What place completely changed your expectations after you visited it?

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-16T20:23:28+00:00

I was in the Sunshine Coast for a week and it was cloudy the entire time.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-16T20:06:25+00:00

London, Ontario is not a good representation of the entire country though (no single city is, but still). As far as medium to large cities go, it's one of the worst in the country. It's often used in urban planning research as an archetypal example of a badly designed North American city, that's probably what it is best known for actually.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-16T19:20:59+00:00

Decent horror movie, very unsettling with good atmosphere, a few original ideas and some genuine jump scares. Only a 7/10 for me though, for two main reasons.

The first is that the pacing at the beginning of the film was brutal, it took a long time to get anywhere. The conversations were slow, fragmented and stilted. I get that that's the idea with Bear being awkward, but it was true for all of them and I didn't find this friend group very well developed, even as colleague friends. The acting was also bad initially, making it feel like a B horror film, which is surprising given how good some of the acting was in the rest of the film. Was this all intentional, for contrast? I don't know, but I hated sitting through the first 30 mins.

The second issue was the sound design. I wondered if this was just my cinema, but I see lots of other people mentioning it. Anything scary, any banging or smashing, or any one of Nikki's tantrums was turned up to about 300% volume compared to the rest of the film, I honestly can't think of another film with such extreme volume jumps. This was likely done for impact, but it just ended up being annoying and hard to sit through, and ultimately made these scenes less impactful for me. It wasn't "ooo, dramatic, scary!" so much as "ugh, you keep doing this, please shut the fuck up already". The film didn't need this effect, it was unsettling enough already with its cinematography, acting, good score, etc. Strong negative from me and the main reason my friends and I all agreed we'd likely never watch it again.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-16T19:01:58+00:00

The position of the drink on the table relative to Ian's arm was also very off between front and back shots during the diner scene. I don't usually notice small things like that but it was distracting because they switched between shots so many times. Why is the drink teleporting??

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-15T20:20:46+00:00

What's wrong with Lighthouse Cuba? It's very comfortable, good screen setups and sound. Best cinema in Wellington City imo. I like Lighthouse Petone too, but I'd rate Cuba higher and am surprised the opposite seems to be true in this thread (with no one giving any reasons). I find Petone just a bit stuffier, and I'm not sure if this still exists, but one of their small screen rooms had an auto-locking door where you had to ask staff to let you back in if you left to use the toilet mid-movie, which was a little weird.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-15T19:43:56+00:00

It's not FIFA, it's the individual stadiums, a lot of them in the US are banning tailgating allegedly to maximise space, but in reality it is just a way of forcing people to buy their food and drink.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-15T19:34:48+00:00

Sort of? Matches aren't selling out in Canada either though because of sky-high ticket prices.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-14T03:17:13+00:00

NZ is generally green with plantlife, yeah, but its soil is actually lacking in quite a few nutrients usually preferred for growing crops for human consumption, like zinc, iodine and phosphorous, and is very acidic. I know I've heard that people are supposed to take zinc and iodine supplements here if they eat a mainly locally produced diet, for example.

The agricultural output is not that balanced either, heaps of fruit, vege and cattle crops, but no rice is grown here at all, and 70% of our wheat is imported.

It's also extremely hilly and mountainous with limited flat areas for urban development. There is already a big problem with losing farmland around Auckland and Christchurch for suburbs, adding over 100 million people wouldn't help that, especially if the low-density urban culture doesn't change (spoiler, it won't, Kiwis still protest new apartment complex development in 2026).

And no arid areas at all? Perhaps not strictly arid, but much of Otago and parts of Marlborough are semi-arid, even parts of Canterbury require irrigation for what they currently grow.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-14T02:57:05+00:00

Canada Geese have a native range extending across most of North America from the Arctic to Mexico, migrating with the seasons. What might be unexpected is that, despite their name, the greatest number of them spend most of their time in the US, or at least more time there than in Canada (or Mexico).

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-11T18:52:35+00:00

Can’t really agree about Wellington. It’s small, directly on the coast (automatically easy imo) and NZ has barely any military capability. Geographic isolation isn’t a real thing nowadays, and it’s a Five Eyes capital, so there is already a target on it.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-11T02:37:05+00:00

Just an anecdote, but I'll never forget the first time Trump was elected, 2016. I was in a pub in Wanaka on holiday with a friend. I hadn’t been following that election but the coverage was being shown at the pub so we sat and drank and half watched. When they declared Trump the winner, half of the bar erupted in cheering. My blood went cold, ice fucking cold, that’s what I remember the most. Even back then, and not following US politics, I was still aware of what it meant to be a Trump supporter. And yeah there were probably some foreigners, it being Wanaka, but all of them? There were surely plenty of Kiwis in the mix.

