The Daily Adventures of Mercat

Great. So, today, instead of being productive and cleaning my room and hopefully finding my jacket and going grocery shopping, I volunteered at the Humane Society and then went on a 20 mile bike ride and fucked up my knee. JUST GREAT. I don't know what's going on because I've NEVER had knee problems before, period, let alone riding bikes. But mom says it's something where, simply, women's upper leg bones and lower leg bones don't like up straight because we have hips, so it aggravates your kneecap and can fuck it up a little. great. She doesn't seem to think I'll be doing all of TOS which is lame as fuck.

Ugh. FML. this week blows hard core.


Soooo now I can't bend my leg at all or put any pressure on it. FUCK. this sucks. >=/

Mm, I forgot to say yesterday, the dream, by "boat scene" I meant with Panama Hat, not the Venice chase. (Important stuff, I know.)

Mm, last night I watched Terminator (for the first time) and Enchanted (interesting combination, I know). It took me all the way through Enchanted to realize it, but you know exactly what Terminator reminds me of? The evil dog from the original Wallace & Gromit shorts. Lol. I love those shorts. I have been really tempted to dress up as the "Have you seen this chicken?" for Halloween. Acually I really need to get my act together and just pick something for Halloween this year to work on. It's FINALLY on a weekend, so I want to do something good. Problem is, a lot of the cool stuff would require lots of time and money that I don't have, so I'm leaning heavily toward pirate again. I haven't used my pirate costume for Halloween yet, so it's all good. Huh, or I could do flapper, but that's kind of lame for me for a Halloween costume. On the list is Ghostbusters, but MAN, the props for that are $$$. Anyway. It's April.

MAN, today is another best day ever, even though the evening kind of sucked. That's how good it's been. I sent a text-post this morning, but it didn't come through for some reason.

ANYWAY. It started out normally, well, mostly, just going to ceramics. There was a pot sale today, so it was cool to see all the other stuff that was there. After that Takeda's class was cancelled, so we went straight to Hawaiian history, and I geeked out that Bailey had an Indy diet Dr. Pepper can. Class got cancelled, no big deal, though I couldn't go to lunch yet and I didn't really have anywhere to go because it was close to the library opening time. Well I just happened to check my phone and MY HAT CAME!!!!!!! So I decided to walk down to 7-11 and check if they had the latest copy of Entertainment Weekly (which they didn't), and get a Mountain Dew to celebrate. I called my mom and it's definitely my hat and not something else, so YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. I was completely surprised because I was told back when I ordered it would probably be three months, so I thought maybe I'd get it in time for Indy IV, but then for some reason the receipt from paypal didn't come for about three more weeks, so I had pretty much given up on getting it on time and I had already resigned myself to wearing my DP. So for about two hours today you couldn't get the stupid look off my face, I was just grinning like an idiot. =D

And after that was the opening ceremonies for the new library. They managed to get all the landscaping done, which looks AMAZing, though I don't think they finished some things like the elevator. Anyway, it was pretty cool. Everyone was going around with their leis and all the profs had to wear their fancy caps and gowns, it was just so nice. And they had a brass quintet, which, uh, was a little out of place, and all the profs entered to Pomp and Circumstance, which just sounded empty, and then they added this little jazzy-poppy comPLETEly out of place section, and... yeah. It was just kind of bad. BUT ANYWAY! There were some speeches, none too bad, and then the dancing! Irish dancing (lol) because one of the funders was all the way from Ireland. So that was pretty cool. The Samoan Club and Hawaiian Club also performed, which were both really cool. =D I LOVE Samoan traditional song and dance. It's gorgeous.

It's also really interesting, initially when they were taking all of us exchange students around the first few days getting us acquainted, they said just to take into mind that Chaminade has a much more diverse student body and a much more accepting environment, that there were a lot of evening and older students, and that Hawaii had a stronger gay culture and stuff. I didn't really notice it at all (but then again I guess I have never been prone to noticing that kind of thing) until I saw the Samoan Club perform. I guess, especially in Samoa, and the older Hawaii culture and stuff, people just were as they were so it doesn't bother anyone to be gay or bi or anything. At least that's the impression I get from my history classes, where we learned that Hawaiians used to be pretty promiscuous, but, in that everyone generally had several/many different partners and of both genders, and no big deal. ANYWAY, back the point. Because Samoa never had a culture that brought in outsiders (no "trade value") they still speak mainly Samoan and everything, I mean their societ is still largely intact, but anyway there are these two guys in Samoan Club who I guess are transvestites? I mean, I'm not sure on the definition but they just cross-dress and act very feminine all the time. They are wonderful guys though. =)

