Isolation diaries

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Kevlar

As a person with a very serious Social Anxiety Disorder, I've got to say I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this. All my life I've had to fight the urge to socially withdraw, and I've gotten pretty good at it, and now I have to give into this overwhelming impulse? Go into a dark closet and hide for a couple of months? Awesome!!!

20 years of therapy down the drain...

Are you handling the enforced isolation OK? And the prospect of return to normal is the worry I guess?

I'm sure it'll be fine. Old normal was bad for socially anxious people. The new normal will be different. Chaos. No one will know the rules. I'm sure it will be fine. The introverts will have a whole new set of excuses. The extroverts will tough it out and pretend to know the rules. The psychopaths will try to make the rules and must be slapped down. I'm sure it will all be fine.

I see our time is up. Same thread tomorrow.

[Kyuss Apollo]

So today I was in the midst of what has become a routine for my classes' remote version of teaching and learning: I invite students to an attendance Google sheet when the class starts and to a virtual class on Zoom via the Google doc agenda. The agenda predates the current coronavirus shutdown -- I use it from the first to last day of the year, so they all know to go there first to get all the links they need and find the meeting. Then I monitor their work in the Google docs using the SpeedGraderTM function in Canvas (our district's Blackboard/learning management system) and answer their questions during class in the Zoom chat, where I can also make general announcements when need be, then round everyone up for an exit activity in the last ten minutes of class. It is actually more work than teaching a class face-to-face, but it's better than getting laid off or teaching all summer.

Today's lesson was going pretty well and I had answered all the questions students seemed to have. I was just about to set them free to work when the Zoom meeting was suddenly beset by hacker trolls sitting at desks in front of Nazi and Confederate flags, posting porn, spewing obscenities, and drawing penises all over the screen.
I attempted to lock down the meeting but it was a literal so I just ended the meeting.
I used the Google doc agenda to communicate with the class for the rest of the block, and students just emailed me with questions instead of using the Zoom chat. Apparently similar nonsense happened to several other teachers at the same time it happened to my class, so at 1:12 PM and again at 3:30 PM (because...?), the district announced via email it had banned Zoom as a distance-learning tool.

I was understandably upset at what had happened, but hey, the district had officially "trained" us how to use Zoom last Monday via peer-led unconferences. My colleague running the training told us everything she knew it about it in all of 10 minutes -- she had used it twice with her AP students and she had no idea that there were all these issues. When I searched on Google to see if there was any way I could have prevented this, it seems that security/secure connections are not really a priority with our friends at Zoom, who have taken advantage of this moment to promote their platform to millions of new users without addressing some obvious flaws that critics have been pointing out for some time. It's not just the trolling and meeting crashing that's an issue but apparently some hackers have figured out how to hijack peoples webcams and shit. And they were apparently sharing the data they collected to #fuckingFacebook, even if you didn't have a #fuckingFacebook account. And they are currently being investigated by New York regarding their (mis)handling of data and security...

So just a heads-up to y'all, because I doubt I am the only er who may have started using Zoom to communicate with the outside world in the end times.

[ZEZOZE]

hey vm! here's a shot of me being essential. see? it happens sometimes

sitting in that seat is a weird thing. i feel like a conduit. all those warnings and messages all make their way to me before making there way to you. you see, i don't just direct the news anymore. keeping with these times of automation, i now do a lot of the jobs i used to direct others to do. now i just do them myself using an automated system. it's actually kind of depressing, but the job is thrilling. i direct afternoons when all the politics happens and i'm a busy boy. it's like playing a real life video game.

i'm telling you all this because i find all of this virus stuff surreal. all this news comes down to me pushing my finger on a series of buttons. it used to be a group of us coming together in unison to put the product out, but now i do it using automation. i don't really know how to explain what it's like. i direct news of educated people rationally telling the public to be safe and how to act and the next button i push shows people crowding stores and behaving like jerks and i think...did i do that? i know i am not the cause of people being jerks (at least at that scale), but that's the surreal feeling i am talking about. i feel very involved and removed at the same time. i think i notice and feel it more because this is so unique.

and then to travel into Toronto that is a ghost town and do something an isolated huge crowd of people is watching...these are strange days.

not sure why i'm blabbing all this out. i guess it takes a virus to get that old school ff vibe going. this is the kinda thing this place is good at. thanks all for your stories. wash your hands, keep your distance...and your head.

