Reader: Your grammar’s pathetic.
Me: Oh, yeah? Well, your grandpa’s no better, either
Just a little inside humor. See the comments to yesterday’s post for the backstory. All in good fun.
So, a development of sorts in the continuing drama associated with my pending move. Now, I previously mentioned that one of the brothers in the landlord family was unaware that I had been hit with a rent increase. Apparently, he was upset that he had not been consulted. He has not said anything directly to me, choosing instead to relay information through my basement neighbor, who is technically his employee. He told her to tell me that he had talked to his brother and sister and they agreed to reduce the rent increase to 5%. As you may recall, that is the amount originally proposed that I had objected to–their counteroffer was 10%. Anyway, I relayed back through the neighbor that it was too late; I’d already verbally committed to another place. I also had her convey a counteroffer on my behalf–if they would reduce my rent by 10% I would consider staying. Haven’t heard back. Don’t expect I will.
Ah, the art of negotiation. I spent a goodly portion of my career in labor relations where I participated in collective bargaining for labor agreements. At least the union’s proposals had a basis in reality. I still have no idea what the hell my landlords are thinking. Maybe they aren’t.
I also believe I mentioned I know my upstairs neighbors. They are both Hashers, and the husband (also named John) plays darts. As I was leaving for the tournament on Friday, John was walking past my house on his way to Alley Cats as well. So, we walked together. John casually mentioned that his downstairs neighbors were moving out and he was happy about it because they were so noisy. I told him I was planning to move in downstairs. He was a little surprised and said that explains why he got the email from his landlord asking if he objected to allowing two dogs downstairs. He didn’t. I’m actually not noisy at all, and my dogs only bark when there’s a reason–like someone being outside the door. I don’t think we’ll have any issues in that regard. While I’d prefer to have a house to myself, I’m already thinking in terms of being accommodating. For example, I’ll put my grill in the carport in order to avoid sending up smoke from my balcony to his apartment. Hopefully, we will all just get along fine and dandy.
What else have I got for you? Well, John Kim’s The Pub restaurant just published a new menu. I’ll share it here to illustrate that it isn’t hard to find good food in my little town.
Damn, now I’m hungry for some reason.
I believe getting vaccinated against COVID is a personal choice. I probably will at some point, especially if my freedom to travel is contingent upon vaccination. Other folks might choose a different path, and that’s fine with me.
I am SO ready to do some travelling!
I’ve got pork chops in the crockpot for dinner tonight, and I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (on toast) for lunch. Is there no end to my creativity in the kitchen?
I’ll close out today’s post with these words of wisdom:
There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.
Good to know that you know the people living above you. If you do any grilling, you could always be neighborly and invite them down to have some chow with you.
Things I’d like to try from John Kim’s menu:
1. lapu lapu fish & chips
2. chicken parm
3. loaded-meat pizza
4. lamb burger
5. peppercorn-roasted beef tenderloin (lg.)
6. chilitos burritos
7. birria tacos
8. lamb tacos
9. mini bacon-wrap chicken
10. bulgogi with rice
11. ribeye brisket burger
12. Philly cheesesteak
13. French dip
14. chicken Caesar salad
15. Thai beef salad
Might take a few days to eat my way through those menu selections. They all sound good, though.
Oh, by the way:
“.Me: Oh yeah? Well, your grandpa’s no better either”
You managed four punctuation errors in that little space. This is how I know you’re just trolling.
Actually, I stole that word for word from a meme. You can’t hold me responsible for the mistakes of meme-makers. Otherwise, I’d have nothing to post…
The menu looked so good that I just placed an order on GrubHub. Any idea on the delivery time to the States? Ben Irvine’s tweet(or is it twat?) is spot-on. Peace Out!
Re: Vaccines. I have been involved either directly or indirectly in R&D for most of my career (but not in pharmaceuticals). I am pretty comfortable with how the process played out and the development went. I do not believe that corners were cut, or steps removed from the process. Most of the delays in “regular” R&D is because there is a LOT of waiting for funding, corporate bureaucracy, changes in company goals, new executives, etc
Typical R&D process
1. come up with an idea
2. WAIT for approval and funding
3. do a bench top proof of principle
4. WAIT (and WAIT) for approval and funding
5. do a pilot plant study
6. WAIT (and WAIT and WAIT) for approval and funding
7. WAIT because the company’s attention got diverted
8. scale up to small commercial size
9. see #2, #4, #6, #7
10. bring to market
Hence, a 5-10 year time frame from #1 – #10
for the vaccines
#1. already done
#2, #4. #6, #7 were not in the picture. Funding was there. No wait time.
#5 was started before #3 was complete. There was no lag time in moving from #3 to #5. If #3 was successful, the pilot plants were already built, study parameters were already in place, raw materials, etc were already there and ready to go, if not started
#8 was started while #5 was in progress. No lag time. Etc.
From what I have heard from those involved in the industry, we hear about the big three vaccines in the US (Pfizer, J&J, and Moderna). There were multiple other companies that were working on COVID vaccine development. For whatever reason, step #3 failed, step #5 failed, etc. You didn’t really hear about these, but it wasn’t just three companies doing work on vaccines. It was these three companies that were successful and met all stage gates of the process.
I think the biggest argument I would make in favor of vaccines, is that if we do not increase the % of people who get the vaccine, we will continue to muddle along half-assedly (dont think that is a word, but you get the idea 🙂 ) under partial restrictions. Capacity limits, partial lockdowns, etc etc etc. Rightly or wrongly, I believe that the only way that governments around the world will relax things back to “normal” is if there is X% (80%?+) of the people vaccinated.
Complaining about the status quo, but yet not wanting to get vaccinated seem to be counter intuitive.
With the recent events in India, I dont see things changing unless the vaccination rate goes up.
Anyway, interesting discussion.
RE: the menu – is that where you get your Korean wings?
Kev, I knew you’d like that menu. John Kim is quite the foodie too. You could have long discussions with him about the nuances of each ingredient while you are eating.
There’s a lot I haven’t tried yet, but the bulgogi and french dip were excellent. And of course, the wings are my Wednesday ritual.
By the way, I wasn’t intentionally trolling. I just cut and pasted from a meme that wouldn’t let me save as a jpg. Well, when I put a space between the lines I somehow managed to leave a period in front of “me”. I will fix it now.
Soju, I checked and was told no one answered the door when they knocked at 0300. Sorry you missed your delivery!
Brian, thanks for the insights on the vaccine development process. Again, I’m not an anti-vaxxer, and it is good to know they were able to significantly shorten the timeline to make vaccines available. That bodes well for the next China unleashes a monster. I think the other measures governments have imposed to “flatten the curve” are counterproductive and have done more damage than they’ve prevented. If you are vulnerable, by all means, stay home. If you’ve taken the vaccine, you’re home-free, right? Same thing if you’ve already survived COVID. So, folks who choose not to vaccinate are not a danger to anyone other than themselves. Or so it seems to me.
Yes, indeed, my weekly ration of Korean-style chicken wings is from The Pub.
Masterful analysis by Brian.
The problem with any vaccine is that they are not 100% effective. So, if you are the only one vaccinated, and everyone else is not, you still have a chance of getting it. Statistically, if a large percentage has the vaccine, the odds go WAY WAY down that any one person will get it.
I agree that governments response has, in many cases, been overblown and ineffective, but (and this is a big but) I dont see it changing. The recent pictures of people dying in the parking lots of hospitals in India will only reinforce in their minds the need to “keep the hammer down” when there is a real (or perceived) outbreak.
I really believe that if the overall vaccination rate does not go up, a year from now, we will still be complaining that XX pub had to close for two weeks, capacity at YY is limited, if I want to travel to another country, I will have to quarantine for two weeks, regardless of if I was vaccinated or not, etc etc
Thailand was pretty much open. There was a recent flare up. What happened? Restrictions on restaurants, bars, etc.
Scenario #1 – high % vaccinated. Things get back to normal “relatively” quickly.
Scenario #2 – 50% vaccination rate. Periodic flare up of COVID. Restrictions resume for weeks, months until it subsides. Repeat for years.
At the risk of sounding like a communist or hippy, sometimes you just have to “take one for the team”, and have what’s good for society outweigh what I think is good for me personally.
Brian, I’m glad we didn’t take one for the team in 1776. I do understand your points, but I don’t like the precedent we are setting of allowing bureaucrats to take away our freedoms unilaterally. I’ve been assessing my own risk from the beginning of this fiasco, others can do the same. That’s what I said back when there was a complete lockdown and people complained that I kept on hiking. Stay home, stay safe! I can’t hurt you if you are in your basement.
Yes, it is scary what is happening in India. Lots of things are scary about India. I haven’t seen the numbers, though. Is the kill rate higher than the one-tenth of one percent it is in the rest of the world?