The Daily Adventures of Mercat

Have I been busy. Moving things. Cleaning rooms. Trying to get rid of ant infestations.

Learned a new word: formication, which is the feeling you have ants crawling all over you.

Trying to get everything arranged for Outer Banks and Savannah. Trying to get everything arranged for Raiders 30th. Visiting Gramps in the hospital, hoping they will get him out. I hope he can get his heart a little stronger and last more than a few months. I keep thinking about him reading The Walrus and the Carpenter to my fourth grade class, and "faire to Midland", and I want him to get out of the hospital so I can show him my senior presentation. And I keep thinking about ragtime and Hitchhiker's Guide and Ernie Kovacs... Oh, Gramps. Get better, please.

Anyway. Awesomesauce on a stick:



Carrots are orange because of politics!

Like any Cracked article, six "insane coincidences". Sadly, #6 and #5 are the best, because they really are odd coincidences. #1, a little bit, but also data manipulating; there are 365 days each year (except for leap years), and TONS OF SHIT HAPPENS EVERY DAY. Not to mention since our country's founding there have been 234 4th's of July. (Not 4ths of July... they were still 24 hours long, har har) I been I could find you ~even more! strange and unusual~ coincidences out of those 234 days. Shit, son.

Um, and also. #3 bothers me a lot. Why, you may ask? Because it is NOT COINCIDENCE. IT IS CAUSATION. This is the first time I've had to paraphrase this phrase to say "correlation =/= coincidence". The Wright brothers... who lived and worked in Dayton... invented heavier-than-air, powered flight. And they kept doing research here. So when the Air Force got created in 1947, we eventually ended up with *le gasp* an Air Force Base in Dayton. Which encouraged more flight technology and research in the city and the state! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you end up with a state that has produced SO MANY ASTRONAUTS. We fucking invented flight, now gtfo.

P.S. I do find that article fascinating, my engineer brain just jumped at this annoyance and also I've noticed my writer's voice, a.k.a. my blogging tone, a.k.a. my making comments on the internet voice, has gotten more and more hyperbolic as I have. I don't have a problem with that except where I still do it when talking serious business and since it's text, I'm afraid people will take me literally.

Here's the truth, I am pretty damn shy "IRL". I just enjoy being ridiculous and over the top (...sometimes).

HEY, DID YOU SEE WHERE THEY FUCKING FOUND TANIS?! A little on the technology behind that.

I made a lot of Raiders references the day that was all over. I don't think many people got it, BUT, perfect timing for the 30th, non?! I can't wait to see what happens with the digs. Although I'm sure it will be quiiiiite a while coming.

In case you are still having a terrible day (as I did), here is a MacGuyver intro a guy did of his cat, Steve McQueen. It's beyond awesome.

Yeah, Casper actually does have an airport.

My sister and I just got back from seeing Bridesmaids. It was good, but it's not "the girls' version of the Hangover" like it was being billed. It's more of "the girl's version of I Love You, Man" which was supposed to be a chick flick for guys, but I wouldn't necessarily call it that. Anyway, it was good.

At one point they end up in Casper, Wyoming... but it was definitely not Casper. HAH.


Also-also, my sister pointed out they show Dayton in the center of the map in the Super 8 trailer... that's not Dayton, either. TOO MANY HILLS. That shit looks more like south Chillicothe.

This is what I do, I go to movies and bitch about details.

HAH.




(Also I got my grades back, I got a B- in Finite Elements?! So I guess that means I graduated successfully.)

Except, actually very little.

