Octopus Overlords

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:24 am I've already scheduled the week off of work so that I can be the IT department and fully engaged for that first week.

It's amusing hearing our 10 and 14yo kids explaining various bits of technology to my wife. She is very good with an ultrasound machine, but apparently that doesn't extend to PCs.

The twins will get there soon enough, I'm guessing, but they're still only 6, so Daddy's the heavy hitter in the computer world!

We've really struggled with remote learning. My daughter is starting middle school, so the increased work load and greater responsibility for knowing how to prioritize work has really blindsided her. My son is still in elementary, so he has primarily struggled with staying focused and on task.

My wife cannot work from home, so she's not available during the day to assist. I do work from home, but my job requires me to pretty much be tied up in meetings at least half the day.

The end result is two largely unsupervised kids who are expected to know when everything is due and utilize their time wisely in order to get it done. Compound that with an increased workload to supplement the lack of direct teacher interaction, and it's been a disaster.

After the first week we discovered both kids were late on multiple assignments, because the kids were scared to reach out to the teacher for help and were scared to tell us that they were behind. My wife and I have attempted to print out calendars of what each kid should be doing each day, but you're talking 8 different teacher with 8 different lesson plans spread out between 2 kids and 5 days a week. It's a nightmare.

This week has gone a little better as the kids have started to adjust, and my wife and I have been doing a bit better job of keeping track of what's due when. Still, that alone has required us to spend roughly 2-3 hours a night assisting the kids with assignments. It's wearing thin, and we're only 2 weeks in.

YellowKing wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:10 pm My wife and I have attempted to print out calendars of what each kid should be doing each day, but you're talking 8 different teacher with 8 different lesson plans spread out between 2 kids and 5 days a week. It's a nightmare.

This was the year we were going to put the twins in separate classrooms (they spent preschool and K together), but we nixed that idea as remote learning seemed more and more likely. That scenario is what we were trying to avoid.

My oldest is a freshman and went back virtually on 8/10. She really likes it. She is able to set her own schedule on the asynchronous days (M/Th/F) and gets the teacher face time on the synchronous days (T/W). She is going back two days a week starting next week and is not thrilled with the idea.

My other is a 6th grader and will be virtual all year (she started 8/24). She isn't a fan of the Art, but otherwise likes her classes and teachers.

Both kids use Google Classrooms and it's great. There is a To Do list with the list from all the teachers compiled in one place with due dates (today, tomorrow, future). They also record all their classes so they can go back and re-listen to any lesson plan. This was helpful for the 6th grader's class where we had to build the longest bridge possible out of a single piece of paper and she couldn't fully explain to me what was expected (our bridge was 83.75" long after an hour which is when I said we were done). No real complaints so far.

Our school's 'hybrid' remote has been launched horribly.

Not one teacher does it the same way as another teacher, so if you figure out what one teacher has going on - you only have one puzzle figure out. And, sadly - not one of them has a handle on the technology they are using. Sharing links that end up just taking you to the Google Doc that you are on, instead of some new 'assignment' page. Sharing 'videos' that are taking the place of class, 'as they get Zoom all figured out' (what the hell have then been doing all summer?)

It's a mess - and what's most frustrating is that I give a shit and I keep sitting down with my kid to try and see what they aren't getting - only to see what they have been handed and throwing my hands up after 20 minutes of clicking every damn thing the teacher has shared.

And of course since it's Hybrid - that means that each day, after the morning of trying to figure out their uncoordinated mess of a program, I then bring her into school for 3 hours of "trying to catch COVID".

Truly the best of both worlds.

News was showing an overcrowded beach and talking about people flocking there to beat the summer heat. That makes zero sense. So lemme get this straight....you go outside IN the heat to an open beach in the full sun and on sun reflecting sand to beat the heat? Seems counter productive. Stay home! Inside in front of your air conditioner or fan. You know where you can actually beat the heat....and help keep COVID at bay.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:38 pm News was showing an overcrowded beach and talking about people flocking there to beat the summer heat. That makes zero sense. So lemme get this straight....you go outside IN the heat to an open beach in the full sun and on sun reflecting sand to beat the heat? Seems counter productive. Stay home! Inside in front of your air conditioner or fan. You know where you can actually beat the heat....and help keep COVID at bay.

