RIP SP Balasubrahmanyam

I am devastated. My favorite singer of all time has been cut down by COVID-19. Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (SPB), known fondly as "Balu" to those close to him, has sung over 40,000 songs in 16 languages in a career spanning almost six decades. He was a workhorse of the movie playback industry. When you contrast that with some artists who record a few songs and become multi-millionaire sensations to be worshipped by teenagers worldwide.. no wonder I have never gotten into popular culture in my part of the world. This should be in no way construed as a slight to artists around the world. But the pedigree built by the likes of SPB, S.Janaki, etc. would be incredibly hard to parallel by anyone else.

Below are two of my all-time favorite songs. The first one was recorded by SPB and S.Janaki for the movie Sathya starring Kamal Haasan and Amala (the pictured actors and fine artists in their own right). This is one of many such melodies voiced by SPB that defined my youth growing up as a teenager in India.

SPB also acted in a few movies. Here he is acting and singing with Radhika:

RIP 😢

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 - First Look

MSFS2020 was released yesterday. Yay! I had paid for it a couple of months ago. So I wasted no time in downloading it. And downloading such a massive product was quite an epic experience.. I simply left it to run overnight. On a side note, the theme music that played during the installation is what my masseuse normally puts on during a deep tissue massage. My laptop, which I bought brand new in 2019, does not meet minimum requirements. So while the cockpit seems to be realistic, distant scenery is clearly in low resolution. Other than that, the product seemed to run smoothly.

The UI is extremely clean, concise and bold. The app automatically detected and married my existing Saitek Yoke, throttle quadrant and a couple of other devices for radio, auto-pilot etc. I did not have to download any drivers, etc. I did have to do a bit of calibration. By comparison, I remember the frustrating experience I had with setting up and calibrating control surfaces, etc. in the last version of Flight Simulator (FSX) released back in 2006 or so. There are still plenty of features available in the product to use. And, after my first flight, I felt sure that I will be tweaking options continuously in all aspects of the simulation for many months to come.

For my initial flight, I chose to fly from Mansfield, Massachusetts to Johnstown, New York. I remember visiting Johnstown many summers ago for a colleague's wedding. Its beautiful, pristine country as one can expect with upstate New York. Of course, I drove to the wedding back then. And that was a charming experience all of its own. Now I "flew". About 10 minutes into the flight, I changed my mind and headed over to Worcester Regional airport. Flying the entire leg to Johnstown can wait for another time. I have to head to the rock gym shortly. So without further ado, here are the screenshots with descriptions:

Setting up a flight plan to Fulton County airport was a breeze.. and a far cry from the multiple dialog-based planning of earlier versions. In this version, we just do everything on a single dynamic map user interface. Just click around and scroll, drag or zoom with the mouse, type stuff in, etc. Bam! Done! You can save the flight plan on disk for re-use. For aircraft, I went with the twin-prop Diamond DA62. Note that all graphics, labels, etc. are rendered in Flight Simulator based on real-world data. You can set custom weather or use real-world weather streamed from the same services used by the aviation industry. This simulation has been considered by even professional pilots to be a great learning and acclimatization tool for a couple of decades now.

A few minutes after takeoff, we are still climbing. Up ahead is an indicator for our destination, Johnstown NY, that provides both distance remaining and the altitude at which Fulton County airport lies. Worcester Regional airport is sliding by on the right. The primary flight instruments display our track using GPS. You can see that the graphics for landscape out in the peripheries are rendering a bit flat.. or just haze, I guess.

I then changed my mind and headed toward Worcester Regional airport. I flew over the airport so I could enter into a left traffic pattern. In above screenshot, I am downwind to the runway I want to land on. A little low and maybe a little further out than I should be.. I think. But I am just trying stuff out here. So bear with me. Graphics in the middle to the bottom of the screen are pretty good. I did not notice any "dropped frame" effects. The 118.42 NM indicator on the screen is still referring and pointing to my original destination of Johnstown NY, which is what I had filed in my flight plan.

On Final. It was actually a good pattern if somewhat low throughout. Still smooth frame rates and very good graphics. Fulton Country airport is behind us now.

