My Most Recent Thoughts on Society and People in America....

So, I haven't been on here to write anything in a while, but last night I ended up getting into a conversation with a friend that quickly evolved into a rather deep one and inspired me to put alot of my thoughts on what we talked about on here. just a warning, this is going to read very scatter-brained....so for that I appologize, but I have no clue how I could organize these thoughts to make more sense....

It's my opinion/observation that our society as a whole basically sucks ass. The things people generally value and/or care about are drastically off-base these days. America can no longer be defined as it once was. People don't care about people anymore, except for a really small sample percentage of our society. In my experience, there are still some people out there that will surprise you with compassion and understanding when you need it most, but it's definately becoming increasingly rare. America was supposed to be the place people went to be part of something bigger, a place of progress, a new culture all it's own. People used to be proud to call themselves American, are you? I'm certainly not. We are the only country where when you ask someone what nationality they are, they ramble off a list of other countries....its proposterous. Especially since 98% of the time, those ties are 4 or more generations back. If you're parents were born HERE, and their parents were born HERE.....NEWS FLASH! you're NOT "italian", "german", "polish", etc.....you are AMERICAN. What else is sad is that our national language is almost no longer english. I'm all for people being able to speak langauges other than english....but this country was built on english, it should remain the universal language here. I can't even beleive that it is an OPTION to take the citizenship examination in SPANISH for christ sake! This is the only place in the world where people come to and actually refuse to assimilate into the culture. Anywhere else you go in the world you are expected to assimilate. We are expected to except anyone and everyone, and accomodate their cultures. Why? Why should we? As an American....if you travel anywhere else and people ask you where you are from, they CRINGE when you say you're from America. It no longer is respected. We are mimicking the timeline that Rome went through. It is my belief that we will eventually see the same fate, self-destuction due to greed and lack of compassion for the fellow man.

It's sad that I am literally blown away when someone cares about what's actually on my mind....those deep core values and feelings. I can't understand how people can decide whether or not they find someone interesting after a trivial conversation like "hi, what do you do for a living?" "where are you from" "where did you go to school" "whats your favorite color"......REDICULOUS. All that shows me is that the vast majority of society here is unbeleiveably conceited and cought up in monetary acheivements. It amazes me how some people are so easily interested in someone else. I get ridiculed for being "picky".....I'm not picky, I just know what interests me....and if someone doesnt have it I'm not going to stick around simply because they are attractive, have a good job, a nice car, education, etc. Those are all great things to have, and I definately would prefer someone I would date have those things, they mean squat if there isnt some deeply rooted emotional/intellectual connection to go with it. So many people are too busy worrying about stupid things like what someone looks like, what everyone else is doing, what's accepted as "cool" or "popular" or "in", what they look like to everyone else, if other people approve of what they want or decide to do, etc. That's all pointless horseshit. People should be concerned with how others FEEL, what concerns them, what makes them feel good, what makes them upset, how to make them laugh or smile. People don't seem to care about actually connecting with one another. Friendships are almost a joke, a popularity contest, a group of people that make you look good or like you're cool or some shit. I don't have a whole lot of friends, but I like to think it's because I only bother to talk and hang out with people that actually have shit in common with me. Similar hobbies, the want to share feelings with each other, the security that they will not judge you for talking about the things that bother you. It's really sad for me to think about. It's amazing how few people I can actually say know deep down what REALLY goes on in my head.....the thoughts that excite or haunt me constantly, the issues I'm internally trying to deal with or overcome, my insecurities. Do you have more than 5 friends that know your deepest thoughts and fear? I don't. I bet you don't either. If you do, you're probably the type of person I should be surrounding myself with. It's amazing how on almost every level of how our society opperates we are overly concerned with other peoples business. Everyone wants to know the gossip about other people on the lowest level, and at the highest level we're always trying to play world police. People need to stop thinking about everyone else and start working on the core issues at hand, and our country needs to stop trying to put our noses in the rest of the worlds business, we need to worry about our own country.....we are falling apart. Figuratively AND literally.

It's really all a damn shame. We used to be such a great place and great group of people. What happened?

New Stuff

Well, it seems I keep letting time get away from me and have huge gaps in my posts here.....so here's a little update of new stuff.

My sister recently moved in with me while she saves for a downpayment to buy her OWN house, and is paying me $300/month in rent. This has DRASTICALLY helped my economic situation as of late. So far, it's going quite well sharing my space with her so that's great news to go with it.

