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To volunteer with vaccination efforts in California: https://myturnvolunteer.ca.gov/s/landing

I'm told that if you volunteer for 4 hours, you're eligible for a vaccine

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Just got done talking with my brother who lives in the Sierra foothills. My sister-in-law, who is over 65, has had both doses. My brother, who is under, hasn't had either yet. Neither has volunteered but I'll give him this heads up in case he isn't aware. Thanks.

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McKenzie Scott - the former Mrs. Jeff Bezos - remarried to Dan Jewett, a Seattle high-school science teacher. Check that. The FORMER science teacher, current full-time philanthropist and bunion rubber.

https://people.com/human-interest/what-to-know-about-mackenzie-scotts-new-husband-teacher-dan-jewett/

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Meghan & Harry interview

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A whole lot of who cares. I don’t understand why anyone follows the royals, let alone people in the US.

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same reason people follow other celebrities, one assumes

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ESPECIALLY people in the US, never understood that at all.

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Bata Boom.

Large explosion at a military base in the biggest city of Equatorial Guinea

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/africa/equatorial-guinea-blasts-intl/index.html

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DBD Auto Club

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SGB Jr. is getting his license. I guess I should look to buy a beater. Frankly, I like this ex-cop car. Cop engine, cop suspension, police tint... everyone will drive sensibly around him.

https://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/d/cary-2009-ford-crown-victoria-police/7288239540.html

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never mind your son, I want it

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The wife's Mini stumbled home in limp-home mode the other day. The check engine code showed a cylinder 3 misfire. A set of plugs and a new coil pack seems to have cured its woes.

Coincidentally, the next week the Subaru dealer sent me a coupon for a free oil change for the WRX. It wasn't due for another couple months, but I gladly took their offer to save some cash.

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I think I'm going to change the plugs and wires on the Miata this weekend or the following one. I bought new projector headlights with HID bulbs for No 3's 2012 Accord so we're going to put them in this weekend.. Hopefully it'll be much brighter. The OEM headlights are poor.

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I was about to ask how you all are doing with all the baby accoutrements in relatively compact cars, but where would you be going?

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We usually have no problem hauling cf-98 and her stroller, etc. around on the infrequent occasion that we actually take her somewhere (walking trail, park, doctor's office). Both cars handle baby duties pretty well.

However, it was a tight squeeze when we drove to Atlanta for Thanksgiving because we had a week's worth of stuff and a bassinet squeezed into the WRX.

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it's always an interesting balancing act. We had friends who ended up going into minivans because they were buying dreadnought class strollers and such; we ended up with a MacLaren stroller because there was no way we were going bigger than the cars we had.

My parents lasted with a Mini (original rollerskate style of course) with me until I was probably 2 or 3. But those were simpler days with less stuff 😂

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re: dreadnought class stroller

My sister bought some bullshit stroller that was the size of the HMS Ark Royal because Kate & Will used it and it was a status symbol to differentiate from the grubby run-of-the-mill Mill Valley hoi palloi. At the time, it was over $2k, but now it cost $4k. Perhaps coincidentally, she bought a giant SUV shortly thereafter.

https://silvercrossus.com/balmoral-pram.html

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I had a pram like that when I was a wee baby but I don't think it was that posh

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For No 1 we got one of the really big, heavy ones. For no 2 and 3 we got one of the lightweight ones that still reclined and protected. Somewhere in between a Maclaren and one of the big heavy ones.

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Lol at “dreadnought class” we have a Nuna stroller that we used for my daughter who has aged out of a stroller (she is 3 now) and have used for our son (9 months)

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Thank you for aging her out of the stroller at that age. I am gobsmacked by the number of 4-5YOs I see still in strollers. Let them walk!

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pltm at "dreadnought class strollers"

We try to be pretty reasonable about the size and quantity of stuff she needs, as we're not interested in replacing either car for a while. So far it's worked out quite well.

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Kids accumulate stuff so quickly, it is kind of crazy how it happens.

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Cugel did you list your M5?

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I need to take more photos, but it's been sunny up until now.

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I have to change out the neutral safety switch on my wife's 74 Dodge Dart this week. Only a $7 part that is a supposed to be a simple pull and replace. The down side is that the switch is a plug on the bottom of the transmission, which means the ATF will need to drained and replaced. And apparently the TorqueFlite transmission takes (checks notes) NINE quarts of ATF. So the <$10 repair will need $85 of ATF to replaced, which needs to be added through a small threaded hole in the top of the transmission.

