(no subject)
Aug. 15th, 2020 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. I binge-watched four more episodes of Halt Catch Fire tonight, so I'm about seven episodes into S1, with three left to go. Shipping Cameron/Joe hard, although I know they don't end up together and can't possibly - because both are too damaged in different ways.
Gordon, I still want to smack upside the head. I really feel sorry for his wife.
The series has two very strong female roles at the center of it - and the women really are the brains, and the most stable characters in the series. The men are train wrecks. It also does an excellent job of showing how a toxic and entitled male corporate culture is toxic to everyone within it.
Guest appearances by the actor who played Robin Wood in Buffy, and the actor who played the lawyer boy-friend of Rebecca Bunch in Crazy-Ex Girlfriend.
It's very good, and weirdly comforting right now. It's just not associated with anything. And there's no mention of well the terrorist in the white house.
2. Working my way through a few audio books, also have discovered a fantasy novel that I might be able to read, that I can't remember the name of.
3. If you are interested, and no reason why you should be...the NY Times has gathered all the info you need or would want on the Coronavirus. Updates and everything you need to know on the Coronavirus Outbreak.
I check it and the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center's COVID MAP OF DOOM daily.
Yes, it may be evidence of a slight OCD tendency in my nature.
4. 5 South Texas Communities Have the Highest Known Infection Rates.
5. Some people have quarantine envy, I have vacation envy.
D (immigrant from Moscow Russia): Look - see the great pics I took of our vacation to Maine!
Chidi: Just had a great trip in Martha's Vineyard, we biked everywhere.
Gabe: I'm going up to the Adirondacks next week to just veg.
Me: I heard about her vacation and...it felt like someone had physically punched me in the stomach. It physically hurt. It's weird. I know that makes no sense, but it hurt. I felt as if I had been punched.
Mother: I know...have I told you about the Bowmans?
Me: No?
Mother: The Bowman's daughter rents a house out on the beach every year. She decided to do it this year too. Invited 25 people down. A family reunion. Grandchildren, kids, family members. Mary got to visit with all of them.
I can only visit my husband once a day in the hospital room. I can't even see my kids or grand-daughter - and I only have two kids and one grand kid.
Me: Ow.
Mother: I heard on the television recently and you even told this to me - "Do not compare yourself to anyone. Ever. Only pain lies in that direction."
Me: Reminds me of this article I read in the NY Times about quarantine envy..but I got pissed off at the journalist.
Why? Because she told people to get a pet if they are lonely or go on Zoom with relatives and play games on Zoom...
Mother: I wish people wouldn't advise getting pets...they are a huge responsibility. You have to take care of them. You still have to go out and walk the dog, feed the dog, take it to the vet.
Me: I know. Some people are very good at taking care of dogs and cats. People like my brother...
Mother: He was much better than I was -
Me: I don't know you were pretty good. According to a post on my neighborhood's FB page, people adopted ducks. Then after the lockdown, when they got big, didn't know what to do with them.
Mother: Ducks?
Me: I know. Right? Why on earth would you adopt a duck?
Mother: How do you have a ducks in an apartment?
Me: Well apparently they were living in a house with a yard.
Mother: But they would poop everywhere - you can't really train ducks.
Me: Also birds are very sensitive creatures, and can get very attached to people. Ducks get more attached than dogs or cats.
Mother: Ducks?
Me: Yes, so it's also kind of cruel. They are trying to figure out how to reintroduce the ducks back into the wild. Except they are white farm ducks, not wild mallard ducks.
Mother: Why would anyone do this?
ME: I don't know. People blow my mind.
Personally, I blame bored internet journalists who like to give pseudo-psychological advice.
Here's some free advice? Never take advice - asked for or otherwise from a journalist.
Did however like this blurb:
When the coronavirus hit France, Leila Slimani, a popular French-Moroccan novelist, and her family left Paris for their country home. Once there, Ms. Slimani began writing a quarantine diary for the newspaper Le Monde. The response, especially from people in teeny Parisian apartments, was so scathing, she apparently abandoned the series. When the billionaire David Geffen posted photos of his mega-yacht on Instagram while he quarantined in the Grenadines, the backlash led him to turn his account private.
Quarantine envy: If it’s not a widespread term yet, it should be. Envy, of course, is the joy-devouring emotion of craving what others have. Even before the pandemic, social media was linked to rising levels of the emotion. “Social media magnifies and creates instant, destructive envy,” said Andrew Oswald, professor of economics and behavioral science at the University of Warwick in England, and a co-author of a study on whether envy is societally harmful (short answer: yes). “There’s a globalization of envy and in the longer run, we have to regulate it.”
