Author Archives: pnj22

Not Letting Stress Get the Best of You

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I believe this talk on stress and handling stress couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for me (and I’m sure some of my peers). At this very moment I’m stressing about my two upcoming prelims, a problems set due Friday, finding an internship, and of course finals. Oh and let us not forget how much laundry piles up. Basically, Cornell is so overwhelming that Rose house felt it was important to bring these women in to figure out how to bring the stress level down and give us techniques on how to handle mounting worries in the next few weeks.

So how do we manage our stress so that it doesn’t bring us into the “red zone” of stress. One example given was to have a pre-work routine that tells your body that it is time to do work. The speaker explains that she will brew herself a cup of tea, watch the water boil, then sit down at her desk and tell herself it is time to work. I personally think this would be a great idea, because I always tell myself ok I’ll do work but let me just check Facebook and then an hour later I haven’t done anything.

Another suggestion was sleep. According to data, people in the college age group need about 9 hours of sleep a night. I can pretty confidently claim that no one on Cornell’s campus is regularly getting 9 hours a night. I try to get as much sleep as I can, but it tends to be 5 hours and then napping 2 hours sometime later in the day.

There are so many remedies to stress, but also so many causes of stress, so I think there is a balance to be found, but no matter what we do, we will be stressed when tests come. I think that is a good thing, however, because it drives us to work and do better.

Tennis Pro

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After attending Silviu Tanasoiu’s talk, I can definitely say I know way more about boys’ tennis and Cornell sports than I did before! I work for the Ivy League Digital Network filming sports game for broadcast on the internet so families can watch their kids play, so I felt like I knew a lot about our sports teams here, but I had no idea. But, I don’t personally interact with the players and at the moment we don’t film boys’ tennis.

Although the talk may have seemed more like a tennis information session, it gave me a window into the lives of the many athletes on campus. I feel like the athletes get a bad rap when it comes to academics here, but after hearing about all of the time and scheduling that goes in to do something that isn’t even required is remarkable. I can hardly handle my classes with few extra curricular activities, but they keep up with schoolwork while also having to schedule every little detail, down to when they’re allowed to snack. It was interesting to hear about their strong commitment, especially because I’ve never met anyone on the tennis team.

I also learned how small the tennis program is and how many benefits they get. There are hardly over 10 players on the team, and only some of them get to play in matches. Also, they get to Skype with top businessmen and alumni, and I can’t help but say I’m a little jealous of that, may I should join the boys’ tennis team! He stresses that his pupils make sure to appreciate every opportunity they get and to work hard with a goal in mind, which is why he gives them these outlets.

I think we can all learn from Coach Silviu in his commitment to structure, scheduling, and passion.

Don’t Cross The Line

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I attended the talk about the Dream Act and Immigrants into the United States. One of the most striking things I saw in her speech was this road sign.

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This sign is posted near borders to indicate that people may be rushing across the street or border. This is not the first time I’ve seen the sign, however. I have travelled many times to California on vacation and seeing this sign is a common occurrence there. I remember the first time I saw the sign, and its an understatement to say that I was shocked.

I couldn’t believe there were posted signs depicting a family like this. On the run, ragged, in danger. It reminded me of the deer crossing signs and that disgusted me more. To me, it almost seemed like they were removing the humanity from the humans on the sign and turned them into driving cautions, like animals. Humans in search for a better life are not similar to curves in the road or construction. They are people, and thats what Esmerelda was discussing in her talk. The Dream Act is an opportunity for more immigrants to gain citizenship, and not just the ones like on this sign parody.

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This only shows graduates, which is what the Dream Act has come to symbolize. Not only graduates deserve to become citizens, and some immigrants are shunning the act all together. I think thats a shame, but that immigration is a very touchy subject and one that doesn’t seem to please anyone.

Stoves in Africa

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After attending the talk lead by Adam Scwartz the week before on laughing about environmentalism as a way to get it to be more successful, I was surprised to see Garrick Blalock also covering the environment. However, the way this similar topic was handled was worlds apart. While Adam pushed how important caring about the environment is and ways to get people involved, Garrick showed us just how hard it is to make people interested.

