I spent 4 hours on the road today when I drove my grandma from San Jose to Sacramento then I had to come back right away to watch my friends perform downtown at an open mic talent show. I didn’t get any work done but it was still a good day.

I had way too much fun today painting live with the TWC gang (Together We Create) at Viva Calle. I was glued to my mural for hours, getting organized, transferring my sketch, coloring and doing the line work. It turned out a bit wonky, especially the bottom half, but I didn’t mind. It was gonna get torn down and reclaimed after the event. It was exercise in painting quickly, and in a way that bystanders can see and understand what’s happening on the wall during the process. It was also my first time in years using spray paint on a mural and only second time live-painting and vending at the same time. Major learning experience!

Sunday morning I’ll be live-painting with friends from TWC (Together We Create) at Viva Calle. I believe we’ll be setup in Japantown near 5th & Jackson. My friends posted these stories on Instagram and the pictures they chose cracked me up!

It was a long but fun day. It started with visiting a few comic book stores and thrift shop I’d never been to before and bringing home a few sweet books. Later, I went to Meeting of the Minds to paint. I got paired up with my buddy, Henry. We made graffiti-like 3,W, E or M, depending on how you look at it.

I went to a friend’s EP release show and watched her and other musicians perform at a beautiful outdoor venue. Afterwards I went downtown and met up with other friends for pizza & beer before going to the SoFa Street Fair and running into more friends. It was great catching up with everyone. I only wish the day was longer. I’m really looking forward to more events later this year.

At Meeting of the Minds tonight I got paired up with Eddie Ramirez and we painted this little gem!

Tonight I inked a couple sketches I made when I was hanging out with a couple artist buddies. The conversation was about copying other artists so as a goof I copied what they were drawing. They started as very loose pencil sketches then I added details and lettering before applying black ink.

My buddies and I rented a private theater this afternoon to watch The Batman. There were 15 of laughing and joking throughout the whole movie. It was so much fun and I can’t wait to do it again.

It was an 11 hour day for me. I mostly did detail work, like lettering, which takes a long time and feels like I didn't make much progress at the end. My friend Lucia came and helped for a few hours. She did some clean up fills. I gave myself one more day to finish. Wish me luck!

Holy shit! A 14 hour mural day! And I had help from my bad-ass artist friend, Elba, during most of it. Her husband and kids came to visit us and her husband, Roberto, another bad-ass artist, painted for a while too. A while after Roberto and the kids left Lucia came to help. We got a hell of lot done today! Only 2 more nights after tonight.

It was a lot of detail work and touch ups in the 6.5 hours I worked tonight so it doesn't look like much happened since yesterday. On Tuesday, Elba is coming to help and we're getting an early start. Lucia will also be joining too. I think, and I hope, we're going get most of it done tomorrow.

And going... Elba came and helped me tonight. She did a lot of clean up work and I mostly did outlines. I did a lot of work on the S, T, Lick Observatory, Action Park and a few touch ups on the G & E. The mural has been looking better everyday since help arrived.

Still going... Tonight I had help from my friend, Lucia. She's rad.

Yesterday, my buddy, Marco, came and helped me with the mural. I don't think he has much mural experience but he did a good job painting the Nintendo Switch icon in the letter G and doing a few fills. Tonight my artist friends, Elba and Lucia, both came to lend a hand. Both of them have lots of mural experience so it easy getting them up to speed and painting. With everyone's help these last couple days I'm feeling much better about the mural than I did all of last week. I'm very thankful for their help and suport!

I had so much fun painting a mural alongside my friends TWC (Together We Create) at Viva Calle this morning and into the afternoon. I was so so focused on my work (being in the zone) the 5 hours just flew by. I painted the EMN sketch I drew last night. I used yellow because it was the paint I had the most of. I wasn't happy with the black paint because it didn't cover well but it looked fine from a distance, and in pictures. I had to rush to get as far as I did before the event ended. I didn't completely finish. The eye with two pupils, at the bottom, didn't get a white fill. I also didn't outline the pink hot-dog shape (with my name) or anything above it. I'm still really happy with the way it turned out. In the end, the panel was taken apart and hauled away. Some day, the folks in TWC, will paint at another event and reuse the panels and paint over them. I knew that going in and was totally ok with it.

A few things I learned:

• Painting the background, drawing the shapes in chalk, and doing the white fill-ins are boring to watch. The sooner I get to outlining, the better. Maybe next time I I wait to fill in the whites at the end.
• I need to step back more often and look at the mural as whole. I was up close most of the time, about a foot and half away from whatever I was painting. It looks different when you step back. You don't see a lot of the details. Up close, the black paint looked like shit but when you stepped back 5 to 10 feet, it looked fine.
• Buy better black paint! I bought a can of Painter's Touch Flat Black and it looked like crap up close. It didn't cover the yellow well. Next time I'm gonna buy some of the good stuff!
• Don't use chalk to draw on the wall/panels. I did the same thing when I painted my brother's logo on the wall of his studio. The chalk made it almost impossible to paint clean lines. The dust also accumulated on the brush which was really annoying.

I recently got invited by my friends in TWC (Together We Create) to join them in live-painting at Viva Calle tomorrow. Viva Calle is where they close down some streets to car traffic and open them up to bicyclists, pedestrians, skaters, etc. I rode my bike at the last one and visited the TWC folks while they painted. Now it's my turn to paint. I just finished a sketch for tomorrow which I'll be painting on an 8 foot square panel. It's my EMN design.

I went to my friend's Halloween party tonight. I think it's the first time in over 10 years since I've been to a costume party. I wore the cheapest costume and mask I found at Spirit Halloween store a few days ago. It's a black robe and plastic devil mask. I only wore the mask for a couple minutes when I arrived and only put it back on once to try and scare some kids.

​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.