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Dialed Ali up to see what was going down

Told him I pick him up so we could drive around

Took the Dodge Dart, a '74

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that doesn't sound like a lot of fun

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Mar 8, 2021Liked by SGBear

My oldest nephew got his first job last week - at Tesla as a robotics software engineer

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Sounds exciting.

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That's awesome! Congrats.

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Tip of the day: when changing coolant hoses, change them all. I didn't do the 3 that were almost impossible for me to get to. I didn't change the one that goes from the back of the engine to the heater and yesterday while driving on Skyline in Oakland it blew. Got it towed to a local place and I'll go ahead and do the timing belt and water pump I was planning on having them do sometime in the next month anyways. The other two hoses are nicknamed the devil hoses. One goes from above the oil filter to the back of the engine and the other goes from just above the oil filter to the front of the engine. I recently changed my oil already so I didn't want to remove the filter so I was going to wait until during my next oil change. I'll just give them the new hoses and ask them to do all 3.

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😬

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Dragon

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That new Disney movie?

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FC Porto plays in Estádio do Dragão

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, Enter the

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DBD AV Club

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Community (S5 & 6). Slogged through a bad season 5 (5/19, WNB) and rage quit season 6 partway through (1/19, WNB). I was binging and I wasn't in the US when it was originally aired, so I didn't know about the behind-the-scenes drama. Jesus, this got bad quickly. Writing matters. Way to ruin a really great series.

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That's interesting, I also just finished Season 6 and I found it a noticeable improvement over seasons 4 & 5. Having things often a little bit more grounded helped and the addition of Paget Brewster felt like a positive move.

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Was season 6 when Dan Harmon came back? I remember he was fired at some point.

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I believe season 4 was the only season he wasn't part of the team. It certainly shows, too.

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It did go downhill.

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Finishing up season 4 of The Crown on Netflix.

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I wasn't particularly interested in British Royal Family stuff, but I really want to watch that Oprah interview now!

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Coming 2 America (14/19, WB, Prime Video). Not great movie-making, but I really enjoyed it. It is one of the very few nostalgia-based productions that I thought was great.

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c'mon, it was pretty terrible. "Nextdooria"? They weren't even trying. That said, Randy Watson making a comeback made the watch worth it

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That is a perfect summation of what I felt as well.

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I liked how many of the original characters they brought back.

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Salarymen and salarywomen of the DBD - how do you feel NOW about work-from-home after Covid is no longer a problem

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China was basically back in the office a year ago. I spent the year unemployed, but now I'm working so I've been back in the office since November.

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I hope we don't go back except for a few special situations on a case by case basis. 95% remote. No need or benefit to do otherwise, but once in a while there are reasons or situations better served. Results for a year have mostly borne that out.

I'm skeptical that will occur, except that previously, they were highly reluctant about it except when they needed off-hours/weekend work done for most, but were nearly wide open to a few favored sons. It will be interesting to see how it all gets addressed, and how much memory loss mgt suffers from.

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We are going to be called back in phases, probably starting this summer. We have been told to expect that the corporate policy will be to have people in the office more often than not. I would love to stay home -- I feel like I have no reason to be in my office, but I'll see if I can swing maybe 2 days in /3 not or something. In the Before Times, I WFH 1-2 times/week.

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I miss seeing my shuttle friends and being around my coworkers, so I look forward to going back (but I'm not excited about having to wear real pants--required when I go into the experimental floor to find people, take pictures, or give tours). I'm hopeful that we'll be more flexible about telecommuting so that when I travel, I can take longer trips.

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the idea being that you could do work from wherever you were visiting and not burn so much PTO?

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Yeah. A lot of my potential travel is still for weddings in places I'm familiar with, so I'd be happy to work during the day and go eat all the things at night.

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Ilha Formosa?

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Gunshots!

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I used to work from home one day per week already. That will probably increase, but I also look forward to being in the office at least some of the time.

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I'm hoping a lot of LA folks stay WFH, traffic is slowly getting back to normal, which has been super disappointing

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I was always in the office, 5 days a week. I suspect I’ll mostly go back to that. As it is, I have been going in the office 2/3 days a week since January and have my office staff mostly working from home. I have three field guys (I run the tribes utility department) so they have been coming in since this all began but they mainly work outside in the field.

