Fitter, happier, more productive

[Facecloth]

3 hours ago, Voll Blau said:

Learning a language is a great way to spend your time. The Duolingo app is free, (sometimes) fun and has really helped me. Woudl definitely recommend it.

Did you purposely misspell "would" when your talking about learning a second language? 

[ajthefox]

I'm going to get back on Duolingo and continue with my Spanish, start drawing again and read all the books I have I haven't read. 

Of course there will be plenty of binge watching too though.

 

Hopefully get out to do some photography too if we're not in complete lockdown, but maybe that's wishful thinking.

Edited 18 March 2020 by ajthefox

[Paninistickers]

14 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

And we’ll still buy cheap crap from China 

No way. I think there'll be a sea change when this is all done. 

 

More buying local. More neighbourly. More conscious of our impact on the world. I genuinely think that.

 

I for one will actively seek out alternatives to buying from that place. 

[rachhere]

I ordered a box from gousto the other day - I figured that we might as well cook some extra nice meals. I love their boxes, but normally I tend to only buy if on offer. 

 

By coincidence before this all kicked off we had already started working on new raised beds to grow some veggies, so at least we have an outdoor project to keep us entertained. Shame we hadn't got in chickens as well, as eggs are in short supply at the moment..!

[waddadamadda]

I’m using the time to gain a qualification in Understanding Mental Health in Children and Young People as well as rekindling my love for baking.

 

Teach my youngest to ride a bike 

 

Up my cycling mileage as my 100 mile cycle is still on at the moment 

 

Run for enjoyment and not because I have a race

 

And to have a lie in! 

[Toddybad]

1 hour ago, FoxesDeb said:

Cooking as well, I really really hate it and see it as a proper chore. This time may see me being far more inventive when I'm left with nothing else but a tin of corned beef, some tarragon and a bit of gnocchi. I would love to enjoy it though, so maybe now is the time for me to embrace cooking 

What is it that makes you dislike it? Is it that you don't really know what to do or just that you hate every little moment of it?

[Toddybad]

@ALC Fox Anybody with an interest in writing can now take a shot at becoming a BBC screenwriter

 

BBC to open up its Writers’ Academy to non-professionals

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/mar/18/bbc-to-open-up-its-writers-academy-to-non-professionals?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

 

Edited 18 March 2020 by Toddybad

[Voll Blau]

39 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

Did you purposely misspell "would" when your talking about learning a second language? 

Yeah, let's go with that...

[stripeyfox]

1 hour ago, pds said:

I've just re-signed back up to ancestry.com.

Family trees fascinate me. Did the DNA thing a couple of years ago in the hope I had some exotic history. Turns out 96% British, 2% German, 2% Swedish. Boring.

 

Already today discovered more about my Great Uncle. I knew he died in WW1 bur was amazed to find a photo of him and a description of where he died. Turns out he died in the Battle of Bazentin Ridge on 14th July 1916, aged 22. His younger brother also died in battle in France in June 1918, also aged 22, although have struggled to find out more info about him.

You can only imagine such young men facing such horror.... 

 

I really need to look into this. My dad has done lots of research on the family going back hundreds of years

An ancestor on my mums side was a master shipbuilder who built HMS Victory as it turns out... 

 

Definitely need to find something productive to do in the coming months. 

[Rain King]

4 minutes ago, stripeyfox said:

You can only imagine such young men facing such horror.... 

 

I really need to look into this. My dad has done lots of research on the family going back hundreds of years

An ancestor on my mums side was a master shipbuilder who built HMS Victory as it turns out... 

 

Definitely need to find something productive to do in the coming months. 

I love doing it but find it very hard to do much more on my dad's side as our surname is just about the most common in the world.

Been looking at my Mrs' side of the family and going back a few decades found a surname I've never heard before (Polkey), think I'll find more interesting things down her side.

