The Daily Adventures of Mercat

my tumblr has turned into mostly Avengers posts

and a lot of them are all SCIENCE BROS because Tony + Bruce = Science buddies 4lyfe is the BEST THING EVER

what has become of me

I blame the internet

but no, I just really love science

I'm too good at it.

...Where you win if you can research obscure things? That, or I'm way too fucking stubborn and I insist upon running my results dry time after time.

Other than tracking down sold-out items from over a year ago, I have successfully tracked down a lot of things recently. It has only made me wish that databases were more comprehensive, so instead of searching 50 sites I would only have to search one. This is especially a problem with online shopping, where a small store may have exactly what you want, but it doesn't show up on Google Shopping or Amazon and their site is basically unsearchable or undiscoverable unless someone else points you directly there. BUT I DIGRESS.

Earlier this week our professor challenged us to find a slightly meme-ish image of what looked like the Michael Jackson of zebras. His head was striped, his upper torso was white, his back was striped, and his back legs were white.

First of all, don't google "half white zebra" because you get nothing but pages of "ARE ZEBRAS HALF WHITE WITH BLACK STRIPES OR BLACK WITH WHITE STRIPES LOLOLOL".

Second, in under five minutes I found the image by trying "albino zebra" and then I believe "partially albino zebra" which led me to a page about zorses. And zonies. Which are half zebras, half horse/pony, and are generally bred in Africa (much like other places get donkeys, and they are most often sterile as well) because zebras have some natural biological defenses they can pass on.

Uh and then in class Thursday we were talking about what a temple is, thematically, and for a brief few moments the prof had an image of a buddha on the screen, of course with no source. HOWEVER I realized that under this seated buddha was a script that was too familiar... A script from the old online COSI: Adventure game that was linked from their site (to LiveScience?) a while back. I think the game is still up if you have a direct link.

ANYWAY, the online game was based slightly on the Adventure! exhibit, but without a lot of the originality, probably because of time/money constraints. (I'm not complaining, it was made for 8 year olds, approximately, I'm most likely the only person who ever cared.) However, given my extensive gradeschool examination of Egyptology, I recognized that one of the... uh... sacred items? that they used in the game was a slightly photoshopped version of an Egyptian alabaster papyrus-lotus vase.

Anyway, eventually you have to crack a code, and if there's one thing about me, I LOVE CODES. I was always upset though that you never got a good look at all 26 letters, because you never used them all, and the closest you would get is the "dictionary" you would get, but since it was a very low-quality shockwave file, you couldn't look at it too closely to get a good enough idea, either.

I always assumed they found some random font (which, tbh, they probably did) and just threw it on there. That, or they made it up, which was awesome. And since I never found anything about it, I just kept on assuming it was awesome and went on my merry way. I took the character that kind of looked like a "d" (I don't know what character they used it as) and I think I have it as my random icon on a few different sites-- Twitter I know to be one.

UNTIL THURSDAY.

So I'm sitting there looking at this buddha, which I know absolutely jack shit about except that we're currently discussing stupas in terms of temple design and what they are, and under this buddha are TWO TO THREE LINES OF THIS TEXT WHERE SOME OF THE CHARACTERS LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THIS CODE

AND I'M ALL LIKE "HOLY SHIT OMG I FOUND IT" WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY "OH FUCK NO IT'S NOT ORIGINAL I AM LE SADFACE"

And then the prof decided to not post the presentation, from which I was hoping to steal the image so I could try to tineye it. False! Hahaha, just kidding.

So I googled combinations like "seated buddha sculpture ancient stone hand raised" for about thirty minutes, pretty much ever permutation of ideas ever and then decided to try a library image database. I tried to be a bit more general and tried things like "seated buddha" and "buddha sculpture" and eventually I stumbled upon one that was SIMILAR but not exactly the same sculpture (and was much plainer, had no text, etc.). So I took one of the title words from that, not knowing what it meant and tried Googling it, nothing. Took that back to the art database, found an even closer-looking image! Took a different word from the title/description, tried Googling that, SUCCESS! So then I tried googling/wikipedia-ing that, etc. to try to find more, plus "city name of sculpture + text" and FINALLY came across a wikipedia page that had some ancient script information.