I think the idea is that they get in the water when they get hot.

Unagi wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:54 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:38 pm News was showing an overcrowded beach and talking about people flocking there to beat the summer heat. That makes zero sense. So lemme get this straight....you go outside IN the heat to an open beach in the full sun and on sun reflecting sand to beat the heat? Seems counter productive. Stay home! Inside in front of your air conditioner or fan. You know where you can actually beat the heat....and help keep COVID at bay.

I think the idea is that they get in the water when they get hot.

And the beach is almost always cooler than a city due to the ocean breezes...and all that water providing evaporative cooling.

Theres water in homes. Colder water.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 4:28 pm Theres water in homes. Colder water.

Letting the days go by...

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 4:31 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 4:28 pm Theres water in homes. Colder water.

Letting the days go by...

So you're saying stessier should remove the water at the bottom of the ocean?

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:38 pm News was showing an overcrowded beach and talking about people flocking there to beat the summer heat. That makes zero sense. So lemme get this straight....you go outside IN the heat to an open beach in the full sun and on sun reflecting sand to beat the heat? Seems counter productive. Stay home! Inside in front of your air conditioner or fan. You know where you can actually beat the heat....and help keep COVID at bay.

You're forgetting that the beach is a place where people can be half naked as they enjoy their day. I've been to the beaches around here many times and never felt like it was a hot place to be. It's easy enough to create shade with an beach umbrella or something. Plus there are places, depending which beach you go to, where you can step inside somewhere for a bite to eat or get drinks, and cool off while you're doing it. That doesn't even count the cool breeze that comes off the water.

The place I can't understand people going to in the summer is the desert, for hiking. I've also done plenty of hiking in some of the desert areas out here and the situation is totally different from the beach. You are under the hot sun, there's nowhere to hide from it, being half naked only means more surface area of your skin will burn, since you are hiking you can't really set up your own source of shade, and even if there happens to be a wind it's a hot wind so it's like you're being cooked in a convection oven.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 4:42 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 4:31 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 4:28 pm Theres water in homes. Colder water.

Letting the days go by...

So you're saying stessier should remove the water at the bottom of the ocean?

Water dissolving and water removing.

Both kinds.

stessier wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:06 pm

Unagi wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:54 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:38 pm News was showing an overcrowded beach and talking about people flocking there to beat the summer heat. That makes zero sense. So lemme get this straight....you go outside IN the heat to an open beach in the full sun and on sun reflecting sand to beat the heat? Seems counter productive. Stay home! Inside in front of your air conditioner or fan. You know where you can actually beat the heat....and help keep COVID at bay.

I think the idea is that they get in the water when they get hot.

And the beach is almost always cooler than a city due to the ocean breezes...and all that water providing evaporative cooling.

Lookit this bougie fancy lad...got a OCEAN for his breezes!

Unagi wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:35 pm Our school's 'hybrid' remote has been launched horribly.

Not one teacher does it the same way as another teacher, so if you figure out what one teacher has going on - you only have one puzzle figure out. And, sadly - not one of them has a handle on the technology they are using. Sharing links that end up just taking you to the Google Doc that you are on, instead of some new 'assignment' page. Sharing 'videos' that are taking the place of class, 'as they get Zoom all figured out' (what the hell have then been doing all summer?)

It's a mess - and what's most frustrating is that I give a shit and I keep sitting down with my kid to try and see what they aren't getting - only to see what they have been handed and throwing my hands up after 20 minutes of clicking every damn thing the teacher has shared.

And of course since it's Hybrid - that means that each day, after the morning of trying to figure out their uncoordinated mess of a program, I then bring her into school for 3 hours of "trying to catch COVID".

Truly the best of both worlds.

Indeed, given the fact that vastly superior online learning resources like Khan Academy have existed for at least a decade, one cannot help but wonder at the notion of shoehorning so many old-fashioned and largely technically-illiterate teachers into a field of expertise they're clearly ill-equipped and unprepared to handle properly. In terms of remote learning, it seems incredibly inefficient to have tens or hundreds of thousands of teachers across the nation each separately fumbling their way around whatever online resources they've been instructed to use.

