A little more gloating and some other stuff as well..
I feel like it's been awhile since I wrote a political-related post. And not that I'm particularly intent on making sure my blog has a sufficient amount of political content, but I read something something sort of relevant and wanted to comment on it.
Firstly, I have been pondering what sorts of topics I should cover as editor in chief (isn't it nice to have a title like that?!) in my (can I call it mine??) newspaper. Some of the things that don't really interest me as much would be sports, so even though the college does have some sports going on, I'm not really aware of them and I don't have a huge desire to do coverage of that. But for the sake of variety and balance, I feel like I should maybe at least try to include some sports coverage here and there, although maybe I'll just assign that out if possible.. I'd rather not cover that myself. Secondly, I was thinking, should I cover politics as it relates to the people of the college? As an extension of that thought, I thought, does that mean I should try to find a Trump supporter in the student body and interview them? And if I did that, would they request anonymity/a pseudonym to protect their identity?? A) I think it would be hard to find a Trump supporter in the student body, although not necessarily impossible; I guess there probably are at least a few, if no more than that. B) If I were a Trump supporter in the particular environment of this particular college/area, I might not necessarily want my identity revealed in an article. But who knows. I'm semi-reticent about theoretically interviewing a Trump supporter, but hey, that one lady interviewed the Nazis in Charlottesville, so...
Then, regarding my reticence about theoretically interviewing a Trump supporter, I thought about the idea of the "liberal media". I would definitely consider myself to be a liberal, and since I'm going to be writing for a (albeit small) news publication, I guess I count as media too. Liberal media. In my fairly brief reading about that, I saw some headlines that claimed the idea of the liberal media is a myth, although I didn't read those articles. I found a Washington Post media analysis blog post that examined the idea of the liberal media. This article actually has a quote from eyelashes guy (a conservative) in it at one point! Me personally, I understand why people might consider it to be a "liberal media", so I'm not quite ready to accept the idea that it's a myth. There are a few potential explanations offered by the Washington Post, one being that the geographical location of large media organizations (NYT, WP, etc) are in places like DC and NYC where lots of liberal people live. I guess that makes sense, and it applies to myself as well.
It still remains to be seen/decided on whether I particularly want to cover politics/sports as they relate to the college, but it's a possibility. Also, I am never drinking tea again because it wreaked havoc on my digestion yesterday. Back on the subject of politics, here is an amusing snarky satirical piece from The New Republic. The illustrations are pretty neat looking too.
Also, what with North Korea and the nuclear weapons being all in the news, I thought about how the term "weapons of mass destruction" seems to have fallen out of favor. I guess there's not as much of a question of whether or not North Korea is in the process of manufacturing them though.
Monday, September 4, 2017
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Some anecdotes
From yours truly as well as one of this blog's readers.
Mine: "Imagine this!! So, the neighbors on both sides of us are moving/have moved already, and anyways, the ones that were still left are currently in the process of moving this weekend. This is the neighbor who we gossip about and think is having a midlife crisis, by the way. Anyways, he came over just a few minutes ago because he needed to borrow a broom since he didn't have one or it had already been packed up. So he rang the doorbell and asked for a broom and my mother went to the garage to get it, and then I stood around while he and her talked a little bit about selling things you don't need anymore and which moving company to use. But get this! It's something else - he sort of talks like Peter Sarsgaard! I would say they have similar-ish voices, but his is maybe a little more lively than Peter Sarsgaard's. !!!!!! My only regret is that I never really spoke to him in the past that much. He's a very talkative person though. It's really too bad I only found out that he talks sort of like Peter Sarsgaard on the day he's moving! I blame my mother and how she criticized him for the various things he did/bought that she thinks are indicative of him having a midlife crisis and being unethical and impulsive.
Alas!!"
Reader submission: "Something interesting happened to me yesterday that I forgot to mention. I was shopping for more CD's at Goodwill and a man who was probably 40 or so was standing next to me looking at the DVDs. He started talking about Stephen King movies and, since there was nobody else nearby, it turns out he was talking to me. I didn't want to be rude, but I haven't really seen too many Stephen King movies so I just talked about Misery a little bit. Anyways, he ends up mentioning that he's homeless, which is fine, but I honestly have no idea how to respond to that. Saying something like sorry would be kind of patronizing, but just not saying anything about it is a little bit rude as well, right? Anyways... at this point I'm not really sure what to say. Then, all of a sudden, he starts talking about how he's been saved and said 'there's a heaven and there is a hell and you need to get saved so you end up in the right place.' He goes on to talk about how you have to be careful which church you choose because there are 7 bad ones. Now I really didn't know what to say. That's pretty interesting though, right?"
If any other readers have interesting anecdotes they'd like to submit, I'm open to that possibility.
Mine: "Imagine this!! So, the neighbors on both sides of us are moving/have moved already, and anyways, the ones that were still left are currently in the process of moving this weekend. This is the neighbor who we gossip about and think is having a midlife crisis, by the way. Anyways, he came over just a few minutes ago because he needed to borrow a broom since he didn't have one or it had already been packed up. So he rang the doorbell and asked for a broom and my mother went to the garage to get it, and then I stood around while he and her talked a little bit about selling things you don't need anymore and which moving company to use. But get this! It's something else - he sort of talks like Peter Sarsgaard! I would say they have similar-ish voices, but his is maybe a little more lively than Peter Sarsgaard's. !!!!!! My only regret is that I never really spoke to him in the past that much. He's a very talkative person though. It's really too bad I only found out that he talks sort of like Peter Sarsgaard on the day he's moving! I blame my mother and how she criticized him for the various things he did/bought that she thinks are indicative of him having a midlife crisis and being unethical and impulsive.
Alas!!"
Reader submission: "Something interesting happened to me yesterday that I forgot to mention. I was shopping for more CD's at Goodwill and a man who was probably 40 or so was standing next to me looking at the DVDs. He started talking about Stephen King movies and, since there was nobody else nearby, it turns out he was talking to me. I didn't want to be rude, but I haven't really seen too many Stephen King movies so I just talked about Misery a little bit. Anyways, he ends up mentioning that he's homeless, which is fine, but I honestly have no idea how to respond to that. Saying something like sorry would be kind of patronizing, but just not saying anything about it is a little bit rude as well, right? Anyways... at this point I'm not really sure what to say. Then, all of a sudden, he starts talking about how he's been saved and said 'there's a heaven and there is a hell and you need to get saved so you end up in the right place.' He goes on to talk about how you have to be careful which church you choose because there are 7 bad ones. Now I really didn't know what to say. That's pretty interesting though, right?"
