The Daily Adventures of Mercat

So I did end up giving blood today. Not really any problems. Getting your finger stuck for iron testing does hurt for a good few minutes, but not worse than any other cut. Plus it's cool to see them doing the iron test. One weird thing, they ask you if your blood can be used for patients, and they leave the room and you pick a "yes" or "no" barcode and stick it on your form. Anyone know as to why? I mean, they tell you that you can't be giving blood just to be tested for diseases, and I cannot think of another possibility whatsoever for a pint of blood. (Unless there's a secret hive of vampires somewhere feeding on blood rejects. They're already not-quite-dead-but-not-alive so I think AIDS and hep C is not a problem for them, as blood type probably is not. Can you imagine that, vampires subject to blood type? Like, an allergic reaction. That would be bad, I think.) ANYWAY. The needle going in wasn't really the bit that hurt, it's just that it takes a few minutes for the anticoagulant to settle, and it burns a little. My arm got warm after the burning went away and for a minute I was afraid that I was leaking blood into my muscle or something, so I mentioned it to the guy and he said "warm?" in a kind of weird look, but then I thought, oh, it's probably just the anticoagulant again, and it went away after that so I'm not too concerned. The weirdest part for me was them filling up all the sample tubes, because on the first tube of each set (seriously, two small red-capped ones and three big purple-capped ones. What are they doing with all these samples?!) you felt a little suction because there was all that space. I tend to be very sensitive to physics, so I don't know if most people notice it, but I felt it. I'm such an engineer sometimes. I sat there and worried that I was going to pump blood into my muscles and wondered what happens to your veins as you donate blood--do they just sort of deflate with lower pressure? Because I know getting air in your bloodstream is a BAD, BAD thing, and you're not getting pumped back up with anything. And when they fill the vials, where does the air go? Um, and something else, later, but I can't remember what it was, just that I am very much an engineer when I analyze things. I was afraid I would maybe faint or get dizzy so I made sure to eat two breakfasts and a big lunch and drink lots of fluids, but I didn't have any problems. I do feel kind of tired and listless now, and the arm that had blood drawn from it feels rather muscularly tired. So I'm wondering if it's just that there's lack of blood there or if the bandage was a little too tight and lessened the amount of blood going through there, but I could definitely fall asleep right now with no problem. I'm exhausted.

The package from my parents finally came, so I filled up on blondies. =) They're a little staleish already, but they're still so delicious. Plus since you're supposed to eat hardily after giving blood, I have no regrets. =)

I had to think though, I haven't been to the doctor in a while, but all the same I've never got a comment on my blood pressure. I mean, I didn't today, either, but I suddenly wondered what the numbers meant. I don't really get it but I texted the numbers to my mom hoping she'd explain the formula to me. Rather, she told me that was kind of high and that it was probably nerves but when I come home she'd test it again. Oh, and, just thought of this, I haven't been to the doctor in a while but I get shots often enough that I would probably still know if I had issues. But, uh, I was trying to keep myself pretty calm, and so I wasn't really nervous. Once they put the needle in later I started shaking because my hand was a little cold and I was nervous something would happen (I dunno, needle would get knocked, something), but it wasn't a bad shaking, more like a shivering shake, so, I dunno. But I looked up the BP values, and while my diastolic pressure is normal, my systolic blood pressure is "stage 1". Which, I dunno what that means, but looking at the chart there's normal, prehypertension, hypertension, stage 1, and stage 2. So that doesn't bode well, and considering I'm overthinking and analyzing things all the time, getting nervous over inane shit, I wonder what it all means.

At the same time, filling out the forms I was grateful that my health has been simple so far. No allergies, no diseases, no med problems, just broke my arms in 1996, you know? Anyway. Oh, the thing they took your temp with was pretty cool. It was this TINY stick with small metal dots under the plastic, and I really wanted to know how it worked. Hm, now that I think about it, my temp was 98.8 so maybe I was nervous. Anyhow. I got a blue bandage, it was pretty cool until it started feeling weird in regards to the circulation and strength in my arm.

I finished the Gaiman book, it was good. Gaiman, Adams, and Jones, being my favorite authors, make me wonder if there's something about being raised with a British sense of humor that makes you look at the world differently. I mean the Brits are, maybe stereotypically, but nonetheless truthfully, practical in the way they see things (whereas comparatively you may say Americans are stereotypically but nonetheless very prideful about things). Just the way they all address their topics, it's the same old world we all know but there's something we didn't see behind it. Not that it's some spectacular new thing that got discovered, no, it's old, it's been there ages, we just happened upon it now or just started caring. And I can't for the life of me think of an American author who has written like that, at least in the experience of the books I've read. The Giver? That's the first alternate-world book I can think of, and no, that's not it. And I think of all the fictions I can, and all of them are their own spectacular alternate universes, not this world, this real world, at all. Maybe Alice in Wonderland, but everyone says that guy was on drugs, and that makes me sad. And Narnia, maybe, but the fact that it's a Christian allegory really does kill a lot of it, though I suppose it helps to no longer believe all the things you're taught are true. Or, relatively true and now symbolically true, nonetheless, faith tenets or whathaveyou.

