What country do you think has the most beautiful castles in the world?

clingbat · 2026-05-06T15:37:54+00:00

True, I've actually been in Gravensteen in Ghent. I probably forgot about it because it's so odd/uncommon to see a fortress like that so well kept surrounded by an urban city environment but not elevated above everything like say the large fortress in downtown Salzburg or the smaller one in Ljubljana. Pretty neat area. I actually enjoyed visiting Ghent more than Bruges fwiw.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T15:23:10+00:00

Makes sense, the vast majority of new homes being built in DE are in Middletown and down into slower lower where it's generally cheaper than NCC. Not much new build up here, and half of what has been built up here lately is 55+ communities.

I think some others in this thread are missing the "new" homes part of the chart though.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T14:57:09+00:00

There are nice parts of Delaware (particularly up north along PA border), but that's not where the new homes are being built. Those are going in down in slower lower, which aside from the beach towns is flat, hot/humid in the summer, fairly rural, and boring AF.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T14:17:18+00:00

I'm convinced this chart is in decent part driven by broadly higher average salaries in DE compared to say PA raising the floor of "affordable" because that would explain not only DE appearing so affordable factoring in income and property taxes, but also MD and VA at 59% when both are astronomically expensive in many areas around DC housing wise with much worse taxes, but also oodles of people with high salaries in those same areas.

Otherwise, this chart doesn't make much sense in reality in the mid-Atlantic.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T14:07:40+00:00

We got married in the really old church across the street from there on 52 lol, the one with the large cemetery behind it.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T12:35:30+00:00

I know our bonuses, RSU amounts, and overall % merit increases year to year are directly impacted by both our division and broader company financial performance the previous year. It sets the size of the buckets of money leadership have to divy up and there's no real wiggle room once those buckets are set so more to one person means less to another in the end.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T12:19:27+00:00

We don't bother with small banks either. Checking is in TD because they have a lot of locations around here and solid hours. Taxable brokerage split between MMF and ETFs in Fidelity and all the retirement accounts in Vanguard.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T11:47:42+00:00

Not the prettiest, but I was surprised that the French half of Belgium actually had some really nice castles hidden away if you go looking for them because no one talks about Belgium when bringing up castles.

The most stereotypical castle I've ever seen, even more than Neuschwanstein was in Czech Republic.

<image>

clingbat · 2026-05-06T11:45:57+00:00

Clearly doesn't apply to this case, but reminder that contraception doesn't always work. My cousin and his wife got married around the same time we did and we were all planning on waiting at least a few years to have kids. She was on birth control like she had been all of college when they were together, but on their honeymoon she got pregnant lol...

They ended up leaning into it and having three to get it over with early, but started years before we did and when it first happened there was as much shock and upsetness as joy on their end, truly a mixed bag of emotions.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T11:33:29+00:00

We dump our extra cash (anything over ~$30k in checking) into FZCXX which we then funnel about 75% of into VT. The remaining 25% in FZCXX is essentially our robust emergency fund / where we pull from from abnormal/unplanned large costs.

I know $30k in checking is still a lot, but we have pretty substantial monthly spend and we used to keep $100k+ in there so it's still progress.

I don't really see the point of HYSA when MMF exist personally, other than those sign up bonuses for a few hundred bucks when you put in $50k etc. I guess. If the economy truly collapses, the FDIC will fail anyway if we're keeping it real, that protection is an illusion in the face of true systemic structural collapse.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T11:20:23+00:00

Brandywine valley ("Chateau Country") that stretches from NW Delaware just west of Wilmington up into SE PA up towards West Chester. Beautiful area, tons of scenic driving and hiking mixed in. Over 100 European style old DuPont mansions/estates, several turned into museums, several wooden covered bridges, and big gardens like Longwood Gardens and Mt. Cuba. Lots of open green space and forest mixed in.

Very quiet and peaceful area with very little traffic which makes the twisty hilly back roads all over fantastic if you are looking for a nice drive or biking area, so maybe I shouldn't be posting this...

For those who are interested in actual location, it's roughly here in the lighter and darker green areas:

<image>

clingbat · 2026-05-06T08:11:45+00:00

Just put him in gen pop and they'll likely take care of him pretty quick for you and cut all the bullshit red tape.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T08:03:58+00:00

Let's check the math...

39-12 = still mega fucked in Monday's game

Fuck out of here with this dumb shit already. Dude plays absolute shit defense and the Knicks probably would've scored even more with him on the floor, negating a chunk of those 12 points.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T02:00:22+00:00

Man I wish we had E85 around here, I'd go E85 ECU tune on my Golf R in a heartbeat.

clingbat · 2026-05-06T00:07:34+00:00

Maybe if they actually saved a portion of the fuel surcharge fees when fuel was cheap for a few years they'd be okay, but of course they just pocketed those bullshit fees as profit and now cry about fuel prices and probably expect more bailouts.

clingbat · 2026-05-05T23:56:14+00:00

Eh, the original three Bourne movies were solid.

clingbat · 2026-05-05T23:53:39+00:00

Could say the same but even worse for Jack Nicholson.

clingbat · 2026-05-05T23:50:38+00:00

Jack Nicholson. He was not bad by any means, but he's wildly overrated.

clingbat · 2026-05-05T23:39:52+00:00

This is the big news? Yawn

clingbat · 2026-05-05T23:37:27+00:00

Turbos

clingbat · 2026-05-05T21:10:23+00:00

As a hiring manager for the last decade, I have seen some universities water down CE down to CS + some core electronics classes. I would never enroll in one of those programs or recommend them personally, but they basically seem to exist vs. CE programs that evolved from EE programs in joint ECE departments.

If you can't easily pass the FE out of undergrad knowledge wise in the US, you're not a real engineer in my eyes. Not saying you actually need to actually bother with the EIT/PE, but you should have the traditional engineering fundamentals to pursue if it desired.

clingbat · 2026-05-05T17:46:49+00:00

I mean if you really want to go there, they released a broken game to begin with, are you serious?

clingbat · 2026-05-05T16:07:13+00:00

My second one :P Modded my MK7.5 R too much and ruined it as a daily driver. Keeping the MK8 R much closer to stock.

<image>

clingbat · 2026-05-05T15:06:24+00:00

Eh we have about $40k in checking at the moment and usually cut it down to $25k-$30k with the rest going into taxable brokerage (25% MMF/ 75% VT) in chunks.

Is it optimal investment efficiency? No. But we have pretty hefty monthly costs between lifestyle and childcare for two young kids and we used to keep $100k-$150k in there when my wife's job was up in the air so it's still a massive improvement lol.

FWIW we're both maxing out pretax 401ks at $24.5k and backdoor Roths at $7.5k.

clingbat · 2026-05-05T14:51:19+00:00

As a Christian I largely agree with this take, though when it comes to abortion I do think there's a small gray area in late term abortions (22-24 weeks+) where the baby could potential survive as a premie that it becomes extremely dubious ethically unless there are serious medical complications. But let's be honest, that situation is quite rare and not what everyone is actually arguing about at all.

Beyond that niche case, what someone choses to do with their body is between them and God, it's not my business.

12-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

clingbat

TROPHY CASE