So I’m going to take a minute to be a excited dad: it’s college acceptance time and while there have been a couple of rejections, my older daughter has got into a few schools including one on her shortlist, which also anted up a nice little scholarship to sweeten the deal. She was a little tense because she hangs with the overachievers and they’ve been getting spots at Ivies via early action and whatnot. It’s nice to see her getting amped about what’s next (whenever that is)
She was saying that in her group chat of friends from camp, one girl in Virginia was saying that since their schools are done for the academic year, she now has three (!) prom dresses that she won’t be using. Fortunately my daughter hadn’t bought hers yet.
That was the general selection strategy- solid liberal arts colleges, neither too small nor too large, and hiring managers in the Acela corridor have heard of them.
Americans have found their new icon. Since the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma put Tim Send, their head of security, in charge of their Twitter, the whole country has been praising his tweets. Some are educational, providing a glimpse into the museum’s displays, others document Tim’s hilariously wholesome attempts to get a hold of the inner workings of the Internet. But regardless of which ones you read, they perfectly portray his incredibly kind heart.
First one: Hello, my name is Tim and I am the head of security for The Cowboy. I have been asked to take on the additional duty of social media management while the museum is closed. I’m new to this but excited. My team will also continue to protect and monitor the museum. Thanks, Tim Send
I think a lot of that is just response bias. With Trump hogging the airwaves more and pretending to be doing something, his supporters are more likely to answer polls.
What a dumb country. Hopefully this is just a small "rally around the flag" effect, because the shit really is likely gonna start hitting the fan in a few more weeks.
I have to admit that despite my deep cynicism I was a little surprised by the speed with which the right pivoted to “let the old and the weak die for shareholder value to be saved.”
This has to be the easiest party/president to run against since Hoover in 1932 (boo LSJU!) but I can't quite shake the feeling that the Democrats will somehow botch this and turn it into a nailbiter.
I think not, the revulsion for Trump is palpable among Democrats of all stripes, and he has done nothing for the elements of the electorate that voted for him on the "it couldn't get much worse" theory.
Yep. Back in December I got a call from a first cousin once removed. He was coming to DC for an internship and wondered if I had any recommendations for places to stay. I had heard he was coming so had researched some fairly convenient but not too expensive places. I told him to let me know what he figured out and if those places didn't work out to let me know. Push come to shove I probably would have let him stay with me. His internship started in mid-Jan. and I haven't heard boo. The internship is at the White House. Seems like he was trolling for somewhere to stay for free and when I didn't offer right off that was that. I've never met him and last saw his dad, my cousin, maybe forty years ago so probably just as well since I would have a hard time holding my tongue. I'm sure most of my Midwest relatives are all in on Trump.
so sometime over the weekend, it felt like something turned in Bangkok. Over the last two weeks, the city emptied of tourists and then they announced that all entertainment venues (gyms, massage parlors - both kinds, theaters, bars) would close until April. Then on Saturday - the government announced all non-essential businesses would close, so clothing stores, restaurants, malls etc. With that almost all the service workers, who aren't from Bangkok, have been heading home over the last month, and who knows how many of them have it.
Anyways, it felt like something was about go bad - and I had been a houseguest for 60 days already AND most importantly, they shut down the pool at my cousin's condo. So I flew back to Shanghai yesterday at 6:30pm last night in Pudong.
First group of passengers (about 30) gets called off plane at 7pm. Then they start calling passengers individually. Later learned those were passengers with transfer plans. Then they called by seating groups.
Get off flight at 8:27pm.
Get in long snake line to get health interviewed, took an hour to get to the interview.. "Where have I been? Have I been on a farm? Did I eat anything weird? Coughs, fever, discomfort?"
The interviewers were doing their best - long night, hard work. The guy I was next to (Spanish?) didn’t have the best English either so I had to help with one or two questions. The interviewers said they had a Thai guy come through earlier who didn’t speak Chinese or English.
