work from home, week one, done

I’ve got a lot going on in my head. (I’m sure I’m not alone in that.) I keep reminding myself that I’m way better off than most people, right about now. My job is (fairly) stable, and I can work from home effectively. I live alone, and don’t really have anyone depending on me, so I can stay home and isolate myself, for the most part. I have a grocery store a short walk from my apartment. I don’t have any ongoing medical conditions that require management or treatment right now. Still, this thing is pretty scary.

It looks like working from home and social distancing will be the “new normal” for some time now. I’m very worried about this, for a variety of reasons, but there’s not much I can do, aside from doing my part, being responsible, and being kind.

I thought I’d post a few links today, broken down into three categories. First, links about working from home:

  • How to pair Apple AirPods with your Windows 10 PC — My USB headset is still on my desk at work, so I’ve been using my AirPods for conference calls. They’re working pretty well. I wasn’t sure if they’d play nice with Windows, but they’ve worked fine.
  • Scott Hanselman blogs and tweets about working remotely a lot. Here’s a recent blog post. (It’s from back in February, before things got quite as crazy as they are now, but it’s still relevant.)
  • And here’s a post from Eric Lippert about his work from home setup.

Next, distractions:

  • I’ve been watching a lot of Joe Pera Talks With You lately. It’s a pretty funny show, and it’s also pretty quiet and slow, which is nice at a time like this. The episode Joe Pera Takes You to the Grocery Store is a good one, and particularly funny now, given the current situation. I’m not sure I’m ever going to see a grocery store that looks that calm and organized ever again. (I mean, I guess I will eventually, but it doesn’t seem likely any time soon.) Joe’s grocery list from the episode is online too.
  • Bandcamp did a thing on Friday where they waived their cut for all sales on that day. I’d meant to go online after work and buy a few albums, but I just didn’t have the energy to do it. Buying a few albums from Bandcamp is still on my to-do list for this month, but I keep getting distracted.
  • Yo-Yo Ma started a #SongsOfComfort hashtag going and posted a nice video on YouTube, of a little Dvořák piece. I found a couple of other nice things under that hashtag. I’ve been listening to a lot of classical music this week, generally from WQXR and BBC Radio 3. It’s nice background while I’m working, and calms me down a bit.
  • Disney released Onward digitally yesterday, after only a few weeks in the theaters. I went ahead and bought it, and I’ll likely watch it tonight. I also bought Rise of Skywalker yesterday. I saw it in a theater when it came out, and I’m not in much of a rush to see it again, but it’ll be another nice distraction, so maybe I’ll watch it tomorrow.

And, third… I had some idea for a third set of links, but it’s gone now. I guess I’m too tired. Saturday morning is generally busy for me, but not stressful. I just do my laundry and grocery shopping. But today, both of those things were pretty stressful. Our laundry room isn’t cleaned that often, and gets a lot of use, so I was being really careful about what I touched while I was down there, and washing my hands every time I came back upstairs. And of course the grocery shopping was stressful, dealing with the crowd and the spotty product availability. I had wanted to relax after I was done, and I did for a bit, but then came Gov. Murphy’s press conference. He honestly didn’t say anything I wasn’t expecting him to say, but for some reason, the lead up to it made me nervous, and then I felt I had to sit through all of it, to make sure I was fully informed.

Anyway, there’s no reason I can’t relax for the rest of the day. I have clean clothes and a reasonably full pantry for the coming week. I’ve checked in with friends. I’ve cleaned the apartment. I think I’m done for now.

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