Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
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I joined the team comp with the idea that I won't do that many BRs. I'm still on my audio-reading kick and figured that could be tallied for the TC but not trying as hard to complete Challenges/BRs. That way I can dive into the books I want to read at mostly my own pace. =)I feel like I should dig out a few classics to get in this year but I may not try too hard. I did enjoy my 3 months of doing it last year. This year is turning into the "OH I read that 20 years ago! I should re-read that." And hopefully finish Wheel of Time & Malazan. LOL
Timelord Iain wrote: "I just learned this money saving trick for audible audiobooks, if you have Kindle Unlimited and an Audible subscription... and it feels like cheating...You can checkout ebooks with Kindle Unlimit..."
Haha, I was trying to explain that "trick" back then, when we were started Super Powereds, it doesn't seem as if I was doing a good job 😅
I've totally taken advantage of that combo. It's one of the few ways to save.
Charlie wrote: "As a totally unrelated and random comment, I watched Gone Girl last night, I'd forgotten how good it was, I really loved it. Those 2 and a half hours really sped past."I've watched it too, but long ago and couldn't believe how good it was. I've read the book too, but wasn't nearly as good.
I don't do many BR's this year. In fact, I've got a lot of empty months and I don't do them only for the points, but because I want to read them with other people. I find myself less competetive than last year and reading more besides the BR's.
Mod
You can checkout eboo..."
Totally missed it... I remember the talk about Impossible Times & something else being on KUR&L...
I figure, I can buy enough discount audiobooks over the next 18 months, for the KU subscription to pay for itself, now (not even counting the books I read for "free" with KU Read & Listen... already read 13+ Melissa F. Olson books, 6 Odyssey One books, The Palace Job, and maybe a couple others)
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Ok, at my place in Melbourne, Australia. However, I think the worse is yet to come. Fortunately, I can work from home and minimize exposure for my wife and myself.
I was pretty relaxed about the whole corona - virus, until now. The National Security Council of Belgium gathered together yesterday and we're following with the drastic measures. For now we've got 400 sick people and 5 deaths. Schools are closing, but for the elementary schools, kindergarden...there will be care, because people have to work too. I mean, I have a son of 7 year and no family to take care of him and I have a job too. My partner can take some days of work, but this is for 3 weeks that the schools are closing. Pubs, restaurants...are closing. Banks, farmacists, supermarkets...stay open 7/24, but other shops are closing in the weekends. People are starting gathering food, supplies...it's insane. My son and I follow karaté lessons. Now it's cancelled until 19th April.I'm not so relaxed anymore. I've just read that all events in our libraries are cancelled. Our books are extended until 18th April. I've got a feeling that the libraries will eventually close too.
I work at the reception desk of a mental hospital and now there taking precautions, mostly for the patients: washing and disinfecting hands, coughing in tissues...If we've got fever, coughing and short of breath we need immediately to go home. It's now so fat that we don't need to go to the doctor, just give him a call, say you're sick and you get sick leave for 7 days. We've got now 600 sick people an 5 deaths. People are starting hamstering food also, but that's not necesary.
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I'm going back to work on Monday after two and a half weeks of staying at home. Hopefully, school won't be canceled again, but we are getting new updates all the time depending on how close the outbreaks are.
How's the situation where you are?
Us here in upstate NY - schools just got shut down today. So my kids are off. I am at work, but as of Monday my office (which is the county office building) will be shut to public services. So technically if I want, i'll be able to work from home. Howver, if the school districts after cleaning this weekend opt to stay shut, I'd probably rather work @ work otherwise I'll never get anything done.Foodshopping has gone INSANE. I thought I was being smart Wednesday putting in an online to-go order for last night and the store was mobbed, they were an hour and a half or more behind in fulfilling online orders. Ended up giving me all my non-perishables free. Target, for some strange reason, was dead (right across the street and had no problem there. Went back today and they gave me the rest of my groceries. They were so apologetic they gave me about $220 in grocers for $33 (I had a $40 credit from them messing up my order last week/packing issue. So its insane, but I guess I can't complain too much!
I did have a major fantasy baseball industry event scheduled for Manhattan this weekend where we auction-draft our teams and it is simulcast on Sirius XM. They canceled the event and we're drafting online instead. Kinda wish they'd push the whole thing back till they know when the baseball season is going to start. So i have to somehow grab two computers from home and figure out how I'm going to work it with the kids all in the house (might ship them to the inlaws for a second ay in a row.
