COVID-19 - least favourite things. (But I guess you could do favourite things as well)

Hot takes from fuckwits in which photos of empty shelves in Woolworths* are presented as 'what Australia would look like under Socialism'. Culprits so far: Malcolm Roberts, Rowan Dean and -- a week after these dumbos offered this shit take and had their flabby arses handed to them -- Gideon Rozner of the IPA. Yes, the man who was appalled that anyone would think Wake In Fright was a study of toxic masculinity.

Apologies to those of you not in the Antipodes. I realise this is a very parochial post.


*Not the US Woolies. This is the dinky-di true blue Aussie company that in dinky-di etc etc fashion stole the name because it wasn't trademarked in Australia.


ETA: This is my least favourite thing.

ETATA: Or is it?

My least favorite thing, apart from the obvious (the deaths and the anti-Chinese and anti-Asian sentiment and racism & xenophobia in general that COVID-19 outbreak has triggered and – in the minds of some – justified) is not being able to meet my friend I haven't seen since December.

My favorite things are:

1. My kid is at home, which is cool, because I get to see more of him and talk to him more.
2. I get to play more WoW. Corona virus won't find me in Azeroth! Well, we did get the Corrupted Blood plague from the old troll god Hakkar once, but that's all. And it's been studied by epidemiologists as a model reaction to real-world epidemic. How cool is that?

My least favourite thing (again, all usual/above disclaimers aside, and I don't mean to sound breezy about those - they're terrible and scary and what-little-faith-I-had-left-in-humanity-crushing) is that I'm a freelancer and all my work might stop and I won't be able to pay my rent. I won't be homeless, because I have some savings, but those savings are literally my most valuable thing. Having to spend them is a nightmarish thought.

I'm already at home a lot because I mostly work from home, so while getting to stay at home would usually be my favourite thing, I think I'd rather work. Or get me some sweet govt stimulus $$$, anyway. But (shock! horror!) casual/freelance workers and sole traders (aka some of society's poorest and most vulnerable workers) aren't included in my govt's piss-poor COVID-19 stimulus package, so that won't be happening.

My least favourite thing: wearing the mask.

My favourite things: working from home, and lots of elbow room!

Least favorite thing about this situation: I work in a grocery store.

Just take a moment to wrap your mind around that. I actually manage a department, so I get to see both sides of it, from the wild panic buying and greedy hoarding some people immediately jump to, to the effects this chaos is having on the workers (the thousand yard stares of the seventeen year old cashiers who've had their dreams destroyed, the helpless frustrated clenching of fists when someone yells at a stock crew worker about the lack of toilet paper when the stock crew worker has absolutely nothing to do with ordering, the frustration caused by the greedy *bleeps* buying in bulk and preventing others from getting the items they need to survive...what about the workers? We need these products too!), to what will happen when this panic dies down in however long and we're left with all this extra stock that won't move because people have freaking eight months' worth of toilet paper spilling out of their cabinets. It's all hands on deck, all the time.

Seriously, do you really need twenty seven cases of bottled water, or twelve cases of paper towels? Eight jumbo bottles of Lysol? Every last pack of ground beef the meat department has out? What are you going to do with sixty pounds of ground beef? That stuff's only good for what, a week? A few days? I hope you have a deep freezer...or three. And milk and eggs! You can't freeze shell eggs, and unless you're running an orphanage you don't need eight gallons of milk or four boxes of cereal.

Second least favorite thing: paranoia. Definitely the paranoia. Am I sick? No...I don't think so. Am I getting sick? Is this headache from the virus, or is it just my allergies flaring up like they do half the year? Oh no, I just sneezed! Do I have the virus? No, no...allergies again. Maybe I'm already sick and just don't know it yet? If I go visit my parents, will I accidentally make them sick?

Seeing how utterly unprepared my federal government was for this, how utterly avoidable that incompetence was, and knowing how unlikely it is that we’re going to fix the problems. (If we somehow get lucky and have “only” 10,000 deaths from this, I can write the “see, it was no worse than the flu” messages on social media that I know I will be reading. Yet if it kills a million, we’ll learn nothing, because half our political establishment cannot learn the lessons needed because those lessons are contrary to what elects them. Sigh.)

