14.4.06

The best kind of memento is one you can't misplace, ever

Remember how I said my Narbonic book was my favourite San Francisco souvenir? Well, a couple of days later I got an even better one:
For quite some time, I have been thinking about getting myself tattooed. Then, about half a year ago, I ordered the Ass in your Pants shirt from the Achewood store. As a freebie, there was a Rabbit Ambulance temporary tattoo in there; you can probably guess what happened next. I put it on, and it looked great, so I decided I had to have it permanently, except bigger and more painful. I emailed Chris Onstad about it, who seemed to like the idea and sent me hi-res pictures of the art in question (Thanks, Mr Onstad!), so I started looking at tattoo places. But when I was in San Francisco I felt it was the perfect opportunity, so I looked around on the inter nets a little bit and called around. The shop I chose originally was all booked up, so they referred me over to One Shot, and I have to say I'm awesomely thankful for that. I called there, and I made an appointment with Sky for the last day of my stay, which we pulled forward to one day earlier because of a scheduling conflict (I'm pretty glad, since I realize now that twelve hours on a plane with a fresh tattoo wouldn't have been much fun. Scratch that, it would have sucked.) so on Tuesday I headed over there.
I found that One Shot is a wonderful shop and Sky is a very cool dude who put me right at ease (I was more than a little nervous). We talked the whole time he was working on me and I really have to thank him for making it a pleasant experience. The moment the needle touced my skin wasn't nearly as bad as I thought and overall tattoing isn't that bad, pain-wise (although I think I'd have trouble taking it for more than three hours). Afterwards, Sky even invited me along to have a beer with him and Greg at the Little Shamrock which is not only extremely cozy but apparently also the second oldest bar in SF. I had a great time there, and a great time before getting my tattoo so all in all, it was pretty much the best day ever.
When I got home after and "tended to my wounds", there was just a little more blood on my bandage than I expected, but as per the instructions I just washed it, put the ointment and a clean t-shirt on, and went to bed. Next morning: the horror! The fact aside that I had a (permanent?) decal of my tattoo on my t-shirt, the bed had gotten quite a bit of ink, too (I sure am glad that I was not only sleeping in a hotel, but in a hotel I was going to check out of that day), and I wasn't really prepared for that; I am however told that this is quite normal, so if you have a fresh tattoo and woke up this morning to dirty linen, you are not an ink-sweating freak, but you should chill out. Anyway, that and a little soreness aside, aftercare seems to be going well and I'll supply some more pictures as soon as healing is conluded and I can coerce someone to take them, since I didn't get it in a location where I can easily take pictures myself. Also, I think I need to take up bodybuilding so my awesome tat doesn't have to sit on such a pasty, flabby un-awesome shoulder. Peace out, blogosphere!

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11.4.06

APE is awesome

Today's day was all business, so there isn't really much to tell there. But! Yesterday! Oh, yesterday! During yesterday's webcomic trawl I found out that, wonder of wonders, APE was in San Francisco that weekend, and Shaenon K. Garrity was going to be there. There was no way I was going to miss that! The expo was awesome, even though I didn't have that much time to roam around; I'm used to being the only person for miles and miles who reads these things, and being in a large convention space with likeminded people, with people whose work I admire selling their stuff, it blew my mind a little bit. Here are some pictures.
Awesomely, I came for Shaenon Garrity, but the first thing I saw entering the hall was Stephen Notley's table; so now I'm a proud owner of a signed Angry Flower comic. Much love also to Jason Shiga, from whom I bought a Fleep book (I'm so stoked to see this printed!). But the high point was certainly chatting with Ms Garrity, and the Narbonic book with her signature and the little Helen sketch (so adorabwe!) in it is definetely my favorite souvenir of this trip.
Also, I bought Metroid Prime Hunters, and it is several shades of hawesome.

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10.4.06

San Francisco is where all the gay people are!

Most of today was made of driving from LA to San Francisco, and there's not a whole lot to see on the way, so I mostly played Advance Wars DS (dude, that game gets hard after the first dozen missions). What I did do though that was pretty awesome is in one of those small grocerie stores by the freeway I completely pigged out on a couple of american snack foods I only ever read about, like Cheetos, beef jerky, Oreos, Hershey bars and root beer. Man, those americans have this unhealthy food thing down pat!
After checking into the hotel we still had time to wander around Fisherman's Wharf for a while, and I tell you, I'm liking SF quite a ways better than LA up to now. I didn't know there were such awesome street performers here!

8.4.06

So this is LA

I've spent two and a half days in LA now, and while it's interesting, I must say I'm somewhat underwhelmed. LA seems to be this sprawling, spread out thing, with lots of small flat houses being most of it; It's absolutely impossible to get anywhere without a car, and only barely possible with one.
The business thing yesterday went well (and also the people we were meeting with took us to an absolutely awesome Mexican restaurant. Speaking of which: Guacamole? Food of the gods), so today we did the whole tourist thing. Mostest awesome to me was Downtown, mostly because it matched my expectation of an American metropolis pretty well; Also we had a great chinese meal at Grand Central Public Market, sitting down at this really basic stall. Somehow, awesome. What really cheesed me off was that I wanted to check out the Marvel Super Hero Exposition at California Sciencentre, but guess what? It closed at five. Yeah.
Tomorrow, we'll be driving over to San Francisco. Me? Looking forward. Peace out, blogosphere!

4.4.06

Don't be blue no more, daddy's back

Hello, blogosphere. I know, I've been gone. Baby, it's not your fault. I'm sorry, baby. I'm back, baby. Sort of. See, I've just finished packing for my business trip to the U of S of A (can you believe that?) tomorrow, and tomorrow I'll be leaving, and I'll be taking pictures for your sisterlet Flickr and I'll be taking lots of notes for you, baby. You won't have to feel left out anymore. Peace out, blogosphere. Be good. Be good for daddy.