Tayter Swift posted:

Do we have receipts here cuz idk this feels like left version of Sorosizing poo poo otherwise

Mat Cauthon posted:

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1252202300426252288?s=19

Lowest price in 20 years. Expect some tweets from the orange man shortly.

Mat Cauthon posted:

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1252202300426252288?s=19

Lowest price in 20 years. Expect some tweets from the orange man shortly.

Kaiju Cage Match posted:

Ah yes, China, the capitalist country that has somehow convinced everyone it's actually communist.

Snacksmaniac posted:

It says so in the name!!

Mat Cauthon posted:

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1252202300426252288?s=19

Lowest price in 20 years. Expect some tweets from the orange man shortly.

Tayter Swift posted:

Do we have receipts here cuz idk this feels like left version of Sorosizing poo poo otherwise

hanales posted:

I thought Russia and KSA had stabilized on prices?

Mat Cauthon posted:

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1252202300426252288?s=19

Lowest price in 20 years. Expect some tweets from the orange man shortly.

TulliusCicero posted:

Is there a single non-white person at any of these "protests?:

It's just a sea of expired Mayo as far as the eye can see

Random Stranger posted:

Do you think he even remembers bragging last week about getting a deal between Russia and Saudi Arabia to stop crashing the price? Will he start bragging about low gas prices instead?

Yawgmoft posted:

This isn't a call out on you, but I've seen this idea a few times and I just want to clarify something: it is not just white people being completely stupid about this. Their stupidity is just taking the most nationally visible form possible.

Random Stranger posted:

Do you think he even remembers bragging last week about getting a deal between Russia and Saudi Arabia to stop crashing the price? Will he start bragging about low gas prices instead?

ManBoyChef posted:

I have a feeling that in FL DeSantis is going to get a lot of people killed and he is not going to help people that lost their jobs in any signficant way. Is this going to be the moment that people don't have a lot to lose and just go after the rich people?

Mr Ice Cream Glove posted:

Indiana got their protest at the governors mansion

VH4Ever posted:

His whole presidency is like when I was a kid in the 80s and when you'd trip or fall trying to do something in front of others you'd just say "I meant to do that." Only his followers actually believe that.


Yeah but again, the fact that whites are the ones beating on statehouse doors demanding that their haircuttery is reopened means they're being uniquely dumb/petulant as hell and deserve every inch of criticism.

Call me when POC are documented doing this:

Stuntman posted:

you down to post it here too?

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

What happened with that deal with SA and Russia to stop oil from crashing? I figured it was real because technically Trump had nothing to do with it.

Kammat posted:

Oh he's starting in fine form today with this WTF campaign ad!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1252204786059018240

TulliusCicero posted:

I see they hired Carpedunkum as their ad campaign designer

How wonderful

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

What happened with that deal with SA and Russia to stop oil from crashing? I figured it was real because technically Trump had nothing to do with it.

Crain posted:

If it ever existed, whatever deal was made was designed to do the most damage to American oil interested as possible.

Crain posted:

Sure.

“You don’t need to worry about cabin fever until you start, and then stop, hating it here.”

That was the advice I got from a seasoned Antarctic field guide when I offhandedly joked about going stir crazy in a training session during my first few days on the Ice. McMurdo station, and all Antarctic bases have people whose sole job is to ensure you don’t lose your goddamn mind. Going “stir crazy”, Cabin Fever, social isolation, whatever you want to call it is a long term problem. The focus there is “long term”. This week saw social distancing become a reality for most people either by choice or via mandate from your government, job, or the health needs of those close to you. If it hasn’t become a reality for you yet, it’s probably on the horizon.

I’m sure a lot of people here have had a hell of a week getting used to our new weird reality. Toilet paper is extinct, Voguing is back in style as everyone tries to avoid touching their face, and 1950’s era “everything and the kitchen sink” gelatin recipes are starting to look a little less gross as we all stare at our cupboards. A lot of people have been thrown into a social situation very suddenly that they potentially weren’t totally prepared for.
People have done a lot to adjust and remake their routines for the foreseeable future. We’ve all seen the social distancing parties where everyone is standing 6+ feet away from each other, people are making group chats and chat channels on slack, zoom, etc. Everyone’s sharing a lot of information on facebook and trying to be very open and concerned about how people are doing. It’s inspiring and wonderful to see.

It’s also the easy part.

I don’t want people to take this as a doom and gloom warning. This is for awareness, and in the coming months, the best thing you can do for yourself and others when it comes to isolation, cabin fever, and all the other anxieties that come with this situation is to remain aware of what you’re going through mentally. I would love for this post to become irrelevant after I post it and for everything to go back to normal quickly, but just in case here’s my advice.

