Animals and the society we live in.

Has anyone actually read any of the articles surrounding what happened in Ohio with the animals that were on the loose?

Here's a summary: Dude had a bunch of wild/exotic animals on his private animal farm, there were reports he was abusing some of the animals, and then he let them all go into the public just before killing himself. Authorities did the best they could to keep everyone and everything safe, and have the support of animal experts.

Yeah, it's super unfortunate and heartbreaking that all those animals had to be killed (there were a few that survived and are being cared for at the Columbus Zoo); I'm all for animal rights and for treating animals ethically and all that, but what the fuck else could be done? At some point you've got to open your mind and weigh all the options. I'm pretty sure if you knew all these wild animals - that have been kept captive, possibly abused, and can potentially kill a human within seconds if even slightly provoked (even unintentionally) - were out roaming around unaccounted for, if you came face to face with one of these animals, you would more likely than not do whatever you could to not get killed. They saved the animals they could, they tried to lure them back to the compound so they could lock them up again, but in the end, we end up with a story about people looking out for the health and well-being of other people.

And isn't that what a community, or even a society, should be? To have each other's back and to care for one another? It sucks that it had to be under these circumstances, but at least there's some hope that people can make these tough decisions to make sure their neighbor, who they may or may not know, doesn't die.

A not-so-lonely Friday night. (Or "Yet another reason skateboarding is fucking awesome.")

A couple of Fridays ago, I decided to take a last minute solo trip up to San Francisco.

It had been a rough week for me: I've been going through some emotional stuff lately; the work week was rough, since I was pulling triple duty most of the week (when single duty is pretty much impossible for me already); I finally had enough of my setup (along with keeping all my anger and frustration inside) and focused my skateboard earlier in the week (first time I've done that in quite a while), so I hadn't skated for a while when I wanted, and probably really needed, to; then, to top it off, I had planned on finishing up laundry and making dinner for myself when I got home Friday after work, only to come home and find my laundry had been tampered with (one of my biggest pet peeves is people messing with my stuff without my permission).

So, having had (what was, in my mind) the last possibility of some semblance of control in my "normal daily life", I said "Fuck this!" (both in my head, then out loud), threw my broken skateboard in the trunk of my car, gently placed a new deck and new wheels in my backseat, jumped into the driver's seat, turned on the ol' Prius, and took off to The City.

I figured I could make it to Deluxe just before they closed, get some trucks so I could put a new complete together (you know, make a fresh start or some other cheesy/corny cliché), and hang out for a bit at a place where I always feel welcome, where I always feel I belong, and where there are always friendly faces to see and converse with.

So that was the initial plan (if you can call it that): Get away from "home" for a little while, breathe, feel like myself again, hang out where the weather is nicer, and get a new skateboard together.

Maybe I'd stop at La Costeña on the way home and grab a burrito for dinner. Maybe I'd get food in The City. Meet up with a friend/some friends? Go record shopping? Go to a bar or something? (Sounds weird, but I had the Rickshaw Stop in mind - there had to be a show going on there on a Friday night, right?) I figured since I'd more-likely-than-not be alone that night no matter where I was, I'd just spend it alone in SF and let the night take me where it would - life's been tossing me around all over the place for the past couple of years anyway, so why change things up now, right?

So I get to Deluxe, as usual some of the raddest dudes ever are working, I get offered to have a drink and chill until the shop closes (which, at this point, was in about 15 minutes, give or take) - I take him up on his offer of chilling, but in hindsight maybe I should've taken that drink, as well. I get the scoop on the Venture V5 Hi 5.2's, go with the suggested all black ones (though the always awesome Mr. Matt D. didn't have to push that colorway on me too hard), and while I'm shopping around/hanging out, a couple of other familiar Deluxe faces show up, so I say what's up to them and catch up a little bit.

So I make my purchase, and head out on my way - there was some talk of cruising around downtown, but I figured I didn't want to barge in on their sesh (plus I didn't want to feel the need to follow whatever their evening plans were once I was with them), plus I figured I'd try to meet up with some other friends who live in The City. I texted the two of them while I was walking back to my car, and while waiting for a response, decided to sticker up my board and put it together. I thought I'd have to mess with them to make them looser and turn to my liking, but lo and behold - they felt fine right off the bat! Ventures that actually turn - and turn fairly well, at that? These are higher and wider than I used to skate back in the day, though...anyway, I digress...but not by much; and I am actually pretty stoked on those trucks.

