The Daily Adventures of Mercat

I'll have to come back to that.

You know, after I've found time to hunt down all the opening and closing ceremonies that I mostly missed.

But can we just stop for a minute and say

motherfucking Isambard Kingdom Brunel

and the best part was when all I saw was the highlights and I shouted that name out in the middle of the living room and I was all NO IT CAN'T BE you don't just put the FATHER OF CIVIL ENGINEERING in the middle of a fucking Olympics ceremony but THEY DID and also my entire family was staring at me because one who the fuck is that two what kind of name is that three how the fuck do you just recognize someone like that I DON'T KNOW I'M A FUCKING CIVIL ENGINEER-SLASH-HISTORIPHILE I JUST FUCKING DID

Hey all! I've been meaning to post the HUGE post I have sitting on my desktop with a month's worth of book reviews, articles, youtube videos, all that shtuff... Unfortunately I just haven't had time this week.

Anyway, I'm off to march with Troopers for the summer! You can follow me on twitter (mercat) for random thoughts and sometimes scores.

H.L.D. and have a great summer!

It's not Saturday, but we fucking hyped the shit out of that this summer. TO THE POINT OF SUCCESS

Anyway, first off I want to apologize for the stuff still not in the mail... The person who was supposed to get it there for me failed miserably while I was gone. They will be there ASAP!

That being said, I had a fucking awesome summer and we made goddamn history. First Finals in 23 years and we got a standing ovation before we even went on. You know who gets those? Alumni corps. Not your everyday corps, that's for damn sure. So for all the people in top scoring spots with your precious little egos, I don't hate you (I do dislike your bandos, though), but I am completely, over-the-top satisfied--maybe even overjoyed--knowing that I had a more fun summer than you. So maybe we're not the best, we've still got more heart, and that's why I came there in the first place.

Yes, once again, drum corps turned me into a foul-mouthed bitch (again), but FUCK if it ain't beautiful being the Golden Child, for once. As someone else put it, it's hard to beat Mother Theresa at her own game.

And that's why I fucking love drum corps, y'all.



Now that being said, I miss the donk of the bus hard core already :C and I don't want to be doing leadership stuff for band and I forgot how much I hate "real life" and because of that I plan on being my bitchy, sailor-mouthed self as long as possible. I don't give a fuck anymore, because I have some of the best friends on the planet from this summer. <3

Not that I don't love you all, I just enjoy being able to avoid 95% of life's idiots for extended periods of time.


Aaaaaand I miss the donk of the bus. We're responsible assholes and I miiiiissss theeeeeemmmm

P.S. I have probably a week's worth of reading to catch up on, so don't expect to see me around much for the next few days.

Yep, Happy Independence Day! Saying "happy fourth" just feels weird to me. Like the newscaster who said "It must be Fourth of July" rather than "it muse be the fourth of July." That's the date, not the name of the holiday...? Anyway.

Fairborn parade, yay! It was definitely wet, but we still had fun. Abandonded sheet music before the parade started, but the rain let up a little so we weren't totally soaked, and we even made up special rain lyrics about Fairborn for Heaven, which we sang for the grandstand and such. I saw Alex and Keith and Peter there, but no one else. I know a lot of folks were out of town, though.

Let's see, then a bunch of the standard alum crew went over to Marion's, which was fun. I dunno, I like hearing dad and Strick and those guys talk about their craziness at 46 Chambers. =P Then we came home and I crashed, took maybe a three hour nap. Then we headed off to Young's to grab dinner and watched Yellow Spring's fireworks. Alex and Keith and Travis showed up there, too, so we talked with them some and had a lot of fun. (Keith and I talked stupid engineering stuff... tried to figure out which chamicals caused which fireworks colors, and by the time I'd given up on the conversation because I decidedly did not enjoy chemistry class, I remembered that I probably, a month ago, could have figured most of them out because of my ceramics class. Since we had to know all the metals used in the glazes and what colors they gave in the end.) Although bad news, Chris and Josh got fired from their BS camp job because they were doing pot. I give up on them. I mean, I don't care that they're doing pot, that's not what bothers me. It's that they completely lost any sort of drive they had to do anything, and I mean Chris failed out of his first year of college and apparently looks like an idiot with all his piercings now, and I know Josh wants to be a journalist, but... even if he wants to be, he's not the kind of kid who works so hard for it. Like, he has dreams, but he doesn't realize they require actual work? I don't know. Talking to Chris' parents at Johnny's party, they were saying I should try to start hanging out with them again and straighten them out, and I really, really just wanted to slap Chris right across the face the next time I see him. (Which I haven't.) But you know what the problem is? They don't put forth any effort to hang out any more. Last time I tried was Christmas break, fuck, I even bought $80 worth of movie tickets as Christmas gifts so everyone could hang out, and they STILL flaked out and showed up late. They don't make any initiative themselves to hang out, so you know what? I give up. I have tried and tried to be a good friend who cared, but I'm tired of spending my time and my money and my fucking tears only to end up wasting time on people who don't have any fucking respect for anything. Not even drum corps anymore, I know that's not going to happen. So yeah, I'm sorry to the Fishers, that I can't straighten out Chris. It's not their fault, and it's not my fault, it's his, and I don't think there's a damn thing I can do about it.


