What up my children. Winter is coming!
Woohoo!

See ya. 👋🙋‍♂️

Update Oct 05, 2025: Teachers of Alberta, you have my full support!🫡

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Housing and Job Market

Housing inventory is rising like crazy month over month. Condos and row houses are dropping in price which is a good thing for those who are looking to buy a small place. But the thing about condos is they’re harder to sell because they’re small, less privacy, and tends to not grow much in value. Then there are condo fees as well. People say we shouldn’t look at housing as an investment and I actually agree. But the problem is that once you own a house, there is not always much money left by the end of every month to save and invest. Home maintenance, property tax, and insurance aren’t cheap. Most people who are wanting to start families are looking at detached homes. It’s crazy because pre-COVID, they were only around 450-500k for a new one. Now they all cost 650-750k. New attached garage homes are 800k-1mil+.

Now they’re talking about Canada’s weak population growth and low fertility rate. Like no kidding, kids are expensive. Wages have barely caught up with inflation and Canada is low key oligarchy. People always use a 100k income as a bench mark. But it’s honestly not that much these days. If you use this inflation calculator from the Bank of Canada, making 100k in the year 2000 is equivalent to 172k in 2025.💀 How many people today makes 172k a year in 2025? Be honest.🤡 I don’t think many people can make that number even with dual income. Meanwhile 100k in 2025 is 58k in 2000 which sounds a lot better when you consider that housing and living costs were much cheaper back then.

In construction, the low housing sales are forcing new builders to lower wages for trades and slowing down work. I’ve had maybe 3-4 different trades walk in while I was working looking for jobs which has never happened before. I was talking to a plumber who told me one of the big production builders in Calgary paused building houses because of too much inventory and low sales. Another big builder had a 35% drop in sales. A painter told me he got a 10% wage cut due to low sales. I also met a green HVAC guy who told me he is getting laid off.

Meanwhile the government is telling everyone to join the trades, even when the reality is that tradies are getting benched due to a lack of work. And that’s partly due to the trade war, job losses, overpriced housing, companies offshoring work, and probably AI.

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Charlie Kirk

I don’t agree with many things he says, but no one deserves to die like this. I’ve listened to some his “debates” and he seems to like to talk through the university discourse (I’m referencing psychoanalysis).

But I just find the whole thing a bit ironic after reading all the stuff he said on gun deaths being worth it for the second amendment. Saying that stuff to people who lost family members over gun violence is pretty unhinged. And it makes it even more strange when he also died to gun violence. I mean sure, he can say what he wants because of the freedom of speech. But part of me wonders whether Kirk thinks of him dying for the second amendment was worth it. Now his family are the victims of gun violence. And I don’t mean to sound like an ass.

I heard some people lost their jobs/got cancelled for saying negative things about his death. I always thought that was a liberal thing. Now the conservatives are cancelling shit too? 🤡 Freedom of speech only exists until someone gets offended LOL. I remember I saw Disney stocks fall by like 8-10% (??) after they cancelled Jimmy Kimmel.😂 If I held positions on Disney, I would’ve sold them too. —For free speech of course. I could care less about his show.

I think we live in a world of political extremism and radicalism where people let political ideologies consume their entire identity. I believe this is also true with the whole Israel-Palestine conflict which is actually a very complex issue ethnically, politically, and morally. Some of this is kind of like the car guys who lets their car define their entire personality.🤔 It’s very one dimensional.

FYI—I’m Canadian and I don’t vote.🤷‍♂️
And it’s not because I don’t believe in democracy. I just don’t vote for bozos.

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The Nanjing Massacre

Some of my friends are in Japan right now where they went to the Hiroshima memorial. It instantly reminded me of the Nanjing Massacre when Japan invaded China during World War II, where something like 200,000 Chinese civilians were killed via war crimes. Women, children and even babies were raped. And many Chinese women were forced into sex slavery. I don’t even want to go further. It’s disgusting. Especially the photos and descriptions on how women and children were killed. Some of it involved sticking sharp objects into women’s genitals and throwing new born babies into a pit of fire. The Japanese army even had a contest of killing 100 people with a sword. Just search it up if you want to know more. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, it’s very disturbing. I believe “some” of these soldiers got caught after the war and were charged of crimes against humanity. There is a movie about it recently. I remember BBC wrote about it (link).

