Items
Date is exactly
2020-04-17
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2020-04-17
Plumber Continues Essential Services, New Orleans, LA
A Mid City New Orleans plumber continues essential services with mask during COVID-19 pandemic. -
2020-04-17
My Self-Quarantine Painting
During this pandemic, there is a lot of uncertainty going around and many people are feeling lost, especially when it comes to feeling productive or simply finding things to do each day. I am one of these people. As a child, I loved art, even though I wasn't very good at it. As the years passed, I found that I stopped doing a lot of the things that I loved to focus on things that I felt were more important, such as school and work. Just recently, I figured that I have more time than ever to reconnect with old hobbies, and it really made me happy to go back to doing things (painting, in this case) that I was passionate about. What this says about the pandemic is that although times are tough and you might find yourself stuck in the same routine every day, there are still ways to make the most out of a negative situation. If anything, now is the perfect time to catch up on some of the things you wish you could've done years ago. -
2020-04-17
Coronavirus in Djibouti, Africa
Over the past several weeks, medical personnel from multiple units across the combined joint operations area (CJOA) have come together to provide a better coordinated effort to protect the health and welfare of the 4,500 service members, Department of Defense employees and contractors in East Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. -
2020-04-17
Medical workers to stay in Smith Hall during COVID-19 crisis
The Suffolk Journal, Suffolk University's student run newspaper, reports on Suffolk's efforts to help the community during the pandemic -
2020-04-17
Can’t walk across the stage, so yard signs it is.
My daughter is a high school senior. They are no longer able to experience all the typical American high school experiences. As a way of acknowledging the kids our school district placed these signs in the yard of every graduating senior. -
2020-04-17
COVID-19 Journal
A weekly journal for a Suffolk University English class. -
2020-04-17
Brennan's Restaurant 'Joe Ecstatic' Takes Over Restaurants' Social Media
Brennan's Restaurant offers a funny parody of the Tiger King with the restaurant's own Joe Ecstatic during pandemic closure. -
2020-04-17
WWOZ Announces "Jazz Fest In Place," New Orleans, LA
WWOZ, a local New Orleans Radio Station, announces plans to air recordings from past Jazz Fests on the days that Jazz Fest was supposed to occur before COVID-19 cancellations. -
2020-04-17
Looking after office pot plants
Staff have vacated offices in the Law School at the University of Melbourne but pot plants from all floors are being looked after in the lobby -
2020-04-17
Chalk footpath message
Easter chalk message on neighbourhood footpath -
2020-04-17
Deserted University campus
The University of Melbourne campus has a deserted feel due to access restrictions -
2020-04-17
University access restrictions
Access to the University of Melbourne Parkville campus has been restricted for some weeks now -
2020-04-17
Pastoring through a Pandemic
It’s Saturday night, March 21, and my son and I have spent pretty much all day creating an iMovie Sunday morning worship service for my two congregations. Now we can’t figure out how to upload it from Aidan’s school-issued computer onto YouTube. This is the first time I’ve had to do this all online. I call Allysen, a teacher in the school district and a member of one of my churches. She suggests I try putting it on a flash drive. It’s 11:55 p.m. My son’s computer is set to turn off at midnight and won’t open up again until 6 a.m. I frantically run downstairs and search for a flash drive in an attempt to transfer the iMovie of the worship service from his computer to mine. My kitchen drawers are a mess. I can’t find a flash drive. I can never find anything when I need it in my disaster of a house. On Facebook Messenger Allysen says, “Just sleep for now and do it in the morning. Your church goers should be a forgiving lot even if it isn’t ready right at 8:30 a.m.” I can’t go to sleep. In a world where nothing is going right, where everything has changed, where this is the first opportunity to prove that I can adapt and lead and be of help to the congregations I love as we navigate these unchartered waters, I need this to happen. I realize my iPhone has iMovie on it. It’s 12:10 a.m. when I open a new “project” and begin to import all the pieces I originally worked with on Aidan’s computer. The video clips of Mom and Jill singing the hymns; the video of Allysen reading scripture (the video that had taken hours to download via Google drive); the short little clip of the Smorstad family sharing the peace, sweet twin boys—age 9 months—giggling and drooling. God, I miss them all. Aidan had told me it would be too difficult to add the words of the hymns to the screen, but I do it. At 1 a.m. I figure out how to add photos of the hymns as cutaways to the movie. I discover this by mistake. I’m pressing buttons without knowing what I’m doing. I swear it feels like the Spirit has given me the button I need. I forget to give thanks. I’m too busy making a movie that is somehow also a worship service for two congregations that can no longer meet in person. Seminary has not prepared me for this. I have a YouTube channel only because I had used it to share videos of my sister’s senior trombone recital years before. I had never made an iMovie. Now I’ve made one between the hours of midnight and 3 a.m. It’s done and I’m proud of it. I’ve gone from waking up at 7 a.m. on Friday morning with the idea of including multiple parishioners in the making of the movie—to being ready to upload it to YouTube