FWIS3

Rommie wrote:Got an email from my PhD promoter in Leiden today saying I was asked if I'd consider a remote defense over deferring to September. I said yes, let's do virtual, but said the department should consider a celebration for all the virtual defenses once we can have such things again as I would be delighted to attend. I really just want to get this period of my life over with, and let's be honest, if I defer to September for in person can anyone guarantee that won't be held up?

So I'll let you guys know how what I'm now calling "the quest to be the first person in history to defend a PhD in PJ pants" goes.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but that's probably already happened.

pumpkinpi wrote:

Rommie wrote:Got an email from my PhD promoter in Leiden today saying I was asked if I'd consider a remote defense over deferring to September. I said yes, let's do virtual, but said the department should consider a celebration for all the virtual defenses once we can have such things again as I would be delighted to attend. I really just want to get this period of my life over with, and let's be honest, if I defer to September for in person can anyone guarantee that won't be held up?

So I'll let you guys know how what I'm now calling "the quest to be the first person in history to defend a PhD in PJ pants" goes.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but that's probably already happened.

lol of course.

Goal two: first PhD defended in the Netherlands where neither the defendant or the promoter/supervisors were in the country.

The new unemployment claims last week hit 6.6 million. Combined with the 3.3 million filed the week prior and you have over 10 million people on unemployment.
That should bring our "official unemployment" to over 6%. I cannot imagine what it must be like for those who participate in the shadow economy doing gig work, cash jobs, housecleaning, and etc.

I suspect there will be another emergency bill from Congress in the next few weeks. There is talk about infrastructure being a good way to create jobs. The trades will be booming.

Here is some cheerful news for the coronavirus times:

1. Millions of parents are discovering just what an asshole their kids are.
2. Big Tobacco is helping research a vaccine and/or treatment for CV 19
3. Distilleries are making hand sanitizer and giving it away for free
4. There is a global concentrated effort to find a treatment and vaccine for CV-19
5. The mortality rate is almost half of what they originally thought it might be so far. 1.4% vs 3%
6. We can still tell when a certain person is lying. His lips are moving.

Rommie wrote:Got an email from my PhD promoter in Leiden today saying I was asked if I'd consider a remote defense over deferring to September. I said yes, let's do virtual, but said the department should consider a celebration for all the virtual defenses once we can have such things again as I would be delighted to attend. I really just want to get this period of my life over with, and let's be honest, if I defer to September for in person can anyone guarantee that won't be held up?

So I'll let you guys know how what I'm now calling "the quest to be the first person in history to defend a PhD in PJ pants" goes.

Please Rommie... appropriate attire - Nice blouse and suit jacket on top, PJ's and bunny slippers on the bottom.

I don't have bunny slippers, are normal ones ok?

I ordered a book from the local bookstore (do have a Kindle, but wanted to support them) and got a call that it had arrived, but they have a pretty good system despite being closed so swung by after the weekly shop. You call ahead to pay with a credit card and say when you'll be by, and they put a chair outside under an awning so the book will be waiting for you. I think you could also get them to ship it to you for free, but I reckon they have trouble enough right now with their numbers that it wasn't much trouble to swing by now that gas is getting so cheap. ($1.59 here! What do you guys have?)

Anyway, the funny thing for me is the bookstore is in a little shopping area which helpfully had a sign out listing all the businesses still open, which were the bookstore, the pizza place for takeout... and the candy store! Essential business! But yeah also a bit creepy how despite practically everything shut and no one there, they were still piping muzak out of the speakers.

Rommie wrote:
Anyway, the funny thing for me is the bookstore is in a little shopping area which helpfully had a sign out listing all the businesses still open, which were the bookstore, the pizza place for takeout... and the candy store! Essential business! But yeah also a bit creepy how despite practically everything shut and no one there, they were still piping muzak out of the speakers.

I don't know if I should feel happy for them that they still have jobs, or worried for them that they're more at risk being out in the world. I guess it's up to them to decide!

Rommie wrote:I don't have bunny slippers, are normal ones ok?