Ah! Well, Carroll was English and Lewis was Irish, so maybe that explains that. I don't know. I just wish I could lock myself away and read Gaiman and Jones and Adams all the time so I could still feel like I had stories to write. I dunno, I've always liked writing, but what I've determined is that I'm a modeler, of sorts. I'm obsessed with things. If I were a pirate I'd hunt treasure all the time, and it's pretty clear that my obsession with Indiana Jones isn't as much the character himself as what he's seen, what he's found. COSI? Adventure. And if I ever have good plot ideas, they're things. Objects that can help set the stage. I'm a stage-setter. I'm a designer. But I don't write the plays, I can't. I can't ad-lib for shit and I struggle to pay attention to my part in the dialogue anyhow. Ask me a question out of the blue, and it takes me a second to register you might be addressing me, unless you're looking at me or something. And the answers I give are never the answers I mean to give, usually. Which is why I can't stand being teased, I suppose, I don't know how to react and the puns and jokes and prods always come about ten minutes too late. Unless we start talking about how things work, and then I can expound for ages, reveling in the minutiae. But look what happened with my eighth grade play, um, let's not go there. Suffice it to say it's the reason, even though I live for singing, that I didn't put myself in the musical until senior year. And even then (and now) I'm still pissed as hell when people don't memorize their lines, don't standardize their actions so they can perfect the details. Maybe that's why I'm in my element with marching band. It's all memorized. Everything. Your voice, your movements, your focus, and when it comes down to it, my only real challenge is strength and the details I need to perfect it. Volume. Tone. Fuck, I don't even focus on tone anymore, it's instinctual.

But I (completely) digress. I can't write a plot for beans. Give me someone else's story, let me see their characters in the dimmest light, and I can fix plotholes and give them a better MacGuffin and rewrite their dialogue to be more in line with their emotion. But I can't see the characters. I could look in a mirror and see another world but I couldn't tell you the ghosts, only maybe that there were some and they had shards of dreams that kept them there, trapped. I dunno.

Hah, so, really, co-authoring's my shtick. You have characters and a good feel for the plot? Great, I'll solidify it, make it real. Maybe I'm missing something. Who knows.

I write a lot better in my head, too. When I'm driving or walking or whathaveyou. But I can't talk out loud to record it and when I sit down to write the things that need to be said have already been said and I can't say them as eloquently a second time, only grasp at straws and hope I can find the train of thought, if it's still there even.

Oh, I forgot to say, when I gave blood, I had a headache a little later, too. Hopefully I stop feeling so tired, though.

Intersting article I had to read from 2000; mild developmental autism may be linked to mercury poinsoning... found in medicine. So kids were getting mercury poisoning from their medicine, good going there on someone's part.

Hm.

41 days! I'm back to being excited again, which is good news, for sure. Also found out there may be a mini-meetup in Ohio for people from my favorite Indy website, and it's in Fairborn. Woohoo! I offered to help out, since I was planning one already for Dayton-and-close-Ohio folks. That way I could meet some COW folks and not feel as guilty for probably not going to New York in June (wait, isn't there a song about that? help me, what am I thinking of). I was kind of stressing because I mean it would be the ultimate thing to go to the midnight premiere with local COW friends, but at the same time I would feel bad not taking my usual movie-going crowd with me. This is still, slightly, an issue, however, there's a chance it could be solved. One of the COW folks said he is friends with a manager (?) at a local theatre and was wondering if they could get a limited early-showing for the COW crowd. Now THAT would be fucking awesome because then I wouldn't feel it as necessary to show up at least (at least) an hour early to get top-notch seats and also I could take the usual crowd to the midnight premiere and not worry about them spoiling it with their freaking commentary.

Um, I mean, really, I love you guys (to all of you who may or may not be reading this, I'm not going to specify which), BUT, yes, I have several friends who give a bit too much commentary for something like this. I mean usually we end up seeing mediocre movies or movies I don't really care about, so a commentary is an improvement and not a huge deal. But really, this is a very important thing for me, as stupid as it may sound. The reason I love it is the completely mysterious adventure, and now I live for it. And this is really a once-in-a-lifetime thing, to see a new one, now, and I'll be damned if anyone's going to ruin it for me with commentary and snark, as harmless as it may seem. And really, it is harmless, and I mean no offense, but no matter, this is important for me, which is why I was (and am) leaning toward seeing my first viewing with people as equally obsessed. So for all those who were planning on going with me, I hope you can understand. Although I doubt you care, this movie isn't so important to you. E];D

BUT! Further than this discussion I bring more linkage. Shit is popping up everywhere and I haven't seen ANY of it! Cereal, pop-tarts, ice creams, candies... WHERE ARE YOUUUU, PACKAGING?! I think a trip to Wal-Mart may be in order. (That cereal? Looks terrible. But damned if you're going to stop me from getting it. I was going to refrain from buying ALL the stuff, because some of it is just "get the Raiders DVD with X proofs-of-purchase!" [proof-of-purchases?], and some of it wasn't anything other than a decorated box. But with poptarts you can get a canteen now and there is a... cereal bar? overseas that you can get a cool spoon with, and I am totally jealous.)

