mercat | Entries tagged with history

I'll have to come back to that.

You know, after I've found time to hunt down all the opening and closing ceremonies that I mostly missed.

But can we just stop for a minute and say

motherfucking Isambard Kingdom Brunel

and the best part was when all I saw was the highlights and I shouted that name out in the middle of the living room and I was all NO IT CAN'T BE you don't just put the FATHER OF CIVIL ENGINEERING in the middle of a fucking Olympics ceremony but THEY DID and also my entire family was staring at me because one who the fuck is that two what kind of name is that three how the fuck do you just recognize someone like that I DON'T KNOW I'M A FUCKING CIVIL ENGINEER-SLASH-HISTORIPHILE I JUST FUCKING DID

On the one hand, it's this ancient fictionalized culture that is constantly begging for reimagination.

On the other hand, its historicality is... essentially nothing. As far as I understand it, and I need to do more research, but-- it was basically understood to be this joke place that no one took seriously (until much later after the Greeks and Romans, I mean like the 1400s I think?). And as far as I can tell, I do think it was Minoan Crete or something close to there (Mycenae?).

And as fascinated as I am with Minoan culture because of its art and its related mythologies (the minotaur-- not a Minoan story but a later mythology likely based on its existence), it kind of kills my ideas about what Atlantis is.

I'm getting super judgmental about it, too. I have this idea that I can't pin down, and it's really frustrating me, especially in regards to the current project we're doing in studio. We have to build an ancient burial site, but the restrictions are MAJOR, which was frustrating enough. Then I'm trying to find a place for it in my head with an appropriate structural decoration-- no, too Mayan, no, too Angkor Wat, no, too Indian, no, too Dinotopia.

I'm not satisfied. All of these distinct styles and even though I love them, I feel constrained by them. It's the same problem I have with classical Greek (and Roman) styling-- it's overused and too heavily styled.

I think I'm struggling to find my own defined style. Which is proving to be a huge challenge, because I'm trying to remove it from any sense of cultural appropriation or historical basis, but when you can't picture in your mind a place on this planet to put a building... what do you do?! No site, no structure.

I feel like sometimes I'm just slamming my head into a brick wall repeatedly at my own hand and I don't know what to do about it. But it's the only way to move forward?

Addendum: I also can't determine a style to go with an Atlantis that I already have semi-conceived. I have a few ideas, but the whole thing is very nebulous, and it's very hard to define something when your only tools are "definitely not A, B, or C". And as much as, ah, Victorian neoclassical? (not sure what to call it-- think Shedd aquarium) fits into it, I hate some very distinct parts of it and even though Atlantis should be Mediterranean, I HATE GREEK AND ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.

With a burning fiery passion.

fuuuuuck everythiiiiing

Troy Aikman, really? That's an oooold reference.

Also, Go Daddy, go fuck yourself. Your commercials aren't ~clever~ anymore (were they ever?) and we've already found out at least twice this year that you are a total scumbag of an existence.

BATTLESHIP

WHY IS THIS A MOVIE

WHY IS LIAM NEESON INVOLVED

WHAT THE FUCK

I'm ready for some Battleshots though. The entire premise of Battleshots is better than every single idea that went into the Battleship movie. What. Even.

Apparently we are keeping up with this shitty ad scheme.

...Yeah, Budweiser, I'm pretty sure "the end of Prohibition" didn't bring forth bottle openers covered in dust.

I am liking this recent trend of classical music pieces in ads, though. It brings my entertainment level up a significant notch.

Disney, what the fuck is John Carter? That just looks like a whole pile of Avatar-ripoff fail. Which, if I may remind you, is a whole pile of appropriative, racist, ableist fail already.

aaaaaand I am already sick of reality show ads.

The quality of this year's superbowl is appallingly low.

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.

Sort of... there are a lot.

I love this Portal shirt but the fact that momentum is retained through portals means that the slinky would not work on those stairs. It's falling farther.

Space Core is Nyan Cat.

I like that this personification of GlaDOS reminds me of Spalko. It's appropriate, in a cold, calculating way.

A pink kitten! Poor little kitten. :C SO ADORABLE THOUGH, SO TINY.

Ohmygod, this is a photograph.

It's Pushing Daisies in real life! Science is cool. Related! Fungus packaging.

I MISSED THIS BY A DAY (a month ago, but still). Would have been awesome. So many things I love involved!

Some really beautiful math and science behind Tron: Legacy.

More later as I keep cleaning...

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.

I'm actually liking this daily challenge thing. Some days I'm a little busy to catch it in time, but for the most part, I'm actually making daily posts. :D SUCCESSFUL POSTING IS SUCCESSFUL.

Today's! My favorite subject to study... Man, I don't know. I love learning. I don't always love lectures, or homework, but I love the sense of accomplishment from understanding something, and the perspective you gain from it. I love love love reading. In case you couldn't tell from the fact that I probably spend a minimum of $50 every time I hit the bookstore... which is like once a month. And the fact that I spend sooooo much time online reading blogs. I LOVE INFORMATION. I think it's all one of the reasons I chose engineering--not just so I could get paid more for doing technical stuff (which I'm actually starting to think I might hate, as a job)-- but so I could have that background and understanding. Math and engineering and physics can be challenging, but once you understand it it's kind of amazing, the way you can see patterns. However, I'm not good at learning from proofs or methodologies; I sort of work from multiple examples, working my way through them to understand the subtle differences. This poses a problem wherein most engineering professors don't like to do tons upon tons of examples, I don't have the time to be in their office hours all day long, and the textbooks aren't much better (they usually just have one or two examples).

I like history, but I've found that challenging, too. I was fascinated by ancient history when I was really young-- Native American, Egyptian, Greek, Hawaiian (I remember checking lots of books on those topics out in gradeschool)--but I found learning American history out of a textbook difficult because our textbooks were written really poorly. This continued into high school where I already didn't have a great sense of world history, but I gleaned a little bit here and there except European History with the best history teacher I've ever had. He told events like stories, and would sort of reenact them with the help of his "time machine" (his closet), which often contained props like Napoleon's really cheap bendy plastic sword. He would often stop his storytelling at the MOST EXCITING PARTS, glance at his watch and tell us, "oh, looks like we're out of time!" There was one day, I believe, he was "out of time" with 20 or 30 minutes left in class. SO RIDICULOUS. But to this day I still remember the whole crazy story of Rasputin's death and the Russian royal family's deaths. And why everyone thought Rasputin really was a holy man (from either heaven or hell) by withstanding poison and being shot only to drown. (I think. He might have also survived drowning and then died of hypothermia or something...? Okay, wikipedia tells me he did die from drowning, but what I was forgetting was that he was beaten and secured before being thrown in the river, but then broke free of these bonds to then drown.) ANYWAY.

College history is a lot better, because we had a "World-War-II-In-One-Lecture-Using-Only-Battlefront-Maps-of-Europe" day, which gives just the kind of summary on the war that our crappy textbooks lacked that is kind of like a five-sentence-outline version of the politics of the time and let me start placing events within that timeline. Honestly, whoever wrote the textbooks we used in gradeschool and highschool needs to reevaluate their methods. The problem is, they told history like a bunch of individual stories, which makes it very difficult for someone with no overarching view to tie them together. There were basically no ways for me to string everything together into one timeline, at least, not well. BUT. Strangely, I got another good "summary" of globalization through Hawaiian and Pacific history, strangely enough--because it's essentially watching undiscovered lands mature into modern countries in less than two centuries. A century and a half, even. Not to mention, the Pacific was a significant part of WWII, which is a good education on the Japanese side of things rather than the standard Nazi/European focus.

I also like art, because it gives more relationships for history, and understanding the context of famous art pieces makes them a lot more meaningful. Although I now find Warhol annoying. I understand his intent but him, personally... he seemed kind of pretentious in his videos when we studied him. Like the forefather of Hipsters. (For srs.) Also, art history also makes you more prone to getting into discussions about the meaning and value of art (see: trivia night two weeks ago, haha!).

