The Daily Adventures of Mercat

Spoilers ahoy! My unfiltered thoughts on Pirates IV.

( SPOILERS, ye be warned )



By-the-by, came with a preview for the next Muppet movie, coming out Thanksgiving with Jason Segel. And Amy Adams, which I didn't know about so OMG SO EXCITED. :D

Also: boots were a success. A little pinchy in the toes after five hours, sadly, but we shall see. Pissed I still haven't heard anything about my hat coming in, FUCKING SERIOUSLY. I WANT MY FUCKING PIRATE HAT.

THIS IS A LARGE POST, I AM WARNING YOU.

HOLY SHIT I SUCK AT POSTING. This thing has been sitting on my desktop for a month and a half, christ, shame on me. Anyway. I'm trying to make better habits for myself... Some are getting better (I keep a real schedule on my ipod! I'm under 100 firefox tabs consistently!) and some not (I don't check my calendar, I forget things, I haven't organized many piles of files on my new computer... from a year ago...)

Shia says Indy V will be crazy. idk what to think. I'm excited but hesitant at the same time? Eeengh. Like I said after Indy IV, I mean, at least they can't do that one anymore. (Also, I told you so. Also-also, I am kind of sick of hearing about your stereotypical MacGuffins: the spear of Longinus, Noah's Ark, all that stuff.) GO TO HAWAII, PLEEEEASE

But, uuuuhhh, if Spielberg pitched a script, I'm guessing this is happening. So... yay?

...I'm depressed that that last sentence has a question mark attached to it. :(

HOLY SHIT YOU KNOW WHAT'S DEPRESSING?! WHY ON EARTH IS THIS A MOVIE. WHO ON EARTH THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA. SHANE VAN DYKE WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU ATTACHED TO THIS, YOU WERE AWESOME ON DIAGNOSIS MURDER AND NOW YOU ARE VERY NOT-AWESOME. AUGH.





Um...yes.

Also--ADORABLE KITTANZ:




While we're doing videos, this time-lapse-experiment-turned-art-video is absolutely fantastic:

ANTS in my scanner > a five years time-lapse! from françois vautier on Vimeo.

I hope this is just some lawyers having fun, and were not actually hired over legitimate offense.

I didn't even know they had finished the script for this, shit. Three months away was apparently a COMPLETE NEWS ISOLATION, much moreso than usual. (Nobody famous died.)

This movie looks awesome! That hat looks awful. (Short crown + extra-wide brim = grossnasty.)

Ghostbusters/AC/DC mashup:




Lady Gaga kidnaps Comissioner Gordon. Guys, I was about to say "I want to live in that world", and then, you know, I remembered that Lady Gaga is a real person and kicks major ass.

A good essay on Iron Man 2, which I am still excited about. The awesome thing about disappearing from the world for three months to memorize a metric assload of numbers until you've lost 15 pounds is that, when you get back, all the movies you just watched in theatres (and loved) are about to come out on dvd. Fuck. Yeah.

Some awesome shots from the filming of Star Wars.

So, "mad science", you say?!



That is the kind of awesome shit I'd like to do with my life. (I must say, though, that the closest I've ever come was destroying an antique rusted oven with a sledgehammer. Also fun, except for the part where the paint chips were popping off the bent metal everywhere...)

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT HOLY CRAPCAKES. NIGHTMARES. NIGHTMARES BEYOND BELIEF.

Jesus, it's about time! They better make these. Not that I'm planning to buy any, but, yeah...

Oh, James Cameron. I thought I couldn't hate Avatar any more, but I was wrong. You think you're God's gift to cinematography when really it sounds like you're just a rich bully. I kind of want to go see Pirahna 3D, even if I hate it, just to fucking spite you. Goddamn.

BUT THE GOOD NEWS? Rick Moranis may come out of retirement for Ghostbusters 3. HELL. FUCKING. YES. As long as this shit is better than the game (a bit repetitive story-wise, in relation to the movies). Also, I thought we were already clear that Oscar is Venkman's? There's some banter toward the beginning of the second one that that is what I took away from it.

