Update From the Front Lines

well, it's been a fast seven days since my last post. i guess i'll throw in a little recap of what i've done so far: i've ran a lot, i'm up to eight miles, i've watched movies multiple times, including army of darkness, you me and everyone we know, and crash, and i've done a whole lot of sleeping. and that's about it.

i'm going to the fresno state vs. ucsb basketball game tonight. i'm planning on wearing a little usc apparel, so it should be an entertaining night in the least.

i guess there isn't much more to report. i've actually had the chance to do a little reading since i've been back. i re-read all quiet on the western front and now i'm working on you shall know our velocity. i'll probably move on to my all time favorite, the stranger, next. i need to buy some new books. yea, so i'll probably be back with more after the festivities.

quote: "all this talk of getting old, it's getting me down, my love." -verve

Money Money Money Money! Muuuuneeey!

i don't know if any of you caught the season finale of the apprentice, but i thought i might throw in a snarky comment here or there concerning the show. i guess i'd have to say my favorite part was watching rebecca hop awkwardly to the elevator and into the board room with her suitcase in tow and then listen to teammate after teammate talk about how she handled herself with grace throughout the competition. alla's complete degradation of any other woman in the competition continued as she totally lambasted rebecca, saying she saw absolutely no leadership qualities in the 23-year-old financial journalist. and how awkward was trump during the live shots? it was seriously painful to watch. but in the end, the job went to randal, and while deservedly so, i must say my respect for him is wanting. he has five academic degrees, one from oxford, one from m.i.t., he is a rhodes scholar and he needs to go on the apprentice to get a job? yea, yea, he ran his own multi-million dollar company before going on the show. personally, i would've stuck with the multi-millions. it's just such a pain to have multi-billions because the atm screen doesn't have enough spaces so you can't see your account total and then you have to go into the bank and stand in line with the inferiors who are probably there to deposit the jar of coins they've spent five years collecting. it's just a whole ugly situation.

Best Computer Game Ever

alright guys, here is the lowdown. if you don't know what skifree is, you need to have yourself admitted. the brilliance of this game lives on today. okay, let me backtrack a little and give all you non-skifreers a little background. skifree is a computer game developed by some programmer on his home computer. he happened to be a programmer at microsoft, and they saw him playing it one day and decided to include it with the infamous windows entertainment pack of the early 90s. you can find tons of info. on the author's site or on the wikipedia entry.

anyway, here are a few things you should know about the game before you go download it (at author's site):

make dogs pee by running into them several times:












at the end of the game, the abominable snowman comes and eats you:

The Aftermath of the Storm

it's all over folks. final week officially ended yesterday for me, and today is actually the last day of finals here at usc. the streets are quiet. no bicycles piloted by clueless and oblivious sorority girls clog the streets. the sidewalks are free from clumps of asians on the way to their secret fraternity meetings at the library. only the occasional drunk scream cuts the night air as the few remaining warriors celebrate their victories over academia.

well, i'm relaxing here until friday, when i head back to fresno for the "holidays." can't say christmas anymore, people. honestly, both sides of this argument are pretty pathetic. really, i couldn't care less if walmart wants to wish me a merry christmas or a happy holiday. actually, i'd prefer neither.

so i don't know how much i'll be posting over the break. i will be stuck with the dreaded dial-up connection, so i may not be able to withstand the slow loading pages without ripping my arm off and beating myself into oblivion. yes, this high-speed internet of conquest housing, however inconsistent it has been, has spoiled me. so if you must have a few simple, intellectual ramblings from my twisted mind, go ahead and give me a call. meanwhile, enjoy your class-free life if you are a fellow colleague, or suffer through these last few days of work before your vacation days kick in if you are one of the working weary.












oh, woodstock. you kill me.

