Day 20 #StayHome Busy Day

I love taking photos, and playing with them with Google photos and Snapseed. I'm not going to stop just because we're home. 

Or should I?

Can you tell which side of the closet is mine?

Rebecca is doing our shopping at Publix while I watch on the app. I ordered a 4 pack of toilet paper and she had to give me a refund. No toilet paper to be had! Shiner Bock beer was out of stock and she tried to replace it with natural ice. NO. I'm so glad I was watching the app and could tell her to get Fat Tire instead. The app tells me she's checking out now. Thank goodness! We're out of wine.

The last 2 times we've used Publix delivery it was Winston who did our shopping. I hope he's ok.

More Webinars today - another Zoom webinar to make sure I understand everything I need to know, then a Webinar by the CEO of Zoom where he addressed the security and privacy concerns. I spent most of the afternoon putting together a Zoom course using the online course platform Thinkific.com. I want to have that course complete so I can promote in on our newsletter. So, I still haven't gotten the newsletter done. 

Then came a Dotto Tech webinar on podcasting at 4, I really like Steve Dotto and try to watch most anything he does. At 5 Jim's good friend Tom Pernal was streaming on Facebook. Tom is a good musician, he's been playing guitar and singing at various venues around where he lives. Now they're all closed and he is staying home. So he set up at home and turned on the camera. We cast his concert to the TV while we had dinner. What a delight!

Bad News

US Coronavirus cases: 434,698 Deaths: 14,787

Good news

Our YouTube channel is active, one video about zoom had 25,000 views. We've actually made $100. That's a record.

   

Day 19 #StayHome

I've been fascinated with Estonia ever since I watched this Ted talk:What a digital government looks like. Every citizen is required to have a digital ID. Every piece of information stored under that ID belongs to the citizen. Once a piece of data is stored in your digital ID, you never have to provide that data again. Any entity that legitimately needs access to the data must be authorized to get it from your digital ID. Data is only entered once. Whenever that data is accessed, it is recorded and the citizen is informed. Blockchain keeps the integrity of the data. In the late 90s my specialty was Microsoft Access, a relational database. I understand the concept of Enter Data Once - and only once! I love the concept of the Estonian system. So, when I saw that there was a webinar on how to become an e-resident of Estonia I signed up for 2pm today - oops, that's 2pm Estonia time or 7am here. I wasn't completely awake, but I did listen. 

This was a back-to-school day today. In addition to that one hour webinar, I watched another one on Zoom, and yet a third webinar on a new feature called Landing Pages on AWeber - the service we use for email marketing. Altogether I spent 3 1/2 hours watching webinars today. They were all great. I could hear that Jim was doing pretty much the same thing downstairs in his office, just on different topics. He keeps learning more and more about live video streaming production quality. Right now he's learning about a software-based sound mixer called Voicemeeter. And, also Zoom. Absolutely everybody is now using zoom for meetings since they can't get together in person, and a lot of people look to us to teach them how. We've been using Zoom for years and we love it so ..OK.

If you're passionate about learning new things, like we are, life just couldn't be better for staying home and learning with the computer. The flip side is my passion for teaching. I'm a little over halfway thru building a new online course on Zoom. I'd already made several videos and written a few articles. We've done 2 of our YouTube shows on Zoom, so I figured that putting together a cohesive course for getting started with Zoom would be a good thing.

I didn't even step outside once today. Yes, I did watch another 2 episodes of Homeland. Is that binge-watching? or do you have to watch it all day long to be considered binge-watching? 

The bad news

US Covid-19 confirmed cases: 400,412, Deaths: 12,854

as of 11pm per Worldometers.info

The good news

Peter Diamandis is my goto guy for good news. I'm reading his book called The Future is Faster than you Think. Just one example - he writes about how 3D printers can now build entire houses over a weekend for $5,000. Wow. When we come out of this Pandemic, we may just have a whole new world waiting for us. Peter Diamandis also writes a blog. I'm linking his latest article below. His first point is that this Pandemic is the first time the whole world has faced such a singular enemy, and medical professionals and researchers are working and sharing like never before. 

WHY I’M HOPEFUL & 3 THINGS TO DO RIGHT NOW 

Day 18, #StayHome

A normal morning - I got up first, made coffee, emptied the dishwasher. We were guest presenters at a Zoom meeting at 11, so we spent a little time preparing. The meeting went until about 1pm, then I did a little email, web browsing. I didn't do my 7 minute exercise today. Why not? It's easy, it's quick. I'm just too lazy.

We learned from my friend Chris, on Facebook, that an old time favorite steak-house restaurant (Tropical Acres Steakhouse) was promoting its butcher shop and selling meat via phone that you could then pick up. Jim called, placed an order, took a drive and picked it up. He paid over the phone with credit card, and just picked up the bag when he got there - contactless. He was home within the hour with 2 week's worth of steak, hamburger, salmon, and crab cakes. ... and one whole cheese cake!
We're almost out of wine, so I'm working on an order from Publix that should be delivered tomorrow.

I'm 5 days behind now on getting our GeeksOnTour newsletter out. hmmmm If I have so much more time on my hands, why can't I get anything done? All I want to do is go watch some more Homeland.

Dinner was awesome. I cut up a butternut squash, tossed it with some herbs, oil, and a small drizzle of honey then cooked it in the air fryer. Jim cooked one of the steaks. First he cooked it in the sous vide to the perfect temperature, then he finished it on the grill.

