Items

• 
  April 7, 2020

  Chris Samano IndivProject#2

  a look at the life of chris samano during the early stages of the pandemic
• 
  0202-04-11

  Ender Dragon Fight with my friends

  This photo was taken of my friends and me right before we fought the ender dragon on the first Minecraft world we played at the start of the pandemic.
• 
  2020

  How the Internet Saved My Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

  Prior to the first major COVID-19 breakout in the US, I was already doing online school. I had some health problems that led me to take my senior year of high school online; this was already a little hard, as my school had many senior year traditions that I, unfortunately, missed out on, so my general motivation was already pretty low. The main thing that really helped was being able to hang out with friends in person and talk to people using social media. I remember very vividly when COVID-19 first hit. It was sometime in March; I remember it so vividly due to a joke that my friends and I made. Senior skip day happened right when the news about the virus started to spread everywhere - my friends and I started joking about whether or not they skipped the last day of high school they would ever attend. This joke eventually came to fruition; first, it was a two-week "vacation." Then it was a month. Eventually, the rest of the year was called off, and my friends joined me in the ventures of online schooling. The beginning of quarantine was relatively easy from a mental health standpoint. We were too busy being excited over the "vacation" we were given, and all the time we had to play video games with each other. This excitement soon began to fade, however, mainly when the weather began to get warm again (I live in Massachusetts) and the seasons started to change. The feeling of being trapped inside during the only time of year truly worth being outside for is pretty suffocating. It is no surprise that my mental health started to suffer, mainly in the form of motivation issues and increased anxiety, and depression that was normally seasonal began to manifest itself in the only season it usually didn't. If not for the internet connecting my friends and me, I would have had a much harder time throughout quarantine in general. Despite my mental health being worse than usual, it was not nearly as bad as it could have been given the circumstances. The horrible statistics and lack of hope for a vaccine that clouded my thoughts when not distracted disappeared while I was in my own world talking to friends through a computer screen - escapism was my main source of comfort, and I have the internet and my friends to thank for that. Eventually, the feeling of hopelessness went away. Vaccines started to be distributed, and life returned to (slightly) normal. We got used to wearing masks in public, and avoiding crowded areas, but this was a small price to pay considering how bad it was before.
• 
  2020-09-12

  Video game

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2020-10-03

  Tsushima Island, my escape

  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.
• 
  2022-03-18

  Finding a lighthouse in the storm

  Living through the Covid-19 pandemic has been stressful for everyone for so many reasons. Personally, it has made me really anxious and I have felt like I don’t have as much control over my surroundings or life. I knew I had to find things to help me get through and cope with this feeling, things ranging from trivial to life-changing. Five things, in no particular order, that have helped me survive the pandemic are: 1. Video games 2. Podcasts 3. Grocery store drive up and go services 4. Drive-in movie theater 5. Gardening Video games have been a good brief escape from reality. The games have changed over the course of the pandemic. At first, I was really excited about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Then it changed to Gris, after that it was Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and now I have been focused on Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Okay, yes I know, all of these expect Gris are made with a younger audience in mind. There is something so nice and simple about it though that as an adult I enjoy. A sense of childlike wonder that occurs while building a village, or fighting goofy-looking monsters, or catching and documenting creatures has been really refreshing and calming. Similar to the temporary “escape” from the news and reality has been listening to podcasts. I’ve been listening to fun ones and more serious ones. Not being able to see many people in person, it has provided a feeling of conversation, even if it is one-sided. I’ve learned and laughed a lot. I know grocery pick-up services have been around before Covid, but I only started utilizing it once Covid hit. I seriously cannot believe that it isn’t something that I used before. It seems like such a small, or silly, thing but it’s prevented me from buying random things and being more intentional about meal planning. This has been an improvement for my health and my wallet. I’ve learned to use coupons more effectively and different rewards apps, so being able to save even a small amount of money compared to before has been great. Especially due to inflation and rising food prices, and changing jobs several times over the last two years. I had gone to a (not so local) drive-in movie theater a couple of times pre-pandemic, but it has become one of my favorite things to do during Covid. Being able to have a feeling of normal activities while being able to be safe in my own little bubble of my car has been a great experience. The one I go to always does a double feature, and they have a great selection of food, snacks, a small arcade, and even go-carts. The best part? It’s only $7 per person! For reference, it’s $15.25 for one adult ticket to see one movie at my local chain theater. So even if my partner and I only stay to watch the first of the two movies, it’s still a way better deal. Plus the added ability to talk through the movie and not disturb others. The last thing that has been a help to get through everything has been gardening. I started during the summer of 2020 and have been growing things ever since. It has been really rewarding. I’ve been learning a lot about what grows well in my zone and what doesn’t, what I can actually use, and what I can’t. Fun tip: don’t plant six zucchini plants, you will have more than you know what to do with and have to start just leaving them on your family and friends' doorsteps. I know I will continue to find new things as the end of the storm of covid passes over us. I believe that sharing the happy moments that we do have during such a time of uncertainty and a mess of feelings, it can remind others either now or in the future, that some light did persist. These things are some of my lighthouses in the storm.
• 
  2020-03-27

