Well ok, 2020 has been a little bit of a fizzer hasn’t it?
A fizzer is a fire cracker that promised a lot but just blew out a puff of smoke and a little fizz and I think that really sums up 2020 so far.
We’ve had a pandemic, lock downs, the end of international travel which is not expected back until 2024 and a whole bunch of other things to get us down. To top it all off there is a 0.41% chance our planet will be hit by an asteroid on November 2nd. Such is life.
What I would like to know, what has kept you going through 2020, what has brought you up mentally and helped you through?
For me its been:
- Virtually meeting a wonderful bunch of Local Guides some that I’ve met in person and others for the first time.
- Sharing moments of laughter and learning from each other.
- Recent things like the new review categories that show up on our profiles have brought in a new spice
- The quiet satisfaction on finding a new place within my lock down area to add to Maps The Happy Otter Laundry and getting it approved instantly
- Sharing my photos with people and seeing the view counts go up, in fact the places the counts are going up tell me a lot about 2020 society - people are looking for food, for places to get IT equipment and places to travel to virtually
- Seeing the occasional thumbs up when someone likes my review meaning I’ve directly helped someone enough that they cared to give me a moment of their life to express thanks
- Following new people and in turn being followed on Maps
So stuff the asteroid, I say bring it on. An attack from outer space and a zombie apocalypse in the same year? You couldn’t write this into a script and sell it for a movie before this year.
What keeps you going?
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I read all of these in your voice and with your mannerisms and I could not stifle a laughter.
What has kept me going is; bullet points 1, 2, 4 and in addition to that; work and something else that Connect may not like; God…
I have come to realize that; more than attending all those Services, God is really everywhere and in every Human and you can’t limit him to any religion or any place.
@PaulPavlinovich
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To be honest, I don’t want any more surprises from 2020 hahaha @PaulPavlinovich
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Lots of us have imaginary friends @Ewaade_3A 
@HeatherBittle thanks
@LaloPadilla well maybe not sucky ones, but a nice one would be cool
Paul
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I am an imaginary friend?
Now that got me @PaulPavlinovich 
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Fizzer ! A complete fizzer it is 
@PaulPavlinovich
This lockdown taught alot things, it was tough to keep mental balance. I agree with first 4 points and the last one.
Also learnt so many new things like Hosting a meetup, Contribution on maps, Photography, Travelling around so many places virtually, Plantation, Cooking, Programming, Dancing so much more !
Let the zombie’s attack, it won’t be that shocking after all the things happened in 2020 
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No, your imaginary friend @Ewaade_3A
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Indeed @Shreeya_99 I’ve been fortunate to learn lots of things about lots of places that I may not ever have known. I was sad to miss a meet-up today - I got the time wrong 
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Now, you think this is funny, I am packing my luggage, I am on my way to Melbourne. You need to tell me this because I don’t even get it 
I am suspecting something though.
I thought you said I was an imaginary friend I wondered how I moved from being a Princess to being imaginary. @PaulPavlinovich
and when I arrive at Melbourne and you say something that totally takes me out, I’ld be leaving on the next flight out @PaulPavlinovich
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@PaulPavlinovich A fizzer?!
The movies courted many versions of the apocalypse/global tragedies but as movie goers, it was all over in under 2 hours. Stale popcorn, flat diet cokes and annoying folks sat behind who keep kneeing your seat was about all the distractions we had to put up with. But this… this crazy year… well, 2020 has been super “epic”…for all the wrong reasons!!
A fizzer it is not.
2020 proved many things, broke many norms, disrupted so many economies and worse of all, caused so many unnecessary deaths. There’s a part of me that is still bracing myself, waiting for the other shoe to fall! And I wouldn’t be shocked if there are more surprises to come!
