PROS and CONS

I dont understand what a professional bmx rider is. You have your obvious Professional bmx riders like Brian Foster, Chris Doyle, Mike Aitken, and others alike. But what about all that weird gray area? For example, Clint Reynolds. He doesn't get paid to ride his bike, but no one would hesitate when calling him a "pro" bike rider.

 And lets not forget about that local hero that tells everyone that he is a "pro", and kids eat it up like candy corn on halloween. they are all the same, chances are, they teach kids how to do tailwhips at their local park and probably get a boner signing their names on little kids helmets. back in the day shrewsbury had keith goguen southbridge still has airin rosso and now taunton has joe nelson. that mentallity is the worst thing for bmx. kids come in the shop and all they talk about is being pro and being sponsored and how awesome their local self proclaimed pro nelson is. and it doesent even have anything to do with them calling themselves "professionals" because i could care less if joe shmo wants to call himself a pro bike rider. its that hes teaching kids that riding bmx is about training and practicing so you get helmet sponsors and attention and not about having fun on your bike and not worrying about learning tailwhips and barspins.

i asked jake honesto about it and he actually figured it out. he said " its a math equation and i have mastered it.. tailwhips X children = better bmx. the more kids that learn how to do tailwhips..the better bmx will be" he might have a point...

start training and someday you will be a "pro".

Or stop worrying about it and someday you will have fun riding your bike.

lets weigh out the pros and cons...

pro.

con.

littering

you have to be an idiot to litter.  what do you think happens to your trash when you throw it on the ground? and the best part is, when people throw their trash on the ground, there is usually a trash can somewhere close to them. i have no respect for people that do that.

it reminds me of this time i was at my friends house and he came outside and his dog had got into his trash. there was trash everywhere. he spent a bunch of time picking all the trash up out of his yard and putting it back in the trash can and then he jumped in his car, pulled out of his driveway, drove 50 feet up the road, rolled down his window, and threw a shit ton of trash out of his car and into the woods.

the skatepark in town was shut down a month ago, for a week, because the kids trashed the place.  i see the same kids there everytime i go and if they didnt have that place they would be so upset. but after they re-opened the park and the kids were told to keep it clean or it was going to be shut down again, they still find it hard to throw their trash in one of the 5 trash cans that are there. who would want to hang out around piles of old garbage on the ground? if trash doesent bother you...go live in a dump and you can throw your fast food wrappers anywhere you want.

 it upsets me when i come to the realization that people really are just stupid. 

people that litter are just more proof that god isnt real and we evolved from monkeys...some people just didnt evolve fast enough... like those frogs with their tadpole tails.

I'm happy not knowing exactly what im doing in my life. I wander around without any planning ahead, and that is perfect for me.


"not all who wander are lost" - Tolkien


new england summer is the best. this got crazy...

im having too much fun this summer to write a good post on here right now. fuck it come hang out at circuit after hours... we got the couches on the sidewalk.

easy listening

in a world where people spend their lives trying to get "ahead", it might be more important to get "behind".

it finally got hot up here in the north east. fortunately, it comes and goes, and in a few days it will drop from the mid to high 90's and go back to the 80's. jake and i decided to take a bike ride on the bike path that goes from providence rhode island to bristol rhode island. i always enjoy doing things that arent lazy or expensive.

the whole trip ended up being almost 50 miles. i love taking pictures of people cruising on bikes. i love how everything gets a little blurry except the person. and jakes bike is such a nice blue. its easy on the eyes.

this spot was kinda funny. its in a town called "barrington". this building had tire marks on every corner of it. all the way around. and the fact that someone went out of their way to spray paint the word "beast" on the wall , makes it that much better. i love this spot

but the town of barrington sucks. for some reason people that live there seems to think they need to tell you they are from there. people from barrington are the only people that come into the bike shop and always say " we are from barrington". like i care if they live in a richy rich neighborhood in barrington rhode island or a dumpster right here in pawtucket. even people that arent from barrington try to find ways to associate themselves with that shit pit. one lady bought a bike from someone that lived there and she brought it in to get it fixed and said "the guy we bought this from lives in barrington". like their status just went up 2 clicks because they bought something from someone that lives there. the guys probably get their suits altered at the barrington tailors. more like nerd-ville.

barrington sucks

but i would be lying if i said i didnt enjoy pedaling through those towns looking at all the shidiots and their sailboats.

there was one point along the trip that i will remember for a long time. jake and i were cruising the path and looked over and saw 2 grass rollers on the other side of this field. we looked at each other and both were thinking the same thing. " you wanna cut through that field and ride those grass hills?" "yepp!" 

it seems stupid and not really a big deal, but the fact that 2 grown men went out of their way and walked their bikes through a big field just to drop into a stupid downhill to uphill a couple times, is funny. 

we had a blast on that thing. we ripped it like 5 times. jake even caught a little air on his bike.

really really really stoked on this picture.

the bike path ends in a little ocean town called bristol. the town was crazy. some older people brought lawn chairs to the corner of down town and were just hanging out on the corner under a big tree. i wanted to hang out with them all day.

this crazy looking elvis impersonator drove by with surfboards on his roof. so we chased him down and talked to him because he looked interesting. you should have heard the stories he told us just in the 5 minutes we got to talk to him. this particular picture was taken while he was telling us a story about a birth defect he had with one of his hips, and about vietnam.  we only talked to him for 5 minutes.

what a perfect way to enjoy the day. i love bicycles and summer and friends. 

bmx bands

vic and i were listening to "hot water music" in the shop yesterday and we started talking about how kids these days dont have awesome bmx bands to like. we had bands like hot water music, small brown bike, the get up kids, screeching weasel.... now kids just listen to un-talented crappers with a terrible effect on their voices. bmx videos were more popular back in the late 90's early 2000's and the music in those videos played a big role in what i liked to listen to. maybe the people that are making the bike videos now, can start using hot water music songs again.

old bike

this one topic could branch off in 5 directions by itself. for example, why is this frame so special? why is it so huge? whos was it? who cares?....

this is about how awesome it is that something like an old bike frame can get people so stoked. This frame is an old terrible one bar code frame. big dave moved to providence and he had it packed up and told us we could put it up in the shop for people to look at or maybe even hold it if they needed to. Its an old used bike that he made over ten years ago when he worked at spooky, and people are stoked to touch it why? Dave kept it because it was an original prototype barcode that Joe Rich and Ruben Alcantara rode. when i emailed a picture of it to joe he told me some history about it and ended it with "holy crap". When Van Homan saw it he was so pumped he got out his camera and took a picture of himself holding it.vic is gonna hang it on the wall in the shop like a piece of art. im writing about it because im stoked on it. and it just keeps going...

its just an old bike frame.....

Dean Sleeper

Sleeper is eccentric. The way he talks,walks,thinks,and everything else, is out of the ordinary. If you havent met him, you just wouldnt understand. And if you have been fortunate to spend any amount of time with him, you were entertained. He can cook a first class meal. He can tell you the exact weight of a human head or how to expertly hunt an armadillo. he might be telling the truth or he might just think hes telling the truth... either way, hes one of my favorite people to have around and if you hung out with him you would understand why.

this video isnt anything special, its just sleeper being himself. its awesome

face holes

i dont know what you would call this thing... but every time i see one i have to stick my face in it and take a picture. they are such a good idea. this one was taken at carlsbad caverns in new mexico.

while i was in michigan i went to a big museum in grandrapids. place was insane.

and they had this awesome bug board. my mom is a good looking lady bug

bike riding

i have some friends that live in boston. they are always riding out there. i went out to visit them a few times and rode around the city late at night. i have always rode trails and my bike setup isnt exactly the best for the stuff those guys ride. A profile imperial sprocket doesent hold up very well when you smash it on a wall, and tall wide bars feel great in the woods but mediocre at best when trying to re-learn how to do a grind on a tiny ledge.

It sounds stupid when i tell people i have a bike to ride street and a bike to ride trails. And Lino likes to  joke and say one is for "buisness" and one is for "pleasure".  the way i see it.. im not going to enjoy riding the trails on a bike with tiny handlebars, no brakes, and 4 pegs. and i enjoy riding street with that set up. so why not do both. i just wanna ride my bike with my friends, and i happen to have friends that ride different stuff.

stop talking about stuff and start enjoying stuff

women

They smell nice, look nice, they are soft to touch, and whats better than sleeping in a nice girls bed?

being a woman seems like too much work though.

1.) hand bags - i couldnt imagine having to carry around a purse or bag everywhere i went. i would forget it everywhere and be so sick of carrying it after 5 minutes.

2.) pregnancy - no way. 9 months of lugging around a baby inside of my body seems like a huge in-convenience

3.) Birth - it still shocks me that this is even possible.  im not trying to intentionally put myself through pain.

4.) Shaving - I hate shaving, thats why i always look like a bum. but i would be upset if i touched a girls leg and it felt like mine. seems like alot of work to shave your legs all the time though

5.) Periods - eww

6.) Make up - i dont like girls that wear make up. and i especially hate waiting for a girl to "get ready" for 30 minutes. what a pain in the ass.

its kind of a catch 22 though.  purses are awesome because if im with a girl and have something i dont wanna carry... hopefully she will let me toss it in her bag. and although shaving takes too long, its worth it when its done. make up can make an ugly girl look good and periods go away in the shower.

thank you women

myspace.com

MySpace was the shit.  so much better than facebook.

lets go over just a few simple facts..

1.) you could play music.
2.)you could pimp out your profile with awesome layouts and pictures.
3.)you didnt have to know every single little thing about everyone.
4.) you could change your little mood face to whatever you were feeling. (although i never used it and thought it was stupid at the time, its awesome now)
5.)Not every single person had a myspace. my grandparents weren't checking their myspaces on their phones every hour.
6.) if i wanted to have an old man picture and a pink profile with my top 5 friends being characters from my favorite video game "mike tysons punch out". i could


So why the heck did people start going crazy over the hot new ,less awesome, version of a myspace? its like having $1000.00 and someone offering you $500.00 instead. I tried my hardest to tough it out in the myspace generation, like that washed up guy still trying to be hip. i refused to join that dumb website that was made "hip" by college students. but, as i watched my friends list getting smaller and smaller,  i knew there was nothing i could do. if i wanted to stay in contact with my friends, i was gonna have to cave in.

but im never going to forget how much better that was.

The Toucans.

We finally recorded another song. its called "The American Scheme". one of the lyrics is

"The american dream wasnt cut out for me

 a brand new car and a big tv

you can keep that shit for your friends to see

cause its not impressing me"

 The Toucans

Rafts and laughs part deux

the 2nd annual rafts and laughs went down this weekend. basically its just a bunch of people bring a raft to a lake and hang out. maybe it sounds like its not fun... but get 30 of your friends on different blow up rafts  out in a lake and try to NOT have a good time. if you succeed...im sorry.

rafts and laughs is a blast!

Back to fantasy

I'm back to New England after spending a week in Michigan with my family. The first thing i thought of was that saying "back to reality" that people say when they have to stop doing something they are enjoying. It's like they have accepted defeat. Like its not possible to somehow find a way to live your life forever in this "fantasy" they visit before returning back to "reality". Or maybe im just living in a fantasy world? where happiness comes first.