Tales from the Trenches

Disclaimer: I am not making fun of any of the people in these stories, except for myself. There is exaggeration and dramatization involved and my purpose is to tell some mildly amusing stories about life at Cornell.

They Think It’s Summer:
Last “spring” at the end of March or so when it was finally getting warm I was working a shift for Cornell Productions. We were setting up the sound system when we discovered that one of our adapters didn't work. I was sent back to the office to find another adapter. Since I had just been hauling sound equipment up stairs, I didn't bother to put on a jacket and I was wearing shorts because it was over 40°F. As I was on my way to the office, I passed a family who was visiting Cornell (in jeans and jackets). The father was commenting about how the Cornell students seemed to think the weather was warmer than it actually was just as I walked by (in shorts and a t-shirt), prompting him to exclaim, “See, they all think it’s summer!”

Veterans of the Dining Hall Lunch Line:
My house on West Campus got tickets to Thanksgiving lunch up at one of the North Campus dining halls. Since it was free, I decided to sign up to go. By the time we got there, there were long lines for the food, which was set up buffet style like most dining hall meals. It was the slowest non-specialty-station line I have ever been in. I stood behind a girl who was so absorbed in her phone that right after her friend offered her a tray, she nodded and left the line . . . to go get a tray. I stood in front of a woman who muttered under her breath for five straight minutes about how the line was forming in the wrong place before asking people to move. Then she continually walked into me with her purse. As I approached the front of the line, it became clear that the majority of the people in line were new recruits to the dining hall lunch line. There were children who needed to be asked three time whether or not they would like stuffing, and adults who did not know just the right amount of force to use to get the mashed potatoes to un-adhere to the spoon, and others who cared about their corn and gravy touching. Corn and gravy is nothing. Broccoli and syrup, on the other hand, is a little less than great. I stormed through the line, then settled down to eat my rice mixed with corn stuck to the candied sweet potatoes.

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet:
It appeared on the “Overheard at Cornell” Facebook page during the last week of classes that a parent on a tour was heard telling her son, “See, it isn't that cold.” The weather this past fall was as freakish as usual, and the day they were touring Cornell, it was 60 degrees and sunny at the end of November. (Yes, I obviously wore shorts to class.) The next day, it dropped back down to high 30s. The day after that, it snowed. Then it snowed again, and finally everything froze.

10, 15, 32, Which Bus is Right for You?:
Finally, a story that features none other than . . . myself. It is indeed a story about the bus, as you may have guessed from the title. A friend and I needed to go to Wegmans before Thanksgiving break to get food. We were going to go in the afternoon, but another friend wanted to come and he couldn't leave until after 6 pm. I checked the bus schedule and we’d still have enough time if we left after 6, so we all decided to take the bus from West Campus at 6:09 pm. At 6:15, the bus pulls up. We get on and get to the Commons at 6:30. Eleven minutes after the bus that we were supposed to transfer to left. I had thought that there would be more than enough time to transfer, but apparently Trip Planner had us getting to the Commons at 6:18 and catching the next bus at 6:19. The next time that bus would be coming around was in, oh, fifty minutes or so. We decide to walk the rest of the way to Wegmans. By the time we get to Wegmans, it’s about 6:50, so there’s no way we’re going to catch the 7:30 bus. We hang around until 8:30 and catch the last bus of the day back to the Commons, where we have to decide if we want to stay on the bus or see if we can catch another bus going back to Cornell that will drop us off closer to where we live. Never mind. The other bus has stopped running for the night. Staying on the bus it is. When we get back to campus, we have to go down the slope and cross the entirety of West Campus where we split up to go to our respective apartments/dorms. And that is the story of how I went to Wegmans on the bus on a Tuesday night.

So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, part 2 of 3

I’m going to start this off by borrowing a line from the Beatles and saying “I get by with a little help from my friends.” Once again, this broadcast year has been made possible by Cornell University, my family, and contributions from viewers like you. Thank you.

It was an insanely busy/crazy year, but a very good one, so I’d like to recognize the people and groups who were a part of it:

- my family

- friends who participated in my adventures biking, rock climbing, roaming campus, venturing out onto the Commons, doing problem sets, hanging out in the dining hall, and baking

- AAIV, particularly my small group

- Cornell Productions, because hauling all that equipment up and down stairs must build character, or at least muscle, or something . . .

