Items
Date is exactly
2020-11-30
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2020-11-30
Tree decorations
A comic strip about Covid-19 -
2020-11-30
Creating New Traditions in a Pandemic
One of the traditions in my family is to make lefse, a type of Norwegian flatbread, at Christmas time. This tradition was started by my grandmother, because it was one of the foods that she associated with her childhood Christmases as the child of Norwegian and Swedish immigrants. Every year, no matter what was going on, we gathered together as a family at the start of the Christmas season to make lefse. If you’ve made lefse before, you can attest to it being a labor-intensive process, which involves ricing pounds of potatoes, rolling out dozens of balls of dough until they are paper thin, and frying them one by one on a hot griddle. It’s one of those recipes that works better if you have several people to help. In my family, everyone had a job to do. The youngest children of the family were put in charge of popping air bubbles that rose from the dough while it cooked. The older kids took turns flouring the rolling boards and rolling out the dough. The adults were responsible for cooking the lefse, a process that involved transferring huge rounds of dough to the hot griddle using long turning sticks. Even family members who were not culinarily inclined were put to work, folding the finished lefse and packaging it up so that it could be frozen, so that it was available for Christmas morning. It was a family affair, that filled the kitchen up with laughter and stories and more than one flour fight. Family lefse day is one of the most enduring memories of my childhood. When the pandemic made it unsafe to travel or even to visit my family, I found myself facing a Christmas without being able to participate in my family’s lefse making tradition. There were many teary video calls to family members as we all came to terms with the fact that we would be missing this tradition for the first time in nearly 40 years. At this point, after enduring months of isolation because of COVID-19, I was devastated. It didn’t feel like the holidays without this tradition and making lefse by myself felt overwhelming. I was telling my friend Mike about how sad I was over missing out on this tradition, when he offered a solution. We would both quarantine for 14 days, purchase all the ingredients we needed and have them delivered, and then he and I would make as much lefse as we could. I was stunned by his generosity. After all, this was not his tradition. In fact, he’d never even eaten lefse before. But he saw a way that he could help a friend feel better after such a trying year. So, we did just that. With only two of us, it took us about six hours, but we ended up with nearly thirteen pounds of lefse that eventually got sent to family members in four different states. The best moment came when we all video chatted from our homes on Christmas morning, just to eat the lefse together. It was different than normal, but it was a joyous moment. Mike joined us on the call and shared some of the challenges we had making thirteen pounds of lefse in a tiny apartment in the middle of a pandemic. This year, he’s been invited to my parents’ house to join in on the family lefse making day. After all, it’s tradition. -
2020-11-30
Only 2020
Andrew Brandt Date: 11/30/21 New Orleans, LA Only 2020 Article 1: California surpasses 18,000 coronavirus deaths, nears 1 million cases It feels like it was not long ago, March 13, 2020. On March 13th, 7 people in the United States had died. Now, just in California, 18,000 people have died. On March 13th, 536 people contracted COVID-19. Now, just in California, we have 1,000,000 cases. We got here by the government and the president downplaying the coronavirus since it first entered the United States. “It will disappear when it gets warmer.” - Donald Trump. It did not disappear when it got warmer, it got worse. Over 250,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. This was a complete failure on the part of our government and our health agencies. Hospitals will be overrun by the end of December. America is now averaging twice the amount of total cases in China a day. China was the epicenter of the disease. America is the laughing stock of the world right now. Article 2: Experts say you shouldn't expect a coronavirus vaccine before December Pfizer announced encouraging news today, but we should not get our hopes up. Most scientists say that a vaccine will not be available to the general public until April-May of next year. This would mean that this entire school year would be plagued by the pandemic. We will be in these masks for a while longer. I hope that the vaccine will come sooner, but it seems unlikely that a vaccine will be approved, much less distributed by the end of December. At least my first year of high school will be semi-normal, but from now on, nothing will ever be normal again. -
2020-11-30
Pass-Fail Hardball
This article talks about how, prior to the beginning of the Fall 2020 semester, some university students were seeking pass-fail grades in order to accommodate for the lack of stability during the pandemic. It discusses how several universities, such as Clemson University, the University of South Carolina, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill denied their students' requests for pass-fail, while others, such as Baylor University simply acknowledged the requests and did little afterwards, all in the name of "student success". While many universities released statements saying that they understood student stress levels, they were unwilling to adapt the grading procedure to accommodate pass fail grading. -
