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Archive for October, 2010

Coffee table Saga, Day 9

Posted in Coffee Table Saga, tagged , , , , , , on October 18, 2010| 4 Comments »

Coffee table Saga Day 9

Table Date: 8/17/10

Hours Worked: 1

Total Hours Worked: 16 ½

Amount of Job done: 39.2%

Money Put Into the Project: $29.73

Total Investment: $83.46

Day 1 –Day 2 –Day3 –Day 4 –Day 5 –Day 6 – Day 7&8 – Day 9

Ok this is kind of a bullshit post cause in actuality nothing has changed in the physical appearance of the table.  No, all I did was get in my car bringing along my friend Brennan who is currently traversing through Spain on Holiday for an undetermined amount of time or until his money runs out.  We took a trip to the hardware store here in town where I deliberated on what to buy after in Day 8 I resolved to try paint stripper as opposed to the current method of painstakingly sanding every nook and cranny.

Turns out that is how the professionals do it anyway.  I decided on some pretty serious chemical that can kill a human in a hundred different ways and in under a minute if not used properly.  The bottle had more warning pictures and messages on it then a tanker truck full of nuclear waste.  This being the case I decided an investment in gloves to be a wise idea as well.

All this extravagant purchasing now puts me out of pocket $28.46 from the original $15 profit I made when I initially purchased this mistake (see Day 1).  I have been getting a lot of inquires about the table as of lately so I thought I would give everyone a little update on the progress or in this case lack there of.

I have Thursday and Friday off this week and may give the table a revisit on one of those two days or both considering the surf is going to be rather small those days.  Then again conditions look good for a possible Jalama excursion so I guess its up in the air really.  Heck who am I kidding this project still has a 67% chance of ending up a pile sticks after being subjected to my personal frustration towards it.  Time will tell my friends, time will tell.

Here is all the junk I bought more then a month ago that I still have not used. I thought for good measure I would take the picture of them on the neglected coffee table.

Here is all the junk I bought more then a month ago that I still have not used. I thought for good measure I would take the picture of them on the neglected coffee table.

I think the picture says it all.

While searching for pictures of bulls in the act of taking a shit I found this and just had to post it.

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Fried Tofu Stir Fry in a Sesame Sauce

Posted in Recipe D'Jour, tagged , , , , on October 15, 2010| 1 Comment »

Fried Tofu Stir Fry in a Sesame Sauce
Over White Rice


I have always loved Sesame chicken and other like varieties at all types of eateries of the Asian sector.  Then at work we did a faux version of this with fried tofu.  I thought I would give the real McCoy a shot myself.  Im not a big fan of tofu but fried it makes a rather tasty treat.  As far as the sauce goes you can use it over anything, beef, Chicken, seafood etc.  This one is a bit tricky to make so if you have any questions or need help feel free to hit me up for extra insight.

Total Cost: $11.85

Feeds 4-6 people

Ingredient List:

  • Sesame Sauce
    • Brown Sugar – 1 ½ Cup
    • Soy Sauce – 3 Tablespoons
    • Rice Vinegar – ¼ Cup
    • Vegetable Oil – 1 tablespoon
    • Garlic – 1 clove (minced)
    • Sesame Oil – 2 table spoons
    • Dried Chile – 2 (minced)
    • Sesame seeds – ½ cup (paste,roasted)
    • Salt – 1 tablespoon
    • Pepper – 1 teaspoon
    • Ginger – 1 ½ oz (minced)
    • Scallions – 1 oz (minced)
    • Corn starch  – ¼ cup
  • Green Pepper – ½ (chopped Julienne)
  • Red Pepper – ½ (chopped Julienne)
  • Sweet Onion – ½ (chopped Julienne)
  • Sugar Snap Peas – 12 (whole)
  • Shitake Mushrooms – 8 (Chopped)
  • Tofu – 14 oz (cubed)
  • Sesame Seeds – ¼ cup to liking (roasted)
  • Ginger – 3 oz (grated)
  • Vegetable Oil – 1/3 cup
  • White Rice

