This is an awesome gif. I'm going to nail it tomorrow.

I'm

 then going to learn how to embed a gif into blogger posts. Apparently it's easy but there were ten steps in the post I read #notfrictionfree 

http://i.imgur.com/GtIHW7j.gif

Van tactic

Ok, so last outing into this 'blogger sphere' ended up with a confession, a confession routed in me bottling my after work skate session for fear of embarrassing myself in front of a bunch of teenie blooper scooter kids...

Well, the following weekend I grew some potatoes and realised that I could indeed coexist with my potential teenage tormentors. 

I got up early. Now I'm owning the skatepark!!! At lest until 10am. Below is some sort of proof...

  

The awesome thing is, both myself and the Dutch kiddies are loving it! There are no switch 360 flips, no frontside 180 kick flips, not even a pop shuv-it in sight. There is some good ol' fashion shreddin'. I even managed a rock-to-fakie on my first drop in 17 years... Don't knock it haters!!

Skateboarding is for winners - especially before the baying mob arrive to remind me I might be having an early midlife crisis. 

By the way, you see what I did with the title? Genius!

Word

Taking the plunge and dropping in.

Ok, previously I talked about the skateboard shaped itch that needed scratching. Well a few weeks ago I took the plunge...

I took myself along to the Bucks Boarding Centre and, despite my inner skateboard snob screaming at me bought myself a complete deck. The man with the awesome Mohawk was super helpful and made me feel as though the plan I wa hatching was one of genius not complete folly - he'll go far!!

That very afternoon I took myself along to the skatepark enroute home from work - Marston Mortaine. I was ready to 'tear that mother f@@ka up' as Ice Cube once said...

Thing is, when I got there around 6pm having fled from work in a whirlwind of excitement, the place was full. A tiny park fully occupied. 15-20 10-16 year olds tearing it up on skateboards, BMX's and contraptions they didn't have in my day - stunt scooters.

You know what I did? I stood there awkwardly for about 5 mins then got in my car and drove home. 

Epic fail.

Probably something deep in their about courage of convictions and good ideas only being good ideas when they are acted upon but that all sounds a bit like I'm working.So I'll just keep it real - I felt a bit like a knob.

Next time!!

Scratching the itch. Should I?

So, 17 years ago I was a skate dude.

I rode a plan b deck, spitfire wheels, gullwing trucks, carried a spanner and had pants that sagged embarrassingly low. There were a range of tragic clothing adventures but it was all done under the guise of thinking I was cool. I skate therefore I am... that kind of thing.

I was a bit crap, that's an undeniable fact but I used to love tearing it up (or trying at least) at places such as Harrow Skate Park, St Albans Pioneer Club and of course the Mecca of the UK skate scene London's South Bank. 

Here's the thing, I kind of just stopped because I turned into a bit of a dick and started doing other stuff. 

There have been a few prompts in the past 5-6 years that have made me want to get back on a deck. 

1) the mini ramp I walk passed when we go for a nice walk in the local country park.. It looks so lonely

2) a guy I played football with had one in his car, I rode it in the car park and could still olly... Sort of.

3) I went to NYC in 2011 and loved that it was just ok for people to roll

4) We went on our hols to San Diego and everyone seemed to be a roller - my kids loved it. Telling them I used to roll projected me to hero status.

5) last week #goskateboardingday was trending on both twitter and Instagram - it demonstrated to me that this interweb has made skateboarding a much more globally accepted past time.

I want in again.

So... Should I be scratching this itch or what?

Hat trick... Just

I thought i'd try and get a quick post in before the year is out and make It three for the year.

Whilst this clearly isn't a left foot, right foot then header 'perfect' hat trick it's still one in which I can continue the football theme for a bit longer...

At kick off I flew out the blocks banged in an early brace (Jan & Feb i think). Since those opening minutes I've been quiet. 'Hardly had a kick' they'd say on MOTD but, at the crucial time with the clock ticking down I'm stepping up to smash home an absolute screamer!

Well... Not really but there is at least a tiny bit of seasonally relevant mobile material I can muster up in these dying embers of 2012.

After their bath my kids wanted to watch a video on my phone... I went for my trusty steel only to find the silver bullet removed... YouTube was nowhere to be seen, i then remembered it had been removed a few weeks back for no apparent reason (tinkering)

Anyway... With YouTube installing i had a quick look at other apps published by google inc and realised Blogger was literally the only one not installed on my phone....

It is now an here we are and here is this post. .

It's like a Tarantino film is it not? Mind bending.

Laters...

With an app at the ready will I be more frequent in 2013?

Bloody Social Media... again

Having checked out my GA it appears the last post was by far the most well received ever. Therefore I thought strike while the iron is super hot (about 3 weeks I think) and quickly share some of the perils of this here social thing.

I work for a company, we sell pizzas, we are a franchise business. Well, earlier today one of those franchisees sent me a cool thing that Macy's are doing on Facebook and asked if it was something replicable in the UK - I'm looking into it.

In principle its pretty simple and neat. You see the offer they put in a status post, you click 'get offer' they email you the offer - boom! Great marketing, nice way of making that very sociable communication a direct one.

The thing is, I thought I'd have a play with it myself. So, I went to Macy's page saw the post in question and clicked on it...

Thing is, being all about the social and the sharing those pesky facebook people immediately share the fact I've interacted with the Macy's ad to my wall and I had some nice people make comments about the nice shoes I was never going to buy from Macy's (don't worry, I'm still cool because I styled it out by pretending I was a transsexual - what a winner eh?)

Point being?
1) It's a good reminder that people spend a lot of time on facebook in fact all the time (first response was in seconds)
2) Facebook has some seriously awesome marketing opportunities in its platform - imagine if I really was buying those shoes?
3) It's always worth considering what you're doing in the social space and who might see it!!

Bloody social eh?

Bloody social media

So, I've just seen this new flavors.me thing and because I'm cool and awesome and also awesomely cool I wanted to put all my social profiles in their so my Mum can keep track of how cool I am all in one place. 


Problem being, it appears my blog is exceptionally low in both quality and quantity so what better reason to update it than a post about quite literally nothing other than perhaps how this bloody social media has made us all a bunch of people who share stuff, some of it is superb, some of it is genuinely inspiring and some of it is quite literally dross. 


Point being, quite literally that. I've created a post of dross so, if someone were to find me on flavors.me they'd see the awesome range of social content I create and be inspired to share, create, converse and all that other social stuff. 


Love it.