OH HEY THERE BLACKBEARD. Why the fuck don't you have cannon fuses in your beard?! Jesus, the man should look MUCH more epic than that. For god's sake his body circled his ship seven times before sinking after he was beheaded! (Fuck yeah pirate lore.)

Chewie: not nearly as adorable as Winnie. But still hilariously adorable.

Here! Have a picture of Viggo the Carpathian.

Okay, now, look. I am all about crazy costumes but I don't even know what's going on here.



So adorable.

If the world is making you feel weary (although I don't see how that's possible after all those adorable kitties), I prescribe this.

Next video: An apparently sanctioned-by-Lucas video about the dumping of Jabba's cargo. With a creepy animation of Han Solo. (BUT I SAW THAT RAIDERS REFERENCE. I SAW IT.)

...Definitely thought it was going to be something like River Tam in the box though, the shape was eerily similar.

Heheheh kitty parkour.

HOLY SHITBALLS this woman has completely missed the point of feminism. Oh my god this article is rage-inducing. OH. MY. GOD.

Good news, videogamers! Playing video games enhances decision-making skills. That is, it enhances your ability to make choices faster.


Oh! An antibiotic-resistant superbug. Awesome. This may be our downfall. However, if you're worried about the apocalypse, I just thought you'd like to know that science seems sometimes straight-up fictional. I know a lot of zombie movies/novels/etc. lately have been leaning on diseases like ebola, mad cow disease, or other things to explain the basis for the disease. So here's a crazy fact: mad cow disease causes cattle's eyes to glow. WTF.

Rechargeable cars are less hurtful to the environment than gas, even if charged using "dirty fuel". And it's crazy, if it could charge using renewable sources--solar, wind, etc.--it's FORTY PERCENT cleaner than a gas-using car. Holy shit. Why is the world so resistant to changing how we use our resources? :(

(Answer: laziness, greed, but it still pisses me the fuck off.)

I read an article the other day about how an old solar panel from the White House was rediscovered, and some students, led by Bill McKibben, took it to the White House to see if they would take it back as a symbol of good faith and an attempt to move conservation forward in the eye of current US politics. Some of the statistics were incredibly impressive--like the fact that seed sales increased by 30% the year Michelle Obama was promoting her White House garden. But the kids were taken into a "war room" and basically told no. The whole thing made me so sad, particularly because I remember McKibben speaking to my freshman class on his book we all read, and because we were stuck in a hot, sweaty gym with a rather heavy book (as in, the material, not the book itself), he kind of got ignored by most people. And trying to sort out the fifty interested students in a room of 1000 or however many it was is not really a simple task. Anyway. The whole thing just makes me depressed for the state of our politics. I don't understand why people want to spend so much money on stuff and on keeping things the way they are instead of helping people who need help, helping the WORLD that needs help. I don't know. Maybe that's my bias of too many years of marianist catholic education speaking. I'm too hopeful, I suppose.


Cats drawn as Marvel characters! Adorable. And hilarious. Particularly Spidey and the Sandman.

OKgo's new video to encourage the adoption of shelter pets. Amazing as usual.

Surprise! Facebook is fucking with you again. And this is why I keep all my info private except to people I know.

NEWSIES IS GOING TO BROADWAY, hilariousyesfantasticyesssss.

If superheros were hipsters. I particularly like PBRman. Also I feel like Spiderman isn't that far from Tobey McGuire Spiderman because DEAR LORD DO I HATE HIM. (Also, LOL at Aquaman--Northwesterners are a silly people. I learned that this summer.)

Mysterious civilization hidden in the Amazon--I think this is the same thing (SPOILER ALERT!) Lost City of Z talks about. BUT NOBODY KNOWS. It's fascinating.

Carnivorous plants dwndling across US; I wonder if this might have anything to do with all the bugkiller sprays we use? (No idea, just a thought.)

