The Daily Adventures of Mercat

I seem to have somehow done my amazing "crusing good, tank horribly" rollercoaster shit in the past 48-ish hours. Yesterday I just didn't care about anything. Not in a bad way, but in a "I feel like I'm letting go of things and maybe taking some steps forward" way. And today I'm just frustrated. I found out yesterday, after paying my rent and my credit card bill, that I am functionally broke. Whatever I had saved from working the past six-ish years is gone, so I basically have no wiggle room.

And no time to work. But we'll come back to that.

Thankfully, my parents are paying for rent and food... However, they failed to account for the fact that food is HELLA EXPENSIVE here in Hawaii where they import literally almost everything.

I'm not shitting you, even pineapples.

In Hawaii.

Where there is the Dole Plantation.

ON THIS VERY ISLAND.

Anyway, before I left my mom had mentioned something about "well we'll see how it goes and maybe readjust after a little bit" but every time I bring it up she gets super judgmental, like I'm spending it on all on alcohol and fast food.

I can assure you, that is not the case. I haven't bought a single drink, the only eating out I've had is a couple days' lunch from the school center, and I learned yesterday after reevaluating my budget that I basically can't eat out at all! Or, you know, DO ANYTHING.

Need new shoes? Nope. Go see a movie? Nope.

For once, I don't need to buy books, because my mom keeps shipping me mine from home. Hopefully she doesn't send me too many more, I already have an entire shelf-full, and considering I'm functionally living out of two suitcases that's a bit much. The ironic part of this? I still have a Barnes and Noble gift card from Christmas.

Luckily I don't have to be spending money on a car, but at the same time, not having money on top of not having a car just exacerbates my problem of feeling trapped here. Not on the island, but by my situation.

I need a new bike seat. "Need" because the one that came with the bike is SO SHITTILY DESIGNED. It curves a ton, which is nice if you're dicking around the block like a five-year old, but god forbid you need to commute with a backpack on your back! I have the nose turned down a SHIT TON already, and the fact that the back of the seat is curved up even more pushes you forward into the dipped center-- why would you design that on a bike seat-- so now you are not sitting on your butt bones but more on your crotch area and just FUCK YOU, SEAT DESIGNERS.

But I didn't go to the bike store, you know why? Because it is five miles away, on the other side of Honolulu, and even though it's only five miles it is through the city which is just terrible on bike. It makes me feel like I'm driving through Chicago. (They really need better bike roads here.) And I don't have the money to spend on what I would like to spend it on, which is 1) a new bike seat, 2) a second water bottle cage and bottle, and 3) a Longboard Lager jersey which is DEFS not happening because they are $75. Oh and also 4) a waterproof stem mount bag so I can stick my phone in there and use it as an odometer. I'd kinda like to buy a pair of cleats and some clips for my pedals, but right now that is a far-off dream. And I didn't feel like it was worth riding a half hour through traffic on rides I don't know with terrible drivers to the nearly-industrial part of town so I can sit in a shop for an hour while they give me a check-up on my bike and I feel guilty for buying things I need or want.

Anyway. So not going anywhere just exacerbates my feeling trapped, but I don't have the money to go see anything and it's kinda hard to go anywhere around here without a car. And I don't exactly have any people to just hop on the bus with and go to Chinatown or anything, because last time we tried that... OH THAT'S RIGHT, EVERYONE CRAPPED OUT ON ME. (Okay, not technically the last time, last time only half the people crapped out on us. But statistically that is 75% failure rate.)

And on top of that! The whole time I was at home I was talking about working at the zoo (trying to get in contact with someone there, it is RIGHT DOWN THE HILL IT WOULD BE PERFECT) and such, and mom was saying "oh, you probably won't have time for a job, most grad students are expected to be working on classes like a full time job". Now here we are, I could dip into my savings but I'm trying not to because I need that to pay for school, I'm eating whatever's on sale and probably not getting enough fruits and veggies, and my mom asks me why I'm not working. AUGH. Maybe because I spend more time in the studio in the week than I likely ever spent on homework for a single engineering class for a year?! And I am exaggerating very little. In the past three weeks I spent two entire weekends in the studio.

