Items

• 
  2020-03-22

  Travelers Nevertheless

  Faced with the impossibility of international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, my family embarked on an unplanned intrastate adventure that led to a deeper appreciation for the city of Los Angeles and for family members that call that city home. Along with posing serious day-to-day challenges, the pandemic created opportunities for new relationships with people and places.
• 2024-12-10

  Visiting Maui with Respect to Native Traditions and Local Population

  Since travel restrictions were lifted on the island of Oʻahu, I still have not traveled outside the island. One place that I am keen on traveling to is the island of Maui because it is one of the main Hawaiian Islands that I have not yet explored. Prior to the devastating Lahaina wild fires in August 2023, I was deeply interested in understanding the cultural richness and historical significance of Lahaina. Now, if I get a chance to visit Maui, I would be mindful of the trauma that continues to inflict pain on the local and native populations of Maui. Therefore, I would avoid the area of West Maui and instead explore the main cities of Kahului and Kihei to better understand why Maui continues to be a tourist attraction for Americans. Near Kihei, the site of Haleakala observatory is a common tourist attraction for locals and foreigners. The ongoing debate over tourism development and the restoration of native practices is ever-present on Maui. Tourism on Maui was just recovering from the economic consequences of the pandemic and the economic hardship was again devastated by the Maui wildfires. If I were to document my trip to Maui, I would use a journal to understand the complex dynamics between the state government, tourism industry, and local and native populations. I would also use my journal to record what tourist sites continue to recover from the pandemic in spite of the wildfire catastrophe.
• 2020-09-07

  Pandemics & Wildfires

  The year 2020 was challenging for me in a couple ways. Like so many others, the pandemic lockdown kept me home for several months. I continued school online with my local university and waited for it all to be over. As summer rolled around, my family had decided that if we were going to be isolated from others, we might as well do it somewhere we love. We spent the better part of our summer at my great grandfather’s cabin at Huntington Lake in the High Sierras. It was a fairly quiet season at the lake considering California was still under many restrictions. Shortly after our last visit, the Creek Fire started. The fire burned nearly 380,000 acres of the Sierra National Forest for about four months. Within a week of the beginning of the fire, we lost our family cabin and the historic general store, Cressman’s, that our cousins had just taken over. Our family was devastated, and it is still a very painful memory. I am, however, incredibly grateful for the last summer we got to spend there. In a strange way, the COVID-19 pandemic offered our family a small blessing in disguise. Since the lockdown required many to reduce work hours, a number of friends and family members had the opportunity to visit the cabin one last time. This photograph is a reminder of a very bittersweet summer. Although 2020 proved to be an especially challenging year, the pandemic allowed my family to make its final memories of our second home before it was gone.
• 
  2020-09-11

  2020 the movie

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2021-07-19

  Wildfires and COVID

  This article from the Associated Press discusses a study done by Nevada-based scientists, that have found a correlation between wildfire smoke and positive COVID cases. The study showed that "for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of small particulate matter known as PM2.5 in the air, the positivity rate increased about 6.3% two to six days later". The study acknowledges, however, that the uptick in cases may be from other factors, such as a second surge, or students going back to school. Although further studies are required, the study done by the Nevada scientists may suggest that higher pollution levels can make people more prone to viruses.
• 
  2021-01-25

  A Semester of Outfits

  I haven’t grown in height since junior high school, and, as a result, I have A LOT of clothes. As sort of a fun game for myself and my students, I do not repeat an outfit through the 180 days of the school year. When school shut down in March, I switched to permanently in joggers, since I no longer left the house. When we began synchronous Distance Learning in August, I knew it was really important for my mental health and to try and portray a sense of normalcy for my students to still dress just like I was going to teach in person in a normal year. Since I don’t get to see all my students five days a week due to our block scheduling format for Distance Learning, I decided to post my outfit to my class Instagram each day, as an “ootd,” just for fun. It’s become sort of an interesting keepsake of my pandemic experience. If you look beyond the outfits and into my eyes you can tell the days I was anxious, worried, tired about the rising case counts, the unknowns, the state of our country, and locally, the true fear of whether they would force us to return to teaching in person. But the pictures also capture that in between the ever rising death toll, wildfires, political discord, racial tension, Capitol riots, life had to keep moving forward. And even during a semester of turmoil, you can see a lot of pictures show joy behind my eyes... and not only when the Dodgers won the World Series, allowing me to retire my 1988 World Series shirt! A new semester starts today, we’ll see what the expression in my eyes says about the state of the pandemic and the world in the weeks to come.
• 
  2020-12-06

