Fuck this fucking virus with a fucking farm implement.

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Comments

  • If you're going to put pantsless people on the TV news, I can guarantee the viewership will go up. Even if they keep those nasty needles.
  • The visual that's been frequently used the last few days is lots of little glass vials trundling around a conveyor belt.
  • KarlLB wrote: »
    cgichard wrote: »
    But PLEASE stop showing scenes of people getting needles. Every damn news story has them.
    I agree. It's as if they are all going out of their way to exacerbate my needle-phobia, and that of others. I've read that about one in every 10 people have it.

    Sign me up to the club.

    I'm generally fine with needles going in. It's when they try and draw blood out I tend to pass out. I'm Not Allowed to give blood.
  • The last time I gave a blood sample, the nurse stuck one of those open ended needles in a vein and just kept slapping extra vials on the end of it.

    After the third one, I did query the necessity, but she pointed to the row of empty bottles and said "We've a way to go yet."
  • Ethne AlbaEthne Alba Shipmate
    edited February 26
    Needles and I have an uneasy relationship; I put it down to school inoculation queues and watching screaming friends being hauled back into the hall by exasperated teachers.

    Another one here Not Watching the news atm



    And as we are in hell, a pail full of swear words and kicked buckets towards this virus. A friend has died and understandably their partner faces this next period in almost-isolation.
    I have no (sensible) words left
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    If you're going to put pantsless people on the TV news, I can guarantee the viewership will go up. Even if they keep those nasty needles.

    Oh, I don't know. There are some news anchors whom I wouldn't mind seeing, others who would have me groping for the remote with one hand and smelling salts with the other.
  • Yes, but horror is also a draw.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Yes, but horror is also a draw.

    And stunned fascination 🤨

  • The visual that's been frequently used the last few days is lots of little glass vials trundling around a conveyor belt.

    That's foreplay to penetration. With needles and swabs.
  • If you're going to put pantsless people on the TV news, I can guarantee the viewership will go up. Even if they keep those nasty needles.

    :naughty: It's a very old joke. Newsreaders (at least in traditional UK format) sit behind a desk, and read the news. The camera is locked in front of them. Their lower half is never visible (because the desk is in the way), so just like everyone this year on zoom, there's a certain amount of uncertainty about whether their lower half is dressed.
  • We used to have guys at the seminary who would show up on picture directory day with full clericals, suit, etc. on the top half and shorts and sandals on the bottom. It was a very freaky site to see them strolling the campus.
  • john holdingjohn holding Ecclesiantics Host, Mystery Worshipper Host
    If you're going to put pantsless people on the TV news, I can guarantee the viewership will go up. Even if they keep those nasty needles.

    :naughty: It's a very old joke. Newsreaders (at least in traditional UK format) sit behind a desk, and read the news. The camera is locked in front of them. Their lower half is never visible (because the desk is in the way), so just like everyone this year on zoom, there's a certain amount of uncertainty about whether their lower half is dressed.

    Actually happened to a friend of mine about 60 years ago. He was to do thought for the day (local BBC) and came into the studio as the female newsreader was finishing. She stood up and was naked from the waist down. He did not tell me how quickly he recovered. But the camera people and so on (a full lot, in anticipation of his reaction) were waiting with great interest to see.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    Boy, that is pranking chutzpah!

    I remember in the coverage of some past Olympics (Barcelona?) one time the usual equipment went down in the commentary booth and the show went to alternative tech. The group on air were sitting there wearing nice and professional upper body wear and a motley assortment of summer shorts and sandals
  • The5thMaryThe5thMary Shipmate
    Not related to Covid-19 but in regards to "the needle going in", I sometimes yell at the television (my neighbors think I'm completely out of my mind) when I see those stupid commercials for some new Type 2 diabetes medication or a new blood glucose meter and they show people prick the TIP of a finger. Dumb pricks! LOL.
    Seriously, though, prick the SIDES of your fingers, there aren't as many nerves on the sides of fingers and it hurts much less. Better yet, get yourself an Alternate Testing Site blood glucose meter and you can test on your forearms. Talk about painless! The only time I use my fingers to get a blood sample is if I suspect I'm having either a high blood glucose event or a low one. Usually, I'm okay to use A.T.S.

    I asked a friend if the Covid vaccination hurt and she kind of yelled at me for fifteen minutes about what a baby I am. SHE, of course, has a very high pain threshold, the *@#$!!.
    If the vaccination is anything like the 'flu shot, I am completely fine.
  • The5thMaryThe5thMary Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    cgichard wrote: »
    But PLEASE stop showing scenes of people getting needles. Every damn news story has them.
    I agree. It's as if they are all going out of their way to exacerbate my needle-phobia, and that of others. I've read that about one in every 10 people have it.

