Day #116

If I get this thing it will be from doing laundry.

I went down at 3 - and a woman was sitting down there, maskless, watching her laundry in the washers. I thought okay, I'll come back down at 4 after work. Also work - decided to send me a flurry of emails that required work, at 3PM. On a Friday. Administrative Assistant - who spends half the day gardening, sent a change order log to me at 3:30 PM to fix. I fixed it - but it was problematic and gave me a headache - an excel spreadsheet in the Microsoft One Drive - with everyone fixing it at the same time. So I'd see something and it would disappear.

Then I went down again at 4 PM, thinking oh, the woman will be gone, it will be fine. Uh. No. I entered the laundry room only to discover people without masks, three of them. Super's wife, her son (who had it around his neck) and an idiot guy wearing it around his neck. And I...considered turning around and going back upstairs.

Super's wife: No, no, you can use these two vacant machines.
Me: Okay. But hey, this is an enclosed space with almost no air circulation, and it's hot. So we really all need to be wearing masks down here. I don't want to be bother, but I don't want to get sick. So I'd really appreciate it - if everyone wore a mask. (Guy and Super's son put on Masks. And Super's wife apologizes for forgetting.)
Me: I understand, but please wear a mask. I don't want to get anyone sick either. Just please do it. Especially here.

So put my laundry in and run into the guy who'd had no mask on earlier, now with only a towel around him and a t-shirt and no mask. I back up, say excuse me, and with terrified eyes make it to the elevators.

The elevators are fun, at one point I had to back up into the hallway of the basement with my cart, while a woman with a mask took one elevator, and a guy without one waited for the other. The woman with one - was holding it open for me too. But I said "no, no, go , go, I'll get the next one" - do people NOT read signs? The signs clearly state one person per elevator for safety reasons. And geeze alot of the men in my building refuse to wear masks. The bearded guy in the apartment next door isn't wearing one when he left his apartment in front of me today, I steered clear of him, and he did turn his back to me. And downstairs the guys didn't. This explains why there's more men who die of COVID-19 then women. A lot of men are idiots. My brother is thankfully smart, but he's never given into macho stupidity. The reason the US has the most cases and most deaths is we are stuptid. Americans are idiots.

I've decided if I get it - I'm going to tell the contact tracers to focus on the Super's family and idiots in the laundry room.

The men in my building and neighborhood are Darwin Award nominees - I wish they'd claim theirs and bugger off this mortal coil.

I'm venting.

I'm very nice and polite in person. I hate conflict.

Difficult day, I celebrated the end of it and the week with the last of my Rum Mai Thai's, and those things are strong. My teeth and fingers go numb after drinking them. Little tipsy now.

Didn't take a walk through Greenwood today due to Tropical Storm Fay - which has been meandering through the area. All we got was heavy rain. It's supposed to have high force winds, but I'm not seeing anything. And while it did rain and have a few down-pours, nothing major. I think the worst went east and north of me.




New York vs. the Corona Virus

Well, the Governor of New York in his email tonight advises ...

When New York was experiencing our worst days, we were moved by the generosity of states around the country. We promised we would pay that forward when other states were in need, and today we are doing just that.

New York will deliver a shipment of the medication Remdesivir to Florida tomorrow as the state struggles with a surge of cases. Remdesivir is a drug that has shown promise in treating COVID patients. We are 50 states — but we are one country.

What a lovely thing to do. That drug is wickedly expensive and helps people. It's nice to know my state is trying to help the other states. Go Team#NewYork.

(Although it may be worth mentioning that there are a lot of New Yorkers who have retired in Florida.)

Florida is doing odd things - it's supposed to re-open schools in August, and has had 7,000 children come down with the virus. Also Disney World is re-opening slowly next week. Hmm. I think Disney is worried about staying closed for too long.

New York is also slowly re-opening things...that it feels are safe.

( things New York is doing )

I'm still playing it safe. Or trying to. Kind of hard to be perfectly safe in a 77 unit apartment building in a major city in the middle of a pandemic - although the only person I've really interacted with is the Super's wife. Unfortunately she's also been in and out of everyone's apartments and interacting with everyone. Also a lot of men think they are above wearing masks. I saw one of the members of the NYC DOT not wearing one - he was checking the water main yesterday, after putting in the gas pipes. Apparently they sliced through a pipe so everyone on the Beverly Road end of the building had to have their water off for about ten to twenty minutes this morning. My end of the building was fine.

Miscellaneous...

Facebook Jean Grey Fan Page

Poster: Wolverine and Jean appear to be making out and having sex in this scene, it's heavily implied. Gross.
Me: Well, it's been heavily implied by the writer that Wolverine, Jean and Scott are engaged in a threesome for quite some time now. I'm just not sure if Emma is involved or not. Seems unfair not to include her, somehow.

Some people liked my comment, some were shocked by it.

I'm growing weary of the culture wars, and want to tell folks to grow up already.

Honestly, why people can't tolerate and appreciate people that are very different than they are is beyond me. I've never understood this. I find people who are different from me to be more interesting. If I was surrounded by people just like me - I'd be bored. Get over yourselves, spank your inner monkey, and accept that people are different and celebrate the differences.

