Sound Off

hey, here i am again, not too long after the last check-in. just came off a nice long break for the holidays, nonwithstanding a few short days of work in the middle of last week, and it's back to the grindstone. my fellow reporter is out for the rest of the week, so i'll be handling the flow of news for the daily sound in his absence. so it promises to be a busy week. luckily, i'll have tomorrow off. unfortunately, i don't get new year's day off, which is a pain not only because i can't get completely hammered the night before, being that my girlfriend is leaving, again, in some ungodly morning hour on the first day of the year for a week in hawaii after returning from a five-month study abroad program merely weeks earlier and i'll likely want to drown, with some sort of fermented beverage, the sorrow of not being able to kiss her at midnight, but also because usc plays illinois in the rose bowl on tuesday and i'll have to train myself to write brilliant journalistic prose while fervently glancing over my shoulder at the television to see exactly how the trojans decide to trounce the living daylights out of the fighting illini.

Monthly Briefer

another slow day at work. things always seem to drag to a standstill around the holidays. luckily, or unluckily, depending how you look at it, a kiteboarder had to be rescued by firefighters, winds are starting to stir up dust and ash from the zaca fire, and a bunch of new traffic laws are going into effect in january. that and an update about the plane crash in panama that killed two santa barbarans and injured another should be enough fodder to fill the paper to a respectable level for tomorrow.

the waves were pretty sloppy and gnarly on christmas day. went down to the beach during high tide and caught some wild ones, getting tossed about and beaten up by a few. there were a few surfers out there too, but we were the only people crazy enough to body surf. my feet and hands are usually numbed beyond belief by the time i decide i might want to get out of the water for a bit to warm them up. had to head into the office for a few hours of work on christmas as well, which wasn't fun, but wasn't a huge ordeal. there wasn't much going on, so it was a quick day to say the least. and this week is almost over for me. it's always nice having a two-and-a-half-day work week.

well, i'm writing this on my work laptop, so i better get back to it before i'm spotted. and i'm considering an attempt to post more often here. but i've said that about 20 times prior to this, so don't expect much.

Ages

well, here i am, about a month and a half after my last post. plenty has been going on in recent weeks, from the city council election finally wrapping up to my trip to scotland to a lot of college football. so lets start from the top. the election ended the night before i left for the airport, so that was a very high-stress way to start my vacation. running about trying to talk to all the candidates who won and a few who lost, then scrambling to type it all up in an hour to make deadline. then going home to wash laundry and pack before taking a bus the following morning to lax. the trip was incredible. plenty of cold scottish wind but surprisingly nonexistent rain. saw some castles, old buildings and my favorite person in the world. the trip back was pretty dreary. late evening flight into heathrow and everything was shut down. took about an hour to wind my way through the maze of terminals, asking for help from workers buffing floors and being turned away by more than a few locked doors and blocked passageways. but i finally made it to the right terminal and found a nice, hard, wooden bench with metal arm rests to completely prevent it from being comfortable in any sense of the word. luckily, my flight was not delayed, and after a brief struggle through customs at lax, i made my way back to santa barbara by way of traffic-plagued bus. the past few weeks have been incredibly lethargic, with a touch of jet lag, plenty of sitting around and watching football, and a three-day weekend for thanksgiving. but it's about time i get back into the swing of work during the week and back into praying for good waves on the weekend.

Old Salt

don't feel much like posting here after work. saving all my creativity for the paper i guess. i don't know how people manage to write books. well, we moved to our new office, everything looks great. getting lots done and beating up on that other newspaper in town. really windy today or i would've done a little body surfing. hopefully it will be nice tomorrow. hit the waves for a few hours before the usc game starts.

Blitzkrieg

been pulling long hours at the office lately, so i haven't felt much like writing here. to be honest, not much new is going on. i'll probably head out to the beach tomorrow to relax before i hit the grind again. usc rolled over nebraska today, so i guess that is always exciting. pretty slow couple of weeks around here. maybe things will pick up once i get off this news-press trial beat. and the daily sound will be moving to a new office closer to downtown at the end of the month, so that will be nice. no personal office yet. but i like the whole newsroom vibe anyway. even if our newsroom only has three people in it most of the time.

U.S. Americans

holy crap. this is too much. miss south carolina trying to answer a question about the education system in the united states: click here.

The Creeping Kid

after covering the zaca fire for almost two months, this is probably the most humorous line i've seen in any press release about the blaze:

The fire in the island within the Santa Cruz drainage continues to creep around.

i wish i knew who writes those updates. i almost laughed out loud when i read that. so not much is new around here. it's a pretty slow sunday, and after i finish of a zaca fire update, i should be out of here. as long as nothing exciting breaks on the police scanner. yawn.

Slowing Down

things have been pretty hectic around here with the news-press trial and the zaca fire. i also sent off my girlfriend for a five-month trip to russia and scotland, so that's been a bummer so far. and it's only been two days.

i don't know about this posting business. i rarely feel like writing in the evenings, and in the morning i'm usually too lazy. i guess i'm saying don't expect too much.

new starting line cd is decent. nothing special.

Conquest

on the way home tonight, a police officer waved me through a red light. how great is that? tomorrow the big news-press hearing starts, so i'll be stuck in court for the next three days. the zaca fire is still going crazy, so that is always a second story i can fall back on.

i can't wait for college football to start. best time of the year, hands down. fight on!

Nana's Tea Party

love it: conchords. "be more constructive with your feedback. why?"

