Workshop Booze Up VII - New Year, Same Plague, Same Booze Up, Deja Vu

[Jubal]

Hello! How's everyone doing?

Things have been hectic here for the past year.

Nice to see you! Things are hectic here too - trying to plough on and finally get this PhD finished, working on the edits atm. And having a lot of bureaucracy dropped on me.

What's been the hecticness at your end?

[Silver Wolf]

Nice to see you! Things are hectic here too - trying to plough on and finally get this PhD finished, working on the edits atm. And having a lot of bureaucracy dropped on me.

What's been the hecticness at your end?

Well, the same basically. I've been trying to finish my thesis and Erasmus exchange, all while looking for a new job and finally taking my driving exam, renovating my grandmother's flat and so on. Very, very hectic.

[Jubal]

I did a pub quiz today which included Jordan Peterson as an answer in a round about science educators and I am possibly irrational levels of annoyed by this.

[Pentagathus]

What happened to the little chat bar at the top of the forum home page?

[Tusky]

It was removed as per this vote https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6491.msg147972#new

[Pentagathus]

Booo
Down with this sort of thing!

[dubsartur]

Nice to see you! Things are hectic here too - trying to plough on and finally get this PhD finished, working on the edits atm. And having a lot of bureaucracy dropped on me.

What's been the hecticness at your end?

Well, the same basically. I've been trying to finish my thesis and Erasmus exchange, all while looking for a new job and finally taking my driving exam, renovating my grandmother's flat and so on. Very, very hectic.

I think a lot of people feel pressed right now because some systems are starting to work again, but there is a backlog from the first three years of the COVID pandemic, and other systems are still not functional or barely functional (eg. healthcare).  So some things are rush rush while other things which they depend on are slow or nonfunctional.

[Jubal]

Booo
Down with this sort of thing!

Yeah, the logic being that nobody was using it very much and it made the forum look more rather than less deserted most of the time. If we get back to having a good amount more activity and people are using things like this general chat thread so much that we need to reinstate it to help keep the flow, then of course we'll look into it. We're... a little way off that, right now.

I think a lot of people feel pressed right now because some systems are starting to work again, but there is a backlog from the first three years of the COVID pandemic, and other systems are still not functional or barely functional (eg. healthcare).  So some things are rush rush while other things which they depend on are slow or nonfunctional.

Yes, I think that's fair to say. Healthcare in Austria is fairly functional, but trying to support people in worse situations can be exhausting in and of itself. And I think there's a burnout backlog too where people have pushed themselves through the last few years, some better than others, but in many cases that's taken a toll that they haven't had any additional space to recoup.

This week I'm mostly gearing up for Coding Medieval Worlds at the weekend... life in general feels like it's ticking along, but in a slightly odd limbo, where things both must change soon and yet the change keeps not quite feeling any closer. It's an odd feeling. I have only about a year and ten days left of my twenties, most of the second half of which has been swallowed up between a PhD and a pandemic, and it's hard to know how to feel about life sometimes.

[dubsartur]

What about food and drink?  Or housing prices?  Food prices and rent are rising rapidly in Canada and squeezing the people who work for a living or have fixed incomes.

Heating and electricity prices are supposed to be crazy in the UK.  But its confusing because old and corporate social media tend towards catastrophizing or channeling Dr. Pangloss.

I was 33 when I became Dr. Dubsartur and that seemed pretty early (long undergrad degree + first career + 8 years in graduate school, 7 of those years paid).  Its been five or ten years at least since I saw a path to getting any of the basics in life like a job that pays a living wage, my own place to live larger than a studio apartment, and a life partner.

Its hard to imagine how I could relax until I have some idea how I will earn a living or find people to do things with face to face.

[Pentagathus]

Booo
Down with this sort of thing!

Yeah, the logic being that nobody was using it very much and it made the forum look more rather than less deserted most of the time. If we get back to having a good amount more activity and people are using things like this general chat thread so much that we need to reinstate it to help keep the flow, then of course we'll look into it. We're... a little way off that, right now.

