I added a banner to go along with my Long Covid Awareness Day post.

“International Long Covid Awareness Color Codes: Teal: #18929A, Grey: #939393, and Black: #000000”

https://www.longcovidawareness.life/graphics

Aside: I quite like this teal color. I might have to work that into my site in some places in the longer term.

Previously, Previously

March 15 is Long Covid Awareness Day.

“Long Covid is a multi-systemic disease following a COVID infection, this includes severe, mild, or asymptomatic infections. Long Covid can occur in young and healthy people, including children.

The wide range of symptoms and conditions caused by Long Covid can last for weeks, months, or years.

There are currently no proven treatments or cures for Long COVID.​”

— What Is Long Covid? International Long Covid Awareness

If there were two things I wish people would understand about Long Covid, they would be:

1. People are at risk of Long Covid after each infection, regardless of how “mild” the symptoms were. That risk is cumulative; each infection increases the risk.
2. The research is young. Since there are a variety of symptoms and no tests/treatment currently, the best way to avoid Long Covid is to avoid Covid infections.

As always, I recommend a layered approach to prevention: wear high-quality respirators, clean the air, and stay up-to-date on your vaccinations, if possible.

Additional Information

Definition of Long Covid:

• The ILCA is working on a community and patient-driven definition of Long Covid, to be announced later this month
• A Long COVID Definition: A Chronic, Systemic Disease State with Profound Consequences from National Academies of Sciences
• A clinical case definition of post COVID-19 condition by a Delphi consensus, 6 October 2021 from The World Health Organization

Advocates and Communicators:

• Julia Doubleday: has Long Covid and writes The Gauntlet newsletter sharing public health information and commentary. Check out her What is Long Covid? post.
• Kelly: disabled and chronically ill writer. Check out her Long Covid Awareness Day 2026 post.
• Michael Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA: Runs the great Covid-19 Data Dashboard tracking wastewater data in the US and estimating the spread
• Dr. Lucky Tran: Scientist, science communicator, public health and climate justice advocate
• Babs on Bluesky and TikTok. Check out her thread from last year’s Long Covid Awareness Day

Research:

• Long COVID in Young Children, School-Aged Children, and Teens doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.1415

  “Long COVID is common, affecting up to 10% to 20% of children with a history of COVID-19. With almost 6 million US children potentially affected, this is higher than the number of children with asthma, the most common chronic health problem in children.”

• Experiences of Canadians with long-term symptoms following COVID-19

  “As seen in Chart 2, Canadians reporting two known or suspected COVID-19 infections (25.4%) were 1.7 times more likely to report prolonged symptoms than those reporting only one known or suspected infection (14.6%), and those with 3 or more infections (37.9%) 2.6 times more likely.”

General:

• World Health Network’s Long Covid blog posts
• Post COVID-19 condition (long COVID) from the World Health Organization
• CDC: Long COVID Basics As compromised as the Department of Health and Human Services is under this regime, this page is still currently a good summary from what I can tell.
• Wikipedia: Long Covid

Previously

I really enjoyed watching Winged Migration (2001). Some breathtaking footage of bird migrations all around the world. I was shocked how close some of the footage was and learned via Wikipedia that the filmmakers raised several species from birth so they would imprint on the staff and be accustomed to the ultralights and camera equipment.

Thanks to Fractal Kitty for the recommendation for IndieWeb Movie Club!

I ordered a dirty chai and I complimented the barista on his handwriting as he wrote out this “Chai.” As he drew the “X”, he explained he used to write “Chai XXX” since, ya know, dirty chai. Then he figured, “Why not Chai XCX?”. Much appreciated handwriting and wordplay.

A San Diego mutual aid organizer I’m connected with needs some urgent jaw surgery and treatment after the last surgery didn’t go so well. gofund.me/3fa8dcf45

Any amount helps and boosting is much appreciated. 💛

Previously

Sometimes the difference between critic and listener reviews for music is wild. I’m trying to listen to A Grand Don’t Come for Free from the 1001 Albums project. It apparently has a 91/100 on Metacritic, but a slew of 1-star listener ratings. I’m definitely leaning towards the 1-star crowd.