    Sign me up to the club.

    I'm generally fine with needles going in. It's when they try and draw blood out I tend to pass out. I'm Not Allowed to give blood.

    I used to be a fainter. Now, I sometimes WATCH when a tech has to draw blood. I trained myself not to freak out. The only time that training fails is when the phlebotomist can't get the needle to stay in the vein (ohhh, just typing this is making me a little woozy! LOL) or has to dig around. I hate that! They will say, "Oh, I'm so sorry this is causing you pain..." as they continue to dig around...it's like their own private battle against Ahab! Except, instead of a whale, it's me, wailing in pain.

    However, those are rare times. I have to remember to fully drink a truckload of water for several days before a blood draw. Forcing myself to relax and not tense up takes practice and I usually fire off a quick prayer to Jesus.
  • Oh I'm not anxious about it (believe me I know anxiety well). It seems to be physiological.
  • Praying, yes indeed! Not for ordinary injections so much as for IVs and cortisone shots inside a joint, shudder. They threatened me with that today. Grrrrrr. May it not come to pass.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    My middle brother used to faint when he got injections. He was a bit embarrassed about this so he decided to donate blood on a regular basis so he would become more used to needles. Now he has no worries about injections. I don't mind injections or blood tests, and I'm fascinated by those ones where the nurse keeps filling multiple vials.

    The nurses at the Medical centre I go to are very skilled.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Shipmate
    If you experience a vasovagal effect causing you to become faint at the sight of blood, there are some techniques you can learn to keep your blood pressure up and avoid losing consciousness. You can probably get this treated via primary care psychological services like PWS or IAPT.

    E.g. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16127191/
  • We had a 13-year old last night at Guides feeling as if her life has ended as all the things she did have been stopped by Covid-19. They were mostly sporting activities. Fortunately she's back at school next week, so long as she passes the testing.
  • DiomedesDiomedes Shipmate
    My heart goes out to her CK. I feel the same, even though I'm 71! All the activities that made my life enjoyable, except gardening, have stopped and there are no easy on-line substitutes. I'm so grateful this Covid situation didn't happen to a 13 year old me - I would have really struggled. I hope a return to school fills at least some of the gaps in her life. Poor kid - and there's many more like her.
  • Yes indeed. We have a few teenagers in the congo at Our Place, and AFAIK most of them are coping (somehow), but there is one 14-year old lass who is having *issues*.

    Our affiliated Scouts/Cubs/Beavers etc. are all still in the wilderness, I think, with online/Zoom activities only.
  • Guides are slated to be able to offer outside socially distanced activities from 29 March, the start of the Easter holidays, and inside from 12 April, if the dates remain as is. That's the National Youth Association guidelines. However, we have one unvaccinated leader with a extremely clinically vulnerable husband, and after counting last night, the 11 (out of 16 girls) attend 7 different schools.
  • Our affiliated Scouts/Cubs/Beavers etc. are all still in the wilderness, I think, with online/Zoom activities only.

    Round here, the various scout organizations have varied a lot in how well they've dealt with lockdowns, at the individual troop level. Daughter's Scouts BSA troop met continuously throughout lockdown - outdoors (masked and distanced) when they could, and on zoom when they couldn't, and they've done a pretty good job at providing activities for the scouts to do. Their brother troop (Scouts BSA now admits girls and boys, but not to the same troop - you have to have separate girl troops and boy troops, so many charter organizations have one of each) has been much less effective. Their host church has just allowed them to start meeting in the building again (in restricted numbers, with masks etc.)

    There have been lots of merit badge offerings online, so scouts who were proactive about wanting to get things done have been able to do that. Obviously some things (welding, swimming, ...) don't work as an online class, though.

    I think in general, I'd say Girl Scout troops have done a better job at adapting to lockdown, because the programming is much less directed, so troop leaders have always had to be thinking about what to do and how to do it, so it was easy for them to pivot. BSA has much more directed programming (each badge / rank / adventure / whatever has a list of requirements, and the handbook more or less tells you what to do, so a lot of BSA scout leaders have found it more of a challenge to think outside the box.

