#I haven’t been sick except from the vaccine since Covid started

[good-night-space-kid]

Jesus no wonder I’ve felt like I can’t breathe and my throat is killing me I just got a good look in there and both of my tonsils are large and they left one is mostly white

[dollsonmain]

health rant

So a few years back a salty meal landed me in the ER with heart issues and after that I was put on a low-salt diet, thinking I had hypertension.

But that led to hypotension/chronically low blood pressure, and after that my kidneys started acting up which got me a low salt and low sugar diet. I’ve always been chronically hypoglycemic, so I was pretty bad off for a while. While I was on that diet my legs swelled constantly.

All that time That Guy was eating salt on salt with salt for his meals and no problem. Though he had cut out a lot of sugar from his diet.

More recently I’ve been eating stuff my kidneys don’t like but keeping my blood pressure and blood sugar up where they should be though that has been by eating a LOT of salt (I just ate an instant noodle with 2020mg).

That Guy can’t handle salt anymore. Nor spicy foods, which he’s really mad about. He blames having eaten a One Chip Challenge chip and getting violently ill for that.

And he’s like “HOW are you ok eating 2g of salt?!?!?”

And I’m just like “I dunno. I’m fine.”

I haven’t had any swelling since changing my diet again except when we made that Connecticut beef supper and a couple times my legs felt a little tight but getting up and walking helped.

...

I’ve been watching him since Christmas 2020 when he got us all covid at PAX Unplugged and no other gifts, and I’ve noticed he’s turning into me.

He has joint pain, he’s lethargic, forgetful, confused (and pissed about it, especially when more often than not I’m right about something he’s confused about, he really hates that), can’t eat salt or do heavy activity without his heart pounding and him feeling exhausted, waking up tired, waking up feeling sick if he does eat salt or sugar, cold all the time...

I think he has long covid or covid related heart damage. Of course, he’d blame the vaccine since he’s still in denial that we had covid at all since I was the only one to lose taste and smell.

But it’s just like....... I almost hope that he’ll start to understand why I am the way I am since he’s becoming the same.

[keeptheotherone]

Mecation: Day 1 

Thursday

I once read social media described as an indulgence of the fantasy that others are interested in the details of our lives. I’m indulging in that fantasy this week by blogging about my Mecation under the guise of travel blogging ;)

If you follow me in even the most casual way, you know I’m a nurse. While I’ve enjoyed the vast majority of my 23 years as such, I don’t recommend it during a pandemic. The last 18 months have been the second-worst mental health period of my life, demoted to that position not because of the mildness of my symptoms but simply because at 15 I didn’t have the experience or perspective to realize my life was not, in fact, ruined forever.

COVID increased my personal vulnerability as a high-risk patient and made my job immensely more difficult in countless ways both small and large, but the worst part of the pandemic for me (so far) is it took away all my coping mechanisms precisely when I needed them most. Massage, pedicures, dinner out with friends, travel ... all gone practically overnight. Pre-COVID I travelled all the time--home to my parents’, long weekends by myself (Mecation!), annual visits to BFFs, conferences, tourism, the beach, my birthday, writing trips, international trips ... I always had at least one trip in the works, usually one booked and one (or more!) in the planning stages. 

When COVID started, all my close friends and family except for two lived out of state. One of those two was out of town but close enough to get together, but the other was a few hours’ drive away. I’m single and live alone; it was the most isolated I’ve ever been in my whole life. 

With my bestest friends over 500 miles away, I still feel that way sometimes. I haven’t seen them in a year. If it weren’t for COVID, it would only be 7 or 8 months (I’ve gone every January or February since ... forever). Then again, if it weren’t for COVID, I wouldn’t have been there last September; one had been hospitalized and I needed to see she was all right with my own two eyeballs. I expect it will be at least another 7 or 8 months before we get together again, bringing the total to about 20 months. One year we saw each other 5 times in 9 months, our personal best since college. 

I was alone on Christmas. Oh, I’ve spent December 25th on my own before; I’m a nurse. I’ve worked the night of the 24th or the 25th (or both), or whatever combination that didn’t leave enough time off to drive home. But I’ve never spent the Christmas season without my parents. Sometimes the week before, sometimes the week after, sometimes at my place instead of home, but always together. But last Christmas COVID was raging, the vaccines had just come out but were only available to first responders (I got mine on the 23rd), and my elderly parents didn’t feel safe to travel. So I spent Christmas without family.

Travel was not just a break from my daily routine and the stress of nursing; in many ways, the biggest benefit travel made to my mental and emotional health was giving me something to look forward to.  Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” and ohhh, I was so heartsick last year! Not being able to travel meant I couldn’t visit my best friends of almost 25 years (more than half my life!). Not being able to travel meant I couldn’t lean on my dad or be hugged by my mom. Not being able to travel--and not knowing when I could travel--left this gaping hole in my future, and I had nothing to fill it with. 

I tell you this not to throw a pity party but to explain the significance of the trip I’m on right now. It is only my third this year: my dad and I spent a week in the mountains in February (my depression and anxiety was so bad then that was treatment, not vacation), I took a friend to the beach over my birthday, and now I’m a couple hours from home at a nice spa hotel. (I’m not counting my nephew’s graduation, which was emotionally challenging for multiple reasons, or helping a friend move from Florida. Moving is never fun.)

I started planning this trip in the spring ... May, maybe? You know, after the vaccine rolled out to everyone and case counts were dropping and it looked like we were gonna lick this thing and have a quasi-normal summer by the Fourth of July (yes, I’m American. That date is a proper noun here.). I had switched jobs in November (don’t ask) and gone on mental health leave December 29th, so I felt I owed it to my unit to put in about six months of work before taking any significant time off, especially since I came back at 24 hours instead of 36. That meant September.

I knew what I wanted to do: 4 or 5 days at an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean. I’d been before and loved the freedom of not worrying about every little expenditure (what can I say, I’m cheap), and a few days of Vitamin Sea sounded perfect.

Then came Delta.

All right, maybe going out of the country isn’t the best idea, I thought. Don’t want to end up with expensive reservations and then your destination closes to Americans, or you make it to your chosen island but can’t get back home. But I didn’t want to fly (ugh, airports!), I didn’t want to drive (rest stops and restaurants and gas stations), and while I thought about taking the train, it didn’t seem much of an improvement (and maybe a downgrade) on flying.

Then a friend mentioned a sleeper car, and I thought yes! That could work! I’ve never been to New England, I want to go to Boston, that area of the country has low case rates and the highest vaccination rates, this has potential! 

Then I looked at the CDC map. There were only four states that didn’t have high transmission at that time (early August, I think; I’d had to wait for confirmation that my time off had been approved): Michigan, Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire. All four had substantial rates of transmission. Hardly ideal, but one thing I’ve learned this year is sometimes you have to make compromises to protect your mental health. It is true it doesn’t matter if you’re happy if you’re dead; it is also true it doesn’t matter if you’re safe if you want to kill yourself. (I’m not suicidal, I am receiving treatment, don’t anybody panic.)

So, now I’ve settled on Maine or New Hampshire by train via sleeper car (Michigan is too far for a 4-5 day trip and RI--meh). Well, as I got deeper into planning, turned out Maine or NH were awfully far too. Far enough I would have to overnight in a major city, which pretty much defeated the purpose of isolating in a sleeper car. Then I found out there were no sleeper cars on either train route.

So, now vacation is 5 weeks away and I’m back at square one. The Deep South, Texas, and Florida are imploding. Pediatric cases are rising--kids are sicker and make up a higher percentage of cases than they did last year. Scuttlebutt from my ICU colleagues is it’s bad--17/30 MICU beds are COVID and they’re all vented. SICU is being nicknamed “the ECMO unit.” The hospital has 18(!) ECMO machines and 12 are in use; the float nurse who tells us that didn’t even know we had 12 because she’s never seen that many in use at one time. Hospital-wide our numbers are equivalent to early February (we peaked in January). There were six--SIX--pediatric rapid responses in one day. 

And I’m going to travel.

It’s a big deal ... a big accomplishment, really, because of what it says about how I’m successfully managing my anxiety. April 1 was the first time I’d been inside a grocery store in more than a year ... and that wasn’t my idea. It was late April or May before I was comfortable eating in restaurants, even with the falling case count at the time. I’m still not sure if I’m managing my anxiety or reacting to the pressure by going to the opposite extreme (I have a history of that), but I know I’m less stressed, less anxious, have fewer obsessive thoughts, fewer physical symptoms, and am learning to live with this disease. 

So, here I sit at a marble-topped 5-foot-wide desk in my queen/queen hotel room at the end of a productive and enjoyable day. I slept in, completed the big goal of this weekend’s to-do list that I honestly thought would take several days, unpacked and organized my room (I arrived yesterday evening), reorganized my Favorites Bar and Bookmarks on my Mac, had an 80-minute aromatherapy massage, enjoyed a shower in the spa afterwards and even blow-dried my hair(!) before wandering around for a while to get the lay of the land and get some steps in (this place is huge!). Then I changed clothes and took myself out to dinner for my favorite food, Italian. 

That’s me in the picture up top, all dressed up :) Actually, I probably look pretty normal to y’all; like most people with depression, my personal hygiene sunk to new lows in the last year and a half, and as a low-maintenance person to begin with, that’s saying a lot. I bought that necklace as a bridesmaid and am not sure I’ve worn it since; this spring was her 10th anniversary. Yesterday I took out the cat-shaped earrings Dad gave me for Christmas. (Yes, they were gross. Yes, I cleaned them. Yes, I’m wearing them again now.) Just wearing a nice top, fixing my hair (no ponytail or claw-clip bun, my staples), and adding jewelry was a big deal ... especially since “no one” was going to see me. I did it just for me, to make myself feel good. And I did. (That’s another small pleasure COVID took away from me--lip gloss. If I wore any makeup at all, it was lipstick or gloss. Utterly pointless when you’re masked whenever you’re in public.)

I took my laptop to dinner and edited a couple chapters of my new Charlie/Amy fic (previewed during #ktoo turns 10), ran a couple errands, and headed back to the hotel since I don’t like to be out late by myself in an unfamiliar city. Forgot I put my receipt envelope in the backseat pocket and reorganized the glove compartment looking for it, then gathered a bunch of returns into a bag in the trunk. Hung out writing in the lobby until my Mac threatened to die, came upstairs and tidied up, put on my jammies, and talked to you guys :) 

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

It was as if the world came to a stop after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001.  Nothing was the same after that.  Three thousand people lost their lives, and our lives as Americans changed forever, or so it has seemed.

Every single one of us is still living with the results of what 19 terrorists did on a single day 20 years ago, especially when it comes to travel by airplane.  We’re all familiar with the way TSA inspections have changed air travel.  There are the long lines at the security gates at airports.  Unless you have TSA “precheck” or have been lucky enough to get a boarding pass that lets you pass through a special line, you have to take off your jacket, belt, and shoes for screening.  You must remove your laptop and put it in a separate bin from your carry-on luggage.  You cannot travel with anything that the TSA thinks might be used as a weapon, including wine bottle corkscrews, fingernail files and clippers and scissors, screwdrivers…essentially anything sharp and pointed.  You can’t travel with any liquids in containers larger than 3 ounces, and you’re limited to only a few of those.  You have to pass through a scanner, and if you have any kind of surgical devices in your body, you have to have your body physically patted down to be allowed on an airplane.

Beginning in May of 2023, we will have to carry “Real ID” compliant identification to get on a federally regulated airplane – in effect, every commercial flight.  There will be no exceptions.

And since the onslaught of the COVID pandemic, you are required to wear a mask in the airport and on the plane.

But I have a question:  with all the other requirements we have to endure, why aren’t we required to be vaccinated against COVID to travel on airplanes? 

Think of it.  You’re locked into the familiar aluminum tube with a hundred or more other people.  You have no way of knowing if the person seated next to you or across the aisle has been recently exposed to a COVID positive person.  There’s no way to “socially distance” on an airplane and move away from other people.  As far as masks go, medical experts are constantly telling us that wearing a mask is “to protect others,” because even KN-95 masks can’t be relied upon to protect you.

So why doesn’t the FAA, or the Transportation Security Administration, or the Department of Homeland Security, or somebody in authority anyway, issue a requirement that we are vaccinated?  If we have to give up all these other “freedoms,” like the freedom to travel with an 8-ounce container of hair conditioner or a pair of fingernail clippers, why shouldn’t we be required to give up the “freedom” of traveling without protecting ourselves and others from this deadly disease by being vaccinated?

It’s madness.  Three thousand people died on 9/11.  But an average of 3,000 people have died from COVID every three days since the pandemic hit in January of 2020.

More than 660,000 people have died.  That is nearly 100,000 people more than the population of the state of Wyoming!

What do you think would happen if terrorists flew an airplane, or even two airplanes, filled with some sort of deadly gas and crashed into a field in Wyoming and everyone in that state was killed?

That is essentially what has happened to this country over the last 18 months.  An airplane filled with a deadly virus crashed into the United States of America killing 660,000 people.

Everything changed after 9/11:  we started two shooting wars and launched a so-called “war on terror”; we formed an entirely new department of our government, the Department of Homeland Security, on which we spend $50 billion a year; we began a program of torture in questioning terrorist suspects; we built a special prison in Cuba to house suspected terrorists; we instituted a program of “rendition” to grab suspected terrorists off the streets and spirit them away to special “black site” interrogation centers where they were tortured and even killed; we allowed one of our intelligence agencies to sweep up billions of our electronic communications and examine them for “terrorist contacts”; we put the aforementioned requirements on air travelers; and we spent approximately 7 trillion dollars spinning our wheels in multiple foreign countries trying to insure that “the homeland” is not hit by another terrorist attack.

All of this because 3,000 people lost their lives.

With 660,000 dead, what have we done?  Why, we’ve done what we usually do these days.  We started a culture war.

After President Biden announced his plans for vaccine mandates that will apply to government employees and contractors and companies with more than 100 employees, Republican governors and attorneys general across the country lined up to sue to stop these new federal mandates.  Today we read that certain labor unions have expressed opposition to mandated vaccines.

And they’re not even real mandates!

You can opt out of getting a vaccination by producing a test once a week proving you are not COVID positive.

What is this madness?  With 660,000 dead, why don’t we have a whole new department of the federal government, “The Department of Pandemic Prevention and Treatment” or something like it?

With 660,000 dead, why aren’t we spending $50 billion a year on COVID?  Why aren’t we dedicating another $50 billion a year to prevent the next pandemic?

With 660,000 dead, what are we doing arguing over masks?  With 660,000 dead, why are we arguing over vaccines mandates?  In the state of Texas alone – where the culture war over this disease thrives – 9,000 people have lost their lives from COVID since February.

All but 43 of them were unvaccinated.

Since April of 2020, there have been 5 million children infected with COVID.  That is about 15 percent of all cases.  In the last month – August – 22.4 percent of COVID cases were among children.  In the week ending August 26 alone, 204,000 children were diagnosed with this terrible, deadly disease.  As of September 8, the CDC reported a total of 486 deaths among children under 18.  The rate children are dying from COVID is up 110 percent between July and September.

Children, who rely on us for protection from this disease, are getting sick and dying in record numbers.

What is this madness?  Why isn’t the Republican Party out there demanding that masks be mandated in schools and businesses and other closed public spaces?  Why don’t Republicans support a mandatory country-wide federal program to vaccinate every human being over the age of 12?

Don’t Republican governors care that their citizens and their children are dying from this horrible disease?

We pulled together after 9/11 and agreed to subject ourselves to all kinds of new mandates and requirements.  Why haven’t we pulled together since this pandemic hit and took 660,000 American lives?

