The Daily Adventures of Mercat

Crap, I missed three days, didn't I. Ugh. Well, at least I'm trying.

First of all, RIP Leslie Nielsen. :( Although I used to confuse him with Steve Martin a lot when I was little... Anyway. Airplane! is hilarious if you don't watch it a million times.

Uh, three favorite girls/boys names? Idk. I honestly think about pet names more than people names, and even then, I kind of ascribe that a pet determines their own names based on their personality. I tried to name my fish Nessie, but he ended up being Captain Nemo. Just like it was probably better that Tippy ended up as Tippy and not as Dipstick. Although I rather love Spats and Jack, as far as nomenclature is concerned. ANYWAY. I do hope I have a cat that would fit the name "Throgmorten" some day, as the cats from the Chronicles of Chrestomanci. There is a bright orange cat that hangs out in our back yard sometimes, with waaaaay yellow eyes. We call him Jacque Nouveau because he looks kinda like Jack and drives Jack crazy. But he is exactly the sort of cat I would name Throgmorten, if I actually owned him and he wasn't just a neighborhood cat. Or maybe it's appropriate that he's a neighborhood cat? I don't know. Either way I don't think mom or laura or dad would go for calling him Throgmorten.

Also, there's the T.S. Eliot method of cat-naming, which is appropriate in a semi-regal-semi-cats-are-90%-of-the-internet-cute manner.

Celebrity crushes... I don't really understand them. I mean, I do, I guess? Characters are cool, but celebrity crushes have always kinda creeped me out. I just... don't... get them. I can't really explain it... I guess because I don't understand it? I'M NOT REALLY SURE. I'm kinda weird that way, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I've been that way my whole life. I recall people crushing on the Backstreet Boys in, uuuuh, fifth grade? Anyway, I seem to recall a number of lunch conversations (or at least one that stuck pretty well in there) revolving around AJ who I think was getting married at that point and the whole thing weirded me out. Why would you crush on someone who you don't know and not only that is not single? Still mystified to this day. Fact: I'm weird.

MY OPINIONS ON GLEE, LET ME SHOW YOU THEM: First of all I kind of can't stand the way the performers sing. Secondly, when I found out it was set in Lima... I can't even... what? It's a very poor representation of this region, that's for sure. THIRDLY, the whole thing comes off to me as, as it came up in a discussion, "nerd culture appropriation". Basically, OH, IF WE TURN THIS INTO A MUSICAL WE CAN SELL IT TO MUSIC NERDS! Because... there's not much quality there? Although at least they have the respect to get some cool people involved sometimes, like Kristin Chenowith and Idina Menzel. Anyway. Basically I can't stand the show despite my love of musicals. I find it extremely grating to listen to/watch.

OMG color e-ink is coming. By the time I can afford this stuff, these systems will (hopefully) have settled a little more and be COMPLETELY AWESOME. (As if they aren't already.)

I still think it would be awesome if there were an open-source pdf textbook service that would 1) put shitty textbook companies (read: bad writers, those under the effect of legal shit like Texas' removal of non-christian religions and the downplaying of Jefferson because he was "an atheist", ripoff artists who release new editions every few years just to make money while wasting both people's money and the materials used to print them) out of business, 2) reduce the weight load of students, which would, in effect, 1) save students money, 2) [theoretically] allow for more honest writing (think about the accuracy of wikipedia here, sort of), 3) save students from weight injuries (I did my eighth-grade science fair on this, remember?), 4) save physical materials. Look, if you could buy a pdf-reader for your kindergartener and it lasted them all the way through college with the net result of no physical textbooks, wouldn't that be amazing?! It could even be a laptop or a netbook and not e-ink, if that was what you needed.

SO! EXCITING NEWS. A random lady (and by lady I just mean, a female who I would consider in an older age group than me-- she has a daughter who is old enough to have been to COSI, but she's not, say, whole generation older than me, probably in her early 30's or late 20's?) messaged me on facebook through my posts on the "I miss COSI's Adventure!" group. We are going to start a fan page for Adventure and PROBABLY end up breaking the code as a team (unless I somehow manage to stumble into the solution beforehand, which is doubtful). BUT! I am so excited.

Also, I really want to win that spend-the-night-in-Adventure contest. WOOOOO.

A geek pronunciation guide, which I actually found helpful and corrected me on a few things. (Although to be honest when I see "WYSIWYG" I just say "what you see is what you get" which is definitely easier than saying "doublyew-wy-ess-eye-doublyew-wy-gee". Don't ask me why I chose those spellings, I just did. There have to be a ton of ways to "spell" letters, and it probably changes every time I have to sit down and write-spell something.)

WOAH. You're going to want to read this.. It's an internet security issue. ANYONE can hack your social media as long as you are both signed into the same UNSECURED WI-FI. Which is most wireless. BRB trying to secure things.

