Tag Archives: lockdown

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The Journal of the Plague Fortnight, Day 3: What Artists Contribute

My day started with a trip to BioLife to donate plasma. I was late (I’ve gotten into a bad habit of doing that), and with the coronavirus scare, the check-in procedures have been reordered. Today, unfortunately, my protein levels were too low to donate. It was the first time in months this has happened. But as Scarlet O’Hara said, “Tomorrow is another day.”

With no excuse to be out of the Fortress of Solitude, I returned. First order of business: I finished editing the trailer for Kaiju Quarantine. I had to bug my fellow podcasters to send me their lines. One recorded the wrong lines and, for whatever reason, his audio file was a garbled mess in Audacity. So, I had him send me a new file. Despite Audacity giving me issues with file locations (an issue that concerns me), I put the trailer together and posted it in my podcast’s feed. I shared it with my fellow podcasters for them to disseminate.

That brought me to lunch and more UltraSeven with Jarod.

My plan was to spend the rest of the afternoon grading papers—and the distraction issues plagued me again (no pun intended). I didn’t get through all of my students’ papers. I don’t know what it is with me. Perhaps I’ve allowed myself to think I have more time than I do. Maybe the lack of structure is making me careless. Conceivably (hey, I needed a synonym, okay?), I’ve been away from school for too long, and now with everything turned upside down, I haven’t found a new rhythm yet.

(Random aside: Has anyone noticed how weird the word “rhythm” is? It has no true vowel and is a weird combination of consonants).

It might be more necessary than ever for me to keep myself off my phone, especially now that it’s become my only real source of social interaction.

While eating dinner, I watched a bit of Super Sentai Jetman on Tokushoutsu through the PlutoTV app. Every time I see it I’m shocked at how bipolar it is. One scene it’s being a silly teen rom-com, the next a hero is slashing his palm to save his girlfriend. And this was a kids’ show in Japan! Talk about cultural differences!

I punctuated my day with a new endeavor: video game streaming. I broadcast my playthrough of the game Override: Mech City Brawl through my PS4 to my podcast’s YouTube channel. It was one way I’ve tried to provide some much-needed entertainment for people who are stuck in lockdown/quarantine. I’ve realized that what artists/creatives provide in troubled times like these is exactly that: entertainment. We create an oasis in the desert of uncertainty. Listen to, read, or watch us to forget your worries, if only for a short time. It helps fight off the depression. It’s a vastly underappreciated service. People don’t realize how important it is until they desperately need it.

Here’s the video of my stream, if you’re interested in seeing it:

I may do it again. I (foolishly) tried to play the game on hard mode, so I wasn’t able to finish the campaign even after four hours. I think I’ll move on to Shadow of the Colossus after this.

What did you do to pass the time today? Let me know in the comments below!

Blog

The Journal of the Plague Fortnight, Day 2: Schoolwork, Schoolwork, and More…Gaming?!

I don’t know if it was a mistake or not, but I slept in today. Then again, I was up later than I expected last night. During my late breakfast, I decided to start a new anime since I recently finished Code Geass. So, I did what I should’ve done a long time ago: I started RoboTech, a classic of anime. Let me tell you, in just one episode, I found myself reveling in the ‘80s anime goodness.

This was my first week back to university after the extended spring break, and today was the first post-coronapocalypse deadline for my students’ paper drafts. From about 11am until 6pm, most of my time was spent grading papers. I had “online office hours” from 11am-1pm, which included a videoconference Skype call with one of my students. That was different. I took a lunch break at 1pm and watched UltraSeven with Jarod.

Unfortunately, I battled distractions throughout the rest of the afternoon. Friends kept messaging me. Amusing things kept happening on Twitter. I kept wondering if it would’ve been easier if I was on campus, but I’m not sure. What was happening probably wouldn’t have happened if not for the current crisis, I’m sure.

One of the downsides of being a writer is the constant “what ifs…?”

Regardless, I managed to get through all of my first class’ papers. Tomorrow I do my second class’ papers.