In the landing roll. I admit touchdown was a bit harsh. But a good first effort, I think. Audio effects were realistic and three-dimensional. But that's something Microsoft had done really well before. This new version of Flight Simulator is definitely all about the graphics and how quickly HD data about new terrain you fly into is streamed into and rendered on your system.

The whole product has been built on Azure and Bing Maps technology. I have been tracking progress since this new version was first announced in 2019. Plenty of HD videos have been steadily made available online over the past 12 months by both Microsoft and testers invited by Microsoft. Can you imagine the level of planning, software design, coding and testing that would have gone into implementing this product? As a Software Engineer, I am envious. I want to be involved in such a project. Anyway, I cannot wait to use the simulation on a more powerful laptop.. someday. I am sure that the graphics and the entire simulation experience will be mind-blowing.

Gymming again

I was working out in my little room on the terrace of our house in Madurai back in the early 90s when an older family friend named Kumar dropped by for a quick visit. Seeing me puttering around shirtless with a pair of adjustable dumbbells, he remarked,

"So, bud, how's the gymming going?"

"So, bud, how's the gymming going?"

That's as best a translation I can offer but the word "gymming" was definitely used. So why am I mentioning this? Because gyms have re-opened in Massachusetts today. I had a chat with a friend in the Boston area yesterday and he mentioned that he was definitely going to wait a month before going to his gym. I couldn't wait though. Calisthenics at home has been fine over the past few months but I have been hankering to push iron the last two weeks. So.. I gave into temptation and went to my gym mid-morning today.

My temperature was taken upon checking in at the gym and a few questions about any COVID-like symptoms, recent international travel etc. were asked. I was told that each member would go through that mini-screening process every time they came to the gym. Good! Only every sixth locker was available in the shower rooms. No shower, sauna or towel service. I have missed using the sauna the most. It was a great way to relieve soreness and also cleanse my skin inside out. Happy it is summer as, for now, I can soak at the beach on weekends. I was nervous in the locker room. So I just got in quickly and out of there.

There were a half-dozen patrons at that hour. The equipment didn't seem to have been moved around much. I had a few exercises in mind and I had planned to do them in any order. I just wanted to test the waters today and get out if I felt uncomfortable with anyone sneezing or wheezing in my vicinity. Nothing like that happened. Everybody kept their masks -- and distance -- on. There were sanitizer stands with disinfectant wipes everywhere.  All of us diligently used them to wipe down equipment before and after use. Great!

Squatting has helped keep me limber and agile. So I approached the squat rack with bated breath.. and not just because of the mask. After my first high rep sets of squats with 135 lbs, I could feel myself almost sucking the mask into my nostrils. So I switched to doing a higher number of sets with only three reps each set and a slow eccentric. That felt better in terms of both muscle engagement and breathing with the mask on. Then, as lunch time approached, more patrons started coming in and I decided to call it a day even though there were a couple more exercises I had wanted to do. And I am not going to bother with cardio at the gym. I will do that outdoors for now.

Overall, it was a positively buoyant workout. Gym employees moved around with masks replacing the occasional empty sanitizer stand. Happy to see that. For now, I am planning to work my whole body with a handful of different exercises plus squats every time I hit the gym. Fancy splits and longer workouts will have to wait for the new normal. I have a bouldering session reserved at my rock gym later this week. One bouldering session and two regular weight training sessions a week should suffice for July. By end of the month, there should be enough data to review on new COVID infections, etc. across the state. I will re-calibrate my gym visits at that point.. assuming I don't get infected before then!

End of the "Butter Maiden"

Apparently Land O' Lakes has now removed the picture of the kneeling Native American woman from their product packaging. Here is the image:

When I first laid eyes on her upon emigrating to the United States, I fell in love with her and her dark, sultry and lustrous look. I thought it was a very clean, endearing image reflective of a healthy way of life well before the dawn of the industrial revolution and pollution.. a time when life moved at a sedate pace that.. ah.. a butterfly would have appreciated. Having grown up on a steady diet of Louis L'amour in India, I possessed a certain level of knowledge of native American culture that I noticed even Americans lacked. L'amour treated his subjects with the utmost respect at a time when Hollywood was happily undermining them. Still,  I am not an expert on native American relations. And so.. I am completely confused as to why this is considered a racist image. Or.. are people simply starting to find a problem with everything now?

