So I've been working, or rather procrastinating, on a job application for a really sweet job in this country where the library director is a good friend. I can't believe I haven't been able to get it together. It's due next Saturday and I need to get a good draft of the cover letter to a copy-editing friend of mine well before then (hopefully by Monday, whenever she has a chance to improve my cover letter I always land an interview.) Why do I always do this?
Because transference of knowledge is hard.
sending solidarity barry! you can do this!
has anyone heard from thorn? hope she and family are well.
I'm selling my sweet tiny bungalow and the realtor is determinedly removing all signs of my personality from the house and I (sortof) understand the necessity but it is killing me.
3: I see her posts in an Other Place. She and her family appear to be well.
4: I would be so broken up over that. Horrible. Also photos of your place were super cute.
She is very fast and effective and her whole outlook is that OBVIOUSLY all those things that I thought were assets are clearly horrible and need to be removed. Not even decor, which I deeply loved but understood was idiosyncratic. But, like, things I went to trouble to have. Like the firewood rack in the back. Too big! she says. Makes the yard look small. And fine, I suppose, but it was really fucking useful 'cause I used the fireplace all the time and adding it was a really big upgrade. I mean, fine, I'll move it here somehow, but I don't get the reasoning. Also, selling the house without the fridge to make the kitchen look bigger. Aren't people gonna notice that there is no fridge?
I'm trying to tell myself that my bright paint job was a beautiful experience that was only for me. Also that I have more than one garish paint job in me and a whole new place to do something new. Also that even if I could insist on keeping the paint, it was really scuffed and there is just no way I could match the paints now. All those things. But I will be really sad when it is painted white.
I'll have to console myself with the extra sale money.
My vacation last week was nice. (Getting home was a mess. The connecting flight was cancelled, so the airline put us up for the night in a nearby hotel and we got home about 19 hours later than planned. But other than that it was nice.) This week was rough until today. In addition to jet lag, and working longer hours partly to make up for the missed day, we were also home-schooling because the kid couldn't go back to the pod after travel without a negative covid test. But she got that this morning and we're childfree for a blessed 7 hours or so today.
A friend called our house "beige world" but really the color is eggshell.
The walls were pink when we moved in, so we over-reacted.
I have bought tickets to go see Sally in Santa Cruz in the middle of May! I'm super excited.
1: Barry - have you reached out to Tia? You guys were keeping each other on track before, right?
Also, I am gradually giving away the contents of a giant closet packed with useless stuff on my neighborhood FB Buy Nothing page, and it is the most delightful experience. Only a few weeks of this, and the closet is already less horrifying.
Because of our basement flooding, we've felt delightfully free to throw out a bunch of shit without thinking about how to have it reused.
This is largely forever-abandoned stuff of Sally and Newt's -- old skateboards, footballs, stuff like that. So high value to someone who wants it, but just clutter to me.
15 makes me wish for basement flooding.
Got 2nd Pfizer-BioNTech this week. Arm still sore because vaccinator stabbed me. Ouch! After 18 hours other side effects kicked in. Lasted about 36 hours and I'm now feeling okay, but tired. Another two weeks and I might be able to start visiting other fully vaccinated people!
My kid finally managed to speed-run Minecraft in less than thirty minutes. He's had a very productive covid experience.
lb so happy for you! in about a month we can indoor dine with all close family who live local & i am going to make so many cakes to feed to two yr old grandchild, oh yeah. everyone else welcome to partake but my joy at the little one tucking in is going to be 🎉😍🎉🍾🎉😍🎉😍
My parents fly in this evening and we'll see each other for the first time since I think winter 2019. They're vaccinated, I'm first-dose, and they're visiting with other fully vaccinated people, so not distancing!
I got a vaccination haircut and scheduled a massge. Both masked, but very exciting expansions of my world!
We also rented a house at the beach for June with vaxxed friends. Really looking forward to getting the hell out of town.
I've gotten pedicures pre vaccine at a local day spa. There used to be 2 people there, but now it's just the owner, and sometimes the massage therapist who has a day job. I'm the only client there, and the owner wears K95 so I felt pretty safe the whole time.
