brilliant!

i got a beautiful call from a few beautiful a-teamers from wsc 06-07 tonight that made me remember how incredible these people are and how lucky i am to have had the experience i did one year ago.

so here is my tribute to wsc a-team 06-07...



and of course we can't forget tibby...



you guys have no idea how much you enrich my life. no idea.

designsbysyd online shop :)

finally a functional online forum for me to sell my earrings :) enjoy.


ps: i sold my first item within 8 hours of listing it. hence i listed 5 more :)

oh and one more thing...

i just pulled off the highest gpa of my college career.


the expression "when it rains it pours" works both ways.


booyah.

good news!

1. i got a winter internship at JustMeans! i just got off the phone after a kick-ass interview and it seems like this start-up is an INCREDIBLE opportunity for me! i'm excited to see what may come...

2. do you all know who the next mcvp projects is for aiesec colombia? well i do...



...its ruthie garelick. fuck yes.

nomadlife an agent for change?

a while ago thomas friedman wrote an op-ed bitching about how america's youth is too idealist but extremely apathetic because we don't organize loud and obnoxious protests to try and effect change.

then my hilariously sarcastic high school friend rachel put aside her wit guns and wrote in the michigan daily about how we may be idealist but we are definitely NOT apathetic...we just understand that making ill-warranted noise just doesnt cut it:

"We may not gather together to yell and picket, but we do gather together to inform ourselves and make a difference in our communities."

[to read some of rachel's hilarious wit, go here]

i agree with rachel: we're doing things differently now-a-days because bitching and moaning just doesnt work. remember when you would annoy the shit out of your parents and complain that something "wasnt fair" or "so uncool"...did that work when you wanted to stay out with your friends past curfew? no. so why would it work when it comes to effecting change.

i also agree with rachel in that we are realizing one of the most effective ways to effect change is to focus locally and within our sphere of influence. a great example of this is ithaca's issuing of its own currency, called ithaca hours. each hour is worth the equivalent of $10. the purpose of the hour is for ithaca to "gain control of the social and environmental effects of commerce," by supporting local products and services:

"Tens of thousands of purchases and many new friendships have been made with this cash, and millions of dollars value of local trading has been added to the Grassroots National Product." [www.ithacahours.com]

why am i bringing this up now? because today i think i finally connected the dots between all of this and nomadlife:

"Within our small sphere of influence, no one can stop us from spreading peace." [sr. williams]

nomadlife is a form of activism. we are out to educate others on whats important to us and in the process educate OURSELVES as to whats important to us. we are expanding our sphere of influence whether we know it or not. i dont know these people personally, but everytime they update their blogs i stop studying or project-ing or job searching to read what they have to say.

i found out about blackle this summer thru nomadlife and it is now my startup screen. i have sent mass emails to friends and family with articles i have found through nomadlife. i have sent cornell professors and program coordinators information about international educational programs, the information for which i found through nomadlife-ers.

bottom line: nomadlife-ers are effecting change one anonymous reader at a time.

the cu

my friend buehler (pronounced like ferris :)) made this for one of his classes, and i must say its kind of awesome.

enjoy :)

congrats david!

my brother just got into his first choice college. four years ago on monday will be the anniversary of me getting into my first choice college. it must be something bout those malawer kids.


word of advice my dearest brother: get a warm coat and those boots mom is bound to make you get. youll need them.

right on target...

i am a dea major concentrating in ergonomics. for those of you who either a. dont know what the fuck ergonomics is or b. think that its just designing more comfortable chairs, here is how i explain it:
ergonomics is the social science of how people interact with their environment both physically and cognitively.

the way ergonomics is approached at cornell is as a combination of behavioral psychology and design with an overall mission of better user experience within the internal environment. its option III in the department of design and environmental analysis (short: dea...us cornellians love them damn acronyms) in the college of human ecology. most cornellians dont even know it exists...and come may i will be one of 7 others graduating with a concentration in ergonomics, and one of maybe 30 with a bs in dea.

in almost all my classes the first thing we learn is that in order to come up with proper design solutions we first need to identify the problems we are trying to address with these solutions. in the words of the learned professor maxwell, "the first step in the design process is problem seeking." (oh what a wise woman that lorraine is)

today i was searching for interesting articles to kill time at work and i stumbled upon this.
essentially the reason for apple's success is because they ask themselves "whats the problem?" when designing and developing their products. so pretty much what i learn in my classes is the secret to apple's design success.

bottom line? dea majors are baller.

:)

i have this weird habit of saying i want to eat things that i think are cute...i guess i just dont know how else to express just how cute i think things are...

i just want to eat them.

the post-nap universe

when you wake up from a nap you feel one of a few ways. you either feel refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the day, groggy and like you want to punch someone in the gut, or floaty and dizzy as if you never really woke up from the nap but instead are floating through space.

then theres the post-nap feeling that just confuses the shit out of you. the one where during the nap it just felt so real but in this "reality" everything is just topsyturvy. and then after being awake you cant help but feel that this "reality" is in fact reality when you conciously know its not.

i have just arisen from one of these such naps, in which i was pantsless (sans undies as well) in the bed of someone who im not very good friends with, and some random people from every genre of my life (high school, college, aiesec, my adventures in south america, etc) decided to convene together in this room where i was pantsless. also in this reality i dont speak english, nor spanish for that matter, but some language that really doesnt exist and is just a series of noises strung together (one can argue that all language is a series of noises strung together, but thats for a different post). also i feel like this reality lasted at least 5 hours, but in fact my nap itself only lasted 40 minutes.

i guess im making this post because i would like some affirmation that i am in fact NOT losing my mind but experiencing something that, though rare, is completely normal.