05.30.04
Ah... good day, boy am I tired. Went up to my aunt and uncle's cabin in Estes Park (or somewhere thereabouts), hung out with the fam for a bit. Worked on forts with my cousin... important work, fort work. I meant to take a picture, forgot. I'll take some next time I'm up there, we're making some cool stuff. Or well it will be eventually. It's going to make a great paintball field. Of course we'll need to start playing paintball at some point. Details details.
Had Blue Parrot spagetti for dinner, haven't had that for years. When my parents would go out to pick it up they always called it "Louisville spagetti" because the restaurant is in Louisville. How silly. Next time I go to Taco Bell I'm going to say I'm going to get some "Westminster tacos". Watched Master and Commander. I really liked it. I guess I can enjoy any movie with big ships, explosions, treachery, and men with funny accents. Oh and absolutely no romance. Pirates of the Caribbean was great too... while we're on the subject. I love movies. Where would I be without movies. I dunno... I guess probably outside somewhere. Happy Memorial Weekend!
05.29.04
I've been playing Splinter Cell for, well total, probably 6 or 7 hours today. I stopped playing for a few minutes to take a break, write this here entry, and my vision is kind of macked up, my monitor looks all funny. I think my eyes are strained, whatever that means. Probably a good indication it's quittin' time. I'm on the last level, really close to the end of the game, so it's hard to quit. I'm so used to moving the camera angle for my view, I catch myself trying to do it mentally as I watch tv.
I took a break earlier... went out and got dinner. Felt weird about walking in plain view, got annoyed at the bright afternoon sky, thought I should flick on my thermal goggles. Yeah I'm going to save the end of the game for oh, I dunno, Sunday night or Monday. I'm going to delay my pleasure. What to do in the meantime... I dunno, laundry? My life has lost all meaning outside this game. I'm going to have to buy the first Splinter Cell after I beat this one, or I'm not going to be able to sleep at night. Watched The Last Samurai tonight, with Tom Cruise (yeah he watched it with me). It was cool, I liked it. Long, very long movie, but good. I gotta get away from this monitor, all monitors. Maybe I'll dreadlock my hair or something, ugh.
05.28.04
This is an awesome pic I took of my snail. It's upside down, but then so is he.
05.28.04
Well I went to the dentist today. For the first time in oh, probably something like 5 or 6 years. Just a word of advice to anyone that's put it off like I did. Umm... don't. It was excruciating. I don't remember a time in my life that anything has hurt so much. Not enough pain to pass out though, unfortunately. It'd been so long since I'd been that some of the technology is actually different now. X-rays are much freakier, it's not just the "stick this thing in your mouth while we take a picture of your cheek" stuff any more. Now they stick your head in what looks like a vertical MRI thingy and you bite down on a little plastic thing and the other machiney thing makes a horrific screeching noise as it circles your head and you dream of having xray powers when you're done. That was kinda cool. Other improvements... that nasty sand crap they use to polish your teeth is now a pleasant cherry flavor - that was a marked improvement. That other shit was terrible... I shudder even trying to remember how awful it tasted. No flouride treatments any more, that's another big score.
Anywho, if you go to the dentist regularly you don't give tartar the opportunity to build up on your teeth, and then they don't have to torture you come cleaning time getting all that junk off with various drills and saws and pokey things. The longer you wait though, the worse it will be. So my advice is, if you're going to keep waiting, you may as well never go again, cuz it's just going to suck so so so much worse. I was all shakey when they were done, I think I made the lady cleaning my teeth actually feel really bad for having to hurt me hehe. I told her it was just part of her job but I don't think that consoled her much, she's obviously insane for becoming a dentist anyways though.
Anyway I'm glad that's done. I guess I really really need to get my wisdom teeth pulled which isn't news, but what is news is the prediction that it should be a relatively simple process because they're all exposed and at the surface, not buried away in some jaw bone or whatever the hell happens. That's something to look forward to. At least they knock you out for that stuff. Additionally, I have 3 cavities I get to have filled, and 3 fillings I get to have refilled because they're old and failing. Yeah... awesome! I love the dentist! The upside is that I'm helping put some other kid through college with all that insurance money spent. Or, my mom is rather.
