#yeah after my fried died and the pandemic was beginning and I was in a completely unfamiliar city without my medication

[purplesurveys]

1119

survey by icantloveu

Today:

Who was the first person you saw? It was my dad. I fell asleep in the living room last night and he was the first person to go downstairs.

Who was the first person who called you? I have not received any call today so far and I’m not expecting any to come through today, a Sunday.

Who was the first person you called? I haven’t called anyone, either. The closest is an eyewear store I messaged on Messenger just a few minutes ago to ask if they accept walk-ins, since I didn’t know they’ve mostly taken appointments throughout the pandemic. If they don’t, I’ll have to wait until Thursday to get a check-up.

What was the first thing you did? I was mad at myself for falling asleep early last night and kinda wasting my weekend, so the second I opened my eyes I got up and looked for a survey to answer, lol.

What'd you have for breakfast? Fried rice, eggs, hotdogs, kikiam, and danggit, with crab paste.

Lunch? Skipped lunch as always since we have late breakfast. I might make coffee.

Dinner? I’m still indecisive on whether I’ll have dinner at home or somewhere outside. In any case, I can’t tell what I’ll be eating just yet.

Who'd you hang out with? I’ll be just by myself today.

What'd you do? I plan on taking a couple more surveys after this. I also wanna do some work ahead of tomorrow and watch the newest episode of 2 Days 1 Night as well.

Favorite song you heard? I am finding Ravi and Lee Naeun’s Rain Drop preeeeeeetty catchy.

Did you see anyone you hadn't seen in awhile? Not today. But last Friday this was the case as I saw Al, Pia, Kyelle, Gab, and Sam for the very first time in well over a year. Angela and Hans were part of the group as well but we were able to see each other during the holidays.

Last:

Thing you ate? The last spoonful of my rice, which I think I topped with the last of my egg and hotdog.

Movie you saw? Midsommar, I think. Last Christmas. I don’t watch a lot of movies anymore.

Girl you hugged? Angela. We saw each other for like, 15 seconds yesterday afternoon so that she could return the abaca mat I lent her for her graduation shoot.

Guy you hugged? I believe it was Hans, when we were saying bye last Friday. If not him, it would have been Al.

Family member you hugged? No idea. Maybe an aunt.

Type of soda you drank? I don’t drink any softdrinks. I did drink red wine that turned out to be carbonated last Valentine’s Day, though.

Flavor of gum you chewed? It’s a gimmick-y kind of gum that is extremely sour when you first pop it in your mouth; but once you start chewing it the sourness dies down and it goes back to the classic bubblegum taste.

Time you brushed your teeth? Last night.

Time you showered? Midnight yesterday when I got home from the aforementioned hangout with friends. I wasn’t able to take a shower yesterday because it had been freezing cold all day, but I plan on having one today.

Time you rode in the car? Yesterday when I drove out of the village to briefly meet up with Angela.

Word you said? Not sure; maybe just a ‘hi’? I greet my dogs a lot.

Person you talked on the phone to? My mom called me last night to tell me dinner was ready.

Time you cried? Genuinely no clue. I’d say a couple or even several weeks ago.

Currently:

Wearing? I have on an olive green sleveeless turtleneck top, and a pair of shorts.

Eating? None at the moment but I do feel like munching on something. Salted egg chips sound amazing right now, actually.

Drinking? Nothing, but I am in the mood for coffee.

Thinking? What else I can do today to maximize what’s left of my weekend.

Doing? [besides this survey] Looking at possible frames to buy for my new eyeglasses.

Friends:

Last friend's house you stayed at? Eugh, I think it had still been Gabie’s. I haven’t stayed at anyone else’s place during the pandemic so far; I’ve driven by Angela’s house briefly a couple of times, though. Mostly to just like return stuff or hand her a gift.

Last friend who stayed at your house? Angela and Hans.

Who has the coolest siblings? Probably Rita. All her siblings have got their own things and gigs and passions going on and I find that awesome. Of course, their family is filthy, old-money rich so their parents have more than enough money to let them sustain their hobbies, so I guess that’s a crucial factor in this too. But even then, they’re all humble and insanely nice so they’re still cool lol.

Who's an only child? Angela, Jo, Luisa, and I think Blanch??

Who have you gone on the most trips with? I don’t go on many trips with friends.

Who's met your family? Angela, and because of that one time my orgmates held a meeting at my house - Kate, Patrice, Jo, Jane, Aya, JM, and Edi.

