Author Archives: sj397

About sj397

https://courses2.cit.cornell.edu/GERSTChecklists/Portfolio1Result.php/?id=sj397

Caution to all who enter here…

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When I first heard about this film The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young, I was surprised by how aggressive, for lack of a better word, the title was. I am not a particularly active runner nor am I interested in the idea of running numerous miles, but usually the many movie titles I have seen about running and marathons have a positive connotation with the title and the story itself is supposed to be uplifting.

Once more about the marathon was revealed, the title made more sense. Usually, marathons are supposed to celebrate hard work and persistence, and while the Barkley Marathon does, it also focuses on survival. Which makes sense when you consider its origins: the 1977 prison break of James Earl Gray. In 55 hours, he only covered 8 miles through the rugged terrain. Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell thought he could do better and thus the Barkley Marathon was born.

For a race born during a prominent time, it is notoriously hard to get into. Not only is the opening for registration and how to register not well known, but an application must be filled out, from which you can get denied. While I am not an outdoorsy person, I do understand why such a race could be considered interesting. Not only is it about running, which you can train for, it is also about survival and having to expect the unexpected, which is less easily trained for.

Let’s Talk About It

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On Monday I went to the Table Talk about “The Stigma about Mental Illness”. Going into the event, we had been required to read about an artist, who was part of the movement to break the stigma surrounding it, by depicting different mental health disorders with bright colors and overlapping positive and negative imagery. I was surprised by how much these images spoke to me. Even without a defined illness, you can still have moments where you portray yourself differently from how you feel. This was depicted for example in the painting pieces of a woman, dressed in pearls and baking, combined with pieces of geometric designs, contrasting against the put-togetherness of the woman.

As we continued the discussion, an emphasis was put on the ways to combat or help with these mental situations. It shocked me to hear from the others that at Cornell starting counseling takes almost 3 weeks, while in the meantime Cornell Health is willing to prescribe medications ahead of the initial appointment with a counselor. The benefits of Vitamin D were also discussed in helping with seasonal depression disorders.

This talk helped shed a light on how everyone is maybe dealing with their own stuff and so while you may not realize it you are hardly ever alone in how you feel. Now it is just a matter of realizing that receiving care can be just as important as for when you break a bone and without the stigma.

Eating Chili when its Chilly

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On Saturday I went to Chilifest. This is my second year in Ithaca, and I had not yet gone to Chilifest. So this year, when given the option, I decided to go to experience it. I thought it would be interesting and a new thing to try in Ithaca. I was a little concerned about it because I was unsure if there would be any vegetarian chilis to try. Surprisingly, there more places than I expected, and they were all tasted quite good.  This was an interesting experience that resulted in eating lots of chili while being also quite cold. [Even though it was cold there were a good number of people there enjoying this event.] I got to try chili from many vendors including Green Star and a Soybean farm/group and even Cornell Dining.

I definitely recommend this event to everyone: if you haven’t gone yet, if you like chili, if you like interacting more with Ithaca etc. It was a fun event with friends. Also they sell cornbread (!!). I really love cornbread and I bought two pieces which paired with the Chili very nicely. Pro tip: if you bring your own cup, the vendors may give you a little more chili!

A worthwhile gamble?

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Last week’s table talk was about blockchain and cryptocurrency. I went into this conversation not knowing anything about this other than the words bitcoin and an awareness of the excitement that the value had increased a lot suddenly. I have a few friends who were into buying bitcoin, so I also knew that they transactions would take a significant amount of time to occur.

The first thing we talked about was blockchain. I did not know what blockchain was. I learned it was essentially no different from a register, where each transaction was added to secure list. These are open ledgers, whose data cannot be altered in any way without affecting numerous other blocks as well. Each block of data also contains the timestamp of the transaction, the transaction data and a cryptographic hash of the previous blocks data.

We also spent a little time talking about bitcoin and ethereum, and other types of cryptocurrencies. I think it is interesting that people have invested in a, what I think seems to be a stock, whose value is only based upon how many people are invested into it. While if you play the timing correctly, you can make a good profit, you can just as easily lose money without much notice.

One thing I found interesting about bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies is that no one really owns it. [This was confusing to me at first, well it still is, because how did it start if no one owns it? How is it promoted? Who ‘mines’ for the bitcoin or gets value from the worth increasing?] This means that it cannot be regulated like usual. Rather than regulating a company, the consumers would have to be regulated.

This was an interesting talk, and it definitely sparked some interest and numerous questions about cryptocurrency, but I probably will avoid investing in it still.