How to choose a font for a tattoo

I'm in love with literary tattoos.

(I recommend Contrariwise as a great place for literary tattoo eye candy and inspiration!)

I'd say there are two different ways to go approach choosing a font/typeface for your tattoo:

1. If you don't know your quote/words yet, or if you know you want an ampersand, for example, but aren't sure what you want it to look like:

• A good place to start in this scenario would be to investigate the six or so different type categories, and then choose maybe one or two of them that appeal to you.

2. If you have already chosen your words, then perhaps it already lends itself to a certain category already. Or, if not a specific category, then maybe a certain feel (informal vs formal, business-y vs casual, serif vs sans-serif.)

Here's an example:

I've been drawn to the word 'Selah' lately.
It's a term used in the Bible, mostly in Psalms, and from what I understand, the meaning is around taking a moment to pause and reflect on what's just been said.
It's used after statements like:

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us.   Selah

and

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.   Selah

So in this case, I would picture the word 'Selah' to be used in a script. But fairly formal, as in calligraphy, and not an informal handwriting.

Next, I'd consider the size of the tattoo. A large size can allow for more detail in the font, whereas as smaller one would need less detail.

I like the site dafont.com for font exploration.
Here are some options I'd consider for a small Selah tattoo:

#1:

Font: Chopin Script

#2:

Font: Mutlu Ornamental

 This one is too detailed for a small version.

But I couldn't resist including it anyway.

#3:

Font: Selfish

 Interestingly, the more I look at this, the more

I realize it's probably too detailed for a small tattoo as well.

(i.e.the lines in the S requires you to be able to see the 

differences in the thickness of the stroke.)

#4:

Font: Some Weatz

 ps- I love capital S's!!

#5:

Font: Wedding Nightmares

Unless something jumps out at you right away, I'd say it'd be good to have a least 10 options to choose from.
Then maybe stare at them for a while to decide which one you want permanently inked on your body.

If I was choosing one of the above, I think it'd be between #1 & #4.
I also love #2 for something bigger.

Android vs iPhone... which to choose?

Answer: Both.

Haha. Well, I'm trying to make it be both.

Here's the deal, last year I had an iPhone for work, and so I purchased an Android for my personal use. And then eventually I had to give back the iPhone and the Android became my sole phone.

I love the Android concept. Opensource, accessibility, collaboration, etc.
But, I'm actually fairly attached to Apple these days.
With a MacBook and an iPad, it's was getting to be a hassle to have my phone on a different operating system.

So here's how it broke down:

My Android:

Pros:
Admirable concept (opensource etc)
Plethora of free apps
Cons:

My handset was slow, buggy, and clunky
Required drag/drop syncing with my iTunes library

iPhone

Pros:
Wireless syncing with my iTunes library
iTunes on-the-go

Linking with apps from my other Apple devices

Fun interface

The newest apps

Variety of fun cases and skins
Cons:
Do I really want to have another Apple device?

Expense (spending more money on apps and impulse buying music from iTunes)

The Verdict:

iPhone wins. (We all saw that coming!!) 

 

One of the biggest pros for the iPhone was having iTunes with me wherever I go. I listen to at least two hours of podcasts each day, and it was annoying me to have to login to my computer and keep track of new releases and then drag/drop them onto my droid.

I have a pretty good handle on which day of the week my favourites are released, but it gets tricky with the bi-weekly editions. 

I sometimes used the Stitcher app whenever I forgot to copy over a new episode, but streaming is dangerous because I don't have a unlimited data with my cellphone plan.

With my iPhone I can simply go to the podcast and click 'Get More Episodes'. And, given the amount of time that I already spend in Starbucks, I don't have to go out of my way to find a wireless connection for the longer casts.

So these past few weeks I've been enjoying downloading apps and playing around to see what's new since last year. 

As for my droid, I'm keeping it around just in case I ever want it for something that my iPhone can't help me with. (So far I haven't used it.)

Fun listening... Kimbra!!

Okay, I'm ready to admit it.
I have a cold.

I went about my new normal routine this morning (design class and then dogwalking!) and then came home and crashed.
On the bright side though, I don't feel guilty for spending the rest of my Saturday napping and then getting up to surf the net, drink tea, and listen to music!

During my explorations I came across Sarah's blog and music by Kimbra!

There's no resisting the clapping.




Also, men dancing in suits is one of my favourite things.


Speaking of which....

Discovering musical talent via CBC's As it Happens

I just 'discovered' Charlie Winston.

I hopped in the car and the radio was set to CBC Radio 1. As it happens, "As it Happens" was playing!
So I listened to the ending of a segment, and then they played a fun song.

I waited in the car until the announcer said the name of the singer.
(I didn't have Shazam on my phone yet.)
It was David Myles singing I'll Never Know.

Later that night when I was downloading Myles' album Into the Sun, iTunes identified a few other albums that listeners also liked.
One of the them was Charlie Winston's album Hobo.

As soon as I heard the baseline in the song 'In your Hands', I was hooked.



Thanks CBC!
...and iTunes

All you can Alcatraz

I have a mild fascination with Alcatraz.

A couple years ago I felt the urge to re-watch Escape to Alcatraz.

I prefer old-school styles of movie watching, including going to a movie rental store and renting an actual hardcopy disque.
Unfortunately my local Blockbuster didn't have stock of all movies created in the 70s. So I was out of luck.
I quickly forgot about the movie and rented Indiana Jones instead. 

Fast forward to present day.

There's a small independent movie store close to where I live. The chances that it would have this particular Eastwood film were pretty slim, but I still had high hopes.
I walk over to the store around 8pm on a Friday night.
It was closed.


Are you kidding me? 

It was at this point that I decided to take my movie renting up a notch.
It's not like this movie is going to be around forever! I need to watch it before it disappears!

So I jumped on the iTunes movie renting bandwagon. (Wait, is it a bandwagon? is anyone renting via iTunes?)

During the renting process I noticed that there is a free Alcatraz iPhone app!
For Alcatraz nerds enthusiasts.

by Geoki

It describes the history and lore around Alcatraz and escape attempts. There are also movie trailers and Alcatraz-related videos.

Josh & Chuck from the Stuff You Should Know podcast did an episode on Alcatraz not too long ago.




I think that's what reminded me to watch the movie.

Here's another free app, "Alcatraz Breakout".

This one's a game.

Is it just me, or is this kind of creepy?

Maybe I'm just a bit somber about Alcatraz at the moment. Escape from Alcatraz reminded me that aside from being this unique prison on an island, it was in fact a real prison. People did live and die there.

And I can't get that finger chopping scene out of my mind.
creeepy.

"That's a Canadian Actor!!"

A few days before Christmas, my colleagues and I went out for a celebratory lunch. When we walked into the near-empty restaurant,  I immediately recognized a man seated at a table next to us.

None of my colleagues appeared to recognize him. And rather than stand up and point at him and scream: "That's a Canadian Actor!!", I decided to keep my cool, and mention it later.

We enjoyed a lovely meal and eventually left the restaurant.
As soon as the doors closed behind us, I asked if anyone else recognized the man.

Alas, no one did.
So it was on me to remember which show/movie I'd seen him on.

Back at the office, I rolled up my sleeves and did some google searches on this guy.
What I knew was:

• he's an actor
• on a Canadian show/movie
• he played a sort of dramatic role

My Google search looked something like this:
male + Canadian + actor + drama + television

The results included lots of pictures of Ryan Gosling, but none of this man.

So I enlisted the help of one of my coworkers who used wikipedia to find a list of all the Canadian tv shows and read the dramatic-sounding ones aloud to me.
And then I IMDB'd any of the contenders.

It was very futile.

Eventually I gave up and went home.

At home I did some more Google searching.
In vain.

Fast forward to a week later, I'm sitting in a coffee shop with my BFF, chatting about life.
Somehow I got on the topic of this frustration: The unknown Canadian actor.
I was describing to her how I recognize his face from some Canadian show, but can't figure out which.
her reply: "Oh. Like that train show or something?"

she.is.brilliant.

It was Andrew Kenneth Martin (a.k.a Charles Lucas) from Train 48

How to liven up your bookstore experience!

A while ago, I wandered into my neighbourhood bookstore and instead of sticking to the few sections that I regularly frequent, I found myself exploring the store.
Philosophy, biography, mystery & fantasy, war history...

I only vaguely even knew that these sections existed!


So, I dreamed up this project whereby each month, I would buy a book from one of these 'new to me' sections. At the end of the year, I would've explored the entire store. And opened myself to all kinds of new knowledge! (Who knows, maybe I'll become fascinated with the War of 1812!)

One of the tricks with the project is that it takes me a while to read books. I tend to think that I'm a slow reader. Combine that with the fact that I don't set aside a lot of time to read, and the idea of reading one book each month is quite ambitious!

Eventually, I found myself back in the bookstore with lots of time to kill, and so I wandered into the Biography section and decided to start my project!
This first book was selected based on the prettiness of the spine:

 

At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream
by Wade Rouse

I'd recommend it.
It opened by eyes to Henry David Thoreau - I now want to take a course on 19th century literature. And it made me think about my life in the city.

I haven't decided what's next....