A couple days ago, this was posted in two tattoo communities I’ve also posted my tattoo work and comment occasionally in. As she said in the post, hers was started two months ago while I started getting work on mine over two years ago. My backpiece is also archived in BME, the biggest body modification site on the web. Lane also has pictures of my backpiece on his MySpace, Facebook, and occasionally on his shop’s website. There has been drama from time to time in these LJ communities where someone has blatantly copied another’s custom tattoo. Sometimes it was simply the idea and others, it was the exact design and placement. The funny thing is the copies never have been as good as the originals. I know it’s not exactly like mine and the artist who did it doesn’t know shit about perspective and the whole composition, lighting, and shading aren’t very well rendered. Still, I don’t like the idea of someone else taking my idea without permission.

In the hundreds of thousands of tattoos I’ve seen, I’ve only once come across someone who also had a peacock and cherry blossom tree. She is from Sweden and the design is completely different and in black and gray, so I didn’t even think twice about it. But this girl has the cherry blossom tree with falling petals, an art nouveau positioned peacock, and a lantern hanging from the tree. Although the origin of the lantern and cherry blossom tree are Japanese, the peacock isn’t, so you can’t simply say that it’s all Japanese-inspired and therefore a total coincidence. All of these elements are also basically placed in the same areas and in relation to each other as mine are on my back.

I’ve always been aware that this could happen when posting pictures to the Internet, but I always figured if it happened, someone would try to directly copy the design. In that case, Lane could take legal action against them; since that is his distinct style they would be stealing. In this case, the stylization is different. Even if she never saw my backpiece, at least I still get credit for having it done first.

Am I just being paranoid and unjustly accusing them? Is the content of my tattoo so generic that it is simply a coincidence? I don’t know, and I am not going to directly question this person, since I think either way, it will just lead to more problems. I haven’t posted my backpiece to these communities after I started getting the peacock worked on, and when I do after it’s finished, I had better not be the one accused of copying.

Those of you who have been reading this for a while know how much he means to me (you know, being a socially awkward loner and all), so getting to see him in person is always a big deal. Tonight’s performance was the second time I’ve seen him and hopefully not the last.

I got my mom into him and The Smiths over the years, so she insisted we go together, again. I compromised with getting there an hour and a half before it started, but once I got there, I realized it should’ve been earlier as there were already four rows of people lined up in front of the stage. I was able to get even closer during the show, and I still feel lucky I was able to get that close to him.

The Courteeners have to be the best band Moz has ever picked to open for him. I hadn’t heard their music before, but I was damn well impressed. They’re also from Manchester and although I’ve heard that they sound a lot like The Cribs, I also heard quite a bit of Joy Division and Chameleons influence, especially in the guitar. All the guys were cute and looked to be about my age, so I was very impressed how honed-in their sound was for being so young. Great vocals, cool keyboard sounds, and a shoegazing bassist. What else can I say? These guys were fantastic, and I’m definitely going to check out more of their music.

Morrissey’s overall show was an improvement from the last time I saw him. He seemed to be in a much better mood and his stage banter was witty and actually made sense. I loved how he changed around lyrics in “How Soon is Now?”. He also paid more attention to his band, even showcasing members on their instruments, and made more eye contact with the audience. His voice sounded immaculate and even clearer and perfectly on-key than last time. One thing I was confused about was that he was wearing a crucifix around his neck. Was it meant to be ironic or is he Christian now? I obviously didn’t get the memo, but if no one knows, maybe he’ll clear it up in the autobiography he’s writing.

( Quotes )

( Highlights )

( Lowlights )

( Set List )

All in all a great show, though. I pray there will be a next time, and the plan for that is to be right up against the stage and to the right, hoping I’ll be able to shake his hand. Then I can die happy. I also love how I just typed three pages on Morrissey when I have a huge midterm paper to write by Sunday, which I haven’t even started yet. It’s all about priorities. ;)

Pictures will be posted once The Rave’s photographer uploads them to the website.

I’ve been keeping up with my friends page, too. I have just spent the past week using my free (and not-so-free) time keeping inventory of all the activities I did each hour as part of a tedious anthropology assignment about time. Now I get to spend the rest of my Spring Break taking field notes for another week, reading roughly 150 pages, and writing a paper on top of all my other classes’ homework. That, and I really haven’t had much to say. (Do I ever?) ;)

I’ve been making the time over break to pick up the flute and guitar again, and I’m glad I haven’t lost my chops after not playing for months. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I played a bunch of traditional Irish tunes on flute and Pogues songs on guitar. Nothing else was really out of the ordinary, since I listen to Celtic music regularly anyway. I’ve also been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather outside with my cat, despite constantly having to chase her out of the dirt. This was also my last sober St. Patrick’s Day at home. Next year, it’ll be me and a pint of Guinness, granted I’m still alive of course. On a side note, is it weird that whenever I consider a future event, I bring up my mortality? I guess I don’t want to jinx anything, since it seems that whenever I’m hopeful about something happening, it doesn’t, and vice versa. I mean, accidents do happen.

I’ve been waiting to see Coraline over break, but it’s no longer playing at the theater in town. For the past several months, I feel like I’ve been missing out on everything that happens, only to experience it well after the fact, after everyone is done caring or wanting to hear about it. Such is life in the Midwest outside of the metropolises, I suppose. However, I did see The Reader with Catherine today. ( Read more... )

I have also been dealing with a few irresponsible people lately, and it’s really starting to get on my nerves. They think because they have very involved social lives and I don’t, it’s expected for me to get back to them in a timely manner, but they don’t bother getting back to me until the last minute or simply not at all. I think it will end up being the latter of the two come Friday, so I’m expecting those half-made plans to completely fall through. (The few previous entries allude to what that’s all about.) I’m just sick of these people putting everything and everyone before me, after I’ve made contact with them repeatedly, trying to arrange things. It’s not just that one person, either. Just because I don’t have a bunch of friends or have a job right now doesn’t mean I don’t have a life too.

My dad also recently announced that he wants to move back in, after leaving us a year and three months ago. Long story short, he’s not going to, since he just wants to do it because he’s sick of paying rent for his apartment and is lonely. He’s never apologized to us, says he still loves us, or makes any kind of an effort to do things or talk. Until he does these things, agrees to go to counseling, and gets on medication for his depression, we’re moving on without him, and it’s really for the best.

ART 118 Digital Arts: Culture, Theory, Practice: A
ART 243 Introduction to Painting: A-
DANCE 103 Introduction to Iyengar Yoga: A

GPA: 3.890
Cumulative GPA: 3.455

This is all fine and dandy, but my brilliant astronomy professor hasn’t posted grades when they were due by last Tuesday and I have no idea whether I passed or failed. None of the professors can access grades until after the first week of January, so naturally, this is driving me nuts. Even then, he has hundreds of students to submit grades for, so who knows how long I’m going to wait. He had over a week after his exam to submit them, and he couldn’t even make the deadline then. His exams weren’t even on the day of the snowstorm, so I’m wondering what the massive delay is.

I am so pissed that I spent more than twice the amount of time and effort I put into any of my other classes on this one, and I will be extremely lucky if he even passes me. Most of the material on the final was in the last four chapters he told us to read two days before the final because we got too far behind with him fanboy-ing about Star Trek and Battlestar Gallactica during class. Because of this, I wasn’t familiar with it, and have a bad feeling I failed. He hasn’t even updated our attendance since the end of October and marked us absent on days we were there because the attendance sheets got lost or students stole them. Hell, I even looked up every question on the homework assignment in the book, and he still marked answers wrong. I don’t think he knows what he’s talking about. He also told us several facts during lecture that were contradicted in the book and on questions for homework assignments. Then again, I found out he is copying and pasting questions from another professor's assignments at another university when I looked them up on Google. Maybe I'm just not that great at math and should have taken more science classes in high school as electives, but I've been right around the class average or higher throughout the semester, so it doesn't look like it's just me that had issues.

I really need to get credit for this class because I only took 12 credits last semester. I already will probably have to go an extra semester, since I took 12 credits the semester prior and only got credit for 12 before that because a class wasn’t worth any credits yet was mandatory. Even taking care of 3-12 credits when I study abroad in Ireland this or next summer won’t help, since my major demands more credits and hours of class than most of the other programs. I would have to take 18 credits per semester and with most of my classes being three hours long, I don't see how I could do that and be able to stay relatively sane. I also need the credits for astronomy to satisfy my natural science lecture requirement, so if I fail, I'm going to be set back even further than if it were an elective.

Last night I saw Children of Bodom for the second time, and I can hardly believe that the experience was better than the first. Before the doors opened, I told Robbie that my two wishes for the evening were that Children of Bodom would play "Bed of Razors" and that I could somehow get my bra to Janne for his keyboard. Little did I know, all that would happen and more. Some of you may remember this post from my old journal, where I first hung out with Matt from High on Fire, Job for a Cowboy, Janne, and Henkka from C.O.B.

Here’s the shortened version of what went down last night:

• Much to my dismay, Robbie found me right away because there were only a few other people waiting for the doors to open. However, this turned out to be in my favor since he saved me from falling in the pit. I also saw this weird kid I knew from high school.
• They opened to doors half an hour late, and even though I was standing at the front, they opened the other side, but I still ran and made it to the second row and center stage.
• After the show, we waited outside by the buses. I took Robbie's picture with two guys from Between the Buried and Me, but he had to leave before anyone from C.O.B appeared. First Henkka and Jaska came out, and I got my picture taken with them.
• Then Alexi came out for only two minutes, and I didn't have time to get his autograph or a picture.
• When almost everyone was gone, I called my mom to pick me up as the buses weren't running anymore. After I got off the phone, I realized Janne was standing in front of me. I went over to talk to him, and he said he recognized me in the crowd during the show. I ended up giving him my bra, which will be featured in the front of the collection on his keyboard stand at tonight's show in Columbus, Ohio. Then he invited me on the bus.
• I was extremely freaked out, sitting next to Janne, across from Roope and his girlfriend, and one down from Alexi, nonetheless drinking their beer. It was very interesting that in addition to the roadies, Janne and Roope's girlfriend also speak German. We all sat around and talked, and Janne, Roope, and Alexi shared tour stories and some from their childhood in Finland.
• At 1:30 AM, I had to leave because the tour buses were also leaving. Hopefully next time we'll have more time to hang out!

And here's everything anyone would want to know about the gig and what the guys from Children of Bodom are like offstage:

( Read more... )

( Set List )

Pictures of the show will be added once they appear on The Rave's site. Hopefully I'll also be able to find some pics featuring my bra from tonight's show as well.

ETA: Pictures have been added!

( 53 photos )

So, it’s been a week since classes have started. Surprisingly, everything academic-wise is going well. I like my Digital Art instructors much better and their curriculums are not as involved, so I’ll be able to get through this semester without dropping a class. I’ll be glad when I’m finished with the Pre-Art program and get those General Education credit required classes out of the way.

Living in Sandburg is another story. I never thought I’d say this, but I miss my old suitemates from last year. Like I said, it’s only been a week, and here is a taste of what has materialized thus far:

• Every year, a suitemate has to have a loud, obnoxious, gay friend that stays for hours and hours and won’t shut up. It never fails.
• If you open the door once, see someone in the bathroom stall and the shower running, why would you open the door again five minutes later to ask if anyone’s in there when you should clearly be able to hear the shower running?
• The one who’s a total ghetto-ass hood rat talks freely about how she thought my backpiece was a rash. What a dumbass. There are other tattoos out there besides the tacky black and gray airbrushed graffiti-esque memorial script stamped into your skin by some scratcher.
• Being awakened by a blast of “A Whole New World” half an hour before my alarm is supposed to go off from the next room, and they don’t even have the decency to keep the door closed.
• The aforementioned classiest one of the bunch leaving the radio blasting the filth that spews forth from Kiss FM when she’s not in her room.
• Another one who was in the shower for over forty-five minutes when I was supposed to clean it before my tattoo appointment. (I ended up leaving with her still in the shower and was still late.)
• The two white small-town ones screaming like a bunch of idiots during the Packer game. This is why women still don’t have equal rights in this country. You sound like a bunch of fucking retards screaming shrilly at the television for the players to “go”. I thought we were smarter than this, but then again I tend to overestimate the abilities of my own gender.
• It's like there's a block party going on below my room for twenty hours out of the day. There are several tables set up where a bunch of drunk, loud idiots like to yell nonsense with their neanderthal-esque friends. They also like to start screaming matches between people of various floors in all four towers, which is actually more entertaining than annoying. However, listening to some guy yell, "Blueberry! Blueberry!! Blueberry!!!" at the top of his lungs at 3:30 AM isn't so much fun.

The one good thing is that the bathroom is still clean, and we have a weekly cleaning schedule, although I have a feeling two of them will refuse to clean up after “white bitches” because they bring up racism everyday. And I’m the one being accused when my ancestors didn’t even immigrate to this country until after slavery was abolished and none of them settled in the South. What a joke. They’re the ones who are being racist, and it’s only fair that if I clean up after you one week, you do the same for one week. It’s only the fucking bathroom. ...Not to mention that the bookshelf is still in the hall, which is a great source of annoyance to me when I'm trying to get through with a messenger bag and a portfolio and is probably a fire hazard. *facepalm*

I think it's a good time to use this comic.

In lighter news, now that I’m over the shock and pain of the large addition to my back, I thought I’d mention that I’m very happy with the progress. It’s kind of hard to judge what the end product will look like, since Lane just finished the drawing before he tattooed the outline on me, but the peacock has a rather cute face. I also took a vote, and decided to name him Fritz. The outline is in gray right now, so before more permanent marks are made, Lane will probably have the drawing more developed so I can get a better idea and work with him on anything I may not like. On Saturday, I had my belated birthday dinner with Catherine at Olive Garden followed by white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, and she came over to my house afterward to hang out. She got me a photo album disguised as a clutch that was filled with random inside-joke related pictures of us and Joe hanging out, and a shirt and scarf from The Gap. As for Sunday, I was in a mad rush to finish all my homework, and ended up hastily packing and forget to pack underwear! I have one spare pair here and don’t have the time nor energy to take the bus downtown to buy new ones, so I’ve resorted to hand washing them. I can’t use the washing machines here because you have to have money in a special account. Lame.