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They mentioned Indygear though!!!! =D One of the questions asked what piece of equipment with him at all times (I was like... hat? gun? whip? bag? lol), and the answer was whip (the only other option I remember was nunchuck, which is about as weird as the other options). So after each question they explain the trivia a little more, and they went on to explain it then mentioned you can locate all of Indy's gear at Indygear.com! I was happy.
It was kind of cool, I was answering each question before they even posted the options. =P (It appears as though the first one was the most difficult for everyone else, too. It asked what challenges Indy occurrs in the beginning of Raiders and everybody forgot about the tarantulas. ;D Muahahaha) The only one I couldn't answer right away, they asked what movie other than Star Wars and Indiana Jones starred Ford working with Lucas, and I knew it had to be two of the five answers only because I hadn't heard of the other three. But I didn't know if it was American Graffiti or Apocalypse Now, so I just guessed and got it right. (I... think... I answered American Graffiti.)
But anyway I had tons of fun. And now I'm the second-highest top scorer for that game ever at BW3's Beavercreek, though the scores looked like they were mostly from the past year. =P So if you see Mercat... that's me. =) (Go figure, lol)
Johnny and I just hung out and chatted for a good hour and a half, too, which was good. =P Definitely better than the time we hung out at Wendy's, lol. Apparently they played Raiders music at the concert I missed on Wednesday! WHAAAAAAAAAT! I am so pissed. I HATE YOU, DIRECTOOOOOOOOORS. (Oh no, I wasn't allowed to play it, even though I'm the obsessive one. CURSE YOU ALL)
But yeah, we got some good venting in, too, lol. You know it's a good time when you can sit around and bitch about band drama ;D
Also, I love Craig Ferguson. His sense of humor is just so bizarre. It never ceases to crack me up. (Tonight's a good one, that's why I'm mentioning it.)
I am starting to get really excited for the movie... This is going to be daaaaangerooooous. E];D
HOWEVER, DeviantArt is being a failure so they aren't posted right now, I'll let you know as soon as they are.
IN THE MEANTIME! I actually posted photos from spring break somewhere OTHER than facebook! So here we goooo, Raiders stuff from Kauai!
( cut for teh huegness IN ALL ITS GLORY )
Let's see... I had some bizarre dreams last night, and I definitely slept in waaaaaaaaay too long. I did some mowing, though, and I found this really washed-up paper chain, fake flowers, and other stuff hanging in one of the decorative smaller tree-bushes, which definitely gave me a WTF for now. My parents told me James put it up for Laura on Valentine's Day (awww), but... lol. Since Valentine's Day? That's almost 100 days. (My 100 days countdown started then? Or no, it was 97 days and the first trailer came out? I can't remember.) In the meantime I was having fun trying to come up with interesting theories, and my favorite was that one of those giant balloon baskets had been released with helium and popped, and nobody had noticed.
I actually got on the treadmill and did my OKgo workout, too! It was ROUGH, but I really need to keep it up. =) However, my good running shoes are being shipped home, so I had to dig out my old silver shoes, which are not at all meant for running. I could feel it because I almost slipped twice on the treadmill and my ankles and knees were killing me. I wonder if it was part of the cause of my hip problems before? I really haven't had my hip pop in a while, which is a good thing.
Ooookay. Tomorrow I will be up earlier! Hopefully. =P
Tomorrow is BW3 trivia night, if I can convince some of the people I invited to actually go... =/ I don't really want to be hanging out at BW3's by myself at 10 pm.
Also, this weekend is the St. Brigid festival! YAY THRIFTING FOR PROP STUFF.
Aaaaand since I couldn't dress up for hat pics today, I made you all this still life:
http://mercat.deviantart.com/art/St
Lots of exciting detail discussion posted over there. E];D Enjoy!
- Music:Hooked on a Feelin'
Uncle Jay explains Congressional recess. ...Someone who tends to not avoid politics, tell me: does Congress really have that many days off?! (I don't really try to avoid politics, I just try to only pay attention when I need to. There's too much drama-gloom-and-doom-desperation for me.)
I can has Tony Stark?
( Crystal skull stolen... not really that interesting of an article )
And now, I'm going to discuss the Twilight series a little bit. I'm going to cut it because I know some of you are fans, and I don't like it, but ( I'm going to try to treat it civilly. )
OKAY. I'm off to set up the photo. Bbl.
SEVEN "DAYS"! Actually six days but that post will come "tomorrow" after I go to bed. I am still clearly on Hawaiian time. I also have some serious catching up to do but the bonus of the candy marketing is that they come with trivia.
The Snickers Adventure bars are delicious, I love coconut. (Whatever the artificial "spice" is, they don't list it and I guessed before tasting it was cinnamon but I DETECT NOTHING.)
Mint Crisp m&m's are crispy (...in the sense that crispy m&m's are crispy since crispy is not a real word!) and delicious, but, I dunno, the fact that they are mint is a tad overwhelming. I can eat about two and then I'm done. But I suppose that's good because I'm eating severely fewer calories? And they are delightfully crunchy.
Also, I got another Froot Loops spoon. Different box, same red spoon. If anyone sees the trivia poptarts, let me know, or just buy me a box. I CAN'T FIND THEM ANYWHERE
Um, I suppose I could try to make up for today's trivia with the m&m's trivia since it's sitting right next to me: (they call them "arti-FACT"s. cute) The sounds from the mine car chase were from a roller coaster. Cool but not necessarily... trivial? I mean if you said "where would you get the sounds for a cart rolling along tracks" I would guess "a cart rolling along tracks" which pretty much the only thing we have like that nowadays is rollercoasters, amirite?
Yeah, so, hat post tomarrow. (Yeah, tomarrow.)
