Today marks the official end to my first year as a college boy. I turned in a "paper" (the SETI Home Kit thing) which was my one remaining scholastic task. I can't honestly describe the feeling I have after such an achievement as this. College never came as a shock to me. High school melted to summer which slid to college. That's it.

The friend's I've made are priceless and the knowledge I've gained is enlightening. I just wonder why I'm blessed with the love that I receive from them every day. I hope they never think I take their friendships for granted because nothing keeps me more alive than them.

I don't know about you, but I've reached the end of my local-news rope. Yesterday, news was released about the first photograph ever taken of an extrasolar planet. The square labeled A (at right) is the planet. Carrying the name TRM-1C, the planet has a mass two to three times that of Jupiter. Square B is the binary stars from which TRM-1C supposedly originated.

After watching the press conference given by the planet's discoverer's over the internet, I tuned in to the NBC affiliate in Portland, OR. The NewsChannel carried this story on their noon broadcast. Why am I miffed you ask? When describing the planet, their accompanying graphic zoomed in on the binary stars, never to show the actual planet! Now, how hard is it to figure this out? I'm not a paid professional in the "news" business and I figured it out.

Now to get nasty: They're a bunch of f#$%ing morons! Screwing up a story like this is one thing, but it's easy to lose sight of how decent local news was here only a matter of a few years ago. Unfortunately, the disenchanting local-news isn't limited to one station in the area. All have been flying downhill on a bike with now brakes for the last couple of years. Frankly? I give up.

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