5 Things That Saved Me During Quarantine

It goes without saying that 2020 was a weird, weird year. I, like many others, had a bunch of plans that just didn't work out due to the coronavirus pandemic, like a baseball trip to Chicago and a Santana/Earth, Wind & Fire concert. There were movies I wanted to see, things I wanted to do and a years-long streak of going to the gym that I would have preferred to keep intact. Instead, I found myself quarantined at home, often forbidden by the government from leaving - and when I could leave the house, it wasn't without a very stylish facemask.

However, there were actually a lot of really good things that took place in 2020 that - dare I say it? - wouldn't have happened under normal circumstances. It has warmed my cold, dead heart to see so many friends and acquaintances acknowledging on social media that, although 2020 pretty much sucked, there was also a whole lot to be thankful for. While I feel like I should reserve some of my more personal experiences for a much more private setting, I thought it would be fun to take a second and jot down a few of the fun things that blessed my life while stuck at home in 2020.

1. Video Games

First and foremost, I need to give an enormous shoutout to Animal Crossing, which has truly been a cornerstone in The A-Towns' quarantine experience.

I'll never forget the night of March 11, 2020, when the Utah Jazz vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game was postponed after it was determined that Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. That was an event that changed the world as we knew it. Professional sports seemed to be the first thing that shut down, but businesses and other public venues were soon to follow. Shortly thereafter, my place of employment sent everybody home and I was stuck inside for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" was released for the Nintendo Switch on March 20, which, I think was, like, my first Friday at home. I hurried over to the nearest Target to pick up the new game and got to work on my island. I was chopping wood and catching fish for days on end, and I loved it. I played the original "Animal Crossing" growing up, so having a new next-gen version of the game was fun. Eventually, my wife, Miranda, took an interest in the game and I set her up with a character in the game.

After that, I didn't see her for three weeks.

Kidding, of course, but she did pick up on the game pretty quickly and, before we knew it, we were tag-teaming the island of Nookton and curating a place for our resident neighbors to enjoy.

By nature, "Animal Crossing" can become a somewhat tedious, chore-driven form of recreation, but with Miranda and me checking into the island and maintaining its upkeep on a nearly daily basis, it gave us something to talk about and something on which we could collaborate and work together. It has also brought us great joy that my sister received "ACNH" for Christmas, and I have had fun hopping online to visit her and give her tips over the past few days. Thanks, "Animal Crossing"!

Editor's note: Two other games we have loved playing together on the Switch were "Stardew Valley" and "FUSER."

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I also had plenty of opportunities to catch up on my Playstation backlog over the past nine months. I'm a man who enjoys great deals, and I'm also a long-time subscriber to the "Playstation Plus" program, which grants free games to users each month, so I've accumulated quite a wealth of video games over the years. The inability to go outdoors for entertainment left me at home with nothing but time on my hands, so I tried my best to make sure I got my money's worth out of all the Playstation games that have been sitting around, gathering dust.

Some of the games I enjoyed the most during quarantine were the "Kingdom Hearts" franchise, the freshly remastered "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2," "The Outer Worlds," "MLB The Show 20," "Marvel's Avengers" and "Red Dead Redemption 2," which I FINALLY had time to go back and play.

Being the OCD, completionist freak that I am, I also made an effort to fully complete as many games as I could. During the pandemic, I got the ever-elusive platinum trophy (or 100% completion) on the following Playstation games:

• "LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2"
• "Monster Jam: Battlegrounds"
• "Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage"
• "Kingdom Hearts III"
• "Assassin's Creed Syndicate"
• "Far Cry 3: Classic Edition"
• "AdVenture Capitalist"
• "MLB The Show 20"
• "WWE 2K20"
• "Back to the Future: The Game"
• "Batman: Arkham City"
• "Fallout 3"
• "Need For Speed"
• "Astro's Playroom"

So yeah, video games kept me pretty busy, and I don't regret it at all. It's not like I could have gone outside to do something else instead. Oh, and despite all the crap I said about the PS5 launch (it was a disaster), Walmart and FedEx made me a very happy little nerd by delivering one to me on Christmas Eve, which was a modern day Christmas miracle, so I really can't complain too much.

