iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Today I'm announcing that I too will not be performing on Ed Sheeran's upcoming "The Loop" North American tour. Thank you all for your support and understanding.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Breakaway bus stop shelters should be banned and replaced ASAP. On the corner of Western and Fullerton in Chicago right now:

Photo of a crashed bus stop shelter in Chicago.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

The fact that preemptive fuel rationing isn't even on the table right now shows how unprepared both our leaders and the American people are for the hard times ahead.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Just got home from NYC after a very stressful day dealing with my flight being cancelled on Friday. I'm glad the Knicks won. I'm also very glad to not still be stuck there trying to get to the airport.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

I'm so tired of owning a car. Just woke up on a nice vacation to remember that the street I live on does street sweeping twice a week for some reason so I'm garunteed to get a ticket. All the other streets near me are residential permit zones.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

NYC is making me reconsider my stance on medium density. We should just push for such aggressive densification around downtown that the neolib shills who run our cities are forced to maintain public services and spaces for the city to function.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Mamdani is genuinely so good at his job. Closing a historically bad budget gap while also expanding public services, tackling quality of life issues, maintaining good relations with the state government and staying out of the crosshairs of a hostile federal government.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Okay, one AI application I would actually really get behind is a desktop assistant that helps you with your audio routing needs. I just sat down for a long guitar practice session and ended up spending 2 hours trying to route a guitar amp plugin, a metronome, and a Webcam into OBS to record a clip.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

My classroom got to 81°F today with the AC on. It's easy to poke fun at people in cold climates for their susceptibility to warm weather, but every indoor space in the South is equiped to have AC blasting 24/7. Southerners spend their 100+° summers scurrying from one giant refrigerator to another.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

The Democratic primary system isn't broken. It's working as intended. Every "flaw" in the process is an opportunity to tip the scales.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

There's something deeply sickening about the overwhelming prioritization of American soldiers' lives over Iranian civilians' lives.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

The left needs to be more serious about antisocial behavior on or around public transportation. Letting vital urban infrastructure be held hostage by unwell or malicious people to the point that most people actively avoid using it is not a progressive position.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

I explored West Loop for the first time on my Birthday tonight. It looks ugly on Google Maps but is unbelievably gorgeous in person.

View of tall buildings in West Chicago in snow.

The Fulton Market District (Chicago West Side) in snow.

A cool looking tall building in West Loop.

A cozy little enclave with string lights, tables, and brickwork in West Loop.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Being in an original band with serious musicians who have a similar artistic vision to yours is great. Highly recommend.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

I just did the math and realized that a calendar year could be evenly divided into 13 months of 28 days (4 weeks) with one extra day. Why have we done this yet?

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Something weird about the custom feeds feature on here is that you'll make a snide comment about something you don't think about much, and someone you've never met who really, really cares about that thing will start beef with you.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

This won't mean anything to people outside of a very specific niche but the Odeholm Audio Thall Amp sounds sooo good. I need to figure out how to work this into a live rig.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Abolishing ICE the next chance we get is the moderate position. Working for ICE after February 2025 should be flagged on every future background check.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

It's reassuring that having a filling meal after a period of dieting is actually not enjoyable. It indicates that healthy portions won't leave me feeling cheated after I lose the weight.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

I can't believe I'm saying this, but Microsoft forcing Windows 11 despite all the audio issues for musicians is making me seriously consider switching to a Mac.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Once in a while I'll check on Twitter when there's a major news event. I still can't believe how bad it's gotten. The worst part is that it's still the standard over BlueSky.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Internet personalities like Sor Hands are a plague for music academia and the online guitar community. You're not "doing a bit" if you do it constantly and occasionally poke fun at yourself. This is engagement farming at the expense of the image of higher music ed, classical, modern guitar, etc.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

The best part of having niche music tastes is getting to see so many amazing bands when they come through town without setting yourself back financially.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

How long after moving out of the South do you stop craving Whataburger?

