205 Comments

I got rid of the lawn, so nothing.

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Job Hunting

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In the past 3 months I have had 10 interviews for 3 jobs that eventually went to internal promotions or "sorry, we're not hiring that position anymore"

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Walmart and Amazon are hiring. Doesn't look so good anywhere else.

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Do you think that jobs that are remote by design are still hiring? Could try looking at https://remotewoman.com/ (not just for women)

I'll keep an eye out for things around me!

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(I also realize that working remote would not maximize your in-person interpersonal skills, but could be worth looking)

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Double D is up for *two* full time jobs with a sports cable network. However, with all the sports league shutdowns the hiring decisions have apparently been put on hold.

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So job hunting is hard enough, but with this COVID thing it just straight sucks. Legit the worst.

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I had heard from Twist at CGBPiDay that you were job hunting. I was going to say we should grab some lunch but I guess we can't now. Are there not a lot of listings in the area, even before all this happened?

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There are...it's just that my resume doesn't scream HIRE ME. I have all the relational/soft skills in the world but need someone to invest in the tech skills to hire me...and no one seems to want to do that.

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what kind of job are you looking for?

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I seem to be best suited for a Customer Success role but honestly, anything that is relational, pays above $90k is good for me at this point

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CBD Gum just arrived, so not likely to help with the job but will definitely reduce the stress levels.

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I wonder how the summer internships are going to go. No 2 hadn't found one and I'm guessing no companies are hiring any more so he may just go with the, I didn't get a summer internship because of the Corona Virus. One point of the summer internship is to be mentored and that's going to be hard to do remotely. Especially a new hire.

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I have an intern starting on Monday, it's going to be super-weird. I think we offered and he accepted a couple months ago, well before all of this got real. Will be an experience, for sure. I don't know if I'm ever going to meet him in person.

On the flip side, we have temporarily frozen hiring, even for backfills (and some of those backfills are pretty critical, leaving some folks overloaded).

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we cancelled our summer intern program.

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I imagine most companies did, except for Erik's. I wonder how many of those that accepted positions lost them.

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I've seen some posted, but given how disruptive this has been, I can't imagine anyone holding this against someone

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Yeah, I was about to start and I figure I might as well not bother (although the wheels of administration are still turning)... @although at the rate we’re going there will be a lot of vacancies in some states soon@

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a mayonnaise and chocolate syrup sandwich is worse

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running out of condiments?

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my dad was a latchkey kid for most of his early childhood and he remembers making that sandwich as it was the last things in their refrigerator one time. He said it was the worst thing he has ever tasted

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I can definitely believe that.

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Ha! I thought you just made that up.

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I use a hoard of hungry rabbits.

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Horde, not hoard.

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When I was mowing lawns for $, it was an old-timey push lawnmower.

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Was it considered old-timey back then or just current-timey? :D

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It was old, other people had gas-powered ones.

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Yeah, I was just joking :-P

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I tended to use whatever the homeowner had, so I got to use all sorts of mowers. I actually like push mowers, unless you let the grass get too long.

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I seem to remember I used our mower on all the places - this was on the RAF base, so everything was pretty close, in between babysitting, lawn mowing and car washing & waxing, I was raking it in! (at least I thought so).

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here's a video about how to deal with groceries during the COVID-19 time...has 12.5 million views so far. Some good advice from an M.D.

https://youtu.be/sjDuwc9KBps

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Huh, well now I know what my brother was watching yesterday

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I saw the tweets against the video first before watching the video. It's probably best practice to do both. So my dad came to visit me just when the "stay at home" order hits the Pittsburgh area. My dad has definitely been much more thorough both with washing everything that we buy from the store (he is more at risk due to age, of course), but also demanded to eat well done steak and ahi tuna...I guess the only blessing is that he didn't ask to eat those with ketchup.

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Sure. Dr. vanWingen is applying extreme protocols. Likewise, Dr. Shaffner is being petty and pedantic. Reality is... the virus is very resilient, so one should take precautions.

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The question is if extreme protocols are needed or somewhere in between. Like you probably don't need to wash each piece of fruit more than you usually do (like with soap since the tweet mentions soap making people sick). Do you need to take the packaged bag of crackers out of the cardboard box and toss the box?