I was reminded of Paradigm Shift’s 1995 self-titled album and how good it was. It’s not on any streaming services since the label is defunct, but there are some high quality YouTube uploads for it (playlist).

I started digging to see if they’re still making music. It looks like they are, with the latest track released in 2024:

“Talk to Me” (2024)
“Force One” (2023)

Their domain paradigmshiftbeats.com redirects to their Facebook, facebook.com/PShiftBeats. They are also on Instagram, instagram.com/pshiftbeats

One of the co-founders, Chris Sawyer, passed away in 2013 according to this Facebook post.

I’m sharing this letter I just sent to the 7 House Democrats that voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Feel free to borrow any language from this letter and give them hell yourself. I also recommend contacting your senators to urge them not to pass this budget.

Edit: if you are sending email, their websites require a mailing address to show you are a constituent in their district. Thankfully, they include their district mailing address right in the footer! 🤔

To:
Rep. Henry Cuellar
Rep. Jared Golden
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
Rep. Laura Gillen
Rep. Donald Davis
Rep. Tom Suozzi
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez

It is unconscionable that you would vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security after the blatant human rights abuses they’ve demonstrated.

These are all things you knew — or should have known — before your vote:

• At least 32 people died in ICE custody last year. 7 of those were in December alone. It was the deadliest year in over two decades. Source: “2025 was ICE’s deadliest year in two decades. Here are the 32 people who died in custody”, The Guardian, 2026-01-04
• Silverio Villegas González was killed by an ICE agent in Chicago September 12, 2025.
• Keith Porter was killed by an off-duty ICE agent in Los Angeles December 31, 2025.
• Geraldo Lunas Campos was killed while in ICE custody in Texas January 3, 2026.
• Renée Good was murdered by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026.

These are just some of the prominent cases we are aware of. Every day there is ample new video evidence of agents acting with violence and intimidation towards people. They act as an unaccountable paramilitary force instead of a civil immigration enforcement agency.

Rep. Suozzi, you referred to your responsibility “...to govern, not to lurch from one manufactured crisis to the next.” These are human lives, not manufactured crises. You are naive if you think “additional training and the use of body cameras” is going to stop these authoritarians.

Rep. Gillen, you said this bill is about “stopping child trafficking,” except the immigration enforcement actions you are supporting are literally ripping children from their families and shipping them across the country.

Rep. Davis, you said that “...reliable support for natural relief is non-negotiable.” Your vote for this clearly communicates that the violence and death detailed above is negotiable.

Rep. Cuellar, your statement on this bill doesn’t even acknowledge ICE or the atrocities your vote funds. Shame.

Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez (representative’s statement), no agency is ever sacrosanct and calling for defunding an agency over its rampant abuses is absolutely a solution. ICE is only 23 years old and we had civil immigration enforcement before that.

Rep. Gonzalez, your statement speaks “regrettably” about ICE abuses as if you’re not in a position to do something about it. The next best thing you can offer is you asked administration officials to let the President know about the negative effects ICE raids are having? Naive and weak.

All of you: grow a spine.

If you do not have the courage that this moment requires to oppose these authoritarian human rights abuses, I and many others will work tirelessly to ensure you do not get reelected.

Regarding this present moment, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg offers a prayer. In part:

“Notice all the layers of emotion you might be having about this–

the terror, rage, despair, helplessness, anguish, hope, heartbreak, and/or something else.

Just notice?

The great lie that we're separate from each other – that hate is logical, that stealing human beings or hurling bullets makes sense – is related to the lie that we're separate from the Earth and all things.

However you do it, find a way to lift something up from your heart today.”

— “how to face the horrors of now” by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

Fun

• Need some encouragement to blog? Ava’s got some GIFs for you.
• Eric Mill posted 10 games he loved in 2025. This massive Sudoku Metroidvania jumped out at me. I’ve started on it and expect it to be a loooong one.
• Ekul.me is a newer member of the IndieWeb community and has a lot of fun things on his site: a retro computer terminal aesthetic, icons showing other visitors’ mouse movements on the page, tracking Monster Energy intake, and a map that IndieWeb people can add themselves to.

Music

• New earworm: “Divorce Horse Court” by Queen Frog

Tech

• Cory Doctorow wrote this great bit. No notes:

  I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows.

