The Daily Adventures of Mercat

goes to my dad, who said, "You don't want to spend $100 on this, do you?" after basically telling me he didn't think I could handle any kind of power saw.

Because I need to cut the parts for my costume's MAIN PROP (read: only prop) out of MDF, or something. (Luaun board?)


So thanks, dad, for not thinking I have the need or the capability to handle power tools. Let us recall the model cars we had to build in Architecture in which we had access to the woodworking garage, and all the dremeling I did. (Granted, I came extremely close to taking a chunk out of my thigh, but suffice it to say I've learned my lesson.)


Also... $100? HA. That's spare change when it comes to Halloween. I've probably already dropped $200 this year for all my projects, especially because I won't get to do anything big for the NEXT THREE YEARS.

Not to mention... that whole part where my career intention is to become some sort of THEME DESIGNER. Yeah. Details aren't important or anything.

That shebang said, I started decorating the living room today and it looks fabulous.


On the other hand, it sounds like my fucking stage makeup that I ordered almost a week ago-- the order hasn't even been processed yet. I'm sorry, if you make no mention of that kind of delay on your website, what the fuck are you doing running such a large website? You have shipping warehouses all over and yet you can't get me my fucking makeup in two weeks?

So now I don't know what to do about Friday... fuck that noise. I'm furious.

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

I was actually rather productive today, despite my alarm deciding not to go off on time. I started my grad school applications, which is a daunting task, particularly since I have no idea who I'm going to ask for recommendations. My boss I guess? I just don't have any particular comraderie with any of my professors. =/ By which I mean, I actively dislike a significant portion of my department, and the others I am apathetic towards. Anyway.

I also paid some bills, started the FE Exam application process, and tried to fix OneNote (still no luck--Windows' "help forms" are practically worthless considering in four days I've had one response that actually provided me with zero answers, only more confusion). Tomorrow I'm going to work on stuff for my portfolio, which is also intimidating since I'm not actually an art major, and I therefore don't have much to pull from. (Man, what if you were just an engineer with no arts background? What at all would you put in a portfolio?)

Dad and Laura went out to get a Christmas tree, which I didn't help put up at all, though I'm not terribly upset about that. At the moment I'm feeling more "busy" than "Christmasy", although turning on Christmas music won't get me riled up now about how it isn't even Thanksgiving.

I kind of do want to go out shopping, though. Every few weeks I feel the need for crass commercialization. I think it's kind of a "getting out of the house" thing combined with a "need to buy groceries" and "looking for visual stimulation/inspiration" type thing. The curse of being artistically inclined, sometimes, I swear.

Anyway, prompt time, before I go do something entertaining this evening.

My probably number one example for "any place I would like to visit one day" is the Angkor Wat in Cambodia. However, also on my list are visit Australia and all the National Parks, although "go everywhere" is pretty much the rest of my list, to be honest.

I'm thinking for next year, in order to keep up the "daily posting" but with something more substantial than a prompt, I might start doing Hardy Boys read-alongs. I haven't nearly read as many detective/spy/mystery novels since college/discovering the internet in high school/etc., and I kind of miss the genre as a whole. Plus, Hardy Boys books are really easy to page through. I think I can conquer one in about three hours total. Plus, it's been ages since I read the whole collection anyway, it'd be good to recall some of the plots.

Okay, I've been gone awhile, I'm sorry, I know, I've been super busy. Lots of tests and projects and more to come, but at least this weekend there's no game.

Anyway, I should be back Thursday or Friday to play catch-up (or maybe even Saturday too), but in the meantime PLEASE read this.

I have posted two of my Halloween projects to Instructables and they are entered in the Halloween contest for which voting is THIS WEEK. I would appreciate if you would vote for them =) (It's free to create an account and I have to say it is one of my most favorite sites ever.)


Light-up "toxic waste" drink dispenser: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Build-a-Toxic-Waste-Drum-Drink-Dispenser/

Turn your closet into a bat cave: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Build-a-Batcave/


Please and thank youuuu :D

AUGH. Fuck fuck fuck my computer. You just had to keep malfunctioning all semester, and fail over break, dincha?

Because now it is currently 6:36 AM and I am pulling an all-nighter to finish this damn AutoCAD project (though it's strangely relaxing and I am strangely awake for only four mountain dews). And I just am one-third/two-fifths/one-half -of-the-way-finished, depending on how you want to look at it.

Um, I have had so little sleep this week, but I'm not really feeling it. I don't know if that's a good thing...? Then again four Mountain Dews can't be that great for you. I think I'll go eat fourthmeal/breakfast soon. And then take a shower. I'm gross.

It looks like even though I planned on catching up on sleep I will end up watching YIJC on the History Channel at 9 anyhow. I hope it's a half-an-hour, but I don't know. I just know that it was posted well over on IndyGear because it's the Mystery of the Blues episode (for all you non-Indy-fans, that's the one that Ford was in).

Except fuck those woodwinds, who needs them? =D

JAMES MARSDEN WAS CYCLOPS?!

WHAT THE HELL, PEOPLE?

WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME THESE THINGS


...Yeah, I hated Cyclops, but still, James Marsden is my new hero for Hairspray and Enchanted. Dammit, now I have to watch those movies again. Though I guess it means I can skip the third one, which is good, because I just LAAAAAAUGH my ass off. Hoo boy.


In other news, my dad bought me electric socks for the game tomorrow. I don't think I'm going to wear them, they require also wearing HUGE batteries on my feet that would pull the socks down. I'll just wear two layers of warm socks.

Um, yeah. Candice told me about this awesome video on YouTube by Niel Cicierega called No Place Like Home. I didn't finish all of them yet, but it's pretty clever and it makes me want to make a movie next summer. ;) Just reminds me of Brett's silliness, too. Also, I want to take the scarecrow's song and make it a full-length thing of some sort.

