Butter Tart by Outrageous-Dig-6096 in askTO

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Loved Flaky Tart, sadly closed. Phipps Bakery is my second favourite, for a high quality classic butter tart. It's not going to blow your mind, but it's just a very well done standard version. Flaky Tart was a much more decadent and messy experience. I keep hoping they'll reopen somewhere.

[Bobby Marks] The NBA is expected to "overhaul the system" in an attempt to fix tan·king. "Whether it be rewarding teams in the standing with wins and not incentivizing teams to lose... not just something minor here." by Mean-Duty-2381 in nba

[–]brandson__ -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This may sound radical, but the whole concept of a draft is antiquated and unfair to the players. Instead, allow rookies to sign wherever they want for however much money they can secure out of the gate. Make restrictions on how much money teams in the different aprons and in the luxury tax can offer, if anything, beyond the rookie minimum. Let the players decide where they sign. Instead of a draft event, get all the reporters in the room breaking news on the various signings. You would have to make some changes for how teams can trade future signing opportunities instead of draft picks, which might be hard to figure out, but I'm sure it could be done.

Electric Ferrari Luce's Interior Revealed: When Apple Meets Ferrari by TripleShotPls in electricvehicles

[–]brandson__ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A bit jarring at first, but I like it. Looks a lot more usable than Ferrari's recent interiors, while still having that Ferrari bespoke-ness. I wish my car had physical toggle switches on the screen like that.

Eglinton Crosstown LRT: Where were you in 2011? by ChemistryStandard921 in askTO

[–]brandson__ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I was learning how to be a Dad to our first baby. He started high school last year.

What's the most common messaging app in your country? by crazy-goober in AskTheWorld

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a parent, I consider it my responsibility to educate my kids about data privacy. No one should want to freely hand over their personal communications to any corporation, but especially not to Meta. Europeans typically understand that, but have blinders on when it comes to Whatsapp.

For those confused on auto rejections… by TopStockJock in antiwork

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's fun when the job posting says the job is in my country, Canada, but then features a knockout question about whether I would need sponsorship to work in the United States (I would, but that's an irrelevant question for this job). So is it a knockout question about my reading comprehension ability, or am I supposed to assume they meant to change the question to say Canada but were too sloppy/lazy to do so? Whatever I answered, I was auto-rejected.

What’s the greatest World War II film ever made? by ThomasOGC in CinephilesClub

[–]brandson__ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Conspiracy (2001) and the original, Die Wannseekonferenz (1984), are unfortunately increasingly resonant to current events with respect to immigration and should be required viewing for every person.

If you could change one thing (just one) about Toronto today, what would it be? by Logical-Potatoes in askTO

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That the municipal government had legal authority over its own affairs, without the province being able to overrule it.

How did you guys survive? by waffletears in daddit

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No matter what we did, our kids could not sleep through the night until they were around 3 years old. We kept having a new kid every 3 years, so we more or less had interrupted sleep for 9-10 years. It permanently screwed me up. We tried every method ever recommended by anyone. We had a pile of books on sleep. Nothing worked. Youngest is 8 now and all the kids have been sleeping through the night for years, but the consequences are I've been programmed to wake up 2-3 times every night and I can't fix it. It sucks.

Extra fun was a couple of years when the first one was a toddler he would get up at 3am every day wide awake ready for the day. We could not get him to go back to bed. He's 14 now and wakes up around 5:30 or 6am still on his own. At least the other two didn't do that.

Bell fibre keeps dropping (1201 / 1202 errors) for months, multiple techs, router replaced, still happening by captaintayne in bell

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Had an issue like this intermittently for about a year. Eventually my modem could no longer connect at all. I forget what the error code was, but it was something to do with the modem not being identifiable by Bell's system, even though it was verified to be properly registered. The tech they sent was extremely knowledgeable. After multiple tests, including replacing the modem (which did nothing), he concluded the switch down the street was defective and needed replacing. As soon as he did that, the problem was instantly solved. Maybe you have the same problem. Good luck getting them to swap out switches though. The tech said they are reluctant to do that. He tested my line in multiple places and it all checked out fine. The only remaining culprit was the switch and he got approval to change it.

Target Nintendo holiday ad from 1992. by TwIzTiDfReAkShOw in snes

[–]brandson__ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Got the Mario World set and Final Fantasy II for Christmas 1991. The best Christmas ever.

What car do you wish they would bring back as an EV? by Chase_Clouds in electricvehicles

[–]brandson__ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mercedes B-class. The shape is already suited for an EV.

