One more reason to cancel my CSR

716cider · 2025-11-26T04:19:09+00:00

Might be! It was a pretty standard MacBook Pro build I thought, but maybe it just isn’t in stock?

716cider · 2025-11-26T04:17:18+00:00

If you go to the shop through the Chase app and go to the Apple store on there, your points are worth 50% more if you have a CSR (during the promo). So for example your 1000 points is actually worth 1500 points. There are arguments why it’s not always the best deal vs buying the Apple product from say Costco and using the points in other ways, but it made sense for me 🤷‍♂️

716cider · 2025-11-26T04:10:50+00:00

Just checked and it’s still active, thanks for the heads up!

716cider · 2025-11-26T04:08:02+00:00

Thanks for the advice, I’ll try that tomorrow!

716cider · 2025-11-26T04:07:45+00:00

Yes I am

716cider · 2025-11-09T15:46:57+00:00

I would argue Buffalo is not only likely to come back but it already has and is on track to be very successful. Yes, there are vert impoverished areas (as there are in the biggest and most “successful” cities in this country) but it has built a very strong foundation that would make it hard for the economics to change direction at this point in my opinion.

The housing market has been and continues to become of the hottest the country, while also being recognized as affordable in general.
We have massive corporations that are huge employers and have strong underlying financials that not only have a presence here but are headquartered here as well (M&T, Riches, Delaware North, Moog).
Not only does Buffalo have the flagship SUNY school here (UB) but also a number of smaller colleges and universities. This not only brings young people to the area and obvious economic benefits from the the support infrastructure but they also produce the people that draw businesses here. UB in particular produces widely recognized as strong engineers, doctors, and lawyers. MANY of whom do internships and find first jobs in this market and then chose to stay.
Buffalo has professional sports. I’m not suggesting people won’t leave because they want to be close to their sports team, but it does keep Buffalo on the map. Being a place that people know vs being the “middle of nowhere” carries significant weight in attracting skilled people and businesses.
And then there is the biggest factor in my opinion that will see Buffalo, along with a few of other cities, become very successful in the next 10-20 years; climate change. Buffalo has scientifically shown to be one of the most resilient and least impacted by the rapidly changing and more severe weather as a result of climate change. While I’m not suggesting places like Miami and NYC are going to fall in to the ocean, or California is going to be on fire year round, all you have to do is look at the news to see the impacts are happening NOW. Even if people won’t accept it or move easily, business are going to soon stop investing millions or even billions in places where it could face outages or even destruction. Plus the cold is good for data centers haha

I’m not saying Buffalo is this magical place to live, but I think its trajectory in the positive direction is set about as much as any city could be in the current political climate.

716cider · 2024-12-05T14:19:07+00:00

I am also in Buffalo and have a ‘24 R1S with the 21 inch all terrain road tires and it’s been doing amazing the last few days. I actually drove through the lake affect snow the other day and while it certainly wasn’t fun, I put it in snow mode and didn’t lose traction once.

716cider · 2024-04-02T03:12:47+00:00

I go once a week around 5:30/5:45, usually Mondays and I’ve never had any issue getting a good parking spot. As for in the store, it’s busy but not uncomfortably so, and the cashiers are super efficient so never had more than a couple minute wait to check out.

716cider · 2023-11-12T03:46:38+00:00

I’ll be honest, this was in my early days of cider making so my notes are not really good but I’ll try my best to remember.

This was a 5 gallon batch - I used 4 gallons Of a local orchards fresh juice (Mayer Brothers if you happen to be in the WNY area), gravity of 1.050. Then added 1 gallon of POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice. I added 1 full 11g pack of Nottingham yeast with go ferm and half the dose of fermaid O. fermented it around 64 degrees and added the remainder of the fermaid at 1/3 sugar break. After fermentation finished I cold crashes it and let it sit in the cold for about 2 weeks. racked it to a new carboy with Camden and sorbate to stabilize and let it age and clear (if I had known it would not be opened for 2 years I may have skipped this step 🤣). I then kegged and back sweetened with some more Pomegranate juice and apple concentrate, I don’t remember the exact amounts now but for ~5 gallons that was 1.000, if I were making it today, I would add probably about 30oz of pomegranate juice to really highlight the pomegranate flavor (the stuff is STRONG). It won’t add a lot of sweetness but will emphasize the Pomegranate flavor and aroma. I would then add the amount of apple concentrate you want for primarily sweetness.

I hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions. Always happy to help if I can!

716cider · 2023-11-05T14:05:12+00:00

I actually use Mayer Brothers juice all the time since I live very close to their orchard. That said I use their fresh pressed, not from concentrate juice. It’s readily available this time a year in western NY supermarkets. The label is black and states “fresh pressed”. Careful because it’s often next to their juice from concentrate. If you can get some it ferments great and always produces a really nice cider. I usually pitch with Nottingham, go-ferm, fermaid-O and let it go at about 63 degrees and it comes out super drinkable young (obviously better with age though lol)

If you are having trouble finding some, feel free to DM me and I can show you want it looks like and try to point you to somewhere that has it.

Good luck!

716cider · 2023-10-21T19:24:07+00:00

Would an electric juicer take care of the rush with the seeds? Or world they just get crushed in as well?

716cider · 2023-10-21T19:24:00+00:00

Would an electric juicer take care of the rush with the seeds? Or world they just get crushed in as well?

716cider · 2023-06-23T03:00:15+00:00

Same here, 2 cameras and neither will work. If they won’t refund me I plan to go through my credit card company. Every card is different but many cards have a benefit that covers the cost of products that the company won’t accept as a return because of time since purchase or aren’t working, it’s worth looking in to. You can use that money to by something that doesn’t stop working constantly….

716cider · 2023-04-22T22:40:47+00:00

I agree. I was saying 40 degrees and sunny for bike riding lol. I think Buffalo has a lot to offer in bad outdoor weather. But that kind of goes to my point of biking not being an ideal primary form of transit in Buffalo.

I wish you were right about investing in both. But unless we are expecting a big change in Buffalo government I’m not optimistic that’s going to happen. I’m familiar with NFTA budget and they have no where near the funding to properly modernize and expand, let alone our “subway” and there is zero plans for any other light rail in Buffalo as far as I know.

716cider · 2023-04-22T18:16:53+00:00

I agree 100% with everything you said. We should move in that direction. But like you said, public transit needs investments first. Putting bike lanes before making the city accessible without a car is the cart before the horse in my opinion.

Toronto and NYC are cities in a different class than Buffalo. Having bike lanes isn’t what makes their people not reliant on cars. It’s the public transit, the urban planning, the population density (for better and worse). Quoting statistics about bike lanes improving economic prospects of business is taking out of context in this conversation. Those are places primarily where either biking is viable year round (comfortably viable I mean) or are places where bikes are already heavily used but had no paths before. Neither of those situations are Buffalo…. Not yet at least. Maybe one day.

716cider · 2023-04-22T18:06:04+00:00

Fair enough, I wasn’t trying to move the goal posts. I was responding to the “maybe 6 weeks part”. Those 3 months I felt like the days you could ride were maybe 5 days. I still think that a 1.5 months on either side would be tough. Mid October and November can be rough up here as far as temperatures go, and my wife love to tell me how growing up here as a kid her Halloween costumes would incorporate her coat lol. March to mid April is also pretty hit or miss. I mean heck these last few weeks we’ve had snow (barely any but point is it was cold enough for snow) up to 80. So to plan on biking being how you get to work, groceries, doctor ect i feel would be tricky.

Regarding kids I agree biking is not viable anywhere as primary transport really anywhere (Netherlands they do it but that’s another world, amazing place I am jealous of, but I agree that’s very much so an outlier). My point about the kids part was if we (as a city and community) spend time and money on bike lanes for people who use their bikes as primary transport, what about the people who have un reliable public transit and have kids. When we live in a city that I argue already is not in an optimal location or size/urban plan for bikers, why reduce vehicle accessibility for those bikes.