If any other readers have interesting anecdotes they'd like to submit, I'm open to that possibility.
Friday, September 1, 2017
Disgraced journalists, yet again
Back down the rabbit hole! In honor of me (although there's still some paperwork to be done) becoming the editor in chief of my college's newspaper, I a) had a Big Mac meal for lunch and b) got myself some new stationery. Also, I looked up the school newspaper for the University of Maryland, because I wanted to see the kinds of articles they publish. It's a much bigger organization, so naturally, there's a bit more breadth to the things they cover. Someone I know of apparently is assigned to cover local government, which just seems so absolutely boring. I'm glad that I get to be editor in chief, as opposed to merely a writer working beneath other editors, which means I have total control over the things that I want to cover (or not cover) as I'm running the publication. Take that, other people who are stuck covering boring topics because they got assigned to it!! I'm going to be in charge!! (I know I'm already in charge of this blog, but me being editor in chief is something I would actually consider as being a real writer, albeit on a small scale. I'm going to have somewhat of an audience, and since I'm the editor in chief, I'll also get some amount of financial compensation.) It feels quite good to be on the brink of being in charge of something, once things get up and running.
Then, I remembered that another disgraced journalist aside from Stephen "Shattered" Glass had worked at and was in fact the editor in chief of UMD's newspaper - Jayson Blair. I googled him and revisited his plagiarism and fabrication scandal a little bit. Does me becoming editor in chief mean I'm on the road to plagiarism, fabrication and eventually disgrace and infamy as a journalist??
There's apparently a documentary about him, but I couldn't find it online to watch. Maybe I just need to look harder. I haven't finished his memoir/book yet since I'm not a huge fan of his writing style. It's not particularly great. I did however finish Stephen Glass' lightly/somewhat fictionalized account of his journalistic fall from grace. I'm telling you, even though he fabricated, I still think he was a pretty decent writer.
Charles Lane, Stephen ('Shattered') Glass' editor at TNR who discovered the fabrications, gave an interview to NPR's Fresh Air program in 2003 coinciding with the release of the movie Shattered Glass. Later in the same episode of the program, Peter Sarsgaard, who played Lane in the movie, is interviewed as well. I actually hadn't come across that interview in the past, so it was nice to have found and listened to that. You can listen to both interviews at NPR's website.
Edit: I wanted to add a link to this interesting article, which is about portrayals of journalism in film. It mentions various movies, some entirely fictional and some based on real events. When I think of journalism movies, I mostly think about the ones based on real events first, like Spotlight, All the President's Men, and Shattered Glass. However, this article mentioned some movies that aren't based on true events but also have at least somewhat to do with journalism - Contagion and Nightcrawler, both of which I've also watched. The article also mentions another disgraced journalist, Michael Finkel, that I wasn't aware of before, so I'm going to go read up on him now. Disgraced journalists, the gift/subject matter that keeps on giving!
Edit 2: I thought of a quote that's sort of relevant, although altered slightly: "I can't be doing so badly, because I'mpresident editor in chief and you're not"
Edit 3: I thought I'd add these links here since I wasn't quite sure they warranted a whole new post of their own, and they regard Stephen Glass... Firstly, this article about his attempts to become a lawyer yet being denied by the courts. I don't remember if I've linked that in any of my past posts about him or not, so if I haven't, here it is. Secondly, this article about how Stephen, as editor in chief of his college newspaper, caught one of the writers fabricating. "You can’t make this stuff up, but if you can, you might want to send your resume to Rolling Stone." It has a link to an article in that same college newspaper (University of Pennsylvania) reflecting on Glass' fabrications, which I actually had not read before. I wonder if all of their articles are archived and accessible, and if I could possibly read some of Glass' articles from when he wrote there? Wouldn't that be something! I feel like I can safely qualify myself as an expert on Stephen Glass. Kind of an obscure subject matter to be an expert on, but whatever. Additional edit to this edit: Regarding the article in Glass' former college newspaper, I found it to be nice and lengthy, pretty interesting and insightful. It's mentioned that he was "not known as a good writer," which kind of surprised me; the same criticism had been leveled at him in at least one other article I've read written by one of his former coworkers at TNR. However, the finished product/articles from him seem well written, so perhaps that was after extensive editing/rewriting as some claimed. Someone who knew him in college described him in that article as being "charismatic" (which I've pretty much figured in all my reading about him) and a "natural leader." The Forbes journalist who became suspicious about Glass' final story for TNR is quoted, saying that perhaps Glass had wanted to get caught because he wasn't as careful with the last story to make it hard to discredit - mentioning he used last names and more specific locations, instead of only first names/anonymous sources and more vague details. That actually wasn't something I had thought of/considered myself before, but it's an interesting perspective. Obviously the only person who knows the answer to that is Stephen Glass himself. It would be interesting to be able to ask him about it though, as well as if he does/did in the past since 1998 want to return to journalism, and why didn't he just become a fiction writer/novelist in the first place?
Then, I remembered that another disgraced journalist aside from Stephen "Shattered" Glass had worked at and was in fact the editor in chief of UMD's newspaper - Jayson Blair. I googled him and revisited his plagiarism and fabrication scandal a little bit. Does me becoming editor in chief mean I'm on the road to plagiarism, fabrication and eventually disgrace and infamy as a journalist??
There's apparently a documentary about him, but I couldn't find it online to watch. Maybe I just need to look harder. I haven't finished his memoir/book yet since I'm not a huge fan of his writing style. It's not particularly great. I did however finish Stephen Glass' lightly/somewhat fictionalized account of his journalistic fall from grace. I'm telling you, even though he fabricated, I still think he was a pretty decent writer.
