Darkoshi

Times Square had a car commercial behind the count-down numbers. Very tacky if you ask me. But the music performances were nice.

The local virtual event's headline act (Arrested Development) wasn't live, and didn't even look specially recorded for the occasion (the part I saw looked like a music video, filmed outdoors in the daytime with a pretty yellow-leaved tree in the background). I wonder if there was a technical problem that resulted in something else being shown than what was planned.

I banged my drum. A rumpa pum pum.

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I love this new Geico commercial, "Scoop, there it is!".

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My small over-sofa laptop desk broke; a weld at the bottom came apart. Today I drilled holes through the square steel metal tubes, and bolted on angle brackets to attach it back together. I hadn't expected to be able to drill through the metal, but it wasn't very difficult at all. Finding enough nuts and bolts and washers of an acceptable size among my collection was more tricky. My first try, a single angle bracket on the broken side, made the desk feel lopsided and not sturdy enough. So then I stacked 2 angle brackets on both sides, and now am very pleased with it. I sure hope it proves to be a lasting fix.
That's my New Year's Eve accomplishment.


So many things have been breaking lately:

The porch lamp; I fixed it by putting up a new one. Looks and works good.

The deadbolt lock; I fixed it by replacing it with the old matching deadbolt lock from the other door which I'd replaced a few years ago, and rekeying it to match the current key. Not sure how long this one will last, but replacing it with a new lock would be difficult as the distance from the edge of the door to the hole is non-standard, and the hole is also too small for new locks.

A connector under Qiao's kitchen sink leaks when the warm water is turned on. So for the last week, I've only been using cold water to wash dishes. I don't want to try tightening it and end up with water spraying everywhere. The water meter in the front yard was changed last year; I'm not even sure we can turn off the water to the house out there anymore.

The caulk on my tub; I recaulked it on 2 sides.

The outlets... I wanted to replace a couple of 2-prong outlets with 3-prong ones, and tried installing a GFCI one... but it doesn't work right; it indicates there's a wiring problem somewhere in the rest of the circuit which unfortunately connects to a bunch of different things, so is not easy to figure out. Especially if the problem is in the crawl space, because I went down there again, and yeah, NO. I can not convince myself to crawl flat on my belly under the HVAC duct while bringing along camera and tools and flashlights and cringing at how much dirt I'm getting all over myself, unless it's REALLY an emergency, maybe.

That storm door. I FOUND the retainer strips in the garage, yahoo (so glad I didn't throw them away years ago, not knowing what they were back then), and the glass panel is now securely in the frame.

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Ooh. #Dancelikeadad. That was a good commercial too.

Oh shucks, the Dick Clark NYE show ended before the Pacific time zone reached midnight.

Well, I suppose I should go to bed.

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A few days ago, I noticed a small rash on both my outer forearms near the wrists. The skin was red and dry, with a couple of small bumps. Not at all itchy or painful. The dry skin feels like it got a rug burn. I haven't ever had rough dry skin in that location before.

(Of course, I'm wondering if it could be a COVID symptom, even though the COVID rashes I've read about don't present like that. It's more likely to be some other virus, or an actual rug-burn scenario that happened without me remembering. Or an allergic reaction, but what could I have touched with only that part of my forearms?)

Mask Envy:
When you keep seeing photos and videos where other people's face masks look better fitting, more comfortable, more snug and protective, than your own. Even though you've got like, 5? different kinds, but none of which are without problems.

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I wanted to wear something other than a turtleneck+sweatshirt this evening, but I've already tried on 5 combinations of things, and they've all been too uncomfortable. How did I ever find things to wear to work, every day?
Egadz, these cuffs on my wrists, this collar at the back of my neck, this metal zipper by my chin, this fabric in my elbow when I bend my arm...

Note to self: Don't buy waffle-pattern undershirts, even if they are 100% cotton. Uncomfortable against my skin.