He started the talk with asking our opinions on Prius’s. How many of us have a Prius, how many have driven them, do we think they are important for the environment, etc. While many of us said we think they make a difference environmentally, almost no one had one. Garrick asked us why? Was it the upfront cost, did it not fit our lifestyle? He gave several solutions to those problems and more and it seemed as if we were going to repeat last weeks discussion. However, after listening a little bit harder, I realized he wasn’t saying we were wrong for not having a Prius or that we should feel bad for not caring more about the environment, but he was more getting at just how hard it is for people to change their lifestyles.

Garrick took us on a trip to Africa he took to help bring a new stove revolution to the places he visited. In many parts of Africa, they use stoves that coat their lungs and walls in black gook. Scientists had tried to come up with healthier stoves for both the earth and the people using them, and after coming up with a relatively easy and cost effective one, Garrick and his team went from family to family offering the stoves. They said we will let you use these stoves for a few months and if you don’t like them we won’t charge you and you can give them back, or you can keep it and pay money. What happened when they returned? Nothing. Not one family was using theirs anymore.

At this point in the lecture I was shocked. How could no family be using these stoves if they were so much healthier and at that point free? But, thinking back to the Prius example, I have no desire for a Prius and pretty much wouldn’t consider getting one. This is a very interesting dichotomy. We can know what we are doing isn’t the best option but continue doing that thing.

So what should we do if even no brainers don’t work? I think the only way to get something into wide-spread use is to capitalize on the flaws in humans. When people found out that if they cut out gluten they could maybe lose some weight, suddenly gluten free options are everywhere, sometimes more than gluten containing options. People with celiac disease have been around forever, but it wasn’t until people saw a selfish benefit that they cared. I guess humans are going to have to see something they can directly benefit from before they are willing to make a change.

Laughing at Climate Change

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This past weeks Rose Café was by far the least formal lecture I’ve attended. With swears and religious jokes flying, it definitely did not feel like a typical discussion on the environment.

Aaron Sachs started the talk with an anecdote about his Jewish Rabbi grandfather who would spend time thinking of the “hereafter”. As he fondly remembers it, his grandfather would go into the kitchen at night for a snack, and forget why he went there, what he was “here after”. That joke was pretty much the attitude of the day.

It was strange to hear an environmentalist speak critically about other environmentalists, but as Sachs claims, environmentalists have no sense of humor, and it might be hurting the cause to be so uptight. He thinks that between tragedy and comedy, people are more likely to not be offended by comedy. Therefore, to get the message through about climate change, environmentalists should make people laugh about it to get them thinking. If one just brings up how climate change is “the worst thing to ever happen in the world”, they are more likely to get a negative reaction than if they make fun of a big hummer driving down the road.

I had never thought that comedy was a way to get an issue across, but now that I think of it, this tactic is used all over to grab attention. In political campaigns, it is not unlikely to see candidates on SNL or Late Night talk shows, poking fun at themselves or their competition. It is a harmless way to get people to listen up and reach the youth specifically. Now that I’ve notice these similarities, I can’t help but agree with Sachs’ view on how to actually tackle climate change.

We watched many comedic parodies about the environment or standup acts that addressed the facts. Regardless of what outlet it is, SNL or Sachs possible comedic environmental book project, as long as the message gets across, I’ll count it as a win.

Hamlet and his Melancholy

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According to Sara Schlemm, Hamlet is the most famous melancholic. It has been a while since I read Hamlet, but my high school knowledge was due for a dusting off. During the talk, we were brought back to the beginning of the novel with Hamlet dressed in all black, surround by his family in ornate, celebratory clothing following Hamlet’s mother’s marriage to his uncle. Schlemm has us focus on that while his black clothing may be cliche, his melancholy is indescribable, as melancholy tends to be.

