The past few days I’ve been taking it easy as our “Spring Break” comes to an end. On Saturday we spent most of the day playing Minecraft. On Sunday I spent most of the day working outside on the pathway under the clothes line.
Today was our first day “back-to-school”, which in our case was online. I had a handful of kids sign into Schoology and start working on some of the assignments. A few others just had some questions. Mostly I worked on the Yearbook in the morning. In the afternoon I did some gardening and enjoyed the outdoors. Unfortunately I’m starting to build a list of items that I need from the hardware store so that I can continue gardening in the future. I’m not sure how being able to pick things up will work though.
Yesterday we also had a scare when one of our neighbors told Joan that she was really sick. We were afraid that it was the COVID-19 and then we started thinking about all of the contact that we had had with her or her kids. Then we started thinking off all the contact that we had with others as we went to the store or other places. Luckily she got tested and it wasn’t COVID-19, but it has made us more aware of keeping distant.
Last night we had some sever thunder storms move through and it woke me up so that I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep. It also made for a muddy mess this morning. I had ordered more pavers from Lowes which we picked up in the morning. I also picked up some window weather stripping which I planned on using on my COVID-19 mask. Again, we tried to minimize the distance and the amount of time we spend with any people which wasn’t too hard. After we got home, I unloaded the truck and finished working on my COVID-19 mask.
The rest of the day I pretty much spent my time getting some lunch and then getting set up for my next Zoom Board Game. This time I was able to have a dual monitor setup which allowed for both people who we were joining us having a screen to themselves and thus it made it seem like we were actually playing with them. It’s still difficult to get across the layout of the game and for people to get involved in the game. I videoed it this time and would like to spend some time tomorrow editing this footage and see how well I can make it into a video.
I also need to work some more on the yearbook and start getting my next Schoology Unit’s loaded for our next two weeks worth of assignments. I’ve also volunteered to help with 3D printing some face shields in conjunction with the Career Center, so, we’ll see how I can get all of that organized and working.
Finally, I’ve been getting my Doctor Who videos organized and loaded onto the Plex server. I would like to move the whole Plex server to another computer that I have gotten set up, but I need to see if it powerful enough.
The weather finally cleared, the sun came out and we actually had a pretty nice day today. I took advantage of the weather and started laying some of the pavers that I had bought last week. I’m expanding the path in the back yard so that it covers the ground under the c clothes line, that way we can put the wash out without getting muddy. I still need more pavers so I ordered more and will pick them up at Lowes tomorrow.
I also had to clean a clog out of the 3D printer, which was a pain. That old filament is just no good, so I’ll probably just get rid of it. Eventually I got it working with some newer filament which is working a lot better. I’ve decided to get a new 3D printer for myself, one just like the one I have for school since I really want to start 3D printing stuff again. These newer printers have a bigger print bed so I can make better stuff. The types of filament are also a lot better and come in a variety of styles so you can really make a lot of cool stuff.
Finally I set up another Zoom Board Game for tomorrow with one of our students and one of our teachers so that should be really fun. I hope to get it set up so that it works better this time and we can perhaps see each other better.
Today I finally got a COVID-19 mask that works really well and is easy to print and doesn’t require a lot of assembly. It still needs some kind of rubber gasket around the edges so that it will make an airtight seal and some kind of filter system, but I’m very happy with the way it turned out. I spent a large chunk of the day trying to figure out what I can adapt for a gasket and I think I’ve been able to find a rubber hose at the hardware store that I can cut and glue on. As for filters, the Internet is recommending two layers of cotton t-shirt material will capture about 60% of any kind of viruses which, while not as good as an N-95 mask which captures 90% is still better than nothing. This will even be better than the regular elastic masks that many people seem to be making and using.