2. DDP Yoga

Before COVID closed the country down, I had been going to the gym at least once a week for like 10 years. That's not an exaggeration; it's true. I know you probably couldn't tell by looking at me, but I tried my best to stay in shape. However, once gyms closed, I couldn't get out and pump iron anymore, which was a major bummer for me. I tried to cheat the system by jokingly driving to the gym, getting out, doing a couple push-ups and then checking in on the Swarm app, which I use to monitor how often I get out of the house, but Swarm eventually stopped counting "check-in streaks," despite my best efforts, so I stopped going altogether.

During the pandemic months, I have only gone back to the gym one time since they re-opened with safety precautions (allegedly) in place. Beside myself, I only saw one other patron (excluding employees) who was wearing a mask, so I guess I haven't felt totally safe to return until this virus is a bit more under control. Muscleheads are weirdos and generally cannot be trusted, in terms of personal hygiene and sanitation.

Without a gym to go to, I've had to get creative with my exercise. More often than not, this has meant that I turn to my old friend Diamond Dallas Page's "DDP Yoga" program for home fitness. Page, a 60-something WWE Hall of Famer, created his home workout regimen to help people lose weight and recover from sports injuries, but Miranda and I have used it as a suitable replacement for our VASA memberships, which we really should call in and put a freeze on before they continue to charge our monthly fees again.

DDP Yoga has helped us stay relatively "in-shape" while quarantined, and has been a nice activity for us a couple times a week after work. Admittedly, we haven't done it quite as well as we probably should have, but we've supplemented with occasional walks around our condominium parking lot and other miscellaneous exercises. Certainly, I'm no yoga expert, but I can absolutely tell an improvement in my balance and flexibility between the time I started working out with DDPY and now, so I'll count that as a win.

3. Streaming Services, Virtual Fan Experiences and Theater Trips

When Miranda and I first got married, I floated out the idea that, at some point, we should have a "movie month," where we watched one movie every night for an entire month. Sounded like fun at the time.

Now, nine months into a global pandemic, that doesn't sound as fun as I thought a year ago. During quarantine, I have literally kept track of everything that I watched. Granted, I didn't think we'd still be essentially locked down for this long, but I thought it would be interesting to see how much stuff I could watch until they sent me back to the office.

Hang on a second. Let me pull up my list.

It's 223 bullet points long, including movies, seasons of TV shows, documentaries and made-for-TV concerts. Two hundred and twenty three. Holy crap.

I've binge-watched a lot of great stuff, including catching up on some old series that I never finished; rewatching some stuff that Miranda had never seen; watching live shows like "The Masked Singer," "Survivor" and even "The Bachelorette." I've seen a handful of movies and shows edited for content, thanks to VidAngel. I've DVRed classic movies that were new to me, like "Saving Private Ryan," "Gladiator" and "Rebel Without a Cause." Like many of you, I thoroughly enjoyed Season 2 of "The Mandalorian" from the comfort of my living room. I'm a far more cultured, in-the-know person now, after spending so much time on the couch, and I most definitely got some great value out of my streaming subscriptions this year.

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I was a "virtual fan" a couple times during 2020! You may have seen me during a Utah Jazz playoff game or (briefly) on WWE programming ("Smackdown!" and "205 Live"). You may not have seen me on "The Masked Singer" because they totally botched their virtual fan experience, but hey, we did get to watch the first performance of "Group C" in Season 4. They were not good - clearly the worst of the three groups this season, but I guess it was kind of interesting, nevertheless.

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One aspect of entertainment that we can thank COVID-19 for is straight-to-streaming movie releases - something that seemed unfathomable a year ago. During the pandemic, my family and I have been treated to "Bill & Ted Face the Music," "Soul" and "Wonder Woman 1984," and we even forked over $30 to watch the decent-but-mostly-unnecessary "Mulan" remake on Disney+ one time.

One thing I really had fun with during the pandemic was being able to venture out a couple times to a real-life movie theater (it's a big building we used to go to when we wanted to eat popcorn and watch movies with our friends, back before the plague). When things gradually started to open back up, we found a theater about 30 minutes south of where we live that was showing old movies for super-cheap. They were even showing my all-time favorite movies, the "Back to the Future" trilogy, and Miranda mentioned that we should check it out since I'd never seen those movies on the big screen. Over the course of a few weeks, we saw all three movies, socially distanced from the half-dozen other people in the theater, for less than $10, total. It was amazing and definitely a highlight of 2020 for me.