According to the dictionary, melancholy is “a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause”. This is obviously apparent in Hamlet, where his beginning speech describes displays he has a deep and incurable sadness. When Schlemm asked the room what our definition of sadness versus melancholy was, people typically answered that melancholy is a way you are, and sadness is something you feel towards an event. Another example given was “black bile”, which is the word actually broken down, and hints at melancholy being a medical affliction, and not just a feeling. She says that when you try to look up melancholy in a modern medical dictionary, you are redirected to depression. She also mentioned that a long time ago melancholy was explained through astrology, and was just part of who you were, while now sadness has a very small place in our lives, with a new ideal placed on positive thinking.

 

Another interesting topic brought up is a “love melancholy”. This is the idea that you cannot truly love without being sad. I’m not sure I quite agree. I think love brings along many other feelings, but I don’t think being in love should make one sad. I think it can make people nervous or feel as though they cannot live without what they’ve found, but none of those are sadness. I may feel this way because, as is true with many mental illnesses/conditions, it is hard to fully understand unless you’ve experienced it.

I’m not a very psychological person, so I feel a lot of the lecture went right over my head, but I do think it is very interesting how Sara Schlemm can research and discover so much about an emotion or feeling.

 

Ithaca’s in the Works

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I attended the lecture from Lisa Nicholas today about the growth of Ithaca, and how difficult it can be to find a balance between growth and integrity of a community. Some of the many things she touched on were goals of people moving into any community, and advancements made to Ithaca as a whole.

According to Lisa, people moving into cities want less people in their home (it used to be 2.5 people per household, but now is nearing 1.5 or 1), more densely packed areas, and more storefronts. Communities really aim to have growth of their population, but need to be careful not to overwhelm their resources and town feel. For Ithaca, Nicholas told us about how there was to be an 11-story housing building put up by the Commons, but the idea was stuck down after people felt it would overwhelm the Commons. Secondly, for Ithaca, our rental vacancy rate is around .5% when it should be around 5%. This means that while people may want to move in, there is nowhere to go.

I never realized how much planning went into planning a town as small as Ithaca, but Nicholas exuded passion about the subject. Visiting the newly completed Commons, I can see why. Compared to the construction I saw last year (I am only a sophomore so I never saw it before then) the Commons looks great now. It’s a very unique space to gather with really interesting buildings. I’m glad there are people like Lisa making sure people like me have a place to go in Ithaca.

What I didn’t know about Africa

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I attended the lecture give by Nicolas van de Walle on “good government” and Africa. I can’t say that before this lecture I knew anything about Africa, because geography is definitely not my strong suit. I had heard something about colonization before, but had never known that all but one country in Africa was previously colonized, mainly by the British and French, and some by the Portuguese. While The United States started as colonies, it quickly moved away from that and began statehood before much of the country had even been explored.

This brings me to the stark differences to other Continents that Africa maintains. There have been many attempts over the decades and centuries to help Africa out of poverty and into a “good” government. There have been apparently many attempts to figure out what plagues parts of Africa, be it lack of technology, lack of education, or corruption. All three have been theories put to the test, using aid from other countries to build dams, build schools, or put new people in power. Unfortunately, due to massive corruption, inequality, and strictness, nothing has seemed to fix the problem so far. It was interesting to hear takes by both Jarrett and Nicolas, as they both have been to Africa and I have never known anyone else who has.

This talk made me realize that I really don’t know much about places that aren’t very publicly talked about here in the United States, and I should take it upon myself to learn more.

Icy Saturday

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For the first week back, my friends and I decided to venture out from the Rose Cafés and do something more adventurous. We brought along two of our friends and took to the ice. While some of us were less experienced, I think we found our way around the rink just fine (but let’s be honest, the pictures were the most important part).

I figure skated for most of my younger life, so I had no issue gliding around, but for two of my friends, it was their second time ever skating. They were in good company, as it seemed half of the event goers hadn’t laced up in a long while. I thought it was particularly interesting to get to skate on the ice the hockey team skates on. I work for the Ivy League Digital Network, so I see the team with all the lights on for game day quite often, making it even more fun. I don’t know if I’ll go skating again for a while, but i’m glad I finally did at Lynah.

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