The Daily Adventures of Mercat

This afternoon there was an absolutely perfect snow flurry. Fluffy flakes, but not windy at all. Even a shade of sun poking through. It didn't last long, but it sure was beautiful. I was happy, for that short five minutes, that I was outside walking back from class and not inside hiding from the cold. :3

I've been in such a fluffy mood the past couple days. I think it's a damning combination of Christmas on the horizon and a full-out double-plus Indiana Jones marathon.

At any rate, I found a new challenge. I was going to start it up tonight but I'm exhausted and I have a lot to do tomorrow... Unfortunately, for about 36 more hours, it's still finals week.

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. This may be partly due to psych 101; much like philosophy courses, I end up having a great deal to think about that impacts my normal everyday already large-topic-encompassing thought process. As such, this post is all over the places and contains both shallow and ponderous (omg, "pond"erous, get it? pun not intended, but fully enjoyed by this mercat) artifacts.

I freaking love crazy fan theories. I've read a few great ones lately, that Fight Club is grown up Calvin & Hobbes, Pokemon is a coma dream Ash is having to deal with his issues, Ferris Beuller is all in Cameron's head, it goes on. Some of them are crazy-awesome but completely unncessary (like these), others more legit (the r2d2 theory, which sort of retcons the plot holes added by the new trilogy). ANYWAY, I was directed to this fantabulous page of crazy fan theories about Iron Man. My personal favorites are:

1) The quantum moustache theory

Tony's facial hair exists in a state of quantum entanglement
This theory is an attempt to reconcile how Tony can appear in separate comics with either the modern goatee or the retro 'stache. In a similar situation to Schrodinger's Cat, Tony simultaneously has a goatee and a mustache until the artist "observes" him.

* Screw the laws of physics, I have money!

2) The Tesla theory

Tony Stark is a clone of Nikola Tesla.
Minus the madness, of course.

The man builds an arc reactor (in a cave with a box of scraps no less), plugs it into his chest, builds the iron man suit and hunts down the people who got access to his weapons without him knowing about it and you're trying to tell me he's not crazy?

3) Rhody's recasting

Rhody is going to get severely injured between films and require skin grafts
The recovery process will result in Rhodes getting thinner and his skin getting darker.

4) The Iron Man theory

Tony Stark is really Iron Man.
I've got it! Iron Man is supposedly an employee of Stark Enterprises but no evidence of this has ever been really seen - he's never seen following Stark even though he's supposed to be Stark's bodyguard, and on the rare occasions they are seen in the same room, Iron Man never speaks, so it could easily be anyone wearing the same armour. Stark has numerous times supposedly fired Iron Man but it doesn't stop Iron Man from appearing even though he should be out of funding and Stark always welcomes him back with open arms in the end. What more evidence do you need?

* Dude, where have you been? He claimed so in that one meet the press thing the military did about Iron Man.
* No, that press thing was just a stint to throw us off it was just like that time Harvey Dent said he was the Batman but he wasn't! But maybe you're on to something with the jerkass billionaire playboy idea... Hmm. Have we ever seen Bruce Wayne and Iron Man together?

o And Peter Parker can never get photos of Superman! It's all so clear.

+ Yes, of course... BRUCE WAYNE IS TONY STARK!
+ Obviously, they agreed to a corporate merger. It was cemented by Stark and Wayne by using the Dragon Ball Z fusion earrings. Ladies and Gentlemen: Toby Stayne!

5) All of Stan Lee's characters are the same guy (just plain epic)

6) ALL OF THE CROSSOVER THEORIES

Seriously, this page, just for entertainment's sake, I love it. The pure hilarity of it is impressive.

(Also, just ran over to the Indy page to see what the deal was, of course, it's not so nearly entertainment so much as people trying to pretend ToD and KotCS didn't happen. ACCEPT THEM AND MOVE ON WITH YOUR LIFE. It's on these occasions I am sad that the Indy fans are relatively a good deal older or a good deal younger than me...)

