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A couple of Chicago’s Metra lines run on the left. So I guess the next question is, how many cities have different train lines operated by the same agency, but that run on different sides of the tracks?

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Yeah, but it was the cover-up that did all the damage. What this group has learned is, do a whole bunch of crime openly and don’t even bother with the cover-up. Now everyone’s distracted by the open crime, that you can do even more in secret, and get away with all of it!

But I managed a couple decent pictures coming out of HND, and another as we passed over ORD. Now the trick is to stay alert for a few more hours, even though I know the jet lag will have me awake and ready for the day at 4:00 AM tomorrow, no matter when I go to bed.

A Boeing 787 wing takes up most of the image. In the background, an orange sunset with a few wisps of clouds, and Mount Fuji to the left.

An orange sunset with Mount Duhi standing prominently on the horizon.

The many runways of Chicago’s O’Hare airport are seen from above.

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This album, like the last two from Rush, doesn't have any of that. I spend 50 minutes listening to the songs. But neither the music nor the lyrics impact me in any way, so when it's over, I'm ready to move on to the next. And that's okay. I'm just ready for a really good Rush album again.

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But it's not a song that I need to listen to multiple times. None of the songs here really make me want to do that. And I think that's one of the things that makes an album stand out for me. Albums, songs, or even just little motifs that are so good, they demand to be listened to multiple times.

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"Hold Your Fire" is a #Rush album that I haven't listened to very often. I didn't own it until a year or so ago, partly because I had heard it a couple times, and it never did anything for me, so I didn't bother to buy it. It still doesn't really do anything for me. #MusicMonday

A very red cover. At the top, written in a way to give it a 3d appearance of being carved into the red, "RUSH" is written. Just underneath, "Hold Your Fire". In the middle of the image are 3 red balls, again appearing to be 3D, floating just above the red, as there are 'shadows' below each of them.

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And so now, this Boeing 787 will be my world for the next 12+ hours.

Photo of a white Boeing 787, with United printed on the side. It’s on the tarmac, with the front and rear cargo doors lifted up.

Screenshot from FlightRadar24 with the details for UA882 from Tokyo to Chicago.

Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Going home after some time away is good. Leaving Japan makes the going home sting a little more. Leaving Japan to go home, knowing we have no plans for our next trip to anywhere, let alone back here, is pretty depressing.

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Maybe, yes. I’ll be rooting for your team some regardless. Time for your guys to do it.

Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Congrats! And thank you for beating my cross-town Sox (even though I know you still, very understandably, hold some animosity for my Cubs). Good luck with Tampa!

Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Easily the one thing I miss about Twitter. I liked having that more international reach to my feed: people I followed for news from Europe, Asia, Africa. It was a great way to hear xyz is happening; I need to go read more. That doesn’t really exist here, and it’s worse for it.

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Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

We’re in Tokyo right now, helping the in-laws acclimate to Japan as they start their first couple-weeks trip. Sending them to Himeji, because it’s great. And we’ve recommended 551 Horai in the Kyoto station as well. We haven’t ever been to Osaka, because of all the things you’ve called out.

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Reposted by Andrew

A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

They’re live-streaming the execution of the person they think they can get away with doing that to first. It’s a test. If they can do that, they’ll expand the margins of permission.

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Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

If we learned anything from “Crazy Rich Asians” …

There's an argument that Pink Floyd was as great as it was because of ALL of the members of the band. These last two albums support that argument I think. Missing members and lack of contributions from others made for two underwhelming releases.

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I like Signs of Life as a soundscape opening to the album. And On The Turning Away and Sorrow are, for me, the highlights. But I wonder if they would be highlights on an otherwise better Floyd or Gilmour album. Or do they just shine because of the other tracks? "It's not enough, it's not enough."

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It's one of those records that I like fine enough when I'm listening to it. But there's not really anything that makes me want to listen to it again. There are no moments that make me rewind a few seconds over and over again because I just want to live in that brief piece of music.