Man Down

in the wake of doping scandals and forced withdrawals from the tour de france, there doesn't seem to be much focus on one of the true victims of this year's scandal-ridden tour: andreas kloden. his astana teammate, alexandre vinokourov, cost him a possible podium finish in paris after testing positive for blood doping, as well as pulling team astanta from the top position in the team competition. it's impossible to say whether or not kloden has used artificial means to rise to his stature in the cycling world, but he has never tested positive and he rides like a true team leader. it is unfortunate that his name is not listed alongside contador, leipheimer and evans.

my week alone at the daily sound has come to an end. our veteran reporter (of nine months) will return today, so i should get a bit of a respite. thankfully last week was relatively quiet in terms of earthshattering news.

Quite a Shocker

latimes.com headline: Drinking sodas might affect health, report says.

no freakin' way. is that the earth shattering beneath my feet?

As Requested

wrapping things up here at work and had a little energy left, so i thought i'd expend it on you guys, seeing as i made a vague promise to attempt such actions in my previous post. my co-worker and the only other reporter here at the sound is going on vacation all of next week, so it will be all me for that stretch. that won't be stressful, right?

and for the photo explanation, the triangle is the railing of the golden gate bridge, over which i am peering. through a ton of photo manipulation, i rendered it in that strange black-and-white state, so i understand your confusion.

aaaah, weekend!

July Post

i don't even know what to say. it's been so long since i've haunted these pages. feels like months. let's see what's happened since i last poured out my soul. work and sleep and eat. oh, and a great little play in sierra madre. that's about it. wink.

i spend all day writing, so can you blame me for not filling these pages with rambling thoughts? yea, okay. i'll see what i can do.

Analog Girl

check it out! a new daily sound blog featuring all the major stories from the day, including breaking news! sorta peeking into the digital age at last. (link to the blog on the right, enjoy). to view the paper as it appears in print, click the "daily sound viewer" link.

good ol' fourth of july yesterday. i got to run around to all the festivities, from montecito to goleta. of course it was nice and roasty toasty. nothing compared to fresno or, ahem, palmdale, and i really can't complain. but i thought i would anyway. ha.

Summer Shakes

howdy from the american riviera. we've got a good one cooking for tomorrow. check out the daily sound by clicking that handy link to the right there.

not much going down around here. fourth of july is coming up, but i'll probably wait until the weekend to fire up the grill. hope all you crazy kids are having fun during "summer vacation." that, sadly, no longer exists for me. luckily, i like my job. so every day is like a vacation for me, right? right.

i keep telling myself to post more, but i'm so lazy and tired when i get home from work. oh well.

Wonks

bush commutes libby prison sentence.

big fucking surprise there.

Sunbaked

i sat on the beach, surrounded by the scattered weekend families replete with umbrellas and ice chests and sand-castle-building equipment, having just returned from a swim out to the far buoy marking the swimming area and then along to the next buoy to the south and back to the shore, making a wobbly triangle in the choppy water that looked so pleasingly blue from the sand but turned a murky greenish-brown and revealed odd little slippery leaves of seaweed kept afloat by tiny pockets of air like a great undulating forest held upside down. my mouth swollen by the briny saltwater and my eyes stinging, i turned away from the sea and began jotting down, in a small notepad bound with false mahogany leather and gold corners, a letter i would later toss in the garbage bin in my room.

i stopped from time to time and glanced along the beach to the south, watching a middle-aged man sitting alone a hundred yards away, back from the water, staring at two young women, college students no doubt, sunning themselves closer to the waves, where the shore sloped up to a small roll where the high tide breaks and falls back. later, after i had abandoned the letter and lay spread over the large beach towel, another shielding my face from the sun, i heard muttering from that direction and began eavesdropping. somehow the older man had introduced himself to the women, who were, in fact, students at the nearby community college, and was now curiously lecturing them on a number of subjects, including microphone quality for music recording purposes, communications and accounting, which according to him is an easy fallback profession if you "just want to make some money."

as the conversation somehow morphed into a discussion of film, my enthusiasm for the discourse, and that i was privy to its meanderings, began to grow, and i started chuckling and snorting in disbelief, sometimes whispering to myself, "what the fuck is he talking about?" at the crux of the exchange, the older man launched into an analysis of the gladiator, russell crowe's roman battlefest blockbuster, with the clever observation that, "with this film, they have accurately portrayed, quite accurately portrayed, the world 2,000 years ago. so with film, you can travel back in time." in this moment of levity, doubtless for me and less sure for the two women, who aside from being subjected to these odd ramblings, also appeared to be of foreign nationality from the few accented words they managed to slip into the conversation, i felt the extent of humor to be derived from my clandestine spy operation had been met and exceeded long ago. nonetheless, i continued to listen, now shaking with silent mirth as he expanded on his view of film as a vehicle of nonspatial continuum with: "and with film, you can travel forward in time. into the future. have you seen the fifth element?"

at that point, i decided to abandon my mission at what most certainly seemed to be its apex and slipped back into the water for a quick refresher before i packed up my belongings, leaving the trio to further explore the ad infinitum cosmos of the silver screen.

Inbox Flood

back again. took a little jaunt up to los angeles and officially moved out of my place there. so i guess it's officially official now. all my stuff is here. or in fresno. but mostly here. and i hate moving. such a pain. probably because i've done it a dozen times in the past four years. not exaggerating there.

so looks like it's time to settle into a routine. so i doubt there will be much excitement to report. i wish we had our daily sound forum up and running so i could link to stories i wrote that i want to show off. oh well. hopefully they'll figure out a way to stop the spam commenting. keep on keeping on.