Family:

Who's the craziest? There’s honestly a lot of chaos on my mom’s side, tbh. There’s past and current animosities, land issues, and general attitude problems among many of them. Of course, they try to hide it from the younger generation and everyone puts disagreements behind them during family gatherings; but the older I’ve gotten, the more my mom has let me in to some of the stories. That said, I can’t tell you who would be the craziest of them all.

Sanest? [is that a word] I would trust one of my aunts with my whole life, if it comes down to it. She has such a warm personality, is an amazing and sweet mom, and talking to her has always felt like talking to an old college friend that you’re having drinks with. I feel like I should do more for her as her niece, but yeah, I love her a lot.

Loudest? I will happily refer you to the entirety of my mom’s side, again. Everyone’s mode of communication seems to be yelling.

Lives the farthest away? Everyone who lives in the US.

Who do you live with? Both of my parents and my two siblings.

Has the most dogs? My dad’s immediate family, from whom Kimi actually came. There’s two dogs I can play with whenever we visit - Spike and Gucci - then they also have several other dogs but they aren’t too guest-friendly.

Has the most cats? My mom’s sister-in-law used to have like, 3 or 4 cats but I’m not sure if they’re still alive.

Has the most cars? I’m not sure. Most seem to have 1-3 which is the average for families anyway.

Random..

What color are your shoelaces? I’m not wearing any shoes at the moment.

Describe your sunglasses: I don’t own any.

Song you listened to last is...? Some jazz-y coffee shop-y tune I heard on YouTube.

Do you have a digital camera? Not anymore. I just use my phone to take photos.

What's the last type of cookie you ate? It had coffee and dark chocolate in it, but I can’t exactly remember what the name of the product is anymore.

Do you have your own computer? I have my own laptop. I never had a computer; I just went straight to having a laptop.

Describe your computer chair? I never had a computer chair per se but my work chair is nothing fancy, it’s just a plastic black chair that my parents bought initially just so that I had somewhere to sit on for my internship at my now-employer. Eventually I didn’t like how I was working in my room because I stopped being able to separate my personal life and my work life, so I’ve been working at the dining table these days.

Why is it called a computer chair anyways? I didn’t know this was a term, actually. I usually just keep hearing gaming chair.

What do you call the remote for the TV? Remote control, or sometimes just remote.

Do you have a crush on anyone? Nope.

What's on your walls? A few posters and wall decors. Some paintings from Gab towards which I have zero feelings or attachment anymore but I feel too lazy to take down.

Do you sleep with your door open or closed? Closed. It would be impossible for me to fall asleep otherwise.

Can you fall asleep with the TV on? Sure, but the program has to be something I was watching to begin with so I can be lulled to sleep. If it’s a show about something I don’t find interesting, I might just find it as noise.

What is the last book you read? I don’t know.

What's your least favorite class? I don’t go to school anymore but in my final semester I hated my business writing class. I hated all my journalism classes, actually; but it was business writing that made me feel the most nervous.

Are you cold? I’m just right. It’s chilly enough not to need the fan, but I’m not shivering either.

Where are you? I’m in the living room.

What is touching your foot? The couch.

Are you wearing any jewelry? Nopes.

If so, what?

What's your name? Robyn.

Do you like it? Sure.

Would you change it if you could? Not at this point.

[for girls] Are you going to keep your last name when you get married? I would hyphenate it, yeah. This is also so that I get to keep my middle name as well.

#survey #surveys

[btsybrkr]

What A Time To Be At Home!: The Best And Worst Coronacontent The Internet Has To Offer

Remember that joke that’s been around for ages, but was being told literally everywhere back in 2019? The one that went something like, “I hate it when people ask me where I’ll be in a year’s time - I don’t have 2020 vision!”?

Well, I bloody wish someone did.

In fact, in early January, I wrote out my own predictions for the decade ahead right here on my blog. They were obviously entirely hypothetical and - I thought - ridiculous. They were just a series of daft ideas that I thought I could take the piss out of, in the hope that people might read it and take a second out of their day to do an amused little nose exhale for me. But now, even the post-apocalyptic TV show ideas I pitched in that piece seem less ‘far-off dystopian chaos’, and more like they could be pleasant additions to the BBC Summer schedule.

The world is in the throes of a global pandemic, the likes of which haven’t been seen since… I don’t know, The Black Plague, maybe? As a result of that, the instructions have been clear: stay home, save lives. 

