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barbara hudson (6443)
Journal of barbara hudson (6443)
We're in the midst or a world-wide health pandemic, and a global economic meltdown that may rank right up with the Great Depression. People are stressed. They are insecure. They don't know what the future holds.
And yet even in Australia people are just as happy now as they were a year ago.
I've been wondering if it's just me, but I think that people are coping by helping each other physically and emotionally, and that this is playing out in people's happiness being mostly unaffected.
I know for myself this is the 3rd spring in just over 3 years that my volunteer work has gotten me involved in some form of disaster relief, and people have a need to feel needed. So it's logical that I feel happy with things, despite being low vision, etc.
Simple lesson - it's hard to feel bad when you're making a positive difference. No wonder I feel like the time I'm on the Internet is more of a burden than anything else.
But this is not something new. We've known for years that internet usage correlates with poorer mental health and greater unhappiness.
I've seen how, with the loss of more than half our volunteers, those who are left have common cause, no slackers, no dilettantes, and oddly enough, we aren't seeing the huge disruption in our lives that people are reporting. Being part of essential services, we take all the precautions and adapt to the job at hand, and we're confident in those precautions protecting us. n95 masks, sanitizer and gloves, social distancing, and not allowing new volunteers who cannot be vouched for has left us a cohesive, dedicated team.
So, useful work, great colleagues. How can you be depressed about that?
We need to rethink our values and way of doing things so that everyone can experience the same sense of belonging, of relevance. And that starts by killing off the gig economy. Your job should be more than just a gig, where you can be replaced by another underpaid gig worker.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 14 2020, @02:22AM (2 children)
And I assume open source will be the next red herring targeted? Gig economy isn't undermining anyone's sense of belonging or relevance. I guess we can't let the crisis go to waste though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:04AM (1 child)
Happy, happy, joy, hoy! Khallow is just upset because he is an old (young, but ideologically ancient!) grumpy Gus. Gig economy was never an economy. More like a whoredom, a Pimping racquet, a black market by the usually not so depraved or desparate, a Deplorable.
Ferkin off the bucket, khallow. You killed my buzz.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:25AM
All which are parts of economies just like the gig economy is. Maybe you should try the other foot. And shoot harder this time.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @02:24AM
Because I prepped
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday April 14 2020, @02:31AM (2 children)
Because for me, not a lot has changed. I already live basically like a quarantine patient aside from work, which was deemed "essential" and does indeed help others as you'd pointed out. I have enough food, a roof over my head, and an internet connection. Life is in a kind of stasis, but it has been for almost a decade. Maybe this isn't happiness per se, but it's stability, something I've very rarely had in my life.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:24PM (1 child)
My company makes missiles and malware.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @07:41AM
Raytheon?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:05AM (3 children)
I'm living alone in self-isolation, being 73 years ols and so have a heightened chance of dying if I catch this disease.
But.
I have a daughter who shops for me so I can keep eating and stay alive.
I have meaningful work in that I'm writing a new binding for opengl for the programming language Racket, which will get used by others when it's ready. Yes, it's a volunteer activity, and it'll be free software when finished.
And I'm thankful that there are people like you, Azumi, and my daughter who work hard to help others through these hard times.
Love and work!
-- hendrik
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:16AM (2 children)
"Yes, it's a volunteer activity, and it'll be free software when finished"
"I'm thankful that there are people like you, Azumi"
Hope Barbara has developed a little more sense of humor about open source projects or you might be in trouble ;)
Just a joke, not trying to be nasty to anyone.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday April 14 2020, @11:32AM (1 child)
When I enumerated "you, Azumi, and my daughter" I meant an enumeration of three people, not two.
"You" referred to Barbara Hudson, not Azumi.
My comment was, after all, a reply to Barbara Hudson's post.
Barbara, please consider yourself thanked.
I regret that even the Oxford comma did not manage to disambiguate this list.
-- hendrik
"I'm just an old greybeard whose intentions are good.