It's the circle of life though. I teach my mom a lesson for having a second kid by costing her a bunch of money. But those dentists teach me a lesson for not going to the dentist by torturing me when I finally do. The cycle goes on... and there is balance in the force.
05.26.04
Let's see meow. Been a few days since my last update. Umm... my math class is okay and my art class is okay. Math is mathy... it's two hours and 45 minutes long which is a bit rough, but my teacher seems pretty cool. He goes slow enough... something I've had a problem with with all my teachers, they just fly through steps and do stuff in their heads and I can't keep up. Hope that's not an issue. He also tells random funny stories, which helps keep me awake and paying attention. College Algebra, finally, the end of the road. Until Calculus anyways. Lots and lots of calculus.
Art is uhh... interesting. It's 2-D Design, 4 and a half hours of it. I like how during the summer the semester is only ten weeks long, it forces the teachers to not mess around so much with their time. They balance it out though by making the classes longer. I guess I prefer the boot camp approach, just get it all done as quickly as possible no matter how many hours a day it takes. So yeah, art pretty much lasts forever. Last night I drew a picture of some still life crap model, a bunch of junk all organized on a table. Thrilling. I guess everyone else in the class had taken drawing of some sort except me, so that was my excuse for sucking. My drawing wasn't terrible, just really light. Oh and terrible. I guess I have to go buy better pencils, my mechanical one was not acceptable heh. And I'm going to need a very big eraser. My teacher is pretty much what I'd expect, artsy. He makes fun of Boulder, tells rambling stories, and looks a bit like Walter Mathau but younger. There are a bunch of artsy fags in my class too, ugh, "art people". Drawing is fun enough, doesn't really seem like work like a programming class, so I guess it's a nice break. Art people though... gag. Bunch of damn dirty hippies.
I'm revising my gameplan for school. I was going to take the fall off to work, but it's occurred to me the odds of me finding a job then are about what they are now, slim to none. I've applied for millions of jobs now, haven't heard back on any of them. I guess after I have an associates I'll be better off, more qualified for a lot of jobs. So by fall, I should in theory be qualified for more jobs with the associates a lot of people ask for, so then hopefully I'll be able to work and go to school. I dunno though... I've been saying that for a long time now. Then I just kind of "threaten" to find a crappy job that won't pay anything and that I'll hate. It's so hard to do though... that'd for me mean giving up on actually finding a good job, or getting any more business, which is sad. I'd really like to be able to buy a nice bed though. That's compelling.
Yeah I know... what a boring update.
05.22.04
Do cops even bother with I-25? The stretch between south Denver and Thornton is terrible, I always feel like I'm taking my life into my own hands driving it. Last night I was at about the Colfax exit going north at around 11:00. Traffic is moderate. The two fastest lanes come to nearly a dead halt, and I slam on my brakes figuring someone must've wrecked up ahead or something silly, I was in the second lane. But then it picks up again no problem, so I don't know what was up. I get over a hill to where I can see the traffic ahead, and I see this black truck in the leftmost lane and a silver, something like a newer model of neon, in the lane adjacent. These two assholes stop again, just slam on their brakes for no apparent reason both right next to eachother, and all the traffic behind them stops dead in the two lanes. I have no idea what the hell they were doing.
Anyhow people are getting pissed (I sure was), and this blue Saab tries to pass the silver car on the right, but the guy cuts over in front of him and won't let him pass. From 8th all the way up to the I-70 exit these guys are doing this shit, now additionally there's a Saab involved, the neon guy just slamming on his brakes in front of him and swerving from lane to lane to block this guy. Meanwhile the black truck guy is pulling up next to the silver car and some guy is hanging out the passenger window with his fist raised yelling all kinds of stuff at the guy, and I think the guy in the silver car had rolled down his window and was yelling stuff back. All this while going like 70 miles an hour down I-25, with random slowing of speeds to oh, 30 I guess.
