The Daily Adventures of Mercat

So I was super excited all morning and then I was so burnt out from two straight work days and a four hour architectural drawing clinic (a ten week class shoved into four hours) and I've kind of lost the ability to formulate effective sentences.

But ONE I realized this is only the second time I've seen Raiders in a widescreen cut, THERE IS SO MUCH THAT GETS CUT OUT IN FULL SCREEN

Two oh my god I felt like I could have been right there on set fucking yes I love IMAX everything is beautiful

THREE:

a) they cleaned up the cobra reflection for Indy but not for Marion
2) I never noticed that Toht had a Magic Murder Bag, check my twitter for a hilarious joke regarding that
#) aahahaha so he drinks whiskey the whole time right? WONRG never noticed on the Bantu Wind before they have a bottle of MEYER'S DARK RUM fuck yes all the justification I need t become an alcoholic

Jesus christ lets' just appreciate m fucking lack of ability to type right now

that's how tired I am

righ t so speaing of alcoholics

I had a bit of a "gained perspective" watching this, and I want to call it peculiar, but I don't want to mean that it's negative. In any way.

It's a little odd watching a movie that you know SO WELL that you know the rhythm of the entire thing, every line of dialogue, every musical cue, every behind the scenes moment, almost literally everything. Because even when I don't watch it for over a year, don't go re-reading all the trivia and everything, it's basically a part of me. I can't "forget" it and go back to a time when it was new to me. Not complaining, just saying that I consciously had to sit back and just enjoy the ride without... expectations?! (I CANNOT ARTICULATE THIS I HAVE LOST THE ABILITY TO THINK.)

BUT.

What I realized, in years of idolizing and living and breathing and everythinging Indiana Jones, I somehow accidentally turned myself into Marion (minus a death from liver failure, probably). I DON'T KNOW, IT'S SO POETIC SOMEHOW, BECAUSE SHE IS TOTALLY BOSS AND HILARIOUS AND TAKING-NONE'YA-SHIT AND IT JUST MADE ME REALLY HAPPY TO KNOW THAT I HAVE, ON SOME LEVEL, ACHIEVED BEING A BELLIGERENT FOUL-MOUTHED ACTION HEROINE.

After a week of studying Buddhism and their religious design structures and theory it was like a small moment of self-enlightenment and SHUT UP. I AM AWESOME AND I AM SO BRAIN DEAD THAT I GIVE ZERO FUCKS RIGHT NOW, I JUST SAW MY FAVORITE MOVIE ON THE BIG SCREEN FOR THE FIRST TIME AND I CAN DIE HAPPY.

askjbflakdfjbalkfdbalkjfblakblakdflks GOOD NIGHT

regarding my journaling voice--

then again, I usually channel a bit of the voice of whatever I've been involved in (somewhat deeply) most recently. Which I'd say more of late has been internet-y type stuff like the normal LJ, some tumblr, a small tish of reddit. And of course memes abound, and I've noticed since 2008 that my writing has taken on a lot more meme style, which I'd say is what I sort of equate to the Archer style I mentioned, except that also has a lot of intentionally over-the-top emotion. Which I'd say is more a drum corps thing for me? But that's become a part of me, since 2007 and definitely reinforced since 2009.

It usually only happens when I get very involved in something-- like when I read all the Hitchhiker's Guide books, my voice took on a bit of Adams. (Not recently, I think pre-my-regular-blogging-days.) More recently when I watched a bunch of Sherlock, or Firefly. A lot of stuff that happened in the past that's become a part of my natural vocabulary that I can't avoid and sometimes completely forget about-- Homestar Runner, Ace Ventura and winter percussion jokes, all the random Doctor Evil things that slip in there.


An aside, I also find it interesting that the voice I write with is not often the voice I speak with. I am much more quiet in person (when I am not comfortable enough to be loud), and a lot of things I self-censor out of habit. Then again, I've noticed myself slipping more here and there, for example, the fact that my parents don't seem to be too upset about an f-bomb here or there, although I still cut back a lot from my daily usage. (We all have Cee Lo Green to thank for the progress on that front.) And some things are such an accident that they take me by surprise, which I can only attribute to my theory on aging; which is that I am very perceptive to age and relative positions of authority, and it's so much ingrained that I am nearly six years out of high school and friends with old teachers whom I cannot call by their first names, or at least, it still feels uncomfortable to do so. It's detrimental in that I assume people in classes above me (and usually my own grade level) are all older than me, and in grades below, younger. Although in the past few years I've realized classes below me are often my own age, and in odd situations like my age-out year, I'm actually the oldest. That was a weird but ultimately freeing experience. BUT! Back to my point-- sometimes something is ingrained enough in my internal monologue voice that it slips into the everyday regardless of my social position, which I attribute to two things: 1) my continued blogging and internetting for so many years and the development and strengthening of that voice, which I am proud of, and 2) as I've come into more experiences where I am older or more knowledgeable I've gained confidence in my own abilities (like working the holiday job? Very yes) and let down my guard somewhat, in regards to social situations. Which is good in that I am happier, more confident in myself, and put more trust in my skills. But the down side is that I'm also more risky, more likely to slip up-- like the fact that I apparently scare my classmates with all my swearing (although they seem more entertained than actually offended, I just don't want to cause any actual problems).

