The Contradictory Feelings Thread

[Vijay]

There are two Indian American kids on Discord who are really enthusiastic about learning Malayalam, and one of them is coming to Austin regularly starting this weekend (if he hadn't already started before)! It would be great to meet him, and I just might even be able to get my dad to let me, plus I got my shots a long time ago. That being said, there's still a pandemic, I've already heard of people dying of COVID after getting both their shots even before I got my first one, and I haven't driven anywhere in probably at least two years now (which will be a problem if my dad driving me over is awkward or he doesn't want to do it).

The numbers of people dying of COVID after getting both shots is orders of magnitude lower than the number of unvaccinated people dying of COVID. You probably have a higher risk of dying in a car wreck on the way there.

I was going to try to argue with this, but maybe I don't even need to anymore...by now, maybe you see that the problem is not just antivaxxers.

Not over the top enough - some states ban the public sale of fireworks! What are people supposed to celebrate with? Sparklers?

People can celebrate with flags, cakes, songs, banners, chants, meetings, snacks etc

In the US the Fourth is a major excuse for fireworks (and for grilling), and it should be noted at even where private fireworks are banned or restricted (much of the US) there normally are public fireworks (except in fire-prone areas, e.g. ones experiencing drought).

Even in fire-prone areas, there are often people doing it illegally. I have seen (or at least heard) it happen here before at a time when we were experiencing drought.

Fireworks and firecrackers get banned because there's always a stupid kid that manages to get hurt. Or hurt other. Or generally be as a nuisance (the kids in my neighborhood are extremely enthusiastic about fireworks. It sounds like there's a civil war going on and frankly that gets old very fast.)

It's not just kids. Soon after our family moved here from St. Louis, we were invited to a local Tamil Christian household. They were very conservative and religious, constantly saying "praise the Lord," etc. Suddenly, when the kids were about to explode firecrackers, all these supposedly god-fearing adults pulled out bottles of whiskey from under the couches and got plastered. Then they started exploding the firecrackers with the kids, and soon, a neighbor's lawn was set on fire as a result. This was apparently not the first time this has happened, either. We left at once. This made me terrified of fireworks for many years if not for life.

Oh, when I lived in Tex-ass, normally the fireworks shops would set up right outside the city limits: fireworks weren't legal within the city, but they were legal outside of it.

Whaaaat?! Holy shit, Austin is even worse than I thought it was! I didn't know there were places in Texas where fireworks were illegal within city limits (or did people just set them off within city limits anyway?).

They would have made the same claims even if the side-effects had not existed.

I don't see the need for a hypothetical here. There aren't always side effects to COVID vaccines.

And people are starting to be bothered about civil liberties now?

I thought people at least in the US were complaining about civil liberties from the beginning. (Meanwhile, in Taiwan, I doubt anyone could even fathom questioning regulations).

People are capable of taking the precautions they feel are appropriate

Which is precisely why COVID rates have been higher in the US than in any other country.

Maybe we shouldn't worry because CIA can already blow up your car or write-access your devices, but maybe, instead, we should worry about all of that.

Or maybe, just maybe, we should stop worrying, stay self-quarantined, and get vaccinated.

Surely a righteous emperor would at least consider banning cameras?

So apparently, Nort thinks we shouldn't have cameras.

(I'm surprised nobody ever blames the WHO. They got a lot of things wrong in last January though!)

I've seen many people exaggeratedly blaming the WHO for being the slaves of governments (like China) or worse. Maybe it's more prominent in Gilet Jaune Facebook groups though.

At least one of my students in Taiwan used to tell me every week (I taught them once a week), "Teacher! Tedros is a woman! She has no [ˈdi.kʰɤ]!" (because of the WHO's stances regarding China and Taiwan).

[doctor shark]

Whaaaat?! Holy shit, Austin is even worse than I thought it was! I didn't know there were places in Texas where fireworks were illegal within city limits (or did people just set them off within city limits anyway?).

I was in Corpus Christi; I don't know if it was illegal to set them off within the city limits (and I'd like to say it was, but it's been a loooooong time and I think even when things are less abnormal I'll still maintain social distancing from Tex-ass for several reasons), but it was at least illegal to sell them within the city.

Contradictory: my one friend is finally getting some papers submitted (and I'm co-author on a few of them, so I also have a vested interest!)... but now previous boss is making this be a rush despite the fact drafts and initial versions of these papers were done, oh, about a year ago. Seriously, why should his lack of planning constitute an emergency on our/my end? (And it's not like my hands aren't filled with research-related stuff here in the city with a funny name.)

[Vijay]

it was at least illegal to sell them within the city.

Oh, okay, thanks!

