Desperately trying to keep faith in humanity, er, I mean Of books and covers...

First allow me to apologize for my absence. I realize that to anyone who might care what a dragon has to say, waiting days and even weeks to see if I will post again must get irritating and frustrating. I apologize for this, and do not excuse my absence except to say that I have been off trying to help others. And let me just say, I do not leave without saying goodbye though that happens to me often enough. I will always return to my blog until I tell you otherwise.

And one more important item before I launch into the rant of an old and tired dragon. An interesting young lady has agreed to create a portrait of me. It is in the works, actually I think it is done, but I have not yet seen it. It's quite possible she's worried I might eat her if I don't like it. That happens when you deal with dragons. Well Karys dear you are a unique and interesting individual and as such are not eating material. Sorry if this disappoints you. Regardless of how I feel about the portrait, you have reinforced in this old dragon that a great book does not need an ordinary cover.

And there I am off my intended rant and onto something entirely new. There is plenty of time to desperately try to keep faith in humanity. I've spent years and years doing as much and it seems that's where I always remain, just trying to keep faith. Sometimes I have faith and then something comes along and knocks me on my big scaly ass. And yes I am bitter though I try not to be. It seems that so very often when I find that human who I think exemplifies every ideal of humanity I end being disappointed or worse yet, betrayed. And betrayal stings even if I sometimes eat the betrayer. But, I've gone off on a tangent from my tangent which returns me to the original topic, and that is not the topic for today's entry.

So back to my tangent topic, of books and covers. As you've probably guessed it's based on the cliche "you can't judge a book by its cover". I agree with this in spirit, but I hate how it seems to be embodied. If I see somebody who looks stupid, but is really smart, saying "well you can't judge a book by it's cover" just means this person really does look stupid but he's not. In reality maybe I should reevaluate my idea of what makes somebody look stupid in my eyes. And of course the reason nobody does this is because they would soon learn that there is no particular look that makes someone stupid, smart, rich, poor, optimistic, pessimistic, pragmatic, well schooled, street smart or anything else.

Now with that said, there are sometime cues, but even these can be misleading. Somebody always wears nice close, maybe they have money, maybe they are smart shoppers, or deeply in dept. Somebody has crappy clothes, same story applies. You really can't tell without knowing the person better and even then you may not know. Some people live in nice houses, drive nice cars and have great clothes because they are wealthy or highly paid, other's live the same lifestyle through borrowing and credit cards. Unless you are privy to their tax returns it is impossible to tell the two apart.

So then let's move on to other things; hairstyles, tattoos, piercing to name a few. And let me just say we dragons don't do such things because we have no hair and it's really hard, almost impossible actually, to pierce our skin with a piercing or tattoo needles. But this isn't about me its about you humans and your strange habits and strange expectations resulting from these habits. So let's take a simple tattoo, though piercing and hairstyles work the same way with less permanence. And that tattoo can be an expression of one's self, a reminder, a memento, or just a silly way to try to look tougher or more hip than you are. The same is true for piercing and hairstyles.

And there's more, or less if you will. Let's go back in time, to explore the roots of these expressions. Now hairstyles have never been especially painful, but they have required more time, but hairstyles don't mean much since they can always be changed. Piercing used to require a needle, some ugly pain and a good chance of infection. Now they can just be snapped in with a gun. It doesn't require someone with the inner strength and determination that should be necessary to take an the outward expression that piercing used to be. And the same is true with tattoos, now done with electric sterile needles. Once they were done over hours, even days with bone chisels and blinding pain.

So the problem is that half the people out there with tattoos and piercings are just poser wankers who think they look cooler to other people. They think they express individuality, but without the thought and determination they don't express much more than a shallow compulsion. And careful before you read the wrong thing here. I am not saying that such things are always shallow compulsion, not at all. Just that they can be and that unless we talk to the person it is impossible to care. And I can tell you that returning back to the person who started this rant, this old dragon has certified her own piercings and worthy of one dragon's praise.

And before I sign off this latest installment of dragon ravings let me offer some advice to all those out there who might be thinking about tattoos or piercings. First, if you are the human equivalent of a dragonling, don't do it. You are probably too young to know what you really want done to your body for a lifetime. And whether you are an adult or just ignoring my first bit of advice, here's rule 2; think about it, think about it, wait a month and think about it, wait a year and think about it some more. If you still want to get it done and haven't changed your mind over this time, you probably have put enough thought into. Spend another month imagining that tattoo and how it will look in 10, 20, 30, and 40 years and how you will look as well. Hint: a cute little flower that draws attention to your flat stomach at 20 will probably be an abomination at 60. And now I'm going to get a little sexist and add one more rule, if you are a man have it done like a man. If you want a pierced ear, do it yourself. If you want a tattoo, look into getting one done with a bone chisel the old fashioned way. Own the pain and you will own that tattoo.

That is all, most of this advice will be ignored anyway.

Jack Dragon