The Angsty College Student's Guide to LinkedIn Registration

The 6 emotions you're supposed to get when using LinkedIn. 6 is also indicative of 666, aka the Devil.

Like vegetables or dentist appointments, LinkedIn is one of those things certain people need to have but do not necessarily want. It has about as many useful or interesting functions as a toaster does for banana bread (getting a job), and this is coming from a business student who's supposed to love it! However, I am not a LinkedIn expert.

It fills the role as the annoying middleman like the troll living under the bridge. Then again, I'm only so cynical now because I see opening and maintaining an account as a chore. Clearly, LinkedIn is not as sexy as Snapchat or even Facebook, but it can be very useful for pre-professionals after some major caveats.

Registration

Enter and give your data to "the man." You've already created so many mandatory accounts that your data is like an Internet Horcrux now. I skipped almost everything after because you can backtrack and fill it in when you're not on the spot and understand the beast better.

Turn Off All Emails
This is important if you don't want the displeasure of receiving over 9000 emails. Luckily, I don't get harassed and especially not by people whom I want to harass me like 50 Shades of Grey. I turned all the emails off before even receiving one as I did not want the deluge from Noah's Ark. Go to Profile->Privacy & Settings->Communications for most of the toggles.

LinkedIn Premium
I'm sure that there is nothing else that college students would rather spend $30 a month on. Don't get it unless you need it, which implies that you are already high in the professional pecking order.

Max Privacy Settings
I'm a human, not a lab monkey, so I don't want to participate in your research. Go to Profile->Privacy & Settings and turn off everything you can/want to.

Stalking Mode

Source: Buzzfeed 

Something that is both creepy and a turn-on is that you can see who viewed your profile and others can see when you viewed theirs. To go incognito like Carmen Sandiego and avoid awkward relationships, you can disable this feature briefly for the period of stalking and turn it back on after you are done to receive profile stats again. Go to Profile->Privacy & Settings->"Select what others see when you've viewed their profile" and chose among the bottom 2 options. Honestly, LinkedIn is not fun to stalk because you only see clean-cut versions unless you want the juicy details of someone's GPA. Don't forget to turn it back to "Your name and headline" if you want stats again!

These are quick "pro" tips (lol) for getting set up, after which you are free to explore the professional jungle where dreams are made of. When you're done working on your profile, consider putting LinkedIn in your bookmarks and downloading the app.

ASNS2245, Cultural Awareness, Dragon Ladies, and Defense Against the Dark Arts

My open note materials

After taking the final exam at the lovely 8:00 AM time slot on 4/28/15, I would like to reminisce on probably the most culturally relevant filler class I've ever taken for a level 2 elective. My knowledge of Asian Americans expanded deeply by actually doing all the mandatory readings at the gym.

I feel much more culturally aware but not quite liberated and especially not liberated from debits and credits. However, I must admit my skepticism of academic subjects like the Asian-American experience due to reading too much from academics with too much time who think too much and rarely apply real, lasting, and prominent practice beyond radical eras like the 60s. Still, the class discussed many important and thought-provoking sociological questions.

Anna May Wong, the stereotypical Dragon Lady

To me, the most funny, memorable, and extreme stereotypes were of Dragon Ladies and Fu Manchu. From "Ideological Racism and Cultural Resistance" by Yen Le Espiritu (91) referencing Frank Chin and Jeffrey Chan (60, 1972): "Dr. Fu, a man wearing a long dress, batting his eyelashes, surrounded by muscular black servants in loin cloths, and with his habit of caressingly touching white men on the leg, wrist, and face with his long fingernails is not so much a threat as he is a frivolous offense to white manhood."

However, my unabashed skepticism is related to a potentially sad conclusion. Slightly late in packing up my materials, I overheard another student asking the professor about his future plans. He said he didn't know if Northeastern will offer this class again, to which I remarked in my trademark aloofness, "Is this class like Defense Against the Dark Arts where they change the class and teacher every year?" We all laughed awkwardly. 

I hope they continue this class, but I unfortunately don't have time to protest in solidarity with my Asian brothers and sisters. I'm also a little like a passive Asian who doesn't cause agitation except for with LinkedIn. This will probably not be my last post about Asian America similarly to my multiple references to Blade Runner.

My Obsession with Blade Runner

In the past, I tended to become obsessed with things like obscure animes and Sonic the Hedgehog. I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, and that includes Roy Batty's famous monologue in Blade Runner.

In the first semester at Northeastern, I took RELS1260 or apocalypticism in film for a humanities requirement. It seems that classes least related to accounting and finance make for the best writing material!

What seemed like a weekly movie night also had profound discussions and an impactful final speech, though I accidentally compared the lectures that a few students found boring to attending church especially due to the religious and philosophical content. (I did not find the class boring.) This class had a lasting impact that I embody in the mystique of Blade Runner.

My obsession led me to rewatch the movie twice and annoyingly recommend it to everyone. I also started spontaneously saying quotes when fitting, playing "Blade Runner Blues" and the soundtrack, and replaying key scenes and trailers on YouTube. The futuristic neo-noir ambiance is incredible especially considering its futuristic predictions from the 80s.

Night in Boston

Matching my first semester busyness and occasional dreariness, the Boston landscape started to look like the world of 2019 Los Angeles with the rainy nights, faceless crowds, and glowing buildings like the Prudential. Most touching and relevant to Northeastern, crossing Huntington Avenue and avoiding getting killed by a Mini Cooper created haunting echoes of the traffic light, "Cross now... Cross now..." when Deckard tries to assassinate Zhora. I am also strongly reminded of neon drenched cities in China with their huge populations and occasional rainy/smoggy gloom. 

