Getting into BMX riding, and racing in 1982, and then the weird, new, little sport of BMX freestyle in 1983-84, was what took my life in a totally different direction. That set me on a much different trajectory than my friends in Boise. I wound up spending my 20's around a bunch of highly creative, highly entrepreneurial weirdos, who wound up being founding fathers and mothers of the action sports revolution. Fueled by punk rock music, the need to ride and skate, cheap beer, and the Do It Yourself ethic, we forged new paths in the world. Collectively, we created entire new sports, took them global, and built industries to support them. Some people played major roles, some people smaller roles. But everyone who rode, skated, or did action sports in the 80's and 90's, and since, it part of that revolution. As we grew older, action sports became lifestyle sports, and many people are still doing them, in their 50's and 60's.
While I unfortunately got sidetracked from riding and skating for the last 20 years, BMX freestyle and a bit of skateboarding, and hanging out and working with people those worlds, set the course of my adult life. At 20 years old, I was writing articles and proofreading two worldwide magazines, rather than learning about writing in a class. Rather than the classroom learning of most 20-somethings in Gen X, I learned by doing, as well as reading 250 or 300 books along the way. I've also listened to a couple hundred more books and courses on audio cassettes. In more recent years, my learning has come mostly from YouTube and Google searches, looking up whatever I needed to learn to do my next project or idea.
Now, 37 years after that photo at the top, I'm now a homeless guy in Southern California who does a unique form of Sharpie art, writes more blogs posts than just about anyone, except Seth Godin, and predicts major stock market trends before they happen, on occasion. These days, here's what interests me most, and the main themes of this blog.
Old School BMX freestyle- I've written over 1,000 posts about BMX freestyle, and I still write some now and then. I also write about skateboarding now and then, and action sports in general.
Sharpie Scribble Style art- I scribble with Sharpie markers, creating drawings that may or may not be cool. It depends who you ask. But they take a long time, and usually look pretty cool. #sharpiescribblestyle
Futurist thinking- I've always been someone who looked at the Big Picture, and far off into the future, trying to figure out where things are going, and economics, We are in a major transition period for society as a whole, and I write about these themes a lot.
Writing- I'm more of a writer than anything else. It's been over 36 years since I published my first zine, and I've written more in total, and had much of my writing actually read, than many published novelists. So I have thoughts to share on writing and creativity.
Creativity and its role in society- New stuff, from weird art, to economic growth, comes from people who create new things. The importance of creativity in today's society is a big interest of mine.
NFT's and crypto- These technologies, as over-hyped as they are, are making huge changes in what is possible, and how our world functions. I'm new to these worlds, but very interested in what's happening, and learning more and more about them.
Those are my main themes in this blog these days. I bounce around between them. And I go off on tangents to write a post on other stuff, now and then. If none of these things interest you, you're reading the wrong blog. I'm banned from linking any of my posts on Facebook and Instagram, because of "community standards" whiners. Fuckin' bitches. But I link all my posts on Twitter, @steveemig43 . Thanks for reading. This blog is creeping up on 800 blog posts, and 135,000 page views, so thank you for checking it out.
I have a new blog now, check it out:
The Spot Finder #thespotfinder
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