I’m using the “Down Dog” app, which at the beginning of lockdown was completely free for a month - I will check out Adriene at some point though. I still haven’t been brave enough to move from their “beginner” classes to the “intermediate” classes.
Up until recently I’ve been doing 35 minute sessions 3 or 4 times a week on my “rest” days. Now I’m back at the gym 3 or 4 times a week, I’ve dropped down to a couple of yoga sessions a week.
I’ve seen a marked improvement in flexibility and it’s been useful for rehabilitation as well. Mostly it’s just good to get into a flow and have something to focus on for a bit. I am also rubbish at meditation, but will take any excuse to have a lie down 
3 Likes
Attributed to Maurice Wilkes:
As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn’t as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.
and if it’s good enough for him it’s good enough for me.
To anyone learning to program (or considering it), I’d say: there are lots of different ways of learning to do it. If you try one way and it doesn’t work, that doesn’t necessarily mean that programming is not for you. Personally I learn by having a problem to solve, which is why I’ve started doing the Perl Weekly Challenges in Python (at which I’m very new) as well as Perl (which I know pretty well). 
4 Likes
I get dermatitis if I wash my hands with my wedding ring on. Normally I take it off, but I wash/ sterilise my hands so often that I worry about losing it.
Consequently I’ve not worn it in 6 months.
I know that’s a tiny thing compared to what others are going through but it still makes me sad.
10 Likes
Put it on a chain round your neck, perhaps? Then at least you can feel that it’s there.
2 Likes
I’m considering that. I noticed when watching The Edge (excellent cricket documentary) that Andrew Strauss wears his on a leather necklace.
4 Likes
I have been feeling this way as well. The year is flying by, it’s already September! How is that possible!? But we’ve been living with Covid for 4-5 years now, right?
3 Likes
When I watch TV, I’m alarmed that no one is wearing a mask or keeping their distance. And then I remember: this is a rerun…
Last time I went shopping, I felt guilty when I remembered back when I could just walk into a store and browse, wasting a few minutes here or there on non-essential shopping. I thought about the time I just picked up and read dozens of ingredients labels because I was looking for something without a specific allergen so that a friend could partake when he came over next - the idea, now, of handling products on the shelves without necessarily buying them makes me feel uneasy now. So, yes, I do believe I’ve lived through 4-5 years of COVID in just the last 6 months.
11 Likes
This isn’t really on topic, but it might be of some interest: if you find the idea of coding fun, Human Resource Machine is entertaining. It’s a coding puzzle game that sort of simulates a cpu. It’s the sort of puzzle game I enjoy.
4 Likes
I haven’t played a lot of vidjagames in the last few years, but anything tagged with “programming” on Steam gets my attention. I adore “zach-likes” and have played through most of the Zachtronics catalog.
So, if there’s sufficient interest, we could split out a programming challenges/game thread
2 Likes
Slight curve ball! It’s been 10 years since the start of the Christchurch (or Canterbury, depending on who you ask) Earthquake Sequence, about two or three years of reasonable sized earthquakes that demolished half my city.In the best display of 2020 we had a reminder earthquake last night (details for nerds: https://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/2020p666015). A smaller one in the scale of things, and a good 300Km from where I live. It still felt like a truck ran into my house. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t sleep well, and have been on edge all morning.
I work in the Geotechnical side of the building industry here. In the last two weeks I’ve issued three reports relating to houses damaged in the earthquakes, either through poor repairs, or the insurance companies have been playing hardball with each other. This is a normal part of my workload. I drove to work along the ‘repaired’ roads in town that feel like a bouncy gravel road, past the empty weedy lots, or lots repurposed as car parks, or buildings waiting for demolition.
And I should acknowledge the progress we’ve made, because there has been lots. But I’m tired, and not feeling very generous today.
11 Likes
2020 is definitely not winning “Year of the year”
Hope your house is ok. Do you take precautions in the way you organize your things?
Way back when traveling was a thing–11 years ago–we visited the museum in Auckland where they have the vulcano room that simulates the “big one” in Auckland… that was one scary museum experience…
5 Likes
There’s a good one in Darwin about the tornado that hit them on Christmas 1974. Well scary
2 Likes
I feel like every year recently I say the same thing but 2020 can go take a flying fuck at the moon.
Maybe it’s me.
9 Likes
I had my second appointment with a new counsellor today. I got halfway through the assessment process with the local autism diagnosis service before the pandemic rudely interrupted everybody’s lives, and she specialises in such things. Today she told me that she thought I should consider ADHD as well, so it seems like I might be collecting a whole set of non-typical neurotypes. I’m not really sure how I feel about this… I think I prefer collecting board games 
11 Likes
It is not easy to get a diagnosis as an adult it seems. Someone I know has been struggling for a whole year now to find someone who will listen to them and consider getting started on a possible diagnosis.
I think they would prefer knowing over not knowing (as would I). I hope you can find out how your brain works with that counsellor.
2 Likes
At least with the diagnosis service in my area you can self-refer, rather than having to convince your GP to do it for you. It’s the waiting times that are a bother. A few months for the autism service and two years for the ADHD service, unless you go private and pay for it yourself.
3 Likes
Two years? And here I was complaining I am having to wait for an appointment with a specialist form August to November…
2 Likes
Thanks. The house will be fine, it’s been through worse. It’s old enough that it can flex in ways new building aren’t supposed to.
No. We should, and I’ll regret it later, but no.
In saying that, the only big, top heavy things we have are the TV (in a separate room) and the board game collection in the lounge. I just need to fix a door to the shelving in the garage and it’ll be moderately quake safe.
I think I’ve been in that volcano room, about 20 years ago. Very Scary. I don’t think I could do it again now.
I feel that. I think the other part is I also have a reasonable understanding of what the consequences would be.
I want to respond to all the other comments here, but I’m well aware I don’t have the capacity to. Suffice to say best of luck everyone, it’s been a long three weeks since March. I hope it gets better from here / soon.
10 Likes
