. .

— चार हजार आठ सौ सैंतालीस —

As always, I spent basically all evening last night looking at screens. Just like I did all day at work! Just for different reasons.

Shobhit did have both yesterday and the day before off of work. Usually he works at least one of the two days he has off from Big 5, at Total Wine, but he deliberately did not work either day this week. His birthday is tomorrow, and even though he does still have a Big 5 shift tomorrow, he cited his birthday being this week as the reason. He even referred to it as his own "birth week." I think I am finally officially influencing him.

Anyway. First, while Shobhit was still watching his endless MSNBC news programs (I seriously don't know how he doesn’t get exhausted from that shit; it's one thing to be "a politics junkie" but this year? Jesus Christ), I watched the Sara Cooper Netflix comedy special Everything's Fine, which was made during and was largely about the pandemic, and also to a large degree climate change. It's actually rather dark, which I liked about it. That said, this special will either eventually age very quickly out of relevance—that's the best-case scenario—or it simply won't matter because we'll all be dead.

And then, later in the evening, Shobhit and I watched the 1996 film adaptation of Emma on HBO. He finally finished reading the novel just last week, so we watched the movie. He declared he actually didn't like the movie that much, and I was like, "Then why the hell are we watching the movie?" But, we watched it anyway—and both of it enjoyed it immensely, actually. Shobhit said the movie made the story a lot more fun than the book did. I found it fun to see all these famous actors so incredibly young in their careers, of course including first- and second-billed, Gwyneth Paltrow and Toni Collette. Also Jeremy Northam and Ewan McGregor.

I immediately decided we have to watch Clueless now, as that movie was also based on the same book but just placed in a modern high school setting. And of course the fucking movie isn't on any streaming services! It is available digitally for rent, which I might just do out of impatience, or I have also placed a hold on the DVD at the library. The problem there is I'm the 20th hold on four copies, so it'll be months before I actually get it.

— चार हजार आठ सौ सैंतालीस —

— चार हजार आठ सौ सैंतालीस —

On a bit of a more downbeat note, I was reading through some news briefs yesterday on the coronavirus, and one of them was talking about the wait for a vaccine to be developed, and it pointed out—as has been pointed out many times of course, but I don't think I ever quite registered it properly—that no vaccine for a coronavirus has ever been developed before.

Now, yes, there's a first time for everything, and I suppose it could be said that previous coronavirus outbreaks just never got to the point of necessity of resources clearly needed this go-round. But, it still begs the question: what if, indeed, no vaccine is ever developed? What then? Should we not actually be also preparing for this contingency?

And the thing that blows my mind is: we actually do have the means to eradicate this disease even without a vaccine. All we have to do is stop the spread, and then stay vigilant with things like quarantining localized outbreaks and contact tracing. This stuff actually isn't rocket science. There's even data that statistically mask wearing is more effective than a vaccine anyway. But instead, because of how dipshit conservatives, in this country in particular, have politicized public health guidelines, we have a populace that refuses to do what is needed, and in so doing just extends the prevalence of the virus longer and longer. I live in a country of fucking morons.

— चार हजार आठ सौ सैंतालीस —

[posted 1:01 pm]