February 2008
You are currently browsing the articles from Review and Things written in the month of February 2008.
The chief spokesperson and lobbyist Nick Taylor is the Vice-President of the Academy of Tobacco Studies. He is atalented speaker and almost always wins an argument of why cigerettes are not as bad as they have been ill-reputed. He goes head to head with the senator of Vermont who wants to put a skull and bones logo on cigerette packages. Nick of course wins the argument. However, when he unknowingly gets involved with a TV reporter who exposes him, his life is turned upside down. Now Nick has to think about the impact his attitude is having on this 12 year old impressionable son.
This is an interesting movie which portrays both sides of the double edged sword, the quick talking representative for the Tobacco industry and the selfish, self-serving politician who head butts with him. Both only caring for their own personal agenda, in the meantime, the welfare of the general public is totally ignored. This movie is a good rental if you are looking for an entertaining and stimulating evening.
Written by Smriti on February 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Movies and Reviews.
I like Fish sandwiches and after seeing the commercial on TV for Wendy’s new Premium Fish Fillet Sandwich i decided to go give it a try.
And to get this all new sandwich we went to the Wendy’s on the Brendwood Road NW in Calgary. When we enter the Wendy’s just before 8 there is not much going on. There is one customer eating and one customer in front of us at the line. There is however a lot of staff on hand.
Our server is new and her English is not the best either but still we get our order in although it was hard to find anything about the new fish sandwich.
The ambiance at this Wendy’s is a bit old the and it really looks like a fast food place. At most McDonalds restaurants they at least try to make it a bit more like a restaurant.
The food. Let me tell you this if you check the picture on the Wendy’s website then you know how this Fish Fillet Sandwich will NOT look like. The fish looks like a over cook brown patty.
The Wendy’s website states that it served on a warm bun and ours was not. The taste was OK although the tarter sauce was not what i expect from tater sauce and i still don’t really know if it tasted like fish.
The whole eating it experience was not very nice.
The fries that i choice with my meal where not crisp and my friends salad didn’t win the price of most fresh product either.
Conclusion:
Although i never had a great experience at any Wendy’s i still went and tried it. But after this i know next time when i want a Fish Sandwich you can find me at McDonalds.
Written by George on February 26th, 2008 with 3 comments.
Read more articles on Restaurants and Reviews.
I visit Calgary International Airport on a regular basis most times to drop people of and some times we end up eating something at one of the restaurants.
This time we didn’t feel like going to normal restaurants in the shopping / rest area before security. We taught lets check out the food court upstairs. OK there are a lot of choices there but nothing makes us feel like YES. But then we noticed Cheers on the side of the food court with a view outside. There was only one customer at this time but still it looked better then the food court so we asked if they had food and they do.
The ambiance at cheers is nice and probably the one with the best view at Calgary Airport. The service was good the waitress was nice and of course because it was not busy our order came quickly.
The food looked and tasted very good and gave us the filling we needed to end the day.
My conclusion is that if you are looking for a nice place to sit and eat something at the Calgary International Airport then check out Cheers. Don’t expect Sam Malone there but still the staff is nice.
Written by George on February 25th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Restaurants and Reviews.
We got a Dell Laptop and we even bought extended next business day service on it so that when things go wrong we can quickly get it fixed.
So now there was a problem with our DVD burner it would burn fine but our Dell would not be able to open any of the files that it burned while other DVDs would be read without problems.
We guessed a call to Dell would be a good start to get our burner fixed.
Calling to the Customer Service ends up to be one of those calls that travel the world all the way to India. And although i don’t have anything against Indians (my wife is Indian) i am not very fond of the call centres they dumped there.
This time again not to good of an experience. The lady on the phone was friendly and started by making us install software on our laptop so that she could get access to our system. There is nothing wrong with that but what is wrong is that they think they know what they are doing but they don’t.
The first 30 minutes she was trying to get codex installed because she said that we didn’t have the right software to open the files. Yep the files open without problems before I burn them to a DVD so why would i need this codex?
After that she starts going though the system trying to make all kind of changes that I am not happy about and that makes her even more agitated then me.
So then I ask here why are you doing this all for a hardware failure? and she answers Yes it is a hardware problem but still we need to try this.
And then we are already almost 1 hour on the phone, i get a bit mad and tell her that she doesn’t seem to know what she is doing. Then she puts me on hold(again). When she comes back she says it is a software problem and you just need to install the software you Dell came with. OK this Dell got Vista deleted the day we got it but still all the XP drivers come from Dell and the system worked OK for 6 months. So i tell her again that i think it is hardware and then she gets defencive and says No it’s not but if you don’t agree you can talk to my Manager and of course that was the cue i was waiting for 
After being on hold for 10 minutes I get her Manager, a nice guy that of course keeps on the sites of his colleague but after a bit of talking we come to the conclusion that it only can be hardware.
So now a new drive is on the way to our home.
I don’t mind call centres in India but please train the people that man the phones! Most of them don’t really have a clue what they are talking about and maybe don’t even know what my laptop looks like.
This call cost me 1.5 hour and OK maybe the people in India are cheaper then here but I am not and does that make me rethink my purchase the next time i need a laptop? I know for sure it will.
Written by George on February 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Reviews and Service.
I needed some storage and was looking for a nice solution for a price that was ok to.
At Ikea we found this storage cabinet called Helmer, it cost 49 dollars here in Canada and for what it offers an good price.
Like most products at Ikea also this one needs to be put together by the buyer. Everything is packed in a nice and small box and of course this is much better for the environment then shipping it as a complete piece of furniture.
Let me tell you a bit about what I thought about building Helmer. I can say that I have a fair bit of experience building Ikea furniture so I though that it should be easy. The instructions say that i just need a screw driver but that was not enough.
Most of the main structure is easy to click together but then there are the bottom part where you can assemble the wheels on. The instructions stated that you should press it in till it clicks but that didn’t happen. Maybe I am to light but i don’t think a couple of extra meals would have helped. I ended up getting a piece of wood (to prevent me from damaging the metal) and a hammer and that made it easy.
Putting together the drawers looks a bit scary because you need to bend the metal yourself and here you need to pay attention because there is only one right way of doing it. after the bending it is easy.
I am using my Helmer now for a couple of weeks and it perfectly fits my needs. It is strong and sturdy and a perfect addition to our home.
Written by George on February 21st, 2008 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Products and Reviews.
This is a really cool movie, a bit slow sometimes but all in all a very good story with a strong moral thread.
It starts with the the life of a man named Harry Krick (Will Farrel), who works for the IRS, is a slave to monotony in his life and one who lives in solitude. His life turns upside down when he starts to hear a woman’s voice in his head, a woman who is narrating his life just as it has come to pass. This greatly distrubs Harry, however most on the day when he hear “little does he know, but Harry’s life will end imminently”. Harry seeks counsel from a univeristy lecturer (Dustin Hoffman), who helps him understand this voice and teaches him to let go of his routine and really live life. Harry meets Anna (Maggie Gyllenhal) whom he falls in love with, and starts to really live. I wont spoil the end for those who havent seen this movie. All I can say, in a subtle way, this movie gently nudges us to examine our lives and encourages us to live as if we knew out death was imminent. A good rental for a quiet, contemplative evening.
Written by Smriti on February 10th, 2008 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Movies and Reviews.
Nintendo is still concerned about the safety of our Wii players and their TV’s so after offering the strap replacement for the Wii Motes now they have a Jacket to cover your remote and that way making it more difficult to kill your TV.
The Wii Remote Jackets are offered for free by Nintendo. Just go the Nintendo.com and order them. I noticed that they don’t show up on the Canadian site any more but for us Canadians just go to the American page and get them there.
