A Cup of Tea

[thestick]

Bump. How's South Korea holding up, Chevalier?

Meanwhile, the coronavirus has come to the United States, California is on shelter in place orders, and one of my good friends is trying to flee the country. Good times. At least I can finally sit at home and do nothing, guilt-free.

[darrelljs]

https://medium.com/six-four-six-nine/evi...767def5894

[shallow_thought]

Also, yay, more naval nerds. Have any time/ability for a PBEM of Order of Battle: WWII or the Operational Art of War or something? Or a Rule the Waves succession game?

I'm pretty sure Chevalier already knows about it, but maybe I can recommend the blog Naval Gazing to your attention?

I'm late to the thread, but that is a great link. I love naval/military history, and new stuff to read is particularly valuable right now.

This thread seems like a really nice idea, and we need those .

[Brian Shanahan]

bastard also invented calculus at the same time

meanwhile, I'm sitting here shitposting on Civ IV internet forums.

[cough]Leibnitz[/cough]

On a more serious note hope you're getting on ok. Things aren't quite so bad here yet, but you never know what's around the corner, especially with Fine Gale in charge.

[superdeath]

Had myself a lovely last month or so. MUCH TMI, so be prepared.

Took in two ladies as roommates because they gave me sob stories about bad home life/ect/ect.

Neither had a job, one was supposedly looking for one ( for context, im 25 and they are 19/20 ) and one ended up being a "gf" i guess. The gf had monthly Social security checks which were broken up weekly because she had it setup that way due to bad money management. Anyway, so i convince them both that id be needing rent money. ( basically enough that between them i have the house payment covered so i can save for that damn Camaro i think i need ) Anyway, the "gf" is able to pay half due to SS.

Long story short, the "gf" decides that me spending more money on her and her friends than she paid in "rent" wasnt good enough and ended up cheating, doing cocaine, and giving me a god damn std was the right way to do things, and then on top of that tried to demand her rent money back after having already stayed a month. ( AND, while being dumb and locking them all out.. she broke my lock kicking the door in which still needs fixed ) Just got my pills today to thankfully get rid of this std.

She's almost all moved back out, but her now ex-friend still lives here. Eating all my food, drinking my drinks.. using my wifi... just hoping she gets a job one of these days soon, but the COVID-19 crap is keeping alot of places from hiring right now. On top of which, my current job didnt need me 2 days last week which hurt my finances considerably so now im looking for another job a bit closer to home to save on gas.

So, anyway... Hows everyone's march going?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Bump. How's South Korea holding up, Chevalier?

Meanwhile, the coronavirus has come to the United States, California is on shelter in place orders, and one of my good friends is trying to flee the country. Good times. At least I can finally sit at home and do nothing, guilt-free.

Korea is handling the crisis with flying colors. The city I'm in has less than ten cases, and life continues on as normal - restaurants and bars are open, grocery stores are stocked, public transport is still running. We haven't had school yet - the year was due to start on February 24th for me, but right now word from Seoul is we'll start on April 6. There's also rumors of one more delay coming down the pipe, to push things back until after legislative elections on the 15th. 

Also, yay, more naval nerds. Have any time/ability for a PBEM of Order of Battle: WWII or the Operational Art of War or something? Or a Rule the Waves succession game?

I'm pretty sure Chevalier already knows about it, but maybe I can recommend the blog Naval Gazing to your attention?

I'm late to the thread, but that is a great link. I love naval/military history, and new stuff to read is particularly valuable right now.

This thread seems like a really nice idea, and we need those .

Bean is a great writer, and really knows his stuff. He's a fellow St. Louisian, like me, although we've never met in person since neither one of us lives in the city any longer. You can often find him hanging out in the comment threads at Slate Star Codex, which has the best comment section on the Internet (and I know there's a few SSCers lurking around RB, too). 

bastard also invented calculus at the same time

meanwhile, I'm sitting here shitposting on Civ IV internet forums.

[cough]Leibnitz[/cough]

On a more serious note hope you're getting on ok.  Things aren't quite so bad here yet, but you never know what's around the corner, especially with Fine Gale in charge.

Things here are mostly fine. Korea and other East Asian countries like Taiwan have weathered this crisis better than any other nation I've been able to observe, so far. Mostly it's a product of culture and of determined, smart, governmental competence (a weird concept for an American). The Korean government mandated free testing early, has tested more widely than any other nation, and as a result quickly got a handle on the number of cases actually loose. Then, they've aggressively tracked and quarantined those with symptoms, or those with symptoms have quarantined and distanced themselves - Korean culture strongly emphasizes pro-social behavior. Masks and social distancing were widespread in February, but there was never any panic or hoarding like in the West. 

