The Daily Adventures of Mercat

OH HAI INDIANA JONES SPECIAL ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL

SUPA AWESOME




Unfortunately when I search their schedule for re-runs they aren't listed in the next few months. Alack.

I Put in Five Miles at the Office
( article )

GOD, IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME

I've been looking for something similar for aaaaages, and I was considering just engineering my own tv/compy hookup for the treadmill we already have. I still think we can get some battery-charging or something out of it, too. WASTED ENERGYYYYYY


The RCA Dome gets deflated September 24

Boo :C I will still call Lucas Oil the Dome, I don't care!


I like Bosch, but this is pretty cool. A guy is repainting classics without living figures. It's sort of creepy, too.


So you know that awesome uke song I linked the other day? Well I found the original song, which interstingly enough is not from a musical. I am ABSOLUTELY NOT linking the original because the girl's voice is SO FUCKING ANNOYING (you can find it if you're that curious), I am not kidding. But here's a pretty good cover, minus the totally ridiculous dancing, and plus an AWESOME SCORE. As annoying as I'm finding the original song at the moment, I cannot help but think it would make an AWESOME drum corps show.





Hilarious history. You should read it.

And I know watching this will make you smile, AT LEAST once.

Damn, I have been busy lately. Recruitment chair + Hopewalk chair + overly busy POD year + total bitch prof for wastewater = Diane not getting any sleep, yeah?

I have an entire page in my art history notebook full of things I've meant to talk about, just thoughts that strike me about life or me or things in general. I think this happens more in art classes because we're analyzing the art in relation to how people look at life.

And I keep wondering stuff about why I particularly enjoy surrealism and fantasy art as opposed to other movements (perhaps disregarding art nouveau and art deco as those are styles rather than movements?), especially with respect to Yukio Ozaki (my ceramics prof from last semester)'s comments about not crafting, but making art. I don't know, I sort of have a problem with that.

I feel like despite the fact that yesterday was possibly the worst day ever and it fried my brain so much (probably from crying out of frustration? I definitely was >this close< to snapping all day long, so I definitely cried enough), I am still having a good year. Wednesday was an AMAZING day because the weather was cool and GORGEOUS, and we had a little Chaminade meetup which was all nice and emotional and warm fuzzies and that sort of deal. But the weather the most reminded me that for some reason, even as beautiful as Hawaii was, there's something about the fall that I can't grasp or describe that is absolutely perfect. I just get this feeling of perfection when the weather gets that way... It's beautiful. And then yesterday was a total bomb (minus the LHC not blowing shit up, lol) but today I was happy again. I don't know why, because I didn't get to sleep in or anything. But then going home for dinner listening to the radio I just realized that music, especially radio music for some reason, never fails to make me happy. It brings me back to some sort of happy time, I'm not really sure what; I'm consciously reminded of different high school events but it's not that, it's more of a subconscious happiness with a little of that reminiscence thrown in. So, I don't know. Hopefully tomorrow is a good day, too.


By the way, September 11th totally snuck up on me, as did Talk Like a Pirate Day. So I watched a History Channel special which made me cry, which I'm glad it did because it kind of helps me realize how big that was, which I don't think I understood at the time. I mean, being an emotional person, I was upset and it was obviously devastating, but I didn't understand the impact. I forgot my cousin's aunt worked at the Pentagon, and I didn't really comprehend, I don't think, that this was the first attack ever on American soil. (Blah blah blah Pearl Harbor HAWAII WAS NOT A STATE THEN) BUT. Yeah. Despite the fact that everyone hates that it gets used politically as an excuse for everything, I'm glad people still take the time to teach everyone and remind everyone what it means.

And now, I think I'm going to go listen to For the Fallen, and wish I had our original recording of because I think there was more passion in it, but I need to post a recording of it or something, because it's an amazing song written by a local composer about 9/11. Anyway, yeah.

And life goes on.

So I was just scrolling through my last posts on the main page and noted that the big bad thing that might have been headed my way is currently on delay, hopefully until a time when it is no longer such a big bad thing. =)

You know what I find to be one of the weirdest things? I want to say "when younger people die" but that's not the weird part. When a person dies, and they leave behind their facebook or their livejournal or whathaveyou. I mean it doesn't really matter what age they are, it's just weird. Because that part of them is frozen in time, and it's like another face, but one that isn't dead, just permanently stopped. For example this kid who went to my gradeschool hanged himself last year, and it's just weird to see posts on a facebook go from "hey X! how've you been [insert inside joke] lol you're crazy" to "you were a good guy, I'm going to miss you" or the even weirder (to me) third person "X was a great guy and I wish we'd had more time with him." Because then you are adressing him, his digital online self, but you are talking about him and not to him.

