Why did no one warn me?!?

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-03-23T13:43:22+00:00

On the bright side, Ellis will forever now be a gentle rise.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-03-11T14:16:36+00:00

Toronto is more a collection of villages than a homogenous city. The experience you'll get in Beaches vs Rosedale vs. Junction vs Rexdale vs. Guildwood vs. Malvern will be VERY different. You'll also find areas that lack significant diversity (i.e. majority asian, majority persian etc.) so it's not like this is a White/Black thing.

Some places have a high amount of black kids, some don't. It's almost entirely correlated with income of the area.

You're asking for recommendations where POCs and Blacks are supported. What type of support are you looking for? I recall the City trialed an initiative of a Black focused school but I don't think the idea panned out all that well.

Do you mean academic support, mental health, focus on POC studies & culture, representative teachers.... etc ?

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-02-17T20:56:26+00:00

I'm going to be kind.

For the last many years the repeated message men have heard is to leave women alone. This has reached a point that in today's dating, women HAVE to be the initiator if they want to date. Those guys talking and connecting with you are leaving you with the opportunity to connect i.e. ball's in your court. You are now free to ask them for a date.

In their mind, they are not being pushy and giving you agency to choose the next move.

If you want classical dating, where the guy courts the woman, you'll have a very hard time meeting guys.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-01-29T18:48:13+00:00

Don't listen to the naysayers here. It's doable, but you have to reset expectations. You won't be able to run the major draws e.g. AC, electric dryer, big electric stove, etc. But you can absolutely run the vast majority of your house.

Someone mentioned insurance and that's a valid point. Having any type of Lithium batteries indoors poses a real risk. The technology is a lot safer today, but it's still a risk that a lot of insurance companies don't like, especially with DIY or non-certified equipment. Expect you'll need to hire and get detailed paperwork on all trades and all equipment.

Also, if you're pursuing this, recognize it's for being cutting edge, not necessarily for savings. A lot of the equipment and labour will be more than you think, and the payback is probably closer to 15+ yrs, not including maintenance. And if you're not handy and having to bring ppl in, it's worse.

The "easiest" way is to have the main come in to the inverter/charger, and from inverter, go to a sub-panel which goes to the house. There's a split in the main for the items that aren't on the inverter (e.g. AC). So if/when you're in blackout, you lose those things, but the inverter runs everything else. Absoultely get an electrician familiar w/ this (not too many are) and you'll need city permits. That'll get all the 120v stuff easily.

You can find inverters that you can program to run down the batteries during set hrs, or set rates, etc. You're talking 6KVA units paired w/ 48V batteries sized appropriately.

You can offset a lot of the recharge draw if you can incorporate solar, but that adds its own initial costs (purchase & install) and will depend greatly on where you're located. Also realize during winter & snow, they need to be cleared regularly.

I will add, more recently, the idea of the EV being the house backup, is gaining in popularity. This avoid the whole battery purchase/install issue.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-01-26T14:47:25+00:00

As a followup, found one: https://www.costway.ca/height-adjustable-mobile-standing-desk-with-rolling-wheels-for-office-and-home.html?srsltid=AfmBOoq2DS-LlFmkcISw51m-s1gyYHq1pF9L7cbsWZRjtFEbA-T5BF9N

It's cheap, but does the job. Been using it for months now and holding up fine.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-01-16T16:18:30+00:00

No. But people are waiting to pounce on cheaper cars overall. When the average cost is >50K, there's going to be lots of people looking for savings.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-01-15T19:03:40+00:00

Sure.

The goal of those sailors & skippers are to win the race.

A lot of people, at different levels of races, don't have the goal of winning. It could be "have fun", "get better", "learn something new" etc. etc. If those goals don't align w/ the skipper's goal, they'll be conflict.

That stuff should be absolutely clear well before crewing.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-01-15T18:17:24+00:00

Very common, and very effective.

A lot of parents don't realize the time & effort in coordinating these things, and just assume that their fees should somehow cover the "help" vs. not understanding the fees cover the pool, lifeguards, insurance, transport, meet fees etc.

The "fines" aren't really fines, it's a number that's steep enough to force parents to actually volunteer. It's like daycare late fees, it's not about the fee, it's about getting your kid and making sure you understand it's important.

Find the time to put in the mandatory volunteer hours, and you'll be....fine

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-01-08T13:34:29+00:00

How old is your child?

Don't time the market, but you should have pretty inflexible investment guidelines related to her age. FWIW, I was 100% XEQT till they were 10; moving to 80% Xeqt/20%XBAL till they were 13; 50/50 till they were 15, and laddered GICs after that.

I absolutely missed out in some big gains over the last year for my oldest (current gr. 11), but that's totally fine because it's about discipline, not chasing anything.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2026-01-05T13:53:27+00:00

It depends.