Charles Lane, Stephen ('Shattered') Glass' editor at TNR who discovered the fabrications, gave an interview to NPR's Fresh Air program in 2003 coinciding with the release of the movie Shattered Glass. Later in the same episode of the program, Peter Sarsgaard, who played Lane in the movie, is interviewed as well. I actually hadn't come across that interview in the past, so it was nice to have found and listened to that. You can listen to both interviews at NPR's website.
Edit: I wanted to add a link to this interesting article, which is about portrayals of journalism in film. It mentions various movies, some entirely fictional and some based on real events. When I think of journalism movies, I mostly think about the ones based on real events first, like Spotlight, All the President's Men, and Shattered Glass. However, this article mentioned some movies that aren't based on true events but also have at least somewhat to do with journalism - Contagion and Nightcrawler, both of which I've also watched. The article also mentions another disgraced journalist, Michael Finkel, that I wasn't aware of before, so I'm going to go read up on him now. Disgraced journalists, the gift/subject matter that keeps on giving!
Edit 2: I thought of a quote that's sort of relevant, although altered slightly: "I can't be doing so badly, because I'm
Edit 3: I thought I'd add these links here since I wasn't quite sure they warranted a whole new post of their own, and they regard Stephen Glass... Firstly, this article about his attempts to become a lawyer yet being denied by the courts. I don't remember if I've linked that in any of my past posts about him or not, so if I haven't, here it is. Secondly, this article about how Stephen, as editor in chief of his college newspaper, caught one of the writers fabricating. "You can’t make this stuff up, but if you can, you might want to send your resume to Rolling Stone." It has a link to an article in that same college newspaper (University of Pennsylvania) reflecting on Glass' fabrications, which I actually had not read before. I wonder if all of their articles are archived and accessible, and if I could possibly read some of Glass' articles from when he wrote there? Wouldn't that be something! I feel like I can safely qualify myself as an expert on Stephen Glass. Kind of an obscure subject matter to be an expert on, but whatever. Additional edit to this edit: Regarding the article in Glass' former college newspaper, I found it to be nice and lengthy, pretty interesting and insightful. It's mentioned that he was "not known as a good writer," which kind of surprised me; the same criticism had been leveled at him in at least one other article I've read written by one of his former coworkers at TNR. However, the finished product/articles from him seem well written, so perhaps that was after extensive editing/rewriting as some claimed. Someone who knew him in college described him in that article as being "charismatic" (which I've pretty much figured in all my reading about him) and a "natural leader." The Forbes journalist who became suspicious about Glass' final story for TNR is quoted, saying that perhaps Glass had wanted to get caught because he wasn't as careful with the last story to make it hard to discredit - mentioning he used last names and more specific locations, instead of only first names/anonymous sources and more vague details. That actually wasn't something I had thought of/considered myself before, but it's an interesting perspective. Obviously the only person who knows the answer to that is Stephen Glass himself. It would be interesting to be able to ask him about it though, as well as if he does/did in the past since 1998 want to return to journalism, and why didn't he just become a fiction writer/novelist in the first place?
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Movie review: Boys Don't Cry
And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming, posts about Peter Sarsgaard...
I finally watched this movie (and eschewed/procrastinated my homework), which is one of the ones Peter Sarsgaard is more known for, and the one where he plays a murderer (although he has actually played murderers in some other roles too). It didn't disappoint me, which is good. Chloe Sevigny was also in this movie and she looked pretty. She had reddish/strawberry blonde hair in this movie which was different; she's usually blonde.
It was a nice and sort of dreamy looking movie, and I liked the music as well. It's always nice when movies have good music too. This wasn't really a feel good movie; it involved violence and murder, which is alright by me but some people aren't really a fan of those things in movies. It was sort of more like a feel bad movie, kind of like Requiem for a Dream, which I also like quite a lot. I would say that this could be an addition to my favorite movies, and not just because it has Peter Sarsgaard in it. It's kind of interesting that he was in this movie with Chloe Sevigny and then a few years later he was in Shattered Glass with Chloe too.
Unless I really hated a movie and want to be done with it (like Frailty or No Country for Old Men), I like to watch the entire credits; I feel like it's a natural part of the end of a movie, and most movies will have some sort of music over the credits. This movie used the song 'Bluest Eyes in Texas' which I guess you might consider a country music song, but regardless, I liked it. Memento used David Bowie's 'Something in the Air', which is the only David Bowie song that I actually like. And of course, there's 'Extreme Ways' from the Jason Bourne movies. And 'My Heart Will Go On' from Titanic. If I were to make a movie, I think I would want to have some music by Joy Division in it, possibly.
Also, in the latest Peter Sarsgaard news, Netflix has released a trailer for a new series he's going to be in. In recent months I had read a little bit about its existence, but only now has the trailer been released, and the series is set to premiere in mid December. Right in time for winter break! The series is about CIA experiments, so I guess things like MK Ultra, and Peter Sarsgaard plays someone who is subjected to those experiments. It's a part documentary series and Peter is going to be in the reenactment scenes, I gather. The themes seem like they could be sort of similar to themes in the Jason Bourne movies, which should be cool. Still not much more news about the Hulu series he's going to be in, but I'm keeping an eye out.
Next on my list: Dot the i, An Education, Brokeback Mountain or maybe some other Jake Gyllenhaal movie
I finally watched this movie (and eschewed/procrastinated my homework), which is one of the ones Peter Sarsgaard is more known for, and the one where he plays a murderer (although he has actually played murderers in some other roles too). It didn't disappoint me, which is good. Chloe Sevigny was also in this movie and she looked pretty. She had reddish/strawberry blonde hair in this movie which was different; she's usually blonde.
It was a nice and sort of dreamy looking movie, and I liked the music as well. It's always nice when movies have good music too. This wasn't really a feel good movie; it involved violence and murder, which is alright by me but some people aren't really a fan of those things in movies. It was sort of more like a feel bad movie, kind of like Requiem for a Dream, which I also like quite a lot. I would say that this could be an addition to my favorite movies, and not just because it has Peter Sarsgaard in it. It's kind of interesting that he was in this movie with Chloe Sevigny and then a few years later he was in Shattered Glass with Chloe too.
