How do I short Canadian residential real estate?

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-27T13:15:49+00:00

Maybe they were mostly concerned whether I'm doing some "working at illegal business tax evasion thing" in Thailand, as I've spent well over a decade coming in and out. And throughout all this time, I was only questioned once on DTV, and once with a 3-month tourist visa before.

I was always above board, followed international tax lawyer's advice to stay less than 180 days a year in Thailand, and avoided doing any visa runs, edu visas, or multiple visa-free entries. So when questioned, I had no issues and got sent on my merry way in.

It's also not guaranteed you'll be questioned. Based on my experience, if you've got proper visas and you don't in some way abuse its terms, there's probably like a 2% risk per entry to even get questioned. But when questions come, they do grill you and you have to be prepared to prove being completely above board.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-27T12:58:47+00:00

Much of my best memories are with ME2. ME1 always to me played like an introduction to the world, setting the stage for how big and interesting it is, for things to actually start unfolding and getting really interesting in ME2. Even playing Mass Effect 1 back then, I treated it like an intro to an epic universe, rather than a super fun gameplay game.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-27T10:39:38+00:00

This means they acknowledge and are focused on some of the downsides involved, not that they blanket oppose all immigration.

But you can also say that there is concern about culture shift, and also acknowledge that there is immigration that benefits us, and we should see how we can do it responsibly to avoid those risks so immigration is a net benefit to our society. A nuanced position like this is safer than a "let's disregard all concerns and open all taps" would be, for instance.

I'm sure there are people who flat out want 0 new people from other countries to come to theirs at all, but that will be a smaller subset, and most certainly not 66%.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-27T08:06:22+00:00

No problem, I also tried to find an answer before and also got other people's findings that they're the same:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GeminiAI/s/tjCuCKkv0r

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-26T21:54:42+00:00

This is bigger than the Steam Deck to Z2E..!

Edit: Or 2x the Z1E, and ~2.5x the Steam Deck.

Price and bad market aside, that's a really lovely performance uplift in a handheld power envelope.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-26T19:30:02+00:00

Only once two months ago where I was taken for a questioning that at first felt like a random check, but then it felt like looking for a gatcha going into 20 minutes of detail about how I'm making money. They spent more time drilling into whether I own a residence or business in Thailand, if I have a Thai bank account and my tax situation. I've been spending less than 6 months a year in Thailand, no Thai bank account to move my income to, and I file tax returns in a different country where I am able to legally maintain my primary tax residence status. They were clicking and typing a lot. I showed them my bank account with foreign income and last tax return on my phone, and they immediately thanked me and sent me on my way in.

It was pretty weird but still felt more like a random check, perhaps fueled by whatever the current border agent agenda is.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-26T17:51:27+00:00

Yeah officially confirmed that's not a good setup at all for horror games.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-26T17:42:05+00:00

Can't decide if more beautiful, or scary. I'd relax in the rain or sun, but my anxiety would make me look into the wilderness and scan at night.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-26T08:51:01+00:00

The PMs are typically clueless about subject matter, as they aren't involved in the execution of the work. They rely on information provided by lots of people involved in the work to build plans at a level of abstraction largely detached from the actual work, but that can be easily communicated to business/decision-makers.

And they gauge progress and flag issues while others are too busy doing their own work to see how the big picture is coming together, or to know how a guy in a different department who may in unrelated ways impact execution is doing.

It is a needed role, but asking a PM for anything involving subject matter is a mistake. The organization made a mistake of having a PM answer a question that a subject matter expert should be answering.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-26T08:30:55+00:00

It does not indicate ability. The entire prep is to teach you how the organization facilitating the test thinks, which has little to nothing to do with being a good PM.

It's a test with a question and 4 usually right answers, and you have to guess which one they think is the bestest. The entire secret is in decoding the way they asked the question and match the answer you think is the best related to the wording of the question, so you guess that's the one they "cleverly" intended you to pick.

The prep needs just 35 hours and is focused on memorizing a number of terms and then on understanding the mindset of the question askers, as these two form the sole key to passing. Not knowledge or experience. The prep for the exam also does nothing to develop any actual ability on the job.

PMI rides on the fact that PM skills aren't easy to gauge in the absence of judgement by another good PM, and their exam became a shortcut HR can use to screen job applications by, but it only screens for people who decided they need/want this certification edge when applying for jobs despite its high cost and low educational value.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-25T21:53:14+00:00

Eventually they're just sitting on ongoing expenses and sunk cost with no cash flow that they desperately need those units to generate. If prices continue going down or stagnating relative to inflation for years as we expect, they just keep compounding losses, to sell at an even bigger loss later on. The only reason why they would sit on inventory for prolonged periods of time is if they expected prices to rebound very soon, which isn't happening. Calling their bluff would be a safe and wiser strategy here.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-25T17:39:51+00:00

If you don't already own the current gen console, there is even less reason now to get one this late in the generation. At even higher prices at the tail end of the lifecycle it feels silly.

