Hello again! This would be the second midnight-ish following Malaysia's partial lockdown, and the experience has been interesting thus far. Here's my journey, following previous wishes to document more of what it's like to be locked down. This is also my second post today, which is unprecedented. If you like your cars, then you should take a look at what I've written earlier… ;-)
Officially, we're under a "movement control order ", or MCO and it's not as severe as those imposed in other harder-hit countries, like Italy or Spain. It was initially planned to be a voluntary directive, just giving advice on limited movement, social distancing, while also ensuring that large gatherings like events or businesses are shut down as a precaution.
Credits to: GIPHY
Busting Out The Apron.
Unfortunately, what was a relatively moderate measure could step up in harshness, as some people weren't following along. Since the MCO started 2 days ago, the government identified that only 60% of people complied. That's rather shocking, given that cases have risen sharply. Currently, Malaysia remains the hardest hit in South East Asia, with 900 confirmed cases.
That's quite the parabolic rise from less than 700 cases just 2 days ago. It's odd that people are still moving about unnecessarily, and some others are actively defying the lockdown, gathering in large numbers or hosting events. While the spirit of solidarity is important, it's not going to stop Covid-19, and its actions like these that'll only spread the virus further.
Credits to: Bing - Covid Tracker
Even worse, some businesses tried to remain open, even when they're not supposed to. Some shops supplying basic necessities are obliged to open, like markets and grocery stores. While restaurants remain open for takeaways, drive-throughs, or deliveries, some have actually allowed dine-ins, which shouldn't happen.
All of this disobedience would not only risk spreading Covid-19, but it may also force the government to take even harsher measures. Already, there are police checkpoints in place to enforce the MCO, and they even gave verbal warnings to businesses and peoples who've not been complying with the order. Now, there's even a 6-month prison sentence, and a fine if people still aren't listening.
Credits to: Bloomberg (An empty downtown Kuala Lumpur.)
Credits to: MalayMail (Malaysia's Finest - reminding you to stay at home.)
This might just get even worse, as the Army's been placed on standby. Understandably staying at home all the time isn't a pleasant experience for the most part, as we'd all like to get some fresh air, and see new faces. Though given how serious the virus is, I think it's fair that we all take a bit of unpleasantness, just to make sure less people are sent to hospitals, and even less are sent to the grave.
As for my personal life, it's taken some getting used to being at home full time, with the family cooped up together 24/7. Usually, we don't have the time or energy to cook, so we'd just have takeaway food. You can get some pretty good street food for cheap here. Now however, we're re-learning the art of cooking, and Gordon Ramsay hasn't been all too helpful, if I'm honest.
Credits to: GIPHY
Mom is certainly the best cook in the house, and my brother knows a thing or two about foodstuffs. For Day 1, we had some canned foods, and they're not as bad as you might think. Some canned chicken curry, chicken kurma, beef rendang, and baked beans - all served on a fluffy bed of rice. It made a decently delicious meal, and it earned a 6/10 from me.
Today, we had a more vegetarian dish, which usually doesn't sit well with me, because I'm a passionate carnivore. Still though, mom's magic worked wonders, with fried tofu and tempeh, adorned with some chilly and long beans, on a side of Thai-style omelette - on top of even more rice. It tasted good, and it's a solid 7.25/10 - would recommend!
Credits to: Cooktoria (Fried Tofu)
Credits to: FromMyBowl (Baked Tempeh)
We're not sure about tomorrow night, though. Up until this point, we've never used a food delivery service, other than pizza, and this could be a good time to try it out. Alternatively, we could get the aprons out and start cooking, but we're already running low on supplies. Rice, garlic, onions, pasta, and eggs are stuff that we need. These are among the things that we wanted to get, but couldn't because of all that panic buying that I was ranting about in the last post.
Vis-à-Vis.
Among other things that have impacted my life as of late, is the impending hard-fork of Steem. I still don't clearly understand the fine machinations that are keeping the chain alive. From what I can gather, the gist of it is that some community developers and witnesses are splitting off from the old Steem blockchain, and are now moving to a brand new one, called HIVE.
Apparently, everything will be mirrored up until the point of the fork, including all your account details and so forth. I think that's right, is it? If not, you'll do kindly to correct me in the comments. I'm interested to see how seamless the fork will be, and also keen to see the difference, including whether you're moving over to HIVE, or staying here :-)
By distancing from Steemit, HIVE might be able to implement some of the much-needed improvements and refreshes that we desperately need to get competitive. Compared to sites like Reddit or Medium, Steemit has garnered little attention, except during the whole Justin Sun and Tron drama. They say any publicity is good publicity…
I suppose that might be true, given that STEEM prices have shot up 200% in the last 24 or so hours, as reported by Decrypt. It's since settled back down, and I didn't even notice until just hours ago. It'll be intriguing to see how Steem and HIVE will eventually stack up.
Credits to: Decrypt.co
On one hand, Steem has the might of Tron and Justin to back it up. Regardless of how we may perceive their presence on the platform, these two are entities that have the money, and the marketing prowess to potentially catapult Steem further. Moreover, Steem has a much more established user base, and I can't see HIVE catching up to that so soon.
Then again, HIVE does have the versatility of a smaller development team, without all the excess baggage of Steem's past mistakes. With true decentralisation in place, it could add much needed improvements as to how the platform can be fairly governed. It also seems like a lot of people are switching over.
Credits to: GIPHY
Some of my favourite curation trails are still going to be active on both ends of the chain. As for me, since HIVE has a carbon copy of account, I may as well give it a go, right? Most likely, I'll still be posting on both Steem and HIVE, while also being able to interact with users on both ends, too!
That's enough about me, let's talk about you. How are you coping with Covid-19 lockdowns? Are you going to move over to HIVE, stay on Steem, or maybe dabble a bit in both?