Unless I really hated a movie and want to be done with it (like Frailty or No Country for Old Men), I like to watch the entire credits; I feel like it's a natural part of the end of a movie, and most movies will have some sort of music over the credits. This movie used the song 'Bluest Eyes in Texas' which I guess you might consider a country music song, but regardless, I liked it. Memento used David Bowie's 'Something in the Air', which is the only David Bowie song that I actually like. And of course, there's 'Extreme Ways' from the Jason Bourne movies. And 'My Heart Will Go On' from Titanic. If I were to make a movie, I think I would want to have some music by Joy Division in it, possibly.
Also, in the latest Peter Sarsgaard news, Netflix has released a trailer for a new series he's going to be in. In recent months I had read a little bit about its existence, but only now has the trailer been released, and the series is set to premiere in mid December. Right in time for winter break! The series is about CIA experiments, so I guess things like MK Ultra, and Peter Sarsgaard plays someone who is subjected to those experiments. It's a part documentary series and Peter is going to be in the reenactment scenes, I gather. The themes seem like they could be sort of similar to themes in the Jason Bourne movies, which should be cool. Still not much more news about the Hulu series he's going to be in, but I'm keeping an eye out.
Next on my list: Dot the i, An Education, Brokeback Mountain or maybe some other Jake Gyllenhaal movie
Postsecret review 12
"Getting a nose job is one of my greatest mistakes..." I wonder if the plastic surgery went horribly wrong and left the secret writer with an ugly deformed nose?
"Lately I've been dressing really slutty, going out and flirting with strangers. It's such a turn-on... But it's wrecking my life and I can't stop!" I wonder how exactly such behavior would wreck someone's life. Maybe this person means that it's ruining their reputation?
"I buy fruit that matches my kitchen to put in the fruit basket, EVEN IF I DON'T LIKE THEM." A more economical way of doing this would be to buy fake fruits of the kitchen matching kind, because fresh fruit will go bad and will continuously have to be replaced. Since the secret writer doesn't like these fruits, I would assume it goes uneaten and therefore wasted.
"Would I be happier to stay an active member or to come out to live a gay lifestyle?" Over a picture of what I think might be a Mormon temple. Fun! (although it could be some other religion's temple; I'm not sure)
"During your next business trip, I'm going to consummate my affair!" Secrets about affairs are usually interesting.
"I fantasize about snorting coke to lose weight!" As are secrets about drugs.
"When mom found my gay porn I burned it in the back yard before dad came home from work." ... That is... something else. I'm at a loss for words.
"This is the last of my stripper glitter. I quit yesterday, I wanted to get out. But I know I'm going to miss this." I wonder what it would be like to be stripper. I think once I read a little about it online somewhere. I don't remember what got me started on reading about it though.
"[typed] Be aware that what you chase may not be worth catching. If you cheat for it, you will come to resent it. If you steal it, it will haunt you. What you work hard for may become the sweetest thing in life. [handwritten] I learned the hard way." Firstly: Ha! The only thing that haunts me (and it doesn't even really) is the fear that I might become a drug addict. Secondly: For some reason this secret sort of makes me think of Stephen Glass. I don't really think that he sent it, though. But it seems like something that he might possibly think. Today, I read an article about the history of the New Republic, the magazine he wrote for, and it mentioned the scandal that he caused, mentioning him as "Stephen 'Shattered' Glass". I thought that was amusing.
"Thank you for indulging me in my habit of collecting unusual road names! It's one of the many reasons I love you! Leapheart Rd. Pig's Ear Rd. Big Banana Rd. Hitter's Delight Rd." It's not particularly unusual, but I think one of my favorite road names is Observation Drive. Maybe that's only because I hear it announced as a stop so often on the bus. It just rolls off the tongue of the automated voice doing the stop announcements so nicely...
"My house owns me." I'm really not sure what this is supposed to mean.
"[a photo of a woman in a church with thought bubbles of shoes above her head]" Maybe she's praying for more shoes??
"when people ask, I never explain the meaning of my tattoo ...I have a very strong feeling that I'm gonna go crazy one day and the tattoo is tiny part that I'm hoping will keep me sane." This vaguely reminds me of the movie Memento.
"I have loved you ever since you tattooed me" [with a picture of a sort of Soviet themed logo of some tattoo place called 'New Republic Tattoo', which I googled, and apparently they've got a new logo now. Sort of interesting, in that there's also the magazine the New Republic, which I've mentioned a decent amount in the past in relation to Stephen "Shattered" Glass.. Now I'm wondering how the magazine got its name, not to mention the tattoo shop]
"I wish we could have forgiven each other before you were murdered" Ooh, a secret about murder!! I wonder if I'll ever have a situation like that in my life, or, more broadly, if someone I know will ever get murdered.
"I always wanted to invite you to spend holidays w my family. I knew you lived alone downstairs. I never did and now I never can..." Possibilities: the person died, or the secret writer moved away
"I'm stronger than you think I am I'm not leaving you" [with an icon of a person in a wheelchair] This one sort of makes me think of that upcoming movie with Jake Gyllenhaal where he plays a character whose legs get blown off by a bomb!
"The only thing I've learned from my Ivy League education is how many things in my life are more important." I like this secret. The handwriting sort of reminds me of the handwriting of some people I know.
"Lately I've been dressing really slutty, going out and flirting with strangers. It's such a turn-on... But it's wrecking my life and I can't stop!" I wonder how exactly such behavior would wreck someone's life. Maybe this person means that it's ruining their reputation?
"I buy fruit that matches my kitchen to put in the fruit basket, EVEN IF I DON'T LIKE THEM." A more economical way of doing this would be to buy fake fruits of the kitchen matching kind, because fresh fruit will go bad and will continuously have to be replaced. Since the secret writer doesn't like these fruits, I would assume it goes uneaten and therefore wasted.
"Would I be happier to stay an active member or to come out to live a gay lifestyle?" Over a picture of what I think might be a Mormon temple. Fun! (although it could be some other religion's temple; I'm not sure)
"During your next business trip, I'm going to consummate my affair!" Secrets about affairs are usually interesting.
"I fantasize about snorting coke to lose weight!" As are secrets about drugs.