Step 1: Make the Sesame Sauce – This step is optional since you can buy bottled sesame sauce in any supermarket.  Like pasta sauce I find something intricate such as this is better made fresh.  In a measuring cup dissolve 1 ½ cup of Brown sugar and ¼ cup of Corn Starch in about 1/3 a cup of warm water or so.  Stir vigorously.  In a blender combine all of the ingredients in the Sesame Sauce bullet of Ingredient list and the sugar, water, cornstarch mixture you just made.  Blend on high till everything is one liquid consistency.  No need to chop up raw ingredients such as garlic, ginger, chilies, and sesame seeds they will puree and then blend into the conglomerate.  Should blend around 5-7 minutes.

Step 2: Cook White Rice – See Blog on “How To Cook Rice”

Step 3: Fry Tofu – Cut Tofu into ¼” cubes.  In a plate or mixing bowl whisk together 1 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper and 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds.  Roll tofu cubes in flour mixture till completely covered.  On a high flame in a medium size frying pan filled with 1/3 cup of vegetable oil fry tofu till golden brown.

 

The flouring process

 

Step 4: Chop and Sautee Vegetables – Cut all vegetables as described in the ingredient list and grate the ginger. In a wok (or large frying pan, although if I were you I would invest in a wok for nothing makes stir fry better) heat up 1/3 cup of vegetable oil.  When hot add in Green and Red Pepper, ginger, Onion and Zucchini Sautee for around 5 minutes then add mushrooms, peas and add fried tofu.  Throw in some salt and pepper also.

 

This is an idea of how your vegetables should look after being chopped.

 

Step 5: Cook Sesame Sauce – Pour blended Sesame sauce into a small saucepot and bring to a boil, stir constantly.  Reduce flame and let simmer for 3-5 minutes till sauce gets thick.

Step 6: Put It All Together – Pour sesame sauce into wok over entire stir fry on a medium flame and mix together with a spatula, also add ¼ cup of sesame seeds as well.  Sautee entire mixture for 3-5 minutes.  Serve over white rice and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top for look and texture.

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Why You Should Root For Kelly Slater (UCB)

Posted in Surfing, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , on October 14, 2010| 4 Comments »

Well I have to commend everyone for stepping up the ante in the UCB race this quarter.  I have gotten so many submissions it made picking a winner this week rather challenging.  I don’t want to sound like a whinny bitch but if we could try and use surfingruinedmylife.com comments to post future submissions I would be greatly appreciative.  You see word press, my server allows me to compile all comments onto one page making it very easy to sort through all of your entries.

It’s a bit more time consuming when I have to check through days of face book comments, emails, myspace, etc.  I will still take submissions through those mediums but I definitely prefer it if you post here.  Its really easy all you have to do is set up a user name and password.  It only takes like a minute of you time and then you can leave lude comments on my blog whenever you like.

This weeks victory goes to Nick the Kook who suggested I write about Slater’s 10th title run.  At the time of his posting I was not even considering this topic, but just recently Kelly won the Portugal event of the world tour bringing him within spitting distance of title number 10.  His clinching it is almost eminent.

Slater gets a bad rep sometimes in surfing with people claiming they are tired of him winning or that he gets over scored or is a sell out.  I have heard everything.  Fuck man the guy rips, flat out rips.  He has dominated the sport now for over 20 years.  The guy is a living legend.

Not to mention he is one of the coolest people to surf with in the water.  At the most crowded days at both Rincon and Malibu he never drops in on anyone despite the fact that people will burn him out of spite.  Even when such an instance occurs Kelly is still smiling.  He is a true testament to the human spirit and that anything really is possible.

Here was a poor kid from a broken home growing up in south Florida surfing the crappiest waves ever.  From that he managed to break every record in professional surfing.  He misses round one of events cause he is off scoring waves someplace else.  He brought surfing into the limelight through his dominance.  Everyone knows who Kelly Slater is even people who know very little about surfing at all.

