Getting used to new habits for Coronavirus....

[McGyver]

Its impressive that even though all the members of the RAT Pack have been dead for years, the contributions that Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Lawrence made to Microbiology and particularly Lateral Flow Antigen testing and Affinity Chromatography, are still helping to save lives today… I’m not sure what they did, but I’m assuming thats why they gave the Rapid Antigen Testing packs the acronym “RAT pack” and not something more appropriate…
Wait…
Rapid... Antigen… Tes…
Opps…
I made a mistake…
Its Joey Bishop, not Joey Lawrence…
Is there even anyone named “Joey Lawrence“?
Well, I’m sure in the world there probably is… maybe like someone’s pet otter, or weird skater dude cousin or something, but not someone famous…
Its possible, but…
Did I mess up Peter Lawford too?… maybe he’s the Lawrence… not the Lawrence that Dr. Zeus wrote about who went around screaming at people for cutting down poofala trees…
Its probably Peter Lawrence and I messed him up with Larry Lawford, the plumber who stole my cousin’s socks when her hot water heater needed fixing.
Actually, Larry Lawford was just a fake name I used to get close enough to my cousin’s socks to steal them… it’s a long story, but she was always borrowing mine and she‘d never return them so I hatched a clever plot to fake her hot water heater breaking down so I could take them back… I‘m surprised she fell for the disguise, which was little more than an old Mario Brothers costume I had leftover from Halloween… I almost called myself “Mario Mario“ which is Mari’s full name… presumably… Him and his brother Luigi are the “Mario Brothers“, so his last name must be Mario too…
But I named my fake plumber character after Lawford of Arabia… the little known Syrian Deli owner who inspired T.E. Lawrence to dress up to go fight the Ottomans and other Turkish furniture in Arabia.
Wait…
Maybe I got that reversed…?
Was it Dean Martin that used to fight with furniture?… He was quite a drinker… I know I’ve beaten up a few chairs when I was drunk…
I dunno…
Wait… Joey Lawrence was the pet hamster on that TV show “Blossom”… I think he went on to have a singing career or do KIA commercials…
Anyway… Whatever… I think I was going to complain about how frickin’ long this stupid pandemic has been dragging on despite us now having all the science down, and a usable bunch of vaccines, but Nooooooo, stupid people gotta keep stupiding, stupider than ever, making this drag on and on, and on…
I was reminded of how long this has been because I was just replacing the elastic strap on my mask…
Back in May of 2020 I made a bunch of filtering masks for me and my family because there were no masks or vaccines available and I didn’t much believe shining a high powered spotlight on my spleen or gargling with floor cleaner was a good idea…

