I can't even explain how hyped this used to get me......
still does.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
First Post with my new cammy
Monday, March 28, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
blogga from another brotha
I just read this on my brother's blog, and it got me psyched:
On Being Glass Half Empty…
For some reason I’ve always been an early riser, ever since I was a kid. I’ve never been that kid that needs to sleep a lot but I’ve also never been that guy that pulls all-nighers studying for a test in school. I always struck a very pleasant balance in my approach to getting rest, but I also know now that my brain was telling me to wake up early to get started on the day. Looking back, I think that it started to get a bit out of balance right around the time that I started looking for more distractions in my life to deal with the stress I was going through with my family. It’s a long story and one that I’m not sure I want to go into on this blog out of respect for the others that lived through it more closely, but let’s just say that it’s not often you deal with a homicide within your own family.
This was right when I had just quit my full time job to try working on my own music blog, full-time for a few months “until I figure something else out” was the plan. And I started not sleeping as well. I would wake up at 6am on the dot every single day, regardless of when I’d actually go to sleep. I’d immediately make myself coffee and go work on my music blog, writing posts for the day or brainstorming on what big undertaking I would attempt for the site next. My ambition started to become palpable in the bags under my eyes, but I eventually started to crumble under the pressure of it all. I didn’t feel any cover from the onslaught of stress that I had signed up for and it affected me in a way that caused me to continue to focus on what I was not doing on the site, or what I had not finished yet, or what I had not thought of yet that someone else did…I could not see the bright side to this amazing choice I had made faced with such a fortunate combination of circumstances.
If there is one statement that could sum up how I’ve lived my life up until now, it was that last sentence. And I’m not super happy about that overall, because the paragraph above only explains about a three-month period in early 2006. But looking back, things continued to get progressively better for me in my career and the plan I had set out for my life. Everything just kept coming up roses for me. But that fact that I couldn’t approach my career and the problems I faced in that progressively better career path in a glass half-full sorta mentality is exactly why I got a huge kick in the ass over the past two years of my life. As you approach a certain age, and other people around you start to approach a certain age, people are allowed to make choices about who they want to associate themselves with. You have to decide who you want to create dreams with. You have to surround yourself that people that will motivate you and not stifle every idea you have with everything that’s wrong about it.
I guess I learned this the hard way when I lost my job and realized I had no great, true and close friends that I felt would understand this. Even in the suffering I caused for myself, I couldn’t see that it could be a lot worse. I truly let it get the best of me.
But that’s not the point of this post at all. I’m only writing some of this to just get it down on paper finally and be okay with admitting where I may have gone wrong from time to time. That’s okay. I’m totally human. Humans are stupid sometimes. Let’s move on…
The point is, something has changed for me in a big way. Over the past few months I’ve never felt so close to understanding the benefit of keeping a positive outlook on things and how people perceive “that guy” that just can’t shut the fuck up every once in a while. I’ve learned that it’s okay to not have an opinion on something. I’ve learned that it’s okay to stop analyzing stuff looking for the answers all the time, because there are some times you go down rabbit holes that lead to areas you don’t necessarily need to discover. I’ve learned that it’s okay to be ambitious and idealistic, but that it shouldn’t drive your view point of other people that think in a more concrete sense. I guess I felt the need to defend myself before and to project an sense of confidence through intelligence and severe judgments. And humor, too…kinda the way John Stewart has to perform on The Daily Show, not that we’d even rank in the lists for talented human beings. So that’s how I got away with it, and I let the best of my ambitious truly get the best of me until I went crazy out here in San Francisco and felt the need to make it known on my Twitter account.