Inhaled Vaccines Aim to Fight Coronavirus at Its Point of Attack

If an injectable vaccine were to be made available in the next few months, I'd be quite wary of getting it yet, as it doesn't seem that enough long-term testing of potential negative side-effects could have been done. But I don't seem to have quite as many reservations about one that would be inhaled or sprayed; I'm not sure that is logical of me.

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How quick and dirty Covid tests could end the weariness

"Even if a cheap-as-a-cup-of-coffee test could be produced and distributed in sufficient quantities, problems remain. The most obvious is the issue of false positives. The Office for National Statistics estimated that 1 in 2,000 people were infected with coronavirus in England and Wales in late August. With a test that has a false-positive rate of just 1 per cent, you would wrongly flag up 20 uninfected people for every genuine case. The rarer the virus, the worse this problem becomes."

But as the test would be so cheap and easy, couldn't the people who test positive simply repeat the test a certain number of times, to determine if the first one was really correct? I suppose that could be a problem as usually the false negative rate is higher than the false positive rate. But still, surely repeating the test a certain number of times would give a good indication?

This makes me wonder, not for the first time, what the false-positive and false-negative rates are for the current tests that are being used. If I recall right, there are hundreds of different tests being used in different places. I don't know if test takers are even told which specific test they're getting, and what its false positive & negative rates are.

So far, I've found this FDA page which lists the info for about 50 of the blood antibody tests:

EUA Authorized Serology Test Performance (EUA = Emergency Use Authorization)

This page lists a lot of viral & antigen tests as well as serology tests, but doesn't list false positive/negative rates along with them like the above page does. That info may be buried in the linked-to docs for each test, but I'm not sure:
In Vitro Diagnostics EUAs

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These are the main types of tests:
Viral (molecular) test: detects genetic material of the virus. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are of this type.
Antigen test: detects certain proteins in the virus.
Antibody test: detects the antibodies produced by the body in response to the virus.


Nice animated timeline of when each type of test is most likely to give a positive result.


Additional notes:
IgG = Immunoglobulin G
IgM = Immunoglobulin M
IgA = Immunoglobulin A (this one is not mentioned in regards to the above serology tests)
pan-Ig = I did not find a definition for this; I would guess it is some combination of the above.

The last few times I used the hand sanitizer that I keep in the car for when I go shopping, it has taken longer to evaporate while rubbing my hands, and it feels tackier while doing so.

Enough of the alcohol in it may have evaporated, that it is no longer very effective. I should replace it. Luckily, hand sanitizer is no longer difficult to come by.

I had bought a non-alcohol one to try out last week. It contains 0.13% benzalkonium chloride as the active ingredient. It smells very similar to an unscented non-toxic cleaner that I use for scrubbing the tub. I always wear rubber gloves when using that tub cleaner. When I smell this scent on my bare hands, I think that my hands aren't supposed to smell like that; that I shouldn't have that chemical on them as it is a strong cleaner. It makes me want to wash my hands to get it off.

The old alcohol one had a very faint pleasant lemony scent. I prefer that.

https://studio.healthmap.com.au/
Select the button to login as a Guest.
On the left side, select COVID-19.
Select the desired region to display.
Then you can select to display either the daily or cumulative statistics, with various options.

Looking at the global map, I was surprised to see that Belgium appeared to have the highest death rate. But that is because they are counting all suspected cases, not only confirmed ones.

https://covidtracking.com/
U.S. data only, national and by state.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/tracker/overview
U.S. data only, national and by state.

cdc-and-states-are-misreporting-covid-19-test-data (article from 2020/05/21)
"We’ve learned that the CDC is making, at best, a debilitating mistake: combining test results that diagnose current coronavirus infections with test results that measure whether someone has ever had the virus."

I haven't been able to correlate the daily South Carolina numbers that are reported in different places. Maybe the above kind of thing is part of the reason why.

The way SC has reported COVID-19 numbers on its daily report page has changed a few times.