At first, the thought of being given a period of Government-sanctioned laziness seemed like a dream to many. We could write our autobiographies! Learn Klingon! Build ourselves a whole new house! But six weeks in, it appears to have started messing with the collective consciousness of the human race. Brains are fried, your Weekly Screen Time is up 103%, stomachs are full to the brim with banana bread and dalgona coffee, and certain celebrities’ egos are in a fight to the death with their common sense. In a time when we’re all supposedly doing nothing, there’s still so much going on. 

With that in mind, I thought we could recognise some of the things we’ve seen online that have kept us talking in lockdown, not just because of Coronavirus, but in spite of it. 

Welcome to the first (but hopefully not annual) What A Time To Be At Home! awards. The WATTBAH!’s, if you like.

The ‘Why On Earth Did You Think This Was A Good Idea?’ Award

Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a sizable handful of blunders by the rich and famous that have, at worst, knocked them down a fair few places in our estimations and, at best, have left us scratching our heads, wondering what response they were expecting in the first place. 

With that in mind, it’s only right that this title goes to the original celebrity lockdown mistake: Gal Gadot’s ill-advised acapella cover of Imagine, featuring a variety of different Hollywood stars - not one of whom had the foresight to ask “are you sure this doesn’t make us look like complete arseholes?”, which, unfortunately, it absolutely does. 

Between the bizarre and insincere ‘I have a dream’-style speech at the beginning, the boldness of some of those featured to be quite clearly just taking the piss, and the fact everyone appears to be singing ever-so-slightly below the note without ever actually hitting it for the entirety of the song, this was tone-deaf in more ways than one. It’s even worse when you realise that this was posted less than one week into the lockdown, but then what would I know? Maybe madness sets in faster in multi-million dollar mansions. Probably because it echoes louder and bounces off the walls of your massive living room.

The ‘I Had To Suffer Through This, So You Do, Too’ Award

This award recognises content we’ve been witness to over the last few weeks that was so awful, so completely uncomfortable to watch, that after you’d gotten over the initial disbelief at what you’d just seen, you immediately had to send it to somebody you know, so that you can suffer through it together.

Despite how many celebrity lockdown moments have left me with my head in my hands over the last few weeks, this award could only go to a very recent contender - one which isn’t simply an embarrassing piece of celebrity lockdown content, but will likely haunt the inner corners of my brain long after this virus is simply a topic taught about in GCSE History lessons of the future. 

I am, of course, talking about Olly Murs. I’m talking about Pringlegate. I’m talking about Olly Murs removing the bottom of a can of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles to trick his own girlfriend into touching his penis. On video, on TikTok.

Twitter: @buckyw1ng

There’s something inherently quite chilling about Pringlegate. It might be something to do with the 10,000 watt grin on Olly’s face as we watch him carefully maneuver a tin opener around the bottom of the can, or perhaps it’s just the question of how long he’d been sat there holding it around his naked penis as he and his girlfriend watched a film, patiently waiting for the moment to strike. Perhaps it’s the way the video freezes as she reaches over for a Pringle, allowing time for Olly Murs’ to add in an audio clip of himself, shouting “SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND”. 

Maybe it’s the uncontrollable show of amusement he launches into as she snatches her hand back in shock, laughing away, heartily, as if to say “Ha! You thought it was a normal can of Pringles, but it was actually my PENIS covered in Pringles crumbs! You just got PUNKED!”, like it was all simply a clever ruse. 

Above all else, I think the most uncomfortable thing about it is that I can’t help but feel like all bets are off in 2020, and that this is a fairly tame warm-up for things to come.

So, Olly Murs, you are inarguably the rightful winner of the ‘I Had To Suffer Through This, So You Do, Too’ award. Congratulations! Don’t do it again, yeah?

The ��Are You Actually Aware Of These Words Coming Out Of Your Mouth?’ Award

I’ve said some stupid things since this lockdown started. Personally, I put it down to the lack of social interaction, which I think might be frying my brain a little bit, or at least that’s what the ornament of a turkey that sits on my kitchen windowsill told me the other day. However, I don’t think I or anybody I know has said anything even one fraction-of-an-iota as void of intelligent thought as Vanessa Hudgens’ terrible opinions on social distancing, shared in a now-infamous Instagram live last month. 

“It’s a virus,” she clarified, helpfully, before going on to explain, “I get it. I respect it.” 

I’m sure your respect means the world to it, Vanessa, but do you ‘get’ it?