...I also need to make a greater effort to revert to Ohio non-college time (Ohio college time is roughly equivalent to Hawaiian time, which I technically should refer to as Pacific Time because Hawaiian Time is something altogether different). Um... yeah. It's weird not having a car but I don't have anywhere to do (...today) and gas is expen$ive. Hopefully the locksmith comes tomorrow though because MUST BE AT BW3'S FRIIIIDAAAAY.
In addition, dad fixed my broken front tooth again today. By again I mean he fixed it since the last time I broke it (going to Kauai) but that this isn't the first time I've broken it (October of third grade originally, and once or twice since). It looks much less ridiculous as I no longer appear to be gap-toothed. (Not that I was, but having a broken corner makes it look that way.) Also my teeth are clean, though the hygenist (a new lady? someone I don't know... Barb or something) really went at it and my gums were sore all day and she said I had bad calculus (yeah, calculus, the stuff that's harder than plaque--you think I'm kidding? Look it up) on my lower front teeth. Which, I dunno why, I've been going to the dentist every six months religiously and taking better care of my teeth in the past few years and especially the past few months, because last visit I had to get my back teeth filled because they had deep recesses that were trapping lots of stuff that would lead to CAVITIES. Yuck. So I've been brushing my teeth much better (circles, get the gums, get in back, get the upper back, brush longer) which makes me wonder about the calculus. Or does it just look bad because dad is usually the one who does my cleaning for me? No idea. But seriously she was really having at scraping it and it HURTS. Blech. That is quite possibly one of the nastiest feelings on the planet, being beat only by nails on a chalkboard and chewing on felt (which is the tactile sensory equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. Don't ask me why as I don't recall chewing on felt ever but just think about it, and it makes my teeth crawl).
Anyway. My teeth are clean and looking good again. Well, better. I've never really liked my smile but I have the benefit of good dentistry and no cavities ever. Now if I hold to my resolution to stay and get in shape this summer...
[EDIT] Oops, I confused myself. It's actually "eight days" and "tomorrow" is seven days. Whoops.
ANYWAY. Today is better. It's 9:35 and I didn't get enough sleep but it's better. I also forgot to come back to post again, heh... I am a failure at posting lately, no? Well I think I mentioned the Letterman thing and new TV spot which made me feel a little better, and then when I went upstairs to bed I noticed my holographic nail polish (which I only use at Christmas) and realized this would be another perfect time to use it. =) And then since I'm still on Hawaiian time I laid in bed for probably an hour trying to be tired and thinking about a steampunk pirate flag design (finally had a good idea) and trying to get a little more excited. I set my alarm (I just use my phone) to the Raiders March (yeah... that's my ringtone) in hopes it would shock me out of bed (which, it hasn't lately), and somehow it worked.
So now I've been up for two hours and I'm at my dad's office waiting for my appointment. I don't know if I mentioned that my sister's been having terrible luck with cars? The dented the Camry twice I think and then the engine in mom's car broke when her best friend started it (last fall) and then in February she spun out and totaled the Camry. So, she jumped on the opportunity to buy a "good" car (aka a fashionable one) and mom and dad said okay as long as it was not all flash and only what the insurance would cover. So a few weeks ago they found a Selica she liked, and bought it. Well, the other day they got it home and my dad got keys copied, and the first ones were crap and didn't work, so he went back to get replacements... and it snapped off in the ignition. So now Laura's new car is sitting in the driveway and she's driving my Ford and I don't have a car. Not that I need one, I don't have any immediate plans, but still. It's so fun to tease her because not much of it was her fault (Carroll's parking lot is BAD, but she did back into my car without looking that one time in the driveway). But I dunno, her Selica kind of scares me. It's a hatchback, with a sunroof, and a thing-I'm-totally-blanking-on-the-name-o
Aaaanyway. Well mom and dad were talking about gas and stuff and they were saying that if I'm going to be driving all over creation (visiting people, going to camps for the next few years, etc.) that they want to look into getting a more reliable car and one with better gas mileage. One of dad's patients is selling a silver Beetle (I used to be obsessed with this blue Beetle at the car lot next to Carroll, but I kind of got over it) that they are considering. I mean, yeah, Beetle, new car, etc. etc. But I dunno, I will miss my Taurus (lots of space for leis, among other things) and also they just strike me as... light. Small. Sort of dangerous. My dad pointed out, well, it's like 14 years newer so there are probably better safety standards, but... did I just imagine the bad accident record? I might have, I don't know. Or that might have been just the first models when they reintroduced the Bugs? Or maybe I just don't want to lose my parrotheadmobile. =( (I... do not have a Jimmy Buffet icon. !) Or maybe they've just lost all their novelty since they were introduced? (Haha, the Pokebug.) Or my taste changed from novelty to classic, because I would take a PT Cruiser any day of the week. (But that has more trunk space, I think, too... Not that I ever need it. I suppose I'm just a bit of an engineer.)
GAH. I don't know. I mean as for getting a new car, it's a nice $7000 Bug, good chance. If I don't take it will I find another good deal? I do kind of dread the jimmybuffettmobile breaking down on me, even though it's My Car.
And honestly, silver is boring, that would need to be remedied. Paint something on the sides or something. Or make it a woodywagon.
Okay well I blogged myself out for a little bit and I'm tired of talking about cars (unless you're going to buy me a '57 chevy), so, I'm audi (yeah, I get that from my dad...) for now.
Back later hopefully with Totally Awesome Hat Pics.
BUT.
I just checked my facebook to sync myself up with the countdown. It's sort of "ten days" as a nice round number but really its NINE DAYS AND ABOUT A HALF AN HOUR UNTIL I AM IN A THEATRE WATCHING INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. Ohhhhh yeeeeeesssss. I am a little more excited now. =D
Back to post more later.
