Speculation: And yet again...the Off-Topic Thread

[Winger98]

Do make sure you see Pictured Rocks. Take a boat tour, weather permitting. It's worth it.

As for food and such, I don't really know stuff out that way intimately but if you make your way to Marquette let me know and I'll talk your ear off.

what's your can't miss place in Marquette? probably for lunch, has to be kids friendly.

 

[Electric Eric]

The Netherlands seems like a beautiful place. Good luck in your new home. Also, if you can, take advantage of the ability to relatively easily travel to so many places. Seems like a wonderful opportunity.

Spent a month out there a couple years back and really just loved everything.

Absolutely plan on taking advantage of the travel opportunities that it will afford too. Got 2 young boys and being able to show them this part of the world is something I was never able to do as a kid so its a pretty exciting new chapter of our whole family's life.

 

[MabusIncarnate]

That sounds amazing, I hope you and your family enjoy that trip.

 

[NervousPerson]

alright folks, I'm looking for suggestions for places to go, things to see, and where to eat in the UP. bulk of the trip will be in grand marais, hoping to see pictured rocks and Tahquamenon falls. Looking at the bear farm up there. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

If you go to Soo, Mich you can check out the Locks and watch the freighters pass through on a Soo Locks tour boat. There's also a mini golf course nearby. Soo Brewery has a good reputation (but I've never been there - beer isn't my thing). If you're a gambler you can go to Kewadin Casino. Austin's Cigar Lounge is a cool stop too. The Palace has good Mexican cuisine (well, good to a Northern Ontarian).

 

[MBH]

Been playing with this guy since 1999. Great dude.

 

[RabidBadger]

I live six blocks north of Capitol Hill, so I'm anticipating a pretty eventful weekend to say the least.

As someone who dates same-sex partners, the concurrence was a pretty chilling read. Probably the first day since 2015 that I've really had to wrestle with the possibility of not enjoying a nationally-recognized marriage, depending on how far the Court stretches this new precedent.

I know the board has a no politics rule so I won't get too deep in the weeds, but I suspect it will be a pretty anxious time here in D.C.

These are pensive times, to say the least. All told, you are in a good place with a populace who shares your ideals. This should be a galvanizing moment for those of us who share your concerns. I, and several million other people, got your back.

 

[Bench]

what's your can't miss place in Marquette? probably for lunch, has to be kids friendly.

I just got back from there, coincidentally, so sorry for the delay.

There's a couple places I consider excellent:

1) The Vierling. One of my favorite restaurants in the city. They have some local favorites like whitefish and beer brewed on site. If you sit in the back you also get views of Lake Superior. It's not "kid friendly" the way a typical family restaurant is with a kid's menu, so check out the menu online to see if they'll be ok to eat there.

2) Portside. This is a pub style restaurant with a pretty nice menu. Suitable for kids and an outdoor dining area if it's nice. Wide selection of Michigan beers on tap. The cheese spread and bread sticks are a must get.

3) Donkers. This one will be a hit with the kids. It's a candy shop with some delicious sweet treats. They also have a lunch menu and such that's very good. Obama made a special trip there when he was in town, to give you an idea of it's status as a place to stop.

The good news is all three of those locations are within a few blocks of one another, so you could do lunch and hit Donkers (which I think ya gotta do for the kids) really easily without needing to move the car again if you wanted.

Those would be my top picks for lunch. While you're in Marquette, take a quick drive around Presque Isle Park. It's got some lovely views of the lake and kids might enjoy catching a glimpse of the deer that chill on that little peninsula. You can also walk out on the break wall if you so desire. There's a small nature center there as well that the kids might enjoy if it's open (hours appear to be all wonky since COVID). You can tell the kids you know a guy that used to climb up on that roof a few times a week to change batteries on equipment to record birds flying over. Ah memories.

Obviously let me know if you have any further questions or such.

In Grand Marais make sure you let the kids run up and down the big sand dunes that go into the lake. One, they'll be exhausted at the end of the day. Two, it's super fun to run down and tumble.

 

[SoupNazi]

Anyone here familiar with New Baltimore or any of the other communities around Lake St. Clair as far as livability? Looking at moving back north and Michigan is on the shortlist.

