People Who Don't Get Enough Recognition

I am taking a study break to bring you this:
A thanks to 15 people who are so damn wonderful and don't even realize it.

The person who holds the door open for you because they see you carrying something heavy even though you're relatively far away.

That was a mouthful, but it's true. You have no idea how grateful I am when I'm walking up the steps to the library with my arms full of textbooks and as you're leaving, you see me there at the bottom of the stairs struggling and you wait for what would be a socially awkward amount of time to hold the door open for anyone, but you're feeling so dang nice and sweet Jesus, thank you for waiting and holding that door open for me.

The person who doesn't laugh at you when you crash on your bike/skateboard/rollerblades/whatever and genuinely asks if you are ok.

My pride may be hurt worse than my body, but thank you for actually caring about me. It gives me great comfort to know that if I ever truly injure myself badly in front of a group of people at least one of them will choose to help a sista (or brother) out instead of making me feel like a larger idiot than I already feel.

The car that waves along the pedestrians to cross.

Glad that I don't have to worry about being run over today. Thanks, friend!

The car that lets you merge in.

You're going to let me into this lane even though I messed up and didn't merge into it earlier when there were no cars around to stop me? You sir, are the best.

The employee who hands me my food in McHenry instead of leaving it on the counter. Or, to the stranger who hands my food from the counter to me. (UCSC Specific. Ha.)

I'm short. I cannot reach my delicious soup on top of the counter. When you hand it to me, you save me from a lot of potential embarrassment and disaster.

The housemate that hears me at the door and opens the door so I don't have to scrounge for my keys at the end of the day.

You were all curled up and comfy doing some late night studying and you got up and opened the door for me. Thank you so so much.

The person at the punk show who picks me up.

Some huge man child with a beard just kicked me in the face while crowd surfing and knocked me off balance and onto the floor. You just picked me up and saved me from an untimely death, thanks.

The bus driver who waits.

I just ran a marathon to get to this stop since I saw you heading this way, and you waited for me, kind bus driver, you waited for me.

The friend who offers you food.

You just spent $7 on that pile of delicious for yourself and you're going to let me have some?! Care to be my new BFFL?

When you go to dinner at a friends house and they remember your food allergy and/or dietary choice.

Being vegetarian is my own decision, but I appreciate the hell out of the fact that you ordered an entire cheese pizza amongst all the pepperonis just so I could eat at your party. (True story, btw)

 The friend who stops you from drinking too much and forces you to drink water.

I'm not hung over today and you're the reason? You're stupendous.

The Designated Driver.

Doing us all more than just a solid.

People who are extremely skilled in something you're a beginner in and instead of snubbing you, they help you become more skilled.

I suck at skating. The fact that you're giving me pointers at Derby instead of avoiding me on the other side of the snake run and snickering at me falling is a major upgrade and very much appreciated. Also, shout out to all the employees at Santa Cruz's Skate Works put up with all my skateboard questions and genuinely help me.

The friend who tutors you and remains your friend.

Now that you know how terrible I am at math, I'm surprised you still want to hang out with me. You got to see the not-so-beautiful pieces of me that emerge when I'm doing something I despise and you still helped me and we're still friends. Serious kudos, to you, dude! (Especially you, Mr. Vanover.)

The employees at any ice cream shop (and especially at the Penny Ice Creamery)

It's ice cream day. I want to try all the flavors. You let me try all the flavors with a smile on your face. You're awesome.




Ok. Back to studying,
Hope I remember everyone.
Stay classy.

Love,

          Neffie

How to Change Your Skateboard Bearings (and clean them!)

Backstory first:

One of my nearest and dearest friends in high school loved skateboarding and often asked me to go skating with him after school. I didn't skateboard at all and the only board I had was a warped hand me down from my younger brother, but eventually, I started skating after school with this friend. He taught me how to ollie and drop in on a ramp and I found myself enjoying skating.

Fast forward to the summer before my third year of college. I hadn't skated since my senior year of high school, but wanted to get back into it since I enjoyed it then and wasn't living on campus, where you can get a $150 fine for skating. Every summer, I like to learn how to do something new, and even though it wasn't super new, both Courtney and I decided that we would relearn how to skate.

I had to relearn how to ollie because I had completely forgotten how and it wasn't until recently I finally was able to ollie over a garden hose. I know it seems stupidly easy to ollie over a garden hose, but it was a very large accomplishment for me and I still have to do a million terrible ollies every time I skate before I can start doing some good ones. I also had to learn how to drop in again. This came a little easier to me, but I needed a skate park to go to to practice this, so Courtney and I would go to a skate park near our house in the middle of the night or early morning because we didn't want to run into any kids who are actually good at skating.

ANYWAYS...

I really enjoy skating. I'm really terrible at it, but I enjoy it a lot. I'm really high energy and some nights when I have too much energy to fall asleep, I'll just go outside and practice ollies and attempt kickflips until I'm tired. I also enjoy getting back in shape by not going to the gym because I'd rather be learning a skill than endlessly lifting weights or whatever.

Recently I turned 21 and with some birthday money, upgraded from that same warped, hand-me-down board to a mini Creature. I got new wheels as well since the old ones were falling apart, literally, chunks of plastic were chipping off.

I did not get new bearings even though I really could've used a new set and to try to extend them, I decided to clean them out.

I ended up caving last week and shelling out $20 for some reds and sweet lord, it's so nice to ride with bearings that don't suck.

So,

Here is a tutorial on how to change your bearings by yourself if you get new bearings and also how to clean your older bearings if they get all sticky and nasty. 2 tutorials! Woo!

How to Change Your Bearings:

All you need is your skateboard, a socket wrench that fits the bolt at the end of your wheels, a bowl (to put all the bolts, spacers, bearings, etc in), and the bearings you want to change.
I don't change from old to new bearings in this tutorial because I cleaned my old bearings and put them back in.
Understand that each wheel has 2 bearings, so you have 8 bearings total and the harder your wheels, the harder it is to take out and put in bearings. (ex: it's easier to change bearings on long board wheels than vert wheels because long board wheels are softer)
The tool I use is a bones bearing tool and it's pretty handy, but you don't need it to take your bearings out, you can just use your trucks.

Ok.

Start with you skateboard.

Unscrew the bolts at the end with a socket wrench and put them in the bowl.

Take off any spacers (if you have them) and put them in the bowl so you don't lose them.

Take out your bearings using the bearing tool or your trucks. (See below!)

Put in new bearings or your cleaned old ones. (See below!)

One at a time, put your wheels back on by sliding them on the trucks and screwing back in the bolts with the socket wrench. Don't screw so tight your wheels can't move!

That's it!

Using the Bones Bearing Tool:

Pick up a wheel.

Click the little button at the top of the tool and insert into the bearing.
Using a motion similar to that of opening a bottle of soda, pulling up at an angle,  pop out your bearing.

Now do this seven more times.
To put the bearings back in, click the button at the top of the tool, slide a bearing over the tool, and holding a wheel, push the bearing straight back in.

Do this seven more times, homeslice.

Using the End of Your Trucks:

Turn your board side ways so the end of your trucks are sticking up.

Pick up a wheel.
Holding wheel, put the wheel with the bearing over the end and using a motion similar to that of opening a bottle of soda- pulling up at an angle, pop out your bearing.

Do this times seven!
To put bearings back on, slide a bearing onto the end of a truck. Pick a wheel and press the wheel over the bearing to pop it back in place.
Times seven that shiz!

Cleaning Your Bearings

I have been told that it's better to use a razor and pop the outside of the bearings off to dry clean the inside of the bearings with a q-tip, but I was not told that until last week. This method I'm about to explain has worked well for me though and if you're bearings aren't working so hot, this could help them run a little longer until you get money in da bank to buy some new ones.

Needs:

Skateboard bearings (duh)

Acetone (Nail polish remover has acetone in it unless otherwise specified)

An old rag

A plastic container with a snap tight lid
Bones Speed Cream (optional)

Steps:

Take off all your bearings.

Put them all in the little plastic container.

Pour acetone over the bearings until it covers them.

Put the lid on and shake the container up and down and back and forth to help dislodge debris that have gathered inside of your bearings. 

Let your bearings soak in the acetone for about 3 minutes.

Take them out after that and thoroughly dry them and clean them further with the rag. You want to make sure they are completely dry before you put them back on your board.

Spin test your bearings to see how they work. If they're still sticking you can repeat this again. If they're still sticking after that, go to your favorite skate shop and buy a new set.
Add a drop or two of speed cream for speediness. 

Put them back on your board and go skate, ya hooligan.

That's it!

If you do go buy new bearings because cleaning them just won't do (the ones I cleaned in the tutorial got replaced the next day because they were so nasty and sucky still), bring your skateboard to the skate shop you're buying them from. Oftentimes, the people who work there are nice and will change out your bearings for you so you don't have to do it at home. They can also help you pick a set of bearings that suits your budget and board.

Also, remember that buying bearings is like buying a pair of jeans, it's better to spend a little more on a pair of jeans that will last you a long time than to go to forever 21 and buy a cheap pair of jeans that'll last you about a month.

True Born Hooligan

Hope this was helpful to someone.

Sorry 'bout the late update, this last week was not one of those weeks where I had extra energy.

Love,

          Natalie

T-Time: Sassy Crop Top

So, yesterday, my A'cappella group (UCSC's Cloud 9) held auditions for 85+ people. On behalf of my A'cappella group, thank you to all who came out and auditioned!

Anyways, I didn't really do any DIY project or anything last week, but then I remembered that I did some T-shirt modification with my Cloud 9 shirt (much to some of my fellow Cloudies dismay since it is no longer a "super matchy" t-shirt, but I think it looks much better like this than as the moo-moo dress it flattered me with all last year) around mid-summer and never posted that because I kinda forgot about it...
But! I have it here for you now! And how appropriate that I post this the day after auditions? Woo!

Sassy Crop Top

Need:

Scissors

Larger T-shirt

measuring instrument 

ribbon or t-shirt scrap from this project.

Your brain

T-Timing:

Gather your large shirt

I promise I have short on under this.

Cut a 2-3 inch wide circle from your neckband. This will help the shirt really drape off your shoulders and allow you to be the sassy beast you've always known you can be. Then cut off about 1.5-2 inches above the hem on your sleeves.

I always use chalk or a pen to measure and draw what to cut for accuracy purposes.

Your shirt should look like this afterwards:

I know the back is crooked, I fixed it later.

Determine how much you want cut off the bottom to make it a crop top. I'm on the shorter side and ended up cutting off 5-6 inches of t-shirt from the bottom to achieve a crop top.

Mmm...fabric scraps.

Now the fun part. Take a look at your sleeves. Measure how much fabric you can take out of the width of them, subtract a 1/2 inch and cut that out.

If this is confusing you, I could deal with 3 inches less of the width of my sleeve. So, I determined the center line of my sleeve from the neck to the bottom hem (or, where it used to be) and cut a 2.5 inch wide piece of fabric out from my sleeve. Now you have a "sleeve" that's cut in half and needs to be "stitched" back together. 

Cut fabric out of the sleeve. Woot.

Next, make 7 pairs of holes equally spaced apart and about a 1/2 inch in from the side of the vertical cut on your sleeve. Using some ribbon or t-shirt scraps, begin lacing up your sleeve like a tennis shoe from top to bottom of sleeve. 

Holes!

I had originally used an old neck band from a white shirt as my string, but it didn't hold up (rookie mistake) and I ended up just using scrap fabric from the bottom of my shirt I had cut off earlier.

Blasted white fraying fabric.

That's it! I recommend wearing this with at least a bandeau top (bet you could make your own matching one with your scrap fabric. Here's how .) or a well fitting bra. I decided to go with a tank because I felt a little too scandalous with just a bra or a bandeau, but don't let my fear of scandalousity stop you!

Supa Sassy.

Performing with Cloud 9 in my sassy top  + a flannel at UCSC's OPERS Fall Festival. 

That's all for this week! 

Love,

          Neffie

Courtney. Win.