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shadowkatAched all over most of the day. No clue if side-effect, or just due to weather, tension and how I was sitting. Came home, put joint cream (menthol/CBD) on shoulders, took CBD Relief capsule, and two tynenol extra-strength. Appears to have done the trick.
Work was slow. So played around with my book for most of it, when I wasn't dozing off to sleep. I could have done filing and archiving, but chose to wait a bit.
It was hard to concentrate due to the aches and pains.
Checked out tickets for SIX and...I can't afford SIX. Tickets range from $125 - $750. The $122-$165 tickets are Mezzazine. The $250-$350 or more are Orchestra. Only available ones right now are Premium at $449.
I texted Wales - and she was shocked.
We'd be better off waiting until January, they come down considerably. It's trendy now - so is the idea of going to the theater. People are nuts.
Been up since 5:45, actually 5:20, I woke up before the alarm. I was tired at 3pm. Seem to have gotten second wind - bolstered purely by frustration, but I don't ache any longer - so progress. Also note to self - CBD and tynenol and menthol plus heat therapy actually work.
***
* The Times discusses the Big Quit...which is basically folks feel much like I do..tired.
At first, everyone tried to make the best of a bad situation: gathering on Zoom, launching projects in the kitchen and cheering on health care workers, and ourselves, with daily quarantine clapping.
Pretty soon, though, we began languishing, and then had moments of existential burnout that left us feeling drained and rudderless. Now, many are calling it quits on aspects of life that seemed indispensable before the pandemic.
Over the last 19 months, an outsized number of Americans have left cities, their marriages and organized religion. Some have recently tried dumping social media. It seems that many see 2021 as a year to finally leave prepandemic lives behind and embrace the idea of a fresh start.
Perhaps the most pronounced example is what economists are calling “The Great Resignation.”
In August, a record 4.3 million Americans left their jobs — the highest number in the two decades the government has been keeping track. Across industries including health care, education, retail, food services and child care, people are saying goodbye to their employers, sometimes even walking out in the middle of a shift.
There are several reasons for the mass resignations. People have lingering fears of getting Covid at the workplace, better unemployment benefits, and savings built up during the pandemic that make it easier for them to turn down jobs they don’t want, or which don’t pay a living wage. For the first time in decades, many workers across the income spectrum have some leverage, and they are using it to demand better pay and superior working conditions.
“It’s like the whole country is in some kind of union renegotiation,” Betsey Stevenson, a University of Michigan economist, recently told The Times. “I don’t know who’s going to win in this bargaining that’s going on right now, but right now it seems like workers have the upper hand.”
The psychology of the pandemic may be playing a role. Surveys suggest that the crisis led many people to rethink their priorities. Behavioral scientists say times of disruption and transition create new opportunities for growth and change.
Staying the course, whether in an unfulfilling job or an unhappy relationship, can also cost you, my colleagues Lindsay Crouse and Kirby Ferguson in Opinion wrote this week.
Despite what many of us were taught in childhood — that quitters are losers — there can be significant penalties to passively remaining in place, particularly in the form of missed opportunities. For example, research has shown that one of the best ways for women to increase their salaries is to quit their job and find a new one.
Thoughtful quitting, Lindsay and Kirby argue, may actually increase your power, as was the case with Simone Biles, the U.S. gymnast who started a global conversation about mental health after withdrawing from the gymnastic finals in the Tokyo Olympics.
“I’m not saying quit everything. Lots of great things require perseverance — our relationships, our health, our careers,” Lindsay said. “But think about it: perseverance shouldn’t be a default, it should be a choice.”
I've not done it, because I'm not that miserable. Also I know what unemployment is like. And I don't know what else to do with myself. Plus, say what you will about crazy org, they let me work remotely for a long time, got me vaccinated for free, and provide me with free transportation.
And, I've worked in a lot of jobs and industries, I'm not naive enough to think there's a better place out there.
But give it a few more months, I may change my mind.
***
Hmmm...
* The W.H.O. warned that burned-out health care workers were nearing a breaking point.
* A new study showed that millions of dollars in U.S. aid benefited richer hospitals, not poorer ones that need money the most.
* The U.S. will soon give Covid boosters to millions, as people in poor nations await their first doses.
* Stephanie Nolen, a global health reporter for The Times, explored what it would take for developing countries to produce their own vaccines.
* Beijing began offering booster shots, four months ahead of the Winter Olympics.
* New Zealand announced a plan to move away from lockdowns once the country meets an ambitious vaccination target.
* Thailand will let in vaccinated travelers from more countries.
* Bali reopened to foreign tourists, but government rules are keeping them away.