Shark attack survivors team up to save sharks.

ATHLETE'S FOOT MEDICATION COULD CURE WHITE NOSE SYNDROME! Finally, a hint of good news on that front.

Bug people are crazy. So are geologists.

Some foreign memes for you. I particularly like Makmende, for some reason. I suppose it's like Chuck Norris, but cooler, because Chuck Norris has kind of turned out to be a douche. (Clint Eastwood = cooler than Chuck Norris.)

A really good article about building the mosque. It sums up my feelings on the subject pretty well.

Where can you find Ned and Chuck, Henry Jones (Sr.), and (old school!) Zaphod Beeblebrox? Cons, of course. (Those PD outfits are fantastic, though, seriously.)

Interesting bit of Raiders trivia.

Oh my god, remember the ad for Iron Man 2 where Pepper smooches Tony's helmet, and it wasn't in the movie, and everybody got upset? I present to you--THE ALTERNATE OPENING:



(Fan. fucking. tastic. Why did they not do this one, now?)

And another fantastic short.


Star Wars yoga, absolutely hilarious. And rather clever.

Obscure Taco Bell trivia! A.k.a. the random shit I will bring up in conversation that may eventually lead to me singing the Gordita Anthem. This, in fact, happened this week despite me finding the article months ago, although it did not lead to Gordita-anthemizing, which is a shame.

Here is a fantastic interview with Patrick Stewart, and within it is a fantastically creepy tidbit of their interpretation of Macbeth, ( which I am cutting for the rare case of spoilers )

Is that not fantastically Halloween-y in the best manner? It absolutely is.

First of all, this article is rather old. Second, I doubt it is more than tongue-in-cheek coincidence, and three, Hex of the Hydra sounds godawful. Like the books series.

OH MY GOD. So I was watching the new Sherlock Holmes (not for the first time), but I also decided to watch the bonus material. Apparently they decided Jude Law was more of the ladies' man than RDJ, so they took to calling him Hotson on set.

omg. Hotson.

I can't even. It's hilarious. Anythus.


Much like Rule 34 of the internets, I surmise there must be a similar rule about blogs and personal interests. If you have thought of it, someone, somewhere, has already posted about it online. There is a cool blog called Strange Maps that posts, well, non-generic maps. This particular post has some interesting material on worldviews. It's rather fascinating, but my main point of this whole thing is that the Bulgarians think Poles are all sexy fembots.

I. Don't. Even. Know.






What I do know is that I need to post things more often because I have AT LEAST this many more links piled up in my Google Reader waiting for me to take action. And FIVE MORE old posts on my desktop from before I left this summer! Luckily those posts actually have some real content, like some book reviews.

So, real stuff now, we went to the Yellow Springs Street Festival today. I got an awesome monster shirt, a necklace for my medusa costume, and a beaverfelt antique collapsible tophat! The sad part is I got home and realized the tophat is too small :( BUT I refuse to get rid of it for the time being. I also walked RIGHT PAST Dave Chappelle without even noticing at first, who was saying that the street fair was "like Yellow Springs normally, but gayer". Which... I don't know what that means? Because it's almost the opposite. All the out-of-town people come to visit for the day, so the percentage of hippies is decreased by at least some...

Also my sister finally found the CORRECT version of the Taco Bell Gordita Anthem (thank you, 1998) and I downloaded it for the sake of posterity. POSTERITY I TELL YOU.



(begins at 1:40ish if it doesn't play correctly.)

[EDIT] If I had been paying attention or had any creative/organizational method of linkspamming (Captain Obvious Hint: I don't) I would have posted the Ghostbusters/Rick Moranis thing followed by the carnivorous plants thing followed by the Newsies thing. Points to you if you know how those three are related.

