Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

deadly viruses are the ultimate pyramid scheme.

the thing that is breaking my brain lately: all the (correct) criticism of people complaining that the economy should be reopened because they need a haircut has started to develop an undercurrent of "you're not allowed to hate all of this," which... I mean, if there's a way not to hate all this I'd love to know it

uk “lockdown” to last at least three more weeks

Has anyone else noticed that junk/spam emails have dwindled to almost nothing?

― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.),Thursday, April 16, 2020 8:42 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

still getting the occasional phishing email in my spam folder, but i haven't gotten a robocall in weeks.

I don't want to "reopen the economy" but I do need a haircut

at this point I'm assuming I won't be able to get a haircut for the remainder of the calendar year and I worry for my wonderful and treasured stylist

I'm pretty disappointed about how slowly hair grows tbh.

A horrible thing I’ve noticed recently when out: white middle-class people not wearing protection, ordering others to give them more space or telling them they’re too close. The ‘others’ are never white people, and have usually come out in masks and gloves.

This morning, wearing both, I went up to Hampstead for the first time in three weeks and was delighted to see open a place serving decent coffee (shop A) so queued up. Another coffee place (shop B) was also open for pick-ups along where everyone was queuing and having lockdown chat to pass the time. Some guy in shorts and no protection crossed the street with his gf to pick up drinks from shop B and darted between two people in the queue for shop A. As he waited in shop B’s doorway, someone who worked there (tall BAME kid with covered face and hands) approached to enter, but hung back because of the customer. Customer LOST HIS SHIT at the younger man and started ordering him to stand back when he noticed him waiting. Cue lots of tutting and nervous looks between all of us queuing for shop A.

Me: ‘He works there, you’re in his way.” Younger man looks shocked. Customer and his gf, drinks in hand, stomp off. Me, muttering: “...Dick.” From yards away, dude roars WHAT DID YOU SAY?!? I just stared straight at him. Again: “What did you just say?” Me: “It’s hard enough without you being unpleasant to people trying to go to their jobs, just chill out maybe?” When I get inside shop A, the other customer inside laughs and says “that guy WAS being a dick, I wish I’d said it.” We had a quick chat about dude and this weird pattern of racism; he said he was noticing stuff like that too.

The word wanker hardly suffices.

I think I’ve mapped the handful of decent places still open for a flat white between the Thames and Hampstead, special mention to the Greek grocers on Farringdon Road who took over when the Gazzano family closed their Italian shop (they own the building and are still landlords). For ILXors in Angel/Clerkenwell/Bloomsbury, this is worthwhile intel (and supporting small businesses is a virtue worth signalling).

Went out to my second favorite taqueria tonight and saw a bunch of assholes — some adults, some teenagers, and some younger kids — all riding minibikes and a small four-wheeler in a park, roaring up and down the street and tearing up the grass. None of them were wearing masks, they were all standing as close to each other as they'd have done under non-pandemic conditions...it was really fucking irritating, especially since I was forced to think about what I would do if one or more of them approached me.

"Home Working Tip of the Day #18 – Match your music to the task from your to do list - the music within computer games is a great example of this - the lyric-free music tempo in games is designed to help you focus on the challenge ahead; so it makes sense that similar music styles will help you to focus on your tasks too. ... Perhaps try heavy rock for coding, classical music for reviews, operatic for emails..!"

please make it stop.

THere seemed to be a growth in the amount of hairdressing courses available from community centres before the outbreak. I wonder if they are now showing results.
Hope loads of participants are getting loads of practise in at a time when people aren't having to go everywhere with the inept initial stage results. I mean practise makes perfect and one will always improve with further practise or something to that effect.

On the other hand haven't noticed the wave of hair clippers in LIDL one might have expected . & everybody wearing their hair really short to avoid the possibility of it being infected by the virus or whatever the excuse would be.

On the verge of losing it over getting woken up every morning by the hammering and banging from the interminable building work going on next door - it's like they're building the Taj Mahal or something. At least they're not shouting at each other anymore.

