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Daily coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - March 28
This thread is posted daily, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!
Houston, Texas. Everybody in my neighborhood is staying their houses, which is good, but I don't wanna think about what the grocery stores are like right now. I go back to work on Monday, and I am so worried about potentially infecting my father, who I live with. He's 65, diabetic, and takes medication for high blood pressure. :/
I know this seem easy from the outside, but try to deal with what’s in front of you. Be careful, of course, but understand that there are limits to what you control. It’s possible for things to go bad, but the odds are not very high. So do whatever you can, and understand that your anxiety and stress will not improve the outcome.
And given the fact that you live with someone in a risk group, maybe you could try to persuade your employer to allow you to work from home?
Again: I know this is easy for me to say. Be well, my friend.
Working from home would be nice, but I work in a grocery store. :/
Still, I'll keep what you said in mind. :) And you be well too.
My local supermarket installed plastic screens between cashiers and clients to make contamination less likely. I believe that was a sensible measure. That’s in Brazil. It might be worth it to investigate if something like that is possible at your store.
Good luck!
An infant less than one year old died in Chicago, which may be the first infant death (in the US, if not the world).
This is day 11 of my current quarantine and day 32 overall (one week in China after returning from a vacation in Vietnam, two weeks in the US after I flew in from China). I love my alone time, and I often spend my weekends alone, but I can't stress enough how much better it is to do this with family. If quarantining alone is taking a toll on your mental health, try to find a friend or family member to ride this out with. It makes huge difference. I hope everyone is doing well.
Can I borrow your family? Cause mine is driving me crazy.
Haha. I'm actually extremely lucky in that both my parents are gone all day since they are the only people that go to their offices. I'm sure they'd be driving me crazy if they were here all day. That said, I'd still rather be annoyed than lonely. Those days alone felt so much longer.
Yeah, people are different. I enjoy being alone for long periods. The fact that my computer broke would be a greater source of stress than the absence of people.
Hey, usually I say the same thing. In fact, I still need plenty of time to myself. But I started having a hard time when I lost the basic social interaction from work and was alone all day.
Lockdown in Belgium extended by another two weeks, until mid-april. I was expecting this. Though it looks like it may get re-extended until early may… we'll see.
I'm trying to tune coronavirus stuff out. Volunteering efforts have been good for me but I'm going to stop and take a break for a few days, I'm feeling a bit burnt out. The grandfather of a close friend of mine died.
I started playing Hollow Knight, fun but frustrating game.
I just had a random thought: here in Australia, we're heading into Winter, so our lockdown is going to occur at a time when we go out less anyway. We can all just stay home, shut our doors & windows, put the heater on, and watch telly - which many of us would do regardless.
But in the northern hemisphere, you'll have to do it during Summer. How will people cope being locked up in hot weather? What if there's a heatwave? Not everyone has air-conditioning, like here in Australia where it's considered a necessity rather than a luxury. That sounds awful.
If we have to do a lockdown, I'm glad I get to do it in Winter. That's one small tiny speck of good about this whole situation.
We had our first 75 F (23 C) and 80 F (26 C) days this past week in Eastern Tennessee. As far as I could tell, no one stayed in their homes. We went out for our weekly groceries that day and everywhere was PACKED.
From my perspective, it doesn't bode well.
We've been having the tail-end of Summer, with a few warm days - and people flocked to the beaches, with no regard to social distancing rules. Local councils had to declare the beaches closed to keep the people away.
People seem to lack common sense.
Here's a tweet from last year about bats in China.
That would have to be the most miserable "told you so" moment in history.
(My smartphone deleted my previous post)
My mother (prevented from leaving because of travel restrictions) and my roommate talk about covid and shit the president Jair Bolsonaro 24/7. Physical isolation is impossible. I agree with most things they say, but I can’t take it anymore. They act as if their conversations in the kitchen could magically fix the world. We’re all in the same team here, so settle down...
Japan appears to be intending to ban US residents and people who have been to the US recently.
Quick numerical update:
I spent the last couple of days recording an accordion piece. (Along with the usual doom-scrolling.) I'm getting frustrated with my lack of audio engineering skills - it sounds so much better live, and I'm not sure how to fix it. Buy better gear?
Nothing much to report other than that. We went went for a walk in the local park around sunset and it's about the same.
Just noticed this: "California State Parks today announced it is temporarily closing vehicle access at all 280 state parks to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19)." https://www.parks.ca.gov/NewsRelease/947
What's your set up looking like now?
Not very elaborate. I have a Yeti Blue microphone and I record it in my office in front of my computer. Usually I record on stereo but sometimes I try something else. It's an almost-square box of a room with mostly hard surfaces, other than the couch. I guess that's the worst kind?
I get pops if I'm close to the microphone, but the main thing is that I think it sounds more harsh and hollow in the recording than it does to me. I tried using the graphic equalizer in Audacity to take off the high end and that helps a bit.
I also tried hanging some linen on two walls and it didn't obviously help.
The Blue Yeti ought to get you a decent enough sound, but your problem is with the discrepancy between what you hear and what's recorded. 🤔 Well, the mic is recording what's in front, yet you're kinda hearing the accordion from behind. Also, the human ear has its own EQ curve, which can explain the unsatisfactory results. You're hearing the room sound, though, and you seem to be happy with what you hear so I wouldn't put too much effort into "deadening" the room.
You might want to look into binaural recording. 3Dio makes some mics expressly for that purpose. On the less expensive end, their are these mics on Amazon that will use your own ear to create the EQ curve.
For less of a specialist set-up (and if you imagine recording more), I'd recommend the following for stereo recording (in fact, it's near exactly what I'm working with):
Of course, that's a bit more of an enthusiast rig. You should be able to get the sound you're looking for with your mic and proper EQing. But, y'know, if you're looking for a step-up that's what I'd recommend.
Yeah, accordion is (from what I've read) especially difficult to record because you have two sides and one of them is moving a lot. For me it's especially weird since I wear a hearing aid, so I already assume I'm not hearing things the same way as anyone else. (And I'm limited on what headphones I can wear.)
I haven't tried auditing the recorded sound live yet so maybe plugging in some headphones and experimenting is the next thing to try.
Turned out it was really simple. Put the microphone on the treble side. It's okay if the bass is further away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVcHujZm0ds