The Daily Adventures of Mercat

Idk why but I've been tab-hoarding for weeks. As a result, running roughly 220 tabs was causing firefox to crash constantly. So, here is several days worth of tab writeups, which might mean whatever I wrote sounds a few days old. That would be because it is, but it's probably not too important.

( LOTS of articles )

( a second set, many more articles )

...I read a lot.

Mm, I forgot to say yesterday, the dream, by "boat scene" I meant with Panama Hat, not the Venice chase. (Important stuff, I know.)

Mm, last night I watched Terminator (for the first time) and Enchanted (interesting combination, I know). It took me all the way through Enchanted to realize it, but you know exactly what Terminator reminds me of? The evil dog from the original Wallace & Gromit shorts. Lol. I love those shorts. I have been really tempted to dress up as the "Have you seen this chicken?" for Halloween. Acually I really need to get my act together and just pick something for Halloween this year to work on. It's FINALLY on a weekend, so I want to do something good. Problem is, a lot of the cool stuff would require lots of time and money that I don't have, so I'm leaning heavily toward pirate again. I haven't used my pirate costume for Halloween yet, so it's all good. Huh, or I could do flapper, but that's kind of lame for me for a Halloween costume. On the list is Ghostbusters, but MAN, the props for that are $$$. Anyway. It's April.

MAN, today is another best day ever, even though the evening kind of sucked. That's how good it's been. I sent a text-post this morning, but it didn't come through for some reason.

ANYWAY. It started out normally, well, mostly, just going to ceramics. There was a pot sale today, so it was cool to see all the other stuff that was there. After that Takeda's class was cancelled, so we went straight to Hawaiian history, and I geeked out that Bailey had an Indy diet Dr. Pepper can. Class got cancelled, no big deal, though I couldn't go to lunch yet and I didn't really have anywhere to go because it was close to the library opening time. Well I just happened to check my phone and MY HAT CAME!!!!!!! So I decided to walk down to 7-11 and check if they had the latest copy of Entertainment Weekly (which they didn't), and get a Mountain Dew to celebrate. I called my mom and it's definitely my hat and not something else, so YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. I was completely surprised because I was told back when I ordered it would probably be three months, so I thought maybe I'd get it in time for Indy IV, but then for some reason the receipt from paypal didn't come for about three more weeks, so I had pretty much given up on getting it on time and I had already resigned myself to wearing my DP. So for about two hours today you couldn't get the stupid look off my face, I was just grinning like an idiot. =D

And after that was the opening ceremonies for the new library. They managed to get all the landscaping done, which looks AMAZing, though I don't think they finished some things like the elevator. Anyway, it was pretty cool. Everyone was going around with their leis and all the profs had to wear their fancy caps and gowns, it was just so nice. And they had a brass quintet, which, uh, was a little out of place, and all the profs entered to Pomp and Circumstance, which just sounded empty, and then they added this little jazzy-poppy comPLETEly out of place section, and... yeah. It was just kind of bad. BUT ANYWAY! There were some speeches, none too bad, and then the dancing! Irish dancing (lol) because one of the funders was all the way from Ireland. So that was pretty cool. The Samoan Club and Hawaiian Club also performed, which were both really cool. =D I LOVE Samoan traditional song and dance. It's gorgeous.

It's also really interesting, initially when they were taking all of us exchange students around the first few days getting us acquainted, they said just to take into mind that Chaminade has a much more diverse student body and a much more accepting environment, that there were a lot of evening and older students, and that Hawaii had a stronger gay culture and stuff. I didn't really notice it at all (but then again I guess I have never been prone to noticing that kind of thing) until I saw the Samoan Club perform. I guess, especially in Samoa, and the older Hawaii culture and stuff, people just were as they were so it doesn't bother anyone to be gay or bi or anything. At least that's the impression I get from my history classes, where we learned that Hawaiians used to be pretty promiscuous, but, in that everyone generally had several/many different partners and of both genders, and no big deal. ANYWAY, back the point. Because Samoa never had a culture that brought in outsiders (no "trade value") they still speak mainly Samoan and everything, I mean their societ is still largely intact, but anyway there are these two guys in Samoan Club who I guess are transvestites? I mean, I'm not sure on the definition but they just cross-dress and act very feminine all the time. They are wonderful guys though. =)

BUT! The best part of all the presentations was the last one, a Chinese Lion dance! They had four guys as two dragons, one blue and silver/white for Chaminade and one green and orange (and some other accents, like yellow/red/white) for Ireland, and it was just SO COOL! It struck me that I've never actually seen one before, And they did these really cool dances up to the front, where Mrs. Sullivan was standing with a money envelope (which is good luck in China, if I recall correctly) on a fishing line sort of thing. I couldn't tell what was going on because the seating was terrible, but you could still see the dragons sancing because they did this cool jumping sort of dance with the head part. (Unfortunately my camera ran out of video space, so I don't have anything.) But on the way out people were giving them money which they "ate". I don't know if it was good luck or tradition or how you tip them that grew out of tradition or what, but it was JUST PLAIN AWESOME.

