Its be a little over a week since I posted... but again, I'm still not done catching up with everything.

I've been super busy! New news would be that my hard-drive also crashed so posting some pictures has now been much harder since well, I don't have them anymore. I don't currently have the pictures I was going to post but I will again post them soon and update "Appologies Part I."

Still in October

October 11th-12th was our Annual Relay for Life. For those who don't know... Relay for Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature activity. It offers everyone in a community an opportunity to participate in the fight against cancer. Teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Relays are an overnight event, up to 24 hours in length. 

At Carnegie Mellon, we hold this event at Gesling Stadium (our football field) and we have different groups performing in the middle of the field to keep people pumped for the night as well as various activities people are asked to participate in. Lots of groups also come together and do lots of fundraising, anything from selling baked goods to selling raffle tickets for various prizes. It's quite an event...

(I was going to embed a video but it seems like I can't really do that... soo go to the Relay for Life link if you're interested...)

October 17th was our mid-semester break this year... Many people used this time to sleep... others to catch up on schoolwork or even just to have some free time to hangout... So what did I do?

After a week of three exams, I had continued my streak of not sleeping to work on something called High School Day. High School Day is an event hosted by Society of Women Engineers that allows high school girls to come onto campus and learn about engineering. We invite schools from a 100 mile radius and we had quite a big turnout (over 300 girls... and some boys... we don't exclude them...) Anyway, I must say it was quite an experience... stressful but it was amazing to see high school students change their preconceived notions of what engineering is through the different engineering workshops.

I know for one thing, I was too sure what engineering was when applying to college... In fact, I thought I had wanted to do business. I applied for all undergrad business programs... but when given the choice at Carnegie Mellon... I thought it was a very good opportunity to learn and I went on a limb and tried it. I love it! I love solving problems and how it really helps me think logically or see problems analytically. So there, there's a shameless plug for engineering. I guess in the end it really doesn't matter what you pursue as long as you love it... Otherwise, it may just be a living hell for you. 

The college experience at Carnegie Mellon is well packed with work. You learn to balance your time and really prioritize the things you want to do. Most people like me can be somewhat lazy sometimes and don't want to do work but you get what you put in. So make the most of every opportunity!

Okay enough of my spiel... I haven't gotten enough sleep in the past two weeks... and well I just had a presentation this morning and exams: one tomorrow and one Wednesday... So you'll hear more from me after that.

Again, if there are any questions... comments... praises from fans (just kidding) just drop me a comment and it will be read =) .

Til next time, 

Regina

So the last posting I have was over a month ago. Sorry to my readers first and foremost... but I have a lot to write about. In my craziness of things, I have done quite a bit in this month away from the blog. In fact, I am currently not in Pittsburgh. I am away for a Society of Women Engineers National Conference in Baltimore... (most expenses paid for... ) SEE PICTURES BELOW =) (More pictures to come...) Anyway, I have lots of work to do but I will hopefully get a chance to tell you all about my many adventures and oh so exciting life. So let's start of chronologically...

September

About a month ago... on Sept 25-26th exactly, Carnegie Mellon students were allowed to sign a beam that was going to be placed in the Gates and Hillman Centers (Basically the new Computer Science buildings currently being built... one of them named after THE Bill Gates of course after contributing loads of money to our school.) Then on Sept 29, there was a Topping-Off Ceremony which is basically a construction-industry tradition marking the moment when the crew puts in place the highest structural point in a building. In addition to signing the beam, it is also customary to put an evergreen tree on one of them as a good luck charm for the workers and future occupants of the building.

(Yeah I didn't know that one either...)


October

WICKED is wicked good! (Heh...lame attempt at a joke? maybe... but still Wicked was AMAZINGGGGG) So Wicked was in town in Pittsburgh from Sept 3rd to October 5th. I went to see it on Oct 2nd. I got tickets through my housing community (the Intersection) for $25... and let me just tell you, everything was absolutely amazing. We weren't provided the best seats (rear rear mezzanine) but we could still see and hear exactly what was going on.

