She'll burn us bad
Apr. 7th, 2020 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
venta1. I feel lucky.
I've been broadly at home since March 18th and, all in all, it's OK.
I have a job I can easily do from home (and I've worked from home for extended periods before), for a company whose business is not immediately crippled by the country being locked down. I'm not living in a situation where, should I lose my job or be laid off, I am worried about immediate risk of eviction.
I live in a flat, but there is space enough for both ChrisC and I to be in it without constantly getting under each other's feet. (I'm typing this on my lap, sitting on the bed; he's on his laptop messing about with some friends, in the living room.) Although I'm London, I'm in a pleasant and reasonably green bit of London when I go out for my state-sponsored exercise.
I don't have children to homeschool. My parents have tucked themselves neatly away and are being super-cautious (having heard the arguments some friends have been having with wayward parents, I'm very grateful for this!)
I'm young(ish), with no underlying health conditions, and a reasonably functional immune system. I don't have complicated dietary requirements or need vital medications.
I like cooking. I have a decent kitchen, and store cupboards, and making meals from scratch out of what there is is an enjoyable challenge. (Usually we lead mildly chaotic lives; it's a long time since I planned and cooked entire weeksworths of meals at a time.)
I like being on my own. I like my partner.
Really, my situation is about as good as it could be.
2. I feel guilty.
One of my neighbours told me that she felt guilt that she wasn't using her lockdowntime more productively "by learning Mandarin in a week, or something". I don't.
However, I do feel guilty that the world has split into two camps. Firstly, people like me who are sitting tight at home, trying to figure out how to make technology work to allow our regular pub quiz teams to somehow replicate that experience over Zoom and generally wallowing in free time. I'm still working full time, and a few work issues and some voluntary(ish) social commitments have actually meant I've been pretty busy for the part fortnight. However. I am nowhere near the other camp, which is people whose jobs mean they are now working ridiculously hard and putting themselves at risk either to look after the ill or keep the rest of us in food.
I am not one of those people. And, right now, there is no real route to my becoming one of those people. Beyond checking in on friends and offering to shop for my elderly neighbours, there is not much I can do to help. Literally the most useful thing I can do is stay at home and keep out of everyone's way.
And I feel like I should be helping. If there's a crisis, you help. If I thought home-sewn facemasks would be of use to the NHS, I'd be on it. This has made me wonder whether WWII troops really needed hand-knitted socks, or whether it was a massive campaign to give those stuck at home a role.
Instead, I'm sitting at home thinking that, really, it's quite nice here. My world is fairly calm and peaceful, and it feels almost indulgently privileged to be in it when so many people are so badly affected.
3. There are things we need to learn.
Things like: it turns out a working health service is necessary (who knew?) and that constantly paring things down to the bare minimum in the name of efficiency isn't necessarily the best policy. Slack is useless waste... right until the point when it really, really isn't.
Work that is commonly classed as unskilled is (a) sometimes actually quite a skill, and (b) even when it isn't, it can be vital, and hard.
Right now everyone is on board with the idea of backing NHS workers. I saw someone on Twitter the other day praising hospital staff and saying "this will never be forgotten".
It will. When coronavirus has gone away, and everyone can go to the beach again, and a government wants a cheap money-saver in one hand so they can brandish some gimcrack benefit with the other, this will be forgotten. People will be expected to work in care for minimum wage and be sneered at as 'unskilled' for the privilege. Hospitals will have their budgets and their corners cut, by administrators who will never have to face the consequences at the end of a 12-hour shift.
We all have to remember, and force everyone to remember: your life might one day depend on that system and those people.
On the plus side: if nothing else, the current news cycle means at least a small section of children will instinctively understand second derivatives when they meet them in year 8 maths. (Year 8? I have no idea. I'm guessing wildly.)
I've been broadly at home since March 18th and, all in all, it's OK.
I have a job I can easily do from home (and I've worked from home for extended periods before), for a company whose business is not immediately crippled by the country being locked down. I'm not living in a situation where, should I lose my job or be laid off, I am worried about immediate risk of eviction.
I live in a flat, but there is space enough for both ChrisC and I to be in it without constantly getting under each other's feet. (I'm typing this on my lap, sitting on the bed; he's on his laptop messing about with some friends, in the living room.) Although I'm London, I'm in a pleasant and reasonably green bit of London when I go out for my state-sponsored exercise.
I don't have children to homeschool. My parents have tucked themselves neatly away and are being super-cautious (having heard the arguments some friends have been having with wayward parents, I'm very grateful for this!)