I’ve seen the discontent over the years, in my day job, moderating reader comments. Growing wealth disparity, along with ubiquitous social media, appears to have made us all less satisfied (and snarkier). The pandemic has fueled the fire. Essential workers envy those working at home. People who were laid off envy those who weren’t. Those home-schooling young children envy those who aren’t. We all envy the rich. Those studying the topic find the reaction understandable.
“When people are miserable, their resilience to other bad things becomes reduced,” said Dr. Oswald. “It’s easier to shrug off others’ good fortune when your life is OK. It’s been a terrible time for many people and the last thing they want to see is a millionaire’s house with a giant lawn.”
Envy, studies show, presents as a measurable brain response and is quantifiable via self-report scales. (Researchers suspect envy is underreported because people are ashamed to admit to it.)
“Envy is an ugly two-headed monster,” said Dr. Christine Harris, a psychology professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies emotions. “One head wants what someone else has. The other head chews on the first, for having these negative feelings.”
Jens Lange, a psychologist at the University of Hamburg in Germany, agreed that the pandemic has created conditions that are ripe for envy.
“At the heart of envy is social comparison of your situation with someone else’s,” Dr. Lange said. “It’s a basic process across all cultures.”
He added: “The pandemic is increasing the divide between the advantaged and disadvantaged, so there’s more opportunity to compare yourself to others in unflattering ways. You may also realize certain things are important that you never thought about. Say you’re alone in lockdown. Before, you were never socially isolated. Now your envy increases toward people locked down in others’ company.”
That’s been true for Bethany Grace Howe, 52, C.E.O. of the TransHealth Data Collective in Eugene, Ore. Ms. Howe, who describes herself as a “raging extrovert,” is quarantined solo, except when her young daughter visits.
“I’m envious of people who have more than cats to talk to,” Ms. Howe said. “I see my friend and her family on Facebook doing puzzles. And I think, It would be nice to be doing puzzles with a family. People have told me, ‘Turn it off,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but that’s the only social connection I have.’
And later this bit..
Upsetting as it is, one of the best ways to work with envy, during the pandemic or any other time, is not to judge yourself. The emotion, found in studies of both dogs and monkeys, likely has ancient roots.
“We’ve come from highly competitive ape packs where status in the hierarchy shaped your whole life or condemned you to early death,” said Dr. Oswald. “We are creatures of that past and it’s not sensible to think we can shake it off entirely. It’s what we do with envious feelings that matters.”
I'll let it speak for itself. The article is fine until the idiotic journalist decides to give advice. She should have stopped while she was ahead.
Gordon, I still want to smack upside the head. I really feel sorry for his wife.
The series has two very strong female roles at the center of it - and the women really are the brains, and the most stable characters in the series. The men are train wrecks. It also does an excellent job of showing how a toxic and entitled male corporate culture is toxic to everyone within it.
Guest appearances by the actor who played Robin Wood in Buffy, and the actor who played the lawyer boy-friend of Rebecca Bunch in Crazy-Ex Girlfriend.
It's very good, and weirdly comforting right now. It's just not associated with anything. And there's no mention of well the terrorist in the white house.
2. Working my way through a few audio books, also have discovered a fantasy novel that I might be able to read, that I can't remember the name of.
3. If you are interested, and no reason why you should be...the NY Times has gathered all the info you need or would want on the Coronavirus. Updates and everything you need to know on the Coronavirus Outbreak.
I check it and the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center's COVID MAP OF DOOM daily.
Yes, it may be evidence of a slight OCD tendency in my nature.
4. 5 South Texas Communities Have the Highest Known Infection Rates.
5. Some people have quarantine envy, I have vacation envy.
D (immigrant from Moscow Russia): Look - see the great pics I took of our vacation to Maine!
Chidi: Just had a great trip in Martha's Vineyard, we biked everywhere.
Gabe: I'm going up to the Adirondacks next week to just veg.
Me: I heard about her vacation and...it felt like someone had physically punched me in the stomach. It physically hurt. It's weird. I know that makes no sense, but it hurt. I felt as if I had been punched.
Mother: I know...have I told you about the Bowmans?
Me: No?
