The Finite

This past week, there were a bunch of events put on by the Asian Pacific American Caucus on what it means to be an Asian-American. I thought, “Oh, goodie. Liberal Arts majors! I never get to interact with those people!”

No, really it was a panel of esteemed Asian professors/big shots that was basically spilling their life stories on what it was like to grow up in the Midwest, go to graduate school and marry a white spouse. (This is Purdue at it’s diversiest apparently.) I wasn’t able to stay for the whole forum the first day, but it was the Tuesday’s I was more interested in. That one was titled “College Racism: Racial v. Racist Humor” and brought to light the oft-cavalier way some people handle race and the shit white people say to Asians. There was much needed discussion and some group indignation, but the event had a disappointingly small turnout (for all races). (And it’s pretty obvious some professor is throwing out extra credit for attendance. That’s a bit disappointing. Almost as much as the apparent apathy Purdue Asians have for race relations.)

I only wish some of my Asian friends I invited could come but none of them could because they wanted to study for an exam we have in two weeks. Alas.

Deep beneath the icy pavement of Purdue’s campus, lies a sprawling underground Catacomb full of carrels, computer station and Asians.

I work there now.

Yep, my exemplary performance (I didn’t screw anything up.) last semester paid off and now I get to work in the Undergraduate library at the IT desk. Helping meatheads with their meathead problems only now I do it as one of three similar Internet denizens staffing the desk.

I’m competent so long as they don’t ask me anything about computers. Everything else I know: where’s the nearest vending machine, whether or not we have mouse pads (We don’t.) and what time the library closes (because that’s when my shift ends.) Anything involving me setting up laptops to print or connecting MacBooks to Wifi involved me looking up stuff in the Knowledge Base (Powered by Google!) for tutorials and guides. Other than that, there’s lolcats and lolcat enthusiasts. Also, lanyards.