BUT! The best part of all the presentations was the last one, a Chinese Lion dance! They had four guys as two dragons, one blue and silver/white for Chaminade and one green and orange (and some other accents, like yellow/red/white) for Ireland, and it was just SO COOL! It struck me that I've never actually seen one before, And they did these really cool dances up to the front, where Mrs. Sullivan was standing with a money envelope (which is good luck in China, if I recall correctly) on a fishing line sort of thing. I couldn't tell what was going on because the seating was terrible, but you could still see the dragons sancing because they did this cool jumping sort of dance with the head part. (Unfortunately my camera ran out of video space, so I don't have anything.) But on the way out people were giving them money which they "ate". I don't know if it was good luck or tradition or how you tip them that grew out of tradition or what, but it was JUST PLAIN AWESOME.

Carly and I went on a bike ride around Diamond Head, later, which was gorgeous. There was a combination of factors that killed me though; I'm not in shape, the vog was pretty heavy, it was hot, I couldn't shift and was stuck in the smallest gear (and couldn't get any momentum), the brakes suck, and something was wrong with the pedals, me not drinking enough lately, the seat was too low so my knees died... so I was just slow as all getout. But it was still such a nice ride. =)

And then after I got back and was getting ready to go to the cookout at Ala Moana beach with Islander Exchange Club, it just LET LOOSE and poured. But only for about ten minutes, and then it totally cleared up and we were on our way by then! It was a nice cookout, but the sunset totally sucked (clouds or vog or I dunno, but you couln't see it), and we stayed out a bit too long on the beach so my legs are kinda crampy. But it was still nice, I mean, waterside Hawaii right?! So it was a good day.

Hmm, I just realized that "Duke's On Sunday" by Jimmy Buffett is about HERE. (Duke's... southside...on the beach at Waikiki. nurr) Good ending for the evening though. =)

26 days!

omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came

Things I learned today:
>Bawls is good. I can see this becoming a staple in my "take to parties" collecton of drinks which so far consists of only Mountain Dew. (Heynow, I love Mountain Dew.)
>Xkcdians are fantastic nerds. Yay! =) Nerds are awesome.
>Star Wars Family Guy is quite possibly the best Family Guy I've ever seen.
>Rock Band is fun!

So w00t w00t to all that jazz.

Hmm... I think I might get up early tomorrow and ride my bike a little, that sounds like a good plan. Oh, crud, I still need to buy plane tickets for this weekend! Auck.

Lol, maybe Bawls wasn't such a good idea, my thoughts are really flighty now. I've started noticing the effects of caffiene more and more as I get older. Interesting.

Okay, I'm just going to cut to the chase. 32 days?! (Seriously?!) I can't believe we're that close. CRAZYYYY. What to post for today, eh? I still haven't gotten those pics up. Hmm. Oh! Fun fact. You know a lot of the things they do with whips in the movies aren't possible? From what I understand, swinging on it, while it's difficult to hang from in the first place, would break the whip anyway.

so hot topic sells Indiana Jones stuff now... Also yay new phone!

[EDIT] Yay spring break! I posted this to make sure my phone set up was working, which it seems to be but might not be... stupid LJ. Anyway, I was done at noon today (may have skipped group uke, but I don't care), packed up my bags and adventured out with the fam! We went to the Fat Greek for lunch (OMG sparkling lemonade is actually delish) and then out to Kahala so mom and I could do the Verizon thing (I didn't know there was a Verizon store out by Ala Moana, oh well). Anyway, mom and I got our phones at the price I was looking for ($130 phone with $50 rebate and buy-one-get-one-free, so two $40 phones, yay!) and mom was okay with. Hooray! It's that Samsung one that flips both ways, and I LOVE it. There's a little learning curve for the menus and flipping back and forth, but having a qwerty pad is worth it, definitely. Plus there are no annoying buttons on the side that will cause your phone to take pictures of the depths of your pocket/purse, and though I haven't figured out a silence shortcut or clock shortcut yet, I'm sure I'll get it eventually. Plus I can take videos now! Ridic. I love it sooo much. *geekery*

I'm really sad though, I always make fun of everyone else because I take such good care of my electronics, and then I dropped it getting out of the car at the apartment and scuffed it. Damnit.

Oh, and dad bought me a bike, woo! So now gotta plan a ride around the island or something. <3 At least around Diamond Head, get some miles on my but for TOSRV.

I think I'm going to make a pink flamingo in ceramics for my mom and dad, too, but I need to figure out a way to arts it up.

We had dinner out by Ala Moana beach park and the Hilton at Cheeseburger Waikiki, which is this totally awesome tiki bar full of 40's kitsch. I LOVE IT. There was a cute tin that said "Koko-roons" and ukes with the bodies made out of two coconuts (I WANT ONE) and a kid's plastic uke, which has to be like a sopranino or something, lol.)

Dad wants to buy me a "real" Hawaiian uke, too, which means dropping like $300 for a koa wood uke. (It's always nice to have parents who enjoy the same things you do because they will spoil you. Just last week he bought a concert tuba, and now he's going to buy me a hard core uke! Sooo excited)

62 days until Indy IV! OMG SOOOO EXCITED! So, Hot Topic at Ala Moana had Indy IV shirts for $20. That is actually not bad at all, for Lucasfilm OR for Hot Topic. But seriously, I would not think Hot Topic would be the place that sold it. I mean when I first started shopping there at Fairfield Commons is was still really gothy/punky. Now there's goth and punk but they picked up the 80's tweenybopper hype and they have Pokemon and shit. GAAAAH. All the 90's stuff coming back scares the shit out of me, because I LIVED THROUGH IT AND IT IS A BRAINBLAST TO THINK THERE ARE KIDS ALMOST TEN YEARS OLD WHO HAVEN'T. I DO NOT LIKE THAT.

I also can't believe I'm almost 20. WUT. That's crazy.

Ok, excursions with the fam tomorrow. Peace out! =)

Right, here is yet another reason I hate flipflops. So, I've been trying to get rid of my kind-of-obvious tan lines from last summer by wearing flipflops this week. Well, I am inept. I walk too fast to wear flipflops, I think. The yellow Nike ones I had were too big and I remember taking at least one good spill in them at Target because I tripped over the toe. And that's just what I did coming up the stairs here, too, today. Ripped up my knee really nicely, it was even swollen pretty noticeably about an hour ago, too. Remember when Suzie got hit with the flag and had that HUGE bump on her head that looked like an egg? Mine wasn't quite that big, but it was swollen just about as badly. I don't ever remember that happening when I was little (but it did remind me of the time I scraped my knee [falling up the stairs, again] when I was younger and was determined I wouldn't cry... it doesn't even seem like it would be something painful enough to make you cry, now, but it's always embarassing). It seems like every time I start to think "dang, I haven't had a scab in a very long time, I can't remember what that last one was from" I get to have a new one. I honestly can't remember where my last one was from--it was on my left elbow and my knee, and I remember picking at my elbow... in some class... but I can't remember which class (which I usually can, as a hint for myself) or where I did it. But I remember before that I had this scratch from Tippy on my left forearm which I picked at in Miss Downie's class, and before that my biggest scratch was probably on my left knee from hitting dad's bike going down to North Carolina and really gnashing it up good (just outside Lake White).

Hm, I seem to get a majority of my knee scars on my left knee. I wonder why that is? I remember being about six and falling off the back of the tandem right as we were about to pull into the driveway, and really having scratched up my knee and elbow. (Mom was so freaked out, but I don't remember anything, I guess because I had fallen asleep and just fell off?) But I do remember getting a dark green towel and sitting in back (when we still had the brown couch and the TV and everything in back... what did we have up front? the organ?) wrapped up in the towel drinking hot chocolate (even though it wasn't cold...?) and we ordered pizza. And I think we watched the Little Mermaid, but I could just be remembering that because when I was little I used to watch the Little Mermaid back there aaaaaall the time. Damn, I forgot how much I loved that little room before we redid it all. =/

Also, either everything smells terrible today or my nose decided I could breathe today. The path I take to classes smells like something too oniony (chips of some kind?) and my uke teacher's office smelled like gross old people potatoes. (What, you are asking, does that smell like? Like old people, but when they smell like rotten potatoes. Not the regular "old people" smell, I don't mind that at all.) YEUCH.

