it's only taken two and a half years, but i'm finally doing college coursework writing that is interesting enough for me to want to share with you, the world.

ok, so i did post two things from last quarter. one was a story about washington state prostate cancer advocacy that, someday, maybe, i will go back and finish with more interviews. it grows stale by the day. the other is my formal psychology report on this really kind of blah cognitive experiment i did with a group. i'm not sure why i put it up; it's not really good reading. maybe as a counterpoint example to the thing i wrote for high school psych which was also supposed to be a fairly formal report, but it was much, much less informed and had, like, zero empirical or statistical merit.

anyway, this quarter, within the next couple weeks, you can expect several things to go up. of the stories i've written for advanced reporting, there are only two i think would make any sense to post--neither of which are done yet. one i haven't even started. the profile story is a work in progress, and i think it'll be a good read once it's polished. the other is supposed to be about the ave revitalization. i should also have a fun research paper on pop lyrics, 1950 to 1999, and expressed environmental attitudes. really, it might actually be fun. i may even put up one or both of the essays due for my stupid philosophy/journalism class if i happen to like them.

i know. i know. school papers are an exciting read. i don't think anyone's ever commented on any of the shit i put on that writing page, anyway. so why do i bother? cos. i might as well.

also, death cab for cutie was a fun show last night. i was darn worn out even though it ended quite early (before 9:30) and it was smoky and my ears were numbed, but man. i love shows. you'd think they're terrible because i end up sore and kinda cranky about my sensory capabilities afterwards, but it's so worth it. i can't even explain why. i just love going. i feel alive.

back to work!

listening: jeff buckley - lover, you should've come over

"municipal courthouse" is not the same as "county courthouse," which, for all i could tell, is the same thing as "county correctional facility." all within a block of each other. hi, please to be confusing me, kthx!

so i got up at 7 this morning, showered, ate, packed a snacky assemblage of food for a long day, and hopped on a bus downtown that let me off right in front of the king county administrative offices or something. 5th and james. anyway, i failed to correctly identify the county courthouse and sat in courtroom 1002 of the municipal court for an hour, where a bored judge heard a busy team of prosecuting and defense attorneys for the city name cases that couldn't actually be heard that day for various reasons. well, no, one was outright dismissed, and one had a videotape of evidence that needed to be copied for the court by mid-march. anyway, i have no idea what was going on and i don't think any of it would make a story. there was no information officer on duty. i was definitely in the wrong place. i definitely wasted my time.

so i walked down to the international district and bought random crap at uwajimaya (tamari sauce, almond-flavored fortune cookies, norimaki rice crackers, garlic chili sauce, brown jasmine rice) before bussing back home to sit around for a couple hours before class. i felt defeated. the tunnel buses that run before noon are stupid: they go within two blocks of my house for several blocks, but don't stop until i'm a 10-minute walk from my building. there are bus stops along the way, it just can't stop at them. drives me nuts. fortunately, i don't ride that bus often.

i have at least half an hour before i have to go to class. there i can confess to my two classmates how i fucked up and they can laugh and give me that look of sympathy, then i can go pass a silly quiz, eat dinner, and try not to swallow my tongue while interviewing my profile subject. i had a hard time getting to sleep last night just thinking of how i should structure the interview and such. at least i've met the guy and it should be fairly casual. i have a lot to ask about and i hope it'll be stuff he'll want to talk about. tell me stories, man!

anyway, i guess i'll have to figure out another day to go to court. how frustrating.

i'll just be glad when all this is over. my classes next quarter won't require much in the way of this type of work, i suspect, so it'll allow me to crawl back into my little student role. i need to do something to break out of that, but i don't know what yet. definitely summer will bring newslab (and only newslab, a decision fellow journalism major lindsay heartily applauds), which should be a lot of work work work.

ugh. i'm twitchy from sweet delicious coffee. i hope i hope i hope i do a good interview. the last time i had to do a fairly lengthy interview--ok, the only time, i think--it was someone who knew my dad and the interview was about prostate cancer advocacy, so i think he was way more than happy to talk to me, if nothing else then out of respect for my father or something. this guy has no ties to me, he's just nice. i half think that if i were actually working for a publication or a real freelance journalist or something, i might feel more empowered by the name of whatever publication than i do when i say, "i'm a student and this is for a class assignment." i also have to wonder if people are as suspicious of me as people tend to say they are of journalists--like i'm planning to expose the seedy underbelly of vegan cafes in seattle or something.

oh, yeah, did i say my classes next quarter? i know you care a lot. i couldn't get into copyediting because apparently it required and addcode, which i didn't realize and therefore had no addcode. so i'm taking media law, developmental psych, and a seminar on motivational theories in social psych. fun.

listening: arab strap - turbulence

some things:

i am going to go hang out at the courthouse tomorrow morning. the 79 runs from right around the corner to near the courthouse, so that's remarkably convenient.

i am also interviewing the owner of the vegan sandwich shop tomorrow after class. that's a little nerve-wracking, but i'm confident, somewhere deep inside, that i can do a good job.

when i got home from pitching the interview, i had a jury summons from federal court in my mailbox. great. and it's for the first two weeks of next quarter. i hope they let me defer until september, when i do, in fact, have a free month to my knowledge.

listening: beth orton - stars all seem to weep

i'm at work. how unusual. trying to sort through all kinds of homework anxieties, as usual. in fact, there is very little about today that seems remarkable or noteworthy in the slightest.

