Month: April 2020

alex on Skype alex on walk

Social distancing walk today with Katie and Alex. It was brief, he was very very rangy and needed a nap. He got his little mask.

I’m on skype at live.allegra.sloman. I know the fOlks don’t want it, but it sure would be nice.

 

Felids get coronavirus, so do ferrets, according to a different source.

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Peter Kropotkin.

don’t Pyotr have the most excellent beard tho

WW need WOC to hold their hands

It really shows. Anyway, I have seen white women trail around after various on line activists looking for ‘cookies’ which are tokens of appreciation for not being racist. Five years ago I was aware of it but now I don’t question WOC when they point it out; they are the ones sensitive to micro-aggressions and the subtler manifestations of overt racism, not me. It is their expertise I need, their voices in my ear as I interrogate the gently steaming structures of colonialism and capitalism. But I DON’T NEED THEIR ATTENTION. That’s the demand that kills.
In the first place, there are SO MANY not authentic humans on line that a WOC doesn’t know whether she’s dealing with a bot, or a paid bad actor in Romania or Russia or China. Why should she literally haul herself out of her bed, where she’s been weeping for half an hour because a family member’s been diagnosed with coronavirus, to straighten out the time-wasting misconceptions of a person who doesn’t even exist? White women assign the emotional labour of being forced to explain themselves to women of colour without a second glance while bots simultaneously chase after them with the tools of bad actors in cyberspace, everywhere. Men do it to women, too, but that’s not where I am right now.
In the second place, so many genuine humans do not look at the available information about WOC.  If she says she’s a PhD in some aspect of space science, and her blog has a list of her awards, which are borne out on her UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR PAGE, coming into her twitter feed and telling her how to suck eggs as a grad student is jenyoowine GROSS. DO THE RESEARCH IF YOU’RE REAL.
In the third place, emotional self-regulation about racism should not dissolve into a puddle of fucking tears, demands for ‘civility’ or better ‘tone’, blocking in the middle of a discussion, etc. Not one WOC owes one WW her time. At all. Ever. If she shares her expertise, honour it.
In the fourth place, emotional self-regulation about racism should not make demands on WOC that are textbook examples of WW failing to understand any of this. I have now seen it happen with my own eyes so many times that EVEN IF A WOC turns out to be a big ass fraud, a besmircher of honour, a dingus, wildly unscientific and a rape apologist HULLO NAME REDACTED I SEE YOU, I take no part in the internet mob; I’ll block or mute and pass on. The communities that surround women of colour will uphold or scold them and half they time I can’t even understand the terms the scolding is delivered in and I spend half my morning on Urban Dictionary trying to figure out if that means what I think it does. But at least I’m not asking a Black woman who’s a disability activist ‘exactly what she meant by that’ when I was never supposed to be part of the discussion.
In the fifth place, WW want to control the discussion (its course, tone, subject-matter, how speedily people answer, it’s just fucking gross, watching it) most of the time and I’ve learned that it’s puerile.
Too Long? Busy this AM?
Hey white gals: regarding women of colour, bring money, material support, respect or silence.
Do basic reading and corrective thinking without a metaphorical shepherdess.

Don’t ‘piss your woes out’ over WOC.

 

palate cleanser

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Remote consultation document for the UK / Covid-19

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I’ve been asking and asking for a *portion* of this useful doc, which is ***when to go to hospital***.
Temp over 38 C;
Resps over 20 per minute;
pulseox ≤94;
heart rate over 100

 

 

 

If I open the above doc in a new tab it blows up to a readable size.

Peggy took me for a walk

we mostly maintained 2 meters, we certainly didn’t hug

It was snowing when she called me, tiny wispy pellets, but it was just windy af as we toured Hilda Ave Park, (should be Hilda STREET Park, come on folks how hard is it to get the fucking sign right) slowly, round and round many times. I wore an N95 mask out of the house for the first time, one of three I bought for the fires that did not come last summer; they are most uncomfortable but in cold weather they really help you keep the heat and moisture in, so that’s good. I can’t imagine how looking after sick people in 36 degree heat would work for health care workers, I’d have heat stroke in fifteen minutes unless I had some kind of personal coolant device.

Pegg has very kindly offered to try to find flour, sugar and biffy roll for me. Jeff and I are good for at least another week, possibly two on TP, but I worry when the stock gets low. We have half a container of sugar and a couple of kilos of white flour. I also recently checked for where my bogroll for emergencies is. Did you know my hand sanitizer in my earthquake kit is completely solid? Exp date something thing 2008. But I have a nice dense single roll of quality TP in case things REALLY GO SOUTH ha ha ha schnufffle.

She spoke of how happy she was that Ben and Josey (son and granddaughter) had a distance socializing walk.

Omfg, Playland is advertising for summer jobs.

WHAT IN THE WHIFFLING BUGKNUCKLES IS THIS.

THE VENEZUELAN NAVY DECLARES WAR ON THE GLOBAL CRUISE SHIP INDUSTRY, unfortunately loses battle IGNOMINIOUSLY.

Chuck Wendig took a photo of a golden crowned kinglet

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what it’s like to be a nurse on the front lines

Nurse M  (a nurse in the UK)
@MonteSpice

Mar 31

I vomited inside my face mask today because I felt unwell so when I asked for another at work they told me “that was your mask for the week, sanitize it because you need 6 more days out of it”. I’m 100% convinced I will get coronavirus. I just hope when it happens it’ll be mild
I am going to make coffee and have a shower, like I plan to have a day today.

today for sure I make masks

The 40 second Philippino style mask will work in a pinch but I need ones I can tie.

Katie’s promised a social distancing walk on Sunday, I’m so looking forward to it.

Another agent has rejected me. It’s okay. I’ll be dead before any of these books take off, it’s kinda how things are going to work with me. I already got issued all my luck, I can’t expect more.

LOLOLOL

above-noted link goes to a frog knocking a bug off a wall. IT IS SO FUNNY

below-noted link goes to a visualization of the cause of death stats in the US

NOTLOLOLOLOL

copied from Twitter:
George Hulston
@medichulston

22h

Last night I certified far more deaths than I can ever remember doing in a single shift. The little things hit you: a book with a bookmark in, a watch still ticking, an unread text message from family. Pandemic medicine is hard.
He’s a doc in London UK
Leora Horwitz a doc in NYC says and I quote
I kept underestimating their exertional hypoxia. Learned my lesson when I transferred one pt to lower acuity floor and he had a syncopal event getting from wheelchair to new bed. Walked all patients with pulse ox prior to d/c.
IF YOU HAVE A PULSEOX —use it—-

 

Curioser and curioser