I ordered a book from the local bookstore (do have a Kindle, but wanted to support them) and got a call that it had arrived, but they have a pretty good system despite being closed so swung by after the weekly shop. You call ahead to pay with a credit card and say when you'll be by, and they put a chair outside under an awning so the book will be waiting for you. I think you could also get them to ship it to you for free, but I reckon they have trouble enough right now with their numbers that it wasn't much trouble to swing by now that gas is getting so cheap. ($1.59 here! What do you guys have?)

Anyway, the funny thing for me is the bookstore is in a little shopping area which helpfully had a sign out listing all the businesses still open, which were the bookstore, the pizza place for takeout... and the candy store! Essential business! But yeah also a bit creepy how despite practically everything shut and no one there, they were still piping muzak out of the speakers.

I'm not sure what gas prices are here. Before all this hit hard, I filled up all three vehicles and we really haven't driven much since. Next time I'm walking past a gas station - and there are very few within walking distance from my house - I'll take note.

I do the same thing with books. I have a B&N Nook but still like to buy paper books from the locals.

geonuc wrote:

Rommie wrote:I don't have bunny slippers, are normal ones ok?

I ordered a book from the local bookstore (do have a Kindle, but wanted to support them) and got a call that it had arrived, but they have a pretty good system despite being closed so swung by after the weekly shop. You call ahead to pay with a credit card and say when you'll be by, and they put a chair outside under an awning so the book will be waiting for you. I think you could also get them to ship it to you for free, but I reckon they have trouble enough right now with their numbers that it wasn't much trouble to swing by now that gas is getting so cheap. ($1.59 here! What do you guys have?)

Anyway, the funny thing for me is the bookstore is in a little shopping area which helpfully had a sign out listing all the businesses still open, which were the bookstore, the pizza place for takeout... and the candy store! Essential business! But yeah also a bit creepy how despite practically everything shut and no one there, they were still piping muzak out of the speakers.

I'm not sure what gas prices are here. Before all this hit hard, I filled up all three vehicles and we really haven't driven much since. Next time I'm walking past a gas station - and there are very few within walking distance from my house - I'll take note.

I do the same thing with books. I have a B&N Nook but still like to buy paper books from the locals.

My car gets 50 mpg so I normally only get gas every two weeks, and with so little driving and on vacation for a week, I still have half a tank and it has been over a month.

Fair- we haven't filled up in a few weeks either, but driving past the corner gas station and noting the price is one of those exciting things now for us- we speculate going there how much it's dropped. Shows how exciting our lives are eh?

Rommie wrote:Fair- we haven't filled up in a few weeks either, but driving past the corner gas station and noting the price is one of those exciting things now for us- we speculate going there how much it's dropped. Shows how exciting our lives are eh?

My wife is a kindred spirit there. She likes to note gas prices even when the world isn't ending.

We got news yesterday that one of F's aunts is positive for coronavirus. She had a knee replacement surgery a few weeks ago, and at first thought her feeling bad was related to that, but was getting worse for awhile and needed extra oxygen (but wasn't bad enough to go to the hospital). She appears however to be on the mend, so excellent news.

It's kind of amazing to consider the course of events that takes a disease like this from China to the home of a woman in a village in northern Holland- what an interconnected world we live in. It sounds though like she most likely got it from an asymptomatic visitor, and even more likely her husband who just doesn't show symptoms.

I also wonder how many more people I know who will get it before this is all over.

geonuc wrote:

Rommie wrote:Fair- we haven't filled up in a few weeks either, but driving past the corner gas station and noting the price is one of those exciting things now for us- we speculate going there how much it's dropped. Shows how exciting our lives are eh?

My wife is a kindred spirit there. She likes to note gas prices even when the world isn't ending.

My dad too! He always asks what it's priced here. Even before this, I only filled up about once a month so I NEVER have an answer for him!

We've designated MrPi as our one person to go out for groceries (he's much pickier than me) so I haven't been far enough from home to pass a gas station in a long time.

Rommie wrote:We got news yesterday that one of F's aunts is positive for coronavirus. She had a knee replacement surgery a few weeks ago, and at first thought her feeling bad was related to that, but was getting worse for awhile and needed extra oxygen (but wasn't bad enough to go to the hospital). She appears however to be on the mend, so excellent news.

