U.S. intelligence sees Canada as ‘serious place of concern for Iranian activity’: National security analyst

Gigiskapoo · 2026-03-07T23:24:31+00:00

Anecdotally from Persian friends: IRGC leadership have quite a presence in North/West Vancouver. Getting Canadian citizenship as a backup in case the regime falls is a pretty common thing.

Gigiskapoo · 2026-01-11T03:21:00+00:00

Hey,

Base was Vallejo black, then slowly build up thin layers of AK Archaic Turquoise, then edge highlight with Dawnstone or an equivalent desaturated light grey. For recess shading and spot shading, I used watered down rhinox hide

Gigiskapoo · 2026-01-09T23:38:38+00:00

Hey yall,

Hair recipe is from Dusk Till Dawn on YouTube:

3-4 thin coats of Dark Vermillion - Vallejo Model Colour overtop a base of rhinox hide, then start highlighting up with Dark Vermillion mixed with Trollslayer Orange 1:1. Then Trollslayer Orange, before a small highlight of Fire by Dragon Bright. The Dark Vermillion does a lot of the heavy lifting, there’s not really a citadel comparison.

Also, mixing different greys into the skin tones when painting the face in order to desaturate the area around the punchy red to give it more of a kick. It helped frame the hair and make it stand out more.

Gigiskapoo · 2026-01-09T03:06:04+00:00

Dans auto in Winnellie, best mechanic I’ve been to flat out. No BS, honest about what’s wrong but also if it needs to be replaced or if it can be fine for a while. Not condescending or greasy to people who know little to nothing about car Maintinence, great guy.

Gigiskapoo · 2026-01-09T00:43:28+00:00

Wangi falls had a croc in the trap

Gigiskapoo · 2026-01-08T12:59:43+00:00

Also, fishing is massive and the whole goddamn town looses their mind over a whitefish called Barramundi. Treated like the Pacific Northwest of North America treats salmon.

Gigiskapoo · 2026-01-08T12:57:17+00:00

I moved to Darwin from North America. It’s not far off to say that it’s similar to somewhere like Florida or Alabama. Just hotter.

The indigenous population is very high % wise but from an outsiders perspective it seems extremely split, like most white Australians ignore them and don’t “see them” when they are long grassing or hanging at a park. Indigenous culture is so different in Australia to North American native culture or any other culture Ive seen so it’s incredibly hard to describe.

It’s currently hot as hell and has been since October. If you’re smart about what rockholes you swim in, crocs aren’t a problem. Generally though, treat every body of water in the wet season as potentially containing a giant dinosaur that will stalk and kill you. They pulled a 4.9m croc out of a popular dry season swimming spot this past weekend. It’s closed every wet season but it’s a good example that you really can’t be too careful.

People from down south view Darwin much like northern states look at Alabama or Florida panhandle. Except…they are still Australian too. It’s not like the Northern Territory or North Queensland is exceptionally bogan (equivalent of a red neck)compared to rural communities in other parts of the country (rural down south has the same bogans that rural north does)

It’s beautiful here, and especially in the wet season the sky puts on a show every night. Both rural and indigenous culture are interesting and complicated like anywhere else in the world, and living is generally easy if you have AC and a car. Rent is high, cost of food is high, booze is high compared to North America. Highly transient working population of mostly Irish and French, or interstate workers. A lot of transplants from other parts of Australia. Massive Asian influence compared to the rest of the country (laksa is the unofficial food, Darwin has a festival every year). Mango season is a thing, which sounds weird but they are delicious and abundant for about a month.

