Just trying to help out my fellow bros in whatever little way I can during these trying times.

The vast majority of you guys on this subreddit are really just super cool chilled out men just doing your own thing, and you've often been a great source of reassurance, good humour and unexpectedly genuine kindness. A small portion of you take the whole lumberjack monk-flexing thing to a bit of a cringey degree, but that's besides the point.

Look, with this insane pandemic we're facing, shit is unimaginably fucked right now. I had to let go of 4 of my employees today because we just couldn't afford to keep them around any longer. Productivity has plummeted with the mandatory work-from-home situation. As a tonne of our clients are losing business, they're terminating contracts with us. Salaries for April are going to be paid in deferred instalments. We have a few employees that have been stranded in Italy for a month and just keeping them safe and healthy everyday is costing us a bomb. I imagine a lot of you are facing similar issues with this global pandemic.

We've all heard the whole "WASH YOUR HANDS" thing a million times by now, but I just wanted to share a few other simple thoughts / ideas / tips that'll hopefully make life a little more bearable and help us beat this thing a little sooner.

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• If you're feeling lonely, stay connected with loved ones DIGITALLY. Use apps like Slack for workplace team management and group chatting, Discord / Hangouts for chatting with friends, WhatsApp and Telegram for texting, ZOOM for video conferencing etc. Do avoid spamming people with random coronavirus memes and fake news, because it might cause people to overlook GENUINE critical information among a sea of bullshit. Be wary of new apps like HouseParty and others that have popped up relatively recently. They haven't been around long enough for thorough testing and many have been found to have critical security issues.
• If you think you might be sick, DO NOT immediately go to the hospital and risk spreading the virus during your commute. Use online telemedicine services or digital health apps to schedule an online consultation with a specialist. ONLY IF they feel like your symptoms are serious and warrant a physical checkup should you proceed to the nearest hospital / clinic for further testing.
• Stock up on long-lasting shelf-stable groceries. More rice, dried lentils, canned beans, canned tuna, dried/cured meats, chickpeas, potatoes and onions. Cut down on fresh fruits and veggies that spoil quickly (mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, berries, asparagus etc) because that will save you trips to the grocery store. SHARE recipes for creative use of boring ingredients. We're all going to get sick of eating the same crap over and over again. If you know of a creative way to make something unappealing taste better, please share it.
• Keep home deliveries to an absolute minimum. Amazon warehouses are operating at max capacity and there hasn't been time to enforce proper safety protocol and protect their own workers. You don't NEED to order a fancy new laser thermometer just for yourself. The crappy old mercury one you've had for 2 decades still works just fine. Buy ebooks or audiobooks instead of hardcovers. Make do with shitty instant coffee for a couple of weeks instead of those fancy artisanal fresh roasted beans. Cool it with the barrels of hand sanitizer. Regular old soap is medically proven to be WAY more effective.
• STAY SANE. There are benefits to self-quarantine. You're forced to do things that you have no excuse to get out of anymore. Like ordinarily there'd be a million reasons to avoid working out, but now there's literally nothing else to do and my weights are sitting right there in my home gym, staring at me. Get better at home cooking - it's SO much cheaper than ordering takeout and SO much better for you. Teach yourself something new, doesn't have to be a grand hobby or a new instrument or something, it can be super small and low impact too. Like I invented a new cocktail the other day - a sort of mix between a negroni and a martini with a tiny bit of grenadine and it was absolutely fucking delicious.

Anyhoo. Please do share any other thoughts / ideas you might have below. And PLEASE STAY SAFE.