bruno mars
jay sean
2 fire alarms
and an earthquake.

what a weekend.

The Proposal:

Leonidas proposes a weekend plan that includes a trip to USC, UCR and UCI with Xerxes. Xerxes asks Leonidas to fly down to San Diego, but Leonidas would rather drive, as expenses were considerably less. Leonidas consults Theron about said trip, who agrees. The transportation is discussed.. Leonidas clearly wants to travel once at USC through train, but Theron, being cheap, wants to drive. Leonidas states this may be possible as long as Xerxes takes his car from San Diego. Xerxes says he will consult the all mighty over the plan, and once all mighty agreed, the plan was put into motion.

Day 0: Thursday, 11 March 2010
Xerxes calls Leonidas about driving to USC to pick him up, and then drive down to San Diego. Leonidas being the strong willed man he is, wanted to drive that day, arriving into Los Angeles Friday early morning. But since Leonidas had just concurred a great battle, a test in itself, he would visit his brother for rest, before embarking on this journey. In the mean time, Theron is preparing himself by finishing any battles of his own, while Xerxes thinks about his long lost lady.

Day 1: Friday, 12 March 2010
Theron stays the night at Ephialtes, who is SO FAT. Ephialtes and Theron sound the alarm at 4:30 AM in order to wake Leonidas, who is in a different time zone(one hour ahead), and tell him to start his embarkation to USC to pick up Xerxes who would finish work by the time Leonidas reached, even though Xerxes is wounded. Theron and Ephialtes thought they would stay up and keep Leonidas company, but fell asleep. Leonidas and Xerxes meet up in the afternoon, and eat lunch in the commons, where Oreo pie was the best meal available. Both travel down to San Diego, while Theron and Ephialtes discuss what movie to get. There is major confusion, and supposedly the name Triangle is asked to be rented, although there was some argument later. Leonidas and Xerxes arrive at Ephialtes house, and both Theron and Ephialtes join forces with Leonidas and Xerxes. Theron and Leonidas go to Leonidas’ house while Xerxes and Ephialtes go to Xerxes. All reconvene in the evening after dinner for the movie with some other hooligans. The movie, Triangle, was quite horrible, and then everyone leaves except for Leonidas, Xerxes, and Theron.

Day 2: Friday, 12 March 2010
All three get their belongings together for the road trip but first purchase some refreshments of relaxation for the weekend. They go to Theron’s house, drink some fruit salad, and start the drive to USC. Yet, after leaving Theron’s house, they realize that they need gas and need to return the movie to a Red Box. After spending 30 minutes doing both, and failing at returning the movie, we get onto our the freeway. We all play an alphabetical name game in the car while Leonidas relaxes in the backseat. Xerxes is driving and we get to USC without finding a letter for Y or Z. We reach Xerxes dorm and then Xerxes leaves for his triathlon meet. Leonidas and Theron park the car one mile away to save money on parking, and for the walk back, consume two beverages of enjoyment. At that time, a security guard passes by, which causes Theron to place is half full beverage into the backpack and when returning to the car, the beverage had spilled all over his backpack. Adrenaline high, both finish the second beverage, and walk back to the dorm, but made sure that they wouldn’t get abdakshad by anyone on the dirty streets of LA. Once back in the dorm, and looking at Potassium Hydroxide, Leonidas and Theron finish two more beverages each while watching Sportscenter. Both also finish eating all of Xerxes box of cookies, while his roommate sleeps. Later, both also sleep and wake up around 11. Xerxes returns from his triathlon meet, where he endeavored chilly temperatures and harsh waves. He volunteered with great might and received a gift card to boot. Xerses enjoyed seeing the beach for the one and only time during the break. Some strange lady took him to McDonalds, and they were then forced to sit through hours of traffic. Highly annoying.

When Xerses returned, the other two companions had woken up but accomplished very little. They had been tossing around balls and Therone had installed the snow leopard on his macbook. The team then proceeded to The Lot to eat some Baja Fresh. At the Lot, they saw a man belonging to Pike. How did they know that? His shirt said so. After some fatty burritos, Xerses pedaled hard to retrieve his 110-horse-driven chariot from the parking garage. Therone and Leonidas showered and retrieved directions to UCLA. Once Xerses had followed suit, the crew moved toward to UCLA.

