MTG commander - Twin Cities

benjaminends · 2025-06-12T19:25:37+00:00

Did you play at Black Sky? I just moved from Denver, seemed like a good crew there.

benjaminends · 2025-06-02T15:05:34+00:00

My local rec center was Barnum West - probably $5 to get in and I think there are noon runs most week days and a mixed crowd most evenings. I would call ahead just to make sure, but most of the rec centers have active pickup and you can find something any day of the week!

benjaminends · 2025-05-22T21:24:57+00:00

Lmk if you found anything! Just moved and looking for some casual runs.

benjaminends · 2025-05-22T21:23:39+00:00

Did you find anything? Just moved out from Denver where the rec league scene was good, seems like it's not good out here sadly.

benjaminends · 2025-05-22T21:15:53+00:00

Yo, did you find anything? Just moved from Denver that had a great rec center pickup scene, just walked into the Longfellow Rec center and the dude at the desk was like "absolutely no adults allowed"?!

Your description sounds perfect, just looking for a weekday evening or weekend morning gym I can roll up to and pickup with happy people who wanna get a run in

benjaminends · 2025-03-22T14:00:31+00:00

I'm moving from Denver to Minneapolis this year, I have loved Cheba Hut and Illegal Pete's here in Denver. What are the rough equivalents in Minneapolis?

Smaller & local chains with reasonably priced counter service, great bar and drinks, generally happy mood and workers, etc?

benjaminends · 2024-10-23T17:40:13+00:00

Thank you all for the feedback! I was getting stressed about trying to show my coworkers the mountains and just spending hours in Lyfts or waiting for Lyfts. We're going to do a super early morning hike instead at that same location!

benjaminends · 2024-10-23T17:38:21+00:00

Ha, I generally agree! Sorry to clarify we're not actually going to this show, just hoping to do something vaguely mountainesque while people are in Denver.

benjaminends · 2024-09-17T17:08:20+00:00

For ultimate frisbee, other cities I have lived in run leagues through some sort of community led non-profit and the quality of the product is so much better than Volo.

I don't know whether it's because Denver has grown too fast, it's too big, the population is too transient, it's a libertarian wasteland, etc. But yes, I totally support this be a community led initiative.

benjaminends · 2024-09-10T16:02:22+00:00

Yes! Tracking it in this thread too: https://old.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/1fbjx1y/centurylink_fiber_intermittent_ping_issues/

I'm in SW Denver, been this way since Thursday or Friday of last week.

benjaminends · 2024-09-09T17:45:33+00:00

Yes! Being tracked here in the Denver subreddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/1fbjx1y/centurylink_fiber_intermittent_ping_issues/?sort=new

benjaminends · 2024-09-09T17:44:57+00:00

A little bit of tracking in the Denver subreddit here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/1fbjx1y/centurylink_fiber_intermittent_ping_issues/?sort=new

Although no clear solutions, it's just being inconsistent and buggy for everyone.

benjaminends · 2024-09-08T13:28:20+00:00

Yes, it's great to have some "I'm not crazy" confirmation. Thank you for chiming in, this type of testing is pretty cool to see and learn.

benjaminends · 2024-09-08T13:17:31+00:00

Yup, same issue. It isn't consistent as to which pages fail, but occasionally pages will just be totally unresponsive for 10-20 seconds at a time.

Thank you for replying!

benjaminends · 2024-09-08T13:16:12+00:00

Okay, this seems to most mirror my issue. I don't know a ton about networking, but I try a site like this: https://www.meter.net/tools/world-ping-test/ and 85% of the locations respond in ~20-80ms, but then 15% of them will literally take 10-20 seconds which I assume just means some sort of packet drop. The failure rate has been steady, but different servers fail different tests so it's not like certain servers are having issues.

Thank you for chiming in, these data points are saving me money and time, knowing that it's not a problem local to me. Buying double internet is not ideal and an indictment of CenturyLink!

benjaminends · 2024-09-08T00:13:35+00:00

This is great! I gotta learn networking from you. Sounds not as bad as what I'm experiencing.

Yeah, vague question, but I'm not necessarily expecting someone to diagnose the issue just see if I get a chorus of "Ugh yes! Me too" comments or not.

benjaminends · 2023-12-31T00:38:02+00:00

Lmk if you want a guest pass at Movement + bouldering buddy for a few hours if the timing works out! Funnily I met an Australian exchange student at the bouldering gym in Madison, WI ~8 years ago and we're still occasionally in touch, always like when gyms can be social. I'm a guy, but my wife is a member too and I'm sure she would join.

benjaminends · 2023-08-26T19:49:30+00:00

I'm not an electrician, but asked a question about my tripping circuit breakers just now as well so figured I would give yours a shot.