On three other occasions, my family rented out a theater to watch a movie together. That's right - just me, my parents and my siblings' families, all alone to watch "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World," "Ghostbusters" and "Hocus Pocus." The theaters took all the necessary precautions and treated us like VIPs the entire time. I can't thank the Megaplex and Cinemark theaters that gave us that thrice-in-a-lifetime experience. Again, that was something that we probably never would have done without the pandemic paving the way.

4. #GiveThanks

Arguably, my favorite week this year other than Christmas was the week leading up to Thanksgiving. When President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a challenge for members of the church - and those of any other religion or background - to spread gratitude on their social media accounts, my Facebook and Instagram feeds were overcome with fun posts from those I follow. I got to see what made my friends and family happy, which provided a welcome break from the doom and gloom of election season, and helped me catch up with people I hadn't heard from in years. It also gave me a chance to reflect on the things that I was thankful for, from my family to my education and the many opportunities I've been given to work in journalism and with comic conventions. It was always fun to wake up each day and think about what I would be posting before the sun went down, and it made it so I actually looked forward to getting on my phone and mindlessly scrolling through what everyone else was talking about. For those of you who participated in the #GiveThanks challenge, thank you for making my life better during 2020.

5. Parenthood/Working From Home

Finally, I am thankful for parenthood - and no, I'm not talking about the TV show "Parenthood," although we did watch Season 1 a few weeks ago.

The year 2020 will always be one of my favorite years, if for no other reason than that it gave me and Miranda our first child, Stockton. Every day, I am still in awe that we have a little roommate - and that Miranda actually let me name him after my favorite basketball player. Stockton is such a perfect little boy. He is the best little buddy we ever could have asked for, and he has brought us such great happiness and joy. He is cuter and way funnier than we ever could have imagined, and we just love kissing his little cheeks. He is our snuggle bug, our movie and TV pal, and he loves staying up late with Daddy to play video games or read books. Speaking of reading books, we have spent quite a bit of time reading to Stockton lately, whether it has been a book by our old family friend John Cena or a story out of Stockton's brand new Marvel storybook. He is generally a very happy dude, and more than anything, he loves being held - by anyone!

Parenthood has been a wild ride for us so far. We're trying our best to learn what to do to take care of our baby, and I think we're actually doing ok! It has definitely taught me to put the child's needs first, above my own, which means:

• I quite often can no longer play online video games that cannot be paused
• Several times a week, I'm not going to bed until at least 1 AM
• Stockton likes being held by someone who is standing up, to the dismay of my lower back and legs

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When Walmart first told us that we were going to have to work from home because of the virus, I honestly thought we'd be out of the office for maybe two weeks, then we'd be right back. Obviously, that didn't happen, and COVID-19 has turned into a much bigger deal than I thought it was. Working from home has been an interesting deal. The work I do can totally be done virtually, so that hasn't been bad, but I do miss the ability to walk up to somebody's face if they haven't responded to my Slack message for 45 minutes and make them give me an answer on the spot. I also miss the free snacks they gave us in the office. Other than that, being away from the office really hasn't been miserable.

Working from home has saved me, undoubtedly, hundreds of dollars on gas. Instead of filling up bi-weekly, now I refuel about once a month. There have been a couple weeks where I haven't even gone outside in days. That kind of sucks, but at least it's an inexpensive lifestyle.

Setting up shop on the couch or in my home office has given me the ability to turn on the TV (mostly as background noise) while I work, without interruption. It's a nice way to multi-task while still hitting my numbers and getting stuff done for my bosses.

The best thing of all is that I've been able to spend so much time with Miranda since March, and with Stockton since October. I got six weeks of paternity leave when he was first born, and they're allowing me six more to use any time within the first year of the child's life. I'll take those in a couple weeks, once Miranda has to go back to work. Right now, they're saying we will continue to work remotely until at least July 5, 2021. Of course, they'll play things by ear and adjust that date, if necessary, but it most likely means that I'll get to play Mr. Mom to Stockton for a few more months (simultaneously saving a ton of money that we would have had to spend on child care in a non-COVID world). My wallet thanks my employer, and Mr. Sam Walton, the veritable founder of the feast. We are incredibly thankful and count ourselves blessed that Miranda and I both were able to continue working throughout all the craziness 2020 threw our way.

No, 2020 was not even close to the year we all wanted. The holidays all fell on weekends, "twenty-twenty" was a nice round number, there were plenty of vision puns to be made, but COVID-19 wrecked us all and forced us into uncomfortable situations where we all had to make adjustments. No, things didn't magically revert back to normal at the stroke of midnight, early this morning. Sometimes, you just can't always get what you want.

