Bullshit People and Jamie's Benefit Auction

Ok, so here I am doing the blog thing again.  I know, I keep saying that I'm gonna get back to doing this on the regular, and then I go two or three weeks without doing it.  Maybe, someday.  Been in kinda a shitty mood recently, due to various things- it's been a pretty crappy couple of months.  So, I just haven't been in the mood to do this.  Besides, funny-bitter is OK, people seem to find it amusing.  Just plain bitter ain't so funny, it's just fuckin' bitter- who wants to read that crap.  I'm pretty sure most of you have your own shitty bitter bullshit to deal with, why would ya want to read mine?

I've realized that the older I get, the smaller the group of people that I consider real friends gets.  I just don't have the time for bullshit people.  I'm so fuckin' tired of people that feel the need to dress or act a certain way in order to state who they are (or who they wanna be).  Lemme clue ya in on something there hipster boy- as soon as you're 'cool', you sure as fuck ain't cool.  Grow the fuck up and just be yourself.  It must be pretty fuckin' hard and tiring to have to always make sure that you look and act cool.  I've been my same retarded self for at least the last 24 years, and I really don't give a fuck what anyone thinks of me.  If you don't like me, that's just fuckin' fine in my book.   I know some things about myself- I don't steal, I don't fuck people over, I don't lie, and if my friends need help, I'll do what I can to help 'em out.  And, I know my friends would do the same for me.  I listen to people flip flop on the bands they like, the food they like, their religious and political beliefs, and just about everything else depending on who they are talking to at the moment.  You don't even know who the fuck you are, you're just that dumb fuckin' 'yes' guy that says whatever he thinks he needs to say to make people happy- shut the fuck up.  [Can ya tell I've had a couple of drinks?]  Why do you care if 'everyone' likes you?  Grow the fuck up.  Be a man.  State your fucking position and stick to it.  It's better to be disliked for what you stand for than to be liked and stand for nothing.

On a happier(?) note, the Auction to benefit Jamie's Mom is going well.  What auction you say?  Why the auction over on the Facebook, of course.  If ya don't know, you  should check it out:

https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_173193779407720&notif_t=group_r2j

As of right now, there are 367 people in the group.  The auction just opened for bidding yesterday, and we are still taking donations of items, services, etc until Friday.  Bidding will end on the 5th.  There's a whole lotta cool stuff in there- everything from tattoo time and handmade jewelry to original artwork and handmade machines, so go take a look and bid or donate if ya want to.  I have a machine and 2 paintings in the auction.  We have also gotten a number of donations from people- that's right, if ya don't wanna bid on anything or donate anything, you can still make a cash donation- it's for a good cause.  Here's a few pics of the stuff I have in the auction:

Tattoos and Absinthe

Here's a few things I did last week, including a couple from Jamie's Benefit.

Got a little more work done on this project.

Ordered some new Absinthe.  I had been getting my absinthe from overseas, but since the dollar has dropped so much, the price has jumped way up on the absinthe I had been ordering.  I got myself a couple of bottles of American absinthe.  The first I had tried before- Walton Waters, a nice absinthe from NY.  The second is from Washington, and is called Pacifique Absinthe.  I was pleasantly surprised by this one as it is very similar in flavor to the Jade L'esprit D'Edouard that I had been ordering from overseas.  It does have about 7% less alcohol than the Jade, coming in at a mere 68% or 136 proof.  This is a real nice, very traditional Absinthe that I would recommend highly.

***Just got home and checked- I was wrong, the Walton Waters is 68%, the Pacifique is 62%.  Of course when you get up into the 120+ proof range, it really doesn't make all that much difference.

Shitty Week

Ok, I'll start off by stating that I've been drinking again.  I'm gonna spell check this shit, though, so you people don't have to try to figure out what the fuck I'm talking about.

My wife got laid off today- that sucks.  They laid off 400+ people from the hospital she works at.  I'm pretty sure that I can blame Obama for that, and even if I can't, I want too, so fuck you Obama, you commie piece of shit- your days are numbered motherfucker.

Last weekend was probably the hardest weekend of my life.  I had to say my last goodbyes to my brother and one of my best friends- James McNish.

Guillermo flew up from Uruguay, and then we made the 15+ hour drive to Syracuse NY to bury our best friend Jamie.  The drive sucked.  It was long, but we got to catch up on the last 6 months since Guillermo moved to Uruguay, talk some shit, and just bullshit in general.  On the way up, we passed an exit for Frackville, It was either in PA or NY (it get's a little fuzzy after the first 12 hours or so).  Don't ever get off here, I'm pretty sure that the entire population is frakkin' cylons.

While we were in Syracuse, we did get to get some NY pizza.  OK, it's not the Island or the City, but it's still the best pizza I've had in 12+ years.  We went to Paladinos- Jamies favorite Syracuse Pizza place 2 days in a row, and I even got to have a couple slices of Sicilian:

OK, so I got too drunk to finish this last night, so I'm gonna do it now.

The wake was pretty rough, but I did get to leave a couple of things in the casket with Jamie- a machine that I built for him for Christmas a few years ago and a chip from Fogo De Chao- on green of course.

The Funeral was rough too.  I got up and said a few words, but can't really remember what all I even said.

After the burial, we headed over to Halo Tattoo, where Jamie worked for the last 2+ years.  There was a 2 day benefit at the shop to help raise money to pay for the funeral expenses.  We tattooed from a couple of sheets of flash done for the benefit and sold a good amount of donated artwork from various artists.  Here's some pics of the flash:

The benefit went really well, and we were able to raise enough money for Jamie's Mom to pay ALL the funeral expenses.  Jamie's Mom is not in good health and Jamie had moved back to NY to help her out, so we have a couple of other things planned for the near future to raise some more money to help his mom out with her bills.

Here's a bunch of pics from the benefit in no particular order:

Maryanne and Jamie's Mom

Guillermo tattooing Tammy

Ray tattooing Kevin, and the Gnome

Ron cookin' up some grub

Me tattooing

Cheryl and the Gnome

Emma and the Gnome

Jamie's Mom with Kevin and the Gnome

Dominique and the Gnome

Ron, Ray, Guillermo and Myself

Ron tattooing Chris and the Gnome

Sherman, Me and Kevin

Ron signing the Gnome.  We all signed the bottom of the Gnome.

Sherman showing us the first tattoo Jamie ever did, 20+ years ago.

Cheryl, Sherman and Kevin

David, the counter guy at the shop.  Many thanks to David for keeping things in order and running smoothly.

Kevin planting a flag.

The Gnome stayed with Jamie.

RIP James Mcnish.  

Big thanks to everyone that worked at, helped at, and donated artwork to the benefit.  There are too many great people that helped for me to list them all.  Another big thanks to all the people from here that sent donations and flowers.

Extra big thanks to Ray and Kristy for putting Guillermo and Me up in their home.  They kept us fed and well caffeinated.