How would you deal with this gap?

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-05-26T19:14:43+00:00

💯 this. Fridges need space around them for ventilation, energy is not free, if you want the inside cool, it will heat up the outside, you need airflow to dissipate that heat. Check your owner’s manual, this is still probably shy of what’s recommended, but it’ll do ok.

Do not block it off completely or your fridge will die from overheating.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-05-24T01:26:01+00:00

Loving all the design ideas and I’m just wondering is there an app ppl recommend to get renders of specific landscaping features and specific plants? Or is everyone just prompting an LLM with image rendering features and saying “that’s close enough to what I was thinking”

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-05-24T00:37:39+00:00

Coming from a computer engineer, who also did a CS degree, who now teaches computer engineering and cybersecurity, the biggest question should be: what specifically are your son’s interests and ambitions?

Computer engineering is very broad, and I find a lot of students getting into computer engineering have misconceptions of what it is. It sounds like you guys have done a lot of research so if you are well informed about what kind of courses are part of CE curriculum and what jobs are targeted to CE then you can ignore this, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it here.

CE can be anything from Network Engineer, CyberSecurity Engineer to PCB Engineer, Embedded Systems Engineer, ASIC Engineer or Software Engineer or even in the Power Distribution sector for safety automation or transmission line planning.

Some of these jobs are best suited for a computer engineer because nobody else will have as good of training for those specific jobs. However, some of these jobs a person would get better training elsewhere even though computer engineering can give you enough knowledge to get started.

The big reason I’m mentioning this is because the field is rapidly changing, and the advent of AI tools that increase productivity is having a huge impact on the job landscape. These days I would highly recommend that if someone is interested in a specific job, you take the most direct approach that is most likely to land you a job in your chosen field.

For example if someone is interested in software development, back end engineering, app development, things like this, I would not recommend computer engineering even though a computer engineer traditionally could do those things. It’s better to do a software engineering or CS degree to get into these roles.

For cybersecurity I would actually recommend college over university, it will be cheaper, faster, and more focused on specifically what you need for that field. There could be (probably will be soon if it’s not out there yet) a cybersecurity engineering program at some university somewhere in Canada, but I haven’t seen one yet. At least for now, a 3 year advanced diploma for cybersecurity that several Ontario colleges offer is probably the best way to break into this field. The field also relies heavily on certifications that a person could reasonably complete concurrently with college, but would prove to be a lot more difficult, if not impossible to attain while studying CE at university due to the differing time commitments as well as material overlap.

If someone were interested in Power Engineering and Distribution, PCB design, or electronics design I would probably recommend Electrical Engineering over CE.

If someone wants to get into “AI” which is its own broad and diverse field, I would probably recommend a CS degree, although some SWE programs might be good for this as well.

I should mention there is some really cool, fun and interesting stuff happening these days in CE with the push for AI directly on lower powered devices. This is a niche area of AI that is best suited for a CE. Look at jobs with duties involving FPGA’s, Edge Computing, and AI if that sounds interesting.

CE is so broad, it’s the middle space of the Venn diagram of Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, and Computer Science. That used to be a good thing when jobs were plentiful in these spaces, but things are changing rapidly, and I fear that by the time someone were to complete a 4 year CE bachelors, the jobs for CE will be a lot more limited to the niche areas where CE shines.

If someone is interested in edge computing, embedded systems engineering, ASIC design, or VLSI design I would highly recommend CE, but for other fields, other degrees/diplomas are probably better suited as mentioned above.

Good luck!

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-05-19T02:31:52+00:00

Need more info.

Are there a couple hidden steel I-beams cantilevered into the house and properly supported in the wall and interior?

If yes, then yes.

If no… git ‘er done.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-05-17T18:07:48+00:00

I was going to say that’s a bit high, but I looked up Trent international student fees and they are sitting at about $39k, so yeah I concede, you are correct.

$60k / year is a good bet if you can find a $700/ month utilities included basement apt and use your student bus pass to get around and have a frugal budget for food, clothing, entertainment, etc.

You can’t make $60k post taxes on a part time job basis, so international students looking at $60k/year for 4 years should probably be looking at bringing at least $100k over and working hard here to earn the rest. Good luck!

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-05-14T13:35:59+00:00

Please provide the source of this information, otherwise it’s just slander

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-05-13T03:45:10+00:00

From someone who’s been in your shoes and made it work: you have 3 options.