at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning. In the future, I’ll allow more time. But it won’t make it any easier. For each piece that becomes routine and knowable, another piece becomes a challenge. How to convert files that aren’t allowed by iMovie? Google it. Pay $6 for an app that will do the conversion. Problem solved. How to create hymn files when your mom refuses to keep singing for these worship services? Sister to the rescue. She discovers openhymnal.org. I play the midi file of the hymn through old, donated speakers attached to my work computer, place my iPhone at the perfect distance from the speakers (too close and it’s fuzzy; too far away and it’s too soft—this I learned through much trial and error), hit the voice memo record button on my phone and try my best to have some sort of decent breath support as I sing the public domain hymns that I can include without worrying about copyright infringement. It would help if I could breathe. It would help if I could sleep. It would help if I wasn’t trying to do this, basically, all alone. It would help if I could turn over the movie production to some high school student who loves such things and who could do it all easily and maybe even enjoy it. But now I feel like it’s my job. I think I should be spending more time calling my people, but I can’t seem to manage much calling. Each conversation leaves me absolutely spent. I sob after each goodbye. I miss these people. I don’t want to make phone calls or iMovies. I want to give hugs. I want to talk face to face, leaning in to listen well, holding hands as we pray for hope and healing. The night before Easter I can’t sleep. Awake at 2 a.m., I watch the worship service created by my good friend, a volunteer music director in a neighboring town. The service is beautiful. I love my friend. And I miss her. At 3 a.m. I watch another worship service created by another dear friend, a pastor in my corner of Iowa, skipping ahead to get to her sermon. I’ve already read it, as she asked me two days before for input, but now I get to hear it. Receive it. It’s beautiful. Needed. At 4 a.m. I click on YouTube news and lay in bed listening to death counts. It’s Easter morning. At 5 a.m. I get out of bed and go to church. I’m supposed to join an invitation-only zoom gathering by 5:40 a.m. My computer is sluggish and won’t load the meeting. I hate technology. I hate being so damn dependent on it. Christ can rise from the dead but can’t make this computer do what it’s supposed to do. I finally use my iPhone to connect to the meeting. It’s a gathering of women from around the world, an informal worship service of sorts that grew out of a single Tweet. “How to faithfully celebrate Easter this year: Only women on the Zoom call. Call is scheduled before dawn. We speak only of impossible things that would topple the empire.” It turns out to be the most meaningful Easter worship service I’ve ever experienced. As each woman is called by name—just as Jesus called Mary Magdalene by name in the garden outside the empty tomb—we give our testimony. We talk about where we’ve seen the Lord. I think I’m going to say something about the church in which I grew up. How they used the Bible to tell me women couldn’t pastor—I couldn’t preach—but God said yes! But instead, a song I’ve written comes to mind. And my testimony is this: I know that death is real but it will never be the end. I know the song goes on and dancing feet are powerful. I worship later with my family, watching myself lead worship on the television screen in our living room. I smile at my on-screen self. I can’t help it. I want to dance. -
2020-04-17
6,615,000
From the NYTimes print edition 4.17.20 #FordhamUniversity -
2020-04-17
Distance Learning for Preschoolers
My 4 year old daughter attending her first virtual, online preschool class. The teacher set up a reoccurring Zoom meeting for the students to meet for 30 minutes every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in April 2020. This is a picture of her participating in the living room of our house in Jackson, MI. Online, distance learning done by my 4 year old daughter for her preschool classroom. -
2020-04-17
Trump consults faith leaders on phased-in reopening
President Trump held a call on Friday to discuss with faith leaders the return of in-person worship. During the pandemic, most services have been held online due to COVID-19. After classifying some places of worship as "large venues," some religious leaders would like to return to their normal services. -
2020-04-17
Tree Limb Arch, Cumberland Park, Cleveland Heights, OH
Within a few days after Gov. DeWine started Ohio's "shelter in place" order, a small arch made of tree limbs appeared in Cumberland Park along Cumberland Road. On a more recent walk, I found that someone had rebuilt the arch on a larger scale. It's interesting to watch for signs of how people do various things to fight boredom. -
2020-04-17
Tree Limb Peace Sign
This is the reverse side of the post next to a giant peace sign fashioned out of tree limbs. The post reads "Be kind to each other. #ClevelandHeightsPeaceSign" -
2020-04-17
Tree Limb Peace Sign
This post describes an activity related to the peace sign behind it. The post reads "Peace. Please take a power stick. Place it in your yard to remind you of [peace sign] and allow the birds to pick the yarn for their nests." To my mind, this community project shows the need to take actions to combat a sense of futility. Parks are more important than ever in this time when walking outside is one of the only safe ways to be outdoors. It's nice to see the community making an intentional, active use of this park. -
2020-04-17
Tree Limb Peace Sign