So I've seen the world's largest gummy worm floating around the internet for a few weeks, and for the life of me, something about it bothered me in the back of my mind and I couldn't figure out what. But I just got it: look familiar? (Side note: I've seen those World's Biggest Gummybears in person, they look disgusting based sheerly on mass. I'm pretty sure the worm would be the same way, although it would make for a GREAT halloween food item.)

Also. I am not in a great mood, currently, with technology. My OneNote files decided to get corrupted, and it's looking like I probably won't be able to rescue them (FUCKKKKKKKK). Additionally, I just discovered today that all the quotes I've kept in my facebook application --ALL 150+ OF THEM-- are no longer accessible because the app just DISAPPEARED without warning anyone. GODDAMNIT. As much as I love OneNote I think from here on out I'm going to try to just keep everything in Evernote. UGH.

Some guy on twitter made a bot to argue anti-global-warming crap with people, originally just for the people that responded to him, but now it actively searches and starts discussion. Trolling for arguments with a chatbot might be the best method of this, because you present the same evidence without wasting your own time, which you know you're going to if you spend your own time doing this. Really. I want to give this guy a hero badge or something, shit.

The Kahiki's fireplace is for sale! If I had a real job, and I lived here, and I were actually opening the tiki restaurant I dream of opening, I would buy it. (Last time I checked it was at $1.25... I COULD AFFORD THAT.)

PROMPT TIME! I used to play softball. However, my "sport" is marching band. Specifically, drum corps. <3

A cute video:



So, more information on the 200 student cheating incident I posted yesterday. Granted, I only read the article the other day and did not watch the professor's video; I think I'm too empathetic and I didn't want to feel angry or guilty or shamed watching a video that had nothing to do with me. I get that enough in regular life, thanks. (I can't stand to see people embarassed... I, unfortunately, am readily affected by second hand embarassment, which SUCKS.) ANYWAY. It turns out the students were just studying from the publisher's testbank. Maybe it's a generational thing, but I don't see a problem with this. I study from people's notes, from answer manuals, etc. IN FACT, the books we've generally used HAVE THE ANSWERS IN THE BACK SO YOU CAN CHECK YOUR WORK. Granted, this is a test. But I do think the professor should expect students to be studying from the materials they can attain legally, and if he uses the same problems, I don't think that's the students' fault. I use solutions manuals to check my work regularly, when I can, because THIS SHIT IS HARD. I need any advantage I can get to pass these classes, and I don't consider it cheating to check my work, or, in this case, anticipate problems and study.

I'm still not watching that video, I'd probably make myself sick.

Honestly, what's with all the "Cowboys & Aliens: Ford's Comeback" crap? WAS HE EVER GONE? I say no. Choosing to do a different genre doesn't mean you've slacked off, it means you got offered different things.

SURE, just like Disney's switching 100% from 2d animation. Okay. Look, you can be creative and come up with more general-children's-films ideas, but at some point you're going to want to make "a princess movie" again. Also, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU CONSIDER ALADDIN TO BE?! If that's a princess movie, I CAN'T EVEN.

In other rage-inducing media news, there's a Mean Girls 2 coming out?! Ugh. Please.

On a positive note, I'm catching up on episodes of Chuck and they just made a Fievel Goes West reference. UH, YESSSS.

Hey, so you know Jason Segel's Muppets movie he's been working on? (astrid087, you're going to want to see this) Jack Black, Paul Rudd, and Lady Gaga may be involved. I WILL BE THERE IN THREE SECONDS PLEASETHANKYOU

Science cheerleaders!

A good comic with a certain movie poster in the background.

Dick van Dyke saved by porpoises, although I have no idea of the date of said incident and I find that... strange.

New Winnie the Pooh movie next year! (Nothing says classic Winnie the Pooh like pop music.) Well I know what I'm doing next summer. Also, Craig Ferguson and John Cleese are in it! OHMYGOD.


Check out this crazy owl:



I find this comic both hilarious and depressing. And fascinating.



OH HEY INDY EXHIBITION. Here's an article on the exhibition. Official website. Post with the tour poster. Unsurprisingly, it's just a conceptual design copy of the classic Temple of Doom poster, however, I am really loving the detail of the walls-covered-in-hieroglyphics. (It reminds me of that damn Egyptian cat mystery puzzle I still haven't finished after... uh... ten years.) (can you tell I'm sick of ripoffs of the ToD poster? I'd honestly love to see the Indy franchise get some other colors besides BROWN TONES. Same problem as steampunk, goddamn. THE JUNGLE EXISTS YOU KNOW. IT'S VERY GREEN. I DO BELIEVE INDY HAS VISITED JUNGLES IN AT LEAST THREE OF THE MOVIES AND IN LC THERE'S STILL A CHASE THROUGH THE GERMAN FOREST-SIDE. [IDK, WHAT IS THE "COUNTRYSIDE" EQUIVALENT OF "FOREST"?]) CAPSRAGE IN CASE YOU COULDN'T TELL I'M A LITTLE BIT OBSESSED. (Also-also, the proportions on that poster are a little...off... those legs/hips look cartoonishly unrealistic. Or the pose does. Or something.)


