525,600 minutes…525,600 minutes, how do you measure, measure a year? OK so by now you might have guessed I am talking about the famous Broadway musical RENT. Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera – La Boheme. It re-tells the story of struggling musicians and artists in New York City’s East Village, under the dark shadow of drugs and AIDS. Since its introduction on Broadway in 1996, the musical has been a HUGE success and has managed to captivate audiences for 10 years!

Seeing its huge success, the University at Buffalo Musical Theatre department recreated the magic of Rent at the University’s very own Center for the Arts. It was an all UB student cast and crew production.  One of my friends was actually the stage manager and I was so proud of him!  The show ran from Wednesday, November 18th to Sunday November 22nd and every show was sold out! Now I am not a huge fan of musicals. The only musical that I have ever liked is the Lion King and that is because they made it into a movie. So when my boyfriend bought the tickets for Rent (and thankfully he bought them way in advance in early October), I was a little skeptical. Sitting through a musical for three hours, I was sure would be a difficult task and would require tons of caffeine. But not only was I up the entire time, I thoroughly enjoyed the show. The students of the Musical Theatre did a phenomenal job. The acting, singing, set design, the lighting, the costumes were amazing!

The Center for the Arts hosts a lot of events for UB students, faculty and the Buffalo community. Tonight Liza Minnelli, who has won every award that there is including an Oscar, will be gracing the mainstage of the Center for the Arts. I am guessing this is going to be another Sold Out event. You guys should definitely check out the the CFA website and the events that are happening!

http://www.ubcfa.org/home.aspx

I am a Resident Advisor on UB South Campus and I am thankful and proud that to be a part of a great team which makes living on South Campus even more exciting. As a tradition, all the RA staffs on South Campus come together a week before Thanksgiving and we have a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. For those of us who don’t get to enjoy home cooked food that often, it is a great time. Our professional staff (supervisors like Area Director, Hall Directors, Asst. Hall Directors etc) cook dinner for the RAs. It is a wonderful time and we get to meet our supervisors’  families and sit down and enjoy a meal together. We had our South Campus Thanksgiving dinner yesterday night and we devoured the ham, the turkey, three kinds of mashed potatoes, apple pie, cheesecake etc etc! And this week the dining halls at UB will also have thanksgiving food, so that’s another reason to build my appetite! I can’t wait for more pie!

Events like these bring us together as a staff. It makes us realize that we are all in this together and that we can depend on each other. Our staff is like any other family – we live together, we eat together, we fight and we make up! So one thing I am thankful for this Thanksgiving is my RA staff. You guys ROCK and I love you!! GO QUAD!

So apart from the plethora of exams and homework, the other thing that has been keeping me busy is the GMAT. I finally have some sense of what I want to do with my life and I decided before I lose that small ray of light, I should lock it in by taking the GMAT and applying to grad school. I took my GMATs this morning and I think I did pretty well on it. Well, I surpassed the average score required by the grad programs I am considering. So I am very satisfied with my performance. I really do wish I had more time to study for the test though. I think I would have done much better if I had taken the exam in summer. That is one thing to remember – when you are planning to apply to a grad or undergrad program, make sure you have a schedule and that you follow it. You should take the standardized test and submit your application way before the due date. Waiting till the last minute – not a good idea.

Well, I am off to the library to do some studying. I know, I know it’s a Saturday but hey, thats senior year for you!

For my Investment Management class, our professor enrolled us in this stock picking game called Stocks Quest where we are basically given $100,000. Now before your heart skips a beat, this is not real money but what we do with this money is pretty real. So the challenge is that we have to pick stocks and make $1,000,0000 out of the $100,000. Now it does sound very easy but trust me it is not. Even though it is not real money, the stocks are real and we have to do extensive research before we buy these stocks. When we started the game, I lost like $30,000 in a week. That is a lot. If I did that in the real world as a Financial Analyst, well I can say good bye to my job! But eventually I got the hang of it and I am getting better at it.

This game is such an awesome way to teach the students about stocks. I don’t think I have learned so much about the market in any finance book that I have learned while playing this game! So thanks Professor Mohr and hopefully I’ll be a (pseudo) millionaire at the end of the semester!

The Matthew Shepard Bill has passed both houses and is on the President’s desk. The President plans to sign the bill on Wednesday. Matthew Shepard Bill will protect members of the LGBT community from hate crimes!
In another great news, NY state Gov. Patterson announced that he will put the Marriage Equality Bill on the agenda during the special session which is being called in two weeks! They could vote on marriage equality in 2 weeks!

