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choripan

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Everything posted by choripan

  1. On the reliability issue, it's important to distinguish between issues that don't matter hugely and are easily fixed, like infotainment glitches, and serious issues, like steering wheels falling off or murderous and falsely-advertised full-self driving systems. Point being, IIRC Consumer Reports does not distinguish based on severity (infotainment vs. drivetrain, for example) when measuring incidents/reliability. May be JD power, though?
  2. I prefer to worry about rip currents, sharks, and (lately) especially orcas.
  3. For a real ass-puckering bridge adventure, may I suggest taking an iced-over Mackinaw Bridge on a cold, windy day? 200 feet above the water and 5 miles in total with a longest span around 3/4 of a mile long.
  4. Because other things may be unsafe, *my* thing is not unsafe? Am I following the logic here?
  5. Another datapoint. Sent my son's passport and passport card to State on Feb 3rd. March 15th, we get a letter in the mail saying that they can't process it because we need to send in the old passport card to get a new one. We have a picture of our packet with the passport card and passport and all that jazz attached just before dropping it in the envelope. Sigh. Same day, we filled out some form saying the passport card was "lost" (by them) and send that in. March 20th, we get an email that says "Application Status: Information Received, In Process Again." We shall see.
  6. This. Plus, I don't want to fuck with my Youtube Music algorithm, which I have dialed in right now.
  7. Haha, I officially feel stupid for engaging a particular poster here. Last straw was posting the "average hours" worked chart a page or two ago, without context of how many of those people are working two or more part-time jobs. Disingenuous at best. Me now leaving this thread that went from kvetching over enshittening to the shit-defender batsignal going somehow going up and bringing in the bootlicker cavalry.
  8. Nowhere did I say or imply that I support dual-earner with a regression to 1960s social norms. Are you being purposefully obtuse?
  9. I set the goalposts at 70s or something like that. Never moved 'em, unless you think the 60s isn't something like that. Semantics there. Point is, regardless of whether 50 or 60 years ago (stop fixating on the trees and catch the forest), the transition to de facto dual-earner being required for most people is an enshittening of QOL, even if just for peace of mind that, if you choose to both work, you're not in too much trouble if one of the two earners loses their job bc you could live off of one income.
  10. You cherry picked by having the data start in the 80s when my initial post said "the 70s or something like that." 25% dual earner in 1960 to 60ish percent these days is a huge jump.
  11. FWIW, 5280, utilizing *household* income as a measure is in problematic because it doesn't account for the (something like) doubling of two-earner households since the 70s or something like that. QOL is often much higher when one person isn't working, but you have enough money, and you're not running errands and trying to keep up on evenings/weekends. To link it to the umbrella topic, it's IMO enshittification that, for most households, one-earner and all the benefits that go with that is not something sustainable.
  12. This is a good example of how different strokes can be for different folks. Not my speed but may be your (Baboon's and many others'!) speed. I would not recommend *any* Detroit suburb except as a place to crash if you can't find a place in Ann Arbor or Detroit. My thought is, "If you're going to make the trip, why visit a suburb like those outside of just about any other city?" IMO, outside of a few places (I'll get to the Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village later), there is nothing unique enough in the suburbs to justify going there if you only have 48/72/however many hours in Michigan.
