“Impudence!”

“No, tuna.”

I found out some friends of mine who moved here from abroad had never had Dubble Bubble, so I bought some and we all had a piece when they came over for Christmas.

Happy to help!

Assuming you already have your PR documents, you should be able to apply for a Social Insurance Number in advance online: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/sin/apply.html

For taxes, you need a Social Insurance Number, which you can get from Service Canada. When you get hired someplace, you will be given TD1 forms to fill out (one Federal, one Provincial). If you know you’re getting certain tax credits, you can write them on this form so less tax is withheld from your pay. Most people just claim the basic amount (it’s on the form already, don’t worry), fill in personal details like name, address, Social Insurance Number, then sign and return to the employer.

Before tax time, you will have some tax forms mailed to you. The most important of these is your T4, which is your record of employment income for the tax year. You use any slips you receive to fill in your tax return and submit it to the Canada Revenue Agency by the April 30th deadline. Most people receive a modest refund. If you owe any taxes, they must be received by April 30 as well.

If you have a simple tax return, it’s easy to fill it out yourself using free online tools or TurboTax or whatever. If you have a more complex tax situation like out of country investments, you’ll probably want to hire an accountant.

The Government of Canada’s website is probably going to be the most useful resource for you when it comes to taxes: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/important-dates-individuals.html

For voting, once you’re a citizen, just check the checkbox that gives CRA permission to share your address with Elections Canada and you’ll be registered to vote automatically. At election time, they’ll mail you a voter information card with the poll locations and times on it. If there’s an election after you have citizenship but before you submit your taxes for the year, you’ll have to register, which you can do on the Elections Canada website: https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=reg&document=index&lang=e

To actually vote, you need two pieces of ID. You need both proof of identity and proof of address. A voter card counts as proof of address but if you don’t have one, you can bring almost anything with your name and address on it, like a bank statement or utility bill. For proof of identity, a driver’s license is most common but basically it has to have your full name and photo on it, so passport, age of majority card, health card, etc. There is a complete list of accepted forms of ID on the Elections Canada site.

Most insurance related things are Provincial areas of responsibility (healthcare, transportation), so that will vary a bit. The Province’s website should have info on that stuff for you. In Ontario, you’d visit Service Ontario for vehicle or driver registration and to get a health card. For car insurance, you’d likely want to visit an insurance broker. Car insurance is mandatory here and if you’re ever stopped by police while driving, you will be expected to have your driver’s license and proof of insurance.

Honestly? In the startup Universe. People at my company have to be reminded to check their email.

The vast majority of customer interaction where I work is through Slack or Discord. Companies buy support plans just to get a Slack channel where they can tag their favourite support person / migration services person / the CEO.

We’re mostly Millenials or thereabouts but we’re talking to Gen Z / Gen A and you gotta meet people where they are. For better or worse, that’s meant a lot less email.

You might want to check if there’s someplace nearby that sells biltong. There’s a local butcher shop in my area that makes and sells it and it’s like the jerky you describe from when you were a kid.

Folding Ideas - In Search of a Flat Earth https://youtu.be/JTfhYyTuT44

It was the first Folding Ideas video I watched. The pivot from the technical portion to the social commentary portion is masterful.

I’d recommend watching it on a large screen to get the full impact from the Lake Minnewanka experiment. It is very striking.

The Welfare Queen was a real person best known by the name Linda Taylor but she was uniquely talented at defrauding the government and she went to prison in 1978 for welfare fraud.

The only way to play Factorio wrong is to play in a way where you’re not having fun and the community kinda embodies that spirit. That said, I have seen a lot of things that made me go “hmm…” in the FactoriOhNo subreddit over the years.

In case you don’t know, this is a line from a Mitchell and Webb skit about a rat’s anus skulls: https://youtu.be/ToKcmnrE5oY

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I watch Groundhog Day at least twice a year.

For me, I only back up data I can’t replace, which is a small subset of the capacity of my NAS. Personal data like photos, password manager databases, personal documents, etc. get locally encrypted, then synced to a cloud storage provider. I have my encryption keys stored in a location that’s automatically synced to various personal devices and one off-site location maintained by a trusted party. I have the backups and encryption key sync configured to keep n old versions of the files (where the value of n depends on how critical the file is).

Incremental synchronization really keeps the bandwidth and storage costs down and the amount of data I am backing up makes file level backup a very reasonable option.

If I wanted to back up everything, I would set up a second system off-site and run backups over a secure tunnel.

It’s on my list! Just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

To be honest, I recognized the screenshot and know the summary of the movie but I haven’t actually seen it.

The 1983 movie WarGames. This is the computer’s conclusion after simulating every possible outcome of Global Thermonuclear War.

Giant hogweed is pretty gnarly. If your skin comes in contact with its sap, exposure to sunlight will give you severe burns and scarring. The photosensitivity can last for days even after the sap itself has been washed away.

The chances of an American making a successful refugee claim in Canada are vanishingly small. Things would have to get a lot worse in the US for this to be a realistic outcome.

However, Americans can apply for permanent residency in Canada, just like anyone else. There is a points system. You’re more likely to be accepted if you’re young, you have an advanced degree, you speak both French and English, etc.