COVID-19 Check-in Thread

[NifT]

Alive and well. Really, the only thing that's changed for me is I'm now working from home for my primary job, and my second job shut down for the time being.

[RMH999]

Alive and well.  Lab is shut down as of yesterday for the duration.  I'll go in every few days to make sure the freezers and other equipment don't break down while people are out.

RMH

[Inquisitive Raven]

I'm alive and thinking I need something like this for my nearest kin. It'll probably be something like a broadcast email. My mom, sister, and I all live hours apart, and there's a paternal aunt that we keep in regular contact with who isn't particularly near any of us.

If anyone has any suggestions for an alternative to the aforementioned broadcast email, I'd love to find out about it.

If everybody in the group has a smartphone, you should be able to set up a group text-message chat. I have one with both iPhone and Android participants in my family.

Ah, there's the rub. While my sister and I have smartphones, my mom does not and is unlikely to get one anytime soon, and my aunt didn't have one the last time I checked although she was dithering over getting one.

[GethN7]

I'm alive and healthy.

[aku]

Alive, easy breathing. Working from home like the rest of the office (we are software devs). Grocery shopping about once a week.

[Niteflier]

Bah, first confirmed case in the county and everybody's going nuts. Keep calm and wash your damn hands!

[Black Aeronaut]

Still hanging in there. Unfortunately, I need to work still, but at least I can restrict it to only food deliveries and not give strangers rides.

The the number of times I've been getting asked for spare change at gas stations has shot up dramatically. God, I hate it when people ask me for money. It's like, "Dude, I'm about two weeks away from being in your shoes! Bug someone else!"

[Matrix Dragon]

Alive and well. Live by myself, so no dangers there. Still working, although reduced hours this week unless the shutdown finally kicks off. Fridge is full, and the money supply means I should be safe-ish for a few months, even if the company I work for doesn't make it through. If nothing else, one of my co-workers has been stupid enough to set himself up as the first sacrifice.

[Dragonflight]

Still here with the start of week 3 in Ontario. The hardest part is having nothing to do, and wanting to help somehow. It's hard accepting that the best way you can help is simply not to become a statistic and make everyone else's life harder.

[Wolff]

Still here as well, still working with the public. I want a month off when all this crap is over.

[ECSNorway]

Still here. Just got laid off. Working my way through the screaming-and-throwing-things phase.

At least now I have time to properly clean my house.

[Labster]

Still alive, but living with people who have multiple risk factors, so I've been isolating myself as if I was at the same risk level.

Otherwise, been working at home -- the same as for the last five years, except now I'm doing it for 25% less pay than I was on Friday. Kinda wish I had time to properly clean my house.

[hazard]

Why are you doing it for 25% less pay?

That seems rather... inappropriate when you are still doing the same job.

[Matrix Dragon]

If it's anything like my work at the moment, reduced hours due to plummeting customer numbers.

[Mamorien]

Still here. Some of the bathroom cleaning I allowed to get out of hand has been done, though not yet by me. Pennsylvania is facing a lockdown order; if it's like the one in Maryland, I assume we'll at least be allowed out to do grocery shopping.

[classicdrogn]

Of course, no sooner do I say "I've been around a lot lately, you probably won't need to worry" than I get distracted doing things for several days. This social distance thing is so weird; as the youngest person in the household by 30-40 years I've been out in public more since February than in the six months before, doing things normally handled by my extrovert father or outdoorsy uncle.

Among the distractions is my computer showing signs of immanent demise; I should probably give one or two someones a phone number so they can check to see if it's just that if I do vanish from the internets again. Terr or Dragonflight, maybe, if one of you doesn't mind? Or Bob, BlackAeronaut, Valles, Starranger, or anyone from the Ottowagamers crowd really. PM me I guess, here or (as Czlyydwr Llrngwl) on SB/SV/QQ if you're willing, as I'm obviously not putting that on a publicly accessible internet page.

e: I keep thinking of more people that yeah, I don't want to offend by leaving out... probably more than I could name face to face, already, so even if you're not listed above, it doesn't necessarily mean anything, just that I'm hopeful at least two or so might be agreeable without running off more names. I don't want anyone to feel put on the spot either.

