Xmas gifts

I'm happy with the xmas gifts I got, not to many by my family's standards but money's been tight as of late. The gifts I got that are related to this blag are:
Fujita Seiko: The Last Koga Ninja by Phillip Hevener
No Ticket? No Problem! by Scott Kerman
Grandfather by Tom Brown
A Dark Blue Bike Helmet
A green Shirt
The other things aren't too ninja or anything so I'll spare you. Started reading Fujita's biography, guys had a really crazy life and some conditioning exercises are described which will be interesting to try out.

NY Trash is also delicious

I'm in NY now, hopefully there will be some jams and all that. Crisis is here and Cipher gets back tomorrow so we'll all meet up and plan and scheme and all that. It's covered in snow here, I wanted to get back to some dryness but I guess that won't be the case. I did check a NY dumpster map and went out to get some food, you know to show my parents that trash is awesome, they we're already pleasant surprised by my trash jeans. I went to a supermarket and brought back:
5 Pomegranates
3 Apples
2 Bags of Bananas
1 Bag of Oranges
Some Broccoli
2 Peaches
I went out on the bike and dad was totally thrown off when I told him I brought everything back from the trash. Bombarded my with questions and I think he'll be down once he learns more. Also I feel that you can't really deny results, if the fruit is sitting there looking delicious what can you say to make it less so?

Trash craft, trash trades, and trash pics among other things

I think it's fair to say at this point that I Heart Trash. It's pretty cool, I'm all over craigslist trade it off left and right. I'm trading the speakers and blowdryer I found for some sweaters, and I made a pair of jeans that I actually like (baggy-ish work jeans + cargo pockets + hand sewn = Win Pants). Also made an Xmas gift and found something that I'm going to give as one also. Here's what I got last night, complete with bad laptop webcam pic:

Here's what I got:
12 Bags of Various Kinds of Chips
1 Bottle of Vitamin Water (not shown)
1 Bottle of Some Kind of Italian Spice Mix
1 Tube of Toothpaste (with fancy sparkly things in it)
1 Container of Taboule
2 Containers of Tzatziki
2 Containers of Onion Dip
1 Bottle of Cough Syrup
1 Ionic Blow Dryer (probably gonna trade it or pass it to Kunoichi's house)(trading for a sweater)
9 Boxes of Nut Thins (Pecan flavor for those of you that voted for that in the poll)
I'm also gonna get a bike on the cheap from craigslist, so I can move around to further spots on the dumpster maps and hopefully get even crazier finds, but only after I attach a milk crate to the back, and make the bike darker. Gonna be in NY soon, can't wait to dive there and scheme with the BSC guys about traveling this summer, Crisis and Cipher seem down with the idea, we gotta make more concrete plans if anything's going to happen though.

Bad Weather/Jean Sheath

I'm gonna be bored for a while, I have a bunch of free time and no plans, also everything outside is covered in snow, so footprints and slipperyness and wetness kinda turn me off from sneaking around doing parkour, but don't think it'll turn me away from getting free food.
Anyways, I made a sheath for the bokken. The old sheath was starting to look pretty suck (it was rubber bands and paper towels) so I took a pair of jeans that I dumpstered but didn't like and cut the back of a leg into a sheath; it's the length of the bokken and then some with the extra space used as a pocket, I sewed it off and added a button, ideally I'll somehow get a zipper and I'll replace the button. At some point I might add a picture of the sheath, maybe...

Year one and some pics

This blog has been up for a year at this point, rejoice a year of ninja adventures, mostly in cities. Also last night I found a ton of foods AND took a pic with the webcam, enjoy the deliciousness that is trash:

Not shown eggs and milk
4 Blocks of Cheese
Talked to Cipher and Crisis, they seem to be down for traveling this summer. We're all going to get together and plan it out this winter break maybe over some snowboarding.

Food, clothes and cops

Went diving with Kusa tonight. We went around to the fruit place, which was of course very fruitful. Later we went to check the pharmacy which was very empty except for some stuff I dived but apart from edible food, it was pretty empty. We had to get some bread so we did that quietly and found a bag full of bread and flour, we took what we needed. Afterward we checked a new supermarket to see if they were worth going to, didn't find much. The pharmacy was most fruitful along with the fruit place and we dropped some food at Kunoichi's place. We tried to get some pizza but first a guy went into the alley and we waited around and afterward we went in but left upon seeing no black bags (the ones that contain pizza) and hearing the door of the pizzeria opening. As we were walking back home, we saw a pile of clothes and started digging until we found the brown jacket, while we dug around a cop car stopped to see what were up to but when we told him we wouldn't leave a mess he rolled off, glad it's lax here, I hear in the UK trash is the owner's property until the trash guys (no not us) pick it up...
In the end we brought back:
4 Small Baguettes
1 Apple
1 Pack of Basil
3 Heads of Broccoli
13 Bell Peppers (Various Colors)
2 Bok Choy
1 Salad Heart
1 Bunch of Parsley
2 Containers Tzatziki
2 Containers Onion Dip
2 Containers Bowtie Pasta and Olive Salad
2 Containers Ravioli and Red Beans Salad
1 Brown Polar Fleece Jacket

Found my old knife

Kusa found my old knife today in the cushions, it has no clip so it slips out of your pocket really easily. It's the tiny black pocket knife. Kusa told me I should string is up to my pants when I carry it to avoid losing it in the future. I dumpstered some twine a while ago so I tied that up to the knife. Now it's on a long loop and I can attach it to whatever belt I have on or to a belt loop, not sure how I'll deal with wearing sweats, maybe get the loop around the inside draw string.
Also the knife can double as a rope dart now that it's on a string although I doubt I'll ever use it as such, (way to scary swinging a blade around yourself on a string).
Overall happy to have the small knife back and I'll probably carry it instead of the Olympia, because of the size and look, much less intimidating, if I need a bigger or serrated knife I'll switch back though.

More parkour

Worked on more parkour today. Was supposed to jam with the Frozen Monkey crew but the communications were fuzzy and only me and Kusa ended up going out. We went to the campus nearby and worked on rolling, wall landings (cat, half cat, crane etc...), drops with and without forward momentum. I'm better at the huge wallrun, and I got three times to the top with much less effort, but I did cut my palm open because the cement is rough and my hands were cold. I need to condition my left leg because I feel that my right leg is getting stronger than my left and I'm not happy with that.

Garbage for Gear

Not too long ago I found a new messenger bag in the pharmacy dumpster, the lining was loose underneath the flap so I sewed it up. I realized I didn't need it so I put a barter ad online to trade for some travel gear. Today I met up with a guy who traded it for a waterproof jacket. I'm happy with it, it's a dark blue Blind jacket that you just pull over. The guy was pretty cool and says he might be able to get me a tarp as well. We're gonna keep in touch.
Later today there's gonna be parkour, me and Kusa and maybe some other Frozen Monkey guys.

Frozen Monkeys

I've created a group called the Frozen Monkeys, it's a small local parkour crew. so far it consists of me, Kusa, Kunoichi, Pines, Guts and V. Guts and Kunoichi are just just starting so we'll guide them through the basics and keep them progressing. I've told other people who have come to me inquiring about parkour about the crew so that they can come learn or train or jam. Our first meet up will be this Saturday if the weather permits, and will be either a jam or a class depending on who shows up.
Frozen Monkeys because once it gets cold we'll just be jumping around in the cold like frozen monkeys.

Theatre Acrobatics and lonely diving boards

Today, (well yesterday at this point) I was in theatre class when the class was split and sent to different rooms to hear people tell individual stories. The room we went to was a small all black theatre room with four rows of seats and an awesome very climbable looking grid of metal rods halfway to the ceiling. I wanted very badly to ascend the ladder and have a good time messing around on the top of the thing, but teachers and students and class were all hindering me, so I'd have to wait for a window of opportunity to explore a bit. As people told their stories for the class I thought about swinging around on the bars and checking out the catwalks.
As we left the room I considered hanging back and waiting for the room to empty itself but that would be too obvious unless I hid during the bustle of the mass movement. We returned to the main auditorium only to have the main professor tell us that we would have a quick five minute break. I grinned to myself, I was all to happy to slip into the hallway and return to the black theatre on my own. I got into the room, happy to be alone and quietly went up the ladder, once at the top I gave myself a quick tour of the catwalk which went along three sides of the room, I tested my weight on the metal bars and they seemed to shake a bit, I was disappointed. I had decided to return to the ladder and head back to the auditorium when I spotted another ladder concealed behind the cage around the first one that led up to a false ceiling, I quickly flew up that one and was happy to see a bunch of graffiti from previous adventurous students, I looked around at the dusty vents and ceiling slats and then marked "Urban Nokizaru" in pencil on an insulated pipe then headed back down to the catwalks.
I decided that I would try the metal grid once more before heading back to class, this time at the opposite end of the room. The grid seemed sturdy at this point but I got down on all fours QMing to distribute my weight "just in case" (also it was scary as shit to walk around on the 3 cm diameter metal pipes that were covered in dust and wiring). I made it my mission to cross the room on the grid and return. It was sketchy and I spent a lot of time slowly testing the strength of the individual bars but I eventually got across and back, then down the ladder. As I returned to class I was just in time to catch the middle and end of this PUA/magician guy's story about how he likes impressing people. The prof and her TAs gave me a weird look but probably thought nothing of it as I sat down and vanished into the mass of late students who sat around me.
I didn't dive tonight, no time, well there was but I didn't capitalize on it at all, instead I worked on a paper (which I have yet to finish, bleh) tried with Kusa to meet and chill with out upstairs neighbors (it didn't work out they thought it'd be a good idea to go to bed before 1 AM, sigh, some people are just weird I guess) and hanging with Ting and Kusa just talking and relaxing. Don't worry dumpsters I'll pay you guys a visit soon, my friends wants to see what you guys are like.

