End of January blunders

Reading articles like this makes me wonder if I'm turning into a rather generic "girl who travels" (as this label is becoming more common these days) because basically everything described in this article can apply to me - http://matadornetwork.com/life/14-things-will-inevitably-happen-date-woman-travels/ 

I don't feel any resentment, though, because I do agree with what the article says and wish I saw what it speaks of more often. It also makes me think fondly of some of my girl friends, to whom the article would definitely resonate with as well. Speaking of another Matador Network article whose message I appreciated, it's this - http://matadornetwork.com/life/kids-heres-dont-go-to-college/ I could go on about my opinions on these articles, but I'll move on to something else I find interesting and worthy of further analysis. 

To cut a long story short, my laptop almost died of some hidden and accumulated viruses today, but it was saved by certain Apple technicians operating remotely from New Delhi. 

Several different kinds of thoughts ran through my head during this episode, which took place over several phone calls as I tried to normally go about my agenda for the day (which is also actually something worth writing about, which I will bring up later as it is unrelated to this).

I thought about technology, and how incredibly complex it is. All the technology I am surrounded by was a product of human imagination, and of skillful realization by people trained in whatever science it takes to produce such a fantastic machine. I thought about how malware from god knows where somehow entered my computer, malware that doesn't have a physical presence but can be detected by software installed in it. I thought about how hard the technicians must have worked to be able to confidently deliver help to me, and today I gained a whole new level of respect for people who study computer science (as many friends of mine do). The world of code and connections that powers our technology is one I'm never going to understand, even though it is a part of my everyday life. I just figured it was a good occasion today to appreciate it and how far human thought and invention has taken us.

The thought of viruses was rather interesting, considering I had just been recently reading about the Zika virus outbreak. There are viruses that attack human bodies and populations, and as I learned today, viruses that infect computers that can go undetected and slowly take over applications that the user doesn't know about until it's too late. I can't even fathom how, and it was pretty interesting trying to draw parallels between the two.

Finally, probably the thought that I had the most fun entertaining was how these people who helped me out were leading their own lives where they were in India, and they were probably at some call center doing their job, dealing with issues that have come up for them many times over. Just another day on the job. Sometimes I could hear people chatting in the background, and couldn't help but think of a TV show called Outsourced that I really enjoyed watching (when it still aired...). Haha, I would be interested in technicians as people and not as strangers with accents who are just "there" to debug my laptop. It's what I study, after all. I guess this episode made me more appreciative not just of technology, but of the lives of people we encounter too. 

One more thing–some members of the Harvard Philippine Forum and I auditioned our dance for Cultural Rhythms, this annual show Harvard puts on. I'll probably write more about it when the time comes, but it was incredible and exhilarating in every way. Ugh, how I love performing. We really delivered up on that stage, and I couldn't have been happier with everyone, despite only learning the dance this past week and not actually taking it 100% seriously until our final rehearsals this morning hahaha. Can't wait to say more about it!

Well that takes care of today's journal entry. It's so late. Although I see myself missing a lot of sleep and doing a lot of work this semester, I'm actually really excited about it. Now it's time for me to leave Cabot Café (where I've been the past four hours being distracted by friends, trying to do readings in French, and writing this blog entry) and go to my room to keep my pile of laundry and tryyyy and get some sleep because yes I have Zumba at 7:15 am tomorrow. Chau!