(Part 2) Best products from r/toronto

Come to /r/stopdrinking! There are 18,000 of us there sharing stories, advice and tips. You're not alone!!

Also, congratulations on having the courage to make this post. I know for a lot of people (myself included) asking for help feels like an act of weakness, but it's actually a sign of tremendous courage and strength.

You've taken the first step on a path that will change your life for the better.

One thing I found incredibly helpful when I first quit drinking was the book Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Drinking (available at amazon here or here). It really helped me realize what effect alcohol was having on my life, and how completely it had taken over my brain.

CAMH is very helpful, and so are resources available online (like /r/stopdrinking) there are agnostic/atheist AA meetings in Toronto as well. I've never been but I have a friend who swears by the Beyond Belief meetings.

Talking to other people going through the same thing really is your best weapon. People who have never suffered from addiction really have a hard time understanding it. So I recommend getting to a group, either at CAMH or through AA, or wherever.

Do yourself a favour, and get rid of any alcohol you have in your house. Just pour it down the drain. You don't need it anymore, and having it around is just going to make slipping up that easier.

Come over to /r/stopdrinking! It's a great place to get started!

Some great questions.

The first thing I will say is - use what works, and experiment to see if something is working better. If you have a routine that works for you and you are happy with the results and experience, there's no need to get fancy.

That being said, as a recommendation, I'd say non-alcoholic aftershave is a must. It helps soothe your skin after basically having a layer of it ripped off, lessens irritation, and acts as an astringent as well.

There are two products in this category that I like - alum blocks and liquid aftershaves.

Alum blocks are a piece of mineral that, when wet, you can rub onto your face and will help close up nicks and act as an astringent. Bloc Osma is the most popular brand, but it's also more expensive than some others. I've found great results with the RazoRock which I've found at half the price.

In terms of liquid aftershaves, almost anything that's non-alchoholic works well. If you can shell out the cash, I recommend Trumper's Coral Skinfood. This stuff smells great, feels amazing on the skin and is one of the few products that really and visibly reduces razor burn for me. I know it's expensive, but this stuff lasts! All you need is two or three drops on the face and rub it in. That's it. I've had the same bottle for over a year now.

As for pre-shaves, it really depends on the skin. I personally don't use any of that. I find as long as you properly prepare your face before the shave with a nice hot towel, it's unnecessary. Maybe if you have very very coarse hair it makes a difference, but I have yet to see it after trying many products.

And as for oils, I'd stay away. It makes my face impossibly greasy, and simply is not a good shave compared to your good old cream.

Hope this information helped. If you have anything else you'd like to ask, go right ahead!

Also, if buying a power bank, keep it under 26,800 mah, that's the maximum size you can bring onto an airplane without "prior approval". Technically you can bring a larger one, but you need to get permission from an airline which is a hassle.

With a 10,000 mah power bank you can charge an iPhone or Galaxy smartphone about 3 or 4 times, a Nintendo switch about 2 times, so it's plenty of juice for a day or two. The larger 26,800 mah power banks are good if you plan on travelling extended periods without power, charging a tablet, or even a laptop. If charging a laptop, then in that case you'll need a $100+ USB-C PD Power Bank.

The Anker PowerCore II is very good - while it only has 1 output, it has the latest generation of charging chip so it can quickly charge a lot of devices. Build quality is fantastic. The RavPower USB-C Power Bank is also good, works well with a Nintendo Switch, and is about $10 cheaper, build quality is very good but not as slick as the Anker unit. Size wise, the Anker is chunkier but more compact, meanwhile the RavPower is thinner but longer/wider. Total mass of both units is ultimately the same, it really depends on how you like the shape of your battery :) Both are reputable brands, especially Anker, so they won't fry your phone or blow up in your hand.

I hope this helps!

My last reply and I'll drop it, but for reference today I need to buy 2 booster cables to hook up my marine battery to my inverter for my backyard solar.

