Instructables: D.I.Y. Elf Ears!

Whoah.
Just saw this on boingboing.

Instructables has just posted a piece on D.I.Y. elf ears. PERMANENT elf ears.




I've learned how to do a lot of amazing and inspiring things from instructables, but this is the first time I've ever seen a body-mod like this.

Now, a lot of people are going to see this and freak out.
So in the interest of full disclosure I'm going to fess up and reveal that I, Jackson, have also had my ears modded.

Not modded into elf ears, but modded nonetheless.



As a child, I was genetically blessed with two large, flapping, Dumbo-like ears. The teasing I got over my ears was pretty intense. When I was eight, my mother asked me if I wanted them pinned back.

As it turns out, she too had had protruding ears as a child, and she too had them pinned back.

For those of you who are unsure as to what "pinned back" means, here's the otoplasty wiki.



The procedure went like this: Under general anesthesia, a doctor cut a piece of cartilage out of both of my ears, sewed them up, and a week later I got the bandages off, revealing my new, non-sticky outy ears.

What is the difference (ear-wise) between me, my mother, and Elf Ears Girl above?

Not a thing.

We humans are vain creatures. We want to look nice. If not nice, then interesting. If not interesting, then shocking. As long as there's an envelope to push, assuredly, someone, somewhere will eventually push it.

If you in the course of your life run into behavior that shocks or offends you, then as long as the person doing the shocking and offending isn't breaking a law, you have but one course of action.

Respect it.

Respecting differences is the only way to have harmony between humans.

After all, difference is the essence of humanity. There are no two humans who are exactly alike, not even twins.

So more power to Elf Ears. More power to everybody. Our bodies are but temporary things, why shouldn't we decorate and modify them?

Life is yours to live. Live it exactly as you see fit, and if people give you a hard time, thank them for the opportunity to exercise politeness in the face of adversity.

Love to All,

Jackson & Team SuperForest


p.s. Did it hurt? You bet it did! And there was lots of throwing up from the gas they used to put me under. And my ears itched like you wouldn't believe until I got the bandages off.
Do I regret having it done? Nope. But seeing Elf Ears Girl, perhaps I didn't go far enough?....

Kindle Redux

Hello All,

A thought just occured to me...

I think a major facet of why I love my Kindle so much is the idea that:

If I could be satisfied with reading only the books I downloaded from Amazon (or another eBook retailer,) theoretically, I would never again be responsible for the death of a tree.

That is a very powerful meme.

Of course, materials were used in the creation and distribution of my Kindle, but that is over and done with. My Kindle can and will be recycled when it reaches the end of its useful life.

In the meantime, those majestic and incredibly useful creatures called trees will no longer have to be toppled over, pulped, bleached, pressed flat, dried and then have ink sprayed on them in order to convey intel from my visual cortex to my cerebrum.

I absolutely LOVE that.

I no longer want to own books willy nilly. Sure, a first edition of Catcher in the Rye, or Ender's Game is something I would cherish, but the run of the mill Hudson News airport purchase? Paper no longer!
And once my precious little device can render images in color, well, that ends my addiction to Wired; in print form anyway.

I'm already reading the Times on my Kindle, which translates the grainy, black and white nature of a newspaper perfectly.

The Kindle is in its Game Boy stage right now, but soon it will be an XBox. Fast, furious, and gorgeously rendered.

And in the meantime, the sound of a tree falling in the woods has nothing to do with my reading habits and everything to do with my eBook version of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.

This goes for everything in my life. I no longer wish to own things. Just gimme the data.
I don't want dvd's, I want the codecs contained on them. I don't want books, just the info they contain. No more cds, just the mp3s please.
It's the ideas things represent that I desire, not the things themselves.

Little by little, the world of things falls away and the truth is revealed in its shining glory. This is the SuperForest way.

I feel so free!

Buy a Kindle, save a hundred thousand trees.

Love to All,

-Jackson