(Additionally, wtf, "the skull was magnetic, the gold could actually be real magnetic material"?! YOU FAIL AT SCIENCE. CRYSTAL =/= MAGNETIC.)

These sort of things make me wonder how many movie viewers actually incorrectly explain plot holes, as some people clearly to not understand logic and some to not understand science. BUT I DIGRESS, I am so far afield from anything relevant to this post idek.

Let's go where I was originally going, teenage rebellion. I don't know why it came up, but I was thinking about it yesterday and I have concluded that perhaps, despite my "goody-two-shoes" image (ha), there may exist a natural rebellion in every teenager, and perhaps I was just lucky enough to be able to funnel this energy into more useful outlets. Pats for Hats, holding grudges against certain asshats, and feminism. How did I realize this? I realized, when speaking metaphorically that sexism is THE button to press to make me go off--I realized that I (rather comparatively) flip out whenever sexism is the issue at hand. Regardless of how big or small the issue may be. And I really have no reason for feeling that passionately--well, actually, that may not be true, now that I put it to paper (or blog as the case may be). Perhaps my paranoia (well, constant worry over unnecessary things) against all sorts of things to go wrong causes me to feel oppressed by my environments and that's why I flip out with feminism? To try to regain confidence for the oppressed? I don't know, it's a legitimate theory.

Particularly in relation to this article I just read, that the objectification of women by men DIRECTLY AFFECTS THEIR SELF-CONFIDENCE. Perhaps what I believe to be my greater social awareness is to blame for what I call my "paranoia"? Maybe I will just start calling it "avid awareness" or some bullshit term because I feel like paranoia is unfair (not to mention unfounded. I'm somewhat clinically curious, though). ANYWAY.

(...My theory also explains why, I think, my family thinks I am bat-shit for thinking Twilight is bat-shit. Because I react that way, and I expect others to be as offended about feminism and stalkers and pedophilia BUT MAYBE THAT'S JUST ME.)

No, I definitely still think that shit is horrifying

Again on the topic of feminism, the anti-rape condom. I have mixed feelings about this. One, well, it is good to have a tool to fight in this war? I don't know. But (two) it really bothers me that this puts the responsibility in the hands of the victim. I mean, I don't want to have to shove that thing up my vag just to maim a rapist in the event that may happen. I mean, what, do you wear this every time you go out? Every day? All day, all the time? (And technically, by the mechanics of it, is it really a condom? Idk, it's more like... a diaphragm trap. Except it's not a diaphragm either, I know I know, so... what is it?

...Well let's just say I'm resisting the urge to post Ackbar in here.) Anyway. I feel like this is a measure for the desperate only, and otherwise has some rather dire implications. BUT that is society and welcome to it =/

I am learning to play Hey Soul Sister on my uke; the chords are difficult both in that they hurt (gotta learn that stretch and that muscle memory) and that I don't know how to hold my uke properly to change chords rapidly. THIS IS A PROBLEM. No thanks to my uke teacher, of course, because I remember asking her and she never really had anything to say because she didn't have any sort of formal teaching. Awesomesauce.

Melissa taught me a new word today: revagulous. This may just take over for recockulous in terms of outlandishness and entertainment value. (See, I told you, I can appreciate bodily function jokes on the same level of my brain that is in psychology-mode. IT'S CRAZY, I know.)

(...Literally?)

CLUB OBI-WAN let's goooooo

Handwriting is History?! Let me answer that with an emphatic NO. What if all our computers were to die? And I'm guessing it teaches kids good small-motor-skills. Oh and then there's the part where typing special characters and equations is still a huge fucking pain in the ass. But this dude is a journalist so I'm sure he has no idea that trying to write out Taylor Series expansions is SO EASY WITH TABLETS, amirite? Oh wait, almost none of the engineers use their laptops to take notes. Too much a novelty, still.

This shirt is ugly as sin but I love the pun.

