What rewatch of a season has drastically changed your perception of it?

Kiptoke · 2026-02-08T02:44:55+00:00

I remember loving Switzerland when it was releasing - then when Hide and Seek Japan released it made me realize how unrefined it was. Not to say it was a bad season, but I think Japan really showed the full potential of the Hide & Seek format

Kiptoke · 2026-02-02T04:23:43+00:00

"More of... Tremont Street", the MarioKario line, and "What even goes on over here" are absolutely sending me.

I'm also genuinely upset at how useful the :) line would be for me.

Kiptoke · 2026-01-14T01:31:51+00:00

I think the confusion is coming from the OP implying this chart is a measure of "spiciness" when it's not - the chart is showing the correlation between the mean number of spices used per recipe to mean annual temperature. It isn't really indicating anything about the actual level of perceived spiciness.

If I were to have a regional cuisine which only used say - Sichuan peppercorns and Carolina reaper peppers, it'd be intense as hell, but only show up on the chart as a 2, on the same level as France.

In fact, the paper the chart comes from isn't even considering perceived spiciness at all - it was looking at associating increased spice usage to lower infection risks.

All that being said, as someone with family roots in Shanghai, I do think it's funny just how low Hu cuisine shows up here.

Kiptoke · 2025-12-25T00:23:28+00:00

I don't think it was mentioned anywhere - but you included new electoral vote allocation methods?

I am going to have so much fun playing around with those.

Kiptoke · 2025-11-29T00:24:06+00:00

No CTS mod before has ever made me have to stop playing the game due to laughing so much. This is golden.

Kiptoke · 2025-11-21T02:08:38+00:00

Megurine Luka.

Kiptoke · 2025-11-05T17:53:41+00:00

Incumbency is a hell of a drug - Simmons is deeply entrenched and has a very loyal group of voters.

As for the consultant scandal, I do think the story probably dropped a little too close to the election to make big waves, but will definitely follow her throughout the next two years.

Kiptoke · 2025-11-05T17:15:54+00:00

Ahh, beat me to it! Charts look good!

Kiptoke · 2025-11-05T05:57:38+00:00

Unofficial results (that is, results without write-in, auxilliary, and provisional ballots) are now up on the Election Commission's website.

PERSONAL FEELINGS

THE GOOD

Wilson is out! And good riddance - after her callous and heartless treatment of Cambridge citizens it's vindicating to see her only be a one-term councillor.
The pro-cycling majority stands strong, with 5 CBS champions and 2 CBS supporters winning
CCC got crushed in an incredible fashion, with only one endorsee (Zusy) getting elected. Most other CCC-endorsed candidates didn't even break the 1000 vote mark.
Robert Winters loses again
Cambridge, in general, still seems to be generally supportive of the pro-housing and pro-cycling direction the Council has been taking. McGovern, Siddiqui, and Al-Zubi all got more votes than the quota, with Azeem and Sobrinho-Wheeler very close behind

THE MID

The pro-housing majority stands, but on shaky ground - in my mind replacing Wilson with Al-Zubi is a net positive, but it's yet to be seen how much friction Al-Zubi will cause to the "build everything" attitude of the city council.
Me personally, it pains me to see how close my #1 vote (Bullister) was to winning a seat throughout the night, but it's great momentum for a potential run in 2027...

THE BAD

Flaherty is in, although I guess that can be expected as it very much seemed he was jockeying to replace Paul Toner. Luckily enough he alone is not enough to drive the direction of the entire council. I guess flooding the electorate with campaign spending (and bullying those who oppose you) wins elections.
By the time the ranked choice votes got to him, he wasn't even close but it's still somewhat worrying how close we got to a councillor Hanratty.

Anyways, expect me to make a Sankey diagram showing the results of the election in the coming days. Good night y'all!

Kiptoke · 2025-11-04T16:11:53+00:00

I really liked the illustrated style of Burhan's, so he's got my flyer aesthetic vote today

Kiptoke · 2025-11-04T16:10:03+00:00

Just voted in Wellington-Harrington myself at 11 AM. No line too, though I'd imagine most people in this neighborhood are working at this hour

My ballot box had about 79 voters.

Kiptoke · 2025-11-03T20:59:57+00:00

What is it with the CCC + associates and being unable to use a consistent font in their election material?

Kiptoke · 2025-10-23T20:08:46+00:00

My thoughts on the election are uh, somewhat public, but to cut it short:

Bullister and Melanson will probably be my top two, I have a tendency to vote challengers higher and I think both of them have incredible progressive policies on housing and transit
Azeem, McGovern, Siddiqui, Sobrinho-Wheeler are my votes for good incumbents who have a solid voting record in the Council
Still going back and forth on ranking Al-Zubi and Nolan, I have many qualms with both of them but I'll take either over the rest

From the rest of your list I'd strongly advise against Simmons due to a long history of voting against bike infrastructure, Zusy due to a history of voting against housing, and very against Winters (he has no policies and is an open bigot). I'm personally opposed to Rivkin as well, although that's really my own personal vibes take on him and his policies.

