Coping with Coronavirus

One thing to consider is that if employers are reading Quarantined Twitter, they might not be impressed with the productivity they are getting done workers at home.

I've heard multiple managers comment that they'd like to try more flexible working situation when things go back to 'normal'.

My sinking feeling however is that nothing about work will truly change. We'll get back to work (those of us lucky enough to still have jobs) overcompensate for the missed social connections and the tasks that couldn't be handled otherwise and we'll settle back into the old routines having changed literally nothing, perhaps even more tied to work and the people we worked with. We'll occasionally remember that we wanted to do things differently this time but hardly anyone will act on it and they'll end up sort of isolating themselves.

We'll passionately patronize the local businesses that survived too (for a while). That'll be nice for them.

Some people can do their jobs remotely, but for those who can't...

p. s. The critics didn't like it much, but I thought it was a decent popcorn flick. So pop some popcorn and have fun.

Agreed. I was mostly joking about Quarentined Twitter.

In some ways, this is actually helping my wife. She is an appellate attorney for the firm, which means she has had to really become proficient on every Court rule and such. So when other attorneys in the firm have a question, she is like the unofficial help desk.

So it helps that she no longer has attorneys popping in for a quick question all day, which eats into her billable hours.

She has also earned enough credits in FH4 to buy an Aston Martin Vulcan.

Jayhawker wrote:

She has also earned enough credits in FH4 to buy an Aston Martin Vulcan.

Way to bury the lead!

Tach wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

She has also earned enough credits in FH4 to buy an Aston Martin Vulcan.

Way to bury the lead!

Mainly, she is a massive LEGO fan, so I started her there. But FH4 has what she loves most in gaming. A list of objectives to check off.

On top of LEGO, her other pop culture love is Batman, which is what driver her love of Kego games in the first place. I showed her the Bulcan I had won, in all black. And the power and handling it has makes it feel like the perfect Batmobile.

On top of that, it is not a bad car to accomplish most of the tasks in the game, outside of the off-road races. So she is in heaven.

My go to vehicle is the 85 Ford RS200. You can upgrade it to be a really good racer, and it takes on off-road challenges with ease. Been using it primarily since FH2.

It is her prime coping mechanism. That, and the dogs.

I just had a lovely Zoom session of Jackbox Party Pack with my siblings and some cousins. All I had to do was share my screen and they could connect on their phones. Internet gaming is my second home so I'm handling the isolation well, but they seemed like they really needed the diversion.

I'm trying to set up something similar, but teaching my techphobic family how to work Zoom is like pulling teeth.

Vargen wrote:

I just had a lovely Zoom session of Jackbox Party Pack with my siblings and some cousins. All I had to do was share my screen and they could connect on their phones. Internet gaming is my second home so I'm handling the isolation well, but they seemed like they really needed the diversion.

Did you notice any issues with responsiveness on your mobile devices with Jackbox games? My family has been playing Drawful off and on for years. However, with the kids here for spring break and everyone in the city at home because of stay at home orders, we experienced issues with our devices not updating with prompts and choices in multiple Jackbox games. I couldn’t figure out if Jackbox servers have just been busy with the huge uptick in people being stranded in their homes, if our neighborhood’s internet is busy and slow, or if our WiFi was somehow to blame because of the sheer number of internet connected devices in the home now when they are here between our PCs, phones, tablets, Switches, and game consoles.

I have a kid in Jr. High and one who is a Freshman in High School. So when they were here it added 6 more devices to the WiFi. They each have a phone, they each now have a Switch, and they each also had to bring their school iPads because they need them for the online classes/e-learning that has replaced their regular classes now that schools have been shut down.

What are some fun in-home or backyard games that can be ordered online?

My wife and I ordered an indoor putting green and I’m trying to think of more things like that. Things like pop-a-shot, etc. I have a set of disc for disc golf? Is a disc golf basket fun at close range?

disc golf is played on the same scale as normal golf. so you can practice disc "putting" in the way a golfer would practice putting. Is that really how to spell the continuous of "to putt" and if so, how do we know it's not "to put". huh. okay back to grading papers.

Disc golf is all about walking around, picking a distant target and throwing. You don't need baskets. But just doing short-range stuff on the same ground, that will get boring quickly.

Jasonofindy wrote:

Did you notice any issues with responsiveness on your mobile devices with Jackbox games?

I noticed a little bit of lag, but the game's timers were generous enough that it didn't matter on my end. This also wasn't putting any extra strain on my wifi, since we had 6 players spread out over 5 houses.