I'm young(ish), with no underlying health conditions, and a reasonably functional immune system. I don't have complicated dietary requirements or need vital medications.
I like cooking. I have a decent kitchen, and store cupboards, and making meals from scratch out of what there is is an enjoyable challenge. (Usually we lead mildly chaotic lives; it's a long time since I planned and cooked entire weeksworths of meals at a time.)
I like being on my own. I like my partner.
Really, my situation is about as good as it could be.
2. I feel guilty.
One of my neighbours told me that she felt guilt that she wasn't using her lockdowntime more productively "by learning Mandarin in a week, or something". I don't.
However, I do feel guilty that the world has split into two camps. Firstly, people like me who are sitting tight at home, trying to figure out how to make technology work to allow our regular pub quiz teams to somehow replicate that experience over Zoom and generally wallowing in free time. I'm still working full time, and a few work issues and some voluntary(ish) social commitments have actually meant I've been pretty busy for the part fortnight. However. I am nowhere near the other camp, which is people whose jobs mean they are now working ridiculously hard and putting themselves at risk either to look after the ill or keep the rest of us in food.
I am not one of those people. And, right now, there is no real route to my becoming one of those people. Beyond checking in on friends and offering to shop for my elderly neighbours, there is not much I can do to help. Literally the most useful thing I can do is stay at home and keep out of everyone's way.
And I feel like I should be helping. If there's a crisis, you help. If I thought home-sewn facemasks would be of use to the NHS, I'd be on it. This has made me wonder whether WWII troops really needed hand-knitted socks, or whether it was a massive campaign to give those stuck at home a role.
Instead, I'm sitting at home thinking that, really, it's quite nice here. My world is fairly calm and peaceful, and it feels almost indulgently privileged to be in it when so many people are so badly affected.
3. There are things we need to learn.
Things like: it turns out a working health service is necessary (who knew?) and that constantly paring things down to the bare minimum in the name of efficiency isn't necessarily the best policy. Slack is useless waste... right until the point when it really, really isn't.
Work that is commonly classed as unskilled is (a) sometimes actually quite a skill, and (b) even when it isn't, it can be vital, and hard.
Right now everyone is on board with the idea of backing NHS workers. I saw someone on Twitter the other day praising hospital staff and saying "this will never be forgotten".
It will. When coronavirus has gone away, and everyone can go to the beach again, and a government wants a cheap money-saver in one hand so they can brandish some gimcrack benefit with the other, this will be forgotten. People will be expected to work in care for minimum wage and be sneered at as 'unskilled' for the privilege. Hospitals will have their budgets and their corners cut, by administrators who will never have to face the consequences at the end of a 12-hour shift.
We all have to remember, and force everyone to remember: your life might one day depend on that system and those people.
On the plus side: if nothing else, the current news cycle means at least a small section of children will instinctively understand second derivatives when they meet them in year 8 maths. (Year 8? I have no idea. I'm guessing wildly.)
no subject
Date: 2020-04-07 10:32 pm (UTC)I AM trying to supervise homeschooling (we're ramping up to full on teacher-led distance learning because my school district, and probably soon, all school districts in California, isn't opening up school buildings for the rest of the academic year. Holy shit, the past few weeks trying to get my kids to do the "homework" packets that their teacher sent them home with when they decided to shut the schools back on March 13 has gone over like bad dentistry. This week, we're testing the waters of teaching through technology, and it's been a bumpy road. I'm sure we'll eventually get it all working rather smoothly, but right now, it's definitely something to get used to. My children had been clamoring to be home schooled, and now that it's a reality, they are less than enthused.
And I have to get us through the next 8 weeks...
I've generally voted yes for every proposition that has to do with granting teachers and school districts more money, but damn, I may take up actual campaigning going forward. The teachers are worth every penny.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-08 09:34 pm (UTC)I wish you fortitude for the next eight weeks!
no subject
Date: 2020-04-09 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-09 06:34 am (UTC)Though I am (I confess) very relieved to be alone in my house, with no children to be chasing after and not even sharing with a partner. If anything, I've been more desperate for alone time due to spending long hours on Zoom talking to students.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-09 10:18 am (UTC)When the first logarithmic graphs of infection rates started appearing, I was mildly appalled how many NZ friends were criticising them on social media for 'not even being on a properly spaced out scale' and therefore fake news. I can't remember exactly when that sort of thing came into maths, but I suspect for some of the lower sets, they might not even do it at all.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-09 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-11 01:52 pm (UTC)Some year further on than I was studying maths, evidently, as I just had to look them up!