Summer Plans

This summer I wanna travel around tramp style; riding trains and hitching around. I'm not sure where exactly I want to go, but I'm thinking of meeting up with Pines somewhere and kicking it with him. Probably want to bring along Crisis and/or Cipher as they seem like the only people that would be down for that kind of think. I've made a list of things to bring with me for when I do this:
Grey/Black Backpack
Pocket Knife
Swiss Army Knife
Black Hoodie
Woodland BDU Shorts
Tan Cargo Pants
Brown Sneakers
Water Sneakers
2 Pairs Short Socks
2 Pairs Long Socks
4 Underwear
2 T-shirts
2 Bandannas
Crank Flashlight
Red Flashlight
Matches & Lighter
Spoon & Fork
Sewing Stuff
4 Black Garbage Bags
Sharpie
Mosquito Repellent
Binoculars
Cards
Paracord

Here's the stuff I don't have but would want to bring with me on said trip:
Pot
Earplugs
Some Relevant Maps
Sleeping Bag (not sure if mine is good enough)
Some Tupperware
Plastic Mug
Rain Poncho
Probably just want to do UE and Parkour traveling around, diving food, squatting where ever and just hanging out in the summer.

Pizza, dip and folding knives

Not too long ago maybe two three days, I lost my second pocket knife diving, I don't know how I lost the first one. I wasn't happy with my lack of a pocket knife, (I'm not gonna carry around the awesome Swiss Army Knife for everyday stuff), so I went to check out some knives at the surplus stores with Kusa. I ended up getting a folding Olympia, maybe 3ish inches, partially serrated that's openable with one hand. I plan on not loosing this one for as long as possible, so far so good.
I went diving with it of course and I as I was in the pharmacy dumpster (I get inside of it because it's locked and I can't reach too far inside without feeling like I'll crack a rib or two) I hear a car pull up and stop right across the street, I thought it was an undercover cop, but it turns out I'm just paranoid sometimes and that the security cameras still can't see me and no one cares about dumpsters being raided. I slipped out was cautious and quickly left afterward anyway and made my way to the pizza place. I got home with the following:
1 Container of Hummus
1 Container of Onion Dip
1 Container of Tzatziki
1 Plastic Shopping bag Brimming with Pizza (had to Tetris the freezer to fit it in).

Random Encounters

I just got in from diving, I checked the Chinese place, the Pharmacy, the compactor, the bakery, and even the supermarket, but to no avail just packaging and papers and real trash. So I went to the fruit dumpster the place never lets me down.
As I walked down the alley I I see a mountain of trash bags sitting on the dumpster, I think to myself there must be a ton of trash in there tonigh...
"*******!?!" (That's my name, my real name).
I looked hard at the dumpster, a head separated itself from the mound of garbage a head with dreads on it, at the same time I see a dark silhouette detach itself from the side of the dumpster and approach me, I was only confused for half a second before I realized that Dreads and Guts had chosen the same place and same night to dive as me :). We dug around and collected fruits and vegetables. We took what we wanted and parted ways quietly, a crazy man was yelling (at no one) from his doorway. I explored some areas that I don't dive too often (not much foods) and came away with pizza.
At the end of the night I brought back the following:
1 Slice of Pizza
1 Bag of Basil
1 Bunch of Green Onions
1 Head of Lettuce
A few chunks of Ginger
5 Bell Peppers (assorted colors)
2 Heads of Broccoli
2 Bags of Purple Grapes

Just dancin and jumpin and dancin and jumpin...

Yesterday was the last day my friend from home was going to be here so we went out clubbing, a his dad had a friend who had a daughter who goes to school with me so I had met her the day before and she ended up coming out with us. She's fun to go clubbing with, she's a good dancer and pro at photo bombing. Later we all chilled here with Ting and Kusa and the neighbors, dived a bit of pastries. We cuddled it up until I had to get my friend to the train station to the airport. Afterward I went back to bed til at least four. Later the girl left also and I ate some food.
Me and Kusa went to the nearby campus to train parkour. It was a great time. We worked on vaulting, rolling, a little bit of fluidity but mostly on wallruns, I progressed to the top of a wall we found that had some gradual slants so you could work up to heights, really happy about that. We met a guy there who was telling us about how he used to train and a place with open gym and different traceurs. I haven't pushed myself in a bit and neither has Kusa we felt the training more than we would have liked to. We went home after that, now we're resting up and gonna go to a party in half an hour-ish, great weekend so far.

Dive Lessons and Divine Tests

Tonight I went to another neighborhood near where I used to live to teach a friend to dive in his area. It was an alright time, we found a lot of bakery stuff at two different places (cookies, break, brownie edges, muffins) but not much else. If you wanna start diving read Evasion and The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving. Later on the way to the train I found some noodles and shin pads and scotch tape and bread sticks. The noodles broke open, but alas the dumpster gods had smiled upon me ahead of time and were merely putting my resourcefulness to the test, a test I passed by using the scotch tape to ensure the noodles remained in their packaging (until I cooked them later).
Later near home I dived a bunch of food and some household stuff (dish detergent and batteries). I've come to realize that pharmacy managers dislike chocolate and bakery owners (and many restaurant owners too) dislike bread. They just seem to throw it out all the time, or maybe they just love me enough to feed me :D
... Nah!!!11 lol.
Ting seems a bit excited about Nin-nin coming over for a bit, he has a party lined up for Friday and we're probably gonna go out on Thursday as well. Looking forward to that.

More Kenjutsu

I did some kenjutsu after watching B13 Ultimatum tonight. Just went out back and did various cuts from the above the head. Worked on having my hands in regular and in switch. It was conditioning as much as an arm/shoulder work out. I did a small workout before going out, I need to do more exercise, I'm still more in shape than most people that don't exercise but I feel that I was in much better shape this summer. I found out today that my friend (the guy from Spain that I did the TKD lesson with) will be coming up from Wednesday until Saturday morning. I guess we're gonna go out clubbing probably or crash as many parties as are happening. We'll call my friend Nin-nin (after the Afro Samurai character), because he shares some of the same traits.

A lot of people didn't like the second B13 but I really enjoyed it, I realized it's a lot more stylized but it's an action movie first and a parkour popularizer second so I didn't really expect it to stay "true to parkour" as much as many people felt it should.

Roof and Food ninjas

Alright so yo, parkour teaching today at the nearby campus. I wanted to do some parkour and lately I've been realizing that I enjoy teaching it as much as I enjoy training or conditioning or just doing parkour, not that I'm a master teaching but I feel a learn a lot about my own style and the finer details behind techniques when I explain them and do them over and over slowly and quickly.
I was teaching Kunoichi, we started with rolling, we had to get over the different hand placement of the parkour roll as opposed to the ninjutsu roll that was in her muscle memory from before. After that we worked on the reverse vault, it's strange, she does it better than the two handed vault. Cipher does the same thing, his "natural vault" is the reverse vault as he puts it. We did a bit of jumping work, playing around with height and distance. The last thing we worked on and by far the toughest for Kunoichi was the wallrun and the climb up/pop vault. We went into a building drank some water and then started heading home.
I decided to check out the gymnasium building from when me, Pines and Kusa did the "roof marathon" at the end of last spring. Well, the route is still there but the fence that was once horizontal and easy to bypass is now vertical and slightly less easy to slip under. We went up all the ladders and appreciated the skyline while keeping an eye on the janitors in the windows (making sure they keep their eyes off us). I tried going down another ladder, to a fire escape and then to ground level instead going down about five ladders but there was a ladder cover and I wasn't sure if Kunoichi would deal with is well yet, I went back up and we took the easy way down. Went back to Kunoichi's a bit, drank tea hung with her roomies etc...
Got home made some soup for dinner, Kusa asked me if I planned on diving, lol, of course. I go to the fruit place with him, the results:
1 box of baby spinach
1 box of baby arugula
2 heads of broccoli
2 limes
16 boxes of raspberries
1 box of black berries (I took all 17 boxes and made jam so it'd last longer)
4 green bell peppers
2 red bell peppers
We dropped those at the apartment and Kusa hit the hay. I went out again, to the compactor and the pharmacy dumpster I brought back:
1 box of Halloween chocolate
1 tube of Colg4te
1 red bead bracelet
1 three set of head/hair bands
2 jars of onion chip dip
1 jar of peanuts
1 can of almonds
2 energy efficient light bulbs
2 40 watt light bulbs
1 can of Pr1ngles chips
1 stack of CD-Rs
1 box of cough/cold throat strips
2 tubes of chap stick
1 tube of facial scrub
1 pair of blue headphones
1 roll of twine
1 can of tomato sauce
2 cans of microwaveable stew
2 AAA batteries
2 packs dill pickle sunflower seeds
4 packs seasoned sunflower seeds

Kung Fu Feast

Before yesterday night I dived a huge bag of everything bready or sugary next to a Timmy Ho's, before that I found maybe 8 cartons of peach nectar along with some 4 basketlets of raspberries and some other fruit. Remember I still have a ton of chocolates and jalepeno chips. Kusa and Ting are gone for the weekend, what will make a large amount of this food vanish?
You wanna watch some Jackie Chan movies? You shoulda came over, we watch a bunch bagels and cookies and chips and sipped on thick nectar in front of Rush Hour and Drunken Master. Kinda very awesome Saturday. Some of the ninja crew from the neighborhood were there Kunoichi was there with all but one of her roomies (there's 5 plus her total) and her friend from outta town (who's down with ninjas and dived food), Dreads was there with his roomie and I got V to stop in after his work. Was a jolly good time, cuddle, eat, watch kung fu, repeat, don't rinse though I want to keep this flavor in my mouth.
Wanna get rid of a large amount of dumpster food? Wanna see all your friends turn into cuddle food zombies? Wanna enjoy some awesome movies? Get your friends, get your computer, dive a ton of food (it's not that hard really) and set that shit up totally worth hour's worth of effort required.

