The corona virus has affected all of us in many ways. It has forced everyone to change their lifestyles to doing things such as wearing masks, social distancing, and not having the ability to really have a similar night life like they were used too in the past. Yes, these health precautions are especially important for the well being of everyone in our country but has led to many negative affects to many states throughout our country, especially in New York. New York is the epicenter of business and night life in our country. This is where many people come to start small businesses to chase the American dream. As well as small businesses larger businesses that have been around for decades are also being affected. I have seen this firsthand through my father, Brian McMahon. My father works for the New York Post which is a popular newspaper in New York that has been around for many years. I asked a variety of questions on how Covid-19 has affected his job. In his answers to these questions, he explained how to the workplace has changed drastically. He explained how all the workers must wear masks on the job and must be constantly sanitizing. In addition, he explained how the circulation of newspapers has decreased during the Corona virus pandemic. He explained how this comes form less people going out and picking up their papers due to their phobia of becoming sick if they enter the city or ride on the subways. He explained that this decrease in circulation of the news paper will eventually cause the New York Post to downsize their company. This will cause many people to lose their jobs. Luckily for my father he has been working in the company for over twenty years so is tenure in the business will keep him around unless the company ends up completely shutting down. If this were the case it would put a large burden on my family as well as many other families who are working within this company. The corona virus pandemic is not only harming the New York Post but many other newspaper outlets as well. People are more willing to get their news online or through the radio because of the fear that touching the traditional news paper that a lot of these companies rely on will eventually lead them to contract the virus. The Corona Virus has affected me firsthand as well. During the past weeks I attempted to capture people’s thoughts on this pandemic and how it has affected New York on video. The problem at hand was that ever since coming home from Marist I had been feeling under the weather. This being the case I did not want to put anyone at risk at catching what I had so I asked members of my community to send me video answering the question. How has the Corona Virus affected the state of New York? I was somewhat surprised by some of the responses I received. Many people did not really speak on the health benefits that the shut down of New York City has brought but were more enraged by the leadership of New York and how the pandemic was being handled. One responded described what is being done to the city as “horrible” as he walked through the city seeing many small businesses shut down. Most of the people who were asked this question were around the age of college students. Obviously, college students care a lot about their night life. Two summers ago my friends and I would often spend amazing nights in the city by going out to restaurants, bars, or parties within the city. Due to the corona virus pandemic this was no longer possible last summer nor is it possible in this moment in time. I currently reside in Long Island which is right outside of New York City. My uncle who is a real estate agent did not want to be put on camera but was willing to give me some insight on what is happening throughout Long Island on the real estate side of things. He explained to me that the market is at an all time high in our community because people are rushing out of New York City to come move to a more residential area like towns in Long Island. This is happening because the reason that people move to New York City in the first place is to experience the night life, Broadway plays, concerts, and going to Madison Square Garden or the Barclays Center to watch their favorite teams play. This is no longer an option for them due to the shut down in New York. In addition, most people live in New York City because it is where there place of work is. Due to the Corona Virus people are beginning to simplify work at home. This means there is no real reason for these people to live in such an expensive city like New York when they can save money moving somewhere else and can live in a more residential area where they are able to go on hikes or visit various wildlife attractions or parks. This is not the same in New York City as it is in more residential areas such as Long Island. In addition, people are choosing to completely abandon New York and move to states like Florida where the rules on the Corona Virus are way less strict. Overall, people just want to live their normal life again and feel like this pandemic has gone on too long. Obviously, there are problems within this. The virus is clearly still spreading throughout our country and does not seem to be slowing down any time soon. If people are so fed up with the rules of the pandemic, they will eventually begin to break them. This will only make things worse. As I see it there are better times ahead. I understand that there is frustration within our communities about this pandemic, but we need to do our part as Americans to continue to follow the rules set out by health officers so that eventually our country and especially my city, New York City can get back to normal.
