Closing Up This Week

I don't have any pictures to post before these rants. Maybe when I get my computer installed in my new pad ill be able to post some pictures.

Anywho, school was pretty laid back for the most part. Did my homework on the beach which was tight. After enjoying the weather in San Francisco, I felt the need to ride real bad again. So then I trucked it to Menlo Park. By the way if you have ever driven on Interstate 280 before, 85 miles per hour doesn't gaurentee you a spot in the fast lane. That is by far the fastest freeway in the bay area. My truck was shaking when I tried to keep up with the fast lane traffic. No dice.

When I got to Menlo Park Skatepark, I immediatly started to snake the crap out of everyone there and didn't make a whole lot of friends if anything. I was just in a zone of ride. It doesn't normally happen to me that I get in a riding mood like what I experienced today. Probably for 20 minutes straight I just rode without stopping. When the park got too crowded I went for a street session.

There was a ledge outside the park that is about bar hieght and reasonably slick. I got a few smith grinds on it and was pretty juiced. Then I felt a craving to ride something else. There were spots that I have seen around downtown Menlo Park in the past, so I went to look for them. As I was riding around town, I couldn't find anything at all. This is weird because usually when I drive around towns, I always see spots worth sessioning, but when I ride my bike I can never find anything besides a curb cut. After about half an hour of riding around it was dark and I finally stumbled upon a handrail that I have been sweating for years. Besides a double peg grind, there is much more that can be done on it. It is a 7 stair with rails on both sides that are solid. Not only that, they have ledges on the opposite side of the stairs, so if you were to stick your front tire over the rail like you were to hop into a crooked grind, you would get into a rail/ledge feeble grind. The catch to that is there is a little kink at the end of the rail and the ledge ends early. Not much of a run up either and who cares about the landing. There is also a flat rail on the side of the building which I failed at a few years ago and my bike went tummbling toward a parked car and hit it. Anyways, I got enough courage to hit the rail after riding around town for an hour. So much more can be done on that thing though.

After that I went back to my car and drove to Redwood City and rode a pole jam that I found the day before and it was almost a disappointment because it was too short. However it was the perfect steepness. To say the least it was the best pole jam I have ever ridden. Why does it seem like there are more pole jams on the east coast?

I'm really looking forward to school finishing tomorrow. Ill get to go back to the east bay and get caught up with friends and family. Next week I also get to move into my place. Only thing I will miss is a skatepark to go session in the afternoons homework permitting. Street riding I quess. Can't wait to get back to the East Bay.

Disorganization at its Finest

In the fist of a state budget crisis, there is literally no time to be disorganized. No time, as a student, an employee, a boss, and especialy a teacher. What a mess I saw today. Luckily I enrolled in the class on time and have no worries about getting into the class besides the placement test. Literally half the students who showed up to class today were trying to add the class. All the chairs in the room were filled, and students lined the back and sides of the room. It was the most absured sight I have ever seen in college.
The teacher arrived five minutes late. As he spoke he seemed very intimidated by the 50 plus students looking at him waiting for instructions about the course. He was able to state the obvious about the course if one read the syllabus. Something that I was hoping that he would explain, he has no idea. That is the new mandatory placement test that every student has to take before being able to take the class. He said that it was a brand new idea, and he had no idea of the details about the test.
Aside from telling the teacher that I was present today, there was no point in driving to the city today. I wasn't trying to add the class, but I laughed at the fact that the teacher had about 20 students who were trying to add and he forgot to bring the list of students on the waiting list. An akward silence on that note between teacher and panicing students. How is he supposed to belive which students are on the waiting list now? There were only two spots on there to begin with and then I heard a few students whisper to others claiming that they were on the waitlist. I thought that was a great tactic. Some students actually left the room when they heard more than five say that.
No homework after that and the day was done. However at this point, I am getting kind of tired of riding Menlo Park Skatepark. The street section is too small. The banks are too small, and the bowl is always crowded. There are lots of lines in the bowl though, but I am really craving street sessions. The downside is that I don't know who to ride with out here. There is no one that I know my age that likes to ride street. I know there is a lot of street to ride out here, but it is kind of boring to ride street alone. Not to mention it looks wierd to other people too. I saw two pole jams today also. If I dont have any homework or assignments to do tommorrow, then I will try to ride some street at night. Who wants to join?