Random thing: I was just looking at passiveaggressivenotes.com and saw a "flowers to go: if your name is bitch, come in and get your free flowers" post. It reminded me that, I think, the night before I left for Spain, I was coming home from Regal 20 and met my parents for dinner at Marion's or ice cream at Friendly's or something (actually, I think it was a Thursday and I was coming home from my Thursday night science lecture), and I passed the flower place over by the gas station, and it had that promotion but it said "Diane" that day. =) Good times. Wow, random memory, huh?

A somewhat worrisome facebook article. They keep everything. HOLY SHIT. Also, it pisses me off that though they have all this old data, I can't recover my statuses and Twitter only keeeps 1,000 tweets. I lost all my first tweets :( And I had some good stuff I wanted to come back to, as well...

(Also, Facebook Beacon! Done via a 1x1 GIF bug. That is sly. And douchey. And I'm starting to hate facebook more and more.)

A history of the ampersand! Completely fascinating.

And on the topic of typography and characters, an English-language sarcasm mark. Only I find it ugly and I think if you are blatantly told something is sarcasm you are missing a critical level of enjoyment and understanding of sarcasm. In addition, if you miss written sarcasm you may want to re-evaluate whether you are truly understanding the writer. (Although the use for indicating sarcasm in subtitles is useful.) (And... it costs $2 to buy and use? Yeah... not gonna catch on, buds.)

Nightmare snowmen! As featured in Calvin and Hobbes. Fantastic work. Art.

No school today. This is... amazing. I still have a lot to work on, but I least get a tiny break. It especially helps because last night I was freaking out because I couldn't get to any computer to finish my homework; I'd spent four hours in the lab and came home for dinner. Candice's computer died too (just last night), and Sarah was sick and already asleep and Brittany was using hers. So. I kind of had a meltdown about homework last night. (Just because it was one more thing on the pile, you know?)

Yeah, so. I've been in the lab for about three hours now, but that's okay, I'm getting things done and it's quiet. It's a bit odd in the sense that I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in the building currently... But I like it that way.

It's very bright outside with all the snow, and I definitely was kind of blinded when I walked inside. BUT this is the kind of snow to have, I'm telling you. A foot or so of it, very kickable, and still pretty warm outside, enough that it would be very nice to be outside. Now if only I didn't have so much to do, correct? Yes.

BUT, a bunch of linkspam that has piled up a bit with my computer woes. (Ah, poo. I am no longer the only one in here. Someone else just walked in.)

The immortal jellyfish... Quite cool, really. I'm not very afraid of them being our next overlords because I'm pretty sure it's going to be some octopodian thing and I will ~freak the fuck out~

An adorable Barney and Robin background. I am very sad I don't have my laptop right now because it would most definitely be the desktop...

The Henchman's Helper? I'm not exactly sure what's going on here but I am intrigued.

"Milky Way over Mauna Kea" which should be more accurately titled "Milky Way over Haleakala". Haleakala is the volcano in the foreground. (Still active, though it hasn't erupted in such a long time they thought it was dead. Or is dormant the right word? I think dormant means it's active but not currently erupting...) Anyway, you can see Mauna Kea (part of the Big Island) poking through in the backgroud. It's cool to think I've been at this view, roughly... Damn I miss Hawaii. Holy crap though, look at all that light pollution... That makes me so sad, really.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I would say that this would be the only way I'd read the book, but I suspect that as much as I dislike it, it's noewhere near as bad as Wuthering Heights. So. I will only say that you just have to be aware of where zombies are coming at you from... (Now there's a lovely ending-a-sentence-with-a-preposition, as dislegal as it is.)

Green grafitti. Very cool stuff.

Business currently hiring; I would work for Google...

Well, you have to face it, regardless: the Mayans were very skilled with figuring out their calendar. And regardless of the outcome, I will be having a party. By the way, anyone know when the LHC is supposed to come back on?

Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. I want to go there. Mechanics such as these mystify me... Sorry for that unintentional alliteration. (Worse than punning, methinks...)

Ah, so, back to work for me... And back to that tiki blog I found. Good stuff, that.


By the way, is anyone else excited for the Pink Panther movie, or am I the only one? (Tee-eye-double-guh-er.)