Contradictory: my one friend is finally getting some papers submitted (and I'm co-author on a few of them, so I also have a vested interest!)... but now previous boss is making this be a rush despite the fact drafts and initial versions of these papers were done, oh, about a year ago. Seriously, why should his lack of planning constitute an emergency on our/my end? (And it's not like my hands aren't filled with research-related stuff here in the city with a funny name.)

[Nortaneous]

It's not just kids. Soon after our family moved here from St. Louis, we were invited to a local Tamil Christian household. They were very conservative and religious, constantly saying "praise the Lord," etc. Suddenly, when the kids were about to explode firecrackers, all these supposedly god-fearing adults pulled out bottles of whiskey from under the couches and got plastered.

So they weren't Methodists? Most Christians aren't.

People are capable of taking the precautions they feel are appropriate

Which is precisely why COVID rates have been higher in the US than in any other country.

That's completely false.

Maybe we shouldn't worry because CIA can already blow up your car or write-access your devices, but maybe, instead, we should worry about all of that.

Or maybe, just maybe, we should stop worrying, stay self-quarantined, and get vaccinated.

You have an "and" where you should have an "or". If the vaccines work, why do you need to stay self-quarantined? Keep in mind that neverending "self-quarantine" was the goal of many powerful political actors before COVID-19. Leaving aside the arguments from people like Cass Sunstein that people having friends is a national security threat, if the CEO of Netflix (a company that made over $10mil of donations in the 2020 election cycle) is willing to admit that his corporation competes with sleep, what else might they know they're competing with?

Surely a righteous emperor would at least consider banning cameras?

So apparently, Nort thinks we shouldn't have cameras.

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[Vijay]

Well, too fucking bad for you. It's 2021. Everyone has cameras.

So they weren't Methodists? Most Christians aren't.

Idk.

People are capable of taking the precautions they feel are appropriate

Which is precisely why COVID rates have been higher in the US than in any other country.

That's completely false.

No, it's not.

Maybe we shouldn't worry because CIA can already blow up your car or write-access your devices, but maybe, instead, we should worry about all of that.

Or maybe, just maybe, we should stop worrying, stay self-quarantined, and get vaccinated.

You have an "and" where you should have an "or".

No. I have an "and" where I should have an "and."

If the vaccines work, why do you need to stay self-quarantined?

Idk about need, but it seems wise. Vaccines can only work against the particular strains of a disease that the vaccines are for. When new strains are resistant to a vaccine, those vaccines won't work against those strains.

Leaving aside the arguments from people like Cass Sunstein that people having friends is a national security threat, if the CEO of Netflix (a company that made over $10mil of donations in the 2020 election cycle) is willing to admit that his corporation competes with sleep, what else might they know they're competing with?

I think you stopped speaking English again.

[Nortaneous]

Well, too fucking bad for you. It's 2021. Everyone has cameras.

Which enables not only widespread surveillance but Hollywood and Instagram, all of which are clearly bad.

There's an old joke about the Amish. Some English (i.e. not Amish) tourists are getting a tour of Amish country, given by an Amish guy. And he says, "I bet a lot of you think the difference between the English and the Amish is that we don't use technology. But that's not true! Raise your hand if you think TV is a bad influence on your kids."

The tourists all put their hands up.

"See? In that regard, you're just like us! Now, keep your hand up if, knowing this, you don't have a TV."

And the tourists all put their hands down.

"That's the difference between the English and the Amish!"

I don't think the English attitude here is defensible. I think TV is a bad influence on anyone, so I don't have a TV. But that's a rare case - whether or not to own a TV is an individual choice, whereas most use of technology isn't so individual. We like to talk about freedom in America, for good reason, but putting some thought into what technologies to adopt isn't necessarily a question of freedom, because technologies have societal effects regardless of whether one chooses to personally not use them - as everyone intuitively understands if you replace "cameras" with "PCP". We have the freedom to go outside without worrying that angel-dust zombies will try to eat our faces off because we're not entirely unlike the Amish.

Which is precisely why COVID rates have been higher in the US than in any other country.

That's completely false.

No, it's not.

The country with the highest rate of COVID cases per capita is Andorra. The US isn't even in the top ten.

Leaving aside the arguments from people like Cass Sunstein that people having friends is a national security threat, if the CEO of Netflix (a company that made over $10mil of donations in the 2020 election cycle) is willing to admit that his corporation competes with sleep, what else might they know they're competing with?

I think you stopped speaking English again.

Kwce kantwa weskau?

[Vijay]

Once again, I have no idea what you're going on about
except this:

The country with the highest rate of COVID cases per capita is Andorra. The US isn't even in the top ten.

I wasn't talking about per capita. I was talking about overall.

[Travis B.]

Once again, I have no idea what you're going on about
except this:

The country with the highest rate of COVID cases per capita is Andorra. The US isn't even in the top ten.

