Road Tripping: Maryland - NCAA lacrosse, part 2

Last time, we left off with Cornell maintaining a two-goal lead over Maryland. (Two goals isn't a lot in lacrosse. It’s usually pretty “safe” in other sports, but then again, you could be the Revolution, go into the half leading 4-1, and then go on to tie the game. @Philadelphia Union, September 7, 2011. I heard this one on the radio for myself. Not forgetting it anytime soon.)

Then about ten minutes into the second half, Cornell started scoring and pulling ahead of Maryland. By the time we reached the final minutes of the game, Cornell had an eight-goal lead, and unless Maryland was going to score a goal every fifteen seconds, we were moving on in the tournament. Cornell finished the game for a 16-8 victory, and it made facing the six hours in a bus back to Ithaca so much less miserable.

Plus, the band got to be on TV. Here’s the story: we played “Give my Regards to Davy” (our fight song, usually just referred to as Davy) seventeen or eighteen times and the one time they televised us playing it, we were doing horizontal running Davy.  (After fifteen goals, we start doing variations on Davy – horizontal running Davy involves lying on your back on the bleachers and kicking your legs in the air like you’re running . . . while playing Davy.  Not my idea.)  Thank you, national TV.  But if anyone has some sort of screenshot
of the pep band on TV from this game(Sunday, May 12 at noon, Cornell vs. Maryland men’s NCAA Division I lacrosse), feel free to send it my way. I (and the band) would appreciate it.

View of the game from the pep band's seats

After the game, we left the stadium in high spirits and started the six hour bus ride back to Cornell. At some point in the afternoon, most of the band fell asleep . . . again. Hey, riding the bus takes a lot out of a person.  I mean, it’s high intensity cardiovascular activity mentally straining we were tired college students.  Along the 

way, we stopped for dinner, and then climbed back on the bus for the last leg of our journey.

By the time we reached the band room (four whole minutes early) it was late, so I hauled myself back to my dorm room, ignored the fact that I could have been studying for my math final, and went to sleep. Completely worth it. And if I’d been around the next Saturday (I had just gotten home the Friday night before) I would've done the trip again.

(Cornell beat Ohio State at that game 16-6, but lost the weekend after that to Duke. The game was televised on ESPN2, which I’m only slightly more convinced exists than ESPN U.)

Road Tripping: Maryland - NCAA lacrosse, part 1

After an undefeated season in the Ivy League, Cornell’s men’s lacrosse team managed to lose to Princeton in the semifinal game of the Ivy League playoffs. Cornell still got an unseeded berth in the NCAA tournament, but that meant we would be the away team and have to travel to Maryland. Due to another scheduled event, the band would be making the entire trip in a day. Six hours there, six hours back, all on the day before my math final. Naturally, I signed up to go.

The game was scheduled to begin at 1, so we were supposed to arrive at the stadium at noon, so we planned to leave Ithaca by 5. In the morning. I set a ridiculous number of alarms to make sure I would make it to the band room by 4:45 and packed everything in advance. I have to say, campus is quiet at 4:30 am.

By 5, the bus was loaded and pulling out of the Cornell campus. It was still too dark to see anything, so everyone went (back) to sleep. After a couple hours, the sun finally came up, and a little after that, we stopped for breakfast at a gas station/rest stop. My junior year of high school, the band was taking a trip down to DC by bus, and we discovered the pickle in a bag, which apparently is closely related to peeled hard boiled eggs, because ever since then, I've found these two items at almost every rest stop I've been to. They were there, as usual, sharing a fridge next to the coffee machines. I had oatmeal for breakfast.

Very early morning on the bus

Slightly later morning on the bus . . . when the sun finally came up

More driving, lots of two lane highway and cows and corn fields, and then we arrived in College Park. When we entered the stadium, I have to admit, it was pretty impressive. Byrd Stadium has about double the capacity of Schoellkopf Field, and it’s actually a stadium. But for all the staff workers they had, it still didn't stop them from not knowing we were coming. Next time, we send messenger pigeons and smoke signals ahead of us.

The person we ended up working with, however, seemed to be nice, and we eventually took our seats right behind Cornell’s bench. We could almost understand what the players and coaches were yelling about. Almost.

