The Awkward Silence

Journeyman Geek

02:16

@Tinkeringbell it had an even less pronouncable name earlier

Extroverted Main Man

03:06

0

Q: How do have a serious talk with my boyfriend without crying

We have been going out since September. We have so much fun. He said he loved me first. Then we discussed maybe me moving in. The issue is, my adult son lives with me. Long story but I took him in when he was suicidal. I can't just kick him out. He has a job, but his spending habits are not great...

avazula

06:23

Morning everyone!

JAD

07:22

hai

avazula

ahoj! :)

Tinkeringbell

07:35

@JourneymanGeek 2019-nCoV?

Journeyman Geek

had a hashtag somewhere

Tinkeringbell

Not that hard to remember, but yeah... doesn't really roll of the tongue. Wuhan-virus or Coronavirus did fine though, if you ask me.

@avazula morning.

Journeyman Geek

coronavirus is a family

and even the current name is for the disease

and where was that article I saw

avazula

@Tinkeringbell scientifically speaking this one or even COVID-19 makes more sense than the others

But yeah idk what people with no biology background understand from them haha

Journeyman Geek

@Tinkeringbell ignore me, I apparenty misremembered

Tinkeringbell

07:38

@avazula True, true... then just say so though, this article I read yesterday really presented it as the main reason being that we shouldn't associate people or places with a disease!

'We have a new, official, scientific name for everyone to ignore!' XD

@JourneymanGeek No worries. It's still early? :P

Journeyman Geek

kinda sorta

JAD

@Tinkeringbell well, most species have a scientific and a popular name

avazula

@Tinkeringbell it sure sounds silly ... Harm's done to me but seriously, it wouldn't have been a bad thing to have a name that's not related to a location in our racist country...

My Vietnamese manager gets shouted at racist threats every day now u_u

Tinkeringbell

Meh. There's been this petition over here because a radio maker made a song that wasn't nice to Chinese people too... and a nice bit of virtue signalling related to it on the company's intranet.

But the guy apologized so... seems like problem solved to me, unless he does it again.

JAD

And the problem with the name Coronavirus is that it's like calling Python regius Snake. It's not wrong, it's just not very specific.

Tinkeringbell

07:41

@avazula That's not good....

Journeyman Geek

if I remember correctly (AND YOU GUYS NEED TO CORRECT ME IF I AM NOT...)

Tinkeringbell

@JAD Yet it's specific enough: 'the' coronavirus vs. 'my snake' :P

avazula

@JourneymanGeek SURE NO WORRIES

Journeyman Geek

Its the entre class of virus

including SARS

Tinkeringbell

And MERS, yeah

JAD

07:43

and while it's clear enough for most people to know what you're talking about, for the scientific community you need to be more specific. Those two names can easily co-exist.

@Tinkeringbell exactly

@JourneymanGeek correct.

avazula

It is yeah

Coronavirus

A coronavirus is one of a number of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, the viruses cause respiratory infections, including the common cold, which are typically mild, though rarer forms such as SARS, MERS and 2019-nCoV can be lethal. Symptoms vary in other species: in chickens, they cause an upper respiratory disease, while in cows and pigs coronaviruses cause diarrhea. There are no vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent or treat human coronavirus infections. Coronaviruses are in the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae in the family Coronaviridae, in the order Nidovirales. They...

Journeyman Geek

bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51466362

So much so its called....

JAD

it's similar to how HIV is a Retrovirus, but a Retrovirus isn't necessarily HIV.

Tinkeringbell

Why did SARS and MERS get to keep their location?

Journeyman Geek

SARS didn't have a location

Tinkeringbell

07:44

South Asian Respiratory Syndrome, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome?

JAD

Severe acute respiratory syndrome what location?

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) oh, that location

Tinkeringbell

Huh.

avazula

xD

Journeyman Geek

Basically "Patient's Resparatory system decided not to respire any more"

JAD

(taking those from Wikipedia)

Tinkeringbell

07:45

Oh. I always remembered SARS as South Asian XD

Journeyman Geek

I am cross referencing too

@Tinkeringbell uhm

South Asia = indian subcontinent

Tinkeringbell

Yeah, wiki says the virus came from Southern China.

