BK

Straight Up

2011-02-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

Handling our business. Healthy and in love. Family thriving. Home's wherever I'm in love with you.
Keeping it real paying off. Reaping what I've sown.
I got hired full time at a custom woodworking shop. Already built over 20 full kitchens there... Massive projects. The owner had been to my shop and checked out how I'm rolling over there before he gave me the job. He let me know that if we clicked well he hoped to do some custom furniture on down the road. It's all good, and he's gearing up to get down on an entire catalog line of custom furniture. Told me that I could move my workbench into another room, surround it with whatever tools I wanted, just getting rad. Designing and building. Misfits cranked. Hyped. He's been in Portland for awhile and has clients on lock, so it's hitting the ground running man. Wood worker. I'm so stoked on the last six years work-wise narrowing down to just those two words. That's what I do. Work stays at work type of shit, you know. Go in, love what I do, get out, go home ad BE home. Word.
A big thanks to Senior' Briggs! Good looking out.

Reesers is every second of 4 1/2 years old. Big heart and razor sharp. We stoke each other out a lot everyday. It's perfect. I love being his dad. It's a ride.

Robin is getting ready to open up her own salon/studio. More about that when it hits. Portland gets ready.

Told Bank of America to go fuck themselves and they proceeded to do so. They are being sued by the attorney generals of Utah, Arizona and are under review in all 50 states for fraud and mismanagement of the Obama administration's Making Home Affordable Program. I worked with those creeps at every turn. Sending them 70 page faxes that cost $85 bucks to send only to have them say they never received it and to send it again... what? I have a slip from Kinko's that says it went through, go look harder asshole. I just dropped a week's wroth of groceries to send it. They were just stalling us out, dragging us along, jumping through mass hoops so that our debt would keep stacking up at the original interest rate. I filed a complaint with the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates federal bank activity and gave them all of my info. Dates, times I called, who I spoke to- their i.d. number, what was said, what was done, what was not done more like it. They called Bank of America on it and I got a signed letter from the head of the complaint department and he referred to me in it as Mr. Williams the entire letter. What the fuck dude, you don't even take the time to make sure you have my name right? Beat it. It was a piece of work. It attempted to professionally and with many huge words assure me that Bank of America doesn't strive for anything but excellence and that I should double check my information before proceeding with any further complaints. Nope, don't need to double check how last Dec. 21st I talked to Dewayne Upchurch at 6 p.m. and he told me that I had "finally" been approved for a modification for the amount of $575.00 dollars and that he personally was locking it in for five years as we spoke. He ended the call with "How's that for a christmas present. You owe me one, alright now." I made that payment for the next three months and in April when I called to pay by phone, the lady said she had no idea what I was trying to pay towards, that I hadn't been approved for a modification and that my home was in fact being accelerated for foreclosure. Ho Ho Ho! Merry Fucking Christmas! Try delivering that news to your wife someday. I asked where my money had been going and she said, of course it's been going towards paying the interest down on your debt. Scamming me to get money from me at a high interest rate. Twisted. Just come and get this tiny house on this dirt road already, don't swindle my hard earned money out of my family's mouths. Flat out pissed. So much other shit went down. Just a maze of nobody having their facts straight, starting from square one every time I called. I got used to telling each new person how I was about to rage on them and to not take it personally, but I've had all I can stand and I'm not gonna take it anymore! Fucking crazy. So we get a letter from them saying they are going to auction off the house this coming April. Taking it for all it's worth, living here free until the last minute. Keeping up with filing complaints and getting involved in Oregon's class action suit against those punks. I told them to send somebody out to see what they're trying to sell. It's a 130,000.000 debt worth only 79,000.00 on the market today. Come and get it douchebags. I told them that I wouldn't even stay if they gave it to me for 300.00 a month, just to not have to deal with them anymore. It's brutal to think that they exhausted and took advantage of people who don't know that there is more to having to "do what the bank says". Folks who wore down and just drifted bak into some fold somewhere. I hope that as many people as possible find out about writing to their state attorney general and filing their complaints with the OCC. Banks don't have a lot above them keeping shit legit. They play by some wild west rules. Some shit? Fuck 'em. We have an apartment lined up for April, taking care of us, that's what we know. That's what we got. Make it rain.

New apartment is insane. Cruiser board to everywhere in the hood status.

Y'all rule. Thanks for everything homies.

Razor Edge For Real

2010-01-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

Year round work guy talked a lot with no getting down to business, so rather than wait for him to get his act together, I took whatever job I could find. Second shift putting together gnarly boots by hand at a boot factory in NE Portland. Been making these crazed out ones that are used for fighting wildfires... Heavy duty. I work with people from 32 different countries. People from deep Russia to Kenya. I'm the only fluent english speaking person on the floor and most of the folks I work with speak all different languages too, so we communicate by this made up sign language to get the work done. At first, I was just hyped to have a job, making some money with some benefits. But it's straight up inspiring and has become a discovery of what else there is out there beyond the usual search. The zone evolves more and more man... Feeling it.

BANG

2010-01-12T21:22:00.000-08:00

N A T E L I N G not in Portland today.

BOOM

2010-01-05T23:25:00.000-08:00

N A T E L I N G in Portland tomorrow

Straight Through

2010-01-05T22:59:00.000-08:00

On some razor's edge type of stuff right about now. Got a good lead for the week of the 18th to hook up with a gig that has year round work to sub me out for a lot of cabinet refinishing work. Pay is 10% of contracts between 8 and 16 grand. Each job is about 3 to 5 days worth. Which is more than I pay myself usually so that's rad. I'm going for that to be the regular and do Holdfast shop jobs on the side for a minute until the crazy days go away. November, December and January have been brutal up here for real, the writing is on the wall. Makes me think of the warning label on chainsaws where they show a picture of a dude sitting out on a branch while cutting the branch off of the tree with the "don't do this" red circle and a line through it. Play it smart, remember how to fish, you know...

Know when to hold 'em...

2009-12-09T00:45:00.000-08:00

O.G. Mortgage = $1,200.00 bones a month...

Sent off a handwritten letter and some old proof of income stuff to the Making Home Affordable Program to get my home loans modified as a struggling independent contractor...

Modified Mortgage = $698.00 holy shits a month!

Blown away. Straight up.

It's not a moosehead with panties dangling, wearing oversized shades... but I's can gets my "bachelor" on. What?

2009-11-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

Pulling it.

BOO-YA-KA!!!

2009-11-27T16:29:00.000-08:00

All up in it.

HFWS

2009-11-17T23:57:00.000-08:00

Owrooooooooooo!

2009-11-17T23:12:00.000-08:00

"What you l'eally need is some tiger head on top, juz' carve out tiger face in middle."

2009-11-17T22:36:00.000-08:00

2009-11-15T21:33:00.000-08:00

Right now, I want to be going off at a Pegboy show

2009-10-31T22:51:00.000-07:00

"...I remember Halloween!"

R I P James Krenov

2009-10-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

A rad dude

Make me laugh

2009-09-23T17:55:00.001-07:00

When Chuck Norris goes swimming, he doesn't get wet. The water gets Chuck Norris.

We run tings. Tings nah run we.

2009-09-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

Yep

2009-08-27T23:07:00.001-07:00

I was just sitting here thinking for awhile about some life stuff. Staring off, and a spider made a web from my shoulder to the wall. Like I was an old antique BK. Here's me and the shop HF09. Also, google and watch "bruce springsteen thunder road storytellers".

A lot of first times

2009-07-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

Getting the call to "get home now, Reese got hurt." The looks he had, scared from seeing so much blood to "you guys can make it all better..." Holding his little foot, Robin singing in his ear while I clean rocks out of a gash he got from stepping on glass at the community kiddie pool. Rad... That's Portland for you. Look down, you will want to steer around the glass and dog shit. These days, even at the pool.

Busted foot = First Hot Wheels Track

Blasting in the van on tonight's ride home

2009-02-25T23:45:00.000-08:00

Southern Man - Neil Young
Highly recommended.

"Those kind of legs" - where you can tell instantly... right when they drop in, yeah this dude is gonna kill it

2009-02-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

Richard Kirby
Tim Brauch
Tony Trujillo

Stoked

2009-02-06T23:53:00.000-08:00

R C K 2 . 5

2009-01-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

Blows me away daily.

Ah shit, these towers again...

2008-12-05T23:20:00.000-08:00

I see way too much of the top of this bridge man. Need to get under it more often. For sure. So rad though, to roll up on the top parking lot in a van with Reese, thinking back on days of that same spot sleeping nine deep in a mini van.

O.G. Saw

2008-11-22T22:44:00.000-08:00

Bought this in Newberg a few years ago from this ruling old man who got it from a run down barn. He said it was sitting under a collapsed roof, right under the split. Rain running right down onto it for years. Cleaned that all off, re-set everything on it and it has worked perfect since. So hyped.

Sole Proprietor

2008-11-12T03:55:00.000-08:00

Holdfast 2008

Rad

2008-11-12T02:41:00.000-08:00

All Love

Friend

2008-11-12T02:25:00.000-08:00

I think about you. Echoes of power slides keep me company...