He was once voted one of Time Magazine’s most beautiful people, was on network television, toured in a terrible rock band, dated super models.  How can you hate on a guy like that.  Kelly is living a dream and if you have a dream too then there is no reason to be angry at a person living his.  At 38 years old he has shown us all that its possible to high performance surf well into our later years.  Thanks to Slater you don’t have to stop doing airs at thirty.

New School, Old School, Mod col, whatever, Slater has dominated them all.  I think we will be hard pressed to see anyone for a long time rip down the dynasty Kelly Slater has built.  When he takes the world title for the tenth time no one will be happier for him then me.  Every time Im doing something hard and want to give up I always think about Slater and how hard it must have been for him to remain dominant all these years and I put my head down and keep at it.  Thank you Slater for giving me something to believe in.

 

After all these years of winning he is still stoked.

 

 

 

Who says Slater cant keep up with the kids?

 

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Another Altercation in the Line Up

Posted in Anger, Surfing on October 13, 2010| 6 Comments »

Im a pretty mellow dude in the water these days, sure I can be somewhat scrappy and if its fun a super frother, but overall compared to how I was five years ago Im a kitten.  I try and keep to myself and get whatever waves come to me.  This being the case when an incident such as the proceeding story happens I find myself quite dumfounded over the whole scene.  Every time I reflect on said situation I lose a little more respect for surfers in general, the state of modern surf society on a whole and adds to my utter disgust of California.

At one time surfing was a brotherhood and in many places it still is.  A hierarchy used exist among her devoted few.  There was an unwritten set of rules, a heavily enforced code of ethics.  There was a certain camaraderie in knowing that you shared something as remarkable as riding moving masses of water with another.  Not these days.  These days its all about water proof ipods, video clips, stickers on one’s board, wave gluttony, burning, snaking, image and the almighty dollar.  That is just about enough of my foolish divination and onto my tale of another surfing misadventure.

Yesterday afternoon (10/12) I was lucky enough to get out of work an hour earlier then usual and with near still wind and solid combo swell in the water it was a very celebrated affair.  I began cruising south with the intention to surf anywhere besides Rincon considering the frustrating morning session I endured there (see Surflog for details on that session).  Passing by Rincon it was inconsistent and far more crowded then I wanted to deal with and that is an observation made from doing the look back of death on the 101 at 65 miles an hour.

I headed to Pitas to see if there was a wave beginning to materialize there with the steadily dropping tide.  As I was ruling out the hit or miss point I got a call from my buddy Ryan down in Ventura claiming Hollywood by the Sea to be chest to head, glassy and fun A-frame peaks up and down the beach.  Hollywood is one of those places that can give you an epic session or a royal class A skunking.  Luckily for me Ryan is the best source I have for surfing south of Rincon and every time he calls Hollywood I score.

As I was leaving Pitas I ran into Lindsay who was on her way to Rincon after a somewhat fun session at Emma Wood.  When I told her my plans it did not take more then a second to park her car and jump in with me.  I don’t know if I had heavy foot syndrome from too much stoke but I made remarkable time.  Sure enough upon pulling up it was as good as Ryan had described if not better.

There were just killable peaks as far as you could see north and south from the beach with maybe 10-15 guys spread out.  If there were three to four guys to a peak it was a lot and plenty of empty ones as well.  Some of the insiders even barreled a little bit.  The first hour was magical just a bunch of surfers hooting and hollering and having the best time ever, a sight rarely shared by everyone in a California line up.

Lindsay and I were kind of sitting this peak to the south on the inside all to ourselves when I hear this guy paddling out start screaming “Go back to Ventura, get the fuck out of here, this is not New Jetty, its Oxnard”.  I did not think this person was talking to me in particular because first off the line up was empty and I was surfing by myself and number two Im from Santa Barbara.  As this was going down a serious set began to roll in and it was one of the best lefts I had seen all day.

I immediately scratched to the outside and put myself in perfect position for the wave.  As Im paddling into it the mother fucker I described above swung around right next to me for an uncalled for spiteful burn.  Observing the situation I dropped way in front of the wave into a long bottom turn to avoid getting run over.  Dude ended up eating shit anyhow and I got three turns and an attempted corrupt flip off the close out, leaving me easily 75 to 100 yards down the beach.

