Items

• 2020-08

  Trip to South Lake Tahoe in 2020

  Shortly after it was announced that some of the most restrictive measures in place due to the covid 19 pandemic were to be lifted, I took advantage and planned to leave town. One of my first trips was to South Lake Tahoe in August of 2020. I choose this trip because I figured it was the safest option since I would mostly be outdoors and could stay away from people as much as possible. I was also desperate to be outdoors after being stuck at home with family. The trip went without a hitch and got the rest and release I needed. Along the way however, I did notice several changes because of the ongoing pandemic. Thankfully the areas we visited were mostly to ourselves as there was hardly anyone. Still the people we did encounter seemed almost as relieved as us; I'm not sure if it was because they were also in the great outdoors or if they were just happy to see another person who was also just wanting to be out in nature. Still, mostly everyone maintained more than sufficient distance from one another. Restaurants still offered reduced capacity and keep guests distanced. Although some businesses and locations did not require masks anymore, many still wore them (including myself). I observed mothers wiping their children's hands. Fathers carrying extra masks. Hand sanitizer was still hard to find (thankfully I had some). Occasionally there would be that person who defiantly denied a mask or just didn't wear one when everyone else. Many people would stare at this person. I would personally get nervous around groups who were particularly loud or in large groups, although I must admit I've always been a bit socially anxious. It was just that now I was not only uncomfortable with unfamiliar groups of people, I also wondered if they were sick, or if they ever were, and did they even care. I thought these things as I watched spit fall from people laughing or eating. I paid special attention to employees and staff at restaurants and establishments. Would they wipe the spit off the counter? Did they wipe down the tables? I was especially hyper vigilant and felt guilty. I was traveling during a deadly pandemic with my family still back at home. Thankfully, I didn't get sick. That didn't happen until after I was called back to work since I was deemed an "essential worker." Then I would become ill for about 4 torturous months.
• 2020-05-23

  An Anxious Stroll Through the Japanese Tea Garden

  Although I have taken longer trips to New Orleans, Costa Rica, Boston, and Mexico since COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted, I consider the local afternoon stroll through the local San Antonio Japanese Tea Garden to be the first real COVID trip. It was May of 2020 , and, at that point, the most of outside I had experienced since late March of 2020 was sitting in my backyard or making hasty trips to the grocery store. With the weather so gorgeous and with doctors and politicians saying it was safe to go to parks so long as we kept our distance from other people, my boyfriend and I decided to venture to the Japanese Tea Garden for a stroll and a picnic in the park, just outside of the gardens. Unbeknownst to us, this was a very popular idea; we arrived to the gardens to find it swarmed with other people hoping to get some fresh air. The Japanese Tea Garden can be tricky to navigate with an abundance of people around; it consists of narrow pathways, bridges, and stone staircases surrounding large ponds, streams, and waterfalls, so we found ourselves having to squeeze past people, only inches away from them. What was worse, we neglected to bring masks, thinking we'd be far away from park-goers. Not having my mask made me feel incredibly anxious. We cut our walk through the gardens short and continued with our picnic in the larger park, safely away from the crowds. I felt like I could finally breathe safely. When I got home, I was very nervous that I may have come in contact with someone with COVID. This feeling persisted for a while. At the time, it was still very difficult to get tested for COVID if you were not a healthcare professional due to the scarcity of tests and testing locations in San Antonio. Additionally, our mayor, county judge, and local health advisors warned of a spike in COVID-19 cases which did not ease my tension. I essentially waited on pins and needles as I monitored myself for symptoms. While I didn't catch COVID (the first time I caught COVID was in November 2022 actually), I didn't make another venture like that for another three months due in part to the anxiety I experienced that day.
• 
  2024-03-14

  Reflection on the Attitudes About COVID-19: A Concert Venue

  The photograph is not so much exemplary of my thoughts as much as the story. Even then, it was very late and much of the "heat" surrounding COVID had since died down. Regardless, it serves as a reflection of my thoughts concerning the attitudes regarding COVID-19 and its treatment when attending certain events. It is among the few travel experiences I have, however, it is an important time to me. The story explains the general unconscious aversion to COVID consideration, at least, as I understand it upon reflection.
• 2020-05-07