You know what we've also found out more of this week? Using the plotter is a $5 print job per page. Using the laser cutter is $2+ $1 per minute. So on top of the fact that the school doesn't have any student software licenses, we have to buy all our own modeling materials, AND PAY FOR ALL THE PRINTERS AND SHOP TOOLS PER USE. I understand you don't want kids in there abusing the 3D printer or hogging the laser cutter. BUT FOR FUCK'S SAKE, WHAT AM I PAYING YOU $14000+ A SEMESTER FOR IF I AM ALSO BUYING ALL MY OWN MEDIA?!

Speaking of which? I have to go to the bookstore tomorrow, and the craft store over the weekend, for guess what-- you guessed it-- MORE SUPPLIES! Meanwhile my checking account reads zero.

I think the part that's killing me the most that is on top of everything else, I would just like to go on a bike ride to train for TOSRV one weekend day, or ride down to the beach and swim and sit there for a few hours. Hasn't happened yet. Don't know how I'm going to train for TOSRV this way, all I can do right now is force myself to work as hard as I can to get up the hills on the way home.

Which, today, on the longest and steepest hill, I accidentally pulled out in front of a full-length fire truck thinking it was The Bus which would turn on the route rather than go up the hill. NOPE! So that was a little terrifying having them barrelling down on me while I tried to ride as quickly as I could...

So. My goals currently. See if I can find a part-time job that I can actually travel to. This is difficult because I don't really trust riding my bike or the bus at night, and I have to be working in the studio so many hours a day. Find a cheaper grocery store? I would love to find an Aldi-equivalent. I can't seem to find any coupons for any of the things I buy, and even though I'm a "club member" and I'm supposed to be saving, I really don't see much benefit currently. And I am trying, beyond all belief, to not just go to Walmart. One, it's downtown anyway so travel would be a hassle, but two, it's Walmart. Lastly, scholarships. Gotta find some. Found out today that architecture ones are unlikely considering that, apparently, white girls are the largest percentage of architecture students. But come on, there has to be an engineering/design one out there somewhere! Female engineers are one of the lower statistical groups! FUUUCCKKK

On the plus side of things, I shot off an email to the guy in the themed design group I'm in who sends out all the newsletters and things, asking him if there was anyone (around the offices) who could help me look for internships. Right away he asked what I did, and then I didn't hear back from him for a week. I asked if he had any ideas of people to contact, thinking there might be someone who was a membership person who could point me in the right direction. Turns out he sent out emails to different people and is trying to find someone who might take an intern/co-op. And then TWO I accidentally realized today he's like one of the top group member-people, and I'm a little embarrassed. I'm also a little uneasy because it's more out of my control-- I don't ask people about internships so I don't get any of the no's along with any possible leads, so I have no idea where the situation stands. I didn't know he was going to be doing the asking for me, so I should have told him more than just "engineering and architecture", but I figured he was busy and I should keep it as short as possible and that I could set up more of a sales pitch later on down the line when I emailed companies-- so hopefully I don't end up with a strictly-ride-engineering firm co-op, although that would still be fascinating I am sure. (Just not the kind of design I'd like to go into, I think.) ON THE OTHER HAND, when you have a big gun sending out emails to companies asking for internships and co-ops?! Hopefully that plays to my advantage, that he can catch the eye of someone really good who will give me a chance.

However now I am super-nervous because I don't know how long to wait to expect to hear back from anyone and I definitely don't want to bombard him with questions as he is very, very busy.

Regardless, I will be mailing him a thank-you note, because holy shit. I did not expect him to send out notes. I just expected, like, a "here's some potential companies that are members, shoot them a line" type email.

Ffffuuuucccckkkkkk my life right now augh

We had this amazing architect come in to studio today and give a sort-of lecture, basically a talk session about his work. UHMAZING. I'm going to try to see if he has his work posted anywhere, because I am in serious house lust.

I also burned out on design stuff today, so there you go. I'm so brain fried right now.

He made some comment about going on vacation for three days and just working on a project and it made me realize something. Between the cats, my design ideas, and the things I accidentally think about strangers' children*, I think any emotional needs on that front are pretty much met. I think a big part of it is also the fact that I am pretty much a big kid-on-the-inside who just wants to design the next Disney World. In all truthfulness.

