#I hope that we can find a silver lining from long covid causing more people to develop new allergies and have that lead to awareness

[rurinnfane]

Now that I’ve made peace with and learned to live with chronic illness, sometimes I forget that it’s a disability until it comes and knocks me on my ass now and again.

As I’m learning more about allergies and how allergic reactions can manifest in the body (besides straight up anaphylaxis) I’m wondering if some of my chronic illness symptoms aren’t just… reactions to things that I have yet to identify as allergens. Identifying allergens is also a pain, because allergy panels exist, but you have to 1) go off your antihistamines for a brief period beforehand (hell) and 2) some insurance only covers tests for major allergens like molds/pollens. Anything else, particularly foods, requires elimination diets… which in turn require stupid amounts of patience and willpower.

Those thoughts make me realize just how hostile feeding yourself can be if you don’t just cook everything for yourself, and if you can’t get yourself higher-end ingredients that don’t have additives you’re allergic to. What are you to do if you can’t cook for whatever reason? Sometimes you have to opt for foods that cause you the least severe reaction when no safe foods are available. Allergies really, really need to be better understood and respected as a disability, especially in this hell world where everything seems to contain corn and soy for no good reason.

[calzona-ga]

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you haven’t watched the March 11 crossover episodes of “Station 19” (“Train in Vain”) and “Grey’s Anatomy” (“Helplessly Hoping”) on ABC.

RIP, Andrew DeLuca: surgical attending at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, ex-boyfriend of Meredith Grey, brother of Carina DeLuca, and, as of ABC’s crossover episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Station 19″ on Thursday night, murder victim by the hand of a henchman in a trafficking ring. Yes, DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) was stabbed by one of the human traffickers he and Carina (Stefania Spampinato) had chased through Seattle, and despite receiving care at his own hospital, he died. But his efforts weren’t in vain, we learn: The traffickers are all arrested.

It was the culmination of a “Grey’s Anatomy” story that had been cut short by the COVID-19 production shutdown in March. In what turned out to be one of the final episodes of Season 16, DeLuca suspected a patient was being trafficked by her so-called “aunt” who had brought her to the hospital, but because he was in the middle of a manic episode, no one believed him. In the midseason finale of “Grey’s” in December, DeLuca — medicated for his bipolar disorder, well-rested and clear-eyed — spotted the trafficker, Opal (Stephanie Kurtzuba), and this time, he wasn’t going to let her get away.

In an interview with Gianniotti, who was on “Grey’s” for seven seasons, he said that when he learned how his character was going to die, he’d wanted to make sure that it was apparent that DeLuca — “a very brave and noble person,” in Gianniotti’s words — go out as “a pillar of representation for people struggling with mental health.”

“It wasn’t that he was unmedicated and unrested, and that’s what led him to put himself in a dangerous situation,” Gianniotti said. “This was the most DeLuca thing DeLuca has ever done.”

In the episode, as DeLuca hovered between life and death, he communed with Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) on the beach where she has spent most of this season, also in a liminal state, having been taken down by COVID in the season premiere. There, Meredith has hung out with Derek (Patrick Dempsey), her dead husband, and George (T.R. Knight), her dead friend — as well as characters who are still alive.

Of his beach scenes with Meredith, Gianniotti said: “You see DeLuca more happy and relaxed than you’ve ever seen him ever on the show, because all of those stressors are all gone. And he’s with the person whom he loves, which puts them even more at peace.”

“Grey’s Anatomy” — now its 17th season, and still the one most watched shows on television — is itself in limbo, according to showrunner Krista Vernoff. With negotiations with Pompeo for a contract extension ongoing, Vernoff told Variety she has to “plan for both contingencies” as she and the writers room map out the end of the season — or the series.

Though DeLuca is dead, Vernoff revealed that we haven’t seen the last of him — that’s what the beach is for, it seems. And Gianniotti, mentored by “Grey’s” executive producer-director Debbie Allen, returned recently to direct an episode that will air in the spring. He will miss the fans, Gianniotti said: “I’ve never seen a show be so beloved. To feel that love, and have felt that love over the seven seasons has really been remarkable.”

As Vernoff said, “He’s still in the family.”

In an interview, Vernoff talked about how she conceived of DeLuca’s death, the difficulties of not knowing whether the show is ending and how shooting during COVID has changed “Grey’s Anatomy.”

And what in God’s name is happening on the beach!?!

You killed DeLuca.

I’m the worst.

How did this story come about?

Honestly, the story told itself to me. I went for my walk on the beach to come up with my pitches, and these episodes came in whole cloth, like a vision. And I was like, “Oh, no! Really, that’s the story?” And it was. We knew as I pitched it that it was the midseason finale story.

Sometimes stories tell themselves to you, and your heart just breaks. You’re like, “That’s not what I want the end of that story to be!” But that’s so much of life this year.

Can you talk about killing a major character this season, and having the cause of death not be COVID?

That was born, I’m certain, of my psyche wrestling with all of the ongoing tragedies and traumas in the world not stopping due to COVID. There’s this feeling of injustice, like, no, COVID is enough. But sometimes you’re going through all of it at once.

Can you talk about putting DeLuca on the beach with Meredith, and the larger meaning of the beach as a storytelling device this year?

The beach was born out of desire to have an escape from the pandemic.

We came back before almost anyone else. And the actors were scared, and nobody really knew for sure that all the safety protocols were going to work. Doing the pandemic felt like the right thing creatively, but it also felt like the thing that was going to make the actors feel safe to come back to work, because they were all going to be able to be in masks. And if they weren’t, they would be outside. And once the decision was made to do COVID, and then the decision was made to give Meredith COVID, it felt like a way to get Meredith outside without a mask, and in a non-pandemic world.

If you’re a magical thinker like I am, that beach is a real magical in-between place. But if you’re not, if you are not a believer in magical things — if you are an atheist, a scientist, a whatever, my stepsons don’t believe in a magical place — we’ve designed it very carefully so that it also could just be a dream. So anytime someone’s on that beach with Meredith, they are also in her room so she’s hearing their voices from her hospital bed.

When DeLuca visits her on the beach, for me, DeLuca’s between life and death. For my stepsons, Meredith heard in her hospital room that something happened to DeLuca. So now she’s dreaming DeLuca! I wanted very much for the motif to work no matter what you believed.

It just feels to me like whatever you believe, that’s right.

DeLuca has been on the show for a long time. What did you want his final episode to say about him?

I think he went out a hero. I think that he went out fighting for what he believed in. And he was through his mental health crisis. He’d become a very productive member of the hospital staff. And he wasn’t going to let this woman walk away again.

What was it like when you told Giacomo Gianniotti what was going to happen to DeLuca?

He was so relieved that I was not having him kill himself, or go out in a mania frenzy. And he was excited to play it — he played the hell out of it. He actually does appear in a couple more episodes this season. And he’s directing an episode.

I’m going to assume that Meredith wakes up and finds out that he’s dead. Do you see the beach as a place she’ll have an awareness or a memory of in any way?

Yes.

OK!

I don’t have too much more to say about that, because I don’t want to spoil too much. And also: Sometimes I change my mind. But at the moment, yes.

It’s been such a heavy season for both “Grey’s” and “Station 19,” reflecting the world right now. But I know that’s not necessarily where your heart is as a storyteller. Can you talk about where the thinking is on continuing “Grey’s Anatomy”?

When you’re living through a pandemic, and you’re coming back amidst a pandemic, and you decide to do the pandemic, the nature of the storytelling turns a little bit darker. And so for this moment, it is where my heart is.

And I also feel like my heart as a storyteller, my sense of light, and my sense of hope and beauty and joy that infuses most of what I do is expressed through that beach. The joy, the collective joy for all of us in getting to see Derek Shepherd again, getting to see George O’Malley again, in getting out of the hospital and getting onto the beach, and seeing Meredith’s relief there — I know that we’re worried about her, but also there’s joy.

And in terms of whether or not it’s the last season of “Grey’s Anatomy,” I don’t know. And that’s the truth. I wish I knew. It’s a source of frustration at this point. And it sort of doubles my job, my workload, because I have to plan for both contingencies. But I am. And God willing, I’ll know soon.

It can’t end like this! Can you reveal how many episodes will be in this season of “Grey’s Anatomy”?

17.

That’s a lot.

It is a lot. Yeah, it’s a lot, considering what we’re navigating.

Will anyone else be joining Meredith on the beach?

Yes! But I won’t tell you.

Returning cast members or current?

There are some surprises in store.

Now that you have shot more than half the season during COVID, can you talk about what you’ve learned over the course of the year?

The crew is exhausted because they’re behind masks and visors all day. The masks and visors are dehydrating and stultifying, and as a result, you need more breaks. You need to send everybody off the stage to take their masks and visors off to hydrate. You can’t ask everybody to be there for 12 or 13 hours at a stretch. So we’re shooting 10-hour days. And that is a really significant change to what we’re able to accomplish and shoot.

What I’ve learned, and I’m continuing to learn, is how to write the show in a way that makes it producible — we cannot have scenes with as many characters in them. And we cannot have as many scenes. And we cannot have as many locations! Because we can’t have as many company moves. All of it has to become smaller, and that changes the stories we tell. If you usually have five or six people in a scene, and now you usually have two people in a scene, sometimes the whole cast isn’t in the episode. You look at an episode and you’re like, “Where’s Amelia?” Well, she’s home with the kids! We didn’t make the company move.

I think that there are silver linings: Deeper, longer richer scenes are really beautiful things sometimes. But they’re different for “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Do you see a light at the end of the tunnel, both for these fictional characters and for all of us?

Yes, I do! I feel like we’re all living the light at the end of the tunnel right now as our parents and grandparents get vaccinated. And as we begin to emerge, hopefully, from this year of cocoon. I feel like we’re living in in some light, and I do see a light at the end of the tunnel for these characters,whether this is the end of the series or the end of the season.

There’s so much coming up! I know this one is going to be devastating for the fans. And I feel it too. I cried harder watching this episode, this cut, than I’ve cried since I watched the episode where George O’Malley died. And that is a really powerful tribute to the character that we built and to the actor.

[lokiondisneyplus]

Today I left the house wearing a face mask for the first time.

I had woken up to the sound of heavy rain, which is always surreal in Los Angeles, and when I look out of the window to the hauntingly dehumanising sight of bandana-clad dog walkers, an eerie weight settles as I remember: this is our reality now.

I’m standing in the supermarket queue, a line dotted by crosses taped on the floor of the underground car park to signify our designated 6ft distance. Easily 50 people long and snaking around the perimeter of the building, I make my way to the last available X-marks-the-spot and join the other masked Bandits. I haven’t food shopped for over a week and am in need of supplies.

There is an obnoxiously loud man two crosses ahead of me ranting into his phone with such a high energy, the surrounding Bandits have allowed an extended social distance of a cross on either side of him. I sigh, remembering I’ve left my headphones at home, so am unable to tune him out, I wait and exhale, wondering how I am going to get used to the claustrophobic sensation of hot air and fabric condensing on my face.

Loud Phone Man is not wearing a mask and it's clear we’ve passed the tipping point of mild judgement, at least here in LA, where Bandits exchange a raised eyebrow, (about the only non-verbal Bandit communication available) which somehow magnifies the annoyance of this shopper - not only loud, but breathing indiscriminately all over us in this confined space… what does he think this is? Last week??

It’s Monday on #Week4 of Covid-19 lockdown in La La Land and as I shuffle to the next X I reflect on the journey so far.

After a whirlwind press tour to promote the release of Misbehaviour in UK cinemas (sadly cinemas were shuttered just days after the film's theatrical release – but it's available to watch online at home from April 15th!) I returned to work in Atlanta for Loki, the Marvel limited series for Disney Plus I’ve been working on, so am on set when I get the news that we are going on hiatus as a precaution due to the accelerating coronavirus, initially for one week. Thinking it would be longer, but still unsure at that point, I book a flight to LA to sit things out there for the time being. The next day Trump imposes a travel ban on travelling in or out of the US for 30 days, and with my visa situation and the pace at which everything is moving, it feels risky to fly to the UK in case I cannot get back into the country when filming recommences, whenever that will be.

So, with my housemate and her dog for company, we embark on social distancing, self-isolation and Lady Macbeth-level hand-washing.

Managing a constant low-level anxiety about my parents and loved ones, and friends in New York, London, Johannesburg and all over the world, I become consumed by the news, glued to the BBC website and KCRW talk radio for the latest figures. Like families gathered around “the wireless” in wartime, everything is unfolding so rapidly and the news, never this dramatic in my lifetime, takes on disaster-movie proportions.

FaceTime and WhatsApp become my lifelines as the reality of the pandemic is tinged with a weird detachment… a numbness I later realise was a form of shock that lasts for nearly two weeks and puts me into a hyper-focused state as I race to keep up, stay informed and learn how to adapt to this new rhythm.

I am of course aware that I am so privileged to be safe and personally unaffected thus far, but grasping the truth from what is overblown, and fact from politics and propaganda, give everything an out-of-body zero gravity quality; a new normal we are all united in.

Things are kicking off in the food line as my attention is caught by an exasperated Valley Girl three Xs ahead who finally explodes at Loud Phone Man, “ OH MY GAAAAD, USE YOUR INSIDE VOICE, CANT YOU SEEEEE EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT YOU CAUSE YOU’RE TALKING SO LOUD… WE ALL HAVE TO STAND HERE, OHMYGAAAD!” As she stomps her Ugged feet to the next X the security guard and smiling store employee (no mask) approach and I can feel a repressed inside-voice-cheer emanate from the rest of the line in applause.

