Toronto Conference and good news

Me, TKJ, Rainbow, Wizzle and Crass (two of Rainbow's roomies), went to Toronto for an anarchist learning conference this weekend. It was a great time. I learned a lot and took around 4 pages of notes. We stayed with a friend and their housemates, which was a good time. THe first night we all went out for roti and then Rainbow, TKJ and I visited a friend of their where we hung out and played a game called fat princess which is hilarious and ridiculous.
The conference was good times I learned a lot although I was disappointed with the gender part and the green part, they were so basic, I really feel that they could have been more complex and in depth.
Riding in the car to and from Toronto was a great time as well, listening to music, failing to table dive and just hanging out.
Oh also there was a party that we went to, just dancing mostly and some bad anarchist hip hop, I usually like hip hop don't get me wrong, it's just that these rappers weren't good at rapping.
Back here in Montreal I've been hanging out with Dreads and Australia. She left yesterday to go live with partner in a small town. Dreads and I found a ton of bike parts in the trash so we want to build some bikes soon. Yesterday we found a bouncy castle type thing which was fuckin awesome, jumped and flipped around a lot.
Kunoichi is gonna move back to the house in February! I'm really happy.

People are back in town

Australia and Igs and Dreads are all back in town I'm super glad. Australia and a friend of her's are staying here for the moment. Today I fixed up my bike with Dreads and Rainbow and now all our bikes ride smooth as shit it's amazing. We ate a huge diner at the coop and watched a movie about the coltan mines in the DR of Congo, kinda very depressing. However the diner part was pretty great, we all talked and caught up and had a good time, TKJ was there also. We originally wanted to go dance to dubstep but then we checked the music and it sucked/was to slow and loungy. Just talked a lot and then came home.

(re)discovering NYC

I've been up to quite a bit since I got here on Sunday and it hasn't even been a week yet. I have a bike, it broke a few times, I fixed it a few times and now I hope it'll be fine.
I went to the Bluestocking cafe on Monday to hear a talk about the summit that took place in Cochabamba on climate change and I learned a lot and a lot of issues that I knew existed became a lot more interconnected in my mind. A big idea I learned besides interconnectedness of issues is that the cause of probably the majority of problems is capitalism, yea maybe I'm a little bit late, but now I know...
At the Bluestocking I met a guy called Joey that told me a lot about the activism and punk scenes in NYC and what I should look for. From what I can tell and the protest I went to (more on this later) the scene here is docile and composed mostly of people older than myself, (I prefer/am used to a youthful militant scene; see Montreal circa now). We talked about anarchist groups and various issue groups and just politics and stuff in general, it was good to hit it off quickly after getting back into the city. Even found out about a free punk show going down Sunday, so I'm excited about that.
After leaving the Bluestocking I called Crisis since I knew he was in the area and we met up, he was riding long boards with his friend from out of town. We crossed the Williamsburg and got lost in Queens trying to get to downtown Brooklyn to dumpster, which was pretty lame but in the end I brought home some fruit from a dumpster that I ran into by chance. Crisis became pretty punk since the last time I saw him, long boards and mohawks.
I hung out with the old park slope crew a bit and it made me realize how much I've changed, M:tG and video games don't interest me nearly as much as they used to, I wanna do activist stuff and sneak around and mosh at shows and dumpster and share with my friends. I went to go see Cipher and he's doing okay, still playing WoW, lol. We talked about our summer plans and he isn't too sure about hitching and would prefer a car :-/. We've all experienced deterioration in our ninja skills since neither of us (or Crisis either I suspect) have been keeping nearly as sharp a vigil on our skills as we used to.
Yesterday I went to a protest against Pacific Rim wanting to mine (read: poison drinking water) in El Salvador, not being able to (because no one wants to drink cyanide) and suing the government because of that (I mean it's only reasonable to go after people who don't let you poison them, right?). I was disappointed when I first arrived and didn't even join the protest, I sat and watched as about ten protesters handed out pamphlets to passersby and spoke close to their table and held up a sign, FROM BEHIND A POLICE FENCE! In Montreal protests are so large that they could never be contained within fencing and I'm sure if police attempted to conflict would erupt. Maybe I've been spoiled by the Montreal scene, I hope I haven't been. As I as sitting to the side watching I saw a friend from high school and we talked about travelling and bikes for a bit then he left and I went to help with the protest, no point not helping, there was a little bit of street theatre towards the end but it was very cheesy and cliche, in the end before leaving I traded contact info with this photographer so I'll write him an email soon asking what's up and how did the photos come out (can I have the ones with me in them?). Joey from Bluestocking told me I should be organizing shit instead of joining it since I'm used to wilder things and I'm starting to think he's right, so far the things I've seen and heard about activism seem too tame in my view. I'll see what I feel after Sunday, and when I know more about my summer, I'm supposed to work for the month of June, I wanna travel to the west coast and squat beach houses with TKJ, Rainbow, Australia, Domin, and Rainbow's friend, they wanna hitch from Toronto after the G20 which I also wish I wasn't missing. Just found out I can't register for classes in winter and fall until I get "special permission" because I didn't do well in school :-/ so that may play a part in something as well.
The plan for Sunday is to do food not bombs at ABC no Rio and then head to a free punk show at Tompkins Square park afterward (ABC no Rio serves there anyway so I'll probably be able to go straight there after serving). It'll help me get a feel of the food not bombs and maybe find people who are down for something more invigorating than what's happening already...
We'll see what happens, either way I got some posters that I've passed to my mom to photocopy at her work, I'll wheat paste them around when she brings them back. I ordered Expect Resistance from Crimethinc last night and I'm excited for it to come and all the posters and zines and stickers that'll come with it :D. I'm also happy and curious to see what happens when Ithaca gets here, but I'll probably have to add more padding to the bed since I almost sleep on the floor and she'll probably want it softer.

