The Daily Adventures of Mercat

First of all, happy holidays, merry christmas, all that jazz. It still doesn't feel like Christmas... which sucks. This semester just took so much out of me, mentally.

I was going to do a whole special holiday post and go "caroling" on people's journals this year, but damned if I am just not too tired. Ugh. I think I will do a christmas recap later.

Instead, Laura, Max, Kyle, Chris, and I got bored and went out to see a movie on Christmas, the first time in my life I have ever done that. I was a little pissed because I wanted to see Sherlock Holmes or Imaginarium and Imaginarium isn't out anywhere locally as far as I can tell and everybody else decided no, Holmes was going to suck, so let's see Avatar.

I was a bit reluctant because of all the Dances With Smurfs crap I've seen about it, not to mention the fact that I hatehatehate most CGI because it comes off looking fake. Maybe not the textures, but the laws of physics never seem to apply. (Not to mention Uncanny Valley shit like Polar Express, GOTDAMN.) But Chris as drunk as fuck and my whole life I've been trying to fight Max and Kyle and Laura when they team up and it just does not fucking work, okay? Ugh. I hate them when they get like that.

Anyway, the non-spoilery summary, it's pretty good. Yes, Dances With Smurfs. Yes, visually stunning. Yes, has lots of lame moments. Dialogue was actually better than I expected. Anyway, I'd say, if you're interested, see it, but it's not some great epic, and it has lots of eye-rolling moments. (At three hours long, I do mean lots.)

( and now, the spoilers, warning for discussions on race, gender, engineering, and more )

Environmental ethics has brought up some interesting things to talk about, but it is much less applicable than I thought it was going to be. Well, that sounds wrong. It is completely applicable to every aspect of life, which is why I like philosophy; but it is not at all like my Engineering Ethics class, where we are asked to look at ethical dilemmas faced by professional engineers.

But I digress; today I came upon a thought that can better articulate something I've been feeling lately, that nameless thing.

Regardless, I really don't want to talk about that right now. Last week was a long and exhausting week and this week is not much better. I had a nice panicked moment when I thought I had part of my final project due for economics, but it was the grad part of the class that did. *breathe*

Oh, it's supposed to snow heavily tomorrow. Hurrah! Maybe Girl Scouts will be canceled and I can regain some sanity time.

I've had some pretty bold-imageried dreams lately... I don't know if that's because of all the crap I've been eating and drinking, or the fact I'm not sleeping well, or what.

Everyone seems kind of on-edge, too... Not sure why, but it's rather worrisome.

Anyway, I have like seven emails to myself of links I've accumulated that I need to disperse. So, without further ado:

Cool military deceptions. I've always been intrigued by deception... The number of detective and spy books I read when I was in gradeschool was rather ridiculous, I'm sure.

Any UKers out there? I'm like 90% sure no, but just in case I am passing that on. It doesn't sound good.

The floating islands of Titicaca. So effin' sweet. I'm such an engineering dork.

I'm confused about what's going on here...? But both the Disney-capitalist and agnostic parts of me rather love it. Capitalism is crazy sometimes...

The Eight Weirdest Ways We'll Generate Energy in the Future. As an engineer who's been hearing about green design for a while now, most of those are not that "weird". Personally, the weirdest one is... tornadoes? I think I need a diagram to grasp the idea of this one.

Seven Phenomenal Wonders of the Natural World. I think I've linked this before, but I don't remember the sailing stones, and that's pretty amazing shit right there.

There are a lot of days I wish I could just be an explorer-naturalist. How badass of a job would that be?

Oh dude, and Neil Gaiman got a Newberry award! Congrats to him! Very deserved.

You know, every so often, I get really interesting thoughts and questions. I remember reading something--I think when Ep III came out--about how it was clearly marketing and not precisely storytelling that all the new technology was created for. Obviously, that's one challenge of creating prequels, but SW IV, V, and VI all were in a period where technology had mostly hit its peak and wasn't going anywhere (I believe I've heard the term stagnating somewhere), and it's only 20 or 30 or so years later.*

So all this makes me wonder; when my generation is old, will we have the advantage of growing up with a completely new form of technology, so much so that we don't fall as much victim to advancement as the older generations of today?** I mean, Nana never really understood more than enough to check her email, and Grandma and Grandpa are weary enough of it now (though Gramps uses AutoCAD well at work, and I would presume Grandma uses Office plenty), and it's interesting to watch Dad hook up musical software and a keyboard for Miss Shoup, though she doesn't really like it. Or Father Ken not understanding installing/using iTunes. I mean, the technology we have doesn't seem to be going anywhere other than getting faster, better, or used for new things, but I'm not really sure we have many new places to come up with something revolutionary for (excepting, perhaps, time travel, but that's a whole other matter).

Just a thought.

Funnily enough for Christmas I got one of my favorite books from when I was little, the Time Warp Trio book 2095. I think I read it before second grade, because I remember drawing the Sell-Bots and I'm 99% sure it was in the second-grade classroom. Hmm, I must have read it when it first came out because that would have been some part of 1995, and it was published in '95.

Anyway, it makes me wonder if I'll be alive or what I'll be doing in 2095, and how much life will be different from now, or how close it will be to the book. I mean, it's been about twelve years since that was imagined and though we don't have holograms or anti-grav devices or sell-bots there are those FUCKING ANNOYING video ads at the mall. Which in 88 (!-hee) years will have "matured", as it were.

I hope I'm alive then. If I am I'll be in New York on September 28th. Just so you know. (Under Teddy Roosevelt's statue at the Museum of Natural History. We'll party.)

(Also, this book is THE definitive reason I collect synonyms for puke. I think it was the tomboy lit-nerd in me.)


*Now I suppose I should put some more research into it, but how established was the technology in Ep I, II, and III? I mean... where did podracing go by the time Luke rolled around? Although, to be fair (I suppose), Anakin was obviously some sort of genius and may have completely fucked up all the worlds' technologies with his new stuff, and the war. (As for continuity in the Star Wars universe I don't think I want to touch the books with a ten-foot pole. Except the one I got for my tenth birthday which I wish I hadn't given away...)

**Then again, my generation--which has GROWN UP WITH COMPUTERS, mind you--is none too adept itself. Watching my cousin or my friends try to install something is sad and hilarious at the same time. Though I take pride in not being an idiot computer-wise, nor being socially ignorant like all the newbs online who join communities and have NO CLUE to just sit back and absorb the tone of the place before doing anything. Ugh.