Purchasemymind's Blog

My first Squidoo article

purchasemymind3 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:52:17 +0000

Here is an outline of the topics I will cover in my Squidoo article. Given that in a squidoo article, you are to talk as an “expert” in a certain field, I thought, “well what do I know better then the pressures of a college student!” Please check it out and give me feedback. Thanks!

Outline:

1- Making choices

-Introduction

2- Academics

-Getting good grades

-Completing your assignments

-Choosing classes

3- Social Life

-Making new friends

-Managing social norms

4- Laundry

5- Eating Properly and exercising

6- Creating your “self image”

7- Time Management

8- Extracurricular activities

9- Competition

-Competition within my community versus

-Competition outside of my community

-Who wants it more than I do?

10- Future goals: What now?

-What am I going to do after graduation?

-How am I going to find the right job for me?

-How can I be successful?

Link: www.squidoo.com/collegestudent

Summer Internship

purchasemymind3 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:45:05 +0000

A little less then a month ago, I had an interview at Tommy Boy Records for a summer internship. It took me awhile to be able to reach them and for them to acknowledge my seriousness but finally, I met with Tom Silverman who happens to be my very good friends’ father. I was super nervous for the interview because I never worked for such a big, accomplished business. For a week pior to the interview, I must have reviewed my speech a million times. I made a list of all of the things I learned in my Viral Marketing class and tried to apply them for the Marketing position at Tommy. The interview went very well. He even took notes while I was talking, which showed he was interested in what I had to say. Because he was my friends’ father, there was even more pressure. I wanted to make sure he knew he wasn’t doing me a favor, and that I would actually earn the position. After about 40 minutes into the interview, I knew I nailed the job. A few days later, I sent Tom a Thank You note. In the Thank You note, I included my availibilty once more. After not hearing back for about a week, I decided to call. The secretary kept telling me that Tom was busy and of course I understood. After all, he’s got a million dollar record label to run! It was after the fifth call to the secretary when I started to get a bit frustrated and upset. Given that he was my friend’s father and telling the secretary my situation of needing to register the internship as soon as possible, I felt it reached a point where I just had to know an answer. After three weeks, the secretary calls me back to tell me that my hours and availability may not be “the best fit” for a desirable intern at Tommy. Dissapointed at this point would have been an understatement. I was PISSED OFF.

What a lot of college students fail to realize is that it’s really hard getting a job without experience. College is not just about going to classes and getting good grades. While in college, you have to take advantage of the resources provided for you to ensure opportunities after graduation. I was able to get Purchase jobs and internships pretty easily but I failed to realize that I am not just competing within my community. When put in the “real world” outside of my small campus, I am competing against such various demographics of people with a lot more experiences.

After feeling very disappointed, I went to my advisor, Joe Ferry to for advice. After talking to Professor Ferry for awhile, he referred me to a company where his good friend works, Human World Wide. They do sign design and music for commercials and films. I e-mailed the executive director and to my surprise she got back to me the very next day. Within that week, I had an interview. During the interview with the business manager, I felt it was too good to be true. Everyone there seemed very relaxed and YOUNG. Most of them had just graduated from college. They seemed very flexible with my schedule and even proposed a stipend. I will be starting there in two weeks! (www.humanworldwide.com)

The point of this entire story is this. I know it sounds cliche when people tell you that everything happens for a reason. When one door closes, another opens and I truely witnessed this first hand. I know that it’s just an internship but this was my first glimpse of the “real world”. Because I didn’t give up, and because I kept seeking other opportunities when I was very dissapointed at myself, I am now interning at a place I feel I fit perfectly into. I even see possible job opportunities here in my future.

I am so greatful to have the support of the faculty at my school and to have people who believes in me. I think that part of being in College has a lot to do with networking and making those connections that will further your success. It’s always good to interact with other students and faculty about career opportunities because you never know who may have something for you.

INSOMNIA

purchasemymind3 — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:24:43 +0000

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been having an awfully hard time trying to fall asleep. I end up tossing and turning all night with my mind racing of a thousand different subjects per minute. Because my roommate is fast asleep, the only thing I can do is sit in the dark, on my laptop, which results in researching unnecessary information all night. My friend told me to take Melatonin, which are vegetable sleeping pills but I’m not too sure of taking pills to suppress my sleeping habits is the best idea. I wouldn’t want the dependency of needing to take them every night.

