Drawing blanks

Now that my thesis draft is done and submitted for further evisceration by my advisor I do have a bit of a free time to lollygag. I figure my blog is long overdue for an update, and I'm sure those three people who keep track of my life are wondering if I'm still alive. Yes, I've never been more alive, damnit! The weather's bee-yoo-tiful outside (about 50 degrees); the snow's melting; no major writing project in the next couple of weeks (except for a two-page proposal); a full eight-hour sleep last night (I averaged about four hours of sleep in the past two weeks); we played indoor soccer last night as a farewell game to Badul, who will be leaving back for Malaysia tomorrow (finally!); the Malaysian Students Department (MSD) in Chicago treated us to dinner buffet at King of Falafel last night; and I get to spend the weekend reading Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere. Simply mah-velous!! It'll be even better once I finish doing my laundry this evening.

Okay, now with all the free time, what to write? It annoys the heck out of me that my mind is always flushed with ideas for blog-writing when I have the least time for it. One possible explanation is that my mind goes into an overdrive when I'm doing serious academic reading and writing, and the blog-writing ideas are simply the by-product or incidental effects of that thought-process. But I sometimes found something stupid, funny or peculiar in the papers but simply could not find the time to offer my two-cent. A lot of times though, I simply want to vent out about not having enough time in the day but simply could not find the time of the day to vent out. Ah, the irony!

Anyway, below is a line from an article in the NY Times about Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign that I was going to comment on but simply could not find the time. This very line represents the reason why I prefer the Times over other mass-circulation papers. How many serious news articles do insert an oblique reference to Trojan War to enunciate their main points? It might come off like a display of intellectual snobbery, but the beauty of this type of articles lies not in their utilitarian nature to inform readers; they are written in such flair not just disseminate facts but also to entertain. Some people have told me that NY Times's articles read more like literary pieces than hard news. Well, news-writing is a form of narrative like novels, and there's no reason why it should be treated differently. Maybe if news articles are written like literary pieces then more people will be interested in reading the newspapers. People, I think, are more amendable to facts presented in the form of a narrative. Facts alone are sterile and mechanistic; narrative envelopes facts in a web of humanity that provokes strong emotional responses.

Yeah, go read the newspapers now. I was told once it's good for you!

As Clinton Runs, Some Old Foes Stay on Sideline
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, Monday, February 19, 2007

"Many conservatives still consider Mrs. Clinton the Helen of Troy of direct mail, the face who can launch a thousand donations."