My least favorite things:

The anxiety. My anxiety has skyrocketed.

My girl is now sick--not Covid-type symptoms, but sick, and if she's still feeling the same tomorrow I want to take her to the dr, but I'm afraid to.

Seeing how much/how many people suck. I mean...it isn't exactly a newsflash, but still. If you're talking to me and know clearly I have people who fall into the more vulnerable groups, don't freaking roll your eyes about social distancing.

My favorite thing: Seeing/hearing the people who are stepping up to help others who need it. I may be cranky, but I'm also a sucker for a "helped the old man get the last roll of toilet paper," "ridiculously rich person donated $500,000 to people who are (hopefully temporarily) unemployed due to shut downs."

Least favourite thing: knowing my parents and older relatives are at high risk from this fucking virus, and feeling like Cassandra about it.

Second least favourite thing: being a frontline health care worker during this shit.

Favourite thing: I learnt to make bread today! And it was delicious.

Second favourite thing: a lot more time sitting indoors to devote to my perfect Skyrim playthrough.

Third favourite thing: there's something to be said about sharing an experience, positive or otherwise, with everyone on the planet.

Least favorite thing: This makes me sound awful, but having the kids home. Haaa. We live in a city without much in the way of parks or forests or outdoors anything, so either they go to indoor playgrounds or we just stay home. So we're staying home, but it is a challenge with a 4yo and a 1yo. Mr Hippo and I have come up with a homeschooling routine which is good, but time and energy consuming, and he's just started a new job so he's keen to do the work and prove his worth. Meanwhile, I'm in a company which can't close, not even temporarily, and I have deadlines, so hmm.

Favorite thing: Literally nothing. I think pre-kids I would've been fine riding it out, but I'm just cranky now. Oh, most favorite thing is no more handshakes! Hate handshakes. I hope we're done with those for good!

...wow I just read back my post and boy I sound grouchy. *sits in bog with a sigh*

Least favorite thing: *Waves vaguely in direction of all of it while coughing mildly and wondering if he's still gonna have a job*

Favorite thing: Well, I wrote 2500 words yesterday, so that was nice.

BTW, I hate hugs, love keeping five feet away from people at all times, and wish we could add 'not making eye contact' as a preventative measure but that's probably too far.

mccardey said:

Slight derail, but I listened to the Guardian Australia's excellent Full Story podcast this morning about life on the frontlines of COVID-19 in Australia. It begins by tracking an employees attempt to get info about whether they need to be checked for symptoms and then goes on to interview a very nice doctor.


Terrifying stuff. .

Click to expand...

It's here: https://www.theguardian.com/austral.../coronavirus-on-the-frontline-of-the-outbreak

Last week it was not knowing how prevalent the virus was in our state. Now I've just assumed everyone has it and we're locked in until further notice, or we run out of milk.

It's weird. This weekend wasn't much different than other weekends I've spent at home. And next week won't be that different either (except no eating out) because I work from home anyway. But it FEELS different now that I can't go anywhere.

My least favorite thing: My anxiety. I work in fast food. For the past two weeks I've been overly washing my hands, overly using sanitizer, wondering if that person I just took an order from face-to-face has it, freaking out about every cough, etc etc.

We clean and sanitize the lobby area every 30 minutes. Guess who does that? Me.

I take orders in lobby, and I just realized how much people spit when they talk. Like one guy, much taller than me, basically spat everywhere when placing his order, and I worried that if he had Covid-19, I could catch it so easily.

Now we're talking about closing lobby but keeping drive thru open. Great! But I doubt they'd need so many employees then. Where does that put me?

2nd least favorite thing: the uncertainty.

My biggest fear (and least favorite thing) is if I get this infection, it might kill me in only a couple of weeks. And half that time I'd be incapacitated in an ICU.

I'm also bummed I can't visit with my son, let alone hug him. But I do still have phone and computer contact.

I feel really badly for all the people that cannot visit their loved ones in nursing homes and hospitals. And many of those loved ones are going to die alone and without seeing their loved ones before they do.

All responses based on self:

Least favorites:

1. Work being stupid about working from home. Each level of management is waiting for another to tell them it's okay to let us telework, and nobody really knows who does have the authority, so nothing is happening. If I hadn't raised a stink, I would be physically reporting to a building with 8,000 people in it following a subway commute.