Use Whitehouse or Nurse With Wound for those 'inbetween moments' when you're having a full-scale breakdown

xpost

Merzbow, Sunn and Hair Police on constant rotation maybe intercut with Metal machine Music for relaxation.

I ordered a couple of CDs on Amazon - cheap stuff, only like £8 for the pair - which have never arrived and which Amazon have offered to refund me for, however I'd really prefer to have the CDs. Anyway, the original seller suggested I contact Royal Mail because the CDs had definitely been posted on 30th March. Now, whatever you may do in life, do not try to go on the Royal Mail website and make any sort of attempt to find what happened to any lost mail - you will get trapped in a loop which is specially designed to stop you making any attempt to find out what happened to lost mail. I'm currently on my 24th minute of trying to get through to their call centre and about to chuck it.

Currently back on the phone to Royal Mail - on my 15th minute of my phone credit being eaten up - because the postman has been to our building and left a Something For You non-delivery card which says the item in question can be picked up at the Holloway Delivery Office tomorrow - that's the Holloway Delivery Office that's been shut since the lockdown started. So phoning to find out where to pick it up as getting it redelivered seems pointless if the posties won't ring doorbells to tell people they're there.

the amazon warehouse shutdown in France is hilarious because now amazon is saying they're just going to ship from other countries instead

Gave up after 40 minutes this time. Just have to hope the postman on the redelivery day rings the bell. This is probably costing me more in phone calls than the actual value of the items.

Leaving to go out for a short walk earlier, as I open the front door of the building I saw a delivery guy arriving for a neighbour. I thought he might see me in the doorway and give me a moment to leave but he kept approaching. When he''s nearly two metres from me and not stopping I say, loudly, I'll leave the door on the latch for you and I'll go back in. He STILL doesn't stop as I'm latching the door. So I go back into the building and wait for him to drop the thing off. Once he's back out the door I follow at a distance and he looks back at me baffled like he has no idea why I'd been hovering around the door if I was on my way out. *eye roll*

Just had the broadband guy in as out service was dropping out stopping us from working at home. He's the first non-household person to cross the door in weeks. We all kept our distance and cleaned everything etc but it's quite unnerving inviting a potential new "vector" into the house.

In other news two of my friends have lost parents (both over 80) and my neighbour is in hospital. Everything feels closer and more real this week.

Yes I drank white wine and ate sweetbreads and smoked a cigarette b/c it's Friday and a pandemic's lurking about.

xxps: Home ovens should be fine for recycling masks. In a paper bag, 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 70 °C, and that mask and oven is sterile. See Duan et al 2003, and this discussion by Peter Tsai, a guy who invents mask N95 filtration material.

i'm ordering more fernet

Hi, Brad!

chemo walk today

they're increasingly tiring, but I do not want to take transit or be in friends' cars

Has anyone else noticed that junk/spam emails have dwindled to almost nothing?

Nope! I'm getting bothered by them more than ever. Spam filters usually catch them but every day I'm getting a phishing one from "TESC0" that keeps getting tweaked, presumably to test its way past the filters.

Popping in at 10pm on Friday night after my 3+ hr class tonight to report 1) super proud of my students for trying so hard to adapt 2) they’re all showing up still and that makes me feel good as a teacher and 3) omgggggggg teaching via webcam is exhausting. I’m adapting just like my students are but holy crap. I can barely deal w the pressure of being their teacher before/after. I need to maintain my connection but it’s soooo hard. Also, I’m grateful bc they’re the only ppl I interact w face to face now

online teaching is invading my personal mental space, nothing like getting up on a Sunday morning to an email from some fucking student who started a quiz but didn't want to do it and could I please reset it for them. Or an email on a Friday evening asking when feedback is likely to be available. Hi guys, you know how we've given you extensions for everything because it's hard times for students? I'm a fucking person living through this as well.

dad's out of the hospital. infection is gone, WBC is higher. he's very weak, mostly cos he just went through surgery. we've bought a handicapped seat for the shower and toilet seat riser with bars to grab onto, should be here Monday.

