Coping with Coronavirus

~mod~

Reminder this is a mental-health focused thread. Hold off on politics ranting and goofs, not everyone benefits from gallow's humour nor staring corrupt leadership in the face, particularly people who seek and create spaces specifically for coping strategies to get away from that.

Read the room and take those conversations to the appropriate channels. Thanks!

deleted.

For any Android users out there, I've been using the free version of Simple Habit app for meditation. They have an "on the go" thing with various categories of meditations for folks to use who have 5, 10, or 20 minutes. There's one particular woman with a lovely Aussie/NZ accent that I've found really good for helping with anxiety. "On the go" -> "Work" -> "Work Break" is one I've used often.

I played some Jackbox with a fellow goodjer in another country using a combo of google hangout, twitch and the regular jackbox interface.

It was fun. Some jokes are universal and others are not.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

If it's not the butthole cut, I'm not seeing it:

A VFX producer friend of a friend was hired in November to finish some of the 400 effects shots in @catsmovie. His entire job was to remove CGI buttholes that had been inserted a few months before. Which means that, somewhere out there, there exists a butthole cut of Cats

#ReleaseTheButtholeCut

This is the only possible way that movie could have been even better.

I played around with the .5 speed setting on Youtube so much today I forgot to turn it off when I watched a Mount & Blade II video and thought the framerate and audio was terrible.

Rat Boy wrote:

I played around with the .5 speed setting on Youtube so much today I forgot to turn it off when I watched a Mount & Blade II video and thought the framerate and audio was terrible.

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I've gotten so used to watching videos at 1.5x and 1.75x that when I have to watch something at normal speed, it feels like it's crawling.

This is a really good thread:

Post an Activity, Something Mindful!

Repeated hand washing, use of hand sanitiser, and cleaning duties at work have the skin on my hands starting to crack. I've got a tube of Nivea hand moisturiser that I have used occasionally when it's been really dry in winter but I think I'm going to need at least nightly applications. If that fails I'll be looking for skincare expertise!

Mr GT Chris wrote:

If that fails I'll be looking for skincare expertise!

I believe he is an expert.

IMAGE(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/hannibal/images/b/ba/Silencelamp7.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20130619070417)

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Repeated hand washing, use of hand sanitiser, and cleaning duties at work have the skin on my hands starting to crack. I've got a tube of Nivea hand moisturiser that I have used occasionally when it's been really dry in winter but I think I'm going to need at least nightly applications. If that fails I'll be looking for skincare expertise!

CeraVe (in the tub, not the pump bottle) is the lotion of choice for my scaly, itchy family. I suffer from eczema on my hands throughout the year and particularly in the winter.

Per my dermatologist's advice, when my hands get particularly bad, as I'm getting into bed, I slather lashings of CeraVe on my hands (like seriously ten times more than you would during the day), then a layer of protoleum jelly (e.g. Aquafor or Vaseline), then put on a pair of plain white cotton gloves (cheap and available at pharmacists or Amazon).

The petroleum forms a barrier which both holds the moisture from the lotion in, and stops your skin drying out over night. The gloves are to stop it all being wiped off on your sheets.

It's super effective! Makes an enormous difference.

If that's not sufficient, during the day, i soak my hands in a bowl of warm salty water for 20 minutes or so and do the same procedure. The warm water softens the scaly skin and opens up the pores to allow the lotion to penetrate, and the salt kills any bacteria that are hiding in the cracked skin, which could otherwise cause further irritation.

Rubb Ed wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

I played around with the .5 speed setting on Youtube so much today I forgot to turn it off when I watched a Mount & Blade II video and thought the framerate and audio was terrible.

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I've gotten so used to watching videos at 1.5x and 1.75x that when I have to watch something at normal speed, it feels like it's crawling.

... I was just listening to what people sound like when they're really drunk.

I’m fine with pump CeraVe. You do have to stay ahead of the skin getting too bad. When I used to teach with chalk, my knuckles would dry out enough in winter to where they’d bleed. When that happened, Lansinoh worked wonders overnight. It’s lanolin that’s used on nipples for breastfeeding cracking. You need to make sure it’s warm before putting on (time in pocket works). But that was a miracle cure for me.

MathGoddess wrote:

I’m fine with pump CeraVe.

There's CeraVe Cream, and CeraVe Lotion, and for super dry skin, the lotion won't touch it, where the cream will. I was just trying to make that distinction.

My wife is all about that CeraVe. May have to borrow some.

I do respite care for a family with two developmentally disabled children (one with cerebral palsy, the other on the autism spectrum, both highly-functional and very sweet kids). Yesterday I woke up with a slightly scratchy throat, so I texted their Mom and let her know that I didn't think it was corona, and in fact at any other time I wouldn't consider it worth telling her about, but that I didn't think it was Med Student's Disease either and I thought I should let her know in case she wanted me to stop coming by for a while.

We talked it over. She needs the help more than ever with her kids out of school, and I've lost most of my normal social outlets, so I need to be spending time with other humans more than ever.

(My dance classes have been canceled. Both my parents are in the most at-risk demographic-- pushing 70 with pre-existing health conditions-- so I'm trying to avoid contact with them. Which also means avoiding contact with my sister and nieces and nephews, who are NOT avoiding contact with my mom.)

So Respite Mom and I have agreed to be Plague Buddies. My germs are her family's germs and vice versa. I've spent enough time over there, and non-symptomatic people are carriers for so long, that if I've ever been exposed to it, her kids have already got it from me, and vice versa, so no sense worrying about it or over-reporting every little "this is probably nothing, but..." symptom to each other.