Oh god, after this year I am going to hate myself. I have always always always been a saver when it comes to money, and I used to only go overboard with books. (I still do.) I care a little more about fashion these days but nonetheless I am a cheapskate. ("Fashion" money goes more towards costumes, now, but it's still more than I used to buy.) But all this Indiana Jones stuff! It's a good thing I'm only in the market for the quality stuff (uh, all the books, though), probably the legos and maybe some action figures and maybe some cards (really all I want are the art cards, stills from the movies hold none of my interest). But, um, the Potato Head I don't care for (WAIT. Actually, I hate it, I just want the little hat so I can pose it on the cats and stuff.) and the MightyMuggs or whatever they're called look absolutely ridiculous, and I think a rather large proportion of the marketing is childish, which makes me upset. No idol models or anything? Seriously. Who wouldn't want one of those?! I guess I'll hold out for years down the line when I buy a SA nearly-perfect one (ah, which will run me around $500). But nonetheless. So far the money went into costuming (the hat, and a ring, which incidentally I'm not big on the costume so much as the character of each item), and if there's aliens in the movie I can't see myself buying much more toys-wise than the classics. I'm determined to get my hands on one of those action figures though, just so I can have the little gold idol so I can put a hole through it and wear it as a necklace.

Ah, right, I told you I had links.

Gravity-defying homes, some of which make me think the authors have never heard of cantilevering. Or seen a cylinder before in their lives. (Seriously, like, come on.) The first one is just bad design, from all the other articles on it I've read; it's all wood, a lot of it is unstable and rotting, so, it's weak engineering at best. Notably, House on the Rock's Infinity Room is not on the list, making me doubly sure that the authors don't really seem to understand their own name of "gravity-defying". Cantilevering is always amazing, to me, even if I know how it works. It's just that cool. Cylindrical buildings, or buildings with stilts? Hardly.

OH FUCK YES a Homestar Runner game! Sadly for Wii. I don't really like the Wii. I'm willing to give it a few more shots, I mean I've only done bowling, and yeah it's good for exercise but besides DDR and GH I'm a classic-controller kid. However, it will also be out for PC, I think, so there's always that damn-my-computer-is-too-slow route. (Speaking of which the, uh, Half-Life or Unreal-Tournament or whatever that networked game we used to play at Joe and Jen's was, I love it and I miss it. ALSO, I still need to get my hands on Ghost Recon, especially since we have a PS2 at home now. I loved that game.)

Interesting: Indiana Jones and the recession" (Do people know how to write titles anymore? Seriously? GRAMMAR) Interesting. Is it sad that I'm hoping the economy will get weak enough to cause people to start caring more about consumption of resources like food and gas and stuff? =( Our society is too wasteful.

Quite possibly the coolest cake I've ever seen. No, actually, I'm totally lying, I've seen things a million times better. But if you can imagine the skills of a real cake artist crossed with Indiana Jones, well, then, I'd probably put it in a museum instead of eating it. And for a shitty store-cake, that one's damn good (minus the boulder inaccuracy, but let's not even go there, I don't think you want to hear it). Almost as cool as my mom's homemade Little Mermaid cake and probably as cool as the Winnie the Pooh cake, from which I still have the Piglet and Pooh figures (which may have been the only ones). Or Laura has Piglet (I know she was the only one ever to have a Piglet doll), and I have Pooh. (I count it in my 2...2? I forget if I'm at 21, 22, or 23 now. FUCK. Forgot I still need a Hawaiian Pooh! Missioooooon~)

AND NOW! The links where I mock all the shitty advertisement that's going out with this movie.

*headdesk* I'm not sure this photoshopper has ever seen a whip move. I mean... EVERYTHING is wrong with that picture. I think artists just enjoy drawing the lines, like snakes, or something. I can't figure out how you put together--professionally!--something that bad.

No, that's not it either. *facepalm facepalm facepalm* You can't swing on whips. And if that's a vine, it's the most boring vine I've ever seen, and the body/face comparison is HILARIOUSLY bad. And, uh, I think his shirt's the wrong color, too.

MightyMugg idol... sadly that's the best one.

I...what? No, seriously... what? I have no words.

That... is kind of more creepy than anything.

NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. Do want. Also reminds me I should pull out my old (OLD) yellow airplane spoon, that thing was kick-ass. And more! Except we don't get that cereal here.

What is this shit? Scratch that, I'd buy the Snickers bars. But hell no on the other stuff, unless we're getting backs like this, and, from what I understand, we're not. (We're getting DVD offers, just in case you didn't already own the set from the original DVD release, and didn't plan on buying them when they come out in a few weeks [yeah, just the three], and don't plan on buying them when a set of all four comes out [I'm calling 2011, Raiders' 30th, you'll see]. WTF)

This magazine is only sold in hobby stores. Buy me two with the limited edition cover and I'll pay you back, loooove youuuu... (Oh my god, the first thing I do when I get home will be hit up Dark Star. SO SAD)

See? Portugal. Why can't we have these nice things?

DISNEYLAND. DO WANT. Somebody get their hands on this for me. (Ohmygod, I can ask my roommate Demyla! She goes all the time! Yaaay)

What the fuck is this shit? The jist I get from the website is that it's a deck of cards for playing War... with Indiana Jones pictures. See, decks like this piss me off. Nice if it was just an Indiana Jones deck of cards, but no, when you specialize it to one game it becomes wasteful and stupid. WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING.

This canteen has the potential to be Really Cool.