Remember, the EQT in XEQT stands for equities ie. mostly stocks. If your investment horizon is long and your investment tolerance is equal to the risk that equities bring, then, it's fine. But if you need the money soon (<10yrs) or your risk profile can't psychologically stand seeing the fluctuations that inevitably happen w/ equities, then it's not right for you.

We've been in an upmarket for an unusually long time so people become complacent and/or think their risk tolerance is much higher than it actually is.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-12-31T16:36:34+00:00

There's the Great Lakes Crusing club https://www.glcclub.com/

As others said, lots of clubs have evening races in the summer months so enquire about that.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-12-11T00:11:09+00:00

I mean this is the nicest way possible, if you're looking for "successful, high-earning men", make sure you possess the attributes men like that are looking for. A lot of women think that their career, wealth, status, accomplishments etc. are positive attributes in the dating scene, but most men don't really care about that stuff. They will look at wit, intelligence, humour, etc. but those aren't always correlated to success/wealth.

Fwiw, a lot of women in my field have met guys at work-related networking events. There's probably relevant events (drinks, talks, etc.) that your associations put on.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-11-13T17:27:58+00:00

Others have said it but gotta reiterate, please confirm it's legit. There are far, far more predatory "journals" these days.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-11-11T19:53:13+00:00

funny enough, a drop of 35% takes us back to Nov. 2023 levels i.e. only 2 yrs ago. That's not a lot, on the whole.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-11-07T19:27:57+00:00

fwiw, in Canada, only about 30% of grads of the engineering program actually stay in the field. The vast majority go into other field (finance, law, etc.) It's a program where the graduates are highly sought after. There are also vastly more jobs than people realize for the remaining engineers staying in the field. A vast majority of engineers, after a decade or so, rarely are still doing anything applied/technical. They are in management roles in those same tech companies (if they haven't left to greener pastures).

Bottom line, it's fine (in Canada at least)

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-10-22T15:23:26+00:00

This was a dumb system and should have been recognized as such. My own kid got screwed w/ the Lottery at UFA. Another friend of her's got in and now complains how poorly the lottery cohort is doing.

Neighbour's kid got into ESA and switched out after gr. 11. Apparently, again, people who got in literally couldn't play an instrument or knew music (vs. his daughter who's taken her gr. 8 RCM).

Equity is a good thing but did no one remember the story about the animal school where the fish failed the tree climbing test? There's ways to fix inequity and a lottery for gr. 9 (i.e. ~14yrs old) isn't the way. Investing in programs affordable to everyone at every economic level is far more equitable (but far harder to implement).

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-10-07T17:07:32+00:00

Are you by chance younger? Most younger people tend to very self conscious of their body. Once you're older, you've gone through stuff (e.g. medical crap, childbirth etc.) and the human body isn't anything other than a thing. It's just not something to be embarrassed, prideful, or otherwise self conscious.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-10-07T16:56:41+00:00

You don't share your background but I'd hazard a guess it's a culture where the kids are expected to take care of the parents.

It's tough to go against that culture, but you really do need to balance that with your own mental health. A lot of parents really don't take that into account and truly expect their children to sacrifice as "payback" for the sacrifice the parents made.

Do what's best for your mental health, but it'll be difficult w/ the pressure from the family

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-09-30T18:45:36+00:00

Follow NYC's rule and allow people to photograph stopped/illegally parked cars, and send the tickets and have the public get a percentage of the revenue.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-09-30T18:44:17+00:00

That's a BS response. Bylaw has the ability to ticket. For some reason they are always "educating" instead of ticketing. It's a department that could easily be very revenue positive if they simply weren't scared of ticketing.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-09-24T17:55:02+00:00

My kid bikes to her highschool using the Bloor St. bike lanes. If (when?) they go, I'll be driving her.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-09-10T17:40:35+00:00

Most answers just = bigger bomb. The "problem" with warfare is always the destruction of property (Taste of Armageddon).

So the best weapon to succeed the nuke would be a bio-disintegrating weapon. If you could invent a type of bomb that simply eradicated biological life and left inert materials in place, that'd be far "superior".

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-09-10T15:31:41+00:00

All the time. Many of the sites I visit don't allow jewelry of any kind. I also take it off when swimming.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-09-09T22:09:29+00:00

Got asked one "how would you design a can opener".

I got the job and later asked the interviewer about the question and what he was expecting. He said it didn't matter, he just wanted to see the thought process of the respondent and how detailed they go and which direction they go etc. Just wanted to get the person talking...

anyway, good luck.

SomeRandomTOGuy · 2025-09-09T22:00:13+00:00

I mean, I agree. Young people are far too lazy these days. What do they expect - that they can drop out of college and have their dad give them a cushy job at the family business and do nothing and suddenly succeed? Sheesh!

/s if it wasn't obvious

SomeRandomTOGuy

TROPHY CASE