As usual, it was blindingly bright, but also windy. Fantastic combination. Right at the beginning of the game, Cornell scored two goals, but then things slowed down and the teams went into the half with the score 4-6 in favor of Cornell. We were allowed to play during halftime (sometimes at away games the home team plays ads through the entire break or gives us about seven minutes to try and cram an entire set in . . . Syracuse), including the Alma Mater. As per tradition since sometime before I got to Cornell, the Alma Mater is played at halftime of most sporting events or before the third period of hockey.

The last away game I went to, we went into halftime with a similar score, then lost, and that game wasn't even as big as this one. So we were hopeful, but I wasn't going to get my hopes up too far.

Tune in next time for the exciting finale of the game, as well as six more hours on the band bus.

So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, part 1 of 3

In acknowledgement of the fact that I have now survived my freshman year of college (been home for a week), there are some people I should recognize who made my year as fantastic as it was.

At Cornell (I'll see most of you in the fall; congratulations to the class of 2013):

The professors who were truly enthusiastic about teaching hoards of clueless freshmen. Any demonstrations were an added bonus and were appreciated by me at least, especially if they involved fire and/or explosions.

The TAs who endured endless questioning, complaining, whining and confusion while trying to help us understand homework/labs/lecture/the meaning of life.

All the engineers who suffered through classes with me. There’s nothing like bonding over Green’s Theorem and Avogadro’s Law.
My fellow ChemEs. To the class of 2016: Here’s to three more years to come. To W8: Thanks again, guys (even if one of us might be having a problem choosing his/her major).

5-3 (my unit in the dorm I was living in) and our perfectly normal late-night middle-of-the-hallway conversations.

The staff and climbers at Cornell Outdoor Education/Lindseth/my rock climbing class for 1) teaching me the basics of rock climbing, 2) belaying me, and 3) just being a fun group of people.

AAIV, for friendship, fellowship, sailing ships, and challenging me to grow in my faith.

Cornell Productions for hiring me at the best job I've ever had. When they said no experience necessary, I guess they meant it.

The big red pep band, especially the clarinet section. #LGR

At home:

The attendees of my home church, who were always ready to welcome me home.

My friends from high school, because they’re that cool.

And lastly, my family, since they’re the ones paying for my education, supporting me through this college thing, transporting me to and from Ithaca . . . you know, small things like that.

What I've Learned at Cornell (Take Two)

No, this is still not a philosophical discussion about institutes of higher education, but this post will have a slightly more academic focus than the last one . . . make that a very slightly more academic focus.
In an attempt to sound vaguely serious about this, here goes:

1. Independent study in the lab (or: What to do when faced with beakers with questionable pasts, three funnels, and no test tube rack): General Chemistry lab drawers tend to be stocked with things like the test tube with the burnt sugar stuck to the bottom and the possibly cracked beaker, and sometimes we may have had a tendency to play musical lab equipment. Equipment notwithstanding, we were forced to do lab work without much guidance (don’t worry, we were still supervised). Sometimes we were given a goal and had to come up with our own procedures, which I guess was probably useful in preparing us for the future, when we’re not going to get step by step instructions for everything. In fact, we’re going to have to come up with our own goals as well. . . . The world should probably start preparing for me right about . . . now.

2. How to put your best foot forward (or: How to sell yourself): Good news; it doesn't end with college applications! At the start of spring semester, I decided I wanted to get a job and join the workforce of disgruntled, underpaid student employees at Cornell.* Job applications require you to again, present yourself in a positive way, but this time, instead of taking $50,000 of your money every year for four years, they give you minimum wage. I really don’t have any foolproof advice for getting a job (or getting into college), but don’t sell yourself short and also don’t try to be something you aren't. Especially if your potential employer is going to ask for a demonstration of backwards curling while riding a unicycle.

3. Thinking on your feet (or: Improvisational lighting; or: No one knew the band was coming . . . again): Between pep band and Cornell Productions, I had my share of going with the flow this year. Working at Cornell Productions, I learned a lot by doing. You’re not getting paid to know the theory and history of different types of lighting; you’re getting paid to set up lighting and haul around sound equipment, chairs, and risers. Similarly, for whatever reason, the pep band would occasionally show up to events only to have the person in charge have no idea that twenty-five people with large metal and plastic objects would be there. That usually meant we’d have to watch our conductor for once extra closely for emergency cutoffs, especially if the announcer started frantically gesturing at us.

