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2022-01-14
Since the pandemic has commence, I haven't done many public outings or attended big events. This January, I had finally got enough of the courage to go to a concert for the first time in three years. Overall, I would argue that the outing was fun and safe, but I could not help but still feel anxious and scared of what was yet to come despite it being a good time. Part of this was because the concert did not require anyone to wear a mask, nor did that enforce social distancing with the seats like I thought they would. Most of this was because COVID-19 cases had started to climb down despite the onset of the new variant OMICRON at the time. I wore my mask regardless since we were sitting so close to people and still enjoyed myself despite these bypasses. I feel that this concert represents how I and other people felt confident enough to do big social outings again despite the pandemic still going on. I also feel like this concert illuminates how people still seek entertainment and enjoyment in their lives and how the pandemic impacted the way people use to be able to go out and enjoy themselves. Now that things are starting to slow down with the pandemic, people like myself are starting to use this opportunity to go enjoy ourselves, which honestly brings me much hope and optimism about the future now.
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2020-04-20
This image is of me working at a refrigerator plant during the Spring of 2021. Before I started working at my law firm, I bounced around and did odd jobs to make ends meet. I came across this plant job in my hometown because the plant was suffering from severe labor shortages due to COVID-19. The plant was offering higher pay due to labor shortages and was offering to hire in employees faster because of it. We were required to wear mask inside the plant at all times regardless of it being extremely hot and were expected to do overtime and come in on weekends if needed. I did not only want to highlight the work conditions of this job but illuminate businesses began to operate due to the dire conditions of the pandemic. I also wanted to highlight how some people had to continue to work during the pandemic despite setbacks with workers, production numbers, and work conditions. It is important to illuminate stories like these because many essential workers stories are not heard and recognized. Despite unemployment numbers being at all-time high nationally, people are still working. Therefore, it is important to recognize the sacrifices and contributions workers like I had to make in order to continue to support ourselves and our loved ones.
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2020-10-03
This is a picture of the platinum I received for beating the game Ghost of Tsushima on October 3rd, 2020. This game came out on July 17th, 2020 and it became my Game of the Year. This was also the year of COVID-19, so I had a lot more free time to play the game and beat it in several months. The pandemic was a difficult time and I just wanted something fun to play. I wanted to forget everything happening in the real world with the pandemic and other problems by jumping back to 13th Century Japan.
The game is set on Tsushima Island as the Mongol Empire took its first step toward invading Japan. Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful, but a brutal game that I had so much fun with. The soundtrack is beautiful and there were foxes to pet! My main character shifted from a samurai who followed the strict Bushido code into a brutal assassin in desperate times. I can relate to this idea of shifting between jobs because I had to shift my job around to adjust to the desperate times I was experiencing. I had to shift from working in person to working online. I wanted to add this to the collection because I want to show how I could escape the reality of COVID-19 and have some fun.
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2020-05-21
Covid and Yossarian Episode 65, A comic strip about Covid-19
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05/20/2020
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-19
Covid and Yossarian Episode 63, A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-18
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-17
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-16
Covid and Yossarian Episode 60, A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-15
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-14
Covid and Yossarian Episode 58, A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-13
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-12
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-11
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-10
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-09
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-08
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-07
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-06
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-05
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-04
A comic strip about Covid-19
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May 03, 2020
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-02
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-05-01
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-30
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-29
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-28
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-27
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-26
Covid and Yossarian Episode 40, A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-25
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-24
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-23
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-21
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-21
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-20
Covid and Yossarian Episode 34, A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-19
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-18
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-17
A comic strip about Covid-19
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04/16/2020
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-15
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-04-14
A comic strip about Covid-19
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2020-08-29
The attached article is something that is probably not well known. In Seattle, Washington there is the Pacific Science Museum, a fun educational museum for all ages, but focused on kids. Every summer they run educational camps for K-8 graders. It was unclear if after months of distance learning (early pandemic, 2020) students would be physically or emotionally ready to do a group activity in person. PacSci’s camps were able to run while students were socially distanced and masked. This matters because there has been a lot of rhetoric about kids not being able to wear masks for a variety of reasons, but this article proves that kids were able to understand social distancing and mask-wearing so they could have a safe and fun thing to do. With these practices in place, combined with low group sizes, and the use of a lot of outdoor time, they didn’t have any transmission cases for the whole summer. Not included in the article but they had the same success the next summer, 2021, and are on track to continue again the summer of 2022. The significance is not just to a collection focused on children, but also to the service industry since this is a less formal education setting that leans more toward front-facing customer service.
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2020-07-03
The attached article is about a plant nursery in Snohomish, Washington that banned its employees from wearing face masks on June 3, 2020. This business did not take safety precautions for its employees seriously, and actively encouraged and promoted unsafe practices. This is something that is worth being documented in the JOPTY due to the fact that the stereotype of Western Washington state is that it is very liberal, very progressive. But there are still many pockets of areas that still are not. It’s important to remember that this stereotype isn’t true. I think this is also something that is another example of the general public not taking the lives and significance that service industry/customer service workers seriously.
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2022-03-31
This is a story from USA Today by Adrianna Rodriguez. This is about the mental health in teens during the pandemic and how it has affected them. The CDC study that is cited says that 44% of high schoolers reported feeling persistently sad or helpless during 2021. Over half of the students surveyed were reported to have experienced emotional abuse from a parent, with 11% saying they have experienced physical abuse. Nearly 30% of students reported a parent or another adult in their house had lost a job. In a demographics breakdown, LGBT students reported more suicide attempts and poorer mental health than their counterparts. One third of students say that they have experienced racism. This article is meant to help show the impact COVID has had on people and the way lockdowns have impacted high schoolers specifically.
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2022-03-30
This story from the New York Times by Danielle Braff talks about the rising costs of weddings as a result from COVID. Couples mentioned in this story go on about how just the basics are more expensive than they used to be. Ms. Alvear-Beceiro and Mr. Klebba, despite not spending extra on things like food, decorations, and music, had a wedding budget that topped $30,000. Zola, a wedding planning site, said that a third of the 468 participating vendors had losses of $50,000 or more due to couples postponing weddings in 2020. Supply chain shortages later on have also helped increase the overall costs, and many businesses are still trying to operate to pre-pandemic levels. Due to rising costs, some couples are choosing to scale back the festivities. Shannon Bernadin, after looking at the costs of wedding venues with her husband, decided to have a wedding at a friend's house and use thrifted outfits, along with homemade decor. All in all, this article demonstrates the changing economy and how that has impacted the wedding industry and how people plan weddings.
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2022-03-24
This is a news story about the rising amount of weddings happening in 2022 after some couples have had to put them off. This story by NPR details changing wedding trends along with it. Wedding dress retailers such as David's Bridal say the demand for maternity wedding dresses is at a 10% increase. Wedding site, The Knot, has had a 25% increase. Financial stress in planning these weddings has also increased. Mandy Connor, a wedding planner, notes that one of her clients was hit with a 30% increase in overall cost between the contracted estimate and the final bill. This article does a good job at showing changes in wedding trends based on how retailers are reacting.
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2021-07-05
This is an opinion piece by Carol Roth for the New York Post. This news story is about ways in which the lockdowns in 2020/2021 hurt small businesses, but helped big businesses. Roth claims that during the pandemic, small businesses are hitting half or less than half of their pre-lockdown revenue. Some businesses, Roth claims, possibly won’t recover at all. This article says that in 2020, the Hamilton Project accounted for 400,000 closures. I find this article to be important, as I think the business side of the pandemic needs to be told more, as these effects on small businesses impact the local and state economies, in addition to what jobs are available for people looking to go back to work after lockdowns end.
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2022-03-31
This is an opinion piece by Erin Loder for the Pacific Daily News. This opinion piece details the benefits that COVID-19 has brought for working mothers. Loder, a working mother herself, describes having a more flexible schedule to help take care of kids. She says that in the workforce, women often get penalized for having kids much more often than men do, and with working from home, she is allowed to take more time for her kids and save money by not having to pay for daycare as often. Overall, she sees this as a positive turn for working mothers, since the pandemic has given women opportunities to raise their families more as they work. I found this opinion piece a nice take, as it brings out some of the positives women have experienced due to changes having to be made in work-life balance for many people out there.
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2022-03-16
This sign is located in the staff area of St. Olav's Hospital in Trondheim, Norway. This photo was taken on March 16th, 2022 inside of a staff-only area.
The sign reads as follows:
Habits that prevent infection
Paper tissues
Cover your mouth and nose to protect others when coughing or sneezing. Through away the tissue after use. Then wash your hands.
Use the hook of your elbow
When you need to cough or sneeze and you do not have a paper tissue.
Wash your hands
With hand sanitizer when hand washing is not possible; for example, when traveling.
In 2022, many places in the world have taken down signs and other precautionary rules that have to do with limiting the spread of coronavirus. This sign, which can only be seen by hospital staff, shows how precautions are still being enforced for hospital staff. This is important as it shows what rules and regulations are still being enforced in 2022.
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2022-03-30
At the beginning of the pandemic there was mass confusion and scares about what was to come of this new, unknown virus called SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19. Once widespread outbreaks were prevalent, everyone was sent home from work and schools. A lot of smaller businesses could no longer make rent and went out of business, and many people did not know how they were going to make ends meet. However, one of the most vital impacts, was on our students in upper elementary and above. Many public and private schools, from elementary to high school, did not make any school work necessary to be completed in Oklahoma, and as a result, created a gap in the knowledge needed for the continuation of schooling in the years to come. For freshmen college students, as I was at the time, if you were living on campus, in the dorm rooms and apartments, many of us were given notice that we had two weeks to move out unless we had extenuating circumstances. Additionally, all of our classes after spring break were moved online (in the best way possible) but often times were unsuitable to the in person experience. As a Microbiology Major enrolled in several different science classes with labs, it was nearly impossible to get the necessary experience to properly understand the laboratory material. As a result, this made it more difficult in the semesters to come to understand what was required of me, due to the lack of knowledge of materials I would have learned had I been able to attend my labs. Because of the severity of this virus and the rapid spread which sent everyone quarantining in their homes, we may see a lasting impact, not due to the viruses long-term side-effects, but due to our educational generations having a detrimental gap in proper school education.