State of Georgia Certified Manager

10:30am I had started sometime this morning, only paused to talk to renowned manager Andy Zangwill for moral support, and I’m still at it. I’m staring at a FeeblePoint slide entitled “Safe Harbor Statement”

11:30 As with COVID-19, I fear I’m at the beginning of beginning.

The Great State of Jawja’s self-elected Guvrnr Kemp mandates that I finish something called “SCORM Object” “Introduction to Manager Self-Service “ today (!?), with 80% a passing grade. If I succeed, 9 painful robocall female voice videos away, I should be able to “Add Info to Talent Profile for an Employee.”

12:30pm: I’m learning much about things I did not know existed:
               “All prior transactions which would require a PSF form will now be initiated and completed in Manager Self Service. 
                Many of these transactions will now be found in the My Team tile”.
                WTF is PSF?
2pm: The only rub is – the videos show some Oracle product on something called “OneUSG Connect”.
               But I have no idea what is it that I’m supposed to log into.
2:30pm: Aha. It’s still techworks.gatech.edu – but it does not respond to login attempts.
               Time to take a lunch break.
3:30pm: Did not like FireFox, even after flushing the cache, rebooting etc. But it opened in Opera.
3:45pm: I’m in! Figured out the drop-down “manager self-service.” Finally, the wool has fallen from my eyes - I’m a manager because:
                “My Team” has 14 people (!?) and 4 unfilled positions. Of course!
                No wonder I am such an important manager. I’m a big cog in the Board of Regents mill.
                OK, some of them I remember from 2001. One of my anno 2020 grad students is on "My Team," the second one is not.
                But the two manage themselves. Sensible enough not to entrust themselves to their adviser’s “management”.
           Now I understand why Shaun addresses every seminar announcement to “You and your teams”. She’s so ahead of the curve.

I’m taking a l-o-o-n-g break to gather strength for the next click.

4:20pm: I’m ready for [Assessment]. Ten multiple-choice questions.
                I understand nothing. Humbling to be an undergraduate.
                I click resolutely on, guided –POTUS like- by my infallible undergraduate intuition.
                Wow!
                I aced it in the first try! 90/100!

I am now a fully qualified and empowered Jawja Board of Regents manager. Give way.

 5:30pm:  I am fried for the week. Hope to regain strength by the Friday's Happy Hour.

if 2020 only were cancelled.... COVID-19

To Sir M.:

the testimonials from the surviors (or those who have since died) are horrific, make dying from COVID-19 appear much worse than dying from a flu-induced pneumonia. Here are a few, worth listening to

NYTimes.com/2020/03/30/podcasts/the-daily/coronavirus-new-jersey.html

I do not mind dying, but this is exceptionally miserable, protracted way to die, provided there is oxygen (8 cylinders, each of the size you know from physics labs, per patient per day) and a ventialtor. Without, death is quicker.

In addition, when you live in a 3rd world country without a universal health system, and without a functioning government, this happens:

NYTimes.com/2020/03/29/podcasts/the-daily/the-sunday-read-what-i-learned-when-my-husband-got-coronavirus.html

After a few weeks of sending sick back to their families to be cared for, Chinese government understood that they will never stop this until they isolate the sick in government run field hospitals. US is letting the pandemic come in waves, starting physical separation in different states only when the next wave had already taken of with the same exponential doubling rate (today Detroit, Chicago, ...) to make it all more protracted. We still -today!- have states in the Murdoch la-la land with no shelter-in-place order, and this very Sunday megachurches are still packed, exempt, by GOP governors, from physical separation rules.



(Carlos Amato, SA)

One could argue that death rates as a percentage of the population are lower now. Still, that we are letting COVID-19 give Spanish flu run for money is mind-boggling a century later, for an entirely preventable pandemic, with public health measures not only known, but already proven to work for this very same virus in South Korea, Singapore, China, etc.

Das Leben in den Zeiten von COVID-19

Ich habe keinen meiner Schüler beim LESEN beobachtet, aber für diejenigen, die es tun, empfehle ich es - das funktioniert mit 100%iger Sicherheit.
https://twitter.com/ethicistforhire/status/1237319901880168449

Dank Gottes habe ich auch Wittgenstein zur Hand, falls ein zusätzlicher Schutz erforderlich ist.

Liebe zu allen, ob groß oder klein
Meister der Sozialen Distanzierung

The entire 2020 will be cancelled

if the memo has not reached you yet -

By the power vested in me by my mother, and following the recommendations of CDC, WHO and Drs. Birx and Fauci, I hereby declare, that my 2020 birthday is rescheduled as 74th birthday to take place in 2021 at a safe location, with all dancing virtual, and all social distancing strictly enforced.

To remind you of what you are missing:https://youtu.be/xxfT4q55AhU

As a matter of fact, the entire 2020 will be cancelled - it will be erased from our collective memories, and we'll start 2020 afresh, but just call it 2021.

We are safe in our Chicago cocoon.

Getting to Chicago seems like eons ago, so I have to write the date down: March 17, 2020.