Long Lost Photos: Edition I
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| Paris, France (2008) |
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| Paris, France (2008) |
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| Venice, Italy (2008) |
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| Paris, France (2008) |
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| Europe 2008 |
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| Paris, France (2008) |
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| Paris, France (2008) |
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| Venice, Italy (2008) |
GovBall VIP Status
This weekend was so amazing that it absolutely deserved a
spot on my blog. As most of you know, through my constant humble bragging all
over social media for that I apologize, but
not really: I got the chance to work at Governor’s Ball. The reason I got
this opportunity was because the coordinators of GovBall actually got cupcakes
from the shop I work in. They would allow us to go to the event if we handed out cupcakes in their performers lounge. Now I went under the impression that I would probably
have to work inside an average room and not really get to see much of the shows or Artist.
However, I was incredibly wrong about that. Either way, I still asked to go on Friday in hopes of getting chance to see Bastille and the 1975 backstage. Which for the record I got to
see them both backstage! Once I got to the event my coworker and I were
warmly greeted by the person in charge of the Performance Lounge, she told us
it was completely fine for one us to see the concerts and go out and about as long as
one person stayed at our table. So
as you can imagine, I had quite a ball! After working the first day,
enjoying all the free stuff, getting the chance to see the 1975 & Bastille
back stage and front row at their concert I had already measured it as a great
weekend.
It wasn’t until later that night, when I found out my pass was good for
the rest of the weekend, that I really understood how great of a time I would
eventually have. Not only did I get to enjoy Friday, but I also got to come
back Saturday and Sunday, not as a worker, but as a guest with the same VIP
access. Which means that I got to enjoy all those things I had enjoyed before
without the guilt of having to head back to my table. I got to roam all of
Governors ball as I pleased. It was actually one of the best weekends of my
life. All of the artist I got to meet were all like regular people, they were
super friendly, and were open to talking to everyone. I started this blog with
high hopes for the year 2014, and it’s honestly living up to its potential. I
got practically a free trip to Cuba, a free senator pass to GovBall, what will
come next? Hopefully the laws of attraction continue to give me great
opportunities this year because I am really excited of what is yet to come. Now the performance Lounge was incredible, they
had: iced coffee, message tables, open bar, oysters, juice generation, coconut
water, the list goes on and on. Now since we needed to people to go in and out
we were granted Senator clearance. The ranking goes: General, VIP, Press,
Senator, and Governor: which was solely for the performers, friends of
performers and the backstage GovBall employees. This ranking gave me access to
go into all the performer hangout spots, all the VIP sections of each stage,
and access to all the free amenities.Pictures Lost in Time
As many of you know in the
summer of 2008, I went on a tour across Europe with my mom. We got the
opportunity to travel through Spain, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Now
as luck may have it, when I came out of the plane and grabbed my camera to take
a picture, the screen of my camera was completely wrecked. I was able to take a
few pictures, but I couldn’t see what I was taking a picture of. After a while
the camera was so wrecked it wouldn’t even turn on. Something like this
would happen to me! So my mom and I were forced to buy disposable
cameras and take pictures with those. It was the only possible alternative we
had at the moment and for the most part it was okay. Eventually, we came back
home from our trip with tons of luggage and bags. Because everyone and
their moms wanted a souvenir. We ended up misplacing the bag with all
the disposable cameras and all the pictures inside it. At the moment it was
okay because the memory card in my broken camera had salvaged a few good
pictures, Ignoring all the awkward floor pictures, and it was
enough to show our friends and family. Unfortunately, bad luck struck again and
a computer accident led to all my documents, pictures and all, to
be wiped off of my hard drive. With those pictures being lost and the
disposable cameras never to be found, those pictures and memories were lost in
time. Today we were finally brushed with good luck; as I was going through some
old boxes I came across a very old looking book bag. What did I find
inside you may ask? None other then the disposable cameras I had lost
long ago. I found a few old maps, pamphlets, and nine disposable cameras
holding 27 pictures each. That’s 243 pictures of Europe that I thought
were lost forever! Now, because times have changed and developing film
is actually kind of expensive, especially for the 243 pictures, I
decided to make a project of it. Why not every week or so develop one camera at
a time? That way I could make looking through those pictures an experience. It
will give me the chance to extend me reminiscing for a couple of weeks and
allow me to value the pictures much more
Marketing Books
Since I made the decision to go
into marketing pretty late in the game and don’t have access to the marketing
classes in the business school, I have decided to go about teaching myself.
That it what a liberal education is really about isn’t it. Learning from a
variety of fields and about subjects that interest you. So I took to the
Internet and went through tons of books recommended for people thinking about
going into marketing and I finally got my first three. The first is “Influence:
The Psychology of Persuasion”, which focuses on what influences people to say
yes to certain things. It teaches you six principles of persuasion, how to
persuade others, and how to not be persuaded in return. The Second is “Made to
Sick”, which teaches you about what makes an idea “stick” or become popular. It
goes over the five key elements that one can apply to their idea to make them
sticky. The last book on my list is “Guerrilla Marketing”, which focuses on
different strategies for marketing across the Internet. This book emphasis the
rise of new technology, as well as how you can use it to improve your marketing
strategies. My goal with these books is to gain more of a fundamental knowledge
behind marketing and improve on marketing strategies.
Career Path... Maybe?
For a long time I had trouble
figuring out what exactly I wanted to do with my life, and what direction I
wanted to go into career wise. You know
typical college student problems. I had originally come into Fordham with
the intention of going into Pre-Law. However, as I got further into my studies
and spoke about the future with my professors, I realized that law was
something I enjoyed but wasn’t passionate enough to get into years of debt for.
While in college, I had also stumbled into a few computer science classes and
realized that I really enjoyed this new material and found it thrilling to
create programs. Trust me its extremely
fun building your first program. I ended up switching into the Computer
Science department and declared my major as information science. Which for the
most part was great, the workload was difficult but I was learning a whole
bunch of material that would be really essential in a future career involving
technology. This seemed perfect for me because I strongly feel that we should
all be improving our skills in technology because we will only be using more
technology from here on. Although again, as much as I really enjoyed the
material, I couldn’t imagine myself spending hours sitting behind a desktop
solely working on a program and having no interaction with anyone. For me that
is difficult because I have worked customer service practically my whole life. So
while I can work quite well independently, I needed something that was
occasionally much more interactive. I needed something that brought together my
technical skills, my creativity, and my social capabilities. I explored through
different career options until I finally came across marketing.
I had always secretly thought about
a career in marketing, because I believe I hold skills that would fit well in
marketing role. I have used basic marketing strategies to increase members in
my club on campus; as well as, used those same strategies at work. Although,
even though I had always thought about this possibility I always ended up
steering away from it because “I wasn’t a business student”. I know crazy right? However, as I dug
more and more into a career in marketing, I realized that it was the perfect
career path for me, even without a business degree. A marketing position has all
the qualities I was looking for: it is interactive and requires good social
skills, demands creativity and coming up with innovative ideas, and with the
rise of technology it is requiring many technical skills that weren’t necessary
before. So I’ve decided to get rid of that “not a business student” mentality
and work to use the skills I have gained and apply them towards a possible
career in marketing. I’ve created a sort of game plan for myself, where I
specified the skills I already have and the ones that I need to work on. This
summer will consist of gaining the adequate skills that would potentially make
me a more desirable candidate for a marketing position.
Cuban Artist: Rafael Villares
While on my trip to Cuba, I had the
opportunity to meet an amazing Cuban artist named Rafael Villares; his work was
both evocative and naturalistic. Villares presented one of two ideas in his
artwork: the idea of creating function out of something that appears to be
without function; and the relationship between Cubans and Cuban Americans, in
regards to the Cuban migration. In one of his function pieces called ‘Breathe’,
Villares installed a light box in the center of the floor and created a layer
of cracked dirt above the light box. As the observers came into the room, they
would immediately be greeted by the rhythmic sounds of breathing that was
matched by the intensity of the light shining through the cracks. This would
eventually cause the observer to sync their own breathing with that of the
“earth” creating the idea that they are one with the environment. Another
function piece with a similar idea was ‘Flight’, this piece consisted of a room
that had air blowing from the ceiling to the floor, and from the floor to the
ceiling. These two forces of air hold up tons of loose bird feathers that were
collected for the piece, giving the observer the feeling that they are flying
with these feathers. The feathers had already fallen of the birds they belonged
to; so this piece emphasized creating function in something that had lost
function.
One work that I personally got the
chance to see was Villares piece on the Cuban Identity and Relationship. As
many know, after the Cuban Migration following the revolution that led
Communism, tensions arose between those that remained in Cuba and those that
fled to Miami. Hostility has caused many Cubans to disassociate themselves with
the ones that fled and consider those to not be “authentic Cubans”. Villares,
who holds a different ideology, installed a lamppost in the middle of the
central city known as Havana Vieja. This lamppost was split into two, holding
two light bulbs, and intertwined with each other to represent a unity. One
light bulb was from Cuba; the other was brought from Miami. This symbolized
that the Cubans and Cuban Americans may seem to be different but they are in
fact intertwined and are one. Villares was a phenomenal artist and I connected
deeply with the message he was trying to present. Feel free to check out his
website to read more about these pieces and see any new work he may create. http://www.rafaelvillares.com
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