Wall-E

My son is a HUGE Pixar fan. My wife and I don't often get to see movies in the theater because our son is too young. We didn't think he would sit through anything that has come out recently until now. My son knows "Toy Story" backwards and forwards. He loves "Monsters, Inc." He has seen "Cars" a hundred times, and "Ratatouille" is catching up. Again, he LOVES Pixar. With this in mind, we took him to see Wall-E today.

I knew coming into this that there would be minimal dialog. Being a huge Star Wars fan, I am used to robots communicating through beeps and whistles, so I didn't think I would mind.

The movie starts by introducing Wall-E, whose name comes is an acronym of Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class. Humans have all left the Earth 700 years prior, and he is the only robot left still functioning in his capacity as a global janitor. He has created lots of trash skyscrapers, and it is obvious that he is making slow progress.

Wall-E collects certain things that interest him. He found a tape of a Musical, and he has learned at least one song from it. This song continues to play throughout the film.

Eventually he is introduced to EVE. She turns out to be one of the better characters in this movie. Her first few scenes have her blasting anything that startles her with a high-powered laser. The explosions are pretty cool.

The movie progresses from there, and Wall-E ends up following EVE to space when she gets whisked away. Wall-E meets some other robots along the way, some nice, some not so nice. He also makes friends with a couple of humans.

Pixar did something interesting in this movie. They inserted live-action acting into a cartoon. It was a huge deal a while back when the opposite happened. Think back to "Mary Poppins" or "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", where cartoons were added to a live-action film.

The film started slowly and didn't do much to pick up speed. It felt like a very long version of the short films that usually proceed the features. The story didn't really hold our interest. There were a few laughs, but otherwise I shold have saved it for Netflix like I originally planned. My son seemed to like it a lot more than we did, which was the point of our going. Since he liked it, I will give it a little boost in my ranking. I say save it for a rental. It isn't worth a theater viewing.

RATING:

Jersey Mike's Subs

Jersey Mike's Subs
1231 South Victoria Ave.
Oxnard, CA 93035

Jersey Mike's Subs is a fairly typical subway sandwich shop. They lean more toward Quiznos and Togos rather than Subway. My wife is a pretty big fan of this place, so this is the second time she has taken me there. The first time I went I liked the restaurant, but not my food. I figured I would try it again before I reviewed it. Today was the day.

Walking in, we were greeted by the whole staff, Starbucks and Coldstone Creamery style. They were pretty friendly. There wasn't a long line, so we ordered quickly.

Like Togo's and Quiznos they have a pretty set menu, and it doesn't feel they are too comfortable with additional items. Subway pretty much raised all our expectations in this area.

I ordered the Roast Beef sandwich, Mike's style. My wife got the Turkey sandwich, also Mike's style. Mike's style includes lettuce, tomato, pickles, oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. I added peperocini and jalepenos, and my wife added just the peperocinis.

For a sandwich, this was pretty good. I prefer hot sandwiches, but today's was of the cold variety. All in all it was a decent meal. I think the sizes are a little hard to gauge accurately. The regular looks small, so I ordered the large. It was way bigger than I intended to get, but for $10, I should hope it was huge.

This place didn't impress me, but it wasn't bad either. This is a pretty average place. The Pepsi is pretty good though, which makes a big difference to me. (I am a huge Pepsi fan). Go to Jersey Mike's for a decent meal.

RATING:

Courtyard by Marriott - Buena Park

Courtyard by Marriott
7621 Beach Boulevard
Buena Park, California 90620

For my wedding night I chose a hotel near LAX, as we were flying to Cabo San Lucas the next day. I chose a Marriott hotel called the Renaissance Montura. They had a great "romance package" that I thought my wife would love. Chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of Champagne or Sparkling Cider upon arrival, rose petals on the bed, a bath drawn by a hotel staff member with rose petals, and breakfast with room service are all included in the package. This left quite the impression on my wife, and we have looked forward to a repeat visit ever since.

I joined the frequent guest program so we could earn our way back to the Renaissance. This is the reason I chose the Courtyard by Marriott hotel for my wife's birthday this year. Unfortunately this hotel did not live up to our expectations of Marriott.

The outside of the Courtyard as well as the lobby looked very clean and was as expected. Once we got to our room it was a different story. The couch had a large black stain on both the cushions. The room was arranged in an odd manner so that the bathroom door and closet doors interfered with each other. The bed was very comfortable to lounge on, but it was terrible to sleep on. During the night, my sheets came off the mattress and I had to get out of bed to fix them. The room also had a slightly musty smell, the kind normally present in a Motel 6.