*I don't hate children, but sometimes I look at kiddos, and, when I'm feeling particularly upset with my generation, I think things like "you're going to grow up to be a total douchebag some day". This usually is exacerbated with spoiled whiny kids, like some of the ones I used to babysit back in the day. And up until now I've been in this weird, slightly bemused state of "well, I don't really hate kids, but I don't have a particular affinity for them"

ON THE OTHER HAND, we got critiques today from our studio professor to tell us where we stand. And, um... he didn't really critique me? He told me I was on the right path in transititioning from strictly engineering to architecture, and that I just needed to keep "injecting poetry" into my work. I was fully expecting him to make some comments on my model needing a little more attention, but... I guess not? Or he figures that will work itself out. He said something similar on Monday, that I got "most improved player" for the jump that my concept drawing made to my final model. (And I admit, my final model was drastically better, but mostly because my concept drawing was nothing special.)

Also he said our next project is Indiana Jones-ish. As in, literally mentioned Indiana Jones. ~yeeeees~ *Mr. Burns*

Well, things are going markedly better, or at least I feel like I'm handling them well so I'm in a better mood. My parents keep telling me not to worry about money, and I probably don't thank them enough for all they do for me, watching it seems like everyone these days go into college debt. Which I will, by the end of this, but I am so thankful I don't absolutely have to be working part-time or even full-time to cover rent, or drop classes to minimize tuition. So I'm still going to have to hunt down scholarships, and depending on how my studio class goes I might or might not be working (~oh boy~), but I know I've got them backing me up in case of emergencies.

It's weird, too, there are six other people in my doctorate class and they all keep asking me structural questions. I mean, I did a lot of technical classes, but we have a guy in the class who was a civil engineer for a few years, in the field! And I'm no expert on the artistic side of things, either, so... it's weird. And I'm not the oldest, I'm about in the middle age-wise. We have a great class dynamic so far though, everyone is very friendly and the studio teacher is very entertaining and seems to be one of those great people who can distill a lesson from every minute situation. (The only thing that he said that bothered me was that he didn't like Frank Gehry's work, but I can understand where he's coming from on that front. He considers it more of a "merketable item" than "architecture", as in, it's there for the look and less for the function. Which at first glance I could agree, but knowing how much work they put into the performance hall of Disney Concert Hall, I doubt that's the case. It's theoretically one of the most sound-perfect chambers in existence, at least in modern construction. On the other hand, I absolutely love that Gehry's buildings don't necessarily submit to function all the time-- I've never been to WDCH myself, but I get the impression from watching Iron Man and Get Smart [such an educational resource, amirite?] that there is a sense of discovery in the non-standard. You pay attention to the environment rather than have it function in the background, and you may notice that wall is curved to intrude on the hallway, or there's a little hidden nook over here that's purposeless. It would remind me of being in a cave and discovering all the mysteries of it, but I can see where in some usages [probably not such an occasional performance and public space] that would be an intrusion on the everyday.) (I have to wonder if he thinks the same thing about Gaudi's building with no flat surfaces?)

First art history class tomorrow, I'm excited. PLUS, the scenic design teacher opened up another section so I am going to take that as well! [EDIT: Class not starting until next week? Hopefully it will still happen D: ]

And HOPEFULLY I can get my ID by Friday and I will be able to ride the bus and not just my bike. It's a huge hassle to not be able to easily carry things on my bike, but I have to say that just being outdoors for that twenty minutes in a day has me absolutely in bliss. Nature does that to me, and having that time that I'm forced to experience it rather than just sit at my computer is wonderful. (Especially not having to be overly concerned about rain!)

Back on the not-so-wonderful side of things, I think the guys living here are complete slobs... the pizza sheet and cutting board are still out (from going on four days ago, now), and we must have had another round of those meal-bugs hatch (despite me killing every one I could) because there were a bunch more flying around today (even though the cornmeal got thrown out, THANK GOD). If I am the only one killing them... what the actual fuck?

And the toaster oven... I don't even want to try to make toast. There has been... sauce... or something... splattered all over the outside since the day I moved in (looked dried-on by then, too), and no one has bothered to clean that up, and there's a spill in the fridge that's the same way, and rather than put clean dishes away, someone or multiple some-ones just seem to leave their dirty cups in the sink.

WASH YOUR FUCKING DISHES AND PUT THEM AWAY.

