6.29.2000Today, I learned a dork trick on my skateboard, the nosepick finger shove-it. What differentiates a dork trick from any other sort of trick that you can do on a skateboard concerns its style. Dork tricks generally have a sort of awkward look to them, and the initial reaction after seeing one is to laugh, instead of clapping or cheering. In the professional ranks of skateboarding, it is rare to see a dork trick, in video, contests or even demos. The sorts of unique, silly tricks are only seen being performed by the true innovators of the sport, Mark Gonzales can do a thousand of them, and will invent a couple more on the spot. I like dork tricks because I think they're usually original, and take a mixture of creativity and humor to perform. They also show a lot about the character of the person performing them, and mesh very well with my other site. 12:48:43 PM
6.28.2000I feel like I've recently been in a rather low key stage as far as expressing myself to other people through web writing. Any work I get done happens based on momentum, and I'm able to work long periods of time continuously, but the flipside is that I have these periods where I stagnate and get nothing done, and I think that's where I'm at right now. The obvious remedy seems to be more physical activity (like skateboarding), and more time spent away from the computer.
It doesn't seem to me that a lot of real experience can happen while sitting, facing this screen and reading and typing on it. There's a lot to be shared in this medium, but I don't think it stands on its own as something that significant experience can be gained from. I make friendships through e-mail, but their most significant parts come when we exchange mix tapes, or otherwise trade information in a way that doesn't involve this technology. 9:28:43 PM
6.27.2000I just added photos + writing on Asbury Park on my /other page. I apologize for the huge graphics, it got a little out of hand. I'd appreciate any comments on design, good or bad. 3:44:26 PM
6.26.2000New art. The drippy girl (Ryan McGinness) is incredible to me, and I bet it would look even rougher and sadder in person. 11:50:07 AM
Why yes, I am excited about my new old school Vans (and matching socks no less!). 11:46:47 AM
Ok, so now every single thing you eat is owned by Philip Morris. Scary. 10:50:35 AM
6.25.2000Do you ever get so frustrated with doing the things you love that you want to give them up? You look for that little sign that things will get better and it doesn't come, and you just continue to get more angry and exasperated and begin losing confidence in yourself. Incredibly, this process can take less than an hour, from rolling around a smoothly paved abandoned parking lot on my skateboard, to falling, sprawling out on the ground. The pavement begins to sting my new cuts where bloods seeps out. 8:46:07 PM
I was just looking through some photographs I had developed a couple of weeks ago, and I see ten of the exact same picture, looking out my apartment window with rain and grayness. Then I remembered that I was trying to take pictures of lightning, I guess that didn't work. 4:10:36 PM
6.23.2000Things are out of control dorky when you answer the door and your girlfriend's wearing the same t-shirt as you are. 9:41:32 PM
Have you ever heard a song on the radio, and then realize that it had been in your head for weeks, and you didn't even know it? The melody hits something deep in your subconscious as you drive home during a quiet late night, and it becomes familiar and real and you're suddenly aware of just how long you've been unconsciously singing it to yourself. 9:03:10 PM
6.22.2000
Alan's ok. 1:23:16 PM
Notice that there is no mention of the health affects of soft drinks on children, until the end, when it talks about nutrition on a level that has nothing to do with soda. The basic statement is that schools can make money by selling out to large corporations, and someone this will be good for the students. Giving kids sugary, fizzy, brown water that has caffeine in it is unbelievably stupid, like kids need anything to give them more energy. 11:24:24 AM
Hacktivism is a term some people use in justifying the cracking and defacement of websites. They claim some political motivation for doing so, but for the most part, cracked websites contain misspelled, poorly informed rants that have no political meaning or impact at all. Occasionally though, website cracks are thoughtful, and well done, as in yesterday's crack of nike.com. 11:15:59 AM
6.21.2000Stinky meat! 10:46:58 PM
We were watching the Crocodile Hunter on TV today, and saw a commercial for this. Scary! 9:36:16 PM
6.20.2000Charlene just told me that she was driving to the airport today, and off in the distance, there was something in the road. When she got closer, she realized it was a squirrel, standing on its hind legs, with its front legs clasped together, and it was looking up. Praying? New Jersey's weird. 11:00:15 AM
6.19.2000You're beautiful, and I love you. 6:57:09 PM
Are you going to be taxed for your hyperlinks? They're patented, you know. 1:14:27 PM
6.18.2000http://steve.isfuckingbrilliant.com goes... right here. The IFB Project is great (their FAQ is especially amusing). 5:30:55 PM
After seeing his photos in magazines and his photo books for so long, it was great to see a gallery of Glen Friedman's work. His pictures are alive, from Henry Rollins flexing his tattooed arms and screaming out a Black Flag song to Tony Alva screeching along the coping at the top of a pool, balanced on two wheels. 4:18:00 PM
