"Idle hands are the devil's playthings."

I know I've been remiss lately in keeping up with blogging, but I've had my hands busy.

First, I started a new internship! I'm really happy about it. But I'm more excited of the prospect of landing a FT job afterwards within the field.

Second, I'm volunteering with a non-profit. I telecommute and do everything from Peet's. Yay for Peet's free wifi and highly-caffeinited coffee.

And third, I've been reading a lot books. Last weekend, I finished reading God-Shaped Hole and The Little Prince. Since then, I've started to read a couple of different books. There's the 6th Harry Potter book because I was slightly devastated by the lack of color in the movie. Then there's a book about meditition because it's something I've always wanted to start. And Crime and Punishment as usual. I'm still trying to make a dent in that one.

But mostly, I've been stuck on Reza Aslan's How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror. I started reading it because the book's argument reminds me of a class I took in college on Terrorism and Homeland Security. I'm promise to write more about it when I finish.

I have to start working now, I have a busy day. Ma'a Assalama!

"To me, there is only one form of human depravity - the man without a purpose." Ayn Rand

Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero.

Seize the day and place no trust in tomorrow.

The REAL 2009 UCLA Commencement Speech

After Franco pulled out, officials contacted Brad Delson (Communication Studies B.A. '99 & guitarist for Linken Park). Hilarity ensues.

He reflects on not being the first choice, sings a song, and..just watch:

What if James Franco had delivered the 2009 UCLA Commencement Speech?

It would have gone something like this...

James Franco's Rejected UCLA Commencement Speech from James Franco

Did you ever blow on dandelions as a kid?

During grade school recesses, my friends and I would sometimes pick dandelions from the field (before schools taught kids about respecting all living things).

We'd pick a dandelion in perfect condition, make a wish, and blow. Then we would stand there in awe as they flew gracefully with the wind.

I don't think I've done that since. (sigh)

(picture via this blog)

My Top 5 Twittering Journalists

I’m a news junkie.

There. I said it.

And technology is my persistent enabler.

Because of Twitter, folks on the other side of the world can learn instantaneously of a plane crash, a protest, or a passing. Thomas Friedman will need to revise The World is Flat—again.

While the efforts of citizen-journalists are laudable, I still depend on credentialed members of the press. Luckily for us, a pantheon of journalists opened Twitter accounts, posting 140-character news alerts and links to substantive articles and blog posts.

Here are my top five twittering journalists:

5.) @chrislhayes: Chris Hayes, Washington, D.C. Editor of The Nation.
Why you should follow him: Young, hip geek. His tweets convey genuine emotions towards political haps. It’s cute.


4.) @nytimeskristof: Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Columnist (and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner) and family man
Why you should follow him: The life of a famous, world-trekking journalist is tough. It’s endearing to see him discuss both. He is constantly tweeting from all over the world. His life is awesome—yours, not so much. So live vicariously through him.


3.) @anncurry: Ann Curry, Correspondent and Anchor, Today Show, Dateline NBC
Why you should follow her: As one of the more reputable tv news correspondents, she has to be constantly up-to-date. She does a great job at delivering breaking news just milliseconds after news breaks. Just a week before Iranians went to the polls in mid-June, she tweeted stunning pictures and provocative observations. Before she goes to bed every night, she tweets profound and inspiring quotes.


2.) @DavidShuster: David Shuster, MSNBC anchor
Why you should follow him: His tweets are honest and more often than not, bitingly sarcastic. It’s so obvious when he’s frustrated or disappointed re: political haps.


1.) @jdickerson: John Dickerson, Chief Political Correspondent for Slate magazine
Why you should follow him: Because I’m personally a huge fan of his work. He tweets about current events, his own analysis, his family/home life, and sometimes a combination of all those things.


Other notable Tweeters:
@newmediajim – I think he’s on the camera side of news events, press briefings, etc. Tweets when/where he’ll be shooting. Refers to family members as newmediakid and newmediawife. And it feels like you're getting an inside scoop when he says he setting up at the White House.
@maddow – Just because Rachel Maddow is so disarming.
@anamariecox – She founded Wonkette. Enough said.