  • We've managed to run a programme online, by choosing carefully what we do. Quite a few things work fine, others... It took us a while to work out that girls using phones for Zoom calls can only see 4 people, including the speaker, so someone breathing heavily may mean they cannot see whatever they are being shown.
  • Our Scouts etc. leaders spent a good deal of time and money during the summer in refurbishing their HQ (they have their own building, next to the Church), so I hope that they will indeed soon be able to meet IRL, and enjoy the fruits of their labours!

  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Meanwhile, Arizona's absolutely useless governor has lifted occupancy restrictions on theaters, restaurants and other businesses.

    There is also a bill in the state legislature that would allow businesses to ignore mask mandates in the municipalities where they are located.

    As goes Texas, so goes Arizona. Can Armageddon be far behind?
  • Meanwhile, Arizona's absolutely useless governor has lifted occupancy restrictions on theaters, restaurants and other businesses.

    There is also a bill in the state legislature that would allow businesses to ignore mask mandates in the municipalities where they are located.

    As goes Texas, so goes Arizona. Can Armageddon be far behind?

    Watch them blame Biden when cases spike.

  • Meanwhile, Arizona's absolutely useless governor has lifted occupancy restrictions on theaters, restaurants and other businesses.

    There is also a bill in the state legislature that would allow businesses to ignore mask mandates in the municipalities where they are located.

    As goes Texas, so goes Arizona. Can Armageddon be far behind?

    So sorry to hear this Miss Amanda. I feel for poor clerks and others who must now wait on an unmasked public, and of course those who need to go out in public for many reasons and no longer feel protected. What a bunch of whiny children are running this country.


  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    I, for one, will immediately exit any business establishment in which I observe customers (or clerks) not wearing masks, leaving my basket of purchases on the floor, unpaid for. And I will let the business know why. I've already done it at least once.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited March 7
    Fuckwits: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-56312051

    This country needs a five year (at least) detox - no professional football at all - until people get a sense of proportion.

    It's just a game. It Doesn't Matter.
  • kingsfoldkingsfold Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Fuckwits: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-56312051

    This country needs a five year (at least) detox - no professional football at all - until people get a sense of proportion.

    It's just a game. It Doesn't Matter.

    Can't say I disagree. It's been bloody noisy this evening - lots & lots of fireworks. I did wonder WTF was going on. And now I know. Fuckwits.
  • Fireworks all afternoon. I turned to FB to find out what it was about.

    But, at least fans setting off fireworks in their gardens aren't socially mixing.
  • kingsfoldkingsfold Shipmate
    But, at least fans setting off fireworks in their gardens aren't socially mixing.

    If that was fans in their own gardens, they had one hell of a display. And had timed it with every other fan in the City of Glasgow.... Apart from the fact it sounded like fireworks, I was beginning to wonder if it as the Gunfight at the OK Corral as I wasn't (at that point) aware of anything that would have merited the setting off of fireworks. (I still don't think it merited the setting off of fireworks, but that's a different thing!).
  • Here it seemed to be in gardens. The first lot we heard were half way down the street (not clear if the back garden of a house on this street or a house on the parallel street that backs onto them). Then about three sets from a housing estate across the other side of a main road. But, I'm in a suburban area where houses have decent sized gardens.
  • Well, we must be glad and rejoice that the pandemic is finally over.

    Football, a Royal Interview, and so on mean that life is obviously back to normal. Or are we just being served bread and circuses?
  • Bread and Circuses would imply something interesting. Football and Royal Family sounds like diving ever further into despair to me. Who will save us from 22 overpaid blokes kicking a ball around and "celebrity" trivia? Please, save us!
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 8
    Lockdown is over - the virus is over - Summer is acumin in, and it's all down to Boris, innit?

    Hail Boris!!

    Good grief. There's no pleasing some people...and to describe the Royal Family as *trivia* is bordering on Treason...
    :wink:
  • Marvin the MartianMarvin the Martian Admin Emeritus
    KarlLB wrote: »
    It's just a game. It Doesn't Matter.

    Not to you, perhaps. To many many others their football team constitutes a fundamental aspect of who they are, providing a sense of community, purpose and shared endeavour that is comparable to the role religion plays in other people's lives.

    They still shouldn't be gathering like that, of course.
  • and to describe the Royal Family as *trivia* is bordering on Treason...
    :wink:
    Should I go with "parasites on the welfare of the nation"? Or, "archaic throwbacks to an obsolete feudal system"? Maybe "Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony."
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    It's just a game. It Doesn't Matter.

    Not to you, perhaps. To many many others their football team constitutes a fundamental aspect of who they are, providing a sense of community, purpose and shared endeavour that is comparable to the role religion plays in other people's lives.