Schools will be closing on Monday here, too.I personally haven't felt much of an impact on my life since I'm currently writing my thesis, so I'm at home most of the time anyway.
What I don't understand is people making thoughtless decisions out of panic, like stealing disinfectant and face masks in hospitals. That's where this stuff is actually needed and stealing it is the worst, selfish thing you can do! Not having tons of disinfectant at home is very likely not going to kill you (since just washing your hands properly is an option, too), but it might kill the actually sick people in the hospital.
A friend of my family is a doctor in our local hospital and he told us last week that they are so short on face masks that every team of doctors and nurses gets one mask at the beginning of each shift and then they have to share. Crazy, right? Even if there was no Corona, I would not want to use a mask that 3 colleagues already had over their noses...
And even with this new rule, they only have masks left for 3-4 weeks and apparently there's a shortage of new masks, too, because of all the hoarding, so the prices have gone up like crazy.
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I personally haven't felt much of an impact on my life since I'm currently writing my thesis, so I'm at home most of the time anyway.
What I don't und..."
Masks are so hard to get here too. The government has regulated a two mask per week limit where you have to show ID and the days you can purchase depend on the last number of your birth year.
Bea wrote: "Schools will be closing on Monday here, too.I personally haven't felt much of an impact on my life since I'm currently writing my thesis, so I'm at home most of the time anyway.
What I don't und..."
Bloody mental. Worrying number of people that have no common sense and can't think outside of looking after themselves.
It's been mostly ok here in the UK, though we've had the same craziness regarding loo roll, hand sanitizer and hand soap being sold out. Now, also food like pasta and rice is going fast.
Businesses and schools are still open but that might change soon, the cases are expected to peak in the next two weeks...
Margret wrote: "How’s everyone holding up with the pandemic?"Our schools and universities were ordered to close down for two weeks but then an announcement came just recently (in the middle of the second week) that they're to be closed off till May! It's insane. Now the institutes have to take online classes, while ours doesn't even have a software...I had a presentation due today, but don't know about that anymore until they confirm how the online classes will commence
Then there's the work thing. I applied for an internship but the boss says most business activities have paused so now we don't even know when they'll get us new employees on board
Rob wrote: "Us here in upstate NY - schools just got shut down today. So my kids are off. I am at work, but as of Monday my office (which is the county office building) will be shut to public services. So tech..."My cousins had tickets for a sporting event today but they banned crowds yesterday so the matches would go on without any live audience. I don't know if there's been crazy food shopping here but people have been buying sanitizers and would WANT to buy masks but there are none to be seen lol. There's been a shortage
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My biggest concern is that I am a respiratory therapist in ICU 😬 I’m frontline staff and while this illness seems to (thank god) spare kids I’m still worried about contracting and spreading it at work.
I also have a severe anxiety disorder with ocd like symptoms as many of you know. I had been doing very well and even tried to wean off meds a few weeks ago but with the current state of affairs it did not work out whatsoever. Things have been very tenuous lately for me but trying my best to limit my input and keep up healthy coping habits
Margret wrote: "The province I live, Alberta has 23 confirmed all travel related and we are taking a very aggressive approach cancelling all public events etc. I’m hoping it’ll flatten the curve of illnesses so as..."I can totally see how this mass panic could be very negative for existing anxiety issues. I hope you manage to keep up your healthy coping habits, Margret. Don't be too hard on yourself about weaning off your meds, there's plenty time once this blows over. We're all here for you if you need support or just to chat. :) ❤️
I'm in the UK too, so what Beena said! So far we seem to have that British approach of going on as normal whilst everyone else is closing schools! Ireland has closed schools and Scotland banned gatherings of 500 people or more, but nothing in England yet. Lots of sporting events and concerts cancelled though.
I work for a pharmaceutical wholesaler so work has been crazy this last week. We've sold a months worth of drugs in two weeks and having trouble replacing stock, especially ibuprofen and paracetamol.
We're still in the office, taking extra precautions with cleaning and sanitising, and we've stopped visitors coming to the building. We can work from home with laptops if need be so should be OK. As part of the NHS supply chain our warehouse and delivery drivers won't have a choice but to keep working though.
I think it sounds like it's going to start spreading quicker, and a lot of people will get it and it'll just be like a bad cold/flu. As long as we stay away from more vulnerable people should be OK in the end. I hope everyone is OK and takes care.