Chocolate and Illness

Tonight I found soooo much chocolate it took three of us to carry it all off. More than I'd ever be able to eat without getting sick (speaking of which I'll get to that later). I also got some sauces and heatable foods, which I'm happy with. I haven't bought food in forever (cept this one time I ate out but that doesn't count). There was a whole garbage bag full of Jalepeno flavored chips I took a few and Kunoichi and her crew has a bunch too.
Since I was there afterwards I hung out a bit and even got some tea Kunoichi makes herself that I had for the first time the other day, after eating chocolate and chips a bit with everyone.
This is the fourth day of me being sick by the way :(. The Kunoichi's tea is great and it really helps. So does dumpstered medicine and fruits and vitamins and just drinking tea and resting. I've taken a lot of vitamin C through a grapefruit, a lemon (in tea) and a clementine (all dived of course). Leaving Kunoichi's I was told I should buy food and medicine, but I feel time and res... time will heal me enough. I left with a bit of tea to boil on my own and a grapefruit from Kunoichi, I'll heal up fast/soon. Till then probably no crazy extravagant adventures, though I did hang out on the mountain on Sunday (first day of my illness).

Operation: New Neighbor

Yesterday afternoon when I woke, I showered ect. When I opened the curtains to let what little sun shone into the alley into my room I noticed that there was scaffolding filling the alley, I peeked out and noticed that it was maybe two stories and they were still building it up. I went back later that night, I called my neighbor (Kouka Mono) who told me he was interested in "ninja stuff" and climbing shit, but he was studying.
Gear:
Me-
Black Long Sleeve Shirt
Black Cargo Sweatpants
Black Water Shoes
Kouka Mono-
Grey Hoodie
Jeans
Grey Sneakers
I walked out my front door, and down the stairs, checked the street for anyone, all clear. I dash into the alley and look at the scaffolding. It goes all the way up to the roof of the building next to where I live and it's pressed against the wall so no scary 5th story jumping required, yay. There are three ways up, all three are basically just ladders, I take the middle, climb up three stories. Once on the third I realize I need to take a different way up because the workers added wood to the top and I can climb through it. I climb a bit higher to a lower and much thinner wood platform and carefully walk along it until I'm at the back of the scaffolding. From there I continue my climb up, I get to the wooden platform and I have to pull up with my arms leaving my legs to dangle, it's always uncomfortable but at this point I'm used to this stuff. I hoist myself up and from there climb over the ledge and start exploring the roof.
There's a nice view of the downtown skyline and there are some other roofs to check out, I climb down a story and check out my neighbors' roofs, they're all wet and saggy so I tread lightly. I decide I want to take a pic of the skyline. I wallrun up to the first roof and climb down the scaffolding. I go into the apartment and ask Ting to pass me his camera. I head back to Kouka Mono and tell him he should check the roof, he's down after I tell him it only takes five minutes. I head down to the alley and wait for him.
I've already photographed the scaffolding when he gets out. I hear him talking to someone asking if I've already gone up, I slip out of the shadows (I notice be brought his roomie, but I'm ok with that) and explain the best route up then start climbing. I get up and take pics and we explore teh roofs I've seen last time. I'm pleasantly surprised that Kouka Mono can do a wall run untrained and doesn't need any help getting up or down. After that we climb down and it's over.
Lessons learned:
None really, climbing scaffolding is fun.

Also on the way home

I wake up at Down's place and everyone (her and her two roomies) are preparing the thanks giving stuff, I stay in bed enjoying the sun and dozing until about 4ish. I get up then and we hang out until people show up for dinner. It's a good time and about halfway through me and down are playing with each others feet under the table until we all decide to clean up. After cleaning and chatting and tea we all head home. On my way home I take the alley shortcut and since I'm wearing all my dumpster clothes I check every dumpster on the way but no luck...
I then do the pharmacy dumpster to see if I have any luck there, well, I don't, the same stuff as the last two raids, I can see that nothing has even moved...
On the way back to the apartment I decide to check the bins behind the coffee shop, they hadn't warmed up to me in the two times I checked them so I thought maybe third time is the charm.
As I'm heading towards them I see two guys dressed in black go into the alley and I feel that I may have to compete for whatever is in the dumpsters. I turn the corner into the alley and see a whole group of guys in leather jackets talking in French to each other. I think they're a gang and after seeing me (dressed like a dirty bum complete with dirty backpack) they decide to move to another spot to chat. In the dumpster I find four slices of pizza, two pepperoni and two with ham and peppers. I snag those, there's other pizza but it's flavors I wouldn't eat and they seem bad (maybe white cheese looks just as gross in a dumpster...)
I head home and finish the twizzlers and eat two pepperoni slices and throw away one of the ham and pepper ones as it seems bad. One slice is left in the freezer.

Old School and Donuts and Pretty Lights

This weekend was pretty awesome in my book. It all started at 3 PM on Saturday when my roomie Ting woke me to tell me someone was here to see me...
I was supposed to climb up the mountain today with my friend Down (I'll call her down, because she's down with a bunch of my ideas even the weird ones). I told her to come over and get me since I lost my phone. I expected her to show up around 12 since that was the time we agreed on. I woke when she got here and it was three in the afternoon and raining. No fun climbing the mountain in the rain. Instead we stayed in and talked and watched youtube and talked and showed off my dumpster food. After a while we traded massages then decided to go diving before hanging out at her place. My plan at that time was to go there, dive in her area and then see what my roomies were up to and crash whatever party they went to.
It was only seven or eight when we went diving so even the bakery dumpster didn't offer anything. We moved to the train station and went to her place, we helped prepare some food for the next day, also apparently I'm invited for thanksgiving tomorrow night at their place (cool a second one, sure). We cut up veggies and generally help out until around ten before we head out to dive her area. But before we dive, Down had suggested that we check out the abandoned building down her street. Her roomie says it was once a school. As we approach it I decide we should circle around it first to make sure there aren't any security patrols (more cautious now after having been busted trying to climb an abandoned building with Dreads and Guts). First obstacle, a barbed wire fence, but it isn't a problem because it's perpendicular to another fence and we can squeeze through, our patrol is slow and boring but we do admire some nice graffiti while we walk. Once we're sure there's no guards we go back to the building itself. We had brought a hammer and a flathead screwdriver to get through any boarded up windows or anything like that get in. Totally unnecessary the building welcomed us with open arms, it had a nice strong door with the window missing, needless to say we climbed through. We navigated around in the pitch black, read graff with the flashlight. The building was pretty creepy, it was really tagged up by some guys called EMK Crew and some other taggers I never really heard of. It was completely empty except one room in the basement that had a janitor bucket. Living in the building would have been totally feasible, there was even a pipe that seemed to spill water forever. We checked around every room before leaving. Down was reminded of many a horror movie while we walked the dark interior.
After heading back out we went diving at various places but only took things from Fran Prix and some gas station dumpster, he took:
a warm sweater
some mascara
some festive Christmas colored earrings
Three boxes of Krispy Kremes donuts!!!!1
After wandering around trying to find more dumpsters I called Kusa and Ting to see how the house party was and to decide whether I wanted to crash it. Kusa tells me its all drinking and smoking no dancing or anything I'd like, so I tell Down let's watch Princess Bride (I fell asleep the first time I saw it) at her place while we eat the donuts. She's down of course, on the way back I climb a roof quickly for fun. Turns out to be a good movie and the donuts are delicious too. After that I'm tired enough to sleep (but I won't for a while), so I tell Down put some chill music we can fall asleep to. She can't really find any so I play this album I like from Pretty Lights. We lay down and I take off my nasty, heavy pants (mud encrusted BDUs with pockets full of flashlight and wallet and all that) and shirt. We stare at each others eyes for what seems like forever, just holding eye contact while the music plays, at one point Down moves herself up or forward or something and that sparks it. I grab her and pull her towards me and we lock into an embrace. I guess there was some tension that build up during the movie and the exploring and the laying down looking into each others eyes. We cover the whole spectrum of intensity from scratching and biting to breathing on each others necks and caressing each other. I end up in my boxers (well I only had a tank top on before that) and Down is in her pants and a bra. She isn't feeling sex so we keep at it and just end up gazing into each others faces and holding each other and caressing each other until we lay down in a gentle embrace. It's around 6 at this point, Down tells me I'm a bad influence, I laugh, we go to sleep.

Some Links

Here are just some links I like, things I follow etc, to give you guys an idea of some of my influences, how I see things and what I agree with.
Evasion Probably what I consider the best book I ever read. It's all non-fiction which means if you want to (I know I do), you can pull this off.
Buttery Ass Mondays Donovan Strain explains and shows a ton of stuff. He's a skater, hustler, hip hop fan and is just resourceful.
Night Ops For the hardcore ones among you check this out. The real jem here is the forum.
My Youtube Account I don't have much uploaded but there's a ton of parkour and ninja stuff in my favorites (almost exclusively so).
Hobos, Tramps and Homeless Bums a great thread on a graffitti forum that'll teach a ton about, you guessed it hobos, tramps and bum. Goes over hopping trains, diving, jungling up, factions whatever.
Wikihow Learn to do things on your own.
That's it for now, off the top of my head, but that'll maybe give a bit of insight into my mind...

4 Pizzas among other things

Tonight I found a ton of food while diving. I went to the bakery I usually go to and picked up some bread (no pastries tonight), then on my way back I stopped at the dumpster behind the pharmacy. It was locked and there was a cardboard box next to it. I got chicken parm from the box. After looking in the dumpster by holding it open as high as the the chain would allow, I realized the ridiculous amount of food I decided not to let the lock stop me.
First I tried simply loosening and removing the washer and nut that held the chain but my hands were too cold and the buts were tight. After that I decided to simply open up the edge until I could fit my torso in and started pulling stuff out. After a short while I realized that I could actually dive in. I put my gloves on and and went in head first. Inside I piled all the food I wanted in one corner. I peeked out of the dumpster through the cracks until people around left and then snaked out. I took everything out of the dumpster and started putting it in my bag, when this guy comes towards the dumpster.
We talked about the stuff in the dumpster for a bit before trying to get stuff out again. He tried to pull the lock but no luck. Since I'm skinny enough to reach into the dumpster I grabbed a ton of milk bags. After that I rolled home and put everything in the fridge and ate the chicken parm for dinner.

