PLOG 47: No Fair

My PLOG (Personal Log) continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

The State Fair of Texas has been cancelled for this year. I'm so happy to see them take our situation seriously and address it professionally. Here's a bit from Facebook and then a blurb from the website, where you can read more:

When you consider that this is only the 8th time that the State Fair of Texas has been cancelled in 134 years, that's a big deal. From reading the website, they seem to be a financially responsible group since they say they will still be able to pay their rent and provide for all of their community support programs with scholarships and all of that. They must have a lot of money put away for emergency situations such as this one. Great planning on their part!

In other news, I saw another risk analysis chart that has been released:

This chart lists going to school in about the middle, as a 6 out of 9 on the scale; I think it should be higher because of what we have seen from nursing homes and prisons. Putting that many people into an enclosed air-conditioned building and it means bad news.

With the State Fair of Texas closing, I am hopeful schools will reconsider opening this fall. Many schools still haven't made any announcements because they have been waiting for more info from TEA and the government. But TEA has already given the info about attendance and I think schools should have announced something by now. Unfortunately, many of the announcements have been both in-person learning and optional online learning. We teachers have no idea what that means for us. Local districts have promised more info soon, so hopefully we will know something sooner rather than later.

So far today is looking up. Let's hope the good news continues.

Be safe out there (and I'll be safe at home)!

POG 46: 130,000

My PLOG (Personal Log) continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

More people are getting infected. More people are dying. And Trump continues to lie about it.

How dare he say "totally harmless" when people are infecting other people, leading to health problems and deaths. I can't believe how long Trump has been in office getting away with this nonsense. Over 130,000 people are dead in the US; it should be criminal for Trump to mislead the public like this; it's just insane. This is the reason some people think it'll be safe to re-open schools for in-person learning.

It's not safe. University summer schools, as well as summer sports teams that are practicing, are all finding infections. And then what are they supposed to do? They end up having to stop again. Was the denial really worth getting more people infected, sick, and dying? Sigh. Again, I feel like a broken record.

Time to escape reality for a bit...

We've made great progress in Minecraft. The town is really starting to look like a city... Oh, I can't do this. 130,000 people are dead. The US President is leading a misinformation campaign that allows people to remain in danger and in denial. It's outrageous!

Be safe out there (and I'll be safe at home)!

PLOG 45: Happy 5th!

My PLOG (Personal Log) continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

While the USA was celebrating the 4th of July, it turns out people in the UK were celebrating the re-opening of pubs/taverns/bars. And what would you know - drunk people can't socially distance.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/england-pubs-reopening-police-gbr-intl/index.html

Wow! Who would have seen that coming? Just when you think a nation has been responsible and is following the numbers for a safe re-opening, guess what happens? It turns out humanity isn't capable of a "safe" re-opening because people want to party and throw all caution to the wind.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm almost there myself. Why not just go outside, into the world, and enjoy being around other people? Why not go visit family and go out to eat and drink? Oh yeah - that's right - because it's potentially life-threatening; even if you don't lose your life, you can end up with huge medical bills and permanent health issues for the rest of your life.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record. It is frustrating. I suppose I should just go back to my Minecraft and my Lego and escape from the world. I could. This is technically my vacation time, after all. I'm just in a holding pattern to find out what my job will be asking from me when my summer vacation ends.

At least Biden is praising teachers; it probably helps that his wife is a retired teacher.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/07/05/biden-tells-teachers-their-profession-is-most-important-same-day-trump-trashes-public-schools/?utm_source=reddit.com

He called my career "Most Important" and I like that. Let' get teacher morale back up and increase funding for education. Oh, and make sure it's safe for everyone before rushing back too soon.

Be safe out there (and I'll be safe in here)!

PLOG 44: Happy 4th!

My Personal Log (PLOG) continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

Trump is at it again, not wearing a mask and luring people into activities without social distancing. How does he sleep at night?

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!

That's it for today. I anticipate the US death totals could be up to 130,000 by the end of today or tomorrow so I'm not in the best of moods. So many preventable deaths!

Be safe out there (and I'll be safe at home)!

PLOG 43: Reddit

My Personal Log (PLOG) continues during this time of pandemic (and protests? surely there are still protests)...

I haven't seen any protest news lately. The comparison map showing the difference from Memorial Day weekend to this week (4th of July weekend) is just saddening...

Green is good, but the green areas are almost all gone. It's been frustrating watching the green disappear day after day, week after week. Florida and Louisiana, as well as other places, are dark red. My theory is that once an area of poverty goes dark red that it's going to be difficult to regain control. People who are economically disadvantaged are in no place to combat the coronavirus.

I think our national leadership should admit that we have lost all control over the virus. Hopefully 4th of July weekend will be tame and more people will stay home. We can make sacrifices during this time, like giving up our traditional holiday celebrations. It just takes people letting go of their denial and their stubbornness, accepting the seriousness of the situation we are in and how our actions end up influencing the status of the entire community.

Today I wanted to applaud Reddit as a website and all of the users who post helpful information through the website. I've been using Reddit for years, ever since some of my students told me about the website. It can be addictive, wanting to always stay up on what's being talked about, but if you can avoid that, Reddit is a wonderful and extremely helpful website.

