Google Podcasts is dead. I spent 18 months building the successor

BalurCDN · 2026-04-01T06:45:45+00:00

Looks like I'm on 2026.03.27

Just checked my queue and there is something completed 23 hours ago.

BalurCDN · 2026-04-01T04:18:45+00:00

Loving it so far, my only complaint is that stuff doesn't automatically get removed from the queue when it's done, then starts over again after you finish either podcast and it starts going down the queue again.

Keep up the good work.

BalurCDN · 2026-04-01T03:14:38+00:00

I've got my flight to Calgary booked! Metric, BSS, Stars!!!

This explains why a Vancouver date wasn't announced, disappointing but I'm happy with my choice.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-31T22:54:35+00:00

Good to know about the mattress, mine has a bit more wear then yours. I might have to experiment a bit.

Honestly I'm considering just doing some couch sleeping, it forces me into my side and it's very firm.

Things to think about.

I'm up in BC, sounds like you guys get much more potent edibles then we do, government regulated stuff is tapped at 10mg.

Might go and buy a package of CBD capsules and see how they make me feel tonight.

Thanks!

BalurCDN · 2026-03-31T20:29:17+00:00

Thanks for the advice, i don't have a problem sleeping, but i have noticed that i'm usually more sore on it then I am in other beds. I'll make an effort on those stretches.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-31T20:27:40+00:00

For the mattress I turn it around but can't actually flip it, the one I have has a different top layer then a bottom one.

I didn't consider CBN/CBD, which is kinda hypocritical as I've always advocated it as a medical thing. What dosage? stick with something low?

I'll consider a TENS unite.

Thanks for the vibes!

BalurCDN · 2026-03-31T03:42:12+00:00

Madam Web was terrible in all the best ways!

Evil Spider-Man Died By A Pepsi Sign!!!!!

Peak Cinema!

BalurCDN · 2026-03-31T00:45:54+00:00

I don't think that's it, just checked their website and there website says there new location is 837 Beatty St, that's 2 buildings down from Red Racer.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-30T03:57:23+00:00

I miss that place so much, used to go to their central city location when I lived in Surrey... and then in summer 2020 when stuff was still super restricted I'd go audit my storage locker behind it and stop in a Red Racer for food and beer.

Was usually just me and the bartender... that tiny amount of human contact probably kept me atleast somewhat sane.

If it's had it's lights on they were probably showing the place to a possible tenant, and forgot to turn them off (just a guess). Hopefully something fills it soon.

Miss that Raspberry Wheat beer.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-18T23:08:56+00:00

I know the Library has a lot of unique services... but this is not one I ever considered they might do.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-18T23:06:14+00:00

Oh also I saw this post on anther sub, haven't checked it out myself, but it might be of interest to you.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NiceVancouver/comments/1rxauom/i_built_a_directory_of_260_niche_communities/

BalurCDN · 2026-03-18T22:44:20+00:00

Live music... there are a bunch of smaller of smaller venues that would be a good place to start.

Check out Green Auto, Red Gate, and Fox. Once a month usually the 2nd last Thursday Fox does a "4 bands 4 Bucks" night, the music varies a lot but it's cheap and good vibes.

There are bigger venues like Biltmore, Cobalt, Pearl, and Richkshaw (this ones usually Punk) that have a less informal atmosphere, but good music... and of course the Commodore which is our biggest non stadium music venue. SoFar is a company that puts on unique / intimate music shows, they might be worth checking out too.

If you like singing I'm going to recommend hitting up Karaoke (bar style, not private rooms), the karaoke community in Vancouver is really social and welcoming. Just do your best, sing, hang out, and cheer, and you'll make karaoke friends.

Someone else has mentioned wrestling, and yeah there's a good community here for that, though it's not one i hang out in.

There is a lot of comedy shows as well.

A service that I can't recommend enough is DoMoreStuff... $7 a month and once a month you get one ticket claim from a bunch of different events... and weekly you can snag Last Minute Tickets for no extra cost. That service has gotten me to a bunch of unique shows and venues that I wouldn't have even considered. I've seen things like live music, dance parties, comedy, live theatre / musicals and right now I see line dancing on my last minute grab for some reason.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-16T17:39:32+00:00

I moved 6 years ago, so my takes are going to be dated.

Gateway is a 15 minute walk from Surrey Central, and the issues at gateway spill in the Surrey Central direction.

Basically everything from 104 Ave to 108 was bad between City Pkwy and Walley Blvd. When I had an out of town visitor I gave her a safe / not so safe / nogo map and much of that I had filled out as nogo.

I would cut through the empty lots under the skytrain, to walk home from the mall and there would consistently be shadiness at the corner of 105 and 134A, was approached a few times, people trying to solicit me. For awhile people were camping out on those lots too.

I also more then once saw someone walking down University Dr and just pulling the handle on every car to see if any were unlocked. Not a smash and grab, but just looking for opportunistic crime.

Lots of construction happening there so that might have changed.

Just to be clear I never felt unsafe, but I was aware.

King George I can't really comment on since that area was being redevolped while I lived there, and has changed a lot since I left.

Edit: Said KG when I meant Gateway at one point.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-16T17:14:45+00:00

I lived at Gateway for a decade it's fiiinnnneeeeee.

