Coming to this after Milan and Rome
Our trip to Ireland was great. I was surprised how small an dintimate the cities were. I found Dublin incredibly modern and the west coast the opposite. We explores a lot. Some details…. Continue reading “Euro Trip 2024 – Ireland”
(Previous post, the first part of the trip and our time in Milan)
We would spend 4 nights and 3 days in Rome and it was a great time. We saw everything we wanted and more. Continue reading “Euro Trip 2024 – Rome”
The entire family took a spring break trip to Italy and Ireland. The trip was pricey and tiring but we had a fantastic time and made some memories that we’ll remember forever. This post is just the start of our trip.
Given that this was our first real trip as a family, my main goal was for everyone to just have a good time and want to travel more. On that front, it was a huge success. We had no arguments, meltdowns or even disagreements. We had a blast.
It was also huge for the kids. They were able to experience being in another country where they saw new cultures, new languages and people who didn’t look or talk like them. You could tell it was eye-opening. Hunter especially loved it. He said that if there’s one place he wants to live in the world it’s Rome.
On to some day-to-day details. I’m doing this (below) mostly so I remember exactly what we did.
Thursday (24 hours before the trip)
We were supposed to leave Thursday morning but Diane and I went out of breakfast on Wednesday and we discovered that Italy won’t let us in with Diane’s passport as it expires in 74 days. This is news to us. After initially panicking and thinking about cancelling the entire trip, Diane hustled her face off and got to the passport office and managed to get a passport turned around in 24 hours. We pushed our flights back one day and were off on Friday.
Friday
We’re off. It’s a long flight but everyone’s pumped.
We do one flight to JFK and then another red-eye flight to Milan. Continue reading “Euro Trip 2024 – Milan”
We all have things in our past that we frequently remember, good and bad. Some bad memories in my past are events where I’m really embarrassed about my behavior: women I treated poorly, friends I didn’t respect as much as a should, and situations that I let get out of hand to a place where I was uncomfortable. I would do all of them differently now but it’s obviously too late to fix. These events pop up all the time in my head. I relive them, briefly, but regularly.
Imagine a river flowing. This river is my energy as a person. Now imagine a rock in that river. The water moves to go around the rock. It still flows and isn’t blocked much but the flow is somewhat disrupted. Each one of these memories is one of those rocks. These are memories that get me charged up and that charge takes away from me doing other positive things and having positive thoughts.
This past weekend, I undertook an exercise to get rid of those rocks. Continue reading “Getting Rid of Scars”
Can we talk about Tesla for a moment? The reason they are relevant today is that their stock is ridiculous. Not that it’s high (which it is) or that the company is loved or hated (which it is) but that its volatility is off the charts. Tons of trades happening every day. For instance one day last week (Monday), Tesla opened $114 higher than its previous close, then gained another $136 within 15 minutes, then dropped by $324 before the market closed. Each dollar of share price corresponds to a market capitalization of $185 million, which means that Tesla lost more than $60 billion of value during the day. That’s more than the market cap of Ford and Fiat Chrysler combined. And this happens every day. Walls Street analysts have no idea what to think. Their price targets range from $87 (GLJ Research) to $2,322 (Piper Sandler). Continue reading “134: Tesla Madness”
I’m really interested in the privacy implications and the technology behind how we track people who have recovered and keep track of those are infected as we will need to do to get back to our lives. Without doing this, this shelter-in-place will just continue until a vaccine arrives – which is just too damn long.
Google/Apple have formed an alliance that will help track people that are infected. The way it works is:
An app on your phone will pass a random and anonymous code to all other phones within a few yards of you, wherever you are (and vice versa). If you test positive, you tell the app, and every other phone in the region checks the codes they’ve seen in the last 14 days, and if there’s a match they can say ‘you’ve been exposed’. This is anonymous and automatic.
This is very cool, but am skeptical that it’ll ever happen because it really only works if governments mandate it and I just don’t see that happening.
On a related note, there’s a new San Francisco company called Onfido that is working with European governments to develop phone-based “immunity passports” for those who have already recovered from COVID-19. This is happening in Europe and is similar to what’s in China. Oh, and just yesterday they raised an additional $100 million.
