Tattoo needles aren't very needle-like at all. It's more of a buzzing/vibrating sensation than a piercing one, if that makes sense.

I have a lower-back tat, and I loooove it. I do want another one, but I'm waiting until the right image presents itself and stays. Like, I like the idea of getting a simple star, or a stylized dragon of some kind, but it's gotta be something I want for years, really, before I'm comfortable with putting it on my body permanently.

My coworker has a tattoo of the Twister symbol (a sort of Keith Haring-esque jumble of heads and arms and legs) on his ankle, and he has a picture he's carried around with him for years that he says he'll eventually get as a tattoo. It's super cool. It's a logo from some pizza place, the name long-forgotten; it's a picture of a fat man, in profile, tossing a pizza in the air, but it's drawn with very clean lines and a sort of classical style, so that the man's hands are elegantly positioned as they toss the pizza, as though he's bestowing a blessing or performing a dance, and the pizza makes a delicate figure 8 in the air. He calls the picture "The Buddha Contemplating Infinity".

"The Buddha Contemplating Infinity"

That sounds awesome. I bet the pizza was good, too.

Timelies all!

YAY VW! Go you, you awesome woman.

Melvin the Trainer was....in a word....awesome. Kicked my ass and really nice to look at. He studies martial arts and I pitched Krav to him So, ita, if a strange, good looking guy comes to the Krav Center asking for you, remember who loved you enough to send him.

And maybe allow me a little one-on-one with Orly?

Perkins! You were in my dream last night. In a weird confluence of online communities, you and a blogger friend of mine were hanging out in Memphis with Emmett. It was very strange.

vw, I'm so glad you made it in, and am looking forward to you getting your iPod.

Yesterday I wrote 7 pages in about an hour and a half. Last week I only wrote 6 pages. Hopefully I've gotten through the sluggish story-beginning process and the writer's block I get from being freaked out by the big parts of my story and am getting some momentum going.

Bridezilla problems have been solved for now. Bride wouldn't bend on the pricing issue, but our choir director/sound system guru is going to do it himself for the lower price. The man is a SAINT.

"The Buddha Contemplating Infinity"

That sounds awesome. I bet the pizza was good, too.

The Buddha orders a pizza: "Make me one with everything."

Oh, Susan, that's awfully nice of him! Glad it worked out.

My project, part 2, is done. I'm off to grab some lunch before class.

See you all when I get home.

I just realized I skipped breakfast this morning. That would explain why I'm so hungry. I wonder if there are any bagels left upstairs.

Oh, I totally meant to have a bagel for breakfast this morning and then I forgot! Curses. (I did have cereal instead, and it was fine, but a bagel would have been BETTER.)

And from a ways back, about the water filters/purifiers: meara, it probably isn't going to be worth it to you to bring a water filter. I mean, filters are better from an environmental perspective, because then you're not wasting all that plastic with the bottled water, but they are kind of expensive; I think mine is on the cheap/low end, and IIRC it was around $50. It would be a useful thing to have, but it would take up space in your bag, and I'm sure you can get by just fine with bottled water. Anyway, looks like flea and Fay (for Egypt) and John and Thuy (for Vietnam) are your best references.