Happy Good Friday! The NodeBB offices are closed today, but I thought it’d be nice to show us that we all have lives outside of our work, even though we can’t really go out and do anything right now. Shall we make this a regular thing? We’ll see.

Stay safe, everybody, and keep practicing social distancing!

As of this blog post’s writing (10th April 2020), many municipalities and regions in Ontario (and Ontario itself) have declared a state of emergency. While the country itself has not taken that final step towards declaring a national emergency, there are many recommendations to stay home, to only head out for essential trips such as grocery shopping (and even then, only once a week), and to practice appropriate social distancing, by remaining 2 meters (or 6 feet) away from others at all times.

While we normally all go into the office a couple times a week, and have one weekly in-office day for all employees, this has been suspended for the time being, in order to keep our staff healthy and to minimize exposure through use of public transit, etc.

So what are we up to while we’re essentially isolating ourselves from the public?

Barış is… building things

… however, that’s not a surprise, as Baris is always building things. He’s probably the handiest of the team, having done his own flooring and is probably still planning out his bathroom renovation.

Here he is playing with his daughter Erin (who is nearly 2!), on the playground he built.

Well, he assembled it, but from the way he tells it, it was quite difficult, so we’ll give him a pass on this one.

Eda is… getting artsy

Eda has been working hard monitoring the Government of Canada’s website for changes to various relief and assistance grants for small businesses. Outside of that, she’s been spending time with her family and enjoying the fresh air in her backyard. Here she is with Erin (she’s rather popular between Barış and Eda, it seems), picking out paint swatches for the living room. I think they’re going for a polka dot theme.

Apparently Eda’s also taken to disinfecting doorknobs, cupboard handles, and common touch-points all over her house. So now we can say she also has the cleanest house out of all of us, this picture notwithstanding.

Jay is… making lots of noise music

A number of us are musically inclined, but Jay’s taken his hobby to the next level, with virtual jam sessions with his buddies. Here he is in his studio, pictured with his collection of ukeleles and guitars.

Jay tells us he has a habit of playing guitar in between calls. He got awfully quiet when we asked if he did it during calls as well.

Looks like fun! These guys and gals have even shifted their regular pub nights online, either via Facebook or Zoom.

Julian is… working out from home

I like to stay active, and I’m an avid rock climber. I usually go to various local gyms to lift weights and rock climb, and in the summer, I cycle to keep my cardio up.

Luckily, the cycling is still very much allowed, so as the weather warms up, I’m looking forward to cycling further distances (alone, of course).

Here I am doing the incline bench press (as far as you know, they’re 100lbs each, you can’t say otherwise, all you see is a blur.) I had to make do with a bean bag, so not only is it a workout, it’s also relaxing? It’s all very confusing, if you ask me.

Andrew is… practicing physical minimalism

Andrew recently bought a new house, but didn’t have time to make it a home before all the stores closed. In theory, he could order all his furniture for delivery, but apparently the “white glove” treatment only extends as far as the front door now, so he might just end up sleeping under the stars instead.

I’ve read that lots of office workers tend to develop back pain from their office chairs being improperly configured, but you can’t get back pain from your office chair if you don’t use an office chair, *taps forehead*.

Here he is taking a “top-down” approach towards developing NodeBB. Either that, or most of his house didn’t spark joy and he Marie Kondo’d the entire place.

Aziz is… working hard… or hardly working?

Aziz (with daughter Lana, 18 months!) is busier than ever, it seems, seen here taking a break between marathon coding sessions.

Outside of the office, Aziz is currently organizing his storage room, and inserting every item into a database. He tells me he’s classifying all of the items as well, but as yet undetermined is whether a can of beans is an extension of the abstract class CannedGood, or an extension of the abstract class Legume.