So on top of the fact that someone forgot about food they were warming in the oven long enough that something chewed through the foil and birthed babies... what? Two weeks? A month? And the other messes?

At least one person in this household is a huge slob. And so far, that's the only thing I don't know if I'm going to be able to deal with.

Because I'm on break, dammit. You can find it here.

Day 1: Ten Things You Wanted/Want to Be When You're Older

1. Indiana Jones
2. Indiana Jones
3. Indiana Jones
4. Indiana Jones
5. Indiana Jones
6. Indiana Jones
7. Indiana Jones
8. Indiana Jones
9. Indiana Jones
10. Indiana Jones


...Wait. I don't think that counts as a real list. (It should, though.)

1. When I was younger I used to say I would be a different thing every day of the week. This involved ballet, figure skating, possibly being a fireman (can't quite remember), and definitely "historical bridge repainter". Because covered bridges get defaced a lot =/

2. An architect... sort of. I've always designed strange places in my mind, like a Radio Flyer fort (my sense of scale was horrible when I was little), a tree fort, several more tree forts, etc. And now that I'm older it's lots of strange things like zombie defenses and hidden rooms and things like that. Not to mention I legitimately am interested in sustainable design but I also really, really want to design things like theme parks or movie sets. IMAGINEERING FUCK YEAH.

3. A detective/spy. Always liked that piecing clues together, don't think I'll ever give that up.

4. A Total Badass

No, seriously, there's a reason I like action movies.

5. A pirate. Part of this involves dressing up (textural layers, lots of jewelry, awesome boots and fantastical hats), part of this involves me loving the island life. And Jimmy Buffett songs.

6. A bartender. Or possibly, a restaurant owner. How sweet would it be to own a tiki bar restaurant?! The answer: very. Because it would be like a theme park but also food and drinks. And tiki mugs. And I could serve delicious Hawaiian foods. om nom imu pork

7. A musician. I already miss playing my trumpet and we already know I miss drum corps. Who knows where this will go, I like my uke, maybe I'll get better at piano again, maybe I'll find some new instruments. I'd take up accordion. Maybe I'll just get more involved in dance, if I enjoy this tap class next semester. (Not really "musician", but still musical performance, so idgaf.)

8. The Proud Owner of a Personal Library. No seriously, I love books. I'm going to have a fucking fabulous library some day. FABULOUS.

9. A cat owner :3

10. Indiana Jones. This is a perfectly legitimate response.

Yeah, to hell with all this snow. Even if it is melting on the ground... I have no will to go outside, and it kinda sucks because I can't even sleep in, my body is so hammered into the GET UP AT EIIIIIGGGHHHHT schedule. Dammit.

Buh, I haven't even got much done on my computer because I found a 232-page thread of stupid pictures. X| Sooo here are a bunch of links that are the result of that.

I can tell you one thing; Hitler may have had a terrible concept of what was structurally possible (seriously, man, have you heard of foundations), but he did have a fantastic concept of what is epic.

This site is hilarious; the guy depicts different emotions, from normal to incredibly specific and bizarre.

This comic is like the new Perry Bible Fellowship, except I am not exactly sure I understand this newest one so much.

How is this a real story?! It's not even recent enough to be an April Fool's joke.

A hilarious video from a third-year art student, showcasing all the awesome skills he learned in an animations art class. If you actually want a listenable loop of that, you can find one here. It's almost Popcorn.

Vader loves Christmas: a hilarious and clever edit if I do say so myself.

I was talking to one of y'all about 3d modeling or robots or some shit the other day, I know I was. And I couldn't come up with the term "uncanny valley", so there you go.

Holy shit Hawaiian yodeling. I've always wondered how close yodeling is to singing, even if only because I have no problem singing the Goatherd song from Sound of Music.

Voytek the soldier bear, fuck yeah Poland!

Also, a retro graphics archive. Mostly 50's-ish, I'd think, style-wise.

Holy crap I feel like it's been ages since I've posted. That may simply be the fact that I have 123 tabs open because I've been too lazy to post in the past few days. (I think the guy that's on Craig Ferguson right now was the guy who voiced the turtle in Swan Princess.) Soooo I need to do a tab dump. I think part of my problem is that I've been trying to keep up better with my gmail and my google reader, but it's a LOT to read... Plus I don't have much space to be saving stuff on my hard drive, so I'm trying to figure out how to rearrage everything so it all works.

