Despite my general feeling of melancholy lately-- and, oh, how I hate that word-- melancholy, ugh-- (and I do mean, literally, the word itself, not how it is defined or used or anything, I just have this bizarre intense dislike for the spelling and sheer existence of its sound) I also feel rather victorious the past few days.

I don't know which one of these to post last, because I am a save-the-best-for-last person, because three out of four of these just make me stupid-smiley-happy.

...I may have also been spending too much time on Tumblr being all internet-y and fandom-y so my brain is kind of running in that mode lately, too. So... sorry. (Also, damn, there is a lot of problematic posts on tumblr. But you know what? I deal with enough shit everywhere else, I can't turn that epic little corner of crossover jokes into another space where I get mad at people. I just can't deal with that, bleh.)

(Also, there was an adorable episode of the Simpsons with a Pixar parody and a Wallace and Gromit parody and they were SO well done and cute.)

(Umm, and Taco Bell has an ad with Pagliacci and I feel like with all the Phantom of the Opera I've been seeing and possibly going to see the limited showing of Les Mis that I should go see some real opera again? I think the last one I saw was Aida, and I always liked Carmen, and I just HAVE NOT SEEM MUCH THEATER LATELY I would even go for some Shakespeare. As long as it's not Much Ado About Nothing or As You Like It? I can't remember which, but one of them is terrible. But mostly I just feel like I should see a real version of Pagliacci because everything I know about Pagliacci is from Spike Jones. And possibly Merry Melodies/Looney Tunes.)

I aced my interview for Pier 1 today, so I am now seasonally employed. And it sounds like it's not many hours, which is good for me. You can't see my face right now, but I'm giving a sort of evil smirk, because sometimes I am a little conniving and I hate myself for it, but the little kid who read the entire Hardy Boys series is so proud of any time I am successfully involved in subterfuge.

Uhhhhh and I found out that when you put your dvd codes into Disney's Movie Reward program you also get a "digital library" hosted on their site which is PERFECT for while I'll be in Hawaii because I'll be taking maybe like two dvds with me. (Buuuut a lot of books. Like too many.) [EDIT: Actually, possibly, it might be only a discount to a streaming version. Which is a little skeezy IMO.]

Yesterday I found out that a few of my friends told some epic tales of me to the rookies this summer, and that just made my month. I miss the Troop so much. <3 WHY ARE ALL MY FRIENDS OUT WESSSST

Uh, also, I forgot how good horizontal stripes look on me and can I just say this sweater looks fucking great? And it's Hufflepuff colors. (And so are my socks.)

HUFFLEPUUUUUUFF

Okay and then I made a ridiculous joke yesterday on facebook, it was so great, and it just made me feel really awesome because my seat partner from last year was being a smartass about it and I feel the joke's quality is on par with the stuff the rest of my family (read: mostly my dad and uncle) crank out. It's a bit... audience specific, BUT! Here it is:

The set-up: a drum corps' tuba section has to break into their friend's dreams on a long overnight drive states away in order to save him from making a terrible tour-goggles-induced mistake. The title? C O N T R A - C E P T I O N


Oh my god my brain is in meme mode I'm so sorry.






:D

Have I been busy. Moving things. Cleaning rooms. Trying to get rid of ant infestations.

Learned a new word: formication, which is the feeling you have ants crawling all over you.

Trying to get everything arranged for Outer Banks and Savannah. Trying to get everything arranged for Raiders 30th. Visiting Gramps in the hospital, hoping they will get him out. I hope he can get his heart a little stronger and last more than a few months. I keep thinking about him reading The Walrus and the Carpenter to my fourth grade class, and "faire to Midland", and I want him to get out of the hospital so I can show him my senior presentation. And I keep thinking about ragtime and Hitchhiker's Guide and Ernie Kovacs... Oh, Gramps. Get better, please.

Anyway. Awesomesauce on a stick:



Carrots are orange because of politics!

Like any Cracked article, six "insane coincidences". Sadly, #6 and #5 are the best, because they really are odd coincidences. #1, a little bit, but also data manipulating; there are 365 days each year (except for leap years), and TONS OF SHIT HAPPENS EVERY DAY. Not to mention since our country's founding there have been 234 4th's of July. (Not 4ths of July... they were still 24 hours long, har har) I been I could find you ~even more! strange and unusual~ coincidences out of those 234 days. Shit, son.

Um, and also. #3 bothers me a lot. Why, you may ask? Because it is NOT COINCIDENCE. IT IS CAUSATION. This is the first time I've had to paraphrase this phrase to say "correlation =/= coincidence". The Wright brothers... who lived and worked in Dayton... invented heavier-than-air, powered flight. And they kept doing research here. So when the Air Force got created in 1947, we eventually ended up with *le gasp* an Air Force Base in Dayton. Which encouraged more flight technology and research in the city and the state! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you end up with a state that has produced SO MANY ASTRONAUTS. We fucking invented flight, now gtfo.

