Grigory Lukin.com

Thursday night, and yet another step closer to becoming a Canadian.

Today was my long-awaited biometrics appointment at Service Canada. It was remarkably uneventful, aside from a fellow immigrant who was too cool (and angry) to stand in line. That security guard had the patience of a saint. After some perfunctory identity verification, the guy at Service Canada took my picture, got my fingerprints taken using a very sci-fi-looking device (like something you’d see in a 70s movie), and that was it. Remarkably uneventful for such a key event.

Online, my fellow wannabe-Canadians are a bit panicky about their timelines: earlier this year, the pandemic stopped all the immigration processing. They resumed in September – according to the Service Canada guy, they work evenings and weekends to process that backlog. That’s mighty impressive, and raises my opinion of Canada by yet another notch. (I know, I know, this country has some serious issues, but compared to the wannabe-dictatorship with mass shootings and caged children that I escaped in 2019, it’s pretty damn perfect.)

This was the last piece of the puzzle. Now I just need to hurry up and wait: at some point between now and early February, I’ll get my permanent residence, and all of this will have been worth it. So close. So very, very close…

In culinary adventures, I’ve decided to try and get more protein from actual food, as opposed to my amazing protein smoothie. (It’s got ~80 grams of protein, and I’m not entirely sure that’s such a good idea.) That resulted in some interesting dietary decisions. Yesterday, I gobbled up six cups of Greek yogurt. Today, I force-fed myself a pound of chicken while contemplating the life choices I’d made to end up at that point. Heh. And they lockdown life is boring.

The stock market is slowly but surely crashing after the Monday election/vaccine euphoria. The smartest thing to do would’ve been to sell my skyrocketing stocks on Monday. I did the second-smartest thing by selling some of them on Tuesday, followed by slowly (but surely) buying them back as they declined in price by 10% or more. That’s risky, since the tide could always turn and I could miss out on another mini-rally, but I accept the risk. Nonetheless, with all the upcoming vaccine announcements there’ll almost certainly be more one-day spikes and mini-rallies, especially once the distribution begins: any vaccination campaign, no matter how small or where, will have a profound psychological effect on the entire world.

In covid news, this chronicle of a covid outbreak in Maine is equal parts fascinating and horrifying. A wedding reception had 55 guests. One had covid. After 38 days, 176 others got infected because of that one person, and seven died. (None of the seven had been at the wedding, so they didn’t even get to enjoy the damn cake.) Of particular interest is the fact that people kept going to work once they started showing symptoms. That’s an almost uniquely American phenomenon at this point: a combination of stubbornness and lack of social net: they either didn’t want to skip work or couldn’t afford to. Perhaps both.

The Maine outbreak was remarkably well researched, but it was just one of many: a perfect postmortem of a typical cluster, of which there are so many… Weddings, funerals, birthday parties, all sorts of gatherings people want to have despite the odds. Diwali starts in two days, and will likely lead to even more clusters, even denser groups of people celebrating and sharing their germs… This is gonna be a long winter.

Wednesday night. The end of the beginning of the end of the week.

Have I mentioned that I love Canadian holidays? Because I love Canadian holidays. There are 13 of them in Ontario vs 5-6 in the US, and the occasional day off is an amazing chance to recharge. Today was a somber holiday, of course, and I did my part to join the world in spirit at the 11th minute of the 11th hour.

I made the most of this day off by hitting the grocery store during the off-peak afternoon hours: I probably could’ve lasted a few more days, but those bananas and bread ended up looking pretty sketchy. Oddly enough, the local “Play It Again Sports” store (like Gamestop but for sports equipment) had a lot of weight plates in stock. I remember them being completely empty around two months ago, so this is an interesting turnaround. (Maybe they’ve finally fixed the supply chain?) I’ve just looked up my own archive: huh, I’ve started my strength-training regimen 59 days ago, all the way back on day 184. Time really does fly… I ended up buying another 40 lbs of weight plates for my dumbbells: a bit challenging, but I’ll likely get used to it by the end of the month. Bigger, better, stronger, eh?