The Bandit Couple ahead of me raise another eyebrow in solidarity and Female Bandit begins to capture a video of Loud Phone Man on her iPhone. The air gets thin, the energy tightens, “Hey Man,” Smiling Store Employee intercepts, Security guard flanking, “You wanna keep it down a bit, people are stressed, y’know? Thanks Man.” Valley Girl scowls, Bandit couple exchange glances, while still filming, Loud Phone Man defends, “I WASN’T EVEN TALKING THAT LOUUUUUD!!!” (Collective Bandit eyeroll) “YESSSSS YOU WERE!!!” Hisses Valley Girl, “Yeah Man, sorry you were,” Store Employee placates. taking the referee stance. I notice Loud Phone Man is wearing flip-flops, on a rainy day. He continues his conversation into his device, phone held to his lips, like a dictaphone, barely any quieter. “We have to be prepared…”

I sigh and feel warm breath on my cheeks. Mouth drying I look at my phone for escape and see that Boris Johnson has been admitted into intensive care for persistent and worsening Covid-19 symptoms. I suddenly feel very far from home and very sad.

I remember the things I’ve been doing to keep grounded and my spirits up. One of the benefits of turning out old cupboards was rediscovering my long dormant art materials. Painting, such an absorbing and transporting activity for me in childhood, was once something I considered doing instead of acting, but found it a little socially isolating - so acting won because it felt more collaborative. Now, of course, painting in isolation is perfect and becomes the most comforting of pastimes and a creative channel as I make images of my family and feel like I am spending time with them.

Understanding how superfluous actors are in a crisis such as this, I come to terms with the fact that staying at home, as passive as it may seem, is my contribution for now. Having the luxury of not having to home-school any children and knowing my work is pretty much on pause until social distancing recedes, I try to reframe this time as a chance to rest and refill the creative well. I read novels for pleasure, something I rarely find time for beyond work-related reads. I take my first Zoom yoga class (alexdawsonyoga.com), I join a 21-day online meditation experience (chopracentermediation.com), I take local hikes for fresh air and make first ever batches of banana bread and chicken soup. I even buy a mini trampoline online which, after a mildly challenging self-assembly, I’ve been sweating it out on to streamed classes online (lekfit.com) with a friend in Toronto, followed by accountability FaceTime coffee dates to virtually high five!

By the end of week two, the adrenalin crash truly hits and I’m exhausted from the constant rhythm shifting, news consumption and uncertainty. I’m an eternal optimist and good at self-motivating, but even when you’re Keeping Calm and Carrying on, you need to crash at some point. I nearly cry when I get my mum an Ocado food delivery slot - nothing has been available for weeks - and the “what ifs” that I have been keeping at bay with all my other activities release with relief and gratitude.

That’s when I discover Brené Brown’s new podcast Unlocking Us and find such solace in her calm and thoroughly researched words and conversations. Since her TED talk fame as a charismatic shame and vulnerability researcher, I’ve read all of her books and there is always something practical and nourishing in her work, told with humour and in a deeply relatable way - which I’ve found comfort in while in the midst of folding laundry, cleaning the bath or chopping vegetables.

Back in the food line and things are moving; the tension of the Loud Phone Man Vs Valley Girl dispute still simmers but everyone relaxes as they get closer to the front-door finish line. Smiling Store Employee does his speech on the new system: no reusable bags allowed, sanitised trollies and a one-way system in the aisles inside marked by arrows on the floor, to minimise contact with other customers. It all feels so surreal and regimented, but the Bandits, already drained from the 30-minute wait, constant Loud Phone Man soundtrack, near car park fight and everything else they’re all adjusting to, nod wearily behind their moist makeshift masks. It’s a bizarre sight.

Still chatting, Loud Phone Man makes it in and there’s a collective “phew” eye-contact exchanged between Smiling Store Employee and the remaining Bandits. Then his smile drops and crinkles for a second. “Yeah, he’s been in every day this week. It’s kinda sad. There’s no one on the phone.” The Bandits' brows knot quizzically. “Yeah, I think he has mental health issues, he just talks but the phone’s not on and he has no ear pieces, he just talks into it… 'They’re coming, we have to be prepared.'… I don’t know what to do.”

The reality breaks my heart. It seems to highlight the collective insanity we’ve all been processing and in that moment I just feel so frustrated at the state of the world and how this pandemic has exposed so many cracks in our society - from mental health to healthcare to privilege and poverty, everything just feels so raw.

I try to look for the silver linings and, among all the fear and anxiety and loss, I’ve been so inspired by human resilience, adaptability and creativity. I’m hopeful this great pandemic leveller will bring a new era of authenticity. An opportunity to shift mentality from Me to We.

Week three in self-isolation felt almost normal, which feels weird to admit. I’m getting lots of sleep and take regular meditative baths, which I’ve renamed Home Spa. I’ve found ways to safely contribute in my local community. When the shelves were bare from panic buying, I chatted with the manager of our local grocery store, who seemed so overwhelmed, so my housemate and I volunteered to stack shelves after hours. Although not exactly the front lines, we have fun and it feels good to give something back in our small way.

We of course negotiated to be paid in baked beans and toilet paper.

[frankterranella]

Here’s some music for a more intimate Christmas

Well, it’s officially the Christmas season, but it remains to be seen what a COVID-19 Christmas will look like. With the restrictions on the size of family gatherings, it will probably be more intimate. One thing we know for sure, this will be a Christmas without the many people we have lost this year to the virus and to other causes. Among those is composer Johnny Mandel who died in June at the age of 94. Mandel wrote lots of music in his long career. Some of his best-known work is songs and background music for movies. For example, he wrote the music to “The Shadow of Your Smile” from The Sandpiper, “Emily” from The Americanization of Emily, and “Suicide is Painless” from M*A*S*H. But he also happened to write the music to one of my favorite Christmas songs. Once again, it was a song from a movie, but this was a 1986 movie made for television. The film was called Christmas Eve and it starred Loretta Young and Trevor Howard, with great supporting performances by Arthur Hill and Ron Leibman. I have previously written about this little gem of a Christmas movie, so I won’t say a lot about it here except to say it’s about a grandmother (Loretta Young) who hires a detective (Ron Leibman) to find her three grandchildren who are estranged from her son (Arthur Hill). She has a special urgency to have them all come home for Christmas. If you can find a copy, grab it and watch it. Johnny Mandel was hired to write background music for this film and he came up with an absolutely beautiful tune. But unlike the many other films he worked on, here the producers were happy to just have the music, and so, no lyrics were written. Fortunately, a few years later, the wonderful lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman put some words to Mandel’s music and a Christmas song was born. It was given the unassuming title, “A Christmas Love Song.” Soon singers from Barbra Streisand to Tony Bennett found this gem and recorded it for their Christmas albums. Interestingly, the Bergmans chose for the first line of their lyric the words “All I want for Christmas is you.”  Just a couple of years later Mariah Carey would run with this idea and write a multi-million dollar hit. But the Bergmans were there first. Their lyrics say:

All I want for Christmas is you You’re the gift that’s made my dreams all come true All I need for Christmas is here Sending every sweet surprise wrapped up in your eyes Waiting there for me underneath the tree We’ll spend the day exchanging kisses Smile and say “What a Christmas this is” Long before the snowflakes appear Without bells or mistletoe or the tinsel silver glow You just look at me and Oh! Christmas is here!

I think it’s wonderful song with one of Johnny Mandel’s best tunes. I don’t think there’s a bad recording of it. Check out Barbra Streisand’s excellent rendition as well as Tony Bennett’s.  I am partial to the Manhattan Transfer version. All are available on YouTube. In a year when our Christmas will certainly be less grand than in a normal year, I think an intimate little song like “A Christmas Love Long” is just what the season ordered. All it requires is two people very much in love and full of the Christmas spirit. I hope we all can enjoy that this year.

[silentexplorer18]

Mental Health and Isolation

Okay, guys.  This is going to deal with emotions, depression, trauma, isolation, and Covid-19.  If you feel that these issues will trigger you, I recommend skipping over this post.

With most of the world falling into lockdown officially or unofficially, I wanted to say a little something.  Several things may happen to you during this period of your life, and I want you to know that you are not alone in them, specifically in regard to your reactions to isolation.

I’m going to put a cut, just because it’s going to be a really long post, but if you have the mental health capabilities and patience to read my words, I’d like to ask that you do.

Last year, I spent about six months in isolation due to personal health problems that prevented me from leaving my home.  I left on occasion for visits to the doctor and the occasional run to the store, but otherwise, I was confined to my home - moreover, my bedroom - through my illness and recovery.  In January, I’d started leaving the house again a bit, driving, making plans.  However, with my weakened immune system, most of those plans were quickly postponed as news of Covid-19 swept the world.  As of currently writing this post, I’ve spent almost nine months mostly in isolation.  It seems the rest of the world is finally catching up to me, though, as people find themselves ordered to their homes or needing to stay home for personal health reasons.

Why am I telling you all this?  Because in the time that I spent ill last year, I learned a lot about social isolation, and a few of those things I’d like to share with you.  My hope is that it may help some of you cope with what you’re going through.

1) You may feel grief or a sense of injustice.

You’ve lost things this year and that’s disappointing.  It’s okay to admit it.  It’s easy to fall into a mental rut unsure of how to process the emotions you’re feeling.  There are things that you missed, important things, that you have every right to be upset by.  Perhaps it was a wedding, important birthday, graduation, prom, vacation, festival, or other event that you were excited for.  Perhaps it’s something as simple as spending time with a loved one or seeing your friends at school or getting to experience something that you were excited for.  Your feelings are valid.  It’s okay to be upset that you have to miss those things.  If you feel grief for the experiences you’ve lost, allow yourself to feel those emotions.  It’s okay to be upset.

It’s easy to try to force yourself into believing your feelings aren’t valid.  I mean, there are other things going on in the world right now that are painful.  There are families losing loved ones, people suffering.  However, using their pain as a reason to invalidate your pain will not help you feel better.  Do not try to shame yourself into not being upset.  It will just leave you muddled and in even worse pain because you’re piling negative emotions on top of the ones you’re already feeling.  Allow yourself to feel whatever you’re feeling, be upset over the experiences and opportunities you’ve lost.  Doing that will allow you to then focus on the things that you have left to gain and the good you are doing by helping those who can’t help themselves.

2) You may feel a sense of helplessness.

Things are out of your control.  You can’t fix this all by yourself, it just isn’t possible.  And as distressing as that is, it’s the truth.  You may feel helpless or useless “stuck at home” while people are struggling.

However, what’s important to remember is that you’re doing what you can.  Staying at home is helping people more than you realize.  You can’t directly see the impact of the help you’re giving because you don’t even know who you’re helping, but it’s important to remember that you’re doing your best, helping as many people as you can (more than you know) by doing your part to stop more vulnerable communities from contracting Covid-19.

It may also be beneficial to think of small things you can do to help people.  Perhaps you have a friend that’s homeschooling young children that you could send a link to the aquarium or an online book reading to.  Or you could send an email to a loved one who may be struggling.  While it’s important to slow the spread of the virus, allow your kindness to be contagious.  Even just one act of kindness that you make in a day can transform the day for someone else.

3) You may experience symptoms of depression or hopelessness due to isolation.

Without a routine or the normal things that keep you motivated, it’s very possible that you will fall into a cycle of depression.  Especially if things you were once excited for are now gone.  It’s easy right now to look at the world and say “what’s the point in anything.”  Being isolated can cause you to recede into yourself, block out the world.

I can’t personally tell you what will help you overcome this, but I will say that trying your best to practice self care at this time is important.  Even if you don’t feel motivated to do much, try your best to do one or two simple things that will help keep you on track (maybe brushing your hair, washing your face, drinking a glass of water, etc.).  

I understand things feel hopeless right now.  There are terrible things going on in the world and the emotions that you’re feeling are a lot to cope with.  However, there are things to hope for.  While it isn’t always easy (or necessary) to find a silver lining everything, try to do a few things every day that may make you feel a little bit more regulated.  Let the sun in your room.  Take a shower.  Even if you don’t feel good, try to practice caring for yourself as best as you can.

And understand that you aren’t a bad, selfish, or strange person for feeling depressed or hopeless.  We don’t get to choose what we feel, but we can choose how we respond to those feelings.

4) You may relive traumas or experience trauma responses from past experiences.

Isolation gives you ample time to be alone with your mind.  While this won’t cause issues for everyone, for people who have experienced painful situations or trauma, this can open up time for your mind and body to relive those experiences and remember ones you may have forgotten.  This can be scary and distressing, especially if your usual coping mechanisms to your trauma include doing activities or distracting yourself with things you can no longer do.  It’s important to understand that while these things did happen to you, they are not currently happening anymore.  The things you are remembering from your past cannot harm you right now.

Having time to think about your traumas can bring trauma responses to the surface.  You may feel guilt, shame, anxiety, responsibility, or any number of other trauma responses.  However, it’s important to recognize that those feelings aren’t your own, they’re purely in response to trauma.  It was not your fault; your brain is saying it is as a way to cope with the pain that you experienced.  You did not deserve it.  Try to focus on your own feelings about the issues you’ve faced, not the feelings created from people that did not care about your experiences or the feelings your own brain may be projecting as a coping mechanism.

