Author Archives: mjd389

Sleep Factor

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During our table talk on Monday, we talked about how common it is for college students to fail to get adequate sleep every night. According to Dr. Maas, college students should be getting 9 hours of sleep a night. Previously, I had always heard that each person’s sleep cycle was different, and quality of sleep depended most on REM cycles. I was surprised at how much sleep he said was required, as I can often sleep for far fewer than 9 hours and go about my day without being tired.

Since arriving to Cornell, I actually haven’t been so stressed out about monitoring my sleep schedule. In high school, the 7:30 AM start time, paired with daily late-night rehearsals and practices, sleep was scarce for me, and I only got 5 to 6 hours on average. At Cornell, I’ve been fortunate enough to start my days at 10 Am and sometimes even later, allowing me to sleep for 7 to 8 hours. However, when I do not sleep, I force myself to push through the day, as I do not like taking naps in the afternoon.

I thought some of the correlations and comparisons from the study were interesting. There is a high correlation between lack of sleep and being overweight. Additionally, 80,000 people fall asleep at the wheel each day, but this has never happened to me. In fact, driving helps to make me more alert of my surroundings.

 

Table Talking About the Olympics

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On Monday evening, I sat down with GRF Tyler to talk more about the Olympic cheating scandal involving the country of Russia. During the talk, we shared our opinions on what we thought was a fair penalty for a country that condoned cheating. In my opinion, the Olympics should be about rewarding the best athletes in the world with a chance to compete for the gold medal. I believe that many of the Russian athletes were innocent from the scandal and should not be penalized.

We also discussed what the “Russian ban” really meant, as all of the Olympians from Russia wear the same uniforms. When I see the athletes, I still consider the country of Russia to be the winner, so I do not feel as if the penalty is very strong. I am somewhat skeptical of how effective this punishment will be, however, I have confidence that no other countries will successfully be able to cheat to the extent that Russia did in Sochi.

A Penalty for Cheaters

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Last Friday, numerous students gathered in the dining hall to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympic games. During the ceremonies, Olympic athletes for Russia marched out wearing grey uniforms without bearing Russia’s flag. This was done as a form of punishment handed down from the IOC after a severe doping scandal from the previous games.

As a result of this punishment, all Russian athletes will be competing as independents. Whenever a Russian athlete wins, the Olympic flag will be raised and the Olympic anthem will be played. In my opinion, this was a fair punishment, as I do not believe that Russia should be represented by athletes, but I do feel as if the clean athletes should not be deprived of competing. Many athletes dedicate their lives to training for the Olympic games and many have only such a small window of time to be among the elite class in the world. By banning all Russians, many deserving athletes may never have received their fair chance to compete in the games.

After reading about the scandal and learning more about the process, I became even more curious in discovering how exactly they pulled it off. Additionally, I think it’s interesting that two of the main chemist’s colleagues suddenly died once the IOC discovered the cheating scandal. I believe that all those who were involved with the doping scandal should be permanently banned from the games.

How to Save a Life

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I hail from a family of doctors, however, I have made the decision not to follow in their footsteps. That being said, the world of medicine, healthy, and safety still interests me, so I decided to take the CPR course last Saturday. CPR, which stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, can save an unconscious person’s life. The instructors of the course taught us to check for the surroundings to make sure the location was safe and then how to check to make sure that the person actually needed CPR. Once we deemed CPR was necessary, we practiced doing chest compressions, deliver rescue breaths, and apply the AED.

CPR is something that I hope I never have to use, as unfortunately it does not always work. However, if I do ever encounter a scenario in which it is needed, I will intervene. This course has encouraged me to continue to learn about ways to help others in emergency situations and I hope that there will be more Rose Scholar programs to teach students.

Reviewing Citizen Kane

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After watching North by Northwest last week, I kind of had a feeling of what Citizen Kane would be like as a film. Released in 1941, Citizen Kane details the rather broken life of a man Charles Foster Kane and the mysterious meaning of his final spoken word: “rosebud.” The film is told as a series of flashbacks and interviews. In the very beginning of the film, Kane’s mother strikes gold and suddenly becomes rich, causing her to hand over custody of her child to banker, Thatcher.

After becoming very rich, Kane became a newspaper typhoon, got married, and even decided to try getting into politics. However, as his wealth built up, we saw Kane become a frustrated and selfish person. He struggles with his relationships and treats people well to try to get love in return.

