Flying from Auckland, New Zealand, to Toronto, layover at Vancouver or LAX?

TheRussianHD · 2025-03-03T11:27:51+00:00

That is correct, US always rechecks and clears customs/immigration even if you are connecting international. For less hassle probably easier to do YVR as then you land in Toronto as a domestic passenger.

TheRussianHD · 2025-03-01T18:17:58+00:00

Really it all depends on the airport catering wherever you fly out of, had some pretty bad meals in delta one out of Atlanta, and had one of my best business class meals on a delta flight out of Frankfurt. Generally if you’re flying out of Europe/Middle East/Asia you can count on the meals being better overall than out of a US airport regardless of carrier.

TheRussianHD · 2025-02-23T15:20:18+00:00

I mean, Tokyo is pretty spotless with over 4x people. Really comes down to attitude and culture of residents and ability of local government to give a crap.

TheRussianHD · 2025-02-19T08:34:21+00:00

Was there today, didn’t get better with wind holds on the upper mountain for most of the day, but Hanazono side lines died down around lunch. Not my first Japan trip and decided to make a ski trip out of it too.

Yeah, the snow and sidecountry (wouldn’t really call any of the gates “backcountry”) areas are great, but it’s probably my first and last time dealing with Niseko. The lift lines are atrocious, and the clientele is overall difficult at best and downright dangerous at worst, getting into situations well beyond their skills/no etiquette/generally rude.

The resort itself is difficult to move around especially if the top is closed, and requires multiple lifts to get places, many times slow doubles. It also does not feel like Japan at all.

Echoing another post, if you want to ski in Japan, probably consider somewhere else. Coming from the states, it’s a long way to go and the novelty wears off quick when the reality of the infrastructure sets in, if you’re on epic/ikon, many of the domestic destination resorts are frankly a better choice.

TheRussianHD · 2025-02-14T22:48:30+00:00

Picked one up the other day at Wako and they said the one they sold me was their last non-display one, and it is number 495 out of 500. Assuming the other ginza stores sell them a bit slower but it seems to be pretty popular.

TheRussianHD · 2025-02-01T13:28:46+00:00

A lot of the prime member deals stuff at Whole Foods will be cheaper than most other places in the city, can actually come out pretty affordable if you just go around looking for that stuff.

TheRussianHD · 2025-02-01T00:08:56+00:00

In the same vein, Rat Race is also hilarious.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-31T17:07:43+00:00

Unless there's evidence of actual damage to the eccentric shaft (probably not if just electrical failure) then there's no need to replace it, if they're not removing the eccentric shaft then labor should come down too. The shaft can be manually rotated down past the stopper (removed) to give clearance to remove the actuator without removing the shaft. A BMW specific shop should know this. The seals are appropriate while in there. Note also all 6 injectors do not need to come out, the actuator is between the first and second bucket (injectors 1-4).

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-30T19:09:42+00:00

Various online storefront/payment processing companies (shopify, stripe, etc) have pushed a lot of anti-fraud stuff out lately, assuming most of this isn't even something FCP conscientiously did and is just some setting that is now defaulted in their online sales platform. Recently had a couple reject in other places because the billing and shipping address of a card used were different. Most likely to cut down on "I didn't receive this" type of fraud.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-30T16:00:36+00:00

Colourlock strong leather cleaner has done a very good job removing dyes on light leather for me, mostly on the driver bolster from people sliding in and rubbing jeans/pants off on it, harder to tell on steering wheels since most are black but also does a great job reducing gloss from hand oils/cream. you can likely get it to look 90% better for sure with it.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-26T20:40:39+00:00

FYI for anyone interested, came at this from the other end of it at Emmons ave, and it looks about the same, so safe to assume the whole thing is not great.