ANYWAY who wants to road trip to Montreal?!



Prompts time! Initials of my crushes: don't really have any at the moment. But that is also a completely different discussion.

I do not wear glasses. But when my eyes are old enough to need them, I will rock some fashionable ones, that's for sure. Or maybe get LASIK, since I've heard they don't have to cut your cornea anymore. But, sadly, I will probably never be able to wear contacts. My eyes are just too sensitive for me to be putting things in them. I really wanted to get some all-black or all-white or cat/snake-eye contacts for my halloween costume this year, but instead I ended up drawing pupils on my eyelids, which worked okay, but I'm not totally satisfied with how my makeup ended up. It bled A LOT.

Scientists used high-speed video to determine how cats actually drink. I had always been taught (read?) that cats curled their tongues under, which someone had discovered way-back-when with a hi-speed camera. So apparently that was "not quite", though. Rather than curl their tongues under to scoop, they curl them under to "pull" a column of fluid towards their own mouth, which they then catch and swallow.

Science is fascinating!

Yep, late again. Still working on this damn reinforced concrete footing design spreadsheet. THRILLING, I KNOW.

Hilarious: watching Australia before or after watching VanHelsing. Also, Nicole Kidman kind of bothers me in this movie.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT NOT AGAIN. It says they did it to Phantom in '09 (?) but I don't recall off the top of my head. (Then again, Red Violin... nobody cared? I didn't say that, haha) There's a strong wave of response to this on my facebook. Is Troop responsible for the video rights? Is DCI? No one seems to know. Anyway, this is CRAP. However, they still have the music rights, so... buy the mp3, rip the video, mash them together. The worst part about the stupid thing is, though, that I'm pretty sure Wanted is the song they didn't get rights to. Which means: no intro, no outro, AND NO CLOSER COMPANY FRONT. Goddamn that's ridiculous.

I'm also a little depressed because just a few days ago my wall was a flood of people registering for camps and buying plane tickets. I miss everyone dearly. I'm starting to wonder how crazy the scene is in Japan, maybe march a summer there or something, huh? That would be crazygonuts awesome. (March with Tatsu and Aya? haha)

ANYWAY, once again, two days worth of prompts while I procrastinate on my other homework some more:

My closest friends... I have a lot. People from high school, college roomies, and corps people. I'll keep it simple for the sake of people's sanity. (Roughly 850 facebook friends ensures this is not a simple answer.)

Three favorite colors? ALSO A LOT. Haha. Generally I lean towards (surprise!) really bright colors, but I also lean towards blue, green, and purple. And then orange, and also pink, and in particular any of these colors with gray tones. Classy.

Idk why but I've been tab-hoarding for weeks. As a result, running roughly 220 tabs was causing firefox to crash constantly. So, here is several days worth of tab writeups, which might mean whatever I wrote sounds a few days old. That would be because it is, but it's probably not too important.

( LOTS of articles )

( a second set, many more articles )

...I read a lot.

Loooooooong post tonight. I have a million tabs to clean up, haha.

OMG ALFRED MOLINA IS IN THE NEXT PINK PANTHER MOVIE. I am so frigging excited. I got worked up about losing my checkbook (boo) and my Shag art Pink Panther checks (double-boo) and spent the day looking at Shag's stuff and Pink Panther stuff, trying to find those cute versions of his. Unfortunately, they were just for the 40th anniversary in 2004... So it looks like it will take some actual hunting to find them.

So how awesome is Shag? Well, I really want this for my computer.

And this is from an interview of him on Modculture.com: "Are there any celebrity "Shag" fans you are willing to name? Do you get invites to celebrity parties?
"There are celebrity collectors, but almost any fairly established artist in L.A. will have them, as the celebrities are the ones with lots of disposable income! One of my biggest collectors is Whoopi Goldberg. Ben Stiller, Seth Green, Rob Zombie, and Nancy Sinatra also own paintings. I don't feel really comfortable around famous people and usually decline invitations to "hang" with the stars.""

YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT, FUCK YOU BEN STILLER HATERS. AND FUCKIN' SETH GREEN. These guys are infinitely more awesome than before.

Also: things you worry about typing into search engines--"shag" is one of them (also, afraid to type in shag.com directly). See also: "shag pink panther". Trust me, I know the horrors Google can wreak. (Like Cthulhu from the depths of the internet. His screams are your own.)