The Shuffle

i haven't posted in a while because, well, i kind of forgot about insular jot. but things are just rolling along here. coming up on one month of full-time work next week i believe, and it doesn't really seem like that much time has passed. i guess that is good. i'm living in a pretty sweet place, so i can't really complain about anything. i wish it didn't cost so much for lap swim or master's swimming. at least, that's the excuse i'm using not to hit the pool.

i'll be heading back to l.a. to clean up my former apartment and pick up my bike. so other than my ex-roommates and that pesky girlfriend (just kidding, dear), i won't have too many ties to the city of angels. and i'm kind of glad. too much noise and traffic and nasty air.

had a co-birthday and grad party last weekend with my bro. it's always nice to see the family and friends, and fill the coffers a bit. well, i'll try to get writing on this thing again. seems like i keep saying that. oh well. if you are bored, discuss the many failings of our president in the comment section. that should keep you busy for a while.

Info Highway

looks like i'll finally have internet at home in a couple of days. the computer tech guy is supposed to show up on friday to set me up. i may start blogging a little more fiercely once that happens. other than that, i don't have much new to report. just plugging away here at the daily sound. keep up the reading.

Quickie

whew. i can't even remember my last post, but i've started the job. and i'm still working on getting internet at home, so posting will be sparse until then. as sparse as this post, which i'm about to end. and.....end.

New Everything

i've been busy, alright! okay, here's the lowdown. i've moved into a 3 bed/2 bath condo one block from santa barbara's east beach. i'll be sharing the master bedroom and bathroom with my bro, and sharing the rest of the house with a sweet old lady and a middle-aged guy who isn't around much and seems pretty quiet. i've done graduated from university, and just got an email confirming that my degree was conferred. woot. i start work tomorrow at the santa barbara daily sound. i'll provide a link to the online version as soon as i feel like it. it'll probably be in the link section of this blog, surprisingly enough. my big priorities today are buying a wireless card for my desktop computer and maybe doing a little food shopping. hopefully my internet will be up and running at the condo (i'm posting this from my bro's computer in isla vista) by this evening so i can distract myself during my last day of true freedom. that is all for now.

Checkpoint

alright, as i warned, the chaos has commenced. the car is bought, but i must now square away my financing and buy insurance. then drive to los angeles, graduate, find an apartment, move and start my job. so one sort of big obstacle out of the way. not much else to report. i'll probably write more once i'm back in los angeles and back on anything other than dial-up internet.

Fredno

ahh, back in lovely fresno for a few days here. of course it's nice and toasty compared to socal. should be around for most of this week. looking into buying a car. yea, more debt. always a fun thing to do. also heading out to central for a visit with the old swim team. maybe dropping by bullard to visit my high school journalism teacher, the inspiration behind my career choice. and of course, eating lots of home-cooked meals.

posts may be sparse for the next few weeks as i graduate/move/start job/etc. could be a bit hectic. hell, will be hectic, i'm sure. all seems a bit unreal.

if i weren't so mentally lazy, i'd rant about a number of bush-related items, like the purple heart and sticking up for alberto "i-don't-recall" gonzalez. just imagine i have and shake with inner rage along with me.

Paragon

if you appreciate good journalism and good writing, and you aren't reading dan neil, you need to start. right now. right here. this is the first paragraph of the aforelinked article:

ONE is British, the other German. The Brit is a 1-ton, mid-engine atomic pixie stripped to the bare metal floor, a car so loud and raw that when its 220-horsepower supercharged four is at — how to put this delicately? — full suck, it sounds like an Oreck vacuum cleaner has taken up residence in your helmet. The German is almost exactly a half-ton heavier, a winged, ground-skimming vampire with a 415-hp, 3.6-liter flat six stuck in its keister. The sound of this engine is breathtaking, biblical, deeply sinister, like a two-man logging team cutting down the Tree of Knowledge.

now that is some goddamn writing. i challenge anyone to write an article about two cars that would make even the most spark plug and drive train-ignorant reader gasp in wonder. he's good. real good.

Dip and Wax

tomorrow evening is the infamous usc fountain run, when all the graduating seniors get a little drunk and ... jump in fountains. should i participate? it's been a little chilly lately.

today is essentially my last day of class. i'll have to come back to campus for my guitar final and to hand in my final design project, but this appears to be it. i feel ... not very different. a little relieved, maybe, to be done, to look at my transcript and see a staggering amount of courses. 142 units, i'll be ending up with. they all seem very distant to me now, just names on a page. it seems unlikely i actually took all those classes.

Drawing Board

yes! major profile done and done. i'm going to try to get it published somewhere, but if not, maybe i'll post it here. or maybe both. but that's out of the way.

i'm listening to a cd i made in 2003. doesn't seem that old.

speaking of old, i'll be 22 pretty soon. a few months anyway. now that is strange to say. and i'm doing all these grownup things, like buying a car and getting a job. damn.

Ego Already

i'm sorry, but i just can't seem to stop whining about the dt. why does every graduating columnist think we care that this week is the last week they will be writing a column? why would they waste their last column writing about how it's their last column? save that crap for the last paragraph, if at all. every year another columnist graduates. you aren't that special. in fact, the only people worthy of writing a 500-word goodbye are columnists who have written for a paper for over 10 years. that's my opinion, at least.

watch, in about two weeks i'll be rehashing the past and conjuring up maudlin images like tear-soaked bricks along trousdale as i write my last post from usc.

Lofty Goals

i don't know about anyone else, but i'm getting a little sick of all the "loft living" stories in the los angeles times. okay, we get it. downtown is being revitalized. are you its goddamn pr agent or something? cripes. every other day there's a headline like "the loft: redefined" or "warehouse to luxury." how many possible times can you write a story about how to decorate an 600 sq. foot box? report on something that matters, please.

