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Friday, May 07, 2004
I had a really good day today. I finished my Shakespeare paper this morning and turned it in. I think it was quite good. It contrasted the relationship between masculinity and swordsmanship in “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet”. Hoping for an A. Then I went to the Daily Cal for the final issue of the spring semester. I night edited and it went quite well. I played lots of darts with Grant; it was his last day as sports editor. Then at 11 pm, Eric, our EIC, busted out three bottles of champagne to celebrate his last issue. We all drank and had a good time. I won three games of darts in a row against Kim-Mai, this cute but too career-oriented Asian girl who will be our EIC next year. A lot of people (girls) here are too career-oriented. As in, to the extreme. Anyway, while we were celebrating, I found out that our arts desk gets sent literally stacks of mail each week from various companies sending us books, video games, movies, CDs, etc. to review, and the ones we don’t review just go in a drawer that the hardcore Daily Cal people (which I have become) can just take if they want. So I was rummaging through and found that Elvis 1 album that came out a couple years ago; I took it, ‘cause why not? It’s free. When I got back to my dorm, Cat and I played it. It turns out she loves that dance remix of “A Little Less Conversation” so I gave her the CD. What a nice guy I am. Also, tomorrow is the big end-of-the-year party for the Daily Cal staff. We are all going to the Bear’s Lair where the Daily Cal is paying for free all-you-can-eat of everything they sell at the Bear’s Lair (fries, burgers and BEER!). It should be REALLY fun; I’m excited. Before the party though, I am taking my libel test to officially become a staff writer. Hope I pass. Then Monday is my first issue of the summer Daily Cal, so Sunday will be spent in the office doing the sports section. Should be interesting. In other news, finals are coming up really soon. Scary. Much studying will be done this weekend. Also, Tuesday is the last day of classes. Yay! Sunday, April 25, 2004 Well, I interviewed today for the sports editor position. I didn’t get it. They notified me already. However, I did get the summer sports editor position, as expected. Also, they are promoting me from contributing writer to staff writer, which means I am officially a part of the Daily Cal and I make $15 per article instead of $11. That’s nice, but I’m still sort of disappointed that I didn’t get the position, even though I didn’t really think I would (Eli got it). I went out with Laura again last night and decided that I like her. She’s very shy, so things are moving slowly, but I don’t really mind. I’m in a summery kind of mood where I’m not looking to go fast. We saw The Punisher, which was what I expected—typical action movie, lots of explosions and shooting. It was pretty enjoyable. We called it a night early, and I was in bed by 11, but at 11:30 she called me to say hi or something. I thought that was a good sign. I think she likes me, which is good since I like her too. She looked really pretty yesterday. Plus she’s obviously a cool girl since she was excited to see The Punisher. Go comic book movies. In other news, I have a bitch of a philosophy paper to write (boo procrastination). I HATE this class. It’s due Tuesday. Wish me luck. Sunday, April 18, 2004 Random stuff that has been happening: Grant lost the Editor-in-Chief elections. This huts my chances at becoming the sports editor for next year, but I think I have the summer position pretty much wrapped up. That’s good, but I would love to be the full-time editor, so I’ll still turn in an application this week. Laura essentially blew me off last week so I called her and asked her what’s up. She gave a weak answer, so I wrote her off. However, on Friday she called me and said she still wants to see me. So we might go out this coming weekend. Not too sure how I feel about that. Classes are going well. I had a fairly eventless weekend in which I did lots of reading and took breaks to watch the NBA playoffs (go Lakers). I have an econ midterm on Wednesday and thought I had a paper in my “Literature and Philosophy” class due Tuesday, but apparently it was pushed back a week. This was great news, as it gives me much-needed time. I hate this class. My junior seminar is awesome though. I love that class. I signed up for summer school recently and picked an English course that is being taught by the same professor. I’m looking forward to the summer… mostly because it means I can get out of these god-awful dorms. I also signed up for half of my fall semester classes. I’m feeling pretty good about the future. I always get a really early sign-up date because I have 103 units (you only need 120 to graduate). Thanks, AP classes. Oh, I had a cool one-on-one interview with Jeff Tedford last Thursday. He’s our very famous football coach. It was really cool. He seems like a nice guy. I cannot wait until football season starts. I found out that barring anything weird, I will be covering the team next year. That will be great. No more getting sunburned during games. Thanks, press box. That’s about it. Friday, April 09, 2004 Joe Kapp woke me up this morning. Always makes you feel special to have a former NFL MVP call you in the morning and asks you Cal football trivia questions. We talked about how he was selected to the College Football Hall of Fame this week. I put a funny quote he gave me in the Daily Cal for tomorrow when I was night editing tonight. This week has been pretty full of Daily Cal stuff. Tomorrow are the Editor-in-Chief elections so the office has been really political. Grant