The Great Ice Cream Cone Conundrum

There are three sorts of ice cream cone: the cup cone, the sugar cone, and the waffle cone.  Let us ignore the waffle cone, because they didn’t have them when I was a kid.  The cup cone has two advantages: you can set it down, and it is better for holding soft-serve ice cream.  The sugar cone has one advantage: it tastes good.

The conundrum: why can’t they make a sugar cone in the form of a waffle cone?  Is it because something in the process of making the sugar cone requires flat sheets that can be rolled by not shaped?   I have been wondering about this as long as I can remember.

Loiosh is with me

The first time I walked into Poking You Tattoo, about three years ago, I was impressed with how clean it was. Today that was reinforced. While I should be raving about the skill of the artist, Derek (and he really is an exceptional artist and easy to work with), the thing that blew me away was how much care he took with cleanliness. I’m serious–the use of gloves, everything wrapped in plastic, disinfectant, the sink with the foot-pedals so you don’t have to touch the faucets. Some might think that’s a weird thing to notice, or even that it doesn’t go with the sleazy tradition of tattoo shops, but to a noob like me, it was remarkably reassuring.

As for the rest of the experience, well, it hurt a lot, but only because I’m a wimp. As I said, Derek is really easy to work with. My original idea was to have him on my shoulder, but Derek seemed to think he’d look better on my back, and I felt inclined to put myself in the hands of the artist. One advantage to this location is that by moving my shoulders I can make his wings flap. Hee hee.

The results? I’m totally geeked. Here are our first photos — click on them to see. The redness will fade when they aren’t quite so, ah, fresh; and we’ll post a couple more taken in sunlight and when fully healed.

Loiosh back tattoo

Loiosh close-up

Book Update

I really like to plow straight through the first draft, however often the plot suddenly turns on itself and surprises me, figuring to fix it in the rewrite.  Sometimes, however, there are just too many unexpected changes, and I have to stop and get things in line before I got on.

Iorich just did that, around chapter 11.  The rewrite is complete, and now there’s a chapter 12 to go with it.  So things progress.