These masks were made to keep Covid out of our lungs, which I’ve heard can be bad for you.
Apparently, not everyone agrees with that and quite a few people seem to very fond of Covid because their constant stupid behavior and absolutely idiotic decisions have kept this virus around far longer than any smart species would have allowed… Maybe we need to hire dolphins or octopuses to run things… I honestly think even a bunch of really dumb llamas could manage a tad bit better…
But regardless, we ended up using those far longer than I ever thought I’d need to… eventually my family ended up using attractive cloth masks because looking like comic book super villains isn’t their thing, and eventually-eventually later we were able to get vaccinated, and despite the cloth masks not being that effective (don’t get me started on that), we continued to wear masks…
I continued to wear my homemade mask, because I enjoy frightening small children in grocery stores who happen to notice me…
Its great shouting “Tell me where the Batman is and I shall let you live little one!”… not only does it teach children to not wander away from their parents but it provides other valuable life lessons…
I’m not sure which ones, but fear is good…
Besides scaring small children and an occasional senior citizen or two, my mask actually has a few added benefits…
One, it makes a complete seal on my face like a respirator would… which is good if I want to eat exotic cheeses and garlic knots… only I‘ll have to suffer my bad breath…
Two, behind the black cloth prefilter, there is a replaceable HEPA filter that uses a (cut to size) sheet material that will filter out Covid sized particles (actually even smaller than Covid)…(unless the manufacturer is lying about the particulate size capabilities)… the filter material comes in big sheets and is actually used for industrial vacuum cleaners, so it’s much cheaper than KN95 masks and more effective because the mask actually makes a good seal on the face, so the only air you are drawing in is filtered air... And finally, because it makes a tight seal, it doesn’t fog up glasses… which I occasionally need to wear if it’s sunny or I’m trying to disguise myself.
But the most important feature really is the part about scaring little kids and old people… that’s priceless.
None of all that really was my point though…
Before I got distracted by RAT packs and imperial furniture wars, I had just changed the elastic on my mask…
That mask, was only intended to be used for a few months until a vaccine was available...
And despite being made available in a timely manner… thanks to the tireless efforts of the ageless wonder of human stupidity, I’m still wearing my mask two years and several Covid upgrades later.
I don’t mind wearing my mask, as I mentioned it’s fun and teaches kids valuable lessons… well, I wouldn’t mind so much if we didn’t have a usable bunch of vaccines and everyone was working smartly together to see this thing through…
But… Nooooo, nincompoops and incompetent numbskulls (not the actual words I’d chose… I generally opt for more profanity based descriptors) they have to keep this flaming train wreck rolling down the tracks longer than it was ever necessary.
I‘m sick of the conspiracy nuts, the dopes, the bureaucracy, the aversion to science and everything and everyone thats been keeping this stinking pandemic rolling on and on and on…
I don’t want to have to replace the elastic in this mask again or repaint it or redo the seal or whatever… I want this stinking thing to be over with already.
I‘m done, I just want the check please and don’t expect a big tip… yeah?
Its not just the mask… it’s the peas.
I don’t friggin’ know how or why, but apparently the pandemic has made frozen sweet peas go extinct…
I can’t buy spray paint, lumber is more expensive than gold bars and everything is rampantly more expensive every day because “it’s more expensive now… we swear we aren’t gouging the prices… honest“….
Not to mention the human toll…
Enough people have died already, this is getting too stupid for words.
Says the guy who just wrote a small novel involving furniture wars and zombie Frank Sinatra.
Oh… I just realized I didn’t work zombie Frank Sinatra into that…
Trust me, you don’t want to know about that one…
Or do you?
No… You don’t.
I should go now before I start explaining how Frankie got zombifed and why you shouldn’t walk the streets of Hoboken slathered in bacon fat at 3 AM…
Besides the obvious reasons that is.
Anyway… stay safe and healthy everyone… and hopefully this will be done before I’ve frightened that many more small children and old people.
Not that I intend to stop after the pandemic is truly over… it’s just I need to find more unique ways.
Anyway…
Cheers.

 

[unreal]

We've become so indifferent toward death. So many decisions are being made on the basis of keeping businesses staffed, doing the things we used to do, getting "back to normal." It doesn't seem to matter that doing so will result in more people dying. After two weeks of shutting down again, the number of positive cases decreased. One would expect that with fewer people being exposed to fewer people. But at the same time, people are having a lot of trouble getting tested. The positivity rate is still much higher than it ever was at any point in the Pandemic ... when everything was shut down.

But whatever ... it's time to go back to work. Time to reopen again. Even though, we're not anywhere near the end of this surge. And every time we've "returned to normal" too soon, it's resulted in an increase of people getting sick and people dying.

Granted ... I'm far more concerned about all of this because I'm in that group of people that even fully vaccinated is at a higher/high risk of dying from COVID.

So yes. I'm being utterly selfish too.

But, me being selfish isn't putting someone else at risk of dying.

I guess I have a weird memory of "normal". For me it was when people weren't dying in the thousands every day from a virus for which we have a vaccine. No Smallpox deaths that I remember. Not much in the way of Measles. Or Mumps. There was a bit of flu death, but everyone I knew was routinely vaccinated for it. No dramas. Way back before vaccines became some sort of weird controversy. Remember, back in the 2010's. Ah well, what did people know back then? no we know that viruses have something to do with 5G wireless, Bill Gates trying to track everyone, and Liberals running child sex slacve rings out of Pizza places in Washington DC. those fools back in the 2010's were so *ignorant*

 

[eclark1894]

Hee,hee, hee...

 

[Hornet3d]

Well Covid has certainly changed our life style, we are not going out that much and our long walks with the dog have been limited, firstly as he is beginning to show signs of his age but also the Arboretum we used to go now requires advance booking. Not a great idea for an outside venue considering the unreliable weather we have in the UK.

Anyway long story short our nine year Old Honda CRV has been changed for a ex demonstration Toyota Aygo with just 1400 miles on the clock. Thanks to the scarcity of new cars due to chip shortages trade in was great and for a few hundred pounds we we able to do and otherwise straight swap. We estimate that the CRV lost value at the rate of around £700 each of the seven years we had it so pretty good.

