My face. I haven’t had a clean shaven face in almost three years. So since no shave November is coming up and I think the creepiest costume may be people actually seeing skin on my face I shaved the whole thing off. Filled the bathroom sink and I feel really weird.
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Yeah, I shaved my head last week for the first time ever. Very weird. Very scary.
Related to new shinies …
When you get a connected device (thermostat, digital assistant, etc.), do you put it on a guest network for your wifi for security? I hadn’t thought about it before, but I’m in a discussion with a workmate about it.
Yes, although I don’t have as much of a ‘guest network’ as I’d like. Maybe whenever I move.
I got a Eufy Security doorbell last week and it’s neat, but kind of a mixed bag. I’m having some wifi issues with it as it’s on the edge of my house wifi, and while I like that it’s fee-free, it does have ads in the app which annoys me a bit. Performance is a bit so-so, but mainly because I need to convince it that the tree outside my front door is not a person trying to get in to my house.
Not here yet, but on the way from a “warehouse in Ohio.”
With my heightened risk of the Wuhan Coronavirus I wasn’t really very happy with haft-fast cloth washable masks or disposable surgical masks - I REALLY wanted one that would make a positive weld to my face.
Should help with glasses fogging, too!
The filters that come with the masks seem like a size and shape I might be able to duplicate easily. I’d just have to find good filter material.
Front and center is an output valve, but it comes with a cap so you can seal it and not blow your viruses on other people. When/ if the pandemic eases, I can pocket the cap when I use the mask for sanding, chainsawing, or whatever.
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“Wuhan” coronavirus is a needless qualifier that many find offensive.
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Kind of surprised to hear you say that, since you’re generally spot on for accuracy.
This is ONE virus in a family of coronaviruses.
From a quick web search:
Coronavirus: a type of common virus that infects humans, typically leading to an upper respiratory infection(URI.) Seven different types of human coronavirus have been identified. Most people will be infected with at least one type of coronavirus in their lifetime. The viruses are spread through the air by and sneezing, close personal contact, touching an object or surface contaminated with the virus and rarely, by fecal contamination. The illness caused by most coronaviruses usually lasts a short time and is characterized by runny nose, sore throat, feeling unwell, cough, and fever.
Examples of human coronaviruses that have been reported to cause severe symptoms include the MERS-CoV(the beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS), SARS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS), and the new 2019 Novel Coronavirus outbreak that began in Wuhan, China.
Many diseases are “nicknamed” for the geographic are where they were discovered, and I don’t really care if anyone is offended by that practice - it’s pretty common:
- West Nile Virus
- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
- Lyme Disease
- Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever
- Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)
- Marburg Virus Disease
- Norovirus
- Zika Fever
- Japanese Encephalitis
- German Measles
- Spanish Flu
- Legionnaire’s Disease
(I can give more detailed citations if requested)
From the context, is there any doubt at all which coronavirus you were worried about? If you worry that “coronavirus” is insufficiently precise, COVID-19 is fewer characters and widely accepted.
Start caring. It costs you nothing.
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I’ve seen a couple places that prohibited wearing masks with a filter. The examples on the warning signs were masks you’d typically see for when you’re doing construction. You might run into an employee who takes a hard line and won’t accept an explanation of this is designed for the purpose. Carry a more standard cloth-type mask as a backup when you go places.
And as to the Wuhan name, factor in which person’s been calling it that the most. Maybe later on it will common to call it that, but right now, it has political baggage attached to it.
Most of the complaints I’ve heard are the “valve” style masks are discouraged because they protect the wearer from taking in particles, but allow them to be projected out.
The first cases of and deaths from the Spanish Flu were observed in the US, France, and UK but World War I censors minimized reports of it. Spain was neutral and newspapers freely reported on the effects of the epidemic within their country, including King Alphonso XIII’s serious case, making it seem like Spain was being more hard hit than anywhere else. That’s why it was named “Spanish Flu”, not because it originated there.
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I have one that has the “valves” on both sides and the valves themselves come with a silicone disk in them (to help trap moisture particles) and I stuck small round pieces of the inside filter stuff (from the cutouts for where the valves poke through) into the valves themselves to act as another filter.
(Mind you, I almost never leave the house so I almost never USE the damn thing, but still…)
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Thanks. I just got one on the weekend much the same. I should do that, too.
Just make sure your replacement filter inserts come with the little cutout disks still left in them. If not, I suppose you COULD cut out small circles from the extreme edges of the mask but I don’t know how much that may compromise intake filtering capability.
Pretty much all the ones I got with it (since I ordered something like 15 extra filter inserts) came with the disks still in the filters and you just need to push them out to open up the valve holes, if yours are like that just don’t lose those little disks and they should be able to fit into the middle of the valve.
Here is the one I got. It’s NIOSH P100 rated, so I think it’s going to do just fine. I may just shove a small piece of cotton fabric inside near the valve at the front to prevent vapour transfer.
It’s a bit 2-1B, but I can live with that.
Yeah, I also have the the RZ mask that I’ve had for years. I felt that this was a necessary upgrade for my shop AND personal protection.
Thanks for the tip - I’ve never seen such a sign, but then again, I’m livin’ the hermit life, staying home almost 100% of the time.
It was pretty common until people worked out that entire demographics were being vilified because of a disease name - that’s why the practice was discontinued a good number of years ago.
Also, some diseases on that list you provided are inaccurate anyway. Spanish flu is unlikely to have started in Spain, the earliest reported case was actually in a Kansas military base. Legionnaires’ disease is a type of pneumonia caused by legionella bacteria. There may be others too.
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At my hospital visits I now have to wear a paper mask that doesn’t really fit and I have to fiddle with all the time instead of my cloth mask.
The nurses complain about them as much as I do.
Also, interesting observations from the election lines. Multiple medical professionals talking to each other and opinions literally varied from “OMG our ICU is overflowing” to “we have seen like 5 cases all last month”
The responses to this should be getting more and more granular. It may not make sense to close down a whole state, in fact I’m sure it doesn’t, but it may make more sense to focus on smaller areas.
If only all that money hadn’t been spent on hospitals no one used in March and April. We could use it on MASH units.