star cinema grill

[bit] hey guys! i know, i know, i've been gone for a long time. well, don't expect this to be on-going like before. i just wanted to surprise you guys this time.

anyway, have you seen the signage for Star Cinema Grill? well, ginger and i have been interested every time we pass by it on the freeway. then we decided to go last night. we suspected it would have food at the movie hence the name cinema grill. we saw Fever Pitch and it was a fun movie, a romantic comedy. i wanted to see The Interpreter, but ginger ruled it out.

anyway, about the theater. it is so cool! we got there and you buy your movie tickets as always ($7.50 each after 5pm; $6 before). there are 6 theaters with upto date movies. we walked inside and it is really different. all you see is a wall-to-wall bar. the manager came up to us and greeted us. he ask if we've been before and we said no. he explained that we're welcome to goto the bar first or go ahead and sit down in the theater. he told us that there will be waiters in the theater to assist us. we proceeded to the theater and everything looked like it was redone.

the theater was pretty nice. it was clean, filled with new theater style seats with cup holders and a small retangular table in front of every two seats. so you basically share a table with your date. under the table it held menus and order cards. on the table there were pens and a black button. we got there before previews (no commercials!) and the waiter came by to explain how everything worked. basically, you decide what you want from the menu and write it on the order card in the proper section. then you push the little back button and it begins to flash, but it doesn't hurt your eyes and it's not annoying. the waiter comes by and picks up the card and comes back with your yummies. you don't pay until the end of the movie (they take cash and credit cards). as for the food, the menu had a lot of food choices. here are your categories:

• "PRELUDE" - appetizers
• "THE PLOT" - salads
• "THE STORY LINE" - burgers and sandwiches
• "THE FINALE" - pizza and pasta
• "RATED G" - kid's meals
• "CREDITS" - desserts
• "OUTTAKES" - beverages
• Beer & Wine & Mixed Drinks

the food price ranged from $6-$8 for entrees and the most expensive menu item was $10 for pizza. soft drinks and popcorn were cheaper than cinemark ~$2.75 ea. the setup inside the theater was old style seating, so no stadium seating. but there was no immediate row infront of you because of the tables and an aisle for the waiters to duck around. so it was like every other row were seats. no one could ever be tall enough to block your view again in these old theater style seats! the sound system was pretty good (updated), but there was this annoying sound everyone 20 minutes or so that would hum in the background... sounded like the a/c unit for the whole cinema... not sure though. it wasn't annoying enough to where i missed any dialogue.

so, i would definitely recommend Star Cinema Grill. it is a very cool concept and i hope it stays around. remember to get there a little early to order before the movie. it can be distracting if you're trying to order and watch a movie at the same time. for instance, we had nachos (thin chips with melted shredded cheese and topped with fajita chicken meat with guac and jalapenos on the side) for dinner and ordered that before the movie. then ginger wanted popcorn, so i had to stop watching the movie and write down the order and push the little black button. then the waiter asked if i wanted anything else. well, i'm very picky when it comes to being interrupted during a movie. so maybe this comment is just for me to remember :)

i hope you enjoy it as much as we did. here's the link www.starcinemagrill.net

house rules... 17 or under must be accompanied by an adult or guardian. no kids under 5 yrs old.

by the way, the restrooms are pretty clean. it wasn't remodeled like the rest of the cinema, but it is clean.

boldlygo.com

here's a chance for anyone to enter a drawing to win a suborbital flight with virgin galactic.

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read the section of the rules about taxes... i'm not sure about signing up.

to blog or not to blog

that is my question.

baked ravioli and peach tea

[bit] more about dlp tv's. a dlp (digital light processing) projection screen uses technology developed by ti. the screen has a small semiconductor chip that acts as a switch for over a million micro-mirrors. these micro-mirrors swivel back-and-forth to direct sharp and extremely bright light onto the screen. dlp's are considered rear-projection (rp) tv's, similar to the lcd rp's previously mentioned.

pros:

• very good black-level performance (better than lcd's)
• no maintenance required to preserve sharpness
• thin and light compared to crt's
• every dlp tv contains a 1280x720-resolution chip that shows every pixel of 720p hdtv, which provides very sharp pictures with hdtv input

cons:

• some people see rainbow effects, like streaks of color when moving their eyes across the screen
• may suffer from more low-level video noise resulting in tiny dancing pixels in shadow areas
• periodic lamp replacement necessary
• expensive, but you get more for your money ~$2500 for 61in

when comparing rp-tv's, both lcd's and dlp's are very similar in picture quality and price. try to find a plasma that's 61in for $2500, no way!