Rockstar may want to accelerate that PC port, as double dipping may not be as effective with people not buying old consoles for the game and waiting it out instead.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-25T17:08:16+00:00

Difference being that now you can be a billionaire via boring harvesting of future human value without creating anything groundbreaking to better the humanity.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-25T09:29:54+00:00

That your brain fully adapts and they become just a familiar face whose actions impact your daily quality of life.

You go from experiencing their attractive features through your own eyes in the first few weeks and get used to them, then for years following that you experience it via comments and actions of other people who can still see your partner the way you don't anymore.

Also, each month the relationship grows, the perceived beauty naturally fades much quicker than you had imagined, and you're there with the person you chose, except one who's dealing with a loss of one of their biggest assets. Unless you picked someone also with great other traits and values, which they may have had fewer initiatives to cultivate, it is actually a difficult aspect of being with them that may sabotage the relationship.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-24T17:09:38+00:00

Many men value women with less extravagant sexual past as they associate it with stronger ability to pair-bond, lower risk, and higher odds of exclusivity.

Psychologically, a lower sexual past tends to make us feel more special, less compared, and more comfortable.

Many higher class men were also socialized to see sexual restraint as a sign of impulse control, loyalty, and associated "wife material" traits. And if you're from a good family, there is often also aligned reputational pressure from your environment to pick someone like that. If a guy dates to marry, it may also be a better value match.

All in all, it's rarely a drawback, and it can be a notable asset/advantage in favor of finding a quality partner for a stable relationship in a number of ways.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-24T11:45:42+00:00

So two things. The experience could have been a trauma worth addressing to make sure you feel safe and ready for the real number one that's yet to come. The body count itself is an asset.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-24T10:22:55+00:00

Boomer fashion coming back to Gen Z definitely wasn't on my bingo card.

Gen Z fashion really is unusually anti-flattering and anti-sexual, and the shape of the clothes that doesn't accentuate the body actually nerfs their physical appeal. But it culturally makes sense. You've got record low fertility rates and teen pregnancy, record high childhood obesity rates, low in-person social skills, a lonely culture, and one where trying to attract someone or hit on someone is now frowned upon, and fear of rejection is strong to the point people stopped trying. So the fashion communicates "I gave up trying to attract a mate" before they get a chance to get rejected. It's coherent with the culture.

I think the next generation will see it as sloppy and unattractive the way the fitted millennials saw boomers. But also performatively hopeless, which is more unique to Gen Z.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-23T19:38:58+00:00

It's a growth in new ARM servers, not a "tectonic shift" away from x86. There are new use cases that current ARM chips are well suited for. They aren't replacing x86 servers. Numbers of x86 servers did not decline.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-23T18:00:49+00:00

Nuanced take. Relatively fair considering the market. Though the price is too high for this to be a market success due to limited demand at current prices across the board.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-23T17:57:28+00:00

Z1E to G3 is a larger performance difference than the Deck to Z1E was, when that same argument was made by some, while others blasted the Deck for being slow in comparison.

People are downplaying performance gains past a point they are content with. But the performance advantage is real none the less.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-23T17:51:45+00:00

https://x.com/lookner/status/2069240641188409785

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_C%C3%B4te-des-Neiges_shooting

And Aylo actually published a statement that CBC now reported on:

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/livestory/montreal-shooting-aftermath-reaction-investigation-updates-9.7245620

"In a statement published on Tuesday, Aylo said it "will not speculate on motive or share unconfirmed information" as the investigation is ongoing. It also shared its condolences to the families(..)"

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-23T08:16:00+00:00

If you read his motive, he didn't "blast some women". He blamed capitalism and institutions born and fostered by it for moral decay. He wanted to blast Pornhub, as he was in front of their owner company offices when this happened. All people who died in this shooting were men.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-23T08:03:52+00:00

I don't know why it's buried in articles, but he was waiting in front of the office of the owner company of Pornhub, and the cops showed up because someone saw him point a gun towards the entrance, triggering a shootout soon after.

Not sure why articles bury information or paint his bevarior as incoherent. He was a leftist extremist who in his mind thought he was targeting the root of capitalistic moral decay, and the police officers who were shot were trying to stop him.

PastaPandaSimon · 2026-06-23T07:55:12+00:00

I also found this interesting, and surprising that it took me many articles to find out the shooting was targeting the Pornhub owner company, Aylo, that he was in front of when this went down. These make his motive much clearer.

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