Brooke Geery: Extreme Journalist

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 it’s worth! Of course that is in large part to the non-stop improvements I’ve been making using slave free labor of the best bf ever. So I figured even the collapse of the housing market was no reason to stop now (and I’d already bought all the wood for a deck and installed an awkward door,) so here’s what we did this weekend.

BEFORE:

I wish a had a true before picture of the back of the house, when it was yellow and didn’t have the door, but if I took one, I can’t find it.

AFTER:

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 shot of his recent friend’s photos. Too much really.

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 2 of this week’s battle between Jay Cagney and Ben Birk and there are over 200 votes already, a YoBeat record for sure!  Of course, it doesn’t hurt that both photographers have been posting on message boards encouraging people to vote, but we’ll take the traffic where we can get it. We’ve gotten a lot of traffic from thecomeupboard.com, which happens to be a BMX message board. Random.

So for the 12-15 people a day who view this site, if you haven’t already go vote!  It’s good practice for next month and almost as important.

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.)

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 out of my comfort zone by a long shot. Ahron, my favorite vegan from the bakery, asked me to come and shoot photos for his myspace or something. The show was at the Red and Black, which though right around the corner from the office, I’d never actually been to. The place is a vegan bar full of more militant-looking Vegans than the bakery and smelled sort of funny. When I got there Ahron said, “Wow, I didn’t think you’d come.” So yeah, I blew it. But it turned out to be sort of cool, and when Nate asked if I wanted to go get drinks, I was already out so I did it.

Saturday was even better. Nate and Tim decided to get a keg at the Dude Plex to celebrate the end of summer (or mourn the beginning of fall, whichever you prefer.) So I whipped up some cole slaw and headed over. Since there weren’t many people we tried to figure out how much beer we’d each have to drink to finish the keg. Using my journalism math I approximated 10 beers each and would adjust the number accordingly whenever someone showed up. Like trying to figure out how many licks it would take to get to the center of a tootsie pop, I have no idea if I was right. And I had to leave the BBQ early for my next engagement. It was a good time though, complete with beer pong and foosball. I felt like I was at college, you know, if I had been in a frat when I was in college. I guess the keg was empty by 9, but by that point I was well into stop 2 of my tour.

I had intern Nick pick me up and bring me downtown, where Forum snowboards was hosting a star-studded, invite-only premier of its new movie. I love Evan Rose and since he invited me I figured I should be there. It was fun, there was free food and beer, but I may be too old/jaded because I saw right through the whole trying to woo the media thing. Good thing I have Nick, who wrote this wonderful story about the evening for YoBeat and everyone’s happy!

I ended up taking a cab from downtown (keg + free beer = me not driving,) which was un usual in and of itself. I felt like it was really late and I’d been out forever, of course, when I looked at the clock it turned out to be 10:30. Well, I guess some things never change.

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 there was any humor in the situation or statement.

2.)  The expression Do Work. People have been saying this all the time, and I suddenly realized it is only people who are 19-20. And then I realized they are quoting Rob and Big. And I vowed never to say it.

That’s all.

The first night I arrived in lovely Orlando, Florida (Whether you are returning home, here on business, or visiting our world class attractions…) I went straight from the airport to BBQ Bar. Back before I developed my abhorrence towards bars and “going out” I really liked BBQ bar. It reminded me of college, and they always played good music. Now I just go there once per trip to Florida because I feel like a should. But as I was standing outside in the suffocating Orlando humidity, Yueng-Ling in my hand and surrounded with old friends I proclaimed that I wasn’t going to work so hard this trip. I was going to skate, relax, wakeskate for fun, and not stay up late updating websites.

Well, I failed miserably on that regard. Three days of trade show, with nights of editing photos and posting stuff to Alliance and Yobeat. Of course it was the week I was in charge of most of the Yobeat updates.  To make matters worse, the house I always stay at has a new, very loud roommate, who was sort of scary and cut down on my comfort level.