  A Reunion with Childhood

  This is mine and my brother’s Nintendo Switch, although I use it the most since I have more free time. It has two joy-cons that slip lock into the main screen or can be slipped out to play one-handed or play with multiple people as multiple controllers. On the top left of the screen is each of our accounts, listed from left to right it would be my account, my middle brother’s, then my eldest brother. A lot of the games we play together are considered “party games” such as Super Smash Bros Ultimate (the first game on the left), some are single or two-player games that we end up taking turns playing in one sitting like Mario Odessey (the second from the left), Others would be a single-player game that each of us would play in each other account such as a social simulator like Animal Crossing (Furthest on the right). The weeks were slow and exhausting. Covid-19 caused whispers of fear throughout the neighborhood, from worry to frustration. One problem shared a lot with these households was the exhaustion of seeing the same people 24/7. Some had it harder than others, from parent to child and between siblings, irritation just burned between them as patience grew thin. As an introvert, I was one of the people that was excited about the lockdown! However, reality hit hard quickly. As more and more news about the virus spread and talks about other people experiencing the terrible aftermath grew. My family would convene every evening to turn on the news and witness how the world dealt with the virus. Similar to Kaashif Hajee in his The Pandemic Radically Altered My Relationship with India. I Don’t Know If I Can Ever Go Back writing, I felt like the world was on its head and things that I was blind to were revealed, such as the concealment of cases. Among actions that I was uneasy in facing were the required actions that the Saudi Government took but felt wrong, such as the banning of gathering for religious gatherings. While it is of course understandable, I could not deny the uncomfortable grip on my heart when, during the first day of Ramadan (April 1st), I witnessed the once full-of-life crowd become practically empty around the Kaaba. It hit really hard for me and my family, especially since it is kind of tradition to watch a Livestream when breaking our fast. Another issue due to the lockdown was the disconnect I felt with my two older brothers. We weren’t “disconnected” to the degree that we hated or were annoyed at each other (not always anyway). It was a “disconnect” that felt like we were there for the sake of being there, we talked for the sake of having a normal conversation, not because there was any meaning or purpose. I presume this comes partly due to the fact that we are all in different stages of our lives. We were all busy in our hectic lives but due to lockdown, we were kind of forced to interact to fulfill our societal needs. “You needed something to connect with!” our mother would tell all of us privately, but when you all have your own things to deal with it turns more difficult and stretched out. That is until my eldest brother bought something very nostalgic home. A brand new Nintendo Switch. At this point, this console made by Nintendo has been already released for a while, but with life being exhausting and taxing as it is, brothers and I were unable to get our hands on it, let alone any time to do so… until late march. My eldest brother took my mother’s words to heart and scoured the internet for something fun for us to do. One of the most fun things we used to do together was to play on Nintendo consoles like the Wii and play games like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. These games were competitive to a fun degree, it never got too heated but with time and age, the family-friendly Wii console was forgotten. When the Nintendo Switch was released it took the world by storm. It’s fun and the joy-cons mechanisms were easy to use and split between multiple people, so we were ecstatic! We are lovers of anything nostalgic and now we were able to relive the fun competitiveness we shared in our childhood. What was even more nostalgic was Nintendo’s new Super Smash Bros Ultimate, a game that is connected to another game in the Wii during 2008 that we bonded closely with. It held the same premise, It was a beat ‘em up platformer-style game that had hundreds of story features as well as major customizable levels. Nintendo made the new Super Smash Bros Ultimate like its predecessor, but better with more features including fighting others online! With this, me and my brothers were able to talk like we used to, with no awkward pauses and long meaningless conversations. After receiving a Nintendo switch, my cousins, who I am very close with and missed greatly over lockdown, grabbed a hold of their own consoles and played with us through the internet. Although they were not as emotionally connected to the games, it was fun for them nevertheless, especially since they were the same age as me and my brothers when we first started playing on the Wii. I felt a sense of warmth that the Nintendo Switch did not only make me remember the warm feelings of childhood, where we had no worries and fears, but I was also able to see these same warm feelings occurring in my younger cousins. It gives me happiness and comfort knowing that even if Covid-19 was terrorizing the world, at least there are objects that are able to help shift your mind from hard matters into a more calm and safe place.
• 
  12/08/2020

