Sunday, July 24, 2022
Today is Wednesday and I first talked to her two weeks and one day ago on the phone. Today is the two weeks after I first laid eyes on her while waiting for her to meet me in Asia Palace that next day. My friend Don works with her and mentioned to her that he had this single friend, after checking my Facebook page and few photos she was interested. I think after lunch we were both interested in each other so I asked to come over that Friday night and have dinner at my place.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
Friday, July 19, 2013
Its July, things change and we adapt
Whats up homies, were has the hype about Rufus gone? Whats up with you today??
What happened to Rufus, where did it go is the burning question I have.... To answer it simply is no where, Rufus is still here, alive and breathing everyday. For the most part I have put the project on the back burner for my own reasons, mostly selfish ones. For instance, my time. I wanted my time back after devoting so much time to something that was rewarding and hard work. That is ironic though, it was rewarding and hard work. Isn't that a good thing?? It is, most definitely but time is time and I wanted to devote my time to a few other things. There are other things that revolve around the reason to deactivate the project as well, things that are not always in your control. I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
What happened to Rufus, where did it go is the burning question I have.... To answer it simply is no where, Rufus is still here, alive and breathing everyday. For the most part I have put the project on the back burner for my own reasons, mostly selfish ones. For instance, my time. I wanted my time back after devoting so much time to something that was rewarding and hard work. That is ironic though, it was rewarding and hard work. Isn't that a good thing?? It is, most definitely but time is time and I wanted to devote my time to a few other things. There are other things that revolve around the reason to deactivate the project as well, things that are not always in your control. I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
Stephen Hawking
So that being said, we all have are moments in life, good and bad. We all do things that maybe we shouldn't have or should have done, one way or another. What did I do and what other people did through all this is negligible really. I chalk it up to a interesting learning experience, one that does not haunt me but rather brings a smile to my face when I think about it. Its really a story about human nature and how people react to stimulus with in their environment.
I started a blog, made skateboards, started a skate team and then people bought my boards all over the world somehow. Now, well, my main marketing guy that had me flourishing in local sales started his own board company and guess what, my board sales dwindle. No big deal though. After manufacturing over a hundred of your own boards by hand you understand the process, you get good at making skateboards and you appreciate having someone else make them for you!! It gets tiresome after awhile, especially in my situation. So I got tired of making them, hogging all my free time. I wanted to spend more time on other things and that is what I have done.
I am back on a fitness regime, I eat right and my house stays cleaner. There are things I miss and there are things that I don't. I miss friendships I have made. Not that they have gone anywhere, they are still there. I don't miss the sully attitudes of certain individuals but that is every scene that I have experienced, I have experienced a few many scenes.
So if you are reading this and have wondered where I have gone the answer is no where, I am still here. Same address, same phone number and same everything else. Question is: Where have you been??
Monday, April 22, 2013
King of Jackson Report
King of Jackson (KOJ) was inspired by Thrasher Magazine's King of the Road competition except instead of having two weeks the teams involved have 24 hours. Its the same deal, you are handed a booklet that outlines different spots to skate and challenges that result in points. The challenges range from doing skate tricks, dressing up in daisy dukes or getting a specific tattoo. The start time was Friday Night at 12am, 24 hours from there each team gets until midnight Saturday to upload all their skate videos.
The breakdown of the RUFUS crew was Jenks, Skyler and Stewart in Jenk's Honda Civic. Then Zach, Garner, Coltrane and Me in my Civic. Jenks and his crew got to Jackson around noon on Friday. My half of the crew did not get to Jackson until around 10pm. So we had to wait two hours before things got started. Got our camp set up in the meantime and just waited ambivalently. Then 12 midnight finally came as Frank Henn explained the rules and handed out packets. Mostly he explained that each challenged had to be captured on video and uploaded then linked to the SkateMs Facebook (FB) page. You had to make sure in your description on FB the Team Name, the Skater and Trick were in there or you would not receive credit. Finally there was your tour guide if you needed one. Garner picked from a hat and we received Tyler Holloway from Vicksburg.
It was at the moment we received the packet along with Tyler that emotions changed. I went from being ambivalent to excited and fully motivated to do whatever we had to do. Everyone else on the team was the same. They went from "Why am I here again?' to lets get in the car and start knocking these challenges out one by one. Every Team jumped in their cars and headed out except for Brazen. They got their packet and went back to camping.