(For the record the argument was whether or not modern art is worthless. My position is that modern art is much more meaningful than other art because it is completely expressive at it is freed from the necessitation of replicating life exactly--that is, the invention of the camera and video, etc. allows for much more "creation" in art. The opposition was saying that this is pointless because you aren't simply looking at something, the art is in the emotion or the context, which isn't the art itself. SO. LET IT NOT BE SAID MY ART HISTORY MINOR WAS EVER COMPLETELY WORTHLESS.)

So! What have I covered so far? Math, physics, engineering, history, art... Music? Music is my-life-outside-of-design. I could do it as a career if it were the right thing. I miss marching and I don't know what I'm going to do without anymore marching band... ever. Although I am taking tap next semester, so, currently, dance is my closest-approximation-replacement. And tap is percussive, so it's closer than, say, ballet, which I can't watch anymore BECAUSE THE DANCERS DON'T MOVE NECESSARILY WITH THE MUSIC /rant

Okay. Am I missing anything else? Oh! English (and languages). I love grammar, and spelling, although that is something my gradeschool also taught poorly that I picked up in high school better. One, because I was learning a new language as well, so there was a focus on grammar, and two, because we learned to diagram, which is also a focus on grammar, and it's basically all like one big puzzle. Now if only I could do better with strange verb conjugations! OH, SUBJUNCTIVE/PRETERITE/IMPERFECT/ETC TENSES. (I also miss learning languages.)

Uh... earth sciences? I guess that's what's left? Also fascinating. I love nature. I find psychology fascinating. Astronomy is SO COOL. It probably helps that my parents are doctors, so my sister and I got a lot of weird biology talk (and a lot of big words) and a pretty good grasp on some areas of science when we were young. BUT, my gradeschool had a completely awful science teacher for 6th/7th/8th grades (shared teacher), so that wasn't great either. Although our books were at least better, more diagrams, more straightforward, so I could at least self-educate to some degree. Now, another topic for another day, our lack of good science communication is evident in science fairs in gradeschool and highschool, because my version of "original experiments" were never quite on par with what they wanted. I still don't understand what they wanted. Because it wasn't a demonstration of a principle, but my ideas were more often too strange to be taken seriously, it seemed.

My science fair projects throughout the years: whether people could actually tell the difference between cola brands, whether kids carried too much in their backpacks, whether cat saliva prevented germ growth (e-coli or streptococcus? or both? can't remember], whether edible fauna (a.k.a. pansies) contains vitamin C, and whether fake or real wine corks do a better job of preventing germ spoiling of wine. I'm missing seventh grade's project... I don't recall at all, really. At any rate, these projects were all off the wall because everything else I had come up with would have "been done before" (meaning my teacher didn't really want me to do that specific project, although they never really gave much advice as to what exactly I could do to improve it) so my methods were always slightly bizarre, and my data was never quite clean enough, and other than the science geniuses who managed to do amazing things (these are the people who make it to international science fairs, I mean) A LOT OF PEOPLE BULLSHITTED THEIR DATA. And got better grades because of it, because their presentations were easier when they didn't have to answer difficult questions about their data's subtleties. So basically despite the fact that "the data you get doesn't have an effect on your final grade", meaning, let science do it's job and don't force a proof of your hypothesis, I generally got fucked over by being honest. Yes, I'm still bitter about this. WHY? Because ethics are important to me. Because human treachery starts early. Because I get punished for being honest. Because my generation clearly doesn't have a problem with cheating and lying to get themselves out of a challenge. FUCK IT ALL I'M SO GODDAMN BITTER ABOUT THIS SHIT.

Sorry to give this a turn for the sad for a moment, but I really don't tend to trust a lot of people my age, and this shit is why. (On the other side, I trust them more on the technical side than I trust myself because, unless I feel I can do something perfectly, I feel very unsure of myself and second-guess myself to no end.) Same kind of shit even happened on retreats! One of my many disillusionments with faith--all the people who act like their religiosity made them so much better than everyone else, when they couldn't even set aside their phones and cd players and everything else for our week of poverty. (To the point that there were prank calls and a string of tampons and pads let down from our room to the guys' quarters. Complete bullshit for a whole week.)

ANYWAY I LOVE LEARNING BUT DON'T TRUST PEOPLE MY AGE. They are not above buying their way out of things. =/

I kind of want to do an anonymous study of gradeschoolers and see how many bullshit their data now. Ugh.

(This is why I've started to think I don't really want kids--I look at adorable babies and toddlers and think, "some day you are going to be an asshole.")

I may or may not be a horrible person.

BUT I LOVE LEARNING :D

Oh, I guess, in terms of "favorite subject", specifically, I guess I could say marching. Because drum corps is my life, and I don't know what I'm going to do without being able to do it any more. (Teaching is definitely not the same and I don't necessarily have the desire to be a music teacher. Although I could do visual, but it's still not the same as competitive marching.)

HA, day two of the prompts and I already missed it. Fair enough, though, I worked my ass off on homework and studying for a test. Anyway, yesterday's and today's prompts:

I have my ears pierced twice on each side, but that's it. I don't even wear earrings much now that I don't wear uniforms every day. I don't have any tattoos, and I'm rather up in the air about it. I think tattoos can be very beautiful, and I know exactly what I'd get first if I sat down to get one (sabers). However, I know there are other things in my life I value as much and I'd want to plan out the whole tattoo a lot more, plus I hear they're rather addictive, and on both fronts I don't really want to be covered in tattoos. Furthermore, I am super sensitive to pain sometimes and I don't think I'd last long during the sitting. Also, if I end up working for Disney, they would all have to be hidden away and the only place I can think of is my back. Which is apparently a more painful place, too. Anyway. So that's my stance on tatoos. (I don't mind designing them for other people, though.) (Also-also, I think smaller gauges look really nice if you wear some of those gorgeous gauges. But the bigger ones usually gross me out a little...)

My favorite television program... hmm. I was a big fan of Pushing Daisies while it was on. Currently I mostly watch Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Venture Brothers, and Chuck. I used to watch a TON of Diagnosis Murder back in the day, and I'll pretty much watch any crime drama (although I haven't been able to get into the new Hawaii Five-0). I think I'm more of a movie person overall. (Also, I just got some Doctor Who dvds from

astrid087 and

dancecat89 just informed me that the Jackie Chan Adventures are on Netflix. So, there's that...)

Okay, I'm sick of this copycat writing. Bleh. And I feel like FDR was a poor choice? Because TR is more of a cultural meme.

...However, I will watch this, probably. :D

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).

Sometimes I agree.

Oh god, it IS horrifying.

When Superman invaded the KKK. Life is awesome sometimes.

hehehehe, space.

This whole thing pisses me off. Yeah, maybe it's a little low-cut for a movie premiere, but it's the preimiere for Kick-Ass, and if you haven't noticed, I'm going to take a stab with the whole hot-pink hair thing and say she probably doesn't give a whit what you think of her. Not to mention, half the headlines talk about her husband (and call her "Mrs. Wossy") despite the fact that she's the fucking screenwriter. And somehow, they pointed this all out and still managed to completely miss the point?! I don't know. I really don't.

Oh, Liam Neeson. I still don't get this movie.

NOOOOO MOUNTAIN DEW THROWBACK TASTES HORRIBLE :C

ICHC is a Mensa favorite site. I don't know if that means they have a sense of humor or they're no better than the rest of us. Oh, humanity. You and your ego.

Old hat, but these George Takei ads creep me out a little. I mean, he's awesome, but his voice is just... weird.

Oh, FUCK YOU, Gizmodo. The dude did not "sneak a peek". HE TOOK A FUCKING PICTURE. (Oh, and remember, these are impossible to misuse, remember? At least it didn't take long. Maybe they'll realize what a dumbass idea these are.)

NOOOOOOOO why do they release all these lovely bright colors after I just got a new lappy?! AUGH. Turquoise or hot pink or lime green or sunset orange would have been SO SUPERIOR to dark blue.

Didn't know there was an Indiana Jones timeline. However, this guy seems thoroughly unamused? I really hate when people get interviewed and respond with stuff like that. At the least, make your answers interesting if you have nothing to add.