  Anonymous Oral History, 2020/12/08

  C19OH
• 
  11/27/2020

  Cristiano Favazza Oral History, 2020/11/27

  C19OH
• 
  2021-12-10

  My Time During Covid-19

  During the Covid-19, I experienced a stressful time period just like most people. When the lockdown first happened I was scared and uncertain of what would happen. It was the first time in my life that I have ever had the feeling of being unable to hang out with friends and see family members. Many people I knew were still hanging out with people and doing social activities just like there was not a pandemic going on. I wanted to still do social activities with them and visit people but I was unsure if that was safe to do, so I decided to just stay in the house and be safe. My grandma is going through chemotherapy and I did not want her to catch covid if I did happen to get it, so my whole family was being extra careful to not catch the virus. During this time period I kept in touch with friends by playing online video games and facetiming my family members. The strangest part of this time period for me was the social aspect of the pandemic. Whenever you would go to the store in my area the shelves would be empty, and people would just walk past you and were not willing to talk to anyone. I usually take in person classes for school, and I had to make the transition to doing classes online for the first time. All sports had to cancel all of their events so I was not able to compete in any of the events for the entire year. This was definitely a year of fear and uncertainty for many people, but when I look back there were a lot of positives that happened. The most positive thing was that I got to spend a lot of time with my family. Mostly everyone in my household is busy all the time and we all never get too much time to just sit and talk even though we all live in the same house. During the lockdown we all got the chance to spend a lot of time together since there was not a whole lot going on. I was also able to spend a lot of time talking with friends that I have not talked to in a long time over online video games, and I got back into skateboarding which is a hobby that I have not done in seven years. Even though I was fearful of the virus, I experienced a time period where I could focus a lot on being as productive as possible, and it gave me a lot of gratitude for how things are today where things are mostly back to normal. Just like it was for a lot of people, there were definitely a lot of bad experiences that happened during the Covid -19 period for me, but there are also good things that I am thankful for. Hopefully people can focus on the positives that happened during that time period as we push forward past it.
• 
  2020-05-28

  Gomez_Elizabeth

  C19OH
• 
  2021-09-01

  How online gaming has become a social lifeline

  Gamers have known for a long time something that everyone else is starting to figure out: there’s community connection on the other side of a screen.
• 2021-08-04

  Covid Loop

  March of 2020 started like every other March in my life. I was at school worried about my grades, and getting ready for football in the fall. The last day before spring break would be the last time I would enter a classroom for about 5 months. After the shock of realizing the school is closed for the rest of the school year came the simple-minded exciment of a teen with too much time on their hands. The exciment quickly turnt to boredom. The days dragged on, they blurred together so much it was hard to keep track of the day of the week. The fear of catching and spreading a unknown sickness kept me at home. Once the sickness entered my home I was bound to my room like a prisoner in a cell. In my room I'd wake up, grab a granola bar, play video games, grab something for lunch, play video games, and flop back into bed once I was exhausted enough to sleep. Time had no meaning, I went to bed when I was tired, and played video games while I was awake. All the vidoe games kept me engaged and gave the days some meaning. After months stuck in this loop, I was finally able to go out and see other people. School started again shorly after, which is a whole other story.
• 
  2021-07

  Wolfeboro PO Whiteboard

  The top of the program office at Camp Wolfeboro, where the camp director and program director offices are, has a large whiteboard every year where Scouts are invited to draw anything so long as it is Scouting-appropriate. The two photos of the whiteboard were taken at the middle and end of the fifth session of camp; IMG_5768.jpg was taken on Wednesday, July 21 at 11:41 AM, and IMG_5817.jpg was taken on Friday, July 23 at 4:17 PM. In the two and a half days between the photos, there were some additions made to the board. The whiteboard includes a variety of references to recent cultural trends, some of which include: -Upper left: text reading "whats [sic] so funny about Sussus Amongus", a reference to a YouTube video titled "What's so funny about sussus amogus?", itself an Among Us parody of the Biggus Dickus sketch from Monty Python's Life of Brian. -Center left, immediately next to the edge of the board: the word "SHEESH" in orange marker, which is used to show a sense of disbelief about something, with a positive tone (similar to how "dang" or "damn" might be used) -Upper center, slightly to the right: a dark green drawing of an open eye crying laughing emoji, an edited version of the laughing crying emoji that is used in memes to signify an emotional reaction to something -Bottom right: an orange-colored set of Olympic rings, with the words "Olympians [illegible]" in blue beneath it Some of the additions between Wednesday and Friday include: -Center left: an Among Us crewmate next to a text bubble saying "SUSSY!" (a reference to the slang term "sus", meaning suspicious, often used alongside references to Among Us) Many of the specific cultural references refer to the video game Among Us. According to the program director, the massive Garfield drawing at the bottom left was drawn during the 2019 camp season but became unerasable by the time camp opened in 2021 (camp did not take place in-person in 2020).
• 
  2021-05-25

  Covid 19 archive entry (Starcraft Edition)