Regular walks have taken on new importance for me amid the stress-inducing experience of living in a time of uncertainty. Watching the incremental emergence of spring has been more than a little therapeutic. On April 11, on a walk through Cumberland Park, I noticed that someone had arranged tree limbs into a giant peace sign in a former picnic area. Six days later, I passed by the same spot. Many sticks wrapped in various colors of yarn now lay in the middle of the peace sign, along with a post that explained the purpose of the sticks, inviting people to take a stick home so that birds could pick the yarn for their nests. I like how the community is appropriating spaces in the park to take small actions to restore a sense of agency, however small. -
2020-04-17
Covid-19, History in the Making
Personal beliefs on the pandemic: When glancing at the novel Coronavirus, there are plenty of questions that arise. How will the Coronavirus affect our future? How long will this pandemic last? How can we prevent such pandemics from occurring again? According to researchers across the globe, it is unclear how severe the Coronavirus is as it changes consistently. ... -
2020-04-17
Ventura County faith leaders demand officials allow socially distant gatherings amid coronavirus shutdown
This article follows the feelings and actions of religious leaders during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The article follows the journey of a pastor and a rabbi to hold religious services, though gatherings of more than ten people are prohibited in Ventura County. They believe that attending religious services are part of an American's First Amendments Rights. According to them, the prohibition of in-person religious services is unconstitutional. -
2020-04-17
Graffiti, Davis Square T station - detail
Free groceries for all in need - 22 million Americans are now without work. -
2020-04-17
Graffiti, Davis Square T Station
Six feet is considered the standard for social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This is also around the time when wearing face masks in public became the norm. -
2020-04-17
El buen humor ante el COVID - 19
Una ciudadana de Puno ingreso bailando a una cabina de desinfección de COVID - 19, probablemente entro a hacer compras o trabajar ya que se dirige hacia el interior del mercado. Al momento de ingresar decidió hacer un pequeño baile que fue causa de risas para las personas que estaban a su alrededor. Ademas se muestro contenta y de buen humor a pesar de la situación critica que acarrea el mundo con el corona virus. -
2020-04-17
Fundraiser: Solidarity for the Unhoused, New Orleans, LA
A fundraiser to provide assistance to New Orleans unhoused population. The fundraiser description is as follows: "There are reportedly 1200 unhoused people in New Orleans. More than 420 of them live on the street where they are deprived of access to running water, soap, shelter, and basic food supplies. This makes them a particularly vulnerable group during the Covid 19 pandemic in addition to the hardships and exploitations they already endure. Very little is being done on a federal level to service this population. Despite reports that the homeless people of New Orleans are being relocated to local hotels, only 175 of them have been relocated thus far. The immobile, those who experience mental instability, those who do not speak English and the undocumented will face difficulties assessing the already limited shelter even if more is provided. We are distributing supplies and food daily to those on the street, while attempting to share social distancing guidelines and information about resources throughout the city. Additionally, we are following CDC guidelines while preparing and distributing food." -
2020-04-17
Petition to Help Louisiana's Incarcerated Youth During COVID-19
A charge.org petition to improve conditions for incarcerated youth in Louisiana during the COVID-19 Pandemic. -
2020-04-17
Bad Actors Drinking Club, New Orleans, LA
Actors staying connected through Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. -
2020-04-17
California Legislators Amend AB5 Gig Economy Law to Protect Music Professionals
California legislators on Friday (April 17) announced changes to the language of Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), intending to ensure fair treatment for gig economy workers in the music industry without inhibiting their ability to create and collaborate. -
2020-04-17
What Artists Should Know About the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund
The Recording Academy's philanthropic arm is offering grants to music industry professionals whose livelihood has been affected by the pandemic. MusiCares' COVID-19 Relief Fund is being supported by Spotify through its COVID-19 Music Relief project. Spotify is making a donation to this and all organizations listed, and will match public donations made via the above linked page dollar-for-dollar up to a total Spotify contribution of $10 million. -
2020-04-17
COVID-19 DAILY JOURNAL
A history teacher's perspective of COVID-19 pandemic in his journal. -
2020-04-17
Peru took early, aggressive measures against the coronavirus. It’s still suffering one of Latin America’s largest outbreaks.
Despite aggressive national measures that the Peruvian government took to combat COVID-19, Peru still has one of the largest outbreaks. In part, systemic sanitation issues and social norms contributed.Link to the article. -
2020-04-17
4/7/20, Ambulance Sirens heard in Bklyn
This is an entry from my journal dated 4/7/2020. Ambulance sirens have been the dominant noise on the streets of NYC during this crisis. On this date, I decided to record every ambulance siren I heard passing through my neighborhood of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. -
2020-04-17
Wear a mask
Reflection of wearing a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic. -
2020-04-17
Can't Be There
Reflection about not being able to visit relatives during the COVID-19 pandemic.