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.

To Live and Work in Taipei

To all my peoples in the struggle-

It was all a dream. I skated and worked to make ends meet but I never really tried to do better than the best possible moment until lzyk threw me out. I went into a different dream, that has become like a game, of how money I can make.

They say skating is a lifestyle. It's true as fuck. I haven't been able to reconcile my addiction to profit with my desire to skate, so I haven't skated for a while, like how a junkie just didn't show up for a while because of an insuppressible urge. I'm discouraged because when I get back to it, I'll be starting from scratch. It's almost like being injured for long term. A year later, you just start again from the bottom. And I'm about to start again from the bottom, cause I just quit my Mon Wed Fri gigs.

Skating isn't what makes you a skater, it's not being able to stop that makes you a skater.

Caterpillar Massacre

Went to the beach over the weekend with hyadees. It was great, but the gnats were horrendous, I saw my first giant centipede, foreigners tried to scare us while camping, and the heat was so brutal that some members of the party surrendered themselves to the centipedes and slept on top of their tent (s), leaving their fates up to the gods. We all survived. Probably mountain camping is the next camping though.

I got back to find my rooftop garden absolutely ravaged by caterpillars. The bastards had eaten most of my flowers and several sunflowers. They got into the basil and wiggled and chewed and pooped on everything but the Japanese maple and the cucumbers and the peppers. I took out the claws of death and ripped the life from their nasty little bodies.

It's been pouring rain and work. No time to skate. For a while.

Addiction

I tried a dangerous and expensive new drug and now I'm afraid I'm addicted. I don't know what it's called in English, but in mandarin, it sounds like "lencheeji." It's so addictive that if I'm not using for even one minute, I start feel really uncomfortable and uneasy. My body starts sweating and I have trouble doing even the simplest of tasks. The withdrawals are so bad that now that I tried it, I basically will do anything to get it. My habit is costing me thousands of ntd per month. In the day time, I can't work without it, and I basically spend my time hurrying from one lencheeji traphouse to another. Fortunately, I guess, it's available literally everywhere in the city - I see users on the MRT, lurking in the underground walkways, in the 7 -elevens and fami's, openly using in restaurants, in cars, on buses. It's crazy. The other day, I took an uber and the driver was so hopped up on lencheeji that he wasn't even breaking a sweat, even though it was 35 degrees and 100% humidity.
I didn't expect to get hooked, but I guess no one does. I tried it work (actually, I've been a regular user at work for some time. I should mention some workplaces are stingier about it than others), and in restaurants and nightclubs sometimes. I thought I would never get hooked as long as I didn't use it at home. I made it many months without ever turning on the purpose made dispenser, but last night I broke down, and now here I am, with it cranked to max, getting my fix for the second night in a row. I'll probably keep using, even as I sleep. I'm dreading that when I wake, I'm going to have to go 20 minutes without it on the way to work. Maybe I'll just hire that uber again and see if he'll share some of his stash. This is definitely going to kill my monthly budget, but now that I popped the cherry, I think there's no going back. I wonder if it's possible to OD and actually freeze to death.

Value Stream Mapping

The sky is lit and the birds are aggressively singing. I am typing because rmj and fa kept me up until dawn. Mostly, we (I) drank and the tried to skate main station, and they were more responsible. We stooped up at the family until well after dawn. Now the fucking birds are singing so loudly that I can't sleep, and I've talked myself sober. French people are overly good at the conversations.

Meet the New Box, Same as the Old Box

skating, having drank many beers? no problem

skating on benzodiazepines? fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucuckckccklnckdans;cakjfa;dslkjfas;fkj

That's pretty much how the session went. It was pouring rain all day, and I've recently been given a golden shaft of light through the clouds that makes life possible to get things done in (but makes grammar more difficult as I adjust to dosage etc). Because of doctors appointments, I missed afternoon work, and because of unspecified ailments, my evening client cancelled. So I went to the bridge to check out the new box. 