[Dragonflight]

Wait... You live in the Ottawa area? Wow. I didn't know that. Or if I did, I'd forgotten it at some point. I can certainly help with that.

Also, things you think about when you haven't slept enough.

The episode of the The Tick with "room temperature fire." Umm... If the plasma is actually room temperature, it won't burn, because it can't cause combustion. So if it's burning anyway, does that idiot supergenius realize that he's just rewritten some very basic laws of physics? This is Nobel Prize territory, here!

Yeah. I definitely need more sleep.

[classicdrogn]

No, I was just in your MZ game on the Ottowagamers server for a while. The "Bridgewater Triangle" south of Boston is as precise as I get about my location in publicly accessible spaces. Anyway, thanks!

[Labster]

Nah, same hours, same workload, reduced compensation in the 20-25% range.  A combination of: 10% reduced pay company-wide, no company matching for retirement (-6% pay), no annual bonus (another -10% or so), cancelled Aflac coverage (we had that?).  It's probably not a coincidence that we were just bought by a VC firm six months ago.  But basically we don't know if the clients have evaporated or not at this point so it just might be... wait for it... an abundance of caution.

Our sales is dependent on a lot of things, because our clients are large companies across all economic sectors.  Which in normal times would mean you were relatively immune to risk, but not when almost all sectors will take a beating.  We had been on something of a hiring spree until last month, so I think this is an attempt to not have to furlough anyone.  My division has been helping cut costs the most, by having one of our programmers die on a cruise ship in a SCUBA accident, right after our CTO quit and presumably sold out just as the market was beginning to crash.  And now I have two less friends to work with.

Our CEO has been giving weekly calls on Zoom, just to keep us updated.  He seems uncertain about the future -- he kept mentioning how he doesn't have a crystal ball, he wished he had a crystal ball.  So I had Amazon send him a crystal ball to his house.  Problem solved, right?

[Star Ranger4]

... was this before or after the pay-cut?

[Black Aeronaut]

If anyone would like, I can slap together a Discord server real fast.  Just so we can all lurk there and maybe have the occasional real-time conversation. 

About Discord...

If you don't know about Discord, think of it as IRC on steroids and methamphetamines.  It does chat, voice, and video, and can even host moderately sized images, gifs, and video clips. It's cross-platform, with Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS versions.  And if that somehow doesn't work for you, they also have a web app that'll run on most browsers.  Even the native console system browsers.

It'll even run on older machines fairly well.  This is by virtue of it being a lightweight alternative to things like TeamSpeak that doesn't adversely impact your PC's performance while trying to play a game.  And they're constantly trying to optimize their code to make it have even less impact.

Privacy is also a big deal for these guys.  No data mining, no selling information ever.  Discord is financially supported through subscriptions to their premium service, which they call Nitro.  (No big deal - just lots of nifty extras like having an animated avatar and the ability to use custom emojis outside of your own server.  The only actual perks is that you can broadcast streams in 1080p, be able to upload larger files, and you can "boost" your favorite server.)

[Dragonflight]

If anyone would like, I can slap together a Discord server real fast.  Just so we can all lurk there and maybe have the occasional real-time conversation. 

I use Discord all the time these days. It's so user-friendly we managed to get several of our PC-challenged friends on the system with minimum fuss and able to game the same night. We've had two Discord powered RPG games so far. Normally we all game together, but given the current climate this is safer. It works, and is straightforward to use.

[ECSNorway]

I've used Discord for voice chat while we played board games online. Helps remove the feeling of isolation a bit.

It helps a lot if you get a standalone mic and speakers, or a bluetooth headset, so you're not tethered to the desk.

[Dragonflight]

I've used Discord for voice chat while we played board games online. Helps remove the feeling of isolation a bit.

It helps a lot if you get a standalone mic and speakers, or a bluetooth headset, so you're not tethered to the desk.

If people want to check it out, you could click on the link below to get added to the Ottawa gaming group's server. This link expires tomorrow, so if you want to try it a few days from now, let me know so I can post a new invite. It can be run from your browser, although the actual install is smaller and has less of a systems impact, as I understand. If you've never been on, it'll probably want you to create a new user account, but that's straightforward.

https://discord.gg/SKPehs

[LynnInDenver]

Still doing OK... still coming to grips with our income being basically 1/3 what it was, not counting the filed for unemployment.