What you’re feeling is valid and you are not alone.  Being alone gives your brain time to wander, time to sift through things or focus on things it wouldn’t normally fixate on.  Try to reach out to someone you trust, let someone know what you’re experiencing.  If this happens, if you start remembering or reliving past traumas, please remember you are not at fault and you do not deserve the pain that you are going through.

5) You may realize things about yourself - emotionally, mentally, or physically - that you didn’t want to know.

As stated above, you will have ample time alone with your mind during social isolation.  In addition to remembering trauma, it can also give your mind time to process trauma, dredge through you feelings, and evaluate your actions and experiences.  This can provide clarity or understanding about past experiences and behaviors, but sometimes this isn’t always desired.  You may feel thrown off guard by the information you’ve realized about yourself.

It can be very difficult to realize why you behave the way you do or what experiences you’ve faced that have traumatized you.  However, try your best to allow yourself to think with clarity, understand the emotions you’re feeling, and what you can do to process it.  These feelings may be difficult, but it doesn’t make you any less of a good person.  It doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t valid.  And it doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve kindness and compassion, both from others and from yourself.  It isn’t easy to process pain, to sift through emotions, but if you are, then know you’re doing your best, and I’m proud of you for that.  You should be proud of you for that.

---

Of course, I’m not an expert on psychology.  I’m no doctor, and I certainly can’t tell you what you personally will experience or what responses to mental health struggles are best for you.  The list above is in no way comprehensive or definitive, you may feel all of those things, some, or none, and I can’t guarantee that your feelings on the topics above will match the things I feel.  However, I’m speaking from experience when I describe the things above.  I grieved for the loss of my first year of university last fall; I felt helpless against my own health struggles; there were times I was so depressed I couldn’t function; I relived traumas and remembered experiences I was desperate to forget again; I learned so much about my mental health and what I needed to thrive.  I know what it’s like if you’re going through any of the above mentioned things.

I see what you’re going through right now.  I understand.  You are not alone.  And your feelings are valid.  Do not be ashamed if you are overwhelmed or emotional.  It’s important that you allow yourself to experience these feelings, to process what your brain is going through.  Isolation isn’t meant to be easy.  Being alone with your own mind isn’t always easy.  And it’s completely valid to be struggling right now.

But you are not alone.  If you’re struggling, reach out to a relative or a friend or another person that you may trust.  If you feel you don’t have anyone, you have me.  This blog is a safe space for you to come to if you need somewhere to be.  You’re always welcome to talk to me, message me, if you need support from someone right now.  I understand what you’re going through.  You are not alone.

~Silent

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the Wall Street Journal:

“The pandemic is a nightmare,” says Jane Goodall over the phone from her family home in Bournemouth, U.K., where she has been sheltering in place since March. Because chimps share nearly 99% of human DNA, they are vulnerable to human-borne diseases. Human respiratory viruses are already the leading cause of death in some chimp communities, and while there have been no reports of Covid-19 outbreaks yet, all great apes are believed to be susceptible to the coronavirus that causes it. To pre-empt transmission, scientists have suspended great-ape research across Africa, including at the center Dr. Goodall founded in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park. The prospect of a deadly virus wiping out yet more of this endangered species is “terrifying,” she says.

Befitting someone who used the word “hope” in the titles of three of her past four books, Dr. Goodall isn’t above squinting to find a silver lining. “I think people are seeing that we brought this pandemic upon ourselves by disregarding the warnings of scientists,” she says. She hopes that policy makers recognize that raising animals in unhygienic factory farms or trafficking and selling them in crowded markets makes it easier for viruses to jump from animals to humans. (According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three out of four new or emerging diseases in humans come from animals.) People in cities who are breathing cleaner air and glimpsing more stars may also be more inclined to fight pollution. “I think this is waking people up,” she says.

EcoWatch has published a CBS News interview with Jane Goodall. Here’s the link to the EcoWatch story, and an excerpt from the interview:

Jeff Berardelli: Destruction of nature is causing some really big concerns around the world. One that comes to the forefront right now is emergent diseases like COVID-19. Can you describe how destruction of the environment contributes to this?

Dr. Jane Goodall: Well, the thing is, we brought this on ourselves because the scientists that have been studying these so-called zoonotic diseases that jump from an animal to a human have been predicting something like this for so long. As we chop down at stake tropical rainforest, with its rich biodiversity, we are eating away the habitats of millions of animals, and many of them are being pushed into greater contact with humans. We're driving deeper and deeper, making roads throughout the habitat, which again brings people and animals in contact with each other. People are hunting the animals and selling the meat, or trafficking the infants, and all of this is creating environments which are perfect for a virus or a bacteria to cross that species barrier and sometimes, like COVID-19, it becomes very contagious and we're suffering from it.

But we know if we don't stop destroying the environment and disrespecting animals — we're hunting them, killing them, eating them; killing and eating chimpanzees in Central Africa led to HIV/AIDS — there will be another one. It's inevitable.

Do you fear that the next [pandemic] will be a lot worse than this one?

Well, we've been lucky with this one because, although it's incredibly infectious, the percentage of people who die is relatively low. Mostly they recover and hopefully then build up some immunity. But supposing the next one is just as contagious and has a percentage of deaths like Ebola, for example, this would have an even more devastating effect on humanity than this one.

[reneeswing]

The Joy, The Ridicule and The Hope

Let's rewind: what are the top three advices that have been given to us about COVID-19 prevention: wash your hand, observe social distance and take care of each other. Does that ring the bell that we have learnt all three things since we are in elementary school, if we are ever lucky enough to go to one.

So, I am going to make a bold statement here: most of the life-long lessons that we need for going through life, we’ve learnt them way before advanced educations, regardless of differences in culture, race and geographic locations. Yet, the sad truth is we only seem to spend the remainder of our time forgetting all we have learnt and all we need to remember to overcome this conundrum. If I dig a bit deeper, my basic education have equiped me with way more useful knowledge than what business school and law school have ever tought me. To name a few, geography helps me to navigate through the continents without being laughed at, history and literature offer me perspectives to see and comprehend everything ever happened in this time and this world. Law school and business school, on the other hand, slowly coop up people into a disillusion of elite class, distancing them from what’s actually going on in this insanely biased reality. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe every opportunity of education matters, it emancipates and liberates generations; and if anything, I have been blessed with all sort of way of thinking, coming from each stage of my school years. It is the monotonous perception on education that sometimes misinterprets or overly simplifies its true essence.

Do anyone begin to appreciate the down time of this quanrantine yet? I am not saying this to trivialize the dismal impact of the pandemic; because both our economic and social lives have taken a major toll from this crisis. For those who are alone in this quarantine, they are craving for human contact, the touch, the hug, all the more basic need of being a human; whereas for those who have a full house with multiple children at home, the working day never ends as it is combined with home schooling. This makes people finally realize that their job is their ultimate refuge. One of my friends started to refer to her kids as fantastic beasts, since the third week of the lockdown. This is, in my opinion, one of the best metaphors of the year. Now, this is what I hope: when all this is over, we will eventually appreciate more of our teachers and other educational workers. for us, it is only with our own kids, whereas at school, kids are ganged up on them. They are entitled to fairer reward and respect from all walks of the society.

Like others, my emotion has gone through various stages: at first, I was fairly content with what I’ve got here, a cozy home, abundant toilet rolls and sufficient supply of alcoholic grape juice. Then some kind of obsession started to develop, the bad kind is to slowly transform healthy self-reflection into self-condemnation for something I have done wrong 2,3,5 years ago. And the more time I spent on my devices, the higher level of anxiety incubated. Then, later on, I decided to have a rather lengthy conversation with myself, the righteous thing that I have ever done: committing to my own feelings, compelling myself away from judgement. I learnt to acknowledge them, more importantly, I searched for language and specific words to label them in all the more precise way. Through that exercise, I realized although they appear similarly, the emotion of anxiety is very different from that of sadness; and the exhileration that I was feeling is also different from excitement. When I found out I was able to distinguish those various emotions in me, I felt stress level has already half way gone, I could call the truce with myself. So, something good does come out from this period. When we are not able to go out, we should allow ourselves to go within.  

There are a lot more silver linings. To my recollection over the past 8 years, I don’t rememer any of the Dutch springs is as beautiful as this one. We’ve had sunny and warm weather throughout the month of April. Everyday, I went onto my balcony, let the light beam through my forehead and inhale the most precious fresh air. It is painful to face it that our continents are receding to isolated islands as all the traffics are shut down, but it is also delightful to find that nature thrives when human society hits the PAUSE button. The blue sky is returned to the birds and their flapping wings; waterways turn purer as no more crazy human running around and emitting pollution into them.  Even panda’s resume consummation. For the last 2,3 years, anthropogenic activities have caused large scale bushfires across north and south hemispheres; it happened even in Syberia above the North Pole. Human society is inflicting pains onto the lung of our Mother Earth. Isn’t it an irony that our respiratory system is succumbed to this coronavirus? I couldn’t help but wonder if this pandemic is the nature’s vengeance onto the arrogance of human race? So, here comes my second wish. One day as we come out of this pandemic, our peaceful moments with the nature will stick around a bit longer. Even though I know that humanity is terrible at reckoning with it own sin, I still wish this time, after all we have endured, we will finally learn to return the favour for our Mother Nature’s altruistic love. That we will be more reflective on our own behaviours, the impact that each of us have made onto anything outside of ourselves. You may say I am a dreamer, but I am definitely not and should not be the only one.

......

The world is suffering from its own bipolar disorder. To steer my way clear from the menaces, I rid myself of watching news during the weekends. But one still doesn't make the cut. As for a while, it is the only thing that people couldn't stop talking about: Donald Trump contemplates injecting/ingesting coronavirus patients with disinfectants, until the moment he made the next obnoxious statement. What's even more troubling is there was actually a slight increasing number of ER cases caused by internal administration of chemical solvent. Both New York Times and RB, the producer of Lysol and Dettol, had to make official announcement to talk people out of their desperate craze. One day I woke up and spit out this question: how is it even possibly happening? If B school has ever taught me anything, it is that leadership matters; and I dedicated most of my career contemplating how to be a good (future) leader. But nowadays, we are riding a perfect storm, while sinking down into a chasm called: the scum rises to the top. We are living in a reality that outruns the most ridiculous screenwriting of political drama. Not only have we got Trump assumed the most powerful position in this world, we don't seem capable of appropriating any countermeasures to dampen the damages. Although his strategy is nothing much different from that of a shameless politician: barking up the wrong trees to divert the public's attention further away from criticism against him, the impact however is way too profound to be left alone. He is dividing not only a country, also driving a wedge between friendly countries, when the only hope the world is left with is the hope of solidarity. 

The world is in urgent need of an assertive voice with a kind heart and a pair of potent hands. It cannot be done by one person, rather, has to be a collective conscience of all the human societies. The younger generation does not believe in institutions, they embrace anarchistic believes and have little problem of taking things to its extremity; but in the meantime, they are reasonable, way more objective and fairer than they are being judged or even portrayed. They believe in gender equality, inform themselves of cultural intricacy and they gather to rally for animal rights and climate change. For both reasons, their world needs leaders with integrity and convincing voices. In all appropriate times, we need to learn to be a leader for ourselves and for others. It is up to us how we are going to make our next decision, in giving an opinion, in executing right to vote, in influencing people around us and in doing smallest good deeds to hold onto each other. Here's an example. It is no strange thing to know that our doctors and nurses are working under tremendous physical and mental pressures. We've heard multiple cases in Italy and the US that medical staff committed suicide after virus contraction or nervous breakdown. In almost every country, people are finding ways to demonstrate their gratitude to their guardian angels; however news from India reads that doctors and nurses become target of discrimination, demonising them as virus itself. Similar discriminatory stories surface from time to time around the world against people from other countries or communities because of the pandemic. This shows how far off people could be dangerously biased and misled; the absence of a just and empathetic figure in the leadership attributes to and to a great extent severs the alienation. But we all could and should choose to lead. We can never let our guard down, ignoring any appalling ignorance, even with the slightest carelessness. We need to speak up, protect people who are protecting us and the world's most vulnerable's. We need to do it constantly, consistently and often enough. Bear in mind, our decision and undertaking of today will define our tomorrow in common. 

......

Alright, enough about the grim prospect and grievance. As far as being a hopeless optimist, I will complement my third wish with a faith in humanity after it all. Yesterday, I watched the season finale of Westworld. As Dolores sank down into her memory, she restated: "Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world. The disarray. I choose to see the beauty". I agree with every bit of those words. I believe the key to the sublime lies in ourselves and our conscience. In the end, true bravery is to love the world and humanity, despite the ugliness that we have seen or experienced. 

Before I let you go, I am inviting you to join me in paying tributes to all the essential workers who are risking their lives every day to keep ours running without panics. Next to our lovely doctors and nurses, here's to the infrastructure workers, the train conductors and bus drivers,  the supermarkets' staff, the logistics companies, the mailman, (especially my mailman, who brings me my 1,000 packages to fill the huge void in my soul), the journalists and newsmen, who are running all across the countries, strive to bring us brutal facts, inconvenient truths, disarray and hopes. Collectively you've prevented the world from crumpling, after the mess we made. I thank you for that! 