This? The coolest action figure ever. I'm waiting til they release the price, but no doubt I won't get it. The bad ones are at least $90. Fuuuuuuck.

^If you get it, well, that's why I've been a terrible procrastinator lately.

Honestly I have lots of stuff to post about last week and adventures and whatnot, buuuut today was weird. Well, fuck it, these past few days have been weird. Completely intangible emotional rollercoaster and today I'm veeeeery tired. But I got a lot of good stuff done; picked out my classes (thank god it mostly all fell together with little effort... now I just have to be awake at 2 am Thursday to register), got Phi Rho stuff done (fees, planning, whatnot), got the phone numbers to call (TOMORROW YOU FUCKING PROCRASTINATOR) about the PEP presentations, looked at plane tickets to Maui (which are much more accessible than I thought they'd be--probably because Aloha airlines went down the tubes as of today?!), all sorts of responsible things for two hours.

Yeeeeah, and since then I've been dicking around on the internet, just like I did ALL weekend. (Literally.)

However I'm going to save the emotional crap for a friendslocked post and also for tomorrow. ( Instead here's my 51 (!!!!) day backlog )



( Shit, guys, somebody stole my idea. )


Side note: The Fall got rescheduled for a May release? Anyone else hear anything? DO WANT (to see)

[EDIT] Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat. Again? Presto! Let's see how many times I can edit this for errors because I'm half asleep.

Yay nice day today! Tried to sleep in again but that damn rooster woke me up again. We went to a super sweet zipline which was fun for the first few rides, but later it was just sort of a nice view and now my inner thighs are sore because of that freaking harness and the whole thing not really being set up for short people. Grr. And I don't know if I just ran out of adrenaline or if I was disappointed we weren't at Kipu falls and the ropeswing or if listening to Laura and Savannah have a general disregard for societal politeness drove me kind of crazy, anyway, I got bored about halfway through. I dunno, I think if you're already going to put up a zipline, why not put up a hard-core superfast one? I mean, these were nice and all, but they started off high, fast, and long and got lower, slower, and shorter. You would think you'd finish it off with a good one down the hill face or something...

Anyway it was really beautiful where we were, though, and interesting to learn a little about the area. The land it's all on is beautifully pristine, and privately owned. It used to be a sugar plantation but like all the others in Hawaii, it closed in debt. (Last one to, I believe? Basically, when Hawaii became a state, labor laws kicked in and the cost of sugar skyrocketed to pay for wages, effectively killing this market.) So along comes this guy, Steve Chase, who just buys it up. And of course all the locals are worried because if you have that kind of money you're probably going to want to develop it for businesses and stuff, but. So everyone was kind of surprised when he not only kept it development-free, he paid off the debt, paid retirement for the workers, and leases the land out to local farmers for $15/acre per year. Apparently the guy who created AOL (and subsequently made his billions selling it to Time Warner) is from Kauai, and nobody knew it until he bought the land. So this zipline/tubing business is the only one allowed back on the land. Though, last summer they were filming a movie there, the one that's coming out soon with Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller. It actually seems pretty interesting, I just read an article about it; it's about an actor in a Vietnam war film, but it's Robert Downey Jr. who decides to take on the role and in order to do so has to become a black guy. Craziness. But, Ben Stiller directing and acting so it can't be that bad, right? (Not as bad as I Am Legend, by far, which was sold out at the grocery store for $20.99. Wut?)

So then we came back and lazed around and mom and dad took a walk on the beach (and mom picked up a cowrie that we found out a few hours later was still alive, so I had to walk down to the tidal pool and throw it back in, lol), and then we drove into town to look around and pick up some more necessities and stuff. I got a cheapo lavalava (which, it really pisses me off that they're all sold as "sarongs" here) that's yellow with blue flowers (utterly fantastically tropical and tacky), and we also found the best thing ever at Safeway. A dinosaur sandwich cutter. What it does is decrust (who cares) a sandwich so it is diagonally cut (essentially) in the shape of two brontasauri. (Brontasauruses? Apatosauri? oh fuck me, I really don't care.)

Probably the most awesome thing to ever happen to a sandwich.

In other news my mind's been totally in the gutter the past few days. I mean, no big surprise, that's pretty much how band kids are all the time, right on? Well, yes, but at the same time it's quietly in the gutter when in mixed company (ie with not band kids). But Laura and Sav have been on a "that's what she said" kick, and they are the kind of people who say whatever they want, whenever they want, as loudly as they want, without caring whether what they said was impolite to be overheard by everyone around them. (Which was kind of a problem earlier today as they have no problem gossiping or mocking or dropping the f-bomb, and we were ziplining with a family with a slightly retarded son. Not the best sitch.) Anyway, what with Melissa and I training eachother last semester into "whatever whatever" "you whateverwhatever" "your mom whateverwhatever" "your face whateverwhatever"
"your mom's face whateverwhatever", it has all resulted in some interesting things coming out of my mouth and a lot of laughing.

And there are a lot of things that halfway through saying them I'm just like "oh damn, I set myself up again." It's getting rather annoying, tbqh. Not even the joke, just the mind-in-the-gutter-ness. Eh, it'll pass.