Yeah... I don't know if that made any sense to you. It just reminded me of a journal someone posted a long long time ago about a LJ user they knew who they thought committed suicide. Someone they did not know at all in real life, and never heard from again. And it's weird because the journal just sits there, not updating. (Although it might be weirder if it did update, you never know, haha.) But I mean, what happens? In 200 years if humanity's still around and our life length is about the same, what are companies like facebook and livejournal going to do with all these old pages? Probably delete them, but that's weird to me because it's practically living history. It's basically history unaltered. And honestly I think it'd be pretty cool to go digging through abandoned LJs for facts from the past, you know? On a related but tangential note: friending your parents/children on facebook? Kind of weird. It's just kind of one of those "they are creepy or trying too hard to be cool" type situations. I mean rarely there are parents who actually fit in with that scene, but generally not. In this case I told my mom to set up a facebook so she could see pictures when I post them, but I would block a lot of stuff. Not because it's bad, but... I dunno. It's weird to me? Maybe I'm just too paranoid about Big Brother type situations.

But back to the subject: This is the whole thing that started it (sort of). And apparently the girl who died wants everyone to wear their favorite shoes to her funeral. I can't quite explain why this sort of thing makes me feel relaxed, because death is really a big thing for me. (Look here, I almost cried in Indy IV and they only even MENTIONED that someone had died.) (By the way I plan on digging out my favorite pair of shoes to wear as well, just because. Guess sort of a Memorial Day thing. I have no idea which ones are my favorites though, maybe my LLAMA SHOOOOES) But it just reminds me of what my dad said about getting old, that he doesn't want to just sit around in a retirement home with the TV on. I remember him saying he wanted drum corps music blasted as loud as possible (because he'll be pretty deaf anyway), and I can't remember if he said it or if I made it up but that he wanted a model train running around the room. I also remember him saying he wants a HUGE crazy party when he dies, with all the family and friends, I think maybe just because it's an excuse for a party, and he doesn't want us to be sad. (When I think about things like that, it makes me wonder how religious my parents are. I mean my mom is away at a retreat but I've always got the impression from my dad that he doesn't really care as long as you're being nice to someone, except that he goes to mass every week and encourages Laura too as well. I dunno. I want to know but at the same time I can see it getting very awkward in any type family situation if they knew I was semi-agnostic. Seriously, you have no idea how big of a pressure point religion is in my family. Pretty much automatic HUGE FIGHT if it's us and my cousins and my grandparents.) ANYWAY, and then the other day we went to visit Nana and Papa's graves (and George's, and Grandma/Grandpa's parents, I forget which, the Cwioks) and we were talking about how we wanted to be buried. Laura started it like she always does, being cynical, but I can't remember exactly what she was critiquing. But I mentioned that I'd like my organs to be donated and the rest of it put to science and if I didn't die in any unusual way then to be buried in a natural way, just the pine-coffin-in-the-dirt thing. Put what you can to good use and the rest of it let it go back into the system. I really see no benefits to locking my body up with a bunch of preservatives so I can look good as a DB (lol) hundreds of years from now, whoopdefreakingdoo. I'd rather be remembered for what I did (crazy architecture? something awesome and Disney/COSI-like? something House On the Rock-ish?) and maybe have a wacked-out grave marker. Maybe.

Also, this topic always reminds me of my bequests from my senior year of Carroll when I was getting "killed" by the bass drums and all my stuff was going to band kids. ;) All I remember is like crazy socks to Alicia and my visor to Domer. Lol. Good times. (It also makes me usually think about exercising more so I can still maybe even run when I'm ooooold.)


And now for something completely different. Does anyone know how Burger King runs their toy promotions? I got the ant-box about two weeks ago (that thing actually surprised the shit out of me because I wasn't paying attention when I opened it) and then the boulder on Tuesday, and then the whip yesterday and today. After going from boulder to whip so fast I was kind of excited it was random because then there was less chance I missed the ones I wanted, but I don't know. Hopefully they will just show up at garage sales and stuff for super-cheap. ;D (The blacklight journal is my #1, and then the two temple-things. The others aren't particularly interesting.)

