When every weekend is spent at home having a mild time, one must find one’s own diversions. After the cooking is done and the phone calls to friends and family concluded, I scroll idly through the daily output of internet meme-makers. This usually provides a few minutes of distraction, eventually running aground on reposts and old memes.
![Ha ha, look at this citizen having access to PPE. That’s the joke, right? Person in full protective gear below text. "bae: come over" "me: can't, in self isolation" "bae: my parents aren't home" "me: but they SHOULD be"](https://xwcl.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/WhatsApp-Image-2020-03-19-at-16.08.52-1024x744.jpeg)
To avoid doing chores, I have been plumbing successively more obscure sources of memes to waste my time. First, there were the Spanish-language memes.
![A useful animal Three panels showing the letter (translated in caption), letter tucked into dog collar, and dog outside with cheetos in mouth](https://xwcl.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/WhatsApp-Image-2020-03-24-at-10.37.29.jpeg)
Eventually those ran into the same problem: reposts.
![Spanish-speaking memers are better at removing watermarks from stock photos, it seems Person in full protective gear below text. "Ven conmigo" "No puedo estoy en cuarentena" "Mis padres no están en casa" "Pues deberían"](https://xwcl.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image-6.png)
We had to go deeper. How about… Spanish-language wild-felid social-distancing memes?
![Oh no! Vizzy! - Lauren Schatz Cartoon depicting an Andean cat as a delivery driver on a moped, handing a viscacha to a hungry Andean cat emerging from its burrow to accept its delivery](https://xwcl.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Screen-Shot-2020-04-12-at-11.16.09-AM-1024x762.png)
My sister, future wildlife biologist, sent me that one. It’s from the Instagram account @andeancats, a “not-for-profit project [seeking] to develop the first Andean cat documentary in order to raise awareness to people around the world.”
Jared really wants to see an Andean cat at Magellan, if we ever get to go back. He went trawling through their past posts and found this:
Isn’t that just the cutest?
However, even the deepest veins of obscure internet amusements ran out eventually, so I went to work on my DIY fabric masks. But, because I refuse to do anything simply, I had to design my own fabric for social distancing chic.
Which led me, in a roundabout way, to the ISO 7010 standard for registered safety signage. Which, after a month at home, seemed like yet another collection of funny internet pictures.
![Sign indicating "Not for people in the state of intoxication"](https://xwcl.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ccd47173-2568-475c-9274-fb2138a1f391_200.png)
![Sign for "Warning: Incoming tides"](https://xwcl.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/f8cc3cff-6cec-4180-81e5-4bdeddd4f122_200.png)
![Sign indicating "No leaning against"](https://xwcl.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/5bf582be-0d92-4420-8217-0486595511d6_200.png)
Eventually, I decided on the following motif for DIY textile crafts in the age of COVID-19:
![The USA doesn't use any of these, because why would we follow international standards? Or wear masks? Or wash our hands? Repeating pattern with alternating rows of blue mandatory action icons and red prohibited icons](https://xwcl.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Artboard-1-648x1024.png)
Happy to report that the fabric and mask project has been a success. Perhaps not in terms of viral particle blocking, but aesthetically. And isn’t that what counts?
![I'd rather buy a sewing machine than stitch another one of these by hand Handmade mask photographed on a table](https://xwcl.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/880D5748-DE6C-49F0-9D5C-66C9F24A4129_1_201_a-1024x589.jpeg)
Your song of the day is “The Spot” by Your Smith: