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Archive for May, 2012

Bubble Time or Bubble Trouble?

Posted in Deep Thoughts, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 23, 2012| 10 Comments »

Looks like Kooky gets another stick on the board this week.  First off let me say that there were a bunch more topics more formidable thrown out there and I am sorry if there are any hard feelings.  Those really good topics require a lot of forethought and planning.  At the moment I am just not up to working that hard.  I was also too lazy to look through all the comments thus I decided the first topic that peaked my interest and made me laugh was getting the green light. 

Kooky asked I write about bubble time of which I think he may have experienced or at least happened a few times during his tenure in the Palace.  He gets 1 point for his efforts.  No one has yet to snag the bonus question I threw out there in last weeks UCB.  As a result I am going to double its value, now worth 2 points!!! Go back find the answer and take the points.  Don’t forget to get those Power of Ten lists in by May 31st or they won’t count for the month. 

Bubble Time

I am crazy as we know and any last strain of sanity I was clinging to all left the building months ago.  I was lost and found myself in depths of my psychotics.   Your not really free until you give up everything you thought you believed in.  I think we get clouded on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis by all sorts of influence both positive and negative that cause us to get lost in what really matters in life. 

I have been lost my whole life, then again maybe being lost is what defines who I am and my ability to exist in this counter dimension.  Over the past ten years I filled my head with all sorts of ideas and beliefs that most of which did not belong to me at all.  I shook a few off here and there, then gained a few more, shook a few off, gained a few more…Do you see a cycle developing?  I let everything, everyone, our society in general turn me into an entity I could not even recognize when staring myself in the mirror.

When you finally remove the painted veil and stare blankly at yourself and are astounded at what you see and who you see then you know it is time for a change.  I had that opportunity and it scared the shit out of me and I did not know how to handle it or life in general.  I coped with this in a menagerie of ways one of which was bubble time.  

When Ades and I first broke up I could not handle my emotions, mainly the random out bursts of anger.  My temper and rage problem was one of the entities I wanted fix in myself.  Some how breaking all the furniture in my apartment over and over again “Dewey Cox” style was not only nonsensical but rather costly.  I began running out of surf boards to smash as well.  Poor Alfie was afraid to come near me. 

One day I was walking in some random park here in town and found a bottle of bubble solution and a giant bubble wand.  Please don’t judge me, I think bubble time is far better then throwing bums shopping carts full of shit over bridges at 3am.  I looked around and there were no children in sight.  I did not want to be stealing some poor kid’s bubble stuff.  No one was around for that matter except some smelly bum passed out in a puddle of his own urine. 

I opened the top of the container and there was a small bubble wand attached to the lid.  I blew a few bubbles and watched them blow away in the wind, reflect the sunlight in pretty little rainbows and ultimately float down to the ground in scrupulous manner before imploding.  I was miserable walking through this park where I was hoping the piss laden bum might stab me with a dirty shank or needle.   But when those bubbles started to soar all around me I became rather jovial.  I was full on giggling.  How I was not committed to a mental institution that day is beyond me. 

I ended up emptying the entire bottle then laid down under a tree and took a blissful nap.  When I came to I proclaimed that I would no longer have negative out bursts of rage or despair, but instead have bubble time.  I went out and bought a dozen bottles of bubble solution (till I realized all I needed was some dish washing liquid and water).  The giant bubble wand just upped the ante even more.  Now I could blow enormous bubbles bigger then my head. 

Whenever I was having a bad day I would go out into my yard and let the bubbles fly.  There were still the occasional fits of rage and depression drinking.  Overall bubble time slowly began to take over.  I am sure there is some psychological disorder for how I dealt with my emotions and probably some type of treatment or drugs.  All I have to say about that is “you can stuff it in a sack” (half point for that reference).   Sometimes its perfectly ok to be crazy.

