Archive for the ‘Started in San Diego’ Category

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San Diego a Hotspot for Reality TV Contestants

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

Do you have what it takes to be a star on Reality TV? Do you ever wish some talent scout or casting director would pluck you off the street for their next show?

It turns out San Diego is the place to be for a chance to be on Reality TV. The Union Tribune recently published “Reality TV Likes What It Sees in San Diego’s Talent Pool“.

A casting director quoted in the article kindly spoke of San Diego’s outgoing lifestyle: “I think of San Diego as an independent and life-loving city. People in San Diego are going out and doing things they enjoy, as opposed to being couch potatoes.”  That spirit and our proximity to Hollywood makes San Diego a prime spot for plucking soon-to-be reality stars out of obscurity.

Three of the latest stars plucked from San Diego made their debuts in the past week.

Sydney Wheeler, a model and part-time interior designer in San Diego, made her debut on the newest season of Survivor. (CBS Thursdays at 8PM.) She was picked while hanging out at Bar West in Pacific Beach.

Kris Klicka and Amanda Blackledge made their debut on the Amazing Race. (CBS Sundays at 8PM.) Kris was spotted by a CBS casting agent at the Ivy in the Gaslamp Quarter. They follow on the heals of San Diego contestant Mark Yturralde, who competed in the last edition of the Amazing Race. (By the way, you can follow Yturralde on Twitter.)

Last summer, I wrote about the TLC reality TV show “Must Love Kids“, which was made up entirely of San Diego contestants and filmed throughout the county.

The UT article notes several more San Diego residents who have become reality TV stars, including contestants on Project Runway, Top Chef, American Idol, and The Bachelor. For those who have the time and knowledge, it might be interesting to post a list of all the San Diego based contestants below to see how many San Diegans got their 15 minutes of fame on Reality TV.

Will you be the next Reality TV contestant to get plucked out of San Diego?

Posted in San Diego Ranking, Started in San Diego | No Comments »

College Filmmakers From San Diego Produce Documentary Seen Around the World

Monday, February 16th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

A camera purchased on eBay + three college students with an interest to visit war torn Sudan and Uganda = 5 million viewers, the launch of a World Tour, and the establishment of a major non-profit to change the plight of children in northern Uganda and other war-torn areas of the world.

Three friends, Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole, and Jason Russell set out to find a story to tell the rest of us about atrocities in Sudan. What they came back with is the attached video called “Invisible Children”. It’s an hour long but I implore you to make the time to watch it with family, friends, and coworkers.

The children you will meet in the movie ask the filmmakers not to forget them. They hold hope that the ‘tape’ being made of them can be used to tell their story to the world.  That story is the brutal torture and kidnapping of children ages 5 – 12 for service in the Lord’s Resistance Army. You will see and hear the stories of children who gather together at night to sleep in the middle of town with the hope they do not become the next victim. You will also meet those who have escaped their captors but must exorcise the demons now stuck in their heads.

I was impressed with the maturity and communication skills of the elementary school age children interviewed for the film. This is one heck of a documentary created by college aged kids in 2003.

Starting with one showing at a San Diego community center, the work of these filmmakers, which includes some follow-up documentaries, is finally starting to receive some mainstream attention. Up until now, their films have been shown in schools and churches around the country.

As ‘Invisible Children’ gained momentum, donations from viewers wanting to help the children started pouring in. ‘Invisible Children’ is now a San Diego based non-profit that provides help to the Sudanese refugee camps in Uganada, provides educational materials, instructors, and scholarships for the children of northern Uganda and sells products made by former child captives. Their amazing grass roots story is told in the February issue of Success Magazine.

This week, ‘Invisible Children’ began their international tour to promote their cause to an even wider audience. I hope you will take the time to learn more about Invisible Children and consider following their blog.

Posted in Brains / Talent, Military Presence, Started in San Diego, Volunteers | No Comments »

Another Old Globe Production Garners National Attention

Friday, January 23rd, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

Some of the most successful Broadway Shows get their start in San Diego. The Old Globe in Balboa Park is one of the San Diego venues that has sent multiple shows to Broadway. Notable original productions include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty, Damn Yankees, and A Catered Affair.

The  Theatre Review in Today’s Wall Street Journal praises the Old Globe’s most recent production, Six Degrees of Separation.  The famous American playwright John Guare first made this production a crowd favorite on Broadway nearly 20 years ago.

The Old Globe is now bringing the play back to life. It is drawing visitors from around the country. The Journal’s drama critic states, “Broadway is due for a revival of ‘Six Degrees of Separation.’ When it comes, I hope it’s this good.”

Kudos go out to The Old Globe for another wonderful production. Few people outside of New York get to experience Broadway-quality productions on such a consistent basis.