4. Responsibility and independence (or: You should still eat and sleep): When you get to college, you soon realize you can do almost anything you want to (almost anything being anything legal and within reason). Ice cream for breakfast? Sure. Sleep through morning classes then play video games during afternoon classes? Go right ahead. On the other hand, you can also skip meals to study and stay up to four in the morning doing homework. Choose wisely. (And really, don’t forget to eat and sleep.)

5. Office hours (or: What is the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything?): When in doubt, guess three. And then go to office hours. This one depends on the TAs (and the professor), but if the TAs are good, and you have a few questions about the material no idea what the heck is going on in class, go to office hours. My intro to ChemE group and I spent a lot of time at office hours first semester. Mainly to comment on how confused we were, but we did also have a few legitimate questions. As an added bonus, if you stay long enough, the TAs will sometimes give away the answer to the ridiculous problem you've been assigned for homework. True story.

Bonus: Instrument maintenance (or: But actually, scrape out the yellow stuff in your clarinet mouthpiece): No, it was not mold. And yes, my clarinet magically plays a lot better now.

*So far, my work experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. I even make more than minimum wage. Also, this seems to be as good a time as any to say that besides returning to my job with Cornell Productions in the fall, I've also been accepted as a Cornell blogger. I know, you can’t wait for even more of my charming wit and intellect.

The Time Space Paradox

In my recent studies in advanced quantum physics introductory course to computer programming, I have come to the conclusion that you can either be fast or small.  Your program will either take half a millisecond and the memory of a supercomputer or the memory space of a pocket calculator and three years to run.  (Figures may be slightly exaggerated.)

I do have to say that I enjoyed my brief foray into the world of computer programming.  Not enough to become a CS (computer science) major, but enough to maybe take another programming class in the future.  Maybe.  If I’m not too busy memorizing carbon groups and maximizing yields from chemical processes.

Meanwhile, the last month or so of spring semester at Cornell managed to speed past, be incredibly time consuming, and require approximately one hundred percent of my available memory space.  How’s that for a time space paradox?  Besides finishing up my second round of prelims, I had work assignments every week, spent too much some time at the climbing wall, went to almost every pep band event, and ended with finals.

It was a little busy up on the hill.  But spring finally came to Ithaca, and it was a good month overall.

Spring on campus

I didn't fail any of my prelims, heard some good concerts at Bailey, had a lot of fun at lacrosse games, started working on some routes at the climbing wall, and . . . took finals.  No, I don’t really have anything good to say about taking finals.  I had two of my finals in Barton – the gym has an indoor track inside, to give you some idea of how big the space is.  The other one was in the Statler auditorium and the professor and the TAs didn't show up until five minutes after the final was scheduled to start.

All things considered, it was a solid finish to my first year of college. Don’t worry, you’re still going to hear about what I did in more detail. I’m kind of behind on posting, so this is partly a quick update on my life and partly an explanation for the drop off in posts during May. Still to come: a report from the pep band’s day trip to Maryland, some of my more athletic endeavors, several recaps on the semester and year, and probably more about food. . . . Definitely more about food.

The Voice of Bailey Hall

Working for Cornell Productions isn't like working for the dining halls or at the library. I don’t have a certain number of hours I have to work every week. I don’t work a certain shift with a particular group of people. Instead, when Cornell Productions is hired by a show or event, I get an email with all the open shifts for the coming week. If I’m interested and free for any of the shifts, I reply and wait to see what my job assignments are.

Over the past few weeks, I mainly worked stagehand shifts at Bailey Hall, Cornell's auditorium that hosts everything from music groups to dance troupes.

Bailey Hall

As I've mentioned briefly before, being a stagehand means sitting backstage and being ready in case the sound or stage managers need anything. Sometimes we also open and close the stage doors or run the lights, by which I mean slide the switch up or down on command.

After the show, when everyone else leaves, is when things get busy for us. At that point, we’re allowed to come out from our hiding places on the wings. Depending on the show and upcoming events, our jobs range from chair corralling to riser wrangling to wire coiling. (Home, home on the stage; where the chairs and the music stands need-to-be-stored.)

Recently while working, I've heard the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and both of the CU Winds bands. You know you’re a band geek when you get excited that one of the bands is playing “Sea Songs” by Vaughan Williams, which sounds a lot like the Vaughan Williams Folk Song Suite which you played in high school, and the other ensemble is playing “Festive Overture” by Shostakovich, which the district orchestra played one year.

