--罠-- [ominous communication]

 
 
  
So last Friday I pointed out that we have Portugese information for our customers but no English, actually. We need to make something up especially now that I'm there. So Ryuji suggested we sort of translate and re-write the Portugese into English, make up something new, print that, it's a wrap. He also said something about me in the instructions.
Kaori-chan made up a few paragraphs and I checked them and they were actually very close. I only had to tweak a few sentences to get them professional-sounding.
What really got me was the first sentence--
"We have an American tattoo artist, Victoria, in our shop."
The first sentence.
If that's not pressure I don't know what is. I almost had a heart attack when I saw that at the top of the page. It's not an afterthought, it's an advertisement.

So the pressure is on. I worked on a spider lily on my leg, on the outside of my calf below the knee, in a monumentally awkward position, which is actually easy to touch but not easy to bend close and look at, hold the machine upright, move slowly and without wobbling, and do it all without bracing my hand on anything because I'd have to be upside-down to be able to do so. The best I could do at the time was a sort of greyline on the petals, which I'll leave for a couple of weeks to heal though it gave me almost no trouble at all, puff-wise. I'll thicken the lines and go back over them to smooth them out, then color in everything red.

I also finished my sea angels and took some photos so I can upload those maybe tonight.

I also dropped the bomb on my mom about this, this morning, because she mentioned that the economic recession has come so close to home as to get my dad--who is gonna be 60 in less than a month and now I don't know about his pension or retirement or anything. Maybe he won't get one if he is still a few years short. But he'd worked with that company since he left college basically, back in the 70's, and so it goes, as Vonnegut says, and it's just one more tiny violin in the orchestra. :(
I told my mom finally because I thought maybe, maybe, she'd feel better if she knew she didn't have to worry about her daughter, who is learning a trade that can net $100 an hour in any shop worldwide. Who knows, I might have made it worse. I'll just have to ride it out. She didn't reply to the mail yet.

Tomorrow begins my systematic conquering of my new apprenticeship. On my leg I'll finish my little clione with reds and white, and start a spider lily, if it's not too puffy and whiny. I'd like to finish it all in one go but I know my skin is very annoying on my upper leg and it may give me trouble. No matter.
I will also help Ryuji make English literature to give out at the shop--aftercare instructions and advertisements. We have portugese but no English... yeah...what?
For now my ass has to get in bed or I'll never make it out in the morning. XD
I'm excited!
sleeeeepy~~

Friday at the shop Ryuji was in a pretty chatty mood all day. He and Osam talked about local competitors (8Ball and BOOBIES in Nagoya), looking at their blogs and having a few lols about it ("It looks like they're running a flea market in there, haha"). I spent about 7 hours drawing flowers. O_o I did a lot of googling and a lot of drawing, lilies, a tulip, some spider lilies, looking for the next thing I'd ink on myself. I don't want to rush into an image, and I don't want to feel like I HAVE to keep to my original thesis of sea life + floral on my leg, but I want to get on with this experience thing. But I recognize that flowers aren't necessarily my thing...so I practiced.
Around 7:00 Ryuji asked me "Victoria, what did you do today? The peony? no.." and I showed him my drawings, and he said "mm, good. What did you--" and gestured to my leg.
"Oh!" oh, tattooing? "Oh, today, nothing. Last week were the clione."
"Today nothing? Mm." and he turned away as if disappointed.
What? Am I supposed to do tattooing every week? I mean, am I allowed to? I thought I had to ask, or beg nicely, or have an image approved or have my machine setup checked by a superior or something. I mean, CAN I? ..use your stuff?

After the kanpai at closing time, Osam and Ryuji and I looked through an announcement about a tattoo convention to be held in Nishi Osu on August 2.
"My birthday," I said. That got everyone cheerful. Then we had the "how old is everybody" discussion. Turns out that Eiji and Kaori are only a year older than me and Yusuke-kun is actually younger by a few years. Who knew? The guy's sporting a gauged septum piercing and two big gauged earlobes and half sleeve and finger tattoos and black plastic glasses and his hair changed color every week until he shaved it off last week. He reminds me strongly of my dear fechin and I think that he's a little fragment off the same soul that spawned him, like we all have doppelgangers and brothers all over the world.

Osam went home quickly, like he does after work (he told me his daughter started speaking already! She said "mama" and "papa" and he was so astonished, lol), so Ryuji and I were still at the desk. He was on his second beer. The age discussion fed very naturally into "So, why did you come to Japan?"
"I was an illustration major..Japanese illustration is very good, there's a lot of competition, lots of talent, Japanese tattoo is very traditional and important...it's unlike anywhere else in the world...I love Japanese music.." etc. Our conversation was slow and chanpon Japanese and English, with him making a very serious effort to speak more English and me tripping on the Japanese in my nervousness to make a good impression and not devour myself foot-first in front of my boss.

