For less than $5 a month you can have space on a web server. For a few bucks a year you can have your own domain name. With a computer at the public library and a plain text editor you can then publish a website that can be seen more or less all over the world. THAT IS POWER. It just requires a tiny bit of knowledge and effort to do your own thing. You should do it.
Today I removed the tracking code from this and all my other sites.
I removed Google Analytics well over a year ago, and replaced it with Fathom Analytics, a pay service that strives to act ethically.
I removed the Fathom code today. I decided it is dumb to collect stats on a blog like this. If some is interested enough they will comment. Or email me. That’s all I need.
Today is Carl Sagan’s birthday.
Can we please have more Sagans than Rogans? Please.
True story. My first “real job” out of college was selling copiers. Outside sales. One day I was out cold calling in my super horrible sales territory, just going through an office building talking to people. I went into a small movie production company and met the owner, Terry Lofton (yes, close last name). They had produced this wonderful film — Nail Gun Massacre. I have never seen it.
Apparently Terry died in 2011, at the age of 48, and NGM was the only film he ever made.
I did not succeed in selling them a copier.
Our sweet old man.
Yesterday we took Riley to a short class on “scent training” or something like that.
It involved me rubbing a mixture of smelly treats on my shoes, shuffling across the grass to create a trail and periodically dropping treats, and then my wife following him on his loose leash while he followed the trail to the end, at which point he celebrated with her.
By the end of the hour Riley was really getting it, and it was super cute and heartwarming to see my wife and our dog celebrating is success!
The previous post, in which I do an end-over to Frontside Fakie 360 — I posted that video on the OldSkaters reddit. Someone commented “Very Alva!”
This was very pleasing to me.
That is all.
10/6/2026 will be the 20th anniversary of the first posting on this blog. That is crazy. Is it turning out that this blog is actually my life’s work?
Today I am 60 years old.
Right now I feel good. I feel as strong and agile as when I was 50. I know that the journey from 60 to 70 can be more…severe. I just want to travel and go to shows with my wife, walk the dog, enjoy the cat, skate, do aikido, game, and see my friends.
Here are a couple of videos from a ditch session in Austin last weekend. I had a good time down there. This ditch is pretty gnarly, and I only skate it about once a year, so I don’t exactly have a lot of lines. Rather than going all the way down the ditch and having to walk back up the hill, this year, I just dropped in, did a trick on the face wall, and then popped back out. It was fun.
Well, StupidFest day 2 began with the traditional breakfast of weirdos as Casa Maria. Seeking not to have diarrhea the rest of the day once we go into the heat, I ate a plain American breakfast of pancakes and eggs.
First stop after that was the annual curb grinding fest at Stelmo school’s parking lot. Second was Zombie Baby ditch. We had a fun session there, which took us to well after noon. I got a couple of good tricks on video for next year’s NeverWas video. Then we went to another ditch spot, for more antics.
We capped off the evening with the premier of the NeverWas 8 video at Carjack’s amazing home in the hills west of Austin. Pizza, video, and good company. Lots of fun.
Spent most of the day eating food with friends. Seriously. Had breakfast with my friend Jack, who I’ve not seen in quite a few years. It was great to spend a few hours with him. Then had a late lunch with my friend Patrick. Finished the day at my friend Jason’s house for a cookout with a bunch of the skaters.
It was really hot today, and I just didn’t handle the heat very well. Poor planning on my part, really. At too much breakfast, then the heat really made me feel like shit. Still, I had a good day. It was so good to catch up.
One really cool thing that happened — my friend Shane, who I met at StupidFest a couple of years ago, told me he enjoys the blog! That really made me happy!
I’m taking a couple of days off. This morning just listening to music. When I retire an hour of just listening to music while I have coffee is going to be a daily routine.
When MGT is the voice of reason, you know that something in the universe has gone way of track.
Today is Riley’s second birthday. He has a shining soul.