I am not ready at all for school. Packing up for corps I just realized this... I have Christmas stuff everywhere. I'm not moved in, I needed the time to relax so I still have stuff to move and then I still have to redo my room. Plus recruitment. Plus girl scouts. Plus the Minardi's project. Plus James' tattoo which was his birthday/Christmas present. Plus all the other art I owe people. (Hopefully... I can get that done this weekend, or rather, TOMORROW, while I sit by myself in the Denver airport for FIVE HOURS.)

Maybe I shoudl only take those 15 credits and not try to cram another class in there. That way I can focus on all this stuff, anc corps, and maybe looking at grad schools. *sigh* I hate "wasting" those credits, but maybe it would be good to have that space. Maybe I could join the drama club and help with props, I don't know.

Ugh. Kind of nervous about tomorrow because I should have been practicing, should have been working out. Should have been so many things... But mostly I am just stressed about school. I need a longer break, that's just the way I work. I need mental recuperation time.

Not to mention I barely got to see my friends at all, and a bunch of them are getting together tomorrow to hang out and catch up--and of course I will be in an airport for most of the day. And not even during a time when I can call them and chat over the phone while they are together... =/

Not that I don't love Hawaii, but why do I miss all the good snowstorms in Ohio? Grr.

Otherwise... life is good. =) Since people were snowed in last night, I was sad to hear the musical got cancelled for yesterday and today but it was nice talking to folks online. (HAHA trapped into chatting with me because you have nothing better to do! muahahaha)

It's weird, because I am at the point where I'm not really homesick but I want to hang out with people who are not in Hawaii, and I've also adjusted to the warm weather being "winter" weather, so I am constantly imagining hot summer Ohio scenarios in my head. As you peeps know, this is obviously not the case, but, whatevs. Thinking about summer leads to thinking about what I will be doing next semester (AAAAH registration) which leads me to thinking about all the fun I haven't been having at UD.

I mean, UD is a great place, and I really do want to have engineering skills under my belt. But the more I get comfortable here, and the more I look at everything and see how happy I am, and the more I feel like myself, the less I want to go back to that. It will just be three more years of soul-crushing, and then what? Architecture will obviously be different and I will have the creativity there, but I've heard that it's a LOT of work, soul-crushing in a different way. I really don't know what to do, I really don't. But at least it's good to know I can still feel like myself. =)

In other news, I slept in today pretty nicely (AUGH except for my roommate's fucking phone and alarm clock) and exercized and took a shower and ate a good brunchfast and now I'm just sitting on the couch relaxing and enjoying my view of the beach and the fact that there is no one around on a Saturday afternoon to be playing Rock Band upstairs or breaking the fucking floor above us or blasting their shitty music in the parking lot. (AND my roommate is not here to play her Really Annoying Music and chat on her Really Annoying Phone. I don't get it. She is so nice but SO OBLIVIOUS TO HOW ANNOYING SHE IS OTHERWISE.)

Hm.

Also we are going to see Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day later so I am thoroughly excited. ;D I might also be buying a hat so that is always fun.

Saw I am Legend yesterday. (Warning! Spoilers ahead.) Um. Yeah. So, I heard from everyone that it was really scary, and that they all came out being paranoid about those mutated-vampiric-humans jumping out at them. No. You know what? I feel ripped off. That ending was crap. Actually, everyone I went with thought the ending was crap. First of all, if these vampires can't break through that glass, why didn't he put that on his house instead of steel doors? And yeah, the blasts outside may have blown the ones on the windows, but the vampires busted right through the ones to the lab, and then clearly got stopped by the enclosure. Also, WHERE DID THE BUTTERFLY THING COME FROM? That came out of nowhere. Bwuh. AND THEN! There was room in the coal chute. What he should have done was put in the girl who was being cured with them. OR, you know, thrown the grenade and hopped in. If he put the girl in they would have had more than enough blood to find a cure as well as did they not have to refrigerate the sample or whatever?! Ugh. However, if I were the writers I would have had him throw the blood sample (which is what I thought he was going to do at first) and have them go crazy over it and eat it and have it cure them, and then not break through the glass. But whatever. =/

What I really want to know is, who looked at Bob Marley music and said, "Damn, this would make a sweet vampire movie."

