Topic: COVID-19

[ender]

Everyone okay? I, as most of you know, am in New York City. Things have been very weird the last week. Today, I loaded up my monitor and computer from work to set up at home – where I will be mandatory working from home for 2 weeks or possibly a month. I, hope, have not contracted the virus – but I was very tired and sick for a few days this past week. I didn't have the fever or cough, but I stayed in – seemed to go away quickly – but obviously no way to get tested at this moment unless sever. I feel 100% fine now – I video chatted a doctor and he thought it was mostly exhaustion (I had worked a lot the previous week) on top of seasonal allergies (it was mostly tired feeling with stuffy nose). Anyway, that scared me for a couple of days. Now everyone is starting to isolate and stay in their homes, so definitely feels very weird on the streets.

I got out for a few things — going to a friend's small birthday dinner tomorrow — but still adjusting to the new weird normal way of things for the next few weeks or months.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

[gpw11]

Some guy in November decided a sneezing bat was a good thing to eat.  March: NBA and NHL cancel their seasons.  Crazy.

[idolminds]

So far so good, but I don't go out much as it is. Just worried about my folks. My dad just recently quit his job (unrelated to the virus) so at least he isnt being sent into hospitals for work, which is probably a dodged bullet there.

[scottws]

I'm in Broward County, FL. We're limiting social contact. My employer (offices here and in both Syracuse and New York City) went 100% work from home on Thursday.

We are doing fine so far. I don't know anyone that's sick and no one at my work or anywhere I've been has been a confirmed case. Except two people in San Francisco at a conference I was at a few weeks ago. But I didn't visit their booth. So 🤞

[W7RE]

Current status: ok for now. Stores have no TP, meat, eggs, or rice though. I haven't run of anything yet, but I'm ironically making more trips to stores to check for limited supply items that I would normally just get on my weekly trip.



14 confirmed cases in Forsyth county.
https://infection2020.com/

[Quemaqua]

Confirmed cases mean jack shit since we're basically not testing anyone. This fucking country.

All well and good here, I guess, though I seem to have a cough today. Fun times being worried about that, especially since I was recently diagnosed with asthma. Working from home now, which has been sort of fun, and my campus has 100% closed, commencement postponed, etc., so my last semester is going to be spent entirely online from here on out. Ah well. Saves on gas money, I guess!

Doom Eternal just came out, so been spending my time with that. That's been a nice distraction.

[W7RE]

Today the map says there 1 confirmed case in my county. I just got calls from 2 Dr offices. One delaying an appt until things are in the clear (it's been pushed back 2 weeks, I expect it to get pushed back again), and the other asking if I wanted a televisit. I said no to the televisit, I think I'm going to call back and say I changed my mind.

I've gotten a little paranoid too. Every time my nose is a little runny, or I cough, I worry a little. I've had asthma since I was a toddler, and this thing could very well kill me if I get it.

I've been playing Doom Eternal as well. I've got gripes with it, but I still love it.

[ender]

Glad everyone is okay. The general US isn't testing much, but fortunately NY has tested more people per capita than South Korea has at this point. I imagine a lot of places will slowly start to looking like the infection rates of NY in the coming weeks.

This is why we need public health infrastructure in this country, goddamnit.

[ender]

I've been coping with the new Animal Crossing. Great, relaxing fun.

[ren]

I'm approaching the two week mark without really going outside except for one 4am grocery run.

The main thing I've learned from this is that I should really take a week to myself more often. I've been sleeping better, getting more in touch with my hobbies, exercising more, it's actually not bad.

I'm sure that'll eventually pass and obviously I want the situation to pass and people to stop suffering but this has given me a good opportunity to stop and smell the roses.

[Quemaqua]

Honestly, I'm an introvert, and just being able to sit at home and not have to go out has been great. I spend way, way too much time on campus. I have really long days (or had, I guess), so at this point this feels pretty all right. Not exactly a good situation, but if it's going to be like this, I'm going to at least enjoy it.

I also ended up picking up Animal Crossing. Been a really nice distraction, and so relaxing.

[K-man]

I've been coping with the new Animal Crossing. Great, relaxing fun.

Friend code?

[gpw11]

I've been coping with the new Animal Crossing. Great, relaxing fun.

What's life like in New York at the moment? 

[ender]

What's life like in New York at the moment?