Summer Thunderstorm

Ok, well, it was mostly wind and rain and one or two rolls of thunder really. It was still somewhat ferocious. Anticipation ran high as day turned to night. And the heavens did not disappoint. I like it!

Bye, bye bidet

Regardless of whether you are rooting for Biden, you are very likely wondering whether a bidet in your toilet may make an immediate impact to your quarantined lifestyle. Listen, you do not need additional fittings in your toilet. Ok? It is already complicated in there as it is. Instead simply use a general purpose sprayer like the one pictured below. I have been using one of these since time immemorial to.. ah.. occasionally supplement toilet paper.

Here are the advantages:

1. Cheap.. something like $2.
2. Immediately available.. you just need to get it from a hardware store. No need to schedule and wait for a plumber, etc.
3. Lightweight.. even a child can lift it.
4. Portable.. you can keep it out of sight, if you need to. Moving houses? No problem. You are guaranteed the same quality of service at your new place.
5. Zero-maintenance.. Cleaning it (the sprayer, I mean) is easy. No need to worry about a bidet with all its fittings, etc. going bonkers on you.
6. Creativity-possible.. if you want to add a little bit of soap, fragrant oil, etc. to the water in the sprayer, you can do so.

Most of all.. it is guaranteed to leave you clean and feeling awesome. Its hands-free without being hands-free. Think about that! Heck, if you use it at the right angles and with the right amount/frequency of spray, you may not need to use toilet paper at all. Save the environment! All you need is a dry, cozy hand towel to pat yourself dry. Mmm. But.. just make sure you don't use that towel for anything else, ok? And wash it (the towel, I mean) regularly and by itself in soapy water, wring it well and leave it to air dry. Maintain a couple of towels for this purpose.

Life's good

Alright! Clearwater beach has been re-opened. I am looking into flight tickets on Expedia now.. can't wait to get there one of these weekends! I had been planning to go there this past winter when the virus roared in. Hopefully, we won't see any resurgences of the virus anywhere. Yay!

Scone me now

Now that I think of it, the last time I enjoyed afternoon tea was last December down in Falmouth center with a buddy of mine. The proprietor had a sign either out front or on each table requesting that patrons do not use their smartphones. I don't exactly remember which. So I do not have a picture of the delicacies that we gulped down that Saturday afternoon and washed it all down with some wonderful, aromatic tea.. and a great chat.

The exact location of Molly's Tea Room. I was the only male there.

But fear not. I have the wonderful shot below that I made from a couple of years ago at the Shangri-La in Toronto with another friend. Look at those juicy, mouth-watering gooey goodies!

Yap. Yap

Ok, now I have a hankering for tea things and naught I can do about it. Sad. Sad. Sad.

From gluttony to privilege

I didn't eat much in the way of junk food -- chocolate, ice cream, chips, cakes, etc. -- until my mid-30s whence I started a job that involved heavy travel to client sites. Around the same time, all my friends started marrying and disappearing.. and I started feeling a bit bereft. I was at that job for almost five years. Good money. And my client-facing skills improved and went through the roof. But my diet? My diet, workout regimen, discipline, etc. went out the door. Then, after I turned 40, I started reining things in. It was a bit of a struggle at first. These things always are.. otherwise everybody could develop clean, lean habits at the drop of a hat. But eventually, I stopped eating junk and started cooking pretty much everyday at home. There was still the once or twice a week dining out that was almost always accompanied by a couple of gin and tonics.

Bread out. More eggs back in.

Now with this pandemic roaring on, I finally put an end to that habit as well. I have not touched a drop of alcohol in almost six weeks now. After the early weeks in the pandemic experimenting with a variety of whole foods, I have pretty much settled on a macro diet of fish, vegetables, fruit, rice and oats. I was occasionally cooking chicken thighs at home but stopped once chicken became available in only humongous packs. I have not eaten red meat in almost a month. Not by design, you see.. just sort of fell out of it. Saturday nights, I have started a habit of getting chicken wings from Domino's through contact less delivery. And Domino's delivers in 20 to 30 minutes now.. used to be an hour or so before the pandemic started. So.. for all practical purposes, my diet has become as clean as it can get.