Also seems over the last 250 years all my family has been born and based in Leicestershire. Was really hoping for a bit of diversity!

Edited 18 March 2020 by pds

[murphy]

So many good intentions. 

 

I just know that you will all be sitting in your pants eating monster munch watching Bargain Hunt.

[Izzy]

3 minutes ago, murphy said:

So many good intentions. 

 

I just know that you will all be sitting in your pants eating monster munch watching Bargain Hunt.

This

[Ric Flair]

Got a few intentions.

 

I'm going to try and learn the basics of a new language or educate myself on a topic/interest of some sort, nothing too complex or lengthy but something that can be achieved in a few months.

 

I might do a bit of painting or drawing, dog shit at it but enjoyed doing a few bits with my son and getting properly engrossed haha.

 

I love cooking, so I'll continue to spend a lot of time and love in to that. Probably try and create some piece of art from tinned foods.

 

And finally, I might offer my hypnotherapy and EFT services out to people free of charge to help them during this very difficult and scary time. I've not been practicing either very much for a number of years as my full time career has progressed but I've always maintained a passion for alternative therapy and still do a bit here and there, would be happy to help people.

[Facecloth]

2 hours ago, FoxesDeb said:

Cooking as well, I really really hate it and see it as a proper chore. This time may see me being far more inventive when I'm left with nothing else but a tin of corned beef, some tarragon and a bit of gnocchi. I would love to enjoy it though, so maybe now is the time for me to embrace cooking 

I don't mind cooking, but equally don't want to spend hours doing it. I'd love to get better at it, and more inventive though. Can't get any ****ing food at the moment though 

[Toddybad]

47 minutes ago, pds said:

I love doing it but find it very hard to do much more on my dad's side as our surname is just about the most common in the world.

Been looking at my Mrs' side of the family and going back a few decades found a surname I've never heard before (Polkey), think I'll find more interesting things down her side.

Also seems over the last 250 years all my family has been born and based in Leicestershire. Was really hoping for a bit of diversity!

Does it cost much to go on and look?

[Toddybad]

26 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

I don't mind cooking, but equally don't want to spend hours doing it. I'd love to get better at it, and more inventive though. Can't get any ****ing food at the moment though 

One of my main plans for the year is to find a recipe that masks the flavour of tinned peas 😂

[Costock_Fox]

Hoping to get my guitar out and try to learn that for a 3rd time. I’ll read more books, maybe restart my Spanish that I was learning 5 years ago before moving to Italy.

 

As I can’t go to the gym now I’ve started Insanity Max 30 again today and I’m already ****ing dreading the next 39 sessions of that.

[ALC Fox]

1 hour ago, Toddybad said:

@ALC Fox Anybody with an interest in writing can now take a shot at becoming a BBC screenwriter

 

BBC to open up its Writers’ Academy to non-professionals

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/mar/18/bbc-to-open-up-its-writers-academy-to-non-professionals?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

 

My creative writing background has been in fiction and poetry, but screenwriting has always been at the back of my mind and I've thought about doing a course for a while. Could be worth a look that, much appreciated 

[FoxesDeb]

9 hours ago, Toddybad said:

What is it that makes you dislike it? Is it that you don't really know what to do or just that you hate every little moment of it?

I think it's because it usually seems like a lot of effort for something that doesn't take long to disappear! I'm actually not a bad cook and I certainly love food, it's just the preparation and the actual cooking I can't stand. For some reason I don't mind cooking a Sunday roast though... I think I'm just lazy 

[Rob1742]

Think the OP is spot on. Only yesterday I was saying to the family “ what are we get out of this when we come out of it the other side”

 

We will get my youngest to start cooking the dinners, so he should come out of it with a skill.

 

I will play more guitar, so I should get much better than I currently am.

 

Looking at how we will all keep fit, as movement will be far less.

 

What positives can we get out of it is what we all need to look at, right at the start so we can plan something.

