Positively Glorious!

Full design

I got the outlining done on my latest¹ tattoo this weekend, it wasn’t nearly as painful as I remember, possibly because my last one was on my leg, ankle and top of my foot. This was on my arm, a much less sensitive place.

Linework. I can't wait until it's filled!

The design is fairly complex– at least I think it is, it took me two years to finish it. It’s a salmon, reminiscent of NW tribal art, but which transcends² that single artistic style to encompass more of what I am– or at least what resonates within me.

This design, at least the meaning and the symbolism behind the design, is important to me. I sometimes think that tattoos are always important to the people who get them, but that’s not the case, so it bears stating. I spent 2 years working on this design, and virtually every aspect of it  contains meaning. For that reason, it’s difficult for me to imagine quickly jotting down a post answering a question like “What’s it mean?” This is what people, on Facebook and otherwise, have been asking me. I’m not sure they’re prepared for such a lengthy response.

There are a few more posts in this series for those who are interested. Those posts detail more of what went into this image. There’s a lot there, but we live in a fast culture, so I’ll run through a wee bit of it quickly– at least as quickly as I can. Continue Reading »

1. Jessie calls it “last.” I imagine she’s right. It seems as though I have a choice: another tattoo or another anniversary. [↩]
2. A bit melodramatic, perhaphs, but that’s the word I’m choosing to use [↩]

I’m nervous.

It’s surprising, but I’m nervous.

I mean, I’ve done this 4 times before, the first was when I was about 15!

My friends and I took a pin, shoved it into the eraser of a pencil so that the tip was sticking out, wrapped thin thread around the base of the pin to hold ink, then dipped the ink in to a small bottle of Indian Ink and stabbed each other in the arm repeatedly until a pattern emerged.

Art.

Continue Reading »

Last night, I was lucky enough to watch a really great story, The Man from Earth. It’s a very simple film, shot entirely in the the cabin of John Oldman, a university professor who is retiring and moving on, to the disappointment of– and without even saying goodbye to– his teacher friends. They arrive to catch him packing up his truck and are determined to have an impromtu farewell party. Pressed for a reason for leaving, John eventually tells them that he is a a Cro-Magnon caveman from the Upper Paleolithic, who still survives after 14,000 years. As the intellectual conversation continues, John reveals his story with increasing intensity and drama until the story climaxes with his most shocking tale. Continue Reading »

I haven’t been blogging lately. It’s just too busy here to maintain a steady schedule as I had been before Hydrasi took over my waking hours. I took a new part-time job, for a great deal less money, in order to have a bit more of my soul and a lot more time to focus on building Hydrasi over this next year. As it turns out, I’ve been working nearly full time anyway.

Normally this would be a bad thing, but my work is very close to what I’m doing with Hydrasi, so it’s actually quite good. There isn’t that conceptual break that I usually have going to work on something completely different in my #afterhours, which makes it easier to keep up the steam. I’m actually making fairly good progress, and am on track to make the very agressive deadlines I’ve set for the companies prototype launch of Overture.¹ Continue Reading »

1. If I told you that my soft deadline is July 13th, would you think that I’m crazy? I am… I’ll make the hard deadline of August 1st though, I’m sure [↩]