New Tattoo Parlor

A. 57  11/30/09

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I visited family in Cleveland, Ohio. One of my cousins whom I visited just opened up his own tattoo parlor, which was an exciting accomplishment for him.

My 22 year old cousin, Art’s brand new shop is called, Estilo Tattoos. He has been in the business of permanently inking people’s bodies for three years already and is quite talented. His shop also does piercings and while appointments can be made, walk-ins are also welcome.

I recommend any of you who are thinking of getting a tattoo (and if you are in the Cleveland area) to go to my cousin’s new (and very clean, I might add) shop. His goal for the new parlor is to accommodate customer’s custom requests. You can view some examples of his work on his site. Below are some of my favorite designs (sketches and finished tattoos) of his.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

P. 95  11/27/09

Like Thanksgiving’s food leftovers, there are also Thanksgiving blog post leftovers such as this one. I know that since Thanksgiving only lasts for one day, that there isn’t the need for a second post about this great food-based holiday. But we are so used to the idea of leftovers, so why not give it another go-around?

I think a lot of people get Thanksgiving all wrong. It’s not really a holiday that lasts just one day. With Thanksgiving usually comes days of eating and days of leftovers. We all know that Thanksgiving is on a Thursday, but does anyone know why? I say Thanksgiving should be declared a two-day holiday for a few reasons.

First of all, then knobody has to fret about going back to school or work for one day left of the week. Most everyone travels for Thanksgiving and it would just be a whole lot easier if we all just got the next day off, as well. But also, Thanksgiving should last two days, to celebrate all of the leftovers that seem to be inevitable. We need an extra day just for the Thanksgiving meal’s leftovers. We should have the day to be extra thankful for our abundance.

To celebrate this idea of making Thanksgiving a National two-day holiday, I am bringing you a fantastic (almost) Thanksgiving-themed song. (This would be the song of the week, if I actually had the song stuck in my head, but instead, I’ve really just had one segment stuck in my head 1:41-the end.)

Happy Ugly Bird Day

P. 94  11/26/09

Some people refer to Thanksgiving as T-Day for short, or Turkey Day, to be clever. If I were these people though, I’d think twice about paying homage to the turkey. Like any other non-vegetarian Thanksgiving-goer, I like to eat my share of turkey. But one of the reasons I enjoy it so much is because I give thanks for this bird being dead.

The turkey is definitely one of the ugliest birds out there. So thank goodness it is dead and we are consuming it. I don’t need to see these birds living in the wilderness. They are ugly birds, so it is a good thing we decided to go with this selection to kill and eat on Thanksgiving.

While I’m on the subject of ugly birds, I will tell you that the turkey is not the only nasty-looking bird out there. Oh no, believe me, there are plenty of other disturbing birds out there. I don’t want to completely ruin your appetite today, so I will only provide you with a couple other examples.

Take the pelican. This prehistoric beast has the most intimidating mouth around (that’s what she said). Sure, this bird can seem graceful as it glides near the water looking for fish, but once it opens its mouth, you’ve got another creature you’re dealing with. This freak has an enormous mouth for fishing and you don’t want to get near one. (Check out this highly disturbing website for some truly gross pictures of the pelican’s disturbing beak.)

Last, but surely not least is the owl. For a while now, I have thought the owl is one of the scariest birds out there. Sure, owls have been made to be cute and a “cool, hip” symbol, but I tell you they are scary. Those big eyes staring you down, the curled, snappy beak, and that haunting pose of theirs where they basically just look like they are out to get you. And when they just happen to be ready to scare you they sure put on a display. (And by display, I mean terrifying freak show.) You are being forewarned, that you may want to hide your children and overt your eyes. What you are about to see, may give you nightmares…..

Sorry kids, I had to.

So on this holiday, when you sit down to chow on some turkey, don’t forget you are doing the world a wonderful service by ridding the land of such a foul foul. Nobody should have to look at such awful-looking birds. -Unless they are dead, on a plate, and covered in gravy and cranberry sauce, and stuffing. Then, by all means, forget these pictures and gobble away!

Abe Pollin

C. 27  11/25/09

Yesterday, on Tuesday, November 24th, a great Jewish figure in Washington, D.C.’s recent history, passed away. Abe Pollin, who was 85 years old, was best known for bringing professional basketball and hockey to D.C. Pollin was the owner of the Washington Wizards (formerly the Bullets), the Mystics, and the Capitals.

Washington’s professional basketball and hockey teams used to play in Landover, MD at the USAir Arena, formerly the Capital Centre. Pollin was responsible for the building of the Verizon Center, formerly the MCI Center (the new home to these teams) in 1997 and the transformation of Chinatown and its surrounding neighborhoods. According to Wikipedia, “the Arena is not only a popular venue for sports and concerts, but helped to turned “Gallery Place/Chinatown” neighborhood into one of the prime sites for commercial development in Washington.”

In addition to Pollin’s involvement in DC’s sports, he also had a history of involvement in the real estate market, building his first major project, The Robert Towers near the Pentagon and named for his first son. His final project, “a 500-unit luxury [apartment] complex in Chevy Chase, was the Irene, named for his wife” (Express).

Abe Pollin will be greatly missed by his family and the Washington Jewish and sports communities. May he rest in peace.

Living In A Dream

P. 93  11/24/09

I have decided that over the past few days, I have been living in a dream. Something I have always dreamt of happening actually did happen, and it was amazing. For that limited time when I was living the dream, it was very nice. The dream had limited physical remnants on my real, “physical” life too, which made the transition from the sub-conscious to the conscious relatively easy.

However, dreams don’t last forever. Living in a good dream is better than not, and I was sad to see the dream come to an end. When I was faced with reality, I sadly realized that this dreamy and strange stream of events could only really have happened in a dream or in my mind. Things I dream up like this never actually happen to me. Reality made me realize that you can’t really obtain everything you dream about and have it last for a while…

A Vague Situation

P. 92  11/23/09

A situation between two parties occurred over the weekend.

Both parties got along as friends before and during the situation. Both parties may have felt differently about the situation after it had happened.

Party 1 feels strongly about Party 2 and would like to both keep Party 2 happy and find out for sure Party 2’s opinion of the situation. Party 1 does not know which is more valuable: finding out Party 2’s feelings for sure or not bringing it up and keeping Party 2’s feelings as positive as possible.

Party 1 had positive feelings coming out of the situation, but it is important to Party 1 to learn whether or not Party 2 also felt positively about the situation. However, approaching Party 2 directly may result in Party 2 feeling uneasy and ultimately result in negative feelings.

Optical Illusion

P. 91   11/20/09

Sorry readers. This is like the first time ever that I have writer’s block and seriously can’t think of anything decent to write. I guess it was bound to happen. I do think it’s impressive though that I’ve gone 11 months before succumbing to this annoying void of thoughts. But it’s a Friday, so I feel that that’s a little more forgivable.

So instead I am bringing you this optical illusion. How is this an illusion, you ask? Well it seems that the green and the blue stripes in this image are actually the same color. They are both the same color as the colored box at the bottom. The arrows point to the places where the green/blue stripes intersect with the box. When you look closely, you can see that when merged into the box, the stripes are actually the same color as the box. Freaky, right? This is explained to us because our brain perceives colors by what is next to them. Thus, the pink color creates a blue tint and the orange color creates a green tint in our brains.

James Victore’s Crude Art

A. 56  11/19/09

I was looking through the graphic design magazine, “GD USA” (July/August 2009 Issue) today and found a clever spread about some designers who make housewares. They are unique because they incorporate a subtle, sexual theme which may make onlookers do a double take, since they are meshed with either the more traditional art or humor. One of the artists whose work I took a liking to, was James Victore.

The magazine explained that often times he will use a black sharpie marker on a restaurant’s porcelain dish to create a drawing on the plate. The drawing will be pleasant or demeaning, depending on his experience and service. I like Victore’s renegade art form. It’s like a mix between street art/graffiti and almost performance art. Below are some plates from his site. Some of them are sexual and some are just funny.

Ovie’s Shoulder Doctor

C. 26   11/18/09

Breaking news! I learned today a very exciting piece of information! Get ready, people. Juicy tidbits of information like this, don’t come around very often…

My mom has a shoulder doctor because she’s had a history of shoulder pain and injuries. Apparently her shoulder specialist, Dr. Benjamin Shaffer, is also the team physician for the Washington Capitals! Dr. Shaffer has most recently been tending to Alex Ovechkin’s shoulder over the past week. Ovechkin was out for six games, due to an upper body injury which occurred in the Caps game versus the Columbus Blue Jackets. It seems that Dr. Shaffer is the man to go to if you are having shoulder problems and live in the D.C. area!

Metro Shyness

M. 14   11/17/09

Sometimes I can’t stand how shy I can be. I can be unbearably shy. Granted, I’ve gotten much better with getting over my shyness, due to all the organized social sports I have been participating in, in my post-college life. But I still have a shy temperament. I am still supremely shy when it comes down to being in a new situation or being around people I don’t know. Yesterday was a fine example of this…

I was sitting on the Metro on my way home. The train wasn’t particularly crowded. There were two seats perpendicular to my single seat that had just emptied up. I partially looked up as two attractive guys around my age walked over and took a seat in the seats. There were other seats they could have taken and it seemed like they deliberately sat next to me, which was flattering. These guys were really close to me and I really wanted to turn my head to get a better look at them, but didn’t want them to catch me doing so. I kind of just sat there.

Maybe the guys were trying to get my attention when they started reading and commenting on the poster that was on the train wall right above my head. I cracked a smile when the guys started joking around. When we got to the Tenleytown stop, one guy asked his buddy if this was their stop. It wasn’t and they began to joke about the name, Tenleytown. It was kind of dumb, but funny as they were calling it, “Techno Town;” making up stories about how in Techno Town they only play techno music. It kind of seemed like they were joking around in front of me, seeking a positive reaction from me. They probably were trying to get my attention. Too bad, I was way too shy.

This music discussion led them into a conversation about some really great and nice karaoke bar that was part of a Vietnamese or Thai restaurant. Apparently something happened where they were given free beers from someone. (Yeah, I know this is weird that I am recounting their conversations. But since I didn’t get a good look at them, this is all I have for the memory.)

Then one of the guys looked across the aisle to read the headline on a newspaper some man was reading. The man seemed kind of peeved that this guy was reading his paper from the other side of the train. I thought it was kind of funny. But I kept looking forward/down, unable to at least look at these guys. I really wanted to say something to them, but couldn’t muster anything, nor could I decide what I would even say. I felt terrible.

You know, if I were drunk or something, I would have no problem striking up a conversation with these guys. And the problem is, if under alcohol’s influence, I probably would only just do something simple like look at them or say, “hi.” Those things really aren’t anything major, but I still can not bring myself to do that. But with a little influence from something like alcohol to lower my inhibitions, I seem to almost act like a normal not-shy person. (Now, I’m not saying that I should drink alcoholic beverages all the time. I’m just noting what a little inhibition can do for me in a good way.)