I must admit I have not had bubble time in a while now.  I have not needed it.  I am proud to say I have learned to keep my emotions down to a controlled elevate.  To this day I still keep a bottle of bubble solution in my car just in case and the bubble wand is hanging on the wall in my kitchen for easy access in an emergency.   What if we could just have bubble time instead of fighting?  What then….BUBBLES YEAH!

 

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I Declare This The Summer Of Alf!!!!

Posted in Deep Thoughts, News From Lisanti Land, tagged , , , , , , , on May 21, 2012| 7 Comments »

I declare this THE SUMMER OF ALF! MEOW

It was a marvelous day in late Spring on the hit television series Seinfeld, Season 8, Episode 22 (I know Im obsessed), when George Costanza (Micheal Alexander) finds out that the Yankees are going to pay him three months severance.  Upon receiving these wonderful tidings he stands up rants about how he will use his time and then “declares it to be the summer of George”.  Everyone has been patiently waiting on the definition of THE SUMMER OF ALF and what it is all about.  Well its time folks, its time!

Before I do I find it most pertinent to set the scene with a little back story.  I am as wordy as Faulkner or Hawthorne.  Too bad I am not nearly as profound and I don’t get paid by the word or at all for that matter.  As most of you know I work as a chef over at Westmont College.  One of the many perks of working for an educational institution is that you get the same breaks as the students.  What does that mean for me; summers off!!! Unfortunately I am not paid for this time.  Luckily my Uncle Sam steps in every year and invests in my vacation.  I’m talking about unemployment people.  Its not my fault there is no work for me.

Every year I am off from the first week in May until the last week or so in August.  This allows for plenty of time for activities.  Last summer I blew it.  I squandered those months moping around Santa Barbara in the hopes that my life would be taken untimely in a horribly painful occurrence.  It didn’t happen.  Why you ask?  Cause I could not get over the loss of my ex-girlfriend.  I really hope unless your new here you did not need that question to be answered.

Fast forward nine months give or take.  My roommate Dan and I were sitting in the living room and I was being all introspective about how I wanted to start living again and making the most out of my life.  No more self pity, loathing, anger, tears, bullshit.  Later that night I wrote “Of Things to Come” which was a comical yet very serious look at the things in my life I wanted to improve on over the coming months.  Upon reading it Dan declared that the summer of 2012 was going to be none other then the Summer of Alf.

I know what your thinking, why is not called The Summer of Chris?  Alfie had just as hard of a time adjusting to our new life as I did.  He had to deal with all the gnarl of me, heroin addict roommates, becoming a heroin addict himself, fleas and overall feline aggravation.  Now a year later his coat is shinny and full again, he is content in his new home and has a minimal amount of fleas.   I say why not call it The summer of Alf! Is that not what we ask in Lisanti Land when someone asks the question “why”?

WHY NOT! That is what The Summer of Alf is all about.  Its about taking the bull by the horns and seizing every minute of every day.  I am not going to squander a moment.  Its all going to be done in a positive, classy manner.  I am not going to rehash “Of Things to Come” you can go back and read it for yourselves.  I am going to have fun, get things done, be the remarkable, strong honorable, trust worthy person I had set out to be at the very start.  People are going to look up to me cause I am a solid human being and not some circus sideshow act.

My mother wrote me a letter when I first moved out here to California.  In the letter she discusses how she believed in me and how I was capable of doing anything I wanted as long as I put my mind to it.  That she was always hard on me cause she expected nothing but the best I could do.   I found that letter while cleaning out my junk draws a month before any of this Summer of Alf business even started and hung it up on my wall.

Its been a long time since I have done the absolute best I could possibly do.  Its about time I started doing it again.  The Summer of Alf has no limitations, no preconceived notions, no bull shit.  The Summer of Alf is the beginning of the rest of my life.  Big things are coming and expect to read and be entertained by all of it.  In the first week I threw an eight guest four course dinner party and just got back from a ridiculous jaunt up in San Fransisco, which you are soon to read about!

THE SUMMER OF ALF!!!!!!!

