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.