Here’s a rough sketch up of what I’ve got in the works for Mister Solo.

Stay tuned for the final application.

It’s the second week of the new year and I got hit hard again by a head cold. I blame stress, and not sleeping like a normal person. Never mind the fact that getting tattooed when you’re already not feeling one hundo really does compromise your immune system considerably. Derek is the dude doing a Sorayama piece on my ribs, so here’s a sneak peak of what came out of the whole 3 hour ordeal. All pain and resulted sickly state aside, I still maintain that it’s completely and totally worth it:

I’ve had to push back my starting date at the new studio a week later due to the roughness of this cold. But it’s official, I’ll be tattooing with Derek for Hartless.ca and I couldn’t be any more excited. Shit’s gonna be nutty to say the least.

I’ve been contemplating a lot about my irregular sleeping patterns and have arrived back at the realization that a little bit of meditation could probably be good for the mind-body-soul trifecta. I walked through a serendipitous conversation last week after training with a homie named Jus who laid some science down about zen-like-states and such. Combined with the freshness of this conversation in mind, as well as the reading I had on the Meanings of Boredom in Everyday Life, I started thinking really deep about how there are many parts of life where you try to transcend the current experiences you’re enduring, whether mundane like a job you find under stimulating or unbearably painful like being tattooed for hours on end, mourning the loss of a loved one or going through a tumultuous break-up, the tendency is to transport your mind somewhere else, or to distract it with vices. Although I see it as one of the best ways to learn more about yourself, I’ve been under the buzzing of the machine for over 30 hours now, and I can tell you that as much as I think I’m getting better at transporting my mind somewhere else to endure the ordeal, I still have trouble every now and then. Now I’m wrestling with the idea of achieving an enlightened state of compassion and peace/piece-of-mind through living in the moment. I mean, if you’re ever going to make effective steps to change established and debilitating patterns and habits, then the best way to do that would be to flip the switch as soon as it occurs. Realization here is key. I mean, chances are if you’re brain’s off somewhere else having tea with someone else or revising that lengthly list of the ‘to do’ kind, then you won’t be there to catch it, and another opportunity slips right by you. I’ll be first to admit here, that I’m just like everyone else – I do not have immunity to stress and am equally effected by matters of great importance, emotional or not. I catch myself having to re-center myself often with a few breaths and letting my shoulders drop a bit. After all, as much as we may bitch and whine about embarking on our travels, it’s just as much about the journey as it is about the final destination.

I mean, one day, you may miss all of this.

This message of positivity was brought to you by yours truly. Not as a sermon of sorts, but as a reminder for myself as well.

Stay Tuned.

UPDATE: given what I was just rambling about, I feel that the following clip fits in perfectly.

Newyears Intentions/Resolutions
1. step up my tattoo game, LARGE (and soon to be in charge.)
2. train 6x a week and master the art of footwork and getting hit without being phased by it.
3. kill the last 1.5 credits of my degree.
4. make more time for relaxation, family and friends. grounding and balance is more key than i sometimes think!
5. draw on the regular and learn how to use photoshop again.
6. take a cooking class or some other equivalent I’ve conceptualized with the Ladies.
7. take a dance class (ie.) ballroom/salsa/breaking. time to turn twinkle toes for once on all yo asses.
8. finally open up an RRSP account. only grown up woman business here.
9. learn more Tagalog. Roots, what?
10. get physiotherapy for my mashed up knee. girl be running now, here’s to no more obstacles.
11. complete my M1, do my RTI course and purchase a motorcycle. long time coming.
12. cut out smoking things completely.

Jae dropped this song on me, and I love it, so I hope you do too.
Don’t worry homeboy, I won’t slip and I won’t fall.