(translated and shortened for your convenience...the following conversation took about an hour in at least 2 languages. XD)

"So you're teaching English right now. What do you want to do?" Oh he's sharp, that one.
"Illustration, or something with art," I said. "Truly, I love tattooing. I want to do tattooing." How do I sound sincere without being whiny, how do I say this clearly without being pushy?
"Well, you should practice more, more on yourself."
"Yes."
"And maybe you should do 15...maybe 10... about ten on yourself. You've already done 3, it's easy."
"Yes."
"And be sure to take photos of them. They should be pretty. Nice photos. We can take them over there. And after that, you can do about 10 on your friends."
"Oh!" Yay! a timeline!
"So you do about 10 on yourself..they should be small, not too much on yourself because you can only do your legs... and 10 friends. And take photos. This is important. And you can start to make a photo album."
"Yeah!"
"And we can put it over there." He gestures to the lit case where his and Osam's work is kept for prospective customers.
...."What, over there?!" Is he offering me a space on his shelf? Is he offering me a job?
"Yes. So if some customers come in and they see your work, ooh, it looks nice, maybe I want a tattoo from Victoria. But having a lot of photos is important so people can see your work. Everybody happy."
"Thank you. sumimasen deshita. Oh man.."
"And we can make you a flier..."
"What?!?! REALLY?!"

He grabs up a sample flier from some music event and starts to gesture. I can see it in his face, his voice changes, and takes on a cadence I know. It's an entrepreneur's tone, it's a salesman. He's pitching. His business sense is tingling. He can smell my commitment and eagerness.

"We can say, Victoria...here are some photos of your work, nice tattoos...and a phone number, so they can call here, for English. So English speaking customers...American, Australian...England people... can come here and get help in English. And we can put this flier in the places where foreigners drink. Shooters Bar?"
"Yes. Yes."
"This shop's price is, 1 hour, 10000 yen. But maybe Victoria's tattoos are only 5000 yen per hour. So the foreigners will come here for English, good price, and if your work is nice they will want a tattoo from you."
"oh my goooooodddddd :DDDDD"

"So the important thing is lots of photos. A photo album. Good work. Tattoo wa kantan... Tattoo is easy! So you can do about 10 on yourself...then do 10 on your friends...then Osam or I will do one for you, on your body, so you can watch and study it."
Then, after that, I assume, I can touch customers. I will have a portfolio. I will be a real apprentice, or as close as I can get until I start bringing in money and he offers to sponsor my visa.

I was so excited by this conversation, talking about the future, I couldn't even sleep on Friday night. I thanked him as much as I was able, and told him I'd ganbarimasu (try my best/never give up etc.), and I really seriously mean it. Every good tattoo I do is a page in my portfolio. Every ugly one is a waste of my time cuz I just gotta rework until I get a good one. I have to bring business in, trickle it in, overcome, spend time, draw stuff. Ryuji sagely smiled and drank his beer at my stuttering and flushed thanks (I am gonna buy that man a pizza I swear to god), but thanks only go so far (about 7 cm). Now I actually have to make good on it. He's not gonna accept me being an accessory any more. Now I really have to work while I'm there and earn his shelf space.

I feel like the stars are aligning for me--one of them is kitsunesan and one is a long-ago high school sketchbook I filled with ink drawings, and everyone has been preparing me for this opportunity.
kitsunesan , because I can't thank my old-timey sketchbook I have to thank you for everything, for paving the way for me and then handing me a future through your own sacrifice. I miss you around here every weekend when I think "what should I do that's fun?" and I haven't touched a karaoke bar since I last saw you. I know it won't be the same anyway. I hope you come back soon. I don't have anything like the rapport you do with these guys, but I'm finding such satisfaction in that stupid tracing paper. XD Let me wish you the best from Akamon St.

Yesterday night we bought some fireworks at the Circle K and I picked out a selection of Rat Tails (they're twisted in a circle, you light the paper and throw it, they spin in a circle then go POP with black powder at the end), bottle rockets, possibly Roman Candles, and some sparklers and UFO's that spin and zoom up into the air wheee. K and Dan and I went to the little park to set them off in the big baseball diamond area. At the point we were still having fun with sparklers and Rat Tails and drinking our Zimas (for the bottles, for the bottle rockets), some of the substantial pack of old homeless men came over, smiled, gestured at their ears and said 「うるさい。」 ("Urusai"). That literally means "unforgiveable", but basically means "shut up" or "annoying".
We were rather startled by this, because A) it was incredibly rudely said and B) We were setting off a single firecracker at a time and it was still way before midnight, and there were other people in the park using fireworks, dancing, doing band practice etc. and C) Obviously it was a crack at the Foreign Invasion that took their jobs and bombed them and etc.
"Why don't YOU go home?" we said, packed up our stuff and fucked off. We went as far as the other side of the baseball field. Then we finished off our Zimas and I tried the bottle rockets.
It turned out that half of them were the kind that SHRIEK when they go off and don't explode with light, just sound and powder, going CHUUUUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! a few stories high and then dissolving. After the first one went screaming into the sky I started laughing my ass off. "You asleep now?!" I yelled back at them. "Is this quiet enough?!"
"Crazy American," K observed from the safety of her sparklers, as I set off two at a time. I did about twenty of those and then built a sand mound for the Roman Candles, which sent up 8 small multi colored explosions that were very satisfying and pretty.
I opened the second pack of bottle rockets that were labeled ROCKET and these were the ones that go POFF! when they take off and then go a little above tree-level and then explode with a black-powder shotgun BANG!!! that reverberated between the museum and the highway about eight times. So it was like BANG!KAKAKA KA KA KA KAKAKAkakakang  and I did about eight of those. The high school kids who'd been practicing Drill Rifle crap decided to just take a break and watch our satisfying explody stuff.