You can get a day’s worth of news just by looking at the Trending Topics. It seems so natural for journalists to utilize Twitter. Twitter allows journalists to write about what matters to them, rather than what network bosses deem "newsworthy," (i.e. Paris Hilton leaving the jail, Mountain lions running amuck along on a freeway, celebrity surgical enhancements, etc.) and will attract viewer and generate mountains of moolah from advertising.

New media, user-generated social networking sites, and politics--we've come a long way. During the America's colonial period, isolating social unrest was too easy because you can only ride so fast on a horse. News, as the colonists had it, was often days, weeks, or months old. And now, Twitter is starting to make online news look slow.

Authoritarian states are intimidated by the site, fearing it spreads social unrest. Recent events in Iran, Honduras, and China prove this. Thus, the adage: The tweet is mightier than the sword.

Golden Gate Park

I ventured into Golden Gate Park on Independence Eve. Lovely roses, waterfalls, and streams...sigh.

Walking down the aisle. ("Sweet Thing" by Chaka Khan is playing in the background..)

Golden oldies

Comfort music.

Currently gracing my desktop wallpaper is

Lt. Dan Choi.

He graduated from West Point in 2003 in Environmental Engineering and Arabic. (He was one of just eight Arabic graduates in his year.) From 2006 to 2007, he served in Iraq (an Arabic-speaking country!) as an infantry platoon leader. In June '08, he transferred to the New York National Guard.

Despite his impressive resume, (I hope to add "Fluent in Arabic" to my skills section someday,) he was recently kicked out of the army because he said he was gay.

I know, my jaw just fell from face when I first heard this on the Rachel Maddow show. Doesn't that just make you cringe in shock and dismay?!

Say you're on the 11th floor of a burning building. Do you ask, "Hey, Mr. Fire Fighter, can I just ask, are you gay?" And if he says, "Why yes, I am," do you then ask for a different fire fighter to save your burning a$%? Will you refuse help from a skilled professional because he or she is gay?

Lt. Choi’s discharge highlights/bolds/italicize the inherently counterproductive nature of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. It's simply appalling that it still exists.

Please join me in petitioning our government to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. (I already gave the President my two cents about it and I’m still waiting to hear back. I understand, he’s a busy guy.)

You can tell your representative, one of our senators, or the President himself.

(The picture of Lt. Choi is from the No H8 Campaign, a non-profit that is protesting Prop. 8 with photography.)

Repeat Assault

My soundtrack for this past week almost entirely consisted of Kings of Leon. And it's still playing. Great band, great music. Lead singer, Caleb Followill, has intoxicating, (and sometimes inviting,) vocals.





(And yes, that was me rocking out to this song at the Jamba Juice parking lot the other day.)

And one more Palin piece for today...

And that insidious winking! Or for some gentleman, t'was the wink felt 'round the world.

Can you say, HEEBIE JEEBIES?!

Remember Rich Lowry from the National Review?

A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It's one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O'Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat. Palin too projects through the screen like crazy. I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it.

I think I just vomited a little.

Anytime now, Gov Palin will say "Zap! Gotcha there!"

I know many of you are lamenting Sarah's Palin resignation as Alaska's governor for the past 942-ish days (she spent a few months maverickin' and barracudin' on the campaign trail).

But if you're like me, I'm stunned she decided to step down. She has but a year or so until the end of her first term. But noooo, she doesn't want to put Alaska or herself with having "lame duck status." No, she says, that would be inefficient. She promised efficiency to her constituents, so she's cutting her her term short so she could stay true to her word. Huhhhh?

Is she joshing?

Read the full text of Sarah Palin's (confusing/rambling/maverickilicious) resignation speech here.

Let us hope she fades into obscurity along the likes of Monica Lewinsky or the Backstreet Boys.

(Only because I want to be able to listen to Hall and Oates again!)