Photocopy documents, then go through a few checkpoints. Get a green sticker - and am directed to a set of immigration desks - the yellow stickers go to a different set of desks. Get stopped at immigration for a pretty thorough interview - I think my American passport was throwing them off. Got asked if I went back to the US a couple times - as did a different Chinese American woman. Took another hour to get through immigration
Eventually get to baggage claim - since my flight had arrived 4 hours before hand, had to search and ask around to find my baggage. Through customs and there’s an exit point for Shanghai and then turn the other direction for non-Shanghai. All the Shanghai districts are set-up on the bridge between terminals 1 and 2. Wander through and find the desk for Xuhui District.
The desk volunteer takes my passport, registers me, explains what will happen then I sit nearby to wait for them to call our bus. After 15 minutes we head out to the parking lot - take bus to the Junior Sports School of Xuhui - bus took an hour. Sit on the bus for a bit. Then they call the ten of us off in two groups. There’s a couple of tents outside of the gym (from what i could see they were processing yellows inside the gym)
After waiting another ten minutes, I get called to take my nucleus test (the nose part tickles, the throat part is uncomfortable, but not too bad. Getting dental X-rays is worse) then we get back on the big bus, and dropped off next to Shanghai South train station where a predatory cab driver (fuck you dude - everyone else in this process has been a real champ to pull together and handle everything with good humor and you charge me 100 rmb - double the normal price - to get home AND pick up another passenger?! I’ve defended Shanghai cab drivers for years but this dude can fuck right off)
Get back to compound - register by hand at the door. Apparently my temperature is 25 degrees C so I’m dead I guess. I can’t get the Xuhui QR code registration to work (I can’t type in my address - the boxes are greyed out) but I ask if Alipay will work. Thankfully I spent 2 minutes on this a month ago. He is ok - so pull out Alipay and I’m green and I slept in my bed.
The neighbor quarantine doctor comes by at 10:30am to check on me, tell me to check-in with her twice a day and that I am quarantined at home for two weeks. Then a couple hours later she texts me and says I'm not required to quarantine since Thailand is a low risk country right now.
Then a couple hours after that, the Xuhui Medical government group sends me a text.
Glad you're doing well. It's encouraging to see that parts of China are starting to open up again. It makes me optimistic that we may start to return to normal in a couple months.
So I got off the phone with a buddy who is known for being a great guy, a below-average planner, delightfully cheap in certain ways, and always gets into trouble because of the combination of those factors.
For example, 14 years ago he though "aw heck, we flew down to Sydney for fertility treatments and those are expensive; might as well throw in a few extra embryos to make them cost efficient". His twins turn 13 this year. The guy who forgot to renew his oldest daughter's passport when we were going to Bali so had to bribe a Singaporean immigration officer (which was bold considering it was Singapore, and doubly surprising because it worked, and triple great because he then had to bribe the Indonesian officers immigration guys (twice, both in and out) and then pay the fine for expired passport on the way in back to Singapore.
A few weeks ago, he thought it might be a great idea to buy $200 RT tickets to Costa Rica. He flew back in yesterday after a mad scramble to make it on one of the last flights out. He was a gnat's whisker away from getting stuck there for who-knows-how-long. I'm suppose to see him in June and I'll ask him how much money he lost having to book a last second panic flight and the week of hotels he wasn't going to stay at.
Also, I found out my wife's ex-boss teenage son is stuck in Peru. She is going to have to charter a flight with the 17 other sets of parents. Oof. That's going to hurt the wallet.
My mom was telling me about a group of Taiwanese tourists in Peru who insisted that the Taiwanese government send a charter flight to pick them up, but then half of the refused to board, because they wanted to continue their Peruvian travels...
I saw the night of Trump's mistaken announcement that people spent 20k flying back to the US from Paris. (I had to cancel my original flight from Bangkok to Shanghai because it was originally routed BKK - HKG for 4 days - PVG, but with forced quarantine in Hong Kong, I tried to route BKK/HKG/PVG and they said the earliest I could fly that was JUNE. So I cancelled and bought a one-way ticket on China Eastern for $350.
It's maddening of course because of all the *other* people they are putting at risk, but this type of behavior might end up disproportionately culling the stupid and foolish.