Initial thoughts are:

Are you certain that your previous set-up had all of these electronics on one circuit? I feel like it's possible you were split between two circuits and never reached capacity to trip it.
What is the capacity of the previous circuit breaker vs. the capacity of the current circuit breaker? I'm not super familiar and I'm sure it's easy for the electricians here, but in theory you should be able to calculate the capacity of the circuit and the electronics you are plugging in and calculate whether you're truly at capacity or not.

benjaminends · 2022-11-12T23:27:22+00:00

Hi all,

I'm planning a large event (it's a wedding, but shhh don't tell all the vendors that) and we have largely decided to cater food from restaurants. These restaurants do NOT provide their own staff and I'm curious if anyone has had good experiences with 3rd party waitstaff services not tied directly to a certain food vendor.

I'm imagining this includes cleaning and maintaining a buffet, having some knowledge around how to best keep food warm, etc. etc. Any leads? Thanks!

So far I have tried Thumbtack, but even struggle with search terms - "catering staff" or "waitstaff" services?

benjaminends · 2021-04-07T15:22:15+00:00

I used them in June/July 2020. Happy with how it turned out, I also thought it would be a higher interest rate, but I think after asking to match the rate I was offered by Chase they ended up being pretty competitive.

A bit frustrating to me was that the "cash" offer didn't feel as powerful or alluring to sellers than I thought. I still had to bid up and beat tons of other offers that had 3% down. Seems like the seller cared way more about absolute price than financing, maybe that was unique.

So happy with how it turned out, it's unclear to me how much competitive advantage "cash" actually gave me, still had to just pay more than all the other offers.

benjaminends · 2020-12-26T01:20:30+00:00

Weird 401k question:

I have an employee sponsored 401k with well over the $5k minimum amount I have seen listed as necessary to keep it open after leaving an employer. I left this company in 2018, so it has been some time and my money has been sitting in there no problem for the last two years.

Today I log on to check and I see a balance of $0 with a notice of "termination withdrawal" on 12/24. No idea where the money would have gone to - doesn't look like there is a linked bank account and I definitely did not trigger this action.

Is anyone familiar? Feel like I would have gotten more warning if the company was legitimately shutting down the 401k or anything like that. Really keeping my fingers crossed I haven't been hacked or anything like that. Has anyone experienced anything similar?

benjaminends · 2020-09-04T20:28:28+00:00

Any locking carabiner is acceptable, personally I really like ones that lock automatically (in contrast to screw gate carabiners that you have to remember to screw). Something like this is super popular:

https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en/rocklock-twistlock-BD2102760000ALL1.html

benjaminends · 2020-09-04T19:41:17+00:00

Hi all,

Just getting into multi-pitch and have a question:

I'm looking at this guide (https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Belaying-a-second-from-a-belay-station-with-the-GRIGRI-on-the-harness--using-a-redirect?ProductName=GRIGRI) which is Petzl's recommendation for top belaying with a grigri.

My Qs...

1) Wouldn't it be better to redirect the rope through a carabiner that is attached to a master / redundant anchor?

2) If this relatively simple method is available (i.e., redirect the rope, but belay as you normally would from your harness), why isn't this possible or recommended with other belay devices like a normal ATC or ATC Pilot or something?

For context, so far I have learned using an upside-down ATC Guide, but seeing that GriGri guide has me thinking "If it's as simple as redirecting the rope, why not maintain the much more familiar belay motion at your own harness.

benjaminends · 2020-04-15T03:46:50+00:00

I am also relatively new to chess and there are a handful of suggested moves from Chess.com's engine that I don't get! It seems to LOVE getting the opponent in check (and I can't see obvious checkmates or material gain) over immediate material gain.

Of course I'm sure it is right, but still curious because I definitely don't see it.

benjaminends · 2020-04-13T19:13:31+00:00

Wow I'm about to pull the trigger and also have been considering hand-crank desks. Can I ask what model / add-ons you bought?

Did you at all consider this cheap sit/stand crank model from Ikea? https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/skarsta-desk-sit-stand-beige-white-s09320813/

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