Sunday, July 21, 2019
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.
I got started early, not aware that a contest had taken place at Hsinchu. I mean, started drinking, not skating. I didn't really want to skate at all, but even after a few beers, I knew I didn't want to spend my Saturday evening alone on the roof. So I went to the bridge. I mistook a new guy for CA. We chatted and I got a drunken ******* and a drunken *******. RMJ and IS and 3c showed up, and they skated til lights out and I mostly drank beer and talked shit with whoever was resting. It was nice to get back to the grime.
IS wanted to visit a special spot, so we cruised over. I got caught out behind them, and as I rolled up, yelling, "I'm back," I instantly caught a loose tile and slammed. Skate juice came out of my knee and elbow. I also threw up.
It's a metal bank that you have ollie up to get onto, and both sides grind. They skated and I drank more beer, to wash the taste of vomit out of my mouth. Then we were invited to leave, because we ( I) were talking too loudly.
All that beer tried to come out of the other end of me, so I bolted home.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Some are one trick ponies but we embrace 'em Cuz I've always had a soft spot for repetition
Working Saturdays is what it is, which is a way to make money. After I got off work, I wasn't sure what to do with myself, so I drank a few tallboys. IS and RMJ went up to yuanshan station for some cruising and I got there early and had another beer at crafted, and a quesadillo from the stand that sells them there. Eventually, I got impatient and cruised sloppily across the square tile plaza and down to the hidden green two stair curbs. The guys showed up and we got to skating.
It took me a bit to skate off the buzz, and before I did, I tried a nasty ** **** on the lower curb, and twisted to ride out, not realizing my heel was off, and it stuck, and that's why I have a sore neck several days later. We pushed this way and that, security would come out to smoke a cigarette but not actually say anything to us, and off we would go into the steamy night.
We ended up at family or seven, I can't remember which, and beered up. A dude nearly broke his neck trying to ogle us from a bike, and then he kept walking by and staring. The beer store had a toilet downstairs, and next to it was a couple romantically looking into each other's eyes, under the florescent glow. As I walked past them and went upstairs, I noisily broke wind, and the girl shouted in disgust from the other side of the room.
After a while, we were at xingtian and I got to skating again. I was trying a line of **_**, *******, ** ****, and I guess I sort of made it. I also spend a bit more time on the ground, but not in a bad way. We rolled up on the old stoop, which is a 30m long set of pink marble stairs, grindable to the sidewalk side. It has a carpet across the middle, and for years, I've been trying a certain trick while cruising, trying to get it across the whole carpet. For whatever reason, on this night, buzzing like a bumblebee, I actually made it. In my opinion, the greatest feeling a trick can have is to be done while cruising, first try. Anyway, RMJ took off and IS and I talked about life til the birds started singing, and I pushed back home and got in bed before the sun came up. It must have been a close one though.
It took me a bit to skate off the buzz, and before I did, I tried a nasty ** **** on the lower curb, and twisted to ride out, not realizing my heel was off, and it stuck, and that's why I have a sore neck several days later. We pushed this way and that, security would come out to smoke a cigarette but not actually say anything to us, and off we would go into the steamy night.
We ended up at family or seven, I can't remember which, and beered up. A dude nearly broke his neck trying to ogle us from a bike, and then he kept walking by and staring. The beer store had a toilet downstairs, and next to it was a couple romantically looking into each other's eyes, under the florescent glow. As I walked past them and went upstairs, I noisily broke wind, and the girl shouted in disgust from the other side of the room.
After a while, we were at xingtian and I got to skating again. I was trying a line of **_**, *******, ** ****, and I guess I sort of made it. I also spend a bit more time on the ground, but not in a bad way. We rolled up on the old stoop, which is a 30m long set of pink marble stairs, grindable to the sidewalk side. It has a carpet across the middle, and for years, I've been trying a certain trick while cruising, trying to get it across the whole carpet. For whatever reason, on this night, buzzing like a bumblebee, I actually made it. In my opinion, the greatest feeling a trick can have is to be done while cruising, first try. Anyway, RMJ took off and IS and I talked about life til the birds started singing, and I pushed back home and got in bed before the sun came up. It must have been a close one though.