My Dad and I have been slowly chipping away at the interior restoration on the '74 Dodge Challenger he bought in the spring and it's nearly finished inside. It's been coming out pretty nice for a pair of backyard guys who've never done upholstery before I must say.

I finally tracked down and purchased the CB650 motor and CB750 cylinder liners I have been dying to snag to build up a big motor for my 1975 Honda CB550 cafe racer I mentioned in much earlier posts.

My little business venture of making some rare car parts out of fiberglass proved to be much more difficult than I initially imagined, but I have pulled through on the first production run and broke nearly even....so now that I have learned some valuable lessons, I should be able to apply my new knowledge and start turning small profits there.

My guitar playing has made big bounds recently, I have found new techniques and songs coming to me pretty easily. This is really exciting for me, as I had always struggled figuring out the little nuances in some of my favorite songs but I'm finally getting a grasp.

I bought new sneakers. They are super confortable.

I met a girl I seem to have a whole bunch in common with, and have really enjoyed spending time with her the past couple weeks. I am excited to see if it wil develop into something. It's been extremely refreshing to meet someone that views a relationship the same way that I do.

I'm finally gaining some confidence in myself, as over the past couple of months spent in the gym have yeilded some drastic transformation in how I look. I can only hope to continue the progress, and with any luck I should finally look the way I envision myself next spring/summer.

All in all, things are looking up in every aspect of my life. I feel like there are some more positive changes right around the corner, and can't wait to see what the future holds. I truly value where I am in life right now, I beleive when I'm old I'll look back at this point in time as the best time of my life. With that in mind, I'm trying to do as much of what I WANT as I can squeeze into my time and not wasting a single opportunity for a new experience.

Hope you enjoyed the read.
'til next time.....

-Nick

Invaluable Friendships

So, for various reasons I won't really get into here.....the past two weeks have been pretty rough for me. But since I am one to always look for the positive in things.....

It's funny how in times like this you get a reminder of what friends are really for and what they mean in life. Those people you keep closest can just SENSE that they need to be around and/or take care of you. Over these past two weeks my friends have really stepped up and gone above and beyond expectations to make sure I get through the rough stuff and come out of it with a smile on my face and a lightened heart. It's truly an invaluable asset to have friends like mine.

Life has it's up's, down's, and falls. Friends are the ones that come running as they see you fall and pick you back up and dust you off, and stick around until you're OK. I truly feel sorry for people that do not know or understand what I'm talking about.

To say I've been low on cashflow lately is an understatement. I'm 100% amazed at how my friends came through for me as if it were no big deal. They took me out for nights on the town and made sure I had an awesome time, taking care of all the expenses just to witness a few smiles. They made sure on a saturday I would otherwise spend sulking around the house out doing some of the things I love doing the most, cooked me awesome meals, and put some positive thoughts back in my head.

I couldn't even begin to put into words how greatful I really am that I am blessed to be in the company of such awesome people, and that I honestly lead a rediculously awesome life. I have ZERO to be unhappy about when you look at the big picture. If you're reading this, chances are you're included in this group of friends I speak of, so for that I THANK YOU. I only hope I can return the favor on the same level for you one day.

Started a joint-Website project

This has been running for a whole now, it's only recently gaining some popularity and I thought I would post it here for those possibly interested....

My friend Anthony, his friend Cliff, and myself have collaborated on a blog site of sorts called "GarageSpun". It's a tribute page to homebrew custom built machines by the average joe in their garage at home. We post up cool photos, interesting stories, video clips, and personal projects on the site for others to view for inspiration. Check it out if you have time, maybe you'll dig it....


http://garagespun.tumblr.com/

Progress in the Garage

Well, more projects going on in the garage as usual haha.

This is my friend Kyle's 1980 yamaha XS650 that was having problems keeping all of the fluids inside the motor so I sourced a replacement engine from the junkyard and swapped it for him. Also builing a custom seat and replacing the gas tank with a brand new reproduction tank.







In other news, my trusty roadbike let me down thursday at a very inoportune moment....I was on a date and the whole point was to have a nice leisurely bike ride to delaware park for some live music. 3 or 4 blocks in the rear tire blew out on me and we had to chain up the bikes and walk the rest of the way. I got a new tube and fixed it up sunday, but it was still a downer on the date. Oh, well. That thursday night got worse when I got a phonecall at 11pm to find out my uncle had died very suddenly. Still can't really beleive it. I'll keep this updated with my garage projects as it's what I seem to be spending the most time with lately besides playing the occasional Open Mic night with my band-mate Ryan.

That's all for now

Been Busy!

Well, I haven't been on here in some time now, and I figured I should toss up an update on what's been keeping me busy. I've been delving into a few side projects for both fun and for profit. I've been playing around with motorcycle part design and fabrication on a few local bikes, I guess all of the work I've done to my own started catching some recognition and a few individuals approached me to help on similar projects of theirs and I happily obliged. Aside from that, I've also been playing around with some composite part fabrication and mold-making out in the garage to make replica's of some rare car parts to sell for profit.







I've also been taking on a few new hobbies (surprise surprise, I know). I recently aquired a 1972 Schwinn Varsity road-bike that I've been putting some miles on for leisure based excercise, it's been a lot of fun. I plan to tear the bike down over winter and totally restore it, I located a very close match for the paint color and a set of brand new decals.


next hobby on my list is kayaking....I really enjoyed a few canoe trips with friends and I think I am going to try to get myself a nice $250 or so kayak in the near future for personal use, we have so many creeks and streams and the harbors down at the waterfront I think it would make for some really fun times.

Besides all of this stuff, I've just been up to the usual activities....playing open mic twice a month or so, working out 4 days a week, golf, meeting/seeing new people, etc.

OH! I almost forgot! I had a super awesome "staycation" about two weeks ago now, A good friend from ohio rode his motorcycle 340 miles to come stay with me for a week and we rode all over the area to all kinds of destinations, got him all cought up with local family members, and had some really fun rides. Everywhere we went people were stopping us to chat about our bikes and how they remember them in their hay-day and how it was great to see us young guys keeping them on the road and appreciating them. Had a FANTASTIC ride out route 240 from cheektowaga all the way to springville where we checked out a vintage cycle shop I heard about through a friend of my dad's, it was an awesome day.







It's been a really fun summer so far, and we're only halfway through it!

Are Hobbies/Talents a Blessing or a Curse?

I'll be the first to admit I have WAY WAY WAY too many hobbies/interests. I 100% think of myself as a real "jack of all trades master of none". Honestly, 90% of the time, I wholeheartidly love and enjoy my hobbies....but sometimes, SOMETIMES, it comes back to bite me in the ass. where I run into trouble, is that I decide I want to try to learn/make/do something....I research it, and jump in head first to see how I land. If I do terribly, at least I tried. Sometimes it comes out moderately OK, and I decide how I would do it differently next time and maybe some random amount of time later, I'll try again. Then there's that third possibility....I give it a shot, and it comes out seriously impressive given a first timer attempt and I realize I found something else I am really good at.

Now you're probably wondering, "what the heck is so terrible about that?". I'll tell you what....someone notices my work, and asks if I would be interested in making another one of whatever it is I made that came out great, and makes a monetary offer I cannot refuse. I do this person a kindness and make them one, only to box up something I put pride into and allow someone else to enjoy it. I actually like that part of it. Anyways, what happens is, someone else hears I did this for that person, and asks if they give me the same compensation if I would make another one. Of course, I'm not going to turn down decent sums of money that outweight the time I would put in to make one. The problem comes in when this snowballs, and I am too nice a person to start telling people "NO", I instead ask them to wait a week or two and remind me.

This has become the case with a few different things I have dove into and tried. I am 25yrs old currently, and I am finally at a point where I have acheived a serious number of the goals I set forth for myself a long time ago....and it would be nice to sit back, relax, and enjoy myself a bit doing some things for ME. The problem is, I seem to have begun building a name for myself and I'm a touch overwhelemed with the demand....and I had really high hopes that this summer might be one of the most meaningful and memorable of my life and that I really want to make it count. But alas, my talents are seeming to haunt me and possibly jeopardize that possibility. So that leaves me asking.....is this really a gift? or is it a curse?

I suppose when it comes down to it, I need to learn how to start turning people down, regardless of the fact I tend to enjoy the "work" involved.....but my time is more important to me than that. I'd really hate to look back and realize my twenties were all work and no play. I'd like to live my live free of regrets or "what-if's"

Anyway, feel free to comment what YOU think talents are....