This website captures daily screenshots of the above page, so one can check the numbers from prior days (the site also captures data reported for other states):
https://covidtracking.com/data/state/south-carolina#historical

Since June 10, the SC page distinguishes between viral and antibody tests in the "COVID-19 Testing in South Carolina" section. Before then, it either didn't distinguish them or wasn't including numbers for the antibody tests.

Since June 10, that same section has included a timestamp, which shows that those numbers are as of midnight of the previous day.
By contrast, the top of the page has always listed a time (usually between 3pm and 6pm of the current day) when the page was last updated; I think the numbers shown in the top box are what's been reported as of that time.

From May 22 to June 9, the "COVID-19 Testing in South Carolina" section has included caveats:
"Total negative tests is the cumulative number of all tests without positive results. This total includes individuals who may have been tested once and individuals who have been tested multiple times.
Total positive tests is different than the total number of positive cases in the state. The number of cases is the number of individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 at least once. Some of those individuals have been tested multiple times for various reasons, and the total positive tests captures all of the positive test results in the state. One positive test may have been tested multiple times, with potentially multiple positive results"

Since June 10, the section has a simpler caveat, which I think is saying the same thing:
"This table represents volume of tests received and not distinct individuals tested. Individuals could have multiple tests."

The daily news releases list the percent positive rate. For example, yesterday:
"The total number of individuals tested yesterday statewide was 5,794 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 13.3%. When the percent positive is low, it may indicate that more widespread testing is being performed and the percent positive may more accurately reflect how much disease is present in the community."

I haven't figured out how that percent positive is being calculated, based on the numbers on the other page.

It seems to me that the percent positive rate should only be based on the viral test results of distinct individuals who have been tested. Or that it should at least not include repeat *positive* test results from the same individual who has previously tested positive. It probably also shouldn't include negative test results from individuals who previously tested positive (showing that they've fought the infection off.)
But the main page doesn't list those numbers. Maybe that is why I haven't been able to come up with a calculation that gives the same results.

The top box of the main page gives a "Total Positive Cases" number, which I *believe* (but am not sure) is the overall number of distinct people so far who have ever tested positive for either COVID-19 or the antibodies, not including repeat tests.
Comparing that number to the prior day's number would include not only the number of new people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the prior day, but also people who have tested positive for antibodies, meaning they had COVID-19 in the past. So it wouldn't make sense to use that number to calculate a daily percent positive rate.


Ah, wait. There's another section of the main page, "Percent Positive Trends Among Reported COVID-19 Cases". It says: "The percent positive is the number of individual people that tested positive (770 as of June 12) divided by the number of individuals tested (5,794 as of June 12)".

Comparing the "COVID-19 Testing in South Carolina" sections for June 11 and 12 gives 957 positive viral tests out of 6019 tests. So the number of positive repeat tests must be (957 - 770 = 187). The total repeat tests must be (6019 - 5794 = 225). So (225 - 187 = 38) people must have previously tested positive and now tested negative... and/or maybe tested negative twice?

My plan was to simply go for a walk around the neighborhood with my mom, both of us wearing face masks and keeping some distance between us. I did not plan to go inside her house, to avoid bringing germs in or out.

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In between me having ordered cloth face masks, and Qiao having ordered regular surgical style face-masks which were delivered yesterday, we have several now.

The first cloth face masks I got are the rectangular, pleated/fold style. They don't impede my breathing very much as they aren't snug against the face. They tend to ride up and start rubbing the bottom of my eyes, which bothers me. Using a chin movement, I can pull it downwards without touching it with my hands, but then it feels too low on my nose. The elastic ear loops become uncomfortable after a while.

So last week I ordered some of the other kind of face masks which are contoured upwards over the nose, without pleats. Their elastic goes around the back of the head instead of around the ears. I tried one of these on today, after having washed it. It is much snugger against my face than the other ones! One can even see the cloth moving in and out from my breath. It also has a pocket into which one can put an extra filter.

