birdguy

AVSIM is the only forum I come to on a regular basis. There was another one I went to on a regular basis but I've banned for life from it. I have no idea what Reddit is. I've never joined Facebook or Twitter. While I have shot from the hip and said I abhor social media I really can't criticize it because I've never joined them or used any of them, I have running conversations with friends via e-mail. With maybe two or three or four of my friends will discuss current events, personal anecdotes, our hobbies, even support for family tragedies. I have e-mail friends around the world. Denmark, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand as well as a dozen or so here in the US., not counting relatives and family. I even have some that started with PMs from here which morphed into regular e-mails. I'm not running down the other forms of personal communication. I just find this particular forum plus e-mailing is all that I need. Noel

Never mind. I found the problem. Noel

You should see my girlfriends at the Sprint Store Ron. If I knew how to post pictures here.... Noel

So THIS is where you found it Sue, and e-mailed it me. You women's libber! But I love you, you crazy old lady! Noel

Almost every forum topic brings out two or more points of view. That's how discussions work. But sometimes people hold so dear to their own point of view that they get a bit out of hand. That invites a warning. Name calling and intimating a person is part of a conspiracy or worse should also invite a warning. Drifting off topic is natural. someone will say something in a post not meaning to change the subject but someone will pick up on it and reply to the unintended reference. But that's how conversations go. I was a high school debater and sometimes I had to defend something I was against. I find myself doing it here sometimes just to try to generate more interest. I also have a sarcastic streak. I love one-liners and that sometimes puts people off. The coronavirus thread started becoming repetitive and arguments started becoming a bit more heated and it was time for it to go away. Bob recognized that and did the right thing. I did get one warning on the coronavirus thread. It was warranted. But I'm going nowhere unless I get banned for some reason. And that has happened before. Noel

That's me. There were times in my life I had hours when I didn't know if I was going to live or die. I developed a sense of not caring. To me Covid-19 is like a mortar attack or an airplane with some malfunction or a helicopter that it's tail rotor fly off. Some people are going to get it. I might be one of them. I might not. I'd rather not fret and worry about it. If that be ignorance call me blissful. Noel

That's what bothers me. It makes me believe that today's data supersedes yesterday's data and tomorrow's data will supersede today's data. Why not hold back on publicity until ALL the data is in and you have something definitive to report? In fact why not scale back all the reports instead of having the show du jure that does nothing but confuse the layman like me? We don't have to know what all the steps are. Wait until you're done and then tell us what we have to do. Like vaccines. There are several in the race. It makes me suspicious. I'm not saying I won't get vaccinated but I am sure going to wait until others do and see what happens to them. Someone will post a link to a graph or report here. Immediately following someone will say that's wrong and post his contradictory graph or report. This reporting looks to me like a bicycle race with the contestants battling for the lead. I think less reporting would not make so many people anxious and suspicious. Noel

I just looked up the ten leading causes of death in Roswell last year. 1 - Heart Disease 2 - Cancer 3 - Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease 4 - Diabetes 5 - Unintentional Injuries (Auto Accidents - Falling Off The Roof- etc.) 6 - Stroke 7 - Suicide 8 - Alzheimer's 9 - Chronic Liver Disease 10 - Influenza Given Monday will be the First of June and we have a total of 2 Covid-19 deaths so far I doubt the virus will make the top ten for this year. Murder doesn't even make the top ten. Noel

Silly me. After reading all the hype about corona virus on Google News and watching the news on TV and following this thread I thought Coronavirus was the only thing people died of anymore. Noel

I'll take four Mark. I need a couple for my wife too. Tinfoil hats are more comfortable to wear than masks. Noel

I would add that even if you are going to be a rather long term resident in that country you should abide by their customs and do your best not to offend them I lived in Japan for a total of eight years. 1.5 years as a Marine and later for 6.5 years. I found that if you learn a bit of the language and eat their food it goes a long way towards making new friends. I learned quite a bit of Japanese when I was over there and could even read and write a bit of it. I was fluent enough to become supervisor of Japanese laborers in the bomb dump. I always spoke Japanese to them and I was invited to some of their homes where I even learned more of the language. I ate their food even if I didn't like some of it and pretended it was good. The same in Thailand. There was a family I became friends with and sometimes had a meal with them. It was spicy HOT. I had to drink a lot of water with it. Noel

So, what do you do while you're sequestered? I do a little bit of writing. Quite a bit of reading. I'm into Edna Ferber's short stories now. We watch old movies on television. Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Clark Gable, if your of my generation you know the rest. And Westerns with John Wayne, Audie Murphy, et all. I play the card games on my computer while I'm eating breakfast. Free Cell, Hearts, Solitaire, Spider Solitaire and Mine Sweeper. Did you know that every game is winnable in Free Cell. I just reset my 1000 games without a loss and started over. I'm now at 122 games without a loss. I read once where every game was winnable. Sometimes you get a real stickler and have to back track or even come back to it the next day. But eventually you win. Of course there's the thing we all have in common. Simming! FS9 with California Classic retro 60s scenery. I fly my MAAM DC-3 on every continent. FSX with Orbx North America. It's my airplane collection. I have about 100 now and they still keep coming. FSX accepts a excrement load of airplanes. P3Dv4 with all of the Orbx world. I just fly my Quest Kodiak somewhere that seems interesting today. Then I come here and read the lastest on this virus thing even though I don't understand most of the links. I'm not well versed in epidemiology. The veering off to immigration was a hoot! I remember when my mother became a citizen. She decorated the house with American flags and red, white and blue crepe paper and baked a red, white and blue cake. She was so proud. She was a Belgian national...a World War One refugee. Even though we are under a mandate to wear masks only about half the people I see in the supermarket do. Out West here we are a pretty ornery bunch. Noel

The gingham dog and the calico cat Side by side on the table sat; 'T was half-past twelve, and (what do you think!) Nor one nor t' other had slept a wink! The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate Appeared to know as sure as fate There was going to be a terrible spat. (I wasn't there; I simply state What was told to me by the Chinese plate!) The gingham dog went "Bow-wow-wow!" And the calico cat replied "Mee-ow!" The air was littered, an hour or so, With bits of gingham and calico, While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place Up with its hands before its face, For it always dreaded a family row! (Now mind: I'm only telling you What the old Dutch clock declares is true!) The Chinese plate looked very blue, And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!" But the gingham dog and the calico cat Wallowed this way and tumbled that, Employing every tooth and claw In the awfullest way you ever saw- And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew! (Don't fancy I exaggerate- I got my news from the Chinese plate!) Next morning, where the two had sat They found no trace of dog or cat; And some folks think unto this day That burglars stole that pair away! But the truth about the cat and pup Is this: they ate each other up! Now what do you really think of that! (The old Dutch clock it told me so, And that is how I came to know.) Noel

Alan, the average Joe Blow like myself aren't sophisticated or educated enough in the field to understand what the numbers mean. We see a published number and right away assume that's how many cases there are and say my area is rife with cases or my area has a low incidence of cases and we base our personal assessment of the risk accordingly. In my personal case I see there were 34 cases a week ago. Then it jumped to 36 cases. On Saturday it jumped to 38 cases. And this morning it jumped to 40 cases. So when Betty went to the store this morning I told her to wear a mask. I will keep monitoring the cases. But even 40 cases and 2 deaths out of a population of 60,000 isn't as bad as the number of flue cases during flue season. If we get no new cases in a week we will probably stop wearing our masks again. My daughter in Denver called me the other day and asked, "Isn't anybody dying of anything but the corona virus anymore?" She was being sarcastic, but it has become like saying a word over and over again until it becomes meaningless. Noel

This conspiracy theorist has decided to come back with one more question. About reporting. We got our 40th case last night. But everyone I talk to wonders what that means. We had 2 die so there can't be more than 38 cases. But some of them must have recovered so there are probably fewer than 38 cases. And since we base our judgements of the danger on that number it is probably inflated. When are they going to start giving us the numbers of CURRENT cases, not the total cases since this thing started. For instance in the JH chart it says in Queens 60,000 confirmed cases and 5000 deaths. So only 55,000 possibly have it now. But how many have recovered? It's reasonable to think that at least half have recovered so there are only 27000 ACTIVE cases. Probably less. To me, and most of my neighbors and friends, these numbers are meaningless unless we get a tally of recovered cases. And because of these questions the people around here don't pay much attention to them. Like my wife; she thinks you're just trying to scare us. We are intelligent enough to know that the total number of cases since this thing started is NOT the total number of current cases. So your credibility becomes suspect. Noel