tortoisegirl

30 Day Meme
Day 14 → A non-fictional book

Last year I had a class on the Cold War and one of the assigned books was one the professor himself wrote, A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev by Vladislok Zubok. And I thought that was pretty conceited, assigning your own book. I mean, it was cool to have a class with someone who's enough of an authority on the subject to have published a book on it, but it was certainly weird having to cite my own prof in papers. The book itself has some cool content, with actual correspondences between Stalin and Mao and all those big communist-type folk. But, it's pretty badly written. To the point where I had a lot of trouble getting through it (which wasn't the case with the other hardcore Cold War book we had to read). I pretty much only read it to get through the class so I can't really comment on its quality in terms of historical non-fiction - maybe it does have info and insights you won't find anywhere else and I simply missed them. But for casual reading about the Soviet Union I'd recommend something else. I wouldn't call this one good reading.

Went to a flea market on Sunday hunting for a new bookbag. Sadly there were none to be found, but I did get two very cool things...

( Eeeeeee! )

Boring life events ahead, but damn it's been a good few days.

-First of all, waaahhh, good news at school. Back in March I had my AP scores from high school sent to Temple (after an adviser mentioned they don't have them and I could be getting credit for them). I'm hoping that the upcoming fall semester will be my last, but I'd have to take 18 credits to finish my degree, and knowing how badly things go when I get overwhelmed with schoolwork that would not be a good situation for me. If I could get credit for the AP scores it would mean fewer classes and an increased chance that I'll actually graduate.

So apparently Temple got the scores but no one reviewed them to see if they could count for credit, leaving them floundering in the system for three months and leaving me freaking out. I started complaining to people this week. Three offices later it was resolved, and I got nine credits! So only four classes next semester, which is so much of a relief I can barely stand it. And graduation is in sight, ahhhh!

-My dad and I are both searching for new phones and we were browsing at the T-Mobile store yesterday. While a saleswoman was calculating some costs for him we started talking about how his old cell phone looks like the old Star Trek communicators, and the saleswoman joined in. When it was time to pay she didn't charge him for the stuff he needed. We think it was the Trek talk that did it :)

-My dad loved the graphic novels I got him for his birthday. He was actually looking at the same Clive Barker one online but decided against it because of price. It's sheer luck that I picked it up at the con, since it was the only thing by Barker I saw, and a happy coincidence that I did.

-I went to the art museum today, and the American collection has "Rachel Crying" by C.W. Peale - a painting of a woman crying over the body of a (very obviously) dead child. The description plaque said that when it was originally shown it was kept behind a curtain, with the warning "Before you draw the curtain, consider whether you may afflict a Mother or Father who has lost a child." And I had to suppress some giggles when I realized it was the 1772 version of an LJ cut and a trigger warning. Nothing new under the sun, even for you, internet.

I got my second tattoo today!

I got it done at No Ka Oi on South Street, which is where my sister and grandmom have gotten their tattoos. I specifically didn't go back to the shop where I got my first tattoo- not because I don't like that shop, I just wanted to experience a different place, and since the tattoo is so simple and involves so little artistry I didn't have to bother searching for a specific artist to do it.

I didn't really like the place though. I main problem was that I dealt with three different people in consulting about the tattoo (the person I made the initial appointment/consultation with, the person working the counter today, and the artist), none of whom seemed to talk to each other about it. The artist didn't even know she had an appointment until I'd been waiting for fifteen minutes and the counter girl told her. She hadn't seen any of the ref material I'd left with them, and rather than talk to me directly about specifics the counter girl did the talking and relayed the info to the artist (while I was sitting about five feet away). It was all very different from the first tattoo where I did everything one-on-one with the artist, and which I liked a lot better. This artist didn't even introduce herself to me or ask my name :/ No Ka Oi is bigger and busier so I guess some of that is to be expected, but it was still offputting.

BUT ANYWAY, about the actual tattoo. I got two constellation on my right arm, so it's essentially a series of dots (so hardcore, I know). Actual tattoo time was less than ten minutes.

PICTURES:

( Taking pictures of your own arm is harder than expected )

So yeah, I know they're not too pretty right now. The dots and the skin around them are still very red and swollen, and even though it was done in a brown ink the redness is discoloring it to black. Once it heals the color'll fade a bit, plus it'll heal under the skin rather than looking like it's just on the surface like it does now. Not as bold or dark. Ideally they'll look like freckles.

The cluster above my elbow hurt like a biiiitch. Noticeably more than the lower cluster. The needle was in the skin for only 3-5 seconds per dot, but I was gritting my teeth and doing some deep breathing for all of it. Also, it was really cool at first to be able to actually see the tattooing up close- I didn't realize how deep the needle actually goes into the skin- but when the pain got bad it bothered me to see the needle disappear like that so I had to look away.

BUT I AM PLEASED WITH THIS. I will happily show it off at Easter dinner tomorrow. :)

Merry Christmas, everyone! From me and the gummy bear family in their delicious new house.