Roof to Roof

Today did my first significantly large roof to roof gap. I spotted it this morning while exploring the roofs around my neighbor's (Kunoichi's) apartment. I went back immediately after dusk.
The gap wasn't too crazy, from a higher roof to a lower one maybe the width of three cars wide. I stretched my legs before doing it because of the soreness from yesterday's training. After that I just backed up gained speed and didn't give myself time to hesitate. It was easier than I expected though I botched the landing by not rolling (the second roof seemed like it had suffered some water damage), so I was loud and too a lot of impact with my arms (resulting in some cuts on my hands). Other than that it was all good. I'm probably going to go back a few times to do it again and get used to the idea that distances are the same difficulty regardless of height.

Precise conditioning

After class today I felt very acrobatic and decided to do some parkour training with someone. I called all the people who would be down to train and V came through. I told him to meet me at the entrance of a nice campus in the city. We went in and realized that a lot was being renovated (including an awesome tictac to lazy vault). We worked on vaulting a bit just some basics like speed, two handed and lazy. We didn't work on them too long before we decided to move and find more interesting spots.
We found a nice wall with a few rails and cement lines around it. This was a great spot to condition various techniques. It turned out to be a very technical conditioning session that turned out well. We first worked on wall running and reverse blocking rolls. After getting technique down we did a few conditioning circuits to work on flow. We moved onto precision landings from high, low and with momentum and without. After a lot of landing and jumping work we did wall run + momentum precision circuits before calling it a day.
Overall a good technical session. I learned a lot by breaking down the techniques to explain them to V.

Tramps and Swords

I've taken an interest in tramps and hobos recently. I will probably try to go tramping a bit after school or at some point. It's travel and freedom and... well that's it. Revisiting Evasion (which you should read) as well as reading different train hopping writings, punk zines and that sort of thing. On the more hands on side, I've gotten pretty hardcore into dumpster diving. Last night I brought home lots of strawberries, corn, radish, carrots and a watermelon. I'm getting more used to going out and diving even without Kusa. Ting is accepting it more, because when you see "nasty garbage" turn into delicious food it's hard to say no.
On the martial side I've been working on kenjutsu behind the apartment on and off with the bokken. Doing exercise on and off, mostly when I watch shows online.

Bonus point: I found a way onto the roof of my main school building :)

Busted!

I'm watching a movie (Ghost Dog, which I haven't finished yet) when I get a notif on facebook about rolling out to climb a building from a UE friend (Dreads) and his roomie(Jet). I keep watching til around 11, then I head to his place. I trust him although I've never opped with him because he ops on his own through UE both day and night. I get there, eat a bit, sip some water and we head out, I'm riding on the back of Jet's bike. Here's the set up:
Dreads-
Black School T-shirt
Black Shorts
Sneakers
Bike
Jet-
Black T-shirt
Black Jeans
Sneakers
Backpack
Rope
Water Bottle
Analog Camera
Green Towel
Bike (with me riding in the back)
Me-
Brown Shirt
Black Hoodie around my waist
Woodland BDU Pants
Black Water Shoes
Pocket Knife
Flashlight
Camo Bandanna
Wallet <- :-/

We bike there pretty uneventful, I tell them a bit about the fruit dumpster, they tell me a bit about the building the want to roof. We get there, hop off the bikes. and walk towards the building, it's surrounded by barbed wire chain link, except for some railroad tracks that lead right in. We walk along the tracks above some lights that would otherwise silhouette us and follow them until we get into the compound.
First thing we notice is some bright lights that look light head lights, I scout ahead sticking to the walls and discover it's just regular lighting and that the area seems unoccupied (the building is abandoned anyways). I dash to underneath a staircase and look around more, then I run to a wall and stick my back to that. I signal everyone to come to where I am then point out a dome camera. After a bit of talk we decide to walk around regular style to look less suspect. We exit the shadow and walk through another gate, continue along side the building.
We noticed a guy across the water (we're on an island or peninsula thing, the tracks crossed a bridge) in neon orange but he probably doesn't see us. I point out what looks like an elongated water tower with a huge pipe on top maybe 3 or 4 stories up that could be used to roof the building if it wasn't so high, rusty and generally scary. We climb up the lower ladders anyway just for fun and hang out on the lower platform. After a while we notice some real head lights moving around where we came from, but they turn off. Jet starts heading down when another pair of headlights rolls around relatively fast coming our way. I tell everyone to hit the deck and Jet to do the same when he hits the bottom. First security car rolls by no problem. Next vehicle comes through much slower with lights waving around slowly looking out. I'm flat on the metal platform, Dreads is flat against the tower, Jet vanished into the bushed at the foot of the ladder, I thought we were ghosts, turns out not to be the case. Second security car stops in from of the tower and a booming voice shouts for us to come out and get down in French. It's pretty intimidating and seeing how we're cornered up a ladder Me and Dreads comply. A lady cop (turns out she was a security guard, but we found that out later) gets out and starts questioning us blah blah blah.
She radios in her buddy another guard, this one is a guy, he rolls in with a second car, we're covered in lights and Jet has come out to talk also. None of us have ID (I do but I keep that to myself) so we get questioned a bit;
"What are you doing here?"
"Just exploring"
"Didja go inside this building?"
"No"
"How many times have you been here?"
"First time"
Blah blah blah...
Turns out they had a big graffiti issue here so they set up patrols, also it's in a pretty historic neighborhood so the beefed up security makes sense in retrospect. In the end a real cop came checked our names in the computer and left us to the security guards who seemed cool with us (because we're cool). They let us out and gave us a warning for trespassing.
We walked away relieved and happy. After that I took Dreads and Jet to the fruit dumpster and we got a ton of nectarines, some pine apples and some veggies. Tried finding a bakery dumpster but it would've involved climbing a wall into an alley in front of some cops so we checked around elsewhere but came upon nothing and called it a night.
Lessons learned:
Be aware of who you're dealing with (are they a cop, a guard, a person in dark clothes...)
Know you're rights and make sure everyone else does too (know a ton of legal stuff about getting caught in the US, no idea how it works here, need to read up. Any links to Canadian laws or videos would be helpful)
Never relax while hiding even if you feel like a ghost.

Introducing Kunoichi

I met a really awesome ninja girl (yea they're real) on Saturday night. I was going to a party with a neighbor and her friends. When I got to her place Kunoichi was there, I had heard some stories about her before that sounded pretty interesting, she took ninjutsu, she steals, she has circus training and probably some other stuff. At the party crazy shit was going down, some girl played my leg as a guitar on the dance floor then spilled beer on me, I climbed the roof and explored the roofs on the block, people did coke :-\ ...
After the party we went back to Kunoichi and my neighbor's place (they're roomies) for Mexican food and anime. I approve. She's down to learn parkour and take up ninjutsu again. I feel like an exchange of skills has to take place :) ...

First Dive

Back in my computer hacker days I used to get my mom to drop me off on the other side of the bridge near J&R and I would pick up computer parts from the trash. That was in middle school.
Tonight me and Kusa went dumpster diving for fruits and vegetables. I found a dumpster map of the city I'm in, and there was a fruitery dumpster a few blocks away from our apartment so we crashed it around midnight. I'll write it up as a night op:
Gear:
Me-
Black Hoodie
Tan Cargo Pants
Brown Boots
Flash light
pocket knife
Lighter
Kusa-
Jeans
Dark Blue Long Sleeve
Brown Sneakers

We walked the few blocks down a fairly busy street to where our supermarket is so we could check around there before we hit the fruit dumpster. The super market dumpster said cardboard only (and unlike in Evasion it only had cardboard) and another one was locked up. Super market dumpsters are for another time then, but now I have a great reason to learn to pick locks like I always wanted to.
The next alley was the fruit dumpster alley and boy did it have a fruit dumpster. I was happy to see that the dumpster was unlocked open, and full. The first thing we found was a box of fruit which we haven't IDed, they're purple, oval shaped, with little brownish nubs, there's purple pulpy stuff inside that seems edible. Kunoichi knows what they are but I don't really remember what she said about them, I'll ask her some time. After that I climbed into the dumpster and dug around I found so much food we didn't carry it all back. The dumpster even provided us with a means to carry the food back (so many boxes and trays). In the end we walked off with:
A watermelon (we left two in the dumpster)
Two Bags of green grapes (after removing the bad ones we had about a bag and a half)
Some broccoli
Maybe seven of the purple things
A single plum
A bag of lettuce or salad or some type of edible leaves...
Overall a good experience I will be sure to repeat. I was surprised at how much there was. There was a bow full of eggplants in the dumpster that was barely open, it's too bad Kusa, Ting and I don't really like eggplant or we'd be in heaven.

Phone theft PK

Met up with Pines yesterday and we did some parkour training at the Fort. We worked on a few things and moved around, however when we moved to where my bag was we realized Pines' phone was missing, we never found the thief, but we ended up moving around filing a report and seeing cops and asking around for the phone no luck...

Hit the gym

Hit the gym today with Ting. Got in for free by letting them hold my ID. Was a pretty good session, worked on abs and arms but mostly abs. I prefer to exercise outside or at home, most of the stuff we did didn't require equipment. Tomorrow I'm gonna do some parkour with Pines downtown. Gonna be good to train here again.

Back up North

I'm back in Canada for school, though I have some time before it starts. I'm in an apartment with Kusa and another friend (guy does boxing and Muay Thai, I'll call him Ting). No definite plans for any ninja stuff yet but I'll get to it soon. I wanna get in touch with Pines and V to start some parkour before everything gets covered in ice. Looking forward to a good year.

Lisse and Evry

Yesterday I went to Evry and Lisses for the first time. It's a great trip and just being there and seeing the architectures makes it obvious that it was a place that facilitated the development of the art. I was there with my mother (who came to take pictures but forgot the camera). I did a bunch of training in spots I had only seen in videos.
At the Dame Du Lac I met two German traceurs who were staying in Lisses to train. The Dame du Lac is smaller than I thought it would be but it's scary climbing up nonetheless. I went to the gym fire escape, the buildings where you can cat to cat down staircase ledges and a few other Lisses and Evry spots I saw in videos as well as some I never saw before. A great trip. I plan on going again before I leave France but with a camera.