P.S. I do find that article fascinating, my engineer brain just jumped at this annoyance and also I've noticed my writer's voice, a.k.a. my blogging tone, a.k.a. my making comments on the internet voice, has gotten more and more hyperbolic as I have. I don't have a problem with that except where I still do it when talking serious business and since it's text, I'm afraid people will take me literally.

Here's the truth, I am pretty damn shy "IRL". I just enjoy being ridiculous and over the top (...sometimes).

HEY, DID YOU SEE WHERE THEY FUCKING FOUND TANIS?! A little on the technology behind that.

I made a lot of Raiders references the day that was all over. I don't think many people got it, BUT, perfect timing for the 30th, non?! I can't wait to see what happens with the digs. Although I'm sure it will be quiiiiite a while coming.

In case you are still having a terrible day (as I did), here is a MacGuyver intro a guy did of his cat, Steve McQueen. It's beyond awesome.

Diana Wynne Jones, one of my top three favorite authors and my favorite female author. Your words have helped inspire my hopes in imagineering, and your stories will be missed.

So, yes, I just realized and now finally appreciate the irony of posting about "vajazzling" with glitter text. Yeah.


The era of boundless imagination in dinosaur colors is dead. But seriously, this is kind of awesome. I will, however, miss all the neon colored dinosaurs and the dreams that they could be legitimate! Although, one could argue that those dreams are still possible for those dinosaurs which did not have proto-feathers from which we can extract color clues. Here, have some mo' peekchures.


I feel like this week has been full of political/social fail. It's incredibly depressing. Things like this only do so much.

...Just let it sink in that these people actually believe this and exist. Yeah, that's what I thought.


THIS POEM IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS. And either 1) I'm pronouncing some words wrong, 2) It was written by someone with a distinctly different accent than mine, or 3) they pronounce some words wrong. IDK. I can say "Worchester" in the proper Brit way, though, tyvm.

This is a sad ending to my week. =/

However, THIS SHIP IS FUCKING AWESOME.



Also, the video seems to be down, but they're starting a play/movie/webseries of the Prop 8 trial. If you haven't been following it... Holy shit, is it ever a farce.


[EDITED FOR FUCKERY] WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT

SERIOUSLY

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE. PUT ON YOUR GROWN-UP PANTIES AND REALIZE THAT AT SOME POINT YOUR CHILD HAS TO EARN THEIRS AS WELL.




I don't think I can facepalm any more this 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.

So I think I also forgot to mention yesterday that one professor is making us write an essay on ourselves. So yes... definitely feel like i'm back in fourth grade. Drove down to UC to see Anna. The medicine didn't work so they don't know what they're going to try next. She's in good spirits but very tired and sore bc she's not allowed to move and her clot is causing severe headaches & neck pain. Damn, though, her mom is a wreck. =/ Also saw Sherlock Holmes tonight. It was good but I'll write more tomorrow when I have a real keyboard. I realized it is a dreadful oversight that though I've seen both Wishbone's and carroll's Hound of the Baskervilles, I HAVE NEVER READ HOLMES. Considering my propensity for detective stories, I'm appalled. This must be rectified. Also I like the word "gambit". This keyboard needs more pointer control, too, editing is a bitch. Anyway I'm glad "swagger" is coming back into use because it reminds me of "swashbuckler". Also I need to make a Stan Wars gif bc that word still confuses me, yet it would be hilarious.

This is me still catching up on shit. And needing to clean out my tabs like serious

I did get my taxes done, though. (Woo!) And my dad and I took apart a lawnmower engine today, that was awesome. I learned that the engine bodies are just aluminum and there is quite enough force on broken parts to shoot them through the sides. (Hot damn) That's what my sister did to her car engine back when she killed it (not when she wrecked it, but when she blew the engine quite dramatically). Goddamnit, I keep forgetting the term and calling it the crank shaft. But it was some arm in this engine that snapped, flipped around and locked the engine and flywheel and sent pieces shooting into the wall (and into the wall of the piston area, jamming that too).

Was George Lucas wrong? Unfortunately, this is not about Star Wars or Indiana Jones. But anything where we're taking credibility away from him is a-okay with me. Kind of like ALW. They both had their times but they need to take a step back from their involvement now. (Wicked and Phantom are coming to the Schuster next year and my mom thought I meant "Phantom 2" because I kept saying "Phantom too". I have absolutely zero faith in his sequel, letmetellyou.)

They're making a 10 Things I Hate About You tv show? I... uh... I dunno. I don't have much faith in that, tbh, because I don't have much faith in general television. Especially decade-old not-quite-remakes.

Goddamnit, this is the kind of shit I wanted to be doing in science fair. Instead I had rather shitty science teachers who never actually helped me accomplish anything with my projects, and thought my stuff was way too off-the-wall because I ACTUALLY ADDRESSED FUCKING QUESTIONS I HAD WITH SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIDN'T LIE ABOUT THE RESULTS, godfuckingdamnit. (No, I'm not bitter. Have I mentioned I'm really good at holding grudges?) Other than my eighth grade project which I can't remember, I did one testing people's ability to actually differ between Coke and Pepsi and knockoff colas, one testing backpack weights compared to body weight, one testing cat saliva killing bacteria, one testing wine cork tainting, and one testing the vitamin C content of edible flowers. Which I think are pretty damn legitimate questions, even though my procedures weren't anything great or advanced. WELL I'M SORRY YOU NEVER TAUGHT ME OTHER STANDARD PROCEDURES AND MACHINES. If I'd known what was out there for me to use, I could have come up with a test using them. I promise you. So yes, once again I'm blaming GOD DAMN FUCKING MS. WISE and ugh Mrs. Levy (she hated me) and rather clueless Ms. Keller. What is it about the science teachers I had that made them completely unhelpful (or just plain idiotic... Ms. Wise ohmygod, we actually made her cry once. I don't even remember why, but I remember she was an idiot)? And so many other people got away with completely unoriginal tests or just plain LYING about their data or having their parents come up with and design and basically build their project. God fucking damn, people have no respect for the scientific process.

Yeah, I know, I'm crazy.

Housing drunks and letting them drink saves millions, interesting. I always like when alternative solutions are actually able to get permission to test (somehow) and are able to show results. YAY PEOPLE ARE THINKING (unlike my science fair peers yes I'll be bitter about this for the rest of this post for the sake of hilarity)

This may just be one of the best articles I've ever read, "The different kinds of people that there are". ( the text in case it disappears )

OH GOD ROBOTIC OVERLORDS Well kinda. Not AI but critical thinking skills. Hot damn. We're a few steps away from the computer in Eagle Eye (did I ever get around to how ridiculous that film was?) which I think would have been a totally better film if it decided it needed to destroy itself again. OOPS I JUST SPOILED THAT MOVIE KINDA BUT OH WELL. It's not really worth your time unless you have nothing better to watch (it's not awful) and you are a trumpet player flying from Denver to Dayton who wants to be kind of surrealistically freaked out. Yeeeaaaaah.

Oh man, speaking of technology, they (I'm not exactly sure who) invented a table saw that's attached to a circuit and a brake drum and in ONE TEN-THOUSANDTH OF A SECOND if it senses a change in electrical resistance (aka wetness or in this specific case, flesh) it stops and retracts the blade. Of course doing this costs you a $200 brake drum each time but it's better than losing your fingers and paying $10,000 to maybe having them reconnected.

But I am just consistently amazed by the mechanical and electrical things people are able to design. I just... have no mind for mechanics. If you give me the pieces I can put them together, but I am a static person. At best I can give you a Rube Goldberg, but that's about it.

A really fun and simple word game.

Goddamnit I love RFID. This isn't even a particularly exciting application! It's just so awesome.

10 Amazing Living Walls. Just trying to pay more attention to sustainable stuff because I'm going to the Stander Symposium on what UD should do about energy stuff, and I want to be able to see us do something fucking awesome.

On that note, the 10 Worst Greenwashers. That'd be people who lie about having an earth-friendly business. FUCK YOU AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON.

Okay yay done links for now fuck I'm really tired and hungry goddamnitall

[EDIT] Oh, I almost forgot. Things I learned today: you know why older cars were designed with such long fronts? Not just style, but because the pistons were all in a line before they did the V-design. Cool beans. :D

puddlewonderful.


It is what life should be. Not "what life should be" but rather "what a life should be". If that makes sense.






What is that, e. e. cummings?








...waitaminit, there's an ultraportable joke in here somewhere.

[Error: unknown template qotd]Sorry I've been in a bit of a political mood lately, but this sort of question has always been weird to me. I mean, I understand admiring someone to the point you'd joke about it, but anyone who takes it seriously I would honestly just want to punch in the face. And sorry, I'm kind of in a face-punchy, baby-kicking mood today. ACID TRIPPY DREAM, OKAY?! That is my excuse.


By the by, "viciousism" is a word I made up in high school, or maybe even gradeschool, simply because it's fun to say. However, I think that the definition may be this sort of hyperbolic anger I take towards a lot of things. It would be appropriate. :D We'll just have to see if that definition takes on. (It's like naming a pet or something... sometimes their titles don't fit what they are. So that emotion may not be viciousism, and viciousism may not be this. I'm weird, I know.)

The announcer said that Obama's speech mentioned "I" almost the least out of any acceptance speeches of the Presidents--three times. Teddy Roosevelt apparently didn't say it at all. It definitely speaks to a sense of humility in service, which, as my twelve years of Catholic schooling impressed upon me, is core to service.

Also, the quality of articulation is severely undervalued by our country.