The Dirtbag Diaries: “The Dream Job” Podcast Reaction
The podcast I listened too was from “The Dirtbag Diaries.” The episode was called “The Dream Job.” The premise of this episode was the two hosts explaining their summer jobs straight out of college. The hosts names are John Temple and Dean Goodman. The podcast is explaining their dream jobs in the summer of 1971. In this job from June to August they lived a lone in a log cabin observing the wildlife around them. They lived with no supervision or communication to the outside world. They were hired by the Sierra club. What they did was document landmarks and wildlife, found potential campsites, and treacherous portages. This job is eventually what led the men to be in this field of work for the rest of their lives. I enjoyed listening to this podcast. The speakers allowed you to get into their minds and drew a picture of the situations they were in while explaining their stories about their job. They were incredibly detailed, and it seems like they had a lot invested into these stories. Another thing I enjoyed about this podcast was the flow of it. There were perfect transitions between the people talking and from story to story. The thing I enjoyed most about this podcast was the fact that you were able to feel like you were in their situation due to their detailed explanation. One thing I wished the podcast did a poor job of was including sound effects. If they would have added more sound effects their explanation of their stories could have been even better than they already were. For example, when they explained seeing a certain animal or type of wildlife, they could have added a certain sound effect that this thing makes. This would allow the listener to be even more engaged. In my opinion, when someone hears sound effects when listening to a story it creates a movie like style which almost everyone enjoys. It allows the listener to connect to the story even more. In my opinion, this program should be a podcast. I think this is true because for the simple fact that there may not be enough information to create a novel or a movie. This being said, they could have easily left out details in order to keep the podcast short and sweet, but throughout the podcast the speakers were explaining that they do not have too much recollection of specific stories to explain them in full. Overall, I enjoyed listening to this podcast and will listen to more episodes from this series in the future.
Marist Poll: The Downward Trend of Sports Viewers During the Pandemic
2020 has been one of the craziest if not the craziest year of many people’s lifetime. The Coronavirus Pandemic has affected all of us in many ways. In addition, our country is in the midst of one of the most controversial elections of all time. Once the coronavirus took the world by storm one of the biggest things affected have been sports. The NBA had to pause their season in the middle of it and eventually resumed their season in the NBA bubble in Orlando. The MLB season was postponed and also had to transition to the bubble format for the playoffs. The NHL also did the same thing. In the NFL there were many uncertianties about wheather or not the season would resume and eventually cancelled their preseason. They are currently playing with limited to no fans. The Marist poll conducted a study attempting to find out what these times have done to affect sports viewership. Through their study they concluded that people are watching sports way less than they used too. They assume that this downward trend has come from various reasons including no fans in the stands, the social injustices in our country, and the election coming up in November. From March 2017 to October 2020 all sports fans have decresed. For football fans decreased 17 percent, baseball fans have decreased 14 percent, basketball fans have decreased 7 percent and Nascar fans have decreased 6 percent. This was suprising information to me. Personally, during the pandemic while I was sitting at home having nothing to do besides do school work every day I wished that their was some sports to watch. This was the same for most of the people I know. Therefore, I felt that the amount of sports fans would increase as they started to come back. During tough times sports can be used as a way to get away from it all and simpily enjoy some of the best athletes do what they do best. In addition, the competiton level has been at an all time high since sports have came back. This was especially seen in the NBA bubble. Players who weren’t expected to make a splash were some of the best players in the bubble. This was especially seen in the team who made the NBA finals the Miami Heat. Players like Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro blossmed into emerging stars in the bubble. In addition, their best player Jimmy Butler was playing some of the best basketball of his career and pushed himself into consideration as one of the top players in the leauge. This being said, I can see why there has been a downturn in viewership in sports. All of the major sports leagues have been displaying the importance of social justice through there games. For example, the NBA had a Black Lives Matter logo on their court as well as the NFL on the fields. In addition, players are allowed to put messages on the back of their jerseys to promote social justice. In my opinion, this shouldn’t be a matter of politics, but simpily something that we as a community must handle. There is too much hate in this country as our people need to fix this ourselves. For most people though this is all politics. If I had to guess most of the people who have stopped watching sports are people of the radical right on the ploitcal spectrum. Since they disagree with what the leagues are trying to get across they simpily have stopped watching sports because they feel it could be supporting the democratic party. This seems like nonsense to me. Like I said before sports are a way which people can connect. People shouldn’t worry about their political views when watching sports, but remember the passion that they have for these sports and use it as a way to get away from it all and connect with people of all differnet backgrounds. This personally is why I love to play the game of football. Being a football player at Marist as connected me with people from backgrounds that I have never been invloved with and has given me insight to may differnt aspects of life. This is what sports should do for all of us even if we are not playing and just watching. Overall, the downward trend of sports viewership has suprised me. People need use sports as way to get away from it all and remeber all of the good memories that sports have given us.
Yankees vs Rays Reaction/Lakers vs Heat Prediction
The coronavirus pandemic has had a major affect on our lives recently. It has prohibited us from doing a lot of the things that we may have wanted to do this summer and is still affecting us today. As an off-campus student at Marist college it is hard to find stories to write about since I am usually not on campus almost ever anymore. Therefore, in my house most of the activities that we do include our schoolwork, and exercise. One positive that has come from the coronavirus pandemic is that for the 1st time we are able to watch all of the major sports at one time. Hockey just concluded while the NBA is in its final series. The playoffs for the MLB has just begun and the NFL season is currently approaching week 5. This is an exciting time for all of my housemates as we are all huge sports fans. One of my housemates who wishes that their name remains anonymous said “We went from having nothing to watch to being blessed with being able to watch all of the sports at one time. I couldn’t be happier.”
Last night my housemates and I watched game 4 of the AL Division Series between the New York Yankees and The Tampa Bay Rays. This game was extremely important since it was an elimination game with the Rays being up 2-1 of the best of 5 series. As the game went on, we watched as our team, The Yankees went on to win 5-1. This was extremely important for The Yankees as they get their ace, and one of the best pitchers in baseball in Gerrit Cole on the mound for the closeout game 5. Gerrit Cole said “just give me the ball” when Yankees manager Mike Boone asked him about pitching on short rest. The Yankees signed Cole this offseason with this exact situation in mind which is a close out game against the best team in the American League with the ball in Gerrit Cole’s hands. The 1st inning of game 4 had no runs scored. In the second inning the Yankees bats began to heat up a little bit. Luke Voit started it off with a solo homerun which traveled 453 feet. The Yanks then got bases loaded with no outs but were only able to drive in one run from a sacrifice fly to right field with Brett Gardner scoring. In the next inning the Yankees would give up the only run of the game. The Yankees pitching staff pitched a great game using Jacob Montgomery, Chad Green, Zack Britton, and Aroldis Chapman. Montgomery let up the only run but pitched well through the rest of the time he was in striking out 4 batters. Gleyber Torres hit a homerun later in the game and Giancarlo Stanton hit a ground rule double to keep up his hot streak of this playoffs. Stanton has been one of the hottest players in these playoffs hitting 6 homeruns in 6 games. One of my fellow housemates and Yankees fan said during the game “Whoever wins this series will be World Series champion.” Game 5 will be a great matchup featuring another great pitcher for the Rays in Taylor Glasnow. Glasnow is a young and up and coming pitcher for the Rays. He has a boatload of potential and some good stuff when his game is on. The Yankees will have to rattle the young pitcher early and get runs on the board early to try and throw Glasnow off his game. A key component to the Yankees success will be their star player Aaron Judge. It seems that whenever Judge is hot the Yankees follow. Recently he has not been at the top of his game which is concerning to Yankee fans like myself. Looking at the bright side though the Yanks have gotten to this position without Judge at the top of his game. We can say thanks to our pitching staff as well as Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu. Game five of this series will be sensational playoff baseball. Me and my off-campus housemates hope that this will not be the last time we watch the Yankees play this season.
Usually, I would not be able to write this kind of story but like I said earlier these unprecedented times allow me to write about NBA playoff basketball, and playoff baseball being played at the same time. Tonight, is game 5 of the NBA finals between the Miami Heat and the LA Lakers will take place. The Lakers are currently leading the Heat 3-1 in the series. The Lakers will try and close out Heat. Earlier in the week the Lakers announced that they will be wearing their Black Mamba edition jerseys to honor Kobe Bryant. In these playoffs the Lakers are current 3-0 when wearing these jerseys. Tonight, they will try and get their fourth and final win. The world was stunned by the sudden death of Kobe Bryant earlier in this year. The Lakers say that they never want to lose in the jerseys to honor the life of the great Kobe Bryant. The Lakers go into tonight’s game as seven-point favorites but that does not mean the Heat should be counted out. The Heat have been counted out all season long and have made it this far. They opened the season as 75-1 odds to make the finals and made it there. This team embraces the underdog mentality led by their Star player Jimmy Butler. I believe that the Lakers will prevail in this game and become 2020 NBA champions. This will add to the great LeBron James legacy giving him four championships. This will be Anthony Davis’ 1st championship. This could lead to the beginning of another Lakers Dynasty.