 

[Obe2kenobe]

alright folks, I'm looking for suggestions for places to go, things to see, and where to eat in the UP. bulk of the trip will be in grand marais, hoping to see pictured rocks and Tahquamenon falls. Looking at the bear farm up there. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

If you go to Tahquamenon falls in the town of Paradise there is a place called the Fish House that has the best Whitefish I have ever had. They cook only that days catch so it’s super fresh and comes from that deep cold water of Lake Superior. I try to get up there at least once a year and always look forward to it.
I would recommend the Pictured rocks boat tour too in Munising. Also quite a few waterfalls to tour in the Munising area.
Also the log slide overlook in Grand Marias is a favorite of mine great views, beautiful spot.

 

[Bondurant]

Anyone here familiar with New Baltimore or any of the other communities around Lake St. Clair as far as livability? Looking at moving back north and Michigan is on the shortlist.

Supposed to be a nice town. Tom Stanton, author of notable Detroit sports books, lives or used to live there.

 

[RabidBadger]

Anyone here familiar with New Baltimore or any of the other communities around Lake St. Clair as far as livability? Looking at moving back north and Michigan is on the shortlist.

It's a cozy little hamlet. Honestly I've only passed through a few times, but it has a laid back vibe to it like most towns by the lake. St. Clair Shores is a nice spot and the location is good in terms of being close to attractions like the zoo, the city, etc.

 

[SoupNazi]

Supposed to be a nice town. Tom Stanton, author of notable Detroit sports books, lives or used to live there.

It's a cozy little hamlet. Honestly I've only passed through a few times, but it has a laid back vibe to it like most towns by the lake. St. Clair Shores is a nice spot and the location is good in terms of being close to attractions like the zoo, the city, etc.

Thanks guys. Recent events have made me decide I need to get out of South Carolina. I want to be closer to the Great Lakes, where I grew up, again, and since I can work remotely I can live anywhere.

 

[Henkka]

Funny fact:

Finnish player did score the GWG for all these Championships:

Stanley Cup Final GWG (Artturi Lehkonen, 1-2 Game 6)
World Championship GWG (Sakari Manninen, 4-3 OT)
Finnish SM-Liiga GWG (Joona Luoto, 1-0 Game 5)
Swedish SHL GWG (Jesse Virtanen, 0-1 Game 7)
Olympic Final GWG (Hannes Björninen, 2-1)

Can't wait for the WJC U20...

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

Anyone here familiar with New Baltimore or any of the other communities around Lake St. Clair as far as livability? Looking at moving back north and Michigan is on the shortlist.

Please DM me. I am from New Baltimore. Any questions you got, I got answers for ya.

It's a cozy little hamlet. Honestly I've only passed through a few times, but it has a laid back vibe to it like most towns by the lake. St. Clair Shores is a nice spot and the location is good in terms of being close to attractions like the zoo, the city, etc.

I like to call it the end of civilization. It's where urban sprawl went to die. Like Gratiot continues on north after it, but with one traffic light towns. It's convenient, but it's also definitely small town feel.

Chesterfield Township (right next door) is legit as well.

 

[TCNorthstars]

Whelp with the news coming out today I'm pretty happy to have a start date in september for a new gig in the Netherlands.

So, ummm, is your company hiring? Asking for a friend.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Thanks guys. Recent events have made me decide I need to get out of South Carolina. I want to be closer to the Great Lakes, where I grew up, again, and since I can work remotely I can live anywhere.

I feel you there. What part of South Carolina are you in? I used to live in Columbia from 2016 to 2017. I think living there was the first time in my life I experienced culture shock.

 

[Electric Eric]

So, ummm, is your company hiring? Asking for a friend.

Currently 800+ positions of all kind on the internal site for the Netherlands.

ASML is the company.

 

[SoupNazi]

I feel you there. What part of South Carolina are you in? I used to live in Columbia from 2016 to 2017. I think living there was the first time in my life I experienced culture shock.

I'm up in Greenville. Without getting political, I'm tired of the bigotry disguised as religion. The northerner in me hates it.

 

[Ricelund]

Currently 800+ positions of all kind on the internal site for the Netherlands.

ASML is the company.

Interesting, I read an article a few months ago that described your company as the most important company in the world that no one's ever heard of. I think it was in the NYT.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

I'm up in Greenville. Without getting political, I'm tired of the bigotry disguised as religion. The northerner in me hates it.