FUCK YES TREASURE ISLAND A LA THE NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES. AND APPARENTLY TWO STUDIOS ARE DOING THREE MUSKETEERS.

MOTHA'
FUCKIN'
HELLS YEAH

I really love the English's sense of humor. Or humour, as it were. Anyway, St. George is also the patron saint of... Barcelona? No, Valencia? I think it was Valencia. I remember seeing little Winnie-the-Poohs dressed up as St. George in the Disney Store in Valencia. I really wish I had bought one now, that would just be too awesome.

Heheheheheh.

Alot is cute. Actually, a lot of today's post is going to be cute.

An adorable painting otter!

Indiana Bones and the Temple of Groom! Adorable.

WW3 reimagined propaganda posters. Love them.

DUDE SOME GUY BUILT A JARVIS. AND HE'S OPEN-SOURCING IT. I'MMA GONNA GIT ME ONE BRB

Oh-ho, Six Hugh Jackman period films that can be watched as Wolverine prequels. YES. Except don't go get that version of Oklahoma, it's horrible. Aunt Eller is the only one who doesn't have a horrible American accent. It's painful.

So this is kind of crazy. It's kind of awesome, because it's like HEY LOOK ALIENS TAUGHT US EVERYTHING WAIT I TOTALLY GOT YOU DIDN'T I? It's called a coincidence. A CRAZY coincidence, and an awesome one.

Well, this is... interesting... (

astrid087 that one's for you... sort of.)

Beard trustworthiness scale, although they're forgetting a lot of important ones, like the fact that Charlie Chaplin isn't evil and Groucho has a rather famous 'stache, too.

7500 online shoppers unwittingly sold their souls! AWESOME. :D

Everybody's got a baby kangaroo! Right?

Well, you know... I want one now... :3

Looking at this image and watching Ghostbusters at the same time is creepy. If you imagine that cloud is an ever-growing cloud of Gozerian power and escaped ghosties, it's a little unsettling. Then again, as awesome as Ghostbusters is, since I've been playing the game it's become legitimately creepy. D: In a good way, though, it just makes the movie even more awesome. And I really hope they do make a third one now and that it's superb. Also, I never really noticed how amazing the soundtrack is before playing the game.

Speaking of soundtracks, Rocky & Bullwinkle has a great soundtrack but as a story suffers from being a product of the late 90's. Or early 00's. Anyway, it's more than a little bad, not to mention the animation of the cartoon... painful. Egh. However, it kind of serves to remind me how awesome the George of the Jungle movie is, that one is truly great.

The internet/home computer, as imagined in 1969:

Awesomesauce.

Can you imagine how you would feel if you were that officer? Shit.

Oh shit it's the 15th anniversary of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland! Sometimes it's so completely surreal that this ride is so young. Sadly, I don't think they'll bring out any really awesome new souvenirs until next year (which will be the 30th anniversary of Raiders).

Actually, just yesterday my mom and I were talking about how shocking it is to think that the "anti-vaccine" thing has only been around TEN YEARS. You'd think it's the kind of anti-intellectual argument that was maybe around pre-internet, say, from the 80's, but no, it's from like 2000. That's just crazy to me. (Thankfully, that douche got unpublished and there was only ONE paper ever published in the first place. I think they maybe even revoked his license to practice? Or tried to? Anyway, yeah, douchery.)

And finally, a literary crossover containing two of the most famous and renowned authors who ever penned the written word-- I present to you, "Green Eggs and Hamlet".

OH MY GOD, I am such an open source science nerd. I mean, science is so expensive and in some instances there is just so much data to be processed (or unavailable due to number of researchers) that stuff like SETI and folding@home and that Mars or moon game or whatever it was that NASA came out with that I totally forget right now just makes me happy inside. Anyway. Jellywatch, a "social networking" open source method for collecting jellyfish data. (Well, any "unusual marine life".)

ISN'T THAT FUCKING AWESOME, you bet your damn ass it is.

Oh god, Viacom, wtf. I don't even know.

Updated Milgram's torture experiment used on French television. Just actually learned about this in Psych, it kinda makes me feel justified in not trusting people. Kind of. Anyway, the data is disturbing as shit, not to mention the effect to which peer pressure plays an effect. I mean, we already know (sadly, this is also in the news) that peer pressure drives people to horrible options like drugs and suicide and all sorts of other bad decisions (fashion standards vary reader by reader), but the fact that people are willing to torture other people to the possible point of death is just crazy. You know you'd like to think you'd be different but how do you know? The best I can offer is that I'd be more particular about the questions I'd ask and the objectives of the testing, but I have the advantage of a pretty decent higher science education and I think way too much so with studies I'm always trying to figure out what they're after. One because I'm curious and two so I can more accurately answer the questions in the method I think is accurate. Anyway. Roles can be intimidating (official, peers, et cetera) and this test, if nothing else, is sure as hell proof. Questioning authority can be a good thing.

I'm sorry, but all those pictures of "trees" and "dust particles" and things on Mars creep me the fuck out because they look like horrible skin diseases. Can't you just imagine parasites under that skin with some necrotic tissue (the gray areas)? Yeah... fukken GROSS.

Hard to believe at one point I wanted to be a veterinarian, jesus christ.

Well, many days late to Ada Lovelace Day, but here is a lovely article about Cindy Cohn, a woman involved with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I admire people who can argue technical knowledge to people with nontechnical education, mostly because my engineering professors are not those people. And let's face it, I have more of an artistic mind than an analytical one (though I'm thankful I can handle the analysis at all, if I were graduating as a straight-up architect right now I'd be SO FUCKED in the job market).

Oh god, Ottowa, really? It's time like these I'm thankful for the bill of rights which encouraged such lovely things as freedom of the press and the like. Because, you know, photography is dangerous.

This is completely fascinating but it makes me wonder if some people have greater sensitivity to mid-scale pitches than others. When I listen to songs (pop, musicals, doesn't matter, anything really) I could swear I hear semi-glisses and mid-tones that other people don't bother singing when they're humming a tune or doing karaoke or something. And I'm talking about people who were in the musicals or are in band. (Although not always, sometimes it's just a matter of people simplifying sheet music too much so that it follows the composition and not the recording most people are familiar with, ohmygod I am looking at you crazy lady that wanted us to sing our graduation tune LITERALLY. So oversimplified, fuuuccckkkk)

Internet censorship harms schools! Is it really any surprise that any type of censorship is harmful anymore? People NEED to be educated (and if the situation necessitates it, punished for willfully breaking rules). That is the only way that people will grow. Well, experientially, not biologically, obviously.

Isn't this the plot for that Julia Roberts movie? Honestly I think this just shows the creativity of the writers (in their willingness to present it, I mean, not necessarily "originality", as it clearly is an existant problem) as well as kind of not ceasing to prove that we need more basic technology education. Most of what I know I've picked up from the internet and I read a shit-ton more (read: spend more time on the internet) than most people I know. And I am apparently "very good with computers". (Which actually means I know how to Google For Diagnoses. [Diagnosises?]) Which is bullshit, I really don't know much about their operation. Anyway. My point is, if you have sensitive information, don't trust technology. At this point criminals should realize that "older" technology is probably almost safer at this point because some of the technology or applied knowledge to trace certain things like that is rather obscure in most people's minds these days or is just completely without people's realm of experience. Crazy, huh? (And before you wonder why I think of things like this, it's definitely because I read too many detective novels as a kid. You have to think like a thief to catch a thief.)

Oh man, number seven makes me laugh. I remember reading about that (though the social implications were probably beyond my understanding at that point) and at the moment it makes me glad that people were willing to write in and tell the other folks they're full of crap (ignoring the fact that it was a prank, of course).

Did I mention that I bought awesome spectator shoes yesterday? Because I totally did.

We also went on a bike ride, and the extreme wind (due to onsetting rain) fantastically fucked up my knee again. It seems to be healing faster, though, so... here's to hoping? I'd like to actually ride all of TOSRV this year and fuck youuuu Laura for wanting to sag part of it because I DON'T WANT TO SAG AT ALL.