After dinner we walked around the neighborhood, soaked in the hot tub and I watched more Homeland. No, I'm not going to show the cheesecake.

Bad News

US Coronavirus Cases: 364,059 US Coronavirus deaths: 10,792

Good News

Timing is everything. If our Maldives trip had been scheduled just one week earlier than it was, we may have gone. I'm quite sure we would have gone if it had been 2 weeks. Then, we would have been stuck there because we learned that they closed the airport. Here's a story of a couple who were honeymooning in the Maldives and could not return home to South Africa. They were the only guests at their resort.

Day 17 #StayHome

I got up first this morning! Before you pat me on the back, you should know it was almost 9am. That means I ground the beans and made the coffee. I also cleaned the kitchen. The time it takes for coffee to brew seems to be just the right amount of time to clean the kitchen 😀. When it needs it that is. Jim usually leaves the kitchen clean before he goes to bed at night. Yes ladies, you heard me right, my husband not only does all the cooking but most of the cleaning as well. The kitchen is his domain. I'm a lucky girl!

Yesterday was my most slothful day so far in this isolation time, and it worries me. Doing nothing, drinking, napping, watching Netflix is ok periodically, but I worry about my lazy tendencies. A while back I discovered a YouTube exercise video for 7 minute workouts and I thought I'd be doing that every day now. I haven't done it once. Today I did 👍. Ok, you can pat me on the back now.

Multi tasking: listening to a webinar while exercising to the video

I know the routine so I didn't need the sound, just the video that demonstrates the exercise to do. I put on the video with no sounds, then also played another video about something I wanted to learn. The learning video had the volume up high so I could do the exercises and still learn! Brilliant, exercising and learning. Multitasking.

At 2pm we had a zoom meeting scheduled with our GeeksOnTour members. Wow. 65 people showed up and stayed for 1.5 hours. Each one had the opportunity to practice with zoom and say hello, then we were able to answer a few questions about zoom.

What it looks like to have 65 people over to your house during quarantine.

After our meeting we relaxed in the hot tub. The reason for a photo of an empty hot tub should be self explanatory :-)

My writing medium of choice is this blog. Jim gravitates more toward Facebook. I just read what he wrote and saw the picture - guess what! It was exactly what I was going to post here - so I'll be lazy and just copy his Facebook post.

If you don't know about the musical duo Victor and Penny, here's their live Facebook concert - they are unique and wonderful. We didn't go for a walk today because it was raining after dinner. Maybe tomorrow.

Bad News

USA Coronavirus cases: 330,605  USA Coronavirus Deaths 9,445

5:30 pm from Worldometer

Good News

When we were meeting with our GeeksOnTour.com members, it was so surprising, and heartwarming to hear how many of them are now using Zoom meetings to get together with family - virtual happy hours. One participant said when their family got together this week on Zoom they were all able to meet the new baby that just came into the family. We are just gobsmacked at how good Zoom is. (isn't that a great word? gobsmacked? - I think we picked that up in New Zealand) Even though they've gone from 10 million daily users to 200 million daily users, and they are under attack by spammers, they still are providing us all with high quality, easy, online meetings. Thank you Zoom! I think this is a trend will continue after the pandemic is over. Now that people have been introduced to it and see just how good and easy it is, why stop? Check out this YouTube video by Martin Brossman where we joined him to discuss the possible silver linings in this pandemic.

Day 16 #StayHome

Waking up to the sound of the coffee grinder. We get custom ground beans from Lazy Lyon coffee. That's Bob Lyon, Jimmy Lyon's brother. Jimmy is Jim's oldest dive buddy and lives in Long Beach Island new Jersey.

Because of  Lazy Lyon coffee, we've discovered our favorite is Guatemalan gold. Burundi is a close second. Bob is always experimenting with different beans and different roasting techniques. I've had a long history with coffee, 

1. rejecting it altogether as a young adult, 
2. needing it for law school studies
3. using it as an excuse to load my cup with cream and sugar
4. drinking it black as the only allowed treat during a weight loss diet
5. adopting it as my daily routine - still drinking it black
6. joining the hunt for the best gourmet coffee from Lazy Lyon

After waiting a sufficient amount of time for the coffee to brew, I rolled out of bed and made my way downstairs. I take my coffee to the computer, look at emails, browse the news etc. Jim and I discuss what we're going to talk about when we join Martin via Zoom at 11:30. I finish editing another article for the current Geeks on Tour newsletter.

Then comes time to get on our zoom call with Martin and we talked about the silver lining of this pandemic. I ended the meeting with advice that it was ok to sit it out. I quoted my Tao of Abundance book from the "Leisure" chapter. 

"Everyone knows how useful it is to be useful. No one seems to know how useful it is to be useless." Chuang Tzu

I summed it up saying you don't have to save the world, or use this time to be productive, it's OK to do nothing.

Turns out I'm really good at taking my own advice, I did nothing for the rest of the day! I watched 2 more episodes of Homeland, I read my book a little bit, I took a nap, then I watched a couple of Ted talks. That felt good. This one gave a lot of good detail on the Corona Virus in China. 

Jim cooked dinner and we emptied a couple bottles of wine. Then we took a walk around the neighborhood. Very few people out tonight, one wearing a face mask. Beautiful evening. 

The Frangipani is blooming

Bad news

USA CoronaVirus cases: 308,812  Deaths: 8,407

Good News:

It appears that the pandemic may be just about over in China - where it started. There are possibilities of a second wave, hopefully that won't happen.