Nooooowww, on a lighter note, I told Alex I was sad she couldn't give the High Brass Girls Club presidency (or even membership!) to anyone, and she told me she gave it to Caleb at bandquet OHMYGOD. He will never, ever live that down as long as I see to it. HAHAHAHAHA. Best part of my day right there.

Oh, also? In the parade today. The McDonald's car was right behind us, and as we pulled out of Fulmer's lot Ronald randomly asked my dad and I if we had a theremin, and dad and I just died, because we'd been talking about that last night or the night before. Geez. =P It's good to be a music nerd.

Incidentally, this is one of things we were talking about with theremins, and I think you need to see it. (ADORABLE)

Well (since today's still "the 22nd" for me, because I haven't gone to bed yet), guess who just saw a movie five times in its opening month? Oh hell yeah. E];) I didn't even realize that it was exactly a month later, but do you know what that means? The second copy of the magazine also came out today! w00t w00t!

According to fandango, though, the movie's leaving theatres Thursday. I'm wondering how long it will take to get to dollar theatres. =/ I mean, it's definitely better to take a break in between, enough that I get distracted a little bit and then when I come back to watch it I forget the little things and get all excited again.

So from this viewing:
--Confirmed that Indy says both "Koioma" (the first time--no idea on the spelling) and "Kioma" the second time.
--Notcied Spalko says "nuclear" and says it correctly. Haha.
--Randomly noticed Marion is wearing a small silver locket. Aw.
--When Spalko gets assimilated at the end (I know, don't give me that look. But it's fun to call it that, so I am) her boots are left behind. Hee.
--I really really really really really love the whole scene from the train station to their escape to Indy's house. <3 Like hardcore.

Shoot, I think there was something else. Well no worries, we know I will never ever watch these movies again and therefore do not care, amirite?

Still my favorite line from this one:
"Woah."
"Woah." ..."WOAH!"


Hee.


Okay, in all seriousness. We jammed some on the porch the night before we left, dad and Tucker (our house owner's "grandson") on guitar and me on uke. Well with my lovely skills I can play about five songs. Of course they all use the same five chords or so, haha... So, my repetoire:

Can't Help Falling in Love With You
Amazing Grace
Listen to the Ryhtm of the Falling Rain
Aloha Oe
Hawaiian War Chant
Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World (Iz's arrangement)

Only three of which I can actually play by memory. I guess this needs some work. (I don't mind, my uke is purty.) So tonight right before I left I pulled up the uke chords for Margaritaville and plunked it out, it's not too hard. Though I always thought the line was "nothing to show but this brand new tattoo" rather than "nothing is sure but this brand new tattoo". I dunno. I still really wish I could find any sort of tabs whatsoever for Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.


So... back to work, back to car-hunting, back to getting shit done for Phi Rho (ugh), back to hopefully doing something I want to get done this summer. Not like drum corps (YAY!) but like hanging out with people and actually doing something.


Blaaaaaaaaaaah. =/ How is it almost July?! This is crazygonuts. Maybe I won't do Carroll's band camp, that's going to suck up a lot of time...

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... =( =( =(

Augh, screw my computer. I finally get back and I'm halfway through catching up on everything I missed this summer... and now it's broken. I don't know if it's hardware or software yet (I'm praying to god it's software), but as soon as I get it back and actually do catch up on everything... there will be a post of legitimate substance.

I HATE YOU, WINDOWS

I will be out of town until the 12th, with no internet, so if you need or want to talk, call me on my cell. Then I will be back with updates (and probably pictures)!

Aloha always! =^n.n^=

It's officially summer for me! The air conditioning is on, the days are hot but still ridonkulously humid, and every morning feels like I'm headed off to King's Island.

And the cows two farms over are either giving birth painfully or... yeah. It's loud, and that's more than enough detail for you. And me. Urgh, had to share the scarring. =^n.n^=

OH YEAH! We actually went to King's Island today; Johnny, Domer, Steven, and I. It was awesome. We started out on Face Off, then Drop Zone (first time on that one for me), and then Delirium... and then pretty much all of our adrenaline was gone. Last time I was there was the opening of Drop Zone and Son of Beast (and Tomb Raider? maybe?)... so it was fun. Standing in line in the action zone they were playing soundtracks and we heard the Star Trek First Contact, and we sang along (well, not Johnny). We hit Son of Beast, Racer, Adventure Express, Flight of Fear (where I was blind because the line went so quickly my eyes never adjusted), Beast... by that time (I think) ut was lunchtime and we realized I locked my keys in my car. SO, security came and saved us. (Yay! Thank you nice security guys! [But not the Ebil Security Lady]) So after we ate lunch, Tomb Raider was open then, White Water Canyon, then Beast again to dry off, then we sat for 30 minutes oro and got some caffiene in us because we were all quite shaken up and our heads hurt... and then the Scooby Doo haunted house ride (and then the carousel!)! Haha...then we rode Congo Falls, Top Gun, then Son of Beast again, then Face Off. I think at that point we stopped again just to sit. Then we went and rode Vortex, and Tomb Raider (and this time the video played, and I was in the center! Both times front row, w00t!), and then Beast one last time. It was a ton of fun. We were bored (it was 7) and hungry, and didn't want to stand in line for The Italian Job, so we just spent an hour at Taco Bell, then came home. It was a great day.

Tomorrow is the party! 3:00, family and friends, side dish or dessert! LET'S DO THIS PEOPLE! =^n.n^=