psycinfo is not finding me very many useful items. i am looking for research on some sort of biological basis for ethics, morals, values, etc. that supercedes cultural and religious indoctrination. i'm sure that it's partially inborn and partially experienced, but still. i'd like to have some proper research so i can write a paper. i thought the paper was due tomorrow; the prof changed it to tuesday. thank gosh. he also said the assignment--which should be fairly easy to do, since it is basically to take some point in his book, agree or disagree, and back up your argument, with or without outside research--should be five to seven pages in length. the syllabus said three to five. someone pointed this out to him, and he said maybe it could be done in three, but five is probably more likely to allow you to form a coherent argument. he also said, "i've known people who couldn't write anything less than 25 pages." good goddamned lord. if you can't make a point in a couple paragraphs, you have got to learn restraint, my friend. in the form of copious edits and brevity.

not to say that some things do deserve expansion to the tune of 25+ typewritten pages, but damn. more is not better!

fortunately, the prof for my com&envir class has a much more realistic view of things. he'd rather not spend forever reading our shit, so the shorter, the better. i mean, sure, it needs to be good, but it shouldn't go on and on. i didn't think much of the guy at first, but i think he's grown quite endearing. he has a sense of humor and a definite passion for what he's teaching, as well as eons of experience. i mean, he sang a song for us that he wrote. about global warming. and played guitar. and explained the irony in the lyrics and chord structure.

our stupidonlineproject is nearing completion. all that remains is the full text (rather than an outline) of errant groupmember betsy's future section and the finalization of the complete bibliography. it's truly exciting. you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll learn a little about recycling in king county. and yes, i am the webmonkey extraordinaire.

i am going to talk to the proprietor of hillside quickies about doing a profile of him after work. i'm a little nervous because i don't know how to pronounce his name and am not fond of awkwardness, although it's my mainstay. hopefully he doesn't want to conduct the interview *then,* but i could probably do it. anyway, talking to strangers, even if they told me to come by (in an email), makes me anxious. tomorrow morning i don't have class, so i think i'm going to cover the court story. that should be a total party, too. maybe my classmate from the council meeting will also be there--he said he was thinking of going then, too. if i can get those two stories, my first book paper, the extra credit paper, and most of my lyrics project done this weekend, i can work on my presentation, second book paper, and the ave project all next week. oh, and midterm prep, but jana just said i could copy her stuff.

good lord.

i'm screwed.

my mom and brother were up last night. mom brought me a bunch of food items (including some teriyaki baked tofu, asparagus, and mushrooms, yum yum) and a wiccy magic muscles massage bar from lush she bought from their trip to victoria. at first glance, it looks very much like a white chocolate confection. it is greasy and smells yummy, of peppermint and cinnamon. then i went a little wacky and started browsing the lush site and mulling over some coffee-scented dark brown henna. then i decided to see if beqi clothing was back, and it was, so i browsed her new stuff. and i watched the new episode of "gilmore girls" because i had to. the preview made it look like rory was gonna DO IT and i also needed to know why the fuck paris looked nicey-nice to her again. so i watched and DAMN. there was a lot about the episode that was lame, but things happened involving sex, paris, and harvard so it was compelling in that respect. fuck. so it was a night lost to girly-girliness.

and now i've spent a bunch of time not actually doing anything. well, i did make my required 'question' post for the stupidonlineclass discussion board that's due today. and had a librarian ask for a description of the perv from last friday to see if he was one of the people they "watch" downstairs. he's not. anyway, my point is...i must get some sort of work done. ta.

i took a spill last night walking west along the south side of 45th in wallingford. kevin and i were looking for a place to eat and had already passed and rejected several restaurants before coming up on the second to last block, where i tripped on the sidewalk ramp and landed on the palms of my hands and left knee. my left palm is pretty scraped up.

i wanted mexican. kevin didn't think mexican sounded too good and was pretty sure mexican is hard to get vegan. i thought it could be done at beso del sol, but when we got there, he said he wasn't really into bar-type mexican restaurants. we walked back to some new thai place called treasure thai cuisine. the food was all right--i don't remember what i ordered, but it was slightly sweet with wide rice noodles, straw mushrooms, and bamboo shoots; kevin had yellow curry--and the waitstaff was overeager to please. the menu, even, was eager to prove its worth as yet another thai restaurant in a town full of thai restaurants, some of which have an immense and loyal following. it had interesting decor--gold-tinged marionettes hanging from deep warm-toned walls, pirate logo by the door, glass tabletops to show off some interesting copper metalwork--and kind of a weird, stilted ambiance with strange music box tinklings in the background. a couple sitting behind us were greeted by the chef herself, who gave them recommendations despite one of them being allergic to shrimp and the other to peanuts--kind of a deadly combo in thai food.

earlier that evening, kevin woke up and i told him to get showered and i'd be over on the bus in about 40 minutes. then we went to golden gardens to enjoy a reasonably pleasant post-sunset with a few bonfires dotting the public beach. when we got back to his house, i made him watch "waiting for guffman," which he hadn't seen.

i absolutely have to get cracking on some major school projects, all due by the end of the quarter--march 14. two five-page papers about boring books, my lyrics analysis project (paper + presentation), three more reporting assignments--a day in court, a profile (i'd like to change my subject and i need to approach him soon), and a story about the ave revitalization in the grand scheme of things--which are probably the biggest stressors, finish the stupid website, and the final for stupidonlineclass. holy fuck. why am i sitting here, halfway watching "zelig" and writing for fun?! why did i rent three dvds this weekend (the third of which was "stranger than paradise," which was beautiful but odd)?! why is it already almost 5 o'clock?!?!

oh, hey. concert on friday. kevin's got tickets, hurrah, hurrah!

listening: death cab for cutie - styrofoam plates