  Pandemic Creates a Crowd at the Animal Sanctuary

  The pandemic lockdown ended, and businesses were opening up. There was still a sense of caution in the air. Masks and social distancing were still enforced. Still, travel started to boom again. People were going on trips by car, train, boat, and airplane. I traveled to William, Arizona. I had driven two and a half hours from Mesa, Arizona. The travel wasn’t hectic or riddled with traffic. I had made great timing. The scenery was beautiful. Went up the mountain and saw green everywhere. It was a nice change since I live in the desert. My family and I hopped in the car and headed off on an adventure. In Williams, a small little town was an animal sanctuary that I journeyed to. There were a diverse sort of species: wolves, bears, bison, mountain goats, and deer. It seemed to be an exciting trip. Bearizona’s park had a drive-through section, where I was able to drive to each habitat in my own car. The plus side was I didn’t have to worry about exposure to other people. I felt safe in my car. It had seemed that everyone had the same idea to come to Bearizona. There were long lines inside the park and where I drove through the habitats. There were times that I was at a complete stop for several minutes. It appeared that the animals didn’t like all the chaos in their homes. There were people honking their horns, yelling, and rolling down their windows when that was not allowed. I sat still and waited until I could move on. The animals started blocking the entrances and jumping up on cars. They were revolted, this made other drivers laugh and roll down their windows and take pictures. There was even a little girl standing up out of the car's sunroof. The whole experience was awful. I was not happy with the crowds. I understand that since Bearizona was a safer experience than being in a crowd walking through the zoo. I didn’t take pictures or buy souvenirs. I simply drove off in my call and headed back down the mountain. I reflect on this experience about how people were starved to travel, and stuck at home. When the lockdown ended everyone wanted to get out of their houses and go anywhere. We are used to going where we want when we want, but at the start of the pandemic life had changed for us all.
• 2021-11

  Strangers united in pettiness

  Medical mask mandates on public transport had been in effect for a while now when this happened: There are always the inevitable idiots who refuse to wear their masks (or just wear them below their nose, which in addition to being stupid also looks stupid) and usually people will just roll their eyes but say nothing - that one morning went differently. The train was neither particularly crowded nor empty, for each 4-seater there'd be 2-3 seats occupied. We rolled into a station, people got on, among them a young woman who sat down on the first available seat. Directly behind her, some middle-aged guy, in possession of a mask but having it bunched up beneath his chin like a face-diaper. Upon seeing the woman sit down, he suddenly started ranting at her because apparently he'd wanted to sit in that seat (note that there were plenty of seats left), insulting her with a barrage of sexist and racist terms I don't care to repeat. She ignored him. Another passenger, however, didn't, and told the mask-less idiot to stop making an ass of himself and put on his mask before speaking and 'spreading his aerosols' indoors, which drew the idiot's ire on him. After realising that neither the woman nor the other passengers would offer their seat to him in response to his insults, the idiot moved on to the next 4-seater - only to find that the people there used their bags and jackets to occupy the empty seats there to prevent him from sitting down there, responding to his cussing by telling him to just put on his fucking mask again. He moved on, everyone on the next row of seats blocked him as well, again and again. One woman, lacking a bag, went as far as full-on man-spreading in the middle of two seats to occupy them both. In the end, the idiot had to move to a whole other train car to find a seat. The rest of us was left with smug smiles and a sense of petty satisfaction for the rest of the ride!
• 
  2020-04-24

  The Daily, "I Forgive You, New York"

  I remember listening to this episode when it first aired during the peak of the pandemic. I am certain I am not alone in the ways this very raw and heartful lamentation of New York City when the city's fate was uncertain.
• 
  2021-06-23

  The shot

  Crowded room, felt a Prick. Yay I’m vaccinated. Now I’m in pain…. Great :/ -someone during the vaccine day
• 
  2021-03-17