Please take care and stay healthy!

Love, R

[orbemnews]

The Coronavirus Is a Master of Mixing Its Genome, Worrying Scientists In recent weeks, scientists have sounded the alarm about new variants of the coronavirus that carry a handful of tiny mutations, some of which seem to make vaccines less effective. But it is not just these small genetic changes that are raising concerns. The novel coronavirus has a propensity to mix large chunks of its genome when it makes copies of itself. Unlike small mutations, which are like typos in the sequence, a phenomenon called recombination resembles a major copy-and-paste error in which the second half of a sentence is completely overwritten with a slightly different version. A flurry of new studies suggests that recombination may allow the virus to shapeshift in dangerous ways. But in the long term, this biological machinery may offer a silver lining, helping researchers find drugs to stop the virus in its tracks. “There’s no question that recombination is happening,” said Nels Elde, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Utah. “And in fact, it’s probably a bit underappreciated and could be at play even in the emergence of some of the new variants of concern.” The coronavirus mutations that most people have heard about, such as those in the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa, are changes in a single “letter” of the virus’s long genetic sequence, or RNA. Because the virus has a robust system for proofreading its RNA code, these small mutations are relatively rare. Recombination, in contrast, is rife in coronaviruses. Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center led by virologist Mark Denison recently studied how things go awry during replication in three coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid. The team found that all three viruses showed “extensive” recombination when replicating separately in the laboratory. Scientists worry that recombination might allow for different variants of the coronavirus to combine into more dangerous versions inside of a person’s body. The B.1.1.7 variant first detected in Britain, for example, had more than a dozen mutations that seemed to appear suddenly. Dr. Elde said that recombination may have merged mutations from different variants that arose spontaneously within the same person over time or that co-infected someone simultaneously. For now, he said, that idea is speculative: “It’s really hard to see these invisible scars from a recombination event.” And although getting infected with two variants at once is possible, it’s thought to be rare. Katrina Lythgoe, an evolutionary epidemiologist at the Oxford Big Data Institute in Britain, is skeptical that co-infection happens often. “But the new variants of concern have taught us that rare events can still have a big impact,” she added. Recombination might also allow two different coronaviruses from the same taxonomic group to swap some of their genes. To examine that risk more closely, Dr. Elde and his colleagues compared the genetic sequences of many different coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 and some of its distant relatives known to infect pigs and cattle. Using specially developed software, the scientists highlighted the places where those viruses’ sequences aligned and matched — and where they didn’t. The software suggested that over the past couple of centuries of the viruses’ evolution, many of the recombination events involved segments that made the spike protein, which helps the virus enter human cells. That’s troubling, the scientists said, because it could be a route through which one virus essentially equips another to infect people. “Through this recombination, a virus that can’t infect people could recombine with a virus like SARS-CoV-2 and take the sequence for spike, and could become able to infect people,” said Stephen Goldstein, an evolutionary virologist who worked on the study. Updated  Feb. 5, 2021, 12:18 p.m. ET The findings, which were posted online on Thursday but have not yet been published in a scientific journal, offered fresh evidence that related coronaviruses are quite promiscuous in terms of recombining with each other. There were also many sequences that cropped up in the coronaviruses that seemed to come out of nowhere. “In some cases, it almost looks like there’s sequence dropping in from outer space, from coronaviruses we don’t even know about yet,” Dr. Elde said. The recombination of coronaviruses across totally different groups has not been closely studied, in part because such experiments would potentially have to undergo government review in the United States because of safety risks. Feng Gao, a virologist at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, said that although the new software from the Utah researchers found unusual sequences in coronaviruses, that doesn’t provide ironclad evidence for recombination. It could simply be that they evolved that way on their own. “Diversity, no matter how much, does not mean recombination,” Dr. Gao said. “It can well be caused by huge diversification during viral evolution.” Scientists have limited knowledge about whether recombination could give rise to new pandemic coronaviruses, said Vincent Munster, a viral ecologist with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has studied coronaviruses for years. Still, that evidence is growing. In a study released in July and formally published today, Dr. Munster and his collaborators suggested that recombination is likely how both SARS-CoV-2 and the virus behind the original SARS outbreak in 2003 both ended up with a version of the spike protein that allows them to deftly enter human cells. That spike protein binds to a particular entry point in human cells called ACE2. That paper calls for greater surveillance of coronaviruses to see if there are others that use ACE2 and may thus pose similar threats to people. Some scientists are studying recombination machinery not only to fend off the next pandemic, but to help fight this one. For example, in his recent study on the recombination of three coronaviruses, Dr. Denison of Vanderbilt found that blocking an enzyme known as nsp14-ExoN in a mouse coronavirus caused recombination events to plummet. This suggested that the enzyme is vital to coronaviruses’ ability to mix-and-match their RNA as they replicate. Now, Dr. Denison and Sandra Weller, a virologist at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, are investigating whether this insight could treat people with Covid. Certain antiviral drugs such as remdesivir fight infections by serving as RNA decoys that gum up the viral replication process. But these medications don’t work as well as some had hoped for coronaviruses. One theory is that the nsp14-ExoN enzyme chucks out the errors caused by these drugs, thereby rescuing the virus. Dr. Denison and Dr. Weller, among others, are looking for drugs that would block the activity of nsp14-ExoN, allowing remdesivir and other antivirals to work more effectively. Dr. Weller likens this approach to the cocktail therapies for H.I.V., which combine molecules that act on different aspects of the virus’s replication. “We need combination therapy for coronaviruses,” she said. Dr. Weller notes that nsp14-ExoN is shared across coronaviruses, so a drug that successfully suppresses it could act against more than just SARS-CoV-2. She and Dr. Denison are still at the early stages of drug discovery, testing different molecules in cells. Other scientists see potential in this approach, not only to make drugs like remdesivir work better, but to prevent the virus from fixing any of its replication mistakes. “I think it’s a good idea,” Dr. Goldstein said, “because you would push the virus into what’s known as ‘error catastrophe’ — basically that it would mutate so much that it’s lethal for the virus.” Source link Orbem News #coronavirus #Genome #Master #Mixing #Scientists #worrying

[howveryheather]

pandemic songs + self discovery

My Spotify Unwrapped for 2020 looked remarkably similar to every other year of my life recorded on the platform. The number one song, for what has to be at least four years running, is an ambient track from a video game that I listen to while I’m working. Most of my top musicians are a mix of film and television composers and Enya. This is true even in a pandemic. So many of my existing musical influences are still here to weather the many storms of life that are ahead — whether I am ready for them or not.

In every moment where I was not working, I was listening to a lot of music. Pouring over my Spotify, I’m able to see so many different moods and feelings. I have always kept one enormous playlist that lets me go back and know exactly what music I was listening at various moments in my life. Moments in time where the world felt like it had lost its balance, but music kept me grounded. Kept me thinking about the past, present, and future. The way I see it, the best is still yet to come for everyone. Better times are on their way. People I don’t yet know are coming into my life. Places I haven’t lived in yet will be here soon. And there will be even more songs that will define those moments in time for me. 

I didn’t know the songs I’d be listening to during the pandemic and yet, here we are... with the music that defined this uncertain time in my corner of the world.

“Say So” — Doja Cat

In the aftermath of getting knocked out with one of the worst flus of my life for a week this year, I spent the remainder of February desperately trying to regain my strength and sense of self. Little did I know that in March the entire world would change because of the coronavirus. This song feels like the last music video of our “normal” time. Nostalgic for roller skating rinks and hanging out with friends.

“Geyser” — Mitski

Have you ever heard a song that emotionally rocked you to the core so badly that you had to get into the fetal position and think afterwards? This one did it. Screaming while crawling and rolling around in the dirt is a real 2020 mood.

“Too Late” — The Weeknd

The entire After Hours album, and the red suit character, is a real quarantine/lockdown mood if there ever was one. Abel can’t miss.

“The Chain” — Fleetwood Mac

Everyone else might have been on a Dreams kick, courtesy of the Ocean Spray skateboarder but I was all about The Chain. 

“Me And You” — NERO

In the movie montage of your life, this is the song that plays to emphasize you’re a boss who can do anything. I stopped drinking for the better part of this year, which is pretty cool. Then I attempted the keto diet. That lasted for... less than 48 hours. The message is simple: I will just exercise instead of giving up carbs!

“Ocean of Mine” — Kennedy One

Before I started paying for Spotify Premium, I was trapped in a world of endless commercials. Once in a great while, the streaming service would recommend music that I might like. Kennedy One’s Ocean of Mine was one of those recommendations. I listened to this while I had my first crown put on at the dentist. You know I love anything that sounds like the wind, the water, and the promise of the shore.

“Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor” — Aly & AJ

These sisters came through so many times in 2020! The Up All Night event on YouTube and the Viper Room streaming show made it feel like concerts had, in a slow but sure way, been able to make a return. Just in time to kiss 2020 goodbye we have an explicit version of Potential Breakup Song... MVPs!

“Moscow Invitational 1968″ — Carlos Rafael Rivera

Many hours spent writing require a specific kind of soundtrack for staying in the zone. The moment I heard this score play during The Queen’s Gambit, I knew it was going to be part of my background noise whenever I’m working from this moment moving forward. It’s inspiring to listen to and helps me stay even more concentrated on the task at hand. Whatever challenges are ahead, I know I can reach them and keep leaping onward to the next hurdle and beyond.

“forget me too” — Machine Gun Kelly feat. Halsey

This is why we need concerts again: recreating a mosh pit feeling alone in your bedroom is simply not possible.

“Shine Ibiza Anthem 2019” — Paul van Dyk, Alex M.O.R.P.H.

In a pre-COVID world, I had plans to see Ultra 2020 in Miami. In a post-COVID, vaccinated world, I still have these plans for the future! I so look forward to the return of music festivals again, particularly those of the eat, sleep, rave, repeat variety. 

“Violence” — Grimes & i_o

This is my December song that will carry into January and beyond. I love, love, love it! (RIP Garrett Lockhart.)

As 2020 comes to a close, I have discovered some things about myself. 

There were three times I cried, and I mean sobbed my eyes out, during this pandemic. The first was during the news of the initial lockdown. That was pure fear and confusion and chaos. The second was when I started to see news footage of miles-long lines of people waiting for food to feed their families. That was an aching sadness that I felt deep in my bones because a lot of people lost their jobs and had nowhere else to turn for food. And the third was when I heard Governor Newsom ordered 5,000 body bags for California. Hearing news like that makes it impossible to never un-hear it again. It’s the reality of how badly this virus has rampaged our country.

It really bothers me when I see people saying that they want normal again. I get the root of the desire which is that you’d like to enjoy a drink at the bar or have a dinner out or spend time with friends, etc. But there were a lot of problems with our normal world. Too many. To me, it feels like signaling that you’re okay with continuing to live in a society where so many people have to work multiple jobs to survive, the healthcare infrastructure is buckling, and the education system is completely fractured (among many other issues!). 

What it seems, at least to me, is that people only want the aspects of normal that they were fortunate enough to receive but come at the expense of others. I suppose the best analogy is to consider the super rich. Once they exit their bunkers, they will want someone, likely paid on barely liveable wages, to make and serve them brunch. One can only hope this time has changed enough people to do and be better, but human nature is a fairly predictable beast. A number of people failed what I consider to be a basic human experiment and revealed seriously selfish true colors. I could rant about this topic for awhile — and believe me, I have THOUGHTS — but it’s too easy to dwell on bad news and opinions. 

There was a lot of good, just news in the mix. Some of it made the news, some went under the radar, but it was still there and it’s still happening. Here’s a few links:

There has been an animal discovered by scientists (a jellyfish-like parasite) that does not need oxygen to survive.

CRISPR was injected into a live patient’s eyeball this year, to treat genetically-caused blindness.

PG&E plead guilty to 85 counts in the 2018 Camp Fire, the same fire that wiped out Paradise, California. 

A Michigan jeweler named Johnny Perri buried $1 million of gold, silver, and diamonds for a real-life treasure hunt this summer.

Princess Beatrice and Edo Mapelli Mozzi had one of the prettiest, socially distanced weddings I’ve ever seen.

American Girl launched a new doll, Courtney, born in 1986. (They’re catching up to my age now!)

And the 2021 Super Bowl is inviting healthcare workers to attend the big game.

In the post-coronavirus “new normal” when I have been vaccinated, I know some aspects of my life will go back to their bubble. A lot will change though. 

What I really want is to do is get involved, hands on, in the community again. I want to volunteer at local food banks, soup kitchens, and/or churches for a few hours each week, when possible. (I also have a thought surrounding the idea of making a whole bunch of travel-size feminine product care kits for women in need if this isn’t already happening...) And if I can’t physically be there, then I want to donate and offer support in other ways. I am not helpless. I am a helper, as Mr. Rogers would say, and I would like to be able to help out more and contribute to the well-being of others once it is safe to do so.

I hope people will find it inside of them to want to work together again and come together as a community. It means a lot of hard work and energy and time, but it’s gonna make our world a lot better — far beyond the normal one we left behind.