  What this mainly shares my experience with my esports team during the pandemic and also how my social life changed during the pandemic. The object is to talk about how I made new friends and also how Covid 19 wasn't the only world wide issue, and example would be the crisis in Myanmar.
• 
  2021-05-24

  After “Normal”

  alorant is a game created by Riot Games, and it was initially known as Project A. It borrows elements from League of Legends,Counter-Strike: Global offensive and Overwatch. It is a 5v5 first- person shooter where there is one attack team and the other defends. It is very similar to search and destroy. Since the pandemic it has become mportant to me since im not allowed out of the house, it is where I can get on and play or socialize with my friends. It is where i can talk to others and just relax.
• 
  2021-05-24

  A Memoir of 2020-2021: How COVID-19 Affected the Lifestyle of a High school Student

  The PDF tells the story of my life over the years from 2020-2021. It explains how covid affected the lifestyle of a high school student, with many other added details.
• 
  2021-05-23

  BLUR - Life During COVID

  This story details the way life felt during COVID, just a blur, a mix of days where they all felt the same, except for maybe one or two. It explains how COVID changed school for me, what my habits became, and the sort of things I had to deal with. This is important to me because it's the only time I've ever explained what the last year has made me feel, and it's very raw. It's not some grand essay, just exactly how I've felt, and the issues COVID has caused me.
• 
  2021-05-14

  Repetition

  A 2-week lockdown. That was how it started. Logging on to discord and joining my friends conversation about how fast it would pass, happy to get a break from school. Another a couple months later, we are stuck at home, waiting for everything to end. School was now online, and I didn’t have any fun waiting around for the classes to end. I started calling more people, hoping they could play any games online to relieve the boredom. The same schedule every single day. Wakeup, eat, go to class, finish homework, play some games, call friends, do chores, go to sleep. Every single day, and it wasnt like I could do something different. It would’ve been nice to do something different, even if it was just going to a store if I wasn’t busy. It still is being repetitive, which is fine. I can at least play some more games, since my friends and I are finding more. It isn’t as boring as the beginning, but its meh. Some of the best moments, were when we went to the mountains, which was pretty far, but was still fun to go to with family.
• 
  2021-04-21

  Enjoying the Chaos Wastes while I wait for my second Covid shot

  On the twenty first of April, a new free DLC for the video game Vermintide 2 released called Chaos Wastes. Like a previous video game I posted about in these archive which has occupied my time during the pandemic, Vermintide is set in the Warhammer Fantasy Universe. WHF is essentially Tolkien high fantasy turned up to eleven, more over the top in every way. Vermintide takes place during the End Times, a narrative event from the tabletop game from around 2014. The venerable franchise with 30+ years of writing and stories by that point was destroyed in real life by its replacement Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and in the story the world was finally consumed by the powers of Chaos. In Vermintide, teams of four players team up to fight the horrors that assail the Empire of Mankind right at the beginning of the End Times. This new DLC, focusing on an expedition straight into the heart of the Chaos Wastes, takes the game in a new narrative direction and ties it in more broadly with the End Times narrative itself. The Ubersreik 5, as the protagonist group is referred to after their exploits from the first game, is primarily opposed to two elements of disease and decay: the Skaven, human-sized rats that live in a massive Under-Empire that seek to spread plague and take over the surface, and the Norscans, basically fantasy power-metal viking marauders who worship the chaos god Nurgle, lord of decay and disease. Our protagonists travel to a fortress deep in the reality-warped wasteland near the North Pole in order to contact their respective gods to seek aid to combat the End Times. While they are not fighting fantasy characters straight out of the 1980s, modern scientists and healthcare professionals have been fighting a virus which has threatened us all in a global pandemic. I go to get my second shot of Moderna tomorrow, and while I have been enjoying this new DLC and embarking on heroic quests with my friends online, others have worked to allow people like me to finally protect ourselves from Covid with a vaccine.
• 
  2021-04-15

  Video Games to Pass Time, Pt. 2

  As time has gone on, video games have continued to be my primary outlet for entertainment. The one that has captured my attention the most ever since GameStop paid for my new computer is Total War: Warhammer 2, or TWW2 going forward. TWW2 is set in the venerable Warhammer Fantasy universe, first created in 1983 as a way for the British company Games Workshop to independently sell Dungeons and Dragons miniatures, has evolved into a vast setting including the original tabletop strategy game, over a hundred books, and various video game tie ins. Perhaps the most successful of the tie-ins is the Total War: Warhammer games, developed and published by Creative Assembly out of their own historical Total War franchise. These games are divided into two parts. First is the turn-based world map, where you can see beautifully rendered fantasy landscapes in ways fans of the setting never could until now. In this mode you do diplomacy, order around armies, and develop cities. The second part is the real time battles, which the included screenshot is taken from. In this you zoom down to see your armies directly, and command them in battle using strategy to gain the upperhand. This screenshot is of my current campaign, where I am playing the High Elves of Ulthuan. Warhammer and its science-fantasy counterpart Warhammer 40,000 are renowned for their 'grimdark' setting (a genre name that is taken verbatim from the opening scrawl of every WH40k book), so while the High Elves are definitely considered good guys by the broader narrative, they are still pretty mean and arrogant by ours. While I defend the shores of the magical island paradise of Ulthuan from invasion by the evil cousins of the High Elves, the Dark Elves, I am in real life distracted from the fact that I am stuck in my apartment because of the pandemic. This game allows me to both play by myself for entertainment, but also to share my stories with friends playing their own games. We are all a bunch of nerds, so segueing into in-depth discussions of Warhammer lore is also a good way to pass the time.
• 
  2021-02-28

