Vancouver living. Monday night: Snowboard in dumping snow with plenty of “moments of float” and a surprising number of untracked turns. Tuesday afternoon: Rainforest trail run under blue skies with yesterday’s snow cranking up the creekflow. Nice place we got here.

Greenery and gradients on Pender Island.

On NYE I met two of my favourite proto-mammals from the Permian (pre-dinosaur) period: Inostrancevia and Dimetrodon. Inostrancevia (gorgonopsid family), one of the earliest sabre-tooth predators. Lived 259-252 million years ago in the late Permian.

Back in use after 25 years as a space filler. SWR SM-400s, Peavey 210 TX, SansAmp Bass Driver DI. This rig saw regular action in practice spaces and on stages during my Toronto years but has rarely been turned on in Vancouver. DeoxIT got the scratchies out and it sounds as good as I remember

Brachiosaurus enjoying some scenery in the Seychelles.

A digital SLR was not in the budget for our Africa trip, but scoring a used Nikkor 70-210 lens for $89 gave me a way to pull the Masai Mara wildlife into range with my Nikon F80. “Pick up Velvia from the lab” day is one of the best days. Now it’s time to fire up the Nikon Coolscan.

First skate session after three weeks in Africa. Spent the tail end of golden hour on old standards, then got into new material. Frontside noseslides are new trick #2 since joining Team 50+. Fingus the Gutter Rat needs to work on his framing.

Anatomy of a “Kansas Roll” (as defined in Miles Davis’s autobiography). Things one learns quickly in Nairobi: - USD is commonly used - ATMs default to dispensing $100 bills - Most places reject bills that are wrinkled or 10+ years old and will unload these on unsuspecting dupes at any opportunity

Discovered this ‘60s garage gem while watching “Roadrunner: A film about Anthony Bourdain” on a flight from Nairobi. Et moi, et moi, et moi. By Jacques Dutronc. Catchy simplicity at its best with great lyrics (I had to dig back into my high school French). youtu.be/mTj8rizW9Bg?...

If you’ve read @waub.bsky.social’s Moon of the Turning Leaves, you’ll get the coincidence of finding this old Nat Geo beside the TV at one of our vacation stops. I recommend it if you’re interested in a different angle on post-apocalyptic storytelling (read Moon of the Crusted Snow first).

A day in the life of a lion pride: The lionesses take down a water buffalo and get to snacking. The male(s) ambles up to take advantage of the ladies’ hard work. Then everyone lays down in the shade for a serious nap. Masai Mara National Park in Kenya with Wildebeest Safaris.

Birdwatching feels different when the birds can kick your ass. I like ostriches because these weirdos are the closest I’ll get to seeing an ornithomimosaur.

These two giraffe bulls went from sunrise posing to full-contact sparring. They’d swing their heads into the other’s body and it sounded like dropping a king-size futon off of a four-story balcony. Masai Mara National Park with Wildebeest Safaris.

I was never much for noseslides, but my baseplate recently got into the action and now I think they sound pretty nice. Not as nice as a 50-50, of course, but you can decide for yourself…

Final three pages of log entries before starting book 4. In 2016 I started tracking my recovery from a bulged disc / pinched femoral nerve and my notes turned into a long-term habit. I was walking with a cane and taking 3 kinds of drugs to get out of bed back then, so I’m calling this progress…

The Dawn Patrol Trailrunning Club is small and our judgement is questionable. 18km and home by 9:50 on the longest day of the year. The trail didn’t live up to its name, but there was a surprising quantity of bear doodie.

In my interview for my current job they asked why I was interested. My first answer was, “Connection to the area.” Exhibit A: Some photos from my lunchbreak trail runs. I like the DIY river crossing in #2 - check out the iron handrail that some crafty person mounted to the far right.

Allosaurus lived about 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period - roughly 80 million years before late-Cretaceous dinos like triceratops, tyrannosaurs rex, and ankylosaurus. I’m sure there’s a joke to be had in here about 50-year-old skateboarders.

Up is down and down is up, Alice.

Slappies, noseslides, and swerving around on my Polarizer in the shadow of the Creeper Bus.

Crikey! Are they trying to ruin my reputation or PeePee’s?

Mixed media on concrete. Wax, moss, aluminum, and a touch of grade 8 steel.

Screechy screechy. My kingpin took some heat while I broke in a new section of curb.

Recent bookstore scores: Perseverance @stephankesting.bsky.social Moon of the Turning Leaves @waub.bsky.social When the Earth Was Green @restingdinoface.bsky.social Nomeansno: From Obscurity to Oblivion. Jason Lamb & Paul Prescott. Excellent octopus notebook cover art by Ernest Swanson.

Alina Habbard posted: NOTHING CAN STOP THIS MAN FROM FIGHTING FOR HIS COUNTRY. David Simon had a succinct 2-word response: “Bone spurs.”

Judge societies by how they treat their most vulnerable. Children don’t choose to be born trans. But an obscenely high number of these kids choose to commit suicide after being bullied by adults (and children who learned hate from those adults) because of how they were born. Protect vulnerable kids

Through the looking glass.

Breaching the pentagenarian boundary. In late 2024, the VPD, carnotaurus, barapasaurus, and a fellow nocturnal skate fiend swung by to commemorate my final slappies of my 40s. A few weeks later, slappy nosegrinds became my first trick of my 50s. I gratefully accept this gift from the skate gods.

First new trick of my 50s: Slappy nosegrind. The last time I did one of these, I ollied into it on a ledge and it was about 24 years (almost half my life!) ago.

A quick clip a friend put together from a curb lunchbreak last week. Four 50-somethings acting our age.

Nice views of the neighbour’s yard (aka. Mount Baker) from today’s afternoon walk. And bonus contemporary reworking of a classic scene from a movie we watched too many times in the’80s.

Because I just blew someone’s mind with this Dire wolves were not really wolves

I’ve killed a lot of trucks in my life. This was my first pair of ACEs… 44 Classics from early 2020 when I started my midnight curb habit. They served me well for about a year. I learned slappies on them, spent a lot of nights in parking garages, and got re-hooked on street skating.

Rising Conservative Star Just Guy Wearing Nazi Armband And Crying theonion.com/rising-...

Features of Adulthood xkcd.com/3034

I caught up with Marcelo Garcia ahead of his return to competition at ONE Championship 170. In this convo, he laments the decline of the gi, dishes on what he thinks of the modern leg lock game, facing Masakazu Imanari and more. WATCH: youtu.be/WE3eqM7yJEI

What a bummer to hear that we lost Peter Fluid. The first two 24-7 Spyz albums were a huge part of my teenage years. To this day, when I pick up a bass, one of the first things I play is Rick Skatore’s line from “I must go on.” Spyz even held a prime spot on the jean jacket I wore in the ‘80s.

We’re just past the 48th anniversary of arguably the best Ramones album. Leave Home came out on January 10, 1977. It’s almost as old as me.

Back when I worked full-time at the office, I kept the How’s-Your-Day-O-Meter Continuum on my bulletin board. Colleagues enjoyed choosing an appropriate placement for the slider and it led to some interesting conversations about jiu-jitsu and judo.

I’m a 50-year-old skateboarder so it’s appropriate that I also love dinosaurs. My friends at Darkslide of the Curb commmemorated my transition into my second half century thusly.