Anyway, due to the nature of my job, I can go weeks without seeing the same Cornell Productions people; however, since my recent shifts have all been at Bailey, I've been working for the Bailey sound and stage managers. And in doing so, I've gotten to know who the voice of Bailey Hall is. You know, the guy who says “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to tonight’s show at Bailey Hall. At this time, please silence your electronic devises and note that recording or any kind of prohibited. Enjoy the show.” After the show, he also says things along the lines of, “All the stands and chairs need to go downstairs” and “Someone’s going to have to crawl under those risers.”

Mother's Day

So, apparently today is Mother's Day.  Until a few days ago, I may have been blissfully unaware of this fact, not that I ever do much anything for Mother's Day. . . .  But this is the first year I won't be home to grace everyone with my cheerful and amiable personality, and being notified rather late about this holiday, I didn't think anything I mailed would arrive on time.  Besides which, I don't have any stamps.

Since everyone else sends cards and flowers or makes breakfast, I thought I'd write a blog post instead.  Plus, this is free.

I was totally going for pictures of the flowers, not the geese.

Actually, I was going for the geese.

To my own mother and any other mothers who may be reading this: Happy Mother's Day; enjoy the pictures?

Food Tours, part 1

With a greatly relaxed schedule throughout study week and finals, a few friends and I have been taking the opportunity to eat at some of the cafés and other dining establishments scattered around campus. Cornell has ten dining halls and around twenty other places to buy food, not even counting the vending machines, which means you could eat somewhere different every day for a month. I’m pretty sure that’s more dining options than in my entire hometown. Then again, my hometown’s population is around (less than?) Cornell’s undergrad enrollment. . . .

In just two semesters, I've managed to eat at a fair number of different places. I've gone to almost all of the dining halls (one of the 161 Things every Cornellian should do). What’s good about the dining halls is the variety (usually) of food and that if I feel like eating watermelon with my roast pork followed by yogurt, nothing’s going to stop me, assuming they made roast pork. If, on the other hand, I go to an a la cart place, they will most likely not be selling any dishes consisting of watermelon and pork. Probably because I might be the only person to buy it. Ever.

But I’m actually going to talk about some of the options at the a la cart places I've visited so far. First up, Ivy Room. Ivy Room is on central campus and is pretty much directly across from Olin Hall. If you happen to be spending long hours in Olin, your options usually come down to Ivy Room or the vending machines in the basement. Anyway, I have to confess that I almost always get sandwiches since I don’t eat a lot at a time. (I eat every two hours or so instead.) The Ivy Room’s grilled cheese sandwiches are pretty good, and some of my friends would recommend the salads and noodle bowls. I wouldn't know; I've never ordered them. . . .

Moving on . . . Probably the most interesting thing I've eaten that’s an actual dish and not meat-with-fruit (aka dinner at the dining halls) is chicken on a waffle at Hughes, way down by the law school and Collegetown. I would definitely recommend that everyone tries this at least once, because how often do you get fried chicken on top of a waffle? (I also recently ate a waffle with yogurt and peanut butter. In case you haven’t noticed, I have little to no qualms about mixing food groups.) Plus, they use paper for their tablecloths and provide crayons for you to color.

If you’re looking for something more normal, they make sandwiches and wraps over at Goldie’s in the Physical Science Building (PSB). I've had the chicken panini. The chicken can be a little dry, but the spinach and tomatoes usually make up for that. Fun facts: PSB was built right next to Baker; the two buildings share a wall and there’s a lamppost inside. Also, we watched a lab safety video in General Chemistry last semester. They did a shot where they panned across the outside of Baker and PSB wasn't there. That’s right; the video was made before PSB was even built. To be fair, PSB was completed in 2010, but this video was very obviously filmed around the 80s. No mouth pipetting, guys. Just, no.

Tune in next time/week/in awhile for more enthralling commentary on Cornell Food and Life in General. I know, you’re thinking I should have my own food network show. Cornflakes with pudding and yogurt, anyone?