    That worries me. My first reaction, frankly, is they need to get a life. Or at least a sense of proportion. United lost on Saturday. So what? Only matters if I decide to let it matter. Take a step back; 11 men scored fewer goals in a game than another 11 men. Meh.

  • /slight tangent - sorry!
    and to describe the Royal Family as *trivia* is bordering on Treason...
    :wink:
    Should I go with "parasites on the welfare of the nation"? Or, "archaic throwbacks to an obsolete feudal system"? Maybe "Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony."

    Well, dig yourself in even deeper, if you like!

    FWIW, *archaic throwbacks to an obsolete feudal system* describes them well, as does *parasites on the welfare of the nation*, so maybe we'll get to share a cell in the Tower before they chop off our heads...
  • DafydDafyd Shipmate
    Will we hear you both shouting for help when you're being oppressed?
  • They'll chop off my head over my dead body ...
  • Dafyd wrote: »
    Will we hear you both shouting for help when you're being oppressed?
    They'll chop off my head over my dead body ...

    I'll try to make sure Alan goes first, whilst I continue shouting...
  • AnselminaAnselmina Shipmate
    kingsfold wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Fuckwits: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-56312051

    This country needs a five year (at least) detox - no professional football at all - until people get a sense of proportion.

    It's just a game. It Doesn't Matter.

    Can't say I disagree. It's been bloody noisy this evening - lots & lots of fireworks. I did wonder WTF was going on. And now I know. Fuckwits.

    I couldn't figure out what the fireworks were for! Didn't even occur to me it was about the football. Definitely an organised display somewhere in the area if the size and length of the noise was anything to go by, as well as some random bangs here and there.
  • AIUI, Ms Sturgeon was Not Amused.

    Hopefully, there won't be a spike, somewhen around Easter...
  • North East QuineNorth East Quine Shipmate
    edited March 8
    KarlLB wrote: »
    It's just a game. It Doesn't Matter.

    Not to you, perhaps. To many many others their football team constitutes a fundamental aspect of who they are, providing a sense of community, purpose and shared endeavour that is comparable to the role religion plays in other people's lives.

    They still shouldn't be gathering like that, of course.

    Sadly, given that the fuckwits concerned are Glasgow Rangers, this is religion (of the orange variety) playing its role in their lives.
  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    It's just a game. It Doesn't Matter.

    Not to you, perhaps. To many many others their football team constitutes a fundamental aspect of who they are, providing a sense of community, purpose and shared endeavour that is comparable to the role religion plays in other people's lives.

    That worries me. My first reaction, frankly, is they need to get a life. Or at least a sense of proportion. United lost on Saturday. So what? Only matters if I decide to let it matter. Take a step back; 11 men scored fewer goals in a game than another 11 men. Meh.

    I recently heard someone on a baseball podcast say baseball is the most important unimportant thing in his life, which I think is a good perspective on fandom in general.

    I don't understand the shared endeavor Marvin talks about - I watched my team win the championship last year, and it was awesome, but I didn't share in the endeavor. They did all the work, and I just sat on my ass and drank beer and cheered. OK, I was standing when the final out was called and they won. Still not a contribution to the endeavor.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Ruth wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    It's just a game. It Doesn't Matter.

    Not to you, perhaps. To many many others their football team constitutes a fundamental aspect of who they are, providing a sense of community, purpose and shared endeavour that is comparable to the role religion plays in other people's lives.

    That worries me. My first reaction, frankly, is they need to get a life. Or at least a sense of proportion. United lost on Saturday. So what? Only matters if I decide to let it matter. Take a step back; 11 men scored fewer goals in a game than another 11 men. Meh.

    I recently heard someone on a baseball podcast say baseball is the most important unimportant thing in his life, which I think is a good perspective on fandom in general.

    I don't understand the shared endeavor Marvin talks about - I watched my team win the championship last year, and it was awesome, but I didn't share in the endeavor. They did all the work, and I just sat on my ass and drank beer and cheered. OK, I was standing when the final out was called and they won. Still not a contribution to the endeavor.

    I follow Test Match Cricket. It's the only sport I take any interest in, largely because it used to be on BBC2 when I was meant to be revising at university and also because it goes slowly enough for me to work out what's happening.

    Still, when England's batting collapses again I think about it for a few seconds then carry on with whatever I was doing. It won't change my life. Nothing depends on it. On the occasions it doesn't and they win something I'm happy about it for half an hour after which I've pretty much forgotten.

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