  13. ANN ARBOR, PART 1 For starters, Ann Arbor basically has two sides, though they’ve started to bleed over into each other since I was in college in the 2000s. To the west, in the heart of downtown, you have what is generally the adults/townie side, which is centered on Main Street. To the east, you have the student side, which is generally within a few blocks of the diag, which is the heart of UM’s campus. Though we don’t have anything as lively as Dirty 6th or Bourbon St. or anything like that, there’s more than enough places to go. Ann Arbor-Specific Things to Do, Eat Drink – These are things that are unique to Ann Arbor/UM. Not necessarily the best, but ya really don’t want to make the trip just eat at McDonald’s or go to a generic sports bar. These are some of the main things that’ll come up if you sit next to a UM alum on a plane or a barstool or something like that. Campus. Other than just strolling around to catch vibes, things you will want to see are the rotating cube statue (google it), traipse through the student union and nickels arcade, and be absolutely sure to visit the beautiful law quad and, within it, take a peek at the law library. Think of these things like visiting the turtle pond at UT – things that set your/our particular campus apart from others. Kerrytown Market/Zingermans. If you’re into it, go to the over-century old market on the north side of downtown on Saturday morning, get some coffee, and get fattened up to drink all day. Zingerman’s is ostensibly an east coast style deli, but they’re also a cheesemonger, wine shop, and a bunch of other things. They pay living wage plus, many emploees are long-tenured, and every employee is super knowledgeable in their area of expertise. I think the deli itself is overrated and would be a very good but not best deli in, say, NYC, but the place is famous. Blimpy Burger. This is like going to the White Spot in Charlottesville or Players in Austin. Or it was. Much like Players, the land that Blimpy’s sat on for decades was snapped up by the university for development. Except, after some downtime, Blimpy’s reopened in another part of town with the same grill, most of the same employees, and so on. Downtown. Ann Arbor has fought hard to preserve independent stores, restaurants, and bars. When we were dating and I first took my wife to my alma mater, she (originally from Houston) remarked that “Holy shit, I don’t think there’s a single chain down here.” I think it’s really cool, and great to just walk around and soak it in within a few blocks of Main Street and out east toward the student side. I’ll write another post with specific bars restaurants I’d recommend, with a description of what to expect, along with places I don’t love, but that the rest of the world seems to love, and which are worthy of inclusion despite my personal opinion. I'll also have recommendations for stuff to do if you want to get out and be active. Ann Arbor's a pretty good town for that, too. [This is going to take me awhile. I’m slapping stuff together when I have downtime, which I don’t have a ton of these days…]
  14. Juicy, Bogey, Wally Fairway, etc. and me. We got you.
  15. Background on Ann Arbor: If you are a city person, don't think of it like a city. Think of it as an awesome city neighborhood or two stitched together, with the urban area about a mile square before you start getting into a layer of historic homes/districts and then, after that, generic single family homes. For your hotel or Airbnb, try to be within about a 10-15 minute walk of the heart of the city, which is basically a triangle from Liberty and First to the south/west, 5th and Kingsley to the north, and South University and Washtenaw to the south/east. Within or near that triangle, everything is walkable and a very pleasant walk, at that. Yes, there are other places to go but, save for a handful of exceptions, they're no different than what you'd find in Anytown, USA (think a car-oriented environment with quite a few chains). Background on Detroit: Detroit has gone quite bonkers around its city core. Lots of stuff to do and see. We moved back home (for me) to Detroit in 2011, leveraged ourselves to the hilt in real estate based on a tried and true rule of real estate investing -- "if you see pride flags and hipster beards, buy in this area" -- and now I'm semi-retired at 42 after we exited it all in 2019. Woodward Avenue forms the spine of the city, dividing it between the eastside (human trash) and westside (demigods, all of us). There is a much-maligned streetcar that runs down Woodward that isn't much in terms of true public transit, but that would be great for a tourist like you. You'll want to find a place south of Warren, east of 2nd or 3rd, and on or west of Brush (if north of I-75) or west of 375 (if south of I-75). The exception here outside of that area is the Eastern Market area, which is really pretty cool, but kind of markety and which can seem sparse, depending on day and time of day. If you are dipping in and out something like Friday evening through Sunday morning, I'd recommend Ann Arbor as your home base. There's enough to fill your time and then some. If you're making it 4-5+ days, I'd recommend staying in Detroit and taking the express bus (A2D2) to Ann Arbor for gameday or just taking an Uber/Lyft). [All the above assumes that you're a first-timer in whichever place you choose] [Specific recommendations and all that to come, but I wanted to lay a very general groundwork. Also I don't want this to be nor see it as *my* thread -- I encourage others to add to, confirm, or contradict what I end up writing here..]
