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Archive #10
03/23/05 - 10/31/05
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Vikings are 2 and 5, and Culpepper is out for the
season. What is it I like about this sport
again? Oh yeah, nothing!
2
- 4
I'm going to Disneyland.
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10/27/05
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10/26/05
Wow, I'm lagging. I've been super busy,
and don't have much to report. The Walnut
Creek skatepark is almost done. It looks
pretty dumb except for the bowl, which looks pretty
fun.
I belt test tonight for my yellow belt.
Vikings blow this year.
2
- 4
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10/07/05
What does it mean if, when passing the lady's
room, women who happen to be entering the lady's
room often hold the door open for me? This
happens more than I care to admit, and it's starting
to trouble me.
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10/04/05
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9/26/05
We went to our first Tae Kwon Do tournament.
Only Thing 1 competed in this one, and for his
efforts, he won a silver medal in forms! The
medal is really nice, and he was so proud, he wore
it ALL day Saturday. Awesome job buddy!
1-2
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9/19/05
0-2
I threw up in my mouth a little bit watching the
scores from this game come in.
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9/16/05
I had my first Tae Kwon Do class last night, and
it was a sparring class. I used to be fairly
good at sparring as me and my friend Shawn used to
try and beat each other up using hellacious
kicks in his garage on Friday nights.
It was always fun, but I think we were probably just
taking out our frustrations about being in a garage
on a Friday night pretending we were ninjas.
The practice served us well though, as we often
worked on counters, and feints. Shawn and I
briefly joined a Dojang when we were in college, and
one of the 1st classes we had to spar. I got
called up with a yellow belt who was pretty cocky.
We began, and he threw two roundhouse kicks that I
could see coming from a mile away. I told
myself, if he does another one, I'm going to nail
him (I had honed my counter for this attack in
Shawn's garage, using his chin a few times).
Sure enough, he threw the roundhouse, so as he was
beginning his kick I spun a turn back hook kick, and
pounded him right in the jaw with my heel.
Knocked him down, in pain, fight over. Master
Yu was really excited.
When I sat back down next to Shawn, I remember
him saying under his breath, without looking at me,
"holy
fucking shit Dude....holy fucking shit dude...holy
fucking shit dude..."
It was one of my greatest moments.
Anyway, last night went well. I had no
delusions about my skill level, it's been a long
time. I just wanted to try and not look like
an idiot, and I definitely didn't want to look
cocky. I sparred a man who was a yellow belt
1st, and did well. I scored quite a few times,
and mixed up my kicks well. I even scored on a
back kick counter to a roundhouse, like the story
above, but I kept it low (to the chest protector "hogu").
After what I'm guessing was a 1 minute round, I
wanted to lay down and sleep. My legs were SO
TIRED.
I had about a 10 minute rest, then had to spar
again. This time against a woman. That
was kind of awkward. I couldn't really figure
out how hard to kick, and even if I could, I
couldn't really control them, because my legs felt
like Jell-O. I really need to work on my
endurance. It was fun though.
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9/15/05
New tutorial added.
Fake
Tattoos in Photoshop.
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9/14/05
I added a new tutorial (How to make
camouflage in Photoshop).
I am
joining Deniece, Thing 1, and Thing 2's dojang tonight
to continue my Tae Kwon Do training that I stopped
at age 14...after 21 years, I feel pretty well
rested.
0-1
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9/8/05
I suck at sleeping. I'm pretty sure that
sleeping is the absolute easiest thing anyone could
possibly do...ever, and I am completely bad at it.
I seem to be getting worse at it. I just lay
there thinking about EVERYTHING. I almost
always have those cognizant pre-dreams where you're
almost asleep, but you are half imagining, half
dreaming, and more often that not, my conscience
mind totally blows it. Last night for example,
I was dreaming/imagining that I won 250 million
dollars in the lottery. My subconscious was
having fun thinking about how easy, and fun life
would be, and then my idiotic waking mind started
thinking about taxes, and how we'd share money, and
it even began imaging arguments that theoretically
would never happen about how we're not being
generous enough. Ridiculous. After that
little exercise, my mind was all over the place like
a crack addicted Chihuahua, and there was no sleep
in my future.
It seems simple:
Be tired
Lay down
sleep
mmmm, not so much.
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9/7/05
Happy Birthday Deniece!!!!
Thing 1's 1st day of 1st grade
in public school. He loved it, and was psyched
to go back...awesome.
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9/06/05
9/01/05
Thing 1 and Deniece had belt testing last night
in Tae Kwon Do, and both did amazing. They had
to each break a board with a side kick, and they
both did it on the 1st try.
You know what is really scary to me? The fact
that
it
would only take 2 to 3 days without water and
electricity to send most of the country into a
tailspin towards complete lawlessness, and concern
only with self-preservation without worry for our
fellow man.
I admit, were I in New Orleans right now, my
only concern would be keeping my family safe,
and fed, and hydrated, and I would do that by any
means necessary. Now when you've got
many millions of people with that same thought,
shit's gonna get real weird, real quick.
I hope the bad guys don't figure out a way to take
down our power grid, and contaminate our water on a
large scale. I really don't want to have to
break out my old football shoulder pads, spray paint
them black, and have to go all Thunderdome on all of
your asses.
Email
Issue:
Apparently not all of my tomledin.com mail is
getting through to me. It seems like some of
it is, but it is sporadic at best. I have been
getting lot's of complaints about not responding to
emails. I think it's Dickson's fault, as he
was the first to notice it.
So, if you need to get a hold of me, it would be
best to send email to my work email address, until I
can get this straightened out with my host.
Everything looks right, but something odd is
happening.
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8/31/05
Man small, nature big.
8/29/05
Skated San Rafael again. Got some more
cool pictures.
See them here
This is my favorite pic (Shawn). Shot with
a fisheye lens, I was actually running up the wall
behind him, and am only about 3 feet away
from him, but the lens makes it look like he's far
away. His shadow, the sky/sun. the coping
cutting the photo in half with gray cement on the
bottom, and blue skies on top. It may or may
not be a good photo technically, but I love it.
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8/24/05
I just drank 40 ounces of water in 8 minutes and 23
seconds.