I ended up cruising around the immediate area I was in for a little longer just to get more of a feel for my new setup (plus it felt so damn surprisingly good!), then I decided to do some record shopping at Amoeba while I was up in SF. One friend texts me back while I'm driving to Haight: He was going home to San Jose for the weekend - something about tattoos, freakouts, AIDS, and being in trouble with his parents, I don't know.

So I go to Amoeba, and I immediately find the vinyl single I was looking for, so this record store visit is definitely off to a good start. I go wandering off through the store, and I find a $3 album that I'm pretty sure I'm gonna like. I end up coming across about 3-5 other albums that look interesting, and in listening to all these CDs I grabbed, the $3 one was definitely a keeper, and one of the other albums caught my attention enough that I decided to get that one as well. I walk out of Amoeba, get to my car, and my other baby sister texts me back saying she's gonna be at work until 10pm and is probably gonna stay in the for night.

So, I drive over to right near the Rickshaw, as I was considering checking it out, and because I'm pretty sure I can find parking. But to help me decide whether I wanted to stay in San Francisco or head back home and pick up food on the way, I texted a friend to see what he's gonna be up to tonight, and I texted my other friend to see what was up with Saturday (we were supposed to go skimming/chill at the beach): One friend was going to Half Moon Bay since it was his friend's birthday, and my other friend and I were just kind of going back forth, since I knew I had plans Saturday afternoon/evening, and I wanted to try and figure out how to go about spending Friday night so I could function on Saturday.

I check my phone to see what's going on at the Rickshaw Stop, and I see there's a show going on that looks like it could be interesting. I decide to skate around and stop by the Rickshaw Stop to see what the scene looks like that night: It looks pretty dead, especially for a Friday night.

So I figure "Hey, I'm already out here, I might as well keep cruising around and get used to this setup. I could check out the library and skate some flatground or something, too." So, I'm pushing around, and I'm thinking "This is actually pretty sick: I'm in San Francisco, at night, pushing around. This is tight!" And then I'm in air: As a result of my poor decision to skate on the sidewalk where there are trees, buildings, and very little light, my wheels got stuck in what just happened to be the biggest fucking crack in the entire world. So, as I'm part way through my lop-sided front flip (it probably resembled more of a head high diving shoulder-roll), I realize "My phone is in my right front pocket. If I let this slam take it's course, my iPhone is done!" So, somehow, someway, I manage to switch directions mid-flip, and I end up doing a barrel roll, spinning in the opposite direction, and as I hit the ground, I hit both palms, but I take a majority of the slam on my left elbow, shoulder, hip, and ribs. I get up right away, grab my board, look up, and see some people crossing the street towards my direction, so I'm pretty sure they saw me. Embarrassed? A little - but overall I'm actually impressed with myself that I was able to get out of that predicament with just a slightly swollen right palm, a scraped-up left palm, a barely-bloody elbow, and a tiny hipper (barely even one). And no broken iPhone!

I continue skating, I go down Van Ness, I pass by City Hall, the Asian Art Museum (where I was planning to take my parents that Sunday, so it kind of worked out that I found out where it was ahead of time), that double-sided ledge that everyone does pop-over tricks on, and I get to the library. I expected to see more people skating, but I ended up seeing a row of homeless people in their sleeping bags lined up in front of the library entrance, way more skatestoppers than I remember seeing in photos, and one dude skating flatground by himself away from most of the sleeping homeless people.

I skate over to the guy to say what's up, we introduce ourselves, end up talking about how quiet it is for a Friday night in SF, what brings us out that night, and the conversation just ended up kind of flowing from there. It turns out the dude is a writer for the Associate Press, is originally from Chicago, lived in SF for years, recently moved to Oakland, and was a San Jose State Alum, as well! (He also went to UC Berkeley for his Master's degree, so I'm even more stoked to be kicking it with this guy - that could be my academic career path!)

