it's all gossip.

i was thinking about what i found so alluring about journalism. sure, it's partly about performing a public service and tackling hard-hitting issues, but some of it is being the first to know and the first to be able to tell everyone else about it.

it's just gossip, really. perhaps a little less vacuous than a lot of the trashy speculation and rumour out there, and it's more or less been factually verified (depending *ahem* on the publication), but it's essentially all about telling other people things about other people. and it's such a rush to know that you're reaching a large number of people with your news without the distortion of multiple-generation re-imaginings and re-inventions of what was initially said.

i was talking with JH, the culture editor of our paper. he's really into arts reporting and wants to do broadcast arts journalism as a career. we discussed how much of a challenge that was since the majority of the "entertainment reporting" is mostly glorified advertising or trashy celebrity gossip. print media can be clouded with the same kind of refuse, of course, but it seems the most flexible of media in that regard. you can write trash, but you don't have to. uh, right?

***

hey, guess where i am right now...

that's right! not a cloud in the sky, and i'm in my lab having the pads on my glasses weighed down by my laser goggles and gouging third and fourth nostrils into the sides of my nose.

i've found a variety of ways to occupy myself during the scans, though -- beyond updating this blog. yesterday, i finished up my rear-end report for the paper to earn my april paycheque and today i'm busying myself with a bunch of journal bidness. i'm running for the production post, you see. i have to get organized enough to produce a cover letter, a CV and a portfolio, and i'm feeling pretty lazy about it, since it's pretty much a forgone conclusion. nobody else is going to run for the position. i'm not even really bothering with the portfolio, actually. i mean, i laid out the april issue and made a friggin' media kit. if that isn't enough to get hired at this thankless job that doesn't pay anything, then the level of dumbness that this world's reached is beyond saving.

that may be the case even if i do get elected. whatever.

***
oh croissants. why do you have to be so bloody good?

***

it's so perfect it's dangerous.

after my day in the lab yesterday, i was tempted to write my supervisor saying, 'i looked at 8 arrays today, and still see no features. just wanted to let you know that i wasn't on my couch smoking weed and masturbating to HBO.'

it's going to take me an extreme amount of self-restraint not to write that next time he implies i'm lazy. oh god. he's going to fire me, isn't he?

***

why is ralph nader running for president?

sure, there's no question that he'd be infinitely better than bush and that he'd make the utmost effort to serve the people of the US, but that's hardly the point right now.

nader should realize that as much as he is a force of good, bush is a millionfold a force of evil and the priority should be about getting him out of office, not perpetuate some idealistic and idyllic fantasy.

'that's the problem with left-wing idealists,' my sweetie said. 'they don't know how to play hardball. they just don't think there should be hardball.'

***

i bought the anniversary gift for my sweetie yesterday. well, to be precise, i paid for it yesterday. ordered it over the internet and i'm a bit concerned about why i haven't received a confirmation e-mail about the order. it was the only place i could find what i was looking for. they don't carry it up in canada, and most of the on-line stores won't even ship it up here.

anyway, their website says 4 business days they should get back to me, so we'll see. i hope they don't tell me that they also can't ship to canada. if they can ship it up here, i hope it shows up on time.