Social Isolation (Day 10)

My quarantine has consisted of a lot of these two things.

Guess I should start by talking about how I'm doing. So far, so good. The respiratory issues are definitely still present but more painful than anything, which is doable. I woke up this morning and was really nauseous but that left fairly quickly. Otherwise, I'd still consider myself to be a mild case. Now, I just need all the damn paperwork to go through so I can stop stressing.

I've started to discover how the worst part of this is just how much I hate not being able to exercise in some form. I have a very physical job so, not burning those calories in a given day has started to be annoying. I can't even do yoga because half the positions put too much pressure on my lungs. Not to mention I'd have to take about 43 breaks in order to actually complete a session. I'm ready to go back to normal. Hell, I want to go for a run. I never run. That's how annoying this has been.

Speaking of normal, I wrote a shit ton about movies yesterday. I started watching "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" and realized I had a lot to say about it. Ended up writing pages on the difference between "Welcome" and its sequel "The Next Level." I'm going to make it into a really in-depth video. So that's yet another reason I want to get better. I want to be able to record again.

Since I have all this time on my hands, I decided it was finally time to get into Animal Crossing. Yes, that's right, I've found myself getting "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" and honestly? Yeah, I'm loving it. It's a lot of fun. And it's a really light play, which is great for a time like this. The grinding style really suits me, especially when there are all these tiered goals that can really help with progression. It's been a lot of fun.

I've also been playing Subnautica again but I think that may be stopping because for some reason I lost all my progress from yesterday, which was like two hours of grinding materials. I'm still salty about it. Guess it just means I have to return to the cutesy world of Animal Crossing rather than search the depths of the ocean with terrifying alien creatures. Probably a good decision.

Social Isolation (Day 9)

I really hate these boxes.

I'm officially off work for the foreseeable future. I have to wait for the local Covid Response Team to contact me about whatever the next step is, whether that be testing or just quarantine until symptoms dissipate.

The only issue, which I'm sure many others are going through, is if you're decided to not be in a high risk group, and they decide not to test, they treat you as a positive, but no one else does. My work immediately told me that "Well, you need an actual positive test to get paid during this time."

Upfront, I'm not concerned about the money aspect. It's not like I'm making Scrooge-McDuck levels of cash, where the lack of work for a couple weeks will such a hole. Plus, I have a vacation coming up that will cover some of the time away. I just can't believe I work for a company that lacks such humanity. This is the same company that never acknowledged the Pandemic. As of Tuesday it was, what, ten days since it was made official? Not a single word from management.

I think this has been the most disheartening aspect of it all. It tells me I need to leave. I'm miserable there and have been for a long time. Yet 3.2 million people just went on unemployment and I can't exactly be picky about my work. It's unfortunate and a situation I'm sure many people find themselves in.

Either way, I'm glad that this virus has taught me to prioritize certain things in life. Because not everyone does, even after big events like this. Hell, just look at all the people trying to open the economy back up. We are Corporate America. We stopped being for The People a long time ago.

Social Isolation (Day 8)

I've had the same outfit on for three days.

I think I have it.

I've never had respiratory problems in my life and suddenly I have them at the same time a massive virus is going around that causes respiratory problems. I mean, I can put two and two together. Still, I'm not freaking out about anything. It's uncomfortable but it's not the end of the world.

For me.

I think the thing that people need to remember is that, yes, this virus is very bad. But it's not very bad for everybody. There are some perfectly healthy individuals who this will affect terribly. There are some unhealthy people who will get this and have a slight cough and fever. This virus is very much a spectrum of symptoms and, every case is different.

I don't believe mine to be a bad one. But I'm still taking it all very seriously.

This morning was one of the worst mornings I've had and it was still manageable. I've been very sedentary and super cautious, which has made this much better. I can't imagine actually going to work or do any sort of activity. I'd be out of breath and dizzy in no time. That's how I know that it's something. Which means I have to quarantine. Even if I'm able to handle it, I could spread it to someone that simply cannot.

So the last few days have been weird. I probably would have been guilted into going back to work at this point by my management. But they know it's a big deal and aren't pushing anything. I think the moment I told them, they knew to prepare to not have me for two weeks. Unfortunately, it's not like that outside of this pandemic. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if they try and force me back even sooner than I'm comfortable with. But I know I'll stand my ground. Because if there's one thing this whole ordeal has taught me it's:

Fuck corporations. People are the only thing that matter.

