Pain at Lyons Center

October 27th, 2005 Entries

I was very excited today to go and exercise, partly because I haven’t been doing much physical exercise (besides some very inconsistent pushups and situps) in the past two weeks and also because someone had confirmed my findings that USC has a rock climbing wall.

So Peter and I got there and found a wall that wasn’t too tall that it needed ropes. It was pretty fun actually without the ropes and stuff. In fact, we felt like Tom Cruise in the beginning scene of Mission Impossible 2. Yeah, we’re THAT awesome.

And then afterwards we went to do some situps with the medicine ball. And while I was doing some of mine on the inclined bench thing, I bonked my head on something hard. There I am, thinking about how much it hurts, how in the world that happened, and whether I should tell Peter the name of the girl I like before I die so he can tell her that I liked her. And this guy carrying a hand-weight comes around and says “OH CRAP! SO SORRY!”

Why in the world he was walking so close to me on the inclined bench still puzzles me. There was so much space between me and whatever was behind me. It was all clear! Anyway I shouldn’t dwell on it. Except my noggin has a lump in the back. And it hurts when I take naps or go to sleep.

But recap: climbing was fun. getting hit on the head by a weight not so fun. and no one knows who I like.

Anonymous Sources

October 26th, 2005 Dan Chou's Story of the Week

Recent events have spurred talk on anonymous sources. As part of my Journalism 190 course, the story of the week has been changed for this week to point out media use of anonymous sources:

There are times when the use of anonymous sources is unnecessary. For example, this article has quotes from an official of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea regarding the 4th East Asian Games. Is it really necessary to remain anonymous saying that they HOPE to do well? The fact that information from the official is used adds nothing to the article, and instead makes it sound as if it wants to be secretive, when it really is not. There was no need to even say that a delegation was quoted, or that he wanted to remain anonymous.

Link to the Article

At other times, there might be an actual reason to remain anonymous. For example, this article quotes an official from the UAW. The official remained anonymous because leaders like him are not allowed to comment on the cuts. However, it might be important to point out the cuts, to bring them out to the public. It almost reminds me off Deep Throat and Watergate in a way.

Link to the Article

Awesome Weekend!

October 24th, 2005 Entries

So this past weekend was really busy but immensely enjoyable. First on Friday Yilin came over to pick me up so we could have lunch with Sandy at Kabuki.

Except the bad thing about this was that Sandy and Yilin decided that they are not friends with me. It’s actually worse than you think. There we were, on the way to or from Art Center (amazing gallery over there), and somehow we stopped right in the middle of some train tracks. And there was an oncoming train, or at least, it looked oncoming. It’s hard to tell… we were so freaked out. So the train’s “coming”:

Me: Wait. So now that we’re about to die… we might as well clear this up — are we friends or not?

Sandy: NEVERRRRRRRR

cue explosion. =(

On Saturday, there was small group leaders training for Winter Retreat. We were the first ones there, so we were obnoxious and put this sign out. Please forgive us!

And then Saturday night I had a wonderful meal at Aunt Runa’s. Thanks for inviting us!

So now that the weekend is over, it’s time to buckle down because schoolwork is starting to pick up again a bit. And eating all this great food this past weekend makes EVK just THAT much worst. Poo.