- the Big Red Pep Band

- the professors who taught us some stuff that we promptly forgot after the final will remember for the rest of our lives and the TAs who had to deal with us (there’s nothing quite like the panicked night-before-problem-sets-are-due crowd)

- Cornell’s ChemE class of 2016, because suffering is always less painful when done together. Here’s to two more years of late nights, impossible problem sets, and pain and despair.

The No-Longer-Hypothetical List of Exciting Things That Have Happened to me at Cornell, Spring 2014 edition

As it turns out, this spring was busier than last fall. Attending class and doing problems sets was already the equivalent of a full time job with overtime, except I had to pay to do it. On top of that, I continued working for Cornell Productions, going to pep band and AAIV, and rock climbing in my spare time. Sometimes I even got to do fun things like eating and sleeping. As always, however, it was indeed exciting. Here’s the list:

1. Slope Day: My Slope Day experience involving the slope consisted of this:

The stage seems to be missing some parts.

The slope seems to be missing some people.

This was actually the day before Slope Day. On Slope Day itself, a couple of friends and I went to Cornell’s Hoffman Challenge Course, which is a ropes course about five miles off campus. They have high wire traverses (multivine, lily pads), a 64-foot replica of the clock tower with different ways to climb to the top, a zipline and swing out of the clock tower, and a trapeze, among other elements. I ended up doing a couple of the traverses, climbing the clock tower, and ziplining out of the clock tower. It was fantastic. [Thanks to Alternative Slope Day for organizing the event!]

The multivine

2. Going solo: I was sent to the Bear’s Den for Cornell Productions alone a couple times. Which meant that I was completely in charge of setting up, sound check, making sure nothing went catastrophically wrong with the sound during the show, and packing everything up nicely at the end. Besides the time that half the outlets weren't working, doing the shows alone wasn't too bad. At least I knew beforehand what the events were, unlike the time I showed up to work with another person and we were informed right then and there that a seventeen-piece live band was coming in. Thankfully there were several shared microphones.

3. Summer research: There’s a story behind how exactly I was offered my summer position, but the general idea is that I’ll be making models that demonstrate fluid mechanics (yes, I did spend the entire semester complaining about fluids; no, I did not actually hate the class – more about that in the next post). Besides getting to spend the summer in Ithaca when the sun exists, the project sounds like it could be pretty interesting.

4. Fancy hockey: For the last regular season home game of men’s hockey, the pep band members have the option of dressing up in fancy clothes. To make things even more exciting, this year the last home game was against Harvard. Wikipedia has an entire article on the Cornell-Harvard hockey rivalry, so it must be legitimate. To start off Harvard’s night, the pep band plays the theme from Love Story when they come out onto the ice for warmups. In Love Story, much as in real life, Harvard plays Cornell in a hockey game and loses. Later, when Harvard comes out for the lineups, the Cornell fans (excluding the pep band) throw fish onto the ice. And on this particular night, Cornell managed to come back from two goals down to put the game into overtime. Then with thirty-six seconds to go, a Cornell player scored the winning goal. How’s that for the senior hockey players’ last game in Lynah?

5. Penguins: I will very soon introduce the penguins that you may have met in my Mother’s Day post. They have been travelling across campus with me and are part of a photo project. As an added bonus, I got them on sale.

The No-Longer-Hypothetical List of Exciting Things That Have Happened to me at Cornell, Fall 2013 edition

In case I haven’t said it enough, this fall was really, really busy. Between AAIV, Cornell Productions, pep band, rock climbing, and, oh yeah, actual classes, I didn't have a whole lot of time to sit around staring at the walls. With all the eventfulness came a fair amount of excitement, which leads us into this semester’s list of Exciting Things That Have Happened to me at Cornell.

1. Madison Square Garden: My first time at Madison Square Garden, I not only got to see Cornell’s men’s hockey team play, but I also got to play with the pep band at the game. It was quite an adventure.

