Jordan and Steph

I keep forgetting to include this on posts so now it's getting its own post!

Check out Shelter-The Journey to Nunavut by Jordan and Steph. They're in Ontario and about to move to Nunavut. I love their blog, it's easily one of my favourites. So if you know what's good for ya, you'll check it out!

P.S. It was 23C here yesterday. Although it's nice to have some variety in our weather, it's way too warm for me. That's how I know I've been northernized.

Labels and Coincidences

1. I added a list of all my entry labels on the sidebar. Now if you're here looking for information, this will make the search through entries easier.

2. I am going through all my entries without tags and adding tags. It struck me just how many names of commentors are names I recognize now from work, town, friends, etc. It's such a small world here, but it's great knowing people are walking around here and my blog helped them or inspired them or whatever it does.

3. It was a whopping 7 Celsius today. Outside, I thought, "I never thought 7C could feel like summer but here we are." I wish I had an explanation for why it feels so much warmer than it actually is. I don't know why a sunny 7C is t-shirt weather here and warm jacket weather in Ontario. It's more than a state of mind.

4. If you live in Iqaluit and you're one of those people who drives 20-30km the whole way down Niaqunngusiaq Road, just know that I'm out there and I'm getting very annoyed.

God Bless This Mess

Please excuse the mess of a layout this blog is sure to be until I figure out how to get my old template back.

It seems I had no choice but to upgrade my account or something or other. It really annoys me when websites force you to change; I find it usually just makes things more complicated. However, I was no longer able to leave comments on newer blogs which is frustrating. Amanda, I've left you tons of comments that seem to go unposted by crappy Blogger. Jordan & Steph, thanks so much for the kind words, I appreciate it. I'll leave a more detailed comment on your blog when I get this muck sorted out.

In the meantime, I offer you this funny story about ravens building nests on the CBC building in Aklavik, NWT. Gave me a good laugh today. I particularly enjoyed the line about the penthouse suite.

Well it's 10pm and the sun is shining. Better get cracking on fixing this template.

EDIT:
Well I figured out the commenting problem. Turns out it had nothing to do with my classic layout, it was Firefox. ARGH. Wish I'd known that before I changed it. I've got it back mostly to how it was, but it's just not the same. I had that template for 3 years with no intention of changing it. Ugh, technology!

EDIT AGAIN:
Reverted back AND I can comment. Now there was a solid 2 hours wasted! It's time to get some sleep. Lesson of the day: Firefox for Mac sucks. Looks like I'm stuck with Safari if I want to comment on newer blogs. Anyone else have problems? Basically my Firefox forgets I'm signed in when I'm on blogs. The dashboard is fine, it's just blogs. So when I go to leave a comment and select my profile, I can't access anything. Oi...okay seriously, sleep now.

A Wee Update

A teeny tiny update for all you faithful readers out there...

This will continue being a Nunavut blog. I just need a few more weeks, I promise. I'm coming back sooner than planned.

(posted by Jaime)

Happy 100th

Oddly enough I am using my 100th post to tell you that I'm not dead.

This blog is about to go through a complete overhaul and you'll just have to wait to see it. I don't even know what'll happen yet myself, so trying to figure it out won't lead you to anything. All I can say is that I can guarantee you that when I start writing again, it will not be from Rankin Inlet.

If you've left me a comment and it's gone unanswered, I apologize. I would prefer not to be in the answers business anymore. It was taking up large chunks of my time trying to answering things. There are many bloggers who would be happy to answer your questions.

Thank you to anyone who still checks this regularly. I'll be back, I promise. It'll take me a few months but I will start writing again.

(posted by Jaime)

Comments

Due to the complete asshattery of one person, I am now moderating comments for our blog. You must be a registered user of Blogger and it must pass through me before it is posted.

Sorry, but being a judgmental asshole doesn't fly on this blog. Better luck insulting us next time! I know you live in Rankin, whoever you are. Look me in the face and repeat what you just wrote on our blog.

(posted by Jaime)

Update of Dictionary

I just finished a large update on our Inuktitut Dictionary.

Check it out!

P.S. We are also in the middle of another blizzard. It's Sunday night right now so we're really hoping it keeps up for even another 14 hours so we can sleep in tomorrow. Is that so much to ask? Haha

(posted by Jaime)

General Post

Not too much to say right now, but I felt like making a post.

1. I have just updated the Stupid Keywords section. I have been updating it about once or twice a month since I first created it, and it seems to be a popular page on our blog. So check it out, if you haven't already.

2. I bought our first piece of inuit art today. As I was leaving school for the day, a man was showing one of my classmates some jewelry. He had a really nice ivory ring so I said I'd run down to the ATM and come back to buy it. I don't have a lot of interest in carvings, but I do like the jewelry.

When we have working batteries for the camera, I'll post a photo of the ring.

3. I don't know if it's warming up for good now, but this -26C (before windchill) weather feels great. Our themometre actually shows the temperature now, for the first time since about November. I've been amused by southern Ontario's recent "cold snap." Our friends and family find it of utmost importance to inform me when their weather is even remotely similar to ours.

