In Thrall to Neurotics

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Clarissa

January 3, 2022

Local public schools moved to online learning today. This means faculty will demand that we move online as well because they can’t leave the kids home alone. This will be a disaster for me because I’m teaching a course this semester that needs to be done in the lab. I put so much time into developing it. If these neurotic bastards force me to go online, the course will be a failure. We are starting in a week. There’s no way I can redo the whole course at this late date.

It’s very hard to live this way when you can’t plan anything because of these psychotic drama queens.

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16 responses to “In Thrall to Neurotics”

cliff arroyo

January 3, 2022

” moved to online learning ”

The last few days before Christmas and the first week of January (same semester the calendar here is…. weird) are supposed to be online.
But also both weeks only have one day I teach (of two) which throws off the schedule… so I just told them I wasn’t doing anything and to have a nice Christmas and this week I’m just doing consultations in lieu of class…
We’re supposed to get back in the classroom as of the 10th and I’m relatively confident that will happen.

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1. Clarissa
  
  January 3, 2022
  
  The worst part is that the public schools announced on Sunday that there will be no school starting Tuesday for an indeterminate time. They are torturing people on purpose. It’s impossible to plan anything. Everybody who was supposed to start working this week is royally screwed. This is fluidity on steroids. Be prepared for any disruption at any point. You control nothing. It fucking stinks.
  
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Alex the Physicist

January 3, 2022

I know people who are convinced that COVID is a dire threat to small children. Meanwhile, yesterday I was in the park with my dog and a couple brought their toddler over to play with him. Some people are missing life, others are living it.

My dog enjoyed letting the toddler pet him. He’s a good doggie.

Ironically, the people staying home are the ones who are most adamant about the need for vaccines. Vaccines that they don’t trust. I know that you don’t trust the vaccines, but you also didn’t get them. Consistency. I disagree with you, but I get that your thoughts are coherent.

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1. Clarissa
  
  January 3, 2022
  
  I’m very pro-vaccine for people over 70 and with underlying conditions but I get your point. I also respect consistency. If you believe that the vaccine works – which I do, at least for several months – then why are you in hiding? It makes no sense.
  
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ABC

January 3, 2022

Our university decided to go online for 2 weeks in January AND put on a booster mandate for everyone around mid-December. (We already have a mask and a vaccine mandate — so we are definitely not lacking in any mandates.) I don’t know what purpose it all serves, except to torture the students.

I asked why we are doing this in a faculty mailing list that also has some administrators, and nobody could give a proper response. At first, there were responses that “we are following the science” and then when I asked for actual data and baselines, the response was “this is a judgement call”. I got a bunch of private responses from other faculty, but no one dared to back me up publicly.

It’s interesting — my understanding is that a lot of my colleagues privately want the university to stay open, but won’t speak up for it publicly. Quite a few do want to stay online too. The weird thing is that the administration is highly committed to torturing the students (aka keeping the ridiculous covid restrictions in place); I am wondering what is the reason for this. We are in a very blue state, so perhaps pressure from the state? Many people high up in the administration hierarchy are former medical people — so perhaps they have some vested interest, financial or non-financial, in all this testing/vaccinating/masking drama? It’s all very opaque to me.

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1. GSW
  
  January 3, 2022
  
  “I asked why we are doing this… there were responses that ‘we are following the science’ and then when I asked for actual data and baselines, the response was ‘this is a judgement call… I am wondering what is the reason for this.”
  
  Good for you for asking.
  
  It makes me nostalgic for a time when people tried to persuade each other rather than simply “mandating” them to follow their orders or silencing them if they disagreed – a time when “public health” (sic) bureaucrats stuck to their real jobs; making sure that businesses that prepared food for sale operated in sanitary conditions.
  
  I’d love to see a public debate between different informed points of view on next steps in the COVID neverendum – I expect it would have a huge viewership.
  
  But the wokesters have absolutely no intention of allowing something like that to happen ever again now that they have control over the means of mental production and reproduction.
  
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Tal Hartsfeld

January 3, 2022

Academics aren’t the only casualties. What about if one needs a new state I.D./drivers license because the current one expires? Are the B(/D)MV offices going to be open, or is another bullshit “shutdown” going to put everything “on hold”?
..and banks, restaurants, and the like …..

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1. GSW
  
  January 3, 2022
  
  “or is another bullshit ‘shutdown’…”
  
  Let the good times roll…
  
  You can’t be surprised – “public health” (sic) and their political allies have been itching to put us all back into our basements for months.
  
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2. PaulS
  
  January 3, 2022
  
  Actually where I’m from the government long ago admitted they lack the administrative capacity to distribute new IDs and recomended that I collect my new ID from my bank. Obviously COVID hasn’t caused the banks to close.
  
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  1. Tal Hartsfeld
    
    January 3, 2022
    
    Being that I’m aiming for obtaining a “Real I.D.” I can’t fathom the how and why of any bank (or bank branch) being given that task, as that is totally irrelevant to their function and purpose.
    
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    1. Stephenson
      
      January 3, 2022
      
      ID and banking are totally related. If somebody else could convince your bank that you have the same ID, you would have a serious problem.
      
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      1. Clarissa
        
        January 3, 2022
        
        Speaking of banks, Bank of America, which is my bank, closed its only branch in my town. And closed the ATMs. What I’m supposed to do for cash now is a mystery.
        
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        methylethyl
        
        January 4, 2022
        
        We are going cashless, remember?
        
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        random reader
        
        January 4, 2022
        
        Yes, what methylethyl said about the cash. You could also try to get cash back in a grocery store when you pay with your BofA debit card. As far as I know, you do not pay any additional fees for this, so it is cheaper than using other bank’s ATM. There may, however, be limits on how much cash they will give you back per purchase.
        
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3. Clarissa
  
  January 3, 2022
  
  Parents are screwed more than anybody with all this. The message being: normal people who work for a living aren’t rich enough to procreate. This is a hobby reserved for the rich.
  
  I’m so angry about the public school closure I could explode, even though it doesn’t touch me personally. I feel terrible for the kids and the parents.
  
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  1. cliff arroyo
    
    January 4, 2022
    
    “aren’t rich enough to procreate”
    
    Well Gates and Schwab and their loathesome like all think that population needs to be drastically reduced…
    Why anyone listens to someone who wants drastic population reduction on matters of public health is…. not clear.
    
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