My daughter wrote something last week that kind of blew my mind. Apropos, I think. Some more work on the painting. I decided the sky needed to be more dramatic, so I started slopping on some darker blue. I completed our rain garden and my daughter and I planted a bunch of seeds we collected last fall. I'll post that in the craft thread. I went to the grocery store this morning. I wore a mask, and saw only one other person in the store wearing one. A person stocking shelves bolted when she saw me. It's funny, last week my wife went in our Chinese grocery, and said that she was the only person in there without one. I expect things to be different in 2-3 weeks. When I got back, I sprayed everything with 70% ethanol, put my clothes in the laundry and took a shower. Sterile technique. kleinbl00 explained to me what Journey is the other day. My daughter started playing it and loves it.
Journey is phenomenal. They ported it to iOS recently. I highly recommend a play through. The company recently released a follow on of sorts called Sky: Children of the Light. Your daughter might enjoy that as well. There are more social interactions given its an updated game - but also has an updated 2010s freemium model as a result, so be warned. It’s not as immersive or impactful, but good for riding the Journey vibes out. You’ve got a smart cookie there. Maybe save that poetry for her later down the road.
It's been said that a shrew's heart is rather fragile and the slightest agitation would cause one to die from a sudden heart attack. Considering all the pictures I've seen of people handling shrews over the years, maybe there's a chance that that's not the case. If I had to guess how that myth started, it probably has to do with the fact that some of them have insane heartbeat rates. The Etruscan Shrew has had a heartbeat measured at 1500bpm, which is crazy, but if you click that link, the very picture they have is of one being handled. So maybe it's a myth, at least, I hope it is. Could you imagine if they were so weak in the heart and they heard about what's going on with the stock market? We'd have shrews dropping left and right. Hearts aside, some are venomous though and if that's not interesting, I don't know what to tell you. Dala got me Megaman Zero Legacy for the X-Box recently. It's awesome, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm having a real hard time with it. The various Megaman series, the classic Castlevania games, the classic Sonic games, all of them are a lot harder than I remember. I use save states and such pretty often. It's the only way I can get through these games now. I must be such a disappointment to my childhood gaming self.
Highlights from the week: - One of my students sent out their solutions to everyone in the group, including me. - Discovered that my adviser has a bitchin' live-streaming setup at home. - Started teaching chess to flatmate's gf, and she's turned out to be a scarily fast learner. - Went through what was supposed to be three weeks of reading material in five days, currently considering going nuclear (heh). - LaTeXifying ~80 pages of homework was tensor-laden murder.
I'm in a bus to Edinburgh Airport. After more worrying news on Monday, we decided yesterday to get the hell out of here. I think it was kb who said that one shouldn't travel to places where you can't afford to spend six weeks, and that haunting prospect in combination with the lackluster UK government approach pushed me first into a mild panic, then into action. This pandemic is very good at hitting all of my fear buttons. I've been worried about developing symptoms, am still worried about a last minute cancellation, and I don't think I'll stop being worried until I set foot on home ground. But it's lessening by the minute with the airport in sight.
Pretty sure we’re going to be hunkering down for most of this year. What a fucking mess. The business I work for has been deemed “essential” so “yay I have a job” but also “boo we all have to work”. Meanwhile the climbing community is tearing itself apart right now - it’s a community that by and large doesn’t do well with “no”.
It's almost entirely social media based (because of course it is, social media brings out the best in everyone!) - honestly a lot of the guiding companies and professional athletes in this realm are being very reasonable and cancelling trips, taking financial hits, etc. But it's the hobbyist or amateurs such as myself who are causing potential problems.