Anyway so eventually Chelsea came and picked us up and we went down to Ward Center for dinner and a movie. We went to this great Italian place, Buca di Bella (I think), where the portions are pretty much enough for an entire family. (Single servings are enough for two, three, and maybe four.) We ended up splitting a single piece of cheesecake which was amazing and we had a great time, and I was glad Silkie decided to come and that Chelsea got word even though I thought she'd pretty much moved out last week. And then we went and saw Iron Man, and they really enjoyed it so I was glad. The theatre was a lot nicer and a LOT bigger, and we sat closer, so I dunno just watching the trailer on such a big screen my nerves totally went crazy, just adrenaline rush like mad. It took me a good long time into Iron Man to relax a little, and then I got cold so I was back to shaking again. =/ Oh well. I don't know what I'm going to do watching Indy IV though, bring a blanket?! Lol.
You know, I think what I enjoy about Iron Man is not just that he is a badass but that he is a cocky badass who doesn't mind it too much when he's wrong. But when you're a cocky bastard you get all the good punchlines, so thereyougo. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a good pun. Still geeked out over all the tech, it really is a beautifully done movie. I'm not really sure what's CGI and what's real which is GOOD. Means it was clean (UNlike Harry Potter but let's not go there). I think it helps all the textures were metals and fake tech, so basically made up, rather than natural textures which look less realistic as CGI. But the physics of it seemed pretty realistic too (like the fight scenes? I'm presuming those were CGI but I suppose they could be some sort of stunt-greenscreen setup). ANYWAY, I caught some things I missed the first time (Ten Rings), you know, like the scene when they first show off how killer his suit is and they do a sweeparound and he does the test for control of the panels. I was not even paying attention but NURR they are for controlling his flight. Hurr yes I'm from Dayton birthplace of flight hurr
ANYWAY. There is one thing that bothers me (not really, it only bothers me on a comedic meta-level). When he first ( SPOILER )
So I guess technically I missed yesterday even though it's still today for me (I haven't gone to bed yet so that's how the rules work), but I will post for "yesterday" (today for me) and "today" (tomorrow for you). Isn't that a RENT song? ;)
In the interest of countdowns I'll just cut to the chase though; 15 days! Holy crap wetmypants I'm so excited. Seriously, I downloaded the trailer and watched it all day and I STILL went into adrenaline overdrive watching it in the theatre tonight! I mean, adrenaline rush so bad it felt like a sugar rush, like after I drink an energy drink (blech) or the day I had like six mountain dews to stay awake driving back from Chicago for the football game last semester. That kind of shaky, I notice it more since then and it makes me nervous but trust me, I'm going to see that movie like three times opening weekend and it will STILL happen that third time, I'm pretty sure. woo woo
Okay real trivia time! ToD again because I am on a kick and I dunno, it's not as good as Raiders but I do think it's underappreciated. So the mine sets, they were done with miniatures, and I think it is so cool. On the dvds there is a bonus where you can see them run the camera down the tracks inside the "cave" which is painted aluminum foil. GENIUS. I love that kind of thing about filmmaking and I think CGI really detracts from that sort of ingenuity. (Plus, it doesn't look as good to me, it usually messes with my natural senses and totally pulls me out of suspension of disbelief.)
And another since I said two! Concept artwork for Toht that is remarkably steampunk.
Oh hey, do any of you have experience with that free Photoshop substitute? I'm totally blanking on the name but you know what I mean. I think Melissa, you tried it out some? Basically I am looking for an art program where I can scan in some inking I drew by hand and color it with not-quite-100%-opacity. I've seen that effect a few places lately and I really like it. Although I don't know if my comptuer can handle it, I mean seriously running AutoCAD makes this computer lag like it was made in 1962.
I actually have no idea what this is, but it seems pretty interesting on the first read. (And to be fair I mostly just scanned it, my thoughts were a bit too scattered at the time to really try to understand it.)
Dude versus Dad, or, too much insight into why I take a lot of things too seriously.
Post-Americanism. I don't know about you but I am all for a slice of Humble Pie. You should never get too cocky about yourself, it leads to big disasters. Also? The sense I get from that article is "America no longer holds the records for biggest stuff!" Uh, hello current events, but the world can't go on forever with a My Cock's Bigger contest. We're starting to see the effects of overpopulation and limited resources as it is. I think it's a good thing that we're not at the top anymore and I'm hoping we can use, to put it stereotypically, good old American ingenuity to put us in a new direction for a BETTER planet and not just a BIGGER one.
Oh, and another thing about Iron Man: I guess it's doing pretty damn well this weekend. GOOD FOR IT. I think we need more movies like it, in the "plot is not boringly overdone" genre. Also, I forgot to say when reading the credits, yay Lucasfilm for ILM and Skywalker Sound. I kept thinking those props guys must have been having a field day. ( SPOILER )
also the fact that it's been nearly a decade since 1999 and SEVEN YEARS almost since 9/11 is continuing to blow my mind.
Also I think I posted about this before, but I have a strong desire to build something similar for severely less than $3000. My only problem is my lack of experience in programming and robotics, but honestly, remote control + iPod dock + projector + media system doesn't sound too terribly challenging, unless you're insistent upon a universal remote.
But, uh, back to what I was going to post.
Otherwise, today's been a good day.
OH HEY my roommate just got back. Talk about timing. Well that's good. I hope everything was okay. I guess she's downstairs checking in with the RD (the official term for dorm security as Genny informs me) and the police, so... yeah. Hm.
OKAY, SO. Today was a very fun day, in an extremely geeky manner, though I just sort of realized it. This morning my dad called me to wish Max and Kyle a happy birthday, though Kyle is in Argentina now. So after wishing Max happy birthday what they did was put me on speakerphone (in Yellow Springs) so I could wish Kyle happy birthday over videophone to Argentina. Ha. A quarter of a world away... craziness. Technology really is somethin'.