"When mom found my gay porn I burned it in the back yard before dad came home from work." ... That is... something else. I'm at a loss for words.
"This is the last of my stripper glitter. I quit yesterday, I wanted to get out. But I know I'm going to miss this." I wonder what it would be like to be stripper. I think once I read a little about it online somewhere. I don't remember what got me started on reading about it though.
"[typed] Be aware that what you chase may not be worth catching. If you cheat for it, you will come to resent it. If you steal it, it will haunt you. What you work hard for may become the sweetest thing in life. [handwritten] I learned the hard way." Firstly: Ha! The only thing that haunts me (and it doesn't even really) is the fear that I might become a drug addict. Secondly: For some reason this secret sort of makes me think of Stephen Glass. I don't really think that he sent it, though. But it seems like something that he might possibly think. Today, I read an article about the history of the New Republic, the magazine he wrote for, and it mentioned the scandal that he caused, mentioning him as "Stephen 'Shattered' Glass". I thought that was amusing.
"Thank you for indulging me in my habit of collecting unusual road names! It's one of the many reasons I love you! Leapheart Rd. Pig's Ear Rd. Big Banana Rd. Hitter's Delight Rd." It's not particularly unusual, but I think one of my favorite road names is Observation Drive. Maybe that's only because I hear it announced as a stop so often on the bus. It just rolls off the tongue of the automated voice doing the stop announcements so nicely...
"My house owns me." I'm really not sure what this is supposed to mean.
"[a photo of a woman in a church with thought bubbles of shoes above her head]" Maybe she's praying for more shoes??
"when people ask, I never explain the meaning of my tattoo ...I have a very strong feeling that I'm gonna go crazy one day and the tattoo is tiny part that I'm hoping will keep me sane." This vaguely reminds me of the movie Memento.
"I have loved you ever since you tattooed me" [with a picture of a sort of Soviet themed logo of some tattoo place called 'New Republic Tattoo', which I googled, and apparently they've got a new logo now. Sort of interesting, in that there's also the magazine the New Republic, which I've mentioned a decent amount in the past in relation to Stephen "Shattered" Glass.. Now I'm wondering how the magazine got its name, not to mention the tattoo shop]
"I wish we could have forgiven each other before you were murdered" Ooh, a secret about murder!! I wonder if I'll ever have a situation like that in my life, or, more broadly, if someone I know will ever get murdered.
"I always wanted to invite you to spend holidays w my family. I knew you lived alone downstairs. I never did and now I never can..." Possibilities: the person died, or the secret writer moved away
"I'm stronger than you think I am I'm not leaving you" [with an icon of a person in a wheelchair] This one sort of makes me think of that upcoming movie with Jake Gyllenhaal where he plays a character whose legs get blown off by a bomb!
"The only thing I've learned from my Ivy League education is how many things in my life are more important." I like this secret. The handwriting sort of reminds me of the handwriting of some people I know.
I can't believe I'm paying money for this!!
I was watching television just earlier and had watched a couple episodes of Seinfeld. Then I decided that I didn't feel like watching that anymore, so I changed the channel and started watching CNN. It was just a minute or so before 7 pm, so Wolf Blitzer's show was finishing up, although as it turned out, Wolf was off today and none other than Jim Sciutto was filling in for him. So I was sort of disappointed that I had missed Jim Sciutto filling in for Wolf. I think maybe that's a sign that he might get his own show sooner or later, possibly. Chris Cuomo has a new prime time show, it seems, replacing Don Lemon, I believe. Anyways, the 7 pm show started and they had Anderson as well as a few other people out in Texas reporting on the hurricane. Anderson has traded in his trademark black t shirts for polo shirts, it seems. I wonder why he did that. Maybe Wolf will be away tomorrow also and they'll have Jim Sciutto fill in for him again. I wonder if anyone has ever mistakenly called him Jim Prosciutto, since I recently discovered the joy that is prosciutto (a lunch meat). One time in the past, Anderson (I think) mixed up Jim Sciutto and Jim Acosta. Anyways, I do like the semi change in pace that is hurricane coverage compared to coverage of the hot mess that is the government these days.
Secondly, this part of the post can aptly be titled "I can't believe I'm paying money for this!" It's been nearly a full week and I can safely say that I think my classes are on the boring side this semester. Unfortunately. It's a necessarily evil though; the classes are required classes so I don't really have much of a choice about taking them. One of them I dislike more than the other, although both aren't particularly interesting to me. So let me record today's atrocity for posterity. Firstly, I think I should mention that, earlier in the week, I developed an awful blister on my left foot because I wore some new shoes. As a requirement for the laboratory portion of the class, students must wear closed shoes. I'm a big fan of slip on sandals since I'm very lazy and like my feet to have ventilation during the warmer months. So usually I'm wearing whichever pair of flip flops are my preferred ones out of the different pairs I have. Anyways, on that day, I couldn't wear the sandals so I decided to wear the new shoes, since it was raining and my older (more comfortable) shoes have holes in them and my feet would get wet. In short order, the shoes were uncomfortable, and by the time I got to class, I already had a blister. The 30 minutes of walking it took to get there is a separate issue. Immediately after the class was over, I went to Walmart to find some cheap sandals that I could change into. Since it's nearly September, they didn't have a very good selection of sandals, so I had to make do with this pair of pink jelly sandals that didn't exactly fit. But at least they weren't rubbing my heels. They fell off my feet a couple of times when I was walking home, and after I got home, I threw them away. What's even more infuriating is that the only thing we did in the lab portion of the class that day was to do graphing, which does not involve chemicals and is completely safe to do when wearing sandals, or, hell, even barefoot (although it's sort of tacky to go barefoot in public, unless you're at the pool or beach). So I'm resentful over the blister, for one thing.
