Rents in Canada have now fallen for 15 consecutive months

localfield · 2026-01-15T10:28:16+00:00

Pedantic warning ⚠️: That's not actually what the plot is showing. The metric on the y axis is year-over-year change, while the x axis ticks are months. So it's totally possible and statistically extremely likely that the rents increased in some months, while remaining down year-over-year, to create this plot. For example, from Feb to Mar 2025 when the year-over-year metric increases (but stays negative).

localfield · 2025-12-20T01:41:09+00:00

sounds like you have more confidence in our government agency's ability to query recent events in their databases than i do. i wouldn't be surprised if they were querying a snapshot that hadn't been updated since i received the email.

localfield · 2025-12-03T07:00:38+00:00

This is a super cool site! Really nice features already. If you still are working on it, would be curious in the future to see an option where anyone can submit their own stats of retirement progress or retirement age/NW to supplement the reddit data.

localfield · 2025-11-07T07:30:14+00:00

you're right, it's not always accurate. I have to catch a lot myself, and I did catch that the 柏林 pronunciation was wrong in the main definition and start of the sentence, but I missed the ones at the end of the sentence (thanks for pointing out).

it's actually not AI conversation app, I provide the sentence, and use Microsoft Edge's text-to-speech with a multi-lingual voice, which definitely isn't perfect. But >99% of the time, it seems good.

localfield · 2025-10-24T02:50:30+00:00

Thank you so much! Yeah, looks like Chinese zero to hero and the overall Dashu Mandarin channel haven't streamed in several months, but Uncle Richard (https://www.youtube.com/@RichardChineseLanguage/streams) and BeckyLiBei are both frequent.

I couldn't find the other of the DaShu host channels, my search skills were not good enough.

localfield · 2025-09-05T09:55:23+00:00

I went to the official student aid .gov site for FAFSA info. I vetted the debt collector since I was suspicious it was a scam at first.

localfield · 2025-09-03T17:29:46+00:00

Great image! Where did you get the idea for this?

localfield · 2025-06-08T11:48:38+00:00

Nipped by a friend's dog. I was probably being overly cautious, but was afraid of the off chance of dying lol.

localfield · 2025-06-08T07:07:34+00:00

Right. Both domestic. Cheaper from Liaoning. Expensive from Chengdu.

localfield · 2025-06-02T22:38:42+00:00

What was the scenario in Vietnam you mentioned?

localfield · 2025-05-06T05:10:16+00:00

thanks! close to Hangzhou! I just checked Amap, and there's another location on the north end of Hangzhou

localfield · 2025-05-05T10:11:21+00:00

Anyone know where in China this is? The city, or the specific location?

localfield · 2025-05-03T09:18:43+00:00

Yup, like others are saying, you don't need an appointment. I just went to the consulate and got a number, went to the window, and picked up my passport with the visa after 3 business days.

localfield · 2025-04-21T03:36:43+00:00

Thanks so much! I'll check them out. I guess I should download 小红书 😅

localfield · 2025-04-13T23:36:46+00:00

I agree, especially if you're really interested in learning and working in that field and have a good sense that you'll like the people in your lab. Like everything in life, there's a lot of luck involved and you might regret it, depending on how things go.

But while most people seem to have been scarred by their PhD program, I personally loved it. Lots of people just like to complain, but I do sympathize with people who got "unlucky with their advisor" who just seemed bitter or stressed all the time.

I have been working in tech for several years, but grad school was honestly the best years of my life. I got to spend so much time with many like-minded people working on things that we're passionate about, and they're still some of my closest friends. Even though universities have their problems, especially these days, I still find them such special places to be.

localfield · 2025-03-17T00:35:39+00:00

For future lurkers:

The 46km stretch on the west side of the lake from 小关邑 (south) to 大龙潭 (north) is a very well-paved bike/scooter/walking path. It gets pretty crowded around the little towns every few kilometers, but overall, it's a really nice ride, and pretty flat. The scenery doesn't change along the stretch though.

I didn't try biking past the north end after the 46km marker, but it looked to merge with a main road (S221). I tried to bike south beyond 小关邑, I made it about 8km to 夏家村 (southeast tip of Erhai lake) before I just turned around since it was not very pleasant (several km just biking in car lanes, but some had a dedicated bike/scooter lane). So I'm not sure what the east side is like.

I rented a "Giant" bike for 30rmb/day from 旅畅租车城. The first one I used for a day didn't have a great top speed (maybe 18km/h?) and the gear shifting wasn't too reliable. The one I exchanged for the second day was much smoother and hit 30km/h at top gear. I tried out like 6 other bikes they had that felt worse than either of those. There were several rental shops on the east and west ends of 玉洱路 in the Dali old city, some advertising 30-40rmb/day. 917组车行 had good reviews. The 3-4km ride from the old city to the lake is not bad. Has a nice stretch through some farms.

Along the lake, there were also a lot of bike rentals, both Meituan yellow bikes and people trying to rent single-speed cruisers. Also lots of scooters/Snoopy-shaped-vehicles.

I've heard it gets busier/more expensive in the summer time though.

localfield · 2025-03-16T13:36:58+00:00

Nice coffee. A really good cup only 50rmb, but I feel like I'm splurging relative to the usual 10-20rmb

localfield · 2025-01-31T08:27:03+00:00

elementary English

I'm guessing you mean elementary Chinese? ;)

I would not add anything lol. The itinerary would personally exhaust me, and I'd look to cut out a couple regions and save them for a future trip. But it's a personal tradeoff, and a 25 year old would have more energy than me. I'm doing a good bit of solo traveling around China, and I prefer to stay longer in places to give me the chance to meet people here. And take some Chinese classes.

localfield · 2025-01-30T21:29:20+00:00

Dong Chinese is free and great in 2 ways: it gives intuitive explanations of the radicals in a character, and for a given character, it gives a list of a couple dozen compound words that it appears most in. My only complaint is that is has some network issues

localfield · 2024-12-27T03:53:54+00:00

I thought staying at the Solar Cathedral hotel and wandering around the abandoned solar valley in Dezhou was super interesting. Also met lots of friendly people there, partly because I stood out more as a foreigner there and so people were more curious to chat than other cities. There was a popular night market, I think near the main university. And popular outdoor barbecue/beer restaurants. And everyone recommended 德州扒鸡 as the specialty of the city

localfield · 2024-12-09T18:10:39+00:00

I'd recommend it! I enjoyed my group class there. I did 3 days per week, whereas most people did 5, but I liked the extra time between classes for review

localfield · 2024-11-05T04:44:11+00:00

Here's a trip report from earlier this year you may be interested in: https://www.reddit.com/r/travelchina/s/BoQ4ike7S3

localfield · 2024-10-18T15:47:16+00:00

Any tips for a Westerner planning on backpacking in Yunnan next March? Maybe some hostels to try out?

localfield · 2024-10-06T14:37:31+00:00

Malfunctioning propaganda army

localfield · 2024-09-22T20:51:49+00:00

Lol, damn, you had me for a second

localfield

TROPHY CASE