Staying home due to COVID-19? Do something and document it here!

[XRay]

You bored out of your mind? Good! Doing something extremely time consuming and/or labor intensive will help. And to keep yourself occupied even more, write a short essay about it here!

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I picked making gyoza cause I am a total noob and am really slow at making them.

I had to split my shopping into several days cause a lot of stores have empty shelves so I have to hit a few stores each day to get everything I need. Anyways, I finished my shopping today. The grocery store ran out of ground beef, so I bought beef patties and used that as a substitute instead.

Once I got home, boy it took me like at least 5 freaking hours just to make around 100 gyoza. I did take a lot of breaks in between though. I still have a lot of fillings left over, so I guess I will visit the grocery store again tomorrow to get 2 more packs of gyoza wraps.

—

I probably spent close to an hour making the filling. I was trying to perfect the taste of it. Plus, I had a whole day ahead of me, so I might as well take it slow. I did not care to measure everything precisely, so just use common sense if you are trying to follow my recipe. And recipes are guides anyways, not something you have to follow exactly.

Filling Recipe (for about 200 gyoza):
Ground Beef (4-5 pounds)
Bacon (0.5 pounds)
Onion (1 Large)
Carrots (~3; should be about the same amount as onion)
Celery (~3 stalks; should be about the same amount as onion)
Green Chili Pepper (3)
Vadouvan
Dried Ghost Pepper (4)
Paprika
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Honey
Salt
Sushi Vinegar

I used well over a pound of bacon, probably close to 2 pounds, which I strongly do NOT recommend. The gyoza became a bit too greasy. If you are using an extra lean meat though, you can probably go a bit heavier on the bacon.

And to make the filling, put the ground beef into a big pot. Put everything else into a blender and blend it. Pour the stuff in the blender into your pot of ground beef. You use your hands to mix well.

—

For the gyoza wrap, just use any you like. I prefer Japanese gyoza wraps because they are thinner and easier to work with. My mom prefers the thicker Chinese ones since those are less likely to break.

To waste more time, I tried to make my gyoza extra pretty. I put the filling near the center of wrap. I shaped the filling into a "D" with a ridge in the middle, so it looks like a misshapen 3 sided die or a very flat croissant with a triangular cross section. I then dabbed my finger with water and wet the edges of the wrap. I bring the wrap together. When you bring the wrap together, the curvy side of the D shaped filling should have more dough that you need to pinch together, so I make two Ω shaped flaps on the curvy side and then flatten them.

Hope the following artwork makes sense. The bold red stuff is the filling.

/—————\
|..../——\....|
|....|____|....|
\—————/

..__Ω__Ω__
/..../——\....\
\....|____|..../
..---------------

—

Unless you are eating them right away, I recommend putting them on a tray and then putting the tray in the freezer to harden them. Once they are hardened, you can put them in plastic bags or in a boxed container, and then put them back in to the freezer. You do not want to put them in the freezer in a bag or container straight away, or else they may deform and stick together, which makes separating them and cooking them harder later.

—

To cook them, just put some oil in the pan and then arrange the gyoza in a circle. While you can pack them pretty tight in a pan, make sure you do not pack them too tightly since that might make then stick together. After that, pour about half a cup of water and cover the pan. Turn on the heat to the highest setting, and when the water is boiling, lower the heat to medium or medium high and wait.

Once most of the water has been evaporated, pay attention to the gyoza as its underside will start to brown relatively quickly. It takes about maybe somewhere around 30 seconds to 2 minutes for the underside of the gyoza to brown after all the water has evaporated, depending on the heat. I prefer dark brown with some patches or outlines of black, but most people probably prefer regular brown with little to no black.

— — — — — — —

Here is a list of other time consuming stuff I can do:
Building my RG, MG, and PG Gundams.
Finish writing skill build/calculator guide for Heroes.
Read all the books I bought for the last 5 years but have not finished reading most of them.
Finish Shadows of Valentia.
Go through My Anime List and watch all the Plan to Watch items.

[Yexin]

i'm playing Trails from Zero, walking my dog (it's still allowed here in Italy, although you must stay close to your house (yes, this is as vague as it sounds) and only for a limited period of time), and watching tons of videos on YT

i also have university online classes, but tbh i don't really like it, my teachers don't know how to use Microsoft Teams properly and this makes following their classes much harder for us students

 

Funfact: in Italy there are more people who got reported for not staying at home, doing their daily activities such as jogging and hanging out with friends like it was nothing, than infected people

Edited March 22, 2020 by Yexin

[FireFenrir]

Trying to defeat Ancient Daedala on Xenoblade Chronicles, (he is lvl 105 for those who haven't play the game, and the lvl limit of the game for characters is 99), and once I'll do it if I do, I will try another boss of the game: Blizzard Belgazas (lv 114). I'm often going on the "Count to 802,701 topic" thing that I've never done before x). I'm watching TV, I play FE Heroes, building my units (and try to get 9 more Spring Narcian!), then try the Squad assaults and Chain challenge. Building FE 0 decks, but can't phisically make them cause I don't have a lot of cards, sadly. But thinking of strategy of decks I could built later. I'm planning on cooking, but don't know what, was thinking of pancakes, or something like that. If you have idas, I'm taking them x). That's basically what I done. 

