Boy, what a day for Zoom to crash nationally, am I right? (Around here, it's the first day of school for the major university.)
We just got a notification that it's all better. hooray.
I just got off of a 5 and a half hour zoom for my interview. Whew! I'll know in about a month.
7: 5 and a half hours! Were they asking you questions all that time?
No, I had two 15 minute and one half hour breaks.
10: So, really a mere 4 and a half hours. That still sounds pretty horrible.
It was ok, so long as it gets me the job. Was a bit surreal wearing a suit and tie in my apartment. Yes, pants (though black jean) but slippers because no shoes on in the house.
You've bloody well earned the job after four and a half hours! They ought to pay you a day's salary.
Alive and well. We included a friend on the hike, so wound up driving to and from the park in masks, except when we got into the park and rolled all of the windows down. It felt a little performance-like given our overall exposure time, but if it reassured anyone -- or actually cut exposure down -- I'm happy.
The hike was short but very pretty -- out to Taft Point. Our friend wasn't very confident about his fitness, so we kept it short for an easy win. He's going through a bad time with shelter in place, so hopefully it managed to be a spot of relative sunshine... despite the actually smokey sky that smeared away the far side of the park, ruining a lot of the praised views.
School starts for the girls next Monday. The older two (grades seven and eight) will be expected to log in for each class as it happens, which is annoying and not at all what I wanted. I don't know Selah's schedule for third grade yet but I expect it will be more time than I'd prefer too. We've been working this weekend to successfully clean up our dire mess in the living room and move a desk space for Odile down there so she and Mara won't be on video calls from the same room. That will also let us make Mara a little reading nook and move the dog's crate back in there and out of our crowded bedroom. So far significantly rearranging furniture has been surprisingly successful and when one desk leg stopped responding at the wrong height, I was able to replace the whole desk with a bigger table I had stored because I thought it would come in handy someday. I also have the kitchen almost organized (we got a ton of new stuff when my grandmother moved to assisted living and Odile's classmate the serious baker left the country and decided not to come back, leaving us to empty that apartment) and that's felt good, even more so now that the dishwasher fixed itself before I had to have the appliance repair guy out again. And I bought some cozy chairs and a little table to make sitting space out in the paved side yard, so a person could have food or a video meeting on the front porch, in the new space, or in the hammock out back. Having projects is getting me through right now. I'm not sure my brain clicks on much but I guess that's the next step.
We just had a cultist tent revival set up for 10 days in a neighboring town, attracting hundreds of people - mostly from out of state and not wearing masks.
Anyway, yesterday a storm blew through and collapsed the tent. Somebody broke an arm, which sucks, but otherwise a proper smiting.
There were many raging college parties all over town over the weekend. I'm sure the students are thinking, "finally, now that I've moved back to the college town, I'm not endangering my grandmother if I live a little!" But I'm braced for things to explode in a few weeks.
I was on a call today conspiring to prevent such things. We didn't really have any good ideas.
It seems like our second wave of cases locally may finally be peaking, so that's good.
Falwell is stepping down to spent more time watching his family have sex.
I'm content to let him handle that for us.
It's been so much low hanging fruit.
Liberty U twitter: first day of classes, what are you taking?
- I don't want to take a class, just watch it
- one where we do study in threes and I can watch my partners do all the work.
- Ethics in Christian leadership
- art class (with various illustrations attached)
- the holy trinity
- intro to trigonometry
- pool maintenance
I think putting Jim Bakker in change of Liberty University is going too far with the family history.
The Zoom interview gauntlet is indeed exhausting. I was very lucky to have to endure only one company's worth. Zoom meetings remain vaguely unsettling, though they are an interesting glimpse into people's actual lives. I think I've seen my manager's cat's butt more than my girlfriend's. The kids have started online school and it's okay so far, despite the tech glitches. I think they're glad just to have something to do finally. In retrospect, Keegan certainly graduated from UNC at the right time. His girlfriend has one semester left, but got pre-approved to do it all online and moved out to Denver with him, where he's been for the past year. I'm getting a slow but regular trickle of friends who have caught covid now, some of them super wiped out for extended periods but nobody life-threateningly so far (though a few who had parents die early in the outbreak). The new deck I've been having built is aaaallmost finished, so I'll actually have a hot tub for the fall.
I'm waiting to see "Cats" but only if they release the butthole version.
26: "Girlfriend's" - did you get divorced from your 2nd wife?
Only the "Cats" with computer-generated buttholes can bring America together.
I'll actually have a hot tub for the fall.
Unfeggedycon.the_covid_edition !!!
University classes start Wednesday, and we've already reported 10 cases. Which took doing, since the university is resolutely not testing the asymptomatic; 9 of the 10 tested NOT at the health center, and then reported the results to the university. The town's numbers also spiked to triple the ongoing average. The general student attitude seems to be that since closing down is inevitable, they might as well party first.
33: I'm so sorry I missed that, apo. Very belated condolences.
I think I've seen my manager's cat's butt more than my girlfriend's.
I like how it's unclear what "girlfriend's" refers to.
About to teach my first (zoom) class. Can't remember feeling this nervous since maybe my first time teaching. I think the nerves are much bigger than just this one class session, but getting through the first week of classes will still calm me down significantly.