[proteus-no]

What exactly is going on with supernatural? I’m outside the fandom, but it sounds real exciting... whatever is happening...

brooooo...... SO MUCH is happening right now, so here’s a not quick run down cause I ended up rambling, have fun anon:

- Castiel was introduce 4x01, and from literally the day after, the fandom has been shipping him and Dean together. Cas was planned to be killed off fairly early on, but the fans loved him (and his dynamic/relationship with Dean) so much that the writers kept him around

- Originally a female angel (who Dean had sex with) was supposed to be his guardian angel. But the fans.... 

- And so begins a long and torrid history of Destiel, which personally I have been shipping for 10-11 years, and so have many other fans. There were too many things that added up, like every Cas did, he did for Dean. Like.... literally everything. And somewhere along the way, Misha (Castiel’s actor) started playing Cas like he was in love/pining

- People labeled Jensen as homophobic because he, personally, didn’t headcanon Dean as bisexual (even though most fans did), and got testy and upset with Destiel because fans would harass him over it, which is understandable

- But then season 15 happens

- The writers focused a LOT on Dean and Cas’ (platonic) relationship. And fans were getting hype. They loved it. They were acting like an old married couple and we were living.

- And in 15x10, Dean is high on anesthetics from getting dental surgery, and has a bit where he’s dancing in black and white, and it’s very much a Hayes code thing. And he briefly dances with a lamp (this is where the lamp memes come from). Light fixtures, light in general, and lamps have always been a symbol/stand in for Cas, so every goes nuts

- Also in 15x17, God says that in every other universe, Castiel never disobeys. He saved Dean from hell, then did what he was told. But this universe’s Castiel had a “crack in his chasis” and was the only one who disoeyed. Who rebelled. And now he was outside God’s plan

- And God (Chuck) has always been a stand in for the writers. So Castiel, who was so loved by the fans that he was kept on the show and completely changed their plans, is also outside the writers hands. We all just went  👀 👀 👀 

- And then, on November 5th, 2020, 15x18 airs and the internet loses its collective shit. It doesn’t matter if you were a die hard fan, lost interest along the way,never watched it but was interested, or never had any interest at all, EVERYONE was talking about this episode.

- Because, my dear anon, Castiel explicitly confesses his gay, homosexual love for Dean. 

- Sadly, Death wanted Dean dead for trying to kill her. And there was this entity called the Empty (which everyone calls Turbo Hell) that also wanted Death dead. But the thing is, is that Cas made a deal with the Empty to save his adopted son, Jack, who was trapped there. Jack would get out, but the moment Cas experienced true happiness, the Empty would take Cas.

- So Cas doesn’t want Dean to die. So he starts talking about how Dean is a good person, an amazing man. And fans were like... oh? And he continues, talking about how everything Dean has done, he has done for love, for his love of Sam and Jack, and how he loved the world and wanted to save it. And we’re like Oh????????? and then he says Dean changed him, and that he LOVES Dean. And then we lost out collective shit, and he pushes Dean away and gets eaten by the Empty.

- Everyone started calling Dean and Jensen homophobic because Dean wasn’t reacting much but like???? Home boy was being chased by and about to be killed by Death, and Cas starts saying stuff that no one has ever said to him before (see, Dean hates himself and thinks he corrupts everything he touches), and THEN his best friend (who he thought was straight, amongst other things but I’ll touch on that later) confesses he loves him before promptly dying.

- But the thing is, he was dying from experiencing true happiness, and his happiness was just confessing, not even being reciprocated, which is a huge oof.

- Also everyone not in the fandom conveniently ignores how Dean broke down crying on the floor immediately afterwards.

- But then the behinds the scenes information comes out and OH BOY.

- As it turns out, the actors joined the writers for writing and planning out season 15, and you want to know what was the first thing they wrote for this season?

- Thats right, you guessed it, Cas’ love confession. So they wrote the entire season with he knowledge that Cas is hopelessly in love with, and always has been, in love with Dean.

- I cannot stress this enough, but Cas has always been in love with Dean.

- And in the scene, when Cas pushes Dean away, he leaves a bloody handprint on the location that Cas had branded him when he dragged him up from hell.

- You want to know who gave that suggestion?

- JENSEN “HOMOPHOBIC” ACKLES

- BUT WAIT IT GETS EVEN BETTER

- BECAUSE JENSEN IN A CON SAID THAT HES BEEN PLAYING DEAN, SINCE HE MET CAS, WONDERING IF CAS EVEN FELT LOVE LIKE HUMANS SINCE HE’S A CELESTIAL BEING

- WHICH MEANS DEAN’S BEEN WONDERING IF CAS COULD EVEN LOVE HIM

- AHHHHHH

- THE JACKLES LONGCON FOLKS

- But then the next episode airs, and Dean is in a forward spiral, blacking out drunk. Everythings bad, but Cas and his confession arent really brought up and we’re like?????? ?????

- But the main story, really everything but Cas, gets resolved at the end of the episode.

- But also, the show runners have keeping Misha’s location during filming a secret. So we have no idea if he’s even in the finale. So everyone's obviously going to watch, and hope, that Cas comes back and Dean can finally reciprocate.

- But then the finale airs, and at first we were hopeful. Dean’s room is full of lamps, and Cas’ coat can be seen in the background. We also see an application as a mechanic on his desk. And we’re so hopeful, that Dean is moving on from the hunting life. He’s going to have an actual life

- But then Dean dies, from a fucking juggalo vampire, impaled on a rusty nail (actually its bent rebar, but rusty nail is funnier). During a simple hunt. And Dean doesn't want to be saved, which goes against ALL OF HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND HIS ARC FROM NOT ONLY THIS SEASON, BUT THE PAST 5 YEARS

- DEAN, WHO IS CALLED A KILLER BY GOD AND SAYS “YOU SEE, THAT’S NOT ME” BECAUSE CAS SAID HE WAS A GOOD PERSON WHO LOVES SO MUCH

- JUST.... DIES.......

- And on top of that, Sam, who’s arc the ENTIRE SHOW has been moving past his toxic co-dependency from his brother and finding his own life just..... doesn't move on...... he spends literally the rest of his life grieving over his brother. Naming his kid after him, the whole shebang.

- And there was this awful “old Sam” who was in really bad make-up and a silver party city wig. it looked so bad.

- And Dean? Up in Heaven? Just drives his car around. Like, that’s it. He learns from Bobby that Cas is out of Turbo Hell and is fixing up heaven with their new God (Jack, which also goes against Castiel’s arc that he isn’t God’s little soldier, he’s his own person, he’s outside God’s plan. And yeah, Jack is God now, and he’s still Cas’ adopted son, but the point still stands that he’s God’s soldier again) and just continues driving until Sam finally dies and comes to heaven.

- Oh and not to mention that Sam’s love interest for the past couple of seasons (Eileen, a deaf woman) is just never mentioned again, even though she was shown to be brought back, and Sam was grief stricken when God snapped everyone out of existence. No, Sam gets a blurry face woman as wife instead, and Eileen is never heard from again.

- So basically the writer taunted us with Cas to get us to watch the finale because they knew we wouldn’t watch if Cas wasn’t in it.

- So even though the show has ended, more news comes out every day. Like, for example, the heavy focus on Sam in finale and lack of acknowledging the homosexual declaration of love was because they wanted to keep the Sam girls and cis white heterosexual audience pleased so they would follow over to CW’s new show, a Walker Texas Ranger reboot staring Jared Padalecki (Sam’s actor)

- It was also brought up that even pre-covid, the show runners didn’t even bother to ask past characters to come on the show for the finale, even though they said they wanted to have a big scene with all of Sam and Dean’s found family showing up in heaven (including the band Kansas, and I find the implication that the Winchester’s killed them is hilarious) but yeah. They never even asked.

- Jensen also asked a crew member to record the scene on his phone while they were filming, so it has all the cut content. And like Jensen, release the tapes.

- Misha also made a tweet linking an article about how to tell if nuts are rancid, highlighting that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth

- There’s a lot of other stuff that happened, but I’m forgetting

- But RECENTLY both the latin America and indian dub of 15x18 was released and more information came out.

- For example, Dean was originally supposed to scream Cas’ name that it could be heard from blocks away.

- But the BIG news is that, okay in the American version, Dean says “Do do this, Cas” as in, don’t sacrifice yourself. But the lips movements never really lined up.

- However, in the LA version, Dean says “y yo a ti, Cas” which translates to “And I you, Cas”, and in the Indian version, it’s translated to “I’m yours, Cas.”

- AND HOLY SHIT

- DEAN ACTUALLY CONFESSES HE LOVES HIM BACK

- AND JENSEN’S LIP MOVESMENTS WOULD LINE UP MORE WITH “I’M YOURS” OR “AND I YOU” THAN “DON’T DO THIS”

- So basically Destiel is not only canon, but RECIPROCATED, but like, only in Spanish, but hey, we’ll take what we can get.

- AND THEN Misha releases a video that’s summed up to “It was a rogue translator, blah blah blah” and just seemed like CW was holding a gun to his head to do damage control

- Everyone was pissed for like .2 seconds but then Misha immediately apologizes and goes to his replies and has been talking with fans about why they’re upset, and just genuinely just learning about the strife and anger people are feeling. It’s big “Dad trying to understand his kid’s problems at school” vibes. 

- And Jensen has been radio silent the entire time even though it’s obvious CW has been trying to get their actors to quell the fans, and honestly he stan a king.

And that’s what you missed, pretty much. But new information is coming out every day, so periodically send asks and I’ll update you on this shitshow, anon

[ezatluba]

As the normally bustling canals of Venice became deserted amid pandemic quarantines, viral social media posts claimed swans and dolphins were returning to the waters. It wasn't true. The canal water, nonetheless, is clearer because of the decrease in boat activity.

Fake animal news abounds on social media as coronavirus upends life

Bogus stories of wild animals flourishing in quarantined cities gives false hope—and viral fame.

NATASHA DALY

MARCH 20, 2020

SCATTERED AMID A relentless barrage of news about COVID-19 case surges, quarantine orders, and medical supply shortages on Twitter this week, some happy stories softened the blows: Swans had returned to deserted Venetian canals. Dolphins too. And a group of elephants had sauntered through a village in Yunnan, China, gotten drunk off corn wine, and passed out in a tea garden.

These reports of wildlife triumphs in countries hard-hit by the novel coronavirus got hundreds of thousands of retweets. They went viral on Instagram and Tik Tok. They made news headlines. If there’s a silver lining of the pandemic, people said, this was it—animals were bouncing back, running free in a humanless world.

But it wasn’t real.

The swans in the viral posts regularly appear in the canals of Burano, a small island in the greater Venice metropolitan area, where the photos were taken. The “Venetian” dolphins were filmed at a port in Sardinia, in the Mediterranean Sea, hundreds of miles away. No one has figured out where the drunken elephant photos came from, but a Chinese news report debunked the viral posts: While elephants did recently come through a village in Yunnan Province, China, their presence isn’t out of the norm, they aren’t the elephants in the viral photos, and they didn’t get drunk and pass out in a tea field.

While humans carry out social distancing, a group of 14 elephants broke into a village in Yunan province, looking for corn and other food. They ended up drinking 30kg of corn wine and got so drunk that they fell asleep in a nearby tea garden. 

Social media posts claimed that, in the absence of humans, elephants came into a village in China, got drunk on corn wine, and passed out. The story has since been debunked.

The phenomenon highlights how quickly eye-popping, too-good-to-be-true rumors can spread in times of crisis. People are compelled to share posts that make them emotional. When we’re feeling stressed, joyous animal footage can be an irresistible salve. The spread of social phenomena is so powerful, 2016 research shows, that it can follow same models that trace the contagion of epidemics.

When untruths go viral

Kaveri Ganapathy Ahuja’s controversial tweet about the swans that “returned” to Venice canals has hit a million likes.

“Here's an unexpected side effect of the pandemic,” her tweet reads. “The water flowing through the canals of Venice is clear for the first time in forever. The fish are visible, the swans returned.”

Here's an unexpected side effect of the pandemic - the water's flowing through the canals of Venice is clear for the first time in forever. The fish are visible, the swans returned. 

A viral tweet claimed swans had returned to the canals of Venice. In reality, swans have long frequented the canals of Burano, an island in the greater Venice metropolitan area.

Ahuja, who lives in New Delhi, India, says she saw some photos on social media and decided to put them together in a tweet, unaware that the swans were already regulars in Burano before the coronavirus tore across Italy.

“The tweet was just about sharing something that brought me joy in these gloomy times,” she says. She never expected it to go viral, or to cause any harm. “I wish there was an edit option on Twitter just for moments like this,” Ahuja says.

Nonetheless, she hasn’t deleted the tweet and doesn’t plan to, arguing that it’s still relevant because waters in Venice are clearer than usual—a result of decreased boat activity—and that’s what matters, she says. She’s tweeted about the “unprecedented” number of likes and retweets she’s received on the tweet. “It’s a personal record for me, and I would not like to delete it,” she says.

Swans are regular visitors to the canals of Burano.

The pull of posting

Paulo Ordoveza is a web developer and image verification expert who runs the Twitter account @picpedant, where he debunks fake viral posts—and calls out the fakers. He sees firsthand the “greed for virality” that may drive the impulse to propagate misinformation. It’s “overdosing on the euphoria that comes from seeing those like and retweet numbers rise into the thousands,” he says.

Getting a lot of likes and comments “gives us an immediate social reward,” says Erin Vogel, a social psychologist and postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. In other words, they make us feel good. Studies have found that posting to social media gives one’s self-esteem a temporary boost.

