The Blerd Spectrum
The Blerd Spectrum
CoronaVention: Corona's Revenge
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We're back at it again because much like DBZ fans, Covid just won't go away! Sit with us as we look forward to what conventions may look like with Omicron on the rise
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Welcome back to the Blurred Spectrum Podcast. We are here today to engage in a conversation, a discussion, a uh a back and forth, a dialogue, a uh uh one may say uh uh uh a spurning of uh topics. Well, actually it's a topic. It's a topic pertaining to topics. Actually, it's a topic pertaining to locationary topics. Anyway, so uh today is a topic within a topic. It is a topic within a topic, conjoined with a topic as a compound word that we created last year, which is still the topic. Yes. So uh this is not part two, it's not part three, it's corona vention 2022. Uh we have come a long way. You said what? I said corona's revenge. Ooh, nice. Uh the Omicron insurgent. Um uh we have come a long way since Corona, uh Corona, COVID-19. Uh, the pandemic has begun, uh, had begun. Uh technically it began, it began before we even knew. Uh allegedly a lot of us had it and we didn't even know uh at the end of 2019. But of course it started in 2020 officially, if you want to say that. Um and now here we are in the beginning of 2022. And um yeah, we thought things were getting a little better, and then you know, people decided to, you know, show their ass. And uh are we worse off than we were when we started? Uh I will talk about it in a couple seconds. Um, but yes, we're here to just talk about those different topics as well as as we're moving into 2022. You know, uh last year we were uh allowed to go back to conventions, and we did this episode last year, and we're like, oh man, we can't go to conventions. And then they decided to open up conventions, and we had a couple of experiences, which we talked about during the year, but uh we want to go into more detail uh today. So, first, of course, I'm going to introduce our panelists, starting with myself, Suchino Shogun. Second, I have The Doctor. Third, I have me Skittles. Fourth, I have Joe Tsg. Yo. Fifth, I have The Black McCoy. And sixth, I have Kaze Shinryu. So, of course, today, uh, as I did last time, I'm gonna give each and every one of us the opportunity to kind of to go into a little bit of detail of your current experience with the coronavirus. Um, and then we'll go into our details of what we experienced last year, 2021, as it pertains to corona at conventions. So uh we will start uh with uh the Black McCoy. What has been your experience over the last year, leading up until now, um, this last time we talked about it with coronavirus or COVID-19 or you know uh Omari. I'm sorry, Omicron.
SPEAKER_10You're right. No, you were right the first time.
SPEAKER_06Omario, I've been doing it for Lil Saint out in these streets. I don't want to get sued. He's been talking to people about how he didn't like it. So go ahead.
SPEAKER_10Well, I mean, he made the movie, not me. Um, but anyway, um, so for our listeners who don't know, I am an educator. Um, I work in higher ed as a professor. And one of the things that I have noticed the one of the things that I've encountered the most is just how a lot of institutions have been handling uh how just you know how we engage students, um, how faculty and staff are um in compliance, whether or not they're in compliance as term and far at as far as like being vaccinated and things like that, um, as well as people who aren't vaccinated, but you know, they are uh being not they are they have to comply with being tested like on a weekly basis and making sure they provide those weekly um testing results. And it's been very interesting watching um not gonna name the institutions I work for, but it's been very interesting watching the two different institutions that I work for handle this very, very differently. On the one hand, I have seen one institution very slowly, meticulously, and you know, for to their credit, very carefully uh turn back to in-person class classes, but they were testing out the they were testing the waters with the students beforehand. So when I've first started teaching in-person classes again, they were drastically reduced in size. Um, usually any of my classes would be anywhere between like uh 19 to maybe like 25, almost 30 students. But the classes that I taught during the summer when they were starting to, you know, do face-to-face again, it was reduced to like 10. And even then, there were only five people in the class. And because they've been trying to accommodate for like a lot of students and their needs and their concerns, they've been offering hybrid courses, they've been offering strictly online courses, and you know, there are very few face-to-face courses that I actually teach. Now, me, I teach a lot of face-to-face courses, but that's because I'm the only one willing to do so. Uh, partly because, you know, money, also, also because um personally I do a lot better with teaching when I am like in person. I can engage students face to face and they have to look at me and I can force them to speak whenever I need to. Uh yeah, you know, you gotta sometimes you gotta you gotta make people talk because they don't want to. Um but nonetheless, um uh the the other end of that, uh, the other institution that I work for, I have watched them implement very uh ineffective uh policies and procedures as far as you know monitoring uh COVID spread, as well as you know, social dense, uh not having basically non-existent social distancing. Um, I've also watched them try and implement um very late in the game um a staff, um a staff uh compliance with being vaccinated, which you know is is cool, but also they haven't really offered any more wiggle room for a staff because you know there have been a lot of people who are like, oh, I don't want to be vaccinated or this or that, which is fine, but also you know, they haven't implemented that kind of compliance aspect of you need to be getting tested weekly in order to continue, you know, safely, quotation marks, and I use that word very loosely, uh, doing performing your job function, right? And you know, working with students, et cetera, et cetera. And I've also watched them like not even attempt to reduce class sizes. I've watched them make some classes hybrid, some classes online, but no, no knowledge of having those classes drastically reduced. Um, and outside of teaching, like I like to work out a lot, so I try to go to the gym almost every day. And I've seen uh gyms continue to enforce mass mandates. I know there were some gyms in DC. They, when they lifted the mass mandate, you know, they didn't require masks, like a lot of places didn't require you to have a mask on. But I live in Maryland, so you know, a lot of the places I go to, they were like, no, put the keep that shit on. I don't care if you're vaccinated or not. Like my gym that I regularly go to, they have a whole sign. We don't care if you're vaccinated or not. Have a mask on while you're in here. Like, and so I appreciate that kind of um not enforcement, but that kind of uh that boundary as far as their business is concerned. Like you need to comply with the rules that you signed up for to be in this space. Um and so one of the things that has stood out to me the most throughout all of this is that I don't think people understand not simply just the the necessity and the safety that comes along with wearing a mask, as far as you know, making sure that they're safe and other people are safe, but really that like when it comes to being in other people's space, that you give up a certain for people who feel as though it is a quote unquote civil rights issue or you know, a personal rights issue when it comes to wearing a mask. Like, I don't think people fully acknowledge how much of their autonomy they give up when they go into different spaces, period. Like, regardless of if you're going into someone's home or if you're going into a place of business, you relinquish some rights there because you don't own that space. And the and part of the like part of the understanding that we live in a country and a society that is so predicated on owning things and like private ownership, when you go into a space that is privately owned, whether it be by a corporation, whether it be by a singular individual or an educational institution or what have you, you don't have the you have the right to refuse, but they also have the right to remove you from that space if you don't want to comply with the rules that they have set in place there. And it's interesting because for me, it's the we it's a weird dissonance of you know, feeling entitled to not have to do something and feeling entitled to having your having your own choices, like, yeah, you do, but you also have to remember that the privately owned spaces that you enter, they also have their, they're also entitled, entitled to their own choices, their own rules. They're entitled to how they govern their space. And if you are, and if you can't, you know, if you can't comply with how they govern their space, then they are fully within their rights to bar you from that. And it's not as though this is a practice that's discriminatory as far as you know taking away people's right to choose, et cetera, et cetera, or punishing people for you know things that are out of their control, like being queer, being black, being Asian, being whatever. It is legitimately like uh it's a it's a public health concern. And it's in it's so weird to see people not be able to know the difference between public health concerns and uh oppression, especially the white ones.
SPEAKER_09Ms. Kittles has a comment.
SPEAKER_04No, I'm I'm I am completely in agreement with everything that the black and coy said because it's wild to me how they try to compare it. It's it's so wild. Like, oh I'm being discriminated against because um I'm unvaccinated, and they turn the word unvaccinated into um I don't know, like a stigma or something. No, you are in fact unvaccinated. That's it. That's all that means, dog. Like, I didn't call you out your name, I didn't call you anything else. Like, you're literally unvaccinated.
SPEAKER_06It's so weird. How do you make it into a derogatory term? Like, I just curse you out. Like, just like the whole Karen thing, fine, cool, whatever. I get it. We were making fun of you, but like vaccinated, unvaccinated, it's a status. Like, you walk into this location, you get a needle, you're vaccinated. You decide not to walk into this location, get the needle. You are unvaccinated. It is a fact and action, it's a status of where you are currently health-wise. I don't understand. Like, it's just like, don't call me unvaccinated. Right. What? Literally, it's like when white people felt bad for being called white, but you are white. No, we're Caucasian. Oh, you're doing this.
SPEAKER_04Are you really? Are you not? Really?
SPEAKER_01This is happening.
SPEAKER_06Okay, but let's not go too far into that. So uh from one bla blah blah blah from one educator to uh another educator, uh the doctor, I know you have had, we've had our conversations over the past year, and you've had your uh ups and downs dealing with people uh both face to face as well as virtually as it pertains to uh um COVID. Uh so what has been your experience in 2021 leading up until now?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it's it has definitely been a roller coaster. And you know, I guess um in my case, so my area is focused on like social epidemiology and infectious disease. So, you know, all of us in that area had to start doing a little bit of COVID work and you know, doing a little bit of shifting a little bit of research towards COVID-related stuff. And so actually had a big professional change for me too. Um, but as far as just where we are with the pandemic, um on one hand, you know, there definitely is quite a bit of disappointment where, you know, I think just seeing how, you know, the discussion around vaccination, how much that has been politicized, and how this political identity of, oh, don't tread on me and whatnot, you know, I've gotten applied to vaccination like it's some infringement of one's rights when no, like it's a it is a necessary public health measure during a pandemic that's killing a lot of people, you know. So, you know, I think just the way this was handled early on really set the stage for a lot of problems down the line. Um, there's a lot of vulnerability to misinformation. Uh, that's something I observe just so, so much. Uh, and whether that's working, you know, we're talking about on social media where that just runs rampant. You know, everyone thinks, you know, they looked on Facebook a little bit like they're an expert in you know COVID transmissions and epidemiology. And that's oh, it's it's just it's bad. Um but I will say that um the thing that does give me a little bit of hope is that we because vaccination is you know much more, um, we have much higher vaccination rates now and people are starting to get boosted. Um, we're not in the same place as like February of 2020.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_07We're not. You know, so it's not we're not in that same place because you know, we have vaccines, because we have a much bigger infrastructure for handling this. Um, we have more masks and whatnot too. Um, we're starting to shift more towards K-95 masks. I know uh my university, among many others, is shifting more towards K-95 masks for better efficacy with preventing transmission and spread. Um we have more tasks.
SPEAKER_10Sorry to interrupt. What's a K95 mask?
SPEAKER_07Oh, so it's a type of mask that gives you more protection. Um, it has more of a firm tapered shape. So, you know, I would say like it looks like not really a duck's bill, but like it's kind of pointed a little bit. Um but yeah, it's um it's a really effective mask. So, you know, that's um, and you know, we just have more of those now because I remember, you know, in the one point where like masks were hard to come by certain early on in the pandemic. So we are in a better place with that. And because of that, you know, the death rate is not as high, the hospitalization rate is not as high, and the Omicron is also just not as quite as lethal as some of the variants we've had before. But again, like a lot of is contingent on well, the death rate's not as high and the hospitalizations aren't as high, assuming you're vaccinated, you know, or assuming that you're taking these preventative measures. So um I really, I mean, if there's anything that I think is really critical when it comes to just us getting out of this pandemic, um, we got to embrace these really critical public health measures more. And we gotta learn how to like evaluate scientific information better. Um, you know, because you know, we had this talk about confirmation bias earlier. Yes. Someone, you know, validating your greatest conspiracy fears does not make them a scientific expert.
SPEAKER_06Especially when it's just a thumbs up on Facebook. It's like you see that, see, people like it. People understood me. I'm like, no, that's not what that means.
SPEAKER_07Oh, definitely. And it gets to, you know, there's this, I've always had this discussion about how we use the word research, because research can mean a lot of different things depending on the context. It can mean like, oh, you know, I researched this topic as in, you know, I read some articles on it or something like that. Um, or it can mean like I researched as in I conducted an actual study using the scientific method, you know. And those things get conflated a lot. So someone who, you know, is let's say, oh, I saw three really good articles on Google. Like, you know, they give that the power of like a scientifically derived study. And that's not it's not quite the same thing.
SPEAKER_06So different between research and a search.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's there you go.
