The Daily Adventures of Mercat

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A cute video:



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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm rather excited that we're tackling splines in my numerical analysis class.

I think my personal motto should "be badass, daily". I was kind of in a depressive funk yesterday, not really sure why. It was a bunch of little, unimportant dramas that I think just kind of banded together and unleashed a wave of upset. Meh, I'm pretty much over it today. I think the perfect timing of Not-Troll is partly to blame =)

So last Friday during our meetings I found out that my little, Sarah, is a sci-fi geek as well. I don't know if I posted this already (I think I may have), but I just like to appreciate the closet-sci-fi-ness of some girls in Phi Rho. I try not to be too loud about my geek cred (except Indy and drum corps, duh), but sometimes I find myself doing geekily embarassing things despite it. Like yesterday I texted my sister because I know she loves Dali's elephants, and I saw a tattoo (here) of a Dali-styled AT-AT. So I appreciate it on a nerd level, and she and I both appreciate it on a fine art level. But it also reminds me of when we drove down to OBX last summer and Uncle Steve pointed at these utility frameworks (some shipping docks, or something, maybe?) in the distance, and he said they looked like those things from Star Wars, and I knew what he meant and said AT-ATs, and he was just like... yeah... sure, whatever. But then again, he is rather one of the more condescending people in our family and we, as a family, have a very strong we-will-mock-you-mercilessly dynamic. So.

ANYWAY, my point was, one, that I love my little, but furthermore she started geeking out about Weta Workshops and I didn't realize they did all of LotR, which I totally respect them for, and now I'm wondering how Sarah and Kimmie and I can start our own set/prop/costume company, because that is what we all want to do. I love my little so much! :D We are going to have a nerd-movie night (Dork Night?) and probably watch Star Wars and something else, maybe Firefly, I dunno, and make puppy chow. Yum.

Also, I want to take her to see Star Trek when it comes out because I doubt I could convince anyone else to go with me. LOL.

Please alolw me to geek out for a moment: I figured out how I can clean up my computer some by organizing some of my files in essentially what would be a "tagging" system in excel. Slightly more effort than what tags are conceptually now, but it will be possible. For once, excel will finally come in handy! :D

And if I can set up a user interface for it, it will be even cooler.

Well I was just about to post a very excited and happy entry for today but the Dorm Assisstant/security just came down and Silkie's mom had called because she's missing, sort of. I don't know to what extent but her mom is worried enough to call campus security, and none of us (her roommates) have seen her since Friday and we thought it was odd she left without her stuff and especially without her computer. So.

But, uh, back to what I was going to post.

Otherwise, today's been a good day.

OH HEY my roommate just got back. Talk about timing. Well that's good. I hope everything was okay. I guess she's downstairs checking in with the RD (the official term for dorm security as Genny informs me) and the police, so... yeah. Hm.


OKAY, SO. Today was a very fun day, in an extremely geeky manner, though I just sort of realized it. This morning my dad called me to wish Max and Kyle a happy birthday, though Kyle is in Argentina now. So after wishing Max happy birthday what they did was put me on speakerphone (in Yellow Springs) so I could wish Kyle happy birthday over videophone to Argentina. Ha. A quarter of a world away... craziness. Technology really is somethin'.

AAAAANYWAY. So I had plans to go see Iron Man (and the new Indiana Jones trailer!) with the xkcd kid yesterday but he never called me back, and I just wasn't in the mood to do much of anything today so I slept in (finally) and ate lunch and ended up going to see Iron Man by myself this evening. It was totally worth it, I needed some time to just chill, and let me tell you, Iron Man is badass.

I mean, I was totally geeking out the whole time. I felt like such an engineer, it was ridiculous. I was just like "ooh electromagnets!" and I'm such a gadety person, just... really. His computer setup was my favorite part. Just, can I have that drafting table yes please. Not even the 3D aspect! I just want a digital drafting table, and I was thinking about that article I read that Windows is working on a new prototype of computer that's basically a coffee table with everything transmitted with I dunno infrared or bluetooth or something, but I mean seriously. Would that not be the most badass drafting table EVER?!