Carly and I went on a bike ride around Diamond Head, later, which was gorgeous. There was a combination of factors that killed me though; I'm not in shape, the vog was pretty heavy, it was hot, I couldn't shift and was stuck in the smallest gear (and couldn't get any momentum), the brakes suck, and something was wrong with the pedals, me not drinking enough lately, the seat was too low so my knees died... so I was just slow as all getout. But it was still such a nice ride. =)

And then after I got back and was getting ready to go to the cookout at Ala Moana beach with Islander Exchange Club, it just LET LOOSE and poured. But only for about ten minutes, and then it totally cleared up and we were on our way by then! It was a nice cookout, but the sunset totally sucked (clouds or vog or I dunno, but you couln't see it), and we stayed out a bit too long on the beach so my legs are kinda crampy. But it was still nice, I mean, waterside Hawaii right?! So it was a good day.

Hmm, I just realized that "Duke's On Sunday" by Jimmy Buffett is about HERE. (Duke's... southside...on the beach at Waikiki. nurr) Good ending for the evening though. =)

26 days!

omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came

Good day today. I wasn't sure it was going to be a good day, because Islander Exchange Club plans were falling through and so were my plans to hit up the swap meet. But Islander Exchange Club just ended up going to North Shore again doing the usual rounds, Waimeia Bay and then Haleiwa for lunch, and you can't go wrong there!

So we drove up to Waimeia Bay and had breakfast, I definitely got about eight bug bites. Well the waves were already CRAZY so we just sat and chilled on the beach, not really sunning or napping or anything because it was cloudy and sort of spraying-sprinkling. Eventually it stopped and the sun sort of came out, but there was nooooo way we were getting in the water because about every ten minutes there'd be this HUGE break of waves. It was insane. So we were just sitting around and I felt something land on my back. It felt like, I dunno, a half-rotten blueberry or something, just, kind of mucousy but more solid. Anyway so I reached back to see what it was and grabbed it, and as soon as I saw what it was (a bee), it stung me. I don't think it stung me before that because I didn't feel anything. But I was just like "oh, shit." and dropped the bee and smashed it into the sand with my sandal. Luckily enough Katie Reed (who's 20th birthday it was! woo) had brought ice in the cooler to keep the cream cheese warm so I numbed my finger and it wasn't too bad. I just always forget how much bee stings hurt more than most other things until I get stung again. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain but I'm not very good at remembering it. As soon as it's gone, I pretty much can't recall just to what extent it hurt. (Man, the first time I got stung it was on the inside of my ear, and I can't imagine that happening again, it must have hurt sooo bad. But I was at summercamp and I don't remember it hurting enough to cry or anything.)

Anyway. So about an hour before we left Katie really was pumping to get in the water and got some people to go in with her. Bascially just swim out to right before the wave break and try not to die. ;) The benefit with the bigger waves was that you got a break in between because they were so big. As opposed to the last time we were there, where the waves were just like a tumble-dryer where you just totally got pounded and it as soon as you stood up you'd get knocked over again. So most of us stood there watching them dive through the waves and they came out when the big break started to come, which was a good thing because these waves were flipping everything left and right. Insane! So there was this BIG guy standing next to us (crazy long hair, too!) telling us we should get in. I took some video (which I'm going to try to edit together and post on youtube or something) and sent some to mom and dad and Laura and Savannah, and we just stood there for a good while and watched the waves break like crazy. So Katie decided since it was her birthday she really wanted to jump off the rock since it might be her last chance, and Tom Middleton wanted to because he hadn't done it before, so they went to do it and Tootle went with them. I guess what happened is that the big guy trying to convince us to get back in the water said he was going to jump off the rock, so Katie decided to get some encouragement from him and go. So they all went up there and jumped off all at the same time, which made me kind of nervous, especially when the guy jumped in right after them! Those waves were crazy. Dang.

So after that we all packed up and headed back to Haleiwa for hulihuli chicken (which apparently means "turn turn" chicken) and Matsumoto's (YUM. I think I put "Yamamoto's" last time I wrote about it) and shrimp. I got Pina Colada shave-ice with ice cream and adzuki beans, and really the beans and rice make it. You wouldn't think they do, but they DO. Other shave ice just does not compare to the real deal! And then we hastily drove down the shrimp trucks, and I got garlic shrimp again, which was delicious. (I felt kind of bummed because Katie skipped lunch because they didn't take credit cards, and then her parents called and reminded her about the whole UD/Chaminade fiasco, which upset her, and I was remembering Dad being a little upset because he couldn't park anywhere when we came here, and then I got a little sad missing mom and dad. BUT. Still a good day.)

I am still sad that the legit woody wagon with board that we saw parked in front of the gas station the first time we went up to Haleiwa was not owned by the owners of the shop like I thought it was. I skipped getting a picture for dad because I assumed it would be up there when we went, but it wasn't. =( It made me want an old car like it so I could make it a real woody wagon. I LOVE THOSE OLD CARS! Every time we've gone up to North Shore I see just about one nice old car that makes me ooh and ah, but I don't think I've seen any nice 50's Chevys. Though I did see a red and white one similar the other day on the bus down to Kahala mall! Verruh nice cars.

Anyway so tonight was White Sunday, which is a Samoan holiday. The mass was beautiful! Their music and dancing was amazing. =D I wish I had pictures, but I don't. I'll have to see if I can get some from Genny!

I am kind of sad that it looks like I won't be able to go to Maui for more than a day or so because of the student recitals concert (and Hokule'a! maybe), but DARN I guess that means I have to come back!

38 days until Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! Oh geez oh geez exciting. I can't wait~~~

This is a pretty rad poster: http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/04/05/new-3d-indiana-jones-4-banner/

Yup =D