Alas, I did not, and I also need to post this in the case I missed posting it before:



Also-also, tomorrow is 42 DAY as in, the date is binary for 42 (101010), and it happens only once every hundred years, and tomorrow we are getting together to watch the Hitchhiker's Guide movie, probably have a Vogon poetry reading, and get our brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick. Coincidentally that is the name of my ipod and there will be no citruses anywhere near my electronics, thankyouverymuch. (I've taken to naming my electronic devices after science fiction things, or other related items; this new lappy is HELPeR486.)

Also-also-also, I am very afraid for this Pan-galactic Gargleblaster recipe, which is, essentially, take Everclear, cut with liquors:

...er, scratch that. I may be looking at the wrong recipe. Anyway, there's a lot of alcohol, plus a little bit of mixers, add olive, et voila.

If I weren't so convinced I'll be smashed rather quickly, I'd throw in a gin & tonic to boot. Maybe I'll pour one out for my gpa who seemed delighted about the affair but clearly can't make it (and probably shouldn't be consuming high levels of alcohols).

Blaaaaaaaaargh. Wow, it's been a busy week. To sum up how mentally exhausted I've been: I had a super-stressful test this morning and it didn't go too badly, so I just told myself since I've been so busy with Hopewalk that I just needed to forget about it, since I had nothing to do in my other two classes for the rest of the day (had tests in those Wednesday)... To the extent that I did. I saw one of my friends at lunch and I was like "Hey! So how'd that test go yesterday?" and she just looked at me. "Diane... That was this morning."

OMG IT WAS. Damn... Next week's only going to be WORSE, too! Ugh, yay.

And you know how busy I've been not getting my fill of (important) news? I missed the fact that EOIN COLFER IS WRITING A NEW HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE BOOK.

NO.

I don't care if Adams' widow asked him to write it (which, by the way, I and everyone I've talked about Artemis Fowl [for the record, I love those books] with thought Colfer was a girl. SO YEAH, ABOUT THAT). Hitchhiker's Guide is pretty much all about Adams' completely bizarre sense of humor. I don't care if it's a decent book! THAT IS NOT THE POINT, I'm sure it's not going to be horrendous. (Well, it could be.) I can't decide what's worse, a decent book that a good amount of people would buy, or a terrible one that no one wants but is still kind of a black mark on Adams' collection. I don't know, I just hate sequels written by the not-original authors/writers.

And yes, come bitch to me about how Adams was rewriting his last book anyway! I KNOW. (P.S., Salmon of Doubt was already the next book even though Dirk Gently was in it.)


Just UUUUUUUGH. Hitchhiker's Guide is one of those things where it's just very very awesome and the fandom is by far NOT CRAZY. And I feel like this is just all around baaaaaad neeeews. Godfuckingdamnit.

I think I'm going to have to not buy it, even if it's not bad. It's a matter of Adams' perspective versus other peoples', and I swear to god if this book even gets some lovey-dovey crappy ending with some real moral or something then NO. Adams wrote a bit happier ending for the movie to make up for the ending of the last book (by which I mean the fifth complete one, not Salmon of Doubt), but it was not moralistic or any crap like that. Which honestly really would be the worst worst thing that would happen I think.

But even so, my original thoughts stand and it's good to see other people agree with me and had the same inital thought; if anyone should do it, it should be Neil Gaiman (did you read American Gods yet? seriously), and he's both too busy and too respectful and maybe a little too dark for the part. WHICH I RESPECT AND ADMIRE HIM FOR.

PLEASE NO, EOIN COLFER


Arrrrgh.





So in other news! Southwind's not fielding next year and I now have really *no idea* where to go. Here's my thoughts, and the problem is they're all about balanced in terms of pros and cons. Auuurrrrgghhh.

Troopers: Pros- fun, not stuck up, have a good rep; Cons- flying out to Wyoming once a month, might have an immature group like Southwind was and they were as well.

Crown: Pros- love their music, they're doing really well, and they're really entertaining; Cons- hate their visuals, they might be a stuck-up crowd like PR was.

Glassmen: Pros- local, enjoyable shows; Cons- Carl marched there and might again if he doesn't make Cavvies, Sou taught there for like a month and Sheski made 2nd (and Westy auditioned and didn't make it), I'm not sold on their visuals.

