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.