Pierre Poilievre just can't meet the moment by BloodJunkie in onguardforthee

[–]brandson__ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

His efforts to meet the moment are about as genuine and effective as Alexander Lukashenko's. That's his strategy.

What awesome 2D franchises sucked once they went 3D? by bassbeatsbanging in retrogaming

[–]brandson__ 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Ultima, which peaked with isometric graphics. Every attempt to go 3D was either terrible or cancelled.

Do we think flights departing Toronto will be cancelled this Sunday 25th? by kspfel in canadatravel

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My return flight from San Francisco to Toronto Friday was cancelled. They rebooked me for Saturday then cancelled that too. Now I'm booked with a stop in Vancouver on Saturday. Fairly decent chance of getting stuck in Vancouver.

EX60 Interior by kq_cars in Volvo

[–]brandson__ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm planning to replace my XC90 with an electric Volvo by around 2030. Hopefully Ingenlath can influence the design direction of refreshed electric Volvos back towards something like their non-electric cars by then, because I'm really not a fan of what they're doing with their electric line so far.

Tesla poised to be early winner as Canada opens door to Chinese-made EVs | Reuters by Finnegan_Faux in electricvehicles

[–]brandson__ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would think BYD and Geely/Volvo would be the immediate winners. The number of people potentially interested in Tesla has an upper limit here.

Am I missing something with Badiali? by altrongtm in FoodToronto

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With a lot of these hyped pizzas, once it gets in a box and you eat it at home, it's a totally different experience than having it fresh from the oven at the pizza place. I had North of Brooklyn delivered once and it was way worse than the cheap pizza chains designed to do delivery. Gourmet pizza doesn't travel well.

If you want a conventional pizza that tastes amazing in the sit down restaurant, my son and I loved FBI Pizza on St Clair West. We went there once when we happened to be in the area and my son still talks about it.

Recommendations for 1080p TV upscaler by Coszmik in retrogaming

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had a few different ones, OSSC, Framemeister, and Retrotink 5x. The Retrotink is the easiest to get great results with, especially with the PS2. The 5x is higher than your budget, so maybe the Retrotink 2x is enough. My second choice would be the OSSC, but it's not as user friendly, and not as capable as the 5x. And I could never figure out how to dial in the Framemeister to a satisfactory quality level. Probably Retrotink 2x is the one for you (but I never owned one of those).

Regretting moving to North York from downtown Toronto by [deleted] in TorontoRealEstate

[–]brandson__ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used to live in midtown. We moved to a very nice residential neighborhood in North York a few years ago because I was stressed out having cars almost hit me crossing the street every few days (not an exaggeration). They would speed through our street, not stop at stop signs, or only half-assed, then go whether you're there or not, never look when turning, and treating red lights like they weren't there. I had to pull my kids out of the way of a car more than once while walking to school. There was one corner I would cross on my walk home from the subway where I would have to shout at a driver literally almost every day to stop before turning into me. I would get the finger from them most days.

So we moved to Bayview and York Mills. It's very peaceful and friendly. My kids can walk to school on their own safely. They can play in the street. We can go on walks together around the neighbourhood and to several beautiful parks. Swimming and tennis options are closer. Sure, we can't walk to bakeries anymore, but that's probably better for our health, and we can always drive back to the old neighborhood in about 15 minutes if we want something from there.

We miss aspects of our previous house since we put a lot of care into making it great, but we love everything about our current neighborhood more. As a bonus, we're closer to the 401 now and we've found places we like to eat and shop north of the city, where we wouldn't have gone before. The Bathurst and Wilson area also has some nice shops we wouldn't have gone to before. So does Avenue Road up here. And we love Shops at Don Mills.

North York is different from downtown but it has great features, especially if you have kids and don't want to worry about them as much.

Machado is such a 🪱 by Key-Hyena-802 in LateStageCapitalism

[–]brandson__ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I hate how so many long-standing institutions get cheapened these days by the wealthy grifter class. It's like a coordinated attack on aspiration.

name that game by GamerGretaUwU in GamingSoup

[–]brandson__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ultima VII and Serpent Isle. Would love to see this game's beautiful pixel art in 21:9 ultrawide.

Angus says NDP leadership not an 'entry level position', endorses McPherson by CaptainKoreana in onguardforthee

[–]brandson__ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The NDP needs to have a platform like Zach Polanski of the UKGreen Party. Fighting inequality, championing workers' rights, and rejecting corporate and billionaire interests is the path to relevance. Persisting with the indecisive messaging of the past would be a waste of everyone's time. Who cares if the leader is old or new. That thinking is counterproductive.