The Daily Adventures of Mercat

So I was going to write about Sherlock Holmes. BUT ALLOW ME TO FEMINIST!RAGE FOR A SECOND FIRST.


So Jon and I are sitting in psychology, and we're talking about physiological factors. In this case, we are talking about how someone's brain, in extreme cases, can have physical effects. In the example we are talking about how sexually repressed the Victorian society was and Freud's beliefs on that, particularly women in Victorian society. How guys can enjoy sex but women have sex to have babies, and then they take care of the house, et cetera. We're also talking about how very strict societies can cause mental stress when one feels things that seem okay but society claims as morally and socially wrong. Our modern-day example (since this was the overview class, not a deep examination yet) was homosexuals in conservative cultures. ANYWAY, so in this Victorian-times example, a woman comes to the doctor/psychologist/diagnostician/idk with her hand paralyzed. And our professor (who is a hilarious guy, btw) asks, what do you think she was doing that caused her brain to paralyze her hand? What was she dealing with?

And, you know, class that's 90% freshmen, no one wants to say anything, haha, and the teacher knows, so he kind of smiles and says "Does anyone want to say it?" and of course, no one does, but one talkative up at the front says "Can we use euphemisms?" And the professor says, no, I want someone to say it. So we're all kind of waiting and this guy a few seats in front of me raises his hand and the professor calls on him and the guy says "Because she was pleasuring her man?"

LET ME TELL YOU I WAS SEETHING. Thanks, dude, for showing the world that you--at least subconsciously--support those very ideas we were discussing. That men get pleasure and women do the work.

FUCK. YOU.

Argh.


Anyway, Sherlock Holmes. I enjoyed it. I think the complexity of Holmesian stories maybe made it a bit too convoluted, but it's still pretty damn good. And the dialogue is fantastic, not to mention the action and slapstick humor. And Jude Law and RDJ are hilarious together, although I completely forgot Rachel McAdams was in it, and she was awesome, too.

My only problem with it is that they don't really show you the clues so you're puzzling over the mystery; I mean, you're certainly engaged in the story. But I just enjoy plot twists and murders and detective stories more when the evidence has been staring you in the face, yet you missed it. =/ Idk. But it wasn't bad, that's for sure.

Also, Blackwood's snaggletooth bothered the hell out of me. GODDAMN.

Anyway, the way they presented the mystery was great though. The final twist, as it were. And I did like that Holmes was not presented with his deerstalker, though he did almost always have his pipe. And I loved RDJ's portrayal of him as kind of an egotistical intellectual. Especially with all his snarky comments, GOOD TIMES.

And playing the violin like a uke. OMG. Hilariously awesome.

Oh, and the soundtrack was really good, I think because it was so unique. Very odds-and-ends feeling, but in a good way. I don't think I've ever been so conscious of a soundtrack when watching a movie (disregarding musicals, let's say).

So, yes. Definitely recommending it. And definitely spending my $25 Barnes and Noble christmas gift card rectifying the absurdity that I have NEVER READ HOLMES.

And Carroll's Hound of the Baskervilles (or Wishbone's for that matter)... I don't really remember it. It was kind of crazy, I know that. And I wore the murderer's Crazy Dress my senior year and let me tell you that was my favorite dress. It was super-flowy and awesome. Lol. Important things.

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.

Blaaaaaaaaargh. Wow, it's been a busy week. To sum up how mentally exhausted I've been: I had a super-stressful test this morning and it didn't go too badly, so I just told myself since I've been so busy with Hopewalk that I just needed to forget about it, since I had nothing to do in my other two classes for the rest of the day (had tests in those Wednesday)... To the extent that I did. I saw one of my friends at lunch and I was like "Hey! So how'd that test go yesterday?" and she just looked at me. "Diane... That was this morning."

OMG IT WAS. Damn... Next week's only going to be WORSE, too! Ugh, yay.

And you know how busy I've been not getting my fill of (important) news? I missed the fact that EOIN COLFER IS WRITING A NEW HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE BOOK.

NO.

I don't care if Adams' widow asked him to write it (which, by the way, I and everyone I've talked about Artemis Fowl [for the record, I love those books] with thought Colfer was a girl. SO YEAH, ABOUT THAT). Hitchhiker's Guide is pretty much all about Adams' completely bizarre sense of humor. I don't care if it's a decent book! THAT IS NOT THE POINT, I'm sure it's not going to be horrendous. (Well, it could be.) I can't decide what's worse, a decent book that a good amount of people would buy, or a terrible one that no one wants but is still kind of a black mark on Adams' collection. I don't know, I just hate sequels written by the not-original authors/writers.

And yes, come bitch to me about how Adams was rewriting his last book anyway! I KNOW. (P.S., Salmon of Doubt was already the next book even though Dirk Gently was in it.)


Just UUUUUUUGH. Hitchhiker's Guide is one of those things where it's just very very awesome and the fandom is by far NOT CRAZY. And I feel like this is just all around baaaaaad neeeews. Godfuckingdamnit.

I think I'm going to have to not buy it, even if it's not bad. It's a matter of Adams' perspective versus other peoples', and I swear to god if this book even gets some lovey-dovey crappy ending with some real moral or something then NO. Adams wrote a bit happier ending for the movie to make up for the ending of the last book (by which I mean the fifth complete one, not Salmon of Doubt), but it was not moralistic or any crap like that. Which honestly really would be the worst worst thing that would happen I think.

But even so, my original thoughts stand and it's good to see other people agree with me and had the same inital thought; if anyone should do it, it should be Neil Gaiman (did you read American Gods yet? seriously), and he's both too busy and too respectful and maybe a little too dark for the part. WHICH I RESPECT AND ADMIRE HIM FOR.