Upon Request

oh man, it is so hard to motivate myself to do this last bit of work. come on, people. give me a little encouragement.

some d-bags have been playing soccer in the hallways of my apartment complex and breaking shit. such disrespect. it's embarrassing. grow up.

it's been pretty chilly around here lately. i like it. i can go down to the gym and work out on the exercise bikes they have outdoors and not get drenched with sweat. well, i still get drenched, but it's not as bad. i need to get back to the pool though. it seems everyone loves to schedule events that i want or have to attend in the three-hour window when the pool is open. but this week i'm getting there every day. i might even talk myself into getting up early to hit the gym. like the old days.

Choose One

oh baby, check out this great cartoon in the laweekly.

Open Hand, Smack Forehead

here we go again dt:

hed: Activist criticizes plan to increase bus fare

subhed: Author Eric Mann says the bun fare hike is an example of a bigger racial problem.

this is just getting sad. this is on page 3. i'm going to keep reading and hope i don't see anything else.

Waterfell

i officially accepted the reporting job at the santa barbara daily sound yesterday. i'll be covering city hall. i'm psyched. only problem, now it feels like there is no reason to try on these last few assignments. i know they are coming up, but i can't manage to drag myself in front of the computer to get them over with until the last moment. wait. that's what i always do. nevermind.

the air is beautifully clean again today. more wind has blasted all the nasties out of here, and now this place looks half decent.

Elevity

let's see, what to talk about? not much, really. things are wrapping up here. design project, profile rewrite, sierra madre rewrite and guitar final. that's about it. i don't know what else to tell you.

oh, someone watched as i walked up to the elevator and pressed the call button, then walked up and pressed it himself. now that has to be just the last brain cell in this guy's head. why would -- what -- i just -- i don't understand.

Desperate Indeed

i know i'm on the home team here, but i just have to post this one. from the daily trojan, our fine paragon of journalistic integrity, comes the following sentence from this editorial:

Comisar is hip to government lies about why we invaded Iraq and is skeptical of the recruiting propaganda dished out by the Pentagon pubic-relations machine.

did you catch it? i sure hope so. it very nearly jumped off the page and choke-slammed me to the floor. to find out that the pentagon has a machine that has relations with pubic regions, in addition to spreading war propaganda, came as quite a shock to me to say the least. glad i wasn't on the desk last night. although i don't see myself missing that little fella.

Elevation

here's a hypothetical scenario for you. don't think about it too long or blood will shoot out your eyes. you approach a tall, young man not unlike myself. he's standing in front of three elevators, staring at them patiently. the call button is lit up. how insane do you have to be to walk over and press the call button and stare expectantly for the doors to open? because i'm pretty sure at least 90 percent of the people who work in or visit the building where i work are pretty goddamn insane.

Cursed Mistral

so i go to the pool today. and of course there is a girl's water polo game. so of course i have to swim in the sauna that passes for a dive tank. and of course it's so windy that my kickboard and pull equipment blow into the water. and of course my pull buoy is lost somewhere in the cavernous gutters, probably swept into the filtration system because the grate covering the drain is bent in and only covering half of the opening. so of course i'll probably never see that pull buoy again. i've had that thing since i started at the fresno dolphins when i was 14. bastards.

looks to be another typical sunday. rushing to finish my article on sierra madre, wasting time, lamenting the start of the week and putting off reading until two hours before class tomorrow. around 4:30 in the morning, i was up and watching about 15 minutes of a thunderstorming deluge of rain. i wanted to go up on the roof, probably subconsciously tempting the skies to strike me with lightning, but of course conquest closes the roof at 10 p.m. and of course the place is littered with security cameras. big brother. my home is more tightly guarded than san quentin.

i need a haircut, a shave and some ice for my toe, which i somehow insist on reinjuring every time it seems to be fully healed. i think i'll try to take care of at least one of those things today, along with banging out a semi-decent article (i don't want to write it too well this time around, since my final in that class is a rewrite) and finding something to eat that doesn't involve more than 5 minutes of moderate exertion. and of course, catch the latest entourage. but that's a given, right?

Toss Up

i have a quandry. two good job offers. pretty much equal in my mind. how do i decide. help me, readers. santa barbara or antelope valley? city hall or courts/prison? i just don't know. but it still feels good to be in this position at least. and a little frightening. a real job. eek.

Roadhouse Flashbacks

there was a recent student protest at usc against sweatshop labor-produced items being sold at the usc bookstore (more specifically that usc is a member of a particular labor watchdog board that apparently is not as tough as another particular labor watchdog board). a group of students conducted a sit-in at the president of the university's office. they were given personally addressed letters informing them they would be expelled from the university and would have to leave university housing by the following day. their parents were also called and informed of the sit-in. they promptly disbanded the protest. now the administration building is on lockdown for the remainder of the semester. anyone entering the building must be checked in and possibly escorted by the department of public safety. is this not the most ridiculous waste of security? shouldn't they be keeping the students safe instead of checking ids like some sort of group of bureaucratic bouncers? and this is not even mentioning the unbelievable overreaction to a peaceful student protest. facists.

Freeze Frame

i wrote a post a few months ago, maybe a year ago, about remembering a single moment. i wrote to my many faithful readers that when they read that particular post, they should take five minutes to concentrate on how they were feeling at that exact moment. then one day, many years from that moment, we could meet and talk about that one collective memory we all shared of that one moment in our lives, no matter how divided by distance we were. well, i had one of those moments tonight, a moment that will never escape my memory.

the first time i wrote about this memory-sharing business, i think i was just a little reflective because it was a bit of an overcast day and i was feeling, well, pensive. but this time i think you need to find someone you trust, explain the situation to them and then capture your own little time capsule of memory. sure, it sounds corny and cheesy and embarrassing and cliche. which is precisely why you should do it. now.

