Snowboarding. Well this is an easy subject matter. There just, plain isn't anything I like more on this planet than snowboarding. This 2008-2009 season will mark my 20th year of snowboarding. That's right. I have been riding longer than many of these little punks have been alive. I am not bitter though. I am sad that they don't have to endure the obscene criticsm and ridicule that I and my friends did so many years ago, simply because it was the prime reason we wanted to get better at it - to show all of those assholes up. I started when many mountains still banned snowboards from their trails and before most people had even ever heard of them. I am by no means a pioneer of the sport as that the originators had been doing it for 10 years prior to that even, but I am proud to say that I was one of a very few people who were pushing the sport in new directions and helped shape it to be the sport it is today.

Snowboarding was - as many great things in my life have been - a direct result of Matt pushing me into them. And I mean that literally in this case. My first time on a real mountain (Attitash) on a snowboard was with Matt. I had been a terrible skiier for 4 years prior, and had been practicing snowboarding on little hills in Marblehead to gear up for my first real day. I was skeptical, but we got up to the top, sprayed down our boards with silicon spray (yes, we were THOSE kids), and as I stood there, strapped in and looking nervously down the trail, Matt just came up behind me and pushed. By the end of that day, I had already done my first jump and was entirely hooked. I sold my brand new, never-used ski equipment the next week and bought a snowboard. Granted, and this is for all of you young'ins out there... my first board measured a whopping 175 and was - get this - all wood. I mean, it had a laminate on both sides to make it slick and protect it from the elements, but probably weighed more than all of the other snowboards I have had since, duct-taped together. I mean, it was silly how heavy this thing was. And I was rockin' these totally gay, blaze pink, purple and blue high-top running shoes as boots. We are talking ZERO support, virtually no waterproofing and ABSOLUTELY no support. I don't know how, or WHY I chose that path. But I did, and I honestly think it made me a better rider.

Well, I eventually ended up trading in the old G&S for Ubu-Abu, my beloved Joyride that was purchased at Something Else skate shop in Danvers, MA. When that board was new, it had so much spring and flx that I could bend it tip to tip. Quite a removal from the unbendable wood one. And I also upgraded my boots to the Arwalks that I wore up until just two years ago, got these killer Burning Snow snowpants that were plaid, and started getting really serious about the sport. In our various trips up to the White Mountains and Sunday River, we met some cute girls - Heather (Q), Trube & Lori who ultimately introduced us to Don and Darlene - the owners of Boardin' Daze in Ossippee, NH. Boardin' Daze is no longer, after some fuckwad and his cronies decided to break in one night, years and years ago, and steal everything Don and Darlene owned. It ultimately shut them down. Which was a shame - not only because they were two of the most friendly, laid-back, sweet, caring and totally stoked to go snowboarding people I have ever known - but because they were pioneering a cross-training technique that I still use to this day... Trampoleen training. They used to pull that trampoleen out every weekend and peopel would come by and bounce and do trick and try new tricks - many of which had yet to be invented. Don had invented a couple of his own tricks, like the "Roastbeef" which I still pull off sometimes in his honor. But from that, our many various trips up there to bounce and go riding with the girls and our friends in the area and all of the other practicing I was getting in at home, I quickly adapted to the sport and started doing some serious shit. Serious, mostly in the vein of cliff jumps and big air (or what was considerably larger 'air' then). And I was doing tree and rail slides a decade before anyone else really thought of it, at least as an available obstacle on a mountain.

Also, at that time, I was going riding with my buddy Jeremy a lot. Well... he was on skis. Jeremy is easily the best skier I have ever known personally. I mean, I've met and 'skiied with Johnny Mosely at Squaw, but he'd never remember my name, or likely anything about me. No, I mean - of my friends and even of anybody who I have known longer than a week. Jeremy is just sick. And he's a big guy, who rides big skis and goes really, REALLY fucking fast. And in Jeremy's book, if you are going to a mountain with him and you want to hang, you gotta keep up. And so, from him, I learned what so many people forego these days - supreme stability, control and speed. I followed that kid all over the place, down trails I never would have gone down myself and rocketing all over every aspect of the mountains. And it was fun as hell! I can, to this day, pretty much keep up with any skier and can definitely out-pace just about every snowboarder out there. And I owe it all to Jeremy.

