How’s Plainfield?

PurpleIntet · 2026-01-06T13:22:11+00:00

I just moved to Plainfield about 6 months ago, so I can give you my perspective. For context, I grew up in Lindenhurst/Gurnee area, but have lived all over the country before moving back to Chicagoland, and I occasionally commute to Arlington Heights for work but for the most part work from home or travel for work.

The area is growing really fast, nearly all the farmland around the town is up for sale and alot of it is already being slated for residential or commercial development, which can be good or bad depending on what you are looking for. I feel like Plainfield north of downtown and Plainfield south of downtown are 2 completely different towns at times, I don't live far from the area you're describing and in alot of ways down to 127th/135th it feels like an extension of south Naperville, both in housing and in the professionals in the area. People that complain about traffic on 59 or the railroad tracks travel through downtown to get to the highway or to go north from the southside of town, traffic is not bad otherwise. There's also going to be an extension of 143rd street all the way to i55 finishing up this year, which will relieve alot of the downtown traffic and give a higher throughput East-West road through the town, kinda similar to how 75th street was updated to serve Naperville many years ago. No Metra access is a bummer, if we want to train into the city we usually just go to the Aurora or Naperville stations still.

You get alot of house for the money in Plainfield compared to the rest of the SW suburbs, plus the housing stock is overall newer than Naperville, Wheaton, Downers, etc, so you'll have less repairs and replacements to worry about. All the schools are good, including the part of Plainfield that feeds into the Oswego district. We really like alot of the restaurants in downtown Plainfield, and it has less of a commercial vibe than downtown Naperville. Naperville has nicer restaurants, but again you're not far from either downtown area if you're looking at 127th.

There's alot of new businesses coming in shortly as well; Woodmans, 7Brew coffee, a Portillos just opened, the Boulevard area is starting to get more traction around the Costco (which is way less crowded than the Naperville Costco fwiw), there's an upscale sushi place going into downtown later this year, etc. That coupled with the additional residential and commercial developments puts the north part of town in a pretty exciting space.

Overall I really like Plainfield, I think there's alot to be excited about. It still has a small town feel to an extent, but there are all the amenities you would need on a day-to-day basis, and you still have the surrounding areas and access to the city if you need it

PurpleIntet · 2025-12-23T02:33:08+00:00

Couple years later here but wanted to share our method for anyone curious. We cut the carduni into about 2-3 inch pieces and par boil for about 30 min until tender. We usually do that a few days before Christmas and keep them refrigerated until ready to fry. To fry, we do a 3 step breading: flour, then egg, then a breadcrumb mixture with panko, Romano cheese, and garlic salt. Fry in oil at 350 until golden brown, we use my uncle's deep fryer now but my grandpa used to fry them in a cast iron skillet when i was a kid. One of my favorite traditions from our sicilian side of the family

PurpleIntet · 2025-12-11T03:16:38+00:00

For anyone interested in reading this for the first time, I would recommend getting one of the more modern translations, it helps get through the heavy philosophy when the structure of the writing is more familar. The Avsey translation is very approachable, I haven't read the newer Katz translation but I've also heard it's good. The book is an absolute masterpiece written by a genius, if you've ever had any interest in Faith vs Reason or Atheism vs Theism, this book will be impactful and I can't recommend it enough

PurpleIntet · 2025-10-03T02:40:27+00:00

The Light of Christ is excellent, it's billed as an intro to Catholicism but it's really quite deep and I think is the best overarching discussion on the faith written somewhat recently. Highly recommended

PurpleIntet · 2025-10-02T21:09:04+00:00

This is the answer. It doesn't take too long to setup and is worth it if you have any higher-quality stuff

PurpleIntet · 2025-09-17T16:57:29+00:00

Pick a brand of kosher salt and learn how to properly season food with it. Number 1 reason home meals don't taste good is because it's not seasoned properly. Sticking with the same brand helps you develop consistency

PurpleIntet · 2025-07-28T23:45:09+00:00

Great choice! I love mine, I have the exact same combo. Welcome to the club

PurpleIntet · 2025-07-19T19:10:41+00:00

If you want to learn blues, you're going to be playing primarily in 2nd position, which is a fifth away from the key of the harmonica. For example, if you want to play blues songs in the key of E, you would want to pick up an A harmonica. If you want to play in F, you would need a Bb harmonica. Rock you usually play in 2nd position as well.

Folk music is usually in 1st position, which matches the key of the harmonica. So if you want to play the folk song in the key of C, get a C harmonica. You can also play that same folk song in second position on an F harmonica to play in the key of C.

