Since the coronavirus started spreading, our little computer and phone cameras have become the windows of our isolation, looking into other people’s lives, catching glimpses of pets, children, and spouses in the background of video calls. I find these moments deeply humanizing; reminders that we’re not perfect work machines, just people trying to do the best we can. Our hair is messy, our faces poorly framed and lit. Sometimes we leave the mic on when we go to the bathroom.
Through this tiny lens we see the ambient background of life: people working in kitchens, bedrooms or spare rooms, the hoarded detritus of life piled behind them.
Interesting article on the sudden predominance of Zoom in all of our lives. It makes some strong points about the dangers of the product itself, but also why it works the way it does, the tradeoffs we are willing to accept for the sake of convenience, and what I think are the fundamental shortcomings of all our collective characters, in that we cannot have anything good without some seeking to exploit or weaponize it.
Technology is made stupid by the constant necessity of having to guard against and outthink the bad agents.
Also, Zoom, a product known to have egregious security holes, that behaves like a virus and points a camera and mic into your home, was developed by a team of contractors from China.
This comes courtesy of good buddy Brian Hammons at reviewtheworld.com, now celebrating its 15th year on the internet, I believe. As if I didn’t need another reason during this lockdown to get my hands on some Tajin.
I tell you, fans, I could not be more ready to reintroduce cheese into my diet.
Haters be silent. Cheese in ramen is a cheap American innovation, granted, but ramen is nothing if not versatile and accommodating. And there is surprisingly nothing wrong with the flavor, either. And it was in Pasadena, no mean ramen town, that I first discovered corn in ramen, and I was surprised at how well it meshed with the flavor and texture profile of traditional ramen.
Not to mention that I just flat out love elote.
Yeah, come next week this is definitely happening.
Things have become very busy for me over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been given primary streaming and video responsibilities for our church during the lockdown, all the while ramping up for a new gig at my job, and working on an interesting side project as well — a product shoot for a friend at church who is opening up an Etsy store. (On a side note, I’ve never done anything like that and was honored that she even asked. I’m not 100% satisfied with the edits yet, and I could have done a better job on tamping down the glare in a few of the photos, but overall I’m happy with how they turned out. Even the glare, I think, provides the kind of natural look that she was going for in the shoot.)
The news seems mostly bad during lockdown, and the weather not much better. One of my quiet pleasures, one that has helped to keep me balanced, has been my daily walks. Sometimes one of the kids will tag along, and today I had both my boys with me. My little one held my hand most of the way. He’s seven now, bigger, so it touched me. I wonder sometimes when things like that happen whether they will be the last. There’s always a last time for everything that happens. When he got tired, I carried him on my back. We talked practically the whole time about his favorite toys. His little interests. He told me that if a vintage toy store carries Ninja Turtles, they’d always have a rack full of surplus April O’Neil toys that nobody wants to buy. He asked me what I wanted for Christmas. We speculated what a Star Wars movie would be like if all of the characters were Jabba the Hutts. Augie mostly kept silent. He does that a lot on our walks. Like me, he likes to meditate. I hope he enjoys the sun and air like I do.
Our view of last night’s Pink Supermoon, said to herald the End Times or something.
