Definitely A College Student.

That's me. Yessir, co-ed Kerry. It's Friday night, 11:23pm. I'm due in bed in precisely seven minutes if I hope to make it through my 8-hour class tomorrow. That's not true, actually - I get embarrassingly high on my class work. It's getting up at, lessee... (doing the math, please hold) um, 7, I think, that has me crawling to bed at 11:30. Here's the thing: 11:30 is actually plenty late for me. Oh, me achin' bones.

So, I'm sitting here, drinking a beer, bobbing my headphone-clad head, and surfing the media watchdog sites in an effort to have some intelligible info to share in class tomorrow. I have an annotated bibliography due, and I haven't even considered it yet. Oh, and I just realized that I have one add'l essay to read. Sigh. This is so very collegiate of me! I got consumed by the watchdog sites. Can I really be blamed? CJR has a particularly good one dedicated solely to a real-time watch/analysis of '04 election coverage. There's actually a section all about blogs - pretty amazing.

The emergence of blogs in this election is pretty incredible. In a way, I feel like blogs are the embodiment of what the Web was before it became a marketing medi(a)um. I've been feeling pessimistic about the state of the state for a while now, election notwithstanding. I just did some research about the origins of the FCC and broadcast media in the U.S. - oh, how far we've fallen. Commercialism drives everything. Of course, we all know this, and we all accept it (or not) to varying degrees. But when you look at a force as critical to democracy as the media in terms of its orgins, what it was originally created to accomplish, and compare it with where we are today... For this happily pinko liberal, it's mighty disheartening. Mind you, this week my sole entertainment (as in, consumption of something other than school books or work stuff) was Super Size Me. I definitely recommend, but think you should be required to read "Fast Food Nation."

So, back to my Big Idea: Blogs may be our savior! Really. We have this mass chatter which is actually circumventing the standard channels and having an effect on the state of affairs. A little bit, at least, which is so great. It takes a village. Or does it take a thousand points of light? I can't remember. The only hitch is that soon, too, blogs will be commercialized. Entertainment conglomerates are already using blogging for marketing - and who can blame 'em?

I think as I type this I discover precisely what I'm supposed to do for this vexing final project/annotated bibliography. I keep whining that I'm supposed to be studying blogs as I waste my time blogging, and therein lies the answer: my blog should be my final project.

Sip. [Hic.]

Oh, and I feel obligated, in the name of fair and balanced reporting, to report that the NY Times and Washington Post and myriad other major pubs are publishing pretty convincing reports that anything which could fall under the "Votergate" rubric, is indeed, the product of sour grapes and without merit. Okay. So now it's really time to move on and dedicate my life (this may be a minor exaggeration, but only minor) to communicating to red state folks that their elected officials don't really have their best interests in mind. How to do this?

In other news, the Tulum weather report calls for 90+ degrees during all waking hours for the next few weeks. I'ma gonna be RED. This is a good thing.

Steve and I had an absolutely, laughably bad dinner experience tonight. Like, sitcom levels of incompetence. They comped our whole meal, drinks and all. Don't go to Von's in Seattle.

Happy birthday to Judith, my fabulous, goat-owning stepmom. This woman is amazing and we had a good b-day laugh about puppy penises (EW!) today. What more could anyone want in a family member (no pun intended)?

Okay, I'm thirteen minutes past my bedtime.

Zzz.