Food not bombs and planning to leave

I've been sleeping at the coop for the last few days, it's pretty chill, just hanging with Ithaca and TKJ and Australia. Before yesterday me and Ithaca and a friend of ours dumpstered and prepared a meal at the native friendship center. On the way after dumpstering me and Ithaca stopped at the anarchist bookstore to ask for hitching advice and to see if I could trade pastries for some patches, the girl behind the counter wouldn't trade me but she gave me a patch for free so I gave her food for free (which is the same thing in the end).
At the friendship center (a place where Ice Cream went a lot apparently), we cooked up a stir fry and a fruit salad. While we ate we all socialized and our friend got hit on awkwardly by this guy...
We started a movie but left a bit in because we felt like heading and our friend had to go meet some friends. Ended up at the coop and hung there. That night Ithaca pour an awesome bath with oils and mint and stuff to get me healthy and we sat in the dark with candles. it was pretty great.
We have a concrete plan to leave and get to NY now. We're going to hitch to Ithaca's home town which is of course near Ithaca and stay there a bit and work some. Afterward we're gonna hitch to Brooklyn and she'll stay for a bit. We're not sure yet but we may come up to Montreal again and attend an event about living locally that she helped plan, but it's iffy and depends on some outside factors. Either way I'm excited for the trip.