We know how to keep people from getting sick and dying.  We know how to keep red states from having to back up trucks to be used as mobile morgues outside hospitals.  After 18 months of experience with this disease, we know what works.

What is this madness?

[kineticpenguin]

Had a few drinks instead of doing homework and got mad

Look, I know that the government can do more than one thing at a time. But the fact of the matter is that while our Covid situation right now is better than it used to be, it is still a godawful mess, it is still embarrassing, it is still keeping us from living our lives. Millions of Americans are still living with the financial ruin this pandemic brought. And the Biden administration, who promised immediate $2,000 checks out the door, then tried to squirm out from under it calling Trump's $600 check a "down payment," hemmed and hawed about paying out $1400, and after the impeachment has had nothing to say about it. It’s over, apparently.

No, now the pressing issue is gun control. GUN CONTROL? Joe, this country is facing existential threats. We have been ravaged by a pandemic that, as of this writing, has killed 485,000 Americans and rendered millions of us sick and/or penniless while you and your friends at Wall Street have been making money hand over fist from the safety of your second or third homes. On top of that, we also have a media environment where the truth doesn't matter and angry American fascism has been on the rise to the point that, lest we forget, thousands of them broke into the Capitol looking to capture and kill congress people they didn't like.

You know. Your friends and colleagues. That's who they came for, Joe. Mitt Romney ran for his life. They were chanting "hang Mike Pence." What the hell do you think they would do to YOU!?

Joe, there are more guns in private hands in America than there are Americans. You are not going to solve these problems by making guns more difficult or costly to own. You all have been trying that since the 1930s and it has never worked, it has only served to disarm the marginalized and vulnerable.

The older, establishment democrats like Biden are complacent. They do not understand that this country is staring down the barrel of a civil war. If you ask some people, that war already started. If it has, then US lost the opening battle. Or have we already forgotten the Confederate flag proudly flown in the Capitol? The QAnon Shaman triumphantly telling a reporter "we won the day"?

We don't have time to "build back better," which is a buzzword version of "pretend everything is normal and eventually it will be." Things are NOT normal and pretending that they are will only make things worse. But you know what? In the spirit of compromise, I'll ignore the fascist insurrection, and simply deal with the fantasy of a mostly-normal America except for that pesky pandemic.

You're gonna get fucking rinsed in 2022, Democrats. Biden's looking to be a one-term president, too. And this head-in-the-sand behavior is exactly why.

You know what Americans are gonna notice? That Trump got them $1800. You know how much Biden has gotten them? $0. They're still desperate. The American people chose Biden because they were promised relief. And that relief isn't coming.

Because Biden wants to water his promised $2,000 down to $1,400. And he wants to means-test it. He basically wants to ensure that nobody gets any part of the relief he promised. And policy-wise, the sole difference between him and the pandemic is that feds have to wear masks. The "issue no guidance and hope for vaccines and herd immunity to just fix everything" policy still lives on.

Yeah, Trump's stimulus checks amount to making chicken feed last for most of a year, but at least we got chicken feed. We haven't even got pocket lint from Democrats. I'm looking at you, Joe. You're the face of this now. This is what you signed up for.

And now, just after the Democrats have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they are incapable of securing our democracy and holding its enemies accountable, they decide the big issue they need to take on is our fucking guns. Unbelievable.

[lokiondisneyplus]

Prior to the pandemic, Frank Patterson would spend most days at the sprawling production facility, formerly known as Pinewood Atlanta Studios, that he runs outside of Atlanta. Then COVID-19 hit, and not even he was able to make his health and safety team's cut of essential on-site personnel.

"They were like, 'Frank, why are you here? You're setting a bad example,' " says the president and CEO of what is now Trilith Studios, the in-demand filming location known for hosting a suite of Marvel projects, including WandaVision and Avengers: Endgame.

Since Patterson took the reins in 2016, he's transformed the place from a set of soundstages to a full-fledged film community. After divesting from the Pinewood Group, Patterson led investments in new technologies and content companies, as well as expanded Trilith's footprint. The result is a 935-acre master development that includes the studio as well as a European-inspired town including homes, restaurants and schools that serve as a live-work community for the many creatives on the lot.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Patterson, 59, opened up about the most challenging aspect of COVID-era production, the studio's biggest concerns and whether he'll mandate vaccines.

You've had multiple projects in production during COVID-19. How has it been going?

We've been very fortunate. We had the first studio feature in the industry back to work in June. I can't say what it is, but they'll be finished soon. It was an intense amount of research and work to put together protocols, recognizing that the disaster version looks like an outbreak. None of that's happened. We've had enormously low numbers of positive tests. And we have a full lot: 3,200 people drove on today.

How much more expensive is it to make a film or show right now?

It's costing about 20 percent more money and 20 percent more time. Things are slower and clunkier and it's taking more space. But the good news is cast and crew are taking safety very seriously. I'm sure you heard the story of Tom Cruise getting upset at the crew for not following protocols [on Mission: Impossible 7]. I don't think that's common. What we have found is with the exception of the day player — they tend to test positive more than the average crewmember — people are taking care of themselves.

A year in, how do you feel you did with the COVID-19 protocols?

They're pretty routine now. We're not just making stuff up like we were in the very beginning.

Which of those do you expect to remain post-pandemic?

The washing hands and standing apart, that's how we keep from spreading these diseases and how we need to work. There's a heightened awareness for cleanliness. People used to drag themselves to work miserably sick because if you missed work, you were letting your team down. Well, that's changed. If you show up and you're sick, they're like, "Get out of here." That'll go forward.

Fellow Georgian Tyler Perry said when he was shooting his shows last summer, there was an elderly actress who didn’t feel comfortable coming on set given the risk, so they had to write her out of the scripts. Have you heard of anything like that happening on any of your productions?

Not leaving a show, but changing of schedules to accommodate people's tolerance for coming back to work. There's an, "OK, let's not shoot this right now because this actor is not quite ready to come back to work." They're pivoting and shooting other stuff first and coming back. That's happening across all the productions.

What are the biggest concerns that you hear from the studios now?

Everyone's overwhelmed with the need to get stuff made, but we aren't returning to the speed that we had and we're spending more dollars per frame captured in just the pure production. And it's not like people don't care because you always care when you're spending more money than you planned, but it’s a way a distant second to: Are we getting this stuff shot?

Are all the studios behind?

Nobody is meeting their goals. Just look at the Disney+ line-up, all the stuff that they want to put in place. Look at what Paramount is doing now with Paramount Plus. If you just look at these pipelines, this is the anxiety that everyone feels right now. And then, by the way, WandaVision's a hit, so you got to feed that beast, right? That’s the tension that you feel every day.

How much of that is not having enough physical space to film? Several production facilities, including yours, are fully booked.

It's not just about space. Yes, of course, we could use some more facilities, and we're putting in five more stages that will be ready by June. But that's only one small part. Even before COVID hit, there weren't enough people — I'm talking about crew, not to mention the storytellers — to meet the demand that Wall Street was pouring into the pipeline. There's a talent drain. With COVID, it's [only gotten worse].

Georgia opened sooner than other states. Did you field a lot of calls?

It was overwhelming. Guys were like, "Hey, we heard you guys figured it out." First of all, we didn't figure it out. We have a version and it's working. But there was a lot of attention on us. And we had the good fortune of not having to worry about what role our government leaders would play because they basically said, "We're going to let the industry figure it out." That's the good news. The bad news: It was on us to figure it out and take responsibility.

Are you getting involved in the vaccine rollout as you did testing?

No, we decided we would just keep our focus on the testing protocols. We have to make certain that we just take it all the way to the end — and we'll let [union, guild and association] leadership decide when that is and when those protocols can change. And then again, as an industry, we're going to have to decide what we want to carry forward and what we don't. That's the next phase, and the rate at which we're vaccinating may advance those conversations faster than I thought. I used to think [the protocols] were going to go into 2022. I don't know if that's the case anymore.

Have you had conversations about mandating the vaccine on sets?

We haven't. We know that when it comes to mandatory protocols, we'll have to work in collaboration with industry leadership. No one goes on our lot without a mask, for example. And that was a political thing. Fortunately, Governor Kemp said, "How can I help?" And we were like, "What would be helpful is if you wear a mask in public," and he said, "OK." So when a crewmember said, "It's my right [not to wear one]" or whatever, of course we can say, "This is private property, sorry," but what our security team said instead was, "Hey, listen, the governor's wearing a mask, and you should wear a mask to protect our industry." It was us taking a stand, but the stand was really only taken because the unions and guilds and associations agreed. We'll have to do the same thing with the vaccination.

You're building out a neighboring town for people to live. Is this the future of production facilities?

I don't think so. In some ways, what we're doing is what Mr. Disney did. The mill town is not a new concept. But if we didn't have a state with a reputation for being so business friendly, for having the tax incentives, for having the most traveled airport in the world, if those things didn't exist right there, believe me, we couldn't do this. I grew up in Hill Country outside of San Antonio, Texas. You cannot do this in San Antonio, Texas.

How many people are buying houses and apartments on the Trilith property?

We have 400 of the apartments built, 260 of them occupied. We’re at almost 300 homes now sold and 500 people in the town. We're working on our next set of 150 homes right now and starting our third micro village. The second micro village filled up like that (snaps fingers). We have 36 people on the waiting list. What’s happening — and this is a global trend — is that COVID has heightened our awareness of the benefits of this approach to working. The distributed workforce and the way for us to collaborate with these electronic tools is causing a lot of people to realize that they don't have to live in the town they thought they have to live in. So I think people thought it was going to be more like a second home, but they're actually staying here.

Every few years it seems there’s some controversial legislation in Georgia that pops up and Hollywood threatens a boycott, whether it’s an anti-LGBT or anti-abortion bill. Do you just assume it's going to pass?

These kinds of ebbs and flows of social discourse and its impact on the industry will never go away. Georgia is not immune to it. The film industry has been this wonderful beacon of possibility, and I do worry, given what's going on in our culture right now, that we as an industry could get caught sideways in this in some way that really dampens our ability to continue to have diverse views on the world.

Georgia's film incentives program has been criticized by some as an irresponsible use of taxpayer money. Do you see it being phased out or pared in the future?

This state is very proud of the fact that seven years in a row now it’s the number one state in the United States to do business. They saw the film industry as a way to really diversify its economy, to bring the creative class into the state. So they wrote this policy that was supported left and right, and that still is the case. I'm not a politician, but I'm on all of these committees, and what I noticed is they were so careful and specific about making it make business sense. It would be very difficult for anyone to turn it around now because it's just good, smart money — and you have both Democrats and Republicans looking at it. But in every session in every state always in the U.S., you will have people come up and write up some kind of legislation, "Let's get rid of tax incentives." It's just not going to happen. I would be really surprised.

But there were some changes to it recently, yes?

There were parts that we needed to improve on around auditing and how we manage the information and our relationship with all the productions. We needed to clean up some of the back of house stuff, so Representative Matt Dollar passed some amendments last session that are now going into effect that really helped clean up the whole process.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Willie Nile Interview: The Bell Rings Loud & Clear

Photo by Cristina Arrigoni

BY JORDAN MAINZER

It’s apparent talking to Willie Nile that he lives for music. Within mere minutes of answering the phone during our interview last month, he’s telling me stories about meeting legendary horn player Bobby Keys, or details about his desire for DC to fiscally support classic record stores. Nile also emphasizes that he can’t wait to play SPACE in Evanston on Sunday, touring on not only his most recent album The Day The Earth Stood Still (River House Records) but 2020′s New York At Night, which came out during COVID lockdown. “People come for the ecstasy” of hearing live music, he said. “There’s a redemptive quality to it. There can be salvation in it--some meaning.” 

To Nile, these aren’t just words. Growing up in Buffalo, NY in a music-loving household, he was exposed to everything from classical to big band to vaudeville, and he witnessed the evolution from rockabilly to rock and roll to, finally, CBGBs-era punk when he moved to New York. Though he released his self-titled debut in 1980 to much hype--many in the press calling him the next Springsteen or Dylan--his career saw some interruptions due to legal issues as well as recording delays. That’s all in the past; Nile’s been on a hot streak over the past 15 years, releasing over twice as many albums (10) as he did in the first 25 years of his career (4). The Day The Earth Stood Still is at least his best since 2013′s American Ride, and maybe even his best yet.

Ironically, The Day The Earth Stood Still was born from when playing live--one of the things he loved most--was taken away. The last show he and his band played before COVID was on February 29th, 2020 in South Orange, New Jersey. Everybody in his band except for him contracted COVID-19, his guitarist Jimi Bones sick for a month. (“He coughed so hard he cracked four ribs,” Nile told me.) Though they’re all okay now, and fully vaccinated, the combination of the experience of contracting COVID and the initial disappearance of live music has made Nile and company not take anything for granted. “We’re lifers,” he said. “We give everything for a passion for music.” They were back at it before a lot of others, playing live streams and outdoor shows. Nonetheless, Nile recognizes that not everybody is so quick to return to live shows; he still finds people in audiences every night who haven’t seen a show in over 18 months, witnessing friends seeing friends in the audience for the first time in years.

The title of Nile’s new album is taken from the 1951 sci-fi film of the same name, though the horror show it’s about is real. He was inspired to write the opening title cut when witnessing the surrealism of an empty New York City during rush hour, further angered by a pandemic that’s been prolonged by the wealthy for financial gain. “When the ABCs of logic meet the CEOs of greed / And the SROs of loneliness grab and start to bleed,” he sneers. “Blood On Your Hands”, a Steve Earle duet with a “Pink Houses” melody but post-punk level of disdain for the powerful, occupies similar thematic territory. At the same time, Nile’s not nihilistic; he’s not blindly optimistic, either. On the surface, you may think songs with titles like “I Will Stand” and “Time To Be Great” are filled with platitudes, but they’re more genuine in their aims, authentic in their inspirations. Closer “Way Of The Heart” is empathetic and heartfelt. “Reach out from the darkness / Step into the rising sun / And remember when you’re all alone / You’re not the only one,” he sings. And “The Justice Bell (For John Lewis)” is not only dedicated to the late Civil Rights activist and Congressman; it’s inspired by Nile meeting him. Nile’s incisive political commentary is in the same vein as one of those to whom he was oft compared at first: Like for Springsteen, it’s born out of a desire to make the world better. “Let’s make this a better world,” he said, “one song at a time.”

Read my interview with Nile below, edited for length and clarity.

Steve Earle & Willie Nile; Photo by Dominick Totino

Since I Left You: Can you recall any other time in your career when you wrote about something so immediate as the lockdown?

Willie Nile: I always write about things that are around me. I don’t sit down with a pen and a paper and think, “Let’s write a song.” I wait till things come to me. In this case, I had a couple songs that I’d written early last spring that I thought, “This could be the beginnings of an album here.” 

Late May, I had a handful of songs. If you told me that New York could be a ghost town two years ago, I would have thought you were nuts. It was all that. Step out in Greenwich Village, go to a store, go for a walk, ride my bike along the river. I’d see nobody or just a handful of people. My storage space is near the Holland Tunnel, south Manhattan. Every day, from 3:30 PM on is rush hour. Friday, forget about it: You’re going out of town, you have to leave a few hours early. One Friday afternoon, last May, I went to my storage space to get something, walked around the corner to Spring Street, and there was not a car in sight. I looked uptown and downtown. I was standing in the middle of the street. I took a picture of it. It hit me like a ton of bricks: The Day The Earth Stood Still. I knew that movie when I was a kid, 1951 classic sci fi film. But it just came to mind because there was nothing moving, not a car, not a person, at 6:00 PM in New York City. I had [the song] in my head for a week or so, and I knew right away that it was a title track. It rocks. It’s got one of my favorite lyrics: “When the ABCs of logic meet the CEOs of greed and the SROs of loneliness grab and start to bleed / There comes a time for judgement / The time to pay the bill / And that is just the way it was / The day the earth stood still.” Those words just came out. I knew it was the center of it.

I’ll always write about what’s around me, but there’s never been a time like this pandemic that “what’s around you” has been so in your face. People dying, up to 2,000 a day again now. “Blood on Your Hands”, “Expect Change”, cause it’s comin. The one constant in life is that things change. It may be good, may be bad. Buildings get razed. People die, people get born. Our job is to try to roll with it as best as we can. “Time to be Great”--I’m watching TV, and it was the news, and it was bad, and I thought to myself, “What are we supposed to do in the face of this nightmare, this tragedy? You know what: Time to be great.” Last winter, my dad--he’s 103--was going out to get the paper in the morning. I said, “It’s pretty cold out there, dad.” He had just a shirt on. He gets the paper, sits down, and says, “Yep, it’s cold,” and then said, “Bring it on.” I thought, “You know what, time to be great. Time to be as good as we can. Let’s pick ourselves up through this and help each other.”

The album opens up with “The Day The Earth Stood Still” and the second song is “Sanctuary”, which is an older song. It’s not a concept record by any means, but there are a number of songs that deal with this nightmare we’re going through. “Sanctuary” is offering an oasis. I thought of Charles Laughton in that great old film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by the bell, yelling, “Sanctuary! sanctuary!” We all need sanctuary. Music, love, and kindness can give us that. 

I’m so proud of this album. It’s one of the best I’ve ever made. I haven’t done this many interviews since my debut album came out in 1980. It seems like it’s struck a chord. 

And my band--I always tell people, “If you come to the show, first of all, bring two pairs of socks, because we’re gonna blow your socks off, and if you’re not blown away, money back.” This band brings it. We have fun. It’s a feel-good show. The world needs it. Last year, I put out the record New York At Night. There was debate whether we should wait a few months [to release it till the pandemic calmed down]. I thought, “It’s so negative out there.” We didn’t get to tour behind New York At Night--so the shows are really rocking, and we have a powerhouse of songs to play. I thought, “This album’s full of light.” I just wanted to put something positive out there, and I’m glad I did. I could still be waiting to put it out. You can’t wait. You gotta deal with the hand you’ve been dealt, which is what most of us are trying to do.

SILY: Even on this album, you do find a balance between incendiary political tunes and fun or funny tunes like “Where There’s A Willie There’s A Way” and “Off My Medication”.

WN: [laughs] I can’t believe I wrote those. I remember thinking, “Who writes these songs?” “Blood on your hands / blood on your hands / you can’t wipe it off with your one-night stands / blood on your hands / blood on your hands / little old ladies dying in the heartland.” It’s true! For those who didn’t look out for the people they’re elected to take care of. And then you’ve got “Where There’s A Willie There’s A Way”. Total fun, ridiculous fun song. “Off My Medication”, I remember I wrote that and thought, “I must be out of my mind to write a song like this.” If I heard that on the radio, I’d go, “Who the hell is this guy?” [laughs] So yeah, there’s a blend. There are incendiary songs. 

I always write about love, and loss. I wrote “Holy War”. I’ll also write “This Is Our Time” or “Forever Wild”. I’ll write anthems of good news, something positive. I try to put the best spin on stuff I can. Life is real, and I write about it, and I’ve been blessed a lot of ways in my life. 

I love the combination of songs [on The Day The Earth Stood Still]. This album ends with a song called “Way Of The Heart”, which I recorded in 2009. Other than “Sanctuary” and “Way Of The Heart”, all these songs were last year, and a number of them, last fall before we made the record. I re-sang “Way Of The Heart”, and I had the recording for years in a drawer. I thought, “This would be a perfect way to finish this album.” The “way of the heart” being the way the river runs. It’s an ongoing journey that we’re all on, and I’m so, so thrilled I’ve been able to make these albums. 

Knock on wood, I’ve been healthy and strong, and taken care of myself. Nine albums in twelve years, and they don’t suck. The last four records I made, World War Willie, Positively Bob, the Dylan covers album, Children of Paradise, New York At Night, and The Day The Earth Stood Still. I’d hang my head on those albums any day of the week. It’s not just me. I have a great team around me. My band, my goodness. My coproducer Stewart Lerman, he does all of Scorsese’s productions ever since The Aviator. I’ve been working with him since 1988. They’re my songs, but you can’t do it by yourself.

I play generally older audiences, but if there are young people in the audience or who work at the venues, it never fails. They see bands and artists night after night [and] get jaded after a while. But their enthusiasm for a classic rock and roll show means the world to me. We don’t phone it in. It will never get to that point--I’ll walk away before it, though I’m sure I’d drop before that ever happens. You can see two songs in: “These guys aren’t kidding.” I’m just really psyched. We have four shows in the Midwest and SPACE is one of the bright lights.

Willie Nile & the late Rep. John Lewis

SILY: How did you meet John Lewis?

WN: I put my first record out in 1980, and I was playing at Queens College. These two kids climbed into my dressing room window to get a towel signed. I thought, “Sure, what the hell.” I signed the towel, and one of those kids ended up being former Congressmen Joe Crowley. Over the years, he’s been a really good friend. I played his [birthday parties.] A few years ago, Congressman John Lewis walks in, and I almost hit the floor. Joe walks out of his way to say, “John, you gotta meet this guy, he’s a great American poet.” He gave me a really nice introduction to John Lewis. And I had a really sweet moment with John Lewis. We shook hands, but I looked him right in the eye and held his hand and told him what an honor it was and thanked him for all he’s done for voting rights, equality and justice, and making it a better world and better country. He’s always been on the side of our better angels. I got to tell him that. He went on stage, and I was about five feet away, and he spoke for about 10 minutes, and it was just eloquent, beautiful, and heartfelt. It inspired the song, “The Justice Bell”, and I mean every word of it. “The justice bell will not be stilled, let it ring. For every dream that is fulfilled, hear it ring; hear it in the voiceless ones as they rise up and sing.” We’re working on a video for it now.

Everybody’s life has ups and downs, but that was one of my mountaintops. I’ve had a lot of mountaintops--I’ve been really lucky. I’ve sung with Ringo Starr on stage, I’ve toured with The Who, I’ve sung with Springsteen for over 70,000 people at Giant Stadium. I’ve been really lucky. Meeting John Lewis was a real honor for me. I know some people in DC, and they got the song to his former chief of staff and to his family. I think John would have liked it. God bless him.

I’m for fighting the fight. I believe in this country and the people of this country. I believe in the potential, the dream that is this country. This is hopefully the land of freedom for all. Clearly, it’s not. Clearly, we have problems and we have a long way to go. But that’s not going to stop me from trying to do my best just to raise the bar, spread some goodwill. I’m a believer in rock and roll. I think music can heal, and I’ll do my best to do that. I was born in this country, and I believe in the better angels that are here. Meeting John Lewis was a real thrill. Looking into his eyes, I couldn’t believe it. God bless John Lewis.

SILY: What’s the story behind the album art?

WN: My wife, Cristina Arrigoni, is a photographer. I met her when she was hired to photograph me 11 years ago when I was touring in Italy. We hit it off and we’ve been together ever since. These photographs were taken in Washington Square Park in New York City. She knew I was gonna call the album The Day The Earth Stood Still, and one day, she said to me, “I think I’ve got a good idea for your album cover,” which happened for Children of Paradise, her idea being the four homeless people on the cover. She said, “This guy’s name is Johan Figueroa-Gonzalez,” who I write about in the booklet. He’s in Washington Square Park. He’s a performance artist who does a living statue thing. He paints his body white and will stand on a pedestal and change shapes. The back of the album is him standing on the Washington Square Arch. He looks like he’s an old Medieval figure. It’s just timeless. All the pictures are of Johan except for the one of John Lewis and I [sic].

I saw him last weekend and gave him copies of the album since he hadn’t seen it. He was so thrilled. I asked him through Cristina, “What can I say about you? I want to tell people about you on the album.” [He said,] “I’m a survivor, doing my best to encourage people to embrace their emotions through my performances as a living statue. In these times of people dehumanizing each other, my hope is for people to begin to feel empathy.” That’s the last bit of the booklet, and it’s a perfect summation of what this album is. How these things come together is beyond me, but it’s a perfect combination of Cristina’s great photography, and Johan’s brilliant artistry. I’m so proud of this record. I love them all, but the bell rings loud and clear with this album.

If anybody goes to New York City on a weekend before the cold weather comes, you’ll see him. Sit down for half an hour and watch him do what he does. He’s another artist I would love to see the city [financially] support.

SILY: What else is next for you?

WN: I’m always writing--that’s nonstop. I don’t have any plans to record yet, but I’m always working on songs. There’s a guy making a documentary film about me that’s been ongoing for the last few years. COVID obviously stopped us, but we’re on again and hope to finish filming by the end of the year. I met the guy a handful of years ago. He’s from Austria. He wrote me a bunch of emails saying, “I want to make a movie about you.” I didn’t know who the guy was. I’m not a glory boy; I don’t need to have my face up on screen. I like to be involved in things that are credible and good. I didn’t respond, and a friend of mine said, “You should meet this guy.” I flew to Austria from New York and met him as a courtesy and said, “Why do you want to make a movie about me? What’s such a big deal about me?” And he said, “You never gave up. You’re doing your best work now. It’s a story of inspiration with New York City as a backdrop. All of these hall of famer rock and rollers are huge fans of yours.” We talked for two hours, and all the things he picked up on were really smart, and it changed my mind, so I thought, “Maybe let’s give it a shot.” We filmed in Italy, in Spain, at the BBC with the great Johnnie Walker interviewing me. We filmed in the States, Canada, all over New York. He came to Buffalo to interview my father. So we’re working hard trying to finish the documentary. I’m going to Italy to film at the end of October.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

WN: I’ve been watching the Ken Burns Muhammad Ali documentary. Music-wise, I always listen to the classic stuff. There’s a singles collection of The Kinks [I’ll listen to] during the little bit of working out I do. I like Lindsey Buckingham’s new album. Intriguing production, great guitar playing. Jesse Malin’s record that Lucinda Williams produced. Lucinda’s last record I loved. James Maddock. Classical music, old blues, R&B, Motown. The Four Tops. 

[akatsuki-celeste]

I can feel my anxiety medication wearing off so before I re-up it, because if ever there was a day that I just need to keep it going - I feel the need to scream into the void first. 

I haven’t talked about my personal life that much save for a few depressive, anxiety-fueled rants before, and maybe this is just one more of those but longer. But today was the last day in a long saga of days that has just made me....really question *everything*. It’s probably the closest I’ve ever felt to being absolutely done. 

So the last year and a half has been quite the roller coaster and occasional hell for me, as I imagine it has been for everyone else on the planet. Everyone has their own 2020 story to tell, everyone’s is important, so I haven’t made a huge deal out of mine. I’m luckier than most. So this isn’t a post where I’m going to go on and on about how rough I’ve had it, etc, etc. This is just going to be about...me. The facts, as seen by me. 

In March 2020, my work began efforts to roll out a remote work plan that I qualified to start early due to being immunocompromised thanks to a fun little auto-immune disease called ulcerative colitis. I’ve been diagnosed since I was 18, so basically half my life, and the medication I had been on then, Remicade, was one I’d been using for the last decade with absolutely no issues except maybe I get really tired and like naps afterwards. All of that went smooth. I felt relieved that I, at least, was going to be at home. One of my roommates, also a co-worker, was able to work out the same situation so we didn’t even need to deal with transportation for her until the official lockdown. 

And then a week - possibly less, my memory is hazy - my roommates (my then-best friend and her brother) got into a screaming fight of such epic proportions that I had an actual mental breakdown in the middle of (first for me). I remember hiding in my room with my laptop - I was still trying to work for some reason, I do remember eventually telling my boss I had a family emergency so I could log off - I remember calling my mother in a panic, and then I remember waking up at my parents’ house about 6 hours later and finding out that my mother had told my former roommates to gtfo, which I did not attempt to rescind (not at the time, because apparently I was there when it happened but I don’t remember this, and not later) because I knew living with them was no longer feasible for a number of reasons which I will not go into. I’m still dealing with five years of mental abuse and trauma on that one. 

By the first week of April they were gone, and I was able to busy myself for the next few months with making my place habitable for one person again, which was a good distraction. And then September came around and I started to notice these, well, patches on my skin. At first I thought it was just eczema or dry skin irritation, it happens sometimes. But with each month they got worse and worse, until December finally rolls around and the only conclusion anyone can come up with is that my trusty Remicade, which had successfully kept my UC in check for a decade, had finally decided to stop playing nice with my body and I was having a “psoriasis-like” reaction. So for the first time in a long while I was starting the medication shuffle again, steroid creams and a new UC medication that took nearly 4 months to get approved. I’m still not recovered even though I’ve been off of Remicade for 7 months now. It takes 6 months for that stuff to fully work its way out of a system, so the reactions didn’t stop until a few weeks ago and I’m still struggling to heal. I’d say it’s about 75% better than it was, but showers still suck, pants also suck, and I can’t tolerate temperatures higher than 70 degrees (hi summer, you suck). Also during this time I got the COVID vaccine (woo!) but seriously, if not for remote work I probably would have lost my job. I used up most of my sick leave in the beginning of the year because I couldn’t move without pain, even to sit at the computer for 8 hours. I also have a ton of PTO, but my boss told me that I couldn’t necessarily use it for sick leave (news flash for me) and again, could lose my job if I tried to use it too much. So trigger my anxiety. A lot. 

Fast forward. In one week my office is reopening for 50% capacity, which apparently means to upper management that we have to all work 3 days a week in office, 2 days remote, which doesn’t match the math but whatever. They’ve also stopped screening temperatures, have nixed the social distance requirement, and are only requiring masks for the unvaccinated - but aren’t requiring anyone to say whether they are or not. Needless to say, not exactly the best reassurance for my still-immunocompromised ass, not to mention the dress code will murder my skin. So I ask about continuing remote work and get told I need an ADA accommodation. Okay. I get the paperwork and pass it on to my GI; I was already on FMLA for my UC, figured this wouldn’t be that different. 

Except my GI has refused to sign the paperwork, saying there’s no medical reason for me to continue remote work. Despite still not being recovered from the skin reaction I got back in December from the Remicade, despite finding information that Remicade potentially interferes with the vaccine, I’ve been told to just adhere to social distancing and mask-wearing despite my employer not requiring that of anyone else. And with all the information about the delta variant coming out.... yeah, I’m scared. Probably paranoid, probably anxious. I have no idea how I’m going to get through a work day without having to medicate and I won’t be able to function if I have to do that. i see my psych before RTW-Day, but only a few days before. 

My last chance is that the dermatologist I’m seeing on Wednesday might be able to fill it out based on my condition, but at the moment I’m in a cycle of panic that I’m going to be told it’s Not That Bad and not get taken seriously. Which is a feeling I’ve been having a lot lately. I know it’s partly the depression and anxiety ramping itself up, but I just don’t know what to do now. All I want to do right now is press the restart button. Sell my place, relocate to a new place so radically different from where I am now that I can’t even compare it, start over. Get a puppy, write a novel, not be in $33k worth of debt. This wasn’t where I’d hoped to be at 36, and now it feels like it’s going to be another 5-6 years before I can get there. If I can get there. It seems like another lifetime. 

Anyway. That ends my void screaming. TLDR, I have to start working in the office again in a week, I’ve been told by my GI that my auto-immune disease doesn’t qualify me for an ADA accommodation to keep working from home, my anxiety is now living with me instead of me living with it, and my last shot is a dermatologist I’ve never met before. 

[jackalopefreckles]

I feel like Ive aged at least 6 years since covid started. Im angrier. Less adapted to being outside then I used to be- which is saying a lot. This time last year I was?? Actually healthier mentally then I had ever been and looking forward to having the house alone for a month which?? Was the most freedom I wouldve ever had.

A lots fucking changed. I drove halfway across the country- all 30 hours at once with my big brother AND two elderly dogs, plus my cat. All animals on too many drugs (the vet said they couldnt overdose, and then failed to give any further instruction) cami peed on herself twice, unable to move. I had to waterboard her in Phoenix, a truly terrifying hell city where all the roads are raised and overlapping and its a hot as shit cause its?? What june?? Time was so fake this year I mustve just been stoned the whole time till I ran out of weed, and since moving its been a relief to be able to turn off the spinning anxious thoughts for a few hours

my big brother joined us. He brought a new dog with him which?? Is always a lot, plus I have this pack of dogs now cause the puppy wouldnt leave the super cancer ridden dog alone, and Im able to get her cbd regularly here, so shes always comfortable now instead of just?? Sometimes which is a lot nicer. We didnt think shed make it to chrisrmas. I thought shed die with me home alone to take care of everything, like always. It was almost a relief, I wouldn't have to coach my brother through the grieving process at least, and I had already finished. Its hard now even, for me to realize she might even have another christmas (but I wont hold my breath)

I feel safer going outside here then I did in Austin. I only went out a handful of times in texas, for the last few months I was ordering almost all groceries, and only going to the store once mask mandates were mandatory (theyre not anymore. Im so worried for texas. I missed a huge freeze by mere months. I dont think my elderly dogs wouldnt survived it. If I was alone with them, Im not sure I woudlve.

My parents took my brother to mexico with them. I begged them not to go, told them how irresponsible it was to travel across boarders. To visit an island and take all the plane germs with. I told them that even if my mom and brother were staying at home all day with me, my dad was still going to work and he didnt know what his coworkers were doing. That they wouldn't know what the people on the plane were doing. That at any point they could become the stupid americans that killed half an islands population.

They left a week after today last year. The boarders were closed the next day. Their friend has been traveling back and forth ever since. I have no idea how, except for the fact shes white and rich and wont hesitate to destroy a child, so I can only imagine how shed treat costomer service.

I will no longer allow this angry aggressive woman to ever make me feel bad, and I will allow myself to finally fight back. Im an adult, maybe not all the time (cause lets be real I'll always be a bit too eccentric for most) but when I get angry and allow myself that anger, it's not a bad thing. Anger doesn't have to make me feel like Ive done something wrong. Im usually very just in my actions, and I wont allow my parents influence to tell me all anger is misdirected and hurtful for reasons I couldnt understand. Its okay for me to be angry.

I think being alone with animals for months is at least reassuring that my childhood was unreasonable if nothing else. Which of course is a silly polite society term for pretty fucked, if nothing else.

My aunt had to gall to say weve had a good 2020 cause our family wasnt hurt, and I had to walk away from the zoom call. I haven't attempted communication with any of them since, not that I normally do. Of course none of us died, all rich old white people, most of them retired and able to stay home all day (not that all of them did, I learned about my grandfathers routine and just.. Im honestly surprised no one got it yet. Of course I knew from the beginning if anyone was gonna get it and die, it probably wouldve been me. Hence the 8 months of solitude before the move.

Was the move in August?? Im so unsure about time. Even with 2020 vision.

I tried to date when I moved here. Strictly on tinder. What was the point? On and off testosterone due to the wonders of texas, hadnt changed my body nearly as much as they should've a year after being on them. I look much more handsome now. Im also allowing myself to toss gender aside completely. He/him doesn't mean man, and they/them dont mean nonbinary, so why not mix them since Im?? Not really either.

It wasnt even a thought process like that to start. Much more "this is nice" which I think more gender should be allowed to be. Dont gotta be deep just comfortable.

I wont ever allow my parents to forget what they did. I ended up with three dogs I didnt want (I was so looking forward to not having any dogs) and I ended up taking care of my brother. Again. Its easier without my parents at least. Everything always is. My dogs are even happier. Cami finally isnt anxious 24/7. Again, a sad reminder my childhood wasn't great. Daisy is healthier. Trauma can be stored emotionally or with health issues, often both. I think the cancer dog getting better and?? Surviving and thriving so much longer then the vet said (how good was my old vet?) Is another unfortunate nail in thay proverbial coffin.

Im not as soft and openly loving. Im even more touch starved somehow. Harsher. I still want to choose love and compassion, but Im not letting myself fall into the trap of being so nice people wont be nice to you. Fighting back is something I wont feel shameful about, because it never stopped me from doing it completely anyway.

I was already reaching this on my own though. This was just more coffins, more nails. This didnt need to happen. We know our government let this happen. Its still letting it happen. Im not sure when Im getting my vaccine. My big brothers sick of quarentine and keeps trying to get us to go out. Sometimes I yield, and we go to a park, or the top floor of the parking garage. I get a vegan hotdog from nearby. We talk and laugh and were genuinely just. Boys being boys.

I shouldn't have to deal with parent shit anymore. I do though, especially since two out of three are unemployed and we can really only afford to live here cause of them (they owe me if anything though. Especially with my brother and these animals) I hope I can get a job soon. Or maybe even go back to school. Im lucky I had so much saved up (for top surgery, which I guess wont happen before Im 25 like I really tried for. I wouldve done it before now, but texas waitlists and rules kept holding me up. I literally went to an appointment in dallas, a 4 hour drive, just to found out the surgeon canceled on me for the second time)

Its incredibly depressing, and I know Im lucky to have had that stash. So many people didnt have anything and lost so much. People lost people. Half a million at this point. I remember when it got to 300,000 and I just?? Felt so awful it was so close to how many people we lost to AIDS. Its over that by so many now. It doesn't really stop, does it??

Is that catholic guilt?? Or maybe just irish guilt in general. Is it something I inherited or earned through all the end of the worlds and once in a lifetime recessions Ive been through. Im not sure how many off the top of my head, theyve been coming since I was so small and its always more and more. Im not even catholic anymore. I cant stop being irish though, even though the brits tried (and succeeded. Weve lost a lot. The current royal cotastrophy is bullshit as well, the only person who deserves a royal title is from Meniappolos

My home is decorate all inside for st patrick's day. My big brother loves it so Im going all out, and its def making me feel much more irish then usual (which is a lot Im over half)

I think I just wanted to say Im not the same. I hope I can still be happy an obnoxious is public. I wonder if I remember how

[quinnmorgendorffer]

because i need to get this out here somehow...hopefully the cut works so you guys don’t feel obligated to read this lol

church was always a part of my life growing up, i know i’ve talked about it on here before. i know i’ve mentioned getting “saved” at recess and going to church lock-ins. i’ve mentioned missing some of the christmas traditions our church did, like ending on “silent night” in only a candle-lit worship hall. but religion has just a much heavier part of my life than i’ve talked about.

my family wasn’t always the best in attendance until i was around nine. to quote arrested development “i don’t want to blame it all on 9/11, but it certainly didn’t help.” but actually, yeah, i blame it all on 9/11. we went to a vigil the night of the attacks and suddenly every sunday my sisters and i were woken up to go to church.

i didn’t mind all of it. i liked being an acolyte when i was one on the first or last sunday of the month - first sunday was communion, which we helped with, and the last sunday was the “noisy offering”, where we went around with buckets to collect change for one charity or another. i liked singing in the children’s choir. i never cared for the sunday school or youth group stuff as i grew older and people i enjoyed hanging out with in my age group left our church to join different ones for various reasons. my parents had to deal with the multiple youth pastors we had over the years telling me and my sisters that, basically, believing in evolution was a sin. my parents were NOT okay with that since they, you know, actually believe in science.

i don’t regret all my time in church, though, if only for the music. i still love and miss the songs. it’s how i got my first solos, where i got to test performances at the annual variety show. i had a really bad relationship with my high school’s choir director, but i could always count on getting compliments and praise and love from my church community every time i sang. it was something that really kept me going when i felt very untalented.

when i was 13, i got to join the adult choir because the music minister thought i was good enough, which i was so proud of, because normally you had to be in high school before you could join, but i was asked early. and i even got to sing the soprano solo in fauré’s requiem, my first ever classical solo (which is funny to look back on now seeing as my voice is nowhere light enough to do that piece lol anymore lol). i would practice with the children’s choir every hour on wednesdays, then wait the half hour for the adult choir practice. the children’s choir didn’t perform every week, but the adults did, and we used to do two services every sunday, so i’d wake up early to sing at the first one, go to sunday school, and then go to the second service, where we would normally leave before the sermon started. eventually we went down to just one service (no pun intended but thank GOD for that). eventually i was asked to be the song leader for at least three years of vbs (vacation bible school, a summer camp for kids, normally some over-the-top story being taught through videos). i may have been asked/done more, i can’t remember for sure. 

outside of church, my family wasn’t super religious - most of us, most of the time. my dad still had some hang-ups about gay marriage due to what i have to say is religion, because i don’t think there was any other reason. we’d say grace whenever my grandfather came over for dinner, and sometimes during our own bigger meals when he wasn’t there. it used to be a thing with my sisters (and my mom, i think?) when we’d go to bed that we’d say something about “don’t forget to say your prayers”. oh and at one point, when my sister and i expressed a desire to not go to church, my dad said he was worried we’d go to hell. that was fun. 

all of this to say that.....i remember doubting a belief in god a lot. as i’ve grown older, i still haven’t been able to figure out my beliefs. i find it hard to believe there’s a god when there’s all this suffering, but i also find it, well, depressing to think that there ISN’T a god. i feel like it’s not “smart” to believe in god, at least not Christianity, but i’m afraid i’ll go to hell if i even speak that thought out loud. i’ve found comfort in prayer.....

......except, over the years, i’ve developed a bit of an ocd-style relationship with prayer. i’m terrified of flying, enough so i got a prescription from ativan just to help. and though it can knock me out, i always have to say prayers while the plane is taking off, or else i *know* i’ll die/we’ll crash/everyone on the plane will die. because somehow it’s all my fault, you know? it doesn’t leave me calm at all, but it makes me feel like i have SOME control over things. i’ll say my prayers during bad turbulence, too, any time we shake at all.

and i don’t know when i got back in the habit of saying my prayers at night, but i’ve been trying to prayer every night since covid hit. i’m sure i was praying again before that, too. they’re all silent and in my bed, no kneeling or anything. if it isn’t clear yet, i was raised in the united methodist church, so i was taught that we had a friendly relationship with god and could talk to him whenever. very much unlike how i’ve seen all my catholic friends talk about their upbringings. but i always do a silent prayer and then the lord’s prayer, just like how my church would do it.

and, again, it’s been a compulsive thing where i’ll start saying things in a certain order and HAVE to say them in a certain order with a certain wording, some of which i’ve kept since childhood. sometimes i’m spending several minutes just trying to get through everything because i’m falling asleep since it’s so late and i keep drifting off and i feel like i have to start over or something will go wrong. 

i prayed so hard for joe biden to win. i’m still praying he can get power peacefully. i pray for the covid vaccine. and i spent the most time every night praying that my family, friends, and loved ones don’t get covid. i specifically list my family members, i try to bring up every group of friends - friends from school, theater, the internet, my rocky group, music, opera, etc. - and pull out specific friends who i worry about the most for various reasons and try to remember to pray for their families, too. i pray for my voice teacher and her family. and for everyone i single out, i have to have a reason for why they’re singled out. i pray for my roommate and her family, and then lastly i pray for myself, and always add that if i get it, my roommate will most definitely get it and vice versa.

so all of this is just to say that my faith has turned from any semblance of faith to something i think i’m holding onto just from anxiety. and i hate this jaded dumb story that they do on sitcoms and the like, that someone’s prayers wren’t answered so they don’t believe in god. that’s not my only reason, of course, but having my sister get sick with something she may not survive has led to me feeling this dumb guilt, like i didn’t pray hard enough, that i was falling asleep during prayers, that i wasn’t being a good christian. and i know it’s not true, but it’s how i feel and i hate myself for even trying to take any blame on top of it and i’m just a mess and i’m so scared.

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

cwick (Chadwick Matlin, deputy editor): Clare, Kaleigh and Maggie, thanks for joining me to talk about the president’s medicine cabinet. Yesterday, President Trump revealed that he’s taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial medication, to help prevent him from contracting COVID-19. Trump’s comments were the culmination of his interest in the drug, which he has hyped for months as a way to help fight the pandemic. Let’s talk about what the science says about hydroxychloroquine, what Trump has said about it, and what it says about Trump that he’s taking it.

So, let’s start with the science, which is about the only thing that can ground us in this frenzied moment. Can hydroxychloroquine prevent someone from getting COVID-19?

clare.malone (Clare Malone, senior political writer): (Readers can, on their own time, imagine what else is in the president’s gold-plated medicine cabinet.)

maggie (Maggie Koerth, senior science writer): What we’re basically looking at here is a massive lack of evidence for anything, Chad.

kaleigh (Kaleigh Rogers, science and politics reporter): The results from the few studies that have been done are mixed, at best. Some have found hydroxychloroquine reduced the duration of COVID-19, others have found no difference between using the drug and not, and at least one found there was actually a worse outcome for patients who were on hydroxychloroquine versus those who were not.

maggie: There are ongoing studies of better quality happening — I’m particularly interested in one that’s looking at COVID-19 incidence and outcomes in lupus patients who were already taking hydroxychloroquine for their chronic illness — but we just don’t have evidence to say it does anything.

kaleigh: We do know from past trials of hydroxychloroquine that it can cause abnormal heart rhythms, so the president’s claim that there’s no harm in trying it is not based on evidence. This isn’t like taking vitamin C.

cwick: And are these all studies that test for whether hydroxychloroquine prevents COVID-19? Or are they testing whether it improves treatment of the disease?

kaleigh: Most trials I’ve seen are to treat COVID-19, not to prevent it. (Though there is at least one trial currently testing it out for preventive use.)

cwick: So Trump’s decision to take it preventively complicates things further. We’re in the dearth-iest corner of the dearth of evidence.

maggie: You have the science side of things, which is mostly proceeding as it ought to, and you have the political side, which is full of hype and boom-or-bust demand.

cwick: With that said, Clare, why is Trump doing this? Or maybe the better question: Why is Trump telling us he’s doing it?

clare.malone: On a personal level, Trump is likely taking it because of the recent infections of White House staff and because, well, as we all know, he’s a germaphobe!

But I think it’s a piece of his public response to the outbreak. He attempted, in a quite pitched way at first, to convince the public that things were not as bad as they were made out to be. He promised a non-entity of a disease at first and compared it to the flu. The idea of taking this drug plays into all that, in a more tamped-down way, because he’s offering the public a sort of “cure” or hope. I don’t think it’s a slip of the tongue, but it is a key part of his own thinking about the virus and a key part of how he wants to talk about it in public.

cwick: That’s interesting, Clare. One of the defining characteristics of this disease has been its uncertainty. That’s in part because we haven’t known how to treat those who are sick (let alone make the rest of us immune). Trump seems to be saying: If a medication is good enough to make the president feel safer, it’s good enough to make you feel safer.

maggie: I’m interested, Clare, in whether we’ve seen presidents get so specific in their hope-peddling before. It seems normal for a president to say, “Oh there’s all this research being done and we will have options, let’s fund them.” But it feels to me like Trump has uniquely used the bully pulpit to tout specific products — hydroxychloroquine, that Abbott Laboratories test — when there was more than one option out there. And it’s come back to bite him multiple times. Because when science is moving fast, most of the “good ideas” are going to fail at first. Pinning hope on specific brands and products seems like a real risk he’s taken on.

clare.malone: Right, Chad. The president has gotten A TON of flak for his refusal to wear a mask, but that’s also part of his messaging! It’s certainly odd that he’s taking this drug and not wearing a mask, but he’s a big believer in the sort of traditional displays of “masculine” strength that American politicians have thought the public likes to see. His no-mask thing is the pandemic equivalent of presidential candidates not wearing winter coats while campaigning in Iowa in January.

cwick: This isn’t about promoting promising research, or the latest trial results. He is, in effect, becoming part of the trial himself.

kaleigh: Except it’s not controlled, randomized or blind, so his “trial” is scientifically meaningless. I drink coffee every day and haven’t gotten COVID-19 yet — maybe that’s a prophylactic, too! This is the logic of anecdotal evidence.

maggie: So this reminds me of the study I saw about how men were significantly less likely than women to take non-pharmaceutical preventive measures in a health crisis, like wearing masks, but were more likely than women to take pharmaceutical measures.

kaleigh: His announcement that he’s taking it certainly felt defiant, like he’s doubling down in spite of the evidence. He also spent some time yesterday criticizing a Veterans Affairs study, which found that patients on hydroxychloroquine actually had a higher risk of death.

cwick: Kaleigh, your point about the VA study is super interesting. We’ve seen how the president can dismiss news and findings that run counter to the narrative he wants to promote, and part of his political struggle during this crisis has been knowing when to embrace the science and when to reject it out of hand. By putting his chips in on one drug, the drug itself becomes a cause to rally behind, and news that disputes its power becomes easier for Trump to critique. Essentially, hydroxychloroquine has become part of the White House policy agenda.

clare.malone: Also, if you’ve eschewed a lot of the science in your initial stages of your response, you might as well bet big on a miracle cure, right? Maybe you’ll be right and people will credit with you being early to the party. Americans do love pharmaceutical solutions to their problems.

Shoutout here to former Sen. Bob Dole, the OG American politician-pharmaceuticals spokesman.

kaleigh: It is strange that he got so fixated on this one possible treatment, though. The antiviral drug Remdesivir, by contrast, actually has some promising early results. Why is Trump so interested in hydroxychloroquine? He has scoffed at questions about whether he, say, owns stock in a company that produces the drug, but he also hasn’t provided a lot of explanation about why he’s so fascinated with it.

cwick: Some would have you believe that it might be an issue of cronyism. Here’s the New York Times from April: “Some associates of Mr. Trump’s have financial interests in the issue. Sanofi’s largest shareholders include Fisher Asset Management, the investment company run by Ken Fisher, a major donor to Republicans, including Mr. Trump. A spokesman for Mr. Fisher declined to comment.”

clare.malone: It’s a good question. I’m a bit skeptical of the stock interests answer, since what Trump seems to own is quite negligible. But to Chad’s point, Trump’s personal phone line is always known to be open to friends outside the White House! In the initial stages of the crisis, there’s a sense that he was hesitant to trigger portions of the Defense Production Act because of feedback from the Chamber of Commerce and private industry.

maggie: And meanwhile, his political advocacy has pushed for millions to be spent on it … supplies acquired by the VA and the Strategic National Stockpile.

kaleigh: One thing is clear: When Trump touts a treatment, interest goes up. Not only do Google searches soar, but at least one online prescription service reported a nearly six-fold increase in demand for hydroxychloroquine prescriptions after Trump first mentioned the drug.

maggie: We know there were people from the anti-vaccine movement promoting the so-called ”miracle mineral solution” to him — a pseudoscience “treatment” that basically amounts to industrial bleach — before he spent that one press conference talking about treating yourself with disinfectant.

clare.malone: And we know Trump is susceptible to anti-vaxxers from earlier in his time in public life.

maggie: I can see why the open phone line thing would work in real estate — hot backdoor tips from buddies. But that doesn’t really work in science.

clare.malone: But isn’t it more politics masquerading as science? Which might be the whole problem.

cwick: Right, it seems like we’re all arriving at the same terminus: The president has long demonstrated a contrarian approach to science, so his taking hydroxychloroquine despite iffy science is as much about the political as it is about the personal.

kaleigh: What is the political motivation to fixate on one drug and also continue to tout it against all current evidence?

clare.malone: Momentum. You’ve already been saying it: Why stop saying it?! You’ll just look more fallible.

cwick: Politicians don’t like to be wrong.

maggie: This politician in particular really doesn’t like to be wrong — maybe even more so than others.

clare.malone: It’s the spin zone, y’all! Hop on in. It’s dark, but that’s what it is.

kaleigh: Right, changing your mind based on new and better information is bad in politics, for some reason.

clare.malone: Flip flopping.

cwick: It’s considered bad in broader society, too!

clare.malone: Is it?? That’s actually an interesting question.

cwick: I’d say that I’m reconsidering, but then you’d think I was weak…

[shmegel]

Stream of Consciousness Texts That I Sent to A Large Grouptext of Friends at 2 AM Again Like The Unhinged Woman I Am: Coronavirus and Chronic Illness Edition

——————-

My dad started talking about giving my brother hope about the school year and going back to school, and I’m realizing that’s probably happening before the vaccine (which will likely come out around January). What the heck am I gonna do? Do I need to move out? Schools are gonna be where this thing spreads. My brother will bring it home, I don’t know what I’m going to do about it?

I wish I were healthy so the prospect of living on my own wouldn’t be so scary. I’m so weak and exhausted, I feel like making three meals a day, doing my own laundry and cleaning, and somehow handling groceries (I guess Shipt and sanitizing them myself) would be too much for me to do alone with my limited energy. And that’s not even taking into account factors like what to do in flares when I’m BEYOND sick like can’t get out of bed, or finding a place safely, or not losing my mind alone. I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about this.

I just want to be healthy, guys.

It’s so upsetting because this could’ve been over months ago if the majority of people took it seriously quickly. If everyone stayed inside for just two frickin weeks we could’ve been fine. But now some of us may have to do it for a year because this stupid country isn’t even compassionate enough to sacrifice two gotdang weeks for the weakest of us. And I’m one of the lucky ones, able to stay in like this for maybe a year! Others just die! I’m frustrated that this is a situation in the first place, and I’m frustrated that I’m sick enough that it still could kill me even months after people have stopped caring. I never asked for this. I’ve done everything I can to be healthy. I spend more time trying to improve my health than any one of you and yet I’m the one still sick at the end of the day with very few improvements. I’m so tired.

I would be tired even without Covid, but this is just highlighting the inequity in disability. It’s highlighting the privilege many have of being able to NOT worry about health, about doing nothing to stay healthy and still having infinitely more energy than someone working hard on health and getting nowhere. God I wish I could be as carefree as those spring breakers hanging out in crowds on the beach for no reason other than they can and they don’t care. I wish I didn’t have to care. I still would, but I wish it wasn’t forced upon me. I hate that even if individuals have basic empathy (which of course many don’t), our system lacks it. This country makes me sick. Literally.

I wish I could just fly to another country with low Covid numbers (one that allows flying in if you obey their mandatory quarantine), quarantine for two weeks, then start over. I’m sick of this country anyway. Unfortunately, that would require me to be in a US airport and in a US airplane, so I can’t even do last resort stuff.

And I doubt anyone has the same level of quarantine we’re doing here- no outside cooked food, just cookable groceries. Thoroughly sanitizing everything that comes in. Not even leaving the house for work or grocery shopping. And most importantly the fact that I’ll be doing it until I’m positive it’s safe, which will probably be until there’s a vaccine.

I guess I’ll just super-quarantine in my own house. Stay six feet away from everyone. Everyone wearing masks at all times. No touching anything that anyone else might touch. I don’t know, it just seems daunting to know that many months from now things will not only have not improved for me, but will have gotten worse. Especially since this whole thing was entirely preventable- I wish Cheeto in Chief had an ounce of compassion. I wish he was punished with the disease- even if he had survived it might’ve taught him it was real and dangerous early on. I wish my life mattered to this country, this system, and to millions of people here. I mean, if you knew someone would die if you didn’t simply stay in your house for two weeks, wouldn’t you do it? I can’t believe that same logic doesn’t apply to lives like mine for so many people.

Anyway, what do I have to look forward to when all this is over? Shopping? Restaurants? Seeing friends maybe once a week? Petty. It’s all petty. I wasn’t working toward anything before this except for health, and that’s not going to be fixed because I can’t even get any blood tests right now, let alone have doctors do any in-person appointments and important checks like MRIs, X-rays, CT scans. Everything put on hold and nothing on the other side. You all have jobs and education and lives outside of the house- I really don’t. I mean, I had a part time job but it’s not like it’s working toward something, and I may have lost it in the pandemic anyway. You have jobs and new houses and apartments and boyfriends and education and children and energy to do pretty much anything you need to do and exciting or productive lives to live. What do I get when I come out of this? Probably just a bunch of cavities to fill because this happened when Sjögren’s Syndrome started melting my teeth and they can’t do much without more tests. I really have nothing to look forward to- that’s part of why this has been easy (I’m not missing much) but it’s also why thinking ahead proves to be just... disturbing. I try to stay positive but my day to day life has felt pointless for a long time, and in the short term that doesn’t matter, but god it’s a terrible thing to confront when I recognize that my only two options in a few months are going to be stay inside and feel sick OR leave my house and feel sick, and either way I don’t get anything done or really work toward anything except feeling ok, which I may never. I may never feel ok! I miss feeling like I have purpose. I still have ambition but it’s undirected because honestly I don’t think I have the energy to do any of the stuff I used to picture myself doing. So I don’t know what I want to happen here. Honestly this virus and my quarantine could go on for years and I would feel the same as I do now. I felt stuck long before the quarantine, because I’m not stuck in this house, I’m stuck in my own weak body.

And I’m sure this is disturbing to read because I’m kinda mildly fine most of the time and optimistic and positive and all that, and I know I blow up probably once a week at this point so maybe it doesn’t even seem that way anymore??? At least I still act that way in person, lucky you guys get to read my terrible rants. But I just want someone to see this, you know? I want someone to know that me being positive isn’t an accident, that it’s hard work against the mountain of garbage being thrown at me mostly by MY OWN BODY. It’s terrible in concept. I’m actually feeling fine right now mentally but I need someone to know the concepts I’m wrestling with: the fact that my worst enemy is me and it’s by no fault of my own. I was dealt a bad hand. Even in the very best of circumstances, without Covid, I’m living a pretty unfulfilling life. Sickness makes it hard enough- to be at higher risk of death or permanent damage in addition to that is just cruel. I just wish I could project this into everyone’s brain so they could understand why it matters so much that people freaking care about each other enough to protect each other from having even more difficult lives- or even deaths. I want to survive!!!! I’m clawing at the walls of suffering until my fingernails bleed!!! I keep it in my head that I’m gonna get out of this pain someday even if that’s not necessarily true!!! All I want is to live and to live well. I just want to live well. I’m happy to live and to survive so it’s gotta get better someday. I just wish the world cared a little bit more. I wish I had something tangible and fulfilling to look forward to. In this moment, I can be happy and read a book or watch TV, but I wish the other type of happiness was a factor in my life again, the sense of fulfillment and accomplishment. Sickness has taken so much from me.

[exxar1]

Chapter 15: What Is A Year?

5/21/2021

           This morning, as I walked out of the gym, I was hit with a pleasantly cool spring breeze. Here in Las Vegas it’s a beautiful sixty-five degrees, the sun is shining, and the wind felt blessedly cool against my sweat-soaked skin. I couldn’t help but pause in the middle of the parking lot, lift my face to the sun and close my eyes. Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” was still blasting in my ears, and the endorphins from my workout were still raging high beneath my skin.

It’s been awhile since I’ve sat down to write a new chapter for this blog. There’s two main reasons for this: 1) I’ve been super busy with the two full time jobs, and 2) I just simply haven’t had much to say.

           It’s that second reason that’s the more important one. There was a lot happening with me in the first quarter of 2021. But, in the last few weeks, my life – both within and without – has calmed down greatly. For starters, the Lord answered my prayer in which I had been requesting for awhile now to be able to go back to just one job. Here in Nevada, as more people are vaccinated, and as our COVID numbers continue to drop, our governor FINALLY rolled our state forward to stage 3 recovery. (Insert the eye-roll emoji here.) As of the last week of April, restaurants have been allowed to operate at 50% capacity, and larger venues like churches and superstores could increase the amount of people that could be inside at once. (How nice of our government to return to us basic rights and freedoms that we the people should never have given up in the first place.) And, as of this past Thursday, our almighty and gracious government FINALLY decided that everyone who’s been vaccinated is now free to go out and about without a mask. (Insert multiple eye-roll emojis here.)

           As great as the fallout of the bureaucratic idiocy surrounding this “pandemic” has been, the one good thing about these recent relaxations of statewide shutdowns is that more and more businesses are either finally re-opening or getting back to normal operations. Here in Las Vegas, that means that the casinos and other related businesses on the strip are extending their hours and re-hiring most of their furloughed or laid-off employees. And that is the main reason that my primary, full time job is also starting to finally get back to normal. That means that more and more overtime is becoming available as various stores now need coverage for employees who are either going on vacation or were fired (or needing to take sudden sick day because of the vaccine) or the stores’ daily operating hours have been extended to what they were before the pandemic.

           As of Friday, May 7th, I’m no longer working at Walmart. Last week I was able to pick up four OT shifts, and I clocked out the week at seventy-one hours! This week, I picked up three extra shifts. Saturday mornings are no longer the only days I get to sleep in! I have more free time now to do the activities that I used to enjoy in my pre-pandemic life, such as going to the gym. Thanks to the new CDC allowance, no one at Planet Fitness hassled me this morning when I went in maskless. I spent almost two hours there, and it was damn good! (I was disappointed, though, to see almost everyone else there in some kind of mask. I feel so sorry for them.)

           This blog entry is more of a general update than a dramatic chapter in my new life as a Christian. While it’s nice – and a great relief – to settle into a new and stable routine, it also means that there’s simply not much to report. I took another look today at my new year’s resolutions, and I felt a pleasant sense of satisfaction at the fact that I’ve accomplished all of them! (Well, almost all. I still haven’t found a boyfriend, but that’s moot now. I erased that one from a list awhile back. And no, I couldn’t change the word ‘boyfriend’ to ‘girlfriend’. God hasn’t granted that particular prayer request yet.) But everything else on that list – daily Bible reading/prayer, changing my introverted and uncaring attitude towards the people that cross my path every day, being more social and outgoing, and joining a solid, Bible-believing, Baptist church  - check, check, and check! I’ve succeeded at keeping to this list, with only minor slip-ups here and there. (There were some days when all the coffee in the world couldn’t change the fact that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was severely annoyed by everyone and everything around me.)

           That last resolution, especially, has been the source of greatest joy and contentment in my new daily routine. In chapter twelve, I detailed my adventure in finding a local church where I could set up camp among fellow believers that would encourage me, accept me, and challenge me in my new walk with God. I thought I had found that in True Light Baptist Church (referred to in that entry as Church #1). But after only a month, the Holy Spirit led me to seek again, and this time I found Bible Baptist Church (referred to in that chapter as Church #2.)

           Back in February, during one of my counseling sessions with Pastor Sjostrom, I was lamenting that I might not find a small, local church like the one I grew up in. All that seemed to be available in a metropolis like Las Vegas – according to Google anyway – was churches with congregations of five hundred to a thousand, or more. A couple of them did identify as Baptist, while the others seemed to be either non-denominational or one of the mainstream categories such as Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.

           “Neal, you’re not going to find a church like Grace Baptist down there,” Mark said, and I unhappily agreed.

           God, thankfully, didn’t.

