hybrid immunity, etc.
A professional immunologist I follow on Twitter, who has been continuing to bang the drum about COVID and the continuing dangers of the latest variants (BA.5), who has been pleading with people to get boosters to save lives,
tweeted today, almost as an afterthought, that if you've had COVID that counts as a shot, because you have hybrid immunity. Yeah, that's what I've been thinking, that I don't need a 4th shot because I had actual COVID, plus three shots. So even though a 4th shot is recommended for people 50+, my Omicron infection counts as a 4th shot.
So, yeah, I'm still waiting for the updated boosters this fall.
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It is tourist season in DC; families come by the busload to see the theater where Lincoln got shot, and to eat at the nearby Hard Rock Cafe. Nobody who actually lives around here eats at the Hard Rock Cafe, but busloads of tourists will wait in lines around the block to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. I just checked Yelp and all the people reviewing the restaurant are from out of town. It sells these ridiculously huge hamburgers. It's weird how tourists will visit a city and do all the tourist things instead of experiencing what the city is really like. One of the best things about DC is the diversity of restaurants featuring so many different kinds of cuisine, featuring talented chefs from all over the world, but people will come here from Indiana so they can eat a huge hamburger. We've also got a lot of community theater doing great experimental performances, but people want to see the theater where Lincoln got shot.
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But some communities, some countries even, absolutely depend on tourism for their livelihood. The entire country of Sri Lanka is experiencing a horrible economic crisis because COVID killed their tourism industry, and now global inflation is making food and fuel too expensive for average Sri Lankans to afford. The government had borrowed a lot of money to fund infrastructure projects -- and probably both local & international corruption -- and now the country can't afford to pay its debts, and the country's leaders have gone into hiding.
I'm not sure you should want to live in an economy that depends on people from richer countries visiting you while pretending that they're "experiencing another culture" ... there's got to be a better way to organize an economy.
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Even Sri Lanka's below-average standard of living is roughly double what my Global Green Communism "utopia" would allow. But even a country that poor falls into violent riots if their standard of living declines noticeably. Not sure how I'll ever talk the 8 billions into choosing to live on $2000/year. I haven't talked myself into doing it yet, I'm giving myself 18 more years to do it. Hey, everybody, let's each live on $$$,$$$ per year like I currently do. It's wonderfully luxurious to give away 10% of my income when I still have $$$,$$$ leftover.
-----
My attempt at a News Blackout turned into more of a News Diet and I'm trying to become more mindful of my news consumption. As I expected, a huge problem is simple boredom. My brain is used to having a lot of stimulation. I'm still trying to direct that stimulation toward other things, and I feel I'm making some progress. I'm also thinking this issue is related to my eternally frustrated desire to have a daily meditation habit, so I'm once again trying to ramp up my daily meditation.
But now I'm wondering something deeper -- why does my brain require so much stimulation? Why do I even have to try to spend more time quietly meditating? My brain desperately wants to feel busy.
-----
T still has a cold, so this rare week of summer togetherness is more --> Bug doing all the chores and cooking while T rests and isolates. Reminds me a lot of how things were during the pandemic, when we2 spent a lot of time together in the house but not necessarily focused on each other. He can't help that he was sick, but I'd hoped to have more of a jointly joyful reunion this week. I'm hoping we'll still be able to take a day trip together on Saturday, if I don't get sick. So far I feel fine.
-----
When I was much younger, before the Internet came along, I had a lot more focus, in terms of reading books and playing solo games. The Internet definitely wrecked my attention span. I don't know how I would've done so well in school back then if I'd had access to the Internet. I'm wondering about what it would be like to take a voluntary break from the Internet. Back during high school I'd often spend hours on the phone each night talking with friends on the telephone, and then hours reading books. I also had six brothers and sisters, and usually friends in the neighborhood to hang out with. The Internet does facilitate spending far less time with other people than I did before.
Yeah, in general I'm trying to be more mindful this month about how I'm spending my time and attention. How do I get that kind of pre-Internet concentration back? That idea of finishing books, playing games, even creating music. The kind of concentration I've achieved in short bursts like NaNoWriMo. But also -- what for? While waiting for retirement, what do I want to accomplish with my "free time" outside of work? I tend to discount the achievements I accomplish via my work, after doing this kind of work for a living for so long, maybe because I'm ready to choose a different line of work but feel stuck because of the promise of a pension & health care for life if I can hold on for 5 more years. A general feeling of "I'm not accomplishing enough", but why, what's the point, why become an accomplishment addict,
I do think I'd like to accomplish things in larger chunks, however, as compared to the way my lack of concentration has me doing all sorts of little bits of this and that. Part of why I'm fighting against the News Junkie aspect of my life. Yeah, there's an internal conflict about what I have to show for my "free time". Part of me is saying, "who cares," but the other part of me is saying, "you're just wasting it". I'm definitely enjoying socializing more, and playing games more.
tweeted today, almost as an afterthought, that if you've had COVID that counts as a shot, because you have hybrid immunity. Yeah, that's what I've been thinking, that I don't need a 4th shot because I had actual COVID, plus three shots. So even though a 4th shot is recommended for people 50+, my Omicron infection counts as a 4th shot.
