How a Perfect, Rare, Cloudless, Somewhat Warm Day at Cornell can be Ruined

WIND.

Behind the Curtains

I'm not an avid watcher of reality TV shows, but The Apprentice is one that I watch almost religiously (Unfortunately, due to schoolwork and such, I missed Season 5). And watching this show (as I'm sure would be the case if I watched any other reality TV show) has inevitably made me wonder what really goes on behind the scenes and how much of it is actually real.

There were a couple shows on VH1 and E! which documented the un-realness of reality TV by interviewing contestants from different shows and having them reveal that, in fact, many things were staged. I think I remember one of the contestants saying that once the cameras didn't catch a fight between the contestants and they were asked later to try and re-enact that scene. I've also learned that reality TV shows are known for their notorious editing to make some contestants look especially villainous.

Armed with these facts, I was dying to find out what goes on behind one of my favorite shows, The Apprentice, this season. Thankfully, my quest to find this information quickly ended when I came across one of the contestant's blogs. Not only does his blog reveal (or will reveal) what goes on, in detail, behind every episode before he was fired (which was fairly late in the season), it also details the extremely secretive and super excruciating audition process. I was in heaven.

In fact, finding his blog served two purposes: first and foremost (and very obvious) finding out for myself what goes on behind-the-scenes on The Apprentice, and two, satisfying my own curiosity about this particular contestant, whose name is Tim Urban. Almost everyday for the past couple of weeks, I found myself browsing his blog daily, looking for Apprentice-related entries. Surprisingly, in the process of doing this, I think I've just about read every one of his entries because they're very interesting, and above all, funny.

Some facts about The Apprentice Season 6 which I thought are interesting:

• The contestants were there on location for a week before filming began. They had a couple of meetings with the producers but they weren't allowed to interact with one another because the producers wanted to capture all the first impressions on camera during the first episode.
• All the promotional images, videos, including the opening credits, were filmed that week.
• When someone gets fired, they don't actually go home right away (which is what you see--them with their suitcases getting into a car). They actually only pack a night worth of things and the car takes them to the hotel they were staying at before filming. And they come back the next day, while everyone is on a task, to get the rest of their stuff.
• The interviews that are interjected in each episode were filmed on the day following the completion of a task.
• Living in the tent, according to Tim, is not that bad. It's all editing.
• The second round in the audition process consists of an interview with the producers which is taped. For the 3rd round, you have to send in a video showing what you do in your life. Fourth round is a background check. The 5th and final round consists of psychological tests, an IQ test, one-on-one interviews, and a debate with the remaining people.

Some thoughts on what Tim said about the contestants so far:

• I can't believe that Martin is actually a decent/nice guy
• Stefani is definitely NOT a "bitchy old hag"
• I can't believe Tim liked Surya
  

A little background on Tim: He graduated from Harvard, moved to LA, started his own tutoring company, and landed a record deal (plays the piano).

A taste of his entries:

• The one about the chocolates
• The one about the poodle
• The one with him and his fish, Doug
• The time he met Larisa Oleynik, the star of The Secret World of Alex Mack

Random Musings

Here are some things I've always wondered about:

-Whenever someone pulls the string on a bus, how does the bus driver remember to stop at the next stop? What if that person pulls it right after a stop and there's still awhile to go before the next stop? I've never been on a bus where the bus driver forgets to stop at a stop. I wonder what happens if he/she does forget to stop. Would he/she yell at whoever pulled it to not pull it so early? (Definitely possible). Would he change his route and go back? (I don't think so) Would he just stop at the next stop acting as if no one pulled it? (Probably)

-What determines who one sits next to on a bus? For example, when you get on a bus full of people you don't know, and there are only seats where you'd have to sit next to someone, how do you choose who you sit next to? Is it random? Or is there a pattern? Do people unconsciously pick a spot so that they're next to someone who's good looking? Do people sit in the first seat they reach? Whenever I see someone come onto a bus, I've always wondered what makes them choose this particular seat as opposed to some other seat. I've always wondered about this and am actually curious enough to want to conduct an experiment.

-When a celebrity rides on an airplane, do they always get first class seats? If so, what if someone who's next to them who is not a celebrity? I bet most of the time, the celebrity probably wouldn't be by himself, he would probably always have someone sit next to him. Either that, or they'd pay enough money to not have anyone in first class or a section of first class. But...what if it does happen...where a celebrity is put next to a normal person. I'd imagine it would be kind of awkward... I mean, if the normal person recognizes the celebrity, would she try to talk to the celebrity? Or would she just not say anything and hold all of her excitement inside because she doesn't want the celebrity to think that she's one of those brainless fanatic fans? Somehow I feel an opportunity like that would be rare, where you'd get stuck sitting next to a celebrity for a couple of hours. I'd imagine it would probably be cool for the non-celebrity to have an opportunity like that...

