KIP covid thread

I was enjoying my thickening beard until a friend asked me if I was trying to look like Scott Ian.

Was like, bitch I have HAIR

Went for a scooter ride in view of the Shawangunk Mountains.
Restocked wine & cocktail makings via curb-side pickup and asked the person in the store, who I kind of know from being a chatty repeat customer, to pick out some surprises for me to make up a case (for the discount). Looking forward to trying those.
Boyfriend hasn't made any income in like 8 weeks but his unemployment case seems to be inching forward, which will be a big relief. We've had serious conflict/resentment about his anxiety and my possibly overly blithe insistence that we're incredibly lucky and he should relax. He's watched his business tank and no idea if it will come back after. Otoh we are able to stock up on wine and ride scooters so I really don't want to hear about it.
I did a brief training to work as a dispatcher for a local mutual aid effort. First shift on Monday.
After tonight it should be warm enough going forward to move the tomatoes outside permanently.

dad is almost back to being his old self and not needing my help. bittersweet, as I've enjoyed the time, but i'm also looking forward to a little "me" time.

A bunch of people, including me, helped save our favorite bar: https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/continuing-coverage/coronavirus/local-coronavirus-news/community-raises-25-000-to-save-the-side-quest-bar-in-lakewood

(NB I am currently the reigning champion in annual Star Wars trivia and Steven Spielberg trivia at this place.)

Hey cool! My gf lives around the corner from there. I'm glad it's going to make it.

The local queer community especially kicked in a lot -- it's really like a second home for a lot of LGBT+ people, and they have a no-tolerance policy towards bigotry. Something like 90% of their staff are queer, POC or otherwise marginalized.

that’s the kind of good news story the world needs right now

I’m dead 😂☠️ When I got back from the store all the goats had broken through the fence and were recking havoc on our street

This is the craziest thing to happen all quarantine 🐐🐐🐐 pic.twitter.com/Hc7XpuiBdT

— Zach Roelands (@zach_roelands) May 13, 2020

An army of marauding goats could cause all sorts of mayhem - best stay indoors!

took advantage of Chase's deal to give me $300 just by opening a new checking account and having one direct deposit go in. already got the money and just have to keep the account open 6 months to avoid having it reversed.

eaaasy cash.

mom's first unemployment payment came in, so less pressure overall.

In orbit, it seems to be an indisputable fact of the pandemic that no two people will ever be freaking out to the same degree at the same time. For example, I have found no one who will join me in the the utter depths of my fears when I am at my worst. Perhaps you and your bf are balancing each other out.

KIP? The weather here is really nice and I’m spending a lot of time outside reading, while occasionally drinking a to-go cocktail from any number of local bars.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/17/coal-industry-will-never-recover-after-coronavirus-pandemic-say-experts

lads if the freakonomics guys get any encouragement from this it will not be a kip development

First unemployment payment arrived, to much fanfare. There's still 8 weeks of back pay to wait for, but the first direct deposit resolved a lot of anxiety about getting it at all. Now it pretty much just flows from here, I think.

mom also got her first, but in typical FL fashion, only federal, no state, no taxes withheld as requested, and no record of this payment in the Payment History. but....last night, we finally got confirmation that they received the "retroactive payment request" form that FL requires for people whose application is delayed, so..that's a positive development.

I gave my mom a few thousand dollars as sort of an "advance" on this so she doesn't have to stress about it.

cos I've been drinking beer more and I don't have a beer glass at my folks place, ordered this monster

https://i.ibb.co/3FGV8Cs/97992583-10157593149732981-3331454532046553088-o.jpg

awes

vn

is that dishwasher safe

🤘🏻🤘🏻

only the stainless steel part

also i m druink rin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKf9aUIxdb4&feature=youtu.be

watching this is the best thing i've done since this pandemic started

hmm try this to the youtube page i guess link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKf9aUIxdb4

oh man, that was beautiful.

I have quibbles, but that was fun to watch

ow my brane

yeah, those are great; instantly subscribing

fuuuuuuck

I don't normally do sudoku but yep that was great.

So my friend wrote this story: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/sports/iditarod-coronavirus-thomas-waerner.html

TJ Dawe, playwright famous in Canada and on Fringe circuits, encouraged me to start writing comedy scripts today cos he thinks I'm funny.

I am now motivated to finish one of 100 scripts i left on page 2.

Top of my christmas list
https://i.imgur.com/rr8Vaup.jpg

well look at it this way. at least none of us stepped in a bear trap this year!

It is starting to look like there will be multiple vaccines approved for public distribution in the next three months. Assuming the approval processes are legit and the vaccines are safe and effective, the more that earn approval, the better!

In the process, proving out the mRNA vaccine platform, which is rapid to develop, easy to manufacture, and will probably be the first choice for finding future vaccines for newly emerging pathogens.

I thought the mRNA approach was very unlikely to work. I hope I'm wrong, but I definitely have doubts about durability of immunity.

The Pfizer vaccine which is applying for an EUA and the Moderna one which will be unblinding its preliminary data soon are both mRNA vaccines targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

And working with RNA is a real pain in the ass, so I would not describe it as easy to manufacture, not compared to flu or MMR or polio.

But anyway I am happy to be wrong about my scepticism.

Theoretically, mRNA isn't going to produce as robust an immune response as a live attenuated vaccine, is why I was/am sceptical. I was happily surprised the Pfizer data.

PIA or not, health care workers need to get vaccinated asap and now this is becoming a possibility, which surely is A Good Thing.

Ah yeah idk I skimmed a review (from pre-covid times) on mRNA vaccines and the authors cited manufacturing capacity as a potential advantage. I mean, synthesizing oligonucleotides is kind of a commodity service no? Been a year since I left my job working with microbiologists I can’t ask them anymore :(

I have not been a lab microbiologist for a long time now FWIW. But DNA is a very stable molecule and RNA is NOT. Manufacturing is not so bad, it is managing RNA-degrading enzymes (RNAses)--which are everywhere--that is tricky. Hence the very low temp storage requirements, another PIA.

assuming I did actually get the vaccine and not saline in the Moderna trial (which I don't know for sure, but I believe I did, cos my immune system never has reactions to flu shots or any immunization shots and certainly not placebo, and I had a 101 fever for 24 hours), the side effects were minimal - really just the fever.

many others that were in the trial reported the same symptoms as well, but I didn't hear much else, so assuming that's the worst side effect, that's not bad, but that does mean people would need to make sure they weren't working the next day or doing anything major, which is a bit harder if you're a parent or a caretaker. something people should be made aware of prior to getting it.

really hoping for multiple effective vaccines, because every day my mood oscillates from eerie calm to wanting to gnaw people's faces off.

have needed a haircut for like a month now and have been going back and forth about whether that's ok, but finally decided the other day that once I've reached the point in decision-making where I'm going on ethics subreddits, that's probably a sign I should just suck it up and cut it myself again

I got one done at a place where they were all masked and the seats were distanced well beyond 6 feet. I couldn't bear the rat tail that was growing

i am growing my hair until i can braid it like yulia tymoshenko

Going to get a hypodermic needle tattoo for every COVID vaccine I get as they're rolled out. Gotta catch 'em all.

I finally broke down and got mine cut about a month ago, at a pro place where everyone was masked and there were only about 5 people in the entire place, spaced well beyond 6 feet (closer to 15-18 feet from what it looked like). Everyone entering the door had to get a temp check. It was the riskiest thing I've done but my hair is super finicky and no one in my house felt confident or comfortable enough to even attempt a hair cut. So now I just have the super long quarantine beard to attempt myself at some point.