  South Californian Fire Lookouts and Operational Restrictions

  These two photos have been taken within a Fire Lookout tower in the National Forests surrounding Los Angeles. The text document portrays the experience and difficulties of a Fire Lookout operating a lookout tower during both the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020 and one of California's worst fire seasons. Photos taken August 31, 2020.
• 
  2020-08-26

  The cover photo of 2020's chapter in history

  HIST30060 - submitted as part of history assessment. This tweet produced in August 2020 includes a photograph of the American bushfires with the caption ‘this is gonna be the cover photo in the history chapter about 2020’. Like so many other memes and tweets, this item points to the cumulative nature of the disastrous events of 2020, suggesting that the entire year can be summarised by a hellish scene of a large fire devouring all its path while a sign warns of precautions needed to protect from covid-19. The tweet also draws attention to the study of history and how future generations of historians (and school students) will be introduced to the major events of the year.
• 2020-10-26

  Sensory Memory Changes During COVID-19

  The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected our sensory memory. All of the 5 senses have experienced a lot of change during this pandemic. Personally, I found the streets and stores to not be as packed as they used to be. When I go outside, I see most people are wearing masks and staying 6 feet apart from each other. During the pandemic, it has been a lot quieter as well. There is barely any traffic on the freeways or even the sound of cheering from football games and gatherings. The sense of taste also experienced a lot of change. Due to social distancing regulation, restaurants and cafes have been closed or only allowed takeout. Personally, it's been almost 8 months since the last time I went out to eat at a restaurant or get coffee pastries at a local cafe. For smell, California was struggling with fires so for a few weeks and all I was able to smell was smoke. Finally, the sense of touch has been experiencing change. I'm not able to see my relatives and friends. Since I can’t really go outside or visit people during these times, I haven't experienced a hug, high-five, or shaking someone’s hands in a while.
• 
  2020-08-17

  Alone in Mordor

  I remember being home alone with my Dog and doing online school. I just sat there for about 5 minutes straight staring at the sky thinking i'm in a movie.
• 
  2020-09-13

  Homemade Air Purifier

  I live in California, and during this pandemic we have also been dealing with devastating wildfires. The pollution from these fires has been very concerning for me. Noticing that all the air purifiers were sold out and me wanting to save money, I found a "lifehack" to make a homemade one with a box fan and air filter. It worked like a charm and was more effective than most luxury models. While I no longer have to deal with the smell of wildfires in my apartment, the constant hum of this contraption is a constant reminder of how climate change is destroying California.
• 
  2020-10-18

  Smoke During Covid-19

  For me much of the pandemic has been an abstract concept. Our senses cannot really alert us to the presence of Covi-19. The exception I suppose would be the presence of masks but that is not a constant reminder. I have only worn masks when going in and out of stores. My sensory memory of the pandemic is four months of the smell of smoke. I noticed the smoke yesterday and again this morning. Since the California wildfires started in June there has been an almost constant smell of smoke in the air. We also get large grass fires in this area as well so there is usually some type of fire burning. I believe that the sense of smell can at times be a much more powerful sense than sight. I will remember the smoke long after Covid-19 is gone.
• 
  2020-09-09

