I am finding joy right now in how my computer keyboard feels under my fingers. I am also finding joy in the clock ticking in the background while I hear my typing. Joy in everyday things leads me to feeling satisfaction in life. It is enough.

The first thing I did was lock down all negative thoughts. All of them. I did not judge them worthy or no. If a thought brought up negative feelings, I got rid of it. Once my mind was my own (took 3 full months), then I could process ideas one at a time and not be overwhelmed by them. I could read up on an idea and evaluate it based on my life. When I felt I had spent enough time for that day on that idea, I would lock it down. It was a way to control how much of my life was absorbed in thinking about things that were not pleasant. Life is not all roses, and I don't avoid negative ideas. The difference is that I control how I spend my emotional energy. I don't get consumed or overwhelmed. Because I control my mind, I decide if and when an idea is worth considering.

Out of the 57,000 people who have quarantined for 14 days in state run quarantine facilities in NZ, they are aware of only 1 person whose incubation was more than 12 days (so negative tests on day 3 and day 12, but then showed symptoms 3 days after leaving the facility and had a genome that didn't link to any in the facility so did not get it in the facility). There have been about 50ish (based on my recollection of the daily briefings over many months) that tested negative on day 3 and positive on day 12. I'm not clear on how many of those were 1) delayed incubation, 2) false negative on day 3, 3) got infected in the facility. Hope that helps you with evaluating risk.

I had a severe OCD episode about 13 years ago that required me to learn new mental skills. I was in what is known as Pure O, where I had the obsession without the compulsion and it consumed every single waking moment. I thought I was going crazy and it lasted about 6 months. Nothing I was advised to do worked. It did not help to argue with myself that my obsession about being not good enough was ridiculous. Keeping journals, working through tasks, all failed. My mind was in a loop that was unbreakable, and I came to believe the more I tried to rationalize my way out, the stronger the connections became. So I chose to break the connections. I decided to never let myself think those bad thoughts. When they came (which was at first at every moment), I would do whatever it took to stop thinking those thoughts. I would focus on the wind in my hair, or the feel of fabric under my fingers. I would focus and focus to stop thinking about bad things. I quit analyzing my thoughts and focused on stopping them. It took 3 months, but I rewired my brain. The connections and loops were broken for good, and I learned powerful skills to stop bad thoughts. When I have a thought that I do not want, I lock it down. I over power it with my mind. I can do this in a microsecond now. I bring this up because perhaps if thinking about all this stuff has not worked, maybe it is time to stop thinking about it. I don't need a purpose. I can just be. I can find joy in every tiny little thing in my life because I am not consumed with looking for more.

My younger son LOVES these underwear. And waits for a new pair for every christmas and birthday. As he gets more, he is phasing out the cotton.

No, but helping my teens gives me joy. But as for inherent meaning, I do not need to be special, I do not need to actually even have meaning. It is enough to be. I focus on being satisfied. Satisfied with my health, my looks, my husband, my house, my children, etc. There does not need to be a point to life. I do not need a purpose. I can just be. I can do what I love, which is to learn. My father calls me a scholar. My life is enough. I do not need more.

Sorry, no. They are in the USA. MI and KY, so it is not safe at all.

No way. I can't stand wool clothes because of the itch factor, but icebreaker merino is something special. I don't find the scratchy at all. Worth every dollar to stay clean and dry and not get yeast infections which I was getting on a monthly basis before I switched. I haven't had one since wearing wool underwear!

Well, my parents who are in their 80s have not seen ANYONE since March. They have not gone to church, to the grocery, to a shop, or visited with friends or family. My dad pumps gas for the car - with gloves and then hand sanitizes afterwards. They are NOT going out, they are NOT seeing anyone. My mother in law is 92 and she lives alone in her own home. She has seen family (who have quarantined for 2 weeks) 4 times since March. She goes to the grocery store once a week at 7am. She no longer goes to church, she sees not friends, she does not shop. She is completely ALONE. She knows that at 92 if she gets it, she is likely to die. I say it is beyond depressing because of what our family is going through.

Nope. We had a quarantine worker last week create a minicluster of 4 individuals, which they have tracked and traced. They are busy this weekend making sure it has not spread further. Luckily, we can genome test and link back to the border, so they can tell by the mutation rate that there are no intermediaries between the original case A and the other 3 cases. so direct transmission. This will be the 4th time that covid has escaped from the border. And the 4th time the government has knocked it down on its ass.