San Diegans, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of what is in our own backyard. Head over to the Tony Award Winning Theatre to see “Six Degrees of Separation”. For more information on The Old Globe, the nationally recognized La Jolla Playhouse and other peforming arts venues in San Diego, visit the San Diego Performing Arts page on my web site of San Diego attractions.

Posted in Brains / Talent, Started in San Diego, Things To Do | No Comments »

Explore San Diego Attractions You Never Knew Existed

Friday, January 16th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

I promise you will find a tourist attraction you never knew existed in San Diego.  Ninety-nine percent of you will find dozens of San Diego attractions you never heard about before. How? By introducing you to the launch of The Best Places In San Diego, the best Theme-Based Travel™ Web Site and Tour Company in San Diego. (Note that the tourist web site is separate from this blog about unique aspects on living in San Diego.)

Downtown San Diego's Marina District

Downtown San Diego's Marina District

Organized by Theme and Location, The Best Places In San Diego travel guide includes hundreds of attractions throughout San Diego County from the Pacific Ocean to our Peninsular Mountains and Sonoran Desert.  If you think ‘hundreds of San Diego attractions’ must be either a) an exaggeration or b) include more than just legitimate tourist attractions, I don’t blame you. I’ll explain more in a moment.

I started this project several months ago when I got tired of visiting multiple travel web sites to find all of the attractions I wanted to visit when planning a vacation. It seemed as though I was spending more time planning a vacation than I actually spent enjoying it.  (I’m not one to just set up an umbrella and sit on the beach.)

I kept encountering two basic problems:

  1. No one travel web site ever comes close to listing all of the tourist attractions. Yet, each one  lists a different set of attractions. (To use San Diego as an example, some travel sites only mention the  top attractions, others mention attractions within a particular area such as within the City of San Diego, North County San Diego, East County San Diego, the mountains, or the desert and most travel guides leave out special niche attractions such as those related to active adventures or kid-friendly attractions.) I don’t know about you, but if I’m only going to take one or two vacations a year, I want to make sure I make the most of it. I don’t want to find out after-the-fact that I missed more than half of the attractions that could have made my experience all the more enjoyable.
  2. Most travel guides either give too little information (a one sentence description and contact information),  too much information (hundreds of user reviews, many of which say basically the same thing), or outdated information (the 2009 issue of a brand name travel book still describes the former Wgasa Bush Line Railway tour at the Wild Animal Park).

So, I set out to create a travel web site for San Diego from a tourist’s perspective.  As a tourist, I want to quickly know:

  • All of the attractions (Are there lesser known attractions that are related to my hobbies or special interests?)
  • The relative location of the attraction (Is the attraction I’m interested in visiting in a place called Carlsbad 5 minutes away or 45 minutes away from the hotel I’m staying at in downtown San Diego?)
  • Transit information (Do I have to rent a car?)
  • Traffic information (Can I avoid spending my vacation stuck in traffic?)
  • Cool things I should know about an attraction (Are there behind-the-scenes tours? Is there something I can brag about to my friends when I return home?)
Learn More about Quail Botanical Gardens

Learn More about Quail Botanical Gardens

To accomplish this, I created a travel web site where all of the attractions are listed in Theme Based categories.  To use an example, if you like ‘Trains’ or ‘Wildlife’, pick those respective themes in the right sidebar at The Best Places In San Diego and you will find a list of San Diego attractions related to those themes.

If you are going to be visiting a particular area of San Diego County, which is nearly as big as the state of Connecticut, select that location in the right sidebar and find a list of nearby attractions.

Whenever you pull up a list of attractions for a particular theme or location, you will find a summary for each related attraction.  This summary allows you to quickly find attractions that may be of interest to you. (The one thing I’ve always liked about travel books is you can always find things quickly using the index. Travel web sites don’t generally provide you any type of ‘index’, until now.) Just click on the attraction’s title or ‘read insider details’ for a full write-up on each attraction that answers all of the things a tourist would want to know.

At the bottom of each attraction’s write-up, you’ll find links to related themes and the location so you can find additional tourist attractions you may be interested in visiting. You will also be able to post recommendations on each attraction for other visitors. If I’ve missed some perspective on what makes the attraction a cool place to visit or if you find some detail about the attraction has changed and needs to be updated, you can submit it for me and possibly others to see.

Learn more about East County San Diego Attractions

Learn more about East County San Diego Attractions

I am happy to provide all of this information to you for free because I love San Diego and I want you to make the most of your experience with this wonderful area. I don’t charge any of the attractions to be included on The Best Places In San Diego like some other web sites do. (This is another reason why some travel web sites only list a small number of ‘paying’ attractions and leave the other ones out.) There’s no need to buy a San Diego travel book. Just print out the pages of the attractions you want to visit or access the content from your cell phone. (I’m still working to improve the cell phone view so you don’t have to scroll back and forth.)