The Summer of Alf is all about Puffins doing lude activities on cereal boxes? So much for trying to be classy.

In all seriousness what it all comes down to is the taking things in strides. Me already making the most out of the Summer of Alf. Look at the size of that cup!

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Technical Difficulties

Posted in Anger, News From Lisanti Land, tagged , , , , , on May 17, 2012| 6 Comments »

I picked up some bull shit computer virus on Sunday and have been going nuts trying to fix my shit.  I have limited access to most of the features on my computer thus leaving me with limited time or resource to blog.  Know I am in the process of getting things back on track and I promise I will sit down and write something here soon.  I have been continuing and will be continuing to update the surflog.

“The Summer of Alf” has officially begun.  I will post a blog on that in the next day or so.

Please bear with me and I hope to be operating at full capacity by mid week next week the latest.  Then it will be business as usual.  I am going to San Francisco for he weekend so I am sure I will have plenty to say about that here as well.

With out my computer to entertain me I end up occupying my time by making things out of food.

How I feel right now:

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Tail Free Baby!!!

Posted in Surfing, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 11, 2012| 14 Comments »

This weeks UCB and the first of the quarter makes a victor of Kooky Kyle, who by the way has already accrued one bonus point in the surflog.  With this win he is already starting out strong with 2.5pts.   He asked I write about how to successfully bring tail free reos back into the wave face.  Well Kooky the answer is quite simple: Don’t suck so bad a surfing.  Either that or “Kill Yourself” (what song and by what artist is that from for 1.5 UCB points, answer in the comments and link the you tube video and I am looking for one distinct song.  It should be obvious if you know it).

In all seriousness tail free surfing is one of the hardest maneuver inversions in surfing to control and successfully complete.  At the same time if you can pull one off it both looks and feels sick.  The old school guys like to call it “flicky surfing” and in a way that is true.  I mean when you blow the tail out in most instances you are burning a lot of speed and taking away from the energy that say a full rail hit might incur .  For me personally I would rather blow my tail then do a huge gaff any day.  If you can get them down eventually you can add power and finesse on top of radicalness to them.  Just look at the tour guys like Slater or Wilko.  Dane Reynolds’ tail free hits are power and insanity.  I am constantly overwhelmed on how far he can take a tail free turn and come back in.

Frontside 

Freeing the tail Frontside is all about being out of control yet in control all at the same time.

The first step to a good tail free maneuver is just the same as any lip related move, a good bottom turn.  Drop into a wave and make sure it has a steep section with a lip that is going to throw out.  It is near impossible to do a tail free hit on a mushy or flat section.  As your bottom turning, pivot off your toes and lean into your inside rail.  On larger waves it helps if you even touch the water with your back hand almost pulling yourself back up into the face.  Watch any clip of Mick Fanning for a perfect example.

In this frame I am at the end of my bottom turn, all my weight is on my toes and I have just shifted the bulk of my weight from my front foot to my back foot. This will allow me to climb up the face of the wave towards the lip. If you notice my head is looking toward the cascading lip I am about to hit.

Although this is not the same sequence this is what the next step from the above bottom turn would yield. At this point I have climbed up the face and have about half my board above the lip and have began to put all my weight on my heels. I am about to also kick the tail and rest of my body up over the lip. Which you will see in the next two frames.

The pivot will allow you and your board to begin to climb back up the face of the wave.  As your approaching the lip wait until your nose is beginning to come over the lip before counter acting the turn as shown in the above frame.  At this point counter your weight over the outside rail by leaning on your heels.  If you over exaggerate at this point you will be forced to come back in lay back and in most cases losing the wave in the process.  Be sure also not to over throw the hit or you will just be pushed off the back of the wave.  By overthrowing I mean waiting too long to counter act the turn.  Also when finally approaching the lip as shown above you must kick the rest of your weight and board forward by pushing up toward the lip with your legs while keeping your upper body straight.  The below sequence demonstrates this.