Might As Well Jump

i'm doing the sunday challenge crossword on yahoo and the clue is "hanging limply". the solution? "loppy"...i guess they weren't lying when they said it was a challenge. google found no results for loppy. to be fair, it did show up at dictionary.com. i'm just bitter.

i love how i have to actually pay to run the l.a. marathon. please, take my money so i can subject myself to 26.2 miles of pure torture. i'll be accepting donations and sponsorships up to the date of the race. any extra money will go toward my hospital bill immediately following the race.

so it's time for me to get my act together and get back to the pool. i've been slacking big time lately, eating a bunch of crappy food. it's time to get back in summer of '03 shape.

quote: "you've got to roll with the punches and get to what's real." -van halen

Repeat After Me: It's Just A Game

nobody i know got tickets to the rose bowl, which, for you sub-rock dwellers out there, features a matchup of unheard hype: texas (boo) vs. usc (yay). i entered the student lottery, which incidentally boasts the same odds of winning the actual lottery, in hopes of securing tickets for my roommate, but to no avail. my boss at the physics department was on the verge of leaping out of the fourth floor window of the office where i work after discovering that she didn't receive tickets in the staff lottery. she's been "out sick" for the past couple of days, no doubt caught in the depths of a devastating depression after seeing ticket prices on ebay and stubhub.

personally, i'd rather watch the matchup from the comfort of my couch with a brew in hand than from the upper seats of the south section of the rose bowl. if you offered me good tickets, on the other hand, that would be a different story. but seriously folks. $500-2,000 for one ticket?! i'd rather take a week-long trip to europe than spend 4 hours with a crappy view of a game that is going to turn out to be a disappointing outcome following the increasingly overexaggerated hype that is already being pumped out by one sports commentator after another. so everyone just take a deep breath, put down the checkbook and the visa card, and repeat after me: it's just a game.

Up Next, Usher Walks Off Stage!

i know i shouldn't be admitting this, but unfortunately i caught the last twenty minutes of the billboard music awards tonight. following the awards show was the highly acclaimed fox 11 news at 10 o'clock, and keep in mind that "highly acclaimed" is positively dripping with liquid sarcasm. so i was switching to the news while the daily show with jon stewart went to commercial, you know, so i didn't have to stop laughing, and i saw a teaser that i just had to share with you all. for those unfamiliar with news terms, a teaser is a short plug for a story that is running later in the newscast, usually coming before a commercial break to hook the viewer into the show. anyway, here is the teaser, not verbatim, but close enough...oh yea, keep in mind that the reporter had just finished a live shot about the awards show:

female reporter with spastically dyed hair: "now during the show i'm sure many of you saw mariah carey reading a list of names off of a palm pilot when she accepted her award. insert reporter's name here will tell you what that was all about when we come back."

seriously...has the news team at fox 11 never witnessed an awards show before tonight? she was thanking people? with a list? wahahahaaaaat? i regret to inform you that despite it's intense appeal, i did not stick around to hear the complete story, but i'm sure it went something like this:

male reporter with offbeat tie and unlikely name (ex. weatherman dallas raines): "apparently she prepared a list of people to thank in advance, just in case she won the award, to ensure that she didn't forget anyone. you may have noticed that she closed with 'all the fans out there.' it was a risky move, but i think it paid off. now over to sports with dodger mclakers."

Metal Ring of Deception

why does it feel so great to find a great movie and show it to friends? maybe that's just me.

i've been thinking about running the los angeles marathon, and if i ever actually start seriously training i think i might start another blog about that experience. give me some feedback on whether that would be interesting or not, because i don't want to waste my time. well, i wouldn't be wasting my time, because i think everything i write is interesting, and if you don't, well, i don't know what to tell you. you've got a serious problem, that's all.

i went to warner company jewelers in fresno over thanksgiving break with my family. my mom was picking up some jewelry she was having cleaned and my dad needed a new strap for his watch. anyway, the sales guy was talking to us about watches and my mom noticed an unusual looking one and he took it out and explained the concept. basically, it was a ring of metal where the watch face would normally be. no hands, no numbers, just a ring of metal. he explained that it was a statement that time didn't control the wearer of the watch. but then, hidden on the other side of the watch, beneath the strap, was a tiny watch that did have the time. so i guess the statement is not true and the person who wears a watch like that does not deserve to own that statement, because they don't really believe in it. if you aren't controlled by time, don't wear a watch or wear one with only a metal ring. but don't wear one with a metal ring as a front for freedom while all along you are hiding your secret dependence on time.