Plus I just really enjoyed the movie. Lol Stan Lee. Also I think I enjoy movies like this and Batman because they way they wrote them, they're not too much of a stretch from real technology. I mean like that drafting table, the first thing I thought of was that Windows prototype and if I could use that to my advantage in the future in making a drafting table. (Except his computer was totally a Mac, and yeah, I geeked over that, too.) Obviously suits like that aren't very feasible, but they took the time to make it pseudoscience and a plot that hits close to home. (Mmm terrorism.) I don't mean on a personal level, just, current-events wise, I think that adds to making it feel more plausible (...for a superhero movie).

Also can you say Air Force?! Hell yeah. I think hometown pride is getting a little bit of a hold on me. (Hm and yes I did not really understand the "stabilizers" pseudoscience, so someone's going to have to explain that to me before I pass judgement, but I don't think it's very plausible. But not bad enough to detract from the plot either! YAY WRITERS) Anyway the "thanks to the USAF" list went by too quickly and I wonder if WPAFB was involved at all (probably not) or ( SPOILERS )

And the casting with Robert Downey Jr. and Gweneth Paltrow was good, neither of them have annoying quirks that detract from the movie. I am extremely enthused with the plot. It was fun, like a superhero movie should be, with some predictable jokes, but nothing too campy. (Same thing like the Batman thing; Superman is just too far out there for me to really appreciate it, I think. Oooooor they just need to get a good enough plot line.) ALSO, NO SERIOUS ROMANTIC SUBPLOT. Dear writers, I cannot thank you enough. If I have to see one more movie where they detracted from the story to add in a romance, I think I would kill myself. This was PERFECT just with the hint that it might come in a sequel or whatever and them flirting. SO much more realistic (omg people flirt and don't fall right in love?! what?! it can't be) that it just totally meshed. ( SPOILER )

Lol so yes I'm going to be buying this one on dvd. Kind of like Batman did, you just walk out of the theatre going "BADASS! fuck yeah" which is always a great feeling.

AND CAN YOU SAY NEW INDIANA JONES TRAILER? SEVENTEEN DAYS FOLKS and yes I missed yesterday. =/ I got distracted watching a heist movie. (Entrapment, pretty good. Definitely entertaining enough, though I'm not sure what the purpose of the whole-laser dance thing was, and it was just a tad predictable, though not in any bad way. I am just really in the mood for a movie that catches me up so I'm not thinking about what's going to happen next or something that totally throws me for a loop, like The Prestige did, especially like Prestige did. I called part of it and it STILL had a plot twist. YES.) Anyway, YAY NEW TRAILER! I'm sure you can find it with Google. As soon as it came on I was just like "ark music what?" and they actually show they crystal skull in the trailer (along with lots of other things, hm) which makes me wonder what exactly is going to happen. Still hoping it's not aliens, buuut we'll see I guess. And even if it is, like I said before, I'm still going to love it. Just sitting there watching the trailer I was smirking like crazy and trying not to jump up and scream "YESSS!" or do a dance or anything. Pure excitement. I love it. I love it I love it I love it and now I definitely can't wait to go home oh my god.

Hm, I guess I owe you for yesterday, too. Okay, another Temple scene that was cut. There was supposed to be a scene where a guard got hit by some lava from the caves and it broke him from the Black Sleep of Kali, and Short Round sees it, which would make the scene toward the end where he wakes up Indy come less out of nowhere. I never had a problem understanding it (I just presumed that fire woke you up, I mean really that's all there was to it) but it really would have made more sense to leave it in, especially since it was a shorter movie. Meh, whatevs.

Oh! Another thing about Iron Man. ( SPOILER )

Ha, so, I think that's mostly everything. It really was a great day, and tomorrow I have lots of fun plans, too. =) I really need to get those history take-home tests done, but... eh, it'll happen, no worries.

