Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

It's over over

At work, the first batch of Dell laptops we purchased in response to the pandemic, in support of fully remote teaching, is about to expire on its basic warranty. Can you believe that? It’s been a whole three years since the start of COVID. Sometimes it takes a laptop warranty expiring to remind me just how long ago that is. Obviously, plenty have changed, both in the external world and my own personal life. And yet sometimes it can still feel like we’re in a bit of stasis since March 2020. A long continuation of (hopefully) the worse global pandemic in our lifetimes.

Of course, we don’t hear or talk about COVID-19 anymore. No more daily hospitalization numbers, no more masking guidelines. Even the vaccination campaigns have gone radio silence. It’s down to personal decisions now, on how careful you want to be. And we should respect each other’s rights to do so.

The pandemic is over. Life is back to normal. This past weekend I attended a lovely baby shower, in a recreation center room with about 50 people. Think back to two years ago: you wouldn’t dream to do such a reckless thing. Not without masking, lots of open windows, and minimal hugging. COVID is something we no longer think about. And while it’s taken longer than we’d all like, three years is not so bad in the grand scheme of things. We can, and have, finally move on.

Even the ultra-restrictive China have opened back up to complete normalcy. Foreigners can finally get into the country, on previously issued visas (or you can get a new one). I am not doing any traveling this summer. (Have you seen the prices of everything travel related?) The only flying I’m planning on is at the end of the year: to China. To visit relatives I’ve not seen in person in three years. In sha'Allah that will come to fruition.

Here comes the graduate.

What second wave?

So, the coronavirus is gone now? Everything can go back to normal?

That is of course an absurd thing to say, because even after over three months of lockdown, the number of new COVID-19 case are not going down. We don’t have to worry about the “second wave” later this year because the first wave still hasn’t ended! (Genius!) And to think that San Francisco - and California - is going ahead with reopening plans; as much as I really want to have a meal at a restaurant with my friends, right now is still seems far from the ideal time to do so. You’d hope to at least see a statistically significant dipping trend in new cases first.

We are so not there yet.

I think we are absolutely playing with fire with the protesting that’s been happening all around the country. This is not to disparage against the message of the protests; the fact it has to happen during this crazy time of quarantine is such an unfortunate coincidence. This many people clustered together cannot be a good thing for stopping the virus spread, no matter if people are wearing masks. Because if the opposite is true, then we wouldn’t have had to majorly shutdown for three months, and my friend’s wedding isn’t getting postponed.

Again, it has to be said I greatly support the message of the protests, and if the negative consequences towards potentially prolonging the COVID-19 pandemic is a necessary cost to move this country forward, then so be it. But then cities will have to allow other gatherings as well, because on a base level it’s super unfair to (for example) the person who just lost a grandparent and is prohibited from holding a proper ceremony with attending family and friends. I don’t think it’s right to be selective about what gatherings are allowed; there’s no rational explanation - the coronavirus doesn’t discriminate.

If protests must happen, then you might as well open back up other gathering opportunities as well. Whether or not people will actually go to those things is another matter, but it’s wrong to forbid a gym from opening when there are people protested down the street.

Courtyards are cool. Exhibit A.

What will I do

One thing to think about while we are all effectively locked inside our homes is what our lives will look like once we are no longer restricted to our residences. For sure, by that time the coronavirus situation will still be far form over, but at the very least, the many activities we are used to doing before the virus outbreak is going to be available to us again. The question is, then: will we go back to them enthusiastically?

Let’s say the local comedy club reopens: are you going to go? Will you risk being in a room with over a hundred strangers sharing the same air in a tightly packed space? What about concerts? Plays? Theatre? I personally won’t be patronizing those sort of entertainment venues anytime soon, even with the so-called social distancing protocols in affect. Is the inside of an airplane any safer with all of the middle seats unoccupied? It sure doesn’t appear to be.

The more intrepid of us will of course have no qualms about going back out to places and being amongst the crowd as soon as the authorities would allow it. It’s not because these type of people want to die, but rather they believe they are immune to the disease, that they’re healthy enough and well enough that COVID-19 would be ineffective towards them. It’s the same mental power that compels a solider to charge into battle: they seriously do not believe they will be the ones to die. These people know and understand the danger, but think themselves lucky they won’t catch the virus under any circumstances.

I definitely do not have that line of thinking; even after the shelter-in-place order is over, I’ll still be extra cautious about going outside and doing various activities. One thing I really do miss however is seeing my friends in person, and sharing a lovely meal at a restaurant. If there’s one thing I’m eagerly waiting to do again, it’s dining out with the people I care out.

We’ve got 2/3rds of a month to go, as of this writing. God speed.

Might I recommend some reading during this time of quarantine.

Back from the slumber

Hello, Internet friends. I hope you’ve been well, and the people you love are well, too, given the current circumstances we find ourselves in. It’s been nearly a month since I’ve written on these digital pages, and indeed it has taken that long for me to return to some form of normalcy. Things happened so quickly: from the first news of the coronavirus making it to the San Francisco Bay Area, to the enacting of the shelter-in-place directive that’s been extended to the beginning of May. It was a mad dash to get everything in order for the extended home-stay, the major one being the transition to working from home.

When you are confined to the house every single day of the week, the days do seem to blend in together. You’d wake up and have no idea what day of the week it is, needing a fumbling of the phone to tell you that it is Saturday, a day that you don’t need to login to the web portals at work. For a time, there was no normalcy to be found, even if home life and work life started to become consistent. Because I am consciously aware that it’s not okay on the outside world, no matter how nice it is to jump out of bed and right to the front of the computer screen to start working.

But I’m immensely fortunate; my line of employment at least provides a work-from-home option, rather than the alternative that millions of Americans are currently facing: getting laid off. I try hard to not take this for granted, and it only takes a few scrolls of the twitter feed to remind myself that there are far worse things that can currently happen than being stuck at home, virtually assisting people with the intricacies of Zoom meetings.

As terrible as it may sound, last week was the first time this new normal felt okay, and I was then ready to return to the habits I kept before this whole coronavirus thing happened. Perhaps I may have used the virus outbreak as a crutch and excuse to be lazy, but it wasn’t a complete waste: I took some of the time to get my mental health in order (I finally got around to a bit of Alan Watts). The anxiety is very real, and even though I’m an introverted homebody at heart, the need for everybody else to also stay at home is not something I particularly enjoy.

One of those habits is of course writing on this blog the standard four times a week, and starting today, I’ll be here to fulfill that self-prescribed duty. I’ll catch you all tomorrow.

Spring always come on time.