POD Banquet was tonight, it was good. Very good, the videos made me all happy. =) Spot did a really good job with them.

Also I will be back later to post about some more thoughts I had on the "audit" and stuff. I also had a really cool name for a band name or song name or something today so I'll have to see if I can remember it. Yeah, I <3 references too much.

And I was way too excited in the past month or so to remember that Kim F was a huge Monty Python fan and Melissa is a huge Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin and Pink Panther fan. (I <3 you two!) I'm glad I'm no longer the only person I know under 25 who would know what I'm talking about with them. =D I'm sooo going to miss everyone next semester in Hawaii (though I keep wanting to post "I GOTTA GO WHERE IT'S WAAAAARM"), because I now have all these awesome lets-hang-out-and-be-weird plans, so, I guess I will just have to talk to everyone about living together again after next year. =D

So, yeah, NaNoWriMo did not pass more than a few days, but I really don't care. Anyone want to start a writing project of some sort? Or a movie script, or a band or something? Those are things I've always wanted to do, and it would be fun. =D

Wraaaauuuuugh. I am just having an emotion-wrecking year.

I saw Enchanted today with Kim L. and Melissa before their parents came to pick them up--it was fantastic! I love Menken's music. The animation was amazing, and honestly I was sad that more of it wasn't animated, buuut, that's life. I hear there's talk of a sequel in which Idina Menzel would sing and I AM SO IN, RIGHT NOW. It was PG, which I think made it better--Kim and Melissa and I were cracking our heads off through the whole movie, and I can guarantee most of the little kids in the theatre were not. Well, definitely not as much.

Sooooo I bought the soundtrack on the way home. I am very bad at not impulse-buying good soundtracks.

ALSO! Yesterday I spent $80 on craft supplies at WalMart! Woah. Woah. The best thing? A TINY IRON. IT IS ABOUT FOUR INCHES TALL. IT IS AS AWESOME AS MR. TUSKS, FROM QWANTZ. However, I now have (pretty much) everything to finish my first steampunk prop, an aether gun. The only thing I don't know if I have is wood stain and primer, because I assumed my dad would have some, but I don't know yet. Do you know how hard it is to find a stupid cowboy capgun? I had less luck at Halloween, and TOYS 'R' US HAD NOTHING. Screw you Toys 'R' Us, you've proven useless my whole life. Forget you. WalMart has my back.

Soooo, that's my project for later this week. Among others (like a new purse, because my Hawaiiana Jones bag is dying! Noooooo!).

So I came home and watching Pushing Daisies (yay!) and then my freaking computer crashed. GODDAMNIT. And this time it won't restart... and the PcHelp guys have said previously it might cause me to lose all my computer's memory... FUCK FUCK MCFUCKERTONS. I am PRAYING TO GOD it restarts tomorrow morning. I don't know why it would, but, you know, MIRACLES, PLZ.

So instead I put the Enchanted soundtrack on repeat and completed this project I've wanted to do for a few years, which I will not put behind a cut because I am so pround of it. =D Originally Josh mentioned he wanted to buy a pair of red and a pair of green chucks and wear them, and I told him I would, too. But he never did and I have not been able to successfully find two sets of cheap chucks in red and green. BUT! Yesterday at Target I happened to spy a cheap pair of ripoff chucks in black with pinstripes. Plus they were on clearance! $7! Heck yes. Inspiration struck like a bitchslap.

And here's the fantastic product (sans laces, b/c they were drying when I took this photo):




How awesome is that?! All my roomies and I are so excited for Christmas already, it's actually pretty sad. And awesome. For once in a long time I feel excited for Christmas.

Now if I didn't suddenly have a gazillion large projects fall in my lap this month, AND a fucking broken computer... Goddamnit.


Um, also, Enchanted did not have the Indy IV trailer with it. It must be coming out with Ntl. Treasure... goddamnit!!!!

I am also excited for this break because I'm going to start taking pictures of all the hats I have in my collection. RAWK.

OK, I am only half counting this as an update. I still haven't caught up with anything (thank you to a computer that freezes all the time and causes me to lose the windows I was working in), so I am restricting myself from posting about my summer and everything yet. Buuuut, come Saturday, here's what's going to happen!

I have always thought it would be awesome to play some drinking game with Mountain Dew, and just be hyper, you know? I also came across this site one day telling you how to pull an all-nighter if you needed to. And in the spirit of seeing what skills I possess and what limits I have and life goals and really live and whatnot (Gag? Never. ASL code? Yes I do [mostly].), I thought, I wonder if I can pull an all-nighter. So, the combination of lots of caffiene and an all-nighter seemed to go hand in hand. (Plus, honestly. Who would I be to turn down Mountain Dew?) And I was thinking about what kind of stuff I could do in lieu of sleeping, and working on my projects was one of them. Then someone (already!) brought up NaNoWriMo, and I remembered the author last year who did "moment" rather than "month" and did it 24 hours. And I know that my writing improves (in my opinion) when I am slightly slaphappy (or very much so), so I thought, hey, perfect opportunity. And originally I was going to try to stay up for 36 hours and write, since I didn't think 24 hours would be enough for 50,000 words, but things like band and Club 6 have kind of got in the way of that. But most likely this Saturday I will be up for 36+ hours straight, at least 24 of which (all Saturday, technically) will be spent on art and my projects. Not just writing because I am not feeling the whole writing thing right now, but at least a little will be done. Otherwise I will be posting an art photo I took, finishing the Southwind ambigrams, drawing stuff I've wanted to draw for awhile, and getting some steampunk craftywork done. =) And costuming, of course! So yes, very wacky hyper Saturday. Expect me to make little sense Saturday evening, if you speak to me.

More coming soon! =)