* Flu rates were so low during the pandemic that one strain of the virus may have been eliminated, ABC News in Australia reports. [We didn't get rid of COVID, but we managed to get rid of one of the flu viruses...]
***
Other news.. The [dingbat] Supreme Court again refused to block Texas’ abortion law, but agreed to fast-track suits challenging it. Arguments are set for Nov. 1.
The court will consider two appeals: one from the Justice Department and one from abortion providers in Texas. The arguments will be limited to the procedural question of whether the Texas law is subject to review in federal court given its novel structure, which was designed to evade judicial challenges.
The Texas law, which makes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from incest or rape, deputizes private individuals to sue anyone who performs an abortion or “aids and abets” one.
Sighs.
And..
Officials in New Mexico are investigating a deadly shooting on the set of a western, where the actor Alec Baldwin fired a gun being used as a prop and killed the movie’s director of photography.
The authorities in Santa Fe County shared few details of how the incident on the set of “Rust” unfolded on Thursday. Halyna Hutchins was killed, and the director Joel Souza was injured. In a statement on Twitter, Baldwin said that he was cooperating with the investigation and that his “heart is broken” for Hutchins’s “husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”
There have been reports of labor unrest on the set of the film. Several members of the crew walked off the set earlier this week over working conditions, according to a person familiar with the shoot. The film is a western about a teenage boy who goes on the run after an accidental killing.
This was just weird. And reminds me (and everyone else apparently) of Brandon Lee's death on the set of The Crow back in the 1990s.
* Russia is trying to bring the country’s once freewheeling internet to heel, with a digital censorship push perhaps exceeded only by China.
The Kremlin’s censorship infrastructure — made up of black boxes installed at telecommunications companies — gives it sweeping powers to block, filter and slow down sites, affecting the vast majority of the country’s more than 120 million wireless and home internet users. Civil society advocates fear a new age of digital isolation — and similar efforts from other authoritarian governments.
[Note: if you have an Live Journal Account - now may be the time to back it up to DW, and delete it? Yes, Russia can censor you on LJ - the server is in Russia, so Russia has jurisdiction over your content and its laws govern. And no, it doesn't matter if you are paying for it.]
* Separately, U.S. intelligence officials said that American companies need to secure critical technologies as Beijing seeks to develop the world’s largest bio-database. Chinese firms are collecting genetic data from around the world. [ Oh dear. And the Chinese have no intellectual property regs or regulations on anything really. They are basically a free market economy under dictatorship rule.]
***
I'm tired. Going to bed...I think. And maybe a hot shower.
Work was slow. So played around with my book for most of it, when I wasn't dozing off to sleep. I could have done filing and archiving, but chose to wait a bit.
It was hard to concentrate due to the aches and pains.
Checked out tickets for SIX and...I can't afford SIX. Tickets range from $125 - $750. The $122-$165 tickets are Mezzazine. The $250-$350 or more are Orchestra. Only available ones right now are Premium at $449.
I texted Wales - and she was shocked.
We'd be better off waiting until January, they come down considerably. It's trendy now - so is the idea of going to the theater. People are nuts.
Been up since 5:45, actually 5:20, I woke up before the alarm. I was tired at 3pm. Seem to have gotten second wind - bolstered purely by frustration, but I don't ache any longer - so progress. Also note to self - CBD and tynenol and menthol plus heat therapy actually work.
***
* The Times discusses the Big Quit...which is basically folks feel much like I do..tired.
At first, everyone tried to make the best of a bad situation: gathering on Zoom, launching projects in the kitchen and cheering on health care workers, and ourselves, with daily quarantine clapping.
Pretty soon, though, we began languishing, and then had moments of existential burnout that left us feeling drained and rudderless. Now, many are calling it quits on aspects of life that seemed indispensable before the pandemic.
Over the last 19 months, an outsized number of Americans have left cities, their marriages and organized religion. Some have recently tried dumping social media. It seems that many see 2021 as a year to finally leave prepandemic lives behind and embrace the idea of a fresh start.
Perhaps the most pronounced example is what economists are calling “The Great Resignation.”
In August, a record 4.3 million Americans left their jobs — the highest number in the two decades the government has been keeping track. Across industries including health care, education, retail, food services and child care, people are saying goodbye to their employers, sometimes even walking out in the middle of a shift.
There are several reasons for the mass resignations. People have lingering fears of getting Covid at the workplace, better unemployment benefits, and savings built up during the pandemic that make it easier for them to turn down jobs they don’t want, or which don’t pay a living wage. For the first time in decades, many workers across the income spectrum have some leverage, and they are using it to demand better pay and superior working conditions.
“It’s like the whole country is in some kind of union renegotiation,” Betsey Stevenson, a University of Michigan economist, recently told The Times. “I don’t know who’s going to win in this bargaining that’s going on right now, but right now it seems like workers have the upper hand.”