So I'm watching Conan... and they did a sketch playing like Conan is getting booted from channel to channel. NBC to TBS to Food Network to... Dayton?! As in THE CITY I LIVE IN? First of all, this is not a cable channel. Secondly, how do all these Hollywood writers know about Dayton? And why do they choose to always pick on it as some forgotten midwest city in a forgotten state? I mean, look at Glee. SET IN LIMA. Gummo? SET IN XENIA. And I'm totally blanking on what it was the other day but I saw something else Dayton was the focus of. IDGI. Can we get some real rep up in here? I love this city. I wish it weren't the fifth most dying city in the US (last time I checked). I mean, it's not always the most active, and the winters are a little bit miserable, but I wish I could open my own Disney World here or something. (A tiki restaurant would be cool. But I don't how economically viable that sort of thing is... I suspect they shut down after a few decades if there aren't people who desperately love them.)

AT ANY RATE. Out of all the states and all the cities in the US, the writers just randomly picked... Dayton.

So. There's that.

Prompt-time, to show I am not horribly irresponsible:

When it comes to exercise, I am somewhere in between. I am lazy as shit but I enjoy being healthy and I'm starting to like exercising more. There's also something stimulating about the soreness of a good workout, just the fact of being very aware that certain muscles still exist.

Soooooo.

Well, no parties or anything going on this year. =/ As such, I think I will be liveblogging the commercials. I just got back from chapter and though pregame is going, there don't seem to be new commercials yet. Also, I promise not to spam your friends page with too many updates. =)

Go Dayton Triangles! (That would be the Colts.) Kinda wish they were playing in Lucas Oil Stadium though because then I could say, LOOK, I HAVE BEEN ON THAT FIFTY YARD LINE. SEVERAL TIMES IN FACT. :D




Dear lord, I'm such a fucking drum corps nerd. Haha! I miss our show.

Sci Fi (Star Trek) and fashion. First of all, this article led me to discover that my mom watched Star Trek growing up and never told me. I never would have suspected! She keeps to quiet on some things, and then just BAM out of left field come these things that I would have just liked to have known earlier in life. Like, haha, the first (and only?) time she got drunk in college, and the band teacher had to drive her home. Oh, mom.

Anyway, my point on this article is thus: One; I can see where the directors are coming from. Trust me, sci-fi and "nerd" movies would not be as popular as they are if they had not been serioused-up a bit, in my opinion. I mean, they'd do fine, I just don't think they'd be quite so successful, get what I'm saying? Look at Fantastic 4, for example. Not... great. Decent, but not great. Dark Knight on the other hand? Fucking blew me away.

Now, if you're looking for fashion in sci-fi, as one commenter pointed out, there is Firefly. Which is like sci-fi meets steampunk, sort-of-kind-of-ish-not-really. There's also this thing called cyberpunk, you may have heard of it. It still exists in things like the Queen musical and that sort of jazz. (Or not jazz, as it so may be.)

A letter from a slave to his owner. It is awesome and full of pwnination. And what do you know, the guy lived in Dayton and is buried in Woodland Cemetery. Next time I'm over there I'll have to go hunt him down and give him a high five or something. =)

So there is this website called Urban Prankster, it's a fun blog to read. They feature stuff by Improv Everywhere and groups like that, which is always fun.

Anyway, so they posted this three-year long prank on a guy (that may have originated on Something Awful--I wouldn't be surprised, they have the best pranks) where he is the savior for the future.

So I'm reading his version of the story when I realize that they said he flew into Dayton. And they are going to the Regal 20. And then the next picture they show is freaking YOUNG'S DAIRY and then ANTIOCH COLLEGE.

OH MY GOD, YELLOW SPRINGS, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW. A prank that awesome only would end up there.

Makes reading the whole thing very surreal, though. I have to wonder 1) why I never heard anything if the Antioch guy had been hyping it there for nearly a year and 2) if I watched it, would I see myself in any of the footage in the background? I always wonder about stuff like that, and it's always kind of creepy, I guess in a surreal way.


[EDIT] Oh, and they went to Foy's, too, and some bookstore which I'm wondering if it was Bookery Fantasy, which is even more awesome. And I feel like I've seen the matrix-y beard character around somewhere, probably Yellow Springs or something, haha.

Oh man.



Oh


man.