Following the great day at Disneyland to celebrate my friend Robert Shadbolt’s birthday, our group decided on dinner at Anaheim’s Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant. The chain of Bubba Gump restaurants takes it’s name and inspiration from the 1994 Forrest Gump film originally directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks in the title role. As a themed restaurant, Bubba Gump offers a seafood dining menu in addition to a themed gift shop and effectively offering a unique way to keep the spirit of Forrest Gump alive and well in the mind of consumers long after the original theatrical run of the film.

According to the press kit, Paramount Pictures originally approached Rusty Pelican Restaurants, Inc. about extending the brand of Forrest Gump into the realm of casual family dining. And by 1996, the very first Bubba Gump Shrimp Company themed restaurant opened it’s doors in Montery, California. The company specifically targets tourist destinations for their restaurants, such as the Anaheim location which is a couple of blocks away from Disneyland, and other locations including Universal’s City Walk in both Hollywood and Orlando, Times Square in New York, Pier 39 in San Francisco, and the Mall of America in Minnesota. Bubba Gump is Paramount’s most successful foray into themed restaurant licensing, but wasn’t the first.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

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

Tonight is the night that Xanadu returns to San Diego. No, it’s not the fantastic stage musical that was here for two months last year. (That’s actually opening up tonight as well, but further up the road in Costa Mesa.) Tonight, it’s the Original Motion Picture version of Xanadu starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly that is playing here in San Diego.

The movie is notoriously known for being a bad movie, as it has a very loose plot, but despite the fact the movie bombed originally, it’s soundtrack was a massive hit for the record label. The collaboration between Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and Olivia Newton-John (ONJ) on the title track, Xanadu has made the song one of Oliva’s biggest hits. Filling out the rest of the album are more fantastic songs by ELO and ONJ. Wisely, the songs weren’t put on the album in the order in which they appear in the movie, they were placed so that one side was the ELO side and the other side was the ONJ side. As the both acts draw different audiences, it made sure the fans of each artist could enjoy the work of their favorite if they weren’t as big a fan of the other.

(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

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

Surprisingly, I’ve never actually seen either “Toy Story” movie before. And oddly enough, I actually do have both movies on DVD. I picked up the first Toy Story movie when it was reissued as a 10th Anniversary edition, and the second one either at the same time or shortly thereafter. But I’m guessing it might have been a buy both get a better discount kind of deal. But both DVDs are still shrinkwrapped to this day. I know the first one at least had to have been good based on the fact it spawned a sequel, but it also launched Pixar into the mainstream and I have enjoyed several of their movies over the years.

I don’t know why this seems to be true for me, but I never seem to find the Pixar movie trailers interesting enough to ever want to see the movies when they happen to be playing on the big screen. I had never seen any of them on the big screen, not “Monster’s Inc.”, not “Finding Nemo”, not “Cars” not even “Wall-E” or this year’s “Up” and yet, ultimately I’ve been told how great and wonderful they are, and I’ve checked them out on DVD and ended up buying them. I will probably even get “Up” when it comes out next month. All of the ones I’ve seen ended up being extremely good, so I just don’t quite get why their trailers strike me as lame and I don’t see them in the theaters.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

I went into seeing “Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen” with fairly low expectations as it’s not been reviewed very positively by critics and a few of the people I follow on Twitter didn’t have the best of things to say about it. But I wanted to see it anyway and so I went with a couple of people from work today and I thought it was just okay.

The movie itself had a reasonably decent plot line, and the stuff involving the parents of the main character, Sam, were fantastic comedy bits. As with most Michael Bay movies, it was loaded with lots of explosions and as one friend on Twitter put it, a great recruiting video for the Armed Forces. The explosions were definitely bigger and better than the first movie. One of the nice touches I liked was the return of the same voice from the animated Transformers cartoon for the character of Soundwave. Fortunately, they didn’t make Soundwave a tape deck, but rather a satellite in space who taps into a US Military satellite and relays information to the Decepticons below. I think from the animated show the voices of Optimus Prime and Soundwave definitely are key to those of use nostalgic enough to remember the original cartoons back when they were at their peak of popularity.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

When I got my teeth cleaned during my most recent bi-annual visit to my dentist, my hygienist and dentist decided that a couple of areas on my teeth warranted some additional protection to prevent them from becoming problems. Apparently what’s occurring is that the enamel has weakened in those spots and to prevent them from becoming full blown cavities, I was prescribed some 3M ESPE Clinpro 5000 Toothpaste, which apparently has three times the amount of fluoride found in store bought toothpaste as well as additional calcium and phosphate which allows for the teeth to remineralize and become stronger.

Personally, I think that sounds like something that happens to the dilithium crystals on the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek as opposed to what can happen from this prescription toothpaste. In any case, I’m going to use it because I didn’t enjoy the process of having the few cavities I do have filled. Granted, those were all preventable on my part, I just never took the flossing requests of my dentists seriously until I finally had some cavities, all of which in the gaps between the teeth where floss can reach but a toothbrush can’t.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

I’ve been hesitant to write a review for the movie because it was just an absolutely amazing experience. I saw the film on the night of its release in IMAX and in the week since seeing it for the first time, saw it two additional times. And to be honest, I might go back and see it again, at least one more time. It was just brilliant. Star Trek is officially revived.

J.J. Abrams, who directed and produced the film, has made it quite clear that he was not a Star Trek fan, but wisely decided to surround himself with people who were. Additionally in developing the characters of the Original cast characters, Abrams conducted interviews with the surviving cast members to get their insights into their portrayals of the characters so that it could help guide how the new cast members would fill those roles. Tapping Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, two long time fans, to write the screenplay, the script brilliantly is laced with loving references to the Original Series as well as previous films that provide the ultimate homage to all that has come before. It also is a welcome tribute to the long time fans because it’s like an acknowledgment that the script is in the hands of people who want to do justice to the legacy of Star Trek without trampling over it.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Best Buy stores are offering an incredible deal this week for Star Trek fans who want a great deal picking up the new Star Trek Movies collection on Blu-Ray if they also pick up a brand new Samsung Blu-Ray Player.

As the Star Trek Movies collection got released this week in two special box sets, the first of which is the set of all six Original Cast movies from “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” through “Star Trek Vi: The Undiscovered Country” and includes an exclusive seventh disc “The Captain’s Summit” which features a seventy minute round table discussion between William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. The second set is entitled “The Star Trek Trilogy” which contains the movies, “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, ” and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” which never officially were a trilogy, but their plot lines continue each other. The Blu-Ray sets, both are on sale individually for $89.99 the six movie set and $39.99 for the trilogy set.

However, the best deal comes when you add on a Samsung Blu-Ray player. When paired with a Samsung Blu-Ray player this week, the sale price for the Star Trek Blu Ray box sets drop to $19.99 for the six movie collection, and $4.99 for the trilogy. And the low end and high end models of Samsung Blu-Ray players are also discounted by $50 each. So quite literally, it’s possible to get Samsung’s BD-P1600 model for $249.99 with the first six Star Trek movies for $19.99 more, and even with sales tax added, you’re still walking out of the store getting a discount on the player and getting the Star Trek movies for free. It’s less than $300 total for the player and the six movies. What a deal.

(more…)

Share on Facebook