TESLA DRUNK HISTORY, fuck yes. Looking at Drunk History's youtube channel it appears that there are other videos with Zooey Deschanel and such that were supposed to show up on HBO in February? And I haven't heard anything about them since which makes me sad. =(

Also, totally loling over Crispin Glover as Edison. Hahaha, fucking slick-ass bastard.

Speaking of slick bastards, check out Copenhagen over here. Sweet, no? Hell yeah.

This video is hypnotic and creepy at the same time. I'll just leave that there.

OH HAI INDIANA JONES SPECIAL ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL

SUPA AWESOME

Unfortunately when I search their schedule for re-runs they aren't listed in the next few months. Alack.

I Put in Five Miles at the Office
( article )

GOD, IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME

I've been looking for something similar for aaaaages, and I was considering just engineering my own tv/compy hookup for the treadmill we already have. I still think we can get some battery-charging or something out of it, too. WASTED ENERGYYYYYY

The RCA Dome gets deflated September 24

Boo :C I will still call Lucas Oil the Dome, I don't care!

I like Bosch, but this is pretty cool. A guy is repainting classics without living figures. It's sort of creepy, too.

So you know that awesome uke song I linked the other day? Well I found the original song, which interstingly enough is not from a musical. I am ABSOLUTELY NOT linking the original because the girl's voice is SO FUCKING ANNOYING (you can find it if you're that curious), I am not kidding. But here's a pretty good cover, minus the totally ridiculous dancing, and plus an AWESOME SCORE. As annoying as I'm finding the original song at the moment, I cannot help but think it would make an AWESOME drum corps show.

Hilarious history. You should read it.

And I know watching this will make you smile, AT LEAST once.

Damn, I have been busy lately. Recruitment chair + Hopewalk chair + overly busy POD year + total bitch prof for wastewater = Diane not getting any sleep, yeah?

I have an entire page in my art history notebook full of things I've meant to talk about, just thoughts that strike me about life or me or things in general. I think this happens more in art classes because we're analyzing the art in relation to how people look at life.

And I keep wondering stuff about why I particularly enjoy surrealism and fantasy art as opposed to other movements (perhaps disregarding art nouveau and art deco as those are styles rather than movements?), especially with respect to Yukio Ozaki (my ceramics prof from last semester)'s comments about not crafting, but making art. I don't know, I sort of have a problem with that.

I feel like despite the fact that yesterday was possibly the worst day ever and it fried my brain so much (probably from crying out of frustration? I definitely was >this close< to snapping all day long, so I definitely cried enough), I am still having a good year. Wednesday was an AMAZING day because the weather was cool and GORGEOUS, and we had a little Chaminade meetup which was all nice and emotional and warm fuzzies and that sort of deal. But the weather the most reminded me that for some reason, even as beautiful as Hawaii was, there's something about the fall that I can't grasp or describe that is absolutely perfect. I just get this feeling of perfection when the weather gets that way... It's beautiful. And then yesterday was a total bomb (minus the LHC not blowing shit up, lol) but today I was happy again. I don't know why, because I didn't get to sleep in or anything. But then going home for dinner listening to the radio I just realized that music, especially radio music for some reason, never fails to make me happy. It brings me back to some sort of happy time, I'm not really sure what; I'm consciously reminded of different high school events but it's not that, it's more of a subconscious happiness with a little of that reminiscence thrown in. So, I don't know. Hopefully tomorrow is a good day, too.

By the way, September 11th totally snuck up on me, as did Talk Like a Pirate Day. So I watched a History Channel special which made me cry, which I'm glad it did because it kind of helps me realize how big that was, which I don't think I understood at the time. I mean, being an emotional person, I was upset and it was obviously devastating, but I didn't understand the impact. I forgot my cousin's aunt worked at the Pentagon, and I didn't really comprehend, I don't think, that this was the first attack ever on American soil. (Blah blah blah Pearl Harbor HAWAII WAS NOT A STATE THEN) BUT. Yeah. Despite the fact that everyone hates that it gets used politically as an excuse for everything, I'm glad people still take the time to teach everyone and remind everyone what it means.

And now, I think I'm going to go listen to For the Fallen, and wish I had our original recording of because I think there was more passion in it, but I need to post a recording of it or something, because it's an amazing song written by a local composer about 9/11. Anyway, yeah.

And life goes on.

So I was just scrolling through my last posts on the main page and noted that the big bad thing that might have been headed my way is currently on delay, hopefully until a time when it is no longer such a big bad thing. =)

You know what I find to be one of the weirdest things? I want to say "when younger people die" but that's not the weird part. When a person dies, and they leave behind their facebook or their livejournal or whathaveyou. I mean it doesn't really matter what age they are, it's just weird. Because that part of them is frozen in time, and it's like another face, but one that isn't dead, just permanently stopped. For example this kid who went to my gradeschool hanged himself last year, and it's just weird to see posts on a facebook go from "hey X! how've you been [insert inside joke] lol you're crazy" to "you were a good guy, I'm going to miss you" or the even weirder (to me) third person "X was a great guy and I wish we'd had more time with him." Because then you are adressing him, his digital online self, but you are talking about him and not to him.

Yeah... I don't know if that made any sense to you. It just reminded me of a journal someone posted a long long time ago about a LJ user they knew who they thought committed suicide. Someone they did not know at all in real life, and never heard from again. And it's weird because the journal just sits there, not updating. (Although it might be weirder if it did update, you never know, haha.) But I mean, what happens? In 200 years if humanity's still around and our life length is about the same, what are companies like facebook and livejournal going to do with all these old pages? Probably delete them, but that's weird to me because it's practically living history. It's basically history unaltered. And honestly I think it'd be pretty cool to go digging through abandoned LJs for facts from the past, you know? On a related but tangential note: friending your parents/children on facebook? Kind of weird. It's just kind of one of those "they are creepy or trying too hard to be cool" type situations. I mean rarely there are parents who actually fit in with that scene, but generally not. In this case I told my mom to set up a facebook so she could see pictures when I post them, but I would block a lot of stuff. Not because it's bad, but... I dunno. It's weird to me? Maybe I'm just too paranoid about Big Brother type situations.

But back to the subject: This is the whole thing that started it (sort of). And apparently the girl who died wants everyone to wear their favorite shoes to her funeral. I can't quite explain why this sort of thing makes me feel relaxed, because death is really a big thing for me. (Look here, I almost cried in Indy IV and they only even MENTIONED that someone had died.) (By the way I plan on digging out my favorite pair of shoes to wear as well, just because. Guess sort of a Memorial Day thing. I have no idea which ones are my favorites though, maybe my LLAMA SHOOOOES) But it just reminds me of what my dad said about getting old, that he doesn't want to just sit around in a retirement home with the TV on. I remember him saying he wanted drum corps music blasted as loud as possible (because he'll be pretty deaf anyway), and I can't remember if he said it or if I made it up but that he wanted a model train running around the room. I also remember him saying he wants a HUGE crazy party when he dies, with all the family and friends, I think maybe just because it's an excuse for a party, and he doesn't want us to be sad. (When I think about things like that, it makes me wonder how religious my parents are. I mean my mom is away at a retreat but I've always got the impression from my dad that he doesn't really care as long as you're being nice to someone, except that he goes to mass every week and encourages Laura too as well. I dunno. I want to know but at the same time I can see it getting very awkward in any type family situation if they knew I was semi-agnostic. Seriously, you have no idea how big of a pressure point religion is in my family. Pretty much automatic HUGE FIGHT if it's us and my cousins and my grandparents.) ANYWAY, and then the other day we went to visit Nana and Papa's graves (and George's, and Grandma/Grandpa's parents, I forget which, the Cwioks) and we were talking about how we wanted to be buried. Laura started it like she always does, being cynical, but I can't remember exactly what she was critiquing. But I mentioned that I'd like my organs to be donated and the rest of it put to science and if I didn't die in any unusual way then to be buried in a natural way, just the pine-coffin-in-the-dirt thing. Put what you can to good use and the rest of it let it go back into the system. I really see no benefits to locking my body up with a bunch of preservatives so I can look good as a DB (lol) hundreds of years from now, whoopdefreakingdoo. I'd rather be remembered for what I did (crazy architecture? something awesome and Disney/COSI-like? something House On the Rock-ish?) and maybe have a wacked-out grave marker. Maybe.

