Divisional Playoff Preview

Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers:  Big Ben is going to do what he always does - just enough to win.  Troy Polamalu should probably get some looks at not only the defensive player of the year, but MVP as well.  His face-off with Ray Lewis should show us all who the most dominant defender is.  Steelers by 7.
Green Bay Packers at Atlanta Falcons:  The storybook season for Atlanta will continue for at least one more chapter, while Aaron Rogers will have to wait for another day to truly step out from behind Brett's shadow.  Falcons by 7.
Seattle Seahawks at Chicago Bears:  There will be no miracles in Chicago.  The Bears will dominate throughout, leaving you asking how this team managed to beat the Saints last week anyway.  Bears by 10.
New York Jets at New England Patriots:  This one's getting a lot of hype in the press.  Rex Ryan keeps shooting his mouth off, and I doubt that getting slaughtered will prevent that from happening again.  Tom Brady is awesome!  He isn't surrounded with the same weapons that he used to have, but Bill Belichick is a genius.  Patriots by 10.
Last week, the Seahawks were the only team to win at home.  Expect that trend to come to a screeching halt this weekend, as the home teams go 4-0.  Now, check out these picks, bet the opposite, and roll around in great big piles of cash (just don't put too much thought into where some of that money has been).

Stay tuned.

Carbon Footprint

Have you seen those Hyundai commercials claiming that the commercial was made with no carbon footprint?  I know that the last one was on commercials as well, and I took some time off, but before I get to some terrible football predictions tomorrow, I thought that I'd throw in another commercial, and again emphasize how much they lie to us.
We had a march against suicide today.  The Co-op closed for three hours in the middle of the afternoon to participate, and we were quite busy as a result.  It's not that I want to make light of it, and it's quite a serious topic, but I just don't understand how a bunch of people not committing suicide marching around town can even imagine that they are helping to prevent the next one.  Protests and marches seem so utterly pointless to me.
Back to the carbon footprint.  In the commercial they have: a car, material on a treadmill type sky, a bicycle type thing to turn the wheels, another similar arm crank dealio to turn the sky, and obviously a camera.  Was the metal not smelted?  What materials were used to create the movie camera?  How did they get all of this equipment to the shoot site?  There are a million other similar questions to ask, and I won't bother asking them all.  But the big question is - how do they get away with claiming that the whole commercial was shot without producing a carbon footprint?  Marketers wouldn't lie to us... would they?  Maybe the bigger question is - how dumb do they think we are?

Stay tuned.

Pepsi vs. Coke

Even though I'm a Coke guy, I use Pepsi first in the title for one reason - they're the only ones fighting the battle.  Here's my point: ever since I can remember, starting with the Pepsi Challenge (remember those blind taste tests?), I just can't remember a Pepsi commercial that doesn't somehow take a shot at Coke.  Whether it's original Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, or now Pepsi Max, they are copying Coke's ideas and then taking shots at them.  On the other hand, I can't think of a single Coke commercial that takes any shots at Pepsi at all.  They have the polar bears, the vending machine, the old "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" song, and so on.  They always take the classy approach, and only discuss their own product.
All of this brings me to a commercial that came out last year already, but is now making a comeback.  The Pepsi Max one, with the two truck drivers in the restaurant, "Why can't we be friends" playing in the background, the Coke guy trying the Pepsi Max, the Pepsi guy capturing it on his camera and uploading it to you tube, and the ensuing fight that breaks out.  I don't like the whole thing, starting off with the continuing need to bring themselves up by bring Coke down, but especially two main things.

1. The Coke guy seems to be so surprised by the fact that Pepsi Max has zero calories, while he's wearing a Coke Zero hat, and drinking a Coke Zero.  How many calories do they expect us to believe that a Coke "Zero" has?
2. The Pepsi guy is sitting on the right.  When he's taping the Coke guy drinking the Pepsi Max, the Coke guy has the drink in his right hand so that we can see the label.  When the Pepsi guy shows him the video on his phone, he's got the drink in his left hand so that we can still see the label.

I realize that all commercials lie to us, and that all marketers believe that we're idiots, but doesn't there have to be a line somewhere?  How lazy are you, when you're clearly in second place, and instead of trying to improve yourself to get ahead, you just put all of your efforts into slowing down the leader?  Get some class, get the fight out of the gutter, and take your second place with some dignity.

Pause and refresh yourself (1924), things go better with Coke (1963), have a Coke and a smile (1979).

Watch My Predictions - Bet Opposite

One out of four.  Even if I go perfect through the rest of the playoffs, the record won't look awesome.  After this tragic start, I'll be lucky to break even.