4. I posted some photos of some Northern flyers onto our Flickr last week.

5. We finally have a working computer/TV in our bedroom. We splurged on a nice desktop with a screen far bigger than we'll ever need. The computer has a TV hook-up and with Windows Media Center we can record TV onto the hard drive and watch it later. You can even pause and rewind live TV. It's pretty neat, I love it. I don't know how I lived without it. It's great being able to pause TV when you need to get a drink or something, and then fast forward through any commercials (assuming you were away from the TV for a few minutes). Well listen to me, I sound like an advertisement. Just mentioning Windows Media Center is going to open a whole new world of stupid keywords! Possibly far stupider than "What is Nunavut in Inuktitut?"

That's all for me!

P.S. What IS Nunavut in Inuktitut? Haha...obviously kidding.

(posted by Jaime)

Blizzard Days!

There has been a major influx of Northern bloggers! Man alive, pretty soon we'll be a virtual community larger than some of the actual communities in the north! We probably already are. I'd say we're bigger than Umingmaktok (census counted a population of 5) but that's a gimme.

Well, like the rest of Kivalliq (and other regions, apparently) we are in the middle of blizzard day #2. Let me tell you, we have been waiting for a blizzard day since we moved here so we are hoping to hold onto this little stint for as long as possible. It is looking like we will be back tomorrow, but I hope I'm wrong.

I pressured Jeff into giving our plans in May a little more thought, and he came up with a great idea. We're going to drive out east to Nova Scotia for our vacation. Hopefully our good friends Matt & Allie will be joining us. I am very excited because I've never been any further east than Montreal and I've always wanted to see the Atlantic ocean. Oops, my brother reminded me that I've already seen it several times. Umm...uh...yeah, I knew that...I just wanted to see if anyone ELSE saw the fib. Hahaha...no, I guess I just had a "blonde" moment.

In other news, I was finally forced into signing up for Blogger beta. I tried to avoid it for so long but they finally made it impossible to log into your account without switching over. I wish they wouldn't try to present it as if it's an option, because it's clearly not. I hate being forced to try new things like this, so I'm a bit mad at Blogger/Google right now. You can tell I don't have a lot to be mad at when I get annoyed by stuff like this, heh.

(posted by Jaime)

Shopping

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Not much is really new and I'd hate to write boring, off-topic entries just for the sake of writing.

About a week ago I bought some sealskin mittens for my dad. Both Jeff and I really liked them, we almost wanted to keep them for ourselves, haha.

We have been slowly buying more winter gear. This balaclava arrived yesterday for Jeff. I ordered the same one but my size is on back-order. I probably won't get it until the middle of January, which is okay by me.

I also have this hat coming for me. I wish it had real fur on it, but it was cheap. My current toque has held up quite well so I don't think I need anything too massive to stay warm.

Most exciting of all, these pants (2 pairs) arrived today for Jeff and me. I have to go pick them up myself because Jeff is going to Coral Harbour today. It's unusually warm out right now (-17ish) so it shouldn't be too bad of a walk all the way over to the cargo building. I went to school today to drop off some homework and I couldn't believe how warm -17C felt. It's been below -30C lately so -17C feels warm in comparison. It makes me wonder how much I'm going to sweat when we visit Ontario in May.

Jeff and I made the decision a long time ago to stay here for Christmas. I'm looking forward to spending Christmas day doing something different than all of my previous 19 years.

On that note, I really need to order some Christmas presents for Jeff. I'm afraid some things won't make it here for Christmas and that's my fault. I'm not used to this online shopping thing yet.

Check out the new "important link": Stupid Keywords. I am collecting all the weird and laughable things people Google to find their way here.

(posted by Jaime)

Stupid Keywords

StatCounter is a wonderful thing because it lets you spy on who is coming to your website. It gives you all sorts of interesting information, my favourite of which is "came from" which shows the pages that provided the link for people to get to your website. I notice we get quite a few humourous keywords so I have started compiling them. Here they are, for your amusement. Not all of them are "stupid" per sé (like "what is nunavut in inuktitut") but random and strange and a miracle that they lead to our blog. Please note I have left spelling/grammar problems intact.

If you landed on this page because of a Google hit, feel free to actually peruse our blog. We (or other bloggers) can likely answer many of your questions.

Updated July 18, 2007.

an interesting thing about nunavut
an ordinary life of a nunavut person
arctic bunnys

best thing about nunavut
broccoli prices in nunavut [NEW]

coinstar sucks

does nunavut have a grocery store
does xpresspost take longer during the christmas rush
driving to nunavut

espn employee winter parkas

haircut in the eighties
how does an inuit sod house looks like
how does nunavut get their clothes
how does nunavut look like?
how long would it take to drive from toronto to nunavut
how long does it take to fly from nunavut to toronto
how nunavut got its name
how to say good morning in inuit
how to say nunavut in inuktitut

i got a written job offer and they revoked it [NEW]
inuktitut word
i love my vitamin cookies
iqaluit alphabet
is there a mcdonalds in iqaluit