I am really excited about the coming weeks. It is an exciting time to be living in a time where things are looking up LGBT rights! The LGBT movement is definitely the civil rights movement of our time and I am proud to be around to witness it. The progress is slow but steady. Let’s say tuned and see what happens!

This morning I cast my vote for the candidate I thought deserved to be in the President chair. Whenever I bumped into an acquaintance or friend while walking around the campus, I asked them if they voted. A lot of times the response was no and on further questioning, people were of the view that their one vote wouldn’t make much difference. This got me thinking – do we realize how lucky we are to live in a country, where democracy is a reality? There are so many countries in the world, were citizens haven’t had the chance to exercise their voting rights. Taking a step back – some countries don’t grant voting rights to its citizens! The leaders of this country and my home country India fought a war for independence. People died so that you and I can vote and have a say in the government. How can we take this sacrifice so superfluously?

If you think your vote does not matter think again. Think about the countless people around the world who can’t vote. Your vote is not just a number, it decides the fate of a lot of other people. Exercise your right – vote in your high school elections, mayoral elections, presidential elections etc. When you come to UB, make sure you vote in the SA elections or better run for a position!

I can’t believe I am 4 courses away from graduation. It seems like yesterday when I started off. I know thats a cliche line but it really seems like yesterday when I moved into my new dorm room, the first time I met my roomie, the first time I fought with my roomie, the first time I walked in on my roomie and his girlfriend, my first job on campus, my first A grade in a class etc etc. College has been a wonderful experience and now I know what people meant when they said “you’ll love it”. I do love it. The pressure of assignments, the exams, the professors, the TAs, the friends,the job hunting,  the hectic internships. It definitely gives you a taste of what life is going to be like when you get out there – juggling a million things at the same time. It does prepare you better.

A piece of advice that I have for all of you, who are looking to start college soon – take advantage of all the resources that UB provides you. They are in place for a reason – to help you be the best individual you can be. College is not just about that expensive piece of paper called degree; in many ways its about re-inventing yourself.

I have been living away from home for 4 years now and I have heavily relied on dining hall food (which I think is totally delish!!!). I have never understood the point of cooking when you can always go to the dining hall or order pizza from IncrediBull pizza, UB’s very own pizza delivery service. And now that IncrediBull has started catering to South Campus residents I really don’t see the need for me to cook. But anyhow, two days ago I challenged myself to boil some eggs. How hard can it be – you take some eggs, put them in water and boom – its done! Turns out its not so simple. So I took 3 eggs, put them in water and put it in the microwave. Who knew you can’t boil eggs in the microwave? (Apparently, all my residents did, and so did all my friends). Microwave is a college student’s God. We put raw food in it and it comes out all steamy and hot. We don’t care how it happens, we just know that there are gnomes in that machine which do the cooking for us. So back to my egg story. I decided to check on my eggs when it hit the 20 minutes mark and as soon as I opened the microwave door, guess what happened? The eggs burst. THEY BURST!!!!! They burst on me. I was covered in eggs from top to bottom!

Not only I had to clean myself but also the entire kitchen. I smelled like eggs for the rest of the day and probably the day after the incident. Another reason I shouldn’t be allowed to cook. I think I am giving up on cooking or probably I will give it another shot.

The award announcement came out just before the LGBT people across the country are getting ready to march on Washington and ask the President for equal rights. I wonder what he has to say about that. “I am a Nobel Peace laureate but sorry I can’t grant you the equal rights I promised during the campaign or my numbers will drop”. I know the road to equality is slow and long, and we as a community are going to be patient but hey, we’ll to put a cap to it someday. I don’t want to walk down the hall with a cane!

Obama, though hurdles plenty and pace slow, has done a magnificent job but he has not done anything substantial to deserve a coveted prize such as the Nobel. I was really hoping that he would decline the prize but I guess he just loves the limelight!

I really hope this weekend flies by and I come out of it unharmed because the weekend is going to be sick! I am so excited about the weekend. I am going to Washington DC for the National Equality March. I have a small little activist in me and I firmly believe that this is the time for equal rights for all. A couple of us from the UB LGBTA are joing thousands other members of the community to demand equal rights from our awesome President. This is going to be the beginning of the equality movement and I can’t wait to be a part of it.

I am pretty stoked about seeing the Lincoln Memorial. President Lincoln emancipated the south and hopefully the Obama administration will give us equal rights. Stay tuned for more Washington news. I will definitely blog about it!