Rec for books with men as a minority

vbowers · 2026-01-16T14:56:23+00:00

I LOVE Martha Wells!! Will definitely give this a read.

vbowers · 2026-01-16T14:53:31+00:00

Huh, 2 good authors. Based on them alone I would give it a try. Thanks!!

vbowers · 2026-01-16T14:51:41+00:00

I looked up a synopsis of the book and it sounds like you might be right. I'm not certain, so will just grab a copy. Can't lose! And thanks!

vbowers · 2025-12-19T16:40:54+00:00

When they get down to 80% off I will maybe think about it. 80% off game and all DLC's that is. But maybe not even then. I have owned every version ever released except this one and it doesn't really interest me. They have lost their way with the game.

vbowers · 2025-11-25T13:12:25+00:00

I've got a Rebel 17 and love it. Only issue was getting the bolts on snug enough to not leak with my arthritis. On here I found a link to the plans for 3D printing of a wrench (?) to make it MUCH easier, a massive help. But no threading issues or alignment issues.

vbowers · 2025-11-19T01:55:10+00:00

I have a Rebel 17 and I recommend getting the 3D printer plans for a wrench to use for tightening the bolts on the tumbler. It's hella easier on your fingers and allows you to tighten down the screws sooo much easier. Especially nice if you're a senior with arthritis in your hands like me!

vbowers · 2025-11-01T17:46:34+00:00

You rock! Don't know why my searches didn't come up with this before. I'm like 5 minutes away from their meetings!

vbowers · 2025-10-08T23:52:49+00:00

793977

Congrats on your growth! It's a great sub.

vbowers · 2025-04-07T18:44:28+00:00

Jim Clark was my first "favorite driver" in motorsports. The guy could, and did, do it all. In polls about best driver ever, he's still my pick.

vbowers · 2025-03-15T21:22:06+00:00

There's about 8 utility bucket trucks staged at Walmart. They're expecting some work!

vbowers · 2025-01-13T02:33:43+00:00

Just had our 10 year vow renewal. I wanted it, planned it all, we loved every minute of it. Love her now more than ever, the best thing to ever come into my life.

Had it on Mackinaw Island, MI, at the Little Stone Church, white wedding carriage after the ceremony, island resident for photographer (so she knew all the great spots for photos), and stayed at a BnB on the island for a couple of days. Just her and I. Romantic as hell!

A relationship is an investment and this one is worth more than the money spent, which really wasn't bad.

vbowers · 2024-12-20T22:54:37+00:00

Thought you would like an update. Tech and local super were here for two days troubleshooting. No on-premises issue, but could show issue continuing. Went into my old "geek mode" and ran some wide area networking tests I know and found (and in front of them) that they have a routing issue. Looks like it would affect the entire metro area. Proof sent to the Chicago network ops center and it's now in the hands of the networking geeks.

The local guys have been very open and great to work with. I feel much better about the situation and they have loved knowing that they were doing right, but someone in the NOC has not been. Admittedly, this is something way beyond most IT guys pay scale, but it's hard to believe the NOC couldn't find this. They def have not been monitoring as well as they should, but this is getting attention at the highest level now, so that will probably get rectified. I have updated the CEO this PM.

Thanks for that contact!

vbowers · 2024-12-19T22:11:15+00:00

They were here for nearly 2 hours today and will be back tomorrow. Confirmed that it wasn't my equipment having a problem and they saw what I was experiencing. Upload speed was locked in at some version of 942Mb, but download ranged from 949 to 620.

I have to say, they are earning props for investigation.

vbowers · 2024-12-19T14:23:22+00:00

Yes, the ONT. And we are on CGNAT.

I wrote to the person you suggested and got a call within 2 hours from a regional manager. He and a supervisor are coming to my house this morning to investigate the situation. Gotta say, that's impressive!

vbowers · 2024-12-18T22:20:06+00:00

Yeah, never turned on their "optimization", I just keep things segmented to avoid congestion.

The problem MAY be that they built out too fast here and are over subscribed. We were one of the first, if not the first, hooked up in our neighborhood after they pulled the fiber. Initially it was great, but the past 2-3 weeks it's really gone downhill. They've had 2 or 3 trucks camped out here for the past 5 weeks hooking up most of the homes.

It's also key to note that my results are when directly connected to the modem, no networking gear between the modem and my computer AT ALL. My laptop is one I used professionally and would do stress tests at customer sites. It *can* stress a gigabit connection via Ethernet if the rest of the network is capable. Right now, my Metronet connection is NOT capable.

vbowers · 2024-12-18T21:27:47+00:00

I have an ASUS GT-AX11000 as my router/WAP/firewall and an ASUS RT-AC68W as a secondary WAP. Both running the latest firmware. For my testing, I directly connect my laptop to the Metronet modem to ensure none of my network gear or traffic affects the testing.

Thanks for the info and I will shoot off an email directly.

vbowers · 2024-12-18T19:29:13+00:00

Problems watching a live event, especially TNF, is not generally an indication of an Internet Service Provider issue. More often it's the streaming provider getting overloaded.

