Author Archives: John Lee

do what you want to do

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Although I also live in Founders, I didn’t realize that the speaker at this Rose Cafe was one of our building’s GRFs, whose door I pass by every morning (shame on me), until I saw her when I walked in. I had been interested in the advertised topic of the Cafe, something that I had recently been thinking a lot about (what to do with my future). However, it was also nice to hear everything else that GRF Laura had to say, especially about her work at the Advocacy Center.

I began my freshman year considering myself as a math major, and then I changed my mind two or three more times before I ended up officially declaring myself a stat major. Throughout the past two years, however, I’ve thought a lot about what I actually want to do. Although I feel that I’ve found what that is in statistics recently (I actually enjoy it), I thought it’d be nice to hear a variation of what I went through from another person’s perspective. It was nice to hear GRF Laura recommend doing something you have or can develop a passion for, something that I didn’t seem to live by until recently although it might be obvious.

tuning an A

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I often go to the Cornell Orchestra concerts, in part to enjoy the music, but also to relive my own days in orchestra during my high school years. I always have a sense of nostalgia when I attend these student concerts.

The program included two well-known pieces, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet and the Sibelius Symphony No. 2, but the first piece was unique. It started with what seemed to be the orchestra “tuning” to an A, but this was actually the beginning of a piece. At first I was confused, but reading the piece’s description in the program, I learned that this was the intentional beginning of this piece. I was glad that I hadn’t read the piece description, as I was pleasantly surprised. Overall, I enjoyed the remainder of the concert (particularly the harpist’s playing).

trees

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Visiting the Old-Growth Forest was a nice break from my workload. I had thought the trip would just be a scenic hike through a nature reserve, but House Fellow Todd Bittner had a lot of relevant and interesting information to share. Since he has long been involved in the upkeep of the reserve, he readily answered any questions we had for him.

The hike began on a plot that was once farmland, overlooking the valley that contains Cornell and Cayuga Lake. As we went down in elevation, we entered the area of the reserve where the old-growth trees were. Professor Bittner had something to say about seemingly every variety of tree and plant we came across, including the biology of the plants and their role in the local ecosystem. Something I found interesting was that one variety of tree had been widely affected by some kind of pest years ago, and this variety was being kept alive solely because of Cornell Plantations (though controlled use of a pesticide).

I’m glad to have been able to visit the Old-Growth Forest, especially with Professor Bittner as our guide.

clay

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I enjoyed my second Studio Thursday at the Johnson, and again had a nice time. As I mentioned in my blog last semester, my first Studio Thursday event had given me nostalgic feelings and so I had been looking forward to the next one.

At this event, we were shown a display of pottery/clay work from different tribes of Native Americans (I believe) for inspiration. We were then given clay to work with for the remainder of the time. Looking around, it seemed several of us participants were making some sort of bowl or container, while others had more creative ideas. I stuck to making a bowl from the beginning and found it relaxing, working to smooth it out and perfect it for near an hour.

In the end, I was happy with my product and brought it home to dry, but it didn’t last long (I think leaving it next to an open window on top of my heater cause it to crack).

dirt

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Back home in Texas, I enjoyed tending to a modestly expansive vegetable garden with my dad. I’m aware that our activity of gardening together regularly was born of my parents’ childhood growing up on rural farmland back in S. Korea, and as a result I appreciated the significance of what we were doing. And so the topic of last week’s Rose Cafe event drew my interest.

I was aware of the agricultural value of soil, but Dr. Solomon spoke more broadly about soil and its role, in geological, societal, environmental, etc. contexts. I had to leave the talk a bit early, but an interesting bit that stuck in my head was the fact that globally, soil is emitting significant amounts of CO2. So, it seems that deforestation is doubly harmful, as trees that process CO2 are removed as more soil that produces CO2 is exposed. I’m not sure if this is entirely accurate, and I should probably know this from high school biology, but it was interesting to learn (or relearn) this.

i don’t play tennis

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I found Tennis Coach Silviu Tanasoiu’s discussion on pursuing athletic success during college very accessible, as I’m sure the other non-athlete students at the Rose cafe did as well. Coach Tanasoiu was likely aware that most of his audience would not be Cornell athletes, as his topics were applicable to time-consuming extra-curricular activities besides athletics. Regardless, his discussion  specifically about tennis and his experiences was interesting to hear, as a non-athlete.