  — Sorry, eh by Cory Doctorow

Health

• duringcovid.com: I was feeling some frustration with people’s use of “during covid” and thought about setting up a single-serving website. I was pleased to find someone else already did.
• Loved Ava’s post “yes, i still wear a mask.” Don’t be mean to people who are wearing masks!

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg:

“Notice all the layers of emotion you might be having about this–

the terror, rage, despair, helplessness, anguish, hope, heartbreak, and/or something else.

Just notice?

The great lie that we're separate from each other – that hate is logical, that stealing human beings or hurling bullets makes sense – is related to the lie that we're separate from the Earth and all things.

However you do it, find a way to lift something up from your heart today.”

— “how to face the horrors of now” by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg how to face the horrors of now

Cory Doctorow: I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows.

★ Senior Yearbook Photo

I’m so weary of how people have internalized the propaganda that getting viral infections is no big deal.

Currently reading: The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin (ISBN 9780316229258)

Want to read: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (ISBN 9780593135204)

★★★★★ Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

This was a fantastic story of human connection spanning decades and the characters really drew me in. While a binding factor is their love for and creation of video games, I think it is still very accessible and hope that won’t put anyone off reading it. Read: it’s not just a story for gamers.

I keep coming back to this one line:

“Humans want so much. I am glad to be a bird.”

Finished reading: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (ISBN 9780593321218)

Media

• My friend Sheryl started up a video podcast! The first several episodes are up; here is the first one.
• I recently watched Dispatches from Elsewhere. I loved it and keep thinking about it. Beautiful stories about human connection and a fantastic cast. I might re-watch it and write some more about it.

Music

• I’m digging Placebo’s cover of “Running Up That Hill”. It’s the first song I’ve added to my 2026 playlist.

Fun

• infiniteballdrop.com takes the New Years Eve NYC ball drop and extrapolates the countdown to the whole year. Fun visualization! Note: turn your volume down before you click “Start” since the audio is a bit loud.

Health

• Crawford Killian wrote a good overview of what we’ve learned about COVID in its first six years:

  “Long COVID can last for years; it’s a personal disaster for those suffering from it, and a social and economic disaster for the country. Worse yet, a study in The Lancet Regional Health — Americas found repeated infections increase the risk of incurring long COVID.

  The COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, isn’t only a respiratory threat. It can migrate through the body, doing damage to many organs. One study found that the virus can invade the brain, causing injury and cognitive deficits.

  A recent Australian study reported that brain damage inflicted by COVID-19 can last years, long after people feel recovered from the disease. The consequences include problems with memory, cognition and overall brain health.”

  — COVID-19 Is Six Today. What We’ve Learned (archived) by Crawford Killian

Crawford Killian:

“Long COVID can last for years; it’s a personal disaster for those suffering from it, and a social and economic disaster for the country. Worse yet, a study in The Lancet Regional Health — Americas found repeated infections increase the risk of incurring long COVID.

The COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, isn’t only a respiratory threat. It can migrate through the body, doing damage to many organs. One study found that the virus can invade the brain, causing injury and cognitive deficits.

A recent Australian study reported that brain damage inflicted by COVID-19 can last years, long after people feel recovered from the disease. The consequences include problems with memory, cognition and overall brain health.”

reported personal disaster found found

Want to read: The Language of the Night by Ursula K. Le Guin (ISBN 9781668034903)

I enjoyed watching the replay of the Disabled Body of Christ’s Christmas Eve service. I’m reflecting on the prompt: “Where is one place in your life or the world where you want love to be born this Christmas?”

About the service:

“Disabled people are a necessary part of the Body of Christ. This is not a healing service because our bodies are not problems to be fixed and disabled bodies are also part of the Body of Christ just as we are.”

— Rev. Kate Harmon Siberine

It’s part of the Episcopalian church and streams Wednesdays at 11AM Eastern on TikTok. It is usually about 25 minutes long.

Rev. Kate Harmon Siberine: “Disabled people are a necessary part of the Body of Christ. This is not a healing service because our bodies are not problems to be fixed and disabled bodies are also part of the Body of Christ just as we are.”