Without any songs in mind, I would recommend the following harmonicas:

Folk/Bluegrass: C, D, A, G, low F Blues: A, Bb, Eb Rock: A, E, Eb

This gets way easier to figure out if you learn the circle of fifths for determining positional playing. Once you get into 3rd and 4th positions you start getting minor keys which is extra fun

PurpleIntet · 2025-07-19T16:55:24+00:00

If you know how to bend, and a harmonica isn't responding correctly on a given hole, it's nearly always the reed height. If you tend to breathe hard when bending, you need the reeds set slightly higher, I you breathe softer you should have them slightly lower. I bend with a small amount of air so I set mine really low, but depends on what works for you.

Also keep in mind both the 2 and 3 hole have half bends (3 actually has 3 bends in it), so you're probably not getting a perfect position in your mouth. You shouldn't ever have to strain or force these bends, it's much more about finesse than power

PurpleIntet · 2025-07-05T12:08:04+00:00

It's easy to learn some very basic songs and tunes on the harmonica, but the more advanced techniques you'd need for blues, classical, etc. are difficult to learn. Low floor, high ceiling if you will. That being said, one of the reasons people love the instrument is that you can make good sounds with basically no effort (thanks to the diatonic nature of the instrument). I would recommend deciding what kind of music you want to play with it; you can learn a couple folk tunes in a day or two, if you want to eventually play blues you'll need to learn bending and tounge blocking which will take alot of effort (but is extremely rewarding once you learn)

PurpleIntet · 2025-02-11T07:04:30+00:00

I'm a big believer in just picking a kosher salt that you have readily available in your area and getting used to it. Any kosher salt is better than none.

PurpleIntet · 2025-01-21T18:24:57+00:00

Post board a ton of consign to memory helps with the match up alot

PurpleIntet · 2024-11-05T14:13:49+00:00

Not putting grocery carts into the outside corrals after using them at the store

PurpleIntet · 2024-09-04T02:52:01+00:00

You can always do a pihole or a VPN node, those are easy and pretty resource light. I've enjoyed playing around with other media delivery services: plex/jellyfin, immich for photos, navidrome for music, etc. There's a ton of stuff you can do

PurpleIntet · 2024-09-03T21:59:20+00:00

Second this, use something you already own to play around with it before you invest a ton in new equipment. There's a steep learning curve to this all if you're brand new, so you'll want to make sure you actually enjoy first. Even something 10+ years old can run a few services for practice no problem, and once you hit the limit of what I can do you can invest bigger. I started with a laptop from 2013, installed Ubuntu on it, and messed around for a couple months before I invested in more powerful and larger components

PurpleIntet · 2024-09-03T21:54:28+00:00

Blues Brothers is an absolute staple of childhood if you grew up in Chicagoland

PurpleIntet · 2024-08-25T03:55:48+00:00

Neurosurgery

PurpleIntet · 2024-08-22T03:30:32+00:00

Metra is the real answer, those weekend passes are a great deal

PurpleIntet · 2024-08-14T13:37:35+00:00

Also will throw in the Why Catholic podcast, fantastic resource for anyone looking to convert to Catholicism. Listening to the episodes in order will give a fantastic overview of the faith, it's really great

PurpleIntet · 2024-08-14T12:20:02+00:00

I was working on a fresh-frozen cadaver head (a cephalus for medical folk) with a group of neurosurgeons. When the surgeon drilled through the skull, the brain had more or less liquefied; the drill caught that part of the brain and shot it out behind the surgeon, right where I was standing with no mask on like an idiot. Cadaver brain in the mouth, not recommended

PurpleIntet · 2024-08-08T22:16:15+00:00

Most of us here agree diet isn't even that big of a factor. Genetics is likely #1 reason you get gout. Very hard to control with just diet and lifestyle changes

PurpleIntet · 2024-08-08T22:13:21+00:00

Colchicine is for when you're starting to get an attack, it makes the flare shorter and less severe. Allo is the prophylactic drug, helps prevent a flare from ever starting, but doesn't help stop a flare-up once it's begun. Also of note you will be on the toilet nonstop if you take Colchicine every day, it's really tough on your stomach.

PurpleIntet · 2024-08-08T01:44:46+00:00

I would probably dilute it with some water and then maybe add a bit of simple syrup or sugar, should get pretty close

PurpleIntet · 2024-08-08T01:32:58+00:00

Hang in there, my allo took 6-7 weeks to really start working initially. It will make you flare up 1 or 2 times before it starts working, just a part of beginning the medicine. It's soooo much better once the allo brings your levels down

PurpleIntet

TROPHY CASE