Blogworthy: Star Wars Backgrounds, COVID-19 Ruminations, Games for Quarantine, Pandemic Brain Fog

Join Meetings From A Galaxy Far, Far Away With These Star Wars Backgrounds – Zoom meetings are exhausting and boring. Make them a little more interesting by throwing Cloud City, and X-Wings, and Death Star ruins into your background.

David Brin’s List of “Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy Tales” – Looking for some new books to read? The author of The Uplift series offers his take on the best of speculative fiction.

Lysol maker: Please don’t drink our cleaning products. ‘Nuff said.

Knights of the Dinner Table Coloring Book PDF: My kids are beyond the coloring stage … but I’m not. This is a coloring book inspired by the gaming magazine and comic book of the same name.

Star Wars-inspired Mandalorian fans, then Mandalorian fans inspired Star Wars – An excellent article detailing the rise of Mandalorian cosplay within the Star Wars community.

Games getting us through COVID-19—blocks, roguelites, whatever Death Stranding isArs Technica runs down their favorite games to play during the quarantine, including Super NES, Animal Crossing, Zoom games, Minecraft, and more.

The best board games to play with your quarantined housemates – Prefer to go analog? Ars Technica has that covered too with looks at Dixit, Kingdomino, Splendor, Dice Forge, and others.

Insomnia and Vivid Dreams on the Rise With COVID-19 Anxiety – My dreams have been weird since the “stay at home” order went into effect several weeks ago. In my case, I dream about family and co-workers far more than I used to. It’s like the close proximity of my family, combined with the surreal nature of video conferencing, has upended by dreamscape. Throw in the inability to get back to sleep when I wake up at 3 a.m., and it makes for a weird time. It’s good to know I’m not the only one experiencing it.

‘Allostatic Load’ is the Psychological Reason for Our Pandemic Brain Fog – My own day-to-day routines are more regular than those of this article’s author, but I still feel the effects of the brain fog. The constant stress of living under “stay-at-home” orders, combined with the economic uncertainty, constant low-level health threat, and unrelenting focus required by audio/video conferencing, is exhausting. While I wish none of us had to experience, once again it’s comforting to know I’m not alone in this. All of us are dealing with this stress to one degree or another.

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A black-and-white view of hyperspace. Credit: StarWars.com.

 

 

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