Apologies for disappearing. I've been gone I think 6 weeks now. I was sure I was acclimated to the way the world was changing to stop the spread of coronavirus. Unfortunately for me, I don't know how or when, I has contracted the virus at an extremely inopportune time and it was difficult for me to find treatment. I'm happy to say that as of today I'm cured and I'm back in my home. I understand that I've missed quite a lot. There is a ton that I need to catch up on regarding posts, technical needs for the site, and general happenings with the community. I'd like to extend a heartfelt thanks for my moderators @ADarlingDucky and @Vcom7418, as well as discord mods @Lunaspark and @Faeron for doing what they can to pick up the slack in the wake of my sudden disappearance. I wasn't able to announce my leave beforehand due to the circumstances surrounding it.
Given the pandemic, I hope you'll all excuse my leave and welcome me back as the face that runs this place. Please reach out to me here or on discord with anything of relevance that you feel you need to tell me. I'll be spending much of today just catching up.
Thanks, everyone.
P.S. I wanted to avoid going into the details of my specific situation here because I didn't want to cause alarm. In all honestly, it wasn't gravely serious and my life was never in any danger. If you're curious about what happened to me, see my story below.
My Story
The reason I bring up the promotion is that, and I'm sure many American users already inferred this, is that for most Americans, our health insurance is tied directly to our jobs. Because I technically "changed jobs", my insurance wasn't active. There's a crummy 90-day waiting period. It took me two weeks to hassle all the right people to expedite the process.
After finally getting an exception made for myself, I confirmed with a doctor that I had coronavirus. Though, I was largely asymptomatic. For me, it barely showed. All I had was a small case of sniffles. The reason I was so bent on confirming it was that I live in an apartment building with many old folks. The neighbors in the apartment next to me are grandparents. I couldn't just quarantine myself in my apartment in good conscience. At some point, I'd need to leave my apartment to do grocery shopping or laundry or something that would require human contact. And I didn't want to take the risk of possibly infecting anyone, especially an elderly person.
So I immediately took off to quarantine myself in the basement of a relative's house. I left my phone, desktop, and everything that I don't use to work at my place, limiting my contact with most people during that time, hence my radio silence. Again, I apologize. I just didn't want to take the risk of spreading the disease.