Japanese waves are cool

Ninja Joker, 4th sitting (3.5 hrs)

Really it's the Samurai Batman versus Ninja Joker piece, 4th sitting. The 3rd sitting, Bill didn't tattoo Joker at all. The 4th sitting, Batman was left alone. Since I'm often scheduled one week after the other, it's good to jump back and forth, and it's kind of like one guy is winning each week.

Shogun Shaq

Full interview, but here are my highlights: "I just wish that one day they just allow [Yao Ming] to play me one-on-one so you can see the Shogun kill another Ninja." "I am the number one Ninja and I have killed all the Shoguns in front of me. You've got some new young Shoguns trying to step up—Amare, Jermaine, Ming. But by the time they kill this Shogun, I'll be retired, and I'll have two platinum swords and five NBA MVP balls. " "I started out as a young Ninja and killed all of the Shoguns. I am a Shogun now and I'm holding my spot. There probably won't be another Shogun after this."

Buddhist wisdom

"That people are unknowing does not mean that they are unknowing like cows or goats. Even ignorant people look for a pathway to reality. But, searching for it, they often misunderstand what they encounter. They pursue names and categories instead of going beyond that name to that which is real." --Digha Nikaya, from "Buddha Speaks"

carpe noctum (Latin): seize the night

kómori (Japanese): bat

After I started getting my big Batman tattoo, I learned that bats are symbols of good luck and long life in China and Japan. These images were found on Google.

1) Bat By Moonlight
2) Jade Bat
3) Animal Art
4) Not English

Marvel Comics

Remember this? This was back when mutants had to register their powers with the government. Those were tough times. Wow, I'm getting old.
In 1987, I was eleven. I'll be thirty years old this January.

Thanks for wasting time with me

"Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass."
(Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven, page 82)