Out of the first set of photos, I would print either 1a. or 2a. I feel that the other two photos are too disturbing to print. It is horrifying enough that R. Budd Dwyer had called the press conference with the intention of committing suicide in front of many people, without publishing the photos of him actually doing it. I think the first two photos get the point across without being too disturbing.

I had a more difficult time coming to a decision with the second set of photos. My first inclination was to print the photo of the boy grieving for his dog, but then I imagined that boy seeing his picture in the paper the next day, and I don't think I could live with myself if I caused him more pain.

Printing the photo of the family grieving for their son who drowned would be completely insensitive. If the boy in the bodybag was cropped out, and I had permission from the family, I might print the photo. But probably not.

The remaing three photos are too distubring to print. The last photo is absolutely disgusting, and there is no question in my mind that I would not print that photo. The woman has obviously been through enough humiliation as it is, without hundreds, maybe even millions, of other people seeing what happened to her.

Note to self: Don't discuss pronouns with drunk people

This past weekend, I was at a friend's apartment engaging in a game called "Circle of Death". This game is played with a deck of cards and a beverage of choice. The cards are fanned out face-down around the "community" beverage (I never said this was a sanitary game) and each player takes his turn choosing a card. Each card signifies something to do. For example, 10 is "Categories". So, the person who drew that card would come up with a category, such as clothing designers, and the person to his or her left would have to name something in this category, and play would continue around the circle until someone could not come up with anything in that category. The person who could not come up with anything would have to take a swig of his or her beverage of choice.

One of my favorite cards is the king. When a king is drawn, the person who drew that card gets to make up a rule that everyone else has to follow. These can get pretty creative, and adds some fun to the game.

In this particular game that I was playing, the person who drew a king made a rule that no one could use pronouns. There was general acknowledgement around the circle that this was the new rule, and anyone who broke the rule would have to drink.

Play was about to continue when someone asked, "Wait, what's a pronoun?" Someone else replied, "You know, things like 'he,' 'she' and 'it'."

But apparently everyone thought this was an exhaustive list because the next person to go said "OK, my turn!"

I told that person to drink, and everyone around the circle stared at me like I was crazy. I politely pointed out that he had used the word "my", which is a pronoun. After some protest on their part, I convinced everyone that "my" was indeed a pronoun.

Once we had that settled, someone wanted to resume play, so he said, "OK, your turn." Again, I pointed out that this person needed to drink, because "your" is also a pronoun.

They weren't having it this time. They said it wasn't fair, because there were too many pronouns, and they couldn't possibly know them all. At this point, I would have whipped out my "When Words Collide" book and flipped to page 32, but I didn't have it with me, and I probably would have been ridiculed for it if I did.

Despite my protests, the rule was amended to include only "he," "she" and "it," and all future rules involving grammar were banned from the game.

Clean up this mess!

I hate clutter. Right now, my bedroom is in complete disarray, and I am forcing myself to finish this post before I begin to clean up the mess. Usually, I have to have every inch of my room spotless before I begin any homework. I used to think cleaning was just another way to procrastinate, but now I realize that it is really difficult for me to get anything done when I’m surrounded by clutter. I am actually feeling a great deal of anxiety about this.

I’m not like this just with physical messes. I can’t stand clutter in my e-mail inbox either. I like to keep no more than 20 messages in my inbox at one time, so I can view all the messages on one page, and keep only the ones that are absolutely necessary.

Another aspect of my clutter phobia is language. When I look at something that has too many errors, I get overwhelmed, and I have trouble reading. This happens every time I proofread my boyfriend’s papers. He spells even the easiest of words wrong: “mayby” instead of maybe and “sais” instead of says. It’s embarrassing, really. I get stuck for a few minutes because the abundance of errors makes me lose my focus, but eventually, I get through it.

I know that in editing I will come across many errors, so I need to learn how to keep my focus when I am bombarded with them.

Thank you, Clinton Kelly!

I have always been a Clinton Kelly fan. "What Not to Wear" is one of my favorite shows to watch when I don't have anything in particular to do. I admire the way he can tactfully tell a woman that she needs a head-to-toe makeover because her current style is basically crap. I also admire how well-dressed he is, but I suppose that's part of the job.

Recently, however, I have gained even more respect for Clinton Kelly. He just wrote a book called "Freakin' Fabulous: How to Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally Be Better Than Everyone Else," which my mother so generously bought me for Christmas. Besides being hilariously entertaining, the section on how to speak is actually educational; it's all about grammar!

Kelly's apparent annoyance with grammatical errors thrilled me, because two of my biggest pet peeves involve grammar.

The first is when people say "could of." It's could HAVE! The second is when people say they will "try and" do something. You don't "try and" do something; you try TO do something.

What do you know? Clinton Kelly addressed those exact problems. After years of restraining myself from ranting at people who say these things because I thought I was the only one who cared, Kelly finally made me realize I was not alone. The sense of connection I felt at that moment has led me to refer to him in everyday conversation simply as "Clinton," because I am quite sure that if we were ever to meet in person, we would be on a first-name basis.

One of the first lessons we went over in JOUR420 was the difference between "lay" and "lie." Thanks to Clinton Kelly, I already had a head start. How "Freakin' Fabulous" is that?