Ten on Tuesday ~ My 200th Post!

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I really can't believe I have enough crap stuff in my brain to come up with 200 posts, and I'm sure many people wish I hadn't shared a lot of it on this blog. (Hey, you don't have to read it.) I figured for this post I'll share a little bit more about me, if you can stand it.

You've been warned.

Crayl's subject for today's Ten on Tuesday list is "Things That Last." Below is a list of 10 things about me that have lasted.

1. My tattoos. (Duh.)

I got the one on my ankle when I was 18, almost 16 years ago.

It's heather flowers with Japanese writing underneath that reads "chan," essentially meaning "little one." We lived in Japan when I was three, and my parents learned to call me Heather-chan like the rest of the parents in my preschool did. The nickname stuck for a long time.

There are also more characters underneath that mean "little brother Ben," since Ben was born in Japan. He neglected to tell me when he drew them for me (he's fluent, the genius) that "ben" in Japanese is a homophone for a certain swear word that rhymes with spit. Thanks, Ben.

The other one I got right out of college. I'd seen a pin in a catalog that depicted the sun and the moon kissing. Thought it would be cool. No real symbolism behind it.



2. My undying love of ice cream.

I actually ate 6 cones in a row at Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day. You know how people say if you work at a place like a candy store or an ice cream shop, you get sick of it? I don't think that would happen to me.

3. My complete and total admiration for my brother.

He is seriously the smartest, most amazing person I know. This is one of the only pictures where he is actually shorter than me. That didn't last long at all.




4. My best friend, Amber.

We've been best friends for almost 30 years.

Isn't she adorable?

Amber and I met on the first day of first grade, when she invited me to sit at the desk next to hers. She is the kindest, sweetest person in the world with the biggest heart of anyone I know.

Here we are at our first concert together. We were in sixth grade, and we saw Madonna on her Who's That Girl? tour.


5. My insomnia.

Blech. I've had it ever since I was a little kid. My mom said I never slept well as a baby, either. It's a plague that doesn't show any signs of stopping.


6. My love of animals.

That started very young. We always had pets, like good ol' Josh here. His love of humans was tested when I came along, though.

7. My love of dressing up.

I always participated in every spirit/dress-up day, and every Halloween. I was totally comfortable with a pumpkin stem on my head and three pillows stuffed around my middle. I love pretending to be someone/something else.



8. My self consciousness.

Odd, I know, coming right after my love of dressing up. But when I'm supposed to be looking/acting/being normal, it's very distressing to me.

9. My love of change.

I'm always trying something new, especially with my hair. In this (high school) picture I had just cut off a foot of it.


I also like changing careers and permanent addresses. (I've moved 5 times in the past two years.)


10. My procrastination, messiness, and inability to cook. 'Nuff said.


For more fun lists of things that have lasted through the years, pop over to Beyond Black and White!

Skin-Deep Reflections

After thinking about yesterday's post, I'm wondering if I came off sounding more like Sarah Robbins from Marie Claire in her article, "Is Love Skin Deep?"

Jordan Ginsburg of BMEzine (I'm embarrassed that, as an editor, I don't know how to cite a zine) had a really great response to her article here, called "How I Learned to Stop Being a Vapid Moron and Kind of Love a Guy With a Tattoo."

I hope I'm not as vapid a moron, and maybe a little more open-minded? I'd like to think so, considering that Ralph has 10 (or is is 11?) tattoos in highly visible spots. I'm not embarrassed to walk down the street with him or worry what others will think. I think he looks great. Or does that just make me more of a moron for thinking that I'm above moron status because my boyfriend and I have tattoos?

It makes me think of all the various camps in the spectrum, ranging from people who are "plainskins" with no tattoos because they feel getting inked is morally wrong and masochistic and therefore feel themselves intellectually superior, to those who have tons of tattoos with many deep and spiritual meanings, and therefore feel they are more enlightened and, well, intellectually superior.

Food for thought.

Oh, and as for the misspelled tattoos, maybe the victims can take comfort in this quote I found:

Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing. - Randy K. Milholland

Editors' Worst Nightmares and other Tattoos

I think every editor's worst fear is finding a mistake after their work has already been published. Therefore, I can only imagine the absolute anguish one of us would feel upon finding one of the following permanent mistakes (cue screams of horror from all my co-workers):



If you think it doesn't happen that often, think again. I'm not kidding. The L Magazine showed these insane (and I'm pretty sure real) tattoos that just make me want to cry as an editor. (And as someone who has tattoos. And as someone who has enough brains to check that my tattoos are spelled right, even if they are in a foreign language. I triple checked, even with professors of the language.)

So many misspellings and punctuation issues!

The blog Awful Tattoos has some doozies, too, but I only found one with grammar/usage issues (is that bad or good?):



Do you think that the tattoo artists notice these mistakes and just don't say anything? Or do they not check their spelling either? Sacrilege!

Even though these are spelled correctly, I wouldn't want them on my body:

I did happen upon a pretty cool blog called Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos which pays homage to tattoos quoting books, poems, and lyrics.

I noticed a lot of people like Kurt Vonnegut:

Sylvia Plath:

and J.R.R. Tolkein, although his are mostly in Elvish:

Another site even has tattoos in Braille:

So many ways to express yourself!

I like the idea of getting a tattoo of a quote from a book, but there are so many from which to choose. If I ever do decide, though, I'm definitely spell-checking it first.

Oh, and for those of you whose passions lie in other forms of art/knowledge/information, literary tattoos are certainly not the only way to go. Check out Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium:

Who knew??