The Daily Adventures of Mercat

Some sort of steampunk or adventurer or mummy-hunter or treasure-hunter or zombie hunter something.



I bought this bitchin' vest at T.J. Maxx (lol Members Only!) that sort of reminds me of River Song's white one, except brown. And OMG it is thick and fuzzy and fabulously comfortable. So I'll be channeling some sort of archaeologesque-pirate-dystopian-thing.

Probably just rummage my closet for whatever I like and be like FUCK IT IDEK WHAT THIS IS




Aaaaaand then hunt down someone who would want to do a photoshoot for my Medusa sometime. Some time when I'm FUCKING FREEZING I guess.


Speaking of which, holy shit we had some apocalypse clouds in Dayton today (and it feels like it should have been an ice storm, it was cold enough-- apparently it did hail somewhere). I was running errands and I walked outside and immediately noticed the clouds (funny how you notice the smallest things when they're "not right") and went HOOOOLLY SHIIIIIIII-- I think I just walked into the end of Ghostbusters.

You know, when the clouds are getting all swirly-artistic-terrifying? Yes.


And then I was about to get in my car and I heard the LOUDEST, SHARPEST thunder of my life. No lightning. No rolling, booming. Just one huge crack that sounded like a massive explosion. I am not the type of person to be afraid of storms, in fact, the very opposite (and most of the people I grew up in Xenia think I'm an asshole for all the jokes I've made). However, this crack was SO TERRIFYING that I ducked and very nearly would have hit the ground.

At least there is some solace (although solace is not the word I want to use there-- damn you, thesaurus) in the fact that I immediately ducked. Survival instincts = intact.

NORMAL POST

LEGIT EXCUSE: I TOOK THE GRE TODAY THEN PARTYFAILED. MOM WAS ALL "HEY WANT TO GO TO SKYLINE AFTERWARDS?" AND I SAID PROBABLY AND I CAME HOME TO COLD PIZZA AND A REQUEST TO CLEAN THE BATHROOMS. SO I DID THAT AND LEFT. AND THEN NOBODY ACTUALLY WANTED TO "GO OUT" LIKE WE PLANNED, EVEN TO DRUNK KARAOKE, SO I WAS KINDA IN A BAD MOOD AND THIS DAY WAS KIND OF A WASTE OF MY LIFE TO BE HONEST

SO I'M UP LATE CATCHING UP ON IMPORTANT THINGS (LIKE LIVEJOURNALLING) AND NOT GIVING A SHIT BECAUSE I'M GOING TO SLEEP IN BUT WATCH THE DAMN PARADE TOMORROW ANYWAY

AND THEN AS SOON AS GRANDMA GETS DEPRESSED AND ASKS ME WHY I'M NOT DATING ETC ETC AND MOM STARTS TALKING AT ME ABOUT GRAD STUFF AGAIN I'M JUST GONNA GTFO AND GO SEE DUE DATE AND THEN GO TO WAFFLE HOUSE BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO GO FOR THREE WEEKS AND NOBODY WANTS TO FUCKING GO AND YOU KNOW WHAT? FINE. I'LL GO BY MYSELF. THIS IS WHY I HATE PEOPLE SOMETIMES. BECAUSE LITERALLY NO ONE IN TOWN WANTS TO GO TO THE MOVIES WITH ME.

Some fucking friends sometimes, I swear to god. There is more to life than alcohol.

BUT I DIGRESS.

/capsrage!off

(Note, that is not capsrage "yelling" but rather "comically over-loud voice".)

Now onto your regularly scheduled programming.

OH, HOW APPROPRIATE, yesterday's prompt was the last movie I saw in theatres. INCEPTION. WHEN I GOT BACK THIS SUMMER, AND I FUCKING HAD TO DRAG MY SISTER TO GO SEE IT WITH ME. And before that?! Iron Man 2! My moviegoing track this year is a shame! WHY DOES NO ONE WANT TO GO OUT TO MOVIES THIS YEAR?! Fucking idek.

Last book I read... Well, last book I finished was probably Lost City of Z which I read for fun over the summer and was amazing despite its ending. I mean, the ending is still amazing from a historical point of view but (without giving much away) the whole thing is this buildup and then--AUGH. You have to read it, if you are in the slightest a history or Indiana Jones or adventuring fan, oh boy.



...Not gonna lie though, despite being in a general good mood, handling school okay, work is going fine, working out, et cetera, I am a bit emotionally unstable at the moment. I can tell because the slightest little comments are making me upset enough to almost nearly ruin my evenings. I really can't handle people brushing me off much more to go to parties/drink but "oh I don't have enough money to go to a movie". Because alcohol comes out of the faucet for free, I see. Well alrightythen. I'm hoping Laura's not going to be bitchy tomorrow because I think I'm going to need to run away from the rest of the family with her, particularly since the cuzs (cuzns? cuzzes? idek. "cuzs" looks like it should be Polish.) are on the other side of the goddamned country.