Oh yes...that state can be really beautiful but really ugly at the same time.

I had to go to Florence, SC for work for 4 weeks and this tiny church that could maybe fit 25 people inside it had a confederate flag bigger than a highway billboard sign flying above it.

 

[Electric Eric]

Interesting, I read an article a few months ago that described your company as the most important company in the world that no one's ever heard of. I think it was in the NYT.

Yup, only company that makes EUV machines used in advance/next gen computer chips. Was an install/upgrades engineer on them for a few years before I moved into a different role. Fascinating tech.

Company actually made t-shirts that said "ASML, a relatively obscure Dutch company" after that NYT article I think.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

I hate that I always seem to come in with big subject changes, lol.

I got two though.

Update on fitness challenge, after workout yesterday saw 241.2 (granted, this was water weight, so not super relevant, but when you start at 266, that's a big drop! Still keeping up on the same everything, so just more updates. Did take a break on 10,000 step days on that extreme heat day in Michigan, So happy to just live life, not get wrapped up in things, and enjoy the outdoors.

and something completely different than that even, just bought a RTX3080 FTW3 GPU. Graphics cards are finally, finally "reasonable". $660 is still a bunch for one computer component. One of the main reasons is that I want to hand down my old PC to my mom because we both have VR headsets and her PC is just too slow to do any of the linked PCVR stuff. So it's time for my three year computer upgrade. So far, I've just order the GPU and have a fancy new Platinum efficiency PSU. Trying to determine whether I want to do something crazy with an AIO or custom loop so the inside of my computer will look super cool or just high end efficiency.

Ok, time for an update here on both counts

First, PC. Got the card. Since I got a higher end GPU than I thought I was initially going to upgrade to, the power supply I purchased to "future-build" ended up being not enough. This'll be the first time I'm actually remotely current and hot damn I'm gonna be excited to have a real balls to the f***in wall battle station.

Attached is the list of what I'm thinking and have been recommended by the Reddit buildapc people. I'm thinking I get a different case (making sure it's still compatible) that's more me... but this seems pretty solid.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JNhdxs

My parents will be getting passed down my old still ridiculously worthy PC. My mom is really getting into VR stuff and she doesn't have a PC capable of sideloading her Quest. It'll be a shame, but my dad is gonna end up having the most baller solitaire and puzzle playing machine you ever did see. . I love tinkering with my PC.

Second, it is now 3 months to the day that I started my workout plan in earnest. I'll give you the summary right up top. I was 266 on April 1 when I started this. Not five minutes ago, 240.2. 26 pounds in 3 months without feeling like I've given anything at all up. I've been very satisfied that basically since week 2, it's been between 1-2 pounds consistently every week so not a whole lot of see-sawing where I feel awesome and like I'm killing it one week and hating myself the next.

Now to the numbers which is what interests me and why I've been tracking it.

87/91 days since April 1 over 10,000 steps
9/91 days over 20,000 steps
1,155,278 total steps aiming for a total of 3,750,000 by the end of the year. Need to pick it up if I'm getting there.

505.91 total miles or about the distance from Detroit to Charlotte, NC

Cities 600 miles of Detroit

Find places within a 600 miles radius of me if I'm in Detroit.

milesofme.com

Starting to notice it in feel, but not quite clothes fit yet.

 

[SoupNazi]

Oh yes...that state can be really beautiful but really ugly at the same time.

I had to go to Florence, SC for work for 4 weeks and this tiny church that could maybe fit 25 people inside it had a confederate flag bigger than a highway billboard sign flying above it.

I didn't realize my neighbors went to church on the other side of the state.

They put up Confederate flags, I put up liberal yard signs. We've been subtly Hatfield-McCoying it for years.

 

[Ghost of Ethan Hunt]

That's hilarious Soup & I say that as someone who doesn't "put up liberal yard signs" or any kind of yard signs. All Extremists are cringe. Thanks for the hahaha Soup.

...HF needs some more funny stories from the Hatfield-McCoy Soup War. Betting there's comedic treasure in there.

 

[RabidBadger]

I'm up in Greenville. Without getting political, I'm tired of the bigotry disguised as religion. The northerner in me hates it.

I used to play hockey in Greenville. Sadly, it was the closest rink to Asheville, where I lived. Also, sadly, Greenville was one of the more "progressive" places in that region.