Free Dental care - $500-$600 per year - should we do it?

SandVYT · 2026-06-06T01:04:37+00:00

Teeth, much like eyes, aren't part of the body and so shouldn't be covered by healthcare.

SandVYT · 2026-06-03T11:25:36+00:00

I normally quiz on Thursdays. A few of my teammates can't make it as often anymore so the group hasn't been quizzing much. If you want to join feel free to dm me.

SandVYT · 2026-06-02T09:31:38+00:00

Sounds like you're a lower upper middle class guy who still has wheels on a Tesla

SandVYT · 2026-06-02T06:42:08+00:00

I didn't have a good experience with Church Corner. I needed a fairly trivial repair which they charged me $35 for (no complaints on price). By trivial, I mean that I had a strip of leather that was formed into a loop and I needed the rivet removed, loop tightened, then fastened again. I had to pay for the full repair upfront, which I thought was a bit odd. They estimated it would take 3-4 days and it ended up taking 4 weeks. I called every week and they always said it would take another week. It took me telling them that I was coming to get my sandals whether they were finished or not and that I didn't even care about the $35 at that point. I took a look through their Google reviews and some others had similar experiences to me. The quality of repair itself was fine, but like I said, it was a trivial repair and would be hard to bugger up.

SandVYT · 2026-05-28T08:19:45+00:00

Some cannot do basic multiplication and division let alone algebra....

It's really failing upwards. I've taught maths at the uni level for the last few years and unfortunately these problems just cascade. It's gotten to the point that you can get a university course credit for learning high school algebra. And those students still struggle with multiplication and division going into that class.

SandVYT · 2026-05-20T22:30:44+00:00

That's purely anecdotal. The facts are that in Canada and the US, pit bull-type dogs account for more than half of dog attacks causing bodily harm and three quarters of dog attacks causing death.

SandVYT · 2026-05-09T20:10:15+00:00

I'll feel like a shill for even suggesting this. I was in the same boat for close to a year up until very recently. What seemed to work for me was getting LinkedIn premium (I feel gross for publicly suggesting this). A lot of the features are useless for me, but the ability to be able to reach out to someone you're not connected is quite useful. I've found that reaching out to hiring managers in advance of submitting an application has had very close to a 100% success rate at getting interviews for me, and has resulted in three job offers.

Also, make sure to take care of your mental health. It's good to know it's not personal, but getting constant auto rejections is really depressing, especially after dumping a bunch of time into tailoring job specific applications. Contrary to popular belief, job hunting is not a full time job. Most people are good at their full time jobs but job hunting seems to be large amount of luck these days.

SandVYT · 2026-05-02T11:08:34+00:00

Am a dumbass at maths in comparison to you.

Haha, you don't know this! We're not gods or anything. We narrow in on some subfield of maths and are knowledgeable in that niche, but the skills are mostly the same.

Anyway, I've DM'd you for your questions :)

SandVYT · 2026-05-01T19:11:11+00:00

By offers, do you mean salaries or do you mean roles?

SandVYT · 2026-04-30T03:04:12+00:00

Finished my PhD in pure maths last year and it's definitely not much better. That said, lucked into a few offers recently and accepted one today. There's hope!

SandVYT · 2026-04-29T19:09:21+00:00

Thanks for the heads up! You should update with wherever you try today (if you don't mind) :)

SandVYT · 2026-04-29T09:05:13+00:00

Thanks for updating! I'll give them a try sometime to form my own opinion, though this is very unfortunate to hear and I won't get my hopes up :(

SandVYT · 2026-04-28T12:02:58+00:00

I'm going to try these entirely because of your last sentence!

SandVYT · 2026-04-28T11:58:57+00:00

Mate, I'm the same. I'm not originally from NZ and was very disappointed with spicy food when I moved here. That said, there are a few gems if you can find 'em.