...*sigh*. I miss my drum corps family =(

Things I also failed to bitch about earlier this week: The DJ on Saturday, who took requests up to a few days in advance because he couldn't/didn't do on-the-spot mixing (HA, mixing, if you could call it that--what with jumps and awfully apparent tempo changes), in the three hours we were at the dance, played TWO, count 'em, TWO songs that were 1) older than 2000, 2) not a dance/pop/hip-hop song. Seriously, the guy was awful. About 30 minutes in to the dance he played "Wannabe" (Spice Girls--ngl had to look up the title of that song) and with about 20 minutes left he played "You Shook Me All Night Long". The only other song he played that wasn't some currently-top-40-but-actually-shitty-dance-tune-excuse-to-party-hard song was Pokerface. So out of the songs I requested (Fuck You, anything by Gaga, anything by Queen, and anything by Billy Joel), I got one song. Needless to say, I was PISSED THE FUCK OFF. I spent probably half to two-thirds of the dance glaring at the DJ from my chair. I mean, this could be the fault of the coordinators who hired a friend-of-a-friend and maybe forgot to forward our requests, but what kind of shitty DJ plays pretty much ONE TYPE OF SONG all night?! And not even varying between dance tunes and slow songs? WE HAD NO SLOW SONGS ALL NIGHT.

Basically I'm pissed at everyone and everything right now and I'm about to snap. Not angry-snap but just break-down-snap and no one seems to really give a shit, because that's just how things go. Ugh. I'm kinda tired of this crap, really.

Also I do not recommend trying to follow a conversation about a boyfriend's roommate's cousin who is that person's ex and their crazy parents at a party after taking the GRE, because the actual GRE's paragraph and word problems turned out to be much more difficult and brain-power-consuming than I expected them to be and I was (and am) rather brain dead on the this-idea-requires-a-complex-sentence-of-at-least-four-phrases front.

But onto the linkspam:

So, uh, this happened.

MY LIFE MAY OR MAY NOT BE COMPLETE NOW. <3

A really interesting article about Florence Nightingale's influential graph and a common mathematical fallacy of graph creation/interpretation. Fascinating because I encounter a lot of misunderstood data on a fairly regular basis (thank you, journalism majors), and also because these are the type of subtleties you may have to discern between on the GRE. (I did pretty well on the quantitative section, but the reading/vocab was much more difficult than I anticipated and I nearly ran out of time, having to guess haphazardly at a few questions.) Anyway. Data is pretty, and presentation is valuable. I wish I knew more about the historical context of these charts because it might be an interesting topic for Ada Lovelace Day, although perhaps something that focuses on the graphical fallacy is not the best topic. (Nightingale was particularly observant in clinical matters though, wasn't she? Wasn't she the one who told people to wash their hands, basically, kill less people with infection? Or am I thinking of someone else entirely? FIFTH GRADE HISTORY IS FAILING ME.)

An interesting article about Native American culture, race, and steampunk, with significantly more win than all the shenanigans last year. Although I must admit, I don't think I ever heard the story of "the first Thanksgiving" in school. At least, not as a history lesson, but as more of a holiday folklore type thing, minus maybe the "learning how to plant corn" part. ALTHOUGH ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT we never approached it from the accuracy point-of-view either. So.

For the record I still don't like "ray guns" as a steampunk thing. I have never come into acceptance of them. Then again I've also become more standoffish about pop culture's reaction to steampunk as a whole anyhow, so, some part of me just also doesn't give a shit (that my entire POV on steampunk is decidedly different, because the generic running-with-steampunk scene is not my cup of tea).

DAMN I AM RANTY TONIGHT. Sorry about that folks. I'm a bit tweaky, it seems.

(I do like that EL wire on the gun, though, despite my active distaste for mods of that nerf gun... Hm. Considerations, considerations.)


Holy crap this test fried my brain a lot more than I expected it to. First I was moody, now I'm just too tired to parse any article with more than one sentence and a funny picture. Basically my brain is running like MemeGenerator at the moment.

It could thusly be argued that Indiana Jones fought "aliens" in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is also a sad thing that the freaking Lego Flying Wing costs like $70. I think I have the Micro Machine version, though, SWEET ACTION.

New favorite slang: qu'est-ce que fuck?

Inherited from my dad, I am sure, I will take any opportunity to butcher French for the greater humorous good.


GOOD FUCK THIS IS HORRIFYING. It reminds me of the Splicer episode from Batman Beyond. Fffffuuuuuccccckkkkkkkk~

Hahaha "Mathsputin". Looooove iiiiit.

You know, while I appreciate the characterizations, that logo is just... incredibly detestable. I am so sick of steampunk being OMFGGEARS! (heh heh heh, I would go for a good Disney "g-ears" pun, though.) Seriously, yo, technology, in general, has to do something. And this is more the aestheticist than the engineer in me saying this. Just... bleh. Anyway, I think this means it's Old Hat if Disney did it and is no longer Scene and maybe it will lose some of its steam no pun intended. (Okay, totally intended afterthefact.) The sooner you can boot scenesters from any scene, the better. Please move to the Next Big Thing and mind the gap as you disembark, I'd like my functioning technology in relative peace, please and thankyou.

