Brooke Geery

Seasons Change — except in So Cal

I just got back from a quick trip to So Cal. It was partially to keep my status on United, and mostly to have a meeting about Alliancewakeskate.com. Time to add some more functionality, change a few things up. Nothing too major, but I think the stuff we talked about will make the site better, so that's a good thing. Don't want stuff getting stale in wakeskating. It was unbelievably beautiful in San Diego. Warm, sunny, light breeze. You know, perfect. Of course I spent my two days in an office infront of my computer, but at least I was right next to the ocean. Also got my requisite So…
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Big in Europe

After Future went under, I sold off most of what I'd written to Euro mags, which any extreme journalist will tell you is the best thing to do with crap no one in the US will use. Of course, some of the stories were actually pretty good, and I am glad they found a home, even if some of the text is in German and I will probably never see them anyway. I guess the issue of On Board that I sold some teenager profiles too made it stateside, and although I haven't seen it, Adryan was nice enough to scan me a jpeg of the one profile I wrote…
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Equity!

I heard this rumor that the economy is bad. Something about risky lending, Wall Street irresponsibility, people buying houses they couldn't afford, etc. Well I would like to thank lenders for being irresponsible, because without it, there's no way they would have given me a zero-down loan to buy my house. I suppose the difference between me and the people buying $900,000 houses in So Cal is that I found a reasonably-priced house in a somewhat stable market and because of my self-employed status my earning potential is variable. My situation worked out quite well actually, and even in the miserable market, I still owe less on my house than…
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Fun with Internets

It looks like I may have secured myself some work with a new snowboard site that's launching on October 23rd. I am stoked because it will hopefully replace the void left by Future in the snowboard world, and my bank account, and in this economy... Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because in my research of the new site's parent company, I ended up at Ryan Sheckler's site. I felt like I needed to preface this with a story because what I found on this site made me really embarrassed to be there. However, it was funny, so I will share it with you here. Here's a screen…
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Photo Battle/Shoot Off/Firing Squad

I know people claim to like snowboarding and skateboarding because they are individual activities, blah, blah, but let's face it: we humans love to compete. The reason I bring this is up is because of YoBeat's weekly photo face off, which I thought we were calling Firing Squad but this week ended up being "photo battle." I can't take credit for this idea, in fact, Adryan was nice enough to suggest it, and Nick in turn, ran with it. But I told Nick and gave him the go ahead, so I will at least take a little credit. As it turns out, it's getting quite popular. We are in day…
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Responsible Journalism

Today when I got to work the bakery was buzzing with activity, including a photoshoot. I assume the guy was shooting for some important paper or magazine, as evidenced by his multiple-camera set up. But what was really amazing is that while he was getting the shot, he was on his phone. Nothing says "I'm too important to be doing this" like taking a call while on assignment. I lol-ed and took this photo. (Note to self: perhaps photoshoots are not the best time to take calls. I should probably stop doing that.)
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Leaving the Comfort Zone

I don't often take enough advantage of this city I live in. It's got all the immenities of a big city, with that small town feel, or so I find myself telling people on planes when they ask me about Portland. But like anywhere you live for awhile, it's easy to get into a rut and forget to even try to do different things. Such was not the case this past weekend however! I was really proud of myself and here's why: Friday night I went to a Vegan rock show. Ok, well it wasn't very rocking, since it was just three dudes playing acoustic guitars, but it was still…
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The Youth of Today

It's scary when you realize you are getting older. I surround myself with things and people who help to keep me young (and I am not really THAT old anyway) but sometimes I have these realizations that the "it" generation is becoming the next generation. As in, the one after mine. Two things that I've been noticing lately: 1.) The use of LOL. Since 99% of my communication is via iChat I get this one a lot. For me LOL is only used in jest or when something is really, really funny. But with the kids it has seemingly replaced ha or even :) as a way to express that…
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