Jimbo's, departure and free stuff

I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics from a nearby pharmacy (along with some free condoms, I was running out). It's good I've been improving and don't feel nearly as sick and useless now.
Me and Green Boots went to Jimbo's to sleep a few nights ago, we watched "The Decline of Western Society III" up there until the laptop died. TKJ and Rainbow (they're together now, awwwww) met us up there a bit later with some food they dumpstered at the pharmacy. We ate and talked and listened to music after finding the right electrical outlets then slept.
We were awakened by the rain, me and Green Boots packed up our stuff and hid under the lip of the ventilation shaft until the rain got better than we all went down and ate a dumpstered breakfast at Concordia. Afterward TKJ and Rainbow headed to the coop. I met them there after stopping a bit at Kunoichi's place first.
TKJ was headed to Wal-Mart and Value Village I went with him because I'm an opportunist and he was going to find a pair of pants and return scam a U-lock. We took public transportation there which I thought was strange because I hadn't rode anything other than my bike for months. We got there and I was going to left hand a tarp but the cashiers were set up in a 3 by 3 square so there was no way to really pull that off so I aborted and decided to just take some halls for my throat instead. We went to Value Village after that, TKJ didn't find anything he wanted but I swiped a Splinter Cell book. We headed back to Wal-mart so TKJ could return scam a U-lock with his receipt while I read outside. It didn't work out security guard was on his ass and watching him trying to be discreet (good thing he sucked at that), so we bounced and decided to come back another day dressed clean cut.
We also went to sports experts and got a really good bike lock and tabled a small lunch in a mall before heading to the coop.
Ithaca was at the coop and we hung out a bit and then went over to Ice Cream's place to have dinner since it was Ice Cream's last night in Montreal, but not before hanging out in a playground and playing tag with Ice Cream's roomie as well. We dumpstered real fast and then cooked up a nice dinner and then hung around and slept.
Ithaca and I woke up to loud footsteps stomping around. Ice Cream had left early in the morning, we realized it was the guy who lived there who used to have a thing with Ithaca. After stomping around for a while while we were half asleep, he bitched at us about squatting (because you know, if you sleep over at a friend's place to see her off you're a squatter...) and kicked us out, wtf I don't even know this guy, but Ithaca has been telling him they should be just friends for a while now.
Whatever, we went to the coop and finished sleeping there and then messed around and showered. Not much happened in the day except we all went to the playground, it's fun now that Australia and TKJ live at the coop, everyone is around all the time. Rainbow showed up later and brought a friend with her who was visiting Montreal. They drank a bit and we hung out outside in the alley, when Australia went to get more beer I went with and brought back some free chocolate for everyone. After hanging out a bit I headed back to Kunoichi's place and dumpstered a ton of random stuff from the pharmacy on the way.
Honey
AAA batteries
an iPod Case
a bunch of juice boxes
some chocolate
various coffee stuff
pretzels
cookies
mixed berry apple sauce
brown rice
nuts
lip shimmer among other things...

Blood, Bike Grease and Ethics

*sigh*
So yesterday I met up with TKJ, Rainbow, Australia and a few coopers for the last part of a poetry slam after hanging at Kunoichi's place a bit and showing her friend around the city some. After the show me and Australia dumpstered with a cooper (Domin) and then headed to the coop. Before we split off from the rest of everyone me and Rainbow took a spill on our bikes as she put something into my bike crate. She's alright but her bike and I took a beating, but we're alright and the bike is already fixed up.
When we dumpstered we found a shit ton of snack foods and hot dogs. I brought all the hot dogs to Kunoichi's place and then brought my backpack to carry the rest to the coop. We all chilled at the coop and I ended up spending the night there. The next day Australia, Rainbow and I went to go see the Yes Men but they were postponed because of the volcano ash, so instead we hung out and dumpstered and all that. I split off from everyone and went home to grab a sweater for Australia and also to get my bag. I ran into a friend and passed him some dumpstered food and then headed to meet everyone (stopped at Kunoichi's to find my sewing needles but no luck, I still don't know where they are).
We all ate dinner at Ice Cream's place and then went off to chill at the coop for a bit, while we were at Ice Cream's, me and her decided to come back later and spend the night there. I sewed and hung out at the coop for a while and then headed off to Ice Cream's place, I was feeling weird about leaving to go to Ice Cream's place with Ithaca right there and I wanna discuss stuff with her about how we should handle this kinda thing in the future. Ice Cream gave me her opinion about what I'm doing on the way there and it made sense. We got there and I took a shower and then...
Next morning I went to the coop for breakfast with TKJ, Rainbow, Guts, Domin and Australia. Ithaca was already gone to finish her paper, Ice Cream stayed home and said she might meet us later.
After foods, Quebec Budget protest, it was kinda boring though to be honest, but I've been lucky in terms of rowdy protests; police brutality and the last budget one were pretty wild as was the bike for the pipe so I can't complain.
Went back to the coop and hung there a bit Ithaca was around I can tell she's uncomfortable a bit and I really wanna fix stuff up, but I'm gonna stay who I am as well, Ithaca knew other people were involved with me when we first started what we have and I hope it's just a little bump in a longer road...

