What's Wrong with Zoom?

Good NY Times article on Zooming

I know I greatly prefer just voice on calls - not video face to face. I like Marco Polo best for seeing stuff and that's one way, one person records and uploads, the other watches and/or listens when it's convenient and then responds when they want. I've found it increases communication while making it more efficient, less time consuming.

Drinking AC Water

I was just remembering how our prior landlord got into collecting water from air conditioners in his units. He'd leave five gallon white buckets, like paint buckets for the drain hose from the air conditioners to empty into. When they got full, he'd dump them into a water tank. He did this because he'd read that water from air conditioners was pure and good to drink. He showed me an article on the Internet about it. So since then I've thought that that was a good idea. We don't use AC much so I haven't thought of doing it here. So I just remembered that and did a web search and - uh oh - found this:

Water collected from an air conditioner is condensation pulled from the air inside your home. It should never be ingested, and is not safe to drink, as it contains traces of impurities found in the air in your home, including chemicals and heavy metals. For a number of reasons, drinking water collected from an air conditioner is not a safe proposition. - from Home Steady, a site on HVAC (heating, ventilation, and AC)

So not only now will I not think again about collecting the water from AC, but I'll also stop breathing the air inside which I just learned has "traces of impurities found in the air in your home, including chemicals and heavy metals." - dc

Threat Assessment

What if the virus isn't our biggest threat? - Guardian

America Is Not Set Up For This

On US Disaster Preparedness. Experts have been predicting a global flu pandemic for years. So why was the U.S. so unprepared for coronavirus? - A non-partisan non political look at US disaster preparedness by a professor who teaches it.

Coronavirus is a dress rehearsal

For what awaits us if governments continue to ignore science

Nature crisis: 'Insect apocalypse'

More complicated than thought - BBC

Holding Hands

A close friend's son died recently. Very sad. I called him today and told him how sorry I was. Then I told him how he, my friend, had come to me in a dream last night. Like I was sitting on an upright wooden bench. Maybe in a train. I think he came through a door as if he was just getting on that train - if it was a train. He was dressed seriously, as if ready to go to a funeral, dark suit, maybe a tied. He didn't say anything nor did I. He just sat next to me. I wanted to say something but I didn't know what to say - just like in real life. So I held his hand and we just sat there holding hands. An unusual dream. He of course was touched. Then we talked for an hour as I walked back and forth as I do one phone calls.

Climate change:

World mustn't forget 'deeper emergency - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

A Message from a Bali Chat Group

Danu says "Please guys be safe for everything because maybe lots of criminal and robbers - watch out for motorbikes, helmets and everything because now many people no have job and close to Ramadan. 3 motorbikes were stolen in one night near where Texas leaves and many in Sanur area too."  

Bolinas offers test to every resident for coronavirus

Good for the folks in my old stompin grounds. - SF Gate - thanks Judy Gilbert

Another World

Another World we enter at the movies - I read this to a friend who did movie blurbs for online lists and when it was over asked her what it was about. She didn't get it. That really surprised me considering what she did for a living. So I added "we enter at the movies." - Enjoy, dc

Bali’s mysterious immunity to Covid-19

That's the headline of an Asia Times article from a few days ago.  Hmm. Hope that most people here don't buy into that being dependable. There'd be a strong tendency I think, to say that they're being protected by some gods or spirits. The official numbers for Bali are 113 positive and still just 2 deaths. I see people being careful and not. Local Muslim food outlet down the street, with one table in front that seats six, usually has one or two people sitting. Yesterday the sweet old thin neighborhood lady was just leaving with a bundle - they do a lot of take-out - while a younger woman stood in front of the cashier paying for something. There was a guy on a stool. None of them wore masks. It was business as normal. The traffic on the two lane street is less, maybe a third of normal. I wait.

Beaches reopen in Sanur

I'm not sure what's happening elsewhere but here in Sanur, the beach approaches near our house are open again. There are large signs in Indonesian and English stating the rules which are most reasonable. Wear a face mask. Keep a distance from others. I saw about thirty people, locals and expats, those with dogs like me, couples, a few in the water like me. Bandi follows on the beach as I swim along down it. Then we walked back. Water was neither cool nor warm. Sun was going down. Rain clouds in the distance. Lot of dogs, some with people, some not. None a problem.

That sign was put up in Cangu on March 30th, a popular surfing beach an hour from here. In Indonesian it says temporarily closed. Maybe they closed it till they got the signs up with the rules. There aren't all these anti-government, anti-authority people here who flout the rules. Here they're more likely to ignore the rules because they didn't pay attention and are used to purification rituals at the beach and so forth. We'll see how it goes.

Bhikkhu Moneyya visits

Moneyya came to visit yesterday.

you need a mask to go out these days.