In frame one I have just finished kicking the rest of my board and body out of the wave and am about to become tail free. At this point all of my weight is on my heels and I am about to shift it back over my toes to counter act the kicking out of the tail.
In Frame two I am completely free of the wave except for my inside rail. Keep in mind this is a very inverted look at the maneuver. At this point you should just be loose and wait for the rest of your board to catch back with the wave.

At this point you are completely weightless and it is a rather awesome feeling and sight if you have done it correctly.  By that I mean your posture should be in tact even though the only thing left inside the wave is your inside rail sort of as demonstrated in the above second frame or the very first photo in the beginning of the fronside tutorial.  Now you just need to wait for the rest of your board to catch back into the lip.  This is where the hard part comes in, keeping your body   over your board.  This is the one of the most important things in all facets of good surfing.  At this point you want all your weight centered in the middle of the board and on your toe tail.  All your weight on the re-entry should be on your back foot or you are going to dig your nose and pearl or dig your outside rail and fall over it.  Try not to recover in a lay back or in most cases it will be the end of your ride unless you are on a perfect wave such as Lowers.

By this point my board has caught back into the wave and I am ready to put my weight back over my board and onto my toes so I can recover and go into my next maneuver.

Once your weight has been center back over your board free fall back down with the lip if your are still in it.  In the case of many inversions you may have actually destroyed the lip in the process and are now in the flats.  Either way it is no problem.  Stabilize yourself for impact.  Once you hit regroup and gather your balance, put your weight back over your toes and go into your next bottom turn.  Or if you did one so gnarly that the wave is done or it was a close out hit claim it.

Everything has reconnected and I’m a just waiting to come back down to the bottom with the wave. Notice all my weight is on my back foot here cause I have buried my nose a little bit and I don’t want it to catch on the way down.

Backside Tail Free Reos
Backside is very similar to frontside with the only real variation being that every thing is opposite.  Once again start with a good bottom turn except all  your weight should be on your heels. Maybe it is because I am goofy foot but I find backside tail free maneuvers way easier to pull off.

All my weight is on my heels and I am spotting the incoming lip.

For the rest of this I am going to refer to the following sequence.
Here is a perfect example of the rest of a clean back side tail free reo.  In the the first frame my weight is all on my heels and I am climbing back up the face.  My nose is pointed 12 o’clock and is above the lip. The second frame is the larger one in the seq. and is the shifting of my weight from my heels to my toes and am about to do the kick up motion we discussed in the front side tutorial. Frame three is the actual kick up motion.  I am pushing my entire board and body over the lip with the force of my legs.  Notice my body is stabilizing the motion, not going with it. Frame 4 my tail is free and I am just going along for the ride.  Frame 5 I am beginning to shift my weight back over my board as my rail and tail catch back with the lip.

Frame 6 is where backside and frontside differ.  On a frontside hit you actually open your body up on the recovery.  Backside is the opposite, you want to crunch up into a ball for the free fall  keeping the majority of your weight over your toes.  Once you begin to fall with the lip open your body up and put your weight back over your heels.  Stabilize your landing and go into your next bottom turn.

No one blows the tail quite as gnarly as Dane.

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Not Surfing My Troubles Away: May 2011 Surfing in Review

Posted in Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 8, 2012| 3 Comments »

May 2011 Surfing in Review

Considering we are 7 days, 14 hours away from the start of the “Summer of Alf”, which may be a benchmark in the history of Lisanti Land and will be described in detail on or around May 16th, the official start date.  I thought it would be right to finally close out 2011 and get the first ever year in a life of Chris Lisanti surfing stats.  In order to do that I first had to compile the stats from May of 2011.  Actually May was a very integral month in my life last year in a very negative way.