A ridiculous amount of stuff

...that's what happened since the last time I posted on here...
Last Friday, I went out dancing with TKJ, Australia, Rainbow, and a friend from the coop. Ice Cream and Ithaca were going to come but they took a toke from Kusa when he smoked and Ithaca got super high and probably wouldn't be able to ride her bike so she stayed and Ice Cream told us they would meet us there later (pshh yea right).
We got the show (it was a hip hop/dubstep/dancehall show) and just danced until the place closed. TKJ got wasted and couldn't bike home so Rainbow and Australia walked him home, apparently that was a funny story. I got home to find Ice Cream and Ithaca sleeping on the bed, I slipped in and went to bed after a quick conversation about the night.
I woke up with Ice Cream already gone, she left us a note and we go up and got ready, eating a bit and searching the house for Ithaca's bike lock key. When all was in order we headed to the coop and hit up a store for food that couldn't be sold. By the time we finished Ice Cream had arrived at the coop and we were ready to go to her house pick up some last minute stuffs and then roll out. Some of the coopers were doing a fundraiser party so we helped them carry some things up the stairs, before we finished a bunch of kids arrived with Katimavik, ready to do food not bombs. No one else was around for food not bombs so we called TKJ and stayed with them until TKJ, Australia and Rainbow arrived. After that we fixed up a bikes a tiny bit and grabbed some water at Ice Creams and rode out.
We headed south until we hit the bridge and we crossed that, the weather was great and riding across the bridge gave us a nice view of the city (and some trains). We got to the island where la Ronde is and we climbed a bit of scaffolding until security told us to get down. Afterward we threw our bike over a few fences and rode for an hour or two then decided to set up camp when we hit the end of the road/a big fence.
We rode back a bit to find a nice spot and then locked up bikes. I started a small fire in my hobo stove and Ice Cream and Ithaca set up the tent when it started to get dark since we were camping on private property. The hobo stove was pretty shitty in terms of getting really hot with the wood I was putting in it since it didn't really turn to coal just ash, but we managed to cook some potatoes and eggplant that we dumpstered earlier. Ithaca and Ice Cream also brought some food so we ate dinner and just as we finished it began to drizzle. We got into the tent and rolled out the sleeping bags. It was a really tight fit, three people in a two person tent but we managed. I read aloud a bit, we played some talking games and hit the hay super early (probably around 8 or 9)...
Woke up and biked back to Ice Cream's after a small fruit breakfast. Once there we cooked up everything we didn't eat and had a nice brunch. I was tired from all the biking at that point so I rolled back to the coop a bit and started to head home afterward, but I decided to pass in from of TKJ's place for fun. Of course I ended up stopping in when I saw a bunch of bikes locked out front. Turns out Australia, TKJ, Rainbow were there along with a guy from the coop. They had dumpstered pasta and made tomato sauce and jam but it wouldn't be ready for a while. I was tired as shit but I hadn't had pasta in a really long time so I stuck around. We went to tam tams and I napped there on my sleeping bag and then we went back and ate the pasta and all that. I hung at TKJ's place until about 9 napping on and off. I left after that because I had to attend Pagoda's birthday.
I went home, checked the address and rode out on my bike. She was celebrating at Casa del Popolo which is a chill cafe/bar/venue where cool girls throw their birthday parties. Spent time talking to random people and just hanging out and eating delicious cake (you see Pagoda works at a bakery so she gets a free awesome birthday cake on her birthday, FO FREE!). People started leaving and I got to hang out with Pagoda one on one a bit which was nice. Later she recognized a guy she saw on the bus once back home and we went and talked to him and his crew, turns out they were a punk band that had just played at the venue next door. I talked to one of the guys about ABC No Rio and New York in general because he had played a show there a while ago. Was an interesting evening, nothing too crazy, but I was tired from the long weekend anyways. At the end of the night I kissed Pagoda good night, said peace to the punk band and got to take the rest of the cake home.