Wandering through Georgetown, we found an abandoned school, in what must be some prime real estate. Greenery was climbing up the walls, and a playground, completely stripped, with only a skeleton showing of the place where children played. Pictures soon. 4:06:48 PM
6.14.2000Musical guilty pleasures usually are embarrassing, and something that people should hide. That's why I shouldn't let anyone know that I'm listening to Poison right now. Rock. 3:34:55 PM
Tea writing is what I should call these stupid 6:45ish pieces of writing, as I try to drink enough tea to get myself awake, while also trying to put words together and form a coherent thought only about ten minutes after I've been awoken by my alarm clock which simultaneously plays the radio and beeps. 3:49:57 AM
6.13.2000When people create sites like this, this and especially this, I'm willing to forgive their incredible abuse of bandwidth. 7:47:21 PM
Jessica Simpson's "I Think I'm In Love With You" is a rip-off of John Mellencamp's classic "Jack and Diane." I hope that Mr. Mellencamp sues her pale-white ass. 4:35:10 PM
Getting packages from far-off friends is the best. 3:54:50 PM
6.11.2000Today consisted of (quantity-wise):
(1) Drive to the Delaware Water Gap in which my stubbornness got us lost.
(2) Play-throughs of Jonah's One Line Drawing, Sketchy #2.
(1) Hike up a steep mountainside.
(1) Incredible view (despite also seeing traffic) of the Delaware River winding away among green mountains.
(1) Baby deer that looked fragile and timid.
(2) Adult deers, one presumably the mother of the baby deer.
(1) Wild turkey, which was surprising.
(2) Snakes, which were even more surprising. The large black one was nearly at my feet by the time I noticed it. From my mouth came a sound that Charlene had never heard before, and that was in retrospect, damned funny.
(20) Minutes spent barefoot in the cool stream that came rushing down off the mountain.
(10) Bolts of lightning in about five minutes as we drove home under impending rain.
(2) Kisses good night before she drove home.
(5.5) Hours until I have to wake up and go to school. 9:31:07 PM
So cometbus.com links to a Jets to Brazil site, fair enough, given Jawbreaker doing splits with Crimpshrine a long time ago. Cometbus.org, which I own, links to my other site, since I don't know what else to do with it. Six months ago, I received a postcard from Aaron, in response to my asking if he would be interesting in having his old issues be put up on the web (and in my haste, I registered cometbus.org). He wrote that he had no interest, saying he didn't want to change the way in which the zine is presented at all. I respect that, and was thrilled to a get a second postcard from him. Still, I'm not sure what to do with this domain name, ideas? 8:13:40 PM
Listen to William Upski Wimsatt author of No More Prisons. 9:53:19 AM
6.10.2000Fascinating. "A long-term linguistic archive and translation engine, designed to allow for the 'recovery' of lost languages in the deep future. " 2:01:56 PM
An amazing collection of Fugazi photos from a recent show in San Francisco celebrating the 20th anniversary of Food not Bombs. 12:35:45 PM
It's one of those sweaty days where skateboarding is made more difficult by my salty sweat stinging my eyes (how's that for alliteration?). 12:10:46 PM
The variety of crappy food that one can purchase from a vending machine is incredible. Now, with a little reading I'll be able to make informed decisions about which chemicals I choose to put in my body. 9:52:24 AM
6.9.2000I love this photo because it reminds me of skateboarding and the way skateboarders interpret the environment around them so differently from anyone else. 9:37:35 PM
A-ha! My years of searching for how Duck Hunt works (like how it knew where you were shooting on the screen) are over. 9:34:21 PM
EOD's writing today reminds me of the fun Char and I have in our local 24 hour CVS in Washington, DC. Whenever there is a holiday coming up, they get these stuffed animals that relate to the holiday, and, better yet, when squeezed, belt out these horrible holiday songs. For easter, they had two bunnies that were attached to each other, and when squeezed, would begin singing, "Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail." And they were presumably a male and female bunny, and would switch off on singing the lines, one singing the high parts, the other, the low. The better part of this story is that they would stock ten or so of these, so with them all lined up on the shelves, we could squeeze numerous ones, and have this a round going of this horrible song that people could hear all over the store. At this point, we would stealthily get in line with some sour gummy worms, and no one would suspect it was us. 9:06:47 AM
6.8.2000Interesting... looking straight ahead, I can see seven corporate logos in front of me (not including the ones showing on my screen). 10:45:47 AM
6.7.2000"You're making a common mistake. You're confusing insanity with style." - Quintin Stone 3:14:09 PM
I wonder about the place of honesty in weblogs. For some, it probably isn't an issue, they're either always honest or always not, but I think people commonly fall in between somewhere. Since the medium does not involve direct interaction with the individuals behind all these blogs, the degree to which they can control their image is quite high. This includes myself of course.
