $299.00 for the regular size model and $489.00 for the DX (larger sized) model. Click here to visit Amazon’s Kindle Store.

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I think in large part due to the phenomenal success of “Mamma Mia! The Movie” last summer which was released shortly after last year’s San Diego County Fair concluded, the organizers of the San Diego County Fair thought it fitting to bring in an ABBA tribute band as a headlining act for the 2009 San Diego County Fair at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Fortunately the organizers picked what I consider to be the world’s best ABBA tribute band out there. That tribute band is Arrival, who like ABBA, also originate from Sweden and the show Arrival is touring under is called “The Music Of ABBA”.

Headed by Vicky Zetterberg (who portrays Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad) and joined by Jenny Gustafsson (who portrays Agnetha Fältskog), Arrival brought a wonderful touch of Sweden to San Diego, not once, but twice with two shows on July 2, 2009. The afternoon show began at 2pm and while the program states the afternoon concerts are hour long shows, Arrival played for a full two hours bringing a complete ABBA show to those down at the fair early enough to catch the afternoon show. I was personally fighting with traffic and the whole mess with parking so I didn’t make it to the Heineken Grandstand Stage until 2:30pm but I did get there. Arrival were performing “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” as I arrived.

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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sony’s introduction of the Walkman which forever changed how personal music was defined, the BBC thought it would be an interesting experiment to have a 13 year old child trade in their iPod for one week for a classic Sony Walkman without any instructions other than to say the Walkman was the iPod of it’s day.

It was interesting to read the child’s insight into the whole thing, my personal favorite comment was it took three days before he realized there was a second side to the cassette. He also missed the shuffle feature of his iPod but decided he could simulate it by randomly holding down the rewind and stopping at random spots. It was also a great laugh to read how big and clunky he thought the device was because it’s huge compared to the iPod, but back in the day it was cutting edge small technology.

I still remember my first Walkman, I don’t remember the brand of it but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a Sony one. I used to listen to it all the time, even took it to bed so I could listen to my music to fall asleep, a habit I still have. I have a hard time falling asleep without music playing. Yes, the buttons were big and clunky, and for that matter so were the players. I always wanted one of the Walkmans with a built in speaker but never did ever get one of those. Cassettes weren’t a perfect medium, but they are what got me through the 1980′s. I didn’t get my first CD player until 1989.

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May was a very similar month to April so it didn’t have the same surprise factor when looking at the end results. In fact, the improvement seems almost minimal. I did have to take a break for a few days because I simply wasn’t home with access to the treadmill for a period of three days which I feel hindered a little of my progress this month. It was definitely the longest stretch of time I’ve done without running since I started doing the treadmill work at the end of November.

The new shoes bought in April were wonderful in May, it’s such a welcome relief to be running without pain and giving me the chance to work on building my speed. I spent most of the month just working on trying to get two mile runs done in less time and I’ve managed to shave some additional time off my average pace per mile.

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I’ve had a few days to test drive the new iPhone Operating System (OS) on my iPod Touch and it’s been fun and interesting trying out the new software. I am currently on the Beta 4 version of the software which was released about a week ago.

So far, the new features like the search and being able to cut and paste have been pretty cool but for me seems to be of limited use my iPod Touch is primarily an iPod. I don’t manage a contact database on it, and I use it for rather limited Internet use, like some web browsing and checking e-mail. A detailed list of features being added can be found by clicking here.

I’ve really been impressed with the new and improved maps application. It now provides turn by turn directions and can even map you routes for a car, walking, and bus routes. Granted the bus routes have some limited application in terms of distances covered. They even allow easy access to Google’s street view images. I’ve been playing with that a little bit. Really nicely improved tool. Also the music player has been improved slightly in that the slider for the position in the song works a little more easily and they’ve improved how it handles audio books, such as a feature to repeat the last 30 seconds in place of the Genius logo.

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You know movies are getting to be expensive when it costs about the same to see it on screen as it does to buy the DVD when it comes out. Talk about fleecing the hell out of consumers. In this case, it’s the insanely expensive ticket to see “Star Trek” this Thursday night on an IMAX screen at the Regal Cinema in Escondido.

I’m hoping the experience will be good because this will be the first mainstream movie I’ve seen in IMAX since “Spider-Man 3″, a couple years ago. At the time it was the premiere feature at the Edwards Cinema in Mira Mesa which was just opening it’s IMAX theatre. Basically it converted one of it’s largest theaters into an IMAX auditorium. And I caught a 6 am showing of the movie (the third screening since the midnight premiere showing) and I was a little underwhelmed by the IMAX experience. It could just be that “Spider-Man 3″ was a not quite the best film, but I do think the auditorium contributed to the experience, as I felt the screen was just not size wise up to par for an IMAX experience. All my previous IMAX experiences have been at theme parks with these giant larger than life screens, and this screen just felt average. Not quite the sensory overload experience I was hoping for.

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