[ShottleBop]

Work was start-and-stop today, waiting for folks in Australia to make decisions. Still a few wrinkles to iron out this evening, and, possibly, tomorrow morning. (Just as well, my co-counsel would refer not to close on April Fool's Day.) Repeated checks of my email, and of KP's health care portal, to see if the results of Mrs. S's coronavirus test had become available.

Call from 6:15 to 7:15 this evening, then dinner: salmon patty with jalapeno sauce over mixed lettuce greens, homemade chocolate/peanut butter ice cream. Now watching another "Death in Paradise."

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by ZEZOZE

i'm telling you all this because i find all of this virus stuff surreal. all this news comes down to me pushing my finger on a series of buttons. it used to be a group of us coming together in unison to put the product out, but now i do it using automation. i don't really know how to explain what it's like. i direct news of educated people rationally telling the public to be safe and how to act and the next button i push shows people crowding stores and behaving like jerks and i think...did i do that? i know i am not the cause of people being jerks (at least at that scale), but that's the surreal feeling i am talking about. i feel very involved and removed at the same time. i think i notice and feel it more because this is so unique.

Shit, I feel surreal sitting at home, I can only imagine what it has to be like in a control room that normally is crawling with people.

not sure why i'm blabbing all this out. i guess it takes a virus to get that old school ff vibe going. this is the kinda thing this place is good at. thanks all for your stories. wash your hands, keep your distance...and your head.

I hope all of yall are well and remain so.

[fragment]

Nice day today. The city I live in is mostly suburban sprawl, low density single story detached dwellings or small units, with few amenities close to most people. as a result, people mostly drive and, other than schoolkids, pedestrians aren't that common. Since we're allowed on local walks while distancing, I've actually seen more people walking the streets than usual round here. Which is hardly busy, it's easy to keep well apart from each, but still.

[Stormlight]

Originally Posted by ZEZOZE

hey vm! here's a shot of me being essential. see? it happens sometimes

sitting in that seat is a weird thing. i feel like a conduit. all those warnings and messages all make their way to me before making there way to you. you see, i don't just direct the news anymore. keeping with these times of automation, i now do a lot of the jobs i used to direct others to do. now i just do them myself using an automated system. it's actually kind of depressing, but the job is thrilling. i direct afternoons when all the politics happens and i'm a busy boy. it's like playing a real life video game.

i'm telling you all this because i find all of this virus stuff surreal. all this news comes down to me pushing my finger on a series of buttons. it used to be a group of us coming together in unison to put the product out, but now i do it using automation. i don't really know how to explain what it's like. i direct news of educated people rationally telling the public to be safe and how to act and the next button i push shows people crowding stores and behaving like jerks and i think...did i do that? i know i am not the cause of people being jerks (at least at that scale), but that's the surreal feeling i am talking about. i feel very involved and removed at the same time. i think i notice and feel it more because this is so unique.

and then to travel into Toronto that is a ghost town and do something an isolated huge crowd of people is watching...these are strange days.

not sure why i'm blabbing all this out. i guess it takes a virus to get that old school ff vibe going. this is the kinda thing this place is good at. thanks all for your stories. wash your hands, keep your distance...and your head.

There's something very, very wrong in that photo. Very wrong.
You cannot post a photo like that when the clock is NOT EVEN SHOWING

[Limoncello]

Originally Posted by ZEZOZE

hey vm! here's a shot of me being essential. see? it happens sometimes

Dude, your expression like you were caught sitting in in someone else's seat. Lol

[Limoncello]

The Mor-Man is at work! First few days for training. I'm proud he defied the odds and got a job, instead of doing what I did and just apply for benefits.

