Tattoos And Our Youth

"Bananamuffin says FML 3/30/2012
Today, I realized that the "holla" tattoo I stupidly got on my lower lip five years ago isn't fading as I expected it to, and will probably contribute to my unemployment for years to come. FML"


I just read this on FML.com. It's a site the allows users to vent their embarrassments. It's a very entertaining read. It usually has me laughing or shaking my head in pure distrust. Are all the posts real? I don't know and it won't bother me if they were not. However, this post touched a topic that I feel strongly about; youth and tattoos.

I'm all for tattoos, I have one of my own. My concern is how the youth are abusing it. Tattoos are glamorous to our youth. They see them glorified on television and movies; with celebrities adorning showing them off. But they do not see the impacts of tattoos in their life. Tattoos are much more accepted today than they were in the past, but they are still frowned upon.

My mother didn't take too kindly to mine or my brothers, but she couldn't really do anything about it. She did lecture us when we were young about marking up our bodies. She claims that once you get a tattoo, you become a marked person. Everyone will be able to identify you. To me that wasn't a downfall, but more of a benefit. Say something happened to me and my face and dental records were unidentifiable, my tattoo would be another form of identification. I thought long and hard about getting my tattoo because I knew it is a permanent addition. I thought long and hard where I wanted to place the tattoo too. I ended up putting it on the inside of my right ankle. Why did I put it there? This is my reasoning:
1. That area will stay the same size if I gain or lose weight.
2. It is not very noticeable in a skirt.
Location of your tattoo is important. It can determine a lot about you and your future. As Bananamuffin is realizing now, she should have have thought about before she got a tattoo on her lip. Who will want to hire her? Maybe a tattoo parlor? Telemarketer? If you have tattoos on your face and hands, let's say you have a slim chance of getting a decent job in corporate America. If you have a tattoo at all you will not work for the FBI or CIA as an operative. You can't have any identifying marks.

We see celebrities like L'ilWayne and Angelina Jolie having tats. Wayne moreso than Jolie.

L'il Wayne has tats all over his face, but he makes a lot money where he doesn't have to look for a job. When he got his record deal, he didn't have them.

Angelina Jolie has a lot of tats, but they are not on her face or hands. Only ones you can see are the ones on her upper arms.









What would happen if Wayne lost all his money, businesses and fame and had to search for a job? He would probably have to work in construction or something that he does not have to work with clients. He may not even be able to work. If the same happened to Jolie, she would be more successful. Why? She looks presentable and will have a good face for representing a company.

As parents of youth, you should discuss tattoos with them so they don't make decisions like Bananamuffin. You should discuss all the negative repercussions and positive things about tattoos. You want them to make informed decisions then stupid impulsive decisions that can ruin their future. Tattoos will always be an attractive element in all generations. It's all about how we communicate to our youth what's appropriate and what's not. They'll probably just ignore us anyway and do something stupid. Regret is costly and painful.

Review: Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is book has been on the news and Good Morning America so much that I was curious to read it. So I downloaded a sample of the book onto my kindle. Within 5 pages I knew I had to get the full book. As I was reading, I learned some more facts. This book was fan fiction of Twilight. I don't see it. I may be oblivious, but I don't get any teen angst from the book.

This book is about a mogul C Grey who falls for a college grad A Steele and introduces her to his lifestyle. Whether or not she accepts the lifestyle is for me to know and for you to read.

I have seen many reviews on this book about the author's bad writing. I say for a first time author, her sales are sky rocketing. With all her newness in the writersphere, she can improve. I don't believe this book was published via major publishers, but self publishing. Therefore, she didn't have a team of editors to catch all her mistakes. What she did do right was to create strong characters and a good story. If you can't grasp a character then what's the point of a story. Yes there was a lot of repetition, but the story was still strong. Her story has captured millions of readers. Can the naysayers say they have reached this success for a new author? Let us give our cheers to a new author and not strip her down. Author community should be warm and inviting. Not bitchy or cold. She will get better. But will you?

This book is very good. It had me grab the next 2 books in the series. It is worth a read if you are into adult & romantic books.



View all my reviews

John Carter No More

John Carter opened this past weekend and pulled in $30 million. That may be a lot of mullah for us lay people, but for Hollywood, that's a bust. John Carter cost $250 million to make. They only recouped 12% of the cost. However, it did open 2nd to the Lorax. This was the Lorax's week out.

John Carter is a movie based on the book "Princess of Mars". It's about a man in colonial times who lost his family and refused to continue to fight for the union against the Indians. He finds himself transported to Mars and ends up fighting for a country being conquered by another. This is the short version of the story.

The movie was great, but you wouldn't know that. Neither would I if my fiance didn't take me to see it. Disney did not Market this movie well at all. It is solely their fault in this movie tanking. The trailers for this movie made no sense at all. I kept wondering what this movie is about. Imagery alone does not make a movie sell. I'm sure it also through the rest of the population off.

I was reading an article the other day, wish I saved it to link it, that discussed how Disney's marketing team has gotten so bad. Disney used to be great at marketing. They had population running to see the movies, buy the dvds, and any and all merchandise. Then somehow, they took a turn to only marketing to girls excluding boys. This was their focus for a while. Then they realized they lost a big demographic. So they purchased Marvel in order to try to get the boys back. They did promise to leave Marvel alone. They are doing well with them. Eveyone's dying for the Avengers' movie. However, they ended up hurting themselves.

Disney needs to revamp their marketing team or they should just hire outside the company for marketing. Marketing is making them lose money hand over fist. Something needs to be done. John Carter was a good movie and it left us with a cliff hanger. I doubt they will produce a sequel because this movie is tanking. I do hope it at least makes up the cost in the coming weeks.

My rating is B+ for the movie and F- for Disney's Marketing team.

OMG!! 3 Months!!

I'm getting married in like 3 months!!! Oh my Goodness. Me? Reality is setting in. The biggest reality is what I'm writing this blog about: Love. I can't believe how powerful this emotion can be while it is so unassuming.
This emotion evolves throughout your life and it takes multiple different shapes. There is the love of your parents and siblings. There is love between strong friendships. Then you have the ever fiery love in relationships. They the truest love is the love that moves from friendship into a relationship. However, besides the love of family and friends, I, for years, thought I was incapable of loving another. This type love requires patience and dedication. I lack the former.

I've had relationships before as most women my age have. Two out of the few that I had I believed at the time were pretty serious. However, I never felt for them like I feel for JH. Looking back I really didn't love them with my whole heart. I loved them as I would love a friend. What kept them around was carnal need and convenience at the time. Lust sometimes is as powerful as a fiery love. You just need to know the difference. It's hard to detect when you are in middle of it.

I have been told so many times that I can be cold hearted, difficult and can be detached. I can understand about the detachment. Once my patience is run down, I lose all interest in dealing with you. So I say "Fuck It" and move on. I'm not going to become the vengeful woman. The Bitch who curses her man. My main thing is "I don't want anyone who don't want me". I keep it moving. I learned in elementary not to get too attached to people because they will leave. My mother always re-iterated "You were born alone and you will die alone". So all this advice and experience made me stand-offish and a bit distant. I always kept a little guard around my heart. Being called difficult was because men didn't get their way. I never thought I was difficult. I have self respect and will not let any man make me do anything I feel demoralizing or unhealthy. If standing my ground is being difficult, then I'll gladly be difficult. I believe the coldhearted comes from my issue with detachment. Once I detach I could care less. I guess that's being coldhearted.

When I met JH in person, I felt so much at ease. It felt natural. Maybe because we spoke all the time on the phone and thru AIM. We had an established friendship. Our love took us by surprise. We both agree that we didn't plan on this moving past a friendship. Look at us now! I can't imagine my life without him. With him I am myself. There are are no pretenses. He's a great man and I'm lucky that I found him. He doesn't think I difficult. He doesn't ask me to do things that are out my character. He LOVES me for ME and not what I can do for him. He takes care of me like I'm a princess. And I want to take care of him. I just know that he's throne for me. I feel as if he was made just for me. I can't wait to be his wife!!!

Wedding Plans - Part 5

I held off on blogging my plans for a while because I had a planning trip coming up. Well my trip has come and gone, so now I have ample amount of stuff to discuss. The trip was over President's weekend. I didn't realize that when I booked my flight in December. No wonder airfare was ridiculous to find. We had to fly Delta, not fun or comfortable. At least they have leather seats.

On with planning.......

1. Ceremony

The ceremony is nearly complete. I had our planning meeting with another tour of the 2 gardens, just in case I wanted to switch. I have the Grand garden. Heritage has an incline that I don't care to walk down and it has a bit more greenery. It does match my esthetic.

Only left for the ceremony is to find songs for me to walk down the isle in & the recessional song.

2. Photography

I am still using the venue. It's the stress free way. At least I don't have to deal with Bro-in-law.

3. Honeymoon

Since we couldn't afford Bora Bora, we have settled with Hawaii. We were also thinking about doing a cruise around Hawaii instead of staying on the main land. However, we can't do the cruise since it leaves on the Saturday. Not able to get there on time. So we are looking at staying on the islands.

4. Guest List

This is done. It still a sort of contention when it comes to my mother. She just wants to control my list. She needs to to back off and respect my wishes. Just waiting for the day she calls JH to harass him about it.

I am having sort of a back up list for those who do not come. So I am looking at other people who I want.

5. Invitations

I combed thru 3 websites for invitations and I also had found a paper place in the city where we can create our own invitations. After price comparisons, it was cheaper to use one of the websites. I tried the following sites:
www.invitationsbydawn.com
www.theamericanwedding.com
www.weddingpaperdivas.com

We narrowed the samples down to 2 invitations we liked. This is our first choice.

 And this is second choice.

 However the 1st choice does not come in our wedding colors. So we went with our second choice. We are waiting for them to deliver now.

I made my own Direction cards and I will be making gift registry cards.

6. Save The Date

This is done with some controversy.

7. Florist

We met with the florist and came up with great choices. Why are florists expensive though? I knew they were going to be. It's just a known fact. To be honest, I'm not really fond of flowers but they do serve their purpose. So we got our bouquets, boutonnières, corsages and flowers for ceremony & reception.

8. Reception

We got to go cake tasting and menu tasting while we were in there.

Cake tasting was the best part of the trip! We got to sample different cakes and fillings. We were in sugar heaven. Have you seen 60 year old men on a sugar high? Wish I did. We came up with great combinations for our cake. I'm drooling just thinking about it now.

Here it is...
Top cake is German Chocolate cake w/ the appropriate filling.
Middle cake is butter (yellow) cake w/ a cherry & cream cheese filling.
Bottom cake is coconut w/ a chocolate coconut (bounty) filling.

Yum! I don't want to share it. We have to find a topper for the cake though.

Menu tasting was good too. We got to sample for free. It all was good. I'm looking forward to the reception. I still have work to do on this. I have to work on the music. One thing is Luther Vandross & Celine Dion are banned from my wedding. I have to do songs for group dances and all. We have our mix of music, just the special dances. Now my dad wants a full bar and we want a cash bar. We are not agreeing on this. After all it's just a brunchy/lunchy reception. Don't really need too much liquor.

I also have to do seating plan and choose what I want to overlay and underlay for the tables.

9. Salon

Made salon appointment for the event. I have to be there for 7:45 AM!!!! I hate waking up that early. So that means we are going to be up like 5 am to get breakfast and get all what's needed taken care of. I'm not going to starve myself. I'm not a nice girl when I'm hungry, lol.

10. Gown/Tux

We got the men their tux rentals. My dress has come in. I should be making an appoint,net for fitting really soon. Also the girls' dresses came in too. So we need to make a fitting for that too.

I also assisted in helping JH's mom find a dress for herself.

11. Registry


We have one set for The Container Store. I plan on doing another one for Target.

The wedding is 3 months from now. I'm excited but I reality is syncing in. Stay tuned for further updates.