Angel dearest:

            Here we are on the army transport “Warren”.  I have always wanted to travel on one to see what it really was like, and am most agreeably surprised, for this one is fine, and such nice people on board.  Everyone Army except two other Navy families who are just taking the southern island trip as we are and going right back to Manila.  The men are rather scarce for it is just time for maneuvers so they are all out in the field, but there is such a dandy girl, Marjorie Edson from Washington, whose sister is married into the Army, and they too are making the round trip, so she and I have had heaps of fun together.  We sleep out on deck on cots everynight because it is pretty hot inside.  This trip is certainly interesting.  We have made about ten stops in the two weeks.  You see this transport carries all the passengers, troops and supplies to all the camps and posts in the islands,  so everywhere we stopped they would give us a dance or invite us out to dinner or there would be some interesting native village to drive to.  We were in [Job/Jolo] two days and a night, and it was terribly exciting because there they are having such awful insurrections.  The Moors are are a dreadful people, have no fear of being killed themselves, and take the oath to kill all the Christians they can.  We all drove around the town in the army ambulance that morning, went through the market where they had the most awful looking stuff to eat I’ve ever seen, and the worst looking people. The women pierce their ears just as they would for earrings only make bigger holes, and then in this hole they carry a couple of cigarettes and matches.  They will sell you their very souls – anything to get money, and I had such fun dickering with some of the men for rings they had on, or a mat they were sitting on, or some such thing.  Every where we went we had to have armed soldiers right with us, for the Moors are apt to break out any minute and cut you up with these awful knives they all carry.  Our ship, by the way, was loaded with coffins for the American soldiers and officers that have been killed the last few weeks.  That night we were going to a dance, and just before starting we heard firing, and in a few minutes some of the women came back to the ship with soldiers to guard them, and said that the colonel had been forced to dismiss the dance and order out the men.  Orders had also been issued saying that no one was to leave the ship.  We couldn’t sleep out on deck, and all the women had to stay on the side away from the wharf.  The ship’s guard was doubled, and sentinels guarded the decks, and each passage way along the staterooms all night.  The fireing sounded almost on us, and once they set the town ablaze, but that didn’t last long.  It was thrilling, I tell you and looked pretty serious for a while.   The shooting kept up till about midnight, then everything was quiet, and we heard and saw nothing more.  I think it must be awful for the officers wives and families there, but they say they can’t bare to go away and not know what has happened, for it takes so long to get any news to Manila.  We got a few baskets and some floor mats that I thought would be so nice for my “bungalow” porch.  Will send these home when we get to Manila.  Hope the other three packages have reached you by now.  Everything that I send is native products, so has no duty.  I always forget to tell you about visiting in Manila Mr. Schillinger who has just come out from being German consul in Chicago, but lived in Lake Forest; do you remember meeting him with Jack L. at a dance one night at the Station?  He certainly has been nice to me – has taken me driving several times; to the carnival, etc.  Also a Russian man whom I knew in L.F. (but you never met him) is there and took us motoring, etc.  and out to dinner twice.  It seemed so funny to see them there.  You remember Mrs. Weigenstein, don’t you.  She, or rather they, are stationed at Batanga’s now – about five hours by train from Manila, and wants us to visit her, and I think we’ll go about the middle of the month.  They have been over only a month.  Am so anxious to see them, especially Lucile and the young son.  Really I feel as though I belonged more to the Army than I do to the Navy lately, but it is a nice feeling to have, for I must say I do like Army life.

c/o Consul General, Yokahama, Japan

Loads of love for you and Shang.

Alice

March 1^st, 1913  We hope to reach Manila tomorrow.

E quem é mais idiota ao ponto de fazer um?

Halloween 08 more details soon . . .

]]> http://jurgenbrusselaers.wordpress.com/?p=861 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:18:30 +0000 jurgenbrusselaers http://jurgenbrusselaers.no.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/ooit/

Collette of CostumeCuties.com pierces her own chest!

Miley Cyrus celebrated her sweet sixteen with a big birthday bash at Disneyland on Sunday, October 5. At the event, the Disney sweetheart flashed a new piercing on her body.

According to Perez Hilton, the teen actress has gotten her belly button pierced. The ex-girlfriend of Jonas Brothers' Nick Jonas showed off her new jewelry at the star-studded birthday bash she had last weekend.

Miley sported a white ruffled skirt and jersey-like vest with "Sweet 16" printed on the back while performing on stage at her birthday party. During her performance, the "Hannah Montana" starlet showed off her new navel piercing.

"My parents shut down Disneyland for me, so I'm good for a while," Miley said of her sweet sixteen party. "This is the most amazing sweet sixteen that a girl could ever have!," added the daughter of country superstar Billy Ray Cyrus.

photo credit: http://justjared.com/

source: http://www.celebrity-mania.com/

Even here at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, it's not a surprise (although a little geeky I must say [I use that word in all love and jest]) to see some random theological words etched out in Greek or Hebrew on some seminarian's bicep or bulging calf (okay, maybe not bulging...but you get the point). Is it just me, or is that like a computer science major getting a tattoo of some binary code of John 3:16 on their forearms? Will it start a conversation? Eh, perhaps. But so will wearing a pink tutu in the middle of winter.

But if you strike out on the tattoo with that random Christian you picked out, just ask them where they're pierced. Granted, this is not so in vogue for the guys, but I can't tell you how many Christian girls I know that have their noses or belly buttons pierced. It was different and edgy back in the 90's, but now, I see more diamonds in a girl's nose than I see in her ear or on her finger (which, if I can make another observation, it's interesting to consider that most of the girls that have their noses pierced are not married and don't have any kids -- whatever that means). And belly-rings, well, they just befuddle me. I'm too backwoods to grasp the attraction of a steel ring where your umbilical cord was once attached I guess. But, to each his own choice of stomach hardware and aluminum accessorizing.

So Hank, you may be asking, what are you trying to say?

Well, first let me say that I love many tattooed people. And Jesus loves them too. You're not justified and/or sanctified by your inkiness or lack thereof -- the blood of Christ alone is sufficient for the forgiveness of sins, and the holiness by which we can then see God. And the same goes for piercings. If you want to put a fish hook in your eyebrow, more power to you. Just don't do it in front of me, cause I don't handle blood very well (in fact I'm getting queasy just thinking about it). So for me, this issue is not about whether or not I like you, love you , or would be more than willing to fellowship with you.

Here is the main point of this post: I want this generation to realize that it's still cool to be unpierced and uninked. There is a growing pressure within the Christian subculture to conform with nonconformity, which ends up with all of us looking like everybody else anyway. If you're inked, good for you. But don't think you're any more edgy than a hundred thousand other college juniors that have that same Jesus fish you thought you sketched out so well for the tattoo artist. Don't think witnessing will be any easier or any more natural because you have the same cross on your bicep that 20 other lost people in your class room have on theirs.

Ladies, some guys like nose piercings (I'm assuming, though I'm not one of them), but that's not the point of a piercing anyways, is it? It's so that when you sneeze on the subway, some lucky homeless guy may end up with a diamond stud in his tip jar, right? And those belly button rings, well, again, I'm at a loss as for what purpose those serve -- other than the same purpose those shorts with writing on the rump serve. But more than likely, I'm totally off base on that. What do I know? I'm just one of the random guys that wonder why there's a twinkle on your tummy.

If cultural commentary or empowered witness is your purpose in all this, I would urge you to think twice about it. If it's fundamentally a display that says, "Hey! I'm not a legalist! See, I've got a tattoo"; then you may need to reconsider your purposes. Dr. R.R. Reno from this First Things article has some words to offer as well:

"As the tide of impermanence rises, I’m fairly sure that the tattoo fashion will expand. The human heart hungers for permanence. We don’t want to be dispersed into endless possibilities; we want to be held responsible for being a particular person. Thus, absent strong cultural forces that encourage and enforce limitations on the will, in the coming decade we will see all sorts of strange self-mutilations and radical commitments of the body. Self-mutilation will provide a powerful symbolic compensation for our inability to commit and bind the soul.

And it will become socially acceptable, perhaps even fashionable. Because at the end of the day, manipulation of our bodies creates an impotent symbol of permanence. To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., it’s the content of your character that matters, not what you do with your skin. Like tattoos, clipping off the tops of your ears or removing your little toe won’t stand in the way being a slave to your desires and society’s demands. Tasteful self-mutilation is perfectly consistent with any life-trajectory (and in our tolerant society, even the tasteless gets a free pass). In contrast, the most individual man or woman is the one who cannot do or be otherwise—and that comes from a heart circumcised by convictions that we allow to command our lives."

What say you?

'BH

The Kyoot Army top from the last post was too cute to pass on a little mixing. This outfit is cute and a bit tomboy. Very comfy. My boots are adorable, but I'm thinking I want to put a mod size script in them to make them fit my feet better. If that's even possible..? I'm a fashion writer people! You tell me! :D

When you buy a good piece, experiment with it. I think it's easy to wear something one way all the time. The beauty is in the odd coupling, for me at least. I love that 'ah-ha' moment of discovery when you pair something and it works. I think, for this top, I'll try to glam it up next.