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I live in the MIdwest USA, and most of my coworkers seem to buy into the narrative that the coronavirus is blown out of proportion and no big deal... I hope they're right, but if they're not, the prospects are scary, from everything I read...
People are also getting dangerous... apparently someone was so desperate for water at a Sam's Club in Georgia, they tried to take from another customer's cart... the customer than grabbed a bottle of wine and attacked the thief... cops were called...
There was a similar mentality at work, today, when a paper truck showed up around noon... the entire trailer sold in 90 minutes... that's 26 pallets or so, paper towel pallets hold 32x12 packs, toiler paper pallets hold 48x45 packs... it was a mix of both...
Only silver lining, is that overtime is blanket approved...
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Ireland has closed schools and Scotland banned g..."
From the sound of it, the whole world might have coronavirus by June, and then you'll start building antibodies (if you're not part of the 2% death toll)... 2% seems small, but 2% of 7 billion is still 140 million... Good thing we keep hearing about more and more progress on treatments...
Timelord Iain wrote: "Foodshopping is in it's own spiral... 1st wave of hoarders doomsday stocking up on TP/Sanitizer/etc, has left the shelves bare for people who are just trying to do regular shopping... then it comes back in, and regular shoppers feel the need to stockpile, since they don't trust the hoarders to not cause them problems NEXT time...."This ^^
You just summed it up in one. It creates panic, and now we all feel like we need to stock up because things won't be readily available.
So far we seem to have that British approach of going on as normal whilst everyone else is closing schools!Lmao, so British!
Foodshopping is in it's own spiral... 1st wave of hoarders doomsday stocking up on TP/Sanitizer/etc, has left the shelves bare for people who are just trying to do regular shopping... then it comes back in, and regular shoppers feel the need to stockpile, since they don't trust the hoarders to not cause them problems NEXT time...
People are so stupid... I've seen a few posts on facebook of elderly that don't have big budgets and are just trying to do their weekly shop, but can't get certain things :( It's not like they have unlimited energy to go running around shops, let alone a strong immune system...
People are also getting dangerous... apparently someone was so desperate for water at a Sam's Club in Georgia, they tried to take from another customer's cart... the customer than grabbed a bottle of wine and attacked the thief... cops were called...
Terrifying to see how fast any form of civilisation goes...
I thought the town where I live was pretty much unaffected until I went to do my weekly shop a few days ago and saw the shelves mostly stripped of toilet rolls (I genuinely needed toilet rolls; I only had one left!).Although I think everyone should take sensible precautions (hand-washing, etc.), I do think the media is whipping up hysteria about it. Headlines like '11 people have now died!' should be balanced with '60,000 people have previously contracted this virus and recovered.'
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The problem is how political everything is these days... the people in power in many places are trying to downplay fears, and the people who want their jobs next election are playing it up...
The downplaying works for some people, and makes others more paranoid, ready to hear the fearmongering (or vice versa)... yet another spiral...
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Margret wrote: "If it were influenza people wouldn’t even care 😂 I worked during H1N1 pandemic and literally nothing closed down. We were packed to the brim with critically ill patients, our icu actually won a cri..."You're definitely all set then! Yeah so many people die of seasonal flu every year and noone bats an eyelid.
Shaitarn wrote: "I thought the town where I live was pretty much unaffected until I went to do my weekly shop a few days ago and saw the shelves mostly stripped of toilet rolls (I genuinely needed toilet rolls; I o..."Exactly, and the newspapers are conveniently saying that 11 people died 'after' contracting coronavirus, they didn't die 'of' it - unfortunately these people were already seriously unwell.
Timelord Iain wrote: "Foodshopping is in it's own spiral... 1st wave of hoarders doomsday stocking up on TP/Sanitizer/etc, has left the shelves bare for people who are just trying to do regular shopping... then it comes..."Basically what Iain said. The panic in the States is ridiculous. I personally wasn't too concerned until I had a hard time buying basic necessities this week. It's starting to feel like living in a bad scifi movie.
Margret wrote: "If it were influenza people wouldn’t even care 😂 I worked during H1N1 pandemic and literally nothing closed down. We were packed to the brim with critically ill patients, our icu actually won a cri..."I made that point to a few other people when I started doing research on corona and flu comparisons. In a lot of ways flu is worse for those immune compromised, esp if it turns into pneumonia. But that's not news!