08/16/05
08/11/05
Next time you
see a tough guy on a motorcycle (I'm not talking about
your average motorcycle rider, I'm talking about the
guys who think they're badass...ok, yeah, I guess I'm
talking about all motorcycle riders). Anyway, really
check them out, and notice how hard they are trying to
be cool. They've got their cool black t-shirts, and
their little skull cap helmets, because they're too
tough for a real helmet, and some even have cool leather
jackets with tough biker gang/club logos on them. When
you're done realizing just how cool they are, check out
their little license plates! Ha ha ha!!!! What a burn!
After all that work looking tough, and spending all that
money on tough clothes, and a big ass motorcycle, and
the DMV makes you put a little itty bitty Toys R Us
license plate on your hog. I had one of those on my
Schwinn when I was seven. It said, "Tommy". It made me
feel like a pussy, so I tore it off, and put it on my
door. Whose the tough guy now?
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08/09/05
We finally got our pavers done in the backyard, and
they look awesome. We have been eating outside a
lot the last week or so. It's nice to have a
backyard again.
Deniece and I went to see Wedding Crashers this
weekend, and I'd give it a resounding:
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08/01/05
Happy birthday Dad!!!
Skated San Rafael with Dickson, and I enjoyed the
park a lot more this time. Actually all I enjoyed
was the bowl, but that's all that's worth skating there
anyway.
The family went to see Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory, and I'd give it a solid:
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07/29/05
This site gets a lot of visitors, from all over the
world, and I thought it'd be cool to hear what some of
you have to say, so I set up a message board.
Click
Here, and register.
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07/28/05
07/27/05
07/18/05
Our 3 year old has been sporting a fauxhawk for a
few months, and thinking he was pretty cool, but
Saturday we were at Home Depot, and Thing 2 spotted a kid
with a real mohawk, and said instantly, "I WANT DAT
HAIR!". I asked, "Are you sure?", and he was
emphatic. So, after his nap on Saturday, we
gave him a real mohawk, and he is stoked on it.
Deniece
and I realized we might be in trouble with these two.
The 6 year old recently proclaimed, "I'm not cutting my
hair until high school.", and now my 3 year old has a
mohawk. I don't think I even knew I had
hair until I was about 10.
Here's a pic of their current
'hair projects'
Skated with Joey at the San Rafael park. Lot's of
concrete, and not much of it very skateable. I'm
frightened by the waterfall in the big bowl, and
actually got speed wobbles before even hitting the face
wall. I also tried to go shoulder and wrist first
through a big wall of concrete, and am paying the price
today.
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06/24/05
Thing 2's 3rd birthday today!!!!!
Happy birthday Thing 2!!!!!
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06/23/05