-The situation in the above paragraph can then be extended to a more general case, where a person sees a celebrity on a street or in a store. What do they do (the non-celeb)? I bet people from different levels of celebrity get different treatments by normal people. For example, I bet people would treat Brad Pitt differently if they saw him, than if they saw, say, a reality TV star. More people would probably venture to talk to the reality TV star than with Brad Pitt. I feel like the higher status a celebrity has, the less approachable they get. I'd imagine that most of the time, people wouldn't really want to bother the celebrity and would probably just let them go about their ways, watching them from a distance, admiring them...or something like that. Though I could be totally wrong...I've never seen an A-list celebrity up close in real life, so I don't know. For example, if I saw Gwen Stefani in a grocery store picking out apples, I really don't know what I'd do. I don't know if I'd go up to her and tell her, for example, that I like one of her songs, or not bother her at all. I don't know if celebrities welcome that kind of thing. I suppose they would if you don't talk to them for too long. I mean, who doesn't appreciate admiration? But I guess if that happened to them all the time (people approaching them and telling them something), they would probably get annoyed. In fact, for those celebrities who show up in tabloids all the time, I wonder why they even go out at all. I'm sure they can just hire someone to do their shopping for them so they can avoid all the paparazzi...

Telephone

Today, as the part of a group's ethics presentation for a class, we played the game that every pre-schooler knows--Telephone--where everyone sits in a line and someone starts by whispering something into the ear of the person next to him/her. This continues until the last person is reached, who then tells everyone what was whispered to him/her.

So the phrase was something like this (I can't remember it exactly)*:

"Billy Jean beat her brother Ron in chess sixteen times."


And somehow...by the end, it became:

"John beat his father fifteen or sixteen times."


Needless to say, hilarity ensued and it was awhile before the class gained back its composure.

This class actually ended up to be pretty interesting and educational, despite my initial thoughts. And through the semester-long project, I got to meet some nice people.

*I don't know why but I seem to really draw a blank when it came to remembering this. It literally drove me crazy!!! I actually went on facebook and looked up people from the class hoping that I can IM someone about it, but to no avail. Finally, I gave up and just IMed someone in my group (who was not in the group who proposed the game), but he seemed to help me remember quite a bit of it.

Rain Rain Go Away

Nothing is worse than having to walk outside without an umbrella when it rains, at least, when the temperature is not that warm yet. That was me today. Because of my sleeping habits, I stumbled out of bed this morning, realizing I was late for a class and thus did not think to bring an umbrella. And of course, it was pouring outside as I was getting out of my first class. What's worse? This wet madness continued on for the rest of the day, rendering me completely helpless in trying to prevent myself from getting wet. The last thing I want to feel is wet and cold at the same time. But guess how I felt for the majority of the day?

WET AND COLD!

First, I tried to salvage what's left of my straightened hair by putting my hand over it and trying to cover as much of it as I could (unfortunately, I didn't wear any hats or shirts with hoods on them). I gave up as soon as I realized my hand was pretty much drenched in water and that it probably wasn't helping much.

And since I did not know it was going to rain today, I wore flats. FLATS! The worst shoes in rainy, wet weather because they go up the shortest, allowing water to flow in and out freely. So no matter how much I tried to avoid stepping in puddles today, my flats were inevitably soaked. And running to catch the bus at one point without looking and stepping into a deep muddy puddle, splattering water onto my jeans and soaking my feet definitely did not help.

No rainy day ever looks that enchanting...

A Slightly Frustrating Dilemma

Being the owner of a Discover card comes with many perks, one of which is the ability to choose from over 150 card designs. This might not matter to most people but to me, it does. Why? Because I'm a person who looooves to customize. I jump at every opportunity I get to make things the way I want. Whoever came up with the idea to make Google homepage customizable is a genius. Well actually, long before Google homepage existed, I made my own html homepage on my local drive (i.e. URL = file:///C:/blahblah.html) with the links I normally visit. It proved to be useful, but I wasn't able to access it if I'm not using my own computer.