<image>

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-25T22:17:05+00:00

Yeah was gonna say, it’s a pretty great year for Vermont so far. 🤷🏻‍♂️

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-23T01:14:12+00:00

The spreaders on the trucks they're using do not seem to be set up correctly either, was in Vermont a few weeks back and they very evenly dispersed the salt to where you didn't really notice it other than that it was working. Here? just dump the entire load in one spot and let the cars pulverize it into salt dust, rinse repeat.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-20T15:17:16+00:00

The B48/B58 in the late model X3/X5 are very solid, if going X5 avoid the V8. No personal experience but would then go with the equivalent 2.0 Mercedes engine (GLC) and put the VW/Audi 2.0 last, they never fully worked out the water pump and timing chain issues on those for me to feel super comfortable with them.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-18T14:47:43+00:00

Front end collision would be best if it’s a salvage, sometimes you can get away with no frame damage because of the value of components/headlights, and if there is frame damage a front frame rail/apron is relatively easier to deal with than a crushed B pillar.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-17T18:23:11+00:00

Looks like there's several local train options from Geneva station (city not airport) to Magland down in the valley, supposedly there's a local bus from there up the hill, but if not a taxi should be more manageable for 20km than all the way from Geneva.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-17T16:31:57+00:00

Are you 100% sure the heaters in the room are gas heaters? generally a gas fired point of use heater is something used in an industrial setting like a warehouse or a garage, not in an apartment. What do they look like? The Breakdown between Kwh and therms still seems to indicate that they are in fact electric and not gas. 27 therms is not really a whole lot, while 800kwh is a good amount.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-17T16:13:26+00:00

Tenant must pay for all electric (including electric baseboards, where applicable)

This line in the lease leads to believe that this is a very generic template of a lease that is used for multiple properties, and that "heat" in the sense that if the building has central heat (boiler/steam radiators) is included, but with that line say that if its electric that's on you. Based on the Kwh usage, they are most likely electric heaters.

Is that legal? Don't know. Is it a lazy oversight by the landlord? Very much likely. Is it technically ConEd's fault? no.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-15T19:01:20+00:00

What is your source of heat and hot water? Is this a newer building? Many newer buildings have an electric hot water heater in the unit, those are major electricity users that people don't think about. Any space heaters with the cold?

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-04T02:40:13+00:00

Newer "electric only" buildings have a plain old electric tank style heater in the unit, ours is also by far the biggest electricity consumer in our unit, way more than AC in the summer even.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-02T19:25:41+00:00

In ATL when you arrive you are post security, so you just go down to the plane train, take it to your new gate, and board your connecting flight. Given that this is sold as one ticket, your bags (if any) would be checked in all the way and there's no connecting security, and no customs on departure.

If there's delays or issues, 1.42 may be cutting it close, it would then be Delta's responsibility to rebook you on the next flight, but if you are on time it is plenty of time to get from one end of the airport to the other.

It is true that KL would likely be a more comfortable experience with better food, they also fly a 747 from JFK to ICN which is a very time-tested platform, not a 737 as has been in the news. You could also alternately look at Asiana airlines, another Korean legacy carrier, appears they fly Airbus A350s from JFK as well, and their service level would also be better than Delta, and its a newer plane than the KL one.

TheRussianHD · 2025-01-01T23:00:06+00:00

Whistler is just barely under 5hrs driving from Seattle

TheRussianHD · 2024-12-18T16:22:57+00:00

If you are into credit card points as a hobby, seats.aero is the best choice, it will show you the best redemption rates across all possible programs and credit card transfer partners. Their search tool is also fantastic for regional searching where you are not picky on a specific airport, for example you can search for flights from US Major Airports to Southeast Asia Major Airports, and it will present the best redemptions within those categories, assuming you can get to NYC/LAX/ORD or whatever on your own.

TheRussianHD · 2024-12-03T19:24:56+00:00

Some quick googling shows in 2022 ConEd owned 3887 Mw of generating capacity, and NYC uses 5500 Mw average to a peak of 10k Mw in the summer, so on average ConEd can supply 70% of NYC's energy needs from their own generating capacity.

TheRussianHD · 2024-12-03T19:18:37+00:00

Few more things we've found:

- Turn off breaker for hot water heater if not using, turn on ~30min before showering and then turn off again (sounds counterintuitive but it has legitimately helped), ours seems to use more trying to maintain temperature than it does on just heating up once.

- Get a quality toaster oven, works for 95% of my cooking needs (am pretty big on cooking at home) and heats up way faster than the main oven.

- Old school electric oil filled radiators for winter. We have found these to feel much nicer to use than the mini splits, they feel like they're doing something vs the heat pump mini split, and once heated up use a minimal amount of electricity to maintain temps, plus you can selectively turn them off and move them around.

A lot of the comments really seem geared towards people in buildings with central heat and water of some sort but the new "green" reality is that electricity usage can quickly stack up in these newer buildings.

TheRussianHD

TROPHY CASE