Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: hammer on March 12, 2020, 05:30:19 AM
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Both a safety net and the internet.
My University, the University of Minnesota, just extended Spring break for students until further notice due to Covid19 concerns. When they return, we will be teaching all our courses online until further notice. I’ve got no worries about the evening graduate course I teach but that 9-11 AM class which is taught TTh at the same time as several hundred other courses on campus is going to be interesting using a system that even on typical days is often extremely slow.
We will see if telling students to stay home and take classes online will help slow transmission when we have 6,000 international students most of whom are still in dorms, as well as large clusters in private apartments in a extremely small, confined geographic area.
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Northern Illinois University has extended Spring Break as well; as I am no longer connected to the school, I don't know what they'll be doing upon resumption.
Peter
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Our son is at San Jose State University. They cancelled class this week and will switch to all on-line classes starting next week. He wasn't too upset about getting this week off. lol
Bill, tgo
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My good friend (I'll call her VictoriaofDerby) is a faculty coordinator at a big school in SoCal... part of her job yesterday became setting up the professors to teach their classes online. It's a BIG TASK, she tells me, but do-able. And since she is the smartest person I know, it'll absolutely happen, or there'll be a Victoria-shaped hole in somebody's wall over there, and a lot of noise. I think it's a good idea anyway, if for no other reason than a drill, and the timing really could be much worse if you think about it.
I think this is maybe the 3rd or 4th epidemic/pandemic event in my nearly 30-year career as a public service employee. I can tell you it's being taken very seriously here in Virginia, where so far the coronavirus has yet to manifest itself in any major way. At work, we've been advised to put plans in place to staff our facilities with minimal personnel. Plain and simple, you can't shut off a Regional Water Treatment Plant because of a virus... basically, this means if you aren't sick, you're going to be working around the clock, and sequestered so you don't get sick. It was H1N1 a couple years ago, another Influenza strain some years before that, and some mosquito-borne disease I can't remember what or when, but somebody thought it was going to get bad enough that we ought to hold a meeting. I've seen all this unfold before, but I haven't seen this scare factor, and I'm not quite sure yet how to process it. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell what's real anymore.
Here's how not to go wrong. Do common-sense things. Don't do stupid things. You already know what these are. Calculate risks logically rather than emotionally. Take care of the people close to you. Set a good example. And for pity's sake, stop stockpiling toilet paper... you're making our brothers and sisters over in the Wastewater Treatment Plant very nervous wondering when the mother of all clogs is coming down the pipe. (as if those guys don't have enough to worry about)
Closing on a serious note- I love this group, and I wouldn't want a one of us to fall victim to this thing... hope and pray we'll all be okay. Feel free to add anything I've missed...
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Our club being a group of people that both plays and listens to music, one of the impacts of note (among so very many) will be on live music.
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Our club being a group of people that both plays and listens to music, one of the impacts of note (among so very many) will be on live music.
IL Gov. JB Pritzker today made a statement discouraging gatherings, public or private, of >250 people - and banning outright anything of >1000 people.
My middle son, who teaches in one Denver school, and his older son, who attends another, found out today that as of Monday, they're off for at least 3 weeks.
Peter
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One of the schools systems near me just shutdown and won't reopen until April 3rd. Our school system has told all central office personnel to work from home and has cancelled all field trips. No word yet on if they will close and if they do close how they will handle the year round schools for make up days so late in the year.
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I'm in EU, all schools, kindergartens, colleges are cancelled, every gig, anything that would have more than 100 people. Nobody knows what will be in a week. So let's see.
Time to put new string and practice and write some songs.
Only thing that made me laugh today was this post:
"Corona Virus severely underestimates how long I can sit inside my house living off nothing but caffeine and shredded cheese." :)
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It looks like most authorities are finally starting to take this seriously. Colleagues in the Czech Republic have inidicated all schools are shutting down including Universities; in Bhutan, they have blocked all flights coming in to country (an American was just found to have seeded Covid19 in Bhutan last week).
Here in the US, some of the Nordic skiers I coach or have coached in the past just had their championships cancelled. Two were out in Bozeman Montana for the NCAAs where they held their first races but cancelled the second for both Alpine and Nordic. The others are in Lake Tahoe for the Junior National Championships where they got in two of four races before the cancellations. The crazy thing with these events are that they are not like the basketball or hockey tournaments that draw thousands of spectators and those watching tend to be spread out across 3-5 km, the athletes were already present, and now they are basically stuck there until Sunday because of flight schedules anyway.