  A Day at Macy's Inc. During a Worldwide Pandemic

  As my primary source I chose a picture that I took on March 17, 2021 at 8:39pm, it was the end of my shift in my retail job. This picture was taken one year later since they first closed down the city. I work in Macy’s Inc. at Bay Plaza, and the store was closed during the pandemic until the end of June. When the store first reopened, big crowds of people came to the store every single day without caring about the pandemic. It is understandable that all they wanted was to shop, and also get out of their houses to distract themselves. This picture is just a small representation of what retail workers have to deal with during times like this. It got to a point, where it was very frustrating seen so many people at the store walking around trying to shop. Many people did not care about the 6ft social distancing, and others did not want to wear a mask because it was too hot, or they couldn’t breathe. There was a limit of 600 people in the whole store, but in days like this I know for sure that it was more than that. The women shoes department was always full of people, there was always a long line, people were right next to each other, and others were screaming or talking too loudly. People were getting into arguments with each other, many were getting frustrated because they wanted to get a shoe size right away. Others were just sitting on the couch sleeping, you could hear babies crying, and kids running or playing around dropping shoes on the floor. I remember I was in the register during my whole shift taking customer after customer, some were really nice but others very rude. As my job, I have to ask every customer if they want to open a Macy’s credit card with us, but their answer was always, “I can’t afford it, this virus has made me broke” yet, they were still out shopping. On this day, I had a disagreement with a customer because I told her to put her mask on about 3 times, and she just ignored me. She then, approaches me to pay for a shirt, and I told her very kindly once again, “can you please put your mask on? Thank you!”. Her reaction was priceless because she was furious and asked me if it wasn’t enough with the plexiglass that was between us, I felt very frustrated because she didn’t seem to understand how serious this virus is. I told her no, and refuse to ring her out she then, proceeded to another register very furious and still with no mask on. We are not essential workers but working in a retail store during this pandemic has been very overwhelming. The company benefits from all of this because they reach their sales goals every day. When I think about it, we as employees should be happy that there are sales because it means the store won’t close down, and we can keep our jobs. The customers do not seem to have any type of consideration for any of us as retail workers. It upsets me because now more than ever, everyone should be thankful for still being alive after what we just went through this whole year. We need to appreciate each other, and respect one another because we don’t know what everyone is going through. Always be kind to everyone!
• 
  2020-10-28

  混雑戻り感染懸念も・・・鉄道の換気を検証　結果は？(2020年10月28日) - Concerns about returning to crowded situation ... Verifying railway ventilation What are the results? (October 28, 2020)

  Japan is the country that uses public transportation a lot compared to the United States. I personally also commuted to school with train for more than 10 years and it is normal to use public transport to commute and to get anywhere rather than your own car. Parking on streets is very hard to find and all parking lots are very expensive, especially in downtown areas. It is also just more convenient to use public transport because Japan is one of the countries that trains/bus are never late and come on time. This news is really important because infection can easily happen in trains if it is not ventilated properly and people are not taking distances. However, Japan is very rigid on rules about time and a lot of workers have to get to work on certain time, which causes crowds on trains/bus at certain time. 最近、また列車が混んできたなと感じることが増えてきました。気になるのは車両の中の換気です。ある研究データが出てきました。 　シミュレーションの結果は意外なものでした。一時はガラガラだった列車も、いつの間にかコロナ前の混雑が戻りつつあります。気になるのは感染リスクです。混み具合によって車内の空気の流れはどのように変化するのか・・・。 　鉄道総合技術研究所は、この「換気」の問題に焦点を絞り、シミュレーションを実施しました。例えば乗客ゼロの状態と、乗客が増えて立っている人ですべてのつり革が埋まっている乗車率100％の状態を比べると、換気の効率にどのような違いが出るのか・・・。 　条件は6カ所の窓を10センチ程度開け、時速70キロで走行した場合です。結果、乗車率ゼロでも乗車率100％でも換気効率に大きな違いは出ませんでした。 　これは乗客が増えると、その分、車内の空気の体積が減るため。乗客がいないと5.3分に1回のペースで車内の空気が入れ替わりますが、乗車率100％だと4.5分。むしろ早まることが分かりました。ちなみに山手線の混み具合はコロナの影響が出る直前の2月初旬を「100」とした場合、5月に38％まで落ち込んだものの、その後、徐々に回復し、先月は65％まで戻しています。 　今回のシミュレーションでは乗客が増えても空気の流れ自体にはさほど悪い影響がないことが分かりました。ただし、乗客が増えることによって不特定多数と接近してしまうなどのリスクは今回の計算には含まれていません。 Recently, I feel that the trains are getting crowded again. What is concerning is the ventilation inside the vehicle. Some research data came out. The result of the simulation was surprising. The train, which was once rattled, is returning to congestion in front of Corona. What is concerning is the risk of infection. How does the air flow inside the car change depending on how crowded it is? The Railway Technical Research Institute focused on this "ventilation" problem and conducted a simulation. For example, if you compare the state of zero passengers with the state of 100% occupancy rate where all the holding straps are filled with people standing with more passengers, what kind of difference will there be in ventilation efficiency? The condition is when 6 windows are opened about 10 cm and the vehicle travels at 70 km / h. As a result, there was no big difference in ventilation efficiency between zero occupancy rate and 100% occupancy rate. This is because the volume of air inside the car decreases as the number of passengers increases. If there are no passengers, the air inside the car changes at a pace of once every 5.3 minutes, but if the occupancy rate is 100%, it takes 4.5 minutes. It turned out to be rather quick. By the way, if the congestion level of the Yamanote Line is set to "100" in early February just before the influence of the corona, it dropped to 38% in May, but then gradually recovered and returned to 65% last month. .. In this simulation, it was found that even if the number of passengers increased, the air flow itself was not so badly affected. However, the risk of approaching an unspecified number of passengers due to an increase in passengers is not included in this calculation.
• 
  2020-10-16T23:30