[EDIT]Woah, the monarchy of Nepal is now gone, it's Communist. Totally random but we had the princess of Nepal visit my first grade class. ( the article because yahoo deletes them )

I forgot, we totally learned about a English architect/designer in History of Furniture today called Inigo Jones. Walter was all "not Indiana Jones" and I just smiled to my dumb self because I was wearing my QC Dashing Hat shirt today. Hee. That can count to back up my 65-day post for today since it was sort of a double-post about the books. Yaaaayzors! (Which, um, has nothing to do with razors.) Unfortunately, he didn't do anything particularly interesting for me to like.

Also, the thought struck me that good spelling, besides having parents who throw around foreign words in both serious and stupid manner, is probably greatly aided by parents who talk with medical terminology all the time. You get to learn big words and crazy spellings and it's easy to find certain roots.

What does make me wonder is the people who put no effort into foreign words... they don't try to pronounce it, and it's even more confusing when it's phonetic and they don't try to learn how to spell it, either. I kind of lose a little respect for all the Dayton kids in my Hawaiian history classes who confuse all the names but don't put any effort into learning the differences. Yeah, I joke about them all being "K-something" too, but I do at least put in the effort to spell the names correctly even if I have trouble remembering who they are. Because to be honest, I do that with other histories, too. (Ask me in a year if I remember the difference between Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI and I'm pretty sure I will have forgotten most of what I'm learning in History of Furniture right now.)

However. Liliuokalani? Not that hard, people, growthefuckup.

Now French, that's another matter... =P

(I would love to know, from a person who's had to learn French and English as second languages and actually understands languages rather than memorizes them, which is more difficult. There is a good joke my dad has told about all the different sounds for "ough"--through, rough, trough, bough, and I know I'm missing at least one other really weird one...)

I forgot to say earlier that I'm excited for my final project in ceramics. I don't know what my second one will be, but for my first one I've had the idea for a while to do some sort of little shrine. I like the idea of a shrine, just a small note of holiness or sacredness in the middle of something else, sort of like the torii. (Which, incidentally, everyone here [like Waler, who I presume is Japanese] pronounces "tori-i" which I am often tempted to go back and tell Mrs. Steiritz she was pronouncing it wrong.) Anyway, the only problem is that our final projects need to show not only skill but thought and they can't be just some small simple things. Obviously one small shrine is not much to work with, and the only idea I had was that I am kind of fascinated with the idea of the evil eye, because stylistically it's a very beautiful thing, often. So I had the idea to do shrines to the five senses, which got me kind of excited. (Woo, concepts) So I have to figure out a way for them to "fit together" as it were, but I'm going to do five little boxy-shriney things and I have the basic ideas down. For sight, the evil eye, but everything painted on, so you have to use your vision to understand it. For taste, a cup that looks like a shrine, and probably something to do with the layout of the tastebuds. (That idea is kind of weak but I can't think of anything better.) For touch, a box that you can't see what's inside, but you can feel different surfaces and textures. For smell, a cool incense burner. (Got any good ideas on that one? I'd love to do a dragon but that's a bit stereotypical for my tastes.) And for sound, a box that will have a side that can be rubbed like one of those percussion things with the grooves, and chimes hanging inside, and I'm thinking about trying to make a whistle or something and putting it in the box, too.

Good thing is, I have a little more time to work out the design because I have to finish all the galzing with my current slab projects. ;D

[EDIT] Random thought, feel free to input if you know anything, I'm very curious; I like fonts, and I find it fascinating that there are so many ways to express the same number of symbols with it still being understandable. Because I mean, you look at some "g"s and they have the hook, while other ones have that whole loop underneath; and when I first learned cursive a "Q" looked kind of like a "Z", but now it looks like a "Q". (tangent: back to my thoughts about age and education--it's interesting to see older books and see how old and out-of-touch the information is to today. Which makes me wonder about any kids I have/will associate with... what ideas will I teach them that may be wrong, but I learned were right? Like PLUTO IS AN EFFING PLANET. [lol, I am already most defintiely in the Facebook group "when I was your age, Pluto was a planet"] I just think it's a curious thought.) ANYWAY, what about Chinese and Japanese and Korean and those type of languages where there are so many different symbols and every little mark matters? (What do their keyboards look like? I feel stupid and ignorant asking that question, but it's better to ask and show you want to learn, in my opinion, than wait until a later moment to prove you know nothing.) Do they have "fonts", so to speak? Would such stark differences like g's and Q's constitute different words? I mean, it seems like it should, to me, but I don't know any of those languages. I suppose I should ask Emi, she could at least tell me about Japanese.

I think I will do that, yes.

[EDIT2] I am slowly regaining control of my muscles. This is a good thing. (Specifically, upper arm/shoulders.)