PLEASE NO, EOIN COLFER


Arrrrgh.





So in other news! Southwind's not fielding next year and I now have really *no idea* where to go. Here's my thoughts, and the problem is they're all about balanced in terms of pros and cons. Auuurrrrgghhh.

Troopers: Pros- fun, not stuck up, have a good rep; Cons- flying out to Wyoming once a month, might have an immature group like Southwind was and they were as well.

Crown: Pros- love their music, they're doing really well, and they're really entertaining; Cons- hate their visuals, they might be a stuck-up crowd like PR was.

Glassmen: Pros- local, enjoyable shows; Cons- Carl marched there and might again if he doesn't make Cavvies, Sou taught there for like a month and Sheski made 2nd (and Westy auditioned and didn't make it), I'm not sold on their visuals.

Bluecoats: Pros- good visuals, good music, badass unis; Cons- rep for rowdy behavior, ugly helmets, potential for voice-over.

Vanguard: Pros- good music, good visuals; Cons- flying out to Cali once a month, Sou was a wannabe fanboy for them, and I probably wouldn't even make their junior corps.

Blue Stars: Pros- ...They're from Indianapolis?; Cons- Caleb is a douche, their visuals suck, and so do their uniforms (despite new shoes/pants, oops!).


Yeah, so... literally no idea what I want to do. It's just frustrating all around, blech. And I need to decide *soon*. The ideal thing would be that Madison Scouts would decide to do another Carmen-like show and need a girl to play brass and I would be RIGHT THERE. (Although as long as they let me do the whole show, I didn't really like that they had Carmen only do the middle part. I mean, I know, story-wise, she shows up late for dramatic effect and then dies, but I could not just spend 2/3 of my time not working at a show.) But PFFT like that would fucking happen.

Also, what happens if I decide I like it where I am and Southwind comes back the year after? Yeah. FUCK ALL OF THIS. Why couldn't people appreciate SW for what it was more? I fucking hate all the bandos who are like "OMG I EFFING LOVE CAVVIES" no you don't. Fuck off.

God, I have like a million things I need to post about because I've been so damn busy. BUT tomorrow is the "WTF are you wearing?!" party and I am SO FUCKING PSYCHED because it means I get to whip out THE GAUNTLETS. Oh yes.

And my bowler. I AM SO PSYCHED! (I would let Candice wear my bowler because I trust her with it, and then me wear my fed, but I do not trust anybody at that party to not mess up my fed EVEN IF I'M WEARING IT. Sorry, not doing that to my super-most-prized possession.)


...I need to go find uke tabs for 1000 Miles because it would be fuuuuun. I think I might start keeping track of my uke tabs for songs I know on here just for my own reference and in case the site I use (mostly Ukulele Boogaloo) goes down, as it hasn't been updated in over a year.

[EDIT] According to Yahoo's article, Colfer has been writing this in his head for a while and then got Adams' widow's blessing to do it. SO I'M JUST GOING TO SAY ALL-OUT NO, MM-KAY?

( the article because Yahoo likes to delete them )

[EDIT2] OMG THE NEW JAMES BOND THEME. PRETTY FUCKIN' BADASS

(Listen to it here around 55 minutes in; hard to believe this is the first duet in all these themes.)

A little weirder than I like, but it's got its awesome bits, namely the piano lick and the brass bits. :D Still think I like You Know My Name much better though. So it's... average. Not great, not awful, not gonna stick in my head though...

[EDIT3] I've been way too fucking busy this week/month to make much of an effort for Talk Like a Pirate Day, but I did go to Skyline. Happy Friday! (Also, I'm kind of a Heathen... which won't make sense to anyone on m f-list I don't think... It's a rather large and complicated inside joke.) But my dad did text me "Yarr!" this morning right after seven. Oh dad, I love you, you are so silly. He and I have very similar senses of humor and I love it.

OH GOD THE WEATHER IS AMAZING

I was in a Halloween mood for the past few weeks and now I'm in a CHRISTMAS MOOD just WTF and YAY and OMG STRESS and I have a billion things to blog but I'm soooo busy this week with PoD and Hopewalk and homework and uuuuugh.

BUT. Friday night I'm reserving blog time for myself. And I'm going to watch Shawn of the Dead. This of course all after I go grocery shopping and go home to get clothes for the WTF Are You Wearing Party for SATURDAY omg yay. Can you say tacky Christmas tights + striped socks + swimsuit + nerd scarf + shiny gauntlets + bowler? Oh I think you can. I just need to decide which shoes would be appropriate ;D

IN THE MEANTIME! I am leaving you with this. And now I will commit ritual seppuku with Wastewater homework.



Also, The Beeftrain Incident also made a full-on Mr./Dr. Jones parody (FINALLY, after that short version on College Humor was up forever, but was only like two verses, though I liked the fact it was from Shorty's POV), which makes me excited because I actually have six songs on my non-Williams Indy CD. Actually, non-movie CD, because I don't have stuff like "Wake Up Little Susie" or "Hound Dog" or "Shake, Rattle and Roll" on there either. But I need to.

Also I swear there's other songs that reference Indy that I don't have... and I can't for the life of me recall who the artist was that did Jazz Raiders. Feh...

BUT OMG THE WEATHER, IT'S AMAZING. I loved living in Hawaii but I always completely forget how the fall makes me feel. I can't explain it, it's like I feel like a totally different person, really.

Oh, is anyone else watching Fringe? I don't need to get addicted to another show but it's so awesome and the Dr's combination for his garage lock was 3-1-4-1-5-9 and I LOVE YOU NERD WRITERS, YOU ARE SO AWESOME, SERIOUSLY. :D