[JoeP]

He's in a warehouse job, yes? Any interesting supplies worth liberating?

[JoeP]

Day X.
My co-worker jumped onto my lap, not having previously realised the thing already there was a plate of food. In trying to extricate herself, got her claw caught in my jeans.

I'll be taking this to HR [Home Resources].

[vremya]

My coworker is sitting on the floor glaring at me because I made her jump off my desk. She wants to sit on my desk and poke at my hand with her nose and I'm not having any of it.

[ceptimus]

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

...Zoom, who have taken advantage of this moment to promote their platform to millions of new users without addressing some obvious flaws that critics have been pointing out for some time. It's not just the trolling and meeting crashing that's an issue but apparently some hackers have figured out how to hijack peoples webcams and shit.

Boris Johnson posted a photo on Twitter of a UK Government cabinet meeting taking place using Zoom. So it's pretty obvious that it must be 100% secure and any reports to the contrary are "Fake News".

[Crumb]

Originally Posted by Limoncello

Dude, your expression like you were caught sitting in in someone else's seat. Lol

Captured that look of "It was like this when I got here!"

[Crumb]

One of my co-workers just wants me to carry him around on my shoulder all day. Except when a garbage truck drives by, then he races to the window to catch a glimpse.

[Kevlar]

I have two co-workers. One keeps laying down wherever I want to sit or work, the other keeps dropping a slobbery ball on my lap. If I don't make an effort to grab the ball, she will take her nose and keep pushing the ball further between my legs, forcing me to eventually grab the ball. Then I have to get up and wash my hands so that I don't get slobber on the laptop. Then the cycle starts all over again. They think this quarantine business is great.

[Limoncello]

Originally Posted by JoeP

He's in a warehouse job, yes? Any interesting supplies worth liberating?

A lot of dairy, bags of milk, crates of butter, yogurt & cheese .

He was happy as a pig in shit when he got the call to come in today.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by Limoncello

bags of milk

Stealing Canadian jerbs!

[lisarea]

Guys, you're not going to believe it.

The orange-hibiscus marmalade is underway. Oranges chopped, peels julienned, hibiscus wrapped in cheesecloth, covered with water, and it's on the stove now!

Gonna make sourdough pretzels in a bit, then probably green chili mac and cheese for dinner with whatever salad ingredients I can scrounge up.

[Ymir's blood]

I find that hard to believe.

[JoeP]

Yeah ... we're gonna need some kind of proof of that

[Limoncello]

Day ? I do not miss working, wearing office clothes, going outside etc...

I am well suited and qualified for quarantine, isolation or a one way trip to Mars. I just need wifi and food. I am MADE to do this.

[Kyuss Apollo]

Originally Posted by ceptimus

Boris Johnson posted a photo on Twitter of a UK Government cabinet meeting taking place using Zoom. So it's pretty obvious that it must be 100% secure and any reports to the contrary are "Fake News".

The meeting will be perfect after teh Zoomtrolls draw a bunch of johnsons all over Johnson's face.

[ShottleBop]

Documents finished today; waiting to hear that the foreign parent fo the buyer has approved the transaction. Once it does, signatures will be placed into escrow and money will be wired.

Getting a little stir-crazy.

[beyelzu]

So we have been out of toilet paper, I bought some really fancy napkins to use as a stopgap.

Today, I took Chandra for a brief ride. She has a short and the battery slowly drains when she sits for a couple weeks until I start getting messaged by my whiny ass alarm, "my battery is low, wah"

Only more off putting.

I had to move Alice and park her on the street first, while I was doing that I saw my neighbor start to unload groceries and he had a giant thing of toiler paper. I asked him for a single roll. He gave me a 6 pack.

I have never been this happy about getting toilet paper in my life.