So that's a load off my mind.

Rat Boy wrote:
Rubb Ed wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

I played around with the .5 speed setting on Youtube so much today I forgot to turn it off when I watched a Mount & Blade II video and thought the framerate and audio was terrible.

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I've gotten so used to watching videos at 1.5x and 1.75x that when I have to watch something at normal speed, it feels like it's crawling.

... I was just listening to what people sound like when they're really drunk.

I won't yuck your yum. 's all good.

Sports fans might find that now is the time to learn about Australian Rules Football and Rugby League.

Both our major codes have gone to the empty stadiums but still play version of the season. At least for the moment. I suspect every outlet is using this to fill their schedule with almost every other league in the world cancelled for the time being.

What are the options for watching AFL outside Australia these days? It’s been years since I’ve looked into it.

Jonman wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

Repeated hand washing, use of hand sanitiser, and cleaning duties at work have the skin on my hands starting to crack. I've got a tube of Nivea hand moisturiser that I have used occasionally when it's been really dry in winter but I think I'm going to need at least nightly applications. If that fails I'll be looking for skincare expertise!

CeraVe (in the tub, not the pump bottle) is the lotion of choice for my scaly, itchy family. I suffer from eczema on my hands throughout the year and particularly in the winter.

Per my dermatologist's advice, when my hands get particularly bad, as I'm getting into bed, I slather lashings of CeraVe on my hands (like seriously ten times more than you would during the day), then a layer of protoleum jelly (e.g. Aquafor or Vaseline), then put on a pair of plain white cotton gloves (cheap and available at pharmacists or Amazon).

The petroleum forms a barrier which both holds the moisture from the lotion in, and stops your skin drying out over night. The gloves are to stop it all being wiped off on your sheets.

It's super effective! Makes an enormous difference.

If that's not sufficient, during the day, i soak my hands in a bowl of warm salty water for 20 minutes or so and do the same procedure. The warm water softens the scaly skin and opens up the pores to allow the lotion to penetrate, and the salt kills any bacteria that are hiding in the cracked skin, which could otherwise cause further irritation.

This is awesome! I'm probably not yet at the stage of needing the full treatment but it's good to know there's something I can rely on.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

What are the options for watching AFL outside Australia these days? It’s been years since I’ve looked into it.

Fox Sports 2 has a game a week, give or take. They had the season opener last night. I think Fox Soccer channel has all the games; on my cable it's $15/mo. I don't know if either channel is available in Japan.

WatchAFL has everything streaming, but it's a bit pricy- $165 for an annual subscription, $148.50 with discount code '2020AFLpartner' from the USAFL. This is available anywhere outside Australia. (I don't know if they check region on the code; if they do maybe jafl.org has their own.)

All the AFLW games are on womens.afl but in quarter-by-quarter videos, and it's useful to link directly to the replay page as they don't make any attempt to hide the results on the front page.

Just got home from work. My commute is significantly shorter now, for a variety of reasons. And my town is quiet.

Didn't feel like doing my little home workout in my cramped little apartment (I was going to move this Spring!), so instead, I'm going for a nice, peaceful 1 AM run/walk.

Slightly cross posted from the Weight Loss/Weight Management thread. How are you keeping healthy and active in social distancing age?

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Slightly cross posted from the Weight Loss/Weight Management thread. How are you keeping healthy and active in social distancing age?

We have kids at home, so we are trying to do a physical activity twice a day.
Stretching, yoga, tkd, family walks, etc.
We'll probably have to increase as we're stuck inside longer. Hopefully the weather improves soon to make the walks and time the backyard more pleasant.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Slightly cross posted from the Weight Loss/Weight Management thread. How are you keeping healthy and active in social distancing age?

I’ve been doing Ring Fit Adventure every morning . It’s really fun. Also my wife and I walk every afternoon after work.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Slightly cross posted from the Weight Loss/Weight Management thread. How are you keeping healthy and active in social distancing age?

Same way I did before: 15-lb steel mace. Nothing says "keep 6 feet away" like swinging one of those suckers around.

DSGamer wrote:
UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Slightly cross posted from the Weight Loss/Weight Management thread. How are you keeping healthy and active in social distancing age?

I’ve been doing Ring Fit Adventure every morning . It’s really fun. Also my wife and I walk every afternoon after work.

My son has been doing it but I haven't yet. Glad we bought one months ago.

qaraq wrote:

Fox Sports 2 has a game a week, give or take. They had the season opener last night. I think Fox Soccer channel has all the games; on my cable it's $15/mo. I don't know if either channel is available in Japan.

WatchAFL has everything streaming, but it's a bit pricy- $165 for an annual subscription, $148.50 with discount code '2020AFLpartner' from the USAFL. This is available anywhere outside Australia. (I don't know if they check region on the code; if they do maybe jafl.org has their own.)

All the AFLW games are on womens.afl but in quarter-by-quarter videos, and it's useful to link directly to the replay page as they don't make any attempt to hide the results on the front page.

That's interesting stuff, thanks. One thing that does occur to me is that the AFL is only one corona case away from suspending the league (as has happened around the world) but I assume they would have a refund policy in case. My family back home have said how weird it's been watching games played in an empty stadium. Nice that AFLW is freely available.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Slightly cross posted from the Weight Loss/Weight Management thread. How are you keeping healthy and active in social distancing age?

I normally bike to work, so now that I'm WFH I've been making an effort to go for a bike ride every morning.