2. Unsupervised baking: As the semester wound down, some friends and I managed to get together and do some baking. So far we've made lemon bars and mini apple pies, and I made (not very cheesy) cheese crackers all by myself. The main thing about cooking in college is that you want recipes with as few ingredients as possible. Everything also has to be done by hand with basic tools. Pastry cutter? Don’t have one. I don’t even have salt, but flour has taste by itself, right?

Mini apple pies

3. Mariinsky Orchestra: This was part of the Cornell Concert Series at Bailey Hall, and I was working backstage for Cornell Productions during the concert. They played Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Isle of the Dead by Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 5, and they were very good. Besides putting away the hundreds of chairs and stands, we also helped to load their truck. It takes a lot of wardrobes to clothe an entire orchestra.

4. Small group: Here’s how the story goes. At the end of summer one of my friends emailed me and asked if I’d be interested in being a core member for her small group. To be a core member I “just had to show up.” I said okay, because showing up isn't too hard once you commit your time to it. Sometime in the middle of the semester, my friend asks me if I’d like to prep for small group with her. I said, yeah, sure, because it would be good to see how preparation for small group goes. As we’re going through the passage, she asks me if I’d like to lead that week. Well, then. So much for just showing up. [I did end up saying yes and leading. And it was a good experience.]

5. First ChemE presentation: At the end of Mass and Energy Balances, we didn't have a written final, but we had to make a group presentation about our efforts to reduce the flow rate of carbon into the atmosphere. I was working with my Intro to ChemE group from last year and my current roommate. Apparently it isn't enough for chemical engineers to take all the same classes. We also do homework together, have meals together, and live together. It’s great.

Quite frankly, I can’t narrow down an entire semester to a few events and call them the most exciting things that happened to me in the past four months. I went hiking and saw waterfalls, helped to plan several AAIV events, got to use the very nice sound board the Bear’s Den has while working for Cornell Productions, spent hours yelling at Cornell sports teams, spent more hours hanging upside down at the bouldering wall, stayed up past midnight way too many times arguing with Mathematica or writing essays the morning they were due, trekked a couple hundred miles across campus, complained about anything and everything, and generally had a phenomenal time. And I get to do it all over again next semester.

161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do, #94

#94. Go to an acapella concert

Until a couple Fridays ago, I’d seen CU Winds and the CU Symphony Orchestra, visiting jazz groups and orchestras, but I had not been to an acapella concert. (I also haven’t been ice skating at Lynah, but that’s another matter.) What was particularly special about this acapella concert was that it was my first concert as a Cornell student that I was in the audience for. Up until that point, all the groups I’d seen had been from backstage while working for Cornell Productions.

It was definitely a different perspective, and the second time in the span of a week that I was looking at things from another point of view. The first was at the homecoming game, which was the first football game I've ever been to where I didn't have to play in the halftime show. (And more generally, one of the few sports games that I didn't go to with the band.) It was a little weird being there to watch the game and not to play Davy when the team scored or to start chants of “Let’s go red.”

Similarly, sitting in the audience instead of backstage felt kind of strange.  It was an interesting night overall, because I was actually working after the concert to take down the curtains and speakers in preparation for CU Winds later that weekend.  Anyway, vocals don’t travel as well as instrumentals backstage, so I guess this was a good concert to hear from the front of the stage.

As for the concert itself, it was a joint concert between twelve different acapella groups, so there was a decent variety of songs.  One of the groups did “Bad Romance,” and personally, I like the Zheng Lab’s parody “Bad Project” better, but it was done well at the concert.  Near the end, the Hangovers sang “You Got a ‘C’” to “Under the Sea,” which was pretty funny . . . especially in prelim season (which this semester, is every week for me).  [I was having trouble keeping track of which groups performed, let alone what they sang, so normally I wouldn't remember the group and the song, but they were one of the last to perform and I was already backstage waiting for my shift to start.  In contrast, even after not having used it for possibly a year, the other day I managed to come up with the molar mass of calcium. . . . It’s 40.08 grams per mole.]

Overall, the concert was great.  I enjoyed myself, and I didn't even get back to my dorm too late after work.  And while we’re on the topic, here’s one last acapella song: “We Didn't Go To Harvard” by Cayuga’s Waiters.  They were at the concert, but didn’t perform this song.  It never gets old.  (The lyrics at 1:30 fall under the "sad but true" category.)