That was just the prelude to today. Today I wore sandals initially to get to campus and brought other shoes in a bag to change into later. Which was more tolerable but my heel blister still hurts, so even the comfortable shoes were sort of painful because they were touching it. Today's laboratory lesson was the inane task of designing an experiment to test the absorbency of various paper towel brands. Let me tell you, that was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever spent wasted an hour and a half of my life doing. I'm nearly 20 years old for god's sake!! And I'm being reduced to snipping paper towels into equal sizes and designing a stupid experiment that will most effectively test which brand is the most absorbent. That whole lesson is for the birds. I can't believe I'm paying money for this!!! It was most certainly a 9th grade level assignment. I'm too old for this shit! And to think that I'm paying tuition to do something like that in class!! Ridiculous! I'm not sure it's completely the professor's fault, as the curriculum is probably designed by other people, but I was absolutely infuriated by the end of class. What an inane waste of my time!! After which I decided to treat myself to some emotional eating and I had Chick fil A for lunch. For the record, from personal experience, I can tell you that Bounty brand paper towels are the best. I've noticed that other brands of paper towels take more sheets to clean up spills, and I'd have to go back multiple times to get a new sheet. I don't need to design a stupid fucking experiment to know that. For fuck's sake. Anyways, I really needed to get that out of my system. What's worse is now, for next week, I have to write up a report about the experiment, which I'm already loath to do. I wish I could drop the class because it's boring and inane, but it's required.
This is why I'm going to become a (future starving) linguist and/or copy editor/journalist. Some may debate about whether linguistics matters, although the question of whether journalism matters I think is more clear cut - it does. So I would like to do something with my life that matters, and wasting my time and brain power designing scientific experiments to test paper towels for some class is not under that category. What a ripoff! Once again, I can't believe I'm paying money for this!!
I think I will eschew doing my homework at this time and watch the news and/or a Peter Sarsgaard movie, or something. Bleh.
Secondly, this part of the post can aptly be titled "I can't believe I'm paying money for this!" It's been nearly a full week and I can safely say that I think my classes are on the boring side this semester. Unfortunately. It's a necessarily evil though; the classes are required classes so I don't really have much of a choice about taking them. One of them I dislike more than the other, although both aren't particularly interesting to me. So let me record today's atrocity for posterity. Firstly, I think I should mention that, earlier in the week, I developed an awful blister on my left foot because I wore some new shoes. As a requirement for the laboratory portion of the class, students must wear closed shoes. I'm a big fan of slip on sandals since I'm very lazy and like my feet to have ventilation during the warmer months. So usually I'm wearing whichever pair of flip flops are my preferred ones out of the different pairs I have. Anyways, on that day, I couldn't wear the sandals so I decided to wear the new shoes, since it was raining and my older (more comfortable) shoes have holes in them and my feet would get wet. In short order, the shoes were uncomfortable, and by the time I got to class, I already had a blister. The 30 minutes of walking it took to get there is a separate issue. Immediately after the class was over, I went to Walmart to find some cheap sandals that I could change into. Since it's nearly September, they didn't have a very good selection of sandals, so I had to make do with this pair of pink jelly sandals that didn't exactly fit. But at least they weren't rubbing my heels. They fell off my feet a couple of times when I was walking home, and after I got home, I threw them away. What's even more infuriating is that the only thing we did in the lab portion of the class that day was to do graphing, which does not involve chemicals and is completely safe to do when wearing sandals, or, hell, even barefoot (although it's sort of tacky to go barefoot in public, unless you're at the pool or beach). So I'm resentful over the blister, for one thing.
That was just the prelude to today. Today I wore sandals initially to get to campus and brought other shoes in a bag to change into later. Which was more tolerable but my heel blister still hurts, so even the comfortable shoes were sort of painful because they were touching it. Today's laboratory lesson was the inane task of designing an experiment to test the absorbency of various paper towel brands. Let me tell you, that was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever spent wasted an hour and a half of my life doing. I'm nearly 20 years old for god's sake!! And I'm being reduced to snipping paper towels into equal sizes and designing a stupid experiment that will most effectively test which brand is the most absorbent. That whole lesson is for the birds. I can't believe I'm paying money for this!!! It was most certainly a 9th grade level assignment. I'm too old for this shit! And to think that I'm paying tuition to do something like that in class!! Ridiculous! I'm not sure it's completely the professor's fault, as the curriculum is probably designed by other people, but I was absolutely infuriated by the end of class. What an inane waste of my time!! After which I decided to treat myself to some emotional eating and I had Chick fil A for lunch. For the record, from personal experience, I can tell you that Bounty brand paper towels are the best. I've noticed that other brands of paper towels take more sheets to clean up spills, and I'd have to go back multiple times to get a new sheet. I don't need to design a stupid fucking experiment to know that. For fuck's sake. Anyways, I really needed to get that out of my system. What's worse is now, for next week, I have to write up a report about the experiment, which I'm already loath to do. I wish I could drop the class because it's boring and inane, but it's required.
This is why I'm going to become a (future starving) linguist and/or copy editor/journalist. Some may debate about whether linguistics matters, although the question of whether journalism matters I think is more clear cut - it does. So I would like to do something with my life that matters, and wasting my time and brain power designing scientific experiments to test paper towels for some class is not under that category. What a ripoff! Once again, I can't believe I'm paying money for this!!
I think I will eschew doing my homework at this time and watch the news and/or a Peter Sarsgaard movie, or something. Bleh.
Sunday, August 27, 2017
The big, scary future
(or, typical millennial musings, perhaps?? Even though I would say I just barely qualify as a so-called millennial)
Re: title - it refers to my personal future in general, not the future of this blog. This blog shall continue as long as I have the time, energy and ideas for it.
As it seems sort of fitting to do with the onset of a new semester upon us, I have ramped up fretting about what I'm going to do with my life in the actually not so far off future - I'm getting old and I gotta start thinking about careers and that kind of thing, as they say.. If I had really been on top of things, which I'm currently not (and sort of wasn't in the past, either), I would've thought about these things like... two years ago, probably, and I would've applied to and ideally gotten accepted into a fancy college and all that... Alas. Not that I exactly want to think about them now, because it's not super fun to consider what I perceive as the not-so-ripe prospects that are out there for me. Not that I've really looked, but I just don't have a lot of confidence in my future/long term success. Not because I'm unintelligent or that kind of thing, but because I don't think there are good/easy to get jobs in the areas that interest me. Future starving linguist here. If only I were interested in computer science and/or engineering! (this is one of the reasons why I would ideally like to date someone who values the humanities, so that we can commiserate about how all the good [as in, high paying and seemingly in high demand] jobs are technology/science related...) Sort of a tangent here, but last semester I had discussed the concept of how fewer women go into science/technology careers with one of my professors and I had said that I sort of feel.. not quite obligated, but like I ought to go into a career like that because there needs to be more women in those careers. Although those things don't really interest me and I don't think that I would enjoy it too much. The conclusion of that conversation was that it's fine and good for other women to have/pursue careers in those areas, but that us particular women (this professor is a sociology professor) don't have the desire to do that and that's fine too.