Narilka wrote: "Margret wrote: "If it were influenza people wouldn’t even care 😂 I worked during H1N1 pandemic and literally nothing closed down. We were packed to the brim with critically ill patients, our icu ac..."Agreed. 'XX people now dead!' sells papers; 'Not as bad as normal flu!' doesn't.
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It all boils down to the state of the world, these days... less people feel like they can 100% ignore the news... so more people hear the scary things... and being unused to it, they react... rashly...
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I read The Palace Job this week, and it was pretty big on sensational media... but it was funny, because the competing news outlets were run by bickering dragons and manticores (I think... it was another fantasy creature, anyway)...
I think this whole thing has been blown way out proportion but in this age of social media when misinformation, bolstered by sensationalized press looking for click-bait, spreads faster than facts. This is not any different than when the swine flu hit a few years ago...and that affected the younger population more, sort of the opposite of what's happening now. And it's not like the swine flu went away, it's still out there. My husband's co-worker was diagnosed with it last year. But it's mutated from its original form, as viruses tend to do, so it's less aggressive and potent than the original strain...as is common with mutations despite what Hollywood movies tell us. People just need to exercise good hygiene practices, which they should be doing all the time. And I don't even get the whole stocking up on bottled water. It's not like our water supply is contaminated. And the production of food and delivery system for food is not affected so this whole hysteria is just out of hand. I work in a hospital and all the doctors I work with are just shaking their heads over how people seem to be losing their minds.
I'm from the Adelaide Hills in South Australia and so far there has only been 1 confirmed case of Covid-19 in our area (travel related, the person is in isolated care and doing quite well apparently). But everyone here has also gone completely mad stocking up on toilet paper, tissues, hand sanitizer, paper towel, pasta, rice and flour). The supermarket shelves are looking a bit bare.On a humourous note one news outlet here ran a tongue in cheek segment on leaf variety's that are safe to use as toilet paper replacements e.g. wild tobacco leaf = good, stinging nettle = bad! Very educational lol :-)
Sometimes a little bit of levity provides some much needed laughter :-)
Hi guys, just wanna add in my 2c.I live in Jakarta. I think our government hasn't handled the virus as seriously as it should have, because there has been a lack of testing and transparancy with respect to where the infected areas are. I think testing is really important here, because the symptoms are very very similar to common flu. Therefore, people don't exactly know if they're coughing and have a fever if they have contracted something serious or just a common cold. This lack of testing and uncertainty have led to some people doing stupid stuff like panic buying at the grocery stores on the day when the president first announced the first case in Indonesia about a couple of weeks ago.
Unfortunately, testing procedures are not widely known in my country. I've read and watched some news that the government would only provide testing if the patient has shown symptoms of pneumonia, despite other lesser symptoms present. I think that's just too late. That means days when the virus could have spread to a lot of different people if the patient wasn't informed and tested properly.
Because of the lack of more aggressive testing, the number of confirmed cases has increased significantly the past few days. There was "only" around 20ish confirmed cases in the first week (1st case confirmed on March 2), but it has grown to 34-69-96 just in the past three days (3 deaths, 8 recovered). The exponential growth is expected, when one looks at the data from other countries. But, the key question right now is how to flatten the curve. The government needs serious actions and more aggressive testings to be implemented if they want the people to remain relatively calm.
I think this is a serious issue. I think we shouldn't think that it's no big deal. It's a pretty big deal that made China closed off an entire city. And I think it's definitely more serious than just a common cold. Statistics have indicated that the mortality rate is about 3-4%, which is much much higher than common cold. And not just the mortality rate, but the infection rate is also higher than common cold. But, of course, it doesn't mean it's the end of the world. But it is a pretty serious matter that requires serious reaction from everybody.
As for me personally, I dunno if I can say my life hasn't been affected. Unfortunately, a staff of mine just got back from a country that has confirmed Covid-19 cases, and she got a fever about a week after she got back. Then, she got better, but got another fever a few days ago. Her manager, who has had contacts with her came to my office for a meeting a few days ago, but did not inform me of my staff's condition until after the day of the meeting. Although, my manager didn't look sick at all. But, because we don't know of my staff's status (whether she had been tested or diagnosed properly or not), we're erring on the side of caution here. So, currently, just to be on the safe side, I'm not exactly self-quarantining myself, but I try not to go out and I wear mask as a precaution. Hopefully, it's just a common cold and nothing worse.
