354 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7fd5c2a8e2101b4860312352874c6ec3.pdf 753812d2169cac42bbd9fc121c0ac106 PDF Text Text Day 61. by windoworks So here we are coming up on our 10th week in iso (remember I told you about iso yesterday). Winter has faded away and Spring is taking tentative steps forward. My hands may never recover from the intense daily routine of washing them every 5 minutes, in spite of the hand cream stations dotted around the house for us to lather on every time we pass. My hair is a sad story. Ever so slowly, at the crown of my head, the grey hairs creep forward. Craig keeps offering to use the clippers on me, but I’m not that desperate. After years of beautiful, shellacked fingernails and carefully pedicured toenails, try as hard as I can, my nails are rough and catch on everything. With my fingernails, the only solution is to cut them very short and file, file, file. I have almost finished coloring the book the children gave me sometime ago, and luckily I have other partially finished coloring books. My first jigsaw puzzle has reached the difficult sky portion and I have yet to take up my resurrected tapestry. I order groceries every Monday and keep a running list the rest of the week. How long ago now was it that I used to cruise the aisles in the grocery store, wondering if I had enough oats for the next week, or should I buy another container, just in case? Now, if I forget something, it goes on the list and I manage without it till then. I’ve also realized that 1 count means just that and we have had the new experience of making 1 avocado last until the next order - and we eat a LOT of avocados. Items that I cannot find at the grocery store are now delivered to me by Amazon. I always practiced shopping locally but its so much harder to do that in a pandemic, and that makes me feel guilty. Last week the first of our local, independent restaurants closed due to the pandemic. It seems if you can’t adapt your restaurant, cafe, ice cream store or coffee shop to take out, you simply can’t keep going. And its affecting other types of stores. Also last week a clothing/spa store in East Grand Rapids closed. They have a newer, second store in Ada and that one will remain in place. A local restaurant owner friend has begun an online discussion of closing sections of streets down to allow restaurants to place outdoor eating opportunities. A local coffee spot redesigned the previous owners garden space to make a coffee garden. It functions all year round (no mean achievement in Michigan) with heated igloos for patrons to sit in during the winter. In the Netherlands, one restaurant has constructed individual greenhouses for patrons to dine in. Very interesting. In Australia, New Zealand and England, restrictions are being slowly eased. New Zealand in particular, has an astonishingly low number of cases and an even lower number of deaths. In Australia each state is making its own decisions regarding easing. In England I think builders are able to return to work - and perhaps manufacturing? Scotland and Wales are retaining the current ‘stay at home’ message. �In Michigan we are asked to stay at home until May 28 and all government, county and city committees, boards etc are mandated to meet remotely until June 30. Airlines are beginning to struggle to survive and some are shutting down service to smaller cities. Two regional feeder jet services are closing altogether, so many places will have no flight connection to larger cities. Stats: Michigan has a 24 hour increase of 382 new cases and 25 new deaths. Kent County now has 2281 confirmed cases and another day of no new deaths. Governor Whitmer has introduced a 6 stage program of reopening. It’s interesting to me that all those people who demonstrated for more freedoms are getting them but not how they imagined. I was looking at the Covid regulations in place for shopping at a huge garden nursery in Allendale and they are very strict. I read of an ice cream store in another state that opened for curbside pickup and the customers were so aggressive and demanding that the owner closed it down to online ordering only. There is such an anger and frustration and a demand for life as it was, but I believe that life is gone. I think we have to negotiate and accept the new normal. This is what’s left of the old parking ramp for Blodgett Hospital - a hospital we can walk to. I wonder what’s going in there? �And hooray for my next door neighbor Lea - she really is a Superstar Teacher! �Another photo from my friend Merrilyn - a real ‘blast from the past’, here we are tadpoling. I’m the shaggy haired woman in the middle, Asher is crouched on the left and Zoe is in the middle with her hand in the water. Ah memories! And speaking of memories - today’s flashback. This one is a biggie. The Terracotta Warriors. This is the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi (literally First Emperor of Qin or China). These terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huangdi were buried with the emperor to protect him in his afterlife. They have excavated 4 of the pits and uncovered 8,000 figures. The tomb area covers 38 square miles altogether. Uncovering and restoring the life sized figures is a long painstaking job. The pits were covered with roofs which fell in over time and pushed the figures over. As they fell, they broke into pieces and those pieces were mixed together, making restoration very difficult. �This photo shows the pits with the roof collapsed on top of the figures. �This shows the size of one pit. On the right and left you can see the tiny figures of tourists walking around the top. ��In the top photo you can see the details of the uniforms and faces, with horses behind. In the bottom photo, this is the reconstructed concubine chariot with 4 horses. All the sculptures were painted originally, but once uncovered the paint curled off in the air almost instantly. �Here is the reconstruction area where they literally piece the figures back together, bit by bit. This was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Qin Shi Huangdi was obsessed with immortality. He constructed his tomb with everything he thought he would need in the afterlife. His actual burial tomb is yet to be opened but we have very good details about it from the ancient historian, Sima Qian. He said: the ceiling was studded with precious stones depicting the night sky on the day the Emperor died. On the floor, the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers flow in mercury into the China Sea. The tomb was lit with whale oil lamps (the longest burning substance known at the time). He was buried with a huge treasure of coins and silver and gold. Finally, to protect the tomb from grave robbers, it was booby trapped with primed crossbows. Chinese archeologists have been very slow and cautious about opening this personal tomb and are leaving it to future archeologists with more advanced tools to open it without damage. I could tell you stories of his paranoia and how in later years he covered his face with a veil to thwart assassination attempts, but that’s a story for another day. Hoping you and yours are safe and well. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-11_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-61 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05-11 Title A name given to the resource Day 61 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e2e16fa4a7e7abfb2f5039206b0239cd.pdf 9fa3564045b76007a97b92ae9947c547 PDF Text Text Day 60 – Mothers Day by windoworks Not the usual Mothers Day. This week has been a difficult one for many friends. Perhaps its the full moon, perhaps because its the 9th week of isolation (or iso as it is now known, or bubble), perhaps because there’s another 18 days of state Stay At Home order left. We’re all talking of being tired, cranky, sad, restless, bored but mostly anxious. I don’t know about you but my anxiety levels go through the roof regularly and it is a daily battle to pull them back down to a manageable level. This Mothers Day is grey day with the promise of a lot of rain. Thats okay because I didn’t have any outings planned anyway. In Australia, Oliver ‘gave’ Zoe a Mothers Chocolate Gift Bag and card. How clever at 9 months of age. (Thanks Bernie and Drew). ��I thought I’d write the stats section sooner, so it can be like swallowing bad tasting medicine followed by a treat to make you feel better. In the US we have 1.3 million confirmed cases and 79, 696 deaths. In Michigan we have 45, 646 confirmed cases and 4,343 deaths. In Kent County we have 2,213 confirmed cases and we are holding at 41 deaths. In Seoul, South Korea, they had to close 2,100 nightclubs and bars due to a new outbreak at one club. Here in the US, the White House seems in disarray. As I mentioned yesterday, 2 aides to trump and pence tested positive and a number of top members of the Task Force, including Robert Redfield (Head of the CDC) and Dr Anthony Fauci have quarantined themselves and are working from home for the next 14 days. Other people working in the White House are nervous about coming to work. They have restricted access to the Oval Office and I believe trump and pence are tested daily. I would like to think that testing is the same one I endured -invasive and very painful. (I am angry, hear me roar). trump continues to publicly discuss ‘acceptable losses’. I assumed that meant those citizens in my age group but perhaps not. Governor Cuomo announced yesterday that 3 of the 73 children in New York, sickened with a mysterious, toxic shock syndrome linked to coronavirus, have died. In my imagination I see doctors and scientists all around the world saying daily: yes, we’ve got it! We understand it! And then: **!!^^##! What is this new development/symptom? Where did that come from? I think they’re running as fast as they can to catch up with the new developments. Yesterday Obama (in a leaked telephone call) described trump’s handling of the pandemic as “an absolute chaotic disaster”. He went on to say that it would have been bad with the best of governments. I long to hear him say: don’t worry, its very bad but we’re Americans, we can and we will survive this. Fortunately for us Michiganders, Governor Whitmer says this every so often. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day with (once again) a cold wind blowing. So I made us a packed lunch and we drove to Holland to visit the lakeshore and eat our lunch in the car. We drove through downtown Holland and on the way saw some of the beautiful tulips planted all around the downtown area for the Annual Holland Tulip Time Festival. It has been an annual event for over 90 years and features daily parades along the Main Street downtown, with groups of clog dancers in traditional Dutch costumes and famous Michiganders marching. One parade at the beginning of the festival features the Governor of Michigan sweeping the street clean with the other marchers, using big straw brooms. The tulips in the parks nearby are spectacular. It takes the organizing committee 11 months to plan the next years event which generates an estimated $48 million in economic impact annually. The organizers asked those people who had committed sponsorship to consider donating it as the organization is facing serious financial difficulty. In other festival news, for the first time ever in over 50 years, the Festival of the Arts in Grand Rapids, held on the first weekend in June has been cancelled and in its place they are organizing a virtual version. �Some of the popular eateries and boutique stores in Holland’s Main Street were offering online shopping with curbside pickup. We didn’t stop but kept driving on towards the lake. We were expecting that the Lakeshore parking lot might be closed after the debacle at Gand Haven which led to that area being closed, but happily it was open and everyone was behaving themselves. I think the strong cold wind blowing was a deterrent. Once again, we were parked cheek by jowl with other cars. On our right the woman seemed to be reading her cell phone and on our left the couple got out their lunch and although we didn’t acknowledge each other, we sat in companionable silence and ate our lunches together and watched the wind whipping the waves up on the lake. Then Craig and I drove all along the lakeshore back to Lake Michigan Drive and then turned inland to home. It was lovely and sad at the same time and it was my Mothers Day outing. One more Oliver photo, just because ��Today’s flashback: I really have forgotten what order these excursions in Xi”an took place and it probably doesn’t matter. Anyway today’s excursion was to Empress Wu Zetian’s tomb. She was the only woman to rule China. Her reign was from 690 - 705 during the Tang Dynasty. She started out as a 13 year old concubine to the Emperor Gaozong. When she was 31 years old she married Gaozong after convincing him to abandon his legitimate wife. 5 years later he had a stroke and she became the real power in China, through her 2 sons who were too young to rule. The emperor died in 683 and she spent the next 7 years working to build up her power until she became Empress in 690. This is the main avenue connecting the two towers at the tomb complex where she and Gaozong are both buried. The layout is meant to be a smaller replica of Chang’an. During her 15 year reign she strengthened the exam system by recruiting men of all ranks to become members of the bureaucracy. She led military campaigns against the Koreans and she fostered a very highly cultured court. She was an excellent musician, composer and poet. She instructed historians to write biographies of famous women from China’s past such as Lady Fu Hao of the Shang Dynasty (almost 2,000 years prior to Wu Zetian). Eventually she was forced to abdicate by her son in 705. ��Top photo: one of the 2 towers at the tomb complex. In this bottom photo, Craig and Zoe climbed up above the avenue. (Of course they did - too hot for me). We were not allowed to go into either tomb as they are sealed to the public. Evidently they have identified 17 other tombs at the site (high officials, royal children etc) but only 5 have been excavated so far. ��These little statues which I loved, are representative of the ideal (chubby) woman during the Tang Dynasty and particularly Wu Zetian. Later ideal women in the following dynasties reverted back to slender possibly helpless women that Empress Wu would have hated. I took a number of other photos of these fat mamas and then came home and created a Fat Mama window which sold to a good home. I’m all typed out. Stay safe and keep others safe too. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-10_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-60 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05-10 Title A name given to the resource Day 60 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4f577ee324b54ea55dc8717b0003b719.pdf 349d3b2474bd2c587fdd03ba85b9e712 PDF Text Text Day 7,429. Oh all right, day 59. by windoworks The problem is, I’m scared. There are all these people out there across the US who are screaming (and I say that literally) to be allowed to go out and resume their normal life. You know, the life they had before the onset of coronavirus. The birthday drinks, the cookouts at the beach, the driving across the States and staying at hotel chains as you go. Going to the movies to watch the new blockbuster, eating out at a restaurant whenever you felt like it - I could go on and on, but you get the picture. I think about these things, I remember them and I want to be able to do them too but then I think, no. Craig and I tested negative. Now while that was a huge relief at the time, in the weeks since we’ve realized that our negative status makes us vulnerable. As one scientist put it: we’re dry tinder just waiting to be ignited. Now intellectually I know that the economy is failing and there has to be steps taken to restart it slowly. So states are trying to decide how to reopen safely and thats an oxymoron. There really is no way to reopen a city or a town or a state safely until the virus is either gone or under control. And some Mayors and Governors talk about ‘acceptable losses’. Thats a bit like culling the herd and I suspect it is my age group that is in the acceptable loss range. This morning I read that trump said teachers over 60 shouldn’t go back to teaching for a while. Pardon? And while I am reluctantly on the subject of trump and pence, both of them have close aides who tested positive this week. The press secretary to pence tested asymptomatic (no cough, temperature, runny nose, or sore throat but very contagious)- and pence chose to visit the Mayo Clinic, flout their rules completely, and refuse to wear a mask. It’s a bit disheartening to watch these irresponsible antics and then look at other countries in the world where their person in charge has the country’s best interests at heart. Sigh. So here on 300 block Auburn , yesterday was the last day of school for seniors. The families with a senior made this effort. ����In other happy news, while talking to a friend on the phone late yesterday afternoon I saw the first hummingbird of the season at the feeder outside the tv room window. There’s a double bird seed block feeder out there too and the range of birds that call there is just wonderful. I love watching them. Sorry, there’s no photo of the hummingbird this time. Here’s a daylight shot of the arch in the back garden. Yesterday we took my friend Mary Alice’s advice and bought 2 white summer/fall blooming clematis from our local nursery (curbside pickup) and Craig will plant them when the weather warms again. We will turn the lawn area into a meadow, hopefully. So what else am I doing apart from writing this blog? The Enrichment Committee for the Women’s City Club is still active and I am co-chair with my friend Wendy. We will have a Zoom committee meeting next Friday as we negotiate to turn all our researched and booked future programs into virtual presentations so there is something every Thursday for our members to enjoy. I have to say that Wendy and I are organizing this with the help of our committee but the responsibility for the virtual programs being successfully presented goes to our Communications Director, Gloria. We couldn’t do it without her. �This is how far Ive gotten with my first jigsaw puzzle, another daily activity. Stats: Michigan - 46,326 total cases, 4,393 deaths. Kent County - 2,135 total cases, no new deaths. And while we’re talking about Kent County and my home, Grand Rapids, look up a Youtube video - Covid-19: We Will Rise. It is about Grand Rapids and the coronavirus. (Yes, I cried). �This photo was sent to me from my friend Merrilyn. I do love the Statue of Liberty - she gives me hope. An Oliver photo: �Here are Oliver and Zoe sitting in their nearby park and enjoying the warmer weather (even though its fall in Australia). It’s Zoe’s birthday today and tomorrow is her first Mothers Day. Happy, happy, Zoe! And of course, we come to the flashback. Today the HA is sitting right next to me and he will be able to add information to the photos. �One afternoon (still in Xi’an) we drove out to the Famen Temple complex. In this photo, Zoe is standing in front of a Han Dynasty pagoda, dating from the 2nd century CE. Pagodas are a Chinese version of a South Asian Stupa. Stupas and then pagodas are spiritual buildings built to house (originally) sacred pieces or objects of the Buddha - a piece of his robe for example. This pagoda was nearly destroyed in the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, but the monks of the temple surrounded this pagoda and set themselves on fire. This so shocked the young revolutionary guards that they didn’t destroy it. As I write this I remember that we walked around this pagoda and there was a memorial there dedicated to those monks. ��The Chinese government has expanded this Famen temple to an impressive size. Buddhism has seen a resurgence in recent years and the government is happy to support this religion because its non threatening to the party control, unlike other religions such as Christianity. Famen is a huge area - we lined up to board a little people mover to drive from the entrance to the temple in the bottom photo. The tourists were all Chinese and we had to fight to get on the little train. (I thought of my stepmother - elbows out, dear!). The main road goes right through the middle of those 2 giant Buddhas in the top photo. The old pagoda (with Zoe in front) once housed a part of the little finger bone of the Buddha but this relic was moved to the new golden temple above. It is now housed inside a glass case in the middle of a huge marble hall inside the new temple. It seemed a Disneyland version of a Buddhist temple. We shuffled through in a huge long line and Ithink I saw the bone relic. I did see monks in saffron robes inside the temple. Again, it was a staggeringly hot day. I have acquired this (with permission) from my friend Gina who is continuing to sew masks: she still has masks available. For those friends who will wear them, they are free. For those friends who want one but �won’t wear them, they’re $150 each. I love it! FGS, if you have a mask, wear it outside. Help to keep us all safe. See you tomorrow. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-09_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-59 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05-09 Title A name given to the resource Day 59 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/13b091e72b4713c8a4497717fb88c4f7.pdf 0ff8f96780ec70b5fcddd52ffb1f6b43 PDF Text Text Day 58 by windoworks Good morning. It is very cold outside today. Last night Craig had to cover the new raised vegetable garden to protect the flourishing micro greens and teeny tiny lettuce shoots because there was a possible frost forecast. In the east and around the Great Lakes the weather will be extremely cold, perhaps even with some snow dumps. While it is a sunny day outside and has been for the last couple of days, there’s always a nippy cold wind blowing. Yesterday, Yesterdog reopened for take out ordering. Yesterdog is a hot dog eatery founded in 1976 in the center of Eastown. Apart from its huge hotdog selection, it is most famous for being the model for the restaurant hang out for the characters in the film “American Pie”. This photo shows the social distance line up at lunchtime. �In another interesting fact about the film, the writer grew up in East Grand Rapids, a separate city that abuts Eastown and the film was based on his experiences of life in Grand Rapids. Did you know that The Polar Express was also based on East Grand Rapids and downtown Grand Rapids? On their morning walk yesterday Murphy and Craig went past Hillcrest Community Gardens which is all plowed and ready for planting. I think you can rent a plot there if you live in the Fulton Heights Neighborhood. And speaking of vegetable gardens, we continue to receive back-ordered seeds from the supplier. I actually have no memory of what seeds I ordered - that was about 7 weeks ago when I was in a flurry of activity, thinking how we could best occupy the coming days. Craig says the seed packets were so full that we have an endless supply of seeds for the next couple of years. Right now, countries around the world are beginning to ease restrictions. In Lithuania, they are betting that outdoor activity is safer, and they are blocking off streets for outdoor restaurant service. California is encouraging curbside pickup instead. In Seattle Washington, they closed a section of streets to cars during the shutdown and are now considering making up to 20% of streets in �some areas permanently pedestrian only to encourage more walking and cycling. Denmark is opening schools to younger children (who may be less contagious), while Germany is opening for older children (who may do better following instructions). In Melbourne Australia they may lift some restrictions next week and allow 2 people to meet with 2 others. At the same time, businesses are organizing themselves to cautiously reopen while carefully observing distancing and sanitizing rules. Offices are considering staff working in teams, on alternate days. Thus, if 1 person in one team becomes ill, you have a second team ready to take over. My brother-in-law in Sydney who works as a lead cameraman at a national tv channel, has been working in team formation for some weeks now. In the UK, Boris Johnson is giving a press conference on Sunday night and he may begin easing restrictions there. After a cavalier beginning to his leadership at the onset of the virus, he has become much more cautious and mindful after his ICU experience. In interviews he said that for 24 hours or so, doctors discussed plans and alternatives for him if his condition continued to worsen. There really is nothing like a brush with death to clarify your thoughts. But, in many ways, these first phases of reopening are big experiments meant to test the unknowns. Its interesting to me that the countries that have managed to act as a whole, even when they have strong independent regions, have done so much better at handling the pandemic. Of course one of the most paramount requirements is a strong, able leader who guides with common sense, understanding and empathy, and most importantly, listens to the experts who actually know what they’re talking about. I have heard the most arrant nonsense spouted daily in the US by the administration, politicians , some governors and some city mayors. People in authority who endanger their constituents lives without a second thought - the very people who voted them into office. (And thats a discussion for another time). In a completely different tack, my niece Elle (you know the one who lives in Cornwall England) is a very talented artistic person, and this stay at home time has given her the opportunity to explore her artistic talents further. Among a range of items, she has been making these wall or window hangings and donating some of the proceeds to the National Health Service. If you’re interested, look her up online at: completeanduttercraft. Contact Elle for more information (cost etc). You can pay as a PayPal guest, and she will ship it to you. �Remember I told you Craig had his study set up with all his musical instruments? Well here he is. ��I think this is his happy place. ��This is Oliver’s crawling track at home. It’s dark because all the doors along the corridor are closed. He usually crawls from the living room to the kitchen and gazes longingly through the childproof gate at the kitchen doorway. He does love to eat and yesterday they were a bit astonished at daycare when Oliver ate an entire muffin at afternoon tea time. Today’s flashback. Still staying in Xi’an, we visited one of many Han Dynasty tombs. This was the tomb of a high official. We walked down underground to the tomb itself. This is where the official was buried, you can see the skeleton outline. �These colorful demons are coming out of the wall beside that official. I am not sure of the significance of this but they are amazing. �These well preserved paintings were on another section of the tomb complex. Tomorrow we’ll visit the only female Emperor’s tomb and the fabulous terracotta warriors, as our stay in Xi’an comes to a close. As they say in Florida: keep one alligator length apart, wash your hands for 20 seconds, or twice through Happy Birthday, and please, think about wearing a mask when you step out your front door. Lets all keep each other safe. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-08_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-58 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05-08 Title A name given to the resource Day 58 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b48eb819e7c07185e69feacc9cbcf3b9.pdf 7d05dfbd443917fc381d68743952fde9 PDF Text Text Day 57 by windoworks You know that moment when your mind goes completely blank? Okay so give me a minute. I had a long conversation with a dear friend yesterday and we agreed. Neither of us could imagine ourselves feeling comfortable in a movie theater or a concert or a restaurant. And I think thats what some state governors are missing. They can order businesses to open up again and cut off unemployment benefits but they can’t make people get their haircut or eat in a cafe or diner. All around me I see people perfectly comfortable and happy to be able to buy ice cream or hotdogs or donuts or even whole meals at a myriad of places offering take out, but no one near me seems in a rush to go inside stores. There are many small businesses around me, mostly boutique clothing or other speciality stores and a lot of them have made the successful switch to online buying. The list of what I can buy online is massive and it is delivered to my door and I am then notified that it is there. Craig walks Murphy every day but everything we need or would like is either delivered or is a curbside pickup. Here’s another new talent for me. Apparently I wield a mean hair clipper. After Craig’s first attempt to cut his own hair, I said 2 weeks later: let me try. It’s so much easier to cut someone else’s hair than do it yourself. He was so pleased he said I can cut his hair from now on. I can do that. And speaking of haircuts, a hair stylist in Brooklyn has led more than 100 haircuts via Zoom in the past few weeks, here and all over the world. He has some tips online. Look him up - JaBarie Anderson. Murphy went to the vet yesterday. The routine is: stand in the parking lot, call us to let us know you’re here, and we’ll come out (suitably gloved and masked) and get her. I know they gave her a lot of frozen peanut butter while they examined her, took a blood test, gave her a shot, trimmed her nails (yay!) and plucked all the hair out of her ears. This is important for Murphy, without regular hair plucking she is prone to bacterial ear infections. Then the reverse operation. We’ll call you, stand in the parking lot and we’ll bring her back out to you . One result is that she spent the rest of the day shaking her head and flapping her ears. However this morning she seems fine. Craig spent quite a bit of time yesterday afternoon putting together a beautiful wooden arch to go over the entrance to our front path. Finally he said, come out the front and tell me where it should go. And then we both stood and gazed at this beautiful arch, at least 6 -12 inches too narrow each side to fit over the concrete path. At the time it was not funny. We had forgotten to measure the width of the concrete path. After a little consideration we found what turned out to be the perfect spot for it where it looks even better than out the front. ��Here it is in the back garden ready for a climbing plant to be grown up each side. It also helps us think about the meadow and path that will replace the peed on lawn in the front of the arch. This photo was actually taken last night to show you the beautiful moon rising over the rooftops. Stats: testing is slowly (slowly, slowly) increasing locally and in the last few days they tested all those homeless people sleeping overnight at the Mel Trotter shelter downtown. 