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03/12/2021
Interview with a Marine that details going through Basic Training during COVID-19.
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2021-03-09
Abstract:
Josh Colson grew up in Southern Illinois. He attended Welch College, earning a BS in Christian Ministry and an MA in Theology. Additionally, he is currently a student at Vanderbilt Divinity School, pursuing an MTS. Mr. Colson is currently the pastor of Brandon’s Chapel Free Will Baptist Church in Bumpus Mills, TN. The church is part of a small rural community, being in one of the smallest counties in middle Tennessee. In addition, Mr. Colson is the Faith Representative for the community health board. In this interview, Mr. Colson recounts the effects COVID-19 has had on his duty as a member of the clergy, his congregation, and his community.
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2021-03-12
From Drew Arrieta: Visual Black Justice (@visualblackjustice)
is a black-woman led org blending art and social justice. In preparation for the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, they collected mirrors to display messages of solidarity and accountability outside the courthouse.
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2021-03-09
From Drew Arrieta: As court proceedings for the trial of Derek Chauvin were underway, hundreds of community members, activists, and students demanded justice for George Floyd outside the courthouse.
Judge Cahill, who is overseeing the trial, yesterday said he would proceed with the jury selection despite a dispute on the potential reinstatement of a third-degree murder charge that could potentially delay the case. The prosecution criticized the judge's decision, arguing the lack of clarity on charges when selecting a jury risks the case being thrown out on appeal.
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2021-03-13
From the Instagram post: The city of Minneapolis on Friday agreed to pay $27 million to settle a civil lawsuit with George Floyd's family just weeks before opening statements were scheduled to begin for the former officer charged with his death. This payment marked the second multi-million-dollar payout for police actions in the past two years. According to MPR News, the settlement in Floyd’s death raises the total amount the city has paid to settle police officer misconduct cases to $71 million over the past two decades.
Yesterday, University of Minnesota students rallied to demand community control of the UMPD, call out racism on campus, and stand in solidarity with the family of George Floyd.
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2021-03-14
for Ostara this year, many of us will need to adjust our celebrations due to Covid-19. Many are feeling the loss of jobs, incomes, or stability this year. Lidia Pradas shares some inexpensive ideas to celebrate Ostara and welcome the new season.
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2020-12-30
Kelsie Grazier talks about her hearing loss, the uncertainty of pregnancy during Covid-19 and how both are heavily influencing her art.
Her story resonates with me as I loose my own hearing and seek out representation in a world that ignores deafness. Kelsie Grazier's story resonates. Especially with the daily frustrations Covid-19 has brought upon us.
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2021-02-14
A coronavirus Mardi Gras throw
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2021-02-13
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world.“Cast Away COVID Island” on Vallette St. in Algiers Point shows all the craziness we put up with this past year.
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2021-02-13
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. “Little Shop of 2020 Horrors” on Bouny St. in Algiers Point paid tribute to a variety of things that made 2020 a crazy year including the coronavirus.
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2021-02-08
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. “2021 -- Here We Go Again!” on St. Charles used ABBA songs and a "Mamma Mia!" theme to send up a variety of things related to the pandemic.
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2021-02-08
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. This House Float on S. Galvez, “Life is a Crap-aret”, celebrated what a shitty year 2020 was.
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2021-02-07
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. Tiffany Assaf Tandecki came up with the concept for “Schitt$ Streets” for in front of her Canal Blvd. home; Artist Lindsay DeBlieux realized it.
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2021-02-06
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. Here's “The Clinic” on N. Rampart St.
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2021-02-04
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. Erin Whitely & Aaron Whitely's interactive “Jeopardy” House Float on Chippewa Street was one of the most memorable and creative. Here's also that day's "Answer" that came up on your cell phone when you scanned the QR Code.
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2021-02-02
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. This installation on St. Charles Avenue honored “Saint Dolly” and her $1million donation for the COVID vaccine. Of all the House Floats, it was my favorite!
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2021-02-02
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. This installation by a member of the subversive Krewe of Tucks is “Don't procrastinate. Vaccinate!” on Camp Street.
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2021-02-02
With Carnival parades cancelled, somebody had the bright idea to start the Krewe of House Floats to (a) make up for it and (b) to offer work to unemployed float artisans. The results have gone beyond everyone's wildest imagination with 5,000+ people signing up in New Orleans, surrounding parishes, and around the world. This installation shows “Don't Panic -- Chewy's Guide to da COVID Galaxy” on Camp Street.