Please don't let me be misunderstood"
(misquoting Eric Burdon.
Though he's probably an old man by now if he's still alive)
(Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Friday April 17 2020, @12:51AM
I still have a sense of humour. We have a goodly amount of donated Easter chocolates to distribute, which inspired this earlier today :
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:09AM
https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Ride-Kenny-Roberts/dp/B07BNBN7PV/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=why+we+ride&qid=1586833498&s=movies-tv&sr=1-1 [amazon.com]
Beg, borrow, or pirate that movie. As the keywords suggest, it's about riding, and why we ride. One lady in particular stands out, in regards to your question/comment. The rest of the movie is more than outstanding. And, meet the rider with no legs . . . he is as memorable as anyone else in the documentary.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:30AM (1 child)
Happiness is a state of mind, not the state of Universe.
However, a feeling of belonging somewhere and relevance is not transferable to other persons, if they are not ready for it. As ancients say:
It is always better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:08AM
Says someone who never saw the cover of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe".
Here: https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-ED0m4tnNFUM%2FUP80yHRExFI%2FAAAAAAAACxM%2FI2yCxLiGcXY%2Fs1600%2Fadams.hitchfive.cov.gif&f=1&nofb=1 [duckduckgo.com]
(Score: 2) by NickM on Tuesday April 14 2020, @05:19AM (12 children)
Serving a bureaucracy badly¹ serving remote students is dragging my moral down. I am still happy to have iron clad job security but I wish I could get the same sense of fulfillment I had when I could glance upon the campus from my office windows and see it burgeoning with students. Nowadays the only view I have, other than my multitude of screens, is my basements office wall. I don't miss my colleagues as I see them in team but I miss my superb view, the feelings of usefulness, and vacuous prestige, that come with a private office with a view; this is slowly burning a hole in my soul... I might have to resort to marijuana comforting embrace to fill this hole with void...
1-Well badly is probably an overstatement as the faculties and services try as best as they can and we are doing a better job than the place where my wife teach²... but it's still a hodgepodge collection of semi adhoc solutions that were plan and deployed during a weekend, that was an awesome weekend, strangely it felt more like Christmas was coming that the beginnings of a serious sanitary crisis.
2-We are both in academia, she is a university teacher (not a professor, there is a big difference in salary that come with the accrued clerical responsibilities) and I am a technocrat at a different institution. I work half as long as her and make 3 times her salary. Monetary incentives are fucked up...
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @06:26AM (2 children)
When you say "teacher" are you referring to an "adjunct" or other non-tenure position, whether a professor or lecturer, or do you mean she is a lecturer, whether adjunct or not? There is a big difference between those four categories and I am curious as to which you meant. Of course, your university may not follow the standard terminology used in the US, so picking the closest of the four is good enough.
(Score: 2) by NickM on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:22PM (1 child)
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @08:20PM
Ah, the worst of all possible worlds to be in as a faculty member. Most adjunct lecturers I know either do multiple universities or use public assistance. Thank goodness I only had to stoop so low as to be an adjunct professor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:52AM (2 children)
So, you had to move back in with Mom again?
Sorry, couldn't resist the easy jab. :^)
(Score: 3, Informative) by hendrikboom on Tuesday April 14 2020, @11:37AM (1 child)
Actually, it sounds like he moved back in with his wife.
A good move if his wife is still his girlfriend, like mine was when she was still alive.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by NickM on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:13PM
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday April 14 2020, @11:39AM
Sounds like you should move a screen or two up to your living room and work there.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday April 14 2020, @01:56PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by NickM on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:11PM
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday April 17 2020, @12:45AM (2 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NickM on Friday April 17 2020, @02:35AM (1 child)
Indeed going out for a walk in the sun was the key.
I did as khallow suggested and I am feeling much much better!
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday April 17 2020, @11:18PM
Vitamin D is a known antidepressant. Unfortunately, being stuck indoors kind of cuts down on your natural production. Hormones are also affected by sunlight on the retinas. So COVID19 is hitting people in unexpected ways.
Hate to think what is going to happen in the winter. Will we go from SAD to SAD++? (Seasonally affected depression).
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:38PM
I have been thinking over the past few weeks about the human condition in prior pandemics. While the numbers will be horrific, this is the first pandemic in history where there is a possibility of beating it.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 14 2020, @04:44PM (3 children)
Actually, I think that should be narrowed down to Facebook, Twitter, etc. Not the whole internet in general. SN for example is pretty good.
I count my blessings. I'm still employed.
For the benefit of all humanity we need to develop big bright beautiful orbiting advertising billboard satellites.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday April 17 2020, @12:39AM (2 children)
My vision is going again, and I don't think I want to waste much of whatever is left dealing with the Internet crapfest.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @07:05AM
And yet you keep coming back for the attention.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 17 2020, @01:58PM
I just went looking and found the smoking story you mention. Wow. Maybe not getting vaccines also helps protect against diseases. Believing the Earth is flat must help prevent indoctrination of liberal education.
For the benefit of all humanity we need to develop big bright beautiful orbiting advertising billboard satellites.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @05:12PM (2 children)
I've lived through some pretty awful times that I generally no longer share. The reason is because people can't really understand what it's like. Not like you can't imagine how bad it was, but quite the opposite - life was, in general, actually way better than it would sound just describing the times and events. I think, in general, when somebody is lamenting how tough times are they're just looking for attention or more material advantages.
But the reason for this is because we're hella good at adjusting to diversity. Now we're all kind of experiencing this together with this little virus. And there are definitely some bad times, but most times are just as good as they were usually.
When you look back at feudalism it's unimaginable how brutal the lives of the peasantry were (though, frankly, the royals weren't that far behind them). Starvation, war, crime, and a life almost guaranteed poverty on a scale we can't even imagine today. Yet, I think there's no doubt that if you could peek in on any household you'd find they were hardly dour people just loathing each day. It would've been, more or less, the same as today.
The point I make with this is that happiness, contentedness, and all of these other things are not extrinsic - they are intrinsic. You'll find self loathing billionaires that simply cannot find satisfaction regardless of how much money they accumulate, and penniless bums who live contented lives as they do things 'their way'. All a change in scenario, such as this virus, does is throw a few new interesting problems at us and gives us all a bit of time for reflection. Like I've said from the start I think this virus will ultimately create a stronger, healthier, and more content society than one that had the fortune to avoid it. And, no, that's not some wry reference to some sort of Darwinian thing.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday April 14 2020, @07:31PM (1 child)
I think feudalism is misunderstood, to greater and lesser degrees, by most people who comment on it. Some things that have been pointed out by various authors, in my reading over the years:
1. Winter months, serfs only worked between the hours of sunrise and sunset. Nice short workdays for most Euros.
2. Most serfs had to work x number of days for the landowner, and the rest of the days in a month were spent on his own endeavors.
3. Serfs mostly got holidays and Sundays off
Some authors have actually advanced the idea that serfs may have had an easier, more relaxed life than most of us 40 hr/week working stiffs today. Or, the average serf, at any rate. All of that dependent on time, locale, religious trends, and the state of enlightenment of the local royalty.
Feudalism shared something with slavery. Slave holders who didn't take care of their slaves stood to lose a lot of money if their slaves were sickly and dying off. People engaged in slavery for profit, and lost profit just couldn't be tolerated for long. While serfs were not slaves, the principle held.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 16 2020, @12:50PM
Sure, they do. But most serfs were farmers. And that's a hell of a job - definitely, not merely a 40 hr/week thing.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Tuesday April 14 2020, @07:33PM (1 child)
Not really at the moment, no.
Have I felt a lot worse than this in the past?
Yes, yes I have.
error count exceeds 100; stopping compilation
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday April 17 2020, @12:34AM
Setting my reading to +2 and skipping over the anonymous replies to my posts also helps.
