rena's blog

Getting rid of ten pouches of fruit snacks seems to be easier said than done. Apparently, passing around snacks sparks a sense of distrust. Or that is at least what I have observed in the last few days whenever I attempted to treat someone to a pouch of fruit snacks. More often than not, people would look at me with a hint of confusion. Hesitance would follow that confusion which put both of us in slightly awkward positions.

The first pouch I actually gave to a friend who already knew what I was up to. Her reaction was one of delight and entertainment. She laughed as she told me to give her the snack in a subtle way so no one would see what we were doing. Whether that worked or not, I don’t know. The both of us were laughing too much to look inconspicuous.

The next pouch I offered to a friend whom I also work with. His reaction was the one that I ended up getting the most of. He looked at me with confusion written all over his face. I must have caught him off guard with my offer. That confusion was followed by hesitance. For context, it is by no means unusual to leave snacks or food for others to take at work. It’s a silent offer rather than an open, direct invitation to take some. Nobody usually directly approaches others to offer them snacks. Perhaps, that was why my friend was hesitant to accept my offer at first. However, he ended up grabbing a pouch out of the box and thanked me. I proceeded to explain myself afterward to maintain my usually less weird image and not have him question whether I was trying to poison him. That seemed to quiet down his concern about the food that I had offered him.

The third pouch went to another colleague to whom I actually hadn’t offered it originally. As I was on my way to leave the shop, I passed her since she was working at the front desk and told me to have a nice day. As she said that, her eyes wandered down to my hand which was holding the box of superhero fruit snacks. With a look of curiosity, she asked me about the box. I initially offered her a pouch in response, but she didn’t want one. Then, I explained what the purpose was of my carrying the box around at work. An entertained smile found its way onto her face as she was listening to me. When I finished, she told me that she would be happy to take some if it helped me with my assignment. Since I was desperately trying to get rid of the snacks, I was happy to give her one.

Original Lead from One by One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps: If you took an Uber in Washington, D.C., a couple of years ago, there was a chance your driver was one of the greatest living Uyghur poets. Tahir Hamut Izgil arrived with his family in the United States in 2017, fleeing the Chinese government’s merciless persecution of his people. Tahir’s escape not only spared him near-certain internment in the camps that have swallowed more than 1 million Uyghurs; it also allowed him to share with the world his experience of the calamity engulfing his homeland. The following articles are Tahir’s firsthand account of one of the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises, and of one family’s survival.

Version 1 (the standard): Tahir Hamut Izgil escaped the Chinese government’s merciless persecution of his people, the Uyghurs.

Version 2 (the shocker): More than 1 million Uyghurs have been persecuted and sent to camps. Tahir Hamut Izgil is not one of them.

Version3 (the suspenseful): If Tahir Hamut Izgil hadn’t come to the United States with his family, he may not have been free anymore.

This feature obviously has a main character or person of interest which is Bobby himself. Outside of that, the family (mother Helen, father Bobby Sr., and younger brother Jeff) are also mentioned and the author almost has longer sections dedicated to her experiences with each one of them. Bobby’s former girlfriend is mentioned too. Bobby’s last diary is oftentimes mentioned when the author writes about her conversations and experiences with the girlfriend. The author also has known Bobby herself too, because he was her brother’s roommate for years.

Jennifer Senior (the author) starts out with a description of what Bobby left behind. The lede is a few sentences long and it serves as an introduction and transition to some of the most important things that were left behind by Bobby and what happened with them. That seems to be a fairly big part of the story. As mentioned previously, the author has longer sections where she describes conversations and experiences that she had had with Bobby, but mainly also with the other characters she mentioned. For instance, one of the first sections largely deals with Bobby’s mother. Another one deals with his father. What did he do? How did Bobby’s death affect him? And how did that change throughout time?

The story is very long which is why I find it hard to figure out one theme. But memory or grief seems to be evident throughout the whole feature.

