oh, btw, we swammed

Jer has guests from Jersey up for the last few days, they just left yesterday but they were fun to have around. Apart from dancing it up and stuffs we did one awesome thing that I'm really happy about...
The first place we went to we got kicked out of, that was no fun and the guy wasn't having any of it either, no sense of humor.
We walked into the front doors nodded to the guards and beelined to the elevators and hit the basement button. That was dumb of me, I assumed it'd be in the basement but a sign on the other side of the elevator indicated that what we sought was actually on the 11th floor. Well, we mashed the 11 button, but the elevator only took us up to 10 which was good enough really. We took the stairs up one flight, opened a door, took a turn or two, saw our destination and realized we lacked key cards. Looking through a glass wall at what could be ours, one of ours went around and we don't know how but she was on the other side of the glass!
She disappeared around a corner for a bit and then returned and opened the door for us. We were in, we all went to the bathroom, removed our clothing, felt a bit worried, carried our clothes with us to the deck , left them in a pile beside a chair and waded into the jacuzzi :D Some went into the pool a bit, I liked the jacuzzi a lot but the steam room was good times also.
We didn't bring towels, we dried with the hand dryer and paper towels.

Dance and explore

Last night a jillion of us went dancing at the Belmont, on Wednesdays there's dubstep music and it's usually pretty great. However as of late a lot of bro kids have started showing up and less and less hippie kids and other fringe type kids. I can't stand for that, so I told a bunch of people to come it also helped that it was Barracuda's birthday. We rolled in a jillion deep only to discover that the line was a a bajillion people long because it turns out it was the DJ's birthday also. We waited around outside until we got in I checked my hoodie with a friend so we could split coat check.
Well we got in and danced it up and moshed a lot and had a good time, Barracuda even kissed this hot girl <3.
At around 1.30 we split, some of us left and some of us stayed. I was with the group that stayed. We danced more and the next time we moshed some dude tried to pick a fight with a friend for pushing him, which is ridiculous, because well, when you mosh you push...
We brushed him off, don't wanna deal with fools like that. After a while me and Rainbow left. I was in just a t-shirt since I left my hoodie in my friend's bag (I got it this morning). We walked to DJ's house since people said they'd be there, but they weren't so I started walking home as did Rainbow. As I was walking someone stuck their head out the door way of a pizza place and called my name!
I turn around and it's my old neighbor and this girl I had theatre class with. I joined them in the pizza place and we chatted for a bit I used her phone to figure out where everyone was (at my house of course). After a bit me and my friend from theatre walked toward my house and split off to our respective houses. I jogged home and went to sleep...
Today I explored an abandoned building with Barracuda's roomie, it was good times. Not the ideal place for a free store but def a fun time altogether. We checked the roof and both stories and took some pictures. Dumpstered a bit after that. Not much of interest went down after that...

Back in Montreal

Heyo!
I'm currently sitting in my room in the apartment where I now live with Kunoichi (among other people). It's pretty super awesome, gonna go dumpster. I got here yesterday but slept at a friend's house with Ithaca (probably the last time in a while), now I moved shit around, emptied dusty bags and although there's a pile of stuff on the floor I'm pretty much settled in.
Gonna dumpster later.
Yesterday I went to the coop with Ithaca and a friend, TKJ and Rainbow were there! Good to see them again, really happy. This morning and for lunch free food, how so? table dive of course, this is the way I want to do things :)
TKJ might have a bike for me, we just need a de-railer for it, then you know I'll have a bike fo free!
New roomies make for good old friends. Really happy to be living here :D

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.