Open Bar: Subpoenaed by Congress, but still refusing to testify

[Cramulus]

WHAT'S UP, HOOPS?

No news is good news, I guess -- my fiance and I are still employed, healthy, and have clean asses.
Getting more exercise and fresh air than ever before. Talking to family and friends I haven't talked to in years.
So, compared with a lot of people, am handling this thing well so far.


It's still scary though - my fiance has some pretty bad athsma--if she got pneumonia it could be a problem. And as you've no doubt seen in the news, New York is short by tens of thousands of ventillators.

Real worried for all my friends who are getting furloughed and laid off.

[Cain]

Not much new here. Still working from home for about 5 hours a day, then spending my spare time trying to master the infinite mysteries of the Veteran Maelstom Arena, and failing. One day Fa-Nuit-Hen will have to give me an inferno staff, but not today.

That aside, things are alright here. I managed to resupply yesterday, the shop actually had (some) soup and pasta, which is a miracle. They've introduced limits on people who can go into the shops at any one time. Fortunately people around here are fairly sensible and are observing social distancing while waiting their turn.

Family is also fine. My parents are isolated in the countryside somewhere in Norfolk and my father - who would otherwise be my main concern, since he nearly killed himself last year with a fantastic combination of flu, pneumonia and sepsis -is working from home until retirement later this year.

[Doktor Howl]

So what's new, everybody?

Shame, failure, and degradation.

The new part is that it is now universal.

"Think stupidly, act globally."
- JR "Bob" Dobbs.

[Suu]

Jephph is still considered essential, you know, being active duty and all. So he's continuing the commute to and from work, while I stay home and inside all day since I'm considered high risk according to the Naval Hospital. I'm asthmatic, have been since I was three, and have autoimmune disease. Pour one out.

Jephph is also asthmatic, but only allergen-driven, and never gets sick. Until he does get sick, and then he's pretty much on his death bed the whole time, and not a mancold, either. No, he can thwart a sniffle. We caught something in January from my sister. They didn't test her for influenza, but that's what UC said it was. This was after she showed up for Christmas morning with a mask on. Jephph caught it a week later, and it flattened him on the couch. It took two weeks for me to become symptomatic (highly uncharacteristic of the flu, no?) But bounced off of me with a mild sniffle and fever for 2 days, followed by two weeks of insane coughing. We alerted Jephph's command doc, and he said while he can't rule it out, based on reports of similar illness on base at the time, there is no titer test for COVID yet for us to know for sure.

My parents are locked in at home, my dad is now referring to my brother as the Gestapo, because he won't let them go anywhere. Considering my dad is Type 2 Diabetic, physically disabled from polio, with chronic bronchitis from being a habitual pot smoker, PLUS hypertension, who travels to and from Europe for work, he's got a fucking bullseye on him. My brother is thankfully on salary from a dental lab, and is able to help my parents out financially, since my dad doesn't get paid unless he works.

My mom is a known and noted Typhoid Mary. She catches things, doesn't exhibit symptoms, and distributes them in secret, like chickenpox, influenza, and mononucleosis. We don't trust her.

My sister is doing supply drops, since she's considered essential personnel working at a gun shop. *stares at camera*

We were supposed to be on that side of the state this week to visit. That's definitely not happening.

[Juana]

So far so good wrt health in my family. My parents are retired, my sibling works from home rn, my sister is still getting paid, and my BIL might not be but my sister is the property bread winner.

Employed but effectively unemployed bc I work for a school district as a sub. The board is supposed to meet next Wednesday to decide if they're going to extend the school closure beyond April 13th and the teacher's union expects they will. Unlike the teachers, though, I don't get paid unless I'm working. So emergency unemployment insurance time!

Also this might derail my career for a year but we'll see. I am in the teaching candidate pool for my district and who the fuck knows when I'll hear back at this point. Hopefully the district will have at least some kind of solid distance learning thingy set up at least by August so they'll be able to get the kids back in school and me a fucking job.

[Cain]

I assume you've already looked into this as an option, but how is online tutoring looking? Quite a few companies are already set up for it (mostly TEFL courses), I would imagine there is significant room to expand given everything that's going on. And I'm sure parents would love an extra hour's break from their kids while trying to work from home.

I imagine the main problem is that there would be a lot of teachers suddenly looking to do this, all at once.

[Juana]

I assume you've already looked into this as an option, but how is online tutoring looking? Quite a few companies are already set up for it (mostly TEFL courses), I would imagine there is significant room to expand given everything that's going on. And I'm sure parents would love an extra hour's break from their kids while trying to work from home.

I imagine the main problem is that there would be a lot of teachers suddenly looking to do this, all at once.

Yep, I'm planning to. My cousin works for one of those online TEFL companies already and she'd had a good experience, so I'm eyeing her company. But yeah, there's gonna be a lot of teachers looking for this. Therefore, unemployment insurance in the mean time bc idk how this is going to impact my ability to apply for unemployment over the summer, since I can't save enough to survive summer vacation.

[Bu🤠ns]

hey all, we're still chilling in the irc channel as usual.
maddshark.com, #discord

also just opened up a quick cytube channel if you have a video you wanna syncwatch anything: https://cytu.be/r/fnord

the pw for cytube is ... well you can probably guess it.

no spaces, all lowercase.

going...stircrszy ... need novelty [emoji3446]

[Doktor Howl]

hey all, we're still chilling in the irc channel as usual.
maddshark.com, #discord

also just opened up a quick cytube channel if you have a video you wanna syncwatch anything: https://cytu.be/r/fnord

the pw for cytube is ... well you can probably guess it.

no spaces, all lowercase.

going...stircrszy ... need novelty [emoji3446]

I will probably drop in tonight, given that I am banned on FB again, only this time I didn't do anything.   

[Juana]

Did they say why?

[Doktor Howl]

Did they say why?

Pango told a bad pun, and I post a pic of OBL saying "This is why I bomb people".

The bots banned me.  Reviews are shut off because FB shut its office down for the duration.

[Chelagoras The Boulder]

hey i'm back.

Currently holed up in a cabin in Idyllwild until the curve flattens. Work is letting me stay off the schedule without actually firing me, and my manager seems okay letting me stay out here on a week to week basis. So i'm trying to see this a a psuedo vacation, hanging with my roommates lots of food, and all of our nerd shit.

[The Wizard Joseph]

hey i'm back.

Currently holed up in a cabin in Idyllwild until the curve flattens. Work is letting me stay off the schedule without actually firing me, and my manager seems okay letting me stay out here on a week to week basis. So i'm trying to see this a a psuedo vacation, hanging with my roommates lots of food, and all of our nerd shit.

Nerd shit is going to be big. All the sports are done as we knew them. Watch gaming become a pandemic of sorts.

[minuspace]

hey all, we're still chilling in the irc channel as usual.
maddshark.com, #discord

also just opened up a quick cytube channel if you have a video you wanna syncwatch anything: https://cytu.be/r/fnord

the pw for cytube is ... well you can probably guess it.

no spaces, all lowercase.

going...stircrszy ... need novelty [emoji3446]

This is cool, and welcome back everyone!

[The Wizard Joseph]

hey all, we're still chilling in the irc channel as usual.
maddshark.com, #discord

also just opened up a quick cytube channel if you have a video you wanna syncwatch anything: https://cytu.be/r/fnord

the pw for cytube is ... well you can probably guess it.

no spaces, all lowercase.

going...stircrszy ... need novelty [emoji3446]

This is cool, and welcome back everyone!