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May they rest peacefully. It's always bad when a creator goes. I live in fear of the day we lose Tomino-o-sensei, Go Nagai and Rumiko Takahashi-o-sensei.
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The General starts working from home tomorrow, that should be interesting, as it's not something either one of us has done before.
At least we have a happy marriage (and a really good modem).
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In the meantime, I have two hours to MacGyver an office space in our tiny house.
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what happened?*hug* He will be missed.
Such a great part of my childhood.
Albert Uderzo, co-creator of Asterix And Obelix (with late Rene Goscinny) died.
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Working from home is not agreeng with me. I miss being out of my rythm, and having the short travel to work prepare my brain, and then the travel home allowing me to leave it all behind.
I am less prone to panic attacks, altough I do still feel close to crying.
I feel you.
This morning, we had a check-in meeting with all of our students' parents to talk about our Montessori home learning plan for the next seven weeks, and many of "our" children joined in, sitting in their parents' laps and waving to us. My tough-as-nails teaching partner started to cry on camera.
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On the plus side, this is really motivating us to put together a strong first week of online lessons.
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Oh, speaking of which... NH, can you ask GothBard for some advice? I've discovered that my usual no-makeup look does not work on camera, and my forehead looks too shiny under the only available light, and using matte powder only accentuates the wrinkles lines that don't actually exist except on camera.
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Just a heads up. I know all the "newly working from home guides" are saying to use video chat whenever possible to keep the human connection and help alleviate isolation.
I'm not arguing against that. It really can help.
I'm just wanting to caution that video eats up a lot of extra bandwidth. It can cause network slowdowns. Software companies like Zoom or Slack only have so much that they can work with at any one time.
Just wanted to mention that for when vid chats are crapping out but you can connect voice-only without issue.
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Bad news :(
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Just a heads up. I know all the "newly working from home guides" are saying to use video chat whenever possible to keep the human connection and help alleviate isolation.
I'm not arguing against that. It really can help.
I'm just wanting to caution that video eats up a lot of extra bandwidth. It can cause network slowdowns. Software companies like Zoom or Slack only have so much that they can work with at any one time.
Just wanted to mention that for when vid chats are crapping out but you can connect voice-only without issue.
Preach it!
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"So when I take this computer home, will it still have Google Chrome?"
I've got nothin'.
I have vague memories of old school shifty computer sales departments selling you only the computer and not the os, sometimes quietly. I know I had some very real issues when I tried to upgrade my first home pc.
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Yeah, I still need to pick up the phone when users call, so that human cotact is part of the problem.
Now, if we could all make them take a mandatory week off. THEN we'd get some real work done.
Preach it!
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I have vague memories of old school shifty computer sales departments selling you only the computer and not the is, sometimes quietly. I know I had some very real issues when I tried to upgrade my first home pc."So when I take this computer home, will it still have Google Chrome?"
I've got nothin'.
I haven't personally seen sales tactics like that in 20 years.
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I haven't personally seen sales tactics like that in 20 years.I have vague memories of old school shifty computer sales departments selling you only the computer and not the is, sometimes quietly. I know I had some very real issues when I tried to upgrade my first home pc."So when I take this computer home, will it still have Google Chrome?"
I've got nothin'.
Oh, I dont doubt it!
But it certainly did leave me and moreover my mother, feeling very, very, very angry. I had to look elsewhere to get a new computer after that and that was a real challenge in college when they were trying to decide if the PC was going to become part of the academic world or no.
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Suffice to say, right now, I'm very glad it did. All these kids would be so beyond screwed without it.
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The General is excited to be able to build her home office (I cleaned everything up so she just has to set it up how she wants.
Which will probably change, often.
We're known for moving our furniture around.
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In the meantime, I have two hours to MacGyver an office space in our tiny house.
Do you have a smooth/undetailed hollow-core door and a couple sawhorses. 'Cause that's a desk.