It was very close, but not quite in the ballpark enough yet. So I clicked through to several different pages, and a few more from there, and I have a few pieces here, and a few pieces there, and at this point I think I'm pretty darn close and I need an expert or to sit down side-by-side with the "code" and pick out each one individually.



So... I have completion problems, I guess. Or research fascinates me too much, I don't know. Or I'm too stubborn. OR I'M TOO GOOD AT THE INTERNET.

Anyway.

On a completely unrelated note, I've noticed I've gotten more in shape this week. I call it "skinnyface" from tour but it's usually about three weeks into alldays for me when I realize that I'm exercising and eating well and I have lost weight. I don't know if I can chalk it up to bloating or something? Because it always seems to be something I notice overnight, one day and not any day before, which doesn't seem possible. But at any rate, I've also been very tired and physically worn out again this week, though not feeling sickly-tired like I did two weeks ago. So I don't know? Maybe this trying-to-eat-healthy thing is too much undereating? What I've found is that I am much better about controlling what I eat (that is, not eating too many junk foods) when I control the shopping. I'm still probably not working enough fruits and veggies into my daily diet as opposed to grains and dairy and delicious, delicious pizzas (I'm serious [Red Baron 4-Cheese]), but I'm trying to slowly edge myself into a healthful diet that I enjoy. I could eat a veggie diet that I bet would be supremely healthful but I would probably get sick of it very quickly. Not to mention hooooow fucking expeeensiiiive fruits and veggies are. Well, everything in Hawaii.

So anyway, that's what five-miles-a-day-bicycling-on-all-hills and dropping 75% of the junk food will do.

Last week I tried to make it my mission to, instead of buying lots of frozen things and eating them one day at a time, to buy some bulk food items and make enough for a long time (ignoring the fact that I still have pasta sauce in the fridge and my mom just mailed me two cans of skyline! AUGH OM NOM THE TEMPTATION). I bought shrimp and rice and all the supplies for garlic shrimp, it was STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE. Partly because I now have enough garlic shrimp-making flavorings for, uh, the rest of the year, but whatever. On day three I was already sick of garlic shrimp. What the fuck? I hate my food-moods. I've eaten almost nothing but pizza for about three weeks, this is some crap. I like pizza but I AM TRYING TO GET SOME HEALTHFUL VARIETY UP IN THIS BITCH MIX. I'm mostly pissed because it seems like a waste of money if I'm not going to eat it, WHICH I NEED TO BEFORE IT GOES BAD, and especially if I keep in this pizza-and-italian-food rut for the rest of the semester. Fuck.

So, uh... I'm kinda learning to cook? Not that I can't, given an adequate recipe, it just takes up SO MUCH FUCKING TIME and I HATE IT.

I think next up might be coco loco chicken!!!!!11! though, because ON NOM DELICIOUS but also omg chicken?! With lime curry sauce you bet your ass

It is delicious.



...Aaaaand I didn't do my pushups for this week (again), I am a failure. As much as I would like to be able to do and gain all the benefit from pushups, I JUST HATE IT and I've totally let it slip my mind this week.

Which I'll say is forgiveable since I now have to spend the entire fucking weekend in the stupid studio AGAIN. Free time on a weekend?! What the fuck is that?! I would like to fucking GET OUT ON A BIKE RIDE THANKYOUVERYMUCH

Luckily next weekend is a long weekend with no homework over it aaaaaand the student architecture club is having a sand castle building contest. FOR REALZ, Y'ALL

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.

Well, Paypal's been in the news a bit today, and I, for one, am a sucker for internet battles. Especially when people are coming off pretty scummy. Regardless of one's opinions on Regretsy, SomethingAwful, or Wikileaks-- and actually, someone just linked me to an older-yet-related incident regarding George R. R. Martin-- the fact that PayPal has been less than clear on its policies and seems to repeatedly have pretty poor treatment of their users, the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way. So I am trying to collect a list of alternatives to PayPal. (Deleting facebook comments is actually one of my pet peeves as well. I do not take kindly to censoring.)

I do not personally endorse any of these and all commentary on them is what I can tell from reading their site and others' comments on their services. I am simply trying to collect suggestions into one location.

Here is one large list of alternatives with more information than I have been able to find, although a lot of what folks seemed to be suggesting as alternatives were not listed.

