Bleehgeehdeehblah...blah!

More, more, & more shadings

2006-09-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

9.1.06. Tattoo update..

Jill phoned the day before to inform me that she could squeeze me in her schedule for today. So, I went and got more shadings done before I came to work..

check it out

I'm good to go!

2006-08-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

Got my Chuck T's, black jean pants, & my old skool Montley Crue shirt, dark glasses, and pimp hat on! My crippled-ass is heading up the City to go see Death Angel play tonight at Slims and for some mosh-pitting :) It's going to be bad, loud, & rockin'. I'm ecstatic, let's do this..!

Out of commission

2006-08-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after getting tattooed, I went to Agenda Lounge with Carla, Laola, & Lisa P. There, I popped my knee out while I was dancing to some reggae music. I did not get home until almost 5am and I woke up at 830am, because my knee was throbbing & it was getting uncomfortable(not to mention that I was hung-over, and I just got some shadings done on my sleeve the day before). So, 9am I was hopping around at home and I was getting a little frustrated, because I couldn't really do anything. So, I grabbed my keys and drove to my parent's house to get my old crutches (this is not the 1st time I hurt my knee). My parent's were both home and so are some of my nieces and nephews, so I hung around. I had a good talk with mom and pops about this one project we're working on (I'm not going to disclose that as yet). I don't even know what I'm trying to point out on this blog..??? I guess I'm just bored and pissed that I can't really do shit right now..

PS. I had so much fun last night though that all these sufferrings are so worth it ;P

More shadings

2006-08-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

8.20.06, I got more shadings done on my sleeve.

A Weekend of Fun

2006-07-30T20:20:00.001-07:00

Friday, I got off work at 9:30 pm because I got my hours adjusted. I made a last minute decision to drive up to the City and hang out for a bit. So, I made a few phone calls and was able to huddle a couple of my buddies. We ended up going to my new favorite hang-out in the City, Hemlock Tavern and boy we had fun.. I remember drinking a lot of Jaegermeister Shots that night and a whole lot of silliness.. Let's just say that I didn't make it back home until 3pm the next day.

Today, my infamous friend "Rolly Papollie" from Sacramento woke me up at 10am to go see the San Jose Grand Prix. A lot of the guys couldn't make it, but the "Ma V" was able to join us. It was an eventful day at the races. Inside the San Jose Convention Center, they had some demo for submission fighting that Frank Shamrock was promoting for his new gym here in San Jose. They showed a lot of good submission moves and it was really cool! We got to see a lot of excitements in the race track, ie. champ car & stock car racing, race car driver fights, accidents, etc.. My favorite part was the drifting competition..

Sunday Bloody Sunday

2006-07-23T21:24:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to Strangers Car Show in San Jose. It's also been over a week of this unbearable heat wave, and the forecast recorded 100F when I was at the show. It was a good car show and there were a lot of cars that I wanted to have taken a closer look at and spend more time with, but the heat was just too much to endure. I was sweating like I was running a marathon. We took a quick walk through to check out the show, then booked out of there.

I sat in my car and blasted my AC to cool off for a bit, then left to go to my tattoo appointment. There was a positive energy floating around at the shop despite the heat. Taki, Dan and Jill were all there. We were fooling around talking shit about anything, but mainly about the heat. I had some shadings done on my sleeve that I'm getting worked on. I also got my copy of the first edition Horiyoshi III book that Taki & Grime put out. Score!

After getting inked, I went home for a long cold shower. Oh, and that felt really good! I went out to dinner with my buddy Gerry, then came right back home for some power zzzz's... My adrenaline wore off and I was very exhausted. It was a gruesome Sunday. A bloody one!

Can you guess what this noise is..?

2006-07-23T01:38:00.000-07:00

Boyoyoing! Boyoyoing! Boyoyoing!

Tattoo Update..07.19.06

2006-07-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

At work today and was kinda having a bad day and suddenly I received this voicemail msg from Jill, my tattooist. She said that she has an opening this coming Sunday, July 23rd in the afternoon. Immediately, I phoned the shop and booked it. My next appointment with her was supposedly not until Aug 20th, so I'm a little ecstatic that I will be coming in sooner than that. If you must know, I kept my Aug appointment with her. I can't wait..

You Hardcore?

2006-07-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

"You ain't Hardcore, unless you live Hardcore!" ~ Jack Black

Did it hurt?

2006-07-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a week now that I've been walking around with my new exposed tattoo, and there's been a tremendous amount of people that asks me "did it hurt". Well, yeah! It did hurt! What kind of stupid question is that?

House of Pizza

2006-06-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

A guy's gotta have his pizza, right?

I don't really get excited about pizza, unless it's from House of Pizza. If you haven't had it yet, you have to try it! I personally recommend their vegetarian pizza with mushrooms, artichokes, zuccinis, uuumm yuuumm... The toppings are made in the pizza not on the pizza. Oh, and they make it extra greasy too. If you can appreciate good things and set aside health concerns momentarilly, then Yes! I would say it's the best pizza place here in the South Bay, and it truly is one of the landmarks in San Jose. The only bad thing is they only deliver to businesses and they only do it during lunch time hours. It is located on 527 South Almaden Ave in downtown San Jose, and getting there is not quite convenient because it's always packed. It'll cost you around $24.75 for a large size pizza, but it is huge. It's a good place for friends and families.

Bon appetit!

Panera Bread

2006-06-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

Before, I would have to drive all the way to De Anza College just to eat at Panera Bread. I like to order their any bowl of soup ~ any half sandwich usually portobello & mozzarella or the turkey artichoke. They recently opened up a branch near where I work and that made me happy.

Yes!

I did it!

2006-06-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sleeve update...

So last Friday, I bailed out of work and gotten sleeved instead. Yep, I just got done it! Horiyuki Style!

I went in at the shop and Jill seemed like she was in a bad mood. It was like she had just woken up from a bad nap, pms or something... But really, it was just from all the annoying phone calls she was getting that day from clients, or at least that's what she said. So at that point I said to myself, "Oh fuck I'm screwed!"

About a couple of weeks ago, I went in for a consultation and discussed with her what I wanted tattooed. I gave my ideas but that was it. As far as what the actual tattoo and what it's going to look like, I gave the artist my full trust. I was gonna go freestyle and I went in balls out! Everything was going to be freehanded and I was a little worried that she was in a bad mood. I also had some last minute changes of ideas and I was afraid that will tick her off more. Luckily she was in favor of the changes. So we began...

Her mood flipped 180 when she got started. It was like she went into a zone. You could see passion in her eyes and I felt relieved feeling that energy flowing from her. I knew it was gonna be ok!

All that pressure and the heat that day made me sweat. It made the felt pen ink she drew on my arm as a draft to smudge on my skin. She was able to work with that and finish within 3 hours. That's including freehanding & outlining three quarter of my arm and it turned out to be sick!

I'll keep you guys posted...

I'm Getting Sleeved

2006-06-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

I've always been fascinated by Japanese Art, its Culture, & its History. I have been collecting books, old films, and documentaries for quite some time now. As a young boy growing up, I was exposed to a lot of Samurai & Shogun films, and Japanese anime, and enjoyed it. I'm most particular about the Ways of the Samurai; its significance in history, and its influence to modern art. Samurai's played a huge role in early Japan. Its involvement in their endless years of civil wars due to power struggles, or even defending their country from the Westerners, made a huge impact to what Japan is now. A lot has been acquired from it, and traditions are past on to this day.

These are the fundamentals of my next tattoo. I will be getting a three quarter sleeve on my left arm. It will consists of the following: Water, Cherry Blossoms, and Kanji that will read "life", "Choose Life", or "Chose Life". I'd like to keep it as simple as possible.

Water. It's no secret that Japan art is spiritual and is big on keeping the balance, ie. wind, water, air, fire, clouds, etc... I simply picked water, because of commonalty; I enjoy the water. Because of my ties to it, I decided to make it the foundation of my tattoo. It will set as the background of my piece.

Cherry Blossoms. Cherry Blossom are often compared to the Samurai. They're a beautiful site like the warrior in his shiny armor, but it only takes one big storm for the petals to fall to the ground just like the warrior in battle.

Kanji. I wanted to incorporate the word "Life", "Choose Life", or "Chose Life", because it has deep meaning to me. Of course, it would have to be in Kanji as I'm doing a Japanese theme tattoo. To explain further; During my teenage years, I made a lot of bad decisions. I came to a point where I was in too deep that it would have cost me my life had I not stopped. I was faced with the reality that "if I don't change my ways, I would probably die soon". Well, I chose life and I choose to live!

Last Sunday, I went to my consultation at State of Grace Tattoo Studio. Jill Bonny agreed to do the piece. I'm pretty confident about her work. She's done work for me in the past; a Hanya on my hip and it's awesome! You can check out her credentials and bio for yourself. She is a talented artist.

Looking to Re-locate

2006-06-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

San Jose has lost its charm and has nothing to offer me anymore...

Lately, I have been contemplating of re-locating to either Capitola or San Francisco. Just imagine being able to go for walks on a nice night, or see live music on any given day, the endless selection of dining places, being surrounded by beautiful, creative, open-minded people, the possibilities are endless. So there you go...once my lease is over early next year, I'm outta here!

Don't get me wrong, San Jose is great city (if you don't mind being around thugs and gangstas), I've simply outgrown it.