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2021-03-08
I read this, & it struck a chord with me. Several elements in it range true. I thought it was important to save.
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2021-03-12
When our friends got engaged at the end of 2019, we were extremely excited for them. Then COVID happened. This week, we received their Save the Date card and are cautiously excited. As the back of the card explains, our friends realize that their wedding plans are contingent on the state of the virus. It is a reminder that even though we are hopefully heading in a positive direction, it doesn’t mean everything is normal yet. Fingers crossed that it will happen and that we will be able to safely attend (may need to leave the kids at home, because I doubt they’ll be vaccinated yet. But let’s be honest, weddings are boring for kids, and after a year of quarantine, a weekend away from them will be a nice change of pace.) *The couple gave me permission to post their Save the Date to the archive, and requested their names, and the date for context, remain public.
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2021-03-12
On Friday, March 13, 2020 it was pouring rain. My co-worker/work wife/love of my life/bestest friend - the Ann Perkins to my Leslie Knope (very accurate if you know us) bought us McDonald’s for lunch. We jokingly called it “the end of the world as we know it lunch” and played REM while drinking Shamrock Shakes. We were in denial about what was happening around us. Two hours later, it was the end. We have not had lunch together, or been physically together, since then. (However, we probably outdo any teenagers in the amount we text each other. We’ve pretty much live tweeted ever minute of our incredibly mundane days to each other throughout all of quarantine.) Today, we both bought McDonald’s separately (for me, only the fifth time having fast food since shut down last March) to celebrate our year-versary of the “end of the world” lunch. One year later, it’s raining again, but it feels so different. A year ago, everything was closing down. Today, everything is opening up. I am thankful we’ve both received vaccination one, and although we are both apprehensive about school reopening in a week, the thought of seeing her face to face (six feet away and in a mask) makes me happy enough to cry. There is nothing I hope more for than for the efficacy of the vaccinations. I can only hope that the second Friday of March 2022 will see us together in my classroom, eating McDonald’s for lunch, talking about how we can’t believe we lived through a pandemic. A rainbow instead of rain would be a nice touch, too.
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2021-03-12
One year ago today, Thursday, March 12, 2020, I told my students in my usual snarky tone that they should all come to test corrections after school because they had nothing better to do - all their activities were cancelled. It had been a wild 48 hours - not only had all school activities, sports, and extra curricular been cancelled, the NBA shut down, March Madness was cancelled, and the UC campuses has announced online classes through the rest of the year, which we found like a shocking overreaction - the rest of the school year?! During after school test corrections, Disneyland, within walking distance of our high school, announced they were closing the next day. One of my students yelled out “Mrs. Jue, your birthday!!!!” because my birthday was the next week, and everyone knows I go to Disneyland every year on my birthday. (And once a week, again the park is within walking distance). I replied with “guess you know what my family is doing tonight!” And we did go, for what was the last time. It still wasn’t serious to us, although it should have been. I think we were all in denial. One of my students jokingly said “hey, if we can’t be in groups larger than 30, what about now?” There were 50 kids in the room. Remember that we didn’t know it was airborne yet, so I figured if we just all washed our hands and didn’t touch our faces, it wouldn’t be an issue. I was far more concerned about door handles and papers than I was about the air circulating in the room. Even picking up my daughter from gymnastics that night a year ago, her coaches were not concerned at all that State Championships, which were supposed to happen in three weeks, would be cancelled. That was the last time I saw her coaches and the last time my daughter set foot in the gym. The next day, on March 13, the day started normally - the kids were taking a unit test on World War II. After zero period, I jokingly said “hope to see you all Monday!” By third period, it wasn’t a joke anymore - Los Angeles and San Diego school districts announced they were closing through spring break. I told my third period (not to play favorites, but I LOVED my third period), “they better not close school! Monday is the start of the Cold War!” I had been hyping up the Cold War Era and the domestic movements of the 1960s and 1970s for three months. What can I say? I love teaching that era. I wasn’t sure what would happen, but I really somehow couldn’t comprehend that we would close. Exactly three hours later, one minute after school ended, we all received an emergency text. School was closed through the end of March. Everything was a blur. I called my mom who was picking up my kids. She was already driving home and I just kept saying “they’re doing it. We’re closing. They’re closing all the schools.” Somehow we all thought we would be back in two weeks. In retrospect, that seems insane. So, on a rainy Friday March 13, 2020, I left my classroom in a bit of a panic. Not sure what to grab or do, I came home, recorded an Instagram message to reassure my kids, and started planning a virtual schedule. And the rest is history. Today, one year later, on a sunny, turned rainy, Friday, March 12, 2021, I returned to my room. This time, it was a mix of excitement and apprehension. A week from