How are you guys killing time under quarantine?

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dplank
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I took up learning guitar after my wife got me one for Christmas last year, so I figured I'd set a goal of learning how to play Lenny by Stevie Ray Vaughan and I'd forever have that as a positive outcome from this mess. Self taught/YouTube taught lol, but getting better! I'm proud to announce that I'm through the main chorus that runs through the whole tune and am now working on the 3 solos in between. But the main riff/opening is a full 2 minutes long song in and of itself, so I'm beyond stoked that I can play it now.

I'm electronics/engineering nut also, so I'm really starting to get into all the different tones/sounds you can create with an electric. I just ordered one of these which I'm psyched about getting, delivery is slow though. https://www.positivegrid.com/spark#

I know it's cheating but it'll be fun to use the preset tones that mimic various famous guitarists, you'd need dozens of pieces of equipment to try and simulate all that manually. And you gotta have an ear for that, which I don't.

You guys taking on anything interesting?
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Xee
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Congrats on taking up the guitar! Just had a listen to Lenny and it definitely seems doable; just going to have practice your double-stops a lot. ;) My guitars have been collecting dust since my kid was born unfortunately and will probably stay that way until he's much older.

Fortunately for my finances and unfortunately for my free time, my work can be done remotely with little change in productivity so I haven't experienced the quarantine doldrums like everyone else.

Still, the little free time I have I spend working outside in a huge vegetable garden I started or learning to code on the side.
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southdakbearfan
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1 week walleye fishing trip. Usually it’s to Canada but the border is closed. So on to Pierre Sd and the Missouri River.
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UOK
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How's your coding going, Xee? If anything my tech skills, what little there were, are languishing in this working-from-home state. I honestly spend most of my work day frittering hours away on youtube. There's very little to do.

To kill time in quarantine, we've got a new puppy who has been a hot-and-cold process, as expected. Like a new baby, the wife and I are both pretty uptight about what he eats, how much he sleeps, where he spends his time, etc. It's a lot of hand-wringing, but it's going pretty well. Older dog gets along with him great.

I've been periodically writing more (https://1985edition.blog) after a year long break. It's infinitely less about Chicago Sports (almost none at all, in fact) and more about my childhood, feelings on the state of the world, etc. It's got a lot of political stuff mixed in there, so be warned if you're concerned about finding out I may or may not agree with you on some of these subjects and letting it reflect on our rapport in this non-political zone.

I've been recording a podcast with my old crew, also. We did a show from 2012-2014 before I left the show citing exhaustion. After periodically jumping in over the years, I'm basically back to doing a weekly show. My brother's been doing a full time Chicago podcast (The Sky Is Falling, for what it's worth) and I have no idea how he finds the energy and enthusiasm.

Otherwise I spend a lot of free time playing games on my PC or Nintendo Switch, reading tons and tons of books on my Kindle, writing down book story ideas in my yellow pad, and trying not to let the state of the world get me down.
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Otis Day
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A variety things to keep busy. Early a.m. bike rides prior to the heat setting in. I like to go from 30 min to a little over an hour. Depends on how I am feeling and if it is windy.

My daughter, 24, is back with us due to the 'vid. She got a puppy so that is keeping me busy as well as her. Austrailian Shephard/Border Collie mix. Smart dog. Basically potty trained in 3 weeks. We have had him 4 weeks.

Trying to do some craft making: wine bottle holders. painting flags on old windows.

Watching old NFL games on NFL replay.

Shit, just trying to find time to do what I like. Hard to do at times with a full time job, part time job and a mowing job.
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wab
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Like Xee, my job can easily be done from home, so I find myself having a difficult time knowing when to quit for the day. I don't really have set hours, so I have to be pretty intentional about when to call it a day.

And because I don't have set hours, I have weird pockets of free time during the day that would normally be occupied by busywork in the office.

But really, I've just been trying to spend as much quality time with the fam as I can. We've rented a couple of cabins in some secluded areas over the last few months, and we've taken some day trips to do some sightseeing that we normally wouldn't have thought of. So that's nice.

Otherwise...hanging out in the yard in the pool, fine tuning my meat smoking skills, advancing my bourbon collection, binge watching old movies.

We got a Peloton, so I've been spending more time on that too.

