The Daily Adventures of Mercat

Diana Wynne Jones, one of my top three favorite authors and my favorite female author. Your words have helped inspire my hopes in imagineering, and your stories will be missed.

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.

Title quote thanks to a piece of art in a catalog my mom had at home.

So that favorites meme everyone's been doing:

01. Answer each of the questions below the cut using the Flickr search engine.
02. Choose a photo from the first three pages.
03. Copy the URL of your favorite photos here.
04. Then share with the world.



1. SOME PASSIONS NEVER GROW OLD, 2. I'm Nacho Mama, 3. 1974 Xenia Tornado, 4. When Butterfly turned into Flower, 5. "hey, that's dick van dyke...", 6. Mountain Dew Kitty, 7. rapa nui sunset, 8. Brown Sugar Brownies (Recipe), 9. The Indiana Jones Queue, 10. Dream of Flyin, 11. This is your cat on drugs., 12. Pecado venial

( keywords/faves here )


[EDIT] NOW WITH ADDED INSTRUCTIONS! (I'm good with memes, y/y?) ~hurr~

We saw them tonight. =D

Let's see, Lara and Pat and Christina showed up around 7:30 and we all sat down and played Apples to Apples. A little bit before David was going to get here, we stopped for a pizza and tea break. David got here and we all chatted in the kitchen for a little bit, then resumed Apples to Apples. (Somehow, I dominated. Usually I have terrible luck with that game. [Ooooor I appreciate irony and cynicism significantly more than anyone else I've ever played with.]) After we played through most of the deck, Pat and Christina left because they had stuff to do, and David and Lara and I just hung out and chatted (and had some interesting conversatios, LOL).

Let me just say, the add-on decks for Apples to Apples? You can't just play that deck, you have to shuffle them in. 90% of the new cars are "_____ & _____" which gets annoying VERY quickly.

Anyway. Lara and David shuffled off around midnight, and Laura and I played some Guitar Hero while James passed out on the couch, and now here I am.

I am VERY excited for the beach next week =D And taking a break to work on some art and stuff.

Definitely going to be very busy tomorrow, though, I need to pack and clean the house and clean my room and clean my shoes and mow the lawn! BUT I will do it... And Saturday we will be in NORTH CAROLINA WOO WOO! Tortugas Lie here I come...

There is something about OBX I love... Maybe the smell... I love breezes. =) They are instant relaxation.

Hopefully I won't get motion-sick in the car. =( I used to be able to read in the car, no problem, but I've started feeling queasy even on short trips... =( =( =(

CRAP I really need to stop cutting it so close.

Tired to play catch up with Hawaiian history book... Not happening. Three chapters in and my eyes were just scanning the pages with no words actually getting into my brain.

Then I got sucked into some other websites and then HEREIAMCRAPposting.

77 days until Indiana Jones the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! Today's trivia: Indy burgers? Wut?

I mean, really.