I can’t believe school is starting already. I’m teaching two sections of the same class, but one is in person and the other online, AND my department head just forced a senior who failed my class last year into one of my sections even though zie prefers being in the easier class that satisfies the same requirement because the head thinks that zie is going to get a B or higher in my class to replace the failing grade this time around while taking an overload when the reason zie did so poorly in both my classes was inability to manage time (the other class is almost a guaranteed A, but that failing grade would still be counted in GPA). This is irritating because I would have planned things differently these last few weeks if I’d known someone who had taken the class last year was going to be in it. But zie has promised to throw away all hir homework and exam solutions so zie won’t be tempted to share, so hopefully it will work out. The other really irritating thing is that zie could have converted the low grade to an unsatisfactory last year AFTER grades were out and then it wouldn’t count in hir GPA (and then get an A in the other class, making it more likely that zie would graduate on time), but zie didn’t.
Yes, quarantine is giving you headaches and back pain and more.
This article on why we’re not wearing better masks was so good, that along with the Atlantic’s coup coverage, I decided it was time to give them money and subscribe. I also clicked on the newsweek article they link to and bought some very expensive N95 and KN95 masks from one of the online places that newsweek recommended. I think I’m going to double-mask while teaching with a disposable 95 and a cloth mask over.
The following trypod episode is long, but Eugene says some really brilliant things in it about bigotry. Zach too. I like all the trypod episodes I’ve listened to so far, but this one is a lot deeper and more thought-provoking than the standard fare:
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
January 16, 2021 at 12:08 pm
HEAVENS YES!!!! DOUBLE MASK. I need you healthy. BIDEN is double masking. The news is saying double mask is safer and better. WITHOUT question ~ Double mask. And keep asking for testing on regular free basis…. by preference at least once a week for you and all students. in your in-person class. Believe Cornell is automatically doing it twice a week.
THANK YOU. Especially the last 5 years ~ crossing fingers for upcoming week and a change of course for our nation.
Thank you again and again.
January 16, 2021 at 2:07 pm
I think my Atlantic subscription has ended. However, I end up re-subscribing at some point because I keep hitting my limit for reading articles. Same with New York times. I do donate to the Guardian because I appreciate that they don’t have a firewall (is that the right term?).
January 16, 2021 at 5:38 pm
Word of warning: you may find that you get pretty out of breath if you try to give a lecture while wearing an N95, especially if you need to stand or project your voice. I often need to pause to catch my breath while consenting patients while wearing an N95. It’s marginally better with the Halyard N95s vs the 3M green ones.
Also, wearing a mask over an N95 can distort the fit and make it less effective. Less of a problem with the 3M greens than the Halyard duck bills.
January 16, 2021 at 6:51 pm
Thanks for the heads up. I was pretty much figuring that if it doesn’t work I will just single mask it. I have a lot of semester to experiment with and a lot of different masks.
And these may not be genuine! 3M aren’t available to the general public, I’m pretty sure.
January 16, 2021 at 6:41 pm
Thanks to Cloud mentioning it earlier, I’ve got the double masking thing on my to do list. Do you happen to have a link to the N95 mask place you purchased from? I’m thinking that at least PiC should have some for running errands as we try to be even more careful with this new variant out.
January 16, 2021 at 6:54 pm
I’m not sure they’re genuine despite Newsweek’s article and I haven’t gotten them yet. I did find this from the FDA: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-emergency-use-authorizations-medical-devices/personal-protective-equipment-euas#appendixa
January 18, 2021 at 10:22 am
It is possible to buy an actual good reusable N95 (https://store.envomask.com/envomask-n95-respirator-kit-p4.aspx) and vent plug, if you’re willing to shell out for it.
January 18, 2021 at 10:39 am
That’s less expensive than 10 disposable n95…
January 17, 2021 at 11:14 am
Total aside: That potato cake video warmed my heart on a stupid day. Thank you!!
January 17, 2021 at 11:34 am
I very much want one!
Hope your day gets better!!
January 17, 2021 at 4:08 pm
Oh man. I’m sorry you have to teach in person. I hope it all goes okay.
January 17, 2021 at 5:00 pm
Thanks! I’m definitely not looking forward to it. I really hate the writer of this season– why is there a more contagious variant right when vaccines are starting to be given out?
January 17, 2021 at 5:08 pm
Also as an update… I don’t know if you all remember I mentioned that DC2’s friend invited hir to a zoo birthday party later this month? Well, that friend’s parents are sick with “probably covid” according to DC2’s minecraft playing friend. (Zie was having computer problems and DC2 asked why zie didn’t ask hir parents for help and zie said he wasn’t to disturb them because they were sick with probably covid and sleeping.)
I definitely know more people from here who have had covid than haven’t at this point. (I was going to say IRL, but IRL for me these days is classroom teaching and the occasional wave to the librarian taking my books to the curbside table. Classroom teaching was 50% for one of my two classes, but I don’t know about the other. And of course so many people have gotten it over break.)
January 18, 2021 at 8:18 am
I was just talking to my mom, who lives in a different (red) state, and she said she knows so many people in her neighborhood who have had it. But it’s very different where we live. Of people that we are friends with and under normal circumstances would interact regularly with, I know one person, a doctor, who got it in March. She isolated herself at home and her husband (also a doctor) and kids did not get it. I have heard about a couple of families who have had it whose kids attend my kids’ school, but they’re not people I would normally see on any kind of regular basis. Everyone else I have heard about who has had it does not live near us. Even when things were bad in my state, they were not bad in my city, and when they were bad in my city, it was only the students that seemed to be getting it and not the rest of us. So there is certainly a sense of unreality/remove about all of this for me. It’s like a war that’s being fought far away.
January 18, 2021 at 8:22 am
Going to (virtual) conferences last semester professors would ask me, “what’s it like for your students who have had it?”
It’s a completely different reality, and to the extent that there are long term effects it is going to exacerbate the SES/North/South differences that already exist in the country.
January 18, 2021 at 10:19 am
You should know- if you plan to re-use N95/KN95 type masks at all- that fit degrades after maybe 2 and no more than 5 on-off cycles. Efficacy approaches cloth masks after fit degradation.
The number of people I’ve seen wearing N95 masks that are not even *touching* their skin all the way around… it’s amazing. If it’s not uncomfortable you’re wearing it wrong!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7428459/
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-respirators-can-be-reused-decontamination-not-well-studied
January 18, 2021 at 10:33 am
I was not planning on reusing… but also I as planning on double masking, so in theory efficacy should at least match the cloth mask.
My main hope is to get a better seal than I’ve been getting with cloth masks.