Journeyman Geek

This I am sure cause I have been ranting about this a lot :D

Tinkeringbell

I shall update my memory of it to include Southern chinese Acute Respiratory Syndrome ;)

avazula

One of my coworkers is completely panicking where really there's no reason for that

Journeyman Geek

07:46

@avazula I've had a nasty cough the last 3 days :D

everything else is fine tho

Tinkeringbell

@avazula They'll love me. I have a cold and a very nice nasty cough to go with it right now ;)

avazula

I'm wondering if I should tell him I'm going to London at the end of the month and therefore I'll basically be surrounded by crowds from all other the world ...

Journeyman Geek

@avazula work has us submit our body temperatures twice a day

JAD

Everybody I know has pretty much ignored the news about it so far

avazula

@JourneymanGeek oh. :(

Journeyman Geek

07:47

someone mis-typed and immediately my bosses boss - who no one has seen before went "Are you ok?"

Tinkeringbell

@JAD Except me, me is being confused about name-giving ;)

Journeyman Geek

@avazula even when off work

@JAD we have the second most cases

avazula

Darn

Tinkeringbell

@JourneymanGeek That's really something you can only get people to do over there... I know over here people would scream something like 'that's PII, and an invasion of my privacy, I rather take paid leave' XD

Journeyman Geek

@Tinkeringbell one of my workers came back from china

and got 2 weeks quarantine

JAD

07:49

@Tinkeringbell :shrug: scientific name: nCoV-2019, popular name: Coronavirus. I think it's too late to change the popular name effectively

Journeyman Geek

(home quarantine, avoid meeting people from work)

Tinkeringbell

Yeah, there's a few people that were evacuated from Wuhan and they're apparently in quarantine over here too...

Same sort of, if home situation allows it.

JAD

@Tinkeringbell I'd take paid leave over quite a few things tbh

Journeyman Geek

@Tinkeringbell sars kinda lasted a few months

and it seems this is significantly more serious

Tinkeringbell

@JAD :) that last bit wasn't entirely serious but I do know some people will make a stink over privacy!

Journeyman Geek

07:50

I think the government is spooked

JAD

At the same time, it sounds like the mortality rate is lower

Tinkeringbell

I think people are trying to spook us all.... There's quite some horror stories.

Journeyman Geek

@JAD The spread feels oddly random

there's a few people who caught it at work, cab and grab (its like uber), a chinese medical hall for tourists ...

Tinkeringbell

That doesn't sound like they've found patient zero yet.

JAD

@JourneymanGeek isn't that partially because of the lack of symptoms in some people. While no symptoms is nice for the person in question, it 1) lowers the mortality rate and 2) makes controlling the spread harder

Journeyman Geek

07:53

@Tinkeringbell there's no one patient zero

CaldeiraG

Morning :)

JAD

@Tinkeringbell At this point, what good would that do?

Journeyman Geek

ugh, where's the map

Tinkeringbell

@JAD Squash the rumours of it being man-made and spread in strategical locations to ensure a proper outbreak? :P

@JourneymanGeek maps.google.com

@CaldeiraG Morning :)

Journeyman Geek

sgwuhan.xose.net

Tinkeringbell

07:56

What are the blinking red ones?

Journeyman Geek

latest cases

CaldeiraG

(new cases)

Tinkeringbell

oh, found the legend, nvm :P

Journeyman Geek

gimme a sec

let me explain why I am so freaked out

I live somewhere around the bottom middle red circle

I work at the airport, somewhere around circle on the left

Tinkeringbell

And you work on the other side of the line of zombies? :P

Yay, guessed right XD

Journeyman Geek

08:01

I also live near the main general hospital (though the infectious diseases place is somewhere else)

JAD

Singapore's roads look like a nice bowl of spaghetti

@JourneymanGeek right*?