is running, but Eli hates Grant and dropped out of the race to campaign against Grant. Grant is trying to help me usurp Eli as sports editor for next year, but I don’t really think it’s going to happen. After EIC elections, the application process begins for the other positions; I will turn in an application just on the off chance that I get it. I also wrote what I honestly feel is the best article I have ever written. It was a feature on a boxer who won the national title. Here is the link: http://dailycal.org/article.php?id=14817 I am really proud of it. I saved several copies to give them to my family and stuff. Speaking of my family, Rory and my parents are coming up this weekend to do a little Bay Area college tour. I am excited about seeing them. This will be the first time my family will have been in Berkeley together. We settled all the rent crap with the house. Koosh and I are going to live in Jen’s current room next year that is on the downstairs level for $400 each per month. I’m very happy about this, but wish move-in day would arrive more quickly. I seriously hate the dorms. They are awful… especially the people. I got a really good grade on my first of two big papers in my junior seminar English class in which my grade is based only on those two papers. I got an A-. I’m really proud of myself, but at the same time, I’m slipping behind in classes right now and have to get back on track quickly. That’s basically it. No developments with Laura… we might go out tomorrow night but I don’t know if I really care one way or the other. Sunday, April 04, 2004 Okay… so lots of stuff happened over the course of the past month or so. I went to the Pac-10 tournament; it was really exciting. I had a one-day long spring break Mexican excursion with Kenny that involved mass quantities of alcohol consumption. Rory came up for a Kevin Smith Q&A session on campus. I’ve been dating this girl Laura now for a few weeks but I’m not sure if I really like her. Roughly, that brings us up to speed, give or take. Anyway, it looks like I’m going to be moving into my friends’ big house for the summer and next year. I am really pleased about this. The house is awesome; it’s really big and in a nice area. It has a pool room. It’s not too far from campus, although there are closer houses. I will probably be rooming with Koosh in one of the two downstairs bedrooms. In total, the house has eight bedrooms, three bathrooms and is home to 11 people, most of who are my good Berkeley friends. Right now I believe my rent is slated for $400 per month (rather good by Bay area standards), but negotiations are still taking place. Yesterday I went with some friends to Marin, which is on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, for a little picnic to celebrate my friend Anna’s 23rd birthday. It was very pretty. I remember going there when I was a little kid, but I hadn’t been there since I started at Cal. Thus, many pictures were taken. Here are some nice shots (for some reason the pictures make it look really overcast… but it was a nice day, trust me):  It’s very picturesque  I thought this was a cool shot  I am dwarfed by the bridge Friday, February 27, 2004 The Daily Cal is flying me to Los Angeles in two weeks to cover the Pac-10 Men’s Basketball tournament at Staples Center! I cannot believe it; I am so excited. Yesterday I went in to do my night editing, and Grant asked me if I could go because Eli had to cancel. I said yes, but Kevin had first dibs since he is a staff writer. Kevin looked at his schedule and found out he had a test one of the days, much to his chagrin. Thus, the spot was mine! So in two weeks, Grant, Lydia (the managing editor) and yours truly will hope a plane to LA to sit in press row at the Lakers place! I could not sleep last night as a result; I was too excited. I’m going to be covering this enormous sports event—ESPN will be there, Bill Plashcke (of the LA Times, my favorite sports writer, maybe even Dickie V (although I would be surprised). Again, I am excited beyond belief. I already called my mom and asked her to press my dress close so I look at professional as possible. Maybe I’ll get to meet Plashchke. That would be killer. Tuesday, February 10, 2004 I just went to my first poetry slam. First because I am sure to go to many more. It was so awesome. My buddy Robert was in the finals, and I went to support him. I had never heard any slam poetry before and I was seriously missing out. Robert was awesome. I told him afterwards that even though he didn’t win, I was so impressed by his writing abilities. In case you don’t know, slam poetry is sort of like hip-hop style freeform poetry… sort of like in “8 Mile”… but not ghetto… or lame. Yeah. So anyway, it was at the campus bar. A bunch of us went tonight to support Robert, and man was he good. Too bad he didn’t win. My favorite poem he did was this one about this guy he had sex with once (Robert is gay), and is so frustrated that it was a one night stand because it was the best sex he has ever had. It was impressive. And funny. I also really liked this poem by one of the winners about how he is a nice, sensitive guy who talks to all his girl friends about their asshole boyfriends, but all he really wants to do is sleep with them. That one was hilarious. There was also a really sensitive one that I liked by this girl about how she couldn’t wait to get away from her dad, but now she realizes how great a parent he was/is and how she can only shake her head as she watches her younger sister make the same false assumptions that she made. Anyway, it was really awesome. It made me proud to go to Berkeley. And proud to be young, for some reason. |
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