I decided to wear one of the surgical masks for the walk.. it's snugger than the rectangular cloth mask, but easier to breath in than the contoured cloth mask. But I took the contoured cloth mask along too, just in case.

My mom has the N-95 mask which I gave her a couple months ago, and some surgical masks a friend gave her.

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The walk was fine and lovely. A very nice day for a walk. Sunny, not hot, not cool.

The problem was that my mom's internet had stopped working, and she wanted me to fix it. She was bothered that I didn't want to go inside her house to fix it. She needs the internet to work for her census job that's she's doing online training for.

My first approach was to stay outside while instructing her on what to do. She unplugged and plugged the surge protector back in. She took a photo of the cables and surge protectors, which looked fine to me.

I had her bring her laptop outside to help her with another problem (she'd accidentally switched it to high-contrast mode), pointing out to her what to click on to fix it. The laptop showed a wi-fi connection, but it was very slow and disconnected.

My phone was able to connect to the wi-fi, but only when I held it up right by the windows outside of the room with the router.

I finally had to go inside her house to troubleshoot further. I put the snug cloth mask on over my surgical mask, and still tried to avoid touching anything inside the house. But eventually that failed too (my mom couldn't figure out how to insert the ethernet cable into her laptop), and I had to start touching things.

There must be something wrong with the AT&T router, that it's signal strength has dropped such that it doesn't reach my mom's office room anymore. Per the router settings, it's already set to the max signal strength.

There may or may not be something else wrong with the router. I had trouble getting it to work even with a direct ethernet cable connection to the laptop, but after swapping cables around it finally, inexplicably, worked.

In the end, I touched her laptop, mouse, phone, flashlight, router, ethernet cables, doorknob, sink faucet handles...

I eventually lifted the mask in order to blow my nose into my pocket kleenex, because doggonit, by then, why not. It had been several hours since I first put on the mask. I felt bamboozled into having to go inside my mom's house and touch her things. And if she doesn't care... bah. It's no worse than what an AT&T tech would have to do, coming inside to fix it.

For a while I was very frustrated that everything I tried wasn't working, and it felt like I was starting to slowly asphyxiate under the face masks. I had to step outside and take the masks off to breathe. When I went back in, I put the surgical mask away in my backpack, and only wore the cloth face mask.

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My mom had mentioned seeing a fox in her yard before, and we both saw it today. It's a gray fox, grayish on the back, but with reddish legs.

When I opened the Austria Radio app (which was free, but I don't recall it ever showing ads) on the iPad today, it showed a pop-up window asking if I know anyone in my community who is sick with a fever or cough. I think the window said "Google ad" at the top, but I am not certain. I answered no.

Ah yes, I was wondering if it was part of this:
https://www.wired.com/story/survey-data-facebook-google-map-covid-19-carnegie-mellon/
It must have been, as the question text listed in the article, "Do you know someone in your community who is sick (fever, along with cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing) right now?", matches what I remember.

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Then I clicked on a station, and it was playing a really good dance set. I spent the rest of the day trying to find the playlist and figure out what songs had been played, and listening to related songs. With some breaks while playing with the grand-niece, working several hours in the yard, and a few other things.

House Music ( Sleezy D - I've Lost Control (Gerd Janson & Shan Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1tUsNrDwHA

Hosh & 1979 feat. Jalja - Midnight (The Hanging Tree) (Henrik Schwarz Remix) | Track Premiere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKTbImBvcL0


I came across this which gave me a big laugh partway through, but it turns out I've seen it before and even posted it to DW before too:
Cello Wars (Star Wars Parody) Lightsaber Duel - The Piano Guys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgAlQuqzl8o

After watching that and another video, it occurred to me: Why are they called the Piano Guys, when they play cellos? It seems they play pianos too.

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This is a good site, for finding out which other songs a song has sampled, and vice versa, as well as covers and remixes:
https://www.whosampled.com/

I had some unused N95 face masks from some years ago when I was working on cutting grooves in concrete. 6 with exhale valves, and 2 without. I gave one mask to my mom a few weeks ago when she was looking for one. I thought Qiao or I could use some of the others if either of us got sick.

