Two parts:
She works in a large public health organisation 
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Tonight hundreds of hours of my hard work, stepping up and doing other people’s jobs for months because they can’t be fuckall bothered to do them, all came crumbling down.
Turns out my company’s products are fucking broke as shit, and no amount of my blood, sweat and tears will be enough to fix that. I learned this starting at 2:30am running until about 4:30am, live on a bridge with a couple dozen of people watching.
I wasn’t even expecting a “thank you” if it all went well. But I fear what I get for all my hard work is undue scrutiny, and many, many meetings of people shuffling around blame.
Yes. If all my friends were jumping off a bridge, there’s probably a good reason for it. Maybe it’s on fire.
Just got a note today that one of my fellow choir members passed away from coronavirus. I still don’t know when, but in any case I hope it wasn’t a result of that last practice we had.
Our last concert was the weekend of March 6th, so I have to believe we would know at this point if anything had spread amongst our ranks. We dodged a bullet, no question.
Our last practice was March 10, so it’s probably not where he got it, but just the same it sucks. I haven’t heard about any other members catching it.
Was in the process of editing a config file on my main system when I heard it suddenly shut off. Time for a new power supply, which means a long drive to the nearest real computer store. At least it will be open later this morning.
I feel ya. My desktop monitor died and I’ve been making do with mobile for a week. Typing on phone, we hates its. I should get relief tomorrow.
I got the new power supply in, put everything back together, turned it on, and got silence. 
I re-seated the ATX24 connector, tried again, and it worked!
Lesson learned: don’t assume an old crap-brand 500W power supply can even come close to its rating when running a system flat-out on Rosetta and GPUGRID. I have something much better now (an 850W Seasonic), and I’m noticing a three-percentage-point drop in the UPS load with the system once again running full-tilt.
I came here just to say “fuck today.” But no posts in two weeks?! I can’t believe it. No way everything going great for everyone. Is there a “Fuck everything” thread I’ve missed? fuck it.
Fuck Today.
I think the coronavirus threads have become the defacto fuck today, as those are specific fucks…
Welp, turns out he didn’t miss many games. And ATL are undefeated going into May!
[This is not meant as a “something good comes out of the pandemic” post. This is desperation/gallows humor, as I look through old Fuck Today posts to wallow in asynchronous community and remember the before times.
I have friends who have seasons tickets (they’ve gotten them every year since opening season). She’s been wondering if they’re going to get a refund or something for all the games they’ll miss.
Ok, while this could also fit the continued Corona virus update topic, 'tis rather personal and belongs here, methinks.
Got a message today from a close friend. Without comment, a link to a far right bullshit blog. (Please don’t go there, they live off the clicks. It is named Politically Incorrect, and the Wikipedia page doesn’t reflect the level of bullshit, IMO).
The former president of the German domestic intelligence agency gave an interview to them. Fueling coronavirus conspiracy shit, in a nutshell.
I berated my friend rather softly for sending me a link rather than a screenshot. And for sending it at all. I got a response in the tone of ‘chill, dude, have a laugh once on a while’. I can’t laugh.
Then, my sibling wrote, in a group chat. Asked a couple of days ago already if anyone would join him at a relative’s grave, and another core family member replied affirmatively, and also suggested to bring the kids. And some aside information from which it was clear that they are regularly meeting some people, do community work, and have friends visiting. Knowing the people involved, I don’t trust this to be contacts performed in a safe way (i.e., outdoors, with mask, and some security distance).
Sibling’s message of today was asking for the address of a very close friend of the family, hence I concluded: they will invite him as well. I suggested not to, since his wife has multiple sclerosis, hence is at high risk if contracting SARS-CoV-2. I got as reply: “He can tell me himself.” I replied that this decision had all to do with reason, and not his - but the reason of my sibling.
All I got was “I’ll call him.”
To add a cherry on this shit sundae of an evening, in-laws want to take up their community work again. Teaching German to a group of refugees, a group with a variable number and composition of people. Asked for our opinion, since the also want to stay in contact with us. They actually must, because they already are deep in a depressed state, and need both: contact to us and their community work.
They will take precautions, but priorities are different than mine. Example: both in-laws actually already went to have haircuts. They, too, would be high risk patients. And if one of them gets Covid-19, the other will probably die of worries. And I’m not even exaggerating much in this.
Today, I hate myself for not giving my sibling the finger and calling all parties involved in the meeting planned. Today, I hate myself for giving in to my in-laws and telling them they should do as they must. Today, I hate myself for being not able to deal with my despair because of other people’s unreasonable behaviour. And I also question my general ability to be a social human being, because I, personally, do not really miss all the personal contacts which are apparently so important for every other person close to me.