I finally decided to do some research. I actually found out that being behind my laptop before falling asleep is NOT a good idea. One good tip I recently started doing is going to perform a light activity before bed. For example, if my laundry needed to be folded or if I wanted to clear up my desk. Reading, Internet surfing, smoking cigarettes, or watching television are NOT good activities prior to sleep. They train your brain to think that instead of sleeping, this is what your doing, and this is how it keeps you up.

Another thing I find myself constantly struggling with is the urgency to eat right before I eat. When I’m hungry, that seems to be the only thing on my mind. Therefore, I end up tossing and turning thinking about how hungry I am and all the foods I’d like to eat. From my recent discoveries, I found out that it is NOT a good idea to eat too much right before going to bed. It is best recommended to eat a light snack.

I also associate my recent development of Insomnia with the amount of Stress I’ve been dealing with. I’ve never had a sleeping problem to this extent in my 21 years of living.

My first Ezine Article

purchasemymind3 — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:30:51 +0000

Please check out my first Ezine Article.

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_Jun

Ice Hotels!?

purchasemymind3 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:37:47 +0000

While doing intensive research for my art history paper, I was distracted by an interactive logo which appeared on the bottom of my screen. A mix of my newly developed (not yet diagnosed) ADHD with “over-tiredrum” of looking at impressionist art for the third hour, I was drifted into a world of Ice Hotels. Surprisingly enough, Ice Hotels actually do exist (of course only in the winter time because by summer the hotel melts) and has become one of the trendiest things to do during winter vacation!

”The first ice hotel was built in 1989 a village called Jukkasjärvi in northern Lapland, Sweden. That first year it was a modest, 60-square-meter igloo; this year, the structure measures over 4,000 square meters and has 85 rooms…

The beds are made of blocks of ice covered with a foam mattresses. You sleep in high-tech mummy-style sleeping bags covered with animal pelts; although the air temperature in the room is below freezing, your body remains toasty warm.” (Joe Kissell)

For leisure time activities, they have an onsite ice bar which serves liquor. (Not beer, because beer would freeze) The glasses and plates are follow suit and are made from ice as well.

Since the first ice hotel in 1989, there has been many like them such as Kangerlussuaq, Greenland; Quebec, and even in Alaska as of 2004 has its very own ice hotel! In fact, the one in Alaska is open all year round!

This new trend fascinates me. The idea of sleeping in a igloo on a block of ice isn’t necessarily my ideal vacation. I usually vision myself on a beach with the sun beaming in my face. I would love, just for the experience however and sake of conversation to visit one of these ice hotels.

If anyone has visited one or knows of someone who has visited one, please comment on your experience!

More Sneak Peaks… Check it out!

purchasemymind3 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:09:56 +0000

Teen Omgea Institute

purchasemymind3 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:00:58 +0000

I just wanted to share my excitement for working at Omega Institute this summer. My mother has preached great reactions to the Omega retreats and after looking @ their website, I was extremely pleased with their teen camp program. Unlike other regular camps, Omega Teen Camp offers a spritual, mental, and physical component. Every morning, campers will be encouraged to practice yoga and meditation. Located in Rhineback, New York surrounded by lakes and forests, finding peace with the inner spirit would seem practically natural. Unlike other camps where they servce sloppy joes and macaroni & cheese, Omega offers vegeterian, organic food prepared right before time to eat. Another great aspect of this camp is that the counselors build up the entire summer program. A week before the campers arrive, a staff of 40 counselors individually plan activities based on their own skills/interests. As a counselor, I want to ensure that the campers get the “full package” and exceed their expectations of what camp should be. This is only a one month program, and as a former camper for 8 years, I feel that camp is the best place to grow up and have exciting experiences. I’ve been a camp counselor at a day camp last summer, but I can’t wait to increase my experience with children especially in such a wonderful environment with a healthy schedule.

