It was down to 81 degrees last night at 7pm, rather than 102 like last week, so I got to skate.
Same place, same stuff
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You can have it all
Prosperity gospel huckstery on full display.
Charlatans and con men are all the same, as are their marks.
Skateboards are not weapons
I 100% hate the current administration, hate white supremacists, hate guns, hate abuse of power.
I also 100% hate seeing skateboards used as weapons.
The skateboard is a tool of self-expression. Seeing it used as a weapon in any context sickens me. Skaters – leave the boards at home when you go to a protest. Take something else if you need to defend yourself.
The Spirit of Radio
Rush just came out with this video for my favorite of their songs. The last few image really got me. Got me real good.
A silly thing I did
Filming
Managed to film a couple of lines for the upcoming Neverwas video last night. Nothing to great, but not bad. The new iPhone shoots fantastic video. It was stupid hot outside. A lot easier to skate when the heat is not so damn hot.
Session
I’m not crazy about skateboarding when it’s really hot outside, but I’ve been unable to get out in the evenings, so today I went out at about noon. It was about 91°F, which is not as hot as it was supposed to get later. I managed to work in about an hour of skating while remaining hydrated. Same old stuff. Me rolling around a parking lot on a fairly big board.
It was just nice to roll.
Skated
Went skating for a bit today. I hadn’t been on my board for at least two months. My legs felt like crap, and I nearly just went home, but I know from experience that if I’ve not skated in a while this is normal. Didn’t help that it was 1)daytime and 2)hot. Still, I ended up having a pretty good time. I just need to go about about 6:30pm, instead of 3pm.
Here I am farting around…
2020
2020 just keeps getting better and better.
2020 – we are going to beat you, you son of a bitch.
New stuff
I’m writing this from my new 16″ Macbook Pro. It’s nice to have a new computer. It has been many years since I had a “new” computer. Not complaining. The ones I’ve had have worked well for me. But this is a pretty nice machine. I put Adobe Creative Cloud on it, plus all the usual stuff. Ready to…stay home, stay inside, and do my own thing.
Without going into details, May was not a great month, and I still have a day or so left in it, so there’s still time for it to get worse. Hoping it won’t, as we are both worn out.
Pandemic Life Revisted
I think this is a revisit. I’ve written about pandemic life before, right? The weeks are merging together. I’ve been working from home the last two months, and have at least two more ahead of me — probably more. I have no desire to interact with the public. When I go to do curbside grocery pickup, I see lots of people with masks on, but I know that a sizeable portion of the population simply isn’t being careful. In fact they are being reckless, and they will kill people with their ignorance and negligence. I won’t be one of their victims if there is anything I can do about it.
That all being said, I love being home during the day with my wife. I love it. I love having no commute. I feel like I’m able to make as great or greater contribution to my workplace from home. I wonder how many other people are waking up to this.
I’ve been getting in some skateboarding in the evenings, and some good walks too. Got back on the freestyle board yesterday, for the first time since my February freestyle trip to Florida, when all this stuff was just starting. It usually takes me a session or two to readapt to the FS board, but this session was pretty good. When I start back up, I just spend a session or more doing nothing but footwork, wheelies, and flowing tricks. Nothing more. I just get the feel for the board again. Sometimes if I’ve not been on the FS board for months, I feel a lot of hesitance to get back on. It’s like I wonder if I’ll still be able to do it. But I know I will be OK once I’m on the board.
I’ve got a lot of projects going, as usual. Right now I’m trying to get ready to submit a video for the online World Freestyle Roundup. It needs to be a 1.5 minute run, which is kind of short, but I’m entering the Masters Amateur division, for ages 40 and up, and I suppose they don’t think our cardio is good enough to go the full two minutes. I’m glad they are separating the guys like me from the pros. There is a Masters Pro division too, which is nice, because guys like me don’t have to compete with skaters who are pros. So that should be cool. I need to get a good run on video, and that means my wife will need to come out and shoot the footage. Tripod footage won’t be sufficient.
I’ve moved my tabletop roleplaying game, Traveller, to an online system called Roll20. We’ve played a couple of times, and it worked really well. So that’s been fun.
It’s also been fun doing an internet radio show a few times a week.
So life isn’t too bad. I’m lucky.
Twitching
My wife has been watching some comedians play video games on Twitch.tv . It’s an interesting system and their mobile app allows you to easily stream video, so as an experiment I’ve set up a channel and I’m streaming some skate sessions. Just me rolling around.
It saves the videos, which can be downloaded or simply watched again site. Tonight I did an extremely boring one of me rolling around a parking lot. Here it is.
Here’s the link. Sign up for an account and follow me.
More Parking Lot
Went back to the parking lot today. The new 99a Bones STF on one board, the normal ones on another. The 99a were really good. Not better, but different. Still fast and a lot smoother. Just not quite as good a slide.
Here’s little rolling around.
parking lot 2 from Bob Loftin on Vimeo.
Wheels
As noted before on this blog, maybe too many times, my favorite hard wheels are Bones Street Tech formula. A while back then started offering a slightly “softer” 99a wheel. I’ve never had a bad Powell wheel. They are all great. So I decided to give ’em a try. These are 54mm 99a, in the V1 shape (their standard profile wheel). Unlike the other STF, these wheels don’t have a lathed surface, which is weird. I haven’t ridden them yet. Will report back on these later tonight.
The bearings are from Daddies Board Shop — there own brand bearing with built-in spacer and speed washer. They seem good so far.
Walk Around Carve
I’m working on doing this footwork trick I call the Walk Around while carving backside. My foot keeps getting caught up on the grip tape and concave. Fuck. Well, I’ll keep it it. Lots of potential flow. I’ll get it . I was just kind of tired tonight.
Variations on a theme. from Bob Loftin on Vimeo.