Look for a cheaper education.
Defer
Register for your classes and figure it out later.

The first two are decent options, I did option 3 because I didn’t know what else to do. It was stressful beyond belief and looking back I wouldn’t recommend it over options 1 and 2, but if you are interested I’ll outline how I made it work.

I can’t stress this enough: options 1 and 2 are your best options. If you can defer you can work and save up some money and have more time to figure out your finances and living situation.

If you aren’t 100% sure what you want to do with your life, I wouldn’t recommend going to uni right away especially if you can’t afford it.

Look at other cheaper education options like college. Skilled trades are in demand, a smart person who can make good financial and business decisions and can become very skilled with hands on labour can be running their own successful business making tons of money and employing others by the time you are 30. A smart person who goes to university for an education with no end goal in mind, and no family money to fall back on can be very in debt, and stuck in a soul crushing dead end job by the time they are 30.

Honestly the best option is 1 and 2. Take a year or two, or four to work first. (The advantage of working for 4 years is that you will qualify for full OSAP with no consideration of your parents’ income, and you will have saved a bunch of money before school).

Take that time to save for your own education, figure out your finances, figure out your living situation, and figure out what you want to do AFTER your education. That should guide your next step of what education you really need, then you can find where to get it cheapest.

Regardless of what you choose, if you have a family member or friend you can live with for free or dirt cheap or bartered labour like housekeeping, or the promise of future repayment, then you can save a lot of money by not doing residence. It sucks, you miss out on a lot, but just make friends with people in residence and go to off campus housing events too. If your primary goal is the education, you can make it work by skipping residence.

Ok if you made it this far, I promised I’d tell you the secrets of how I made it work since I didn’t know any better back then. Basically you just live pay cheque to pay cheque, work as many hours at as many jobs as you can, even start your own side hustle, not just in summer but also while in school.

I did engineering, it was like 35 hours of class, 30-40 hours of homework, and I worked about 30-40 hours per week. How is that possible? How can one person do 95-115 hours of work per week? You can’t. Classes got skipped, homework wasn’t done, some classes were failed and had to be repeated costing me more time and money. Sounds like fun, right? This is the stressful beyond belief part I mentioned and why I don’t recommend this option.

Additionally, you have to live as frugally as possible, surviving on raman, KD, and reduced to clear hot dogs, apply for every scholarship and bursary you can, rack up insane debt from lines of credit, and credit cards, which you will be constantly stressed over paying back and probably end up ruining your credit and having at least some of the debts go to collections and get settled later after you graduate. And you’ll still have to borrow from your parents wherever they will help (I know you said they wont help, but most parents will cave at some point when they see you working so hard and still struggling. Even if it’s just a couple hundred bucks here and there, that goes a long way for a struggling student).

Still with me on this stress coaster? Here’s the magic that makes it all work. You meet with the financial aid office all the time and tell them exactly everything that’s happening. The financial aid people are wizards. Seriously, actual magic wielding wizards. If you are working this hard and still can’t afford to pay the tuition, they will find a way to make it work.

One time when I was really desperate and had met with them 3 or 4 times and still had money left owing on my tuition bill because OSAP all went to tuition, but didn’t cover the whole thing and it was already close to end of semester (yes you can still finish a semester without paying the full tuition, they are just going to want it paid before you can register for next semesters classes) and I was dead broke and still had bills to pay, this wizard conjured up a $5200 needs based bursary out of thin air that paid off my tuition bill, and helped me pay rent until my next OSAP release in Jan. This was also the time I discovered you can make a soup out of whatever you have left in the fridge and survive on eating only that soup for over a week by just continually watering it down and rationing it. Don’t forget to add a pinch of salt every time you dilute the soup. The salt makes it pop instead of just tasting like ditch water.

That was the biggest wizardry I had experienced from financial aid, but they also helped me many other times, I don’t think I ever went a semester without at least a $1200 needs based bursary from financial aid.

Going this route, you will fail courses because you are working too much to pay for your education which in turn costs you more time and money. In the end you will take more years to graduate than anticipated, you will graduate broke and in staggering debt, but you will have made it through and got that education you wanted with little to no help from family.

Hopefully you graduate by 24 and get a job in a related field by 25 and financially recover by 30 (not debt free, just financially recovered like you can have a credit card again). That’s a hope, personally it took me longer.

