MX Linux Forum

We've been on lockdown for a while now and I'm starting to lose it.
I bought a new microphone, new monitor, a new bicycle...All online...etc....Wont mention the small stuff.
How are you guys dealing with it?

No, my purchasing has gone way down. Next to nothing, and no tech purchases at all.

Big difference for me is I've had time to try a bunch of different distros. Sid-based antiX with runit has been the most fun so far. Artix is an Arch distro with openRC, runit or S6 instead of systemd - I've had a lot of fun with the openRC version. Recently I tried BunsenLabs, and was amazed at what they could do with openbox. I've also tried a couple of BSD distros, and found GhostBSD to be almost ready to be a serious contender.

Less, because morons have panic bought most things like household items etc. that I need.

you are not allowed through the Shire Boundary,
unless you do a have an valid reason .. Medical Appointment / Weekly Shopping
or have an Work Permit, from your Employer.

makes No Difference to me .. tap tap tap .. keyboard still works.

I got me an air conditioner.. but I was thinking of getting one anyway, with the 40+ C heat last year.

TeleWork - I used to work in an office. Then, about 4 weeks ago, got permission to move my operations to my home desk.

Oh, and the grand-kids keep me busy. The DW and I convinced the kids that the grands were safer here than at home because we don't interact with the public and they do. Lots of fun. The DW is a retired teacher so the kids aren't missing much of their education either - school teachers have been making a lot of the instruction set available on-line.

So, all in all, we're coping.

As for the question - buying more? No, not really. Trying to limit expenditures for the next little while.

About the same, actually. I purchased my laptop a year ago and I built my desk top three years ago. I also have a lap top and desk top that that I acquired recently as cast-offs. The only 'tech' purchases I see on the horizon will be paper and a toner cartridge for my laser printer.

I've always bought cat food and kitty litter in bulk because it's substantially cheaper to do so.

As for food for me, I can cook so I rarely eat out. I also don't drink alcohol (25 years sober), so that's not an expense anymore. I generally shop for groceries every 14-15 days.

I've also got lots of toilet paper. Up until recently, my 96 year old mother was living with us and she's demented and incontinent (both types) so we always had to have lots of toilet paper on hand. FWIW, we finally were able to get her into a good long term care facility three weeks ago (nice timing, eh?). The way it works in Ontario is that you put the candidate on a waiting list for up to five care homes of your choice. When a placement comes up at one of the five, you have five days to accept or reject the placement. If you reject the placement, the candidate is dropped from the waiting list and you must wait three months before you can re-apply. The upshot was that we felt we had no choice but to accept.

The Wife bought a Kitchen Aid Mixer for like $280.00 we bake a lot.

I bought a new charcoal grill cost like $40.00 we grill outdoors a lot.

I bought two inexpensive bass guitars and two small amps. Been practicing more with my guitars lately keeping busy during this mess. Luckily I had a birthday last month and some spending money. I know not many people have fared so well with all the business shutdowns and such.
Nothing better than music to pick you up in gloomy times.

The wife and I are minimalists and do go out and buy things just because. We have everything we need along with a few of our wants.
We have not been able to buy any rubbing alcohol or TP since the governor shut IL down. Those items are not in stores when I've been there. I know how to get them if/when needed.
We have made more online purchases since the shutdown began to save some trips to the store.

No difference for me,i'm a minimalist too

If "minimalist" means cheap and broke, then count me in too.

Anyone in the US making plans to spend their pandemic stimulus check? It's a large enough chunk of change that it has me contemplating a serious hardware upgrade. Especially with linux-centric hardware possibilities like System76 and Purism around. Although, being cheap and broke minimalist as well, I'll probably cave and spend it on something boring, like food and bills.

not buying or spending as much, I'm still working but wife is laid off, but we are comfortable. So mostly just being careful because I don't know how long this thing is going to last.

I am not sure I am qualified to answer since here in Sweden we dont have a lockdown. But there is not much to do since I dont want to risk getting the flu, or maybe one could say that I am atleast on a partial lockdown :) I dont buy more or less than before. I travel less though, so I do spend less money.

imschmeg wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 12:33 pm Anyone in the US making plans to spend their pandemic stimulus check?

Haven't received ours yet, but the wife has already spend it! I told her a month ago "we have to freeze purchases" until we see what the impact of this virus is going to be. Well, she's been so anxious lately that she stays up almost all night shopping online (cloths, make-up and jewelry mostly). So just last night I totaled up the bills (credit cards mostly) coming due in the next two weeks, and it's almost double the stimulus amount we expect to receive.