Bruin Fans Are Obviously the Spawn of Satan

first of all, reggie won the heisman tonight. second of all, we absolutely destroyed the bruins. but for the main point of this post, i'd like to talk about the fact that ucla fans are complete dicks. okay, maybe not all of them, but the majority of what i saw this afternoon made me sick.

there were ucla fans lining the walkway to the coliseum, yelling at usc fans walking by, tearing roses away from a middle-aged female trojan fan, and DUMPING BEER AND ORANGE JUICE on anyone wearing red. i can't believe they didn't get totally mauled. then, after an absolutely crushing defeat in the first three quarters, with the score at 59-6, the ucla student section began tearing up their pom-poms and throwing bits of blue paper at trojan fans in nearby sections. it was the biggest display of poor sportsmanship and overall disrespect i've ever seen at any sporting event, and their school should be ashamed of the sort of people that represent them. did we harass bruin fans, soak them with beer and trash their stadium when we played them and beat them last year at the rose bowl? no. it is just proof that ucla fans have absolutely no class and can't admit defeat, even when it is as stupendously obvious as it was tonight. that being said, i would just like to say that even though i'm going to send out a universal U-C-L-A SUCKS! i would never disrespect my school, my fellow fans and my football team by acting the way they did this afternoon.

Rock You Like a Hurricane

why do i have this proclivity to delay work on even the easiest of projects? sunday i am going to santa monica and that is the bottom line.

this has actually been one of my favorite days of this semester. i don't know why. i got up, went for a swim, came home, played around on my guitar and watched a movie. maybe i'll go for a run later. i don't know. i don't know if i'll have enough time. for those who missed it, that was a rather bad allusion to the cinematic masterpiece old school. i know, it's a shame that such an intellectual blog would contain such childish references. i apologize. to make it up, here is some nietzsche for you:

quote: "Digressions, objections, delight in mockery, carefree mistrust are signs of health; everything unconditional belongs in pathology." -Friedrich N.

Don't Bruin Your Life

tonight is the big night. huge bonfire in the quad, football team and pete carroll speeches, fireworks, FREE jimmy eat world concert. life is definitely good right now. then tomorrow i go to santa monica to hopefully shoot my final package for broadcast production. then it's saturday and i get to watch usc trounce the bruins.

better get on that holiday shopping, huh? hey guys, do me a favor a leave some hints in the comments section of this post about what you would like for la fête de noël, s'il vous plaît. je suis désolé, mais je suis juste sorti de ma classe française. ainsi, au revoir et bonne journée.

Live

mind is awash with swirling thoughts. things i should be doing going undone again. life skips. ups and downs all the time. where do i find meaning? in a film essay? a broadcast package? a note on my guitar? search for a way to make sense of this senselessness.

hold out for a few more days. push the quietly rising fear back down. find solace in the silence.

pay the rent. eat the food. sleep.

live.

Ernie Balls Rock My World

get your mind out of the gutter, sickos...they are guitar strings. i finally mustered up enough courage to twiddle around with sera and replace her strings. now it's like my fingertips are pressing down onto soft, fluffy clouds. it truly is heavenly. anyway, just thought i'd throw that out there and maybe a picture as well.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

so i'm sitting at the train station with my mom in the car, waiting for my train back to los angeles and listening to the radio when i realized something. the monster truck rally voice is good for advertising certain things, such as say, a monster truck rally. however, when used in conjunction with other products...well, let's just say it doesn't work so well. the liquor barn in clovis, which in itself is an interesting way to go, put together a little radio advertisement that went a little something like this, imagining, of course, that this is all in that loud, deep and tough demolition derby voice: 'buy your spirits at the liquor barn. we have vodka, bourbon, whisky, scotch.' now, i was okay with it up to this point, because, these are "hard" liquors, so i suppose they deserve a "hard" voiceover. but then i hear: 'we have cabernet, sauvignon blanc and merlot. come satisfy all your liquor needs at the liquor barn in clovis.' maybe we differ on this subject, but to me wine isn't the sort of "grab you by the balls and kick your teeth in" alcohol like perhaps a bottle of whiskey.

"buy some goddamn pinot...

...i fuckin' dare ya!"




it appears these next few weeks may be a little hectic to say the least. we'll see how much time i can manage to waste by posting on this blog.

Ereiam J.H.

if you haven't seen the movie brazil, do so now.

maqsigkmm...if you can figure that out, all power to you because now you know one of my darkest secrets.

i may have landed a summer internship at the los angeles times. i'm definitely in the running for a fact checking position with the magazine section. even if i don't get it, just the fact that my professor, who works at the times, asked me to apply is great. sorry, i'm going to gloat for a few minutes...