I was also one of a very small group of people who went on the Chamonix Ski Trip in high school who was a snowboarder. And while they were having their biggest snow-drought in 25 years for the week we were there, it was still amazing. I managed to "jump a house" by way of riding up the low-pitched roof that was stuck into the side of the mountain, and drop off the other side, clearing a small drop and a person who was sitting, leaning against the house, reading a book. It was pretty sick.

In all, I have tried to stay ahead of the curve in snowboarding. I suck in a halfpipe, and have since lost my chops for really huge air, but can still pretty much lay down the law for freeriding. I am among a VERY small amount of snowboarders who seem to absolutely LOVE moguls and trees/glades. Many skiiers won't dare go in to the trees that I go into full steam ahead. I am very proud of my snowboarding career, and can boast about a lot of it. I have hiked Tuckerman's Ravine about 15 times and have ridden down the steepest slopes in the northeast. I hope to conquer the headwall cliffs someday, but have done some nice, medium-height rock jumps there and got some applause. I was also featured in two UMass Amherst yearbooks for my huge 360 road jumps, and jumping over people. And while it is probably last on my list of accomplishments, I was actually offered a sponsorship at one point, the sole stipulation for which being that I enter a contest and do fairly well in. And so I did. I entered the contest - simple big air thing that I would have ruled at at that time. It was at Killington, on I think either Superstar or Outer Limits - regardless, it was one of their acclaimed bumps runs. I took the chair up to the top for the run down to the contest area and where the jump was set-up. I got off, strapped in, got myself all pumped up and started ripping down the trail. About a quarter of the way down, I fell out of my line, landing me between two bumps... which caused my board to crack in half. I kid you not... snapped it like a twig. Well, a still-alive twig, because it stayed together, but with a loose 'hinge' in the middle. And to top it all off, it was an (now defunct company I think) Aggression Snowboard. Aggression. Yeah. Right. The downside, I missed my one big opportunity to win big and get a sponsorship. The upside - I bitched out 'Aggression' and they sent me a new snowboard and I didn't have to always be awesome and ride the way someone else told me I had to. In the long run, I am kind of glad I missed that opportunity. Yeah, It would have been fun, and I probably could have gone riding considerably more, for nothing... but I have never lived by other people's rules and I think it would have ultimately killed the joy of snowboarding for me.

In all seriousness, I could go on forever about snowboarding. I realize that I have now written more about that than any other person, place or thing on this entire website. I don't mean to diminish those others any, but hopefully you will understand just how important snowboarding is to me now. I have personally taught about 20 people how to snowboard with my 'patented' technique and I plan to teach many, MANY more, simply and solely so that they can experience this wonderful, liberating, absolutely incredible sport that I have loved now for 2 whole decades and will love until the day I die.

Sushi. Seriously? Raw fish? Do I really need to say more? SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!! Holy crap... my mouth is watering right now! I wish for to nom the fish. It's SOOO good for you, and prepared correctly is one of the most incredible sensory stimuli one can imagine. Taste and texture alone... ya know, one would think (as I myself did once upon a time) that it would be disgusting, and the instant connotation of that Lynn Shore Dr. smell of fish would fill your virtual and imaginary olfactory system... leaving you with an unpleasant feeling. But, here's the deal - in the grand scheme of things, it is almost completely devoid of any taste what-so-ever. It's actually, almost entirely about the texture and consistency. And thats not what you think either... It's not slimy, "fishy", or anything your mind conceives of of "Raw". The closest, best approximation to the sensation of eating GOOD sushi is very much like biting into a perfectly ripened plum. Which, by the by, is a nice allusion to Plum Sake, which is a great accompaniament (sp?) to any good sushi. But, its so even and smooth and almost melts in your mouth. It is seriously one of the best eating experiences I have ever had... every time.

So, in light of my attempts at converting you non-believers into sushi-nomming fanatics like myself, I figured I would give you some links and instructions on how to find the absolute best sushi restaurants and recipes. I have to say, and give a shout-out to the very best place I have found for the best, freshest, most well-prepared sushi - Sushi House in Concord, MA. Holy crap. I was reeling in emotional turmoil over the inevitability of my break up with Chelsea the first time I went there, and I STILL recognized the profound difference between that place and every other one I had ever been to... So if you wanna try sushi, and are still scared... go there first, cuz thats the best there is!