What I found most appealing about the coach’s discussion, was how he described the passion involved in being a student athlete. Being a student athlete pursuing a career in professional athletics is not an easy task, and Coach Tanasoiu conveyed the difficulties well. Hearing his perspective as a coach, I felt the desire to experience such a drive as he did. I hope that I could come to become as passionate about my academic life.

islam (and religion) in america

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Professor Sherman Jackson’s lecture last week was mind-opening in the sense that I experienced a scholarly perspective on Islam and it’s role and position of opportunity in America. With what little I know about Islam and its people from often biased media viewpoints, it was interesting to hear the professor not speak defensively about Islam in light of global news, but speaking as one who looked past such events. From what I understood, his lecture was primarily about what followers of Islam should do as disciples of their religion, in the context of American society.

The professor spoke much about the American common good, and how Muslims could also contribute to it without abandoning their religion. One of his intentions seemed to be to dispel the notion that it is difficult for Muslims to both maintain the pillars of their religion and be proactive Americans. Instead, he promoted the idea that the pillars of their religion could also help uphold the common good and interests of America. I appreciated this idea, as it seemed apparent that this concept could be seen as a cooperative link between the major religions of America.

One thing that I would have liked to be different about the lecture, was Professor Jackson’s method of delivery. Given his experience, he definitely seemed to be a charismatic speaker. I felt that I would’ve had a better experience and would’ve been able to understand more if he had delivered an unscripted lecture, as opposed to reading directly from his papers. I felt as though he were reading one of his books to us, rather than giving a lecture.

prius : clean stove

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I enjoyed the way Professor Blalock began his talk with an extensive analogy involving a Prius and our majority decision to not own one and our reasons for doing so, despite the fact that we are all aware of how much better it is for the environment. He then linked this analogy to the specific issue of cooking stoves used throughout rural, underdeveloped areas in Africa.

Based on his experiences trying to convert people living in such areas to use cleaner stoves, his discussion was interesting in terms of the thought processes/habitual behavior behind such people and their decisions to not use cleaner stoves despite having information that clearly advises against it. Considering this specific situation in a broader, more general sense, it was enlightening to think about how applicable it was in our seemingly environmentally-aware society.

rocky isn’t real

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I had seen a couple Rocky movies with my dad a long time ago, and had for some reason thought Rocky was a real boxer. As a result, I thought Creed was also based on a true story, after briefly reading the movie description. After watching the first several minutes of Creed, however, I began to realize that Rocky and co. were fictional characters. I Googled this after the movie and found that Rocky was actually loosed based on a real person.

As for the movie itself, I thought it was well done. Although it had many of the elements of a generic athletic, underdog movie, it was still engaging. I’m not sure if the movie was directed by the same director who directed the Rocky series, or if all the Rocky movies were even made by the same person, but there were some parallels between Creed and the Rocky movies I had seen before. I also appreciated Sylvester Stallone’s participation in the movie, and he played the role of mentor to the main character well. I typically don’t go out of my way to watch movies out of my comfort zone, but I’m glad I watched this one.

in vie run men toe hue myrrh

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Professor Aaron Sachs discussed a topic that I was unfamiliar with at last week’s Rose cafe. As a history professor, he seemed well-versed and quite interested in the role humor has in society, but most specifically regarding the environment and its advocates. Being an environmentalist himself, or at least labeling himself as one, the unique topic of his discussion was well articulated through his particular perspective.

Although I’ve definitely been exposed to such environmental humor as in the specific examples of media he presented (videos from The Onion), I had never experienced the realization that this genre of humor could potentially have an ulterior motive other than to simply poke fun. According to Professor Sachs, environmentalists are notorious for not being able to take jokes about their work/concerns. Although one could argue that the issue of the health of the environment is a serious, ubiquitous problem that should not be made light of, this mindset is what Professor Sachs stated environmental humor targets. He said that making use of humor would help environmentalists further advance their agenda, in that their message/intentions could seem more appealing and relatable. Although the discussion was specifically about environmental humor, Professor Sachs’ argument for embracing humor applies to nearly all issues.

economic/political happenings in africa

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I hadn’t been to a Rose Cafe event last semester but I enjoyed attending one this past week, so I think I’ll likely be attending more of them. The guest was one of our Cornell professors who had notable experience working with and within governments of African countries. Although I have very little knowledge of the topics he spoke about, I found the mini-lecture and following discussion intellectually accessible.

Among the various topics Professor van de Walle presented, what I found most interesting was the corruption that is apparently rampant throughout the governments of African countries. Although I’m sure it can be said that corruption is present to various degrees in likely every national government, the case of certain African governments was somewhat unique in that corruption is blatant. So much so, that it seemed as though corruption was just an acceptable aspect of governing (from what I understood, this may be wrong) that faced no opposition, whether from officials or citizens. However, as I think about it now, I wonder how different this kind of government corruption is from that of the US. Perhaps because there’s structure to the corruption, and a pseudo-legality about certain aspects of it due to loopholes or suspicious lawmaking, it seems less severe.