December 11,
Hello, Internet. I was sitting in my home in Toronto the Good this morning looking out at the snow falling. I have been unimpressed by the stats my bloggings have been getting and deciding to try things differently.
Over the last year some of my stuff has gotten hundreds of reads, even over 1000, but others, very little. Lately a lot of people seem to read my Wordpress index, but do not go into anything. Also, lately, my substack has been getting more and Wordpress less.
I need to get Wordpress to fix the mess my web page is right now. That will probably help things. But I am getting tired of pounding around Twitter and other people’s comments boxes, trying to draw attention to my stuff.
What I want is a steady readership. I do not think I want a really big one right now. That seems to attract the trolls and take down demands.
Toward that I am going to change my approach for the next year. Instead of doing big one-off essay type pieces on specific topics, I am going to do commentary type stuff, like this, and more frequently.
I will do in depth analysis in my favourite topics regularly. But I want to zero in on one theme, the need for a complete change to the way things are being run now. And of course, exactly what the change must be.
I have been in a frame of mind lately to think about this. I came down with covid last Tuesday. That does create a somewhat different perspective.
At first I could not believe it. I had defied the Big C for three years. I have had five vaccinations.
I get the respirator on whenever I pass any door except my own. I have a fat face so I get a good fit.
But I got the tester out and followed directions. Sure enough, two nice, clear lines. I called the health clinic; still the same policy; no Paxlovid until I am over seventy.
It was not too bad. I have had ordinary head colds which were much worse than this. It was just a fever for two days, some sniffles, and now it has dried up.
Despite not having had any kind of infection for six years now, I had plenty of non expired cold medicines around. I am a cautious person.
Even before covid appeared, I had become concerned about the effects of airborne infectious diseases. What were the real effects of everybody getting two or three infections a year? Is there any real reason why this should be?
I was even wearing N95s occasionally before the pandemic. I would usually haul it out of I had to sit near someone who seemed contagious. I got some looks; “What? My cold germs aren’t good enough for you?”
I can speculate about where exactly I picked up the covid bug. I usually do not wear resps out doors. Some super masker types claim to have found evidence that the virus can travel miles in the open air, but I am skeptical.
Perhaps I just got too loose with my practice of not masking if I am just going to be in and out in seconds.
But, thats it. Infection number one. Now I get to worry about whether I develop ‘long covid’. As a life long fibromyalgia victim, I do not know if I would notice the difference.
If I drop dead suddenly from a blood clot a few weeks from now, chisel it on my headstone that it was the virus, not the vaccine, that got me. Fuck off, antivaxxers, from the grave.
I had time this morning to read another very good article from Billius, on the most up to date information of the state of the war between Homo Sapiens and Sars Covid 2, Canada front. He makes it very clear that the virus is winning. It is depressing reading, but people need to start understanding this.
What I would add to what Billius is saying, is that the real lesson here is that covid is really a political problem, not a public health problem. There are powerful interests which either want the virus to spread, or who see it only as something interfering with their aims. That has been at the heart of my bloggings about covid, and will continue to be.
We are in the trauma twenties. Things will get worse. And then they will get even worse.
Meanwhile, life goes on. I went out in the snow to mail off my Christmas cards to my relatives who do not use internet. Most of them do not even like me. But fuck them; I am alive and well.
I stayed out for a bit to take in the first really deep snowfall of the year. The slow, fluffy flakes swept away and buried all the debris from the past year. They seemed to sweep away all the disappointments and failures of the year. The earth will sleep and try again next year.
But back indoors was something which never disappoints me. The Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, Dream Gap tour, was holding its first all star tournament. This was a brilliant idea; they chose up special teams around the big ‘stars’ and gave us single period, three a side games.
I have noticed that most team sports get a lot better when you reduce the number of players. Even three on three basketball is better. Rugby ‘Sevens’ is vastly better than ‘fifteen a side’. But I really wish I could see more three on three ice hockey, especially when played by women.
This afternoon was a feast of it, worth recording to rewatch. Team Keller took the cup! This will likely show up on YouTube or the PWHPA site soon, so check it out.
Oh, yes, Rugby sevens was played in Cape Town this weekend. Sevens is the ultimate TV sport, yet it is hard to find on TV. It is always being played halfway around the world so we have to get up in the middle of the night to see it live.
I caught some bits of it. The best thing was Fancy Bermudez blasting through the New Zealand machine to score in the first minute. Then, do her fancy victory dance.
But the almighty Black Ferns would not let this insolence go unpunished. They crushed the Canadian women 50 to 5. Ah, well. The Canuck gals beat Japan and almost smoked the Americans.
Stay subscribed to my Wordpress site or Substack channel. To repeat, I am going to take a different tack to blogging in the next year.