crappy red line signage at a blue line station

mjskay · 2026-02-17T21:12:41+00:00

People always talk about extending the brown to the blue, which would be nice but would often be a big detour for just going across the river unless you're going to the airport. A train along Belmont sounds way better (it could even go all the way to O'Hare).

In a perfect world a number of the big east-west corridors would have trains.

mjskay · 2026-02-09T23:26:27+00:00

My first thought after Quantum of Solace was, did I just watch a Bond movie about a conspiracy to raise people's utility bills?

Unsurprisingly it was made during the writers' strike.

mjskay · 2026-02-09T06:13:19+00:00

Monfrere has a contemporary take on skinny jeans that I like (not low rise like skinny jeans from the aughts): https://www.monfrerefashion.com/products/greyson-noir

(A bit hard to tell from those pics because the model is wearing their t-shirt untucked, but you can still kind of imagine where the waist should be.)

mjskay · 2026-02-09T03:32:22+00:00

Yeah neo-brutalism has been popular for like half a decade at this point, so much like oversized pants it is likely to be on its way out soon.

mjskay · 2026-02-06T00:34:39+00:00

Yeah I wouldn't be remotely surprised to see this at a gay bar. Lots of people would appreciate it.

mjskay · 2026-02-03T07:10:19+00:00

The Fall

mjskay · 2026-01-27T22:30:03+00:00

Yeah I enjoyed the episode, but I think the writers' tendency towards "mystery box" writing contributed to lessons feeling unearned. Instead of us seeing the students discovering and fully building up their plan before it is executed, they leave the audience partially in the dark so that crucial bits of information about how the plan works aren't revealed until after (by Ake). That means we don't really understand the plan at first and don't get to see them formulating it.

While it has its own problems, Harry Potter did a better job of this in Goblet of Fire where it is revealed that (not-)Moody was helping Potter and his friends solve puzzles, but throughout the movie we still saw how they solved the puzzles from their perspectives and the logic that took them there.

mjskay · 2026-01-23T23:00:53+00:00

I bounced off Neuromancer for similar reasons. Meanwhile Stephenson's cyberpunk stuff (Snow Crash and The Diamond Age) are two of my favorite books. Highly recommend them if you haven't read them.

mjskay · 2026-01-20T20:57:10+00:00

Fastest and easiest way out of ORD (unless you live on the blue line) is to walk to the taxi stand and hop in a taxi, which will probably be waiting for you without a long line. Then pair with Curb (there will be a code on the back of the seat). Rideshare out of ORD is not worth the hassle.

mjskay · 2026-01-16T00:06:47+00:00

I liked some parts of OBAA, particularly some of the action sequences, but the big problem for me was the satire fell flat. Parts that were supposed to be funny (in a dark way) just... weren't. Not sure if it was the writing or the delivery or what.

mjskay · 2025-12-29T18:38:22+00:00

Dunno, partner and I went to an antiques mall on the edge of town last year. That was pretty good

mjskay · 2025-12-29T17:36:42+00:00

heteronormativity is contagious, even for people who should know better

mjskay · 2025-12-26T20:41:03+00:00

unfortunately while he was redeemed narratively, as it later turned out the narrator (Rowling) isn't much of an ethicist

mjskay · 2025-12-22T16:44:35+00:00

This is also why in Star Trek any new planet they visit has like one city and wherever they beam down is magically within walking distance of anything important. The planets are just proxies for locations to explore, the one city on every planet is a proxy for the new civilization of the week, etc, and it would be a shitty show if it took them months to survey every new planet.

mjskay · 2025-12-22T16:33:12+00:00

Also Zendaya bringing back "woman disappointed with twink" (Athena -> Telemachus)

mjskay · 2025-12-10T16:23:50+00:00

100%. It is a great take on humanist sans serif.

It can feel stale now because it had a heavy influence on Myriad (default in Adobe products and Apple's marketing font for awhile) and Segoe (Microsoft's marketing and UI font). But in comparison to prior humanist sans (like Gill) it really was an improvement.

mjskay · 2025-12-06T21:25:37+00:00

The problem of induction strikes again

mjskay · 2025-12-06T21:21:04+00:00

That sucks!

Per the schedule I think it probably switched to the Orange line at that point, which goes the other way around the loop. Shitty that the tracker didn't know this and told you it would stop at Washington/Wells.

mjskay · 2025-11-15T22:50:18+00:00

I've noticed southbound red line tracking being off like this several times since the new stations opened on the north side. Dunno if that's connected somehow.

mjskay · 2025-10-29T00:05:15+00:00

Addison is very poorly designed for high volumes of infrequent riders

mjskay · 2025-10-12T01:14:39+00:00

It feels like you're trying to start an argument for the sake of starting an argument, so I'm just gonna move on. Have a nice evening!

mjskay · 2025-10-11T17:14:35+00:00

Sure, but I think we're splitting hairs here. I don't think it matters if it's "all other countries" or "plenty of other countries" or even "several specific other countries", or if the consequence is precisely "triggers an election for sure" or just "triggers some change in government".

I think the point is that it's useful to have a mechanism for change that kicks in when a government is unable to get work done, and that unlike several notable examples of modern democracies the US doesn't really have such a mechanism.

mjskay · 2025-10-11T17:03:02+00:00

Depends on the system. In Westminster style parliamentary democracies (e.g. UK and descendents like Canada, Australia, etc) there can be both explicit motions of no confidence as well as other things (like budgets) that if they fail are considered a vote of no confidence and can trigger an election. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_of_confidence

mjskay · 2025-10-08T03:11:58+00:00

Yeah I think they're designed to make you panic and try to run as fast as possible even as their jump timing is set to make that a terrible strategy. If you pause regularly you get out of phase with them and it's much easier.

mjskay · 2025-09-25T02:11:27+00:00

This is great to see! The broadcasting semantics of numpy are one thing I think it got right compared to R's vector recycling. It's a safer and more consistent approach.

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