This Week On The Peninsula

This has been one of the weirdest weeks for me. For one thing, I started school at San Francisco State University. I am still waiting on one of the tenants who is currently living in the house, which I will be living in to move out. As for now, I am staying in my grandparents house while they are visiting some friends in Chicago.

Last night I arrived and had dinner with my grandparents and talked about a few things with them simultaneously. After dinner I went outside to move my truck out of the way and to my surprise the the Giants were in extra innings against the Rockies. I parked my truck and rushed inside to watch the remaining part of the game. The game went into the 14th inning still 1-1. In the top of the 14th, Edgar Renteria hit either 0 or 1 out triple down the right field line. Travis Ishikawa came up next and drew a walk. Euenio Velez was up and just came off of a recent slump. He gets a pitch to hit and lines it in the left center field gap. He clears the bases with a triple and the Giants take the lead 3-1. I was just as stoked as Velez was after that play. Randy Winn was the next batter up, and drew a walk. On the next play a ground ball was hit to the second baseman, he failed to tag out Winn, Velez scored, but an out was recorded at first. 4-1 Giants. The inning soon ended but, at this point I(and probably every other Giants fan) thought that a 3 run lead going into the bottom half of the inning would be easy for the Giants defense to hold onto. Problem was that Bruce Boche was dealing with his 11th and 12th string pitchers. In my opinion if Boche would have left Brandon Medders in the game the Giants would have won by a run maybe. However Boche pulled Medders from the game and brought in Justin Miller to walk the pitcher who had his bat tied to his shoulder as well as the next batter. The bases were loaded and Boche goes to the bullpen and brings in Valdez. The bottom of the barrel of the Giants bullpen. I think he walked in a run right off the bat, but another batter later the unbelievable happens. Fastball right over the heart of the plate. Ryan Spilbourghs crushes a ball over the right center field fence. A walk off grand slam. It is very rare to see one of those. Especially in the bottom of the 14th inning. It was the worst loss that I have ever seen. One of the most disheartening too.

I had to tell that story because I am hoping that that isn't a metaphor for my future of living on my own. It wasn't easy sleeping after watching that game though.

What I did come to realize though is that SF State is basically like a community college. What a hoot. I'm pretty sure ill feel right at home here in the city. Plus there are many street spots that I need to explore. Today was an easy day of school because we just went over the syllabus in all of my classes.

After school I headed straight for the Menlo Park Skatepark. I found a bunch of lines in the bowl and even one in the deep part of the bowl. Basically just crusin' looking for fun lines in the park. There was this one guy at the park who asked me to guess his age. 20? 19? 17? 16.... Damn this guy did not look 16. His beard was as full as mine. He then started talking about how he was sponsored by some skatepark building company yadayadayada. He left for a little bit and when he came back, he seemed pretty insistent on "competing" with me. At least that's what he was getting at. Competition is basically what I try and avoid when it comes to bmx, but I said ok, lets go to the street course. Nothing significant went down in the street course, but I can tell when a rider wants to flex their muscle to basically say that they are better than you. That kid isn't going anywhere though. He ditched his study hall to ride the skatepark. That is not a good decision or at least as far as priorities go. Just a word from the wise. I don't care is school isn't your thing. At least TRY and graduate high school. No one should feel sorry for poor decisions in the long run. The other locals seemed to be down to earth though.

It has been a while since I updated this blog, but life goes on you know. Tomorrow is ahead. As Robert once said "you gotta keep on keepin' on."

Colorado Trip Trailor

Basically the most epic thing I have ever witnessed is what is being described. That trip was definetly one of the biggest highs of my life so far. If I can ever get out of California, I want to live in Colorado. Life is so much more simple over there.