Thoughts of No Gyms During the Wuhan Coronavirus Pandemic

DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical professional.

This blog post idea was "submitted" to me by my dad.

Unless otherwise specified, all infection numbers are from Johns Hopkins University.

I think I defy the "lazy gamer" stereotype. Before the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, I often asked permission from Mom to go to Gold's Gym--usually 4 days a week. There's just something motivating and thrilling about consistently exercising a lot but I can't describe it other than being more motivated to become as strong as a video game character.

As a distance learner with few opportunities to physically hang out with friends and a former job as a family store volunteer (which I might get back after the pandemic), I was mostly stuck in my small house with a dark and gloomy bedroom, narrow and crowded corridors, and a blazing hot roof deck. Frankly, it gets boring to constantly look at my house for weeks in a row without stepping outside.

So, besides simply working out, going to Gold's Gym was my primary means of experiencing the outdoors. There's simply a lot more variation in the backgrounds and a lot more movement which feels like the kinds of worlds that tabletop RPG game masters and video game developers try to build. Speaking of video games, because Pokémon was my first ever video game, I was obsessed with exploration so I try to invoke the same feeling of freedom and variation in the real-life outdoors. Oh, and sometimes I sneak into the nearby park and jog there, pretending I'm looking for wild Pokémon or just raising my movement speed by speeding across natural terrain.

(Right now, since I'm addicted to Yandere Simulator, I'm running around at high speed and practicing parkour to pretend I'm trying to navigate Akademi High School as fast as I could. What better way to chase down my rivals?)

When the Wuhan coronavirus became a huge deal in March to the point where the vast majority of the world's countries went on quarantine/lockdown (I don't fully understand the differences between these two words), I optimistically thought, "Eh, screw it--this mess might be over in a few weeks!" I thought people were scared enough of the virus to take it seriously and eventually allow it to die down on its own, therefore allowing me to do the things I was eagerly waiting for: playing physical D&D with YoSquid, attending physical game dev classes, and, of course, going to Gold's Gym.

But no. As the weeks and months went on, the Wuhan coronavirus got worse and worse.

When Singapore reopened, it fell through the pitfall of allowing international traffic and caused a spike in infections that forced another lockdown...and prevented my friend NachoPizza from playing Pokémon GO. (Man, I'm so glad I visited Singapore on September 2019! One of the best travels I've ever had. Great food, awesome infrastructure, Gardens By the Bay, Universal Studios, archery, meeting with NachoPizza, among other things.)

The George Floyd protests began on May 26, 2020. And, y'know, protests are mass gatherings so guess what happened? From a 17k-25k cases-per-day trend in the United States, the numbers spiked to 31.6k on June 19 and continued to steadily rise for the most part. July 16 has so far the US's highest number of daily cases at 77.3k. Oh well, I suppose it's too much of a stretch to convince people to stop thinking about racism in the midst of this pandemic. (Disclaimer: I'm not an expert in politics and I don't enjoy debating about it.)

What about the Philippines? I admit I don't keep track of dates but between April and May, daily cases looked stagnant--Metro Manila had a somewhat strict quarantine protocol. It was slightly relaxed on May 16 but, at that time, I saw social media posts of heavy traffic on roads that often had it before the pandemic. On May 29, the daily cases spiked to 1k which I assume is due to Filipinos mentally exaggerating the relaxation of quarantine rules. On June 1, the quarantine was relaxed further to the point where many people can get back to work...and the daily cases stagnated again for the most part. I'm not sure what's with the spike of cases on July 5 other than what I've been hearing about the virus having mutated to more easily penetrate through the human body's natural defenses.

And this is not to mention the issues that have been causing outrage. The Anti-Terror Bill was a huge deal between April and June because...guess what? Leftists and Dilawan (Liberal Party) loyalists mistake it for treating government critics as terrorists. I'm glad it died down especially now that it's a law (freaking finally), but guess what the bigger issue is? The denial of a new franchise for TV network ABS-CBN for not paying the right taxes, for mistreating its employees, and because its owner is a dual citizen despite TV networks being mandated to be 100% Filipino-owned. Just check out this dumpster fire of a photo:

Nice social distancing, guys. 10/10.
Image from ABS-CBN News (you'd think they'd be the last ones to report this massive fail)

Well, looks like I'm not going to the gym anytime soon with these butthurt morons running around. I know some politically biased people refer to others they disagree with as "zombies" (or as conservatives use, "NPCs"), but with the Wuhan coronavirus running around, the derogatory term "zombie" has a whole new meaning. These "zombies" not only spread their political beliefs but also a literal virus.