Also we re-homed the foster kitty, cried, and adopted the absolute best kitten in the world. All she does is purr and cuddle, or flail around like a lunatic after a feather tied to a string. She is the very best.
Be sure to get the kitten's butthole on camera.
Getting out of town to the beach for several days was fantastic. We were happily surprised that compliance with the statewide mask order was high in stores and gas stations. The beach was uncrowded enough that we were able to keep plenty distant. Photo of this year's sand sculpture (and another from several years back that was one of our finest) in the pool.
My wife was lobbying to get out of town a bit. I'm resistant because it feels like the logistics of everything would be additionally anxiety-producing. Mostly food - it's enough doing all the meal planning, coordinating contactless pickup or delivery of groceries, and cooking, when I'm already at home; setting up to do that somewhere else seems like an aggravation rather than a relief.
Second interview for a new job in a couple of hours.
40: Is that the one that will let you move up north? Anyway, good luck.
42: that's right. It is based in the south, in what I suppose I could call Edoras (palace, warhorses etc), but I should be able to work remotely for most of the time, allowing us to return north. We're back up there anyway for a long weekend this weekend, which should be good.
Boy they've really refined the signal fire system.
A note from the county air quality department:
You probably noticed things got a bit hazy last night. I'm sure by now, you all know that when the sun turns a bright magenta it means we're seeing a lot of particulate in the air. (Of course, it is 2020. Maybe the dinosaurs are coming back, and a glowing pink sun is their herald. We will turn to it to welcome our reptilian overlords.)
Any new national leadership will be welcome.
Ajay, Ttam -- you need to read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scotland/comments/ig9jia/ive_discovered_that_almost_every_single_article/
It's horrifying, but also really funny.
51 is funny/horrifying but also the current reddit user interface is so, so bad. "Want to read more comments? Fuck you! Here is a list of other reddit posts!"
51: A long time ago I made a very small number of edits to the Scots Wikipedia, correcting the use of a "muckle" or something wee like that, and then decided that it was a Very Bad Idea to continue, as there'd be basically no way to divorce it from my English ideolect. Glad I stopped, but this is hilarious.
52: It is bad! Especially when it shows you posts on other subreddits. Why?!
51: good heavens. This person would be fascinating to talk to. Who does that kind of thing? Are there other people out there doing it with other languages?
From 51: This is going to sound incredibly hyperbolic and hysterical but I think this person has possibly done more damage to the Scots language than anyone else in history.
Okay, yeah, that is a bit hyperbolic. James VI & I did far more. Or maybe the people behind the Darien scheme.
Class was so much worse than what I'm used to, and yet it was fine, and probably even went well. It's so hard to get nonverbal communication over zoom.
They were all very poker-faced during Skee Lo's I wish. I ended up giving them a poll, with a few choices of songs, in order to practice zoom polls, and that was the song they chose. But I found it a bit painful that there was so little response.
Required Zoom dance party! Make them dance for credit!
(Do not actually do this.)
It's really tough lecturing and having no idea whether your jokes land or not.
I had my first groupwork in breakout rooms today, and it actually seems to have gone alright.
The breakout rooms were definitely the most successful part for me, as well. I will be relying heavily on group work in breakout rooms, for sure.
I always just assume my jokes land. Why wouldn't they land?
How much credibility should we accord 51 or rather the link? Can a Scots speaker take a look and see if it's true. My instinct is to treat anything on Reddit as if it were the Daily Mail..
The "someone has a question" functionality where people can summon you to their breakout room is so much better than I'd expected it to be.
My son says there is some kid on YouTube who planted potatoes 12 hours a day in Minecraft for two weeks straight so he could set the record for most potatoes planted in Minecraft. I feel like maybe we're doing a little better than that kids parents. Not that I judge.
I hadn't played in a while. Apparently they outlawed my way of chicken farming.
My kids wants to be that kid. He's also planted a lot of potatoes.
Single kid. Only one is into virtual potato farming.
Today in plate o' shrimp phenomenons: is it common that there are scot versions of books? or just this one about Chairlie Bucket? I'd never come across one before.
Is the translator the same weird kid from 51??
I swear this came up organically and independently. It was linked in a page of Roald Dahl books and I thought what the hell is that?
Class went much, much better today.
It turns out that I have to be standing up when I teach. I just can't move around and be a goof in the same way, sitting down.
72.1: It appears to be this guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Fitt - who seems to have legit Scots Language credentials.
Speaking of checking in, is anybody in the path of Laura and if so are they ok?
is it common that there are scot versions of books?
I recently saw this in the window of a bookshop: "The Tale o the Wee Mowdie that wantit tae ken wha keeched on his heid".https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tale-Mowdie-that-wantit-keeched/dp/0995462372
Translated, apparently, from the German. The English title is a little less explicit.
77: I didn't realize that German stereotype was reinforced at such a young age. And today I learned "keeched."
76: I assume that's about the mole who has to find out who crapped on his head? We have that book! It's a fun book to read outloud to kids.
78: it is indeed, and I had never come across it before I saw the Scots version.
Mass layoffs today at the Arrakis Foundation which is my employer. Apparently they sacked everyone who had a poor 2019 performance review. I think the library should be safe as we've had a number of people leave for other jobs in the last few months. I hope to be among them soon.
The first pictures out of Louisiana are really bad.
On my way to the beach with Pola and two other friends