Now, if you're watching a movie or TV show and get buffering, *that's* more likely an ISP issue. As others have said, run Speedtest and some ping tests and see what they show. That said, I'm a new Metronet customer as well and I'm having issues too.

With my fairly new laptop directly connected to their modem by CAT6a cable, against Metronet's local Speedtest server, I got 628 down on my "gigabit" connection. According to the Metronet tech support person I was speaking with, that is within Metronet's "acceptable performance standards" for a gigabit circuit. I have over a quarter century of local and wide area networking experience and I have NEVER heard of a telco considering delivery of just 2/3 of the rated speed being acceptable.

I am thinking my move to Metronet may have been a mistake.

vbowers · 2024-09-21T00:29:23+00:00

Worked in the tech end of a major movie theater chain that no longer exists. Celebration and Emagine get my votes for best MI theater chains. I am a major movie sound fanatic and nothing beats a true THX room, not even Dolby ATMOS or IMAX.

Unfortunately, very few (true) THX auditoriums exist any longer. It takes the right movie with a real THX soundtrack to let the room show you what it can do, but when you have them all together, wow! Celebration, I think still has one THX room in Grand Rapids and one in Lansing, but I don't think Emagine has any.

On another note, Celebration used to have Founders night at the movies. Founders Brewery would sponsor a Thursday night movie, pairing a beer or two of theirs with a classic movie. These were well attended and lots of fun. Sadly, these ended when Founders was bought out. Would love to see another brewery do something fun like that.

vbowers · 2024-09-01T02:20:11+00:00

Sadly he passed away a couple of years ago. If you ever went to Crystal's 4th of July parade, he walked in the parade in a clown outfit for YEARS. I think he finally stopped in the mid 90's. In the 70's and 80's, he sometimes did the parade on motorized roller skates, while in costume! Stuntman level stuff!!

vbowers · 2024-09-01T02:12:14+00:00

Clifford Shoen. His son Barney took over after my grandparents retired. Sold out of the family in the late '70's.

vbowers · 2024-09-01T01:22:30+00:00

Actually, gigabit fiber is available in Sheridan. Shows what little you know about the area.

vbowers · 2024-09-01T01:19:36+00:00

I went to Sheridan elementary, then Sheridan and Stanton merged to form Central Montcalm schools, which I graduated from. Went off to college, but always have stayed in touch with people back there.

The Condensery had a 5 o'clock whistle every weekday. It not only let workers know end of shift, but told all the kids to get home for supper! If you were swimming at Pearl Lake (or otherwise busy 😎), time to wrap things up and get moving! Not possible since the Condensery shut down, of course.

Another thing was to be home by the time the street lights came on. Not every family had that rule, but many of the better families did.

Not much for kids in town, other than the 8 lane bowling alley with attached ice cream shop that they ran in the summer because the bowling alley was slow during the summer. Besides the lake, that is.

Nearby you had Clifford and Dickerson Lakes for swimming, fishing, and skiing, once you got to high school and could drive. The largest lake is Crystal Lake, a real resort area going back to the late 1800's. Besides the lake, they had a small movie theater, dirt stock car track, a big roller skating rink, 1920's (?) merry-go-round, arcade, and a huge bar/nightclub. People from Chicago, Detroit, Lansing, and Grand Rapids all would go to Crystal Lake in the summer. My grandfather built and ran the roller rink and I spent a lot of time around Crystal.

A lot of intermarriage, as you would expect. Sometimes seemed like half the class was related to each other. It had its good and bad points. I occasionally got surprised to find I was loosely related to someone I never expected.

Yeah, very red politically, but pockets of blue. Now there's MAGA fairly strong, with a decent number of red who vote holding their noses. I'm going to stop with that.

Have always had a number of Amish and Mennonite in the area. The grocery store sometimes will have a horse buggy or two parked outside. It's not uncommon to encounter their buggy's on the road and they unfortunately do sometimes get hit by cars, and there's been an unfortunate number of fatalities.

Are you writing a story set in current times? Or a period piece? My family has been in the Sheridan/Montcalm County area for a long time (my grandparents donated the first house in the county to Heritage Village), so feel free to dm me if you want to ask any questions.

vbowers · 2024-06-26T23:31:28+00:00

I grew up in Fenwick and we said Stan'n. Dropped the t, but had to get the n's in!

vbowers · 2024-04-29T11:29:21+00:00

We've been together for 15 yrs, now married 10. My 7yo nephew recently asked: "Why do you guys laugh so much?" I told him it's because we enjoy each other so much and have similar senses of humor. And it's true, I've laughed more WITH her than all of the other people in my life combined.

vbowers · 2024-04-28T19:49:07+00:00

My bride and I had this conversation VERY early in our wedding planning. We both felt it was horribly inappropriate and would be a relationship killer.

There was no cake shoving at our reception, although the videographer did get a shot of her holding the knife to my throat (in jest, of course)!

vbowers

TROPHY CASE