Tag: Curb Your Enthusiasm

2024 is here and so is the future

We need to get you Back to the Future…

Happy New Year, all!

And yes, I can still say “Happy New Year” at the time of writing this because it’s still a few days within the New Year’s Statute of Limitations. You can’t wish anyone a “Happy New Year” after January 5th. 7th is pushing it. 10th is full-blown insanity.

I was “Happy New Year’d” in February a few years ago. It was such a baffling occurrence that I still think about it every January.

Which is why I’m really happy that Larry David has also provided an official word on this because it means I can stay consistent with my blog having a Seinfeld or Curb reference in every single one.

The real reason I’m writing this is because I feel like 2024 is just closer to the future than the last few years. Doesn’t it to you?

I remember having a retrospective look back at a decade when it was 2019, turning into 2020. That was the last time I really felt this way.

Up until the shitshow that was 2020 actually began, I felt like I was actually jumping into something new.

Once we got into the 2020s, the future sort of arrived. But once we had to spend it inside most of the time and people felt like they lost 1-2 years of their lives because of the COVID lockdowns, everything got put on pause.

However, things started to happen once we moved into the 2020s.

Back to the Future was now bullshit:

Blade Runner was also bullshit:

And 2001: Space Odyssey among many others has all been bullshit for a long time:

Now, those three movies are three of the greatest movies of all-time. Two of which (being Blade Runner and Back to the Future) are in my Top Films of All-Time.

But if you were picking up what I was putting down, it seems like our view of the future is sort of crashing down to reality very quickly. But while there are no flying DeLoreans that run on garbage, Siri and Alexa are eerily close to HAL but still far from it, and there are no robotic human replicants walking among us, 2024 just feels a little closer to it than the last few years have.

Even just saying 2024 is an odd thing. Looking at it is weirder too.

Things like Blade Runner 2049 and Cyberpunk 2077 are further pushing the years of possibility for the futuristic tech to bring back the wonder that the above films had.

I’ll be 52 in 2049 and 80 in 2077. What will my blog look like at those ages? Quite possibly beamed into your brains.

We’ll see when we get there.

I just realized that I didn’t really have a point to writing this blog. It was sort of just a New Year’s check-in that addressed the social conformities of the “Happy New Year” greeting and that I observed the year on the calendar as an odd one.

I’ve been writing this over the course of like 24 hours to this point and I thought I could pull it together in the end, but I just couldn’t.

Happy New Year to All! Enjoy making your own future, because the Future is What You Make of It!

~DS

The CTA and the transportation gods were out to get me this morning

“This is not your average, everyday darkness. This is… ADVANCED darkness. Hey, if I close my eyes it doesn’t seem so dark.”

The holidays have arrived, so naturally anxiety and stress are higher than normal. Even above good tidings.

Everything at work just feels like its tighter because myself, teammates, clients, and more are on tighter schedules because time-off is becoming a standard for all over the next few weeks.

Considering this work week is only a 3.5 day sprint for me, I must reference Kingdom Hearts:

@AlteredBits on Twitter

So I’m running around trying to get a bunch of shit done while also trying to take some time to enjoy the moments I’m getting with friends. However, no good time ever came unearned.

So, I’m heading into work this morning on Chicago’s famous “L” trains. Since the 1893 World’s Fair, these trains have been how millions of Chicagoans commute to work, home, or the airport on a daily basis.

It’s no different for me. Except this morning, I truly felt like the CTA and the transportation gods were pulling a fast one on me.

So I got on my usual train this morning on my in-office days. It’s an easy three-stop trip before I transfer to another line. It normally only takes me about 25-30 minutes to commute to work, with an expected couple minutes of delays every so often. It’s not unlike CTA lines to run behind, but this morning felt different.

As I waited for my usual transfer, there was a delay in my train. It was only a few minutes so instead of crossing the tracks on the overhead bridge, I decided to stick on the normal side.

I waited longer and longer. I watched as the line that I should’ve transferred to had three trains come and go before my normal transfer came. I also noticed that two runs of my morning trains also passed by, meaning, I could’ve gotten an extra half hour of sleep.

But I didn’t want an extra half hour of sleep, I needed to be up and at ’em this week with all of the shit flying around.

So my normal transfer line came up as “Due” on both the Ventra app and the platform TVs that display the train schedule. Then it disappeared after a few minutes, saying then that the next line coming for that train wasn’t for another 20 minutes.

So it was at that point I walked over the skybridge and decided to take the other line. It would take more stops around the Loop but at that point, I had already lost 20 minutes.

As life would have it, as soon as I got over to the other side, my normal transfer line came to the other platform I just waited 20 minutes on.

*cue Curb Your Enthusiasm music*

While this felt like a Larry David moment for sure, it was exactly like that episode of Spongebob where he’s down in Rock Bottom and can’t catch a bus to Bikini Bottom. Every time he turns his head, a bus comes and goes.

I don’t need this right now. I didn’t need it CTA. The worst part too was the line I ended up having to take was also running 5 minutes behind, so my whole day was messed up before 8AM.

Beginning your day like this is an unnecessary irritant that just got to me this morning. It was also cold, not too cold, but cold enough where if you spend about 25 unnecessary minutes waiting for your usual train, it’ll get you the sniffles.

Here’s to hoping I survive the holiday season without another morning like this.

And yeah, I guess it could be worse. At least I didn’t rip my pants:

You’ll be the first to know if my pants rip on an L train any time soon.

I hope your holiday season doesn’t get bogged down by ripped pants or oddly timed train schedules!

~DS