  Friday night out during Covid

  I am a server at a Chili's in Tempe Arizona. Covid has changed many things about my day to day life and work. The restaurant scene has changed a lot as well. This recording was from the restaurant on a Friday night about 30 minutes before closing at midnight. Pre-Covid I would be cleaning tables and finishing up some cleaning to get out of there but as you can hear, the place was still buzzing. Since Covid began numerous bars and late night establishments have closed and thus Chili's a relatively safe chain restaurant that was able to withstand closure has taken some of that business in Tempe. Peoples normal dining cycles seem to have also changed a bit and becoming more random. Normal lunch and dinner times matter less when everyone is working from home and night outs with friends are more rare.
• 
  2020-05-17

  Time to Watch Calcio

  I'm not one to watch sports, but I do love futbol, or calcio as my favorite Italians call it. During the pandemic, as professional sports have been cancelled, and then gradually brought back in, my husband and I added ESPN+ to our streaming in order to watch SERIE A finish the 2020 season (albeit late) and then recently start again. Doing so has brought a sort of life to our home lockdown. We both love hearing the sounds of the games in the background and cheering on our favorite teams. New this year as a result of the pandemic are the club's choices as to how (or if) they add in dubbed sound, and getting used to that has been interesting. Some might filter in synthetic crowd noises (which hasn't been as bad as I would have thought). Where there has not been any sound, the feel of the game is definitely not the same, however now it is interesting to follow the players and coaches' communication firsthand. My link shares an article in which a few of the team members from my favorite team, Parmia Calcio, were recently diagnosed with COVID and what occurred following.
• 
  09/18/2020

  Madison Morris Oral History, 2020/09/18

  Maddison Morris, freshman at Northeastern University, accounts her expirience of learning about COVID-19, it's severity, and how it affected her life as well as how it will shape the future.
• 
  2020-08-04

  Blind Recklessness

  This photo really captures how reckless state governments were in the pandemic, opening schools despite it not being safe. Captured here is the danger of having schools open during a pandemic.
• 
  2020-08-22

  The Shift Due to COVID

  Before news of the coronavirus broke, there was no idea of social distancing. Everyone would lay on top of each other and connect. But, with COVID, there was a dramatic shift and people quickly became scared of each other. I think this video is important because it can offer hope for people that one day we might be able to sit next to each other and talk without any fear.
• 
  2020-05-29

  Reopening

  Passengers riding on a subway as the world gradually reopens from quarantine.
• 
  2020-04-01

