Author Topic: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!  (Read 8345 times)

Grade E cat

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #75 on: May 14, 2020, 10:13:26 AM »
Smart! And you can use them as an alternative to carrying a foldable shopping bag around.
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Yastreb

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #76 on: May 21, 2020, 06:14:48 AM »
You all may be interested in this article's take on the "Cosy Catastrophe" and how the pandemic fits those tropes.

https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-cozy-catastrophe-americans-secretly-crave/
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Alkia

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #77 on: May 21, 2020, 12:58:32 PM »
That's a really cool, and (at least to me), accurate article, Yastreb.
I've been feeling guilty lately that this work-from-home, or, in my case, school-from-home, has lessened my stress and freed up my schedule and, well, made me a bit happier, while so many people across the globe are suffering. Generally I don't let other people's misfortune affect my happiness, but with this literal pandemic... how can you not? And with what it brought up about the Stalin quote and also individual stories, it's so true; when I hear people describe the deaths of their loved ones, or nurses talk about their experiences on the front lines, is when i feel most guilty that my life has gotten a bit better because of corona. But when all i hear is the death toll for that day, i can just ignore it, and go on enjoying my free time. It sounds like just a number, even though it represents so much hardship and sadness for all those people that died, and their families.
Anyway, maybe this should have gone on the thoughts and feelings Covid-19 thread. I guess I can also say that I feel so lucky to be healthy, and have a healthy family, and to have access to this Forum full of amazing people. 
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phocena

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #78 on: May 21, 2020, 03:58:38 PM »
Alkia, I'm glad that you're staying positive about your situation! It's been similarly weird for me. My first two years in college I felt really miserable and isolated, culminating in a quarter where I was on academic probation and was so scared I wouldn't be able to go into the career I wanted. Now I've (hopefully) sorted my grades out, made some friends, and it really has been my first 'normal' year of college. Quarantine hasn't quite been a cozy catastrophe, but I do have more time to pause and reset! If anything, I guess the quarantine speaks to how stressful a 'normal' college environment can be, and it's pretty natural to feel less stressed now.

Meanwhile though, Colleges in the USA have responded... erm... not well. I'm blessed that I still have my job, but so many families are struggling financially. It's hard not to feel bad when I realize how lots of people have to worry about struggles I don't have. So there is some emotional burden. But the burden can be a good thing - in college I'd been so focused on myself and my grades to care too much about what happens outside, so I should be feeling some responsibility. I don't mean we should or even can push ourselves to emotional burnout like those struggling in the front lines, but a bit of political participation and awareness goes a long way as civilians. Anyways, we're all in the same boat, so lending a hand comes back eventually.

This turned out to be a long post so for those who want to read how my school responded it's in the spoiler -
Spoiler: show
So my university has been incredibly greedy about the situation - even before quarantine, grad students were on strike due to low pay and increasing rent, and there was another strike by all janitors and other campus workers. Following CoVID, There have been no reductions in student fees, which means students are paying full recreation fees for things like the gym and swimming pool, even though campus is deserted. The campus offered to refund on-campus housing only, even though housing is only guaranteed for two years and a significant portion of students live off campus. The worst part is, if you do ask for your housing fee to be refunded, they reevaluate your financial aid, decreasing your expected need by an amount close to what was refunded. And this is a public state university.

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Mebediel

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #79 on: May 22, 2020, 06:39:33 PM »
That's a good article, Yastreb. And phocena, I very much relate to what you're saying about the emotional burden...ordinarily I'd be focused on my own studies. But there are local groups that are putting together things like food pantries and soup kitchens. It's not much, but it's something I've been thinking about helping out with.

But also...that's awful to hear about from your university, phocena. Our Graduate Student Union has been in solidarity with your grad students (which doesn't sound like much, I guess). I don't know whether or not this has been the case at your school, but a lot of non-tenured professors have been being laid off from universities around the US, too. It's one of the inevitabilities of the business model that US universities have been adopting. It hurts the students and the faculty, and Covid has exacerbated the problem.
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Grade E cat

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #80 on: May 23, 2020, 12:36:42 PM »
Here's a little something to make the thread's title even more meta:

Can you save the world?