  When The Impossible Becomes Real

  The item I am submitting is about how I saw things changing during this pandemic and how it affected me.
• 
  2020-10-26

  Who are you?

  It has been weird. A time where the words “pandemic” and “quarantine” are not just being used in a book or video game. Isolation is a weird thing too. It is good in moderation, but what now draws the line between too much and too little? An hour can seem like days and a day can seem to be the same over and over again. I have been delving further into art and music as the days pass. It seems strange that sometimes exploring art and music has the same effect as isolation such that time does not seem to exist in the expected way. I sometimes forget that we are in a pandemic when drawing or alone as if it were already in the past. Art and music have always been in my life, so I expanded on them by trying new genres and mediums. It is not always easy to try new things or to be forced into new things. Often times, I did not appreciate or even like what I attempted in art. It would be quite hard to count the number of drawings I have thrown away or canvases I’ve painted over. Somehow, over the course of quarantine, I have found myself to be more critical of the things that I create. Perhaps it is from being isolated which gives me more opportunities to overthink. Perhaps it is the constant comparison to other people on social media. Perhaps my disgust is not a new development at all, but it seems more pertinent since it is difficult to focus on other things. Of course, this disappointment is crawling into other aspects of my life. The drawing is one that I used to think was decent, but I find myself only critiquing it. It depicts a human floating and wrapped partially in fabric. In October of 2020, I erased most of it and tried it again, but the results stayed the same. Art is interpreted on an individual basis, but I personally found it to be about identity. Everyone wearing a mask made me think about who we really are. I have certainly run into people where I did not recognize them at all with a mask. Part of the identification process is how people look and how they act. If we don’t know who they are, do they act differently? Does this make an individual, a different person?
• 
  2020-03-20

  Year of the Switch

  Almost as if Nintendo had made a contingency plan for the pandemic, Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out on the Switch around the same time "quarantine" had started. For a lot of people (including myself) it was their only way of having some semblance of normalcy, of a normal life. I personally began to understand the true value of being able to go fishing with my dad without fear of getting sick, and the value of being able to talk to other people and hang out on a sunny patch of grass without the stifling masks and social distancing. For a while, the game gave us what we needed, and it's honestly been impressive to see how far people have come with it. I know that it was an invaluable tool for me to hang out with loved ones, including my fiancee, in every way except physical. Maybe the same goes for others. This specific game system has been the respite of many people, not necessarily with Animal Crossing, but with other titles as well. I don't think i've ever seen that many games come out for a system within less than a year, and i've been gaming since I was six. I'm asthmatic, so i'm pretty limited in what I can do, so having this teeny little game system has been almost a saving grace for my mental health. Almost. Lol. There's probably something ironic about the fact that you start the game on a desolate island and you make the most of it while still being totally isolated from other islands, and being an figurative island yourself, far away from the reach of others. But you make the most of it.
• 
  2021-01-22

  The Feels Zone

  My last six months of quarantine have mostly been what this shows, especially the first months. Me, in my messy room, holed up, doing school and homework, playing games, eating, sleeping. Many days were so similar they started to muddle together and I would forget what day or time it was. My only escapes were YouTube, video games, or anime. That is what most of my days consisted of, and still do. Of course I have my parents with me, which is always a plus, but they're always working as well. Also, they can only entertain me for so long. Then I’m bored again. The only things that were consistently fun were playing games and watching anime. But even that got boring after a while. I tried working out at first, and drawing, but eventually just stopped for no real reason besides unmotivation. There were a great deal of days where I just skipped meals or slept in for the same reason. After so long, going out to see friends was so refreshing, and one day of seeing friends was enough to make my week. Besides that though, quarantine was just really boring. Not being able to see friends at school, or go out is what made quarantine especially boring. This quarantine got me feeling ways I have never felt before; lonely and depressed. Other than that, quarantine has been just bland.
• 
  2021-01-20

  Road to Challenger

  During the last few months, I kept playing this game, trying to rank myself up to challenger.
• 
  2021-01-22