Edited March 22, 2020 by FireFenrir

[BergelomeuSantos]

I discovered that I'm a Home-Person or something like that. So..yeah, I'm not that bored.

The COV19 wasn't arrived that hardly here, so things are still pretty normal on Food Stores and such. However, while the Stores still keep working with 2 or 3 workers, the other people have completely disappeared, which is good. (And I can also sing, dance and talk with myself on the streets without a single worry!.....not that I recommend doing it.)

Since we have no way to 'separate', my family is all on one new house that we started renting like..2 days before the Corona arrived at the Country. They decided that someone would be the 'Garoto Padaria' ('Bakery Boy'), which means that he does most of the chores. Who is the Garoto Padaria, you may ask? OF COURSE IT'S ME!..well, it's not that bad, actually. All I have to do is go out 1 or 2 times a day, do the chores and be careful with hygiene. And this made me stronger too, so I'll take it.

When the chores are done, I usually stay at my room or at the dinning table eating the 'Secret Chores' (mostly candy) and playing the games that I still have to finish (Disgaea games, Final Fantasy Tactics, Labyrinth of Refrain, FE16 CF, FE2 and on and on), but I've also started trying some new things! Like...watching movies. Yes, I mean it. I never really liked going to cinemas or sitting down and have a 100% focus on my TV, but I still liked some stuff like Star Wars and animated shows. Now that I have so much more free time, I decided to give it a chance and I'm kinda of enjoying it? I mean, I still can't 100% focus on it, but I have fun with it. And I also watched Parasite yesterday. Not sure what I was in for, but it certainly wasn't that.

Besides that, I've reading books and experimenting with FEBuilder and RPG Maker (the Free Trial). Oh, and cooking (more like 'Watching people cook because if you screw up the dish it's over for us'). And that's it, I guess.

 

..Not sure if I made something out of all of this, but I kinda of feel more refreshed now. No one really talked to me after the arriving, so I guess I just wanted to let it out a bit. 

(And I want gyoza too...)

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I use the "opportunity" to work on my gaming backlog list.

Playing Atelier Ryza and Trails from Zero atm.

Though I still go out for walks - even if an exit lock is going to happen.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Falcom Knight

[EricaofRenais]

Well playing my backlog of games I need to finish, reading my backlog of books I have not read yet, pulling/mowing weeds, grinding HM in FEH and my mom and I are going to plant a big garden this year is my to do list.  Of course doing anything outside is depending on if it isn't raining (this has been the wettest March ever in my area), lucky for me my home is down a dirt road so I can be outside and not be near other people.  Me being type one diabetic means I have not left home for two weeks already and I am sick of it, but better safe then sorry.  

[Armagon]

Florida is having some high cases of COVID-19 but i don't really like leaving the house in the first place because of how hot it can get outside so this is all basically another valid reason for me to stay at home. And with all this going on, i decided that it's a good idea to do something fun: watch every Godzilla and King Kong movie. Yes. All of them.

These are the ones i've seen so far

Of these, the only one that i've seen that is actually bad is Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (the first one in the anime trilogy). There is like no redeeming qualities about that movie.

[Benice]

I go for lots of walks and cross-country ski. There's nobody around anymore because of the corona, so I just need to not go downtown and I should be fine. 

I'd personally recommend trying to go cross-country skiing if you can; it is very relaxing and peaceful.

[Ottservia]

I’m just sitting inside catching up on anime and video games I have in my backlog what with all the extra time

[MyLuckyHaiku]

Since I don’t do anything outside anyways, life is exactly the same here. As of right now I’m painting the Bandai Tie advanced x1 and Tie fighter 1/144 model, I’m almost done and getting ready to paint the 1/72 Resistance X-wing.

Lately I’ve also been modding Dwarf Fortress again, and grinding Daemon X Machina.

[eclipse]

Will most likely post something akin to a Project X Zone 2 LTC here.  Currently replaying the game, and Chrom/Lucina are better than I remember (they're still pretty bad, though).

After that, Vestaria Saga's been on my bucket list.

[DragonFlames]

I've been revisiting Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness and Pokémon Colosseum lately, because I felt nostalgic for them.
Along with that, I'm still trudging through the behemoth that is Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which happens to be my first experience with that particular series.

[Acacia Sgt]

Hmm, well, I was in the middle of a Dragon Quest marathon (plan to play from I to VI, and maybe VIII; those are the ones I own) when this happened, so that's one thing I'm gonna keep doing while at home. I'm currently playing through IV, though since I've been posting my progress elsewhere (at the Last to Post thread), for consistency I'll keep doing that over yonder.

