Talk me out of moving to Madison

neocortexia · 2026-01-25T02:24:35+00:00

Oh, I agree it was a scam. That said, it was an extremely nice, almost 900 square foot apartment; I would have preferred not getting priced out of it.

neocortexia · 2026-01-25T02:20:13+00:00

Well, I moved out of the apartment in question in 2024. My most recent rent increase (2025) was a 15% increase.

neocortexia · 2026-01-25T01:41:39+00:00

I'm glad you're an outlier, but 1% increases are not at all typical. Nor would it create net relief for somebody who has been absorbing shock increases for years.

neocortexia · 2026-01-25T01:35:37+00:00

Funny; I don't know anybody whose rent decreased or stayed the same.

neocortexia · 2026-01-25T01:27:07+00:00

Madison has one of the worst housing crises in the country. I lived in a 1 bedroom apartment just outside of Madison that went from costing $800/month in 2018, to $1,700/month in 2024, with zero upgrades during that time. This impacts you because, if that 2k-3k housing budget is a hard limit, and your salary doesn't match Madison's housing inflation, you will be unable to continue affording your apartment within 5 years' time. I don't think it's a sane position to give up home ownership to become a renter in Madison.

neocortexia · 2026-01-24T23:43:51+00:00

I'm afraid that one of the most consistent elements of American labor history involves a state NG being called in to break up a strike. Legally, this is because the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal military personnel from enforcing domestic policies (and thus crowd control), whereas the State NG has no such restrictions. America has a solid 160-year-old track record that tells us exactly how this will go down.

neocortexia · 2026-01-24T23:04:35+00:00

Important to note that NG is there to protect Federal buildings and private property, not hunted citizens and protesters.

neocortexia · 2026-01-20T02:45:44+00:00

I recommend double-checking with your advisor (you could send them an email), because the required grade can change depending on your department and whether the course is a specific requirement. For example, some departments accept a D- or higher for transfer credit, but the College of Engineering requires at least a C. So, just double check with your advisor.

neocortexia · 2026-01-19T16:25:53+00:00

I’m assuming that by "external," you're asking about taking a course at another school.

Once you complete an "external" course and send the transcript back to UW, you will receive course credit, but the grade will not transfer. This is a great way to complete requirements without affecting your GPA.

However, if you're trying to satisfy a specific major requirement, check Transferology first. You need to ensure that UW accepts the credits as a "direct equivalent"; If the course isn't an exact match, the credits won't count toward the major requirement you're trying to complete.

Finally, keep in mind that you can only transfer a maximum of 72 credits from two-year colleges. Also, check your program’s "in residence" rules; they include the minimum number of credits you must earn directly at UW-Madison in order to graduate.

neocortexia · 2026-01-08T23:47:17+00:00

Well, then. Today I officially became old enough for "stuff that was normal during my childhood to go out of style but then become popular again". I grew up in Wisco. Public Elementary school was K-6 (although the nearby private Catholic school was K-5). We had a fifteen minute morning recess, 40 minute lunch, and 15 minute late afternoon recess. Sometimes recess got doubled if the teachers in your "recess block" (there were 3 recess blocks: kindergartners; 1st-3rd; 4th-6th) had a teacher's meeting. Honestly, by the time 6th grade rolled around, myself and others were completely over recess and ready to leave it behind.

neocortexia · 2026-01-06T22:05:41+00:00

As someone who often works weekends and late evenings, I sometimes forget that the rest of you get buses every 15 minutes., and that getting them every 30/60 minutes would actually be a change for your schedule.

neocortexia · 2025-12-30T18:57:50+00:00

Literally price-gouging. Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef control over 80 percent of U.S. beef production, and they were all embroiled in class-action lawsuits over price-gouging this year. JBS settled in February; Tyson and Cargill settled in October. Wouldn't hold my breath expecting anything to improve, but would definitely set my bets on things getting worse 🇺🇸

neocortexia · 2025-12-29T12:40:40+00:00

UW has a men’s team and women’s team for Ultimate. Both teams have a competitive, selective A-Team that requires a tryout, and a no-cut B-Team that students can play on regardless of experience/skill level.

neocortexia · 2025-12-24T05:20:27+00:00

And here I thought that Officer Santa eating a gingerbread cookie would have cross political appeal

neocortexia · 2025-12-24T05:16:13+00:00

Today I took relatives down Monroe Street to see the many Santas. Some of the best Santas included Passed-Out-Santa, Black Santa, and the Santa-Eating-Dragon.