Although Pittsburgh is not New York, the atmosphere at the Benedum Center is exciting and invigorating at the same time. The show was packed... all seats were sold (perhaps because it was the last weekend it was showing...) There's just something magical about being in a full house. You have your mix of avid Wicked fans as well as your first-timers like me and just about everyone in between. You have your college students, your early career in their 20's group of people, families, older retired people... all coming out to see one show.

This theater is pretty big too. Benedum Center is located in downtown Pittsburgh in the Theater district. It is down the block from Byham Theater and it is registered with the National Register of Historic Places. (MORE RANDOM FACTS) Originally, Pittsburgh's Palace of Amusement, The Stanley Theatre was built in 1927 for about 3 million dollars. Opening night was February 28, 1928. It cost 65 cents to get it. The theater was bought by the Cinemette Corporation in 1976. Then in 1977 DiCesare Engler Productions aquired the Stanley to host rock and roll concerts which lasted into 1982. The Benedum Center was restored from 1984 to 1986 by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, to look as the Stanley did on opening night in 1928.  (from About.com)

So for those of you who don't know what Wicked is... it's a Broadway show that is about the untold story of Oz. It is based loosely on the book Wicked by Gregory Maguire. (I have yet to read the book...) It is about the story of the witches Glinda and Elphaba and what went on in Oz before Dorothy blew in from Kansas. It is a show that is uplifting, emotional, funny, and just a great story overall.

Wicked is one of the many broadway shows coming to Pittsburgh as part of PNC Broadway Across America Series. The next one is Mamma Mia! which opens November 5.

The TOC (Technical Opportunities Conference) and the BOC (Business Opportunities Conference) were held last week, the 18th and 17th respectively, and they've has always been interesting. They are basically two job fairs that go on around the 2nd or 3rd week into September. Basically about four weeks of school has past and BAM you have a job fair, two in fact, one more for technical jobs such as engineering/IT/computer science jobs and the other more for finance, marketing, operations etc. Both can be very time consuming. In fact, some people don't go to classes because of it. 

In essence, it's a very big thing at Carnegie Mellon. It is sometimes how people find internships and full time jobs, network, and also get to know a little bit more about the companies represented. In some senses, especially in today's time, it is very important. The job market is harsh and it's not easy to find jobs that aren't cutting down in numbers and trying to cut costs. Some companies may even have hiring freezes and that's sometimes just about the worst thing that can happen to you. You finish school with massive amounts of debt and now with no job to pay off loans. I'm not sure how many of you are worried and I hope as time goes on, the economy as well as the job market does get better. There are no assurances, perhaps the new president, whoever that is, will help make things better. Perhaps despite everything he tries, there's nothing he can do. 

Well, let's stop before it gets more depressing. Essentially it comes down to, companies are looking for the most amount of talent for their money and for one thing, it's encouraging to see that companies are still coming to Carnegie Mellon. There were 238 companies represented this year at the TOC and there would be more only we're limited by space. The BOC is much smaller but still fairly impressive. 

Every year, these job fairs were accompanied by info sessions and all these other events that go on. So many to the point where you can never go to all of them and you really have to pick and choose. Of course, usually at these info sessions, it also involves food. So for about a week +, I could essentially not cook dinner any of the nights and I'd be able to find food somewhere on campus. 

EDIT looks like I accidentally posted this before it was done... so if you read this earlier... here's the rest of it...

Along with info sessions, there have been quite a number of freebies both at the job fairs and at the info sessions. I've gotten a lot of random things. From pens to Rubik's cubes to company messenger bags, an assortment of company labeled items have accumulated in my place. Apparently, there was a company that was giving out free iPod nanos about 30-50 of them along with about 50, $50 iTunes cards... What in the world??? I was I was there but unfortunately, I wasn't... 

I guess my point with it all is that even in such an economy, companies think it's worth recruiting here. I like that and that's something I really like about Carnegie Mellon. Yes, it's a lot of work but I think that's part of the reason why companies are happy with us.

And now that I've blathering for quite a bit, I realized that I forgot about Tech Sunday too. Tech Sunday is usually held the Sunday, well duh, before the TOC and BOC. It involves a series of workshops and panels followed by a time of networking with companies. Usually about 20 companies show to this but it's nice and small. This year what was nice was that we had a etiquette lunch (again free food) where we went over proper behavior during an interview over dinner or lunch. Neato. 

So yeah, there also a bunch of workshops offered by the Career Center every so often. Those can be helpful too.

Anyway, I should probably go to bed. It's about 2AM in the morning right now. Why am I up blogging? 

Before I go... trivia time!

Did you know that the TOC is run by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE)? Imagine a student organization running a job fair of that magnitude where we're limited by space not by companies. Yes, shameless plug for SWE (I'm in it) but yes, JOIN (when you're in college, I guess....)!

Sorry for the first “Flavor of the Week” being delayed but anyway here it is…

Hello all,

I haven't been able to blog as much as I would like but I've got some ideas going for the blog. So anyway, if there's anything you'd like to know or any suggestions at all, just leave me a comment and I'll respond.

I basically want to make this blog useful for you (prospective students) and I guess for bored Carnegie Mellon students as well although, it is more geared for the former. I guess there could be stuff that Carnegie kids don't know already.

Heh maybe if this ever becomes popular enough, it'll become the Gothamist of Carnegie Mellon. I can't think of a better name for it yet unfortunately. However, on a cool side note, I discovered that the article that the New York Times did on Christian clubs in NYC high schools which also features quotes from me was referenced in a past blog entry in the Gothamist. In fact, out of sheer boredom (while in class), I googled my name and well, this blog is what comes up first. If I google my name and then add "cmu" next to it then it you can see a link to my position in Society of Women Engineers (SWE). If you google my name and add "stuyvesant" (yes I went to Stuyvesant High School...), then you find the NY Times article and then the Gothamist listing of Stuyvesant related entries.

Have you tried Googling your name? Feel free to drop comments if you get something cool.

Now anyway, where was I...? Oh right, I think I got the point across... I want this to be an interesting blog so and feedback would be nice.

I also like to blog a little bit about my life as a student just so that you know that I'm actually alive and not a robot or something. You may find my life interesting or even rather dull. Either way, it is what it is.

Anyway, I still can't believe it's the third week of school already. I currently, still don't have my textbook since I ordered it online and it's taking forever so I'm sitting in the library about to start my homework when I realized that I haven't posted anything in my blog. I have a SWE meeting soon so there's no point making extra trips home. After a while, you realize everything is all about convenience. You start getting lazy and you try to find the best way of doing things so you can do the least amount of work.

This semester is going well though. I have relatively easy classes. Although, I'm a little afraid about how the rest of my semesters here will look considering that I'm a junior now. Junior year is supposed to be the hardest right...? We'll just have to see I guess. Heh, you might even be able to tell just by the number of posts I'm writing a week. Either way, perhaps some of the best advice I can give for college is to space out your hard classes and know what you can do. It really sucks having a killer semester.

Anyway, enough of my rambling... starting Sunday (I hope) will be my Flavor of the Week entries featuring a dish from anywhere in Pittsburgh. You'll get to hear some of my rants and raves about one of my most favorite things: FOOD.

Back to starting homework,
Regina =)

Hello Readers,

Whoever you are... I'm back. I'm also no longer a sophomore! Junior year here I come. It's definitely been a good summer.

I spent this past summer working for a company (that will stay unnamed) doing IT. It basically involved coding in languages/technologies that I have never worked with before such as JavaScript and JSPs. It was basically a lot of web application stuff. It felt overwhelming at first considering I didn't really know much about it but I've come to realize that once you have a programming foundation from Carnegie Mellon, you're pretty much set. It really wasn't really hard to learn new languages anymore.

Sure, Carnegie Mellon isn't exactly a school that will teach you exactly what it takes to get into companies like Google and Microsoft (nor will any other school) but it sure as heck gets you to develop good programming skills as well as just analytic and problem-solving skills.

Now, this may not sound important to you prospective students... I mean after all, college is about having fun and being young right? Well, keep reading my blog and you'll see different things that might interest you.

How do you know when I will post? RSS Feeds and Google Reader are your friends, my friend.

If you ever need anything feel free to drop a comment.

I'm out for now
- Regina =)

Regina is away from campus this summer, but check back this fall when she's blogging again!

Carnival has always been a tradition at Carnegie Mellon. It's always been a way to outreach to the community as well as as great time for a nice break. Every year we get Thursday and Friday off for it. It's a few days of relaxation we get before finals and cram time.

However there is much work to be done into putting it together.

Two major parts of Carnival are Booth and Buggy. These two areas are usually competitions between fraternities, sororities and other independent organizations.

I was not involved with Buggy but it's basically a race that involves pushers and drivers and of course the mechanics that design and make it better. I can't really describe it well without showing you a picture of course. Many people have described it as a death chamber for people under 5' (usually girls) because there's basically very little room for anything. The driver lies on his or her stomach and steers by looking through a small clear opening. The handle bar you see is the part of the buggy that the pushers push. It's basically a relay race type thing where people pass off the buggy for different sections.

For more details and the history of buggy:  History of Buggy

At one point in time, we were ranked No. 1 for being the most politically apathetic campus. Of course, I believe that this has to due with the general nature of this school. Carnegie Mellon is fairly technical school. Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon both founded this school separately as a vocational school and a school devoted to research respectively. This is not to say that our "non-technical" programs aren't good just that even our typical liberal arts program require slight mathematical backgrounds... well moreso than other programs. Along with Carnegie Mellon being a technical school, we tend to have more work than most other schools. Combine these two together, we just have one extra reason not to follow the political affairs of this country. I mean college students are typically lazy already...

Anyway, another thing I've noticed is just that a TV isn't always as accessible as it was before. Before college, generally we'd finish our work by the time the news comes on and then we just watch it. Not only do we typicallly not finish our work later, even if we finished our work early, getting to a TV can sometimes be a hassle. You don't know if anyone is in the lounge and well, you have to leave your room and go somewhere else. It is worth it to do all this work just to watch the news?

Of course, there's other ways of keeping ourselves informed... and well thanks to the internet and the massive amounts of time we spend in front a computer, we can really just find anything we need. Who really searches news articles and enjoys reading them when you could be in for some quick entertainment by reading the new XKCD comic or watching the latest popular video on YouTube?

Well anyway, despite all this, there has been an overwhelming support for Obama on campus as well as many campaign initiatives taken by students and faculty both. About a month ago, we had invited Zachary Quinto, Carnegie Mellon alum and also the person who plays Sylar in the show Heroes on NBC, to encourage people to register to vote. There were Obama '08 posters available for Sylar to sign if you had brought an unregistered friend to register. Along with this, has been the many chalk scribbles on the ground say things from: "Ba-Rock the Vote" to "I pity the fool who does not vote Obama."

Carnegie Mellon officially does also try and have some political awareness on campus. A few weeks ago, Carnegie Mellon had Michelle Obama to speak which had been a fairly popular event. Chelsea Clinton and John McCain had been on campus as well, yesterday and today respectively as well.

Unfortunately, I had not been able to make the John McCain event but I was at the Chelsea Clinton event. Carnegie Mellon was the place that kickoffed the bus tour across Pennsylvania. Two campus bands, The FourSix and Tennessee Whiskey, had opened the event for her on Midway. Jehmu Green, former president of MTV’s Rock the Vote, took the stage first followed by Erika Alexander who played Pamela "Pam" Tucker on the Cosby Show and then followed by Sean Astin who played Samwise from the Lord of the Rings trilogy all on tour with Chelsea as well. Jehmu Green has spoke of hoow important it was for college students to vote. Erika spoke about how Hillary Clinton had done much for the poorer areas of her home town and how her policies were ones that fought for them.  Sean Astin the most interesting character of them all donned a blazer, jeans and Nike skateboarding sneakers and spoke about his passion and the reason why he supports Hillary Clinton. Following shortly after the president of Democrats on Campus, Chelsea Clinton took the stage campaigning on behalf of her mother and had taken several questions.

The main focus of her event was about education and universal healthcare. She also spoke about her mother's efforts and goals to lower college education costs. Afterwards, we had a chance to do photo ops with Sean Astin as well as Chelsea Clinton herself.