Bluecoats: Pros- good visuals, good music, badass unis; Cons- rep for rowdy behavior, ugly helmets, potential for voice-over.

Vanguard: Pros- good music, good visuals; Cons- flying out to Cali once a month, Sou was a wannabe fanboy for them, and I probably wouldn't even make their junior corps.

Blue Stars: Pros- ...They're from Indianapolis?; Cons- Caleb is a douche, their visuals suck, and so do their uniforms (despite new shoes/pants, oops!).


Yeah, so... literally no idea what I want to do. It's just frustrating all around, blech. And I need to decide *soon*. The ideal thing would be that Madison Scouts would decide to do another Carmen-like show and need a girl to play brass and I would be RIGHT THERE. (Although as long as they let me do the whole show, I didn't really like that they had Carmen only do the middle part. I mean, I know, story-wise, she shows up late for dramatic effect and then dies, but I could not just spend 2/3 of my time not working at a show.) But PFFT like that would fucking happen.

Also, what happens if I decide I like it where I am and Southwind comes back the year after? Yeah. FUCK ALL OF THIS. Why couldn't people appreciate SW for what it was more? I fucking hate all the bandos who are like "OMG I EFFING LOVE CAVVIES" no you don't. Fuck off.

God, I have like a million things I need to post about because I've been so damn busy. BUT tomorrow is the "WTF are you wearing?!" party and I am SO FUCKING PSYCHED because it means I get to whip out THE GAUNTLETS. Oh yes.

And my bowler. I AM SO PSYCHED! (I would let Candice wear my bowler because I trust her with it, and then me wear my fed, but I do not trust anybody at that party to not mess up my fed EVEN IF I'M WEARING IT. Sorry, not doing that to my super-most-prized possession.)


...I need to go find uke tabs for 1000 Miles because it would be fuuuuun. I think I might start keeping track of my uke tabs for songs I know on here just for my own reference and in case the site I use (mostly Ukulele Boogaloo) goes down, as it hasn't been updated in over a year.

[EDIT] According to Yahoo's article, Colfer has been writing this in his head for a while and then got Adams' widow's blessing to do it. SO I'M JUST GOING TO SAY ALL-OUT NO, MM-KAY?

( the article because Yahoo likes to delete them )

[EDIT2] OMG THE NEW JAMES BOND THEME. PRETTY FUCKIN' BADASS

(Listen to it here around 55 minutes in; hard to believe this is the first duet in all these themes.)

A little weirder than I like, but it's got its awesome bits, namely the piano lick and the brass bits. :D Still think I like You Know My Name much better though. So it's... average. Not great, not awful, not gonna stick in my head though...

[EDIT3] I've been way too fucking busy this week/month to make much of an effort for Talk Like a Pirate Day, but I did go to Skyline. Happy Friday! (Also, I'm kind of a Heathen... which won't make sense to anyone on m f-list I don't think... It's a rather large and complicated inside joke.) But my dad did text me "Yarr!" this morning right after seven. Oh dad, I love you, you are so silly. He and I have very similar senses of humor and I love it.

OH GOD THE WEATHER IS AMAZING

I was in a Halloween mood for the past few weeks and now I'm in a CHRISTMAS MOOD just WTF and YAY and OMG STRESS and I have a billion things to blog but I'm soooo busy this week with PoD and Hopewalk and homework and uuuuugh.

BUT. Friday night I'm reserving blog time for myself. And I'm going to watch Shawn of the Dead. This of course all after I go grocery shopping and go home to get clothes for the WTF Are You Wearing Party for SATURDAY omg yay. Can you say tacky Christmas tights + striped socks + swimsuit + nerd scarf + shiny gauntlets + bowler? Oh I think you can. I just need to decide which shoes would be appropriate ;D

IN THE MEANTIME! I am leaving you with this. And now I will commit ritual seppuku with Wastewater homework.



