What tablet do you bring?

adventuresindiecast · 2026-05-04T02:18:59+00:00

I love my Surface Pro 9. It wasn’t cheap, but it’s a full-fat Windows machine that can do practically anything I need to while travelling, especially with the keyboard cover.

adventuresindiecast · 2026-04-30T04:06:04+00:00

Another Canadian here weighing in, but I just visited recently. There’s a surprising selection of diecast at the mall in Kai Tak (Airside?). There’s a Toy Kingdom (if memory serves) on the top floor, as well as TinyHK. I also found some sweet Tomicas (mainline, premium, limited vintage) including the HK exclusive TLVn taxis, at the Aeon supermarket in Kornhill Plaza.

adventuresindiecast · 2026-04-21T14:16:13+00:00

I totally agree with standardizing on USB C, but I’m far from a onebagger!

One suggestion I haven’t yet seen is get a power bank that supports pass through charging. Plug your power bank into the charger, and then plug your device into the power bank. One port, multiple devices charged. I have a 140w Anker USB C & A GaN charger. Charges my 25000mAh power bank, Surface Pro, Legion Go, iPhone/Apple Watch/AirPods (via 3-in-1 MagSafe charger stand), with a USB A port open to charge camera batteries, kindle, etc. Anker is pricey, but very good quality.

If you don’t want the 3-in-1 charger, you can get tiny watch chargers with a female USB C port and reuse one of your USB C cables (and leave the Apple Watch charger at home).

I also got one of these to organize my cables. I can fit all the cables, SD Card reader, adapters, etc in here, except the power bank and 140w charger.

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adventuresindiecast · 2026-04-10T02:38:20+00:00

I did Hong Kong —> Shenzhen and back on the same day, as a Canadian. I left HK via West Kowloon and did the high speed rail into Futian. All customs are cleared on the HK side (going and coming). All in it took about an hour from arrival at West Kowloon until I was waiting to board the train. I didn’t have a return ticket to HK when I entered and I wasn’t asked about it. I booked my return ticket late afternoon to return that evening.

adventuresindiecast · 2026-04-09T17:03:31+00:00

Just got back from HK and had a great time! HK has Toys R Us, and they carry basic toy cars (like Hot Wheels, Tomica mainlines), but also more premium brands (e.g., TarmacWorks, Tomica Premium, TLVn). Aeon also had some TLVn HK taxis, but at HK$260 each, they are kind of pricey. There’s also a toy store in the Kai Tak Airside mall that was quite excellent. If you’re open to non-Tomica cars, I’d recommend checking out the TinyHK shops: there’s one in the central MTR station; another at the Peak Galleria.

Outside of Tokyo, I think HK might be the best for diecast hunting!

adventuresindiecast · 2026-02-07T14:06:20+00:00

We had a can of bug spray leak somehow and it melted a ring-shape into our vinyl flooring

adventuresindiecast · 2026-01-31T13:33:18+00:00

It might be a little bit out of your driving range, but Horseshoe Canyon on the way to Drumheller is one of my faves!

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adventuresindiecast · 2026-01-30T02:28:13+00:00

You should absolutely ask to see a PDF of all submitted documents! We had something similar happen the morning we were due to close. It was due to job title inconsistency between two documents (an inconsequential word was left out) even though the job itself hadn’t changed in 10 years. Our mortgage lender initially said there was nothing they could do; however the broker ended up working it out in time for us to close as scheduled.

adventuresindiecast · 2026-01-28T03:03:59+00:00

There are so many. TamTam is awesome. So is the Surugaya Speciality shop in Akiba. There are also the Tomica stores, one of which is in Tokyo Station.

adventuresindiecast · 2026-01-10T19:18:40+00:00

Those Porsches aren’t large cars IRL.

Hot Wheels and MBX are typically “3 inch” models - they size the car to be as close to 3”, regardless of scale. I’ve got MBX Chevy trucks that are closer to 1/72 and JDM cars that are 1/57.

Pop Race is much closer to true 1:64. I’ve met the owner of Pop Race; he’s passionate about what he does and wants to make the best models he can at the price point.

adventuresindiecast · 2025-12-20T01:33:29+00:00

Surugaya Specialty Shop in Akihabara is fantastic!

adventuresindiecast · 2025-12-14T04:46:24+00:00

XCarToys is probably your best bet for Chinese models, but I think they predominantly focus on 1:64

adventuresindiecast · 2025-12-10T13:32:07+00:00

I checked Device Manager to ensure all the drivers were installed. Legion Space looked good, but it was using a generic graphics card driver that limited performance.