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Definitely a case where the truth is in between. Obviously no one is suggesting you leave perishables outside (so that Twitter account is annoying me).

Do we *need* to wash every piece of fruit or immediately unpackage bread? We don't know. You don't know if someone with the coronavirus has handled those products and contaminated your groceries.

It's all a game of probability and risk.

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This is mitigation against long-tail risk. There is increasing levels of effort to reduce risk. For the vast majority of people, it's stay home, wash your hands, quit touching your face. And those who wish to do more can do so. Both will think they did the right thing so long as they don't catch it.

The reality is that I would reduce my risk more by DMing those people on my social media stream to fucking quit getting together for Covid19 parties than de-packaging my bread.

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We’re addressing that last thought by having my missus make the bread

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Mar 27, 2020
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and after you go to the store.

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hmm...yeah some of the things in the original video did seem overboard. BTW I don't think the Dr in the original video was saying to leave your food outside for 3 days. I think he said it would take 3 days of leaving it outside for the virus to breakdown. I thought he said the sanitizing of the exterior of the packaging meant you could put it away right away instead of leaving it outside ofr 3 days, though maybe I misunderstood the original video.

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Have you ever done an OSHA training and heard their Swiss Cheese model of de-risking? That's what this is.

Three-day isolation is one way to de-risk. I haven't looked at the primary data regarding viral lifespan, so I can't speak for how trustworthy the data is or the certainty that all viral particles will be cleared after three days. Viruses aren't exactly in my wheelhouse, but with other biological systems, it isn't implausible for an individual organism to survive past a measure like this. (Yeah, yeah, it's questionable to call a virus an organism.)

Sanitization is another method of de-risking tha tisn't foolproof. If you don't clean properly, then viral particles can persist. Touching something with a Lysol wipe doesn't automatically kill everything on it (if there's inadequate contact time, loss of efficacy in the active ingredient, or a freak escapee).

You can do both steps and still get sick. You can do one step and not happen to get sick. You can do no steps and not happen to get sick.

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as someone who works where people's cleaning habits can sometimes be observed....people don't clean anything for shit.

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I finally cleared off my desk so that I could wfh NOT from the dining room table (and cleared the floor of my room enough that it wouldn't show up on the webcam)

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Mar 27, 2020
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Only after you've left it outside for three days.

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I for sure thought he was saying leave it outside for three days and I nearly lost my eyes from rolling them so hard.

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I thought so too until he started washing everything. Maybe he didn't outright say as an alternative you can wash everything and that's why people were confused?

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That's a very good video. It's insightful, fact-based, and sobering. It made me realize that my current processes are inadequate.

I have just put a big wide stripe down the middle of my kitchen island.

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My mom showed this to me and yesterday I cleaned my groceries before we got into the house. We don't have sanitizing wipes so I used a bleach/water mix. The thing I didn't do is let it airdry.

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When I lived in Georgia (I was sent there to work in a Fortune 500 firms' corporate HQ) briefly I had a 4-acre lawn so I had a ride mower. Now back in Calif for the last 20 years I have a gas push mower.

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I just cannot get pizza dough right. It's too wet and difficult to handle. (I've been using 1/4 packet of yeast, 500g flour, 300ml water - let proof overnight, then form balls with seam side down)

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Where is AndBears -- she got this right last week.

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https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-homemade-thin-crust-pizza-recipes-from-the-kitchn-45499

This is the recipe I use. I haven't tried proofing it overnight though. It works well.

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"too wet and difficult to handle" - title of your sex tape

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no sex in the era of social distancing. Yeah, that's the ticket.

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New York says the safest sex is sex with yourself

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I mean, it always has been

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Unless you're Edward Scissorhands

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Edward Penishands was the better film

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Mar 27, 2020
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Well, there's a rose in a fisted glove

And the eagle flies with the dove

And if you can't be with the one you love, honey

Love the one you're with

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Mar 27, 2020
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You shouldn't have to oil your hands if it's correct. I have had some times where the dough is too sticky and I usually end up having to add more flour, but that makes the dough not quite right, texture wise. With the stand mixer it ends up sticking to the sides when trying to knead. I wonder if it has to do with the humidity.

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Mar 27, 2020
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ahh...good point. I was thinking maybe coat your hands in flour that that will just get integrated into the moist dough pretty quickly.

