Life in the age of Social Distancing - what are you up to?

digital paradise wrote in post #19095924
My wife participated in this. A choir can’t sing as a group online because of latency. She had to sing by herself to a virtual conductor, sent it in and they put it all together.

Over 17,000 singers and 129 countries

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=InULYfJHKI0

Cool. Whitacre has actually been doing this remote music for many years, way before COVID. I didn't really get the point of it then, but it is very useful now.

I play in a band and a few years ago we played Whitacre's October, a very dramatic piece.

I tried to get some of our band members to record tracks to put together for ensemble playing, but it did not work out very well because most did not have an adequate microphone and most were not ready to deal with recording technology. Really unfortunate it did not work out.

Archibald wrote in post #19095965
Cool. Whitacre has actually been doing this remote music for many years, way before COVID. I didn't really get the point of it then, but it is very useful now.

I play in a band and a few years ago we played Whitacre's October, a very dramatic piece.

I tried to get some of our band members to record tracks to put together for ensemble playing, but it did not work out very well because most did not have an adequate microphone and most were not ready to deal with recording technology. Really unfortunate it did not work out.

Yes. My wife recorded a segment I think on CBC news about him and his history of remote music which we watched earlier in the day. 17,000 + was a lot of work. I believe it.

I love this guys work. My office partner was part of his "Sleep" choir and he's done a few others as well. Awesome idea for sure. Amazing he can get so many voices sounding like they belong together.

Same thing as always. Watch TV and walk at the park.

Well it is going to be a long winter. Curling was canceled for a few weeks but I suspect the season is over. No Portugal this winter and I was looking to wearing down my 5R and 100-500. I'm already bored. Decided to get Roku so I can watch the Mandalorian. Not sure what I'll do by Saturday. Tried C1 Pro for the 4th time for something to do. I might have to renovate the basement bathroom to keep from going nuts.

I read college medical books about health assessment and diagnosis.
I'm not a doctor or student. Six years ago a real dr (hand specialist) mis- diagnosed and gave me useless treatment (brace) for what he thought was tendinitis. I read a text book and learned that I had ulnar nerve entrapment.
Been organizing my photography closet and ordering lens bags and hard cases.
Filling in the banks purchased a tripod collar some parts and 3 lens filters.
I have been going through warranty papers and inspecting the household items.
The Cuisinart pressure cooker inner pot was non stick and the bottom flaked a little. No metal tools used either.
The wholesale club refunded us and we purchased an Instant pot with a stainless steel inner pot.
Fully read several insurance plans pdf page by page. Found one that will save me about $1300 per year with better coverage.

vision35 wrote in post #19150272
I read college medical books about health assessment and diagnosis.
I'm not a doctor or student. Six years ago a real dr (hand specialist) mis- diagnosed and gave me useless treatment (brace) for what he thought was tendinitis. I read a text book and learned that I had ulnar nerve entrapment.
Been organizing my photography closet and ordering lens bags and hard cases.
Filling in the banks purchased a tripod collar some parts and 3 lens filters.
I have been going through warranty papers and inspecting the household items.
The Cuisinart pressure cooker inner pot was non stick and the bottom flaked a little. No metal tools used either.
The wholesale club refunded us and we purchased an Instant pot with a stainless steel inner pot.
Fully read several insurance plans pdf page by page. Found one that will save me about $1300 per year with better coverage.

That is great. I have never fully read my insurance plans. Maybe I should.

I returned the Roku. Too much old stuff. I replaced it with Apple TV and you get Apple+ for one year for free. It is going to be a long winter. The Tom Hanks movie Greyhound is was pretty good. My wife liked it.

I'm an Elementary school teacher so I'm still working. It's getting scary here though. A school close by has been shut down for 2 weeks and their music teacher is in ICU. 850 students and staff are going to do a mass testing because of the exposure at the school. According to our Superintendant everything is still fine though so here I am. I'm not particularly comfortable about it but not much I can do. My daughter goes to my school as well (Grade 3) and I'd keep her at home if I could but there's no one to watch her since my wife and I are both teachers and we don't want to risk our parens to watch her.

Photography wise. I've been shooting photos and video for a bike company. Been trying to get comfortable with the R6 and it's files. I'm getting better with RAW files from this camera but I must say the C-Log files are amazing. They colour grade so well.

BTS of a part of the bike shoot. Me filming and friend doing some detail shots. Just something I put together for them so not really for public consumption as it has no titles or transitions and only a light colour grade.

Down in NZ life is as close to normal as one can get right now. We have no limitations on events and gatherings, and the only real impact is that users of public transit in Auckland (the largest city by far @ 1.5 million) have to wear a mask when riding. We are encouraged to record our visits outside of the home when we visit shops and public places, by writing in our details or scanning QR codes using the government's COVID tracing app - although lots of people have got so blase that they don't bother.

Anyone coming back to NZ (citizens, permanent residents and approved workers) must go into a managed isolation facility for two weeks where they are tested for the virus at least twice in that period. If they test positive they go into a quarantine facility until pronounced safe to leave. This is catching a lot of cases as people enter the country, and we have not had a community infection for some time. There is a massive backlog of people wanting to come here - NZers who want to return to a safe haven, partners of those here already and then there are the essential workers. The government has created a voucher system for potential returnees, who must have one to book a flight back - we are pretty much maxed out for isolation capacity. We have had 58,000 NZers return so far and that is putting a lot of pressure on the housing market, so prices are rocketing - especially in Auckland.