A Favorite Poem

from my youth wafts up this memory from an unknown bard -------

When in trouble

When in doubt

Run in circles

Scream and shout

Oh oh

No post today due to spacing out everything but getting the 3rd Cuke Audio Podcast ready for the next day.

Beaches Closed in Bali

Wow - That's a blow. Walks to the beach with Sarah and dogette Bandita and a swim are something I hate to give up. We don't get near anyone including each other - and there are very few people there anyway. Yesterday there were five other people in the water and a couple walking separately. There was a family sitting on a blanket eating. No place was open that I saw. But Sarah says there are surfers who

have been ignoring physical distancing, and there were about forty motorbikes parked there mainly from locals still working nearby I guess. And the little bit I've been out, I've seen a number of instances of locals not following the rules. It will be interesting to see how strictly it's enforced. If it is enforced, I expect to Pecalang, neighborhood security, standing at the entrances and walking on the beachwalk and that will be that. 

So Sarah took dogette Bandita for a walk and there was no way to get to the beach and the Pecalang, pictured, asked where her mask was and said she should not go out without one. She'd left it here because she didn't think she'd be near anyone.- dc   

Streaming

I've been working a lot which is normal. Always become a hermit when Katrinka's in America as she is now, but with the virus it's much more total. Usually I stream a show before going to sleep. /At first I notice that it takes me a while to accept that the characters are not following the guidelines of social and physical distancing and they're not wearing masks. Finally I adjust to it and forget. I don't remember anything like that ever in my life. Maybe the closest thing is I tell them they shouldn't be smoking when they light a cigarette. - dc

A venture out

Had to leave the house today to get a mic stand, two pop filters for mics (the blue and black), the shock mount that the red ic is in, and a music stand not pictured. That's driver of six years Nyoman and Joni of Anima Music in Renon, Denpasar on the right. I've got on a face mask too. Joni is playing music with friends, not worried. That's dogette Bandi at the very bottom left. First time I've seen Nyoman in a couple of weeks. He's at home, not going out. I payed him about 3x normal. He never tells me how much. Usually he'll try to return money if I pay too much but this was more than that. He's out of work. A lot of people are. For how long> - DC

Ghost Park

Almost 20 years ago the Taman Festival theme park was built and never opened. It's about a six kilometer walk down the beach on the other side of Sanur. It's more overgrown now than the photos I see in the Internet. Lots of cool photos there of it. Here's one link. I don't think the details in the text there are all acurate. 

Katrinka!

I miss Katrinka. She's with her son and family in Oregon and I'm in Sanur and we're both being super careful. Here's a pic of her she sent today. Nice, huh? She can't come here anytime soon. Virus is just starting to pick up and there aren't any flights till maybe May. Waaaaa.

Dogette Bandita

Katrinka and my friend Sarah comes by. We keep a distance and are super careful. Either take a walk to the beach together with Bandi or she takes Bandi cause I want to keep working. She took this photo yesterday at Cemara Beach near here in Sanur. I see she's got the leash on. Katrinka and I removed it from the coller as soon we're there. But I know Sarah feels more secure knowing there's a leash she can grab if she needs to. Bandi can go darting off to chases a cat. 

Covid 19 in Bali

This is a snapshot of an updating online map of Covid-19 cases in Denpasar, the capital of Bali.

We live in Sanur Kauh (North Sanur) which is 2nd from the right on the bottom. It's purple which means there are people under observation there - 144 in all of Denpasar right now. The upper left shows total Bali reported cases 32, 10 who've recovered, and 2 who've died. In Denpasar, the red districts have someone who tested positive - 4,  Yellow means there's someone in a hospital under observation - 3,  Green means nothing yet.

Everyone I know is being careful as heck. We know a storm is coming. - dc

Cuke Audio

I've been super busy getting into podcasting. Just uploaded the first one to the new Cuke Audio.

Here's the first podcast: May All Beings be Happy

This is a Cuke What's New type post so far. What's it doing here in Cuke nonZense? Well for one thing I'm tired, way pasat my bedtime and am just getting around to posting here and this is almost all I've been thinking about for days.

But also I wanted to tell you that, even though Cuke Audio is starting off heavy on the Zen and Buddhism, I'm eager to start adding some nonZense which is more fun. Just wait. At some point I might have to branch out and add another channel just for nonZense.

A few months ago it was not unusual to hear people bemoaning the erotion of the quality of life due to the influence of the online world. I'd think about how nice it would be to wrap all this up and just deal in paper, maybe writing on leaves with a sumi brush and putting the results in a stream to sloat away.

That's all been turned around. There's been and overnigh explosion in online communication due to this virus - remote teaching, remote everything - and suddenly I thought I had to upgrade what I do online because I knew there would be people who'd appreciate it whose options had been greatly reduced. So my ludite doubts have been washed away for the time being. Onward into Cyberspace! - DC

Where does the name Indonesia come from?

Answer in Quora