On top of the whole all-the-good-jobs-are-in-science-and-technology thing, I semi-non-seriously worry that I'm going to become a drug addict, which, although of course I don't plan on it, could still theoretically happen. Maybe my life will take various turns in the future that lead me to become a drug addict. I'll let you know if that happens. Although, I sort of feel like it would be difficult for me to become a drug addict, at least as far as injecting heroin goes, because the whole concept of shooting up sort of freaks me out. Although I guess I could still snort cocaine or something. I feel like the nonchalance with which I talk about theoretically becoming a drug addict probably would come across as weird to those who are unfamiliar with me and my fascination with drug addicts (or, as the Associated Press wants us to say, people who are addicted to drugs).
If I do indeed happen to become a drug addict, then so be it, but it will also mean that one of my other worries that I have will have also come true - worrying that other people will be more successful than me. Unless I'm a particularly high-functioning theoretical future drug addict, I would imagine that the various people I know of would be out there being more successful than me in that scenario. Which, even theoretical-becoming-a-drug addict aside, gives me more of a reason to avoid these people as much as possible because I'd rather not be potentially reminded of how other people are out there being more successful than me. So the less I see of/am around/think about them, the better. Which means, actually, that there's a semi-decent excuse to not transfer to [large in-state university] in the quite near future. Not that I'm going to just not go to college anymore, but that I think maybe it would be... more enjoyable/would give me more peace of mind/less stress to go to a different school where fewer of these various people who I assume are out there being more successful than me have gone. Just an idea. I'm not sure if my mother would see the worry about other people being more successful than me as a legitimate reason to not transfer to that particular school. Come to think of it, I sort of had my fill of these various people in high school, which is where I know of them from. Nothing against them (well, most of them), but it's not like I particularly have a large desire to see many of them again. If I were really interested in the particulars of their lives, I'd be on facebook or something.
I am trying really hard not to think too much about a particular person I know of (maybe I should make that an abbreviation? APPIKO, how's that?) who I'm aware is pursuing (and most definitely much more proactively than I am) the career of journalism. This grates at me even more specifically, because of the subject/career area being the same as something I may actually attempt to try and pursue more. So that stresses me out. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does, so I try not to think about it too much, but here I am, thinking about it. The success of other people in other fields that I don't really have an interest in bothers me less because those aren't things that I'm actively not being as successful as I wish in - I don't really have an interest in being a, say, biochemical engineer or whatever, so it doesn't matter how well other people are doing if they're studying that. This is all really depressing to think about. Maybe I need to be more outgoing and I'd be more successful.. Maybe that's the key.
Sort of along the lines of pursuing a career in journalism in the future, I've looked up which various internships are available, which at the moment I'm not going to apply for, but may in the future. Some of the places I've considered are: The New Republic (yes, that one), Slate, Washingtonian Magazine/Bethesda Magazine (both magazines focused on local matters), various others but those are the ones that come to mind the most. I liked the wording on Washingtonian's page where it talks about internships:
The aside aside, it really bothers me, the idea of people I know of being more (as in, decently more) successful than me. Or rather, you could look at it as being that the idea of me being a failure bothers me. But I like the phrasing of 'other people being more successful than me' better. That sort of conveys that, maybe I won't necessarily be a complete failure, but I won't necessarily be as successful as I think I should ideally be either (compared to other people). So there's a bit more nuance to that phrasing, I think. Although maybe we could broadly expand that idea to the concept of insecurity about myself. Maybe I shouldn't try to psychoanalyze myself, by the way. It's never particularly fun, I don't think.
And to top all of this off, I should probably try to meet people in person if I really want to date someone, because I've been online dating for over a year now and I haven't been on one single actual date in person. However, like I've thought on multiple occasions, if it's this difficult to find someone worthwhile to date, then maybe I'm just better off staying single and watching Peter Sarsgaard movies, and that kind of thing.
To close, a non sequitur (sort of - I would say that insecurity drove him to fabricate and me worrying about other people being more successful than me is sort of a facet of insecurity, although it won't cause me to fabricate): If Stephen Glass had a blog (now, or ~20 years ago, or both!), what would he write about? Or, to specify, if he had a blog that's sort of similar to mine in that it's about my various thoughts, what would his thoughts be that he'd write about on his blog??
Re: title - it refers to my personal future in general, not the future of this blog. This blog shall continue as long as I have the time, energy and ideas for it.
As it seems sort of fitting to do with the onset of a new semester upon us, I have ramped up fretting about what I'm going to do with my life in the actually not so far off future - I'm getting old and I gotta start thinking about careers and that kind of thing, as they say.. If I had really been on top of things, which I'm currently not (and sort of wasn't in the past, either), I would've thought about these things like... two years ago, probably, and I would've applied to and ideally gotten accepted into a fancy college and all that... Alas. Not that I exactly want to think about them now, because it's not super fun to consider what I perceive as the not-so-ripe prospects that are out there for me. Not that I've really looked, but I just don't have a lot of confidence in my future/long term success. Not because I'm unintelligent or that kind of thing, but because I don't think there are good/easy to get jobs in the areas that interest me. Future starving linguist here. If only I were interested in computer science and/or engineering! (this is one of the reasons why I would ideally like to date someone who values the humanities, so that we can commiserate about how all the good [as in, high paying and seemingly in high demand] jobs are technology/science related...) Sort of a tangent here, but last semester I had discussed the concept of how fewer women go into science/technology careers with one of my professors and I had said that I sort of feel.. not quite obligated, but like I ought to go into a career like that because there needs to be more women in those careers. Although those things don't really interest me and I don't think that I would enjoy it too much. The conclusion of that conversation was that it's fine and good for other women to have/pursue careers in those areas, but that us particular women (this professor is a sociology professor) don't have the desire to do that and that's fine too.
