Author Archives: Glenn

self defense 101

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The self defense workshop was a really fun experience. The karate instructor taught us how posture plays a role in avoiding the need to use self defense to protect yourself. If you look like you can be easily assaulted then you’re likely to be assaulted but if you’re standing up straight and walking with confidence then you’re not going to be assaulted.  I learned that self defense is not about beating up the person that is trying to hurt you but instead it is about just defending yourself. The instructor also showed us some moves that vary depending on what situation you’re in. this led me to believe that self defense is all about strategy and knowing when to use the moves you know. I also learned that shouting out the moves as you make them generates more power.  The fun part of the workshop came when we actually had to practice the moves on each other. This created a lot of excitement and laughter in the room. I think that part of the laughter was because we were all moving our bodies in a way that we were not used to and some of the movements might’ve felt weird to perform. I think that this feeling of weirdness might be similar to what a person experiences when he doesn’t like to dance but has to. There was a wod breaking part towards the end of the workshop and that was fun to watch.

A closer look at Cornell Dining

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Last Wednesday’s talk about Cornell dining was really informative and it really made me appreciate how our dining system works. At the talk I learned that Cornell dining is one of the top in the state. I also learned that at other colleges, two dining halls might be serving the same thing but at Cornell as we can probably already tell, each dining hall has a different menu. At the talk I also found out that West campus dining halls were constructed in such a way that people didn’t have to wait on one line just to get to a station that might not be directly part of that line. At the talk, we were encouraged to be “rude” and just go straight to our desired food station. If you want to take out several pieces of fruit from a dining hall on West, you can just swipe yourself in multiple times and get the fruit. Other interesting stuff included: being able to talk to the house chef if you have any allergies and working something out,  new dishes with vegetables being designed to encourage healthy eating, rationing of protein, and the possibility of adding another dining hall to Central campus.

Overall, the talk was great, I learned a lot, and I now appreciate Cornell dining even more. I don’t know why some of my friends complain about dining hall food because I honestly really like it. At the end of the talk there was some free peanut butter but I didn’t get it cause I don’t like peanuts.

Beauty under the sea

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Last Wednesday I attended professor’s Harvell documentary on the seas/ Blaschka’s glass pieces. The pieces looked really detailed, realistic,  and beautiful. I think that for about half of the film, I was just in awe because the pieces looked amazing. I was surprised when I saw that Cornell had a collection of Blaschka’s pieces. That’s definitely something that I would definitely want to check out in the future. I also  found it interesting how the glass pieces can be used to teach about marine ecology. The glass pieces can probably be treated as a museum artifact and serve as a model. Towards the very end, the film talked briefly about why we should protect our oceans .

Overall, I liked the documentary because I was exposed to something that I had never seen or thought about. I think that the part of he film that will stick with me is Blaschka’s ability to produce something so intricate and detailed in a time were there was no technology to facilitate this process.

Exposing the truth through documentary

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Watching “Street Fight” last Tuesday was an eye opening experience to the world that is politics. The documentaries that I’ve usually watched all seemed to be just someone narrating or being interviewed, but Curry’s documentary “Street Fight” was somewhat different. I didn’t really get the sense that anything was being narrated. I felt as though Curry used his camera to really capture and expose to the public a controversial event, which just happened to be an election for mayor of  Newark. I liked Curry’s style of doing documentaries because exposing reality as opposed to being told what happened by a narrator makes the documentary feel more “real”. I think that with this style of documentary, the audience can actually feel the excitement and disappointment of the main character(s).

The movie itself was pretty interesting. The movie basically showed what happened “behind the scenes” as the election for mayor of Newark approached. Curry did a great job at showing Cory Booker’s excitement and disappointment as well as Sharpe James lying personality. The movie showed how tense things can get between candidates for a mayor election and probably for any other political election. It showed how one candidate tries to tarnish the other candidate’s name and how lying can be used to manipulate people to be on your side when voting time comes.

collateral damage and law

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Attending professor Ohlin’s talk was a really informative experience for me because I felt like I heard something that I had never really thought of. I do wish that I had brought some paper or a notebook to take notes because there was a lot of information and it seemed interesting.  I think that the part that stuck with me the most from his talk was the bombing of the Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan and whether the case could be argued in court or not. As professor Ohlin then explained, it is a case that points morality against collateral damage that usually occurs in war. The fact that there was a military attack on the hospital makes this case tougher because it is hard to tell if it was really collateral damage or if the attack was actually targeted at the hospital.

Not sure what I listened

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As I entered Bailey, I thought that the jazz performance was going to be something really good because Bailey was set up in a nice way. After a few minutes of playing, I couldn’t really find harmony in the music/noises. Actually, even after the performance was over and I thought about what I just heard, I still couldn’t find any harmony in the music/ noises. It seemed that each musician was kind of playing independently from the others and none of the music/ noises really flowed well together. It’s possible that maybe I just didn’t understand the music because I’m not used to hearing jazz but I still believe that there was no harmony in what I heard on that night.  Despite the dissonance, I kind of thought that the guy that was playing the drums was better than the other musicians. It’s possible that I liked him the best  because his instrument wasn’t really making a sound that I disliked and it actually kind of had a beat to it.

Although my first jazz concert was not what I expected, I still think that I might try out another concert in the future. However, I don’t intend on listening to he same band I probably will not have really high expectations for the concert.

Cascadilla is gorges

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Going to the Cascadilla gorge this past Saturday was a really nice way to explore a part of Cornell that I haven’t seen in my 3 years here. Learning about the history of the gorge as well as some interesting geological facts was really fun. I thought it was really interesting how a lot of money was spent to make Cascadilla gorge look like it had always been there. I found it even more interesting to know that workers took the tourists’ comments on how there was little construction in the gorge because it looked untouched as a compliment to their work. I thought that going to the gorge so early in the morning was a great way to start my Saturday and it was also a nice way of taking a break from studying. It felt really good to finally see one of the gorges that I heard people talk about all the time but I never knew where it was located. Although learning  a little bit about geology as well as the history behind the gorge ( especially how a lot of money was spent to make the gorge look as though it had always been the way it is now) was fun, the best part was just enjoying the awesome view, taking in a breath of fresh air and taking great pictures as well.

After the trip to the gorge I went to Subway (although there were some RAs that were heading to Waffle Frolic), grabbed lunch and then went back to studying for my prelims. I think that now that I know where the gorge is located, I will definitely go back there and bring friends who’ve never been there before.

Journey to Pepper Land

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Going to the Pepper Party this past Saturday was a really fun experience for me because not only did I finally go to the Plantations but I also learned some interesting facts about peppers that I didn’t previously know. The first stop in the journey to Pepper Land involved some rain and some really nice scenery along the way. Once we arrived at the Plantations, we went inside the Nevin Welcome Center and that’s where I tried this chocolate mixed with pepper and also some nachos with some pepper-mustard dip. I kind of felt that the pepper took away some of the chocolate flavor, but the pepper-mustard dip was really good.I went to a couple of booths but my favorite one was this one where you had to match the peppers on display with the names on a sheet. The peppers each had a letter assigned to them and when you matched all the peppers correctly with the names on the sheet, the letters spelled “YOU ARE RIGHT”, which I thought was interesting. I also went to the “Southwest USA ” and “Hungary” food stands and they had really great food. Overall, I think that the trip was fun and a really great experience.