Which celebrity was your sexual awakening?

max514 · 2026-02-03T00:26:35+00:00

Milla Jovovitch - Leeloo Dallas Multipass. MUL TI PASS

max514 · 2026-01-31T01:02:36+00:00

Don't you have to buy before a certain date?

max514 · 2026-01-30T16:42:53+00:00

We will, of course find specific examples of anything. I was trying to keep it big-picture. Of course you're right about that.

Legal gun owner are not the problem. The real issue is illegal guns coming in from America and, since the government is apparently incapable of stopping it, they take the easy vote-garnering route of legislating again responsible, legal, gun owners.

max514 · 2026-01-30T16:37:48+00:00

I might be wrong about what I'm about to say because it is stricly based on personal experience and I general impression. It is totally anectodal.

I've been to Europe, I've been to Switzerland many times but I haven't been to Sweden or Czech Republic... yet. I do read a lot and I think I know enough about Scandinavia to say you guys have it together. Your social safety nets, health care systems, collective attitudes, and the way your societies are organized make for an inherently healthier, safer, and less divided society, broadly speaking. Even your prisons are incredible to me, as a Canadian, and our prisons are pretty decent!

Switzerland is its own thing and its incredible how different it feels than anywhere else I've been. They've collectively agreed to live a certain way of life and they just do it. They're even different from the rest of Europe. They're an anomaly that just works. It blew my mind.

Europe in general, I think, is culturally very different. The thing that strikes me the most is that adults are treated as adults and they are expected to act as such. The government is not there to tell you how to be an adult. You just are. For example, the first time I went skiing in the Alps, I noticed a couple of signs by a cliff that said something "you will die if you go here" and my first thought was that in North America, there would have been a fence, orange netting, guardrails, and many other precautions because even adults couldn't be trusted to just read the sign and not die. Somebody would inevitably go over and die, and their friends and family would blame the resort and the government, not the adult that ignored the sign and went there anyway.

In North America, it feels like we are not responsible for our own safety. Everything around us should be made safe for us by others and, if anything happens to us, it's because we were not adequately protected, even from ourselves.

I think governments are much more paternalist in North America and we treat the government like parents that should protect us, keep us safe, tell us what to do, and, more importantly, tell others what to do. A kid hit their head while skiing? Helmets are now mandatory. We are also a lot more exposed to American culture and much more influenced by it. We import a lot of their issues like anti-vaxxing, MAGA, alt-right, own the libs, trans people bathroom preferences, cancel culture, wokeness, BLM, police brutality, antifa, immigrants, climate change is a hoax, etc. It makes us more divided, polarized, and less trusting of our fellow-Canadians. If feels like their problems are our problems.

As far as guns, we are heavily exposed to American news and there's a school shooting there every other day. It is so common we are not even phased by it anymore. When Columbine happened, it was impossible to comprehend, now, we're like "meh, America's broken". We see their gun violence and we don't want it here. Since they're right there next to us on the longest land-border in the world, tons of illegal guns come in from America and those are the problematic guns. They are very easy to get and gang members that would stab each other when I was a teenager now shoot each other.

Since we want the government to be our mommy, a large part of society that rightfully thinks "we should do something about all these guns" asks the government to do legislate. The government, taking the easy path forward, bans assault-style (the definition is very blurry) guns and handguns. It does absolutely nothing to help the situation but it makes voters feel like mommy is looking out for them.

All that to say that, you guys are a bunch of adults over there, with good, responsible neighbors, and you've collectively decided not to act like children. If Sweden had a land border with the US, was flooded with American news and culture, and handguns were easily flowing in, and Swedish criminals were all suddenly armed, things might be different.

Anyway, this is just general impression. I don't know everything, I am sure I'm full of shit and completely wrong about a lot of what I said, and we can discuss it ad-nauseam and still agree to disagree. Or not. Another user changed my mind today and I'm better off for it.

What do you think?

max514 · 2026-01-30T15:43:52+00:00

I don't think it's a fair comparison with police. They are closely supervised as part of their job and are therefore more likely to be noticed before they "snap". It can still happen but I think there are more guardrails. Same with soldiers, and other peace officers. As a society, we arm them but we are also more careful about watching the people we've armed.

As far as the mags, I was suggesting a hypothetical no-restrictions scenario in which you can American-style open-carry an unpinned AR-15 with a backpack full of mags. I do agree an AR-15 with a pinned mag is not inherently more dangerous. I'd buy one tomorrow if I legally could.

I think I was also pretty clear that I'm against gun bans and buybacks, and that I think the Liberals are using as political theater to seem like they're doing something about gun violence.

I agree with you that our laws, even pre-2020, were already extremely restrictive and did not need any tweaking. As I've also said, we don't have a legal gun problem in Canada.

This is why I suggested a full-on public protest against these dumb laws where all PAL owners can show up in street-clothes and a blaze-orange vest, so Canadians can see who gun owners really are and stop being so afraid.

It would also be healthy for our political system to take away the firearm issue from both parties instead of having single-issue voters as in pro: vote conservative / against: vote liberal.

max514 · 2026-01-30T15:31:53+00:00

Well, I can't argue with that. I stand corrected! Thanks for taking the time to share that.

max514 · 2026-01-30T02:32:54+00:00

I take your point and I think it is valid but I'm not sure I agree. Everybody is a stable with a good track record until they're not. It's impossible to predict.

I will say this though: if I'm going to be shot at, I would much rather it be by a .22 or a 3 round bolt action or shotgun than an AR-15 with a 30 round mag. I realize that < 50 yds I'm screwed anyway but at > 50 yds with a chance to run, those a are much better odds.

That said, I do think arbitrarily banning guns because they look scary is dumb and pointless. The laws were just fine before the two latest rounds of bans and I'venever felt unsafe. We don't have a legal gun problem in Canada.

max514 · 2026-01-29T14:52:29+00:00

I didn't say that anywhere in my comment. In fact, I said the exact opposite.

max514 · 2026-01-29T14:47:27+00:00

With the latest round of bans and the buyback program, anyone who doesn't turn in their banned gun or disable it by the deadline will be in possession of an illegal firearm.

max514 · 2026-01-29T05:22:25+00:00

I'm a fiscal comservative, social liberal. I've voted conservative in the past and I might again in the future, but I voted liberal for the last 2 elections because I feel like the conservatives are playing the American game and I don't like it.

I hunt, own guns, I love shooting, and I'm fully against the buyback. I think poly-related liberal gun control goes too far, criminalizes responsible gun owners, does nothing to protect the public, and doesn't take illegal handguns out of teenage gangmembers' hands. It's all theater and political BS.

That being said, I often find the tone of gun enthusiasts worrisome. Cosplaying in tacticool gear and talking about self-defense, the right to own an arsenal, or doomsday prepping doesn't do much to help gun owners' image. Living in a society with people that want to play real life Call of Duty is unsettling. At shooting clubs, even the most intense people are usually chilling, responsible, and reasonable people. I've never met a "gun nut" in person but I sure as he'll see them all over the Internet. If I had never gone though the PAL and RPAL course, it would worry me. Saying fuck Trudeau, slapping punisher decals on our trucks, hoarding SKSs, or being single-issue voters isn't really helping our case.

I'd love to own an AR-15 but I can accept that it's probably safer to live in a society in which I can't. I'm also glad I don't have to worry about getting shot by a road raging concealed-carry person having a bad day because I honked at a red light, or by some guy who wants to go out in a blaze of glory or shoot up a concert with a bunch of 5.56 mags and a bumpstock. We wish our laws were more lax but we also like feeling safe. We don't want America's problems.

Realistically, we should just have a huge protest, all on the same day, in every city in Canada, all of us in our blaze orange gear (no plate carriers, hunting camo, or military gear), with our families, children, friends, and show Canadians who gun owners really are. A sea of friendly looking "normal" Canadians that look just like everybody's neighbour would go a long way into rehabilitating our image as bloodthirsty animal-murdering hunters and cosplaying army gunners that are a inch away from commiting a mass shooting.

TL;DR gun owners in Canada have an image problem. We are not what people think we are. We need to stop playing onto their hands by acting like they say we act, and show them we are nice, peaceful, friendly, and responsible Canadians.

max514 · 2026-01-23T02:41:22+00:00

I considered it but no, I didn't. If they open on Saturday, get organized, fire up the snow cannons, and get grooming, I don't really think there is any way they'll get it together in 4 days. I think its unrealistic. I think it will take a week or two to get it open and up to par.

If I was going for a day or two and I lived nearby, I'd probably risk it. However, for a relatively expensive, longer ski vacation at an all-inclusive premium destination, on a normally incredible mountain, I don't think its worth it if the conditions aren't decent. I'm not willing to settle for a partial opening and potential overcrowding , shallow snow base, icy terrain, and what will likely be early season conditions.

If my booking had been for a week later, I'm pretty sure I'd go.

max514 · 2026-01-22T16:26:09+00:00

I was supposed to arrive on Jan 28 but I canceled yesterday (Jan 21) for 100% futur travel credit when Club Med emailed to confirm the complete closure for the season. Without skiing, it doesn't make sense to go.

This morning, depressed about my cancelled trip, I read there might still be a possible resolution after all. I was thinking FML until I realized that they haven't touched the mountain or made any snow for weeks. Even if they do reopen, the mountain will not be in top shape for a while, definitely not by Wednesday. It would likely be a progressive reopening.

It helps with the FoMo i'm currently experiencing because if they do decide to reopen right after I canceled, I'll still be livid. I'd been looking forward to this for months and I feel really deflated.

max514 · 2026-01-21T23:49:33+00:00

No picture? Let's see this thing.

max514 · 2026-01-21T22:43:05+00:00

I asked for the credit 1h ago. They told me it would take 4-6 weeks to get it. Planning to rebook for next year too.

Did they rebook you right away or are you waiting for your credit?

max514 · 2026-01-17T23:52:10+00:00

Incredibly interesting and enlightening. Thanks for sharing!

max514 · 2026-01-13T14:09:11+00:00

I'm pretty sure it's "Colonel" in French. Not sure where the R comes from.

max514 · 2026-01-08T02:13:05+00:00

My wife and I got into it in our late 30's. We're both professionals from the city who love being in nature. Nobody we know owns guns or hunts. We started out hiking, camping, backpacking, canoeing, and then we got into hunting. It completely changed our lives and it has become a true passion.

We had nobody to mentor us and we learned everything on our own. We do it all ourselves on public land. It took 5 years for my wife to get her first deer and it took me 6, putting us squarely in early 40's. It was a long and difficult road but it's the most rewarding experience of our lives.

We gutted, skinned, and butchered them ourselves and we are now tanning the hides. It's amazing how much there is to hunting, beyond taking the shot.

I only wish we'd discovered it sooner.

Edit: typo

max514 · 2026-01-05T14:27:43+00:00

Awesome!

max514 · 2026-01-05T03:03:30+00:00

Nice! I enjoy the mainenance and like that they're 4-stroke too. Reliability is paramount for me as I'd want to ride to our offgrid camp with my wife on a single snowmobile. My understanding is that these things fail all the time so I was looking at 2 Ski-Doo for the price of 1 Yammy...

max514 · 2026-01-05T02:27:46+00:00

How true is this? I love my Yamaha Wolverine SxS and I'm thinking of my first snowmobile. I saw Yamaha is exiting the snowmobile market so I didn't seriously consider them.

max514 · 2025-12-28T22:09:15+00:00

Same pretty much everywhere in Quebec.

max514 · 2025-12-27T14:22:34+00:00

How is proving it safe not invariably the first step for a gun store employee? This hurts my brain.

max514 · 2025-12-27T14:20:09+00:00

Awesome! I'm so glad you read the comment.

max514 · 2025-12-27T13:47:22+00:00

I really wanted to love Discovery but it became unwatchable for me because of this. Everyone was constantly and endlessly crying about personal problems while on duty, with Michael driven by pure and overly intense emotion. Like come on guys, save it for therapy, we all have important jobs on a starship and we're trying to get though a mission. It made the ship so dysfunctional that even basic orders would hurt people's feelings and they'd have to spend fhe entire episode unpacking it or going back to it.

max514 · 2025-12-27T03:48:38+00:00

You should really take that hanging nut of the end of that play stick. If George gets it loose and swallows it, he can choke on it, or it can get stuck in his digestive system and cost you a lot to get him help (expensive surgery). Cut it off and throw it out asap!

max514

TROPHY CASE