GOOD sushi restaurants:

• Sushi House - Easily the best sushi I have ever had. To date, at least. Located at 794 Elm St, Concord, MA 01742. Phone: (978) 369-8856
• Takemura - This is my runner-up, second most favorite sushi place, and extra good as that it is in Harvard Square - which makes for some good people watching while I nom raw fishes. 18 Eliot St, Cambridge, MA 02138. Phone: (617) 492-6700

Sushi Resources:

• Sushi Recipes

Subarus. I LOOOOVEE Subaru. Well... I am a little mad at them for some recent choices they have made for their product line and specifically the design choices, but besides that, I have NOTHING bad to say about them. My love for them started as most things do by way of Matt, who had one when we first started driving. So did Mike. It astounded me that CARS could have 4-wheel drive. Back then, in the 80's and 90's, there really was no such thing as ALL wheel drive, except on some seriously high-end cars and trucks. But what there was, was part-time 4-wheel drive. In some trucks, you have to either get out and engage the hub of your wheel to get those wheels to be powered by the drivetrain - or some have buttons or shifters on the inside and you can shift over to 4WD. The Subarus - or rather, the ones that had this option - had a second shift lever that was next to the ebrake and allowed you to shift into 4WD on the fly (though I believe you were technically supposed to stop before you shifted it... oops). Regardless... this was unheard of for consumer-level compact cars at that time. Subaru has always seemed to be ahead of the game, and that's one of the major reasons I like them and have stuck with them so long.

The 4WD and newer AWD that all Subarus have now are what has impressed me the most. The amazing difference in control and power between that and 2WD cars is unfathomable. Combine that with the control of a standard, you have, in my mind, a very versatile tool and something approaching a perfect vehicle. Having 4WD for so long - and much longer than most people even knew the benefits of it, or other car manufacturers had started to add it to their vehicle lines - I have come across several situations that were either life-saving, extremely helpful, or otherwise just plain cool.

For instance - one year, when I was living in Butterfield at UMass Amherst - high atop Central Hill... it snowed heavily one day, leaving the roads slick. This made it nearly impossible for most people to make it up Central Hill in a car. In fact, some people were having a hard time WALKING up it without sliding back down. Me... no problem. Right up it I went. A couple of times, just for the fun of it. I even shuttled some folks up. One of the times I ascended the hill though, there was this old buick about half-way up, not moving at all, but spinning its tires furiously. I ended up passing it to keep them from stressing out that they had someone waiting behind them. I went up another quarter of the way, stopped, and thought that maybe I should try to help them out. So I backed back down the hill and offered my assistance. At this point people had tried to help by pushing, but to no avail. So I backed up, got my car in behind their car, edged up to it (try doing that in an automatic), and then put it in 1st and pushed his car all the way up the hill with mine! Yes, I burned some oil that day, but something bad could have happened to him or those people if they had stayed out there all day, struggling with it... or not, but it was a simple fix on my part.

Also - and I still love telling this story to this day - when I was living out in CA with Shannon (one of the MANY people I have convinced to buy a Subaru) - it had been snowing and snowing and snowing and there was roughly 8 feet of it. It was awesome! But the thing is that during the winter months, and heavily enforced when it has been snowing, it is actually a law that you must have chains on your tires to increase your traction. And it's certainly not a bad idea seeing as I am scared to drive down some of those roads on a dry summer day, let alone covered in ice and snow! I don't remember where we were going, but we had to take a drive somewhere else, late at night (it was probably to drop me off at the airport). We left when there were virtually no other cars on the road. The conditions weren't great, but we were surviving in her Outback. We had to go over the mountains and as we approached the beginning of the mountain road, we saw what looked like an ice-fishing shack in the middle of the road. When we got closer a man came out of it, flagged us down and made us stop. It was very strange - middle of nowhere in the throws of a major snowstorm - just a temporary guard-post set up in the middle of the road. There was a sign that said, "All Vehicles MUST have chains beyond this point." We did not. We had come so far in this crap and now we were going to have to turn around and go back. But the guy just looked at us, then the tires, then the car and said very plainly... "Oh, it's a Subaru. Okay, you are okay. Go ahead." Clearly the people of the Lake Tahoe area appreciate a Subaru as much as I.

