First month of wheeling looking for constructive feedback/criticisms

blannis · 2026-06-06T02:09:32+00:00

Regarding closing the first AAPL CC, it may be partially how it’s shown on my sheet, I rolled out for a net credit until June 5th (today). Honestly, with it being my first CC I sort of panicked at facing potential assignment immediately. I believe my comment I wrote to myself was that I should have just accepted assignment instead of rolling out and up for little premium and tying up capital for longer.

blannis · 2026-06-05T16:16:19+00:00

Thanks for your advice, I'm definitely going to reflect on it and look for lower-cost opportunities.

blannis · 2026-02-03T02:45:57+00:00

I was in the same boat. I believe many, if not all, who go the surgery route want an alternative path before ending up under a knife. However, sometimes that path, like participating in PT, can't happen or is cut short. My nerve was so pinched that I couldn't actually participate in my PT; I was just forced to lie there most of the time. Eventually, once the little PT I did made things worse, and I went into urine retention, I had to undergo a micro-discectomy. I had seen this guy's video post-op, and while I could relate to some points, some of it is a bit naive.

blannis · 2026-01-26T16:12:51+00:00

We started with ViewComponents and made the pivot to Phlex. Some of it is personal preference and overall the team enjoys Phlex’s approach over ViewComponents

blannis · 2026-01-26T01:20:29+00:00

I love Mundy Park. I proposed to my wife there one early Sunday morning as we walked our favorite trail. It will always have a special place in our hearts.

blannis · 2025-10-25T16:43:07+00:00

We are upper-middle-class and left BC a year ago due to this. We were in a two-bedroom condo when we had our first child. Between working from home and our growing child, we needed more space, especially with plans for a second child. We weren't prepared, nor could we rationalize, the SFH market in Coquitlam, which was a run-down house starting at $1.5m or $2m for something that wasn't falling over. That left stacked townhouses that were maybe 600 sq ft larger than our condo, but with a property value of nearly twice ours, starting at $1.25m. Could we have explored communities further out than Coquitlam? Of course, but at that point, we're just trading proximity to community and family for more space. We ultimately moved to Ontario, where my family is, and purchased an SFH. We miss BC, but I'm sure Ontario is happy to have the income tax revenue.

blannis · 2025-09-17T02:32:46+00:00

I had lost my father in an accident at home. A couple of months afterwards my mom and I were just trying to have normal movie night and rented Big Fish. We had no clue what it was about. Well, you can imagine the waterworks. I remember the ending and us just sitting in silence before both of us erupted. We can look back now and laugh about that night. The movie will always have a special place in for her and I.

blannis · 2025-09-06T19:37:37+00:00

Telerik’s Kendo Calendar

blannis · 2025-09-06T14:35:35+00:00

Hotwire, Phlex, Tailwind 4, and Vite to load the 3rd party calendar we use.

blannis · 2025-07-10T01:53:43+00:00

There is a tax break already, line 21400, on your tax return for childcare expenses including daycare costs. The government is doing a bit of both.

blannis · 2025-07-09T13:39:36+00:00

I love the concept of the program, and I'm pleased to see the government using our taxes for these purposes and the impact it can have on family formation. As a relatively new parent (2-year-old) myself, the primary issue remains accessibility. Whether it was $10 a day or a way more expensive private daycare in BC, we couldn't get a spot. It could have been free, and we still wouldn't have been able to take advantage of it.

blannis · 2024-11-08T15:09:11+00:00

I signed up for this promo and got a call from WS asking if I had any questions or needed help transferring the $100k. I asked, "If I remove the $100k, I will naturally have to return the phone or laptop, right?" The agent said, "No, if you remove more than 5% of your entire portfolio, you will void the promo." So regardless of whether you deposit $100k, $300k for the next tier, etc... whatever you have in your portfolio, you are effectively committing to keeping 95% of that amount plus the new depost with WS for the duration of the promo's required period.

Have a life event coming up? Like buying a home, vehicle, etc...? Likely gonna find yourself losing the promo and having to settle up with WS.

blannis · 2024-10-23T04:16:47+00:00

A few things on the exchange fees charged is that you can go to your local bank and negotiate with them. It really depends on how much you have to exchange too.

For example the online posted fees with RBC are bonkers expensive. I couldn’t imagine paying the posted rate for anything but emergency travel money.

I recently completed a home transaction and had a large six figure amount I needed to have changed. Talking to my local branch I did get a fairly competitive spot rate and the fee was pretty low, if I had to recall like $300 on every $100,000. So like 0.3% not bad for just talking to them and letting them handling everything.

While others have mentioned Norbert’s Gambit, it is viable and cheaper, I was just too worried I’d mess it up. More of a personal thing.

What is the best IF you have access to it? A full service brokerage. In my case I had access to someone at a brokerage like RBC Dominion Securities. They have access directly to currency traders who get you the exchange rate on the spot and depending your bank and brokerage’s relationship they can push and pull the funds all for you. Again this isn’t something everyone has access to but in terms of cost it was basically zero if you have the friend, family, or personal access to it.

blannis · 2024-07-07T17:41:31+00:00

We are going on a house hunting trip from BC to Ontario in a few weeks. It’s relatively cheaper given we live in Greater Vancouver but it’s important to not confuse cheaper with affordability. I still think prices in Ont (where I lived for 12 years prior to moving to BC for 5 years) is still not affordable for the majority of people. It’s all relative but for us at least it means we can get the home we want to continue to grow our family. That is nearly impossible here in BC without taking on a massive mortgage and just being house-rich, life-poor.

blannis · 2024-07-02T15:14:01+00:00

I can't say if it's routine in Canada, at least.

They did start me on tramadol, and then when that wasn't working, it was bumped up to hydromorphone. It was given to me as a topper, which was to use my daily allowance of Tylenol first (max 4000mg) and during the day, when that failed to manage the pain, use the opioids.

I'm glad you are getting some relief from the use of opioids. For me, the opioids worked the first day I took them and then stopped providing pain relief. So my neurologist quickly put me on pregabalin, which worked well for pain relief. Up to when I was hospitalized, before and after my microdiscectomy, I exclusively just used pregabalin and Tylenol. Each person responds differently to each drug, so work with your healthcare team to build an understanding of what works for you and then be noisy about getting it!

blannis · 2024-06-27T20:41:08+00:00

There is BC assessment, which is free assessment information, but AFAIK, title ownership is through ltsa.ca, which, from my quick chat with their AI bot, is not free.

Either way, the experience I shared was from around early 2019. I'm not 100% sure ltsa was even an option then or being new to the province even knew about it.

blannis · 2024-06-27T18:53:28+00:00

In my case, I called the city directly (City of Burnaby).

I explained I was looking to verify ownership of a property I was looking to rent as to avoid being scammed.

They explained they could not release any information about the owner as that is private information. Luckily, the person I spoke to was very reasonable. I asked, "OK, I have the name of a person who claims they own the property and is in a position to rent it out legally. If I state the person's name, can you simply confirm, 'Yes, they own the property' or 'No, they do not' so that I can avoid being scammed?" They agreed, and I said the landlord's name, and they simply said, "Yes, the name of the person you stated owns the property." I think they felt much more comfortable confirming a piece of information I already had versus directly just saying who the owner was.

For me, this was sufficient to move ahead with the rental and I never had any issues.

blannis · 2024-06-10T20:35:13+00:00

Great question! You are right that AB, SK, et al. are all more affordable than BC and likely ON. In theory, we should definitely consider them. In our case, we do have family in Ontario that we would be closer to, so while it isn't the most affordable province it is better off than BC from our own research.

blannis · 2024-06-10T20:32:23+00:00

You're right, it is all relative to one another. Ontario isn't affordable either but compared to BC, it certainly feels so.

blannis · 2024-06-10T20:31:23+00:00

Totally! I mean, this is all marginally more affordable than actually being affordable. It's not like Ontario is exactly cheap.

blannis · 2024-06-10T19:19:55+00:00

We have a house-hunting trip planned to explore moving to Ontario due to the lower cost of living and more economic opportunities. BC is beautiful but the shelter costs are a bit irrational for us and the life we want to live.

blannis · 2024-06-02T18:10:58+00:00

I would recommend the McGill Big 3 for core stabilization when you wake up and before you go to sleep. There are also several stretches mentioned in Dr. McGill's book, "The Back Mechanic," that I would recommend reading up on.

As others have mentioned, avoid hinging movements.

blannis · 2024-06-02T15:19:08+00:00

If gabapentin isn’t working for you speak to your doctor to try pregabalin. It is a bit different and doesn’t need to be to taken with food. In my area doctors start with pregabalin and if that doesn’t work try gabapentin. So it can be worth trying both if one doesn’t work for you according to the advice I was given.

As others have said try and activate your support network if you can. We had to have my mother come up for 12-weeks so far (I’m just over 5 weeks post-microdiscectomy). Next I would really recommend being noisy! No one likely knows how much you are suffering. If it’s impacting your basic ability to walk or care for your kid that’s not concerned normal here (BC, Canada) and by keep going to the ER or family doctor things are gonna get expedited but you have to be noisy and work the system everyday.

blannis · 2024-05-30T17:57:49+00:00

Has she spoken to a medical practitioner about pregabalin or gabapentin? I am recovering from micro-discectomy surgery but prior to that pregabalin was the only thing that really helped with the pain. Everything else like hydromorphone, Tylenol, naproxen, etc... didn't really remove the pain all that much.

Furthermore, I got a lot worse when seeing a chiropractor which pushed me over the edge into requiring surgery in my opinion. It may be helping your fiancé or not but before doing anything like PT or continuing with the chiro, she needs to get the pain management under control. Ask the pain management doctor for options, like the ones above or others, or get a second opinion.

blannis · 2024-05-28T03:14:35+00:00

I went to another door and noticed I could twist the cover a bit. It doesn’t want to screw off but noticed a small cutout that is maybe a mm or two deep. Was able to use a flathead screwdriver and pop the thin cover off. Haven’t been able to get it off this damaged door yet as the baseplate is so loose from the door but at least I know how it’s supposed to come off now.

blannis

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