I don't actually think that the people who are actively ignoring the social distancing orders/guidance are going to pay a disproportionately high price for it. Sure, their communities will, but many of these people will never really know all of the people that they've endangered/harmed.
Well, I've seen plenty of reports of relatively young adults being hit hard by this thing, so I don't think even healthy individuals are necessarily immune, but you're right, it will spread through their communities. But if the response to this thing starts getting to be differentiated by partisanship/ideology, then it's going to be right wingers who will be disproportionately affected. Liberty University is staying open, for example. SMH.
Right, my point is that the effects are diffuse through a community, and Liberty University may be an exception, but in general, even in polarized Trump's America, liberals and conservatives do still interact and infect each other.
start of the Connecticut non-essential business closure today. Went to get my allergy shot this morning; we all hang out in our cars in a parking lot and get called up by the nurses, then monitored from our cars for reactions until our half-hour is up after which we can head out.
Then went to Costco to restock on a few things (they had paper towels! and I also got coffee) then to campus. Although the governor said that higher education was considered essential, the college playing it safe. They check IDs at the front, take down your name and the time you get there, as well as what building(s) you're going to, then they also record your departure time. I was hoping to be able to lecture in front of a camera at a whiteboard here (I'm the only one on my floor, anyhow) but it looks like returning to campus isn't going to be likely so I better hunker down to stay at home.
So I’m going to take a minute to be a excited dad: it’s college acceptance time and while there have been a couple of rejections, my older daughter has got into a few schools including one on her shortlist, which also anted up a nice little scholarship to sweeten the deal. She was a little tense because she hangs with the overachievers and they’ve been getting spots at Ivies via early action and whatnot. It’s nice to see her getting amped about what’s next (whenever that is)
Go Bears! When do Cal's letters get to her?
YAY CONGRATS!!!!! This must be such a weird and bittersweet senior year, and any excitement is welcome!
She was saying that in her group chat of friends from camp, one girl in Virginia was saying that since their schools are done for the academic year, she now has three (!) prom dresses that she won’t be using. Fortunately my daughter hadn’t bought hers yet.
Anyway, it’s a weird senior year for sure.
Perhaps the next DBD Zoom should feature prom dresses
I'm not sure I can fit into my prom dress anymore
I never could, it was aspirational
Mazel tov! Glad to hear that.
Congrats, great to hear, also never to late to have her find the blue and gold pathway :)
I fear the closest she came was maize and blue
noooooo
Woooo hoooo hoooo
awesome. contracts! what's the shortlist school?
Bryn Mawr, with Smith, Mt Holyoke, Sarah Lawrence, and Skidmore under consideration. More to hear from though.
dammit..obviously I meant congrats above. One school needs to buy some vowels. Have never heard of it before.
They are all quite well-regarded liberal arts colleges, I believe.
Congrats, DC!
I'm sure they are. As an engineer I've never heard of most liberal arts colleges before. I had never heard of Williams before No 1 went there.
And also women's schools!
That was the general selection strategy- solid liberal arts colleges, neither too small nor too large, and hiring managers in the Acela corridor have heard of them.
I feel the hiring managers bullet point is the key. If she wants to stay in the area.
you gonna be poor
That was a given. This is the one way in which Virginia is the superior state, much better selection of public universities
we live right next to Sarah Lawrence
Nice! I don’t know how high it was on her list but it seems like her kind of place.
Tell her hi for me.
https://www.boredpanda.com/national-cowboy-museum-head-of-security-twitter/
Americans have found their new icon. Since the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma put Tim Send, their head of security, in charge of their Twitter, the whole country has been praising his tweets. Some are educational, providing a glimpse into the museum’s displays, others document Tim’s hilariously wholesome attempts to get a hold of the inner workings of the Internet. But regardless of which ones you read, they perfectly portray his incredibly kind heart.
https://twitter.com/ncwhm
First one: Hello, my name is Tim and I am the head of security for The Cowboy. I have been asked to take on the additional duty of social media management while the museum is closed. I’m new to this but excited. My team will also continue to protect and monitor the museum. Thanks, Tim Send
that was great, thanks! HashtagNeededThat
I loved the one where he first took the selfie icon, then a picture of his face next to the selfie icon. #Hashtag selfies for life. Thanks. HAG
sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, whoah.