To date, I have owned 7 of them. The first I crashed in a very unhappy, stupid and not really my fault kind of way. But it was also the only automatic I have ever owned. I actually got that thing to go 135mph with 5 other people in my car, and got the thumbs up from the driver of the Porsche I was, umm... racing :) Then I had Midnight Runner - my black one with all of the non-offensive bumperstickers on it (except for the "Don't Laugh, Your Daughter May Be In Here" one)

Stick. Standard. Manual Transmission. Whatever you wanna call it, it pretty much rules all others. You may find it kind of silly that I would list this as something to which I am most attached, but let me tell you - I would HATE driving if it had to be in an automatic. Currently, and for the tenure of my driving days, I have rather loved driving. It's one of those few things that really brings me peace. I love the feeling of control - the sensation that man and machine are one, acting and reacting with each-other's motions. Driving stick only enhances that feeling. Automatics remove you from much of the decision-making process about driving. Automatics also decrease your gas-mileage and most importantly (in my mind at least), your on demand acceleration. So now you are probably thinking that I just like it because I can drop the clutch and lay rubber. Yeah. In my Outback. That's totally what I am doing... No, in all seriousness, the ability to GO is all important when driving, both defensively and offensively. I have been in plenty of situations where, if I had hesitated, or my car had, I would probably be dead. I need that instant go-power when I want it, and when you jump on the gas of an automatic, all you get is a wind-up of the gears as it trues to figure out what gear it wants to be in. Often, you don't have that much time. And there have been very few cars that I have driven, that are automatics, that have had such an instant response time as any standard I have been in.

Here's the thing... many times the argument about having to replace more parts, such as the clutch, has been the justification of many who are against standards. But, as with any tool (and please bear with my assessment that a car is a tool), learning the proper use of said tool will both prolong it's life as well as allow you to master it the way it should be. And as my counter argument - standards negate the need for the most annoying invention in recent years - anti-lock brakes. For those of you who don't know, you can use the engine to brake in a standard, meaning that if you want to slow down, all you have to do is down-shift, and let the clutch out. The engine will do the rest. And furthermore, you can choose the amount of torque vs. speed vs. power that you want, on the fly and without the need for all sorts of silly traction controls and what-not. As far as I see it, automatics and the inventions that have enhanced the vehicles that are on the roads today, are all just means to bring automatics closer to being standards again... just for people who feel that doing anything manually is too much.

All I know is that - as long as they make standards, and specifically, SUBARUS in standard, I will own one. I fear that those days are coming to an end though, with new advances in technology such as the power-shifter that some new Subes have - basically automatic, but with the ability to switch over to a manual shift system, just with no clutch. It's rather more like shifting a bike. Which kind of loses the appeal for me, but it was kind of cool anyways.

My Guitar. Or rather now, my GuitarS. I'll letcha read a little more about the history of my first guitar - my Takemine Jasmine - on the Music Page. The thing to take away from this little excerpt is that I really dig playing my guitar, no matter how much I suck. I started recording an album years and years ago, and I am almost done with it, but what I love most is just going and finding some quiet, secluded area - usually at the beach at night or Mt. Pollux, or even just in my car somewhere - and playing my guitar. It's therapy for my soul - a kind of release and expression that transcends my usual approach. It's something I need to fulfill some kind of deep-seeded, tribal urge to create music.

Like I say, I kind of suck. I mean, I am learning and have definitely come a long way since the first song I wrote - "When We Went Walking" for Danielle, years and years ago. It was basically all in G and C(9). But I am not exactly stage-ready. I just enjoy it. I enjoy playing things that I have practiced over and over again, I like embellishing on those as well and I like trying new things and making new sounds and trying to string together some kind of riff. It's just plain fun. So fun in fact, that I recently bought a brand new electric bass and traded in my sister's old Fender Squire for an Ephiphone SG, so now I have an acoustic, an electric and a bass. And I am sure that I will spend the next many years to come learning how to play those better as well.