I paddle back out and I see this angry dude come paddling at me full bore. I have been in these situations plenty of times before and assumed things were going to get ugly, but I had at least five people two of which are bigger guys who I knew would get my back if it went to blows on the beach although I was hoping it would not come to that.  This irate person paddles right up to me and stabs me in the chest with the nose of his board.

Then yells at me to take my “stupid long hair, J7 surfboard, tell Jason Fiest he can suck his dick and go home”.  After which he took a swing at my face with the nose of his board, which I blocked with my own board taking a small pressure dent in the process.  Then he says “this is not New Jetty brah, keep your shit in Ventura where it belongs and took a swing at my head with his fist.

I dodged that one too and luckily a wave came right after and I jumped on it and surfed it left as far down the beach as I could to get away.  Unfortunately this guy was driven and paddled at me again.  This time my friend Ryan, who is a big dude got in the middle and broke the thing up and then the rest of the line up took my side of the controversy and after a few more words he wisely left.

Turns out the 411 on him was that he lost his job and with that his health plan enabling him not to get his psyche medication for his bi-polar disorder and he was getting evicted from his apartment, which happened to be right across the street from where I was surfing.  This guy saw me paddle out and came out with the intention to fuck me up.  Maybe he thought I was the boogieman or something?  All I know is that his eyes were all gnarly looking when he was getting into it with me.

On another note he has been holding this grudge against me for paddling around him at New Jetty a year ago in a session I cant even recall.  Im not really a paddler.  If I paddle around someone it is because they are not sitting deep enough, are missing good waves or are just a line up buoy.   You east coasters might not understand what that is (unless they have infiltrated your lineups as well), but a buoy is some one who paddles out, does not catch any waves, mostly getting in the way but sometimes serving as good line up markers.  In California they are in no short supply.

Whatever the case this dude was willing to kill me over however miniscule this incident was that took place more then a year ago that I can’t even recall.   Upon his departure things went back to normal and everyone resumed having a decent session but for me there was a lingering bad taste on the whole thing.  Towards dark we all got out of the water together.

When we got to the parking lot guess who was waiting there all changed, accompanied by his dog?  That’s right psycho boy.  He starts yelling never come back here again at me and his dog was barking.  Then Ryan was able to distract him with some neutral conversation, remember the guy was bipolar.  At that cue Lindsay and I booked it to my car jumped in with our suits still on and got the fuck out of there.

The surf was fun but you can bet your ass it was not worth getting shanked over.  Just when I was complaining about how my life was getting boring its more of the same courtesy of another California head case.  I know there is better place to live then this and when I find it I will be the first to let you know.

***If you like blogs like this I update my surf  log section miniature blogs of every surf session I partake in.

 

Here is a picture of some silly scallions to represent then many faces of Bipolar disorder.

 

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Back In Time (Blast From The Past: 2010)

Posted in Blast from the past 2010, Deep Thoughts, tagged , on October 10, 2010| 3 Comments »

This weeks Blast from the past is from the rather recent past, March of 2010, but being that I quoted it in Groovin’ High I felt it prudent to repost the blog here at SurfingRuinedMyLife.net as opposed to just linking the Myspace since I am trying to eradicate that link all together.  This was originally a UCB requested by none other then Kooky Kyle on my thoughts about time travel.  As always anything in red I added to the blog for this most recent posting.

This week’s UCB is won by Kooky Kyle despite my irate feelings towards him for not showing up to his scheduled Chris Lisanti Adventure Tour and subsequently causing me to miss an all expense paid trip to Costa Rica (for more on this you will have to wait for this week’s week in review blog) the kid still manages to throw down some of the best and most frequent submissions of topics. Him not coming out to SB was his loss anyway Im sure it was much more fun for him to sit around Wrightsville with his thumb up his ass on spring break instead of running wild in Santa Barbara. I was planning on banning Kooky from my home here for life, but then he put down a healthy deposit on a J7 for me thus rightfully atoning for his impetuousness. Ironically the board ended up being to robust for me forcing me to sell it Mauriello for a deal and a half. Kooky asked if Doc Brown showed up in the Flux capacitor laden Delorean and offered me the keys to car when and where would I travel to in the many folds of the time travel nexus or maybe I would just settle for a time traveling phone booth and George Carlin (props if you know what I am referencing in this last part).