I’m so happy I’m done with that. It feels good to stop focusing on what you’re doing wrong and focus on what you’re doing right. Self-improvement comes naturally by letting the best of you shine forward and drive the ship, not by focusing and nit-picking on everything that’s wrong about what you’re doing. The real problem is, if you have that mindset yourself, all you do is project it onto other people. And holy shit…let me just make this clear…nobody likes a Debbie Downer. I know I knew that for a time, but I just couldn’t seem to be in the state of mind that allowed me to rise above it. And man, I just wish I could go back and apologize to all the people I did this to relentlessly over the past couple years. I hope that I can find a way to repay those good people that let me get away with it for as long as I did. My goal is to just roll with the new attitude and hope that it rubs off on people going forward…
And I’m pretty happy about that…
On Being Glass Half Empty…
For some reason I’ve always been an early riser, ever since I was a kid. I’ve never been that kid that needs to sleep a lot but I’ve also never been that guy that pulls all-nighers studying for a test in school. I always struck a very pleasant balance in my approach to getting rest, but I also know now that my brain was telling me to wake up early to get started on the day. Looking back, I think that it started to get a bit out of balance right around the time that I started looking for more distractions in my life to deal with the stress I was going through with my family. It’s a long story and one that I’m not sure I want to go into on this blog out of respect for the others that lived through it more closely, but let’s just say that it’s not often you deal with a homicide within your own family.
This was right when I had just quit my full time job to try working on my own music blog, full-time for a few months “until I figure something else out” was the plan. And I started not sleeping as well. I would wake up at 6am on the dot every single day, regardless of when I’d actually go to sleep. I’d immediately make myself coffee and go work on my music blog, writing posts for the day or brainstorming on what big undertaking I would attempt for the site next. My ambition started to become palpable in the bags under my eyes, but I eventually started to crumble under the pressure of it all. I didn’t feel any cover from the onslaught of stress that I had signed up for and it affected me in a way that caused me to continue to focus on what I was not doing on the site, or what I had not finished yet, or what I had not thought of yet that someone else did…I could not see the bright side to this amazing choice I had made faced with such a fortunate combination of circumstances.
If there is one statement that could sum up how I’ve lived my life up until now, it was that last sentence. And I’m not super happy about that overall, because the paragraph above only explains about a three-month period in early 2006. But looking back, things continued to get progressively better for me in my career and the plan I had set out for my life. Everything just kept coming up roses for me. But that fact that I couldn’t approach my career and the problems I faced in that progressively better career path in a glass half-full sorta mentality is exactly why I got a huge kick in the ass over the past two years of my life. As you approach a certain age, and other people around you start to approach a certain age, people are allowed to make choices about who they want to associate themselves with. You have to decide who you want to create dreams with. You have to surround yourself that people that will motivate you and not stifle every idea you have with everything that’s wrong about it.
I guess I learned this the hard way when I lost my job and realized I had no great, true and close friends that I felt would understand this. Even in the suffering I caused for myself, I couldn’t see that it could be a lot worse. I truly let it get the best of me.
But that’s not the point of this post at all. I’m only writing some of this to just get it down on paper finally and be okay with admitting where I may have gone wrong from time to time. That’s okay. I’m totally human. Humans are stupid sometimes. Let’s move on…
The point is, something has changed for me in a big way. Over the past few months I’ve never felt so close to understanding the benefit of keeping a positive outlook on things and how people perceive “that guy” that just can’t shut the fuck up every once in a while. I’ve learned that it’s okay to not have an opinion on something. I’ve learned that it’s okay to stop analyzing stuff looking for the answers all the time, because there are some times you go down rabbit holes that lead to areas you don’t necessarily need to discover. I’ve learned that it’s okay to be ambitious and idealistic, but that it shouldn’t drive your view point of other people that think in a more concrete sense. I guess I felt the need to defend myself before and to project an sense of confidence through intelligence and severe judgments. And humor, too…kinda the way John Stewart has to perform on The Daily Show, not that we’d even rank in the lists for talented human beings. So that’s how I got away with it, and I let the best of my ambitious truly get the best of me until I went crazy out here in San Francisco and felt the need to make it known on my Twitter account.
