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

frogbs, that's a good point. I don't think I ever thought it was going to be "over" by any point this summer, but I do remember thinking that by my birthday (end of August), we should have a really good handle on things and how we can at least take the right steps and minimize the deaths and impacts. But seeing just how much worse things are now and how little we've apparently learned (or refuse to learn, in some cases like Sturgis) makes me despair how truly awful things will be in five more months. Like I never would have dreamed August would be even worse than April, but here we are. What happens in five months when we are looking back fondly on how relatively calm we had it in August?

I'm not the only one despondent with the selfishness on display from the American public.

As people across the US visiting parks and taking trips to the mountains encounter bears, the National Park Service reminds you not to "push your slower friends down in attempts of saving yourself" in the event of an attack. https://t.co/4O8IuMaSiK

— CNN (@CNN) August 10, 2020

fuck, someone caught me

usually when I see a bear charging toward me, I run out of the bar.

that belongs in the 2020 images thread tbh

you can outrun the slow ones -- it's the fast ones you need to push down

There will be a point in the future where we'll be able to say, 'wow, that sucked, I'm glad it's over now'.

citation needed

Bear say die to me

Still less concerned with dying from the 'rona than dying under an overpass post-economic apocalypse tbh

I am frequently buoyed by Masha Gessen's reminder that we still have the power of the vote and that is a start. People who are so cynical that they don't even believe in that should go to an isolated place, scream it out, and come back ready to fight for everyone's right to vote. I'm extremely sick of fighting but that is not a reason to give up/shrug/call it a day. It's not over yet, assholes!

otm

Biden, Pelosi and Schumer are not the crew to assuage economic concerns.

Nor concerns about the climate crisis, escalating in visible real time.

The defense budget will only grow at 8% per year.

It's true that we're caught in an avalanche of multiple simultaneous global disasters (economic, medical, climatic) which we have effectively no agency to ameliorate -- still vote though, of course! -- but there was one piece of unequivocally good news:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/health/fewer-babies-are-being-born-premature-during-covid-19-1.5056815

I can see no downside to this! It's shocking! I see downsides to virtually every other phenomenon to ever exist, but this seems like a genuinely purely ☆good☆ thing.

So that's what I try to come back to whenever the news gets me down, which is any time I encounter the news.

And if anyone can think of a reason why it's not good just shut the hell up about it or I'll hunt you down and give you a hard stare.

Of course it's not over! I didn't nearly die last year for it to be over...

but also, as someone who has dipped in and out of society for the past decade or so, I want to say that my pessimism remains a constant and that so does my stupid belief in the resilience and dignity of most individual people. Holding these views at the same time is difficult but oh well, that's among the reasons that I write poetry.

I gotta admit, my belief in the resilience and dignity of individual people has taken a big hit in 2020. It's hard to imagine us overcoming the climate crisis when people resort to punching 72 year-old veterans in the jaw because they don't wanna wear a mask for two minutes.

There is no overcoming the climate crisis.

Fair point, swap out that for "dealing with the climate crisis in any meaningful way" and my larger point still stands.

this op-ed was nice to read as far as looking for silver linings goes (and in the nyt of all places)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/09/opinion/left-politics.html

Yeah, even a semblance of mitigation would help, but it's just delaying the inevitable.

You see? I'm really not a ball of sunshine.

There's very little we can do about a lot of these external forces, and so the real issue (to me) is how to live life in the best and most ethical way in the present, even when everything is crumbling round us.

At the same time, for those with kids and families and the economic ability to do so, I'd buy some land in the North Woods near a fresh water source. At least then, your kids will learn how to live on and with the land in a way that they will need to in the future if they want to survive.

(Also, those of us without kids or families should also do so, to pass on to future generations of queers)

I wear a size 7 3/4 fitted hat (pretty large) and the disposables plus an earsaver are the most comfortable for me.

oops

lol from Bryn Mawr college:

I have been approached by a number of people worried about those who will not comply. Some staff and faculty are focused on student compliance. I do want to remind you that Bryn Mawr students are not a random sample of 18- to 22-year-olds. In a recent survey for residential life, reading was the most popular leisure activity.

My mom went there and indeed, I grew up with babysitters who went to Bryn Mawr...and yes, that is mostly true. If they're not bookish lesbians, they're somewhat wild international students with uptight religious parents. (I had a number of babysitters from Pakistan, for example, all of whom were really into hip-hop and hitting my parents' liquor cabinet).

did the cabinet hit them back at least?

I worked at the sister school Haverford, and BM students had a bit of rep for wildness among the students there

Wow, Haverford seemed sober but not that sober! I spent a lot of time there as well, my piano teacher's husband was a music prof. Cacioppo was his name

checking back in to say i dodged a bullet and didn't get sick, whew

also to post this shot-for-shot remake of the final sequence of 2001: a space odyssey, filmed entirely in lydia cambron's apartment in brooklyn. p funny/cute

https://vimeo.com/446927270

amazing!! i am really inspired by the dedication

what WAS your obelisk? that thing is incredible

Going to try to sign up for a Phase 3 vaccine trial in my city.

Thanks for sharing the space odyssey clip, Davey!
The monolith looks like it's maybe a rowing machine on end?

everyone should watch that video, it's amazing

or wait, maybe everyone is! seems like it's been viewed about 15K times since yesterday, nice!

also i just now realized that davey didn't make it. i totally thought they did, oops! still, it's really neat

i'm used to people i know putting insane effort into things that no one cares about because they're not already famous, so i kind of figured that video was going to end up in three-digit views hell, the fate of 99% of every creative video

wish i made that video, it captures the quar zeitgeist so well, and it’s rlly funny :)

I basically hate most of the US because people's response to the pandemic has been so fucking idiotic that my visitation schedule has been obliterated. Not only have I not seen my kids since February, because I have to fly if I want to see them I am exposing myself to infection which I could pass onto them (they both have asthma) AND unless testing lines up both in my home state and in theirs, I would have to quarantine for two weeks both on their side and when coming back home, and the same holds true if they travel to me.

Oh, that is awful, so sorry.

wow. sorry dan.

Ugh, sorry to hear that, DJP.

I've been wondering about that; good at least to see you venting, and sympathies, Dan.

I was about to post that the 2001 video almost makes Covid worthwhile, but Dan's post (of course) shows otherwise, however much I would have been trying to be silly.

Dan, that's awful. My sympathies to you and yr kids! A friend is dealing with similar issues, and it sounds immensely difficult

definitely, sorry to hear that djp. i know we all try to keep in mind that covid19 is a stressor on everyone and people have stuff going on behind the scenes that they don't mention, but there's a wide range of stress, and that seems particularly awful. :(

Sorry you’re having to go through that, Dan.

Oh wow, I'm really sorry to hear that DJP. I had no idea. I can't imagine how much of struggle that must be.

that's fuckin' terrible, and a logistical nightmare to boot. I'm sorry, bud. :(

Very sorry DJP. Wish you the best in dealing with tough circumstances.

Miserable to hear that. Very sorry indeed.