I joined a gym even though I probably won't go for a few weeks. I need to get my son on a waiting list for a swimming lesson because he wants to do the thing where you row and he is not a good swimmer.
Like with a paddle. Not the British form of arguing where you can get thrown into a body of water.
We're almost done moving in and unpacking our stuff in the new house. Today we managed to finally get the enormous and immensely heavy (but very awesome and cool) bar that Amadea bought on the internet into the downstairs wet bar area after we had to leave it on the entry landing for a few days while we figured out how to saw off the top.
If it's made of wood you should probably put it in the dry bar area.
Just because that's exactly the kind of thing I would say, I want to clarify that was not me.
It's mostly wood, but the top is largely stone. (Again, immensely heavy.)
We had to bring in a football team, twice.
13 Yes, we've been coworking daily for the past year now, still this past month has been difficult.
People who are very good at the British rowing can get good athletic scholarships in a sport that does not destroy a chance at education.
This is kind of a big deal. Not my case, but friends are involved.
Folks from Ontario unleashed a third wave on us. Arrived and had a party apparently. Now we're up over 100 cases including in a bunch of schools. The capital city is under strict lockdown again. Other parts are under a slightly more strict than normal one. We're not expecting the case count to level off until later next week. NSians are pissed. The Atlantic bubble has been called off just as it was set to open.
Talking to someone at work who handles the campground bookings and she said most of the out of province folks didn't realize there was a 14 day quarantine required on arrival here (and they couldn't get to the campground and then quarantine there) and were booking sites for end of May and June. So this summer will be a shit show.
Folks from Ontario unleashed a third wave on us. Arrived and had a party apparently. Now we're up over 100 cases including in a bunch of schools. The capital city is under strict lockdown again. Other parts are under a slightly more strict than normal one. We're not expecting the case count to level off until later next week. NSians are pissed. The Atlantic bubble has been called off just as it was set to open.
Talking to someone at work who handles the campground bookings and she said most of the out of province folks didn't realize there was a 14 day quarantine required on arrival here (and they couldn't get to the campground and then quarantine there) and were booking sites for end of May and June. So this summer will be a shit show.
37-8: as an NSian living in Ontario, this whole thing makes me so furious. I have neighbours who decided they want to move to NS and work remotely, so they drove down and spent their quarantine roaming around looking at houses. They're expecting me to understand and I just can't handle even pretending not to hate them. Assholes like them mean I might not see my parents this year and my wife can't even go to her dying grandmother's funeral.
Anyway, I'm mostly hoping that the province's quick "shut it all down" reaction will work like it did last time and they'll get it under control. And that somehow karma strikes the Ontario assholes responsible for this outbreak.
38, 39 -- Your posts remind me of this -- https://www.hcn.org/issues/53.1/south-economy-when-covid-hit-a-colorado-county-kicked-out-second-home-owners-they-hit-back. Are Texans worse than Ontarians? Of course they are.
40: I can't get your link to work.
42: that is an impressive collection of assholes. still, i suppose it's progress of a miniscule sort that they are so offended by being described (entirely accurately) as rich. dicks.
How come nobody in the first X-men movie wasn't like, "Oh, yeah, the guy who rescued us all," when they saw Wolverine.
And covid arrived in my town. We're up to over 200 cases in the province and have been warned we haven't peaked yet. Today we're 2 cases away from our highest daily case count ever.
I hope those Ontarians know they caused this and have problems sleeping for the next five years over this.
They actually did explain that, saying the whole time travel thing reset the universe to an alternate timeline. In the reality of the first movie Wolverine saving them didn't happen.
38, 39: As an Ontarian, I don't blame NSians one bit for feeling furious about this. (And sure, not all Ontarians ... but: too many damn Ontarians!). I'm so sick of people being stupid and selfish, and putting countless others at risk.
And don't even get me started on the snowbirds returning from Florida and evading the quarantine.