Home health finally called to help my mother out and he's been doing physical therapy and he's going to keep doing it! finally!!!!. hopefully having this infection knocked out will restore him to strength.

was sad the other night, because I called him (since I couldn't be there), and I got his voicemail. I never call my dad (not even pre-stroke), so I hadn't gotten his voicemail in years. he recorded it probably ten years ago, and hearing his pre-stroke voice again just made me sad :(.

but....let me rephrase, this is good news, I am glad he is home.

sounds positive! glad he got the surgery so quickly.

Aw, that's good news.

ha matthew i got one of those emails today too. it’s like... chill out. i’m probably giving you a good grade.

anyway i’ve been very frustrated by the lack of testing / conditions one has to meet in order to get tested here in the states, which just seems to me like a way to impose regimentation and rationality on something that does not have the human capacity for logic. in part this is because i’ve been having major digestive problems and chills and coughing off and on since the beginning of march, but i don’t have a fever and haven’t been around anyone coming from a hotspot to my knowledge so i guess i can go get fucked, even though universities are petri dishes even when things are normal? cool system we have here

or as richard marx put it

Hey, remember how for years we had “smoking” and “non-smoking” sections of planes and restaurants? Then, eventually, enough people realized that cigarette smoke doesn’t know which section is which and it was stupid as fuck? Remember? Good, cuz a bunch of dumb motherfuckers forgot

— Richard Marx (@richardmarx) April 18, 2020

Richard Marx otm

Just checking his twitter, he's a cool guy!

Yeah but he also swears he "left her by the river" so

Social distancing in action.

even in normal times I don't really care when students turn in work---as long as it's before the deadline the university gives me for filing grades at the end of the term, I can work with them.

same here euler

nice

I don't have a lot of students this term, just one small course, but the students have been writing to me to say that they've had trouble thinking and getting their acts together and could I accept their work a little late, and I'm like, it's the same for me! it's hard for me to think right now and I have to keep begging for deadline extensions too! we are all in this together.

the administration of my school is being pretty annoying about micromanaging our compliance w the new reality -- there was a list going around of instructors who supposedly were not compliant but the list was pulled from bad data so we have to waste ALL THIS TIME clarifying and explaining and defending ourselves. it's ridiculous.

maintaining the connection i have built w my classes and staying organized and not losing students are my tpp priorities atm -- there are no due dates in the assignments i created in the LMS, people who are sticklers about that are either dealing with students who need a lot of structure or, at worst, are uptight jerkholes

the administration of my school is being pretty annoying about micromanaging our compliance w the new reality

I'm supposed to enter a list of what I did every day onto a spreadsheet, and I keep forgetting to do it at the end of the day, so I try to do it at the end of the week but by Friday afternoon my brain is a puddle of stew and I can barely remember that I'm alive, let alone what I did all week.

I made my meek adjustments to online (hate the term "remote") learning without a hitch, and I've had some mild attrition, but otherwise students haven't changed their habits. I've been slacker on deadlines -- that's the only difference.

sounds like you are doing awesome work la lechera, must be great for your students to have a caring teacher throughout all this.

my school trying to keep administrative procedures (and even our drop-in classes!) going was ridiculous...I'm laid off now and honestly I'm happy about it, 4 hours of online ESL teaching a day was doing my head in.

yeah that would do me in as well -- it feels like talking with the same people but talking through a wall or from inside a box. really hard to keep things moving!!
and thank you <3 i am doing my best and trying to be creative about how to approach end-of-semester projects and stuff like that. it has been fun to talk with them about what they're cooking, how they are approaching home ec topics.

i totally flaked on a class this week because i haven’t been feeling well. once my stomach gets right i’m planning on rectifying that though

The "Get My Payment" app on the IRS website is giving me the dreaded "status not available" message, and apparently there is nothing I can do. I qualify and filed a tax return last year so I should darn well be in the system. It's apparently a pretty common occurrence to see this info but given reports of money going to the wrong accounts it's still worrying/infuriating.

Also, comedy broadcast from the comedian's home is the saddest comedy.

Yeah, Colbert's opening monologues have the "pause for laughter" thing and its disconcerting with no audience. Though I have to say the Dylan bit at the start of Friday's was the funniest thing I've seen in a long while.