Memory

so i was thinking, while i was watching eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, not lost in translation like i said in my last blog, about memory and all that. i realized that there are so many memories about little things that i forget. it could be a simple memory like riding my bike to class one day and noticing how the sky was a certain shade of gray. anyway, i decided to make a memory that i would remember forever...or at least try to. i'm going to sit here for fifteen minutes and just think about writing this post. i'm thinking that if i sit here and concentrate on it hard enough, hopefully i can remember how i feel at this moment when i'm seventy or something like that. so if you want, just sit there for fifteen minutes after you read this post, so one day, when we are old and gray, we can talk about this moment in our lives that we both remember.

Reggie Won the Heisman Last Night

i think it is safe to say that the people in charge of scheduling football games here at usc won't be inviting fresno state back for another round in the coliseum for quite some time. my voice is nonexistent today thanks to the chaos that was last night's game. reggie bush single-handedly carried the team to victory in a battle that was marked by so many ups and downs that left me hoarse and barely able to stumble home in exhaustion.

well, since i don't have much else to say, i'm going to get drunk and watch lost in translation. yes, on a sunday. don't judge me.

Behold! My First Post That Starts With a "B"

i stayed up until five in the morning finishing those articles. actually, i finished two and was halfway through the third when i decided to collapse and sleep off the aftereffects of seven cups of coffee. then i revived myself at eleven to finish the bad boy off. a thoroughly productive night.

if my neighbor turns up dead, i'm going to to know who did it. i just walked by the apartment next to mine on the way back from the laundry room (i am in desperate need of clean socks and underwear) and i heard language that would make ozzy osbourne blush. and it was audible through the door. and our apartments have some pretty thick doors.

i have a good feeling about this weekend. i don't know why, i just do. alright, back to folding.

It's a Be-a-u-tiful Morning

i started my homework at 12:41 a.m. or is that p.m. i can never figure out the whole 12:00 situation, whether it is morning or afternoon. whatever, you know what i mean. i just finished, and it is officially 1:06. not the most rigorous night of bookwork ever. but hey, i'm still cranking out a nice post for you guys here.

okay, let me tell you about the joke that is my online journalism production class. no offense to the professors who teach these classes...somehow i doubt news of my disapproving post on the subject will reach them...but mine is the most worthless two hours a week i have ever spent. not to mention it happens to fall at 8 o'clock in the morning. i really have to give it up for classes in which i spend more time looking at my email and facebook than at the professor. i learned this kind of stuff back when i was five and my mom brought our first computer home. we had to start it up the old fashioned way, from ms-dos. these young kids these days don't know how easy they have it. anyway, that's a topic for another day. so, we are learning about how to edit photos in photo shop and execute simple html commands like making text bold or underlined. the sad thing is...a lot of people in my class are having a tough go of it. there really should be a competency exam that we can take on the first day, and if we pass we don't have to go to any more classes and we get an automatic a+.

ever since i learned how to put pictures up on this thing, i've gone a little crazy with it. so here is something to stare at and a little quotage to tickle the noggin.

btw, i believe this is a potato carved to resemble a two-piece bathing suit...correct me if i'm wrong. the french phrase underneath the photo translates to 'not here.'

quote: "an idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." -H. L. Mencken

I Had a Great Idea, But I Forgot It

i got an extension on my three articles and found out i'm actually getting paid for them, so give me a 'booyah' for that. i still haven't finished one of them yet, so give me a Debbie Downer 'wah wah wah' for that.

i swear i had something really meaningful to write in this post. i remember sitting in my modernist film discussion section last night thinking about this great idea i had for a post. well, you are just going to have to settle for my usual shallow drivel.

i don't really care about the old guys and the nakedness in the locker room thing. all i want to know is why they somehow manage to gather in front of my locker every time i come in from the pool. always trying to bend down far enough to pull their baggy underwear over their feet. it's not like my locker is a buffet-style restaurant or a window with a view of a duck pond.

- "my word, ethel, i could sit here all day if
we weren't going to hometown buffet later."