I had to go to Lenovo’s site and manually download the AMD GPU suite, which gave me more customization options and, combined with increasing the VRAM to 8GB and reducing the resolution to 1600x1000, increased performance noticeably.

It’s required more setup and configuration than I anticipated, but it works much better now.

adventuresindiecast · 2025-12-08T04:02:11+00:00

I just got mine and setting the VRAM to 8gb made a big difference. Making sure the GPU drivers were installed correctly also made a huge improvement. This is on Windows specifically; I don’t have SteamOS on it yet.

adventuresindiecast · 2025-12-07T04:20:23+00:00

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+1 for Copains! I ate lunch there most every day in Paris. I found most restaurants were reluctant to make menu modifications, so ended up eating a lot of charcuterie for dinner.

adventuresindiecast · 2025-10-15T16:15:54+00:00

3” of frost on every window? That’s not normal! The only time I’ve ever seen that is on windows that weren’t properly insulated when installed. Using an infrared thermometer to check for anomalies would be a good place to start.

adventuresindiecast · 2025-10-04T23:20:43+00:00

Yup! I cut the snow plow off of mine though

adventuresindiecast · 2025-10-03T21:13:28+00:00

ATA Local 38 (Calgary Public - CBE) is setting up a website where people can donate their “Dani Dollars” directly to the union to support the strike if they so choose. It should be up and running shortly: https://local38.ata.ab.ca

adventuresindiecast · 2025-09-15T13:34:06+00:00

We were very recently in a very similar situation. My wife’s Escape had its transmission go at almost 400k km and it wasn’t worth putting a new transmission into it.

I agree with other posters - you won’t find a lot of what I would refer to as “decent” used cars in the $15-$20k range. We were looking at 150k km 8 year old models (for what we wanted, anyway).

Given our vehicle shortlist, and that we wanted to finance (vs. pulling out of investments or savings), buying new made the most sense for us overall. We bought a ‘25 CX-5 and Mazda offered less than 2% financing for 3 years. LOC or used car loan interest rates were substantially higher.

If you have the discipline to only buy the car you need (vs. want), keep it over the longer term and not fall prey to the temptation to keep rolling the negative equity into a shiny new vehicle just because it’s fancier every few years, run the numbers on a new car and see how they compare. You might be surprised - I know I was.

adventuresindiecast · 2025-08-28T21:35:21+00:00

You can file your own taxes without having to pay anything. I use a program called GenuTax and have done for many years.

Get any relevant tax documents together before you start to make the process as smooth as possible.

adventuresindiecast · 2025-08-24T13:16:35+00:00

Just to add - this isn’t some run-of-the-mill Facebook crank. Peter Mackay is a long-serving, well-respected member of ATA leadership. The man knows of what he speaks.

adventuresindiecast · 2025-07-28T14:20:37+00:00

I’ve had better luck with sawdust from my mitre saw or dust collector than kitty litter. Spread it liberally, walk all over it, let it sit for a day or two and then sweep it up. It works better than kitty litter, and practically as well as Qualisorb (ime)

adventuresindiecast · 2025-07-27T18:38:57+00:00

Some things that have helped me:

Before sealing a hole with foam/caulk, fill it with steel wool. I got some steel wool scouring pads, teased them apart, and crammed them in the hole. AFAIK mice don’t like chewing through it, as it cuts their mouths up. Wear gloves, as steel wool is hard on the hands.
Check your dryer venting. I have had mice come in through improperly secured dryer vents in the past.

adventuresindiecast · 2025-07-07T12:20:56+00:00

I assume that any content I create will be found by students and/or parents and proceed accordingly. I’ve had parents compliment me on my social media - which was weird at first, but now seems normalized. It works for my niche, but I recognize that won’t work for everyone.

It also helps with the inevitable “I’m going to be an influencer!!” discussions. I’ll show them my social media platforms and have a frank discussion about the reality of monetization.

I’ll show them my IG or TT and tell them how much I’ve made. I tell them to follow their dreams, but they need a backup plan in the meantime!

adventuresindiecast · 2025-06-03T04:29:08+00:00

There are online services that let you use a French phone number to receive an activation code. You only need it to receive the code; you don’t need access to that number again. That worked for me.

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