I have had some help along the way, first and foremost being from the now defunct OLGA.net - which stood for Online Guitar Archive. They had all sorts of user-submitted TAB for both bass and guitar, but were eventually shut down for copyright infringement. What erupted in it's place has been the tool that I have used to learn all sorts of covers and which has helped me to become a much better guitar player in a very short amount of time. That place would be: www.Ultimate-Guitar.com. They have all sorts of TAB, with tools that make the page scroll at varying speeds and hands-free so that you don't have to take your hand off the guitar to scroll down the page for the rest of it... and they are also linked in with Jango.com, an online-radio station and 9 times out of 10, have the song you are learning in their playlist and you can hear it on-demand to play along to or get the rythym right. Plus, Ultimate-Guitar allows you to create a profile, save your favorite tabs and bands, upload your own tabs and has all sorts of other great music-related tools and information. Definitely check them out if you haven't before!

And here are a few other good guitar resources:

• Guitar Center
• Daddy's Junky Music

My Leatherman. It's strange... I can't go more than a day or so without this tool. It is, for all intents and purposes, indispensible. My parents gave me my first one as a graduation present for college. I remember opening it up and checking it out and instantly cutting myself on the ridiculously sharp blade on the knife. Not a bad cut, just something small... but I realized just how fine a tool this was by the quality of how it came. And indeed, it has rarely left my side since. For all of you Swiss Army Knife people saying to yourselves... yeah, but my S.A.K. has like a million tools on it... that may be, but 1) you'll NEVER use any of them and 2) I could literally crush a swiss army knife with the pliers of my Leatherman. I'm serious... this thing freakin' rules! Let's see, things I have done with my Leatherman

fixed a million and one things cut matte board whiddled things sharpened pencils fixed my car cut down trees fixed my snowboard on the mountain built furniture eaten with it cut wrapping paper made signs hammered in nails used as a weight measured things bored holes in stuff cut kindling opened cans opened countless beers fixed my glasses filed down nails and screws etc.

I suppose these things aren't particularly outstanding, but for one tool to be able to do all of it is pretty amazing I'd say. In all honesty, I abuse the shit out of my Leatherman - so much, in fact, One time when I was fixing the emergency brake on my car and trying to torque out a stripped bolt, I actually managed to break the tip off of the pliers, leaving only one side long. It made any small plier jobs really difficult. And though Leatherman has a 25 year warranty on all of their tools, and I had only owned it for about 6, I STILL couldn't part with it for the 2-3 weeks they said it would take to fix it and return it. Hells no I ain't waiting for it for that long!!! So, knowing full well of my inability to part with it for so long, yet also knowing of my supreme love for this indespensible tool - Scotts went ahead and bought me a new one for xmas last year. He even upgraded me to the newest, best model. So now I am rocking uber-Leatherman and it is all of the personal tool I will ever truly need. Oh, and I still have my other one as well... I strongly encourage you to go and get one. You will NOT be sorry, especially if you are constantly fixing a million and one things like me. You can check out the company at: www.leatherman.com

And here are some other places to buy them:

• R.E.I. - www.rei.com
• E.M.S. - www.ems.com

Computers. Hmm, let me think about this one... okay, got it! No computers, no ability to do any of this! I have loved these computer things since my very first introduction to them when - long, long ago, in a galaxy known as Marblehead, back when I was just a little kid - my dad brough home our first personal computer - the Commodore 64, or C64 to us techie geeks. I fucking LOVED that thing. I remember that my dad had borrowed a "Koala Pad" from one of his buddies at work - which was likely the very first tablet ever. It was, for all intents and purposes, at least a really freakin' cool input device. It allowed you to draw on the pad and it emulated your motion on the screen. You had various choices of "brushes" - basically 30x30 pixel blocks that you could paint with, or choose from several vector-based design tools. My favorite was the ray generator, which basically allowed you to pick a point and have it draw straight lines radiating out from it in different collors. It was almost entirely useless, but damn was it cool!

I also remember getting my dad's computer magazines - lord knows what they were called now... but every edition came with a bunch of computer programs with it. And by that, I don't mean on disks (we'll get to those later)... no, back in my day, the programs came typed out in Basic. PAGES and pages of printed code that you could type in yourself and 'write' these programs for yourself. They weren't all super cool... I mean, some were accounting programs or utilities that I couldn't have cared less about. But some were games, or art programs, or I think the one I liked best was the music simulators... no 5.1 DolbyDigital surround sound then though... 1 speaker, emulating basic MIDI and varying tone "beeps". It was archaic and rudimentary by today's standards, but it captured my attention and hooked me for life.