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I used to be in the office five days per week and never teleworked. During covid I've enjoyed the extra time spent not commuting, the reduced mileage on my car, and the flexibility of my work-from-home schedule. When things finally return to normal, I expect I'll mostly telework and on the occasions I do go to the office I'll probably only be there for a half day (maybe 10 to 3). Except for my coworkers who need their physical lab space and specialized lab equipment, it sounds like many of us will do much more teleworking in the future.

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I think that most everyone will be called back into the office by July. Especially those that didn’t have work from home arrangements prior to Covid.

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We're already sidelined til September with a phased in approach after that regardless of how fast the recovery is

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I saw some email for the feds about how much longer their "it's okay to work at home with kids and / or old people in the space / take time to deal with them" policy would last - I didn't absorb the exact extension, but I think the feds will have a couple more months before having to come back in. TBH, given the rate at which vaccine doses are becoming available, it's probably going to be mid-summer hereabouts.

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Yeah, we're going to be heading for some interesting times with that. Our customer wants us there 5 days a week - just before Covid we had succeeded (after a year) in persuading them that 1 day / week at home was workable. We have some people with iffy commutes who might decide that they're not willing to resume driving all that time just to be given shit in person when they can reasonably point to a good track record since last March.

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Yeah and I’m interested what happens to all the people who bought homes or moved further from their offices because they thought work from home was here to stay. I believe some organization will ease their employees back into the office, while others will call them all in ASAP.

My wife works at SDSU and she thought they would be working from home until December but it is looking more likely she will be called back by this summer at the earliest and September at the latest.

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we've hired a couple of people who are not local, one of whom was willing to relocate until All This hit and then decided to defer his plans. In the meantime, the residential resale stock has plummeted and prices appear to be up. That might make things a little awkward. (The folks we hired who are remote are great incidentally so I'd hate to lose them.)

Fortunately most of our team have stayed where they were before everything went sideways, mostly because they're almost all married with kids & that adds complexity to relocation at the best of times.

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i worked from home 1 day a week anyway. My job needs to be in the office at least part time. So much of what we do is based on relationship building, water cooler convos and jumping into a conference room to whiteboard with folks. So...ready to go back to what it was before

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We have benefitted from getting rid of a lot of that, which forces people to slow down and set down in writing the details and justifications easier disregarded.

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Getting a problem solved on a whiteboard is the one thing that we could be doing better in the office. I think we lose time to 2 related issues: we don't do a good job of establishing what the problem really is, and we're not good at using - in fact we don't use at all - online tools for the same purpose.

The other challenge - which is a specific customer and their behavior - is not solvable in either mode.

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I had been working from home for about a year and a half before Covid. I don't like it only because I would rather be in the office talking with co-workers. Not necessarily about work but more to shoot the shit.

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I worked from home for many years, took meetings at the Four Seasons or other aligned investors' offices in Palo Alto or Sandhill Rd.

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I would like to work from home more often than not. I don't find that I'm significantly more or less productive at home & the customer work site is a bit crap, as are most federal offices for contractors. I have a better work space set up in my spare bedroom, which I achieved by acquiring one (1) additional monitor and moving an old dining table.

That opinion might change if I were to join a project somewhere that was more agreeable to be (customer personalities or in downtown DC, either way)

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Am I the only one who doesn't think twice about gently reclining my seat?

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/07/why-you-dont-own-the-right-to-recline-in-your-airplane-seat/

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I usually slightly recline, but only a tiny bit. On trans-pacific flights though, yeah.

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I never recline my seat. I think it's rude and wish airlines would remove the ability.

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I also don't recline; I'm short and don't need that space. I should probably bring a little stool or sling for my feet to rest on so that my legs are more comfortable.

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I almost always recline at least a little bit. If I don't my right shoulder eventually starts to cramp up.

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I recline but usually I'm flying economy plus for work so there is additional room. It's like being at a football or baseball game. The guy in front of you stands up during play so you stand up.

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I don't recline my seat at all during daytime flights.

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I'm only reclining if I need to sleep, otherwise I usually am more comfortable upright

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I don't either.

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A simple task that you can't seem to master

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I often can't spell restaurant correctly on the first try.

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I still can't catch mosquitoes with my chopsticks, like those guys in the kung fu movies.

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Using hand-held salad tossers to scoop salad onto my plate without spilling half of the leafy greens & cruddies on the table-cloth between bowl & plate.

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Figuring out former and latter when used in a sentence. I ALWAYS have to think about it way longer than I should.

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Whistling.

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I am slightly dyslectic, which 99.9% of the time is no big deal, BUT I frequently screw up trying to write down people's email addresses, so it's easier for me to just tell them mine.

