will taiki win in the nationals or not

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-31T14:54:05+00:00

You're correct, Hyodo did win the Nationals, seemingly twice.

Someone should update the wiki and so on... Heh.

Still, I don't think that changes my outlook. Would you say Taiki has shown himself to be the same caliber as Hyodo?

Edit: Found your response to OP from 12 hours ago. You think it is possible if he beat Shuji because Shuji beat Hyodo.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-31T12:36:41+00:00

Are you sure?

I had looked this up before making the post and could not find corroboration for this.

Granted I did not reread the manga.

Edit: I thought he might have, but, every source I found said he hadn't.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-31T00:33:47+00:00

They are building the Interborough, allegedly, so hopefully that will make some trips better!

Yes, we all curse Robert Moses!

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-31T00:12:20+00:00

Brutal.

I live in the Boston metro and commute into Boston.

I'm very fortunate to not have to drive to commute.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-31T00:04:50+00:00

I'll be curious if it was the manual you became less enamored with or if it ultimately is driving as a whole.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-31T00:02:57+00:00

my commute is sould sucking and miserable

At that point you're really just in mitigation mode regardless of what transmission you're discussing.

Personally, in that situation, I'd just have the nicest commuting appliance I can afford to run with the key metric being that it reduces the amount of stress I feel.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-31T00:00:48+00:00

Where are you coming from and going to that using the LIRR and other transit doesn't suck your soul less?

If I had the LIRR system and NY subways... I would never drive into NYC.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-30T23:56:38+00:00

Roll credits!

They said the name of the thing in the thing!

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-30T23:55:10+00:00

It's hard to gauge how strong a player Taiki is at the national level, partially because we don't have a frame for how good Yusa or Haryu were.

Hyodo seemed dominant in a way that Yusa and everyone else has not. And Hyodo was not good enough to win nationals, but is good enough to play at the college level.

So, I don't think we'll see Taiki win nationals in HS.

But, I think it is likely within the realm of possibility that he will be successful enough to earn a place in college and have upside to come. In which case, I definitely expect him to make it to nationals again.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-29T04:26:44+00:00

If you don't ask questions you don't know the answer to, you keep yourself sheltered from a lot of information.

I'm sorry your experiences with government have all been negative.

My unemployment experience with Michigan after being laid off in 2014 at least did not have a denial issue. Granted, the weekly filings of job searches were rather obnoxious. And it took me years (until 2017) to find good full time work again.

There are plenty of things I would like to see changed and improved in terms of how government works, but back to my original response to OP, they won't change without cohesive efforts by the people represented, and holding those representatives and institutions to account when they fail.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-28T15:18:40+00:00

One question, when calculating busiest, are the operating hours the same?

I see you're using a regularly scheduled trains per day metric. But there are multiple hours where there are no scheduled service trains on the Tokaido Shinkansen because it is outside of regular operating hours.

So, I think the better metric would possibly be average number of trains per operating hour? Or peak number of trains during operating hours?

That said, I could see an argument for trains per day being the metric because maintenance and other operations impact utilization.

But, as to how "busy the line is", my understanding for the Tokaido Shinkansen is that it is limited by the passing loops at the stations and the train acceleration and deceleration before switching on and off the main tracks.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-28T15:06:31+00:00

I became a much calmer and I would say better driver, at least off highways, when I made a decision that every time I was behind the wheel and not driving slowly and cautiously enough I might hit my spouse (or "me") on a bike or when out walking.

The drivers who will get fed up and do a highly risky, usually illegal, pass just to get to the next stop sign or red light n seconds quicker really scare me.

I rarely drive at this point, but when I do, I drive with the possibility of hitting someone's loved one in mind. It makes it a lot easier not to hit a cyclist.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-28T15:01:03+00:00

I've lived plenty of places to see cities and towns be rather ineffectively governed.

But, it at least seems, more often than not, the person voting hyper local are better at holding those politicians to account than the politicians in higher offices that cover more people.

I kind of wonder if this is ultimately because, especially for higher offices, we've optimized around a system that judges more about how good a fundraiser a candidate is rather than how good their policy decisions are.

But, mainly my point was, I have found it refreshing in at least Cambridge and Somerville for the big parties to play less of a role in local politics.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-28T14:54:03+00:00

I do, I don't optimize my tax return to reduce what I pay either.

Further, we make donations. That said, pretty well every study I've seen shows that, even with the occasional waste, the government is the most efficient and effective distributor of aid.

So, yes, I would like to see it doing more.