I'd like to see a stats breakdown of global confirmed cases and deaths, comparing flu with covid.

imschmeg wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 12:33 pm Anyone in the US making plans to spend their pandemic stimulus check?

You're getting money in return for a pandemic??
I want that too!

MX_GRD wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 1:59 pm I'd like to see a stats breakdown of global confirmed cases and deaths, comparing flu with covid.

Why? I hope you are not living in denial of how serious this virus is.

his post is only illusory.

Eventually however for now I'll leave it in the checking account.

Neil wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 1:42 pm

imschmeg wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 12:33 pm Anyone in the US making plans to spend their pandemic stimulus check?

Haven't received ours yet, but the wife has already spend it! I told her a month ago "we have to freeze purchases" until we see what the impact of this virus is going to be. Well, she's been so anxious lately that she stays up almost all night shopping online (cloths, make-up and jewelry mostly). So just last night I totaled up the bills (credit cards mostly) coming due in the next two weeks, and it's almost double the stimulus amount we expect to receive.

Oh boy, not good.

I am hoping for the best but planning for the worst.

If I would spend that money it would on more things that are needed for actual survival, especially if this continues for more than another six months.
I still feel things are going to get worse before they get better. People need to take it seriously like anti said.

We can only hope that things pick up rather than descend into chaos.

To MX_GRD

Here is a link to show how much more deadly the coronavirus is than the seasonal flu in the US

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronav ... tes-2020-3

It is almost a month out of date and the situation in terms of covid deaths is even worse than shown in this article.

Definitely spending a less than normal, mostly on fuel because we run 2 cars and that alone saves us quite a bit.

I had some birthday cash to spend, but suddenly, nobody was dealing with cash, so I've still got it. With the $350 fuel savings, I purchased an ex-demo Linksys WRT1900ACS v2 Router with full warranty. While it was in Demo, someone had loaded ExpressVPN and that caused me quite the headache because the router was more sensitive to power off corruption than anything else I'd ever seen. It was soft-bricked twice where both boot partitions failed to boot, so I purchased a Serial USB TTY adapter just in case I needed to do a hard firmware flash.

In the meantime, I managed to get just 1 boot out of it and that was enough to install OpenWRT. It's working great now and I've built a custom firmware which I am yet to load because the family need their internet to be working as the lad schools form home and the wife continues her study.

Building a large shaded carport is my only extra expense presently. By my lone some since spacing is required. Staying home, mostly.

anticapitalista wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 4:16 pm To MX_GRD

Here is a link to show how much more deadly the coronavirus is than the seasonal flu in the US

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronav ... tes-2020-3

It is almost a month out of date and the situation in terms of covid deaths is even worse than shown in this article.

Thanks; stats put things in perspective.

Spending much less. Then again, I started some serious stocking up on groceries beginning end of January. So now, being old, retired, and careful, don't go anywhere. I do a lot of pro bono system admin, but it's all remote and on-line. Even though we're in a low-risk area (not urban) I think I've been to the small Navy Commissary twice in the last month for fresh produce.

I have been doing much more booing at certain televised COVID press conferences, that's for sure.

Mom already has ours spent. When things get tough (or uncertain, or just uncomfortable or inconvenient), Mom goes shopping. It's a really sore point with Dad, who says we have nothing saved up for emergencies.

rokytnji.1 wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:27 pm Building a large shaded carport is my only extra expense presently. By my lone some since spacing is required. Staying home, mostly.

Whatever that little red trucklike thing is, I like it!

I spend much less
! I travel a lot and in Germany are strong travel restrictions for tourist purposes. I save about 300€/month on fuel and again as much on the usual "additional costs".
At home I live very minimalistic.

Whatever that little red trucklike thing is, I like it!

Cushman Truckster. Air cooled boxer motor with 3 speed tranny . Real simple.

It is my glorified wheel barrow.

nice! my compact tractor can't get into all places around here with all of the paths - but is a saviour.

We are spending way more on groceries than in the past. Trying to stay a couple weeks ahead on everything we need groceries and otherwise. And praying we don't have a power outage or its gonna cost us. Otherwise being very careful about staying away from big or unnecessary purchases. I believe all the people who have been in a lock down and unable to work will end up creating an artificial scarcity of items in the months ahead and price increases. I also suspect that will affect food prices eventually because of hoarding and scarcity because of breakdown in supply lines. I look for a very uneven supply of products due to the staggered and in some cases unending shutdowns scattered across the U.S.

After I build my carport. Next will be garden and a sun still.

Mom and Dad taught me a few things/tricks since they grew up in concentration camps.

They know the cost of a potato. Had a buddy stop by yesterday and ask if I was available to hang out and ride with him this weekend. The rules for rural TX and New Mexico are looser than large pop. city rules. Me being sore from construction.

It is a welcome break.

I'm trying to get more usage out of things I already have.

I've been buying more groceries than usual, especially non-perishable items in case there's a two-week lockdown of my purok if someone in it gets sick. That kind of sucks because I don't drive or own a vehicle and all public transportation is banned, so I have to walk to supermarkets then carry all my groceries home. Also buying lots of snacks and treats. I'm sure I've put on weight from eating out of boredom. I've also been buying more of other things when I can get them (i.e. cat and dog food) because with my city's borders closed and the major source for these is the neighboring large city they can be hard to get. They're talking about possibly opening the borders soon, and if they do and I can get pet food delivered again I'll probably buy a double order, two sacks of each, just in case they close the borders again in a few days or weeks. There's not much stock on supermarket shelves either so I have to buy things when they happen to be available then put them away for later. (And of course I keep craving things that I can't get right now.)

I have a friendly neighbor who owns a sari-sari store and goes shopping for supplies for it almost every day, and she's been good about picking things up for me if I give her a list and she happens to see them, so I don't have to go shopping myself more than one or two times a month other than to get some fresh fruit and veggies at the neighborhood market once a week. Yesterday she got me two packages of cheese slices for my (ham and cheese) sandwiches for lunches, and I've been out of cheese since late March.

I'm getting kind of tired of chicken and hot dogs. Along with covid19 there's an outbreak of African Swine Flu in the Philippines so there's not much pork available (and the Phils isn't cattle country other than carabaos (Philippine water buffalos) so there's not much beef available and I don't care that much for bony fish.) What beef there was available was only sold in a few supermarkets that I no longer have access to, so all I can get for meat is chicken and chicken hot dogs. I was finally able to find packages of cooked ham slices last week though: before that it was peanut butter and jam or fried egg sandwiches (NtTAWWT.)

Using my trump check for

http://xlforum.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2076653

Bikes History

http://xlforum.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1996179

imschmeg wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 12:33 pm Anyone in the US making plans to spend their pandemic stimulus check? It's a large enough chunk of change that it has me contemplating a serious hardware upgrade. Especially with linux-centric hardware possibilities like System76 and Purism around. Although, being cheap and broke minimalist as well, I'll probably cave and spend it on something boring, like food and bills.

I spent my stimulus check on rent. Im a month ahead now although my job seems pretty secure. It seems the US govt has need for missile silos. Been machining parts for them on going since I got new job which has been well over a year, and I dont see an end in sight. Last month I bought a 7in lift for my 2007 Tundra. If the sh*t hits the fan I can head up to the mountains where not everyone can travel and lay low. Sounds a little paranoid, but things have gotten weird lately.

Used my Trump Check for 25lbs bulk red quinoa, 40lbs bulk lentils, 500rds 9mm, a spring steel core belt, a GOOD holster for my Springfield Hellcat, 3 new pairs of Alloy extra tall jeans, and as many cans of chicken as Walmart would let me order (I live in a rural area, approximately 250 miles of desert from the nearest Walmart or Costco). And paid off one small credit card account.

anticapitalista wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 4:16 pm To MX_GRD

Here is a link to show how much more deadly the coronavirus is than the seasonal flu in the US

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronav ... tes-2020-3

It is almost a month out of date and the situation in terms of covid deaths is even worse than shown in this article.

Interesting site. But our numbers are far from complete yet.
Death rate of confirmed cases is indeed quite high, especially among the elderly.
But random testing shows actual infections are about 6x confirmed cases because the vast majority fight it off without experiencing sufficient symptoms to see a doctor or be tested. That brings the mortality down to a fraction of 1% of cases. Not quite as low as flu (as expected, most people have some resistance to flu already) but not the existential emergency first predicted. The new cases are diminishing in Florida where I live and less than 0.01% of the population has died from COVID-19. For perspective, that's in the neighborhood of 5% of the normal background mortality rate. It will be months before we know how many "excess deaths" Covid-19 is responsible for.
Of course, Florida is not New York or Spain. Some of the difference is lower population density, some is better bureaucratic decisions, some is luck, some is climate.