I have had to deal with some irregularities down in the deep, dark depths of my bowels because of both the change and volume in my diet.. as I am eating a 1/3rd less food every day than I was before the pandemic and had also added those little sandwich rolls. So I took the bread out. And "everything" is regulating itself out with elan. The calisthenics are being done with renewed vigor. And I have never slept better than I have in the last two months. The bags under my eyes , never significant before, seem to have shrunk a little bit. I have lost ten pounds of weight and yet.. and yet.. still look muscular, feel energetic and am moving with remarkable lightness and grace.

My one weakness: a bar of white chocolate that I get when I step out of my cave once a week to forage for groceries. When I get home, I sanitize what needs to be sanitized. I change into comfortable clothing. Then I slowly sink into my recliner. No TV, nothing. I slowly unwrap the bar. I take my time with it. I talk naughty to it.. before my mouth starts savoring it.. just like these chaps do in the video below:

RIP Brian Dennehy

Whenever I think of First Blood (1982) I think of Sly Stallone and Brian Dennehy. I actually think First Blood would not have been as successful if it were not for Dennehy's portrayal of Sheriff Teasle and Jerry Goldsmith's goose-bump inducing background score. The only other "villain" who has impressed me as much on the silver screen would be Alan Rickman's character of Hans Gruber in John McTiernan's excellent Die Hard (1988).

RIP Brian.

Canso

Back in 2009, a buddy of mine and I did a motorcycle camping trip to Nova Scotia and back. We were on the road for two weeks. We camped one night in a small town, more of a hamlet really, called Canso in the easternmost point of Nova Scotia. Anyway, we rode our bikes that night to get dinner in town -- the campground was a bit outside of town. The restaurant also seemed to serve as a dance hall, a video game place and possibly was also the spot for folks to gather to vote, for town hall meetings, etc. There were only a bunch of people there that night. Anyway, while chomping down pizza, I spotted a young couple and their two young children having a bit of fun by a video game machine.. and it immediately made me wonder as to how they got along in general in that fishing hamlet far away from the big city lights of Halifax, Boston and New York. And now.. now I am wondering how that family is doing? Have they paid off all their debts and are getting by comfortably in the current global pandemic situation? Did they eventually move on from there seeking a bigger and better life elsewhere? Are they even still together as a family? I guess I will never know.

Canso, Nova Scotia

Habib and the Mars bar

I love this show!

Adithya Yegan Charitable Trust

So happy to have built a website for a friend of mine in Chennai, India.. who is running a food bank there along with his son:

That's it...

...as soon as this pandemic is over, I am heading to one of my favorite destinations of either England or Germany for a week out in the country.

Or I might just stick to a bunch of walking trails in one of many New Hampshire farms serving fresh donuts and coffee, ignore the firearms and pretend that I am in England. Woohoo!

Ignorance should be bliss

Between 2013 and 2016 (or thereabouts), I stopped reading the news completely. I remember those years as having some of the best mornings.. completely free of bad energy or any form of gloominess in my mood. Then, after a few events, one of them being trivia at a pub where I could not answer a single question regarding the American presidential candidates, etc., I realized that I had become completely ignorant on a lot of topics. So.. I got back into the scheme of things by starting to read the news daily. But to keep things simple, I decided to stick to just the BBC website to get all my news. I have no interest in American sports and so that worked out quite fine until...

Of course, now one hears about nothing but the ongoing virus pandemic. And, frankly, I was starting to get tired of reading the news. So about a couple of weeks ago, I stopped reading the news again but with a twist: I only read the news once a week.. just before I step out to do my weekly grocery shopping. This frequency of news reading seems to be just about right as it allows me to find out if any new restrictions regarding food shopping or travel or health are in place and whether people have started slaughtering each other yet. But the other six days? Ignorance is bliss.. as I have settled down into a pleasant yet efficient daily routine regardless of whether it is a week day or weekend.

Bliss.

Duly noted

Asstute readers of mine will duly note that the following sentences are comprised of technical jargon. And I most profoundly apologize for this intimate invasion into the deepest recesses of your brain tissue. Bear with me for two minutes as I explain the reasons immediately after.