The week prior we had stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. That room was much nicer and cost half as much. I sent an email relating my story to Marriott but have not heard back from them. I did fill out the survey they emailed me. I hope they would be interested in the quality of their hotel rooms. I will post an update to this blog if I hear from them.

I hope that my stay at the Renaissance did not taint my idea of what Marriott should be. I suppose only time will tell. Time, and a future stay. Until then, I recommend you stay away from the Courtyard by Marriott in Buena Park.

RATING:

Fool's Gold

Fool's Gold: Flopped. My wife and I rented Fool's Gold from Netflix and we were pretty disappointed. The movie starts off with a pretty cool boat explosion scene, but it went downhill from there.

I am normally a fan of Donald Sutherland's movies, and he was indeed one of the best characters in this movie. Matthew McConaughey keeps making the same movie with different titles, and this time it didn't pan out. Sahara was much better in my opinion. Kate Hudson is usually more interesting to watch as well. Perhaps the most annoying character was Gemma Honeycutt, played by Alexis Dziena. I have never seen her acting before, so I am giving her the benefit of the doubt here. She played a ditzy girl apparently modeled in look and voice after That 70's Show's character Jackie.

The whole movie I was trying to figure out if this was a romantic comedy or an action adventure. There were some funny scenes, I will admit. Kate Hudson beating all the bad guys with a shovel was definitely funny. The movie just didn't really go anywhere.

I will give the movie credit for some decent stunts. There were explions, a boat launching off a wave, a cliff-top motorcycle accident, and more. This is part of the reason I couldn't tell what genre the movie was supposed to be in.

The effects and Donald Sutherland contribute almost all of the points on this one. I don't recommend this movie. 1.5 out of 5.

RATING:

The Incredible Hulk

Which Hulk was better - Ang Lee's or Louis Leterrier's? I think everyone was dreading a repeat of the Ang Lee disaster from a few years ago. I was hopeful coming into this version. Iron Man exceeded my expectations, as high as they already were. I figured if Marvel could knock Iron Man out of the ballpark, the Hulk stood a pretty good chance. I was right.

Instead of doing an origin story the movie starts in on Bruce Banner trying to cure himself of his gamma radiation. This is a throwback to the Hulk TV series from the 70s. They did throw in some origin stuff, which necessarily ignored the Ang Lee version. This movie showed Bruce trying to work on his anger management, including training in martial arts. This allowed for one of the few action scenes Bruce Banner was in, rather than the Hulk.

The acting took a little getting used to, as I had to forget about the previous characters. There was a hint of the annoying Star Wars prequel dialog during a scene in Betty Ross's house. This did not last long, and the movie recovered from there.

The action sequences were pretty cool, and we got to see some more of the Hulk's moves, including the sonic clap. The battle with Abomination was fun to watch, even if it didn't last long. These action scenes were far better than the mutated dogs or whatever Bruce's dad became in the Ang Lee version.

The Hulk is not my favorite character from the Marvel universe, but I like him enough to be interested in how the movie treated him. I was very happy with this version. The cameo by Tony Stark in the end was cool, as it introduced the coming Avengers movie. Considering how much I liked Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, the Avengers movie is going to be great.

Decent acting, great directing and writing, and some pretty cool explosions give this summer movie a 3.5 out of 5. I recommend you see this movie if you like action films, regardless of your like or dislike of comic book movies.

RATING:

Wendy's Strawberry Frosty Shake

originally posted on SurfJedi's Musings

My wife saw an ad in the window at Wendy's as we were heading to the Del Taco next door. It was for a new line of Frosty Shakes. This did not interest me, as Del Taco has excellent shakes. I gave in and we went to the Wendy's drive through on the way home.

My wife found her shake to be "just okay". Hers would turn out to be much better than mine. My first taste barely made it to the swallow. There was an acrid taste that I had not experienced in a long time. After a few attempts to stomach it I finally remembered the last time I had tasted something so awful. I was working out quite a bit a couple of years ago, and bought a few containers of Whey Protein powder. I enjoyed the chocolate shakes, but the strawberry one was so bad I ended up discarding it. Tonight's shake tasted exactly like the Whey Protein shake.

I tried to stir the shake to see if it just was poorly mixed. It helped a little, but it was still a chore to drink it. I felt that the price alone justified trying to finish the drink, as for the two shakes it was almost $8.00.