           Bible Baptist Church is nestled in a quiet, homely neighborhood in North Las Vegas, and it looks exactly like the type of building you would expect to find on the corner of Main and Second Avenue in some small town in the American Midwest of yesterday. Its appearance is that of a traditional church – complete with a steeple over the main doors that houses a working bell – and, inside, is an auditorium that houses a congregation of no more than about a hundred and fifty. There’s an adjacent hall that leads to classrooms and a general meeting room, and out back is a good sized courtyard that serves as a playground for the kids. Behind the auditorium is a fellowship hall and kitchen, and the parking lot beside the church is not paved. (The photo at the top of this entry was taken by me on a recent Sunday evening as I stood in the parking lot after the service.)

           My first visit was Sunday evening, February 28th, and the moment I stepped in the door I was greeted by no less than six different guys, one of them being the pastor. Mitch Serviss (yes that’s really his last name) is a fellow transplant from Idaho, and he and I chatted about Boise and the BSU Broncos. After the service, there was an ice cream social in the fellowship hall, and I had the opportunity to continue getting to know the same guys that had greeted me before the service. They all talked to me as if I’d been attending their church for years, not just a few hours. I was also happy to see that the congregation was a good mix of generations – some older than me, some from my age group, and then plenty of younger ones with lots of kids running about underfoot. I pulled out of the parking lot that night feeling as if I had just sampled a taste of home – the home from my youth in Twin Falls that I had been longing for for almost two months.

           It’s only gotten better in the last ten weeks. The more that I’ve attended this church, the more I’ve gotten to know several members of its congregation, the more happiness and contentment I’ve felt in my daily life. Everything – and I do mean everything! – that I remember from the Grace Baptist Church of my childhood I have found here. All the old hymns that I knew by heart  - and still do – are sung here at every service. The Wednesday night service concludes with everyone putting forth prayer requests and then splitting into small groups to kneel together and pray. The preaching from the pulpit is doctrinally sound and comes straight out of the Bible, with no embellishments or radical interpretations by the pastor. The only instruments that accompany the congregational singing is the piano, organ, and a quartet of stringed instruments that certain members will sometimes play, usually on Sunday mornings. For the kids there’s the usual Sunday school and junior church, as well as something called “Master Club” on Wednesday nights which, as best I can tell, is something equivalent to the old Cubbies, Sparks and Awana programs that I used to be in.

           The third week of April was a special week of revival. There were two visiting evangelists and a service every night except Saturday. A potluck was served in the fellowship hall every night an hour before the service. These week long events I remember especially well because I hated them when I was a teenager. Now, I was very heartbroken that I could only make it to two of the services because of my work schedule.

           Throughout the year, on certain Monday nights, there’s a potluck at 5:30 and that’s it. Just food and socializing. No service, no agenda, just plain and simple fellowship. They call these events “Family Nights”. I was able to arrange my work schedule last week so that I could attend my first family night, and I wasn’t disappointed. (My contribution was a pot of tator tot casserole. And yes, I made it myself.) I had a great time chatting with a bunch of the guys – and a few of the ladies as well – while the kids tore around outside, creating a pleasant background hum of laughter, shouting and general merriment.

           Two weeks from today I will be turning 43 and I will be baptized in this church that same weekend. My family is coming down for the occasion, and I can’t wait for them to meet these people and see this church for themselves!

Proverbs 30: 7-9 says, “Two things I request of You (deprive me not before I die): remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You, and say ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.” As you know from my previous chapters, I have been working my way through the Old Testament since the beginning of the year, and, thus far, I have found the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to be the most spiritually fulfilling and deeply engrossing. Those three verses from Proverbs 30 seem especially fitting for my life just now.

As my 43rd birthday draws closer, I keep thinking back to where I was just one year ago. The world had only started to go off the rails with the statewide, economic shutdowns due to the start of the “pandemic”. George Floyd wasn’t yet a household name. Major U.S. cities like Portland, Chicago and Minneapolis were still relatively quiet and peaceful. Our government was still a reasonably normal, sane, good one, and there was hope that Trump just might be able to win the election. Here in my backyard, I was bored, just returning from an unplanned, two-week vacation back home to Idaho, and I decided to put up a personals ad on Tinder. I hadn’t yet landed the second job at Walmart, I had way too much time on my hands, and I was watching way too much TV. The first glimmers of soul searching had just barely begun, and I had no clue about what my immediate future would hold.

Now, looking back, I can only shake my head in wonder, amazement, and immense humility at how God guided, protected and supplied for me this past year. While there were many that were forced out of work and had no immediate relief from unemployment, God saw to it that I was taken care of. Even when I hadn’t yet accepted Him, when I was still living in my sin and trying to pretend that everything was fine, that I could make it on my own as I always had, God was patiently waiting for that day when I was finally ready to admit my weakness and just accept Him and Him alone.

As I approach year 43, I don’t feel 43. I feel 23. I feel as if every day since September 17th, 2020 has been a fresh re-start; as if my whole life is ahead of me again, and the possibilities are endless. The crisis that brought me back into the Great Shepherd’s fold wasn’t – thankfully – a car accident, or a diagnosis of cancer, or a sudden, complete loss of income and housing. It was, instead, the old, traditional existential kind. Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? What have I accomplished thus far in my life that is worth anything? What will I leave behind? And, most importantly, when the world around me goes absolutely mad, to what – or whom – will I turn for security and peace?

I found the answers I sought in God’s Word and in His arms that are far bigger than me and my life. In many ways, 2021 has been an even worse year than 2020. Our nation – and the world at large – continues to go off the rails. In fact, we left the rails a long time ago and this train is now rapidly chugging across Hell’s desert landscape at full speed towards the Grand Canyon. If we are not living the prologue to chapter 1 of the book of Revelation, then we are most definitely getting close. But you know something funny? Here in my own backyard, when I lower my gaze from the world beyond the fence and look around at my simple, little life here in Las Vegas, Nevada, I can only smile and praise God as I count the numerous blessings He has bestowed on me. As those verses from Proverbs 30 state, God has given me exactly what I need – no more, no less. I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The world outside is falling apart day by day, yet I sleep at night in absolute peace and wake up each morning filled with immeasurable joy and purpose.

I don’t know yet exactly what God has planned for me. But I do know my best years are yet to come, and I am deliriously happy abiding within Him and His will. No matter what comes, I will always delight myself in the Law of the Lord, as David says in Psalm 1, and fear Him alone.

Year 43 is going to be my best one yet! Cheers!

[mikialynn]

2020 Reflection

I haven’t been great about completing my reflections the past couple of years. Parts of them do exist, and I will create finished versions. However, 2020 is a year that I absolutely cannot miss reflecting on. Especially since it seems at any moment these days, something significant and perspective-altering can just happen. So I want to preserve where I am right at this moment.

At a historical level, on a global scale, 2020 has been the most important year I have ever lived through. The events of the past year have been on a scale that is so immense, I feel like I can’t even connect with them most of the time. But then there are flashes where it hits – where I have a digestible bit of life experience that taps me into the larger emotional current. And it overwhelms and terrifies me just long enough to push it away again.

We are approaching two million deaths in the world, with thousands dying every day. California has ordered dozens of refrigerated trucks just to hold the overflow of dead bodies. I have for the first in my life experienced truly believing that my parents might die within the year. I’ve had to sit through several instances where the chances of them being exposed were high and just hold my breath waiting for the events to unfold. It reminded me a bit of that stomach-dropping moment I realized I could have contracted rabies, and that it was a fatal situation if left untreated. Only this wasn’t for myself, this was for people I love, and for a virus that had no vaccine or guaranteed treatment, and so it came with added layers of helplessness, fear, and frustration.

We have an unbridled President stoking division in the country for a power-grabbing, personal-gain agenda that is unprecedented. It’s a reality you can’t help but shake your head to in disbelief thinking this just can’t exist in this day and age in this country. And yet there it is. Confederate flags in the Capitol. The inflammatory speeches. The unchecked, unabashed lies. The shockingly amoral willingness to appeal to people with such twisted, racist, fearful views of people and the world. The childish recklessness of undermining a democracy just to deflect and rationalize a loss.

We had the Black Lives Matter protests erupt across the nation. Unlike the Women’s Rights or Climate Change marches I’ve participated in before that are organized well in advance and have a designated time, these were often spontaneous protests sparked by a real personal and immediate anger and frustration. Protests that continued for months. Protests that, though mostly peaceful, sometimes did shut down cities and burn down buildings. And we saw an aggressive and often unjustifiable containment of those protests that is also unprecedented in my lifetime. For the first time, I’ve experienced city curfews and lock downs.

Just walking down the street, the evidence of how the world has changed is everywhere. People casually walking around in masks (at least in San Francisco, though clearly this varies by city, county, and state) that at this point have developed their own fashion of patterns and styles. People veer away to give each other a wide berth, even stepping off of the sidewalk into the road to avoid getting close. And none of that is considered rude. Busy streets are seen sectioned off for pedestrian use. Streets with restaurants are now lined with a collection of makeshift outdoor seating—the prototypical wooden walls and strung up garden lights. There are circles sprayed onto parks so people sit in their designated bubbles six feet apart. Shops are boarded up, either because the store went under or as a temporary fix to the break ins that happened during the protests. Markers are on the ground outside of grocery stores to indicate where to stand in line to be six feet apart. Plexiglass erected between yourself and the cashier. Hand sanitizers in every backpack and car, at the opening to every shop. Masks tucked into pockets and purses and car doors. The routine of disinfecting groceries. It all seems so normal now.

Despite so much erupting on the global stage, in that poetic contradictory fashion, I feel like in my personal bubble 2020 has been defined by how little has happened. With the exception of 2018, which I spent moving to San Francisco and living on the West Coast for the first time, 2020 is the first year since I was 17 years old that I haven’t traveled abroad. It is a year truly characterized by being stagnant and still.

The significance of traveling for me stems from a few places. The notion of how quickly time is used up and how limited our supply of it is has always been a fundamental motivator for me in how I approach life. It’s what drives me to learn and try and explore. How else should one spend a life if not trying to fit as many different experiences and gain as much perspective as one possibly can? To that end, I think being a good person is correlated to being exposed to as many types of people, places, and life experiences as possible. To me, traveling feels like connecting myself to the larger fabric of humanity and improving myself as a person. Travelling also helps me to keep perspective. One of my greatest fears is complacency. Getting into a routine that doesn’t really move or fulfill you but allows you to get by, and thinking that is enough while your life disappears. I feel like we have to be vigilant about reminding ourselves how valuable life is and how much we can do with our time as long as we keep pushing. Travelling to new places really gives me that reset and renewed energy. So, when I emphasize how 2020 was the first year I didn’t travel, what I’m really highlighting is how a major source of what fuels me and gives me a sense of value was missing. With everything horrible going on in the world, not having that safety net to pull me back and keep me mentally healthy enabled a sort of listlessness I hadn’t experienced before.    

I also couldn’t do any of my usual music or dance classes. I didn’t get to explore a new city and interact with its communities. Often times, I had to cancel planned camping and hiking trips because new lock down orders would come into place. I remember in 2018 as the year was coming to a close, I had it in my mind that my year-end reflection would be about the importance of being aimless. It was my year of having no plan, having no serious commitments, and just letting myself inhabit new versions of myself. I felt experimental, a little reckless, and free. The year 2020 is in such stark contrast.    

Here are some notable sad memories from 2020. My grandfather passed away. I was supposed to fly back for his funeral in March, but Covid-19 began hitting the U.S. in a noticeable way just before that trip. I remember just the week before, I had flown to visit my friend Barb in Vegas. I remember feeling the situation escalate as that trip unfolded – from Barb telling me she was feeling sick and me realizing she could be contagious with Covid, to wearing a mask for a prolonged time for the first time as I traveled through the airport, to ultimately booking an earlier flight home once I got to Las Vegas because I no longer felt it was safe. When I got back, I remember Stewart and I were driving back from work to his place, having just picked up our things to start working from home based on the new company policy (a week before a city order mandated it) and both of us reaching that turning point as we talked in the car. Up until that point, it was if we were slowly realizing the severity of the situation in bits and pieces. On that ride as we talked about how it would be irresponsible and unsafe to travel back to see my family, it escalated to the point of realization: things were not normal anymore. Things were going to change. And they were going to change for a while.

We had already booked and planned this extended trip back to Hawaii. My friend Winnie was going to travel to San Francisco the week after we got back. I had been working hard in preparation of taking the next month to be with friends and family. I’d been looking forward to the summer, when Stewart and I had planned to visit his family on the east coast and attend my college reunion. And then suddenly it was snatched away. I remember crying coming to grips with the immediate loss of those experiences, but also with the heaviness of what was happening around me. And then making the phone call to my parents. At the time, Hawaii was nowhere near the stage of fear and seriousness that we were at in California, and I remember having to convince them that it wasn’t a good idea to come home. I remember the tension of texting and emailing my aunts and uncles and cousins trying to get them to post-pone or scale down grandpa’s funeral to Big Island residents only. Tracking the Covid cases in Hawaii and watching as each day they increased exponentially. I remember my aunt’s comments about not wanting to put hand sanitizer out or have the immediate family seated away from the audience because she didn’t want to make people feel uncomfortable. It was a silly thought then, and has not aged well. Even looking back at the funeral photos where basically no one was wearing masks except my mom and grandma (because I sent them masks) is just unconceivable from this vantage point. But that’s the thing—everyone needed to have that moment of realization. And it came to people at different times for different reasons. And to some people sadly and frustratingly, it never came.

I remember the week following my grandpa’s funeral, my dad called to tell me had accidentally hit Nala with the truck, and that when they took her to the vet they discovered a tumor in her mouth. It was a rapid decline from there, and we put her to sleep soon after. I hadn’t experienced putting a dog to sleep since I was a kid. We also invested so much more individual attention to Nala because she lived during a time when she was the only dog. So losing her was just heartbreaking. And it was heartbreaking imagining my dad feeling any sort of guilt about it, and knowing my parents had to care for her as she declined. It still hurts me to imagine Hoku, our puppy, apparently jumping in the truck looking for Nala after she was put down, trying to track her down by her scent.

I cried a lot during that beginning period of the Covid experience. I was also staying at Stewart’s place in Berkeley, which up until that time I hadn’t spent much time at. So I felt disconnected from things that felt comfortable and normal in multiple ways. I also had an underlying stress about my brother’s wedding during that time, since at that point they were still planning to go through with it in October. Ultimately, they did decide to post-pone the wedding to the following year.

Eventually Stewart and I started taking action to combat the monotony that comes from having your work and social life confined to your home by planning some camping trips. But as fate would have it, once we started doing that, California had a record-breaking year in wildfires. And so we watched as the smoke rolled in, bringing us the worst air quality levels in the world at the time, and turning the sky orange. Never before have I had to constantly monitor air quality to decide if I could go outside or not, or jump in a car to use its filtration system while waiting out a period of particularly bad smoke.

Then, to close off the year, a worker on our farm had an overnight guest that tested positive for Covid, and I had to convince my parents to get tests. I went tense and numb for a week as we awaited the results, which were thankfully all negative. And on the very same day we found out about our worker’s exposure to Covid, I found out in a mix of frantic messages from my sister and friends that a fire had broken out on the farm. No one was hurt, but the container and building that stored many of my siblings belongings (and possibly some of mine that I’m not aware of) including my sister’s wedding dress, our Christmas decorations, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in farm equipment were completely destroyed.

But there were some good things that came from 2020! Motivated by wanting to take advantage of the time I have with my family when everyone is alive and well, I started scheduling weekly Zoom calls, which is the most remote communication my family has ever had. It also pushed me to have dad chip in for a smart phone for my mom’s birthday. We also got them an antenna for the internet, so it is now much easier to be in touch.