Also, Daisy is a fucking badass, check that shit out yo, she is AMELIA FUCKING EARHART-ing it up in that shit!


So I found out that Crystal Skull has a Star Trek tribute, of all things. During the rocket-sled fight scene there is a wall dubbed "numbersnumbers-GNDNnumbers" which apparently is reference to Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing. I also started reading the imdb trivia page for the movie and discovered this gem:

Harrison Ford was adamant that he got to wield Indiana's famous whip. Paramount executives wanted the weapon to be computer generated because of new film safety rules, but the actor branded the rule "ridiculous".

Dear Harrison Ford, you are my hero, thank you for being awesome. Dear George Lucas, you're still crazy as fuck, but at least this time you had Spielberg and Ford willing to tell you sometimes that you're a little bit off your rocker.

Also, this has always goddamn bothered me:

The Akator throne room designed by Guy Dyas keeps up an Indiana Jones tradition by having C-3PO and R2-D2 etched into one of the yellow titles, and E.T. into another. According to the book "The Complete Making of Indiana Jones", the characters can be found somewhere in all four Indiana Jones pictures.

They're easy to find in Raiders but WHERE THE DAMN HELL ARE THEY IN ToD and LC?

Also, I just ~can't wait~ until the original Star Wars trilogy gets re-released and re-remastered on BluRay and George Lucas decides to digitally add these Other Dimensioners to the celebration scene at the end. I mean, ET's already there, it's bound to happen at some point.

Originally Henry Jones, Sr., Short Round, Sallah and Willie Scott were to make an appearance at Indiana's wedding.

WHY DID THIS NOT HAPPEN FFFFFFFUUUUUU~

In the "making of" on the Back to the Future (1985) DVD, one of the original ideas of the time machine was as a refrigerator that Marty would climb into. Furthermore, the way Marty was to come back from 1955 was via the power of a nuclear bomb at a test site in the desert. Back to the Future was produced by Steven Spielberg. The idea was scrapped because filmmakers were afraid children would shut themselves inside of their home refrigerators to imitate the movie.

Pure. Excellence. I DON'T REGRET THAT SCENE FOR A MOMENT.


...Anyway. Speaking of GNDN, I kind of need these in my future house, somewhere. In my super-futuristic Tony-Starkish tech lab.

(Seriously though I still want his drafting table. Rich motherfucker.)


Heh heh heh, stormtroopers.

( OLD LINKSPAMS AND STUFF THAT MAKE ME A HORRIBLE BLOGGER RIGHT NOW )

So that's what I've been up to for the past MONTH or so. Also did I mention I downloaded the Force Unleashed Lightsaber App for my iPod touch? I totally did and it's PURPLE ALL THE WAY, baby. Now I need someone to duke it out with.

...You know, the sooner Nerf makes Nerf Lightsabers, THE BETTER.

[EDIT] ALSO-ALSO, anyone play Spore or Sims 3 online? I got a code from Taco Bell and I play neither.

Well, I've got about five pounds of links to post. Yeah, I'm sorry... I've had a month worth of craziness. Tests, then camp, then midterms, then more midterms and projects, and finally when it was supposed to settle down last week? Grandpa had a heart attack Monday. They had to induce a coma by lowering his body temp to minimize brain damage. So we were stressed out all week not knowing how he was doing, how much damage there was... Either brain-wise or system-wise since his muscles are already so weak from his broken back (years ago). Well, he's alert and doing better now, although he seems a bit disoriented sometimes. We're hoping it's just from being in the ICU all week, half under coma, sleeping on-and-off all day long, but who knows, there could be some brain damage. =/ Even more than that, we have to hope some physical therapy can bring back what little strength he had before in his arms and hands, which was practically nothing. He has his sense of humor, though, which is a good sign, but it's a little sad because Grandma, of course, never listens well enough to realize he's joking, and sometimes he's just confused, and it sounds funny to mom and dad and grandma, and it just seems so depressing to me. I don't know... The whole situation is depressing. Even though, at the moment, I'm just damn glad he's still with us.

Anyway, so nothing like that to say WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK, huh? Yeah, plus camp this weekend and I-don't-have-a-fucking-clue with steel and the test coming up and just fffffuuuuuucccckkk. Anyway. Damn.

A real-life American example of what happens when you cut all your taxes. THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. Why? Because I've read a lot of articles about batshit insane tea-partiers and Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck in the past few weeks. And here is A CITABLE, SOLID EXAMPLE of why these anti-taxers can go fuck themselves. You know, after all that logical argument about roads and signs and parks and water and electricity and government and, you know, all that stuff you come across on a minute-by-minute basis.

GOLD.

I'm also watching Jon Stewart, at the moment, rip Glenn Beck a new one. So you may have heard, Fox came out with a panicked article last week saying DON'T SEND YOUR KIDS TO COLLEGE IT TURNS THEM INTO LIBRULS! And Beck and all those crazies have jumped on the Sarah-Palin-crazy-conservative-anti-intellectual bandwagon, and, no surprise to anyone here, Beck does not have a degree. Anyway, so Beck gave this speech apparently and said "you know where I learned all that [history]? the public library" and JUST OH MY GOD. ARE PEOPLE REALLY THIS DENSE APPARENTLY WHAT THE FUCK.