I hope you are all safe, healthy and staying positive in the face of all of this. It's a different world and I think it's just the beginning. About a month and a half ago I got sick. Probably a sinus infection. I now have had a post infectious cough for over a month. I'm told it could last another month or more. Aside from feeling very fatigued and constantly coughing, I"m totally fine. I'm not complaining. It could be much worse. But it's VERY hard to have business calls with this cough. People assume that I have COVID-19 and are freaked out. We need to raise money right now. It's probably the WORST environment in the history of startups to be raising money. I'm going to have to lean on current investors to improve their positions. Good news is, our company is stronger than ever from a fundamentals standpoint. They'll get a good valuation, that's for sure. Bad news is, I was hoping to raise our Series A from larger marquee firms. That's just not happening right now. We are very fortunate that our Au Pair lives with us and is a trained teacher. Our kids may actually be getting a better education at home. Everyday I am responsible for after school recess. I've been playing soccer with them and doing pushups and setups. Every night we have had home cooked meals and we are actually all together, eating at our table. I've had some of the best few family days I've had in a long while. We were supposed to travel to Belize at the end of the month. We have cancelled. We will stay put. No travel for us. I played virtual games with mk and some other friends the other night via Zoom. It was a lot of fun. I ordered a classic Nintendo mini for our kids. Time to relive my childhood with them. In short, I'm trying to look at the positives. My family seems closer because of this. That's a really good thing. My business is precarious, but we have a path forward. My health isn't the best, but it sure as hell could be worse. Oh, also I haven't had a drink in almost a week. That's a big deal for me. I'm trying to make it to a week, which will be Saturday. Who knows, maybe I'll just keep the streak going. Be well, Hubski. I love you.
So amidst this panic, my friend came round over the weekend with 10 different samples of whisky. We started with Famous Grouse and I hated it, barely finished my serving. On to Talisker, Mortlach, Monkey Shoulder, Islay Mist and Ardbeg. All of which I thoroughly enjoyed, particularly the Islay Mist and Ardbeg. We never got round to the Laphroaig but I hear good things, especially around pronouncing it after a few drinks. I enjoyed it enough that I went out and bought myself a bottle of Islay Mist - it doubled as an anniversary present - 3 years with my lady as of St Patricks Day. She was trying the whisky's as well and her tastes mirrored mine. Rugby has been cancelled for the foreseeable future, both club and professional setups. If my gym closes I'll be buying some dumbbells and doing whatever I can to maintain strength. We've hit 20 known cases in New Zealand, and it's kind of endearing in a small-town way, that we can very accurately track the cases. One of our PhD students has a sister in London who has had the virus and is recovering so that was some interesting information to hear from said student. I'm ready to work from home but the Ministry of Education is being quite steadfast in not letting University staff leave at the moment. They want us to have a face for the students and from the meeting I was in yesterday, one of their massive concerns alongside financial loss is the public losing faith in the institution. Either way, lemme do my job from home it'll be fine I promise - no whisky till like 5pm. OK 4pm. Our PM has issued some strong thoughts on tourists arriving with no plans to self-isolate - could be looking at straight up deportation. In non-COVID-19 news, abortion is set to officially be legal in New Zealand, finally.
I was in Scotland last year and had a lot of difference scotches. I really liked Talisker “Storm.” Laphraoig used to be a favorite. I used to drink their 15 with cW and watch Twin peaks. Ah, the good ole days. Stay safe!
I just feel like there are 2 dice that the world routinely rolls, let's call them 'crisis dice' Most of the time it's war, but sometimes it IS pandemic, and frankly I think most of the common folk forgot about that one. I am prepared for this to go 18 months. I suspect it will. I keep waking up and thinking "Today feels like a good day for the stock market to drop further." I frankly have built several purchases in as limit orders that depend upon stocks further absolutely tanking. It's surreal. I think we have another really eye opening week ahead of us. People want to pretend that the major shocks are over but they are just beginning
it is likely our LQs will be shut down by wed of the upcoming week as part of a "non life essential business closure" that we expect to last 30-60 days. this is all based on rumor and looking at what our neighboring states are doing, but i tell ya, when one of your neighboring states is PA and you're a 2-3 hour drive from NYC, like yup, this is what you're going to end up with i see this as a great opportunity to start not drinking, but also i'm not there yet shroomed on wednesday. twas super fun
life in the quarantine is a lot like normal life except my dad is working from home and my mom doesn't have a job now that the schools are closed - also the fact that i'm back living with my parents for what will be the longest stretch of time since i went to college - i haven't even spent a full summer off with them before so we'll see how stircrazy things get this last week or so i've been taking care of myself better than i have in ever in my life - consistent meal times, personal hygiene, all that jive. anything class/study related has become much harder though - i already was on the cusp of not giving a shit before so i'm postcusping at the moment anyway stay safe everybody - i'll be surprised if everybody i care about gets out of this one unhurt
Drop into Chat anytime so we can talk about star trek until thenewgreen leaves in a huff
A complete closure of the lab is probably coming next Monday. My experiments (last year PhD) are on ice. My animals getting old... I guess that's how it is. They told us that the tests take so long because they don't have enough people to do them. I wonder why they don't ask the army of PhD students, post docs, technicians that are here. We surely can manage a few hundred PCRs a day... Or am I missing something?