The biggest changes are for the tourist industry, which was our second-largest earner. They have had to pivot from catering for overseas visitors to encouraging Kiwis to visit their own country - and lots are doing so since it is not practical to go overseas, so they are spending their vacation funds within the country - which is a good thing. I am pleased by the massive reduction of people lining up to take selfies...

We just had an election that was seen as a sort of referendum on the government's handing of the pandemic and they swept into power with a majority to rule on their own - the first time this has happened since we changed our voting system to MMP (see https://www.parliament​.nz …is-the-mmp-voting-system/) in 1993. Usually parties have to form coalitions to form minority governments, so this is quite significant.

The government had a policy of go hard and early, so they closed the borders and kept us pretty isolated. The other parties generally wanted to open up the borders to encourage business activity, but we have seen what has happened overseas. Those parties did not do well at the polls...

Personally, I don't go out much, but with summer almost here and the holiday season approaching fast, I think I shall get out and about more.

Wherever you are, stay safe and well...

Would that all the world had handled things as well as NZ. A fantastic model.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19160710
Would that all the world had handled things as well as NZ. A fantastic model.

And for all the flack that Sweden was taking early on, for its relaxed approach to COVID, it has had 26 cases perk, while UK and Italy both have experienced 27/1k with much more stringent requrements, and US has 42/1k with its bipolar reactions. Go figure.

OTOH, Canada has done relatively well with only 10.4/100k, via its closed borders.

Meanwhile in the US various states are having 90-100 cases/100k, while others experience only 20-40 case/100 100k...I wonder what we could learn from comparing the health approaches of the highly infected vs the modestly infected?! And also compare the GDP decline effects of each area, so determine which approaches seem to correlate with what economic result.

Wilt wrote in post #19161229
And for all the flack that Sweden was taking early on, for its relaxed approach to COVID, it has had 26 cases per 100k, while UK and Italy both have experienced 27/100k with much more stringent requrements, and US has 42/100k with its bipolar reactions. Go figure.

OTOH, Canada has done relatively well with only 10.4/100k, via its closed borders.

Meanwhile in the US various states are having 90-100 cases/100k, while others experience only 20-40 case/100k...I wonder what we could learn from comparing the health approacheds of the highly infected vs the modestly infected?! And also compare the GDP effects of each area, so determine which approaches seem to correlate with what economic result.

Wilt, while your point is valid, those figures are per 1000 population (not per 100k). For comparison, Australia has had 1 case per 1000 population and New Zealand has had 0.4 cases per 1000 population. Australia's Northern Territory, where I live, has had 0.24 cases per 1000, but all were acquired overseas (we are hosting a large quarantine centre for returning Australians - we've had no community transmission of coronavirus at all and life here is relatively normal).

Pippan wrote in post #19161238
Wilt, while your point is valid, those figures are per 1000 population (not per 100k). For comparison, Australia has had 1 case per 1000 population and New Zealand has had 0.4 cases per 1000 population.

Thx for pointing out my oversight...I have now fixed my prior post

However, in going back to source data, I am finding that indeed some statistics ARE stated per 100k !

"Rate of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the United States as of December 2, 2020, by state (per 100,000 people)"

Gotta find my original source, to find out what the units are defined to be!

[edit] My source was NY Times statistics and it was indeed 'PER 100,000'... I have reverted my earlier post to reflect that fact!

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What I thought would be a boring, impoverished, "can't afford to go anywhere" fall and winter has turned out to be quite the opposite!

I expected fire season (my seasonal job) to be a total bust, due to a cooler and wetter May and June than we normally have in the northwest. . I also thought that the government wouldn't fight fires the way they usually do, because of concerns over COVID spread with hundreds of firefighters and support staff living together in close proximity in fire camps. . However .....

On September 9th I got called to work on a fire in Oregon. . Was there almost three weeks! . So there was a little income ..... perhaps enough to fund my fall deer rut photography trip.

Then, while on my way home from the Oregon fire, I get a call .... "there's a dispatch to a fire in California, way down in the Sierras, near Fresno ... do you want to take it?" . Of course I did!

So I went to that fire in the Sierras, and worked there until November 20th! . Woo hooooo! . Almost two months on one fire! . There would be something in the coffers this year, after all!

I got home on the 20th of November, quickly packed and took care of a few affairs, and less than 24 hours later, I left for my annual deer photography trip. . I knew that I missed the peak of the mating season, but hoped to at least find some good image-making opportunities at the tail end of the rut. . I spent a week in Montana, then went to Colorado for another week. . The photo opportunities were better than I had expected. . Even though I only got to spend two weeks photographing deer, I ended up with several worthwhile photos.

Now I'm back home in Washington for a few days before heading off to California again. . This time I won't be working there ..... instead I will be photographing waterfowl in the Sacramento Valley. . A friend who lives there has been after me for years to come down in December for world-class opportunities with wintering Pintails, Wigeon, Ross' Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, and Shovelers. . Fortunately, because I got so much work on the fires, I have the funds to do it this year. . Can't wait!

So what looked like it was shaping up to be a very boring year, with no money to do any traveling, has turned out to be a great year! . And now I will be able to travel a lot over the course of the next 6 or 7 months. . Woo hooo! . Very happy that I'll be getting to photograph different kinds of wildlife in many different areas - some of which I have never visited before, like the deserts of Arizona (for snakes and lizards).

Here's one of my favorite shots from last week in Colorado - I love those wide open spaces out there!