It's all a blur, man. A blur.

This has been a pretty stout weekend for me. I got my new camera on Friday, and upon receiving it, I had some reservations and some doubt about my decision...but that was all put to rest. I'll get to that in a moment. Yesterday I watched Garrett for most of the day...and I taught him how to say "I love you" which melted my wee little black heart. That was so excellent. He became somewhat bathroom obsessed, so I I just made sure it was clean and let him have at it.



Later that night I rode the park before the UT game started. It was a little cold, but completely fun. I actually rode decent and then happily went home to watch Tennessee beat Memphis to secure their first number one ranking ever. Ever. Stoked!

This morning Andrew called to ask me to go to the park, so I dragged my ass out of bed, made some coffee and headed over. Mostly, at that point, I just wanted to try out the camera, so I did.

This is Andrew. I like the look of this pic. We've seen a lot of shit in our time...


He can boost a little, you know? Us old guys do alright sometimes...


My friend from my teenage years, one Robert E. Taylor was present, so I took some pics of him in the pool. He used to do a 'zine back in the day that served as the catalyst for my 'zine making days. Only he was better at it. He also knows my big sister!

Deep end grind...


Shallow grind at speed...


Another friend from the days was there in the form of Andy Cornell. I spent a lot of time at the Cornell house back in the day...watching Skate TV, listening to Fugazi and Minor Threat, eating Twizzlers and picking on this kid named Ryan. Anyways, Andy was a good skater back then and he is a good one now...


Frontside rock in the pool...


This wouldn't be a blog update without some Corey Mac BMX. All I am gonna say is that the camera makes the difference.

Lazy Sunday table...


Various fastplants...



Billy is quickly killing the spine/bowl. He has so much of that shit on lockdown. I forget how good he is. He's quiet for a tattoo'd dude...


And I guess last and least, I got Corey to take a pic of me. I am terrible. But I do ride. Some.


More later.

The last days.

What I will be posting here are the last shots that were taken with the Canon 10D. She was a good camera and I will always appreciate the time we had together. But, I have decided to switch to a Nikon for varying reasons, so the Canon will be going to a good friend that I know will also appreciate her as much as I did and still do.

Points to note...I really hate it when people tell me how to do something...well, unless I ask them for advice. This covers a wide array of things, but specific to last night, it covered photography. Depth of field and focal length are things that I think I understand. I shot some pics at the park with my 50mm at 1.8 (wide open) and an external flash. 50mm is not for close up shots. And just because the glass on the lens is curved (or has a "bubble") does not make it a fisheye. And for that matter, a fisheye is not the end all be all of camera lenses. Shot composition, lighting, depth of field and such are the key. Anyone can shoot with a fish. I am not a good photographer by any means, but for fucksake...ack. Anyways, here is a shot of Corey hitting the hip with some style. His voice was gone at this point, but he was still riding like a champ...



Billy rode the big bowl for a bit. The shot isn't that great, but I sort of liked the shadow. Billy is really good and really nice. I can't stress enough how awesome it is to see people like him. He's a good egg.



My sister came by yesterday and brought the twins. They are getting so big. I was too busy fucking with her camera and thus forgot to actually take some pics of them, but Gracie did work her way into this shot...



Garrett is getting so big and so boyish. He rolls across the floor on his stomach with a skateboard. It's hilarious. He also likes the hell outta some juice.



So, the next pics I will be posting will be from a Nikon D70, I think. I am looking forward to learning about it. Hopefully, we'll get along.

Also, Mica has let me ride the skatepark more than I should be allowed. She is a great girlfriend and I can't thank her enough for being so awesome. It's like she knows my time doing this stuff is limited. Which it is. Thank you, Mica. Really.

Billy was a lunatic, just barking at the moon...

5th straight day of skate park goodness. My body is tore up from the floor up. Probably a really good thing that my son will be with me tomorrow. Give me a chance to heal a little. I got worked a little today...getting bold. Sometimes, that is not good. I got to watch a couch get totally fucking crushed today. Seemed sort of dangerous...like a shard of wood might come flying out and stab someone. But it didn't. We were lucky. This time.

Took some pics, some came out like total shit, some came out okay. I want a new lens. And a better flash. Or at the very least, a longer sync cord.

Billy. His girlfriend has a rad dog.



Dave Smith showed up and rode. He had foot jams on lock down in the little spine area. I hate the little spine. But still...Dave.



I dunno this kid's name, and I felt bad because this picture came out like hell, even though I black and whited it. Next time, man. I'll get you next time. Alley oop 360 over the hip in the bowl...



Mica is over here and in the span of about 30 minutes, managed to trash my kitchen. But, she brought me some Jelly Bellys, so we're cool. She might get a job at the food co-op! That'll be weird. I have never seen her work. Greek Deli does not count.



And here we are. In a ratty out of frame pic. But, she likes it...

These eyes. Are crying.

Sup? So, the skatepark has been open for about a week and I have reached the conclusion that I am 32 years old...but I am not actually in that bad of shape. I have seen some people out there that I went to school with and they were rougher than 10 grit sandpaper. However, there were a couple of dudes that I schooled with that were shredding like old times. Hats off to those guys.

I spend most of my time riding the bowl there. I can't tell you properly how much fun it is to drop in and whip around that thing going as fast as my body will sort of let me. Every day I go, I get a little better. It's nice. I finally got some decent pics tonight. The first offering is of my friend Josh. He is funny as hell and a really awesome guy to ride with. He is also pretty damn good.



The second is of an old skating friend, Mike. He might be a little older than me, but the guy blazes around the pool like a bat out of hell. Mike was rad back in the day and he is rad now.



I have, unfortunately, come to the conclusion that about 60% of the BMX'ers at the park are fucking retards. Hopefully they'll get better.

So much stuff in my head...

So, here goes. The skatepark is open now, and it is totally awesome. If I don't have to take Anna to the dentist today, then I am gonna cut outta work early and go ride it...after I vote of course. I can't believe we even have a skatepark here in Knoxville. It feels so surreal. I took a picture of John doing a turn down, but it looks like asshole on a PC. The thing looked so much more awesome on the Mac...



Looks too yellow or something here. Fuck. I had the white balance all wonky when I went outside. By the way, I am gonna learn how to air out of the bowl. It will happen.

Mica made some huevos rancheros last night and I thought about beating her ass and taking them. But she's cute and that would have been mean. So I ate my chips and salsa and was happy with that. Dunkin' Donuts coffee is awesome, by the way. Doing things is what I like to do. Yes.