What Gaff Tape Doesn’t Stick To

Before classes started, I worked a couple shifts for Cornell Productions, helping to set up sound equipment for orientation events. This, as usual, involved gaffing (taping) down wires in any areas that people would be walking through. During HEC weekend, I gaffed wires to wood, carpet, metal, and tile. We taped across floors, under tables, along moldings, and up doorframes into the ceiling. Throughout all this time, we had no trouble getting the wires to stay, because that’s what gaff tape does: it adheres to pretty much anything.

But not everything. On a Monday morning, I worked the load in shift for an outdoor event. We loaded up the truck, drove to the location, and had to haul all the equipment from the parking lot to the event location, which involved stairs. When moving heavy objects, stairs are an unwelcome sight. Very unwelcome. We managed it, however, and got to work. After all the wires had been laid out, I got the job of gaffing them down. Since we were outside, I ended up taping the wires down over concrete or stone. Guess what? Gaff tape sticks just fine to rock-like materials. Not as well as to carpet or tile, but it did passably well.

The next day, I worked an even earlier shift. Once again, we loaded up the truck, and drove to the location, this time Barton Hall. Barton, besides being the site of most large courses’ finals and the former home of the Big Red Bands, is popular for concerts and receptions because of its size. It also has an indoor track. The significance of this will become apparent.

We moved everything off the truck and into Barton, where we eventually got our instructions for setting up the speakers. We ran wiring across the floor to the outlets along the edge of the room. Then, as we were taping the wires down, I made my discovery: gaff tape does not stick to whatever it is indoor tracks are made of.

Correction: it sticks about as well as cheap dollar store sticky notes stick to anything. Further correction: it sticks if you very forcibly press it down and maybe walk up and down it for awhile, but even then it needs a much higher ratio of tape on floor to tape on wire than most surfaces.

After my shift, which ended before people were waking up, I took the rest of the day off. It will probably be my last day off until fall break.

The No-Longer-Hypothetical List of Exciting Things that Have Happened to me at Cornell, Spring 2013 edition

The last time I wrote this list, it was about a semester that happened mostly before I started blogging. This semester, I've already written about most of the exciting things that have happened, so going forward, these lists will probably highlight some of my favorite/most thrilling posts from the semester.

1. Field trip – If anyone ever tells you they’d like to go on a day trip with you from Ithaca to Maryland, laugh hysterically (the 6-hour drive one way is stretching the definition of “day trip”), then accept and make them drive. Proceed to sleep for the first four hours of the trip that take place before the sun rises, and enjoy the approximately three hours you’ll have in Maryland. My first away trip with the pep band, scheduling resulted in it being – guess – a day trip to Maryland. It was, however, for the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament, and we did have a great time.

2. Rock climbing – I don’t think I can narrow this down to one particular moment, but I will say that the time we went to the bouldering wall at Noyes was the most exhausted the class ever was.

Notice that the entire wall is overhung.

3. HEC weekend – Initiation by fire at its finest. For my second event working for Cornell Productions, I worked over fourteen hours in three days and learned the basics of wiring and lighting large spaces for fancy events. Note: involves vast amounts of extension cords and gaff tape. Plus, we were fed ridiculously well.

4. AAIV dessert night – Something I haven’t written about yet. Basically, instead of trying to put together an entire meal (face it; I could probably burn water), everyone brings a dessert to share. So rather than scraping charcoal out of a pot, a friend and I made cookies to contribute to the month’s worth of sugar already being consumed. Since the theme was Color Explosion (I’m not going to go into what the original name of the event was. . . . If you're curious, it had to do with the spelling of "explosion."), Red 40, Yellow 5, and Blue 1 also featured prominently. Naturally, I dressed for the theme by wearing all black. And neon yellow socks. Other than the food and the clothing, it was a fun night of testimonies, musical performances, and a skit of the story of Joseph by the juniors.