Also, The Beeftrain Incident also made a full-on Mr./Dr. Jones parody (FINALLY, after that short version on College Humor was up forever, but was only like two verses, though I liked the fact it was from Shorty's POV), which makes me excited because I actually have six songs on my non-Williams Indy CD. Actually, non-movie CD, because I don't have stuff like "Wake Up Little Susie" or "Hound Dog" or "Shake, Rattle and Roll" on there either. But I need to.

Also I swear there's other songs that reference Indy that I don't have... and I can't for the life of me recall who the artist was that did Jazz Raiders. Feh...

BUT OMG THE WEATHER, IT'S AMAZING. I loved living in Hawaii but I always completely forget how the fall makes me feel. I can't explain it, it's like I feel like a totally different person, really.

Oh, is anyone else watching Fringe? I don't need to get addicted to another show but it's so awesome and the Dr's combination for his garage lock was 3-1-4-1-5-9 and I LOVE YOU NERD WRITERS, YOU ARE SO AWESOME, SERIOUSLY. :D

WELL HELLO THERE =D

THREEEEEEEEEEDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYS

And do I have a treat for you!

( HAT PICS )


Aaaand guess what else? I got the urge to dress up steampunk the other day. (Did I mention this? Can't remember.) Here is that outfit:

http://mercat.deviantart.com/art/steampunk-villain-roughcostume-85788808

Much love to astrid087 for doing all the cropping and editing because Paint sucks! <3

Well I got home a little late so this is my five daaaaaaays! post. I met up with Johnny at BW3's at Fairfield Commons, and pretty much got seated (and figured out the stupid controller, which wasn't responding at first) just in time to play the triiiiivia gaaaaaaaame! It only lasted a half an hour, which I was kind of surprised. (It was only 15 questions!) They were pretty easy, too. (Yeah... I know... Don't give me that look) But I pwned. Basically, it's the BW3's game where they ask a question and give five answers, and if you answer right right away you get 1000 points per question. As time passes the number of points decreases and they give you three clues progressively. In the end I beat the second highest scorer by about 4000 points. =P

They mentioned Indygear though!!!! =D One of the questions asked what piece of equipment with him at all times (I was like... hat? gun? whip? bag? lol), and the answer was whip (the only other option I remember was nunchuck, which is about as weird as the other options). So after each question they explain the trivia a little more, and they went on to explain it then mentioned you can locate all of Indy's gear at Indygear.com! I was happy.

It was kind of cool, I was answering each question before they even posted the options. =P (It appears as though the first one was the most difficult for everyone else, too. It asked what challenges Indy occurrs in the beginning of Raiders and everybody forgot about the tarantulas. ;D Muahahaha) The only one I couldn't answer right away, they asked what movie other than Star Wars and Indiana Jones starred Ford working with Lucas, and I knew it had to be two of the five answers only because I hadn't heard of the other three. But I didn't know if it was American Graffiti or Apocalypse Now, so I just guessed and got it right. (I... think... I answered American Graffiti.)

But anyway I had tons of fun. And now I'm the second-highest top scorer for that game ever at BW3's Beavercreek, though the scores looked like they were mostly from the past year. =P So if you see Mercat... that's me. =) (Go figure, lol)

Johnny and I just hung out and chatted for a good hour and a half, too, which was good. =P Definitely better than the time we hung out at Wendy's, lol. Apparently they played Raiders music at the concert I missed on Wednesday! WHAAAAAAAAAT! I am so pissed. I HATE YOU, DIRECTOOOOOOOOORS. (Oh no, I wasn't allowed to play it, even though I'm the obsessive one. CURSE YOU ALL)

But yeah, we got some good venting in, too, lol. You know it's a good time when you can sit around and bitch about band drama ;D


Also, I love Craig Ferguson. His sense of humor is just so bizarre. It never ceases to crack me up. (Tonight's a good one, that's why I'm mentioning it.)