Next up: check out these remixed movie posters. They're awesomely 60's. (And no, it wasn't just Last Crusade that caught my eye.)


Star Wars, as told by someone who hasn't seen it. HILARIOUS. May I also note this is on my "sinning by not having watched it" list, but only as a sci-fi and pop culture classic. There are a lot of others just as equivalent, say maybe Pink Panther? And I do mean the classics. This is nowhere near the magnitude of not watching Indiana Jones, I daresay. E];D

A Public Service Announcement for College-Aged Guys. Yeah, I went more specific than her, whatever, I think it's hilarious. AND EXTREMELY ACCURATE. However, I will admit that cleanliness > organizedness. I look like the messiest person ever because it is somehow all organized in my head. However, dirty is gross. THAT BEING SAID, if you're trying to impress someone, and you have advance notice, go a little out of your way to make an improvement... I don't leave my shit around in the living room when we have Phi Rho meetings, do I? No, I don't. (And my room is a mess because it's not really a living space, just a storage/sleeping space, and I'm not taking anyone in there anyway so who am I trying to impress? That's right, nobody.)

The best story I've ever read about Hades and Persephone. The writer has an amzingly clever way with words.

Obamicon yourself! I feel like this is already overdone, but, hey, I'm sure it will come in handy in a few months...

How to rape your brain without dropping acid. Honestly, I'm gonna try that first one. Similar things happen to me when I'm very tired, very quiet (pretty standard for me) and trying to fall asleep but just staring at the back of my eyelids. However, some of the other ones seem like they would just hurt... Like the fake-arm-hammer thing. Uh, thanks, my brain still hurts thinking about the Boonshoft's Laser Rollercoaster Show. (Ow.)

Still going through some other links. I'm a lazy-ass.

Frig I love tikis.

I forgot how awkward Daniel Craig's American accent is. Kind of like Angelina Jolie's British one, except... worse.

Watching Elf... How did I not ever notice that the "news" footage of Buddy in Central Park is supposed to look like the bigfoot footage? Haha, see, that sort of random shit is why I love Will Ferrel.

Field's first name was STRAWBERRY?!

I missed a lot more in that movie than I thought.

[EDIT] I'm reading imdb/wikipedia to catch up on everything I missed. ( more spoilers )

Also, did I forget to mention that Greene's character is totally a creeper? Seriously... Disturbing.

A-ha, so Leiter was a recurring character more than just Casino Royale... I thought so. I swear I can remember Connery's Bond talking to/about him.

Taubman's character's bowl cut (/bangs): also extremely disturbing.

From wikipedia: "He [the director] was surprised that he was approached for the job, stating he was not a big Bond film fan through the years, and that he would not have accepted the project had he not seen Casino Royale prior to making his decision: he felt Bond had been humanised in that film, arguing since travelling the world had become less exotic since the series' advent, it made sense to focus more on Bond as a character." You know, that is a really good point. Same kind of goes for technological advancements... BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE BRING Q BACK (I love John Cleese too much)

( question, spoilerish )

Again from wiki, about the writer: "Haggis located his draft's climax in the Swiss Alps,[40] but Forster wanted the action sequences to be based around the four classical elements of earth, water, air and fire." Neat trivia. (And admittedly, Bond movies are what got me into movie trivia... That and Indiana Jones, though roughly around the same time, methinks. When did Die Another Day come out?)

More: "Because Bond plays it real, I thought the political circumstances should be real too, even though Bond shouldn't be a political film. I thought the more political I make it, the more real it feels, not just with Bolivia and what's happening in Haiti, but with all these corporations like Shell and Chevron saying they're green because it's so fashionable to be green. During the Cold War, everything was very clear, the good guys and the bad guys. Today there's much overlapping of good and bad. It isn't as morally distinct, because we all have both elements in us." (Marc Forster on the political landscape of the film) I think that is part of why I like this film. Trying to keep the good-guy-bad-guy feel of Bond movies while making us realize that sometimes we ( spoiler ) are just as capable of being the bad guys as the people we are being told are. I find this especially to be true after reading that article a month back about how much our media today echoes the anti-communism sentiments of the cold war. With terrorism and all that... That's pretty depressing, to me.

Just reading about the script... They had this sort of running-editing thing going, it seems, which may be why it's a bit confusing. (That and the lack of steadicam, amirite, astrid087?) See also: PotC 2/3, mayhaps?

Also, the Tosca scenes? FLIPPING AMAZING. I kind of want to see Tosca now, because I really have no idea what it is but that particular staging looked modern enough to catch my interest, as I am generally okay with opera. (Barber of Seville, though? You can kiss my ass. WORST OPERA EVER)

(Also I'm still kind of offended that Aida is a musical. I'll just head off to fangirl on Carmen now... [ILU BIZET]) I really don't see that much opera, tbh...