War in Europe, week one

This week is the first week of the war in Europe, where Russia invaded Ukraine.

I am so, so tired of Cro-Magnon men forcing people to kill each other to secure their grip on power.

On Omicron BA.1 and BA.2, the incidence in Cologne is at 1046 right now.

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(Listening to some Drill to drown out the sound of war in my head)

Shutdown two, week sixty-eight

Omicron is diminishing slightly; the incidence is at 1285 in Cologne right now. These numbers do not reflect the new BA.2 variant, though.

There was some backlash against my last post, mostly from people far down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Still, some people confuse acts of solidarity with infringement on personal liberties.

The only way to stop the pandemic is to prevent the spread of the virus.

Likewise, the only way to stop the impact of the climate emergency is to stop the proliferation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

So simple.

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(No-Schwurbel rally, Cologne, 2/14/22)

Shutdown two, week sixty-seven

Omicron is still going strong; the incidence has risen even more, and it’s at 1658 right now in Cologne.

Did I mention that I’m entirely at a loss to understand the people demonstrating against the virus?

Another casualty of the pandemic, apart from losing friends and family to conspiracy theories, is my social media game. I hardly ever travel or leave the house for anything but shopping, so there are simply no opportunities to capture fantastic images for Instagram, as an example.

I still hunt Pokémon, but you can take only so many snapshots of your buddy before people stop liking them. And my YouTube channel has been dormant ever since the pandemic’s start. Oh well.

Other than that, life is pretty good! I’m very privileged to work from home, and all of my close family have recovered well.

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(Steelix Raid, Cologne, 2/4/22)

Shutdown two, week sixty-five

Omicron is going strong; the incidence is at 832 in Cologne today.

In Cologne (pop. 1,086,000), we now have about 140,000 people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 at one point in time.

And there are still people protesting against the virus.

Our new office is coming along nicely, and I’m very privileged to be able to work remotely almost exclusively. I’m very thankful for this and hope it will continue post-pandemic.

I am also very grateful for all the artists that support life in the home office through their music.

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(Working from home, Lofi Girl, 1/16/22)

Shutdown two, week sixty-three

The incidence in Cologne is rising again with Omicron; it’s at 454 today.

Irregardless of the massive spread of the disease and the ever-climbing figure of related deaths, there is still a loud minority protesting against Covid-19. As if a virus would care about a protest.

Even worse, these people (Schwurbler, as we fondly call them) have joined forces with the far-right and other conspiracy theorists.

Yesterday we finally had a counter-protest to show that most people believe in science and solidarity.

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(Escort, Neumarkt, 1/17/22)

Shutdown two, week sixty-two

The incidence in Cologne is rising again with Omicron; it’s at 312 today.

So far, it’s been a slow week, with a fantastic hybrid protest against RWE yesterday, though.

In our new office, I’m in the process of connecting the KNX bus to Google Assistant, using a Thinka gateway. Sometimes IT knowledge helps when dealing with IoT devices, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Veganuary is also coming along nicely.

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(Veganuary, Cologne, 1/9/22)

Shutdown two, week sixty-one – New Year

There is no reliable reporting on the incidence rates between the years, so we do not know how much they have been going up.

The beginning of a new year is usually the time for resolutions, so here’s mine:

  • I’ll try again to change to an entirely plant-based diet while ensuring that I don’t gain weight

I wish you all the best for 2022!

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(Work from home setup, Cologne, 1/2/22)

Shutdown two, week fifty-nine

With Omicron on the horizon, (Delta) incidence figures are still going down in Cologne; they are at 255 right now.

Looking at the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands, we should probably go into a complete lockdown right now – alas, nobody wants to take the responsibility (or blame) for doing that over Christmas.

Our RKI is asking for maximal contact reductions, though – we plan to stay home over Christmas and New Year and hope everybody else will do the same.

On a positive note, our move went well so far, and the new office space is coming along nicely.

Happy Holidays!

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(Pikachu on the shelf, Cologne, 12/17/21)

Shutdown two, week fifty-eight

The incidence in Cologne is going down slightly again; it’s at 300 now.

The number of new infections in Schools and Kindergartens seems to lessen a bit; also, the vaccines for kids from the age of five onward are finally available now.

Our new minister of health realized that the previous government did not order enough vaccines for the first quarter of 2022. Oh my.

Short update this week – we’re in the middle of moving to a new (home) office.

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(Moving, Cologne, 12/14/21)