This is one reason I'm never going to be on board with the "fifth generation Iowan" thing that Iowa Democrats like to brag about.

I've been dipping into r/Austria to practice reading colloquial German, which is how today I learned that my first name is considered tacky and associated with low class status in Austria.

It is honestly hard to convey what an unmitigated success the free buses have been in Iowa City, but the New York Times has done its best: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c....

I'm spending my Mother's Day making stickers to advertise an upcoming No Kings rally, honoring my mom's memory by doing two of her favorite things: crafting and telling Donald Trump to fuck himself.

Someone needs to tell users of Iowa City transit that we have reached the level of ridership where you are no longer entitled to your own row, and they need to take their bags off the seat next to them.

Updating a 2016 list of media contacts for a local political group, and it's a fascinating lesson in media consolidation, especially in radio. So many local talkshow hosts/ producers are out of the industry, and the stations now have national shows instead.

I'm as paranoid as the next pretty paranoid American Jew, but I actually haven't seen any evidence that the Pennsylvania arsonist was motivated by antisemitism. Is there any reason to think that the timing wasn't just a really unfortunate coincidence?

A fun thing to contemplate about the people who are currently causing global economic collapse is that they also have access to the nuclear codes.

I used my new Costco membership for the first time yesterday! Stocked up on toothpaste, contact lens solution, oatmeal, and various other non-perishable items that are probably going to cost a zillion dollars post-tariffs.

I think I disagree, tbh, and I say that as a frequent library user. I enjoy vibrant libraries more than quiet ones, and I'm more comfortable when I'm not stressed out about accidentally violating the sanctity of the space.

It's really wild that this is basically the first overtly political thing that anyone has said, given everything that's going on.

I'm seeing this poster all over social media, so it's nice to be able to credit the person who made it.

Everything is terrible, but I'm heartened by pictures of the state capitol packed with Iowans who support trans people's rights.

So I think I'm going to try to put my dumb Business Analytics masters to use by making some sort of data visualization of what the NIH funding in my state does: how many dollars go to rural healthcare, cancer research, research on Alzheimers and other forms of dementia, etc.

Taking a break from doom scrolling to reflect that free public transit has genuinely improved the quality of life in Iowa City.

I'm pretty appalled at the Dems right now, but I'm going to do this thing, because Jamie Raskin is one of the very few of them who doesn't seem completely useless.

Over the weekend I applied online to renew my passport, and I just got an email that it has shipped. They say to give it six to eight weeks, and it took four business days. In case you want to know how hard the people in the passport office are working this week.

Just took my mandatory free speech training, the purpose of which seems to be to inform me that as a University staff member, I don't have the right to free speech.

I have visited a library in the past week and checked out a book from Libby last night. My public library is the best, but I also have a soft spot for the New York Public Libraries, which were an oasis when I was a broke young adult.

I was running late for work and had to drive rather than take the bus, and I found a miraculous parking space. I have decreed that this is an omen and today is going to be a good day. I am going to will today to be a good day, because we could all really use one.

Yesterday I was glad that I had the final exam in my class tonight from 6-8, because I thought it would distract me from election stress. Tonight I'm computing points to see if I'd still pass the class if I skipped it and took the 0.

Me: Ok, I finished my day-long GOTV shift. I'm going to try to tune out the election and distract myself by doing the exercises to study for my programming exam. Prof: Great! Today we're going to learn about choropleth maps by mapping county by county returns in the 2016 presidential election!

If my fellow Iowans are looking at the Selzer poll and feeling inspired, there's lots of door-knocking going on tomorrow. I knocked today and everyone I talked to was voting Dem. I convinced one lady to vote early & helped a guy who had the wrong polling location. Great antidote to election anxiety.

I have discovered the secret to being productive in the morning, and it is having shingles. Nothing like excruciating back pain to propel you out of bed and into a hot shower

I couldn't understand why four people being killed in a mass shooting on the Chicago El wasn't a huge story, and then I realized that the victims must have been homeless, and holy fuck do I hate this country sometimes. www.nytimes.com/2024/09/03/u...

Reskeet with a favorite book from your childhood. images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/com...

My insight from yesterday's canvassing of exurban swing voters is that the reason that "weird" is so damaging is that a lot of low-info voters decide who to vote for based solely on vibes.

Home from shopping. Has anything happened?

This is the first election since I became an Austrian citizen, so I guess now I'm a citizen of two countries with alarming-ass politics.

When I was at Columbia, we occupied Hamilton Hall in a protest over cuts to financial aid, and the administration basically shrugged and said it was ok. I don't think they even took our names. I never got in any trouble at all. It did make the NYT, though: www.nytimes.com/1992/02/12/n...

If anyone is looking for a subject for a true crime podcast, may I suggest this absolutely wild local identity theft story: dailyiowan.com/2024/04/01/f... ? And I still want to know why the guy needed to construct a new identity 34 years ago.

Everyone talks about how ChatGPT can't make art. Nobody talks about how it can help you finish your dumb little coding project in about a third of the time it would take if you had to comb through Stack Overflow to figure everything out.

I feel like if the Oscars wanted non-elderly people to watch, they'd make the show a lot easier to stream.

I just found out why people are talking about the doors on Teslas, and now I know what I'm going to have nightmares about tonight.

Like I’m sorry Katie but no that kitchen table isn’t just like that one because my kitchen doesn’t look like something from a Twilight Zone episode where you wake up in an unfamiliar house and gradually come to realize you’re being kept as a pet

Am convincing myself that I'm having trouble studying for my social analytics exam because the subject is creepy, but actually I'm just lazy. It is creepy, though. I mean, the lecture on the history of social analytics unabashedly cited the East German secret police as one of its originators.

The bus didn't come this morning. As I waited for the next bus I thought "at least it's warm today," and then checked the temperature and it was 4°F/-16C. I think I am a real Iowan now.

Woohoo! Successfully got car out of driveway and to grocery store! Now I'm not leaving again until it's time for the caucus tomorrow night.

All right, it is -15F, and I am about to try to go to the grocery store. Pray for me, everyone!

Apropos of nothing, I just took my university's free speech training for staff, which basically amounts to "you are entitled to free speech when you're not at work, but we retain the right to fire you if we think something you say is going to cause problems for us."

!foryou

I am working on the project for my text analytics class and am currently wondering if there's a more-systematic way to do data cleaning than to randomly select records and see what's weird about them.

I forgot to get apples for apples and honey, but someone in my office has apple trees and brought in a bunch to share. It's a Rosh Hashannah miracle!

It's Labor Day, which I think is the only time when the US gives people a day off from work without somehow Making It Weird.

The internet is down at work, which means that literally nothing works, and I have never been so excited about a total technological meltdown

Today in the dystopian hellscape: an Iowa school district is using AI to choose which books to ban from school libraries. https://www.thegazette.com/k/19-books-pulled-from-mason-city-school-libraries/

What I learned on my summer vacation is that packing cubes actually work and are worth the money.

Literally nothing makes me feel more like an intrepid world traveler than figuring out how to get anywhere on the Tokyo metro

I swear to Dog, the venture capital goons ruin every decent thing