The weather during the past two days has been awesome!  Since our storm about five weeks ago, I was having some trouble with my charging system on the quad.  Right now, all of the loose snow has blown away, there was some sun to soften the surface, and now it's just cold enough to create a perfect crust over the top.  I'm able to go anywhere a snowmobile can go.  Even where the snow is 12-15 feet deep, I can just ride over the top.  Yesterday I went out by myself, to see what could all be accomplished.  Today I took out Fran, and between the two days I put on about 50 miles.  This is a fairly high view, down into the valley where the town is, and clearly shows all of the open water in the background.
I expected Seattle to put up a pretty good fight, but not to actually win.  The Indy/Jets game was pretty good.  The Chiefs battled for a while, and then the wheels fell off, for the only game where I picked the right winner.  Then, in what I thought was going to be the game of the week, the Eagles defense was not able to keep the Packers out of the end zone, and Akers couldn't make a kick.  What are you going to do?  I guess I'll just have to pick myself up out of the dirt, dust myself off, and carry on as if I actually know something.
Tomorrow's got nothing to do with sports.

Stay tuned.

Wildcard Preview

The four teams earning the bye:

1.  New England Patriots (14-2):  Tom Brady - say no more.
2.  Atlanta Falcons (13-3):  Outstanding season - watch out for them.
3.  Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4):  Big Ben's only stat that looks good - win/loss.  With a week off after squeaking past the Browns last week, he should be raring to go.
4.  Chicago Bears (11-5):  I don't see how they keep winning - but they do.

Wildcard match-ups:

New Orleans Saints (11-5) at Seattle Seahawks (7-9):  While it looks like a total miss-match, and the league should be embarrassed that a team like Seattle even makes the playoffs, I won't be surprised if the Seahawks put up a pretty good fight.  Although, I won't be surprised if they don't.  Saints by 10+
New York Jets (11-5) at Indianapolis Colts (10-6):  Four weeks ago it looked like the Colts weren't even going to make the playoffs.  Four wins later, at home, with Payton at the helm, Colts by 4
Baltimore Ravens (12-4) at Kansas City Chiefs (10-6):  Take the under on this snore-fest.  10-6 Ravens
Green Bay Packers (10-6) at Philadelphia Eagles (10-6):  The game of the week.  One defense is going to have to come up big, to stop the other team from racking up points.  Take the over.  Eagles by 4

I'm probably way off, and I'll admit it when I am.

Stay tuned.

Arctic Life... And Death (Part Two)

When the snow falls (and it often does), folks rush outside to do some sledding.  Parents take their kids to the nearest hill, and down they go.  Sounds like fun right... think again.  The nearest hill, is always the street right outside their house, and the children are taught from the earliest age that you slide down the street when the snow falls, and the streets are slick.  These are the same streets that are regularly traversed by substance abusers driving various vehicles... still sound like a good idea?  With that build up, you should obviously be able to figure out the end result.  She was 8.  The driver of the quad didn't even stop to see if she was OK.  He just kept driving, hoping to not get caught (since he was clearly intoxicated).  It's a pretty small town.  It didn't take long to track him down.  That was four weeks ago.
When there's enough snow, the main mode of transportation is snowmobile.  There were two ladies (also intoxicated) driving down the road towards their homes.  They were driving a little too fast for the curve, and were heading for a hydro pole.  The driver turned the skis to the left, and the left ski caught the pole.  The driver flew off to the right, while the passenger flew straight into the pole.  She was 24, and the mother of three.  The driver is being charged with manslaughter.  That was three weeks ago.
I don't know the story behind the next guy, and I won't speculate.  He was found hanging from a belt.  He was 28.  That was two weeks ago.
Last week, thankfully, the only death was an elderly gentleman in ailing health, who had a heart attack while sleeping.  Only two days earlier, I had been to his house to have him sign an authorization form, to allow his son to cash his cheques for him.  The only problem here, is that in the last five days, seven of his relatives have all been to the store to try to claim the money left on his cash link card.  No remorse.
So, with a bit of insight, hopefully you can forgive me when so many of my blogs are about sports, entertainment, or some other pointless thing that has nothing to do with everyday life... and death, in Salluit.

Stay tuned for something completely different.

Arctic Life... And Death (Part One)

They say that life in the arctic is hard.  Drug and alcohol abuse is rampant, it seems like there's a death every week, a woman's black eye is a man's trophy, and being covered with hickeys shows that they still love each other.  Every woman of child bearing age is pregnant (despite the fact that there are "wear a condom" posters everywhere, and they're available free everywhere), since how many babies you have gives you bragging rights, and every child that you give birth to means that much more "baby money" that you get on the 20th of every month.
Other than that, I don't get it.  Attempting to provide customer service, and please a customer that didn't work for their money, doesn't pay rent for the place that they're going to put their purchase in, and can't understand why you're still asking them for money on a snowmobile that they financed over a year ago and haven't made a single payment on yet... that's challenging.  Being in a remote village, thousands of miles from family and friends... that's difficult.  Living in a valley, that has two rivers running through it, is surrounded on three sides by mountains, and the other by the ocean... that's not hard at all.
Going through the last four deaths right now would make this blog too long.

Stay tuned for part two.