I remember in highschool being asked to read classics like 1984. Not only could I not read the words, I could not understand the concepts. I got the cliffnotes and had NO IDEA what the book was about. I remember being given the 'Invisible Man' by Ellison in high school. I tried to read it. But I just kept waiting for him to go invisible. I never understood ANYTHING about the book, like not even that it was about a black man who *felt* invisible. It went completely over my head. It would not have helped to have an audiobook, the concepts were just too much for me. My savior was time. I just needed to get older. I will also add, that even though I went to a daily afterschool private reading program from that age of 10 to 11, it was not until I was 35 and teaching my older to read that I found out that two vowels side by side made a sound. So oa in boat and coat made the O sound. I was so surprised. I had no idea. Like NONE. My brain was just not wired to recognize patterns in language. I just never noticed nor did I internalize all the phonics I was taught and quite happily memorized. This made spelling very very hard because I memorized every word like a phone number. And all reading I ever did was sight reading. I was taught phonics, but I just never made any sense of it. I was 35 when the epiphany came. So just because you teach it, and they pass a test, does not mean that they are *using* it to read.

As an adult, I read only nonfiction. I can listen to fiction if I have to, but I don't enjoy it at all. I am currently reading Piketty's Capital and ideology. But my best type of reading is active reading -- I ready textbooks and do problems or write about ideas. It is good, because I can read 1 paragraph, and then process it in writing. I have lots and lots of notebooks. My best, favorite, and most rewarding reading is where I read and then work with the concept and interact with the text to make sense of it. Write, take notes, do problems, make diagrams, etc. To this day, if I just read without writing, I really get nothing out of it. This is likely why I don't like fiction, not even to listen to. I think that 'required' reading is a bad idea. I think required *time* to read is what you should do. But I would suggest that you model it. Both of you sit for 30 minutes in the same room and have SSR - Silent sustained reading.

I wash them in 40 degrees C. I hang them to dry, which they do overnight. I have 7 pairs, and they have lasted 3 years so far, but I am careful not to wash them with zippers. They are merino wool, so super soft. The difference is like night and day compared to cotton.

This is beyond depressing.

Yup. But they last and they are a lot cheaper than a yeast infection. My younger ds loves them, so he gets wool underwear for his birthday gift because they are so expensive. Mens: https://www.icebreaker.com/en-nz/merino-anatomica-boxers-/103029457XL.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiA-rj9BRCAARIsANB_4ADXZtpbY8kAI-7BSUR7nA-vZC3Zk1KaVJEWPdOAjLCmy0XkMGbrvXMaAuhgEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I did not read until I was 12. By the end of high school (age 17.5) I could read young adult fantasy books. I could not read nonfiction and I could not read classics -- the reading level was just too high. By the time I entered grad school at (21.5) I could slowly get through peer reviewed papers in my field, but it was a struggle. It would have helped me immensely to have listened to audio books throughout high school. I also would have helped me to find a magazine that I was keen on, like National Geographic, that I had time set aside to read.

I help people. Not crowds, but individuals. I make deep lasting impacts on a very few number of teens. This gives me meaning.

I wear wool underwear (yes, I live in NZ). It dries quickly, and doesn't cause yeast infections like synthetics. Lots of colors and styles here. https://www.icebreaker.com/en-nz/merino-siren-bikini-briefs-/103164201S.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiA-rj9BRCAARIsANB_4AAol-C9_YmbZssm_DpglGyUGgZPCgmxkw2c4lSTsLvXUd8x7g6AgW0aAgadEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Interestingly, NZ is beginning to align more closely to Asia. So although we still have connections to the UK, America, and Australia, we still also court the favor of China. More than half our trade is with China.

We had our leaders debate on the same day as the US's first debate. Not only was it between 2 relatively young women, the moderator actually asked them to spice it up a bit. All the talk about policy was too boring for the ratings. haha.

My dh said that nothing would be happening at work today because everyone would be reading the news. It is only 8:30am for us, so when people go home from work it will be 2am in the USA and things might be happening. All the American living here voted about 6 weeks ago when the mail in ballots showed up. Because airmail is at about 3 months right now, people either paid $70 to courier it there, or put it in the diplomatic pouch at the embassy. Our main news website published this article today about how the election works. You may find it interesting to see how the US election is explained to a MMP electorate with a single chamber parliament. MMP is very different from what you guys have. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/300148888/us-election-how-to-watch-america-decide-between-donald-trump-and-joe-biden-like-a-pro

Here in NZ, the liberal Labour party is Red and the conservative National party is Blue. I look at the US electoral map and the colours are all backwards!🤪

deleted. They just told us that we can't tell anyone yet. He is really over the moon. Ruth in NZ ETA: suspense is over. Updated below

One third of the Orgo exam is on polymers. Condensation and Hydrolysis of Polyesters and Polyamides under both acidic and basic conditions. Super fun! For ds's paper on microplastics, he is studying the difference between thermosets and thermoplastics and the impact of their chemical structure on both their recyclability and breakdown in the environment.

My older boy also did a 10 week long paper on the chemistry behind fracking. Now that was a mind teaser when we ended up in chemical engineering textbooks. Unfortunately, I had no room on his transcript to pull that one out. My younger is doing his paper on the chemistry of microplastics. So more orgo!