US Financial Services: Canadian Number & VOIP Support
A summary of which US financial services accept Canadian phone numbers or US VOIP numbers for verification.
Blog
Writing about design, code, and the messy space in between.
Case Study: AMEX Checking $300 Bonus Timeline
Opened online with ITIN. Used a Wise transfer with memo set to payroll as fake DD to meet the $7,500 deposit requirement. Bonus posted same day.
COD4 in 2026: Fixing Localization, Multiplayer, and Single-Player
How to get Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare running on Windows 11 in 2026 — Chinese localization, multiplayer fixes, and single-player enhancements.
Dotfiles, Part 2: Managing Cross-Machine Config and Secrets with Chezmoi
Moving from Dotbot to Chezmoi — layered management of shared config, machine-local overrides, and secrets.
How Much I Spent on AI
A breakdown of my AI spending from August 2023 to May 2026, spanning nearly three years. Conclusion: most of the time I used free options, and actual out-of-pocket expenses were C$120.00 + U$13.54 + £11.00 + ¥99.00.
The Cleanest Way to Back Up Your Mac Setup: dotfiles
Stop manually reconfiguring every new Mac. One dotfiles command restores all your settings.
lyric-romanizer Pt. 1: Stop Reinventing the Wheel
OpenKara needed CJK lyric romanization. While researching, I found a ready-made engine inside the Spotify Karaoke Chrome extension. One GitHub Issue later, I extracted it into a standalone npm package — lyric-romanizer — supporting 12 native scripts and 4 API-based scripts.
lyric-romanizer Pt. 2: I Gave Up on Cantonese Auto-Detection
While adding Cantonese support to the lyric romanization tool, I went in circles with auto-detection and finally settled on explicit parameters.
How to get a no annual fee, no FTF, 3% custom category credit card
Bank of America product changes preserve the original card's no-FTF benefit. Apply for Travel Rewards first, then PC to Customized Cash Rewards after a year — and you get a no-AF, no-FTF, 3% custom category card.
Churning Community Slang 101
A beginner's guide to common churning abbreviations and slang — from the basics to each bank's application rules.
HSBC UK/AU Global Transfer to Maintain Premier Status
Without an Australian local bank account, use HSBC UK's AUD account and Global Transfer to complete the monthly A$9,000 deposit requirement and maintain HSBC AU Premier.
How to Waive TD All-Inclusive Credit Card Fee Without Keeping $6,000 Long-Term
Use TD's online account type change feature to temporarily upgrade to an All-Inclusive account in the month your credit card annual fee is charged, then downgrade immediately after the rebate lands.
Case Study: US Bank $450 SUB Timeline
How I completed the U.S. Bank $450 sign-up bonus requirement using an ITIN, fake DD, and a trip to Seattle.
Case Study: Wells Fargo $400 Bonus Timeline
Opened alongside U.S. Bank during the same Seattle trip. Used SoFi and U.S. Bank ACH transfers as fake DD to meet the $3,000 direct deposit requirement.
Getting Cursor 4.6-opus-high-thinking for Free (A ~$100 Bug)
Last month I found a bug that let you use Cursor's 4.6-opus-high-thinking model for free, indefinitely. It got patched within days.
Building a fast static blog with Astro
A minimal bilingual blog that keeps content in Git, ships static HTML, and generates Open Graph images at build time.
How I Replaced Document Creation with Three CLI Tools
One day in April, I realized I almost never need to create a PDF-bound document from scratch. Most of the time I'm just filling out something someone else sent me. The things I actually need to write and export from scratch boil down to three: resume, invoice, and cover letter.
Why You Should Use a Turkish Apple ID for iTunes Purchases
Turkish iTunes Store and iTunes Match prices are incredibly cheap after currency conversion. Here is how to take advantage of this overlooked benefit.
Affordable Kamen Rider No. 1 Cosplay Suit Solutions Collection
This article lists affordable solutions for reproducing the looks from Kamen Rider The series and Shin Kamen Rider that started from a Tieba post, with different attempt combinations. The characteristic is to use common off-the-shelf products as much as possible.
Get Free SafePal X1 Hardware Wallet [Deadline: June 31, 24]
Process for getting a free cryptocurrency hardware wallet
FedEx Stole My $1500 Package and Banned My Account
FedEx Stole My Package Worth $1500 and Closed My Account Without Notice.
Canada International Student Banking Guide 2023
Personal experience summarized Canada international student basic bank account/card knowledge.
Punctuation Guide: Usage of Chinese-English Mix and Punctuation
People who don't like to add spaces between Chinese and English when typing will have a hard time in relationships. There is a 70% chance they will marry someone they don't love at the age of 34, while the remaining 30% of people can only leave their inheritance to their cats in the end. After all, both love and writing need proper spacing.
My Referral Codes [Continuously Updated]
I have organized all my referral codes here. I would be very happy if you can use them.
Sharp Review of Spy x Family
One afternoon at mealtime, I clicked on Spy x Family and watched three episodes continuously, then decided to stop watching before the plot officially unfolded and write a sharp review.
Simple and Fast Blog Article Cover Image Creation with CoverView
CoverView is a web project developed by React, less than 500kb in size, open-sourced on GitHub
Clouds in Super Mario
Cory Arcangel's 2002 artwork Super Mario Clouds uses a real Nintendo NES cartridge, with hardware modifications made to the cartridge to remove all content except the clouds and blue sky.
Toilet Dilemma
Independent game designer Steven Harmon created a website called Toilet Game Studies in 2017
Come Drink with Me: The Foundation of Shaw Brothers Martial Arts Cinema
Come Drink with Me - Hu Jinquan's first martial arts film and the pioneering work of Shaw Brothers' new school of martial arts cinema. Its status and significance are naturally monumental. In 1966, such a color martial arts film was groundbreaking, but fifty-six years later, does it still hold viewing value?