This isn't my favorite video game genre, but thought others might appreciate it.
« Last Edit: May 23, 2020, 04:38:26 PM by Grade E cat »
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JoB

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #81 on: May 23, 2020, 01:48:23 PM »
Here's a little something to make the title's thread even more meta:
Can you save the world?
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thegreyarea

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #82 on: May 23, 2020, 02:54:18 PM »
Here's a little something to make the title's thread even more meta:

Can you save the world?

This isn't my favorite video game genre, but thought others might appreciate it.

That's very funny!!! And the funniest part is the Toilet Paper Power-Up!!! :D :D :D

JoB
, time to experiment another browser? (which do you use, BTW? I use Opera and I'm quite happy with it, but I also have Firefox, that I seldom use)
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JoB

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #83 on: May 23, 2020, 05:21:14 PM »
JoB, time to experiment another browser? (which do you use, BTW? I use Opera and I'm quite happy with it, but I also have Firefox, that I seldom use)
Hm. No dice under OpenSuSE (FF, Chromium, Opera), yes dice with FF on a fresh Fedora ...
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Mirasol

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #84 on: June 09, 2020, 10:18:14 AM »
Here's a little something to make the thread's title even more meta:

Can you save the world?

This isn't my favorite video game genre, but thought others might appreciate it.

Pffft of course someone made a video-game about it  :'D (I died immediately, oops… I swear I´m doing a better job at social distancing in real life)

What I do to keep me sane during this: Well, I joined this forum, obviously :D
Other than that, I´m trying to get into painting, which is something I always dispised with a burning passion because I never could get the brushes to do what I wanted them to. But watching a lot of artvideos as of late (especially Minnas watercolor-paintings) inspired me so much that I decided to try it again, this time without all those rules and restrictions they give you for school-projects and such, and I´m actually having a lot of fun. One painting I´m currently working on might go up on the SSSS-Art Museum when it´s done should I not completely ruin it before that (fingers crossed).
And of course video-games. My brother made me play League of Legends with him. the community over there lives up to its uhm… infamous reputation, but if you play together with friends (and siblings) in the voice-chat it´s actually really fun. Online games in general are great for the lockdown because you can spend time with people without having to be in the same room.
supposedly studying, most likely drawing…

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Lenny

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #85 on: June 25, 2020, 04:32:05 AM »
I've been needing something to replace human and animal interaction while being all isolated working from home and stuff, and in the past few months I've found Takis Shelter's YouTube channel.

It's got some stories following single animals, but he also does livestreams with him rescuing animals or just hanging around the shelter with his animals, and it's both a good bit of humanity and a lot of fluffy animals<3 It's been wonderful to just have on in the background while working or just doing stuff around the house.

Another thing I've been watching a lot of is the Technical Difficulties' videos and podcast. It's just four friends hanging out and playing games: Citation Needed, Two of These People are Lying, Experiments (of game show formats), and their reverse trivia quiz podcast.

Other things I've gone through and liked: Tom Scott's YouTube channel (entertaining, also educational), Tom Scott and Matt Gray's YouTube channel (the TechDif stuff is partially on here, and it's got a lot of videos of Matt and Tom just hanging out, which has been great for scratching that social itch), and uh. Matt's new channel Will It Soft Serve? which is exactly what it says on the tin and is amazing. A weekly horror of what new and awful thing will he try and get into the soft serve machine and then also taste. 2 minute videos on average, they're short and fun and to the point.

If you've noticed a pattern, hehehheeeeeh yes there is one. A coworker reminded me that Tom Scott exists months ago and I've been watching his backlog and stuff related to it ever since >.>

I've also been listening to the podcast No Such Thing As A Fish on and off here and there, it's on Spotify and also a good social thing.
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Grade E cat

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #86 on: June 28, 2020, 05:15:06 AM »
Putting it here mostly because I discovered the work via its anime adaptation that is enjoyable in its own right, but got really into the original novels during the month between the technical end of the lockdown in France and the client needing my remote work again, and hence couldn't choose a single media thread.