5. And finally, the strangely popular inside look into my life – the minifridge edition.

Overall, another good semester, but it seems that this one didn't have as many single exciting events as fall semester. Maybe something to do with the fact that Cornell was frozen into a giant ice cube for three months of “spring” semester. It was more about recurring activities like pep band, climbing, and work, and if I wasn't studying in advance for exams doing homework due the next day in a few hours, I was probably at the band room/Schoellkopf field, the climbing wall, or backstage at Bailey Hall.

Next semester, I get started on physical chemistry, which I’ll be taking at the same time as Mass and Energy Balances and linear algebra. I can barely contain the excitement. No, really.

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 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.”

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.

HEC weekend, Finishing Touches (Saturday)

Last day at HEC. Ignoring the two prelims I had to study for, I proceeded to spend the entirety of my Saturday in Statler working. The first event of the day was lunch. Since lunch was going to be served in a room with giant floor to ceiling windows along one side, there was a possibility that they could pull it off using all natural light. There was also a possibility that they’d want light in every dark corner. Guess which option the designer chose?

So after finding a cart (we played musical carts throughout the weekend), we dragged wires, power strips, lights, tape, and ourselves back to the event location.  I was actually put in charge of lighting an entire wall . . . I know, the responsibility is astounding.  It took me a full hour and a half.  A few hours later, it took approximately twenty minutes to undo.

When I returned to headquarters (after picking up free lunch), I thought I had most of the afternoon to catch up on homework.  Instead, a couple hours later, one of the managers comes back into the room yelling something about the event starting an hour earlier than we thought.  All hands on deck.  I was sent upstairs with a roll of gaff and told to secure all wires in sight.  So nothing new for me, really.

After frantically taping for about forty-five minutes, things calmed down slightly and I was sent back to headquarters.  I didn't feel like going back to my homework, so I got an early dinner instead.  Hey, it’s not every day you can get free food from Statler.  There were four kinds of cheesecake.  (I had the blueberry cheesecake, and it was fantastic.)

For my last shift of the weekend, I helped put more lights on bases, carted the lights around, took down lights from the afternoon event, and then worked to transform Statler’s new student lounge-area place into a nightclub.  We put more lights under tables, I did the bar lighting all by myself, and then it was fifteen minutes before the event and we were still trying to figure out how to light up the desserts.  My lack of expertise made me a prime candidate for hauling stray equipment back to headquarters transporting the unused lighting to a less obstructive location.

As per usual, the arrival of important guests meant our departure, so we returned to headquarters with all our equipment and began the task of sorting through it to make it easier to transport everything back to the office when the cocktail ended.  I coiled a few wires, took some lights off bases, then signed out, having survived the 88^th annual Hotel Ezra Cornell weekend.

It was chaotic at times, but an organized chaos. People weren't just running in circles; they were running in circles with a destination and a goal in mind. It was definitely a learning experience, but one worth having . (Kind of like the time I had to fake “Give my Regards to Davy” at the men’s lacrosse alumni dinner with the pep band because I’d never even heard the song before.)  And yeah, it was fun. Plus, free food.

HEC weekend, Lighting 101 (Friday)

On the second day of HEC, my manager gave to me, two set up shifts and a free dinner at employee dining.  The way my schedule worked out this semester, I have no afternoon classes except for rock climbing on Mondays.  I was, therefore, completely free to work an afternoon shift at HEC on Friday.  I arrived at Cornell Productions (CP) headquarters to set up the pre-dinner cocktail (as opposed to the post-dinner cocktail, which I also set up for).

For the pre-dinner cocktail, I mainly hauled around some lights and gaffed the wires, but I did also learn how to set up bar lighting.  It’s not horribly difficult . . . which is probably a good thing, because I was asked to light the bar by myself on Saturday night.  For smaller bar setups, you take two of our smallest lights and clamp them to the back corners of the table.  Point each light diagonally across the table, and that’s about it.  After that, depending on the room, you may or may not have to run ridiculous lengths of extension cords halfway across the room to power your lights.  Once you’re made sure there aren't any blatant tripping hazards, cover the orange.

After we packed up and disappeared, we took our dinner break at employee dining.  Regular dining hall food at Cornell is already pretty good, but Statler-made food takes it up another level.  They had some version of shepherd’s pie sans reconstituted mashed potatoes and questionable meat products often found in school cafeteria lunches, beef (not sure what the dish was called), coleslaw, and desserts.