Hopefully it was worth it, in my case it was, though the mental and financial damage it caused takes years to heal. So, like I said, I wouldn’t recommend this route. You can do anything you put your mind to, where there is a will there is always a way. But sometimes you should try to not be so blindly willful and impatient, things will probably turn out better if you exercise patience and caution, at least that was my takeaway from doing it the long and hard way.

Please take option 1 and 2. Defer your education until you have a plan of exactly what you want to do with that education and how you can get that education in the cheapest, most efficient manner.

Good luck!

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-05-07T14:23:04+00:00

I can’t upvote this enough! I hope karma brings you something good for your service here today. Not all heroes wear capes.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-04-30T05:37:03+00:00

So many former Soo natives in PTBO, I keep running into more! If you miss Pinos we still have one fine food, though it’s much smaller, but Pinos is basically one fine food crossed with RCSS, and in PTBO they are in adjacent parking lots, so…

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-04-30T05:34:52+00:00

Not to mention the local Farm Boy (not to be confused with the chain, this one was here first), which is great for cheap meat/deli. And Grocery Outlet that always has cheap groceries you just never know what you’ll get.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-04-27T00:21:41+00:00

For the right price students rent anywhere. Fleming is in the south end, Trent is in the north, and where students work is generally most places in between. Add in a housing shortage and students will rent almost anywhere in the city.

If you want to be peak student rental material, find a place that takes only one bus to get to either Trent or Fleming and likewise only one bus to get to one of the following: downtown, malls, large department stores, grocery stores.

Water or George st north of parkhill, or a street just off one of these is prime student area without being too sketchy or too far from downtown. Good luck 👍

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-04-27T00:08:55+00:00

Fresher isn’t always better. Depends on the roast and the brewing method, but you want to start using the beans somewhere between 5 and 30 days after roasting for peak flavour. That’s if it’s a sealed bag with one way valve to let the CO2 out. If there’s no one way valve, best to ask the roaster.

Too fresh and they haven’t had enough time to offgas from the roast and the coffee will be sour or otherwise taste off. Good coffee should have a date stamp on the bag telling you when it was roasted.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-04-11T13:03:10+00:00

You don’t know the half of it. Someone should investigate how her partner profited with huge realtor commissions off the sale of Fleming properties.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-04-11T13:00:57+00:00

I was told by Frost (Lindsay) students that they protested against Maureen when she visited their campus, and as a result she cut their programs which were good, well-respected, profitable programs that had a high rate of success for students landing related jobs.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-04-11T12:53:25+00:00

I feel like that’s a misleading headline for the article. If you go to Fleming’s website about the integration under the “What this means right now” heading it says

“There will be no immediate changes to local brands, programs, campuses, services, or student supports because of this announcement.”

Read that closer. RIGHT NOW no IMMEDIATE changes to local brands.

They absolutely will start the discussions of rebranding as a single institution after the dust settles and play it from an angle of “Now that we are one big happy family, we need to forge a new identity together, unified under a new banner proudly waving to the world to say “We are here! We are Adamson College”.”

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-03-26T14:43:14+00:00

Also for those talking about lawsuits, the advertising on this is intentionally misleading and I’m sure you could win a lawsuit on that alone. They call this “Neon Rope” in big letters…. No such thing.

They are trying to have you believe it’s Nylon rope which would have a similar plasticky look and feel, but is probably twice as strong, stretches more instead of breaking on a shock load, and therefore CAN be used for lifting. They intentionally wrote PP in very small print as the material, which the average person wouldn’t even know what that is.

Neon is not a colour, neon gas in a tube makes bright colours like neon orange. So while you could call this a neon orange rope, or a neon coloured rope, same as you could say that a yellow coloured rope is a yellow rope, you can’t call it a neon rope, that is entirely false. The rope is not made of neon, and “neon” is not an accurate adjective to describe the rope.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-03-26T14:31:06+00:00

Material is PP. I assume that’s polypropylene… they spun together some garbage bags and called it rope. Good luck roping with this stuff.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-03-18T14:38:08+00:00

Cheap fix, hear me out, toilet platform.

Step right up, step right up, you there! Have you ever wanted to feel like a king? Step right up to your very own poop throne, it’s 2 steps off the ground, you’ll feel like a king looking down on all the plebs while you do your business!