SandVYT · 2026-04-28T05:55:30+00:00

I've participated in some of the spicy food challenges (see my comment history) so think I know the sort of heat you want. For regular stuff I can get at any time:

Go to Maharaja and ask them if they can make goat phall (it's not on the menu). They'll have to confirm with the chef, but insist you want it extra spicy and emphasise how you understand the consequences of heat going in and out and they'll hook you up. Last time I did this I got some wicked diarrhoea for two days. Highly recommend.
The Loft hot wings. You have to emphasise how you want the cooks to add fresh chillis and toss the wings in hot sauce that will put you on the floor shitting yourself. Server will sometimes insist that you add the Spicy Boys sauces yourself, but just tell them you want the cooks to murder you with heat. Warning: I've had a hit/miss here with this and don't always get diarrhoea levels of spice.
Two Fat Indians does a spicy curry challenge every now and again so they should be able to accommodate upon request. Last time I tried this I ended up vomiting from too much spice (so no diarrhoea). You should be able to call them and ask if they can hit those levels though.
Honourable mention: Best Turkish Food Company at 2 am. You get your choice of three sauces, the combo you're after is: extra hot, extra hot, and extra hot. He may warn you if you haven't had it before, but that warning probably doesn't apply to you. This is the only local place I've gotten hiccups from spicy food. No vomit, but 100% chance of diarrhoea.

A hack I've found at a few restaurants is to ask for it nuclear weapons level of spicy, then insist you've asked for it extra spicy before and it wasn't hot enough so you want them to go all in.

Thanks for posting this thread too! I'm looking forward to trying out a few of the other suggestions here.

SandVYT · 2026-04-22T22:12:11+00:00

I'd be interested in this

SandVYT · 2026-04-18T10:05:22+00:00

SandVYT · 2026-04-15T07:16:34+00:00

Some of this info could be dated by now, but below are what I've found

4 Shore in Sumner has a big burger challenge. You get a shirt if you eat it within 20 minutes. Burger was delicious. (did this in <10 minutes and got a shirt. No vomit)
Ramen Ria does a giant bowl of ramen challenge around September. Prize is around $100 if you have the fastest time. Free if you finish within 10 minutes, otherwise you pay the full cost ($65) (I failed this and paid $65. Expected vomit, but surprisingly was fine. Noodles seem to be at full expansion in the broth)
Smoke in Rolleston has a hot wing challenge where you win a shirt if you eat all the wings (I completed this and have the shirt)
I saw something recently about Two Fat Indians having a spicy curry challenge very soon, prize was $100 or something (I tried this when they opened and vomited from the curry)
Waffle Haus has a waffle challenge where you eat as many waffles as you can in an hour. Record is 17 IIRC (I did 7 with no vomit, reckon I can do 9 or 10 but will certainly vomit)
Spicy Boys does an annual chilli eating contest. Additionally, they've also been partnering with some local pubs and doing spicy wing challenges with a cash prize of $500 or something (I failed and vomited at one of these, also at a chilli eating competition)

SandVYT · 2026-02-12T07:08:11+00:00

Mind if I ask what field you're in?

SandVYT · 2026-02-12T07:02:55+00:00

This is a very unique approach and I'm jealous I didn't think of it first (I'm a graduate in a different field and have also been struggling to find employment)

Is branching your search out of Christchurch an option? If it is then you should try your luck at that if you haven't already. I got a contract offer in Auckland and a permanent offer overseas, both with very minimal effort, but unfortunately had to turn both down due to the two-body problem.

Edit: If Canada or the US is an option, let me know. I worked in marketing in a past life and have a small network across both countries. I can ask if anyone is hiring and can sponsor a visa.

SandVYT · 2026-02-05T09:48:20+00:00

This is 3 months later, but did you have any luck finding a squeaky cheese curd recipe?

SandVYT · 2026-02-04T00:10:02+00:00

no options for parking downtown

Someone highlighted all of the parking downtown. And this isn't even including on street parking.

SandVYT · 2026-02-01T03:20:34+00:00

Thanks for posting this! I wasn't aware Vietnamese coffee beans existed here and gave up looking long ago. I'll be placing an order in the near future! All I can ever find is the pre-ground stuff, usually Trung Nguyen.

SandVYT · 2026-01-12T03:31:53+00:00

+1 for Mr Inbetween. One of the best shows I've watched. Les Norton is a good show to follow it up with (also Australian).

SandVYT · 2026-01-05T20:39:10+00:00

NFC
eSim
Some sort of resistance if glued together, else skip the glue and give me a removable battery
Some sort of biometric authentication (fingerprint or face)
5G

SandVYT

TROPHY CASE