Options

interview at the antelope valley press went pretty well. i think if i do a decent job on the test story thing they are setting up, i'm pretty much guaranteed a job there. now it's off to santa barbara to see how that compares. and a phone interview with the klamath falls guy. so we'll see how things shake out. this weekend i'm in sierra madre reporting on their land development issues. great fun. it should be interesting to see if i can bring life to such a city council-driven story.

Vindication for Below

another point against daniel mcfawn, author of the daily trojan opinion article discussed below:

...the moral debate "reflects an underlying tension between competing subsystems in the brain." On one side are "the social-emotional responses that we've inherited from our primate ancestors." On the other side is a utilitarian calculus "made possible by the more recently evolved structures in the frontal lobes."
...
Since people with VMPC damage are "abnormally 'utilitarian,' " they argue, emotions are necessary to produce "normal judgments of right and wrong."

and mcfawn wants men to ignore these emotional responses for the sake of remaining crotch-grabbing cavemen that don't care about right or wrong, as long as they can eat meat and drive things that go fast and make lots of noise.

President-in-Training

here's the full story if you want to read it all. but let me just quote a few choice bits from the latest daily trojan opine.

Global warming activists are liberal people who support other liberal causes so that a once stand-alone issue blends with others, creating a big, steaming soy latte of metrosexual animal-rights environmentalism.
...
Attempting to convert guys to emotional beings, global warming pseudo-prophets have recruited liberals of all shades, stripes and polka dots who stand to advance their own agenda in the face of vanquished masculinity. Eco-Nazis, animal rights activists, ultra-feminists, chardonnay socialists, outright communists, John Lennon fans and Ralph Nader can now use global warming as an excuse to advocate the halting of macho activities.
...
So rather than fall victim to the omniscient oracles of the global warming apocalypse and mass emasculation, throw a piece of animal meat on the barbecue and fire up that sweet V-8 under your hood. A future of composting, puny cars and tofu is no future at all.

where to start? first of all, the author. any guesses to this guy's field of study at usc? yep, business administration and finance. just the kind of open-minded, issue-conscious epitome of a moral compass we need running our companies and handling our money. is it any fucking surprise that our government is full of assholes and liars and criminals? okay, i'm getting a little worked up. back to the basics of the article. so global warming activists also dress well and care about animals. what bastards. and their main goal is the emasculation of the male populace. right. and your main goal is acting like a jerkoff. okay, cheap shot. and your main goal is doing everything in your power to keep the global warming trend steaming ahead at full bore in the name of testosterone and big-balled manliness. and this name-slinging paragraph -- with eco-nazis and john lennon fans who are now using global warming to stop men from acting like ... well, machoistic douchewads -- is probably the most bigoted bit of writing since mein kampf. it's this kind of bullshit posturing, ego-stroking, chest-puffing, self-aggrandizing, autoerotic male mentality that forces men to start wars and refuse to admit defeat.

every single sentence in this long diatribe against common sense can be rewritten to apply to conservative masculinity. so conservative people don't support a number of conservative ideas? their issues don't "blend" with others to create a huge beer keg of right-to-life, gun-toting, so-called patriotism? And these conservative radicals aren't using religion and the american flag to stir up liberal-bashing sentiment in an attempt to advance their agenda of getting a long, thick stick jammed up the butt of every human on the planet? normally i'd simply laugh in the face of such hypocrisy. but believing that global warming is just an excuse to get men to act like pansies is a little scary. hell, it's more than a little scary. it's downright batshit crazy. this author is no longer based in reality. and in a few short months, he could be working for a fortune 500 company, working his way slowly up to a position of power, where he can continue to funnel his hate-mongering dogma into the too-often weak minds of the leaders of our nation in the form of campaign contributions and under-the-table bribery.

Immodest Plea

it's unbelievable the amount of garbage that is printed in the average daily newspaper. what's more unbelievable is that i still don't have a job. i can go through any medium-sized daily and find at least half a dozen stories i could've written better. someone fire at least one of these hacks and hire me. i promise you won't regret it.

Senior Standards

ooh, it's getting close. the finish line is shimmering in the distance. final projects are starting to take form. here's what i have left, if i'm not forgetting anything:

1. rewrite of major profile of navy surgeon

2. feature story on sierra madre measure v

3. undetermined feature story

4. physics newsletter layout/design, 4-6 pages

5. guitar performance/written final

6. profile writing essay final

and that's it. i'll be done. incredible. a list of six things. i can't imagine how long that list must have been eight years ago. and i wonder how much of the information that passed through my mind as i worked my way through the seemingly neverending flood of assignments is still with me. well, i guess it's almost that time, to be overcome with nostalgia and commiserate with friends about how it all went by so fast.

man, remember when we...

doesn't it seem like it was just the other day when...

