PLOG 82: 205,000 Deaths

 My PLOG continues...

Within the next 24 hours the numbers will reflect over 205,000 US coronavirus deaths. Once again it looks like we have about 5,000 deaths in 6 days. In addition to that, we have been over 7 million infections in the US for several days now.

Meanwhile, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg having passed away, Trump has now nominated a new US Supreme Court nominee. At least Trump picked a woman, and a person who appears to have conducted herself professionally in the public sphere. But, if the US Senate manages to confirm this appointment, it will drastically unbalance the US Supreme Court to a position to be able to support the agenda of extreme conservatives. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

Stay safe out there!

PLOG 81: 200,000 Deaths

 My PLOG continues...

The US coronavirus deaths are going to surpass 200,000 within the next 24 hours. And yet many people in our society seem to be at a point that they just want to ignore that the pandemic is going on so they can have a sense of "normalcy."

Meanwhile, this week US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died at 87 years old, after multiple bouts of cancer. She had fought for so long in hopes that she could survive until another Democrat was elected as US President. That means that Trump's team now has the ability to appoint yet another US Supreme Court justice, which could give the extreme conservatives control of the courts. And that is very scary. We could all be screwed. The extreme conservatives have the White House and the US Senate, which basically gives them 2 of the 3 branches of the government. If they dominate the court and Trump gets re-elected, that'll be just horrendous. I can't even begin to predict the horrible things they will be able to get away with, but I know that it'll cause me to lose even more hope. And that's sad.

Be safe out there and let's hope for the best (while we still have some hope left in us)!

AL Season 10 Premiere

 Adventurers League Season 10 - OH NO!

First, a little disclaimer with the fact that I have not been playing D&D all the time like I used to do. With that out of the way, I will say I really miss the friends and fun from AL.

The new Wizards of the Coast (WotC) adventure product - Rime of the Frostmaiden - released yesterday, which means yesterday was also the release date for the new AL Season 10 Rules. Except, strangely, all that we got was a "Player's Guide" without a DM's Guide or FAQ or Content Catalog update. I say it's strange because, in previous years, the AL Admins have released previews of the rules a month or two ahead of time and the community has had a chance to provide feedback. And then there were rules updates along the way, as needed.

The feedback from the draft of the Season 9 rules caused the admin team to revise them to better fit the wants and needs of the community. But WotC decided this time not to release a preview ahead of time. Instead, they boldly dropped the "Player's Guide" document with the "seasonality" concept (not said in name) that the community fought against for Season 9.

Basically, to play in any of the new materials and hardcover release, you have to make a new character that is Season 10 exclusive. After getting to level 5, you can take that Season 10 character to previous material, but then you can't come back to the Season 10 stuff. It's so weird and exclusive for, in my opinion, no reason. But then again, I've always thought that AL has a bunch of extra rules just for the sake of making the system more complicated.

The community is very upset. The Facebook group received almost 1,000 negative comments in less than 24 hours. Reddit is full of negative comments. I wish I was on Discord so I could see what the AL Discord groups are saying, but according to people on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit there will be a ton of players and DMs leaving again like with Season 8.

The weirdest part to me is that we have always explained to new players that you have to use the newest season rules to play, but the person who wrote the Season 10 "Player's Guide" wrote it - it appears - with the assumption that the Season 9 rules would still be in effect for non-Season 10 characters. It makes me wonder if the person who wrote the document even knows what AL is or how it has worked in the past.

On Twitter and Facebook the AL admins have been clear that WotC has taken over and they have no power here other than being the messengers of the rules. That's really strange too. Why even have admins at that point?

Overall, the premiere of the AL Season 10 rules has been a failure. Lots of people are confused. The people who understand the rules are angry and threatening to leave AL play. Well, there are always home games to play in.

Peace!

PLOG 80: 195,000 Deaths

 My PLOG continues...

The US is now over 195,000 deaths. Another day of sad news with a continuation of lack of national leadership on the issue. How many more people have to die for everyone to start taking this situation more seriously?

Meanwhile, I don't think I've mentioned that my work has rules about face masks. We are not supposed to have anything controversial, of course, but we also aren't supposed to have masks with words or letters on them unless they are sports teams or schools. Thus I ordered me some face masks for the New Orleans Saints and my college university.

Be safe out there!

PLOG 79: 190,000 Deaths

My PLOG continues...

The numbers reported by CNN, US News, and other sources show that at some point tonight or tomorrow the US coronavirus death total will exceed 190,000. My goodness. It's so crazy that we find ourselves here. What's worse is that the predictions for the rest of the year are looking worse than before.

Meanwhile, having seen schools reopen in person myself - that's right - me on the frontlines as an essential worker - I can account for the absurdity of this situation. The strange, sad looks on the faces of the students, the shock of the safety protocols, the strangeness of coming to school but having all the work be online (because teachers aren't passing out and collecting papers) - it's like something out of the Twilight Zone or a nightmare. It almost doesn't feel real because it's so surreal.

But it's real. And we're right in the middle of it. During hall duty today I asked a student to please put his mask all the way up over his nostrils and he replied, "I have a huge nose!" It was like a joke to him, though in fairness, his nose did rival that of Harrison Ford.

I wouldn't want to be a student in a class with all of the restrictions. The fun and social aspects are mostly gone from the educational setting.

As for shutting back down, now that we are in the thick of it, I realize that the admins - in their bureaucratic brilliance - have phrased the policies in such ways that will make it very difficult. We are being told we don't even need to quarantine if we had masks on because direct contact has been redefined as only being maskless and for a duration of about 15 minutes or more.

Well, be as safe as possible out there and I will be doing the same (while maintaining my paycheck).

PLOG 78: 185,000 Deaths

 My PLOG continues to continue...

The US has been at over 6 million total cases of coronavirus for several days now. Either today or tomorrow, according to the official numbers used by CNN, we will be at over 185,000 deaths.

Meanwhile politics continues its absurdity with lies and propaganda during the build up to the US Presidential elections.

Also school reopening with both in-person and online learning reaches new levels of denial with the pandemic. More and more schools and universities are reporting more and more infections every day. As a teacher I remain shocked by what we are being asked to do this year. I can only hope that things get better. I don't want to lose any of my colleagues or students to the virus and the crazy practices that our society seems willing to accept right now. At least wearing masks is helping (see below).

I haven't been able to lose myself in my hobbies lately. I haven't played D&D in a long time. Sorry to long-term readers of the blog; I know the blog used to be all about RPG with game session logs and now it's transformed into a pandemic personal log. I haven't been escaping into computer games either. My work duties are taking up so much of my time, I haven't been able to finish my recently started Lego builds. Though now that I'm typing this out, I'm feeling more determination to get back to building. Sigh.

Be careful out there. I'll be as safe as I can, having to venture back out into the world.

UPDATE: CNN reports that Russia claims to have a vaccine and is asking teachers to take it. Sigh.