I really dislike arguing politics but I wouldn't even consider this politics. This is just straight up idiocy. And like other sentiments I've seen echoed, I hope this crazy scheme actually works. I hope they convince all the crazy people to vote for them to get Sarah Palin as Republican candidate for the presidency and everyone suddenly just goes WOAH. WOAHWOAHWOAHWOAHWOAH, WHAT THE FUCK. And then people start thinking. Because that is what is important.

Also, depressing, some kid on FML whose parents saw that Fox story and decided not to pay for his/her college. Poor kid, jesus shit. =/

Hand-carved wooden skateboards! I particularly like the stingray, though I feel like this is a skateboard you must be very, very careful with. However I would totally buy one if I owned a surf bar or something, hang that shit from the ceiling!

NOOOOOOOOOO first confirmed cases of White Nose Syndrome in Tennessee bats. :C I hope they figure this shit out, and fast, all the poor batties!

I love Beatonna, and this is completely true.

Blackbeard in Pirates 4! I can't wait for this shit, NO LIE. Everyone's freaking out because OMG WHY MORE JACK SPARROW WRRYYYYY and really? The answer is simple. Because he's a great character. And they somehow managed to rip a lot of the fun and adventure (and treasure) out of the first one and leave it in the dirt somewhere. And that's why I liked Pirates in the first place, dammit.

Not to mention I can't wait to see all the North Carolinians get their panties in a twist about something. Or even better, they won't, and it will be awesome, because North Carolina is pretty sweet, despite the fact that want to think they own the Wright Brothers. STEP OFF BITCHES, DAYTON FOREVER.

=)

Tree Lobsters is amazing. I love their comic about the Mayan calendar, I want to reference it every time that gets brought up somewhere. (Almost lectured a bunch of my civil classmates about it, but I don't feel like coming off as bitchy to people I never really talk to because I'm way too damn introverted.)

And despite all the craziness and ugliness in the world, things like this happen, and people are pretty okay.

This is very true.

Learn to be lucky. I had a comment but I forgoted it.

Holy crap! Coconut water is a substitute for human plasma, that is, it can be used for intravenous hydration in emergency situations. SCIENCE IS CRAZY. BIOLOGY IS CRAZY. Also I think this could be a good survival skill.

This is so sad, and I think it is a good example of what's so wrong with our government right now. =(

Some part of me has always wanted a chameleon, but I would take this instead of a real one. (I know real chameleons require lots of work and like most amphibians and lizards can spread disease really easily. This little dude is just awesome.)

Chuck Lorre rips Glenn Beck a new one, and that atheist is an asshole, just saying. I know a cultural figure of speech when I see one, shit son.

I find this sort of thing very interesting and very encouraging. Why, you may ask? Well, because everyone I know wants to get the fuck out of Dayton, and I've never really understood it. I mean, yes, we are supposedly the fifth most dying city in the U.S., but we're not in the top 20 saddest and I don't think it's horrible. Maybe needs a little bit more diversity or things of interest, but it's kind of my new little dream (and I do mean new, this is an end-of-2009 maybe even just beginning-of-2010 thing) to give Dayton its own big to-do. Ideally it would be some sort of Disney World-esque thing but I don't think that's feasible with Dayton winters. So either a huge cooperative hackerspace-type thing, maybe a sort of open-source college? Which would be awesome, or something just straight up weird, like House on the Rock. Anyway. Dayton is home for me, and yes, even though I want to get out and see the world, I think it will always be what I consider Home home.

Also, I want to go to Cairo just for the sake of American Gods, heh. That book is so good.

This was a big deal last week or the week before, but you know what? Nothing new around here, our lovely local parking nazis (the school, not the local polics, mind you-- campus parking services) have ticketed their own vehicles in our use before. Hooookaaaaay.

Harrison Ford as James Bond:



Yeh, idk, I think Bond is a bit too smarmy-put-together for Ford to play him, maybe not smarmy, but, you know, smart-looking. As in, always in a suit, very British. Ford's more down-to-earth-American-cowboy, if you will.

...Not to mention there's the whole sort of inside joke where Bond is Indiana Jones' father, WHAT KIND OF TEMPORAL RECURSION WOULD WE GET OURSELVES INTO WITH THIS MESS?! The world would go mad, MAD I TELL YOU


In terms of thematic ipod cases, this page has a nice steampunkish one at the top, as well as, if you scroll down, a lovely aluminum one that I would have to use any time I felt like I needed to be onboard an Empire starship or the Enterprise. Fabulous, no? Quite.

An A-to-Z guide for recycling, though it's actually an article so not really searchable--not to mention, I'm sure it's missing lots of odd things as a result.

Alright. So I have always thought that Shakespeare is rather a king of insults, along with Mark Twain. As such I have decided I need to expand my vocabulary of demeaning words, as I am trying to stop using words such as "gay" and "retarded" as well. Needless to say, I will not stop cursing like a sailor and plan to keep on using "fuck" and "shit" as much as I damn well please. =) And I am a big fan of "pretentious ass". At any rate, I need to expand my vocabulary in order to be anywhere near as damning as The Shakesmeister or The Twainz. Today's vocabulary word: "pillock". Good old-timey sound, yes? Excellent.