The old box (a chunk of which is still there behind the railing, I almost stole it for old time sake) was easily the most heavily skated single thing in our country. It had some flaws, like the metal was weird and rounded and sticky, and the cement on top was prone to moon cratering. Nonetheless, it was the 3 ft by 10ft epicenter of skating in Taiwan. Over the years, it has been repaired a few times. Usually badly, because dickheads don't appreciate the work of others, and skated it before the cement was cured. 

This time, god bless em, the made the entire thing out of fucking metal. It's now a big square metal rectangle on top. It's slides faster than lubbed fuck, and it reflects the annoyingly bright lights, and I presume it would be like falling on a hot waffle iron if you skated it in the day time, and it will be suicidally slick if any pos waxes more than the edge of it, but I am betting that it will last 1000 years of use. As it should be. It was always a quirky spot, and I'm glad that it's been made more permanenter and hasn't lsot its localness. 

My session sucked but I wore enough holes through the nikes to relace them and hang from the rafters. The era of $10 DCs has begun. The problem is they feel like skating in assless chaps. The toes are fine, but the heel is just … not even there. Maybe I'll eventually get used ot it. Also the session started and ended with a shit eating on a loose tile on the way to the bridge. That side walk sucks.  

2 legit 2 quit

Sometimes, it's hard to put these experiences into words. Which is the point.

I  worked the 996+a few, (why are the Chinese so lazy?) and heard about a session that kicked off at city hall station. I showed up 30 min late and rode the sidewalk up and down frantically, through the human terrain, which was thick and nasty. Eventually, RMJ showed up, and then eventually eventually, so did IM. We tried to find a toilet, and failed, but then went across  a few streets to a crazy new plaza, in the shadow of 101. It's not a new plaza, per se, but I haven't been that way in so long that so many new buildings are going up in that area that it's like a new city now.

The first spot was a low, pink marble curb. It's a plaza, and has some tall ledges, and a couple of tall tall ledges at the 5 stair level. The low curb is down sloped, so it's super hard to lock into. Eventually, I got a few, in both directions. The other guys got better ones, and I was getting pumped up, because I was coming down from three beers, and was feeling loosey goosey.

RMJ was the tour guide. He took us to the next spot, which was the plaza of an international hotel chain. in the middle of their car/check in area is a large, chest high fountain, which can be **** ****** and which was **********, copiously, by my friends. It's too steep for me, so I watched them weave between taxis and ubers (fuck taxi) and we left without even being kicked out.

After that, we skated a block to another ledge plaza. The stone was pink. We skated it. I got a water and a tuna fish sandwich from seven. I took pictures of ee ling ee, like a tourist. It's really the best building on earth. next door was a red slappy curb. so we slappied it for a while. it was fun.

After that, we were suddenly at bank of bank of china, because rmj is really good tour guiding. Its a world famous spot, with a series of wall rides to grinds, culminating in a long long seven stair, waxed at about head height, form the top. I'm not saying no one can actually skate it, i'm just saying I don't know who the fuck could ever skate that spot in that way. Anyway, the only time Ihaven't been immediately greeted by security there was a few years ago, when  I skated it with an American.

For some reason, tonight was a lucky night. we got about 20 min, with many wall rides and some bank tircks. Then security came, so we said sorry and dipped odwn the hill. Where we skated for half na hour, it was a flatground paradise, well lit and all marble for blocks. Eventually, someone called the cops, and a pair of security came out like the building was on fire, and hid behind the bushes, 3m away, to watch what we were doing. What we were doing was leaving, because why skate a place that's unwelcoming if you live in skate heaven.

Then we got kicked out of a spot that is a pair of banks, with a two stair plastic grind in between. We got enough time there that IM and I had sat down to talk by the time security came out. It's a unique and classic spot.

From there, an unnamed member of the crew had to drop a deuce, and did so at an mrt station. Im and I skated my empty Sapporo can and I slammed on a ******.

weh n rmj came back out, we saw the UFO dog truck. I heard it from three blocks away.

We skated back across the city, crouching, touching obstables and slapping signs, touching cars and rubbing taxis.

we got more beer and skated the bushy banks, which have now been covered with caution tape.

I left the homies there and a zip zinging nooodler of a skate home.

skating is about keeping on skating until you just cant do it anymore.