Me Writing Upside Down

So, this is my handwriting.  I just figured this would be something funny to look at.  I got this idea from my sister because she showed me her results, which were obviously much more beautiful.

Click to enlarge

My handwriting has evolved through various stages of chicken scratch through the years. I remember back during kindergarten when Mom used to buy me those paper pad things with letters and I'd copy them across the row.  My row of A's got really small toward the middle and back to normal at the edge and it was really funny.  On the other hand, my sister's teachers have always told our parents that her handwriting was better than theirs.

My backwards or upside down writing is more legible, but that makes sense.  It's probably because I do it more deliberately.  Same with my word art and block letters and stuff because at that point it's more like drawing than writing.

New Tunes! Drum & Bass for Summer 2014

During my junior year in high school, my love for electronic music grew to its high point.  I was into electro house and drum & bass genres, and I still am.  However, soon after that, I started discovering a lot of more instrumental music genres such as '60s soul, Motown, funk, classic rock, etc.  They started to overshadow the electronic types for me.  As stated in a previous post, my parents raised me solely on classical music so my musical taste was completely self-developed.  I was not exposed to the works of Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, and Lynyrd Skynyrd the way most kids had been in their childhood.

I only listened to electronic music for two distinct periods of time in all of last year and most of this summer had been spent listening to classic rock, southern rock, and country.   Part of the reason was that there just aren't any local radio stations that played other kinds of instrumental music that I grew to love so much.  The tape player in my car stopped working so I spent the spring semester listening to 94.7 WCSX, 99.5 WYCD, and 102.9 WWWW while commuting to and from school.  Also, rock- and country-like genres don't seem to demand a special mood or anything from me; I can listen to them any time and they'll fit the situation.

Paint and Rust Removal: Restoration Days 6 and 7

After taking care of a bunch of yard work earlier this week, the trash cans were full and I was finally able to get back to the Raleigh Sports on Thursday and Friday.

Chain guard on Thursday.  The inside had not yet been dealt with yet.  

I started with the smallest and rustiest body component: the chain guard.  This thing was nearly covered in surface rust and where it wasn't, the paint was all peeling off due to all the little pits of rust forming.  I spent all of Thursday just sanding the outside smooth, trying to free it of pits.  Thankfully, the sheet metal was still very solid and wasn't even close to rusting through.

Hot Wheels USB Drives

In the summer of 2011 before my junior year of high school, I made my first Hot wheels flash drive (or USB, jump drive, thumb drive, whatever you call it).  I remember the very day I made it: I had spent two and a half hours in the basement hacking around, only to have my father come home and yell at me for wasting my time.  I was apparently supposed to be studying for my first ACT class, even though there was nothing to study before the first day of class ...

'10 Mustang GT, HP v165w 16 GB flash drive

Front and rear faces detailed with Sharpies as always.

LEGO 1965 Ford Pickup

In the summer of 2013, I combined two of my favorite LEGO vehicles: the 4404 Land Busters pickup truck and the Technics 8285 Tow Truck.  I took what I felt were my favorite features of both sets to build a roughly-1:12 scale model of a 1965 Ford F-250, one of my dream cars.

The boom was the most complex part of the truck.  I did not disassemble that part.  

The Land Busters pickup shown before suspension was taken.  

"V4" engine was swapped for a carbureted V8.  More on this one later; it has suspension once again.  

Do Old Cars Have More Soul?

This topic is related to my recent post about the various forms of music playback that I experienced and/or enjoyed over the years. Just like how I care more about the listening experience that vinyl records offer than their actual age, I find old cars appealing because of the driving experience offered by cars produced during a certain time period. It just so happens that the vehicles I prefer are old and the history of the antique object is an added bonus. This applies to my bikes, too.

Video by Hooniverse.  Skip to 1:15 if you're short on time

Anyway, I sent the message below to Hot Rod Magazine after reading a blog post by them that contained the video above.  This was last year so I hadn't yet turned eighteen to be able to comment directly to their blog.  There is something like a disclaimer after the end of this message.

Cleaning the Frame and Re-packing Bearings: Restoration Days 4 and 5

Both last Friday and yesterday (Monday) were slow days.  I spent most of Friday cleaning the dirt and grime off the frame.

Since I didn't have a real hoist to hold the bike frame off the ground, I mounted the bike rack to the back of my mom's Mountaineer and just worked with that.