The need to seek out things that make us feel good may be exacerbated right now, as people try to come to grips with a pandemic, a collapsing economy, and sudden isolation. “In times when we’re all really lonely, it’s tempting to hold onto that feeling, especially if we’re posting something that gives people a lot of hope,” says Vogel. The idea that animals and nature could actually flourish during this crisis “could help give us a sense of meaning and purpose—that we went through this for a reason,” she says.

It was the running theme of many of the viral tweets. “Nature just hit the reset button on us,” read a tweet celebrating the dolphins supposedly swimming in Venetian canals.

Venice hasn't seen clear canal water in a very long time. Dolphins showing up too. Nature just hit the reset button on us 

Despite social media posts claiming otherwise, dolphins are not swimming in Venice’s canals. This video footage was taken in Sardinia.

“I think people really want to believe in the power of nature to recover,” says Susan Clayton, a professor of psychology and environmental studies at the College of Wooster, in Ohio. “People hope that, no matter what we’ve done, nature is powerful enough to rise above it.” 

About half of Americans say they’ve been exposed to made-up news or information related to coronavirus, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. While a fake happy news story about dolphins in a canal may not be all that problematic, relatively speaking, there can still be harm in spreading false hope in times of crisis.

These fake feel-good stories, Vogel says, can make people even more distrustful at a time when everyone already feels vulnerable. Finding out good news isn’t real “can be even more demoralizing than not hearing it at all.”

Spots of hope on social media are likely to play a key role in keeping spirits up in the weeks and months ahead, as people self-quarantine in their homes and connect with each other through screens. “I’d encourage people to share positive things,” says Vogel. “But it doesn’t have to be anything dramatic. It just has to be true.”

Editor’s note: Want to verify photos online? TinEye and Google offer reverse image searches, which allow you to trace a photo’s digital footprint. Bellingcat, which does open-sourced fact-checking investigations into human rights abuses and in war zones, also has a thorough guide. If a post seems too good to be true, check social media to see if anyone else has already debunked it. This detailed thread, from Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins, pinpoints the swan photo to Burano. And if you’re looking for some true good-news and wonder-inducing stories, check out this story about the successful reintroduction of fishers in Washington State, this story about a pink manta ray, or these amazing photos from inside a honeybee colony.

[steamishot]

Gloomy

It’s sunday and it’s the start of a gloomy/rainy week in LA. I’m laying in my bed relaxing because I’m not sure what to do with myself. I finally made good milk tea - I’ve tried to in the past but always messed it up because I steeped the tea in water that was too hot. This would cause the tea to become murky/cloudy once it cooled down. Finally, a lightbulb went off in my head and I realized that was the reason why LOL. I’ve been enjoying being to enjoy a glass of fresh milk tea at home without the need to go out. Saving lots of money and can adjust sweetness to my level of liking. 

I started seeing people grow green onions and did the same. My green onions grew a significant amount from Friday - Saturday when it was sunny, but I think it’s gonna slow down without the sunshine. I planted a ginger root today, and will be looking for more random herbs/plants/vegetables that I can plant for quarantine entertainment. Now is really the time to find/work on hobbies. I just did my taxes yesterday, and felt the urge to splurge a little because of my refund (and upcoming stimulus). I got an organizer for my make up - finally, because it’s always been a mess. And I got new duvet covers for my room - which I’ve been wanting for a long time but just felt it was too frivolous. Since I’ll be spending a lot of time in my room, I don’t mind investing more into it to make myself enjoy my time here. I want to also introduce new plants into my room, but I’m not sure what the best way of going about this is. I found some plant subscription websites that have cute houseplants, but they’re so overpriced. I regret not buying them pre-lockdown. 

My family workout zoom meeting was a success today. Got to connect my cousins & aunt/uncles in Paris, Dallas, and Houston. My grandma was very happy to see them. My cousins (pre-teens) in Houston are camera shy (and also real-life shy) and also don’t like speaking in front of the camera. One of them even refused to show her face at all - her dad said she does the same thing when they do roll call in class. It reminded me of myself and I was like wow, we are definitely family. 

I was mad again at matt two days ago and part of yesterday, and sometimes logically forget the terrifying circumstance he is currently in. He made some comments I thought were mean on Friday, and I felt angered by them. I think he has a tendency to act like everything is ok and that he’s fine because he lacks self-awareness sometimes, and that makes me think he is ok. However in actuality, he’s not ok but his life is so exhausting and fast paced that he doesn’t realize it until later. And sometimes the stress is inadvertently taken out on me. I was upset by this on Friday night, and then started browsing reddit. My heart dropped when I saw news that two residents in NYC and 1 in Michigan have died due to COVID/not having proper PPE. I don’t believe these stories will be released by the hospitals at all, administration is very shady. It was all word by mouth but confirmed by multiple people on the thread. It reminds me to look at the big picture and take things into context before I focus in on small details that could bother me. It’s always been a learning process for me, but I have to be even more forgiving these upcoming weeks/months. 

He told me that they’ve received quite a few stuff this past week - free food almost everyday, free ice cream. A glasses company has a promo currently where healthcare workers can receive free prescription glasses. I nominated him for that. I hope he gets it. I’ve been seeing a lot of emotional responses from other residents, nurses, doctors on reddit and on youtube. My guy has been pretty nonemotional/light hearted about this until this morning when he texted me that it’s depressing that he’s “stuck in death” and then has to be locked up when returning home. I’m like thinking, wow he’s really mentally/emotionally strong, or... just robotic lol. 

I see a lot of healthcare workers being called “heroes” for fighting frontline or for dying fighting frontline. And I learned that it pisses some people off - their idea being that they don’t want to be heroes, they just want to survive. "I’m getting very angry at all the hero talk. Give me PPE. Give me hazard pay. Fuck off with your appreciation emails and ice cream." There’s a big joke about administration sending out thoughtful emails thanking healthcare workers while working from home and sipping wine. It’s all a big act for some programs. Our program at UCLA seems decent - but again Cali is not being hit hard right now. 

The masks that I ordered off of Etsy for K ended up being sold out - I got the email a week later. I instead sent her some money to buy masks herself. More and more companies are coming out to be involved in this pandemic. The silver lining to this is seeing some people come together for a common battle. 

Praying for the world. And hope matt and K remain in good spirits, and in good health. 

[tamboradventure]

How the Coronavirus Will Change Travel

Posted: 03/31/20 | March 21st, 2020

On a breezy fall morning, I was walking home from my university’s humanities department after trying to get out of my Spanish language requirement to no avail. On the way, I ran into one of my roommates. He mentioned he had heard that a small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.

By the time I got home and turned on the TV, both towers were on fire and it was clear this was much more than a small plane gone off course.

In the days and weeks following September 11th, the world changed. Even to my young self, I could feel in my bones that nothing would ever be the same again. There was a pre-9/11 world and we were now forever in a post-9/11 world.

While the later 2008 financial crisis changed the economy and our views on money, 9/11 seemed to change who we fundamentally were as people. It created a shift in thinking and our sense of self. It changed how we Americans viewed the world. There was a “lost innocence.”

As the Coronavirus has rapidly unfolded in the last month, I feel that way again, except this time on a global scale. There was a pre-Coronavirus world and now we will forever be in a post-Coronavirus world.

From how we work, travel, view government, money, and conduct our day-to-day lives, everything is going to be different. And the longer the crisis lasts, the more different it will be. I can’t say just how yet (I’m a bad futurist) but, in my gut, I know change is coming.

But let’s talk about something I do know a bit about: the travel industry.

How is this going to change travel?

The travel industry relies on human movement to function. And, with countrywide lockdowns and most major airlines ceasing operations, no one is moving right now.

Overnight, an industry that employs 10% of the world has come to a near-complete stop.

This is worse than a recession. Because, even in a recession, some people still traveling.

Now no one is moving. The industry is in stasis.

And no one knows how long this is going to last.

Hubei province, the site of the outbreak in China, was in lockdown for over two months. Hong Kong and Singapore, reeling from a recent spike in infections, have relocked down their cities.

And I think that the slow pace of such measures in many countries means most of the world will be in lockdown until May if not early June. Too many people are behind the curve and it will take longer to keep the virus under control than most people think.

So what does this mean for the industry I’ve spent the last twelve years in?

As a whole, I think we’re looking at a drastically smaller travel industry for the foreseeable future. WTTC states that they expect 75 million job loses (at a rate of up to 1 million jobs lost per day).

And it will take years for the industry – and the jobs – to return to pre-Coronavirus levels.

For starters, I don’t think many magazines and online publications will make it through. The 2008 financial crisis shuttered the doors of a lot of publications and those around today live off advertising, brand deals, and events. Ad rates are plummeting as traffic plummets and most brand deals are on hold for now.

With publications furloughing employees, giving pay cuts, and seeing lost revenue that will never come back, if this goes on longer, I think you’ll see around 25% of publications go under. I know four that closed last week. More will come. And those that survive will be smaller and be able to hire few writers.

Additionally, a lot of creators, YouTubers, freelance writers, and bloggers rely on brand partnerships for revenue. The freelance writing market is not a land of riches and, with the majority of writers and online content creators living on thin margins and paycheck to paycheck, the prospect of months of zero income is going to drive people out of the industry. I know a few already looking for the exit. I think 30-40% of people might end up leaving if the industry remains frozen to June.

Moreover, I think many hostels, travel start-ups, and small tour operators will go under too. Most small businesses operate with the tiniest of margins and don’t have a lot of liquidity. They keep enough cash on hand to get by without income for just a few weeks. A sustained shock to their business like this, even with government assistance, is going to simply bankrupt companies. They have too much overhead and costs to sustain them. Many will fold and, when you travel again, you will see fewer hostels, food and walking tour companies, and small tour operators.

When this is all over, I expect it to take years for the travel industry to recover. People will slowly start booking travel again but, like the 2008 crisis, it is going to leave many unemployed and, when you don’t have a job, travel is not a priority. It is luxury people will put off.

I think as the world opens up around the end of May/early June (provided there’s no second spike in infections), people will begin to start booking travel again for later in the summer. Business travel will pick up first but I think most of the tourism you’ll see initially will be local. People will travel around their region before they start taking big international trips again.

First, because it’s cheaper. This pandemic is going to cause a huge recession and massive job loses and, as I said, travel is a luxury and when people are unemployed or have exhausted their savings, big international trips won’t be on their agenda. Second, people will be wary of the risk of another potential outbreak. They will be concerned about picking up the virus as well as being stuck if something happens so until everyone is 100% sure they are fine, people will be more cautious in their travels.

And the cruise industry? Well, ships floating petri dishes and, no matter how good the deals, most people won’t want to get on a ship for the foreseeable future. I believe this will permanently shrink the cruise industry. Images of cruise ships unable to dock in countries will scar our psyche for years to come.

Additionally, I think countries are going to be wary about fully opening up until they know they won’t be importing the virus and there’s some treatment or vaccine. No one wants to open their borders and have a second wave of infections that overloads their healthcare system. I wouldn’t be surprised if you start to see more temperature checks in airports and I wouldn’t be if countries started asking for proof you are COVID-19 negative.

While you will probably see a lot of travel deals as companies just try to cover their costs and stay afloat, I think the whole “hop on the plane and travel” thing is going to be a lot harder until we reach a point where we have a treatment regime and vaccine for this virus.

But, maybe, the silver lining (and I always try to look for one) is that this will lead to more sustainable tourism as countries try to reduce crowds in hopes of keeping the virus in check.

Maybe this is the end of overtourism.

Whatever happens, travel is going to be a very different and smaller industry in the post-Coronavirus world.

P.S. – To keep this website community-focused and community-supported, we’ve launched a Patreon! While you can still access this website for free, Patreon members get access to private content and articles, monthly Q&As, bonus Instagram videos, free books, postcards, entry to our events, and more! Click here to learn more and became part of the club!

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines, because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the largest inventory. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com, as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels. I use them all the time.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it, as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all those I use — and they’ll save you time and money too!

The post How the Coronavirus Will Change Travel appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Nomadic Matt's Travel Site https://ift.tt/39rQbTe via IFTTT

[easyfoodnetwork]

Restaurant Suppliers Are Opening Up to the Public to Keep Their Businesses Alive

Photo by Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images

Foragers, farmers, and fishers across the U.S. are offering delivery and pickup to the general public

“Probably until the recent past, and I do mean the recent past,” Jason Roland says with a laugh, “about 70 percent of our sales were to restaurants.” He and his wife run Organically Roland, a two-acre farm in South Carolina where they grow produce like sunchokes, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and collard greens. On March 18, the governor ordered restaurants and bars in the state to close to dine-in customers to curb the spread of coronavirus, echoing efforts that swept throughout the country. “I think everybody knew it was coming,” Roland says. A few days before the governor’s announcement, his customers started pulling him aside and canceling or reducing their orders. All but one order was fully canceled after the statewide closures.

“I just finished planting 400 pounds of seed potatoes which I was assured chefs would be buying by the bushel,” Roland says. “That’s just not going to happen now.” Other than one $80 invoice he’s letting go to help out a client, most of his produce was paid for on delivery, so Roland’s new normal is more about finding new buyers for perishable foods than chasing unpaid bills. And of course, Roland is not alone. Across the country, governors and other officials are mandating the closure of dine-in establishments in many states, leaving these suppliers, like so many others, scrambling to sustain their businesses. As Roland says, “I feel confident that this will be one of those things that you always say ‘there was a before time and an after time.’”