  EMPTINESS

  After searching through the news, I came across an article titled “Can City Life Survive Coronavirus”. Although I was planning to avoid using a coronavirus related image, this image resonated with me as it depicted a crowded city nearly deserted. Seeing these images reminded me of the current state the world is in. I wanted to focus on the emptiness and loneliness we feel as we are social distancing ourselves indoors. I chose to use mostly greys and blues in order to convey this emotion. I added clouds in the sky and a distant crowd to add to the overall dark and lonely mood. The crowd also reminds me of how city life used to be. Finally, I added some individuals in hazmat suits to also convey the severity of this whole situation. #FordhamUniversity #VART1135 *Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times. Teddy Stratis for manipulation, color rendering, and overall graphic design. *Teddy Stratis, Fordham University, VART1135 *This is an art piece I created during my Visual Thinking class at Fordham University with professor Sheehan. This project was about how color affects us emotionally, and also how the properties of color can be used to render things invisible, or on the contrary, to distract our gaze, create interference, affect interpretation. I took an image from a news article that resonated with me and manipulated to express more emotion. I choose to use an image from a New York Times article titled "Can City Life Survive Coronavirus?".
• 
  05/18/2020

  Exclusive Hours for Senior Grocery Shoppers Help High Risk Group Avoid Large Crowds During COVID-19

  The photograph is of a grocery store sign in Blanchard, Oklahoma that has exclusive hours for senior citizens. Starting 03/18/2020 the grocery store, Spencer's Grocery, instituted a 6:30 to 8:00 AM seniors only (60+ years old) shopping period. This has been in practice ever since and offers those in the higher risk category a less crowded alternative way to shop for groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributed by Clinton P. Roberts, curatorial intern for Arizona State University, HST 580.
• 
  2020-04-01

  Photograph of empty parking lot and boardwalk-Wollaston Beach-Wollaston, MA

  Color image of empty parking lot and boardwalk at Wollaston Beach during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wollaston, MA.
• 
  2020-03-09

  Six Flags: Magic Mountain

  This photo was taken in the beginning of the outbreak. The amount of states declaring a state of emergency was slowly growing at this time. Amusement parks had seen a drastic decline in people. Though this image may depict a rather large crowd, it certainly was not the case. Rides were no more than a five minute wait, bathrooms were empty, the park itself felt empty. Some areas were completely vacant and it felt unsettling to see a lack of occupants.
• 
  2020-04-21

  I know a group of crows is a murder. Is a group of covidiots called a covfefe?

  Anti-lockdown protesters displaying no sense of physical distancing (or intelligence.)
• 
  2020-04-18

  Working at a Grocery Store

  This all takes place in March around the week of the 20th I believe? Sadly, I have not been keeping tabs during when the pandemic was actually announced, but I did work that week a few days when the news hit everyone. The week following the mass panic in my area I paid attention to what was going on in the other parts of the U.S. People were stocking up on toliet paper and handsanitzer, so I knew to be ready when I was here. I bought my stuff and people thought I was crazy. When the week came, my little store with only 6 registers was packed. All day long there were from 3-5 people lined up at every register. They bought everything. The shelves were just bare and the meat department was empty. People paniced that we would never get food back in as if trucks weren't going to come on their correct dates with fresh supply. Every single day the trucks came the food was gone. People thought we were hiding stuff in the back, but in reality the moment it got here it was put on the shelves and then gone. I did not work in the morning, but since grocery trucks (the ones with toilet paper) were stocked overnight in the morning it would be packed. Halfway through the week, we put limits on things like meat, eggs, hand sanitizer, and any other sold out items. This concludes for those weeks.
• 
  2020-04-18

  Safety hazard

  Im sharing this picture because it shows how humans were before the pandemic. How close we are to one another all around the world should have been deemed unsafe from the beginning. Its tragic that the world has to be falling apart before we notice that something is wrong. It is important to wash your hands and keep distance from others. Not just in this pandemic but all around
• 
  2020-03-27

  Social distancing?

  Headline: "Beaches closed after crowds defy social distancing rules"