It’s only been one week for many of you that I know, and even for others elsewhere in this country it’s maybe only been a couple more weeks of social distancing than that. Even then, for most of the country it’s still vaguely voluntary. Right now, if you really need to, you can go outside, take a walk, visit a friend, family members, whatever. You have access to that relief valve. However that could rapidly change. France, Italy, California have shelter in place calls already, and more states are looking into this. Epidemiologists are calling for stricter “suppression” efforts that include extreme social distancing.
So while I’ve seen a lot of good efforts around, I’ve also seen warning signs. People thinking that everyone settling in well after one week means things are going to be alright, or suddenly finding that they’re even more reliant on social media now that they can’t go out and socialize, or planning for some hypothetical end date when they’ll reassess. Those are good signs for the short term, but don’t mean much for the long term.

Right now there is a novelty to our situation. You and everyone you know is busy as hell trying to get their lives stable. There is news every day about what’s going on. Now is not when the problems start for your mental health. Surviving week one is great, but that novelty is going to wear off. That group chat is going to slow down as an information crunch starts happening because no one has done anything new in two or three weeks. Our lives and schedules and available distractions are going homogenize as time goes on. That backlog of books, music, movies, podcasts, whatever can disappear very quickly if you’re not careful. There’s no pace you can really set for yourself because no one knows when this will end.

Planning for this to last another 3 weeks, or a month, or just two more months isn’t the right thing to do because being prepared for your isolation to end on a given date, and having that release be torn away from you through no fault of your own, can be devastating. In McMurdo we were never told what date we’d be leaving exactly until it was basically right on top of us. That’s because the weather could change very quickly and end up cancelling our flight out for weeks. So you’d just know “Alright my job here is done, time to leave at some point” pack up and wait for the call, at which point you were thrown out to the “airport” and put on a plane to leave. Don’t plan for a specific date to find release, just be ready and happy when it finally comes.
In McMurdo, to avoid cabin fever, there were tons of events and routines put in place -TO KEEP YOU FROM FALLING TOO DEEP INTO A SINGLE ROUTINE-.

Routines are great and useful in normal life but in an extreme situation it can become very easy to fall into a haze with them if nothing exists to snap you out of it from time to time. For a lot of people the things available to “snap them out of it” stopped being readily available. Only doing the same things over and over will cause the days to blur as time and your surroundings no longer serve as any sort of meaningful measure of daily progression. The directors on the Ice would put on parties, little contests, any sort of fun distraction to keep the variety available to everyone. We also had mandatory cleaning duties known as “House Mouse”, which not only rotated what kind of job you needed to do, but where you did it and who you worked with. It forced you to see new parts of the base you’d otherwise ignore, you’d see new people, and have to do new things. You could be sorting trash in the sanitation center with a dude from Ohio one week, scrubbing floors with a Kiwi the next, and god knows what else the week after. They had us doing that not only because everyone needed to pitch in to keep the base running, but because breaking your routine can be just as important as keeping it.
The key was variety. You had your job to do, yes, but you also needed to keep the mind engaged beyond that. It also wasn’t just about new fun things to do, frustration and just a little bit of failure can be an even better motivator than having a good time. So while something like “House Mouse” wouldn’t quite work when you’re supposed to stay in your own home, the basic idea can be applied.

Try new things, try things you won’t be able to do, and find ways to break up your routine however you can. Do you and your partner and kids have set chores to do? Switch it up (within reason, don’t have a 5 year old try to change the oil on the car. Unless they’re really good at it. In which case give me a call, I need a new car guy.). Do something physical that you can’t currently do like learn to juggle, draw, origami, something dexterous where there’s no “perfect” end result, only different. Rearrange the house. Find something physical to do that you’ve never tried before. You should figure out an at home workout routine now anyways with the gyms all closed.

On the social side of things you’re probably going to need to learn to use and enjoy chat programs and online games. Discord, Google Hangouts, Skype anything that facilitates group video and voice calls can help you have a party online where you can at least hear and talk with other people. Learn to play online games. Suck at them? That’s great, learn to git gud scrub. If you really can’t bring yourself to argue with 13 year olds in shootymans (I can’t really blame you) then try something else like JackBox games (Party games similar to pictionary but digital) or an online book/media club and meet every week or so. Everyone picks a book, show, movie, whatever and the group chooses that week's choice at random till they’re all used. Then do it again. Read, watch, and think about things you never have before. There’s no single right answer and longer this goes on the less the quality of the variety matters.

