Christian Frank – Page 17 – Climate Justice, Cloud Native and Buddhism

Shutdown two, week fourteen

The numbers are still not that good, and we’re most likely looking at an extension of the lockdown.

Meanwhile, let’s talk about arts and culture, what has changed for me during the lockdown and what I believe will continue:

Movies: I used to go to the cinema a lot – I love movies. Naturally, the major streaming providers have taken on a much more significant role in my life. I happily pay for renting movies now that I would have watched in the cinema before and might continue to do so in the future.
Concerts: Less often, but still quite a lot of times I would go to live shows, sometimes even far away ones. During the lockdown, a couple of online tour providers have come up, such as StageIt or Moment House – it’s not the same experience, but I can and do attend many more venues digitally now than before in person. Hopefully, I will be able to continue this in the future, too.
Clubs: Another favorite. Here’s Twitch coming to the rescue, with many event streams and easy support options, for example, for TLL – a club several hundred miles away that I would have never visited if it wasn’t for Corona.

So, at the same time, Corona has reduced my mobility and enhanced it; let’s see what the future holds!

On a side note, spending many hours in front of the computer warrants an upgrade to the interface, and I now have a shiny new gaming mouse:

(input,hiddev1,hidraw4: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [ROCCAT ROCCAT Kain 120] on usb-0000:02:00.0-6.3/input2)

Shutdown two, week thirteen

The situation is getting better but is still dire. We will most likely see an extension of the current lockdown while our government ramps up the vaccination efforts.

But how will our life change afterward? Let’s have a look:

I do not meet friends and family in person.
I haven’t been in an office in months.
I haven’t met a colleague in person in months.
I hardly ever go shopping anymore.
I haven’t been to a restaurant in months.
I haven’t been to a cinema or concert for almost a year.
I haven’t traveled anywhere for almost a year.

What, if any, of these pre-Corona habits will I take back up?

I am quite happy with social activities being digital, and I hope some will stay that way even after Corona. And once you get used to digital concerts, there’s no way going back. Or is there?

(Techno Lieben und Leben, Twitch, 1/31/21)

Shutdown two, week twelve

The lockdown is going well; we see a slight reduction in the infections.

But there’s still a lot of work ahead of us to flatten the curve.

Some of the new Covid-19 mutations are highly contagious, so we need to improve our mask game with the new double-mask trend recommended by Dr. Fauci. And FFP2 masks in shops and public transport.

(Double mask, Cologne, 1/26/21)

Eleven weeks and no respite in sight – on Tuesday, our government will reconvene with the states and evaluate further tightening of the contact restrictions. I hope they will finally make working from home mandatory for all office workers.

On Saturday, our governing party elected its new leader. They opted for continuity and the least controversial candidate and avoided the ultra-conservative Chairman of the Supervisory Board at BlackRock Germany.

Also, Winter is here, with the first snow of the year. Only two more months to Spring.

I wrote this blog post while dancing to Melodic Sunday at Techno Lieben und Leben – a great place to start the day!

(First snow, Cologne, 1/17/21)

Shutdown two, week ten

Still no end in sight; today, our government has tightened the contact restrictions again and extended the lockdown to the end of January. Quite rightly so, the infection rates are still way too high.

Even though we all know that the virus transmits from person to person, some politicians from our governing party advocate to lessen the restrictions and have more people die instead. I guess that’s all about shareholder value.

Also, RWE uses the lockdown to destroy more villages around the Garzweiler open-pit mine, even though we know that we won’t need the lignite anymore. Is that about shareholder value, too?

(Photo op, Zülpicher Platz, 1/10/21)

Shutdown two, week nine

It came, and it went, my first virtual New Year’s Eve. Relatively uneventful, zooming with family and friends, and watching a Techno live stream on Twitch.

The start of the new year was not a big thing; we’re still in the first year of life in the age of pandemics, and nothing is going to change a lot in the short term. I hope that by the end of 2021, we will have made significant progress towards solving both crises, Covid-19, and the Climate Emergency!

To keep the momentum going, we started 2021 off with our first climate strike of the year, asking for #solidarity

(Climate strike, Haymarket, 1/2/21)

2021 Goals

I’m happy to say that I reached most of my 2020 goals, except for my YouTube targets.

Here are my goals for this year:

Continue to support Fridays For Future and the Climate Justice movement actively
Maintain my weight and continue to exercise
Move my transport needs to a (shared) cargo bike
Continue regular (online) Rancher meetups in Cologne
Write my Bachelor thesis and finish my studies

2021 must be the year in which CO2 emissions finally begin to drop!

(Final paper of 2020, Overleaf, 12/31/20)

Shutdown two, week eight

My first ever entirely virtual Christmas – and it went quite well! And so will New Year’s, I hope.

As the lockdown goes on and social distancing rules remain in effect, I’m getting less and less anxious and more adapted to the “new normal” – I guess it will feel somewhat strange in late 2021 / early 2022 to meet people again in person regularly.

On a sad note, I have to mention that someone performed an arson attack on the Mahnwache in Hambacher Forst – luckily nobody got hurt, but why do people do something like this?

(Screenshot, extended Christmas walk, 12/26/20)

Shutdown two, week seven

The second week of the hard(er) lockdown and a new mutation has surfaced in England and South Africa, with a much higher infection rate.

Christmas and New Years’ for me will be virtual celebrations only.

Which should give me enough time to finish all the outstanding work for university! (One paper left for this term, data analysis on blog performance)

I’m not a fan of winter and the darkness – I’m quite happy that the winter solstice has passed and that we can look for brighter days to come.

And as the days get longer, there will be more time to look for Pokémon with my buddy Machop.

(Rain, Pokémon Go, 12/21/20)

Shutdown two, week six

As expected, the current lockdown measures were not enough to slow the infection rates, and we will go into a much harder lockdown beginning Wednesday. Schools and shops will close, and contact restrictions will remain in place over Christmas and New Year’s.

Then there is still the other crisis, the looming climate emergency.

Two years ago, Fridays for Future staged their first climate strike in Cologne. In honor of this birthday, we dropped a giant banner on Deutzer Brücke to remind us to always #FightFor1Point5 and our politicians to #MakeParisReal.

(Fridays For Future, Heumarkt, 12/11/20)