Don’t get me wrong, the atom bombs that were dropped in Japan is tragic. But people seem to never talk about all the filthy stuff the Japanese army did during WWII. I mean of course many Chinese people talks about it because it still haunts them till this day. My dad used to tell me about it (I’m Chinese, I was born in Hong Kong). But I hear that many Japanese people don’t acknowledge it nor are they even taught about it in their education. That’s pretty fucked up. They need to own up to it the way Germany owned up to the world wars, and take significant steps to addressing it in their social systems.

So when my friends said how sad the Hiroshima bombings were. I gave a pretty passive aggressive response, “It’s so sad. Just like the Nanjing Massacre”. Then one of my friend was like, “You know you’re bad when a literal Nazi tried to stop your war crimes”. Like no kidding. He was talking about a man named John Rabe (link).

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The Creepiest Freudian Dream.

There are a few. But I’d say it is the dream of the burning child. It was about a man who recently witnessed his child pass away from a fever. His body was surrounded by candles where a man kept watch over the child’s dead body. The father ended up falling asleep in a room right across from his child’s dead body. He had a dream where his child stood beside him and grabbed his arm where the child reproachfully whispered in his ears, “Father, don’t you see that I am burning?”. Then the father woke up and saw that his child was actually burning, where a candle accidentally fell and burned the child’s arm.

There are many different analysis of this dream. I won’t get into it today. Lacan talks about it in Seminar XI: Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. But it’s a good example of how our unconscious mind is always paying attention to things that we are never paying attention to. Even when we’re asleep.

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The Coffee Shop Regulars

I’m friends and acquainted with a few people who regulars there. Some who I’ve even went out for lunch with because they’re cool people. There is a dad and his son who often goes on weekends that I see frequently. I also know his brother who is really into cars. Both happens to know one is my old boss who hated me LOL.💀 Then there is a couple who comes here regularly on weekends that I sometimes have lengthy chats with. They’re from New Zealand who are really nice and chill. Very funny and great conversationalists. And believe me when I tell you that learning to make and build conversation is a skill that not everyone has these days.

There is an old woman that I sometimes chat with. She is really nice but is going through some health issues.🥹 There is also an old man who frequents there that I never talk to. I think I’ve only chatted with him once or twice very casually. Then there is a girl who I sometimes see on random days. I remember I first noticed her because I once saw a really nice Golf GTI pull up the parking lot that happened to be hers. But she’s pretty cute, and I think she knows I think she is cute LOL. I saw her the other day where I sneaked a glance at her. Then when I did a double take, she was already looking at me and smiled at me.🥹

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Alien Earth Season 1…

…was pretty good. But I think the acting captain of the Maginot spaceship was really stupid. Same with the scientist experimenting on the leeches LOL. The kids are also all stupid. But they’re kids I guess. Actually, everyone in the series are stupid. They always need stupid characters in these types of shows, otherwise the plot will never move forward. 😂

I think the eye octopus is the scariest monster. Everyone already knows xenomorphs are murder machines. But the eye ocotopus rips your eyeball out and replaces it with itself and controls you. The host is probably dead, but it still really scary. 🥹🥹

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Returning to Disc Golf

I played my first round of the year with a friend of mine. It was fun! I was rusty, but it came back to me quick. I need to work on my form again. But I swear some disc golfers are so ghetto and straight up trashy LOL.

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The Hail Damage on My Car…

wasn’t completely fixed.🥹 I noticed several faint hail dents on the rear lift gate of my car that they missed. But it is covered by warranty, so I texted Hello Kitty slippers girl who managed to get my car into the shop quick (LMAO her name is Elaine, I spoke about her some posts ago). When I got there, I was told it would take the whole day to fix by some dude. Then she took my car to the back and got someone to fix it really fast while I was waiting for a ride home. I found out she is actually the project manager…..who wears Hello Kitty slippers to work? 🤔 She totally hooked me up and let me budge everyone LOL.

We had a small chat after where she told me she really likes my car and mentioned how expensive Golf Rs are in Brazil (where she is from). She was sweet and cute with a Portuguese accent. If she didn’t have a ring on her finger, I probably would’ve asked if she would like to go for a ride. 😂

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Night Driving Stories

I went out for a drive the other night where I was hanging out in a parking lot while eating a McFlurry. Then a white SUV pulled up and forward parked right across from me. I was reversed parked facing it. Then 3 girls came out the car who were all wearing fancy dresses. One leaned their phone on the rear seat in the trunk where they started doing synchronized dancing while my car and I were in the background.🤡 It was probably for TikTok. I just thought it was funny and random. I was like to myself, “You girls can record my car, but not me”, so I reclined my seat until I was nearly laying down while jamming to Lana Del Rey and surfed on my phone.