AAAAANYWAY. So I had plans to go see Iron Man (and the new Indiana Jones trailer!) with the xkcd kid yesterday but he never called me back, and I just wasn't in the mood to do much of anything today so I slept in (finally) and ate lunch and ended up going to see Iron Man by myself this evening. It was totally worth it, I needed some time to just chill, and let me tell you, Iron Man is badass.
I mean, I was totally geeking out the whole time. I felt like such an engineer, it was ridiculous. I was just like "ooh electromagnets!" and I'm such a gadety person, just... really. His computer setup was my favorite part. Just, can I have that drafting table yes please. Not even the 3D aspect! I just want a digital drafting table, and I was thinking about that article I read that Windows is working on a new prototype of computer that's basically a coffee table with everything transmitted with I dunno infrared or bluetooth or something, but I mean seriously. Would that not be the most badass drafting table EVER?!
Plus I just really enjoyed the movie. Lol Stan Lee. Also I think I enjoy movies like this and Batman because they way they wrote them, they're not too much of a stretch from real technology. I mean like that drafting table, the first thing I thought of was that Windows prototype and if I could use that to my advantage in the future in making a drafting table. (Except his computer was totally a Mac, and yeah, I geeked over that, too.) Obviously suits like that aren't very feasible, but they took the time to make it pseudoscience and a plot that hits close to home. (Mmm terrorism.) I don't mean on a personal level, just, current-events wise, I think that adds to making it feel more plausible (...for a superhero movie).
Also can you say Air Force?! Hell yeah. I think hometown pride is getting a little bit of a hold on me. (Hm and yes I did not really understand the "stabilizers" pseudoscience, so someone's going to have to explain that to me before I pass judgement, but I don't think it's very plausible. But not bad enough to detract from the plot either! YAY WRITERS) Anyway the "thanks to the USAF" list went by too quickly and I wonder if WPAFB was involved at all (probably not) or ( SPOILERS )
And the casting with Robert Downey Jr. and Gweneth Paltrow was good, neither of them have annoying quirks that detract from the movie. I am extremely enthused with the plot. It was fun, like a superhero movie should be, with some predictable jokes, but nothing too campy. (Same thing like the Batman thing; Superman is just too far out there for me to really appreciate it, I think. Oooooor they just need to get a good enough plot line.) ALSO, NO SERIOUS ROMANTIC SUBPLOT. Dear writers, I cannot thank you enough. If I have to see one more movie where they detracted from the story to add in a romance, I think I would kill myself. This was PERFECT just with the hint that it might come in a sequel or whatever and them flirting. SO much more realistic (omg people flirt and don't fall right in love?! what?! it can't be) that it just totally meshed. ( SPOILER )
Lol so yes I'm going to be buying this one on dvd. Kind of like Batman did, you just walk out of the theatre going "BADASS! fuck yeah" which is always a great feeling.
AND CAN YOU SAY NEW INDIANA JONES TRAILER? SEVENTEEN DAYS FOLKS and yes I missed yesterday. =/ I got distracted watching a heist movie. (Entrapment, pretty good. Definitely entertaining enough, though I'm not sure what the purpose of the whole-laser dance thing was, and it was just a tad predictable, though not in any bad way. I am just really in the mood for a movie that catches me up so I'm not thinking about what's going to happen next or something that totally throws me for a loop, like The Prestige did, especially like Prestige did. I called part of it and it STILL had a plot twist. YES.) Anyway, YAY NEW TRAILER! I'm sure you can find it with Google. As soon as it came on I was just like "ark music what?" and they actually show they crystal skull in the trailer (along with lots of other things, hm) which makes me wonder what exactly is going to happen. Still hoping it's not aliens, buuut we'll see I guess. And even if it is, like I said before, I'm still going to love it. Just sitting there watching the trailer I was smirking like crazy and trying not to jump up and scream "YESSS!" or do a dance or anything. Pure excitement. I love it. I love it I love it I love it and now I definitely can't wait to go home oh my god.
Hm, I guess I owe you for yesterday, too. Okay, another Temple scene that was cut. There was supposed to be a scene where a guard got hit by some lava from the caves and it broke him from the Black Sleep of Kali, and Short Round sees it, which would make the scene toward the end where he wakes up Indy come less out of nowhere. I never had a problem understanding it (I just presumed that fire woke you up, I mean really that's all there was to it) but it really would have made more sense to leave it in, especially since it was a shorter movie. Meh, whatevs.
Oh! Another thing about Iron Man. ( SPOILER )
Ha, so, I think that's mostly everything. It really was a great day, and tomorrow I have lots of fun plans, too. =) I really need to get those history take-home tests done, but... eh, it'll happen, no worries.
Oh hey, is anyone out there comic book fans? I've never been a comic book person, though with the influx of superhero movies I've really enjoyed them mostly (blech sans Spiderman) and in the middle of thinking "oh yay for a plotline with a non-totally-dependent female and no unnecessary romance" it hit me, are there really any badass women superheros out there? (Superheroes? Dammit I hate pluralizing that word, it never looks right.) I mean, there's obviously whatsherface from Fantastic Four but honestly that movie wasn't any good, and there's always Wonder Woman but let's be honest she's flying around in a corsetish thing and underwear. That's not really badass and she's some moon princess or something which is obviously not my kind of superhero as I've already covered. I guess there's sort of Storm and Jean Grey from X-Men, but, eh... not really. They don't really scream "badass" to me. =/ (Lol, Batman? Definitely.) And let's be honest, I think Wolverine has pretty much been the most well-known character from that series anyway (and not just the movies). Most all the other ones I can think of are sidekicks in a fashion, but I know that's because I don't know very many female superheros. Ultraviolet? Elektra? I don't know anything about those. From the ads they looked like they were sort of antiheroes in that revenge sense, but I mean I could be completely wrong. (Also, I don't think the movies were a terribly big hit.)