Burrito Blitzkrieg

i witnessed two officers of the peace park their cruiser in a red zone to get chipotle for lunch yesterday. the parking garage is replete with the oversized suvs and pricey midsize sedans indicative of a private university populace. it's a feeding frenzy. i've frequented the burrito joint twice since it opened below my apartment complex and i doubt i will have the constitution to once again brave the barbacoa-crazed hooligans that pack the entrance and spill out onto the sidewalk, clutching cellphones tight to their ears as they try to memorize the burrito orders of twenty of their closest friends. i understand its allure as one of the few respectable and affordable places to eat around usc, but i'd still like to make it to the tuscany lobby entrance without having to fight through crowds of drooling burrito bol barbarians and guac fiends.

sadly, in an inevitable sort of collation with the 'i knew them before they were big' indie music freak mentality, i too have succumbed to feelings of meritorious superiority as an accomplished habitué of the chipotle dining establishment. these foolish newbs to the world of cilantro-lime rice and tomatillo-green chili salsa are not worthy of the chipotle adobo-marinated chicken or freshly mashed guacamole i have known and loved for many years, i think as i pass the crowds huddled under sidewalk umbrellas, sunlight like fire on their iconic red baskets. i become protective, glaring at an incompetent patron who in my estimation has performed an improper decloaking of his tinfoil-wrapped comestible. tear the top half away and slowly peel downward as you approach the glorious, salsa-soaked tail, my mind screams. i laugh inwardly as the bottom gives way and steak, rice and black beans plummet to the wax paper below, but my mirth is tinged with the pain of watching another burrito fall victim to a chipotle neophyte.

End in Sight

well, another long week of class and work stretches out before me, once again. the downtown skyline has retreated into its protective halo of smoky haze. i never heard from the hawaii copy job. the guy was supposed to call on friday, but never did. i'll be visiting the antelope valley press office in palmdale this friday for an interview. then next tuesday i'll probably be heading down to santa barbara to meet up with the editor of the santa barbara daily sound for another interview. that should be a fun one-day road trip. i'll probably spend two hours there and four hours on the road. oh well.

Wind Clear

incredible. all the wind we've been having around here lately has cleared out the usual cloud of scummy crud that floods our skies. not only is the downtown skyline incredible sharp and defined, but the san gabriels behind the skyline clearly stand out. just a few days ago, there was only the faintest hint of the buildings downtown through the brown film of smog. i keep thinking i'm in seattle or vancouver or some northwestern city where rain keeps dust and grime banished to the street.

this article on larsen jensen is stress-inducing. he's in australia for the world championships at the moment. and for some reason, two college-educated people can't seem to figure out the time difference and schedule a simple 30 minute phone call. it's due thursday. as in tomorrow. as in i have to report and write it tonight. blimey.

List and List

i guess i'll keep it around for a bit. here is what i'm currently swamped with:

an article about u.s. distance swimming phenom larsen jensen.

a short profile about los angeles times columnist dan neil.

a series of tests for a newspaper job in southern oregon.

a newsletter for my design and layout class.

i also have to:

make sure i eat enough.

make sure i exercise enough.

make sure i see my girlfriend enough.

make sure i read enough.

make sure i play guitar enough.

Retire?

i've been thinking of disbanding insular jot. i don't really write much on it anymore, somewhat because i've been busy with classes and other excuses. i don't know, what do you faithful readers think? should i keep it around?

Weeklong Reset

alright, so here's what happened over break:

hung around los angeles for the first half. got to use my girlfriend's sister's car to head up the coast for a beach trip near malibu. also went to sierra madre to visit her parents and mess about there. then drove up to fresno, visited with parents, grandmother, friends. we also drove up into the sierra nevadas to shaver lake, which was deserted and perfect. also took a trip to woodward park in fresno, also nice. then we drove back down through san luis obispo and down the coast to santa barbara, where we stayed with my bro and his girlfriend. celebrated st. pat's with the ucsb swim team. always a blast. then drove back to los angeles on sunday afternoon in time to watch usc beat texas in the ncaa tourney to make it to the sweet sixteen. oh yea, it was a good little week.

so for this week, i have:

a meeting with a latimes editor, from the foreign desk or somesuch thing, tomorrow. maybe a career fair on thursday, but probably not because all the companies they have listed are public relations groups. blech. other than those two semi-major things, it's the same day-to-day class and work lifestyle. but stay tuned, because things are heating up on the job front...i hope.

The Return

back at last from spring break. busy with catch-up work, but i'll try to be back for some expansive posting soon.

Short and Short

i musta sent out half a million job and internship applications over the past two days. i'm going to sleep now. bye.

Mucho Relaxation

okay, six hours. six hours to write my massive profile. and i still have that feature story to write by friday. but the profile is done! it's in the can! finito! it is, as the monty python dead parrot is, no more. massive sighs of relief. followed by massive stretching of back. followed by emptying of coffee-filled bladder. sorry, was that too graphic? well deal with it. it's what happened. aaaaahhhhhhhh.

Ooh, Shiny

you may notice a few very very minor changes to insular jot. i did a little template upgradation. the only serious change is to the archives, which are now in hierarchical drill-down format. so you can very quickly see that during july of last year, i posted a total of 42 times. wow. that must have been when i was living in one of the many temp apartments with absolutely nothing to do other than blog or play guitar. don't expect to see numbers like that again. anyway, i can now easily play around with text colors and fonts, which i probably won't be doing. i like this look still, and i wouldn't want to ruffle the feathers of any of my many readers.

Folly

one week. four days left, actually. and no class on friday. guitar on thursday doesn't really count. two days. really just that massive profile to write for wednesday and a short feature to write by friday night. five hours of solid work. that's it. the only thing standing between me and a week of relative freedom. let's see how long i can put those five hours off, shall we?

Round Down

guitar midterm today, so i'm doing some last minute theory cramming at work. now how is a cmin7b5 chord spelled again? yea, i should probably get on that sometime soon.

lots of work coming up. major profile draft due next wednesday. and so close to spring break. why can't i just coast until then?

i'm getting a little more free rein to edit stories at the dt copy desk. so i've been enjoying myself, ripping out editorializing phrases, slashing terrible adjectives and straightening out awkward sentence constructions. hiyah.

