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4 . 2 9 . 0 9 Moving this journal over to the webomatica site. Not to add to the ton of news stories and blog posts out there about the flu outbreak in Mexico, I thought I’d mention a few observations from my end. I’ve been keeping an eye on the news reports as things come out, its looking like there’s more and more cases and suspected cases coming to light. The recent news in the Wapo is that there are a few suspected cases in the DC metro area, kind of makes you feel icky thinking about it. So far I haven’t seen any hospital masks on the people riding the train into work, I think tomorrow might be a different story. The sad thing is that whats most likely is that if the government decides to start taking precautionary measures it’ll probably be backward looking, in that it will be only after the city is overrun with new confirmed cases of the flu. I’m wondering at what point will the decision-makers think that there needs to be a shift in focus and policy. There has been some talk about this whole thing being overblown out of proportion, given that the seasonal influenza comes through every year and sickens a large number of people and kills a bunch all over the world. I dunno if I’m really into that analysis, after having a few bad bouts of the flu over the years, I don’t want to get anything like it, not this time, not ever. At work I remember reading a memo announcement a while back about continuity of operations plans, essentially, setting up people with the ability to telecommute or telework instead of physically coming into work. It sounded excessive at the time I read the memo, but lately I’ve come to appreciate the extra preparations that could and should be made just in case. I’ve been working with an episodic telework arrangement to work around my class schedule, its been a real plus to be able to work on things remotely, it saves the hassles of commuting back and forth from class to home to work and back. I remember going to an external training session sponsored by my workplace that had a speaker focusing on the vulnerabilities of modern society to any kind of health care epidemic. 4 . 2 3 . 0 9 Last day of classes today as a 4E, that is evening law student. Kind of a numb perspective really, having gone the part-time route for close to 4 years now. I ended up taking a lot of summer classes, which makes it almost 4 years straight with no breaks in between. Wrapping up things for the semester mostly, I’m doing course evaluations and getting ready for my last round of review sessions and finals. Then it’ll be off to bar prep class for about two months. Looking forward to being pau for real come August. Probably due for an update since my last entry in march. I’ve actually moved to a new place, a couple of stops along the metro line. So far still getting used to apartment living. Its an upgrade in many ways, much bigger space, lots of natural sunlight during the day, and a closer commute to work due to the closer walking distance from my place to the metro station. The thing is that I still feel like I’m living in a hotel suite or something, and will have to move out in about a week. I suppose it takes some time to get used to it. I was able to take advantage of the zipcar fleet to move all of our stuff, used some old boy scout knowledge to pack up and tie down a cargo load in a pickup truck. I’d say we moved everything in about 6-7 trips total, not bad at all. Since our last place was furnished, the concept of buying furniture was completely foreign one. We also got some pretty good deals on furniture given the slowing economy. IKEA is pretty amazing. |