Interestingly, another take on slurs and curses that I've thought about I took environmental philosophy wherein my professor pointed out that a majority demeaning terms today are feminine in nature
(bitch, slut, whore, cock-sucker, pussy, vag, etc.), so I try to take that into account. However, people use "dick" to mean, basically, the same thing as "asshole", which is gender-neutral, not to mention that for the longest time I didn't know what "douchebag" meant, so, in my brain, "douche" and "douchebag" are both masculine insults on par with "dick". That is, "stop being an ass". However, as much fun the imagery of "ass-hat" is, it is just not fun to say, at all. And most of the fun of cursing is in the saying, I will not lie. Since most of the time I don't mean it sincerely anyhow...



Oddly, my main complaint is not that they confuse cricket with baseball, but rather that they butcher the joke by using "who" once where "whom" should go.

Also I may mention that I slaughtered Uncle Steve the other night in grammatic structure and it was awesome. If there is one thing I am good at in this family, it is, surprisingly, that I could diagram any sentence to you whatsoever, and you will like it, dammit!



Eeeeeeeeeeeeeexcellent.


Well, I'll cut myself off for now, that's a good chunk of links. Not to mention I've probably managed to insult everyone at least once with all the crap I've had sitting around for weeks waiting to get posted, heh.

So the ghetto is amazingly quiet; there are only a few parties going on, with the requisite loud music, but nothing really rowdy. I guess that's because there is no study day before exams tomorrow, but still.

There was no one around the house tonight so I went over to Kim and Melissa's and they and Jon and Jerome and I all went to get ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. Now, I usually always get chocolate chip cookie dough when I go there (because it's the only place that it's any good) but I saw they had a brownie sundae and the brownie looked particularly delicious so I had to get it. I DID NOT KNOW THERE WERE SO MANY CHOICES IN GETTING A BROWNIE SUNDAE. Caramel or hot fudge?! What flavor of ice cream?! Whipped cream?! Nutes, sprinkles, oreos?! I mean really? I just went with straight up vanilla ice cream because I wasn't sure what else would go well and not over-choclify me (like New York Super Fudge Chunk would have), and then hot fudge, whipped cream, and nuts. Yum. Oh, and plus, Ben & Jerry's FINALLY takes Flyer Express. Yay!

So after that we came back and Kim and Jerome went to bed because Kim had to work the desk at midnight, so Melissa and Jon (and Moeller, who we met up with in the hallway) walked back over to my house with me just to sit on the swing, and I grabbed my uke and proceeded to further maul the tips of my fingers. =) But it was fun just sitting and singing, though the guys didn't really sing at all...

But I did get some practice in on the new song I learned today, Only the Good Die Young, and also The Lumberjack Song. Also managed to find Edelweiss and The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) and then played the rest of the songs I know, Can't Help Falling in Love With You, Listen to the Rhythm of the Falling Rain, Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, F.U.N. (yes that's from Spongebob), I'm a Believer, and Margaritaville (which I forgot to play). BUT Only the Good Die Young is a ton fo fun to play, and I'm getting decent at guessing the right chords that need to be switched in the tabs I find, though most of the songs in my range use C/F/G/Am chords. Curiously enough.

ANYWAY so my fingers are raw and I had fun singing and then we had this random creeper come up to us and stare at us and then say he likes to go around on Friday nights telling kids about Jesus, and we said we were good and realized we probably just should have kept on the Bale Out remix we had playing earlier.

Aaaaaand tomorrow is Write Two Papers Day and then Go To A Disney-Themed Costume Party. It's a "go as your favorite Disney character" theme, but I do not trust a hundred drunken people with my fedora. SO, I'm going as a pirate because I haven't dressed up as one in a while (!!!!) and I really want to. Need to run to Foy's to get an appropriate hat, might go thrifting for some more scarves or whatnot if I have the time.

Oh man, so, I watched The Fall last night, and it's such a confusing movie sometimes. I've watched it twice and I'm still not completely sure what's going on all the time. Like... hurr, the Italian bombsmith gets shot in the foot because he's the leg stunt guy. But I couldn't figure out what was going on with Darwin and Wallace, especially toward the end when Darwin says he'll tell everyone that Wallace was the real genius, but then I looked at the imdb for the movie and it says that it was referencing the fact that a guy named Wallace actually came up with the theory of evolution, and Darwin sort of preached it with him, but then because of a screw-up/misunderstanding in the printing/book credits, Darwin gets all the credit for Origin of the Species.

SO. Absolutely splendid movie, particularly if you like what the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen should have been, or Baraka, or Lee Pace. Any of those things are a great reason to watch this movie.


...My fingers are really sore from playing. D:

OH MY GOD the weather today has been so nice. I was lamenting the fact that I was burning up around lunch, because I LOVE wearing jeans and my kneehighs, but then it was perfectly warm-and-cool this evening so it's okay.