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I do that typing. all the letters will be there, just not in the correct order

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Using emojis in an effective way 😜😜😜😜

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I transpose numbers in a sequence so dialing phone numbers can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. Huge fan of smart phones for that reason.

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Today in Covid

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https://twitter.com/jakeanbinder/status/1369051311367421961?s=21

Jake AnbinderJake Anbinder @JakeAnbinder

We're at this weird part of the vaccine push where depending on where they live people are either like "the vaccine man came down my block today merrily tossing out vaccines" or "the state estimates I am in category 6Qβ with estimated appointment date June 2073"

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https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/08/josh-rogin-chaos-under-heaven-wuhan-lab-book-excerpt-474322

👀 I mean, he's trying to sell a book, but this isn't crazy. Unlike Tom Cotton

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Talked to Boise-based step-mother this weekend. She informed me that the two neighbors on either side of her died recently of Covid. I reflexively started to apologize and she said "No, don't worry about it. They didn't socially distance or wear masks and they were pretty vocal about how they felt about that topic. Eh... it's the party of personal responsibility." 😬

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But she isn’t wrong.

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Isn't Idaho where they had kids burning masks last week?

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Mar 8, 2021Liked by Ruey Yen, SGBear

Got my JnJ vaccine on Saturday at CVS and I am feeling fine.

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Excited to see you all getting vaccinated!!! Eagerly waiting my turn :)

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We are due for our 2nd dose of Pfizer on Friday. We are lucky to have a friend who helps run the Long Beach Convention Center vaccination site and got a call at 7:30pm three weeks ago where she told us if we could get to LBC by 8pm there were defrosted doses that would go to waste if they weren't taken. We got there at 8:03 and were able to get the first dose. Only a sore arm for both of us and a two day headache for my wife.

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same for us. 2nd dose will be the 24th. No side effects of the Pfizer one besides a mildly sore arm

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Congratulations. I'm hoping to get mine in the next 60 days or so. My number has not come up yet.

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my wife got a spare vaccine the other day while volunteering at a local health authority site. No apparent negative effects.

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Discovered this afternoon that I am group 1C due to where I'm working. Not that I can find any spare vaccine appointments, but that's a problem I'm willing to take on.

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Was it JnJ or the others? I assume if it's the others she would have to have the 2nd dose from the same manufacturer. Do most sites have both Pfizer and Moderna?

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Moderna.

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LBC has both and it appears to be completely random. They'll ensure you get the same for the second dose, but the first is just luck of the draw.

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I was able to pick which one I got. I decided on JnJ due to that I’m still relatively young, healthy and have no pre existing medical conditions that make me high risk. I figure save the good stuff for all you older folks and people who need it.

Plus, CVS was able to get me on Saturday, if I had picked Moderna it would have been a two week wait. I also like the idea of just getting it all done with one shot.

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Congrats!

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Hurrah!

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Vaccine-skeptical Trump country poses challenge to immunization push

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/08/coronavirus-vaccine-rural-america-473940

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Once everyone who wants one has one, I say fuck em, open everything up as normal and nobody has to treat a non-vaccinated person for any covid symptoms if they don't want to.

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Yep, I completely agree. Once the vaccine is available to everyone who wants one then open this whole thing back up!

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Yeah, everyone likes to talk about African and Latino American skepticism but MAGA/GQP skepticism is the bigger concern and has largely been ignored and overlooked.

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our dreary governor tried to blame vaccine hesitancy for low take-up rates among black communities around Baltimore, about the same time it was being reported that the mass vaccination site in Baltimore was the only one open to all and so people were flooding in from all over.

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I like to think California and San Diego is doing a good job.

Petco Park and CSU San Marcos are mass vaccination sites. Supposedly they will be opening up the convention center soon for vaccination appointments.

My wife and I both got our vaccines at CVS.

I believe I read somewhere that 10 millions Californians have gotten at least one shot, which would me about 1/4 of the state has now been vaccinated.

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There are only 24MM over 18YOs in the state, so that's great.

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Wow, I didn’t realize that.

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Elsewhere in college

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Les Miles lawyer: "Uh, Kansas knew that he was a scumbag before hiring him."

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2021/mar/06/les-miles-lawyer-blasts-ku-placing-coach-administr/

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UW takes a significant hit as its best receiver just entered the transfer portal. Rumor is that he and his brother will go to BYU. UW has now lost two of its starting WR and one 2nd stringer to the transfer portal.

https://twitter.com/247SportsPortal/status/1368681985657495554

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One of my petty joys in life is watching UW fans and alumni repeatedly having to deal with the fact that their program is not in fact a powerhouse in the conference and they are not in fact one or two local guys away from being in the national elite.

