I’m just not sure about Arctic Air on CBC yet! I really think my uncertainty comes from the fact I want the show to show the real Yellowknife, the real north. They wont do that though, that just wouldn’t make for good TV.

My video is rather harsh in the sense I pick apart most of this episode, but there is one part I was really not sure about. You will be able to guess when you watch it.

I did get a reality check after making this video when a friend pointed out the CBC show Republic of Doyle. I have never seen a full episode of that show, but it is based in St. John’s over on the east coast and apparently is also unrealistic. Which makes sense, this is TV after all.

I do hope next weeks episode is better and I have a better approach to watching it. What are you thoughts on the second episode?

Last year I made recap videos for the CBC reality show Village on a Diet, so this year I thought I’d try my hand at Arctic Air. Just short 5 minute video of me sharing my thoughts on the past episode.

I don’t have cable tv at the moment, so I am unable to watch the show when it airs. I was able to watch it the morning after though through CBC’s website. 

In the video I discuss my full thoughts on the show. Although re-watching it I feel I was a little harsh. I did like the episode a lot and felt it portrayed Yellowknife correctly, the little it showed. I think the show will be great for “northern promotion” although I think Ice Pilots does something similar already.

NWT Tourism is also hoping it strikes the right cords with viewers and prompts them to considering visiting the NWT. So much so that they partnered up with the show, and aired its new commercial during the premier. They have also launched a Facebook Page to feature us northerners, so no matter where I am or what I am doing, I think you should check it out so see what the NWT has going on.

Also like I mention in the video head over to Sophisticated Pulp and read the great write-up on the show there, from another northern perspective.

I’ll be back next week, but tell me what you though of Episode 1!

I bought my Jeep from Derrick Dodge after scouring different vehicles and dealerships all across Edmonton. I commend my Sales Rep, Trevor, because I know I’m a difficult customer when trying to get the initial sale. I’ll be honest and say I don’t trust sales people. Most of the time I know the exact product I want, I don’t need to be sold on things, but I’m also really cheap. Part of me feels as though I probably went to far with asking for a better deal, but the other part of me knows that they wouldn’t sell it to me if they weren’t getting something from it.

The Jeep is a stick shift and I feel like I’m 16yrs old again. It being standard did probably help the price, which I’m glad. I did learn to drive on a Suzuki Samurai and my first truck was a stick shift 1993 Ford F150, but it has been awhile. I find the one thing I don’t think I learned completely was downshifting, I’m working hard to master that. I’m also a little rusty on the highway and hills. Part of this is most likely because I’m not as familiar with the Jeep yet, soon it should be fine.

The Jeep handles well in the winter conditions and I absolutely love the ground clearance. However I’m not a big fan of the traction-control; I learned to drive in icy conditions, I know how to correct the vehicle if the backend slides sideways. When that happens though, in the Jeep, and I go to correct it by steering the other way, suddenly the vehicle backs off the throttle and tries to correct it itself. Annoying.

I was also concerned that the Jeep might not stay heated very well, since the roof is removable fiberglass, but I was wrong. The Jeep takes 5 minutes to start blowing hot air and I generally have to turn it down. Although I’m not sure how well it heats up the rear of the Jeep, since there is no heat directed back there.

Overall I’m very happy with this Jeep and don’t think I could get anything similar for what I paid. I have yet to have any problems with it and hope I don’t in the foreseeable future.

I walked in not knowing what to expect. I slowly crept up to the counter scouring the giant menus that hung above. As I was looking for something I noticed one of the staff looking at me waiting for me to make my decision. She did not look inpatient, nor did I feel she was rushing me. Once I looked down at her, she asked if had any questions and what would I like. Then it was on.

As soon as I told her I would like the Hot Montreal Smoked Beef sandwich I saw just how fresh these sandwiches were. She asked what type of bread I would like. After replying she reached for a fresh loaf of sour dough. Then of course I made my selection of veggies and even better she asked whether I wanted Mustard or not, which is a no for me. To top it off I watched as she pulled out a slab of moist, steaming hot Montreal Smoked Beef and cut it into thick slices.

The two staff members I encountered while in the shop were both exceptionally friendly and helpful. They both had a conversation with me rather than just getting me what I wanted. They made sure that I was happy and would remember the place. Whether they indented to be this way or not, I appreciated it.

Now to the sandwich. It was SOOO good. Granted I haven’t had Montreal Smoked Beef in a long time. The sandwich was fresh like I mentioned, bread soft, veg nice and crunchy full of flavour and the beef or so good. Every bite was one I wanted to cherish, but I really do love food. My only concern with this sandwich was it started to fall apart. There seemed to be to much in between the bread and by the time I finish veg was lying in the container.

In all I enjoyed this fresh sandwich and would go back when I am in Victoria and need something quick and on the go.

Launch Pad

This is Apple’s way of making Mac OS X more iOSy, right? The idea is you press a button or the icon and a group of your apps shows up on-screen. This is not going to work for me. I don’t need it, next, boring, useless feature. I really don’t use that many apps when I’m on the computer. Maybe browser, mail, twitter client, marsedit, aperture, itunes, all which fit on my dock. To even go one step further, I have become accustom to using Spotlight to quick launch any app I need. Cmd + Spacebar, enter first 3 letter of app and hit enter (it learns what I want) to open. That process takes me less time than it would with opening Launchpad, finding app and clicking open.