I really need to dust off my xbox and play some games that have been sitting new in the wrapper for like a year.
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Building and following my baseball teams on WIS.
Watching the backlog of shows and movies I have on Netflix, Hulu, etc.
Sleeping too much
Oh and reading through the drama of Yogi and RichH arguing about anything to the minutia of ridiculous points. :hang:
I'm gone. Have a nice life. I'm clearly not wanted here.
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dplank
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wab wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 12:22 pm Like Xee, my job can easily be done from home, so I find myself having a difficult time knowing when to quit for the day. I don't really have set hours, so I have to be pretty intentional about when to call it a day.

And because I don't have set hours, I have weird pockets of free time during the day that would normally be occupied by busywork in the office.

But really, I've just been trying to spend as much quality time with the fam as I can. We've rented a couple of cabins in some secluded areas over the last few months, and we've taken some day trips to do some sightseeing that we normally wouldn't have thought of. So that's nice.

Otherwise...hanging out in the yard in the pool, fine tuning my meat smoking skills, advancing my bourbon collection, binge watching old movies.

We got a Peloton, so I've been spending more time on that too.

I really need to dust off my xbox and play some games that have been sitting new in the wrapper for like a year.
How do you like the Peloton? I've been getting into biking lately, the wife and I go out for rides daily and I'm starting to get into it. Is the bike comfortable for a tall person? Funny story, I left my bike out front a few months ago and it got stolen. A cop was walking up the street because apparently a bunch of stuff was stolen from various yards/houses, and so I tell him my bike was stolen. Right off the top of his head he says, "Well, if I get a call about the Jolly Green Giant riding around on a bicycle we'll grab him and get your bike back for you". hahahahah!
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wab
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dplank wrote: Tue Jul 21, 2020 2:19 pm
wab wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 12:22 pm Like Xee, my job can easily be done from home, so I find myself having a difficult time knowing when to quit for the day. I don't really have set hours, so I have to be pretty intentional about when to call it a day.

And because I don't have set hours, I have weird pockets of free time during the day that would normally be occupied by busywork in the office.

But really, I've just been trying to spend as much quality time with the fam as I can. We've rented a couple of cabins in some secluded areas over the last few months, and we've taken some day trips to do some sightseeing that we normally wouldn't have thought of. So that's nice.

Otherwise...hanging out in the yard in the pool, fine tuning my meat smoking skills, advancing my bourbon collection, binge watching old movies.

We got a Peloton, so I've been spending more time on that too.

I really need to dust off my xbox and play some games that have been sitting new in the wrapper for like a year.
How do you like the Peloton? I've been getting into biking lately, the wife and I go out for rides daily and I'm starting to get into it. Is the bike comfortable for a tall person? Funny story, I left my bike out front a few months ago and it got stolen. A cop was walking up the street because apparently a bunch of stuff was stolen from various yards/houses, and so I tell him my bike was stolen. Right off the top of his head he says, "Well, if I get a call about the Jolly Green Giant riding around on a bicycle we'll grab him and get your bike back for you". hahahahah!
I actually really like it. We opted for the bike over the treadmill because of space constraints in our media room. The treadmill is what we wanted, but it's huge.

I'm 6'2 and it's pretty comfortable for me. It's very ergonomically designed for a variety of heights (my wife is 5'1). It does take some fiddling with, but the crew that comes to assemble it does kind of a "fitting" for you.

It's funny you mention your bike being stolen. I have a lot of LEO friends and apparently that's become a thing because bikes are so hard to come by right now. They say they get more stolen bike calls than stolen cars.
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Xee
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UOK wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:08 am How's your coding going, Xee? If anything my tech skills, what little there were, are languishing in this working-from-home state. I honestly spend most of my work day frittering hours away on youtube. There's very little to do.
I wasn't able to code for a while due to work but now that things have slowed down I've actually decided to focus on Javascript + HTML/CSS whereas I was previously learning Python. I think it's definitely more applicable for the things I want to do.
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Boris13c
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Video games, Netflix, and daily walks are my usual routine ... on the plus side, I am also making large strides on completing the to do list I came up with when I retired last year.

I do miss the socializing but for the most part, being a voluntary homebody has been ok.
"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things."
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work
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work
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watch child
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southdakbearfan
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Moriarty wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:54 am work
watch child
work
watch child
work
watch child
pretend to work, but surf web
watch child
Add in. Chase the wife unsuccessfully around the house.
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