Of course, part of the problem stems from the Ontario govt's confusing and inconsistent messaging on the seriousness of the threat. Doug Ford, four or five days before Christmas: "Folks, this is serious, and we need to move quickly. And that's why we'll be bringing in a series of half-measures, to begin the day after Boxing Day. There's still time to do some last-minute Xmas shopping at the big-box stores, and enjoy a holiday dinner with friends and family..." While Atlantic Canada locked down hard and got it under control, Ontario lurched in and out of one mockdown after another ... and encouraged people to think it wasn't really that serious.
48:That's more effort than I think I should have to use to keep track of shit.
47.2: Their leaders used to be cocaine users, so it is possible.
Just had a thought. Are these 'gender reveal parties' that start fires and crack the windows on the neighbors' houses just another example of why cocaine isn't a good part of a responsible life?
"No County for Babies." Instead of flipping a coin, the killer with the Cousin Oliver haircut brings a cake to you and says, "Boy or girl, call it."
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NMM to counterculture Yippie radio legend Bob Fass. Coming across his late night radio program "Radio Unameable" on WBAI as a young teen opened up an entire world for me. He'd be on for 5 hours several nights a week, then just Thursday night. Anything could and did happen. And he had this wonderful baritone voice like none other. So warm and generous and welcoming.
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54: I had never heard of him, but I just listened to part of a This American Life profile of him. Wonderful voice. They did a bit about him talking to someone suicidal. Very authentic.
There's a wonderful documentary about him: http://www.radiounnameablemovie.com/ (I feel fortunate to have met him at that doc's premiere). The wikipedia page is also very informative: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Fass . Heebie would be interested to know that the first time Arlo Guthrie sang Alice's Restaurant to an audience it was on Fass' show. It was a magical show, anything could happen. Abbie Hoffman used to call in regularly, even when he was on the lam. Paul Krassner was another frequent guest. Many others. He'd also take listener phone calls and frequently leave them on the line so there might be 4 or more callers on at once. True free-form radio, which he practically invented.
I remember one night he did a show dedicated to a woman folk singer from the early Greenwich Village scene, I think it may have been Karen Dalton. About an hour or so into the program her son who was visiting NYC from where he was living overseas and just happened to tune in called up. The next hour it was an ex-bf of hers.
And yes, that voice. I'd often thought if aliens ever visited earth and wanted to speak to our leader that Bob Fass should take that call. One of a kind. He had an enormous impact on the person I was to become. He'll be much missed.
56.first It's on Prime https://www.amazon.com/Radio-Unnameable-Allen-Ginsberg/dp/B00DPRN642/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1XSPC41LNSZVO&keywords=radio+unnameable&qid=1571339715&sprefix=radio+unnameable%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-1
There's a wonderful documentary about him: http://www.radiounnameablemovie.com/
I just requested that the library get a copy; I hope they do.
58 let me know if you watch it what you think. There's a good short radio documentary that just re-aired in tribute on WBAI (it's only an hour long, not an hour and a half, I don't know why they replayed the first half hour on the back end) here: https://www.wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=22308
Featuring Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Arlo Guthrie's premiere of Alice's Restaurant (you can really hear how much he changed the song) and others as well as the documentary filmmakers who really get his thing. Highly recommended.
I'm just now remembering that I wrote him back when I was in library school and specializing in archives because I knew he had a massive amount of important archival material and that I hadn't heard about anyone doing anything with it. He was currently in negotiations with some institutions so I wasn't able to work with him (they ended up going to Columbia University) but he wrote back and put me in touch with this crazy legendary Bob Dylan (among others) collector who was a real character. I remember Fass wrote "he's got baseballs signed by rock stars" and when I went to his West Village apartment he certainly did, also Salman Rushdie, James Earl Jones and others.
Breaking out of the bubble question.
Tim and I were thinking of getting together with another couple. They are both fully vaccinated. One is quite obese s/p gastric bypass and has diabetes. I'm fully vaccinated. Tim got his second shot on Wednesday (5 days ago) how important is it to wait the full 14 days or would this weekend be ok?
I think just two households has been fine so long as one household was fully vaccinated. At least, that's what the CDC said when I looked it up for Easter.