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World record in 100m dash smashed. Usain Bolt yet to comment.

https://i.redd.it/ae2ajd4vx6p41.png

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she's awesome. we need more Brit getting weird on the internets.

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For those who have witnessed the modern college acceptance process, what's it like?

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My daughter filled out the admissions application on-line and they emailed her instructions on registering for housing & dining and classes. The band program emailed her the link to the form to fill out for band camp and the schedule. I made sure I had the checkbook handy when the bill came.

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there isn't the suspense of checking the mailbox every day anymore.

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Email and then a follow on package with information. We had a series of rejections yesterday and one waitlisting for a preferred choice, so feelings were a bit hurt.

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but she got into the cultist school so you've got that going for you

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I don’t know what you’re talking about, she didn’t apply to Texas A&M

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didnt you say she got into Sarah Lawrence? They had a creepy cult situation there recently

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Ah, I was dimly aware of that. More so than of the fact that my daughter applied to Sarah Lawrence actually

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Ah, my parents had to write actual checks for my applications, so they knew where I was applying.

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"Ok boys, we are invading [city/town within 30 minute drive] because we want their _________"

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Austin. Queso.

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Austin. Brisket.

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speaking of, I suspect I'll be doing my 2nd brisket of the shutdown sometime this weekend

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UPS and FedEx are still shipping...

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It's 2020. Women can be city-invading marauders too.

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it's 2020, non-binary identifying folk can be city-invading marauders too.

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Mar 27, 2020
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It's the internet, we're all dudes.

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Lawnmowers

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Haven't had a lawn in many years, but do now have hedges and taller trees so I'm getting new, exciting yard tools like a hedge trimmer and a lopper on an extendable pole.

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Just finished mowing. Auntsam sent me outside bc this quarantine is starting to make me crazy.

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Lawnmower Man. What a ridiculous movie.

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Never seen it, but I do own this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfR7I_rPFMk

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When I did have a lawn, I used a reel/pushmower. That's what the DBD post refers to as "push mower with spinning cylinder". Haven't had a lawn in more than 10 years.

Get off my lawn!

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We had one for our house in DC because that was all we needed

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Look at all you rich people with your lawns.

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Grass is several steps below "leopard print" rich.

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heh

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almost time to fire mine up! I 100% forgot to drain the gas at the end of last season (fall arrived in a hurry) so hopefully it still runs

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I think I got it for $40 on Craigslist and I repaired a broken wheel with about $10 of parts from Home Depot so pretty proud of myself

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Gas powered push mower. Absolutely my favorite chore ever. Look forward to the once a week mow.

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We use a service. $25 / week, very reasonable.

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I have a 16 year old son so "free" works well for me. Of course it isnt free because he spends money like crazy but I might as well get some labor out of him

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He'd be spending no less money if he weren't mowing the lawn.

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exactly. Plus, right now he is so bored he'll do anything. Just did the front and back this morning (is 1.5 hour job)

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Same! And I may need to borrow a neighbor's lawn mower if they can't come because of shelter in place in my county!

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we have an Old-timey push lawnmower with the spinning cylinder

our lawn is not big and it turns out that with the right type of blade the grass is turned to mulch in just the right way.

takes only about 15-20 min to mow front lawn.

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John Deere Tractor.

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nope. no lawns!

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Gas powered Honda. It is not very green, but our grass grows too fast/thick to use electric on it.

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Corded electric. Lawn is a little too big/thick for a battery-powered motor. And I can't be bothered with filling up gas cans and fiddling with a finicky gas mower.

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I use an electric too. Gas powered mowers are annoying.

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I'll third this opinion. Although gas powered riding mowers are super-fun, I don't have the lawn to justify it.

In fact, my lawn is small enough that I got by with a push mower for years, but after kids I stopped mowing as regularly, and if you let the grass get too long, there's a point past which you can't save it with a push mower.

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Then you have to take a first crack at it with a weed whacker.

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Lawns

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Ours has slowly been taken over by zoysia and while it’s invasive it requires almost no attention which is ideal IMO

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its better than Bermuda which is what we have. Pretty much every weed in the known universe can grow in it. Stupid broke ass builder who did our house can burn in hell

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One of the best things about living somewhere with an actual winter is that the lawn goes dormant. I haven't mowed it in about 6 months and it's still a few weeks away from needing the first mow of the year.