So anyway we came back and watched V for Vendetta, which I forgot how much I loved. I had only seen it the day around when it came out (a Wednesday) late night senior year with Rob and Lara. Somehow we all decided that we'd go see it and convinced our parents that I needed to see it for my senior thesis for Hemmert, which involved masks. That wasn't the real reason but I did end up using it in the paper. (But that paper was a piece of shit, I rambled on for ten pages without ever making a point.) Anyway I pretty much fell in love when they started it with the 1812 Overture, which has been my favorite piece of music since as long as I can remember (thank you Ernie Kovacks and Grandpa.). But there are so many good things about it that I enjoy; a lot of the message is good, there's art and music appreciation, literature references, costumes and a good futuristic manipulated-government storyline. (What's the word I'm looking for here? Like the opposite of anarchy...?) Anyway, and the whole time I just kept thinking "haha, it really does fit so well with Anonymous" even though I think they wear the mask originally because of Epic Fail Guy. I could be wrong, it's all rather complicated, especially when lulz are involved. But, the "a revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having" pretty much hooked the "we did it for the lulz" connection for me.

Who wants to go blow up cannons (or something) for the 1812 with meh?

[[sorry but I'm about to collapse so tomorrow I'll edit in my Indy fact (I forget what I was going to say anyway...) and some tags for this sucker.]]

[EDIT] Well it's been a few days so I'm not going to add much, just that LJ ate the txt-to-post that I had sent previous to posting this. I don't know where it went and I can't check my phone because it's disappeared from the sent folder. Oh well, I don't think it said anything particularly important anyway, just that I wasn't getting good internet and yay 59 (?) days.

Haha oh god I hate sunburn pain. It's like wanting to just... I dunno, float around touching nothing? Clothing even hurts, but, eh.

Went out surfing at Diamond Head today! I was terrible. =( Surfing itself is not, by any means, difficult. However, I have no shoulder/upper back muscle (which I think is why I always got pains marching--not in my arm, but my shoulders/upperback/neck area), and so even swimming as much as I could I pretty much got nowhere. Lance, the guy in charge of the surf club (who came out to Dayton last semester) had to tow me out a little and give me a push. (And then he towed me in even though I just wanted to sort of float in.) How I got away with it two years ago at Waikiki was just walking my way out. Which, if I had worn my water sandals, I could have done, here, too. (I tried it and I was more wary because I couldn't see if I was going to step on any urchins or anything. I don't think I did, but I still managed to cut my left big toe open nicely. Probably just the lava rock, though.) Anyway, he said it was a really windy day, too, which made it a lot more difficult, and I felt a little more comforted that Lauren was the first one to give up and Lance towed Katie in at the end, too. (And Katie is as athletic as hell.) So I think I'm going to try to strengthen my shoulder/upper back muscles so next time the surf club goes out I can at least be a little better... But my one ride was at least a good one! Yaaay.

We did a little beach cleanup and Lance showed us all the tide pools, which were cool but since I'd cut my toe, I couldn't really walk on the rock. There were snails or tiny hermit crabs or something called opi'i (I think?). Aaaand I saw some barnacles and mussels and things, although all very tiny. And one fish, haha (unless you count the buttfish... oh Gramps).

I've heard rumors about doing some sort of basic scuba dive early this week. That would be sweet. We'll see.

So, anyone have ideas on strengthening my back? I think part of my problem is I don't sit/stand up straight (strangely enough, unless I'm in band, in either case) and slouching never really developed those muscles. I've really been trying to sit/stand straight more often but it's really hard (and right now I am very sore ow ow).

I also have a headache and my ears feel weird... like... too open. Or the holes are too big. I dunno. Is that what "having water in your ear" feels like? I think it's slowly going away, so maybe it's just related to the fact that my jaw hurts.

Why the fuck does my jaw hurt? I HAVE NO IDEA. It got sore chewing up an apple for dinner. =/

But all in all a good day, most defs.

Augh, there are a lot of things I wrote down to blog about but I'm sooo exhausted, it will have to wait. (And then tomorrow and Tuesday I'll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off, getting leis and finding my way to the airport and seeing if there is a dive and registering and AUGH)

66 days! w000000t! So the library closes today for two weeks or so as they move into the new building. Well I had to return my videos (which were late, shame on me) and I wanted to get out some more but I won't have time for them, definitely. Anyhow, I flipped through the magazines a little and checked out the Free Book shelf, which is exactly what it sounds like. Old or unread books that they don't want, they put there and you can take home. I've already found too many really good ones, like an old copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales or a book of world archaeology from the 40's. Augh, but today I SCORED BIG TIME. (This is going to cost me an arm and a leg to ship home.) I got a whole pile of antique books, just gorgeous old things. Some have beautiful covers, some have weird stuff in them, most of them are just... old. I love them. I think the earliest ones I got were from 1832. EIGHTEEN THIRTY-TWO! Wow.

One from 1873 (?) is falling apart though, which is sad, it has this GORGEOUS cover with some gold leaf.

Augh, STUNNING. I'm going to post more on them later. Anyway, just thought I'd share my own little historical treasure there for ya. ;)

Oh yeah Fridays! Kind of excited, went out to Kahala Mall after school and found some fabulous purple shirts. =) One's dressy and the other one is a total glamwhore shirt, but I love it. Gray with silver swirls and purplish street-art type stuff. Total love. Also broke down and picked up a Blues Brothers fedora... so I do have initiative to dress up as such for Halloween. (I have to think ahead, I will be soooo busy in the fall and I love details too much.)

