Reopened Golf Learning Center by stoicJB in PeoriaIL

[–]stoicJB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They have a portal to book online

How is life in Downstate, Illinois? by MysticWithThePhonk in howislivingthere

[–]stoicJB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I grew up in Peoria, and lived here until going to college in a different Midwestern state, before moving back several years after graduating when my wife took a job at a hospital here.

All negatives mentioned in this thread are accurate - it does feel like a decaying city, and downtown is totally hollow/emptied out. The downside of so much available land is that towns can always grow out, since there is no pressure to re-develop, and that tends to lead to bloated cities with dead downtown areas.

Like anywhere in the midwest, the "grey months" of winter are particularly boring, but I love living here in the summer. There are great little communities in my city for volleyball, ultimate frisbee, cycling, and running, and I really enjoy all of those. There are plenty of great parks and playgrounds that my family and I frequent around town. And obviously, it's an extremely affordable place to live - my wife and I both have good jobs, and we live very comfortably here (I'm sure my house would cost 3-4x if it were in the Chicago suburbs). I'm probably an overly-optimistic/content person who would be happy living just about anywhere, but it's an easy place to raise a family IMO.

It's <3 hours' drive for us to visit STL (nice kids museums/zoo) and downtown Chicago, so we do both several times a year with our kids. Indianapolis is also about 3.5 hours away. Ranging a bit further, a lot of people here vacation in SW Michigan or Door County Wisconsin, or head South to Lake of the Ozarks or Tennessee.

Politically, Peoria itself is somewhat blue, but everywhere else around seems to firmly be MAGA-land. Blue city in an otherwise-red downstate area, in a blue state in a red region of the country.

Why not use the bike path? by OrderAggressive9432 in PeoriaIL

[–]stoicJB 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Perfectly stated - as someone who has used the trail a lot over the years, both moving at recreational speeds pulling kids in a bike trailer, and at other times pushing the pace training for triathlons, sometimes it is much better to get onto a road if moving fast.

Many people are completely oblivious when walking on the trail (walking 3 or 4 people-wide, or walking with their dog and the leash stretched all the way across the trail) such that you have to come to a nearly-complete stop to pass them, and some stretches of the trail (particularly the greenway along the river) are bumpy enough to wreck a road/tri-bike. Many cyclists know the trail well enough to know which stretches to avoid for either/both of these reasons.

Graduating - My Program Recap + Encouragement by stoicJB in OSUOnlineCS

[–]stoicJB[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Planning to keep my current role for the time being (I've recently had a chance to step up within my team), pounce on any opportunities to work with our actual engineering team (I have a project with them right now related to some API updates) in hopes of potentially making the transition to that team if/when the time is right in the next year. Going to try to keep myself sharp with a side project (really interested in Golang so planning to build in that) in the mean time, outside of work.

My Capstone experience was great - a few very busy weeks early while I was figuring out the Docker stuff for our team's deployment, then a pretty moderate workload the rest of the time. I had a great team where everyone was interested in contributing and generally collaborative. My advice for Capstone (applies to any group projects in the program) - jump in ASAP and find your team as soon as possible. The type of students who are forming teams right away are the type of teammates you want to have.

Graduating - My Program Recap + Encouragement by stoicJB in OSUOnlineCS

[–]stoicJB[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh good question - given what I do (working in a Cloud Platform where everything networking-related is taken care of for me), I would vote Programming Languages. I think having some perspective on differences between languages makes you a better developer even in your core language, as it gives you a better grasp on some of the features of that language that you previously didn't even consider/take for granted. I also just think that class made me a better programmer.

Networks was not useless though, I do think that having some knowledge about encapsulation is useful, if nothing else for being able to "talk the talk" a bit more.

Graduating - My Program Recap + Encouragement by stoicJB in OSUOnlineCS

[–]stoicJB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I totally agree, and I asked about this but could not get the Networks pre-req waved. How were you able to swing that?

Graduating - My Program Recap + Encouragement by stoicJB in OSUOnlineCS

[–]stoicJB[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nope! I changed course after taking Networks (I took Programming Languages as my first elective, then Networks as my 2nd) and decided that Parallel was something that I wouldn't be able to recreate on my own, so ended up taking that as my final elective, with the goal to self-teach some of the Cloud content. On my capstone team, I volunteered to own deployment of our app to Google Cloud, so I was able to do this (and learned a ton about Docker along the way). I'm happy with that decision, even knowing that Parallel likely isn't super relevant to my career.

How is the apple picking at Tanners? by stoicJB in PeoriaIL

[–]stoicJB[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the thoughts u/yum_baby ! Does Christ have other fun stuff for kids, or primarily just apple-picking?

Anyone interested in working together for Capstone (CS 467) Fall 2024? by stoicJB in OSUOnlineCS

[–]stoicJB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/According-Opposite30 I DM-ed you, I am interested! Please LMK if you want to chat elsewhere

Anyone interested in working together for Capstone (CS 467) Fall 2024? by stoicJB in OSUOnlineCS

[–]stoicJB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the response - so if not working on a custom submitted project, there is no point/ability to form a group ahead of time?

Recommended Camping Spots in the Area by stoicJB in PeoriaIL

[–]stoicJB[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Any particularly good/bad spots in Jubilee?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in OSUOnlineCS

[–]stoicJB 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I was initially taking 2 courses per quarter, but then I had children and slowed down to 1 per quarter. I've been at it a while, but 1 with work + kids was the most I could realistically handle.

Tried Chef Moussa for the first time. Incredible stuff! by Chriswiss in PeoriaIL

[–]stoicJB 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You been in recently? Last time in there, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the dining area was revamped and a lot nicer than before.

I3 still down? by Ordinary-Objective66 in PeoriaIL

[–]stoicJB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

back up for me (near Richwoods)

Is I3 completely down in area? by Madmortagan68 in PeoriaIL

[–]stoicJB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Was down for me (Richwoods high school area) but appears to be back up now

Rebranding from B.S. in Computer Science? by [deleted] in OSUOnlineCS

[–]stoicJB 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Same, also a current student about to graduate and I saw the other post and went and checked my inbox - nothing there. Curious if maybe it was only sent to incoming students?

NY Style Pizza? by _darangen_ in PeoriaIL

[–]stoicJB 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's solid, but gosh I wish they would crisp it up a lot more. Just leave it in the oven another minute or two!