It’s kind of my joke that I eat meals so I can have dessert, and not only was this meal fancier than just about anything I’d eaten in the past, oh, year or so , but it also ended with chocolate peanut butter pie.  (Keep in mind I've been eating in dining halls and at home, where meals consist of a) whatever you can find in the fridge, or b) white rice, stir fried vegetables, and a rotation of approximately 5 and a half meat dishes.  For the record, I still like eating at home and in the dining halls.)  As much as I like peanut butter, peanut butter and chocolate together in a dessert is getting to my idea of the ideal dessert.  So I was pretty happy when I returned to CP headquarters to do homework.

My second shift of the day was setting up the post-dinner cocktail.  After running back and forth between the event location and headquarters 3 or 4 times to pick up forgotten equipment, I was set to making sure half a dozen tables scattered around the room had power.  For this event, the designer wanted a dance club atmosphere with lights under the tables.  The tables all had a covering that reached the floor, so when the lights were placed underneath them, it created a softened, glowing table effect.

Naturally, the next step after getting all the wires and lights set up was gaffing everything. At this point, not only were we running out of tape, but we were a little short on wires. As in, we ended up shoving several dozen feet of a coil of wire underneath a table because we didn't have a shorter extension cord. Besides the fact that you could see the coil glowing orange when the light was on and we had to gaff the entire thing with white tape, it worked. I also managed to secure the better part of one wire before I realized that the plugs connecting the extension cord to the light would be right in the middle of the floor. I finished it up anyway . . . and had to redo it ten minutes later. We ran a final check of the room, making sure all the lights were on and there were no loose wires, and performed our usual disappearing act. Before we left, however, we did get to see the final products of our labor, and I have to say, it looked pretty cool. No pictures though, because it takes two hands to tear gaff tape.

HEC weekend, Reporting for Duty (Thursday)

Thursday afternoon when I arrived for my first shift, we weren't in our room yet (it was a classroom, so maybe there was still a class there?) so I was supposed to report to a third floor balcony.  How exactly does one ask for directions to a balcony?  No clue.  The last time I had to get somewhere in Statler Hall, I got hopelessly lost, so I showed up early.  Once I found a door that was open, however, I found myself exactly two floors below where I was supposed to report.  Balcony, found.

After changing into the official uniform . . . a Cornell Productions t-shirt and signing in, I was put to work putting lights on bases.  I got one demonstration and then was left to my own devices.  For the opening cocktail, the HEC designers were going for a Hall of Mirrors (Palace of Versailles) look and wanted us to light up some of the pillars in the room and the bar.  A group of us was in charge of wiring the lights for the pillars and gaffing (taping) them all down, which is where I first heard the phrase “I don’t want to see any orange.”  Words to live by.

As we were finishing up with the pillar lights, we were suddenly all sent to gaff anything else as fast as possible.  When we were sent back upstairs, it turned out that the manager had thought it was 5:30, when the event started.  It was 4:30.  Which did explain why no one else was panicking.  I finished up my shift by hauling any unused lights, bases, wires, tools, and other equipment down two stories.  This involved Cart Driving 101 and Intro to Elevator Loading.

It turned out that the room they assigned to us was a tiered classroom, which did have enough space for all the equipment, but when we rolled the cart in, you couldn't go out the door.  Fortunately, the room had three doors.  I signed out, went to get dinner, and returned to headquarters to do a little homework before my next shift.  Cornell Productions was in charge of setting up and taking down lights for events, but during the actual events, we weren’t allowed to make any appearances, which left gaps in my work schedule all weekend.

Somehow, the event only ended about half an hour late (later in the weekend, one of the cocktails ended at something like 2 in the morning instead of 12).  Everything that had taken us an hour and a half to set up took less than half an hour to take down.  That would be a recurring theme.

I had an eight o’clock class the next morning, so after we put everything back in the room, I headed back to my dorm.  Good start to my first HEC weekend.

HEC weekend, overview

I mentioned that I have no regrets about spending fourteen hours running up and down stairs, hauling ridiculous amounts of lights and wires around while running up and down stairs, taping dozens of meters of wires, and occasionally getting yelled at*.  In other words, working HEC weekend.  That’s because this is college, my opportunity to make dumb decisions experience new things.  Plus we got free food, and the desserts were so worth it.