In fact, apart from the actions of a few individuals, Korea might have already cleared itself of the virus. But one woman, returning from Wuhan, went to a crowded church affair in Daegu, singlehandedly exposing hundreds to the virus - the Daegu outbreak is what prompted school closures. Then, just as the government was getting a handle on that, one of the individuals from the Daegu outbreak exposed his company in Seoul, a crowded tech company. I heard that there was another burst in Seoul over the weekend, but haven't checked the news on that yet to be certain. 

I live a good few hours by bus from Seoul and right now inter-city travel is very limited (not banned, just advised against) and people are tested at the bus station, so it shouldn't affect me here.

Had myself a lovely last month or so. MUCH TMI, so be prepared.

Took in two ladies as roommates because they gave me sob stories about bad home life/ect/ect.

Neither had a job, one was supposedly looking for one ( for context, im 25 and they are 19/20 ) and one ended up being a "gf" i guess. The gf had monthly Social security checks which were broken up weekly because she had it setup that way due to bad money management. Anyway, so i convince them both that id be needing rent money. ( basically enough that between them i have the house payment covered so i can save for that damn Camaro i think i need ) Anyway, the "gf" is able to pay half due to SS.

Long story short, the "gf" decides that me spending more money on her and her friends than she paid in "rent" wasnt good enough and ended up cheating, doing cocaine, and giving me a god damn std was the right way to do things, and then on top of that tried to demand her rent money back after having already stayed a month. ( AND, while being dumb and locking them all out.. she broke my lock kicking the door in which still needs fixed ) Just got my pills today to thankfully get rid of this std.

She's almost all moved back out, but her now ex-friend still lives here. Eating all my food, drinking my drinks.. using my wifi... just hoping she gets a job one of these days soon, but the COVID-19 crap is keeping alot of places from hiring right now. On top of which, my current job didnt need me 2 days last week which hurt my finances considerably so now im looking for another job a bit closer to home to save on gas.

So, anyway... Hows everyone's march going?

Man, mine was rough, too. I'm sorry about your situation, but I hope things are turning around for the better now. Keep your eyes on the prize of that Camaro - it's good to have a goal and work towards it. 

So my March...I shouldn't talk too much about it, since too much talk got me in trouble in the first place. But my Korean school and I are butting heads about comments I made on social media which got back to them. Minor things that wouldn't even be noticed in the US, but stepped on toes here - just a culture clash that caught me off-guard. At the same time, my old American school is begging for me to return and offering a pretty nice job - better than my old position - to do so. So while I'm enjoying the adventure over here, and have made good friends...it's mighty tempting to return.

[darrelljs]

I was going to complain the lockdown has prevented me from seeing my girlfriend, but, uh, that’s pretty minor in comparison .

Darrell

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Got my official slap on the wrist from my school, but I'm not fired! So there's that!

No idea if my contract will be renewed, but I'm not sure I want to stay in this country another year anyway.

[Brian Shanahan]

bastard also invented calculus at the same time

meanwhile, I'm sitting here shitposting on Civ IV internet forums.

[cough]Leibnitz[/cough]

On a more serious note hope you're getting on ok.  Things aren't quite so bad here yet, but you never know what's around the corner, especially with Fine Gale in charge.

Things here are mostly fine. Korea and other East Asian countries like Taiwan have weathered this crisis better than any other nation I've been able to observe, so far. Mostly it's a product of culture and of determined, smart, governmental competence (a weird concept for an American). The Korean government mandated free testing early, has tested more widely than any other nation, and as a result quickly got a handle on the number of cases actually loose. Then, they've aggressively tracked and quarantined those with symptoms, or those with symptoms have quarantined and distanced themselves - Korean culture strongly emphasizes pro-social behavior. Masks and social distancing were widespread in February, but there was never any panic or hoarding like in the West. 

Which contrasts with Ireland where you have to be showing at least two major symptoms before you're tested, and the caretaker Minister for Health (Simon Harris) was on the news last night lamenting that it was "so hard" to close down non-essential businesses despite an infection curve beginning to look like Italy's. As ever with Fine Gaie (and Fianna Fail too) the financial health of companies is more important than the actual health of the country.

[The Black Sword]

They're following the advice that the HSE(Ireland's health service) is giving them. And the reasoning makes sense too, we don't have the capacity to test the number of people that were coming forward with the looser case definition(despite apparently doing quite well in tests per capita), and a lot of tests were coming back negative. They need to be more efficient with their testing. They still advise everyone with milder symptoms to isolate for 2 weeks. My understanding is this moves us more in line with the WHO's position and if you're going to label something as a mistake it was going with the looser definition in the first place.

I would be quite worried about a politician who didn't find it difficult to shut so much of the country down.

Full disclosure, I'm a bit too left to vote for FF or FG, but I have a lot of respect for them(FG a bit more than FF) and strongly believe that most of them do what they think is best for the majority of people in the country.