Neverending Covid-19 Coronavirus


The only silver lining I see here is maybe ticket master and live nation don’t make it the other side.
 

The only silver lining I see here is maybe ticket master and live nation don’t make it the other side.
You know, that may just be the positive thing to focus on to get through this. They have done their best to ruin live music and make in inaccessible to anyone but scalpers and rich people. So, I hope you are right!!
 
Well our company just cut pay by 20% starting today.

Sigh. Trying not to freak out.

Waiting for congress to do something about rent so that my check from them doesn't go straight into my landlord's pocket.

There are internal rumblings of ours doing the same starting next week and possibly a 4 day work week as well, temporarily.

I am technically "on call" 24/7, so if they implement this I am telling them that I will not be off and on monitoring the systems on weekends like I normally do until it's reversed.
 
There are internal rumblings of ours doing the same starting next week and possibly a 4 day work week as well, temporarily.

I am technically "on call" 24/7, so if they implement this I am telling them that I will not be off and on monitoring the systems on weekends like I normally do until it's reversed.
I'm sorry to hear that.

I would rather keep the same salary and work 20% less. I'm still thankful to have income though.
 
So my parents always ask me to start investing and want me to take a chunk of savings and throw it into a CD or whatever. But I've always said no thanks. When I left my last job I had no savings. But I did have a 401(k) after 2.5~ years working there. I could have transferred that 401(k) to my new company's 401(k) but I decided to cash out, pay the however much % tax and throw it into a savings account I can access whenever. My parents again said, "why did you do that? it's taxed so heavily!" But like... I need that money more now while I'm young, hopefully more often than I'll need it later in life.

Ever since I did that I've been slowly adding some money to that savings account with every paycheck and I have saved up about 3-4 months of expenses should the worst thing happen. My current job should be fine, but who honestly knows what will happen. I have to admit having that has made the past month and a half a lot easier to bear. I know so many people have nothing in savings and aren't so fortunate.

I guess my point is, is to save what you can, cut corners everywhere you can because you never know when you'll need to dig into savings. If I had all my savings tied into a 401(k) I'd be absolutely fucked.
 
I've cashed out a 401(k) for each kid. Yeah the taxes suck but not being in debt is great. Also, I have never made a contribution so it was literally free money. I still have a zero-contribution-from-me 401(k) that has a not insignificant amount in it (probably less with the current stock market). I don't consider it anything but a safety net if I have to terminate employment. I fully expect if I don't cash it out for the government to pillage it at some point before I retire.
 
I've cashed out a 401(k) for each kid. Yeah the taxes suck but not being in debt is great. Also, I have never made a contribution so it was literally free money. I still have a zero-contribution-from-me 401(k) that has a not insignificant amount in it (probably less with the current stock market). I don't consider it anything but a safety net if I have to terminate employment. I fully expect if I don't cash it out for the government to pillage it at some point before I retire.
This is an interesting thought... all the financial wizards always talk about not touching that 401k, meanwhile I've got a not insignificant amount of debt I'm trying to pay down. ;)
 
This is an interesting thought... all the financial wizards always talk about not touching that 401k, meanwhile I've got a not insignificant amount of debt I'm trying to pay down. ;)
Taking a loan from your 401k isn't that bad, as long as you can make the payments, because it is tax free and you are paying interest back to yourself. Ideally you would have taken the loan right before the market tanked though, then it would have been a great decision!
 
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My wife's hospital has been playing Celebration when someone gets off of a ventilator. She just texted saying she has heard it four times in like 90 minutes. Little rays of sunshine really help my day...hers too of course.

Also, on Saturday we finally broke from our distancing from each other. We waited two weeks and three days since she worked with the tech that left sick and was positive. Separate beds and bathrooms, and no contact. It was a strange and sad stretch of time...and she has been working so hard through this and needed a hug really bad. I can't tell you how good that hug felt. I'm not crying, you're crying. Ok, we both were.
 

The only silver lining I see here is maybe ticket master and live nation don’t make it the other side.
unfortunately, as someone who operates and owns small independent events AND takes paychecks from the big baddies, I'm afraid of them being the only ones that come out relatively unscathed.

they have a stockpile of money, landholdings, and their hand in every single aspect of the industry. they manage the artists that perform in the venues, clubs, and casinos they own, on the tour they book. the tickets are sold by them and then processed on site by another arm of the same beast. they are an inescapable monopoly both as fan and industry, and while I wished they crashed, I know that the indicator there is much worse for us small folks on borrowed time and dime.
 
My mom just shared a video "documentary" from Epoch Times on the Coronavirus. I had to spend 10 minutes explaining how Epoch Times is literally banned from advertising on Facebook because of their foreign ties and disinformation campaigns. To which she responded with a few hmmm's and a nice "Facebook and Google control a lot of what people see and believe".

I can't.
 
My mom just shared a video "documentary" from Epoch Times on the Coronavirus. I had to spend 10 minutes explaining how Epoch Times is literally banned from advertising on Facebook because of their foreign ties and disinformation campaigns. To which she responded with a few hmmm's and a nice "Facebook and Google control a lot of what people see and believe".

I can't.
Every post I see about anything to do with Corona has so many posts by people still claiming it's a hoax, demanding they reopen everything immediately, and pledging to refuse to vaccinate themselves that it completely removes any hope I have about handling this responsibly.
 
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Every post I see about anything to do with Corona has so many posts by people still claiming it's a hoax, demanding they reopen everything immediatly, and pledging to refuse to vaccinate themselves that it completely removes any hope I have about handling this responsibly.

I watched the first 30 seconds and they spent most of it blaming everything on the Chinese Communist Party. It's possible they went full anti-vac and Qanon, which they definitely have a history of covering, but I didn't get that far. My mom is very much pro-vaccinations so I doubt she would have shared if it went off that particular cliff.
 
My mom has these little framed prints of each of her kids' names and a "meaning" for the name along with a Bible verse. They've been hanging on the wall in the stairwell at my parents' house for as long as I can remember. No idea where they came from. When I was in college (majoring in religion) I came home one day and it suddenly struck me: "Hey Mom, my name does not mean 'Lifter of Cares.' I'm pretty sure Wayne derives from wainwright -- it's an occupational name."

Her answer? "There were lots of Israelites that didn't get mentioned in the Bible. There could have been one named Wayne. You don't know."

Anyway -- moms gonna mom.

In freshman year Scriptures, I had to find what our names meant in Hebrew. Apparently Derek is "The Way" or "The Path". He still calls me The Way to this day when I run into him in person or on the internet. Cool dude with a lot of wisdom actually. I have no idea if it's true or not outside of it's what Google spit out when I searched it.
 
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