I've been off work since March 20th.  Today is May 21st, just over two months later.  I haven't left the house (but to walk the dog around the neighborhood occasionally).  Mostly I've been passing the time by playing Animal Crossing and watching youtube videos.  I haven't read as much as I wanted to, I haven't written at all... but I'm trying to like.  Cope, lol.  I've been doing some gardening (though I have a black thumb) and taking pictures of my dolls.  Things are really difficult right now.  Everyone I know is depressed.  We all have to do what we can to make this easier on ourselves.

Cats! Bad

I started this post a while ago and just left it in my drafts... for why, I could not tell you, lol.  Just forgot it, I think!  So here it is, weeks after the fact, lol.

Anyways you can tell I've been in self-isolation (or quarantine or whatever you want to call it) for a WHILE because I recently voluntarily watched Cats (2019).  On purpose.  I paid $6 to rent it and everything.  It was absolutely terrible, but you don't need me to tell you that.  You've seen reviews and tweets and even the actors trying to laugh off their involvement in the movie.  What I can tell you is that a lot of people who saw this movie and thought it was terrible weren't familiar with the musical, so some of the craziness they were reacting to is just Cats.  I am familiar with the musical.  I like the musical.  I'm no expert in the show, but I had something in mind to compare it to... and this movie just... sucks in comparison, lol.  This wasn't it, chief!

If you want to read my original, but very brief, live blog of watching Cats (1998), the filmed version of the stage show that is available on home video, followed by my lengthy live blog of Cats (2019), you can do so here.

Love Takes Wing

I don't recall if I have mentioned my love of Hallmark's Love Comes Softly movie series before, but as much as I am in no way, shape, or form the target demographic for those films, I just truly enjoy them.  It's a combination of my love for period films and for innocent love stories with kind men.  These movies are very Christian, and although I'm pagan, it never makes me feel uncomfortable because the characters don't ever judge others that don't share their beliefs -- and they practice the loving, compassionate, non-judgmental type of Christianity that would actually make Christ proud.

These movies make me feel warm and good, and I periodically re-watch the series... and something struck me on my most recent re-watch a few days ago, and I want to talk about it.

So this film series is based on a book series by Janette Oke.  I've only read the first book (and I loved it), but it's quite different than the first film... and from what I understand, the later movies are almost entirely different from the later books.  The film I'm going to be focusing on today is the seventh in the series, and it's about Belinda, a young female doctor in a wild west town.

The reason I'm going to talk about this film, though it's not my favorite in the series, is because right now it really hits home.  Dr. Belinda Simpson begins her medical practice in a town beset by an outbreak of Cholera, and a lot of the behavior we see from the townspeople (in this made for TV movie from 2009, set in 1850-something) mirrors behavior we are seeing NOW amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Love Takes Wing reunites us with Belinda, now a practicing doctor and a recent widow.  When we last saw her, she had just married a young lawyer named Drew Simpson and was preparing to begin studying to become a doctor.  This is obviously several years later, and we have a new actress in the role (and she looks nothing like the previous actress -- but it's fine, the same thing happened with her mother and grandmother lol, it's fine... we accept it).   She arrives at Sikestown (with her best friend Dr. Haylie Duff) and soon finds out about the outbreak of a mysterious illness.  No one in town can agree upon what the illness is and what is causing it.  No one understands how it is spread.  The people are scared, and many of them are angry.  Some of the townsfolk blame the orphanage on the outskirts of town... they think the orphans have caused the illness and are spreading it.

As the disease spreads more, Belinda and the woman who runs the orphanage (played wonderfully by Cloris Leachman) work overtime to care for the children and to try and figure out what is causing the disease to continue spreading.  It's set at a time that not much was known about germs and bacteria, and we see a lot of Belinda having to explain this and certain hygiene and cleanliness best practices.  When Belinda realizes that the illness the town is dealing with is cholera, the mayor attempts to control the narrative around the illness and doesn't believe her that his clean, upstanding town could be facing a disease that he insists "only" hurts the dirty and the poor.  He doesn't want Belinda to let anyone know that she thinks the illness is cholera.

One of the angry townspeople is so insistent that the orphans are the cause of the illness that he campaigns for the orphanage to be shut down -- and when he doesn't get his way, he tries to set the orphanage on fire.

Belinda eventually figures out the root cause of the illness is a contaminated water source.  Some people are thankful to have answers, but others still don't want to listen to her.  She, a doctor, is not trusted as an expert because her expert information contradicts what some people are currently thinking... and it inconveniences them.  People value their own righteous anger and their comfort and their current way of life over science and other people's safety and well-being.

But this is a movie.  It's a fictional story, set in a world where one of the Backstreet Boys plays a saloon keeper and the sidebangs we were all rocking in 2009 are anachronistically rocked unapologetically in the mid to late 1800s.  It ends happily.  Many people died, but the illness ended shortly.  None of the main characters died, and everyone ends the movie in a better place than where they started.  Belinda is more content and confident in her medical prowess, she's remarried to a hot blacksmith, and she adopted a spunky little redheaded orphan.

But in the real world, in Covid-19's 2020, we don't know how this will end.  We're not guaranteed a happy ending.  We don't have a 90 minute runtime to tell us how long it'll last.  We can't say for certain that "main characters" -- ourselves and the people we love -- won't be affected.  If this continues the way it has been going, millions of people will die and every American will know people who were sick or died from this thing.  Even people who recover will be affected for life.  The orphans in this film had Belinda standing up for them, and the leader of the town eventually realized the error of his ways and tried to shut down the irrational hatred against the orphans, but Asian Americans haven't had a leader who stood up for them and did his part to stop irrational hatred against them for something that is OBVIOUSLY 100% not their fault.