Here in Minnesota, however, schools are all still in session and they are continuing to hold winter sports championships (hockey, basketball) with the only changes being restrictions on spectators.
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... Time to put new string and practice and write some songs ... "Corona Virus severely underestimates how long I can sit inside my house living off nothing but caffeine and shredded cheese." :)
:)
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It looks like most authorities are finally starting to take this seriously.
It certainly is refreshing when people pay attention to concrete statistical data instead of reacting on their “hunches”. ::)
Science it’s all about facts and not emotion... weird huh?
Goran, I know some introverts that are VERY happy with how things are playing out. ;D
Paul (who is washing his hands a lot these days)
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"Corona Virus severely underestimates how long I can sit inside my house living off nothing but caffeine and shredded cheese." :)
Whoever said this is a true student of the modern human condition.
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Heck, I could skip the cheese and mainline the coffee, but I salute the whole notion.
Update- our Water Plant Operations staff was given a memo this afternoon to expect a Tier 3 action plan to be implemented as early as next week. We've all been divided into platoons for staffing each facility, and instructed not to interact directly or mingle with staff from other Plants.
Since I and my partner are the only two Operators for the Water Plants in that particular segment of the City's system, we will be splitting up to cover 7 days a week operation in the event Tier 3 happens. Beginning Monday morning, we train a third guy to replace us in the event one or both of us is infected.
I'm thinking about just taking a couple of my Alembics and a practice amp to work and hanging out until this thing has run its course. Wouldn't be the first time. ;)
*and a coffee maker.
**and lots of coffee. (I got plenty of water there)
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At least we'll have some great players coming out after Corona, people gonna practice for days :)
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I was reading today an account from someone in Italy about how quickly it all went sideways there and how we have no idea what's coming; doctors and nurses literally having to choose who's more likely to survive and giving them the treatments, health care workers up 'till they drop or get sick themselves, etc...be safe everyone...
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Right on, I'm playing in "doctors big band" it like a normal big band just doctors not real musicians play instruments (quite fun) and they said here in Croatia next two weeks will be some major shifting in health, who knows what will happen. Keep it safe wherever you are.
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Phil's birthday show cancelled, Bobby cancelled his shows in Chicago, this is serious!
I too am the guy who runs it. I'll be making my 50 mile one way trek to work everyday as usual.
Maybe I'll bring the further, since no one else will be at the office. Try to make some good from this.
Stay safe and social distance! We will pull through!
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IT's plain goofy here in Nashville; I just came from a Publix supermarket that looked as if it had been prepared for an episode shoot of 'The Walking Dead': No fruit, no meat, no canned goods, no rice, no dry beans, it was just bewildering, I've never seen anything like it. Never, and I used to see cleaned-out supermarkets before and after hurricanes when I lived on the Gulf.
They cancelled the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament here in town after the first day. Then of all things, The Grand Ole Opry has suspended live performances thru April 15th, not surprising in a way due to the age of some of the long-timers, but a real head-turner for me.
I'm pretty much a homebody when I'm away from work. Go to the grocery, the occasional favorite restaurant, just me and Mrs. Wilson. We don't have some big circle of friends in and out all the time, and we're past our 'par-tay' days. There's no vaccine, don't see much point in being tested if I have no symptoms, I'd rather leave for those who need it, and hope I won't. I've never had the flu once in my soon-to-be 65 years, so maybe that will stand me in good stead.
But what the hell is up with toilet paper? I don't get it.
I've quit watching the news, it's too depressing, hope to miss the footage of the gunfight at a WalMart over a pack of Cottonelle TP . . . . .
Here's wishing the best to all of us, stay safe and stay well.
JW
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Update: As I was coming off-duty a few minutes ago, we were notified by email and text messages that Tier 3 of our Emergency Action Plan for Plant Operations has been triggered by the first confirmed positive case of COVID-19 in Roanoke, Virginia. Time to throw some stuff in a bag... looks like I'm going to be at work for quite a while.
Oh, well... :-\
The spread of public hysteria is bothering me way more than the threat of the actual virus.
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Try to get some rest when you can, Greg. Will you ahve internet access while sequestered? If not, see you on the other side.
And that's a big 10-4 on the hysteria.
Peter
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Try to get some rest when you can, Greg. Will you ahve internet access while sequestered? If not, see you on the other side.
And that's a big 10-4 on the hysteria.