The full period after the second shot isn't really important. The booster is more about long term maintenance of immunity.
I played hockey for the first time in over a year last night, 8 days after my second shot. I was not good.
My household should be fully vaccinated by mid-May. My son proposes to keep wearing a mask indefinitely. I wonder how long it will be before I feel comfortable, say, getting on a subway.
You should wait for full effectiveness before you serve medium-rare chicken.
How come you can eat medium-rare (or at least medium) duck, but not chicken?
My mother kept her mask on in my apartment, not because of COVID, but experimenting to see if it helped her cat allergies - she always takes medicine before being in a space with a cat and still has some aftereffects. It worked!
Just had a three day visit from my 85 year old mother. Everyone in our house is vaccinated except the 15yo who is not yet eligible. The visit was fine, felt very normal. A month ago she was determined to be Andrew Cuomo's last and loudest fan but since he seems to be basically in hiding her heart is no longer in it and I didn't poke fun. Mom is slower than prepandemic but the fact that the slowdown is only really obvious on the tennis court tells you all you need to know about how exceptionally hale an 85 year old she is.
The internet says it's because of how duck is raised and processed. Meaning, I could have medium-rare chicken if I got a bespoke chicken?
My new heuristic for visiting and masking is an offhand KDrum post where he did back of the envelope math and said "ok, with vaccination the risk now really is equivalent to normal flu risk." I haven't reexamined that though with the dire situation in Michigan maybe I should. I'm not sure how vaccine hesitancy and new variants and Michigan all fit together.
63.2: I am absurdly envious. I've started having vivid dreams about playing. I don't expect my regular group will be able to get back on the ice until September at the earliest. I anticipate being very, very bad, and console myself with the thought that everyone else I play with will also be very, very bad.
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Quoth NPR- $15 Minimum wage "in stages ". Does this mean anything?
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72: Looks like just federal contractors?
Ice hockey was covid-stopped? You play in headgear behind plexiglass dividers anyway.
The humanities thread is depressing me a lot.
82 clusters in MA traced to youth hockey from July to January.
Unfortunately the other people I play with started several weeks ago when the state allowed it, plus to make up for low numbers some of them brought their kids or kids from their youth teams, so I was playing against some high schoolers and everyone else who'd already been skating for a while.
People nominally wore masks but most were poor coverage. I wore a gaiter. Most of the adults were fully vaccinated.
NMM to the loneliest person in the world, Michael Collins. These guy (and Muhammad Ali) were my childhood heroes. RIP.
guy s/b guys.
Wishing Buzz many more years.
Pretty excited for the search warrant on Giuliani's apartment. I've been wishing for prosecutions against everyone Trump-related. Just yesterday I was thinking how much that would improve my days.
1 Job application successfully submitted by the deadline. Whew!
83: Congratulations, Barry! And good luck!
Good luck, or break a leg (if it's an acting job).
Thanks!
85 It's another librarian job, same country but at a US university with a branch campus here. I've long wanted to go into academic librarianship, what I do now is just too niche.
Argh! I just told Pola who is working at the same type of library job back in her native Poland and she mentioned a whole bunch of things I wish I'd mentioned in my cover letter. I still think it's a strong application but I really wish I'd told her before I'd applied.
That's why you should never ask people what they put on their test after you have taken the test.
I mean, talking to old friends is good in and of itself and the topic was probably bound to come up.
Well done and good luck Barry!
Employment is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get and there's almost certainly someone in Switzerland with a better one.
And absolutely certainly someone in Ghana with a worse one.
92: now I'm curious to try some of the premium Ghanaian chocolate: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/57-chocolate-adrinka
Thanks!
Well I've booked my flight back to the US for June and July. What a pain in the ass. I want to fly business class since they're still allowing transits from India and other hot spots so I booked a flight economy figuring I could use my air miles to upgrade. No upgrade available even though I checked before hand that there were business class seats on that flight. So I had to cancel because economy just seems too risky. I might have well as burned 250 bucks on fire. Rebooked business using the air miles plus cash and that was successful.