SPEAKER_07That really is critical. It's all critical so far. But yeah, like it's so you know, I think that's probably the biggest thing that we have to tackle. And it's I guess just coming from my field, like we always do these kind of um, I guess, you know, I guess we're not like both a couple of like almost thought experiments related to, oh, like what would happen, like how would you have handled pandemic flu, you know, or how would you have handled like Spanish flu like in the 1920s and such? And you know, what issues do you think would have arrived? Like, you know, some like introductory grad school, like epi exercises. And to see how this has played out has really defied so many of my expectations, but not in a very good way. If you told me that like, you know, vaccination and wearing a mask would become this rallying cry for the far right, you know, and whatnot, I just would have thought that was crazy. So I I wouldn't have believed you, but here we are. You know, there is no limit to the power of misinformation. But I will say, yeah, we uh even with all that, we are genuinely in a better place than we were a year ago. Like we really are. So, you know, just get vaccinated and get boosted. I got mine yesterday, you know, I feel like shit, but I'll be good.
SPEAKER_10Cut you doubled up.
SPEAKER_06Let's cut you doubled up. Yeah, please, please, please can't say that. Because people are like, see, see, the doctor, the doctor's falling out. Like, you gotta tell them.
SPEAKER_07But you see, I'm talking, I'm here, so I'm all good.
SPEAKER_10Uh, our X genes have yet to activate. We're still waiting on that part.
SPEAKER_06They should do that, they should market it as if you get the vaccine, there's a higher chance if you'll get the X gene. I guess I guarantee you there's but be a bunch of people getting shots tomorrow.
SPEAKER_10I mean I'll be three more. What you mean? I mean, I'll be rolling the dice on this teleportation thing, but I'm really trying to get don't say that. We have already we have already talked about if we if I could teleport, life would be so much easier. I would still be late places, but it would be easier.
SPEAKER_08You would, which is what I'm saying. Okay, I f I feel like that would activate some pre-racism. Like, like wait, what right? They they were racist against mutants.
SPEAKER_10So if something thought a group of people were about to be mutants, oh no, and it's funny to me because like X, like, I'm not gonna go too far down this rabbit hole, but X-Men racism in the X-Men felt so weird to me. Why would you be racist towards someone who could kill you very easily?
SPEAKER_06Very easily, like Jubilee could kill you.
SPEAKER_03Because people are stupid, uh, they just don't. I mean, they think we got superhumans, they just don't, they do people yeah, they think we're superhumans.
SPEAKER_08That's very true. They really do. They think we don't feel pained the same way.
SPEAKER_10That's all especially just Charles Xavier. This man has stopped entire rooms with his mind and still done other, still done other things. And you think it's okay to be racist to someone like that.
SPEAKER_04Because they're so dumb, they just it the it just mind-boggling to them. They can't imagine. I can I can find I can find a way to do it. There's a way to do it.
SPEAKER_10I wish I would be racist to a speedster, bitch.
SPEAKER_08It would be quietly, right? You would never know. Like everyone, everyone in the room would get coffee but him. That that would be the extent.
SPEAKER_07You know what's wild? Like, that's probably the one gap I think with the analogy, the analogies for racism in the X-Men with mutants. Because like, I'm thinking if you have someone who can you know control minds and like or freeze time or something, you probably would need to know who those people are. Like we're gonna shoot out a registry for where they're like.
SPEAKER_06Like it, it's and that I think that's as time progressed, and you know, like we were watching the X-Men, and then we found out, you know, as we learned about the Avengers and you know, Iron Man, and then you start talking about the uh what's it called? The mutant registration act registration act. So it's it's literally, you know, it's the quieted ones that are like putting their documentation together, like, I don't like mutants, but I have to figure out the proper way, proper channels to do this. And it got to the point where they're like, oh, let me find out they destroying stuff. Oh, they destroyed something. Oh, these powers are out of control. Let me convince Congress that we need to make sure we exactly what you just said. We know exactly who is who and what they do and how they can do it, and how strong they are about doing it. Let's write them up, sign them up. So as soon as a tornado hits Oklahoma, let's call Storm. Storm did it. Storm is in the later host island, storm did it.
SPEAKER_10And even if she did, what were you gonna do about it? How can you stop someone who has weather like atmokinesis from controlling that weather?
SPEAKER_06Okay, Miss Kidding.
SPEAKER_10What would you like? What was you gonna do about it?
SPEAKER_06That is a good point. That's that's a great point.
SPEAKER_08Uh I mean, I mean, well, uh we we've we we've seen a highlight, a lot of future uh the timelines and with certain type type of sentinels, so that's what they did about it, and it wasn't good. That's very true.
SPEAKER_10We're all talking about the same people who sent an army of sentinels to Magneto and thought that that was gonna be a good idea. Also true. Nice counterpoint. Yes, less than giant metal soldiers to someone who can control metal.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, that's that's what they start making ceramic ones.
SPEAKER_06Just great counter argument. Because I was actually gonna say, like, that's what ends up happening is when you drive a group of individuals to a specific drinking point, you get people like the Brotherhood and you know Magneto Mystique who are like, I've always been tired of this, but the only reason why I was dealing with this was because of Charles Xavier. And now that you done quieted down Charles Xavier, I'm about to do something about this shit. I'm about to protect my people, and we about to like that's literally that, you know. Well, I'm not going into that because that's what this is about. So um Joe TsG. Sorry, I opened up that can of worms. Ah, precisely. Joe TSG, what has been your experience uh of uh the coronavirus over 2021?
SPEAKER_05It proves to me right. America is shit, people are shit, and I am over it completely. No, but like the way people have just taken the vaccines and just have thrown out all of this misinformation when you can literally go on your phone to the CDC website and all the information that you need is right there. You can Google what a vaccine is, you can Google the process. You may not fully understand the the intricacies of it, but the information is right there. Like I hate everyone. I already hated people, but like I truly hate people to this. Like, I'm at this point now where I want there to be another variant that just wipes out like 50%. I would call it like the the Ultron variant. No, the Vano variant, just just I just it's because it doesn't, it's just blatant stupidity at this point, and it also made me realize looking at how other countries were handling this differently compared to America, and America still didn't get it. We still don't get it to this day. We're still going back and forth about masks. You ain't never gonna be a ninja or a power ranger when you were a child. It's cool to wear a mask. Kind of like it can't breathe when the pandemic started. I have asthma. Bitch, you ain't got no goddamn asthma. Oh, I have glaucoma. Glaucoma.
SPEAKER_06My God says I don't need to wear a mask. I am just amazing. If I needed to wear a mask, God would have built a mask on my face.
SPEAKER_05I it's like I've tried to be as empathetic as possible, but to a degree, it's just like you people have an answer for everything, doesn't matter how dumb it is. And I just don't I'm hoping that moving forward, because this won't be the first nor last pandemic that we've had at this global scale. I really hope we learn from this, but just from how we're handling it in 2022, I still don't think I still don't think we're we're gonna get it. I just at this point, we can just nuke everybody. We can just we can have a whole full restart, another big bang. I don't know. I think God should have stuck with just the dinosaurs and just left it, just left it alone. Because at this point, I don't know. Maybe this maybe this is our big bang. It ain't banging enough.
SPEAKER_08Maybe, maybe, maybe we deserve a suffer.
SPEAKER_05But anyway, yeah, that's that's that's my take on this at this point. I mean, I can get more scientific and really break down and and shit, but I just don't feel like it. On top of that, too, like, okay, so working in IT, uh I still have to technically go in the office because I'm um what do they call it?
SPEAKER_06Um what do they call it? There's many things they call it.
SPEAKER_05Technicians, essential, essential, yeah, essential workers. So I'm still going in the office. I've been in the office every single day throughout the time pandemic. I'm not working from home, but I'm still having to deal with people remotely and all their stupid technical issues. And a lot of times it's just like user error for the most part. And that also made me realize how dumb people are, or just lack of common sense, not necessarily dumb, just a lack of like common sense and just comprehension, yeah. It is and reading. It just it's quite ridiculous. But now people are starting to come back into the office um working for a public, large public transit company that has their own medical department, and they aren't even following fucking rules. And they had a fucking outbreak recently, and I had to go to their fucking office because oh my my outlook isn't working. Bitch, die. All of you just die, just die, leave me alone. How y'all not wearing masks and have handsome as house, but I do that doesn't make no damn sense. It doesn't make any damn sense. And the way my management and my the way my management is handling this too, when I ask for PPE, they're like, oh well, you can just go to the nearby CDS. I'm sorry, what I can sue somebody, I know I can, and I want to figure this out. Technically, you can see if I am going to find the right words and and codes and shit. I'm suing everybody for my time, for my energy, for my patience, for my future offspring. I'm suing everybody. Yep, there you go. I don't want to slurpy. I'm tired. I'm sick of this. It's 2022. We still haven't got it yet. We still do not get it. What we got? Like, do the kittens have to explode and release its own variant of COVID? Like, do you know what we have to do? Not the kitten variant.
SPEAKER_07Denial is so powerful, like, it is such a powerful coping mechanism with you know any type of challenge to one's perceptions of the world.
SPEAKER_05But like, it's it's a delusion to like it's it's higher. I'm delusional. I I know I'm delusional, but like I the level of delusion is like to an upteenth degree. It doesn't even make sense. Like, I've watched someone literally get thrown out of planet fitness because they had a they didn't want to wear a mask. Ma'am, we're in a pandemic. Like, are you not watching news? Do you not understand what the word pandemic means? Like at this point, I just I don't know. I'm just fed up. Like I it's I'm laughing, but like I am completely fed up with everything and everyone. Anyway, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I got a cute covet toy. That's that's great. A cute toy. Oh, the yes. The little covet figure. Yeah, he's a little bit that's that's cutish, but like that's the positive you got to go. That's that's the positive at this point. Oh, traffic was great early early pandemic traffic find a perfect spot in the front of the building.
SPEAKER_06Man, that was the best part. I kind of wanted to see. That was the only reason why I was okay being sent into the office. I was like, God wanted to go into the office. Oh, wait a minute, I can get to the office in 20 minutes. It's just me, and I'm watching.
SPEAKER_05Never mind, I'm telling myself, but there you go. Uh just uh, yeah. I would love another shutdown. I would. And a stimulus. Give me another stimulus check. Give me another. I mean, they keep saying they're gonna do it, and then they not, they keep going back and forth about this whole um student loan shit, but anyway, my last nerve. They ain't doing nothing. Well, at least I got my W-2. Yeah, that's true. Next.
SPEAKER_06Uh uh Kaze, uh, what has been your experience during 2021?
SPEAKER_08Uh it's been a lot. Uh 2012 2021 was kind of a haze, just kind of floated on by. Um honestly, if you if you want to hear about my personal experiences, you can just check into the last podcast because they're the same. But uh, but you know, a few more, I guess, thoughts uh I've stewed on is uh uh I'll I'll I'll start I'll start with a quote. Uh it says the the the day a child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent. And the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult. And the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise. And and just in and the way that everyone is reacting to this, uh it makes me feel like I need I need another stage because I want to like I want to take back my forgiveness. Like it like it we need a Hollywood remote, do we like it's kind of like it was like that thing where like you kind of you kind of thought like adults had it together, then you became an adult. Yeah, it's like oh oh god, oh okay. And but now it's like had seeing everyone's reaction to this is like okay, now this is a whole nother because I guess the same thing where you thought adults had it together, I guess uh I I thought the world had had it had something together. Like I thought they was doing things meaningfully and on purpose and with a plan. Like I just figured I wasn't always a part of that plan, and that was the that was the game. Like I become an adult, and now you're gonna give me the book so I know what to do. But yeah, but like, but now it's like, oh, y'all have no idea what you're doing. No idea. Okay, you have it, you have it the fucking it's scary, like and like in this new in this age of like information we're in, it's so easily, it's so easy for things to be like obfuscated, like like too much information is almost worse than not having enough information. Yes, because it's like because that because now it's like multiple, it's multiple choice, and people just pick, they're just picking one, they're picking whatever kills, right? And like, you know, and I've had conversations with people, like they'll like it's not like that they they don't just say the stupid thing, it's like no, look here. And I go and I go I go look at their source, and I and I now I got and I gotta look up a fucking study and figure out what the fuck they did wrong, why they're saying stupid shit. So like this there's other doctors and scientists saying stupid shit that these people are listening to. Yeah, yeah, it it that's the worst thing. So now they so now they have to now they have to know how to curate it, you know. I mean, because even doctor, even Dr. Foshi's like has like walked back all a bunch of shit, but he said, and that's you know, and that's not you know, that's not to say like he's he's perfect, it gotta be like routed up. But this is one of those things that like people will point to, like, well, he was wrong, so you know, so but so you know, you say my it's so it's it's it's it's so frustrating and so much more complicated than I ever could have dreamed dreamed it was. Like it was like if like I mean, one, we gotta throw away the phrase avoid it like the plague.