In late January 2020, I started architecting a very important software data mapping tool and its associated components for a client. This client had a long-standing backlog of data integration issues with their clients that had come about from both being a small business that could not afford a dedicated software engineering team and by being stymied by thought processes revolving around an ancient company vision. So I decided that while I addressed immediate billable integration needs, I would do so in as generic a way as possible.. so that my efforts could be repeated and scaled out or up for subsequent integration needs for the client. I am 80% of the way there now.

My buddy the whiteboard. No, nothing proprietary is being shown here. I am too seasoned a pro to do that.

So why am I mentioning this? Because this has been a very, very absorbing project. So absorbing in fact that my previous day schedule of waking up at 5 AM and tucking kitty and myself in at 8 PM circa 2019.. has been convincingly replaced with an 8 AM to 12 AM schedule. Rather than listening to reason and stopping work exactly at 4 PM like I used to -- before Miss Univirus came to sing us all a lullaby -- I decided to give into logic and just plug at it until sleep beckons and/or kitty starts vigorously meowing wanting to play.

With not being able to drown my sorrows at the local watering hole every evening after work, I instead found myself stretching my neck at the computer on my home desk every evening as I delved deep into the innards of the .NET ecosystem in incisive attempts to solve the problems that arise every day in elegant yet optimized ways. Stackoverflow.com is my best buddy these days. I hope kitty did not hear that!! And my other buddy would be...

...a mini ham salad sandwich!

A mini ham salad sandwich!! Ok, I vary it with tuna or chicken salad. But a pound of any of these choices and a dozen sandwich rolls plus cut onions with brown mustard provide a week to 10 days of delectable little goody-gulping. Wash each down with a cuppa of black tea or chai with one sweetener and you have the makings of an in-home picnic. A pleasant break for the brain from the mental efforts imposed from architecting and writing software.

In other news, I finally have a decent workout system in place. Below is my current setup. A pair of adjustable dumbbells are on order. But everyone is facing delays and back-orders these days. Not to worry. Back to my teenage years growing up in India filled with body-weight push-ups, squats, etc. on the open terrace of an old house. More on my workouts in a future post. But, oh sunny days! I await thee so I can huff and puff on the balcony.

There's no setup, no.

A poem everyone

Time being whiled away.
While I think of vile things to say.
Try and rile me.. but nay.
You could end up in jail.
Don't rely on me for bail.
Let the current situation ail you.
And you can't sail into the blue
when it finally starts to flail.
Did I hit it on the nail?
Yay!

Time being whiled away..

Some great covideas for 2020

Observation #1: I have shopped at Shaw's twice in the last 10 days. The checkout folks will not touch your reusable bags and for a good reason.

Covidea #1: Continue this practice even after the current pandemic ends. So when the next pandemic rolls around, nothing special needs to be done. Push-back may come from lazy or disabled shoppers. Simply have a separate lane for these folks.. where the checkout person will wear proper gloves, mask, etc. before handling the reusable bags in this lane. Or, to keep it much simpler, continue maintaining special hours during which shopping can be done only by the elderly and disabled folk!

This is just a random picture.. of a spring snow storm that just started outside.

Observation #2: One of the supermarket's two entrances were closed. There was a police man stationed at the other entrance. He was ensuring that the store did not get overcrowded by allowing a shopper in only after an existing shopper from within the store had exited. I remember standing in line like that a few times back in the day when I was trying to get into nightclubs. I hated that experience!

Covidea #2: Make this standard practice if it looks like another pandemic may be on the horizon. How the transition from Police officer "Present" to "Not present" will be made remains to be seen. But I expect it will have to be done when there is a high amount of confidence that a pandemic is over and there will not be a spike seen in the upcoming weeks.

Observation #3: While shoppers kept a reasonable distance from each other while they were shopping, this was not at all possible once they finished their shopping and had to check out. Now everyone was much closer because of a need to congregate by the checkout counters.

Covidea #3a: Just like MassHighway uses a moving machine (zippers?) to adjust lanes on I-93 south of Boston on weekday mornings and evenings, put in place a dynamic system to accommodate shopping lane reconfiguration on weekday evenings, weekends, before snow storms, etc.

Copyright ABC10.. I guess.

Covidea #3b: Look into eliminating checkout lanes altogether by providing the ability to checkout while shopping. Instead, multiple entrances will be established in the perimeter of the store to minimize shopper proximity issues. When a shopper comes to the store, they use a store card or app to first pickup a cart with a checkout device right on it:

• When an item is placed in a cart, it is automatically checked out.
• To cancel an item, the item is simply returned from the cart to where it was picked up.
• Once the shopper has finished shopping, they "commit" their shopping through an app which will allow them to leave the store with the cart and then remove items from the cart. 

If a checked-in item leaves the cart for an extended period or a not yet checked-in item leaves the shelf and does not get into its original spot on the shelf -- example: one shopper steals from another shopper -- alarm and lights will go of in the appropriate locations while a beam will be zapped to the local police station with encrypted details about the offense. But more likely, a kid with freckles wielding a broomstick will show up first to eyeball the state of the union.

During pandemics, stockpiling of items can be prevented through this type of automation either during a particular shopping session or across multiple sessions for a given shopper.. now that their shopping history is on the cloud. Anyone smell a bit of communism in there? But remember that this is only during pandemics in order to not to deprive those who really need supplies or cannot get to shop as quickly or as often.. such as the elderly, single parents and disabled folk. This covidea should be an "All-in" strategy and should be implemented by all major stores at the same time. Otherwise, enough shoppers, realizing that they won't be able to stockpile if Covidea #3b were to be implemented, will soon put early adopters of this service out of business by shopping only at the "not-yet" adopters.

Covidea #3b is a huge ask, yes, but one that should prepare nations better for emergencies in the future: better initial preparation leads to less overall enforcement or running around during times of need. If that philosophy can be implemented in other areas such as healthcare and hospitality, pandemics would become non-events and fizzle out before they begin.

Observation #4: A few shoppers had on face masks and gloves. Stores had sanitizers affixed by each checkout lane. Some shoppers missed the sanitizers altogether as they were not very obvious.

Covidea #4: Keep the sanitizers where they are but have them light up with a ding when a shopper has finished paying. Shoppers who have on face masks and gloves will also have their rewards points bumped up. Shoppers will also get rewards points for wiping down carts and/or returning them to the cart cage.

Observation #x: ...

Covidea #x: ...

Observation #19: I found myself constantly surveying the shopper traffic inside the store in order to get the few items I needed without having to bump into other shoppers.

Covidea #19: If shoppers can tap and choose through an app what they need to buy on that particular shopping session before they get to the store and pick up the special cart -- a suggested shopping list could pop up based on their past shopping history, frequency, etc., for instance --, then the app can direct them to the next item they can pick up while having no or the least interaction with other shoppers en route to that item. This is also simply efficient, pandemic or not. This covidea goes.. um.. hand-in-hand with Covidea #3b.

Spartan breakfast perhaps?

...well, not exactly. The breakfast was delicious and filling. I ate the egg (protein) first. I show a lot of fruit below but I ate only a few pieces. I pick and choose the fruit I feel like eating at any one breakfast. Those two containers of fruit have been lasting a week. I have been alternating eating a loaf of bread one week with oatmeal the following week. Working out well.

If you really must know, the quarter-cup of instant oats is microwaved for 75 seconds with a half-cup of water. Then I throw in a few slivered almonds and either blueberries or craisins and mix it all up with a teaspoon of honey. It makes for an excellent alternative to the bread and provides a few more grams of fiber.

For a richer experience, slap on additional butter and use more cooking oil for the egg. For bread, I prefer butter to cheese. I like cheese but eat it very rarely.. usually with a bottle of red zinfandel on Saturday nights.

Don't waste food. Lick it clean. Yeah, disgusting.. but no one is going to be viewing your plate.

Is it on one side because I was trying to save oil.. as it was just one egg? No, its on one side because of gravity.. my cooking range is tilted ever so slightly to that side. So.. I just sprayed that side with oil knowing the egg will situate itself there with gusto. Clever, huh?

