Skateboarding (to me)

Since spring is (hopefully) on its way, I figured I’d write about skateboarding; something I have missed very much since the start of winter.

Skateboarding is a very important thing to me. Not only is it great exercise, but it keeps me occupied during the summer. I usually go alone because it gives me some “me time” and I can escape stress for a little while. When I’m on my board, I’m in my own world. I focus on things clearly, and I tend to be calmer when I ride.

Although skateboarding by myself is pretty fun, skating with other people is pretty cool too. I’ve gone to a few skateparks and when I see someone land a hard trick, it gives me energy to “step my game up”. I get motivated to try something hard, or try something I would normally be afraid to do. If I land something (which usually doesn’t happen all too often) it can inspire and motivate others to try other tricks.

When I skateboard I can reflect my style, personality, or mood by the way I skateboard. I usually am a loose bodied skateboarder, but when I am angry about something in my life, I usually am more aggressive with my movements or tricks. I see other skateboarders reflect themselves while on a skateboard. I can see someone is really dedicated when they get up after a hard fall, and try the same trick again. I can see someone is creative when they do something on a board that has never been done before.

 Depending on how much time and effort someone puts into skating effects what they get out of it. I have skated since my freshman year of high school. I might suck at the sport, but I have a lot of fun doing it.

My Little Project

This summer I got my hands on a backyard gem; an old Volkswagen Manx (it is made from the frame, engine and steering components of a VW bug, except with a fiberglass body attached instead). My dad, uncle and I picked it up from a friend of ours. I recently have been working on it only to find out that I'm in a little over my head. I'm not a car mechanic by any means, but figured this project wouldn't be too hard with some help from my dad and uncle.

During the summer I worked on getting the interior ripped out.The seats were basically lawn chairs bolted to a bracket, which in turn was welded to the floor (not the safest setup). The roll bar had a slight shimmy to it (not the safest setup either). The floor had a lot of rust, so when I sat in one of the seats, my feet went through the floor and touched the ground.

Even though this VW looks bad, there were a lot of good things about it from first glance. For instance, the windshield was intact, the fiberglass body was in pretty good shape, and the steering column seemed to be alright. However, we still needed an engine. The one we have is so rusted; it's completely beyond repair.

I worked on the wiring, taking the gas tank out, and ripping off the fiberglass body with my dad this weekend. As I took the hood off, I was shocked to see an wiring nightmare:

After we had finished removing the wiring, my dad and I worked on removing the gas tank. As dad proceeded to lift it off of the body, it started leaking rotten gas everywhere. Pretty soon he smelled like a rotten gas tank himself.

The fiberglass body was next on the list. We were unsure of the surprises awaiting the removal. Since the way things were going, my hopes were not that high. My worst fear running through my head was that we were going to find a rusted out frame and broken axles. As we lifted the body off I was stunned to find a really good looking frame and good looking axles. Thank God!

We still have our work cut out for us, but hopefully things will go alright!

Last Living Souls

Searching for inspiration for a writing topic, I turned to music. As I was listening to my i-pod on shuffle, the song "Last Living Souls" by Gorillaz came on. I love the band Gorillaz, mainly because they create so many unique songs, none of them are alike. Thanks for the inspiration Gorillaz!

What would it be like to be the only human being on earth for a day? I'll set a scenario: you wake up, and walk around your house to find that no one is there. You turn on t.v. ........nothing. You go to town, nobody is there, you are completely alone, what would you do?

The first thought running through my head would be to go to the local auto-dealer, perhaps to "sample" their finest car available. I would then go to a walmart and cause complete havoc (create the world's largest domino-effect with the shelves, take a louisville-slugger to the display cases, throw mannequins off the roof, the works). I suppose by the end of my utter destruction of walmart, I would probably have a large appetite. My next visit would be to a local Culvers or any fast food restaurant to eat sickening amounts of fatty foods.

Upon waking up from my food-induced coma, I would look for a new home. Why would I go to my house if I could have any place I wanted for free? Where would be the best place to sleep? I have no trouble saying that I would go to a mattress store. I could find the perfect, most expensive bed ever made, and sleep like a king.

I'm not sure if I could handle much more then a week of being completely alone. I would go mad if I couldn't see my friends or family for the rest of my life, no matter how much some of them annoy me. Complete isolation would not be fun.....