Summer Roofing 3 (France)

As you may know I'm in France. I stayed a few days in my mother's friend's house in a suburb (wow it's different). I did a quick op on the lst night:
Gear-
Black Chinese drawstring pants
Brown t-shirt
Black Bandanna
Red filtered L-neck military flash light
Black water shoes
(Excuse any typos or anything like that, google image search French Keyboard)
I prepared my gear, hit the lights, got dressed and took a listening break to make sure no one in the house was awake (including the cute, but annoying dogs). Satisfied that I was the only awake person in the house I crouch on the window sill and observe making sure that no one will see my escape; I was overly cautios due to the fact that I wasn't in my hometown, wasn't being an opportunist and that I didn't like hearing a ton of dogs bark earlier in the week while walking the dogs.
I'm just being paranoid though, I hop out the window, wait two seconds, crouch walk to the wall that surrounds the house, peek over it, note the empty but lit street and hop over with a wall run. I walk down the empty street until I hit a dark, alley with lots of plants in it that I choose as my route from previous scouting earlier that night.
The alley is uneventful, loud (gravel) and thus stressful. I reach the end and make my way to the center of town rather uneventfully, the whole place is empty the only thing out at this hour is stray cats, not so stray cats and two random guys hanging with a stray dog. Once at the middle of town I do some precision jumps and parkour then head back towards the alley, the two guys ask me if I have any cigs, which I don't. As I approach the alley I decide to visit the graveyard in town which is pretty interesting because all the graves are in small mausoleums.
On my way to the graveyard a car rolls by and I jog behind a gate to stay invisible, once it's gone I climb into the graveyard, it's elevated but has no gate on one side. I'm pissed that the ground is gravel, and move slowly. I sneak around and decide it's time for some stealth parkour to spice things up. The mausoleums are close to each other and on cement (which is much quieter than gravel :) ), so I move around on top of them, crouch running, QMing, and of course jumping. As I'm hanging out on top of one in the cover of an overhanging tree a sound freaks me out, it flits by a few times before I realize it's a bat. I move along the top of the mausoleums towards the side of the graveyard that I came in from after jumping around a bit, lower myself to the ground and drop out of it. I've decided to hit up one more place before turning in.
I walk towards a large grey building with lower orange buildings on either side. I want to climb up the front, which looks like a ladder stretched out horizontally, it's ridiculously exposed to the street and a bunch of light, so I climb up a small building on the side first. I'm happily assisted by a window covered by horizontal bars. Once up I get on my belly because I know there are tents full of (hopefully) sleeping campers on the other side. The other reason I'm on my belly is... Gravel, again... I creep to the edge, see that no light is coming from any tents and everyone seems to be asleep except what sounds like a sneezing girl. As I make myway back along the roof in crouch walk, I notice that there is another window and it's covered in horizontal bars that shoul keep me out, but actually just help me roof the grey building.
I'm going to let you guess what this roof is covered with (hint: it starts with g and ends with ravel). I QM and sideways walk along this one until I find a ladder cage leading to a lower rooflet. Once down on it, I see a nice route down accross this roof and that of the other orange building. I move over some rails and gravel, climb down a pipe and head back to my alley.
After that it's smooth sailing; head back home, hop the wall, enter through window, check my 6, close window, undress and sleep.
Kinda boring op, not used to the suburban setting yet. I understand the dog problem now.
Lessons learned: No one is out at night around there.
Gravel is still the suck.
Cats and bats are good at startling you at night.

Blowguns and ninpo taijutsu

Yesterday I went to train martial arts with a friend (same guy I took a tkd lesson with). He had developed his own secret kicking technique, but after some analysis and trails we found that it wasn't too effective. We went over various kicks and how they're used. After that I showed him some ninpo taijutsu kamae, foot work and some techniques. We worked on body conditioning, sprints, and some other stuff on the side as well.
Today I finished my second blowgun, it's a regular straight one. I tested out both of them (the straight one and the corner one) with balls of news paper and they work well. I want to practice aiming with them so I can get better and maybe do some night training all that. I want to find a place that sells darts or find a way to make good ones, because newspaper balls are just that, balls of newspaper. I don't plan on poisoning anyone any time soon but I'd rather train with the real thing.
Bonus points: The blowguns are PVC and make good field expedient clubs.

Kenjutsu and New Tobi

Yesterday practiced rolling and sword stuff out back. Lots of drawing techniques, making sure I had a good grip on the sword and various cuts. Just regular sword training really.
What I'm happy about is I learned a new jumping technique, it's an old ninja technique and for jumping straight up with no momentum it's better than the parkour jump (from my comparison). It brings up the legs but in front of the body wit less of a bend in the knees, you can see a video of a Bujinkan guy teaching it here It's approximately the same for me in terms of high jumping with a running start but I haven't experimented with it much yet. Gonna start stretching around the hips to get it to work better.

Operation: Pitt's Parkour

Crisis as you may know ops with me a lot, he also happens to be a lifeguard at a pool with an awesome parkour spot right behind it part of the park it's in. Unfortunately the park closes at 9ish and when I am there the park workers are also there to dissuade me from training a bit because the parkour spot is fenced off. I happened to be around there with Crisis and some other friends, we were all going home and I suggested to him that we sneak in and train a bit. Here's what happened.

Gear:
Me-
Red sleeveless shirt
Camo cargo shorts
Nike Sneakerboats (awesome shoe btw)
Woodland bandanna over mouth/nose.
Crisis-Black wolverine shirt (turned inside out so security wouldn't recognize him)
Navy BDU pants
Grey Sneakers
Digital camo bandanna on top of head

We walked through some projects and hopped some rails/fences to get to the park/pool faster. Crisis had a new haircut so he put his bandanna over his head to make it recognizable. We got to the outer fence and climbed over it quickly, we stood in a bunch of under growth underneath a tree, the air was so humid my body felt heavier. We looked through the inner fence and so no activity and I began my ascent, at the top of the fence I quickly looked around and then slid down (vertical spikes with a cross bar at the top), upon landing I moved into some bushes and waited as Crisis followed suit. Once there I decided on a quick route to the parkour spot. We moved to a handball wall and were covered in shadow, we crouch ran to a red shed and then hopped a low wall onto a staircase leading to the parkour spot behind the pool.
Once on the stairs a lot of QMing and pausing ensued as we crossed the entire parkour spot. We took a few listening breaks and looked around, after we were sure no one was there we moved along back and forth doing some parkour training on the obstacles, in between moves we got behind something for cover. After some training we took a water break, sneaking down to the pool deck and taking some water from a water fountain. After that more parkour training and then we exfiltrated by the same route as our infiltration. A good time and fun training, especially because of the pressure.
Lessons learned:
Doing parkour with a bandanna on your face makes you run out of breath quickly.
Pools/parks lack security.
The pool on Pitt St has a cool parkour spot right behind it.

CTF!

The long awaited game of CTF, was really happy with it even though it could have gone a lot better. A bunch of traceurs were playing (all on the same team of course) and I was there with Crisis. We were on the blue team, there was a red team as well. Did pretty well mostly, social stealth was a big thing here, was not dark out yet so walking around looking bogged down by the heat got you far and usually left you unnoticed. Most of the time people did realize I wasn't supposed to be on their side I used some wall runs and low jumps over things to evade them, speed helps a lot too. I went in a black tank top with black cargo sweats, my waterboats and a black bandanna, Crisis wore the navy blue BDU pants and a black tee. Overall was a good time. Parkour was super useful here for both reach and escape (as it was intended), moved through construction sites, yards, streets and a variety of places to move in on the flag.
Here's the downside: Police cops ruined our game. After some how acquiring a map they patrolled the play area constantly and started to spread deception. Police officers told us (people playing) that someone had gotten hit by a car and the game was paused/cancelled/delayed, wasn't true at all. Later they shut the game down under the pretense that we didn't have a permit, I didn't know you needed a permit to run down the street.
Lessons learned:
Be aware of police if I ever set up a game of this sort (which I'm considering)
Social stealth works really well, adapt a look that works for the situation and walk past sentries.
Most people will rush in situations like this if they get into groups, not much tactics, especially on the defensive side.

General update

I painted the corner blowgun black, would of liked brown but I don't have the paint for that. Recently got a new knife, old one got confiscated t an amusement park. Looking forward to Friday when there's a huge game of CTF, hope to put various skills to the test (parkour, stealth, speed etc...). Other than that, id d a bit of low movement training, various QM stuff, rolling and crawling. Some sword training on the side as well. Internet is broken at the moment, don't expect too much activity.

Sui

Lots of swimming as of late. I've been in and out of the water a lot lately. Mostly for fun but every time I end up swimming I make sure to practice some suijutsu. Either for stealth or awareness, working on two warrior techniques in addition to regular swimming (freestyle, breast stroke, side stroke etc...). One is a shinobi/stealth swimming method similar to the breast stroke with the top of the head above the water, another is an awareness technique similar to freestyle with the head out of the water, it was used to move around quickly and efficiently around an aquatic combat area. Might train parkour with the either UVPK or another group.

Quick update (Blowguns)

I've made a blow gun to shoot around corners and I'm working on a regular one. I got the ideas from SnookyToeFlip's video. I also finished reading Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, great book, it's fictional and gives a good perspective on what a warrior is. Never really got to train with Black Panther Ninja, he left before we had time to train, he was here during a very busy period of my summer, we'll train next time he's in town. I'm reading/rereading Sun Tzu's The Art of War, still a great book, read it if you haven't.

