General Table Talk

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Light of Andorra
5305

-- Isn't Australia still on fire?

The fires are out In Australia (mostly), but we'e approaching flood season, and the regional folks in three states are nervous because we normally rally help from across the country when one state gets hit hard, but the state of Victoria (2nd biggest by population) has had a huge spike in covid cases relative to our other states.
I'm in Victoria, and the new cases appear to be some absolute &*^%$-wits choosing to ignore the government rules about isolation by going to big family parties, sleeping with people they knew had Covid, and generally being bastards. The rest of Australia has closed it borders to us (which is a good thing), but our hospital systems are not designed for a huge spike in cases. I'm no expert but I heard that 17% of our covid cases are health workers who were helping others, and we will run out of ICU beds in a few weeks if the numbers don't start to trend downwards.

I know our numbers by population are still not as dreadful as the US, however we have demonstrated a level of selfish behaviour that I didn't think possible. Also much of my sector is now seeing rolling layoffs, which makes the work and family situation harder. My partner is a doctor who is affraid to go to work due to the virus, and she's been tested 3 times now. And we have to home school our kids, which is not a talent I have. So bloody worried overall.

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5306

Sorry. I have been quite unmotivated for several days. I will try to shift gears and get into the game.

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5307

That implies that it is still on fire :wink:
There is this one coal mine somewhere in Pennsylvania (I think) that has been on fire for decades.

No worries. We all go though phases. And it is a stressful time for all.

5308

I hope you'll be able to raise your spirits.
We'll be here

5309

Never take sides against the family :smiley:

5310

For covid, we went out of lockdown and were fine for a while, but, especially in parts of the country with few cases, it looked so much like "back to normal", with people just wanting their lives back, partying together, clustering in bars... that it is rising up again.
Yet, to be fair to my fellow citizens, our government encouraged this spirit in the name of economy... which backfired, prompting our elected king* to proclaim that masks are mandatory in all public spaces.

I'm in one of the less affected countries, which means I've been quite safe, but, conversely, it is also one with the highest growth rates now. I'm a little scared.

It's sad to think that, as much as Macron doesn't care about us, he's still rational enough to realize he needs to protect people somewhat if he wants business to be done, making him a faaar better choice than other officials (UK, US, Brazil...).

  • This is not a jab at Macron. Most of the power here is in the hands of the president, who mostly decides whatever he wants and has several ways to bypass the parliament... which, anyway, is made so that his party gets a large majority. We even have an expression for this: Monarque RĆ©publicain.
    Sadly, this goes all the way down. At some point, I worked in legalese for a town, and it was striking how the council was treated as just a registering chamber, with no effort made to even allow them to make up their minds on a matter.

Actually, France did something similar: USA are considered an "at-risk country", to the extand that, at some point, we were more ready to accept visiting chinese than americans.

Sadly, for the camps... how to say it? To use an analogy, the USA are, at worst, one of the 2 major empires on earth, and France one of its protectorates (although this has faded due to 45 being oblivious to that and souring existing relationships)
The EU theoretically could, but it's still each country for its own, with the US and China encouraging such division (obviously).

5311

If the plague was our only problem, Lord have mercy.
Now president psycho-fascist has deployed militarized police in Portland. Not the military. He tries that and the military would not do what he wanted. These are federal police in military gear, assaulting protesters and making people disappear. He his threatening to deploy them to other cities, such as Chicago (my home).

I with it was the military, because the military knows not to do this. It is in the manual.Whenever a movement has popular support in an area, a security crackdown recruits members to their cause. The Portland resistance has more than doubled in the last few days. The Portland mayor and Oregob govenor are suing the federal government over it, as they have forbidden this. Back home in Chicago, the mayor and the senators of Illinois are already opposing the prez and preparing to dig in their heels.

There is going to be violence and insurrection. It is going to get ugly here in a way that most Americans are used to as thinking of as something that happens "over there" somewhere. It is going to happen here if we don't pull back from this cliff. Many of my country people are unaware as to how violent and chaotic America can be and has been throughout history.

5312

I think we crossed that cliff back in February when the republican Senate refused to convict Trump despite clear evidence of treason. Now we can only brace for impact. With the election hypothetically coming up at least it should be a relatively short cliff.