$28 at walmart
$29 at canadian tire
$25 at Amazon + free same day delivery

I'd actually be excited if you could point me to a place that I can consistently save money on - as I told you, I have nearly 7,000 posts on RFD over 10 years and used to obsessively hunt down & get the "super deals", it actually helped me to create a business focused on being the lowest in Canada, respecting peoples $ and using that as our value ad (which has lead to lots of success with consumers, and industry credibility for corporates & gov't contracts)

If you want to get technical we can add in my ebates % back too, I am also an amazon associate for affiliate sales, but I only really use that when I'm referring people at work to buy tech purchases (like hard drives or streaming units)

You're not talking to a blind fan boy here, I'll put my experiences with this up against anyone - I do the research. I obsess over shit like this, thats WHY i am passionate about prime driving shit to me, because it IS a huge value.

Looking at stars is pointless, they'll still just be points of light. The interesting things are planets, nebulae, clusters, galaxies and the occasional comet.

Do you have access to a decent pair of binoculars? If so, they will serve nicely for observing a lot of objects in a dark sky location. Even just kicking back in a lawn chair and scanning the Milky Way reveals thousands of stars you can't see with the naked eye.

One thing you won't need binoculars for is M31, visible to the naked eye and in the eastern sky that time of year - but you have to know where to look. A good book for the basics is Terence Dickinson's Nightwatch and it's actually easier to become familiar with the sky in the city since only the brightest starts are visible and the constellations are more easily recognized. Once you've got that down, 'star hopping' is easy.

Also, check out Sky and Telescope's Sky at a Glance for the lowdown on the weeks ahead.

Good luck and happy hunting.

I'm new to reddit, so apologies if anyone has posted this already, but there's an amazing book out there by Canadian author Charles Montgomery called Happy City that discusses this whole topic in great detail. It's written in a very consumable manner and is positive without being preachy - highly recommended for anyone interested in getting some of the facts behind the re-urbanization trend. Makes one hopeful for Toronto.

http://www.amazon.ca/Happy-City-Transforming-Through-Design/dp/0385669143

TV: Usenet, Netflix, and get an antenna.

You can hook up Netflix to your TV using a Roku or Boxee Box, or a smart internet-enabled TV if you have one.

Check out TVFool to find out what channels are available for free over the air in your area. If you live within 50-100 miles of the US border as the crow flies, you should be set to receive 10-30 channels for free in high quality HD, much higher quality than you can receive over cable. Pretty much anywhere in the Golden Horseshoe receives a great selection of channels for example, except maybe Newmarket and further north.

If you do decide to go the antenna route, check out this forum where people talk about reception results in different parts of Canada, and what antennas they had to install to get those channels. Best of all, this truly is a one-time investment, and it's totally legal. No need for multiple receiver boxes or any other nonsense.

If you set up usenet by following this guide, you can connect a Boxee Box to a computer that downloads things via usenet, and hook up Boxee to your TV. Your favorite shows and movies will be set to download automatically, and you can watch them on your TV.

Internet: Teksavvy. It's as good as they say it is. They still offer unlimited download plans and their standard plans involve a very reasonable 300 GB per month usage + no contracts + great support.

Home phone: Teksavvy offers phone service and long distance as well. They are a Bell reseller (in southern Ontario at least), but it feels good to not give Bell any money directly. For long distance, I make and receive calls for free using Google Voice, but I have used Teksavvy long distance occasionally and their rates are quite reasonable. If you set up a Google Voice account, you can get an adapter like this one that hooks up to your phone.

This is the single biggest thing we can do to improve the economic viability of our cities and reduce the congestion of our roads.

I've linked to it a few times recently, but everybody doubting this should watch this 1990s-era presentation given by the architect/planner Andrés Duany. This is exactly the subject he has talked about for decades: that 'traditional neighbourhood development' is superior to North American suburban sprawl by every metric. For those who would like to read more, he has a very excellent book called Suburban Nation that is approachable to the layman.

