New variants are appearing as long as this virus is in wide circulation (global pandemic), but the weaker variants are none of our concern. They'll be wiped out easier thanks to natural selection. The delta variant is more dangerous than the original and more contagious. The mu variant is not widespread yet. We have to be prepared, but not in constant panic or fear.

There are breakthrough cases. Some vaccinated people have died but in very small number, less than 1% of the vaccinated as far as I know. You still may get sick after getting vaccinated, but it will be much less severe and less likely the need for hospitalization. That alone is a good reason to get one. This defense boost from the vaccines may not last long, but it's certainly better than nothing. There are long-lasting health effects from contracting the virus, long after you have recovered.

There's so much we don't know about the virus or the vaccines yet. It will take a lot of time to study those. This virus is new and quickly spread globally. The vaccines are a good measure to fight the pandemic we have at hand. We have to take those because people are dying.

I think the main problem we have with vaccine hesitancy is people's distrust of the institutions: the government, the pharmacy corporations, the media, some of the experts.

Reconnected with someone who I had lost contact with when the lockdown hit, and also got her contact information.

Which will likely be forever(or a very long time), as most experts are now leaning toward it becoming endemic.
(the world cannot vaccinate fast enough before new strains/variants emerge, as it's a rapidly mutating illness and it's hard/time consuming to deploy vaccine doses)

Ever think that maybe some (key word) have good reason to distrust such sources, due to various things in the past done/said by them?
(things like a number of MSM news channels often fearmongering to make things look worse than they are by doing things like keeping scary red counters on screen for most of last year and using CASE numbers instead of mortality numbers, and vaccine makers/etc trying to bar people from being treated using any effective alternative treatments)

Of course, i'm not saying people should distrust everything and everyone to a high degree....just that some healthy skepticism/etc can be a good thing sometimes(especially vs "blind acceptance" of things in general).

Agreed.

They are, in a way....if one gets sick with a weaker variant and survives, that's much better than if they get a worse variant(less chance of survival, higher chance of side effects after survival)

True, but (like with the mortality rates) the rates for such are thankfully quite low (of all those who contract the illness).

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All the above said, I am keeping an open mind and still watching for more long term/etc studies. If the vaccines are eventually shown to be safe/effective by independent studies over time, I will most likely look into them a bit more.
(thankfully I don't need one atm due to factors like being not too old/in decent health, not going out much, and the fact that the at risk member of my house has already been vaccinated)

As I am a person who enjoys art, today's purchase of a landscape painting on the wall made me very happy. Now I will hang it in my room, + one for my collection.

Can't say I have.

I went to test drive the Renault Zoe (electric car) yesterday. It felt quite nice, tested it on the motorway at 120km/h (which is the highest speed limit in Finland), which it handled quite fine.

I was both delighted and a bit disappointed that driving it didn't really feel different at all from driving a combustion engine (automatic transmission) car... I guess I was expecting it to feel more special and futuristic, more... electrifying!

But in the end, it was just a car. Quite boring to drive actually, but I guess that is just a good thing. Boring means relaxed.

Anyway, the car dealer offered only 1000€ (!!!) for my old car in exchange. Frankly I felt that was too low so I told him I'll need to think about it a bit more, making it clear that I felt the offer for the old car is too low. So I took pictures of my car yesterday and put it on sale online today, at something like 3300€. 13 minutes after releasing the ad, I already got the first offer, but he was willing to offer "only" 2000€. I'll wait some more, I think I am ready to part with it for 2700€ or so.

Anyway, damn it gasoline is expensive here! Today I filled the tank of that car (which is a rather small car with a small-ish tank), and the fill-up cost me 72 euros! Dang I really need the electric car, to cut my driving expenses...

Delaying buying an electric car to next year would make sense though because I just learned they are going to remove the car purchase tax from electric cars next year. For that Renault Zoe, the tax is around 750€.

I am now selling my old Toyota for 2300€ (it will be picked on Saturday or Sunday), and today I went to order my Renault Zoe electric car, which should arrive at about 3 weeks from now.

So I will be 3 weeks without a car, as I sold my old car much faster than I imagined (within a day after releasing the ad online). Suits me fine as I will be working from home this and next week anyway... and apparently also the week after that, as I can't get to my workplace without a car, after all. (Well, technically I could use public transport, but as it is in a different city, it would take me over 3 hours to get there with public; 40 minutes with my own car).

The car costs around 30.000€ here in Finland, quite expensive. First I thought I'd pay something like 8000-10000€ with real money and then the rest with a car loan... but then I learned the interest rate for the car loan is a fat juicy nothing (0%)... so why the heck should I not take the whole price as a car loan, with such an interest rate???

So I did, and I will be paying something over 400€/month for the car for the next six years. Whatever, I will use that 8000€ on weed, fast women and cheap wine. And maybe a gaming laptop at some point.

Man, I feel so rich when I take a huge loan!

EDIT: WOOHOO! I just read that the tax on electric cars will be removed 1st of October... meaning I will save little over 700€ more on my car (ie. its price will be that much lower). What an excellent timing, as I will not get my car until October, so I won't be paying that tax either.

Good job!

Now, just make sure you have some way to charge your car, as that's something you need to do with electric cars that you're probably not used to doing. (With your old car, I assume you just went to the gas station every now and then, put gas into your car, and could immediately use the fuel; with electric cars, you need to charge them, which takes time, and charging stations (at least where I'm from) are significantly less common than gas stations.)

(If you haven't already, maybe use some of that 8000€ on a charging station to have at home, unless one is provided with the car.)

Naturally I have a (slow) charging capability at home which will charge the car every night while I am asleep, and also at work. So charging is not a problem for me. I personally think that if you don't have a place to charge the car every night, then you should not get an electric car, period.

Also, I realize that if I want to make e.g. a skiing trip to northern Finland (800km or more away from my home) in the middle of the coldest winter, then an electric car is not an optimal choice, as it might need charging every 250km or so in a cold weather. At that point I would probably choose either of the two:

1. Use a car-train option, ie. travelling most of that long trip with a train (my car on-board), and then drive the last leg with the car. That's what I did one summer when I travelled from my home in southern Finland to northern Norway (Tromsö), a 1300km long trip. I travelled most of that trip with a train, and only the last leg with my car.

2. Leave the electric car home, and rent a combustion engine car for the long winter trip. Combustion engine cars are better in cold winter, no argument there.

BTW as I am not an environmentalist, I really don't care at all how much CO2 my car is producing. So that was not my reason to go with an electric car (that is what many people seem to expect if you tell them you have or are going to buy an electric car).

It was just that I don't feel like using 350-400€ each month for gasoline alone (the electricity needed for the same trips should cost only a fraction of that; gasoline is very heavily taxed in Finland while electricity is quite cheap), and also the small nerd in me like the simple technology in electric cars, like how it has no (or doesn't need so much) transmission, and its engine is quite simple, not needing any motor oils or anything...

And I guess it is nice it is not releasing any small particles to the air either.

Apparently, where I am, the environmental impact of an electric car is comparable to that of a hybrid car (considering fuel/electricity costs). I don't know how it compares in terms of price. (Remember, you may save money by not using fuel, but you still have to pay for electricity.)


Of course, the power plant (or generator) used to charge the car might, depending on what the source of power is. (Ideal would be something like solar power, but that may not be available; I hear it's cheaper than fossil fuels now, but the plants still have to be built, and of course there's still the environmental impact of making the solar panels in the first place.)

Friday, finally!

^ This! :)

Cocaine

was too evil troll

removed