Author Archives: si259

It’s not Always Black and White

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Being interested in World War 2 era history, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to watch a movie about the time period that I had never seen before.  Typically, when I think of WW2 films, I think of movies filled with battles and fighting.  However, The Pianist illustrated the horrors of war from a perspective I haven’t really seen before: the struggle faced by the Jewish population during the Holocaust.

While the film itself was captivating and emotional, I was particularly intrigued by how it didn’t depict every German soldier in the movie as evil or strictly confined to antagonizing.  While a considerable amount of German soldiers seemed to readily perpetuate the persecution of the Jews in the movie, one German officer aided the protagonist, a Jewish pianist hiding in Warsaw from the Holocaust.  After discovering the man was Jewish, the officer did not report him but rather returned with bread, supplies, and even eventually gave him his coat.  This showed that WW2, and war in general, is not black and white because there are people willing to do the right on both sides.  Ultimately, the film itself and the lesson it taught made for a well spent Friday night.

The Complexity of Murder

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As someone who loves watching movies, looking at the Rose Scholar weekly event board and seeing that a movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I had never even heard of before interested me.  This interest was compounded when I discovered that Matt Damon was the star.  However, I did not initially give a second thought to the aspect of the event that involved analyzing a pivotal scene in the film which resulted in the death of a prominent character at the hands of Mr. Ripley, played by Damon.  It was not until just before the beginning of the film that Judge Scott Miller passed out a packet detailing the different classifications of killing another person in New York, expanding my interest to the activity that we were about to partake in.

Judge Miller explained the different classifications, including terms like manslaughter and 2nd degree murder.  The purpose of this was to equip us will the terminology to classify the murder that would ensue in the movie.  I found this lesson very interesting as it is a topic that I am not familiar with and I would like to learn more about.  After this event, I would recommend that everyone should at least familiarize themselves with such legal terms, not just the ones concerning classifying a killing, so that they will better be able to understand the consequences of their actions.  In addition, I especially liked how Judge Miller split us into groups and tasked us with arguing on behalf Mr. Ripley or against him after the murder took place.  This caused me to remain engaged with the movie and develop my argument, making the information that I had just learned especially useful, along with it being a fun exercise and an opportunity to debate.  Despite the event officially only lasting until midway through the movie when the pivotal killing took place, I was so captivated by the film that I decide to say and finish it out.  Ultimately, the event itself was an interesting and fun exercise while the movie was captivating and worth seeing again.

The Fun of Volunteering

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Last week I had the opportunity to volunteer at the local church to help the Feed My Starving Children non-profit organization pack meals for under privileged children around the world.  Normally I like to be able to relax on my Friday nights and I was skeptical about what a two hour long food packing session would involve.  Thankfully the organization members had devised a very efficient system for packing the meals in addition to providing a fun working environment.  I enjoyed how everybody was really enthusiastic about the volunteer work, ultimately making the food packing not seem like a chore but rather a fun experience.  With the music playing loud and people running all over moving boxes and replenishing the ingredients at different stations, it formed an exhilarating atmosphere that made volunteering enjoyable. I learned that the correct group atmosphere is vital when working on a collective task because we were able to put together some many boxes due to our motivation and enthusiasm.  In addition, the great cause of preparing meals for starving children provided excellent motivation for working together to put out as many boxes as possible.  Our efforts ultimately paid off as we were able to yield enough boxes of food to feed 96 starving children for a year!  All in all, the experience in its entirety made for an enjoyable Friday night.

Less Coffee and More Sleep

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I don’t drink coffee, nor do many of my friends, so my main objective at this table talk was to understand how coffee works and to gain insight into what it’s like to drink it often.  Although many of the table talk participants did not drink coffee often, I was still able to learn how it impacts you.  I did not know that the caffeine in the coffee only acts to mislead your brain and makes you think you’re not tired while your body is actually in need of rest.  As a result, getting a sufficient amount of sleep is preferable rather than drinking coffee and other caffeinated beverages that only trick you into thinking your exhaustion is alleviated.  In addition, I found it particularly interesting that caffeine can remain in your system for to five hours after drinking it.  This can lead to harmful effects on your sleeping patterns if you drink it at night as it can cause you to remain awake.  Although I don’t drink coffee, I have had an energy drink a few hours prior to going to bed and I was unable to sleep for hours as a result.  It was extremely detrimental to my sleeping schedule and my ability to function well the next day.  Ultimately, based on the table talk and my own personal experiences, it’s much more important to ensure that you get a good night’s sleep rather than drink coffee often and need it to function efficiently, especially as prelims are beginning.  

Memorable Experience and Takeaways

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This past Saturday I had the chance to participate in a community service project that involved building a park playground.  Although our Rose House Scholar group arrived on Saturday, teams of workers and volunteers had been working on the project for almost a week and the playground was starting to finally come together.  As this was my first Rose Scholar opportunity, I did not know what to expect.  However, I ended up with many great takeaways from the experience.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to leave campus for a  while and do some hands on work.  This was my first time leaving the campus to go into Ithaca and it was nice to finally be exposed to life outside of the college.  Additionally, I really enjoyed this particular event because of the hands on work we were able to do with the tools.  Unlike some of the other events which involve sitting and listening, being given a goal and then working towards completing it was both satisfying and a great learning experience.  I especially liked how to the workers gave us a task and a lot of autonomy after giving us some practice with the tools and techniques as well as some basic guidelines.  I believe that the hands on experience I obtained working with the tools will stick with me and will undoubtedly be useful in the future.  It was also great to support the local community and to be able to bond with my fellow Rose Scholars.  In addition, I liked how it allowed me to work on something that was not academic.  Memorable Experiences

Ultimately, I had a great time volunteering to help build the playground and I would love to participate in similar events in the future.