SPEAKER_10No, it is not because clearly people don't know how to do that, especially when given explicit instruction, especially when giving an explicit plague.
SPEAKER_05Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm trying to figure out how a lot of these dissertations got passed because you niggas don't know your sources. Like there's some people got degrees that shouldn't have degrees at this point. They Ben should have not had degrees. It took a pandemic to find out that at this point, they really should not.
SPEAKER_04No, I absolutely agree because I have people who who I who are going to school for like masters and doctorates that I know that'll be like, Oh, well, I have used Wikipedia, and I'll be like, uh you used what that's for me.
SPEAKER_01They'd be like, Well, it's a good starting. No, it's not a good party, anything. You can't I could put I could literally put I can go in and edit Wikipedia myself right now.
SPEAKER_04And I have it just it doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_08And I'm like, Superwoman. Oh that's what that's what all them niggas do. They saving lives with Wikipedia. They are the problem is it works, yeah, and that's horrifying.
SPEAKER_10So something that yeah, something that Kaze said um that made me it made me think about this. So one of the things that I've heard about this entire uh process that we've been going through as far as COVID and like vaccines and stuff have been concerned, is that we as we as a modern society have never been like this close to the side to like the medical process, like as a people. And it showed like how much people don't actually know about epidemiology, about science, about how vaccines are made, and basic arithmetic, English, reading, comprehension. And it's like um one of the and people want to people want to feel afraid and they want to criticize. Like, I like one of the time I've heard too many people say, like, oh, they developed it too quickly. It's like you don't actually know what they what they did.
SPEAKER_08Like people, like this is one of the few times in our in our lifetime where everyone around the world at the same time is working on this one the exact same damn thing, the exact same damn thing, yeah, you know, and it was based on work we did previously on on the SARS vaccine, right?
SPEAKER_06But so it was not made too quickly, and they're all moving towards the same goal. It's not like everybody's trying to like crabs in a barrel get ahead of themselves, everybody is at risk, everybody wants to be protected, nobody wants to die, so they're all working towards the exact same, or at least trying to work towards the exact same goal.
SPEAKER_10And it's like everyone's everyone's everyone's experimenting, everyone's peer reviewing, everyone's using the same research at the same time to develop these solutions.
SPEAKER_04It's not 1800, it's not, it's we have communication technology listening to people talk about like their side effects from like the shots and the boosters, and the first thing they say is, ooh, I know the the the um the real thing would have took me out, and I'm like, why? Because you think you think the virus is in the booster? Should have took you out. You didn't you didn't read, huh? Like literally information is out there where yeah, like it's not like the flu shot where you know bits of the virus is in the vaccine, like it just is not the same.
SPEAKER_05And I will say, when you first got the shot, did anyone did there when you got your shot, did the doctor tell you what type of symptoms you might experience? Yes, yeah, absolutely. Okay, we all got the same, okay, because we're trying to figure out what the problem is.
SPEAKER_10Because you know, even after you get the shot, like they made a they make you sit there for like 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_05Like the doctor told me you may, you may, you may get a headache, you may feel tired, you may your lymph nodes might swell up. You okay, cool. You told me this, I know what to expect. Great, but I also understand too that we still don't have this fully figured out, but I'm not gonna be completely detrimental to everybody's health by just putting out false information out there. I just I'm done.
SPEAKER_07You know what a big part of it is too, like, and this is always a frustrating thing with like discussing science. Like, I think a lot of people, probably the majority of people, honestly, evaluate science kind of in the lens that you would evaluate like religion, where you know, oh, you know, it has to be infallible. And if there are any mistakes, then it means that, oh, it's wrong and bad, and you know, you can't you're not allowed to have any mistakes. But no, science means that we're learning things as we go. You know, and that's part of the whole process is that, yeah, in a pandemic that didn't exist two years ago, again it just started, you know, a little a little under two years ago, we're still learning so many things. So you're gonna have studies that, you know, oh, we find some things, but we don't really know that much, but oh, now this next study tells us a little bit more. Now we have all this information kind of building upon itself. But this idea that, oh, well, you know, because the information changed, like that means that, oh, the science, we just have to throw it out, you know, um, that it should be somehow, you know, perfect and infallible. And that's just not true. Like, no, the fact that we're evaluating it to look for, you know, ways to improve it and grow and get more information that shows the process is working. You know, people don't get it because, you know, to the black and quote's point about like people really haven't been this intimately involved with the medical system, yeah, where like no one's really had the thought of think about vaccine policy for real. Like, you know, like that's just not a thing that was a huge conversation. You know, it's just but now everyone is talking about it. Like it's because we're in the middle of this situation that is just really unlike anything we've experienced in our lifetime. But yeah, just the way we evaluate information, like that has to be restructured from the ground up. Like that's that's the root of so many issues. Because then, of course, you know, once you are, once you really um, if you don't have to evaluate the information, then it's easy to just pick the things that you like or that reinforce your existing beliefs, no matter how true or untrue or credible they may be.
SPEAKER_10You know, it's interesting that you brought up the comparison between like um between science and religion. And it's one of the like philosophical transitions that has been studied and talked about, even like moving from like 18th, 19th century century thinkers into like the 20, 21st century, is that you know, often oftentimes uh people uh misappropriate the phrase God is dead in the entire one by Nietzsche and the the entire phrase is God is dead and we have killed him. And it's not about you know the death of religion or anything, but it's more so this uh transition period that we have gone through as a society into depending on religion, uh not excuse me, not depending on religion, but depending on science in the same way that we depend on religion and depending on uh research and research informed studies and things of that nature, um, to be a bit more modern in the in the in the um in the in the verbiage, um in the same way that we depend on religious institutions and religious dogma, like science has become this kind of monolithic, like uh I don't want to say I keep I I want to say obelisk, but that's not the word, obviously. Um just this uh this this institution of dogma that a lot of people see it as, and it's it's informed a lot of how people approach different things, and it's almost as the Simpsons, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05That's how they look they literally it's like like or South Park, where like God just comes out of the air and just is like, I'm just gonna throw things at you guys and see what happens, and hopefully something sticks.
SPEAKER_10It's just I don't but yeah, but to the doctor's point, like people don't understand science in uh in a scientific way. That's very much a strong, very religious say that one more time. People don't understand science in a scientific way.
SPEAKER_05That is they just they have a very arbitrary way of thinking. No, I like science.
SPEAKER_10I would call it explicitly religious and spiritual in its own like dedication, and I say that because what I I hate articles where the title is science says this, and it's like not all of science said that. I was like, like it irks my spirit because I'm like, Science isn't like science, isn't Jesus, science isn't God, like science, even then, like religion does not solve everybody.
SPEAKER_05Like, while these most basic people would should understand that religion does not solve everything, it requires a level of actual physical work. Yep, yeah, religion may support and give you the energy to push forward, but you gotta actually take the steps to do the actual shit to fix it. Faith without works is dead. I believe that's how that goes. That's not what my grandma would say, but okay, yeah, that's grandma get off your ass, bitch. That's one of the fans. That's one of the fans.
SPEAKER_08That's one of the sayings. They they try and give Jesus the will, and he'd be like, okay.
SPEAKER_05I mean, and it's like anti-vaxxers, they they've always been here, they've always had their issues with like a number of different vaccines prior, but like it's this is like super stand for level of shit that I'm just like, I don't get what the fuck is going on anymore.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, no, uh I missed the days where anti-vaxxers were mostly these, you know, really eclectic, so you know, often somewhat wealthy communities in like California who were, you know, oh, like there's a measles outbreak because we would think the vaccines aren't organic or something like that. Like it was just a much smaller scope.
SPEAKER_10But what do you think vaccines are made out of?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, no, I mean we could have a super lengthy topic about how the way like you know, marketing for certain buzzwords like organic and all that, like just they can be really misleading and they can really problematically apply to medicine. But um, but yeah, but now like it's anti-vaccine is a political identity, like it is a deep political motivator, like these people, it is these people's purpose a lot of the time. You know, going from rally to rally in opposition to, you know, like you know, anything that they view as an infringement of their rights. And right now, like for a lot of them, yeah, vaccines are at the top of that list. And it's you know, it's disappointing, it's exhausting, but also, you know, it's just so deeply harmful. Like, and I really don't know, I don't know if we'll ever fully get out of that misinformation quatmire. Like, I really don't know. You know, and I hate to say that as someone who, you know, my job is in large part like educating people on epidemiology and how this works, but I mean, it's it is really just deeply disappointing, you know, and the level of harm that's come out of this politicization of you know, COVID public health measures is just like we're not even seeing the full extent of it yet.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Like it's there gonna be long lasting effects for years and years, hopefully not decades, but we really don't know right now.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_05Well, it's going centuries.
SPEAKER_06Did you want to finish your point? No, sorry. Okay.
SPEAKER_05They didn't watch the Sesame Street episode. Almost gave a nice basic level of understanding how vaccines work.
SPEAKER_08And I just don't. Somebody got so bad that somebody linked them. Yeah. Oh, and I was like, Yeah, but you didn't understand how this works.
SPEAKER_09They were so mad. He put it so well. Easy. Easy to understand. And was explaining that shit and didn't nobody understand.
SPEAKER_08I'm like, oh, and the funniest part was he asked, he asked the uh uh he asked the person where uh he asked the person what what scientific journals did they read to get their information on how vaccines work. And now I was like, nigga, you obviously never been on the same block as a scientific journal if you don't know how a vaccine works. Like, so why is what are you asking? What are you? I don't understand.
SPEAKER_10People ask these questions like they're out here reading journals, articles, journal entries, like they know what journals to pursue, like they know what the word epidemiology means. Most people don't even remember the epidermis. But you think you're gonna study epidemiology? Like these are the same people who are fooled by the by that fourth grade, your epidermis is showing joke. Like that is that is these are the same people.
SPEAKER_05I just remembered it. That's fine.
SPEAKER_09Doctor, you have one more point.
SPEAKER_07Oh, yes, definitely just agreeing with everything that was said. Um, I saw that Sesame Street post too. Like that shit was hilarious. It was like a good resource, too. Like, okay, Elmo really broke this down. Like, it's it's right at your reading level.
SPEAKER_10You know, a red puppet broke this shit down to understandable levels better than adults, and now they're trying to crucify Elmo.
SPEAKER_05The nigga that has a ketchup sandwich in his cookbook gave you a basic explanation of a goddamn vaccine, and you won't get it yet. Look, actually, the cookbook is kind of cute, though.
SPEAKER_06I'm viral prediction over a rock. Oh my god, and now you see what I'm saying? They picked something else to discredit Elmo. Now we ain't listening to Elmo's vaccine recipe.
SPEAKER_05Even though Elmo was technically right in this whole situation, but well, no, 100%.
SPEAKER_06But Miss Kittles, uh, did you have uh oh, did you have? Can you please relay your 2021 uh uh corona uh virus pandemic experience?
