So What's Everyone Up To During COVID-19 Time?

The forums have been pretty quiet recently. I was just wondering what everyone's up to now that most of us (I assume) are practicing "social distancing."

I'm in my hometown of Kansas City. My family and I are staying at my parents' house. We've been here since early February since we couldn't get back into China from Hawaii when we were supposed to, and once we were able to again, we decided to avoid it due to an inconvenient quarantining situation. We're planning on leaving this coming Monday, March 23rd, to return home, providing that our flights aren't cancelled for some reason.

Since I have a wife and toddler, I'm not really able to sit back and binge any sort of media. I have been able to catch up on the DC Universe Animated Original Movies (and I should be able to keep up to date when Superman: Red Son hits Redbox this week). I also watched Frozen II again, finally finished Sicario, and read the rest of DC Comics' Green Lanterns series from the Rebirth era. Oh, and I read Superman: Red Son in preparation for the movie. I'm currently working on the second volume of Batman: Detective Comics from the Rebirth era, too.

I have not gotten out any of my consoles this time around, so no game runs. But I'll bet some of you guys have been doing that kind of thing.

Well, with school cancelled my boys are home, and I work from home, so this feels more like "social nearing" to me. Routine isn't changing much yet. Just getting more cramped with kids in it.

Working from home. When I'm not working from home I'm maintaining my church's online presence. We didn't have streaming so the new video production team (me) is working to get things moving.

I regularly work from home and haven't been to the office all year, so it just feels like more of the same. My company is enforcing everyone work from home as of Friday, so again, more of the same.
Kids school hasn't been cancelled yet, but I think it's a case of when, not if. biggest thing is it might be difficult to buy food, given all the panic buyers who are greedily taking everything. We'll see what happens after I get paid on Thursday night.

My church has been streaming out services live for a few years now, and I'm one of the video switchers (kinda like directing a live tv show. I talk to the camera people and operate the video desk) Last week, we enacted some very sensible practical precautions (chairs further apart, all doors wedged open to avoid touching handles, offering bucket replaced with box at door and encouraging all to give online. etc)
We have been considering the possibility of offing "online-only" services in the near future. Given that the Prime Minister of Australia has just banned un-necessary indoor gatherings of 100 people or more, I suspect onine only will be going into effect. I'm switching this sunday so it'll be very interesting to see what happens. from a purely creative point of view it's kind of exciting, which is not to make light of the very real concerns going on in the world.

If anyone is unable to attend church in the coming weeks, and your church doesn't offer streaming, you are most welcome to join us in little Tasmania.
This is last week's service. We had two very inspirational baptisms, including a former prisoner who connected with our church through our skype visit ministry.
https://www.facebook.com/DoorOfHopeTas/videos/3299761770051778/
Services stream Sunday during Australian times, but you can watch services on demand as well) doorofhope.churchonline.org

But the other aspect of our church response, which I am so proud of, is we are looking to be a solution for the community outside our walls. Our church plans to offer daily phone calls to people who are isolated at home, offering food to those who can't go out and buy it or afford it. This is where the church can shine.

Well, I'm pretty much the only one in my tax office, but as it's getting close to the end of regular tax season, we're thinking about switching over to off-season hours.

My other job is stocking for retail, and there's no shortage of work there. It's basically not changed at all.

Our church is putting a greater emphasis on the online service. Our pastor has some words of encouragement.



We have a Roku channel (search for Blue Grass UMC) or check out Blue Grass Church for the archive and feeds if you want to go to church with me sometime!

I'm continuing to neglect the online communities I belong to...

I'm working from home, although the nature of my work is such that that only involves answering a few emails over the course of the day, so in between I'm knuckling down to finish putting together The Gospel According to Red Dwarf and start planning my next piece of fiction writing.

Although with schools closed indefinitely I also have two kids and a wife (who also works in a school) knocking around the place too.

UKSteve wrote:

I'm working from home, although the nature of my work is such that that only involves answering a few emails over the course of the day.

I'm trying to remember, are you a teacher? And if so, what kind?

I'm actually using this time to start working on getting my personal training certification. I'm also hoping to move back to the OC area sometime next year and decided this would be a good time to try and check out some service streams of churches in that area.

Rickster wrote:I'm actually using this time to start working on getting my personal training certification. I'm also hoping to move back to the OC area sometime next year and decided this would be a good time to try and check out some service streams of churches in that area.

Nice! I've heard that for some people this is a great time to focus on doing something they've wanted to accomplish.

Paeter wrote:I'm trying to remember, are you a teacher? And if so, what kind?

No, at the moment I'm a customer service desk jockey... it's a (usually) stress-free job that I can leave behind at 5pm and put my mind to creating!

UKSteve wrote:

Paeter wrote:I'm trying to remember, are you a teacher? And if so, what kind?

No, at the moment I'm a customer service desk jockey... it's a (usually) stress-free job that I can leave behind at 5pm and put my mind to creating!

Oh nice! Hopefully this is a nice break from the usual customer traffic!

Paeter wrote:

Rickster wrote:I'm actually using this time to start working on getting my personal training certification. I'm also hoping to move back to the OC area sometime next year and decided this would be a good time to try and check out some service streams of churches in that area.

Nice! I've heard that for some people this is a great time to focus on doing something they've wanted to accomplish.

I was originally planning on getting it over the summer but had to switch things up a bit