Y'know I feel wholly unqualified to offer you advice because we're so close in age and so different in experiences, but from what I'm reading it sounds like you're putting a lot of expectation son yourself at the moment to avoid music and do school out of a sense of duty. I'm not sure what following this advice looks like - which is why I'm so hesitant to give it - but if music makes you happy, is it not worth pursuing in some form? I know you've still got to pay the bills somehow, but do you think the rest of your life could be framed as existing to support your passions in a satisfying way? You posted that onion article about "Doing what you love on nights and weekends for the rest of your life," and it makes me think you're probably not happy if music / other passions aren't somehow the focal point. If that's your gut instinct, I think you should give form to the idea and use that as a guide for a bit. No matter what you do, I think the dissonance between what you want and what you feel like you have to do is clearly hurting you, and it's all mixed in with malaise about your hometown and your parents...It's complicated, man. I wish I knew how to help you untangle it, because I don't have to pay the bills you're paying, and I don't know what kind of costs a lifestyle oriented around happiness rather than duty would have...But one pseudo-anonymous abstraction-of-a-person to another, I hope you find a way to strike a balance
Get hyped weebski! This is not in-depth enough to warrant a post, imo. Leaving it here. [Non-Spoiler-y] An anime adaptation for Tower of God is releasing April 1st, 2020. Tower of God is a Korean webtoon with a setting not unlike Sword Art Online season 1, yet there is fleshed out strategy and political intrigue amidst a smattering of developed character backgrounds (and unromantic subplot). People new to the story can expect action and mystery to driven plot progression. Personally, I fell for the manhwa (we korean now, bois) since it was one of the few online graphic novels with coloring, but also was smart playing around its consistent use of a vibrant palette. Re: Zero Season 2 is coming sometime in July. Trailer for the first season: Re: Zero is very graphic. It's a psychological thriller with a romantic (sorta?) drive. The main character is 'transported to another world' (and kicked off a few years of these shows). The linchpin is similar to Tom Hanks' "Groundhog Day," except in a fantasy land with magic. The rules of magic aren't too important, but fun ways to spice up the action. The "Groundhog Day" aspect of the story explores how the main character copes with severe traumas that affect him in one "life" or timeline when he has to re-live the events that led up to said trauma. It's NEVER a feel-good resolution regarding how he moves forward, but he does... and the soundtrack is dope.
https://hubski.com/chat updates: 1. Clicking a timestamp autofills an @. 2. URLs open in a new tab. 3. Username color drift tweak.
I’ve “quarantined” myself for the past 2 days and I’m already feeling crappy. I’ve noticed when I don’t have external obligations and things to do outside the house I fall pretty quickly into a lazy cycle of internet consumption. I’ve been a bit better this time (tried a new recipe, drew, crafted, read and watched a “good” movie). But I’m still a bit stuck because I’m not actually doing anything you might call productive. And wasting a shit load of time. Still, I’m happy I’m getting better at preventing the cycle. My parents are in Cuba until the 24th and seemed generally unbothered by the pandemic until my sister started giving my mom shit for going to the pool with Italians. My dad is over 70 and relies on blood pressure meds so my only worry is Cuba closing the border (or the airline canceling their flight back). They finally caved and tried moving their tickets to come back sooner, but it looks like all earlier flights are full.