I can do with some chats, video conferencing, the phone, and my own family. And books. And, importantly, a community of mutants here and in some other places.
I’ve probably been on the internet to long to notice, but other people have needs which I cannot really understand any more.
Which makes me incredibly sad for myself. And enraged because people will catch Covid-19 because of this. And sad again, because I cannot really understand why this is.
Fuck today.
This whole experience is pretty useful in dissolving illusions of control. Surrender can be sweet. If they contracted it and died could you forgive them? If so, what is the point of hating yourself for not alienating them for having priorities you can’t understand and risk assessment that may be faulty? Personally I’ve definitely found I apparently have been developing pandemic survival strategies since infancy, but surrendering the sense of control over others is probably one of the best things that can come out of experiences like this. We are pretty much all miserable and enraged on some level at all times these days. Lashing out at others imo wouldn’t be helpful so why not be proud of yourself for resisting the urge? Just my random blather so if it rubs you the wrong way feel free to blow it off.
You did what you could. I’m sorry that your family is being so willfully blind to the dangers… but it’s not your fault. At all.
I can’t offer any advice w/r to your family (except that if the hairdressers there are using similar protocols to the ones in Norway, your in-laws should be fine despite the probably-unnecessary risk). Both here and in the other threads you seem to be taking news reports (like media coverage of assholes) personally; you might feel better if you can find a way to convince yourself that in the grand scheme of things news stories are not very important, and any one op-ed or interview will get drowned out in days if not hours.
Here’s my own “Fuck Today”: my flight back to the US was just cancelled. It was the only flight that could get me home in one day, and only exposed me to one other airport between here and Honolulu. Now I will have to pay more money and spend at least one night in a hotel in a high-Covid city.
Just saw a III%er truck (window sticker) parked in the neighborhood. Maybe they bought the truck used.
For FUCKS sake!
Finns Party think tank Suomen Perusta pulled a two-day-old publication from circulation on Wednesday after it came under fire for what Minister of Science and Culture Hanna Kosonen described as “cruel and disturbing” views on women
According to Helsingin Sanomat, the Finns Party distanced itself from author Jukka Hankamäki 's work Totuus Kiihottaa (roughly The truth provokes in English) which described itself as “a philosophical study of the information and truth crisis of the left-wing populist mainstream media”.
The work caused a huge stir when Kosonen announced on Twitter that the ministry is reviewing the publication and investigating whether it violates the terms on which state funding is granted.
The think tank responsible for the publication received a grant of 120,000 euros from the education ministry this year.
The 420-page book reviewed topics that divide conservatives and liberals such as women’s sexual independence, equality, the role of men in society and immigration. One chapter dwells in detail on the “tyranny of women” and the “socialisation of sexuality”.
The author also declared that some Finnish women who have been rejected by Finnish men “wanted revenge on Finnish society by mating with a foreigner”.
In her statement, Kosonen said the contents of the publication were “cruel and disturbing” and that it clearly does not meet the grant’s eligibility criteria.
In a nuanced response, Prime Minister Sanna Marin took to Twitter to say that “racism, hatred and discrimination are not part of a civilized society”.
Finns Party chair Jussi Halla-aho issued a statement in which he said the publication contained the author’s personal views and not the views of the think tank or the party and he denounced Kosonen’s criticism as an “exaggerated reaction to individual excesses in a single publication".
“The government’s goal seems to be to weaken the opposition’s financial position and assert its own dominance,” Halla-aho wrote in an email to HS.
According to Halla-aho, the party does not check the publications of the think tank in advance nor does it participate in publishing decisions. He also stated that he had not read the book. The book was launched on Monday at an event at which Halla-aho was present.
Vice-chair of Suomen Perusta Matias Turkkila blamed himself for the “quality control error” and said he went through the “problematic points” of the book with the author in September 2019. He added that while think tank director Marko Hamilo read the book, members of the board had not.
Author Hankamäki told HS that he was shocked by the criticism of the book and insisted that the text in his work is “scientifically justified” and meets all academic criteria.
At least they are only second on the polls…
Far-right populists, traditionally laser-focused on immigration, are now expanding their toolboxes to include climate science denialism, writes Hufvudstadsbladet, citing a fresh report by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) about the politicisation of climate change.
Jussi Halla-aho and the Finns Party’s statements suggesting that Finland had ‘done its part’ and that other countries were ‘freeriding’ on global climate policy issues indicate a move towards climate nationalism, writes HBL.
That said, in 2018 the Finns Party was the only parliamentary group to distance itself from the 1.5C warming limit in line with recommendations from the UN climate group IPCC.
“The Finns Party likes to say, ‘every industrial chimney in Finland is an environmental act,’ – something that’s also written into their programme,” explained FIIA researcher Antto Vihma .