The “Summer of Alf” is going to be all about the positive.  Its almost necessary for this recap to happen nearly a year later.  May was it for Adrienne and I, the final cabash.  I spent the greater part of April trying to win her back and by May my efforts had become futile.  It was not long into the month that I found myself packing my bags and moving out of MY APARTMENT  as a result of the situation.  You can read “Bowing Out” and “One Last Perfect Day” if your new here and lost or just want to rehash my pain.  I know I link these regularly but that is because they were some of the hardest yet better pieces I have written here at SurfingRuinedMyLife.net.

The funny thing is when I read them looking back now it amazes me how messed up and confused I was.  As a result my surfing took a toll.  I missed some days, I was frustrated others and a few surfboards got destroyed as a result of drunken tantrums.  I still managed to stay wet as Nick the Kook would say.  I have said it before the only constant in my life in last 21 years has been surfing and I am thankful for every moment that has been bestowed on me in the water.  Here are the numbers of May 2011.

Number of Sessions Surfed: 16
Number of Days Surfed: 15
Time in Water: 27 hours
Number of Waves Surfed: 409
Average Waves Surfed Per Hour: 15

Spots Surfed:
Mesa Lane: 4
Rincon: 3
New Jetty: 3
Santa Clara River Mouth: 2
Emma Wood: 1
La Conchita: 1
Ocean Beach, San Francisco: 1
Waddel Creek, Santa Cruz: 1

Top 3 Sessions:

3. 5/30/11 PM Session: 2-3ft, Mesa Lane
Time in Water: 1hr 20mins
Waves Surfed: 25
After a morning of failed car surfing John and I decided to give Mesa Lane a look.  The wind was right and the tide was not too low making it a definite possibility.   Upon checking it there were tons of glassy little nugget bowls rolling in with a very light crowd.  It was bit on the low tide side but I was kind of frothy for a surf.  The surf was far from epic but I was in crazy surf mode and began pulling and sticking a variety of airs out of which I brought down three ally oops and one really fast backside air reverse.  It was a fun little session to say the least.

2: 5/29/11 PM Session: 2-3ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 2.5hrs
Waves Surfed: 28
Talk about late season crazy wind swell.  I checked the buoys this morning and they were spiking at 12ft.  I knew Rincon would have to have a wave of some sort.  Low tide was around one.  John and I cruised south and on the way down Santa Claus did not look very promising.  The parking lot at Rincon had a fair number of cars in it and some people were walking around with short boards leading me to believe that there might be some waves to surf.  Turned out there was some waist to chest high scrubby wind swell coming into the cove that was semi clean.  At first I as not too enthusiastic but then saw a solid set of three waves roll in that sparked my interest and had us all over it.  I ended up call boxing one wave and snagged at least three good ones and I saw John get a few good ones also.

1: 5/25/11 PM Session: 2-3+ft, North County, Santa Cruz
Time in the Water: 2.5hrs
Waves Surfed: 40
See Blog  Clearing My Head for more details. In short just a buddy of mine and I sharing waves in the middle of nowhere on a well shaped left reef pass.

There you have it the final recap that was needed to complete 2011.  Stay tuned for the entire stats from 2011, an entire year in surfing.  I’m excited.   Check out the “Urban Surfing” blog I wrote back in May of 2011 it some cool surfing and other adventures from this time period.   As always read the surf log for daily updates on my surfing and day to day.

Empty perfection. If you don’t surf then you probably don’t understand how precious this scene is. All you see is a pretty picture of a wave.

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Another Asterisk Victory Courtesy of Sloth

Posted in Anger, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , , , , on May 7, 2012| 18 Comments »

Hey you guys! The numbers are in!

May 1st officially closed the winter quarter and maybe the weakest one both on my part and on yours.  I had a real lack of interest here folks.  Besides Mauriello and Kooky no one even bothered to submit anything.  Then people wonder why I was unmotivated on the UCB front this past quarter.  Whatever I forgive you.  Besides I was too busy getting drunk and fucking up anyhow.  But we are steadily approaching the start of the “Summer of Alf” which officially kicks off Wednesday May 16th.  That means more blogs that are going to be bigger, better and way more bad ass then ever.  There will be laughter, tears, jeers, rants, raves, yet mostly the usual gibberish we have come to love.