Gear and meetup plans

I got my hands on a camera for a bit so I have some pictures of some of my gear, not everything but I got a fair bit. Check it out below:
Bokken:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/bokken.jpg
Some books:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/bokken.jpg
Footwear:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/footwear.jpg
Various things:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/layout1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/layout2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/layout3.jpg
Shinobi Shozoku:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/shozoku.jpg
Portable Storage:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/storage.jpg
Woodland BDUs:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/woodlandbdu.jpg
Proof it's me and some face paint:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/proofandcamo.jpg

Black Panther Ninja is in town for a bit so I wanna take BSC and go out and meet him and maybe train together and all that. Not sure what we'll work on, might take a BSC training from last time and do it again with Black Panther there too. We'll see when it happens, expect a post about it soonish...

Summer Roofing II

This adventure was really exciting and pretty nerve wracking now that I think back to it. Here's how it went down:
Gear-
Me
Green Field Shirt
Brown Tank Top
Camo Cargo Shorts
Black Sneakers
Crisis
Navy Long Sleeve
White Short Sleeve
Jeans
Grey Converse
We were hanging out with some friends at night, feasting on free food (if you hang out late enough good left over food gets thrown out, just ask the guy to take some before they toss it) and walking around. After a while everyone needs to go home. Me and Crisis had decided ahead of time to do some roofing that night so this is our chance. After we all split up me and Crisis walk to a street where we want to climb a house. It's just a ladder leading to a fire escape in from of a lit garage.
Once we get there we sit on the stoop of an abandoned house and watch for people until the street clears out. After that I hop a low rail and climb up the ladder (it's much louder than I'd like) and start up the stairs. After one flight I stick to the wall and wait for Crisis, (his ascent is just as loud, I don't like the ladder). We go up the rest of the stairs and climb the hook ladder at the top flight to get to the roof.
This seems like a regular ordinary block of roofs until we notice once thing; the door leading inside one of the apartment buildings is wide open with light leaking out. Wow, you're leaving a huge welcome sign to any burglars who know how to use binoculars...
We decide to keep exploring the roofs before we do anything with the door. We climb over the door and check the sky light to look down into the staircase it leads to then proceed to the end of the block. On the last house we find a nice setup of chairs and a table where we lounge out and enjoy the view of the city for a while. After some relaxing we decide to go back down, Crisis is set on getting back to street level through the apartment building.
We get to the open doorway and check around before going in, Crisis is in point and he tests the first step, it squeaks more than a haunted house in scooby doo. Doesn't matter, step two is quiet, but step three is the loudest step ever also. We brace ourselves between the banister and the wall and swing down to the next landing quietly. We then jog down the rest of the stairs and just walk out the front door. Kinda very stressful the fact that we walked down the staircase of an apartment building we knew nothing about but it turned out good.
After leaving the apartment we decided to climb a nearby friend's house (well our goal was to get onto his roof). We walked down his block and went under an apartment into the back yards (there are small unlocked passageways that go from the streets to the yards). Once in the back yards Crisis gave me a boost to a fire escape and then climbed up an AC to get on himself. The fire escape was covered in chipping paint and seemed old. As I started on the stairs I realized that one was missing and the one underneath was loose I warned Crisis and we headed up until w-- CRACK! A stair breaks off under Crisis' foot (apparently more than one stair was loose). We keep going up and paint is chipping off everywhere, as we reach the top flight a light comes on in a window and my back goes against the wall, Crisis crouches halfway up the stairs. A hand pulls back some curtains and I see a face approach the window. After a few seconds the face retreats and the curtains close, the lights go back off. We slink back down the fire escape (the fire escape clearly hates us anyways) and jump across to the one on the next building. As we climb that one nothing seems to go wrong, we fast and silent like the ninjas we are but maybe there are ninjas in the house we're going up also because some lights come one while we're going up the ladder :?, I'll never know...
Once we finally get to the roof we moved around a bit and decided to head down in case people called the cops on us. Went down our friend's fire escape which is actually sturdy and hopped a fence. We walked to the park and lay low for a while then each of us went home. My cab driver was a crazy conspiracy theorist.
Lessons learned: Don't trust rusty old fire escapes.

Recent News

Today was ugly outside, after working a bit i went to Chinatown with Crisis to pick up a wooden ninjaken (I know, I know the ninjaken's authenticity blah blah, it was to experience the difference with a shorter sword, and possibly experiment with two swords style). They were sold out at the place I usually go to and some other places in the area that we checked, they had a few short bokken but no ninjaken.
In other news, I recently got jumped by around 13 guys in a park, people came up to us started talking nonsense, we started leaving and got blind sided (we is me and a male friend, the girls are all fine), after fighting for a while the guys ran off when they saw that the cops were on their way. I'm ok (had some face swelling and blood in my mouth but now I'm good), but my friend's jaw broke (he'd had surgery done on it before and I guess it's fragile). I learned from it I guess...
I wanna to plan more ninja trainings for BSC, I'll probably focus on hiding and sentry removal. I also want to develop the skills of the ninja no hachimon (8 ninja gates) so that I could have a "legit" ninjutsu ryu, not sure where I'll pick up on spear fighting and all that but I'll see, Cipher might know some stuff.

Kenjutsu and Choreographed fights

Today the day started with kenjutsu in the park with Ken, I learned a fair bit about parrying and riposting with the katana. Almost broke the tsuba on the sword, once it's broken I'll take it off the bokken. After some training in the park (we did some empty hand stuff on the side), we met up with Crisis and some other friends.
We moved to a parkour spot and jumped around a bit. After jumping around Crisis and a friend decided to choreograph a sword fight with my and Ken's bokken. We moved to a playground, where they finished their choreography with a bit of input from me and Ken. It looked great. I decided to try it out, me and Crisis did a short parkour chase/street fight martial arts choreography. Needless to say little kids loved it, watching us go at it with swords, jump over stuff and pretend to beat each others faces in.
All in all a good day and a great learning experience in fight choreography and swordsmanship.

Ninja Training: Stealth and Movement

Today I ran a ninja training session, we focused on conditioning movement and stealth. After training parkour again with NYPK and UVPK I realized how important it is to condition.
Crisis, and Cipher showed up. I invited Ken but he didn't show (I never expect him to, he's unreliable). Here's a basic over view of what we did:
Stretch/warm up
Rolling (On grass)
Jumping
Walking/Running
Dealing with walls, rails and fences
Low Movement
some other stuff.
Cipher needs to work on forward rolls, he has excellent side rolls, but his front rolls are "sideways side rolls". Other than that it went pretty smoothly. I hope to do one again. We didn't get to rolling on cement for conditioning, but it'll happen next training.

Parkour Conditioning

Yesterday I was supposed to hang with some new friends but they didn't call and I slept in. I ended up going to parkour conditioning in the the city. Was a great time.
The first half was just everyone (a bunch of us) messing around at the playground and the rocks in in Central, wallruns, cats, tic tacs some vaulting. Met a bunch of traceurs and freerunners and martial artists that I never saw before, which means I clearly need to get out and train with everyone instead of just me and Crisis.
The second half was conditioning led by Sha and Pyro (they're traceurs who've been at it a while and are cut and buff respectively). It was intense by most peoples standards. I was tired at the end but not too sore, I want to go to these more often to have good conditioning for the entire body which a bigger part of parkour than I realized before. Some stuff we did were inchworms, QMing stairs, QM push ups, kong throughs and a bunch of other stuff.
At one point before the conditioning I learned a bit of drunken boxing from this guy, but I don't remember too much, it seems to strange and elaborate to be very effective in terms of technique unless you condition the hands and wrists and practice the movements a ton, but it's a type of Kung Fu so I shouldn't expect anything less.

White Water Rafting

About two days ago I went white water rafting with a group of people I didn't know plus Crisis and a non-ninja friend. Was a ton of fun, not the most ninja thing ever but I learned some anyway. I feel more comfortable in small boats in terms of steering and general maneuvering even when the water is shallow and rocky.
I learned how to deal with falling into rapids, here's how it's done: as soon as you fall in get on your back and float down feet first with the legs slightly bend to absorb any shock from rocks. Also it's important to be aware of currents, deeper water supposedly has strong current in rivers.
Overall a great time and a bit of a learning experience on the side.

Smoke Bomb

I'm adding this recipe to the repertoire of BSC Kajutsu (fire, explosives etc)I made it after nabbing a ping pong ball from some beer pong people. It's really simple and makes a decent amount of smoke I plan on altering the formula to get more smoke out of it. Here's how you make it (if you've ever done research on how to make a smoke bomb you've probably come across this):
Ingredients:
Tin or Aluminum foil
Match Heads
Ping pong ball

Poke a hold in the ping pong ball (the hole I made was around the size of the butt of a pen).
Placing your finger on the hole wrap the foil around the ball and your finger so that there is a stem where your finger was.
Drop some match heads into the stem so that they fall into the hole in the ping pong ball (the hole and the stem should be lined up). I used around 6 match heads.
To add more smoke cut up ping pong balls and add them into the first ball with the match heads.
***
While holding the stem heat the bottom of the bulb with a flame until white smoke comes from the stem, keep the flame on for a few more seconds.
Throw, drop, deploy in which ever way you please.

Be aware that the smoke is probably toxic because it's from plastic so avoid breathing any in, it's probably bad for your lungs.