I'm just thinking: 1) I wish I had a cellphone to call these crazy fuckers in 2) I'm going to be pissed if they wreck in front of me and anything happens to my car and 3) where's a damn cop when you need one? What a mess. I got off at I-70 luckily, and the Saab exited before that. As for the black truck psychopath, I looked over as I was going up the Grand Junction ramp and he had just slammed on his brakes again in front of some box truck, real intelligent. I hope that guy rolls his truck into a cement wall, no one could be more deserving. What an ass.
The worst, most dangerous, most retarded driving I think I've ever seen has all been on I-25 northbound. Cops seriously need to start paying more attention on Saturday nights. That shit is so not cool, people die enough from ACCIDENTS, they don't need additional risks from idiots. And you know if an idiot ever does get in a wreck, he'll of course live, but he'll take out some whole innocent family. That really pisses me off. It's completely baffling to me why a family of 3, a mom, a dad, and their two year old, have to die when a girder drops on their SUV, but some drunken insane idiot gets to go on living and driving bad, putting everyone else at risk. What a world.
05.22.04
Gotta work tonight, data entry stuff. I suspect I'm going to drive all the way down to Alameda and Broadway and only have to work 2 hours, but hey, that's a tank of gas. Sadly. How about those gas prices huh? Kinda make you wanna roll your car off a cliff huh. Yep. Cost me $23.00 to fill up my car with the good gas. Anyone else remember when they could fill up a little car for $10? I do. It used to be a big deal when gas would break the dollar mark, and we'd make fun of Californians for how they'd get so raped when it came to gas prices. Well now we're the ones getting raped, how sad. The saddest part I think for me is that the news makes a big deal about it, but they never really have any reason for it to happen. They say, "Gas prices tend to go up in the summer...", but why? They say "Well we can't blame the war in Iraq..." or "Well we're not sure whether the war in Iraq has affected gas prices...". Or they talk about some crisis in some country no one cares about but who can apparently sway our economy should they choose to be all gay about it. What I have yet to see is a good solid explanation of why gas prices act the way they do, not a bunch of conjecture or blame game crap, just a detailed report from a respectable source that can explain the whole fiasco and put to rest my own theory that gas companies are totally just jerking us around to see how much we're willing to pay and at what point enough people stop driving to indicate a good standing point. A conspiracy theory for sure, probably not based on any kind of reality, but it wouldn't be necessary if anyone actually made it clear at any given time. I just hate all the damn conjecture-ing.
Okay that was my bitchfest. Started putting some time in on Pandora Tomorrow, the new Splinter Cell for Xbox. I must say, as far as controls, that game is great when it comes to how much you can do. It's hard to get going at first to streamline the camera angles and get all the buttons and actions down, but once you do, with a little bit of patience, it really is an awesome game. I guess the multiplayer action is supposed to be pretty dope too, but I don't have the Live hookup so I'll never know. Except maybe in my dreams. That's where Sam Fisher lives when the Xbox is off... hoo boy. Where the hell is Timor anyway? Is that really a country? Who knows.
05.20.04
Wowie... I hurt. Went to the driving range yesterday with Anthony. That was fun. I've learned I do way better in every game I play when I don't think about all the technical aspects involved. It's like the Simpsons when Bart imagines the tree falling in the woods with no one around to hear it, (does it make a sound?). Just have to clear my mind and just do. Not sure why that is... maybe a focus thing. Anyway, apparently stretching would've been wise, because my wrists hurt like hell. Oh and Anthony is going to kick my ass when we play par 3. Yep. Golf though... I missed it. I come from a long line of golfers, I should never have quit playing. No matter.