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

Some of my favorite things, unrelated to Cornell:
- Color: orange, but I own a lot of lime green clothing.  At least I’m easy to spot in a crowd.
- Planet: Pluto, which is a planet
- Sports team: New England Revolution*
- TV show: Jeopardy! (though I was recently introduced to Star Trek)
- Movie: Lord of the Rings. The entire trilogy.
- Quotes*: Don’t panic.
Nobody tosses a dwarf.
Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.
It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might be swept off to.
- Movement of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto: 3rd.
- Scientific calculator: Casio fx-300ES. Don’t get me started on what I think of TI scientific calculators. (And yes, I was in math team in high school. For four years.)

And now my favorite things about Cornell:
- the Big Red Pep Band: It’s big, it’s red, but no, it’s not a dog. It does, however, show up to dozens of sporting events at Cornell including, but not limited to, sprint football, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, lacrosse, and of course, hockey. There’s just something about freezing at Schoellkopf stadium while the lacrosse team scores over fifteen goals and we get to play variations on Davy (our fight song) or being in Lynah rink and watching the hockey team score a game winning goal with one second left. We’re finishing up the spring season with lacrosse, but don’t worry, we’ll be back next fall.

- Cornell Outdoor Education: They offer not only climbing, but also hiking, and skiing, and all sorts of my other favorite activities featuring dirt and sweat. Taking PE classes with COE does cost money, but it’s completely worth it. As in, rock climbing is one of my new favorite activities and I go to the wall when I should be doing homework at least a couple times a week.

- the clock tower and chimes concerts: I like music, and I like walking, so naturally I like getting to hear live music as I’m walking to class. One of my favorite things I've heard is still “Under the Sea” during Hurricane Sandy.

- AAIV (Asian American Intervarsity): Some of the first people I met at Cornell (after the people in my dorm) were members of AAIV. They were mostly friendly and welcoming, and since then, I've had some incredibly amusing dinner conversations, gotten to go care packaging and reverse trick or treating, participated in a photo scavenger hunt in RPCC (it was too dark to go out on campus), and just enjoyed their fellowship, among other things.

- the trail around Beebe Lake: Recently I've been going out running more because I probably should get some exercise rediscovered my love for sweating and going in circles. The trail around the lake is about one mile long and features great views and lots of geese. It’s also nice because I prefer running on dirt or grass rather than on the road or on a track.

- Cornell Productions: As it turns out, I really like the backstage aspect of setting up and taking down shows and events. So far, I've been allowed to set up lights, help set up sound, stack chairs and stands, and coil and gaff wires. It’s been a lot of fun.

- This place: Three more years. I can’t wait.

*Virtual bonus points to anyone who knows what sport the Revolution play without looking them up. Similarly, name the origins and speakers of the quotes and receive an internet high five from me. Feel free to leave responses in the comments.

Math and Music

It’s said that there’s a connection between the logical realm of math and the more abstract land of music. Scientists have done studies analyzing the rhythmic and structural underlyings of music to try and understand how they help to enhance math skills. They've got the research. I have the real life experience. Now presenting: How to become a math genius in three easy steps with the three Bs: Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven. That time in MATLAB I was reminded of pep band. Which isn't that hard, because a lot of things remind me of pep band.

Anyway, it was the last MATLAB lecture of the semester, and we were finishing up with sorting methods. We’d just done recursion, so the last sorting method we were learning (after insertion and bubble sort) was the merge sort. To start our discussion of the merge sort, the professor asked us if it would be easier to straight up sort a thousand items or merge two sets of five hundred items that had already been sorted. Well, this one time in band . . .

Actually, it’s been a lot of times in band. So the pep band “folders” are stacks of half sheets of music shoved into a pocket-type holder made of construction paper and/or duct tape. Normally, people keep their music alphabetized so they can find it more easily. However, during our busier events (hockey), most people don’t have time to put their music away between sets, so after the game there’s the folder, and then there’s the giant pile of music outside the folder . . . that needs to be sorted.

At this point, you have three options: one, take each piece of music and go through your folder to find out where it goes; two, alphabetize the music outside of your folder and then combine (hint: merge) the two piles; and three, ignore the giant stack of un-alphabetized music by shoving it into your folder and regretting it the next time you have to find a piece of music. Well, if you ask me, options one and two sound a lot like the insertion and merge sorts.

Speaking from experience, if around half your folder is sitting in a heap waiting to be put back into the folder, alphabetize it first so you don’t have to flip through the a’s seven billion times. (Merge sort) Otherwise, just sort each song in the order you find it. (Insertion sort)

And that is how math (okay, computer science, which needs math) is like music.