Peter
Oh yeah, all good. I actually don't have any internet at home, just my phone. The Alembic Club and TalkBass are not blocked by our webfilters, (ssshhhh...) so I can tune in easily. And I was serious about bringing my bass! ;D
I'll give credit where due, they've actually worked out something that makes sense and doesn't work us all to death. Since there is a finite number of liscensed staff to run the Water Treatment Plants, the primary objective was to keep us divided into small groups at each facility, with as little interaction as possible with anyone outside your platoon, and absolutely no one is to interact with an Operator at another Plant. There are more details than that, and some of them sound positively Orwellian when you read it aloud, but when looked at in pure logic, it makes more sense. There are but 18 Class 1 Liscensed Operators for the entire division, serving a population of about 120,000 so it's critical that we don't lose anyone, or if one of us does get sick, we don't infect a group any larger than the shift. It makes containment and continuity possible. Not guaranteed, but possible.
Where it gets tricky is me and my partner... we don't have a backup. Our Plants are very different from the conventional ones, and require somewhat specialized training to run. Fortunately, they are somewhat automated, and can be viewed securely and remotely, but an Operator still must be onsite and on-duty daily. So he and I can't risk being on a shift together. And we have now been isolated from the rest of the group too. The third guy who was supposed to be trained on Monday... yeah. I don't know what about that now... poopie just hit the fan, and he may be a more valuable asset elsewhere. We'll figure something out.
Dermal thermometers are being issued so we can monitor for fever. Copius amounts of hand sanitizer are everywhere. Everyone is doing what they're supposed to do. Cots, and dry food are being distributed to the Plants in the event we have to quarantine or sequester Operators. It's a very, very high level of preparedness, that quite frankly just isn't a lot of fun to think about. I guess it is good to know we can pull it together and make it work on very short notice.
So we got ourselves a picture-show now. But it'll be alright. For all the nuttiness I'm seeing in the general population, our folks seem to be okay.
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It's interesting how different organizations are handling this situation. At our University, we are being told that, if we can, we should work from home. We have everything we need from a technology standpoint (except maybe sufficient bandwidth) to teach, run meetings and supervise. The big question, however, is our research. Most of mine is with populations that are vulnerable healthwise, including people with disabilities and our aging population. We have yet to be told that we need to cease research activities but it's pretty much a no-brainer that you don't go waltzing into a nursing facility or community residence for people with intellectual disabilities (what used to be called group homes) to interview them when you could be bringing something a lot more dangerous than your laptop with you. Fortunately, some of the people who take part in our research will be able to be interviewed via a teleconference format which we are testing out for its reliability and validity.
My spouse, who works for one of the major airlines which will remain unnamed (but is headquartered in Atlanta), has been told that people in her position in IT (program manager) need to set up schedules for the foreseeable future in which 50% are working from home for a two-week period while the remainder continue to work on site. After two-weeks they'll exchange work locations. Apparently HR believes that this reduces the possibility that a whole lot of essential management all come down with the virus at the same time. From what I understand the airline industry is getting killed by this situation, will lose billions before things get better, and it cutting everywhere in an attempt to forestall losing too much blood. If it wasn't for the fact that our retirement accounts have been battered over the last week, it would probably be a good time for her to think about moving up her plans to retire within the next year or so.
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We played last night and the thought of infection was on my mind the whole night. The bar owner told me she was thinking about canceling but that we bring in a pretty good crowd. I can say that there were less people there than usual.
We're supposed to play again on the 27th. I'm trying not to make a rash decision, but I feel that as more cases come to the county, it wouldn't be a good idea to be in a situation like that. Ugh. The paranoia is setting in.
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It is everywhere. It spreads through people who don't know they have it. All of my gigs are cancelled. Xander is home from school, Dawn has shut her shop (although is still doing web and whole sale orders), and I am really hoping they close the immigration courts.
This has the best analysis of what's going on. It's going to be a good 12-18 months before there is some semblance of normalcy. We have an opportunity to escape the worst of what's happening in Italy, but that's only if we all self-isolate right now and are deadly serious about it. I have heart disease and diabetes, my wife has serious asthma and as most around here know, Xander's lungs were shredded at his birth. He's likely to be OK, but I don't want to leave him an orphan if other fools don't take it seriously. He's only 7.
https://tinyurl.com/w49ms3s
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Our local school system closed down this morning after a staff member at one of the elementary schools tested positive for the virus. The schools will be closed through the 27th at a minimum. They are still working out how this will effect employees. Traditional calendar they are handling by moving up spring break and canceling all remaining teacher work days but no word on year round students. I suspect it will be no more teacher work days and Saturdays to make up the time. A couple hours after our schools closed the Governor ordered all schools in NC closed and banned all gatherings over 100 people.