On a whim, I decided to try streaming Street Fighter V on my YouTube channel as practice for when I do it on my podcast’s channel tomorrow (Friday) at 7pm EST. I was joined by several friends, including Sergio (who played against me), Josh (who commented), and Mike (who was on chat for ten minutes).

Here are the videos (with apologies for my mic issues at first):

I think I might try to make this a more common occurrence.

After that, I got to work on the trailer for Kaiju Quarantine, a big watch party being organized by me and several of my fellow podcasters. (More on that later).

All the while, I never left the Fortress of Solitude. I guess that makes me a good citizen.

I will admit this lockdown has made me try new things, and I’m finding that I like them.

What’d you do today to pass the time in lockdown? What new things, if any, have you tried?

Blog

The Journal of the Plague Fortnight, Day 1: Reputation, Lockdown, and Excuses to Leave

The foggy scene outside my apartment on day one of the Indiana lockdown. (Photo by Nathan Marchand).

As I mentioned on my social media, with my home state of Indiana in lockdown and my university going to online only classes, I’ve decided to increase my creative output to entertain (and hopefully enlighten) all of you True Believers while in quarantine. We could all use some relief, and this is one way I can help with that.

When I wrote my blog last week, I hesitated to put in my political commentary. I make no secret of my political leanings (I’m a conservative), but I don’t make a habit of broadcasting them to the world because it always invites trouble. That’s the climate we live in now. But I left it in because it was part of my frustration. Predictably, I was accused of being flippant, propagating misinformation, and not taking the situation seriously. I ended up adding a “retraction” of sorts to the blog and posting it as an addendum. This came after I did some more reading and learned a few things I didn’t know before about coronavirus.

The criticism ignited an old fear that has dug deeper roots in recent years: perception is reality when it should be truth. In other words, the actions and decisions of others have more control over my life than I do. I could be objectively qualified for, say, a job, but the employer could still not select me. In the case of my blog, I didn’t mean to spread misinformation or offend anyone. Given that I’m something of a public figure (and the internet is vicious), damage to my reputation could cost me big time. I’ve seen the destruction wrought by gossip. I know firsthand how ungracious people can be. That’s why I went into “damage control mode” to mitigate the problem. I should’ve known everyone, including myself, is on edge with everything happening. It’s only natural to respond defensively. I stay up-to-date with the latest reports on the crisis, but there’s a lot of unknowns out there. Humans fear the unknown more than most things. That’s why coronavirus is terrifying but the flu isn’t.

Sadly, I saw the internet tear someone else apart this week over this. J.D. Lees, the editor of G-Fan magazine and the organizer for G-Fest, sparked the controversy of the week in the kaiju fan community when he posted coronavirus stats on the event’s Twitter page. Yes, it was a bad PR move, but I’ve rarely seen such instant hate in this fandom. People called him a “clown” and a “villain” and said they would cancel their magazine subscriptions and their G-Fest tickets. I know J.D., so I know he meant no harm, which is why I did try to stem the hate. That and my recent experience made me sympathetic to his plight. At least no one bit my head off for it.

So, now almost everywhere I would go is closed. School, the dance studio, bookstores. Heck, even my church had to start livestreaming services. To say I feel isolated would be an understatement. It makes me glad my brother Jarod moved in with me or else I would die of loneliness. I’ve distanced myself from online communities to focus on real-life relationships, and now they’re all I have for the time being.

At least I was able to do some work for InstaCart, and they seem to be staying in operation. At this point, I’ll take any excuse to go outside.

On my first day of quarantine, I drove to BioLife to donate plasma like I normally do. The stuff is desperately needed, and it’s good money. Appropriately, fog as thick as peanut butter blanketed the city at 9AM. It made me think of the people’s blindness and how fog would deter travel. Beyond that, I spent the day raiding my overfilled cupboards, watching UltraSeven with Jarod, doing schoolwork, catching up on my TV viewing, and gaming online with my friend Bill.

One of the goals on my whiteboard is, “Add more adventure to your life.”

That just got more challenging.

What are you doing to pass the time in self-quarantine? Comment below!