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I should have probably mowed yesterday afternoon; we are supposed to get some rain every day for ~the next 10 days. By then it will be a hay crop.

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Down season is only ~4 months here. Biggest issue is the tractor might sit long enough in a cold wet winter that the battery goes dead.

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Mar 27, 2020
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Bringin' everyone's property values down!

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Today in COVID-19

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Doris Burke tests positive :(

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The National Park Service has taken the porta potties out of a couple of the parks near me. I'm guessing it's to try to discourage people from being in the park. One has a gate and they could block access. The one across the street is wide open so If they want to totally stop people they would have to post a ranger.

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Mass. is asking all out-of-state visitors to self-quarantine for 14 days

https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito-administration-announces-travel-guidelines-and-new-health-care-resources-to

this will make an interstate relationship quite interesting

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There was a border set-up between Hubei and Jiangsu (?) that led to a riot in China with police cars getting upended.

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better shack up short term

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That's what my gf and I have been doing.

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dont lie, you aint got no damn girlfriend

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Yeah he does.

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I met her when I went for No 1's graduation last summer. Unless he hired someone to play the part??

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pics or she doesnt exist

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Mar 27, 2020
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Don't you also have a gf/significant other? Is it a brag when you refer to her?

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Mar 29, 2020
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The Western US seems to be doing all right, especially when you consider that WA and CA were among the first places hit. The South is about to be FUUUUUCCCCKKKKEEEEDDDD:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

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I wonder if the early shelter in place is helping Ca. Or maybe it's just because not as many people have gotten tested.

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I think the early lockdown *definitely* helped, quite a bit.

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oh I agree. less transmission. I do think the actual numbers are higher because fewer people may have been tested.

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We definitely need more testing, but the underlying metrics like deaths and high fevers have also been lower in CA, which indicates that the spread has been slower. I think the early action by local governments (and businesses/people) to socially distance definitely helped.

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Those are true, but the rate of increase in cases is still effectively exponential. A semi-log plot of CA data for March is a nice increasing line. 11 days for a 10x increase. Also, there are apparently around 50,000 tests waiting for results in CA alone.

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John Kerry on Thomas Massie, who was threatening to demand a roll-call before the stimulus package vote:

"Breaking news: Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an asshole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity. He's given new meaning to the term #Masshole. (Finally, something the president and I can agree on!)"

https://twitter.com/JohnKerry/status/1243552337429438464

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Yikes!

"Expectant mothers planning to deliver at two major hospital networks in New York must be prepared for a new reality this week: They will have to give birth without a loved one by their side.

At Mount Sinai Hospital, partners and doulas have been barred from entering the labor and delivery floor, part of a plan to treat every expectant mother as if she has the novel coronavirus.

Hospitals across the country are swiftly adopting new protocols for pregnant women and obstetric departments in an effort to keep up with a virus that stays one step ahead. In-person prenatal classes are moving online. Hospitals are ensuring women in labor will not mix with patients in the emergency room. And, perhaps most controversially, some hospitals are adopting no-visitor policies for women giving birth.

“I’m not a very popular guy in New York City,” said Michael Brodman, the chief of obstetrics at Mount Sinai. Brodman made the decision to bar partners and recognizes it will add stress to an already stressful time. But he could not risk someone endangering the lives of health-care workers, mothers and newborn babies. The virus is already affecting obstetrics: Brodman said eight nurses and four doctors in labor and delivery have been diagnosed with the virus."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/expectant-mothers-stare-down-the-prospect-of-giving-birth-alone-as-coronavirus-upends-hospitals/2020/03/26/572b6144-6ddd-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html

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Only 1 new case in my immediate area yesterday. Positive rate on tests has dropped below 4%. Would like to see that drop some more. The problem in our state is there are 10 times the unemployment claims to process as the number of tests administered.

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What I would like to see is how many tests are being administered. Do they show that?

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They have in our area news releases. That's how I calculated the positive rate and the ratio of unemployment claims to tests.

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Faith is the belief in things without evidence. Idiocy is the belief in things in contradiction to science.

Good Gawd.

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My sister-in-law and her entire family have it. They are no longer coming to our house from NYC. They are freaking out, as you can imagine.