Then on my way home, there was a car ahead of me that was turning left on a green light that nearly got T-boned by a city bus. The bus honked at it and the car ended up turning into the opposing traffic dedicated left turning lane on the left side of the intersection. After I finished my left turn, I watched it drive down the street in opposing traffic and witnessed all the other cars freak out LOL. I caught all of it on my dash cam. 😂…..It also probably recorded the 3 weirdos dancing in the parking lot too, which makes it even more weird. 😂

Five minutes later. I went down a big hill where I could see long stretches of the road ahead. I saw a bit of traffic from a distance where some cars just merged onto. As I was about to go under a bridge preparing to downshift and punch it to hear my car echo at red line, I saw police lights flash at a distance. They pulled over an old Honda Civic. As I approached it, I saw another police vehicle light up another car going the opposite direction in my rear mirrors.🥹 I was like, “Damn, that was a close call” LOL. Not that I would go over speed limit by much even if I did it.

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“At what age do you think people change the most?”

I would say 25-35. Many people I met went from making fake friends that they will never talk to again and partying till 2am everyday, to “I’m too old for this shit”. 😂 I remember reading somewhere that the first wave of people’s divorces also comes in their early to mid 30s.💀

Correlation or causation?

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Saving Money and Investing

I think the trick is to never leave money in your regular savings account because it usually has terrible interest rates that gets over run by inflation. Your goal is to beat inflation and let your money make money for you. The only pros to these regular savings accounts is their liquidity and safety. They can be good for storing your emergency funds.

I remember when I was younger and used to have $10,000 in these “premium” savings account that gave me $5-7 of interest per month. Then I decided to put the same money in a cash ETF where it gave me $21-24 per month. It might not seem like much, but that’s 3 times more in returns which adds up. You might make more from a cash ETF or HISA than a GIC when interests are low. These are all good and safe places to park money if you plan on using it in the next 1-3 years. There are also some good ETF dividend options that will make you way more, but with far higher risks.

On the other hand, I would only invest if I don’t plan on using it for the next 3-5 years minimum. There is a saying that “diversity preserves wealth and concentration builds wealth” which is very true. Diversity is also the key to long term growth and lowering your risks. I mean you can definitely go all-in and concentrate on one stock. It just means you will either be retiring at 40 driving a Lambo or eating from the garbage can.😂 I think the safest “set and forget” type of investment are index funds (ETFs and mutual funds). They’re like a shopping bag that tracks different stocks from different industries. Buying them is like buying a little bit of every stock that are in the bag. They’re the best choice for most people due to its diversity and saving you time from doing your own research.

Buying and making gains from individual stocks requires knowledge, experience, patience, and luck. It’s much riskier than buying index funds. It’s important to learn about the market, finance, and to study the fundamentals before anything else. For example, there was a great interview of Jensen from Nvidia talk about the fundamentals of AI business (link). Risk tolerance is another big thing because some stocks are very volatile. I personally don’t put money in risky stocks that I can’t afford to lose.

Investing is not gambling. So you have to weigh in your risks and be objective. The difference between the stock market and the casino can be very blurry. But I think the key is to never panic sell, and patience is the key to building wealth. The market tends to be bearish (decline) during certain times of the year such as September. Stocks are also affected by politics and other obvious things like the economy. Whenever stocks dip might be a good time to buy more. Recessions are also a good time to buy if you have the money. You just have to ride out the losses then BOOM! +420.69%. 🤡

Bruhhhh, this is so capitalism. We’re doomed.
None of this is advice btw. So it’s not my fault if you lose money.🫡

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Psychoanalysis and the Art of Overthinking

A big part of psychoanalysis is about overthinking about all the things we say and do everyday in our lives. Things that our consciousness places zero significance on, where the things that we deny and never paid attention to ends up being the most important. This is why when you go through analysis, you will be asked to analyze really trivial things like why you decided to leave your room door open, why you forgot your keys, or why were late for work, etc. The goal is to dissolve the Real into the symbolic.

If there is one thing that psychoanalysis had taught me, it is that many people are afraid of who they are underneath the mask they put on everyday. Or as Zupancic might say, people are more afraid of being afraid than they are afraid of dying.