Anyway, faced with so many nice card designs, I inevitably became one of indecision. Here are my final 5 (Note: the turtle, dolphin, and the New York City skyline are transparent):

The Quest to be Fit

A couple of months ago, after seeing the results of my blood test...I realized that I needed to get in shape. Yes, I know I'm not fat, but just because I'm not, doesn't mean I'm completely healthy either. In fact, my LDL (bad cholesterol) level was borderline high and my triglycerides level didn't look so good. The reason for this, I'm suspecting, is too many southwest chicken subs at J's combined with lots of other unhealthy foods (chicken fingers, hot truck, midnight takeouts, etc. etc.) which I probably had too much of last semester. Unfortunately, I am a person with little self-control. Once I have a craving for something, I can't think of anything else. And I basically can't function without getting the thing that I want. And every time I want something unhealthy, I somehow always convince myself that it's ok, that I'm only having this on occasion (which just shows how much will power I have).

So, I took action. And, for the first few months back from winter break, I think I did surpringly well. First, I made a plan (it's always nice to plan things out) of how I'm going to get in shape by creating an excel spreadsheet (See below). You might think, after seeing the screenshot, that I'm obsessed with losing weight or something, but it's really just thorough research. :D I've read a lot of articles which tell you how you can calculate how much you take in everyday and how much exercise you need to keep that weight, or lose some weight. However, I've never actually sat down and done it (the calculation). This time, I did it and realized that, basically, even if you just want to lose one pound of fat, you're gonna have to work your butt off. Either that, or pretty much starve yourself. Of course another factor is time--i.e. how long are you going to allot yourself to lose this weight.

After this step (which I'm very proud of for doing), I tried to (obviously) follow it, making sure that I actually do that much exercise and eat that much per day. In terms of exercising, I ordered a DVD workout set from Amazon which works amazingly well because it makes me sweat like crazy every time I do it. And since there are 5 DVDs, I can switch it up so that it doesn't become boring. I also tried to go to the gym a couple of times every week. Finally, I changed what I ate a bit. I started having more salads, lean meats, and no fried foods.

However, after the initial excitement wore off and not seeing noticeable results (ugh losing weight and getting in shape is sooo hardd!), topped with incredibly stressful interviews, projects, and assignments, I pretty much stopped. And once you stop, it's super hard (if not impossible) to get back into the cycle again. And now, I probably weigh more than I did when I started since I barely exercise anymore*. Furthermore, even if I don't eat that much, I don't think I'll be losing any weight (if anything, I'll stay at the same weight) because 1. your body is just way too efficient at storing fat, 2. to lose weight, you have to either eat so little that your overall intake cannot be over your basal metabolic rate (this is the number of calories your body burns to keep you alive, all your organs running, etc. depends on your weight, height and age...see the screenshot for how to calculate your own) plus whatever other activities you do that burn calories (for now, it'd be walking for me and that's about it) or you'll have to exercise, which I pretty much don't do these days.

I guess I'm hoping that writing this entry will motivate me to start exercising again. This is something I really need to do to 1. prove to myself that if I put my mind to something, I will be able to do it, 2. be healthy, and 3. be happy.

*Walking up and down the hills of Cornell doesn't count because, as long as you're not sweating, you're probably not burning that many calories.

Annoyances of the Day

Despite the fact that the weather (a very important factor in determining my happiness) was very nice today , life was not perfect...

Here are some things that happened to me today that were just a little annoying:

• An automatic, motion-sensing toilet started flushing before I even sat down. I don't understand the point of them, are they trying to make it so that you won't have to touch the handle to flush it so that less germs will be spread? But you have to touch the latch on the door...which kind of defeats the purpose.
  
• In my effort to try to stop drinking sugary juice drinks (such as apple juice and orange juice)*, I decided to mix 4 part water with 1 part apple juice...only to realize that it looked a lot like pee, which decreased my inclination to drink it by A LOT
• I spilled the diluted apple juice before I got to a table...
• No one's ever at the Becker service center when I get a package!!! There's always this note there saying "be back soon". Be back soon? How soon? 5 HOURS?
  
• The wind literally almost blew me away. It's nice to have a little breeze on a warm sunny day, but this was a bit too much...(because of the wind, it'll only be 58 degrees tomorrow)

*yes, even orange juice has surprisingly a high amount of sugar in it, as I've recently learned. According to the article, you're better off eating a fresh orange.

Where is Magic Kingdom?

Ideal: Going to California on an internship, having a car, and doing exciting things with people I meet there such as

• shopping in Beverly Hills
• visiting Hollywood
• getting autographs from celebrities before a movie premiere
• seeing all the animals the San Diego Zoo
• going to DisneyLand (You can actually see the park on a relatively high resolution on Google Maps in Satellite view!!!)
  
• visiting the infamous prison, Alcatraz
• taking pictures by the Golden Gate Bridge
• rollerblading on Santa Monica Beach
• basking in the sun on Long Beach
  

Realistic: Going to California on an internship, not having a car, not knowing anyone, and not having the time or the means to do any of the above.


