This image has nothing to do with anything, it's just kind of grim.

Firstly, my apologies to everybody about my final project. I think I should have stopped to consider more how my actions might affect others, and it's a very sensitive subject to be so cavalier about.

From a techinical side, the blood was one parts red food coloring to 2 parts kayro syrup. It was held in place until release by an unlubricated condom held to my arm with spirit gum, and hidden with acrylic paint and makeup. There was a 3/4 inch wide tongue depresser under the condom to serve as a mark for me to slit, and from practice with shims I know that it would take at least two strong swipes to actually break through the wood to my skin. Any close inspection would reveal the condom, make up depressor and all, but I was counting on people not looking until after it was already bleeding.

Big thanks for all of the physical side to my friend Meredith at Hawgfly Productions.

As for the psychological side, it actually had been kind of a shitty semester for me, and I was stressed many times to the point of near nervous breakdown. I actually had a whole list of things I had intended to site as reasons for my suicide, most of which were based on at least half truths. It never really occurred to me to kill myself though. As an atheist and a hedonist, shuffling off my mortal coil is not an acceptable answer except in cases of unbearable physical pain or vegitated mind, because no second chance is coming. As such, I had some trouble soming up with what I thought I ought to say about why I was commiting suicide. In the end, the best I could do was to think of death as sleep, and think about how truly tired I'd become.