  I Stood Beneath An Orange Sky

  Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, August 2020 brought devastating wildfires to the state of California. Many of the Northern California fires were started as a result of the lightning produced during a massive - and rare - summer thunderstorm. The week leading up to the storm, I questioned the reliability of weather information as I had never experienced a severe summer storm in California. The night of the storm, I lay awake in my bed in awe of the sound of the storm. The combination of wind, rain, thunder and lighting produced incredibly loud sounds that lasted throughout the night. My family stayed snug in our beds. But when the storm continued into the morning hours, we decided to sit on our porch to take in the moment. The smell of rain in the summer was oddly refreshing. My kids were jumpy as none of them remember ever hearing thunder before. During a pause in the rain, we were walking between our home and my in-law’s home about 500 yards away from ours. The thunder hit at that very moment. I turned to look at my son and he was completely jumping out of his skin from fear of the thunder. Following each bout of thunder, silent lighting bolts shot across the sky. In the moment, we soaked in the beauty of nature. Little did we know that these beautiful bolts of lightning would cause some of the largest fires in California history. Immediately following the storm, fires spread across the state of California. While COVID-19 has completely changed life as we know it, we have found joy in being able to enjoy the outdoors. At the onset of the fires, even that reprieve was taken from us. I live directly between the SCU Lightning Complex and the LNU Lighting Complex fires, two of the first fires that erupted following the storm. The days immediately following the start of the fires brought record breaking days of heat well over 100 degrees. The hottest I have ever experienced in the San Francisco Bay Area. The region experienced rolling blackouts and even functioning air conditioners were so taxed that they struggled to keep the insides of homes cool. In addition to the heat, the skies were filled with ash. The air was so thick with ash it was difficult to even take a breath when outside. The outdoors, our place of solace, quiet and escape during this pandemic, was no longer an option for us. On September 9, 2020, I woke up and opened my curtains to face a brilliant orange sky. The color of the sky was unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. It truly felt apocalyptic. The air smelled of an extinguished campfire. And the overall feeling was eerie. The weight of the COVID-19 pandemic hit me the day that I stood beneath an orange sky, breathing in the smell of the fires ravaging my beloved state. How did we get here? Will life ever feel normal again? It just can’t get worse, can it? While I stood frozen in place, I heard the sound of birds chirping in the distance. This simple sound gave me the reassurance that I needed. We can do hard things. This too shall pass. I just hope it passes quickly.
• 
  2020-09-06

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/06-09/12/2020 by Railroad Underground

  These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about how Sunday's are the hardest for him because he missed spending time with his family, spending Labor Day in a melting cage, is he in a California or west coast prison where they are experiencing raging wild fires or is it just hot there, convict leasing is still happening, including many of the firefighters used to battle the wildfires in California, those in county jails learning sign language to be able to communicate from their cells because they spent little time outside their cells, the lack of vegetables in prison made them plant "secret gardens" both inside and out, rehabilitation in spite of toxic conditions, mentorship, his many family members that are/were incarcerated and how incarceration tears apart families.
• 
  2020-09-06