  Covid is HELL

  I have The VID (coronavirus) It was horrible. I was in my bed for about a week and ate soup alot. I mean I got to play videogames a lot so that was good. Otherwise DO NOT GET THE VID!!!
• 2020

  Someone testing Positive

  One of my friends tested positive for Covid. One day, I was playing video games with my group of friends. The particular friend who had Covid I had not talked to for a while. I playfully yelled his name and asked where he had been. He merely stated that he was asymptomatic and he got Covid a couple months ago. I was quite shocked. I had not heard a word of this before hand so I was not expecting this. He just blew it off and we started playing games. No more talk of the virus happened and no questions were really asked.
• 2021-01-17

  Twitch Streaming

  At the end of last year, after some motivation from my friends, I began to stream on the gaming stream platform Twitch. It had always been a wish of mine to do something along those lines, but my timidness limited my capabilities. Considering how much of my time in quarantine was spent gaming, my friends encouraged me to start streaming, while I still had the opportunity. I can't wait to continue in the new year, especially with the support of my friends, so that I can have a small following in the future!
• 2021-01-15

  Covid 19 Virtual Learning

  After months and months of online school I developed my daily routines. Roll out of bed, get ready and hop on the zoom call at 8. Take a break, make a snack and get back into class. Online school was difficult because everyday felt the same. Over and over days up in my room finishing assignments, watching a zoom, and talking to teachers. FaceTime and Zoom were the closest possible thing to interacting with friends which posed as a difficult obstacle for everyone. Although we were able to wake up later and not have to wear uniforms, I was never more upset about not going to school. It seemed like it was all bad but there were a few things that especially brought me joy like spending time with family, playing video games with friends, setting up zoom calls on holidays with relatives. It seemed as if the world had shut down for brief period of time. Businesses, airports, restaurants and even some grocery stores were closed. Here we are now slowly returning back to the new normal and adapting to a new way of life. Things were tough but overall I think we came out stronger together than before.
• 
  2021-01-13

  My Pandemic Pastimes

  It is important to understand how our society has dealt with this pandemic, and my entry covers what I enjoyed during the pandemic. Things that got me through and kept me sane!
• 2020-09-23

  life during Covid-19

  This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California Throughout Covid-19, I’ve learned that I don’t really have any hobbies or anything that interests me because I realized all I did was playing video games after school. So I changed myself to be more active by doing some workouts and reading every day. Even though the first try didn’t work very well to keep my routine organize, I felt it was getting better each day since there’s much time I can spend my time on myself. I hope this would make my life a little better.
• 2020-12-17

  Quarantine Glow-Ups

  During Covid-19 I realized that most of the time I do things for other people and not myself. I think it’s because since we stayed at home all the time and I had to stop doing things for other people anyway. During the school year when we actually went to school, I was always really passive and would let people walk over me with things like projects and I would have to do all the work. But then during those couple of weeks when quarantine started and we didn’t have school for a month, I took a lot of time actually taking care of myself since I never had time for self-care during the school year. I think I gained some confidence. I feel like now I don’t really let people make me do all the work anymore and it feels good. Sometimes it is hard though because in one of my classes I’m one of the only juniors and the seniors are scary. Other than having a glow-up during quarantine, my friends and I discovered ways to hang out with each other since we can't go outside. We played a lot of games, like Among Us and Genshin Impact, and they are really fun when you’re playing with friends. I always used to think that I was an introvert (still true) and I didn't need friends, but during quarantine, I learned that I just needed a couple of great friends.
• 
  2020-12-01