2. I'm getting buggy sitting at home. Too chilly and rainy to get out and about today.


Favorite things:

1. Lots of reading time
2. Took some online trainings I'd been meaning to get to
3. Trying recipes since I'm doing fewer restaurant outings

Least favorite: (for others) my friends in the arts are watching their resources dry up.
(for myself) The uncertainty. The fact that I can't see my students. That I might be celebrating Easter all by myself, hollering ALL FIFTEEN VERSES OF THAT GERHARDT HYMN out the window, instead of at church.

Favorite: My mom and I are both so anxious, we've instituted a nightly phone call for the duration. She's my best friend and my rock. We were singing annoying songs at each other and applying liberal trends in theology to Aesop's Fables last night and laughing hysterically.

Kat M said:

Least favorite: (for others) my friends in the arts are watching their resources dry up.

Click to expand...

Yeah, my gf lost the John Waters show she was doing and another huge one locally, plus I'm not sure people are in the mood to by art right now and have no clue what the distribution network is going to look like. Much discussion among both of us about how we're going to have to turbocharge our online hustle soon (but who even knows right now).

Least Favorite Things:
- The overall sense of no intelligent leadership and everyone-for-themselves creating panic buyers and callous risk-deniers and profiteers.
- The further erosion of science and logic in society.
- The fact that my mom's b-day is this week and I don't even know if anywhere will have a cake, let alone if we can get dinner (even take-home dinner) or see relatives.
- Dealing with family members who aren't coping well with the mixed messages.
- The fact that I'm not sure I'm going to have a paycheck until this is over; our library system is shut down, and it's really confusing what they want employees to do in the meantime, and I may not find out until Wednesday when I show up (or try to show up) for work what's going on.
- Knowing some people, particularly self-employed people or small business owners, may not come out the other side of this very well...

Favorite Things:
- If I don't have to go in to work, that'll be more writing, reading, and bingewatching time... plus I can sleep in.
- Maybe more people will wake up to the fact that health care in this country seriously is broken, and this needs to be a major platform plank in coming elections.

Least favorite things:

-Worrying about my mom and other people who are at special risk from this, because at least some people are going to die who otherwise wouldn't have for a while
-Worrying about friends and family members who are at immediate risk of losing their income because they can't work (like my sister and brother in law who own a catering business)
-The idiocy of people insisting this virus has infected fewer people than the flu so far, so the warnings and concerns of countless infectious disease experts is just a bunch of hype and hysteria.
-Not seeing colleagues and students for what will very likely be the rest of the semester
-Having to wing it in order to get my face-to-face lecture and lab classes online in just a few days!
-Giving up pretty much everything fun that takes place away from home: brewpubs, agility trials, eating out, movies, get togethers with friends. These will be no goes for a long while
-Worrying about the puppy I am going to pick up April 5. How can I socialize him to be a friendly, outgoing dog if everything is shut down and no one can visit? Also worrying if I will even still be able to pick him up by April 5.
-Fear over national emergency being used to cancel elections or suppress voter turnout

Favorite things:

-Well, at least I can work in my jammies if I want and can keep my own hours
-The dogs and cats will be happy to have us home so much more
-The hope that maybe this has irrevocably demonstrated to those undecided swing voters how unsuited for the presidency a certain ochre-toned person is (could be a pipe dream, though)
-Relief that, as awful as this virus is, it's less deadly than many, and hoping it might teach us how to be better prepared next time something like this happens

Least favorite things:

- People going on about how wonderful social distancing is. I've been working really hard on reducing my social isolation; it's bad enough having most of my opportunities for human interaction canceled (for valid reason, but it's still depressing) without a bunch of people crowing about how great it would be if the world were like this all the time.
- Anyone who talks about grocery delivery like it's some kind of magic that means no one ever has to leave their house. How exactly do you think those groceries get delivered? Who do you think moves the supply chains that make those groceries available in the first place? But hey, you can get your precious fresh veggies without anyone having to brave the big scary outside world. At least, not anyone who matters.

Eh, don't mind me. I was cranky anyway, and my writing group just canceled for the next month, which was the one remaining social thing I had to look forward to. Favorite things: I got nothing.

Aw. Thanks!