Also, I've been forgetting to say that I have actually gained respect for Elvis, because he thought Scientology was a bunch of cultish nutters. And something else, which I'm sure I'll bring up another time, but anyway. Elvis is no longer haunting me, he's decent.

On the other hand, learning about WWII in history has been interesting. I did not know they did lots of nuclear testing on Christmas Island. Which, ah, makes me wonder how effective or whatever Jimmy Buffett's song is.

Man, it already feels like Spring Break. That is awesome. The only thing I really, really need to do right now is figure out registration stuff and write up one assignment and I will be good. a lot of people have said they feel like it's a Friday today, plus like half of the people don't show up for classes and a lot of the teachers have cancelled because they have some convention or something to go to this week. The library is closed, so there's no one but staff hanging out there.

Ceramics is coming along pretty good, my "plate" made it through with only one small crack, easily fixed with glaze, and even if it breaks in the kiln it will be fixable. I kind of wish I could finish the bird bath right now, though. Grr. Anyway, one effect I was going for didn't really work so I think I'll have to play with it a little, and I'm hoping it will turn out good. And then the raku piece won't be fired until after break, so all in all I have a grand total of zero pieces finished for this grading, haha.

Oh, I almost completely forgot about that petal cup... I wonder if it made it through?

Today I think I am just going to roll up in a ball and die. I am crampy despite attempts to up my iron and potassium levels, exhausted and muscle-sore from surfing (I would like to not use my shoulders all day thankyouverymuch), and the back of my legs hurts a lot from the sunburn from Saturday still. Also my face is kind of red and I think I may have burnt my lips? They don't hurt at all but they look kind of swollen and red at the edges, as if I had been licking them and they got chapped. It's weird. Plus I had a headache since last night (a very heavy and squinty one), so I drank some caffiene (which is supposed to aggravate cramps), but hey, I am a little more awake and my headache is gone. Unfortunately they didn't have plain tea so diet coke with lime is okay but lots of empty calories and I'm not really a coke person so boo. (Run-on much?)

Otherwise, I wrote up a list of the books I got from the free section of the library:
--The Madonna in Art, 1897; really neat cover with stamped lilies and gilt, neat illustrations.
--Legends of the Madonna, 1872; the most amazing cover with gilt stamping and gilt edges on the paper, unfortunately falling apart in my hands. =(
--Christ in the Ancient World, 1933; very small and cute, notes on the inside from 1935.
--Representative Short Stories, 1924; stamped cover w/ floral pattern, notes from 1927, illustrated.
--Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1923; stamped and printed cover illustration, illustrated, original copyright 1878.
--The Serpent and the Satellite, 1953; interesting book about symbols in religious history.
--Levitation, 1928; stamped gilt cover, sounds like it would be a somewhat historically funny read.
--The Syrian Christ, 1924; stamped gilt cover, orig. copyright 1916
--St. Augustine, 1933
--Journal of Tyerman and Bennet, Vols. 1 & 2, 1832; illustrated publication of original journals from 1821 to 1829 (that's three years difference... wow)
--Gilbert and Sullivan Songbook, not terribly old, my guess 60's-80's? Two-tone ink. Just picked it up for kicks.
--Fairy Tales, Brothers Grimm, 1966
--Magic House of Numbers, 1957; math tricks for learning/teaching/fun
--Digging for History: Archeology discoveries throughout the world, 1945 to 1959, 1960
--Bermudiana, 1936

Oh hells yes. I dunno, I really appreciate being able to hold something and just sort of feel the gaping history or importance of it, especially if it's something small. And I know, these books are probably not worth much to collectors or anything, but I don't care, it's all about the history for me. Being able to hold something in my hands, in the case of the oldest books, that is one hundred and seventy-five years old. And back then it was three-years-old information, so "brand new". Utterly...wow.

Other fun things I've been meaning to post about! Yesterday surfing, we had trouble starting a fire because it was so windy, and out of all of us I was the only scout there and I got to show off my skills (sort of--I just gave some advice because they guys were having too much fun "being guys" and being in charge of the fire/coals/grilling). BUT, I did regret leaving my purse in the car (because of my wallet and phone); my pocket knife was in there, too. Could have shown off my engineering skills... A guy came down the beach asking if anyone had paper or anything to burn with. I was only half paying attention but I did finally listen enough to catch on that he was asking if anyone had a bong or anything, which was hilarious since a lot of the people there actually do smoke fairly regularly, but didn't have anything with them. He decided we would all try to MacGuyver something (esp. involving an aluminum can if he could find one). I think it goes to show...something... that my first thoughts were: "I wish I knew how a bong worked" and "Damn, I left my pocketknife up in the car." So, yeah. Then he came back and asked the four of us sleeping on the beach if "we burned" and I said no, so he had me give him a handshake-sort-of-thing and was all "good for you, good for you". (I dunno, what do you call it when you grab their hand but your hand is facing upward rather than down... like... a bro-handshake or something?) Anyway it was hilarious and I can honestly say that's the first tome I've ever had someone ask me if I did drugs slash wanted to. Hehe. (You think it would have happened previously in Yellow Springs somehow...lol)

I've been seeing more mongoose (mongeese? mongoosen?) on campus. They are hilariously adorable when they run.

