Items
topic_interest is exactly
disappointment
-
2022-07-12
Email to project coordinator of SMhopes
I hope Santa Monica will use its resources to clean up the streets from urine and feces instead of covering it up with art. A good power wash plus a lawsuit against LA county for wasting our tax money that was supposed to go to affordable housing would make me much happier than beautiful art in a smelly street. COVID made this worse. Art won't make it better. Please do something. Anything. -
2020-06
Fort Sill - Trainee
While the pandemic had made digital communications and networking boom. Anything in the real world came to a screeching halt. I went into Fort Sill, Lawton Oklahoma for Advanced Individual Training (AIT) while had just begun to really put its foot into the door on US soil. Entering the facility we were immediately put in makeshift facilities specifically designed for incoming soldiers, they looked like 2-story mobile homes and each building contained roughly 60-80 troops per floor (can't remember exactly how many fit. but we were packed in there like sardines). We were originally told we would be in the facilities for 2 weeks before we would be allowed onto the rest of the base to begin training. 2 weeks, turned to 4, and that turned into 6 weeks. We weren't allowed to go outside other than to get an MRE and then go right back into our bays. We became so restless we would disassemble bunks and make makeshift pull-up bars, running up and down the hall in order to run miles. Eventually, we were released and allowed to continue training. Once we had actually begun AIT. We were immediately told that they were "overbooked" the facilities were forced to hold more soldiers than it was designed for due to outgoing flights being halted until an entire flight could be filled with military personal all going to the same location. Masks mandation was very hit or miss. Some days we would go by without them at all, others, we would be told to wear them the moment we got up, even wearing them during physical training, and while on the firing range shooting artillery. -
2021-09-21
HIST30060 Footage of smoke on the Westgate Bridge during anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne
This video was taken on 21 September 2021, capturing the view of the Westgate Bridge from Williamstown, Melbourne, as anti-lockdown protestors fill several lanes and disrupt traffic. The footage shows smoke coming from the bridge and all traffic brought to a standstill. There were also helicopters hovering and police car lights joining the scene later on. I was on a walk with a friend along the Esplanade at the time this footage was taken. It felt quite scary to be seeing aggressive, violent attitudes manifest so close to home. We knew what was going because of news updates coming through our phones. After the initial shock and fear at witnessing this happening on a few kilometres away, my friend and I walked the rest of the way in silence, too appalled by the behaviour to do more than shake our heads in dismay. -
2021-10-03
Ending High School at the Beginning of a Pandemic
All of the fun memories that are normally reminisced upon later were replaced with stories of disappointment. My last two months of high school were basically stolen from me. COVID-19 stole the fun events that I deserved and worked twelve hard years for. A time that should have been filled with excitement and fun-filled memories with friends turned into memories of disappointment and separation. Everything that I was looking forward to at the end of high school was canceled. There was no in-person school, all sporting events, senior trips, prom, and graduation were canceled. The world turned virtual. I spent my days attending classes through Zoom not being able to truly interact with my classmates. I missed going out to get lunch with my friends and walking down the hallways talking about how much homework we got. I could not leave my house until the day came where we had to wear masks and social distance. My “prom” consisted of taking pictures with my friend and eating dinner at home rather than dancing the night away. My final goodbye to my teachers consisted of a drive-by car parade where we decorated our cars and were cheered on from afar. My graduation turned into a silent, empty auditorium allowing one parent or guardian to record me walking across the stage and receiving my diploma. I was extremely jealous that my Class of 2019 friends, just the year before, got the opportunity to experience all of the things that I didn’t. As a junior, I assisted the senior dessert and I remember how excited I was to be able to participate in it for my senior year. The disillusionment hit me when my senior dessert was driving to Crumbl Cookies, grabbing my cookie, and going home. All of these activities should have happened in-person surrounded by the smiling faces I’ve spent four years seeing, but instead I got a pandemic. -
2021-07-22T09:50
Flag Area Mask Trash
This is a littered mask I found just several dozen feet east of the flag area and the program office at Camp Wolfeboro. I had just finished my Forestry merit badge session on the Tuolumne County side of camp, when I crossed the river to head to my Shotgun Shooting merit badge session at 10:00 AM. On the way to the range, I found a mask laying on the ground. I was a bit baffled as to how this mask was still here, because dozens of people had to have walked by it that morning already, whether going to or from a merit badge class or heading back to their campsite. The mask is extremely obvious, so anyone who walked here would have seen it. The photo was taken at 9:50 AM on Thursday, July 22, 2021.