I walked around the usual neighborhoods last night in a very different route then normal - I walked them backwards. Why? Because I wanted to get things from a different perspective, to see the somewhat familiar in a new light. I did it while listening to a new band that I am surprised to find out that I like - Russian Circles. They were an Amazon suggestion and it worked out rather well.
I continue to hear high remarks for me at my job, and actually am going to be determining my employment with them next Monday. It is more of a formal thing were I official finish my training and they can't go and fire me for no reason now. It is welcoming, but not as welcoming of a feeling I get from my co-workers. They have praised me and helped to support me through all the training. I'm going to have to do something for them like make Mountain Dew and Doritos cupcakes.
I realized I haven't made them in a long time. I think the last time was right before I moved as part of my farewell shift at the steakhouse and Gaggle.
Some of my Ebay auctions ended tonight, with some of the auctions going for a little less than what I expected. I'm chalking it up to not having a lot of regular auctions going on and a lot of people not confident in what I am selling. Soon I'll be back to where I was a few months ago when I took a break from all the selling.
This weekend I get to see my friend's band play their first show, I'm planning on going for a long walk before then, I hope to make some more homemade pizza and continue perfecting my pizza dough recipe, and somehow find time to relax during all of it.
Like George Carlin once joked about how TGI Fridays should change their name - HSIOW - Holy Shit Its Only Wednesday. This week has been interesting so far. I'm strangely still finding time to do everything I want, and even have it worked out to find somethings to do that I didn't plan on doing.
My To Read pile of books are slowly going down. There are 5 graphic novels by my bedside waiting to be read, with another 7-8 on top of the dresser. I've gone through 1.5 so far this week, with the .5 being one that I had to toss to the side simply because it sucked. It did remind me of something that I heard Penn say on his podcast recently. It boils down to the idea that he will sometimes go to shows and find himself taking notes not on what he likes, but about how he could do it differently and make it better. It if is good art, you get lost in it. If it is bad art, the artist side of you takes over and wants so desperately to change it. That book, a really bad Iron Man one shot, really brought that out in me. I have some notes that are going to take form and create something far better. I have half of a mind to keep it around, simply because it would make me rage into a creative fit. Sometimes that is exactly what you need.
My roommate and his boyfriend are watching RuPaul while I type this out. I can still hear it over the clicks of the keyboard and the music I have playing besides me. I don't mind, but I kinda am wanting to check it out. That may be impossible without ruining their alone time, so in the bedroom I will stay. It is OK, I have some books and writing to do.
It is weird to plan for a weekend. I'm so used to literally working 6-7 days a week that having two days off still feels like a mini-vacation/weird. I've picked up the habit of trying brunch and day drinking on Sundays, which actually helps to eliminate the Sunday feeling of dread. Actually, I don't think I've encountered that feeling since really being here in Texas. Maybe it was in part due to boredom and the idea that I'm going through a week with nothing interesting happening during the week to speed it up until the weekend. That isn't the case here in Austin, where you are only bored if you choose to be.
From the back of my head to the tips of my fingers. These are words of a life being lived.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Space Cowboy
Sleep? Who needs that.
I've always been at odds with sleep. For my sister, she needs about 8-9 hours a night. My brother has to be in bed by a certain time each night for him to get his beauty rest. I say fuck sleep when there is a party going on.
It isn't often that I close the bar down on a Monday night these days. Who can blame me, I was having a good time. I wasn't stumbly home drunk or anything, I was just relaxing and meeting someone.
But my mind is tired, so it is the best time to write something. Let the sleep deprived neurons in my head fire off in ways they don't usually go. Let me break down the wall I put up for myself that takes years off my life.
I've been listening to a lot of Penn's Sunday School and Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Listening to both makes me feel smart by association, or at least makes me think to see the world a little differently. I used to always listen to them on the regular back in BloNo, but I've been busy getting to listen to the random music of my iPod that they took a backseat. I finally dug my old laptop out of storage and downloaded a bunch of episodes of each.
With Penn's Sunday School, it is interesting to hear people who think like me talk and explore ideas. I don't always agree with what Penn says, but you can see the trail of where he was thinking to how he got to where he currently things. Some of it sticks in my head and influences me, the rest just goes to the back in storage.
With Star Talk I get to hear more about science and the mysteries of the universe. The universe makes me feel so big, strangely. We might be so small, and we might be a blink in the eye of intelligence on earth, but at least it is our time.
I look to the night sky at times thinking about the ocean of void that I'm looking in to. Looking at the moon and knowing if I was standing on the surface then I would be dead. Our bodies are only fit to survive in certain conditions on earth, but I would rather explore and go out to those areas that are unknown. Let me discover something spectacular that only I've seen and can describe.
I write to reflect what I've seen and experienced in the world, both the good and the bad. All of it is something that will be gone one day, while the sun keeps burning until it explodes. There is here and now, so it is time to start enjoying it.
I've always been at odds with sleep. For my sister, she needs about 8-9 hours a night. My brother has to be in bed by a certain time each night for him to get his beauty rest. I say fuck sleep when there is a party going on.
It isn't often that I close the bar down on a Monday night these days. Who can blame me, I was having a good time. I wasn't stumbly home drunk or anything, I was just relaxing and meeting someone.
But my mind is tired, so it is the best time to write something. Let the sleep deprived neurons in my head fire off in ways they don't usually go. Let me break down the wall I put up for myself that takes years off my life.
I've been listening to a lot of Penn's Sunday School and Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Listening to both makes me feel smart by association, or at least makes me think to see the world a little differently. I used to always listen to them on the regular back in BloNo, but I've been busy getting to listen to the random music of my iPod that they took a backseat. I finally dug my old laptop out of storage and downloaded a bunch of episodes of each.
With Penn's Sunday School, it is interesting to hear people who think like me talk and explore ideas. I don't always agree with what Penn says, but you can see the trail of where he was thinking to how he got to where he currently things. Some of it sticks in my head and influences me, the rest just goes to the back in storage.
With Star Talk I get to hear more about science and the mysteries of the universe. The universe makes me feel so big, strangely. We might be so small, and we might be a blink in the eye of intelligence on earth, but at least it is our time.
I look to the night sky at times thinking about the ocean of void that I'm looking in to. Looking at the moon and knowing if I was standing on the surface then I would be dead. Our bodies are only fit to survive in certain conditions on earth, but I would rather explore and go out to those areas that are unknown. Let me discover something spectacular that only I've seen and can describe.
I write to reflect what I've seen and experienced in the world, both the good and the bad. All of it is something that will be gone one day, while the sun keeps burning until it explodes. There is here and now, so it is time to start enjoying it.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Me and Comics: The Origin Story
I'm reading an old Robin comic where Tim Drake becomes Robin. It is funny, because I remember my mom showing me a newspaper article where it was announced that a new Robin was being introduced in the comics. My mom continues to send me newspaper and magazine articles about the stuff I am interested in to this day.
A few years back, another new Robin was introduced when Stephanie Brown became Robin for a short time in the Robin comics. I remember reading those as well.
And a couple of years later, a new Robin was introduced as Batman's son, Damian. So, all things counted up, I've lived through 3 Robins in my life. Actually, four if you count Jason Todd's time, which wasn't too long before I started reading the Batman comics on the regular.
My early memories of comics come from my uncle giving my family two long boxes of comics. I'm not sure what prompted the giving, but I got in to them big time. There were Uncanny X-men comics, some Batman comics including Dark Knight Returns issue #3, Wally West Flash books, and Akira comics. I still have a small amount of those comics still in my possession. I'm not sure 100% about what happened to the rest, but I did keep the X-men books since I was big in to them at the time.
Funny, I always wondered if I would ever find out what happens to Batman after issue #3 of the Dark Knight Returns series. It wouldn't be long before I had the trade, and can now even watch the animated movie that was adapted from the book.
I remember walking to a card shop called Holy Cow in Fairview Heights. It was in a shopping center that was next to a laundromat that and a book store called Polly's Paperback Exchange. In that laundromat, I remember playing on some old school arcade machines. I also remember a guy and a woman having a conversation about the hole the guy had in his neck. It apparently came from smoking, and they joked about putting things down the hole. It was long enough ago and they were old enough that I can assume that they are now dead, which is a weird feeling in and of itself. There are random people who are burned in to my memory as a child that are now dead. So weird.
At the card shop that acted as a comic shop as well, they had baseball cards in the front of the store. I would go there to get ball cards, and remember buying a lot of Archie cards as well when I was in to that series. In the back room, almost like a closet, were the comics. I remember seeing X-men comics that would be worth a fortune back there. They were high on the wall towards the ceiling. There was a TV in the corner, I think, that was never on. It was as if comics were a half thought from the people running the shop. I visited the shop years later and it wasn't there anymore. I imagine that the business probably closed after the baseball card market and comic book market collapsed in the 90s.
There was a comic shop that I visited in Belleville that was a small walk up the road from where we lived. Fantasy Books. It was there that I saw Magic cards for the first time, and got to witness the beginning of the 2099 books from Marvel. Batman was going through Knightfall, and a new Transformers comic was coming out with a gatefold cover. I read the book at the local Walgreens that had a comic rack next to the magazines. I would walk there to get some things for my mom and then would read the comics for a while.
I remember having an allowance or earning some money and would start to buy my own comics each month. I'm not sure where the funds came from, but to the comic shop is where it would be spent.
Fast forward to moving to BloNo, and there were two comic shops across the street from each other that I would visit. Acme Comics was the first place, and Metropolis comics was the second. I made Metropolis my regular shop until I went to college and the guy at Acme, Jim, convinced me to just go to his shop. I would visit the two anyway, and it was my big decision that I switch comic shops without telling the other one. I found out years later that I had a huge stack of comics waiting for me at the other one until they gave up and just shelved them knowing I wouldn't go back.
Acme was my comic shop for years. When I moved to Chicago for a short time, I stopped collecting comics because I didn't have the funds to buy them. It was almost a year before I had the job and funds to start collecting again. I went back to Acme, and it was my shop for a while longer.
I haven't bought a single issue of a comic since I moved here to Austin. Acme was my store, and it needed my help to survive as a small business. I wouldn't trade my time going in to that shop for anything. It was...wonderful. But as I got older, my need for comics in a monthly kind of style drifted away. I miss Acme, and I miss going in to the shop every Wednesday on my lunch break to collect the week's new books. That was the habit for a different me. The me now is busy trying to sell all his books on Ebay. The comic experience for me now comes in the ability to buy collections at a time that can be put on a bookshelf. the idea of lugging around long boxes everywhere just doesn't fill me with excitement anymore. I do have a small stack of comics that I am saving for myself to have, but it is a short box holding about 100 books. Some of those books are the same X-men comics from years ago that my uncle gave to me.
I'm down to four long boxes left, out of the 10 or 11 I moved down here with. The books left in the long boxes include Batman, Detective Comics, and a complete run of Wally West Flash books. These are the books I held on to until the end because they mean the most to me. My two big superheroes are the Flash and Batman, and that comes from the comics my uncle gave me all those years ago. I started collecting them after I started college and scoured the discount bins for many of the issues. I didn't even complete the Flash comics until a year or two ago. There was something about the hunt for them that was entertaining, and re-reading the Flash books about 3 years ago with the few issues missing was something I enjoyed immensely.
I could get digital copies of just about all the comics I have left to sell for something around $2 an issue. If I win the lottery, that is what I plan on doing. For now, I'm selling them to be able to have some cash saved for whatever happens next in Austin. I've enjoyed the books and the hunts for the books so much. Some day I'll have a giant library, and I'll have all the comics on bookshelves that go from floor to ceiling. That are all organized in a way that makes sense to me. But for now it is time for someone else to enjoy them. It is time to pass them along so that someone else can get the same joy that I had from them as a kid, and that joy continues long in to their adulthood.
A few years back, another new Robin was introduced when Stephanie Brown became Robin for a short time in the Robin comics. I remember reading those as well.
And a couple of years later, a new Robin was introduced as Batman's son, Damian. So, all things counted up, I've lived through 3 Robins in my life. Actually, four if you count Jason Todd's time, which wasn't too long before I started reading the Batman comics on the regular.
My early memories of comics come from my uncle giving my family two long boxes of comics. I'm not sure what prompted the giving, but I got in to them big time. There were Uncanny X-men comics, some Batman comics including Dark Knight Returns issue #3, Wally West Flash books, and Akira comics. I still have a small amount of those comics still in my possession. I'm not sure 100% about what happened to the rest, but I did keep the X-men books since I was big in to them at the time.
Funny, I always wondered if I would ever find out what happens to Batman after issue #3 of the Dark Knight Returns series. It wouldn't be long before I had the trade, and can now even watch the animated movie that was adapted from the book.
I remember walking to a card shop called Holy Cow in Fairview Heights. It was in a shopping center that was next to a laundromat that and a book store called Polly's Paperback Exchange. In that laundromat, I remember playing on some old school arcade machines. I also remember a guy and a woman having a conversation about the hole the guy had in his neck. It apparently came from smoking, and they joked about putting things down the hole. It was long enough ago and they were old enough that I can assume that they are now dead, which is a weird feeling in and of itself. There are random people who are burned in to my memory as a child that are now dead. So weird.
At the card shop that acted as a comic shop as well, they had baseball cards in the front of the store. I would go there to get ball cards, and remember buying a lot of Archie cards as well when I was in to that series. In the back room, almost like a closet, were the comics. I remember seeing X-men comics that would be worth a fortune back there. They were high on the wall towards the ceiling. There was a TV in the corner, I think, that was never on. It was as if comics were a half thought from the people running the shop. I visited the shop years later and it wasn't there anymore. I imagine that the business probably closed after the baseball card market and comic book market collapsed in the 90s.
There was a comic shop that I visited in Belleville that was a small walk up the road from where we lived. Fantasy Books. It was there that I saw Magic cards for the first time, and got to witness the beginning of the 2099 books from Marvel. Batman was going through Knightfall, and a new Transformers comic was coming out with a gatefold cover. I read the book at the local Walgreens that had a comic rack next to the magazines. I would walk there to get some things for my mom and then would read the comics for a while.
I remember having an allowance or earning some money and would start to buy my own comics each month. I'm not sure where the funds came from, but to the comic shop is where it would be spent.
Fast forward to moving to BloNo, and there were two comic shops across the street from each other that I would visit. Acme Comics was the first place, and Metropolis comics was the second. I made Metropolis my regular shop until I went to college and the guy at Acme, Jim, convinced me to just go to his shop. I would visit the two anyway, and it was my big decision that I switch comic shops without telling the other one. I found out years later that I had a huge stack of comics waiting for me at the other one until they gave up and just shelved them knowing I wouldn't go back.
Acme was my comic shop for years. When I moved to Chicago for a short time, I stopped collecting comics because I didn't have the funds to buy them. It was almost a year before I had the job and funds to start collecting again. I went back to Acme, and it was my shop for a while longer.
I haven't bought a single issue of a comic since I moved here to Austin. Acme was my store, and it needed my help to survive as a small business. I wouldn't trade my time going in to that shop for anything. It was...wonderful. But as I got older, my need for comics in a monthly kind of style drifted away. I miss Acme, and I miss going in to the shop every Wednesday on my lunch break to collect the week's new books. That was the habit for a different me. The me now is busy trying to sell all his books on Ebay. The comic experience for me now comes in the ability to buy collections at a time that can be put on a bookshelf. the idea of lugging around long boxes everywhere just doesn't fill me with excitement anymore. I do have a small stack of comics that I am saving for myself to have, but it is a short box holding about 100 books. Some of those books are the same X-men comics from years ago that my uncle gave to me.
I'm down to four long boxes left, out of the 10 or 11 I moved down here with. The books left in the long boxes include Batman, Detective Comics, and a complete run of Wally West Flash books. These are the books I held on to until the end because they mean the most to me. My two big superheroes are the Flash and Batman, and that comes from the comics my uncle gave me all those years ago. I started collecting them after I started college and scoured the discount bins for many of the issues. I didn't even complete the Flash comics until a year or two ago. There was something about the hunt for them that was entertaining, and re-reading the Flash books about 3 years ago with the few issues missing was something I enjoyed immensely.
I could get digital copies of just about all the comics I have left to sell for something around $2 an issue. If I win the lottery, that is what I plan on doing. For now, I'm selling them to be able to have some cash saved for whatever happens next in Austin. I've enjoyed the books and the hunts for the books so much. Some day I'll have a giant library, and I'll have all the comics on bookshelves that go from floor to ceiling. That are all organized in a way that makes sense to me. But for now it is time for someone else to enjoy them. It is time to pass them along so that someone else can get the same joy that I had from them as a kid, and that joy continues long in to their adulthood.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Wait, Everyone Didn't Make Out To Antichrist Superstar Years Ago?
I could go ten years without listening to some of the music I have, and some of those albums I could recite every word when it starts playing. The ones that stick out come from my teenage years. A greatest hits album of Styx is one. Right now I'm listening to Marilyn Manson, and Antichrist Superstar is an album that just hits.
The soundtrack for the animated Transformers movie also sticks out. I only need to listen to one song and then the entire album is stuck in my head for the next week. Take, for example, listening to the opening track on Antichrist and now I know it will be there for a week.
I also can do the same for Smashing Pumpkins. Name any Nine Inch Nails and that is a definitive that it will hit. Music has a way to stick in your head. It must hit a couple of the senses, and that's why it works.
Antichrist Superstar and The Downward Spiral were two albums that I remember making out to with my first girlfriend. We were an odd couple, weirdly goth like. Mostly it was the dark clothing. And I had hair down to my shoulders, so we looked like twins at some points. One time I made her wear the same shirt as me because I thought it would be funny.
How did that relationship end? I'm not 100% on the details, but going by my track record it had something to do with me being a dumbass. It wasn't too long after her birthday and I just called it quits. It was weird, because looking back I don't see why I did it. We were happy. There wasn't any one else that I was crushing on. It just...happened.
Fast forward two weeks later and she meets her husband and father of her children. So, it worked out for her just fine. Me however, the next relationship after that was very...weird. Like even for me. But, that one helped me to learn that dating older women just doesn't work for me.
I actually saw her one day not too long before I moved to Austin. She was in the store and looking old. Gray hairs and all. She just didn't look like the youthful person that I had locked in my memories. She looked like her mother, and that was scary a bit. I could literally say that the image I have for her in my mind was half a lifetime ago.
I like to think that if it ever could happen, I could get to see the lives of everyone that I interacted with after I die. I'd be a ghost viewing their life, either in real time or with the fast forward button not too far away. I could see what happened when we were together, or when I was friends with people because I don't want to limit this ability to just ex-girlfriends, and I can just dance around in their time stream. There is just something about being a ghost in that way that isn't haunting the person, it is more a way of seeing the person completely, from their point of view, and understanding them. A shame that it would have to be after I died, but still.
As this album plays on, I keep getting flashes of memories and I'm getting energized. This album really picked things up and rocked to me then as it does now. Everyone has their music, guess mine is just a little strange like everyone else's.
The soundtrack for the animated Transformers movie also sticks out. I only need to listen to one song and then the entire album is stuck in my head for the next week. Take, for example, listening to the opening track on Antichrist and now I know it will be there for a week.
I also can do the same for Smashing Pumpkins. Name any Nine Inch Nails and that is a definitive that it will hit. Music has a way to stick in your head. It must hit a couple of the senses, and that's why it works.
Antichrist Superstar and The Downward Spiral were two albums that I remember making out to with my first girlfriend. We were an odd couple, weirdly goth like. Mostly it was the dark clothing. And I had hair down to my shoulders, so we looked like twins at some points. One time I made her wear the same shirt as me because I thought it would be funny.
How did that relationship end? I'm not 100% on the details, but going by my track record it had something to do with me being a dumbass. It wasn't too long after her birthday and I just called it quits. It was weird, because looking back I don't see why I did it. We were happy. There wasn't any one else that I was crushing on. It just...happened.
Fast forward two weeks later and she meets her husband and father of her children. So, it worked out for her just fine. Me however, the next relationship after that was very...weird. Like even for me. But, that one helped me to learn that dating older women just doesn't work for me.
I actually saw her one day not too long before I moved to Austin. She was in the store and looking old. Gray hairs and all. She just didn't look like the youthful person that I had locked in my memories. She looked like her mother, and that was scary a bit. I could literally say that the image I have for her in my mind was half a lifetime ago.
I like to think that if it ever could happen, I could get to see the lives of everyone that I interacted with after I die. I'd be a ghost viewing their life, either in real time or with the fast forward button not too far away. I could see what happened when we were together, or when I was friends with people because I don't want to limit this ability to just ex-girlfriends, and I can just dance around in their time stream. There is just something about being a ghost in that way that isn't haunting the person, it is more a way of seeing the person completely, from their point of view, and understanding them. A shame that it would have to be after I died, but still.
As this album plays on, I keep getting flashes of memories and I'm getting energized. This album really picked things up and rocked to me then as it does now. Everyone has their music, guess mine is just a little strange like everyone else's.
Friday, May 13, 2016
Childhood Friends and The Dreams We Had
If I reached out to old elementary school friends, would any of them reach back? Probably not, and it would be weird to reach out to them after all.
I didn't grow up in Bloomington during my early years, so if anyone outside of my family knew any of them I would be greatly surprised. If I somehow ran in to them today, that would be a tale to tell.
From Shiloh Elementary where I spent Kindergarten, I remember Tiffany Morris. She was my first crush that I could remember. She was blonde, and liked me back. I remember hanging out with her in class a lot. I had the afternoon class at the school.
My mother helped deliver Avon catalogs and roped us kids in to taking them to people's doors. We went down the end of a cul-de-sac and ran in to her outside of school. It must have been the summer time, because I vaguely recall us talking about being in first grade together. We talked standing across from each other and held both our outstretched hands together. We had to say our good byes and that was the last time I ever saw her since I moved to a different town the next school year.
Jump ship to Fairview Heights. That was a small stretch of time living on Lincoln Highway. The memories.
I went to elementary school from 1st until a few weeks in to the 6th grade at William Holiday. I realize now that was almost 30 years ago. I am old.
Some big friends from that time are countless. I wish I could go through a yearbook and just veg out on trying to see how everyone turned out. But how would I know it really is them?
Fast forward to 6th grade spent at Jefferson Elementary in Belleville Illinois. It was one year there with lots of new friend making. I then moved on to junior high at West for 9 weeks, then the move to Bloomington happened. And yes, starting out in a new junior high is just as much fun as it sounds with the awkward kids and puberty and all that is junior high.
I don't have anyone to reach out to who shares the memories of my time growing up there besides my siblings and my mother. If I ever lose my memory.... Some time I will have to sit and start writing out everything I remember about them and my time growing up there. Those memories that are ingrained in to your being. That you wouldn't be you without them. Who knows how many of them are already lost. Maybe I should play catch up with the siblings to talk it out and see what they remember.
Thirty years have passed. That is freaky to think about.
I didn't grow up in Bloomington during my early years, so if anyone outside of my family knew any of them I would be greatly surprised. If I somehow ran in to them today, that would be a tale to tell.
From Shiloh Elementary where I spent Kindergarten, I remember Tiffany Morris. She was my first crush that I could remember. She was blonde, and liked me back. I remember hanging out with her in class a lot. I had the afternoon class at the school.
My mother helped deliver Avon catalogs and roped us kids in to taking them to people's doors. We went down the end of a cul-de-sac and ran in to her outside of school. It must have been the summer time, because I vaguely recall us talking about being in first grade together. We talked standing across from each other and held both our outstretched hands together. We had to say our good byes and that was the last time I ever saw her since I moved to a different town the next school year.
Jump ship to Fairview Heights. That was a small stretch of time living on Lincoln Highway. The memories.
I went to elementary school from 1st until a few weeks in to the 6th grade at William Holiday. I realize now that was almost 30 years ago. I am old.
Some big friends from that time are countless. I wish I could go through a yearbook and just veg out on trying to see how everyone turned out. But how would I know it really is them?
Fast forward to 6th grade spent at Jefferson Elementary in Belleville Illinois. It was one year there with lots of new friend making. I then moved on to junior high at West for 9 weeks, then the move to Bloomington happened. And yes, starting out in a new junior high is just as much fun as it sounds with the awkward kids and puberty and all that is junior high.
I don't have anyone to reach out to who shares the memories of my time growing up there besides my siblings and my mother. If I ever lose my memory.... Some time I will have to sit and start writing out everything I remember about them and my time growing up there. Those memories that are ingrained in to your being. That you wouldn't be you without them. Who knows how many of them are already lost. Maybe I should play catch up with the siblings to talk it out and see what they remember.
Thirty years have passed. That is freaky to think about.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Getting Ink Done
I'm ready for my next tattoo.
There are a couple I've been deciding on, and either will reflect my inner nerd. The first is a pale blue dot on my wrist, just like how earth looks like from space as described by Carl Sagan. The second is a Pac-man tattoo that would wrap around my leg.
I'm a fan of tattoos. I have four of them myself. My plan was never really to get any, but interest and opportunity caused me to jump ahead and go for it. The first one was when I was living in BloNo, maybe around age 22 or so. I got a Nine Inch Nails logo tattooed on my back. The design was pulled from their live album that they released that I had been listening to non-stop. I went with my friend Alex and his lady at the time, Nadine. It didn't take long and I had fun doing it. It was in Champaign where they were going to college.
The second time I got two in one. It was also in Champaign but his time was with my friend Chris. He was getting work done a huge tattoo that would take up half of his back. That was something I could never do, so I opted to get one on each shoulder instead. On my right shoulder is a bio hazard symbol that was taken from the cover of a Desolation Jones comic book done by Warren Ellis. To balance it out, I got a tattoo from another comic book on my left shoulder. This one was from a Grendel comic that featured his face-mask. Both aren't that big, and set me back about $120 at the time. The first one was only $60. The second two were also done in Champaign, coincidentally right around the corner from where I got my first one. The guy who did my second one was named Lunchbox because, and get this, he collected lunch boxes and had them on display around his station.
The fourth tattoo was done on the back of my right leg. This one was done with my friend Chris, as we both decided that we were going to be nerds together and get the same tattoo from the same thing we both loved, or at least we would thematically match. That we did, as we chose an image from the comic book Watchmen. Chris got a bust of Rorschach with a quote underneath it. Meanwhile, I got one that was just his face-mask that contained a bunch of blobs. It was the one tattoo I have that others could see whenever I wore shorts, so I would get asked a lot about what it was supposed to be. Sometimes I dive in to the nerd level of it, while other times I just say it is an ink blot test. I get crazed looks with either explanation.
That was one of my things, never getting anything that would be seen by others. That would be easily covered up. I don't know why, as it seems society is now more accepting of it. Just a personal preference I guess. Unless I get the pale blue dot on my wrist, then it will be pretty out there and in the open.
There are a couple I've been deciding on, and either will reflect my inner nerd. The first is a pale blue dot on my wrist, just like how earth looks like from space as described by Carl Sagan. The second is a Pac-man tattoo that would wrap around my leg.
I'm a fan of tattoos. I have four of them myself. My plan was never really to get any, but interest and opportunity caused me to jump ahead and go for it. The first one was when I was living in BloNo, maybe around age 22 or so. I got a Nine Inch Nails logo tattooed on my back. The design was pulled from their live album that they released that I had been listening to non-stop. I went with my friend Alex and his lady at the time, Nadine. It didn't take long and I had fun doing it. It was in Champaign where they were going to college.
The second time I got two in one. It was also in Champaign but his time was with my friend Chris. He was getting work done a huge tattoo that would take up half of his back. That was something I could never do, so I opted to get one on each shoulder instead. On my right shoulder is a bio hazard symbol that was taken from the cover of a Desolation Jones comic book done by Warren Ellis. To balance it out, I got a tattoo from another comic book on my left shoulder. This one was from a Grendel comic that featured his face-mask. Both aren't that big, and set me back about $120 at the time. The first one was only $60. The second two were also done in Champaign, coincidentally right around the corner from where I got my first one. The guy who did my second one was named Lunchbox because, and get this, he collected lunch boxes and had them on display around his station.
The fourth tattoo was done on the back of my right leg. This one was done with my friend Chris, as we both decided that we were going to be nerds together and get the same tattoo from the same thing we both loved, or at least we would thematically match. That we did, as we chose an image from the comic book Watchmen. Chris got a bust of Rorschach with a quote underneath it. Meanwhile, I got one that was just his face-mask that contained a bunch of blobs. It was the one tattoo I have that others could see whenever I wore shorts, so I would get asked a lot about what it was supposed to be. Sometimes I dive in to the nerd level of it, while other times I just say it is an ink blot test. I get crazed looks with either explanation.
That was one of my things, never getting anything that would be seen by others. That would be easily covered up. I don't know why, as it seems society is now more accepting of it. Just a personal preference I guess. Unless I get the pale blue dot on my wrist, then it will be pretty out there and in the open.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
A Comedian Walks In To A Club
Comedians can make the most sense when it comes to social commentary. Give the right one the right platform, and they can entice society for the better a roomful of laughter at a time.
I've always felt that listening to comedians made more sense than listening to the newscasters. Great comedians have the ability to analyze a societal situation, explain it in terms that can appeal to large audiences, and show them that they can laugh at it.
In a class at Heartland one time, I remember arguing that comedy is the way to get people to understand something new about society. Make people laugh at it, show them that it can be made fun of, and it will pass the OK test. Gay characters started coming out in TV and movies, and as long as we could laugh at them, it made it easy to sneak in a little bit of knowledge about people who are different - that they are all just like us.
George Carlin once said that there is a thing he looks for, when a laughing person gets it. When the realization hits that they are learning something, and seeing it for the first time.
Some studies have been done to determine why we laugh. Scientists say it is because our brain is reacting to something we don't understand, so it tells your body to laugh. That little bit of absurdity is needed to really deliver the punchline of knowledge.
I watched a Jon Stewart video last night and it was about his take on the recent political landscape. The interviewer was trying desperately to pull any and all information from him on various subjects, and at times it felt like he was forcing Stewart to say something. One of Stewart's points was that there is enough social commentary out there from other comedians who are doing a great job on that themselves. He is right, as there are many former cast members of the Daily Show spread out that are doing their own brand of comedy that is hitting on all fronts. There is a diverse number of comedic voices out there to listen to, and you have to open your mind to their ideas, one laugh at a time.
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