The hair on my temples is now long enough to blow into my eyes when I drive with the window open. What an interesting sensation…

In covid news, there’s a new data reporting portal – Covid Exit Strategy. I don’t know if they’re as non-partisan and objective as they claim to be, but their data looks interesting. (Especially this wall of indicators over yonder.) According to them, 47 out of 50 states are currently in the “uncontrolled spread” mode, with Vermont, Maine, and Hawaii being mildly better. That is not encouraging… In one of my old haunts (Reno, NV – I’ve had a lot of haunts), the main hospital is setting up a triage area in their parking garage. This may sound shocking here and now, but I’m afraid it’ll become the new normal if more hospitals get overrun during the coming winter.

Things aren’t looking all that good in Canada, either. In Ontario, the positivity rate among those tested hit 5.7%, the highest it’s been since late May. Moving in a wrong direction here, and all the talking heads on the news agree that a new lockdown is almost certainly coming: they just don’t know the specifics quite yet. The fact that Doug Ford, the guy running the province, doesn’t seem to understand basic math is certainly not helping. Ho hum.

Try not to join the grim statistics out there, y’all.

Tuesday night, Remembrance Day Eve.

Today was an unexpected anniversary: 150 consecutive days of learning French (and/or Spanish) on DuoLingo. Time flies when you’re hiding out from a poorly understood highly infectious virus! Who knows, maybe eventually I’ll be able to do French improv like this absolute legend of a guy.

Remembrance Day is tomorrow: it’s not a full official holiday in Canada, but we still get a day off at work. This holiday is huge here. I don’t go out much lately (because, you know, the plague) but I remember seeing a lot of folks wearing poppies on their lapels last fall. Thinking back, I can’t recall ever seeing anyone in the US do that, and I lived all over the country… Peaceful people, these Canadians. I wonder if that’s because they take deliberate steps to remember their wars, or simply because they never felt the need to fight their way onto the world stage like the US did ever since the Spanish-American War of 1898.

I’m becoming even more of a brain in a jar. Workdays get longer, there’s less time to myself, and there’s really no other outlet aside from work: no strangers to hang out with, no dates or group meetups… My 11th work anniversary is less than a fortnight away: in a way, that’s the longest relationship of my life. (Sad, I know. Bigly sad.) With nothing else to do, that’s the sole recipient of all my energy and creativity: even accounting for the fact that 2020 is a year filled with unpredictability, I’m still finding a lot of weak spots and money-saving opportunities for them. (Being a financial analyst/controller and all.) This might result in a promotion next quarter. We’ll see.

I’m currently binge-watching The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, and it most definitely lives up to all the praise. The casting, the acting, the fine attention to detail – it all comes together to make chess, of all things, an exciting topic for a TV show. (I wonder if that’ll set off yet another pandemic fad, with lots of new chess hobbyists playing with each other online.) A great, well made, and feminist show – five stars, two thumbs up, etc, etc.

In covid news, Vice President Mike Pence was about to go to Florida on vacation this week – but after the news got leaked, he cancelled his trip in a hurry. Normally, that wouldn’t be so bad, but he also happens to be in charge of the covid task force. At this point in the game, the task force is just a bad joke: the top doctors have given up on it, they hardly ever meet, and even a news junkie like myself can’t think of a single thing they did to fight the pandemic. Even so, that’s terrible optics when over 100,000 Americans get covid each day, and the town of El Paso, Texas, has to request 10 morgue trucks due to a spike in covid deaths.

…and in political news, Trump still hasn’t conceded to Biden, and appears to be fighting his loss in every way he can think of. His campaign is filing frivolous lawsuits, he’s sharing all sorts of conspiracy theories on Twitter, etc. Most worryingly, he fired his Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, as well as senior Department of Defense officials, replacing them with loyalists. Some folks online are concerned about a potential coup attempt, but that’s the same brilliant administration that couldn’t book a Four Seasons hotel. If and when they try something funny, they’re far more likely to shoot themselves in the foot – and nick their femoral artery in the process.

Stay safe out there, folks.

Monday night, a fine end to a fantastic day.

No boring personals news this time around – just the amazing covid-related stuff. Earlier today, Pfizer announced that their covid vaccine is 90% effective. That’s way higher than everyone’s original estimate (40-60%) and downright amazing if you consider that the virus is only about a year old. (Humanity can get shit done, but only if we really, really feel like it.) The phase 3 trial is still in progress, so there’ll be more to come.

It’s pretty funny: Russia couldn’t let westerners have all the glory, so they followed up with their own press release. They claim their Sputnik V vaccine is also 90% effective, but there are no clinical trials and no data, so they just expect us to trust them. Suuuuure, comrades. Putin might as well say that he has an amazing girlfriend but she lives in Canada, so we’ll never get to meet her. It’s rather sad, really.

The stock market had a ridiculous rally today, mostly due to the vaccine news, partly because Biden’s victory got finalized over the weekend. Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like this… Stocks in my porfolio have gone up by anywhere between 9%-39%. (That is not a typo. Yes, one of them went up by thirty-nine percent.) My portfolio’s performance is finally the right side up, eh. A few months ago, I invested in recovery: travel, tourism, commercial real estate, etc. I did not quite call the bottom on all of them, so there was some downward momentum, but once the economy fully recovers, my investments will double – or more. For now, I’m quite content with the knowledge that an awful lot of short-sellers ended up losing lots of cash today. And hey, my overall portfolio went up by 19.4% today. Like I said, I’ve never seen anything like this.

There will be more news later on. Pfizer’s competitors will announce their own vaccine efficiency rates. Pfizer will end their phase 3 and almost certainly get an emergency approval from the FDA. (Dr.Fauci said he fully expects the first vaccinations to take place before the end of the year.) There will be plans for recovery put in place. But there’ll also be more and more new covid cases, more deaths, more economic uncertainty. It’ll be a whiplash cycle of great and terrible news, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sunday night. Yet another week closer to becoming a permanent Canadian, eh.

Today was filled with frugal low-key hedonism: snacking on random foods, not exercising (yay designated cheat day), playing video games… I spent over an hour of my precious weekend time trying to install an add-on for my MMORPG, Elder Scrolls Online. That was mostly unsuccessful. Is that a metaphor? It sure feels like one. In lieu of absolutely nothing, I’m going to finish the day by finally watching Downfall – the award-winning movie about Hitler’s last days as his empire collapsed around him.

I’ve had the first Skype chat in a while with xgf earlier today. She’s doing well, though her father has started marching around the house and literally yelling at his phone as he watches an endless stream of pro-Trump TikTok videos. He’s a Canadian and won’t be affected by Trump’s loss in any way whatsoever, but I’m guessing he took his idol’s downfall (heh) close to heart. Alas, xgf can’t afford to move anywhere else at this time… Her overall life is doing well, though, so good for her.

As for my romantic life: a few days ago, a local dude with a blank profile and a fetish for tickling people’s feet inquired about my availability. I declined his advances, put on my socks, and tried to view that in a positive light: there’s lots of diversity in this world, it turns out.

In covid news, the US has crossed 10,000,000 recorded covid cases. It’s hard to say how many there truly have been: testing was very nearly non-existent during the first months of the pandemic. We’ll never know the true number. Using the admittedly flawed methodology they do have, that last, 10th million had taken only 11 days… The new cases in the US keep increasing and setting new records with every passing day: each new million cases will come that much faster. You either understand exponential growth, or you get hit by it with the full force of an 18-wheeler as you jaywalk your way through life.

Stay safe out there, folks. If you’re in the US and stayed uninfected this long, your difficulty level will be progressively harder with every passing day, but you can do this, eh.

Saturday night. I’d pay a good chunk of change to know when my next weekend party will be. (Best case, four months out.)

The election nightmare is finally over. Now they’ll all get to take the weekend off before getting at each other’s throats again for the 2022 election. Ho hum. The most corrupt president in living memory has been defeated. That does call for a celebration. (In my case, an extra Tim Hortons meal and a day with no exercise.) Whoop-whoop.

But if you look just one level deeper… Trump received 7.6 million more votes than in 2016. People saw all he’s done, and decided that they want more of that, please and thank you. Biden was the most boring, most centrist candidate from the Democratic primary, and he ended up barely winning those last key states, with just a few thousand votes here and there. (I know, he got millions more votes overall, but we gotta play by the outdated system’s rules here, unfortunately.)

If not for the pandemic, of if Trump had been mildly more competent with his pandemic handling, or if someone even a bit more controversial than Biden had gotten the nomination, Trump would have gotten reelected. This was a victory, but a very fragile one, and one that shed light on some very disturbing truths that will not go away.

Sorry, y’all, but I’m going to remain in Canada – things are far from perfect here, but at least we don’t reward corruption with millions more votes after it gets exposed for all the world to see, eh.

In covid news, president-elect Biden addressed multiple issues during his first official speech. One of them was setting up a group of scientists and experts on Monday to brainstorm the best way to handle the pandemic. Unfortunately, neither they nor Biden will have any actual resources before the January inauguration, so even if they have a perfect plan, we’ll still get countless avoidable deaths between now and then… Ironically, Trump’s impromptu speech earlier today was held in the parking lot of a landscaping company, located between an adult bookstore and a crematorium. (I am not making this up.) I guess that’s a fitting end to his administration, whose motto in 2020 may as well have been “fuck off and die.” So it goes.

Wednesday night.

You gotta give America one thing: they know how to produce great entertainment. Somewhere out there, someone (or multiple someone) has probably been up for 39 hours straight, tracking the election results. That someone is probably pretty manic by now, and still has a few hours to go. (For the record: I am not that someone.) It’s still too early to call, with a lot of absentee ballots, mailed ballots, etc. The lead between Trump and Biden keeps widening and contracting. Biden seems to be the likely winner, but anything can happen. It’s all up to Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania now. It’s pretty funny that my old stomping ground, Reno, might decide the election.

It was pretty disturbing to see the footage of Trump’s supporters trying to break into the ballot-counting facility in Michigan, hitting the glass with their hands like so many zombies. Well, at least they’ve stopped pretending they believe in democracy, eh?

My landlords keep trying to engage me in political conversations, and I keep laughing that off, saying I’m a Canadian now and don’t really care. I’m still not entirely sure why they’re rooting for Trump – or care about the US election at all. Meh. I’m not really in the “older and wiser” category compared to my younger self, but I’ve learned enough not to get into pointless political arguments with those I live with.

I woke up and checked the news as soon as I woke up today and was disappointed to see there was no winner. Gonna try again tomorrow: if this mess finally ends, at least my social media feed will return to some sort of normalcy.

In covid news, Ontario’s premier Doug Ford (our own version of Trump) is in hot water after no one really bothered to read his 20-page powerpoint presentation, and everyone is equally mad at him. Under the new plan, there are five infection levels, and somehow, someway, that involves reopening businesses even as cases rise. (Nobody seems to understand why that includes karaoke bars, aka the riskiest potential clusters.) Restaurant owners are unhappy about the 9pm closing time and the yo-yo nature of closing/reopening. Epidemiologists are unhappy with the idea of reopening businesses even as cases rise. Everyone else is just unhappy in general. Heh. The guy tried to please everyone, and ended up pissing off them all instead. Just like the prisoner’s dilemma: instead of sticking to one strategy, he flip-flopped and got the worst of all possible outcomes.

In other, and far more disturbing, covid news: we may end up with covid-20. The virus has jumped from humans to rodents and back to humans, by way of minks. A dozen people got infected, and it looks like the potential covid-19 vaccines won’t help against this particular new strain, seeing as it downgrades the formation of ye olde antibodies. Denmark isn’t taking any chances and culling millions of minks. With luck, this will be just another bizarre development that goes nowhere. Unfortunately, luck is in short supply in 2020… Let’s just hope this isn’t our new normal, eh?