I'm looking for some old posts of mine because I can't remember exactly when some things happened. This is what it's like getting old, apparently. (Fuuuuuuuck)

1) My oldest post tagged "religion" is about drum corps auditions (which I honestly didn't remember being for the 2007 season? but I guess so...) and "I think I'm through questioning faith". LOL OH WELL. Interesting to see how much my tone has changed in just a few years though, even my posts from 2008 can get kinda judgmental.

For that I apologize.

2) I have been working on a letter to my Mormon friend trying to explain my philosophical situation. I intended it to be just a letter... three hours later, it's 13 pages long and I'm not finished. Whoops. As a result and because I am the world's laziest chef, I am eating half a can of olives that are at least a week old and hopefully not spoiled by anything else in the fridge. BECAUSE THIS IS COLLEGE

By the way, Douche Flatmate has a now three-day dinner mess on the counter, it smells fucking awful. Unfortunately I now have to play the "confrontation and talk about it" game.

3) I forgot that LJ tags were a "new" thing only a few years ago. WHICH IS MAKING IT EVEN HARDER TO FIND MY OLD POSTS FROM HIGH SCHOOL NOOOOOOOOOOOO

4) I wish I journaled more but I'm also glad to see that I have so much written already. And that I've been LJing for how many years now? 7? 8? Jesus fuck. It seems like only a few years ago. I can, however, attribute much of my writing voice to journaling (in the form of blogging). Addressing an audience like you are friends, but like there is absolutely no one in the seats in the whole auditorium. Just an interesting note.

And now back to my search for personal journal entries from the pre-tagging days, so I can get back to this ages-long letter.

P.S. It's pretty obvious these days, I think, that I'm an atheist. So hopefully no one who is looking for a way to get me in trouble finds this. LUCKILY I think I've done an okay job of scrubbing this out of the main google search pages for me, and I need to go back and probably lock some old posts, and I probably should edit my friends list considering friends from 6 years ago can access my locked posts and absolutely zero of them post anymore (that certain group, I mean).

[EDIT] Holy shit I went and checked, it's so weird to see how little I posted the first couple of years. THERE IS SO MUCH INFORMATION I AM MISSING THAT I WANT TO KNOW. And that is why I journal. What was I thinking?! I don't know because I didn't write jack shit. And boy was my tone terrible, which, it's funny, I knew at the time, not that it was bad but that I hoped I could look back eventually and not hate myself and not want to hide or delete posts (which I'm not planning to, at least not for that reason), but geez, how things change. What's even worse? I know how much I changed from grade school to high school, and I don't really have a journal that covers that, either.

As the poster at my old hairdresser's used to say, "you've come a long way, kid."

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

I wonder how much less I post here because I have Twitter? Fleeting or relatively unimportant thoughts tend to go there because I can, as it were, "set it and forget it".

I kind of miss all the posting I used to do here, but it sure is convenient.


For the record, my twitter is mercat as well.

This is day one of my two-weeks-of-wearing-Indiana-Jones-shirts:




More awesome post coming later! I just watched my oooooold VHS of Raiders <3 Also made Jonesy Punch (Dr. Pepper, OJ, shot of whiskey) and took a shot of whiskey. Yuss.

I would like to take a break from my homework hiatus to tell you of three amazing things I learned today:

1) Bruce Wayne likes polka and it's canon. (Weird Al and the Scooby gang were on Batman: the Brave and the Bold today. It was amazing.)

2) The new My Little Ponies show is indeed as awesome as I suspected it might be, so I might have to start watching it now. And there's a(n unofficial) pony called Derpy Hooves, who is a minor character that became a fan favorite, who I am going to pretend is only derpy for the sake of being silly. (I do that a lot.) Also, this MLP has a lot of guy fans, which I love, and the fact that so many of them are on /b/ is even more amazing. (I still don't like the original MLP though, the design work on this is just... favorable. And awesome.)

3) JOHN CLEESE AND CRAIG FERGUSON ARE VOICES IN THE NEW WINNIE THE POOH MOVIE COMING OUT THIS SUMMER WHICH ALSO HAS CHRISTOPHER ROBIN BACK INSTEAD OF DISNEY'S RANDOM DETECTIVE GIRL. OH MY GOD <3

I WILL SEE THAT MOVIE (at midnight if possible) WITH NO SHAME.

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

Mom called me yesterday in the middle of the day to tell me that Spats was "not doing well" and she had taken him to the vet. Well not only was he not doing well, they thought he was in the advanced stages of renal failure, was suffering greatly and we should put him down as he would only last days to weeks, but most of it pain-filled. He apparently had lost 3 pounds (about a quarter of his body weight) since his last annual checkup, was dehydrated, lethargic, and had been puking all over the house for the better part of a week. The vet gave him subcutaneous fluids and took a blood sample, and mom took him home to see how he did and wait for the blood test to come back. The vet said if it wasn't renal failure it may be a tumor, but other than that she had no idea. Regardless, Spats was not doing well. (Not to mention, I started worrying about Jack, how he was handling having a sick buddy and how he would deal with being an only cat if we had to put spats down...)

So I was sniffling all through trying to finish up some of my work and sat antsily through my class, decided to skip my evening class, and went home to spend the evening with Spats in the event we would have to put him down Saturday. Anyway I pretty much teared up constantly all evening yesterday and I'm just completely exhausted today, but that's beside the point.

When I went home Spats was still rather lethargic and I let him out on the porch. He wasn't moving very quickly and was only barely nudging his face up on a box he usually would have jumped up on. So I put him up on it and he sat there for a bit, then moved over onto the bench where it was sunnier, and eventually as the sun kept moving he moved back to the box. Finally once the sun was completely gone from the porch he came and sat on my lap, and I couldn't help but notice how light he was and how surprisingly bony he felt. I don't know how long he's been sick or how rapid any of his weight loss or dehydration was, but this seems rather sudden. And we can't really tell how long he has been under-eating because there's a really good chance that Jack has been making up for that.

At any rate. I cuddled with him as much as he would allow but it was very sad. When he would go to clean himself or shake his head or anything, he would get about a half second into it and then stop. It is very odd to see a cat that hasn't cleaned themselves well, you can tell something is wrong. Finally when I was struggling to keep my eyes open but was sitting on the stairs petting him, he walked upstairs all the way to my room and hopped up on my bed. I should mention that it's not uncommon when I go home for him to sleep on my feet. So I followed him upstairs and went to bed and made sure to snuggle up with him, although he wanted to sleep on my feet and eventually made his way down there.

So. Yesterday was a rough day. Although by the end of it he seemed mildly perkier than he was when I first came home, which I think was a result of getting some fluids in him. He wasn't eating much at all though.

But! This morning I woke up to a call from mom that the vet had called and it wasn't renal failure. So. We don't know what it is or if it will be treatable, but I am hopeful and I think if we can clear out whatever the system problem is and get food and fluids back in him... Whew. I drove him to the vet this morning and when we were close he crawled out of his carrier to sit on my lap and look out the window. It was rather adorable (and unexpected--when I first moved the cats to the house they would not stop crying) and I told him if he gets himself well at the vet I will start taking him for drives, if he would like that. Like he can talk, right? Anyway.

He is at the vet and I am still rather worried, while I'm not breaking into tears like I was yesterday, I'm still finding it hard to focus. I hope he's not too lonely in there :C And I hope whatever it is, it's treatable. He's only 6, so... yeah. Anyway.

Yeah so I go from no posting to overload! Woo. I'm gonna pass out now.

(On the other side of things, have you ever seen the Idiot Box episode of Spongebob? It is the episode where Squidward gets a new tv and gives Spongebob and Patrick the box... I realized that the look they give him when he opens the box on them is the same look you get from Jack most of the time when you find him crunched up into a box. I got new tap shoes and that is of course immediately what he did.)

On the just-plain-odd side of things, I found out that when things get depressing I apparently switch straight to Robert Frost quoting.

I don't know when to say to expect a "real" post from me. I have a lot to post and... not lots of time. This is a crazy semester =/

[EDIT] Update as of (later) this morning: Mom called, the vet's got Spats on lots of fluids, and he's up and purring and seemingly back to normal. So she thinks it's nothing fatal. C=

I'm alive! I'm posting! I know!

My lappy's hard drive took a dive the day before the semester started and I just got it back a few days ago. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on, but in the meantime enjoy this paper I wrote the other night about the book Cradle to Cradle (and the Biomimicry Institute) for my LEED class while I nearly pulled an all-nighter. It got a little bit ridiculous.

( In Which I Did Not Write a Technical Paper )



I can't even believe I wrote that. Apparently when I stay up late (and then only get 1.5 hours of sleep) my brain transfers function from "ability to form coherent sentences and thought patterns" to "creative but wildly ridiculous thought patterns".

IDEK