2020-11-30
L’hiver sera difficile
This hopeful message from Canada's Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, says that Canadians have a plan to get through the winter, and then will move on to economic recovery. -
2020-11-30
Premier blames South Asian community for spike in Covid cases
This article was made in response to comments made by the premier of Alberta, Jason Kenny towards the South Asian community of Calgary. In particular, Kenny had attributed the social gatherings and “tradition” of the South Asian community being the cause for a spike in Covid cases throughout the province. His comments were viewed as an extension of rising anti-Asian racism throughout the province, which can largely be attributed to the rhetoric of U.S. president Donald Trump as a means to escape liability for mismanaging the pandemic response. The community he blamed in particular is traditionally working class, who are employed in much of the city’s service and logistical jobs which are essential to the province as a whole. From food vendors, taxi drivers, cleaners, city employees – the frontline workers, those who are exposed most to the virus. Even more so, Jason Kenny’s comments caused further anger as he was somehow unable to assign the same blame to the swaths of mask-less protestors who marched in large groups throughout the province in defiance of government mandates in the following week. I believe this artifact would prove useful to the collection of Social Justice, mainly it is another Canadian experience based in the growing racialization/politicization of the covid-19 pandemic, and the ways in which conservative governments have attempted to scape-goat their own failings onto vulnerable communities. As throughout the pandemic, especially in the Western World, there has been an unnerving attempt to racialize the pandemic. Such as placing the blame on Chinese people, then Asian people as a whole; similarly this extends to working-class communities who man the frontlines to keep society functioning as normal. These communities (in regards to Calgary) are primarily composed of new immigrants who were not born in Canada, by Jason Kenny blaming these people for the upsurge in cases, he is exemplifying a racist generalization towards the entirety of the South Asian community of Calgary. In regards to Canada, this item matters to display that our pandemic experience was no different in that it illustrated the stark racial divides throughout the province, once compared to the primarily white ‘freedom’ marchers (who were also in the company of fascist/white-supremacist organizations such as the Proud Boys, Sons of Odin) walked proudly through our cities mask-less with little to no government comments as similar to Kenny’s on the SA community. I want to add these to the collection of Social Justice, as articles like these were first spurned on by anti-racist activists who initially heard Kenny’s remarks. What followed shortly after was a provincial outcry directed towards the premier for his questionable history in regards to racism. Situations like these prove that there is systemic racism at work within the government of Alberta, as the government racialized the issue of Covid-19, while looking away from the predominantly white mask less marchers. -
2020-11-30
Starbucks Holiday Mask
A mask may appear uninteresting compared to other strange items that have risen in the coronavirus era, however it is important because it represents decency. This item demonstrates Generation Z’s awareness to society’s current important issues. This generation has been active during the BLM movement, the 2020 election, and in many other instances. The mask design is irrelevant but the mask itself carries a message. From what I’ve seen this generation won’t hesitate to condemn one for not wearing a mask and therefore are promoting its importance. During a pandemic, a mask is not a political tool but an attempt at keeping you and others safe. -
2020-11-30
Nova Scotia Premier, Stephen McNeil, calls Atlantic bubble a success, despite withdrawal of other provinces
A statement from Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil outlining his thoughts on the Atlantic Bubble. -
2020-11-30
Winter, then Recovery
This hopeful message from Canada's Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, says that Canadians have a plan to get through the winter, and then will move on to economic recovery. -
2020-11-30
GOC Fall Economic Statement
The Government of Canada's Fall Economic Statement. -
2020-11-30
Remington the Chocolate Lab
Remington got more attention on this extended break that I got due to the pandemic. She loved all the extra attention and love that she got when she would usually be the only one at the house while everyone is at school and work. Me and my cousins found it fun to make her pull us while riding the hoverboard. She also got the most exercise during this break as well. -
2020-11-30
Frontier Psychiatrist ReAnimated
70 animators came together to reanimate a strange music video known as Frontier Psychiatrist by the Avalanches. Common in the artist community for things like music videos, reanimation projects are great labors of love. I cannot explain how well this was put together and done. -
2020-11-30
Protest: a Duty, More Than a Right!
