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.

Cut a Hole in a Box

not much to relay from my post here in central california. plenty of russian footsoldiers have met their death under the guidance of my steady n64 trigger hand. i'm still dealing with this cold, which refuses to be shaken. that run at 6 am in 30 degree weather probably didn't help much. still waiting on grades and pissed that my financial aid won't reach me in time to pay january rent. but that's to be expected. heaven forbid bureaucratic matters go smoothly in my life.

check out snl's latest digital short, it's pretty good. youtube search for justin timberlake/snl christmas box should do it. i'd link it, but i'm lazy.

Constructive Criticism

spent 20 minutes using adhesive glue to fasten a sheet of plastic to the wall. spent the next hour trying to get the glue off my fingers. still not all gone. looks like the guitar is going away for a while.

Layover

well, here i am in lovely fresno with a nasty head cold while my girlfriend sits in an expansive and frigid london airport where i wish i could be despite my warm waiting bed, and all i can think about is some cockney wanker chumming up with phrases like bloody 'ell and it's a right shithole that is, and the thing is, i'm not the jealous type, and don't get me wrong, i love a few weeks off from thinking and being around lots of people and other social interactions that result in nothing more than, to quote baumbach, conversational blueballs, but i can't help thinking that if i were in london right now i'd be eating terrible food and drinking decent beer and galavanting about with a clear head and only a bit of a runny nose, and despite the cold and the exhaustion and the locals giving us the fuck off tourist stare, i'd be doing something that i'd never done before and i could be proud of that even if my bank account was empty.

Homecoming

back home. and sick. typical. so the five hour bus/train ride was a lot of fun with thundering sinus pain. especially going through the grapevine. it's supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon, so that should be nice. i foresee lots of sleeping and doing nothing in my future.

so my first full day back, and what do i do? totally fry my mom's tea kettle. filled it with water and put it on the stove. by the time i remembered, the water had evaporated and it had started to melt onto the stove element. so i know what i'm getting her for christmas. it might have to be an early gift though, because i need some tea.

well, my body is aching and my head feels like a balloon, so i'm going to find something that will knock me out for a while. happy freaking holidays.

Traveled Road

i am very close to being done with this semester. i just need to make a few minor tweaks on my magazine story and send it off. amazing.

i was sitting in the window of a restaurant on figueroa last night as the rain poured down. in the street the wind was gusting south to north, and brown tree leaves were dancing and crashing along the dark, glistening road. it almost felt like a scene out of a robert frost poem, if it weren't for the traffic rushing by and the bright neon lights of the fast-food joints and liquor stores.

Third Down

alright! one final down, two final projects to go. which are not due until sunday and monday. meaning...it's time to do what comes before part b.

Ummm

well, here i am. waiting around for finals. one actual final, two projects. and procrastinating. not doing much of anything actually. holy crap. i need to do something.

Whistling Causes Madness

classes are officially over. the finals stretch (i know, very bad, sorry). not a great weekend for usc sports. well, our amazing run could only last so long.

i've got things to do. projects. phone calls. emails. teeth brushings. work. catch you guys again in some down time.