I did figure out I can keep some stuff on my netbook (which actually has more memory than my lappy, go figure--I didn't realize that the lappy only had 80GB) and keep a text document of the stats on the info that I need instead of lugging all the files around on a flash drive. So that will open up some space...

I'm not sure what to do with everything else. The problem is that the netbook is good for surfing because carrying around this thing is a pain, but for actual work I like to use this one. And I'm running out of room. Maybe if I succumb to desk use I can just use the backup hard drive? I hate having to hook up external drives though. Bleh.

And I can't put my games on my netbook because they're on CDs and I don't know if I can get my hands on an external CD drive. And I don't want to put my music on the netbook (though it would be handy) because the speakers are pretty shitty. Unless I can find some small (tiny) speakers to lug around with it? And then I'd put the musc on there in an instant. And I would still need an external CD drive.

So what I'm working with is an 80GB tablet, a 80GB+60GB netbook, a 2GB flash drive, a 16GB flash drive, a crappy old iPod nano, and a 250GB external hard drive. I will get a system working here. (It would really help if I could get a resolution on my netbook that didn't involve scrolling but did involve smaller icons and shit. Fucking asus... Excited about playing around with Linux, eventually.)

SO. LINKSPAM OF A MASSIVE NATURE.

Panhandling cat; I feel kind of sad for it. I am just a bleeding heart for street kitties... And I'm amazed it puts up with sitting there all day. (And I really want to adopt KL Kitty aka Tinkerbell.)

So you know that fugly 70's building in North Korea that's a huge abandoned concrete monstrosity (that apparently has no steel structure which I find hard to believe and has warped)? Apparently they are paying an Egyptian company to fix it up--don't know if it's just externally--but yeah. In following up on this I've learned more about North Korea than I've ever known and it is a truly creepy place. Start with this BBC photoset, and then here is a huge phototour. So crazy... They really keep all the "bad" stuff hidden out of sight, and it looks like a creepy, empty, badly-concreteized, highly stylized city. Although I guess most of this is Pyongyang... Still. And someone somewhere posted a lightpollution shot of all of North Korea and its surrounding countries, and NK is like a fucking black hole. Damn. I feel like you could film some crazy shit there if you trusted the place enough... like good Zombie films or something. I think it would feel way too abandoned like that if you did live there, though.

French, Spanish, and German translations for bizarre travelers' phrases. I particularly like "There's a corpse on the bed, please change the sheets". I'm also wondering how many of these innuendos translate to bizarre stuff... Like the silicon ones, maybe? Like maybe the German one is referring to silicon the element, and it just makes no fucking sense. These are the kind of things about languages that I love.

So did you know New Zealand is not technically on the same continent as Australia? It's part of Zealandia. How fucking cool is that? And can we please have more than seven continents? That'd be bitchin'.

5 ways common sense lies to you every day. Some of these, folks, we call logical fallacies. hurr durr

Brain decline begins at age 27?! Fuck.

A model with fake legs, and how they give her "superpowers". She's awesome.

Ricky Gervais and Elmo? That's some funny shit right there. (Is Elmo technically a muppet?! That's how I tagged it but I'm second-guessing myself.)

VERIZON customers: be careful about this. They're apparently sending out some shady paperwork you have to go through the effor of declining so that they're not sending companies info about where you take your vacations or what stuff you're doing online or whatever.

You know, with all these massive amounts of links I'm getting daily now, maybe I should just start a more news-blog styled secondary blog where I can just link these all through one at a time. Jesus Christ to I have a pile here... Bleh. (I am hating to imagine what I will come home to after a summer of tour; it was bad enough last time, but I can't imagine now with all my lovely google subscriptions and shiny things.)

Um... Why don't we stop here for now? I have to check my email and then sleep.

(That was our team name tonight at trivia. We decided we were probably going to be a failure, and in the end we did have to throw our last card to lose [which we did hilariously], and then we tied as losers. FRUSTRATING.)

Lots of tabs to clean up, and then I owe you all some Christmas cheer.

This may just be the stupidest person I've ever seen. Ignore the title; someone reposted it to make fun of creationists, but clearly this is just crazy. I mean, seriously... Light spectrum much, honey? Damn.