So we end up talking for at least half the time we're at the library together: We end up having a lot in common and a lot to talk about - skating, food, San Jose, school, work, and life were but a few of the subjects. Once we ran out of things to say, at least going from one subject to another in succession, one of the funnest/most unexpected night and/or flatground sessions I've had in quite some time really commenced: Homeless people wandering around, many of them peeing in the same place in front of the library so it turned into a river of piss right where we were trying to skate, some friendly passersby, some onlookers here and there, but with fakie flips and switch heelflips abounding, we had a largely uninterrupted, and ridiculously fun, night of skating.

We eventually called it a night, due partly to it being midnight after a full day of work for both of us, and partly to the sudden surge of onlookers (neither of us were in the mood to put on an impromptu midnight demo), exchanged numbers, and parted ways.

I skated back, got a little lost on the way there (my excuse is that it was dark and I forgot exactly which direction I came from), but eventually made it back to my car (after that slam near the Rickshaw, I made it a point to skate where I could at least kind of see the ground in front of me). I texted some people to see where I could grab some decent food at that hour in SF (my new skate homie suggested the Mission, which is what I was already kind of thinking), and my friends also suggested going to the Mission. Danna's boyfriend ended up waking up and wanted to grab an energy drink, she wanted food, so they ended up meeting me at Taqueria Guadalajara at around 1am.

We hung out, caught up, ate, and parted ways.

I got home at about 3:30am, and pretty much knocked out the moment I got inside my room. So much for it being a lonely Friday night.

You can't have the good without the bad.

To put this point into perspective, Beautiful Noise now has a companion blog: If you have the heart...

I've been going through some shit lately, and I've realized that I need an outlet for the negative stuff going on in my life as well - it's probably not the healthiest thing to keep it all bottled up inside. Thus, the creation of If you have the heart...

Each blog will be updated often and together: If you stumble upon an update here on Beautiful Noise, chances are you can probably stumble upon an update over there on If you have the heart... (and vice versa).

Here's to hoping everyone eventually finds their own functional way to express themselves; and that, in spite of the tough times we will all inevitably face during our lives, we will all be able to fill our lives with happiness, meaning, and hope.

RIP The Spot.

Sorry I never got to skate you.

Wouldn't it be nice...

...if we could bomb hills like this...

Vacation, shmacation.

So I spent a good portion of my first vacation since I started working full time (so it's been at least 4 years) trying to clean and organize my room - fun stuff. It looks alright - WAY better than it did before.

Looking back, however, I didn't just slave away in my room all week:

• I did go to Arizona for 4 days with my family to help my sister settle into her new digs.
• I didn't have to skate back home from the airport - but I did end up skating that day with my homie that picked me up, along with some of our other friends.
• I skated almost everyday. Except for when I was in Arizona. We stayed pretty busy: Running errands, driving around, exploring, and eating. Plus it was ridiculously hot. I mean, really? 91 degrees before 9am? Don't get me wrong: I tried to make time and make the effort - but it didn't go so well: It was so hot, I got angry that it was so hot. I felt gross. I was sweating like you would not believe.

• I ended up getting another chance to see a rad documentary called Project Nim in Berkeley (they extended the showings for another week), so I got a friend to go up with me to check it out.
• Got some hella good mac and cheese (6 cheese mac and cheese, yo.)
• Chilled for a day in Santa Cruz at some locals-only spots, brah.
• While in Santa Cruz, we went to Verve, the coffee roasters Roy's gets their coffee from. That was pretty awesome.
• Speaking of Roy's Station, I got to start off a majority of my days there, sitting in the patio with either some tea or coffee. That was also pretty awesome. I wish I could start off every day there.
• Spent a lot of time with good friends (the usual homies, along with friends old and new).

So, overall, I'd say it was a pretty good week off. I didn't get to go to the Northwest like I originally wanted to, but I think the decision to stay was the better one.

Despite it having been a good week off, I've reached the end of it. Tomorrow I have to go back to work. So, to fittingly end both this week's blog theme and my vacation, the new music video from one of my favorite new bands, from their 2010 debut album "Sports" (which, in my opinion, was the best album to come out last year).

Late start to my Sunday...

...so I'll start it on a cuter, more upbeat note.