I am starting to get really excited for the movie... This is going to be daaaaangerooooous. E];D

OMFG SEVEN DAYS THAT IS ONE WEEK PEOPLE

Aaaaand since I couldn't dress up for hat pics today, I made you all this still life:

http://mercat.deviantart.com/art/Still-Life-Adventure-85705250

Lots of exciting detail discussion posted over there. E];D Enjoy!

Yeah, so, I was all excited to post and then I didn't get enough sleep and I totally passed out on the couch for the entire afternoon. Soooo.

SEVEN "DAYS"! Actually six days but that post will come "tomorrow" after I go to bed. I am still clearly on Hawaiian time. I also have some serious catching up to do but the bonus of the candy marketing is that they come with trivia.

The Snickers Adventure bars are delicious, I love coconut. (Whatever the artificial "spice" is, they don't list it and I guessed before tasting it was cinnamon but I DETECT NOTHING.)

Mint Crisp m&m's are crispy (...in the sense that crispy m&m's are crispy since crispy is not a real word!) and delicious, but, I dunno, the fact that they are mint is a tad overwhelming. I can eat about two and then I'm done. But I suppose that's good because I'm eating severely fewer calories? And they are delightfully crunchy.

Also, I got another Froot Loops spoon. Different box, same red spoon. If anyone sees the trivia poptarts, let me know, or just buy me a box. I CAN'T FIND THEM ANYWHERE

Um, I suppose I could try to make up for today's trivia with the m&m's trivia since it's sitting right next to me: (they call them "arti-FACT"s. cute) The sounds from the mine car chase were from a roller coaster. Cool but not necessarily... trivial? I mean if you said "where would you get the sounds for a cart rolling along tracks" I would guess "a cart rolling along tracks" which pretty much the only thing we have like that nowadays is rollercoasters, amirite?

Yeah, so, hat post tomarrow. (Yeah, tomarrow.)

...I also need to make a greater effort to revert to Ohio non-college time (Ohio college time is roughly equivalent to Hawaiian time, which I technically should refer to as Pacific Time because Hawaiian Time is something altogether different). Um... yeah. It's weird not having a car but I don't have anywhere to do (...today) and gas is expen$ive. Hopefully the locksmith comes tomorrow though because MUST BE AT BW3'S FRIIIIDAAAAY.

In addition, dad fixed my broken front tooth again today. By again I mean he fixed it since the last time I broke it (going to Kauai) but that this isn't the first time I've broken it (October of third grade originally, and once or twice since). It looks much less ridiculous as I no longer appear to be gap-toothed. (Not that I was, but having a broken corner makes it look that way.) Also my teeth are clean, though the hygenist (a new lady? someone I don't know... Barb or something) really went at it and my gums were sore all day and she said I had bad calculus (yeah, calculus, the stuff that's harder than plaque--you think I'm kidding? Look it up) on my lower front teeth. Which, I dunno why, I've been going to the dentist every six months religiously and taking better care of my teeth in the past few years and especially the past few months, because last visit I had to get my back teeth filled because they had deep recesses that were trapping lots of stuff that would lead to CAVITIES. Yuck. So I've been brushing my teeth much better (circles, get the gums, get in back, get the upper back, brush longer) which makes me wonder about the calculus. Or does it just look bad because dad is usually the one who does my cleaning for me? No idea. But seriously she was really having at scraping it and it HURTS. Blech. That is quite possibly one of the nastiest feelings on the planet, being beat only by nails on a chalkboard and chewing on felt (which is the tactile sensory equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. Don't ask me why as I don't recall chewing on felt ever but just think about it, and it makes my teeth crawl).

Anyway. My teeth are clean and looking good again. Well, better. I've never really liked my smile but I have the benefit of good dentistry and no cavities ever. Now if I hold to my resolution to stay and get in shape this summer...

[EDIT] Oops, I confused myself. It's actually "eight days" and "tomorrow" is seven days. Whoops.