In-class Subversion

don't you love it when on the first day of class your professor spends hours going through the syllabus and then says that will be the most he will talk all semester, but actually manages to fill more time with elongated blather in the following class sessions? gee, that's just the bee's knees in my book.

The Journey

that was a well-traveled weekend. down to long beach on friday for the big west conference swim meet. then up to san francisco saturday morning for a little wandering around and a shakespeare play at stanford. then more wandering on sunday and back down to los angeles. so a lot of time in a car. but very worth it.

Disno

there is a billboard on hoover, just before the 10 freeway. it's an advertisement for cinderella 3: a twist in time. it's tagline: what if the slipper didn't fit? first of all, cinderella 3? i didn't know there was a cinderella 2. and what if the slipper didn't fit? then she isn't the right one! end of movie! or she spends the rest of her life cleaning the fireplace for her bitchy stepmother and aunts. walt must be spinning in his ice-encrusted cryogen capsule.

Duh Statement of the Year

from reuters:

"If you invest in the newsroom, do you make more money? The answer is yes," Esther Thorson, an advertising professor and associate dean for graduate studies at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism, said in a statement.

"If you lower the amount of money spent in the newsroom, then pretty soon the news product becomes so bad that you begin to lose money," she said.

wait a minute. that means that ... quality ... matters? what a novel concept.

Wall Debris

shaping up to be a good weekend. long beach on friday. san francisco on saturday and sunday. enormous profile due wednesday. hmm, wonder how that's going to work.

there is a usc student who wears a rollerblade on one foot and nothing on the other. he pushes himself along with his bare foot as though his other leg were a scooter. the surfaces of this world are typically not very kind to bare feet, especially those traveling at rollerblade speed. why not just toss a shoe or sandal on there? and that can't be good for his posture. or foot hygiene. or sex life. of course, the long black trenchcoat probably doesn't help much either.

today is perfect. whispers of sun, high white clouds, high 60s, occasional breeze. and i'm stuck in a fourth-floor office. at least i have a nice view of downtown right in front of me. must be the recent rain. the air quality is usually too poor to see the edges of the buildings as crisply defined as they are today. kind of makes me feel like riverdancing.

Down on the Farm

from the fabulous fresno bee:

Rudy Giuliani -- the Brooklyn-born, big-city politician -- worked the World Ag Expo on Tuesday like a farmer tilling his soil.

The former New York City mayor, probably best known for his leadership after the terrorist attacks in 2001, probably shook more hands, cozied up to more babies, signed more autographs and schmoozed with more exhibitors than any past visitor.

And the expo, an annual event teeming with hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors trolling for the latest in farming technology, was fertile ground.

But Giuliani, on the campaign trail for president, made no bones about how spare his knowledge of farming is.

"What do I know about agriculture?" he asked the crowd of about 450 at the expo's opening ceremonies at the Heritage Complex. "I know how much we depend on you, the importance of the Central Valley in feeding us and taking care of us. I know how much we depend on each other."

Later, he would say, "I'm not a big expert on ag policy. But I will be."

first of all, way to follow through on the farming metaphor. second of all, if you think giuliani gives the slightest shit about agriculture in tulare, california, you might want to find a nice, quiet place to die.

Velocity

i just took a call from someone who was arguing with a friend over whether the moon rotated on its axis as well as around the earth. i don't think i've ever had a conversation or argument that has led to me calling a large university to prove my point. i wish i did.

post script: oh, and for those who are interested in the answer, the moon does rotate on its axis. each time it circles the earth, about every 27 days, it makes one full rotation on its axis. the earth's tidal interaction with the moon slowed its rotation over many years to match its orbit around the earth.

post-post script: happy valentine's day.

More Malaise

sitting in my feature writing class. fifth week of class. ten students. the professor wants to call on me, but doesn't know my name. wow. that makes me feel really good inside. all warm and fuzzy. i'm growing sick of class. it feels like all my professors are telling me the same things over and over again, and i'd like to just get out of here and go do something. copy edit or write or whatever. and i don't even care where. give me two years to work my ass off and i can get myself to san francisco, i know it. until then...well. looks like i'll be stuck listening to another explanation of how to cultivate a story idea file.

Dirge

there was a small bird trapped on the bottom floor of the parking garage below my building the other day. it depressed me to know i couldn't help it and it would probably die down there, cold and starving.

Caution: Hot Beverage

lots of stuff to talk about. big basketball game tomorrow night between usc and them (ucla). thursday i go to usc's hospital to follow around a trauma surgeon as he teaches a group of naval trauma trainees. sometime in the next few days i interview a guy over the phone who is "couch surfing" across the world over the next five years. also in the next few days i hopefully hear more about an expenses-paid trip throughout finland in august courtesy of the finnish government which apparently wants more journalists to have a general knowledge of its country.

the other day i saw a girl unlock her bike, which was of course not locked to a bike rack, but rather conveniently double-parked in front of a bike rack. in the process of unlocking her pink beachcruiser monstrosity, she knocked over two other freestanding bikes. she looked at me as i walked by and then got on her bike and rode off, leaving the two bikes on the ground. people are dicks.

What Is Sublimation?

hey, i'm back for my weekly update. lots of good stuff going on. i may be getting an article published in the los angeles times west magazine, so stay tuned for that. i'm working at the daily trojan copy desk two nights a week, copy editing stories, which is tough because i want to rewrite them all instead of just finding style and grammar errors. my design class is going well. right now i'm working on a photo spread in the style of espn magazine. i'm all set to interview a doctor at usc's trauma center for my profiling class. and i'm looking for a light/bright story to write for my feature class. something whimsical, off-the-beaten-path and lighthearted. not too many ideas coming to mind as of yet.