At least it did until I read the totally bullshit front page story compiled from 3 anonymous sources still trying to push the narrative that smoking protects men from COVID19. That any site would give space to such obviously false lies makes me wonder whether it's time to abandon the internet as not fit for purpose.
Trolls like APK are easy to scroll past. But tobacco company propaganda? This started on reddit with claims that fewer men than women were dying of COVID19, and ran a bullshit explanation. The fact is that men die much more often in every country. But smokers NEED to believe there's a benefit, and will believe anything, same as has been true for smokers for generations. It's insulting and insane - must be the Internet.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday April 22 2020, @10:43PM (7 children)
Also because my doctor ordered me to go for daily walks outside by myself so I wouldn't deteriorate physically from isolation. And I did it and feel better. (though I was surprised how much I had already deteriorated since early March.)
I'm also happy now because I found a bug in a program last weekend that caused me grief six months ago. It blocked me from completing a game in Ludum Dare back then. Last weekend I spent Ludum Dare tracking it down. Still no game, but the bug has been annoying me at the back of my mind for a long time.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday April 22 2020, @11:08PM (6 children)
CTV poll says half the population has lost track of time - they don't know what day of the week it is. I guess that's what happens when you're too isolated - you stop engaging with the real world.
And the news is all COVID19, except for the worst mass killing in the country's history.
IT'S GOOD TO GET OUT! Glad to hear it's working. But maybe now you can do something different to give people something to do. You mentioned your writing. Maybe you can do a few JEs on the "month to write a story", or a few examples. I remember McGrew used to post his writings. People liked it. (and the haters? who cares? maybe use them as fodder for a story or 5).
Maybe challenge others to join in.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday April 22 2020, @11:18PM (1 child)
What's a JE?
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday April 25 2020, @02:35PM
Maybe a JR is a journal entry? It took days to figure that out.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday April 23 2020, @03:28PM (3 children)
And one of the things he posted he lost an opportunity for commercial publication because of it.
I think after that happened I haven't noticed him posting new stories.
I'd love to post the novel I'm working on as a serial, in many many separate chapters, but I'm not ready to give away first publication rights for free.
Still, I've been thinking for a while about how to do something like this. Perhaps brainstorming for a new story online? Post not excerpts, but exploratory shitty-first-draft snippets that might come together for a story? Ask for others to suggest ideas? End up with a series of possibly amusing pieces that try to fit together into a story but fail to do so?
Maybe. Just maybe that would work.
Maybe I should ransack my hard drive and find bits that didn't make it into a story? Some of them might come to life now when they didn't before.
Pity it's not possible to edit posts here. Rewriting is essential for quality.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday April 24 2020, @12:14AM (2 children)
I wouldn't worry about lost opportunities nowadays. Publishing is dying, being dis-intermediated by the Internet.
Interesting fact in the Guardian this week - 80% of all books are bought by women. Makes sense, since they also are the ones who buy for the rest of the family .
If you want to make money writing, books, stories, etc targeted to publishers don't cut it any more. There's just way too many people trying to swim in an ever-shrinking pond. Sorry.
As for asking others for ideas, ideas are a dime a dozen (but if you use someone else's idea and it's a hit they'll sue your ass off.) it's like all the assholes who went "I've got a great idea for a game. You write it and I'll cut you in for 10% of the profits". Or the ones where they want you to work in return for equity instead of money, or money AND equity.
There's no simple sure fire answer. Maybe write an opening paragraph and invite people to submit 2nd paragraphs, pick the winner, invite 3rd paragraphs, etc. Or people can follow multiple second, 3rd, 4th paragraphs like those "choose your own story" books. Might be fun.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday April 25 2020, @12:34PM (1 child)
I think Penguin tried something like that -- started something like a wiki and invited the whole world to write a novel online, letting anyone edit ... Apparently it wasn't very successful in producing a readable novel.