Doom and gloom aside, I’ve put on my rose-tinted glasses, gazed at the crystal ball and am channelling my positive energies towards these hopeful thoughts that are on a more macro level:
- We need to encourage more local farming (urban farming anyone?) to keep food sources local and rely less on imports
- We need more diversity in our economies to try and weather any storm and minimise impact towards any one particular sector
- More economic diversity means more opportunities for all: there’s something for everyone and all jobs are important. We don’t all have to be lawyers, doctors or engineers! Side note: growing up, I see many parents encouraging their kids to aim for one of those professions
- Long distance travel has been disrupted. Foreign tourism and the air industry is in a dire situation. But there’s a silver lining. Less emission in the air. Maybe we’ve delayed hitting the critical point of no return by a few seconds
- A lot of office workers suddenly realise that they don’t need to be in the office to do work! Hurrah for ‘work from home’. Yes, it’s a bit crazier. Yes, the line between personal and work life is blurred but I believe that we will figure out the boundaries and establish ways to compartmentalise work separate to personal life. I know I’ve saved so much time not needing to commute to work. More love to our environment
- It’s a wake up call that we’ve been taking too many things for granted. Time is short. Life is fleeting. Spend it wisely
- Once we get through this, we’re going to be much better at handling future health scares and stop them from escalating to pandemic level.
- In a world where we’ve explored the majority of the places (surface level) on Earth, where we can be so numb to many things and our explorations are merely a search query away… this disruption has knocked us off our trajectory. The future is suddenly so unpredictable, it is this huge unknown. Remember that our ancestors sailed out into the open waters, broke ground on new lands and learned so much from their arduous journey. You could say, this is our time to embrace this ‘adventure’ and seek out new opportunities where there were once none
I’m sure folks can come up with more stuff that has changed or will change, but I’ll let you all chime in in your replies. I’m pretty sure that we’re in for more disruptions… you could almost sense that 2020 is going to make or break nations and change the status quo. For the better? Who knows. All I know is that we can’t just sit by and coast along, but evolve and adapt to survive.
When life gives you lemons… you’ve got to make lemon curds, start a lemon drizzle cake shop empire, open a lemonade stand on every corner and grow your own lemon tree!
So, who’s up for an asteroid watch party?!! 
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Yea it so happens with me even! @PaulPavlinovich
The time zones being different is difficult to keep track, i usually set an alarm before 30mins 
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I suspect the next commonly available flights into Australia might be around 2024 unfortunately @Ewaade_3A
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Hehe @AdrianLunsong positive as always :).
I think a lot of lessons have been learned, many of us are creating our own urban farms. We’re growing most of our salad and have lots of other vegetables and fruits on the go. We harvested our first carrots and cabbage recently.
Countries perhaps might bring industry back home which will make stuff more expensive but will also avoid the international transport issues and reduce dependency on other countries.
Working from home is certainly the go, the business I work for has been canvassing the employees about how much would we want to come to the building in future.
For a while we’ll be doing more local exploring until international travel wakes up again when the world works out exactly how that might be accomplished. I’d be surprised if that is soon or before the need for 14 day quarantine goes away.
I would like to hope we would learn, but did you know there was another pandemic almost 100 years ago and while we all made plans, they weren’t practical and were not put in place quickly enough and were inconsistent. I truly hope this time we learn and the knowledge is remembered next time this happens.
The asteroid party sounds like a great idea
Paul
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Nice to meet you. It’s been less than a year, but I have over 1.64 million photo and video viewers. From an early age, I have always dreamed of predicting the damage caused by the tsunami caused by the Great Kobe Earthquake and the Great East Japan Earthquake. I’ve been dying several times since ancient times. There was an attempted suicide, but I was saved. Completely destroyed by the Kobe Earthquake. I have raised three young children as a single mother. And during the past year, mysterious things can be shown one after another on a daily basis. Google reviews have uploaded photos and videos while feeling natural. I am an amateur However, the notification of the achievement of a new record is coming with great momentum. Now called to the land of Okinawa, we are focusing on SDGS efforts to protect the global environment and preparing new initiatives with our best partners. I’m sure this initiative is a project that will lead to the problem of global environmental pollution, the protection of nature that the world needs, the protection of the sea, and the protection of living things. And I am being watched by the Ascendet Master who is watching me every day, and I am uploading photos and videos while always feeling God. I don’t belong to any religion. However, in order to let as many people as possible know the existence of God, we will upload mysterious videos and photos from Google to YouTube. I am happy to meet you who are active in the world. Thank you for your continued support. Thanks. Thank you.
