It’s funny how these days everything i do, say or even want to do is only related to my wedding! i wonder wat is that makes me feel this way..probably i m already freaking out about saying goodbye to single hood and being embraced into the folds of matrimony!
or just that i am worried about life long commitment ( nt to worry hubby to be..i’ll be there at the altar)….

well sidey jokes apart..the idea of writing this i have had this huge list in head..my ‘bucket list’ of things to do before i got married and always wanted to do at some point of time and this post …..
so, there goes my long list of things..some of which i have done..some that i guess will only remain on the list coz i’ll never have guts to do it and some i’ll hopefully do once i am married…some of it is stuff that everyone wants to and so do i!

1. Go back packing/ camping far far away…far away from civilisation (did that a month and also the trek where i met pati to be )
2. get a tatoo ( hmm…i am scared as hell of needles..i guess i’ll have to take some sleeping pills and sleep through it! )
3. get an entire album of black & white pictures taken..of me..pictures that capture each of my mood..ya i know what you people thinking..i m a wee bit self obsessed!
4. Sleep under the stars ( yup that’s wat the intention was when we went camping, but it rained cats & dogs.. sigh! =( )
5. Find a job that i loveeeeeeeee
6. Learn how to drive & then drive the most expensive car! :d
7. Learn to play an instrument
8. want to do that one all girls trip, where all my friends are there!
9. Change my name into some really exotic! i wonder wat that wld be though?! hmmm
10.Sing in front of an audience ! =)
11.be told by that one stranger that i am the most beautiful girl he/she has ever seen!
12.to own something outrageously expensive
13.to ask someone i have just met once to go on a date with me
14.to be madly deeply in love and feel the happiest when around that person
15.wake up everyday and not crib abt anything…and tell my family i love them
16.dance..dance..and dance like i have never done all these years..in short get back to learning dance
17. make some random person smile!=)
18. Believe in self, believe even more strongly in God, love the life that he has given!
19. Write a song!
20. somewhere sometime hope to make each one of these come true! =)

Wow this tatoos are so delicious …like it much, all ar gifts on the ground floor…so go downstairs and there everything is for free or just a linden! The regular prices are also very cheap…so its defintitly worth the way to CatsS! Not just tatoos, also clothing, like the 2 skirts i wear!

Taxi to CatsS

Still on the tattoo design,  I was watching Ghost Rider today and love the skull with the fire and everything and decided to do this. It still doesn’t have that tattoo feeling but its a start.

DEF! Mainstore

DEF! Mainstore

A friend of mine Jamie want to get a tat and he wants me to draw something for him, the thing is I never done any tattoo stuff before. Well Jamie loves skulls and he is into fishing, so here is a sketch of what I have so far, got my inspiration from Davy Jones the villain in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. (click on the images for full size)

So what do you guys think? let me know of any idea you have and please feel free to comment. 

I was so excited last night, because I had five pageviews. I don’t have any today though. That is kinda, sorta devastating! I might have to promote my blog places to get hits, but the thing is that this is a secret blog…. Super secret… My cousin knows about it, so I guess I fail at secret keeping?

ANYWHO, I’ve been soo good at dieting these past weeks, untill now. I think it’s because I’m on my period. I like to blame ms. red’s visits. So easy. Like your mom! HAH. Oh, how I love your mom jokes..

I’m eating wonderful chocolate now. Gods gift to me. At one point, I really wanted to tatoo the chocolate “freia” bird on my leg… Doesn’t that sound like a fantastic idea??? I still kinda want it. It’s a stork.

There ya go. Be jealous.

from March 17, 2008

Now the thing to remember is that I was very tired.

It was pretty empty at the Laundromat today. I usually go there on Wednesday but I had a huge amount of towels to wash and it couldn’t wait. In fact, I was using four medium machines, and two of them were just towels, but that’s not relevant. (And while were not being relevant, what is ring spun cotton? I know I can just look it up on line but I don’t want to. I bought a package of underwear the other day. I won’t go into detail about my underwear [you can give me a private call if you want to get kinky that way, what the heck?] and it was “now made with ring spun cotton.” Not that it mattered either way. I usually buy either Hanes or Fruit of the Loom, whichever the store has. If the store has both its a toss up. Anyway, whatever this “ring spinning” does, it does make a nice soft pair of underwear.)