Okay, let's cut to the chase because describing this virus over and over like I'm doing school work makes me feel like a Captain Obvious.

In short, I want myself to go back to the gym because gyms feel more comfortable than my house, but for everyone's safety, I want gyms to stay closed.

Sounds weird, but let me explain starting with why I want to go back.

I do tasks best when the atmosphere is geared towards a specific activity. For example, I study best in a classroom or library, I work best in an office, and, of course, I exercise best in a gym. Many factors come into play to form a gym atmosphere, including but not limited to gym equipment (obviously), dance, hip-hop, or rock music, people running around or lifting weights, and big men teaching smaller men to get strong.

Working out at home is mega boring. Our house is so narrow that there's only so much furniture and personal belongings that can be placed before it feels more like a warehouse than a proper shelter. And it's not just the interior that's stuffed--the entire house (besides my paternal grandma's part) is. The roof deck, which has the largest floor area, is the only viable place to work out but I don't like it because, #1, running around feels like I'm not using my full potential because I have to slow down to turn around without slipping on the tiled floor; #2, again, it's blazing hot in the day; #3, Mom and Dad go up there to work and they dislike my sweaty smell; and #4, Ivann goes up there as well for solitude or to play with our dog (who I hate). Our punching bag is placed near a corner where people coming from the gate, main interior, or roof deck pass through, so there's a much higher risk of hitting someone by accident, in addition to the random clutter.

Leaving gyms closed, for me, is a greater priority than my desire to go back. A lot of touching of the same objects is involved in a public gym. I think it's common knowledge at this point that touching an infected person or whatever that person touched causes contraction of the Wuhan coronavirus. As a hygiene-conscious person, I learned to always wash my hands after touching anything that is either from outdoors or was most likely touched by another person other than a family member...even before the pandemic. In this pandemic, however, it's difficult to trust strangers to observe health standards.

Side Notes

• To be honest...I'm reluctant to write this blog post mainly because I dislike Dad. I know, it's weird logic, but I can't help myself.
  Dad is a Captain Obvious who works at the Department of Redundancy Department--he repeatedly gives me instructions on tasks I already know and are easy to figure out. Sometimes, he repeats these instructions within less than a minute. (If I really don't know, I would ask.) 
  He's a hypocritical Moral Guardian--he gets dismayed at almost any form of video game violence I mention but he enjoys games like the Call of Duty series. (Yes, he still does this even though I'm 21 years old and not actively hurting anyone because of violent video games. Well...at least he doesn't know the No Russian controversy.)
  I only give firetrucks about my dad because I still live with my parents and don't have a stable job. As such, I have the household responsibilities of a typical teenager. If I lived the ideal life with my own house, I'd only let Dad stay at most 7 days every month only to either have a temporary home or to participate in family occasions, not because "it's my responsibility" or "he's weak and needs support". A pension can take care of the latter. (Don't ask me how old my parents are.)
• This post was originally going to be my idea of Yandere Simulator's Midori Gurin as a Hytale enemy but I realized it was my most difficult blog post idea due to the following factors:
• Because of Midori's infinite clones, I'm turning Midori's clones into an entire faction similar to my deadeye pigeon faction idea. Like with the pigeons, I'm writing a backstory to try to match the depth of an official Hytale faction.
• Hytale Adventure Mode is in a medieval fantasy setting while Yandere Simulator is in a modern setting.
• I want to respect the creators of both games so I don't want to excessively butcher the official lore, especially characters' personalities. Both Hypixel Studios and YandereDev have gone through waves of hate (especially YandereDev) so I don't want to disrespect them and slow down the development of their games in the process.
• My brother Ivann is borrowing my PC.
• SPOILERS BELOW THIS. Private-message me on Facebook or Twitter if you want to discuss spoilers. Do not do it in the comments section.
• While drafting the backstory, I noticed many inconsistencies and sometimes rewrote large chunks of the backstory from scratch to get rid of the inconsistencies. I even wrote an entirely new backstory! Before, I had a Midori that knew everything about Yandere Simulator...without ever actually encountering YandereDev or going to Akademi High School!
• I need "balanced" reasons for any player to join either the Midori clones or the Hypixel Studios faction. So far, there's no benefit to joining the Midoris other than my Author Avatar's personal reason: to use the Akademi High portal so I can kill the characters I hate like Megami Saikou.