That said, ever since last year I've taken to writing. Not that I wasn't writing before; but recently it has taken up more of my time now that I have more of it in my hands (currently in the process of getting a job), and the current situation just dumped more on me. Although most of what I write aren't things I'd upload for others to see. I've recently started a new thing, which I do plan to upload.

[SoulWeaver]

Good heavens, where do I begin? Currently I've decided to begin working on something that may turn into a book if I can keep at it enough, but I also have like six games to go through including two paths on KHBBS, a PMU run on SoV, two Fates runs, Pokemon Y, Ultra Sun, Metroid Fusion and Prime Hunters, plus deckbuilding and playtesting for Cipher, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, and MTG, not to mention breaking out the good old BIONICLE for a contest entry as well as general creativity...yeah.

[Espurrhoodie]

I ate an orange

[XRay]

Well, my mom wrapped up all the filling while I slept in this morning, so I guess I will just watch anime until I figure out something else to do.

[Specta]

i did my nails and i look fabulous

[Espurrhoodie]

Also I ate a fuck-ton of grapes. Evidence:

[Anathaco]

I still have online classes and stuff to go to, assignments and study to do, etc.

In the meantime, I mainly stayed at home all the time anyway, so I mean... I'm not too adversely affected.

A couple meet-ups with my friends have been canned tho. Like I had a friend's birthday yesterday that got turned into a mass voice call on discord with everybody grinding RRDDD and me just chilling on my switch in the background because I don't have the game.

The band that I am officially-unofficially part of was going to have a meet up as well, but I don't know if that's even happening anymore. Probably not. So maybe I'll just try and get back into music because I haven't touched my drum kit for years. I'm probably so rusty at this point lol.

I've also been contemplating writing something, but I'm having a bit of writers block atm. So how much I actually get done on this before self-isolation is up could vary from finished to barely started.

Lastly on my list: my friends want to try and organise a big online games day rotation where we take turns organising something. I've elected to try a Rival Bromains for mine, which'll probably be a mess because less than half my friends play FEH. Also I don't know when Grand Conquest is coming back, so we'll probably end up just doing regular old rival domains.

[Interdimensional Observer]

If you have access to Smithsonian Channel, they made a 50-min documentary on the Spanish Influenza of 1918 last year. I watched it today b/c why not get educated about past plagues? Certainly you could find out via other ways what the last "once in a century" pandemic was, but this informative enough for the layperson without being overwhelming.

We're lucky, because the "Spanish" (actually 🇺🇸 in origin) Influenza was much deadlier and faster, able to kill you in one day. And, as slow to respond as many governments currently are around the world, because of patriotism and World War I, it was considered treasonous for anyone to publish information about the influenza because it demoralized the populace. So we're comparatively much better on the information and action front, even if we have some "should not be happening" things akin to US President Woodrow Wilson sending US troops off to war in boats packed liked sardines.

The Spanish Influenza took the lives of an estimated 50-100 million in the course of 1918-19 globally (20 million in India), after which it suddenly disappeared. The victims were unusually younger adults too, not so much infants and the elderly, so in this regard it differs for the worse from Coronavirus (not that old people dying is fine, it's just more expected and not so killing of future potential).

[Emperor_Siegfried]

Good news for me since I'm so anti-social, it's basically been business as usual on my part.  At least I have a few things that I've been doing differently anyway.

My book writing has been progressing at a pretty steady pace overall, I've got two that I'd like to release together since they're basically both halves of a bigger story.  For some reason I got into the habit of making myself write 2.5k words over both weekends and now I've transitioned myself to writing 1k every day for a goal of 5k every week.  Makes the process a lot easier to fulfill.

Over the past few weeks I've been uploading videos to the Indulgers channel now that I have gotten a grasp of video editing.  I'm also not sure how this happens, but one video has 1 view grand total and the other two have 0, but they both have a comment.  Wonder how something like this happens?

[coldhand25]

Since I had to come home from uni, I once again have the time to go for a walk with our dog. I also started doing some home workout, because why not. My goal is to have wider back and shoulders by the end of spring. I just finished todays sets, 10 minutes before my Economic Psychology online class (which is going on right now), and now I'm just trying not to fall out of my chair. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to lift up my arms tomorrow, but that's fine, since it's going to be jogging/dog-walking day anyway, will see if I'll be able to move at all.

Also, weather is crazy, the whole morning it was snowing where I live, which is pretty funny, since there was close to no snow this winter, and it was like 30 °C through the whole last week. Now it's like 1-2.

[EricaofRenais]

Well I am now driving my parents a bit batty because my favorite singer/song writer Ville Valo just released 3 new songs Friday but I didn't find out until Monday when they showed up on my recommended list on youtube.  Needless to say I have been playing them nonstop since I downloaded them.  My inner goth girl is dancing.

[XRay]

I have been organizing my Steam wishlist. It just reached over 2,000 games now that I am adding all the LEGO stuff in.

[Arcanite]

I jumped from the floor and onto the kitchen counter