Big changes though, much lower driving position, less gadgets, lower road tax and around 55 miles peg gallon as opposed to late twenties on the CRV.

 

[eclark1894]

Nice Car. Weird for me to see the steering wheel on the wrong side.

 

[Hornet3d]

Nice Car. Weird for me to see the steering wheel on the wrong side.

Toyota obviously thought the same as most of the illustrations in the manual has the steering wheel on the other side.

So far the car is great but I think I am going to have to spend two years at night school to understand the multimedia system.

 

[unreal]

Toyota obviously thought the same as most of the illustrations in the manual has the steering wheel on the other side.

So far the car is great but I think I am going to have to spend two years at night school to understand the multimedia system.

21st century gig: Car Multimedia Consultant.

Complete with a certification and licensing system. "Level 3 Car Multimedia Consultants make bank". Then comes the uni program with a "Professor of Advanced Car Multimedia System", who did his doctoral thesis on "Theoretical Combinatory Multimedia Interface Design Iconography" which really did some stand-up research in "icon graphic stroke width as it relates to physical well being in passengers". But the section on "font contrast effects on slide animations as perceived by the left eye" completely blew the panel away. It's still being talked about in some of the less reputable halls of the engineering campus. Granted, only after floating at least one pony keg. But still, talked about.

 

[Hornet3d]

21st century gig: Car Multimedia Consultant.

Complete with a certification and licensing system. "Level 3 Car Multimedia Consultants make bank". Then comes the uni program with a "Professor of Advanced Car Multimedia System", who did his doctoral thesis on "Theoretical Combinatory Multimedia Interface Design Iconography" which really did some stand-up research in "icon graphic stroke width as it relates to physical well being in passengers". But the section on "font contrast effects on slide animations as perceived by the left eye" completely blew the panel away. It's still being talked about in some of the less reputable halls of the engineering campus. Granted, only after floating at least one pony keg. But still, talked about.

Very funny and very clever, but I do wonder how far it is from the truth or how soon we are going to reach that point. Now I know this is not special to this car and it is now common tech but the unit interfaces with either an iPhone or an android equivalent so you can not only play music from the phone but to a large degree mirror the phone on the car display and provides hands free of course.. The car can be connect to the Toyota network via WiFi so that the location can be found and all the car history and trip details can be uploaded. There is more but I am only slowly working through the multimedia part of the user guide

 

[DanaTA]

Very funny and very clever, but I do wonder how far it is from the truth or how soon we are going to reach that point. Now I know this is not special to this car and it is now common tech but the unit interfaces with either an iPhone or an android equivalent so you can not only play music from the phone but to a large degree mirror the phone on the car display and provides hands free of course.. The car can be connect to the Toyota network via WiFi so that the location can be found and all the car history and trip details can be uploaded. There is more but I am only slowly working through the multimedia part of the user guide

What is the state of cellphone service there? Are they shutting down 3G networks like they are here in the States? If so, you might want to check things out. I saw a report on car/phone interface systems here, and even fairly recent models will not work once the 3G networks are shut down. They are not 4G or 5G systems, with very few exceptions...even some high end cars (Mercedes) will have this problem. At least, that's what they said in that news story.

I'm sure the Wi-Fi system will work, but that won't help with making calls. Wi-Fi has a very limited range.

Dana

 

[Hornet3d]

What is the state of cellphone service there? Are they shutting down 3G networks like they are here in the States? If so, you might want to check things out. I saw a report on car/phone interface systems here, and even fairly recent models will not work once the 3G networks are shut down. They are not 4G or 5G systems, with very few exceptions...even some high end cars (Mercedes) will have this problem. At least, that's what they said in that news story.

I'm sure the Wi-Fi system will work, but that won't help with making calls. Wi-Fi has a very limited range.

Dana

We have no real answer here in the UK but that government has agreed that four of the large networks providers can switch off 2G and 3G by 2033 but I guess they will go long before that. Strangely the industry here expects 3G to disappear before 2G but no 3G networks have shut so far.

Other than that I guess I will just use whatever I can at any point as the multimedia was not my prime reason for buying the car, and I did not know the car could be connected until after I had purchased it. More important to me is the miles per gallon is expected to be in the late fifties rather then the late twenties of the CRV. The annual road fund tax is almost half of the CRV and the insurance is cheaper. Toyota run a Roadside Assistance service that is a third of what I was paying and the servicing is two thirds the price of the Honda. All important points when we are facing a 50% hike in energy cost.