It's super quiet. The last 4 days hospitalization have been going down, so the sirens haven't been as blaring 24/7 as it was at the height of things. People are masked up, only going out to get groceries... being very nice to each other. Lots of people on their rooftops playing music and dancing with each other from a very far distance. It's weird to have NYC so quiet – you can hear the birds, it's almost peaceful until you hear an ambulance siren.

[ender]

Friend code?

 SW-5099-3198-5988

[ender]

A view from my rooftop at the very start of quarantine. Very few people out, but this gentleman is blasting some motown and boogie music to cheer people up:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B99VKl6g4eO/

[ren]

It's super quiet. The last 4 days hospitalization have been going down, so the sirens haven't been as blaring 24/7 as it was at the height of things. People are masked up, only going out to get groceries... being very nice to each other. Lots of people on their rooftops playing music and dancing with each other from a very far distance. It's weird to have NYC so quiet – you can hear the birds, it's almost peaceful until you hear an ambulance siren.

The increased amount of sound of sirens and seeing ambulances so frequently outside of high-rise complexes has been the most unnerving part of this whole thing for me.  Glad to hear that's slowing down where you are.

[gpw11]

We really lucked out in Vancouver, at least for now.

[Quemaqua]

Will add you, ender. I'll be the dude with the random Japanese name. You should pop over and hang out with us sometime online. Practically everyone's got the game, we've had some fun visiting each other's islands.

[nickclone]

I stopped going to work at the beginning of April, I wasn't forced to, I just didn't want to get sick so I stayed home. The DMV area is not doing too bad, D.C. and Maryland got hit much harder than Virginia, but I haven't seen much spill over from the other states. The numbers in VA a lower, so you're starting to see people become more lax with the sheltering and social distancing around here.

I said I would go back to work May 4th...but I honestly don't want to go back. I'm really enjoying the quarantine for lack of a better word.

[Quemaqua]

Totally forgot to add you, haha. Life has continued to be nuts. I always think of coming back here and then I go a month without checking because papers and whatever else.

I'm honestly still kind of enjoying the quarantine on some level. Turns out my "illness" was just really bad asthma, which I didn't know I had. Sort of suspected that I had something like that going on, but doc said I probably had it my whole life and just didn't realize that's what it was. I'm on some new meds that are helping a ton.

Still on the Animal Crossing on the regular. About the only thing I'm getting to play much, though I did beat Doom Eternal and have gone back through a lot of it again. Damn fine game.

[nickclone]

Totally forgot to add you, haha. Life has continued to be nuts. I always think of coming back here and then I go a month without checking because papers and whatever else.

I'm honestly still kind of enjoying the quarantine on some level. Turns out my "illness" was just really bad asthma, which I didn't know I had. Sort of suspected that I had something like that going on, but doc said I probably had it my whole life and just didn't realize that's what it was. I'm on some new meds that are helping a ton.

Still on the Animal Crossing on the regular. About the only thing I'm getting to play much, though I did beat Doom Eternal and have gone back through a lot of it again. Damn fine game.

I always come back here...eventually.

Yes, this time has been crazy. I'm also in the process of moving out of this townhouse in the city and moving to an old farmhouse in the country this month. Luckily, I have Divinity Original Sin 2 to keep me sane.

[Quemaqua]

Having a Switch is sure handy for move times. I was glad to have mine around when I was otherwise living out of boxes and such. I've actually wanted to try one of the newer Divinity games. Only one I played was the very first, like ... 2002? 2003?

[scottws]

Our VP of HR sent out the anticipated "how we plan to return to normalcy" email; however, it wasn't what anyone expected. They've decided to not let anyone back at all until June 1 and even then you need to want to go back, get special permission from your manager and HR, and sign a waiver. Managers have to work with each other to ensure that people aren't sitting too close together. They don't have any plans yet on forcing a return to the office for anyone or even encouraging people to go back.

I told my manager the only reason I'd want to go to the office is for access to the gym and personal trainer, but neither of those things is starting up again anytime soon.

[gpw11]

I told my manager the only reason I'd want to go to the office is for access to the gym and personal trainer, but neither of those things is starting up again anytime soon.

Uh, you guys hiring?

[Pugnate]

The second wave is looking pretty dangerous in Ontario. Infection rates climbed from less than 100 a day to over 1000. Now, the death rates are climbing. Unless there's another lockdown, they estimate that we'll have 3000 cases a day.

[gpw11]

Jesus.  Are people generally staying in or still out all over the place?

[K-man]

Jesus.  Are people generally staying in or still out all over the place?

Depends on where people lie on the "I GOT RIGHTS" scale.