DSGamer wrote:

What are some fun in-home or backyard games that can be ordered online?

My wife and I ordered an indoor putting green and I’m trying to think of more things like that. Things like pop-a-shot, etc. I have a set of disc for disc golf? Is a disc golf basket fun at close range?

Do you still have a Wii or Wii U? My family has re-fallen in love with Wii Sports and Wii Fit during all of this. (I'm still bummed I didn't buy Ring Fit Adventure when I could have.)

Ladder Ball / Golf / Toss (all the same game under different names) is a good one.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

What are some fun in-home or backyard games that can be ordered online?

My wife and I ordered an indoor putting green and I’m trying to think of more things like that. Things like pop-a-shot, etc. I have a set of disc for disc golf? Is a disc golf basket fun at close range?

Do you still have a Wii or Wii U? My family has re-fallen in love with Wii Sports and Wii Fit during all of this. (I'm still bummed I didn't buy Ring Fit Adventure when I could have.)

I don’t. I only have the Switch. It would be worth ordering a used one, maybe.

Bocce is a heck of a lot of fun and can be played without a court. Just so long as you can roll balls decently. Lumps and swales just make it more interesting lol.

Robear wrote:

Bocce is a heck of a lot of fun and can be played without a court. Just so long as you can roll balls decently. Lumps and swales just make it more interesting lol.

Love bocce ball. They have leagues in St. Louis, and several bars have bocce ball fields are whatever they are called.

We played it a lot at my brother- in-law’s, and he bought us a set for Christmas some time back. Perfect game for this time of year.

You don't even have to know the scoring. Just "throw the small ball and take turns getting you balls closer to it than the others" will suffice.

Robear wrote:

You don't even have to know the scoring. Just "throw the small ball and take turns getting you balls closer to it than the others" will suffice. :-)

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKUVx2NW4AE06Ye.jpg)

Yeah, you read it right. I said what I said.

Oh, and dropping the r was a subtle move. Not sublte enough, though.

Tach wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:

Of course, it helps that we’re in a gently affected province in Canada (Nova Scotia) and we still have a lot of relative normalcy around.

Stay safe and stay sane, y’all. This is a super weird time, but you got this.

Chumpy, where in NS are you? I'm from Antigonish, but I live in Boston now. We have a house (and most of my family now lives) in White's Lake (down near Peggy's Cove).

(Just got this.) I’m in Halifax, right near Bayer’s Lake. My gf’s family is out Peggy’s Cove way.

One feature I’m liking about YouTube Kids is that you can now set age ranges for appropriate content. The lower age ranges are strict to the point of frustration for my daughter (5 yo). Now I’ve set her account to 6-8 yo and all her favourite poo, pee and toilet training videos are available. An entertainment staple for any Japanese kid!

Mr GT Chris wrote:

One feature I’m liking about YouTube Kids is that you can now set age ranges for appropriate content. The lower age ranges are strict to the point of frustration for my daughter (5 yo). Now I’ve set her account to 6-8 yo and all her favourite poo, pee and toilet training videos are available. An entertainment staple for any Japanese kid!

This comment blindsided me completely. This has become a thing?

Apparently it's been a thing in Japan for decades. There were best-selling storybooks and videos for kids back in the 90's, as I recall.

Body humor is really popular in the States right now, too. It seems like every new board game targeted at kids is poop-themed, and poop toys are popular, too. Just one example off the top of my head are Poopsie Surprise dolls: little unicorn toys that defecate slime.

The popularity of the poop emoji kinda got the ball rolling, and YouTube has played a big part in it, too. Unsurprisingly, toy channels get a lot of traffic for reaction videos where people play with gross toys and games.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Body humor is really popular in the States right now, too. It seems like every new board game targeted at kids is poop-themed, and poop toys are popular, too. Just one example off the top of my head are Poopsie Surprise dolls: little unicorn toys that defecate slime.

The popularity of the poop emoji kinda got the ball rolling, and YouTube has played a big part in it, too. Unsurprisingly, toy channels get a lot of traffic for reaction videos where people play with gross toys and games.

Toilet/poop humor has always been a thing. There's probably just more commercial products now.

Oh, for sure. People have always found that funny and always will. It's just very mainstream right now with lots of overtly poop-themed toys.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Oh, for sure. People have always found that funny and always will. It's just very mainstream right now with lots of overtly poop-themed toys.

Yeah, I refuse to let the kids have those.
*Old man grumblings*