***

‘Snake Charmer’ shirt from Kyoot Army @ (190, 223, 21)

'Half Pants 08' & 'Spiked Bracelet' from edge grafica @ (79, 33, 106)

'Engineer Boots' from [0N] ZERO NUMBER @ (229, 47, 40)

Black Nails from J's Shoes @ [FREE!]

'Septum Pincher' Piercing in Black from The Body Politik @  (130, 70, 48)

‘Quiet Seduction’ in Raven from Sky Everett Designs @ (39, 62, 39)

• I'm sick
• The antibiotics I'm on are making me ridiculously drowsy
• The juice I'm supposed to drink to help me get better is the most sour thing I've ever tasted in my life
• I somehow managed to destroy my Facebook account and have no idea where it's gone or if I can get it back
• I dropped my laptop today
• I'm broke
• I wrenched my belly button ring so it's all swollen and sore
• I would have taken today off because I'm sick, but I don't have school on Fridays anyway so I wasted a sick day

Things that almost kinda make up for the above

• I figured out how to hide my taskbar so that it only shows when I scroll over it and it's kinda neat
• My laptop is fine even though this is like the fourth time I've dropped it
• I live with my parents (still in high school) so being broke isn't an emergency
• I was considering deleting my Facebook account anyway (but wanted to get my contacts, notes and photos off first)
• My belly button ring is four years old so even if I have to take out the ring to let the piercing heal, it shouldn't close up
• I'm getting better, those meds work fast
• I'm watching the season premier of Numb3rs, my favourite TV show

Things that are kinda neutral

• The weather is getting cooler
• It's almost Halloween
• Thanksgiving is in less than two weeks
• The national election is in less than two weeks
• I realised that I would rather write things to strangers than allow my friends to see this blog

The girls I was not very favorable of in one of the classes I taught during my teaching stint had decided to get and give each other a piercing. Armed only with a safety pin and peer pressure, these girls were going to pierce each others' ears in front of my fearful eyes. I am a wimp, I would not bear witness to that. I thought I should approach them and stop them at what they planned on doing before it got too far. Most of them would be going against the school rules anyway, as they already had a pair of piercings, and as the rules stated, that was all they were allowed to have.

The girls were anxious because of two things: they were about to get pierced without anesthetics, first of all, and secondly, they were worried their fierce - but totally adorable - teacher might catch them at what daring thing they were doing. If only they knew how hard I really was trying to not squirm at the thought of what they were about to do. I had just under a minute before the piercer and her first piercee were ready. I began to plan my approach, and that would have taken less than two seconds.

And suddenly I stopped - even before I began getting off my chair, I stopped, frozen in realization. They weren't eying me from the corners of their eyes because they were being cautious or anxious - they were stealing glances at my ears, at my extra piercings, at my ear studs which I had completely forgotten the existence of.

So, it was all my idea, after all. I became an accidental role model to ignorant school kids with guts to self-mutilate themselves just so they would be one step closer to being like their insecure, timid and bashful teacher. I had taught them the wrong lesson that day, and one I cannot undo.

But at least I had taught them courage I know I could never manage to acquire, neither at their age, nor at mine.

And with that, I walked out of the class as the school bell rang, my final lesson taught.

Anyway while I was waiting for my appointment (strange I know!) I had the chance to look through some magazines... I am amazed at the quality of some of the artists here in Australia some really fantastic work being done on skin in these parts! The thing that got to me however was while I was looking through these magazines was the 'piercings' being done on people. As I said I'm pretty broadminded I don't give a rats what gets you off.. though ladies a front bum is a lovely thing to behold the less metal err down there the better.. sorry... anyway I understand the nipples, labret, sternum etc being pierced and on some people it actually looks good. However when I see two of these through someones arse cheeks it just makes me wonder where art stops and mutilation begins...

I also have to wonder about the thought process behind it all I mean I certainly don't get up in the morning and think to myself "You know what? my bum would look great with a couple of giant hooks in it!"

There was talk about doing a scene tonight with the new needles so I'm on, and yes I know it's a bad pun, pins and needles. I want to "donate" some of my blood for Phoenix's pleasure. Plus I get the pleasure from the piercings.

I've also been browsing for some new things to try. There are so many things out there that I haven't done yet, and that bothers me.  I want to try it all!  Other than a few things, I'll try anything because you never know, it may be your new favorite thing.  Maybe I should sit down with Phoenix and make a list.