What else? Oh, damn, perfect timing, the phone I want is FINALLY ON SALE. Just went on sale today, in fact! I've had my eye on that samsung flips-both-ways phone ever since DayDay showed it off to me... Total geekwant. TOTAL. I have absolutely no legitimate reason to want it. I don't use it for anything, it's thin enough to make me nervous I'd break it. My phone works perfectly after two years (I treat technology well, thankyouverymuch to all you "hey I dropped my phone in the toiler now give me your numbers over facebook because I'm lazy" people ;D ). The only thing I have going for it is that I'm due for a new phone through them so I might have a deal that way. If not, what was a $130 phone is now $80 because of a $50 rebate, PLUS buyonegetonefree, and since my mom will be here next week and she is due for a new phone, too... hehehehe. LOVE IT. (All I can do is laugh in the general direction of my sister who lost her phone snowboarding and I think has destroyed it at least once since then. MUAHAHAHA. Patience and stinginess wins out my wallet in the long run. [note: I am both stingy and evil. And patient. WHA-CHA]) so now just to convince my mom to do without a phone until it would get shipped to her...

Aaaaand what else today? OH MY FUCKING GOD. I am one of those people who insists on eating breakfast, right? Um, and I don't like being dizzy, or feeling sick, because I am one of those people who can't throw up to get rid of the tension, it just... blech. Um. So. Today I just forgot to eat breakfast, and Mr. Yukio had the oven running. I wore a long sleeve shirt but it wasn't that bad...

Dang, I dunno. I'm usually really good about everything, so all I can guess is iron deficiency (it happens every time I move away from home--we have hard water from a well) accelerated by girlweek. OH, plus I was standing up glazing my piece, when I usually sit. So I suppose being slightly overheated and burning a few more calories and being iron deficient and skipping breakfast is enough accumulated reasons, anyhow... You know what I hate most about getting lightheaded? How everything you see becomes hypersaturated and you get some nice bloom and hyperdefinition around the edges of things. That is the worst. Why? Because I don't pass out easily, but in order to actually see where I'm going to take care of myself, I have to actually, you know, see it.

So anyway, I stopped glazing and leaned on the table just to see if it was going to pass (just the heat maybe?), but it didn't. It didn't really get better or worse, but I decided since nothing was happening I should probably sit down to try to conserve my energy. So I pulled up an empty chair and sat down and went back to glazing (albeit slowly), and then... it got a little bit worse. So, I'm sitting there, trying to remember the last time I almost passed out to see if I could remember if I actually passed out. (I want to say it was sometime this summer, but I can't actually think of any specific time. The last time I actually remember something similar happening was GOD REST YE REHEARSAL SOPHOMORE YEAR LOL. Omg pizza spots haha [although, I haven't ever gotten pizza spots again, just the white-out]) Anyway, so, it eases up for a second and I decide to work up the guts to ask where the bathroom is (upstairs and on the other side of the building...great) so I carefully work my way up there (holding onto the railing, and I made sure to tell the ceramics assistant that I didn't feel too well) and take a drink from the fountain, and lay down on the floor for about five minutes, and then go to the bathroom, drink some more, and get back to class.

All in all a very interesting day... Whiting out is so fricking weird.

Oh, man, at Kahala I went with Lauren to Lenscrafters, and I was reading a People magazine from last year like June or something, and it said that "fricking" (and "omigod", lamely) had been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Which is awesome (other than "omigod"). I <3 Austin Powers. It seems hilariously pathetic (but not really) to have something so small define so much of me, but I can't explain it... I didn't even do it on purpose. I just pick up turns of phrase, try them out a few times, and they manage to stick. Yaaay. (See also: cursing like a sailor... thank you, drum corps.)

68 days until Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! Today's trivia: Guess what! New reference for my collection. I pretty much ran through all the videos from the library that I wanted to watch, so I picked up Lost season one since everybody loves it so much and the few episodes I've seen seem decent. And Sawyer calls Michael's kid "Short Round" just once. Oh, but it's enough to make me smirk, so there you go.

Valuable information, eh? What a day.

Oh hey question--culinary arts question, coming from someone who was totally culinarily spoiled as a child. My mom pretty much raised me on Esther Price and chocolate, so I'll eat just about any kind of chocolate (except white chocolate--it's not chocolate and it tastes like shiiiiite). But I know a lot of people have sensitive (pussy? lame? unfortunate?) tastes and can't handle the richness of European chocolate (omg don't get me started on European vs American breads) or dark chocolate, but I read from someone they tried like 70% cocoa bars and it burned. This does not make sense to me. I can understand it's more bitter, and it's an acquired taste (I wouldn't even touch Hershey's dark when I was little), but I picked up a 65% at the gas station (if there is one reason to come to Hawaii, it is for CHEAP, EASILY ACCESSIBLE, HIGH-QUALITY CHOCOLATE. AND MACADAMIA NUTS. I AM NOT FUCKING JOKING HERE PEOPLE) and I mean, no problem, it's rich but delicious. So... can I get some input?