Skyline

big basketball game tonight against stanford. think i'll grill those two pieces of chicken i moved to the fridge yesterday. maybe with a little balsamic and garlic marinade.

it's a pretty quiet day at the office. as usual. think i'll zone out for a while. zzzzzzone.

Culture Shocking

allow me to start this post with my cursory apologetic cry for forgiveness. i have, yet again, failed to provide an adequate amount of insight into my fascinating life over the past few weeks. things are rolling along as usual. third week of classes, plenty of work. i really don't have much to talk about. i typically don't like to get too personal on this thing in case any future employers somehow track me down by decoding my blog name or facebook stalking their way here. so you'll just have to be satisfied with knowing that i'm fairly happy with my life at the moment, although still feeling a welling up of dread toward this impending rendevous with the real world.

today in my design class i created an advertisement for apple's new iphone. that was a bit painful. i suppose it's important for advertising designers to believe in their product, which is why i find it difficult to imagine ever doing that for a living. of course, i could hide little subversive messages in really tiny fonts.

don't eat at mcdonald's.

Mediocrity

i just double-checked my course history and requirements and i'm all set to graduate in may, barring some enormous disaster in one of my classes this semester. i'm still waiting to find out about the status of my cinema-television minor. but everything else seems to be going according to plan.

tonight we play arizona in basketball, then ucla in hockey. i can't decide which one i'm more pumped for. probably hockey, since there is almost guaranteed to be a few melees on the ice.

chipotle still isn't open. the target is apparently february. making it seven months after the original opening date. seven months. people should be killed for seven months. i wish they'd stuck with pickup stix to begin with. i'm going to have to avoid chipotle like the plague if i don't want to gain 20 pounds before i graduate.

Links Invalid

not much new to report. i pretty much wasted away a 4-day weekend. but that's typical. and it's my last semester. fortunately, monday was a holiday, so i didn't have to go to my two big classes. i still have a bit of work ahead of myself tonight for profile writing tomorrow.

i was walking around campus and heard a guy talking. he was saying something about "choosing between good and evil, between god and...not god." why is it that "not god" is equated with evil? i've gone with "not god" pretty much my entire life, and i don't consider myself evil. i'm not killing, raping, vandalizing, or loitering. good and evil, i understand. light and dark, that's getting a little shaky. god and godless? some of the worst people in the history of this world have been the most religiously fervent zealots. and it's becoming more difficult for me to find the correlation between religiosity and morality, just as it is difficult for me to see a link between secularism and immorality.

Loginsecurity

this new version of blogger is way stupid. it's basically the same for me, except i have to first log into my google account, then log into my blogger account. what a waste of ten seconds.

i have my interview/profile writing class in an hour, so i'll probably be back to rant about it later this evening, unless i'm off doing something else. i kind of like how my week starts winding down by wednesday afternoon. maybe this semester won't be so bad after all.

Scrambles

i handed in my application for a minor in film today. finally. since i've already passed all the necessary classes, i'm hoping they just rubber stamp it on through.

i'm feeling a little stressed already about the summer and what i'll be doing. i just looked at my current loan situation and by the time i graduate i will have accumulated about $18,000 in debt. not a great way to start. what would be key is getting a job. that would be nice. it seems like everyone i talk to has something set up and everything figured out. bastards.

Murderous Monday

check out this sweet table of the many ways the current administration is trying to undermine and warp scientific findings.

well, my first day of class is over. it was a long one. work in the morning, swim in the early afternoon, class from 2-5, 6-9. they look promising enough, i suppose. feature writing is going to be okay. it's similar to the magazine writing class i took last semester, with tweaks that make it more newspapery. so it should be interesting to see how the two media differ. my publications design and technology class looks like it's going to be fun. and easy. the programs we are learning, adobe indesign and photoshop, are set up logically from what i can see, and i usually get along well with logical applications. i'll design a couple pages for the newsletter of a nearby school and create my own poster/newsletter/brochure/magazine/booklet/whatever for a final project. i think the computer stuff will be a breeze for me, and i'm looking forward to seeing what kind of creative ideas i can develop. it should be valuable if i decide to go into copy editing since many small papers have a crossover between layout and copy editing. well, that's all for now. i'll be back in the coming days to update you on my other two classes, i'm sure.

Malaise

well, first day back at work and i'm already killing time. i'm only working 12 hours a week this semester, but unfortunately, most of them start at 9 in the morning. boo. at least it will force me to get up and get to the pool by the time it opens at 11. yes, sadly it is true. if i didn't have work, i'd probably sleep later than 11. i found out i didn't get the dow jones summer internship i applied for, so now i must hunt for something to occupy my time and fill my bank account in five short months. wish me luck.

Irrationality

well guys, i switched over to the new blogger. i don't think there will be too much difference for you unless i decide to label my posts, which i probably won't because i'm lazy. but they kept bugging me to switch so i am.

going back to work and class in two days. i guess it will be okay. i can tell this is going to be a fast semester. argh. time to start looking for jobs. i'ma gonna go cower on the couch in the fetal position as i contemplate this latest hurdle in my life.

Final Round

here i am again, back from a lengthy, much-enjoyed and much-needed reprieve. it's good to be back in my schoolhome. usc won the rose bowl yesterday, so i'm in a good mood. just back from the gym trying to work off that holiday weight. not surprisingly, it's a little more difficult to motivate myself to run or swim in the 30-40 degree weather of fresno in comparison to sunny southern california. i arrived back in l.a. today after a short stay with my bro in santa barbara. beautiful as usual. santa barbara, that is. well, i got the orange bowl coming up in a bit and i'm a little hungry, so stay tuned for more.