Though I do laud them on their use of not having any music. It was quite effective.

But... Planes to bomb the bridges? And then how did Anna and her son get there? Whatever. They really could have done better with that movie.

Damn, also it's been TEN YEARS since Austin Powers first came out. Which I was kind of surprised, but then I thought about it and it makes sense. I only remember the rumors about Austin Powers III and then remembering it came out theatres (though I don't think I went to see it).

Eh, important things to talk about today, no?

Soooo... twelfth day of Christmas, right?

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the LJ gave to me--SierraMist Holiday Hawk,



a cute music video,
a funny movie parody,
a Bit of Fry and Laurie,
Aqua/Indy techno,
bearded singing nuns,
tiny kittens miaowing,
CHRISTMASYYYY MIIICHAEEEEL CRAWFOOOOOORD
Chicago and some children,
Straight No Chaser singing,
God Rest Ye lights a-blinking,
and a "happy holidays" so merry!

So Merry Christmas! =)

So Johnny and Pat and I went sledding yesterday, which was fun, except that the snow wasn't good for it, even though it looked like it would be. And then they both tackled me twice so today my head has been utterly killing me. =/ I can't turn it at all. Oooooow...

So, I forgot to post two days ago, and then yesterday the internet crapped out on me for some reason. =/ So I've missed two days of Christmas posting! I think it was eight and nine? Let me go check.

Anyway, I had a hilarious dream last night. I'm just going to tell you part of it, but anyway, I was in a pool-area like the recplex at UD, for some reason dressed up very nicely like I had an interview or something. And for some reason Stephen Colbert was there, filming his show around the edge of this pool! (Which was rather narrow, for some reason--the edge, I mean.) And I was there because I worked at the pool, but he asked me to help him with something and I was nervous because it meant I would be on TV and I didn't want to do something embarassing. But when I got around his crew to help him, he had turned into Steve Carrell, but more like his character from the Office, and asked me to lead his staff in a conga line. Haha. So I did, and these old ladies jumped in front of me and really had no idea how to do it.

Anyway, I just thought it was weird and rather funny, so I wanted to share that with you all.

Oooon the eleventh day of Christmas (!), the LJ gave to me--a cute music video,



a funny movie parody,



a Bit of Fry and Laurie,



Aqua/Indy techno,
bearded singing nuns,
tiny kittens miaowing,
CHRISTMASYYYY MIIICHAEEEEL CRAWFOOOOOORD
Chicago and some children,
Straight No Chaser singing,
God Rest Ye lights a-blinking,
and a "happy holidays" so merry!

Yay! Probably will post later, as I plan to go sledding! That is if I can find some freaking boots. =/

6:45 AM is apparently not early enough to notify the entire campus that the University is closed. And actually it was more like 6:50 anyway, but moving on ward. It's 7 AM and I'm at work and I COULD HAVE SLEPT IN. ARGH. But NO, they didn't send out the emails early enough. Plus I have so much crap to do anyway today that it's ridiculous. *sigh* (Somehow I doubt there will be any sledding for me [snowball fights/snowmen are out--too fluffy], because of all I have to do. Grr.)

Okay, guys, I'm leaving for Breckenridge tomorrow morning. If you need me, you can call the cell, I'll have it with me. Or if you just wanna chat, that works, too. Because mostly I'll be absorbed in my magazines and books, and hopefully not too much skiing, lol. There will hopefully be a Christmas post, since I didn't get to do Halloween, and since there are coffee bars with internet in the area. Just have to convince my mom to take me, or whatnot. If not, there will be a post when I return on the 26th.