Protests are happening everywhere People know their rights, the right to protest People know their duties, duty to be informed But shouldn't they be informed, before they protest about what they protest? Maybe they are protesting for the right cause, but in a wrong way? -
2020-11-30
Protest Amid the Pandemic
Protests are happening in Punjab, India amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Punjab government 3.330 farmers had committed suicide, from 2000-2019. Due to the high debt, 536 farmers took their lives in just 2019 alone. Will privatization of the farmer market increase or decrease the debt? The new farm bill which was passed on September 27 is stressing a lot of people, they are confused and are protesting. Earlier, the government bought directly from the farmers. The new bill makes the farmer market a free market making entry for private companies. Privatization is good for the development of the country, but what about the small farmers? They are worried, stressed and not aware about what’s going on. They need a Minimum Selling Price (MSP), which is already given to them by the government so why the protests? -
2020-11-30
Quarantine Paintings
I decided to upload a picture of some of the paintings that I’ve made over the quarantine. When COVID-19 first started and we all went into quarantine I wondered what I was going to do during all my free time. I love to paint and I almost never had time to dedicate and do it. But now with all of this free time I had no excuse put to getting crafty and painting. As you can tell from this photograph there are a variety of paintings that I made. Some are pretty backgrounds with song lyrics/songs. My favorite one that I painted was the sunset sky with clouds. I also have a couple Disney paintings as well. It was also a huge help to get distracted and get my mind off of everything that was going on in the world. It was also very relaxing. These paintings are just some of the many things that I made during the quarantine. I also started to do embroidery as well as make Mickey ears and many many other crafts. It’s very important to me because it’s one of the ways that I was able to express myself during this weird tough time. I’m very thankful that I was able to find a creative outlet. I was also able to take some time for myself. Painting was my quiet relaxing time. From getting to choose colors, mixing, choosing what to paint. Just the whole process in itself made me feel a little bit better. I remember when quarantine first started that the stores were all running out of paint and canvases so I’m guessing I’m not the only one who came up with the idea of painting during this time. I’m glad people were also able to find outlets and time to relax and just paint. -
2020-11-30
Back-to-Back Fully Online Semesters
As soon as the Coronavirus hit, everyone was affected in either how they would work or how they were getting an education. I am currently an architecture student at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA. I think everyone had hoped that the pandemic would be wrapped up in just a few months but unfortunately it was not. By summer 2020 I was about to begin my second semester of sophomore year with it being fully online. It was an extreme learning curve, classes were all on Zoom, and there was limited communication between me and my fellow classmates. We had to adapt from the handmade models we had done in previous years to digital models on new programs we had not used before. Through the entirety of the summer online semester, we had high hopes that somehow the fall semester would be different. But it was not. While the promise of hybrid classes was presented, everything was still so unknown that many of those promises fell through. We were told of the potential of a few in-person studio days and many students, like myself, decided to live on campus or even sign leases for apartments. But we were again met with the harsh reality of those in-person classes not happening. My school had come out with a plan of in-person studio days and we juniors were shocked to see that only our grade was given zero. We argued for at least a few in-person days throughout the semester, especially after having spent the entire summer semester fully online. We were finally given an opportunity to have an in-person class. While it is the reality that some of these events were out of the control of the school, it is still taking quite a toll on the students. We are losing that essential in-person connection that we usually get with classes such as studio. With the Covid-19 virus still ever present in November of 2020, we all have dim hopes of what the Spring semester of 2021 will bring. -
2020-11-30
Support the arts in Arizona: Ways to help museums, theaters, galleries during the pandemic
With the arts and museums struggling to stay afloat during COVID-19, a local newspaper suggests ways to support them. -
2020-11-30
Home for The Holidays
I live in Florida and my friend goes to school in Vermont, but for the holiday's she decided to come home. We knew this would be risky situation with her flying and having stops between, so I was able to get an extra rapid test for her since my family was already getting tested. We haven't seen each other since August, so we had been eager to be back at home together again, even though things are so different. Everyone has gone through a difficult time this year; one of the things I feel hit home is that my final stages of "childhood" and cherishing everything before I move was not at all what I wanted it to be. Now that my best friend and I are safely home together for winter break, I know we will both be doing our best to soak up all of our hometown before everything changes for good. -
2020-11-30
The year things changes
