Introduction Post

[petra]

If you're joining us, please comment with:
1. Your name (your pronouns)
2. Experience with being stuck inside: newbie, been not around the block a few times, Grizzled Veteran of the Indoors Wars
3. Self-soothing: Favorite way to self-soothe at the moment
4. I hope: What you hope this community can do for you
5. I can offer: What you are bringing to the party

For example:
Petra (she/her)
Been not around the block a few times
Self-soothing: reading long fanfiction & Stardew Valley
I hope: I want to add structure and enjoyment to my days of being stuck inside, and bring the same benefits to other people
I can offer: an open, sympathetic mind and suggestions of ways to cope, e. g. "connect with new people on the internet for new perspectives"

Comments

[hannah]

1. Hannah, she/her/hers.
2. Newbie.
3. Deadwood, tea, and feeding the local pigeons.
4. A way to peek my head outside and engage with people, even if not in real time.
5. Sympathy, concern, empathy, and assorted suggestions which have helped me and might help others, such as recording home workouts in my gym journal to keep the momentum going on those.

[via_ostiense]

1. via_ostiense / she
2. newbie - I normally stay inside but I can't remember ever having to stay inside, except maybe when I had the chicken pox. In 1993.
3. bicycling
4. Interaction with fellow DWers
5. comments!

[petra]

Welcome!

Tea and monitoring your exercise sound like good starts to the project of coping.

[petra]

Not since 1993, huh? Well, things have come on a bit since then, I reckon.

How far do you go on your (stationary?) bike?

[harpers_child]

1. harper she/her
2. Experience with being stuck inside: been not around the block a few times
3. Self-soothing: tea, gardening, holding stuffed animals, listening to music, comfort TV
4. I hope: I'd like to talk to more people.
5. I can offer: advice, crafting suggestions, comments

[desireearmfeldt]

1. Desiree (she/her)
2. Experience with being stuck inside: none with being stuck but a lot with working from home
3. Self-soothing: it's a work in progress...making music, reading fiction, exercycling while watching TV.
4. I hope: meeting new people, social that doesn't involve turning on FaceBook? I'm not sure....
5. I can offer: In-depth conversation for fellow introverts who have been watching everyone announce all the groups they're forming and inviting everyone in the world to online social events and reacting with combined fear-of-missing-out and dislike-of-large-real-time-group-events.

[petra]

Welcome! What's your recent comfort TV?

[petra]

Large, real-time online social events don't sound like my idea of a good time either. All the stress of People, right in your own home.

Have you read anything good recently?

[desireearmfeldt]

Apart from the romance novel I'm reading for an online waiting community's book group -- which I'm not enjoying much but am kind enjoying talking about the writing of -- I just finished The Red Garden, by Alice Hoffman, and A Study In Scarlet Wonen,by Sherry Thomas. I enjoyed both of those.

The Red Garden is a series of linked magical realism short stories, all taking place in the same town over several centuries. I read it because I just played a live-roleplaying game based on it, so that context got me thinking some interesting things about adaptation.

I liked the Lady Sherlock book enough to want to continue reading the series, but I'm not sure all of the clues/information/plot actually make sense. Also the author makes the off choice to spend a large proportion of pages on the police detective who is boots on the ground for solving the main mystery while Holmes is off screen. I think I would have structured the book differently if I were writing it.

How about you?

[petra]

I recently devoured Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series (three of four planned books published) and enjoyed the hell out of it. The worldbuilding is masterful and intricate, the storytelling goes wild and wacky places, and it does fascinating things with identity.

Other than that I've mostly been reading fanfiction.

[desireearmfeldt]

Oh, I read those maybe last year? I enjoyed them but ended up feeling like they morphed into a somewhat different thing than they started out as. Which I guess I often end up feeling about books that start with a heavy focus on the reader (and often the viewpoint character) figuring out What's Going On. Once the initial big mystery is revealed, anything that follows necessarily has a different feel. I had the same reaction to NK Jemison's Broken Earth trilogy.

[petra]

Yeah, once the curtain gets pulled aside the story changes significantly, but I liked where it went and the way it went there well enough that I didn't mind.

On my to reread in case of emergency list: Discworld.

[desireearmfeldt]

...and there's quite a lot of Discworld to keep you occupied!

[harpers_child]

Shitt's Creek, Great British Baking Show, Bon Appetit test kitchen videos, various costumer/historical practice people's youtube videos, Critical Roll, nature documentaries

A lot of those are put on in the background kind of things.

My introduction to CosTube was Bernadette Banners video where she bought a cheap knockoff of one of her dresses and roasted it. Cathy Hay is currently my favorite because she's so soothing to listen to.

Have you been watching anything? Or been putting things on for background noise?

[minoanmiss]

Your username made me start humming. :)

[minoanmiss]

Minoanmiss/Rubynye, she/her
have been becoming more of a homebody over the last few years
Self-soothing: listening to music and watching gentle nonfiction. I just discovered a TV show about the Georgia Aquarium and a Youtube channel by a boy who does chemistry for fun.
I hope to maintain a window on the world here
I can offer childish art and random facts!

[desireearmfeldt]

Just call me 'the decrepit Desiree.'

(Amusingly, I have played Mme Armfeldt on the stage, but not Desiree Armfeldt...though hopeful fantasy springs eternal!)

[minoanmiss]

But were you hopelessly shattered by Saturday night? :D

I kind of love that you got to play her Mom Of Opinionated Old-Ladyness. One day you'll get to play her, I'm sure!

[desireearmfeldt]

Mme. Armfeldt was great fun to play! "Bear that in mind child, as you chomp so recklessly into that gingersnap!"

Maybe my goal should be to age backwards through the roles, passing through Desiree and Petra and Anne to wind up playing Fredrika at 60!

[desireearmfeldt]

Tell us a random fact!

(Not sure where the original version of this comment disappeared to.)

[minoanmiss]

People in Brazil are using the jenipapo fruit to dye foods a rich edible blue color!

[petra]

Not Enough. But plenty.

[petra]

Aw, your art is not childish. And your random facts are lovely.

[petra]

Schitt's Creek and GBBO are on my list of comfort TV. So is some of Beauty Guru-and-adjacent YouTube, including SimplyNailogical and Safiya Nygaard. Bernadette Banner's video of "what have they wrought and tried to pass off as my dress?" was deeply enjoyable too.

I've also been rewatching Slings & Arrows with a friend, which is rather pointy for comfort TV but is my comfort TV anyway.

[via_ostiense]

In some ways yes and in some ways no - my strongest memory of having chickenpox is reading lots of books while I was out of school. I'm doing the same now in the evenings, just on an e-reader that has more books on it than child!me would ever have imagined fit on a device less than a centimeter thick. And fanfic, of course - a whole new world of stuff to read that would have exploded child!me's mind.

I did 14 miles yesterday and 10 miles today. I think 10 miles will be my standard workout (it's an out-and-back to a nice lookout point with a calming view of the ocean), and 14 miles can be for days when I have less work to do (it's an out-and-back to a nice lookout point with a different view of the water).

Are you mostly reading new long fics or older long fics? e.g. revisiting old favorites or finding new ones.