Thursday, July 11, 2019
IS told me it was nasty and not to do it
I've been growing a table of microgreens on my roof top. I've got spinach, Taiwanese spinach, mustard greens, radishes, watercress, amaranth, garden rocket, and probably something else I'm forgetting. I just sprinkled the seeds thick and eat em as they come up. IS came over for a roof topper the other night and pointed out how nasty it is to eat greens like that. I poo poo'ed his criticism and thought nothing of it. Last night, I bit into a crunch leaf. It was like it had bones in it or something. It was very gooey, and tasted like a booger. I spit out whatever it was, and went about my business. This morning, I noticed the greens were covered in tiny snails. Here's hoping I don't get any Angiostrongylus cantonensis.
Tuesday, July 9, 2019
withdrawal dreams
I made a joke about being addicted to air conditioning in an earlier post. Then I had some panic attacks and got an Rx for benzodiazepine and spent some time taking it. It wasn't a long time, and it wasn't a large dose. I was told not to take it everyday, but I did anyway, because I like not having a mental breakdown. Then I ran out. I'm lucky to have had the sort of uh, hippy experiences I have had; when you have to realize what you are experiencing is a chemical consequence and will eventually pass. Even with that experience, this has been a challenging time. The take home is that benzodiazepine should be a last resort strategy. I thought I was being clever and heading off the problem ahead of time by frequent dosage. In the future, the best method is probably to wait until the actual panic attack starts. Maybe something was lost in translation at the dr, but the consequence has been the classic sx, especially loss of concentration, bizarre ideation, and increased acuity of previous sx. I fucked up but at least it was early days, and at least it's basically manageable. Thanks to the homies for the last skate session, it's when I started to turn the corner.
Last night, I dreamt I was at the Hog Mountain house and all that was left was a concrete slab. I camped out there, apocalypse style. Through the trees that I still remember the shapes of against the starry sky, a black triangular UFO snapped up and was shining a sparkly red laser very very quickly across the ground, like the speed of a sku reader. In fact, it pretty much looked just like a giant scanner was in the sky. It got to me quicker than I expected and I curled up on the ground, trying to hide, utterly terrified. As it scanned over me, I realized that I wasn't anymore interesting than the trees or the rocks. Then I dreamed about lzyk. Waking up has been kind of traumatic lately.
I should add that the withdrawal experience is my own choice. Healthcare in Taiwan is cheap and readily available. All advice says to taper, but now that I'm so many days in, I'm thinking of just keeping it up til the next apmt. This might be a terrible idea. At least I can readily change my mind if need be.
Last night, I dreamt I was at the Hog Mountain house and all that was left was a concrete slab. I camped out there, apocalypse style. Through the trees that I still remember the shapes of against the starry sky, a black triangular UFO snapped up and was shining a sparkly red laser very very quickly across the ground, like the speed of a sku reader. In fact, it pretty much looked just like a giant scanner was in the sky. It got to me quicker than I expected and I curled up on the ground, trying to hide, utterly terrified. As it scanned over me, I realized that I wasn't anymore interesting than the trees or the rocks. Then I dreamed about lzyk. Waking up has been kind of traumatic lately.
I should add that the withdrawal experience is my own choice. Healthcare in Taiwan is cheap and readily available. All advice says to taper, but now that I'm so many days in, I'm thinking of just keeping it up til the next apmt. This might be a terrible idea. At least I can readily change my mind if need be.
Monday, July 8, 2019
The tree without no name
There is a spectacular tree here without an English name. It looks like mimosa, but it blooms firey fireworks like the sort that people I don't know offer to the river gods. It has legume seed pods, and today, I found it's bitchass seed pots and planted some in my rooftop pots. We'll see if it grows or not.
one voice in the cosmic fugue
Withdrawing from the benzo, having had four talks in a row with lzyk that always ended in her yelling at me on the phone, I got an invite from the TG. Thusfore, I felt like being a dick, so I tried to pretend like I wasn't going up to shipai where they were already slapping truck to curb and generally getting ready for what lay ahead. I faked em out til I got there, and it started sprinkling. By the time I arrived, the tile was slick with water and the ledge was slick with wax and YH showed up and ** ******* it in a few tries. The spot is on a downslope, but the ledge is flat, so you start out at knee high and end up popping out at a respectable height, at least, if you YH.