Anyway! Went to Southwind last weekend, and it was a lot better than Phantom's camp. Although, it was really empty (a lot of brass holes, and the guard doesn't start yet) and kind of felt immature, because I'm pretty sure that half or more than half of the people I talked to were younger than me. A 15 year old girl being the youngest, though she's marched one year of corps. But there were tons of guys who looked like they could be freshmen, sophomores in high school! Or they WERE! Who knows, but it still creeped me the hell out. But anyway, I pretty much have a spot there. I have the horn (so shiiinyyyy) here with me, and the paperwork, but I didn't officially get offered a contract, apparently? I don't know, I'm not really sure what that's all about. But I'm on third trumpet for now, though it kind of sucked because these kids were younger than me I'm assuming were only on second and whatnot because they have range and were at the earlier camp, because... I dunno, it was weird. At any rate. Apparently SW is getting new uniforms AND new hats (BOO to losing the sharkos, which, by the way, IS the BEST name EVER for a hat, and is extremely clever), so I really don't know about that. I just am hoping they don't look way gay. ALSO, I won't be allowed to take a cell phone on tour. FUUUUCK. I might still see if I can get that internet card for my computer through Verizon... that way I can still get internet a little. If not, I'm going to have to find someone to check my friends page and whatnot and print out updates or save the pages as hard files or something. I dunno.

Anyway, I still have to pack and whatnot.

I am feeling so apathetic right now. *sigh*

I! am in a good mood.

Finally.

And I don't mean, things are better, because they're not. But I am HAPPY.

What did it take? A babysitting job. Well, "babysitting." She was already in bed, so I wached TMC. Yeah, classic movies. My weakness. Like kryptonite. I was raised on them... and I know for a fact they're a good chunk of why I am the way I am. I watched the end of a movie with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire (I think) and it made me want to get up and dance and sing... and take tap again... but not that modern crap, ugh. Lol. =) Seriously, Fred Astaire is my hero.

Anyway. Classic musicals... I just... yeah. That's me. That's what I like, that's what I want, that's how I live. It just is.

And then I watched part of a documentary on Stanley Donen, who did the direction and some dancing and did lighting stuff for whatever movie I watched, plus On the Town, and Singin' in the Rain, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (haven't seen it, but loved performing it), along with many others.

So. Fred Astaire, Stanley Donen, a toast. With lime jello. Because that's what I ate right now since I couldn't get ice cream downstairs to celebrate how hyper I am again. I was happy, and I was loopy, and I was starting to get that almost-drunk quality that Captain Jack Sparrow has that I realized I'd picked up after I saw the second movie. That or it was always a part of me, AND OH MY GOD I NEED TO GO BUY THE SPECIAL EDITION DVD... BONUS EXTRAS, WHIMPER WHIMPER...

Anyway, linkspam.

A good post about believing in God, of sorts. It's incomplete but I read most of it (tired, sorry, it's been hell lately), and I agree with what I did read. If I missed something major, you might want to let me know. http://infinidimincorp.livejournal.com/94573.html

So people over on metaquotes were talking about huntsmen spiders today, which are apparently large, flat spiders that live in Australia that come in under the door or whatnot and hide around the house. They can be as large as wall clocks, and are difficult to kill. And ew. So, being metaquotes, someone mentioned that they'd seen an ice spider larva (Antarctica, thank god) burst out of a penguin's body and spit acid out. So I had to see these ice spiders. TWO AND A FUCKING HALF FEET LARGE. EW EW EW EW EW EW thankgodtheyliveinthedeepcoldwaters. So the first link: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/research/antarctica/2006/journal/6/11/index.php and the second: http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/fguide/arthropoda-2.html ew ew ew ew

Robin Sparkles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mJAsgIIfNM (yeah... I finally caught up on How I Met Your Mother via YouTube.)

MI6 on James Bond: http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/articles/opinion_05_no_armour_left.php3


So I ate lime green jello, and rutabaga, and milk to celebrate.

I fucking win. =^n.n^= (And hopefully I'm going to the zoo on Sunday, too! And I think I'm ready for Christmas, too. Hooray!)

[EDIT] Plus... Jimmy Buffett's birthday is on Christmas, someone just reminded me today. =)

I am SO. FREAKING. MYSELF. =^n.n^=