 

Then afterwards it will be a game changer too. Those who aren’t affected financially will have built up pots of money, so I can imagine people will go barmy with holidays, buying clothes, moving house etc. There will be issues as we come out of it with regards to holidays etc as everyone books at the same time. 

[grobyfox1990]

14 hours ago, Xen said:

Going to keep running for as long as I'm able to - had a week off from marathon training but starting to get bored now without the routine. Afaik there's nothing wrong with running solo outside so I'll take whatever chance I can get - especially as we don't have a garden so otherwise I'd be confined to a flat without much natural light  Otherwise at home I'll possibly start doing yoga and some kettlebell stuff that I've thus far been putting off. Planning on getting a dartboard and picking darts up again as well.

 

I'll still be working, but going to spend a lot of that time (plus some free time) making a more concerted effort to teach myself to code (Python and SAS for those wondering, plus extending my R knowledge) so hopefully when everything is back to normal I can push for a promotion that I'd been angling for, or move up elsewhere.

 

Undoubtedly going to be playing a lot more video games and watching TV.

 

I'd like to teach myself to be a better cook, too, although not sure how easy that's going to be...

how are you planning to learn to code? I was going to look at a course over summer, but is there an easy and free way I can get started online as something to do whilst there's no sport on?

[Xen]

40 minutes ago, grobyfox1990 said:

how are you planning to learn to code? I was going to look at a course over summer, but is there an easy and free way I can get started online as something to do whilst there's no sport on?

For SAS I've got my work to buy a book which I've brought back to use as a reference, and my current project requires some anyway so rather than get my colleague to do that bit I'll be learning on the job.

 

For Python I'm not really sure. I've got a few courses from Udemy (wait for the very frequent sales if you're going to buy any) which I can work through and I'm going to try and come up with a few personal projects to try and get the hang of things. Havent really got a clear pathway set out yet though.

 

For R, that's my bread and butter anyway so I'm just carrying on as-is and picking up a few new bits and pieces.

 

 

In general, just try to pick a pathway and stick to it as best you can, rather than flitting between lots of different languages and getting muddled. A lot of it is about finding the best way for you to learn - some people find youtube tutorials work best, others prefer books etc. Getting stuck into projects, making mistakes and finding solutions on your own is a fantastic way of applying that learning and expanding on it.

If you're not sure what to learn then a good introduction would be the (completely free!) Harvard CS50 course which covers a lot of basic principles. 'Automate the Boring Stuff With Python' is another free resource if you decide to go down that route (the author often gives away free access to the video course, but the book version is always free on his site), and if you want to try web development then I've heard good things about The Odin Project (again, completely free!).

[Livid]

Got a lot of books and DVD’s I’ve bought but never read/watched and the garden could get that major tidy up I’ve been trying to find the time for the last few years. 
 

 

[Livid]

11 hours ago, murphy said:

So many good intentions. 

 

I just know that you will all be sitting in your pants eating monster munch watching Bargain Hunt.

I’ll have you know that my standards will never fall as low as to watch Bargain Hunt (or Homes under the hammer!) 

 

Pants and Monster Munch (Roast Beef only!) quite possibly 

[goose2010]

1 hour ago, Rob1742 said:

Think the OP is spot on. Only yesterday I was saying to the family “ what are we get out of this when we come out of it the other side”

 

We will get my youngest to start cooking the dinners, so he should come out of it with a skill.

 

I will play more guitar, so I should get much better than I currently am.

 

Looking at how we will all keep fit, as movement will be far less.

 

What positives can we get out of it is what we all need to look at, right at the start so we can plan something.

 

Then afterwards it will be a game changer too. Those who aren’t affected financially will have built up pots of money, so I can imagine people will go barmy with holidays, buying clothes, moving house etc. There will be issues as we come out of it with regards to holidays etc as everyone books at the same time. 

Joe Wickes 15 Minute work outs as good and they are all on Youtube.