Wednesday evening.

Aside from this day’s designation being aesthetically pleasing, it’s just another Wednesday, just another week, just another month, soon to be just another year of the pandemic… Sometimes I wonder just how much time I spent on this blog series. Other times, I’m kind of glad I’ve kept it going: it forces me to think and keep track of events, no matter how small. If not for this weird daily ritual, I think I would’ve lost track of time altogether, eh.

Today’s highlight on the news was the continuing coverage of Trump’s second impeachment trial. Apparently, they showed some never-before-seen videos of the mob storming the Capitol. I didn’t watch: I’m well aware how bad the whole thing was, how close it came to succeeding, and how low the odds of a senate conviction are. (It requires two-thirds of the senators to vote in favour, I believe. Some of those voting had been involved in the attempted coup’s incitement.) Meanwhile, there are sob stories from the domestic terrorists who got identified and caught: with the help of their lawyers, they’re releasing statements saying they’re very sorry and made a mistake. (Which ended up getting multiple people killed.) There’s a particularly strange article that claims most of the 1/06 domestic terrorists had financial problems in the past. Funny: I was broke for years at one point, and never did develop the urge to overthrow the government.

It’s a dumpster-fire. If Trump isn’t convicted, and he likely will not be, it’ll be an even bigger dumpster-fire. The footage of this unprecedented impeachment trial will fuel thousands of future dissertations, though, so there’s that. (Unprecedented in that there had never been another president who tried to overthrow his own government.)

Aaaaanyway… My online broker, Ally (hitherto TradeKing, hitherto Zecco) finally responded to me, somewhat, about their glitch two weeks ago. (All it took was 3.5 hours on the phone since last Friday!) They claim there was so much trading activity on that Gamestop Wednesday that they couldn’t submit all of it to their clearinghouse at the end of that business day. Because of that, they claim, so many things from that day got so messed up, including the cost basis of six investments I made with my Gamestop gains. It’s been two weeks, and nothing has been fixed. They’ve promised to try to fix it if I give them just two more weeks. That really is ridiculous… On the off chance you’re reading this and thinking of dipping your toes into the investing world – stay the hell away from Robinhood, Ally, and many others. This is just a shout into the void, I know, but still – feels good to vent a bit.

In covid news, the CDC has updated its official mask recommendation. Now they officially want people to wear double masks to ensure their face is as safe as possible. (I’m a trend-setting trailblazer! Heh.) Dr Fauci had been spotted wearing double masks in the past, even before this guidance came out. And to think, merely a year ago the official message was “masks don’t work, please don’t wear them” – with the hidden intent of tricking people so there’d be more masks available for the medical personnel. (Anti-maskers still whip that out when they get rhetorically cornered. Me, I just find the whole 180-degree turnaround to be darkly amusing.) I hope my new home, which has far fewer coup attempts, will adopt the same guidance: Canada is still at least six months away from mass vaccinations, so any preventative measure will help.

Stay safe, y’all.