Monday we reopen. Setting up my room, there were moments I almost forgot about the pandemic, I missed being there so much. 16 years of teaching, plus four years of high school means I have literally spent half my life at that school. Then I saw the reminders all around me. No tables (I have always had round tables of four for group work - they’ve been replaced by desks). Plexiglass. Signs warning to wear masks. Hand sanitizers (okay, that one’s a nice addition!) Outside, little circles for kids to stand on to ensure 6 feet of separation. A digital thermometer. Testing my technology, because even though I have to come back in person, 75% of my students have opted to end the year via distance learning. All classes will continue on Zoom. Essentially, I am doing the same thing I have done all year, but instead of logging into Zoom at home, I’m logging in from my desk at school in a mask. There will be some periods that I have TWO kids physically in the room with me, logged into Zoom, and 32 kids logged in from their homes. It is a strange solution, motivated in large part by the governor’s announcement that school districts that don’t open for in person by March 31 lose a huge amount of funding. We’re a low income area, we need the funding, I don’t blame the district for caving. I am also glad our district allowed the community to choose the option for learning that best matched the needs of their families. Still, it is very strange to try and imagine what the last two and a half months of the school year will look like. It’s been a long year. I am hopeful that we are on the trend to having healthy communities again, but if this year has taught us anything, you never know what tomorrow is going to bring.
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2021-03-11
So excited to get my 1st dose of the Moderna vaccine. As a 65 year old, I was eligible early; however, our county's rollout was a HOT mess! The local app didn't work, but I was finally able to secure an appointment with my medical group . . . for a month out. Yikes. Continued research as the days went by, found that RiteAid was offering them. Yay! Was able to book that appointment for only 2 days out! Yippee. Then . . . the day before that appointment, it was cancelled. We Californians are so smug - never thinking that bad weather in other parts of the county affects us. It did! No vaccines available. Rescheduled for a month out. Luckily, our school district was rolling out an in house POD for employees. I jumped on that and was able to get an appointment for the next day, which was the first day for the district. I was sitting on 3 appointments then - and didn't plan to cancel any until I got my shot! Fortunately, all went well and I did get it. (Lucky too because the district had to shut down the next day as well.) So . . . there I was happy. Dose #2 scheduled. Cancelled the other appointments I had. Did have a tiny bit of discomfort the next day, but nothing major. Imagine my surprise when hives (or so I thought) appeared about 10 days later. Did LOTS of research - thank you google - considered that it might be the rash that some experienced after Moderna, but the symptoms progressed. Long story short - not hives - shingles! Even though I did have a shingles vaccine within the past 5 years, I did indeed have shingles. Now - there is no evidence that it is in anyway related to the vaccine, (even found an article that said shingles/vaccine debunked) but I did my duty and reported in on my weekly vsafe/cdc check-in. I am currently on the other side of this and am sure that it will be gone soon. I will always wonder though if there was any relationship. I'm also a tad bit concerned about the after effects of dose #2. I do encourage everyone to participate in the vsafe.cdc.gov follow up.
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2021-03-11
I am a psychiatrist and in my 30 years of practice, I have never heard about so much suffering.
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2020-03-08
White & blue disposable mask along the rail line. Found near the corner of Ash and 5th in downtown Tempe, AZ.
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2021-02-22
In February, as Texas faced a dangerous winter storm as well as the continuing pandemic, Ted Cruz left the state to hang out at a resort in Mexico. Much has already been said of this by political commentators, so I will simply contribute the best meme I saw about the event. This format saw some use, all of which questioned the intelligence of Cruz in one way or another.
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2021-03-11
In January 2021, Gamestop, a heavily shorted stock, soared through the roof. After tremendous manipulation and the threat of government intervention, the stock plummeted and most people assumed that the GME saga was over. They were all wrong. In early March, after a month of trading low, GME again skyrocketed in a matter of days. This time, it was fueled by the Covid relief checks that the Federal government just approved. Retail investors, especially young people, became more willing to throw over a thousand dollars into the ring. Only time will tell if this is the true Mother of All Short Squeezes as the Reddit community Wallstreetbets predicts.
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2021-03-11
"Afghanistan, where empires go to die"
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2021-02-28
Senator Murphy urges U.S. stop supporting allies in Mideast proxy wars
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2021-02-22
Armageddon in the Mideast
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2021-03-10
Artists in Baltimore were encouraged to create and donate masks to be auctioned off. 40% of the profits from the masks went to local artists while the remaining amount went to Baltimore Community Foundations" LQBTQ fund. The fund supports numerous LGBTQ organizations in Baltimore such as peer counseling, suicide prevention, and health services.
