Here in St. Louis we haven't been ordered indoors completely, but I'm sequestering from germs in case my parents need help. In truth, I'm a homebody anyway so it's not terribly hard psychologically.
Hope everyone gets through okay. And I'd feel better if y'all could give frequent updates about how you're doing.

Extremely bored, decidedly to finally get a Nintendo Switch for mario kart. Found out that every single Target, Best Buy, and Gamestop within 250 miles is sold out, with even their online stores out of stock.

2nd biggest worry: they really are going to try to use this to fuck with the election, aren't they? If it's going to follow the typical flu pandemic pattern of easing off in the summer then getting hit with another big wave in fall.

Announcing that polling stations are considered large gatherings and thus canceled(some states went ahead with primaries, but the primaries aren't a threat to Republicans). Or something more roundabout, like "high risk" densely population polling stations will shut down or severely limited, all of which just happen to lie in urban blue areas. It wouldn't even have to be nation wide, just a few select districts in a few select battleground states.

We could vote by mail. It works fine in the states implementing it. However the GOP is already saying they're going to resist doing so, while at the same time they are pushing forward with remote voting for themselves.

They were always going to steal the election. There's a reason our election monitoring commission is no longer in operation, and there's been zero cases brought in the last year to enforce voting rights, and they've been purging from government anyone warning about election interference from Russia. The virus will just make it easier to do.

Officially I'm only supposed to go to our lab for "critical" research work or turning off equipment, but my office is totally OK cuz it's private. I had a hard time working from home so I just went to work normally. If too many other people do that, it would be a problem, but the building was virtually deserted so I didn't interact with anyone except 2nd-hand through the toilet. I bring my own lunch as usual, so I also don't need the cafeteria (which remains open for some reason).

It still feels like most people aren't taking this too seriously over here. Lots of stores are open, students are partying.

One thing I find idiotic and enraging is that pretty much all the sustainable/hippie/socialist shit is closing but all the regular capitalist/individualist stuff is open. Universities, parcs, pools, bike shops, bring-your-own-container stores are all closed. Banks, take-out, gas stations, Wal*Mart are all open. The city even announced that they are increasing the domestic garbage quota to FOUR BAGS per household per week (4x normal, our 3 person household never fills a bag) and removing all car parking fees. At least they haven't cancelled public transit yet.

Vibe check!
I'm in self isolation with a cough that's probably just allergies. Illinois is now shelter-in-place but construction is considered a vital industry so I'll probably be back to work when I can leave the house in a week. If there's any work to do: rumor is the general contractor we work with has lost a third of their work not already started. One of their big sites appear to be shut down as well, not sure why though. We also get a lot of work from the schools. I don't know why they'd cancel it: school's closed anyway, we're not gonna cough on the kids, but who knows. If we end up getting laid off though, we're not going back to work for a long time. Out of work list is long and new calls are not coming in.

Just waiting for my $1000! Got a tablet and I'm video calling everyone, I highly recommend that, it's almost as good as real human contact!

still working in oregon, and i'm feeling fine, but i'm quickly realizing that our governor is taking this opportunity to guardedly drag shit out until we're the primary source of infection vectors on the coast

never been a big fan of kate brown, but i guess she doesn't give a shit seeing as how she's at her term limit

I was working up until thursday, and now the lab is shut down.

I'm self employed making computer games from home.. Which is in a very remote spot, also I'm a misanthrope.. So my life has not been affected in any way. In fact computer game playing seems to have increased globally, so its a good time to release a game.

Converting my research efforts to SARS-CoV-2 on a dime. Though the University is closed, a few hardy researchers volunteered to register themselves as Essential with me so we can get this work up and running ASAP. Going to see if we can't contribute in some teeny tiny way to figuring this damn thing out. Will keep us busy in any case.

Exactly the same situation as TeenerTot. The place I work is mostly supported through grants and an endowment so they've been able to shut down and send us home with pay (not that we're paid much, I'm comfortably below the poverty line) indefinitely. I've been inside pretty much 24/7 since last Sunday, other than taking out the trash once and getting the mail a couple times. Sometime this week I'll go out to the nearest mailbox to send my mail ballot application in.

Only one person I know has had any symptoms so far, and he says they've been pretty mild since they started 2 or 3 days ago, so that's hopeful. I haven't seen him in about a month and a half but I've been keeping in touch by text.

On the bright side, I've got two no-death runs of the Turbo Tunnel under my belt now.

A few people have been in the PoeTV IRC channel pretty much every time I've looked in there, so if you know where to find that by all means check in when you have the chance.

CAL or CSU? Either way, we homies.