Seriously, Ohio, wtf. It's May. BE WAAAARMEEEEERRRRR. I am frickin' freezing my butt off right now. (Apparently I adjusted easily to Hawaiian temps.)

ANYWAY. Today is better. It's 9:35 and I didn't get enough sleep but it's better. I also forgot to come back to post again, heh... I am a failure at posting lately, no? Well I think I mentioned the Letterman thing and new TV spot which made me feel a little better, and then when I went upstairs to bed I noticed my holographic nail polish (which I only use at Christmas) and realized this would be another perfect time to use it. =) And then since I'm still on Hawaiian time I laid in bed for probably an hour trying to be tired and thinking about a steampunk pirate flag design (finally had a good idea) and trying to get a little more excited. I set my alarm (I just use my phone) to the Raiders March (yeah... that's my ringtone) in hopes it would shock me out of bed (which, it hasn't lately), and somehow it worked.

So now I've been up for two hours and I'm at my dad's office waiting for my appointment. I don't know if I mentioned that my sister's been having terrible luck with cars? The dented the Camry twice I think and then the engine in mom's car broke when her best friend started it (last fall) and then in February she spun out and totaled the Camry. So, she jumped on the opportunity to buy a "good" car (aka a fashionable one) and mom and dad said okay as long as it was not all flash and only what the insurance would cover. So a few weeks ago they found a Selica she liked, and bought it. Well, the other day they got it home and my dad got keys copied, and the first ones were crap and didn't work, so he went back to get replacements... and it snapped off in the ignition. So now Laura's new car is sitting in the driveway and she's driving my Ford and I don't have a car. Not that I need one, I don't have any immediate plans, but still. It's so fun to tease her because not much of it was her fault (Carroll's parking lot is BAD, but she did back into my car without looking that one time in the driveway). But I dunno, her Selica kind of scares me. It's a hatchback, with a sunroof, and a thing-I'm-totally-blanking-on-the-name-of (spoiler) on the back, and because it was less than the insurance she's putting the rest of it toward a fancy stereo (HD radio I guess?) and wants to buy some fashion brake lights for $40 off ebay. It just makes me nervous that it's going to get broken into or stolen or it looks sporty enough that she'll just be encouraged to be a worse driver than she already is. (She plays with the radio and talks on the phone [AND TEXTS WTF] too much for my comfort.)

Aaaanyway. Well mom and dad were talking about gas and stuff and they were saying that if I'm going to be driving all over creation (visiting people, going to camps for the next few years, etc.) that they want to look into getting a more reliable car and one with better gas mileage. One of dad's patients is selling a silver Beetle (I used to be obsessed with this blue Beetle at the car lot next to Carroll, but I kind of got over it) that they are considering. I mean, yeah, Beetle, new car, etc. etc. But I dunno, I will miss my Taurus (lots of space for leis, among other things) and also they just strike me as... light. Small. Sort of dangerous. My dad pointed out, well, it's like 14 years newer so there are probably better safety standards, but... did I just imagine the bad accident record? I might have, I don't know. Or that might have been just the first models when they reintroduced the Bugs? Or maybe I just don't want to lose my parrotheadmobile. =( (I... do not have a Jimmy Buffet icon. !) Or maybe they've just lost all their novelty since they were introduced? (Haha, the Pokebug.) Or my taste changed from novelty to classic, because I would take a PT Cruiser any day of the week. (But that has more trunk space, I think, too... Not that I ever need it. I suppose I'm just a bit of an engineer.)

GAH. I don't know. I mean as for getting a new car, it's a nice $7000 Bug, good chance. If I don't take it will I find another good deal? I do kind of dread the jimmybuffettmobile breaking down on me, even though it's My Car.

And honestly, silver is boring, that would need to be remedied. Paint something on the sides or something. Or make it a woodywagon.

Okay well I blogged myself out for a little bit and I'm tired of talking about cars (unless you're going to buy me a '57 chevy), so, I'm audi (yeah, I get that from my dad...) for now.

Back later hopefully with Totally Awesome Hat Pics.

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