“But even if everybody gets it, like… yeah… people are gonna die,” she explains, in a tone so chirpy that the word ‘die’ might as well be replaced by the phrase ‘have such a bloody lovely old time’, “which is terrible, but, like… inevitable?” 

In all fairness, death is inevitable, but I don’t know if suggesting speeding up that process for thousands of people because you were disappointed that Coachella was cancelled is an equally logical take.

After a brief - and probably quite profound - moment of self-reflection, she laughs “I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t be doing this right now”. Oh, you think? Which bit? Just holding these insane ideas, or actually broadcasting them to your 39.1 million Instagram followers? 

She did post a video the day after, clarifying that - despite what she said - she is staying at home, and is urging others to do the same. I guess she does respect the virus after all. Now, if everyone could hurry up, catch it and die from it, so that she can go to Coachella 2021, Vanessa Hudgens might respect you, too. 

I guess We’re All In This Together, after all.

The Show Of Support Award

I’ve already talked a lot about the rich and famous here, so maybe it’s time to take a break from that madness - although, I get it, I respect it - and have a look at how the rest of our lives look at the moment.

One weekly occurrence that seems to be set to stick around is the weekly round of applause for the NHS. Whilst it’s nothing short of blood-boilingly annoying seeing Boris Johnson absent-mindedly clapping in celebration of a service that he recently admitted he hadn’t even noticed the strain on until he, himself, nearly died of the virus, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the rest of us getting involved. If anything, it’s heart-warming to see the videos of NHS staff being applauded by neighbours as they leave for work, and to hear the cheers echoing through the streets at 8pm every Thursday. There’s a lot of people being quite cynical about it. We obviously know it’s not going to stop Coronavirus in its tracks, but sometimes it’s just nice to be nice, alright?

One thing I’ve noticed recently is how many people have adopted different noise-making strategies, possibly in an effort to effectively boost their support by a factor of 300%. Banging pots and pans together appears to be the most popular, but the winner of this award saw your pots and pans and said “how sweet”, before showing us how it’s really done.

I present to you, a genius. The ultimate hype-man.

Twitter: “a deeply disturbed national psyche” - @willuminare

There’s something so chaotic and angry about the energy in this video, just one man, a cricket bat, and a wheelie bin, banging away to show his gratitude. Just living in the moment. I wish the neighbour who’d captured it on camera had caught more of it, or at least just enough to edit the footage with Electric Youth’s soaring synth anthem  ‘A Real Hero’ from the soundtrack of the movie Drive against it.

I’ve been trying to learn to play the keytar in lockdown, to near enough no avail. Maybe at 8pm next Thursday, I’ll just take it outside and smash it against the pavement. You know, for the NHS.

Honourable Mentions: The Very Best In Coronacontent

It’s not all been so questionable - there’s been a lot of uplifting, funny, positive and thoughtful things shared online over the past few weeks. John Krasinski’s YouTube series Some Good News has provided a much-appreciated contrast from the bleakness of traditional current affairs programmes. There’s five weeks worth of episodes on his YouTube channel at the moment, so I would definitely recommend checking it out, especially if you feel like you need a lift! 

Over on Twitter, there’s been a lot to laugh about, as ‘front camera comedians’ are well and truly in their element (my personal favourite recently has been Alistair Green), as well as plenty of other users who are utilising their free time to create some brilliant stuff - this six-part opera based on a 2007 Facebook argument by Archie Henderson is genuinely one of the funniest things I’ve seen in weeks.

Twitter: “I made a six-act opera out of a conversation between some 14 year olds on my Facebook from 2007″ - @jazzemu_

All in all, these are obviously bizarre times that we’re living in. We don’t know how many more weeks of lockdown we’re going to have, when we’ll get back to normal, or even if ‘normal’ will mean something completely different from now on. 

What we do know is that the internet, and everyone on it - whoever they are or whatever they’re saying - will continue to surprise us, inform us, entertain us, provide a place for our quizzes and conversations, and keep us together in some sense, when we have no choice but to be apart. 

Thanks to anyone who’s read this far. I hope that you and your friends and families are keeping well, and that you took even a slight shred of lockdown enjoyment from even one thing I’ve said over the past couple thousand words! 