Another happenstance of 2020 is that it forced a lot of people to be more domestic. Clearly, given the shortage of flour at grocery stores at the start of the pandemic. It was fun reading my 2016 reflection where I talk about how I’m struggling to see myself as an adult since I still just cook with premade sauces, I have never held a job for more than a year, and my largest investment is my laptop. I can now safely say that I feel like an adult! I have a sourdough starter baby that I regularly make pizza dough and crackers from, and I have helped to put on Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I’ve been at this job for over 2 and a half years, and my savings have gone from zero to half my income. I often feel like I am the mother of 667 Fell St. Oh, and I also turned 30 this year (which would probably have been a cornerstone of this reflection in a normal year, but is just an afterthought in this one).  

I think another shared experience a portion of society has had is the self-reflection on whether or not we are happy with what we are doing in our lives. With all the social opportunities taken away, everyone fortunate enough to maintain their jobs has had their work be the focal activity of the year. And for those of us dissatisfied with our jobs, the lack of distractions outside of work to sustain us has made it clear that this is not a path to continue down further. The stress of the constant billable time to the 15-minute increment, the energy drain of the monotonous work, the emptiness of feeling like your life and time and potential is being wasted on work that has no meaning. It’s not enough to sustain me. While this isn’t blatantly a positive thought, I think it’s a clarity that will lead to a positive outcome in the long run. I don’t have the time and energy to do the things I enjoy with my current job, and I don’t have an interest in building on the skills this job requires. I want to support communities and people more directly, and I want to have creativity and writing play a larger role in the work I do. Where to go from here, I’m not sure, but I don’t want to waste another year not pursuing those opportunities.

Similarly, I can say that I have shared what has been a difficult but important life experience with my partner this year. And, despite both of us sharing the same living space and working at the same job together—which amounts to spending almost 24/7 together—we are still doing well. We aren’t in the happiest place given all that’s going on in the world and dissatisfaction with our jobs. But I’ve seen that we can share in difficult times together and still find ways to maintain a sense of fun and love. I certainly did not plan on living with a partner less than one year into a relationship, but the times have pushed us to accelerate things and we stayed strong through it. It was fun getting to know Berkeley—the neighborhoods and the trails. Stewart and I also shared in coastal foraging and fishing excursions, squeezed in a beautiful backpacking trip to Kennedy Lake (where Stewart even carried my backpack for me when I had some sort of elevation sickness), went on a roadtrip through Nevada, Utah, and Arizona to visit Barb and David, and even bought a boat and went boat-in camping at Tomales Bay. While I didn’t add new countries to the list of places I’ve been, I did manage to add national parks and forests like Stanislaus, Arches, Zion, and Death Valley.

Other perks of the year have been not having to waste time commuting to work, and therefore spending most of the year not having to wake up to an alarm. It was also nice sharing this bonding experience with my roommates, who I’m very grateful to have found in 2019. I also joined in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion group at WRA and was able to be a judge for a middle school science competition, which brought me a lot of joy and inspiration to find similar work to do full time. Lastly, Biden thankfully won the presidential election. It was as if I had been holding my breath for four years and finally, when it seemed like even a contested result wouldn’t undo the margin that Biden had won by, all that tension came pouring out. Stewart and I pulled over in the car on our way to do some fishing as the results flashed on our phones and celebrated. I can’t imagine how hopeless it would have felt stepping into 2021 knowing we had another four years of the Trump administration.

I also want to note some things I meant to do but didn’t (and to say that it’s okay that I didn’t do them, because 2020 was not an easy year, and we all had to learn to be patient with ourselves throughout it). I’d stopped taking vocal classes with the intention of doing dance classes, but then never did because of Covid (the disclaimer, I’m currently signed up for a month-long class this January). Stewart bought me a keyboard, but I barely played it. I planned on quitting my job but, albeit for reasonable concerns about the economy and job market, never left it. There was video footage that I never edited and interview ideas that I didn’t get around to doing. I didn’t start building a communications body of work. I was never able to maintain good exercise habits. I didn’t finish and post my 2018 and 2019 reflections.

But you see, what I’ve realized is that when you’re not happy, it’s hard to do all the things you want to. I’m grateful that I even had a job, I’m grateful I genuinely like the people I was quarantined with, and I’m grateful for the money I was able to save during this past year. But it was a hard year and an unsatisfying year professionally. My hope for the coming year is that the clarity gained in what type of job I don’t want, and the financial buffer I now have, will allow me to transition to something more sustainable in the coming year. Something more fulfilling and more enjoyable. It’s the big ask, I know, to find a job that you also love. But I’m narrowed in on environmental communications or education, and I think one of the two will pan out.  

So I’m going to continue to be patient and forgiving with myself in these trying times, but hopefully this past year will be a year I can always draw from. When I’m making an excuse to call my mom later, that I remember how scared I was when she got on the plane to the Big Island and thought she truly might be taken away from me, and then decide to call. When I’m choosing jobs, that I remember how the way you feel about the work you do seeps into all other aspects of your life, and that I choose passion over stability. I hope 2020 will always serve to remind me to be grateful.  

[ask-the-phan-site]

Phan Cam: Everything’s going Krei Krei

>Krei Tech Industries. Today, some friends of ours came over to talk to Alistair Krei.

Ah, another glorious day for a business transaction. Wouldn’t you agree, Joanie?

It’s Judy, sir. And I don’t think your guests would agree.

Krei: Well aren’t we a Negative Nancy. What about you, Intern?

I don’t know. I’ve heard of these guys from some new friends of ours. They can be tough to deal with.

Considering that they came all the way here from another world, there are chances that their way of thinking is much different. Especially since one of them is-

Hiro: (quickly) Okay, I think we’ll be seeing for ourselves.

????: You can count on that.

Hiro: !

>At the office door, Harry, Peter, and (our) Hiro were standing there... Along with me, Fox, Queen, and Noir.

NOTE: From here on out for the rest of this post, Hiro Hamada will be Hiro H. and Hiro Takachiho will be Hiro T.

Krei: Ah, you’re here. Assistant, Intern, why didn’t you tell me they were here now?

Don’t blame them. We just came in now.

Krei: Oh. Well... That’s good. Now, shall we get down to business?

Harry: Mr. Krei...

Krei: (trying to be friendly) Please, call me Alistair. Or Al. Whatever floats your boat.

Harry: ... Mr. Krei, I’ve already made it clear that Oscorp has no intention of forming a merger with Krei Tech. Not now. Not ever.

It’s pointless to argue with him, Mr. Krei. When Harry sets his mind on something, he never gives up on it. Believe me, I know.

Krei: Oh, c’mon, you can only resist for so long. After what happened in those glob aliens in your city, not to mention that virus that’s been going around your world, you need me.

Harry: You can’t just use something that was out of our control to prove a point. And we’re recovering just fine. Even though the coronavirus cases are surging again.

He’s right, you don’t know anything about what goes on in our world.

Hiro H.: (still reeling from his other self) Y- Yeah. We still don’t know much about it.

You don’t have to be shy, Hiro san... with an H.

Hiro H.: Now I’m Hiro with an H?

Hiro T.: What did you expect? We have the same name.

Krei: (whispering to himself) Great, now we have two. (out loud) Anyways, you know your company needs mine. I doubt that Stark guy can help you.

Harry: Because he knows I don’t need his help. I mean, I still need help, but not from him or you.

Krei: (scoffing) Really? And just who is possibly going to help you? From what I’ve heard, your bo here is a genius, but financially, he’s no more than a worker in the hierarchy. Same goes for Hiro Number 2.

Hiro T.: (a bit offended) Excuse me?

Peter: (also offended) And I thought our Alistair was harsh.

I can help. I pretty much own a company, myself.

Hiro T.: Yeah, a food company. I don’t see how that can help a research company.

Noir: Okumura Foods has done some research as well. Not just in food, but other things as well. Agricultural Science, Chemistry, and even in some minerals.

I’ve seen it. It’s true.

Harry: I’ve looked into it. It’s legit. But still, I also have some more companies who have offered to help from our world.

>Then, two more people come in.

Oh! You two?

It’s been a while, Ak- That is to say, Ren san.

Hola, you guys. Long time, no see.

Noir: Bruce san, Tony san, it’s good to see you again.

Krei: You know each other?

We’ve meet before.

Joker: I helped Bruce san through some hard times and we helped Tony patch things up with his cousin. How are things, by the way?

Tony: We’re doing fine... (laughing a bit) How do you think we got here to this world?

Hiro H.: (confused) What do you mean?

Tony: Let’s just say he’s being a key part in our being here. (wink)

I see.

Hiro H.: (surprised with realization) Oh!

Queen: Is he here, too?

Tony: No, he has a lot of work to do, so we won’t be seeing him for awhile.

Hiro T.: Probably for the best. Chances are we might be carrying the virus.

Baymax: I have scanned you as you came into this office. None of you have COVID-19. Especially in Mr. Valdez who seems to have something inside him that is somehow protecting him from the virus. However, to be on the safe side, I must remind you to practice the following:

Wash your hands as often as possible. It also helps that you have plenty of hand sanitizer.

Cover your face when coughing or sneezing. Be sure to do it into your arm and not your hands.

Wear a mask if you feel the need to, but not for too long to avoid suffocation.

Avoid touching your face unless you have washed your hands. This also applies to touching other people’s faces.

And, if necessary or possible, stand six feet apart from each other.

Krei: All that to avoid getting sick in your world? Glad I chose to stay here. Isn’t that right, Assistant?

Judy: Your germaphobia never ceases to amaze me, sir.

Krei: But it also proves that your world needs Krei Tech’s help.

Harry: And how so? You deal with technology.

Krei: Well so do you from what I’ve heard.

Harry: Oscorp deals with a lot of scientific endeavors. Same goes for Wayne Enterprises. Now, ValTech, they definitely deal with technology. The only thing they have had a hand in medicine are some hospital machines... Some of them completely alter the human body in ways you can’t imagine.

Tony: (unimpressed) Gracisas por eso, Harry.

Harry: (laughing) De nada. But don’t worry, I know you can still be a big help.

Krei: Still, you think you can do anything about that virus of yours or help things recover from the black ooze things?

Judy: I believe they were referred to as Symbiotes, Mr. Krei.

Krei: Whatever. How will you help with that?

Harry: Well, I don’t know if we can do anything about the coronavirus, but the Symbiote Invasion...

Peter: Which I like to call “Maximum Venom”.

Harry: ... I think we can handle that. Besides, I hear that they’re already making some progress with a vaccine. Me and Pete have already started the B.O.M.G.T.M.  Foundation.

Hiro H.: (confused) Bomgtm?

Peter: It’s the first initials of the people who have been a great influence in our lives. B is for Ben Parker, my late uncle who taught me that with great power comes great responsibility.

Harry: O is for Otto Octavius who sacrificed himself to save New York from the Goblin Nation. I didn’t like him at first because of what he did to Pete, but after learning what he did, I have a little more respect for him.

Tony: M and G are for my parents, Maria and George Valdez, who never gave up on me, even after I dropped out of college to pursue my skateboarding career.

Bruce: T and the other M are for my own parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne. They helped a lot of people. My father was a doctor and my mother hosted charity events.

Krei: I see. And what will this B.O.M.G.T.M. Foundation do?

Harry: Whatever it can. Be it helping people who were dragged into an unusual situation...

Tony: Had some kind of accident that cost them the use of a limb...

Bruce: Or have lost a loved one. We will help them.

Harry: It’ll even kick-start this new company that me and Pete will be doing on the side.

Peter: Yes. It’s something me, Harry, and a good friend of ours came up with.

Joker: Really? I didn’t know that. What do you call it.

Peter and Harry: Parksbornson Industries.

Parksborn-what now?

Peter: You’ll meet her soon.

Krei: Well isn’t that nice. However, I still don’t see any reason why Krei Tech shouldn’t get involved. With us, you will have things done faster.

Harry: By cutting corners and ignoring sound science? That’s not what we’re about. So not matter what you say, Mr. Krei, we’re not forming a merger with you. End of story.

Krei: (feeling like he just lost... which he probably has) I... I thought you were smarter than that.

Harry: Only because you underestimated us. You think we can’t do anything just because we’re younger than you.

Bruce: And I’m technically closer to your age.

Krei: I refuse to take no for an answer. You should know people like me won’t back down so easily.

Hiro T.: (whisper) I can see why you wanted to target him.

Queen: (also whispering) I know.

Harry: You’ll stop at nothing, will you?

Krei: I’m probably as stubborn as you are.

Harry: (groans) Okay, I didn’t want to have to do this, Al, but, you left me no choice.

Noir: Does this have something to do with the other person you brought over.

Harry: You bet. Hey, Judy, isn’t it?

Judy: How did you know?

Harry: You look like a Judy. Anyway, can you let our last party in, please.

Judy: ... Certainly, Mr. Osborn.

>Judy opens the door and someone comes in... We don’t believe our eyes.

I knew you would need my help. Now are you happy that I’m here?

Harry: Don’t get ahead of yourself. You haven’t even started.

Krei: (laughing) Seriously? This kid is suppose to be like your secret weapon?

Never underestimate someone like Dylan Kirrin. He’s a fast-talker.

Tony: Yeah, someone who can bul-

>Queen was glaring at him.

Tony: (nervous) I mean, someone who can weasel his way into anything.

Harry: No doubt.

Noir: Jo chan thinks so, too.

Krei: (in disbelief) Really? Well, I invite you to try.

Dylan: Alright, Mr. Krei, you asked for it. All of you... Give us some alone time.

Peter: I get the feeling that we should listen.

>With that, we, with the exception of Dylan and Krei, leave the office. The moment the door closes, some one comes up to us.

Hi, is the meeting over?

Hiro H.: Hi, Ian. No, we’re just stepping out for a bit.

Harry: But it will be over... In three... Two... One...

>Harry points to the door and it opens with Krei staggering out with heavy breathing and Dylan walking out looking proud of himself.

Krei: ... Krei Tech... Will not be forming a merger with Oscorp. (turns to Tony and Bruce) Or any other company on your world.

Bruce: That’s good to hear.

Tony: Less work for Sammi.

Judy: (secretly happy) I’m sorry to hear that, sir.

Krei: Ah, there will be others... I hear a company known as Gargoyle Technica might be in need of some help after its owner went to jail.

Judy: We can try.

Krei: Intern, Ethan, you both have the rest of the day off. I’ll see you both tomorrow.

Ian: (timid) It’s still Ian.

>Krei was obviously not listening and goes back in his office with his assistant.

Noir: It looks like you have a hard time talking to your boss.

Ian: (trying to smile) You don’t know the half of it. I do a lot of work here and Mr. Krei doesn’t notice much.

Hiro T.: More like never.

Ian: ... Yeah, that’s one way of putting it.

Peter: I know how you feel. There were times where even I felt underappreciated. As both a scientist and a hero.

Ian: Really? How did you cope with it?

Peter: Whenever Dr. Connors or Jameson gives me grief, I first imagine something humiliating happening to them. And then, I remind myself that I’m still doing a lot of great things for others. No matter what happens.

Ian: Is that something your uncle taught you?

Peter: Naw... It’s something I learned from my time with Otto.

Hiro H.: So, while you guys are here, how about I treat you guys? My Aunt Cass is out of town for a few days, so I’m sure she wouldn’t mind opening the Lucky Cat for some friends of some new friends.

Hiro T.: (unhappy) Do I have to?

Takachiho kun, you may have been here in your dreams, but you are still a stranger in a strange world.

Fox: He has a point.

Hiro T.: ... Fine. But if this Hiro gives me the same damn speech his brother gave him, I’m leaving. I don’t care what world I’m in.

