another day some more stuff

— चार हजार नौ सौ छियालीस — Shobhit had his online Project Management class last night. I believe tomorrow night is the final night of the course, but then the next one starts up again, if I remember right, the week after next. While he was doing that, I started watching a BBC documentary series I learned about on one of my podcasts earlier in the day, called Can't Get You Outta My Head. They seriously raved about it, as have plenty of people I've found online. Kind of amazingly, the entire six-part series is available on YouTube. The podcasts hosts noted that it would be difficult to gauge based on only the first episode, which would be hard to see and even figure out what the whole series is about. I only got just shy of halfway through the first episode, and boy are they right. I found it relatively compelling but lacking in focus or thesis, and had I not already known it was getting rave reviews and just happened across it on YouTube, I might well have just dismissed it out of hand and moved on. But, I plant to give it more of a chance. I had to stop when Shobhit's class ended, though, and assist him for over an hour with recording home-taped video auditions for a part in a movie he auditioned for, which will shoot in Portland this summer apparently. Much of the whole process was rather frustrating, but we got it done. And I honestly wasn't busy with anything more important to do. — चार हजार नौ सौ छियालीस — — चार हजार नौ सौ छियालीस — I just finished with Virtual Office Lunch Meetup #34, and we only had four people in attendance today. But! I think probably because I happened to be IMing her through Skype shortly beforehand and I brought it up, Tracy actually joined for the first time ever! And not only that, Marie joined again too—this being only her second time. So, in fact, and I literally realized this as I was writing this, the four people on the call today consisted of the two people who have attended the most times (Rebecca and myself) and then one first-timer and one second-timer. It was a fun, new mix, so I quite enjoyed the hour of friendly chatter. But now, I need to get some work done before I have to get on Zoom for an all-staff Virtual Town Hall at 3:00, and more importantly, I really need to pee so I have to post this before I piss my pants. — चार हजार नौ सौ छियालीस — [posted 1:05 pm]

My tweets

• Tue, 6:02: My cat is so fucking needy I’m literally his emotional support human.
• Tue, 7:55: What a tragically American thing to realize the pandemic is approaching its end now that mass shootings are once again becoming routine.
• Tue, 19:40: I just learned that Seattle Pride this year will be virtual AGAIN. And: I get it. In all likelihood recommendations by the end of June will allow for gatherings—just not huge ones, which Pride is. That doesn't make it any less profoundly disappointing, and being in the middle of this transitional period is going to make it even weirder. Last year, pretty much everyone was still staying at home. Everyone was in the same boat. This year, especially by then, millions will have been vaccinated, and there will be much more of a mix of people socializing and people still isolating, probably all of them having already felt at their wit's end about all this shit months ago. I was actually pretty impressed with the job Seattle Pride did with virtual events last year, and in all likelihood they will have learned from experience to make huge improvements. That said, the number of virtual attendees was a tiny fraction of the usual Pride Parade crowds of years past, and with so many more people in a far safer position to spend time out and about with others—even setting aside large gatherings that still won't be allowed—even with improved virtual events, I rather expect their audience will be far less even than that this year. Suddenly I have this weird hope and desire for the weather to be terrible that weekend. Bring on the wind and rain! Only then will sitting at home to watch Pride events on a computer screen be even remotely appealing to people. And the thing is, I still want our local Pride organizers to thrive—so, I will still participate no matter what.