So, yeah, I'm still waiting for the updated boosters this fall.
-----
It is tourist season in DC; families come by the busload to see the theater where Lincoln got shot, and to eat at the nearby Hard Rock Cafe. Nobody who actually lives around here eats at the Hard Rock Cafe, but busloads of tourists will wait in lines around the block to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. I just checked Yelp and all the people reviewing the restaurant are from out of town. It sells these ridiculously huge hamburgers. It's weird how tourists will visit a city and do all the tourist things instead of experiencing what the city is really like. One of the best things about DC is the diversity of restaurants featuring so many different kinds of cuisine, featuring talented chefs from all over the world, but people will come here from Indiana so they can eat a huge hamburger. We've also got a lot of community theater doing great experimental performances, but people want to see the theater where Lincoln got shot.
-----
But some communities, some countries even, absolutely depend on tourism for their livelihood. The entire country of Sri Lanka is experiencing a horrible economic crisis because COVID killed their tourism industry, and now global inflation is making food and fuel too expensive for average Sri Lankans to afford. The government had borrowed a lot of money to fund infrastructure projects -- and probably both local & international corruption -- and now the country can't afford to pay its debts, and the country's leaders have gone into hiding.
I'm not sure you should want to live in an economy that depends on people from richer countries visiting you while pretending that they're "experiencing another culture" ... there's got to be a better way to organize an economy.
-----
Even Sri Lanka's below-average standard of living is roughly double what my Global Green Communism "utopia" would allow. But even a country that poor falls into violent riots if their standard of living declines noticeably. Not sure how I'll ever talk the 8 billions into choosing to live on $2000/year. I haven't talked myself into doing it yet, I'm giving myself 18 more years to do it. Hey, everybody, let's each live on $$$,$$$ per year like I currently do. It's wonderfully luxurious to give away 10% of my income when I still have $$$,$$$ leftover.
-----
My attempt at a News Blackout turned into more of a News Diet and I'm trying to become more mindful of my news consumption. As I expected, a huge problem is simple boredom. My brain is used to having a lot of stimulation. I'm still trying to direct that stimulation toward other things, and I feel I'm making some progress. I'm also thinking this issue is related to my eternally frustrated desire to have a daily meditation habit, so I'm once again trying to ramp up my daily meditation.
But now I'm wondering something deeper -- why does my brain require so much stimulation? Why do I even have to try to spend more time quietly meditating? My brain desperately wants to feel busy.
-----
T still has a cold, so this rare week of summer togetherness is more --> Bug doing all the chores and cooking while T rests and isolates. Reminds me a lot of how things were during the pandemic, when we2 spent a lot of time together in the house but not necessarily focused on each other. He can't help that he was sick, but I'd hoped to have more of a jointly joyful reunion this week. I'm hoping we'll still be able to take a day trip together on Saturday, if I don't get sick. So far I feel fine.
-----
When I was much younger, before the Internet came along, I had a lot more focus, in terms of reading books and playing solo games. The Internet definitely wrecked my attention span. I don't know how I would've done so well in school back then if I'd had access to the Internet. I'm wondering about what it would be like to take a voluntary break from the Internet. Back during high school I'd often spend hours on the phone each night talking with friends on the telephone, and then hours reading books. I also had six brothers and sisters, and usually friends in the neighborhood to hang out with. The Internet does facilitate spending far less time with other people than I did before.
Yeah, in general I'm trying to be more mindful this month about how I'm spending my time and attention. How do I get that kind of pre-Internet concentration back? That idea of finishing books, playing games, even creating music. The kind of concentration I've achieved in short bursts like NaNoWriMo. But also -- what for? While waiting for retirement, what do I want to accomplish with my "free time" outside of work? I tend to discount the achievements I accomplish via my work, after doing this kind of work for a living for so long, maybe because I'm ready to choose a different line of work but feel stuck because of the promise of a pension & health care for life if I can hold on for 5 more years. A general feeling of "I'm not accomplishing enough", but why, what's the point, why become an accomplishment addict,
I do think I'd like to accomplish things in larger chunks, however, as compared to the way my lack of concentration has me doing all sorts of little bits of this and that. Part of why I'm fighting against the News Junkie aspect of my life. Yeah, there's an internal conflict about what I have to show for my "free time". Part of me is saying, "who cares," but the other part of me is saying, "you're just wasting it". I'm definitely enjoying socializing more, and playing games more.