We’re digging into the remote learning more deeply this week as our school is starting to get more involved and attentive to what’s happening at home.
That only takes half the day. The other part is spent enjoying the great weather we’ve been sent
One of my friends sent me this today. I’ll be joining him:
I do one plank a day during the pandemic, holding it for as long as I can. Have made it to three minutes the last three days. Join me.
… and then I make myself a cocktail almost immediately afterward.
Now this is a great use of modern technology. Here we have a Twitter account that is judging people’s video call background. Just what the world needed (thx Lizzie)
“I’m @clairecmc and this is my kitchen” 7/10. pic.twitter.com/DTedpSMCZA
— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) April 14, 2020
ok, so one observation i had today: everyone is turning into hobbits during quar — we’re baking breads & listening to little melodies & getting hairier & our neighborhoods are the shire & we go on our little walks through the shire & head home to our breads & plumpen our bellies
— Megan Neuringer (@MeganNeuringer) April 14, 2020
Thanks Jackie!
"Thanks, Jackie. Great idea." @montypython #montypython #stayhome pic.twitter.com/jAORpbdCer
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) April 15, 2020
Check these out. Might as well keep safe in style:
We have reallocated our manufacturing capacity to produce masks for everyday wear
Atoms Masks are hand washable, and includes copper yarn, an antibacterial that reduces odor
We are donating 1 mask for every order, and selling them at cost. Pre-order: https://t.co/Fh4Q4WT2kd pic.twitter.com/BhoyjI2xNt
— Atoms (@WearAtoms) April 15, 2020
New York added two thousands deaths to their list who were people they hadn’t tested:
Only 64 more days to go
This cover is from the new NY Times Magazine cover article “What is life like right now on the life-and-death shift?” showing photographed workers on the front lines of Covid-19 in northern Italy.
I’ve been working from home for the past year. One thing I noticed recently is that lots of other companies aren’t doing it very well. Over the past years, I’ve learned some modern work-from-home concepts. Specifically, there are 5 levels of remote work. The levels are:
Companies that truly practice asynchronous communication have stepped out of the industrial revolution, and no longer conflate presence with productivity, or hours with output, as one might on the factory floor.
The analogy I loved is that the Japanese 4×100 track team in the 2016 Olympics. They were massive underdogs. In fact, nobody bet on them to medal. Not one runner could run under 10 seconds:
But because they mastered the baton handoff, they shaved seconds off their race and came in 2nd. That’s right, the Japanese got the silver medal because they were better and the handoff.
The idea here is that, as a company, you can master how work and ideas are handed off between employees your company can be much faster, more efficient, and a better place to work than others.
True asynchronous working is the place you need to get to. We’re working on it at Onward and so far it’s been great. Using the tool Notion is a big piece of it. I love Notion and the fact that it’s worth $2 Billion with only 40 employees should indicate this is a popular trend. I could talk about this for hours, but here’s a good place to start: a good post that goes into this.
At my house it’s Spring Break which means there are no lesson plans coming from school. Instead, our current project is for Hunter and Sasha to make 7 really nice cards to send to their grandparents and cousins.
Speaking of Sports (from yesterday’s email), the Rakuten Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (which is Taiwan) will play games in front of 500 robot mannequins dressed up as fans.
Also, the second episode of Some Good News by John Krasinski landed yesterday. Pretty funny and good:
The virus is starting to get out more and more in the US. I thought it was interesting to see that only 1 or 2 out of 10 know someone who has it. I know a few people.
New daily cases are shown below.
I especially like today’s cover. The “Lifeline” cover seems like a nod to the essential worker, and to their place and contribution in a ravaged metropolis.
At Onward, we’re diving into the food delivery world. We provide custom service where you can ask our drivers to shop in any store, go to multiple stores and do it all through the phone. This is new for us. We’re not the only one making changes in the ride-sharing world. Some changes that have stuck out for me:
Good morning, friends in Asia! — What are your ride-sharing companies doing to safely transport people and add revenue as your governments incrementally lighten restrictions? I read about the plastic screens, but what other innovations are you seeing for safety and revenue?
— Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) April 1, 2020
Almost every night we play a game where a kid thinks of an animal and the other people have to ask questions and guess what they are. It usually involves the person acting out what that animal is.