But taking a page out of President Nelson's book and looking for the positive memories that were made along the way really goes to show that 2020 will go down as one of the most memorable stretches of our entire lives.

Here's hoping that we can do a bit more traveling, a lot more socializing and maybe even attend a couple sporting events and concerts in 2021.

Happy new year from everybody here at Signs of the Times!

Unpopular Opinion: 2016 actually didn't suck

You can't escape the negativity these days. It's all over Facebook, moreso than on Twitter lately - although I did get my first-ever death threats this year, over something that I ended up being right about, which is hilarious - and, quite often, getting online is super depressing. Everybody has an ax to grind, a fight to pick and a reason to complain. People are still upset about the election results, Latter-day Saints are losing their faith over the Mormon Tabernacle Choir accepting an invitation to perform at the Inauguration, cop-killing has become a viable outlet for frustration, we're protesting everything (remember when that guy started a petition to shut down Rotten Tomatoes??) and the nerds won't stop blaming 2016 - the year - for killing their favorite celebrities. As if it has a mind of its own. As if it decides who lives and who dies. They're clamoring for 2017 to hurry up and arrive so famous people will stop passing away. (Sorry, kids, but it's not like people will magically stop dying on January 1.) I've seen people on Facebook making ridiculous statements like "Let's never do 2016 again." (News flash: that's literally impossible.) The culmination of it all is driving me nuts.

2016 is the angriest year I can ever remember. We are constantly looking for others to blame for our problems. This leads to a whole lot of arguing and a whole lot of unhappiness. Many times, I think it's like we are looking for reasons to get mad. This generation (my generation) has the thinnest skin in the history of the world, and when we've run out of reasons to be offended for ourselves, we go so far as to look for reasons to get offended for others. (For example, white people becoming outraged over the name of the Washington Redskins or straight non-Mormons trashing the Church for its so-called "policy change" a while back.)

I'm trying to think which would be a better slogan to sum up what happened this year: "2016: Protest everything!" or "2016: The butt-hurt was real." I'm open to suggestions.

But, of course, I can't post any of this on social media because it's 2016, the year in which my opinion and most of the things I believe became wrong. You read that right. My opinion is wrong.

Uh, ok.

Back when I used to blog all the time -- I can't imagine writing a weekly, un-fact-checked, non-P.C. opinion blog these days - I'd get crucified -- I used to have people vote for the best Signs of the Times in that particular year. In 2016, I realized that A) nobody really reads my blog anymore (thus the lack of posting) and B) nobody really cares what I'm doing in life, so I've decided to scour my Facebook and Instagram posts and determine 2016's best moments myself.

As far as I can see, I'm in the vast minority here - call it optimism, call it stupidity - or maybe I'm just wrong again, but I actually think 2016 was a pretty good year. A pretty awesome year, in fact. I'm not going to make you do anything, but I think it might be good for you, if you haven't already, to take a few minutes and think back about all the good things that happened to you this year. It certainly made me feel better about life. It has helped me realized that I'm doing ok and that a lot of the crazy stuff going on in the world usually has no direct impact on me, personally. (R.I.P. Carrie Fisher, for sure, but, no offense, her death does not truly affect my life whatsoever.)

In chronological order, here is a list of good things that happened to me in 2016:

