Posts tagged: Coronavirus

All the things you can do whilst self-isolating so you don’t go insane

Sooo. Social Distancing, self-isolation and quarantine are things now. They are also GOOD things, for your community, and for the world’s community. We have to try and flatten that infection curve people! Protect those who we love and those that other people love. We’re going to make Coronavirus our b*tch and love each other at the same time, right?

 

K. But. It’s also weird, the whole staying at home, away from people, thing, because, well, what do we do, actually? A lot of us are lucky/unlucky enough to be working at home, so you’ve got a lot of the day covered, but what about after work? A lot of us will suddenly have all this… time? On our hands?

 

**We also want to take into consideration that there are a LOT of people who are unable financially to self isolate, stay at home, or even social distance to an extent. Those people deserve our love and also our money if we’re able. Buy gift cards for your favorite restaurants for when this is over, Venmo your favorite servers on the days you might be drinking/dining out if you can, ask your hairdresser for home tips and Venmo them, too. Support small businesses who are going to be struggling, buy things (if you can) and get them delivered. And please remember the frontline workers in our healthcare system.Try and see that this shizz is bad news bear for everyone and some have it worse than others. If you can do something to help out, friends, family or strangers, then please do it! And then you get all the good karma points, yo!**

 

Firstly, if you’re working from home or not working and are just at home, do this one thing for me right now. Write down, on a solid, physical piece of paper, all the wonderful things about your co-habitees. Your spouse, room mate, family member, etc.  Because you’re going to spending ALL THE TIME with them. All of it. All of the time. You will need this piece of paper. Look at it, and remember.

 

And now, to the fun part, in no particular order.

 

What are you going to do today?

 

Thanks to this article from Travel & Leisure, you can take a free virtual museum tour at 12 famous museums around the world.

 

Scour Goodreads to find your next few books, start with the best books of 2019 as voted by readers, then maybe move onto Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century, a list of the one hundred best books of the 20th century, according to a poll conducted in the spring of 1999 by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper Le Monde.

 

If reading is your jam, maybe read Stephen King’s  ‘On Writing’, and The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr to help you write your first novel? Or William Goldman’s ‘Which lie did I tell’ for screenwriting?

 

Do some online learning with Udemy, OpenLearning or Lynda. 

 

Here is a list of education companies offering free subscriptions due to school closings.

 

Get stuck in a wikipedia hole, like this one: List of common misconceptions. Click on any link on that page and open it in a new tab. Continue. Enjoy your Wiki black hole.

 

Thanks to Buzzfeed, here is everything new coming to Netflix in March. 

 

Speaking of Netflix. Netflix and Chilln’ is a pretty good time. Just sayin’.

 

Facetime Party! Keeping in touch with your friends and family is really important right now. Everyone knows you bring the sunshine into their lives! Don’t stop now! Bring it! Don’t only talk about Coronavirus. 

 

Start a herb garden.

 

Learn a skill like Python through Sololearn.

 

Cook! Or learn to! Try Epicurious or All Recipes. Try that crazy recipe that you’ve always wanted! Set the table like a proper human! Play some music! Get dressed up fancy! Have a FaceTime dinner Party! Or a private fancy pants dinner party with your cohabitees!

 

Learn a language with DuoLingo. Spanish! Esperanto! Slovenian!

 

Do some Folding at Home.  From the Wiki- Folding@home (FAH or F@h) is a distributed computing project for disease research that simulates protein folding, computational drug design, and other types of molecular dynamics. The project uses the idle processing resources of personal computers owned by volunteers who have installed the software on their systems. Its main purpose is to determine the mechanisms of protein folding, which is the process by which proteins reach their final three-dimensional structure, and to examine the causes of protein misfolding. This is of interest to medical research into Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and many forms of cancer, among other diseases. INCLUDING COVID-19.

 

Play some online games. Try Arkadium or Addicting Games.  Check out the App Store.

 

Did you know you can play games through FB messenger? Like Basketball – find the basketball emoji on Messenger and send it to your friend in a text message. Play H-O-R-S-E.

Soccer – find the soccer ball emoji. Send it to a friend or a group of friends. Once everyone accepts and is ready to start, the game begins.

Chess – send, “@fbchess play” to play with a stranger, to choose your opponent and color, send “@fbchess play black friendname”.

 

Learn Tai Chi !

 

Meditate with apps like Calm and Headspace.

 

Learn Acupuncture.

 

Clean the house.

 

Take a bath with bubbles and stuff that smells good and champagne and snacks… and breathe deeply.

 

Keep fit with online fitness classes, like Tone It Up, or Fitness Blender, or just scour YouTube.

 

Keep up to date on Coronavirus, but limit yourself in time and only to proper sources, like the World Health Organisation, The CDC, John Hopkins or similar science based news.

 

Remember to take care of yourself. Listen to your body. Your immune system is your best friend, treat it as such. Take care of each other. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. 

 

Also note: Comcast is offering free internet to low-income families during the pandemic. 

 

Stay Safe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apple postpones China reopen

At the moment, Apple’s corporate offices, retail stores, and contact centers are closed because of the Coronavirus. The original plans were for them to reopen on February 10th, but that date has been postponed, with no new one decided as of yet.

 

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Retail and People, Deirdre O’Brien, sent out an email Apple Store staff in China with an update to say that Apple is continuing to work with heath experts and will be issuing further updates.

 

You can see the email in full below. (Via MacGeneration):

 

“Team, I want to thank every one of you for the care, flexibility and spirit you have shown over the past few weeks. Around the world, the entire Apple family stands committed to helping our colleagues, communities, suppliers, partners and customers in China as they care for their health and return to daily life. Apple’s support for the global coronavirus response is broad and ongoing, including our donation to the public health effort.
 

Since my last note, we have been in constant consultation with public health experts, government authorities and our teams and leaders in China. In light of those conversations, I want to share new information about Apple’s workplaces.
 

We are working toward reopening Apple’s Corporate Offices and Contact Centers in China next week. We recognize that personal movement and travel restrictions are ongoing and schools are closed in many places, and managers will be working with their teams to offer additional support. You will receive a follow up communication shortly with more information.

 

Apple’s Retail Stores are actively working to reopen at a date that will be determined next week. Additional cleaning, health protocols and local restrictions around public spaces will factor into this decision. Retail teams will receive updates from their managers on the opening date for their store and on other supportive steps we are taking.

 

Individual business leaders will be reaching out to you soon with more information relevant to your work. In addition to your manager, your People Business Partner and People Support are your resource for any questions you may have. To stay up to date with Apple’s efforts, please continue to check the dedicated coronavirus page we’ve created on the People site.

 

As we work together to gradually resume work over the next few weeks, your well-being is our first priority. We are deeply grateful to everyone for facing this challenging period with the utmost empathy and understanding.”

 

Deirdre

 

iPhone supplier Foxconn has also told staff at its Shenzhen plant to stay at home and has yet to list a return date.

 

We’ll keep you updated when they do!