Incidentally, I looked up how long it takes to go from Santa Clara to the following places (by car):

• San Francisco (1 hour)
• Palo Alto (25 minutes)
• San Jose (12 minutes)
• Los Angeles (5 .5 hours)
• San Diego (7.5 hours)
• Anaheim (where DisneyLand is) (6 hours)
• Pasadena (5.5 hours)

Even with a car, I'd have to spend more than one continuous day at some of these places to get a thorough enjoyment, which, I'm not sure I'll have the time or money for...

Muffins

Morning Sickness

I stayed up the whole night finishing the paper due for my pop culture class. I didn't intend to, but it happened. At first I thought what I had was fine, but the more I read it, the more I didn't think it was that good. It just wasn't cohesive. The paper basically was about two almost completely separate things. So, I ended up focusing on one of those things and cut the other thing out completely. I did this by extending the parts that I already had, and taking out the parts that I didn't need. Not surprisingly, this process took me the whole night. I kept on re-reading it because I'm afraid that it'll be full of spelling mistakes because of the state I am when I wrote this... I mean, it seems fine to me, I just hope that that'll be the case for the TA (or whoever reads it) as well.

I better get an A on this...

Anyway, I don't even know why I'm still here, in the lab downstairs. I came down here to print it out (I also paid my very-ugly-and-fat Discover bill because it's due soon and I'm afraid I'll forget to pay it); and just in case I can't wake up for class, I'm going to tell Evan to just hand it in for me.

Right now I feel:

• hungry (very much so)
• tired (dead tired)

Strange thing is...I thought taking a shower would make me feel refreshed...but this time, it barely did. I felt refreshed for, at most, a minute, before I'm all groggy again...

So I think I'll finally head upstairs now and go to sleep...

The Monster That is Cancer

Found this on Digg.com...click "Next" to see the rest of the pictures
I think these pictures are some of the saddest I've seen... It's about a single mother and her son's struggle with neuroblastoma, cancer of the nerve cells.

Here is the full story. There are more pictures in the multimedia section.

I think finding out about this has made me realize that it's easy to take things (such as your health) for granted...but you never know when or if something is going to happen to you. If it does, it might be too late for you to enjoy your life to the fullest because you might only have a limited time to live by then..

It's easy to forget how valuable life is and even easier to get upset at small things, things that are probably of trivial importance to people who have or have had a major sickness. For example, I see people (myself included) complain about not getting a thing that we want, having a bad hair day, complaining about acne, having relationship problems, etc. Now looking at these after reading the story, I feel that we should just be thankful for what we have and never forget that as easily as we are able to go about doing our daily activities, there are people out there who can't.

So next time you're mad or upset about something, take a step back and realize what you already have is way more than some people can ever hope to have.

Blogger is annoying

Currently my blog is displayed in "Classic Mode"--an older layout of Blogger which doesn't allow me to drag the page elements around or add elements easily. However, if I switch to one of the newer layouts that looks a little better, it lets you change your colors/font much easier, and will allow you to add/change the location of page elements easier, I lose the "Previous Posts" section in the right column and there's no way (that I know of) to add it back in, which sucks because I really like the "Previous Posts" section. It shows the titles of your 10 (?) latest posts. This way, if the title of a post is appealing to someone, they can just click on it and it'll show them that specific post. It's way better than going into your archive and browse for a specific post, which, I don't think anyone does.

I went to the help page on Blogger and tried to look something up...and this is what I found. Apparently, this article is made for the Classic Mode...so you can't use it in the newer layouts since the CSS is all different. (Trust me, I've tried.)

*sigh* I wonder when they'll finally fix this, it's driving me crazy!!

Once again, on a completely unrelated note...I just love this ethereal picture of Lily Cole:

Yessssssss!

After a whole weekend and 3 grueling days of waiting, during which I was utterly incapable of doing anything productive, my quest for internships is finally over!!! Because today, the company with whom I had 2 phone interviews late last week, gave me an offer!!!!

What's more? My internship will be in SUNNY CALIFORNIA--the place I've wanted to be ever since I realized I can no longer tolerate the coldness from the east coast (which was LONG time ago) :D

This is the BEST thing that can happen to me right now! After having a bijillion interviews and no offers, I was pretty bummed out. I basically gave up and never wanted to find another job again! It was pretty depressing. I was pretty depressed. I thought I was going to have to stay in Ithaca again and work for the summer, which is NOT ideal (to put it nicely). Then, after getting extremely upset one night over it, I decided to re-vamp my resume and send it out to as many companies as I can on CornellTrak (not interviewTrak since practically all companies coming to campus were done by then).

