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Today's historical figure is… my dad! Because it's his birthday today! My old man is 53 now and we're not gonna let him live it down XD As I'm sure a lot of you know, my father is my rock. All that's good in me began with him. I won't pretend we've always gotten along or seen eye to eye, but he's always tried to understand and change for the better on my behalf, and he's the only such certainty I've been able to rely on in my entire life. He taught me the principles I live by, showed me love and support during my darkest moments, so I figured today, now that I'm back on the internet, I'd like to pay a little bit of that back by showcasing the life of this awesome dude.

Tim was born in 1970 in South Bend, Indiana to Jim and Donna Spainhower, though his folks would split up when their son was just 10 years old. Tim always preferred to stay with his mother over his father. Jim was a Vietnam War veteran, and, to use a technical term, a bit of a stubborn hardass. As Tim was also a stubborn hardass, this led to many instances of head-butting between two men who drove each other nuts because they were the same person. Meanwhile, his mother remarried to an Irish immigrant named Graham McQueen in 1986, who would become something of a surrogate father to Tim. Graham was a music lover, playing in a local band called the Rimfires, which certainly played into the young Tim's budding musical talent. His uncle Mark got him his first guitar at the age of 16, and he's been playing ever since. His father supported his music, buying him equipment, though if you ask Tim, he'd feel like his father didn't support him as much as he thought he did. Indeed, after graduating high school, Tim tentatively walked up to his father's doorstep, very quickly declared through the screen door that he didn't want to go to college, wanting to form a band instead, and immediately booked it to his mother's place, fearing the wrathful response of his old man.

In 1993, Tim married the ex of one of his buddies, a clinical psychopath who shall not be named. According to Tim, she was "the only one who would say yes", and sadly this decision would prove one of the biggest mistakes of his life. Nonetheless, he tried his best to put up with her crazy. They moved to the big city of Indianapolis, where Tim would get a job as a customer service representative. Though he continued to form bands and play gigs in local pubs, it sadly never earned the money it would need to support the family, especially not when that family expanded to three in 1999. On April 26, Tim's first child, a daughter (that's me!) was born. He actually wanted to name the kid "Elvis McCartney", combining his love of all things Beatles with his mother's love of all things Elvis, but this was an egregious mistake vetoed by everyone involved. This kid would eventually go on to veto the alternative name she was given, in favor of the much prettier "Ava", which Tim again accepted.

The birth was the scariest experience of his life. He had made a promise that his children would never look at him the same way he looked at his own father, but that came with a big responsibility. He spent the entire time in the waiting room listening to the album Fragile by Yes on repeat to soothe his nerves. Which yes, means there's an 11% chance I was brought into this world on that "To Be Continued" meme. A whole lot got put into perspective when I learned that. When he got to finally hold his first child though, he was immediately overwhelmed with a love and pride that I've tried desperately to live up to my whole life. When he was first left alone with his baby, scared about whether or not he'd be up for the challenge of fatherhood, he did the only thing he could think to do: he lulled me to sleep with my first bedtime story. Of course, my dad decided the best bedtime story to go with was to explain the entire plot of the original Star Wars trilogy, because my dad is a dork. Again, lotta things put into perspective now, huh? This little girl would go on to absolutely terrorize the Spainhower household alone until her accomplice, a little brother, was born in 2002.

Unfortunately, we were the least of dad's worries. The clinical psychopath he married just became more and more delirious, manipulative, and demanding as the years went on. They tried to stay together for the kids, but once we started to notice something was wrong, and even the pastor they'd been seeing for counseling pulled him aside and was like "look man, I'm not supposed to say this, but you need to get out of this marriage", the plug was finally pulled. They divorced in 2012, and custody of the kids went to the mother. Tim would come to find out that this was an absolutely terrible turn of events. The mother abused her kids, and would later be diagnosed with Munchausen's Syndrome. The revelation shocked and appalled Tim, who spent his every waking hour trying to regain full custody for the next year. The children were finally liberated on court order by child protective services in October 2013, and the selfish egomaniac who used to dominate their lives was not permitted to contact them. My mental health certainly skyrocketed after that. Unfortunately, unable to admit when she's in the wrong, my birth-giver would go on to drag my family through court case after court case, each one stupider and more petty than the last, sapping every cent she can get out of my dad. Nevermind the extreme financial hardship this puts on her own children by extension. This is just the boulder we've had to push uphill for the past 10 fucking years. Damn, sorry, that got a little too personal. This is supposed to be a silly historical edutainment DeviantArt page, not the Ava-pulls-out-her-hair Hour. As recompense, please enjoy this pair of boobs joke I'm stealing from Andy Weir's The Martian. -> (.Y.)

Hardship seems to be the name of the game at this point in Tim's life, though. Graham passed in 2016, and Jim passed in 2019. Tim tries to keep a strong face about it, but you can tell in his eyes that his father's passing weighs heavily on him. He tried so hard to make amends while his father was in the hospital, but they just couldn't sort it out. That hits a man hard. It's part of the reason why my father is, without exaggeration, the only person in my circle that has continuously encouraged me to try and have a relationship with my mother. He knows what it's like for it to be too late to make peace with a parent, and he doesn't want that for his children. He's the entire reason I gave her so my second chances to squander. I will always try with someone, even if they've hurt me personally, as long as they try with me, because my father taught me that is the honorable thing to do. Honor, unfortunately, is a tough road. Like me, dad's troubles risk doing serious medical harm as the body literally stress-eats itself. A few months back he got diagnosed with cancer, but he beat that goddamn son of a bitch. I thank the gods every day for that blessing. My dad likes to be realistic about how he might not be around someday sooner rather than later, but though it will be an honor to inherit his guitars and music, I would very much prefer that day to be very, very, very far in the future.

Though right now, my family is in a very dark period, there is good news! My dad has finally taken his music digital! You can find him under "Tim Spainhower" wherever you get your tunes online. Now you too can listen to the same soundtrack that I was surrounded by since I was in the womb. Maybe do me a small favor and go nudge the algorithm a little for him? ;3 That'd be a real swell birthday gift to send him. Love you dad, happy birthday.

m.youtube.com/channel/UCb_cDgW…

Design notes, my dad isn't exactly the kind of guy who puts a lot of thought into "fashion" the way I do. I see my dad as a rock star, though, so I wanted to come up with a design that would reflect that mental image. I didn't want to go full glam rock. That's not really my dad's style, though he certainly tried in all those old photographs I've made fun of him for. I leaned more for an early 80s kind of vibe, something you could still see a Gen X dude walking around in comfortably today. I'm quite pleased with how it came out. It's simplistic, but fittingly so. It bugs me how my scanner doesn't really pick up the thin chain necklace I always see him wearing tho. It just kinda looks like he has this weird line across his neck. Oh well, that's what design notes are for. The guitar is also my own design. I mean idk, maybe he does own a guitar that looks like this, he's got like umpteen of them. It's actually surprisingly hard to craft a unique design for a guitar, since an instrument's sound is entirely derived from its shape, so there's only so much you can realistically morph it. I had to focus more on adding bits and bobs which… I have no idea if they make sense mechanically or not. All of dad's creative genes turned into drawing genes when they passed onto me. I keep telling myself I'm gonna learn to play guitar, and then never get around to practicing. Ah well, dad tells me it's in my blood, so I believe him. Hopefully my guitar design is some small reflex on that hidden instinct.

Description
Today's historical figure is… my dad! Because it's his birthday today! My old man is 53 now and we're not gonna let him live it down XD As I'm sure a lot of you know, my father is my rock. All that's good in me began with him. I won't pretend we've always gotten along or seen eye to eye, but he's always tried to understand and change for the better on my behalf, and he's the only such certainty I've been able to rely on in my entire life. He taught me the principles I live by, showed me love and support during my darkest moments, so I figured today, now that I'm back on the internet, I'd like to pay a little bit of that back by showcasing the life of this awesome dude.

Tim was born in 1970 in South Bend, Indiana to Jim and Donna Spainhower, though his folks would split up when their son was just 10 years old. Tim always preferred to stay with his mother over his father. Jim was a Vietnam War veteran, and, to use a technical term, a bit of a stubborn hardass. As Tim was also a stubborn hardass, this led to many instances of head-butting between two men who drove each other nuts because they were the same person. Meanwhile, his mother remarried to an Irish immigrant named Graham McQueen in 1986, who would become something of a surrogate father to Tim. Graham was a music lover, playing in a local band called the Rimfires, which certainly played into the young Tim's budding musical talent. His uncle Mark got him his first guitar at the age of 16, and he's been playing ever since. His father supported his music, buying him equipment, though if you ask Tim, he'd feel like his father didn't support him as much as he thought he did. Indeed, after graduating high school, Tim tentatively walked up to his father's doorstep, very quickly declared through the screen door that he didn't want to go to college, wanting to form a band instead, and immediately booked it to his mother's place, fearing the wrathful response of his old man.

In 1993, Tim married the ex of one of his buddies, a clinical psychopath who shall not be named. According to Tim, she was "the only one who would say yes", and sadly this decision would prove one of the biggest mistakes of his life. Nonetheless, he tried his best to put up with her crazy. They moved to the big city of Indianapolis, where Tim would get a job as a customer service representative. Though he continued to form bands and play gigs in local pubs, it sadly never earned the money it would need to support the family, especially not when that family expanded to three in 1999. On April 26, Tim's first child, a daughter (that's me!) was born. He actually wanted to name the kid "Elvis McCartney", combining his love of all things Beatles with his mother's love of all things Elvis, but this was an egregious mistake vetoed by everyone involved. This kid would eventually go on to veto the alternative name she was given, in favor of the much prettier "Ava", which Tim again accepted.

The birth was the scariest experience of his life. He had made a promise that his children would never look at him the same way he looked at his own father, but that came with a big responsibility. He spent the entire time in the waiting room listening to the album Fragile by Yes on repeat to soothe his nerves. Which yes, means there's an 11% chance I was brought into this world on that "To Be Continued" meme. A whole lot got put into perspective when I learned that. When he got to finally hold his first child though, he was immediately overwhelmed with a love and pride that I've tried desperately to live up to my whole life. When he was first left alone with his baby, scared about whether or not he'd be up for the challenge of fatherhood, he did the only thing he could think to do: he lulled me to sleep with my first bedtime story. Of course, my dad decided the best bedtime story to go with was to explain the entire plot of the original Star Wars trilogy, because my dad is a dork. Again, lotta things put into perspective now, huh? This little girl would go on to absolutely terrorize the Spainhower household alone until her accomplice, a little brother, was born in 2002.

Unfortunately, we were the least of dad's worries. The clinical psychopath he married just became more and more delirious, manipulative, and demanding as the years went on. They tried to stay together for the kids, but once we started to notice something was wrong, and even the pastor they'd been seeing for counseling pulled him aside and was like "look man, I'm not supposed to say this, but you need to get out of this marriage", the plug was finally pulled. They divorced in 2012, and custody of the kids went to the mother. Tim would come to find out that this was an absolutely terrible turn of events. The mother abused her kids, and would later be diagnosed with Munchausen's Syndrome. The revelation shocked and appalled Tim, who spent his every waking hour trying to regain full custody for the next year. The children were finally liberated on court order by child protective services in October 2013, and the selfish egomaniac who used to dominate their lives was not permitted to contact them. My mental health certainly skyrocketed after that. Unfortunately, unable to admit when she's in the wrong, my birth-giver would go on to drag my family through court case after court case, each one stupider and more petty than the last, sapping every cent she can get out of my dad. Nevermind the extreme financial hardship this puts on her own children by extension. This is just the boulder we've had to push uphill for the past 10 fucking years. Damn, sorry, that got a little too personal. This is supposed to be a silly historical edutainment DeviantArt page, not the Ava-pulls-out-her-hair Hour. As recompense, please enjoy this pair of boobs joke I'm stealing from Andy Weir's The Martian. -> (.Y.)

Hardship seems to be the name of the game at this point in Tim's life, though. Graham passed in 2016, and Jim passed in 2019. Tim tries to keep a strong face about it, but you can tell in his eyes that his father's passing weighs heavily on him. He tried so hard to make amends while his father was in the hospital, but they just couldn't sort it out. That hits a man hard. It's part of the reason why my father is, without exaggeration, the only person in my circle that has continuously encouraged me to try and have a relationship with my mother. He knows what it's like for it to be too late to make peace with a parent, and he doesn't want that for his children. He's the entire reason I gave her so my second chances to squander. I will always try with someone, even if they've hurt me personally, as long as they try with me, because my father taught me that is the honorable thing to do. Honor, unfortunately, is a tough road. Like me, dad's troubles risk doing serious medical harm as the body literally stress-eats itself. A few months back he got diagnosed with cancer, but he beat that goddamn son of a bitch. I thank the gods every day for that blessing. My dad likes to be realistic about how he might not be around someday sooner rather than later, but though it will be an honor to inherit his guitars and music, I would very much prefer that day to be very, very, very far in the future.

Though right now, my family is in a very dark period, there is good news! My dad has finally taken his music digital! You can find him under "Tim Spainhower" wherever you get your tunes online. Now you too can listen to the same soundtrack that I was surrounded by since I was in the womb. Maybe do me a small favor and go nudge the algorithm a little for him? ;3 That'd be a real swell birthday gift to send him. Love you dad, happy birthday.

m.youtube.com/channel/UCb_cDgW…

Design notes, my dad isn't exactly the kind of guy who puts a lot of thought into "fashion" the way I do. I see my dad as a rock star, though, so I wanted to come up with a design that would reflect that mental image. I didn't want to go full glam rock. That's not really my dad's style, though he certainly tried in all those old photographs I've made fun of him for. I leaned more for an early 80s kind of vibe, something you could still see a Gen X dude walking around in comfortably today. I'm quite pleased with how it came out. It's simplistic, but fittingly so. It bugs me how my scanner doesn't really pick up the thin chain necklace I always see him wearing tho. It just kinda looks like he has this weird line across his neck. Oh well, that's what design notes are for. The guitar is also my own design. I mean idk, maybe he does own a guitar that looks like this, he's got like umpteen of them. It's actually surprisingly hard to craft a unique design for a guitar, since an instrument's sound is entirely derived from its shape, so there's only so much you can realistically morph it. I had to focus more on adding bits and bobs which… I have no idea if they make sense mechanically or not. All of dad's creative genes turned into drawing genes when they passed onto me. I keep telling myself I'm gonna learn to play guitar, and then never get around to practicing. Ah well, dad tells me it's in my blood, so I believe him. Hopefully my guitar design is some small reflex on that hidden instinct.