65% of the people there tested asymptomatic. Not one person was coughing or sneezing or had a temperature but 65% were positive for the virus. If that isn’t the clearest explanation of how invisible and contagious this virus is, I don’t know how else to explain to non believers. This is probably hard to read but this is a graph of how Michigan is testing as opposed to how it should be testing . We are doing an average of 8, 697 tests per day and we should be doing 58, 081 per day. Does that seem like pie in the sky to anyone else? Kent County has 2,016 cases but still just 40 deaths, although each death is devastating to some local family and friends. Yesterday for the first time, I heard of a friend of a friend who was fit and healthy with no underlying ailments, who died from COVID-19 because it attacked her healthy heart. Whoa! �Costco management has begun responding online to those highly offended shoppers who refuse to wear a mask. Whoever is replying to these petty, angry emails has the best sense of humor and always leaves the shopper speechless. For a little humor in your day, look up tucker budzyn online. He is a golden retriever and his comments on every day life are screamingly funny. At the moment there’s fewer posts as his owner is ill, but what is archived is hilarious. Craig did go out to Grand Valley at Allendale and he posted this photo of himself, in his office, wearing a GVSU mask that our neighbor John made. One of the items he collected was an electric keyboard that a colleague has let him borrow for the summer. So now he has 2 tenor saxophones (his own and his fathers), and alto saxophone, a flute and a keyboard all crammed into his home study and he has a wonderful time late every afternoon, playing various instruments. And of course, an Oliver photo because. ��I’m not sure - is it the new shoes? I can just see him as a teenager. Today’s flashback. During one of the days in Xi’an we attended a puppet show. It was not like any puppet show I had seen before and the story was told in Chinese with traditional musical accompaniment. This show tells the famous story of the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang who made an epic journey to India and back. I was lucky to be sitting right next to an Ancient Historian one of who’s areas of expertise is the Silk Roads. He explained the whole story to me. �To show you just how hot the weather was, this woman is spraying the caged birds with water. �One night we went to a culture show which featured dancers and musicians dressed in the fashion of the High Tang Court in the mid-eighth century. Very colorful but a lot of cymbal clashing and music that sounded sharp and uncomfortable to me. I did have another set of photos to show you from a different day excursion but as I can find nothing online (Wikipedia you’ve let me down!) and the HA is out with the dog, it will have to be another day. Stay tuned for the next episode of the days of our lives brought to you from the iPad of a quarantined/selfisolated, frustrated author. To protect others from your possibly asymptomatic self - wear a mask outside. I think we need them in coordinating colors with our daily outfits. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-07_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-57 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05-07 Title A name given to the resource Day 57 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1f8737a4f5c2c0a16e46d184b7827d4f.pdf e7ef1b5da00a392970282fe1517f9319 PDF Text Text Day 56 by windoworks To begin today, this: Pretty wild how we used to eat cake after someone had blown on it. Good times. (I can hear you all going EEEEWWWW!) So it is a lovely sunny day (so far) and a top of 63F, which will be nice. Craig and I have 3 things to do today:Craig is going out to his office to pick up some things (after several emails to set this up); Murphy has a vet appointment for some regular shots, ear plucking and nail trimming and I have a 10:30am zoom business meeting . We’re both overwhelmed. 3 things, 3 things in one day! How funny. There were days with a myriad of meetings, classes, shopping etc before the virus and we raced crazily from one thing to the next. Now (except for today) we try to spread events out to one thing a day. Can we comfortably go back to rushing around every day? I wonder. Today’s stats. 43,950 confirmed cases in Michigan and 4,135 deaths. 1,914 confirmed cases in Kent County and 40 deaths. Easing a little in the Detroit area but still slowly climbing here. Dr London thinks we are about 2 weeks from the peak. Governor Whitmer continues to ease restrictions in 2 week intervals. That way she and her team can see if case numbers begin to rise again and adjust accordingly. TJ our neighbor is frantically trying to get as much finished on the side of his house today, because as an independent builder, he can return to work tomorrow. I think his work will be on outside projects for the foreseeable future. I really want him to replace our kitchen sink with a farmhouse sink and a new faucet but I just can’t think how we can do that safely yet. On our block, people are cleaning closets, working on gardens and repairing broken items. The biggest concerns for our senior graduates on our block is what college will they be attending in the fall and how will they attend it. We watched John Krasinski’s Some Good News online this week and he hosted a graduation ceremony. The week before he hosted a Prom Night. It is all done from his house and it fills a gap for all of us. Watching the graduation piece, Craig and I both got emotional. Each week his show features some topical event and he always does something spectacularly nice. My all time favorite (and I can’t remember if it was episode 2 or 3) was when he was talking to a little girl who missed out on going to see Hamilton due to the theaters closing. He promised to send her and her mother to Broadway New York when the theaters opened up again. Then Lin-Manuel Miranda broke into the feed to announce: we can do better than that. The whole cast of Hamilton sang the song Alexander Hamilton to her from their houses. I cried. I’ll never forget the look on her face. �Yesterday I watched a clip of brass band musicians and singers from 6 or 7 different armed forces units from around the world perform “I’ll be seeing you”. Guess what? I cried. Oliver moments ��Yes that is definitely you Oliver and you are pretty cute. ��On the other hand, this is what we look like the next day after our first long day back at daycare. We are so tired and cross. I think I might have seen that expression on a much older family member. ��Later that same day. Two big naps and a cheese sandwich makes everything all better. I’m not sure how he got the cheese on his nose. Today’s flashback: still in Xi’an. In the early evening we visited the Hui (Muslim) Quarter of the city. This is The Great Mosque of Xi’an. The grounds surrounding it were gorgeous and tranquil. The formation of the Muslim Quarter can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) when Muslim merchants came to Chang’an (Xi’an) via the Silk Road, and the Muslim population rose as families began to settle there. ��Still in the Muslim Quarter, this is the night market which has become a popular tourist attraction. Stalls are filled with pastry wrapped beef and mutton, sour soup dumplings, soup with pepper etc. No I didn’t try anything, mainly as we were going to dinner later in the evening and every meal I ate in China was delicious and always featured more courses than I could manage. So thats it for today. Stay safe, and wear your mask please! I’ll see you tomorrow. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-06_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-56 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05-06 Title A name given to the resource Day 56 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/72577b5ac1f077fdecdcf93b9e619655.pdf 5857bbf868b0f6e37e89517cfd290dad PDF Text Text Day 55 by windoworks Here we go! So much information overnight that I hardly know where to begin. First of all, I can’t give accurate virus counts because there was a technical glitch over the weekend and I’ll have to wait until late this afternoon for the latest stats. In predictions for the future, a group of epidemiologists describe 3 different scenarios: 1. After this monster wave which may subside by August 1, there will be alternating mini waves of smaller outbreaks with only a few cases in between, but still some. 2. This monster wave is followed by a bigger and fiercer wave after a summer in which everyone lets down their guard about social distancing and fails to heed the warning signs. 3. This current wave creates a new normal with outbreaks of almost equal size and some persist through to the end of 2022 when hopefully an effective vaccine has been developed. The depressing thing is that I am pretty sure its going to be one of these predictions. Qantas emailed me this morning to tell me that there will be no trans Tasman flights between Australia and New Zealand before the end of June and they’ll reassess then. They also informed me that there will be no international flights before they reassess at the end of July. I’m not really surprised. I find I am that person who thinks about the worst case scenario and then is thrilled when it doesn’t happen or things turn out to be better. Apparently Costco has begun asking all customers to wear a face mask and there were 600 angry posts on FaceBook complaining about it and threatening never to shop there again. How petty have we become. I own one of John’s glam face masks with gold stars and sometimes when I need cheering up it is my face mask choice of the day. In Flint on Friday last week (and I can hardly make my fingers type this) a security guard at a Family Dollar store was shot in the head and later died, all over an argument about wearing a face mask. Even worse, he wasn’t shot at that moment, he was shot 20 minutes later after the family of 3 went home and got the gun and came back to shoot him. And in the category When did this virus actually start? Investigators in France have published a paper which shows that the first patient hospitalized there on December 27 was a 42 year old man who had never been to China. In further investigation they posited (I learned that word in Psychology class) that there were multiple ‘seeding’ events all around the world. That is, there was no single starting point, many people around the world had it early on and seeded it in their community. In research in conjunction with a laboratory in Wuhan, scientists have discovered 400 (400!) similar viruses to COVID-19 in bats and most may be transmissible to humans. �Although some states are ignoring the best medical advice and research available and opening up all businesses again, because, you know, the economy, a whopping almost 70% of Americans are saying: knock yourself out. I’m not leaving my house any time soon. In Las Vegas, the mayor, Carolyn Goodman, boldly claimed “we’ve had viruses for years!” She is insisting that all casinos open up again but when asked if she would be visiting the casinos to show support, she said no because she had to get home to her family. Yeah, right. The Grand Haven State Park is now closed to the public indefinitely after the poor behavior over last weekend. To be honest the water temperature is so low you wouldn’t want to swim or paddle anyway. After several warmish sunny days the temperature has fallen back and its warmer clothing for me again. ��The new normal in our house. Hanging conveniently at the front door are our face mask collections, Craigs on the left and mine on the right. Ready to pop on as we go out the door. �Oliver practicing cute, I think he’s got it down. �Today’s flashback. After we left Beijing for our bus tour, our first stop was Xi’an where we stayed for 3 days. This is a large city and capital of Shaanxi Provence in central China. It was formerly known as Chang’an (Eternal Peace) and it marked the end of the Silk Road’s eastern end. It was home to many ruling dynasties over the centuries. There was a lot to see. First, the famous city walls. ��Zhu Yuanzhang (first emperor of the Ming Dynasty) built this highly fortified wall in 1370 and it took about 8 years to complete. He used this city and wall to establish his empire by unifying all the other surrounding states. It is an astonishingly wide wall and quite high. Obviously it has been repaired and strengthened many times over the centuries. In the top photo you can see down to the enclosed city below. There was a group of residents practicing Tai Chi that we watched for a while. Next we visited the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. �Looking up. �The view of Xi’an from the top of the pagoda. No I didn’t climb up there. �My view from the bottom. This Buddhist pagoda was built in 652 during the Tang Dynasty. One of its many functions was to hold sutras and figurines of Gautama Buddha brought to China from India by the 7th century Buddhist monk, Xuanzang. This was the first actual pagoda I had seen and it was very impressive. Xi’an was hot and somewhat polluted but still a beautiful city. We have 2 more days to explore it, so more tomorrow. Masks on, smile with your eyes, and stay safe. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-05_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-55 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05-05 Title A name given to the resource Day 55 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/54076bd72c373633c56003f19c0343cd.pdf 554786148032afddc1710c8c720db41e PDF Text Text Day 54 by windoworks So much information. Here goes. Grand Rapids Airport (Gerald R Ford Airport) is still open as the US government requires all commercial service airports to remain open and completely operational. They have closed all bars and restaurants except for a snack bar on each concourse. They are seeing about 5% of normal passenger traffic (Wow!). Air New Zealand has suspended all flights to and from the US until June 30 when they will reassess. Qantas has canceled almost all international flights and offers a once a week flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane on Fridays. So where are all those grounded airplanes? They are in many places all around the world as well as here: �Parked in the desert at Alice Springs, Australia, are more than 100 airplanes, properly closed down but needing weekly maintenance to stay airworthy. The dry desert air is perfect for this storage and the maintenance work gives an unexpected boost to the city, which usually relies on tourists. My question is: how do the international flight crews get home again after landing the planes? It seems as though June 30 is the magic number for many organizations to think again what opening up or resuming will look like. The President of Grand Valley State University will advise the faculty on that day whether fall classes will resume face-to-face, online or a hybrid of both. For North American universities and colleges, the greater majority of students live on campus in shared accommodation, eating in cafeteria- �style restaurants and attending lectures in crowded lecture halls and rooms. I am glad this is not my responsibility. J Crew has filed for bankruptcy and two days ago I received a catalog from JJill offering me 50% off. 50%!! JJill has never offered that much off before. Is this the last gasp before they file for bankruptcy too? I simply cannot imagine going into a store and trying clothes on at this time. What if someone asymptomatic had tried this item on before me? As time goes by, I am more and more comfortable ordering online for mail delivery or local curbside pickup. Amazon has begun texting you when they have delivered something to your door, and the Instacart deliverer lets you know when your groceries are at your front door. With the warmer weather we can sit out on our front porch and chat a little to neighbors as they walk by. It’s not the same but its not too bad. I am waiting for the hummingbirds to appear so I can watch them at the feeder outside the tv room window. In gardening news, 24 of our 25 strawberry plants are thriving although it will be another year before we get a reasonable crop. And much to our surprise, the most vulnerable seeds that Craig planted, micro greens, are the first robust seedlings to appear. In stats: in Michigan there are a total of 43, 754 confirmed cases and a running total of 4,049 deaths. In Kent County we now have 1,786 confirmed cases and 39 deaths. As cases fall a little in Detroit, the virus seems