Interestingly enough, I didn't actually submit a resume. They contacted me. I'm assuming they found my resume since I had just re-uploaded it...

And the rest, well, is history... :-)

Have I thought about what I would do if I didn't get the offer? Yes, I tried to, but couldn't really. It wasn't because I was so sure I was going to get the offer. Rather, just the prospect of working in California is so exciting to me, that I couldn't really think about anything else. I just kept on imagining what would happen if I did get it. For example, I already started looking at Craig's List for apartments/sublets yesterday, before they gave me the offer. I already started to look up how far I'd be from Palo Alto, San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles...etc. I already started thinking about who I could possibly contact while I'm there.

Yea, this was my only thread of hope. If I didn't get this, I don't know what I'd do. I'd probably cry my eyes out and then I'd die.

But thankfully, that wasn't the case. :)

As I noted earlier, I'm TOTALLY incapable of being productive while I'm waiting for a reply from someone. So...needless to say, I procrastinated way more than I should. I know that if my grades for this semester come out poorly, I'll be screwed. And yet, I can't bring myself to care about that when I'm waiting. I just can't. I tried, but failed. For example, I have a 7-page paper due for my pop culture class this Friday, and if it weren't for the fact that I was with Evan and he constantly told me to write, I would not even have started (I have 3 not-so-good-in-my-opinion pages so far).

What exactly do I do when I procrastinate?

• Forever21.com - This became a habit this semester when I realized that Forever21 actually updates their inventory everyday. So I'd always check back every couple of hours to see what new dresses/shirts/skirts they've added. I've gone as far as purchasing a couple of things because 1. I can't resist the urge to buy clothes and 2. ...um..there is no 2. I'll say this though...I am proud of myself for not buying ANY clothes for a month now. (My bill for May looks very good right now :)
• Facebook.com - Yes I know everyone does this. But I feel I'm a lot worse. I probably check this site no less than 10 times daily. I don't stay on the site for long usually(keyword: usually), but I always sign in just to see if anyone updated their profiles/added pictures/etc.
• Google Homepage - I tend to stare at this a lot...looking at all the contents that's on my page (Dilbert, DailyPuppy, Bookmarks, Gmail, Digg (speaking of which, check this out), Quote of the Day, News)
• threadless.com - cool t-shirts
  
• nordstrom.com/macys.com/oldnavy.com/gap.com/alloy.com/delias.com - I tend to visit some to all of these sites when the procrastination gets really bad. I only do this when I can't make myself do ANY work at all. :(

People I'd like to thank for helping me through this trying process:

• Evan - Thanks for believing in me, for putting up with me when I got upset about this and supporting me all the way, for practicing interview questions with me, and many other things.
• Alex - Thanks for telling me to never give up when I felt like I've hit rock bottom, for listening to me, for encouraging me, for giving me all those resume writing and interviewing tips.
• Joel - Thanks for giving me the book about job searching, for trying to find internships for me.
• Mom - Thanks for supporting me, for being there for me, for letting me know that it's ok if I don't find an internship this summer.

:)

Rain/Snow/Showers/Wind

That, according to weather.com, is the weather for today. Let me repeat it again..."RAIN, SNOW, SHOWERS, WIND"! I can't believe this! It's mid-April and Ithaca is still getting snow? Grr...I remember when I came to Cornell the April before my Freshmen year started, they told us something along the lines of "Yea, it's cold here, but don't worry, when Cornell is the coldest, you'll be home on winter break. And when you come back, it'll be spring in no time!" Um, no. If anything, Cornell is the coldest from January all the way through March (this year is the worst it's ever been for me). And if you think you can leave your winter jacket at home when you come back from spring break, think again, BECAUSE IT JUST MIGHT START SNOWING....IN APRIL!

On a completely unrelated note, here's my fashion pick of the day:
For some reason, I really like that dress Nicole Richie is wearing...

Things Related to Fashion That Annoy Me

Whenever I'm walking and there are people around me, I tend to look at what they're wearing. And the following are some things I found ESPECIALLY annoying:

1. When someone tucks their jeans into their Ugg boots (or Ugg-esq boots) and do so in a sloppy way so that their jeans are not all the way in and a bit scrunched up. (Why would ANYONE do that? It just looks so bad.)

2. When someone wears a denim mini skirt and the skirt is turned a little so the pockets in the back are not at the right position (off centered...). Whenever I see this, I have an undying urge to want to go up to that person and fix it for them.

I'm sure there are more things that belong on this list, but I can't think of any at the moment. Besides, these two tend to bother me to death.