On the Hill

“To echo Rose’s comment — In my mind, the absolute coolest thing about blogs isn’t getting users to subscribe to the blog and read/analyze everything you write (I think there are a few of us), but the hits you get from users who find your blog through popular search engines. For example, your blog post on CUIDC is the third result in Google for “CUIDC”. If someone’s looking up information on that program, it’s very likely that they’d read what you had to said. Your blog is the first result for “Cornell CUIDC”.

That said, there are still definitely a few people who actually subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed.”

Hey, I just want to thank everyone who has been commenting lately on my blog. It is very peculiar to me that although I know I had quite a few hits throughout the semester, I got hardly any comments. Maybe this is directly correlated to the fact that Cornell students are now done for the semester and sitting at home bored with nothing to do but surf the net and run into my blog… Well, that’s my theory.

With that said, it is sort of cool the way people can run into my blog. Rose, who commented earlier, is a family friend and I haven’t seen her in years. Google is a great resource (by the way did anyone see that project they’re doing with NASA? They never cease to amaze me) and it is pretty cool that simple searches like “Scituate,” “CUIDC,” etc. bring users to my blog.

It has really been an interesting semester – I have done a lot of fun things, I have learned a lot about blogging, and hopefully I entertained a couple of people or better yet made a few people smile.

Ithaca is still a ghost town. My landlord decided the other day to rip out my sink, toilet, and mounted medicine cabinet/mirror without informing me. Oh, the front door lock is also broken so you can imagine how I was a bit perturbed when I got back from work at 11 pm to find all of this… Everything is fine though, I had some words with my landlord, and he generally seems apologetic. If you do come to Cornell and choose to live in Collegetown, all I can say is watch out. Talk to the previous tenants and find out what type of landlord you are signing a lease with. Cornell also provides some resources to help students with this, which are pretty helpful.

Going out tonight with a couple of guys from Psi U. who for some reason are still around. Let’s hope we are not the only three people in Collegetown (I fear this might be the case.)

Let’s hope this isn’t the scene tonight…

“Wait, there is a Dunkin Donuts in Collegetown now?”

Sadly, no. Not right in Collegetown. But right down the hill on that road that runs parallel to Route 13. It used to be an old Kentucky Fried Chicken and is right next door to… a Collegetown bagels. Now, I know many people are anti large corporations but I am pro anything that steals market share from CTB. Collegetown Bagels is a local hotspot in Collegetown (where many upperclassmen, including myself, live) and they have locations all over Ithaca. What you can expect when you go in there is an ultra long line, not particularly friendly service, outrageous prices, and hit or miss food.

There is a Starbucks coming to Collegetown, however. There is also a Starbucks downtown in Ithaca that opened about a year ago. Now, herein lies a conflict of interest, I am definitely not pro Starbucks. But, I think I might side with them and be happy about how decimated sales will be at CTB when they move in…

Just my $.02, I know a lot of people love CTB, so I am not trying to upset anyone…

I love Dunkies though, maybe that is just from growing up in the Dunkin’ Donuts capital of the world, Boston. My buddy Nick has something like 50 Dunkin Donuts within a square mile of his house – and he lives in the suberbs on the fringe of the city. Anyone from Boston can attest to the absurd amount of Dunkin Donuts.

One more semester in the bag. One more to go. It feels really, really weird saying that. I will refrain from getting too preachy and annoying here but college really does fly by, totally unlike high school. In high school I felt like each year was an eternity, here the semesters pass by before I know it. To think I will be done with college in just one semester is a bit more depressing than exciting. I don’t think I am ready to move on yet, there is still so much I would like to do. Oh well, I guess I can’t have everything…

So, with that gloomy reflection out of the way, the good news is that I finished finals. Yep, done. I had management strategy on Friday and I hope Professor Blalock doesn’t read this entry (who am I kidding, does anyone even read my blog?) because that test was a straight up cake walk. I don’t mean to sound cocky since I studied quite a bit and I will probably end up doing not as well as I felt walking out. It is darn good to be done though.

