The Bards Will Save Us All

...is my prediction for this pandemic, because music and games perform the invaluable service of structuring human interaction just enough that it stays enjoyable without being overly stifling. If you're singing you're not forced face the awkward question of how much social interaction you really, really need with people who call it the China virus.

To that end, I have bought a guitar. It was $50 on nextdoor, it's a Yamaha 310-f with a warped neck and far too much action for my weak and flaccid fingers. I don't know the first thing about playing guitar, and a previous career in live audio has left me with too much taste and not enough skill, and I'll be teaching myself off whatever tutorials I can find on the internet.

I'm pretty sure they don't teach this style in Guitar 101.

But, whatever, I own a guitar now. I've had it for 2 days, I know 2 chords (D and A), and my sources tell me that with a third chord (E) and a capo*, I can work my way up toward a simplified version of Dire Straits' Walk of Life. And while I'm doing that, I'm not refreshing twitter.

So now, Jim has to live with someone learning a new instrument from scratch. It is a really good thing that I built the outdoor office. Please keep him in your thoughts during this difficult time.

*and a decent sense of timing and a lot of practice doing chord changes and more callouses and maybe a small miracle. 

The Home Office

We're all under a shelter in place order for the foreseeable future, so the Better Half and I are both working from home full time. This requires a rethink of working conditions.

To wit: I dial into a lot of meetings and I don't like wearing headphones to do it if I can help it. I don't like feeling "observed" while I'm trying to work. I fidget constantly. I walk around. I do push ups. I stretch. I talk to myself. I take 20 minute nap breaks. Sometimes I walk around the block. This is in stark contrast to the BH who can sit down at his desk for 8 hours and churn through code (helped by, as far as I can tell, a bare calendar). He certainly models what coding "looks like" to an outside observer. I don't, and I'm feeling self conscious about it.

Enter the new office. We've talked for years about tearing down some collapsing outbuildings and erecting a shed and I've talked for years about immediately turning that shed into studio space. But that's a far future sort of plan, and I have a near future need to get work done. So I'll be working from here.

Not shown: the 55 degree high temp.

What you're looking at here is a convention tent with sides, anchored down by surplus Fiesta wheels and a palm tree. It's floored with some sort of foam interlocking gym mat, the table comes from the side of the road, and seating is a yoga block. Climate will be provided by a heated blanket. I've cunningly accessorized with kettlebells.

On the one hand, whether it will work long term is anyone's guess. On the other hand, it, or some iteration of it, has to work long term, so I'll iterate toward a successful setup (helped, I'm sure, by the passage of seasons and eventual warmer weather).

I took yesterday off as a rebalancing day to deal with the new shelter-in-place reality and set up the new office. I had a mostly-successful video call (we'll need to move the wifi access point closer to the tent) and an extremely successful 5pm cocktail hour. Today is my first working day, and I'm sure I'll have more to iterate on tonight.

The view. Much better than inside.

Pandemic!

Well, it's either this or refresh twitter.

As of now, the blog is back.