But if you think about it, human intelligence is all about overthinking. We think over thinking which is why there is philosophy. It is why there is mathematics. Every super cool discipline and advance technology in human history were achieved by thinking a lot and a lot about whatever the topic is. It’s kind of obsessive……neurosis, ha-ha-ha-ha I’m such a funny guy.

It’s sort of like when you ask someone out and they say no, but something tells you there is more to it. Yet when you try to think deeper then tell others about it, all your average Joe and Becky will be like “You’re overthinking it and should move on.” You see, they’re actually correct in a practical sense. But if you have a scholarly mind, and you are someone who can be objective about it, you can apply what you observe to the appropriate set of knowledge to gain much more insights. To me, that is very interesting. People can lie and be deceptive with their words to others and to themselves, but the body and the unconscious never lies.

If I could, I would take some of you out on a day trip where we just sit on a public bench to observe random people like real creepers. Then I can show you my years of people watching skills LOL (according to Wikipedia, people watching is a hobby 🤡). I don’t mean this in some creepy way, but human behaviours are deeply fascinating, especially once you consider that most of the things people do are unconscious to them. You will be surprised by how much you can tell about someone from just observing their behaviours, how they dress, walk, talk, their hand gestures, and their micro expressions. Only a normie would believe it is overthinking, even when it is an entire field of study.

I remember long ago, I had coffee with this girl where I was introducing her about the unconscious mind. As I was speaking, I suddenly told her to stop moving. I drew her attention towards the similarities in the way she was sitting versus the way I was sitting, my arm placement vs hers, where I placed my drink relative to hers, etc. Then I said, “We are mirroring and copying each other, were you conscious of doing any of this?”. She paused and was like “…No” then looked at me in shock. 😂 But some of you might argue that I was intentionally copying her body language.

So here is homework for you. Next time you go to a coffee shop, bar, or restaurant, pay attention to some of the people who are talking to each other. Notice how, for a good portion of them, when one person picks up their drink and takes a sip, the other person will follow them shortly after. Pay attention to how they sit or stand, the angles of their bodies, their hand gestures as they speak, their micro expressions, how they smile, laugh, touch their face, the angle and position of their eyebrows, the size of their pupils comparable to available light, the proximity between their bodies, and how they hug—if applicable.

Basically, most of the people who are doing it are not aware that they are talking to each other like they are looking at a mirror. Now go prove me wrong. But you can’t because you will soon discover that I am right.😏 And of course I’m not alluding to the mirror stage in psychoanalysis or anything. 😏 In modern psychology, this phenomenon is called “mirroring”.

* * *

Brief Conversation with Aubrianna

I received an email from someone named Aubrianna who told me she really liked my writings on the INTJ. Then she told me she reads some of my other writings and decided to give me some “unsolicited advice” on Eashel. Long story short, she told me I should let her go and let other people who are meant to be to come into my life. And the longer I continue on what is not meant for me, the longer I postpone those who are meant for me.

I told her I knew exactly what she meant because I knew it myself. This was why I said what I said in my previous post at the end of #30. I mean why did she think I wrote what I wrote last post? LOL. I’m also not sure if she realizes the sections in quotations are other people asking me things in real life or on here.

Judging by how Aubrianna spoke, she likely hasn’t read through all my random thought posts. She also might not have caught my sense of humour. But honestly, if I was Eashel’s boyfriend and it took her 6 months for her to mention me to the guy who has been hitting on her, I would be pretty upset. I might as well not exist.

Many people who are in relationships will mention their partner even by accident after a few conversations because they usually make up a big part of each other’s lives—especially when I was making it very obvious that I was hitting on her. Heck, she would’ve never mentioned him to me if I never asked for her number (she knew I liked her from the beginning). The fact she didn’t bring him up until she had to tells me a lot about their relationship. But that’s none of my business. I think if she mentioned him right from the beginning when we met, then things would’ve taken a different turn and we might still be casual acquaintances today and not be awkward. Regardless, what I said last post in #30 still stands.

Then Aubrianna told me she believes everything happens for a reason. There must be a reason why Eashel and I ran into each other at this particular point of our lives. She was right. Eashel was there to tell me that there are other people out there for me.🥹 I wonder what Eashel thinks.

Aubrianna told me she is just a stranger speaking to another stranger who wanted me to be happy.🥹 Perhaps we were lesser strangers by the end of our conversation. I don’t know her, but I can tell you that she was a real one with a pure soul.

I am thankful.