Tubasaluki: Quoting music since 2003

Its been raining here lately, and everybody’s all depressed. On Facebook and AIM everyone’s status message has read something like”I hate rain” or “Boo this weather” or “That DarkTuba guy is kind of creepy”.

I, on the other hand, like the rain. I love the sound of rain, I love the scent of rain. Maybe it reminds me of home, I don’t know. I always thought rain was a sign of renewal, a chance to start fresh. It also makes for good stying inside and reading weather, and really who complains about that?

In other news, its now been 10 days since I was told my Australia packet would be arriving in, “a few days” My standard definition of a few is somewhere between three and five. So, I’m not exactly thirlled with all of this.

A few weeks ago I commented that the semester was going fast, but it would probably slow down soon. That it has. As we hit the midway point, it became the monotonous routine that I feared it would be.

In my editing class, we’ve started talking about ethics. I always seem to have a slightly different view on these things than my classmates do. This means one of two things 1) I’m an unethical person who can be bought off easy or 2) Ethis isn’t black and white.

It might be both, who knows.

In particular, our professor asked us if we would run a negative story about a prominent advertiser, and what if they threatened to pull the ad?

I made the argument that if you’re a small paper that just gets by that you might not do it because you can’t survive without ad revenue. The counter to this is that newspapers are watchdogs for the public, and if they sell out whats the point of having them?

To that, I counter with, if the paper goes belly-up because you angered enough advertisers, then the public has no watchdog. The mantra in this class (other than “you’ll never make a lot of money”) is that journalism is a noble profession. That it is. But, what is noble about having to let Ned in accounting go because the paper has to lay off people?

From a purely journalistic side, you have to run the story. From a business prespective you at least have to think. I think that most of the people in this class don’t see that side of the issue. To them its black and white: run the story, the money be damned. Its times like these that I get an understaidng as to why outside of college its “the real world” Its very easy to say in class that you should run the story, but when faced with the budget problems most papers face would they make the same decision. There is a strong difference between earning five participation points and Ned’s job.

Isaac, you’re a journalism major, I’d appreciate your thoughts.

Three things I’ve learned:

~Dave and Buster’s: awesome. Dave and Buster’s is an arcade and bar. Basically, you get a beer, and shoot things. Its kind of like the Republican National Convention, only without the spreading of fear. A win, win. I went as part of a bachelor/bachelorette party, which was strange, but cool.

~Taking the day off is so theraputic. I was sick yesterday, so called in sick to work. Took a nap, ate some soup felt better. All without the help of medicine. Imune system 1, modern medicine 0.

~Scott Spiezio still has the “How does this bat thing work?” look on his face. Ah, bum is not strong enough of a word to describe Mr. Spiezio. Oh Mariners…why did you get rid of David Bell?

If you really loved me, you would have endured my world,

Alan