Also, this topic always reminds me of my bequests from my senior year of Carroll when I was getting "killed" by the bass drums and all my stuff was going to band kids. ;) All I remember is like crazy socks to Alicia and my visor to Domer. Lol. Good times. (It also makes me usually think about exercising more so I can still maybe even run when I'm ooooold.)

And now for something completely different. Does anyone know how Burger King runs their toy promotions? I got the ant-box about two weeks ago (that thing actually surprised the shit out of me because I wasn't paying attention when I opened it) and then the boulder on Tuesday, and then the whip yesterday and today. After going from boulder to whip so fast I was kind of excited it was random because then there was less chance I missed the ones I wanted, but I don't know. Hopefully they will just show up at garage sales and stuff for super-cheap. ;D (The blacklight journal is my #1, and then the two temple-things. The others aren't particularly interesting.)

[EDIT]Woah, the monarchy of Nepal is now gone, it's Communist. Totally random but we had the princess of Nepal visit my first grade class. ( the article because yahoo deletes them )

I forgot, we totally learned about a English architect/designer in History of Furniture today called Inigo Jones. Walter was all "not Indiana Jones" and I just smiled to my dumb self because I was wearing my QC Dashing Hat shirt today. Hee. That can count to back up my 65-day post for today since it was sort of a double-post about the books. Yaaaayzors! (Which, um, has nothing to do with razors.) Unfortunately, he didn't do anything particularly interesting for me to like.

Also, the thought struck me that good spelling, besides having parents who throw around foreign words in both serious and stupid manner, is probably greatly aided by parents who talk with medical terminology all the time. You get to learn big words and crazy spellings and it's easy to find certain roots.

What does make me wonder is the people who put no effort into foreign words... they don't try to pronounce it, and it's even more confusing when it's phonetic and they don't try to learn how to spell it, either. I kind of lose a little respect for all the Dayton kids in my Hawaiian history classes who confuse all the names but don't put any effort into learning the differences. Yeah, I joke about them all being "K-something" too, but I do at least put in the effort to spell the names correctly even if I have trouble remembering who they are. Because to be honest, I do that with other histories, too. (Ask me in a year if I remember the difference between Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI and I'm pretty sure I will have forgotten most of what I'm learning in History of Furniture right now.)

However. Liliuokalani? Not that hard, people, growthefuckup.

Now French, that's another matter... =P

(I would love to know, from a person who's had to learn French and English as second languages and actually understands languages rather than memorizes them, which is more difficult. There is a good joke my dad has told about all the different sounds for "ough"--through, rough, trough, bough, and I know I'm missing at least one other really weird one...)

I forgot to say earlier that I'm excited for my final project in ceramics. I don't know what my second one will be, but for my first one I've had the idea for a while to do some sort of little shrine. I like the idea of a shrine, just a small note of holiness or sacredness in the middle of something else, sort of like the torii. (Which, incidentally, everyone here [like Waler, who I presume is Japanese] pronounces "tori-i" which I am often tempted to go back and tell Mrs. Steiritz she was pronouncing it wrong.) Anyway, the only problem is that our final projects need to show not only skill but thought and they can't be just some small simple things. Obviously one small shrine is not much to work with, and the only idea I had was that I am kind of fascinated with the idea of the evil eye, because stylistically it's a very beautiful thing, often. So I had the idea to do shrines to the five senses, which got me kind of excited. (Woo, concepts) So I have to figure out a way for them to "fit together" as it were, but I'm going to do five little boxy-shriney things and I have the basic ideas down. For sight, the evil eye, but everything painted on, so you have to use your vision to understand it. For taste, a cup that looks like a shrine, and probably something to do with the layout of the tastebuds. (That idea is kind of weak but I can't think of anything better.) For touch, a box that you can't see what's inside, but you can feel different surfaces and textures. For smell, a cool incense burner. (Got any good ideas on that one? I'd love to do a dragon but that's a bit stereotypical for my tastes.) And for sound, a box that will have a side that can be rubbed like one of those percussion things with the grooves, and chimes hanging inside, and I'm thinking about trying to make a whistle or something and putting it in the box, too.

Good thing is, I have a little more time to work out the design because I have to finish all the galzing with my current slab projects. ;D

[EDIT] Random thought, feel free to input if you know anything, I'm very curious; I like fonts, and I find it fascinating that there are so many ways to express the same number of symbols with it still being understandable. Because I mean, you look at some "g"s and they have the hook, while other ones have that whole loop underneath; and when I first learned cursive a "Q" looked kind of like a "Z", but now it looks like a "Q". (tangent: back to my thoughts about age and education--it's interesting to see older books and see how old and out-of-touch the information is to today. Which makes me wonder about any kids I have/will associate with... what ideas will I teach them that may be wrong, but I learned were right? Like PLUTO IS AN EFFING PLANET. [lol, I am already most defintiely in the Facebook group "when I was your age, Pluto was a planet"] I just think it's a curious thought.) ANYWAY, what about Chinese and Japanese and Korean and those type of languages where there are so many different symbols and every little mark matters? (What do their keyboards look like? I feel stupid and ignorant asking that question, but it's better to ask and show you want to learn, in my opinion, than wait until a later moment to prove you know nothing.) Do they have "fonts", so to speak? Would such stark differences like g's and Q's constitute different words? I mean, it seems like it should, to me, but I don't know any of those languages. I suppose I should ask Emi, she could at least tell me about Japanese.

I think I will do that, yes.

[EDIT2] I am slowly regaining control of my muscles. This is a good thing. (Specifically, upper arm/shoulders.)

Also, I've been forgetting to say that I have actually gained respect for Elvis, because he thought Scientology was a bunch of cultish nutters. And something else, which I'm sure I'll bring up another time, but anyway. Elvis is no longer haunting me, he's decent.

On the other hand, learning about WWII in history has been interesting. I did not know they did lots of nuclear testing on Christmas Island. Which, ah, makes me wonder how effective or whatever Jimmy Buffett's song is.

Man, it already feels like Spring Break. That is awesome. The only thing I really, really need to do right now is figure out registration stuff and write up one assignment and I will be good. a lot of people have said they feel like it's a Friday today, plus like half of the people don't show up for classes and a lot of the teachers have cancelled because they have some convention or something to go to this week. The library is closed, so there's no one but staff hanging out there.

Ceramics is coming along pretty good, my "plate" made it through with only one small crack, easily fixed with glaze, and even if it breaks in the kiln it will be fixable. I kind of wish I could finish the bird bath right now, though. Grr. Anyway, one effect I was going for didn't really work so I think I'll have to play with it a little, and I'm hoping it will turn out good. And then the raku piece won't be fired until after break, so all in all I have a grand total of zero pieces finished for this grading, haha.

Oh, I almost completely forgot about that petal cup... I wonder if it made it through?

Today I think I am just going to roll up in a ball and die. I am crampy despite attempts to up my iron and potassium levels, exhausted and muscle-sore from surfing (I would like to not use my shoulders all day thankyouverymuch), and the back of my legs hurts a lot from the sunburn from Saturday still. Also my face is kind of red and I think I may have burnt my lips? They don't hurt at all but they look kind of swollen and red at the edges, as if I had been licking them and they got chapped. It's weird. Plus I had a headache since last night (a very heavy and squinty one), so I drank some caffiene (which is supposed to aggravate cramps), but hey, I am a little more awake and my headache is gone. Unfortunately they didn't have plain tea so diet coke with lime is okay but lots of empty calories and I'm not really a coke person so boo. (Run-on much?)

