The Daily Adventures of Mercat

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.

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. ;)

Hm, no horseback riding, didn't miss much. Wanted to snorkel out to Chinaman's hat with everyone but nobody told me I needed fins and a mask ahead of time, so, that was a bust. Fell asleep on the beach and really burned the back of my legs.

Surfing tomorrow, in theory. I'm too tired to be excited

yaaay 67 days omg I'm so tired. yay new Indy poster

Hmmm, looks like Laura and Savannah don't want to go shark diving, either. Oh well

The Ring was actually pretty good. It's more of a psychological thriller, which is what I prefer, like Hitchcock films. Because, I know, you're supposed to be afraid that the girl is going to come after you because you just watched the movie, but whatever. Honestly the only really scary part was that she came out of the TV at the end, a lot of the rest of the movie was just kind of weird. But I'm okay with that, because I can tell you Saw is not my kind of movie (and I haven't even seen it), and this is the sort of thing I'm okay with. I don't think I'd like Freddie Kreuger or any of that sort of stuff, though, because there's no, I dunno, trigger or whatever. You wouldn't have any control over the situation.

Um, plus, I don't really get it. Why is she killing people? Her dad didn't want her, but why the hell did the mother kill her? And she hated the horses because they kept her up at night, but what was happening to the horses? And what was with the freaking tree? Maybe it's because I'm partially deaf (I dunno if that's true technically, but indoor percussion had to have destroyed some of my hearing), but... the story doesn't really make sense. (Plus, I'm such a story ruiner and logician and stuff, couldn't you just find two people who wanted to die, copy the tape for them, destroy the original [like the main character did] and then destroy the copy after they'd watched it? Mm, logic.)

So I guess if you know any "horror" films that wouldn't leave me disgusted, petrified, or paranoid afterward, I guess feel free to recommend them.


Hmm, this is not good, the arm I fell on this morning is starting to hurt, and it's sort of where I broke it back in 1996. Auugh.

Fuck, and I don't have any Tylenol.

Right, here is yet another reason I hate flipflops. So, I've been trying to get rid of my kind-of-obvious tan lines from last summer by wearing flipflops this week. Well, I am inept. I walk too fast to wear flipflops, I think. The yellow Nike ones I had were too big and I remember taking at least one good spill in them at Target because I tripped over the toe. And that's just what I did coming up the stairs here, too, today. Ripped up my knee really nicely, it was even swollen pretty noticeably about an hour ago, too. Remember when Suzie got hit with the flag and had that HUGE bump on her head that looked like an egg? Mine wasn't quite that big, but it was swollen just about as badly. I don't ever remember that happening when I was little (but it did remind me of the time I scraped my knee [falling up the stairs, again] when I was younger and was determined I wouldn't cry... it doesn't even seem like it would be something painful enough to make you cry, now, but it's always embarassing). It seems like every time I start to think "dang, I haven't had a scab in a very long time, I can't remember what that last one was from" I get to have a new one. I honestly can't remember where my last one was from--it was on my left elbow and my knee, and I remember picking at my elbow... in some class... but I can't remember which class (which I usually can, as a hint for myself) or where I did it. But I remember before that I had this scratch from Tippy on my left forearm which I picked at in Miss Downie's class, and before that my biggest scratch was probably on my left knee from hitting dad's bike going down to North Carolina and really gnashing it up good (just outside Lake White).

Hm, I seem to get a majority of my knee scars on my left knee. I wonder why that is? I remember being about six and falling off the back of the tandem right as we were about to pull into the driveway, and really having scratched up my knee and elbow. (Mom was so freaked out, but I don't remember anything, I guess because I had fallen asleep and just fell off?) But I do remember getting a dark green towel and sitting in back (when we still had the brown couch and the TV and everything in back... what did we have up front? the organ?) wrapped up in the towel drinking hot chocolate (even though it wasn't cold...?) and we ordered pizza. And I think we watched the Little Mermaid, but I could just be remembering that because when I was little I used to watch the Little Mermaid back there aaaaaall the time. Damn, I forgot how much I loved that little room before we redid it all. =/

Also, either everything smells terrible today or my nose decided I could breathe today. The path I take to classes smells like something too oniony (chips of some kind?) and my uke teacher's office smelled like gross old people potatoes. (What, you are asking, does that smell like? Like old people, but when they smell like rotten potatoes. Not the regular "old people" smell, I don't mind that at all.) YEUCH.

The last two nights I've slept on the couch so my roommate can study, and oddly enough I'm getting better, more solid sleep on the couch (meaning I'm not waking up every hour or so to turn over) than I do in my bed. I think it's the cushions and the slight angle they're at, plus having a smaller space with three walls (backboard, both armrests) to push against. I dunno, I like to have something to push up against at night because otherwise my muscles feel like they're stretching to be loose or something, so I get this "growing pain" ahce. (ACK, EVERYTHING SMELLS LIKE SMOKE ALL OF A SUDDEN GROSS GROSS) Plus, since I raised myself paranoically, I am one of those people who always prefers to be in a corner (or, if that's impossible, against a wall) so no one sneaks up on me or anything. Which, with sleeping on the couch, is actually very nice. The best part of it is is that this is the shittiest couch I've seen (looks like something they made in woodshop and added the cushions to), so if I want to I can replicate it very easily. Yaaaaay.

Hm, now... to nap, or to sit around and do nothing? Decisions, decisions.