And You Think It's Just a Game

i've realized that while i would be upset about any loss our football team suffers, the last team i want to beat us is fresno state. that would undoubtedly unleash a fury of cacophonic phone calls from fresno residents who were formerly known as my friends and colleagues. you can be sure that riots would ensue as the red wave tried to charge the field, which, as we all know, is guarded by the highly professional los angeles police department. i'm sure there are few moments of sheer bliss in the life of a cop more enjoyable than a couple of free shots with the blunt end of a nightstick to the cranium of a smart-ass college student. then these beaten, bruised and now truly "red" wavers would return to the peace and quiet of fresno with tales of violence and degradation from the heart of south central. it may be worthy to point out at this moment a few incidents involving the student section in bulldog stadium, which coincidentally is located directly behind the visiting team's bench. i believe one of them involved the use of a phillips head screwdriver as an aerial projectile. yet we can all be assured that hypocrisy runs rampant among most football fanatics. the violence experienced at the coliseum in the event of a bulldog victory would not be described as an isolated incident like the airborne implement of former mention, but rather a series of brutal, premeditated malefactions emblematic of a community deep in the throes of savagery. just for the sheer protection of our image as a peaceful populace, we must crush this wave of red that threatens to blanket us with claims of debauchery. so fight on, noble trojans. our societal esteem rests in your hands.

How You Gonna Keep Me Down on the Farm?

well, i got a nice little tour of the l.a. times courtesy of my copy editing professor. yea, i'm definitely working there. it's going to happen. they have two weight rooms, a basketball court and a sound-proofed music practice room. they have a test kitchen in which they try out all their recipes for the food section...and then they give out the food to the employees. i might mention that they've done wine and whisky tasting in the past. i think i may be able to live in that building and never come out again.

i'm well on my way to collecting the complete happy hollisters series. i loved those books as a kid and i'm glad i'll be able to have them for mine, if that ever ends up happening.

three more weeks of this madness and i'll be in relaxation mode for quite some time.

My Head Hurts (Not From Drinking)

yea, so i have a head cold with some nice chills and an overall aching body. perfect time for me to feel so weak i can barely type these letters. it just shows my commitment to you guys. so we did good against cal and i'm ready for the red wave to come to los angeles. it shall be a good time. it feels like this semester is going by really quickly, but somehow the end still seems so far away. i just want to finish these three articles, my film paper and my last broadcast package and go home and sleep for a year.

sorry i wasn't much fun this weekend, girls. i'll be back with a vengeance next time around. but now i can hear my eyelids slamming shut. woosh, bang. woosh, bang. enjoy this hot picture while i try to recover...

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

i have three 500-1,000 word stories to write for early next week. and i offered to do them. i don't even need to do them. sometimes i astonish myself. unbelievable.

santa monica tonight!

Ruminations

life is funny.

I Thought Halloween Was Over

holy hell. did anyone else see nicole richie on jay leno tonight? unbelievable. i can't even describe it, i'm going to have to show you:

nicole before

nicole now

when did she drop everything but her skin? i couldn't watch it anymore, it was like watching one of those documentaries on some impoverished country with images of deathly thin natives.

I Have This Idea For a Post...It's About Nothing

ahh, the classic days of seinfeld, where have they gone? now those ancient memories rest in faded glory, brought out only for an hour or so on tbs.

sometimes i wonder what would happen if i just didn't try at all. it seems like things keep falling into my lap. here is the story for all you confused little readers of mine: ten hours ago i was in the deepest pit of despair and discouragement over the progress of my broadcast journalism project. the assignment was to basically create a 1:45 minute news package like any you might see on television news. at this point, i had horrible b-roll, no interviews, no standup and a weak, faltering script. ten hours ago. and then the clouds rolled in and unleashed a steady drizzle on my day. luckily, that wasn't a metaphor for the situation i found myself in, but just the weather here in "sunny" los angeles. somehow i managed to pull together a couple of interviews, shoot my standup, revise and tighten my script and edit the whole piece together with hours to spare.

i spent those few hours watching seinfeld. the one where the whole episode is in reverse and you see the story unfold backwards. yea, that one where they go to india for that wedding and that guy wishes that kramer would drop dead. and we see the faults inherent in elaine's "vault of secrets." vault faults you might say.

and now for a completely nothing thought: "I believe I know how to synergize exponentially. I simply have to recontextualize vertically rather than to benchmark intuitively."

here's hoping your life is as stressfree as mine is at this moment.