Hiro H.: (smiling) Suit yourself.

Noir: Would you like to join us, Ian san?

Ian: Me? Naw, I think I’m just gonna head home, have dinner, play some Mind Smith, and go to bed. Maybe another time.

Hiro H.: Okay, but if you change your mind, we’re at my aunt’s cafe.

Peter: Well, see you around. Hope you remember what I told you.

Baymax: I cannot deactivate unless you say you are satisfied with your care.

>With that, we leave. As for Ian, he goes to his office. There, he opens a secret drawer where an ominous magenta glow appears.

Ian: Sorry, Parker, but I have my own way of dealing with things.

>The Lucky Cat Cafe. Hiro H. brought us here for dinner. I know we are guests here, but I couldn’t help but help him with the meal. As does Bruce.

Hiro H.: You guys really didn’t have to do this.

Joker: No, it’s our pleasure. With your aunt away, we’re more than happy to help.

Bruce: Besides, it’s nice that someone made Alfred something for dinner for a change.

Baymax: Really? I should make a similar suggestion to Fred for Heathcliff.

Hiro H.: I don’t think we need to do that just yet.

>After we finished, we take them out to the cafe where Fox, Queen, Noir, Peter, Harry, Tony, Sammi, Alfred, and Dick were waiting.

Fox: Ah, those must be the famous Pennyworth Nachos I’ve heard so much about.

Really? I didn’t think a British butler new how to make a Mexican dish.

When you live with someone like Master Bruce for as long as I have, you learn a thing or two.

(sorry if the picture’s pixelated, it’s the only one we could find) And that’s what makes you best butler.

Alfred: I am very glad to hear that, Master Dick.

Harry: I should remember that for my butler.

Peter: Yeah, I should make him some of Aunt May’s famous wheatcakes now and again.

Hiro T.: Seriously? ... I wonder if I should do something for my Baymax.

Hiro H.: I guess you could.

Hiro T.: (upset) Wasn’t really asking you.

Sammi: Come on, you two. Let’s just eat.

Fox: I agree. We can’t just let a spread like this go to waist.

>We enjoy our meal.

Hiro H.: Wow, this Master Coffee tastes great. I wish Aunt Cass were hear to try it. We would have loved to add this to our menu.

You’ll have to speak to Boss first.

>We laugh.

Joker: Of course, I could always let you use my special curry.

Hiro T.: Are you sure Hiro with an H can handle that level of spiciness?

I know I can. Ren’s Inferno is always a source artistic stimulation.

Baymax: I fail to see how eating spicy curry can help the eater with art.

Harry: If you had taste receptors, you would.

Baymax: I will remind Hiro to design a chip that will allow me to experience taste.

Hiro H.: I’ll be sure to do that, Baymax.

Baymax: You should gave your Baymax taste receptors as well, Hiro Takachiho.

Hiro T.: I’m not sure why, but I’ll think about it. You know, I’m surprised that you know about our world’s Baymax. Have you both been sharing dreams as well?

Baymax: I am a robot. I do not truly dream... Although, I have had a few images playing in my CPU whenever I am being upgraded. As to how I know about your Baymax and the coronavius... Is because I have been to your world.

>We were all shocked to hear this.

Hiro H.: Wait, I remember. That time you disappeared. Is there where you were? On another world? How did you get there? And why didn’t you tell us?

Baymax: I was unable to access that file for some unknown reason. But when we met Sora, Donald, and Goofy, I regained access to that file. I even have video footage of my visit.

Hiro H.: Holy... How did this even happen?

Baymax: I am not sure. The file is somewhat corrupted. The time between my departure San Fransokyo and arriving in that world. The same goes for my departure from that world and returning here.

Hiro H.: I see. I suppose I can just look into your memories and see what we can find.

Queen: We can also ask Futaba and see if she can help. This is sort of her area of expertise.

Hiro H.: Thanks, Makoto.

Tony: But for now, let’s just enjoy the rest of our dinner. Coman bien, todos.

>After we had finished our dinner, Tony gets a message on his phone.

Tony: It’s Reuben. He’s here to take us home.

Joker: I see. Well, here’s hoping we can see each other again soon.

Harry: I’m sure you will... Actually, sooner than you think?

What do you mean?

Peter: (smiling and winking) Ask Akechi.

>With that, Peter, Harry, Bruce, Dick, Alfred, Tony, and Sammi leave.

Noir: I wonder what he means.

Joker: I guess we’ll find out.

>Outside, a little ways from the cafe, a glowing portal opens and two people come out.

So, how’d it go?

Tony: It went rather well.

Harry: Yeah, Krei won’t be making any unnecessary mergers anytime soon.

Glad to hear it. It would have been bad for the World Order... As if the Phantom Thieves were somewhat already doing that.

Peter: It’s alright, Master Riku. They’re pretty discrete.

Harry: They may look dark, but there’s more to them than they appear. Something you’re all too familiar with.

Master Riku: I suppose... Until I learned about their time traveling adventure and what they did.

Reuben: I know. I still remember what they did for me. But then again, I sent that request to have my own heart taken. Part of me wasn’t sure about it, but at the same time, I’m glad they did it.

Sammi: Same here. And yet, here we are. Tony and Reuben’s relationship is improving. Though, I’d wish he’d come visit us more often. Maybe even move in.

Reuben: Believe me, I wish I could, but, I have a job to do.

Master Riku: That’s right. And that job has gotten more attention-grabbing now that he has passed the test.

Reuben: But I promise, as soon as I can, we’ll see where we go from there.

Peter Are you sure? I mean, isn’t that job looking for Sora and bring him back?

Reuben: Not really. I do help them from time to time, but my real job these days is dealing with the Heartless and the Nobodies.

Master Riku: That’s right. We may have defeated the Organization, the Heartless and the Nobodies will never truly be gone. As long as darkness exists in the hearts of others, they’re still going to come.

Reuben: We’re just lucky they might never come to our world. I’m not sure how everyone there would react. I mean, for the longest time, they always thought that Kingdom Hearts was just a video game. And we want to keep it that way.

Tony: Then we might have a problema. Baymax is remembering his little trip to our world. I’m afraid of what’ll happen if he fully remembers it.

Master Riku: Okay, so while I was doing a little exploring to other worlds, I might have left an opening for Baymax to wonder into. I brought him back here and tried to erase his memories of what happened. But I guess robots are difficult to deal with. Don’t worry, I’ll see if Ienzo can do something about it.

Sammi: Hope he doesn’t mind if I do something about it, too.

Master Riku: I’m sure he can appreciate the help.

Tony: With Sammi, Ienzo’s the one helping.

>They laughed.

Dylan: I hope the Phantom Thieves will succeed in their heist.

Peter: You bet they will.

Harry: We believe in them.

Dylan: That’s good... Because Phantom Thieves and Persona 5 merchandise are going through the roof. I’m getting in on it.

Reuben: Well, we better go. Tengo mucho que hacer.

Tony: Entonces lidera el camino ... Maestro Valdez.

Master Riku: Well, you heard him... Master Valdez.

Reuben: Gracias.

>With that, they come into the portal... Hiro T. is the last to go in. He looks back at the cafe.

Hiro T.: Hiro, I know we come from different worlds and have different opinions... But don’t stop being a hero.

>With that, he goes into the portal and it closes.

>To be concluded...

[jobsearchtips02]

News Outlets Want More Marketers to Imitate Hamburger King

The Home of the Whopper, Verizon and Amazon are amongst the relative few that haven’t been afraid to run ads near protection of the coronavirus.

Rather of shunning posts with terms like “Covid-19” or “pandemic,” Burger King focused its message on contactless food shipment and pickup. Credit … Leah Frances for The New York Times

May 7, 2020, 10: 27 a.m. ET

The majority of companies regularly take actions to ensure their ads don’t run near headings that might distress prospective customers. News companies weren’t amazed when advertisers canceled projects in current weeks or demanded that their ads be placed far from coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, costing publishers considerable profits.

Hamburger King was an exception. Rather of shunning posts that consisted of terms like “Covid-19” or “pandemic,” the company behind the Whopper focused its message on contactless food shipment and pickup. That way, its marketing would not seem out of place in a grim news cycle, said Marcelo Pascoa, the company’s head of brand name and communications.

” It isn’t damaging for the brand name to appear within the context of the crisis, because the brand is playing a role,” he said.

To keep away from problem, marketers typically turn to a method called blacklisting. It allows airlines to avoid running advertisements near plane-crash coverage, and companies with wholesome images to keep away from short articles consisting of words like “murder” or “sex.” In a time of political polarization, regularly blacklisted terms consist of “Russia,” “impeach” and, amongst the most prevented, ” Trump.”

Lately, the most-blocked terms refer to the infection. Blacklisting during the pandemic has actually kept more than 1.3 billion ads from being shown beside content featuring the word “coronavirus” on sites, according to the advertisement verification company Integral Ad Science. That has had a devastating effect on ad-dependent news organizations, a lot of which have actually been required to lay off employees at a time when the pandemic has controlled coverage.

For quality journalism to survive, more companies ought to behave like Hamburger King, news publishers and marketing executives say.

Image

Isolation-themed ads, like this one from Burger King, have actually popped up more regularly on news sites as the virus lingers. Credit … Hamburger King

Steven Brill, a veteran news executive who is working to eliminate false information and propaganda through the journalism verification start-up NewsGuard, said business had started “an unintended boycott of major news” through their avoidance of coronavirus protection.

” There’s a method to support genuine journalism and not be embarrassed,” Mr. Brill stated.

However there are issues, aside from business squeamishness. Numerous companies are struggling to stay afloat and have less to invest in marketing. Further, they fret that their advertisements could wind up on sites that pitch incorrect information or conspiracy theories related to the virus.

Mr. Brill stated business ought to put aside their fears, provided the hazard to the news industry.

” Advertisers can continue to make thoughtful choices about ad placements on Covid-19 content while supporting major journalism and remaining positive their advertisements will not appear on false information sites,” he said.

In a recent essay for the trade publication The Drum, Jerry Daykin, a media executive at the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, advised his peers to support deserving news outlets. The heading for his piece was blunt: “Marketers– stop blocking the best parts of the internet or they will not exist any longer.”

” If we cut the funding from premium content and journalism,” Mr. Daykin wrote, “it merely will not exist for us to promote versus in the future.”

Some business, such as Slack, Geico, Netflix and the telemedicine business GoodRx, have actually continued to place ads with news publications despite the awful news cycle.

Verizon likewise went against the trend, spending more than $4.5 million on marketing on news websites like The Wall Street Journal and CNN given that mid-March. That was more than double what it had invested over the very same duration in 2015, according to the advertising analytics platform Pathmatics.

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Verizon has spent more than $4.5 million marketing on news sites since mid-March. Credit … Jeenah Moon for The New York City Times

” Instead of pulling back because of the overwhelming nature of the narrative, we’ve leaned in,” Diego Scotti, Verizon’s chief marketing officer, stated in a statement.

Likewise, Amazon, which has dealt with criticism for pushing nervous workers to work, has spent $2.3 million to promote in The Wall Street Journal, in The Washington Post and on CNN because mid-March. Over the exact same duration in 2015, it invested $506,200 on those websites, according to Pathmatics.

But almost 90 percent of wire service stated companies had actually canceled advertising campaign since the crisis began, according to the trade group IAB

Many marketers entered into “panic mode,” stated Michel de Rijk, the chief executive of the digital marketing company S4 Capital

” Their first action was to stop whatever,” he said. “They didn’t want to be viewed in the wrong way or associated in some way.”

When print was the dominant medium, advertisements were placed by human beings able to make judgment calls. In the digital age, custom filters and algorithms guide advertisements into position along with online articles.

Some companies have thousands of blacklisted keywords and subjects. The blocking method is a “blunt tool,” stated Daniel Avital, the chief strategy officer of the advertisement fraud prevention business Cheq.

” Keyword blacklisting sees whatever in black and white,” he stated. “Covid is being discussed in every post, good or bad, but there is no spectrum, no subtlety, differentiating a dreadful post about old people dying from a benign short article about a musician carrying out from their living-room.”

Stringent filters are less expensive than sophisticated algorithms that scan stories for context, Mr. Avital added.

If the pandemic lasts through June, keyword stopping will drain more than $1 billion in income from online news publishers in the United States, according to a research study conducted by Cheq and the University of Baltimore’s Merrick School of Service. News publications are two times as most likely as other platforms to have actually ads scrubbed because of coronavirus-related material, IAB stated.

As the virus sticks around, isolation-themed ads have actually increasingly appeared on news sites. Numerous business continue to funnel the bulk of their online advertisement costs to Google and Facebook, which have struggled to include conspiracy theories and sketchy merchants.

An example is the e-commerce company Overstock. In Between March 11 and April 9, it invested more than $136,000 on news sites but $362,000 on Facebook advertisements, according to Pathmatics.

News publishers are promoting a larger share.

” Trusted wire service are the ultimate safe space for brand names,” stated Happiness Robins, the chief earnings officer for The Washington Post, “however trust and scale are not enough. Publishers can likewise guide brand names on how to responsibly speak with their highly engaged readers.”

Upgraded April 11, 2020

What should I do if I feel sick?

If you have actually been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or problem breathing, call a doctor. They ought to offer you advice on whether you should be evaluated, how to get evaluated, and how to seek medical treatment without possibly contaminating or exposing others.

When will this end?

This is a difficult question, due to the fact that a lot depends on how well the virus is included

How can I assist?

The Times Neediest Cases Fund has started a special campaign to assist those who have actually been affected, which accepts contributions here Charity Navigator, which examines charities utilizing a numbers-based system, has a running list of nonprofits working in communities impacted by the break out. You can offer blood through the American Red Cross, and World Central Kitchen has actually actioned in to disperse meals in major cities. More than 30,000 coronavirus-related GoFundMe fund-raisers have begun in the past few weeks. (The sheer number of fund-raisers suggests more of them are likely to stop working to satisfy their objective, though.)

Should I use a mask?

The C.D.C. has advised that all Americans use fabric masks if they head out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance showing brand-new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread out by contaminated people who have no symptoms Previously, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t require to use masks unless they are ill and coughing. Part of the factor was to protect medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they remain in continually short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing.

How do I get tested?

If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. suggests that you call your health care provider and explain your symptoms and fears.

How does coronavirus spread?

It seems to spread very quickly from individual to person, particularly in houses, healthcare facilities and other restricted areas.

Is there a vaccine yet?

No.

What makes this outbreak so different?

Unlike the flu, there is no known treatment or vaccine, and little is understood about this specific infection so far.

What if somebody in my family gets sick?

If the household member does not require hospitalization and can be cared for at home, you must help him or her with basic needs and monitor the symptoms, while also keeping as much distance as possible, according to standards released by the C.D.C. If there’s space, the sick household member ought to remain in a separate room and use a different restroom.

Should I stockpile on groceries?

Plan 2 weeks of meals if possible.

Can I go to the park?

Yes, however make sure you keep 6 feet of distance in between you and people who don’t live in your house. Even if you simply hang out in a park, instead of choose a jog or a walk, getting some fresh air, and ideally sunlight, is a good idea.

Should I pull my cash from the markets?

That’s not a good concept. Even if you’re retired, having a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds so that your money stays up to date with inflation, or even grows, makes good sense. However retirees might want to think of having adequate money reserve for a year’s worth of living expenditures and big payments needed over the next five years.

What should I do with my 401( k)?

Watching your balance go up and down can be frightening. You may be wondering if you should reduce your contributions– do not! If your company matches any part of your contributions, ensure you’re at least conserving as much as you can to get that “free money.”

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from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/news-outlets-want-more-marketers-to-imitate-hamburger-king/