Okay, Catwoman comes to mind as a badass, but she's not exactly a hero. I dunno what to call her anti-hero? She's not really a bad guy, so she's kind of a badass with all the crap she does to tease Batman and whatever, but she's not a superhero either. Plus, let's be honest, the movie was not by any means great, and I'm like the one person who walked out of the theatre who enjoyed it. (YES I LIKE CATS A LOT OKAY lol)
So. For anyone out there with a bit (so pretty much any) more experience in comics than I, are there any badass female superheros out there? My drawing hand is itching.
perhaps I have been reading too much feminist stuff lately, I'm not usually one to jump to arms about something like that, especially since it was not an offensive trigger or anything
Maybe just not marching corps this year really has me missing all the BAness... =P
I also forgot to mention yesterday that I keep looking at that photo and laughing because it makes me think of the line "the corn is as high as an elephant's eye" from Oklahoma! and so I am just picturing Indy and Shorty singing Oh What a Beautiful Morning and it is hilarious.
We went blacklight puttputting tonight, and it was HILARIOUS. Somehow I managed to get four hole-in-ones! I haven't played a game that well in a freaking long time. And then I came back and watched The Little Mermaid which was a ton of fun.
Oh, man, this makes me so sad; there's a disease spreading throughout bat colonies in the Northeast that has a 95% mortality rate. D= I have a soft spot for bats, so I am really hoping they find out what the problem is and they figure out a solution. Bats are so adorable! Anyway, here is the article and the website: http://www.batcon.org/news/news_item.as
Step 1: Put your music player on shuffle.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Strike through the songs when someone guesses both artist and track correctly.
Step 4: For those who are guessing -- looking the lyrics up on a search engine is CHEATING!
1.
2.
3. It's a beautiful day for the race, Stoogehand is the favorite today
4.
5. I wasn't jealous just before we met
6.
7.
8. get down on it
9. well I went for a drive in my pickup truck
10. well I was bored to death at South Beach
11. and now the BBC is proud to present a brand new radio drama series
12.
13.
14. I'ini ka na'au
15.
16. there's every good reason for letting you go
17.
18. I used to hurry a lot
19. I'm a piece of work, I'm iron and lace
20. I have a single dream same time every night
21. when I'm with you it doesn't matter where we are
22. someone stole the kishka
23. do you remember
Man... that was too easy. I skipped all the Christmas tunes, but I still ended up with so many songs that give it away in the first line. Eh. Still fun to see if anyone gets a few. =D
So Sunday was an amazing day. I had so much fun. I didn't get much sleep the night before because packing took a little bit longer than I expected but printing out my confirmation papers took WAY too long (installing printer drivers sucks, Windows Vista sucks more).
Soooo Sunday rolls around and I wake up at 4:00 so I can get to the airport on time to catch my flight. (My flight was super-early because the tour I was taking started at seven.) So I am tired because I didn't get much sleep and it's early, and I just grab a Nutrigrain Bar for breakfast. (Also, I have no idea when this happened, but I like poptarts and nutrigrain bars now. Maybe because last summer you're always just in the mood for sugar and salt no matter what, and I started getting those poptarts they had? I dunno.) Anyway so I try to sleep in the terminal but geez it was freakin cold in there! So finally the plane loads and we take off. You couldn't see much on my side of the plane but you could see Molokai as we came into Maui.
So I hop off the plane and it is just gorgeous outside. =D I managed to get there with only one bag, my backpack as a carryon, though it was kind of stuffed. They said it would be about an hour until the tour bus came to pick me up, so I just sit where they told me, waiting. I finally noticed there was an open Starbucks so I get a milk and a chocolate chip scone ($6!). The scone wasn't that good, it was really sweet. =/
Anyway the bus finally comes and I hop on and get situated, and the tour guide is really friendly. He has us introduce eachother and he introduces himself and he drives over to a gas station so we can all use the restroom and grab snacks before we get started. I made sure to grab a Mountain Dew because I knew I was going to get really tired. So also on the tour was a couple of ladies from Australia who were headed to Maui for a wedding (the tour guide kept saying he loved their accent), a newly engaged couple (from Montreal, though the guy was Italian; he was interesting, I couldn't tell if he was bossy or nice enough sometimes), an older couple from New Jersey (adorable), and a guy from France studying Japan. So the tour guide is just having a ball telling us that he does this every free day he has (he works 12-hour weekdays, and this is his fun) because he loves it so much, seeing the island, and passing on what little knowledge of his culture he knows. He sang a traditional chant and gave us all flowers (right side if you're single, left if you're married, like a wedding ring) and told us about growing up on Oahu and getting transferred to Molokai and growing up there and eventually moving to Maui. It was really cool to hear about all the stuff he did. I guess he was the first guy to surf on Molokai! Crazy. Anyway, he was super friendly, and we started our tour up Haleakala (house of the sun). On the way up we stopped at a Protea garden, which was really beautiful. Proteas can last something like up to three months in a vase with water and then if you let them dry they pretty much last forever. They were really gorgeous. So we got back on the road and something broke in the van that caused us to lose power and have a popping noise, so we pulled over and waited for another tour bus to come by from the company. We ended up hitching a ride on a bigger bus, which made me a little more nervous driving up to the summit. (While we were waiting we were in this forest that was absolutely amazing. Cool and smelled like eucalyptus or lavender or something.)