Undoing Racism Workshop

purchasemymind3 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:05:44 +0000

Over Spring break, I attended an Undoing Racism Workshop sponsored by The People’s Institute of Survival and Beyond along with two of my student diversity committee members. The workshop consisted of about 25-30 people; doctors, psychiatrists, graduate students, law students, social workers, and activists hoping to make a change. I was very eager to see what this workshop had to offer on “Undoing Racism” because I was a firm believer that racism could not be undone. I’ve decided not to talk about everything discussed for the sake of keeping my blogs at a reasonable length but I do want to touch upon a few things, open for debate. First and foremost, it is nearly impossible to “Undo” Racism without fully understanding what racism is. Just because you are in a diverse setting doesn’t mean you were exposed to the measures of diversity. It is fair to say that each individual can have prejudice thoughts and opinions towards other races or even to their own, but what this workshop focused on was the ability to take the opinion of an individual and move it towards a collective mindset in order to see any changes. Secondly, our nation is a race constructed society. Prejudice emerges from the systematic laws that was created when the Constitution was being written. Every institution and system (education, healthcare, social services, etc) was built with intent when white supremecy was the law. Since white supremecy is sanctioned by the state, the concept of white is a political bias in favor to them. It is almost as if the closer you are to being white, the closer you are to being human. In ways, racism is an illusion since it is a natural process as individuals to internalize white superiority. If you don’t speak the white institutional language, it is harder for you to survive because our nation was built from the beginning with this notion. This nation operates on color coding; White-Caucasoid, Red- Australoid, Black- Negroid, Yellow- Mongoloid, and Brown-Australoid. With these ism’s, every other race besides the Caucasoid technically cannot be racist or at least cannot act on their racism for they do not have the insitutional power to support them. Lastly, Undoing racism is a verb, not a noun. Action needs to take place in order to change this constructed society based on written documents who decided that not everyone is equal. The video above is of David, one of the speakers at the workshop. The video will elaborate on what I have discussed above, and give you a preview of what I was able to experience by attending this workshop.

RACISM DIVIDES US; CULTURE UNITES US.

I recommend everyone to participate in this workshop at one point in their lives. It truely changes your pespective on how you see the world and other people. Even if you think you already know everything about race and prejudices, I advise you to give this workshop a chance, and be vulnerable to the new ideas that will be presented to you about race in the United States.

My First Youtube Videos

purchasemymind3 — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:06:29 +0000

Sneak Peek Performance of upcoming show @ SUNY Purchase

April 17th & 18th

Dance Theatre Lab

5$

PAC Theatre

New Orleans

purchasemymind3 — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:19:23 +0000

Over winter vacation, I went with my school, Purchase on a volunteer trip to New Orleans. Although this trip happened three months ago, I feel the need to share my experience to the world because I have never felt so alive in my 21 years of living. Along with 20 other colleagues, we set off to New Orleans. Upon arriving, we split the group in half where half of us went to Katrina relief and the other half went to Project Lazerus. Project Lazerus was the trip I went on and it was a program designed to counsel and give companionship to those living and suffering from AIDS/HIV. The one week stay with the 15 residents living in the group home, all adults over 30 yrs. old probably was one of my favorite past times. Although I knew all of my colleagues from passing them on campus, none of us really knew each other that well. There was no designed program at Project Lazerus so we worked together to create fun events we all could share. One of the nights was Salsa night where we arranged a buffet of tacos accompanied by Salsa music. When hearing things like “this is the best night in years”, “I love hearing your laughter” “I’ve never had tacos before!” from the residents, I felt this unbelievable euphoric high I’ve never experienced before. We spent all day with the residents, learning from them, exchanging stories, and playing games, dancing, eating, laughing, etc. At night, my colleagues and I ventured off to embrace New Orlean’s culture, eating the best crawfish and jambalaya along with excellent jazz music. I also tried the famous beignets at Cafe Du Monde, which are the most delicious fried dougnut-like treats you will ever eat! Overall, my experience has led me to confront some of the internal fears I’ve been dealing with and being in an environment so different from my own has opened my eyes to be open minded to different cultures. I think New Orleans represents the heart of the South and even with the tragedy that occured, everyone seems to still hold on to hope and possibilities.