I was in school so when that was put on hold I essentially played video games like it was a job. I remember vividly playing Grand Theft Auto IV in one sitting for the Liberty City Minute achievement and I’m pretty sure I played through Master Chief Collection.
Do you look back on any aspects of it nostalgically?
I worked at the hospital, got burned out, and retired.
I don’t mean to sound insensitive but do you mind me asking what the tipping point for you was?
The big thing that Ill never forget is when the child sized bodybags started going through frequently.
Children? During COVID?
What were they dying of?
They were dying of COVID.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-01-31-covid-19-leading-cause-death-children-and-young-people-us
How?
In the UK between the period of March 2020 and October 2022, there were only 88 deaths due to COVID for people under the age of 18.
Warmsoder there is what you might call a “serial bullshitter”, so they’re probably just making it up. I’ve caught them lying a few times. It’s sad.
Ah the stalker, angry about one comment I made months ago. Piss off basement dweller.
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You’ve got issues
I worked at walmart so people were angrier and I wore a mask. That’s about it. The paid 2 weeks off when I got covid were nice tho.
Did the Walmart have mask rules you had to enforce?
Yep. Didn’t bother after the first massive screaming fit I got. Even by walmart standards I worked at a bad one lol.
The week evening shut down:
Finished a vacation and was about to start a new job and then told not to come in for a while. They eventually mailed me a laptop but got like two weeks being paid to do nothing.
Matched with some lady on a dating app and were planning to meet but had to switch to a virtual date. We’re married now.
What did you do on your virtual date?
We just chatted initially but eventually we setup a virtual Friday movie night. At some point we had to meet but that was a few months later.
I’m a doctor so I was at work, I was extremely butthurt at all my friends who got to chill at home playing video games during the lockdown.
Yeah, I’m EM. Ended up being more work for me.
Went back to school. Graduated. Now, just like in 2008, I can’t find a job.
Like, how many times is this economy gonna fuck me?
Just give us a heads up next time you go back to study.
I kept going to work at a so-called “essential” job until they laid me off, and spent the rest of it with my amazing spouse. It turns out we are one of those couples who genuinely enjoy being together 24/7 while the world outside goes to shit.
Same hat. Now on the rare occasion my husband has to go somewhere for his job, I’m like “Damn the apartment’s so empty.”
I mostly worked from home, and this allowed me to spend more time and bond more closely with my two young boys, and I also improved my cooking skills.
For me, the pandemic was a catalyst to improve my life.
What do you think is the most challenging thing you cooked during that time?
I didn’t go with really difficult recipes, so I can’t really say. I know I do enjoy it more than before so that’s a win.
Alcoholism
covid quarantine was not really different from my non covid day to day. I was already wfh and I do not go to crowded things. masking was the only thing that changed for me.
Same here. I don’t really go outdoors a lot in my free time.
My wife and I had just moved and were living in my relative’s field in a 5th wheel while we arranged to have a house built. The pandemic hit and construction immediately stopped, so we continued living in that 5th wheel for another six months. The two of us, a dog, and three cats. I shockingly didn’t get laid off but didn’t have any work to do, so I just slept and played video games.
We bought a house in June, at the very bottom of our market. We couldn’t afford our house now, even if interest rates were still super low. We definitely couldn’t afford to build the house we could have afforded to build in early 2020, despite making nearly twice as much as when we first moved here. Fuck this economy.
Anyhow… We moved in, then the whole west coast lit on fire. The skies were dark purple some days. It was wild. I still didn’t have much to do at work, so video games and naps it was. I found a half face respirator and a cache of P100 filter cartridges while unpacking, so I got to go around feeling invincible for the rest of the pandemic. That was nice.
Damn, you guys got super lucky. Congratulations.
Do you look back on any aspects of it nostalgically?
I miss having a socially acceptable excuse to hang out at home and not have to spend all my spare time out & about.
I miss having a full workday where I could complete all my actual work in an hour and spend the remaining seven hours playing video games while being available through Teams & email should something arise.
I miss being able to wake up at 755, chug a diet dr pepper, and still get to work on time.
I miss being able to spend the workday in flipflops and boxers, and only putting on a shirt if I had a video call.
I don’t miss all the death & misery & related bullshit, but those are the things that I do miss.
I got up to Covid, and then Long Covid. I could do very little, except sleep, lie in bed listening to audio books, and doing jigsaws. It was basically that for about a year. Yay. I’m nostalgic for the time off work, and learning about how to recover, and manage my health. I eventually got to a place where I was eating super healthy, doing loads of yoga and light weight training, and my body was getting really strong and feeling good, even though I couldn’t do much with it because of the fatigue. I wish I had the time now to be as healthy as I’d like to be, but I’m back full time working, as well as caring for my mum. I’d like to get that back, being able to focus on my health.
I never got extra time off or pay because I was already working from home.
But I’m also well suited to long periods of time alone and got my gaming friends into Dungeons and Dragons online. We have kept up with it, two of them run their own games, and I’m playing tonight.
I still haven’t caught covid.
And I got to spend all of 4/2020 home getting high with my wife.
So all in all I am not complaining.
I was feeling challengey and became the world record older for the most sites having signed up for. A self-experiment that turned into a victory. Not quite the same as my grandfather’s “I’m going to walk from Ushuaia to Cape Agulhas and back”, but still.
How did you manage to do that? Did you just register for a site every time you came across one or did you actively search them out? Did you use a disposable email address?
All of the above. I have one email address per email site, so technically all are co-disposable.
That is really neat. Did you automate the one email address for per site thing some how? Did you use one of those disposable email services?
I use each one depending on if the site sends newsletters, if they keep the data, if the site is popular, etc. so that I could keep any sites’ emails organized that I could.
I was living at or below the poverty line for years before COVID. As a senior developer, I wasn’t finding any work. Then when COVID hit, I wasn’t able to keep up with the work. I was finally earning 6 figures. I was able to travel (like in a jet, legitimate travel) for the first time–just because. It was amazing. I was able to network with people and provide value for people. I felt like my career was suddenly moving!
Then around 2021-2022 all my clients abandoned me, my network ghosted me, and I was back to square one. That’s where I am today.
I’m working on having a breakthrough because someone college-educated with a GitHub profile should not be standing at food bank lines every month.