So this was Monday and most people come in on Wednesday for the discount (1/2 PRICE! Medium loaders! Until 3:00 ONLY! EARLY BIRD SPECIAL!) but since I don’t get there until around about four it doesn’t matter to me. Except that on Wednesdays the crowd that came in “early bird” are still there hogging the dryers when I get in. C’mon people- who needs one dryer for one sheet and another dryer for your socks? Put them all in one, you selfish bastards! I need to dry my ring spun underwear!

So like I said I was tired. I woke at up a 4:07 a.m. (I looked at he clock) from a strange dream. I dreamed that I was working at LHS until late at night and had to sleep on a cot. I also dreamed that I had an office of my own and a couple of other teachers were working late and had to sleep on cots too. Anyway, when I woke up I never did get back to sleep and sort of drifted in and out until I got out of bed at 6:31 (I looked at the clock) and that was that.

I was at the Laundromat earlier than usual too, so that meant that I’d be long gone by the time Jeopardy! came on, and that may have been a good thing since I may have come within a hair of being popped by a guy dressed all in red last time it came on. (No, by the way, by “guy dressed all in red” I don’t mean Satan. At least he didn’t seem to be Satan. He looked kind of stupid actually, but he did have a Yankee cap and that is probably what Satan would wear so who knows?)

I was sitting there watching the dryers spin and a strange pair of women walked in front of me. They were anywhere from 36 to 180 years old. You know what I mean, the kind of women who lived hard lives (drunks) and every second of it showed on their faces. Badly dyed hair, too much makeup, and absolutely covered in bad tattoos. Ugh. They were wearing t-shirts from some tattoo artist so maybe they were examples of his work. Or maybe they were the artists. Either way there was no way I would risk getting hep B from a dirty needle to look like that when I’m old and used up.

Now bear in mind that I was tired and also that I had been reading a Nero Wolfe story this morning and that may explain why I, for some unfathomable reason, I came off like Archie Goodwin here. (Don’t read Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe? You are missing out, pilgrim. [Pilgrim? What am I, John Wayne?]) (And I really am tired if I’m doing the brackets/parenthesis thing. And now the slash thing too. Sheesh and ugh, am I drawing out a simple story here.)

Well, I’m sitting there In my nylon Mets windbreaker. Remember Peter DeLuise from 21 Jump Street? After a couple of seasons he was too old to play a high school kid so they gave him a windbreaker and a whistle and presto! He was a gym teacher. Anyway, I was rocking the Doug Penhall look.

Back to wherever it was I was going before I got so easily derailed. Remember I said I was tried? Well, I still am.

So I’m there and one of these tattooed Methuselahs gimps over to me and asks me what I think of tattoos.  So, here’s what I said. It just came out of my mouth and I am not sure what I meant by it:

“You mean on me or you?”

Was I being insulting? Was I trying a line? Was I going to make conversation? I have no clue. I know I half-smiled when I said it, and I was just as confused as you when it came out, so your guess is as good as mine as to what was going on in my head.

She said. “We can talk about me later honey. I have all kinds of piercings  too.”

I said “Huh, uh, uh huh.”

She: “You want a tattoo?”

Me: “No.”

She: “Maybe a (and she said something that sounded like “shlegmire” here.) right on your arm” and them she traced an outline on my bicep. The shriveled thing touched me!

I said no thanks and got up and walked away. OK, I jogged. (I was wearing a windbreaker after all, so I should at least pretend to be athletic.) I spent the next almost 10 minutes sitting in my car until the dryer was done, then I got my clothes and my huge load of towels and wheeled them across the store and folded them about as far as I could get from the tattooed circus freaks.

Morale of the story? I don’t know. Point of the story? Nope, don’t know either.

But I have strange luck at the Laundromat

——————————————————————————————–

BONUS!.

OUT-OF-CONTEXT QUOTE OF THE WEEK!

This is an exact quote, said today, taken out of context:

“YOU made him gay, I made him a pedophile!”

Discazo

One of my favorite Starbucks baristas, coworker and artist.

DEF! Mainstore

DEF! Mainstore

I tend to shy away from conversations about race in Korea, just because they tend to be circular and not really go anywhere. Also because more often than not they tend to be in English (or any other language that is not Korean) and thus miss the audience that most needs to be included in the conversation. But recent experiences that coincide with a few blog posts I’ve read and a NYT article have brought me out of my self-imposed silence, and back to the blogosphere.

My family and I spent the weekend with some friends in a small town in Gyeonggi.  Not far away is the town of Ildong, which boasts the only real sulfur hot spring in the province. Being a fan of the public mogyoktang, I decided to take my son there for the afternoon.

As I said I love the sauna, but in Korea it took me some time before I felt completely at ease strutting around in the buck through a crowd of naked Korean men. Partly cause I’m whte, and partly cause I’m blue. Or more precisly, cause I’ve got all kinds of tatoos scattered around my body that never fail to draw unwanted stares.

Anyway, for the first year or two I frequented Itaewon’s Hamilton Hotel, or the newer Itaewon Land (five stories of hot tubs, hot rooms and a kiddie playground for parents looking for a reprieve). I figured if there’s anywhere in Korea where an ink covered foreigner can fit in its Itaewon.  It worked well, more or less, and I’ve since gotten over the trauma caused by my first visit to a Korean bathhouse. (That was a nightmare!)

It’s a rainy Sunday in fall, perfect weather for lazing in a tub or sweating it out in the steam room. My 4-year-old son, an experienced patron of the bathhouse in his own right, eases himself into the steaming pool with a loud groan of satisfaction. “Siwonhada…” All the ajjusis stare with mute faces that could either be looks of disgust or simple curiosity. I can never tell.

Soon some of the kids approach, their eyes wide with wonder. Are we the first non-Koreans they’ve ever seen or just the first naked ones? One young boy of about 8 or so starts to follow my son around, pointing at him and barking out, “Can you speak Korean? Let me see,” with an innocent and unknowingly offensive snicker as if my son were some monkey performing tricks.

None of this occurred to my son, thankfully, who just starts repeating ni hao ma whenever anyone asks him to speak Korean (which he does, fluently for a kid his age). What’s worse is that none of it seemed to occur to the boy’s father either, or to the boy himself. Which makes me want to believe that it was and is simple curiosity and not the kind of hostile racism that I know others experience here. But still…

Do I want my kid growing up in a country where there are basically two main racial categories, Korean and non-Korean? Where his ethnicity and appearance will constantly be a reason to question his place here? Where (what are in my view) anachronistic attitudes about race that get hammered into kids starting at a very young age?

There are a great many things that I appreciate about being in Korea, and more than a few things that I think the U.S. could learn from this place, but when it comes to my kid that question always gives me pause.

Not long ago we were standing outside Itaewon Land sauna when a young African American couple walked past. My son asked in his childishly exuberant voice why they were black. They heard, but kept walking. I thought, “Christ, it’s time to get back to the U.S.”

Pra choque de muitos, preciso dizer que achei bem legal as fotos da Fernanda Young na Playboy deste mês.  Não sou grande fã dela, apesar de já ter lido alguns de seus livros, e ter um certo apreço por pessoas mal humoradas de um modo geral. Meus melhores amigos não são dos melhores no quesito humor…enfim.

Quem disse que mulher de tatuagem e de cabelo curto nao pode posar nua? Fiquem sabendo, que já vi muito hétero grudar nas minhas amigas ”modernas”…

Ficou bem diferente do que se ve por aqui na terra brasilis. Alguém já pegou uma playboy francesa nas maos? Sem querer comparar, obvio que a francesa é melhor, mas na playboy de lá, tem ensaios sensuais com imagem de moda forte, mulheres lindas, sem ter que ficar dando close em bunda e teta (pra não citar a buceta em si) pra marmanjo bater punheta.

Vamo abrir os olhos, que dá pra mostrar sensualidade sem ser vulgar, né?

E dêem um google em french playboy que aqui não é lugar de mulé pelada, rapaz!

My post “Tattoos” is my most popular Peace Corps blog post, according to my stats page. I’ve realized that most of its hits come from search traffic that include the phrases “Peace Corps,” and “tattoos.” Hence, it seems pretty clear that potential volunteers are sifting through blog pages trying to find some enlightening words regarding Peace Corps’ official stance on body art, and how that pertains to a volunteer’s service.

So, here’s my experience with tattoos and piercings, in the Peace Corps:

When my Peace Corps Placement Officer called me late in March of 2008, to discuss my placement in Eastern Europe, at one point he asked about my tattoos. I have couple-inch-wide bands wrapped around both forearms, just below my elbows. They are completely visible when I wear short-sleeved shirts:

'PROMETHEUS' and 'EUDEMONIA'

My Placement Officer said the tattoos could be a problem, as tattoos are not prevalent in other parts of the world, and carry a negative stereotype. He told me it would be best if I covered them at all times, and kept them hidden from public view. This spooked me, and I went out and bought multiple sets of UnderArmour forearms sleeves to wear during the summer months. I started composing imaginary stories about gross scars, or bad elbow joints, to tell.

When I got off the plane in Romania, one of the first questions I asked a current volunteer was whether there was a heavy stigma attached to tattoos and body art.

“What? No,” was his casual reply. “Lots of people here have tattooos and piercings.” And he was right.

When I met my directors for the first time (two middle-aged women) I wore long sleeves, despite it being the end of July. When they commented, I showed them my tattoos, and they asked “why would you hide those from us?” It was no big deal, and it was certainly no novelty. One of my best friends at site, Miner, has massive tattoos streaking across his shoulders and down his sides. One out of three guys at my local gym has a visible tattoo.

No volunteer that I know of in Romania, male or female, has ever been discriminated against for having tattoos or piercings. Granted, I receive more attention for them, but no more so than I did in America. I know female volunteers working in small towns that have nose piercings. These are modest in comparison to some of the glittery lip studs a few of my students have.

In retrospect, I figure that my Placement Officer was warning me merely as a matter of policy. In his defense, he had never been to Romania and he had no idea whether the culture really was aversive to body art or not. I imagine that the Peace Corps stance, world-wide, is that tattoos and piercings are a sensitive issue, and should be approached delicately.

I think there is some benefit to this, as no two Peace Corps regions, or countries, or country programs, or even towns are similar. What’s acceptable here in the Jiu Valley may not be in the more traditional Romanian regions of Maramureș, and Oltenia.

But, my advice to any potential/future PCV is this: piercings and tattoos will probably not cause any problems for you at site, despite what your Placement Officer says. Peoples of other countries will typically be flexible about this issue, as you’re an American ambassador, and body art is well-known element of US culture. People will certainly be curious, or fascinated by any tattoos that you have, but your inks will probably never be villified, nor will they ostracize you.

That said, there is time and place for everything. Contact a current volunteer in your assigned country, and see what they have to say. Also, be sensitive to professionalism, and how that relates to your work assignment. For example, I always wear long sleeves when I teach, so that my tattoos are covered. I do this because my directors and I have discussed the issue, and all of us agreed that covering my tattoos while I teach is a good, professional gesture. Almost any American educational institution might ask me to do the same.

En lo personal, no soy nada fan de los tatuajes de lo que sea, aunque sean de videojuegos como en esta ocasion, y es que en verdad es un proceso muy raro, desfigurarte de ese modo al igual que los piercings, en fin, la gente que lo haga pues mis respetos por el valor. Pero en esta ocasión mire varios que me llamaron la atencion, obviamente como escritor, y es que en verdad que cosas tan raras hace la gente para poder ser notado, o para poder mostrar a sus heroes como estas personas!!! ENTRAR AQUI para ver los demas tatuajes!!

Aherm. Christopher spammed my blog accidentally last night with a massive band poster. This band poster, in fact.

So, Thursday’s a day to be in Manchester.  This week I’ve got a gig at Oporto in Leeds on Monday, In The City in Manchester on Tuesday, Sandinista in Leeds on Wednesday and then I’m going to see El Camino! What a week!

Our friend Timo did the poster.  At the moment he’s involved with a Manchester collective, the Ultimate Holding Company, and is doing a project called One Hundred Species One Hundred Tattoos. I’m really tempted to take part in it!

If you haven’t been to see it already, I highly recommend Up. I was crying like a little softy girlface through most of it.

Here’s another shot of Chinda, in this one I made the image B & W with the exception of the red on the bike and her tatoos

Our three main enemies are the devil, the world, and our flesh. The devil wants to lie to us and deceive us. Our flesh wants us to please ourselves, and not God. The world wants us to be fake – something we’re not – in order to get money.

We must not fool ourselves into thinking we can control your own bodies. We must not let people tell us that we have a built-in excuse: our nature. God has the power to control everything. He controls the wind, waves, earthquakes, and atoms. We should not be the one thing that God created that rebels against Him.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

I Corinthians 6:19-20

God can control our bodies – the desires of our flesh – if we surrender to Him. But we have to surrender every day. Our minds are not going to be blank. We have to replace bad thoughts with good thoughts.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Colossians 3:2

In this ongoing series of lessons, I have made comparisons between the character and integrity of material objects and the character and integrity of Christians. Continuing in this vein, I submit that a straight wall has better character and integrity than a crooked wall.

Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:

Amos 7:7-8

For a wall to stand, it must be in balance. Jesus Christ was the most balanced Person of all time.

And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

Luke 2:48

When the Lord Jesus, as a boy, went to the temple without checking in with his earthly parents, they probably thought He had lost His mind. He had not, but here in the story of the Prodigal Son, we see someone who had lost mind, evidenced by the expression, “he came to himself.”

And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

Luke 15:17

Paul was accused of being “beside himself,” another term for having lost his mind.

And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.

Acts 26:24

There was a belief in Bible times that the mind could be separated from the body. The symptoms were that the person’s body was doing something that was out of balance with what the mind would have dictated.

The Lord Jesus, even at age 12, was completely in balance, despite some of the so-called disadvantages which we use as excuses for being out of balance today.

Jesus’s earthly family was not wealthy.

And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

Luke 2:24

His brothers did not believe in Him.

For neither did his brethren believe in him.

John 7:5

His mother did not always understand Him.

There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him. And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren?

Mark 3:31-33

Joseph, his earthly foster father, did not always understand Him.

And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.

Luke 2:50

Whenever you feel frustrated because you think nobody understands you, remember that Jesus was misunderstood His whole earthly life!

And yet, look at the balance in His life.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Luke 2:52 (emphasis added)

The Lord Jesus spent His teenage years preparing for His ministry mentally. When Jewish boys turn 13 they celebrate a “Bar Mitzvah,” which means “son of the law.”

Each of us has different degrees of intellectual ability, but no matter how smart we are, it is important to do our best. If we do well in every part of our lives except our intellectual studies, we are going to be out of balance.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Luke 2:52 (emphasis added)

“Stature” can refer to size and age. This Verse leads us to believe that Jesus was healthy, but He did not give unbalanced attention to His outward physical appearance. He was probably ordinary looking.

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Isaiah 53:2

We need to eat right, get enough sleep, exercise.

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

I Corinthians 9:27

Our outward appearance is not as important as the spiritual condition of our heart, but it is important. We need to be guided by the example of Jesus. He stood out because of His Words, manner, and actions, not because of His physical appearance. As Christians, we should sometimes stand out, but we should not stand out for the wrong reasons: tattoos, body piercings, facial piercings, ridiculously long hair on boys and men. Remember, Jesus was a Nazarene, not a Nazarite. There is no warrant in Scripture for portraying Him with the long girlish hair seen in most artwork. A common objection to the admonition not to have an attention-seeking physical appearance is, “I’m just expressing myself.” But the truth is, God doesn’t want us expressing ourselves – He want us to express Him!

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Romans 15:1

A good question to ask about my physical appearance is whether I am exalting God, or exalting me? If my “stature,” my body, is not surrendered to God, then I am out of balance.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Luke 2:52 (emphasis added)

If anybody had the right to really think He was Somebody special, it was Jesus. But even though He was the “Lord,” He didn’t “lord” it over everyone.

But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.

Luke 2:44

Notice that Jesus’s earthly family could go a day without worrying about how people treated Him. They knew that people like someone who is a servant, and who is obedient and respectful. As a man, the Lord Jesus was invited to weddings and parties. If you’re not socially acceptable, or if you’re acceptable only around people who love sin, you are out of balance.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and Man.

Luke 2:52 (emphasis added)

Jesus was and is God, but in Jesus’s humanity it is also true that God “was with” Jesus. Jesus had favor with God.

And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

Luke 2:46

When Jesus went to the temple, He did not slump down in the back row. He did not pass notes. None of the teachers got frustrated because He wasn’t paying attention. Jesus was not only asking questions, but He was “hearing them.”

Jesus prayed often. He even taught lessons on how to pray. He quoted Scripture when He was tempted by Satan and challenged by the Pharisees. He always knew the right Verse for the occasion. If you are not right spiritually, you are out of balance.

Jesus was perfect mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually, and He is our our model.