Otherwise, I wrote up a list of the books I got from the free section of the library:
--The Madonna in Art, 1897; really neat cover with stamped lilies and gilt, neat illustrations.
--Legends of the Madonna, 1872; the most amazing cover with gilt stamping and gilt edges on the paper, unfortunately falling apart in my hands. =(
--Christ in the Ancient World, 1933; very small and cute, notes on the inside from 1935.
--Representative Short Stories, 1924; stamped cover w/ floral pattern, notes from 1927, illustrated.
--Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1923; stamped and printed cover illustration, illustrated, original copyright 1878.
--The Serpent and the Satellite, 1953; interesting book about symbols in religious history.
--Levitation, 1928; stamped gilt cover, sounds like it would be a somewhat historically funny read.
--The Syrian Christ, 1924; stamped gilt cover, orig. copyright 1916
--St. Augustine, 1933
--Journal of Tyerman and Bennet, Vols. 1 & 2, 1832; illustrated publication of original journals from 1821 to 1829 (that's three years difference... wow)
--Gilbert and Sullivan Songbook, not terribly old, my guess 60's-80's? Two-tone ink. Just picked it up for kicks.
--Fairy Tales, Brothers Grimm, 1966
--Magic House of Numbers, 1957; math tricks for learning/teaching/fun
--Digging for History: Archeology discoveries throughout the world, 1945 to 1959, 1960
--Bermudiana, 1936

Oh hells yes. I dunno, I really appreciate being able to hold something and just sort of feel the gaping history or importance of it, especially if it's something small. And I know, these books are probably not worth much to collectors or anything, but I don't care, it's all about the history for me. Being able to hold something in my hands, in the case of the oldest books, that is one hundred and seventy-five years old. And back then it was three-years-old information, so "brand new". Utterly...wow.

Other fun things I've been meaning to post about! Yesterday surfing, we had trouble starting a fire because it was so windy, and out of all of us I was the only scout there and I got to show off my skills (sort of--I just gave some advice because they guys were having too much fun "being guys" and being in charge of the fire/coals/grilling). BUT, I did regret leaving my purse in the car (because of my wallet and phone); my pocket knife was in there, too. Could have shown off my engineering skills... A guy came down the beach asking if anyone had paper or anything to burn with. I was only half paying attention but I did finally listen enough to catch on that he was asking if anyone had a bong or anything, which was hilarious since a lot of the people there actually do smoke fairly regularly, but didn't have anything with them. He decided we would all try to MacGuyver something (esp. involving an aluminum can if he could find one). I think it goes to show...something... that my first thoughts were: "I wish I knew how a bong worked" and "Damn, I left my pocketknife up in the car." So, yeah. Then he came back and asked the four of us sleeping on the beach if "we burned" and I said no, so he had me give him a handshake-sort-of-thing and was all "good for you, good for you". (I dunno, what do you call it when you grab their hand but your hand is facing upward rather than down... like... a bro-handshake or something?) Anyway it was hilarious and I can honestly say that's the first tome I've ever had someone ask me if I did drugs slash wanted to. Hehe. (You think it would have happened previously in Yellow Springs somehow...lol)

I've been seeing more mongoose (mongeese? mongoosen?) on campus. They are hilariously adorable when they run.

I read a sad article the other day that bats are disappearing, and it could relate to bees disappearance; it could be all the cell signals and stuff are messing them up. That makes me soooo sad. I freaking love bats. I am especially sad that it's Little Brown Bats disappearing in New York, and possibly spreading, because that's the main bats you see at Mammoth Cave. POOR BATTIES

Bailey made an interesting point in Pacific Hist today about air raid sirens, but this is kind of anecdotal in relation to what we actually talked about. When you hear an air raid siren, he pointed out, the first thing you think is "it must be the first Monday" or whatever, not "we're having a Tsunami/natural disaster" or "we're getting nuked". My first thought is always: "TORNADO SIREN?", demonstrating, once again, that Xenia is a panicked little town of failure in that regard. (Carroll made me hate all the Xenians paranoid of tornadoes--THEY ARE NOT THAT COMMON, PEOPLE! A thunderstorm does not 100% a tornado make, so please STFU thankyouverymuch. I always want to say, "stop crying, it's just some FREAKING RAIN". Argh. I really can't express my frustration with Xenians in this regard.)

So, I'm learning that technical classes are uninteresting because they are boring. I really enjoy reading articles in science magazines and stuff because they actually relate the science to application to make it interesting. Case in point? Ceramics today. We were talking about all the chemicals that go into ceramics and glazes and firing (silica, alumina, feldspar, copper, iron, magnesium, calcium [a lot of which are oxides]) and he was trying to explain how iron, which is common in most stoneware, can have so many colors. It's all different ratios, but for example, copper red-green will give you green if you use it alone, but if you base white under it, the reaction will give you red; if you need an explanation: Statue of Liberty is copper, was red, is now green. Yes? Moving on. He was trying to express how iron is so varied, because you can have reds, yellows, and browns. The example he used is blood, and that it is red, but will turn brown, and if you repeatedly wash out a stain will leave yellow behind. We also discussed how it is blue when unoxidized, and he didn't have an example, but we told him about how blood is blue if it is not carrying oxygen (aka has already passed to your lungs and is carrying out CO₂, which I think I learned in like third grade... yay "health class" rather than "science class"). And the coolest thing? Why shrimp, lobsters, mussels, and other related things have blue blood: their blood uses copper to oxidize rather than iron. HOW COOL IS THAT. (It also made me wonder if this accounts for pink flamingos' color, since they get it from eating shrimps, and whether the same sort of thing applies to "scarlet" ibises [versus regular old white ibises].) See? This kind of thing makes me go yaaaaay chemistry! whereas last semester it was definitely I cannot fucking wait to be done with this class.

( Oh, damn, this got kind of long, lol )

Yes, that was rather long winded, but it's a lot of thoughts flying through my brain, and pretty consistently, too.

Bailey mentioned there's a movie or something coming out about... Queen Liliuokalani? that people are getting upset about because the title is "The Barbarian Princess". The creators are saying, hey, we know it's one of her nicknames, and we like her, hence the movie showing in her in good light, but the critics are saying, yes, but it's an ironic nickname to point out that though she was Hawaiian she wasn't barbaric. Which, to be fair, I think they have a point; there are a lot of idiots/ignorants in the world (hey, I used to be one of them, no thanks to you St. Brigid), but at the same time, there has to be something said for the use of irony and poeticism and things in art. (Otherwise, what's left? Surprisingly, this is coming out of the mouth of such a literalist. I hate analyzing stories for symbolism and all that shit it's "supposed" to mean; I'll draw my own conclusions. And yes, I used to be a rather literal reader. [Thanks again, St. Brigid!]) Plus, I now have such a ridiculously sarcastic/cynical tone (thanks to Mr. Soucek and Laura, interestingly enogh), that since a blog is my preferred manner of keeping track of everything, it's going to be difficult in the future to tell my tone. (Hence why I am an advocate of emoticons on the internet--we have no face or voice, so it's like a little face to express a little hint of the intended emotion. And then the only problem is something else I like to think about--learned context. I sometimes think that certain word patterns have certain effects on what I'm reading/writing because of the context I learned them in or the way I heard them, and I doubt these apply for other people. Which makes communication all the more difficult, now, doesn't it?)

In History of Furniture the other day, Walter (oh, Takeda... he's such a grumpy old character, like a sort of rude version of Mr. Hemmert who likes to talk a bit more) decided he would teach us the most necessary French phrase: "Talk to my arse, I have a headache." Which because I didn't take French I didn't quite catch all the words, spellings, but as far as I got down was "Parle a mon cule, ma tete (which has an accent grave on the first "e", right?) --somethingImissed--". Haha. If one of you Francophiles would kindly correct me, I am always up for linguistics...

Honestly I'm sort of jealous of my cousin. He's doing an yearlong exchange program in Argentina, so we found out he not only gets to be fluent in Argentinian Spanish, but he's learning French, too. And here I am in Hawaii, deprived of being allowed to learn Hawaiian, when classes here are such a joke I could have soooo easily caught up... *tears* (Note to self, you need to email/chat with the professor to see if there are courses online or something!)

By the way, are any of you out there lingust...i...philes? (Linguists? Er... how do you say "lover of languages"?) I have been thinking I should start trying to write a paragraph a day in Spanish to practice (ack, I am so out of it! Haven't studied for over a year) and throwing in other stuff every once in a while, maybe Polish or Hawaiian or whatever. And does anyone know if there are places online where you can learn a language and actually learn it, not memorize phrases? Danke...

