In the middle of tapping out a mundane assignment in which we have to outline three goals we want to achive within the semester, I stopped and looked at what I had written. My god, I can tap out sublime bullshit when I get going. All you have to do is be "in the zone". The zone, for those who are unfamiliar, is that mysterious mindless state where your brain is just present enough to order your fingers to tap out sentence after sentence dripping with the saccharine goodness that forces teachers to smile and put a cap on that red pen. It's absolutely brilliant, exactly what they want to hear. What a good student, they beam. The trouble is when, in the middle of this zone, as you're furiously typing away your particular brand of glorious rubbish, you stop for a second and listen to yourself. I wonder if the people who write songs for the backstreet boys stop and listen to themselves and wonder how it is they ended up at the top of the bottom when all they wanted was to write a decent song.