I write this (striving for honesty (unless that's just what I want people to think (who knows?))) because I became frustrated with myself in working on a little caption for the new picture I put up. When I was initially flipping through all my photos that I'd just gotten processed, I saw that this particular one was pretty decent. So, I scanned it in, adjusted the brightness slightly (my scanner tends to darken images) then started work on a caption. I felt a need to write something that I thought would fit the image in a color-oriented sort of way, since that was what struck me most in this picture. What I started writing, and even what I came up with finally was totally self-indulgent crap, and I felt distant from it, or I separated myself from it because it seemed obvious that I was making an effort to fit with some notion of beauty when I should have really just written something that I felt might extend the photo to the viewer and satisfy me personally.
And that's how I got on the subject of honesty. What I wrote may have been pretty, but it wasn't honest or real, and got me annoyed at myself that I'd be like that.
So I realized that in order to be happy, I do need to continue being honest, that any attempt at textual manipulation of what I feel will most certainly make me unhappy.
I realized secondly that I don't lie very well, and that most people could see right through it, even in the shielded web environment. Being honest is the easiest thing I could ever do, really. 10:57:25 AM
6.6.2000New photo... 7:16:12 PM
Hmmm.... now what? 11:00:14 AM
In my inbox today:
"I spoke to Harry's mother Frankie by phone. He died two years ago - we were aware of this. She would like him to remain on the database and for info. to continue to be sent to him care of her so I have added c/o to his contact details. Please remember this if anyone is looking to contact him."I have absolutely no idea who this came from or what it is about, and I think it's pretty creepy. 10:41:59 AM
It's about a month away, so I think it's time to start planning for my trip across the United States. 10:32:06 AM
6.5.2000I hope this doesn't hold up in court. 11:54:00 AM
Ticket stubs are a pretty standard memory dispenser, though it usually has less to do with the movie seen than who you saw it with, or what happened before/after the movie. I was sitting in my car in Stowe, VT, where I had gone for the second year to snowboard for a couple of days. The light inside the car was on, and I was reading a book (Letters to a Young Poet), since the movie didn't start for another half hour. I looked up when a guy tapped on the glass. He explained that he owned the repair shop next door to the movie theater, and needed some help carrying a television from his van into the shop. I obligingly helped and carried my part of the three hundred pound television. While I was doing the favor, he seemed the kind one, asking me questions about why I was up in Stowe, and making that sort of stranger to stranger conversation that holds its own satisfaction, especially when the person seems truly interested in what you say. After the television was safely in the store, he gave me a smile, and I walked over to the theater to see Erin Brockovitch which turned out to be quite good. After the movie, I drove back to the hostel under brilliant stars, and got to bed early for the next day of riding. 10:24:06 AM
6.4.2000In the beginning of the movie Instinct, it reads "Suggested by Daniel Quinn's Ishmael." I was wary about the word choice which seemed like it was put there to avoid lawsuits, but also was ensuring the viewer that the movie wasn't going to follow much of anything in the book. I did hear the word 'Taker' used a few times, and Anthony Hopkins was drawing a map of the migration of peoples, like the one in the book, but the movie as an explanation of Quinn's ideas never got off of the ground.
With that said, I really enjoyed what I saw, and thought the scenes in the forest, when Hopkins immerses himself and is accepted by the apes were really beautifully done, and possibly added another nail to the coffin that is my web development job in an office somewhere after I graduate from school. 9:53:59 PM
I wonder if most of our pursuits of pleasure in life are an attempt to get back to more elemental feelings that have been lost in everyday life. I don't think I often actually get to feel much that is real, but getting close (by surfing, or riding my skateboard in the dark) is sometimes enough and keeps me somewhat satisfied. By elemental feelings, I mean feelings that seem pure, untainted by my personal complexes, and unfiltered by my stock reactions. I imagine if I did actually grasp a true, basic feeling, like joy, I would never be able to go back to any of this. 9:34:31 PM
Thanks, Derek. 9:20:54 PM
Skateboarding naked is more punk rock than I can even fathom. 9:15:09 AM
6.3.2000"I'm down for simplicity and individuality, but living in a van is a little much." 12:47:40 PM
I love Tobin Yelland's photography, almost as much as I love the art of Mark Gonzales. 12:43:37 PM
Person #1: My gosh, do you see that tree?
