This is intended to be a collection of resources ideas and advice for any or all of us who are at home during the coronavirus isolation period. I’d welcome any and all suggestions for things to put in!
Paris Museums show 100,000 online images
12 Paris Museums have put their collections online. You can see them here.
List of Personal Things you can do to stay well
Slow Stitching and Embroidery – with Leah Halliday
If anyone is interested in slow stitch and embroidery there are currently 14 free tutorial videos on my instagram for individual stitches. You can find them on my highlights, just scroll along to find them. My account is leahhalliday1. I am hoping to do a few more too. I would happily set up a zoom class where we can stitch together as an online workshop. I know personally how much embroidery can help with mental well being.
Online Games from Stuart Rodger
“Here are some options for people who might not normally play games. I will try to keep them lo-fi, free (or very cheap) and accessible (and I will add more as I think of them)”
Required: an imagination, one person willing to run the game
Preferred: a microphone, a rulebook
Dungeons and Dragons is a group storytelling game where you conceive of, create and act out a single character. If that sounds scary there is no reason you couldn’t base your character on another fictional (or historical, or etc) person. All of the players each acts out their own character, and with the help of a few dice rolls creates a story together in a world with one individual called the “Game Master” (kind of like a referee/supporting cast/lead writer/group therapist). There could be monsters to slay, criminals to track down, or mustachioed dudes who definitely were not secretly the villain all along.
D&D can be played online for free at places like roll20.net and there are places where complete strangers try to group up and play like https://www.reddit.com/r/lfg/. Much better with a microphone, but you could also try to find whats called a ‘play by post’ which is a purely written form of playing the game.
Required: blob
Preferred: blob
You are a blob. You blob about and try to blob other blobs to be the biggest blob. Also you can blob with friends!
Blob.
https://agar.io/#ffa
As above but with snakes. Like the old nokia phone game. Still pretty simple but slightly more to this one.
Subterfuge
Required: a smart phone
Preferred: 1 person willing to spend some €/£/$
Subterfuge is a kind of strategy game. Its also a sort of social wargame. You grab territory, mine resources and fling flotillas of submarines at your neighbors. The thing is doing anything in Subterfuge takes ages. Actual hours. So you check your phone a few times a day, see what’s going on, and maybe ask your neighbour, “hey, where are those subs going? Maybe lets be cool yeah? If we start fighting that’s going to be really good for Kelly”. Meanwhile you message Kelly “Lets team up, I think we could take him”. You get the idea.
The game plays out for about a week and I have heard it can get sort of Game of Thrones-esque in the wheeling, dealing and backstabbing. Chaos is a ladder and all that. So maybe not one for everyone.
http://subterfuge-game.com
gartic-io
Required:
Preferred: Microphone
Its pictionary. Draw the thing. Everyone else tries to guess the thing. Tried, true and proven. Better with a microphone (everything is better with a microphone).
http://iogames.space/gartic-io
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Required: €/£/$ (about £10 in my region), a microphone
Preferred: Nerves of steel
This one is a true co-operative game. One person sees only the bomb. Everyone else sees only the instructions on how to disarm the bomb. You have to work together to do just that under a time limit. A simple concept, and very fun. Basically requires a microphone though.
https://store.steampowered.com/…/Keep_Talking_and…/
Some free courses
Open University – Loads of free courses
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses
Some Netflix online courses (may not all be available in the UK
Free Movies Online
Online Meeting resources
Zoom is free to use for up to 40 minutes
https://zoom.us
Skype
This is from a post by Moxie
Blatantly stolen from another group:
“Hi folks 👋 I thought it might be useful to share some short research I’ve been doing / refreshing this morning…
RE: Remote Meeting / Video Conferencing / Moving face-to-face activities online:
I’ve seen lots of people recommending Zoom recently, and it is really good for 1-1 meetings / calls (good quality, better than skype etc). However, there are some limits to the free account, so I’ve been prepping some info also about some cheaper alternatives – especially if you find yourself needing to run things over the internet for remote work from now on…
• Using Zoom – unlimited 1-1 video meeting calls, 40 mins limit on hosting group video meetings (3 to 100 people) with the Basic/Free package. To host a longer meeting, you have to pay for a Pro subscription. Anyone with an invite can join a Zoom call (without having to pay or upgrade their account – only the “host” needs to have a premium account) – see: https://zoom.us/pricing – at the moment a Pro account is £11.99/mo
• Using Google Hangouts – Video calls can include up to 10 people for free (on Gmail, G Suite Basic packages) or 25 people (using Business, Education packages). Everyone who wants to join a group conversation must use Hangouts / have a Google account. – at the moment a Gmail account is £0/mo & G Suite Basic is £4.14/mo
• Using Google Hangouts Meet – “Meet” is the premium version of Google Hangouts, available to you if you pay for a G Suite Basic package + above. This allows you to set up unlimited video conference calls for up to 100 participants. Anyone with an invite can join a Google Hangouts Meet call (without having to pay or upgrade their account – only the “host” needs to have a premium account) – https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html – at the moment G Suite Basic is £4.14/mo
• Using WhatsApp – unlimited 1-1 video meeting calls, and group video calls for up to 4 people with Free package. Only available via WhatsApp mobile app (not desktop/web version) – at the moment a WhatsApp account is £0/mo
• Using Skype – unlimited video meeting calls for up to 50 people with Free package. Everyone who wants to join a group conversation must use Skype / have a Skype account – at the moment a Skype account is £0/mo
• Using Discord – All-in-one voice and text chat, with video calls for up to 10 people for free. Everyone who wants to join a group conversation must use Discord / have a Discord account. – at the moment a Discord account is £0/mo – https://discordapp.com (HT: Betsy Furber)
• Using Whereby – unlimited video meeting calls for up to 4 people via the Free account. Pro versions allow up to 12 people & Business version is unlimited – at the moment a Free Whereby account is £0/mo & Pro is $9.99 /mo https://whereby.com/information/pricing/ (HT: Hannah Wood)
ADDED NOTE: There is also a super useful resource for communities new to online working at – https://localtrust.org.uk/…/programme-guid…/digital-toolkit/“
Online library books
You can get free ebooks online from your local library.
Even if the libraries close, you can access e-books and e-magazines for free in D&G from the library service (need to be a member, free to join, so do that bit now!)
Yoga resources
Yoga From The Heart Dumfries
Yoga from the heart Dumfries aims to teach Hatha yoga to adults of all ages . Enabling the elderly and those with dementia and their carers to participate.
https://www.facebook.com/Yoga-From-The-Heart-Dumfries-604538686393993/
A useful app – free until April 1st.
https://www.facebook.com/downdogapp/posts/2402084143415873
A half hour lesson from Susan Neal
A half hour yoga stretch with Laurie KCR Blair