When I heard N95 masks were becoming scarce, I considered donating them. But I didn't find any clear info on how to do so, and wasn't sure a hospital would care to get such a few number. Other places have been donating thousands at a time. I also wasn't sure the ones with valves would be appropriate for a medical setting, though later I read they may be preferred for certain work. I ended up asking Qiao if he wanted to ask if his doctor's office wanted them. Which he did and dropped them off there.

I don't look forward to wearing a mask myself. I'm skeptical as to how helpful it would be, as they have to be fitted snug against the skin to be effective in filtering particles. Otherwise you mostly breathe air in and out through the gaps around the edges of the mask, especially around the nose. Even with the bendable metal nose strips, I remember my protective glasses fogging up from my breath when I used them before... But that happens when I'm sweating, even without wearing a mask ... now I'm not sure.

Even medical personnel have problems wearing masks:
https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/trouble-breathing-in-surgical-masks.742226/

But I'll probably need something to cover my face with eventually.

If I cover my mouth & nose with a piece of cloth, my breath makes a fairly noticeable unpleasant sound, and it is hard to breath (through either nose or mouth), and it doesn't smell good. I don't think I could do that for long; it would have to be on loose with gaps around the edges. Wearing one loosely is probably still somewhat helpful at least, against bigger droplets traveling straight towards your face, or for any you might be expelling.

I've read about a lot of people sewing their own masks. It occurred to me that maybe people are selling them on Etsy too. Yep.

By the way, if you do have an N95 mask, don't try washing it, as supposedly that reduces its effectiveness much more than not washing it. The masks rely on static charge to remove a lot of small particles, and washing removes that charge. Even dipping a mask in alcohol can reduce its effectiveness, according to this page:
https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/washing-masks-effective-virus/
There are other interesting things you can find searching on that topic.

Qiao got a mailing yesterday which on the front says "PRESIDENT TRUMP'S CORONAVIRUS GUIDELINES FOR AMERICA", and on the back has a list of safety precautions to take.

The front has a CDC logo, a White House logo and "coronavirus.gov".

Yesterday, my reactions to it were mixed. On the one hand, it's good if this means Trump is finally taking it serious, and wants Americans to take it seriously too. (Although "Avoid social gatherings in groups of 10 people or more" doesn't go far enough.)

On the other hand, if this is an official mailing sent out to everyone in the U.S., why does it say "President Trump" on it? He's a *** politician (I'll omit the unpleasant adjectives as that is not my topic here), not a doctor or a scientist. It's not like he came up with these guidelines himself, FFS. It should instead say "The CDC's guidelines", if you want people to take it seriously, FFS.

The same thing for those federal coronavirus news briefings. Why does Trump even take part in them, other than to say he supports what the CDC and other organizations are doing, and that he'll make sure his staff do everything they can to help implement the recommended policies and actions? (Hah, as if.) We don't want to hear Trump ramble on for ten minutes listing the names of the CEOs he's spoken to*, and about how they are great people, just great, and blah blah blah. We want an update on the situation at hand.

*like reverse name-dropping, thinking these people will be pleased that he deigned to praise them in public.

Thinking about the mailing again this morning, I wondered if it might not be from the government after all. Maybe it's from a pro-Trump conservative group, only made out to look like an official message. (As I'm not at my house right now, I don't know if I got the same thing. The USPS Informed Delivery page doesn't show it.)

So I checked the card again, but it doesn't have a "This mailing was paid for by..." clause on it in fine print. It does seem to be official.

A search shows I'm not the only one who feels this way about the mailing:

https://www.cleveland.com/open/2020/03/trump-branded-coronavirus-government-mailing-spurs-criticism.html

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/27/trump-faces-criticism-coronavirus-mailing-featuring-his-name/2925379001/

Anyway, waste of time writing this, spending any time thinking about it. Things to do.