did you sign the book, "Mr Jackson, I would really like to touch your monkey." because if you did, that would have been awesome.

Wow. Michael Jackson owned your book? That seriously must be a milestone in your career. Congratulations!That's pretty intense thinking that Michael Jackson read your book and thought "hmm,this Ed Templeton guy is pretty cool". Even MJ was a Loyal Pawn. Add him to the sock team. Representing in the afterlife.

Anyway. Frozen treats are good. We were in Ukiah this weekend,it was like 100 degrees. I rubbed ice cubes on my body and got myself wet to cool off. I chugged ice cold water too. Staying cool,and cutting calories(sugar).My sweet treat of choice would be a mexican paleta. Ice cream is too fatty.

At least that Smart Car is Transistor Sect orange.You're bigger than the fucking car. I'd rather ride in one of those than a gigantic redneck truck,just kidding. I try as hard as possible to avoid being called gay,because I'm insecure about my sexuality, so i'll ride in a machismo infused whip anyday. Just kidding. I have a bicycle.

I want to play with a bouncy ball in that blank room.

I guess some oils are good for the skin. Naked wrestling,anyone?Well,I guess that used to be just regular wrestling.

Let me put my mast up and sail to that island.

I guess this represents the "hilliness"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Altimetria_Sardegna.svg

I'll be honest,I just skip over all of your links. Now that I took a quick glance,I see you have some new links.

Tell Deanna I think she looks great in every photo.

Maybe it was because she was eating.

Girls are so strange... We'll never figure 'em out.

i went to sandiego this weekend and skated and had a fucking blast of good times combined with ladies and thrills with a touch of skate magic.
that beats italy all the way.

I hope you enjoy this essay I wrote regarding the "art vs. sport" skateboard debate:

Skateboarding has forever lacked a decisive definition, yet as an activity it is quite easily and readily identifiable. Skateboarding's “definition,” oddly enough, is often argued upon by those both immersed in the subculture, as well as from those outside of it, which is to say that someone with no experience and little knowledge of skateboarding may share the same viewpoint as an avid, life-long skateboarder. As a by-product of 1970's Californian surf culture, it is a relatively young “sport” that has gained popularity with almost exponential growth, quickly moving from underground “hobby,” to an icon of mainstream pop culture. This short history and rapid transformation, somewhat unique to skateboarding, has incited sentiments ranging from those who claim it as an art form, to those who deem it a criminal act. In the article “What is Skateboarding?,” Duke McCallister explains that skateboarding has many definitions and proposes it to be, not only a mode of transportation, but an art form, a hobby, and/or a profession as well. And although McCallister does begin to indentify some of the ways skateboarding can be looked at, manipulated, and defined, he stops short of trying to settle the debate.

McCallister's article, though quite informal and lacking depth, is one of the few written arguments that brings up the question that has plagued skateboarding since its inception: What is it? From McCallister's stance, skateboarding's definition changes based on who you are and how you value it, but this reasoning presents an inconsistency. For example, although a father throwing a baseball (“playing catch”) with his son may view it as a hobby and a way to spend quality time with family, he would probably not deny the fact that baseball in itself is ultimately a sport. This flow of logic does not necessarily apply to the act of skateboarding and those who participate in it. In fact, a good number of these individuals denounce the notion that skateboarding is anything that resembles a sport, and rather claim it to be a “lifestyle,” but could this merely be an inconsistency in their argument as well?

Craig Stecyk, an artist and somewhat of a skateboard “historian,” had many interesting things to say about skateboarding during its inception. At the time that Stecyk was documenting skateboard culture, it was radically changing from a yo-yo and hula-hoop-like fad, to a movement of urban interpretation and, thus, of counter-culture status. In the words of Stecyk: “Two hundred years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground of unlimited potential. But it was the minds of 11 year olds that could see that potential.” Stecyk used photography, film, and writing to portray how skateboarders manipulated their environments in ways they were not initially intended (i.e. skating in drained swimming pools), much the same way a poet manipulates language in order to achieve a desired result. Essentially, Stecyk wanted to show the world skateboarding as he saw it, as an art form, which is a sentiment shared by a large part of skateboard culture to this day. Yet, at the same time, not many skateboarders would be keen on the notion of trying to compare the maneuvers and manipulation-of-environment aesthetic of skateboarding with that of the art of ballet. In fact, a skate-film from the 1980's, entitled Public Domain, blatantly poked fun at a ballet dancer and gymnast who took a liking to skateboarding, admiring it for its “glide” and fluidity of motion. Some might wonder why skateboarders would criticize the beauty within their “lifestyles,” and the reason for which lies in the manner modern skateboarding was conceived.

As skateboarding emerged, skateboarders collectively felt (and some still do feel) very removed from society because many people viewed this new activity as a form of trespassing, destructive and disruptive, and to be only practiced by “dead-end souls,” “no-goods,” and “punks.” In a way, these accusations led to the embrace of skateboarding, by skateboarders themselves, as a counter-cultural identity. Stecyk again put this notion into words well by saying that skateboarders “by their very nature are urban guerillas: they make everyday use of the useless artifacts of the technological burden...” But Stecyk's claim only seems to apply well when we speak of skateboarding in its raw and stripped down form; the activity that began in the schoolyards and backyard pools and that continues on the streets and in cities, today. Contradictions arose in Stecyk's argument as skateboarding began to take on mainstream appeal in the form of competitions, heavy branding/marketing strategies (especially from companies not making skateboard-related equipment or apparel), and in the emergence of skateparks, architecture specifically designed for the sole purpose of use by skateboarders. Competitions and skateparks posed the biggest threat to Stecyk's words, as they rid the skateboarder of their “guerilla” status and imposed useful “technological artifacts” to skate and practice their craft on. At this point in the history of skateboarding, the activity itself began to move away from “art form” and started to resemble something more of a sport.

Now, looking at the present situation, we see that skateboarding has progressed immensely, while still maintaining this schism of an art-yet-sport “aura.” It is no longer a small deranged sub-culture making it's mainstream debut, but a massive industry and activity practiced globally, a leader in fashion (i.e. what hip-hop stars Kanye West and Pharrell call skurban, an amalgamation of 'skate' and 'urban' styles) and arts (i.e. well known artist-skateboarders Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzales, and actor Jason Lee to name a few), where almost every U.S. city of significant size has at least one or two skateparks, and where some “professional” skateboarders can earn millions of dollars whether or not they participate in skateboard competitions, but where the definition of skateboarding is still left undefined - and for good reason. As mentioned above, skateboarding can bear a striking resemblance to both a sport, mostly during contests, and an art form, when it is stripped of its competitiveness. But because of the vague and somewhat paradoxical nature of skateboarding, it has yet to appear in the Olympic Games, nor do you tend to see skateboarders performing their tricks in art galleries.

Therefore, maybe that is why one of the most applicable explanations fit for skateboarding comes from musician and academic, Dr. Greg Graffin, in an unrelated essay, “A Punk Manifesto,” where he attempts to define, not skateboarding, but what being a true “punk” (someone immersed in the subculture of punk-rock music) means. Graffin's claim is that, “Those who lose touch with their nature become society's robots, whereas those who denounce their social development become vagrant animals. Punk stands for a desire to walk the line in between these two extremes with masterful precision.” According to Graffin's words, skateboarding parallels what it means to be punk in that, through its development and evolution, we have two sides of the activity that oppose and somewhat contradict one another, yet still exist within the same identity. Therefore, we are left with an activity that cannot necessarily be pigeonholed, but rather will likely always “walk the fine line” between the extremes of art and sport with “masterful precision,” both literally and figuratively.