The Daily Adventures of Mercat

So... besides being crazy, Chuck Norris' 69th birthday was a few days ago. Maybe he's getting senile? That's unfortunate. Or at least rather than senile, he's subject to that issue where older people actually lose the ability to judge what is appropriate to say/do... Which is why older people get grumpy, say inappropriate things, and I'm guessing, to some degree, get senile. As hilarious as I find Chuck Norris jokes to be (it's the type of humor, to be sure; for each joke to top the last one in cleverness when they are extremes in themselves), they kind of went downhill when Norris sued the guy and then Walmart started selling Chuck Norris themed folders and notebooks. That's rather jumping the shark, driven into the ground with him Turning Up Crazy for a day, so hopefully they will resurface in some way.

Speaking of getting old (tangentially), my sleep schedule has been messed up because of my Denver schedule as well as losing an hour, but I'm suspecting that my body may operate better on that odd schedule that turned up in an xkcd comic, the one where you have six 28 hour days a week rather than seven 24 hour ones, and you end up with more functional time yet "a full night's sleep" each "night". And I was thinking that I can't do that in college because of how classes are scheduled, and I can't do it when I graduate if i get a job working for a place like Disney or somewhere where I do not own my own business, so I would have to wait until I retire. Further proof that I will be a Crazy Cat Lady when I'm older. (I read Lifehacker too much.) I think some of this concern comes out of my concern for Grandma... She's seemed kind of depressed lately, because she feels like she has to do all this stuff for gramps and whines about it and him being slow when really, she makes things harder than they need to be. I keep trying to think up projects that she and others would take interest in, like sorting her antiques and cataloging them (I'm kind of obsessed with Flickr cataloging) or starting a blog to talk about her life. Because a while back my mom did a recording with Nana asking all sorts of things about her life, but I wish there were more, you know? All the stupid little shit she remembers from when she was growing up, maybe... Or like washing her hair with eggs before there was shampoo. I miss Nana so much.

But gma? Yeah, last week when I went out to dinner with her she actually, I'm pretty sure legitimately rather than jokingly, said I was the favorite grandchild. This is so fucking frustrating. One because I actually get preferential treatment to an extent which is uncool as hell, and it annoys Laura and Max and Kyle just as much as it annoys me. And I can't tell if Grandma's "appropriate filter" is just gone and she's serious, or if she's just bad at joking tone sometimes. But more than anything else, she's already so stressed and depressed (that's her personality... rather flighty sort of naiivete, kind of reminiscent of Liz, in less of an acts-like-a-blonde kind of way) that I have to edit myself not to break her heart (she's dramatic about being upset, which is why I'm the favorite I guess; Max and Kyle stopped going to church and boy scouts [which was not really their choice, to be fair] and Laura didn't do band or girl scouts, and the fact that gma suspects "that [Laura] likes the taste of beer" is hilarious), and that is extremely frustrating. Like I don't think mom and dad would get angry if I just up and told them I'm agnostic. But grandma? She would die. =/

So my next little project is to make a little case (or buy one) for my flash drives, presumably something I can also put my screen cleaner in because I polish this thing obsessively. I love my little netbook.

And speaking of gadgets, I've read some stuff about the Kindle 2 that came out recently, and I got into a discussion about it being like the Hitchhiker's Guide because it now has Wikipedia access. Which led to a discussion about making and selling covers for them on Etsy that say "DON'T PANIC". So today I was thinking, ooh, well, I don't have a Kindle and I don't plan on getting one any time soon (even though the gadget geek in me loves the concept of e-ink), but people have iPhones and other web phones. And I have a new netbook that isn't much larger than a Kindle. And I do need to find a cover for it, which is hard to do, and black is probably most likely. And that way I don't have to make my vinyl sticker cover plans into a DON'T PANIC sticker but rather keep my tikis, AND I get to protect the netty. Netty? I can't really refer to it as a lappy... Maybe I'll just stick with netbook. I need a good term, though.

ANYWAY, I really do want to make DON'T PANIC device covers. But I feel like I would get sued or something. :C Plus I don't even own an iPhone or Kindle to measure, and I feel like just altering preexisting covers is a cop-out... This requires research. Input?

Did I mention my netbook is nearly silent, despite having an actual hard drive? I love this like a loving thing.

So, you know that project I posted about a while ago regarding a steampunk collective website? The ball is rolling. There is significant interest, and people crazy enough to actually help me do this thing! If you are interested in helping design/manage the site, I would love for you to join cog_mgmt. mister_sable, lady_giz, I would love to see you guys there! Is there anyone else here I've friended in my craze for this website?! I cannot remember because I am god-awful with names. D= And I am so so so so sorry. But you're invited too!

Anyway. If you're just interested in the website rather than the behind-the-scenes stuff, there is otherwhengentry, which will start updating once the site is up and rolling.

YAY STEAMPUNKERY!!!!!!!

Sometimes, I get some really bizarre thoughts. You know, the kind that would turn your life into a really good fiction? Basically, plot bunnies, but they're usually just something based on my life, so they don't really work well with the "plot" part. More like "Diane is crazy" bunnies. Possibly they are Plot Jackalopes.

Long story short: A lot of personal realizations this week that I haven't got down on paper on LJ yet. (Because I'm lazy, lol.) But I was thinking about all the things that change, and this year, how weird it's been just this summer to 1) realize some of my best friends might be engaged, 2) realize some of my best friends probably will be engaged soon, and that I really need to get over some personal issues there that have nothing to do with them as a couple, and 3) that mom and dad want to move. A lot. Meaning, they are both pretty damn ready to get the hell out of Dodge. But anyway, I was thinking about those things, how your life changes, and how it affects your friends, and where am I going to end up living (what if I get a job with Disney? JPI? COST? None of those are in Ohio as far as I know) eventually, and where will Laura be, and Max, and Kyle? And my friends? And then I started thinking about grade school friends who I haven't seen in a really fucking long time. Like, I haven't seen Zack since graduation, I'm sure, becuse he didn't come to Jacob's funeral, I don't think. Which it then kind of hit me again, wow, someone my age, someone I grew up with, is dead. And, guilty as this may be, I don't remember much about him. I remember him making me laugh in first grade and I snorted chocolate milk out my nose and onto his shirt. (I didn't drink chocolate milk for a long time after that, but I always said I didn't like it. I think it comes in phases, because I liked it for a little while at Carroll but I'm not so big on it again.) And getting in trouble for laughing in like fourth AND fifth and probably all the other grades. Oh, and him spelling "sex" instead of "six" in second grade, and everyone laughed, and I honestly don't know how many of us knew what we were really laughing at. But other than him just being kind of a dumb goofball... I don't remember much. =/ He wasn't one of the guys that I hung out with, and even so, the stuff I remember from gradeschool is really random and generally... scholastic.

BUT ANYWAY, so that was all thoughts I had while mowing today, and then the bike ride comes around, and I do a lot of good thinking on bike rides. And this isn't a thought, really, it's a plot jackalope, which I like to encourage because they're pretty rare, but I just realized, what if he's really not dead? What if he's some super spy and it's all an FBI coverup? Cruel but cool.

Yeah, see? That's the way my brain works. I know I'm crazy.

also, I totally blame it all on the Hardy Boys novels, and I've been jiving to be read them all again.

Huh. So I've been thinking about mental diseases again, and I decided to look up schizophrenia because I remembered my great uncle (I think? My first cousin once removed [my dad's cousin]?) has it, and hasn't been seen in like ten years or something. (I think he was last spotted in New York living as a bum. I don't know that side of my family so well, for some reason.) Anyway, because I've always overthought things and overanalyzed everything (and I think I've discussed this recently), I've wondered what kind of mental issue I would have, if I did have one. I always see psychosis things and every once in a while they'll strike a chord, but I figure I'm fine because, you know, I'm not getting panic attacks (MINUS THAT ZOMBIE ONE, it was a one-time thing). BUT, I've wondered if I could find something specific enough that I actually could be crazy. Now, I don't want to be crazy. I mean, I call myself crazy, but we all know I like odd things and enjoy hyperbole (rather a lot I've noticed lately; if I die and people analyze all my writing please make sure they know that my personal style was rather dependent on sarcasm and hyperbole.). I don't want to be taking mind-altering meds or locked up or seen as legitimately crazy. So anyway, I'm paging through wikipedia and I realize that social anxiety disorder strikes a lot of chords. See, the thing is; being crazy would be too convenient, and as I see it I seem to be functioning pretty well, so I don't think I'm actually crazy. (And if you're rationally looking at your issues you're less likely to be crazy, right?) So I don't know if this is just a case of, uh, what's that med-student (especially psychologists?) phenomenon where you think you have what you're studying? But yeah, I don't know if it's that or if I hit the nail on the head with social anxiety disorder. The problem is that it could also be a case of over-analysis (like the way-too-many diagnoses of ADD recently) of extreme introversion, and may be annoying but natural; I mean, each of the symptoms seem pretty common. Presentation, self-consciousness, talking to strangers, dating (!), blushing, mind going blank, increased heart rate, avoidance behaviors, and shaking... pretty common (uh, other than dating, but discussion/research has just led me to believe I'm just more on the asexual end of the spectrum and I just shrug it off... wish there were a less harsh term for it though, as it's not quite spot-on), but pretty applicable to me. (And I didn't include ones that I didn't find applicable.) But nonetheless, that's a pretty impressive list, to me. Mind going blank is a BIG thing for me. I can think of a hundred scenarios to try to head it off at the pass by having answers ready, and I still forget them. And a lot of times when I'm giving presentations or talking nervously my mind will go blank over the stupidest questions because I'm thinking too hard about the question or answering it wrong or whatever.

I dunno, what do you guys think? I'd really love to avoid psychology/psychiatry (FUCK, which is it), and I think some outside opinions might be useful here because we know if there's one thing I can do it's overthink it and work myself up about it.

But moving on.

(Almost) useless fact for the day: the plural of "penis" is not "penii" and if I see/hear that one more time I'm going to kill someone. THAT APPLIES TO "US" ENDINGS (AND OF LATIN WORDS!). If you think you're so clever, it's "penes."

Hilarious, however, is the fact that I can't pronounce this without making it sound like "peonies." Take that as you will.

I miss studying Spanish, or, heck any language at all. I need a place to keep my Spansh semi-fluent because otherwise I'm going to lose all skills. I'm already forgetting tenses other than present! (Not that I was ever good at those fucking past tenses anyway. And subjunctive! Oh, how I loathe subjunctive.)

Um, woah, George Orwell got shot in the throat by a sniper. That sounds... deathly. (And if you're wondering how I got to that link, it's in light of beatonna's latest comic, and wondering if I could pull off an Orwell comic. With that, maybe.) Additionally (I'm trying to expand from using "also" all the time), "Orwell" is a pretty freaking cool name for a pseudonym.

Back to my language, uh... what's the phrase. You know, the quirks of a language. Idiosyncracies? No. Dammit. Not idioms, either, though I think that was the word I was trying to come up with a few days ago. Anyway, other than a sudden realization in the past few days that if I pointed out that I enjoy hyperbole (and, uh, it's emotionally instinctual, I don't sit there and go, how can I make this ridiculous...), I would scare fewer people, but, um, I completely forget my original point. OH. Being in Hawaii has made me notice a few things. Pidgin kind of bothers me, so I'm pretty sure that even if I lived here full-time I wouldn't pick it up. I really can't bring myself to say "brah." BUT. I have picked up "howzit" (and "howzithowzit", additionally) from my roommate, because I was already prone to asking people "how's it going?"), and I already used "it's all good" though that phrase gets used out here a lot more too. I'll probably end up using "shaka" a lot, too. Not really aloha (mahalo is more likely than aloha, but not very likely either), that seems to be more of a touristy-slash-celebrationy thing. And it really drives me insane when people use it in a touristy way because they go "ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHA!" and the crowd is supposed to go "ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHA!" and I want to stab people for being ridiculous.

Some days I swear my trains of thought (train-of-thoughts? I doubt it) are more like fractals. I-have-this-idea-and-now-it's-gone-twelve-different-ways! Oye. (Can you use "oye" just as "oh" or "hey" and not like hey-I'm-trying-to-get-your-attention? Spanish input appreciated!)

Reverse dictionary. From a literary perspective, this looks like a ton of fun.

Mm, and more on the topic of languages. I really do miss Spanish, and since I want to go back to Barcelona (guh, at LEAST!) one day, I feel bad forgetting it. I also just feel more knowlegable when I remember miniscule inanities about the English language or enjoy language relationships, so, language always has been and will continue to be important to me. ANYWAY. I've been told when you go to college you (in this case me) should take Italian because it's pretty close to Spanish and then you'll know another language. But, I really have no interest in Italian other than it's another language and languages are cool. Plus I don't know if they teach it at UD. I was hoping to learn Hawaiian here, but that fell through, so I'm hoping maybe I can do it at UH if I come here for grad school. ANYWAY. I've been considering with the five-year deal, picking up a language again (even though I know it will be a lot of work). And, so, this is what I'm wondering. More Spanish, to master it, or Mandarin, or Arabic? Spanish seems most practical, but I don't know if I want to go to that level for now. Mandarin, pretty much purely a "heh they spoke Mandarin in ToD" but it would be cool to travel to Asia (though so many cool places to go scare the shit out of me because I don't speak the language) but Arabic seems to be perhaps the most useful at some point. Except that I can't imagine myself traveling to Araby the Middle East much until things die down (maybe a little?). (I do want to learn Polish but I don't think they offer that at UD either.)

Star Wars: this is kind of true. It's also what I will be saying about Indy IV if there are aliens involved. (Swear-to-fucking-god.)

And on that note (this is a lecture or a commentary [commentary rather], so don't leave me any obsessive comments about this), I am at an in-between level. I hate the cartoon on the premise that I hate the prequels. Love the originals, yes, even the ewoks because I like cute animals. Christmas Special I am not touching, ever. BUT. I do not like to argue the details of the originals, that annoys me. Kind of like all the people showing up at COW arguing over Indy stuff. Some guy posted pics of an original fedora and there were too many "I'm calling bullshit"s and not enough "THE HOLY GRAIL OF HATS"'s (don't ask me about that punctuation). Point is, I'm starting to hate fandom because all the discussion has turned into whining and bitching, and I don't want to hear it. If you're going to be an obsessive and/or whiny bitch please do it where it's appreciated (generally on your own time).

That being said, I try to make my obsession fun for you guys, but I'm not forcing you to read it. I try to mock myself enough to keep a level head. I think I do well enough.

(PS--REMINDER--THIS POST IS NOT HERE TO TALK ABOUT STAR WARS, I'M NOT IN THE MOOD.)

Hey, this sounds like a great idea! Let's move a highly contagious lviestock disease to a place where we're more likely to spread it. I am not sure these people have heard of Murphy's Law. It's kind of like "if you build it, he will come" in this case. If they build it, it is only a matter of time until we realize NOTHING IS 100%. (Except possibly death, but even then there is conservation of matter. Oh god let's not get into this either. This is topic #2 barred for comments.)

Hey uh, so, who thinks the Olympics aren't going to happen? This puppy right here does. That is to say, I do "not think the Olympics are going to happen." Which, really, it's just a shame China's not getting its act together.

Reminiscent of one of my many trains of thought on social phobias and my place within that sector. (I just spelled that "secter" corrected myself mentall to "sectre" which is totally my word now and then realized I meant "sector".) I do feel lonelier but I can't decide if that's engineering crushing my soul or not doing enough socializing or what, but on the other hand, I generally uphold better conversation online than I do in person. Uh, that's me trying to combine, like, the past two years of self-reflection into one sentence, so, youd' understand if I say that we're just skimming on the surface of that issue. Can I bar topic #3? Lol. Sorry to be such a hassle, I just think I'm setting myself up for a commentstorm I'm too tired to care about right now. =P

So, look. I found out what steampunk was just a few months ahead of the curve, apparently, and I really enjoyed it. However, the influx of newb idiocy (DO PEOPLE READ EVEN THREE POSTS BACK, AT ALL?) and lack of ingenuity being shown just seems to reaffirm my dislike for popular fashion. Popular fashion kills everything. I enjoy steampunk but if I see one more person spraypaint that fucking multibarrel nerf gun I'm going to strangle them. (PLEASE. INGENUITY. WHY DO PEOPLE FIND THIS SO DIFFICULT.) /rant

On that note, these would be much cooler if I weren't currently hating on the general steampunk populace, and if they weren't so close to those drawings that showed up last year. (Unless it's the same guy, which I doubt, but then that's totally fair.)

40 days! whatthefuck That's crazy. New Shia photos. When I saw them I was like "hmm, something's wrong about theseOH Steve Martin" and now that's unbelievably hilarious and I don't think I can unconnect (similar to unseeing) it. If there is a shot, front-on, of him riding it down the street trying to look like a badass SANS Marlon Brando (I always want to type "Marlin", but that's a fish. It is Marlon, right?) hat, I will be laughing my ass off, and I will probably be the only one. But I cannot. get. the image. out. of. my head.

SON BE A DE-ENTIST...