It was a two man race and despite the lack of quantity I must say the UCB’s that got written were of a very decent quality. To be honest that is one of the things I am striving for here as of late anyway, quality not quantity.  Here was how the quarter broke down.

John Mauriello takes the cake or the…”waterpik”?
“Your not giving away our waterpik”

1st Place: Mauriello – 4.5points
2nd Place: Kooky Kyle – 3points
Last Place: Everyone Else 😦

Its on for the spring quarter which will run till June 21st.  Its also an abbreviated one thanks to my winter blunder.  That is two power of ten lists and seven UCBs.  I will write the first UCB by the end of the week and that is worth 1.5points, the rest are worth 1point and the Power of tens are worth 2 points.  If you get suggesting then I will get writing.  My hope is to have one UCB a week.

Lets not have our laziness allow the UCB  to end up like this sloth here. “Wake up little friend, oh who killed my pet”

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Of Things to Come…

Posted in Deep Thoughts, Life, News From Lisanti Land, Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2012| 13 Comments »

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone although it is sort of a bull shit holiday that has been over dramatized and commercialized by America in order to sell tequila and cheap shitty Mexican beer.  Seriously Mexicans don’t even really celebrate it.  Many believe today is Mexican Independence Day.  If you thought such you would be wrong .  Mexican Independence Day is actually September 16th.  Cinco de Mayo actually celebrates some battle the Mexican Army won against the French in 1862.  Now it is just another bullshit drinking holiday so that the general public can feel better about going out and getting absolutely shit faced.  

I for one was planning on jumping on the bandwagon.  I mean who am I to pass up an excuse to drink?  Then as I thought about all the fucking idiot amateurs that were going to be out tonight, the incessant lines and excessive cover charges for that reason I quickly got over it.  I went out last night and had an average time at best.  I think I will leave tonight to all fools who need an excuse to get drunk rather then be honest with themselves that they enjoy to get plastered from time to time.   What is with all these drinking holidays falling on a weekend this year?  First St. Pats, now Cinco de Mayo.  They are way more fun on weekdays so everyone who works a normal Monday through Friday week can feel what its like to work the entire day with hangover like us weekend workers do.

America Fuck Yeah!

 

Enough about tonight before I change my mind and cruise to the bar with the idiots and on to my initial reason for writing.  A blog ago or so I wrote about my current lot in life and feelings (see Food for Thought).  In this blog I am going to explore some of my thoughts about moving forward in life.  Take some stock in the direction I would like to see things move for me.  

The Path to Enlightenment

“Before enlightenment, chop wood carry water.  After enlightenment, chop wood carry water”.  This is an old Buddhist proverb I picked up in the brief survey I gave to the study of the religion.  I took from them what suited me and left behind the organization.  My religious views are not to be explored in this blog.  I feel this is a really good mantra to try and follow.  One who is truly enlightened knows he must keep at the path that got him to that point.  

I am constantly striving to find out more about myself, who I am, what I am about and what I am capable of.  I don’t believe many understand such entities of themselves or want to for that matter.  When you start digging into your mind, heart and soul honestly there is much there that is amazing, alarming and somewhat a bit unsettling.  Once you open the flood gates its not like you can turn back.  You must keep moving forward.  I have discovered a bunch about myself in the past few years and even more over the last year.  

The more I learn the less I know. “The wise man knows that he knows nothing at all”.  One thing I do know is that I know what I stand for as a person and what I do not.  I also know that I will not compromise this for anyone or anything and I never have.  I rocked long hair for nearly 16 years despite pressure from my ex-wife, family, society, jobs, etc.  Yeah I finally did cut my hair, but for me.  I entered a new chapter in my life and wanted a new hairstyle to go with it.  I plan on continuing this existential journey through my character and how it interacts both positive and adverse in our society making adjustments where necessary to suit me and no one else.  No one can tell you what you need or want besides you.  That my friends is how I intend to live out my days. 