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06/22/05
Bumper stickers tend to confuse me. I
understand that it's difficult to express meaning using
big letters in a small space, but when readability tends
to trump understandability, bumper stickers become
little more than stupid car decorations.
Today at a stoplight the woman in front of me had 3 bumper
stickers on her car, 2 of which I understood, and one that
completely vexes me.
1) More trees less
Bush
- Ok, I get that one, she's obviously
anti female, and
"trees" is a clever euphemism for
'penis'.
2) Send Kids to school, not Iraq
- I
agree with this. If the school bus took a left,
and went to Iraq instead of school, I'd be pissed.
3) If animals could speak, we'd all be vegetarians
(this is the
one I don't really get)
- So, I guess this one is saying it's ok to eat
animals
because they can't speak...right? I think however it
may have a deeper meaning. I
could be wrong, but I
think this sticker is saying that it's ok to eat
people that can't
speak, like mutes, and babies.
People put weird shit on their cars.
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06/20/05
Everybody was crabby in my house on father's day, so
I'm calling a 'do over'
Deniece and I went to see 'Batman Begins'. I give it a solid:
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06/16/05
There was a death in the family. We're all pretty shaken
up over it.
Thing 1's imaginary friend Invisible has
gone on to greener pastures. We'll miss you Invisible.
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06/11/05
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06/07/05
06/03/05
I got two decks I designed in the mail yesterday from two
different companies.
Sacrifice Paul Smith Pro Model.
Ashland Skateboards Team board

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06/01/05
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05/17/05
05/16/05
Stayed home with sick babies today. Thing 1(6) was actually sick, and
Thing 2(2) was just faking it.
I went skating with Joey at Berkeley on Sunday. I was lazy, and wasn't feeling it until about 10 minutes before I had to leave...and I got a sunburn.
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05/05/05
Cool date!
aw screw it.
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04/22/05
It bothers me when people wear watches upside down, so the
face is on the underneath part of their wrist.
Sometimes I try it to see if it makes me feel sophisticated, but
I usually just end up in the emergency room with a fractured
ulna. I usually opt for a hot pink, or day-glow colored cast...sophisticated
indeed.
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04/15/05
04/14/05
Could it be that humans are actually ruled by an alien race of cat people who think we have nine lives too?
04/08/05
I designed a print ad for
Sacrifice Skateboards
that is running in the current
Concussion magazine.
You can see it
here
Mid-grade gas is $2.76 where I live now. I think it
may be time to invade Saudi Arabia ;-)
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04/06/05
Somebody needs to open a cell
phone etiquette school. Some people are good at cell phones,
some people just plain suck at them. I like to think I'm good.
If I get a call, I remove my self from the area if others are
present.
03/24/05
Click this picture to catch glimpse of the kind of thing you
might see on any given day at the Ledin house.

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03/23/05
Another board graphic. This one is a longboard for Ashland
Longboards. The graphic is on top covered with clear grip
tape.

Ashland Longboards
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