I don't have all the answers.  I just know that if we don't start listening to actual experts, if we don't continue staying home, this is going to get worse before it gets better.  I want to see it start getting better, and I need people to care more about human lives than they care about the fact that they want a haircut.  All everyone wants is for this to end soon and with as little damage as possible... so many people have had to suffer this painful illness.  So many people have died and had to be buried in a mass grave because of it.  Medical professionals are being traumatized by what they're having to see and the conditions they have to work under.  They and all other essential workers are putting their own lives at risk every single day -- because they don't have a choice.  We can ease that somewhat by doing something as fucking simple and easy and just staying home.  Being quarantined is not easy, even for someone as deeply introverted as myself, but we are not being asked to do something impossible.  Just please do your part.  Please think of others.

Please watch the Love Comes Softly series -- maybe it'll teach you a thing or two about caring for other people (and just maybe you'll enjoy it, lol).  As for myself, this seventh movie that I've kinda slept on is definitely one I'll be looking forward to much more in my next re-watch.

animal crossing: gateway to friendship

I mentioned a while ago in this previous post about Pokemon that I had gotten invested in Animal Crossing and was looking forward to the new game, New Horizons.  The game was released (and I received my preordered copy) on March 20th, the same day my job officially closed down due to the Coronavirus statewide lockdown.  I have honestly spent much of my time playing this game, and words can hardly describe how comforting this game has been -- how fun, how wonderful a way to pass time, and how oddly motivating I've found it.

I didn't grow up with Animal Crossing... I picked up the 3DS game New Leaf just last year because life was going bad and I needed a distraction, and this series looked cute. The fact that you're free to play at your own pace and set your own goals really appealed to me.  You're always accomplishing something, no matter how small.  The fact that your villagers notice when you don't check into town regularly really touched my dark little heart.

I preordered the new game, and since I haven't been working, I've had a lot of time to play it.  I don't know how to explain it, lads... it just feels good.  I saw a post that said that Animal Crossing is really just about vibing... and I think that's it, lol.

Because I wasn't able to fully explain how I feel about the series, here are some excellent youtube videos that give you more and better info and things to think about.  The first one by Cygnus Destroyer is especially relatable to me because his history with the franchise is very similar with my own.

Find the thing that brings you the kind of peace Animal Crossing brings its fans.  Even if it is temporary, that's better than nothing.

In Quarantine

Boy has the world changed A LOT since the last time I posted in this blog... and it's only been a month! 😬  Due to the rapid spread of Covid-19 (the coronavirus) and the unprecedented global reaction to the virus, life as we knew it is not really... a thing any more.  While I think that caution is best, I also think it's important that people stop panicking -- stop hoarding more than you need, stop fearing certain death, stop spreading rumors that you scrolled past on facebook without fact checking.  This virus is serious -- I admit I was initially one of the "it's basically the flu" people, and I regret my ignorance and insensitivity.  This thing can obviously be deadly.  This thing spreads fast, and you're contagious before you ever show symptoms... and it's possible not to show symptoms at all.  So caution is best.  Stay home as much as you can, pay extra attention to hygiene, and check up on your loved ones in vulnerable groups.

This past week, I've been home from work.  I work in a building with over 1000 other people, and for weeks now the CDC has been recommending not being in groups larger than 50 (and later, larger than 10).  It got to the point that it scared me that we were still expected to come in... I don't work an essential job.  Businesses were already shutting down, and we should have been among those that shut down early.  Instead we stayed open until California's Governor Gavin Newsom called for a statewide lock down.  Work finally shut down at that point.  I'm not able to work from home (because of a few different reasons, but mostly because of my loud dog -- I work in a call center and the customers can't hear a dog in the background when they call), so things may get dicey with money.  My job won't be paying those of us that can't work from home... and they were so ill prepared for this (because they neglected to prepare any in the past few weeks when the writing was on the wall) that even those that have been approved to work from home have been delayed in actually being able to work.  And I don't expect them to be paid for these last few days here.

Everyone is struggling now... I'm depressed that I won't be able to see the Jonas Brothers in concert in Las Vegas, I'm worried for everyone who is off work without pay, I'm even more worried for people who still have to work and risk exposure every day.  I have artist friends who rely on appearances at comic conventions who are going to struggle to make up this lost income for a long time.  Kids are out of school... the class of 2020 isn't getting a prom or a graduation or any other senior year festivities.  I know a composer who has been working on music for years that she will no longer get to perform.

More insidious, of course, and more aggravating than sad is the fact that capitalism is not taking a break.  Poor people don't have access to covid-19 testing but the wealthy and famous can be tested without any reason to even think they've been exposed.  People still have rent and mortgages and car notes and utility bills, but no pay check to cover them. 

This is all so unprecedented.  It's weird.  Maybe we'll go stir crazy, but hopefully we'll all survive... and maybe some positive changes will come of this.

So far I've spent much of my time home these past few days playing Animal Crossing (post to come), but I hope to get more editing work done and read a couple of books too.  Let's all stay home and do whatever we can to bring ourselves some peace.

I hope I see you all on the other side.




PS: For further reading, you can see the Covid-19 posts on my tumblr blog (some of which are lighthearted, because we can all use a laugh, and the rest are informative and interesting), as well as the wikipedia page on the Spanish Flu -- the pandemic humanity survived 100 years ago.