With regards to Hersey, I would say that this story seems to me to be largely true. I doubt that the author invented anything and put it in the feature. As Hersey mentioned, no story or article is entirely objective. Despite that and the obvious personal connections that the author has to the characters of her feature, she points that out repeatedly. She also mentions certain things, usually in a subtle way, that some things have been forgotten by the characters over time. She makes it clear that these are personal experiences that she writes about and that some of them can be forgotten. Therefore, I would argue that the story is true.

Sky Sports Feature on Women’s Basketball

In midst of a pandemic, Morningside College’s soccer coach Tom Maxon has been having very successful seasons with the men’s and the women’s teams.

The last game of this year for both of Morningside’s soccer teams decided whether they won the conference and automatically qualified for Nationals or whether they would have to take a longer detour to get to the National Championship.

The first half of the game against Briar Cliff proved to be a tough one for the women’s team. They had conceded an early goal and had not been able to respond with a goal of their own. At the halftime break, the team gathered on the grass field around Coach Maxon. He began with praise before he went on to voice some critique on how the game has been going up until now. He mentioned that a player on the team did very well in the half. Then he talked about how the team performed so far and what needed to be improved.

During his explanations, he kept on looking around and seeking eye contact with his players. Every once in a while, after finishing an explanation, he would cross out points on a piece of paper that he had scribbled notes on during the first half of the game. There was a calmness around Maxon that resulted from his rather quiet and calming voice paired with very rational words.

Tom Maxon has been the head coach of both Morningside College soccer teams for 20 years. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine in 1988. There, he became an All-American midfielder twice and set a school record for career assists. Afterward, he played professionally in Germany and in the US for a few years. He went on to earn his master’s degree in Sports Management from the United States Sports Academy in 1990. He holds a USSF ‘A’ License and has coached several other teams before he became head coach at Morningside College.

For five seasons, he coached in the Premier Development League, leading the Sioux City Breeze team to the 1999 Midwest Regional Final and the Sioux Falls SpitFire team to the 2001 National Final Four. Before coming to Morningside College, Maxon coached at St. Mary of the Plains College and at National American University.

According to one of his current players, Okan Golge, he has a winning mentality. This mentality earned him various awards throughout his career. He was named Soccer Coach of the Year for either team four times in total since he came to Morningside. This includes the last year, 2019, when Maxon was selected as the Hauff Mid-America Sports/GPAC Coach-of-the-Year after his men’s team won the conference.

There are currently 39 players on the women’s team and 49 players on the men’s team. Maxon is surrounded by eight other people who assist him with both teams, but only BJ Wylie is a full-time assistant coach. He helps with coaching, recruiting, day-to-day player management, equipment, and other things on both teams. Leadership groups on both teams are very involved in decisions that he has to make about the teams as well. Bailey Powers, a senior at Morningside College and captain of the women’s soccer team, explained that “[t]he leadership group is involved in almost all decisions that the team has”. This includes decisions about the game-day lineup and what to do in practice. She added, “In the end though, it’s coach’s decision that will be final and if he disagrees with the leadership group then his decision is what they go with.”

Maxon puts a lot of work into his preparation for games. He watches a lot of films of past games and other teams, talks to the teams about what they can do, what they have done, and what they know they can do. He gives them confidence, but most importantly, he tells them to love and enjoy it. Especially the more difficult games are the games they play for.

Those last two games against Briar Cliff University were such games. They concluded the first part of a very unusual season. Maxon explained: “I don’t think there has ever been a year where both teams had been at the very, very top and had been able to possibly win it on the last day.”

Even though both teams had good seasons, there are still players who are discontent with their coach. Many of them complain because they don’t play as much as they want to.

Maxon said with a sad expression, “That’s the hardest part of my job. It is so hard. I know that every one of [their] lives are so wrapped up in this and I know that I – and I realize that I hold the key to that. And I can be the angel one day and the devil the next.” Those decisions, he said, are the most difficult. “If I ever did get out of this game that would be why. It would just be too hard for me to continue doing so all of [them] what I’m doing to all of [them].”