After this one turned out so well, I started trying to make one for Maya, which requires that I scale it down a little since she has a smaller face. She wanted a blue one so I got out some old filament and started to try it. I started having all of the same old problems that I had early on with 3D printing, mainly the build not sticking to the bed for the entire build. I finally got it working to a point where I think it will come out okay, but we’ll see in the morning when it’s done. These things take about 6-7 hours to print. Tomorrow I plan on finding some rubber hoses of the right width and seeing if I can fashion a gasket around the edges.
The weather today was much improved over what it’s been for the last week. It has warmed up and didn’t rain. Hopefully we can dry out a little so that I can start working on some of my outside projects. Because the weather was so nice we decided to go on a long walk around the neighborhood, so did everyone else. We ran into more people on our walk than I have come across in a week of driving to various stores. So much for the Stay-at-Home Order that Columbia has instituted.
Because of that order, the CPS has extended our time off until April 27th. While it’s the right call, I was almost ready to start getting ready to go back. I’m beginning to feel like we won’t be going back at all. Kids are starting to settle into the online learning and the District is figuring out how to manage things like getting food and fixing tech issues for students so we may be out for the duration. At the national level, the President is pushing for everyone to go back in a week or two but all of the health scientists are saying that would be a huge mistake and that we need to stick it out for another 4-6 weeks at least.
Finally, I put together a list of kids that I think may want to try online board gaming since I didn’t get much of a response so far. I sent them all an email so we’ll wait and see what kind of response I get. I’m hoping that its just because they are actually taking a Spring Break from school and not checking on anything that this is why I haven’t gotten a bigger response.
The first week is gone and I’ve gotten a lot done, but I keep thinking about how much more I have to do. Today I started 3D printing another mask and I also found a different version to print so I let my 3D printer go all day. I going to try and assemble it tomorrow once I have all of the things I need put together, like a hair dryer and glue. The other version won’t need that kind of assembly, it will just print the way it is. I just need to see if it will print correctly without supports.
Today we also had our first Zoom Board Game. Gus joined TJ and myself and it was a fun time. It lasted about an hour and except for some issues getting started it worked out pretty well. The next time I plan on setting up a dual monitor and having the two players screens showing at the table, like they were there. It will be a very similar setup to what Leo Laporte does on TWIT TV. I need to get some more kids interested but I know some that I can contact and they will probably be okay with playing.
Finally, I’m starting to get all of my Doctor Who episodes together and onto my Plex Server so that I can watch them when I want. It’s still hard finding all of the episodes that are out there but I’ve been slowly collecting them and getting them on the Plex Server.
Tomorrow, hopefully the sun will be out and it will stop raining so that we can go outside for awhile. It’s starting to feel like we haven’t been outside in a whole week, which has been more or less true.
Today was mostly spent getting the 3D printer from school hooked up, leveled and starting to print one of the COVID-19 masks that a company has shared on the Internet. This is where the power of the Internet and technology comes into play and let’s everyone with a little bit of skill create almost anything.
The mask that I finally printed didn’t quite work right but that was because I had not read all of the instructions. I was confused how some rigid plastic was going to be able to be bent into a face mask that could go over the mouth and nose:
But I later read that you needed to use a hair dryer and some glue to finish it up, so I’ll try again tomorrow since it takes about 5 hours to complete.
I also set up an online board game for tomorrow at 2PM so we’ll see how well that works out. I haven’t heard back from any of the students so I may need to contact them through the Zoom app since that is where all the students seem to be communicating.
I’m actually writing this on the next day because Sunday was kind of a lazy day. We spent most of it watching movies and playing Minecraft. That is a game that can suck the time right out of a day. We also went to Target to pick up some items that I had ordered the night before. I kind of like this way of shopping, but I have a feeling that after this crisis is over we’re all going to go back to the way we used to do it.
The weather hasn’t been cooperating much either. Even though it is Spring, we still had some snow showers yesterday and it was rainy pretty much the rest of the day. We did get a chance to go out for a walk later in the afternoon. Exercise has been a big issue. During a typical day at school I can easily get in 10,000 steps. But with the way the weather has been recently, it’s been tough to get even 7,000 steps.