The psychology of the pandemic may be playing a role. Surveys suggest that the crisis led many people to rethink their priorities. Behavioral scientists say times of disruption and transition create new opportunities for growth and change.
Staying the course, whether in an unfulfilling job or an unhappy relationship, can also cost you, my colleagues Lindsay Crouse and Kirby Ferguson in Opinion wrote this week.
Despite what many of us were taught in childhood — that quitters are losers — there can be significant penalties to passively remaining in place, particularly in the form of missed opportunities. For example, research has shown that one of the best ways for women to increase their salaries is to quit their job and find a new one.
Thoughtful quitting, Lindsay and Kirby argue, may actually increase your power, as was the case with Simone Biles, the U.S. gymnast who started a global conversation about mental health after withdrawing from the gymnastic finals in the Tokyo Olympics.
“I’m not saying quit everything. Lots of great things require perseverance — our relationships, our health, our careers,” Lindsay said. “But think about it: perseverance shouldn’t be a default, it should be a choice.”
I've not done it, because I'm not that miserable. Also I know what unemployment is like. And I don't know what else to do with myself. Plus, say what you will about crazy org, they let me work remotely for a long time, got me vaccinated for free, and provide me with free transportation.
And, I've worked in a lot of jobs and industries, I'm not naive enough to think there's a better place out there.
But give it a few more months, I may change my mind.
***
Hmmm...
* The W.H.O. warned that burned-out health care workers were nearing a breaking point.
* A new study showed that millions of dollars in U.S. aid benefited richer hospitals, not poorer ones that need money the most.
* The U.S. will soon give Covid boosters to millions, as people in poor nations await their first doses.
* Stephanie Nolen, a global health reporter for The Times, explored what it would take for developing countries to produce their own vaccines.
* Beijing began offering booster shots, four months ahead of the Winter Olympics.
* New Zealand announced a plan to move away from lockdowns once the country meets an ambitious vaccination target.
* Thailand will let in vaccinated travelers from more countries.
* Bali reopened to foreign tourists, but government rules are keeping them away.
* Flu rates were so low during the pandemic that one strain of the virus may have been eliminated, ABC News in Australia reports. [We didn't get rid of COVID, but we managed to get rid of one of the flu viruses...]
***
Other news.. The [dingbat] Supreme Court again refused to block Texas’ abortion law, but agreed to fast-track suits challenging it. Arguments are set for Nov. 1.
The court will consider two appeals: one from the Justice Department and one from abortion providers in Texas. The arguments will be limited to the procedural question of whether the Texas law is subject to review in federal court given its novel structure, which was designed to evade judicial challenges.
The Texas law, which makes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from incest or rape, deputizes private individuals to sue anyone who performs an abortion or “aids and abets” one.
Sighs.
And..
Officials in New Mexico are investigating a deadly shooting on the set of a western, where the actor Alec Baldwin fired a gun being used as a prop and killed the movie’s director of photography.
The authorities in Santa Fe County shared few details of how the incident on the set of “Rust” unfolded on Thursday. Halyna Hutchins was killed, and the director Joel Souza was injured. In a statement on Twitter, Baldwin said that he was cooperating with the investigation and that his “heart is broken” for Hutchins’s “husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”
There have been reports of labor unrest on the set of the film. Several members of the crew walked off the set earlier this week over working conditions, according to a person familiar with the shoot. The film is a western about a teenage boy who goes on the run after an accidental killing.
This was just weird. And reminds me (and everyone else apparently) of Brandon Lee's death on the set of The Crow back in the 1990s.
* Russia is trying to bring the country’s once freewheeling internet to heel, with a digital censorship push perhaps exceeded only by China.
The Kremlin’s censorship infrastructure — made up of black boxes installed at telecommunications companies — gives it sweeping powers to block, filter and slow down sites, affecting the vast majority of the country’s more than 120 million wireless and home internet users. Civil society advocates fear a new age of digital isolation — and similar efforts from other authoritarian governments.
[Note: if you have an Live Journal Account - now may be the time to back it up to DW, and delete it? Yes, Russia can censor you on LJ - the server is in Russia, so Russia has jurisdiction over your content and its laws govern. And no, it doesn't matter if you are paying for it.]
* Separately, U.S. intelligence officials said that American companies need to secure critical technologies as Beijing seeks to develop the world’s largest bio-database. Chinese firms are collecting genetic data from around the world. [ Oh dear. And the Chinese have no intellectual property regs or regulations on anything really. They are basically a free market economy under dictatorship rule.]
***
I'm tired. Going to bed...I think. And maybe a hot shower.