Ann Leckie's fitness coach is her dog Vanburen and I think he's got some very important advice for us.

@AncientSwordRage Yeah, Procreate is one of the leading iPad apps for professional illustrators.

@BESW I realize why I've never heard of it now

If anybody's thinking about using their social distancing to try out digital art, here are some resources for finding an app that's good for you:

(Brad Colbow is a solid guy for getting recommendations, as he's an illustration professional who uses lots of different platforms and understands that not everybody needs or can afford the industry's best tools, so he explains what things do and don't do and why you might or might not need the various features.)

Funny thing happened in the kitchen. Our golden retriever was lying on the tile, and he rolled over, only to have his nose hit the iRobot vacuum. It turned on and began humming. Eyes wide and startled, he scrambled up and ran over to us to let us know something was wrong. The look on his face was comical, and I didn't have my phone to take a snappy. Laughter is such a great stress reliever.

@Ash I so wish I could share little picture or video, his big brown eyes were so wide. :-)

Yikes, RL calls, nothing but good wishes coming your way! :)

"Cool music to listen to while the world burns," a spotify playlist by Tom Dickinson.

Leanne Brown's cookbook Good & Cheap: Eat Well on $4/day is free as a PDF. People whose budgets are tightening may find it helpful!

The Headspace meditation service is offering free meditations, sleep content, workouts, and other tools under the "weathering the storm" category. (I haven't tried this, it's second-hand information I'm passing along.)

Take Control of Working from Home Temporarily by Glenn Fleishman is a free ebook at Take Control Books.

Jonaya has left you a kind note from your Fairy Gothmother.

Momatoes has written Tiny Stories, a freeform, storymaking game for friends who want to spend a little time together, in these complex and trying times.

@Ash oooh

Kael Molo has made Darahug #1: Ang Mananabang ng Santa Maria, his comic of Filipino dark supernatural stories, free on Gumroad for the duration of the quarantine. Darahug #2 is only $2.

The action roguelike video game Nuclear Throne is on steep discount on Steam... but it's free on itch.io!

All We Love We Leave Behind by World Champ Game Co. is a single-player RPG of letter writing focusing on abandonment, isolation, and the passing of time... and it's currently free. Includes 2-player variant!

Dark Streets & Darker Secrets from Gallant Knight Games is now PWYW on DTRPG (including print editions).

Green Ronin Games has made the Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook PDF free, and almost everything else is 20% off, until April 20th.

@skullpatrol challenge accepted!

In Aotearoa (New Zealand), people are talking about replacing the hongi (nose touching) greeting with the hā mamao. (English translation) Bonus: it's also a dog video.

aww :3

@BESW is this a good place for silly pandemic related images?

Also unrelated but amusing Twitter anecdotes

Sure, sounds okay. Use your judgement about what's silly vs callous, of course.

We've been asked to send pictures of our kids doing their schoolwork to the school each day as a way of the school "taking attendance." All I can say is: given the right lighting, my daughter's a frikkin' supermodel Vermeer.

(I don't generally like to put pictures of my kids out there, but this one was just too good.)

Warning, cute dog video that will make you grin

@nitsua60 can confirm; i spent several seconds going "wait, is that an oil painting?" before reading anything else

@doppelgreener =)

wholesome community action going on

@nitsua60 Nice <3

@Carcer :o

came back to it in the mailbox

also: this Friday I will be commencing Operation Plant Rescue in which I will take home all the office plants in my office that people working from home cannot retrieve

@goodguy5 This thread is generally about how to deal with being cooped up, it might be helpful.

And there's a lot of stuff going around about hobbies, depending on her situation.