It's kind of amazing to consider the course of events that takes a disease like this from China to the home of a woman in a village in northern Holland- what an interconnected world we live in. It sounds though like she most likely got it from an asymptomatic visitor, and even more likely her husband who just doesn't show symptoms.

I also wonder how many more people I know who will get it before this is all over.

I'm glad she's on the mend. It is helpful to hear of people who get it and recover or do not show symptoms. We're inundated with statistics of cases and deaths, and stories of how horrible it is for some people. I'm constantly looking for reports from people who didn't have too hard of a time with it. I use those to give myself some hope.

What she said

Yes, it is good to remember that 80% of the people give or take a margin of error do recover and don't require really serious medical attention. And that even of the 20% who get seriously ill a lot of them do recover.

Yeah, it's definitely a case of what is newsworthy- the ICU running out of beds is a far more serious story than that of people convalescing at home.

More Coronavirus Good News: New Zealand has declared the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy as essential. I would everyone to consider signing a petition to demand that the rest of the world join in declaring them as essential.

Please don't worry about Santa. We believe things will be under control enough by then that it won't be an issue. However, the elves in the workshop are talking about going on strike if they have to keep working 6 feet apart.

Rommie wrote:We got news yesterday that one of F's aunts is positive for coronavirus. She had a knee replacement surgery a few weeks ago, and at first thought her feeling bad was related to that, but was getting worse for awhile and needed extra oxygen (but wasn't bad enough to go to the hospital). She appears however to be on the mend, so excellent news.

It's kind of amazing to consider the course of events that takes a disease like this from China to the home of a woman in a village in northern Holland- what an interconnected world we live in. It sounds though like she most likely got it from an asymptomatic visitor, and even more likely her husband who just doesn't show symptoms.

I also wonder how many more people I know who will get it before this is all over.

I'm glad she is on the mend.

And, I wonder about all of this every day. Someone, I think in this thread, mentioned how this virus makes everyone a hypochondriac. That's certainly true for me. Every cough, every ache, every unhappy stomach makes me wonder if my wife or I already have it. I worry about who I know will get sick.

I've been keeping a daily log of our body temperatures so I will know immediately the onset of a fever. One day, mine was up half a degree and I'm all like I'm going to die!

We would probably be doing that too but no thermometers to be had! (Though wow there are a lot of shady entries on Amazon...)

There is a little grocery store closer to us that is only open seasonally half the year, so we decided to head there today now that they're open- pricier, but nice to do the run in shorter time, and we reckoned there would be far fewer people. We were right, no one at all in the store except three employees, but one thing I didn't expect was they were also super well set up for coronavirus- all employees had masks, everything well stocked (even the elusive TP! only thing they didn't have was they only had skim milk instead of 1-2% ones too), plastic dividers at checkout, etc. I guess one advantage if you're a store only opening up now is time to set up properly!

Then awesome moment on the way to/from, there's a little stand that normally sells fresh cut flowers on the honor system. Today they had a ton of pussy willow cuttings for free, with a sign saying they just want to brighten everyone's day. Sure helped with mine!

Rommie wrote:We would probably be doing that too but no thermometers to be had! (Though wow there are a lot of shady entries on Amazon...)

I found you can use a digital kitchen thermometer. You just have to be careful because they tend to have pointy tips. Some apparently don't read low enough for human body temp but my two do, and they give the same reading as my medical thermometer.

geonuc wrote:

Rommie wrote:We would probably be doing that too but no thermometers to be had! (Though wow there are a lot of shady entries on Amazon...)

I found you can use a digital kitchen thermometer. You just have to be careful because they tend to have pointy tips. Some apparently don't read low enough for human body temp but my two do, and they give the same reading as my medical thermometer.

Now that is a pretty good adaptation.

One of my former co workers got the virus. He was quarantining at home and then had a heart attack. If he'd been out on the road alone where he usually works, he'd have probably died. Since he was home and his wife was taking care of him, she recognized all the symptoms and got him to the hospital. He's back home and recovering comfortably.

FYI: the Red Cross wants plasma donations from recovered patients.

https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-bl ... ients.html

Please share this around!