The work in question is Ascendance of a bookworm

It's my style of fantasy in that while there is a plot making slow progress, a lot of the story is dedicated to simply showing how people in that world live and how it functions, all while having interesting characters bounce off each other. And to give an idea of how little it relies on action to stay interesting, the first scene that could be called a proper "human against monster" battle happens a little before the halfway point of the second major arc.

Now, for the story. It starts like your typical "someone from present-day Earth dies and ends up in another world" story from Japan. The person meeting an untimely death is a twenty-something book-obessed young woman (with a side interest in crafts thanks to her mother) who was about to start working as a librarian. Next thing she knows, she's a five-year-old of poor health named Myne who's recovering from a very bad fever. Myne lives with her parents and older sister in a two-room+pantry appartment-like home in the poorest part of a medieval town. And by medieval, I mean that the priting press hasn't been invented yet. As a predictable side effect, nobody in Myne's family knows how to read and there isn't a single piece of writing within the home. Once this is established, Myne sets her mind on making books herself, but has to work toward things as simple as being allowed to go to a nearby forest to scavenge materials, which is easier said than done as she's currently so out of shape that she gets winded just going down the stairs from her appartment to the door leading outside her building.

The rest is pretty much a long-drawn "rags to riches / single-person industrial revolution" story, with the steps up to better circumstances being vital as, on top of her bad health, Myne has a strange condition for which the treatment is expensive and generally gets easier to access the higher up in society one is. Unfortunately, her social environment also becomes more ruthless with each step up, and she can be somewhat of a doormat when neither her new family, her friends or books are involved, and overstep boundaries when they are.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2020, 10:27:13 AM by Grade E cat »
Native: :fr:
So much part of my life it might as well be native: :us:
Few and far between practice opportunities: :es:
A little learned during hardcore anime fan phase: :jp:
Only alternative to English in early junior high school: :de:

Do what cat. Lalli's way of life since age three.

Róisín

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #87 on: June 28, 2020, 05:25:34 AM »
Sounds fascinating! I had never heard of the story, but will try looking it up to see if my library has it. Thanks for the rec! Our library is only open for very restricted hours, but at least can now track down books for us.
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Yastreb

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Re: Covid 19 - How we survived the Rash!
« Reply #88 on: June 28, 2020, 07:19:10 AM »
I've been catching up with two excellent military history channels on YouTube.

Dr Mark Felton is a military historian who presents short documentaries about the both World Wars and the Cold War, and the scope of his programs is breathtaking; likewise his narration. If they ever rebooted the World At War series, Dr Felton would be my choice for narrator.

Mark Felton Productions: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfCKvREB11-fxyotS1ONgww

There's also an Audiobook channel, War Stories With Mark Felton: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR3L1IGpxPDuHWQjqfz608g/videos

The other historian is Drachinifel, who specialises in naval history. That said, his videos can be entertaining as well as informative, given his dry wit when the subject merits it, and he has presented some out of left field subjects such as what HMS Thunderchild from War of the Worlds might have looked like (serious) and details of the Imperial Dreadnoughts of the Warhammer 40K universe (completely deadpan). My favourite is his deconstruction of one of the greatest failures of all time in military procurement (I used to work in that field, so it resonated); the US Navy's Mark 14 torpedo. "Ah, yes, the Mark 14 torpedo. So many questions. Who invented the Mark 14? What was the Mark 14? Why was the Mark 14?" It's the most sustained deadpan snark ever, with the bonus of a Hitchhiker's Guide reference.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Drachinifel/featured

There's also been the chance to binge-listen to episodes of that classic of British radio comedy, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCigprW0Q1WiwB9wadUbWoag/playlists

Plus there are some great music tracks, but that's for another thread.
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