Oh my god, and Judy retired today I will miss her so much. :C

Also, watching the fall, I had kind of a HURRRRR moment: they call them "movies" (as in moving pictures) like they called them talkies (as in movies with sound). It's like a whole new mind-bending mental concept/point-of-reference that I need to wrap my head around now. Er... I suppose "context" was the word I was looking for.

OH, OH, OHMYGOD, so that rickshaw kid, apparently he runs a rickshaw business in Chicago so he brought it from home and runs a little business here, too. We saw him drive these four guys down our street, looked like a good workout.

So YAY Halloween shopping today! Definitely needed to get some capitalism out of my system, haha. I found a cute bat at Pier One and I got some fun stuff at the Halloween store. I got a knife for my costume and a pair of metal handcuffs for the pimps and 'ho's party (and a suitcase at the thrift store, yay!) and then also I couldn't pass up an "Arabian dagger" and an actually semi-quality metal snake band for an Egyptian costume (which I intend to use when I finally get my shit together and go as a Gorgon).

At the thrift store I finally found a green vest and also a sort of Mandarin vest that I plan to use for a steampunk outfit. I am dangerous when I go costume shopping--sure I have one outfit I need stuff for, but then I see a million other things that I want to do *eventually*... And this is why I have soooo many boxes full of costumes and props around the house, hehe.

I also got the chain (for my swiss army knife!) and the paint (for the suspenders), so basically all I really need is the purple gloves and the makeup latex, I think. No wait, I need to buy the socks from Sock Dreams, but that's it. I went to Hot Topic to see if they had the hexagon shirts in stock... But I didn't see anything at all. I don't think they had room for it, all the costume area was trashy girl outfits and bizarre raver stuff (I mean, more bizarre than their usual fare).

So tomorrow it's off to the Dayton Mall to check the other Hot Topic, and also any other Halloween stores down there; I know there's a Spirit store (I think I went to Halloween USA today), and hopefully at least one other. I was kind of upset that the Halloween store today didn't have Joker accessories (just full outfits), and they didn't have anything Indiana Jones at all (I need the fake whip). And Walmart and Target haven't either... Frustrating. Plus I want to find some of the fake dust that the Halloween Store had the past couple of years, I'm hoping that will dirt up my outfit sufficiently. Maybe I will have to take sandpaper and paint to it too, I don't know.

No luck on my purse run, either. I went all over the mall just looking for a khaki-ish military-ish messenger bag, because this one's kind of dying and for some reason it gets black all over EVERYTHING I put in it. I don't really know where I can find one... But I really need a new purse. Blaaaaaaugh. It was kind of funny how I just marched right in every store to the back to find their purses, looked over the wall for a second and then marched back out. Definitely on a mission. Sometimes the staff didn't even ask me anything, lol. TOO BAD FOR YOU =P

Whaaaaat eeeeeeeelse. Oh, I made a Best Buy run to see how early they open Tuesday, and I'm guessing the skull with dvd is going to run me about $50... Totally worth it. It will make a sweeeeeet Halloween decoration (jk... sort of). But I did find a FIVE WAY mp3 splitter, and the sound jacks are also input jacks, so that you can hook up a couple mp3 systems like a mixer. Which, I don't know how useful that will be, but a five-way splitter? Most definitely.

So yesterday. I'm forgetting something at the moment, but let's start with Capture the Flag. It is a fun game. But let's face it, it's a war game and everybody knows it; when you play it, everyone tries to cheat the rules to their advantage-- I have never met anyone that did not try to exploit the loopholes. As soon as our team left the game meeting to set up camps, I realizes this game was going to create a little drama, as one of the first things we did was create a fake flag. Loooovely. Anyway, we had a half hour to hide our flag, let the other team know where jail was and get ready. It's actually a pretty good set-up, all of campus and all the surrounding housing areas are out of bounds, as are the insides of buildings. The pathway from the campus entrance all the way down behind Stuart served as the boundary, and it was fairly even. We knew the instinctual place to put a flag was Serenity Pines, so we set up the decoy flag there with Candice and two of the other mello girls. Our jail was practically all the way across campus in front of KU in that amphitheatre area, which turned out to be a very bad idea for us. I think with about five or ten more people on each time it may have been viable; it at least kept the other team busy and away from the flag. Apparently the fake flag kept them going, too, the only problem was that there were a lot of people keeping busy at the jail, and then the rest of the team was at the decoy; leaving just me and Brooke to watch the flag. The basic idea was that Brooke would hide in the bushes around the corner from the flag; it was sort of in a corner next to VWK so the other team would pretty much have to pass her to get to it and she could walk out behind them and tag them and scare the shit out of them. My best part in capture the flag is hiding in a dark shadowy place as a lookout and scaring the shit out of anyone who comes by.

I was actually surprised by how many people wear black... When Katy took some art class I remember her telling me that black actually stands out in nature because of its complete lack of color, so I pulled out my green pants and actually my purple sweater worked really well, too, even though the inside of the hood is white. The secret to not being noticed I think is more in being completely still, which I lot of people can't handle. I don't know.