On top of the whole all-the-good-jobs-are-in-science-and-technology thing, I semi-non-seriously worry that I'm going to become a drug addict, which, although of course I don't plan on it, could still theoretically happen. Maybe my life will take various turns in the future that lead me to become a drug addict. I'll let you know if that happens. Although, I sort of feel like it would be difficult for me to become a drug addict, at least as far as injecting heroin goes, because the whole concept of shooting up sort of freaks me out. Although I guess I could still snort cocaine or something. I feel like the nonchalance with which I talk about theoretically becoming a drug addict probably would come across as weird to those who are unfamiliar with me and my fascination with drug addicts (or, as the Associated Press wants us to say, people who are addicted to drugs).
If I do indeed happen to become a drug addict, then so be it, but it will also mean that one of my other worries that I have will have also come true - worrying that other people will be more successful than me. Unless I'm a particularly high-functioning theoretical future drug addict, I would imagine that the various people I know of would be out there being more successful than me in that scenario. Which, even theoretical-becoming-a-drug addict aside, gives me more of a reason to avoid these people as much as possible because I'd rather not be potentially reminded of how other people are out there being more successful than me. So the less I see of/am around/think about them, the better. Which means, actually, that there's a semi-decent excuse to not transfer to [large in-state university] in the quite near future. Not that I'm going to just not go to college anymore, but that I think maybe it would be... more enjoyable/would give me more peace of mind/less stress to go to a different school where fewer of these various people who I assume are out there being more successful than me have gone. Just an idea. I'm not sure if my mother would see the worry about other people being more successful than me as a legitimate reason to not transfer to that particular school. Come to think of it, I sort of had my fill of these various people in high school, which is where I know of them from. Nothing against them (well, most of them), but it's not like I particularly have a large desire to see many of them again. If I were really interested in the particulars of their lives, I'd be on facebook or something.
I am trying really hard not to think too much about a particular person I know of (maybe I should make that an abbreviation? APPIKO, how's that?) who I'm aware is pursuing (and most definitely much more proactively than I am) the career of journalism. This grates at me even more specifically, because of the subject/career area being the same as something I may actually attempt to try and pursue more. So that stresses me out. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does, so I try not to think about it too much, but here I am, thinking about it. The success of other people in other fields that I don't really have an interest in bothers me less because those aren't things that I'm actively not being as successful as I wish in - I don't really have an interest in being a, say, biochemical engineer or whatever, so it doesn't matter how well other people are doing if they're studying that. This is all really depressing to think about. Maybe I need to be more outgoing and I'd be more successful.. Maybe that's the key.
Sort of along the lines of pursuing a career in journalism in the future, I've looked up which various internships are available, which at the moment I'm not going to apply for, but may in the future. Some of the places I've considered are: The New Republic (yes, that one), Slate, Washingtonian Magazine/Bethesda Magazine (both magazines focused on local matters), various others but those are the ones that come to mind the most. I liked the wording on Washingtonian's page where it talks about internships:
Jobs
Editorial Fellowship
Are you caught—or about to be caught—somewhere in that treacherous valley between freshly minted college graduate and full-time journalist, where clips at a magazine like ours are the climbing shoes you need to get up the mountain ahead of you? Or are you at least a rising college senior with a few solid clips and, ideally, previous media internship experience?
Are you looking for the chance to write and report in the nation’s capital? Do you want to be surrounded by professionals who take journalism seriously but also like to have fun and swap ideas?
Does incomprehensible-to-outsiders corporate-speak make your insides twirl as though Lloyd Blankfein himself is stirring them from his throne at Evil HQ? Can you get fired up every day about at least one of our coverage areas: Washington news and politics, dining, lifestyle, travel, etc.?
Are you willing to, some weeks, fact-check stories to the point of unequivocal accuracy and look dead into an editor’s eyes and say “all clear”? Are you willing to check your ego at the door and occasionally work shifts at the reception desk and help out at events, knowing that doing so is just another step on the ladder to greatness?
If this sounds like a fit, we offer an experience that’s low on grunt work and high on opportunity. Graduates of our program have gone on to publications such as Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, National Geographic, Allure, Smithsonian, and USA Today (and have landed full-time jobs at Washingtonian).
The positions are 40 hours a week for four months in the fall, five months in the spring, and three months in the summer, with possible extensions for standout fellows. The pay is $12.50 per hour.
Primary Duties
- Fact-checking and research.
- Enterprising fellows will find many opportunities to pitch and write for the magazine and the website.
- Will have the opportunity to meet with editors, writers, and heads of department over the course of the program to discuss their roles at the magazine and their careers in journalism.
- Position reports to Assistant Editor, Kim Olsen.
The aside aside, it really bothers me, the idea of people I know of being more (as in, decently more) successful than me. Or rather, you could look at it as being that the idea of me being a failure bothers me. But I like the phrasing of 'other people being more successful than me' better. That sort of conveys that, maybe I won't necessarily be a complete failure, but I won't necessarily be as successful as I think I should ideally be either (compared to other people). So there's a bit more nuance to that phrasing, I think. Although maybe we could broadly expand that idea to the concept of insecurity about myself. Maybe I shouldn't try to psychoanalyze myself, by the way. It's never particularly fun, I don't think.
And to top all of this off, I should probably try to meet people in person if I really want to date someone, because I've been online dating for over a year now and I haven't been on one single actual date in person. However, like I've thought on multiple occasions, if it's this difficult to find someone worthwhile to date, then maybe I'm just better off staying single and watching Peter Sarsgaard movies, and that kind of thing.
To close, a non sequitur (sort of - I would say that insecurity drove him to fabricate and me worrying about other people being more successful than me is sort of a facet of insecurity, although it won't cause me to fabricate): If Stephen Glass had a blog (now, or ~20 years ago, or both!), what would he write about? Or, to specify, if he had a blog that's sort of similar to mine in that it's about my various thoughts, what would his thoughts be that he'd write about on his blog??
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