I found an atheism wiki. I'm just tucking this link here because I often want to make a point about some fact, but I am terrible about actually remembering the fact itself and not just the point it was trying to prove. (Just another reason in the long list of Why I'm a Terrible Public Speaker.) Not sure how quality the wiki is (meaning updated, etc.), but it's here to remind myself to investigate.

Oh, wow, no, there doesn't seem to be much at all in regard to science. Or rather, not nearly as much as I was hoping. But there are a lot of discussions on the aspects of different religions, so that should be interesting.

Dear god I had too much sugar tonight. After that Mountain Dew wore off I had the Jack's Bar of Gold, and ever since I got home I've been shaking like crazy. I mean, just my hands need to do something, but it's driving me insane and I can't wait for it to wear off.

So I somehow got linked (probably through Neatorama) to a website called People Who Deserve It, which is all about reasons to punch deserving people in their faces. Sounds like my particular branch of outlandish, hyperbolic-violenced humor, right? Correct. And here are two of my top punchees:

Grown man who refuses to eat crusts. THEY DO NOT EVEN COUNT AS CRUSTS ON AMERICAN BREAD, OMG IT'S SO WEAK AND THERE'S NO CHEW AT ALL! (And yes, I do realize that by being humorously hyperbolic I open up room for hypocrisy; you're kind of supposed to ignore that for the sake of the humor. I don't understand why people always feel the need to point it out... Anyway, in this case, the hypocrisy stands in that I was pointing out to Alicia earlier this evening how ridiculous it is that I don't chip-cut pickles. I just don't. I only eat dill pickles anyway, but for some reason when I was little I was convinced that chip-cut ones taste different, and obviously in a bad fashion. And that's stayed with me, for some reason.)

The Eew-Not-Tuna! Guy. I'm not being too hyperbolic on this one. People need to growthefuckup about the smell of tuna. It's not that strong, it's not that gross. I ate it every day for FOUR YEARS in gradeschool, and I LOVED IT. Oh, and bell peppers go on this list, too.

Pictures from a guy whose job it is to be a film location scout in NY. Pretty cool shit. I am totally jealous of his job.

A Russian Professor's theory on the US's collapse... in two years. I'm sorry, but I just don't see it. I quite honestly think the US is too proud, for the time being at least, to fall, literally, to pieces; in addition, I severely doubt they would return to affiliation or possession of other countries if they were to break up. First of all, we no longer live in such an imperialist environment; and the US was (or is, depending on your views) an empire itself. Hawaii would be independent, no doubt. Perhaps captured later on for strategy, but for as long as possible I'm sure it would be independent. My guess is something similar would happen with Alaska, though I am sure their independent streak is slim to none; more likely they would fall in with Canada (who speaks English, and is attached closely, and has societal ties with US culture) than Russia (who is on another continent and, by dateline, the "other end of the map", and who speak Russian and dislike American culture). Texas and the south falling to Mexico? No. This is Texas we're talking about. They always have that underlying flavor of secession as it is anyhow, there's no way they'd go crying to Mexico or some shit. California under Chinese influence? Doubtful. Unless China could exert it's hand in a production-based strategy, and exert it heavily, I think US culture would stay far too intact of its anti-communist ideals. That whole central part falling into cahoots with Canada? Undoubtedly. Maybe not legally part of the country, but I think there's enough Northerner feeling. Ohio, though, I might add, I would see more likely hooking up with the South, despite its connection to Erie. I mean, seriously, have you talked to anyone from Xenia or Fairborn? There are places north of here people already consider The South. Scary thought. Atlantic states joining the EU? Don't you kind of have to be a part of Europe for that to work?

Fascinating from the point of view I have from my history classes' focus on imperialism in the World Stage, I can tell you that much.

Formulating energy out of roads being driven, kind of a cool idea. However, an article referred to this as a "green solution"; maybe you mean more "green" than the situation is currently, but since when was driving cars a help to any green project?!

FUCKING CREEPY AS SHIT BEACH SCULPTURES. Oh god the nightmares I am going to have. (...Metaphorically. I don't actually get nightmares.)

Ugh, I'm too tired for this Christmasing. Tomorrow, I swear.