I did burn my finger on a Rat Tail, but my lighter was cheap and malfunctioning and not enough fluid was running to the wick so I had to get close to it and then it sparked off in my fingers and basically singed me right under the nail. zing. My whole fingernail was charred black underneath as well as the skin, which started throbbing after a minute when the burn set in, so I poured Orange Zima on it "to disinfect it!"
"That's not high enough alcohol content, V!" K told me.
"No shit, I don't even have a buzz yet."

The homeless bums did not make another appearance that night. I know they might feel territorial about their squatter's rights and all, but I'm a taxpayer. I don't pee in the fountain, therefore I am superior. They made their token protest, we made our token retreat. heehee.

Grand Dragon of the KKK Nicholas Chapel lives and owns a shop in Laurens, South Carolina (York County). The shop is called "The World Famous Redneck Shop" and is a front for all kinds of *interesting* white supremacist literature and Klan goods.
Part 1 of an interview can be watched here:



A short article highlighting part of Maurice Bessinger's (BBQ "baron" and Olde Tyme racist who defends his flying the Confederate flag as "a tribute to my ancestors and soldiers in the War of Nothern Aggression") long and embittered battle with the US Supreme court.
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1917692/posts

Some fun sentences from the above: "The Confederate battle flag will remain at the other restaurants, he said. But anyone who thinks the change in banners shows the self-proclaimed "Barbecue King" has softened his views on the flag or race - Bessinger refused to serve blacks at his restaurant until 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in - better think again.

"I'm not backing down from nothing. I'm still flying the Confederate flag," Bessinger said. "I've come to realize that I should fly the flag of my ancestors, which is the first national flag. That was the soldiers' flag.""

"

Bessinger's decision to hoist the Confederate flag at his restaurants in 2000 led to stories about pamphlets still available at his restaurants which said Africans were grateful for slavery because they were better off in the United States than in Africa.
The publicity led several large grocery store chains to remove Bessinger's sauce from their shelves. Bessinger unsuccessfully sued, and the golden, mustard-based sauce can now only be bought at smaller retailers, Bessinger's restaurants and online.
"I'm never going to get back in the grocery stores. It's a done deal. The NAACP is going to see to that," Bessinger said. "Standing up for my heritage cost my $50 million and I'm proud of the fact that I stood up for it.""


southernpartysw.tripod.com/southernpartiesofthesouthwestssecondsite/index.html HERE you can see a fascinating "Southern Power" website. Titles available at this site:

Do you sing praises for Lincoln?

Northern Atrocities

THE CONFEDERATE FLAG IS NOT A RACIST AND HATEFUL FLAG!!!

The Yankee's War against the South's Civilians

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-11/11-year-quest-create-disappearing-colored-bubbles

Order pink & blue at: http://www.zubbles.com/

"Tim Kehoe has stained the whites of his eyes deep blue. He's also stained his face, his car, several bathtubs and a few dozen children. He's had to evacuate his family because he filled the house with noxious fumes. He's ruined every kitchen he's ever had. Kehoe, a 35-year-old toy inventor from St. Paul, Minnesota, has done all this in an effort to make real an idea he had more than 10 years ago, one he's been told repeatedly cannot be realized: a colored bubble.

No, not the shimmering rainbow effect you see when the light catches a clear soap bubble. Kehoe's bubble would radiate a single, vibrant hue throughout the entire sphere-a green bubble, an orange bubble, a hot-pink bubble. It's a bubble that can make CEOs giggle and stunned mothers tear up in awe. It's a bubble you don't expect to see, conditioned as you are to the notion that soap bubbles are clear. An unnaturally beautiful bubble.

Kehoe made a bubble like that when he was 26, after only two years of trashed countertops and chemical fires. He showed it to toy-company executives, who called it a "holy grail." And then it broke, as bubbles always do. And when it did, the dye inside escaped onto clothes and carpets and walls and skin, staining everything it touched. The execs told him to come back with a bubble they could wash off their boardroom table.

That was nine years ago. In the intervening years, Kehoe continued to mix, boil, and brew with endless enthusiasm and little success. Until one day, his stubborn persistence led him to $500,000 in financial backing, enough to hire a dye chemist. Together, they took Kehoe's obsession to an outcome even more amazing than he had ever hoped, an outcome no one could have anticipated for the simple reason that no one imagined it possible. The secret to nonstaining colored bubbles, it turns out, is a dye that could unlock a revolution in color chemistry. All you need to do is make color disappear.

.....

...Ram Sabnis is a leader among a very small group of people who can point to a dye-chemistry Ph.D. on their wall. Only a handful of universities in the world offer one, and none are in the U.S. (Sabnis got his in Bombay). He holds dozens of patents from his work in semiconductors (dying silicon) and biotechnology (dying nucleic acids).

Sabnis wasn't the first chemist to reply to Kehoe's deliberately vague Monster.com ad. He was just the first one who didn't think that what Kehoe and his partners wanted-a water-soluble disappearing dye that could color the very thin wall of a bubble-was impossible. Sabnis told them he'd have it ready to market in a year. Like Kehoe, Sabnis doesn't seem to consider the possibility that a problem can't be solved. But even he had no idea how hard this one would turn out to be.

