COVID-19 Check-in Thread

[Kilroy]

Another week of working from home commences today. Still doing well.

[NifT]

Still Here. Still putting up with idiots who don't know what 'quarantine' means.

I know, right? At least two of my neighbors had a bunch of people over for Mother's Day barbecues yesterday.

[Wolff]

Still here.

[classicdrogn]

Dad keeps going out to meet his girlfriend in the local grocery parking lot, though they do at least stay in their cars and talk through the windows. That's troubling enough, but Mum is moving into senior housing from my sister's isolated farm, because it's more convenient to town and the senior center, and the management assured her "they're being really strict and careful."

I am not okay with this, but she's set on it and half way across the country, so not much I can do.

[hazard]

I wouldn't trust the senior center being strict and careful being enough, and given it's the USA I wouldn't trust the sales pitch either.

Seriously, for as long as the disease is going, being on that isolated farm is much safer, if only because of how much easier it is to maintain the isolation.

[Inquisitive Raven]

Still here, still alive. Oh, and it's my birthday today. I'm probably going to celebrate by ordering something through Grubhub.

[Bob Schroeck]

Happy birthday, Raven. That's what we did for Peggy's birthday a month ago.

[Dragonflight]

Still here. I look at the swiftly declining public stats in the US for new infections, and distrust them mightily. I'm thinking that if they simply decide to test less, it would produce that effect. It would look like they had things under control, because if the infected and dead aren't actually being tested for Covid-19, and are reclassified as something else, then you can present the current state of the plague as whatever you want it to be. Add that to the Republicans' desire to roll the dice and reopen their country regardless of the risk...

Let's just say I'm grateful on a daily basis that I'm Canadian...

[LynnInDenver]

Still ticking along. My husband is having more coping issues, unfortunately. I'm having coping issues too, but it's more specifically related to the number of people around us who are NOT TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY AND PROLONGING THIS NIGHTMARE FOR ALL OF US.

[DHBirr]

No change at Festung Birr.

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"Oh, my people had many gods. There was Conformity, and Authority, and Expense Account, and Opinion. And there was Status, whose symbols were many, and who rode in the great chariot Cadillac, which was almost a god itself. And there was Atombomb, the dread destroyer, who would some day come to end the world." — Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, H. Beam Piper

[Jenova_Silverstar]

Weekly Check-in time. My local grocery store is limiting the amount of fresh meat that people can buy. On the flip side, my local walmart has toilet paper, for the moment.

Just bought a bunch of vegetable and flower plants to plant in containers in the next week. Been inspired by my Animal Crossing play through.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Check in time again.  Still going into the office, so still have a job.

[Norgarth]

I go back to work on Tuesday (Monday being a holiday here in Canada)

A good thing since my PC has crapped out, the tech said the video card is dying as well as either the motherboard or the CPU, he hadn't determined which last I talked to him. I'll need the income to pay for my new puter, once I figure out what I want. ?

[classicdrogn]

Well, if you go AMD, make sure you get a 500-series motherboard, as 400 and below won't be supporting new CPUs starting from the 3100 and 3300 that are just hitting reviewers now. You can still build a very nice machine on a B450 - I just did - but upgrade paths will be limited in the future. Unfortunately I had to work with what was available and known right away since my old machine died too, was planning on using a case that would only fit Micro-ATX not full size, and when there was any kind of comment on that it was mostly that 400 boards should be good for at least one more CPU generation and that boards with built in fans for active chipset cooling had been problematic when they appeared in the past, so I didn't go the extra eighty to a hundred bucks for an X570.

And do go with an AMD CPU. Intel's newly announced chips are barely the equal of the current Ryzen line up, let alone the next generation. The most recent AMD-based laptops have to be compared to Intel desktops to have any competition, and that's still a chip based on the current architecture, not the next gen that will be out RSN. The very top end is still Intel's in single-thread performance with overclocking included, but even if the only high-stress application you put your machine under is gaming, no video/image/3d editing or compiling, the top-end games are getting more benefit from multi-threading too, and it doesn't sound like you're shooting for a top-end budget. For the mid to low range, there's no question it's now AMD's ballpark.

[robkelk]

If you just need a web browser, you can put together a Raspberry Pi for less than $150 Canadian assuming you already have a monitor and keyboard.

You might want one anyway, as an emergency backup computer. It runs Linux, not Windows, so there's a bit of a learning curve... but not much of one.

Oh, yes: Still here. Still alive.

[Norgarth]

Uh, I should point out that my computer expertise is equivalent to a guy who's car know how tops out at changing a tire and topping off the oil/washer fluid reservoirs.

Most of what CD just said went over my head and I don't think I've ever actually even used a machine running linux. My dying computer has the same hardware as when I got it 6(?) Yrs ago.

As long as it handle forums, email, and the handful of videogames I play, I'm happy.

[Kilroy]

I'm completing my ninth week of working from home. I have no idea when I might be in my office again (a co-worker suggested possibly August?) I am still physically well, but the isolation does drain my mental energy.

[classicdrogn]

Norgarth - if you can change a tire, you can build a computer, but it sounds like it might be worth the convenience of having someone else handle that (and only having to deal with one warranty policy if something goes wrong) and just buy a pre-built one from what you're saying. In either case the basic procedure is the same: Set yourself a budget, then look at stuff on Amazon or Newegg until you're more excited for one you see and/or sick of it than curious about the next or desirous of a better price/performance ratio. Probably better to move discussing it further into a build-or-buy recommendations thread rather than this one, though.

[Bob Schroeck]

Yeah, that's good advice, Drogn. <grin>

[aku]

Still present, no changes.
Long weekend ahead (Victoria Day).
BC curves looking ok.
Slowly opening again.

[Black Aeronaut]

Still around myself. We got slammed hard at work last night, and no small wonder at that - yesterday businesses began reopening. (I didn't get out of there until 4:30 AM)

I'll keep an eye out and let you guys know how things go around here.

[ECSNorway]

Some local businesses (including FLGS's) are starting curbside pickup this weekend, still no one allowed in-store for the most part.

Managed to find masks on sale at last (box of 50 at Walgreens for $30), and hand santizer at staples, of all places.

[Mamorien]

The Franklin County (PA) Democratic Committee, on which I represent the second precinct of Chambersburg's fifth ward, will be meeting via Zoom at 7pm Monday, our first meeting since February. I remain alive, well, and of normal size.

[Kilroy]

It's my tenth week since this started and it sounds like I might not get back into my office possibly until fall. The CEO sent out a video talking about the need to re-engineer our office layouts before any of us could work at work.

[LynnInDenver]

Another week down. We're moving into going out to grab takeout instead of just ordering delivery, so we had burgers from a local non-chain place on Sunday. Local hospitalizations are still going down, albeit pretty slowly. Waiting to see if we start seeing an uptick again.

Determined that the two packs of masks I bought really aren't reusable after washing. They might last another wearing, but then that's it and I need to either order more or make more.