I wasn't talking about per capita. I was talking about overall.

I normally don't agree with Nortaneous on much of anything, but comparing countries' total COVID cases, as opposed to COVID cases per capita, makes no sense at all.

[Vijay]

Once again, I have no idea what you're going on about
except this:

The country with the highest rate of COVID cases per capita is Andorra. The US isn't even in the top ten.

I wasn't talking about per capita. I was talking about overall.

I normally don't agree with Nortaneous on much of anything, but comparing countries' total COVID cases, as opposed to COVID cases per capita, makes no sense at all.

Why not?

[Travis B.]

Once again, I have no idea what you're going on about
except this:

I wasn't talking about per capita. I was talking about overall.

I normally don't agree with Nortaneous on much of anything, but comparing countries' total COVID cases, as opposed to COVID cases per capita, makes no sense at all.

Why not?

Because you then get nonsensical comparisons, because countries with larger populations will naturally tend to have greater COVID cases even if they do a better job of keeping people from catching COVID than, say, Andorra.

[Vijay]

I normally don't agree with Nortaneous on much of anything, but comparing countries' total COVID cases, as opposed to COVID cases per capita, makes no sense at all.

Why not?

Because you then get nonsensical comparisons, because countries with larger populations will naturally tend to have greater COVID cases even if they do a better job of keeping people from catching COVID than, say, Andorra.

China has fewer cases than most despite being where it was first reported to begin with.

[KathTheDragon]

Why not?

Because you then get nonsensical comparisons, because countries with larger populations will naturally tend to have greater COVID cases even if they do a better job of keeping people from catching COVID than, say, Andorra.

China has fewer cases than most despite being where it was first reported to begin with.

If you assume they didn't underreport for whatever reason.

[Vijay]

Because you then get nonsensical comparisons, because countries with larger populations will naturally tend to have greater COVID cases even if they do a better job of keeping people from catching COVID than, say, Andorra.

China has fewer cases than most despite being where it was first reported to begin with.

If you assume they didn't underreport for whatever reason.

Nah, I think those are both true.

[doctor shark]

So, in the latest episode of "doctor shark/vampireshark's relatives have issues", I spoke with my father today, and he mentioned that he's looking to divorce his current wife... which is quite an interesting development (in many senses of the word!), given my brother's, my mother's, and my numerous issues with her. (And what happened at Christmastime this past year.)

To be honest, I can't say I'm surprised, but right now I'm feeling quite a mix of feelings: something between feeling bad for him and that feeling of "how did I know this was going to happen". We'll see how the next months play out, because the divorce process in Tex-ass is quite different from the process in NC (both in terms of how fault/no-fault divorce and the community property regulations work out...).

[rotting bones]

Hurricane Ida. Sitting at home since classes were canceled because of potential damage to campus buildings and flooding on the roads. This could be my chance to go through the Šɯk grammar on Patreon.

[Linguoboy]

Being back in the building is a whole mass of contradictory feelings. On the one hand, I miss so many things (like my cat, my naps, my snacks). On the other, it's fascinating getting reacquainted with the campus, the town, and catching up with coworkers. Especially today: a major gossip bomb dropped and I was able to go right to the source and milk it, something which would probably have been impossible via electronic channels.

[alice]

On the one hand, I miss so many things (like my cat, my naps, my snacks).

I feel obliged to point out the sound symbolism of those things all ending in the singular in /æ/ plus a voiceless consonant.

[Travis B.]

I did my first soldering since high school... and I managed to ruin two out of three Raspberry Pi Pico boards I had (I managed to melt the BOOTSEL button on one of them, and on another I managed to seriously send one of the pins after I had soldered it in place), and my third one's soldering job doesn't look that pretty at all (I'm not sure if it will work or not).

[Linguoboy]

I just finished a four-day test of my oesophageal pH. This required having me go off all acid reducers (I'm on a prescription PPI which I supplement with antacids and such) and wearing a sensor inside of my oesophagus which broadcast to a recorder I had to carry with me at all times.

It sucked. I basically had some kind of discomfort--heartburn, stomachache, nausea, all three--the entire time. But the worst part was the sensor. The instructions blandly warn of a "foreign body sensation". Well, the sensation was akin to having a piece of jagged glass under my breastbone that twisted around whenever I swallowed anything more substantial than water. Even hot tea was enough to make it hurt. I ended up having to take an extra day off work and basically spent my whole Saturday too exhausted to do anything.

Many times, I was sorely tempted to say "fuck it" and just take some Gaviscon. After all, they told me that sometimes the sensor detaches after only three days so they clearly don't actually need the whole 96 hours of data. But I toughed it out. So all I can say is that it fucking better have been worth it.

[Travis B.]

Ugh. That sucks. Thankfully it's over now, though.