"This is the most difficult project I have ever worked on," Sabnis says now. "You think it's easy. Why could someone not make it? But when you actually do it, it's just impossible." For months, he ran 60 to 100 experiments a week, filling notebooks with sketches of molecules, spending weekends in the library studying surfactant chemistry, trying one class of dyes after another.

The breakthrough finally happened in an empty lab in Minneapolis on a Sunday this past February. As with Kehoe's first bubble, it arose from the slow, subtle refinement of a process over thousands of experiments. But Sabnis could re-create it. He synthesized a dye that would bond to the surfactants in a bubble to give it bright, vivid color but would also lose its color with friction, water or exposure to air-not fade, not transfer to something else, but go away completely, as though it had never been there. When one of these bubbles breaks on your hand, rub your hands together a few times and look: Poof. Magic. No more color. If the bubble breaks on your shirt or the carpet or the dog, you have two choices: Dab it with a touch of plain water to remove it immediately, or forget about it for half an hour. Either way, the color will soon be gone."

I WANT TO ORDER THE LIVING HELL OUT OF THIS. Btw, it's ~$15 for a 2-color set, pink and blue, and with shipping to SC it's about $21. I contacted them about orders to Japan. XD

I took him all the way down to the vet on the subway, which wasn't too hard, though it's raining.
The vet took his temp and a small stool sample (Yakkun was NOT happy about this) and gave him subcutaneous fluids. The test came back hard to explain in English. What I understood was that he has an abnormally high level of a naturally occurring bacteria, which in itself is not a disease nor dangerous, but is a symptom of stress. As I had suspected, the slight sneezing and low energy and bad tummy were all related to this; when I asked if it was a weak immune system he said "it's not immune system... not having a reaction...ah, it's hard to explain." I decided that's fine. It's basically what I suspected myself.
He asked if I could give him pills. They're antibiotics for the intestinal bacteria. I admitted I'd never tried, and asked if we could try the first one right now to get him started. After one false attempt (PTOOEY!) the doctor managed to literally poke it down Yakkun's throat and he swallowed it. Goooooood boy.
He gave me pills for 1 day's worth, tomorrow morning and evening. He said "If you can give him the pills, come back and I'll give you more. If it's impossible you don't need to do it." so basically it should clear up on its own, but I can help it along quicker wih the pills if I try. And of course we don't want to start a course of antibiotics and quit after one day.. that doesn't help anyone.
"All right," I said, "I have two people who can help me at home." The doctor found that pretty funny. XD And after all, K is getting VERY skilled at sticking pills down little animals' throats.

So, besides the wicked weather headache I've been tolerating all day, I'm feeling much better and Yakkun's passed out asleep again. At the vet's he produced a rather large sum of poop that looked pretty healthy (of course) and as soon as he got home he had another small badly digested one (of course). I'm chalking that up to the horror of going to see the vet. As long as he keeps eating we'll be in business, and the antibiotics should make his tummy feel better quickly I think.

Currently it's POURING rain despite me needing to do more laundry. whee

This morning Yakkun was totally ready to get out and play. He did one normal looking (small tho) poo and then asked to be let out out out out. So I did and he romped around. He ate a good handful of food, all by himself, mostly by dragging it into the closet and then eating it on top of my luggage. I called the vet anyway to ask if I should still be worried, and he said "if the diarrhea has stopped and he is recovering, his body has passed the problem out of his system. Diarrhea is a symptom, not a disease, so if it was something like an ulcer or tumor it wouldn't have gone away on its own." Good. Great. Great and good. I monitored him while he ate and drank alone, then waited for the inevitable poo.
When he did, it was again undigested and unhealthy. :( Whatever irritation his body has isn't over. I'm inclined to think it's an infection somewhere down the line giving him an upset tummy, a respiratory infection or a bowel irritation. My gut is telling me a minor infection. But he's not as bouncy and perky as normal. He's been sleeping since about 2:00 which is totally normal schedule for him, but the vet's back open at 5 pm and I'm taking him.

I called the vet the second time just before 1 pm and told him the symptom had somewhat returned. He said "if the diarrhea continues, bring him in and I'll look." So we're leaving for the vet soon. I'm also feeling less than stellar, having slept uninterrupted but with a troubled mind, and skipping a few meals because i was too damn nervous to eat, and headaches from both stupid weather and stress. At least I got some laundry done, forced myself to eat a convenience store sandwich and a cup of coffee, and got K's kitty carrier to take him down to the vet. We'll take the subway, it's much much cheaper.

He's not broken and in an emergency state, but something is wrong. I just hope it's bacterial and easily fixed.

Today I got a baby fugu out of a game machine at the game center. Unfortunately it's a Green Spotted Pufferfish and they're incredibly hard to care for. Unfortunately it will probably die although I'm doing my best with a planted tank and krill. When it does die, I'll just get some tetra or guppies.


Yakkun is sick again, which has me worried. He's going to the vet as soon as they're open tomorrow. He's as genki as ever, but I noticed a strangely runny and grainy poo. I looked this up. I gave him some Vaseline in case it's a blockage. Luckily for me, I have pee sheets all over the house so I have a sort of history of his last couple days' poos. I found something called ECE which is a bowel virus that causes green poo, diarrhea, and inability to digest, which leads to dehydration and sometimes sudden death. It's basically Irritable Bowel with diarrhea and tummy ache. If not caught in time they'll starve.

Green poo? I checked the sheets. Sure enough I found dried green looking poo, undigested bile. Well god damn it. I spent several panicked hours trying to see if he would eat (he hasn't been, properly, though I got a syringe of pet milk in him) and tempting him with treats and Ferret Vite to get some semblance of food inside him. I had Kris come over to babysit while I made a taxi-sped journey to the store for chicken, eggs and maybe baby food, but I couldn't find any without rice and veg. When I came home I made ferret soup with his kibble and pet milk. He wouldn't eat it, so when Mig came home I made him hold the ferret while I syringe fed him. That worked a bit.
I let him sleep. He woke up, wanted out, I watched him drink from his dish a bit (he's getting dehydrated...) and he took a few bits of kibble from his bowl and crunched them in the closet. Thank god.
I let him sleep again, then Kris came over and we woke him up and this time he ate several syringes of the soup liquid, basically chicken broth and water, all the chunks were at the bottom. When a chunk got into the syringe it made it spray and now he didn't really want it cuz it squirted into his throat by accident. I put him back to bed. I don't know what else I can do except either stay up all night and force feed him, or call the vet asap and run him down there for fluids so he doesn't crash. I'm not off tomorrow. I do have to be at work, but luckily it's a slightly late day. I have time to make it to the vet. If they have to keep him overnight it'll be a clusterfuck arranging my schedule so I can pick him up some time. 

I don't know if this is caused by a virus, him eating stupid shit like stolen candy and/or paint, or a cold that turned into an intestinal infection. One way or another he's not eating properly. I'm getting up as soon as the vet's open, cuz I can't go down there til I talk to the doctor himself anyway..for english purposes.

god help me, it got me. It's older than your grandma's internets but it got me.

well I just offered and served water to a slightly rude skinhead, in Japanese. My life just reached the next level. I'm *this* much closer to either working in a punk rock bar or becoming a yakuza slave bitch.

He's been chainsmoking and waiting on his friend, who's getting a big snake tattoo from Osam. The skinhead in question has a relatively small scorpion tat on his left arm. I thought I'd be a nice office girl and prepared my sentence, and approached him..
「お水か。。。」("Would you like water, or...") He looked up at me. My Japanese froze up. 「。。アイスコーヒがほしいですか？」("..or iced coffee?")
「水で」("water.") he replied without any polite Japanese whatsoever. I fetched it for him and said　「はい、どうぞ！」("Here you go!") but he made no reply.
YOU'RE WELCOME. hahaha..jesus.
Well, it was all right I suppose. Not much of a conversationalist, this guy. ばかじゃん

Today after work when I went to rent some DVD's I saw a young cockroach in the store. It came out from under the anime shelf where I was standing looking for some Shinsengumi anime Miguel wanted, but between xXx-Holic and Evangelion and a lot of other crap I couldn't read, I couldn't find a damn thing so I was just standing there. A small cockroach came trotting out from under the shelf, straight towards my feet. It stopped in the middle of the aisle, directly in front of me.
My first raging impulse was to smash it, but even as my leg twitched in preparation for lifting, I stopped myself.
"I really should step on you," I told it, but quietly, so other customers wouldn't notice a foreigner speaking English to a cockroach, "but today I think I won't..." and as I spoke it turned its head to the left--I didn't realize cockroaches could even do that--and waved its antennae gently. It kind of looked around with its body bent in a C. Did you know roaches have necks?
"Yeah, you have fun," I said and stepped over it to go find the new DVD of Dexter.

http://www.statemaster.com/state/SC-south-carolina/cri-crime lists SC as:

SEARCH ALL FACTS & STATISTICS Advanced view Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:     Select Category Background Crime Economy Education Energy Geography Government Health Housing Identification Immigration Industry Labor Lifestyle Military People Presidential Elections Sports Trade Transportation (* = Graphable)   Select Crime Stat% High school students carrying a weapon on school property, 2003 *% High school students carrying a weapon on school property, 2005 *% High school students threatened or injured by a weapon, 2003 *% High school students threatened or injured by a weapon, 2005 *Aggravated assault *Arson deaths *Burglary *Capital offensesCapital Punishment > Black inmates on death row *Capital Punishment > Electrocution *Capital Punishment > Latino inmates on death row *Capital Punishment > Lethal injection *Capital Punishment > Total executions 1977-2006 *Capital Punishment > Total executions 2007 *Capital Punishment > Total executions since 1930 *Capital Punishment > Total inmates on death row *Capital Punishment > White inmates on death row *Firearms Death Rate per 100,000 *Forcible rape *Gun violence > % Gun *Gun violence > % Knife *Gun violence > % Other Weapons *Gun violence > Number of homicides *Hate Crimes > Disability related *Hate Crimes > Ethnicity related *Hate Crimes > Race related *Hate Crimes > Religion related *Hate Crimes > Sexual orientation related *Hate Crimes > Total number *Homicide > Total number of victims *Homicide > Victims by Age > 14-17 *Homicide > Victims by Age > 18-24 *Homicide > Victims by Age > 25-34 *Homicide > Victims by Age > 35-49 *Homicide > Victims by Age > 50-64 *Homicide > Victims by Age > 65 and above *Homicide > Victims by Age > Under 14 *Homicide > Victims by Black Female *Homicide > Victims by Black Male *Homicide > Victims by Other Female *Homicide > Victims by Other Male *Homicide > Victims by Race > Black *Homicide > Victims by Race > Other *Homicide > Victims by Race > White *Homicide > Victims by Sex > Female *Homicide > Victims by Sex > Male *Homicide > Victims by Weapon > Gun *Homicide > Victims by Weapon > Knife *Homicide > Victims by Weapon > Other Weapons *Homicide > Victims by White Female *Homicide > Victims by White Male *Juvenile suicide to homicide victim ratio *Larceny-theft *Lynchings > Black *Lynchings > Black (per capita) *Lynchings > Total *Lynchings > Total (per capita) *Lynchings > White *Lynchings > White (per capita) *Motor vehicle theft *Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter *Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter on college and university campuses *Prisoners under the jurisdiction of State or Federal correctional authorities *Prisoners under the jurisdiction of State or Federal correctional authorities (per capita) *Property crime total *Robbery *State and Federal prisoners held in local jails *State and Federal prisoners held in local jails (per capita) *State and Federal prisoners held in private facilities *State and Federal prisoners held in private facilities (per capita) *State Prisoners > Number of deaths *State Prisoners > Number of deaths (per capita) *State Prisons > Number of Homicides *State Prisons > Number of Homicides (per capita) *State Prisons > Number of Suicides *State Prisons > Number of Suicides (per capita) *Stop and Identify statutes > States with "Stop and Identify" statutesTerrorism > Victims of 9-11 *Violent crime *Women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal correctional authorities *Women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal correctional authorities (per capita) *... more Crime Stats The South > South Carolina > Crime View full size SOUTH CAROLINA CRIME STATS:   Top Stats     All Stats       View this page with:   Just Stats     Sources     Definitions     Both   Arson deaths 1.71   [20th of 49] Capital Punishment > Electrocution 6   [6th of 32] Capital Punishment > Lethal injection 26   [6th of 32] Firearms Death Rate per 100,000 13.8   [14th of 51] Homicide > Victims by Sex > Female 26.1 %   [22nd of 49] Homicide > Victims by Weapon > Other Weapons 21.6 %   [30th of 49] Lynchings > Black 156   [9th of 44] Lynchings > Total 160   [10th of 44] Lynchings > White 4   [37th of 44] Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter 359   [20th of 51] Prisoners under the jurisdiction of State or Federal correctional authorities 23,428   [19th of 50] Property crime total 183,322   [19th of 51] Robbery 5,899   [22nd of 51] State and Federal prisoners held in local jails 429   [19th of 44] State and Federal prisoners held in private facilities 6   [33rd of 50] State Prisoners > Number of deaths 116   [18th of 50] State Prisons > Number of Homicides 3   [10th of 50] State Prisons > Number of Suicides 2   [37th of 50] Violent crime 33,078   [13th of 51] Women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal correctional authorities 1,562   [17th of 50

Interesting facts on South Carolina Crime

• South Carolina has the highest rate of violent crimes and aggravated assaults per capita among US states.

Interesting to note that they've ranked SC #10 in BOTH Homicides and Lynchings. Way to go guys.

Year	Population	Index	Violent	Property	Murder	Rape	Robbery	Agg. assault	Burglary	Larc.Theft	Vehic. Theft

2004	4,197,892	223,616	33,160	190,456	286	1,772	5,468	25,634	43,739	130,991	15,727
2005	4,246,933	217,196	32,590	185,606	314	1,862	5,657	24,757	42,741	126,489	16,376
2006	4,321,249	216,400	33,078	183,322	359	1,762	5,899	25,058	42,772	124,128	16,402
2007	4,407,709	213,028	34,746	188,282	352	1,739	6,346	26,309	45,214	126,048	17,026

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/sccrime.htm


And from http://services.sled.sc.gov/sor/search.aspx?Type=County , a list of sex offenders registered in AIKEN COUNTY ALONE:
373 by my count, which was by counting scrolling pages--23 names x16 pages plus five at the end. Have a good sleep.

http://www.prsearch.com/crime/south_carolina/

(This is the first in a series of planned entries about the glories of the "Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places" state my parents so dearly love to call home.)


Return to Crime Statistics Index
Return to South Carolina Public Records Page

South Carolina Crime Statistics for 2005

Violent Crimes Murders 315 Forced Rape 1,807 Robbery 5,622 Aggravated Assault 24,638

Crimes Against Property Burglary 42,589 Larceny & Theft 125,699 Vehicle Theft 16,358

Crime Rank based on number of crimes per capita	#47
Safety Rank based on number of violent crimes per capita	#50

Year	Population	Crimes (total)		Violent Crimes (total)	Murder	Rape	Robbery	Assault		Property Crimes (total)	Burglary	Theft (larceny)	Theft (vehicle)
2004	4,197,892	223,616		33,160	286	1,772	5,468	25,634		190,456	43,739	130,991	15,727
2003	4,148,744	221,047		33,455	303	1,952	5,801	25,399		187,592	43,993	127,809	15,790
2002	4,103,770	217,569		33,761	298	1,959	5,774	25,730		183,808	43,745	123,196	16,867
2001	4,062,125	219,168		33,114	330	1,769	5,987	25,028		186,054	42,611	126,742	16,701

(Yes, #51 in both Safety and Crime was Washington DC.)

I wanted it to match the bird, actually, so in the end I decided to make my peony ("Botan") red and black. Red inside the petals, black outside. It would give me some much needed practice in doing fills of color as well as gradating the black petals, and I wanted to do a little bit of lining in color on the petal to give it a sort of texture. I prepared black for the petals, green to re-do the leaves a bit, yellow for the central part of the flower, a medium red I found, and a little bit of burgundy for the lining. Wowie.

Osam asked me "Are you going to do it today?" and I wasn't exactly expecting to (he always DOES that! lol) and I said "uh, sure" and then I realized he wasn't watching me like a hawk, as the first time. He went to talk to a customer with some paperwork and designs, so I gathered my testicular fortitude up off the floor and went to the autoclave to find some needles.

( 2 Photos, and such )

But finally I wrapped it up, after adding a little white to the octopus's tentacle suckers, and some yellow on his eye. The white was easier than I expected, but I think you need a really slow touch with it to sort of pound it in, or go over it in a couple of sessions. The white also bled more than the rest of the octopus did. I want to use the white a bit more... it's a very intriguing ink. Osam told me he had no experience with it and didn't know if it was difficult or not.

I hadn't been changing needles when going between my ink colors (did all black, then all red, etc.) but cleared the needle by running it against the wet paper towel and then wiping it a lot. I mean, it was basically just a test piece on myself. But I did the white last and there was still a little red in the needle, which ran out as a slight pink color. It looks very cool actually. very subtle.

I've also designed up a big back piece for K, who wants something along the lines of henna mehndi or sort of Japanese sumi. She wants swallows with henna looking flowers and lacy lines. Osam asked if I was going to do it.
"Me?"
"Yep. Well, you need more practice. Long lines. Do some long lines if you're gonna do a tribal."

So I've been thinking sea snake, long grass, jellyfish. Long lines. XD


Also, wanted to note, I finished stringing/hanging another Senbazuru today, I now have my 10,000 cranes hanging in my room. I need to make one fuck-all wish on them and then give them en masse to some superb temple. I hear Ise shrine is very powerful, possibly the holiest shrine in Japan. It's not too far by train, but I'd have to bring a suitcase for all these cranes.

So last night Mig, K and I went to see Transformers 2: Electric Boogaloo, and I went straight after work (fresh tattoo going ZING ZING under the gauze which was peeling off but I had no replacement so I just sorta went with it ow ow ow) and on the way home, since I had no bike because I knew it was gonna rain, we discussed the logistics of introducing Ginsburg to Yakkun. We figured they're both young and about the same size, and since Yakkun is less potty-trained it should be at our house. Ginsburg probably wouldn't know how to react to him and would likely hide under a chair and hiss until she was taken home. We figured that was the most likely conclusion, since Yakkun is not aggressive and Ginsburg doesn't afraid of anything except maybe weasels.

So I came home and told Yakkun, "You remember K, well she has a little kitty about your size who needs someone to play with. A kitty is a kind of ferret but she has long legs and she can talk... she's not going to live here, just visit for a bit. If you two get along she can come play with you sometimes. So please be polite and play with her."

He was sleepy and listened to some of this. When K came over with Ginsburg in her arms she held the kitten down near the floor at ferret level. To my surprise Yakkun came trotting right over and sniffed her nose in friendly fashion. Ginsburg was astonished and waved her arms and lashed her tail a bit, but she didn't react in fear or puff up or pin her ears or say anything at all. After a bit K let her go and we monitored them in a closed room.

Yakkun seemed accepting of her weird shape and smell immediately, and wanted to sniff her all over (including her butt..sigh) and look into her face, etc. Ginsburg wasn't afraid, particularly, but she seemed mightily confused. She was in a strange house with another animal's smell, but she never hissed, and within minutes was batting Yakkun on the head when he came close. He kept trying to chase her, bouncing up behind her and literally heeling beside her whenever she moved. eventually he started trying to stick his nose under her belly (he's shorter than her) and flip her, I think. This made her sproink up into the air and dash away, which got him all excited, and he'd poke her belly again when she stopped. XDD

Within 10 minutes (no exaggeration) they were tearing around the room chasing each other, and Yakkun was gently dooking in short sentences ("dook dookdook dook dook du") and they were circling and circling and circling the chair, Ginsburg batted him on the head, he jumped on her butt with his hands, they chased some more, she stalked him from around the corner and jumped over him, he ran after her saying "dook dook dook", but there was no biting, no claws, no hissing, no tussling or rolling on the ground.