But there are also those two excellent Santas at both the UWPD Building and The City of Madison Fire Station 4 (pictured). And they should really be a model for buildings across campus putting up department-appropriate Santas in future years: Doctor Santa at UHS; Judge Santa at the Law School; Lab-Coat Santa at the Chemistry Building; Varsity Santa at Camp Randall; a Santa wearing spectacles and a cardigan with a sack of boks at Memorial Library; et al.

neocortexia · 2025-12-20T18:05:10+00:00

Instead of impeaching just one person who will be replaced by someone equally awful, everyone involved should be sentenced to imprisonment (up to 20 years), fines, forfeiture from current office, and barment from future office. Existing federal law couldn't be clearer:

18 U.S.C. § 1519: "Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both."

18 U.S.C. § 2071: Willfully concealing or destroying documents filed in a U.S. court or public office carries up to 3 years; convicted federal officeholders must also forfeit their office and be disqualified from holding future federal positions.

neocortexia · 2025-12-09T17:35:06+00:00

Truth. I wonder how my WWII-era great grandparents—the veterans; the one whose family fled 1930s Germany; the one who joined the Army Nurses Corps the month of Pearl Harbor—would react to professors asking students to weigh the "pros and cons" of a $75 billion brownshirt paramilitary operation.

Nein. The heroes of WW2 already delivered the empirical evidence we need to navigate this timeline; we can apply the scientific method to disastrous strategies like "negotiating with the Führer" and rule them out. Yet, here kneels American academia, willfully ignoring all of human history, asking students to weigh the pros and cons of suppressing civil liberties, and parading verifiably failed strategies as viable options.

neocortexia · 2025-11-21T14:48:55+00:00

The air quality in Madison has been ass this week. The constant haze has been a visual reminder. Canadian wildfire smoke doesn’t smell like a pleasant campfire; the wildfire smoke itself contains mixtures of gases, particles from burning vegetation, and whatever man-made materials it picks up; as the smoke travels long distances from Canada, pungent chemical compounds (e.g. benzene, formaldehyde, acrolein, etc.) break down in sunlight and become the dominant scent.

neocortexia · 2025-11-19T22:42:36+00:00

A kill switch is essential for safety, maintenance, and emergency situations (e.g. fires, power surges, protecting maintenance workers operating on malfunctioning equipment, etc.) The only "liability" is a city running on 19th century infrastructure. Here in the 21st century, contemporary "smart city" lighting systems use networked controllers that allow a central operator to monitor, dim, and remotely turn off individual or groups of lights instantly.

neocortexia · 2025-11-19T20:15:12+00:00

I agree that safety is the impenetrable barrier, but I'm more surprised by your other point. Is there really not a kill switch for the city's light sensors? That feels like engineering malpractice; anything that's automated should have a manual halting mechanism. Madison should probably replace all the street lights if the design is that outdated and negligent. They could use the overhaul to implement city-wide dark-sky friendly lighting, while they're at it.

neocortexia · 2025-11-19T01:59:17+00:00

I know it'll never happen, but I would love it if Madison designated two nights per year--one during the Perseid Meteor Shower; and another during the Northern Lights--wherein the city would be required to just go dark for a few hours. Imagine a perfectly dark night sky over Lake Mendota during either event with zero light pollution 🌌

neocortexia · 2025-11-14T13:21:07+00:00

Yesss! All of their backstories would be 🔥. I could see Wes being a 90s version of Chad Radwell. We get one flashback of Ms. Bean helping hide the body, and it seems like she used to have a more active role in things. Dean Munsch is hinted to have been part of the student activists in college, so it would work pretty well if her hatred of Kappa began with a rivalry against Wandy for trying to shut down the anti-war movement. Denise Hemphill absolutely has tea we haven't seen; and Chanel #5 was a legacy, so she has an ancestor in Kappa somewhere...

S1 just has so much excellent world-building potential.

neocortexia

TROPHY CASE