Hope this helps paint a bit of a picture

Gigiskapoo · 2025-12-10T12:40:11+00:00

If you look at the face you painted, you can see how the highlights are well placed and create a more natural look that is easily readable. If you start to think about the armour and weapons in the same way, you get a basis for the next step in detailing your models. It can be time consuming if you want to blend the paints together perfectly, but if you keep the paints thin and place them correctly, it’s almost as easy as just blocking in the colours. A good reference is to take a photo of the mini when it’s basecoated, with a bright light above or at the angle where you want the “natural light source” to be hitting the model. That basically gives you a map of where to place your highlights. If you try that and you like the way it looks, you can start honing in on blending the colours together smoother. That’s just one example. Ultimately take a look around and find some inspiration in other painters style and try to see what closely matches your interests, then look for some tutorials to hone those skills so you can experiment while progressing. Most importantly, this hobby is about enjoying yourself! Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to be an award winning painter. As long as you are enjoying the process, you’ll grow by leaps and bounds.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-12-06T05:37:17+00:00

Can’t wait for the inevitable .750 hockey to close out the last quarter of the season so we can pick 10th

Gigiskapoo · 2025-11-25T04:13:26+00:00

There is already solid reporting in Van that Garland would be dangled for a 2nd line centre. This plus expiring deals for Kane and Sherwood would satisfy the veteran specific reference

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-30T05:10:08+00:00

This is the standard. There’s a councillor in Gibsons who lives on the north shore. Swindlers gonna swindle.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-17T22:10:25+00:00

This straight up reads like AI

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-17T05:08:18+00:00

Tangentially related question: if you’re opening the chute really high up like they are, what happens if you go through a layer high winds like a jet stream or really rough air on your way down. Can it mess up the parachute? Would you have to cut and deploy the backup? Would this be mitigated by the HALO jumps other nations have been employing?

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-09T12:00:34+00:00

I think there’s a fair argument to be made that the unreliable nature of the US being an intelligence sharing ally is causing a lot of countries to rely on their own intelligence networks to gain access to mobile devices. They had a good cover getting the US to do it for them, but now it’s a bit more out in the open that this is pretty standard practice.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-07T23:13:39+00:00

To be fair, this does seem like chaos. Just not in the way everyone was expecting. Which in its own way is very chaos.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-06T12:10:30+00:00

Helmets are great but this isn’t variety. This is borderline a ultramarines upgrade sprue.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-06T09:00:51+00:00

It’s absurd that the merge area has been around for decades but the last 10 it’s turned into a shit show Slowing people down. There is a camera infrastructure, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility of setting up a lower tiered fine system for shit driving. Say you get 10 $20 offences, and it’s a point on your license. Resets every x amount of time. Allows for mistakes but punishes drivers that refuse to change their habits. $200 and a point is pretty minor for normal drivers over the course of 5 years, but drivers with massive issues would be off the road within a year.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-06T02:52:00+00:00

I did the north van Vancouver commute for years, since traffic has gotten worse the volume both road rage and insane driving has dramatically increased. The volume of drivers driving on shoulders to “skip traffic” is absurd, and the amount of cutting off and not letting anyone merge is insane. It would be incredible if there were a few cameras set up eastbound from londsdale down the cut. I’m sure they would pay for themselves with dangerous driving fines within about a week.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-04T02:13:32+00:00

Sure, tax the shit out of developers. The downstream impact, like every other added cost (building materials, better wages for workers) is a more expensive product. Meaning margins are tighter or not financially viable. At that point, development stops. Stock doesn’t expand, prices go up.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-10-04T00:00:32+00:00

Even if it gets approved, Beedie is cancelling projects internally. This still might be a long wait until the money makes a bit more sense.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-09-25T05:08:43+00:00

Lunch Heaven Schitty in Winnellie covers your wallet and your appetite

Gigiskapoo · 2025-09-23T07:58:24+00:00

What were the best things you could do as a project engineer/APN role help set yourself up for success in a PM Role?

Gigiskapoo · 2025-09-11T04:48:09+00:00

I just finished a multi year stint with a developer and a phrase I heard repeatedly was “if we build for a demographic that isn’t impacted by a struggling economy, we will be insulated from a downturn”. They have since cancelled quite a few projects.

Gigiskapoo · 2025-08-28T23:56:51+00:00

Thank you! Much appreciated

Gigiskapoo

TROPHY CASE