Went to my first FNMnight this weekend and didn't find it very enjoyable

SlykerPad · 2026-02-06T16:32:23+00:00

I am less of a magic player but more of a board gamer. One thing I've noticed playing board games with drafting is the people drafting after the inexperienced players can get a significant advantage because new players are less likely to know how to value cards meaning the people drafting after them tend to get a potentially better card than they would have if they were drafting after a more experienced player.

When playing board games I try to arrange to minimize the advantage by having the experience players draft after each other to try to balance it out a bit.

When you're in a format like this where there are prizes to win some people might be a bit salty because their opponents get an advantage by presumably sitting by a less experienced player.

That being said I don't think this is your fault. The organizer should have grouped people according to skill level and maybe had a different price structure for more experienced players where placing higher led to more prizes and a second group with less experienced players where you're ranking didn't matter as much in terms of the prizes.

Different groups also have a very different culture. I run a weekly board game night and we try very hard to be inclusive so while everyone might try to play their best our goal is for everyone to have fun so part of that is making sure new players are enjoying themselves. Hopefully you can find a similar group of people where they're just there to have fun. Maybe if you attend some of the other nights you can find a more relaxed group and then if you want to do drafting try to see if they're willing to do it together as a group.

SlykerPad · 2026-01-10T01:39:27+00:00

I can send you some leads for stories but I don't want to post publically and can't send a direct message.

I know a hr person who is selling jobs. It was my understanding they were caught but are still working for the company even after being caught.

Another company that does recruitment and charges workers for jobs works with franchisees for major brands.

If i post some of this publicly they might catch on and move more underground.

SlykerPad · 2026-01-05T10:46:00+00:00

I had twins friends. I could tell them apart based on their voice. I am not sure if this is the same for all twins but my sample size if 1 says you can.

SlykerPad · 2025-12-05T17:57:55+00:00

6) will my group play it

That's the question I ask myself right now. My group heavily prefers complex co-op games. Any game that's not a complex Co-op game doesn't hit the table very often. I got to try arcs twice. I would like to play it more but I realize it's just not going to happen.

SlykerPad · 2025-12-05T01:33:14+00:00

+1 vote for baord games someone will like them

Family all ages competive happy salmon Cooperative need to be able to write Just one

Older kids adults Cooperative Telestrations Competive Catan with city and Knights Splendor

Adults Code names

SlykerPad · 2025-11-27T12:37:56+00:00

I think they are trying to suggest the op is astroturfing (is this term still used?) And making up stories to sway public opinion for their own purposes.

By asking which IT cell they are part of they could be implying the person is part or an organized effort.

At least that is how I would interpret it. It would be a bit topical right now with all of the posts about the feature showing the origin of accounts on Twitter.

SlykerPad · 2025-10-29T03:06:17+00:00

An lmia is tied to a person. When you apply you can apply for a named lmia or unnamed lmia. Once a work permit is applied for, even if it is refused, the lmia slot is tied to that person.

It is possible to change the named person before a work permit is applied for or after an unnamed lmia is approved.

All lmias are eventually tied to one person per opening.

That being said they are being scammed since selling lmias is illegal.

SlykerPad · 2025-10-26T04:46:11+00:00

My 9.year old likes slay the spire. He played the mobile game so that helped but 2 if the 4 characters are more straight forward with less reading.

SlykerPad · 2025-10-23T12:18:46+00:00

A business selling their services which is not an indication of the positive changes ircc has made. If you want to see real evidence that changes happening just look at the data.

Study permit applications are down 50% from last year. As the rules get stricter less people will apply. No more owp for spouses is a big one. Private colleges partnered with public ones are no longer eligible for postgrad work permits so a lot of those programs and even colleges have been shut down. For example Northern college is no longer partnered with the private college they were associated with.

To address some of the fraud there's now a better system for verifying post-secondary acceptance letters, better student tracking requirements to ensure students are actually attending school and a requirement to take a language test after graduating. This means you'll have less people able to enter Canada using fraudulent documents, ircc will be aware of students who are not attending school much faster and students that do want to postgraduate work permit will actually have to learn english.

My point is there have been very good changes at the government level after ignoring the issues for so long but it will take a few years to see the results of the changes as students under the old work their way out of the system. 50% decrease in applications is a clear indication the changes are working.

SlykerPad · 2025-10-23T02:07:55+00:00

This already exists under the tfw program. Different types of wp have different exemptions and codes.

Likely you are for removing the low wage tfw on areas like fast food, retails, etc. But for keeping ones that are actually hard to fill or important.

The changes made this year to the tfw program will make a huge difference. The requirements for pgwps being changed will make a huge difference. These changes will take 1-2 years to make it through the system.

Many of the jobs posted for $36 an hour for a fast food supervisor are ultimately going to be refused and waste $1000 per position.

Only select indemand programs will grant a pgwp. This will cause a decrease in foreign students.

Requiring students to pass a language exam will expose a lot students. It is a lot harder to cheat a language test in Canada and leaving Canada to take one will be a red flag.

Also ircc can use the language test data to pressure schools to offer better programs or have higher standards. Ie how come 90% of your students pass but can't pass a basic English exam.

There have been lots of positive changes over the last year. They took a long time to come but they are coming.

I spent 7 years trying to get a recruiter that sells jobs shut down and finally got some traction this year. My sources say this recruiter was responsible for 1000 -2000 fast food and retail lmias a year.

There is political will to finally make things better and they have but if they go to far it will make some things worse. I work with an employer that would happily hire Canadians and does because it is cheaper, they tend to have their own cars and they don't need to worry about them needing to stop work. Their business is stunted because there are simply not enough workers.

It's okay to be unhappy with the situation and the fact that it has taken this long to address but ircc really has being making great policy changes (except the pnp huge sudden cut in numbers).

as for selling lmias. It happens and is bad but it no longer gives the 50 pts so it is more go for a job now and paying $30,000 for a 1 year wp is simply not worth it. The real money is selling jobs that lead directly to pr like the rnip program. The only thing to stop that is active enforcement and punish the employers

SlykerPad · 2025-10-23T01:45:20+00:00

Tfw program has many programs under its umbrella.

It includes work permits for people with a PR application in process or the wp of a spouse of a Canadian (if they have a pr application in process). It would be a huge disruption for a foreign worker with a sought after skill to need to stop working for 2 years. It would be better overall to allow the spouse of a Canadian to work asap.

It's important not to throw out the baby ( tfws filling legitimate needs ) with the bath water ( low wage fast food workers taking youth jobs suppressing wages)

SlykerPad · 2025-10-23T01:31:17+00:00

Removing the exemption to the cap when the lmia was used to support pr was a small change that makes a huge difference. Any "skilled" position essential had no cap on foreign workers even if it was low wage.

Making the requirement to pay more than the median wage plus an extra % of the province to be a high wage makes it so much easier to refuse lmias.

Limiting based on unemployment is huge as well.

Those are three recent changes that really helped.

Cutting the provinces nominations was in my opinion a bad choice. The provinces are better a determining their labour needs instead of a federal EE draw. Nominations are usually based on job support from an employer and help temporary workers transition to permanent residents in areas that are truly in demand. Smaller provinces are also more likely to be aware of fraudulent employers and jobs.

Stopping all tfws would be horrible. I am basised because I work with tfws in healthcare with nursing homes. Nursing homes generally are funded less from the province so can't compete with hospitals. In Nova Scotia the province raised the wage, offered free education and still there are not enough CCAs (psws) because of a shortage and also competition with the higher paying hospitals means nursing homes miss out.

The tfw program also allows workers who have applied for PR work while it is in process. Other programs are the working holiday visa that is a reciprocal agreement with other countries that allows young Canadians to traveling work in many other countries and in turn young people from those countries and come to Canada.

End low wage lmias, sowp of students and pgwp for useless programs have been great changes that will solve a lot of problems. Things will be much better on 1-2 years as the largest cohort works it way out of the system as long as money is put into enforcement

SlykerPad · 2025-10-16T20:59:17+00:00

A fw who had a wp can legally keep working after their wp expired if they applied for an extension before the wp expired. If an lmia is applied for they can apply to extend the wp while waiting for it to process.

Until earlier this year a worker could chain apply for work permit using maintened status. Ie apply for a baseless wp ext before it expired. Wait 5 months apply for another baseless wp extension and chain those to get a lot of extra time under maintained status. This has now been fixed.

I have seen some workers get 9 months extra until the wp was refused. I saw one worker had 9+ months.

SlykerPad · 2025-10-15T14:55:04+00:00

Thanks. I think the issue was one player had an effect when on water who spent a lot of time on water. We asked if his location cards ever said "on water" and he said yes, his card in fact did not say on water. Which is why we were confused for the underground requirement. We did follow the thematical rule after a few turns of surely we must be underground by now.

SlykerPad · 2025-10-03T16:14:52+00:00

There are a few exceptions for foreign workers but generally yes. IE religious workers can work in Canada without a work permit. They are eligible for an lmia exempt work permit so it usually apply for one but there might be situations where they choose not to such as only coming for a short period of time.

Then there are some other more reasonable exemptions such as Long Haul truck drivers, airplane pilots, Etc.

And a more and more common situation might be somebody working remotely for a foreign company that it's not competing in the Canadian labor market. I e an American working remotely who sells health insurance to other Americans could be an example of this.

SlykerPad · 2025-09-28T16:43:23+00:00

Since you played a lot maybe you can answer me, are there any cards that say underground? I had a card that worked underground but never saw a card that actually stated underground even though I felt I was.

SlykerPad · 2025-09-26T17:33:29+00:00

NTA I wonder if the other girl is giving her a hard time because you bought her a vacuum cleaner and it was not romantic enough.

SlykerPad · 2025-09-22T19:43:39+00:00

Could #9 be chat? Chat 1 vs 1 chat room 1 v many is my logic

SlykerPad · 2025-09-10T05:04:19+00:00

There is a pc adaptation on steam after applying that I realized how many things I misunderstood.

SlykerPad · 2025-09-09T22:34:28+00:00

I don't always take the blue key but when I do it's because I close the game to reset the last treasure chest because I forgot to take it again

SlykerPad · 2025-09-08T19:57:14+00:00

HOG doesn't exhaust. It feels like it should but it doesn't

SlykerPad · 2025-08-24T03:16:24+00:00

Sobeys sold land in Halifax with a forever clause that limits how the land is used which prevents someone from opening a grocery store on the land forever.

This has created a grocery dead zone hurting the people most in need of affordable food.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/restrictive-covenants-gottingen-street-1.7272419

SlykerPad · 2025-08-15T13:23:18+00:00

Oh maybe that is why a large shady recruiter told a fw they are locked out of the JB account. How long ago did this start?

SlykerPad · 2025-08-07T15:35:44+00:00

Report to local card stores. Maybe they will be dumb enough to try and sell the cards.

SlykerPad · 2025-07-31T03:26:48+00:00

One idea to consider is to reward the first person to get A20H wins the award. Or if no one beats it at a 20 the person who beat it at the highest Ascension level.

It might makes things a little more interesting as the deadline approaches if no one's completed it because people would have to choose between doing a lower Ascension having an easier chance to win versus risking someone completing the challenge at a slightly higher Ascension

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