I also considered buying an awesome LED Blade Runner umbrella as a testament to my fanboying. Maybe this article will reveal some insight into my, for better or for worse, obsessive pathologies. I discuss my Blade Runner project in part 1 and part 2.

Buy one here!

Blade Runner Project Part 2/2 - Analysis

Final project - yes, this is MS Paint, so the art is not the best

I elaborated on my former Blade Runner obsession here. To avoid my work in school assignments going to waste, I will post my final project drawing and the accompanying analysis. I tried to cover almost every interesting point during the heyday of my obsession. This is the more fulfilling analysis; here is part 1, the proposal.

Dickson He

Professor Doe

Apocalypticism in Film, Section 2

3 December 2014

A Perspective on Blade Runner

Ridley Scott imagines the future world of Blade Runner as hectic and helter-skelter, resulting from a malignant outgrowth and confluence of social trends that signify both progress and the costs of progress.

Blade Runner Project Part 1/2 - Proposal

Rough sketch - yes, this is MS Paint, so the art is not the best

I elaborated on my former Blade Runner obsession here. To avoid my work in school assignments going to waste, I will post my final project drawing and the accompanying analysis. I tried to cover almost every interesting point during the heyday of my obsession. This is the project proposal; here is the analysis, part 2.

Dickson He

Professor Doe

Apocalypticism in Film, Section 2

8 October 2014

Creative Project Proposal: Art of the Setting of Blade Runner

Although I grew up in the suburbs, I have always been entranced by large cities and the opportunities, diversity, and mix of people they present. Of course, there are also negative aspects like crowdedness, pollution, and seemingly extended gray weather, but these neurotic elements can add to the mystiques of places like Boston and New York City. While I have only went to New York City once, its fast pace and hypnotic lights has left an indelible imprint. Blade Runner takes place in a dystopian future Los Angeles, and pictures of the movie on Google Images immediately connect with my lust and fascination for cities and apocalyptic sci-fi like Neon Genesis.

Futurism in Scooby-Doo

I don't actively go looking for trends like a biologist goes looking for mutated animals, but I realized almost a decade later that there are futuristic elements in direct-to-video cult classic (at least, in my cult) Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase.

There is virtual reality like Oculus Rift, which can engulf parts of human existence in the far future. Scooby Snax are reminiscent of soma in Brave New World, a generally coveted feel-good drug that can alter perceptions of existence. I don't fully recall the plot of the movie, but it falls into the many interesting futuristic visions before the advent of smartphones and iPads.

People As People

I think an important premise of psychology as a scientific discipline is that there are relatively fixed patterns underlying people. Of course, there is a lot of controversy and debate along the lines of nature versus nurture in which the patterns may not be inherent but socially learned; with research largely coming from WEIRD countries (western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic), there may be peculiarities ingrained in individualism.

Nonetheless, I think humans as animals, albeit very special and advanced mammals, have shared basis that is partially elucidated by psychological schemas like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

This shared basis can be applicable, or some would even say exploitable, in many fields. How does marketing take advantage of instincts? Why are some leaders so charismatic? Why do some social media campaigns succeed and others get lambasted? Why are luxury goods so coveted? I won't provide answers in my opinion, but I think even business-related questions like these can be understood psychologically. This makes psychology an important framework for understanding and interpreting human development despite flaws of its study and how notoriously difficult understanding oneself is.

Ode to Windows

Having been a Windows user since Windows 98, I find an ode appropriate to a lifeless technology that commands us, the panes of windows remaining open until completed and closed, the industrial nature of being compartmentalized to a laptop, and the oppressive clock in the bottom-right corner that makes apparent the high engineering for productivity. Windows 98 had a beautiful grayscale. Of course, I'm only this cynical when I've been at the library for too long!

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Log Files

The Principles Behind This Site

Sometimes people focus and concentrate deeply only to regrettably abandon the state of mind that led to such creativity. However, a fresh slate can provide new perspectives in approaching an issue.

Since I am virtually done with the layout of this site, I want to recall the principles that led to its design. This will allow future consideration of the prevailing thoughts and purposes.

This Basic Site's Design Principles

Simplicity – Since Steve Jobs and co. made minimalism in vogue, it is interesting to design for less rather than stuffing with more marginally useful features. This also makes life easier for users and myself. I don’t know why, but there is a certain clarity in minimalism that reminds me of Buddhist meditation and exotic histories.

Functionality – With minimalism in mind, I still wanted basic modern web functionalities like sharing present in an intuitive way (I hope I this doesn’t sound too much like an Apple commercial).

Interest – I wanted to call this principle “fun,” but interest seemed more appropriate. Hopefully, this website will be interesting.

Dynamism – Due to the both exciting and unsettling prospect that several things change daily like asset prices, it’s important that there is a certain activeness and system for updates.

Robustness – At risk of sounding like a supply chain person, I think that this component is extremely important as I wanted to construct a strong, lasting framework that can handle what I intend. This includes space for posts about virtually anything. Keen people may recognize traces of Blogger, which I admittedly used as the base. Hey, it’s a personal website, not an insanely complex startup with a ridiculous valuation.

Of course, I didn’t note all the details and rationales because that is giving away the recipe. Nonetheless, it helps to have a basic framework and constitution in mind.