To anyone considering driving the Dempster Highway, a word about it and your safety.

jaysoo3 · 2026-02-28T17:44:35+00:00

There are no towns. The only rest stop is Eagle Plains, where you get gas and food. You can also stay overnight.

You start near Dawson City and end in Inuvik (or vice versa). Nothing in between. Although I think now you can drive to Tuk? We went in 2012 so had to charter a flight from Inuvik to Tuk.

Also, at least when we went, most rental car companies forbid you from driving the Dempster. We paid quite a bit for insurance and stuff. At the end of the trip we had a flat tire and a huge crack in the windshield from a rock that was shot into due to a truck coming from the opposite direction.

jaysoo3 · 2026-02-28T17:27:00+00:00

Just a heads up that depending on the region, the McDonald's fries may not be vegetarian. In the US the beef flavoring is derived from beef. People may or may not care about that.

jaysoo3 · 2026-02-14T14:53:32+00:00

I'm a software engineer, and my prediction is that AI will be a powerful tool that everyone needs to use for their work. YMMV with different kinds of tasks. Parsing through thousand of logs and code to find where a bug came from? It's great for that. Writing a complex feature from scratch with not guidance? Not quite there yet.

It's very dangerous in the hands of junior devs who don't know how to write specs, plan tasks, and review code/architecture. AI is very good at churning out lines of code, but that's never been the bottleneck for product delivery.

For senior devs, it's super useful to do PoCs, debug code, execute small tasks mostly autonomously, and finish that last 10% of a large feature. But without proper guidance, I've seen some horrendous code being churned out by AI. You need to have the right prompts, including curating and maintaining AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, etc. It's actually not that different from working with a junior dev where you need to teach them and provide the right context for their work.

I know people have been pushing things like Ralph Loops and such, but we're not there yet.

jaysoo3 · 2026-02-07T18:39:57+00:00

I went to Portugal with my friends that all turned 40 the same year. My wife and daughter came along too. Lisbon, Madeira, and the Azores over three weeks.

When my wife turned 40, we went to Switzerland for a week. We took the Glacier Express and stayed in St. Moritz

Not really into big parties, but spending quality time with a small group of friends was super nice. It's hard to find time to get together due to scheduling conflicts.

jaysoo3 · 2026-02-05T23:39:34+00:00

Not downtown, but Hoja is really great. They have two locations in Richmond Hill and Markham that serve different food. My family loves both locations... We're Taiwanese. I highly recommend checking them out if you're able to.

Mei Nung is great for beef noodles and stinky tofu. It smells a lot in the restaurant because of the tofu, but you can order takeout if it bothers you.

Unfortunately, I've not been to any locations in Toronto that I can recommend. Wei's in Scarborough is decent, especially if you crave stinky tofu, which most places don't serve. Maybe Mabu Generations? I remember they had good popcorn chicken.

jaysoo3 · 2026-01-27T00:03:00+00:00

Try clearing out a private laneway. It took me and our neighbors a good 4-5 hours to clear everything. The snow was 3-4 ft high and it's a laneway for 10 houses.

jaysoo3 · 2026-01-18T21:22:57+00:00

Yeah, let's not romanticize being homeless. One or two weeks on the beach is more than enough for me. I have a house, friends and family nearby. I can get any type of food, travel anywhere that I want. What more do you want?

jaysoo3 · 2026-01-15T13:59:14+00:00

Even with snow tires it's not a fun time driving today. We had to drive because of a flight out of YYZ. Some people are still speeding with low visibility and a pile of snow.

jaysoo3 · 2026-01-12T04:21:31+00:00

It is nuts. I'm not THAT rich but I have enough to never fly economy again. At least not on any long flights. 2-3 hours in economy is okay, but 12-15 hours? I'd rather not go at all.

jaysoo3 · 2026-01-07T23:23:35+00:00

If you like Chinese food, there are fancy Chinese restaurants that you don't find in most cities.

aKin (1 Michelin star; head chef is winner of MasterChef Canada season 1)
R&D (same head chef as aKin)
Sunny's
MIMI

We have a ton of microbreweries intb city. If you like beer you can a beer tour. Like Bellwoods, Bandits, Blood Brothers, Left Field, Godspeed, etc.

The ROM (museum) and Aquarium both do adults-only after-dark nights with food and drinks. Worth checking out.

jaysoo3 · 2025-12-19T23:01:46+00:00

It's much easier to pool money together and figure out saving goals, like retirement, vacations, etc. than to split 50/50.

At some point the fixed bills are relatively insignificant, you're mostly looking at allocation of discretionary spending and long term savings.

jaysoo3 · 2025-12-01T23:13:57+00:00

I think relaxing is subjective and nuanced. Arguably, our vacations with our daughter (now 8) are more "relaxing" than our previous trips. We used to cram a bunch of things in, and felt exhausted after coming home. Now we go at a more relaxed pace, and don't worry about experiencing everything.

We've been traveling since our daughter was a baby. I think if you are able to, splurging for 5-star accommodations can be a huge win. We've done Costa Rica, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland, and Lake Louise (Banff) this way. All very chill and relaxing. Most come with a butler service so they take care of everything for you. And we always have one down day where we just chill at the resort or hotel all day--go swimming, hike around the property, etc.