I read a sad article the other day that bats are disappearing, and it could relate to bees disappearance; it could be all the cell signals and stuff are messing them up. That makes me soooo sad. I freaking love bats. I am especially sad that it's Little Brown Bats disappearing in New York, and possibly spreading, because that's the main bats you see at Mammoth Cave. POOR BATTIES

Bailey made an interesting point in Pacific Hist today about air raid sirens, but this is kind of anecdotal in relation to what we actually talked about. When you hear an air raid siren, he pointed out, the first thing you think is "it must be the first Monday" or whatever, not "we're having a Tsunami/natural disaster" or "we're getting nuked". My first thought is always: "TORNADO SIREN?", demonstrating, once again, that Xenia is a panicked little town of failure in that regard. (Carroll made me hate all the Xenians paranoid of tornadoes--THEY ARE NOT THAT COMMON, PEOPLE! A thunderstorm does not 100% a tornado make, so please STFU thankyouverymuch. I always want to say, "stop crying, it's just some FREAKING RAIN". Argh. I really can't express my frustration with Xenians in this regard.)

So, I'm learning that technical classes are uninteresting because they are boring. I really enjoy reading articles in science magazines and stuff because they actually relate the science to application to make it interesting. Case in point? Ceramics today. We were talking about all the chemicals that go into ceramics and glazes and firing (silica, alumina, feldspar, copper, iron, magnesium, calcium [a lot of which are oxides]) and he was trying to explain how iron, which is common in most stoneware, can have so many colors. It's all different ratios, but for example, copper red-green will give you green if you use it alone, but if you base white under it, the reaction will give you red; if you need an explanation: Statue of Liberty is copper, was red, is now green. Yes? Moving on. He was trying to express how iron is so varied, because you can have reds, yellows, and browns. The example he used is blood, and that it is red, but will turn brown, and if you repeatedly wash out a stain will leave yellow behind. We also discussed how it is blue when unoxidized, and he didn't have an example, but we told him about how blood is blue if it is not carrying oxygen (aka has already passed to your lungs and is carrying out CO₂, which I think I learned in like third grade... yay "health class" rather than "science class"). And the coolest thing? Why shrimp, lobsters, mussels, and other related things have blue blood: their blood uses copper to oxidize rather than iron. HOW COOL IS THAT. (It also made me wonder if this accounts for pink flamingos' color, since they get it from eating shrimps, and whether the same sort of thing applies to "scarlet" ibises [versus regular old white ibises].) See? This kind of thing makes me go yaaaaay chemistry! whereas last semester it was definitely I cannot fucking wait to be done with this class.

( Oh, damn, this got kind of long, lol )

Yes, that was rather long winded, but it's a lot of thoughts flying through my brain, and pretty consistently, too.

Bailey mentioned there's a movie or something coming out about... Queen Liliuokalani? that people are getting upset about because the title is "The Barbarian Princess". The creators are saying, hey, we know it's one of her nicknames, and we like her, hence the movie showing in her in good light, but the critics are saying, yes, but it's an ironic nickname to point out that though she was Hawaiian she wasn't barbaric. Which, to be fair, I think they have a point; there are a lot of idiots/ignorants in the world (hey, I used to be one of them, no thanks to you St. Brigid), but at the same time, there has to be something said for the use of irony and poeticism and things in art. (Otherwise, what's left? Surprisingly, this is coming out of the mouth of such a literalist. I hate analyzing stories for symbolism and all that shit it's "supposed" to mean; I'll draw my own conclusions. And yes, I used to be a rather literal reader. [Thanks again, St. Brigid!]) Plus, I now have such a ridiculously sarcastic/cynical tone (thanks to Mr. Soucek and Laura, interestingly enogh), that since a blog is my preferred manner of keeping track of everything, it's going to be difficult in the future to tell my tone. (Hence why I am an advocate of emoticons on the internet--we have no face or voice, so it's like a little face to express a little hint of the intended emotion. And then the only problem is something else I like to think about--learned context. I sometimes think that certain word patterns have certain effects on what I'm reading/writing because of the context I learned them in or the way I heard them, and I doubt these apply for other people. Which makes communication all the more difficult, now, doesn't it?)