I couldn't believe we never got a security check, but eventually, we all got bored with me trying to ***** and everyone else doing tricks, so we pushed up to the second spot.
I had forgotten about it. It's a three stair plaza with little square tiles on top and smooth slick flatground on bottom. It's got a magic black granite ledge, and a video worth ledge to drop to ledge, but it was pissing rain and also I forgot how to skate, so we just posted up under the banyan tree, and started skating the smaller and smaller dry region under the banyan.
Rain makes you get creative. IS tried to ***** the tricycle and slid out at antinormal and slammed like space capsule on a bad reentry. YH went home, understandably, when it got super wet. RMJ ***** the *********, I think the first time I've seen him do it.
IS treid to get fancy and slammed from the top of the three, resulting in skate juice flowing out of his elbow. he gets extra credit because the top of the stairs is gnarly broken tile that was never gonna grind anyway; he basically ate shit for the pure optimism of doing it. This is what skating is all about.
It's also sometimes about beer. An angry man came out and shouted at us, not unlike lyzk, and we agreed to leave because it was night time. Skate morally. if you can. a small explosion was registered but my ears were ringing like it was bigger than it was.
We beered up and found a minispot - bank to 18" curb, where rmj launched a series of *** **** attacks and finishing moves and cops arrived but never actually told us to leave, as we skated the spot through some scooters and taxis and so on. We then skated (and refilled the supply of etoh) at a steep bank spot, that starts on the north side on ground level, but gaps out to waist high, down hill, so you can wall ride it from nothing if you want, or ollie in at belt level, if you have more pop than me. We skated it (they skated it) we drank beers, argued about music, rmj slammed, we eventually got bored sitting under the grimy mrt bridge (it's only about 15 ft above you head at that point, south of there, it does underground) and we skated the street to a bridge.
I'm not good at filming, and generally, I discourage everyone from filming, because it's pointless and cheapens the experience, but on this cruise, I filmed 3c, with a tall boy, ******ing and *****ing in the traffic, past cop cars and up kcikers and down sidewalks and over cracks and flowing with style like syrup. It's maybe the best thing I've ever filmed. street uber alles
I tried to ******* at the base of a bridg eand hit a pebble. We crossed it and someone I don't know made powpow boomy sparkles at the river, which were much louder than I expected and I ran away, by rolling down the hill. People were shouting at me.
A lot.
Fuck. We fucked up. I put my chin to my chest and started pushing at the bottom of the hill but the noise was so bad that I decided I had to circle back and fight the cops with the homies, or whatever the fuck was causing this ruckus. Actually, I had no idea what was going on, I just thought we were in trouble. We weren't.
A set of skaters from the bridge who live up that way had been finishing their night at the meat rice store. They had been shouting at me "do a kickflip", but I was slightly buzzed and had assumed they were americans frothing hostility. Instead, we hung out with the quartet of them as they ate and we drank, then theheroofthenight decided to skate uphill and try to ******* a pylon into a respectable drop. He tried it as traffic and cops permitted (you can tell they're a true street skating crew cause they vanish as soon as cops show up. goddam, I tell you what, when I see these kids learn how to skate their city like that, I aint worried about the future of street skating in Taipei). Anyway, THOFTN never made it, after many heroic tries, but that's alright. Skating isn't about winning. The whole experience had been like being on a starship and unepextedblly running into another ship, with people kind of like you, but also very different. We skated the same space for a minute.
We went to the bumpily rail spot, after much pushing , and I failed to land my old staple trick. new deck, new shoes, no skating for weeks, and lack of moral fiber. the homies tried to get me to do it, but it was hot as fuck. even my snow camo hat couldn't cool me off. beer did a little, but the green stairs were too hard to skate after that many, and I suddenlyl ditched everyone and skated the last 30 min back alone, over the cracks and tiles and bumps and burms and plazas and crosswalks and other tiles and smooth tiles and rough tiles and weird tiles and broken tiles and granite tiles and marble tiles and stone tiles and loud tiles and quiet tiles and short tiles and long tiles and big tiles and little tiles and sideways tiles and straight tiles (you have to take em at a 45 dgree angle to maintain speed).
There were more tiles to skate, but I was tired and it was almost first light.
I couldn't believe we never got a security check, but eventually, we all got bored with me trying to ***** and everyone else doing tricks, so we pushed up to the second spot.
I had forgotten about it. It's a three stair plaza with little square tiles on top and smooth slick flatground on bottom. It's got a magic black granite ledge, and a video worth ledge to drop to ledge, but it was pissing rain and also I forgot how to skate, so we just posted up under the banyan tree, and started skating the smaller and smaller dry region under the banyan.
Rain makes you get creative. IS tried to ***** the tricycle and slid out at antinormal and slammed like space capsule on a bad reentry. YH went home, understandably, when it got super wet. RMJ ***** the *********, I think the first time I've seen him do it.
IS treid to get fancy and slammed from the top of the three, resulting in skate juice flowing out of his elbow. he gets extra credit because the top of the stairs is gnarly broken tile that was never gonna grind anyway; he basically ate shit for the pure optimism of doing it. This is what skating is all about.
It's also sometimes about beer. An angry man came out and shouted at us, not unlike lyzk, and we agreed to leave because it was night time. Skate morally. if you can. a small explosion was registered but my ears were ringing like it was bigger than it was.
We beered up and found a minispot - bank to 18" curb, where rmj launched a series of *** **** attacks and finishing moves and cops arrived but never actually told us to leave, as we skated the spot through some scooters and taxis and so on. We then skated (and refilled the supply of etoh) at a steep bank spot, that starts on the north side on ground level, but gaps out to waist high, down hill, so you can wall ride it from nothing if you want, or ollie in at belt level, if you have more pop than me. We skated it (they skated it) we drank beers, argued about music, rmj slammed, we eventually got bored sitting under the grimy mrt bridge (it's only about 15 ft above you head at that point, south of there, it does underground) and we skated the street to a bridge.
I'm not good at filming, and generally, I discourage everyone from filming, because it's pointless and cheapens the experience, but on this cruise, I filmed 3c, with a tall boy, ******ing and *****ing in the traffic, past cop cars and up kcikers and down sidewalks and over cracks and flowing with style like syrup. It's maybe the best thing I've ever filmed. street uber alles
I tried to ******* at the base of a bridg eand hit a pebble. We crossed it and someone I don't know made powpow boomy sparkles at the river, which were much louder than I expected and I ran away, by rolling down the hill. People were shouting at me.
A lot.
Fuck. We fucked up. I put my chin to my chest and started pushing at the bottom of the hill but the noise was so bad that I decided I had to circle back and fight the cops with the homies, or whatever the fuck was causing this ruckus. Actually, I had no idea what was going on, I just thought we were in trouble. We weren't.
A set of skaters from the bridge who live up that way had been finishing their night at the meat rice store. They had been shouting at me "do a kickflip", but I was slightly buzzed and had assumed they were americans frothing hostility. Instead, we hung out with the quartet of them as they ate and we drank, then theheroofthenight decided to skate uphill and try to ******* a pylon into a respectable drop. He tried it as traffic and cops permitted (you can tell they're a true street skating crew cause they vanish as soon as cops show up. goddam, I tell you what, when I see these kids learn how to skate their city like that, I aint worried about the future of street skating in Taipei). Anyway, THOFTN never made it, after many heroic tries, but that's alright. Skating isn't about winning. The whole experience had been like being on a starship and unepextedblly running into another ship, with people kind of like you, but also very different. We skated the same space for a minute.
We went to the bumpily rail spot, after much pushing , and I failed to land my old staple trick. new deck, new shoes, no skating for weeks, and lack of moral fiber. the homies tried to get me to do it, but it was hot as fuck. even my snow camo hat couldn't cool me off. beer did a little, but the green stairs were too hard to skate after that many, and I suddenlyl ditched everyone and skated the last 30 min back alone, over the cracks and tiles and bumps and burms and plazas and crosswalks and other tiles and smooth tiles and rough tiles and weird tiles and broken tiles and granite tiles and marble tiles and stone tiles and loud tiles and quiet tiles and short tiles and long tiles and big tiles and little tiles and sideways tiles and straight tiles (you have to take em at a 45 dgree angle to maintain speed).
