Skip to main content

New normals and abnormals

COVID 19 may end up being the story of the decade if not the century (if there is a century left to measure).

In the days of the next news cycle and talking heads, the media went from Trump elections to Trump bashing to record stock markets to Kobe Bryant crash to the stock market crash.

The latest courtesy of a micro pathogen with origins in central China vectoring out to the rest of the world - thanks to globalization.  I posted a breakfast plate some blogs ago showing a five continent menu assembled in minutes on my dining table.

Flip side of the coin - I might have a virus on my plate baby.  Jumped through perhaps six degrees of separation it could well have landed in my cereal bowl unbeknownst to me.

Net result - mass hysteria in so called first world affluent neighborhoods of America. Epic long lines at grocers and warehouse stores where policing by law enforcement became necessary.

Butt wiping took on a whole new level of interest with the measly TP disappearing from American shelves.  I just came back from India where a water spray does the trick.  Not very pleasant as a process for someone not used to it but if you were a tree hugger this is as good as it gets.

In Japan for example their commodes double up as massaging bidets too so no paper needed.  Depending on the moolah you spent it also air dries your derriere so you leave feeling like a shiny car from a car wash. No towels needed.

Working remotely, schooling remotely and avoiding your fellow human are thoughts being discussed as new normals.  Delivery services probably are having a field day.  Streaming too.  Which raises the question - are all of the world's internet pipes designed to manage this new abnormal?

Will we grind to a halt with frozen images on screens or phone lines without a dial tone?  Hello?


Comments

  1. All the WW III Nuclear Scenarios pale..suspense like in a Hitchcock film..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, quite an amazing turn of events worldwide. We are back to the basics - eating and ass-wiping!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...