This morning I saw online several people with Zoom fatigue. In response, I wanted to share my thoughts.
cytokine … for better or worse
My sister called me today – at work. She wanted to know how Mum was doing. Paramedics had come by the house yesterday to test Mum for the COVID-19 virus. The test wasn’t carried out because she was, according to other diagnostics, not infected. Had she been, she’d cease to be, already weakened by cancer.
reprieve in the long hours
After finishing college and taking a couple stabs at finding my ‘ideal’ workplace, which took a year and a half, I think I found a place I belong, at least for now, at CE. (Or, rather, T found it for me on Kijiji and emailed it to me.) I’ve been working since late Nov. 2019, learning as I go.
the slow blink
I have noticed this with almost all cats – certainly all my cats.
Why Cats Do the “Slow Blink” at Their Owners
I’ve used the slow blink thing as a way of communicating with them. It seemed to show a message of trust, and, with strange cats, their tails usually stop twitching back and forth. It’s nice to see this level of understanding with cats. … There are dog people, bird people, even reptile people – but I’ve always had cats – or, rather, they’ve always had me.
COVID-19 / Coronavirus
By now, everyone on the planet knows about the spread of COVID-19 / Coronavirus. Every news agency in the world is reporting on this daily, and daily it gets worse. Our neighbour to the south, the USA, is said to be the worst of the industrialized nations. Their testing was and is inadequate, which let it spread without much check. Remember Ebola? They weren’t prepared then, either. Here to the north, we’ve closed our border with the US (the longest free border in the world), except for essential services, in hopes of stemming it.
lost all right
Floyd is watching Jurassic World this evening – people and dinosaurs running around eating each other. I was just remembering a show I apparently watched way back as a kid called Land of the Lost. Talk about lost. I must have lost my mind to have watched this. Have a watch and see if you can get past the first 15 minutes.
Tutor of the Year nomination
Wow! Good news! I’ve been nominated by TD for 2020 Tutor of the Year for Canada! A student’s mom wrote a very positive report on me, and now I am in the running to win this year. This is most pleasing. It comes with a gift card of $xxx.xx and … who knows what else – likely a news release of some sort (in the tutoring world, that is). I’m grateful to TD for all their support, and I’m grateful to have such great students. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – my students make me look good!
work
I recently started a new position at a company that makes cabinets as a drafting technologist. For the past two weeks, I’ve been getting to know the software they use and trying to create an AWMAC compliant room-by-room materials list for a house. I think they are a good group of people who seriously work hard. The position, as with most positions out there, comes with a three month probationary period. I hope I make the cut. I’ll keep you posted.
In the mean time, there’s still TD. They also keep me busy. I’m not sure if I can take on any more clients with them as time is now limited.
an important difference (or, let me in, just don’t follow me)
I submitted this to the Washington Post.
I recently tried to view one of your pages (https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/suffering-from-bad-knees-some-look-for-alternatives-to-surgery/2019/11/15/d286d862-dfd7-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab) but was transferred to another page requesting to disable my web browser’s ad-block (https://www.washingtonpost.com/steps-for-disabling-firefoxs-native-adblocker/2018/05/21/fb95bf4e-5d37-11e8-b2b8-08a538d9dbd6_story.html). I have apps on my browser to disable tracking, not ads. I do not mind ads. I believe that a free internet requires ads. However, I do not wish to be tracked. I am happy to view your ads without being tracked. I do not know how to separate the two. Firefox, Ghostery, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, Privacy Badger, and others all seem to do both simultaneously. Can you offer a method of unblocking ads without disabling tracking blocks? I would welcome this.
I wonder if anyone is listening.
how to get a five star rating (or, not)
Someone asked me why I gave five stars to a recent chat with a company. Were they really worth five stars? This is how I give out my stars.
One for responding within the time frame I required of them.
One for understanding the issue and not confusing it with another.
One for being knowledgeable.
One for finding a solution.
One for explaining, teaching, showing well in a meaningful, polite, non-robotic way.
If you’ve done all this, then you get five stars out of me. If not, then not.