SPEAKER_04Oh okay, so um I had a lot to say no I had a lot to say and I'm gonna try to keep it short. Um so um I just recently got over uh COVID. Yes, Omarion got me. He touched he touched me a quick but I was touched. Uh um as somebody who who navigated 2020 uh 2020 and 2021 um very uh carefully. Um when I say carefully, like I I'm I was one of those OP or OD people like wiping down their groceries, like things like that. Like that's what that's what I was doing. Um and in 2021, I kind of, you know, like let my guard down a little bit. And then clearly in 2022, you know, they was like, you let it down a little bit, gotcha, bitch. Um, but but I have I have actually multiple perspectives of what I've seen going on uh last year. So from um from a job perspective, like I work for the government. So like like many of you said, like it a lot of this shit has turned into like a political, you know, political issue for for no reason, but it's literally like the safety of the fucking world. Like, like not just America, the fucking world world.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_04Um but um in America, everything's political. So, you know, um when it comes to work, like I I will say that my particular agency, I think, handled it very well. Um, and I and I think that's mostly in part to the type of person my director is, um, because if it was somebody different, I don't think it would have gone as smoothly as it go as it did. Um, but I do know for a fact that other agencies um just didn't care. Like it was like you work for a you work for the government, you bring your ass back to work, period. Like in the middle of like 2020, dog. Like bring your ass back to work. You I mean, you are essential, quote unquote essential. Like, so um, I think my agency handled it very well. Um, especially with reporting, like like as scary as it is, they report. We of course we don't see everybody's names, but the numbers, we see the numbers, so and we see the areas that these people work in. So um, so yeah, they've they've been very good about that, and I was I was very appreciative about that. But what's interesting is in 2020 how how I mean 2021, how different from 2020 was. So in 2020, it was all about telework, it was all about okay, this is about to be the new norm, you know, this is about to be our posture, we're gonna do things differently in the future, blah blah blah. Um, because we feel like this is gonna be, you know, this is gonna be an ongoing thing. And and that's what and that's the way it was for 2020. In 2021, all of that changed. Yeah, it went from okay, this is you know the new norm to like like old I don't wanna be, you know, like um what's the word I'm looking discriminatory of against like older generations, but older generations have a different mindset of thinking. A lot of older generations are in charge um in the government. So um when you're talking about, you know, re uh revisioning how the government works and or you know, changing our posture on what you know what things we can work on as far as classified and unclassified information and who can be at home and who can't. Um it really depends on who's in charge because everything is different. Just like in America, you know, the the guidance is different from fucking state to state. Uh in the government, it's the same way, but it's like office to office, like literally, like next door. All these niggas is back to work because their boss said they had to be back at work. Meanwhile, in my office, we have the option of um hybrid, you know, telework or in office. Um, and and and then, you know, and then that's just like the government part. Like then you if you break it down further, it there's like the contractors. They're you know, their contracting companies are either like, oh, we want all of y'all at work, even though the office is like, hey, you know, they're allowed to telework. No, we want them all at work, or you know, some of them are or a hundred percent telework, bitch. We we not coming in.
SPEAKER_10We don't care what the fuck you say. We want the contract.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_04And I'm listening to you know, like Joe talk about you know, IT and how they you know have them in the office. Where meanwhile, I I know somebody who works for an intelligence agency who's a contractor who does it and been at home this whole fucking time.
SPEAKER_05Now I will say this. Let me let me say this too. Um, they did give us the option, however, because was still stuck in like an 80s infrastructure, they were not prepared for people to work home if they didn't need to. So I'll bleep out that name later. I don't care. Block down. No, actually, never mind. Leap them out. I just thought about it. I thought about that new job, and I thought about that money. Uh yeah, block that out. I didn't say which one though, that's true. But but just to be able to Arizona, I'll bleep it out. Arizona best. Um so they did give us the option, however, yeah, because of the issues that we were facing, we had to work at home because if they couldn't connect to their home Wi-Fi, they would have to come inside so they could get that fixed. But also, too, our contracting company went based off of the contractors uh or the the company that they were contracted with and with insert company metro, uh they were pretty much hybrid for everyone at the different levels.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, but yeah, so I mean like I was saying, every every everything is different. And and like I said, in 2021, the whole oh, reimagination, you know, we'll be doing hybrid and and and this is about to be the new norm, like it it drastically changed for certain offices. Like some people were like, Yes, we're absolutely cool with you doing hybrid, and some offices are like, fuck that, hybrid shit, you bring your ass to work, period. And and it sucks because these are just offices within within uh you know, within the government, within a whole greater organization, but you're all be treated differently. And that's that's I I'm surprised, but not surprised because if you look at how America has moved during this whole pandemic, that's exactly what's happening. You have this overarching government who's who's like, oh, okay, well, the states can make their own decisions, and now the states are doing whatever the fuck they feel like it. I mean, my my mom lives in Florida, and Florida since uh since the pandemic started, been doing whatever the fuck they're doing it to.
SPEAKER_05Actually, that was gonna that was a question I was gonna actually gonna ask the doctor, like how other state professionals are kind of handling it compared to like the DMV area.
SPEAKER_07Ugh, like so there's a wide range of quality in terms of response. There's a wide range as far as how it's being acknowledged. Um, you have you know, some states like Florida, you know, Florida's a good example where um you know there's nominally a COVID response. So like I guess they have it on paper, but like you know, right, you know, something like that. So um, I see that's a trend with a lot of southern states, to be honest. Um, you know, so yeah, like it's especially when you get to like the deep south and whatnot, uh, the response, there's definitely more issues. Um and in large part, the main reason, the main difference there is that you know, these are areas that tend to be more conservative. So there's much more politicization, you know, of you know, oh well, don't tread on me, you know, making me take that vaccine that has that'll make you magnetic and whatnot. Like that's what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_10Make me magnetic. I would love the opportunity to throw a car in traffic.
SPEAKER_05I would love to.
SPEAKER_10Listen, the reason I know I don't have magnetic powers is because many cars will be flipped for the pin. I'd be a villain. I'd be a villain. Um there'll be an accident every single day.
SPEAKER_08Don't let me be able to control the magnesium in your body. Don't let me. I saw people holding metal up to their arms where they got the shot.
SPEAKER_10Are you serious? Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Like testifies is this is real life.
SPEAKER_07It's it is just as bad as it sounds. And also, this really does highlight the issues with having this state-by-state response because yeah, like let's say, you know, if the state next to you is just not giving a fuck, and they're doing whatever they want, but your state is trying to implement social distancing and masking and you know, uh restrictions on like requiring vaccines for um venues. Of course, the stuff from state A is going to spill over into state B, like right next to each other. So that whole state-by-state bullshit just doesn't really work. That's one of the biggest issues, you know, is that we don't have a centralized response. Right. You know, and obviously, and it just really gets back to highlighting larger issues with how our healthcare system is structured.
SPEAKER_06And and what's interesting is kind of a combination of what Miss Skittles, Joe TSG, and Kaze said about um when the initial shutdown occurred, you know, in 2020. And we were all like, okay, so we don't exactly know what's going on, but if we do the shutdown, you know, and we, you know, proper social distancing, we don't go nowhere, we need to stock up, we'll stock up, but we stay inside the house, it'll die down. All the animals came back, the clouds were clear, the world was resetting. We were like, oh shit, we're actually doing it. And then kind of going back to what Kaze said about the misinformation, is like when it was put out there, people started saying, Well, wait a minute, this person said this. Why am I inside my house? And then, you know, then I don't care. Then when the Karen's were like, I need to get my hair dyed, I still to this day remember that that that that that um protest wasn't in Washington State or Michigan, and the lady was out there with her picket sign with her hand on her head talking about you see these split ends, you see this gray hair, I need to die.
SPEAKER_10And I was like, Yeah, so do y'all remember when the they have I forgot where, but there were like people outside the gym protesting because they couldn't go to the I'm not gonna lie. I understand, I understood, but also no, I agreed.
SPEAKER_05I had a moment where I was like, you know, I kind of agree, but I'm gonna try to go to the park and do some push-ups and I'd be like, right, like I'll I'll figure out something.
SPEAKER_10It's it's I would rather work out at the gym, but also it's not that big of an inconvenience. It's really I'll be all right.
SPEAKER_06It's like all of those things combined, is like when the the the shutdown occurred, even to the point where I forget if it was Governor Hogan in Maryland or another governor in the in Virginia or another state, where when they did the shutdown, they were even preventing people from other states entering the state. When it was that point in time, that was when what you're saying, the doctor, where they could protect the spillover from other states. But once everybody started getting lax, not even lax, once 2021 started, and we were trying to say, okay, okay, we're we're handling it, the numbers are going down, the depths are going down, we think we can start to handle, let's open things back up just a little bit, just a stoch. Let's open it up county by county, let's open it up city by city. Now everything's open, still wear a mask. And then people, as soon as they said, even for a hot, like even when there was a speculation, you ain't got to wear a mask no more. Niggas are wearing masks on their knees. I saw somebody wearing masks on their on the I'm like, you're gonna be mad when we need masks in a week. Why are you wasting your mask like that? I bet. So it's like when we got to that point and they're doing all these different things, and uh and then when somebody says, Oh, snap, the numbers in Maryland are going back up, Hogan was like, Okay, let's go ahead and close it off a little bit. But Virginia's open and West Virginia's open, Delaware is open, and Pennsylvania's open, and DC is D D DC is all the way the fuck open. So it's like everything's gonna start corralling back into these different locations. But what were about to say, the doctor? Sorry.
SPEAKER_07No, like when you mentioned the person who had like the mask on their knees, like I remember it was, I think it was like mid-2020 where I saw like this big protest where people had like they were wearing the masks, but they were cut open. So it was like your mouth was completely exposed to like this thin uh and I will tell you a part of me died that day. Oh my god, this is so much worse than I could have imagined.
SPEAKER_05Like burning people, like you're burning bras. Like, what is what are you doing? You know, weird thing is that a lot of this is just like common sense and just communication. Like with each of the governors, I would have thought that they would have because the D Arizona is so close in proximity, it's just like you would think that they would all be following the same regulations or policies or something.
SPEAKER_01And it's like they were no, they weren't.
SPEAKER_05Don't say that, don't say that loud.
SPEAKER_06They were not anonymous getting what you rem you remember, you remember in it was the end of 2020 into 2021, and it was either the governor of Texas, the governor of Alabama.
SPEAKER_05Oh no, I'm talking about I mean our areas specifically. Uh oh. Some of those regulations. And then DC followed suit with their like entrance of people coming in inside. It wasn't until like numbers started to go up again that DC was like, okay, maybe we should like go back to doing what we were doing. And then Maryland, Maryland ain't knew what the fuck they was doing. Maryland was just trying to do something and not be Florida. Because their numbers were going all over the place as well, and they were following the same, they were following, they were, they were tightening their restrictions, but it was like the numbers would not go down.
SPEAKER_06It's because of the other side of Maryland. I I'm gonna say that very confidently. I'm going to say that very confidently. I agree. The people on this side of Maryland were doing what they needed to do. You may not even like Governor Hogan, but when Governor Hogan was making certain uh um certain uh I'm gonna say proclamations, but he's making certain changes saying, you know, wear masks, shut down how many people are in a restaurant, shut down how many people are indoors, close offices, do this, do that. For the most part, the the five counties that you're used to were doing what they needed to do.
SPEAKER_05But on that side of Maryland, the only thing I wish they would have done is just shut like just shut down the highways completely. I would have wished they would have done that earlier on, earlier on, too.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, but something uh go ahead, Ms. Gilles.
SPEAKER_04Uh well, I wasn't done, but she wasn't but I was that the reason well, so yeah, that was my job perspective, but then I was gonna segue into like the different states anyway, um, because because of our tri-state area. Yes. Um I I I was about to say uh Virginia. Virginia Virginia was definitely the first out of the three to to to become more lax, and we have not reverted back to going nope, like going backwards at no time. Um, and I remember the first time I, you know, when we first started going lax, and I I remember the first time I started seeing people like walk around um with with yeah, with no mask on and like the grocery store and shit like that. And I was just like, these people really, these people really think like this shit is over, like it's like we're good now. And and it was it was it's it's made me sad because I just I like somebody with common sense knows that like literally I had to stop watching um the numbers in my county because it was giving me so much anxiety. Like these people literally walking around the grocery store, like like these numbers ain't going up every day.
SPEAKER_06Like and and and not only were they like walking around with no masks, Lady Legacy told me one of the times she was in Virginia, she like went to the grocery store to pick up something real quick, and a guy she had her mask on. A guy came over there with that with no mask and was like, Why are you still wearing a mask? It's so weird.
SPEAKER_04No, no, they they they do it, they do it. Matter of fact, I mean, and and this is not this is not a Virginia story, um, but I I don't doubt that that that happened here. Um, but I went to um where was I going? Oh, probably one of my trips to to Florida, and driving down there had to stop at in South Carolina, um, you know, break. Um, and I went into a Chick-fil-A. Whew when I said that now this is last year, like middle of last year. This lady, first of all, the Chick-fil-A was rampant with children and people, and it was just ridiculous. And not we told you to go home just from that. And the only reason why I went inside is because I had to pee. But um, normally I just wouldn't went through the drive-thru. But um, so yeah, I go inside. Um, and the lady at the counter talking about something, ma'am, I can't hear you with your mask on. Bitch, let me speak up for you. I was literally the only one, the old the single soul in the Chick-fil-A with a mask on. I was like, let me speak up for you because way I'm not I'm not about to pull this shit down to speak to you at all. No, ma'am. Um, let me get a number, you know. P tree dish is the word that comes to mind. 12 count nugget. But yeah, people people like try to bully you into like, oh why you still got shit? We good. No, nigga, we not good. Okay. Am I harboring you by having a mask on? Am I scaring you?
SPEAKER_08You are back to my cover.