( JK's speech to Harvard )


Absolutely wonderful. To the idiots who thought they deserved better as a speaker, please gofuckyourselves. Or remove yourself from the gene pool, either is acceptable. Anything to demonstrate your entitled asshatery =^n.n^=

I might have linked this before: The physics errors of Indiana Jones IV. Just interesting on a curiosity level.

Besides the skulls, the inspiration for the Chachapoyan idol might have also been a fake? (Scroll down to the side mini-article.) Interesting. Personally, I don't really care, it definitely won't end my fascination with such subjects. =P And since the idol in the movie is fake anyway...

I KNEW THEY EXISTED SOMEWHERE IN TIMESPACE and now I must procure one. Preferrably a new one. Or! A way to mold them. I know they have that pink one for dressing up like a 60's gogo-dancer, but to me, that sort of ridiculous hair just screams "use me to make anime hairstyles!" Not that I have any sort of use for them whatsoever.

Sexy awesome. in case you hadn't noticed, I'm what they call a nerd

Architect Me loves this.

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.

Happy third day of Chrismahannukwaanzadansticeule! (christmas+hannukkah+kwaanza+ramadan+solstice+yule, if you were curious) There is nothing like capitalism to brighten one's day... or something. =/

Regardless, I am still in a good mood. Went to the bookstore last night and picked up Anansi Boys, which I'm having trouble getting into because I'm not in a very Douglas-Adams/Neil-Gaiman mood. This makes me sad.

However, I am in a very Indiana Jones mood, for which I am happy! Though it puts increasing pressure on my wallet to fork out for a nice hat... *twitch*eheh... Anyway, the Indy legos which weren't due until January are hitting some Toys 'R' Us shelves, though I refuse to look there. Plus the legos are kind of crappy... I just want the Indy and Henry ones. =D (Marion looks like she has a freaking moustache.) They're all mostly specialized parts meaning there's not much room for reinventing them, and that makes me cry, as that is one of the best parts of legos! Augh.

In addition to Anansi Boys I got a Victorian lifestyle magazine as well as a "mysterious places of the world" calendar, filled with gorgeous photos for me to stare at. =^O.O^= <3 Sadly I must also go back to the bookstore to buy a book called The Medusa Stone which looked interesting and is also by an author of a book I previously enjoyed and had been looking for again called River of Ruin. If you like Indiana Jones I recommend it. =D Also to possibly pick up Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (possibly) and a GORGEOUS $30 leather journal that would be perfect for keeping track of my code collection in.

I've been getting some interesting proposals lately... people both my dad and my grandpa know have offered to sort of show me around what they do in regards to architecture, which is pretty sweet. My dad's friend would be more likely, since it's in Louisville near Lynn's Paradise Cafe. But being sent to New York City to travel up to the uppers of a skyscraper to see a guy who works for I. M. Pei... that kind of boggles my mind. I don't know if I'll get to New York in the next few years, though.

So, DAMN! All this Indy stuff makes me happy inside. I am such a dork. =P There are great standees up in Madrid for the fourth movie, and I am so jealous: http://www.indianajones.es/comentarios.php?id=732 I need to sit down and translate that site. I also got a good jump on information regarding Kipu falls in Kauai (where part of Raiders was filmed) which makes me immensely happy. *glee* Apparently there's still prop styrofoam left there, too. Which is yay for collectors but bad for the environment. So yay for collectors picking it up? =D I think most of the big pieces have been taken though. =/ I'm just surprised that going on 30 years later no one's picked it up (other than indyfans), but then again styrofoam does not break down barely at all. So... I am *glee*ing all over the place about going to Kauai over spring break, and also the Paramount peak is very easy to find so I will add yet another *glee* to my pile.

So, does anybody particularly like Dr. Pepper? Can't remember if I posted about this, but they've got some of the Indy IV advertising rights. ='( I hate the stuff. If I buy it will you drink it and give me all the packaging? Sad, I know. (Why not Mountain Dew? Paramount logo, anybody? I know, I know, Dr. ____.)


Aaaaaand time for your twelve days part of the post!

On the third day of Christmas, the LJ gave to me--Straight No Chaser singing,



God Rest Ye lights a-blinking,
and a "happy holidays" so merry.

(I know. I changed it. I was singing the wrong melody in my head yesterday, and also I'm too lazy to go find the post to see what I put specifically.)