We're Up! Weak! Set!

man, it was a good weekend of waterpolo here at USC. saturday we played #3 stanford and pulled out an 8-7 overtime win. that was a great battle. then sunday we played #5 pepperdine and took off to an early 5-1 at half and won it easily.

watching the trojans play against pepperdine was like watching a well-oiled machine at work. everything was smooth and the plays were run to perfection. i could see how every movement contributed to the possession. it was excellent. and zatovic once again dominated the pool.

it was the opposite for the pepperdine team. they didn't seem to have a lot of direction on their offensive possessions. the ball wasn't moving around much and they didn't seem to have their head in the game. i felt their resident olympian, jesse smith, was more than disappointing. he scored a few goals on nice one-on-one plays, but he didn't lead the team like i expected him to, like ormsby did for ucla or azevedo for stanford when the trojans played them in the past.

smith was majored in the third quarter and what followed was a display of immaturity and selfishness. he walked away from the pool and out of my sight. the ref had to pause the game so the pepperdine coach could go get him and bring him back to the bench. then he sat there looking all huffy and pissed off while his team struggled on. during timeouts and the final break before the fourth quarter, he remained on the bench while his team gathered around the coach. it was such a display of childishness. i couldn't believe it. he is supposed to be a national team member and he was acting like a spoiled child. i understand that a few calls didn't go the way he wanted, but i felt he was acting like he was too big for the game and the refs. it was just disappointing to watch one of the supposed leaders of united states waterpolo act that way.

quote: "I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool." -Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird

Just Another Old Guy

i don't see why people are getting so bent out of shape over what bill cosby has been saying on his little speaking tour. it's what old people from a different generation do. so he thinks black kids don't talk right and they are wasting the freedom that his generation fought so hard for during the civil rights movement of the 60s. i'm sure many of his ideas are valid and many of them are a complete crock. who cares if he thinks naming your kid keyjuan or shaniqua is bad.

it's what old people do. they bitch and complain about society falling apart with these new generations of crazy kids. what do you think older people were saying when he was doing standup in the 70s and movies like uptown saturday night? sure, i'll grant you that he's getting more attention because of his status in society. i'm sure if he were just some guy off the street no one would even pay him any attention. and so what if he wants to critique society, and specifically the culture that he stems from? would we care this much if james caan spoke out against punk rockers and how their dark clothing and unkempt hair was a negative influence on society? give me a break.

it's sad to think that when someone like bill cosby speaks out against some ills that he sees in society, we shoot him down for being a cynical critic. now i'm not advocating or denying anything that he says, i'm just saying it's stupid to get so worked up about this whole thing. if there is something to get worked up about, it should be something like this or this. i could write a whole book on that last one. these people scare the shit out of me.

Stop the World, I Want to Get Off

this is going to be a fun couple of days. i have an OJR article due by around noon, a french test and a huge broadcast package to put together for next week. as much as i love the core (sarcasm, people) i could really do without the broadcast background. just not my thing. this OJR article should be pretty easy though. i basically have all the pieces, i just need to put them together.

i don't know if any of you few readers caught this little gem of reality television, but i had the unfortunate opportunity to watch trading spouses or wife swap or whatever that show fox has on where the switch the mothers of two families. i really suggest you look it up. actually, just go here and watch the video (sorry if they took it down already, i don't have the time or motivation to make sure all my links are still live). it makes me realize how glad i am to have grown up with such a great family. and i used to think my ex-girlfriend's mom was bad. and it scares me that there are people out there like her. and it scares me even more that there are enough of them to elect a president like the one we have right now. (shudder).

it seems like i always let work pile up until it looms over me and i feel that panic of an approaching deadline. that's the only time i can do quality work. i guess that bodes well for my career choice. i'd make a terrible author. must have pressure. and i somehow manage to not let it stress me out. incredible.

Driblets of the Weekend

we're probably the only football team in the country that has more celebrities on the sidelines than players. seriously, who else has snoop dog leading cheers while george lucas wanders around signing autographs? we are certainly a hollywood team.

i don't see how anyone can trust this white house anymore. is it even possible to defend them? seriously, this whole blind faith thing that this society seems to revel in has got to go.

it's really sad that we are starting to use greek letters to name our hurricanes. hurricane beta just hit nicaragua.

i can't believe the new york times didn't have the new delhi bombings as one of the top stories on its website. i guess 59 people being killed in a terrorist bombing is too common these days to warrant any large amount of attention.

