Different Topics
Work Stuff
The last few weeks, I was told about an "opportunity" that my executive director thought would be good for me. It's a move out of the lab and more into digital initiatives and big data handling. I'd say generally, those initiatives were things that I am interested in and worked on in my "spare time" (at work). But I would generally say I enjoy my lab work, although there are lots of aspects of the lab that I don't love (mainly because I feel like I've turned into the lab manager but without the title). So it's an exciting prospect, but also scary. But I don't really feel like I have much choice in it since it'd be hard for me to say that I am happy in my current role and I don't want to take this opportunity, but then ask for a promotion and more responsibility in the future.
But because of that, I have new training to do in a couple of weeks. It's at another site... from 9-5... and for four days! Since the drive is over hour (if I leave early), I assume it'd be a hassle to do that for all the days. So I asked and was approved to get a hotel for the training. Our plan is for me to bring Angie and Alfie too! I saw there are several pet friendly hotels in the area. The two main things that I was looking at was that they allowed dogs and if they had an indoor pool. I found a few, but I'll go back and check out the actual pictures of the rooms or whatnot. Alfie will be moving up in the world since when we took our roadtrip previously, we stayed in lots of cheaper motels which allowed dogs. I'm expecting to find a nice swanky hotel for the Alf to stay in this time!
Two Sides of Corona-hysteria
Yesterday, I was talking to a (rational) coworker and she said how she was so excited since she just booked her big trip. She's planning to do a 3 week tour of Egypt and Jordan. And her biggest takeaway was that it was really good that she procrastinated since the price of the tour dropped 25% due to fear of the coronavirus. I was actually wondering if it was a good time to book travel since lots of people are canceling their trips or generally are afraid. But I guess my fear would be that the actual sites are closed (like how the Louvre is closed).
And on the other side, my parents had a cruise planned for April. I want to say it's a Mediterranean cruise that they already paid for. I asked my mom if they were still planning to go and she said that she wasn't sure but maybe not. So I asked what's the policy since they paid for it already. She didn't know since they didn't actually cancel yet. I told her that I'd wait to see if it get's canceled (to get a full refund) and if not, I'd just go. Normally, I wouldn't be concerned at all, but cruise ships are a cesspool of disease at the best of times. But unless they refund the price, I wouldn't not go! I texted my brothers to try to also convince them.
Rant
I'd say for as much as the news likes to say how important they are (and I'd agree that they are important), I'm very frustrated by their coverage of the coronavirus. For example, yesterday, there were several different outlets/stories that talked about how hand sanitizer is out of stock. And then they gave instructions on how to make your own. Why is that necessary? The recommended way to prevent the coronavirus is to WASH YOUR HANDS, and only use hand sanitizer when you are unable, which I'd assume is very rare for a country to plentiful warm, running water. Like the story shouldn't be "how to make your own hand sanitizer because it's hard to obtain", it should be "WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS!". I remember seeing some story about some politician wanting to increase funding for coronavirus research (or something similar, it doesn't really matter in this point), and they showed him using hand sanitizer instead of doing the recommended: wash your hands. I never understood why people love hand sanitizer. Is it out of pure laziness or something? People know that it doesn't actually clean your hands, right? And it's just like dunking your hands in rubbing alcohol. Whatevs...
But We'll End with Good News
There is hope for the upcoming election since Biden went gangbusters on Super Tuesday and Bernie Sanders took a major hit. It's funny how Bernie-bros are so active... unless it's time to actually vote. Most early reports were that in pretty much all primaries, he had less turnout than 2016, even though he kept talking about his stupid revolution. Sanders strategy is "I'll increase turnout from the far left and that's how I'll win" versus Biden's "I'll get moderates to vote for me" (I read reports estimated that Sanders would need an additional 11% of the far left to offset the moderates that'll probably vote Trump). So it's a pretty good sign that the primaries are having super high turnout... for Biden! And honestly, I don't even know if I'd vote for Biden or third party in the general, but we (as a country) need Biden to win the nomination.
The last few weeks, I was told about an "opportunity" that my executive director thought would be good for me. It's a move out of the lab and more into digital initiatives and big data handling. I'd say generally, those initiatives were things that I am interested in and worked on in my "spare time" (at work). But I would generally say I enjoy my lab work, although there are lots of aspects of the lab that I don't love (mainly because I feel like I've turned into the lab manager but without the title). So it's an exciting prospect, but also scary. But I don't really feel like I have much choice in it since it'd be hard for me to say that I am happy in my current role and I don't want to take this opportunity, but then ask for a promotion and more responsibility in the future.
But because of that, I have new training to do in a couple of weeks. It's at another site... from 9-5... and for four days! Since the drive is over hour (if I leave early), I assume it'd be a hassle to do that for all the days. So I asked and was approved to get a hotel for the training. Our plan is for me to bring Angie and Alfie too! I saw there are several pet friendly hotels in the area. The two main things that I was looking at was that they allowed dogs and if they had an indoor pool. I found a few, but I'll go back and check out the actual pictures of the rooms or whatnot. Alfie will be moving up in the world since when we took our roadtrip previously, we stayed in lots of cheaper motels which allowed dogs. I'm expecting to find a nice swanky hotel for the Alf to stay in this time!
Two Sides of Corona-hysteria
Yesterday, I was talking to a (rational) coworker and she said how she was so excited since she just booked her big trip. She's planning to do a 3 week tour of Egypt and Jordan. And her biggest takeaway was that it was really good that she procrastinated since the price of the tour dropped 25% due to fear of the coronavirus. I was actually wondering if it was a good time to book travel since lots of people are canceling their trips or generally are afraid. But I guess my fear would be that the actual sites are closed (like how the Louvre is closed).
And on the other side, my parents had a cruise planned for April. I want to say it's a Mediterranean cruise that they already paid for. I asked my mom if they were still planning to go and she said that she wasn't sure but maybe not. So I asked what's the policy since they paid for it already. She didn't know since they didn't actually cancel yet. I told her that I'd wait to see if it get's canceled (to get a full refund) and if not, I'd just go. Normally, I wouldn't be concerned at all, but cruise ships are a cesspool of disease at the best of times. But unless they refund the price, I wouldn't not go! I texted my brothers to try to also convince them.
Rant
I'd say for as much as the news likes to say how important they are (and I'd agree that they are important), I'm very frustrated by their coverage of the coronavirus. For example, yesterday, there were several different outlets/stories that talked about how hand sanitizer is out of stock. And then they gave instructions on how to make your own. Why is that necessary? The recommended way to prevent the coronavirus is to WASH YOUR HANDS, and only use hand sanitizer when you are unable, which I'd assume is very rare for a country to plentiful warm, running water. Like the story shouldn't be "how to make your own hand sanitizer because it's hard to obtain", it should be "WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS!". I remember seeing some story about some politician wanting to increase funding for coronavirus research (or something similar, it doesn't really matter in this point), and they showed him using hand sanitizer instead of doing the recommended: wash your hands. I never understood why people love hand sanitizer. Is it out of pure laziness or something? People know that it doesn't actually clean your hands, right? And it's just like dunking your hands in rubbing alcohol. Whatevs...
But We'll End with Good News
There is hope for the upcoming election since Biden went gangbusters on Super Tuesday and Bernie Sanders took a major hit. It's funny how Bernie-bros are so active... unless it's time to actually vote. Most early reports were that in pretty much all primaries, he had less turnout than 2016, even though he kept talking about his stupid revolution. Sanders strategy is "I'll increase turnout from the far left and that's how I'll win" versus Biden's "I'll get moderates to vote for me" (I read reports estimated that Sanders would need an additional 11% of the far left to offset the moderates that'll probably vote Trump). So it's a pretty good sign that the primaries are having super high turnout... for Biden! And honestly, I don't even know if I'd vote for Biden or third party in the general, but we (as a country) need Biden to win the nomination.