Reverse Scrolling

This is the one feature I don’t really care about. I’m unsure why Apple is trying to reverse our habit of scrolling, maybe because they have some master plan or maybe because Steve Jobs just wanted to change the way we do things. Either way it is not a big burden on me, I simply just scroll up instead of down. I learn the new way, I move on.

Mission Control

Supposedly Mission Control is the combination of Expose, Spaces, All Window Display and a couple other older features together. First off, I have never really used Expose, mainly because I don’t really know what it does and secondly, I use to use Spaces, but found I hated it for some aspects, so I abandon it (I have two massive monitors at work, why do I need spaces). Really the only thing I seem myself using here is the ability to display all the open windows I have, but that is nothing new.

So those are the three features I briefly used in the 5 minutes I had to try out Lion. There are somethings I still need to check out and report on, like Mail and Full Screen Apps. I have a hunch those two might get used more than the others.

We will see. Have you played with Lion much, what are your thoughts?

It is just a good movie to let your mind run wild and enjoy the show. Watch the video, I get more into it.

The Idea

Our main character has a crappy life, that is until someone presents a shiny little pill that makes it all better. So our character takes pill, gets more and on goes life. Everything is looking up until someone tries chasing him and on goes the movie. I wont give away the end but I think you get it.

The Perspective

My problem with this movie is, it seems like someone had a really good idea for a movie and had most of it down on paper, but not all of it. So to fill those empty spaces they filled it with stupid dialog.

In the movie this character Bradley Cooper plays always talks about only using the “drug” until he can sustain himself, but of course that is exactly what he doesn’t do. This drives me nuts, I know it wouldn’t make a good movie if he did, but come on. You darn well know the “drug” wont last forever so how can you plan the rest of your life thinking it will.

The Conclusion

I like the idea of the movie, because I like to let me imagination go and pretend that things like this are possible. So I don’t take movies very seriously, but this movie feels like it is seriously missing something, especially at the end. I don’t think this is a movie to go see in the theatre, nor buy when it comes out. Maybe rent it. I feel like this movie is like that old Ben Affleck movie Paycheck.

If you do go and see it, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Lou Malnati’s is a famous Chicago Deep Dish Pizzeria. The pizza is like no other. A thick 2″ tall crust, cheese underneath pizza sauce and all the ingredients. It is almost impossible to eat by hand it is so hardy.

The atmosphere of the place is great, so was the service. You could see the history on the walls and in the staff.

What makes our story of Lou Malnati’s so special was the fact we ended up with a free meal, which we can thank Andrew for once again. While our waitress was serving us our drinks her tray lost balance and tipped towards a wall behind Andrew. So Andrew reacting to the falling glasses reached out to prevent them from falling further, unfortunately one of the glasses had broken before hand and sliced one of Andrews fingers. There was blood, but it didn’t seems all that bad. Martin and Andrew disappeared to bandage him up. You could instantly tell the restuarant was very sorry about it and did everything they could to accomidate us.

We ended up with a completely free meal with dessert. Thanks Andrew.

See all the photo from Lou Malnati’s on Flickr.

I’m actually not a big fan of Mexican food, but I managed to order something I could down. Although I’m not a find of the side of beans and paste with every dish. Lets back it up for a second though.

The restaurant was obviously older, which you could tell from the structure and inner decor. The place wasn’t crowed, but there wasn’t a lot of room either. Luckily we were able to get a comfortable table to seat the six of us.

The nacho chips with salsa and guacamole  on every table was a nice touch and served as a good appy. The menu wasn’t bad, what I found bad was not knowing what most of the items where. So naturally I saw the word steak and ordered it.

It was steak shavings with lettus, tomatoes, rice and bean paste on the site. It wasn’t bad. Deffinitely not a favourite and I don’t think I would return on my own free will.

That being said, some of the others I was with, did in fact enjoy there meal, so don’t write this place off entirely.

There seemed to be a large amount of wait staff running around serving people and taking orders. For the most part they were really good and continuously made sure we were happy.

We all of course had fun and had a great meal altogether for the first time in a while.

Any recommendations on where we should go tonight in Chicago?

Spoiler Alert: I give away the simple plot that makes this movie.

We meet John, John is different from another planet. He is running, running from big ugly alien linebackers. He is tired of running. John meets girl, then the cycle goes like: in love, not in love, in love, not in love, but finally they are in love, but he has to leave.

They fight big uglies and meeting Number Six, she’s hot and Aussie. Nerd kids gets involved, cause Dad was a UFO chaser and he is good at xBox.

The movie is a good little high-school action flick, unlike Twilight which is completely boring. I suppose one reason for not have a high impact storyline is this is a trilogy and they have to keep some stuff at bay for future movie, right? What action movie these days isn’t made for a sequel?

If you go, which if you just want a movie to go see to let your mind wonder I recommend it, let me know what you think below.