For those of you who don’t know, HEC stands for Hotel Ezra Cornell, and it’s the hotel school’s event of the year where important people come to cocktails and dinners that have been designed by the school to show off what the hotel students have learned.  The presence of these important people mean that HEC is a high profile event, which means that the whole thing is high stress for anyone in charge of anything more important than making sure no orange wires are showing.  (Guess what I was doing all weekend.)

If you guessed covering a lot of orange wire, you’re right.  As HEC weekend was exactly my second time working and first time setting lights up, I spent a lot of time with the gaff tape and comparatively little time with the actual lights.  Somehow, most of my extracurricular activities seem to believe very strongly in learning on the job.  For example:

Pep band: We haven’t actually rehearsed this song this semester, but let’s play it anyway.  Sight read it and if there are any horn moves, follow an upperclassman.

Rock climbing.  First class, after signing the waiver(s): This is the wall.  The yellow line is the bouldering line.  Go climb anywhere, as long as you don’t cross the line.

Cornell Productions: Here’s a light.  Here are the bases and some extension cords.  Set up the lights.  That’s honestly pretty much what happened when I showed up for my first shift during HEC weekend.

It’s been a lot of improvising, and a lot of learning.  Besides finally sort of figuring out the layout of the Statler (it’s one of those buildings where you can only get to certain rooms using specific staircases . . . kind of like my dorm), I also learned the following: how to mount lights when you run out of washers, ways to minimize gaff use when you only have one mostly used roll left, and what happens when you have to mount a gel without a gel frame.  If you couldn't tell, HEC weekend required a lot of equipment.

Next time: down time at HEC (hint: food and homework), and after that, what I was actually paid to do, including, but not limited to, taping orange wires.

*Not of the “You’re terrible and you’re doing everything wrong” variety. More like the “We have ten minutes before the event starts; gaff everything right now” variety.

Just Keep Coiling, Just Keep Coiling

When I got back to Cornell for spring semester I figured that since I wouldn't be writing fifteen page lab reports or analyzing phase diagrams for hours on end I should get a job.  With my extensive work experiences (i.e. none) I set out to find a job that I would enjoy but that would still employ me.  To make a not-very-long story shorter, I was hired by Cornell Productions.  After going through all the paperwork, I finally worked my first shift last Friday.

I was given the prestigious position of stagehand.  For the first part of the night, I sat backstage and listened to jazz for two hours.  In middle school, I joined the jazz band, but the market for jazz clarinet is about the size as the market for electric pickle lights.  Which is to say, just about zero.  Since then, I have played very little jazz and don’t listen to it much either.  That said, the concert was pretty good.

It’s a different experience, hearing a concert from backstage.  It’s both louder because of how close you are and harder to hear because everything’s set up to project sound out toward the audience.  But I wasn’t getting paid to sit around and listen to jazz; my actual job was to be ready if the Bailey Hall staff needed anything in the case of any sort of disaster.  Fortunately, they didn’t, and after the show was when my real work began.

Once the audience left, the other stagehand and I, plus the sound technicians, got to work.  For whatever reason, the jazz band that had just performed needed something like twenty microphones for their ten member group.  For every single one, we had to take the microphone off the stand, untangle the stand from the sea of wires covering the stage, and then collapse the stand.  After that, we got to coil the sea of wire spaghetti.  Because, you know, mikes don’t work if they’re not plugged in.  (Yes, I am aware that wireless mikes exist . . . didn’t use any of those on Friday.)

And these weren’t wires like wires for your laptop charger or to plug in your kitchen blender.  These were giant fat wires (because a larger cross section means a lower resistivity and a lower chance of a stage covering in burning wires), and some of them stretched out across the entire stage.  Let’s just say that coil wrangling should be a new Olympic sport or something like that.

Once the stage was cleared off, we stored everything where it was supposed to go, and that ended my first work experience at Cornell (or anywhere, really).  I have to say that I really liked working backstage, and I actually don’t mind coiling, no matter what it sounds like earlier in my post.  So, yeah, I like my job.