Isolation Commentary

“Olive: focused, relentless, tasting absolutely nothing…”
“Olive: focused, relentless, tasting absolutely nothing…”
“Anticipatory grief is that feeling we get about what the future holds when we’re uncertain. Usually it centers on death. We feel it when someone gets a dire diagnosis or when we have the normal thought that we’ll lose a parent someday. Anticipatory grief is also more broadly imagined futures. There is a storm coming. There’s something bad out there.”
The weather was really something today, with us hitting a high in the upper 70’s. As a result, Liz threw on some garden clothes and went outside to tend to our garden boxes.
One odd thing for me: as much as I like video games, at times this feels less fun to me. Liz enjoys the discovery process, but at times I get overwhelmed at the prospect of problem-solving more things after a day of work.
For those not familiar with the “flop,” it’s a nice thing to see. Because rabbits are prey animals and typically always wary and on alert, when they’re like this it’s an indication they are relaxed and at ease.
I think that for Liz, she needs to keep active and to do things. It helps her, to keep her mind focuse on other tasks. For me, diving into ordinary chores and tasks is incredibly difficult, due to the dissonance between the mundane thing I’m doing and the world outside my window.
While we were outside today, walking around after work in the yard… Liz and I were both surprised to see an airplane in the sky.
That feels weird to write.
My sense is that we’ll be isolating ourselves for more than a few weeks. A few months is my guess, and possibly even through the fall. By the time the coasts get a handle on things, my sense is that that is when Middle America will start to larger numbers in terms of infections and death.
Right now, it feels like we’ve gone through this very big wave. And I feel like I’m treading water in a quiet place, waiting for the next big wave to come. Based on the articles I’ve read and the predictions being made, the next two weeks feel like they will be a very dark time for the United States. The world as well, of course. But for the US in particular, I think we’re going to see some really bad days.
I got a larger breadboard to work with, and was able to place my components together in what seemed like a coherent setup. The LCD wiriing was always a little crazytown, but add to that four more jumper wires for the GPS module… and this thing looks like a miniature bomb.
It’s tough to only see family via video, and doubly so since it’s been harder to see the Fords. But video has gotten better over the years, and while it pales to being in the same room… it’s still something that can connect us, despite our distances.
I’ve listened to this multiple times, and it still cracks me up each time. Davies is a great storyteller, and you can watch him read the audience… and see him start to cater his timing to Ryan Gosling, once he starts to see Gosling’s reactions.
Random moment where Liz and I realized Phineas was sleeping in the bunny maze. I was trying to be super quiet, and got a small bit of video where he seemed to be dreaming. Chewing on some delicious carrots, no doubt.
Spent some time tonight doing a video thing with Chris and Ben. We were going to play some games together, but ended up spending the first part of our call catching up and just talking about the state of our lives.
Skynet Simulator is a text-based game where you are an artificial intelligence, slowly working towards becoming sentient.