The last two nights I've slept on the couch so my roommate can study, and oddly enough I'm getting better, more solid sleep on the couch (meaning I'm not waking up every hour or so to turn over) than I do in my bed. I think it's the cushions and the slight angle they're at, plus having a smaller space with three walls (backboard, both armrests) to push against. I dunno, I like to have something to push up against at night because otherwise my muscles feel like they're stretching to be loose or something, so I get this "growing pain" ahce. (ACK, EVERYTHING SMELLS LIKE SMOKE ALL OF A SUDDEN GROSS GROSS) Plus, since I raised myself paranoically, I am one of those people who always prefers to be in a corner (or, if that's impossible, against a wall) so no one sneaks up on me or anything. Which, with sleeping on the couch, is actually very nice. The best part of it is is that this is the shittiest couch I've seen (looks like something they made in woodshop and added the cushions to), so if I want to I can replicate it very easily. Yaaaaay.

Hm, now... to nap, or to sit around and do nothing? Decisions, decisions.

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:

I...er... yeah. (Don't like LJ's new update look, that's for sure.) I'm... confused. Had a weird dream last night that ended up in me having a creepy, no-good feeling all this morning while I was trying to study physics. It made me very distracted, but I still think I did pretty good on that test. If things hadn't been so weird lately, I could have studied a lot more and pwned it, but yeah, not gonna happen.

I just... ugh. SO weirded out by this feeling. It was sort of like when you drink too much caffiene and you're nervous-shaky, like I was last night and this morning and just all around creepy-outed-ness.

Hmm. Linkspam, I suppose. Sorry I don't make all the links nice and neat, but I like to have the url later on just for reference.

This is cool... the guy rode around the country (10,000 miles... pretty cool. Makes me miss the ride to Kitty Hawk we did) to raise money, so I thought I'd pimp this a little. http://8wishes.blogspot.com/

Sometimes, humans are idiots. We have managed to extinctify (?) a 20 million year-old species, the white whales of China. What, the article says there are... 13? left. Yeah. We're fucking GENIUSES here, folks. So long and thanks for all the fish. http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/12/13/china.dolphin.ap/index.html

Random really cool word time! I'm going to start collecting fun words in a notebook. Yeah, you look at me like I'm crazy, but... here's an example. The word calliope. I LOVE it. It's really pretty, musical (no pun intendid), kind of antiquey. Exotic. I dunno. I just like words. So I was looking up Scylla and Charybdis (the monster and the whirlpool in The Odyssey, and I always think Scylla is the whirlpool until I look it up, and also that's the origin of the phrase "between a rock and a hard place" because Scylla got turned into a cliff face) and I realized I LOVE Greek names. I already have loved the name Calliope for... hm... going on two years, that I've consciously known that. So, Scylla, Charybdis, Calliope. Randomly thinking of words ending like that, looked up Xerces, which is apparently a butterfly, so I was way off on that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerces_Blue and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliope and origins of "ard" http://community.livejournal.com/metaquotes/5701729.html

Aaaaand... heaven as a library: (seriously, join metaquotes) http://community.livejournal.com/metaquotes/5703946.html

err...December 12th was Edvard Munch's birthday (thank you, Google!). He apparently painted several versions of "The Scream." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_munch

And, a very silly little thing about the incredibly anonymity of the internet; people are attacking it as Oedipal, but they are VERY clueless. (Dude, the kid didn't know it was his mom.) And if you're having trouble finding the links like I was, they're the highlighted words in that very brief summary. http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/56917 (ALSO, BEBO HAS DIGITAL WHITEBOARDS. That's probably the coolest, awesome-tastic feature I've seen on blogs yet. SHAWEET. [The rest of us just upload jpegs, lol. Geekery FTW])

Aaaaaand... speaking of really fun, antiquated words and such, this site has some really sweet shit. It's a perfume company, but man, do they kick ass. http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/

I think that's it. Gonna practice tomorrow for SW and run to the mall, and the thrift store, and the bookstore to find me some Douglas Adams. Mehbeh. Gotta pack up the room and hope it isn't pinkified... *sigh*