Licks and Riffs

working on my guitar solos. maybe i should be working on learning the basics, but i'm not. so bad. i keep telling myself i'm just messing around now and getting a feel for it and next semester when i actually take a guitar class i'll get down to business. speaking of that, someone better win this damn baseball game. i want to go get dinner. i have plenty of homework to do: a french paper and a 30-minute news broadcast to lay out.

quote: "Exterminate all rational thought. That is the conclusion I have come to." -Bill Lee, Naked Lunch

Another Sunny Day in Cali-for-ni-a

what a relaxing and much-needed break that was. very nice. not much happened. i think i finally cleared the air with my ex. we had a long talk and put everything to bed. she probably thought i was a completely condescending and patronizing asshole, but hey, i'm a guy, that's my job, right? anyway, it was a good weekend and i think i'm ready to get back to work. yea...hey is that television on? catch you...guys...in....a...........few.

Wake Up Time

it's insane how comfortable my bed here at home is. well, i didn't do much today. spent most of it sleeping and playing guitar actually. it was nice. looking forward to relaxing tomorrow, watchin a little football, hopefully usc destroying washington. getting some dinner with my grandmother. it will be good.

i hate how necessary it is for me to have a car. at least if i want to have a decent internship this summer. i really want to try for the oc register, but i don't know how i'm going to work that out. i don't really feel like coming back to fresno and interning at the bee. i don't like paying $550 a month and not getting anything out of it. we'll see what happens though.

quote:

"Well, if he gets lucky, a boy finds a girl

To help him to shoulder the pain in this world

And if you follow your feelings and you follow your dreams

You might find the forest there in the trees"

-Tom Petty

Prison Break

i'm outta here for a few days! catch you all later.

quote: "Can you keep a secret? I'm trying to organize a prison break. We have to first get out of this bar, then the hotel, then the city, and then the country. Are you in or you out?" -Bob Harris, Lost in Translation

Can't Escape It

i had to turn on this word verification thing for comments. so if and when you guys leave a comment you have to type in a word that appears on the screen all warped and screwy looking. my posts have been getting spam comments. it's incredible. i can't imagine that is a very effective form of advertising.

one more day of class and i'm done for the week. i started looking at classes for next semester and it looks like it's going to be another 18-unit adventure. law of mass communication. now that sounds like a heart-stopper right there. i'll try to hang on to my seat, but i might explode with excitement pretty soon.

quote: "The older you get, the more rules they're going to try and get you to follow. You just gotta keep on livin', man. l-i-v-i-n." - Wooderson, Dazed and Confused

No Way!

i just watched quite possibly the worst news segment ever. two news channels here in los angeles both covered this "story." here is the tagline: want to stimulate your sex life? head to the gym. well, duuuuuuh! wait, wait, wait, you're telling me that if i want to have more sex, i need to get in shape? most people aren't attracted to this innertube of fat around my waist? wow. nice news judgment there guys.

Martha Rides a Pumpkin

man, i was feeling pretty depressed tonight after i got out of my copy editing class. we were supposed to come up with headlines for stories that were pretty soft, like features. sorry for you non-news folks out there. basically play-on-word type headlines. well, we got this story about martha stewart being able to join some sort of giant pumpkin regatta on some canadian lake. apparently they carve out giant pumpkins and row them into canada. anyway, since she is an ex-con and all, they weren't going to let her, canada has some law about letting ex-cons in the country. she ended up not doing it because of rain. anyway, i couldn't come up with any good headlines and i felt like my creativity is totally gone. too much of this mind-numbing technical stuff. i didn't get into journalism to learn exactly when it is appropriate to use an ampersand and when it is deemed unconscionable.

i guess i'll be heading back to fresno this weekend for a little r & r. yea, goddamit i used an ampersand! and you better learn to deal with it! anyway, it should be a nice break from this tragically bad weather we've had here of late. in the low 90s one day and pouring rain the next. once i get some much-needed home cooking and sleep in my real bed everything should be copacetic.

quote of the day: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -Albert Einstein

Speechless

they really can't keep doing this to me. i can't take it. it's too much. what did we have, 1:44 left, and we somehow manage to pull that victory out? i'm getting more stress from my football team than the rest of my life. it's not right.

i must admit, i had all but given up, but somehow our boys managed to pull it through. unbelievable.

nothing more to say.

unbelievable.

