Goose Steping To The End Of The Summer - I Love OB

Today was a sunny/humid day and I knew we would have some fun south swell so I figured it was a good time to take a bike ride down to the beach to check the surf. I pulled up to the beach north of the OB pier and wasn't disappointed. I'm not talking the surf, but the "crew" hanging on the beach. The first thing I noticed was two guys playing frisbee...let me explain....

I first moved to Ocean Beach in 1990 and lived in an apartment complex on the corner of Voltaire Ave. and Spray St. aka the "heart of the warzone". Half of the people in my complex did crystal and rode Harleys with really sketchy biker friends. One lady lived with her 17 year old son in an apartment across the complex from me. Her son didn't do anything but smoke weed out of a six foot bong and play frisbee all day. One day I was checking the surf and I caught him "in the act" while on the beach by Tower 4.

I'm not talking your normal game of frisbee. He would stand facing the sea breeze and AGGRESSIVELY throw the Frisbee into the wind. The Frisbee would travel forty or fifty feet into the air and return back to him at a high rate of speed. At this point he would not catch the Frisbee, but instead shoot it back into the air again with either a karate kick or by rolling the Frisbee down one arm, across his shoulders, and up the other. I didn't believe this was possible until I saw it with my own eyes.

The photo above was taken today. It shows a guy in red shorts kicking the frisbee to himself over and over again. No....he is not using his hands. This guy kicked it over a dozen times to himself...just like he was juggling a soccerball. 

Later on he started throwing the frisbee back and forth with a friend (in the gray shirt). Their game basically involved throwing the frisbee to your friend who would then catch it by spinning it on his finger, elbow, nose, chin, or whatever appendage he had available. This was all done while standing, sitting, kneeling, or lying on their backs. Eventually the Frisbee would loose momentum and they would grab it with their hands and throw it to their partner who would repeat the process.

There are five sports that make up the "Hippie Olympics". They are:

• Freestyle Frisbee
• Stick Tumbling (frequently seen at Greatful Dead Shows)
• Trick Kite Flying
• Hacky Sack Circle
• Tightrope Walking

All of these are frequently practiced at the base of the Ocean Beach Pier...I'm pretty sure Team OB will sweep the medal ceremonies.

I was having fun watching the frisbee show when I heard someone singing behind me. Click the link below to check out a couple enjoying the summer day in OB.



The man played the instrument and had an electronic beatbox in the background while the lady would spin for minutes at a time. The man and woman took turns with singing the tune. Rock on! Want to read the lyrics? Follow this link...

An old friend of mine named Brian is a world history teacher and one of the first people I met who would troll the Internet at night looking for random weirdness. These two factors together explain the following video....

Click this link to check it out....you won't be disappointed...Brian can find things noone else can.....

Just another summer day in OB...I had fun....did you?

Raising Arizona

Michelle and I have returned from our trip to Flagstaff, Arizona. We posted photos (with captions) on our Picasa site. Please follow this link to view the photos. We went click-crazy on this trip so the site has aprox. 70 photos - but each one has a story :)

Riding Around OB

Michelle and I went to the OB skatepark for a ride this morning. Check the photos and video below. The video contains footage from a couple previous days as well. A link to additional photos from today can be found here.....

Two Wheel Transport

Michelle and I have been taking bike riders together. Two days ago we rode our bikes around Mission Bay. The We left our house, rode up South Mission until we reached Mission Bay Drive. From there we hopped on the mission bay bike trail and followed the bay around to crown point, and towards Campland by the Bay. We then rode down the east side of the bay towards Sea World and finally back to our house. Round trip was around fourteen or fifteen miles.

Today Michelle and I rode our bikes to Coronado Island and back. We left our house, took Nimitz to Shelter Island Drive, and rode past the airport towards the USS Midway. We caught the ferry across the bay to Coronado and rode to the Hotel Del Coronado where we ate a sandwich on the beach. We stopped by the Coronado Brewery and had a beer before taking the ferry back home. Round trip including lunch and a pit stop at the brewery was 5 hours and aprox. 22 miles.

The two photos below are from our trip around the San Diego bay and of Michelle and I crossing on the ferry. A nice summer day!