Here is another good post on a few alternate suggestions: 8 Ways To Not Paypal

If anyone would like to leave personal reviews, etc. in the comments (if you have used the services of any of these listed, or know of others), I will be happy to update as I can.

www.dwolla.com - This was the site I saw most recommended in comments of other posts. It links directly to your bank account (with many security measures in place) rather than a credit card. You can use it on your phone, and transactions less than $10 are free. (All other transactions have a flat fee of 25 cents.) You can also hook up your account to social networks such as facebook and twitter in order to split bills between friends, etc. They also mention privacy and transparency in their main explanatory pages (here), which I personally find worth noting.

www.wepay.com - Second most recommended in comments. Seems to be 3.5% fee, 50 cent minimum. Also mentions security measures and transparency, and has an 800 number as well as other methods of communication listed on every page. They don't mind trolling PayPal, either.

www.obopay.com - Not as much information presented (to be fair, I'm not pushing around too far or registering for accounts on any of these sites), but it seems very interested in using mobile devices to easily transfer money.

www.alertpay.com - Seems to have many options for sending/recieving money, and has two contact addresses posted on their About Us page.

www.v.me - Upcoming Visa method for transferring money. Mobile support appears to be an option.

www.serve.com - From American Express, use your bank account, credit/debit card, or cash. Can be used online, from a mobile device, or with their American Express-based card.

squareup.com - A credit-card reader for vendors that plugs into your mobile device. One commenter said that you are charged $10 for the reader if you buy it in a store, but it is free directly through the website.

stripe.com - An online method for vendors to take credit cards. Seems to be very suppoert-friendly in terms of setting it up on a website.

nochex.com - UK-based online payment system, both business and personal supported.

checkout.google.com - Online payment system for setting up your own shop website through Google. Monthly sales totals less than $3000 have a per-transaction fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents. Uses credit cards for buyers to pay.

payments.amazon.com - Allows you to set up a checkout system on your own website. Can also create a personal account to send or receive money. Some commenters who used this said it has been buggy, however, not alerting sellers to purchases, etc.


That's all I have for now, feel free to leave more information in the comments! If anyone has any comments on whether these are accepted only in the U.S./worldwide, etc., leave a comment and I will update.

And to lighten the mood a bit... :D

Despite my general feeling of melancholy lately-- and, oh, how I hate that word-- melancholy, ugh-- (and I do mean, literally, the word itself, not how it is defined or used or anything, I just have this bizarre intense dislike for the spelling and sheer existence of its sound) I also feel rather victorious the past few days.

I don't know which one of these to post last, because I am a save-the-best-for-last person, because three out of four of these just make me stupid-smiley-happy.

...I may have also been spending too much time on Tumblr being all internet-y and fandom-y so my brain is kind of running in that mode lately, too. So... sorry. (Also, damn, there is a lot of problematic posts on tumblr. But you know what? I deal with enough shit everywhere else, I can't turn that epic little corner of crossover jokes into another space where I get mad at people. I just can't deal with that, bleh.)

(Also, there was an adorable episode of the Simpsons with a Pixar parody and a Wallace and Gromit parody and they were SO well done and cute.)

(Umm, and Taco Bell has an ad with Pagliacci and I feel like with all the Phantom of the Opera I've been seeing and possibly going to see the limited showing of Les Mis that I should go see some real opera again? I think the last one I saw was Aida, and I always liked Carmen, and I just HAVE NOT SEEM MUCH THEATER LATELY I would even go for some Shakespeare. As long as it's not Much Ado About Nothing or As You Like It? I can't remember which, but one of them is terrible. But mostly I just feel like I should see a real version of Pagliacci because everything I know about Pagliacci is from Spike Jones. And possibly Merry Melodies/Looney Tunes.)

I aced my interview for Pier 1 today, so I am now seasonally employed. And it sounds like it's not many hours, which is good for me. You can't see my face right now, but I'm giving a sort of evil smirk, because sometimes I am a little conniving and I hate myself for it, but the little kid who read the entire Hardy Boys series is so proud of any time I am successfully involved in subterfuge.

Uhhhhh and I found out that when you put your dvd codes into Disney's Movie Reward program you also get a "digital library" hosted on their site which is PERFECT for while I'll be in Hawaii because I'll be taking maybe like two dvds with me. (Buuuut a lot of books. Like too many.) [EDIT: Actually, possibly, it might be only a discount to a streaming version. Which is a little skeezy IMO.]