  Nintendo Switch

  Ever since I was a child I have always had a love for Nintendo and their many consoles and games they’ve made throughout the years. As a child I played on the DS and 3DS and have wonderful memories with those consoles in particular. Before Covid, I didn’t think much of the Nintendo Switch. I always thought about buying a Nintendo Switch but never went ahead to make the purchase. I thought of it as an unnecessary console and thought I could just stick with playing on the 3DS when I felt the need to play a video game. I always loved the dual screen aspect of the DS and 3DS, something the Nintendo Switch lacked. Everything changed sometime in February when the Special Edition Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch was announced. Animal Crossing was one of the franchises which I had a lot of history with, playing ever since I was little. When I heard they were releasing an Animal Crossing themed Switch, I knew I had to buy it. Little did I know what world the Nintendo Switch would open me up to during a time of isolation, loneliness and chaos. I preordered the Nintendo Switch only a month or two before the pandemic broke out, it was as if I knew something huge was going to happen and I had to stock up supplies. I’d like to think I knew what was coming, and I was doing a favor for myself. By the time my Switch was delivered lock down had already ensued and all of America was going into quarantine. It was March 17th when it arrived, and the Nintendo Switch from then on, has been very special to me. For many people, the release of Animal Crossing New Horizons alongside the themed switch was a bright light in the darkness that is the pandemic. Through escapism, millions of people were able to escape to a deserted island they could build up to their wildest dreams through this game and I was one of those people. This game helped me think about other things than the pandemic, it gave me some joy in these trying times. I played many other games when I first got my switch besides Animal Crossing including Fire Emblem Three Houses and Rune Factory 4 Special. All these games gave me a place to escape to, and for me, having a place to escape to during the pandemic was the best thing that I could’ve done. The best part was I could share this joy with others. It’s not only the games themselves that brought me some joy during the pandemic, but also the communities along with it. I made countless online friends through these games, ones that I’m very close with. Through Discord, I joined a Rune Factory server and made many close friends through it. I felt a belonging during such an isolating period in our lives. I saw how others struggled, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t let that happen to myself. I’ve always been the introvert type but even now and then I get bored only spending time to myself. These video game communities helped me form friendships and bonds during a time that was thought of as impossible. Through Rune Factory 4 I especially made friends I’m still very close with even now. If I never had bought the Nintendo Switch, I would’ve never found these communities filled with wonderful people who were just like me, looking for belonging, looking for a friend, an escape from reality. Not only can I share my love for these games with these people, but I can share my Nintendo Switch with my family as well. While I’m quarantined with my family we would bond by playing games together on my Nintendo Switch. I never get to hang out with my older brother much since he has a full-time job, but I was able to get him to play with me and my sister, it was a heartwarming and fun moment I will keep as a good memory even during the pandemic. The Nintendo switch is a mediator between my quarantined space and the outside world through the internet. I can play online games with my friends and meet people through online gaming communities. I can see when my friends are online and see what they are playing. This day and age, with technology it’s so easy to connect with the outside world from your own bedroom, and so I did it with my Nintendo Switch. The possibilities of the Nintendo Switch are endless. Even when the pandemic ends, the Switch will never lose its value to me. I have made so many good memories with this Nintendo Switch over the past months I’ve had it, and I plan to make many more. There are many games coming to the Switch in the future such as Rune Factory 5 which I’m looking forward to. This time I have many friends who play the games I play, so when I start new games they’ll be by my side, and we can bond while playing the games together.
• 2020-09-16

  How I Stayed Connected With Friends Using Discord

  When the lockdown started, my friends and I had no way to hang out in person. Luckily we can hang out over the internet by using Discord, the best online voice and video call program. We can play video games like, Apex Legends, Overwatch, and Rocket League. It's great that we can still be together while separated.
• 
  2020-09-30

  Living through video games

  During the first lockdown, my flatmate introduced me to Sims 4. The Sims is a life simulation game wherein you create a character and live their life, making certain decisions such as where you will live, what career you will have, who you are in relationships with and so on. In the second lockdown, friends introduced me to Stardew Valley. In this game, your character lives on a farm and has to manage the land to make a living. There are also mines to explore and mystery to uncover. I would play this game with my friends online, hanging out virtually when we could not in real life. These games provided a reprieve from everyday life in lockdown where I had little control over my life, allowing me to live vicariously through my characters.
• 2020-10-30

  Playing Xbox Through Covid

  As we all know it Covid has taken over the entire world including my hometown Boston. With the disease being easily spreadable there are many precautions and restrictions put in place to keep the city and surrounding areas safe from contracting and spreading the disease. I myself was not left with much to do during this time so I knew that I needed to come up with some sort of hoppy or activity to keep me occupied. I decided to buy a Xbox to fulfill my needs so I would not be left with nothing to do while hanging out in my dorm or bedroom. Playing xbox provided me with a virtual place that I was am able to escape to while being quarantined in my certain location, as well it took my mind off the implications and surround stress of covid. I am also able to travel with the xbox, taking it from place to place during the pandemic so that I would not ever find myself bored and stressed with nothing to do
• 2020-10-05

  Xbox Live Shenanigans

  This is a trap remix of Darkthrone’s “Transilvanian Hunger” that I made on my phone in GarageBand. My friends and I usually congregate on Xbox Live every night after we get home from work for the night. With rising costs, dwindling savings, and less work available than ever before, we don’t really plan things anymore. When we do, the plans usually include cooking dirty burgers, drinking beer, and playing board games at someone’s house. That and playing Xbox together are the cheapest options for hanging out that we even have. Lately, our favorite pastime has been making beats on our iPhones in GarageBand. Someone jokingly told me that Norweigan black metal is the only un-sampleable musical genre. I set out to prove him wrong. Laughter and hilarity ensued.
• 2020-09-09