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1) I hope they can recover quickly

2) I'm glad they're not staying with you!

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Wow. Best of luck to them and I hope they make a complete recovery.

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Oh no!! They were able to get tested??

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My BiL worked for the city of NY for 2 decades, directly for the mayors. I suspect that may the reason.

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Well, best wishes to them for a full and speedy recovery.

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oh wow. Are they staying in NY then? Were they showing symptoms? I assume that's what prompted them to get tested.

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🤞🏻 for them

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oh wow. sucks that you and the fam have to deal with this. positive thoughts for a quick recovery.

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Boris Johnson has the 'rona

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1243496858095411200

lolololololol

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Karma is such a bitch and I do love her a lot right now. Some pretty fucking terrible people are getting it.

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So glad Katie Porter tested negative.

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Virginia pastor makes fun of Corona virus and makes post about it being hysteria to hurt Donald Trump.

Catches it and passes away.

https://patch.com/virginia/fredericksburg/va-pastor-musician-dies-coronavirus-he-had-questioned

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Oops

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He must not have been right with God

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Flood, canoe, motorboat, helicopter story.

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God brought him home sooner as a reward for his faith

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unless he's been sent to a low humidity, high heat area.

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Today in our crumbling democracy

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Definitely sick from all the winning.

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EPA compliance reporting suspended indefinitely because of Covid-19

https://westernvaluesproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID10-EPA-Enforcement-and-Compliance.pdf

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the tweets about this were a little overblown. Right in the document, it seems to have a fairly reasonable approach:

"2. If compliance is not reasonably practicable, facilities with environmental compliance obligations

should:

a. Act responsibly under the circumstances in order to minimize the effects and duration of

any noncompliance caused by COVID-19;

b. Identify the specific nature and dates of the noncompliance;

c. Identify how COVID-19 was the cause of the noncompliance, and the decisions and

actions taken in response, including best efforts to comply and steps taken to come into

compliance at the earliest opportunity;

d. Return to compliance as soon as possible; and

e. Document the information, action, or condition specified in a. through d. "

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They never miss a chance

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It's messed up that Trump has effectively replaced Dr. Fauci with Dr. Birx.

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Dr. Fauci found a better audience: #SCasksFauci

COVID-19 Q&A with Dr. Fauci and Stephen Curry (Official Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRwkNQXbGKg

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I love how Curry did that. Way more cool than Cheeto-man in the white house.

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Pros

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If they do adhere to these self-imposed rules, we are probably not going to have MLB this year (maybe a September only regular season in the best case scenario). No season starting until there could be large crowd gathering and no travel restrictions within US and Canada.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28962850/mlb-mlbpa-agree-stipulations-return-2020-season

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Cal

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Been using the quarantine to rewatch a bunch of games from the Wilcox era. My goodness has this team improved!

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Cal Men's Swimming with the Pac-12 awards today - Dave Durden is the head coach of the year. Junior Ryan Hoffer is the swimmer of the year.

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Means Cal should be named the National Champs, right??

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Admission acceptances were sent by Cal. Congrats to the new generation of Bears.

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one kid in the neighborhood got into Cal, Michigan and Columbia and wants to major in astrophysics. clearly i am biased towards Cal but not sure what he'll decide.

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That's cool. My admission letter had a shiny gold sticker on the outside, so I knew I was golden when I got it (many moons ago.)

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Young enough that admission results were sent online.

Old enough that we posted the results on MySpace.

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Mar 27, 2020
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We checked an online portal for UCs, CSUs sent packages. You knew where people were going when they got their college email address and signed up for facebook.

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I didn't get an email address until the middle of my freshman year when I got brave enough to go down to the OCF to sign up. And then a month later, we all got UCLink addresses.

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I then proceeded to cease all studious activities during the final semester of high school...

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it's the giant thick envelope (full of housing and other stuff) vs. the thin single small envelope - which I only received from Stanford.*

*I did not try hard on their application

**Would have been rejected anyways

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It's hard to not get excited when you see that girthy thickness.

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TWSS

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rainier-wolfcastle-that-s-the-joke.jpg

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The DC Environmental Film Festival is usually on this time of year. I just found out that many of their films have been made available online through the end of the month. See https://dceff.org/2020online/. Happy viewing.

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