“I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing them, Bob.”

Then bringing it to a blue mailbox might be your best option.

Can you leave sticking out of the slot?

That’s the point of the post-it note. So they see it.

I’ve done it before at an apartment, though admittedly it was many many moons ago.

The sticky note was just to be a flag, not the message.

If you don’t want to take it to a mailbox, you can put it back in your own mailbox with the “return to sender - no longer at this address” on it. The mail carrier can pick it up when they deliver your mail next. If they seem to miss it, you can try putting a bright post-it note on it to make it stand out.

American football has become absolutely terrible. It feels like 50% ad time and the commentary is complete shit.

Like Joe Rogan

Damn you beat me to it. I found this by doing some image manipulation and using a font analyzer: https://www.whatfontis.com/ENVG_Upright-Retro-Inspired-Headline-Font.font

Well if his self-inflicted suffering makes him stop an iota of what he’s doing on Xitter or with DOGE, then yes, it will improve the lives of others.

Yeah I definitely don’t know enough to say. You can definitely translate please in translators for those languages, but for whatever reason I just haven’t been seeing it in language basics. Once I spend more time there I’ll learn more.

For Thai specifically, you say “ka” (if you’re a woman) or “kraub”/“kaub”/“kaup” (if you’re a man) at the end of everything you say. Whenever you finish a sentence you say it. I saw a woman relating a phone number, and she would say “ka” after every number. It’s all about politeness.

Insurers always look at whether you’ve been denied coverage previously by another insurer as part of the decision whether to insure you and at what level and rate. Collusion is built into the system.

That said, I certainly wouldn’t want to insure anyone in that area either. Not in this climate…

Yeah, I’m not sure on the quality either. Try to get one with a wired mic to avoid latency as much as possible.

Good luck.

I like the Bluetooth speaker idea, but if that doesn’t work I’ve seen tour guides on buses/boats use portable karaoke machines for this. One problem might be that they add reverb by default which may not be desirable in this scenario, and I’m not sure if you can turn it off.

Edit: just thinking about this, there are systems like you’re talking about designed specifically for tour guides or teachers. It’s a mic attached to a speaker that can sit on your hip (for example.) They’re probably well under your budget, even for a good quality one.

verbally told me to only declare anything over $10K.

Sounds like a trap to me.

By “declaring” I’m not necessarily saying an itemized list of every tiny item you bought, especially if you’re under any limits. But I would be prepared to show all of it if asked. All it takes is one border guard having a bad day to make a difference.

And expressly going to another country to buy a product outside the limits and then sneak it back in to avoid duties is entirely different than some souvenir trinkets and candy.

If you declare the laptop, the border guard might just wave you through without making you pay the duty. If you don’t, and they catch you in a lie, good luck.

As I and others have mentioned elsewhere, you’re taking a risk doing this, as if you get caught it will cost you more.

One other thing to keep in mind is warranties if anything goes wrong with the item. If you are trying to make it look like you brought the item with you, you’ll be getting rid of all the documentation and packaging that proves you purchased it. That includes receipts. Warranties often require proof of purchase, so you may be throwing away your warranty by doing this.

Also, keep in mind that models and model numbers are often different in Canada. I’ve had phones that were identical to the US model but had a different model number. I’ve also had phones where they sold the European version in Canada (again with its own model number) and so it was basically a different phone from what you’d get in the States for the same model name (different CPU, different supported communication protocols.)

Often our model numbers will get a “CA” added to the end making it obvious. Sometimes it won’t be obvious, but won’t match model numbers you can easily find info for online. My current laptop model number is undiscoverable online because it is so rare. There are similar ones for which the info mostly matches my computer, but I’m not always able to find good info.

It’s kind of funny watching Americans talk about this now as it was something we Canadians used to talk about all the time… Strategies for buying goods in the US to save money.

I really don’t like the way this is worded. It sounds like you’re saying that going across the border and buying a “personal” item and not declaring it is just fine.

Yes it is perfectly legal to go across the border and buy something and bring it back (assuming we’re talking about legal goods here, not drugs or contraband items, obviously.)

But you must declare those items. If you get caught pretending it was an item you brought with you but you actually purchased across the border, you may be fined. When you are asked a bunch of questions by the border guard, they’re looking for signs you’re lying. If they get a whiff you’re lying or uncomfortable, they’ll start digging. If they catch you trying to avoid paying the duties on a laptop, not only will you have to pay the duties, you may have to pay a fine on top of that, not to mention every future border crossing you make may be more difficult. If they catch you trying to cheat they are way more likely to implement a fine and put a note on your file.

There are (for now) certain amounts of money you can spend when you cross the border, which changes based on how long you’ve been gone, for which you won’t be charged duties - but you still have to accurately declare what you’ve spent!

https://childhelplineinternational.org/helplines/

I don’t think all of the gang members being deported from the US are wearing the tattoos so boldly. They probably had to be a bit more subtle than that in the US than in Venezuela or El Salvador (before last year).

Look at these 5 guys from 2023 https://www.foxnews.com/us/five-suspected-ms-13-gang-members-us-illegally-charged-murder-death-maryland-15-year-old

Or these three from 2018: https://www.foxnews.com/us/3-ms-13-gang-members-who-took-turns-shooting-suspected-rival-sentenced-to-prison-for-murder

Or all of these ones from 2021: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/06/illegal-alien-ms-13-gang-members-indicted-for-murders-kidnappings/

It’s going to be hard to find subtle versions of the tattoos with image search since they all give the same results of blatant face tattoos.

“Knuckle tattoo” is the common term for tattoos on the back of the fingers like that.