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2021-02-16
TRUMP,impeachment wrap up
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2021-03-11
I wonder if I am being overly optimistic thinking about the end of the pandemic. On one hand, more and more people around the world are receiving vaccines, more and more countries renewed flights in-between them; ASU claimed that instructions will be in-person during the next fall; Moscow authorities lifted the restrictions for the seniors. On the other hand, only a small percentage of people have received the vaccine; new strains of the virus emerge. Some European countries renew lockdowns. Only the time will tell, I guess.
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2021-03-04
I heard about David Smith's COVID tree from the interwebs and set out to find it "in the wild" on Sunday, March 7th. The initial article says he created a total of seven giant viruses, and I was able to snap this photo of one in the tree, along with a giant Pfizer vaccine syringe, and a sign at ground-level that reads, "WEAR YOUR MASK."
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2021-03-09
This story talks about famous graffiti artist, Lady Pink, and her upcoming solo show at the Museum of Graffiti in Miami, Florida. Lady Pink mentions getting the vaccine as part of travel plans and virtually attending her show opening, and the transition of graffiti art to gallery space and the corresponding taboo.
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2021-02-26
This article in the SFGate tells how artist Jeremy Novy has pivoted to commissioned street art work during the pandemic. Novy's commissioned work is done out in the open "based on guidelines from the Department of Public Works and the San Francisco Police Department, which he says assert that his public art is legal, with permission from the property owner."
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2021-03-10
In March of 2020 I am sure basically everyone's life took a spin and changed in some sort. With much fear around the Covid-19 virus going around and with little to no information and data behind it, many people throughout the world were very fearful of the virus. With basically everything shut down I lost the job that I had since I was 16. Being in college, I needed to make some sort of income. With everyone using delivery services such as FedEx, UPS, and Amazon to get their supplies, I decided that I could do my part in giving a hand to our fellow Americans during the pandemic. In my hometown, Amazon opened up a new distribution center shortly before the pandemic started. With the surge of everyone using amazon to get supplies the demand for jobs at amazon was high. Being a 21-year-old healthy man I decided to do my part and pick up a part-time job while still in school. This was a great experience for me because I was able to see how the operations behind such an impactful business work and do my part to help my fellow Americans get through the pandemic.
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2020-03-10
One year ago today my daughter and I went to Disneyland for spring break and little did we realize we would be lucky enough to be there right before it closed down due to the pandemic. We had four awesome days for our "girl getaway" and three days after we came home Disneyland was closed. We are waiting with anticipation to return to Disneyland when it reopens.
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2021-03-10
My daughter has been going to a local public school district for 4 years. Some time during her eighth grader year (last year), while she was regimented to online schooling, she became brave and decided to share with the world her newly discovered sexuality as a lesbian. Now during her freshman year, she has been afraid to go to school in- person for fear of retribution from classmates and other schoolmates.
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2021-03-09
I wrote this article for Police1 to promote law enforcement submissions to the JOTPY COVID-19 archive. At the time of this publication, Police1 enjoys approximately three million unique visits per month to its website. The site published my article on 03/09/2021, and I intend to use this article to encourage further promotion of the archive's Law Enforcement collection.
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2021-03-10
In looking through my "mask basket", I see I have about 23 masks. What am I going to do with all these when the pandemic is over? What are you going to do? I know a lot of people want to have a "burning party", but I don't think it's a great idea to set fire to all of our masks, collectively. Will we throw them away, contributing new tonnage to the landfills? Or save them just in case we find ourselves in another terrible situation where we need them? Can we create a collective where we send them in and they are cleaned and stockpiled for a day in the future that they are called upon again? Something to thing about...