Oh hey, is anyone out there comic book fans? I've never been a comic book person, though with the influx of superhero movies I've really enjoyed them mostly (blech sans Spiderman) and in the middle of thinking "oh yay for a plotline with a non-totally-dependent female and no unnecessary romance" it hit me, are there really any badass women superheros out there? (Superheroes? Dammit I hate pluralizing that word, it never looks right.) I mean, there's obviously whatsherface from Fantastic Four but honestly that movie wasn't any good, and there's always Wonder Woman but let's be honest she's flying around in a corsetish thing and underwear. That's not really badass and she's some moon princess or something which is obviously not my kind of superhero as I've already covered. I guess there's sort of Storm and Jean Grey from X-Men, but, eh... not really. They don't really scream "badass" to me. =/ (Lol, Batman? Definitely.) And let's be honest, I think Wolverine has pretty much been the most well-known character from that series anyway (and not just the movies). Most all the other ones I can think of are sidekicks in a fashion, but I know that's because I don't know very many female superheros. Ultraviolet? Elektra? I don't know anything about those. From the ads they looked like they were sort of antiheroes in that revenge sense, but I mean I could be completely wrong. (Also, I don't think the movies were a terribly big hit.)

Okay, Catwoman comes to mind as a badass, but she's not exactly a hero. I dunno what to call her anti-hero? She's not really a bad guy, so she's kind of a badass with all the crap she does to tease Batman and whatever, but she's not a superhero either. Plus, let's be honest, the movie was not by any means great, and I'm like the one person who walked out of the theatre who enjoyed it. (YES I LIKE CATS A LOT OKAY lol)

So. For anyone out there with a bit (so pretty much any) more experience in comics than I, are there any badass female superheros out there? My drawing hand is itching.

perhaps I have been reading too much feminist stuff lately, I'm not usually one to jump to arms about something like that, especially since it was not an offensive trigger or anything

Maybe just not marching corps this year really has me missing all the BAness... =P

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! =)

Oh yeah Fridays! Kind of excited, went out to Kahala Mall after school and found some fabulous purple shirts. =) One's dressy and the other one is a total glamwhore shirt, but I love it. Gray with silver swirls and purplish street-art type stuff. Total love. Also broke down and picked up a Blues Brothers fedora... so I do have initiative to dress up as such for Halloween. (I have to think ahead, I will be soooo busy in the fall and I love details too much.)

What else? Oh, damn, perfect timing, the phone I want is FINALLY ON SALE. Just went on sale today, in fact! I've had my eye on that samsung flips-both-ways phone ever since DayDay showed it off to me... Total geekwant. TOTAL. I have absolutely no legitimate reason to want it. I don't use it for anything, it's thin enough to make me nervous I'd break it. My phone works perfectly after two years (I treat technology well, thankyouverymuch to all you "hey I dropped my phone in the toiler now give me your numbers over facebook because I'm lazy" people ;D ). The only thing I have going for it is that I'm due for a new phone through them so I might have a deal that way. If not, what was a $130 phone is now $80 because of a $50 rebate, PLUS buyonegetonefree, and since my mom will be here next week and she is due for a new phone, too... hehehehe. LOVE IT. (All I can do is laugh in the general direction of my sister who lost her phone snowboarding and I think has destroyed it at least once since then. MUAHAHAHA. Patience and stinginess wins out my wallet in the long run. [note: I am both stingy and evil. And patient. WHA-CHA]) so now just to convince my mom to do without a phone until it would get shipped to her...

Aaaaand what else today? OH MY FUCKING GOD. I am one of those people who insists on eating breakfast, right? Um, and I don't like being dizzy, or feeling sick, because I am one of those people who can't throw up to get rid of the tension, it just... blech. Um. So. Today I just forgot to eat breakfast, and Mr. Yukio had the oven running. I wore a long sleeve shirt but it wasn't that bad...

Dang, I dunno. I'm usually really good about everything, so all I can guess is iron deficiency (it happens every time I move away from home--we have hard water from a well) accelerated by girlweek. OH, plus I was standing up glazing my piece, when I usually sit. So I suppose being slightly overheated and burning a few more calories and being iron deficient and skipping breakfast is enough accumulated reasons, anyhow... You know what I hate most about getting lightheaded? How everything you see becomes hypersaturated and you get some nice bloom and hyperdefinition around the edges of things. That is the worst. Why? Because I don't pass out easily, but in order to actually see where I'm going to take care of myself, I have to actually, you know, see it.