I estimate the value of this nutritious breakfast at around two dollars.

Random Thot

Very happy to have been present when Alex Honnold visited Somerville Bouldering in 2019. The women on stage strike me as, well, being in a moment that most women and men only dream of. Alex, on the other hand, reminds me of a dying breed... perhaps that of the character of Clay Bell from Guns of the Timberlands or maybe Logan Cates from Last Stand at Papago Wells. Not in a "draw fast and make the first shot count" sort of way, mind it. But in a.. can teach us about how to get out of  -- and in Alex's case, get into AND out of -- a pretty awful situation sort of way. Incidentally, the character of Junie Hatchett in Last Stand at Papago Wells has festered in my mind since I first read the book as a teenager growing up in Madurai, India:

COVID-19 - Some productive takeaways

Let's dive right in. We have already had SARS and now COVID-19 in the span of 20 years. With human population exploding and existing humans living longer, hundreds of thousands of "human beings all jostling each other within the space of a few square miles"¹ will become a common theme in pretty much every square mile of the planet. That means, this sort of pandemic will become more common. Secondary inference: we need to get into the habit of quickly adapting to similar situations as they arise in the future. So now is as good a time as any to start practicing.

Those of you who have always had a habit of washing your hands once you get indoors, be it home or the office, you are in luck. Because we already have a stockpile of hand-wash soap and sanitizers on hand.

I have noticed some men in public urinals handling a smartphone in one hand while operating machinery with the other and then not washing their hands before exiting the restroom. Ugh! Those of you who don't have a habit of washing your hands, well, here now is a great opportunity to finally develop a healthy life-long habit.

There is no point in blaming China for this pandemic. It is what it is. We have to trust in China's ability to prevent such infections from arising in the future. But we should also see this as an opportunity for medical and emergency responders around the world to better anticipate and work together in future should such a situation arise. And more situations like this will arise. Vaccines might be developed faster but there will be infections and deaths first.

Social distancing is not a request. It is an obligation to your community. Homebodies are in luck as they don't really have to do anything remarkable. But those of us who have a need to get out under the sun or hit the gym will need to curb our enthusiasm and just rein it in. I have resistance bands on hand. And, of course, calisthenics. Time to start practicing the handstand and doing a little tumbling work. Gyms closing temporarily are a great idea as everybody touches everything and breathes out something heavy in gyms. Therefore, sanitizing surfaces and spraying to negate aerosols in such environments may just not be good or fast enough.

If it’s a sunny, “near Spring” day out, bring your beach gear out to the balcony and do a bit of reading!

Having difficulty shedding those extra pounds? This would be a great time to ration your supplies, eat less and lose some serious weight!

Having difficulty in stopping spending on drinks at your local watering hole.. or on amazon.com every month and then promptly getting rid of cardboard packaging, etc.? Well, let's use this opportunity to rein all that in.

In an ideal society, there will not be any panic buying. But there are no ideal societies. Particularly in a democracy like the United States which is home to a vast number of group mentalities and mindsets, and therefore deep distrust between groups and between groups and their government, panic buying will be the norm. It is hard to fault parents with young children and the elderly in such situations. But everyone else should make an effort to be considerate in their purchases and put trust in the infrastructure that they have had a hand in gradually building and honing over the decades. So be considerate and leave some supplies on the shelf for others. This is easier said than done though because.. there are no ideal societies.

Continue ordering the occasional food delivery to support your local **reputable** restaurants but be prepared to disinfect surfaces of the food containers -- using wipes and not by spraying -- just behind your front door.

Notice that other than the hand washing part, which should be general practice anyway, there is no "medical advice" in this post. If you are not a medical expert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stop texting and forwarding home grown or unattributed medical advice to your family and friends. I get this stuff everyday from family and it annoys me to no end.. because then, when they do call, I don't feel like taking their calls.

Lastly, it would be a good idea to stop constantly talking and posting about COVID-19. I, for one, am tired of hearing about the damn thing. You have done everything in your control to prevent the spread of this virus. Now we wait for the pandemic to slow down and end. But how about this post then? It is talking about COVID-19? Well, nobody reads my blog. So its okay!

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1 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Blue Carbuncle^↩