It might be fun to find their link and read what was written just to see the results of that experiment.
Of course, having a gatekeeper looking at submitted next paragraphs might work better, but it would be hard maintaining any kind of plan or consistency.
That would kind of be the counterpoint of what's being done on existing quest sites.
What I'd like for my novel is to be published in a manner that makes people who would enjoy it likely to find it. Not just the one or two who happen upon it in an obscure site.
It's not ready yet. But I hope to be able to provide a coherent draft to a small group of beta readers soon.
I have started scouring my hard drive to find bits of writing that, interesting in themselves as a kind of snippet, have not really succeeded as completable writing. Maybe posting something like that might be interesting? Texts where the development reached a kind of dead end?
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday April 25 2020, @01:42PM
I would strongly urge you to post the snippets - maybe ask people to write what happened before and what happens after? But either way, so many people are climbing the walls and would probably welcome the diversion.
And maybe write something counter to the groupthink here - label it "my doggerel ate your dogma"?
Maybe I'll use that tag line for something to combat the huge propaganda effort the government is making to reopen schools. 80% of parents want it delayed until September because the government hasn't said how parents, teachers, and others will be protected, but what do you expect from assholes like Legault, who instead of admitting he doesn't just keeps on harping over how young kids are less affected. Idiot.
They were at it just now on TVA, arguing that keeping kids out of school might harm them somehow, without giving specifics. No data, while saying they're being guided by science. 2/3 of parents asked said they won't be sending their kids to school, and the school year is shot anyway. This is just an excuse to free up parents so they will go back to work, rather than admitting that the nature of work needs to change.
Sweden tried to go a different route, keeping restaurants open, and now they're setting infection records every day. And yet people still use them as an example of how it's safe to reopen. A couple of psychologists refused to send their kids to school until grade 9. They believed that everything a kid needs to learn in the earlier years can be taught at home in 1 or 2 hours a day. The school district took them to court, the court ruled that as long as the kids passed the exams they didn't have to attend school. The kids did a lot better than average. School the way we do it is a disaster. Kids are not able to sit for 8 hours a day "doing schoolwork ", most of which is rote boring crap.
' Just think of all the times you tuned out to daydream in class. That's what happens when there's a brain that isn't being challenged, just bored. If you are bored you don't learn. It's why I refused to sit through PowerPoint presentations.
The Bank of England has centuries of existence and experience, and they predict we're heading for the biggest recession ever. A lot of jobs are permanently gone. Then again, many of them weren't needed to survive anyway. 56% of respondents to yesterday's CTV poll said they didn't miss pro sports. And without the "crowd" experience, this will just accelerate. More and more, people are realizing that celebrity culture is what many of us always said - vapid, useless, and a cancer on the brain. We will never need as many waiters and waitresses as we had, because people don't eat in restaurants during depressions. And what is the point if you have to maintain distancing?
Movie theatres? Dead. Guzzo is wasting his money using the down time to do a refurb. And tv shows without a live audience are boring. Even local news will change , now that much of it is shot in the basements of the talking heads. Anyone can compete with that. And without an audience and direct interaction with guests, both Dr Phil and Dr Oz are just pathetic. They were before, but now it's much more visible. Yes, people liked to watch the train wrecks of other people's lives paraded on TV, but you don't have the same immediacy over polygon, FaceTime, and zoom. Now they are just shitty podcasts.
Anyway, sort for the rant, but seeing a pediatrician spouting bs and not answering the real questions (because he doesn't have answers, duh! ) just pisses me off. Same as the spoiled students saying they want the government to give them $24,000 a year as a basic income so they can study. On top of the government already paying 85% of tuition costs.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Informative) by hendrikboom on Saturday April 25 2020, @11:37PM
I know of a student who, facing final year high school, decided that would be a colossal waste of time, So she spent a month of so studying the curriculum on her own and passed the end-of-summer government exams.
She did not have attention deficit.
-- hendrik