Kite Flying

20 years ago I lived across the street from dog beach. During that time, my neighbor was a semi professional kite flyer. Before I met him I didn't know there was such a thing. He flew with a group of guys who call themselves the Killer B's. He said the name came from the fact that at first they were considered the second best team to be sponsored by a kite company named North Shore Kites. I bought an old kite from him and flew it at the beach where I would tease dogs....and sometimes their owners. The dogs go crazy over the sound and the movement of the kite in the wind.

Follow the link below to see a video of a kite team in a contest. Remember that each kite has Four strings. For each revolution in one direction you must remember to return in the opposite direction...or you will have a big mess. Flying with five other people makes it only that much more difficult. One mistake means you may have 20 different lines to untangle from each other.

Watch "I Quad trick kite flying" on YouTube

New Gate

Michelle and I were relaxing in our back yard today and we decided to install our new redwood gate. Our friend Patrick help us build the gate last week. We left the gate in the sun for a week to give it a nice golden color. Yesterday I treated the redwood with a sealer to help it withstand the weather. This afternoon michelle helped me hang the gate. Besides a little bit of sawdust that was shot into Michelle's hair by my plainer, we had no problems with the installation. This evening we are going to chill in the backyard and enjoy the new feature.

10 Years Together!

Michelle and I recently returned from a trip to Sonoma, California to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Please follow this link to view photos (and captions) from our trip.

July Summer

Our neighbors had a yard sale yesterday. Lots of toys for sale.Michele and I made about 30 bucks! I contacted Steve Pendarvis about a new surfboard. I'll have to keep you posted but I included some photos of an old one. Patrick and I built a new back gate for our yard. I think it turned out nice. Went out to eat with old friends from Dana and saw this Chairman Meow poster. Obey the kitty. Watching hurricane Fabio off the coast of Baja....may bring us some surf.

University Club

Went to an end of the year celebration at the University Club downtown and enjoyed a beautiful view of the city. Dad helped me hook a relay up to the offroad lights on the Jeep. Watched Jesse as Amy took care of some business for their new rental. As usual Jack took a nap. Going for a swim in 30 minutes.Summer time.

Pusillanimity

Just finished reading  "Civilization - The West and the Rest" by Niall Ferguson. I heard of the book while watching the author being interviewed on the Colbert Report. I'm a fan of non-fiction, I enjoy comparing different cultures, and I found the author to be an entertaining guest/speaker so I decided to give the book a try and bought it on Amazon.com.

Civilization was the author's attempt to describe why western cultures appeared to dominate world culture/economics/politics during the last 400 years and if/how this might change.

It took me months to finish it partly because parts of the book dragged on forever. I felt the author could have shared the same message (with depth and meaning) in less than half the time it took for him to do it. On the up side, there was a very interesting chapter describing colonial development in North American and South American by comparing George Washington to Simon Bolivar.

Bottom line...there are six inventions or "killer apps" that allowed western civilizations to prosper and succeed:

1. Competition - European nations were fragmented and this resulted in multiple competing economies and corporations
2. The Scientific Revolution - breakthroughs in math and science
3. The Rule of Law and Representative Government - laws were based upon property rights and land owners had a say in their government
4. Modern Medicine - increased length and quality of living
5. The Consumer Society - allowed economies to grow - connected to the Industrial Revolution
6. Work Ethic - western society combined intensive labour with higher savings rates

Today China has four basic goals they want to accomplish:

1. Consume more
2. Import more
3. Invest abroad more
4. Innovate more

Will China take the lead in world government/economy/influence/prosperity or will they follow Japan, who showed promise but has recently stagnated? The author claims there are four pitfalls China needs to look out for:

1. Are there economy/real estate/stock markets truly competitive?
2. Will they fall to internal social unrest - will the one child policy create a generation of older people who cannot be sustained by the younger generation?
3. Will the rising middle class demand more political say then they currently have?
4. Will they upset their neighbors to the point other nations decide to form alliances with the west?

Ferguson has faith in western civilization and believes success is tied to the ability for its citizens to believe in it

"Today....the biggest threat to Western civilization is posed not by other civilizations, but by our own pusillanimity - and by the historical ignorance that feeds it.

I had to look up "pusillanimity". Follow this link for the definition.