I'm tired. The week exhausted me. The weeks drag, the months speed on by, maybe because I'm dreading the fall? Don't know. I've decided to take a little time off in August. Also some four day vacations in the fall. Just about accepted the fact that I'm not seeing my parents this year. I may however be able to finagle another trip to see the brother and his family. Don't know yet.

Oh, found out via Facebook that the lates Harry Dresden novel came out, Peace Talks. I might buy that and read it. And once again, it sounds like they are moving furniture above me. I suppose it could be running up and down steps - but if sounds like moving furniture.

Yeah, I know it's creepy, but the picture fits my mood today.

(no subject)

1. I've mixed feelings about A Letter on Justice and Open Debate in Harpers.

Which is also commented on in the NY Times - due to the pursuant debate : An open letter published by Harper’s, signed by luminaries including Margaret Atwood and Wynton Marsalis, argued for openness to “opposing views.” The debate began immediately.

Before I go any further? I don't know if you are familiar with Harper's? But it is a progressive liberal magazine composed mainly of short stories, essays, op-ed's, and lengthy op-eds. It's...very academic and intellectual. Kind of a sophisticated or Ivy League version of the New Yorker. My brother go it for a while - and gave me a subscription once as a present. I'm not crazy about it - but it does have some excellent articles and is an interesting discourse on ideas. Hard to get published in it however, you have to have some serious credentials or know someone.

Anyhow, the list of names on this letter is kind of interesting. Everyone on Twitter and online - went right for JK Rowling, but she's actually the least interesting name on the list. She may be the most well-known, but she's the least interesting.

It's suffice to say a diverse list including people like Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Wynton Marsalis, Gloria Steinman, various historians, academics, musicians, Salaman Rushdie, etc. (Salaman Rushdie received death threats when he wrote his books, and had to go into exile from his homeland, and many on the list have had similar fates.)

( excerpt of NY Times article )

I like what the NY Times article states about this. I've noticed a lot of righteous folks online have forgotten how to be kind. More can be achieved with kindness than righteous indignation which like it or not can often take the guise of bullying, or so I've discovered. (I've been attacked and bullied by people whose politics and views I actually agree with because they either misread what I said, I made a typo and wasn't careful enough with my phrasing, or they couldn't handle any questions or criticism of their righteous views.) Righteousness tends to lead to damnation. Always. Always. We tend to demonize the other, as opposed to their actions and words - and the very act of demonizing is often utilized against us by someone else.

The Universe has a wicked sense of humor - it likes to thrust us on the opposite of every argument we've ever been on. I sometimes think the Universe thrives on dramatic and comedic irony.


2. 100 Most Popular Sci-Fi Books on Good Reads - keep in mind it is Good Reads, which has funky taste to begin with.

I've read roughly 40% of them. Mainly because I leap frog around genres, and there's more books out there than I have time to read, and I've been in a book reading slump since Feb. I have not finished one book since Feb. Or made much progress on the novel I'm writing. But I've written a lot of DW posts, and completed a lot of actual work. Plus taken a lot of photos of a cemetery.

3. Flirting with television shows, so if you've seen any of the below and can offer thoughts or a synopsis or rec, appreciate it.

* Black Sails - about six episodes in, very compelling. But, I'm wondering if I'm loving the wrong characters? I adore the real life fictionalized pirates, Jack, Anne Bonny, and Vane. Also Max. Long John Silver gets on my nerves, I want to smack him. I do however like Flint. Also want to smack Billy Bones. And I like Mrs. Barrow. But Eleanor is also getting on my nerves.

Should I stick with it? Does it get better? Does it end on a cliff-hanger?
Is there a lot of sexual violence?

* The Mandalorian - is this more adult or kid fare? How would you describe it? I loved Star Wars, Empire, Return - was kind of silly, Force Awakens - I liked. My favorite - Rogue One and Empire, actually. They haunt me. Everything else...eh.

* Warrior Nun - what's this one about and is it any good? It looks like fun and I think it is off a book I was flirting with a while ago.

* The Order - on Netflix - anyone seen it?

Can anyone rec a good supernatural soap? (I've seen Vamp Diaries, Legacies, Supernatural, Angel, Buffy...)

* Avatar: the Last Airbender - is this really just for kids? Is it all coming of age? Any romance? Any older characters?

Thanks in advance.

4. John Scalzi writes about a friend who turned out to be a creep - Kind of depressing. The owner of the sci-fi book store Borderlands, which helped launch a lot of Sci-Fi writers, turns out to be a sexual predator who used the store and his position in the Sci-Fi community to prey on the vulnerable and weak within it. What's interesting about the article he links to - Alan Betts - Borderlands Books Owner Accused of Sexual Assault by Own Daughter - is that the daughter states " she did not want to “cancel” her father “who has done a lot of good in her life” and who was “her best friend” growing up. She told Keene that speaking out was not meant to ruin his life or get revenge. " (By the way, you may not want to read those articles - if you've suffered in this manner yourself - most likely will be very triggering. It bothered me, and I haven't experienced it.)

5. Good news...sort of..

* Supreme Court Says Eastern Half of Oklahoma is Native American Land.
( Excerpt )

Proof that you have no idea what these people will do.

* Trump isn't King and not above the Law - although COVID crisis has kind of shown the world the limits of the President of the US powers. He really has no control over what each individual state chooses to do within its own jurisdiction.

( Excerpt )