Monday morning; cake for breakfast, best breakfast ever. Went to my last class this semester and then headed off to the People's Potato. Ithaca was there along with Rainbow and Australia. We ate and headed to TKJ's place. Me and Rainbow stopped at the sporting goods place to receipt scam the bike lock she bought from there last week. It went down pretty smoothly. At TKJ place we sewed stuff up and ate dumpstered food. I don't remember the rest of the day, cept hanging out in a playground a bit. At night though we hung at the coop and on the way there we dumpstered and I finally glued up the new lock on the compactor (it's still there by the way, they haven't done anything about it...).
Not too sure what happened during the week nothing spectacular or particularly memorable, just hanging with Ithaca at the coop (apparently people have been complaining that we we're loud when we have sex, that we leave the door open and that we have sex in the shower too much, none of which is true, but I'll explain that later). Kunoichi got hurt a while ago but she's doing alright, I've been dropping food off on and off for the last few days which results in cool food being made by either me or Kunoichi and her roomies. Sleeping at her place and the coop.
On Friday I went swimming with Ice Cream and Ithaca. Ice Cream practiced her lifeguarding stuff on us and we played around in the pool. After hanging in our sex's saunas we met up upstairs and headed to the coop. The bike ride back to the coop resulted in us arriving soaked in rain. The only solution of course was to strip down and shower up, which we did. Ice Cream Left the shower before Ithaca and I did and didn't lock the door, the door mind you can only be locked from the inside and can't really close unless it's locked. A cooper stuck her head in and saw me and Ithaca showering (and doing just that and not much else) and complained about it later (hence my above comment about sex complaints, none of which are true). We were gonna stay in and sleep but instead a girl from the coop convinced us to go dancing. The first club we went to had a really Euro feel but we didn't like the music so we went to another place and danced until it closed then went back to the coop. We were pretty tired and ready to head to bed when a few (three) coopers came back from what I can only assume was a crazy night (involving a metal show and a strip club and some drugs). At first we weren't sure what they did but they told us a bit. They had come in with a friend, apparently he had brought some crack and was going to take it upstairs, when another cooper found out he headed up. We were all chilling on the couches downstairs and didn't really think twice about it, except discussing that crack was a shitty drug and it would fuck you up and all that. A bit later the guy comes back downstairs with a 40 in one hand and a hammer in another, he said "the guy upstairs" scared him. He was super paranoid and kept asking us where the front door was even after we told him. He got more and more antsy and started to open bedroom doors to find a way out and freaked out a sleeping cooper. The cooper who went upstairs when he found out about the crack came down and took charge, he told us all to get to one side of the room and for the crack guy to leave, he eventually did but not before we had a few scares with the hammer. Crack sucks...
Next day hung out with Ithaca a lot and we went to a show at Katacombs in the night. Ice Cream was supposed to meet us but never showed. The show had the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble (an anarchist marching band), Micro Armee (a French hip hop group with b-boys, rappers, singers and beatboxers) and a samba collective whose name I forgot. We didn't stay 'til the end because we got tired, we went home cooked up some stir fry and then hit the sack. The next day we dumpstered a ton on breakfast and lunch and made lots of foods. After breakfast we watched two movies about sex and sex culture. Stayed home a bit then headed over to Kunoichi's for ice cream and pie, ended up sleeping over, Guts was there and he slept over as well.
Next day, lots of cooking and hanging out. Australia called and they were all at TKJ's house, I went over to hang since she's leaving on a bike trip, and we went to play tag and grounders at a playground across the street, good times but I realized I'm not as stealthy and fast as I used to be...
Exam tomorrow off to pretend that I'm studying.