Four days left of my vacation. It feels like vacation... I haven't been able to remember what day it's been for like a week. Or when I do remember, it's only because there's a show on that day. That's awesome. I made a graph of my swiftly sliding GPA. Fascinating topic I'm sure. If I get a 3.6 this summer, which is what I'm predicting for myself, I'll have a cumulative GPA of 3.71. That's not too shabby. Math kind of ruined it, but that's alright. Nothing to sneeze at anyway, way to go, me. I guess since I didn't work for the majority of that time, I probably should've done better. Hmph. Burst my own bubble there. The more I look for jobs though, the more I realize it's definitely wise to go for a bachelors. There's just not much out there for the un-degreed I guess, unless you can somehow talk a lot of people into giving you jobs. I was never much of a talker. So I think over the next few years while I struggle my way through perpetual schooling, when I get downhearted about it, I'm going to look at all the jobs I'll be qualified for with a bachelors compared to the amount I will be qualified for without. I think that'll keep me going. It'll have to!
I've decided (for this month anyway) that my ideal job would be working for a small webhosting place. I'd want to be able to do design work, but I wouldn't want only that to be my job. I'd also want to do some system/network admin stuff, but I wouldn't want to do just that either. So I figure my ideal company candidate will be on the small side, allowing me the diversity in work only such an intimate setting could provide. Maybe some day if I'm really awesome I could start my own webhosting company... that'd be pretty sweet. Yep.
05.18.04
Ahh vacation. I've watched like 15 hours of Stargate SG-1 over the last week and a half. It's a good show, I recommend it to anyone that digs that sci-fi stuff.
I've been keeping productively active otherwise, less finding a job. Been working on my linux box... it now has up and running: apache, mysql, php, perl, CGI.pm, ftp, and telnet. Maybe not the most impressive list, but that stuff was hard enough for me. On the kinda-near horizon are such additions as: samba, a lot of perl modules, a security policy (heh heh), ssh, and smtp- which might already be set up unbeknownst to me. Probably more things also that I'm not thinking of right now.
It's been an educational ride so far. I made about every stupid mistake imaginable, wrote everything important down that I learned, and hopefully I'm a little smarter now than I was a few days ago about all those things. Yeah... maybe. It'll be cool when I get it all set up and secure and great though... yep. On a more distant horizon I foresee having a domain name that'll point to my little box running my own little nameservers... wonder how all that is going to work. Probably very slowly hehe. Going to need a few upgrades. But also, very educationally. Look out world, Sarah's jobless but motivated.
05.15.04
 I didn't die on my camping trip... just forgot to update for a few days. It was an interesting trip... short, we only stayed one night... but interesting. We went to Golden Gate Park, somewhere up past Golden like 30 miles away somewhere. The park was pretty much empty but for me, Anthony, a few rangers, and a lot of retirees with RV's.
We had our pick of campsites... chose one close to a nice big heated bathroom. It started snowing at some point on the way up and pretty much didn't stop, we guessed it'd snowed about 5 inches that night (Wednesday night). Set up camp in the slushiest snow imaginable, didn't bother to unpack the chairs or cooler or the frisbee. Played some card games in the tent, cursed the snow, drank some beer in the tent, changed socks, cursed the snow, played some Monopoly in the tent, cursed the snow, dried a lot of clothes by the warmth of a bathroom hand dryer, cursed the snow, ate dinner in the car, changed socks, cursed the snow, went to sleep in the tent. That's pretty much the gist of it. We woke up the next morning having earned the respect of our elderly neighbors (who else goes camping on a Wednesday?) who seemed rather surprised we made it through the night without knocking on one of their doors begging for shelter. I was pretty surprised too. It was damn cold, but it could've been way worse. And now I get to say I've done the camping-in-the-snow shit. I'm hardcore. Now I can safely say winter camping sucks, without speaking in ignorance.
Hasn't been much else going on. Oh, I made a terrarium from my cracked 10 gallon fish tank. Talk about taking lemons and making lemonade huh? Yeah whatever.
05.09.04
Well... another semester done. Only one more to go before a nice break. I just barely passed my math class. Thanks to a clever grading scheme devised by my math teacher I think I got like a 75% in that class. Passing is good, but I probably would've failed me. I have a really tentative grasp of all that stuff, and I know that's going to come back and kick me in the ass in college algebra this summer. Oh well... there's no substitute for hard work. Got an A in my C++ class... actually missed the mark by 9 points but my teacher went through my old homeworks and came up with 9 more points to get me an A, pretty nice thing of him to do. I think when I'm done at FRCC I'm going to write a review about my experience, teachers, classes, recommendations, troubles, complaints, all that. It sounds like fun to me. Writing reviews is always fun.
I'm hoping to have a job before the 24th when school starts back up again... next week is Get-A-Real-Job Week at Club Sarah. A job of some sort, any sort will do. Well, almost any sort. I'm still doing random data entry work on Saturdays, and a monthly update to my school's newspaper, but that's not really paying all my bills. It'll be nice to be making money again.
I'm going through an elaborate reorganization scheme for my bedroom... converting it into an office/living room, then going to put all my bedroom type stuff downstairs in my brother's old room which is actually my dad's old office. Should be interesting. It'll be like having a mini-house within a house, because I'll have two rooms separated by a whole floor. Anyhow, the idea is that when it gets all hot this summer I'll get to sleep in the nice cold basement. I wouldn't move down there for real though, because the spiders down there kind of run the place. But I will be sleeping down there and optionally keeping all my clothes down there if I feel like getting my dresser out of my "office". When I have a job, I'm going to buy a nameplate for my desk. Of course it will be silly, but it will also be awesome.
I'm leaving for camping today... didn't go on the trip I had planned earlier this week. I don't remember if I said why yet, but it was going to be a lot of hassle for not much camping time. It's supposed to rain I guess, which is kind of shitty, but still better than snow. Rain I can deal with. I still have to pack... waiting for my laundry to get done. I'll be back on Friday unless the weather sucks too bad. Yeeeeep I think that's all I have to say.
Oh and I'm going to make a new pictures section in my gallery called "out and about" for all the adventuring I'm going to start doing (like going to the store and stuff), it'll be like Dave Attell's(sp) Insomniac (sp) but without all the random strippers/dancers and all the other stuff that would make it like that. So keep your eyes peeled for that. Or I'll just tell you when it's done, how's that. Alright then. Have a good week folks, keep it safe in the streets.
05.09.04
Ahh... 1:19 in the morning. Just watched When Harry Met Sally. That's a perfectly reasonable thing to do at 1:19 AM. I'm done with two of my three classes... just have a math test on Monday then I'm free of school for a little while. It was pretty magical-like... I said that I wanted to go camping on here, and then I got invited on two camping trips. I wish that kind of thing happened more often, where I said what I wanted, and then I got it.
So camping is cool... I'll probably take a bunch of pictures. I have no pictures of me "doing" anything. All the ones I have are of me standing around somewhere in my house, or sitting in my bedroom, or at some family function. If you didn't know me, you'd think I never did anything. And you'd think I didn't have any friends either cuz I never show pictures of my friends. Yeah okay, I don't do that much, and I don't have that many friends. But I'm going to make it appear as though I do a lot of things with a lot of friends by just taking all sorts of action pictures. Oh there's Sarah that time she went to that show. There's Sarah that time she went to that epic premier that she won tickets for. There's Sarah at the unveiling of that masterpiece at that one museum out of town from here. There's Sarah on a horse in front of a sunset in some other country. That Sarah, she sure goes places. And wow, she has more friends than can even be tracked. She has so many pictures with so many different people. She's like the Prom Queen... (of Dropout High).
I'm tired. I finished my Astronomy final... 75 questions, 70 multiple choice and 5 essay. 360 points, allow at least 3 hours to take it, open note open book open Google. It was pretty brutal, but I guess I like that kind of test, it was sort of fun. It's fun looking up answers to stuff (I pretty much had to look everything up). I tanned for a bit today... you can't tell from my sunburn but there's a tan under all that skin cancer somewhere that's just dying to get out. My back is really burned, which is odd because I timed my exposure so that my front side and back side should've been equally exposed. Who knows. I don't. Can't say I really understand how radio satellites work either.
Guess I'll go to bed now. Tomorrow's Mother's Day. Party on.
05.06.04
Y'know what one of the best parts about being single is? You don't have to worry about looking like crap. Sometimes I can really dig looking like crap. It's just so much easier. Not having to care about your appearance is a great, great thing. Yep... instead of taking this time to dry my hair, curl my hair, put on makeup, try on five different outfits then go with the first thing I tried on, paint my nails, instead of all that shit and more, I just get to sit here with soaking wet hair in a towel wearing dirty clothes with chipped nail polish and bullshit about it on my blog. This my friends, this is progress. Long live the single life! And long live wearing pants that can actually fit something in the pockets... chick jeans suck.
05.05.04
Ooh ooh I just remembered, camping! I'm going to camp some this summer. I love camping. We did that a lot too when I was growing up. Of course we had a camper... the kind that goes on top of a truck and hangs way over the front end. It was pretty awesome... I dunno what it'd be like to go camping with just a tent. No microwave... maybe no fires this year I dunno... I guess camping is for hiking and fishing, or drinking. Hooray! Oh and s'mores... gads of s'mores.
05.05.04
I'm thinking of starting an advice column.
I figure, who better to give other people advice about their lives, than someone like me that has their life so completely in order? Totally.
05.05.04
This weather has me really psyched about summer. I generally never do anything when the weather's nice, so it kind of goes to waste a little bit, but I think this summer will probably be different. I think I'm going to make a mild attempt at getting back into golfing... the par 3 variety anyway, I can't handle anything beyond that. I used to golf in high school, always really liked it. It's kind of expensive (for me), but if I'm working and I think I will be, it should be alright.
I'm gonna go to the batting cages too. I played softball in high school, and boy did I suck. But I liked it anyways. Hated the team play stuff for my school, couldn't stand the pressure (minimal as it may've been, always made me play worse). But hitting is always fun. Plus I think that's still pretty cheap.
I guess my mom is going to put me in charge of lawn operations and general outdoorsy house work, ie mowing and cleaning gutters, so that should get me out. I don't mind cleaning gutters, I always loved getting on our roof. Both layers. Haven't fallen off yet, give it time I suppose.
I may consider riding a bike to school, that'd be interesting. I think it's like a mile or something, there's a few nasty hills between me and my school though, so I don't know about that one. I'd definitely have to work up to it, I'm in horrific shape. Although I took a credit by exam test today, and there was this lady in the room with me that was panting from the effort of typing, and being fat I guess. I'm not that bad off yet. Anyway, I'm excited about summer.
I guess Mother's Day is on Sunday. My mom laughed at me when I asked which day it was this weekend, apparently it's always on Sunday. Why do people assume I know shit like that? I try to remind people how stupid I am all the time, but they just never listen. We're going to go see Laws of Attraction with Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore (no they're not coming with us, they're in the movie). That should be... well a chick flick. But I like both those actors... so maybe it'll be okay.
More nonsense when it comes to school, an update anyhow. I think I will graduate this summer, but I don't get to go to commencement because applying for graduation apparently takes a long time and graduation is like, well some time before then, next Tuesday or something. So I guess that's another time I won't be graduating. I'm getting used to it. I suppose I'll get a diploma eventually though, which is all that actually matters, not getting money from relatives. Not to imply that that's the only reason I wanted to graduate, that'd be pretty lousy. Heh. Obla-di... obla-da...
OC tonight... I think it might be the season finale but I don't remember. Then it's rerun time... that's always a little depressing. But rerun time is good, it's good to take a break from having the obligation of watching a show every week. And then you also can catch up on episodes you maybe missed during the season. I missed a few, like the one where Marissa OD'd or whatever. Back in the beginning when Marissa was cool I guess I actually cared, she got pretty stupid later though.
Ooh ooh speaking of OC and summer... Summer from the OC is doing a cameo on That 70's Show, which is interesting because I hadn't realized it but her character is very similar to Jackie on That 70's Show. I think her cameo might have her be a relative of Jackie's, that'd make sense. Well, hooray anyways. I just love it how networks swap their people all around, it tickles me pink. Whatever that means. Guess I'm off to class... those classes aren't just going to fail themselves!
Hehe man that was funny. I've always known that having all these webpage index's on my computer that I just upload as I work on them would result in some kind of mix up some day, and I'd end up uploading some index where it shouldn't go. It'd be funny, but of course it'd also be pretty bad. Well I just uploaded this to my school's newspaper website. Good thing I caught it I guess, I think replacing a school webpage with miscellaneous blog ranting might appear unprofessional of me.
05.04.04
Well the Cartoon Network did something with the Justice League, it's not on any more when it used to be and I can't figure out when it is on. I guess they probably got wind of how happy that show made me, so they promptly dumped it out of their lineup and swore to never play it again at any time I'd be able to see it. Now something crappy is on at 11:30... Dragonball Z or something. I guess it's for the better, I don't need to watch tv. It's bad enough I'm in the habit now of watching Futurama and Family Guy every night, that's an hour already. An hour and a half of tv every night might make me some kind of loser in ways different than I'm used to from having a blog and ranting to myself all the time. Then I'd be a couch potato loser, ugh. I think not.
Hey isn't this weather great? It's been in the 80's here for a day or two now, supposed to stay in the 80's all week. That's awesome, except for the small problem of my room always being really hot. I'm considering moving my computer to the basement for the summer, that'd probably be smart. There are a lot of smart things I could do that I don't though, which is practically reason for me to not do it right there. Ah yes, I am an end unto myself. And now I have to go to my SECOND TO LAST C++ CLASS. What a shaaaaame.
05.03.04
As promised, the slightly more professional stylings on my friend Shaun:
05.02.04
Shit, it's May. As an update, things are looking up for me school-wise. If I test out of another class, Photoshop I, I just might graduate by the end of the summer. This may prove tricky, however confidence is high. Plus testing out of classes is hella cheap (yeah that's right, hella), because you don't have to pay fines. Looking back, I probably could've tested out of the majority of intro classes I took and saved my mom a lot of money. Hindsight's a bitch. But credit by exam classes don't count as anything for your GPA, so then mine would really suck. It's a double-edged sword and stuff.
 Had a fun weekend (it's pretty much over at Sunday cuz I have homework to do). I got a new tattoo... of the permanent marker variety (yes, I'm terrible at drawing). I'm giving out free permanent marker tattoos if you'd like something equally horrific poorly scrawled on your body for a few days. Yes, obviously free because no one in their right mind would pay for it. Having went and tattooed myself temporarily, I feel inspired to rant about tattoos. Oh yeah, and in case you were wondering, yes there was alcohol involved in the creation of my new tattoo. You can't get real tattoos when you're really drunk, they won't let you because your blood is thinner. This I imagine is a very good thing.
The Art of Ink
(Probably like the 50,000th time someone has labelled an article about tattoos that)
 It's a shame tattoos are so taboo in the modern workplace. I really like them. I'd probably have a few more if it were socially and fashionally (I don't think that's a word) as acceptable as say, earrings for chicks. Maybe in the future. A good looking tattoo is really a good mod to the human body though- if only the professional world agreed.
Of course what defines a good looking tattoo is a tough call. Most tattoos I see I think suck. I guess it's a fine line really. I'll elaborate.