There were more tiles to skate, but I was tired and it was almost first light.
Friday, July 5, 2019
Aye Aye Aye Aye Aye'm Not Your Steppin' Stone
Friday night is a work night, but I was off the hook early, due to cancellation, and climbed my six flights of stairs by 22:00. I got a message from NonskatingBeligianHomie that it was OtherNonSkatingBelgianHomie's birthday, and could I join them at darts bar (the best bar in Taipei)? I hadn't been there since Lzyk kicked me out, coming up on a year ago, and I thought why not, let's go for a lark. ONSBH's indian accent was spot on and previously loyal friends I hadn't seen in a year kept trying to sneak their empties into my holder so that I would have to pay for them. You learn who your friends are, I guess. I took to tearing off the labels to id my bottles. I had some chicken hearts and some yang lo and some other lo and came home soaked in sweat, smelling like cigs and having to wake up early for work. Happy Virtday, ONSBH, I hope you had a good time. I did.
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Slightly Creepy Dreams
After a huge fight on the phone with lzyk, I took my pills and had a series of dreams within a dream within in a dream. It was like lucid dreaming or something.
A drone was buzzing me on my roof and it aggressively buzzed me and I snatched it by the middle section and smashed it. I realized who ever was flying the drone was going to come for me, but when I tried to clean up the peices, they turned to flower petals and with relief, I realized I had been dreaming.
I woke up early and I had left my door open. I thought maybe I sleepwalked on the pills or something, but people were speaking chinese in the hallway, and it was someone moving in next door. I asked why they had opened my door and the lady said something about because of getting the new furniture through, but i couldnt understand it all. then I realized it was a dream, because that didn't make sense.
I woke up and my house had changed slightly, there was a new building next door and I had a new window. I realized i was still dreaming and then I went into this stage that felt like I was floating, and my arms wouldn't lower back to the bed; like my hands were buoyant. It felt like being high and I wondered if I had died, but without much panic.
Then I woke up again I wasn't sure if I was awake or not. I was starting to panic a little, like I might be losing my mind. I tried looking for text to read, cause I heard that it will appear as scribbles, if you're dreaming. I could read my phone fine, so then I started to freak out a little because I didn't feel different than when I had been dreaming. So I went back to sleep (if I had really woken up at all) and woke up several more times, each time, unsure if I was really awake or not.
At last, my alarm started blaring enough that I knew I was really awake. At least, I'm pretty sure, because if I'm not, then this dream has been going on all day.
A drone was buzzing me on my roof and it aggressively buzzed me and I snatched it by the middle section and smashed it. I realized who ever was flying the drone was going to come for me, but when I tried to clean up the peices, they turned to flower petals and with relief, I realized I had been dreaming.
I woke up early and I had left my door open. I thought maybe I sleepwalked on the pills or something, but people were speaking chinese in the hallway, and it was someone moving in next door. I asked why they had opened my door and the lady said something about because of getting the new furniture through, but i couldnt understand it all. then I realized it was a dream, because that didn't make sense.
I woke up and my house had changed slightly, there was a new building next door and I had a new window. I realized i was still dreaming and then I went into this stage that felt like I was floating, and my arms wouldn't lower back to the bed; like my hands were buoyant. It felt like being high and I wondered if I had died, but without much panic.
Then I woke up again I wasn't sure if I was awake or not. I was starting to panic a little, like I might be losing my mind. I tried looking for text to read, cause I heard that it will appear as scribbles, if you're dreaming. I could read my phone fine, so then I started to freak out a little because I didn't feel different than when I had been dreaming. So I went back to sleep (if I had really woken up at all) and woke up several more times, each time, unsure if I was really awake or not.
At last, my alarm started blaring enough that I knew I was really awake. At least, I'm pretty sure, because if I'm not, then this dream has been going on all day.
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
I got a bone to pick
got soaked up going to work. it got better. grilled on the roof, and it rained harder than the bible. then lzyk told me some things and I told her some things and none of them were good things and I just wish I could get back to skating.
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