Mother: The Bowman's daughter rents a house out on the beach every year. She decided to do it this year too. Invited 25 people down. A family reunion. Grandchildren, kids, family members. Mary got to visit with all of them.
I can only visit my husband once a day in the hospital room. I can't even see my kids or grand-daughter - and I only have two kids and one grand kid.
Me: Ow.
Mother: I heard on the television recently and you even told this to me - "Do not compare yourself to anyone. Ever. Only pain lies in that direction."
Me: Reminds me of this article I read in the NY Times about quarantine envy..but I got pissed off at the journalist.
Why? Because she told people to get a pet if they are lonely or go on Zoom with relatives and play games on Zoom...
Mother: I wish people wouldn't advise getting pets...they are a huge responsibility. You have to take care of them. You still have to go out and walk the dog, feed the dog, take it to the vet.
Me: I know. Some people are very good at taking care of dogs and cats. People like my brother...
Mother: He was much better than I was -
Me: I don't know you were pretty good. According to a post on my neighborhood's FB page, people adopted ducks. Then after the lockdown, when they got big, didn't know what to do with them.
Mother: Ducks?
Me: I know. Right? Why on earth would you adopt a duck?
Mother: How do you have a ducks in an apartment?
Me: Well apparently they were living in a house with a yard.
Mother: But they would poop everywhere - you can't really train ducks.
Me: Also birds are very sensitive creatures, and can get very attached to people. Ducks get more attached than dogs or cats.
Mother: Ducks?
Me: Yes, so it's also kind of cruel. They are trying to figure out how to reintroduce the ducks back into the wild. Except they are white farm ducks, not wild mallard ducks.
Mother: Why would anyone do this?
ME: I don't know. People blow my mind.
Personally, I blame bored internet journalists who like to give pseudo-psychological advice.
Here's some free advice? Never take advice - asked for or otherwise from a journalist.
Did however like this blurb:
When the coronavirus hit France, Leila Slimani, a popular French-Moroccan novelist, and her family left Paris for their country home. Once there, Ms. Slimani began writing a quarantine diary for the newspaper Le Monde. The response, especially from people in teeny Parisian apartments, was so scathing, she apparently abandoned the series. When the billionaire David Geffen posted photos of his mega-yacht on Instagram while he quarantined in the Grenadines, the backlash led him to turn his account private.
Quarantine envy: If it’s not a widespread term yet, it should be. Envy, of course, is the joy-devouring emotion of craving what others have. Even before the pandemic, social media was linked to rising levels of the emotion. “Social media magnifies and creates instant, destructive envy,” said Andrew Oswald, professor of economics and behavioral science at the University of Warwick in England, and a co-author of a study on whether envy is societally harmful (short answer: yes). “There’s a globalization of envy and in the longer run, we have to regulate it.”
I’ve seen the discontent over the years, in my day job, moderating reader comments. Growing wealth disparity, along with ubiquitous social media, appears to have made us all less satisfied (and snarkier). The pandemic has fueled the fire. Essential workers envy those working at home. People who were laid off envy those who weren’t. Those home-schooling young children envy those who aren’t. We all envy the rich. Those studying the topic find the reaction understandable.
“When people are miserable, their resilience to other bad things becomes reduced,” said Dr. Oswald. “It’s easier to shrug off others’ good fortune when your life is OK. It’s been a terrible time for many people and the last thing they want to see is a millionaire’s house with a giant lawn.”
Envy, studies show, presents as a measurable brain response and is quantifiable via self-report scales. (Researchers suspect envy is underreported because people are ashamed to admit to it.)
“Envy is an ugly two-headed monster,” said Dr. Christine Harris, a psychology professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies emotions. “One head wants what someone else has. The other head chews on the first, for having these negative feelings.”
Jens Lange, a psychologist at the University of Hamburg in Germany, agreed that the pandemic has created conditions that are ripe for envy.
“At the heart of envy is social comparison of your situation with someone else’s,” Dr. Lange said. “It’s a basic process across all cultures.”
He added: “The pandemic is increasing the divide between the advantaged and disadvantaged, so there’s more opportunity to compare yourself to others in unflattering ways. You may also realize certain things are important that you never thought about. Say you’re alone in lockdown. Before, you were never socially isolated. Now your envy increases toward people locked down in others’ company.”
That’s been true for Bethany Grace Howe, 52, C.E.O. of the TransHealth Data Collective in Eugene, Ore. Ms. Howe, who describes herself as a “raging extrovert,” is quarantined solo, except when her young daughter visits.