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2021-03-09
Before covid hit my marriage was in big trouble, after years of sitting on "little" problems and ignoring relatively big issues I got tired of living complacently. My husband and I were essentially living a lie, we lived and acted like we were the picture-perfect couple living a perfectly happy life. In the summer of 2019, a tiny issue finally broke the camel's back and we separated. A few months into our separation divorce papers were drawn out and signed by me, he was in Arizona and I had moved in with my parents and children in California. By January 2020 we had already begun hearing about covid but we still didn't think much of it since it was an issue halfway across the globe. All signed and ready to file for divorce we got hit with a quarantine order in California. My husband asked me to move back home so he can be with our kids since we didn't know how long quarantine would last. I agreed and he drove to pick us up. Living together was odd, especially because we had both gotten used to being without one another. After thirteen years of being together, the separation made us realize we hardly knew each other. We had to try extra hard to get along in front of the kids and at least be cordial with one another. Our state of amicability turned into an odd level of friendship. Six months later he asked if I would consider therapy. I agreed and we started therapy virtually. Things got worse in therapy before they got better (as expected) but the divorce papers were eventually torn up. A year later, I can't say were picture-perfect but I can say that we're happy in this phase were in. Since there was a palpable sense of fear last March, we were forced to think about the reality of life without one another, how would we cope with life/death issues alone, and whether we truly wanted that? Quarantine forced us to face years of issues that had seeped into the foundation of our relationship. Divorce would have been much easier, but this outcome we are living in today is so worth it. In short, I'd say covid saved my marriage.
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2021-03-10
An interesting consequence from being locked inside day in and day out for almost a year. My collection of books has grown considerably, to the point of needing yet another bookshelf.
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2021-03-10
CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen on the new CDC guidelines for full vaccinated people. While Dr. Wen agrees with many of the CDC guidelines, she does believe some are too cautious and others are not cautious enough.
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2019-03-20
My experience was disheartening and eye opening. My department and municipality seemingly showed their true colors toward specifically road patrol. We were to continue to show up and perform our duties. When Covid-19 got a little more serious we told we could relax traffic enforcement and stay out of business unless called there. That was appreciated. And that was all we got. About a month road patrol was told we were being forced to take a day off to help limit our chance of exposure by a whopping %16. Sounded good, then we were told our forced day off we were to be “on call”. Then we were told that as road patrol since we were only supposed to be fit for duty/on call for 8 hours, we would not be getting our CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED and EARNED 4 hours of compensatory time! That was a big morale boost, sarcasm heavily implied. The. We as road patrol we found out every other department in the city was “working from home” including inside positions at our own department, ie detectives , court officers and administration. Those inside positions would receive full pay and not lose any financial compensation unlike road patrol. All the while other area department were being compensated extra for working during a pandemic. Some department got extra pay some got extra vacation time or comp time. We got nothing and were threatened in actually losing compensation. But we were expected to perform our duties still. We did receive a bonus of $1,000 from the federal government that was taxed. So we got $800. I am not complaining about an extra $800 mins you. But that money came from the federal government
Not my municipality who has yet to recognize our efforts to this day. Needless to say morale is in the gutter and with an upcoming contract negotiation it is not going to get better. I feel the municipality could have done more or at the least something to recognize what we did. Granted it was unprecedented for all, but dealing with unprecedented from the road and the comfort of your home on Zoom are two polar opposites.
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2020-05-16
Covid-19 changed the way we deliver Mental Health Services. This is my personal story of how it felt and what it required to provide Trauma Psychothery during the Pandemic.
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2020-09-11
As a history teacher in rural Kansas, I thought I would bring a little humor to my hallway as I monitored the temperature scanners. My world history students were currently studying the Middle Ages and in our small school, I had taught every single sophomore, junior, and senior the same lessons, so I knew they would understand my outfit and think it was funny. This was a nice way to bring humor to a new situation during the first few weeks of an uncertain school year.
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2021-02-22
#JOTPYLesson I learned that quarantine is a great time to pick up a hobby. I didn’t start drinking coffee everyday until quarantine. Now every morning I have a cup of coffee to look forward to. I try to think of a new recipe every morning. I can’t believe this all started because of the dalgona whipped coffee trend on TikTok! And shoutout to my friends for gifting me a lovely Keurig!!☕️🍵 @zafinasinha @avi.puppala @shaantala @tahs.in @jake.dallman
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2021-02-22
I learned that despite numerous journalists and politicians bemoaning the deep damage quarantine is doing to elementary aged kids, my two kids are thriving. They love having time to roller blade, bike, play legos, build forts, run around the yard, have both parents home to join in the fun, and end the night by watching an after dinner movie or tv show together (currently, the og Muppet Show) - all things our crammed with activities pre-pandemic life didn’t regularly allow for. I guess I learned a slower pace of life isn’t necessarily a bad thing!@elle_cool_j @alburritvo @tranuwu @bjueinoars @callie.coe
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2021-02-24
I learned that patience is very important. With all that’s going around it’s best to wait rather than making rash decisions. @ixizt @56388 @rovindia @marygar48875787 @Hsjbsh4