His final utterance of the word “rosebud” is revealed at the end of the movie, as it was the word written on his sled that he had when he was given to Thatcher. It was the only thing that he truly kept throughout his life. To me, it seems as if Kane could never get over the moment that he was given away and uses “rosebud” as a way to think about the potential happiness that he could have had if he had just been given the chance at a regular life.

While I am not always a huge fan of older films, I found the plot and direction of this film to be interesting, as it was told in a series of flashbacks. The film has some important messages as well, as it indicates that money does not always make people happy and can often destroy them. It also explains how much of an impact relationships can have on a person’s life.

Greatest of All Time? Hmm..

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I never considered myself much of a movie person, but thanks to Rose Scholars and my friends, I’ve started seeing (and enjoying) some classic films. When I told my parents that the film of the week was North by Northwest, they told me that I would be sure to love it, as it is one of the greatest films ever produced. I did some research and noted that Rotten Tomatoes, a movie database, gave the film a 100% rating. However, as I watched the movie, I never understood what was so great about it.

The film is about an innocent man, Roger Thornhill, who is mistaken for George Kaplan and consequently kidnapped and hunted by Vandamn. The first scene, which features Vandamn trying to get Thornhill to drink himself to death, concludes with Thornhill driving around steep mountain roads while severely intoxicated. I believe that this scene was supposed to be considered to be thrilling, but I found it simply comical. Later, in an exchange between Thornhill and Lester Townsend, a man throws a knife, killing Townsend, which Lester then pulls out of the man, setting himself up as the murderer. This seemed rather dumb to me and a cheesy way to set the plot.

The ending, which clearly is supposed to be the most thrill-inducing part of the film, shows Thornhill and Eve Kendall, a woman who was originally working against him but has since fallen in love with Thornhill, fleeing from Vandamn’s men by climbing Mount Rushmore. The Professor, a man now working to protect Thornhill, kills off the two men and Eve and Roger get away. The two presumably live a happy life in peace.

These “action” scenes just seemed so dry to me, so it left me wondering what made this movie so popular back in the 1950s. I have not seen a lot of movies from that time period, but solely from this movie, I can conclude that cinematography and technology were no way as advanced as they are today. It seems as if this movie was simply far ahead of its time when it was initially created, as to me, it is a rather dull thriller compared to newer movies.

Linking In

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Last Thursday evening I attended the Rose Seminar about building a professional online profile. I thought this would be an important seminar to attend, as I do spend a lot of time on social media and I might as well look professional as I do it. GRF Sam did a great job of discussing how students should try to be consistent, unique, and professional across different social media platforms. Sam also reminded us about how much we control on each social media page and told us how easy it was to privatize what is publicly viewable on my Facebook page. Sam also did a great job of mentioning that if we do not interact with others on social media and keep up to date, we will not get anything in return. This challenged me to update my LinkedIn and make more connections.

At the end, we each wrote short bios and received feedback from other students. While I don’t use Twitter, I feel as if it would be a great way to share thoughts and interact quickly with others. As I wrote my bio for a potential Twitter, I had to keep in mind that I only had very few characters to get my information out to the public. For my LinkedIn profile biography, I was able to take suggestions from my peers about how I could make the biography more unique so that I am not just any student studying at Cornell University. This was a great seminar and I hope to attend more going forward.

A Gorgeous Day for A Gorge

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Since arriving in Ithaca last year, I’ve gone on a few very nice hikes through local gorges such as Treman State Park and Buttermilk Falls, but I did not even realize that there was such a great hiking trail on campus. Last Saturday morning, I was fortunate to join Rose House Fellow Todd Bittner on a hiking tour of Cascadilla Gorge where he taught me and several other students about the formation and preservation of the gorge. Mr. Bittner started the tour by showing us a picture of the top of the gorge from over 100 years ago and asked us to compare the picture to what we currently saw today. Since 1900, there have been significant changes such as the trajectory of the waterfall, and the creation of sidewalks due to new technology such as cars. Cornell has also added safety nets, which is very important for gorge safety.

Todd additionally taught us about how parts of the gorge are made up of different kings of rocks, resulting in interesting patterns along the sediment walls due to erosion and natural geographic shifts, collisions, and erosion. I thought the most important part of the tour was when Todd talked about the preservation of the gorge’s trail and how the school spent $2.8 million to make the trail safer and more structurally sound without changing its authentic appearance. Exploring Cascadilla Gorge has encouraged me to explore other gorges in the area and consider how precious nature can be.