It was a huge success and all three of us were making the :D face watching them, and their play escalated as they got more comfortable with each other, so we opened the doors and let them run WHOOOOSSSSHHHHH down the length of the apartment and Ginsburg came popping out of corners with her tail puffed up sideways and then Yakkun would go bounding away and pop into the tube, Ginsburg stuck her arms in it to catch him but she couldn't reach, and he rolled over onto his back inside the tube and scratched at the ceiling and laughed and wiggled around and then they circled under the sofa and ran ran ran ran.
It was so damn cute.

K and I postulated that Ginsburg is too young to worry about animal territory yet, and her Mom was with her, as well as other humans she knew, so it wasn't a hostile area. And Yakkun was exceedingly polite and charming and invited her to play immediately, in a manner she could understand. Since they're about the same size they hit it off well. I also think Ginsburg hasn't forgotten her littermates yet. I'm so proud of Yakkun for being welcoming like that, and immediately being kind and friendly to new people, as always. He hasn't seen another animal since the day I bought him at the pet shop and took him away from the box o' ferrets.


She came over to the humans and said "Meahh? MEAAAH" and looked a little urgent, so I suggested she go home for a potty break. K reported she peed as SOON as she was set in the box. hahaha. After that she ate and they both stayed home.
It was a bit of an abrupt departure, so Yakkun didn't know they left. He came out of my room looking for her. He sniffed the air for several minutes, searching around the perimeters of all the rooms. I apologized. D:

This morning I went across the hall and got Ginsburg from K, who was about to have a shower, and brought her over in a bag. XD She said "MEOW?" once when I let the cat out of the bag, then got her bearings and remembered where she was, and Yakkun came out of the tube and picked up where they left off yesterday. Later K came over to babysit and they both flailed around and played in a bag in my room (wtf, they're both crazy).

So this is the brilliant logic behind having two animals. You don't HAVE to play with them, you can kinda leave them to their own devices and THEY PLAY BY THEMSELVES. Gorgeous. I've never tried this before.
I have a few photos I'll have to post, but nothing great, they were mostly dicking around under the couch and behind the fridge and other un-photographable places.

Basically, this is a great weight off our minds in case something happens, like an emergency of health or absence, the animals are okay together.

http://jellieszone.com/ has a fantastic small list of jelly sea animals. Their names sound like flowers or gods.
Limacina


( Atlanta, )

I am surrounded by writers and printed words of writers. Amateurs with a vicious tongue and lots of dedications on the opening line. They are talking about producing this, finishing that, and I want to say something but my fiction dried up. I don't feel old enough to ever use "many years ago", but the age without writing has started to drag out in embarrassment. I open my hand to write and my palm is full of ink.

On the train I gaze through a ghostly smear of my face. I can look into my eyes, a narcissistic habit, as we rush though the crunching edges of the city. Or I can look through myself to the beautiful starscape limned by buildings. Sometimes windows have not been shuttered and I can catch a quick glimpse into a home, an office, where lights still glow into the ten o'clock darkness. Even fluorescent light looks warm and safe. It's a race memory, seeing a home fire in the night far away and feeling one's spirits lift.

I imagine I can see the little sparks of human life sprinkled throughout the city, clustered and fluttering as fireflies do in uncut grass. I've never believed in "the harsh uncaring light of day", being so worshipful of the boiling sun... but these pitiful little lights are beautiful as Christmas is beautiful when you are too far from people to hear anything. I miss the little plankton tossed and agitated by the sea. They glow in ruffles invisible by electric light. You have to walk far, far down the beach until your eyes regain sensitivity, and then their tiny futile anger can be seen.

I hope in my next life I can be a jellyfish, or one of the little polyps or nodes that comprises it, whichever is true. Even in the aquarium when one jellyfish gets entangled with a tankmate, they just throb and wiggle until they slip loose. A seemingly impossible knot just slides free like wet spaghetti. I wonder if they feel each other's poison and if they ignore it. In that way they are like women. Prove me wrong. Do jellyfish fight?
Certainly the best squishy clear swimming sea beasties are the sea angel, or "kurione" in Japanese. I just found out they're a gastropod mollusk, raising my adoration of the phylum.

They're about a centimeter long and swim by flapping their little swim flaps. Note that these are called "sea butterfly" in Animal Crossing, but that's a mistranslation... a sea butterfly is this: not a spaceship. It's a free-swimming snail. A snail!! Oh my god, vertebrates sit on the back of the cool bus when it comes to mollusks.
The sea butterfly and sea angel are closely related, but the sea butterfly has a bit of shell left over and is often called a type of zooplankton.

Also, the sea angel is a predator. On purpose.
www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm (Yes, there's a Sea Slug Forum)
"When C. limacina makes contact with its prey it rapidly everts a set of six buccal cones, which are in fact eversible tentacles, which grab the shell of Spiratella and turn it around until its shell opening is facing the mouth of Clione. At this stage large chitinous hooks are everted from a pair of sacs, called hook sacs, and grasp the prey animal. It takes about 30 minutes for C. limacina to pull Spiratella out of its shell and to swallow it whole. At this point it drops the empty shell.  "

High five, little brother. I want to be one when I come back.

I just came in here to chase Yakkun off the computer and found he'd turned on CAPS LOCK, opened Firefox Help in a new window, and done a Google search for (and I quote) "`````````````````````TDXY '[DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDFNXCWWWWWWWW2".