Just like it says in the name, Jake's is on 21st Street beside Elwood Flynn.
Environment
The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch throughout the week. It is always busy because of people on lunch breaks and the amount of reservations taken. The restaurant is quite small and crowded with tables.
The food was really good, I ordered the Rogstad with pita chips and dill dip. The Rogstad is a breaded chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese and ranch baked wrap. It looked small but it was delicious and surprisingly filling. The pita chips are your average baked pita chips but come with a delicious dill dipping sauce. I also got a good taste of the salad with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing and in conclusion it was the best raspberry dressing that I have ever had. It was sweet, refreshing and the seeds added a nice texture.
Conclusion
This place is really busy, and it is for a reason so I advise you to make a reservation. The service was good but the floor plan is quite crowded, but hey if it wasn't you would never be able to sit inside. You can take out and they have a catering menu as well. This was my first time but I would definitely like to go again. Next time I plan on trying a panini.
Bloody remakes galore in this latter part of the 21st Century. Dredd being one of them. Sorry Dredd 3D. Because it’s in 3D. They should’ve just emphasized the D’s in Dredd, to signify it was in 3D.
DreDD3D
Dredd 3D is a remake of the 1995 film Judge Dredd. But in a way, it’s not quite a remake. It’s more of a same-universe, same-name, no-story-relation kinda thing. You know how I am with explaining things. Very poor.
This movie stars Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, Olivia Thirlby as Judge Anderson and Cersei Lannister Lena Headey as Ma-Ma.
In the future, North America is a wasteland with new cities built on top of the old called Mega Cities. The only policing forces in these cities are Judges who act as the judge, jury and executioner.
Judge Dredd is tasked with evaluating a sub-par Judge in training, Judge Anderson whose doo-doo test scores were overlooked due to her keen psychic abilities. Bear with me here.
The two go on call to a slum mega structure apartment called "Peach Trees" which is ran by a gang overlord named "Ma-Ma". Upon hearing that Judges are in the premise, Ma-Ma locks down the apartment complex and orders the execution of these two judges.
Dredd 3D was as action/popcorn movie as a movie can get, which is a dang wonderful thing. I love these kinds of movies; it was just like The Raid: Redemption, just turn off your head and watch the movie.
There wasn't any forced romance in the script or any wannabe mind melting plot twists in the movie, it was a straight forward plot. Go in, do your job, get out. That's it.
In terms of an action movie, it's 18A or Rated R for a reason. The action sequences usually ended with très brutal results. And frankly, if I mention any of them, it'd spoil the movie, spoiling it more so than me actually telling you the ending.
This movie didn't really have to be in 3D, the only parts in the movie that really utilized the 3D were the scenes where people would get high off of "slo-mo".
It was pretty in 3D. But really not necessary. 3D in general isn't necessary. Man I hate 3D.
But in the end, my favourite part of the movie is Judge Dredd's frown progression. It goes from neutral line to extreme lost faith in humanity arc.
Anyways, if ultra-violence and gun fights are your thing. This movie is your jam. I enjoyed it, and for a matinee movie, definitely worth the price. Shoot, I'd go watch it again.
Case and Point Dredd 3D is: what you'd watch after waking up in your jeans.
Saskatoon is stepping its game up in the concert field.
October 05, 2012 Dragonette plays at The Odeon Events Center. You know, those guys who worked with French producer Martin Solveig to create this love/hate catchy song:
October 17th, 2012 Dada Life and 12th Planet play at Tequila. This one is for all you dance heads who need the trunk popping bass drops. Saw them, not last time, but the time before and they were damn fun. They're just overall happy men.
October 20th, 2012 Grimes plays at Louis' Pub. I hear she's good. Says JJ. JJ does know his stuff. Maybe I'll check it out.
No word on tickets yet.
November 23rd, 2012 Xavier Rudd plays at The Odeon Events Center. I don't know much about this gentleman, but I know that people hail him as an A+++ musician.
On Thursday I received my Estrela Neo's, which means it only took five days for them to ship from Japan (thank you Rakuten). I ordered a have size up for a good fit and the shoe is good for those of you with wider feet. So far I have only worn them once but am happy with the leather upper and the light weight. After more game play I will post a review.
This is one of the cooler commercials that I have seen lately. All sports commercials automatically have my attention. Asics put out this commercial a couple of weeks ago. The player is wearing the Lethal Tigreor 5 which you can purchase at Xtratime/Soccer Locker. I have always found the shoe to look strange aesthetically with high studs and awkward looking arch but many professionals wear them and the price is good for a top level boot. It weighs 9 oz and the upper is a mixture of synthetic and kangaroo leather.
On Friday I managed to order my first pair of Mizuno soccer cleats. Currently you are a unable to purchase them in North America but with the help of the Internet can get them anywhere else in the world. This boot is the tier two boot of the Mizuno Neo line. The Neo is famous for being extremely lightweight (around 6.5 oz) while still being kangaroo leather. The Estrela (what I purchased) is below the Neo Morelia but is still 6.7 oz and leather. It is tough to say whether this shoe is half kangaroo leather and synthetic or natural leather and synthetic. The Estrela model like many other models is only available to those in Japan. This Japan exclusive has a soleplate made specifically for hard ground and artificial turf, which should be perfect for my indoor season.
I first got attracted to these shoes by watching Brazil's Hulk and my brother wearing them. I have had a craving for another lightweight boot and was deciding between the adidas adiZero F50, the upgraded Nike Mercurial Vapor VIII and these, so hopefully the Mizuno Estrela Neo is my fix. Stay tuned for their delivery and review!
With the demo releasing last week, I am very excited for the release of FIFA 13 (September 25, 2012). Hopefully there are more of you who are excited as well. If you play on the PS3, play me in 2v2 at @hellosaskatoon or 1v1 @MackHS.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2, the latest in the Namco Bandai Tekken series.
My brother and I (whom you probably know and don’t even know it, because everybody knows him, because I get the whole “Are you Chester’s brother?” line probably once a month.) are secret fighting gamers.
In a saturated world of competitive FPS gamers, I’ve always seen the competitive fighting scene very niche. Hell, when I went to go pick this game up, it was sitting a glass showcase behind the cash register surrounded by Xbox 360 and PS3 copies of NHL 13 in its own lonely little corner.
If there are fighting gamers out there, this review is for you. For those who have absolutely no interest in fighting games, you might not know what I’m rambling on about.
Anyways, TTT2 does not follow the Tekken canon at all for it is a comprehensive compilation of everything in the Tekken universe, such as characters that were in the previous games that have since died in the story or old fighting stages from the previous games ranging back from TTT1. Honestly, I don’t know squat about the story lines of fighting games because frankly, who follows them?
We’re in it for the action and bragging rights.
What I did like.
Tekken 6 was intensely addicting for me. I could play it for hours on end, honing what little skill I had. This time around, TTT2 improves upon the gameplay of Tekken 6, not changing much of the move list (which is a good thing) and introducing the game mechanic of tagging.
TTT2 is a tag fighting game, with options to play 2 vs. 2, 2 vs. 1 or 1 vs. 1 like traditional Tekken.
With 2 vs. 2, players have the option to switch between two characters on a team, such as tag is, like wrestling. Press a button and your other character will swap out. Then you can throw down crunchy combos for maximum damage. But if you be so bold, you can combine combos between the two characters with the tagging system.
Certain moves allow players to tag their partners seamlessly to allow for more face pumping. Some people in this world are so good at this that if you get caught up in these combos, you could pretty much die from the drop of the hat. It’s a cruel world.
The online mode has been improved 10 fold. Before it would be like matching making in a FPS server where you would have to wait around until the game found you a match, granted you still have to wait for the search to complete, but while you’re waiting you get put in practice. I’m all for this. It’s a great way to kill time and to loosen up before your next online match.
But if you prefer, you can create lobbies where other online players can connect to depending on your search criteria like, I only wanna play against people who don’t have microphones and people who live in my region.
Region selecting helps with lag issues. You don’t wanna play against some dude located in London, too far away, so the connection between matches might not be so nice. Which leads me to my next point, in Tekken 6, the lag online was so bad. Lag does not fly in fighting games.
Tekken is based on timing, and with lag throwing you off, you could be in the middle of something, next thing you know you’re dead. Not rad.
TTT2 definitely fixed the latency issues. Even in online matches where I would have full bars, my timing would still be off. Totally not my fault.
There are also a slew of little things that I love in this game. So I’ve made a list.
Your move list can be locked on screen when practicing moves; you can also traverse through it while in game play. So you don’t have to pause the game, go down a few paces, select the command list, open it up, find the move you were working on, memorize it, then try it out. A little cumbersome I’d think
There are also little icons that indicate what type of moves do what in the command list. Such as, “you can do a seamless tag swap out with this move” or “this move is a ground smash”, just little things like that.
You can throw in your own soundtrack in this game. So if you don’t wanna listen to the in game music, you can upload your own playlist and have so and so song play in so and so stage.
They put back the regular arcade mode. 9 stages, 3 boss fights, that kinda thing. Tekken 6 had just a never ending arcade mode where you would fight and fight and nothing would get accomplished. No ending movie, you had to unlock that elsewhere.
Yeah I’m kind of swooning over this game, it’s basically the only game that I’ve been looking forward to in the past few months.
What I didn’t like.
Load screens are still prevalent in this game. Granted the wait is still a little less, but having to load up everything, every time, is a bit annoying.
This will probably be something very minute to most people, but in the character customization mode, nobody has their own unique hair options. Everybody has the same select hair types. I want my Kazuya to have a pompadour. Now he can’t get it anymore. How am I supposed to strike fear into other players if my Kazuya doesn’t look like this?
The tag combo system is very tricky to get used to. Having to switch your mindset to each characters move list is taxing. It’s probably just me, but if I’m playing a character for a bit and I switch to another character, I’m still trying to do moves that my previous character has, but the commands won’t register with my current character. Basically I’m just flailing around until I realize I’m somebody else.