Edit: And a thin sheet of polycarbonate plastic panel cut to door-size as a cover/smooth writing surface.
(An empty 5 gallon paint bucket is too short to work as a chair/stool though.)
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We are incorporating the Stairs to Nowhere into the setup, somehow (to be honest, I'm just the muscle).
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Gotta love it.
Strange Aeons is basically an AP-long chase scene.
Unfortunately, the reviled author of Book 4 provided concrete time frames. "BBEG is a week ahead of the PCs, then teleports here, then spends 1-2 weeks getting back."
And of course my PCs teleported. So if we had someone who meticulously tracked dates (*cough* *cough* WW *cough* *cough*) I'd be in serious trouble, as the PCs are now technically ahead of the guy they're chasing.
Y'know, authors, if you're going to make the AP one long chase scene, you really need to take teleportation into account once the PCs hit 9th level, because they're going to use it...
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A Screed
By Nylarthotep
The problem with any program that just shovels cash at a PROBLEM (in this case trying to balance economic downturn/keep everything afloat with reality of needing to isolate) is, at its core, under and over inclusion.
In this case let us look at Nobodyshome proposal:
The Feds work with the states to use unemployment funds and monetary injections to pay the entire U.S. payroll for 60 days. ($3.33 trillion, partially defrayed by unemployment funds.) At the same time, we have a national lockdown for 60 days.
This gives us:
(1) Everyone who was working has guaranteed income for 60 days.
(2) Everyone knows exactly when the lockdown will end.
(3) At the end of it, you will have 350 million stir-crazy Americans rushing out to buy everything in sight, producing a massive economic stimulus that might well drive us out of recession.
In this case, the under inclusion is the self employed and those who have hard to document income in the form of tips and such. These people demonstrably contribute lots of dollars to the general economy, but almost impossible to document "payroll" for them. Or, for wait staff - they payroll may be 2.15/hour even though they make 15-20 hour after tips.
On the other hand, the over inclusion is those businesses/people that continue to work through the shutdown. We can't shut down utilities, food service/distribution, and health care, just to pick a few easily identifiable ones. Criminal courts and defense attorneys arguably also required to meet obligations to speedy trials. The list goes on, but at some point, there is a line. These people/companies worked and earned a wage/income during the shutdown. Then they get a lump of cash. They now have two paychecks.
Almost any plan has over and under inclusion issues. It is the nature of shoveling $$ at a PROBLEM. The political side is trying to decide who is over included and who is under included. One side believes that the companies are best suited to distribute the money and any overinclusion happily lines their pockets so the stock market continues to be happy. One side believes that it is the PEOPLE (who or whatever they are) because companies are EVIL.
This belief in the EVILness of companies is offset by anecdotes as follows:
The reports are that the truckers are getting supplies to the stores. People are stocking the shelves all night and letting old people shop first. Carnival Cruise line told Trump “We can match those big Navy Hospital ships with some fully staffed cruise ships” Women and children are making homemade masks and handing out snacks to truckers. Restaurants and schools said, "We’ve got kitchens and staff; we can feed kids.” Churches are holding on-line services and taking care of their members and community. NBA basketball players said, “Hold our basketballs while we write checks to pay the arena staff.” Construction companies said, “Here are some masks for the medical staff and doctors”. Breweries and distilleries are making sanitizer out of the left-over ingredients. We thought we couldn’t live without Baseball, NASCAR, NBA or going to the beach, restaurants or a bar. Instead, we’re trying to keep those businesses open by ordering take-out.
The original anecdote included GM and Ford making ventilators, but I have not been able to verify that. It may be something that is compelled under the DPA, but retooling is an issue. That said, 3D printers are actively being used to make the valves for ventilators.
So if you go with companies - how do you decide who is EVIL and who are good corporate citizens?