Is there anyone reading this who recently got into Cornell early decision? If so, congrats! Shoot me an email or leave a comment. You are in for the best four years of your life. I just gave a tour today for a father and daughter from New Jersey who had been accepted (the daughter, I mean) and they both seemed quite excited. I got in early and I can say it was a huuuuge relief. I didn’t fill out any other applications and I am not entirely proud to say I “relaxed” my way through the end of senior year.

I went to the December graduation for the students who graduate early (or late.) Two of the guys I live with, Russell and Zaks, walked in the ceremony. Oh, this reminds me, we got a Dunkin’ Donuts in Ithaca. I know, you must be as excited as I am. I actually heard a guy at the counter tell one of the cash register workers, “Thank you so much, I have waited literally seven years for a good cup of joe in Ithaca.” Sorry for the tangent, but we got Dunkies and brought it to the graduation ceremony…

Saturday night Zaks’ mom took us to The Heights (http://www.heightscafe.com/), which is in my opinion the best “fancy” place to eat in Ithaca. I got a Cowboy steak which featured french fries, under a steak, topped with pulled pork. It was delish. We got some champagne to celebrate the graduates which was fun as well.

I am stuck in Ithaca working for the next week at CIVR. We have to work one break each year so I chose this one. I will have plenty of time on my hands but I can’t promise many posts considering I don’t know if anything interesting will happen to me. Ithaca is quite bleak without my friends around…

Not much new to report here – just been plugging away with finals… I took my derivatives final two days ago, which was one I had been quite worried about. Surprisingly, I really think I nailed it, but I guess we shall see when grades come back. Cornell is pretty punctual will getting us our final grades. I usually know everything before Christmas. Most years, classes without finals (like my AEM 200 class) post the final grades before we even leave, so I already know a couple of my final course grades, which is nice.

Us bloggers got together the other night at a Cornellian favorite restaurant, The Nines. They are known for their deep dish pizza and corn nuggets (little deep fried balls of corn and cheez wiz.) We sat down with our boss and our boss’s boss (big wigs!) and sort of debriefed our first semester and bona fide bloggers. It was nice to get together with everyone and see what their plans were for break, etc.

Other than that, life is quite boring here in Ithaca during finals week. I pretty much just work at CIVR all day long, study at night and take a test every few days. Sounds great, right? Its actually not to bad and I think I might take a break to go see blood diamond tonight. If you’ve seen it and have any opinion on the movie, leave me a comment.

UPDATE: I just got a request to elaborate on my use of the phrase “bona fide bloggers.” Essentially, I was just referring to the fact that us “Official Cornell Bloggers” have come a long way since we began, in my humble opinion. I still do not consider myself a stellar blogger, but I have come to recognize through trial and error the things that work and things that do not – such as trying to write shorter entries, include pictures, and not drone on in a step-by-step journalistic fashion. I have tried to incorporate these changes into my blog and please bear with me, I am still learning! Also, we all will be blogging over the winter break and next semester so I guess for better or worse, you’re stuck with us…

Yesterday, I am sitting in Day Hall at work and my boss Taiya walks in with a proposition, “Hey Ben, do you want to be on live, national television? You can just take a quick break from working and you will even still get paid.” Who couldn’t turn down such an offer?

The segment was on Fox News and it was about the Cornell webcam. The webcam can be accessed here: http://www.cornell.edu/visiting/ithaca/live_views.cfm . Essentially, Cornell installed a high powered webcam (to replace the old webcam) that allows users to focus in on people walking by the cam, which is located on Ho Plaza – one of the highest foot trafficked areas of campus. They call it the “Hi Mom!” feature, and while I don’t know anyone who has actually called their parents and told them to watch them walk by on their way to class, apparently some people are doing it since the site gets 60,000 hits a month (making it, I think, one of the top-10 most visited webcams on the net.) There is another good story about it here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1204/p20s01-legn.html

So, what I did was make a sign that actually said, “HEY ANGE, MERRY CHRISTMAS!” and I held it up while Martha, the Fox News anchor, interviewed another tour guide – Drew. It was a short segment about what I mentioned before, parents getting a chance to connect with their kids via the webcam, but it was pretty funny since I told Ange to tune in and to expect a surprise. She was definitely surprised and got a kick out of my sign and the fact that I was on TV.

In other news – I had my first final and got totally killed. Like, totally killed. It was one of those feelings when you walk out of a test where you feel almost physically weak. Like getting punched in the stomach. I really did study too, I guess not nearly hard enough though. I can only hope that the mean will be so incredibly low that the curve will allow me to get a passing grade. Wish me luck…

I think I heard it best described yesterday by a friend of Ange’s that, “In high school, we have proms and dances; in college we call them formals.” I went to a few formals this past weekend at a couple of different places. On Friday night, a bunch of the guys I live with got dressed up and went to their house’s formal. I thought it would be funny if I went along sans date and just hung out for a bit. We even all dressed up the same – ties and dress shirts under sweaters of varying levels of absurdity. My buddy Jason had on a sweater vest that he literally needed assistance in removing, it was that tight. So we headed over to their house; I hung out for a little while and had some egg nog. They actually had some pretty impressive ice sculptures with their Greek letters carved into them.

The next night (this past Saturday) was my formal. Prior to the formal a huge group of brothers and their dates went out to Ange’s favorite restaurant, Maxie’s Supper Club. We also have a secret Santa at Psi U and this year I picked a buddy of mine who actually had me last year. Again, there is a $25 limit, so I went over to the mall and got him a cool lazer tag game from Radio Shack. I don’t know if he liked it all that much, but oh well. My “little brother” in the house, Deez, got me a Mr. Beer home brewing kit. It seems like it will be fun so I am excited to give it a shot sometime this week. A brother is usually assigned to be “Santa” and hands out the presents once everyone has arrived. Each brother also gets a present for his date. The formal was a lot of fun – Psi U formals always are. We had a ton of funny decorations including an 8 ft. tall inflatable snow globe that contained an entire snowman family and shot snow from a spout in the ceiling. Don’t ask me what will happen to it until next year, but it did gather quite a few laughs. For the first time ever, we also had an ice luge. It really was one of the better formals I have been to, which was nice as it is my last Christmas formal.

Sunday night was Ange’s sorority’s formal. It took place at Lakewatch, which is essentially a function hall that exists for fraternities and sororities to throw events at (as far as I can tell.) I imagine people hold other type of receptions there, but there are tons of crush parties and formals there throughout the year. It is a nice place, sort of like an old converted barn, so the ceiling is rustic and wooden and they usually garnish it with lights and other decorations. Prior to the formal we had a mini Christmas party with the girls Ange lives with and all of their dates. Luckily, two of her roommates brought Psi U guys and one roommate brought a guy I live with at Cook St. The formal was catered and there was a DJ for plenty of dancing afterwards. All in all, another successful, drama free formal.

Whew, what a fun filled, yet hectic past week it has been. Sorry for going a bit MIA there, I have just been totally under the gun with a few things. To start with, last week I took part in “flaking” at CIVR (tour guiding.) Now, this is the first year I have flaked and for good reason. Flaking is like a secret Santa that extends over five days and is set at a $25 limit. I am not a very creative person so I have always been a bit intimidated by flaking, but this year I figured, why not? I was assigned a guy on staff I didn’t even know, but I made the best of it. My gifts were in order:

• Day one – ping pong balls, dice, chocolates
• Day two – back scratcher, wrist-grip exercise thing-a-ma-bob, chocolates
• Day three – lazer pointer, Cornell rally beads, chocolates
• Day four – a huge pack of multicolored sharpies, chocolates
• Final gift at the CIVR annual holiday party – Rocky I-III boxed set

Now, the other thing is that I had my girlfriend write his name on all the packages in a really girly manner. I also put some of them in fake Burberry gift bags. I ended up spending a tad over $30, but I think it was worth it. I really threw him for a loop and when it came time to guess who our flakes were, he had no idea.

I got some great stuff from my flake – Christmas lights (which I hung up to the dismay of my roommates at Cook St.), candy, a cake, a gift certificate to CollegeTown Bagels, and a hot cocoa mug, mix, and marshmallows. In hindsight, I am definitely satisfied and happy that I participated in flaking this year.

December 20th, mark your calendars…