“The hardest thing I’ve ever done was build up this business, and overnight, it disappeared”

Many businesses might not exist if it weren’t for chefs on the lookout for unusual flavors or something special to give their diners. Often these businesses — those providing specialty produce, fresh seaweed, or mushrooms picked directly from the woods — go unseen by the general dining public. “A pretty good chunk of my business are flowers that chefs are tweezering at Michelin-starred restaurants,” says Bryan Jessop of Morchella Wild Foods in California. That income is now gone. “The hardest thing I’ve ever done was build up this business, and overnight, it disappeared.” For entrepreneurs who grow their product, losing restaurant contracts doesn’t just mean there’s no income coming in — it means weeks or months of money spent on seeds and labor that might not be recuperated.

Like every supplier I spoke with, Jessop is hoping to pivot to a home delivery or CSA model through posting on neighborhood groups like Nextdoor; others are relying on their social media followings to offload product. “I don’t think it will make me whole, but it will keep me busy and doing what I love to do,” Jessop says of direct-to-consumer delivery sales. “The silver lining might be that I can get to know some of my neighbors and maybe when things are back to normal, I’ll have something to supplement my restaurant business.”

Suppliers who grow, forage, or catch specialty foods that go beyond the realm of the typical grocery store shopping list have long had a symbiotic relationship with the restaurant industry. “Restaurants have the ability to use a really specialized product” compared to supermarkets or even farmers market patrons, says Tyler Akabane, who runs foraging tours through his company Mushrooms For My Friends and works as a forager for Wild Mushrooms in the Boston area, where 99 percent of clients were restaurants. “When patrons go out [to restaurants], they can try something they’ve never had before,” Akabane says and notes that most laypeople don’t know what to look for when buying some of these specialty foods or how to cook them.

On Saturday, Akabane posted to Instagram asking if people in the area would be interested in having mushrooms delivered to their house for $20 a mixed bag. People were excited, not just for the opportunity to support a struggling business, but to get their hands on rare mushrooms without venturing into the woods. Akabane sources over 50 seasonal varieties throughout the year. He’s posted videos about different mushroom varieties and how to cook them on his Instagram both as a way to help out new buyers and give people stuck at home something to do.

“It was not easy and could have used a lot of streamlining,” Akabane says of the first deliveries. He’s hopeful that he can make it work with better planning on his delivery routes. Last week he sold 140 bags to 100 households. “It seems sustainable if I could keep orders like this up,” he says. But so far there are only 42 orders this week. “We have to assess and see if this is something we want to do or not,” Akabane says. “But we don’t have anything else.”

New York City’s Farm One, a hydroponic farm that focuses on specialty produce, microgreens, and edible flowers mostly grown to order for 40 or so restaurants and bars in the city, is in the same boat. “We went from planning for the spring menus with a number of restaurants to a place right now where the majority of our customers are no longer open,” says sales manager Marissa Siefkes. Less than 10 percent of Farm One’s customers are still operating, and with restaurants switching to a delivery- or takeout-only model, small edible flourishes may not make it onto the new menus.

“We’re pivoting from a grow-to-order model where we have hundreds of crops growing at a time to a narrower set of crops we can grow and offer to the public,” Siefkes says. Farm One is hoping that it can stay in business selling fresh herb kits, DIY cocktail kits, microgreens, mustard greens, and other, similar products. Unfortunately many of its crops take one to five weeks of lead time to grow, and with the sudden restaurant closures, Farm One was left with “more waste than we would want,” as Siefkes puts it. “We didn’t have the staff to redirect product to a charitable cause,” he says. And the team has had to scrap some ideas for generating income — like drying herbs or making other value-added products — because it would be so labor intensive that it might put employees at risk of transmitting COVID-19 in a small enclosed space. Luckily, Farm One hasn’t had to lay off any of its full-time employees as of last week, although it stopped having interns or volunteers come in.

While these small suppliers are struggling, overall they may be in a better position than larger companies: Some argue it’s easier for a supplier that consists of just a handful of people to pivot quickly to a new business model. “I feel like we’re in a much better place because we aren’t over-extended,” says Kenny Belov, owner of the “small to mid-size” sustainable seafood distributor Two X Sea. “Right now we’re so boutique we can’t seem to find any customers interested in what we offer,” he jokes.

Although Two X Sea sells items that the average customer could prepare at home, including tuna, trout, scallops, and salmon, there’s not enough volume of direct-to-consumer sales to make the fishing worth it. “I had to tell my fishermen there was no need to go fishing, which was me telling them there’s no need for you to make any money,” Belov says. “That’s been devastating.” Two X Sea does own a trout farm which Belov describes as a “very expensive aquarium,” until he can find residential buyers for the fish. He’s been running deliveries by himself for the dozens of home delivery stops he’s managed to get. It’s about a third of the orders Two X Sea used to get from restaurants, and these are all smaller, family-size orders as well. “I have no problem doing whatever needs to be done to keep as much staff on as possible while we weather this,” Belov says.

Jessop feels similarly about his chances to make it out of this as a small supplier. “I was depressed Monday through Wednesday but seeing the level of support was really encouraging,” Jessop says. “Maybe there are some good opportunities to pivot.”

These suppliers realize that they’re not the only ones struggling, and while they’re doing what they can to stay afloat, their small size also puts them in a position to help others. Organically Roland’s CSA has more than doubled in size in the last week, but he brought a few boxes of produce to one local restaurant so service workers could take what they need for free. “I don’t know how many of the restaurants will be able to come back,” Roland says. “We’re going to help them as much as we possibly can and as long as we possibly can while looking out for our own needs as a business.”

Roland is confident that unlike some larger farms nearby, his two-acre farm will survive. “I know of some folks around here who are bigger and they are in trouble,” he says. Others used to urge him to grow his farm, and he’s now glad he never took their advice. “They don’t have the resources to get rid of their stuff the way that I do.” Now, more than ever, he’s happy to be small-scale.

Tove Danovich is a freelance journalist and former New Yorker who now lives in Portland, Oregon. Follow her on Twitter @TKDano.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2QHHOMO https://ift.tt/3dr9VJY

Photo by Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images

Foragers, farmers, and fishers across the U.S. are offering delivery and pickup to the general public

“Probably until the recent past, and I do mean the recent past,” Jason Roland says with a laugh, “about 70 percent of our sales were to restaurants.” He and his wife run Organically Roland, a two-acre farm in South Carolina where they grow produce like sunchokes, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and collard greens. On March 18, the governor ordered restaurants and bars in the state to close to dine-in customers to curb the spread of coronavirus, echoing efforts that swept throughout the country. “I think everybody knew it was coming,” Roland says. A few days before the governor’s announcement, his customers started pulling him aside and canceling or reducing their orders. All but one order was fully canceled after the statewide closures.

“I just finished planting 400 pounds of seed potatoes which I was assured chefs would be buying by the bushel,” Roland says. “That’s just not going to happen now.” Other than one $80 invoice he’s letting go to help out a client, most of his produce was paid for on delivery, so Roland’s new normal is more about finding new buyers for perishable foods than chasing unpaid bills. And of course, Roland is not alone. Across the country, governors and other officials are mandating the closure of dine-in establishments in many states, leaving these suppliers, like so many others, scrambling to sustain their businesses. As Roland says, “I feel confident that this will be one of those things that you always say ‘there was a before time and an after time.’”

“The hardest thing I’ve ever done was build up this business, and overnight, it disappeared”

Many businesses might not exist if it weren’t for chefs on the lookout for unusual flavors or something special to give their diners. Often these businesses — those providing specialty produce, fresh seaweed, or mushrooms picked directly from the woods — go unseen by the general dining public. “A pretty good chunk of my business are flowers that chefs are tweezering at Michelin-starred restaurants,” says Bryan Jessop of Morchella Wild Foods in California. That income is now gone. “The hardest thing I’ve ever done was build up this business, and overnight, it disappeared.” For entrepreneurs who grow their product, losing restaurant contracts doesn’t just mean there’s no income coming in — it means weeks or months of money spent on seeds and labor that might not be recuperated.

Like every supplier I spoke with, Jessop is hoping to pivot to a home delivery or CSA model through posting on neighborhood groups like Nextdoor; others are relying on their social media followings to offload product. “I don’t think it will make me whole, but it will keep me busy and doing what I love to do,” Jessop says of direct-to-consumer delivery sales. “The silver lining might be that I can get to know some of my neighbors and maybe when things are back to normal, I’ll have something to supplement my restaurant business.”

Suppliers who grow, forage, or catch specialty foods that go beyond the realm of the typical grocery store shopping list have long had a symbiotic relationship with the restaurant industry. “Restaurants have the ability to use a really specialized product” compared to supermarkets or even farmers market patrons, says Tyler Akabane, who runs foraging tours through his company Mushrooms For My Friends and works as a forager for Wild Mushrooms in the Boston area, where 99 percent of clients were restaurants. “When patrons go out [to restaurants], they can try something they’ve never had before,” Akabane says and notes that most laypeople don’t know what to look for when buying some of these specialty foods or how to cook them.

On Saturday, Akabane posted to Instagram asking if people in the area would be interested in having mushrooms delivered to their house for $20 a mixed bag. People were excited, not just for the opportunity to support a struggling business, but to get their hands on rare mushrooms without venturing into the woods. Akabane sources over 50 seasonal varieties throughout the year. He’s posted videos about different mushroom varieties and how to cook them on his Instagram both as a way to help out new buyers and give people stuck at home something to do.

“It was not easy and could have used a lot of streamlining,” Akabane says of the first deliveries. He’s hopeful that he can make it work with better planning on his delivery routes. Last week he sold 140 bags to 100 households. “It seems sustainable if I could keep orders like this up,” he says. But so far there are only 42 orders this week. “We have to assess and see if this is something we want to do or not,” Akabane says. “But we don’t have anything else.”

New York City’s Farm One, a hydroponic farm that focuses on specialty produce, microgreens, and edible flowers mostly grown to order for 40 or so restaurants and bars in the city, is in the same boat. “We went from planning for the spring menus with a number of restaurants to a place right now where the majority of our customers are no longer open,” says sales manager Marissa Siefkes. Less than 10 percent of Farm One’s customers are still operating, and with restaurants switching to a delivery- or takeout-only model, small edible flourishes may not make it onto the new menus.

“We’re pivoting from a grow-to-order model where we have hundreds of crops growing at a time to a narrower set of crops we can grow and offer to the public,” Siefkes says. Farm One is hoping that it can stay in business selling fresh herb kits, DIY cocktail kits, microgreens, mustard greens, and other, similar products. Unfortunately many of its crops take one to five weeks of lead time to grow, and with the sudden restaurant closures, Farm One was left with “more waste than we would want,” as Siefkes puts it. “We didn’t have the staff to redirect product to a charitable cause,” he says. And the team has had to scrap some ideas for generating income — like drying herbs or making other value-added products — because it would be so labor intensive that it might put employees at risk of transmitting COVID-19 in a small enclosed space. Luckily, Farm One hasn’t had to lay off any of its full-time employees as of last week, although it stopped having interns or volunteers come in.

While these small suppliers are struggling, overall they may be in a better position than larger companies: Some argue it’s easier for a supplier that consists of just a handful of people to pivot quickly to a new business model. “I feel like we’re in a much better place because we aren’t over-extended,” says Kenny Belov, owner of the “small to mid-size” sustainable seafood distributor Two X Sea. “Right now we’re so boutique we can’t seem to find any customers interested in what we offer,” he jokes.

Although Two X Sea sells items that the average customer could prepare at home, including tuna, trout, scallops, and salmon, there’s not enough volume of direct-to-consumer sales to make the fishing worth it. “I had to tell my fishermen there was no need to go fishing, which was me telling them there’s no need for you to make any money,” Belov says. “That’s been devastating.” Two X Sea does own a trout farm which Belov describes as a “very expensive aquarium,” until he can find residential buyers for the fish. He’s been running deliveries by himself for the dozens of home delivery stops he’s managed to get. It’s about a third of the orders Two X Sea used to get from restaurants, and these are all smaller, family-size orders as well. “I have no problem doing whatever needs to be done to keep as much staff on as possible while we weather this,” Belov says.

Jessop feels similarly about his chances to make it out of this as a small supplier. “I was depressed Monday through Wednesday but seeing the level of support was really encouraging,” Jessop says. “Maybe there are some good opportunities to pivot.”

These suppliers realize that they’re not the only ones struggling, and while they’re doing what they can to stay afloat, their small size also puts them in a position to help others. Organically Roland’s CSA has more than doubled in size in the last week, but he brought a few boxes of produce to one local restaurant so service workers could take what they need for free. “I don’t know how many of the restaurants will be able to come back,” Roland says. “We’re going to help them as much as we possibly can and as long as we possibly can while looking out for our own needs as a business.”

Roland is confident that unlike some larger farms nearby, his two-acre farm will survive. “I know of some folks around here who are bigger and they are in trouble,” he says. Others used to urge him to grow his farm, and he’s now glad he never took their advice. “They don’t have the resources to get rid of their stuff the way that I do.” Now, more than ever, he’s happy to be small-scale.

