Excuses Excuses

this is so classic. check out this ny times article. we don't want to send them home where they may be tortured...because we are doing a much better job here. all of a sudden the government is concerned about their well-being. what a crock.

Ice Bath

just got back from the pool. main set: 5,000 meters, no breaks, straight through, 100 laps of long course freestyle. lesson of the day: never do that set again, ever, ever, ever. an hour and 20 minutes of non-stop swimming with no one to race. i have a frat boy in his boardshorts on my left, an old woman and a skinny asian girl in a bikini on my right. i don't feel smooth until around lap 75 because of a pretty tough weight session at the gym last night. so it was basically my most painful experience of recent memory. i'm off to wrap my body in ice packs until i can't feel anything anymore.

Major Update

i have a number of items to discuss this evening, so let's get to it. first of all, i'd like to applaud fresno for making national news...for a lawsuit involving employees being spanked at work. nice. read about it here.

i went to a couple guitar recitals on campus today, which were pretty interesting. it was a little inspirational and a little depressing. of course, i went straight home and tried to fake-solo, which astonishingly didn't sound half bad despite the fact that i was mostly hitting random notes.

i've started trying out some new recipes in an attempt to get out of the steamed rice, pasta, salad, steamed rice, pasta, salad rut i've been stuck in for pretty much the whole semester. so far i've tried pesto chicken with cous cous, a greek tortellini salad and lemon shrimp skewers. so far it's all been edible, thankfully. i've made sure to slightly overcook the meat dishes to ensure that i don't kill myself with bacteria, but it's all turned out well. i'd appreciate any input (in the comments section) on dishes to try. don't be shy.

i hope to get a few final things out of the way tomorrow. first, two concert reports (on the guitar recitals i mentioned earlier) for my guitar class. then, my take-home essay questions for law of mass communication. if i can put those to bed, i'll have french on thursday and blaxploitation on the following monday. and that will put a close on my third year. wow. that's all for now. off to read some camus. stay tuned.

p.s. just want to plug my other blog again, because i'm pathetically seeking approval...just go there and laugh. or leave mean comments telling me i'm not funny and why. enough necktie. click it.

Homestretch

ah, so here i am at work on the last official day of class. i actually finished up yesterday afternoon. anyway, i have a few finals left and then it's into my summer mode of interning and working at the marshall school of business. i have a few goals for the summer:

read for fun...like when i had time for that kind of stuff

write tons more...on this blog and my enough necktie blog, plus maybe a short story or two

network...get everyone at the l.a. times to remember my name and face

relax...go to the beach, go to the mountains, sleep a lot

Back in the Game

hey all, i made it through the week and am excited to be back in the blogosphere. right now i'm a little worn out so i'll catch you all up on the happenings later.

Too Little, Too Late

i'm sorry, i just had to post this: check it out. fuck yea, pelosi!

Crunch Time

hey all, looks like i'll be taking a brief hiatus from posting to concentrate on the immense amount of stuff i have coming up this week. so hang in there and i'll be back eventually.

Socially Accepted Vices

marijuana legalization took another blow today. i don't get why it is such a big deal. i feel like marijuana is on par with something like alcohol, which is, of course, legal in the united states with some obvious restrictions. why can't the government do the same for marijuana? it has semi-legal status in amsterdam and they aren't dissolving into a state of pure mayhem and anarchy. so what is so scary about this idea that it leaves some politicians frothing at the mouth? adults have the right to drink alcohol, which offers up some serious health consequences, not to mention the right to pop a million different kinds of pills, from prozac to oxycontin. this arbitrary division when it comes to a natural-growing plant seems somewhat ludicrous. anti-hippie-ites.

Chops From Outer Space

i think it's amusing when i watch a movie about music/a band, like the documentary hype! i just watched, and then get all excited and want to play guitar like them. and then i go play yankee doodle and home on the range...slowly. rock on! however, i am progressing, despite my self-deprecating humor. got a few spinal tap riffs somewhat conquered and approaching zz top-like licks. so as you can see, beneath the veneer of intellectual discussion and political snarkiness, this blog is mainly about the inflation of my ego. so sue me.

Priorities

this is an oversimplified model of religious conservative vs. liberal motivations:

conservative:

1. wealth (corporations, oil, stock market, etc.)

2. power (control, government, religion, etc.)

3. happiness (derived from 1 and 2)


liberal:

1. happiness (individuality, self-realization, spiritual interaction, etc.)

2. power (responsibility, knowledge, literacy, etc.)

3. wealth (family, comfort, good beer, etc.)

Dropping Like Flies

bye bye scottie...guess he just couldn't roll with the punches anymore. someone alert the white house kitchen staff that bush will probably be looking for a replacement among them. his chaffeur is also a strong contender. snark snark.

Empty Picture Frame

i can't think of anything to write here. i've been sitting and staring at a blank screen for about 15 minutes now. i can only think about one thing, that life is full of missed opportunities and i'm slowly letting them get away from me without doing anything. i'm tired of doing that. and since my mind is apparently devoid of any other rational thought, i'll leave this post at that.

