Off Campus Chaos

Recently, UK has been informed of many off-campus parties occurring on game days. There has been photo and video evidence supplied by neighbors and the police that proves this. In order to combat these large groups of student that are not Covid compliant, a contact was signed between police forces in the city of Lexington, Kentucky. Attached here are a few news stories posted by the area's news sites that offer information about the problem https://www.wkyt.com/2020/09/27/uk-investigating-approximately-ten-reports-of-large-gatherings-on-game-day/, https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article246031780.html, https://uknow.uky.edu/campus-news/lexington-university-kentucky-respond-campus-activity. 

I feel as if UK is doing what they can to keep their student in check. It is hard to do so when the students are being incompliant off-campus, but the contract should help to keep them under control and keep the city safe.

Safely Supporting the Cats

I recently went to my first UK football game of the year. As we all know, the SEC had a hard decision to make when the questions about football season started to arise. The SEC made the executive decision to let the games be played, while also allowing fans. A lot fewer fans are allowed into the game, though. all fans are also required to wear masks.

While attending the game, I paid attention to what was different in the stadium compared to last year. While walking through the hallways of the stadium, I noticed fewer people and a lot more space to walk. Regularly, these hallways are packed full. Going without touching surrounding fans was impossible before. When I got to my seat, I noticed that groups of tickets had large spaces between them. there were at least five seats between the other group in the row and our own. This is evident in this photo.

You were required to wear a mask at all times in the stadium. The only exceptions were while you were eating or drinking. There were employees of the stadium standing by each staircase keeping an eye on the fans. if you had your mask off, you were told to put it back on. If you disobeyed, you had to leave. I noticed very few people disobeying.

I feel as if UK is doing what they can to keep football season up and running in a safe way. There is not much else they can do without hurting the team and funding. I enjoyed the game, even with the precautions. Here is a snippet for you to appreciate.

Update on Greek Life at UK

Greek Life at UK still seems to be following the Covid guidelines that are set in stone by the university. Most of the philanthropy events have been canceled because there is no way to hold the events in a way that does not disobey the guidelines. However, Alpha Chi Omega and Pi Kappa Alpha recently were able to hold there fairly new philanthropy event called Paint Wars. The event was held outside, which probably gave it the best chance to be held out of all the events that are usually held around this time. They also required masks to be worn the entire time, even during physical activity. A video is attached to the main event, the actual "paint war". The dust may make it look as if masks were not worn. The pictures attached will make it evident that they were required. The only negative thing I have to say about the event is that most people were not six feet apart.

UK Core Issue: How Do We Distribute Covid Vaccines?

If I was in charge of distributing a Covid vaccine to all of the residents of Fayette County, Kentucky, I would start by distributing it to the people at greatest risk. This group includes the elderly, people with underlying diseases, and people with autoimmune disorders. I will ensure it gets to the people who need it most by going through medical records and the census record. You have to consider if the elderly people chosen are in good health or not. You also have to consider the seriousness of the diseases and autoimmune disorders these people have. Some of them, even though they are in these categories, may turn out to be at less of a risk than expected.

Turning Covid Into Art

Pop culture has found Covid in many ways and is a major part of the pandemic itself. One of my favorite artists actually wrote a great song about Covid and the effect it has on people and their relationships. The song is Six Feet Apart and the artist is Luke Combs. The first time I listened to this song, I had literal tears in my eyes. I would recommend this song to anyone willing to listen. Listen to it now at https://youtu.be/Sayh8ZASxk8. Another example of pop culture taking Covid and turning into art is a Japanese artist using masks to make miniature art pieces. Therefore, he is quite literally turning Covid into art. Read more about Tanaka Tatsuya's work here https://mymodernmet.com/miniature-art-covid-19-tatsuya-tanaka/.

Covid and the Miller Household's Diet

My mother has always been the type of person to overprepare. This is probably why we still have a pile of food in the corner of the dining room that was bought at the beginning of quarantine. My mother assumed that every single snack we like was going to be inaccessible, but they all turned out to be just as accessible as always. The only thing that we had a problem obtaining was steak. We do not eat it often, but when we wanted it we could never find it at the grocery. Our family eats a lot of chicken, and we were thankful that it was available most of the time during the quarantine. Covid did not change our diet much. We had the same food in the house that we had always had. However, for me at least, quarantine became a time to get healthy. I began to workout out of pure boredom and was truly in the best shape of my life. That soon ended once we were allowed to go to restaurants again. Something different was that my mother no longer went to the grocery store, but instead ordered groceries for drop off at the house. This was the only big difference I took account of.