With nothing to really do as an off-campus student during the coronavirus my housemates and I found our excitement through sports. These playoffs have been different but exciting. I am excited to see the outcomes of the games tonight.
“2020 NBA Playoffs: Lakers vs. Nuggets odds, picks, Game 4 predictions from model on 61-33 roll” Reaction
The Denver Nuggets and the LA Lakers will face off in game four of a seven game series. The Lakers are currently leading 2-1 but lost the last game. The Lakers were dominated almost the whole game of game three until they made a late run in the fourth quarter but still came up short. Many analysts on major platforms such as ESPN were calling this series a sweep. The Lakers must be careful since the Nuggets have a history of making comebacks throughout these 2020 playoffs.
This article made predictions on the upcoming game on various different aspects of the game. For example, they displayed the game’s spread which is the amount of points a projected team must win by, and an over under which is the amount of points each team combined must score. The author of this article displayed his reasons why the Lakers could cover the spread as well as for reasons why the Nuggets would cover the spread. A program was run by Sportsline which played out the game multiple times through simulation. In these games the Lakers won 61 times to a Nuggets 33. In my opinion, these simulations cannot be 100 percent reliable. The beauty of sports 1 game isn’t played thousands of times but only once. There are so many emotional factors which play into the game which a simulation cannot predict. For example, the Nuggets last series against the Clippers they were underdogs in every single game. Even though this was the case the Nuggets still prevailed in that series overcoming a 3-1 deficit to stun the entire world and ruin everyone’s hopes and dreams of seeing the Clippers play the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Who knows? It could be the Nuggets destiny to win this years championship. Although everyone may not believe in destiny I do not think that anyone can say that it is impossible for destiny to be real as we constantly see people and events “breaking the system”
This being said, I believe that the Lakers will win game 4 tonight. The sole reason being Lebron James. After his game three loss he constantly hears hate from the media asking questions if he is washed up or if he has lost a step. Every time this comes into the media Lebron always answers with stellar performances. I believe that Lebron and Anthony Davis will come out firing on all cylinders. Lebron will be tearing up the Nuggets defense with his never before seen combination of passing and scoring.
This article was enjoyable to read with a lot of good insight on the game tonight. There was some kind of bias in this article. It was bias which is often seen in articles through major news stations especially when sports are involved. The bias wasn’t between two sides of the spectrum but trying to promote the reader to buy a program. throughout the whole article the author is leading you on to an eventual like to view the simulation. In order to view it a subscription was needed which required you to pay. This was somewhat of a buzzkill to the article.
“Coronavirus vaccine won’t be available to everyone before 2024 end: India’s Serum Institute chief” Reaction
Recently, thought the world there have been talks of a vaccine to the coronavirus to be released soon. These expectations have been put to a halt as the Serum Institute of India stated that a vaccine will not be made and given to every person throughout the world until 2024. The chief executive of the company, Adar Poonawalla released the statement which hurt the hopes of a vaccine coming out soon. He also said that the vaccine will require a two dose process which is part of the reason why the vaccine won’t be administered to everyone in the world by 2024. Poonawalla predicted that 15 billion doses would be required to administer the vaccine to everyone in the world. The Serum Institute has partnered with five companies, including AstraZeneca and Novavax, to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The company may also parter with Gamaleya Research Institute which is located in Russia to produce the Sputnik vaccine. The Serum Institute ordered 600m glass vials and other supplies in to try and master the vaccine.
This article was extremely informative and I enjoyed reading it. Recently, I have been hearing people constantly speaking about a vaccine for the coronavirus and how there allegedly will be one being released soon. This article was able to clear the air for me. Although it cleared the air for me it does instill some fear into my mind. The coronavirus has taken our nation by storm and has harmed our country in many ways such as leading small business to fail. Although this is important the most important thing is that many people continue to die every day from the coronavirus. Without a vaccine until 2024 people will continue to die which is a very scary thing to think about. This makes me hope that although these institutions don’t feel that a vaccine will be made by then that there are some other company’s that will be able to make a breakthrough on this very important issue.