So anyway they really didn't send many people up our way towards the top of Stuart, I think because they didn't want to have to climb the hill that was on their side. I saw Tony come around behind Stuart Hall, up the back road. I jumped the gun and called for Brooke and went around her way and didn't see where he went, so at first I was afraid he was hiding in the bushes. But I went back to my tree lookout (I just leaned up against a tree for most of the hour... I could see the road behind Stuart as well as the hill in front and road in front of VWK, so I could basically see any direction the blue team would come for the flag unless they came through the bushes behind VWK, which turned out to be that they didn't even know the flag was there until laaaaaaaate). Anyway, so no one was really up our way but I was very afraid people would be because although as a team we'd agreed there would be more from our side up there backing us up, but no one was, they'd all left to be where the action was, I suppose. Standing there on lookout for long enough made me realize some of the failures of our plan, lol. I'm way too much of a strategist. Like the fact that I should have stayed hidden more than I did, because I think all that did was attract everyone to the fact that our flag was up there. Although Doug was scouting around too and I think he was the first one to figure out our flag was up there, because he then came around the front. It was rather funny, I watched him walk away down the street by VWK and then double back and creep up in the shadows.

Okay, so this part is the best part of the night. I am watching him sneak up towards the flag, but he doesn't know Brooke is right around the corner. I am trying not to give too much away, because I'd realized we'd been abandoned at our post and with only two people we actually can't afford to tag anyone and have to escort them down the hill to at least the other players, let alone back to the jail. So I am just waiting for Brooke to have to get him, hoping we can get it to all go quietly. At that point I see three blues come around behind Stuart and I'm just praying they don't see me in the shadows. I should have just let them go quietly and assumed they didn't see the flag, but by then I was too scared they were going to just walk up and take it, so I took the risk to scare them off, which incidentally I think did more harm than good because they realized I turned back. (I couldn't just leave one person guarding the flag... though I doubted anyone came with Doug, he was being too sneaky, like I was.) Instead I waited until I was out of their line of sight and they had passed the bushes, and then risking Doug knowing where I was I ran across behind the bushes and that was when I chased them a little and turned back. I realized that they noticed I had turned back, buuuut I had to, even though I really didn't want to. =/ Anyway, so I come back and I'm assuming Doug is as stubborn as I am, that he's still waiting in the bushes. I see some guys come out for a smoke and Brooke scared them where she had been hiding, and I heard the guy say he was going to pee there. Well I found out later that he had already had his pants down, and then when Brooke scared him he went over to where I assumed Doug was, and I hoped he didn't get peed on. Well later I found out (when he and Brooke told me about it) that he was still there (which we found out when we got stormed right at the end at eleven... that was a disaster letmetellyouwhat) and that he didn't get hit (at least I don't think so) but he didn't let the guy know he was there, he just was silent and hoped nothing happened. (Which, I knew he was that kind of intense about the game like I was-- I mean, he wore camo-- so I was happy to see that my guesses were right on that front.)

Yeah, anyway. Ten minutes left in the game we started getting company, they ran off knowing the flag was there and I think had gotten chased off by maybe Josh (the red captain), but as Andy ran down the hill he told the rest of the blues to get up to the top and get the flag. And there were like six of them, and then we were fucked. I knew our only hope was to try to delay it past eleven, which we think we succeeded in but they never rang the bell so it didn't end until they got the flag over to their side (which was 11:03, by the by). Although we were pissed off because they totally swarmed us when we had to replant the flag, which technically we were supposed to get ten minutes to re-hide, and they were supposed to go back to their side. And I was screaming "RED FLAG" at the top of my lungs which was the signal to get reds up the hill for backup, which GOD KNOWS WHY everyone was just CHILLING AT THE PINES when clearly the rest of the blue team not in jail was up the hill. Blargh.

And as for all's fair in love and war, they crossed Baujan field to hide their flag or some shit (which was not only against the rules but illegal for all students), and hid it in a place with one point of access (the rules said two, but they counted "up" as a direction), and then they didn't admit to who was on their team when they swarmed us, which was the entire point of the makeup (lol, pep band facepaint) even though people were showing up late just to watch the game, intentionally. So I was pissed about that because Josh (trumpet Josh) and Peter both lied to me about Josh being an observer, so I dismissed him from my strategy and ended up having to kind of fight him off. (Though I laughed when he tried to tackle me out of Peter's way and I spun around and he slipped on the leaves and fell... karma)

ANYWAY. So afterward we all bitched and then we all got together for a party at Peter's house and a bunch of played Peabone (also Mao also Jackass) which is the game where you know the card structure but you have to determine the rules as you go. It's fun as long as the rules people make as they go are fun, but they made me rather uncomfortable and I tried to be a good sport but eventually just gave up and took my deck and left. =/

So that was yesterday and today... yep. =)

I'm starting to think I want to upgrade to a paid account... So I can have a few more icons, but also maybe better layout and management stuff... I don't know, I keep thinking about it but I never register. And I keep telling myself the next time they offer permanent accounts I'll get one... So I don't know. Meh.

Random thing that would make a funny sticker/shirt/pin, something: I like my steampunk like I liky my orange juice: pulpy.


I dunno =P

Also sorry I haven't posted much lately, between Hopewalk and Recruitment and now Fundraising I'm all AHHHH KEEEEL MEEEE so yeah. Fuuuuunot. I have a lot I've been meaning to post though... Ah the benefits of art class.

I loooove thrift store shopping. =D I found these awesome granny boots which don't fit me but which I am going to fix up and sell. With the two pairs of non-fitting boots I already have and those that I've found, I figure three is the basis for a good idea... Maybe? Anyway. Yay steampunk!

Now, the Joker costume, that is another matter entirely. I've pretty much given up on the shirt, so I went with the striped one, and even then... difficult. I got one close but it needs to be dyed light gray and there is no diamond pattern. I completely stumbled on a long purple pantsuit, which TOTALLY MADE MY DAY. It's about eight inches too short, but that's good enough. I found an underjacket, too, but it's kind of thick... We'll have to see about that. The outer jacket looks almost too dark in yellower light, too, which might be a problem. I didn't find a green vest (or pretty much any usable vest) or a tie. I did find shoes though, but I think I will have to stuff the toes. (They're a womens size ten.) Of course no luck on the socks, and no luck on the tie either. So, my to-do list for halloween:

Things to buy:
--green vest
--socks
--gloves
--tie
--hair coloring of some sort
--makeup
--prosthetics/latex

Things to do:
--alter coat sizes
--dye shirt
--add pinstripes to pants
--figure out how to get shoes to fit and get new laces
--do a hair/makeup test run


WOO! Excitement~~

So, you know that project I posted about a while ago regarding a steampunk collective website? The ball is rolling. There is significant interest, and people crazy enough to actually help me do this thing! If you are interested in helping design/manage the site, I would love for you to join cog_mgmt. mister_sable, lady_giz, I would love to see you guys there! Is there anyone else here I've friended in my craze for this website?! I cannot remember because I am god-awful with names. D= And I am so so so so sorry. But you're invited too!

Anyway. If you're just interested in the website rather than the behind-the-scenes stuff, there is otherwhengentry, which will start updating once the site is up and rolling.

YAY STEAMPUNKERY!!!!!!!

Kucinich is trying to impeach Bush? Just barely saw it mentioned so I don't really know what the straight and narrow of it is (do you ever with politics?) but I think I'll go with... yay? Hopefully something positive will come of it. (Sad statement that we've impeached our last two presidents though? I dunno.)

Anyway, I think I'll be trying to blog more now, get back to linkspamish type stuff. For a while I let off that because I was trying to get more personal journaling in, but I read an interesting article yesterday talking about making your time on the internet more productive, and one way to do that is to pass on news and articles you find interesting to other people. I certainly find this true with Cleolinda, it's one reason I read her journal. Pretty concise version of Hollywood, which is about all I can handle.

My guess is you'll get lots of sciency and dorky things from me with the equivalent doomsday political things. I really hate politics because it seems like a totally different way of thinking. Like politicians now are just out to convince the masses for their vote, then do what they please, and that thinking does not at all fit with mine. I just feel lost when I talk about politics... ugh. Anyway. Yay science! =D

I can't remember, did I link to an article about nanomaterials lately? Anyway, they made this substance out of nanothreads that looks exactly like a paper towel, but ONLY soaks up oil, not water. HOLY FREAKING YAY =D

This piece of art is pretty cool, but it's an interesting statement that I think the architecture is more interesting than the ships. http://atris.cgsociety.org/gallery/347135 It's weird, as an engineer, half of steampunk is superawesome and half of it is super annoying. The awesome part is the INCREDIBLY stylish functioning things. Plus, the functions are usually mechanical rather than complicated electrical things, which is something I can grasp. The part that annoys me? Steampunk is based heavily on science that doesn't exist, but people ignore that fact and just sort of draw something, add some gears, and call it steampunk. If it doesn't look like it would function, and you don't have some reasoning behind it, I'm probably not going to like it much. I hate getting anal retentive about stuff, but... GRR. My brain has worked that way--logically, mechanically-- all my life. I don't know if I can help it at all.

Related: drafting tables as fashion. Pfft! What good is a drafting table if you can't draft on it? (Seriously, there were a few links to "architects' desks" that didn't adjust. wut)

How to take good group photos. I rather like this article, as well as this one. I'll have to give it a try.

Anyway, here was the article about getting more value from your web time. I have to check out FoldIt, down at the bottom. I'm not much for games anymore (I just waste my time reading articles online instead...), but a game that would help science? Oh hell yeah. (Impossibly better than running SETI on your extra CPU cycles. [CPU? Is that the right term? My brain is on the fritz at the moment.] I think running SETI might still qualify as nerdier though, in a sort of helpless sort of way. (Nerds and geeks and dorks need a word derrogatory for the real social outcasts, the people who just creep you out. If you're wondering why, running SETI does that a little for me. It's pretty easy to get from "running SETI" to "fucking psycopath" in my mind.)

I think that's all for now.