Finally, before I go, I thought we might share a little song. It goes like this:

Imagine there’s no heaven....

if you like, can follow me on twitter here or instagram here :-)

[megacircuit9universe]

Poetic Justice

FRI OCT 02 2020

My last entry, from just two days ago, about how Trump’s behavior at the first debate was 100% incel behavior... and how that settled the question of relative charisma in Biden’s favor...

...now reads as being, sooo last September!

And that’s because October, who barged in with a full moon on her first night, promising to deliver a second full moon... on a Saturday Halloween, with an extra hour because the clocks will fall ahead... that diva bitch... took Trump down on day two!

It started late on the evening of October 1st, with that full Harvest Moon going over... News that Trump and his wife were going to begin a two-week quarantine because Hope Hicks... the advisor he’s been grooming for his fourth wife, for the past five years... tested positive for Covid19, just after hanging out with him on Marine One.

Today, however, the situation changed quickly throughout the day.  First it was that a lot of other prominent GOP members has tested positive, then it was that Trump and his wife were not simply on quarantine, but had themselves, tested positive... to... Trump’s got mild symptoms... to... the President’s getting airlifted by helicopter to Walter Reed Medical Center!

That’s where we are at, at the time of writing, but he’s definitely a patient, with a cough, high fever and extreme fatigue, being treated with experimental covid treatments that have not been fully tested yet... so... you tell me how serious it is*.

Trump joins England’s Boris Johnson, and Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro, as the only three world leaders to get Covid19... the latter two, both infamous right wing fools who failed to take it seriously.

The latter two did both recover, but Johnson is 56, and Bolsanaro is 65... both considerably younger than Trump, who is 74.

Before going any further, I need to acknowledge that, yes, I’ve written a lot about how the virus has proven to be Trump’s Achilles’ heel... even saying recently that Covid19 might be the vaccine for the disease that is Trump... I always assumed that was in the political sense only.

In other words, Covid19 might be the political vaccine for the political disease that is Trumpism.

I truly never imagined that Trump would actually get, Covid 19!

Does he deserve to have it?  Erm, YEAH?.. this is the guy who knew how dangerous it was, and that it was airborne back in Februrary, but deliberately downplayed the danger of the virus for eight months now, fought Governors who were trying to save lives, silenced Dr. Fauci, and gagged the CDC’s reporting of the numbers... to the tune of two-hundred-thousand American lives... for the sake of reelection!

I called it a crime against humanity, which it most certainly is!

But I never imagined he’d get it himself, because... he’s the fucking President of the United States.  He knows how dangerous it is.  And he’s a huge coward, so surely he’d stay better protected than anybody on the planet.

But as they say... there’s no cure for idiot.

The irony here is too sweet not to savor.  Especially when you realize that the only time this asshole ever allowed himself to be seen in public wearing a mask... was on a vist to... WALTER REED HOSPITAL!

But the irony goes deeper, because it’s looking like the event that spread this virus to Trump and many other GOP elites was the White House Rose Garden celebration for Trump’s new Supreme Court Nominee... Amy Coney Barrett... who also tested positive for Covid19 today!

Yes... that’s right... remember how the GOP was so hell bent on replacing Ruth Bader Ginsberg, that they were out there shouting everybody down about it the same hour that she’d died, while her body was still warm?

Well, their bullshit little rosegarden ceremony to crown RGBs replacement... all touchy feely with no masks... has now put EVERYBODY WHO ATTENDED on two weeks of quarentine, whether they’ve tested positive or not... and believe you me... more positives will come out of that group in the near future.

And so much for Mitch McConnell’s, “full steam ahead,” on her confirmation, because it’s gonna take a while for everybody involved in that nomination (including Barrett herself) to get cleared... which may well leave the lame duck Senate with not enough time to ram her through... 

...which would be a level of poetic justice we’ve not seen in Earthly affairs for ages beyond living memory.

It does seem tonight, that where it concerns the Trump junta, in their desperate plot to stay in power... both by ramming through a Supreme Court Justice, and by fighting the election results tooth and nail in that court, and out on the streets with Proud Boys and Beta Force etc... 

...the wind has now gone straight out of their sails.

This is October!.. the only month that counts!.. the final four weeks before the election of the century, to decide the fate of American Democracy, and the future of the world!.. 

And all their top dogs are being grounded, one by one, with the big Kahuna himself, down for the count in a hospital bed... by the virus they called a hoax... and because they could not allow themselves to be seen in masks.

The only question left now is...

Will Trump be healthy enough in November or December, after he’s lost the election, to mount the overwhelming attack on the vote that he’s promised he will... and resist leaving office at any cost?