One suggestion which makes sense to me is small business/personal loans. Shovel the cash out quickly. Ask questions and audit later. Get the loan now, get through the crisis...then when your cash flow returns, you begin to repay the loan with the kicker - only if the audit shows that you worked/had income through the shutdown. If you can show no income during the shutdown, the loan is forgiven or prorated. I know proving a negative is hard, but you can set up some basic tests. It can be handled by the SBA, which already does similar things. Rubio, for whatever other faults he may have, actually has a proposal that falls along these general lines. It may not be perfect, but it is a better starting point for the discussion, IMO.
Apply it to my situation - we laid off 7 people because we see a dip in our income for this future. We get a loan to cover our full payroll for the duration. We rehire the 7. We pay them using the loan. We bank the rest of the loan. At the end of the crisis, we repay the portion of the loan that was not used to pay for those 7 people. We may pocket a bit of interest on the amount we banked and repaid, or it may be calculated into our repayment. That is fiddly bits.
For a more radical solution of unknown ramifications, I give you one from one of my favorite tin foil hat folks.
What does one do in the face of a total market meltdown and a global pandemic? People who can't work can't pay debts - businesses can't sell to people who can't buy - everything freezes. Here's what I'd do.
1. Declare a total debt jubilee. It's all gone. Your student loans? Gone. Mortgage? Gone. Credit card debt? Gone. Car loans? Gone. Let it all be wiped free.
(See Michael Hudson's work for how this gets implemented: https://michael-hudson.com/20…/…/a-debt-jubilee-for-america/ )
2. Eliminate the Federal Reserve. Replace debt-based currency with Treasury bills (greenbacks) like we had during the period of the American Revolution until 1913. The details of this are already worked out. The banks just don't want to do it because they love debt-based money, it makes them richer.
(See "The Chicago Plan Revisited, analysis by the IMF: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2012/wp12202.pdf)
3. Use the new Greenbacks to re-finance T-bond holders, banks and other savings institutions for the jubilee from #1. (See the Chicago Plan, above, for how this gets implemented.)
4. Implement a Universal Basic Income using the Greenbacks and eliminate all of the other bloated welfare systems with a simple and efficient system. (See Andrew Yang's proposal or similar.)
In normal times, implementing these things would be impossible. It would crash the stock market and temporarily bring economic activity to a halt. But it's already crashed. It's already halted. People who can't work aren't going to pay their debts anyway. so let's use the moment to wipe away the detritus of 50 years of poison from the unholy petrodollar system and rejuvenate America. We can start fresh on the far side.
Crazy stuff, hunh?
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Gotta love it.
Strange Aeons is basically an AP-long chase scene.
Unfortunately, the reviled author of Book 4 provided concrete time frames. "BBEG is a week ahead of the PCs, then teleports here, then spends 1-2 weeks getting back."
And of course my PCs teleported. So if we had someone who meticulously tracked dates (*cough* *cough* WW *cough* *cough*) I'd be in serious trouble, as the PCs are now technically ahead of the guy they're chasing.
Y'know, authors, if you're going to make the AP one long chase scene, you really need to take teleportation into account once the PCs hit 9th level, because they're going to use it...
During our RotRL run, we didn't use a single Teleport spell until we hit Book 5. When we did, we used Greater Teleport
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The home office setup is a rousing success! As much oddball furniture as possible was used.
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A Screed
By Nylarthotep
** spoiler omitted **...
Well, we can agree to disagree on the finer points, but we can at least agree that the current lunacy isn't working.
If you are self-employed or you work for tips and you intentionally underreported that income, then congratulations! Your tax fraud is coming back to bite you. I have no sympathy.
And yes, you'd have to set up an IRS-like bureaucracy to track who's unaffected and doesn't need the money (raises hand) and who is. But it's still significantly better than willy-nilly sending everyone with an income under $100k a $1500 check.