Xerses poor directions-giving and texting with his beau lead to some shaky turning by the refreshed driving of L. But the group picked up V, who lead them to some neighborhood parking where they group would see some Asian lady taking photos with professional camera.

The group ate the Diddy Riese. Ice cream sandwiches for 1.50. Hell yah.

After a long walk back, the musketeers entered their vehicle and headed for UC Riverside. Traffic along the 60 was disgustingly horrible. They were forced to start a new alphabet game. The group angered at the DT because he still had not left his home at the time of approach of the group.

Upon arrival in Riverside, RedBox was visited to return Triangle. Next, Leonidas felt the tires of the chariot were deflated so Shell was hit up for air but not gas. Then, DT and the DD both called simultaneously. The DT provided directions to his parking area along the street which was free. Along the free parking area was tons of shattered glass and a mini-farm. The DT arrived on a scootie. The team moved into his dorm with a bag that had refreshments in it. The bag had all-terrain tires for rolling through the farm. After that area, the bag could switch to run-flat tires to overcome dangerous road spikes.

The DT provided no dinner, but E offered chicken alfredo. The group declined and decided to visit the Ash in the library. Ash was not studying as expected. The group outside the library for hours. At one point Jay Sean arrived with his mistress. The larger group went to the a store where the DT provided X and T with food and beverage. Ash showed off a workout area. The DT pretended to be hard to get around Ash and the mistress. The mistress was dropped at the library while Ash joined the group as they headed for Pentland.

At Pentland, a nerf gun fight ensued. People were snipers and stuff. Cameron snipped his own people in his room listening to sand music while sleeping later. Sandy and BXO entered the premise under large amounts of happiness. Video games were played and refreshments were had. The AG questioned the legality of the consumption of the refreshments on the premises, but he himself utilized a cooker thing to make him and his lover eggs fresh from the body. The eggs became scrambled and warm. T and L have a chat til 5 in the morning with Chris about various subjects, especially where he did not know what a Lexus IS-F was.

Day 3: Sunday, 13 March 2010
The next morning T and L were woken up slightly by DT, while X was still asleep. T woke up and so did X and then L woke up finally at the sound of food. All four went to the commons to eat tator tots and waffles, wished DT happy birthday, and then returned to the Pentland to get ready. L and T showered and got ready, while T was poured gatorade on, which was very cold and sticky. When it was time to drop off DT at his volunteer place, all four get into the chariot, and leave. First,they say bye to Ash for a wonderful time at RSide, and then go to the Hospital to drop off DT.

L takes the wheel when telling X that he can’t drive worth shit, and a man at a gas station agrees. This was due to X taking a wrong turn and ending up making a big circle in a parking lot when he realizes that its a no u-turn area. They start moving to Irvine, but make a pitstop at L’s holy shrine, where T picks up some food for his aunt, as well as looking at a girl who ended up being a high school student. They boys fill up gas at a 7-11, T and L split gas and then pick up some food. T gets some gummy bears and is then given shit for buying it for a girl in Irvine.

Once reaching Irvine, the boys park at the local Jack in the Crack, and then walk to see the KToe. After T guides the way to her dorm, they see her room and then depart to see Shivamgi. They see his room, which smells of asian smell, and then go to see Meha and Raina, who are studying for finals. After seeing them, Platic calls T and yells at how T did not call her of his arrival, and explained how busy she was. Yet, the boys decide to go see her, and indulge in a conversation of finals and organic chemistry. The boys then depart Irvine after dropping everyone off, and then start their journey home.

They all have a good laugh towards the end of the trip, with words like Canyon Queek and B marrying DD because she got abdakshad and did not have a choice. They drop off T at his home, and then L and X take off to their respective homes.