Fighting games are definitely not everybody’s cup of tea. But if you’ve been keeping up with Tekken, this is definitely one to pick up. It basically improves everything about Tekken 6, which was already a swell game.
Most might think fighting games are just a bunch of idiots button mashing to win, but actually they’re amazingly in-depth. More so, you wouldn't think it, but I Tekken easier to play than Street Fighter, which is extremely technical. Ask my brother if you run into him. That’s his jam.
If you are interested in fighting games but don’t really know if you could commit, check this one out anyways. You can still rent video games at Hi-Tech Game Traders. But like all things, practice practice practice.
Fighting games are fun and competitive, they don’t make me wanna take my PS3 and suplex it through a table off the top turn buckle, unlike FPS games.
But if you don’t give two hoots about fighting games then carry on.
Lookbook is very similar to the What did you wear today that you may have seen on this blog. Anyone can make an account and post pictures and view others' pictures. Each photo will have a list of what the Lookbook member is wearing and potentially where they can find it. So far, it seems like everyone praises the photos and also provides constructive criticism in the comments below. You can follow your people like Instagram to see what types of fits that they are posting.
There are a tremendous amount of styles on this blog. Considering that this website is used internationally, we see punk-inspired, preppy, trendy and athletic outfits. I have not begun posting but maybe in the near future I will. Whether you want to share your photos or take a gander at people around the world, Lookbook can be fun.
Castle River was previously known as Father Figures. The band consists of two hometown guys named Billy and Matt. I first heard of them through Brennan who plays their music at work often. They're a fun listen if you are into indie rock. Give them a listen and if you like what you hear, I am sure they will be playing more live shows soon.
Location
Avocados can be found on 8th Street across from Fuddruckers.
Environment
Avocados is a Mexican restaurant that has a lounge feel to it. Half of the restaurant is booths and the other half has tall tables and chairs. They keep the restaurant pretty dim with a small bar and about eight or nine televisions.
Menu
The menu consists of foods such as appetizers, salads, soups, burgers, Mexican dishes, pizza, pastas, entrees and desserts. Most meals are in between $12-20 regular priced but the portions are quite large.
Food
We ordered a calamari dish for a starter and I personally had a chicken burrito. The calamari was presented very nicely over a bed of greens with a sauce overtop. It had a nice taste but I did feel that the batter exceeded the squid just a bit. The sauce was good though, it's thick and has a mayonnaise taste so I ate it in moderation with the calamari.
The burrito dish was gigantic. It came with two full burritos containing chicken, refried beans, rice, vegetables, jalapenos and guacamole. It had a nice little bite to it because the jalapenos were diced up. I ordered this with a side of sweet potato fries, now these were delicious. I want to say that they are in my top two for favourite yam fries in the city. They were crispy and thin with a light batter and came with a very tasty dijon mustard dip. On top of that, there were a lot of them!
Conclusion
Avocados is a fun restaurant, it's a good place to socialize and grab a drink. They have specials on drinks and menu items every night too. The parking kind of sucks (someone tried breaking into my car) but grab a good spot by Superstore and you will be fine.
Location
Pure is in Erindale/Willow Grove in the shopping centre by Tim Horton's and such. We can expect to see a second location soon though!
Environment
The place is small but has a cool modern look to it. Everything is white and kept clean so that it looks nice. The frozen yogurt dispensers and toppings are at the back and seating is in the front. The citrus water at the till adds a nice touch too.
Menu
Rather than ordering from a menu you are able to make your own recipe and paying for it based on its weight. You can choose from different yogurts every day and add toppings like candy, fruit, cereal, sauces, whipped creams and more.
Food
I always go for the New York Cheese Cake yogurt when available but yesterday I had to settle for the orange which is also really good. They also had vanilla, coconut, chocolate and raspberry just to name a few. For toppings I had to just get fruit, I never go for the candy. It always leaves me satisfied with its refreshing taste.
Conclusion
Pure is a great alternative to an ice cream. I am not quite sure about the nutritional facts but I like to believe that it is healthier. They are always quite busy so sometimes you have to enjoy your dessert outdoors or in your vehicle haha. Just because Summer is coming to end, does not mean you need to cut back on cool treats. Just check out the rating on Urban Spoon, this place is a hit!
One of Japan's flagship stores, in my opinion, has to be UNIQLO.
The plain and simple of it all is: UNIQLO is like a Japanese H&M. It's simple, awesome fitting clothes for a fraction of the price you would pay at say... American Apparel.
Granted, I'm a bigger dude. Especially in Japan. (Un)fortunately UNIQLO has all I really want in clothes. In order to wear the clothes from here, you gotta be a slim guy. Which is basically the majority of men in Japan.
I grabbed a few button up shirts, a bunch of manga graphic t-shirts (they're not tacky I promise) and a full on field jacket for 150.00 bucks.
If I were to pull those kinds of purchases in say... Edmonton, that would run me to 300.00+ I swear to Buddha.
So honestly, if you're ever in Japan, San Francisco or New York, go to UNIQLO. It's completely worth it.
Yours Truly