Person #2: (unsure, looking at dogwood tree in full bloom) Yes, so?
Person #1: There's beauty right in front of you and you don't even see it! 12:39:53 PM
"You sit, I know you do, in a close, air-tight room, toiling, stagnating, and breeding dissatisfation at all you do, when, if you had the untainted breeze to breathe, your body would be invigorated, your spirits buoyant, and your pictures would even charm yourself." -Thomas Cole's letter to Asher Durand 11:05:07 AM
It's official, a friend from my high school class is getting married, the first one I know of. On hearing this, I begin to feel a little uncomfortable as I contemplate my own marital status of seeing someone, with not even an idea of getting married despite how much I love her and like being with her. Marriage equates itself with settling down, which equates itself with no longer pursuing all the risky and ambitious happenings that make up a life. And to commit to that early into your third decade of life is hard for me to grasp. 9:56:04 AM
The World/Inferno Friendship Society combined a little bit of motown, some street preaching, blowing fire (that set an amp alight) and a severe amount of rock that had me wide-eyed and open-mouthed after a single song. It's incredible to see seven musicians who are totally committed to the music and seem to feel every note they play and sing. 9:07:25 AM
6.1.2000A very important report on pesticides is going to be released by the EPA a week from today. An chemical called Dursban that is in many consumer bug sprays has been shown to have serious health problems associated with its use. I became aware of this issue only because of a very close friend who has been personally affected by this chemical. In reading about this pesticide and others, I came across some basic facts regarding their use and the potential it has to harm human beings:
Pesticides are manufactured to kill "pests." They do this through a variety of ways, by either poisoning the pest internally or externally. In order to externally poison a pest, the pesticide must absorb through (in the case of an insect) their exoskeleton. These facts lead me to question, if these chemicals are capable of absorbing through an insect's outer skeleton, what affect might they have on a human being whose only coverage is porous skin? Furthermore, what effect might a chemical designed to kill insects have when absorbed into the human body?
Most people have had their houses exterminated at one time or another. I know I have. Was it assumed that the pesticides sprayed would do their job and then just go away? What if studies showed that these chemicals lingered for weeks after application, affecting adults and especially children? What if this didn't happen rarely, but affected over 1000 people a year? What if Dursban has been linked to paralysis in an infant? What if the company that manufactures this pesticide was also responsible for DDT? What if all of this was true, and harming people as you read this? 11:28:16 AM
On snap bracelets and subversive thought...
I don't remember what grade it was that this strange jewelry emerged as the newest fad. Bracelets, once reserved for the females of the class suddenly were being worn by the school bully, football players, and just about everyone else. Our school days would be spent straightening out these junky textile-covered pieces of metal, hitting them against our wrists which caused a quick wrap-around that gripped the wrist and (in trying this as I type) hurt a little bit.
One morning in the midst of our wrist-snapping fury, the principal came over the loudspeaker and announced that snap bracelets would be banned from school due to cheap imitations of the bracelets actually drawing blood when used. After the announcement, there was an interesting silence, then the teacher launched into her own diatribe against this very latest trend. Later, during recess, it occurred to me (probably less intelligably than this) that sure, if people were stupid, they could conceivably hurt themselves with the bracelets, but that if they used them how they were supposed to be used, they were fun. I proceeded to share my opinion with my fellow recess-ites who looked at me funny and continued playing kickball. I think this was my first real experience with questioning people who I had before viewed as rather untouchable, and it made me really question who I should look to for truth in my life. 11:13:03 AM
During my four week period with an ant farm, I signed up for one of those e-mail reminder services so that I would get e-mail saying it was time to drop another pinhead-sized piece of bread soaked in sugar water into the little plastic tank. Before I moved back home for the summer, I liberated the surviving ants, letting them go near a dumpster. Still, I get these weekly reminders, and it makes me think of my ants, and I hope they're adjusting to Washington, DC dumpster life. 5:57:50 AM