These traditional neighbourhoods are not "inferior" to the suburbs (as some people have suggested in this thread already), and it doesn't have to mean skyrocketing housing prices. Look at some of the towns and neighbourhoods developed by DPZ (Andrés Duany's company), and "walk" around the town with StreetView (remember, these are all new developments, not old neighbourhoods):

• Seaside, Florida
  
• Habersham, SC
  
• Kentlands, MD
  
  These neighbourhoods are all a mix of detached homes, townhomes, and apartments (they're not a suburban mono-culture of only one type), and they're all walkable. Each has a commercial area within walking distance, and also has offices within walking distance. The density is much higher than a typical suburb, but yet there's still a sense of privacy in a detached home (if you want that), or higher density town-homes near the 'town centre' (if you prefer that, instead). But all of these communities, because of their walk-ability and bike-abilty, have significantly less congestion than a typical suburb. If you combine this with a transit stop within walking distance, known a transit-oriented development, then you get a highly effective and highly productive mixed-use area that requires significantly less tax and government subsidies than our suburbs require today.
  
  If you're still not convinced, there is an excellent US-based non-profit organization called Strong Towns that was created by an ex-traffic engineer, explicitly for the purpose of informing the public about how current North American suburbs and towns are not economically viable. That is, they do not have the tax base to cover their infrastructure, and 'cover this up' by what they call the Growth Ponzi Scheme.
  
  tl;dr: look at this image (from thecostofsprawl.com) and hopefully you will understand why this type of development is more economically viable.
  
  

This Wyze camera cost $40 on amazon.

You can view live or have 14 days of free cloud storage. Some folks have concerns about where the server sends the data but I use it to view my plants, so not that concerned.

It also has motion activated recording and/or alerts.

For 40 bucks, it’s pretty good value. Set up is super easy too.

Thanks for asking this!

I recently got a [Cygolite] (https://www.amazon.ca/Cygolite-400-Lumen-Rechargeable-Bicycle-Headlight/dp/B00LXTOT6I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481340686&sr=8-1&keywords=cygolite) and I am much more confident in being noticed. It has a pulse mode and a super-bright strobe mode (for daylight only).

I have worried that I am blinding people, especially when at a stoplight or what not, but also appreciate the sense of security from being confident I am being seen.

I think the solution is to aim them well. Car headlights are hella bright but they are aimed downwards. I should probably aim mine better. I've noticed that my light catches the reflective paint even on street signs above traffic lamps. But I would prefer to err on the side of my own survival.

Doggyride stroller could do it (the original is rated for up to 100lbs but I wouldn't go over 85), and then it could be locked like a bike at the station while you're out and about. Perfect solution? No, but it would get the job done :) If you had to TTC to the Go station though that would be a problem, I don't think you're getting one of those bad boys on a streetcar, they're sizeable. Would serve Go Transit right though (because the dog alone would take up about 1/3 the space but hey, you want everybody in a crate? Ok then!), I would love to see a whack of large dog strollers stage a sit-in on a Sunday haha.

Edited to add: oops forgot that someone I know, a service dog handler, uses a sport crate sometimes for her large German shepherd. It's a "Sport Pet", like this: https://www.amazon.com/POP-OPEN-DOG-KENNEL-X-LARGE/dp/B003Y2KZEM

I've never actually used a power bank but have used lots of other products from Anker and was very happy with the quality. I think the RAVpower units are good as well but personally to consider Aukey a step below Anker in terms of quality.

I'd recommend this if you just want a cute lil wee one that you can carry around with you and will still charge your phone a couple times: https://www.amazon.ca/Upgraded-Anker-Candy-Bar-High-Speed-Technology/dp/B06XS9RMWS/

But you can get ones with much higher capacity and faster charging speeds if you spend $10-20 more - depends how portable you need it to be. Just search "Anker power bank"

https://www.amazon.ca/Anker-PowerCore-13000-Portable-Charger/dp/B00Z9QVE4Q/ if you don't mind spending another $10

https://www.amazon.ca/Anker-20100mAh-Portable-Charger-PowerCore/dp/B00X5RV14Y/ if you want to go all out

First of all, welcome to our community! My wife and I performed our first homebirth shortly after moving to Old Toronto too, as well. I recommend "Homebirth: The Essential Guide to Giving Birth Outside of the Hospital." Only $7.45 on Amazon! It's a great, quick read. I finished it in one Sunday afternoon after milking our cows. Good luck!

Sure! Back when It was really bad, I took Aerius once a day. If on a day, my symptoms were really bad, I would take a benadryl. I didn't like taking them because they made me woozy and incoherent. It really works for severe allergy symptoms. I really wish they made a non-drowsy version.

An air purifier will help immensely. Get one with a HEPA filter- this is what you will need the most. Check out something like these. Read the reviews before you buy a purifier to see if it fits your needs, if you do buy one.

Mix an Omega-3 supplement into the food that your cats eat. I know this sounds a little gross, but oh wow is it worth it regarding shedding and dander. I suggest this one. Your cats may take a while to start eating it without fussing, but I found it was worth it. I feed them dry food, put the liquid on the food and shake the food around in the bowl until it covers all of the food. If you feed them wet food, I imagine it would work just by mixing it in when you're preparing it.

If you're up to being able to handle and brush your cats, purchase a Furminator (short hair, long hair). Make sure you get it from a reputable source, because there are fake ones that will actually hurt your cats because they aren't designed the same way as the real ones. Basically, how it works is that instead of just brushing the hair and grabbing already loose hairs, it removes undercoat hair (where I find most of my short haired cat's shedding occurs). If you have both short and longhaired cats, I've read that the longhair one also works on shorthair cats. YMMV. It's a bit more expensive, but it's worth it and you won't ever use a different brush. You've probably seen the "we brushed our (insert animal here) today and look what we got! The first time you brush your cats with it, the pile of hair will probably be so large you'll be wondering when you adopted another cat. I do not kid!

Pick up wipes like these and wipe your kitties with them. They're safe for your cat and will remove dander and saliva (what sets allergies off) from the coat.

Lastly, you probably already do this, but keep your house really clean. Vacuum a ton (make sure you have a vacuum that gets deep into your carpets if you have carpets). Vacuum your couches, chairs, carpets- anything that you can't sweep basically. And sweep! Gets rid of that cat dander. (I can't say I follow this advice constantly... I'm a bit lazy. But when I do do it, I notice my allergies go down.) Make sure you change your bedsheets and wash your blanket often as well.

After handling your cats, or brushing- basically anything where you could have their dander, hair, or saliva on you, wash your hands. This will help with itchy eyes etc.

Okay, whew. I don't even know how to tl;dr this. Maybe:

tl;dr: doing all of these will curb your allergies considerably and you will still be able to enjoy your feline company!

Amazon! I got a black non branded single speed road bike delivered within 22 hours and cost me $214 after taxes with Amazon Prime free shipping.

Here is the one I picked up, the price has gone up since... I guess I got it on deal but there are many other options

My Bike

Sample option

My Roommate also purchased his on Amazon, he has the Tan colour option

Good Luck!


edit: I used this website to figure out my frame size and it was a perfect fit

I looked into buying a 2-4 unit multi-plex to (a) live in one unit myself, and (b) rent the rest of to cover defray the costs of the mortgage and expenses. This was about 2-3 years ago.

I found that I couldn't make the numbers work. The rent (at the time) rarely managed to cover (1) mortgage, (2) taxes, (3) insurance, etc. This was including treating the unit I lived in as income that I 'pay myself' (or rather the fictional 'property company').

Of course rents have gone up since I last did the math, but so have prices (and recently mortgage rates).

Run the numbers yourself; a book I found informative:

• https://www.amazon.ca/Real-Estate-Investing-Canada-Creating/dp/0470158891
  
  If you're okay with a monthly loss, hoping to 'flip' at some point in the future via property values (and higher rents), then go ahead. But if you want to at least break-even cashflow-wise, things aren't as rosy AFAICT.
  
  If someone has made the numbers work in the GTA, please PM me, as I'd love to know how.
  

Homebrewing!

There are few things as satisfying as making your own beer from scratch. It's easier than you think and it will teach you more than you ever thought you could know about craft beer.

Check out http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html for free or buy the latest edition: http://www.amazon.ca/How-Brew-Everything-right-first/dp/0937381888

This book will teach you everything you need to know to progress from extract brewing (like making cake from a box) to brewing all grain beer (from scratch).

Check out the local community to ask your questions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GTA.Brews/
https://gtabrews.wordpress.com/

And the local shops for supplies:
http://torontobrewing.ca/
http://www.noblehop.com/

Feel free to ask me any questions you have!