I didn't dream last night, or at least, I don't remember my dreams. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing considering the news I've been absorbing.

Minneapolis is on fire. A police station has been brought down. The President of the United States is threatening open fire on protestors. The situation looks like war. It is war, and ( Read more... )

Brazil's numbers are now skyrocketing. It's a little scary to watch especially since the US is starting to open back up. California moved to phase 2. More people are going back to work, and more retail is opening up again. In most cases, this is probably a fine first step, as the real risk for virus transmission is in crowds and confined spaces. ( Read more... )

I had a dream last night in which James and I had a baby. It wasn't our baby, I didn't birth it, but we cared for her. We were in the back of a van. I can't remember what the overall situation was, but the mother was in the seat in front of us. She gave birth there. I have no idea why the baby was given to us. It was a tiny newborn girl. She spoke ( Read more... )

When I was a kid, I loved power outages. I loved having to use candles instead of lights. I loved the difference of it. I loved the otherworldliness of it. In a lot of ways I still love it. Power outages can be a great way the universe forces us to step back from our normal lives and slow down for a little while. I do not like power outages at work ( Read more... )

Many states, including California, are talking about easing restrictions now. The infection curve for CA is still going up. The death rate is still increasing in many places. According to the best scientists I know, who are familiar with the virology field, we are unlikely to get a vaccine any sooner than 2 years from now, and that would be 2 years ( Read more... )

I needed to go to the bank to pay rent today, so since I was already going to be exposing myself to the public, I decided to go to the grocery store too. I wore a mask, and I avoided touching my face until I could get back to the lab to wash my hands, but it was still harrowing and kind of a scary experience. Each checkout aisle had tape on the ( Read more... )

Today I got to swab my nose twice; once with the normal swab, which we are running out of, and once with a new swab to be validated. I will also have blood drawn today. Other than that I have been validating, cleaning, and otherwise getting the QTOF ready to hit primetime again. I think the resolution is coming in a little low, but I will email our ( Read more... )

Another day. Worldwide cases surged past 500,000 today. New York cases are not slowing down. The US had 10,000 new cases since yesterday. That's the largest single-day increase so far. Italy, Spain, and Germany are not far behind with ~6000 apiece. Italy's death toll is over 8,000. This isn't slowing down any time soon.

The president said yesterday ( Read more... )

I had to get gas today. This is the first time I have been in a public space; not work or home; since LA went into "Safer-at-home" mode. I wore a mask. I wore gloves. I should disinfect the card I used. I felt very exposed. It's amazing how a simple activity like getting gas could become a life or death situation.

We had our second round of ( Read more... )

It was a long weekend. Early Saturday I began feeling a tickle in my chest that developed into a cough throughout the day. I took my temperature a few times, and mostly it was fine, but in the evening it went up to 99.5, which in hindsight is a common occurrence, but scared me at the time.

Instead of preparing dinner, James made Ramen just in case ( Read more... )