As for giving it to companies, I've seen smaller companies really step it up and do amazing things, yet I can hold up the airline industry as a poster child for NOT giving money to corporations. I don't mind providing loans to businesses of 1000 or fewer employees. Once you've got over 1000 employees, if you can't survive for 6 months with a vastly reduced income then your business model is part of the problem. As part of a global megacorporation that's even leaning a little on the "good" side, I still don't want to see them getting money from the government because I know they'd misspend it.
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A Screed
By Nylarthotep
** spoiler omitted **...
Well, we can agree to disagree on the finer points, but we can at least agree that the current lunacy isn't working.
** spoiler omitted **
And yes there would be a cap for companies. Thats why i reference the sba. I dont know where the cutoff is for sba jurisdiction, but it exists.
You could also throw in a stock buyback provision...if you spent more than x buying back your own stock in last y time frame, your loan is reduced by x.
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In lighter news, Impus Major's Spring Break is next week.
Anyone want to start a betting line on, "Since they're stuck at home and we're doing online classes anyway, let's assign them a ton of stuff over their break?"
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It's discussions like that that make me glad I drive heavy equipment and use flamethrowers and chop saws for a living.
No offense!
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** spoiler omitted **
name and shame.
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The time off with my family is something I wouldn't have otherwise gotten without this virus, so I mean, that's good, but...
...presumably, they're going to want to eat, so when our money runs out, the fact that it's damn near impossible to job hunt right now (and those jobs hiring have insane competition) is really, really worrisome. Like, panic attack level worrisome.
We're already behind on rent and all utilities as my hours were cut before this whole debacle (and I was looking for a replacement job already), so...
can this end?
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The home office setup is a rousing success! As much oddball furniture as possible was used.
I misread that as "oddjob furniture" (Freudian slip?) and now expect a home office with various pieces of furniture that can behead your wife's visiting clients/bosses with razor-edged bowler hats.
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...presumably, they're going to want to eat, so when our money runs out, the fact that it's damn near impossible to job hunt right now (and those jobs hiring have insane competition) is really, really worrisome. Like, panic attack level worrisome.
Yeah... this is kind of my fear. I was supposed to be starting job hunting in April in preparation for my move to KS. I'm 90% sure I'm not going to be able to find anything at this stage.
Sadly, it'll end when it ends. I don't think we can rush it... and Certain People trying to rush it are going to cause severe harm and death.
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The home office setup is a rousing success! As much oddball furniture as possible was used.I misread that as "oddjob furniture" (Freudian slip?) and now expect a home office with various pieces of furniture that can behead your wife's visiting clients/bosses with razor-edged bowler hats.
We've incorporated Alienology, Monsterology, a few other Ologies, a train yard, airport, and of course, the Stairs to Nowhere.
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About to go home. Good night, everyone.
Be safe, John.
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Night john.
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SO I was trying to think on the bright side of this pandemic and I did manage to think of one. me and my fiance are getting married in November (probably things may change) then we are going to look for a house in the spring. This whole thing going on right now should at least drive prices way down.
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So, NYC is exploding.
Sound off that you're safe, Freehold!
And on the leftist, saner coast, at the school board meeting tonight they've decided to just close until at least June 1, because sense is prevailing.
Who would've thunk?
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Dresden Files: PEACE TALKS Official Book Trailer
OMFG!!! THAT WAS AWESOME!!! I can't wait for the book.
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I love Colbert
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So, NYC is exploding.
We are not!
And on the leftist, saner coast, at the school board meeting tonight they've decided to just close until at least June 1, because sense is prevailing.
Who would've thunk?
You..uh..west coast...uh...losers! You guys suck somehow! New York FOREVER!
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... New York FOREVER!
*blink*
Just popping in to say stay safe FHDM. I am rooting for my favorite city to visit, and when things return to some sort of baseline, I will be supporting the Big Apple with my tourism. We shall eat much Asian food and drink many craft cocktails together my friend!
Until then, stay safe and my most heartfelt hopes all of your family are safe.
*blink*