1. I got a new nephew, #MegaMax, and he is the cutest little Charlie Brown doppelganger you'll ever see. Max is awesome!
2. I got to work for Salt Lake Comic Con for FanX 2016 and met some cool celebrities, like LeVar Burton, Jason Isaacs, Dean Cain and Jeremy Renner!
3. My sister, Amy, got married to Cole Morgan! Cole is an awesome guy and we're so glad to have him in the family.
4. Austin and I got laid off from Allstate. That pretty much sucked because being laid off is never fun, but I basically got two months of paid vacation, so that was fun.
5. Whilst unemployed, I took my first spontaneous road trip and drove to San Diego with Austin, Lex and Max! We did some fun things down there, including going to a Padres game, where they beat the Yankees on a walk-off home run. We met up with my Uncle Ryan during the game, which was cool, and Austin and I bumped into Yankees manager Joe Girardi outside the stadium.
6. I also go to help the Comic Con social media team for Salt Lake Comic Con 2016, where I met WWE legend John Cena! (My Halloween costume this year was spot on, too, by the way.)
7. I saw some great concerts this year, including Chicago, one of my all-time favorite classic rock bands. Coincidentally, it was one of the worst dates I've been on in years, but I had a great time, regardless of how bored she was. Her loss.
8. Check this one off the bucket list: I finally saw my absolute favorite band in concert - WEEZER! It was everything I hoped it would be, and it was the first concert I can remember where I actually knew all the songs that were played. I had a great time with Amy, Cole, Cody and my friend Laura.
9. I got a chance to go back and work for the Deseret News again in August! I had a great experience and was able to write some great articles and do some good interviews. They didn't choose to hire me full-time, but, if I'm being honest, I knew they wouldn't. Their loss. I got a different job in September and I'm doing just fine.
10. My mom let Cody and me bum along on her business trip to Baltimore. In a week-long trip, we toured Baltimore, Washington D.C. and even spent a day in Philadelphia. It was one of the greatest trips I have ever gone on, and I totally fell in love with National Harbor, Maryland. Look at that sunset!
11. While on the east coast, I went to Major League Baseball games in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., seeing the Orioles and Nationals play on back-to-back nights. We also took tours of the Orioles, Nationals and Philadelphia Eagles' stadiums, which was a lot of fun. Best of all, I got to meet the Racing Presidents before the Nationals game! It was a dream come true!
12. My family finally moved out of their rental house in Sandy. We had some great memories in that place, but we're sure glad they were in a position to get out. They're in a nice, brand new house in Bluffdale now and that has been a real blessing for us.
13. But that new house was out to get me! I took a tumble on their hardwood floor on Halloween night, partially dislocating my kneecap and straining some of the muscles in my left leg. Thankfully, with the help of a knee brace, some compression pants and some self-imposed physical therapy, I'm feeling a lot better now. Not 100% yet, but I'm getting there.
14. I turned 30! Oh, gosh, I'm old.
15. I'm still not married, but I did make some good friends this year, including the guys in the Union YSA elders quorum presidency. The four of us chipped in to buy a photo shoot during a service auction and I think the pictures turned out great. Additionally, one of my favorite things from 2016 was the creation of Men's Night, which started out as an idea to get all my brothers and brother-in-law together to go see Batman v Superman, but morphed in to an almost-monthly tradition of going out with my friends (and sometimes even my sister, sisters-in-law and other various female friends) to see action movies. This year, we saw BvS, Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, Suicide Squad, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and Assassin's Creed, and had a great time. I can't wait to continue this tradition next year.
16. I got to spend Christmas with my family! I love the holidays and it was a lot of fun having everyone together for the weekend.

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There's my year in review! What are some of the best things that happened to you in 2016? Feel free to comment, if you feel so inclined.

I know it's easy to focus on the negative, to dwell on everything bad that happens and to complain about everything. I do it quite often, myself. Bad things happen to everyone. I've tried hard these past 12 months to make a conscious effort to look for things that are going well in my life. For things that make me happy and for the many blessings I receive on a daily basis. I'm even thankful for you, whoever you are, for actually reading this post. But, more than that, I'm eternally grateful to God, who has blessed me with an amazing family, some really good friends and a lot of great opportunities in my life, even in 2016, that dreaded year that so many people are calling the "worst year ever." Good things are happening each day. It's up to us to find them.

Here's to a happier, kinder and even better new year in 2017! Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.

Happy New Year,

Aaron

Father's Day haiku

According to dictionary.com, a haiku is a major form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syallables divided into 3 lines of five, seven, and five syllables. In honor of Father's Day, several Facebookers, including two members of The Underground, wrote haiku poems for their fathers on this special day.

"My dad is flying.

On a plane for work today.

I love him always."

- Tiffany Garner

"He gave to us life

And teaches us how to live

Two great gifts treasured."

- Jordan Holmes

"My daddy is great

He taught me how to fish well

And which books are best."

- Jordan Holmes

"I love my father.

He always works very hard.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs."

- Aaron Christensen

"It's not just today

But each and every day

Dads deserve respect."

- Steve Roush

"Dad is my hero

Loving care for my mother

Sweet husband and DAD."

- Gayle Christensen

"Jackie Chan movies

Knives, pens, camping, and surfing

'Hey, pull my finger.'"

- Jordan Holmes

"A quirky humor,

Overshadowed by pure love,

Makes my father great."

- Jessica Turner

Happy Father's Day to you, Dad, and all you other fathers out there, from everybody here at The Underground.