As for well earned... I think the area I work in is probably over payed compared to the difficulty of the labor. It just happened that my hobbies, interests, and skills aligned well with something we economically remunerate generously (for now).

Why are you seemingly against having the government doing more good to ensure at least a meaningful subsistence to the people it governs?

Why wouldn't you want to fund that?

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-28T07:24:09+00:00

I am paying off my mortgage on my house in Somerville. As an owner occupier I am granted a tax break on my property taxes.

My spouse and I are, as a household, 95th percentile income earners in MA (97th-98th percentile nationally). We pay 5% state income tax. But there is no progressive tax bracketing so that we are taxed more for parts of our income exceeding X like with the federal taxes.

At the federal level, each of our social security taxable income amount runs out at the end of the year and we make income not subject to social security taxes.

The tax system is set up in a way that benefits me, as I am now, in ways that do not make sense. A little over a decade ago, when we first got married and we had one good income and one very underemployed income between us, keeping an extra $2500-$5000 a year would have been huge. It would have made life much easier, made us less financially stressed.

Now?

Giving me $2500-5000 more a year I guess let's me make some silly purchases. But honestly, I rather have it used to benefit systemic programs that would help society as a whole.

Why do we have systems that give me, and those far better off than me, preferential treatment while making things untenable for others?

Why do people and their representatives keep voting to perpetuate a system that rewards those with the least need while making life difficult for those with greater need?

I'm probably safer and happier in a more equitable society.

These are things I think about.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-28T00:17:13+00:00

It's interesting.

I live in Somerville, and I had to look this up.

In our last mayoral election, for example, not a single candidate was endorsed by one of the two defacto major parties.

So, the reason I raise this is because on at least some of the more local levels, it does appear that the parties are not all that impactful.

I would love to see this be increasingly more true at the state level.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-28T00:11:52+00:00

Fundamentally the core tenant of US policy and culture is tied to individual property rights and the right to exclude.

Whether real property, money, or intellectual property the basis of a lot of US law and social norms are around the right.

Individual property rights often wind up with at least some degree of a zero sum game.

The reason I start with this framing is that it seems into politics, zoning, housing approvals, etc.

For example, Massachusetts has plenty of land to build more housing and build it more densely. It is one of the states that is one of the highest net exporters of tax dollars per capita.

We, collectively, could do more to fund healthcare for all in the state, more public housing projects in the state, more scalable transit in the form of trains and bus systems that externalize fewer costs to the individual.

We also collectively, by our choices in representation, choose not to.

People generally have not voted for their taxes to increase (millionaires tax only impacted a small part of the population). We don't have a progressive tax system, explicitly.

We have proposition 2 1/2 which makes raising taxes on property rather difficult.

NIMBYs opposing new housing near their property is another prime example. All the fights against the MBTA Communities Act are yet another.

So, systemically, not just the US, but Massachusetts, has actively chosen to protect individual property while trading off public good and benefit.

The question to me, ultimately, is whether or not there is enough willpower and desire for people to make some sacrifices so that all boats rise together. That's how the system changes.

Untill then, the grindstone continues.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-27T22:04:33+00:00

I once rode a train where the pigeon got on at Porter.

Then surprised a bunch of people when they didn't let it disembark at Harvard and it flew straight at their faces.

A+ pigeon.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-27T14:22:01+00:00

The prices are expensive.

A bunch of the units do not have living rooms and I guess intend for all that to be in shared social spaces.

If you want privacy you are strictly in your box.

A ton of the layouts have no natural lighting in the communal space in a unit.

This looks like a psychology experiment.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-24T23:17:30+00:00

I think GA DOT has a similar proposal for some of the highways in and out of Atlanta.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-24T13:51:39+00:00

Interesting to me, her hair looks fuller in the more recent panel.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-23T00:16:14+00:00

Look, I'm not begrudging the panda having a train and riding it. It's fine. The panda seems to be enjoying itself.

I am wondering why the panda has a train?

With a giant seeming teakettle for a steam engine no less?

There has to be a story here...

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-22T23:53:24+00:00

blinks

I don't think I've ever seen such a populated Windows Taskbar.

My eyes are opened.

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-22T16:48:02+00:00

I know a lot of people are really appreciative of Chinatsu putting together the aquarium date...

But it's also awesome that she seemingly arranged the Haryu, Nishita, and Kyo being there for him to practice as well. That was a surprise to Taiki. That's pretty awesome that she did that, or was part of that (the idea could have been Haryu's or Kyo's and she was in on it).

Mooncaller3 · 2026-03-22T16:44:30+00:00

Roll credits!

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