To be honest as enticing as time travel is the complexity, dangers to humanity, damage to the time space continuum and overall responsibility involved is way to much for me. If we are based in a single universe time travel is impossible as a direct result to causality. Say you travel back in time and prevent your own personal conception, then you would have never existed to travel back in time in the first place. Yet if you wish to think of the possibility to the existence of an infinite number of universes as proposed through quantum physics stating that for every situation encounter each possible outcome is played out thus splitting that one instance into as many sub-universes as possible and then those will branch off and so on and so forth making an infinite number of universes existing at the same moment. In this case then you would be able to travel in time and prevent your own personal existence cause it would only be in on possible universe that would not exist.

If the latter example then technically are you really traveling in time or just another out come of your original decision to travel through time in the first place and then what is the actual reality of the world you have traveled too? Lost yet. Time travel is pretty fucking complicated. That is just the little inkling of research that I have done on the topic over the years considering it is a topic that has captivated me since I was young.

Science aside lets for arguments sake go against the above idea of multiple dimensions and look at time travel in the pure Hollywood sense of things. Using “Back to the Future” for example where you type the date and time in and are then transported in that very spot to whatever time you plot.  If you were to do this haven’t you already drastically changed the course of history? We don’t really know how very little change can eventually kick off a catastrophic event. Look at a fist size rock for example sitting on the edge of a cliff. Maybe when your time machine lands and taps that rock over the cliff. That rock hits into other rocks, which hit other rocks and next thing you know you have landslide.

Once you step out of that time machine you have already changed history. How drastic completely depends on circumstance. Then what future would you be going back to if you could even get there? Our universe is wholly based upon causality and the cause and effect to the time travel that we speak of may take a heavier toll then we can even imagine. The whole business is a little too much for my feeble brain to get a handle on. Sorry but I think I will keep my feet firmly planted here in 2010 and hope that humans never decide to travel in time, although if we are going with the universe based on causality then time travel could have already happen and this is the result? The whole the thing is an endless web of mind fuck.

Doc Brown Says it all right there.

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Minestrone Soup

Posted in Recipe D'Jour, tagged , , , on October 8, 2010| 2 Comments »

Minestrone Soup
In a Bread Bowl

 

 

Ahhh! Culinary delight.

 

 

Im not going to lie soups are definitely a department I have been lacking in.  Its not for a deficiency in ability but more just a lack of propriety on my part.  I am not really a soup eater.  To me a soup is something you have to warm you up on a cold winters day, maybe a light snack and in both cases I have had no problem just throwing on some pasta and a chicken or beef bouillon cube.  Since I am trying and broaden my horizons and get my menu up I figured I would give one a go.  I have always enjoyed Minestrone Soup out and decided why not give it a shot.

Total Cost: $12.85
Feeds about 4-6 people (as soup, if you using bread bowl you must add in the cost of one roll per person)

 

Ingredient List:

  • Vegetable Broth/Stock – 3 cups
  • Vegetable Bouillon Cube – 1 cube
  • Diced Tomatoes – 28 oz (canned or fresh)
  • White Cannellini Beans – 15oz (canned)
  • Celery – 2 stalks
  • Red Onion – 1 (Chopped Julienne)
  • Carrots – 2 (Chopped Julienne)
  • Yellow Squash – 1 (Chopped Julienne)
  • Zucchini – 1 (Chopped Julienne)
  • Italian Brown Mushrooms – 8 (chopped Quartered)
  • Spinach – 2 cups – (Fresh, Rough chop)
  • Ditalini Pasta – 8 oz
  • Salt – 2 Table Spoons (or as see fit)
  • Pepper – 1 Table Spoon
  • Oregano – 2 Table Spoons (Dry chopped)
  • Sage – 1 Tea Spoon (Dry)
  • Thyme – ½ Tea Spoon (Dry)
  • Bay Leaves – 2
  • Parmesan Cheese – 4 Table Spoons
  • Basil – 1 Table Spoon
  • Parsley – 1 Tea Spoon (Dry or fresh, Chopped)
  • Sour Dough Rolls – 6-8” diameter, 1 roll per person if making bread bowls

