Poem that I wrote Monday night at 2am because I was unable to sleep:)
Pretty girls
Running with pretty boys
Shatter their ugly town
Dancing to silence noise
Melting down
Seeping through the cracks
Painting that screeching noise
Dripping bright colors
Hear their voice
Singing beautiful sounds
Entrancing empty minds
Join them within their void
Having pain
Feeling none
Isn’t this
Oh so fun
Numb throughout
Comfortable lives
Needing not
Another’s prize
Isn’t this
What life’s about
Happy with
Everything else
Blocked too far out
If you hear
Their silent noise
They’re calling you
We must all join
And if not
Worry none
Those kinds of people
Fade when quiet comes
WEDNESDAY MARCH 25TH:
Today I had to work an 11 hour shift at my job at Ace Hardware. Since we are considered an
essential business, I am one of a handful of people all over town actually going into work right
now. We’re really understaffed right now because so many people are scared to come into work
hence the 11 hour shift. Today was particularly interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, it
was one of the busiest days since I’ve been working there for almost a year now partially
because of the huge shipment that came in and also because of the insane number of people
coming in to see if we have any face masks or hand sanitizer which of course we don’t. What’s
probably more surprising though is the amount of people coming in for very non essential things
like barbeque smoking pellets or frisbees. It seems that every person that comes in falls into one
of two categories, either they are covered from their head to their toes and wearing a face mask
and gloves with a six foot long pole to keep people at a distance or they are coming in for no
particular reason and completely ignoring the whole social distancing thing.
3rd of April, 2020
Week Two Primary Sources
Playlist of songs I’m learning on guitar during quarantine:
Everlong - Foo Fighters
She Talks to Angels - The Black Crowes
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
Free Fallin - John Mayer
Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
When I Come Around - Green Day
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
Enter Sandman - Metallica
Lightning Crashes - Live
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Journal Thursday April 2nd, 2020:
Today I woke up at 7:00am for a session of my early morning church school via a Zoom call. I kind of wish I could have slept in a little more, but honestly it's much better than the 6:00am class we usually have when we meet in person. I did that for an hour, then had a little break before going to first period at 8:15 which was Advanced Computer Science. Despite the whole distance learning, we are actually making really good progress on our group project which is more relevant than ever now. The three of us in the class are working with the teacher to create an app that would allow people to vote on political issues from their phones using blockchain so as to increase the security and convenience of voting. This would actually be really useful in our situation where any sort of congregation even for voting is taking a risk of getting sick. After that I had a solid chunk of time before my next class so to fill the time I went to my work to buy a bunch of power tools and supplies to start making my own rings out of brass and stainless steel. That occupies me during pretty much all of the rest of my free time for the rest of the day. I went to my other two classes then did a tutorial session for my TA period. Fifth period was a test which was pretty interesting because it was the first full test I have ever taken through Zoom and Canvas. After that, I went for a run with my dog to the dog beach and we swam and played fetched for about an hour before running back to the house. I finished off the day with dinner then a backyard bonfire followed by doing my homework. For a day in social distancing, I would say I kept myself pretty well occupied.
My go to list of things to do in quarantine:
Watch Netflix (Either one of several shows I’ve been binging on or some standup comedians).
Learn a new song on the guitar or the bass.
Go for a walk or run with my dog.
Read my scriptures.
Barbeque a couple of pork shoulders for 8 hours.
Dive down a long Youtube rabbithole starting with some clickbait thumbnail.
Build something with all of the random tools and materials I’ve accumulated in the garage.
Clean up and reorganize every possible nook and cranny of the house until I’m completely satisfied with how everything looks.
Move all of the furniture around in the middle of the night for no reason.
Chop wood in the backyard for a couple of hours.
Create a completely organized structure of folders and subfolders in my google drive and computer storage so I never lose a file again.
Video chat with my friends.
Do a Zoom meeting for a core workout with my running group.
Go on amazon and spend all of my money on things I don’t need.
17th of April 2020
Week Four Primary Sources
JOURNAL WED 04/17/2020:
Today I was thinking about how we can try to find some good in the situation that our society is in right now. While I was pondering this, a few things stuck out to me. The first was that the world has been given a great chance to heal as a result of all of the shutdowns. The human race has been continually polluting the Earth since our first existence and more so than ever before than in the past few years. I think this epidemic is a natural occurrence to put the human race in its place and remind us that we don’t need to destroy our home the way we do because it may be the only one we ever have. I read an article earlier saying that for the first time in the last several hundred years, dolphins have come back into the canals of Venice. Even if it seems overall negative for humans, at least the much larger rest of the world is benefitting. The second good thing that I can see coming after this is a change in our societal attitudes. The truth is that the world has never seen anything like this very similarly to 9/11. I hope that after this, we will refer to our world as a post COVID world where we are more cautious and proactive about preventing disease and we are more appreciative of the things we get to do every day just like how after 9/11 many more precautions were put into place to increase security.
A Story From Quarantine
One of the very interesting side effects of shelter in place on working at Ace Hardware is that non violent theft is no longer being prosecuted because of the lack of police resources and need to enforce the shelter in place. For us that means that we get way more tweakers coming in and stealing stuff and we have to deal with them. The other day a guy came in who was clearly homeless and high on something with a machete down the back of his shirt. He walked around the store for a while and grabbed a bunch of random stuff before “realizing” at the register that didn’t have any money and left probably with stuff in his pockets. Later that day, the same guy came back and this time we were more prepared. He came in with one of his tweaker friends and started pulling the same stunt. When they got to the register, I called their bluff and asked them to empty their pockets and the guy with the machete just ran out of the store. His friend decided it would be a good idea to grab a can of canned air and run around the front section to try and escape. Two of my coworkers blocked him and there was a scuffle and finally one of my coworkers threw him to the ground. Unfortunately he pulled my other coworker down with him and gave him a concussion and busted eyebrow when he hit his head on the ground. The security guard finally hauled him off and my coworker took the next few days off. The whole thing was really crazy but if you think about it, they probably knew that theft isn’t being prosecuted so in a way, the whole world situation right now caused the whole thing.
Today about 30 minutes ago I was sitting in my billiard room with my pops and we were watching old country music artists on the big screen. We were going through artists like Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Jr., and David Allen Coe. We watched old performances and just talked about his childhood. We talked about when he was younger going deer hunting off of a John Deere tractor with his friends. He talked about the differences between growing up in rural Pennsylvania and moving to the valley and the tech industry. I thought it was just an interesting conversation that probably wouldn't have happened if we had not been forced inside for this quarantine.