The Short List
 

These are some things I wish to accomplish over the coming months or at the very least better myself in.  If you don’t have some type of direction then you are just running around like dog chasing his tail.  Here is to moving vertically.

Get Back into Music
I play the saxophones rather well and enjoy doing it.  At one point it was my job and that basically ruined the whole thing for me.  After a very short stint in that industry I burnt out and went rouge.  That was over ten years ago.  I have never stopped playing.  I did a little work last summer in the musical theatre genre that was a blast (see “A Trip Back East” Blog for more on that).  I really want to get back into Jazz.  I’m not even talking about performance.  I would just love to meet a few like minded people who would be stoked on pulling out a real book and blowing from time to time.  So if your in the Santa Barbara area and have a yearning to play some of that Jazz music please hit me up.

Learn to Speak Italian
This is more of a necessity to go with one of my other more long term directions, which I will discuss later on.  I am not sure as of late how to accomplish this task.  At the moment I am leading towards taking classes at Santa Barbara City College.  I was also thinking about trying some of those language tapes as well.  Any suggestions would be very helpful.  Maybe I will just kidnap an Italian, lock him/her in my hall closet, force feed him/her cat food and speak conversational Italian with me on a daily basis.  I could def think of one Italian here in SB that deserves such treatment.
 

Go Surfing As Much As Possible
This plan has already been put into action.  I have been really lazy as far as surfing is concerned over the past year.  Yeah I don’t do it competitively or professionally anymore, but it is my best source of enjoyment, exercise and therapy.  I know we are steadily approaching our off season here in the 805.  There are still plenty of waves that can be enjoyed by the intrepid and willing.  I was once both and want to be once again.  Its always more fun when your out there.  Visit the surf log for my daily surfing escapades and more.

Time to get my grovel on…

Read More Books
I have been very, very lazy on the reading front.  I used get to read nearly two novels a month.  Now I am down to around three a year.  This really puts a damper on my thirst to read as many great works of literature as possible.  I have a rather extensive collection of classics many of which I have sadly yet to read.  

Write More
This one goes all around from blogging, to my novel, to another writing project I have been working, to a possible cooking show my buddy and I are working on pitching, to short stories. I am also in the process of a SurfingRuinedMyLife.net redesign.   

Explore more of the greater Santa Barbara Area
It was not long ago, maybe two years to be somewhat exact that my boy Brennan and I set out to attack a list of 101 free things to do in Santa Barbara.  In the process we did and saw many really fun and amazing things.  Since then I have still been striking out to explore my home albeit not as frequently.  There are plenty of places with in a fifty mile radius or so that I have to check off my list and this may be the summer for it.  No matter what I’m sure you will get to read about the results here.

Just another Santa Barbara Adventure!

 Finish the Coffee Table
Ok this project has been going on for almost two years now and the odds of its completion slim, me ruining it in the attempt very good or finding a better one on craigslist most likely.  You never know at the moment I am feeling very ambitious. We never thought the renovations on the Lisanti Palace would come to pass either.

The current state of my coffee table:(

 

Drink and Party Less
How am I going to accomplish all this you ask?  Well one of the things I am going to cut out is the number of hours I spend per week getting hammered both downtown and at home.  When you drink and party all night you sleep and are sick all day or even days depending. The amount of money such a life style amounts to is preposterous.   That does not mean I am going all Mormon on you.  All it means is I am going to bring things down to a safer more manageable level before I end up dead by 40.  Everything in moderation after all.

The high life…Looks enticing huh? Its not all its cracked up to be.

Grow a Mustache

I DON’T THINK SO…Been there done that scared myself and everyone around me for one week too long.

That is the meat of what I think the “Summer of Alf” (what I am billing the summer of 2012) is going to be all about.  Stay tuned for some of my long term accomplishments soon…And of course regular updates, departments and other fun from Lisanti Land.


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