All I ask of you is to spread the word about this web site and to let me know of out-of-town friends or groups who would like an escorted tour of San Diego. Compared to other major tourist cities, tour buses are relatively non-existent in San Diego. I’d like to change that. If you have ideas on how to reach out to those who want someone else to take care of their local travel arrangements, guide them around this huge area filled with attractions, and get them behind-the-scenes tours, let me know.

Learn more about the Chula Vista Nature Center

Learn more about the Chula Vista Nature Center

So, back to that original claim about ‘hundreds of attractions’.  I did accumulate a few hundred San Diego attractions after browsing through hundreds of travel web sites, travel books, and brochures at tourist hotels, and by talking to fellow San Diegans.  This project took several months longer than I planned because there are so many attractions. Even though The Best Places In San Diego includes far more tourist relevant details on more attractions than any other San Diego travel guide I have been able to find, there is still much more to add. Let me know if an attraction you like is not yet listed and then keep an eye out for the latest attractions added to The Best Places In San Diego.

I encourage you to find a new attraction and explore everything San Diego has to offer. It is a great place to live so make the most of it!

Posted in Enjoy the Outdoors, Health / Fitness / Nutrition, Military Presence, Places to Eat, Started in San Diego, Things To Do, Unique Gems, Volunteers | No Comments »

San Diego Company Expands to 6,000 Worldwide Locations

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

Have you seen The UPS Store shipping outlets popping up in shopping centers just about everywhere these days? Chances are you have visited them or their other brand name outlet, Mail Boxes, Etc. to send holiday packages or ship items you’ve sold on EBay.  This convenient shipper of packages is one of just a few retail companies headquartered right here in San Diego.

The UPS Store started off as Mail Boxes, Etc,  which was created in 1980 as an alternative to the Post Office.  Mail Boxes, Etc. expanded over the years through a franchise network, now rated as the 8th best franchise opportunity in America by Entrepreneur Magazine.

UPS, the venerable shipping company, purchased Mail Boxes, Etc. in 2003 and created The UPS Store brand of shipping outlets.  Unlike many other San Diego business acquisitions where headquarters operations get moved to the acquiring company’s location, The UPS Store headquarters continues to be operated out of Sorrento Mesa. With UPS’s backing, the company just announced they have reached 6,000 worldwide locations, a 25% growth since the acquisition.

UPS does not break out The UPS Store information in their financial statements but according to Hoovers, the San Diego company generated $137 million in 2007 revenues with 321 corporate employees. If you would like the opportunity to work for a large consumer company based in San Diego, visit the Mail Boxes, Etc. Career Page.

To read about other interesting companies established in San Diego, check out the Started in San Diego category of posts on this blog.

Posted in Started in San Diego | No Comments »

Baby Panda Bear Goes Nationwide on PBS

Sunday, December 7th, 2008 by The Best Places in San Diego

Zhen Zhen, the adorable little panda bear born just over a year ago at the San Diego Zoo is being featured nationwide this week on local PBS stations. The San Diego broadcast is tonight at 8PM.

Panda Tales – A Year in the Life of a Baby Giant Panda is an hour-long documentary about Zhen Zhen and the amazing video of her first year of life as she stumbles to find her footing with the other Giant Pandas at the San Diego Zoo. You will also learn about the plight of Pandas, whose native home in China was significantly shaken up during a major earthquake earlier this year.

The documentary was filmed by our local KPBS station and is in the process of being shown throughout the country. Those outside of San Diego can check your local PBS TV Schedule online and type “Panda Tales” in the searchbox for dates and times.

If you missed ‘Panda Tales’, watch a short video and look at pictures of the baby Panda on the KPBS web site. Even better, you can see all four Giant Pandas live at the San Diego Zoo on the Giant Panda Cam. If it happens to be nighttime in San Diego, don’t worry. You will find a link to time-lapse video at the bottom of the page. There is also a Giant Panda Blog for those that want to follow the life of the Pandas at the San Diego Zoo.

Zoo members can read more about the documentary in this month’s ZOONOOZ magazine.

Once again, those of us lucky enough to live in San Diego can see the beautiful Pandas in person. If you have not visited the Zoo lately, don’t let haste make waste. Go see the Pandas today!

Posted in Enjoy the Outdoors, Started in San Diego | 2 Comments »

Elusive San Diego Billionaire Featured in ‘The Predator’

Saturday, November 29th, 2008 by The Best Places in San Diego

Some billionaires seek the limelight to showcase their extreme success as entrepreneurial titans.  For example, think Donald Trump.  You will often see these billionaires in the media meccas of New York or Los Angeles.

However, did you know there are a number of billionaires who fly under the radar?  You won’t see them starring their own reality TV shows.  You won’t see them giving interviews on TV.  You won’t even seem them with a listing on Wikipedia. (Just about everybody who has had 30 seconds of fame is profiled on Wikipedia … even Joe the Plumber.)