If you go to Wendy's, stick with the chocolate Frosty. There is no other frozen drink worth the money there. As good as the Frosty is, I expected much more of the shakes.

RATING:

Weezer - Red Album

originally posted on SurfJedi's Musings

The new album from Weezer is out, and I couldn't wait to get a copy. My wife and I downloaded the album on mp3 shortly after it was released. I must say that initially I was not too impressed. We burned it to a CD and played it for the first time on a road trip. I am pretty fond of playing Weezer albums at the beginning of a road trip, so this release was timed particularly well.

As I said before, my initial experience was less than I had hoped for. I think part of the reason was a difference in how I listened the first time. Typically I play an album a couple of times through, usually in my car. This time the album was on as background noise. It was easy to compare it to the Green Album, as there were no songs that immediately jumped out at me. I will note at this point that the Blue and Green albums are my favorites so far. I think ultimately this way of listening skewed my initial experience. I listened to it again today again with less distraction. This time I heard what I was looking for.

When one listens to Weezer, one can expect a certain style. There are usually familiar guitar riffs, and the songs vary from soft and harmonious to rockin'. This variety is part of what makes them such a great band. I listened to the album three more times this afternoon on my way home. I think the Red Album is definitely one worthy of the name Weezer. It may not have all the catchy tunes that the Blue and Green albums have, but it is still loaded with the things that make Weezer great.

If you are only a casual Weezer fan I do not recommend this album to you. If you are more attracted to songs like "Beverly Hills", "Buddy Holly", or "Hash Pipe" you will only find one song here called "Pork and Beans". If you are in fact a fan of Weezer though I think you will love this album. It is full of harmony, random compilations and classic Weezer rock. I plan to continue to listen to this album for a long time to come.

I added some Weezer clips in my sidebar, courtesy of Amazon.com. You may also click any of the above links to hear more of this album. Amazon sells DRM-free music. You can play it on your iPods or other mp3 players, and you can burn the album to a CD.

Note: Amazon.com did not sponsor this post, but this author is a member of the Amazon.com affiliate program.

RATING:

TGI Friday's

originally posted on SurfJedi's Musings

T.G.I. Friday's
2181 N. Rose Ave.
Oxnard, CA 93030
Cuisine: American

Tonight my wife and I went to T.G.I. Friday's with one of my best friends. It has been a long time since I went last, and I had yet to try the one in Oxnard. I used to be a weekly customer, so I had higher than average expectations tonight. Fortunately I was not disappointed.

The restaurant was not as crowded as I expected, considering the Lakers played game 3 tonight versus the Celtics. The bar had the usual game crowds, but we were seated quickly.

The waiter came out promptly and took our drink and appetizer orders. He returned quickly with the drinks. I used to regularly order the Jack Daniels Tower, which was a three-plate tower with fried shrimp, bbq ribs, and glazed fried chicken strips. They all had their own unique Jack Daniels sauces. This tower sadly doesn't exist now, but they still have the same type of appetizer. It is now just a single platter and only one sauce is included. It still tastes great though, as I confirmed tonight.

Another reason I love Friday's is the French Onion soup. Every other restaurant gets compared to Friday's when I order the French Onion soup. Tonight the cheese portion was not as generous as normal, but it was close enough for me.

My wife and buddy got pasta dishes, and I went with the Jack Daniels burger. All of the orders were enjoyed. I am particularly fond of the Jack Daniels sauces if you haven't guessed by now. They are a great blend of sweet and tangy. I could eat this stuff everyday if gas prices didn't prevent me. :)

The server could have been a little better, but he was still good. The restaurant was clean and the food was good. 4.5 out of 5 for service and food. I definitely recommend this restaurant.

RATING:

Jiffy Lube? Not Quite

originally posted on SurfJedi's Musings

I let my car go further than I would have liked without an oil change, so I took it in today. Things kept coming up to prevent my task, so I had no choice but to just get it done today. Unfortunately the place advertising $14.95 oil changes was not open today. I decided to give Jiffy Lube a chance.

When I got there I was pleased to find a short line. This short line turned out to be misleading. The people were very friendly when I pulled up, and pointed out where I should park my car. If you read my post about Wal-Mart you would know that this was a great start to my day. I was told to sit down and a guy would fill out the paperwork. I had my wife with me in her car, as oil changes typically take forever. The plan was to go to lunch and pick up my car when we were done. This was not to be.