Matt McConaughey jumped on to a Zoom call to be the bingo reader for an assisted living facility.
ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT: Watch Matthew McConaughey host a virtual bingo game for residents at a senior living home in Texas pic.twitter.com/DINQ3peDHG
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 6, 2020
This is a 392 years old Greenland Shark that was located in the Arctic Ocean. He’s been wandering the ocean since 1627.
Photo by Julius Nielsen.https://t.co/CMZtJWmnSq pic.twitter.com/6a4idxtIYY— James ༀ Barrett (@JimBarrett) April 4, 2020
Choosing your quarantine character 🍾👏😂
— Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) April 5, 2020
Tracking only new cases now to see when the “flattening” happens.
Only 64 more days to go
I’m thinking today about masks. It’s hard to say what to do about masks. Some believe they’re not effective in protecting you from the virus. Personally, I feel like they have to be as they block moisture coming in and out of the mouth. Even if you’re not sick, the more you can block, the better.
Of course, it doesn’t really matter because you can’t buy a mask anywhere. Luckily we have some left over from the forest fires that ravaged our area last year. Whenever we go out (which is close to never), we put on the mask. We used to get looks but now I think people appreciate it.
I read today that the US has only about 1% of the 3.5 billion masks we need to combat coronavirus. In the US, we don’t manufacture them and both Europe and Asia have put a ban on mask exports. Soooo, we won’t be able to get new masks any time soon.
After maximizing our screen time in the morning, we did manage to do some good activities. We hit an empty parking lot for some exercise.
We ended the night with some ping pong and then made a fort in our living room and had a slumber party on the floor. Fun for everyone – except my back.
New York is totally overwhelmed. The 911 system in New York City typically gets 4,000 calls a day. Now they’re getting 7,000 – all related to coronavirus. Speaking of masks, the 911 responders are doing most cases without appropriate equipment to protect themselves from infection. NYC has become the epicenter of coronavirus, with more than 30,000 cases as of Saturday, and 672 deaths. If the rate of growth continues, NYC will suffer a more severe outbreak than those experienced in Wuhan, China, or the Lombardy region of Italy.
James Dyson, the guy who’s made your amazing vacuum cleaner has focused on ventilators and has made an awesome one in 10 days. He’s now generated 15k of them. Love it.
and also, this guy:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious with some #coronavirus inspired lyrics! pic.twitter.com/2KX1YmObuH
— Daniel Matarazzo (@dannymatz90) March 24, 2020
That time John McEnroe went out for Halloween as … John McEnroe.
I love John McEnroe. pic.twitter.com/qwmRvId47v
— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) March 29, 2020
Family Outings
We’re four people in a 1100 sq. ft house with one bathroom so things are getting tight. But, we’re getting creative. We did a group workout yesterday, and today, we did a team bike ride at a local church parking lot, which was fun for everyone.
Hunter loves riding his bike and Sasha is starting to come around.
Social Distancing
While at the church, we encountered a police officer. Super nice guy. He wanted to hand us some stickers and asked if the kids wanted to join him in the car and play with the dashboard buttons and turn on the lights. Really nice request, but WTF!!!??
Here’s my issue with that: we can get rid of Coronavirus. It’s actually pretty easy to do. All we have to do is, as a nation, take 14 days and not come in contact with anyone. That’s all. If we do that, this virus will disappear. It’ll be gone. Everyone just needs to take 14 days.
But if our police officers, who are on the front lines helping people, think it’s a good idea to invite others into their cars to touch all the knobs they’ve been touching, then this whole little plan just isn’t going to work. Oh man, we’re effed.
New York!
I was reading a lot about the scene in NYC yesterday. The NYTime has a good behind the scenes story and a video with the doctor.
The scene in Queens NY is crazy, an excerpt:
New York has become the epicenter of the entire world of the virus and they need not just thousands of additional beds but tens of thousands.
Finally, a Very Important Thread
In lighter news, this thread on Twitter was one of the best things I’ve read in months. A guy goes DEEP on
Triscuits
OK, buckle up. I wanna talk to you about Triscuit. pic.twitter.com/Tg7334OSbc
— Sage Boggs (@sageboggs) March 26, 2020
Cases