Today felt like a typical Saturday. We got up, had some breakfast then went to Lowes to get some yard supplies. The main difference was that I had ordered ahead and then we tried to minimize our contact with other people as we picked up our order. I felt as though any person that we came in contact with could have had the virus and that everyone we saw felt the same about us. Once we got home, we unloaded the truck and then spent the rest of the day in the house.
Joan and Garrett like to remind everyone that every time we leave the house, we need to start the 14 day timer for seeing if we have picked up the virus again. I’m not planning on going any where tomorrow, but someone will need to go to the store for milk and probably other supplies.
I spent a good chunk of the day getting my Plex Server organized and updated. The drawback is that I’m planning on moving it to another computer so that I can work on the workstation that it is currently on. That may require getting everything reorganized but I’m pretty confident that as long as I have my movies and episodes named right, everything should go back to the normal order again.
The other thing I was working out was being able to play some board games online, which I think I can do now through Zoom. I was trying to see what I could use so that most of the students could attempt it and that the experience would be acceptable. I think if I use my iPad, they should be fine. It may take a little longer than when everyone is present but it will work out if everyone is patient. I would also like to record it so that we can post it online for others to watch and enjoy.
Well time for regular Saturday night TV, Svengooly followed by a little Star Trek.
Today felt like everything was starting to gel into the new normal for how the rest of these days would be going. I think that we will need to take a break from school work the next couple of days, and perhaps a couple days into our “Spring Break” time.
We pretty much followed our schedule that we’ve been following for the previous few days. No one left the house today except for a short walk around the block after lunch. Still got a lot accomplished but starting to feel the “blahs” set in. With nothing to really look forward to and now where to go, it can be really depressing to just get some work done at home. It’s not like I don’t have a lot to do, it’s just that the work is mainly maintenance.
The kids have some structure, but they probably need a little more. They are just wandering from one thing to another and spending a lot of time in front of screens. Tomorrow, we’re going to focus on getting the house cleaned and organized for our next week off. The problem is that even though it wasn’t raining today, it was really cold which meant we couldn’t go out much.
I think we’ve also decided that we really need to stay away from others and just stay quarantined for a few days, may be a week. Our neighbors work in the local hospitals and we’re a little worried that they or their kids could be bringing something home. It was good to hear yesterday that our other neighbor who passed away was immediately quarantined when they returned home from their trip where they had picked up COVID-19. We were a little worried that perhaps they had be out, going to the store, Starbucks, the gas station, etc., but it sounds like they were kept isolated. Still it’s a little scary when its so close.
Today was pretty much like yesterday. A little of the excitement and adrenaline has gone out of it, but kids still did their school work, I still went in to school in the morning to work and we had a fairly relaxing afternoon.
I went in to school because I had my first video conference, a video conference that many of my colleagues were also new at. In my previous job, we often had video conferences, especially after 9/11. Our corporate headquarters were in Virginia so we either had to travel there for meetings or we could video conference, we chose the latter. It worked very well and as the Internet improved so did the quality of the conferences.
After I moved over to teaching, I’ve been trying to get my other teaching colleagues to start using video conferencing for our meetings especially when we were spread across the district, but to no avail. We had many excuses; “I don’t have a web cam”, “We don’t have have the same schedule”, etc. Now that we have all tried it and are scheduling another meeting for the week after “Spring Break”, I’m hoping we see the utility of using this technology going forward.
The app we are using, Zoom, is pretty good, and more than adequate. I’m not sure why everyone has landed on Zoom as the one to use for this since there are so many other choices out there, but I can’t complain about it. The one thing that I don’t plan on doing is having a Zoom with any students. If its a group that would be one thing, but one-on-one is just opening myself up for potential liability. I would like to check it out for creating how-to videos and see how it stacks up against Screencast-o-matic which I currently use.
Living With Computers 
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