Day 4: Monday, 15 March 2010

T had class in the morning and a midterm in the evening so had a rough night finishing all the work and studying for his midterm. L and X also went to Scripps Ranch to visit friends without T and spent time with parents. When T got home, he was picked up from the bus stop by L and they go to T’s house to pick up some essentials and then travel to X’s house. Aditi comes to X’s house as well as Ephialtes. We all chilled after Aditi leaves, and everyone spoons in bed and go to sleep. Before this, L argued about how they should watch a movie, The Hurt Locker, at his house rather than X’s because L has better surround sound.

Day 5: Tuesday, 16 March 2010

We never got around to writing more than that.

The theme of preparation began with news reports last week that Jed Hoyer won the Padres’ general manager job as soon as he walked into his first interview with owner Jeff Moorad because he was carrying a very important binder. While maintaining his role as a Red Sox assistant GM, Hoyer devoted every extra moment he had during the course of several weeks to producing a statistical analysis of the Padres. The knowledge of the Padres that Hoyer demonstrated throughout the interview as a result of his preparation won Moorad over.

This evening, JJ Wagner, Shelley Smith, George Raveling and Jim Souders spoke further on the issue of preparation with Jeff Fellenzer at Business of Sports panel discussion at the Founders Room of the Galen Center at USC.

Souder, an advertising manager for Sporting News, mentioned the fate of an Ohioan who had been calling him for several weeks asking for an interview. When Souder finally obliged, the man showed up knowing nothing about Sporting News. He had not touched the publication in ages.

Providing a personal anecdote of a similar situation, Wagner, the GM of the Bel-Air Country Club which is attended by stars such as Pete Sampras and Michaels, discussed about how he lost out on one job because he had no idea about their club. But, he received a promotion at his own club after spending a significant amount of time brainstorming ways to improve.

A former USC basketball coach, Raveling is now the Director of Global Basketball for Nike. Besides claiming that Kobe Bryant is Nike’s best endorsee and that anyone who can speak Mandarin and Cantonese is guaranteed to be hired at Nike, he talked about his passion for reading and the lack of preparation some Nike employees show at meetings. Still a stalwart of old-fashioned ideals, the Blackberry-holding executive abandons his computers and instead uses a legal pad to write all his notes. Handwritten documents seem to fit well with Raveling, the owner of the original copy of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which he was once offered $4.5 million to sell.

Finally, Shelley Smith, a SportsCenter correspondent, who I had the opportunity to mingle with on the sidelines at the Cal-USC game, explained her journey to ESPN. She was very proud of her work at the newspaper of the University of Nebraska. As its first female sports editor, she penned an editorial raising an objection to the fact that Nebraska’s stadium’s pressbox only had a male bathroom.

A night earlier, I was humbled by poster artist Shepard Fairey, who stuck around for over an hour to make sure everyone that wanted to talk with him or acquire his autograph had an opportunity to do so following a discussion about Art, Politics and Culture at the Annenberg Auditorium at USC. Fairey, who I had very little knowledge of before the event, turned out to be a very intelligible 39-year-old graffiti artist. He spoke with candor about his ongoing litigation with the Associated Press about the doctrine of fair use. Fairey also provided interesting commentary about his art’s role in getting people to question the way media and advertising communicates with us. The advertising campaigns recently launched by Gatorade for its G drink and Verizon/Motorola for the Droid phone drew from the mysterious aspects of Fairey’s artistic endeavors, including the Obey posters that helped launched him into the popular media.

Returning to this night, Shelley expressed the same type of willingness to engage each and everyone one of the eager students trying to getting a few seconds worth of her career advice. She even went as far as giving students email addresses of people they needed to contact to inquire about specific positions at the Worldwide Leader in Sports.

On consecutive nights, I was deeply humbled by the kindness of individuals we see on television, but often do not think of as the most approachable of people. And on back-to-back weeks, the idea that preparation leads one from the entrance of the door of opportunity to a nice spot in the room of success.

Jon Stewart’s Monday night rant included a very important statement about the media’s role in society.

“Fact-checking is the the function of news,” he said. “That is the public service they provide.” Tongue-in-cheek, he added, “That’s why the debate over health care has been so fruitful.”

Unfortunately, CNN, the premier news provider on cable, has not been adhering to its duty. As Stewart points out, too often CNN anchors and hosts end conversations early without asking for citations about where certain facts and figures come from.