Summer Roofing 1

I figure I'm gonna be roofing all the time this summer and unless something particularly crazy happens to distinguish a roofing op I'll just use a generic name.
This one was me and Crisis, we were walking around at like 2 in the morning and we saw a yard with a fire escape.
Gear:
me-
Green open (zipperless) hoody
Red sleeveless shirt
Brown cargo pants
Black sneakers
Crisis-
Grey t-shirt
Jeans
Grey converse

We climbed over a spiked fence into the yard and realized we were really exposed, I sat on the bench in the yard social stealth style while a guy walked by. After he passed us we realized how exposed the entire area was (including our fire escape route), so we moved towards a gate in the back of the yard, Crisis opened it quietly and we passed through it, we were in a small alley between a building and a yard.
We move through the yard slowly because the ground there is really loud (covered in some white stuff *shrugs*), and grab onto the bottom of a fire escape and make our way up. We get up pretty quick because most of the windows are dark. On our way up we caught a couple watching South Park and a guy sleeping with the lights on. Once we got to the roof we took a few minute to admire the view and then climbed up a rooflet and hung there for a bit. We heard a weird noise coming from a chimney and listened but realized it must be either mechanical or an animal because it wasn't the kind of noise a person could make (kind of a flexible metal bending sound).
We moved along the roofs up the block until we go to our last roof, this one was separated from the one were standing on by some metal divider that was ankle high but really malleable and loud, Crisis jumped over it and rolled on the roof (too loud by my standards) I took the slow route and went feet first with a lot of arm support to keep quiet. Once there Crisis tests a door and finds it to be open. Later we decided not to go in because of our lack of equipment (no masks, no gloves etc...).
We headed back to the first yard after hanging out in some random lawn chairs. Got out uneventfully after catching some more of South Park.
Crisis tells me about a huge warehouse nearby, sounds like a good op, we're waiting for Cipher to get back then we'll check it out.
Lessons learned:
Don't jump and roll on roofs
Be prepared to go from plain roofing to indoor ops in terms of equipment.

Roofing and scams

I watched a bunch of clips from a how called the real hustle where guys in the UK and the US scam people out of money or information. It was really interesting and that a lot of the ideas could be used for espionage and ninja stuff. I realized that the correct disguise can get you really far and no one would question it. I'm learning some sleight of hand for fun that I learned from the show.
Late last night I went out with Crisis and we went roofing. Climbed into a yard then up a fire escape and across a block the came back. Might post the whole op later.

E-books and sparring with Ken and some other stuff

Today trained with Ken again in the park, it's happening often (but irregularly). We had a sparring session basically with a small break where I taught him how to roll with the bokken. Was good to go at each other full speed (but a bit painful), I learned to better use my environment to distract the eyes or take advantage of the environment to trap and hinder the movement of an opponent. I'm probably going to write a bit about ninja no ken (ninja sword fighting) based on Bujinkan footwork when I learn more. Ken is a great learner and since he's running on instinct mostly at this point it's great for me too because I get to see how someone without extensive training would react instead of someone in a dojo. Also saw more people doing slack rope in out training spot, they didn't know the other people that came the day before, I guess it's just a good slack rope spot. Ken bought "The Tao of Jeet Kun Do" by Bruce Lee which I look forward to reading when he's done.
Also I uploaded some of my writing on ninja stuff (a stealth guide and a fire escape guide), you can get them here or here.
On a side note I saw Crisis again yesterday, for the first time since last break. He's really into Pick Up so I might use this summer to actually get out there and practice and fool around. Despite what I though Crisis has been pretty active ninja-wise during the year despite being in a frat (eww). Glad it's summer :)

Swords and Jumps

I've been doing lots of parkour and bokken sword fighting. It's great, not long ago I was training with Reaper and he showed me a cool playground and explained how I could improve my cat balance. The BSODtv guys are doing a camping trip next month and that sounds like a good time so I might show up to that.
Also the sword fighting, I've been training a lot with the guy who I bought the bokken with, (we'll call him Ken because he likes swords and streetfighter), Ken's been learning some parkour from me slowly and we're developing a kenjutsu style based on budo taijutsu footwork. Yesterday as we trained in our usual spot in the park we ran into a guy and a chick walking slack rope so after training a bit we went and tried it out (it's really technical) and hung with them a bit before going to a playground and fighting at half speed with the bokken to develop techniques. We did that until a security guard told us the park was closed (the gate was open though)...
So far summer is great, hopefull Pines will come by a bit and meet the rest of BSC and possibly join us, I feel Ken has potential if he trains often and could be BSC material as well.

Operation: Headlights

This is an exploration op that I've been waiting to do for a while. There are a few buildings in a park near where I hang out a bit that are gated off, I always wanted to find out what that was about. Tonight I had the opportunity to check it out.
Gear:
Me:
Black tank top
Woodland BDU pants
Woodland bandanna on the face
Black water sneakers
Folding knife
Cipher:
Black and brown camo Jacket
Black short sleeve
Black cargo pants
Grey sneakers
Phone

We were chilling with some friends outside when I told cipher we should split off and check out a place in the park. He was already in the gear listed above because I told him I planned on sneaking around. We left and walked towards the park, along it and then into it. Once in the park we see a cop car driving away from us, we slow down and let it pass away.
We head to some bushes, behind them is a tall chain link, I tell Cipher that I'll climb it, check out the other side and then have him climb over.
I get to the top of the fence, look around and then drop down and get behind a truck. I was surrounded by lots of park vehicles (trucks, cars, garbage trucks etc) and shipping containers. I sneak between the cars until I see a clearing of just dirt. I peek around and see an open gate to a huge parking lot, straight ahead is a large pile of dirt and wood chips. I go back to the fence and tell Cipher to climb over. He gets over with the help of a tree.
We slip through the trucks and after listening and looking cross the clearing to the pile of dirt. We get on top of the pile and hear noises from behind it so we freeze for a while (there are bushes between us and the sounds so we're invisible), I then move to the edge of the pile and look into the huge car lot, seeing no one, lots of cover and only dim lighting I tell Cipher that we're going to continue, as I crawl back my knee acts up and I pop it back into place after I get back to the bottom of the pile. We noticed that the pile was really warm and steam was coming out it at some spots, maybe compost does that or maybe there was something weird about it... I move behind two trucks to the gate and wait for Cipher.
While I'm waiting I hear the wind in the trees but also a car approaching, I get under the truck I'm crouching near and Cipher does as well behind me. We see some headlights hit a shipping container then turn away from us and deeper into the parking lot. We decide to continue anyway.
After waiting a bit to make sure no other cars are headed our way we head into the big lot and get under a big truck. Underneath the truck I explain to Cipher that we're not gonna do lots of small sprints between cover because that's the kind of thing that gets seen out of the corner of the eye, we're going to take a slow approach behind the parked vehicles along the fence I looked over while on the pile of dirt. We do just that.
We hit the last vehicle a large street trolley and get under it and plan our next move, a car goes by the headlights hit us but we're ghosts and it keeps driving by. There's a fence to our left, a building in front of us after a few meters of empty space and more cars to out right but they're well lit. There is light spilling from around the right of the building and a camera on top of it overlooking the parking lot we snuck through, good thing we didn't dart about and took it slow :mrgreen: . We decided to crawl along the fence to the building and peek around the corner to see where all the lights coming from. We QM along the fence and get behind a metal box that's along the building, then I move to a car that's close to the building and lay in it's shadow before getting behind a palet that's leaning on the building. Cipher did the same up until the car part, but he had to dive behind a tiny parking lot car stopper cement thing when a car drove by. After waiting around and peeking around a bit and conferencing with hushed voices Cipher thought (correctly) that we should continue via rooftop after I informed him that there was a running truck with it's head lights pointing our way and a security cam doing the same.
Originally I was going to climb up by using the air conditioner but I didn't trust it and took the fence which turned out to be easier. I moved around a bit on the roof and then Cipher showed up. I've been on a lot of roofs and of all of them I'd have to say this one is the worst, it was loud with gravel but the gravel was half attached to the roof with tar, it was painful to crawl and QM on, even QM was relatively loud (by my standards anyway). We moved along the roof, there were many sky lights, each covered with a metal mesh cage that was padlocked. We QM to the corner of the building where the wall is broken allowing us to look around instead of over, we spot another camera that faces the space between our building and another one across a road from us, good thing we didn't stay on the ground. At this point we split up and agree upon a signal to reunite.
I go on my way and explore a certain section of roof that can get us onto the ground and also out of the compound. Cipher goes to see if he can find a way into the building and to pee. After a few minutes I hear some movement behind me and see a cellphone near one of the sky light cages, I move towards Cipher and we discuss out findings in hushed voices, as the people inside the building we are on blast Spanish music, making our quest for silence that much easier. I tell Cipher that I found a way out but no way to the other buildings without being seen on camera. Cipher tells me that we found no way into the building and I tell him it's for the better since we don't have gloves and he has no mask.
We crouch walk behind some overhanging branches to the edge of the roof as close to the fences we need to climb to get out. There are two fences to climb. One is short the other is tall, I climb one, grab the second one, climb up and then down the other side then wait in the bushes for Cipher to do the same. When he's down we wait around a bit then head to our friends.
For those who don't know QM is quadrupedal movement (balls of the feet and heels of the hands).
Lessons learned:
Unless you're spotted then no car is even trying to be vigilant.
Security cameras never cover roofs.
People still don't look up.

Had a great time, stayed invisible, and finally got to see what the compound I had walked past so many times was actually like.

Shuko

Yesterday I taught a friend a bit of parkour then went to get some shuko in Chinatown. They're great, I made sure to check that the spikes come out and not down so that I can climb.
I tried them out and I'm not sure if I suck or if the trees are too tough or it the shuko are weird but I can't climb trees well with them. Every time I try to climb I can get the shuko to stick into the tree bark but never get into the core, it's no good because when I try to pull myself up the bark comes off and the shuko pops out...
If any one has anyway of dealing with this, or any tips on why its happening let me know.

Weapon Store

I was hanging out with a friend in Chinatown yesterday, our goal was to get bokken. We found a great martial arts store in the process, it sold all kinds of weapons, clothing and books. We each got normal bokken and checked the store out. They even had shuko and Ashiko, along with other ninja weapons. I want to go back to check the shuko out to see if they're good for for both climbing and fighting.
Later I trained with the same guy in the park, some parkour and some martial arts. Using Bujinkan stuff to use the sword.

Summer aheada me

I have the whole summer ahead of me to do whatever crazy training and adventures I please. I'm reading Evasion, a book on homeless guys who are living the life without ever working, it's very inspiring. I'm home for the summer, and the trees here have leaves :D. I'll probably be in France during the month of August. Can't wait to reunite with the BSC and do parkour with the people from around here again. Yesterday I took a girl I just met roofing and we ended up spooning and chilling, nice night, first night out of res and into the summer. I should sign up for Bujinkan training here to make sure i keep it up.

