Casa Bonita

     Here's my colored pencil take of the exotic Mexican wonderland that is, Casa Bonita. For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Beautiful House I suggest you get familiar as soon as possible. This place should seriously be considered one of the 7 wonders of the world. Check out their website and go have an adventure or two there.

Skateboarding

     Skateboarding has been my go-to hobby for the better part of ten years now. I've devoted most of my time,  energy, and a fair chunk of change in exchange for those days spent on sun-soaked pavement. It's the reason for the friends I have, and the ones I have had. And the same goes for the places I've been, and the places I plan to be from. Years of playing on a makeshift concrete playground has certainly taken its toll. My legs are littered with scars, and my ankle makes this strange clicking sound when I walk barefooted, but that doesn't discourage me. As far as good things go, skateboarding is at the top of my list (literally, I've got a list and everything). The art of skateboarding (yes I call it an art, not a sport. It sounds corny but I will argue till I'm blue in the face on that one. Skateboarding is not a sport) is something that I've tried to explain to people before, but when I do, I usually end up making an ass of myself.
     So, if you're reading this, then that means one of two things have happened. Either I typed up an entry that I felt confident enough would convey why I think skateboarding is super sweet without me geeking-out too much and making me look like some sort of hyper-active fan girl...or, I simply swallowed my pride, and ignored that self conscious voice in my head while I ranted on about the art of skateboarding and eventually siked myself up enough to finally press the "publish" button. Things may get a little corny, and I'd usually apologize for that, but I've recently decided that "I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasures of saying true things". Either way, here's my attempt at describing the feeling of skateboarding.
     The best, and most accurate (for me anyway) way for me to describe skateboarding, would be to simply call it pure, free, excitement. Whether you're cruising suburban cul de sacs, or tearing through city streets, skateboarding (to me) is just a machine that turns your environment into a playground. It allows you to look at your surroundings from a totally new, perspective. Things like sets of stairs and park benches are no longer lost in the background. Thanks to skateboarding, things that were once just objects, become objects of interest. They become obstacles, they become opportunities. Your board becomes an excuse for you to run and jump and explore and fall and make an ass of yourself, and be completely and totally okay with it. It turns your world into the playground of possibilities that you used to see it as. It gives you common ground to stand on with anybody with a skateboard who otherwise would be a total stranger.
     And it's an art, believe me, it's a fuckin work of art. It's not a question of if you can do a certain trick, it's how you do it. Like, I'd take something as simple as an ollie from John Motta over any tre flip I've ever done any day. I could watch and rewatch any of the skate videos in my collection every day of my life without complaint, due to the simple fact that they're all beautiful works of art. The finesse and talent and creativity in skateboarding's history is incredibly enjoyable to watch, and merits multiple viewings (many of them). Skateboarding is totally free of structure, and it thrives on creativity. There's no point system, there's no winning, It's just you, having fun. As a skateboarder, you're free to do anything. You can skate whatever you'd like, you can try any trick in the book...Hell, you can even create your own trick or obstacle. There's no sport in existence that would allow for, let alone encourage, creating or challenging the strict rules that define it as a sport. Skateboarding, on the other hand, is whatever you make of it. Like drawing or painting, skateboarding has techniques and methods, but no rules. There's no wrong way to skate, just as there's no wrong way to paint. It's all up to you. Point of the rant: skateboarding is really awesome, and it's not a sport.

      Phew, so there's a condensed version of my thoughts about skateboarding. I tried to keep the geeking-out to a minimum.

Richie

Mac

Kevin

Colorado Springs

One of Those Faces

     I've come to the realization that I have, one of those faces recently. You know, one of those faces that -from the right angle, and under ideal light- has the potential to resemble a cast of celebrities. I've gotten some crazy claims, here's a few for you to judge.

Tony Hawk= I get him like twice a week

Tom Green

Seth Meyers

Jeremy Allen White

Graham Parker

Annnnnnd this guy...

Anti-Turd Assessments

     I may not know what I want to do with my life (I'm still working on what I want to do with today), but I'm pretty sure that becoming deadbeat loser isn't at the top of my to-do list. I want to be productive, I want to be active, and I want to be happy. I'm constantly looking for ways to improve myself, and recently, I came across a concept that I thought was interesting. To help me stay on track, I've borrowed a strategy from Demetri Martin. It's part motivation, part organization, part game. It's a weekly point system that he designed that covers all aspects of your daily life. It's got a section for my health, mind, contribution, karma, creativeness, social life, environment, and autonomy. Each category has several goals listed under it that relate to it's category. Like, for health, I said that I want to run 5 miles this week. And for my creativeness category, I said that I'd like to finish two paintings or drawings. So at the end of each week I'll tally up the totals of each category and I'll be able to gauge how my week panned out. If I ace the assessment for the week, I'll pat myself on the back, then up the odds for next week. If I fail miserably, then at least I know that I've got some work to do. I'm not saying that I'm a turd, this is just my defense against becoming one. Hopefully these weekly assessments will give me an idea about the areas I'm doing well in, and let me know about the things I could improve on. I just don't know who I am sometimes, maybe this will change that.

Challenge accepted. 

Time-takers

     It's January outside, which means that we're wedged tight within the buttcrack of Winter. It's dark, and it's cold, and it sucks balls, but it's the only direct route to Spring that I know of, so each year I suffer through it. To take my mind off the devastation that is winter, I've been keeping busy with some newly acquired hobbies. Lately, I've been trying my luck with paint, and I gotta say, I dig it. It's begun to take shape as a solid hobby of mine, which is good cause I already splurged on the easel and good paint. I still suck, but with some time (and we've got a while till Winter's over), and some practice, maybe I'll graduate from "suck" to "stink".

Noooooot doooooone

Thursday

Future-Kyle

This pretty much sums me up

     Am I a grown up? Have I reached that point in my life where I should know (or at least act like I know) what I'm capable of, and what I should be dedicating my time pursuing? Should I have my 5 year plan out on paper? What about a career? A house? A family? If that's the case, then I'm in quite the pickle. I know (and I'm grateful) that I've got some good things going for me. I really dig my current situation, but now what? Oh hypothetical blog audience (blogaudience), why do I ask so many overly-general questions?
     The future freaks (and excites, mostly excites) me out. Right now, every action and choice I make (and consequently, do not make) is what is defining the Kyle I'll be from tomorrow till infinity. I admit, it sounds totally corny, but it's just as true. So you gotta ask yourself, "Do I like who I will be?". As for me, I'm not sure. As far as I can tell, future-Kyle is going to be a caricaturized version of me today; a self conscious, hypocritical, daydreaming perfectionist. And I guess I can live with that, it's worked out pretty alright thus far. But the sound of a new and improved version of future-Kyle sounds too appetizing for me to pass up. So to help me figure out who I want to become, I should probably take note of the things I enjoy the most right now. So take a look, what can future-Kyle expect when his time comes?

Things I like
Skateboarding, guacamole, slippers, sunshine, Summer, music, road trips, friends, laughing, inside jokes, candy, Spring, the beach, apple juice, art, ducks, block parties, dinosaurs, 25, life, free samples, drawing, hitting every yellow light, stand-up comedy, space, dreams, Mexican food, traveling, a clean room, being outside, owls, family, pizza, Arizona, bbq's, walking, painting, finding pennies, Being happy, Boulder, excitement, hats, camping, reading, fresh socks, coffee, riding my bike, fruit, my car, dogs, daydreaming, swimming, lemon-aid, cats, learning, writing, my backpack, ideas, whistling, listening, cheese, skate videos, doodling, making things, creativity, water, tea, the weekend, strawberries, arriving at a place right when a song ends, waking up before the alarm, finding cash in the laundry, karma, TED talks, thrift stores, flea markets, notebooks, being active, spelling long words right, peanut butter and jelly, deep sea movies, new things, treasures on clearance, full tank, getting shit done, birthday dinners, adrenaline, getting stuff in the mail, sunglasses, shorts, filming, fun, penguins, exact change, pictures, being lost,

So I still don't know what I want to do with my life, but judging by my riveting "things I like" list, I don't see me getting my own reality TV show anytime soon. Honestly, I feel pretty boring after typing all that. I just realized that some of my favorite things are also some of the most drab and mundane. So it looks like you've all got a fat, bald, boring (triple threat) future-Kyle to look forward too. Until then, I'll probably just keep doing whatever the hell it is that I do.

Thoughts about karma, and a project

Motivational Duct-tape

     What goes around, comes around. I'm a firm believer in the power and existence of karma. Maybe not in the traditional "let the universe guide you" way, but I do think that being positive attracts positive. Having a pessimistic view only makes you expect disappointment, while us glass-is-half-full-guys are enjoying the finer things in life. That's why I've been trying to earn as many karma-coins as possible lately, it just feels good. It's also the inspiration behind my newest (really new) project (I'm still setting up the blog now). Click here to check it out. It's just me, helping people one at a time. So take a look if you'd like, I started today and already have my first post up.

Def Leppard

     Oh, and speaking of kittens...check out my new cat! Well technically it's my mom's cat, and I'm only taking car of her till she moves into her own place, but I'm still excited! The cat is totally deaf so she can't fend for herself out in the streets, so I guess she'll be rooming with me for a little while. Her name is Allie, but in light of her handicap (er, I mean, condition), I renamed her Def Leppard (get it? Cause she's a deaf leopard? Classic) . She's pretty awesome if I do say so myself.