Social Isolation (Day 7)

Felt this was appropriate.

So I'm sick.

I don't really think it's the coronavirus but I'm making sure to quarantine just in case. It's been a weird one. I haven't really had an illness where I have trouble breathing. This aspect is the only thing that leads me to believe I have the virus. Otherwise, the fever I have is very slight, if at all. But clearly this is something respiratory.

It's mild, so it's not like I'm dying or going crazy. But my day job definitely requires me to touch a lot of stuff that then gets sent to others, so I'd be putting a ton of people at risk if I were to go to work. And it sounds like I won't even be able to get a test, even if I try to at the doctors. All quite unfortunate. Oh well. I'll just hunker down and wait this thing out. I guess this is what the world has come to.

The only thing that sucks is that, while I have a decent amount of groceries, I got sick out of nowhere and it's a lot of bland food. Why didn't I stock up on pizza rolls? So my near future will feature a lot of pasta and cup o noodles. Oh well. Lesson learned for next time. Hopefully the local Chinese place doesn't mind dropping stuff off on the sidewalk.

I feel like I'm in this weird middle ground and it's frustrating. Whatever fever I do have, it comes and goes, as does my cough. I clearly have a sore throat and a lack of energy but, above all, I know that these breathing issues aren't normal. I can only get about 75% of a breath before it becomes painful. So it's a lot of half breaths.

But I can easily see this just being something else, just happening at the same time as all of this. Oh well. I'm just gonna try and enjoy the time away from my job and watch a lot of stuff. Because for the foreseeable future, I'm legit stuck in my room.

Social Isolation (Day 6)

Look at that glorious beard circa January. I trimmed it. I regret that decision.

I may have something very interesting to talk about on this blog soon but as of now, it's premature.

Otherwise, my head is cloudy and I don't really know what to discuss. People seem to be going crazier and crazier. Especially the right-wing business-centric folks. It's kind of insane just how bad this all seems to be. And now the repercussions of shutting so much down is starting to be felt and big business is freaking out.

Who cares?

I care more about the people than these dumb corporations that constantly get bailouts. Most people have paid more taxes than Amazon, which is so absurd to me. Even now, the stimulus bill is trying to be passed with a bunch of benefits for billionaires/corporations. Why on earth would they need a bailout? Give it to the people.

Goddamn did I get political with this one. I'm really mad about all of this and I feel like the fact that they're trying to open things up so soon is just ridiculous. Especially with cases getting worse and worse here. Italy has had less cases for the first time, and it's because they've been on a severe lockdown. We haven't been on near that kind of lockdown, yet people are freaking out. This is all so absurd. I feel like a crazy person for seeing all of these people that claim to be morally right doing so many things that are objectively immoral.

Wait, what's that? The CEO of Hobby Lobby's wife said that God spoke to her and that everything would be okay?

Nevermind, guys. False alarm.

Social Isolation (Day 5)

My Current YT Homepage

I know people have a lot of time on their hands. I also realize that some people are tightening their budgets and therefore getting rid of streaming services. This means you may not be able to watch that Netflix show you’ve been meaning to binge. But thankfully, there’s a lot of great free content out there, specifically on YouTube.

These are a few popular channels that have brought me a lot of entertainment over the years. I watch all of them (though sometimes I take big breaks and then just binge a ton of their content) so take these as personal recommendations. It's a wide variety, so hopefully there's something here that suits your fancy.

PewDiePie - I never in a million years thought I would be into this channel but it’s my favorite by a long shot. He’s hilarious and insightful. At this point he’s mostly a commentary channel, but I think he really shines with his gameplay videos. His “Minecraft” series was a cultural phenomenon, creating a revenue stream for Minecraft that was struggling prior. I genuinely enjoy Felix's content and watching his daily (minius the weekend now) videos have been a regular part of my routine. 

CineMassacre - The last few years have proven that this channel is much more than just "Angry Video Game Nerd." This is mostly James Rolfe and company talking about pretty much all the movies that I've ever loved pre-2000. They definitely go for more of the Retro side of things, but its still infinitely entertaining.

Good Mythical Morning - Rhett and Link do a lot of fun things in an almost morning show style, where they try weird foods, or put similar foods against each other to see which is the best. The good ones usually have something to do with food and it’s great. They've been best friends since childhood so they have a really fun banter. I've slowed down this year but last year I was watching this every morning after work and it was a great way to spend breakfast. Which I think is what these 10-15 minutes thrive on: fitting in at meals.

Hot Ones - This is technically “First We Feast” but I only really watch Hot Ones; where Sean Evans interviews a celebrity while they both eat increasingly hotter wings. Evans asks really interesting questions and the team clearly does a lot of research for their guests, which is great to see. And the wings just serves as the catalyst for a really engaged interview setting. Just have a look through their roster of celebrity guests and see which pique your interest.

...........

And then here are some lesser known ones that I love. Some don't upload anymore but still have a great backlog. All of these are relatively lower in the viewer department, so you can also feel good about broadening their audience by giving them a click.

Evil Iguana Productions - These guys entertained me endlessly in high school/college. Hell, I was facebook friends with several of them for the longest time. Wait, I just realized that I'm still twitter/Facebook friends with one of the guys. They're a sketch comedy group and got popular doing spoof movie trailers. Unfortunately the channel isn't really active (they tried a few years ago, but it didn't do so well) but I still think the backlog is fantastic. I have a particular love for the Allen and Craig Show.

B-Movie Euphoria - This guy from Michigan talks about a bunch of obscure movies, so of course I'm a fan. He does very low-fi film reviews and is always extremely informative. I've been able to add many B-movies to my watchlist that I'd never even heard of, all because of this channel. He hardly gets any views and that's a damn shame because he's great.

Monkey and Apple - Whenever I watch one of this guys videos, I feel like I'm watching a Bill Murray/Jim Belushi type of talented comedian. This guy just gets it. His comedic timing is on point and he has just a ton of great sketches. He's currently in the midst of a new webseries called (best)friends and I recommend you check it out. Oh, but of course I had to link the video that helped me discover him and that may just be my favorite Youtube video of all time.

Social Isolation (Day 4)

Proof that I self-isolated even way back in 2016.

It's getting to be really weird to see people treat self-isolation like this crazy thing that causes cabin fever. People are making silly videos, singing songs, and being creative in ways that never seemed to happen in this way before. So why's it so weird to me? Because this is my life on a regular basis.

I get up, go to work, on my way home will sometimes stop by the grocery store or get gas, then I'm at home for the rest of the day. Self-Isolation is something I go through with my everyday life. So to see so many people participate in it, and then label it as something "weird" just doesn't make sense to me.

It's just weird. Seeing people make videos entirely from their houses, as everyone reacts to it like it's this oddity. That's all I do. Specifically, I've been making youtube videos from my room for the last year and a half. Just my room. I don't like to film outside very much so I don't. I've written so much from home. Now everyone is in the same boat and it's just...does saying "weird" another time cover it?

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I guess I didn't really view my lifestyle as odd before but now, with damn near everyone treating it as such, it's kind of hard not to.

Social Isolation (Day 3)

Wrestlemania 31. Marc and I went and it was a fucking blast.

The vacation I've had planned for 14 months is officially cancelled. Don't worry though, "We'll be back to normal in no time."

So I've been planning on going to Wrestlemania in Tampa Bay since last January and, here I am, almost two weeks out from the event and you'd think I'd be ridiculously excited. Nope, I'm going to be staying home for this one.

It sucks. Like really bad.

My brother, his son, and my mom and her husband were all going to have an AirBNB that was decked to the nines. It was near the festivities, massive and even had a pool.We had multiple days of wrestling and just an overall great time planned. This was four people that absolutely adored wrestling, getting to live and breathe it for three days. Then...

Yeah, everyone knows what's going on. This has disrupted life as we know it. This event is like many others, the only difference being that I was actually going to this one. Does it suck? Of course. But if I take anything from this tragedy occurring around us it's that these events really aren't a big deal. It's our health that matters.

So I'll be spending my next vacation at home when I should have been soaking up the sun in Florida, watching half-naked men and women throw each other around a 12 x 12 structure in absurd, choreographed fashion. And I'll be disappointed. But I'll be comforted with the fact that it was the right thing to do. All of these cancellations are doing what's best for us as a society. So I'll be throwing up the WWE Network and enjoying the event, all the same.

I'll just be in quarantine. Because I'm a responsible adult, dammit.

Or at least, I try to be.