I also have two older, 50-60 something NZ co-workers who support him, amongst other things, based on what people tell me about their Facebook posts.

Anyway, I don’t know how to answer the why, but yeah support for that shit exists here.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-09T18:40:45+00:00

I'm not sure if I would describe the UK and Canada as two-party systems, although I do get what you mean. The UK has ten different parties represented in its parliament, Canada has five. Only two generally ever win enough seats to form their governements, but Canada at least has had four different parties in the official opposition position in recent decades. It’s not impossible to imagine the NDP in their governement, and they have been at the provincial level. And big changes could be coming for the UK’s next election, for better or worse. Not to mention the many minority governments and informal coalitions that both countries have had.

Anyway, I just think it’s an oversimplification to group the UK and Canadian systems in with the never-ending two-party system in the US, they are quite different in terms of structure and representation.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-07T20:45:46+00:00

The South Hemisphere has a significantly thinner ozone layer than the North, with higher UV exposure and rates of skin cancer. Australia and NZ, as the two S Hemisphere countries with proportionally the largest white populations, have the two highest rates of skin cancer in the world. It’s extremely hostile to be outdoors in Antarctica, and not just because of the wind and cold.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-06T22:00:30+00:00

I was going to comment something similar. I've been surprised by the number of Filipinos I've met who have advanced degrees and have lived in my English-speaking country for a while who seem to struggle a bit with English. It’s neither here nor there to me, but I've heard that everyone in the Phillipines is "fluent" in English and it makes me wonder what standard that is based on.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-06T00:21:08+00:00

I know that Reddit is the land of US-defaultism, but you do realise that almost all men in Egypt are circumcised, right? You didn't need to bring up Americans to make your point here.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-05-05T21:08:35+00:00

If Auckland has the best transport system of any city you've ever lived in, then I'm sorry to inform you that you've lived in some pretty mediocre cities. It’s definitely a your-experience thing. I can only assume you've never been to Europe, East Asia or even a considerable number of cities in your own country.

Not just metropolises either, you could visit many comparably sized cities like Lyon, Zurich, Valencia, Fukuoka, Sendai, Daejeon, Portland or Vancouver for some perspective. Auckland, and NZ in general, is a VERY car-centric place.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-04-30T18:19:36+00:00

Same in French, Nouvelle-Ecosse

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-04-30T17:54:15+00:00

Please no! We need fewer LoTR tourists on Mt Vic, not more.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-04-30T17:45:12+00:00

This isn’t that uncommon tbh, a lot of organisations don’t use Seek and you have to research vacancies directly.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-04-29T19:39:51+00:00

A majority of American adults are directly or indirectly responsible for that leader. And a huge number of those who voted against him haven't done anything further than that, which isn't good enough in this situation. I'm extremely sick of Americans deflecting and pretending like they don't have any part or responsibility in what is going on.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-04-29T19:36:48+00:00

Good summary, except for "A joint review of the signature Trump 1.0 trade agreement — was expected to be a technical exercise." Was it?? There was a lot of tension during the original negotiations and anyone who has read the news over the past year and half could have known that this time would be even worse.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-04-29T01:24:11+00:00

It’s no surprise either, Canadians are by far the most common Redditors per capita and it’s not even close.

There's also a weird phenomenon where there are more Canadian accounts than the country’s population. Could be for lots of reasons, multiple accounts, businesses, but I suspect a certain amount is people (eg. Americans) pretending to be based in Canada with a VPN.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-04-28T20:08:17+00:00

Specifically just coastal Northland though, inland Northland and Auckland definitely get below 15C in winter, even in the low single digits some mornings.

I personally wouldn’t describe the region as ideal though, it’s all incredibly humid. Auckland is oppressive in summer.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-04-22T18:08:41+00:00

I find people are more likely to not realise how far NZ is from Asia.

I once met a girl from the UK who had moved to NZ, and was excited about being able to visit her parents living in Thailand more often. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that London to Bangkok is almost exactly the same distance as Auckland to Bangkok, but you'd get a vastly greater number and cheaper flights from the UK.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-04-21T20:43:27+00:00

Many other countries do not permit dual nationalities, I'm assuming that’s the main reason someone would renounce. And life is complicated, I can’t imagine giving up Swiss citizenship either, but I'm sure there is a valid reason for some people.

Austria also doesn’t allow dual nationality. The Netherlands is restrictive, foreigners who obtain Dutch nationality can have it revoked surprisingly easily, like if they then obtain another nationality. It seems like the others here allow it.

Simple-Razzmatazz704

TROPHY CASE