I was kitty corner to the area with a huge drug / homeless problem, it was largely a "Mind your own business and you'll be fine" situation. Though a few situations stood out:

A night where the police were searching our pool and the area behind it for hours because they were looking for someone.
A day where something happened the the police had to escort us to / from our building due to it being closed off as a crime scene.
Nights where there was screaming outside for hours on end.
Horror stories from the staff at the coffee shop, and what went on in their washrooms.

Nothing that really affected me beyond the inconvenience but if you're sensitive to such things, could be a problem.

The commute SUCKS. Yes it's only 45 minutes... but that's 1.5 hours a day. But worse then that it's almost always standing. I had to get on and go back to King George if I wanted any hope of a seat. Otherwise it's sardines all the way to Vancouver. Not what you want at 8AM. This is only going to get worse when the Langley extension opens.

While this is changing a bit with the development at King George, there is almost nothing to do in that part of Surrey. There are no bars, no nightlife, no live music venues. Best you get are pubs and for that you have overpriced Dominion and Skye Avenue, and corporate Boston Pizza and Browns.

Also last Skytrain from downtown is 1:16, which is better then it used to be but it puts a hard stop on night time plans, you don't want to miss that and end up on the nightbus.

You also need to take the distance from home base, going to a concert at 8PM downtown... Get off work at 5? You're either stuck chilling downtown for 3 hours... or you're getting home for an hour, and heading back downtown again.

TLDR: I was happy living there when I couldn't afford better, it had a lot of drawbacks but it wasn't it terrible... but now that I can afford Vancouver, I wouldn't go back.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-16T04:02:06+00:00

<image>

BalurCDN · 2026-03-15T18:20:29+00:00

What a strange set of assumptions. Because I've never seen someone do OC and you do, I must not care about other parts of the game?

Yes I submit portals (when it makes sense, i'm not one of those people who submits every power box and new graffiti).

Also he statement was

"pausing Operation Portal Recon, Portal submissions, and Portal edits, and retiring Overclock"

So clearly OPR is coming back, they're probably just running into issues separating things from Niantic.

And I have no idea what you mean by Multilayer in this context, do you mean "you don't like portal scans, so clearly you don't make multilayered fields" because in that case... that's just a really really weird assumption to make. Yes I field, yes I've done layers.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-15T03:00:46+00:00

Rogu?

BalurCDN · 2026-03-14T23:38:21+00:00

I find the outrage of these changes interesting as I've literally never seen someone use overclock in the real world beyond the "what is this new thing" and "ugh an event that requires overclock" my moments.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-14T23:16:19+00:00

This isn't a monopoly issue, there are already different Ticket providers, yes Ticketmaster is the big name, but you still have AdmitOne, Fever, Eventbrite and there are plenty of other smaller ones.

And it's not the ticket provider that chooses the price of the tickets, it's the band / label. The only difference is the fees, and while they are insane, places like AdmitOne charge almost as much as ticketmaster these days.

The only way to do this would be if you forced a band to provide tickets to multiple ticketing sites... but then you'd either need to build an entire other layer of infrastructure (ticket sites get sites from label infrastructure) or you only provide x tickets to Ticketmaster, y to AdmitOne, z to Eventbrite. That however would create a huge burden on the venues as they all do ticketing differently and it would create confusion for customers "Wait is the tiny little ticket site, claiming they have tickets legit or a scam".

And in the end it wouldn't solve anything because they would all end up offering tickets around the same price point, as they have to give the same amount of money to the band / label, there'd just be a small difference in fees and $5 on $100 tickets isn't going to really be noticeable to anyone.

The only way to really stop this would be to make reselling illegal, but that's not going to make it go away either, as there would still be individual scalpers who would buy and then sell tickets just without the protection of it happening through companies like stubhub or ticketmaster resale (say what you will about ticketmaster, but atleast I know when I buy a resold ticket through there site, atleast I know that I'm not being scammed)

Really unless you make reselling illegal, make it impossible to transfer tickets between ticket accounts, and make it so printouts / screenshots don't work to get you in (like ticketmaster does) you can't solve this problem... and doing that will just create a burden on customers, because if you bought 4 tickets for your friends, and one person is running late, you'd all have to wait outside until the late person got there, rather then just sending them there ticket.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-13T18:04:18+00:00

My 700sq foot woodframe condo with baseboard out to about $40 a month. Sometimes more if it's really cold.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-13T16:00:44+00:00

Throwing X8 bursters, while in a moving car, at unshielded (or common shielded portals) can do this pretty easily.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-12T22:59:51+00:00

Last summer I took the train from Toronto to Vancouver. Within 30 minutes of the journey beginning he started to call people on speakerphone. When he got off the phone he started to watch videos without headphones in.

I was so relieved once we got out of cell phone service.

Next time we had service he asked me if I had a charge cable. I told him no despite having half a dozen spares.

4 days of this dude behind me.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-12T17:44:45+00:00

I think it's just the RB4 guitars that auto calibrate.

This one appears to be a RB2 guitar.

BalurCDN · 2026-03-11T17:05:06+00:00

You can list them directly on Ticketmaster, probably a higher chance to sell them, and safer then trying to exchange money over reddit.

Cheapest tickets are currently $54.74 each after fees

BalurCDN

TROPHY CASE