Journeyman Geek

Other left

Right

I need a new left/right sign :/

avazula

@JourneymanGeek left is red right is green :D

Journeyman Geek

@avazula oh, its indirectly related to my dyslexia

I have no sense of which is which

avazula

Me neither ... I didn't know dyslexia caused that

It's better now that I'm driving but before that I'd only distinct them through odd socks and homemade wristbands. I'd just have to remember which one is which side

Tinkeringbell

08:05

Left is where your thumb is on the right ;)

avazula

@Tinkeringbell HOW IS THAT CLEARER?! Left on the right? screams in isometry

Journeyman Geek

@avazula its a bit messier

My dyslexia might have been worsened? triggered? cause I was forced to switch handedness.

avazula

Oh

Journeyman Geek

I just switched monitors. My old monitor had a sign saying <--- Left Right (Other Left) ---->

Tinkeringbell

@avazula Heh, that's the whole point of that sentence XD

JAD

08:07

@Tinkeringbell If you look at the back of your hand, left is where the thumb and index finger form an L

Tinkeringbell

@JAD Yeah, so the thumb is on the right ;)

CaldeiraG

:P

Journeyman Geek

(was playing RA with a friend... told him to go left, when I meant right... and at some point I realised and was hollering OTHER LEFT. OTHER LEFFFTTTT)

JAD

left is the way you turn a screwdriver to loosen a screw

CaldeiraG

We already live in a world where a movie is renamed for SEO optimization :( (source)

Journeyman Geek

08:09

@CaldeiraG and get hotfixes.

avazula

@JAD NOT ALL THE TIME :'(

Journeyman Geek

Even if said movie is a hot mess. (Cats)

with emphasis on mess

CaldeiraG

XD

avazula

@JAD This drove me crazy when I started engineering

JAD

@avazula hmm, ok, most sensible screws*

Journeyman Geek

08:10

@avazula I just softly test both ways and hope no one notices

avazula

@JourneymanGeek Tested & approved since 1997

Journeyman Geek

I'm looking at options for new signs

the problem with the one I like the most is I'd need to order 50 :D

Tinkeringbell

@JourneymanGeek Same but not softly so.. 'oh, it moved'.... 'hmm, but now it's even more stuck'

Journeyman Geek

@Tinkeringbell for a big guy I'm surprisingly gentle when performming planned disassembly

unlike the real engineers in my family :/

Tinkeringbell

@JourneymanGeek XD my tasks mostly consist of just opening things up to see what's inside, I'm not allowed to touch stuff still deemed 'fixable'

For example...

Journeyman Geek

08:15

@Tinkeringbell I once took apart a decade old speaker dock, swapped out the battery for one from a drone, and it worked... for a while

I have better tools now though

.... seems a perfect use for those heatshrink/solder things I have...

Tinkeringbell

We have a shed, and a lamppost in the alley behind it.

One time, some kids decided to start demolishing said lamp, pulling loose some cables.

Dad repaired it, seemed fine.... until they went on vacation and it started raining. Water got into the lamp somehow, and made a shortage.
I tried turning the power back on, it just went out again. Tried again, same result. Tried it switch for switch, found out the problem was in the shed.

(also, apparently the kitchen lamp and router in the back of the living room :/ )

CaldeiraG

:/

Tinkeringbell

Anyhow, there's a freezer in the shed so I wanted to fix things rather quickly XD

Went looking, saw nothing, remembered to check the lamp and saw the moisture... at that point I called dad. I know there's a switch in the shed where you can easily disconnect the lamp from the grid, and fix the entire problem.

Dad went uh, huh, hmm, yeah.... HUNG UP ON ME.

seconds later my brother comes down, on the phone, calling, with dad...

Yeah, so dad seriously called my brother to fix this instead of letting me do it.

JAD

lol

Tinkeringbell

Yeah well... and that's why I say I'm only allowed near non-fixable stuff :P

avazula

08:25

:(

Now the real question is which one is the most fun? Fixing some boring regular issues or being a badass that never lets go and goes beyond impossible to fix the unfixable?

dun dun dun

Tinkeringbell

@avazula It's okay, we laugh about it now ;) Dad's reasoning was that my brother is a head taller than me, and could more easily reach the switch. I would've needed one of those household step ladders (which is stored in the shed XD) ... He just didn't explain at that time, only when I talked to him about this afterwards (that I can fix things and I didn't like him defaulting to the boys when he needs help)

@avazula Ehh, I do neither. But apparently that makes @JourneymanGeek a badass ;)

Journeyman Geek

@Tinkeringbell no girls here and if I had a sister with the gift I am bloody well going to let her use it 😁

Tinkeringbell

:D

How's that going, btw?

Journeyman Geek

No updates

😁

Tinkeringbell

boooring :P

It really does take long!