SPEAKER_04This goes back to all of that that propaganda and that false information that people are constantly putting out there, like you know, these late night television shows, like talking, you know. I I'm I'm pretty sure y'all seen that that fucking clip that was going around with oh boy. Um, that was on the late night television show that was basically telling people like if you see somebody with a mask on, tell them to take it off because it's making you uncomfortable. I wish a nigga would. I'd like to tread on me.
SPEAKER_05You're getting pepper sprayed.
SPEAKER_04Are you uncomfortable? Let me let me give you these hands and I'll I'll make sure you you're real uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_10Wait a minute. I'm sorry, pause, rewind. I don't know what you're talking about. Enlighten me, please. You're talking about the video? Yeah, I I I did not hear about this.
SPEAKER_04Um, if you watch um Death to 2021, they they have it in that.
SPEAKER_05They did mention it in the movie in there.
SPEAKER_10I did watch that. I must have like glazed over that part because I was moving around. I was watching. I fell asleep twice trying to watch it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's definitely it was definitely in there. Like they had that whole that whole clip where I will I will search for that.
SPEAKER_06Thank you. There's some protests where people are like, just take it off their face.
SPEAKER_10They need to know first of all, you already don't need to be reaching at black people just out of nowhere. Second of all, you're gonna try and take some off my face. You like you don't just reach for black people's faces, period. Like, you don't reach for the you don't reach for the period.
SPEAKER_06I love I love what you're saying. I love what you're saying, but don't forget this is a people that reach for black women's hair all the time.
SPEAKER_05Right, it's weird, touch your brains, it's so like no, it's so coarse, it's weird because it's like white people are like the first ones to like walk across the street if they see a black people coming their way, but they'll be the first ones to also want to reach and touch your hair. What do you want to do? Both they can't. This is not this is not the way in passing.
SPEAKER_08Um, but they they they had a whole slave trade, so they can't have it they way, you know. So look, that's look, not just if America ate the cake and them eating it too, I don't know what the fuck it is.
SPEAKER_06We can't crack that open today.
SPEAKER_04But lastly, lastly, lastly, on a personal level, um, as somebody who's like uh self-proclaimed germaphobe, um, like I said, I was very careful. Um in well, in 2020, of course, it was just I I was not even stepping foot outside in 2021. Um I tried, I tried my damnedest because one, I felt like you know, life is passing you by. Like it's you know, shit, time's still moving. We're in a pandemic, but time's still moving. And and I felt like damn, like I am in the house. Like people are outside and they're you know living their best life still. Um, I don't want to die trying to live my best life, but but at the same time, I I do want to I do want to make some, you know, I want to have some memories. Like I don't want to be in the house for all of 2021 too. So I try my best to step outside and do things and and uh still be cautious about it. And it was a struggle. Um, but I did, I did go to uh BlurCon and I felt comfortable at BlurCon. Um we talked, you know, we had a meeting about it, but yes, I went to BlurCon and I and I felt okay there. Like and that was my first like real test of being outside amongst a lot of people.
SPEAKER_05Um better than me because I had a whole lot of panic attack.
SPEAKER_04I I I tried my best to go outside amongst the people, and and um and blurred con was my first test of that, and then and then I really went outside my comfort zone, and then I went to uh Atlanta for my birthday. And and you know, like they with the wretched day outside with the wretched okay, they outside, you know, massless, kissing people in the mouth, having the whole ass house parties, doing all the drugs, I remember in the middle of 2020.
SPEAKER_10I remember in the middle of breaking floors, Georgia was like, We're opening back up again, and people were just out, and I was like, Wow, I hope the sex party's worth it. I do, I hope it was apparently they were that part.
SPEAKER_04People like, oh, you going to Mocha Fest this year, huh?
SPEAKER_05Wow, just having whole ass book reviews, too.
SPEAKER_08I was so that was we I was so weirded out. No, no, it was like society took a collective, like, all right, guys, we did it. We we tried, we stayed in, and now the virtual triumph. Like then I'm like, no, no, it's still it is still happening, but it's still happening.
SPEAKER_05Like uh like if COVID hasn't traveled more than you, you're doing something wrong.
SPEAKER_03That was a good one. That was a good one. That is a fact.
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, so um, so yeah, I tried I I tried in 2021 and and I I and I did, you know, some things that I'm I'm happy I got out. Um and then that bitch got me in 2022. Um yeah, it happened because I was trying to live my best life. And it was and what's so crazy is the night that I think I got it was literally the night where I was like, I should I should I I look cute right now, but I ain't got nowhere to go. And then I saw one of my friends at the hoop of that bitch, go do it. Look at me, trying to live my best life, and then Omar, two company, and I'm so mad because I was supposed to get my booster shot that weekend and everything else. But um, so yeah, now I'm I'm back to you know, scurry to know.
SPEAKER_05I will say my job's been doing very well with these damn booster shots. Maybe just you want a booster shot? I got two, another one, okay. I'll take it. Yeah, like Pokemon cards, you know, like this new Yu-Gi-Oh game. I'm loving it. Oh, yeah. I'm getting all the points, all the pool, all the things I need, these cards.
SPEAKER_10But you know, something something this brought up that really made me reminded me of something uh Suchi and I were talking about, I would say maybe like a week and a half, a couple weeks ago, was just one of the things that uh has been most interesting about COVID and the workplace is the desperation for management.
SPEAKER_06How dare you! I literally was about to start talking about that. I had not gone yet. Go ahead. Um, as I was going to say, um, yes, no, uh actually to is to uh kind of continue from what Miss Skittles was talking about when she was referring to you know different office spaces. Um, I also work for a well, I don't also work, but I works I work for a government contractor, um, amongst other things. And it's it's well, actually several government contractors. Uh and with it, you know, it's you kind of have to follow the rules of the contract that you're on. But of course, nobody really, as you know, ever all of us have said, nobody really prepared for the pandemic. So it's like, well, what what what rule did you have in place for when, you know, if I come outside, I could potentially die? Um, so for the most part, whatever they had had ketchup on it. Right. When it started, uh, everybody unanimously said work telework, work from home, remote work, all that stuff. So, you know, at the beginning it was it was cool. Um, but then it was probably two months in and uh two or three months in. And it was kind of I was looking at some research, and it was stating that uh uh management, uh middle management, sorry, doesn't know what to do at that in this in the pandemic because they're they're starting to realize that they don't have a use. Because upper management, of course, they're the executives, they're owning the business, they're controlling business purchases, process, and development. Us on the contractor level or us on the employee level, we're the ones actually doing the work, whether it's you know, IT, whether it's healthcare, whether it's you know, anything. Then middle management not IT.
SPEAKER_05We weren't we weren't not IT, we weren't doing anything. We weren't doing anything, we weren't in any of the news, we was in nothing. We was just whatever.
SPEAKER_06So so then middle middle management is supposed to be our supervisors, our managers, the ones who are supposed to check on our scheduling, check on what we're supposed to be doing, check on you know our our our hours and things of that nature. So the thing about it is they can verify those things when we're in the office, right? They walk past our office, they check when we log into our computers, they check when we, you know, maybe we have uh biometric scanners at the door, and they can check when we you know walk through the door, when our badges, you know, go past strikes, things of that nature. Must be nice. Or at Nath, I'm sorry, I've just but when we're at home and we're teleworking, it's depending on the system that you're using. If you're using a system where you have to be logged in for your eight hours or where however long you work a day, then yeah, they can clock you that way. But if you're not and you're doing actual tasks, then it's like, well, okay, I'm turning in the task. What's the issue? Well, I have to make sure that you're fulfilling your 40 hours this week. I'm I'm turning in my tasks. Do you have another task for me? Is that what you're saying? Well, no, I just you we we need to be pre progressive. We need to do new things. Like, what new things can you do? I take that back. I take that back.
SPEAKER_05I don't have that problem.
SPEAKER_06It's like, oh, you clocked in?
SPEAKER_05All right, you could.
SPEAKER_06No, no, no. So yeah, it's different because with with with the clocking in, if you're either working, if you're working hourly or if you're working uh uh a billable sort of uh billable contract, then they have to verify that the tasks that you've been assigned are being done during these hours. And you know, especially companies that especially contractors, they don't believe in overtime. You work the hours that they've contracted you to participate. Who don't believe in overtime? I have to beg them to give me overtime. Yeah, no, I'm saying, but that's just me. Oh, okay. I I they specifically said I don't have overtime. Uh, if if it goes even a second over overtime, they say, Well, let's work flex hours the following week. I'm like, huh.
SPEAKER_05I hate a flex hour as you came up with that. I would love to go back in time. Whoever came up with that flex hours, I need to kill them. I'm like, just give me some. That's ridiculous. Actually, question for you Did you guys have like a max exodus of like people being given early retirement? Fired, early retirement, they were fired, they didn't get no damn benefits.
SPEAKER_04Okay, yep, yep, that happened in the definitely happened, but they like they got rid of the wrong people. And they were out of the dough.
SPEAKER_05I mean, even before that, even before there was like a vaccine, like we they uh the insert company did like a mag, they just got rid of people who were close to early retirement or maybe a year or two off. They were like, Okay, if you want, we can just buy you out and you can go.
SPEAKER_06Anyone who was uh insubordinate, anybody who couldn't follow their rules, anybody who turned a time sheet in late, gone, left. Like, actually, within the first three months before they even asked us to come back into the office, three to five people were gone from my company.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, they've been really lax with us when it comes to that. Like, there have been people who are like refusing to get the vaccine still and are like, I'm not getting five.
SPEAKER_06There are people refusing to get the vaccine, they're still at my business at my company.
SPEAKER_05It's like a pick and sitting there. I'm like, who they want to get rid of now?
SPEAKER_06Why? But like at the in the first couple of months, they're like people were being let go. And I'm like, those are vital people on contracts. Who who do you it's always the vital people? What are we gonna do now? Like that that person was the core of that contract. So it's the people that you need if they want to get rid of the contract, it's a whole bunch of things, but anyway, yes, so um, yeah, middle management real realistically right now is finding out that it does not have a it does not it can have a purpose, but the people who have been doing it for so long don't understand what their purpose is anymore because people are at home, which is why they're the main ones vying for people to come back into the office, because when the executives say, Oh, what is, for example, what is Joe TSG doing today? And if they can't answer the question other than the tasks that were assigned, then it's almost as if they're not doing their job. So they have to vie for people coming back into the office because you're like, oh, well, I know for a fact that Joe TSG was in the office for seven hours today, and then he went uh and then and then they went to lunch for an hour. So I know for a fact that he was able to do his task because he was here for seven hours. But when somebody's at home, can I guarantee that? Can I verify that they were doing that?
SPEAKER_05Even though I knocked out most of those things within like, you know, the first three hours, and then I had to go to the gym.
SPEAKER_10But anyway, look, look, and we talk well, we've talked about that more. We didn't like that a couple days. They're right. We literally talked about that a couple days ago, how this shows that companies and companies, institutions, um, you know, nonprofit organizations and things of that nature, like they need to transition from trying to transition from this ideology of paying people based on how much time they spend versus actually just paying them for the work they hire them to do. Like if it's almost like you're punishing them for doing the work quickly and efficiently, yep, instead of just like you're worrying about the wrong things.
SPEAKER_05If I apply for a child thing.
SPEAKER_06Like, I don't care how long it takes for me to do it if I get it done. When I was talking to uh I almost said my own name. When I was talking to Black McCoy a couple days ago about that, it was something that my dad and my uncle told me a long time ago. When you're working for an employer, um, and if there's a task that they give you, if you can do that task in less than two hours, like maybe you do it in five minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, do not let them know that you can do it in that short amount of time, or stretch it out as long as you can because you're putting yourself in a situation where either A, they're going to give you more tasks than you can handle because they believe you can do everything in a swift nominal amount of time, or B, they're going to um what's the word? Um, overuse you and underappreciate you because they're going to give you a bunch of different things to do, and you're in this role where you're supposed to be doing A and B or A to Z, and then they're black ass at now, B2, D three, and it's it's you don't want to be in that realm. You don't want to be in that space. Or you don't say anything at all, and they still put shit on you. Well, I mean, yeah, that happens too.
SPEAKER_05It depends on race, so I can I'll shut up.
SPEAKER_06It depends on the time. Um better than last. Well, those are my points. Uh so I have other points, but you know, I want to make sure we keep going.
SPEAKER_08So it's funny because that's uh that's across that's across the board, because you know, you know, Mike's an elect, Mike's an electrician. That's true. And Mike and Mike was telling me that if he does if he does a job too fast, they'll they'll uh A doubt doubt his work. And and B, they'll start to have a problem with how much he charges. Yep. Because you ain't like, I'm not giving you $700, you just hit for like 20 minutes. And and and and he was like, Well, I still needed $400 in supplies and and you needed $300 of expertise. Yeah, so I don't know why you worried about that. But but now but now he just don't now he skips all that and he just takes long. Yep, because it because it literally makes them feel better. It does.
SPEAKER_06It's so sad. It's like you would think people, you know, would expect a swift, efficient, quality job.
SPEAKER_10But the fact of the matter is, if you're not there for the time that they that they feel like it's going to take, like I think I've I think I think the the the most reductive way I can put this is that part of the part a large part of the problem is the notion of time as money, yeah. And rather than rather like your people I'm trying to save you money by getting the hell out of here, right?
SPEAKER_05Like like you're but niggas don't want to save money. That's that's that's too straightforward. It's it's so new, isn't it? Like they don't want to pay you. No, it's not America is an elementary school, yeah.
SPEAKER_06But they don't want to pay you, but at the same time, they want they want to make sure that you're here. It doesn't make sense, like they'll pay ten thousand dollars for somebody who's doing an ain't shit job for four months, but you tell them you want five extra dollars for this 15 minutes that you worked on something, they won't give it to you.
SPEAKER_05I think I think also partly people like their ego stroked.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, were we saying the black one coin? Sorry.
SPEAKER_10Um, no, I was saying that um also like this idea that time is money, like people would rather invest in this idea that they're they're they're paying for the time being spent rather than just paying for the skill itself. Because it's like if you're paying for a high level, like actually, no, it may it makes me think of this uh video I saw of this person who was training like CEOs and stuff like that. It's like, okay, let's say you hire a graphic designer and oh Tiffany. Sorry, I'm not saying you hire a graphic designer and you say, Oh, okay, well, I need this, I need this particular project done. Um, and they and let's say uh Miss Skittles gets the project done like in two weeks, and it's like, but the they charge, but Miss Skittles is Miss Skittles price is like $2,500 for this particular project, and versus someone who gets the same project and takes like five months to do it and is charging the same amount. It's like, well, why would you chart like and a lot of the CEOs in there were like, yeah, I would want to pay less for someone who can do it quicker. It's like, well, why? Because you're not why would you pay someone less for doing exactly what you wanted quickly and efficiently versus paying someone who would take four or five months to do the same thing, that same amount? Like, why like what is the what is the mindset behind that? And none of them had a real answer for it. Because it's like, why do you why do you feel as though it should take a long, why do you feel as though you should be paying for time rather than paying for the actual thing that you are trying to buy? Exactly. Like if Miss Skittles gets it done in two weeks, that's because she's good the she's good at what she does, and the quality of it is really, really high. So you're paying not only for you're paying for efficiency and you're paying for the quality. And for uh for a country and a society like ours that's trying to like function under this notion of getting things done expediently and having them done in a way that's really good. Why would you want to punish people who can do that and spur them even further from doing it by um trying to undermine them and in any way, shape, or form? Like Kause brought up Mike. Uh, I I know you personally at work, uh, and just like the constant examples of that, and to kind of relate it back to um Corona and how we've been COVID and how we've been talking about it, like that also in my mind contributes to how how a lot of people have seen this vaccine and like how it's been developed, because they think that you know, science and vaccines and shit like that's supposed to take like a long time. It's like, yeah, it takes a long time, but but even stuff that we that we have developed as a society like decades ago, it's still being refined and still being improved. Like it's not it's not something that just stops. And putting some sort of scrutiny on something that's done quickly and efficiently that's working really well, is doesn't make sense. It's like, well, you you all you want your package to be delivered in two days, but you don't put any scrutiny on, you know, it like is it is it properly, is it being properly delivered, is it being properly packaged, is it being properly examined if it gets there really quickly? But you want to put the same kind of scrutiny on professionals who are able to do things that you are not in a way that is um knowledgeable, careful, meticulous. And it it it just be it's like a it's a it's an intersectional and expansive problem in a number of different ways. And it it crosses various industries and it crosses a lot of different ways in which people engage their life. And it's it's one of those things that I it's one of many things that I see as just like a large condition uh or a larger symptom of our country and how our lives are set up, and at the same time, something that is almost viral in this um kind of infectious way to us as individual people and how we go about our lives.
SPEAKER_08It reminds me kind of like how uh like your uh your the the parent tells uh tells the kid like to clean their room and then the kid shows up, like comes out 10 minutes later, and like they like then you didn't clean your room, yeah. They go running outside and they like, wait, get your ass back in.
SPEAKER_02No, you ain't cleaning these motherfuckers.
SPEAKER_10Now you gotta sit there for 30 minutes or 50 minutes. Now you missed that spot over there.
SPEAKER_08I'm like, yeah, I mean, you know, and that and that goes into the difference because kids ain't shit. So so I get I get your reaction initial, but that's when you go into the room. Yep. Is it clean? Okay, now and now the kid fucked up because now he got to clean his room that fast every time. Exactly. But uh but but we're but we're that was my point. We're missing that step when you go into the room. Yeah, look, that's why I always change your fucking behavior.
SPEAKER_06I always put a verification process in in tasks that I'm doing. I'm like, okay, so I'll do what you're asking, and now we're gonna have a review process where you're gonna take this and you're gonna tell me what you think so that we can verify if it's exactly what you want. Because the problem is they'll expect the final product, the final product to be exactly what they asked for. And I'm like, okay, cool. And when I give it to you, and you're like, I don't really like this, and I don't like that. Okay, cool. That's why the review process is there.
SPEAKER_05But if your experience is I like your approach, my approach is I just pretend I'm dumb and I don't know anything.
SPEAKER_06I mean, that doesn't work for every task.
SPEAKER_05Um it works for insert company here.
SPEAKER_06But it doesn't work for every task because some tasks aren't because at the end of the day, especially when I'm talking from my own standpoint as a contractor uh or for a contract company, when you are a contractor, you're being hired for a task that, like the the black McCoy said, that they cannot do. They specifically are hiring you because it's like we have a need, we have nobody on staff who can do it. We will pay you X amount of dollars to do it because nobody else can do it. So it's like, okay, I'll do the task. Here's how long it's gonna take me. Here's how much I'm gonna need to do it. Here's how how uh, and here are our milestones that we need to meet. I've gotten way off the rails in terms of what we're supposed to be talking about. So, to wrap up the conversation for today, I want to finally get to the point of corona in conventions. So we talked about it last year, about our fears, what we were worried about, what we're concerned about. Um, this is just gonna be an open dialogue. Uh, but you know, entering into the different conventions that we had the potential to go to. Well, actually, most of the conventions were canceled. Uh, but you know, blurred uh blurcon, you know, came through the uh came through the cracks. Uh OdaCon also took place last year, and a couple of other ones towards the end of the year. Um, so right now, we just you know, of course, recently found out that the earlier conventions this year got canceled. Have they been confirmed canceled, or are they still happening? Um, I haven't seen any cancelled. Uh Capricon, Magfest.
SPEAKER_05Uh I think all those are still gonna work. I think Magfest on the Magfest happened.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Magfest happened, Copsicon.
SPEAKER_05As long as you got a I I'm pretty sure most of the cons are gonna be as good as usual, as long as you have your vaccination card.
SPEAKER_10Which ain't nobody asking me for for real for real, except for like my job. Well, BlairCon asked. They did, they did, yeah. BlairCon asked, um they they they they barely did, but they didn't no dirty bad.
SPEAKER_04No, they wasn't barely like.
SPEAKER_06I mean, I said barely because they were asking for hours.
SPEAKER_10They didn't laugh with the last people were still able to slip through all of those cracks. That's why I say barely. I was gonna say they did however people were still thinking security cards.
SPEAKER_08My friend ain't paid for a con in 15 years, yeah.
SPEAKER_10No, that's fair.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but um, yeah, I haven't seen any cancellations yet. And um, I mean, I I've been I've uh shit, I've been places in DC where they've asked for the vaccination card.
SPEAKER_05Really? I haven't been in Maryland where they've asked for a vaccination card. Oh, Maryland, yeah. No, DC, yeah. Yeah, I've been to a few too, but they asked for my BAX card.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_05So mostly like a ballot, a lot of bars, I would say. Yeah. Actually, no, blur conversation.
SPEAKER_06I don't go to bars, so that's probably why.
SPEAKER_10BloodCon and Boost and Boosters. But uh I'd rather just buy the alcohol and go home.
SPEAKER_06That part. So with uh the upcoming uh, I know Miss Skittles, you're supposed to be going to KatsuCon. Yep, and then I know uh some of us are going to well, I think some, if not all of us, are going to Blurred Con. Um, I know myself and the let me know how it is. My myself shampoo bracelets uh are supposed to be going to Tide WaterCon. Uh and that one's out in Virginia Beach. No, what is that? Oh, don't do that.
SPEAKER_05It does not sound appeasing at all.
SPEAKER_06Um amongst other conventions, I believe a good amount of us are going to Otacon this year. I'm really excited to go to Otacon this year. So the question, the forum question is how do we feel uh with you know Omicron Omicron, uh and all of these other you know, acronyms and numbers and variants that are currently, you know, here. Um, how do we feel about conventions, especially, you know, Ms. Skittles, you know, you just got over COVID. How do you how do we all feel about moving or marching towards uh conventions this year? Personally, um I want to say that I feel the same way I did last year. Because when I was when I was getting, when we were getting ready to go to BlurCon, although it took them forever to let us know we were going, but when they were telling us that we were going, um, I was slightly hesitant, but I was like, okay, I've been doing proper practices this entire time. I've been handling myself appropriately. I'm not somebody who's about to jump out there, get turned up or whatever. So I should be fine. Um, and I'll handle everything I need to handle after the fact, masked up all the time, so on and so forth, except for outside, because outside was blazing uh around those food uh food trucks.
SPEAKER_10Um but the food was good.
SPEAKER_06Oh no, the food was lit. Uh uh uh um uh damn, I forgot his name. Damn. Um, DJ Senpai, whoo, was lit. Oh man, yeah. Anyway, sorry.
SPEAKER_10Almost forgot it was how to spot.
SPEAKER_06Uh so what what are our um feelings as we move towards conventions uh of of any type, but what are we gonna do? Are we still going? Are we confident? Are we scared? Are we nervous? Are we hesitant, especially the ones we already paid for? And I would like to start with the doctor because I know you have some um uh points that you wanted to make about the variants in general.
SPEAKER_07Oh, yeah, sure. Um it's interesting because I have not been to a convention since the pandemic started. So, you know, um, but I have been to some conferences recently where you know it's got a lot of the same kinds of issues where you know it's a little bit uh close knit and whatnot, um, but it did require vaccination um and all that, uh vaccination cards, which you know that definitely also has its flaws too, where you know, some of that is it's not a full, it's not a foolproof measure, you know, as far as making sure that everyone is actually vaccinated, but it does help. And um, you know, honestly, I mean I think at least for me and my comfort level with attending these types of venues, um, I'm vaccinated, I'm boosted, and I'm pretty good about wearing masks in those type spaces. So um I feel okay. Uh, and I definitely, you know, I think it's something that requires it's a case-by-case basis thing too. You know, and again, like if I go to a convention, I feel like it's just super, super packed, and I might not go in there. If not, I might turn around. That's possible. But um it's on a case-by-case basis. And, you know, as we think about this in the context of you know, all the different variants we have, and you know, whatever the next variant might be, if we have another variant that really takes a foothold. Um, it's just these are all things that you want to be aware of when it comes to you know the risk involved. Um, the risk involved both to you and to your loved ones. Like, you know, I think that's one thing I try to reinforce in that is that when you're talking about protecting yourself from COVID, it's not just for you, it's for you know, um, your mom who you visit every so often as well. Like it could be for your grandparents, it could be for your coworkers and whatnot, who, you know, you don't want your office becoming patriotic. Like it could be a lot of these different things. So, you know, it's just something really sincerely reflect on what level of risk you're comfortable with. But in any case, uh, just make sure that you're taking as many available precautions when it comes to, you know, both vaccination as well as you know, maintaining vaccines and whatnot. Because, you know, thankfully, at least for our parents right now, the vaccines still largely work. You know, I know with um Omicron they talk about like, oh, it's some of it there's some vaccine evasion, but realistically, we can see from the numbers that you know being vaccinated provides, including being vaccinated and boosted provides significant protection against Omicron. Like significant. So vaccines do still largely work. Um, I don't want it to get to a point where we have a variant where the vaccines don't work anymore, because that's gonna be like the pie, pie variant. Oh you know, and I don't know if you've heard about the um the IEQ variant that um, sound of Q. But yeah, like it's um so that one has a lot of mutations, and we don't really know what that means yet, but it hasn't taken a big foothold. So it's just one of those we'll see how it goes, but it's not really a cause for like panic right now or anything like that. But um, yeah, I guess the more we protect ourselves and the people around us, um, the less likely it is that we're gonna have more and more variants, you know. So we gotta think about this in the long term too.
SPEAKER_06Okay. And, you know, I was uh I had a very detailed question, but then I had a shorter question, and I think I might have forgotten both of them, which is perfectly fine. Um, so uh Miss Skittles, I know you had um some, as I said, you're you know, you're going to KatsuCon and you uh you were protecting yourself in 2020, you were good at the beginning of 2021, then you started zipping it and zooming it towards the end of 2021, and then you know you got hit by Omicron Percy 8 um at the beginning of this year. Uh so what is your uh what what's your what do you think you're gonna do?
SPEAKER_04Um so having this is gonna sound kind of crazy as a germaphobe, but um having gotten COVID as a germaphobe, um like my whole my whole issue in 2020 was like just being afraid of this non-existent, you know, like not it's not visible, not non-existent, but this it's not visible and it's actually killing people. Like that was my my whole thing. Um, but having been vaccinated, um, knowing that it works seemed you know that there significant change between 2020 and now um for one vaccinations and then boosters now on top of that. Um that has allowed me to relax, but then then having COVID, it was like, oh like the whole time I had it, it was like I was angry. I was literally angry at myself. Like, how did I get this? Like, I've been so careful, I've been so cautious, and at the same time, at some point I feel like everybody's gonna get it, and either you know, you're gonna get it, you're gonna be out bad. Hopefully you're not out bad, but you're gonna get it, and then life moves on, and and the whole time I had it, I I kind of struggle with that concept in my head, but um, but a big part of me was actually relief. I was relieved because I placed so much anxiety and like depression around this this virus. Um and I had it, I got through it. In fact, my my symptoms um were very mild in comparison to a lot of people who I know who have had COVID. Um, I was not asymptomatic, but I they were very mild. Um, and hopefully in the long run, you know, things don't show up later, but who knows, you know. Um so with that being said, um this year I'm going to of course still move carefully, um, but I I'm not I I don't have that same anxiety as I had previously. Like I'm not, I'm not like, oh my god, I'm going to catch COVID. Oh my god, I'm going to catch COVID. Like literally any place I go. Like that's not, it's no longer streaming through my head rent-free. So um, I know a lot of my friends actually who are initially going to Kazukon are no longer going. So I'm I'm gonna be I'm gonna be at KazuCon bobbing around. Um, and I might bump into people I know. I'm sure I'll bump into people that I do know because there are a few people I still know, but um, that are going. But initially, like I I had a whole crew like that normally goes with me to Kazucon, like we stay in a hotel and everything. Um but we're we're not gonna do that this year. I am gonna go, but um, I will just carry myself there and carry myself home. Um so yeah, I I mean I don't I don't foresee myself in 2022 not going to any con that I had already planned on going to unless you know variants pop up that are more ridiculous than Omicron. Um but as the as we've seen and the doctor said, you know, Omicron while it's more contagious, it has is it's not killing people like the notable variant. Like um so yeah, I just I'm I'm I'm relieved. I'm I'm actually relieved in a in a mental in a mental health state of relief with having had it, and now I feel like while going to continue to live my life very carefully, um, because I don't want to catch it again. But um I don't yeah, I don't want to put those that pressure on myself again in 2022 or or just moving forward. So I'm excited to to see what 2022 brings. Um my next step is to try to get on a plane.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, you've been driving everywhere. Yeah, and I when I made that drive down to Georgia for the holidays, I was like, I don't know how to I don't know how to I don't I don't know how she be doing it. I was like, this is the first and last time I've read that shit.
SPEAKER_06I mean I I've done the drive to Florida. That is not fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's like I mean, I I with a passion hate driving. Like, I don't even like driving to fucking Waldorf to go see like so how dare you so I I mean I have to see my family, they don't live here, I miss them. I am the only one here, so I have to go see them. And driving was is the only way to get there. So because if I mean, if if you guys know me, I'm popping a flight everywhere. If it takes two minutes to get there, I'm on one flight.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_10So like one way or another, bitch. I'm getting flued out. Right.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Like what?
SPEAKER_06Uh Joe Tsg, you specifically said you ain't going nowhere. Uh, you told us to tell you how it is. So um, I guess do you do you have anything else to say other than that? Or the final statement?
SPEAKER_05No, I don't know. I'm back and forth with going to Odracon just because I that was like one of the first animic adventures I've ever went to, and I've always enjoyed for the most part. I've all 25. I've always enjoyed it. Um, and it's mostly because like I've I'm I usually go with family and it's usually bit like year back to back to back, and the panels tend to be like the same. You tend to see the same people, you you see the same stuff in the dealer rooms. The art rooms are usually the ones that are like different every year, and so yeah. Um, but after my experience with Blurred Con, I'm a little wary of it because I was surprised. It was the first time I ever seen like a con with so many just black folks, which was awesome. But like after one not being for a con, being at a large con in a while, and then just COVID and all these people, and just like nobody's wearing a man. I was just like, I don't like my my senses were just overloaded. Um, and then I had a full-blown like panic attack uh until like a friend kind of snapped me out of it, and then I realized Karen Ashley was right around the corner. I was like, Yellow Ranger bet. Genie was there. Oh my god, that changed my life. It really did. I cried too. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was her son. Like, I'm pretty sure her son was like looking at me, like, what the fuck is wrong with you? I'm like, bro, you're like Gen Z. So this is the moment. Right.
SPEAKER_09Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05Um, and I I heard that Otacon was actually on their shit last year, so it makes me feel a little bit better if I do choose to go this year.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um, but I I I feel like moving forward, I don't know what cons can really do overall outside of like making sure people are on their P's and Q's with masks and and being vaccinated. Like, what else can they really do? I mean, sure, sterilized, clean, all that, cool. But like realistically speaking, like how frequently are they going to be able to do that when there's like thousands thousands of people just in the rooms and in the spaces and all that? Um and so that has been kind of the thing in the back of my mind, like moving forward, what do we really realistically want them to change if they can't really change anything at all? Um and uh also too, like I will say I want the smaller cons to kind of be able to do the same thing, but I know they can't to the same level as larger cons. So, like when I think of like Mag, what is it, Magfest? Mag Mag, whatever, whatever her name is, her uh CoxCon, like I look, I don't realistically know what you guys can actually do outside of the bare minimum. So do that, I guess.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, um I mean this I I've been to a couple of smaller cons uh last year, and they like you said, they tried their best. They literally made sure people had, you know, their vaccination cards when they were checking in. They made sure you know people kept their masks on, they had air purifiers, as many as they could get, like they were do uh, and that's more than I've seen in a lot of other spaces. Like the air purifier thing for me, it's it just shows that you're looking at least at some of the small details because you're talking about hundreds of people. Realistically, an air purifier is not gonna help. But you know, they had several. I went to, I think it was Hampton Comic Con and HamptonCon, and they had several air purifiers like in various places, smaller places, larger spaces, to you know, do something, whatever it was trying to do, you know, try to clear the air in some way, shape, or form. Um, and then of course, you know, they made sure people were as spaced out as you can get, but realistically, it's a con. People are gonna get close together, especially when they're waiting in line. Yeah, it's just a bunch of stuff. So, you know, also go ahead.
SPEAKER_05No, no, that was all no, I was gonna say, but also too, like I I'm so used to going like to cons with like my brother and my dad. I want to have more memories where I go with you guys um to like cons and like have the like four local experience.
SPEAKER_10I mean, I really'm like hitting 30, but eventually, like maybe 29, you know, maybe one day when I took when I took Verdelda, when I took Verdelda Blur con, uh like I definitely had like two, four locos.
SPEAKER_05I just want that like you know experience at least once, just once, you know, my last like hurrah. Not the last hurrah, yeah. Cause you know, in in gay gears, I'm dead at this point. Wow.
SPEAKER_06I about to say you got a bunch of like over 30 people here, and I know several of them.
SPEAKER_05And all of our backs are hurting.
SPEAKER_06First off, don't bring that up, anyway. So um uh uh the black McCoy. Um what is what do you plan on doing? Pretty much is the question I have.
SPEAKER_10I mean, so I do I want to go, um, but I also want to be very cautious about going. And it's interesting because my relationship with relationship uh relationships, excuse me, with cons has changed a bit, not even since COVID, but since BlurredCon, because I I like being at BlurredCon. I like very black-oriented spaces, I like the energy there. It's always it it has been much more, it has been much more comforting to be in a space like BlurredCon than at most other cons. Yeah, like a lot of other cons have for me mostly like a lot of different vendors, like more than BlurCon, but I like the the vendor selection at BlurCon. I like the the smaller, the smaller vendors, the black-owned vendors. Like I love that part of BlurredCon. So like I I despite any apprehensions I may have, I will do everything that I can to make sure that I am safe at BlurCon. Um, I do feel better about attending cons because I got, you know, I am like that fully vaccinated. I got my booster, um, and I do you know keep my PPE on me. Um but the only thing that I'm worried about, and but also BlurCon has never been the hugest con. I've been around, I've been going to BlurCon since its inception, like a few years ago. And so I've watched it grow, but since COVID, I have seen that it's still not like the biggest con compared to like other cons. And so I am more wary of like an old con or like an awesome con or like a Magfest or a KatsuCon because I've seen those spaces and I know those spaces and I know how massive they can be, and I also know how belligerent white people can be. So um, and despite, you know, there being a large like black nerd community, especially like a black nerd community that is that takes COVID very seriously, you know, being vaccinated and boosted and things like that, and make sure they have the masks and stuff. I cannot, I cannot in full integrity say that I can try I can trust like white Congoers to have that same kind of fervor. I can't even fully trust all of the the black Congoers, but I can I know that I have I don't know, but I have a stronger. Inclination towards a mistrust to like uh non-black congoers or like just specifically white ones, because I just because of the the community experiences and just a lot of the the vitriol being spewed in terms of what it means to have to wear a mask and be vaccinated and stuff like that, and et cetera, et cetera.
SPEAKER_06Um I mean, there's the I mean uh uh not to interject, honestly, but you there are black, there's a lot of black people who don't get vaccinated.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, I know I absolutely totally agree with you, but uh, I would I'm just saying that on my personal radar, like they I know that they're there and I'm usually very hyper-aware of them when as they present themselves, but at the same time, I'm just like I I can't trust white people in a whole lot of other areas of life. So this will be all right. I mean, all jokes aside, but um, yeah, no, no, it's mostly just the sizes that will continue to, oh my god, oh, most of the sizes that will continue to really uh deter help me figure out whether or not I'll be somewhere. Um, I think I'll still try and attend larger cons, probably for you know business reasons, but also because, you know, there there are opportunities there to uh I guess test the waters, but I guess it's weird because I I I I have that same kind of paranoia that Miss Skittles has or had. Um, but at the same time, I feel more comfortable because I am fully vaccinated and boosted. So like I want to I want to believe that that being fully vaccinated, being boosted, wearing a mask will protect me, but I am not confident that being around massive amounts of other people will also protect me.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_08And uh Kaiser do do. Uh I mean, uh pretty much marin uh with the black coin with the doctor said, I think it's just uh doing uh don't you usually do just being careful, careful, being um you know, risk averse, but still trying to, you know, live your life, make making sure you do do what you gotta do. Um it's just it's just one, it's just another, it's it's it's the new normal, unfortunately. It's another question you ask yourself before you leave the house. Um so yeah, I'll I'll probably be uh out there. The I'm I mean uh my personal pandemic being broke would be the only thing that keep me from going. My personal pandemic. Um but uh but yeah, as far as like it's like I said, it's uh it's just keep doing what we've been doing. Like uh this it's like oh who all out there? Are they acting up? Are they doing what they're supposed to be doing? Uh you know, do do I want do I want to take this risk and along with all the other questions you ask yourself on when you want to go somewhere? It's just you know, is this another thing to tackle?
SPEAKER_06Yep. Um, so my personal I I plan on going to some cons, not all the cons, but some cons. Uh as uh the black McCoy said, definitely for business purposes. Of course, y'all know uh part of Blur Creations, as well as Umbral Starcade, uh, we want to be places and as well as the podcast. Uh, we plan on being at a couple of cons, of course, not all of us, but as many as I can get, uh as many as we can come uh to be at the at the cons. Um but in terms of being prepared for them, um, it's it's very nerve-wracking because uh as uh the doctor was saying, you know, when we go to these spaces, we also have to take in consideration we're we we're gonna go back to spaces where our loved ones are. Um and uh the Black McCoy also talked about, you know, you know, although you want to be in these spaces, you you don't know who's going to be there, you don't know their proper practices, you don't know what they're doing. They they they may be vaccinated. But just because you're vaccinated does not mean you can't get COVID. So it's like um the thing that bothers, not bothers, the thing that worries me, there it is, is as a business owner, I'm not just walking the floor, I'm sitting at a table. And then I'm also service, uh, I'm also serving individuals and providing products to individuals. Um, to the best of our ability, we're gonna make sure everything is as contactless as possible. Obviously, they're gonna have to pick up uh uh our merchandise. Uh, if we do VR, obviously they're gonna have to touch the units and we're gonna have to sanitize them effectively. Uh, there's a bunch of different steps that are gonna have to, you know, be uh taken into consideration, um, which is part of the reason why we didn't go to many, if not any. Actually, we didn't go to any. Uh, well, we tried to go to two, but we didn't go to any conventions last year. Um, was because, oh, actually 2020, let me rephrase. 2020, the conventions were closed. And then 2021, we went to a couple. Yeah, we went to one uh and then a couple of others in the latter part of the year, but we weren't able to, as a business, be an exhibitor at some of these conventions because the levels of fear, distrust, and uh um misinformation that was out there about uh COVID made it damn near impossible for some of the businesses to work. Now, other people just didn't give a shit and went out there, sold their wares. Um, I know for a fact that one business owner had COVID and went to a convention and was sick sitting at their table. They had a mask on, if that helps, but they were definitely uh uh uh they definitely had COVID and they were not vaccinated and they definitely went to a convention.
SPEAKER_03I'm about you to tell me off to the side who that was.
SPEAKER_06We'll have an offline conversation about who that was. It was it was not it was not any of the conventions we would be going to, it was in a different state, uh further away from us.
SPEAKER_05Um that would be my luck to go to Otacon and get Jim COVID.
SPEAKER_06Not COVID, I'm so done with you, so very done with you. Um I'm adding that to the lexicon. Oh um, but so so that's for uh for for us, for myself, that's one of the biggest worries is you know, uh, you know, I always think back to like the earlier days of the early days of COVID. Wow. Uh the early days of the pandemic, where um, you know, the main thing we were instructed is the purpose of me wearing the mask is to protect you, the purpose of you wearing the mask is to protect me. So there's that always that thought in my mind when somebody's not wearing a mask, you don't care about my well-being. But then I think about it, I'm like, oh, the people who are predominantly not wearing masks are the people who never cared about my well-being. So it makes sense when you put it like that. It's like, oh, well, that makes sense. Okay, uh, don't wear your mask. Um, and then, you know, I I care enough about you to wear my mask, but you know, you want to take my mask off. Uh huh, mask off. So, you know, when when I'm thinking about going to the conventions and, you know, caring about my customers, customers caring about the vendors, I'm happy that the conventions are putting in, you know, certain uh rules, regulations, and PPE. Uh, I'm worried that, you know, people, you know, as we all know, once, you know, you do something once and everything went well, people get lax. I'm nervous that this year it may be slightly more lax than last year. I do know cons that did not take place last year are definitely taking place this year, um, unless, you know, you know, a variant takes place and you know, shutdowns occur. There are going to be a lot of more cons this year. Uh, so my concern is either A, the people who are the smaller cons who are coming back this year do are not taking a note from the bigger cons who did certain, you know, or uh instituted certain methods to protect their uh congoers, or the bigger cons or the ones who were here last year, are not taking proper are are being laxed on what they did last year. That that is what worries me. Um uh we, you know, we said it when we got back from BlurCon. We said uh some of our panelists said it when they came back from other conventions. You know, there's just certain things that we want to see them do and we hope to see in these locations. Um, and if they're not there, I would definitely be fearful, not only for my my business, but definitely my life. Um, because the last thing I want to do is be there. Like as a as a goer, as a con goer, you don't have to be there all day. You choose to be there all day. As a business, you have paid, you signed a contract to be there all day, if not every day of the two to three days of that con or one to three days of that con. So it's you know, you're literally, and I hate to use this word again, it's supposed to talk about something I'm gonna have to do this year, but you're literally sitting in a petri dish, an evolving Petri dish for three days straight, 24 hours. Um and uh that will probably be my biggest concern about corona vention, if you will, is you know, having to be there because it's how we're making a living as it pertains to these businesses. So um uh I'm definitely talking to my uh local doctor epidemiology uh about the different things I need to do to protect myself and my business. Um, I am uh definitely going to um practice all the types of distancing and sanitizing and uh PPE that I possibly can. Um, I may even purchase two hand sanitizer stations and and some type of UV scanner for when people come up to my booth. I I don't know. I'm gonna have to do that.
SPEAKER_05And if you need updated information, where are you gonna go? Not Wikipedia.
SPEAKER_06I was about to say to the doctor, not Fox News, but yes, to the CDC website, not your hooligans, not your hooligans, the hooligans, okay. But yes, that uh those are all things that I'm concerned about. Uh, but I did want to say the doctor, did you have maybe like a final thought? I mean, this isn't you know Jerry Springer, but did you have like a final uh piece of information that you could give to our listeners before we do our actual variance episode about um maybe like three things that they need to know or they need to do before they go to a convention? Anything in mind?
SPEAKER_07Um yeah, if there's really one point I think I want to drive home and which has been touched on throughout this entire conversation. Um please get vaccinated. Get vaccinated, get boosted. You know, it is not an infringement on your rights. It is a public, a critical public health measure that we need if we're ever going to get out of this pandemic. Not only is we can get out of this pandemic, we can, but we all really need to be on board with you know vaccination, with boosting, with masking, you know, and take this seriously. So um that is my heartfelt plea to all of you and all the listeners, just please, please, please, like this is like we are really talking about life and death here, you know, and that's not hyperbole or anything, you know, it's this is a very real state of what's going on.
SPEAKER_05Um you can talk to that trade. You can you can get a bit of your trade. How dare you?
SPEAKER_10Let me know. I had I had someone that tell me that they don't trust the vaccine, and it took everything.
SPEAKER_05But you trust that nigga that you don't know on credit.
SPEAKER_10But I was like, it took everything in my petty ass spirit, not to say, oh, but you trusted the nigga that you let fuck you wrong, you gotta hurt yourself.
SPEAKER_06Oh, I've been personally on this episode.
SPEAKER_02I was so proud of both of you.
SPEAKER_10You go. I made I made it. You don't trust the vaccine, but you trust the bathroom.
SPEAKER_03Oh, toast about that shit. Like, what? Like niggas out here doing drugs, like hardcore drugs.
SPEAKER_05People's bathrooms. Let me not do that. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03But you worried about that.
SPEAKER_05But that's what I said. But the niggas like damn.
SPEAKER_01We don't know what we put it in our bodies, bitch. What?
SPEAKER_08We don't even read the nutritional facts.
SPEAKER_10Nigga, you don't even look at the calories they put on shit at McDonald's, but you're talking about the eat at McDonald's.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. You even eat at you eat at McDonald's, period.
SPEAKER_06All right. So I didn't see any of the ending of that coming. Um, thank you, panelists. Uh, thank you, listeners. Uh, of course, there's the opportunity that I give to all of our panelists to tell the listeners how they can be reached, how they can be spoken to, uh, to our local doctor, how can you be reached?
SPEAKER_07I'm Rod RT on Facebook.
SPEAKER_06To our professor, uh, the black mccoy, how can you be reached?
SPEAKER_10I can be reached at the black mccoy on Instagram, and you can find me at the black mcoy cosplay on Facebook. You can also find me at not black by choice on Instagram, and you can find me at not black by choice as well as on oh yeah, also on Facebook. And if you feel so inclined, go check out the not black by choice website. We'll be having a special sale next month because it'll be Black History Month and my birthday month, bitch. So um, yeah, go go go check some things out. Also, be on the lookout for some special Black McCoy uh stuff coming later on that I'll let Sichuchino show can talk about a little bit more when he feels like it.
SPEAKER_06I will in a moment. Uh, from one aquarium to another, Joe Tsg. How can you be with it?
SPEAKER_05Worship bitches, anyway. Wow. Uh Joe Tsg on Instagram and Joe TSG1 on Twitter. Yes. Uh birthday is also coming up, you know. Cash app 54qq309. If you see a girl doing this, that's that's my cash app. Uh, I'm also on Venmo. Uh, and I have recently started a GoFundMe as well, too. I did not, but I'm thinking about it. Um, so if you want to, great. Um, also, you know, just stay black and protect your magic. That's that's that's the end.
SPEAKER_10I love that.
SPEAKER_06Yes, that's a shirt.
SPEAKER_05From one coven out here.
SPEAKER_06From one boisterous shouted from the rooftop sign to another, the Leo, Miss Skittles.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, you know. I mean, I know y'all are coming up, but whatever, but you know.
SPEAKER_10Oh, it's already our season, baby.
SPEAKER_00I mean, oh, is it? Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_10It is it started like late January. It started the 20th.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yeah, you're right. Late 20th.
SPEAKER_10It started the 20th, I know. Like our February Aquarians are the really long ones in that anymore. So I mean, wow, except for very true, very true.
SPEAKER_04Oh, he is my socials. I was like, what are we doing here? Ms. Skittles uh T R underscore cosplay on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
SPEAKER_06I think that's funny. Her talking about herself made her forget that she's supposed to be talking about herself.
unknownWhat are we even talking about?
SPEAKER_04Because you know, I just had to jump on here and make sure y'all knew that.
SPEAKER_10Oh man. Are you aware? What? Right.
SPEAKER_08Uh Kazay Shinry. Uh Bob. What's my shit? Right. It's uh Bear 3B uh on the gram.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Uh then of course uh you can find me, Suchi No Shogun, on the gram or IG, Suchi underscore no underscore shogun. Uh of course, all things umbrellade on all platforms other than TikTok because I don't currently dance on video. Uh, then of course you can find um our wares at blurcreations.com or you can follow us on IG, excuse me, IG, uh, Twitter or Facebook at uh at Blur Creations or Blur Creations shop. Uh we just unveiled uh our new uh we would call it the Black History Month, but it's actually called the folder for the culture line. Uh so that just came out. Go check that out. Of course, we got a rep the uh Miss Skittles official exclusive. Uh, I wish I had the little horns. I'll probably try to add them in later, but I'm not DJ Khaled.
SPEAKER_10Um, but oh I was like, I got some horns right here.
SPEAKER_06But the official Miss Skittles Urza Scarlet uh uh Sailor Storm stickers that are exclusively on the Blur Creations website. Check them out, purchase them. Uh support your girl, Miss Skittles. Uh also, uh, of course, Sione Cosplay, her line of shirts is on our store still. Support your girl. Uh, then as uh the black McCoy mentioned, we will be doing a special February uh exclusive item from the Black McCoy that you will not be able to find anywhere else. Uh, we'll be doing a collaboration with the Black McCoy and not Black by Choice in February, as well as their 10 favorite things, as Miss Skittle also has Skittles also has on the Blur Creations website. Um, so check that out. That'll be amazing. Uh, also, there's gonna be a never before seen cosplay by the Black McCoy coming in February. So be excited for that. Uh, there will also be an additional item from Miss Skittles from a scene before cosplay, but not a scene before sticker, uh, and other items coming in uh February to March. So be excited for that. Um, but lastly, uh of course uh Joe's chaotic line is also coming soon.
SPEAKER_09Yes, Joe's chaotic line uh coming soon.
SPEAKER_06That's gorgeous. Actually, I love that. Um, so uh of course to reach out to each and every one of us, uh, the blurred spectrum podcast on well, actually, blurred spectrum podcast. No, blurred spectrum. Wait, what? The blurred spectrum on Instagram, uh I'm sorry, on Twitter, and then Blurred Spectrum on Instagram and Facebook or our mailbag, the blurred spectrum at umbralstarcade.com. Shout out to us. We're about to do a lot of big things. Be excited for next week's episode. Um, it's about something that I think you all should have already seen that all of our panelists want to talk about. I'll see if I'll be a part of the conversation. We'll see, but we're not gonna talk about it right now. Other than that, until we see you again or see you at a convention, Sayonada. Bye niggas.