Texas Is A Third World Shithole

[jpegghost]

A week later from my last post and I've OFFICIALLY survived the Great Texas Freeze. I have a lot of very strong political opinions about how this is handled, and how AOC is a saint and Ted Cruz needs to be bludgeoned with a club until he stops being a pussy ass bitch leaving for Cancun when the rest of us are struggling. BUT I WON'T GO INTO THAT.

I read my last post and we continued to have spotty internet, power, and no water until late Thursday. Our water was not clean nor drinkable until late Saturday due to a water boil notice. Other places may not have water boil notices as frequently as Texas, but it's because we get brain eating amoebas in the water and you have to vigorously boil any water that goes into any orifice or NEAR any orifice, if the water filtration / power fails. So cut to me doing dishes with scalding, boiling water and waiting 2 hours for a pot to cool so I could wash my face for the night and brush my teeth. Baths were had by standing in a bathtub and pouring cold boiled water over us. Extremely unsexy. BUT IT'S OVER.

I also read that some liberals from other states are saying we deserve this for voting red. Um, what? My gay ass says otherwise. There are a huge amount of blue voters here, but I guess that narrative doesn't help their misguided anger.

I went in for work on Saturday since my tattoo mentor was back from Colorado. As the tattoo apprentice, I'm like the assistant that hands the surgeon the scalpels and tools. I'm around for tattoos and give aide; But I'm not always standing by, when I'm not immediately needed in a tattoo I clean and do my own practice tattoos. I took some photos of my setup so you guys could see!



There's my ol' girl! Alex and the tattoo team were kind enough to rally together and get me a machine to practice with for Christmas. Originally the intense vibration of a coil machine was really hard to work with, but I'm getting better slowly. The power brick on the right side powers the machine, which is connected through that heavily wrapped up clipcord. The ink cap and water (for cleaning the needle in case it's gunked up by human skin) are on the left.



Here's a closeup <3 That brass-looking thing at the top hits the bar below it, which controls the needle. It's the equivalent of a hammer hitting a nail, many times a second. I'm not going to go into the science because it's A LOT. 

I have today off and I plan on cleaning up our apartment the best I can before I go to the tattoo shop the rest of the week. I also plan on playing a little Katamari, which Alex and I got drunk on Saturday and played and it was SO FUN UGH. He had never played Katamari Damacy before, which is crazy to me ... I gotta teach him how to roll.

Comments

[annofowlshire]

The tattoo stuff is really interesting! (Full disclosure: I have no tats because I have commitment issues, but I find them so very cool.)

I’m glad you survived the Texas Freeze. I had not realized that was the whole thing about boiling water for every thing. I had considered it for drinking water, but not the other stuff. Yikes.

[jpegghost]

I also have no tattoos because I'm PICKY. But I'll be covered soon enough.

Water boiling is a pain in the ass when this kinda stuff happens. Being on the Gulf makes this place just a huge swamp and malicious bacteria and amoebas etc love stagnant bog water. And the mass electrical outages -- Some people had water but no electricity or gas so they couldn't boil it :/ it's a mess and I want out of this state lol

[azurelunatic]

I'm glad you made it through! Ted needs to be launched into the Sun.

[jpegghost]

If the government doesn't I'll do it myself

[teirae]

=( I nursed a young girl once with one of those fraking brain ameobas, wasn't fun or pretty =( so please keep boiling.
From what I've heard your government are arsehole with not supporting at all, reminds me of when our prime minister went on holiday in Hawaii during our black summer bushfires.
Arseholes

[jpegghost]

Aren't they lethal? The ones here kill you within a day, it's insane.

That sounds about right. I can't believe ol' Ted threw his daughters under the bus and used them as an excuse.

[teirae]

Yeah, she passed away.

[amejisuto]

BRAIN EATING AMOEBAS! I knew that was a thing, I just thought that was stagnant water, out at the old water hole thing. Sheesh.

[jpegghost]

NOPE its plentiful here, especially at the beaches. Gotta say, I prefer upper East Coast's beaches. Less chance of amoebas.

[amejisuto]

All they need to do to make a Syfy movie is enlarge those things! Gads. And people willingly go to the beaches down there? 0_o

[jpegghost]

SURE DO. I think it's because they are not as prevalent when the water is rocky. But sometimes there's a bacteria overflow and they have to close the beaches. Really weird stuff.

[beanside]

The water boiling sounds incredibly annoying, but better than the alternative! I'm glad it's over for you, though.

The tattoo set up looks really cool! It does look like it would be awkward til you get used to it, though.

[jpegghost]

Thanks! It's soooo awkward, even a little still, but I am gradually getting better.

[alee_grrl]

So glad you survived the great Texas freeze and that you guys are doing okay. Boiling water is such a pain in the ass. Growing up we'd get them all the time. It just sucks.

The tattoo stuff is so cool! Definitely can see how that would take some getting used to.

[weedpizza]

The tattoo stuff really interests me!!

I have all the stuff for stick n pokes, but I still haven't taken the leap! I've been meaning to get some fruit to practice on (does that even work that well?).

[jpegghost]

Fruit isn't an accurate parallel to human skin. Fruit is naturally tight and doesn't move much under pressure; also, the pores on it are massive and become little inkwells.

When doing stick and pokes, be mindful of bloodborne pathogens! Tattoo artists kind of cringe at home stick and pokes, since 99% of the time they're done on a dime with minimal medical awareness and people are surprised they got hepatitis lol But I'm sure you will be mindful!

[weedpizza]

Something was telling me it wouldn't be equivalent! Like, not even close, huh??

Oh, wow. Yeah. I will be careful, and be sure to do (more) research!

[switterbeet]

Whoa cool! I have never thought about how the vibrations would make it difficult for the tattooist!

Also, glad you survived the deep freeze ok.