I like all-black tattoos, or really conservatively colored ones. No bright reds covering large sections of skin or anything like that, I think that stuff always looks lousy. Blues are acceptable along with lighter greenish-blue hues. Orange on a small scale is acceptable, but no yellows unless completely necessary for the design. Plain greens look okay, but in excess end up looking a bit sick.
Animals are for the most part not good. Dragons are okay, but mostly simple ones only. No tigers, no lions, no dolphins dear GOD no dolphins, no butterflies, no fuzzy kitties, no bulldogs, no dogs of any variety. Animals are really for the most part just tacky as hell. Chicks get the very worst tattoos... man. No flowers, no moons or suns, although I would find semi-accurate renderings of planets or other heavenly bodies interesting and probably appealing (haven't seen it yet).
But guys too. No skulls, no names, no hearts, no naked chicks, no fire, no cheesy celtic knot band shit that everyone and their grandmother has. I've even seen enough of the generic celtic design stuff to not particularly care for it any more. No faces, no St. Mary's or Jesus's's's, nothing religious.
Yeah so I guess basically the only tattoos I find decent to good are totally black, tribal but not over the top, Asian design style (dragons, koi are okay, writing), and styled words or phrases. Yep. Damn I'm picky.
No offense to the artists on this lot... people just pick the worst things to permanently affix on themselves.
This is a cool tribal tattoo
This is a horrible tribal tattoo
This tattoo, despite being a really well done drawing of a tiger, is a horrible tattoo
Very, very bad
Good balance of space
Bad use of space and color
Trendy is bad
Okay Link is cool, but for a tattoo? Come on
Wow... seriously... not good.
Puke, puke, and wow, no offense, but I hate you. Puke.
Tattoo placement is also pretty important. Good places for guys include: forearms (inside and out), upper arms to a lesser extent, shoulderblades, hips, lower back and back, chest (within reason), and THAT'S IT. Nothing on the legs, ass (you never know), or otherwise. Back of the neck is only cool if you've been in prison.
For girls acceptable tattoo locales include: ankles (inside, not outside, and that one barely makes the cut), upper arms, breastplate area (what like, the scapula?), around navel, hips, shoulderblades, lower back, and possibly forearms, upper inside of arm looks better. Everything else sucks. But chicks get such bad tattoos, I hate to even say any location is okay. But after all, I am a chick. The only places I would consider for a tattoo would be where I have one which is on my right hip kind of on the stomach side, possibly where I put my fake one, and possibly a shoulderblade, although I hardly see the point in getting a tattoo you can't really look at. I'd consider my forearms or lower back if it were more acceptable in the workplace.
Placement is important though, it's a key element to a good tattoo. Another consideration is geometry and shape. That's mainly an artsy thing I guess, good balance of space usage. That's pretty hard to define. Some things just don't look right, like a really wide tattoo on a really wide person. Or a really small tattoo on a really big person, or vice versa a really big tattoo on a really small person. Or covering entire areas, I've rarely seen that look good, but design really matters for that.
Another thing I hate about people and their tattoos is how people choose them. I hate people that go to a tattoo parlor, look at all the crap on the walls, and just pick some shit out at random. It just seems so dirty. Good tattoos have meaning to the person with them, they stand for something or serve as a reminder or in memory of something, or they're artistic, like an original artwork kind of design. Bad tattoos are tattoos that got picked off the wall full of millions, that's just so impersonal. A tattoo without meaning is like a trite greeting card, or a catchy one-hit wonder. It lacks soul. I guess most people don't care that much, and that's fine for them, but I can't really imagine it for myself. I wouldn't want a tattoo I'd ever see on someone else, it should be unique to the wearer (although I'm sure other people have mine, it's probably a limited amount luckily). And timeless, a tattoo should really be timeless, not something trendy that'll go away in a few years and be an embarassment. That pretty much rules out most tv references, although the Simpsons are timeless at this point.
Well that's enough scattered directionless ranting from me. I'll probably add a few pictures of my friends tattoos that I like on a later date just for fun.
|
