With the global pandemic COVID-19 upon us, my children home from school for at least the next three weeks, and each day bringing new and weird proclamations and memes… what’s a nerd to do? Well, I’ve come out of my man cave… to write to you from my second man cave… to deliver this helpful guide for you when the panic sets in.

The time to binge is nigh!

Pick your poison — Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, Apple TV, YouTube TV, CBS All Access — and binge like you’ve never binged before! Don’t just catch up on the hits of the zeitgeist, no. Finally take that leap on a show you’ve never seen before that you know you’d like if you’d just give it a chance. For me? That’s been The Sopranos. And once I consume those 6 seasons of badabing? I’ve got a laundry list of shows still on the docket.

That hobby you’ve been putting off? No longer!

Ever wanted to get into woodburning? Leathercraft? Chainmail tailoring? Do it to it! Keeping your social distance means having an abundance of time on your hands. Idle hands are Thanos’ playthings, so, fill your time learning and honing new skills in a hobby. That guitar growing a thick beard of dust? Undust it and learn Smoke on the Water. Always wanted to improve your cosplay game? Pull out that needle and thread, load up YouTube tutorials, and become the best Xena Warrior Princess you can be!

Write. Write. WRITE.

All of us have stories to tell. Poems in our hearts. Jokes and anecdotes to dispense. Use your homebound sequester to finally tell those stories. You don’t need anything fancy. A pen and paper is just as good a Microsoft Word and Grammerly. And thanks to the power of the internet? You even have a baked-in potential audience of millions. Heck. Got an article in mind? Send it to us at Pop Culture Squad. If your wordsmithing meets our geeky standards? You’ll be front and center on our homepage!

Spring Clean.

Face it, if you become too entrenched in your living space, soon you’ll be in bachelor-pad-territory. Nip that in the bud each day with 30-60 minutes of cleaning and organizing! Ditch the stuff that doesn’t spark joy. Neatly alphabetize your comics, LPs, books, and spice cabinet! Dust everything. Mop and Glow. And then… clean up your computer! Go through that download folder and  ditch that eighth copy of that one template you keep forgetting to file away. Uninstall unused programs. A clean life is a good life.

Dive into a new fandom.

This one is the bigger leap, but hear me out. Most if not all of us frequenting PCS have our flags to fly for our parts of the pop-culture landscape. But we always run up against competing fandoms that we may respect, but don’t get. Well, what better time is there than now, in the quarantined comfort of your own home than to deep-dive into a fandom you’ve held at arm’s length. Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Fallout, you name it. No doubt there’s at least one out there you’ve abstained from. Now, take that headfirst plunge to truly figure out a piece of Pop Culture you haven’t found the love for yet. Find that love.

Use the internet to get closer to friends.

Ever play DnD? Well, thanks to the internet, you no longer need to play it confined to a single basement caked in Cheetos dust and Mountain Dew fumes. Pull out your favorite snacks (pretzel rods, chocolate pudding, and cold brew coffee), fire up the webcam, and organize an online campaign! Or, unearth some amazing old PC games like Warcraft II and compete like it’s junior high all over again. Or, go totes old school. Find that chess set, find a friend, and play one another across the information super highway.

Last, but most importantly: STAY HEALTHY. STAY HOME.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, COVID-19 isn’t a joke. With schools closing, major sportsball canceled, and remote work soon to become a national pastime, the main idea to take away here is that this war will be one with active inactivity. LOL. Stay home. Wash your hands. When you go out, be mindful. If you feel sick, stay away from everyone as much as you can.  Distance and time are the best medicine for our country until we’re told otherwise. Unlike any other time in our history, we as a society have never had this amount of access to information, and technological connectivity. So. Don’t be a spoiled sport. Don’t go cuckoo-bananas. Just take your time, and explore the world you’ve been missing. And while you’re at it? Go ahead and bookmark PCS if you haven’t. You got more than enough time to read now, don’tcha?