Excursions

To say that the situation is not that bad yet, that it’s not scary, is a bit irresponsible at this point. For those who can read, who can find the right sources, who can segregate authentic news and facts from the rumours, it is imperative on you to inform and enlighten those who cannot do all of this. Either due to lack of resources or willingness.

Willingness to be informed is necessary and is something that is often ignored. Many people just aren’t willing to accept the fact that the situation is dire. Because we just don’t trust the media - the panic-spreading frenzy they tend to rile up every time there is even minor discomfort. Matt Ridley analyzed this situation in this brilliant article at Reaction. He said it well.

It is very easy, in other words, to bet on the tendency of journalists and their readers to engage in a competitive auction of unjustified alarm.

Absolutely. “We all have survived through many such waves of panic, it’s always nothing”, goes the narrative for a section of the society. Well, we have cried wolf often, it was bound to hit us back one day or the other.

It is easy to trust the voices what are closer to our beliefs, that are easier to follow. Distancing oneself socially is not an easy task to do. Those saying we need to follow such extreme precautions are conveniently ignored. It is important that these minds are kept informed. Enlightened.

Over the last week, I’ve added some features to Blotpub that were long in works - support for syndicating longer posts, support for updating posts. I’ve also automated sending of webmentions to the target sites for reply and like posts types. It’s been some productive week this.

Coronavirus has been affecting me, my immediate family and even the world at large in extreme ways. It was only natural to feel the urge to record my thoughts as I live through the pandemic. Hence, I have created a page that I intend to use to do just that.

I am toying with an idea to enable another option for the readers to comment on posts. I have always been very wary of enabling a commenting system of any form on my blog. So the only option I have kept till now was webmentions. Most of the responses I get on my posts are via micro.blog and I get webmentions for all these replies. However, I think there’s just no easy way to redirect people to write a response if that is the only option available.

To provide with such an option and at the same time not make it extremely easy for someone to spam the space, I am enabling GitHub issues based commenting system of utterances. It’s lightweight, needs a valid account and I believe sits well with the readers that are not already on micro.blog.

I will keep this on for some time. It sits well with my current setup, doesn’t look out of place. I may rethink again sometime in future. For now, this commenting system stays on.

The latest episode of Reply All was an absolute gem. It was fun and equally intriguing. The mystery around and the search for the missing hit song was presented brilliantly. I think only Reply All can produce such episodes. Kudos! @PJVogt @AGoldmund

This social distancing exercise takes a toll on one’s mind, it is not very easy to undergo. When we go outside and meet others, be social that is, we let our mind wander from the day to day grind. It doesn’t matter then if the “social gathering” is as regular as just at the office. People around have stories that they are keen to share.

We chat, discuss, debate, tease, prank, laugh. We brainstorm, we learn from others, we teach others. We do this all together as a group. Everything kind of stops when the group is no longer present in-person. Video and audio conferencing feel too formal.

This all can’t be healthy - it is sure to have some psychological effect. Melissa Pandika writes on Mic about the emotional toll such social distancing precautions can take.

Right now, even the simplest, purest of human gestures, the ones we crave most in times like these — a hug or squeeze of our hand, reassuring us everything will turn out okay — now carry risk.

So true. There are already reports of how this is affecting families all around the world. I am afraid the chances are people will soon get fed-up, get impatient. They might stop caring about others, become isolated within. Become indifferent.

Of course, another possibility is that this will bring immediate families even closer. I can do all that I do in a group while I am at home with family. I can decide not to isolate myself at home. I get focused hours for work and at the same time decide not to stay glued to the laptop throughout the day while working. Take the breaks that I usually take and spend that time with my family.

There is no need to wind the working day down with media consumption as I can relieve stress throughout the day when required. Look beyond the mobile, tablet and television screens. I can spend the hours I generally wasted on commutes on something productive.

Share stories. Hear from loved ones. Play with my daughter. Talk, chat, discuss, debate, tease. Laugh. Do everything I do at the office. And more.

I think I will give this possibility a chance. Distance, not isolate. May be, social distancing, physically distancing myself from the outside world, will bring me emotionally closer to my family.

Coronavirus has completely taken over all forms of media and the discussions around me. Not an hour goes by without a mention of the global pandemic. It’s not an all-out panic yet, but an increasing number of positive cases in my city has, for sure, put the people on alert.

I am avoiding unverified information that gets spread on social media and group messaging platforms. But it is difficult to stay and keep others, sane amidst the deluge of news bites that get spewed across every few minutes. It becomes tedious and tiring to focus on facts and keep enlightening people around you about the same.

It sure looks like a storm is brewing within all. I just wish that the uncertainty subsides before there are more cases of worst sides of humans on display. If not, any hope for the social solidarity that Kara Swisher, so succinctly, calls for will be lost.

In addition to social distancing, societies have often drawn on another resource to survive disasters and pandemics: social solidarity, or the interdependence between individuals and across groups. This an essential tool for combating infectious diseases and other collective threats. Solidarity motivates us to promote public health, not just our own personal security. It keeps us from hoarding medicine, toughing out a cold in the workplace or sending a sick child to school. It compels us to let a ship of stranded people dock in our safe harbors, to knock on our older neighbor’s door.

I am having fun getting back into Indieweb stuff — working on adding support for updates to Blotpub. This has been in works for so long, I had to get to it. I also recently added support for syndicating longer posts to Twitter and Mastodon. Always makes me relaxed.

Is there anyone who can easily find the one emoji that they do not use very often? How many of the 1500+ emojis can one possibly use? There is a limited set of emojis I use regularly. And because they are front and centre every time I open an emoji keyboard, they tend to get used even more often.

Even the way they get categorized is horrible. Which category do you think you will find a loudspeaker in? Objects, you say? What about a balloon? Now the answer to that might differ based on which platform you use. Android puts it under “Activities” while iOS puts it under Objects. Not just do the emojis vary across platforms, even the simple thing like how to categorize them varies.

I think the emojis need a better, simpler replacement. I do not think memoji is that - it calls for too much effort before one starts to use them. Maybe the whole emoji set needs a complete reset. Anyway, how many of the myriad face emojis can you correctly identify and use? Do you know how many we started with? Just two - a smiling face and a frowning face. Now that is manageable.

A quick question for the IndieWeb community here, how do you send the webmentions? Is it automated on posting? Is it part of the micropub or an independent script? Are there ready resources, scripts or tools available? I couldn’t find much on indieweb.org.