Ahoy

Ahoy all.

So since I added this class a few nights ago after learning that such supercool classes where you post on Google Blog such as this one exist, I'm writing my first post now seeing as I couldn't before and well, I'll spare you all of the whole drama that occurred (yes, gentlemen, drama) in the whole craze of getting it organized.

So I've learned something after spending a year at Cornell (I'm a sophomore in either ECE or AEP) that I didn't learn back in my hometown of Somewhere Around Boston, Massachusetts. Race is real. It's something you don't pick up at all going to a school system that's way over 90% white and a school itself that's almost 98% white (and all-male by the way). Man, you don't realize what you had and didn't have in a certain environment until you leave. And when I left and came here, this whole concept of people with different backgrounds hit me hard in the face. Therefore, though it may not seem that apparent at first that you're in a different environment, but it is. And don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed that kind of setting and sort of wish I could go back. But wishing for the past is a great way to waste your entire life.

By the way, I'm not white, I'm desi. I say desi because well, I think it's really dumb when people say "Indian" to mean Native Americans and also cause whenever you say the word "asian" people immediately seem to correlate that with places like China, Korea, Japan, etc. But to be honest and politically correct (which I support both of), you can't really cast so many people using one term, Asian, that's just a term that says "ahoy friends, my family comes from Asia." So I've started getting annoyed using terms of continental association like so. So desi it is. And I've started to identify with it a lot more now that I'm not in such a white community. Why? Go figure. But I've noticed that I've started listening to a lot of desi music of late. Especially Punjabi music. Punjab es la polla.

In any case. You know what I can't stand? The Times New Roman font. Think about it for yourself. Say you were browsing the web and you came to a page that's written entirely in 12-point unbold, unitalicized Times New Roman font on a plain white background. Well at least when I see things like that, it just drains my soul of everything lively and happy, like notions furry purple bunnies that emit lavender-scented bubbles when they nibble on carrots. In fact, adding colors and background images is part of what makes us creative. And in my experience, any time I go to a website that has something really actiony or intense and lively or whatnot, only two colors seem to emerge: either black or red.

Psychologically, every color in our brain is correlated subtly to certain characteristics. Red happens to be an extremely intense and fiery color and black seems to represent destruction to me. So let's face it: if you went to some site dedicated to, say, Counter-Strike (or whatever these kids are playing online these days) and it just happened to be themed in a bright pink starred-background with electric green font, you'd think you had run into the livejournal of someone with a barbie addiction or something like that.

So if you just happen to come across some webpage written in some language that you don't understand, you could probably still get an idea of what it's all about just by looking at the colors, couldn't you?

Maybe I'll think about that next time I browse the web. For now, I'll just sit here and pretend I'm infinitely wise and enlightening like Andy Rooney.