  16. Lions/Michigan fan back from the bar. What a season. Bad drops and fumble, otherwise they didn't stop us. What a season! Probably never see another like this in my lifetime. Had innumerable high fives, hugs, and first bumps with strangers this season. In Houston for the title game, at Tampa and Chicago road lions games, and in a buncha bars. That's what sports is about, once you're doing more watching than playing. 2024 season... You fucked. Rest in power. ✊
  17. ^ Damn skippy. Doesn't matter. Had national title. I'd be very surprised if Herbert left. He's a college guy through and through, likes to mold players, and a lot of NFL guys have their own programs.
  18. It's a trust issue. SF did him dirty the first time around when he was a winner there. Here at M, Warde the AD has been shit from a support standpoint, NIL is lacking institutional support ("transformational, not transactional" wtf), and he got hosed on the SELF-IMPOSED 3 game suspension at the beginning of the season (wtf, your AD should fight *for* you, not backstab you) and the big ten's 3 gamer (your conference should fight *for* you, see the SEC and countless scandals like cam newton). And the NCAA has jumped way past any precedent with him, especially when it comes to leaks. So he can't trust his AD or conference, and the NCAA has been unusually aggressive with him..I'd want out, too. And he had similar issues with the 9ers in the past. He's also a weirdo, so it's not all external, too. But in any case, it makes sense to stay at M if he can't get contractual security/assurances from an NFL team because he can probably win the power struggle with Warde/the AD if he stays. Shiny penny says that if Jimmy comes back, Warde is gone within 6 months
  19. Why you scared of your latent homo-bestial tendencies? Acknowledge and reject them and you'll feel better.
  20. FUCKING LIONS LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO WE'VE NEVER WON SHIT IN MY LIFETIME BUT FUCK IT LET'S GOOOOOOOO (1. Tampa got theirs with merc Brady, SF has a million titles, KC fatigue is real, Ravens got a couple recently. Bills, uh, cool if you win it besides us after the 90s near-misses. That had to suck.) (2. LOL at the Google image results for "Muscular Lion." Look at the nips on that second one!) And why the FUCK does it have blue eyes?!?! (If you can't tell, I woke up pumped today.)
  21. Haha, I'm probably missing some things here but last year Ryan Day, coming off back to back Michigan losses, brought an elite undefeated squad to Ann Arbor. Quite probably the second or third best team in the land, depending on them vs. Georgia. He put up the stiffest fight of any Michigan opponent this past season, more than the national finalist and arguably Bama, and anyone dating back to TCU last year. His QB threw for more yards and TDs than any other Michigan opponent. They scored more than any other Michigan opponent. It was only a last second INT on a drive to win the game against Michigan that took them down, and the QB was hit on the play. In the aftermath of this, he has decided to: run off his rising senior incumbent QB who finished 14th nationally in passer rating. run off his rising senior WR who was arguably the best blocking WR in the country. run off his starting center. take a new center who can't snap (lol). take a new power run QB who lost his first battle to Adrian Martinez and lost a second round of PT to Avery Johnson. take a malcontent running back who the entire Ole Miss offense shoved into the portal after a stepback season. add zero tackles. add zero guards. add zero tight ends. fire the Special Teams coach whose unit was always SP+ top-20. fire the QB coach whose recruiting + position performance was always national top-3. fire the safeties coach for seemingly no reason. publicly cuck program luminary and WR coach Brian Hartline, who many argue is the best in the business when you consider recruiting and development (MHJr, Olave, Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, etc.). hire Bill O'Brien off one of the worst offenses in NFL history. Am I missing anything? Crazier things have worked but gottdamn Ryan, that's an, uh, interesting offseason.
  22. I would like this to be wrong. Maybe jumped the gun on this through the game of telephone. I don't care if he flirts with the NFL every year if the on-field results are fine. If Jim is scraping the bottom of the barrel with the Falcons and moving toward giving up control in his various negotiations, he probably gone. Diminished credibility aside, it sounds like Spanos wants to keep all of his sons, nephews, etc. in positions of power with the Chargers and it's been a point of contention not just with Jim, but with other coaches.
  23. Per my people, crossing the Ts and dotting the Is with Chargers. Minter gone, too. Possibly more. Staff rebuild incoming.
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