The Jacket is made of a soft kinda plastic and is easy to put on to you Wii Remote and if you wish also easy to remove. But after i said that i have to say that it is tight enough to that it will not fall of when you are playing a game of Wii Tennis
The head of the Wii Remote will be looking a big bigger because of more plastic padding on the top. They made the top part a bit softer so that if you hit your fellow tennis player it will not hurt as much as hitting them with the normal Remote.
I personally think that i don’t really need a cover like this but i have friends for whom it is very useful to have.
And have said all what i said till now i have to add that the Wii Remote doesn’t look half as bad as i thought in it’s new jacket.
Written by George on February 8th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Reviews and Video Games.
Jpod is the second book I tried to read that is written by Douglas Coupland the first one i tried was “The Gum Thief” and I had to give up on that one it was do difficult for me to follow. With Jpod I did better and i even finished it
The story of Jpod is about a guy Ethan who works at Jpod a where they develop computer games. From there the book go’s all over the place from drugs money to trips to China and from Ballroom Dancing to acting. Jpod is a strange book to read specially because the book also has a lot of pages that don’t really ad to the story. Like pages of pi and lots of letters to Ronald McDonald and of course they add something to the story but the story is the same if you skip them.
At this point in time i have to say that reading Jpod was fun but in a strange way. And after reading Jpod i don’t think that another Douglas Coupland book will be at my to read list for a while.
If you like strange stories and a bit of tech then maybe have a look at Jpod it will definitely keep you busy for a while 
check out a great deal on JPod at Amazon.
Written by George on February 7th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Books and Reviews.
After our review of the Koss kSiP2806-1 I found a great deal on this Koss KSiP1081CD-1 so I decided to return the other one and get this one.
The nice thing about the KSiP1081CD-1 is that it comes with a build in CD player so now I removed the old fashion CD player from my entertainment centre and moved the Koss in the place of that.
This Music centre from Koss is portable and even comes with a carrying strap and can run on Batteries or through a normal ac cord. And that makes it possible to take your music with you on a trip.
The Koss KSiP1081CD-1 has an Aux in and comes with a small wire so that you can connect any kind of mp3 player or other music source. Of course it also has a dock for you iPod and even offers an USB in for a iPod Shuffle. I have a 3g Nano and they Koss doesn’t have an special bracket for that one but it just fits and works great.
TV out is also build in but I didn’t get that working so i guess that i need to put some more time in that one to see if i can watch my iPod movies on the TV.
The sounds quality is pretty good and definitely better then the KSiP2806-1 and the remote is an handy tool to play with the volume. The CD player is placed in the top but this means that you CD slides in from the top and slides to the bottom and this means that if you put it in to a piece of furniture that you need enough space on the top so that you can slide de cd in.
The Koss KSiP1081CD-1 - iSeries Digital Music Portable Audio System is easy to use and you really don’t need to manual then just the first time you use it. Sound quality is good but not supper.
For me the Koss KSiP1081CD-1 is the perfect solution. I can use my iPod and my Wife can use her Sandisk player and we are both able to play some of our old CD collection. The only downside that I found with this unit till now is that the power button works a bit slow and that means that you think you didn’t turn it off and then you press again and that makes it first turn off and then go on again. But besides that a perfect music player for a great price. I got mine for 49 dollars and that to me is a great deal.
Written by George on February 6th, 2008 with 3 comments.
Read more articles on Products and Reviews.
I just saw the movie Juno by Jason Reitman. Canadian born actress Ellen Page plays the part of “Juno”, a 16 year old who finds out in the opening scene of the movie that she is pregnant. She decides to go get an abortion, but is scared away by the clinic. In the end Juno decides, with support from her parents and best friend that she will have the baby, however look for a suitable family to give it away for adoption. We follow Juno through her pregnancy and are tickled and drawn to tears by the situations and drama she faces. All in all a cute and funny movie. Good to rent on a friday night. Fellows, chances are, this might be a bit of a chick flick, so if you are not into that… you may wanna pass.
Written by Smriti on February 4th, 2008 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Movies and Reviews.