Thursday

[clevermanka]

Guardian/adjacent
Bai Yu makes love to an ice cream cone.
Zhubai heart hands.
Fanart: Novel illustration commission piece. Surprise back hug. Blindness arc chibis. A whole bunch of stuff!

This week's dump on cm.net.

I think the standard advice to try getting out of the house once in a while for mental health doesn't work for me. I always return more angry and upset at how many people are out and how many businesses are open. And some of that's capitalism, definitely, and a lot of people don't have the choice to stay at home but why are so few of them wearing masks? Before I even got to the end of my block, there were three past-middle-age women with their three dogs, all chatting on the corner, no more than a couple feet apart, none of them masked.

These people are the reason I'm stuck here in this horrible limbo for at least another six months. These people are the reason my mental and physical health is getting worse. And I see this everywhere I go! As evidenced yesterday, I don't even have to leave my house because I can see them out my front window.

This is exhausting. I want to be Elsewhere

After clicking post I see DW ate most of my (lengthy) entry where I talked about I was feeling better today and got some writing done yesterday so that's just great and did nothing for my mood.

Comments

[solo]

Have you considered wicca? Watch the people, make tiny dolls resembling them, and stick them with needles!

Or have you considered calling the police on them?

I'm glad you were feeling better and that you got some writing done! GO YOU! (But also, this is why I compose long things in notepad++ and only copy them over in the end.)

[clevermanka]

LOL! I used to be a baby witch back in my early 20s and a return to that is STRONGLY TEMPTING in these trying times, let me tell you.

Even if I wasn't strongly anti-cop, there'd be no point in calling them in since there's no state-mandated mask ordinance. Because Freedom.

Hilariously, I *did* write it out in Notepad, but didn't save it when I posted. It wasn't until I came back to check my read page five minutes later (after I closed the Notepad window) that I noticed most of entry wasn't there. Ha! Ha ha! Good times.

[trobadora]

Ugh, the people who won't wear masks are SO FRUSTRATING. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them. :( :( :(

Sorry people are being fucking idiots where you are, too.

[clevermanka]

Sorry to hear people who aren't fucking idiots are thin on the ground in your parts as well.

[trobadora]

The world is populated by them, apparently. To an even worse degree than I was already aware. Seriously, this whole thing has been an eye-opener about just how stupid people can be, and I already knew they could be really fucking stupid. It's such a small, banal thing - wear a mask - how can this already be too much to ask?!

/rant (sorry)

[clevermanka]

Nah, I'm there with you. I always thought 90% of the population could be filed under: Asshole and 2020 has done nothing to weaken my stand on that.

[trobadora]

True. It's not just arseholes being arseholes to others, though - they're being self-destructive too, and that's what's getting me the most. Human selfishness takes such weird forms sometimes.

[naye]

*kicks DW*

But yay, writing! ♥

[clevermanka]

It was even stuff about how I was feeling a little better. Like, well that'll teach her! 😂

Might need to send what I have off to Glymr before I proceed much farther, but I revised from the beginning for the first time--3.5k words so far!

[naye]

3.5k?? Holy shit I'm so excited!!

[clevermanka]

I don't think it's gonna be a massive fic, but definitely not a short-short. We're still introducing characters! 😄 Hopefully your reading brain will be back by the time we're done! 🤞

[naye]

Getting the reading brain back online is my December project! It's slow going, but at least it's going - and I want it to be in tiptop shape to read your stuff!!

[clevermanka]

Perhaps selfishly, I want that too 😄

[frith_in_thorns]

If it helps, transmission is pretty low outside, and the additional protection added by mask-wearing is very small. Pretty much all of Europe which has mask mandates only has them for indoor spaces, which is where they make a BIG difference.

(It's like the beach hysteria in the summer. No infections were traced back to beaches. They're from shops and offices and houses.)

[clevermanka]

Oh, wow! See? That information is NOWHERE here. All I've heard is that it should be 6ft, with a mask, indoors or out. So, like, standing next to someone outside at a reasonable speaking distance is generally safe?

[frith_in_thorns]

I mean, it's not foolproof, but it's not particularly bad. Here's an article for you, summary: ~six percent of covid infections are from outdoors, and they're almost entirely from places like concerts or rallies where you're packed against others. Not from a brief catch-up on a street corner or going on a walk with someone. (That article ends by saying, basically, "masks everywhere" is a good message because it's easy, rather than accurate.)

I've certainly been going on lots of walks with people, including all the local new-mum stuff on at the moment, which mostly consists of strolling round the park while chatting. I mask indoors, but not outside.

[moodsong]

I mask outside when I know I'm going to be near people, but walking down the street where I'm not close to anyone... no.

[clevermanka]

Same. If I'm pushing the garbage can to the end of the drive, no. Walking around the block, yes.

[tinny]

After clicking post I see DW ate most of my (lengthy) entry where I talked about I was feeling better today and got some writing done yesterday so that's just great and did nothing for my mood.

PFfffft, bad dw, bad!


Before I even got to the end of my block, there were three past-middle-age women with their three dogs, all chatting on the corner, no more than a couple feet apart, none of them masked.

Oi. I have come around to the opinion that wearing masks outside is not absolutely necessary. It's definitely not required here - but I would do it in crowded places, if I went there. (Which I don't.)

I think that aerosoles disperse really fast outdoors, so there's only a very low risk of infection, and it's always a matter of how high a load of the virus you accumulate before you actually get sick. It's very unlikely you'll reach that by just passing a few unmasked persons on the street. (I wouldn't stand there talking like they are, though.)

(I have an article about viral load somewhere, if you're interested, that is making that point. But it's from May, I think, so it might be outdated?)

[clevermanka]

sorry for lack of caps i'm typing one-handed... i'm not worried about catching it from them. i'm just tired of seeing people doing things that are prolonging all this.

[tinny]

Ah I see. I thought you didn't want to go outside anymore because of it. I misinterpreted you.

Yeah, it's annoying, especially since there's the political component in the US. :( As if the situation wasn't terrible enough on its own. *sigh*