See? I picked up lots of little turns of phrase in other languages from my parents. Like "c'est la gruyiere" from my dad, who speaks Franglais with my uncle [they both took French at Carroll], and so I know lots of butchered French like that. But I mean, I throw "bitte" and "danke" around all the time, which I picked up from my mom, and there's always "gesundheit" and "nastrovia" [sp?] and "garagekey!" [butchered intentionally by my family, but then I do not know the real spelling, either] and many many other things. Plus lots of little linguistic jokes from high school, like the elephant poem the French kids have to learn Freshman year. So probably the most French I can put together is not terribly impressive: "L'elefante se douche, douche, douche, l'elefante se mouche, mouche, mouche" and I don't even know the spelling, that's my best gues. (And "merde!" [thank you Franzie]) Although it was fun to learn about trompe l'oeil (pretend that o/e is mushed together, I'm lazy yanno?) in history of furniture when it was the name of the CD by Malajube (French Canadian band so I can only guess at like 40% of their lyrics... Oh! "Autobus!" That must mean bus! nurr nurr) that I got for Christmas.

Um, yeah. I am soooo just rambling. I need to grab dinner before the cafe (pretend there's an accent, I always spell it with one, just like I write facade with that curly under the c, I just don't know the keystrokes) so I'm posting this and I'll be back to edit it in like... um... a half an hour.

bee ar bee, el oh el

(By the by, when I'm reading things like that I hear "brb" and "lol" phonetically by letter, but "rofl" is phonetically by word and "wtf" and "omg" come out as the phrases "whatthefuck" and "oh my god", respectively. Anyone else want to throw in their two cents on literary quirks?)

( [EDIT] kk back--oh shit, I wrote a lot, so I'm cutting the rest )

[EDIT2] Just kidding, wanted to throw this out there, too. I think the island on the banner of this blog is an east-facing view of Chinaman's hat. If not, it's really fucking close to being it.

Haha oh god I hate sunburn pain. It's like wanting to just... I dunno, float around touching nothing? Clothing even hurts, but, eh.

Went out surfing at Diamond Head today! I was terrible. =( Surfing itself is not, by any means, difficult. However, I have no shoulder/upper back muscle (which I think is why I always got pains marching--not in my arm, but my shoulders/upperback/neck area), and so even swimming as much as I could I pretty much got nowhere. Lance, the guy in charge of the surf club (who came out to Dayton last semester) had to tow me out a little and give me a push. (And then he towed me in even though I just wanted to sort of float in.) How I got away with it two years ago at Waikiki was just walking my way out. Which, if I had worn my water sandals, I could have done, here, too. (I tried it and I was more wary because I couldn't see if I was going to step on any urchins or anything. I don't think I did, but I still managed to cut my left big toe open nicely. Probably just the lava rock, though.) Anyway, he said it was a really windy day, too, which made it a lot more difficult, and I felt a little more comforted that Lauren was the first one to give up and Lance towed Katie in at the end, too. (And Katie is as athletic as hell.) So I think I'm going to try to strengthen my shoulder/upper back muscles so next time the surf club goes out I can at least be a little better... But my one ride was at least a good one! Yaaay.

We did a little beach cleanup and Lance showed us all the tide pools, which were cool but since I'd cut my toe, I couldn't really walk on the rock. There were snails or tiny hermit crabs or something called opi'i (I think?). Aaaand I saw some barnacles and mussels and things, although all very tiny. And one fish, haha (unless you count the buttfish... oh Gramps).

I've heard rumors about doing some sort of basic scuba dive early this week. That would be sweet. We'll see.

So, anyone have ideas on strengthening my back? I think part of my problem is I don't sit/stand up straight (strangely enough, unless I'm in band, in either case) and slouching never really developed those muscles. I've really been trying to sit/stand straight more often but it's really hard (and right now I am very sore ow ow).

I also have a headache and my ears feel weird... like... too open. Or the holes are too big. I dunno. Is that what "having water in your ear" feels like? I think it's slowly going away, so maybe it's just related to the fact that my jaw hurts.

Why the fuck does my jaw hurt? I HAVE NO IDEA. It got sore chewing up an apple for dinner. =/

But all in all a good day, most defs.

Augh, there are a lot of things I wrote down to blog about but I'm sooo exhausted, it will have to wait. (And then tomorrow and Tuesday I'll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off, getting leis and finding my way to the airport and seeing if there is a dive and registering and AUGH)

66 days! w000000t! So the library closes today for two weeks or so as they move into the new building. Well I had to return my videos (which were late, shame on me) and I wanted to get out some more but I won't have time for them, definitely. Anyhow, I flipped through the magazines a little and checked out the Free Book shelf, which is exactly what it sounds like. Old or unread books that they don't want, they put there and you can take home. I've already found too many really good ones, like an old copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales or a book of world archaeology from the 40's. Augh, but today I SCORED BIG TIME. (This is going to cost me an arm and a leg to ship home.) I got a whole pile of antique books, just gorgeous old things. Some have beautiful covers, some have weird stuff in them, most of them are just... old. I love them. I think the earliest ones I got were from 1832. EIGHTEEN THIRTY-TWO! Wow.

One from 1873 (?) is falling apart though, which is sad, it has this GORGEOUS cover with some gold leaf.

Augh, STUNNING. I'm going to post more on them later. Anyway, just thought I'd share my own little historical treasure there for ya. ;)

Okay, so, did everyone in Ohio decide it would be a good night to get roaring drunk or something? I mean, I don't really have a huge problem with it (other than a certain scenario which I'm not really free to discuss, but I'm sure if you contact any student you know at a certain high school I attended you'll be able to find out), but... I dunno, is there something in the water? Lol. (Yeah, alcohol... Hey, you all know the polish word for water is about one letter away from "vodka" anyhow, right? Yay being Polish!)

Anyway, today Lauren and I took a historical tour of Chinatown. It was AMAZING. Chinatown in Honolulu is nothing like Chinatown in SF, and from what the guide said, nothing like the Chinatown in NY either. Chinatown here is basically where non-whites came together and lived.

Oh, by the way, our tour guide is a major native Hawaiian historian (he was of... Chinese descent, I think?), and also Don Ho's cousin. EFFING AWESOME.

So... yeah. American history was never my thing, right? Fuck it, history wasn't my thing. I'm not good on "what are the implications of xxx on yyy in regard to zzz?" because to I never know exactly what they mean. I can extrapolate pretty much any answer from questions like that, so I am a failure. =( BUT! Hawaiian history amazes me. I don't know, maybe it's because I started paying attention to years for costuming and my Indiana Jones obsession, or maybe for Art History. But I'll tell you one thing; Hawaiian History is fucking amazing. It's like watching the whole history of the world get wrapped up in about 150 years. It's fucking nuts, and I love it. You don't realize it until you study it, because there's very few signs and things, but the whole world was focused on the Pacific, and Hawaii was so important to that, and everything leading up to WWI and WWII is absolutely amazing in relation to Hawaii. I love it. It's such a thrill. If you come to Honolulu, go to Chinatown and take the tour. Crazy.

I think the reason I never did well in American history is that they never really give you a base understanding to go from... they just kind of jump right in with the details and assume you can extrapolate the consequences. Not so. With Hawaiian history you're getting the base understanding of the world in order to understand Hawaii, and that in turn actually helps you understand what was going on in Europe and the rest of the world. I mean it, Hawaiian history is amazing.

At the same time, most people to study Hawaii aren't natives; so Hawaiian history seems particularly misunderstood as far as I've seen. Both my Hawaiian and Pacific Globalization history classes are taught by Bailey, who is a riot and one of the first native Hawaiians to get a certain level of degree (doctorate... maybe?) from UH. And the guy today is Hawaiian, too, although big Chinese background, so we got yet another cultural perspective.