Must have been 12:45 A.M., we pulled up at a warehouse just outside of town that was said to have ramps, ledges and rails setup. Guess what? All the teams were there, the place was a madhouse. We shot a few clips, Skyler lost his skateboard and we fought skateboard traffic for about two hours. It was chaotic, not great for filming but fun never the less. We probably did not get back to the tent city until 3.
The next morning we got rolling around 930, is my best guess. Brazen and had rolled out early before anybody got up. I guess they figured that skating at midnight was waste of time, I would have to agree. We went back to look for Skyler's board and shoot some more video. We got some mad clips but we did not find Skyler's wip. From there we went to a train bridge overpass, shot more clips and got our one and only Mystery Guest challenge with Tate Nations, a popular local photographer in Jackson. It was onto Frank's backyard bowl from there, some pizza and some rest for me. After Frank's we headed downtown to a popular spot for stair set tricks and more shooting of video. At this point we had learned that you need to be editing good shots versus bad shots during the process of shooting. At first we had collected a mass of clips and only a small percentage of these clips were usable. Going through and trying to delete bad clips was tedious and could drive you insane after a while. So the filmer, on who's ever camera phone, would shoot a clip and then immediately delete the clip if it was bad. That way you only ended up with good clips after the spot was done with. By midday the whole team effort was taking off, everyone involved were playing their parts, it was exciting to see it all happen. The last spot we hit was Rampage indoor park. Luckily they let us in for free, we filmed our tricks and then called it a day for skating but not challenges. We were not done. Jenk's crew headed to Home Depot and my crew headed to Florence to get a Tattoo on Zach. Both Crews Rendezvoused around 930 to finish uploading video and try to relax at a local friend's house. By midnight we were done. We headed back to our campsite where mass mayhem was getting started with libations and campfires while Jenks and Skyler headed back to Memphis. By 3am we retreated to our tents since the fire department was not happy about our camp fires which they put out. We had no idea we were subject to city ordinances even though we were on a huge grass lot with no buildings around.
Sunday morning had come and gone, by sunlight everyone was huddled in my car trying to escape the downpour of rain that had bemoaned us in the night. I guess this is where a cheap motel would have been nice or maybe tents with rain flys. Waking up in a puddle of cold water was not clearly ideal. O well, it was all good after a good breakfast and a visit to a Men's room.
At around noon that Sunday Frank and his crew had all the skate teams assemble for an awards ceremony and BarBQue cook out. Brazen came in first, Dirtbags in second and Rufus in Third. We were not that far off from first and second, if only we had gotten all our clips uploaded, the kissing the homeless guy challenge and been a bit more organized who knows. Garner won the Daisey Duke challenged and we got third. They said that Garner ended up in the background in a bunch of other skate teams videos, it was hilarious. Some might say that our team had the most fun. Our team was really stoked to even just get third. It was a pretty good showing for a rookie team in the end as the other two teams who won had done this last year. We learned so much on this attempt. It was more fun than anything else. Big props to Tyler for being our guide, we wouldn't have done nearly as well without his knowledge. Big Props to Frank and SkateMS for putting it on, it was so much fun.
The breakdown of the RUFUS crew was Jenks, Skyler and Stewart in Jenk's Honda Civic. Then Zach, Garner, Coltrane and Me in my Civic. Jenks and his crew got to Jackson around noon on Friday. My half of the crew did not get to Jackson until around 10pm. So we had to wait two hours before things got started. Got our camp set up in the meantime and just waited ambivalently. Then 12 midnight finally came as Frank Henn explained the rules and handed out packets. Mostly he explained that each challenged had to be captured on video and uploaded then linked to the SkateMs Facebook (FB) page. You had to make sure in your description on FB the Team Name, the Skater and Trick were in there or you would not receive credit. Finally there was your tour guide if you needed one. Garner picked from a hat and we received Tyler Holloway from Vicksburg.
It was at the moment we received the packet along with Tyler that emotions changed. I went from being ambivalent to excited and fully motivated to do whatever we had to do. Everyone else on the team was the same. They went from "Why am I here again?' to lets get in the car and start knocking these challenges out one by one. Every Team jumped in their cars and headed out except for Brazen. They got their packet and went back to camping.
