Pandemic guilty pleasures that persisted?

[GaryDickins]

OK, so I've seen a few topics about "your favorite..." lately, and I have one I'd like to ask.

What guilty pleasures did you discover/start during the pandemic lockdowns that you have kept indulging once the world started getting more "back to normal" after everything re-opened?

In my case it was watching reaction videos on YouTube. These are two flavors: music reactions and film/TV reactions, and I indulge them in two very different ways.

For music reactions, I enjoy watching people discover classic 60s - 80s music that was a staple of my teenage years for the first time. The younger they are and the more native they are to over-sampled, over-produced, and less original music, the better, in my opinion. I love seeing the light go on in their eyes and the realization of, "Oh, so this is what real talent sounds like!" And sometimes because they approach music that I think I know like the back of my hand with fresh eyes, they make connections between the artists of my youth that I never even noticed before, and that becomes a wonderful new insight for me.

For film and TV reactions, I enjoy watching people react to high-quality films and TV series that I haven't seen before. I haven't been much of one to watch TV outside of live sports for a couple of decades, so in their first run I missed many of the best dramatic TV series of the early part of this century. I've found a filmmaker who reacts to movies and TV shows, and I've discovered he has similar tastes to mine. So through his catalog, I've enjoyed going back to watch The Wire, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and a couple of other series, along with watching some movies I never would have bothered to see without knowing he had posted reactions to them. Right now, I'm working my way through The Sopranos based on his current reaction series.

 

[Erozetta]

Grocery delivery.

But now it's only when I'm at my limit for interacting with other humans. Just put the groceries by the door and leave, please

 

[MrPixel]

Writing erotica.

 

[dirk2024]

Grocery delivery.

But now it's only when I'm at my limit for interacting with other humans. Just put the groceries by the door and leave, please

Oh lord yes! the only problem is the shoppers aren't cookers themselves. So they don't understand things like picking the same size potatoes so they all cook at the same rate. And getting lactose and gluten free products can be a problem. If they are out they recommend full lactose or full gluten products.

 

[dirk2024]

OK, so I've seen a few topics about "your favorite..." lately, and I have one I'd like to ask.

What guilty pleasures did you discover/start during the pandemic lockdowns that you have kept indulging once the world started getting more "back to normal" after everything re-opened?

In my case it was watching reaction videos on YouTube. These are two flavors: music reactions and film/TV reactions, and I indulge them in two very different ways.

For music reactions, I enjoy watching people discover classic 60s - 80s music that was a staple of my teenage years for the first time. The younger they are and the more native they are to over-sampled, over-produced, and less original music, the better, in my opinion. I love seeing the light go on in their eyes and the realization of, "Oh, so this is what real talent sounds like!" And sometimes because they approach music that I think I know like the back of my hand with fresh eyes, they make connections between the artists of my youth that I never even noticed before, and that becomes a wonderful new insight for me.

For film and TV reactions, I enjoy watching people react to high-quality films and TV series that I haven't seen before. I haven't been much of one to watch TV outside of live sports for a couple of decades, so in their first run I missed many of the best dramatic TV series of the early part of this century. I've found a filmmaker who reacts to movies and TV shows, and I've discovered he has similar tastes to mine. So through his catalog, I've enjoyed going back to watch The Wire, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and a couple of other series, along with watching some movies I never would have bothered to see without knowing he had posted reactions to them. Right now, I'm working my way through The Sopranos based on his current reaction series.

I enjoy watching these as well. I enjoy the comments where they talk about how multiple people in the group harmonize together (like Crosby, Stills and Nash), because most groups/singers don't do that anymore.

I've been watching several of Metallica's One, reactions. The reactors are all surprised at how deep rock music can be. Some even tear up at that video as it's particularly emotional. And of course, rocks the fuck out at the same time!

 

[SkyBubble]

In my case it was watching reaction videos on YouTube. These are two flavors: music reactions and film/TV reactions, and I indulge them in two very different ways.

I've watched a number of reaction videos of people hearing the Carpenters for the first time. Always an interesting reaction, since they've usually never heard a voice quite like Karen's. (The closest voice currently, IMO, is a young singer named Tori Holub. Teh Carpenters vs. Tori Holub videos are rather amazing.)

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Game Mastering and solo RPGs. I played Vampire: The Masquerade when I was younger, but there was one point during the pandemic were I was with a friend baking for Christmas at his place and he proposed to set up a group for D&D with us, his brother, and another friend of them that I also became friends with thanks to this. The group is still ongoing. We already finished one campaign, are almost over with another, and have another one that is still ongoing due to its nature of being anthological, and slice-of-life so it's pretty much there to play as a safeguard when we feel bored of the heroic ones we're playing.

Not really a guilty pleasure... unless I decide to play instead of do something I must do.

 

[Erozetta]

Oh lord yes! the only problem is the shoppers aren't cookers themselves. So they don't understand things like picking the same size potatoes so they all cook at the same rate. And getting lactose and gluten free products can be a problem. If they are out they recommend full lactose or full gluten products.

I have no substitutions on for everything I order for a similar reason. I also still tend to force myself to go to the store for produce. I just do self checkouts and go as soon as they open to avoid people.

But yeah... Grocery delivery has cut down a lot on my "I'm too anxious to function because I had to interact with too many people today" periods.

 

[StillStunned]

Working downstairs instead of in my dedicated workspace. But that also has to do with my cats getting older and not being able to manage two flights of stairs anymore.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

We used to do online shopping once a fortnight or so - the supermarket is only a few minutes walk away - but now get deliveries weekly or twice weekly. The pickers now have so much data that substitutions are always sensible.

One luxury we got into was good coffee from a local place, and we buy their ground beans, too.

Signed up with Apple TV - keep planning to stop paying but then a new series of Slow Horses comes out (can't wait for the 24th!)

Lying in my supremely comfortable bed may be the big one - sure, often it's because I can't get up, but god it feels nice with the 8000 pocket springs...

 

[Nynah]

Maybe not the guiltiest of pleasures, but I was a lot more prone to sinus infections and colds in general before the pandemic, but since adopting masking everywhere when I'm indoors, I haven't gotten sick, which is a huge improvement on my quality of life.

Since working from home has allowed me to blast whatever music I want (my furry cubemates don't care), I've gotten deep into K-pop and it's pretty much all I listen to while working.

I've also incorporated a small 30 minute nap into my routine for the day and it's done wonders for my mental health.

Finally, I got into playing Hades during the quarantine and got quite good at it, so I'm definitely looking forward to Hades II coming out in less than two weeks.

 

[iwatchus]

I don't feel guilty about this, but I started cooking again when the pandemic hit (and when my TBI allowed me, which are basically the same time). We had been eating out essentially every meal. I had had some mental health issues almost twenty years earlier which had led me to stop cooking. Of course, me knee gave up the ghost sufficient this spring that cooking is back off the table again.

 

[yowser]

Experimenting in the kitchen, trying new foods, adapting/creating recipes.

When the lockdown occurred, my local Mexican burrito place continued to take orders for pickup. BUT, their glorious salsa bar in the back, where you could choose among a dozen different types disappeared, and your order now had maybe two choices. My favorite, a tart multi-layered garlic salsa, went missing. How was I to continue living?

So I ordered some dried chiles (never worked with them before.) I tried a little of this, a little of that (not knowing then what chiles the place had used, I have since found out they were chile de arbol) and worked like a fiend with cookbooks and various recipes I adapted to reverse engineer my missing love. I did not achieve an exact match but got close enough that I can still survive. See Garlic Salsa.

Previous to pandemic, I'd try something new every couple of months, now it's every couple of weeks. Silver linings are not always mythical.