“I’m envious of people who have more than cats to talk to,” Ms. Howe said. “I see my friend and her family on Facebook doing puzzles. And I think, It would be nice to be doing puzzles with a family. People have told me, ‘Turn it off,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but that’s the only social connection I have.’
And later this bit..
Upsetting as it is, one of the best ways to work with envy, during the pandemic or any other time, is not to judge yourself. The emotion, found in studies of both dogs and monkeys, likely has ancient roots.
“We’ve come from highly competitive ape packs where status in the hierarchy shaped your whole life or condemned you to early death,” said Dr. Oswald. “We are creatures of that past and it’s not sensible to think we can shake it off entirely. It’s what we do with envious feelings that matters.”
I'll let it speak for itself. The article is fine until the idiotic journalist decides to give advice. She should have stopped while she was ahead.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-16 04:30 am (UTC)(It does explain a lot about me, doesn't it? Oh, well...)
The goose got to adulthood, and unlike the ducks, who when they grew up were taken to the lake at Long's Park and so got to live with many other ducks, we kept the goose until she passed away naturally some years later. We had a good sized back yard, and there was a small storage shed behind the house that we adapted part of to house her.
Huh... haven't thought of those pets for a long time now. I'll have to ask my sister if there are any photos of them stashed away somewhere. If so, I'll scan them and post them!
no subject
Date: 2020-08-16 01:51 pm (UTC)The rabbit did survive the week, as did our siamese cat, the Tom cat went away.
Ducks and geese apparently are very affectionate pets. Why people in Kensington, Brooklyn (which is semi-city/semi-residential) would get them is beyond me. Then again I remember seeing chickens wandering about the Bronx while I was working up there.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-17 05:48 am (UTC)A very reasonable guess, but, no, not until I was 15 and we moved from Lancaster City about 7 miles south, which was very rural. I intensely disliked it, my father wasn't fond of it either, but he did it for my mother who was having heart issues at the time and getting about in our three-story house with its many stairs was getting harder for her.
The new house was very (very) tiny, and it was a three mile drive to the nearest anywhere, which was one of those micro-towns which could have had the sign stating "You Are Now Entering Hardlyaberg on one side, and "You Are Now Leaving Hardlyaberg" in the other side.
I couldn't drive yet, and that wasn't a problem in the city because I rode my bike nearly everywhere, and liked doing that. ( ~sigh~ )
Ah, well. Stuff happens, you roll with it, or...
Anyway, my childhood home was in a northwest Lancaster City residential area, and had the good fortune to have a long, wide backyard with two thin but decently tall pine trees near the front of the yard. I was just talking to my sister today, your post having brought up the ducks as pets bit. We both remembered the goose fondly, although she reminded me that our next door neighbors to the south, who had a dog, were not fond of the goose because it didn't like the dog and would honk and hiss at it!
The dog would then start barking-- loudly-- and that would annoy the neighbors to the south of our neighbors!
The goose eventually learned to tolerate the dog, and things settled down, but she would still honk if anyone unfamiliar to her came into the yard, so she also made a pretty good "watchgoose"!
Once I graduated high school (1971), and got working full time, I scraped and saved for several years until I got enough money for a down payment on a house of my own, and them happily moved back in town, where I live to this day, albeit in a smaller dwelling.
Remember that picture I posted a while back of the birds gathered on those bare winter trees? That was taken about two blocks from where I grew up, so I still visit the old neighborhood occasionally on my longer exercise walks.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-17 12:52 pm (UTC)Anyhow, I know the area - although I haven't been there in ages. My father grew up in Marshelton, Landsdown, and Glendolden. He preferred Glenolden, hated Marshelton - which was heavily rural, about 11 miles from town, and he often hitch-hiked to school. Way out in the country.
So, you've lived in one place all of your life? Or close? I kind of envy that. It was never much of an option for me. I wonder sometimes though - if it is actually a true choice for anyone? (shrugs) I suppose it's how you look at it?
The goose sounds rather entertaining. Far more entertaining than a dog, and possibly more effective in the watch department. Also, gooses can be very aggressive and their bites can hurt. I'm careful around them. Was it a brown, Canadian style Goose, or a white goose?
Did you have a pond or lake for it?
Guessing you went from high school into vocational work immediately?
no subject
Date: 2020-08-18 06:17 am (UTC)A very handsome gray.
Did you have a pond or lake for it?
We did, one we had dug in the far end of the yard back when we had the ducks. The only problem was we had to refill it regularly, since the water kept settling into the ground. It was maybe about 6 feet by 4 feet in size.
Guessing you went from high school into vocational work immediately?
Almost. I worked for one year in the food service at F&M college, where I had worked part time my junior and senior years in high school. In the beginning of summer 1972, I stumbled into the appliance biz when a downtown TV & appliance store was going to hire a friend of mine. He decided to stay at the job he currently had, and recommended me to the store manager, saying I was handy with machines, worked on my own car, etc.
They were desperate, since their appliance tech had quit just two weeks before, and summer is ultra-busy time in the appliance industry. They hired me, the store manager took me out for a week on calls to cover the basic basics, and then... "go for it, kid!"
He didn't actually say that, but essentially, I taught myself the job, and got good at it pretty quickly. I was in that field for 16 years total (the last 9 at another, much better company), then shifted into audio work.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-16 07:02 pm (UTC)Yes!
Although I watched this during its original airing, one thing I could see being very comforting about it is that in many ways it was a time of hope to look back on. They didn't know exactly what was coming but as viewers we know they are surfing the wave as it is building. It's an exciting, dangerous time but because of possibilities of being the next big thing, not just individually, but in terms of changing the way that societies function.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-17 01:07 pm (UTC)Everyone's defining him and telling him who he is - to the extent that he has no idea himself. While he is drawn to Cameron who appears on the surface to know who she is and not care what anyone else thinks, she's a rebel - and he wants to be that too. But she's not really any of that, and is as much of a con as he is - all surface. Inside, she's scared to try new things, and take responsibility. Donna has too much responsibility, and can't breath. She also wants to be as free as Cameron - to create, and not manage everyone else, not be the Mom, and fears continuing being one. She wants to be able to do what her husband has been doing. And then there is Gordon, who also feels he has to prove himself a visionary, when he's a builder and needs schematics.
It's so sad. All these characters are so gifted, but to do what they are skilled at - they almost have to break the rules. And the culture they are in - is suffocating and twisting them.
The series is an excellent indictment of our culture and society, and why ultimately it can't work long term. It appears to - Capitalism - in that you have the successes of Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon...but for those four big guys - you have millions of failed start-ups like Mutiny Games. And millions of people struggling. A far better system would be one in which each of these entities could survive. The greed displayed by the IBMs, etc - depict a culture that cannibalizes itself in order to remain successful, devouring or casting out the innovators in the process.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-17 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-17 03:28 pm (UTC)I remember at the Game Development/Distribution company that I was working with in 2007, my cubical mate turned to me at one point and asked if I felt like I was in my first job out of high school or if I was in high school doing some weird ass internship. There was no privacy, people were playing games most of the time, no one followed procedures, and it was as if the company was flying by the seat of its pants or making it up as it went along. The administrative staff came and went daily.
My brother's company was similar - he was constantly playing Dad to a bunch of adult children. At one point he attempted to give the company to his employees - have them run it and then eventually buy him out. But it didn't work - because they were a bit like Cameron's employees - kids playing work. They didn't know how to do anything other than code or create. No other skills. My brother didn't really like coding that much, and was very good at sales, and developing, he wan idea guy. My brother was kind of like the Joe character - good looking, charismatic, 6'5, and could piss people off. Except far more together than Joe. And sis-in-law is a lot like the Donna character. But they were surrounded by goofballs. And had maybe a Gordon/Cameron who was more interested in having a blast.
I watched them start with gaming in the 1990s - with a telephone game, and move into doing complicated network and website design for major businesses. Go after the Angel Investors - which was a nightmare. Try to sell my parents on their game plan. Etc.
Halt Catch Fire really depicts what it is like for the uber-talented little guy trying to succeed. And how sexist and toxic that world is. I went to one of the lower level tech conventions in the late 1990s early 00s when working for evil library reference company. I was there as content licensing rep for Wilson, also looking at various systems. It's very hard to stand out.
There's a lot of Jobs, Gates, Bestzos out there - with just as good an idea, but they never find the right contacts and connections. Reminds me of getting published. You can write an amazing book, have loads of talent, and never get a foothold. Or you can write a horribly written book, have a mediocre amount of talent, and become a best-seller.
I mean look at 50 Shades of Grey? Or Twilight? Two of the worst books ever published.
Instant best-sellers.