“NBA playoffs 2020: Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are on the clock” Response
The Milwaukee Bucks entered this NBA season as one of the favorites to win an NBA championship. This is mainly because their team consists of 2 league all stars, one being the league MVP. IN addition, the Bucks have one of the NBA’s best coaches in Mike Budenholzer who is a two time coach of the year. Throughout the regular season while playing under their coaches style they finished the season with one of the best records in the NBA as well as one of the highest rated offensive and defensive teams. This came from Budenhilzer’s system which he isn’t always willing to change. He’s used these tactics for all the teams he has coached which has led him to a losing record in the playoffs even though his teams usually finished the season on top of the Power Rankings. Budenholzer is often criticized for not playing his star players more minutes. Throughout other teams in the league the Bucks play their stars the least amount of minutes especially in the playoffs. Last night the Bucks playoff woes continued as they lost to the Miami Heat in a 5 series. This has brought up the question of where the Bucks star player, Giannis Antetokounmpo will play next season as he becomes a free agent. The media has been speculating that he will play for teams such as the Warriors, Mavericks, or even the Heat. Giannis recently said that he plans on staying with the Bucks for life. Other stars have said this before such as Lebron James and Kevin Durant, but both players have changed teams in free agency to chase the NBA championship. In my opinion, I think Giannis will stay on the Bucks and attempt to win a NBA championship there.
I enjoyed the authors writing style in this article. They were able to paint a picture of the landscape of the NBA and the situation that the Bucks are currently in. In addition, they added stats and past situations that are similar to this one in order to better display what the Bucks organization is currently going through as well as their star player Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“Out of the Loft, Into Reality; A Hipster; Quits Williamsburg, and Gets a Haircut” Response
Todd Fatjo was at one time a major influence in the Williamsburg community that most “normal” people have never heard about. On the other hand, if you were part of the hipster movement you definitely know who this man is. In the article the author relates Todd Fatjo’s loft to Bill Clinton opening an office in Harlem, and Harvey Lichtenstein spreading the Brooklyn Academy of Music facilities around Fort Greene. Fatjo didn’t have the type of influence that these men did on the entire country but he sure made an impact to the hipster community where he lived. Fatjo and his roommates would throw parties that were described as unforgettable. The loft was in a town which was not very gentrified. The hipster people appreciated this aspect of the parties. Within the area there were Popeye’s and Dunkin’ Donuts on the corner, about four 24 hour bodegas on the
corner, 2 Chinese food places next to both entrances, and it’s above and across from the loft were two $.99 stores. Eventually though all good things must come to an end. At the age of 28 Fatjo stopped throwing the parties as he began to settle down with his girlfriend in the South Bronx. He quit his job in the music store and began working on getting his brokers license. When moving out he tried to get a hipster into his apartment so that the parties could continue. Unfortunately, the landlord sold the loft to “some guy with a job. “One of Fatjos most recognizable features was his long Afro. Once he began attempting to obtain his license he cut the Afro. This was a form of symbolism which displayed that the parties loft had come to an end. Fatjo said that he misses the lifestyle but he is with his lady which makes it better.
I personally enjoyed reading this article. I feel like the author did a really good job of making the reader feel like they were actually living through this movement. He did a great job of explaining the minute details which gives the story its power. I have always wondered where the hipster movement came. Obviously, this isn’t the only place where the hipster movement is big, but this article gave me more insight on a topic which I didn’t know much about. Overall, the article was a very enjoyable read.
“The Joker”
Nikola Jokic aka “The Joker” has been one of the most interesting NBA players this year. His awkward but loving personality makes him one of the most likable players in the league. At the same time he is one of the most unique players as well. He is a skilled 7 foot player like many of us have never seen before. He also has the ability to defend and hit the three. His best quality though is his passing. His teammates have called him the Tom Brady of basketball due to his ability to see the whole court and see plays develop before the even occur much like Tom. The Joker is in the midst of a playoff run currently up 3-2 on the Portland Trail Blazers. For my hopes sake as well of many others I hope that Jokic and the Nuggets are able to make a deep run into this years NBA playoffs
Lakers Frenzy
In the beginning of this NBA season people were predicting that the Los Angles Lakers, with their new addition of LeBron James to go as far as the Western Conference Finals. Turns out at this point of the season the Lakers have the same record as they did last year at this time. The Lakers must find a way to improve before they waste their time with LeBron James. I see the Lakers pursing many top free agents this off-season, and for their sake landing a player like Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leanord
WJM Inc. 