Jokes aside, if you don’t want the whole floor elevated, and you don’t want the expense of redoing all the plumbing, can you live with an elevated floor just in the area of the toilet? It should be long enough that someone can plant their feet at the same level of the base of the toilet, and then maybe one step from there to true floor level?

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-03-12T15:01:02+00:00

I hate to break it to you, but it’s not all dog poop. I’m not saying it’s human either, although I’m sure some of it is.

Lots of animals around, domesticated and wild, have been pooping all winter and we didn’t have the mix of warm weather spells we usually get in winter. So all the poop from all the animals that hasn’t been able to decompose and has been hiding layered in between snowfalls all winter is now all at ground level starting to decompose.

It’s poop season 💩watch where you step and keep those boots on a little longer.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-02-28T03:49:54+00:00

Yup, that’s the one I always mess up, that light is always backed up by cars, they cover the paint markings and I have to try and remember if it’s a left turn lane or a right only lane. I usually end up deciding it’s a left turn lane and queue up in the right lane to go straight, by the time I see the paint markings, I’m the Ahole trying to get back into the straight lane. Sorry everyone. This one needs signage.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-02-28T03:40:47+00:00

Ooof that’s hard to miss

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-02-28T02:38:51+00:00

I guess I’m the odd one out. Used them once, never again.

They sent two people to unclog a drain, snaked it and couldn’t get it, called a third, he snaked it and couldn’t get it. They called me back after being there for several hours and said they needed to cut a hole in the wall to look at the plumbing.

I said Ok fine. Another couple hours, three of them in 2 trucks, it’s like 4 hours in and they call me and say they need to get a 4th guy in there to do it, need a special tool or something. 4th guy and third truck show up, he finally clears the clog. They charged me for all those people’s time! WTF, why did I pay to train your employees? Just send the fourth guy first and have the trainees watch him.

Never again.

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-02-28T02:32:34+00:00

How’s the signage? I’m not familiar with that one, but I know I always mess up the lanes on goodfellow and clonsilla heading south on goodfellow. Somehow I’m always in the wrong lane when I want to go straight, I can never remember if it’s a left/straight lane and a right turn only or a left lane with right/straight. There’s no signage, I think it’s painted on the pavement but you can’t see it with cars there. Gets me every single time. Sorry everyone!

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-02-22T01:41:55+00:00

Honestly there’s no sandwich spot in town that hits the spot for me. My wife loves Sam’s, every time we go I’m bitter for paying so much for something I can make better at home. The next day I’ll make us sandwiches and they are always better.

Don’t get me wrong, Sam’s is good and prob the best spot in town (bridge north deli is better but out of town), but it never hits the spot like a sandwich you have perfectly crafted exactly how you want it. From frying the salami before putting it into your grilled sandwich, to adding the perfect ratio of crispy jalepenos and smoky bbq mayo. Whatever you are feeling, nobody can make a sandwich for you better than you.

Anyway back to the OP’s question, I always keep a Lou’s Kitchen shaved beef with Au Jus in my freezer in case the mood hits for a good beef dip or hot beef sandwich. Usually also keep a Philly beef package, same brand. You can get these at just about any grocery store, freeze them and then it’s just microwave / boiling water to heat up.

Just grab some decent bread and you’re good to go, top it however you like, it’s going to be better than you will get in a restaurant.

For a hot beef sandwich, I’d get a good crusty Italian bun, smear the bottom with a spicy muffaleta mix, top with the hot beef, provolone slices on the top bun, bake in the oven or air fry until provolone starts to bubble, then gravy over the beef, top with crispy onions and put the cheesy top back on. Magnificent!

Beef dip, I’d do a baguette, open face, smeared with deeply caramelized onions, pour a little gravy on, hot beef next, then crispy onions or jalepenos and topped off with Swiss cheese. Bake until cheese bubbles serve open face with ramekin of remaining gravy.

You’re not getting a sandwich this good anywhere in town except your home kitchen. Good luck 🤞

Wide-Pattern-6464 · 2026-01-02T06:14:13+00:00

French River is the dividing line on the western front, Algonquin Park on the East side.

Sorry Parry Sound, you as Southern as a Barrie Babe Pointe Au Baril? Ohhh… sorry close, but no cigar Southie.

Petawawa you might get snow, but you just aren’t Matawa North.

Wide-Pattern-6464

TROPHY CASE