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UW is overrated.

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... and they've both committed to BYU.

https://twitter.com/AsapPuka/status/1369111282847080449

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/us/politics/josh-hawley.html

"Mr. Hawley had a choice. He could commit to his burgeoning fighter persona. “My No. 1 piece of advice was: You can’t go back on this now. You go back on this now, and you make absolutely everyone angry,” recalled his adviser Gregg Keller.

Or he could try to reclaim the scholarly identity that had long propelled him. Oren Cass, the founder of American Compass, a think tank that aims to advance a more working-class-friendly conservatism, had frequently praised Mr. Hawley for defying Republican dogma. But he called the senator’s objections to the election “obnoxious” and “self-serving.” He urged him to acknowledge his “failure of judgment.”

As his advisers saw it, the lessons of the Trump era — that success in today’s G.O.P. means never having to say you’re sorry — were clear. And Josh Hawley was nothing if not a star student.

In the weeks since, Mr. Hawley has vowed to sue the “woke mob” at Simon & Schuster for dropping his book. He’s written for The New York Post about “the muzzling of America.” He has appeared on Fox News to discuss said muzzling. And while he said shortly after the riot that he would not run for president in 2024, his advisers have continued to hype him as “one of the favorites” of a potential Republican primary field, as Mr. Keller put it."

Absolutely damning portrait of an utterly dishonest politician. Perfect Stanfurd grad.

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Georgia appears ready to pass new absentee voting law, which disqualifies from absetee voting everyone except the old, religious, and military.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/politics/georgia-senate-no-excuse-absentee-voting/index.html

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So basically everyone but GQP supporters.

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Susan Rice burns sage in her office to exorcise an evil spirit

https://news.yahoo.com/susan-rice-burning-sage-her-111830598.html

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PRO

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Liverpool lost their sixth straight home game, to Fulham. They laughed when Everton lost to those tricky posh boys from London, instead of taking it as a warning.

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Matt-to-Matt homers lead A’s offensive barrage, 7-4 win over Indians

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/3/7/22318598/spring-game-7-oakland-as-cleveland-indians-score-result

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Oops. Actually 9-4.

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Why Tom Brady's career won't end at age 45: Contract extension will get done, and could add three more years

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/why-tom-bradys-career-wont-end-at-age-45-contract-extension-will-get-done-and-could-add-three-more-years/

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I hope he plays until he's 50, I'm no TB fan, but it'd be a good storyline

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CAL

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Go Bears!

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Addison Ooms departed as Cal's Offensive QC Coach in January. Replaced by Will Heck, who moves up a chair from grad assistant. Zach Werlinger remains as the sole offensive grad assistant coach.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/willheck/

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Oregon road trips just got a little bit more convenient, with Southwest starting direct flights to Eugene.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/03/08/southwest-announces-3-new-routes/4624583001/

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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-07/bear-sighting-eagle-rock-again

For the second time in three days a black bear is seen roaming around in Eagle Rock, much further south than their normal sighting spots like Altadena/Pasadena/La Canada.

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They've also been spotted in Marin County. None in the East Bay so far.

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go bears.

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[WGym] #8 BEARS BREAK ALL-TIME SCORING RECORD VIA BEATING #9 UC LOS ANGELES (198.050-196.925)

https://calbears.com/news/2021/3/6/womens-gymnastics-cal-sets-ncaa-and-program-records-in-win-over-ucla.aspx

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Cal tied the all-time NCAA record on uneven bars (49.825)

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EMI WATTERSON EARNS CAL'S SECOND EVER PERFECT 10

https://twitter.com/GymnasticsFand1/status/1368406141131051009

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[WSoc] #10 Cal only gets 3 shots on goal, but makes one of them count versus Utah (1-0)

https://calbears.com/news/2021/3/7/womens-soccer-bears-bounce-back-against-utah.aspx

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[MWPolo] #1 Cal's rally falls short to #2 Stanfoo (8-9), but may not matter as they both still get first round byes for the NCAA championship

https://calbears.com/documents/2021/3/7/NCAA_Bracket.pdf

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[BVB] #8 Cal splits weekend by beating Concordia 5-0, losing to #7 LMU (1-4)

https://calbears.com/news/2021/3/7/beach-volleyball-cal-splits-sunday-doubleheader.aspx

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