Also, hoping that I can go horseback riding tomorrow, and if I can, that it doesn't suck and isn't just like riding a donkey tour in the Grand Canyon. To me, horseback riding means LET'S RIDE MOTHAFUCKA. (I have never actually been horseback riding, so to speak. I have ridden on a horse's back a few times when I was younger but I'd love to go for a good ride once. And I'm not even a horse person! Unless you count that the drawing book I had on horses [amongst many others] taught me to pay attention to muscle structure.)

Also, I completely forget the word, but Hawaiian Cowboys = Awesome Subculture, lol.

[EDIT]ACK, question I really need you to answer: If you were in a ceramics class, what would you make? I need to make my final projects pretty much starting Monday, and I only have a few weeks, and I don't really have any solid ideas. And it has to be something of substance and meaning, so... yeah. I've tried searching deviantart but I'm not really coming up with anything terribly inspiring. Not in the realm of ceramics, at least.

I was debating using the title "damn, my ass hurts" but this one is more fun.

On second thought, that's debatable. by the way cliff jumping makes you SORE

I AM SO SAD THAT I DO NOT HAVE AN UNDERWATER CAMERA. I must wait for peekchures! However, I do have le teasers: (I like to call these "perspective" photos. You will see why.)

[EDIT] cut for your convenience( well shit. These photos are rather larger than I expected. )

Homecoming is here... let's see if I survive... last nght was...interesting.
aklshgfaldfajh.
Yeah.
Woah.
After homecoming game (can I say lamest homecoming ever? yeah. okay. I don't care anymore.[yeah, kind of pissed at drama and all, fantastic, after I had an otherwise great day, we beat fairborn but we had a drumoff with them... that was interesting]), went to Domer's with the HEIS crew to watch a movie. We watched The Rock, which, by the way, is a saweet movie. So, we were originally planning to drive all the way out to the Dayton Mall to see a dollar movie, so we carpooled and left my car at Carroll. Then we went to Domer's. Well, Mattie had to leave early because a) Domer's parents are out of town and couldn't give a damn, b) Fisher's parents didn't care, c) my parents are out of town and can't give a damn (yay!) and d) Mattie had a curfew. SO... Mattie leaves... Domer's sister falls asleep... we realize, after the movie ends (at about 1:10) that we have no ride back to Carroll. Oh boy. So we argued: take Domer's car, leave it there, I drive them back in mine? Take Domer's car, I drive home in mine, he drives home in his? What about curfew?
So, I drive their van to Carroll, with Domer getting freaked out by cop turning on his lights right as he passes us (we saw it on the way back, too- drug bust!), and Fisher and I try to convince Domer that, as long as he looks confident and goes the speed limit, he's okay, he's not going to get pulled over. So.We pull up to CHS, and there's a random Jeep-thing in the lot, with about 5 antennae, just sitting there, and someone is in the driver's seat. So. Simply because of that, we decided to "be responsible" in case it was a cop, and leave Domer's van there and I would drive them back. I did. RIGHT as we pull in, Chris' parents pull up to take him home, somewhat unexpected. Man, if we had decided for them to drive that van back, we would all be DEAD MEAT right now. So, at 2:00 AM, I drive into Xenia to pick of Laura from Pilar's (LOL) house. I call her cell, so she will wake up and wake up Savannah and say, hey, I am leaving. I call, several times. NO ANSWER. FANTASTIC. So I didn't take her home, but I picked her up this morning. And today is homecoming, and I'm sick of all the drama everywhere and I just want to go out west for a while. So, now, of course, I have that lovley Newsies song "Santa Fe" stuck in my head, and damnit, a few of the notes are too low for my range. I just...ugh. I'm hating it~

So...it's October...and so far the fall sucks.

Like I said, I just want to go out west, to the wilderness.

Due to the fact that many of my friends follow Xanga, I update there more than here, but often with pointless posts just adressing issues or the like. Anyway, just this once I'm going to copy my post over to this blog; it was long and important and I don't want to rewrite it, with all the issues I covered. So, here we go:
"Wow, you guys left a lot of comments lately. Haha. Aaanyway, I kind of realized I like my othe blog more than Xanga because Xanga's protected entries can only be for 10 friends if you have a free acount, and that sucks.

So. An update. Visited the gradeschools today. Tell ya what. Best part of my day was learning how to conduct 3 versus 2 (for those who don't get it, 3 on one hand, 2 on the other). Yeah, so... life is kind of teh suck right now. I mean, I'm not depressed or anything it's just that there have been a million better times in my life than what's oging on right now. Argh, Grapes of Wrath, you spite me so!

What would be really sweet (only a daydream here, folks, not actually going through with it... I have a lot of "ideas" like that) is to just run away and live out west survival style. I think I could do it. It'd be tougher at first, but I'm smart and eventually I'd settle into it and just be happy. I just want to wander around for the reat of my life, learning. I think that's what I do best. I don't necessarily need other people, I'm fairly individualistic. Oh, understatement of my life... Anyway. I just need to get away. Somehow. Problens plague me that I know I can handle, I just don't want to. I've had to deal with them a million times before and I know I'll get through but I'm ready for soemthing new.

Maybe go with Operation Courage, haha... yeah right. Anyway.

