SMBC Comics Forum

Amerika wrote:also! it looks like a vagina


so you can have a chuckle as well as have your breath taken away at the size

And it will sound like multiple chuckles because of the echo.

what a day out for all the family!

BUY TICKETS NOW

See, where it said "you can get to mine", I thought mine was the verb (or the noun, take your pick), which makes sense in the context of talking about caves and natural resources, but it stopped making sense pretty quick after that, so I was kind of confused.

There were no survivors.

After all your stories about this famous cave for the whole family, I'm afraid I have to disappoint you, because I am still agoraphobic.

smiley_cow wrote:

Olax wrote:You guys make it sound like it's a really big place with a lot of people.

Half of this is true. Canadia has a smaller population than the state of California.

I didn't mean 'big' like 'wide and spacious', but more in the 'important on a global scale' way.

Oh wait, that doesn't make sense, well so what.

Honestly I was looking at Manitoba, mostly due to the cheaper cost of living, their current big push for immigrants, and they appear to have jobs I'd qualify for. I've known others in B.C/victoria and I'll agree it seems like northern california with Snow. I'd feel weird going to ottowa cause thats where my family I've never met is, and I'd feel obliged to try and meet them despite barely knowing they exist. My biggest worry about Manitoba is how.. rural it might be. Things like how its schools or such measure up to the rest of Canadia or if my son would be even more of an outcast for those ballet lessons we're going to be putting him in once he turns 2. Sounds like Calgary is definently out if its more the 'cowboy' kinda place. Also I generally hate big cities with a passion, note other post I've made about "The City*" and how much I avoid even going into San Jose as its to crowded for me. Other worries I have are things like produce, living in california has spoiled me for freshness of it or ocean fish. I'm no vegan, but I do love 'grown less than an hour away' freshness you get here for that kind of thing.

The fact Canadia's population is the same/smaller as california's actually brings tears of joy to me, I really do hate being surrounded by people.

You're probably looking at moving into a smaller city or a town/more rural area, then. In which case I will warn you that Ontario is full of hicks.

Oldrac the Chitinous wrote:See, where it said "you can get to mine", I thought mine was the verb (or the noun, take your pick), which makes sense in the context of talking about caves and natural resources, but it stopped making sense pretty quick after that, so I was kind of confused.

There were no survivors.

Well you can do that too!
Do you remember? Weren't you there for that portion of the Skype chat?
In Minecraft, I tunneled down underwater until I found a huge cave and it was awesome and Ed came down and started putting light blocks around and we explored it and then everyone started making jokes about how my cave is so huge, etc.

But it is no laughing matter.

Honestly .. just how bad is it to drive in the snow?

Asherian wrote:Honestly .. just how bad is it to drive in the snow?

Assuming that the region is used to snow and so has a good clean-up system in operation?
Not bad. But it does take some getting used to.

that's reassuring, its honestly my biggest worry about moving somewhere with a winter again. I've heard far to many horror stories about ice/snow driving. Worst I've had to deal with is 3-4 inches of water on the road.

I don't find it difficult, but I've been doing it forever.
The best way to get used to it is doing doughnuts in an empty parking lot and/or doing e-brake turns around wide corners, though I would start small. This is the way I learned. Mostly because my dad would do it and I always wanted to. But I look back and realize that it was the major reason that I have no problem driving in the snow. It gives you a sense of how you can recover and such. I now have no problem going out driving when nearly everyone stays off the roads.
The only real "scary" part is when it is blizzarding enough that visibility is crap. I mean it isn't all that different from heavy fog, except that rather than wet roads, they tend to be quite slick, so you have to be quite careful.

I've been driving for over 10 years now, and I have had no incidents whatsoever. No tickets*, no accidents.

*One parking ticket. And one warning from a cop for an "illegible license plate" which was really just dirty, and I was a young kid (this was in my first year of driving) who was driving (to work) in an industrial section of town at 10:30pm on a Saturday night and saw the cop pull out behind me, so was doing exactly the speed limit.

Asherian wrote: My biggest worry about Manitoba is how.. rural it might be.

It depends on what area. You could move to Winnipeg which has well over a million people living in it so we're not that rural. Otherwise you can go for a smaller city of which there's a number of, though except for Brandon they're all going to have a small town mentality about them. I.e. everyone knows you, gossips, can be a bit small minded, though very friendly. But if you stay south you'll definitely always be near civilization. I wouldn't recommend living further north than the interlake area (the area around where the giant lakes meet) since you'll be really cut off from the rest of the world.

Things like how its schools or such measure up to the rest of Canadia

Manitoba's curriculum does alright. BC's is easily the best in the country, but there's certainly nothing wrong with how Manitoba's ranks as compared to the rest of the country. My advice would be French Immersion or a Francophone/milieu school. Having him learn a second language will give him a huge advantage and students in these programmes often perform much better academically than students in unilingual schools.

or if my son would be even more of an outcast for those ballet lessons we're going to be putting him in once he turns

The bigger the place you choose to settle down in the less of a problem this will be. In Brandon or Winnipeg it might depend on what kind of a person he is. I know one guy who did ballet and was teased for it, but it was actually because they didn't like him and used it as an excuse. If he's charismatic, it'll be forgiven easily. (This was in Brandon by the way).

2. Sounds like Calgary is definently out if its more the 'cowboy' kinda place. Also I generally hate big cities with a passion, note other post I've made about "The City*" and how much I avoid even going into San Jose as its to crowded for me.

Winnipeg is a big city, but not nearly as big and hard to get around as the really big cities in the United States tend to be. There are always people around but it's not usually crowded. Otherwise there are a number of small cities around the province. The second large in the province is Brandon which sits at about 40 000, and then for the third largest (it switches between Thompson and Portage la Prairie) it drops down again to around 10 000. And there are a million small farming towns all over the place, especially in the south that you might like.

Other worries I have are things like produce, living in california has spoiled me for freshness of it or ocean fish. I'm no vegan, but I do love 'grown less than an hour away' freshness you get here for that kind of thing.

In the summer there's a lot of farmers markets and things like that, so fresh local produce is easy to find and usually quite good. In the winter it all gets shipped in, so it won't be as fresh, but you can still buy a head of lettuce or a thing of strawberries all year round, though of course it won't be as good as the farmer's market stuff you can buy in the summer.

As for driving in the winter, it takes a bit of getting used to and then you're fine. Streets are usually ploughed quickly and Nackled, though I still recommend winter tires. The hardest part of driving in the winter is remembering to slow down sooner. Like Lethal said earlier, I'd recommending driving down to an empty parking lot at night and just practicing turning and stopping, etc. until you get a good feel for it.

Asherian wrote:Honestly .. just how bad is it to drive in the snow?

Driving in snow is terrible, let's not lie here. There are always accidents when there is the slightest bit of snow cover because everyone forgets how to drive in the snow during the 8-9 months that we don't have any. Now if you use common sense (ie don't drive like a fucking moron) you should be ok. That is unless you hit black ice then hilarity ensues. If you are saying "I'll just avoid black ice," the fun part is you don't see it/notice it until you hit and and lose control if you were driving like an asshat.

As to where to go you never really stated what you were looking for, every area has something different to offer. I was a telephone debt collector and had to phone all over Canadia and I can tell you a bit about the people. Here are some things to consider.
1. Ontario is full of assholes, we are the rudest and most uptight province. People become friendlier the farther away from Ontario you get.* Largest populated province and home the the Great Lakes.
2. BC= nicest people but is like that weird cousin, something is a bit off. Lots of hippies there and things are expensive. Also a lot of FOB Asians there. 3/5 calls were to Asians that didn't understand a word I was saying.
3. The Prairie provinces were the place to go for jobs a few years ago (everyone was moving there) but from my understanding things have dried up a bit. Watch the show Corner Gas.
4. Maritime Provinces, yeah no. The people that live there don't even want to live there. Place to go if your industry is fishing. Plus they sound funny, I'm pretty sure when you Americans think about Canadians sayinf "aboot" you are thinking of Newfies.
5. Territories. Cold. Very, very cold. Low populated and depending on your profession the Government will pay you to go work there.
6. Quebec= Not Canadia.


*This excludes Quebec because they are not part of Canadia regardless of what people think. Since you're not French they will hate you and roll their eyes at you when you try to speak French. Besides every contest that is held in across Canadia excludes Quebec so you should too.

I wish I lived closer to the East coast.
Because I wouldn't want to live there, but I'd love to visit semi-regularly (rather than once every 28+ years).
Of course to live closer to the East Coast would mean to live in Quebec...