So anyway, I stopped glazing and leaned on the table just to see if it was going to pass (just the heat maybe?), but it didn't. It didn't really get better or worse, but I decided since nothing was happening I should probably sit down to try to conserve my energy. So I pulled up an empty chair and sat down and went back to glazing (albeit slowly), and then... it got a little bit worse. So, I'm sitting there, trying to remember the last time I almost passed out to see if I could remember if I actually passed out. (I want to say it was sometime this summer, but I can't actually think of any specific time. The last time I actually remember something similar happening was GOD REST YE REHEARSAL SOPHOMORE YEAR LOL. Omg pizza spots haha [although, I haven't ever gotten pizza spots again, just the white-out]) Anyway, so, it eases up for a second and I decide to work up the guts to ask where the bathroom is (upstairs and on the other side of the building...great) so I carefully work my way up there (holding onto the railing, and I made sure to tell the ceramics assistant that I didn't feel too well) and take a drink from the fountain, and lay down on the floor for about five minutes, and then go to the bathroom, drink some more, and get back to class.

All in all a very interesting day... Whiting out is so fricking weird.

Oh, man, at Kahala I went with Lauren to Lenscrafters, and I was reading a People magazine from last year like June or something, and it said that "fricking" (and "omigod", lamely) had been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Which is awesome (other than "omigod"). I <3 Austin Powers. It seems hilariously pathetic (but not really) to have something so small define so much of me, but I can't explain it... I didn't even do it on purpose. I just pick up turns of phrase, try them out a few times, and they manage to stick. Yaaay. (See also: cursing like a sailor... thank you, drum corps.)

68 days until Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! Today's trivia: Guess what! New reference for my collection. I pretty much ran through all the videos from the library that I wanted to watch, so I picked up Lost season one since everybody loves it so much and the few episodes I've seen seem decent. And Sawyer calls Michael's kid "Short Round" just once. Oh, but it's enough to make me smirk, so there you go.

Valuable information, eh? What a day.

Oh hey question--culinary arts question, coming from someone who was totally culinarily spoiled as a child. My mom pretty much raised me on Esther Price and chocolate, so I'll eat just about any kind of chocolate (except white chocolate--it's not chocolate and it tastes like shiiiiite). But I know a lot of people have sensitive (pussy? lame? unfortunate?) tastes and can't handle the richness of European chocolate (omg don't get me started on European vs American breads) or dark chocolate, but I read from someone they tried like 70% cocoa bars and it burned. This does not make sense to me. I can understand it's more bitter, and it's an acquired taste (I wouldn't even touch Hershey's dark when I was little), but I picked up a 65% at the gas station (if there is one reason to come to Hawaii, it is for CHEAP, EASILY ACCESSIBLE, HIGH-QUALITY CHOCOLATE. AND MACADAMIA NUTS. I AM NOT FUCKING JOKING HERE PEOPLE) and I mean, no problem, it's rich but delicious. So... can I get some input?

Also, hoping that I can go horseback riding tomorrow, and if I can, that it doesn't suck and isn't just like riding a donkey tour in the Grand Canyon. To me, horseback riding means LET'S RIDE MOTHAFUCKA. (I have never actually been horseback riding, so to speak. I have ridden on a horse's back a few times when I was younger but I'd love to go for a good ride once. And I'm not even a horse person! Unless you count that the drawing book I had on horses [amongst many others] taught me to pay attention to muscle structure.)

Also, I completely forget the word, but Hawaiian Cowboys = Awesome Subculture, lol.

[EDIT]ACK, question I really need you to answer: If you were in a ceramics class, what would you make? I need to make my final projects pretty much starting Monday, and I only have a few weeks, and I don't really have any solid ideas. And it has to be something of substance and meaning, so... yeah. I've tried searching deviantart but I'm not really coming up with anything terribly inspiring. Not in the realm of ceramics, at least.