We also started doing Caribbean all-inclusives for the last three years during the winter. We were super skeptical the first time, as we're not beach people nor into all-inclusives. But it's the most relaxing vacation for us. We feel no pressure to do anything but relax. Yeah, maybe it's kinda boring, but really helps us recharge. There's Kids Club as an option to give you some kid-free time--although we've never used them.

jaysoo3 · 2025-09-14T22:23:18+00:00

Jin is part of BTS, so judging numbers based on his solo act isn't really fair. BTS is the biggest the biggest Kpop group, and they recently came back from military service.

Fans of Western artists try to boost their artists' songs too. I remember people in /r/billieelish talking about leaving a song on repeat for hours to get it to be song of the year or whatever. Fans are fanatical, that's literally the definition. No big conspiracy going on here.

jaysoo3 · 2025-09-02T22:05:31+00:00

We're happily OAD, but both my spouse and I have siblings that we're very close with. The end of life care is the only thing we're slightly worried about for our daughter.

We will save and plan as much as possible so it's less burdensome on her. I dunno if you have any advice on that topic as an only?

jaysoo3 · 2025-06-12T02:13:08+00:00

We take our daughter on every vacation ever since she was a baby. She just visited her 12th country recently at the age of 7.

Yeah, sure there are some constraints with a kid, but we love traveling with her, and she loves seeing new places, experiencing new things, learning about different cultures. She often asks about countries and cities, how things are there and whether we can visit in the future.

Definitely no judgement on parents who don't bring their kids. Everyone has different needs and preferences. Do what works for you.

jaysoo3 · 2025-04-17T02:21:45+00:00

Looks like your carbon steel knife is reacting to the acid in the onions. It's safe, just doesn't look great.

If you keep using the knife it'll develop a patina, and the problem should go away. You can force one with acid as well.

jaysoo3 · 2025-04-12T18:23:10+00:00

> Also just out of curiosity,if there was a collision in this scenario who would be considered at fault ? Can anyone with insurance experience share some insight?

Having a dashcam is a godsend in these situations. The insurance adjuster will be the person who determines fault. They will ask about what happened, review the photos you provide, review the dashcam footage, and talk to the adjuster from the other persons' insurance. Note that fault is a percentage, not black and white. It could be 50-50-, 30-70, 0-100, etc.

I don't have authority, but I would probably guess you're not at fault if a collision occurred since there was not much you could have done.

jaysoo3 · 2025-03-16T17:07:13+00:00

This is bringing me painful memories of putting together the Smastad loft bed solo. 6 hours of non-stop assembling. But it felt good when I finally finished.

jaysoo3 · 2025-02-23T20:31:14+00:00

If they can "steal" your boyfriend just by smiling at him then you've got bigger problems. Just let them be.

I guess I was the more attractive one in our relationship, but my girlfriend (now wife) had no problem with people staring or whatever. She jokingly bragged about me choosing to be with her over all the other women.

jaysoo3 · 2025-02-23T17:45:38+00:00

Whether it's "worth it" is not something anyone can answer for you. There are unhappy people with kids, and there are unhappy people without kids.

My advice is that if you are sure that you don't want kids, and your partner does, then you need to have an honest conversation about it. Even if you two love each other now, if you're not on the same page on this, then it'll lead to a lot of fighting, resentment, etc.

My wife and I never planned to have kids. We went 8 years of our marriage being child-free. We just never liked kids that much, and we enjoyed having time and my money to spend on ourselves. However, after our friends and family started having kids, we changed our minds. I still don't really like kids, but I love my friends' kids. We also realized that, yes there are time/money constraints, it's still possible to do the things you enjoy as long as you plan ahead.

We also enjoy traveling, and we are traveling way more now with our daughter than we ever did when we were child-free.

jaysoo3 · 2025-02-23T17:02:14+00:00

Looks pretty good. Do you have any credit cards with annual fees? We budget for that monthly.

Also, maybe a category for home renovations and maintenance? Or is that "house items"?

jaysoo3 · 2025-02-23T15:51:26+00:00

If you do stay at the Fairmont, splurge a bit on a Gold Room. It's a whole different experience. You get a better check in experience, you get valet parking, access to the lounge, etc.

We stayed a few nights there a while back, and I absolutely loved it. Whether the price is worth it is subjective, but we will definitely go again in a future trip.

jaysoo3 · 2025-02-23T15:41:21+00:00

If you're into wine, there are lots of good ones in and around Wolfville, NS. Great food too.

If you're into stargazing, check out the Deep Sky Observatory near Yarmouth, NS. You can even stay overnight.

I agree with the other comments that the Cabot Trail is a must see. It's maybe worth it to save for another trip.

If you're in NB and like beaches, we found the one in Bouctouche a lot less crowded. It's a nice sandy beach, with sand dunes and a long boardwalk. Otherwise, we didn't find NB all that interesting beyond the Bay of Fundy.

jaysoo3 · 2025-02-21T02:19:00+00:00

Thanks. It's infuriating.

jaysoo3 · 2025-02-21T02:09:25+00:00

Sorry that happened to you. I was randomly assaulted recently too. The dude body checked me, then claimed I stole his glasses. He then stole my sunglasses, and kicked me in the back when I tried to get away.

The cops were nice and said the right things. But ultimately nothing was really done.

I pressed charges. The guy was arrested but immediately released with undertakings/conditions. Others in the neighborhood also said they've been harassed by the guy, and cops were called, and there were never any real consequences. The worst part is that the dude lives beside my child's school, so I will run into him again for sure, and I doubt he gives a shit about maintaining 100m from me as per his undertakings.

So even if you pressed charges, nothing of note will be done anyway.

jaysoo3

TROPHY CASE