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5313

A lot of bad things once unimaginable can happen by then. I am considering going to Portland, or maybe back to Chicago if shit starts up there. So if I suddenly go dark, it is because I joined the resistance.

5314

My son is from Portland, and from what he says the federal Agents are grabbing random people off the streets who aren't even part of the protests and they have not been heard from since. So even being resistance adjacent sounds like enough for someone to vanish.

5315

That's horrifying, and such a departure from what I (naively) think of about the personality of US cities - I only spent a few months working in Chicago, but loved every minute and didn't want to leave.

5316

Things have changed a lot since Trump took office.

5317

Wow. I didn't know about Portland. This is dreadful, and surprising even under trumpolini, at least in how fast it went down.
I agree with Silveroak on the senate, this was a clear message to trump and his clique that they could get away with anything.
You're very brave, Marko, and a good man. Be careful.

5318

Iā€™ll try to participate each day, it should be possible.
But Iā€™m on holiday now, visiting the family in the Netherlands, with a short stint to Flanders and just across the French border.
Today I had a quick stop in Gent, and weā€™re spending two nights in Lille.
Tomorrow Iā€™m stopping by Sint Sixtus abbey in Westvleteren, to hopefully pick up a few of the best beer ever.
Then to Dodengang, a preserved WWI trench. Then on to Dunkirk.
Thursday itā€™s back to the Netherlands again via BrĆ¼gge.
Monday night itā€™s back to Denmark, hopefully without accidents on the highway to slow us down.

5319

Yup, Iā€™m well home from my trip to the Netherlands, Belgium and a tiny bit of France. Saw and did most of what I had planned, was pleasantly surprised by much of it. We did not have time to visit the castle Gravensteen museum in Ghent, thatā€™ll have to wait until next time. And the Sint Sixtus Abdij only had the #12 ale for sale, but I still have a stash from 2 years ago.
Now I still have the rest of the week off before I go back to work, I only took two weeks. Tonight we play GURPS Clifhangers, and this Saturday is Ars Magica.

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5320

I will get Ikelos back into the action.

My kids are going back to school and it has caused some stress with the knowledge of our coming hard quarantine is now a when rather than a if. Part of my job is to plan for various risks so it is hard wired into me to churn through these thoughts and make plans. I now have achieved the Bushido/Zen of COVID-19 and have accepted that I will get it or at least our house will be quarantined because of a school outbreak.

At least our school district is mandating masks so I am hoping that the outbreak happens in Late September or October :nauseated_face:

5321

Homeschooling. It is disturbingly easy to qualify and pass muster for homeschooling in America. But even at the worst, a year behind school is better that dead or being crippled for life (a side effect of surviving covid that is not often mentioned).

This is insanity. But on the bright side I have massively expanded my RPG collection and learned how to run a D&D game using Roll20. I almost wanna try this game on Roll20. But it would not work with the international global nature of our troupe. And the ultra slow burn of PbP actually contributes to both the longevity and exceptional detail. I might be willing to run a self contained high drama/action sequence that way if you guys wanna try it out/

5322

I am fortunate that our local school system is offering at home learning through the public school system (also that we have a decent public school system in my city- though that was more planning than luck), I was worried about trying to find a home schooling system where I would trust the science curriculum compared to how may home schoolers historically kept their children out of school for religious reasons.

5323

COVID is on the rise again here in Denmark, at least in some parts. But for now it's just masks in public transport, plus recommended in shops. Schools and workplaces aren't being closed down again.

But back when it started in spring we were all sent home. I worked form home, but my wife is in retail so she was just on leave. So she had to bear the brunt of home schooling, and deal with unmotivated children who suddenly couldn't remember the alphabet. Schools were ready with online assignments fairly quickly for the 4th grader, less so for the 1st grader. We had made our own teaching plans by then and just incorporated the other material. But for now things are (relatively) normal. Danish schools just started yesterday after the summer holidays.
And today I got a message from the blood bank, they want my plasma. But I hadn't thought in advance than my small trip down south meant a 14 day quarantine from donating. Next week then.

5324

While browsing through the library, Vibria shudders and looks at Vocis. "Did you just feel a chill run down your spine?"

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