This weekend I got together with a few friends to see if we could skate at the new Chase Center in Mission Bay, San Francisco. Turns out its the most incredible space, and totally empty due to the lockdown. So we basically had the run of the plaza for a couple of glorious hours. Here’s…
Category: SF Bay Area
On Skating and Paying It Forward
One of the things that I miss about my communities is the feeling of being cared for and expressing care for others. It’s just so much harder to experience care and kindness when you aren’t physically together. Skating has reminded me of that though. Nearly every time I go out skating in the park, there…
Partnered Skating in SF!
If this isn’t a perfect city summer vibe, I don’t know what is. God damn do I love skating in the park.
Second Month of Skating: Getting My Jam On!
There are lots of kinds of roller skating: park skating (ramps), trail skating, derby, figure. But I have had one primary motivation for learning how to quad skate: dancing. Or “jam skating” as it’s called in many places. Early this morning, I celebrated two months of quad skating by jamming to one of my favorite…
Growing Up as a Coconut
I spent most of my childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area. That sounds like a great cultural landscape to grow up within, with its diverse mix of races and peoples from all over the world. My reality was quite different. Specifically I grew up in Pleasanton, California, a large town about an hour away…
Rik’s Birthday Weekend Wander!
This year, because of the pandemic, a gathering of my friends was not going to be possible. <sadface> I knew that I didn’t want to throw yet another Zoom virtual party, which honestly is getting a little old. So instead, I came up with organizing a Birthday Weekend Wander! The idea was to invite friends…
Ran a 10K this Weekend!
For no specific reason, I set a goal for myself to successfully run a 10K. It’s certainly not the first 10K I’ve ever run. And I didn’t plan on setting a personal best time. I just wanted to run a distance of 10 kilometers without stopping. Luckily, I live right next to a perfect place…
2019 in Review: Turning 50, Disney Fun, Changing Jobs
I have a lot to be thankful for in 2019, most notably turning 50, getting a fantastic new job, and surviving my first scooter accident. Here’s some of the highlights of the past year. The Big Five-Oh The biggest milestone of 2019 was turning 50 years old in July. I don’t know what I was…
“The Harlem of the West”: Learning about the Fillmore District
As a lindy hopper and a jazz enthusiast living in San Francisco, I am embarrassed about how little I know about the historic Fillmore District. In the 1940s and 1950s this area was known as the “Harlem of the West” because of the large number of Black-owned businesses, particularly supper clubs, dance halls, and after-hours…
Nine Motor Scooter Safety Tips
Since my first scooter accident a month ago, I’ve been thinking more and more about scooter safety. I believe that an important reason why both myself and my scooter suffered only mild injuries from the accident was because of a few safety practices. Specifically, I was driving at a moderate speed with the flow of…