In the days between expo and the Toe Jam I tried to shoot as many photos as possible, since no budget makes it easier just to run my own photos, I figured I better take some. Instead of fun and mellow, this was tiring and hectic, although it did have its moments. And I’d say I got pretty lucky with some good shots. Bill told me at some point I could start calling it skill, but I like luck better.

After I was officially over it, the Toe Jam finals started. Three days of shooting photos, sun burns and fire ant bites. I got some good shots though, and its always good to hang with the riders, get the dirt, etc. Bill told me I could go down in history as the “mother of early wakeskating,” which is a scary, scary thought. Oh man, I was just told one of my internet haters thinks I use Alliance Wakeskate to “promote myself!” I guess he doesn’t know about this site.

Anyway, enough wakeskating. In other work-related news, I had to take down my page of links to Futuresnowboarding.com, because it now just redirects to snowboard-mag.com and none of the links worked anymore. I searched to see if they’d just moved the content, but no, none of my hard work lives on the internet anymore. Too bad I only downloaded about 3 of those stories like I had intended to before that happened. Oh well.

In better news, I had a shot in the new issue of Alliance Wakeboard that I think is my favorite photo I’ve ever taken. So enjoy.

I’m at the halfway mark on my trip to Orlando. Actually a little bit past it, but whatever. I’ve worked too much, slept too little and gotten a sunburn on my lower legs only. The first three days of my trip were spent milling about at surf expo, talking about the industry, pretending I care, etc. On Sunday, partially to avoid having to help break down the booth, and partially because I just wanted to get out of there, I spent at least three hours trying to leave. But I didn’t want to just leave alone, because then I knew I would not do anything useful. I was either going wakeskating, or going to shoot photos of wakeskating, and personally I didn’t care which one.

My new AWS intern had offered to take my riding, but as it turned out, her ski is unregistered and so we couldn’t go until after four. There was talk of a winch mission, but like any winch mission, varibles such as not having a winch, or a driver, etc., got in the way. About 30 minutes before the show I ended I finally headed off to some new spot with Ben, Dave and my new friend Justin. It begged for fisheye shots (and was backlit to shoot long lens anyway) so I got to try out of my new toys. It could have worked out better, if some tricks were actually landed, but I got a few cool shots.

During Expo I did my best to set up photo shoots for every day between then and Thursday when Toe Jam starts. Figured if I had to be here for the whole week, I better make it worth my while. Yesterday I went out to Lake Sheen, which is right next to all the theme parks, and was actually pretty awesome. The weather cooperated and the riders did as well. I got to play with another of my new toys, this time the water housing. Luckily it worked since I managed to get dumped off the tube not once, but twice. I got some really cool shots and I put up a little blog about it here.

Today the plan was to go shoot with the “movie stars,” a.k.a Brian Grubb, who I am trying to give a feature interview too, and Chris Kallas, the new Aussie sensation who is getting an On Deck. But since we did so well yesterday, and there was more we wanted to shoot, Steve had asked me to come back out to Sheen in the morning. I figured why not and it’s a good thing I did, since Grubb and co. totally blew me off. I am sure they are busy, or whatever, but don’t they know who I think I am! Well, it worked out anyway cause I needed a little break and some time to geek out on the internet.

Tomorrow one more shoot with some riders who will cooperate, and then the Toe Jam madness starts. Sunday I go home and life makes sense again. I miss my kitties. Here are some sweet pictures Jared took of them.

Oh I almost forgot! After however many visits, and countless jokes about it, Patrick and I finally ate at Red Lobster for dinner tonight.  I am excited about it anyway.

Working predominantly on the Internet, especially in these wonderful days of web 2.0, is awesome. Not only is the Internet endless, meaning you can write just about anything you want, (and I’ve got some good random ideas I’ve finally been able to bring to fruition thanks to Yobeat) but you get to know exactly what everyone else thinks of it, practically minutes after it’s posted! No more waiting around for letters in the mail, which people rarely even bothered to write. Even before you could comment on everything, it was a matter of someone actually opening their mail program and writing an email. Then that email would actually say where the letter came from, thereby negating the fun of saying really nasty things. But no more! Thanks to comments, people can anonymously say exactly what they are thinking!