But, I do tell my staff the following guidelines wrt any sickness right now:
1. Check your temperature everyday, if you're feeling sick, coughing, have a fever, please do take the day off.
2. If you're still sick the day after, go to a doctor for a check up, then stay at home for 2 weeks.
3. Wash your hands often. We bought a bottle of hand sanitizer for the office. And the office building also provides hand sanitizers at the lobby foyer.
On a brighter note, at least I'm getting my reading done, always a plus in my book lol.
In russia I think most ppl don't give a damn about corona. I don't follow the news, but I do visit food stores regularly... and everything is in good stock. Nothing about shortages from friends or relatives, either. Well, i guess getting a mask is a very big problem here, yeah.Personally, the only thing worrying me is the hiatus of some movies due to the virus. If this is also the case for tv shows, then I HATE this virus.
An aquintance showed me an ap of the global map of corona virus with the number of infected ppl. And while everywhere its in hundreds and thoudsands... drumroll... in russia it's 17. Ppl are saying the government pressures everyone into reporting lower numbers than there are in reality.
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idiffer wrote: "In russia I think most ppl don't give a damn about corona. I don't follow the news, but I do visit food stores regularly... and everything is in good stock. Nothing about shortages from friends or ..."Same here with us, on your last point. We have it under 20 here too but I've heard rumours that it's in the hundreds and the government is hiding the actual numbers
Now our choir rehearsals have been cancelled, too...
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People are at least getting more used to the shortages, and just dealing with what's available... I was expecting to be stopped and asked to grab specific things (slowing down the stocking), but that didn't really happy... people were just happy to see items appear on the shelves as they walked by...
Management has had to start rationing everything... people are just coming in and buying 10x cooked rotisserie chickens or 10x10lbs ground beef... now there's a limit of 2 on most cold/Fresh food items, baby supplies, cleaning supplies, paper products, water, etc...
Only thing that I think curbed the flow, today, was this bout of cold weather... it was freezing rain this morning, and chilly all day, with talks of snow...
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I think schools just got cancelled in Illinois...
Schools are closed along the Treasurer Coast (Florida).
Here in the Netherlands I think the measures taken aren't as strict as in many other countries. There's no lockdown and the schools are still open (for now, at least). They have cancelled all events that are over a 100 people, which includes public buildings such as musea, but it's still possible to go to a restaurant or bar (which they're going to close in Belgium for the coming weeks). But the toilet-paper craziness is also strong here haha. Many dried goods such as pasta, rice, canned veggies/beans and such were pretty much all gone as well. I hope I can get a pack of toilet-paper today, or I'll have a slight problem in a few days :PI work in Belgium, I do research there in health-psychology on healthy people, but they've cancelled those research activities due to the close-contact nature of that type of research (you have to touch the participants to put on electrodes and such). So, since I can do all my other work at home, it basically means I'm staying at home for 2 or 3 weeks, together with my bf, hoping I won't bash my bf's brains out by the end of it haha.
I live in Belgium and now we're hitting the 1000 of sick people and maybe 10 death.Schools like elementary and kindergarden are still closed untill Eastern holidays, but they give day care for people who work in health care, have problem to find someone to take care of their kids...So, my son of 7 years is going to school, because I work in a hospital.
Restaurants and bars are closed for 3 weeks, supermarkets, pharmacists and banks are open every day and other shops only in the week. Libraries are open only in the week.
Right now in the hospital where I work, there's complete chaos, because one of the department staf has corona and she's very sick. So, we had to call all the patients of the departments where the patients get their day therapy or other day threatements to cancel appointments.
I'm not easily scared, but now...I think it's just the beginning of it.
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We had no water or paper products today, since we didn't get any deliveries last night... the closers also did my job for me, a bit, since the shelves were empty when the freezer/cooler delivery happened last night before the store closed...
Fantasy Buddy Reads
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You can checkout ebooks with Kindle Unlimited, even if they don't come with free audiobook Read & Listens... THEN you can go on Audible, and buy the audiobook through Whispersync for Voice... and you get the discounted pricing as if you 100% own the ebook... even tho you can only have 10 ebooks at a time and will inevitably return them...
This means, that for tons of books (especially non-new books) you can pay $7.50 or less... cheaper than a credit...
Great news for me, and anyone else that didn't already know this...