In History of Furniture the other day, Walter (oh, Takeda... he's such a grumpy old character, like a sort of rude version of Mr. Hemmert who likes to talk a bit more) decided he would teach us the most necessary French phrase: "Talk to my arse, I have a headache." Which because I didn't take French I didn't quite catch all the words, spellings, but as far as I got down was "Parle a mon cule, ma tete (which has an accent grave on the first "e", right?) --somethingImissed--". Haha. If one of you Francophiles would kindly correct me, I am always up for linguistics...

Honestly I'm sort of jealous of my cousin. He's doing an yearlong exchange program in Argentina, so we found out he not only gets to be fluent in Argentinian Spanish, but he's learning French, too. And here I am in Hawaii, deprived of being allowed to learn Hawaiian, when classes here are such a joke I could have soooo easily caught up... *tears* (Note to self, you need to email/chat with the professor to see if there are courses online or something!)

By the way, are any of you out there lingust...i...philes? (Linguists? Er... how do you say "lover of languages"?) I have been thinking I should start trying to write a paragraph a day in Spanish to practice (ack, I am so out of it! Haven't studied for over a year) and throwing in other stuff every once in a while, maybe Polish or Hawaiian or whatever. And does anyone know if there are places online where you can learn a language and actually learn it, not memorize phrases? Danke...

See? I picked up lots of little turns of phrase in other languages from my parents. Like "c'est la gruyiere" from my dad, who speaks Franglais with my uncle [they both took French at Carroll], and so I know lots of butchered French like that. But I mean, I throw "bitte" and "danke" around all the time, which I picked up from my mom, and there's always "gesundheit" and "nastrovia" [sp?] and "garagekey!" [butchered intentionally by my family, but then I do not know the real spelling, either] and many many other things. Plus lots of little linguistic jokes from high school, like the elephant poem the French kids have to learn Freshman year. So probably the most French I can put together is not terribly impressive: "L'elefante se douche, douche, douche, l'elefante se mouche, mouche, mouche" and I don't even know the spelling, that's my best gues. (And "merde!" [thank you Franzie]) Although it was fun to learn about trompe l'oeil (pretend that o/e is mushed together, I'm lazy yanno?) in history of furniture when it was the name of the CD by Malajube (French Canadian band so I can only guess at like 40% of their lyrics... Oh! "Autobus!" That must mean bus! nurr nurr) that I got for Christmas.

Um, yeah. I am soooo just rambling. I need to grab dinner before the cafe (pretend there's an accent, I always spell it with one, just like I write facade with that curly under the c, I just don't know the keystrokes) so I'm posting this and I'll be back to edit it in like... um... a half an hour.

bee ar bee, el oh el

(By the by, when I'm reading things like that I hear "brb" and "lol" phonetically by letter, but "rofl" is phonetically by word and "wtf" and "omg" come out as the phrases "whatthefuck" and "oh my god", respectively. Anyone else want to throw in their two cents on literary quirks?)

( [EDIT] kk back--oh shit, I wrote a lot, so I'm cutting the rest )

[EDIT2] Just kidding, wanted to throw this out there, too. I think the island on the banner of this blog is an east-facing view of Chinaman's hat. If not, it's really fucking close to being it.

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. ;)

Okay, so, did everyone in Ohio decide it would be a good night to get roaring drunk or something? I mean, I don't really have a huge problem with it (other than a certain scenario which I'm not really free to discuss, but I'm sure if you contact any student you know at a certain high school I attended you'll be able to find out), but... I dunno, is there something in the water? Lol. (Yeah, alcohol... Hey, you all know the polish word for water is about one letter away from "vodka" anyhow, right? Yay being Polish!)

Anyway, today Lauren and I took a historical tour of Chinatown. It was AMAZING. Chinatown in Honolulu is nothing like Chinatown in SF, and from what the guide said, nothing like the Chinatown in NY either. Chinatown here is basically where non-whites came together and lived.

Oh, by the way, our tour guide is a major native Hawaiian historian (he was of... Chinese descent, I think?), and also Don Ho's cousin. EFFING AWESOME.