I’m so happy I’m done with that. It feels good to stop focusing on what you’re doing wrong and focus on what you’re doing right. Self-improvement comes naturally by letting the best of you shine forward and drive the ship, not by focusing and nit-picking on everything that’s wrong about what you’re doing. The real problem is, if you have that mindset yourself, all you do is project it onto other people. And holy shit…let me just make this clear…nobody likes a Debbie Downer. I know I knew that for a time, but I just couldn’t seem to be in the state of mind that allowed me to rise above it. And man, I just wish I could go back and apologize to all the people I did this to relentlessly over the past couple years. I hope that I can find a way to repay those good people that let me get away with it for as long as I did. My goal is to just roll with the new attitude and hope that it rubs off on people going forward…
And I’m pretty happy about that…
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
My house guests of the week...
are back at their homes!
Fetter, thanks for stopping by.....
and POB, thanks for coming out and hangin... this week was fun(despite getting robbed)
Fetter, thanks for stopping by.....
and POB, thanks for coming out and hangin... this week was fun(despite getting robbed)
Sunday, March 20, 2011
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
So...... today while we were out skating at a popular downtown phoenix spot, my camera and cell phone were stolen! No this is not a joke, even though I made this post recently and I don't expect anyone to believe me, but it really is true. Some asshole stole my camera practically right in front of me. So now I really can't make anymore videos.
I went a pretty long time without ever getting anything stolen from me, but 2011 is my year to get robbed. First I get my car broken into and my board stolen, and now this.
So since I, like everyone else, am completely and utterly dependent on my cell phone, one of the first things I did was go to the cell phone store to get my old phone reactivated. The funny thing was that on my way home from the skate spot, I 'checked' my phone numerous times. Out of habit, I glanced at the spot in my car that my phone normally is. That little car ride made me realize how silly this cell phone thing is and has gotten. The comment was made today 'Think about like 15 years ago, No one had cell phones.'
So my blog is going to suck again. Here's a list of things that were going to be on the blog in the next few weeks, but now they won't be. Unless of course the guy who stole my camera decides to edit the footage and post the videos online. I was working on: an Ari Shiffrin video, a Brad Westcott video part, a Ryan Reyes video part, a Dylan Messer video part, and a mega video collage a bunch of other footage that I had filmed. But now, since the world is fucked and people are horrible, you won't get to see any of that stuff. Instead what I have is a bunch of old cell phone pictures from my newly activated phone that I used to use a few years ago.
The first of which is a nice old picture of my current house guest, Pat O Brian. I was also working on a really good video of his trip to Arizona, but that's for the thief's eyes only now. So instead you get a cell phone pic of him frontside nosesliding a big hubba in Indiana. I think Greg Piloto sent me this picture originally. Thanks Greg and thanks you piece of shit who stole my stuff. I hope you and the guy who stole my skateboard die in the same horrible methlab explosion!
I went a pretty long time without ever getting anything stolen from me, but 2011 is my year to get robbed. First I get my car broken into and my board stolen, and now this.
So since I, like everyone else, am completely and utterly dependent on my cell phone, one of the first things I did was go to the cell phone store to get my old phone reactivated. The funny thing was that on my way home from the skate spot, I 'checked' my phone numerous times. Out of habit, I glanced at the spot in my car that my phone normally is. That little car ride made me realize how silly this cell phone thing is and has gotten. The comment was made today 'Think about like 15 years ago, No one had cell phones.'
So my blog is going to suck again. Here's a list of things that were going to be on the blog in the next few weeks, but now they won't be. Unless of course the guy who stole my camera decides to edit the footage and post the videos online. I was working on: an Ari Shiffrin video, a Brad Westcott video part, a Ryan Reyes video part, a Dylan Messer video part, and a mega video collage a bunch of other footage that I had filmed. But now, since the world is fucked and people are horrible, you won't get to see any of that stuff. Instead what I have is a bunch of old cell phone pictures from my newly activated phone that I used to use a few years ago.
The first of which is a nice old picture of my current house guest, Pat O Brian. I was also working on a really good video of his trip to Arizona, but that's for the thief's eyes only now. So instead you get a cell phone pic of him frontside nosesliding a big hubba in Indiana. I think Greg Piloto sent me this picture originally. Thanks Greg and thanks you piece of shit who stole my stuff. I hope you and the guy who stole my skateboard die in the same horrible methlab explosion!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
quick visitor
My uncle Skip just dropped by for literally 20 minutes on his way from California to Texas!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
One Year with No Soda and Relapse
So I completed my year of drinking absolutely NO soda as of yesterday. I went 365 days without drinking a silly sugary substance that I thought for some silly reason I couldn't live without. I'm pretty proud of myself I guess. I mean it's all pretty goofy to feel dependent on a liquid that isn't water, but so many of us are 'addicted' to coffee, alcohol, caffeine, etc. I don't have much to say about the quitting soda experience other than it was silly for me to ever think that I couldn't quit anything.
All that being said, I have to explain my current soda status. Ari, who made the bet with me in the first place, came to my apartment today and told me he had a proposition for me. I was a little nervous that he was going to try to tell me about some scheme to double my soda money or something like that... what his proposition was is that for an extra $50 dollars to be added to the soda winnings, I'd have to read a book on nutrition that he recently read and also he wanted me to drink a soda with Ari today and then not drink soda again for another month! His thinking was that I would drink some soda today and then go straight back to quitting to show myself that I really really don't need it. I was already pretty sure that I was not going to start up drinking soda again anyway so why not take him up on his offer. On top of that, Peter Vlad offered to keep the bet alive another year and pay me the same amount as Ari to continue to not drink soda for another year!
So tonight after Tempe park Ari, Scott, Vlad, Pat O Brian and I went to Arby's for me to have one night of debauchery before going back to my soda-less life.
I drank a full cup of Mountain Dew
I wasn't happy about it or proud of myself
Ari made me do it....
I should let you know: the mountain dew tasted horrible but the shitty Arby's food tasted like gold.
All that being said, I have to explain my current soda status. Ari, who made the bet with me in the first place, came to my apartment today and told me he had a proposition for me. I was a little nervous that he was going to try to tell me about some scheme to double my soda money or something like that... what his proposition was is that for an extra $50 dollars to be added to the soda winnings, I'd have to read a book on nutrition that he recently read and also he wanted me to drink a soda with Ari today and then not drink soda again for another month! His thinking was that I would drink some soda today and then go straight back to quitting to show myself that I really really don't need it. I was already pretty sure that I was not going to start up drinking soda again anyway so why not take him up on his offer. On top of that, Peter Vlad offered to keep the bet alive another year and pay me the same amount as Ari to continue to not drink soda for another year!
So tonight after Tempe park Ari, Scott, Vlad, Pat O Brian and I went to Arby's for me to have one night of debauchery before going back to my soda-less life.
I drank a full cup of Mountain Dew
I wasn't happy about it or proud of myself
Ari made me do it....
I should let you know: the mountain dew tasted horrible but the shitty Arby's food tasted like gold.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
America's Most Blunted
Had a little skate date today with Yeah boardshop riders and frequent blunters Eric Thomas and Ari Shiffrin.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Some skate shots I captured on my telephone recently
Timothy Larsen (I think he goes by that now) backsmith
Scott Gall frontside wallride at a previously unskated Arizona spot
The ever elusive Andrew McCarthy front krook over krook
I borrowed droido's lens for these shots of Ari frontside bluntsliding his first hubba
this one reminds me of some early 90's photos
I need to get one of those lenses
Scott Gall frontside wallride at a previously unskated Arizona spot
The ever elusive Andrew McCarthy front krook over krook
I borrowed droido's lens for these shots of Ari frontside bluntsliding his first hubba
this one reminds me of some early 90's photos
I need to get one of those lenses
Monday, March 7, 2011
sent to me by Steve Davenport
I get a lot of pictures from Steve D. Here's a couple of weeks/months worth.
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