Or will he be not in any shape for that?

Or... will he be dead?

It would not surprise me at all, at this point, if we’re all looking at open-casket video of deceased Donald before Halloween.  It would, frankly, be a fitting time for such a funeral... as he’s surely going to Hell.

And with Jehova still being among my top suspects for bringing the pandemic into existence last March... cancelling Easter because he’s fed up with fake Catholics and Christians backing this monster...

...sure!  I could see Jehova calling him back to Hell just before Halloween.

But if you’re wondering if I feel any empathy toward the guy, I do not.  And If he were to perish, yes I would celebrate, because... he has the blood of two-hundred-thousand innocent lives on his hands, for Covid alone.  And he’s likely to be responsible for thousands more immigrant children being sold into human trafficking.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, for the level of human suffering and death this asshole is capable of inflicting on the world if given the chance.

Sadly, we probably won’t get that perfect Halloween funeral for this hellbound soul.

Still... his presidency is all but dead now.  And that’s poetic justice enough.

I’m going to bed.

*I guarantee it was the high fever that prompted the chopper to Walter Reed. It’s standard practice across the board, for a patient over 70, to be rushed to an ER if they have a high fever.  Fever itself can be life threatening for seniors if not brought under control.

But Covid is a novel virus, for which there is yet no cure... even for a President.

That’s what makes it so goddam dangerous!  Which is why it’s been insanity this whole year the way Trump has mislead the nation into blowing it off like it’s a bad cold!

There is no silver bullet to save Trump, even from a fever, right now... which means he’s in for a battle.

[dearatecharm]

Work from home? Some people are enjoying this kind of set up, most especially for those people who are working moms, introverts and who really don’t like to go out. Pero dumating ‘yung pandemic, then boom! All of us yata na nagwo-work sa office, eh need to work from home na. Imagine, we used to travel ng maaga para makapunta sa office at hindi ma-late pero now, hindi ka na magmamadali and kahit mag time in ka muna, mamaya na lang mag-work kasi di naman nila ’yon mahahalata. Hahaha guilty ka rin? 

Kaya lang... the problem is... some people don’t know how to manage their time kahit na naka-WFH. How to manage your time or make your WFH very productive? Okay... what I am going to share with you eh ito ‘yung mga  bagay na ginagawa ko para maging productive, hindi magulo at hindi feeling drained after work. Pwede nyo rin ‘to i-try if you want, pero kung ayaw nyo naman at trip nyo lang basahin ‘to, sus. Okay lang. Sanay naman ako. Charaught! So yeah, lezz begin!

Number 1! If you are working from home, dapat you ask this 3 questions sa sarili mo: where to work? when to work? how can I set aside personal life to work? Still don’t know the answer? Okay, sge. Di kita susukuan gaya ng pagsuko nya sayo. Charaught. Proceed to number 2!

Number 2! Set a schedule. Mare, ganto. Isipin mo na lang eh parang nasa office ka pa rin. Ano oras ka usually pumapasok? Nagbe-break time? Kunwari, 8 AM ang pasok mo, oh edi gising ka ng 7 or 7:30 AM then take your breakfast. Para bago mo gawin work mo eh, energized ka. Since may 30 mins left pa, try mo kaya maligo? Para bago ka mag-work eh fresh ka. Gusto mo ‘yon?! Seryoso. If you set a schedule, ay nako. Your WFH set up will be productive!

Number 3! Set aside your personal life to work. Paano nga?! Simple, if your work is 8AM to 5PM, work ka muna. You can do your own things during break. LIke 10AM, 12NN to 1PM and after 5PM. You can do your personal thing na sa mga period na ito. At take note, since nasa bahay ka lang... you still have saturday and sunday, mare! You can do whatever you want sa mga araw na ‘yon! :)

Before I end this post, eto ‘yung sample na schedule na ginawa ko to make myself productive at hindi feeling drained kahit WFH ang set up!

My WORK FROM HOME SCHEDULE (Mon-Fri)

7:00 AM -- Wake up call! (Wow?! Gising timeeeee)

7:00 to 7:30 AM -- Breakfast (matagal ako kumain mare, so I always allot 30 mins for food hahaha)

7:30 to 7:45 AM -- Rest before having my workout

7:45 to 8:15 AM - Workout time (I usually allot 30 mins din dito, I feel refreshed kasi kapag nagwoworkout and I feel gagana brain ko for today ganern!)