San Diego is home to some of the unknown entrepreneurial titans who fly under the radar.  It’s hard to find information about them.  However, when it does become available, I’ll be sure to share them with you.

First up is Neal Blue, CEO of defense contractor General Atomics. A rare profile of Neal Blue can be found in the November 10th issue of Fortune Magazine.

Blue’s current company, General Atomics, has become popular of late for developing the Predator drone, which I have written about in previous posts. It has received praise for helping to win the war in Iraq to helping fight wildfires in California. The success of the Predator has brought attention to this large, but little known, employer in San Diego and its owner.

Neal Blue did not always fly under the radar. As you will read in the Fortune Magazine article, Blue and his brother Linden were featured on the front page of LIFE Magazine back in 1957 as the nation followed their successful attempt to fly over the Andes Mountains. That was only a year after Blue financed a college road trip from France to India “by selling articles to the New York Times and persuading Chrysler to donate a Dodge station wagon”.

Neal Blue showed an uncanny ability to carry through with adventures that only the most imaginative people ever dream about. This has led him to own signficant business and real estate assets around the world including uranium mines in Australia to oil deposits in Canada.

Read more about Blue’s story in an extensive interview he allowed for Fortune Magazine. You will learn how he took a desire for unmanned planes in the 1980s to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua (where he owned a banana plantation) to creating the Predator drone now used to fight the war in Iraq. I’ll entice you with one more quote from the article. “Over the course of his five-decade career he’s built a sprawling global business that spans four continents and enriched his family. But he has also made enemies and infuriated customers.”

If you are interested in learning more, you can see the Blue brothers in person when they are inducted into San Diego’s CONNECT Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in January.

Posted in Brains / Talent, Military Presence, Started in San Diego | 3 Comments »

Rancho Bernardo’s Cole Hamels Set to Win World Series

Monday, October 27th, 2008 by The Best Places in San Diego

Rancho Bernardo High School’s Cole Hamels, a 2002 graduate, will be the starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies’ in Monday night’s Game 5 of the World Series. Should the Phillies win the game, they will be the winner of the World Series. (I’ll be cheering for them since they’re my old hometown team!)

Cole Hamels is a 24 year-old left hander who won the MVP of the National League Championship when the Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to reach the World Series. Cheer him on tonight as he seeks to win his fifth game in this post season. The Phillies are odds-on favorites to win due to the strength of their #1 pitcher, who won Game 1 of the World Series.

Hamels is not the only major leaguer from Rancho Bernardo High School. All-Star Hank Blalock of the Texas Rangers is a 1999 graduate. They are just two of the 33 major league baseball players from San Diego who played in 2008.

Let’s cheer on San Diego’s own Cole Hamels as he seeks to secure the Phillies’ first World Series since 1980. Who knows, he may just secure the MVP of the World Series as well. The game will be at 5PM on FOX5.

Read more about Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies web site.

Posted in Brains / Talent, Started in San Diego | 1 Comment »

Stress Relief in San Diego Makes CBS Evening News

Sunday, October 26th, 2008 by The Best Places in San Diego

If you think it was life on our beaches or camping in our mountains that got featured as good stress reliever on the CBS Evening News a few days ago, you are not even close.

Think of something more drastic.  Something more smashing.  The newest business venture to help people relieve stress comes from the Smash Shack in downtown San Diego.

If you ever wadded up a piece of paper and threw it against a wall to vent your frustration and then started to pick up something heavier like a plate or drinking glass and felt like doing the same, the Smash Shack is just the place for you.

Have at it!  Bust those plates! Shatter those glasses! You can even obliterate your old cell phone. Day or night, the Smash Shack will get you properly geared up and provide you with the amo and the wall to let it all out.  For some ideas, here is the Smash Shack Menu of items.

So, if something ticks you off at work or if you need to get over your date from hell, just head over to the Smash Shack near the Gaslamp and have a smashing good time.

If it is still hard to fathom that someone made this simple concept into a great business, just watch this video from CBS Evening News.

Posted in Started in San Diego, Things To Do | 1 Comment »

Roger Hedgecock to go Nationwide

Monday, October 20th, 2008 by The Best Places in San Diego

Whether or not you like his point of view, former San Diego Mayor and current Radio Talk Show Host, Roger Hedgecock, will be heard nationwide every weekday night from 6PM – 9PM Eastern Time starting January 5th.

In recent years, Roger Hedgecock became a more popular figure nationally as a guest on nationally syndicated conservative talk shows and as a fill-in for Rush Limbaugh.  Hedgecock will now have his own show broadcast nationwide from San Diego.  He will be replacing the time slot currently held by Michael Reagan, the adopted son of former President Ronald Reagan.

To learn more, read the Radio America press release and visit Roger Hedgecock’s web site.

Posted in Started in San Diego | No Comments »

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