Sun and ink

The best photo taken of me this summer. It was taken by the girl.
-SPDX

Today

I feel like going for a swim. But before I go to the pool I need to eat a nice breakfast/brunch. Today I feel like something that I know is safe to eat, something tested on humans. Today I will eat KIX. Not only are KIX kid tested, but they are mother approved. After I eat my well balanced breakfast I will need to get my pool gear ready. Today I will pack my swim trunks and my girl. We are going to swim in the nearest pool. My apartment has an in-ground pool. When we get back from the pool, we will have lunch.

Enjoy the sun,
  _SPDX_

Summa summa summa time

What a good day off. I got a lot done. I finished the Girls bike and my own. It took so long to build them and it feels so good to ride them. We went on a short bike ride and soaked up the sun. such a good day!

Have a wonderful summer,

-SPDX

My Friend

There is this kid I know. He is pretty cool. He makes the internets work. This fellow makes some fun music. His name is Matt. Matt uses the internets to deliver his music to the masses. I have been in a song or two of his. Matt is a cool guy. If you want to listen to some of his music click on the link ---> LINK

Part one of some parts: Was I a troubled youth?

In my apartment in cold cloudy Corvallis Or, USA I find my self asking a very interesting question. When I was a child how annoying was I? Was I a neighborhood pest? The family upstairs seems to be a nice family. I do however have "beef" with their daughter. The young girl no more than four years of age has done nothing but piss me off from day three of moving down from Portland. When I first moved down I lived in a an apartment at the front of the building. The little girl would come and mess with my planters. Now that I have moved to the back of the building the girl still finds herself on my patio, playing with my things. Now maybe I only have myself to blame. I live on the ground floor and I have pink plastic yard flamingos. Who could resist? I have caught her time and time again pulling the birds out of the soil. I have never confronted her simply because I don't want to be a crotchety old man or make her cry. In her innocent ignorance she has no idea that she is messing with my hard work and she has know way of knowing that she may be killing Mrs.Rosemary(a rosemary plant) by damaging her delicate root system.

Bellow is the before and after.

O.k., the before is a reenactment of what it looked like before she messed with it. I know its not a big deal or anything, but I find it annoying. This has brought me to question how bad of a kid I was when I was her age and did I cause much trouble?
When I was growing up I lived next to this odd ball fellow. He was in his mid thirties at the time and I was about six. I had received a small play tent as a gift. The kind that is made of small PVC pipe with an approximate half inch hole. I never really enjoyed the tent and had much more fun with the pipes. I would make balls of play-doh and shoot them at things. It was summer and no one had A.C. in my neighborhood at the time so John would leave his windows open while he was at work. I had been sitting on my front porch watching the world go by when I noticed a three inch crack In John's window. I sat a moment after making my observation and said "I bet I could make it in his window within ten shots." So I gave it my all. I was going to make it in the small slot in ten tries or else. I failed to make it in shot after shot, however on that tenth and final shot I made it in. Funny thing is i didn't stop there. I sat there with my makeshift blowgun and shot away for an hour. I know that in my head I thought I had made hundreds in. The truth is that I only made in seven. I remember it was seven because that was my lucky number at the time. However many made it in has no relevance and I will tell you why. Sitting on my porch is about all I did in the summers. I was a Portly kid and had no friends. I would watch my neighbors come home from work every night. I had it down like clockwork. I knew when George across the street would pull up on his bike and when Mark would drive into his parking spot in his red Toyota pickup. I certainly knew when John would be driving one of his many beaters up to the curb. At a quarter past six I heard his van pull down the block and at that moment it hit me... I had just launched play-doh into his house. John walked up his three cement steps and took the half step to his door. Light flickered on in his living room. I ducked my head and watched through a slat in the railing. He set his lunch box down. took his shoes off. walked halfway to his kitchen and "what the fuck" blurted out of his mouth faster than a freight train and twice as loud. I know that I was In deep shit. The whole evening went by. My Dad drove our cream colored Buick Skylark into the driveway and ate his dinner. My Mom tucked me in and I started to drift off. I thought I had gotten away with it. I dreamed the sweetest dreams, dreams of freedom. I dreamt of running barefoot in the yard. I was eating a hotdog... RING RING RING. the phone was my alarm clock that morning. Interrupted from my ideal childhood dream with the sound of harsh reality. "Sean Zachariah Carlson,... get into the kitchen right now." My Mom got the word of my misbehavior. As it turns out John had smashed a ball of play-doh between his toes and into his gross shag carpet. I didn't get in much trouble. My Mom made me apologize and that was about it.
John had kids. One was a year younger and the other about five years younger. My younger sister and I would go over and play with his kids. I remember that shag carpet well. It was greenish and and thick. I also remember that when I was about ten I went over to play with his son. Running in through the front door to the kitchen I scratched my foot on something hard. It didn't cut me, it just left a thin white line beside my big toe. I went back to see what I had scratched myself on and I discovered a hard blue lump under a layer of carpet. John had tried to get rid of the blue play-doh but could only get a small fraction of it out.

This is only one story I have about John. In the next instalment of "Parts:Was I A Troubled youth?" I will tell yet another story about John, His poor window judgment, and my fondness of throwing things into Johns windows. I will comment more on the girl upstairs and the question in my tittle.

Thanks for the readin,

SPDX

P.s.
SHAG!

I took this image from Flickr. They might get mad. Thanks to Jennifer taking a photo of carpet. I only have one question for you... match the drapes?

Steampunk

I recently decided to start making steampunk things. I just finished my first project. I created a nice hand gun. It is made from parts mostly purchased from the local Habitat for humanity. The total cost was around six bucks. I made the handle from old scrap laminated flooring. On etsy you can find many Nerf Maverick dart guns painted in a brass color, sometime they are just cheap dollar toys. I wanted to create a quality, truly hand made blaster pistol. I hope you enjoy the pictures. If interested in a steampunk gun, artwork, or home decor let me know. I would be game to make anything.

Have a good day,
SPDX

Bambi

Radio

88.7 KBVR Corvallis is a wonderful station run by the students of OSU. The Girl has a show every Friday at midnight. She plays hardcore, punk, and other random goodies. The shows she is sandwiched between are a smashup show and some old chicks classic rock show. The best and worst thing about KBVR is its diversity. Starting with the cons... Some days its nice to hear variety in the music you listen to where other days you just want to stick with what you know. That being said some pros...the the diversity is amazing. There are not only music shows but talk. There are sports shows and even shows about healthy eating. Perhaps one of the best qualities of the station is the opportunity to do a show of any genre or interest. Well I hope you give the station a listen. You can stream live on kbvr.com/listen  

Bikes

I have taken a 1973 road bike to bits. The once yellow Peugeot is now black and purple. My budget is keeping me from completing the wheeled wounder that I think i'm going to name "Psycho Killer'. The headset I bought will not fit and will take some modification to fit in the frame. All I need is a bottom bracket, brake cable, and handle bar tape. The girl received a new wheel set today. Purple and black. I am so jealous of her find. Her bike is still in the process of being sanded and painted. After this project is finished we will have the most boss bikes in Corvallis. so now that I am very close to finishing the bike I have been thinking of starting a Steampunk project. More about that later.

well that was fun. Thanks for reading my first blog...

Take care and stay classy interweb,
 -SPDX