Must have been 12:45 A.M., we pulled up at a warehouse just outside of town that was said to have ramps, ledges and rails setup. Guess what? All the teams were there, the place was a madhouse. We shot a few clips, Skyler lost his skateboard and we fought skateboard traffic for about two hours. It was chaotic, not great for filming but fun never the less. We probably did not get back to the tent city until 3.
The next morning we got rolling around 930, is my best guess. Brazen and had rolled out early before anybody got up. I guess they figured that skating at midnight was waste of time, I would have to agree. We went back to look for Skyler's board and shoot some more video. We got some mad clips but we did not find Skyler's wip. From there we went to a train bridge overpass, shot more clips and got our one and only Mystery Guest challenge with Tate Nations, a popular local photographer in Jackson. It was onto Frank's backyard bowl from there, some pizza and some rest for me. After Frank's we headed downtown to a popular spot for stair set tricks and more shooting of video. At this point we had learned that you need to be editing good shots versus bad shots during the process of shooting. At first we had collected a mass of clips and only a small percentage of these clips were usable. Going through and trying to delete bad clips was tedious and could drive you insane after a while. So the filmer, on who's ever camera phone, would shoot a clip and then immediately delete the clip if it was bad. That way you only ended up with good clips after the spot was done with. By midday the whole team effort was taking off, everyone involved were playing their parts, it was exciting to see it all happen. The last spot we hit was Rampage indoor park. Luckily they let us in for free, we filmed our tricks and then called it a day for skating but not challenges. We were not done. Jenk's crew headed to Home Depot and my crew headed to Florence to get a Tattoo on Zach. Both Crews Rendezvoused around 930 to finish uploading video and try to relax at a local friend's house. By midnight we were done. We headed back to our campsite where mass mayhem was getting started with libations and campfires while Jenks and Skyler headed back to Memphis. By 3am we retreated to our tents since the fire department was not happy about our camp fires which they put out. We had no idea we were subject to city ordinances even though we were on a huge grass lot with no buildings around.
Sunday morning had come and gone, by sunlight everyone was huddled in my car trying to escape the downpour of rain that had bemoaned us in the night. I guess this is where a cheap motel would have been nice or maybe tents with rain flys. Waking up in a puddle of cold water was not clearly ideal. O well, it was all good after a good breakfast and a visit to a Men's room.
At around noon that Sunday Frank and his crew had all the skate teams assemble for an awards ceremony and BarBQue cook out. Brazen came in first, Dirtbags in second and Rufus in Third. We were not that far off from first and second, if only we had gotten all our clips uploaded, the kissing the homeless guy challenge and been a bit more organized who knows. Garner won the Daisey Duke challenged and we got third. They said that Garner ended up in the background in a bunch of other skate teams videos, it was hilarious. Some might say that our team had the most fun. Our team was really stoked to even just get third. It was a pretty good showing for a rookie team in the end as the other two teams who won had done this last year. We learned so much on this attempt. It was more fun than anything else. Big props to Tyler for being our guide, we wouldn't have done nearly as well without his knowledge. Big Props to Frank and SkateMS for putting it on, it was so much fun.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Common Criminals
There is a new book that has been published about Skateboarding published by our local David Thornton. Here is the synopsis:
Skateboarders writing about skateboarding. David "Lucha" Thornton and thirteen other skaters tell how they got started, what stokes them to skate, and about the friendships they've developed from skating. Common Criminals celebrates the criminal art of skateboarding, primarily from the lifer skater's perspective.
Click hyper link to Amazon and buy!!
Click hyper link to Amazon and buy!!
http://www.amazon.com/Common-Criminals-David-Lucha-Thornton/dp/1482529769/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363296181&sr=1-2&keywords=common+criminals
Monday, March 4, 2013
Al Town and Stuff
They decided to make it 7ft tranny, everyone there was stoked.
No work on this today but it will be a new ledge.
They are really stoked on the new amount of flow the spine will add. I have to give Johnny props, he really has this thing, everyone is motivated.
And then there are the Trife homies, David and Taylor are instrumental in all this beginning among others not mentioned.
Then I was stoked to see this out there being skated by its new owner. The gold has been a good color choice it seems.
Zach's new board or the one I sent to Germany, no sure, they are both green.
Some clothed, some not.
Patches.
This is from the Tusk pour.
Wet Concrete.
Wait, no, that is Roxboro Colorado.
Leo, Matt and Sinclair just hanging out by the cheese burger.
Swamp Spot.
Neighborhood house party jam.
Swamp
Well, I am gunna go lay down.
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