All posts in Life

It’s the last weekend of November 2021, and the No-Spend personal finance challenge is coming to an end. That means it’s time to put my cards on the table for internet accountability points™.

We’re well past the midpoint of No-Spend November — a personal finance challenge I started earlier this month. On paper, the rules are simple: Limit or restrict your discretionary spending for thirty days. But in practice, things aren’t so easy. Spending urges are ever-present, and temptations reside in every corner of the internet. So how…

It’s Hallow’s Eve. But beyond desiccated crypt denizens and flying broom-straddling females, a truly terrifying prospect lies ahead. A whole month without spending a dime on discretionary purchases. This terrifying tradition is known by some as No-Spend November.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, so I thought I’d take some time to reflect on thankfulness. The topic feels especially pertinent this year: Six months ago, I nearly succeeded at taking my own life. But thanks to the combined efforts of rescue, emergency, and health professionals, I’ve more or less resumed life where I last…

Earlier this month, I replaced a pair of broken headphones, paid for a $238 dentist visit, and backed a Kickstarter. Afterwards, I was feeling pretty tapped-out financially. It’s not that I didn’t have the money for these things: I’ve earned more this month with two broken legs than I did earlier in the year with…

The first coffee I ever had was a bottled Starbucks Frappucino. As something laden with milk and sugar, it was delicious to nine-year-old me. But beneath its candied presentation, I could tell that the foundation of its flavour — the distinctly dark, earthy taste of coffee — was something special. Roughly a decade later, I…

Prior to 2021, I had never broken a bone. But earlier this year, I made up for lost time by sustaining all sorts of fractures all over my body. The surgeries to correct those fractures took place while I was unconscious, and most bone breakage has since healed. However, I’d thought I’d chronicle some of…

My Mom has always been a compassionate gardener. She had a garden in our backyard when I was little. In her spare time, she would toil away, fostering the growth of chives, oregano, thyme, and more. What I didn’t know at the time was that my Mom had another garden: Us, her three sons. Like…

A week ago, medical personnel herded me onto a systematized medical floor and into a small stall. There, I sat in a neat row amongst other fellow residents of my city. And one by one, we were each inoculated like cattle. It was my second dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. So, in a few weeks,…

I recently purchased a 2020 M1 MacBook Air to replace my ageing 2012 Retina MacBook Pro. But in an amusing twist of fate, I somehow misclicked during the online ordering process. And unfortunately, as I would come to discover about a week later, that misclick would have drastic repercussions. For me, opening a new Apple…