In less important news that makes me feel awfully ashamed and egotistical, I am very pissed at (a person). I PLAYED WITH MEAGHAN, I PLAYED WITH THE DR. BEAT, I PLAYED WITH EDGAR, AND YOU CAN'T DECIDE WHETHER I'M SLOW OR FAST?! DID YOU NOT NOTICE THE ONE THING THAT IS MUY RAPIDO IS THE DRUMLINE, THE ONE BEAT KEEPING DEVICE I WAS NOT WITH OUT OF FOUR?! IS IT A COINCIDENCE THAT THEY'RE TOLD TO NOT WATCH MEAGHAN BECAUSE "THEY'RE THE BEAT KEEPERS"?

Yeah. I needed to rant. Sorry to any drumline peeps out there, I'm not really mad at you, just (a person). If you feel insulted talk to me, I'll give you a hug or advice or something (*coughadvice#1watchmeaghancough*). Anyway. Rant done. Needed to vent. I apologize again and again if you think I'm a pompous egotistical prat, but I suppose fair is fair.

Grrrrrr....just grrr...OH MY GOD TOMORROW WE'RE PLAYING BOLERO! w00t

I had some other good news somewhere but I forgot it... I'm going to write up the Diagnosis Murder Themesong tomorrow... I learned how to do a flag toss and drop spin today and might be in Winterguard if Sou decides that me being gone for WGI percussion finals would not merit me being in winter perc... Um... ugh. Just UGH. Just GAH and ARGH and FRUSTRATION and CAPTIALLETTERSZOMGANGST. I feel... restless. But it's coming out as frustration, and therefore lots of emotion and crying and ARGH.

Yeah, so I still can't remember that random good news I had. Hum. I miss some people, the perky people. There's so much DRAMA now. I wish everyone was more like... happy friendly in person and kept drama to themselves. (That includes PDA, and some other types of good drama... yeah, hold hands, hug, but not much more. Thanks.)

I think I'm going to keep typing until I come up with what I was going to say. argh, that's not going to happen. My two cats are killing eachother in the other room... just kidding. In other news, I'm going to steal Domer's cat Jazz (yay for me liking cats).

I need a good stress reducer... (or restlessness reducer? maybe it's just the moolatte I had, with choclate. talk about caffiene. Maybe that's why I'm jumpy.) other than telling people my problems... because I am always paranoid that they're going to tell someone and get them spread all over or start being stressed out themselves about my problem and more argh.

I WANT TO TRAVEL! I WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING, SOMETHING BIG! I WANT TO TAKE ON A BIG PROJECT OF MY OWN... but I have all ideas and no time, and not enough people or ideas to help out *le sigh*

Why am I so stressed? What the frick happened to me? Why am I so... restless? argh, argh, argh, argh, argh, and more argh.

(Randomness: A cheetah (or leopard? whatev) can jump higher than a kangaroo.)

What's his name and his gaxillion RVs (oh...yeah, his name is Tom Raper.) is sending 200 RVs to areas affected by Katrina, full of supplies, for families to keep FOR FREE. Talk about generous! If only more HUMOUNGOUSLY RICH people did stuff like this all the time, the world owuld be such a much sweeter place! I mean... wow. That's so the shiz. (Yay! Shiz! Wicked! w00t! ...gotta get me some green opera gloves, and a black dress. Yes, strange. But I'm like that.)

Lastly, Westy, why do you have Laura's skirt... AT HOME? (Seriously, the joke was funny, but I didn't think you were actually going to take the skirt home.)

*awkward* =^n.n^="

Update: Stress level significantly down. YAY.
Uh... yeah not much happened today. More updates later. =^n.n^=

(Oh, Domer left me a note on my Xanga saying that afer I hung out with his cat for a good two hours [the DCI thing], the cat is not crazy anymore, and I am now "The Cat Whisperer." Just thought I'd share that nerdiness. Haha.)

Wow, so as soon as I finished writing the earlier entry about my day, my mom and dad asked me to help clean out our oil barn (where I park my car and we store assorted yard care tools). It was cool to take all the old tools down that I had seen up there, like the scythe. There were a couple of old signs and horseshoes, too. THen my dad asked me to climb up on the top storage floor and get down any cool stuff. It was so tight! There were some old potato chip cans (like, large bucket sized!) and army tin buckets and some old bucket with a spout. There was an old coke and a pepsi bottle, so I pulled those down. The two best finds were an old bamboo fishing pole with a wooden bobber, and a falling-apart saddle. I had to dig around under piles of potato fences and wire and fence poles and wasps nests and old papers. It reminded me of when we ripped apart our back room a few years ago, down to the foundation, and we found an old trash pile beneath... Laura and I found old shoes then, some broken china, and I have this REALLY SWEET piece of broken glass. So... I had fun. The chicken coop is getting ripped down, too, so we'll go through that later.

So, there is an Egyptian Festival this weekend, down in Miamisburg... that sounds so cool! I think I'll go. Maybe I'll go see Brothers Grimm when that comes out, that looks cool. It's another "I <3 Boots!" type movie, so Katy, want to go?! Haha.

I think I might also have a "Plunder Party" this weekend or next week... either before the buildings get ripped down or after, when we can climb around in the dumpster... I mean, we can just get junk and make a fort in the forest out of all the cool stuff.