Conundrum

go to my last law of mass communication class or go to bovard and watch steve miller play guitar with the usc orchestra? weigh in and help me out with my decision. must be made by 6:00 p.m. on tuesday, april 18.

Debts

we discussed another interesting topic in my french class today (it's funny how a class that is so incredibly uptight and shy talks about such important questions and ideas). we were talking about meursault in the stranger and the validity of everyone having to pay a debt to society. my professor talked about how it's important to follow the rules of our society and our institutions, i.e. marriage, religion, the law, etc. i think that's valid to a certain extent (a fairly minimal one in my mind actually). but there is something that just seems to be a whole lot more important to me than this idea of a debt to society, and that is a debt to oneself. i'm not advocating chaos and anarchy here; i completely understand the need for rules and institutions. but as selfish as it may seem, it is just more important to me that i live my life in a way that makes me content. if i spend my whole life helping others and following all the rules and going to church, but during it all i'm completely miserable? that to me is a denial of a basic need that exists within everyone: the desire for happiness. and people always give me this argument that sacrificing one's own happiness for the betterment of others is a noble cause because it is very painful and difficult to achieve. but it seems to me that it's much easier to denounce one's own desires in the name of humanity than it is to embrace those desires and try to find a way to realize them. i think there is an important balance to be found between the two; between the selflessness and the selfishness. and i think it's necessary to be content, or at least somewhat at ease, with one's own life before trying to help others.

In The Dark

a while ago in my french class we were talking (one of the rare occasions that this event actually occurred) about putting up a facade; basically hiding our true identities. and i definitely do this. i won't lie and say i'm not an actor pretty much every day of my life. not all the time of course. but it's definitely there. and it's a little scary, because if i'm doing it, then i have to figure that most other people are doing it as well. so here i am, on a campus of 30,000 students, and i'm pretending to be someone else, and they're all pretending to be someone else, and somewhere in that madness i'm supposed to make a connection with someone that means something? scary. how do we find that place where we can be honest with each other, where we don't need that facade? does it even exist, or are our true selves just alone, floating around behind iron-plated shields, despite how much we tell each other that we are being open and honest? and how can we ever know that our openness and honesty is being reflected by anyone we decide to be open with? it seems like it amounts to putting a lot out there and hoping it doesn't get shredded to pieces. scary.

Reality Check

hey all. i know i've been slacking a little on the posting, and i'm afraid that may continue until i'm through with classes and paper-writing and all that. so be patient and you'll get your fix. last night at ralph's i was standing in the checkout line while some guy next to me was babbling about how peeps are actually made from pork and i realized that people will believe just about anything if it is packaged correctly. this is probably related to watching the tom cruise interview with diane sawyer and realizing just how much he is out of touch with reality. it was really kind of sad.

Fire Alarm Bandit Strikes Again

probably the 5th or 6th time this semester. a little ridiculous and a lot immature. not much else new to report. another lazy weekend. closing in on the end of the semester.

Ignorance Anyone?

while looking for articles on the georgia tech debacle, i stumbled across this little gem:

john ray:

"there is no doubt in the world that the Left have used their extensive control over education to promote and propagandize for homosexuality -- all under the guise of getting people to "tolerate" it, of course. And in so doing they have caused great offence and upset to many parents (e.g. here).

Why do Leftists do that? Because they hate ordinary people who are happily getting on with their lives. Revolution is the ultimate Leftist aim but small attacks on society will do if big ones are not feasible."

yes! the leftists have this ultimate goal of turning america into a huge gay party with rainbow parades down every street. and they hate "ordinary" people. ordinary as in...what? hetero? does anyone else think this guy is suffering from a little bit of paranoia and a whole lot of homophobia?

Sides Of A Coin

the interesting thing about the whole iran situation is that one side is led by "a religious fanatic suffering delusions of grandeur with a taste for demagogic posturing" and the other side is led by, well, that religious fanatic mahmoud ahmadinejad.

(quoted material by matthew yglesias)

Is Anyone Surprised?

check out this story about how bush's impressive streak of being completely full of shit continues. bush is angry about it. someone get him his pacifier. mcclellan: ""This is reckless reporting and for you all to go on the air this morning and make such a charge is irresponsible, and I hope that ABC would apologize for it and make a correction on the air." first of all, how is this reckless reporting? it's fucking true!!! second of all, about his comment that this is just rehashing an old issue because it's already been decided that intelligence on iraqi wmds was wrong: the article was not trying to say that intelligence on wmds was wrong. in fact, in this case, it was right. the issue is that the president, after getting this intelligence, made it wrong...by completely fucking ignoring it!!! and don't claim innocence and that this was merely a preliminary report...the bush administration publicly stuck by the claim that the trailers were mobile biological labs for nearly a year. this of course after making liberal use of their "classified" rubber stamps. the fact is, they had the intel two days before the statement, preliminary report or not, and they bullshitted the whole thing and tried to hide the evidence. don't piss on me and tell me it's raining.