These days, who knows?
RESPECT
i like this at the Franklin Ave subway stop
https://untappedcities-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Aretha-Franklin-Respect-Tribute-MTA-Franklin-Avenue-Subway-Station-Bedford-Stuyvesant-Crown-Heights-Fulton-Avenue-Brooklyn-NYC-2.jpg
:)
Amateur
Olympics officially cancelled until 2021. Guess Dick Pound was right.
https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/28946033/tokyo-olympics-officially-postponed-2021
is he the new Ed Balls?
Pro
76ers' owner gets it wrong. Then makes it right.
https://twitter.com/sixers/status/1242515363809710082
i mean as long as we get there eventually i guess
LA Rams officially launch new logo, which is the same leaked earlier.
There was a fun Twitter thread (I think Nam or Twist's), where the comment was that it looked like an unknown Cal State campus.
And then I wake up this morning and see that, lo-and-behold there actually IS A STATE COLLEGE that has a very, very similar logo:
https://twitter.com/ArashMarkazi/status/1242212098190348288
FYI: Angelo State is in Texas
The colors and the C-shaped ram horn make it look like an LA Chargers logo.
I like the Ram head, the LA logo is hot garbage
Cal
Daily Cal is struggling with solvency. No students. No readers. No ads. No revenues.
https://donate.dailycal.org/donate/
I wonder what their cost structure is like. Do they pay rent to the University, for example?
This will disappoint one of my cousins, a former Editor of the Daily Cal. Probably won't surprise him, though.
Our crumbling democracy
Gallup Poll: Trump's approval ratings rise to 49% from 44%. 60% approve of his Pandemic response.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/298313/president-trump-job-approval-rating.aspx?utm_source=twitterbutton&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=sharing
I think a lot of that is just response bias. With Trump hogging the airwaves more and pretending to be doing something, his supporters are more likely to answer polls.
Must have done the poll in deep red states.
What a dumb country. Hopefully this is just a small "rally around the flag" effect, because the shit really is likely gonna start hitting the fan in a few more weeks.
I have to admit that despite my deep cynicism I was a little surprised by the speed with which the right pivoted to “let the old and the weak die for shareholder value to be saved.”
Trump asks for quid pro quo from States in order to get Federal support.
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1242533718620876800
Link for the lazy:
https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1242245135129346050
"Pro-life" Republicans
This has to be the easiest party/president to run against since Hoover in 1932 (boo LSJU!) but I can't quite shake the feeling that the Democrats will somehow botch this and turn it into a nailbiter.
I think not, the revulsion for Trump is palpable among Democrats of all stripes, and he has done nothing for the elements of the electorate that voted for him on the "it couldn't get much worse" theory.
A third of the country is actively in thrall to blatant propaganda.
Yep. Back in December I got a call from a first cousin once removed. He was coming to DC for an internship and wondered if I had any recommendations for places to stay. I had heard he was coming so had researched some fairly convenient but not too expensive places. I told him to let me know what he figured out and if those places didn't work out to let me know. Push come to shove I probably would have let him stay with me. His internship started in mid-Jan. and I haven't heard boo. The internship is at the White House. Seems like he was trolling for somewhere to stay for free and when I didn't offer right off that was that. I've never met him and last saw his dad, my cousin, maybe forty years ago so probably just as well since I would have a hard time holding my tongue. I'm sure most of my Midwest relatives are all in on Trump.
Sounds like you need to remove that cousin some more
Ba-dum-bum
pqtm
and there's a sizable corner of Twitter using every aspect of this crisis to attack Biden
As a strongly left-leaning person, I've never had less patience for leftist bullshit than I do now. Congrats, Bernie Bro twitter.
Same. I voted for Bernie, but I see zero utility in going after Biden. What, you're going to prove you were right and re-elect Trump? Come on.
I feel the same. I've started muting/blocking those asshats.
mmhmm
I wonder when he'll announce his VP
Corona Virus Update
so sometime over the weekend, it felt like something turned in Bangkok. Over the last two weeks, the city emptied of tourists and then they announced that all entertainment venues (gyms, massage parlors - both kinds, theaters, bars) would close until April. Then on Saturday - the government announced all non-essential businesses would close, so clothing stores, restaurants, malls etc. With that almost all the service workers, who aren't from Bangkok, have been heading home over the last month, and who knows how many of them have it.
Anyways, it felt like something was about go bad - and I had been a houseguest for 60 days already AND most importantly, they shut down the pool at my cousin's condo. So I flew back to Shanghai yesterday at 6:30pm last night in Pudong.
First group of passengers (about 30) gets called off plane at 7pm. Then they start calling passengers individually. Later learned those were passengers with transfer plans. Then they called by seating groups.
Get off flight at 8:27pm.
Get in long snake line to get health interviewed, took an hour to get to the interview.. "Where have I been? Have I been on a farm? Did I eat anything weird? Coughs, fever, discomfort?"
The interviewers were doing their best - long night, hard work. The guy I was next to (Spanish?) didn’t have the best English either so I had to help with one or two questions. The interviewers said they had a Thai guy come through earlier who didn’t speak Chinese or English.
Photocopy documents, then go through a few checkpoints. Get a green sticker - and am directed to a set of immigration desks - the yellow stickers go to a different set of desks. Get stopped at immigration for a pretty thorough interview - I think my American passport was throwing them off. Got asked if I went back to the US a couple times - as did a different Chinese American woman. Took another hour to get through immigration
Eventually get to baggage claim - since my flight had arrived 4 hours before hand, had to search and ask around to find my baggage. Through customs and there’s an exit point for Shanghai and then turn the other direction for non-Shanghai. All the Shanghai districts are set-up on the bridge between terminals 1 and 2. Wander through and find the desk for Xuhui District.
The desk volunteer takes my passport, registers me, explains what will happen then I sit nearby to wait for them to call our bus. After 15 minutes we head out to the parking lot - take bus to the Junior Sports School of Xuhui - bus took an hour. Sit on the bus for a bit. Then they call the ten of us off in two groups. There’s a couple of tents outside of the gym (from what i could see they were processing yellows inside the gym)
After waiting another ten minutes, I get called to take my nucleus test (the nose part tickles, the throat part is uncomfortable, but not too bad. Getting dental X-rays is worse) then we get back on the big bus, and dropped off next to Shanghai South train station where a predatory cab driver (fuck you dude - everyone else in this process has been a real champ to pull together and handle everything with good humor and you charge me 100 rmb - double the normal price - to get home AND pick up another passenger?! I’ve defended Shanghai cab drivers for years but this dude can fuck right off)
Get back to compound - register by hand at the door. Apparently my temperature is 25 degrees C so I’m dead I guess. I can’t get the Xuhui QR code registration to work (I can’t type in my address - the boxes are greyed out) but I ask if Alipay will work. Thankfully I spent 2 minutes on this a month ago. He is ok - so pull out Alipay and I’m green and I slept in my bed.
The neighbor quarantine doctor comes by at 10:30am to check on me, tell me to check-in with her twice a day and that I am quarantined at home for two weeks. Then a couple hours later she texts me and says I'm not required to quarantine since Thailand is a low risk country right now.
Then a couple hours after that, the Xuhui Medical government group sends me a text.
- I'm corona free!
Hooray for safely back home. Home is where your pillow is.
Thai food is less good here. But I missed Chinese food in Bangkok. So trade-off.
Glad you're doing well. It's encouraging to see that parts of China are starting to open up again. It makes me optimistic that we may start to return to normal in a couple months.
whew... congratulations (was holding my breath...)
"from what i could see they were processing yellows inside the gym"
so fucking racis
yay congrats tho
I'm glad you're home and that you're safe :)
glad you made it through ok!