I’ve always had a thick skin, and for the most part, it’s easy to laugh it off. But when you work really hard on something, and then some shitty kid decides to write some ignorant comment, it does get annoying. And since this is the second time I’ve mentioned my merry band of internet trolls in this here blog, it’s obviously something I think about. Apparently people with the Internet don’t subscribe to the old adage “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

I’m bringing this up again because yesterday I got my latest big break, a Industry Profile interview on Shayboarder.com. It’s already yesterday’s news, since Shay updates that site so damn much, but I was still pretty stoked she asked me to do it, cause we all know I like to give my honest opinion on things. Also, it was an excuse to use my rad karate picture. Well, the interview was long, and I had a little bit of answering remorse after I finished it, wishing I’d answered some questions differently, etc. I even asked if I could redo a few, until I realized that I wasn’t actually going to do it. Overall though, I think it came out well. Of course, before long the following comment appeared:

Anonymous said…

fucking shut this bitch up already. brooke you’re too old shut up and retire.

 While I commend them for using the correct version of you’re, it really wasn’t very nice, now was it? But whatever, I do complain about being old a lot and it would be sweet to retire. And of course, it’s clearly someone I know…

I am not the first, or the last person to be subjected to the torture of anonymous comments. Sarah Morrison told me she thought a great episode of MTV’s True Life would be “I Am An Anonymous Commenter,” after she was subjected to a ton of them when one of her Youtube videos was featured on the site. And I recently read an interview in the LA Times with Christian Lander, creator of the awesome and hilarious site Stuff White People Like, who said of his internet haters:

“People were obsessed with telling me [the blog has] jumped the shark. For every single post I’d put up. Part of me would want to be like, ‘It’s your right to say whatever you want,’ but dude, I get it. You’ve said this about the last 15 posts. Enough. And so I stopped reading the comments entirely months ago.”

Of course I’m not going to stop reading comments. As bummed as they occasionally make me, I love it. For every hate comment there are usually two more saying whatever is great. Today I posted a Peter Line interview on YoBeat, and within a couple hours had several positive comments, including one from previous hater.  I guess I just wish people would have the balls to put their names on what they have to say. Unless you are going to get in legal trouble, or lose your job over it, why not?

So I, like pretty much everyone else I know who watches television, have been anxiously awaiting the return of Entourage. And while I know you could probably find some pirate site to watch it free online, or just wait until it comes out on DVD, I need it in real time. So at 7:30 on Sunday, I called Comcast and added HBO to my cable package. Of course when I called and asked to add it, the girl on the other end of the line simply replied, “getting ready to watch Entourage?” I confirmed and then made sure to complain about how expensive cable was in a witty way, because 9 times out of 10, there is some promotion they can apply to your account. Sure enough she hooked up a free month of HBO, which will probably not lessen the sting of $15 a month or whatever it actually costs once it kicks in, but it’s still cool.

Since I will soon be paying for it, I figure I better get my money’s worth out of the channel, so I am going to force myself to watch every show on the network. (I used to like movies, but my attention span seems to have gotten shorter as I’ve gotten older, so oh well.) First up was True Blood, which seems to be about Vampires. It sucked me in initially, but I don’t know, it’s sort of like  dramatic Buffy with adult issues, a.k.a. sex with vampires a.k.a skinemax-style soft porn. Not sure I am backing it. I’ll have to start checking eatskeet.com, cause I bet he’ll have the line on which shows are good and why.

So the first Episode of Season 5. Generally I try not to get excited about things, because then you are just setting yourself up for a let down. So I had prepared myself for the worst and must say, I was pleasantly surprised. The writing hasn’t gotten lazy, and even though I know Adrian Grenier is a douchebag in real life, I still think he’s awesome on the show. So hooray! If every other show on HBO sucks, at least this is worth the money. Now when are they going to bring back Big Love?