 

Step 1: Prep Vegetables – Take Zucchini and Squash, cut into thirds or fourths long ways, then julienne on an angle the length of vegetable. Take celery remove leafy tops cut in half long ways, starting at the wide white bottom of stalk to about half way up, then cut the length of stalk julienne on an angle. Peel Red Onion, cut in half down middle, then long ways, half both halves, cut julienne.  Peel carrots, cut off tip and back.  Then cut in half long ways, then half both halves long ways as well.  Cut julienne on an angle. Quarter mushrooms from the center.  Dice tomatoes or used pre-diced canned ones (I used canned in this instance).  Roughly chop Spinach.

This is what I mean by cutting something Julienne, its just a fancy way of saying uniformly sliced.

Step 2: Combine Vegetables and Stock in Slow Cooker – In a slow cooker combine vegetable stock, vegetable bouillon cube, Cannellini Beans, all of the vegetables you prepared in step one, Oregano, Sage, Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Bay Leaves, Basil, Parsley.  Set slow cooker on high and let stay for around 6-8+ hours, the longer the better in most cases when it comes to slow cooking.  If you don’t have a slow cooker this can be done on a low flame in a sizable boiling pot for around the same amount of time, of course when cooking on a range you should not leave it unattended.  Remember what Smokey the Bear says “Only you can prevent fires”.

Step 3: Cook Pasta – In a medium size boiling pot cook pasta till done probably around 10-12 minutes at boil.  Strain pasta when cooked.

Step 4: Combine All Ingredients – In a large boiling pot combine pasta and your now finished slow cooked concoction.  Bring to a boil and leave for around 8-10 minutes, add any extra spices as you see fit.  Around 6 minutes into the boiling stir in Parmesan Cheese.

The culmination of all your ingredients.

The culmination of all your ingredients.

Step 5 (optional): Make Bread Bowl – Take roll and cut about a 4-5” diameter circle being careful to not cut through the bottom of the bread.  I would say cut about three quarters of the way in.  Remove cut out and turn the inside of roll into a bowl using your fingers to compress the bread.  Save the tops for dipping!  Pour finished soup into bread bowls for a scrumptious looking meal.

The bread bowl pre-soup.

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The Essence of the Backside Bottom Turn

Posted in Surf Tips, Surfing, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , on October 7, 2010| 1 Comment »

Mark Occhilupo has arguably one of the best backsides in surfing, ever.

This weeks UCB makes a victor of Kooky Kyle whom is getting yet again back on a roll with two wins in a row.  If he gets a hat trick (three in a row) he will be awarded an extra half point.  He suggested I right about the essence of the backside bottom turn.  Since it is officially Rincon season I figured why not.

Backside surfing is the proverbial double edged sword.  Those who have it mastered are either goofy foots living in the northern hemisphere or world class surfers in general.  Everyone respects a surfer with a strong backside.  It’s the corner stone to solid surfing, the ability to go both left and right with out a care in the world.

 

For me being a goofy foot born and bred in the mainly right dominated beach break of northern New Jersey backside surfing was never a consideration but just another instinct like breathing.  The funny thing is I surf with so many people, especially here in Santa Barbara who always are hesitant to go backside.  It seems too, that regular foots will always take a right over a left when they can find them, while a goofy will take a right over left at times.

 

Personally I almost find it more enjoyable to have my back against the wall.  Surfing backside allows me in many cases to fit better into the barrel and draw that picturesque backside bottom turn.  The backside bottom turn may be the one of the most ascetic yet highly functional moves in surfing.   I mean lets face it good backside surfing is completely based off your ability to get out in front of the wave any way.  How is that done?  The backside bottom turn.

