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!

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!

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.

This morning I met with a couple guys at their establishment to talk about doing a mural there. So far, so good. I measured their walls and will start working on a quote and maybe some sketches tomorrow. After that meeting I went hiking at Alum Rock Park. I hiked the Penitencia Creek Trail again and did a little better than before. It still kicked my ass but not as bad. At night I met up the Meeting of the Minds gang. That's where we get randomly paired up with other people and have to work on a canvas together. I got matched up with Tom and we did what looks like a giant red eye above the horizon, a yellow planet and a red sea monster.

Tonight I finished the 550 piece Legend of Zelda puzzle I started a few days ago. I picked it up at Goodwill last year and I'm glad I finally got to it. Usually I do 1,000 or 1,500 piece puzzles with my grandma but this one I did by myself. Tomorrow I'll put it back in it's box maybe look for another Zelda fan to pass it on to.

Today was not the most productive of days but I did make some progress on this 550 piece Legend of Zelda themed puzzle. 

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.

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.

Today was the last day of our weekend get-together. We had such a great time and shared so many laughs! I don't remember the last time my stomach hurt from laughing so hard! It was the perfect weekend before coming back to a busy week.

That means the the window for pre-orders is closing soon. Sometime this week. I'll give it a few more pushes on Instagram before ordering the blanks. Tonight I started thinking about including fun little prizes for people who pre-ordered shirts. I got a few ideas that I'll be working on over the next few days.

I had a bit of fun today building t-shirts out of Legos. I used almost every brick I had of each color to make each t-shirt. Afterwards I opened the pictures in Adobe Illustrator to add my logo. Tomorrow I'm gonna post them on Instagram to push my 1.0 t-shirt pre-sales.

My brother and I went to Area 15 in Las Vegas to check out Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart interactive art experience and it was so much cooler than I anticipated! I mostly took videos, which I uploaded to my Instagram, but none of them were able to capture what it’s really like in there. I think it’s the coolest and weirdest art installation I’ve ever seen can’t wait to go back. If you’re in Vegas you must go visit!

Today, my grandma and I started working on the new puzzle I got us last week. It's been a tradition over the last few years when my grandma comes to visit that we do at least one 1000-1500 piece puzzle together. Although it feels like much longer, we usually finish it in a couple days. Grandma likes to start by going through all the pieces and pulling out the edges and starting with those. She tries matching them to one another by color while I reference the poster, or box, to try and figure out where the pieces go. Today we came close to completing the edges after a couple hours. Grandma split when it was time to watch her novela! 

I bought a bike today and it fits in the back of my car. I’m pretty stoked. I’d been thinking about buying a bike since last year and I’m glad I finally pulled the trigger. I went to Good Karma Bikes in San Jose. They’re a non-profit organization that sells refurbished bikes and does repairs. The last time I owned a bike was in high school, a Frankensteined bmx bike that I mostly rode around at night after sneaking out of the house. The next time I’d ride a bike would be at this thing called “Bike For Beers” in downtown. It was an event where mobs of people cruised on their bikes to different houses where they had kegs of beer and punk bands performed. That was about 15 years ago and I borrowed a bike for that. Now, with this bike, I plan on using it at normal hours doing normal shit.

I didn’t really do anything productive today. At night I went for a drive on Mount Hamilton Road past the Lick Observatory. I had never been that far and was tempted to drive all the way to Patterson or Livermore but that would have taken 2 hours to get there and it was already past midnight. Besides, it’d be much better to drive during the day to enjoy the views. The coolest thing I saw tonight was the abandoned car (pictured below) that looks like it might have been burned and a coyote on the side of the road but it was too dark and my camera couldn’t capture it.

The day started off awesome. It started with a walk at Lake Cunningham with my buddy then followed by some day drinking downtown. I can’t hang like I used to because when I got home I passed out and woke up hours later thinking it was the next morning. I’m a little bit hungover but still feeling good.

I also got news that all people, 16 and older, living or working in Santa Clara County are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, days before the rest of the state becomes eligible. I signed up and got my appointment set for later this morning.

The website to schedule an appointment is https://vax.sccgov.org/home

I went back to Casitas de Esperanza on Friday, not to work on the map mural but for their Easter event. It was open to all Amigos de Guadalupe residents They provided food for all guests and an Easter egg hunt & toy donations for the kids. Right before they released the kids to go hunt for Easter eggs the staff used my map to help line them up based on age. It made me so happy to see the map being used and to see all the kids running around having fun. I posed for a few pictures while was there too.

Aside from a bit of touch ups and a good cleaning, the contiguous United States are done. I still need to lay down Alaska, and color in Hawaii to be officially done-done. In a few days Casitas de Esperanza is having their first annual Easter egg hunt, for all the kids housed via Amigos de Guadalupe, and they’re accepting donations for pre-filled Easter eggs. I bought a bag of plastic eggs and chocolate candies and loaded them up. I also drew a different smiley face on a each egg.

I drew myself as the titular character from the original Donkey Kong video game just for funsies. Fun Fact: Mario made his first appearance as “jumpman” in the Donkey Kong arcade back in 1981.