Author Archives: sp2433

Art and politics and culture

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This film was an interesting one. It was hard to stay awake for the most part not because it was a bad movie, but because I was extremely sleep deprived. In a very very short sentence, the movie is about a prison man who identifies as homosexual and has to deal with living in Castro’s Cuba. The whole movie reminded me about the discrimination against transgender people in India. Transgender kids are abandoned by their families early on in their lives and they kind of group together at train stations and live in homeless packs around the country. They make money by begging in trains. The whole situation is very upsetting a lot of high profile films/artwork have been made to bring awareness to this serious issue. One great thing that the government does is it gives them opportunities in high position offices. So the issue is very sticky because these groups get so discriminated against, they use their “bad luckness” as a means of getting money. People in India are quick to give them whatever amount they ask out of fear of being cursed. It’s true– it happened right in front of me when my grandpa gave 100 rupees to her. They also go to weddings and celebrations and threaten to curse the place. These transactions are more high range where they demand thousands of rupees.

I like America where people who are transgender are assimilated in society, but also have support groups and their own communities. I watched the broadway show, Kinky Boots a couple months ago and I absolutely loved it! The entire cast was transgender and open about it which I truly loved. There is a ways to go in India for something like that to happen, but hopefully the country will make progress through as these art forms help build awareness of the seriousness of the issue.

Here’s a link to a political movement where the Indian government was challenged to raise awareness.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/25/making-transgender-rights-reality-india

Watching movies in college

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A few days ago, I watched The Arrival. It’s basically a movie about a alien landing and a Linguistics academic is the only one who has the patience/knowledge/skills to figure out a way to communicate with them without having the world combust. I really loved the movie, especially because it was sort of a sci/fi futuristic movie and it featured a heroine as the protagonist.

I remember in high school, I used to watch one movie every weekend, I basically looked up every single Oscar nominee and tried to watch them all. In my freetime, I would browse trailers for hours on YouTube. It makes me kind of sad that I don’t even know what movie trailers are out there anymore. Not just movies, but also browsing new music used to be one of my favorite activities. :’)

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I think the movie industry is going to experience a lot of change with the influence of data science specifically in the area of attracting viewers. MoviePass is this hot startup that has lots of funding from their seed rounds. Currently, it’s in the process of losing a lot of money in exchange for data collection to bolster the strength of their algorithm. The company is giving out unlimited movies at any movie theatre in their system for $10 monthly. You are essentially paying $10 and your privacy (they keep track of what movies you are watching). Clearly, from the Cambridge Analytica mishap, it seems fairly simple to allocate different buckets of personalities for people and micro target them. So, I will not be surprised if what MoviePass is able to do changes the landscape of movies and trailers entirely. This is really sad to say I think, but I am fine with them sending me targeted ads about products I might like based on my personality and past searches. I guess the problem comes when they try and influence my political and social views… that’s not ok!

My 1st Massage!!

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I really had no idea what to expect. I didn’t even know what to wear?? Massage in my head is lying down on your belly naked and having a Swedish oil massage (like in the movies). I wore my pajamas and I went into the room shocked to see some sort of contraption thing and I was told to straddle the thing. It was kind of uncomfortable at first, sitting in that position facing the corner of the wall, but I did it anyways because I knew I needed to go to a Rose Scholars event this week or I probably would fail the class. Anyways, the lady told me to just relax and close my eyes as she kneaded my back. One thing that really surprised me is the fact that areas that were really tense took very long to massage. Anyways, after it, I felt pretty relaxed, and I wished it was longer. The after effects didn’t last so long though because I started studying for a really difficult prelim. I wonder if anyone had a similar experience? How does acupuncture work? TCM?

One thing that really stood out to me was the fact that I felt all the movements on my back. Last year, I took a class called Brain, Mind, and Behavior and I learned that our sense receptors on our skin are really weak!! Except on our lips and our fingers. Test it out even: put 1-5 fingers on someone’s back and ask them to guess how many fingers, they can’t! Anyways, how can we make our senses all over our body as sensitive as our lips, well, my class taught me that different types of drugs do that. It’s all about how much chemical neurotransmitters a synaptic cleft takes up.

Snapchat == life return: True

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I am literally addicted to Facebook I feel. Even when I have so much work to do, I just go on the site and check what’s up. Memes pages are amazing! They really just relieve you in the short, short-term. But in the long-term they really mess you up. The discussion centered around this Ted Talk that we were told to watch and it was of this Professor whose whole life was research about this topic of social media. I guess he had some good points, for exp, he talked about how having a social media portfolio sort thing didn’t make you more marketable in any way, it’s rather, the skills that you have. The market ultimately wants these unique skills that are mutually exclusive from what you post on social media, UNLESS, of course, you are a social media influencer or something. I don’t really understand myself sometimes, but I am always in awe by Kim Kardashian or Kylie Jenner posts on Instagram? I’m actually so embarrassed by it!! I think social media though is definitely necessary for modern social life. Half the things I find out about are on social media, I read Snapchat News in the morning over the WSJ!! There are a lot of cool things that social media does, and it’s definitely addicting. It will be cool to see what kind of things will happen as the Zuckerberg progresses through trial.