Later in life, when we had our first 386 with a blazing fast 16 megs of RAM that cost like $1000... I was introduced to the joys of serious 16-color video games like Leisure Suit Larry which was a favorite for many years. Oh, and "If It Moves, Shoot It!" <-- I can only imagine how difficult it would be to market a game like that these days! That's called sarcasm by the way... I was also introduced to a "scanner". This allowed me to take photos and scan them in and then edit them on the computer!!! Let me just tell you.. this was one of the first, which was about 6"wide and was hand-operated. So basically, you had this wide, mouse-looking thing that you had to position over the thing to be scanned, press and hold a button down to scan, and then drag it VERY slowly and consistently across the document. If you were scanning something wider than it, you had to make as many passes as it took, and then fit it all together on the computer, which was a task by itself. But using those tools I managed a few feats worthy of my future career of photo manipulation like a couple of controverstial doctored photos that I made up of our Vice Principal, the douchebag, ultra bitch, Deb Loomis. Who I still hate, if you didn't notice.

I was also one of the very first people ever in a chat room. I was chatting online before the World Wide Web was ever established or known of. It was on a BBS (Bulletin Board Service) called Argus. My handle was "Aroc". Dan and Matt were on there too... "Dangerous" and "Ford", respectively. I even met one of my girlfriends on there - Hilary - who I am still in contact with these days (when she feels like it). So I guess I was likely one of the very first people to pioneer online dating as well! I was so in tune with the online world at that point - writing macros and small programs and such - that my computer class teacher in high school - Mrs. Stomatuck - gave me the green-light to use the computer lab whenever I wanted in exchange for teaching her and the rest of the class about getting 'online'. I even configured the modems in the school - which required the school's password, or so I told her... heheheh. That was fun, but I never did anything too devious.

So fast forward to now... I ended up studying and teaching computer-based programs in college, based my major on them, use one every day, and rather love them. I started Focus Power with some friends, which is largely a computer/technology-based company, offering all sorts of various computer services like graphic design, audio and video editing and recording, website design... you name it. And here I am, right now, typing away at my computer with my two laptops next to me, each doing it's own thing - one of which is playing "Bodyrock" by Moby which was most likely created on a computer... Yeah... I know, I am jacked in. JAcked in for life... and lovin' it.

Photoshop. Well, for starters, without Photoshop, this website would be pretty freakin' weak. In fact, so would much of my artwork, lest something else existed in its place that was more or less exactly the same thing. And we ain't talkin' no Paint Shop Pro. Ultra weak. Seriously, Photoshop is easily the best program of all time. Followed closely by After Effects, or for the lamen, Photoshop over time. After Effects is likely responsible for just about all post-production special effects you have seen in just about any movie that has been digitally edited.

In any case, let's get back to my baby... Adobe Photoshop! I have never been so attached to or have devoted as much time and learning to really anything else in my world. And please, I am not including girls in that - though, admittedly, at least Photoshop never cheats on me and always does what I ask of it. So that's cool ;) But I have - I have likely dedicated literally YEARS worth of time specifically to utterly mastering that program. The sad thing is though - that I am a poor bastard and the constantly updated versions have proven to be too much for me. So I have found the versions that have worked best for me and wait until I can afford the next best. It is, however, my strong belief though, that were there ever a Photoshop-Off I could still school many of these CSers with my still smokin' ver. 7.

Speaking of school - Back when I was teaching/direction the final project at UMass Amherst, I was known as the "Photoshop God". Now, I am a bit more humble than that. I appreciate the sentiment, but, well... I don't know about "God"... But what it allowed me to do was be the universal Photoshop lecturer. So any time any of the classes had their obligatory class or two on Photoshop or compositing or something like that - it was ALWAYS me that they asked to instruct it. That was cool [geeking out right now]. The bestest best part was that I almost always got to rip on one of the familiar faces of the CKC lab community, I think my favorite being the one of Ryan Moore in his cowboy outfit... though I am remembering that that was a secret project of ours for a Tshirt. But oh well.. you get the point. And I got to rip on myself too.. which is always the best.

In any case, I really hope that they keep making Photoshop, make it kick ass more and more, and *hopefully* make it a little more affordable so us die-hards don't have to die broke :)