Author Archives: Walker O'Neil

Liquid Bread

Posted on by
2

If any readers saw one of my previous posts about coffee, you’re familiar with the fact that I’m not a huge fan of bitterness. So in my quest to seem like a child, I’ll also mention that I hold the same feelings towards beer. In fact, before the tour I enjoyed a nice tall glass of chocolate milk in the dining hall. That’s not to say, however, that I don’t like any grown-up drinks. I can enjoy a wine, cider, or liquor with the best of them. But give me a beer, be it cheap or gourmet, and I’ll probably wince like a kid who convinced their parent to let them try a sip of beer for the first time. That being said, my dad somehow found this blog the day he found out I was going to be living in Rose house. Seeing previous posts about brewery tours, he did his best to enthuse me that I needed to go if I ever got the opportunity. So, go I did.

 

Like anyone you hate talking to at a party, I was way more interested in the process of making beer than the result. For anyone who’s previously been to a beer tour, or seen the posts of the several of other scholars who’ve gone, you’ll know that most of the process takes place in large metallic vats. The process is started from imported barley, hops, and yeast, making them effectively liquid bread. Then in the vats, the mixtures are mashed, lautered, fermented, boiled, and finally packed into the bottles we see them in as beer. With so many steps, it takes a long time to brew a batch of beer. And for each type of beer being made, all the machines need to be meticulously cleaned, in order to ensure none of the tastes end up mixing. For that reason, they stuck to one type of beer a day. And each batch produced a guestimated amount of about 80 barrels, or about 3,200 gallons. The products bottled and set on a conveyor belt to be packaged at a rate of 81 bottles a minute. That sounds pretty high, but there are two workers, both with two hands. Assuming both hands are used, they really only need to handle a bottle about every 3 seconds, per hand. Like I said, I’m not that fun at parties.

 

At the end of the tour, we got the chance to try both a double IPA and a pumpkin beer. This was a special treat for me, because out of all the beers I’ve tried in my life, those were two types of beers that I can say I liked the least. Knowing this, I tried them anyway, and tried to hide my disgust from the tour guide. From purchases made by my family, I know their are people who like those beers, but I know I’m not one of them.

Guiding Eyes at Rose

Posted on by
Reply

Last Friday I got to attend an event I was looking forward to all week, pet-a-puppy. It was put on by the Guiding Eyes for the Blind club, a club which I can happily say I am a member of. After a very stressful day of trying to meet a deadline, and trying to cram in just a few more paragraphs to meet the word count requirements, I was pretty drained. So the idea of handing in that paper and going to see the guiding eyes dogs was just what I needed.

Guiding Eyes is a great program. One of the things we learned about was the new autism program. Not only are they great for guiding the blind, but they also have expanded their reach into acting as an anchor for those with autism. This is a safe method for preventing the very real issue of bolting,  where the child may put themselves in a dangerous situation through a sudden jolt of emotionally charged movement. This may land them in the path of cars, or near ledges, where they can very easily get hurt. The dog here is connected by leash to the child, and helps by lying down as a response to the sudden movement, limiting the mobility of the child. Over time, bolting as a coping mechanism begins to fade away, and the risk disappears.

And it’s not easy becoming a guide dog.  These dogs have been specially bred for the intelligence, responsiveness, and personality. When a dog passes initial testing for these qualities, it then undergoes years of training to be selected as a guide dog. If they don’t make the cut, they still may end up as another form of work dog, such as bomb sniffing dogs. But all the effort is worth it in the end, when a disabled person is able to gain their freedom, and these dogs gain a family.

Responsible coffee suppliers

Posted on by
2

I have to admit, I’ve never been a fan of coffee. Nothing against it, I just haven’t picked up the appreciation for that bitter taste. I’m trying really hard to keep it that way until grad school, if I can.  So needless to say, I didn’t exactly come for the tasting. And unfortunately, this post isn’t going to end with my perception of coffee being forever shifted by the revolutionary tastes and aromas of Gimme! Coffee. It pretty much tasted like all of the other coffees I’ve had. But again, my palate hasn’t developed to distinguish the finer differences in ground up bean dirt.

All that aside, I was very pleased with the presentation. They made a point to mention all of the efforts made by the company to not only be sustainable, but fair trade. They’re environmental efforts included shade growth providers, which is what I was really hoping to hear, as it’s a lot better for the environment than traditional growing methods. For anyone unfamiliar with the method, the coffee plant naturally grows in shadier conditions. Therefore, coffee plants can be planted under rows of other types of trees. Not only does this allow the soil to last longer, it also reduces the long-term impact on the surrounding ecosystems.

The other idea they really pushed was the idea of “relationship” coffee, which I had not heard of prior to this event. It carries the same ideas as fair-trade, but focuses on building a relationship between the farmers and distributors. It also differs in the idea of fair-trade that there is less pressure on the farmer to purchase expensive certifications, which limits many farms from being able to call themselves fair-trade.

Although for the foreseeable future I won’t be drinking coffee, I would still recommend it to a friend! Few people really look at the impact that such a heavy habit like coffee drinking has in the long-term, and responsible coffee companies like this are aiming to change that! So if you want to do your part, throw out that K-cup, and pick up a bag of Gimme! Coffee!

Or just throw out that K-cup. Seriously, those things are terrible.

Squash Carver Extraordinaire

Posted on by
1

Unfortunately, it never occurred to me to take any picture of my pumpkin, but be assured it was the greatest in the world. Though it got a little moldy, so I let it sit outside under a nice tree. So now if you see a jack-o-lantern between Rose and Becker, you know who put it there. Unless that’s against the rules, or something. Then I had nothing to do with it…

The self-care workshop was definitely a great time. A CAPS counselor from Gannett came and talked to us about some ways we could help manage our stress. Given that it was around the first set of prelims, I think the advice was very welcome. It seemed the tip she stressed the most was to get a full eight hours of sleep. We’ve all heard it before, but it really is simple. Although I am happy to say, I always get at least seven and a half hours!

As for my pumpkin, it wasn’t actually that great. I cut myself with the children’s carving tool within a minute. Once that was all cleaned up, I promptly broke the tool on accident. Somehow, I did eventually get through carving the pumpkin, and made some friends in the process. So in the end, it was a great way to relieve some stress and just get away from my homework for a little while.

Tunnels and Things

Posted on by
1

For last Saturday’s scholar’s event, we were lucky enough to be taken on a tour of Rose house by the house professor Blalock himself. This took us into Noyes, through Lyon hall, an ended with a secret tunnel connecting Becker and Rose. In addition, we learned a great deal of history about west campus, and Ezra Cornell. One bit discussed extensively was Ezra Cornell’s life, and what kind of person he was. On an interesting side note: I learned on an Anthropology tour of the school that although Cornell was famous for opening an institution that let any type of person in, he was notable for his belief that Catholics would ruin the school! Of course, this tour focused on the positive messages of Cornell. It really is pretty cool to hear how he built his entire fortune from telegraph wiring. From what Blalock claims, Cornell was even somewhat of an authority on the matter.  He even had his own patent for a type of plow to make ground installation possible (although it was never utilized). All of this was done with only a third grade education.

The tunnel was also pretty cool. It’s used to bring food from Rose to Becker, as the walkways aren’t designed for vehicle traffic. Therefore, food needs to be taken through a tunnel, as Rose has nowhere for a loading dock. Blalock mentioned we were allowed to go into the tunnel any time we pleased, which was good, because I already had on a previous occasion. However, he mentioned that his apartment was right above the tunnel, and because of the “shoddy” construction of Rose, he could hear every word said down there.

After the tour, we were welcomed in professor Blalock’s own apartment. There was sushi and hot cider. And best of all, his dog Pepper was there!

A Nice Study Break

Posted on by
Reply

With a week of pre-lims fast approaching, this gorge hike could not have hit at a better time. As someone who loves to hike and backpack, I was excited to get an opportunity to step away from my textbooks. I’d been to the Cascadilla gorge before, but I was interested in what I might learn from the naturalist. So I grabbed my friend, Gorge Finnerty, and we made the trek.

It was pretty interesting hearing about how much rock has been quarried out of the gorge in order to make the first of our campus’s building. Nowadays, buildings win awards for being that locally sourced. Of course there’s also a whole host of issues that come along with quarrying a gorge. But once it was official Cornell property, the school really took care of it. Committed to outdoor education, they’ve even invested millions of dollars into the gorge.

The naturalist (Todd Bittner), really knew everything he was talking about. It seems like he knew the history of every rock in that gorge. I won’t lie, I did feel we lingered a little too long in some places, but it was a pleasant addition to the hike. I even managed to get some other locations to visit from him. I had no idea that there were any peat bogs in this area!

Immediately following the hike, I stuffed my face right back into my textbooks. But it was nice to get away, even for only a couple of hours.

What does a nosey pepper do?

Posted on by
1

It gets jalapeno business!

My original plan to start this post was to emphasize just how much I don’t like peppers. Unfortunately, I waited way too long to write this, and that seems to be (rather ironically) the start of most of these blog posts. So Instead, I went with that joke.

At first, I was skeptical of the event. When we first arrived, we stood under a tent to avoid the pouring rain, while a few of us commiserated about how we detest peppers. But then we went inside and we had a chance to sample some peppery chocolate, which was pretty good. Soon, the rain cleared up, and we could go explore the20150919_135518 rest of the event unimpeded.

Most of my time was spent in the education tent. Although I’m not a fan of the taste of peppers, I love botany and chemistry. The volunteers were very excited to share their knowledge of peppers with passerby, and thrilled when someone delved deeper into a topic.

There was even a pepper “world tour”, which allowed you to sample different peppers from around the world, and see how they spread. I’ve included a low-resolution picture of the map for anyone who’s interested. Surprisingly, peppers made it to the southwest US last, even with such a close proximity to their origin in South America. An older man next to me even told a volunteer quite frankly that he doesn’t believe it, and marched off defiantly.  We could all learn a lot from that man.

Even though I’m not a fan of peppers, I sampled the southwestern salsa, and even tried the habanero ice cream. They managed to make the ice cream both spicy and cool by using a cream cheese base. It wasn’t bad, the taste got old pretty quickly. All in all, it ended up being a good time. It was a nice excuse to get out of my room and see the plantations.

So next time you see a pepper party pop up, don’t hesitate to stop on by, even if you don’t like peppers. But I would recommend asking for a small scoop if you try the habanero ice cream.