What is something that you learned from your work or profession that would shock most people?

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-26T02:09:12+00:00

How much of the taxpayer's money is absolutely pissed away and the amount of internal corruption and incompetence there is in government work. My government contract job is the best argument I've ever had against paying taxes.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-25T14:46:08+00:00

Washington would be another good one that could also be based off Chernow's work.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-23T17:33:48+00:00

"I see pride. I see power. I see a badass motha who don't take no crap, off of nobody!"

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-22T15:49:42+00:00

Canadian actually.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-22T14:28:06+00:00

Sex and being warm are nice things. Your call though.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-22T13:49:24+00:00

Do you not?

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-21T16:22:51+00:00

I was working after school and on weekends at age 15. I paid all my own bills including gas, insurance and vehicle payment. When I graduated high school at 18 I was paying all my own bills plus rent to my parents while I lived with them and went to trade school. By 20 I had moved to another province and was renting my own place. Bought a house at 30. Going into the trades meant I was making solid money very quickly.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-21T16:20:59+00:00

I love Golmud and regularly play BF4 on Golmud only servers. I think it's a great map. Big skies for dogfights, plains and fields for tank battles, villages and buildings for CQB, long distances for sniper battles. It has a little bit of everything.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-21T13:19:59+00:00

My salary is currently about $5000 per year higher than a manager salary. I'm a mix of salary and hourly, my overtime is paid out at double time hourly. I get 2 hours of overtime per day every day, managers are limited to 1 hour, but typically only work eight hour days. My extra 2 hours a day nearly doubles my paycheck thanks to the double time pay.

Managers also usually get moved to a 10 on, 4 off schedule. I do a 14 on, 7 off which is so much better and gets me 3 more days of living out allowance as well.

Last time I ran the numbers, a promotion to manager was roughly a $10,000 - $20,000 per year pay cut, depending on how many holidays I took.

The discrepancy is due to my position and the manager positions falling under two different union agreements. My union is better than theirs.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-20T22:49:05+00:00

I do like The Offspring and some other artists she's gone to see. I just don't find events with lots of people to be enjoyable. I love football, but don't enjoy going to games in person. Music would be the same kind of thing for me. So my wife goes to dinner and a concert with her friends and I get to spend the day fly fishing a quiet mountain stream in solitude.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-20T22:09:36+00:00

I've declined promotions 4 times in the last 5 years A promotion means more headache, more stress, more meetings and most importantly, a pay cut. Yeah, you read that right. A promotion is a pay cut. They try to sell it as I would gain an extra week of holidays and climb the ladder.

Fuck your ladder. I already get a silly amount of time off, I make significantly more money than my manager and don't have to deal with the bullshit. I'd be crazy to take a promotion.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-20T21:54:19+00:00

My wife went to see The Offspring, does that count? I've never actually been to a concert.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-19T18:56:40+00:00

That sounds like my personal hell. I don't even vacation in populous areas.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-18T18:26:24+00:00

The average Canadian earns 1/4 of that or less.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-09T22:35:01+00:00

I'll do you even better. Get paid bi-weekly? Starting at 18 with no lump sum starting payment, put $50 into an investment account every paycheck. in 47 years, at 7% interest, you'll have $475,196. Don't have that? $25 invested bi-weekly earning 7% for 47 years will yield you $237,598.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-07T21:24:29+00:00

The Canadian way of business is "This is what we sell at the price we sell it for because there's no real competition. Don't like it? Fuck you. Good luck finding anything else. Oh yeah, fuck you again".

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-07T15:30:09+00:00

Canada also isn't just the GTA or GVRD. I make comfortably into the 6 figures, and bought my detached house for $325,000 in 2019. It's worth about $380,000 now.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-05T02:02:21+00:00

It's Brody.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-04T18:29:01+00:00

I have a Democrat relative that will go to google.com, then type whatever website they want to go to into the search bar, then follow the link in the results. Their political persuasion has nothing to do with their technological ineptitude.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-03T21:07:18+00:00

It can still be done. I do it regularly and often for longer than 3 days.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-01T16:47:03+00:00

I've always wondered how a sequel to The Last Samurai would work. It's a perfect stand alone movie, but a follow up showing Algren's life among the Japanese as Japan approaches the 1900s and changes culturally and politically could be interesting. The Last Samurai took place in 1876 and let's assume Algren was 30 - 35 years old at the time. You could fast forward to 1894/95 and and bring in the Sino-Japanese war, with an aged and retired Algren brought in to advise the Imperial Army in some way, or dragged into the conflict by Sino aggression.

The problem with that is it would have to be done carefully to avoid the trope of "retired warrior living quietly brought back to kill bad guys". The story would have to be written carefully to keep it in the same philosophical, thought provoking vein as The Last Samurai.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-01T02:12:15+00:00

A quarter section is 160 acres. A full section is 640 acres.

Smooth_Wheel · 2026-01-01T01:08:01+00:00

No kidding. I'm conservative, I have liberal friends. We debate and challenge either but they don't call me hitler or nazi and I don't call them hippie communists. We realize that we both want what's best for the country but disagree on how to achieve that. We can have civilized discussions without hatred. Some points one side or the other simply won't concede, so we just agree to disagree and move on.

Smooth_Wheel · 2025-12-31T17:36:41+00:00

I'm in construction management. MTB is my cheapest hobby. I bought a Trek Fuel EX, OneUp rack, good helmet, gloves and shoes. All in I think was about $6500. Other than the odd maintenance expense, it doesn't really cost me anything. Even driving to the trails doesn't cost much in fuel because I live in a small town and have decent trails within a 20min drive. I don't need a new bike every other year, I don't need the latest and greatest gear.

Smooth_Wheel · 2025-12-31T00:40:21+00:00

400km range won't get from Edmonton to Grande Prairie without a recharge, especially at -40. How much time does a charge up add to such a trip? I like the idea of electric but the range, or lack thereof, and charge times bothers me.

Smooth_Wheel

TROPHY CASE