I use the "old" version of Reddit; there's a newer default version that is more phone/iPad friendly. If you want to stay informed, I highly recommend the website. Today someone posted in the subreddit group CoronaVirus TX, summarizing the pandemic situation (as a response to the question below):

Here's the long text of the top response:

1. State had an outbreak of Coronavirus
2. Folks in charge tried to lock us down to prevent spread (like they should) but other people apparently felt a certain way about it
3. Owner of a hair salon in Dallas who may or may not have been funded by a Super PAC tried to forcibly reopen, had a judge get mad at her, and because of her big public brouhaha, Gov. Abbott decided that maybe we should just fast track reopening
4. Meantime, Lt. Gov. was saying how old people should be willing to die for the economy
5. Trump was both provoking State Governors and praising Abbott on reopening so fast.
6. Restaurants and bars were supposed to be at 25% capacity, but apparently that may have been taken as only a "suggestion", along with Covid prevention procedure (i.e. masks, social distancing, etc.)
7. Folks trying to enforce mask policy were verbally and physically threatened, so a lot of folks stopped.
8. Masks became viewed as a "political" thing, so a lot of folks stopped wearing them due to their own leanings.
9. Folks on TV said Covid was fake. Folks at events said it was a hoax. People listened and basically didn't care anymore.
10. Curve didn't flatten
11. some folks got 1200 bucks from government, a lot didn't.
12. A lot of businesses applied for money from the government to keep them afloat, pay employees, etc, but not many got it
13. a lot of folks didn't make rent and were evicted
14. a lot of folks who should've got a check didn't because banks or the government took it to pay debts and student loans
15. a lot of folks lost jobs - laid off or quit due to health issues/concerns
16. we kept reopening
17. people had to go to work and a lot were getting sick.
18. hospitals were getting packed, but Abbott said we had beds
19. a lot of folks dying, and some from "pneumonia-like" symptoms - a lot higher than in recent years
20. we still kept reopening
21. memorial day weekend - people partying, no masks, no social distancing, crammed in together
22. numbers keep going up
23. 2 weeks and change later, numbers now 6000 new cases a day
24. Abbott - everything fine, lots of beds
25. days later, now 8000 new cases a day
26. Abbott slowly panicking and saying maybe we should walk reopening back, wear masks (but not for the individual, mandates the business should make them wear it)
27. more people sick
28. People STILL can't wear masks properly - can't cover nose, can't cover mouth, use as chin or neck warmer.
29. Bar Lives Matter protests in Kilgore and other places, bars wanna reopen, salon lady involved - has now a "non-profit" for donations?
30. Lt. Gov. disputes claims of Dr. Anthony Fauci, immunologist and basically the most knowledgeable person in the country about the virus. Says he won't listen to Fauci, says Fauci "doesn't know what he's talking about".
31. You Are Here <--

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That's it from me today.

Be safe out there (and I'll be safe at home)!

PLOG 42: Masks

My Personal Log (PLOG) continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

There I was enjoying playing Minecraft with the news on in the background when the unthinkable happened...

Texas Gov. Abbott finally mandated mask use (with some exceptions - but for the majority of people in the state while out in public)! It's celebration time. I guess enough people died, enough people go sick, enough businesses are going down despite the re-opening of the economy that he couldn't help but take action. It's unfortunate that it takes so much to get Abbott to return to trying to lead the state.

It's also unfortunate that experts who are looking into the numbers, think that Texas is seriously underreporting our deaths.

That means our numbers for deaths should probably be about 4,000 more - and it makes me wonder if this is happening in a lot of other states. Odds are, we really have no idea how huge the numbers of infected and deaths really are - and we won't find out as long as people keep hiding them.

Why would admins hide the death numbers? I suppose, in theory, they want to look good. More infections and more deaths makes the leaders look bad, since they are supposed to be in charge.

History is going to look back at us - assuming that humanity survives all of this - and wonder why we were so weak and unable to find good leaders. They will likely wonder why we kept letting it get out of control when doctors, scientists, and other experts knew exactly what to do to turn the numbers down and gain control of the situation. Look at Japan; they never shut down the economy but everyone has worn masks and they seem to have this under control.

Too many Americans are in denial and acting like idiots. Even some people who are trying to do good though, they are ending up as collateral. Take this hospital testing line from Houston, for example:

Sigh. "If they didn't have #COVID19 before, they probably have it now" sounds about right.

Be safe out there (and I'll be safe at home)!

PLOG 41: Away Mission

My Personal Log (PLOG) continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

Happy Canada Day to those of you celebrating the holiday today. I don't feel like talking about the continuing rising number of infections across the US. I don't want to discuss the couple who pulled guns on the protesters going past their house last week. I don't even want to make fun of Trump and his cronies for their hypocrisy and idiocy. Instead let's escape into Minecraft once again (where I've swapped my "skin" to be me in a Star Trek DS9 uniform)...

Yesterday, I went on an "Away Mission" of sorts - way out to another player's base near the woodland mansion on the server. There were 3 of us, with the goal of taking out all of the villains in the mansion.

It was a lot of fun. The mansions are full of not only baddies, but also interesting structures.

When that was over, and today, I worked on moving my villager breeder at the spawn village "Central City" underground and connected to a building that I decided to call "The Love Shack."

Moving villagers around can be frustrating, but we have a good system down at this point. As per Sprincessa's suggestion, there is a name-tagged zombie in the building to help "cut prices" on the villager trades.

Maybe I should just avoid politics and news and do an entire month of Minecraft updates? LOL.

Be safe out there (and I'll be safe at home, seriously)!