Everyone at netBlazr hopes that as many of you as possible are safe inside your own 4 walls. After almost a month of isolation however, you may feel like you’re crawling up those walls!
To help out, we’ve put together a short list of fun ways to pass the time online, inspired by our employees and customers alike.
Take exercise classes
Whether you’re a gym-rat, or someone for whom exercise is a necessary evil, many of us are currently detached from our usual fitness routines.
Never fear though, as many local and national gyms have taken to providing online fitness training to get you through the quarantine with your summer body intact.
Just mind you don’t frustrate your neighbors with too many jumping jacks if you live on the 5th floor!
Watch live “Concerts”
Were you just weeks away from seeing a favorite artist when the shutdown hit? Has a date already passed when you were supposed to be packed into a concert hall? Never fear, as countless artists have taken to various social media networks to put on virtual concerts.
Live Nation has even set up a new “Live from Home” website, that offers a list of artists currently putting on virtual concerts, as well as links to those concerts. So many artists have taken to these virtual concerts that you could put on a whole front room festival!
Online gaming
Unsurprisingly, video gaming is booming. Nielson recently found that video gaming saw a spike of 45% in the week of March 23rd to 29th. The usual haunts have been very active. Call of Duty’s new “Warzone” was released at the perfect moment to pick up 50 million players in a month, while “Fortnite” is still chugging along, now with 250 million accounts.
You don’t have to be a serious “Gamer” to enjoy the benefits of online gaming though. Many developers of online party games are running specials right now offering their games at a cheaper price. “Jackbox” offers a range of party style games, and only needs one purchase to provide hours of fun to any of your friends who own a smartphone or tablet. One of their best games, “Drawful 2” is even available for free at the moment.
You could even play some of your favourite board games online with friends. Settlers of Catan is an old classic, with a well built online version that allows you to play against friends, bots, or anyone else on their servers. Meanwhile, Roll20 offers virtual tabletops for a wide range of RPG games, because if now isn’t the time to get lost in a 24 hour Dungeons & Dragons game, when is?
Learn a new skill
Cooking, car maintenance, concrete poetry: can you honestly say you’re a master at all 3 of these crucial skills?
You can find “how-to” videos for almost anything on Youtube, from changing a flat to building your own gaming computer. Just type whatever it is you’re looking to learn into the search bar.
If you’re ok with spending a little money though, why not enroll yourself in an online course? With evenings and weekends now free, wouldn’t you rather emerge from your quarantine chrysalis with an expanded list of skills?
Check out some of these great learning platforms, and remember that self-employed online instructors need more help than ever right now.
Debosse – Needlework and building an online audience
The Great Courses – College level courses on just about anything. The author of this piece is partial to Gregory Aldrete’s various courses on Military History!
Read
“Books break the shackles of time” – Carl Sagan
Have a Kindle or other eReader? Check out Project Gutenberg, just one of many online book databases. Project Gutenberg provides access to over 60,000 free eBooks, that you can download right onto your device. Assuming an average reading time of a little over 8 hours, that’s more than 480,000 hours of content!
Most of the books are free because they’re in the public domain, so many are old. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a trove of classics available though, meaning you could finally finish that seventh grade book report on “A Tale of Two Cities”!
If you prefer your books the old school way, then consider ordering online from local bookstores. We’re blessed with a glut of incredible independent bookstores in Boston, and it’s crucial that we help them keep the lights on during this unprecedented crisis.
Please consider making your book purchases from one of these great local bookstores.
Or find your own favorite store at indiebound.org