 

I find it to be one of my favorite feelings, next to getting barreled and doing a massive air.  There is nothing like the way a perfect backside bottom turn rings home through your lions.  The initial drop straight down in front of the wave pulling as far straight as you can before losing the wave.  Then at the moment when it feels like all could be lost, make it or break it, you lean back on your inside rail with your back foot, un weight your front foot and all of a sudden with all the natural pull of the ocean and your body weight you feel the inertia of being catapulted back into the steadily crashing lip.

 

The size, length and shape of the wave will distinguish the extent and gnarlieness of the turn itself.  After all you can do the best bottom turn in the world but if it does not amount to anything then it was all for nil.  Its winter time now so for me it is finally back to nothing but long fast hard backside bottom turns for ridiculous amounts of distance at many of the various points around, but mainly reserved for Rincon.  I love winter.

Here is my lousy backside bottom turn.

Here it is closer up.

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Lisanti Book Club: Book IV, The Morgesons

Posted in Lisanti Book Club, tagged , , , on October 4, 2010| 4 Comments »

Book IV: The Morgesons by Elizabeth Stoddard, First Published in 1862, 253 Pages.

Finally onto a new book.  With my new job my reading time has diminished immensely.  I went from reading around 60 pages a day to ten.  Im taking a break from British literature for a stay in American literature.  American writing always gets a bad rep when compared to that of the English.  Even Americans condemn their own art form.  Shit where did most of the famous American writers come from anyway?  Take a guess, Britain.

Elizabeth Stoddard is considered one of the more intelligent female writers of her time, yet receives little accolade for her accomplishments and is often likened to a female Nathaniel Hawthorne.  The Morgesons is considered one of her best works.  I scored it at thrift shop for fifty cents ironically what the novel probably would have cost in hard cover back when it was initially published.  Im just starting this book now so we will see how it goes as always feel free to grab a copy and read it with me.

Summary of Book III: The Adventures of David Simple, Sarah Fielding
At first I found this book to be rather a bore with a some what simple plot, no pun intended, of an honest man in a dishonest world on a quest to find another honest good hearted companion to share his fortune with.  The book’s intention was to satirize the vileness of human behavior towards one another through the example of the main character, David Simple and his journey through life.

Although the book takes place in 18th century England most if not all the stereo types and the book’s end message hold true today.  It really proves the expression, one I am rather fond of that “no good deed goes unpunished”.  If you missed it I would highly recommend picking it up and giving it a read. Part one is slow, but part two completely makes up for it.

Book I: Adam Bede
BookII: Within the Hollow Crown
Book III: The Adventures of David Simple

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I’ll Have My Cake and Eat it Too (UCB)

Posted in Surfing, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This week Kooky Kyle strikes back getting a star on the board.  Got to be honest people its still a two way street between Kooky and Mauriello.  Now that we are myspace free there really is no reason not to play.  Kooky asked what I would rather surf, Sand sucking barrels or perfect lined up waves such as Trestles.

The answer my friend is that I will take both.  As a matter of fact I live on a wave, you may have heard of it, Sand Spit that offers both sand sucking barrels and rip able walls.  Also Rincon on Low tide will barrel like a motherfucker and also allow for plenty of performance.  El Capitan is a crazy heavy barrel that also offers high performance surfing.  I live within a 15 mile radius of all these waves.

There are waves like this all over the world.  J-Bay and Snapper Rocks offer great barrels and rip able sections.  If you give me the choice of Beach, Reef, or Point Break, I will always take the point break no contest.  On a beach break you may get a handful of days a year where every wave is perfect but 90% of the time your bobbing and weaving and fishing through close outs lucky to find a half dozen good ones at best.  Meanwhile at a point even the not so perfect waves are pretty damn killable.  As far as barreling reefs go I find them fun to visit but would get bored of just pulling in everyday.

Sand Spit doing its thing.

Snapper Rocks, barrel and performance.

El Capitan, Need I say anymore?

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