Living under a Lockdown - Andy's Journal of Professional Crastination

I've been at home for a week, and I think it's time to write down my thoughts about this pandemic. As things were beginning to shut down at university, I elected to go home while I still had the opportunity to do so. This was after a stressful week, as this crisis has happened on the tail end of the University and College Union strike, which had resulted in all but one of my classes being cancelled. This also meant a lot of uncertainty over deadlines and catch-ups, along with the societies closing down. In the space of a week, my social life just up and vanished. So I decided to go home and spend this period of quarantine with my parents, believing it would be safer than spending it on my own.

I'm enjoying the indulgences of home, such as hot baths, tea with milk (I don't buy milk at university because I drink more coffee than tea, and have that black), and the collection of wine and gin. I cook evening meals twice a week, and have to be a bit more creative since having pasta every day has ended up being...untenable. It's actually nice to be cooking different things. I mostly live off pasta at university. I'm not a picky eater or a substandard cook, I just don't feel like putting much effort into meals when I'm only cooking for myself.

I've got assignments to do: two prose pieces, two scripts, and a research paper. Term hasn't actually ended yet, but most workshops are online now, and I'm having tutorials with my lecturers via Skype. And the earlier this week, the university announced an extension for all deadlines. So, I'm doing what I do best: Procrastinating.

I've subscribed to Disney+ now that it's available in the UK. I'm watching through The Mandalorian, and have also recently started watching Gargoyles. I might do a Franchise Review of the Toy Story films at some point in the next month or so. I'm also watching a new series of The Great British Menu. This year's chefs are competing to cook at a banquet celebrating British children's literature. It's a nice stroll down memory lane, with chefs producing some truly creative dishes inspired by stories from their childhood. I'm currently keeping track of how many desserts (specifically desserts) are inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I imagine there'll be a lot, and I think it will be cool to see Willy Wonka's creations de-fictionalised.

On the gaming side, I was going to do another play-through of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series. I finished Drake's Fortune, but then I went home. And I had to leave the bulk of my stuff behind, including the PlayStation 4. There goes that plan, then. But I do have my Xbox 360 and GameCube. I set that up and have been revisiting TimeSplitters 2. I might revisit Assassin's Creed III, mainly to help find inspiration for a tabletop role-playing game setting I've found.

Speaking of tabletop role-playing games, I've joined a lot of gamers in moving their campaigns to online platforms like Roll20 and Discord. I'm running a series of scenarios using my favourite Savage Worlds role-playing system, but am also joining some other games so I can experience the system as a player as well as a GM. Furthermore, I'm writing some supplementary material for running games in a comic fantasy setting I'm developing. It'll serve as a non-academic writing project.

All-in-all, I'm trying to keep busy. But I'm feeling down that I've had to prematurely go home, where there isn't much to do even when there isn't a pandemic. Especially with events being cancelled. I've got Swanwick in August, which I've been looking forward to since last year. That's the highlight of the summer holidays, where I get more social contact in one week than I do in the three months I'm not at university. Plus, I'm running a workshop this year, which gives me something to work on when I finish my assignments. We'll see.

Stay safe, and happy writing.