Math Student

I've never been good at math.  Mostly caused by a lack of effort on my part.  I never had a teacher in school that could reach me on the importance of math in my life.  I never expected to be an engineer so I thought that mathematics/liberal arts math was enough for me.  I was always content to do the minimum in math since I was in the tenth grade in Ms. Demonbrun's (crazy name, right?) Algebra class.  She would belittle students if they made wrong answers or suggested the wrong way to answer a problem in class.  This type of "teaching" made me shut down and all I would do in her class was read.  Eventually, it got to the point where she wouldn't even pass the work to me because she knew that I wasn't going to do it.  Nothing changed in college.  I never needed to take a high math for my major so I didn't.  Recently I have felt like I let an opportunity to understand an important part of the world had slipped by me.  So I purchased the book pictured and have been trying to go through a chapter everyday. The work has not been easy for me and I have had to ask for help from my wife, who incidentally went up to Calculus.  There is a big test at the end of the book and I think that I will be able to slay that dragon in the next week.  I'll probably have to go through the book twice before I can do all of the problems in the test.

Skatepark Employee

Deep South Skatepark opened in October of 1999 in Pensacola, FL and I spent pretty much everyday there until it closed in December of 2001.  I actually got a job at the park as an accident.  The owner, Paul, told me that the park was going to start being closed on Mondays because there weren't enough people coming to justify having someone working an entire shift.  So I told Paul that if he was going to close the park that he had to give me a key.  I started working there the next week.  Deep South was about an hour drive from my house and getting out there everyday was a chore.  When I started working out there I was a senior in high school and I had to start driving to Pensacola as soon as I got out of school.  There were plenty of days that I was completely exhausted driving down Hwy 98.  Honestly, after driving so much for so long when the park finally closed I missed that time when I could just be alone with my thoughts.  I know that it doesn't look like much from the picture but Deep South was a great park with a dedicated bunch of locals that kept things in line.  I am really grateful to Paul and Rhonda for opening the park.  I was lucky to be a part of it and lucky to be a part of the best group of employee's Paul N. Brian J. Cale L. and myself.

Pool Slasher.

This photo was taken in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan in Pensacola, FL.  Anyone from northern Florida knows BC and this pool was at his apartment complex.  I don't know how he convinced the building manager to let us skate here but he did.  I was at work and Brian called me and asked me if I wanted to go skate a pool.  Yes, is the only possible answer to that question.  I was ready right then.  I could have walked out of work right then but Brian said the session wasn't on until BC got home.  The rest on my day at work was spend wondering if I would be able to carve the light or if this was going to be a bank to wall pool or if it was going to be skateable at all.  I drove straight from work to Cale's house to pick him up and then straight to BC's.  I was amazed that the guys were already skating and it was totally cool with everyone in the complex.  The only pools I had skated prior to this one were the type where you took one run a piece and ran like hell because the neighbor had already called the cops.  None of us in that group were heavy pool shredders but everybody got over the light and I caught some truck on the top of the tile.  This pool was available to skate from three p.m. to sunset for about two weeks and I was there everyday and excited as hell.  All good things come to an end, especially skate spots in NW Florida.  In hindsight I wish I would have told more people about the pool and had bigger sessions.  I was afraid that the more people we had out there the sooner the people who lived in the building would shut it down.  Skating a pool is loud and everybody was dealing with the stress of post-hurricane life.  Some people were getting evicted due to damage to the building and most did not have electricity.  So the fact that they let us have this as long as they did is even more amazing.  A nuisance that would not have been put up with in normal life is not even paid attention when dealing with such a large problem.

Movie Goer

Just got home from Terminator: Salvation and it wasn't all I expected.  When put up against the other big budget summer films that have already come out it wasn't that good.  There is no finality in the film.  The first Terminator movie came out in 1984 and this film does nothing to make me feel that they are trying to wrap this story up.  I thought that Christian Bale gave a good performance as John Conner but aside from that there isn't much to make me recommend this movie.

I knew this guy and his family when they lived in Pensacola, FL.  I think Sierra was about 12 or 13 years old so it makes sense that he didn't drink or anything thing.  But, knowing him then made me think it was totally possible that he would become a professional skateboarder.  I've never met someone that was more dedicated to spending 23.5 hrs a day on a skateboard.  One night my friend Paul and I were at a party and from the balcony we could see Sierra skating some terrible bench spot by himself in the middle of the night.  I am glad that he as loosened up a little bit and embraced the fun side of life.  There has never been a more serious 13 year old.  Sierra is a good dude that deserves everything good that he gets in life.

First.

I've been talking about doing this for a while.  Jeremy got me excited about the idea.