So... yeah. American history was never my thing, right? Fuck it, history wasn't my thing. I'm not good on "what are the implications of xxx on yyy in regard to zzz?" because to I never know exactly what they mean. I can extrapolate pretty much any answer from questions like that, so I am a failure. =( BUT! Hawaiian history amazes me. I don't know, maybe it's because I started paying attention to years for costuming and my Indiana Jones obsession, or maybe for Art History. But I'll tell you one thing; Hawaiian History is fucking amazing. It's like watching the whole history of the world get wrapped up in about 150 years. It's fucking nuts, and I love it. You don't realize it until you study it, because there's very few signs and things, but the whole world was focused on the Pacific, and Hawaii was so important to that, and everything leading up to WWI and WWII is absolutely amazing in relation to Hawaii. I love it. It's such a thrill. If you come to Honolulu, go to Chinatown and take the tour. Crazy.

I think the reason I never did well in American history is that they never really give you a base understanding to go from... they just kind of jump right in with the details and assume you can extrapolate the consequences. Not so. With Hawaiian history you're getting the base understanding of the world in order to understand Hawaii, and that in turn actually helps you understand what was going on in Europe and the rest of the world. I mean it, Hawaiian history is amazing.

At the same time, most people to study Hawaii aren't natives; so Hawaiian history seems particularly misunderstood as far as I've seen. Both my Hawaiian and Pacific Globalization history classes are taught by Bailey, who is a riot and one of the first native Hawaiians to get a certain level of degree (doctorate... maybe?) from UH. And the guy today is Hawaiian, too, although big Chinese background, so we got yet another cultural perspective.

And you know what? I think Hawaiian history is ridiculously overlooked. I think that studying Hawaiian and Pacific history would really help people understand the globalization of the rest of the world, I mean by a ridiculous amount. And did you know that's it's still under contention, even today, whether Hawaii was taken rightfully by the US government and whether it should still be a kingdom? Crazy. Maybe I'll talk about Hawaiian history more later, it's just... God. Beautiful. Amazing. Ridiculous. I don't know. It's like the whole world came together and exploded. To go from the stone age to modern practically overnight, and to see your culture destroyed in the process. God. It's really unfortunate that history isn't more advertised everywhere, that it's such a toursity place, because DAMN it's beautiful.

So! The actual tour itself. He started out with a background of Hawaiian history and Chinatown, and did you know that the father of Communism in China was Christian? LAUGH RIOT. tangent: the word "laugh" looks really weird atm. Anyway he was raised here and brought the idea to China, so, yeah. Other highlights of the tour:

--seeing all the different food types in the open market, showing how Chinatown really isn't a normal Chinatown: Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Philipino and about a million other different types of food. Also, one of my comfort-boundary stretchers for the day. I dunno, there's something about being one of only a few non-natives being led around (though not terribly obviously) by a tour guide that just makes it so easy for me to get paranoid that I'm being hated as a tourist. I think this is different in mainland US and Europe than it is in Hawaii; for example, learning about different history classes, I don't think native Hawaiians who haven't been to the mainland understand how there's still a difference between the southern and the northern US that you have to look out for sometimes. Being in Spain I was completely scared that we, as tourists, were going to get picked on and stuff (I mean it was totally obvious we were wearing gym shoes, righto?), but nothing really happened (other than a little trouble with gypsies and pickpockets on different occasions) but I obviously stopped being nervous enough to yell "HEY, GRUPO" in a really bad American accent (not even "¡Oye, grupo!") across the street in... Granada, was it? Anyway. I sufficiently put myself outside my comfort zone today. (BUT! Did find a really authentic place to get sushi, should ai figure out how to eat it without looking like a fool. SOMEBODY FILLZ ME IN, PLZ)
--the fruit vendors... DAMN. What a lovely smell. I realized that I have not yet had a virgin piña colada yet since I got here. I must rectify this!
--Hotel Street: where all the GIs came for entertainment. Clubs, burlesques, "hotels". I LOVE IT. The only thing left is "Club Hubba Hubba" (everything else is stores), but from the looks of it, the only thing left is the neon on the sign. =/ Even the paint behind the sign is chipping and rusting, and the building is overgrown and boarded up. But... that could just be that it's a club, so they need it dark inside and inside it's clean and neet. (Anyway, lol burlesque.)
--Fish market! Wow. FISH SMELL OVERLOAD. Guh. Apparently Chinese/Japanese consider it somewhat of a sin to cook tuna, as they eat it raw. Their big appetizers are sushi, sashimi, and dum sim. And... I can't remember the term, but it's raw fish and seaweed and herbs all mixed together to eat. It kind of looks like salsa. (Wikipedia... why is there an ENTIRE CHUNK IN SPANISH in the middle of the English article on Japanese cuisine? I mean, I can read it, but... wut?) OH, it's called poke and it's actually a Hawaiian dish, but it's obviously got a lot of Japanese influence. (It's raw fish, c'mon.) My brain totally went "LOLPOKÉMON" when he pointed it out.
--more fish market! Kona crabs. Never heard of them before, but they're kind of weird looking. Also? Could have bought fish heads. LAWL. (Will admit: had the fish head song running through my head.)
--Fernandez Marín! Yay Spainiards. Kind of owned the Hawaiian harbor and dictated non-natives on the island while he was alive. Pretty cool shit. (Chinatown: utterly international. told you)
--SECRET BURIAL GROUNDS: After the US government burned down Chinatown (PLAGUE PANIC!) and it was rebuilt and they had to dig up the earth for concrete footwork, they found lots of bodies of plague victims. They buried all the bones together in a few secret green areas in Chinatown, but the gov't doesn't treat them that well. (Seriously. One's next to a dumpster in a locked alley.) Marín's remains were dug up when they built Marín tower, and the government gave them to his family in a gunnysack. Oh America, why do we have to be so insensitive? Anyway, they convinced the government that they wanted his remains here because he was happy here, and they put his bones in one of the burial grounds (if you can call it that) right on the edge of Chinatown right on the waterfront. (Seriously... it looks like one of those hotel building planters. That's the "greenspace" where Marín is buried. And there's no kind of historical markers or anything... The more I learn about Hawaiian history the more I think the US is trying to hide the fact they kind of took over illegally. LOL.
--Philipinos didn't get malaria during WWII while Chinese and Hawaiians and Japanese and Americans did! Guess why? Bitter melon! High in quinine. So, if you ever are afraid of getting malaria? BITTER MELON.
--First Catholic Church in Hawaii! Funded by Marín. Damn cool.
--more comfort zone stretching: "bubble tea" smoothie. What it is is this kind of big tapioca balls in a smoothie... they're interesting. I think in the right thing they'd be good, but kiwi was disgusting, and since I had a not-enough-sleep type of sore throat, the bubbles felt kind of phlegmy. I mean, I know they're tapioca or taro or whatever and they're kind of doughy, but... ew. Kiwi+phlegm=nasteh.
--watermelon used to be a huge import. Did you know they used to make watermelon alcohol? I'm not really surprised, I mean people kind of make it out of anything that will ferment. Just LOL. (My dad wondered last time we were here if they ever made taro alcohol? I don't know, I've never heard anything about it. I think taro might be too expensive.)

Lauren and I might bike around the island, it wouldn't be too long of a ride. A good, slow, day ride to get some miles on my butt for TOSRV.

Okay, I think that's everything for now.

81 days until Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! Today's trivia: I am convinced that Adventure Express at PKI was supposed to be an Indiana Jones ride before that was a Paramount park. (Was it?) I don't know, totally a guess, but they did play the music there the last time I was there. There was a rumor about four or five years back that they were going to put in an actual Indiana Jones ride. I AM SO SAD THAT PKI IS CEDAR POINT NOW. D= I hope they renew the Paramount licenses...? I mean, the Tomb Raider ride will kind of be dumb now, and I love that ride. =( Bets on whether Congo Falls goes back to being called Amazon Falls? AND WHO'S EXCTIED FOR FIREHAWK hell yeah. (You all probably rode it last summer while I was gone, I know. But I never got to ride King Cobra before it got taken out [I WAS TOO SHORT DAMMIT], and I really want to ride a standup coaster.)

...Lol. Crappy fact today. I don't care, I think the fact that I actually posted lots of realiztic historical information makes up for that. Fine, here's a TWOFOR! Hawaii + Indiana Jones: Indy IV filmed some on the coast of the Big Island. I think close to Kona maybe...?

HOW CAN IT BE MARCH ALREADY, DAMN.

Oh, I remembered another one of my "weird word" uses. I like to say "awesome possum" and "neato burrito" a lot. Haha.

( I also wiki'd Mad Anthony Wayne a little for you! )

SUMMARY: Wayne negotiated the Greenville Treaty that put the Ohio into the union. rock on

Ooh, also fell asleep watching Kiss Me, Kate today. (I didn't get enough sleep last night.) Pretty good musical, yay Cole Porter! And yay Shakespeare. But FUCK a play within a play within a play. AAAAAH gotdamn.

woooooo

[EDIT] I WANT A CHANTILLY CAT

And I totally stole this from somebody, it's hilarious: