It's beginning.
   It feels like I should go to work tomorrow and start drawing up this next weeks appointments.
   Time is flying by and it seems that I am getting away from my regular responsibilities. I want to stay busy, because I need to get a bit out of debts and back into the green.
   I have a trip planned to go to Ft. Lauderdale in June. And I secretly want to get to California in July.
   I don't know how I'm going to do it all but I'm gonna try.  I'm only capable of making so much money. And or working only so hard.
     And the money made isn't as important to me as just doing the best job I can. And the level of tattoo art is always consistent on getting even more awesome.
   I'm worried.
   Keep up or get left hanging, right?
   So my mind is back in hustle mode.
   It's the goals. Meeting our goals, man. We make these rad plans and try our best to achieve them. 
   At least I'm feeling good again. I'm glad the storm has passed. Now I got to get back to work.
   Much love, my friend.
   I hope you have some goals that you're attempting to achieve. Life passes quickly. We are already to the last week of the month.
    I am not sure if I enjoy the 4 parts a month writing in here. It gives me an honest read on how many people are reading these words.
    I'm thankful someone is reading my life's trials. It's good to know. Thank you for the reads and I will try to post more stuff, showing you that I'm a machine with emotions. Jajajajaja
  I am just a guy.
   Good night.

2222016
I did wind up going to work today and found out I get to do a hand written ribliography tomorrow morning starting out the day.
Awesomeness.
Not only is it like a thousand words but they want me to move sentences around from its original process.
And I wanted to be a tattooer.
I'm sure it's meaningful.
After all it's someone's words that they want to carry on their body forever. But they want to customize it so it fits them better.
People, don't do this to your tattooist. We hate that shit. Not a problem really. It's easy to a point but at the same time I believe your tattoo should say something about you with out it sayings word really.
It's called tattoo art. Not tattoo words.
I'll do it though. Gotta make something for my time. Just a rant I suppose.
Other than that I really had an even keel kind of day. It was a good day off.
The highlight of my day was climbing a huge hill in the center of town here called M Hill.
Me and doobs took a walk today. Through the tree and over the rocks we both panted our way to the top. I'll drop a few photos for you to check the specs.
My legs feel like rubber bands but I now have a reason for my aches. Jajajajaja

It's a panoramic so you can see almost 180 degrees.
Not what you would expect for South Dakota in February? Me either.
The ground was really dry even.

That's M Hill from the bottom. Down by the creek. And here is one of doobs and I at the top.

Yeah. We are both whooped.
The next time I get in a funk, I think it's gonna be time for a hike.
It doesn't take a long time for us to get to the top. Maybe like 45-50 minutes. But it's all down hill from there. That's for sure.
That was the day though. Guess I will get to you tomorrow. Stay tuned.

  02232016
  You know, the tattoo shop was busy. We had several walk ins and many appointments made and the book is filling up into March for all of us in the studio.
  Have you ever seen any of the original artwork for Dante's Inferno?
  Yep. This is my biggest problem right now.
   In between appointments I have been trying to figure out how to invert all of the artwork in the book.
   Well one page in particular. It has God standing on the moon holding, what I suspect is Baby Jesus high above a spiral of angels coming into the darkness below with swords to fight a black demon serpent.
     It is for a police officer who is from another state. He's hella cool. And I really want to impress him.
   He has given me freedom but I don't want to take so much of that freedom that it no longer looks as though it's from that original artwork from the book.
     It's all lithographs.
   Turning a lithograph into a tattoo can be pretty hard but if I stress it hard enough, I will work my way through it. I'm sure.
    Other than that, my tattoos were easy going today.
    My ribliography that I thought I was going to do today, actually was on the calf. I didn't know that she wanted some flowers and stuff with it, but it wasn't really a problem.
    She thought that she was being a pain in my ass but she honestly was not. She had taken the time to send me an email with all these details and of course, I didn't look at it.
    Was no problem though. I custom drew her an Iris, some Lilacs and a four leaf clover together in a triangle.

Some pretty cool writing. Grandma's words were right on though.
    There was a part that I keyed on though.
    The line where she wrote "Love your Mom and dad."
   I was like, "Grandma didn't like your pops, eh?"
   She was like, "She never liked him. But had to deal with him! Hahaha How did you know that?"
   " because she put mom first and she didn't capitalize dad "
    "She didn't like him but she never said anything like that to me. You could just see it in her face when we were growing up."
   It turns out, they used to have a couple of days here in South Dakota, that recognized The Pony Express. They do not do it anymore, but this letter was written to her by Grandma and sent by the Pony Express when she was two years old.
    Then it sat in a box unopened, until she was 23 years old after grandma passed away.
     Cool story to go along with the tattoo. Sometimes I think, what I do, as a tattoo artist, has lost its meaning over the years. And then I get to do one like this.
    It's not all glitter and glamour, but it has all the warm fuzzy stuff that makes it all that much more meaningful.
   I have a huge day ahead of me.
   No spoilers. Talk at you tomorrow.