Bailey Powers explained that Maxon is a good coach, because “he cares about all of his players equally. No matter your position or how much you play he values your character above your skill.” She added that he lets his players be well-rounded people. He allows them to fix their mistakes and leaves them in the game to gain confidence.

On the question of what she would like him to change, she answered that he sometimes changes the formation at the wrong times in a game. He also doesn’t make the team aware of problems until after the game or the halftime break. The players would rather have him tell them about it during the game right after making a mistake. Lastly, she said that she would like him to stick more to his word and throw people off the team if he warned them. While this hasn’t been much of an issue during this season, there were occasions during past seasons where he should have been stricter.

Noah Aniser, a player on the men’s team, praised Maxon saying that “[h]e always has the best interests of his players at heart.” He described Maxon as a very kind person, but he agreed with Powers on the point that Maxon needs to be stricter and give more advice during games.

In midst of a pandemic, Morningside College’s soccer coach Tom Maxon has been having very successful seasons with the men’s and the women’s teams.

The last game of this year for both of Morningside’s soccer teams decided whether they won the conference and automatically qualified for the Nationals or whether they would have to take a longer detour to get to the National Championship.

The first half of the game proved to be a tough one for the women’s team. They had conceded an early goal and had not been able to respond with a goal of their own. At the halftime break, the team gathered on the grass field around Coach Maxon. He began with praise before he went on to voice some critique on how the game has been going up until now. He mentioned that a player on the team did very well in the half. Then he talked about how the team performed so far and what needed to be improved.

During his explanations, he kept on looking around and seeking eye contact with his players. Every once in a while, after finishing an explanation, he would cross out points on a piece of paper that he had scribbled notes on during the first half of the game. There was a calmness around Maxon that resulted from his rather quiet and calming voice paired with very rational words.

Tom Maxon has been the head coach of both Morningside College soccer teams for 20 years. He became the head coach in 2000. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine in 1988. There, he became an All-American midfielder twice and set a school record for career assists. Afterward, he played professionally in Germany and in the US for a few years. He went on to earn his master’s degree in Sports Management from the United States Sports Academy in 1990. He holds a USSF ‘A’ License and has coached several other teams before he became head coach at Morningside College.

Maxon is married and has two children.

For five seasons, he coached in the Premier Development League, leading the Sioux City Breeze team to the 1999 Midwest Regional Final and the Sioux Falls SpitFire team to the 2001 National Final Four. Before coming to Morningside college, Maxon coached at St. Mary of the Plains College and at National American University.

Throughout his career, Maxon has received various awards. He was named Soccer Coach of the Year for either team four times in total since he came to Morningside. This includes the last year, 2019, when Maxon was selected as the Hauff Mid-America Sports/GPAC Coach-of-the-Year after his men’s team won the conference.

There are currently 39 players on the women’s team and 49 players on the men’s team. Maxon is currently surrounded by eight other people who assist him with both teams, but only BJ Wylie is a full-time assistant coach. He helps with coaching, recruiting, day-to-day player management, equipment, and other things on both teams.

Those last two games against Briar Cliff University rounded up the first part of a very unusual season. Maxon explained: “I don’t think there has ever been a year where both teams had been at the very, very top and had been able to possibly win it on the last day.”

Even though both teams are having good seasons, there are still players who are discontent with their coach. Many of them complain because they don’t play as much as they want to.

Maxon said with a sad expression: “It’s so hard. That’s the hardest part of my job. It is so hard. I know that every one of [their] lives are so wrapped up in this and I know that I – and I realize that I hold the key to that. And I can be the angel one day and the devil the next.” He added that, if he were to ever leave the sport, he would do it, because he wouldn’t be able to bear making those decisions anymore.  “If I ever did get out of this game that would be why. It would just be too hard for me to continue doing so all of [them] what I’m doing to all of [them].”