  Karmic Retribution

  On September 6, 2020, I drove down to Boulder, Colorado to spend the day with a close friend of mine. Wildfires had been raging across the state of Colorado for a few weeks and this day, the reality of the natural disasters was especially apparent. The entire Front Range was shrouded in grey fog of smoke. A bright red sun loomed overhead as ash gently pirouetted down from the sky. The air was thick with the stench of burning forests. And it was hot. It was like something out of a movie. Apocalyptic. Ominous. Foretelling some impending doom. My friend and I started our day with a walk down by the Boulder Creek. It was unusually crowded that day and a majority of the park-goers were not wearing facial coverings. Masks were (and still are) mandatory in busy public places and my friend and I were definitely shocked to see a lack of responsibility among what we thought was a community of informed progressives. We chose to wear our masks, not necessarily because of COVID etiquette, but more so because we were worried about breathing in all the smoke and ash in the air. You could smell the smoke. You could see the smoke. And it was clear to us that we also ran the risk of breathing it in. We never checked the air quality index to verify if the air quality was indeed poor, but we didn’t have to. We both had itchy eyes and scratchy throats and that was evidence enough to wear our masks if we were going to be outside. We made our way around the area, trying to find a place to sit and relax. We passed through a tunnel that ran underneath the road. Spray painted on its walls, in red paint, was “Chief Niwot’s Curse” and “Stolen Landz.” My friend and I both took pictures of the graffiti because it “spoke” to us in a way that art or a well-timed coincidence often does. Our country was birthed in blood and forged in violence. This got us thinking about how the United States might quite literally be “cursed,” so long as Americans collectively refuse to acknowledge that fact that we stole the land from Native Americans. My friend and I found a picnic table and immediately pulled out a Tarot deck to do a reading. Whether or not divination is an accurate reflection of reality, does not matter. The subjective interpretation of a story, (and the symbols therein,) is subjectively real. It’s also fun. And sometimes, it’s scarily accurate. My friend and I brainstormed a theme for our reading and concluded on “the story of 2020.” We shuffled the deck a few times. And then drew. The first two cards we drew at random were Temperance and the Tower, both of which are Major Arcana cards. We interpret the Major Arcana cards as the narrative archetypes, or overarching themes, for our reading. So, in this reading, the overarching themes for 2020 were Temperance and the Tower. According to Golden Art Nouveau Tarot’s explanation, the Temperance card displays “An angel performing a mystical rite to restore spiritual harmony, pouring water from one cup to another.” The Tower card depicts, “A blast from the heavens” that “destroys a tower that seemed unconquerable, its magnificent crown-like dome tumbling to the ground. Two people fall helplessly from the heights. The tower was built with such a forbidding design that it imprisoned them in their own creation, with no easy exit.” Golden Art Nouveau Tarot continues, “Seek liberation on your own, or the universe may give it to you in unexpected ways.” My friend and I saw these cards and immediately locked eyes, sharing a mutual astonishment. Amidst the tumult of 2020 – a global pandemic that changed the way humans socially-interact and go about their daily lives, an urgent call for civil rights, widespread systemic frustration, climate change fueling natural disasters, ideological warfare fueled by misinformation and social media addiction – the themes of destruction and spiritual renewal seemed to bear an eerie resemblance to everything going on in the world. We then drew the King of Cups. The King of Cups “is a steady presence in a turbulent sea.” He is kind, peaceful, keeps his emotions in check, and offers comforting strength in times of trouble. As a king, he is who the people look to for guidance. My friend and I interpreted this as the need to practice detached compassion in order to navigate the waters of 2020. With an upcoming election, the United States is more divided than ever. That division could easily lead people to “drown” in their emotions and “wash away” their civility. The rest of the cards we drew were wands, representing the element of fire. Spiritually, fire is connected with creative energy, action, willpower and ambition. As our home literally “burned” before our eyes, my friend and I thought about the desire for change that seemed to be “fueling” transformation. After our Tarot reading, my friend and I drove up into the mountains. We noticed some Tibetan prayer flags flapping in the wind and pulled over to take a closer look. At a higher elevation, it was even easier to see the smoke settling down below in Boulder Canyon, enveloping the land in this impenetrable haze. We were on top of the world and had a “clear” view of everything. *Photographs taken in Boulder, Colorado boulder, colorado, wildfire, global warming, climate change, destruction, stolen land, chief niwots curse, karma, karmic retribution, cause and effect, tarot, spirituality, intuition, perception, logic, past, present, future
• 
  2020-09-09

  Smoke over the Pacific Northwest

  Flying from Portland to San Francisco on September 9th, the skies below were visibly smoky. It was hard to distinguish normal fog from smoke from the fires, but two huge plumes of smoke can be seen in the time-lapse. The air smelled like smoke when I took off from Portland, but was much worse in San Francisco- the sky was orange and visibility was greatly reduced.
• 
  2020-09-14

  Wildfire Sunrise

  I snapped this photo on the way to work on Sept 14th. The smoke from several wildfires burning had drifted into Arizona turning the sky into a hazy orange. Usually driving to work at that time of morning means the sun is right in my eyes, but this morning, the sun was a weak red dot, indicating just how thick the smoke was, and just how widespread the wildfires are along the west coast.
• 
  2020-09-10