The road up Haleakala is sharp and winding and it is popular for tourists to ride down it on mountain bikes, so you always have to be watching out for them. Because of it's proximity to the water, it's the fastest climb of that altitude, being only 37 miles (if I recall correctly). It's also the... tallest? mountian in the world? Everest is the highest (IIRC, again) but because it is surrounded by a range its base is also higher, making Haleakala the tallest. Anyway, as you get up to the park, the trees lessen (and we saw one patch of sandalwood, which I thought was completely gone from the islands but I guess some was saved) and there are fewer and fewer plants. When you get up to the first visitor center there are lots of rocks and very few plants and they have some silverswords planted so you know what to look for. Silverswords are like permafrost; they are pretty rare and four ounces of weight in the area around them can kill them. They grow from two to fifty years and in that time only bloom once, then leave behind a skeleton. They are gorgeous though! The blooming season is around October, I think. Anyway at the top of Haleakala there is almost nothing, almost like you'd see if you imagined being on Mars. The dirt is really reddish black and there is pretty much nothing. You can look down into the pit (er, not the right term) of the volcano and see lots of cool things (which at the moment I have totally lost all the names of in my head). There are these smaller pits that are as tall as the Empire State Building (crazy!). Haleakala is an active volcano though it hasn't gone off since the 1790s, so the lava is more like dirt rather than the lava on the Big Island.
So after I took some pics of silverswords and got my National Parks passport stamped, we got a replacement smaller tour bus and drove up to the summit, which was pretty windy. It wasn't too cold, though. (There were a TON of silverswords up there, though.) Then we drove around to a back view of the pit again.
Oh, I almost forgot to say, up at the first station is also Science City, a set of buildings where only scientists can go (hence the name). It has something like 11 of the world's most powerful obseratories, and looked really wicked. =P
So it took us a while to get down but the driver (Thadd) told us more about the island and the history and stuff, like how Nenes (the state bird, sort of like a Canada goose) live on land and walk on the rocks and stuff (and lava rock is sharp/rough, let me tell you), but have webbed feet.
By then we are a little late for lunch (like noon/one maybe? and I haven't eaten since four) and I am falling asleep because the drive from the summit to lunch is a good hour plus. So I don't remember much after getting down the mountain.
Anyway, we pull into this shopping center with a food court, sort of a "world food" court. Thadd suggests a place that has the best "soup saiman" (sp?) (like ramen soup) that he has ever had, and since BBQ (Hawaiian bbq, let me tell you COMPLETELY different than Southern bbq which I am craving hard core [besdies bbq you know what I have been craving for months? Bread. And cheese. AND STRAWBERRIES HOLY CRAAAAAAP. {and El Toro salsa mmmm...}]right now) is something I can get on campus, I go for the soup saiman. DELICIOUS. It had shrimp, crab, pork/chicken/beef (something brown and pink, yes bright pink, I think it has to do with Vietnamese spices or pickeling or something) and possibly kalamari. The (supposedly) kalamari was done just right, not rubbery at all. And lots of veggies and the noodles were DELICIOUS. So now I have to find the restaurant "Ba Le" locally. It had all Vietnamese food even though it's labeled as a "French Bakery" and had SERIOUSLY GOOD BREAD. (They really did have a good bakery.) I had another huge thing of Mountain Dew, too.
So after that we head off to see Iao Valley and Iao Needle (the PC name... I'll leave you to look it up), which, let me tell you, Iao Valley is CRAZY gorgeous. It's walls are just so steep that you feel kind of trapped, but it's really cool. It becomes very obvious that Kamehameha's battle here that clogged the river with bodies so much it turned red is accurate. I really recommend it and I wish we'd had just a little more time there to explore and stuff (and I would love to go back and see if there is hiking there), but the Austrailian ladies had to get to another place and the rest of us were on our way somewhere else. Funnily enough, I didn't know we were still headed around to another coast, and I thought our tour was over. So I was very excited as we drove South and got to see Molokini and whales (TONS of whales surfacing and breaching even though whale season was like back in January!) and the gorgeous Southern shores. (Luckily earlier we had hit Haleakala with clear weather, but the clouds were rolling in as we left. Plus the tradewinds had been gone for the past few days and they'd been having vog problems, but I think they slowly came back over Sunday/Monday. It was still sort of sunny in Iao Valley but as we drove South it got sunnier.) So eventually we arrive in Lahaina and we have an hour to explore by ourselves. It is kind of like what Yellow Springs would be if they had the street festival every other weekend for tourists and it was on the ocean. There is a dock full of small tour bots (fishing, diving, everything) RIGHT THERE next to an old fort, in front of which is planted a GIGANTIC banyan tree. (Not the usual type of banyan you see here? I dunno, it's branches leaned out more than up.) All the art vendors were set up underneath it, and though they do this every other weekend it was a special weekend, celebrating the birthday of the tree. The tree was planted April 23rd back in the 1860s, I think. Very cool. So after checking out those artists and getting some gifts for people, I wandered around to the smaller stores around that central plaza seeing if I could find things for other people.
I walked into this little store selling jewelry on one side and world trade art stuff on the other (swords, blowguns, masks, jewelry, that sort of thing), and the lady noticed my shirt (QC Dashing Hat shirt) and said "oh only just a few more weeks!" and we got into this whole discussion of Crystal Skull and the crystal skulls and world travels and being Indy fans and she used to work at a resort as Indiana Joanna and it was awesome. So I got a picture with her and we exchanged addresses and it was tons of fun! That was the part that totally just made my day completely.
After that we headed back to the airport to drop off everyone left but me, and then to the Maui Seaside where I was staying.
Okay and now I just want to tell you a little more about Thadd the driver, because he made the tour, too. He is a total Hawaiian and when we first got in and he had us introduce ourselves he explained that he wanted us to be like a family for the day and that in order to get us more interested he would ask questions and give points and at the end of the day the winner would get a box of macnut chocolates. He was just so excited to be sharing his life with us, I really loved it. So at lunch we were talking and I was saying I was just traveling by myself, and he offered to let me sleep on his couch! It was so nice for him to offer even though UD was paying for my hotel and stuff. After that he offered to check up on me when I checked in and everything to make sure I found a good place to eat and offered to have his son drive the next day so I could get to a beach which was all really nice. I guess it sort of comes off as creepy or something explained like this, but he was just, I dunno, straight up Hawaiian. Maybe it just clicked because that is the sort of person I've always tried to be, I dunno. So I am calling him my Maui uncle (he's in my phone that way) and he said if we ever come back to Maui to call him up. And I said if he comes to Ohio he is more than welcome to couch surf there, too. =D
So, just between the beauty of the tour and my Maui uncle and Indiana Joanna, I really did have the best day ever. Though I crashed a little and I think maybe only the Mountain Dews and excitement kept me going, and hunting down souvenirs was a little frustrating and later after I eat dinner I will post about Monday and stuff (which is a whole different story).
But anyway, I love Maui.
Now I just have lots of papers to write, uke performance, shipping out all my stuff...
Real post will most likely come Wednesday, unless I miraculously manage to get my papers written tomorrow.
peace out
DAY
EVER
I will post more if I have the time but right now I am on limited time. =D
I CANNOT TAKE THIS ANYMORE. IF YOU MAKE PLANS, FUCKING KEEP THEM.
I hate everybody today
Mm, last night I watched Terminator (for the first time) and Enchanted (interesting combination, I know). It took me all the way through Enchanted to realize it, but you know exactly what Terminator reminds me of? The evil dog from the original Wallace & Gromit shorts. Lol. I love those shorts. I have been really tempted to dress up as the "Have you seen this chicken?" for Halloween. Acually I really need to get my act together and just pick something for Halloween this year to work on. It's FINALLY on a weekend, so I want to do something good. Problem is, a lot of the cool stuff would require lots of time and money that I don't have, so I'm leaning heavily toward pirate again. I haven't used my pirate costume for Halloween yet, so it's all good. Huh, or I could do flapper, but that's kind of lame for me for a Halloween costume. On the list is Ghostbusters, but MAN, the props for that are $$$. Anyway. It's April.
MAN, today is another best day ever, even though the evening kind of sucked. That's how good it's been. I sent a text-post this morning, but it didn't come through for some reason.
ANYWAY. It started out normally, well, mostly, just going to ceramics. There was a pot sale today, so it was cool to see all the other stuff that was there. After that Takeda's class was cancelled, so we went straight to Hawaiian history, and I geeked out that Bailey had an Indy diet Dr. Pepper can. Class got cancelled, no big deal, though I couldn't go to lunch yet and I didn't really have anywhere to go because it was close to the library opening time. Well I just happened to check my phone and MY HAT CAME!!!!!!! So I decided to walk down to 7-11 and check if they had the latest copy of Entertainment Weekly (which they didn't), and get a Mountain Dew to celebrate. I called my mom and it's definitely my hat and not something else, so YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. I was completely surprised because I was told back when I ordered it would probably be three months, so I thought maybe I'd get it in time for Indy IV, but then for some reason the receipt from paypal didn't come for about three more weeks, so I had pretty much given up on getting it on time and I had already resigned myself to wearing my DP. So for about two hours today you couldn't get the stupid look off my face, I was just grinning like an idiot. =D
And after that was the opening ceremonies for the new library. They managed to get all the landscaping done, which looks AMAZing, though I don't think they finished some things like the elevator. Anyway, it was pretty cool. Everyone was going around with their leis and all the profs had to wear their fancy caps and gowns, it was just so nice. And they had a brass quintet, which, uh, was a little out of place, and all the profs entered to Pomp and Circumstance, which just sounded empty, and then they added this little jazzy-poppy comPLETEly out of place section, and... yeah. It was just kind of bad. BUT ANYWAY! There were some speeches, none too bad, and then the dancing! Irish dancing (lol) because one of the funders was all the way from Ireland. So that was pretty cool. The Samoan Club and Hawaiian Club also performed, which were both really cool. =D I LOVE Samoan traditional song and dance. It's gorgeous.
It's also really interesting, initially when they were taking all of us exchange students around the first few days getting us acquainted, they said just to take into mind that Chaminade has a much more diverse student body and a much more accepting environment, that there were a lot of evening and older students, and that Hawaii had a stronger gay culture and stuff. I didn't really notice it at all (but then again I guess I have never been prone to noticing that kind of thing) until I saw the Samoan Club perform. I guess, especially in Samoa, and the older Hawaii culture and stuff, people just were as they were so it doesn't bother anyone to be gay or bi or anything. At least that's the impression I get from my history classes, where we learned that Hawaiians used to be pretty promiscuous, but, in that everyone generally had several/many different partners and of both genders, and no big deal. ANYWAY, back the point. Because Samoa never had a culture that brought in outsiders (no "trade value") they still speak mainly Samoan and everything, I mean their societ is still largely intact, but anyway there are these two guys in Samoan Club who I guess are transvestites? I mean, I'm not sure on the definition but they just cross-dress and act very feminine all the time. They are wonderful guys though. =)
BUT! The best part of all the presentations was the last one, a Chinese Lion dance! They had four guys as two dragons, one blue and silver/white for Chaminade and one green and orange (and some other accents, like yellow/red/white) for Ireland, and it was just SO COOL! It struck me that I've never actually seen one before, And they did these really cool dances up to the front, where Mrs. Sullivan was standing with a money envelope (which is good luck in China, if I recall correctly) on a fishing line sort of thing. I couldn't tell what was going on because the seating was terrible, but you could still see the dragons sancing because they did this cool jumping sort of dance with the head part. (Unfortunately my camera ran out of video space, so I don't have anything.) But on the way out people were giving them money which they "ate". I don't know if it was good luck or tradition or how you tip them that grew out of tradition or what, but it was JUST PLAIN AWESOME.
Carly and I went on a bike ride around Diamond Head, later, which was gorgeous. There was a combination of factors that killed me though; I'm not in shape, the vog was pretty heavy, it was hot, I couldn't shift and was stuck in the smallest gear (and couldn't get any momentum), the brakes suck, and something was wrong with the pedals, me not drinking enough lately, the seat was too low so my knees died... so I was just slow as all getout. But it was still such a nice ride. =)
And then after I got back and was getting ready to go to the cookout at Ala Moana beach with Islander Exchange Club, it just LET LOOSE and poured. But only for about ten minutes, and then it totally cleared up and we were on our way by then! It was a nice cookout, but the sunset totally sucked (clouds or vog or I dunno, but you couln't see it), and we stayed out a bit too long on the beach so my legs are kinda crampy. But it was still nice, I mean, waterside Hawaii right?! So it was a good day.
Hmm, I just realized that "Duke's On Sunday" by Jimmy Buffett is about HERE. (Duke's... southside...on the beach at Waikiki. nurr) Good ending for the evening though. =)
26 days!
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
omg my hat came
- Music:Duke's On Sunday by Jimmy Buffett
TWENTY-SEVEN DAYS! Man, I am just so. incredibly. excited. =D Though I did have a bad dream last night that my family all went to the premiere at some weird theatre (after shopping with Laura and Savannah at the dollar store for candy and drinks, and seeing the new Entertainment issue, except it wasn't...all I remember is the cover was badly done with no logo and had Usher as the Joker?! but regardless). ANYWAY. So we went to the midnight premiere and they showed this scene that was about ten minutes long that was pretty much the boat scene from LC. (Except in the dream everyone was saying it was 30 minutes long.) At first people were ticked off because they thought that was supposed to be the movie, but eventually we somehow decided it was an extra thing they added on, and there was going to be a ten minute "intermission" before the movie started. So I decided to go out to the lobby to get a Mountain Dew (by the way, the running time is going to be over two hours, which, YAY! but also, I'm going to have to pee SO BAD when it's over, just like pirates), and I couldn't even get out to the lobby because there was such a big group of people trying to get out. So I gave up and decided not to get anything, but then somehow it ended up that I did get a Mountain Dew and missed the whole movie. D= I woke up like "OH NO! I would want to kill myself if that happened" so yeah. Bad dreams.
ANYWAY so like I said. Gotta make up for the past three days. So here's the deal; I'm cutting myself off from spoilers as of today. I realized that, even though I wouldn't consider the things in regular news sources spoilers, that I have already guessed large parts of the movie, and I don't want to a) be able to guess more or b) have something major ruined. I was thinking about it, and I went into all the earlier ones not knowing anything, and loved them. I mean, I hadn't even seen the trailers and based on what I remember my parents telling me about Raiders, which I probably incorrectly remember because it's SO WRONG, I really did watch it knowing basically nothing, and loved it. SO. Nothing more for me. Which means I will probably have to get very creative to come up with stuff for the rest of these 27 (!!!!!) days.
So, for today and the last two, three deleted scenes from Last Crusade:
--When Indy socks the butler at the castle, the butler's line was originally "If you are a Scottish lord, then I am Jesse Owens!" but it got changed to "Mickey Mouse" because Lucas and Spielberg didn't think anyone would get it. But that was obviously changed after filming.
--There was supposed to be more to the dogchase scene, with a WWI vet drunkenly going after them, with Pat Roach in assistance. (The only part left with Roach is him following Vogel as they run up to get on the zeppelin.)
--There was supposed to be more cat-and-mouse being played while Indy and Henry are trying to get out of Germany. Initially they were supposed to be buying tickets and have every line guarded except the zeppelin line, but they cut that part and explained it with "the earliest way out".
So yay cut scenes. =) I think so far I've only hit the submarine ride and the whip fight from Raiders in terms of cut scenes, yeah? Leaves me some good ones from Temple (which honestly they should have left in).
I also realized that I go through music phases that I think have turned out to be soundtracks, and rock. Right now I am in major soundtrack mood, but in a few weeks I'll probably be back around to rock mode. (Today I have listened to Pirates and Indiana Jones... I am in major pirate mode today, and I love it.)
- Music:the Raiders March
Meh. I got excited because this morning I thought today was towel day, and I was sad I didn't have a towel. But it's apparently not until May 25th? But that doesn't sound right because I know towel day my junior year wasn't the last week of school, at least I'm pretty darn sure it wasn't. I think it was regular class, not exams.
Anyway, it also made me miss Southwind because of, one, the towel, and also people are posting on facebook where they're going to be marching... =/ But I had a great idea for a shirt! I don't think they could ever sell it, but I think because of our brass bus joke last year I'm going to have to make a shirt that says "SOUTH WIND" in the Star Wars font. I mean SW right? (Yeah, that's what I get for watching Star Wars, I guess... lol Imperial March) =D
Anyway. So Ep. I/II... not as bad as I remembered. In that, I didn't remember anything, just that they were bad. And honestly, the plot of the first one kind of sucks. The second one, not so bad. The third, the writing sucks. But I will say that they all have damn fine costumes and sets. I watched Ep. II tonight, and just the one scene where Obi Wan and Anakin are standing watch outside Amidala's room, and it's not even heavily decorated or in any way an entirely spectacular scene. But I looked at it and I thought, geez, right there on that tiny set, with two people, is $600-$1000 worth of boots. That's two pairs of boots. Guh. Which led me to think about the discussion I was reading yesterday of Trek vs. Wars, in that the SW universe is inherent