before covid my life was pretty normal i drove to school and work. i was usually a person who was somewhat athletic but not completely. but assoon as covid hit i started to realizes a change. this change was in my travel habits. i used to drive to places with other or be with crowedroom of people but due to covid i had to rethink my ways of tranportation. and that is where biking became a new hobby and mode of transportation. with biking i was able to keep my distance and not be near people in large groups. as i picked up biking i discover i was having more fun and was a lot happier. biking suddenly gave me the chance to see the would in a slower view and i could focus more on that. with al the horrible thing happening this year i was able to escape it almost by biking and at the same time be safe. biking gave me a new view of the would and a new mind set of taking thing slower not rushing. now i biking nearly every where I go and I enjoy it and it has giving me a new activity to due during covid. -
2020-11-30
Becoming a Care-Giver During a Quarantine
While walking outside in early March, my husband suddenly bent over, grabbed his chest, and gasped for air. We got an emergency appointment for an electrocardiogram (EKG) and a sonogram, which were scheduled about one hour apart. While undergoing the sonogram, the doctor who had read the EKG burst into the exam room and exclaimed, "You have to take him to the hospital NOW. Drive slowly—don’t rush. They’re ready for him; go in through admissions, not emergency." A few days later, Arnold underwent open heart surgery—a triple-bypass procedure. After his first week of recovery, his hospital nurse informed me that I was no longer allowed to visit because of pandemic safety measures. Complications arose, so Arnold stayed in the hospital for 23 days, while I remained at home able to communicate with him only by phone, and unable to talk to his doctors and nurses. Arnold was finally released under the condition that he would participate in cardiac rehabilitation but, on the day of his release, all of the rehab facilities closed due to the pandemic. So the doctors; their assistants; and physical & occupational therapists explained, by phone, what I needed to do to become Arnold’s care giver and therapist at home. This, in addition to having to learn how to nurse the 1-inch wide by 1-inch deep hole in his leg from where they had removed the veins they used for his bypass — the stitches had broken loose. In the weeks that followed, I drove Arnold to the office for his follow-up visits with the surgeon, but I was not allowed to go in with him. I, the care-giver; pseudo nurse; and physical & occupational quasi-therapist, was prohibited from seeing the doctor and his assistant while they examined my husband and gave instructions about how to continue his recovery. Instead, I sat in the parking lot while my husband insisted that these medical professionals conference me in by phone. I received oral instructions over my cell phone about how to modify Arnold’s ongoing care, but with no demonstrations. So I did not know if I was doing things correctly until his next visit, when they would correct me and provide more detail about how to keep him alive. During this time, all encounters involving other human beings were my responsibility, while Arnold remained in quarantine. I remained vigilant—or, more accurately, constantly on edge—about not bringing the virus into our home, sterilizing myself as well as all groceries and packages that crossed our threshold. I had to replace my wedding band with a thinner one because of the skin damage that formed from so much hand-washing. Once the surgeon released Arnold to his cardiologist, we began video-visits—at last, I was allowed into the appointment—virtually. The cardiologist urged me to invent activities my husband could do around the house that would take the place of formal occupational therapy. Quite a challenge, since Arnold was prohibited from lifting anything that weighed more than five pounds so he wouldn’t pop the wires that now held his sternum together—wires that could puncture his vital organs if broken. No pressure. Fortunately, Arnold survived his surgery, and we both survived his unorthodox post-op care. He can now lift up to 25 pounds and, just yesterday, he asked when I was going to "stop coming up with all of these crazy projects" for him to do. I told him to take it up with his cardiologist. We’re approaching normal again. Now we’re anxiously awaiting the release of the COVID-19 vaccination. -
2020-11-30
Finding The Sun Through The Clouds.
2020 is being described as the worse year of modern times. The year started off with an international crisis in the middle east, a series of devasting natural disasters, and of course the widespread pandemic of Covid-19. The pandemic ignited a financial crisis, and many people lost their jobs. As to date, the virus has claimed 1.46 million lives worldwide. It is understandable why so many people are biding their time, praying for this disastrous year to finally end. As I reflected back on the year, I am conflicted on my opinions on it. Covid-19 ruined my senior year of high school. I lost my graduation, my prom, and spring sporting events. I was forced to quarantine for many months in the springs, unable to see my close friends. My summer was lackluster due to the restrictions placed on my community. For my first semester in college I hoped to study abroad, however, Covid squandered that adventure too. I could look back on this year with a pessimistic mindset; however, that would be an untruthful interpretation of this year. This year has contained so many wonderful things, which have had a positive impact on my life. After years of persevering in high school, I finally got accepted into my dream college. I got into my first serious relationship with a wonderful girl. And despite Covid restrictions, I have been able to make so many new and lasting friendships in college. It is easy to write 2020 off as an awful year and put forth and effort to forget about it. However, I believe it is important to reflect on the positive events of this year. Ignoring the good things from 2020 will only strengthen its negative effects for years to come. If one can find the positives of 2020 then the year would not have been a complete waste.