  Californian skies turn orange as wildfires rage

  My uncle has owned a body shop in San Francisco, California, for over twenty-five years. Covid slowed down business a bit since people were not driving as much, as if Covid wasn't bad enough though, they are now dealing with all the fires in the area. Being a Los Angeles native, I know wildfires are not uncommon. It is unusual to see the amount of fire happening simultaneously. It seems like the whole state is up in flames. The air quality is almost unbearable, there are blankets of ash coving homes and cars and raining from the sky. The sky is orange and firefighters struggle to keep these wildfires under control. All this craziness amidst a global pandemic.
• 
  2020-09-10

  Covid, Gender Reveals, and Disastrous Wildfire

  I’m currently pregnant during the Covid-19 crisis and I’ve noticed a huge uptick in elaborate gender reveals among other pregnant moms. This is my third child and I just realized after reading this article that the pandemic has made rituals such as this one even more important to our mental health and social connections.
• 
  2020-09-06

  Crowded Crissy Field on Labor Day

  A friend that lives in San Francisco posted this video on his Instagram stories. It is a video of Crissy Field, the park and beach area near Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It is a spot beloved by locals because of the open space and picturesque backdrop of the Bridge. The San Francisco Bay Area is experiencing an intense heat wave over Labor Day weekend. The heat, and the smoke from surrounding wildfires, has pushed residents from around the Bay Area to locations with cooler climates and cleaner air. While a number of local beaches are closed, it appears as if Crissy Field was not one of them. This video captures the crowds of people that flocked to Crissy Field over the Labor Day weekend.
• 
  2020-08-31

  Fires Strike California

  This photo is symbolistic of the fires that we now must deal with in California. As people remain at home to work, energy usage is at an all time high. Thus, the potential for wildfires, lost lives, and damaged neighborhoods/homes is also probable. We are now seeing this disaster play out and hope for the best. This photo was taken during a walk in San Francisco around sunset. The orange and pink glow filled the sky and the aroma of smoke was everywhere.
• 
  2020-08-22

  Don't Release Inmates, We Need Them to Fight Wildfires

  In an effort to slow the spread of Covid-19 incarceration facilities across the nation have released a small number of people earlier than they would have been otherwise. This has created a unique situation in California, a state that relies on prison labor to combat wildfires every year. As the writer of this Tweet calls out, much of the general public and the nation's politicians believe "if you do the crime, you do the time" and feel this extends to using inmates for fighting fires.
• 
  2020-08-10

  Wildfires in California and Unprepared Care Homes

  Emergency preparedness for California after care homes is lacking in the face of increasingly devastating wildfires, causing pain, trauma, and loss of life for the state's elderly citizens.
• 
  2020-08-20

  Wildfires don't equal evacuation for Solano State Prison

  While California depends on prison labor for wildfire firefighters this Tweet brings attention the state refusing to evacuate prisons in threat of wildfire danger. Other Twitter posts have mentioned speaking to inmates at Solano and them mentioning guards coming in with ash on their uniforms. The fires are that close! It seems that many people once incarcerated are at risk for a possible death sentence due to Covid and wildfires. What else?
• 
  2020-08-20

  Sentenced to Death by Covid

  This Tweeter, Phil Melendez, expresses his horror at more than fifty inmates in the care of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation having died already from Covid-19 and now a wildfire is within blocks of California prisons with no plans for evacuation.
• 
  2020-08-21

  As blazes spread, Covid-19 in California prisons hits crucial inmate firefighting force

  California depends on prison inmate firefighters to be part of their wildfire defense teams. This year, due to illness and early release, they are missing half of their prison inmate firefighters. To help alleviate the shortage the Governor, Gavin Newsom, has called in the National Guard.
• 
  2020-08-20

  California’s Prison Covid-19 Outbreak Isn’t Behind Its Firefighter Shortage

  California, one of the most fire prone states in the nation, still relies on prisoners as firefighters. With a particularly bad fire season and a viral pandemic still raging through the country they find themselves in a precarious situation. In an effort to slow the spread of the virus correctional facilities have been releasing some incarcerated persons early. In California over three hundred of their prison labor firefighters have been released since July. This article explains more of the details.