  Skating Under A Sunless Sunset

  September 9th, 2020. The first day in years where I wake up and I am terrified by what I see: the world outside my window is drenched in orange light. I blink multiple times and bolt up, making sure I am not dreaming and that I am in complete control of my faculties. I sit in my room, stunned, for a few moments, then go about my day as usual. I peek my head outside for a moment, and smell nothing in the air. None of the smoke that had been plaguing our noses for the past few days was permitted among the copper splendor. My whole morning, I am terrified of what this could potentially mean: that the fire was close. That we could be in danger. This leaves a bad taste in my mouth for the morning. After class, I go about my normal after-school activities, gaming on my computer and playing on the guitar. At about 6 in the evening, I decide to myself “screw it.” I pick up my board, put my earbuds in, and get out of the house. The orange is dimmer, but still terrifyingly beautiful to look at. I skate around, listening to my favorite music as I observe the neighborhood around me, the same shapes with different meanings now. I dare not to pull out my phone to ruin this moment, knowing a photograph or video from it will ruin the moment for me. I stop along Mangos Drive and just sit on the curb, board behind my feet, and I stare up, hearing only my music and the occasional car passing by. A true calm, I was in, one I hadn’t been in in a long time. And so I sat there, knowing where the sun sets, but seeing no sun. I knew when it did set, but not through sight. Through feeling. The lukewarm day turned colder, the orange dimmed to a vibrant brown, and I felt phenomenal. I skated back home, not caring to check how long I’d been gone, knowing it was well worth it however much time I spent out there. I snapped out of it, and continued with the things I had been doing before, playing games and the guitar. Not once, that whole day, did I smell or taste smoke. And I am grateful for it.
• 
  2020-09-20

  online learning is hard

  Someday in September, I was curious about how to learn everything online just being five hundred feet far away from students and the teachers. I’m starting to get bored to just stay there forever, this makes me want to go back to school again. If you want to meet your friend you need to meet online. The only fun thing left for me to do is to play videogames on my computer making me felt time go pass faster. However, online learning just comes in and cleans up my schedule of playing video games. So now I need to wake up at midnight just for “learning” online for six hours straight and start getting tired because of the different time zone I’m in also homework. In conclusion, I just want to be lazy again not having any homework or classes online.
• 2020-04-01

  Cooped up

  It was a Saturday, the day after school was out, and an announced break from school due to Covid-19. I was at my friend Zach’s house, when they had announced a shelter in place. I was very nervous about this happening because nothing like that had ever happened in my lifetime. After this night, I was cooped up in my room, and it felt like I was in there for eternity. All I did was play video games, and do bodyweight workouts to make time pass by. This happening is very important to me because I never knew how it was to feel lonely, until this point in time occurred. In my room I saw, beige walls and a dark room all day, I smelled the food I ate in the room, and I touched the ps4 controller and my bed all day. I also heard my brother yelling over frustration while playing on his computer.
• 
  10/09/2020

  Elizabeth Sconyers Oral History, 2020/10/09

  This oral history was conducted for the HST580 Archive course through Arizona State University. The interviewee discusses her life and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The oral history explores the COVID-19 virus and its relation to themes such as, lived experiences, family life, employment, the economy, government, and community.
• 
  2020-03-17

  Normal People vs Gamers

  Gaming almost 24/7 a day, this meme shows how lives of gamers and normal people were affected during the lockdown.
• 
  2020-05-11

  Nick Maleno's Covid-19

  This story explains what i did to help my get through the first part of this pandemic.
• 
  2020-05-12

  Head in The Game

  Even before the pandemic I would play online with my friends most of the time but the pandemic has just reinforced it. I play everyday with my friends and laugh and mess around and I think because of that I haven't gone crazy yet. Thanks to playing with my friends and having fun I have been able to stay happy and relaxed.
• 2020-05

  A Month at my Grandparents

  I was stuck at my grandparents for a month with my two brothers, sister, cousin, and my grandparents during the start of the first wave of COVID-19. We didn't really do anything but stay inside. When we first got there, we had to wipe off my PlayStation 4, PlayStation controller, Headset, and all of my PlayStation games. When we got groceries, we would wipe them off and let them dry overnight. The worst part about the entire thing was that I had to shut my PlayStation off a lot and had to be off at a certain time. It was upstairs so I couldn't try and play on it at night but I also got up at 8:00am or 9:00am for online classes that didn't even count as a grade.
• 
  2020-04-14

  Luke Burroughs's COVID-19 story

  Throughout quarintine I went to scouts camp at Bartle Camp reservation. I also vistied Colorado with my family and went camping at truman lake. And last I played an older video game that I was wanting to play for a while.
• 2020-08-26T12:04

  My Covid story

  During quarantine I played a lot of games, mostly modern warfare, spend time with my dogs, and talk to friends. One of my friends told me he tested positive last week, so I worry about him everyday. I traveled to Arkansas with my dad to help fix up a house and see my cousin.
• 2020-06

  Life at Home for a While

  I've kept myself busy during the quarrantine by making fun videogames come to life through the scratch website.
• 
  2020-03-15

  COVID 19

  This controller is very important to me because it helps me stay connected with friends and family. I can play video games with them all day long. It give me peace and comfort.