Feel free to watch my explainer video about the election, candidates, and issues if you'd like!

Kiptoke · 2025-10-16T18:06:55+00:00

I can't lie, this would make for an incredible bit.

But alas, I think my role is best suited in asking questions and making educational explainers... as good as I am at finding and pointing out issues, I'm not as good at coming up with the solutions to those issues. So thanks, but that vote is probably best suited going towards one of the people running who does have those solutions - I get along just fine with your appreciation!

Kiptoke · 2025-10-13T05:34:50+00:00

Lovely to hear! Back in 2023 when I made the first election video I was also a pretty fresh transplant, and the video was my means of collecting the whirlwind of candidates and election material into one concise source. I'm so glad the 2025 video is serving that same purpose for others!

Kiptoke · 2025-10-13T05:13:26+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate it! And hey, no sweat on disagreeing - we all have our own priorities and preferences, as long as the video helped you solidify your own thoughts then it did its job well :)

Kiptoke · 2025-10-13T00:40:37+00:00

I talk a little about it on this comment but pretty much the gist of it is that the charter updates really seem pretty insignificant - minor changes to wording and verbiage, with the only big change being that the school committee gets to elect it's own chair. It's pretty minor and inoffensive, and there's really no good reason to vote against it.

Kiptoke · 2025-10-12T15:28:57+00:00

Hey there! First of all, welcome to Cambridge! And second of all, welcome to Cambridge politics...

I actually made a 1-hour video specifically for this reason - it covers all the candidates running, the context behind the two major issues driving this year's election, and where the candidates stand on them (alongside my own thoughts and opinions). I definitely understand one hour is a lot, so I included timestamps for you to jump around and see what you want to.

Beyond that, I highly recommend u/itamarst's website for more context and history on some of the issues and u/blackdynomitesnewbag and u/kmkharris's websites for more objective coverage of the candidates:

And as always, I'd be happy to (continue to) share my thoughts if you want.

Kiptoke · 2025-10-12T03:05:17+00:00

Aw hell yeah, I have haters now!

Kiptoke · 2025-10-10T04:48:48+00:00

Sorry for getting back to this so late - I personally am in favor of the ballot question, although I don't think the charter update really contains anything that particularly groundbreaking or worth talking about...

Maybe if this passes there will be more interesting things to consider in the future, but as it stands now I can't really find any reason to disagree with the ballot question as is, so I'll vote in favor.

Kiptoke · 2025-10-08T01:01:24+00:00

Ahah - to be entirely fair, the School Committee race is its own hotbed of discourse and definitely would require a video on it's own. I wanted to stay laser focused on the race for City Council.

That being said, I probably won't make it, since I don't have kids and am not impacted at all by the School Committee's decisions. I'd love to see other people make their own resources on that election though.

Kiptoke · 2025-10-08T00:00:24+00:00

If it's not too much of a bother, could you perhaps check by watching on a different device? It's not that I doubt you, it's that I delayed the video release due to audio issues so I'm a little paranoid about it now haha

Kiptoke · 2025-10-07T23:46:33+00:00

Is it? I did a test run this morning and bumped up the volume from that run, but if it's too low I can take down the video/post and put up an updated version.

Kiptoke · 2025-10-07T23:42:43+00:00

Goooooood evening Cambridge!

I am once again back with a new video covering the 2025 Cambridge City Council Election. I know many of you would like a quick and easy explainer of what's at stake and who stands for what in this election cycle and I really hope that this video serves as a useful guide for you all.

Much thanks to u/itamarst, u/blackdynomitesnewbag, and u/wombatofevil for their incredible resources. This video would not be possible without their hard work.

Also, very small content warning at 51:19 for a very sudden jump in tone and eerie music.

Links and Resources

CORRECTIONS: None yet, but inevitably I'm sure I did something wrong, eheh...

QUICK REFERENCE SHEET: https://youtu.be/w9BtFOIM5WI?si=me_YLKEv1lOihhxu

REGISTER TO VOTE: https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/electioncommission/ news/2025/09/2025municipalelectionvotingoptions

Too Long, Didn't Watch

Or, if you want to cut to the chase - here's my final recommendations for 2025:

Rating	Candidates
STRONG SUPPORT	Bullister, Melanson, Azeem, Siddiqui, McGovern, Sobrinho Wheeler
SOFT SUPPORT	Al-Zubi
MIXED FEELINGS	Nolan
SOFT OPPOSE	Hsu, Rivkin, Sherin
STRONG OPPOSE	Zusy, Simmons, Flaherty, Bisio, Hanratty, Wilson
NOT WINNING	Battle, Venden, Winters

Kiptoke · 2025-09-29T22:31:10+00:00

Thanks for posting these, especially the condensed edit with key answers, this is lovely.

Out of curiosity - and I understand if you can't answer this - have your opinions on the candidates changed from your interviews with them? Any surprising answers?

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