Parkour in the sun

It was really nice out yesterday. I took V and Pines to Olympic Stadium to do parkour, they had never been there and it was good times. Since the weather was so nice there were a bunch of traceurs, freerunners, tricksters and break dancers out as well. I spend the day training and show the stadium to Pines and V but right before we left I ran into a friend from PK514 who I hadn't seen since before the winter. Was a nice jam.

Street Escape and Evasion

Tonight I was at a party with some friends, it was being held at a friend's house. Turns out Pines and V were there so I was glad to see them. Met some people there and all that. Pines and V tell me that earlier they were on the roof, they'd gotten up by a fire escape that was just stairs and a ladder. We went up later just us three. However some friends who were smoking followed us up and after a while they made enough noise to get the cops called. Hearing this we all dispersed, the groups splintered I was of course with Pines and V, two smokers followed us down another fire escape into a unlit alleyway. Everyone else went down the way they came which I don't like due to predictability. In the alley we head toward the street after checking a few corners we proceeded stealthily until we hit a really tight area where we had to shimmy through. After that we got to the street.
I led Pines and V over a few fences and through a few alleys to make sure we were invisible ghosts and that the cops wouldn't find us. V wasn't too sober and he was freaking out a bit but he trusted us so it was more of an emotional problem than a physical or tactical one. We checked my friend's street saw three cop cars and casually walked past, we continued until we saw a dark dirt alley. I brought us into that where we ducked under a stair case for about ten minutes as V collected himself with a bit of reassurance from me and Pines.
After laying low in the alley for a bit we returned to the party, all our friends were outside getting ready to call it a night. We joined them and headed back to the residence. Pines and V left for the train after a few blocks and I plan on training with them at Olympic Stadium tomorrow. Other stuff happened later in the night but it wasn't ninja stuff, parkour or anything like that so I'll leave it out.

Return to the Stadium

Today after training ninjutsu at the Dojo I met up with Kusa at the Olympic stadium. It's a huge place with a ton of small spots to work on all kinds of parkour movement. I showed him all kinds of different areas and we did a lot of parkour in all areas, good training. Later we went to train in some housing projects nearby didn't want to train in a certain spot because of a group of shady dudes right near it, not sure how bad the projects around there are but it was night and I was tired no need to take stupid risks. Since the stadium training spots are mostly cement Kusa cut up hit hands a bit, but they'll get stronger in the long run. Nice Jam. Got back, are food then watched Point B with Kusa. If you haven't seen it watch it, it's a documentary, but not the boring kind. http://www.pointbmovie.com/Watch.html

Shinobi Schooling

I decided it was time to teach Pines some stealth and escape stuff, to see if he was into that kinda thing. He has the potential to be part of my group of operatives. Teaching began two days ago:
Equipment:
Me:
Black martial arts pants
Black tank top
Black short sleeve
Woodland sleeveless jacket
Black water shoes
Pines:
Brown cargo pants
Red short sleeve
Black hoodie
Black high top converse

We met up later than usual the sky was getting dark but it wasn't night yet. We went to a parkour spot we call "the Fort" after food and I explained some shinobi-iri (infiltration) and some gotonpo (5 elements escape evasion). Once we were there we did parkour and I taught different walking techniques for stealth and enclosed spaces. We moved onto our next parkour spot taking a few short cuts and passing a police station which we may revisit one night soon.
After training more parkour at the next spot (a place we call "Black Marble" because it's made of...) I taught Pines different night awareness techniques to increase the sense at night. We checked the time (we were gonna go to a house party later) and decided we wanted to check out a spot in one of our campus buildings, a small dark passage we found unlocked. We ran around trying to find a flashlight until we realized that there was a pharmacy right in front of us that sold them. Armed with our lights we headed towards the building we planned on exploring took the elevator up and headed up a bit further on the service staircase to the small door.
Once we went in and closed it behind us we turned our lights on and were disappointed. We were on a small ledge near a huge fall filled with vents, and insulated pipes. Somewhere above us was a catwalk, but climbing in pitch darkness with a flashlight didn't really tickle my fancy so we left and explored the building some more. We found some interesting stuff including an entrance to the service elevator that didn't require a key which could get us on any floor that was inaccessible otherwise. We left after that.
We planned on getting a ride from a friend to a house party but he was out eating with his girlfriend and was taking hours (literally), Pines got tired of waiting and we went back outside to explore roofs on such a nice night. I told him that I knew a few roofs behind the building we had explored. The roof I planned on climbing was close to a group of people so we climbed up a staircase on the building across from it and then took a ladder to the roof. After walking around and looking around we saw that no one was on the ground level anymore and we could climb the roof we initially planned to climb. We headed down another staircase and ended up in a backyard full of old bikes, we took a small unlocked passage under a house and got to the street. From there we took more fire escape stairs to the roof, where Pines realized that we were across the street from a friend of his who's window we could see. After giving a call and finding that they weren't home we bounced to the closest alley.
This was a shady alley, complete with flickering lights and silhouettes of homeless people. After we walked through it once (avoiding said silhouettes) we waited on the other side for a bit then went back in without running into people. We found a ladder at the top of a staircase and climbed onto the roof, I guess we were near above a restaurant because it smelled of sex and fish. We walked around and enjoyed the view (we were looking down on a well lit street full of bars and clubs Smile ). On our way down we heard a girl scream, me and Pines looked at each other and rushed to the edge of the rooflet we were on and peeked over ready to kick some rapist ass. Turned out to be a drunk girl running around with her friends (so much for shady alleys...). We remained hidden until the alley cleared out and then left, we saw a chick smoking in a dark doorway, which looked pretty creepy since we could see her cig, the smoke and her knees only. We went to another alley across the street.
In between alleys we ran into the guy who was supposed to drive us to the house party, he had finally finished eating and was heading home. He said he'd call us when he was ready to go. We crossed the street and entered the last alley of the night.
It turned out to be a place we had trained a long time ago in the beginning of the school year. We had seen a fire escape with the stair case pulled up and decided to come back and do it at night, three months later I guess it was time. A wall run and some quick climbing got us onto the fire escape. Once on the rooflet (one story up out of three) I noticed a guy in a lit window so I crouch ran onto a fire escape on the same height level and flattened myself against the wall out of sight, as soon as Pines head appeared between the ladder bars I signed that he move fast. Ironically the fire escape we were now on was covered in barbed wire on the ground level but easily accessible from the rooflet of the adjacent building (where we were), no point locking a glass door. We ascended and crouched behind a wooded plank attached to the side a staircase (a make shift climb-proofing I'm assuming) while people on ground level passed underneath us. We climbed a ladder that had a wood cover with the lock rusted off (probably taggers or something). We hung out on that roof for a bit (the people who owned the buildings we were on had set up a couch and tables and had clearly partied up there before. We left when Pines got a call from his friend who was ready to go to the party, we hid a bit while we waited for the alley to empty out the descended and jogged to his apartment. Guy didn't drive us but he did pay for the cab ride...

A full night that proves that people still don't look up...

Maps:

Urban Exploration

Parkour has become a weekly thing with me and Pines, Kusa shows up sometimes, and Pines friend shows up a lot (we'll call him V). This week was ugly out (rain) and we all met up and went to a pillow fight in our city.
After the fight, (it was short but intense) we headed to a spot that Pines heard of from his brother, an old abandoned factory. We all talked while we were going there and I really feel Pines would make a good BSC ninja. I'm gonna start training him in BSC Ryu Ninpo soon.
At the factory the ground was really really muddy and walking through it quietly was slow and nasty. Not much on the first floor besides mud and some cement blocks. Upstairs however...
It looked great, lots of nice colorful graffiti and some spots of the ceiling were missing which let in rain and light which was very pleasing to the eye. As we walked around and checked the place out Pines signaled for silence and let us know a guy was around the corner, either a bum or a druggie I assumed because they had "gotten up" according to Pines and taggers and explorers don't go to sleep in abandoned places.
We left quietly and headed out of the building climbing a small fence on the way out. After that some parkour in the rain on a nearby playground. We're gonna wear grey from now on when we explore and red for parkour, because red isn't as stealthy as we'd like when it's bright out.

Bujinkan and Parkour

I have a ton of free time so I've been able to train a lot. I train parkour every saturday with Pines and it's good, I feel myself improving. I'm considering signing up to a Bujinkan dojo to improve my martial skill. It took a free lesson there to try it out.
At the dojo I learned more ways to apply boshiken, some hanbo (3 foot stick) fighting, these weird rolls (I'd learned them differently at my last Bujinkan dojo) and of course some regular hand to hand. Overall I felt it was good and I will probably join. There's only one problem, and that is that everything is taught in Quebecois French which still sounds weird to me, but it'll be like learning two things at once.
Went out to train with Pines today, he brought out a friend who I'll call Chest (he's been shirtless every time I've been with him). He's done cross-country running (like Pines), and is learning stuff pretty quickly although he cut up his hand doing some wall runs and trying to grab onto a cement ledge. We did our regular migration through a bunch of spot; we start at a place we call The Fort which is a large cement structure that has nice grippy walls and ledges, nice for vaulting and wall runs. We then go to Black Marble a place we named after the black marble that it's built from, it's slippery-ish but it's nice for general stuff. We move onto a place I call the Steppe (it's flat and tan, and it has steps lol) which is a great place to work on flow as the obstacles are just lined up waiting to be conquered. we take a short cut through some square thing and then go to a place where there is a jump we call the "Balls Precision". It's a precision jump that is relatively easy but has a pipe in the middle that threatens to tear them off if you jump too low. Our last big spot is the campus of Pine's girlfriend's school. It has all kindsa stuff to do, but every time I go I try a certain kong to cat that always fails, last time I ended up slipping on some ice, and this time I slipped because of mud on my shoes, I'll get it next time. We got kicked by security for training precisions but no chase just some guard with a nasal voice telling us we had to learn, it's such a great spot we'll probably be back though...