A few minutes go by and nobody has contacted me regarding paper work. I walk outside from time to time to make sure I have been noticed, and after 15 minutes or so I was approached. I was on the phone with my wife who was still waiting in her car when the guy started calling out some name. It wasn't mine so I kept talking. Finally he got my attention and repeated this name and confirmed I had the Taurus. I told him the Taurus was mine but he had the wrong name. I then remembered the JiffyLube sticker on my windshield. The last owner was in the system.

I went through the process with the guy, making sure all my data was recorded. He tried to sell me the usual extras, but I had found out a moment before that the price would be more than double what I usually pay at Wal-Mart. I told him I would wait to buy the extras until the "sticker shock" wore off in the future. As he got to the bottom of the form, a older lady pulled up in her truck. He told me to "Hold on sec" and tried to convince the lady to sell him her truck. Apparently he either knew her or she was a regular customer, as they continued to talk as old friends. I finally got his attention and asked how much longer the process would take, as I wanted to go to lunch with my wife. He said "15 minutes". I told my wife it would be 15 minutes. It wasn't.

A quick price comparison follows:

	Wal-Mart	Jiffy Lube
Oil Change	$27	$39
Tire Rotation	$1.50/tire	$20

While I was waiting a lady was called to the front because her car was finished. He gave her the final price and she was confused. She asked him if they had done all the extra stuff. Apparently the price was lower than she expected. She had asked for a fuel filter and a tire rotation. This wasn't on the paper work he told her so she asked him to do the work. To their credit he went into the garage and hounded the guys to get her stuff finished quickly. At least they didn't try to argue with her.

Finally my turn came. He gave me the final price which turned out to be slightly lower than the quote. It was only a dollar or two, but I was still happy about it. When all was said and done it took about an hour. Considering the fact that my car was first in line in it's particular stall, I don't think it should have taken an hour. I will be making the trek to Simi Valley to let Wal-Mart do my next oil change.

RATING:

California Pizza Kitchen

originally posted on SurfJedi's Musings

California Pizza Kitchen
Pacific View Mall
3301 E. Main Street
Ventura, CA 93003

My wife has been trying to drag me to the California Pizza Kitchen for a long time, and I have resisted for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons is the perception that it is geared toward the female gender. One doesn't often hear about a group of guys going to the California Pizza Kitchen. Tonight I let her drag me in, and we both regretted it.

To begin, we were promptly seated by the hostess, which was good. We waited more than 15 minutes for our waitress to acknowledge our presence, which was bad. It kept going from there. We finally got our drinks and appetizers ordered, and 10 minutes later the waitress came back with the drinks. The iced tea tasted like it had been brewed too long, and we had to send it back. The Pepsi was good though. Next was the mystery of the bread.

Apparently bread is supposed to be served to the tables. We witnessed many other customers getting bread almost immediately. We finally asked about it. At this point 30 minutes had passed since we arrived. Another 10 minutes pass, and the bread arrives. 45 minutes now, and no appetizers. We notice other couples who sat after us had not only drinks and bread within 5 minutes, they got their food as well. Still no appetizers. We decided to let the manager know that our night was not progressing well. He apologized and offered us a free dessert to make up for it. We accepted this and continued to wait for our food.

Finally our appetizers arrive. They were pretty good. We ordered a flour tortilla spring roll that reminded me of the Southwest Egg Rolls at Chili's. Even my wife liked these, though they normally don't appeal to her. If it hadn't taken the better part of an hour to get them we would have been much happier. The food arrived another 20 minutes later. I had a Tostada Pizza, and my wife had a salad with candied walnuts, blue cheese, and chicken. I can't remember the name of it. Both were just okay. The best part about mine was the crust. It tasted like a Greek flat bread. I wanted to order some Hummus to go with it. Since we knew we were getting dessert free, we ordered an apple crisp.

One would think that they would have tried to redeem themselves by now, but no. The crust was burnt and the apples were mushy and just unappealing. My wife thought they tasted a bit fermented. We told the waitress about the dessert, though hesitating to do so. She offered to replace it but we were ready to get out of there. This was more than two hours since we had been seated. The manager came back and we told him what was wrong. He pulled the dessert off the order completely, and gave us the appetizers for free. We thanked him and finally were able to pay and be on our way.

1.5 out of 5 for service, and 1.5 for food. The 1.5 for service includes the helpful manager. I do not recommend this place to anyone.

RATING: