​My friend Amy was interviewed by NBC Bay Area at Viva Calle yesterday while she was skating around. She was also wearing the custom purple V-neck 1.0 t-shirt that she bought from me last month! She told me about the interview when I ran into her yesterday, and I found the video this morning. Amy is totally rad! On Sunday, she ran the 5K that morning, roller-skated, and biked at "Viva Ca-yay!

Holy shit, Viva Calle was fun as hell! I drove downtown and started biking at First Street, then went to the Mexican Heritage Plaza on the east side, Japan Town, and the Alameda before returning to my car. On my ride, I saw some friends wearing my t-shirts and a couple who bought their San Jose shirts at a recent First Friday event. I didn't do the whole route but made sure to stop at all four locations where my friends, TWC (Together We Create), were live-painting. I had to walk my bike through the crowded areas, but I did over 13 miles today! My legs are crazy sore after biking today and hiking yesterday. I'll see if I have Lieutenant Dan legs tomorrow.

This morning, my friends and I went to Pinnacles National Park to hike through one of the caves. There were lots of boulders and interesting rock formations but the caves were cool as fuck! Unfortunately, I couldn't record or take pictures inside the cave because I was holding a flashlight in one hand and used the other to climb. The cave was short but definitely the highlight of the trip.

My buddy, Jon, and I went to Vasona Lake and walked the Los Gatos Creek Trail Monday afternoon. We were in my car, drinking beers, laughing & reminiscing of good times for at least 20 minutes before hitting the trails. Once we got going we saw an ice cream truck in the parking lot. The ice creams were expensive at $5 each but we bought them anyway. The last time I bought ice cream from an ice cream truck (I was a kid) the most expensive ones were $1. I picked the WWF bar and as I walked away I thought I saw Mark Zuckerberg in line to buy ice cream.

Today was great! I slept in after working the Street Mrkt event last night. Later on, I went to the local craft brewery, Narrative Fermentations, where local bad-ass artist, Patrick Hofmeister, is painting his latest mural. I had an alcoholic slushy from the bar and a fried chicken sandwich from Scratch Cookery food truck while I was there. Pretty damn good! Afterwards I went to The Arsenal art supply store & gallery in Japantown. I went to see the current exhibit by my friend Amy Brown and cousin Alyssarhaye. There was also a pop-up outside the store where a couple other artist buddies were selling their merch so I bought a few items to support them. I went home after and checked movie showtimes and bought a ticket to see Shang-Chi, the latest Marvel movie. I loved it! It was a perfect end to a good day!

I DJ'd my friend's birthday party today and during dinner my buddy, Robin, texted me that he received the t-shirts he ordered. I dropped all the orders off at the post office last night, right as they closed, and thought it would take a few days before they reached their destinations so I was surprised to hear to hear that he got his already. Later I saw my friends Amy and Alondra both got their packages too. In the pics below you can see the cards I drew for them and the candies I threw in each order, Pop Rocks and Cry Babies! Both are candies I used to love when I was a kid. I'm still holding off on showing the surprise gifts, inside the brown envelopes, till more people receive their orders, but you can see one on my Instagram stories right now!

A couple friends and I got up early Sunday morning to hike up to Maple Falls at Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos. At least that was the plan! I printed a map I pulled from the park's website and soon learned that it wasn't very helpful with the poor/lack-of trail markers at the park. We made our first wrong turn early on and were able to get back on track with a little help from runners & bicyclist. Further along we made another wrong turn onto a trail that wasn't on the map. After a while I started getting suspicious and when we came upon a dirt road I knew were definitely off track. Because the climb was so steep we decided not to go back the way we came. We hiked further north a bit before taking the dirt road back to the parking lot. It was still a great hike and we had a blast even though we didn't see the waterfall. My friend and I also got stung by wasps. Me, once behind the ear and a couple times on my chest. My friend, on her finger and on her back. But like I said, we still had a great time. Next time we'll be better prepared and actually make it to the waterfall.

My buddies and went hiking along the coast at Wilder Ranch State Park this morning. While we were there we saw a vulture eating away at a dead seal thru it's eyehole. Pretty fucking metal! Afterwards we went to a brewery in Capitola for beers and lunch then off to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for more beers, deep fried Oreos, a train ride, bumper cars, & arcade games. After coming home I didn't have much energy to do anything else besides draw a couple new button designs on the iPad. I drew six of them last night. The plan is to have new buttons available for the next First Friday Street Mrkt in September.

Another great event! I sold a few shirts and prints tonight, but most importantly, talked to people in person! I talked to friends (some who I haven't seen in years), people who had never seen my stuff before, folks who have. I even saw a guy wearing one of my pink & black San Jose shirts and asked if I could take his picture! I had missed vending so much! I can't wait to be back out there again, choppin' it up with folks, at the next two First Friday Street Mrkts in September and October!

I spent hours today looking for alternatives to the shirts I wasn't able to buy, either because they were out of stock or had to be bought by the case. Then I emailed  those alternatives to everyone whose custom orders were affected. Now I'm waiting on their replies. Today was also my install appointment for two new tires. The old tires, one had a big crack in the sidewall, both had tread that was pretty low. While I waited on my tires I started researching my first assignment from work, using CRM (customer relationship management) software. At night I went to Meeting of the Minds, where artists get together then partner up to paint a canvas. I wasn't going to paint, just hang out, but then a local artist Chuck invited me to work on the canvas he'd been painting by himself. Busy day!

I sent out a few new mockups today for some custom tees. Some toddler & youth size crew necks and adult women's V-necks for my friend and her two daughters. It'll be so cool to see them all wearing my shirts! I think I'm going to call last-call for preorders tomorrow then place the order on Friday and hopefully have the shirts shipped early next week. In other good news, I had a meeting today regarding a mural that I'll start working on next month. I'll share more details on that after the agreements are signed and everything is in place. It's a pretty exciting project and I can't wait to tell everyone about it!

It was a good day from the very start! I was able to drive a friend who I haven't seen in years to her doctor's appointment in the morning. I shared my LEGO 1.0 Shirt pics to Instagram and I think people got a kick out of them. I sold one shirt that was in stock and got a pre-order for a custom tee, a purple V-Neck. And to top it all off I got a new job! A 5-month contract gig that can turn into a full time position, with a local organization I truly love. More on that later...

I didn't do any work today or anything artsy fartsy. I went to party and hung out with friends I haven't seen since before Covid. It was the type of party I used to get invited to but couldn't attend because I used to DJ every weekend. It was so much fun catching up and joking around. Tomorrow I'll get back to work on reprinting t-shirts.