Even that was not the only reason I changed, I loved the CRV but we were just not using it. It was coming up to nine years old but with only 33,500 miles on the clock and they were genuine miles full documented. The car has only ever been serviced by one of two Honda main dealers and has been really looked after. It just seemed wrong to see it sit on the driveway gathering dust. I had a great deal on the Aygo but someone will get a great deal when the by the CRV, it still has over a year to run on the warranty and we left in many of the after market extras. We even put in the Chipex system of of matched paint to deal with any stone chips and the tyres had only done about 3,000 miles (A new sex costs close to £700). My hope is the new buyer will have some real fun in driving it, and if they have half as much fun as I have had well....I will have had twice the fun they had.

 

[DanaTA]

...(A new sex costs close to £700).

Seems to be a lot for sex!

 

[Hornet3d]

Seems to be a lot for sex!

Another senile moment, should read per set of course but then, at my age sex for £700 might still seem valid.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

I thought that was also rather expensive for sex. But, you never know! Inflation, you know!

 

[Hornet3d]

I thought that was also rather expensive for sex. But, you never know! Inflation, you know!

Yes but this is the 18 inch version.

 

[Stezza]

That's a bit stiff!

 

[Hornet3d]

That's a bit stiff!

Yes, only a bit stiff, it is age related I am afraid.

 

[unreal]

Very funny and very clever, but I do wonder how far it is from the truth or how soon we are going to reach that point. Now I know this is not special to this car and it is now common tech but the unit interfaces with either an iPhone or an android equivalent so you can not only play music from the phone but to a large degree mirror the phone on the car display and provides hands free of course.. The car can be connect to the Toyota network via WiFi so that the location can be found and all the car history and trip details can be uploaded. There is more but I am only slowly working through the multimedia part of the user guide

We used to joke about "Basket Weaving 101" but if you did the "edutainment" tactic of using jargon like "Advanced research in topological manipulations of 3D fibrous lacings for multi-purpose containment applications" would it be funny or sad?

I'm somewhat afraid we might be passed that point, I missed it, and am still laughing at stuff that should make me cry.

 

[unreal]

We have no real answer here in the UK but that government has agreed that four of the large networks providers can switch off 2G and 3G by 2033 but I guess they will go long before that. Strangely the industry here expects 3G to disappear before 2G but no 3G networks have shut so far.

Other than that I guess I will just use whatever I can at any point as the multimedia was not my prime reason for buying the car, and I did not know the car could be connected until after I had purchased it. More important to me is the miles per gallon is expected to be in the late fifties rather then the late twenties of the CRV. The annual road fund tax is almost half of the CRV and the insurance is cheaper. Toyota run a Roadside Assistance service that is a third of what I was paying and the servicing is two thirds the price of the Honda. All important points when we are facing a 50% hike in energy cost.

Even that was not the only reason I changed, I loved the CRV but we were just not using it. It was coming up to nine years old but with only 33,500 miles on the clock and they were genuine miles full documented. The car has only ever been serviced by one of two Honda main dealers and has been really looked after. It just seemed wrong to see it sit on the driveway gathering dust. I had a great deal on the Aygo but someone will get a great deal when the by the CRV, it still has over a year to run on the warranty and we left in many of the after market extras. We even put in the Chipex system of of matched paint to deal with any stone chips and the tyres had only done about 3,000 miles (A new sex costs close to £700). My hope is the new buyer will have some real fun in driving it, and if they have half as much fun as I have had well....I will have had twice the fun they had.

I've switched to a form of telepathy called "apathy". It works perfectly, when it comes to tech!

 

[Terre]

I've switched to a form of telepathy called "apathy". It works perfectly, when it comes to tech!

LOL Good one.

 

[eclark1894]

I guess I have a weird memory of "normal". For me it was when people weren't dying in the thousands every day from a virus for which we have a vaccine. No Smallpox deaths that I remember. Not much in the way of Measles. Or Mumps. There was a bit of flu death, but everyone I knew was routinely vaccinated for it. No dramas. Way back before vaccines became some sort of weird controversy. Remember, back in the 2010's. Ah well, what did people know back then? no we know that viruses have something to do with 5G wireless, Bill Gates trying to track everyone, and Liberals running child sex slacve rings out of Pizza places in Washington DC. those fools back in the 2010's were so *ignorant*

I honestly didn't know there WAS a vaccine for measles. I had measles and mumps when I was a kid. Always told that once you've had measles or mumps you can't catch it again.