8:15 to 8:30 AM - Ligo (oo naliligo pa rin naman ako)

8:30 to 9:00 AM - Prep time for work (lahat na ‘to mare. With skin care na ‘to hahaha)

9:00 AM - start na ng work

5:00 PM - out

I did not include ‘yung snacks and lunch ko, understood na ‘yon ha! Hahaha so yeah, ‘yan ‘yung work from home schedule ko. If may idle time sa work or wala masyadong tasks, I still search ng mga gagawin. Hahaha seryoso, because my mindset is .... ‘’your company deserves your service since binabayaran ka nila nang maayos’’ :)

Ayun. I hope natulungan or nainspire ka manlang ng konti sa WFH schedule tips ko. Ingat palagi!

#workfromhome #tips

[wendyimmiller]

Plants and Pandemics, and, Gardeners Go for the Glory!

The latest in the on-going correspondence between Marianne Willburn and Scott Beuerlein.

April 29, 2020

Cincinnati, Ohio

Dear Marianne,

I apologize for taking so long to reply to your last letter, but it’s been a hell of a time. My mother’s health has been deteriorating for a long time and on April 11th she passed away. We’ve all got a date. That was hers. But Lord knows she pushed it back and back and back, God bless her. The last six months have been a cycle of fragile normal days spent at home suddenly punctuated by near death episodes in ICU followed by another miraculous recovery and finally back to another spell of fragile normalcy at home. The whole ordeal was a very hard, slow, grinding process. In the days after she died, I couldn’t believe what a relief it was just knowing she was no longer suffering, but now I just miss her.

And right in the middle of all that, in came this thing called the coronavirus, which, they tell me, kills old and fat people. Old and fat? Hell, that describes almost everybody I know. Including me! This is bad. Real bad. And now nothing is the same. Everything is different. We’ve been in lock down for almost two months. It seems so much longer. None of this feels real. It’s too big. It’s eerie. It felt like our little band of less than ten mourners had to almost sneak into the cemetery to bury my mom. No other services allowed. David Byrnes’ lyrics keep going through my head. “This ain’t no party. This ain’t no disco. This ain’t no fooling around.” And it does feel very much like “Life During Wartime.” I imagine that this pall, under which we all squirm, must feel about like it does for an army about to go into battle. Everybody looking at each other, asking themselves, “How bad will get? Who will get killed. Me?”

For the record, I’ll be pissed as hell if I die from this thing. I’m a late bloomer. I was misdirected a few times. I have also derailed myself with the occasional poor decision. The fact is, I feel like I’m only now getting my shit together. And my garden is looking the best it ever has. It seems to have promise for better years ahead, and I want to see it deliver.

But it’s been a bit eerie to be out there. Pandemic raging, mom dying, and it has been made all the more eerie because this has been the prettiest spring I can remember. It came in slow, cool, and sweet, and, until last week, steady. Consequently, it’s been a floral fashion show of unseemly bloom times as each plant took its turn strutting the runway. Sometimes alone. More often with partners. Star magnolias, cherries, viburnums, crabapples, redbuds, and also plenty of littler ones tucked underfoot and in the corners—winterhazels, forsythia, daffs, minor bulbs, and ephemerals.

My ‘Yellow Bird’ magnolia was just reaching its peak of perfection when our continental climate snapped to, looked around, and said, “Oh. Hey. Wait.” That’s when we got three nights of mid-twenties, and that ended that. Foliage, flowers, and buds became brown mush that dried to crispy bits that now look like bits of fried onion strings stuck in your boss’s beard during a business lunch. About a third of my Japanese maples lost all their leaves. Others were half blasted. A few skated with no damage. Go figure. But my collection of hostas (for which I have a love/hate thing going on) were equally random in how they handled three nights out drinking with old Jack Frost. And although you would think native plants would know better—and most did—my ostrich ferns got pummeled. But new fronds came quickly and now you wouldn’t even know. Keeping my fingers crossed my maples and ‘Yellow Bird’ eventually recover too.

But, no matter, the garden hardly looks like a no-man’s land. Iris, peonies, Brunnera, Epimedium are all looking great, and I am so thankful for that! This year, more than ever, the yard has become a beautiful safe haven from a world gone mad. If not an outright antidote, at least an ever available deep draught of tonic.