ketchup prices in nunavut

life in nunavut.ca
love fur mittens

made you look + nunavut + forward
malls in nunavut
management associate northern store blog

nice things about nunavut
northern manitoba gets dark
nunavut good/
nunavut sucks
nunavut not interesting
nunavut gloves
nunavut parkas
nunavut dishes
nunavut village
nunavut stupid
nunavut what is it like

one thing that makes nunavut interesting

picture of parka winter coat in iqaluit
prices in n [NEW]

rankin inlet alphabet
rankin inlet coats
rubbermaid store london ontario

similarities of ontario and nunavut [NEW]
site scene, rankin inlet, nunavut
stupid tourist questions about whales

travelled a lot for work
the coldest nunavut has ever dropped in temperature
things to know about nunavut
things you don't know about nunavut [NEW]
top 25 questions on nunavut

video life in nunavut
video of a fairchild merlin in flight

wendy's homestyle chicken fillet picture
what are people in inuktitut
what is nunavut in inuktitut
what kind of people live in nunavut [NEW]
what they don't have in nunavut [NEW]
where is nunavut
what schools did laura secord go to
white kids that move to nunavut
who the name nunavut came about
why is nunavut so cold?
why not move to nunavut

yellowknife parka
yellowknife stupid tourist questions
you know nunavut when [NEW]
yuotube gramer
yuotube videos aerobicos


Keep coming back for more, I will keep updating this list.

(posted by Jaime)

Poll

Yeah, yeah. I know. Enough with the entries today.

Well I can't sleep and I was lying in bed thinking about people I miss which led me to this idea. Please answer it, even if you're just our parents or whatever. It also took me about 45 minutes to find a poll that would work on Blogger and then I had to edit the script so it didn't look messed up. So after all my hard work, I deserve some accurate answers! :)

Who are you?


Someone you know in person.

A regular online reader whom you've never met.

Someone who Googled their way in looking for info.

Neither, just passing through.



View Results

I have edited the wording here to better suit the answers I'm looking for, so don't be alarmed if what you selected is worded slightly different on the poll's result page.

(posted by Jaime)

Blog Crazy

Good news! Jeff discovered a list of bloggers in Nunavut. I guess the Internet has more to offer for us than we thought. Jeff found this list which we are going to try to be listed on once we have more entries.

We've been spending so much time reading these blogs and I'm feeling even more excited about moving up there. It's going to be a weird adjustment but I think we're ready to take on a new way of life!

I think all of the blogs we've read have been written by teachers working up there. I wish I had some kind of game plan as far as working goes but unfortunately I haven't been to college yet. I think I'm interested in teaching up there so I wonder what I would have to do to become a teacher without going to school in another province.

I guess I'm hoping to work in a co-op store or a restaurant/hotel but I'll have to see. I do know I am very interested in going to Arctic College in Rankin Inlet so at least I have something to look forward to in my free time.

Jeff called Nunavut this morning to find out if his offer is official yet and they said they'd let us know on Tuesday. It's going to be one long weekend, that's for sure. We're letting our parents know this weekend that we're almost definitely moving there. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but we're getting married right before we go. At least our parents will be happy about that!

Anyway, I should get some sleep. It's almost 3am but I just can't stop reading Nunavut blogs!

(posted by Jaime)

Introduction

Hi everybody.
If you are reading this, you are probably here either because you know either Jeff or myself (Jaime) and you want to see what we are up to, or you are thinking about visiting/moving up North and you are disappointed by the information you're finding on the Internet.
Before I go any further, I will give you the story as to why we're here.

After living in London, Ontario for a year, Jeff and I knew we had to get out of Ontario for awhile, if not permanently. Simpler life appealed to us both so it was just a matter of Jeff finding a job in another province. In May he found a job in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. I remember when he found it. I think he asked me, "Hey, wanna move to..uh..Rankin Inlet?" "Where's that?" "Nunavut," "...Uhhhh.."

By June 26 he had the job and we started Googling "Nunavut" and "moving to Nunavut" like crazy but with no results. It was only when we found a list of Nunavut blogs did things start to fall in place a little better.

So what we hope to accomplish with this blog is two-fold: we'd like our friends and family to read about what we're doing on the other side of Canada, and we'd also like to give people a first-hand look at what it's like to go from living in the warmest part of Canada to one of the coldest. We are looking especially to target other people who are or who are thinking about moving to Nunavut. There is a lack of information on the Internet for people in mine and Jeff's position (pre-Nunavut) so we are hoping that by putting our plans and our stories here, it will help others in planning their move to Nunavut.

So, no matter who you are, we hope you will benefit from our blog.

Update: July 16, 2008

This blog is now in phase two of its hopefully long life. I'm the only author now as I have moved onto Iqaluit and Jeff has stayed in Rankin Inlet.

I am no longer a newbie to Nunavut but I don't have the heart to change the name of the blog. Because I'm not a newbie anymore, I don't generally write about newbie experiences, which was the initial point of the blog. If you need information about moving to Nunavut, be sure to read the first 6 months of my writing. After that, it becomes less about first-time experiences and more about how life is going in the north.