We'll Be Waiting

i can't believe what's been going on in my apartment complex. it's a complete disgrace. some asshole is pulling the fire alarm. tonight was the third time. they did it last friday and saturday. it's so inconsiderate. the fire department has to come out every time. and this asshole has been doing it at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. these poor guys are risking their lives every day. it makes me sick.

so my roommate and i are going to be ready next time this happens. we are going to have our running shoes on and the second we hear that alarm go off we are jumping anyone we see on the stairwell. we talked to the firefighters and they said it's always the fire alarm on the first floor, which, luckily, is the same one we are on. i'll let you guys know when we nail this douchebag.

Never Fear, Underdog is Here

there are so many people insisting that the trojans are going to lose to notre dame this weekend. i'm watching the notre dame pep rally that they had to move to the stadium just to have room for the 40,000 people that showed up. it's not even so much that it would suck if we lost, which it definitely would, but the fact that so many people are going to be happy and rubbing it in our faces. i think it's getting easier to root for the underdog than the favored team. i just want to make sure people realize that eventually, every team is going to lose. i've accepted that fact, and i've realized that people are going to be calling me and laughing. that's just going to show me who my true friends are.

this might be the best i have ever been prepared for a midterm in college. i'm actually making an outline of my notes with the main points and secondary points. it's scary. it's like i'm being responsible (shudder).

quote of the day: "for four-fifths of our history, our planet was populated by pond scum." -J. W. Schopf

Zamunda

i'm down to one more midterm. post classical american cinema. sweet. anyway, you all need to watch the game this weekend. usc v. notre dame. it will be a classic battle.

after the midterm i just took, black comedy, there was a little time before the screening of coming to america with eddie murphy. yea, can you believe they made us stay AFTER the midterm for a screening? that's just cruel. anyway, i was hanging out waiting for the movie to start, outside of norris. it's a cool area, you got a fountain, lots of trees, grass, whatnot. anyway, there were a couple of guys practicing their classical guitar, so i watched and listened to them for a while. it makes me realize how pathetic my guitar skills are, if you can even call them skills. these guys are flying up and down the fretboard and picking faster than my eyes can even follow. i guess you can never really appreciate what musicians do until you try to do it yourself. i can't even imagine how much time i'd have to put in to be half as good as them.

i'm just trying to learn sandman by metallica.

Uncouth Distraction

alright, so i was sitting there in the roundtable discussion room at Annenberg listening to the very prestigious Dan Gillmor discuss citizen journalism and the future of journalism in general. there were a fair amount of people in the room, students and faculty and the like. in my typical hang-back-in-the-shadows style, i was relaxing on the couches lining the walls of the room. two girls were sharing the couch with me, and there were others on several of the other couches, so i wasn't alone in my antisocial behavior.

anyway, this man, dressed in a nice shirt and tie, slacks, black shoes, the whole deal, comes in just before Dan starts his discussion. he sits down, pops open his soda, and starts slurping at it. i'm not kidding about this; every time he took a swig and put the can down, he let out an obnoxious belch that rumbled from the very depths of his gut to rupture noisily from his parted lips. the girls next to me kept shooting glances at him and shaking in silent giggles. oh, but that wasn't the end of it. oh no. he began shifting back and forth, readjusting, sighing and burping as he moved. then to top it off, he "stepped out" to take a phone call, but held the door halfway open so we could hear his labored muttering. thanks buddy. we need more people like you disrupting what was an otherwise illuminating lecture. next time your intestinal tract is doing a number on you because of the triple beef chili cheese dog you had for lunch, just do us all a favor and sit the round out.

Here We Go

well, here it is. my first post on my first blog. you'd think being a third-year journalism major i'd have done this a long time ago. i don't have much to say now, because i'm at work and i don't much feel like getting my two-day-old raise taken away already for screwing around. i'll try to be back later tonight with something good for you guys. i hope you enjoy.