Knowing what my garden has meant to me has me feeling bad for all those with no access to a garden or nature right now. There are so many urban dwellers, and even out in the suburbs, let’s face it, the typical American yard hardly functions as a garden. So maybe in a time of confinement like this land-owning (think about what the term landowner has meant to people over the centuries!) folks will be motivated to give their land the respect it deserves. Seriously, for those with secure incomes, what the hell else is there to do with their time, money, and energy?

At the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, our 110,000 tulip display was only seen live and in person by a skeletal staff, stray helicopter pilots, and flamingos as they took their daily walks. To make matters worse, this was—in my opinion—the Zoo’s best year of tulips ever. Full on glorious! In a normal year, a half million visitors would have reveled in the explosion of unworldly color. There would have been tours, parties, fundraisers, and live bluegrass concerts with ample supplies of great food and craft beer. That is what the last ten Aprils have impressed on me as to what April should be. Busy as hell and beyond beautiful. But what we got in 2020 was not that.

One afternoon I stood in the entry plaza—completely alone—on a perfect spring day. 110,000 tulips surrounding me, all gloriously glowing seemingly with their own internal light for me and me alone. But it didn’t feel much like a gift, as sometimes does when one is fortunate enough to witness something special all by themselves. All around me was empty plaza that would normally have been people enjoying an outing, and it felt like I was the sole survivor at the end of a terrible movie. Bad enough, right? Well, it was made a little bit worse because in the quiet made by the absence of 10,000 stroller moms and their children, the peace was torn by howling sirens of ambulances, one after another, as they navigated their way through the surface streets towards the 4 or 5 big hospitals that the Zoo calls neighbors. Another reminder—as if I needed it—that a monster was lurking out there.

But, if given lemons, make lemonade, right? Call me a dork. Plenty of others do, but I cannot begin to describe the pride in my heart and the stupid smile that shows up on my face every time I get to tell someone I work at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. Across every department, amazing things happen every day. Nowhere on earth is positivity more intrinsic. It’s woven in so deeply and thoroughly that something amazing had to happen. Even in a pandemic. And, in fact, several things did. Among them, someone–I don’t know who–thought to cut tulips and take them to the front line medical workers at the hospitals.

As I watch the news these days, I am so moved and inspired by the daily efforts of proactive, positive people–those who, when things go south, manage to rise above the scoffing, second-guessing, finger wagging, and complaining so many others immediately go to. Instead, they willingly accept the present reality, buckle down, and with a bright attitude put in the hard work and sacrifice that will turn things around for the greater good.

All this is taking a long way around to the simple fact that I had a thought. Witnessing the family-sized gratitude expressed over a handful of cut tulips by over-worked, stressed out, hospital workers struggling to save lives against a nasty, little understood contagion at work, while at the same time finding solace in my home garden as my mother slipped ever closer to death, it occurred to me that this might be a time for gardeners to step up and make a real difference!

We all know somebody in the trenches—doctors, nurses, hospital support staff, truck drivers, sanitation workers, grocery store clerks. The list goes on. Why not mow their lawn, pull some weeds, and mulch their beds? Or divide a favorite perennial or two and give it the perfect spot in their garden. At the very least, take them fresh flowers cut from your garden. And if one of your other neighbors is struggling to make a garden, give them a hand. Bestow on them the lessons you’ve learned over many years. If you belong to a garden club, think a little larger. Maybe plant a little pollinator garden outside the windows of nursing homes where so many languish without even family being able to visit. This can be done while practicing safe social distancing. I bet the nursing home would give permission. I guarantee that summer will see many a grateful face peering out and enjoying all the color and the birds.

So what do you think? Dumb idea? I think at the very least it needs a pithy name. Gardeners for Glory! Hero Horticulturists. Plants Opposed to Pandemics? Sometimes I think I write okay, but, yeah, I know I suck at titles. Maybe you or somebody that’s good at them will think of something.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. I’m tired. I surely hope you and your family are all safe and well. Oh, and here. A promise. If I survive this thing (about a 50-50 prospect), and if I still have a job when it’s all over, and if the airlines can find the keys to restart their airplanes, Michele and I will join you for one of your British garden tour adventures. I’ll even promise to behave! I won’t say things that will upset the locals, and I’ll just look the other way without comment when I see them shearing 30’ hedges of mountain laurels.  Deal?

Your friend,

Scott

    Plants and Pandemics, and, Gardeners Go for the Glory! originally appeared on GardenRant on April 30, 2020.

The post Plants and Pandemics, and, Gardeners Go for the Glory! appeared first on GardenRant.

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