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The previous #PinkFloyd release is often regarded as a Roger Waters solo record. Similarly, the next Pink Floyd release, "A Momentary Lapse of Reason", is often thought of as more of a David Gilmour solo effort. And for me, it's only slightly more successful than "The Final Cut". #MusicMonday

Makes you worry that he’s going to either be this generation’s Dan Marino, and never win it, or the next Peyton Manning / Matthew Stafford, and finally win it only after he’s moved to a new team. Not sure which would hurt more.

That was just terrible on both sides of the ball. Defense had no answer for anything, and the offense couldn’t do anything right to overcome it either.

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Nope, gotta try to be a hero. Live by it, die by it.

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Okay, now would be a good time to show up big!

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Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Uhh … I know the defense hasn’t been good this season. But they are getting run over by what’s supposed to be a less than good Patriots team. And then the offense does nothing when the defense does stand up and gets a turn over. Less than encouraged. #BillsMafia #SportBall

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Loved seeing ‘Trent Crimm’ wearing an Enya shirt in “Ted Lasso”!!

I'm still not at all cool, and I don't know, maybe U2 isn't cool anymore either. Maybe that's why I've come around to them, and this album in particular, more. Whatever it is, I'm glad for it. This is such a good record, and I'm pleased that it's fully on my radar.

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Where the Streets Have No Name repeatedly builds and then releases tension. That's something I think they do really well in a live performance of a different track years later. It also provides an incredible "Rock Star" moment in a different live performance. But I'm getting ahead.

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But as one far to the outside of the cool kids (you've seen a photo from when I graduated high school; any pretense of 'cool' is long gone), I rejected U2 instead of allowing the cool kids, and U2 by extension, to reject me (more bricks in my wall).

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When writing about their debut a while back, I commented that everyone I knew started listening to #U2 a few albums later. When "The Joshua Tree" was released, suddenly, everyone was a U2 fan and they were inescapable. Music, posters, clothes; U2 had become a phenomenon. #MusicMonday #TopPickDiscs

Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is a game that they lose every season. Bills coming off the high from opening a new stadium. Chargers have nothing to lose. Everyone expects the Bills to win easily. I’m with you; confidence is low on this one. Or they win it, suggesting things really will be different this year?

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Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Holy shit. I hope you’re okay, in all manners. I’m sorry that you were subject to that.

Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Deleted the pineapple from my cart earlier this week (I hadn’t removed it for a while). And like a well made clock, I got an email this morning that pineapple was, once again, added to my cart.

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Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Is it too pedestrian to suggest that, like you, the Packers also completely forgot they were playing tonight?

Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

ORD; JAL flight made a very quick turn to the north right after takeoff.

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Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Happy Birthday! Here are a few favorites …

Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

For me, there's a place and time for music like Led Zeppelin or Metallica. There's also a place and time for music like Enya. And when I need that calm soundscape, there's nothing else in my collection that does it quite the same way.

Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I've talked before about how much I like bands that change their sound over time. But I also appreciate the comfort of having a good idea as to what I'm going to get with an artist. And this record was just that. Mood Atmosphere A sense of place

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Andrew @drw4d.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Occasionally, there will be an artist in the list that might not really fit in with some of the others. #Enya is probably one of those artists. But I genuinely enjoy her music. However, her self titled debut, "Enya", was a record I had never heard until now. #MusicMonday

A wide white border surrounds a black and white photo. The image is of the artist squatting down towards the floor, in between two dogs. In the top portion of the white border, "ENYA" in printed in red letters.

Alessandro Rigolon @alerigolon.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Reposted by Andrew

Re: “people don’t bike in the winter”, let’s think about places where people bike more: the Netherlands, Denmark, Berlin, Paris. Not great weather Places in Southern Europe with great weather and no winter (Italy, Greece) don’t have large biking numbers It’s not the weather. It’s infrastructure

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I’m still bitter at Friends of the Park for preferring a parking lot as opposed to Chicago having this museum on the lakefront.

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Always yes to the mackerel.

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Yes! I just spent an afternoon in Copenhagen and a few days in Gothenburg. Streetcars! Pedestrian streets! Bike lanes! Markets! Places for people to actually be and spend time (and money), as opposed to just drive through. Why can’t we have these nice things?!?

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