Maxon puts a lot of work into his preparation for games. He watches a lot of films, talks to the teams about what they can do, has done, and know they can do. He gives them confidence, but most importantly, he tells them to love and enjoy it. Especially more difficult games are the games that they play for.

Maxon cares a lot about his players. That’s why he includes the leadership groups of both teams in almost all decisions that he has to make for the teams. This includes deciding on the gameday lineup and helping to pick what to do in practice.

Bailey Powers, captain of the women’s team, explained that Maxon is a good coach, because “he cares about all of his players equally. No matter your position or how much you play the values your character above your skill.” She added that he lets his players be well-rounded people. He allows them to fix their mistakes and leaves them in the game to gain confidence.

On the question of what she would like him to change, she answered that he sometimes changes the formation at the wrong times in a game. He also doesn’t make the team aware of problems until after the game or the halftime break. The players would rather have him tell them about it during the game right after making a mistake. Lastly, she said that she would like him to stick more to his word and throw people off the team if he warned them. While this hasn’t been much of an issue during this season, there were occasions during past seasons where he should have been stricter.

Noah Aniser, a player on the men’s team, praised Maxon saying that “[h]e always has the best interests of his players at heart. He is a very kind person, but he agreed with Powers on the point that Maxon needs to be stricter and give more advice during games

For U.S. Stars in England, There Is Now Only Red and Blue by Rory Smith (The New York Times)

This article is a feature of four US women’s national team players who went to Manchester. Two of them joined Manchester United, while the other two players joined Manchester City. The interview is mainly about their impressions of the new country, their new team’s mentalities, issues in their lives in Europe that were caused by the pandemic, and the national team.

It is a feature and not a news article because it is not about a news event that just happened. It is rather about an interview which is about the moves of these players to new clubs. I like the article because there are also short videos of the actual interview. I have read several articles by Rory Smith now and I generally like his articles. I am guessing that he organized the article according to the interview. The only thing is that I feel like the actual article should say more about the actual game that is mentioned in the lede.

Homer, the polar bear, passed away after 16 good years at the Midland Zoo.

He was found dead in his exhibit this morning. The two younger polar bears Yukon and McKenzie, aged 9 and 10, were removed from the exhibit and are being monitored by veterinary staff.

Sara N. Getty, the zoo keeper, described Homer as very curious and playful. She added that the polar bear will be missed terribly.

Dr. Shanda Lear, a senior staff veterinarian, explained that “[t]he zoo will perform a necropsy to try to determine the cause of death”. But those results will only be available in a few weeks.

The zoo director Chris P. Bacon said, “We will do everything in our power to determine how this bear died. Animal welfare and the preservation of species are our primary goals here at the zoo.”

Polar bears have thrived at the zoo since 1985. Their exhibit allows the bears to engage in natural behaviors. They are ambassadors for their wild relatives, educating zoo visitors about these threatened animals.

Bacon also confirmed that there were two other deaths at the zoo this month, but that these deaths are unrelated. A 10-year-old female bobcat named Regina died of renal failure and a 6-year-old giraffe named Kenya died after breaking her neck when her horns for caught in her stall.

Don’t blink… USWNT star Tobin Heath would nutmeg you in a hot second by Graham Hays (ESPN)

The article is a profile of Tobin Heath, a US Women’s National Team player. According to the article, she is one of the most technically skilled players on the USWNT. She considers attacking to be an art and defending a science that can be learned. She loves to have the ball at her feet. The problem with that for a lot of coaches is that she is sometimes more focused on a 1-v-1 than scoring a goal. Other teammates have described her as being a “vibe”.

The article starts with the narration of a story that happened in the soccer player’s sophomore year in college at UNC. Then, the article describes her career from being a very young child to becoming the soccer player that she was at the time when the article was written. Some quotes and information from former teammates and coaches are included as well.