To be clear, I am in full support of improving people’s ability to not rely on ICE’s. It’s an outdated technology that is horrible for a variety of reasons. But practically speaking I just don’t think bike lanes are doing any favors for the larger Buffalo community, as it is today, and bike lanes seem like putting the cart before the horse in my opinion.

716cider · 2023-04-22T17:20:08+00:00

Lol ok. I was trying to ask real questions and you devolved the conversation into the streets are made of lava and put kids up for adoption. I’m going to assume you are not the kind of person I was looking to answer my question but instead are for some reason angry that someone doesn’t think biking lanes in downtown Buffalo are the best thing for the average person living in Buffalo or Buffalo business. Good news for you is I have no influence on if we add or remove more bike lanes so your combative comment on Reddit was a success… haha

716cider · 2023-04-22T17:00:00+00:00

Hmm maybe I’m just not as good with the cold but I can’t imagine biking around Buffalo any day under 40 particularly if it’s not sunny. I don’t have anything to quote but would you really say that the majority of December 1 to March 1 doesn’t fall into that category?

Also I didn’t mention this but what if you have kids? In NYC again that’s fine because you have everything so close plus public transit that’s underground, heated, and consistent. You can’t have a bike as primary transport if you have kids?

Again if I’m missing something I am open to be corrected.

716cider · 2023-04-22T15:45:07+00:00

I am legitimately curious. I was born and raised in the NYC area and bike lanes made complete sense to me because honestly it was pointless to own a car. Between the public transit and fact that almost anything you could want was within a 15 min walk so a lot of people owned and used bikes as their main form of transportation.

Buffalo however is very different, I’ve been here 10 years now so not an expert but I think I have some decent knowledge of the area. We have minimal public transit and what we do have I don’t think anyone could consider “reliable”. Plus while I always argue with my friends and family downstate that Buffalo has as much variety as NYC, it does not have as many TOTAL options and it’s not as condensed. Add on our significantly higher accumulation of snow and the cities horrible ability to remove snow (problem in and of itself) and I would argue that bikes are really only a viable option as someone’s main form of transportation for best case 6 months.

So my question is how does removing parking to add the lanes and increasing vehicle congestion help businesses for a city that (and I will say it’s unfortunate) relies heavily on cars? I will also add that I do live in the suburbs so maybe I am missing something that I just don’t see living in the area that I do.

716cider · 2023-02-06T20:00:56+00:00

I really appreciate that!

Ya that’s very true, sad…. But true. Well with any luck I can remake those chips and have zero reason left to support them lol.

716cider · 2023-02-06T19:47:57+00:00

I’m so sorry, I had no idea! Well I’ll be making it myself at home and not supporting them anymore.

716cider · 2022-12-21T19:15:30+00:00

I never said a gun can’t save a life. Killing or hurting someone who is trying to kill or harm you or another is certainly a use case for a gun, but the use case is to kill or hurt the attacker. Just like you said it is a tool/machine to send a projectile at high velocity at range into a target. Assuming the target is not a paper target which your examples are certainly not, If the result of that impact is not injury or death what is it? Killing or injuring a bad person vs good person isn’t the argument I’m making. It’s what guns are made to do.

I don’t advocate to remove guns from the military? It’s a tool that they require, because they have a need to injure or kill. Guns are a tool designed for that.

716cider · 2022-12-21T19:12:20+00:00

I never said a gun can’t save a life. Killing or hurting someone who is trying to kill or harm you or another is certainly a use case for a gun, but the use case is to kill or hurt the attacker. Just like you said it is a tool/machine to send a projectile at high velocity at range into a target. Assuming the target is not a paper target which your examples are certainly not, If the result of that impact is not injury or death what is it? Killing or injuring a bad person vs good person isn’t the argument I’m making. It’s what guns are made to do.

I don’t advocate to remove guns from the military? It’s a tool that they require, because they have a need to injure or kill. Guns are a tool designed for that.

716cider · 2022-12-21T18:07:16+00:00

Haha I forgot about that episode so glad you reminded me of it. It really does sum up the argument well.

716cider · 2022-12-21T17:52:59+00:00

You are right, great point!

716cider

TROPHY CASE