Monthly Archives: January 2010

What does it take?

Some of you might have seen my tweet Sunday evening:

Nothing makes you feel like a great parent like having to kick your kid out of the house for having no ambition. *sigh*

Our son graduated from High School this last June. Since then, his mother moved to Oklahoma, so he moved in with the Husbear and I in August. With several understandings. All of which went unfulfilled. Since he moved in, he hasn’t had a job, and barely made an effort to find one only after we kept prodding him to do so. He always had an excuse for everything. We started checking up on where he put in applications and found out he only wanted part-time work, and only during the week. So he could spend the weekends with his girlfriend.

Argh!

He was supposed to go to an auto mechanic school down in Hot Springs, on a full free ride paid for by the state. Again, after we did the prodding to get him into school. More excuses on why he wasn’t starting.

We got tired of the excuses, finally. And kicked him out of the house essentially. Of course, he’s going back to his mother’s house in Oklahoma, where she pampers the kids and they can do no wrong.

Until next time...
Erik

More Impending Doom at the Great Retail Empire?

I have heard from several unrelated sources that there will be more layoffs at the Wal-Mart Home Office this coming week.

Hopefully this is all rumor, but I’m not holding my breath.

I just hope none of the peeps I used to work with or the peeps I care about who are still at the OGRE at this time will be affected. I hope.

Until next time...
Erik

Dear Tattooist: What happens to my tattoo when my weight changes?

DrRuss asked:

I’ve heard conflicting reports:

What happens to the tattoo image when you gain or lose weight? I am thinking about getting a new tattoo on the side of my torso (rib cage). I am planning on losing weight and want to know if I should get the tattoo now or wait until I lose the weight? Does the stretching of the skin when gaining weight affect the tattoo in any noticeable way?

This is one of those questions that gets the “It depends” answer. Genetics, elasticity of your skin, your age, quantity of weight change, and the location and subject matter of the tattoo all have a big part to play with what will happen to your tattoo in either gaining or losing weight. Areas of skin that are prone to stretching when you gain weight or shrinking when you lose weight may not be in the configuration you want when you achieve that new weight.

Some lucky people’s skin and their tattoos go back to the exact same place after dramatic weight changes. Some.

Just yesterday I saw a client who had stars tattooed across her lower abdomen just a few years ago. Then she got pregnant. Her body figure went back to “normal” after the pregnancy, but her skin did not. Now most of the stars no longer look like stars. They looked more like starfish. All wavy.

I’ve seen guys who had crosses tattooed on their deltoid. One lost weight, the other gained weight. Neither cross tattoo was no longer “straight” after the weight change.

If you are planning on changing weight dramatically, then I would suggest holding off until you are close to the weight target you are looking to hit. This is just my recommendation based on seeing people who have experienced dramatic weight changes and their tattoos.

If you have questions about tattoos: tattoos in general, about getting a tattoo, about giving a tattoo, or anything else related to tattoos, just add a comment to my November 6, 2009 post, or send me the question via e-mail from my contact page. I will then dedicate an entire post to answering your question.

Until next time...
Erik

United States of Walmart?

Now that politicians can be bought and sold by corporations with no limit thanks to the new ruling by SCOTUS, corporations with virtually unlimited pockets like Wal-mart Stores, Inc. will now own the government.

I FULLY expect corporations like Wal-mart Stores, Inc. to now pressure their associates into voting for politicians they want elected more directly than they did before. And yes, they do that. I can’t tell you how many emails I received while working for the company that asked us to express our vote for this or that candidate.

Will deep-pocketed Exxon and Wal-Mart buy the next Electoral College to elect the President?

The corporation(s) that controls the media and the Internet controls the minds of the people.

No, I’m not cynical.

Until next time...
Erik