Take Republic Senator Jon Kyl’s claim that medical malpractice reform could yield savings of $100 billion to $200 billion. Try, half to one-quarter that amount.

According to a Reuters article last week, “Limiting medical malpractice lawsuits could save the U.S. government $54 billion over a decade, congressional budget analysts said on Friday…” CNN’s John King did not question Kyl’s number at all. It’s understandable CNN has to quickly get into commercial breaks, and King was probably busy listening to his earpiece instead of Kyl, but should not CNN have someone in the newsroom watching the broadcast, analyzing every interviewee’s statement?

Tony Perkins, President of a conservative organization known as the Family Research Council, had no idea how many uninsured people there were in the United States. He dropped the number as low as five million to 10 million. CNN’s Tony Harris provided some blabbering thoughts, saying something along the lines of that there was not a consensus number and left it there. “Why leave it there,” Stewart calls out. “There is a terrible place to leave it!” Stewart is exactly right.

In fact, there are 46 million uninsured people in America, according to Census Bureau statistics. Part of the problem is the number of Americans uninsured in America is actually lower. That’s why NPR has issued a suggestion to its stations to say “people” not “Americans when talking about health care reform.

CNN brings two people to the screen, has them explain their views and then leaves it there. After the presidential debates, they devoted much coverage on-air and online to analyzing the President’s statements. So, why doesn’t this happen after these mini-debates between political experts? Is it too hard to have someone sitting at computer with Google revved and ready to go?

Offering 24/7 coverage of news, CNN commands a great audience that deserves the service the station promises to offer. It’s seem to often that CNN is in rush to end the debate and let illegitimate statements stand as they may. But I won’t leave it there.

Many people expressed anger yesterday when during an interview CNN’s Wolf Biltzer failed to follow up on a statement made by balloon boy that he had been told to do it “for the show.” The ambiguity of that phrase remains unresolved. Are these hosts not listening to what is being said? I have no answers, so I’ll leave it there.

Originally, I was going to disagree with the statement made by David Gergen that we need to elevate the level of discourse in this country. Change happens. That’s a fact. Like Gergen said at the speech at USC’s Bovard Auditorium, the advent of blogging has changed the way we write, speak and comment. I completely agree with his point that we cannot make personal attacks, resort to name-calling and all the “vitriol” that we see on media which fails to provide fair and balanced coverage. However, I originally dissented with the other part of his argument that it is bad thing that our language has sort of become degraded. People are more simple and fast-paced now. We like to receive our information in a lightweight form, so it follows the most basic language and structure would suffice. Then, I realized the argument went beyond that basic thought. Change comes from the bottom up. As everyone know acknowledges, Obama did so well in the election because of the grassroots campaign support he lived. The community organizing skills he developed in Chicago paid off for him the long run. Similarly, it should not be the media that leads an elevation in discourse. It must come from the bottom—especially from the schools were our children. The media must, I agree, maintain a high level of innovation, thought and integrity, and they must wait for the general public to catch up. If that means they suffer through poor ratings, so be it. Our nation’s enterprises have suffered and recovered from tough times before. Our teachers need to challenge more. Programs like Teach for America try to help improve struggling schools by implanting brilliant minds into them for two years. Out of 30,000 applicants, one figures the 4,000 the organization picks have to be well-qualified. That’s not enough, however. As Gergen mentioned, China, India and Brazil are taking the educational and technological lead. America is not a group of followers. We are strong individuals, who have the capability to come together as one group—one family—and enact great change. We saw that with Obama. It’s time we see it with our schools. After we are all set with good, affordable health care for life in a clean, green environment, education has to be the next time tackled. Green jobs and teaching jobs will play a part in improving the economy. Obama has made promises to enhance the salaries of teachers—and make the profession more desirable on paper—I believe that needs to happen if we want to start from the ground up and elevate the level of political discourse in the United States. Look at the definition of elevation itself: “the event of something being raised upward.” Upward means starting at low point and reaching high point. America is no where near its high point, but that does not mean it cannot get there.