Well this is a prime example of the deep flaws inherent with democracy. I propose that you choose me as Exilian's first benevolent tyrant so I can save you silly geese from making such awful decisions in the future. Bask in my golden aura dear subjects.

Heating and electricity prices are supposed to be crazy in the UK.  But its confusing because old and corporate social media tend towards catastrophizing or channeling Dr. Pangloss.

Kind of, government (eventually) imposed a price cap on energy but it only applies to households, so businesses are generally paying obscene rates now. Petrol and diesel prices finally came down recently, still a lot higher than pre-pandemic but significantly less than they were at their height.
Inflation is generally higher than wage increases have been, though I'd say worker shortages have made it easier to find entry level and lower skilled work, and anecdotally I've seen significantly higher wages for the kind of casual manual labour work I tend to pick up.

[Jubal]

Yeah, the logic being that nobody was using it very much and it made the forum look more rather than less deserted most of the time. If we get back to having a good amount more activity and people are using things like this general chat thread so much that we need to reinstate it to help keep the flow, then of course we'll look into it. We're... a little way off that, right now.

Well this is a prime example of the deep flaws inherent with democracy. I propose that you choose me as Exilian's first benevolent tyrant so I can save you silly geese from making such awful decisions in the future. Bask in my golden aura dear subjects.

I'm pretty sure last time you tried this one, you ran for an Exilian election explicitly to be a steel booted tyrant. Are you going soft in your old age?

On the other stuff: aye, AFAICT the UK's labour shortage is semi-cushioning some people from the living costs problem - the people being hit worst are people with very static incomes aka benefits or reliant solely on state pensions. In Austria we've had a clear rise in the cost of living but I don't get the sense it's causing huge scales of new hardship, the government has invested quite a bit in trying to cushion people. I think for me the pressures are more related to my particular job and status than society-wide: the precarity of job and immigration status is hard, and like Dubsartur I'm kind of not seeing much path to a balanced social life or sense of stability, though I may be in a somewhat more favourable position work-wise. The pandemic is still a bother for me, too: given how hard Covid hit me last October I am now having a phase of not really wanting to go out and see people so much, given how high case rates are in Austria.

At the moment I think I'm reaylly just trying to haul myself to the end of the PhD and then see where things are, but I worry I'm not planning forwards enough.

[Pentagathus]

Steel booted, golden handed.

[Jubal]

Steel booted, golden handed.

Should be your signature quote, really

[dubsartur]

On the other stuff: aye, AFAICT the UK's labour shortage is semi-cushioning some people from the living costs problem - the people being hit worst are people with very static incomes aka benefits or reliant solely on state pensions. In Austria we've had a clear rise in the cost of living but I don't get the sense it's causing huge scales of new hardship, the government has invested quite a bit in trying to cushion people. I think for me the pressures are more related to my particular job and status than society-wide: the precarity of job and immigration status is hard, and like Dubsartur I'm kind of not seeing much path to a balanced social life or sense of stability, though I may be in a somewhat more favourable position work-wise. The pandemic is still a bother for me, too: given how hard Covid hit me last October I am now having a phase of not really wanting to go out and see people so much, given how high case rates are in Austria.

At the moment I think I'm reaylly just trying to haul myself to the end of the PhD and then see where things are, but I worry I'm not planning forwards enough.

Yeah my understanding is that each COVID infection damages your immune system, so subsequent infections have higher risk.  Its hard and confusing to plan group events now that so many people have stopped taking basic precautions like wearing a N95 or better mask in crowded indoor areas and running powerful air filters.  Viruses can evolve to resist medicine or vaccines but they can't evolve to survive intense UV radiation (or whatever).

[Jubal]

Well, this has been a pretty exhausted sort of week as post-CMW weeks seem to be. But it's nice to be getting back to some game dev, and if my intercostal muscles would stop being inflamed I think I'd be feeling comparatively positive about life. Hoping to see some people at the weekend for my birthday, which will be a risk on the Covid side but it's at home and I've asked people to test in advance of coming.