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - dvd recorders

{other} last night, ginger and i were thinking about meeting rich, roger, mark and the schottel's at bw3's but my older brother called and wanted to have dinner since he was in town for some work training. so we went to the olive garden instead and it was really good. i usually don't like going to the olive garden by the mall because it smells in certain rooms, probably because it's old and the carpet needs updating, but the food is still really good. they have this new appetizer, baked ravioli with meat instead of cheese and served with marinara sauce.... yummm! oh the peach tea is awesome too! i think it's the real sugar they use in the tea. so i had the never ending salad and shared the baked ravioli with ginger... plus the garlic bread. i think i'm hungry again. afterwards, we went to fry's electronics in webster. my brother is a tech geek too. he's actually alot smarter in this area than me. it was fun for us, but ginger was kinda bored. she found a massage chair and sat in front of the refrigerator watching tv... it was ~$3k for the tv-fridge. anyway, it was good to see my brother.

as i'm writing this, i can hear my coworkers laughing about something... probably the division chief's retirement "spoof" video. now i have to think of what i want for lunch.

disappointed yet relieved

[bit] more about lcd tv's. here's a description that i wrote in a previous entry about lcd (liquid crystal display) - a lcd screen is made up of liquid crystals, actually a mid-state between liquid and solid. the crystals bend when stimulated by electrical current, thus providing bright and vibrant pictures. there are 2 types of lcd tv's on the market: flat panel and flat screen rear-projection (rp). what's the difference? well, price and size. picture quality is still comparable to each other.

pros:

• picture quality is excellent when provided with a higher resolution input feed
• as the screen gets larger, the thickness doesn't (flat panel); the thickness is ~12in for rp's, which is not as thin as the flat panel technology
• weight is much lighter than traditional crt's (flat panel); rp's are heavier but still lighter than crt's
• very bright pictures, brighter than plasma tv's
• no burn-in issues like plasma tv's
• longer life-span, about 50,000 hours (5.7 years if used 24/7)
• no need for a tv stand or entertainment center for the flat panel lcd
• coolness factor
• prices are dropping because of the computer lcd industry

cons:

• can't reproduce true blacks as well as plasma tv's (flat panel); better for rp's
• lower response times meaning you may notice smearing or lag in fast-motion areas (flat panel)
• periodic lamp replacement necessary for rp's
• flat panel's are expensive still, sometimes more than plasma tv's; not so for rp's
• rp's require a tv stand or entertainment center, can't hang on a wall

the more i learn about lcd rear-projection tv's, the more i lean towards purchasing this type of technology. i've spent some time staring at flat-panel lcd's versus rp lcd's versus plasma's and dlp's, and i'm very impressed with the rp lcd's. the prices are between $2000 - $2500 for a 42in rp lcd tv. a little more affordable compared to its flat-panel lcd/plasma brothers. one thing to warn you about when at bestbuy or circuitcity or any retail store, all input feeds they show are in hdtv or dvd, very high quality pictures. ever wonder what it looks like when you input coax cable or vcr recordings? i do, but i don't know the answer. they don't show you that part in the store. most likely they won't if you ask. do your homework and see what you like the best. remember, the settings at the store on each tv is preset by the manufacturer to present the highest quality pictures. that means the settings may be max'd out at the store just to give you the quality it adverstises. most of the time, you shouldn't use such high settings because it may degrade the tv's life-span.

God Bless and hope this helps.

coming up next - dlp tv's

{other} somehow my coworkers let me slip by yesterday afternoon without a fight. i was quite disappointed in their fight. what am i talking about? the recordings of a fun work video to document the "young one's" misbehaving after our division chief retired to show at his retirement party. the recording was supposed to start at 4pm and i was almost willing to participate. 4pm rolled around and everyone was standing around talking, playing darts, and no discussion of any video recordings. i sat quietly and waited for 4:30pm so i could leave and get an oil change to get ready for my trip to ft worth today. well, 4:30pm came around, i shut-off my computer, turned off my desk light and preceeded to leave. gavin, rich and jo saw me leaving and no action. only a little question from gavin, "you're not recording today?". "not today", i answered. i continued to walk out of my office and managed to slip by becca, which saw me leaving. the person i'm most disappointed in is matt. the one that kept harrassing me about participating in the "coffee spiking" scene. as i walked out, i was sure matt was going to be waiting for me around the corner. nope, nothing. i was a free man... thankfully :)