Brian's quite remarkable blog of wonder.

I try not to work myself in too much of a tizzy over how atrocious the American news media are, but seriously. Today I was watching CNN and they were reporting on weather predictions this year from the Farmer's Almanac, which apparently predicted Hurricane Katrina with a margin of error of a few days. This, of course, means to illiterate network producers that this book's predictions - which are made two years in advance and are based on lunar cycles, sunspots and positions of the planets - are to be reported as scientific fact. They interviewed the Almanac's editor, who authoritatively made the dubious and nebulously-worded claim that her book has an accuracy rate of 85% (never mind that most major hurricanes take place within a couple weeks of Labor Day). I had to get closer to my TV screen to make sure it was the CNN logo I was seeing and not the CBN logo.

While I'm railing about CNN... I can stand product placement in movies and TV shows, in fact, I usually enjoy it for how ridiculously disjunct it usually is. But during coverage of serious natural disasters, when a field reporter asks a cameraman to zoom in on a Comfort Inn sign, then comments on how much he likes the hotel chain, and spends thirty seconds reporting on the structural integrity of the sign, I get the urge to switch to Fox News, where at least my expectations are actually low enough to be occasionally met.

So in conclusion, mass media sucks. Oh yeah, and I fucking hate Comfort Inn.

I've gotten a job doing editorial cartoons at the Daily Iowan. I applied for the hell of it, and now that I have the job, it's a little scary. I've worked for a newspaper before, and I can't say I particularly enjoyed the experience (although I suppose that was more due to my own self-consciousness than anything else). What gives me a lot of anxiety now is that I've never really done any editorial cartoons, except for the few which I enclosed with my application to prove I could do them. But I suppose editorial cartoons aren't inherently very different from comic strips. I can draw, I can opine.

The other thing I'm a little worried about is hitting exactly the right topical mark. I consider most of the national news media, including most political cartoonists (liberals and conservatives alike) to be shitflingers, and I don't really want to go mainstream, lest be caught fighting on one or the other side of the shit war. I've already sort of gone in that direction with a few of my cartoons, and I'd like to squash that. Okay, so, this pretty much leaves me with local and cultural issues, and I'm not confident that that will inspire enough good material.

Bottom line, though, it's just the Daily Iowan. All I really have to do is surpass the low comedic bar set by The Ledge, and I can feel good about satisfying readers.

I've been watching so much Arrested Development lately, I keep expecting Ron Howard to start narrating my life.

I drew this today. I enjoy sketching. It's very meditative, in a way; you're immersed in your environment in a completely different way. You're not just looking at a thing, you're studying the thing, filtering it through your brain, and transmitting it visually onto a piece of paper, then taking it home with you.

I was thinking about how this power plant looks like a weird, post-modern cathedral. I think aliens would look at its design elements (big smokestacks stretching toward the sky, railed balconies over the water, tall gothic windows) and conclude that it was a place of worship, or a place of some spiritual significance. Then again, they'd probably guess its utilitarian nature by all of those big vats and tubes, not to mention the fact that the river is dammed right by it. Good job, aliens.

I'm going to bed.

Which Looney Tunes character are you?

I admit that I enjoy online quizzes. This one hit the nail on the head.

Daffy Duck! You scored 0 Aggression, 28 Sophistication, and 42 Optimism!

Generally non-aggressive (or perhaps passive-aggressive), vulgar, and pessimistic, you can at times be both highly entertaining and very annoying. While occasionally you might be prone to sudden bursts of chaotic energy, you rarely accomplish much as a result and are often easily discouraged. You have a sophisticated side, but for the most part it is buried under layer upon layer of abrasiveness and vulgarity. The problem is you are probably a very intelligent person and as a result you deserve more than what your situation seems to allow. Jealously and arrogance are the twin albatross you wear around your neck. Try not to let others' success reflect negatively on your self-image, and reject the temptation to elevate yourself by bringing others down. Instead focus on what you would like to do with your life and you may just find hidden talents that you never before realized you had.

Of course, the problem with Daffy is that different directors have given him drastically different personalities. This quiz is obviously referring to the "wise-guy" Daffy made famous by Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng; the bitter, jealous Daffy who got tortured by a poison-penned animator in "Duck Amuck", and who got constantly upstaged by Bugs Bunny in "Show Biz Bugs". Yet before these films, in Bob Clampett's hands he was the hyperactive "screwball" Daffy, bouncing around and hooting insanely at the end of each cartoon, hallucinating himself as Dick Tracy in "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery," or operating an infant factory in "Baby Bottleneck." That's the Daffy I love. I mean, I love all of the Bugs-vs.-Daffy films of Jones, but somehow I never find myself rooting for Bugs.

Today I finished moving the last of my stuff over to my new place. I like the new house so far, although N. Governor St. leaves a little to be desired. It's a little sobering to realize that technically I live on State Highway 1, or at least the northbound part of it. When the really big semis drive by, the whole house shakes. But living in a place that I can actually afford is going to be very nice.

Today I also did laundry, bought an inner tube at World of Bikes, got groceries, and watched Half Baked on TV. Then I made an arrangement of one of my older songs, The Sunport, for viola trio. I attempted to record the three parts myself in CoolEdit. It's difficult to do ensemble playing with yourself. It's also difficult to play a viola while wearing headphones.

Then I went bowling, then ate food downtown, then watched several episodes of Arrested Development with Jake. Wow, I've done a lot today.