to be moving across the state. Because our local stats are increasing slowly upward many people keep asking Dr London why we have to stay home. He keeps replying: thats why the stats are increasing slowly - because you’re staying home. One more time for the people in the back. I am disturbed by the amount of vitriol online. A friend might post something positive about Governor Whitmer and it seems to unleash a torrent of nastiness from perpetually angry people. I was telling Craig this morning about a book I read a few years ago called Year of Wonders: a novel of the plague. It has a couple of themes but its also about how a village coped with the Plague. Probably not the cheeriest read at this time. �This made me laugh and its a beautiful photograph. ��And here is Oliver valiantly pursuing Archie the cat, one last time before he and his mum returned to their own home. Today’s flashback: the next day we drove to visit the tombs of the Shang Dynasty Kings. You went down underground where it was dark and warm. They keep the light dim to protect the artifacts. This is an archeological site at Yinxu, the ruins of the ancient Shang Dynasty capital Yin. It is the final resting place of the queen, military general, ambassador and political advisor, Fu Hao (Lady Hao) who was probably one of king Wu Ding’s many wives. She died and was buried about 1200BCE. The chariot has completely disappeared and what you are seeing here is its permanent outline. As well as many jade, bone, bronze, ivory and pottery objects buried with her, below Fu Hao’s corpse was a pit holding the the remains of 6 sacrificial dogs and the skeletons of 16 human slaves. �This is a chariot with the skeletons of the horses still in harness. Our next stop was at the Longmen Caves. These caves house tens of thousands of statues of the Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciples. These images were either carved as outside rock reliefs or inside artificial caves excavated from the limestone cliffs. These statues of every size and shape were carved mostly from the 3rd to the 8th century. ����Here is Zoe at the end of the grottoes . Behind her is the Yi river valley. We went through through the grottoes in groups with our guide strictly controlling our movements. There was some vandalism at the caves during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and now the caretakers and guides are careful to treat the caves with the care these artifacts deserve. For today, may the fourth be with you. See you tomorrow as usual. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-04_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-54 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05-04 Title A name given to the resource Day 54 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d7cde42eeb041487a05b373d3ec056b6.pdf deab64fadbbc971cd64681c9b279f098 PDF Text Text Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on Stuff Day 53 by windoworks Remind me - what day is it? Oh, Sunday. And it truly is a sunny day. Yesterday was warm and sunny, so Craig fired up the grill to cook marinated chicken thighs for dinner and, but wait, a lot happened first. Saturday was the designated Chalk Up day for the 300 block of Auburn. ���There are many videos of neighbors dancing on this spot and perhaps Craig and I will dance there later today. ��This one really appealed to me. One neighbor’s teenage children spent a week or so working at their father’s word work shop making bird feeders. I think nearly every neighbor bought one for $20 and the proceeds will go to Kids Food Basket which delivers sack lunches to schoolchildren in the greater Grand Rapids area and has had to step up production during the pandemic. Once the bird feeder is up I’ll post photos. Then before dinner (and the delicious grilled chicken thighs) we had the monthly iMessage video meeting of the Benjamin/Lilley book club. The children like iMessage because it has video effects and once the book discussion part was over and the chat part began, so did the effects. ���After much discussion we chose the next months book, made sure Elle could get it in Truro, Cornwall and then reluctantly said goodbye. I don’t know how we would all survive at this time without internet applications. Stats and such. In Russia they recorded an increase of 10,000 confirmed cases in one day. The Prime Minister Mikhail Mishutin has the coronavirus and one of the Russian Cabinet Ministers has been admitted to hospital. 58 people died in Russia yesterday from the virus. Across the world scientists are rushing to find a vaccine and in the UK over 9,000 people have volunteered to be vaccinated and then given the virus to test its efficacy. So much braver than me. Locally, the city commission of Grand Haven (our nearest beach area on Lake Michigan) had to close the beaches yesterday as people rushed out there in large numbers and failed to act on social distancing rules. That means their poor behavior affects my ability to drive out there, park and look at the lake. Governor Whitmer said a week or so ago “We must be nimble” and she meant: if you can’t follow the rules then you won’t be allowed back out. In the states that have allowed restaurants, tattoo parlors, hair salons to reopen, the new safety rules are proving overwhelming. And here’s the thing that no one considered or asked any shop owner about: how scared are you about opening your business up again? In other places such as South Korea, they have access to technology which takes customers temperature before allowing them to enter the store. People can return to church but no hymn singing, as well as masks. Many business owners here in the US don’t have access to a reasonable supply of gloves, hand sanitizer, masks or face shields and yet they are expected to have all this on hand before they open up. In New South Wales, Australia, where Zoe lives, she is now allowed to have a maximum of 2 visitors inside her apartment. Zoe returned home yesterday with Oliver after an almost 5 week stay with her aunt and uncle. In that time, Oliver tried making friends with Archie their cat, ate 3 square meals a day, developed his crawling skills further, learned to stand up and yesterday learned to crawl up the stairs. This week he returns to Daycare 3 days a week which allows Zoe to work uninterrupted from home. If they continue to ease the restrictions in New Zealand, both Zar and Alva will be able to return to their workplaces. But in both Australia and New Zealand, caution is paramount. Everyone, including here in the US, is concerned about the possibility of a second wave of virus and influenza together. Here we are going into summer which may not be conducive to the virus but then the approaching fall and winter �might be a new breeding ground. Australia and New Zealand have come out of summer and are heading into winter which may be why their virus counts have been relatively low so far. In the UK, they recorded 182, 260 confirmed cases (up 4,806 from the previous day) and total deaths of 28, 131 (up 621 from the previous day). I will have updated figures for Kent County in tomorrow’s blog but the numbers of confirmed cases are still climbing. �For light relief, here is Oliver ‘helping’ Bernie type. �Today’s flashback: Here we are at the Temple of Heaven. This is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, which is the largest building in the Temple of Heaven. The temple complex was built from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor who also had the Forbidden City built. The temple grounds cover 1.05 square miles, and there are 3 main groups of buildings all built to strict philosophical requirements. �The 9 dragon wall. �Here is Craig at the Whispering Wall at the complex. In order to hear someone else speak to you from a distance (a) the courtyard cannot be too noisy and (b) both people must face north. I can’t remember if we heard each other although Craig thinks we did. ��We came across these musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments when we were walking around Beijing. �And last, but not least, here is Craig giving the opening keynote address at the World History Conference. Tomorrow we leave Beijing and visit Zhengzhou where we visit the tombs of the Shang Dynasty kings and then on to the Longmen Grottos to see the Buddhist carvings in the cliffs. You know the drill. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-03_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-53 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05-03 Title A name given to the resource Day 53 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6bfa1ad730f6f401bc9e8b545c1253bf.pdf 73bbd4022a1190542f6a51a8bc52d663 PDF Text Text April 22, 2020 Another day in quarantine. Oh well, it is what it is. The governor is doing what she can do to help us all stay safe by extending this quarantine based on current numbers. At this point it feels like I'm losing touch with reality and people outside. I don’t really know how to feel about that. I can only imagine how people in true isolation must feel. There must be a lot of depression and hatred towards the world. I’m willing to bet that there are people out there that are getting ready to break down mentally. It’s saddening that this is a possibility. The worst part is that it’s possible that some have already committed suicide, killed someone else, or convinced someone else to kill. I don’t really know that this is real, but I remember hearing once, that ‘everything that you can think of is a thing’. I understand that staying quarantined will save many lives by slowing the spread of the virus and as a result hospitals would have plenty of space for ill patients. However, if my comment is true, how many people are dying due to severed depression, isolation, and all those things? Having people quarantined would save a lot of lives, I agree. However keeping people quarantined might also leave them severely depressed. So much so that it’s possible people are dying either through suicide, or assasination. Just last weekend there was a shooting right outside my house. It would be unjust to say let's just proceed with life like normal so that people that are easily depressed can get away from home because then COVID-19 spread would rise. Likewise I don’t think it’s a good idea to just continue quarantine like there is nothing wrong. I suppose the ideal situation would slowly reopen the world in a way that minimizes the amount of deaths due to both covid 19, depression (and maybe even other factors?). An argument like that however would never fly with public opinion. It is like saying some lives don’t matter and even though we try to minimize deaths, there will still be some, and we would be saying we are ok with that. This brings up one of the biggest topics, life. I think it’s safe to say that most people wouldn’t want others to die from illness. If we could prevent someone from dying from illness we should do what we can. If we can’t then we should try to find a solution, or at least that is how most people see the situation. It is painful to lose people you love and care about. As a result, a big part of human life is to preserve it by all means. Life is so difficult, or maybe we make it difficult? Our society seems to believe that no one should die. However, some believe there are too many people in the world, and others believe that it doesn't matter. If we could cure all people from disease and injuries, the world would quickly have a large population of humans. Maybe even to the point that the earth could no longer sustain us, then what? Perhaps move to other habitable planets? Suppose that in each planet the population got to a point where only natural death was the cause of death, well then these planets would not be able to sustain the population, and an endless repetition of rehabilitating planets would ensue. If space is infinite and there exists an infinite number of habitable planets then I suppose this would not be an issue. But, what if there are only a finite universe and as a result a finite number of habitable planets? Then what? I have no idea, I’m not a physicist. I don't know if the universe is finite or infinite. I don’t know if there are a finite or infinite number of planets. I don’t even know if humans would as a society agree and also accomplish riding the population of disease either in the form of bacteria or virus or other. It almost seems as if dying of old age is �the only acceptable death in our society. Dying of a virus or bacteria is highly not accepted even if technically they are both natural causes. If Joe died of a virus and his friend Mark was ok with this death people would jump at the chance to more or less tell Joe that he is insensitive, didn’t care about Mark and wasn’t really his friend. So it seems that the need to save people from death is more rooted in people’s emotional attachment to them and not so much if someone should live or die. If COVID-19 happened in some isolated island and a large number of people died, it’s possible that no one here or really outside of the island would care or even consider if those people should have been saved. No one would close their economy. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-22_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-22 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 13 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/860345d46bc8e0b9db6b2a638c0be934.pdf 3b44ffa0ed22a827c12ecc22d5b2e49d PDF Text Text April 21, 2020 Another morning. There are some parts about being more or less allowed to just be at home that I am enjoying. I’ve been able to work on things a little more efficiently now that I know what times of the day that the kids need attention and I can use the rest of the time for whatever work I want to get done. Yesterday we went for a walk down two blocks. It was interesting to ‘rediscover’ our neighborhood. There were not many people around, but there were some that stepped outside to have some fresh air. I also learned recently that the McDonalds that is right down the road has partnered with GRPD in an attempt to promote less crime in the neighborhood, so we shall see what happens with that as time goes on. I won’t be around to see the long term change, but I sure hope that it happens because the neighborhood kids need that stability so they can focus on what is important in life. That is family, education and their interests and not drugs and money. That reminds me, at some point we will need to start packing to go to New Mexico. I hear talk that ‘the economy’ will open back up soon. I honestly would rather that it didn’t. Maybe wait until sometime in late May? Perhaps this way it is most likely the case that I can move to New Mexico and start my graduate school studies. I’ve been starting to study material for the exams. Specifically I started going through the Hungerford text on Algebra, the Apostol book on Analysis and the Gamelin,Green book on Topology. It has been interesting, but it has also shown me how much I still have to learn to be successful. I’ve been still working on my research on and off and was able to prove a thing. Specifically if we have a searching game with two unknowns, the ideal first question would be to ask about the first n/3 questions. This forces the responder to respond with ‘There is exactly 1 of the secret numbers in your question’. This is because a response of 0 would leave ceiling(n/3) choose 2 possibility pairs as possible solutions, a response of 1 would leave (ceiling(n/3))*(floor(2n/3)) possibility pairs, and a response of 2 would leave (floor(2n/3)) choose 2 possibility pairs left as possible solutions. I was able to prove this with mathematical induction. My goal is to write this up soon and then ask David what he thinks, and maybe get an idea of how to proceed from here. What would be good would be to guarantee that on question two the responder would respond with 0 or 2, preferably in general. Then the idea would be to alternate between questions on forcing the responder to respond with 1 and then 0 or 2, and repeat. The response of 0 or 2 reduces the search space, and the response of 1 splits the search space. But then again, maybe it's actually ideal to force the responder to respond with 1’s all the time? I believe this would have the effect of continuously splitting the search space where the intersection of each question would narrow down what the two numbers would have to be. I finally got around to filing the PUI form, this was yesterday. I had been denied for unemployment benefits since I had not made enough money for the time frame they required information. So we shall see what happens with that. Assuming I get it, it’s not much money but considering how little we’re traveling and how we get food stamps, It should prevent us having to use our savings. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-21_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-21 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 12 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f48e68f10ff724277af794c37c6952de.pdf 667f09d261a36e2321447c2e9b1e4c6f PDF Text Text April 19, 2020 What a wild night yesterday. So I had signed myself up for a coding competition, which I then proceeded to forget about. Then about 1 hour into the competition, I remembered and signed on as fast as I could. Anyways, the competition is 3 hours long, so I logged in with less than 2 hours left. I completed one(out of 4) problems in the first 30 minutes. Then I went on to the second problem, I finished coding my solution and hit submit, only to realize after some frustration that I had read the prompt totally wrong. Anyways, the competition ended and I as not able to type my solution in on time. Either way, I knew I had a solution, so I kept working and what happened was that even though I had a solution it didn’t meet the memory allocation requirements set in the competition, so that was kind of a bummer. As I was getting ready to transition into a video call with a group of peers, I hear 5’ish loud bangs outside. When I asked Nikita what happened, she said she saw two vehicles dash in opposite directions after the gun shots. She proceeded to call 911 and reported what had happened. It turns out that two people were shot and injured, but nothing life threatening, at least that’s what Nikita was told last night when she provided the police with information. I will probably do a search on the internet later to see if more details have been released to the public, but wow that was wild. The shooting happened literally within 30 feet of my house! On a high note however, one of my friends asked for help in her analysis studies. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to help as much as I thought. However, I felt confident that I know what I did and not what I didn’t. It’s strange, when you are in different math modes. One mode could be, “I have no idea what to do”, another is “I think I know what needs to happen” (and your wrong), or “I think I know what needs to happen” (and you know your wrong), or “I think i know what needs to happen” (you are sure you are right). When I was helping, I made it clear to say when I felt I was right about a process but the details were wrong. That is a very neat feeling, because it tells me I know enough about math to know that I am probably wrong about a detail, and also enough to know that I’m going in the right general direction. Also, Nikita and I were able to watch some more Boruto yesterday. It was only like 2 episodes, but that is way better than nothing. The show is getting really good, although we both admit that it’s not as good as Naruto, but maybe we are just biased. I started scoping out the new Digimon show that recently started airing. I remember watching the original series as a kid. I think I want to watch it again, maybe big girl Elena might find it interesting. I used to think it was the coolest thing ever as a kid. My dad even took me to watch “Digimon The Movie”, it was pretty epic if you ask me. I’m looking forward to the day. It is currently 7:30am and I’m ready to start. I plan on cleaning up the house a little more or I guess I should say that is the focus for today. Nikita has committed herself to doing the laundry while I did the same for dishes that get used through the day and I’ll probably end up cooking dinner and doing some other things as well. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-19_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-19 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 11 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8e7ca91f6ca68baea6d565c1ef5bb8f0.pdf 913144375c1964fc71d3ce7dedb7ed33 PDF Text Text April 18, 2020 Today should be an interesting day. I have a coding competition scheduled from 7 to 10 pm. I did some practice, but really nothing substantial enough to be considered a good amount of practice. I’m excited about this. The COVID-19 quarantine has allowed me to practice my python programming a little bit. I think that it’s more or less my hobby, even though I occasionally have to use it for my projects. It’s allowed me to start forming ideas of my research with searching games. David has continued to help me with my questions which I am very much so grateful for. Anyways, it’s the weekend and I’m sure Nikita will want to do things with the kids, either outside or indoors. If it ends up being indoors, maybe we could play a board game or something. Elena has also been wanting me to do yoga with her. There is this person on youtube who does yoga for kids, and she really enjoys it. Although we don’t really have that much floor space. Yesterday ended on an interesting note. Nikita made some hamburgers and fries; that was super bomb. We watched Boruto together, and actually we watched a good 3 episodes. This is more or less a triumph of parenthood. I mean most of the time the kids just want to climb on their mom and we hardly get to talk, let alone sit next to each other for more than a few minutes at a time. Also, someone (probably Elarik) cracked one of the iPad’s screen. It was kind of frustrating, but it is what it is. Especially since we didn’t buy a screen protector for it. It only had a case. I suspect the case kept it going as long as possible, so it did it’s job. Nikita overheard elise and elena talking, and more or less saying they have no clue what happened to the tablet. They usually tell the truth about things that happen. So it’s quite possible they told the truth when we asked them what happened. I could get the screen fixed, but with the current quarantine, I haven’t bothered to check if Genius is open, which I'm assuming that it’s not since it does not seem like it would be an essential business. Anyways, I just got distracted and started looking at their website, and it appears that they are still open for business. I will try calling at 10am, It’s possible they haven’t updated their website. If it’s open I’ll probably get it checked out. Hopefully it’s not too much to get it fixed! Anyways, today should be another interesting day. I think i’m going to go make some coffee in a bit and start my day. Although I think I’ll try to hang out with Nikita again after the baby gets his morning snuggles in. He sure does love being held by his momma in the morning when he wakes up. He wont have it with anyone else. I’m currently sitting next to elena as it’s a bit quieter in this room. She’s still sleeping and probably will be for a minute, she went to bed a little later than usual yesterday, but It’s fine. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-18_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-18 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 10 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bf62eb8ed73a406340bfe340bba6c5c7.pdf 7d69d76637459d5c0581c9d7ab9d4fb5 PDF Text Text April 17, 2020 Yesterday I didn’t write either. Oh well, I can’t seem to be able to keep a consistent schedule. At least I’m not as stressed out as I have been. Yesterday I got an email from David about an avenue of research to tackle. I did a little work on that, but not too much. I have a problem that I can try to tackle and I’m ready to try it. However today I decided not to do it, or really much work besides meeting with my MTH 305 final project team. We went over what we had and I was able to finish the code part of the project. This would allow Mike to generate any charts we would need for the paper write up. Once this project is done with, and I write the peer evaluation form, that would complete all the requirements for mth 305. That would leave me with just my edited version of my paper for my capstone. Will sent me edit suggestions yesterday, but I have not looked at them in detail. I will probably look at that tomorrow. It was a really interesting result, however It would have been nice to have solved the problem I was looking at on the hyperbolic plane. I’m graduating soon, and it feels great! There has been so much work that has been put towards this and here I am. I won an award from the math department. I’m supposed to get it in the mail soon, and at some point also get a book in the mail as well. So that’s cool, no ceremony though. The same for my McNair Scholars graduation, nothing celebration. It is very much unfortunate! The office asked for our mail addresses today, I’m guessing they will be mailing the awards and medallions as well. To top it all off, we recently received an email telling graduating students when the graduation ceremony will be. It’s scheduled for October! Seriously!? I’ll be in New Mexico by then! We were also told that if we could not make it to the october graduation, that we could attend the normally scheduled December Graduation which i suppose would be doable, but still! The point is that I would have to travel from New Mexico to Grand Rapids just so I can attend my Graduation. There’s so many things to be upset about but I have to admit there are plenty of good things going on right now. I’ve been practicing my programming and even signed myself for a coding competition tomorrow. I believe it lasts 3 hours. So that should be fun! Maybe, haha I have no formal CIS training. So I’ve been learning about data structures on the go. I tried some practice problems. I was able to get one problem pretty easily once I figured out how input from stdin works with python. The second one was very challenging for me to solve, and I never actually figured out the optimal way to do so. But I did figure out the brute force way to do it, so that was cool. I didn’t get a chance to try a 3rd problem as I had so many other things going on as well with school that it didn’t feel productive. On a random note, I bought a really cool fountain pen that writes like a dream. I can’t stop using it. It just glides over your paper. It is so easy to write with and the ink looks great too! I had Nikita try it, and she loved it, so I bought her one too, it should be in the mail by next week. She will have her finals and then, hopefully… She can start her internship at grcc, which will be paid. I really hope it does not get cancelled, but the way it’s seeming now, it should run even if it starts later in the summer. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-17_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-17 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 9 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aefaf8c9f35aab961e632c2b8e8820d5.pdf b50cb6e94e8cf121474d54a16fa70a58 PDF Text Text April 15, 2020 Another day has come and gone. I’ve been able to make some much needed edits to my final paper for my capstone course. However, in the process I’ve discovered that there is an issue that I have not addressed. What this means is that I have plenty of work ahead of me. However, the paper in its entirety is more or less coming together nicely. Today I did the unthinkable again and we visited my sister for my nephew’s birthday. I still feel guilty about it, but it’s not stopping me. I guess you could say it’s a guilty pleasure. The kids had a great time with their cousins. We had some posole for dinner, and Isaac ate some really awesome cake that my sister made. We went outside to play for a while too. The kids were cold so we had to bust out the winter clothing that we thought we wouldn’t need anymore. We were definitely wrong about that one. Not much to talk about today. I still have lots of things to do but there never seems to be enough time anymore. On the bright side, lots of people including myself received their “Stimulus Check Today”. Many are happy as it will allow them to pay their bills. Some are more or less waiting until the pandemic passes and they can go out to spend it. Me? I’m definitely saving it for unforeseen costs related to moving cross country to attend the University of New Mexico. I did also get to talk to Page, she’s a cool friend. We agreed that once a week we would video call and do some math together. We will most likely be looking at “An Analysis Sketchbook”, it is a text that was written by Dr. Hodge, one of the professors at GVSU. I’m kind of excited about this, we are starting next week on Thursday. I hope she doesn’t back out as this would be a good opportunity to do some studying in Analysis. I haven’t been watching netflix and other streaming services as much as my friends. However, I did start watching Boruto with Nikita today. I also started rewatching Dragon Ball Z en italiano, in an attempt to learn some italian. It’s very similar to spanish phonetically. This aspect combined with the fact that I’ve already watched all of Dragon Ball Z allowed me to decipher some of the words in Italiano that I didn’t know. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-15_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-15 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 8 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ae201790da14b57b053bc451fcb4e8b8.pdf 70140cf9a62ea8fc0db3f846525184f9 PDF Text Text April 10, 2020 Yesterday I was definitely feeling some strong emotions, especially about parenting. Fortunately as the day progressed it started getting better. I played mario party 9 with the kids. Played outside and even got caught up in a mini snow shower(strange). I would have thought it was hail, the way it suddenly came down. We quickly came back inside, we didn’t bother to check the temperature. After dinner we went back outside and played for a few minutes, but the wind chill was uncomfortable enough to where the kids didn’t want to be out for long. Then I played with balloons with Elise and Nikita. They had still been out from Elena's birthday for the kids to play with. Elarik accidentally(purposefully?) popped one of them by accident, he looked shocked but ultimately let out a laughter that only he can put out. On a work note, I had some time after the kids went to bed to look into my research a bit more. I was able to identify three conjectures for future research. I’m almost convinced that they are true and have an outline on how to prove each one. I also was able to look at a strategy for online searching games or adaptive searching games. This is really exciting! I might continue this in the summer if things work out. Also one of my friends gave me a link to a COVID-19 relief fund application so that was nice, because that led me into a hunt for scholarship money for the fall semester. I have a fellowship lined up, however, it would be nice to have some emergency funds. The fellowship I'm sure is nice for an individual, but not as substantial for a family of 5. I was able to identify two scholarships that I qualify for, so that was nice. I started doing some preliminary research on what time of materials are needed. Today I need to file for unemployment, I’ve been putting it off because I don’t like the idea of having to do it, but I know it's necessary right now. I heard that recently the UIA’s web based system has been revamped and as a result is more usable than in past years. I don’t really know how that is all going to play out, but it’s the next thing on my to do list. I also have a phone call to make for a possible employment opportunity, but that won't start until July. So that’s unfortunate. Also it’s not even guaranteed since it’s tutoring, and if GRCC decides to close in person instruction all summer, then there goes my job again as well. Somehow I signed myself up for a coding competition that starts next week and I haven’t even bothered to look and practice for it, so I better get on it. My thinking was that it is algorithm based and so it would be a good way to look at new problems and find strategies that can be proven successful through the power of mathematics. The main issue I have right now is that I'm not too familiar with python’s standard functions for working with stdin, stdout, and stderr, and how to flush the output. Anyways it doesn’t seem like it would be too bad, I just haven’t done it. Not much to report on today, I spent a good deal of time playing and working yesterday. I also had a good laugh with peers from around the country on topics related to the history of mathematics. I definitely appreciate them. Also, I received two books in the mail recently, one on topology on the other on Algebra. I intend on using the this summer to prepare for qualifying exams at the University of New Mexico. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-10_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-10 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 7 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/28f092ab813ad5f234a08e97c952334a.pdf f31e37739f3ed3797663e4b72ca71c8d PDF Text Text April 9, 2020 Another day! We are still alive, and healthy. We have not resorted to domestic abuse, which apparently is on the rise, not surprising. Likewise my wife and I havent resorted to alcoholism either, but apparently that is also on the rise, which I suppose is not surprising either. I can’t confirm these claims on the increase of domestic violence and alcoholism in the general public through any data. My statements are based purely on a small sample size and their opinions, so who knows how accurate this is. Anyways, I’ve been able to make some progress in my classes and manuscripts for both my Alayont Fellowship research and my Capstone Class. Without going into two much detail my Alayont Fellowship involves research in Algorithms, while my research in my Capstone class involves research in generalizing results in Euclidean Geometry to Spherical and Hyperbolic Geometries. There is so much more I could do with either one, but sadly time is running out and I must finish compiling my results soon. This is the nature of research, you feel like there is alway something more you can prove, but also remember that at some point you need to write up your results. Elena ended her day very well on her birthday. She got plenty of gifts both in the form of cool ‘LOL’ clothing, to a bicycle. We spent the day at her grandma's house (Nikitas bio mom) and ate cake with them. During that time she was able to have a video call with her Elementary school classroom and during the call they all did a scavenger hunt. Some kids were very quick on the draw. Although she was not at home, she probably didn’t know where to look for things, so Nikita helped her out a bit. She was a good sport and was not too frustrated with losing. She normally is very hard on herself when she doesn’t win at something. I recently started playing Mario Party 9 with her. At first she would get very mad when losing a minigame, over time however, I think she started realizing that just because you don’t win every single mini game, it does not mean you will lose the whole game. I think this has helped her overcome her inability to cut herself slack when things don’t go the way she would like. As a plus I get to play video games while teaching my kid a life lesson. So I suppose that is a good thing that’s come out of COVID 19. Although it makes me wonder, maybe I should be doing a lot more(less?) even when there is not a pandemic going on. On the other hand my middle child is having a really rough time. She is a very social kid, and is very much missing the interaction she used to get with her friends and teachers. She is currently in Pre-K so most of what she does is activity based learning. So when she can’t get that level of continuous attention at home, it really puts her in a depression and sometimes she cries. She will say things like “No one wants to play with me”, or “No one pays attention to me”. It saddens Nikita and I, especially since we are trying to divide our time reasonably between school work and family life. I suppose the ideal thing would be if we had minimal school and work requirements so that we could provide each other more family attention. Maybe… I’m by no means an expert in this topic. However it does make me think, how did people back in the day do it? How much time was devoted towards child rearing and what was truly important? During the time that I do commit to family, should I spend it doing academic things, non academic, or a mixture of both? What are some realistic goals and expectations? There is no handbook for this, and if it was I’m sure it would have been in my email inbox a long time ago just waiting for me to �read it because I find that most suggestions come from a privilege point of view, where money and resources in general is not an issue. I recently read an article written by a father and the struggle him and his wife are facing with having to work from home. The main theme was “parents are not ok”. I most definitely agree with this. I’m tired of telling people, and sometimes myself that we are doing ok, that I’m doing ok. I am not doing ok, I am stressed, I feel like I’m not doing enough, and I feel ashamed. I feel ashamed because it seems like in our culture we are supposed to be good parents all the time. We are suppose to be ok with the stress of having and raising children. We are supposed to not have feelings of depression when our kids overwhelm us. I feel ashamed because I have these feelings. I know Nikita does as well, but we manage. We put our happy faces on and tell the world we are ok, because it is custom to say you are ok. Maybe this is also the conditioning that our culture has given us, but who really cares about what we are going through? When being asked how are you it’s just a formality to start a conversation? I see my wife’s struggles, and she sees mine. Maybe that is the reason why we never ask each other directly how we are doing, because it reminds us of the same questions that we feel people only ask out of an obligation to our societal conditioning. I don’t know, and if someone said they knew, I would be hesitant to believe them. On a side note, this morning I talked to a graduate student at The University of New Mexico, and learned a little bit more about the university. He was able to provide me with some advice on how best to prepare for graduate school qualifying exams. Maybe that is what I will do this upcoming summer; applying for jobs or working and studying on qualifying exams. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-09_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-09 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 6 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0fd11be48db42c7e32e4abd7b96e8926.pdf bdbbc794314b798fc834385c4c08a833 PDF Text Text April 8, 2020 Today is Elena’s birthday! Nikita and I put some decorations for the house together since we can’t have people over. My sister made her a cake that had an LOL doll theme to it. We took pictures and took the cake over to her grandma's house to eat. We realize this is a ‘big no no’ but honestly, you can only isolate yourself so much. There’s no point in isolation if at the end of it all you wont get to see your loved ones. I fully realize this is a flawed statement but that’s how we feel. To be fair however, we do take precautionary measures and use hand sanitizer and other sanitary methods. Grandma (Melissa), or specifically Nikita’s biological mom lives out in the country and as a result social distancing is not too difficult even within her house, as it is pretty large. As of right now we don’t know of anyone that is sick with the coronavirus. I know one of my friends Michael is currently sick with a cold, but to his knowledge it is not COVID-19. I don’t believe he is getting tested. I want to say that a week or two before classes were closed, I myself had a really bad illness. I was treated for Influenza. However, I was not actually tested to confirm that this was the case. The illness more or less had the symptoms of COVID-19. Shortness of breath, a constant fever, fatigue, however I didn't have severe coughs, so maybe it wasn’t. I’m pretty sure the kids brought it home from school. The youngest two started with constant fevers and I started staying home with them, around the same time Nikita started showing symptoms, and I followed right after. It took us all just over a week to feel decent. During this time I’ve been wanting to learn new things on top of school work, and then realized that I’m trying to do too much. So I've been looking at things to do for the summer. However, I’m not sure that will even happen especially now that I’ve been laid off from my employment at grcc. My Alayont Fellowship funding will end at the end of the semester, so I need to really start looking for a job. It will probably end up being full time employment somewhere, or an internship? I honestly don't know right now. My F-GAP advisor suggested some places to start looking into, so I really need to get my resume updated asap. I don’t have this ready right now just because most of my professional documents have been geared toward graduate school applications. As a result I have poured lot’s of energy into my CV. I did find some places on an initial search that might actually hire me, but I won't know until I update my resume, and start networking. There will be many people that will be out there looking for jobs. I hope that I get lucky with at least one, especially since I’m really only looking for a temporary position during the summer months. It’s a shame that I won't be able to spend the summer doing mathematics like I had planned. But again like my advisor mentioned, this is an opportunity. I need to capitalize on my current skill set and offer that to the society that I am a part of. The job might not end up being mathematics, but I should be able to find a position that utilizes my talents. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-08_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-08 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 5 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/af5dac9bc122b1cb77d8a7b8a196ce3f.pdf d1a35ae20b5ebf62d75023993b53d946 PDF Text Text April 7, 2020 It is currently 5:30 AM EST and I plan on trying out a new routine today, hopefully this will allow me to get some work done early on before the kids get overly energized and need my attention. I know both Nikita and I have been stressing for time, and so hopefully this way when she needs to work on her academics, I can focus on the kids and not skip a beat with my work either. I have to admit however, I’ve been ‘neglecting’ my work a bit by visiting my parents. They are in town as well, as of almost two weeks ago at least. Usually they are in their home in Michoacan, MX, or in California with my older brother. They bought their flights a while back and decided not to try to reschedule. They are the kind of people who are more or less thinking, ‘i’m old and have lived a good life, so why not’. I know that right now it’s a big taboo, but I have been visiting them. They are currently over at my sister Nancy’s place. When I first moved to Michigan from California, I had not seen them for several years, and even after that, the most I ever got to see them was maybe once a year. I know that Nikita has fears about going out at all, but I think we both agree that for the super high benefit of the kids getting to see their abuelito and abuelita it is worth it. Because of my university experience, I don’t have very many friends that share my culture, or language. As a result my kids don’t get very much exposure to my culture and spanish other than when I visit my family. As far as home life, as bilinguals and multilinguals, we tend to communicate in the language that gets a message across quickly. This means that I usually end up talking in english because Nikita is very well versed in it. One thing that I’ve tried to do is to get the kids to watch cartoons in spanish. Elena, the oldest; is now finally starting to be ok with it, and actually requested it last night. Elise gets really upset when I try to do it. I suspect that the only reason she doesn’t like it is because the voiceovers are really bad. Elarik is only 20 months and hasn’t yet started talking in sentences, so he doesn’t usually mind what we watch. However I suspect that he notices the difference in voices from original english to voiced over spanish. The funny thing is that I grew up on voiceovers because my parents naturally just watched tv shows and movies in spanish. I even remember watching ‘old movies’ that were broadcast live on Telefutura and hearing the announcer say ‘Nuevo Estreno’ (New Premiere) even though the movie was released a few years back and nothing new. Nikita has also been visiting her biological mom who now lives in Holland, MI. I think she really misses most times. The girls definitely miss being able to visit her house frequently, which is something they were able to do when they still lived in Grand Rapids, MI. She also uses this trip as a time to stop at the grocery store for our needed items both food and sanitary essentials. Last week we ran out of toilet paper and had to use paper towels, which is fine, it just took us a while to locate some toilet paper. She was able to secure some yesterday. We have not been able to visit her step-mom as that drive is a little longer and as a result Nikita feels that it is more risky. Fortunately, her step-mom is tech savvy enough so that they can have video calls and they communicate in that way. My siblings have been doing well. My brother in law Alfredo recently came back to the states after years of going through the legal process of becoming a US citizen. The funny thing is that �most american’s think that it's like any other application process where you apply and within weeks you are good to go. So when they hear that a person has to go back to mexico and do it back legally it will be a short stay, almost like a vacation and then they come back a few weeks later. This is not farther from the truth as the individual still has to have some sort of income for their time there, to live and to pay all the required fees. Irma is definitely happier now, or at least it appears to be so. My sister Veronica has had a difficult time with Eddie now that he’s been home more. I can tell because he needs a lot of attention and since she is still working, she probably feels like every waking hour she is at home she needs to tend to him. He is a great child, but also has special needs, and that can be stressful. Heck, my children have no special needs, and they can get very overwhelming. Nancy is doing well, she has married recently and is living a wonderful life here in michigan. She moved here last year. Her and ‘Lobo’ (Fransisco) met 2 summers ago when my family came to visit. It was definitely a difficult move for my niece and nephew however. I suspect it’s because they had to leave friends behind, probably even a girlfriend or boyfriend. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-07_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 220-04-07 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 4 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b6146f791309273c7693477ac6c05ff3.pdf 11f99149150ddfc9e8596355e4d0c73f PDF Text Text April 6, 2020 Monday, morning. There seems to be some sort of routine going on now. Elena Is still at her grandma’s house in Holland, MI. Elise is watching cartoons and Elarik is running around the house. There are some different things though. Nikita was still able to get surgery for her carpal tunnel on Saturday, so she’s recovering now. It should help her be able to do more with her hands once she recovers. I know she’s been having a difficult time writing for more than a few a minute. Most of my activities have revolved around work and school, at least up to last week when I found out on Friday that I was laid off from my employment at Grand Rapids Community College. My other activities have been just the usual chores at home, and trying to learn some new things. I’ve been on a website named codeacademy and started learning about the terminal and bash scripting. There are many different types of computer operating systems, but the ones that seem to get quite a bit of attention are; Windows, OSX, and Linux Distributions. OSX and Linux are both UNIX based systems and as a result are similar to each other. I was interested in learning how to interact with the terminal for these operating systems, well specifically Linux terminal, or BASH programming. I learned a little bit on looping structures and conditional statements. I also learned some commands I didn’t know about before. One of them was the touch command which can be used to create empty files. Pipe operator that allows you to redirect output from one command to input to a different command. I learned how to use nano a bit, which is a text editor that is run in the terminal. I’ve also tried to learn a little bit of italian. It is really close to spanish and is a phonetic language. I bought a book of short stories to see if I could go through it. So far I'm still on the first short story, and fully understand the first paragraph. What this means is that most of my hobbies, other than biking, hiking, and camping are mainly solo activities. What this means is that I wasn’t a big participant of student organizations, sports or clubs at GVSU when the school was still in normal session. As a result this Quarantine has not affected me as much as others who were actively involved in sports, clubs, and student organizations. I’ve been especially focused on finishing off the semester strong. This means I’ve been paying extra attention to my class assignments, their presentation, and thoroughness. Electronic Student Scholars Day is coming up on the 8th of this month and the lead up to submitting our presentations was a bit stressful. Particularly because I didn’t know if I was going to have enough time to finish. Fortunately I was able to pull through! It was difficult, but I didn’t give myself enough credit. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-06_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-06 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 3 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/87427424f58d7b3ba826d8ad5cdc5b68.pdf 3fdf7ebcf150975cc4053999cefaaf64 PDF Text Text April 3, 2020 Yesterday Nikita took the kids over to grandma’s house in Holland, MI and when she got home we decided we were going to finish painting the kitchen and living room. We have been putting this off so long because it is difficult to do when you have a 1 year old running around. This was in the afternoon, so we accomplished painting the walls and got halfway done with the trim in the room when we decided that it would be good to call it a night. It was relaxing, and since the kids were not home it was like going on a date. I was actually able to talk and say more than one sentence at a time where normally I would get interrupted by a kid. Once we did that we played some videogames together. It feels like years since we were last able to do that. It was nice, we played Mario Party 9 on the Nintendo Wii. I’m pretty sure we stayed up till about 2am this morning, which is also not typical for us. Currently I have an assignment that I need to complete as soon as possible, or at least my part of it. It is a mathematical modeling scenario on COVID-19. We are more or less taking the mathematical model that was formulated for SARS-Cov and trying to see if we can fit it to the current COVID-19 data. I’ve been able to approximate an infection rate of COVID-19 using Python but I’m not sure how accurate it is, seeing how I’m not an epidemiologist. When we made the transition to online classes, it was a bit stressful. This was not because I was not used to independent study, but because the kids are always at home and it’s difficult to get things done when the limited 24 hour day has to get shared. To date however I’ve received reaffirming messages from professors telling me that I’m doing enough and that I shouldn’t worry too much. I know some of my classmates are falling behind. Hopefully those professors are being reasonable with exact deadlines like mine are. I know Nikita is also struggling a bit. She is an early childhood development major, and most of her assignments are related to what she would actually do in a classroom. As a result she has had to transition to teaching online, but instead of having children as her audience, she has her professors. As a result she has been required to use software she is not accustomed to. For example, she’s had to use Powtoon and we had to work together to figure out how to do anything on it. I believe the key thing is that we have to remember that we are all people and as long as we communicate with each other the other party is most likely going to be understanding and responsive. I don’t know how people see their professors, but I hold mine in good regard. They remind me that not everything is work, and that I should not feel guilty to tend to other parts of my life. Family is important to me, and sometimes I feel guilty when I’m not working to spend time with them. So it’s nice to have them on my side. I hope that other professors are doing similar things with the students they communicate with. Everyone has something outside of academia/work they consider important. One of my professors Dr. Ortiz-Robinson has children and sometimes during class sessions I can hear their faint sounds in the background and it makes me feel better because there are people out there that understand my predicament. I have to admit though, I miss seeing them in person. There is nothing like walking into a professor's office hours, and talking about mathematics. On the other hand I’m grateful that more people are learning to use video call software. It makes ‘meeting’ people that are say in a graduate school you want to attend easier when you may not travel there. I’ve been able to meet Dr. Janet �Vassilev, Dr. Jacob Schroder, and Dr. Alexandru Buium at The University of New Mexico and learned a lot of new things. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-03_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-03 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 2 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/05a87f633060d2abbd4f474b2ff87876.pdf bd0765158afa9cb800bee85cf70127cd PDF Text Text April 02, 2020 I think it is safe to assume that most people I know feel like the month of march actually had 62 days. COVID-19 has taken the lives of many and the disease is only spreading. Governor Whitmer has more or less kept the health of the population in mind and as a result there have been many changes. As a result of these state changes, education has been affected at all levels. Universities are still running, but have transitioned to online coursework. Many students have been asked to leave the university dormitories. To my understanding, people are allowed to stay if they have nowhere to go back home to. My wife Nikita and I have fortunately not been affected too much by this aspect as we live off campus in Grand Rapids, MI. This means that I did not have to worry about relocating last minute, however I know some of my friends have had to do so. Some of them literally left the state as their homes were elsewhere, such as Illinois, and other states. I’m starting to miss them a bit. Initially I thought it would be great to just stay home and work on my academics. However not soon after the public schools also closed down and as a result my 3 children have been at home since then. What this means is that Nikita and I are now online college students, parents, and novice homeschool teachers. This has been quite a challenge and i’ve had to learn that as much as I would like, I can’t do it all. As a result I’m sure my kids get less learning time than they did before at school in an effort to give every aspect of my life right now a fair amount of attention. I’ve reduced my sleep hours(to a reasonable 6 hours) in order to do as much as I can while awake. I do end up taking a nap in the middle of the day which more or less equates to the same amount of total sleeping hours. However at least this way I have some time after the kids go to bed when I am still awake and able to work without disruptions. There have been some good things that have come about this change. I have been able to slip in some more spanish into my kids vocabulary. I have also learned how to take productive breaks. In practice this means I do some sort of non academic activity with the kids in order to clear my mind and well, be a halfway decent parent. Nikita is an early childhood development major so I often feel like I'm not good enough. She’s never specifically made me feel this way, but because of all of the things she learns, I sometimes feel guilty and maybe set the bar too high on myself on what a good parent should be. It can get stressful at times, especially now that we are home a lot! There are only so many rooms that I can use to try to destress. People ask things like “Can your in-laws help take care of the kids?”. Which, ok fine. It’s a good question to ask just to consider it as a possibility. The reality is that my parents live in California primarily. Nikita’s biological mom now lives in Holland, MI, and her step-mom lives in Gladwin, MI. It requires some traveling to get to either one of them and it is not anywhere ideal to go to them every day for help watching the kids. However, even if for some reason financially traveling that much made sense, we are not the only grandchildren that would be asking for help and as a result we minimize the amount of time they visit. Today is one day where Nikita took the kids over to my mother-in-law in Holland and we will soon start to paint some of the walls in the house. We have been putting this off as it is difficult to do so with the 1 year old at home. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-02_GarciaJ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garcia, José Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-02 Title A name given to the resource José Garcia COVID-19 Journal 1 Description An account of the resource Journal entry of GVSU student José Garcia relating his experiences as a student and parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a6cd3392530375761e2e6313ff57c8f0.pdf ef01178102bc848063eaf25d39b24cc5 PDF Text Text COVID-19 Journal Kim L. Ranger Friday, March 6, 2020 Read this good article! Chen, Caroline. March 5, 2020. “I Lived Through SARS and Reported on Ebola. These Are the Questions We Should Be Asking About Coronavirus.” ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/i-lived-through-sars-andreported-on-ebola-these-are-the-questions-we-should-be-asking-aboutcoronavirus Friday, March 13, 2020 Worst Friday the 13th ever. My working from home request was approved so I went to the office to pack up my computer, monitor, etc. I felt weepy, sad at leaving my suitemates. Once I got home, I set up my home office with the work computer and moved my home laptop, monitor, etc., to the dining room. My home laptop decided to update Firefox and now it doesn’t have my bookmarks and asks me to login. Uninstalled it and am learning Safari. The little external camera won’t work. My work laptop won’t let me get to anything in the library website, as if it was all behind a firewall! After many emails, figured out that I had to change the settings on Firefox (despite having used my work laptop at home previously), Chrome, and Edge. I shouted and swore all afternoon. Saturday, March 14, 2020 Romano, Andrea. Updated March 12, 2020. “Stuck at Home? These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch (Video): Experience the best museums from London to Seoul in the comfort of your own home.” Travel + Leisure. https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museumswith-virtual-tours I like this idea! Aubrey, Allison. March 14, 2020. “The New Coronavirus Can Live On Surfaces For 2-3 Days — Here's How To Clean Them.” NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/14/811609026/the-newcoronavirus-can-live-on-surfaces-for-2-3-days-heres-how-to-clean-them So what does this mean for stuff we get from the stores? Wipe it all down when we get home before bringing it into the house? �Went walking in Aman Park this afternoon, enjoyed the quiet - heard a lot of birds and listened to the creek. I feel weird wanting to stay away from everyone, including old friends. Sunday, March 15, 2020 Menefee,Trey. March 11, 2020. “COVID19: The Outlook from Hong Kong: This is Bad.” The OSINT HK Brief. https://comparativist.substack.com/p/covid19the-outlook-from-hong-kong "Most Hong Kongers acted as if the virus was already here and raging undetected. Nearly everyone wore masks when they went outside, ... washed their hands frequently. Without being asked or ordered to, most businesses told workers to work remotely when that was an option. Malls, buses, trains, and restaurants were nearly empty for two months. With Hong Kong now ranked below 50 on the outbreak dashboards, there’s a prevailing sense in Hong Kong that we saved ourselves. ... Every infectious disease has nearly flat-lined too, in fact." Monday, March 17, 2020 Kangaroo Sanctuary Alice Springs. March 16, 2020. “Even Priscilla Queen of the Desert loves munchy grass.” https://www.facebook.com/thekangaroosanctuary/ Share cheer and kindness! Bellm, Cameron. March 9, 2020. “Prayer for a Pandemic.” Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9iC8UbFGMz/ Cameron Bellm, a mother of two living in Seattle, offered this “Prayer for a Pandemic” on Instagram. “May we who are merely inconvenienced Remember those whose lives are at stake. May we who have no risk factors Remember those most vulnerable. May we who have the luxury of working from home Remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent. May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close Remember those who have no options. May we who have to cancel our trips Remember those that have no safe place to go. May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market Remember those who have no margin at all. �May we who settle in for a quarantine at home Remember those who have no home. As fear grips our country, let us choose love. During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other, Let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors. Amen.” Friday, March 20, 2020 Pueyo, Tomas. March 19, 2020. “Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance: What the Next 18 Months Can Look Like, if Leaders Buy Us Time.” Medium. https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-andthe-dance-be9337092b56 Good explanation. Thursday, March 26, 2020 VanWingen, Jeffrey. March 24, 2020. “PSA Grocery Shopping Tips in COVID19.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjDuwc9KBps An excellent video on handling groceries and take-out food at home! Yet it caused me great angst. World Economic Forum. March 20, 2020. Coronavirus: These products work best to kill the virus. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/clean-killcoronavirus-covid19-safety-health/ Another good, short article on how to clean and what with (oh, who cares about ending sentences with prepositions!). Saturday, March 28, 2020 We are paying our housecleaner (by check via mail) but doing the cleaning ourselves. We really value her, and I am still paid to work at home. I am buying gift certificates from my massage therapist instead of going there. My hair lady's job will still be there and I'll pay/tip her extra when I resume. However, I'm not sure what to do about the neighbor kid - I'd like him to rake but it's not "lifesustaining" and technically violates the "stay-at-home" order. Probably will just do it myself. I made chapati (flat bread) for the 1st time! No yeast, leavening, or eggs needed. I didn't roll them thin enough but they were fine anyway for sandwiches. Only I substituted 3/4 c regular white flour + 1/4 c almond flour. �Sunday, March 29, 2020 Spent an hour and 20 minutes at Aman Park this morning; it was early and very quiet and I only saw 2 other people. Sand Creek has flooded. A few Hepatica were budded and ready to open! Heard my 1st Phoebe of the year, plus the wood frogs. Also, I realized that the black squirrels in Aman are a color variant of Fox Squirrels (same size, not smaller like Gray Squirrels). On the way home, saw a Red-tailed Hawk soaring and 3 Sandhill Cranes in a field. Rosel, MaryEllen Walter. March 29, 2020. #prevention. Facebook post. https://www.facebook.com/maryellen.rosel “Study after study demonstrates that even if there is only a little bit of connection between groups (i.e. social dinners, playdates/playgrounds, etc.), the epidemic trajectory isn't much different than if there was no measure in place. ... You should perceive your entire family to function as a single individual unit; if one person puts themselves at risk, everyone in the unit is at risk. ... Seemingly small social chains get large and complex with alarming speed. [E.g.,] If your son visits his girlfriend, and you later sneak over for coffee with a neighbor, your neighbor is now connected to the infected office worker that your son's girlfriend's mother shook hands with.” And for this afternoon's cooking experiment, I made Pork Picadillo Lettuce Wraps. I forgot to put the url where I found the recipe, but it contains onion, garlic, chopped green olives, an orange bell pepper, golden raisins, substituted pinenuts for the slivered almonds, salt, cayenne, crushed red pepper, cinnamon, and cloves. Served it with shredded cheese and green salsa. Wednesday, April 1, 2020 Last night's chapati had zatar, fennel seeds, and fresh chives. Yum. Saturday, April 4, 2020 Most people at the park have no clue about 6-10 feet of physical distance, which increased my anxiety. Tuesday, April 7, 2020 COVID-19 Ahmad, Aisha S. 2020, March 27. “ Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-You-Should-Ignore-AllThat/248366 “Global catastrophes change the world.... the legacy of this pandemic will live with us for years, perhaps decades to come. It will change the way we move, build, learn, and connect. … The emotionally and spiritually sane response is �to prepare to be forever changed.” "Let go of all of the profoundly daft ideas you have about what you should be doing right now. Instead, focus intensely on your physical and psychological security." I felt quite productive at first, but today am having trouble concentrating. So Ahmad's thoughts are very relevant. Also, it is warm out! Stage 2 "Now more than ever, we must abandon the performative [productivity] and embrace the authentic. Our essential mental shifts require humility and patience. Focus on real internal change. These human transformations will be honest, raw, ugly, hopeful, frustrated, beautiful, and divine. And they will be slower than keener academics are used to. Be slow. Let this distract you. Let it change how you think and how you see the world. Because the world is our work." Stage 3 "On the other side of this shift, your wonderful, creative, resilient brain will be waiting for you. ... Things will start to feel more natural. The work will also make more sense, and you will be more comfortable about changing or undoing what is already in motion. ... Emotionally prepare for this crisis to continue for 12 to 18 months, followed by a slow recovery. If it ends sooner, be pleasantly surprised. Right now, work toward establishing your serenity, productivity, and wellness under sustained disaster conditions. ... On the other side of this journey of acceptance are hope and resilience. We will know that we can do this, even if our struggles continue for years. We will be creative and responsive, and will find light in all the nooks and crannies. We will learn new recipes and make unusual friends. We will have projects we cannot imagine today, and will inspire students we have not yet met. And we will help each other." What an amazing essay, exactly at the time I needed it. Sunday, April 12, 2020 Stevens, Christian. April 8, 2020. “The Origins of SARS-CoV-2: Part 3. Was this virus designed in lab? Accidentally released?” https://leelabvirus.host/covid19/origins-part3 As my colleague bat researcher Amy Russell says, "an excellent read." Very scientific, and I didn't feel able to concentrate fully, just read the conclusions in bold. �Today's cooking adventure was barbequed boneless chicken thighs. Used Bitty's recipe for bourbon BBQ sauce and the charcoal grill. They were quite tasty, especially so because neither of us likes dark meat! Monday, April 13, 2020 COVID-19 2 Yesterday, we went to a park for a short walk. We walked slowly on a boardwalk at the end of the road and saw a few birds, a bird's nest, ripples on the lake, pussy willows, and a lone Spring Beauty blooming. As we returned to the car, I was grateful that another walker had waited for us to leave the path before he proceeded. Grateful that he stayed away. That is what has been the most difficult thing for for me about this crisis.* Being afraid of seeing other people, of interacting with them when I can't control the distance. Of picking up groceries or take-out food when the substitute shoppers, cooks, and servers aren't wearing masks of any sort. Of neighbor kids running full tilt toward me as they are pulled along by their dog. There's nowhere to go, no escape. I have to turn my face and body away, hold my breath, keep walking until I am compelled to breathe. Is there anything positive that may come from what’s happening?* Via social media, I've seen cool art and crafts that others are making. I've sent more letters, both via snail mail (hurrah for the USPS) and email. I've made more of an effort to cook on the weekends, trying recipes that are new to me. I've exercised more during the week. I chat more with colleagues. More on another day. *Prompts from: Jen A. Miller. "Why You Should Start a Coronavirus Diary." New York Times, April 13, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/smarter-living/whyyou-should-start-a-coronavirus-diary.html Sunday, April 19, 2020 COVID-19 3 People write that the world will be different after this, and I think education becomes even more important - teaching people to see others' points of view, teaching empathy, caring, and how to practice kindness. Changing the economy from frontier or pioneer (always expanding) capitalism to something more like democratic socialism, I hope. �But how do we deal with fewer hugs and kisses? They have become more important, more necessary, and deadly. We also have to teach people to pay attention to the sky, the sunshine and precipitation, the clouds, the plants and animals. We have to change our mechanization to use less-destructive energy. We have to recycle, stop polluting, and actively clean up the planet. Put resources into recycling plants and return to creating products that last a long time. Put education resources into teaching people to fix things - the trades are important - plumbing, mechanics, heating and cooling. Cleaners, teachers, servers, carers (e.g., daycare and nursing home workers, nurses, "personal care attendants") need to be paid as well as or better than the so-called "white collar" employees and owners. Everyone needs healthcare, education, and other human rights. The United Nations has "Peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet" on their homepage now. Their sustainable development goals are what pre-school to higher education should consider as the basic curricula. Wednesday, April 22, 2020 COVID-19 4 One of my colleagues asked to meet online but hadn’t used google meet before – he was pleased with it being so easy, and actually tutored me on changing my settings even though it was his 1st time using it! He has been thinking about how to re-open in f2f with shields between faculty and students in offices and in public-facing offices (in my case, our service desks), using only the largest classroom/lab spaces with fewer students. Will the uni limit the # of students in f2f classes for the fall? It seems counterproductive to financial sense but common sense for maintaining health. If we schedule f2f library instruction, do we ask to split the classes up into different days or sessions if they have too many students to space appropriately? It’ll be noisier when we ask them to collaborate while being farther apart, and we can handle that! (As long as we’re prepared ahead of time.) How do we do the “working with each student individually” in a lab/classroom setting? I can only imagine it takes away from emotional safety if a student has to share their topic loudly. We might have to do this in hallways if in a space that allows for it and in my library, have one of the adjacent small rooms booked. I’m not sure how to handle f2f individual consultations in my office – or if we should only use the bookable small group rooms – but wiping them down in between uses? And/Or do we both wear masks, no matter which space we use? �I think we could do some great brainstorming together! Friday, April 24, 2020 COVID-19 5 Can opportunities be found within this pandemic? My colleagues and I have found that in creating and modifying our instructional materials for the asynchronous environment, while practicing user-centered and accessible design principles, is a lengthy process. It is longer and more laborintensive than creating materials meant to be used in a face-to-face context when we have the luxury of explaining more fully as students use them. We have to spell each step out, and ask our student employees to test the results. Then, we find that after creating a new product we are compelled to go back to improve the previous products. Some librarians are good at creating short videos. I'm not, not yet. I'm better at explaining steps in written form with graphics. When a student colleague completed one assignment I had written, I saw gaps. Now back to modifying! Is iterative change or continuous improvement, as in changing our instructional materials, contradictory to transformational change? We're in the middle of a catastrophe, and transformational change should result, as seen by publishers opening up digital collections for no cost, education going online-only, and libraries continuing to provide services and collections digitally. What will the transformational change be in library instruction and our learning objects? Saturday, April 25, 2020 Saw a flock of Yellow-rumped warblers in Aman Park this morning! Also at least a couple of pairs of Wood Thrushes. A Pileated Woodpecker up close, on the ground - brilliant! On the way home, saw a Great Egret. Saturday, May 2, 2020 Last night I made green-bean-potato salad. Wash, snap, and break fresh green beans into bite-sized pieces. Boil 5-6 minutes until al dente and run them under cold water to stop them cooking and maintain the color. Use really small potatoes or cut them into bite-sized pieces, and boil until tender. Mix them together with crumbled feta cheese, onion or shallots (I used dried this time), vinegar of choice (I like rice wine vinegar), olive oil, salt and pepper. Optional: add fresh chives, or herbs. Thanks to a former friend for the recipe many years ago. The proportions are all to taste or based on what is available. �Tomfoolery. April 29, 2020. “A bed time story of how it started, and why hindsight’s 2020.” https://www.facebook.com/probablytomfoolery/videos/925284527912453/ Wonderful. Watched and listened all the way through. Sunday, May 3, 2020 10 Interesting Facts. Fencing Uniform. https://www.10interestingfacts.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/12/fencing-uniform.jpeg When we return to work, here is the outfit I'm hoping to wear. Mask, gloves, and stay 6 feet away or you will feel the tip of my sword! (I'll wear a regular cloth mask with a filter.) Tuesday, May 5, 2020 COVID-19 6 What have I been learning to do differently to support online learning? • Did a literature search and revised library subject guides to include more instruction and to reduce “cognitive load” with better design; modified my guide profile to include COVID-19 special information • Revised handouts to be more specific as online learning objects • I have used PowerPoint for conference presentations, but thought that for the online spring courses, I would use PowerPoint as a jumping off point to create videos. So far, no instructional videos, but the PowerPoint supplements the other items • Created a 18-second Panopto video to introduce myself to students; also learned how to incorporate a quiz into the video • Learned how to create Blackboard Course Rooms for specified office hours • Learned to use Zoom • Learned to use the Lib Apps virtual chat module • I got a sanctioned institutional account, learned to sign into Google Hangout and to create Google Meetings, and moved items from my private Google Drive to my new institutional account for security and privacy • Read the article by Wagner, Travis L., and Archie Crowley. (2020). “Why are bathrooms inclusive if the stacks exclude? Systemic exclusion of trans and gender nonconforming persons in post-Trump academic librarianship.” Reference Services Review (48), 159-181. https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0090-7324/vol/48/iss/1 Although I had already included many of the recommended practices, I revised the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resources guide to be even more welcoming, as there have been more articles about LGBTQIA people feeling especially isolated during COVID-19. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-05-08_RangerK Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ranger, Kim L. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-06/2020-05-08 Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journal Description An account of the resource Thoughts of an androgynous (non-binary) married lesbian, Quaker, liaison librarian, tenured faculty member during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/917dcd3dbc656a5b6155116b17188a86.mp4 c5e65e285e349bb2904e2d26d11619bd https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0e255efddea9a080a6913786ebf1e510.srt 9d5e6547a7aff5b574721447ba6725bc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-04-02_ElliottRyan_v03 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Elliott, Ryan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-04-02 Title A name given to the resource Ryan Elliot video journal, Part 3 Description An account of the resource Video journal of Ryan Elliott, GVSU electrical engineering student, and his fiancée Shay, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this video Shay discusses her work in health care, and Ryan talks about his church involvement and the changes they have experienced due to social distancing. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 Language A language of the resource eng