Yesterday I found out that a few of my friends told some epic tales of me to the rookies this summer, and that just made my month. I miss the Troop so much. <3 WHY ARE ALL MY FRIENDS OUT WESSSST

Uh, also, I forgot how good horizontal stripes look on me and can I just say this sweater looks fucking great? And it's Hufflepuff colors. (And so are my socks.)

HUFFLEPUUUUUUFF

Okay and then I made a ridiculous joke yesterday on facebook, it was so great, and it just made me feel really awesome because my seat partner from last year was being a smartass about it and I feel the joke's quality is on par with the stuff the rest of my family (read: mostly my dad and uncle) crank out. It's a bit... audience specific, BUT! Here it is:

The set-up: a drum corps' tuba section has to break into their friend's dreams on a long overnight drive states away in order to save him from making a terrible tour-goggles-induced mistake. The title? C O N T R A - C E P T I O N


Oh my god my brain is in meme mode I'm so sorry.






:D

So much to do, so little time. But a few important things, the good news and the bad news.

The good news: Someone finally created an LED lightbulb with incandescent tone! (Color? idk. I'm no lighting engineer.) It's only been, um, AGES since we've been talking about this in my engineering classes (aka why hadn't anyone done it yet).

The bad news: Instructables was bought by Autodesk. I have nothing against Autodesk, but Instructables is a great site that is fed SIGNIFICANTLY by the hackersphere. That just seems like conflict of interest to me (Autodesk getting sued for publishing hacking how-tos, maybe forcing use of their products as a requirement for publication), not to mention I just see it going down like LJ's slow death via SixApart and the Russian company. "Of course we listen to the users, we fuck up majorly several times a year and yet we never fucking learn!"

Then again, maybe it's a viable business model, Facebook doesn't seem to be suffering much from terrible fucking ideas

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.

So you all have seen Hipster Spongebob and the Hipster Disney Princesses, right? They are awesome. And then, yesterday, I found this:



First off, it bothers me that they spelled artifact wrong. Second thought? INDY ALREADY WEARS GLASSES. (Also, hdu, Indy would never be a hipster. IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUMMMMM)

And thus:



( And all the variations... )

And, as an added bonus, one that's less specific so it can be used more widely:




(Yeah, I'm using the "emos" tag. From nowhence, "emo" is shorthand for "I fucking hate scenesters".)

again, for not being around lately. I'm way busy with senior design and applying to grad schools, and if you need me you will find me over in ontd_political's most recent live-post on the Mid. East/N. Africa/world revolution happenings.

I may suck at politics but I am very good at collecting information, it seems.

If you find yourself wondering what in the world we can do while ruling bodies seemingly do nothing (a complicated issue, I know), I am collecting links in a typewithme document called "How Can I Help?" (http://typewith.me/howcanihelp)

Thanks, and next week we should return to your more regularly scheduled programming...



And now, your moment of world-politics zen (found on Twitter) amidst all the violence and disinterest:

"My name is Freedom; born in Tunisia, raised in Egypt, studied in Yemen, fought in Libya and I'll grow up in all the Arab world."

:3

Let's start things off right; I watched a bunch of Chuck episodes to catch up this week, how about the CIA World Factbook article on Turkey? This could potentially be hilarious if that read "The CIA World Facebook". Change one letter, CHANGE THE WORLD

The menu for 2010:
Potatoes
Peas
Stuffing
Broccoli
Rolls
Gravy
Rutabaga
Squash

(Guys, that is what the internet should be like. One great big Monty Python sketch. I want to add more foods to the menu but I CANNOT TOP THAT SITE.)

For dessert, a pecan piecosahedron! Puns are delicious.

Big holiday wishes? Big holiday wishbone. Plus, dinos. So that's more than good luck, it's... Awesome Luck? (Unrelated to Pot Luck.) (THANKSGIVING JOKES DERP)

And last but not least, the timeless yams.


Old Thanksgiving posts:
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009

Holy crap seven Thanksgiving posts?! I've been around longer than I thought

Happy Thanksgiving, all! Despite my abundant blog-love for this holiday and its OBVIOUS underappreciation by internet society as a whole, I truly appreciate all you as my friends, conversation sharers, fan buddies, and (un)willing audience.

(DON'T BE THE BLITZ)

[EDIT] Found this picture, and since I didn't have any funny pictures like I normally do, I thought I'd come back and add it.