Now everyone is different. I never felt any real issues apart from homesickness while I was down in Antarctica, but I wasn’t there for (comparatively) very long and there were people to talk to and meet face to face (even if it wasn’t very many). Being locked down in your house with just yourself, or maybe just you and your partner or roommates, maybe with kids too, that’s going to be harder. But everyone is different. Some of you may weather long term isolation just fine. I’ve been terminally online since high school so I have tons of communities to play games with and sitting in a discord channel chatting about inane stuff all night is kinda my jam. Time is going to tell though, and don’t think that you’ll always be immune to this.

Isolation is a slow acid. You might have thick skin, but leave it sitting on you long enough and it will eat away at you. It doesn’t burn or let you know what’s happening. You just realize one day that you haven’t heard from anyone in a couple weeks. That last group chat has been left on read for several days. You forget what people’s voices sounded like. Everyone just falls into a holding pattern and no one talks because no one else is talking. You might be irritable at the slightest little thing that shouldn’t bother you, want to withdraw, eating might feel less important, you might stop doing your favorite things because you just don’t care anymore. You start experiencing a state where you literally can’t choose something to do because nothing holds your interest and you feel lost and just sit and exist. Those are the kinds of things to look out for, but they’re not the only things. You might hate that at first and push back, which is good. But it can happen in cycles and eventually, maybe, you stop hating it and just accept it. You fall deeper into isolation and depression because it’s just easier and hell, why not, you’ve already gotten used to it. That’s what the guide I quoted was talking about : Resignation. It can take many forms, it could take a long time, or happen quickly. It could happen for some but not others. Ultimately, and thankfully, it doesn’t have to happen at all.

So in the coming days, weeks, months or however long this lasts, be cognizant of where your head is at. Do a mental check in every day or two. If you’ve never tried to do mindfulness before, go look it up for something to do. There are tons of helpful online guides and apps to help you with keeping track of your mental state. I personally use the “Calm” app for it. Keep an eye on people who seem to go quiet for a while and keep reaching out to your friends and keep talking even if it seems like there’s no reason to. Look for alternatives to in-person socializing and try to set up regular times to do things. The world is still well connected even if you can’t be face to face.

This is going to be a long term issue, just keep that in mind. It will be harder because we simply cannot know when it will end. Being aware of what to look out for right now and preparing for it is the best defense you can have right now.

No Captain ever worried about cabin fever when the port was still on the horizon.

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay sane, and stay in touch.

Mat Cauthon posted:

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1252202300426252288?s=19

Lowest price in 20 years. Expect some tweets from the orange man shortly.

BigBallChunkyTime posted:

"We support healthcare workers*"



*Unless we disagree with them in any way

Cabbages and Kings posted:

All things considered, a good time to need to get our heating fuel oil tank refilled at an almost brain breaking $2/gal

Kammat posted:

Oh he's starting in fine form today with this WTF campaign ad!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1252204786059018240

BigBallChunkyTime posted:

This guy gets it.

https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/1251571068885585920?s=19

Mr Ice Cream Glove posted:

Bubbacub posted:

https://twitter.com/impatientrabbit/status/1251941161503203328

Kammat posted:

Oh he's starting in fine form today with this WTF campaign ad!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1252204786059018240

karthun posted:

CME changes a bunch of code last week to support negative prices on oil.

KKKLIP ART posted:

How do you even have a negative price on oil?

KKKLIP ART posted:

How do you even have a negative price on oil?

KKKLIP ART posted:

How do you even have a negative price on oil?

SocketWrench posted:

"No work is bad for your health" That is the most white bread rich statement ever made. Holy gently caress. My job requires me to work near loud equipment that can make me deaf, drive a 19,000 pound forklift onto wood flatbeds to unload steel where if I lift too much the hilo will go through the trailer (which I have done), work around smoke from welding machines, and both drive and walk on oil slick floors. And my job isn't even the worst out there. I worked at Vlasic where factory floor temps could reach 130 loving degrees. During the summer there were ambulances there constantly to pick people off the floor from heat stroke.

gently caress you you dumb white bread bitch. You can go eat a bag of poo poo. God drat it this pissed me off. I drat near punched my monitor

SocketWrench posted:

"No work is bad for your health" That is the most white bread rich statement ever made. Holy gently caress. My job requires me to work near loud equipment that can make me deaf, drive a 19,000 pound forklift onto wood flatbeds to unload steel where if I lift too much the hilo will go through the trailer (which I have done), work around smoke from welding machines, and both drive and walk on oil slick floors. And my job isn't even the worst out there. I worked at Vlasic where factory floor temps could reach 130 loving degrees. During the summer there were ambulances there constantly to pick people off the floor from heat stroke.

gently caress you you dumb white bread bitch. You can go eat a bag of poo poo. God drat it this pissed me off. I drat near punched my monitor


Yes, while I'm home there is nothing that scares me as much as stepping into my shower
gently caress you