We used some Khan Academy stuff and were really, really not impressed. I get the feeling that it works better for older students than younger ones.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:57 am We used some Khan Academy stuff and were really, really not impressed. I get the feeling that it works better for older students than younger ones.

Same. It was a disaster.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:57 am We used some Khan Academy stuff and were really, really not impressed. I get the feeling that it works better for older students than younger ones.

Indeed, that's a valid concern and only reinforces the difficulties involved with providing adequate remote learning for younger students. Suffice to say, if a relatively successful online educational organization like Khan Academy (that has been around since 2008) remains deficient in terms of the resources they provide for younger students, it's pretty much guaranteed to be that much more onerous for largely technically-illiterate teachers struggling to do so.

We've had great success, on the other hand, with Reading A-to-Z (www.raz-kids.com) and Happy Numbers (www.happynumbers.com). These are more focused to younger kids, have simple apps (including for Kindle Fire), and my wife (who is a reading specialist) is pleased with the RAZ in particular. They don't require too much tech savvy by the teacher - they really just need to know to open the appropriate level of books for kids. My comment about Khan Academy wasn't meant to say that online learning is impossible. It was meant to convey my family's experience with that particular avenue for it.

If anyone does have younger kids and they don't have access through their schools to either RAZ or Happy Numbers, I'd suggest it to the teacher to see if they can get an account that way.

https://sports.yahoo.com/big-ten-covid- ... 11708.html

This is the first part of what I figured would trigger the "Oh shit." response of the fall was young people don't have it as easy as we said.
Number 2 will be the amount school staff going down
And the final "Oh shit, shut it all down moment" will be the famous healthy athlete who makes the news because they're continuing to experience debilitation a month and a half after going down, so we see an enduring example of what living post Covid 19 could be, even to some at their peak fitness. (Though I predicted this will come from the NFL should the NFL go on)

I continue to hope I'm wrong because I don't know anything and what I've seen is just a bias of... well, what I've seen.

Around one-third of Big Ten athletes who tested positive for COVID-19 appear to have myocarditis, according to Penn State’s director of athletic medicine.

Wayne Sebastianelli delivered the information during a State College Area Board of School Directors meeting on Monday that was reported on by the Centre Daily Times. The data underscores Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren’s open letter explaining why the conference postponed its fall sports seasons.

Sebastianelli called the level of inflammation in the studies “alarming.”

Sebastianelli linked COVID-19 and myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle that reduces the heart’s ability to pump blood and can be fatal if not addressed. It is the third-leading cause of sudden death in young people, per Mayo Clinic cardiologist Dr. Michael Ackerman.

University of Arkansas has been open for two weeks now and already has 400 new cases of Covid19.
Of course there are 15-20K students there.

U.S. coronavirus deaths projected to more than double to 410,000 by January

deaths could soar to 3,000 per day in December, the University of Washington's health institute forecast on Friday.

U of A has over 600 positive cases of Covid now.

I don't understand how so many people and institutions have seemingly thrown up their hands and are content to die and/or let others die. Someone needs to calculate the value of a life in contrast to keeping the economy running... i.e. at what point does staying shut down actually end more lives than Covid. I'm sure such a figure exists, but what we're seeing in the U.S. and other worst affected countries sure ain't possibly the best case scenario. And then we find a way to prosecute the assholes who let this happen.

Edit: Damn I do want to go see Tenet though, but I'm afraid Mrs. Nym will divorce me.

The movie will eventually come to DVD/streaming. If you have some spare change around, invest in an ATMOS Dolby sound bar, get that real theater feeling right there in the living room!

Sudy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 9:52 am I don't understand how so many people and institutions have seemingly thrown up their hands and are content to die and/or let others die. Someone needs to calculate the value of a life in contrast to keeping the economy running... i.e. at what point does staying shut down actually end more lives than Covid. I'm sure such a figure exists, but what we're seeing in the U.S. and other worst affected countries sure ain't possibly the best case scenario. And then we find a way to prosecute the assholes who let this happen.

Edit: Damn I do want to go see Tenet though, but I'm afraid Mrs. Nym will divorce me.

My wife and I actually went to the movies this past weekend to see New Mutants. .It looks like for AMC you pick an available seat and then it automagically blocks out the seats on either side of you from being purchased. It wasn't too bad. The seats of the theartere we were in looked brand new and the staff was cleaning them after each showing it seemed. There were only about 16ish people though. Not a big turnout but I'm not sure if it's because of fear or the fact that NJ just opened theatres up this past Friday and people just didn't think to go.
As for the number you are requesting I am willing to bet it's a hard number to determine so soon. We'd have to shut down for a long while to find out the balance point.
A person can get Covid and die within a month. Typically if someone loses their job, you'd have a while on unemployment at minimum so the risk of literally starving to death is probably low, so for example, if we just shutdown for a year we might not know the full reprecussions for several months after that.
Plus you have the people that still thinmk it's fake/a non issue, laregly due to our illustrious leader who kept blowing it off (but now says that he lied for our sake about the severity of Covid. He was just doing us a favor.). These people still feel that their liberty to do whatever they want "trumps" ( a fitting word if there ever was one) any one elses possible death. They feel that if you are worried about dying it's on you to stay home (thus your liberty comes down to possibly quite literally give me liberty or give me death) and it's not their responsibility to keep you safe or even try to keep you safe. This is what many people see as a typical american response to things. What's in it for me? We do have the perfect President for that. He seems to only think about himself and thats what a lot of his supporters feel.

Im in the COVID Haircut Club now. I used the clippers to shave that annoying neck hair off the back of my neck yesterday. Was doing good holding my hair up and just getting that fuzzy neck hair when *CHUNK*. I saw a lock of normal hair hit the sink. Ooops. I dont think its noticeable. I hope not Ill pull a GOP and pretend its not real if I cant see it.

Got a call from the VA today to make an appointment for my checkup.
It's going to be by phone.

They can tell so much that way

Telemedicine is here to stay.

We've had some good experiences with telemed appointments so far. We've gone in a few times when something specific is needed, but I'm happy with telemed for the basics.

Telemed self surgery. They walk you through every step. You wake up a new man! Or woman if the scalpel slipped.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2020 3:03 pm Telemedicine is here to stay.

Does it reduce the reliance for defensive medicine? Every time I see a doctor, they want to run a week's salary in tests and that's after insurance. It's the worst when it comes to the need for maintenance medications that I've been taking 20 years.

Reports from rural Maine...

Last weekend when we went to the grocery store, I was impressed to see everyone wearing a mask, but for a couple with their noses sticking out. This weekend we went again and I was super-annoyed to see 3 or 4 people going facially naked. Two were absolutely in the "High Risk" categories, with one being something like 375lbs (complete with Trump hat and open-carry handgun tucked deep into his back fat) and the other wandering through the liquor section, coughing periodically.

We get a lot of tourist traffic, and the people I could ID as being out of towners were all being considerate and masking up.

Washington county has the highest number of Covid cases thanks to the U of A. They're down to 7-800 cases at the university now.

So last week, a Popeye's Chicken opened near me. Now, I think opening any restaurant under current conditions is insane, particularly one that used to be in town closed a few years ago after poisoning a bunch of people. But you'd think people never experienced shitty fried chicken before...cars have been lined up for blocks constantly since they opened. Wife insisted we stop by the other day (you can wait in the drive up line for what seems like a couple of hours, or just park and walk in and be out the door in minutes). She thanked me for satisfying her craving, to which I replied, "If I ever start craving Popeye's, take me for a COVID test immediately because loss of taste is one of the primary symptoms."

She laughed.

I've found that I prefer Popeye's to KFC, and those are really the only two options around here (by which I mean 30 miles away) without paying full-service restaurant prices.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:15 pm I've found that I prefer Popeye's to KFC, and those are really the only two options around here (by which I mean 30 miles away) without paying full-service restaurant prices.

There are two chains here that manage decent fried chicken - Browns and White Fence Farm. I tend to avoid the rest. I don't often crave fried chicken and can do much better making my own if that's ever the case (which is almost never since I do it much better on the grill).