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Does anyone else get flashbacks to wild moments in Trump's campaign and are baffled that he won and will be president for 3 more years? I just now remembered that town hall where he stopped talking and swayed to corny white people music for 30+ minutes. People witnessed that and still voted for him

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

DNC consultants trying to figure out how they're going to fumble this is 2028:

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Duolingo just switched me to the energy system (effectively limits you to two lessons a day regardless of how many right answers you get) and I'm seriously considering dropping my 2000+ day streak over it. Classic example of subscription-motivated enshitification.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

That feeling when you find a restaurant you love but you know it's not going to stay open long because every time you go, you're the only customer.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

The reason Chicago still has such a large share of drivers is that the CTA is a consistently mediocre rider experience. I've spent an hour today waiting at transit stops because the system can't stick to its own schedule. Why would anyone who owns a car pay $5 for this luxury?

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Props to Guitar Center for having a generous return policy. Dropping the big bucks on a guitar you plan to play for a long time and realizing it has some fatal flaws you'd overlooked is not a nice feeling. I was able to return it and get something that will serve me much better instead.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

I've seen so many feds in Chicago today going about my normal routine. Every SUV is suspicious. Every student absence longer than a day is concerning. Our public institutions feel like they're held together with duct tape now and we just lost another $2 billion. Things could have been so different.

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Reposted by Katherine 🎶📚

Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Blue cities should tear up the roads in front of ICE facilities and then start decades of community engagement and input sessions to rebuild them. Let's harness our core competencies.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

It really does feel like American society has just accepted that urban public schools are grossly underfunded and neglected, and we take that as a given, rather than the very deliberate policy choice that it is.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

One of the best parts of teaching modern band is when a student picks up a guitar and wants to learn a metal song that you grew up listening to. #edusky

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Someone needs to invent physical books with a built-in mp3 player that contains only the audiobook version of that specific book. You lose something when your entire book library is stored in an app on your phone.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Living on a busy street is annoying sometimes, but going from my front door to my bus in less than a minute is so, so nice.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

The Avatar sequels feel so late. It's like leaving a party to pick up snacks for everyone and getting back at 6 AM to a few people passed out on couches. They could have been so much more successful delivering sequels with slightly worse CGI 12 years sooner.

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Reposted by Katherine 🎶📚

Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

I love living in the real America (a big city)

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Reposted by Katherine 🎶📚

patrick.kennedy @thedotcity.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

I've got the data. Most annual property tax revenue lost due to central city highways (w/in 3-mile radius of the center of downtown): 1. Dallas 2. Oakland 3. Chicago 4. Minneapolis 5. Houston

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

I'd bet Chicago's GDP would grow a measurable amount if we cracked down on loud motorcycles, especially at night.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Charging quarters for laundry in a 3-flat when we already pay utilities is diabolical. Whatever spare change you skim off your rent pigs is probably canceled out by making the unit less desirable.

Photo of a washer and dryer set in a rental house that charge $2.50 per load of laundry.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Had to stick with Duolingo long enough to hit this milestone

Screenshot of the flaming Duolingo owl and a 2000 day streak.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Looking at the map, this is effectively cutting parking minimums citywide. There are still some areas undeserved by transit that are going to need special attention (Southwest side, far northwest side, far south side).

Map showing areas in Chicago now exempt from parking minimums due to proximity to transit. Most of the land area is highlighted.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Backing out of a roommate group the day before they sign the lease (and two days before moving in) is nasty work

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

What I want to know (and what nobody has asked) is why Chicago Public Schools has been paying for staffing for private schools. When crossing guards were shifted from the city budget to school budgets, private schools should have hired their own crossing guards. chicago.suntimes.com/education/20...

chicago.suntimes.com

CPS cutting crossing guards for private schools amid budget crunch

Chicago Public Schools says it can no longer afford to provide crossing guards for private school students as it trims 100 total guard positions.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Still wild to me that Western Avenue in Chicago has peak hour bus lanes only. For context, this means people can park in the bus lanes whenever they want, except rush hour on weekdays. This makes the bus lanes effectively useless when someone forgets to move their car, which is always.

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Katherine 🎶📚 @katherinemelb.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

First Ozzy, and now Mangioni. Damn.

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