Journeyman Geek

08:32

You would be about the third to know

I'm still going solo and clueless

avazula

@JourneymanGeek the two first being you and her? xD

Tinkeringbell

Okay, but only because I know who else is on that list. Otherwise I'd never appreciate being put in third spot! :P

Journeyman Geek

@avazula I suspect she would know before me. 🤣

I would want to be first 😁

avazula

haha

Journeyman Geek

@avazula I would say the girl would probably be in on the decision sameish time as me

I hope at least

avazula

08:36

Don't answer if you don't want to, but what would happen if you met someone outside of this system? Would it be possible for you to get together or does it have to happen through the system?

Journeyman Geek

@avazula I'd give it a shot

Might have done a few things "outside the system" when I was younger

but that's... not a story for SE chat :D

avazula

haha, okay.

~~see you on Discord then~~ ;)

Journeyman Geek

One of my cousins married a guy who is outside my caste and vegitarian

@avazula oh... which one? :D

I found a client I don't dislike but...

avazula

@JourneymanGeek Aren't you on our Discord TAS?

Journeyman Geek

(anyway, we like him more than we like her)

@avazula no?

I didn't use discord much until last week or so

JAD

08:39

@avazula is that still alive?

avazula

@JAD lively as ever!

@JourneymanGeek lemme fix that. :D

@JAD would you be interested? I think the link is still in this room's favs

Tinkeringbell

@avazula Invites expire after 24 hours, you'd need a new one for JAD :)

avazula

@Tinkeringbell I'm gonna wait to see if he wants it then :)

Tinkeringbell

I already sent one through Discord, I still have them in my friends list XD

You can accept or decline, whatever you want, JAD :)

And if anyone else wants in, lemme know! :)

avazula

@Tinkeringbell I want in! :D haha

Tinkeringbell

08:52

You're already there :P

avazula

Am I? :O

Tinkeringbell

yes.

avazula

mmh.

Belle

09:17

\\o

o//

\o/

avazula

\o/

CaldeiraG

09:32

\o7

Belle

One of your arms is longer than the other, @CaldeiraG

CaldeiraG

@Belle lol :p

avazula

09:47

you're remote today @Tink?

Tinkeringbell

yep!

what gave it away?

;)

avazula

IIRC you're remote W T F (and also the green icon in Discord :p)

Tinkeringbell

Only W and F :)

and yeah, I may keep a few tabs open that I close at work ;)

avazula

Isn't that too hard to alternate between office and home?

Tinkeringbell

I find it quite nice actually, it allows for handling work that I struggled with one day, the next day.

If working home is two days in a row, that's also two days without a coworker next to you.

CaldeiraG

09:58

@Tinkeringbell And talking loudly with someone else about life

Source: just happened a few minutes ago

Tinkeringbell

@CaldeiraG I do that too, but always at the coffee machine XD

(which is on a hallway, so it doesn't matter much :P)

Belle

Most of my colleagues have a standing desk. Every time I see them stand, I think, "I want one too."

CaldeiraG

@Tinkeringbell On the coffee machine it's fine :)

Belle

But I wonder, do I really want to have a standing desk or do I just want to have what they have?

Tinkeringbell

@CaldeiraG Well not 'on'... the coffee machine won't survive XD

CaldeiraG

10:05

@Tinkeringbell :P around it then :)

JAD

@avazula I think I was in and left after a while because I felt it was part dead, part used by people I didn't know. I can give it another shot

Tinkeringbell

@JAD That probably was tinyman's server, this one is set up by brug, it's a whole new one.

JAD

ah

yes it was

Tinkeringbell

I keep messing up people's discord names and SE names XD

JAD

:o

Tinkeringbell

10:07

Then there's also Twitter names, Hangout names, Facebook names... AAAAAGH

JAD

it's a difficult life

CaldeiraG

My name is the same on everywhere :) just because i don't have a better username

JAD

my name has the same root at least :P

Belle

Is that you with the red and white hat?

JAD

yep

Belle

10:17

Nice hat

JAD

That's actually my old SE avatar as well lol

that's better

the avatar is back from an old Runescape forum. It was tradition to edit a santa hat into your avatar around x-mas there. At some point I just was too lazy to change it back

and through gravatar it sticks around

Belle