And you know what? I think Hawaiian history is ridiculously overlooked. I think that studying Hawaiian and Pacific history would really help people understand the globalization of the rest of the world, I mean by a ridiculous amount. And did you know that's it's still under contention, even today, whether Hawaii was taken rightfully by the US government and whether it should still be a kingdom? Crazy. Maybe I'll talk about Hawaiian history more later, it's just... God. Beautiful. Amazing. Ridiculous. I don't know. It's like the whole world came together and exploded. To go from the stone age to modern practically overnight, and to see your culture destroyed in the process. God. It's really unfortunate that history isn't more advertised everywhere, that it's such a toursity place, because DAMN it's beautiful.

So! The actual tour itself. He started out with a background of Hawaiian history and Chinatown, and did you know that the father of Communism in China was Christian? LAUGH RIOT. tangent: the word "laugh" looks really weird atm. Anyway he was raised here and brought the idea to China, so, yeah. Other highlights of the tour:

--seeing all the different food types in the open market, showing how Chinatown really isn't a normal Chinatown: Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Philipino and about a million other different types of food. Also, one of my comfort-boundary stretchers for the day. I dunno, there's something about being one of only a few non-natives being led around (though not terribly obviously) by a tour guide that just makes it so easy for me to get paranoid that I'm being hated as a tourist. I think this is different in mainland US and Europe than it is in Hawaii; for example, learning about different history classes, I don't think native Hawaiians who haven't been to the mainland understand how there's still a difference between the southern and the northern US that you have to look out for sometimes. Being in Spain I was completely scared that we, as tourists, were going to get picked on and stuff (I mean it was totally obvious we were wearing gym shoes, righto?), but nothing really happened (other than a little trouble with gypsies and pickpockets on different occasions) but I obviously stopped being nervous enough to yell "HEY, GRUPO" in a really bad American accent (not even "¡Oye, grupo!") across the street in... Granada, was it? Anyway. I sufficiently put myself outside my comfort zone today. (BUT! Did find a really authentic place to get sushi, should ai figure out how to eat it without looking like a fool. SOMEBODY FILLZ ME IN, PLZ)
--the fruit vendors... DAMN. What a lovely smell. I realized that I have not yet had a virgin piña colada yet since I got here. I must rectify this!
--Hotel Street: where all the GIs came for entertainment. Clubs, burlesques, "hotels". I LOVE IT. The only thing left is "Club Hubba Hubba" (everything else is stores), but from the looks of it, the only thing left is the neon on the sign. =/ Even the paint behind the sign is chipping and rusting, and the building is overgrown and boarded up. But... that could just be that it's a club, so they need it dark inside and inside it's clean and neet. (Anyway, lol burlesque.)
--Fish market! Wow. FISH SMELL OVERLOAD. Guh. Apparently Chinese/Japanese consider it somewhat of a sin to cook tuna, as they eat it raw. Their big appetizers are sushi, sashimi, and dum sim. And... I can't remember the term, but it's raw fish and seaweed and herbs all mixed together to eat. It kind of looks like salsa. (Wikipedia... why is there an ENTIRE CHUNK IN SPANISH in the middle of the English article on Japanese cuisine? I mean, I can read it, but... wut?) OH, it's called poke and it's actually a Hawaiian dish, but it's obviously got a lot of Japanese influence. (It's raw fish, c'mon.) My brain totally went "LOLPOKÉMON" when he pointed it out.
--more fish market! Kona crabs. Never heard of them before, but they're kind of weird looking. Also? Could have bought fish heads. LAWL. (Will admit: had the fish head song running through my head.)
--Fernandez Marín! Yay Spainiards. Kind of owned the Hawaiian harbor and dictated non-natives on the island while he was alive. Pretty cool shit. (Chinatown: utterly international. told you)
--SECRET BURIAL GROUNDS: After the US government burned down Chinatown (PLAGUE PANIC!) and it was rebuilt and they had to dig up the earth for concrete footwork, they found lots of bodies of plague victims. They buried all the bones together in a few secret green areas in Chinatown, but the gov't doesn't treat them that well. (Seriously. One's next to a dumpster in a locked alley.) Marín's remains were dug up when they built Marín tower, and the government gave them to his family in a gunnysack. Oh America, why do we have to be so insensitive? Anyway, they convinced the government that they wanted his remains here because he was happy here, and they put his bones in one of the burial grounds (if you can call it that) right on the edge of Chinatown right on the waterfront. (Seriously... it looks like one of those hotel building planters. That's the "greenspace" where Marín is buried. And there's no kind of historical markers or anything... The more I learn about Hawaiian history the more I think the US is trying to hide the fact they kind of took over illegally. LOL.
--Philipinos didn't get malaria during WWII while Chinese and Hawaiians and Japanese and Americans did! Guess why? Bitter melon! High in quinine. So, if you ever are afraid of getting malaria? BITTER MELON.
--First Catholic Church in Hawaii! Funded by Marín. Damn cool.
--more comfort zone stretching: "bubble tea" smoothie. What it is is this kind of big tapioca balls in a smoothie... they're interesting. I think in the right thing they'd be good, but kiwi was disgusting, and since I had a not-enough-sleep type of sore throat, the bubbles felt kind of phlegmy. I mean, I know they're tapioca or taro or whatever and they're kind of doughy, but... ew. Kiwi+phlegm=nasteh.
--watermelon used to be a huge import. Did you know they used to make watermelon alcohol? I'm not really surprised, I mean people kind of make it out of anything that will ferment. Just LOL. (My dad wondered last time we were here if they ever made taro alcohol? I don't know, I've never heard anything about it. I think taro might be too expensive.)

Lauren and I might bike around the island, it wouldn't be too long of a ride. A good, slow, day ride to get some miles on my butt for TOSRV.

Okay, I think that's everything for now.

81 days until Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! Today's trivia: I am convinced that Adventure Express at PKI was supposed to be an Indiana Jones ride before that was a Paramount park. (Was it?) I don't know, totally a guess, but they did play the music there the last time I was there. There was a rumor about four or five years back that they were going to put in an actual Indiana Jones ride. I AM SO SAD THAT PKI IS CEDAR POINT NOW. D= I hope they renew the Paramount licenses...? I mean, the Tomb Raider ride will kind of be dumb now, and I love that ride. =( Bets on whether Congo Falls goes back to being called Amazon Falls? AND WHO'S EXCTIED FOR FIREHAWK hell yeah. (You all probably rode it last summer while I was gone, I know. But I never got to ride King Cobra before it got taken out [I WAS TOO SHORT DAMMIT], and I really want to ride a standup coaster.)

...Lol. Crappy fact today. I don't care, I think the fact that I actually posted lots of realiztic historical information makes up for that. Fine, here's a TWOFOR! Hawaii + Indiana Jones: Indy IV filmed some on the coast of the Big Island. I think close to Kona maybe...?

HOW CAN IT BE MARCH ALREADY, DAMN.

Oh, I remembered another one of my "weird word" uses. I like to say "awesome possum" and "neato burrito" a lot. Haha.

( I also wiki'd Mad Anthony Wayne a little for you! )

SUMMARY: Wayne negotiated the Greenville Treaty that put the Ohio into the union. rock on

Ooh, also fell asleep watching Kiss Me, Kate today. (I didn't get enough sleep last night.) Pretty good musical, yay Cole Porter! And yay Shakespeare. But FUCK a play within a play within a play. AAAAAH gotdamn.

woooooo

[EDIT] I WANT A CHANTILLY CAT

And I totally stole this from somebody, it's hilarious:

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mercat

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The Daily Adventures of Mercat

when life gives you lemons, make shark attacks (kitschy plastic sharks included)

Entries tagged with history

Oh man I didn't even touch on the Olympics.

I'm finding that I have a strange struggle with "Atlantis" ideas.

Wow

Hoo, boy.

Tab cleanup!

Seriously, LOTS of spoilers. Major spoilers.

posticles

already a failure.

OH MY GOD CONTENT. sort of...

I should be doing homework right now

This, I will, and do it well; something here doth really smell.

flaaarrrrgghhh

well

TAAAAB DUUUUUMP

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I just never shut up, do I?

here comes the sun

oh, fuck me

high in quinine

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November 2015

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