Coronavirus Updates

[violsva]

So.

My college is switching to online classes, except they haven't done this before in the middle of a semester and also half of my classes have really important lab components which can't be done from home. They're saying the semester will end when scheduled; I kind of doubt that. They're supposed to have figured out how this works by Monday, and until then I get to review and be anxious.

All of my work's clients are cancelling their inventory counts, obviously. I am not seriously financially affected by this.

My 79-year-old father decided to fly to Texas last weekend. He's back now where we have free healthcare and my stepmother is in an AirBnB so that's resolved, ish, but wow, Monday night was not fun.

Unfortunately being stuck at home with my mother all day is not ideal for my mental health, but ... there's nowhere else to go and if there was I'd have to go on public transit. And it's still too cold to spend much time writing in parks. But I'm generally doing okay. Lots of knitting.

The problem with saying "use the time to write!" is that this is a major disruption of routine, with bonus anxiety, which does not actually lend itself to increased creativity. I don't have that much focus for reading, either, including my DW list, which come to think of it is probably a warning sign (so, now I know). There has nevertheless been some writing. Kate Bornstein is a treasure.

I am sort of doing more on twitter, but I would not really recommend going on twitter if you don't want ALL CURRENT EVENTS ALL THE TIME.

Recommendations for podcasts accepted, no horror or true crime, without frequent interviews or changing guests every episode. Basically I want to listen to a small fixed group of people talking about things they are interested in that will not give me nightmares. Examples are Jay and Miles XPlain the XMen, Lingthusiasm, and usually Sawbones.

Comments

[sanguinity]

I feel like I miss out on my friend's lives by not being on Facebook or Twitter, but hoo boy, I'm already at my limit for current events without those things.

Podcasts I'm listening to are As My Wimsey Takes Me, which is two friends talking about the Peter Wimsey novels. They're reading/talking in chrono order, and are in the middle of Strong Poison now.

I'm also listening to Queer As Fact, which is a group of four queer historians (but usually only three talking per episode), talking about historical queer people and also queer media. Topics can get heavy (depending on whose life they're discussing), but they also put detailed warnings at the beginning of each ep, so you know what you're getting into and can go look for a different ep to listen to if you want. On their tumblr they had some recommendations about which eps were upbeat.

[violsva]

The thing is, half the people I was following on Tumblr left after the porn ban. So I've been kind of flailing for online social contact for a while.

Thank you for the recs!

[genarti]

I really like the Stuff You Missed In History Class podcast. If you're a completionist you may or may not enjoy the fact that episodes come out multiple times a week and there's a huge back archive at this point, but it features two very thoughtful and entertaining (IMO) hosts talking about all sorts of historical events and people of varying levels of obscurity. The topics can range from very light and fluffy (the history of pizza) to very not, but they do try to warn upfront if something is going to be heavy going or have the common trigger warnings.

[violsva]

Thank you!

[enemyofperfect]

The problem with saying "use the time to write!" is that this is a major disruption of routine, with bonus anxiety, which does not actually lend itself to increased creativity.

This is exactly it.

I'm glad your father is back in the land of free healthcare, at least! And your tag "wash your hands look not so pale" is very appropriate.

[violsva]

Lady Macbeth: a model in these trying times.