Tove Danovich is a freelance journalist and former New Yorker who now lives in Portland, Oregon. Follow her on Twitter @TKDano.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2QHHOMO via Blogger https://ift.tt/2Uf6NsS

[supervidyavinay]

The Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to causing a global economic meltdown of epic proportions, has also led to employees across industries being laid off, put on furloughs, and truncated salaries. Below is the first-person account of a young media professional who was laid off, hit rock-bottom but found his mojo back. It started like a normal day. Colleagues exchanging pleasantries, water-cooler chit-chats, gup-shup near the coffee machine and business as usual. I clocked in and sat at my desk. The day was not very hectic, yet, till my colleague who happened to be at the senior-most position in the team got a call from the HR. 76352983‘HR has called me on the fourth floor for a meeting.’‘Ugh, God no! Did we get into trouble for a story we did?’, I asked. ‘Could be’, responded the colleague. That’s how clueless we were. We had no idea what lay in store. Ten minutes later, the colleague came back with a grim look on his face. ‘It’s over. We are shutting down. I was just told to put in my resignation. The company cannot sustain us any more.’‘What?’ I responded. I was aghast, and shaken. When the news about a possible layoff hits you, you never process it in one go. Especially, when it hits you out of nowhere.That is when our boss came to our desk and asked us to gather around. We formed a circle around her and sat on our chairs. Our boss assured us that the move ‘isn’t personal’ and that the company ‘doesn’t hate us all of a sudden’ and will be willing to consider some of us for some openings in other departments. An internal transfer seemed like the only hope that we were left with. I got a call from the HR. I was told that the company was offering us two months of severance pay. I was relieved. Two months seemed like a good amount of time to find a new job. ‘It isn’t going to be as bad,’ I reassured myself. 76353058I came back to my desk, switched on the system only to find that the company had revoked our rights and privileges, from the CMS to the social media handles... As the day went on, we handed in our resignations, completed all formalities and gave up our access cards. The news of the website shutting down spread like wildfire across the newsroom, despite all the efforts by the HR and the management to keep it under the wraps. Several people, distant friends from other departments came to offer their commiserations and told us ‘it is going to be okay’ and ‘arre bahut openings hai (there are plenty job openings), you’ll find one easily.’As I stepped out of the office for the last time, I couldn’t help but tear up. Sure, I was relatively new and had spent only four months at the company but there were so many things I wanted to achieve. I remember walking in for the first time with hope, aspirations and dreams - all of which now remained shattered. The Covid-19 pandemic, apart from bringing an economic slowdown and a 2008-esque economic crisis, has also led to a bloodbath in the media and the corporate world in terms of lay-offs. Uber, Zomato, Swiggy are just some of the many mega-successful start-ups that have laid off thousands of employees. Every day there comes in news about furloughs, pay-cuts and lay-offs taking place in reputed MNCs, with some of them even shutting off operations. Layoffs and furloughs across sectors have rendered thousands helpless and struggling to find their footing. 76353079The hard part, however, is not the day when you find out that you are getting laid off. It’s spending the next day at home, without work and struggling to search the Internet for job openings. Your mind can’t help but wonder ‘why me?’ and of course, the pertinent thought, ‘I wish I never would have joined this company in the first place.’What you feel is a whirlwind of powerful emotions - hopelessness, angst, anger, frustration and truth be told, it does seem like the end of the world. You struggle to find someone to talk to as all your friends are busy at work. You find it hard to explain to your parents, wife and kids as to why you are not going to work any more. The worst part is the uncertainty surrounding the whole situation - how long will it take me to find my next job? Will I be able to draw as much salary as I did in my last workplace? How will I support myself financially? How will I explain to my future employers why I left a company after just four months? Which e-Mail ID should I shoot my CV to? How should I get noticed on LinkedIn?And just when you think that things couldn’t get worse, they do. In the days that follow, you become used to spending time at home, bingeing on Netflix, doing household chores but when you go to sleep at night, you see flashes of that fateful day when you were laid off before your eyes. It is hard to come to terms with what happened. It really is. 76353133Nevertheless, you continue looking for jobs, sending CVs, appearing for interviews. You get some offers which aren’t lucrative enough and some rejections. Rejections can be a bitter pill to swallow. You can’t help but feel demotivated and to some extent, be filled with self-doubts. I, for one, appeared for five interviews and got rejected five times consecutively. Five two-hour-long copy tests, five gruelling interviews and five rejections later, I found myself feeling dejected, hopeless and a waste of space. Five rejections are enough to make a person seriously doubt their capabilities. Soon, I reached a stage where I was so desperate for a job, that I would have accepted an offer irrespective of the pay and the designation that I was being offered - a sorry state to be in, indeed. The times were so challenging that I even considered giving up on media houses and going for advertising, which, in retrospect, I am glad I did not do. Five weeks. Five weeks of sitting at home, searching for jobs endlessly and feeling hopeless. I had two interviews lined up the following week. I had lost all hope and attempted both half-heartedly. I ended up clearing them both. 76353144After spending eight months full of ups and downs at my current organisation, when I see people getting laid off across sectors, it breaks my heart. If you are someone who has recently been laid off and are struggling to deal with its aftermath, I wish I could tell you things like ‘it will get better’ and ‘you’ll survive this’. The truth is, things will get a lot worse before they get better. But, you have to prepare yourself mentally and physically for what’s coming - hopelessness.You will feel hopeless and dejected. These feelings will overpower you at times. But the silver lining in all of this is that when you land your next job, you will never take it for granted. You would take each day as it comes, live it to the fullest because you know, somewhere, there is a possibility of it all coming to an end in a giffy. If you are someone who has been laid off, firstly, as difficult as it sounds - don’t take it personally. The company couldn’t sustain you.. 76353160What you can do though, is try to find a stable job elsewhere. For that, you need to stay focussed and apply for jobs actively. Reach out to that distant cousin, talk to that long-lost friend and ask your professional contacts if they can help you land interviews. If you are financially privileged and don’t have to necessarily take up a job, use this time to explore yourself. Read a book, go watch movies and use this time to unwind. Whatever you do, always believe in your abilities. If you are qualified enough to get a job at a particular designation in a particular company, you are qualified to get another job at the same designation at some other place. Bottomline: There is a place meant for you that is just as fun as your last workplace. You just have to find it. Above all, don’t lose hope. Things will get a lot worse, but they will get better eventually. Besides, if I can survive a lay-off after being jobless for two months and getting rejected by five companies straight, so can you. Just hang in there! (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of https://ift.tt/30zugc5 from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2Yy97vZ

[jessicakehoe]

ICYMI: These Were the Highlights From the Stronger Together Concert

The largest single-show broadcast in Canadian history, Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble brought together the biggest names in the country, from actors and athletes to musicians, authors, activists and more. The special event honouring healthcare workers and raising money for Food Banks Canada featured musical performances, messages of hope and solidarity, and also told the stories of frontline workers and COVID-19 survivors. Now, we’re reliving some of the highlights from the show.

Canadian rocker Sam Roberts kicked off the show with an uplifting acoustic rendition of his 2014 single “We’re All In This Together,” with his three children accompanying him on music. Celine Dion addressed viewers in French and English, praising the “heroes out there around the world who are going to work every single day.” Other celebrities who made an appearance include author Margaret Atwood; dance troupe Cirque du Soleil’s Kevin, Andi and Gasya Atherton; actors Mike Myers, Will Arnett (with a special appearance by Amy Poehler) and Kiefer Sutherland; and the entire cast of Schitt’s Creek.

The goal of Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble was to raise money for Food Banks Canada’s $150 million campaign to provide immediate support to food banks across the nation during the pandemic, and over the course of the 90-minute event, so many Canadians sent in donations that they broke the internet. “Canada, you’re amazing,” organizers of the event tweeted. “The @foodbankscanada website has crashed under the weight of your generosity.” For those who still wish to donate, there’s plenty of time. Text COVID to 30333, call 1 (877) 535-0958, or head to Foodbankscanada.ca to make whatever contribution you can afford.

In case you missed it last night, check out some Stronger Together highlights below:

Alessia Cara

Before performing Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” with her band, Grammy-winning Brampton native Alessia Cara shared a personal message to viewers about the importance of human connection and friendship, especially in the most trying of times.

“I want to play you guys a song that I really loved growing up, that I feel is pretty important and fitting in this crazy, weird, difficult time we’re going through right now,” she said. “And I think if there’s anything we can learn from it, it’s that there’s nothing we can’t get through together. In fact, everything’s always a little bit easier when we have each other. So hopefully this gives you a little bit of hope or joy.”

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Shania Twain

From her home in British Columbia, Shania Twain shared a special message for Canadian frontline workers—healthcare workers, drivers transporting food and health supplies, cleaners and first responders. “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for putting yourself out there, putting yourself at risk,” she said, tearing up. “We couldn’t do this without you, we would be in a much bigger mess without you.”

She then went on to perform—with her labrador Melody by her side—a couple of verses of the title track “Up!” from her 2002 album, providing a slight coronavirus twist to the lyrics.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Barenaked Ladies, Michael Bublé and Sofia Reyes

Michael Bublé and Barenaked Ladies performed a song titled “Gotta Be Patient” with Mexican singer-songwriter Sofia Reyes, tweaking the lyrics with coronavirus references. “I just want to see my friends / I want to walk the street again / But I gotta be patient / So let’s enjoy this confination,” began the song, leading into: “I just wanna feel your love / Coz Instagram is not enough for me / So I gotta be patient / Let’s enjoy this confination.”

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Ryan Reynolds and Eric McCormack

The two actors provided some moments of levity, with Ryan Reynolds quipping that the day marked “the 10-year anniversary of the quarantine we’ve been on for the last six weeks.” Eric McCormack spoke of how Canadians can get through anything, sharing an anecdote from his youth, before going on to introduce Sarah McLachlan as “one of Canada’s most precious natural resources.”

“I spent my 20s in theatres from Vancouver to New Brunswick,” he said. “And let me tell you, if Canadians can brave a three-hour production of Henry IV Part Two in the dead of the Winnipeg winter, they can do anything.”

Thank you @EricMcCormack for the message of love ❤️. #StrongerTogether #TousEnsemble pic.twitter.com/qyt3BpiotI

— Stay At Home TV (@GlobalTV) April 26, 2020

A tribute to Nova Scotia

Canadian singer Anne Murray took a moment to speak about the tragic shooting that took place in Portapique, Nova Scotia, last week.

“A week ago, the unthinkable happened, right here in my beloved Nova Scotia,” she said. “To the families, friends and communities of those affected, we want you to know that we are grieving with you and we send prayers for courage and strength as you try to make sense of this horrific tragedy.”

She went on to say, as she thanked healthcare workers across the country: “We as a nation are being put to the test right now as we face the unknown, but we’re facing it together and that’s the way we want to remember this. Here’s a song that’s become an anthem for times like this and one that I’ve actually sung a few times. Here are Voices Rock Medicine, a choir made up entirely of women physicians.”

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

A message from Canadian athletes

Some of the top performing athletes in the country (and the world) joined forces to share a message of team spirit, unity and perseverance, including tennis player Bianca Andreescu, swimmer Penny Oleksiak, Toronto Raptors Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam, soccer player Christine Sinclair, sprinter Andre de Grasse, former hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser and ice skater Tessa Virtue.

“With a focus on physical and mental health, let’s remember to stay in touch, stay strong, stay brave, and stay united,” said Virtue. “Thirty-seven-million strong, this is the most important Team Canada I have ever played on,” said Wickenheiser.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Lean On Me

Canadian singers Tyler Shaw and Fefe Dobson, founders of an initiative called ArtistsCAN, brought some of the country’s biggest musicians together for a moving collaborative performance of the late Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me.” Justin Bieber, Michael Bublé, Avril Lavigne, Bryan Adams, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jann Arden, Sarah McLachlan and others performed the special ensemble piece, proceeds from which will go directly to Red Cross Canada’s COVID-19 relief efforts. Canadians can contribute to the initiative by simply streaming the song, viewing the official music video, or downloading the single.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau closed out the video with a message to the nation, saying: “We’re going to get through this together, by leaning on each other and protecting our frontline workers. Stay home, stay safe.”

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Drake

In a move that raised a lot of eyebrows on Twitter, Drake closed out the show, getting the last word after Prime Minister Trudeau. His three-minute-long closing message thanked the artists who had performed for a good cause that evening, the frontline workers and first responders, and those who have to leave their families everyday and go to work amidst this crisis. “They’re the glue holding all this together so thank you very much for that,” he said. He also addressed the mental health challenges that people across the world are facing right now, whether they have been directly affected by coronavirus or not.

“I want to urge everybody that’s in their own space to find the silver lining in the times that we’re living in right now,” he said. “If you have a craft that can be worked on from home, it’s an amazing thing to continue working, keep your mind stimulated, get better at that thing that you’re passionate about. Better yourself mentally, physically, if you can stay active, if you can make a change you’ve always wanted to make in your life, right now is the time. Nurture your personal relationships… or decide which personal connections aren’t for you. Now is a time of self-reflection.”

“I hope we all emerge better people, more unified people, and I hope we are able to show each other the same amount of love we’re showing now.”

https://twitter.com/etalkCTV/status/1254561506504646656?s=20

The post ICYMI: These Were the Highlights From the Stronger Together Concert appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

ICYMI: These Were the Highlights From the Stronger Together Concert published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/