02242016
Yep.
Not sure if anyone is reading me at all this week. I better not quit my day job.
I've been hustling a lot. Between tats I've been drawing. Between drawings I have been planning.
Planning on the next few drawings along with this and next weeks appointments.
Today really wore me out.
I was able to do a tattoo portrait of someone's pug. His name was Yoda.

friendly little guy.
Along with this one I did a few more little guys but this one was the best of the day.
Tomorrow is filled with two killers.
A ram and roses.
Then the lithograph Angels killing serpent. I'm sure I will be hustling all day.
Just doing what I can and living up to my potential. I hope I can keep my head above the water.
Picked up 4 more appointments today with others on deck. Just waiting for their deposits. It's good working where I am.
Well I hope everything your doing is making you.
Making you into the you you want to be. Do get stagnant. Nothing good comes from doing nothing.
Be well. Thanks for reading.

02252016
   I'm whooped.
  Just checking in.
   I worked my ass off today. I hope you understand.
   I have a full day tomorrow with four little tattoos and an attempt to finish a dragon sleeve I've posted in here a few weeks ago.
    I love my life. And I love my wife and family. It was good to be with them tonight. I think I'm going to head to bed.

02262016
The sun has come and went.
The sky is clear and the wind is a gentle breeze if not at all. Our weather was good today even though I saw very little of it.
Our temperature or was 49 degrees today. Tomorrow it will be 68.
It doesn't sound very warm. But to us up here? With no wind?
It feels great!
Every one busy in the shop and so, it went by pretty quick.

Best feeling in my world is this guys jowl drop. Warm, moist and heavy. Just jaw resting on my arm.
Doobs is so rad.
I did a few tattoos today but this one was the best of them all.

This guy tells me a little about his training. He runs a marathon every year called, IronMan Triathlon.
In the IronMan you swim 2 miles. Then Bike, a lot of miles and then you run 26.2 miles. It's something like that.
26.2 miles?!! Running?
Much less doing it in Boulder CO. Being a mile high above sea level. Air is thin man. I would be sucking wind so quick.
He gets off on that exhausted type of buzz. Man, what a high, right?
He rides his bike 50 miles in three hours. Pedaling.
There's no way I can imagine myself doing half of that in 4 hours.
People are amazing to me.
I used to torture myself with much less effort.
In fact, even though it sounds terribly painful, I've been thinking a lot on the idea of being more active but my life is way too busy to get my wheels going on the ground in any other direction.
What I'm saying is that I'm enjoying my down time and when I could be moving, I'm relaxing.
Maybe I like myself too much to hurt myself exercising. Jajajajaja.
I am not sure how far I could go though. On a bike or on foot. The farthest I walked last year was a seven mile hike. And I was stupid sore for like a week afterwards.
Although I'm curious where I would be today on a foot hike, or bike ride. I wouldn't want to take bets or anything.
Alright well.
I don't know how you guys like reading this journal style writing, so maybe next month I will try my thumbs in a fictional character that I've been thinking about lately.
Stay Tuned, I'm just thinking about staying fresh. My days are pretty much the same. Wakes up. Does tattoos. Comes home. Writes stuff and goes to bed.
So maybe something new is in order.

02272016
   My day started out with the warm kisses of my wife. Loving warm kisses.
    It's was beautiful today. It was warm and windless.
    The at work was definitely harder to start than awaking. For some reason I was fighting everything people wanted of me. And words were not working well with others.
    Instead of curving the direction into the way I wanted to go artistically, it seemed that it went almost abrasively.
   What I mean is. I would try to explain things like color concept and different techniques which would allow for a better piece.

   But no matter what I did, it just came out in a way which  made it seem like it wasn't going right. Miscommunication happens all the time especially when trying to perform a cover up.
    I conceded to shutting up.
     Do the job. Try to do it their way.
    Then, it seemed to work out. I got past my first two tattoos. They weren't my favorites of the day but two in the bucket is better than nothing.

    My next one was a surprise if nothing else. This guy wanted Spider Man's web shooting out of his hand and kind of up his forearm. But it was a design that was cone shaped and it looked as though the web was coming out at you.
   If I had done this his way, it would of looked like a pretty weird tornado coming off his wrist.
    Words were important.
     And me, being a childhood fan of the Amazing Spider-Man, I didn't want to let my 9 year old self down.
   So I talked him into this.

  We will probably be doing more to this one in time. We talked all kinds of stuff. Like Spider-Man 2099.
   Carnage!
   And we even talked about a Brock being eaten up by the Venom suit! 
   I'm pretty excited about our future here. Spider Sleeve.
   I have an infinity for comic book tattoos. I absolutely enjoy doing them.
   Going to bed and ready to start my weekend.
    May you find many blessings throughout you dealings with others in life this end week.
   Okay well...

02282016
I've been thinking hard on next months writing.
It's like I'm going to spend my whole day creating tattoos and then I'm going to unleash the creative styles of my word smithing.
I'm still not sure what kind of story would appeal to you.
One of my untold history or one that I can fictate. My wordsmithing is strong today. I've already made up two words.
Today was good. Got to shopping groceries early and then made some dog food. Our dogs eat very well.
Mix of ground veggies and meat. Here are a few photos so you get an idea.

After we grind it. We hand mix it. And then make meatballs that my dogs eat raw.
They love it and it's way more healthy than store bought dog food.
Having dogs like ours is more a chore than you would believe. They are cute, but they're a lot of work.
They're allergic to potatoes and wheats and corn. The first ingredients to just about any store bought food.
When you see bullies that are slobbering on their feet or losing fur or scratching up against stuff, those are signs that your dog may be suffering from allergies.
Anyways the rest of the day went as planned and I made some spaghetti for the walking dead.
I don't get to eat it very often because it really is not good for me to eat heavy starches but it's a family favorite here. It was grubbin.
Tomorrow I have to go to the shop. I have to take charge in painting my station. I'm planning green.
It seems to be a color that pleases me lately. Favoring green and grey. Not sure why. Reminds me of cash. And I've always loved cash.
Maybe my next pets name. Jajaja
Next password. I actually tried to use it once but the computer said it was way too easy to use.
So I'm always thinking about what to write about still.
I like zombies.
I have a lot of life experience in the world of the streets and the underground. I'm not sure if those are stories I want to tell. I have many untold stories of my youth in detention centers.
I have a lot of less blurry moments in my sobriety. I just don't know what would reach you. If it would matter or not, I will never know. But this writing thing has become one of the nightly rituals I have made a constant.
I am not sure if I will still write the days or not. But I know I will write everyday.
I hope your day was good.
My sons best friend came over today with his lovely lady and their child. His son Callaghan is a two month old lil boy with a full head of hair.
I can't imagine that they're old enough to have babies already. I mean, all my kids. It's crazy. It's crazy that I even made it out of my thirties honestly.
Especially if I told you about my days in my teenage life as a street kid figuring out my place in a world where nobody wanted me.
There is so much more on the plate than you could ever eat today. When you're young, it's hard to see over the the table much less than over the first pile in front of you.
I never thought I would live long enough to ask for seconds.
The world in front of you is so much bigger man. You can't see over the first hill till you're at the top.
I hope you're out there wandering around. Enjoying the insecurity of new. The new stuff is exciting. The old
Stuff is comforting. Try to find balance.
Much love.

02292016
  So I've been thinking about how my next chapters go.
   I've been hoping that something would be given to me through some vision or maybe one of you would have left a note or something to bounce from.
   I know. It was a stretch and for sure a big stretch indeed. Jajajajaja
   I don't really get comments or stars or stuff like that. It's rare when I do.
   I awoke today from a dream about being a mute monk walking through the city streets, with people talking to me but I did not speak. I did a lot of nodding and pointing and looking in the direction of things to answer questions.
   If I was to write about this monk, or vagrant, or whatever he is, I wouldn't have to use the parentheses as much. And I guess the story would have come from a vision.
    I wish I remembered more about the dream. But it was quick. And hard to figure out really.
   I mean, usually I dream, but then realize it's a dream and about the time I did realize it was a dream, I awoke from it.
   So.  It's leap year. The one day of the year that gets us to 366 days. Happens only once every four years. Not like you don't know this, right?
     I hope you spent it enjoying the worlds extra time.
    I spent the day putting my station at work into better shape. I pulled all the stuff from the walls and painted it up.

   Came out looking quite a bit different from before. The wall that is green used to be an eggshell color. And the white wall used to be baked bean. Kind of brownish red.

    I went to my shed and pulled a box of old stuff from my old shop and used them. So now my station looks like this.

It's like a whole different world in my corner.
   All of the paintings behind me are Polynesian inspired works painted by me. The two masks on the left are Hungarian. The three on the right are Peruvian.
   I think the color green makes me feel creative and is the color that makes people happy. It's the color of money and weed. Known to make people horny and I think it's sexy as fuck!
   So. That's what I did with my extra time today.
    And I figured out how to write the chapters out in next months writing. March 1 will be the chapter 1 and so on.
    I hope you like the next story. I haven't figured out if it's gonna be fact or fiction yet. I think I will keep you guessing.
   I hope you have had an awesome extra day and that you used it well. Everyone got it today.