A Challenge Built for a King

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To be completely honest, I did not have very high expectations for the King’s Speech at first. While I did see that it won many awards, movies about historical monarchs do not always interest me. However, I quickly learned that The King’s Speech was about more than a stuttering King. The movie details King George VI’s ascent to the throne and his speech impediment that has bothered him and his family for his entire life. King George VI receives the help of speech therapist Lionel Logue to try to overcome his horrible impediment so that he will be able to confidently deliver the speeches. Lionel uses very unconventional tactics such as making the King sing his speeches, use swear words, or have him drown out his voice by playing insanely loud classical music. All of these approaches help the King in a way, but would not be suitable to use during his speeches. As war time hits, the King must give his first big speech, and thanks to the help of Lionel, he does a great job of delivering the speech with very few stutters.

Later in the movie, we learn that Lionel and the King became friends for life and that the King continued to deliver speeches without stuttering. This movie showed me a few things. First it showed me that even the most powerful and famous people, such as Kings, have problems just like I do. In fact, I do have a speech impediment myself and still do fear public speaking to an extent. Second, the movie showed me that friendships can truly come from anywhere. The King and Lionel should never have crossed paths, but thanks to his wife, they became great friends. Colin Firth did a great job of playing the King and I now look forward to enjoying more historical movies in the future.

Survival of the Martian

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The Martian, a 2015 film starring Matt Damon, became one of my favorite movies ever last Friday evening. The movie details an astronaut by the name of Mark Watney who is accidentally deserted by his team on Mars, and his quest to make it back to Earth alive.

The movie has a few themes, one of which is isolation. Mark is stranded on Mars alone and it goes without saying that he does not even have a cell phone or anyway to reach planet Earth. While I do consider myself to be fairly independent, I could not imagine being out of contact with everyone I knew for months. Throughout the movie, Mark records video diaries of what he is doing, as if he knows that one day he may return to planet earth. This confidence is what drove Mark to in some way try to survive.

In order to survive, Mark uses science to farm food, move around to different locations on Mars, and eventually launch himself into orbit. I think Mark’s optimism and problem solving techniques are what make this movie so enjoyable. Mark rarely seems devastated by his isolationism or problems. This serves as a reminder of how powerful the human mind can be if you simply stay positive.

Another interesting part of the movie is how much support his team and other members of NASA had for him once they found out he was alive. In fact, the entire world came together to watch the attempted rescue. This helps to illustrate the theme of teamwork. The other 5 individuals risked their lives and added 500+ days to their mission to save Mark, even though they were originally advised not to go back.

“The Martian” was a great movie due to the acting, the story line, the special effects, and the themes. I would recommend this movie to all.

Exploring the Ithaca Farmer’s Market

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When I first visited Ithaca two years ago, I made my first trip to the Farmer’s Market. I remember taking the TCAT there and walking around for a bit, but not buying too much besides this one souvenir shirt. At the time, I had no idea about how important the Farmer’s Market was to the Ithaca community and to the vendors. Before our walk there last Saturday, Shiv and Sam told us a bit about how the Farmer’s Market served as a gathering place for people from all over upstate New York and how some vendors traveled for 50 miles to sell their products to the local Ithaca community. Back at home, we have a farmer’s market, but it serves as just a busy grocery store with very minimal authenticity behind it. The Ithaca Farmer’s Market has a great, outdoor atmosphere that is unlike any food market that I have ever visited. Additionally, it is really an outlet for people from all-over, and a unique old-fashioned way to sell great food and other products.

One of my favorite parts of the trip to the Farmer’s Market was the water-front scenery. As we approached the market, we traveled alone a peaceful, scenic path overlooking a nice body of water. Once we arrived, I got to try some of the delicious food, that I must say was offered at great prices. I had a burrito and sweet crepe. The vendors do not need any fancy kitchens or appliances to treat Ithaca residents with delicious food, as they have perfected their craft by working with such limited space. This truly amazes me. It also surprised me at how well the vendors dealt with large crows. Almost each stand had very long lines, yet all vendors were always friendly and handled everyone with haste. I look forward to going back to the Farmer’s Market and trying some different offerings.