Yes, Old is Gold.

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Last week, the head of West Campus operations came and talked us about a few of the challenges that he faces doing his job. On a daily, I never really think about what would happen or what the behind the scenes operations of making sure this facility is running smoothly. Ultimately, we are all here to learn and get our degrees and then we just dip. But it’s important to remember sort of referring to the maslow’s hierarchy of needs, that we need our physical needs taken care of before we can do anything else, and that’s what maintenance is here for.

So the talk started off explaining how many short cuts were taken when building west campus because of time constraints, but since, they have learned from their mistakes and they will be sure not to make the same mistakes again during the construction of the new dorm in North.

So, something small that I found really cool was the fact that curtain repair requests in lower floors get way more attention than higher up floors. It’s cool how this man chooses how to prioritize every single maintenance request that gets sent out. He only has 3 guys who he sends around. There are a lot of factors that he has to deal with and it’s kind of amazing how he deals with them all so well and he loves his job, kind of made my heart happy.

One thing that I found particularly interesting is the fact that the gothics rarely get maintenance requests, old is gold. Most of the newer houses’ problems stem from the technology that has been put in place. I live in a gothic, and I sort of love it for some reason. I wish the bathrooms were ventilated though, that would be nice.

There’s an elevator in my dorm and I’m not allowed to use it?

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This Rose Cafe had an live action component to it. I am so amazed by the literal underground tunnel that connects Becker and Rose!! I remember touring Columbia and they mentioned that students have crazy parties in the tunnels that connect the buildings and everything is kept hush hush. I’m not sure if the West Campus tunnels are the ideal tunnels for parties though, especially because there is absolutely zero sound protection: Prof. Blalock’s kids, whose bedrooms are so conveniently located right above the tunnel, probably won’t be too thrilled to hear a college party when they are trying to sleep.

Definitely a very cool experience overall. I am amazed that Lyon hall has an elevator!! Unfortunately, you have to be a quill and dagger member to be able to use the elevator to go up the floors 🙁 unfair!! It should be Lyon hall members + Quill and Dagger be allowed to use the elevator. Anyways, the room inside Lyon hall is so beautiful. It’s this small room dedicated to Cornellians who died in WWI and it looks like it’s straight out of the Smithsonian. I really liked the super intricate designs of it all.

A really cool part of the trip, a very underrated part of it I would say, was going into the kitchen’s front of the house and peaking at the Rose dining hall from the restaurant staff perspective aka behind the buffet dishes. It was a whole new point of view and it was cool.

Something else that really shocked me is the fact that West Campus was sort of made and then in an effort to finish as fast as possible, the end of construction did not conform to all the architectural rules. Basically, the team took a lot of shortcuts hence the practically sound transparent tunnel walls, and multiple other things. I am kind of amazed how this was overlooked by the workers/overseers. I thought in America, where rules are pretty strictly enforced, these types of issues aren’t a thing. But I guess not!! In India, these types of shortcuts are always happening and people are always getting played. They can’t really do anything about it because there’s no one there to enforce the laws.

Cryptocurrency & Kale Salad

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Last semester, I took a lecture series taught by students in Cornell Blockchain every Monday afternoon from 4-5. Last semester, every Monday afternoon from 4-5 was probably the best nap I got every lecture. It’s safe to say, I didn’t retain any concrete information while snoozing away my financial accounting sorrows from the hour before. Surprisingly, I gained some knowledge (shocking, I know). So, during this table talk about cryptocurrency, I was able to clear up the foggy facts that were covered during my rem-sleep naps.

One thing I learned is that cryptocurrency is kinda bubbly material. Low-key bubbly. For instance, Long Island Ice Tea recently renamed their BEVERAGE company to Long Chain and consequently tripled their stock price. Sneaky move by a TEA company. People look at bitcoin and blockchain and don’t really understand that the underlying technology behind it, blockchain technology, is simply brilliant!! Unfortunately, this lack of knowledge in such areas spread amongst the masses is the main contributor to the bubbly component of the blockchain movement. The technology is revolutionary for its decentralized currency and transparent ledger. Of course, not many people seem to understand this!! To be honest, I am still sort of confused:

What is the value that is being created that is increasing the market value of the cryptocurrency? And, also omg, this talk made me realize the catastrophic effects of blockchain mining on the environment. All rumors have a hint of truth to it, so I am going to make the assumption that the statement that was thrown around, “one block requires the energy that a small country uses in a day,” is true. Based on this fact, what are we, as a society, doing?!?!?! How is this legal?

I am not sure if this talk gave me straight forward answers, but I guess that’s the point. Cryptocurrency in it’s currently volatile state can go either way. Whether or not to invest or divest is a question of whether there is hope in blockchain technology, and I think there is…