Yay for safe (if hassly) travel
Sounds like a long, stressful night. Glad no corona.
Long, not stressful because I was prepped and knew everything was going to take a while.
Are things starting to go a little back to normal in Shanghai? Are businesses open?
I haven't gone out, but from my window, traffic is like 70% of normal. The offices on my apartment floor are open.
FET
So I got off the phone with a buddy who is known for being a great guy, a below-average planner, delightfully cheap in certain ways, and always gets into trouble because of the combination of those factors.
For example, 14 years ago he though "aw heck, we flew down to Sydney for fertility treatments and those are expensive; might as well throw in a few extra embryos to make them cost efficient". His twins turn 13 this year. The guy who forgot to renew his oldest daughter's passport when we were going to Bali so had to bribe a Singaporean immigration officer (which was bold considering it was Singapore, and doubly surprising because it worked, and triple great because he then had to bribe the Indonesian officers immigration guys (twice, both in and out) and then pay the fine for expired passport on the way in back to Singapore.
A few weeks ago, he thought it might be a great idea to buy $200 RT tickets to Costa Rica. He flew back in yesterday after a mad scramble to make it on one of the last flights out. He was a gnat's whisker away from getting stuck there for who-knows-how-long. I'm suppose to see him in June and I'll ask him how much money he lost having to book a last second panic flight and the week of hotels he wasn't going to stay at.
Also, I found out my wife's ex-boss teenage son is stuck in Peru. She is going to have to charter a flight with the 17 other sets of parents. Oof. That's going to hurt the wallet.
My mom was telling me about a group of Taiwanese tourists in Peru who insisted that the Taiwanese government send a charter flight to pick them up, but then half of the refused to board, because they wanted to continue their Peruvian travels...
Ouch
I saw the night of Trump's mistaken announcement that people spent 20k flying back to the US from Paris. (I had to cancel my original flight from Bangkok to Shanghai because it was originally routed BKK - HKG for 4 days - PVG, but with forced quarantine in Hong Kong, I tried to route BKK/HKG/PVG and they said the earliest I could fly that was JUNE. So I cancelled and bought a one-way ticket on China Eastern for $350.
Liberty University is apparently re-opening this week...they will probably just justify sending old people on an express to heaven if this causes a coronavirus outbreak in Lynchburg, VA. https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/thousands-of-liberty-students-expected-to-return-to-campus-amid/article_a7b91be3-217a-598e-a367-34950271e6c6.html
they'll pray the virus away.
It's maddening of course because of all the *other* people they are putting at risk, but this type of behavior might end up disproportionately culling the stupid and foolish.
I don't actually think that the people who are actively ignoring the social distancing orders/guidance are going to pay a disproportionately high price for it. Sure, their communities will, but many of these people will never really know all of the people that they've endangered/harmed.
Well, I've seen plenty of reports of relatively young adults being hit hard by this thing, so I don't think even healthy individuals are necessarily immune, but you're right, it will spread through their communities. But if the response to this thing starts getting to be differentiated by partisanship/ideology, then it's going to be right wingers who will be disproportionately affected. Liberty University is staying open, for example. SMH.
Right, my point is that the effects are diffuse through a community, and Liberty University may be an exception, but in general, even in polarized Trump's America, liberals and conservatives do still interact and infect each other.
the governor hasn't closed higher ed yet? They're all just going to go back home after and spread whatever they got when they arrived
start of the Connecticut non-essential business closure today. Went to get my allergy shot this morning; we all hang out in our cars in a parking lot and get called up by the nurses, then monitored from our cars for reactions until our half-hour is up after which we can head out.
Then went to Costco to restock on a few things (they had paper towels! and I also got coffee) then to campus. Although the governor said that higher education was considered essential, the college playing it safe. They check IDs at the front, take down your name and the time you get there, as well as what building(s) you're going to, then they also record your departure time. I was hoping to be able to lecture in front of a camera at a whiteboard here (I'm the only one on my floor, anyhow) but it looks like returning to campus isn't going to be likely so I better hunker down to stay at home.