Pandemic Report
The latest weekly stats from WashPo: 43.7K
As expected, the major stats are on the rise on nearly 43.7K cases daily. Of course the BQ.1/.1.5 variants now dominate. Globally, the biggest story is China revisiting annual highs, and the Communist government had reimposed draconian lockdown policies; these have sparked some spontaneous protests.
Other Notes
Readership has slumped after a more promising start to the month; I was visiting relatives out of town over the past week, wrote mostly prescheduled daily posts, no new essays or other periodic posts. As I write, the monthly pageviews will likely dip from last month (with an extra day) and above the multi-year low set several weeks back. Few recent posts have hit double digits in readers. I have now extended my string of 500+ post years. It's possible but not likely to set a new post record with a 50-odd post December; we'll see.
More observations with computerized mappings; in my case that includes Garmin devices and Google Maps. I usually bring along a couple of USB power banks. I have a USB outlet in my car but it has issues: my cellphone ran out of juice while charging recently. The Garmins were unusable; I thought I fully charged them before I left; there is a battery issue affecting longer trips. I like to connect it to a power bank before a trip. But I've run into issues where it'll kick off in unusable charge mode. I managed to get it usable when I left; I like to have a paper printout or redundant devices if I have issues like Internet or satellite dead spots with Google Maps. I remember I had a 2019 job interview near Harrisburg, PA, when Google Maps essentially malfunctioned near a critical turnoff. I also think I've had issues where the phone screen lock may affect app functionality. I was puzzled as I drove past a major interstate intersection in western Maryland without a word from either device. I decided to stop at a rest stop just about 3 miles into PA from the intersection; I restarted Maps and started a screen on app on the phone and restarted my Garmin; Both devices directed me back to the intersection; the Garmin eventually ran out of juice. I kept my Maps in full view mode for the remainder of the round trip. I recall I ran into one glitch where the Maps display seemed frozen.
The round trip put over a thousand miles onto my 3-year ownership of the car--my longest trip in the car. Just a few usability notes. First, I wish there was a KISS (keep it simple) mode. Personally, I like to stick by major interstates; I found that Maps had me driving for some distance, say, along less traveled roads, like the national pike (US 40), with innumerable stops, fewer lanes and lower speed limits. I'm not sure how much I really saved. It's even more of an issue if you're driving in the dark, like during a trip to MD from AZ in 2017 and I was driving s U-Haul towing a car; you have to turn at right angles. I ended up lost not finding a connection to I-70, somehow got back onto the Interstate and stopped at a WV motel. I found out I was like 20 miles away from an exit to I-70.
I wish I got more audible feedback during longer stretches of road. Part of it is device design. For example, I have wireless ear plugs which will spit out warnings when the power is low.. I know a dead device isn't going to send out a notification. In the above example of missing an Interstate exchange, I didn't know my devices were dead. In addition, I wish there was better feedback when you take a wrong turn. I also wish there were more statuses about rest stop/facilities, and longer distances between exits.
There were also other questions. For instance, Google implied my return would include toll roads in PA. So I'm wondering about things like, is my MD EZ-PASS transponder good on PA tollways? I think a number of states now operate cashless tollways, no doubt a key factor being pandemic concerns over money handling. I basically learned that they do tolls by license plate tracking where presumably you're invoiced by mail if you aren't a (PA?) EZ-PASS customer. I didn't hear a transponder ding when I went through the tollway entrance; I did see a camera take a snapshot of my car. I'm not sure how it works because my exit seemed to merge into national pike without an explicit tollway exit. I logged into my EZ-PASS account and found two line items dovetailing with my driving time in PA along with one of my MD tolls crossfooted with the Google estimate.
Not all my fun was over It was dark as I neared the I-95 N exits after Baltimore. It looked like every exit was walled off for maintenance. Good God; was I going to have to go to DE to turn around? Finally Maps told me to exit an unfamiliar, earlier than normal exit--when, for God knows what reason it had me go through 2 consecutive U-turns. I eventually stumble into national pike--which I've driven multiple times from Baltimore; I could take from there on muscle memory. But Google insisted on its own maze of turns leading to home.
Speaking of fun, I had my own share of USG fun as the Census Bureau decided to select me randomly for some off-year survey.. At first, they try to lure you into completing it for the benefit of federal dollars for one's local community. Boy, they really have no clue I'm a libertarian, and quoting Shania Twain: "That don't impress me much." Then, if they can't sweet-talk you (I just had other priorities, not that I wasn't going to respond), they took on a very threatening tone, promising to prosecute me if I didn't comply. It was an ad nauseam list of questions about my location, age, income, my home (structure, payments), utilities, occupation, education specifics, commute to work, etc. I was online, so I screen-captured my submission confirmation.
Finally, with WWE Survivor Series last weekend, Becky Lynch made her first PPV return since a recent injury, leading to a RAW team WarGames win. Still no returning Sasha Banks or Charlotte Flair. It could be they're being saved for the signature Royal Rumble premium event. They seem to be teasing a return of Alexa Bliss to Bray Wyatt's orbit. Weird because I thought she would pay a price for betraying Wyatt in his last premium match. The Bloodline as expected won over the Brutes team, which seemed to serve as a vehicle to tease a Kevin Owens challenge to Reigns and a storyline featuring long-time pal Sami Zahn proving his loyalty to the Bloodline at Owens' expense. We all know Zahn is living on borrowed time, and Reigns is expected to hold his belts until Wrestlemania.There's some speculation af Zahn feuding with Reigns next, one scenario is for Zahn to betray Reigns by helping out Owens in the championship match. That could open the way way for Owens & Zahn to challenge the Usos at Wrestlemania for the tag belts.
I still think they plan to split up Reigns' belts. I was trying to think up a mechanism to do that. One way to do that would be a 2-fall triple threat elimination match with both matches having a title at stake.
I wasn't happy with Karrion Kross being left out of the premium event. They occasionally tease Kross challenging Reigns. Perhaps they can have him feud with Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles, or even Edge nearing retirement who could give him the rub.
The feud between LA Knight and BrayWyatt still doesn't make sense to me. I think it would make more sense for Wyatt to feud with Damian Priest or Finn Balor's demon character.