Pillows, drums and the letter S

The pillow fight was awesome! TKJ and Australia showed up at my place with Australia's friend in tow and we headed to the fight on foot. We waited around and slowly the square filled with anxious people clutching pillows. The original plan was to have a signal to spark the fight but forget that; these two girls holding pillows crossed paths, looked each other in the eyes and started hitting each other with pillows and then the surrounding area filled itself with pillow fighters. As the fight went on there were lulls and peaks and a lot more people showed up throughout, Guts came, Thief came, Pines and V showed, Lil Jon was there, Rainbow was there as well, she's a girl who was at the Bike against the Pipe Protest and has started to chill with us, we had a decent group. The pillow fight was pretty wild, we drew a crowd of spectators and when we took a "nap" they thought it was appropriate to clap which was funny. The pillow fight was a great success, no mess at the end, no cops to shut anything down, just good times with strangers in the city.
After the pillow fight we (TKJ, Australia and her friend, Lil Jon, V and I) dumpstered at the fruit dumpster and at Tim Horton's, found a ridiculous amount of food and cooked up vegetables and made jam and ate pastries. Good times were had. After a bit Lil Jon and V split off and we headed to the coop.
There we watched an awesome documentary on the transition movement, we watched it outside projected onto a screen (illegally blocking off the alleyway with a dumpster). After the movie me and Ithaca took a nap and then a bunch of use went dancing at around 2 in the morning. At the club this guy would occasionally join us and dance really crazy, it was pretty entertaining, I was a bit confused though when he put my head into his shirt.
The original plan was to go sleep on the mountain after dancing, but we stopped at TKJ's place to eat a bit then we would head to the mountain but after food people got lazy but we still managed to leave. We left in two groups; Australia went home with friend to pick up sleeping bags, me, Ithaca, TKJ and Guts left straight to the park. We got there and waited a bit but TKJ got impatient and left with Guts about two minutes before Australia got there. Australia left with her friend when she found out that TKJ and Guts left, so in the end only me and Ithaca slept on the mountain.
We walked up the mountain a bit and found a spot we thought was secluded and nice and lay out our sleeping bags, Ithaca's couldn't close so we opened mine and used her's as a blanket and fell asleep. We woke up the next day and realized we weren't as invisible as we thought as bikers and joggers went past us, most didn't notice but we got a few odd looks, nothing more than that though.
Sleeping in the first S. The second S is sex but that didn't happen, I did end up fingering Ithaca before we headed down to the Tam Tams, it was kinda an urge I had and she was cool with it so we had a good time.
Tam Tams was fun stuff. We met up with Guts, Rainbow, TKJ, Australia and her friend as well as some other peeps I don't really know. We danced to the drumming, did some of the sword fighting stuff and just lay around in the sun.
Later that evening we went to the coop (all of us) and did a ton of sewing (the third S), Rainbow made herself a nice buttflap. I fell asleep with Australia's friend and Ithaca on Ithaca's bed, Australia sleep over as well, Rainbow left around 7 in the morning and TKJ left around 12ish.
Woke up, just me and Ithaca, Australia was gone. We messed around in bed a bit, headed to the roof and did the same, tried having sex in the shower but failed miserably and ended up doing stuff on the floor instead. Not much done that day except the three Ss (sleep, sex and sewing). I finished Ithaca's buttflap and the day kinda flew by.
Next day we headed to the People's Potato and met up with everyone, I told Ice Cream I was sleeping with Ithaca as well (they know each other and I don't want to build tension) and she was alright with it. after eating the three of us headed to McGill to hand out surveys for Ice Cream's research methods class, then got ice cream with a friend we ran into. We wanted to sleep at Jimbo's but it rained so we just slept at Ice Cream's and watched a movie.
The next day was BBQ. We had dumpstered a ton of food after leaving McGill and we found a bit more and brought it over to Ice Cream's and people started showing up and fires got hot and food was eaten, it was good times.
The night ended with everyone chillin in the coop then heading home. Ithaca came home with me since I felt sleeping in my own bed (no idea how long it's been since I did that) so we slept here then went to the potato. Came back here, rolled out quickly to help Rainbow buy a bike now I plan on doing nothing productive all day except catching up with Lost and reading and being lazy...

Tuesday until now; In chronological order

Tuesday:Went to class all that, blah blah. Later in the night there was a trash race planned but before I went to that I took a friend to see the dumpsters in my area, we got some fruits, vegetables, dairy and bread, nothing too exciting, but not a horrible run either.
The dumpster race was pretty fun, we started at TKJ/Dreads/Guts' place and weren't allowed to use dumpsters we already knew. I was teamed up with Dreads and West (a girl who's friends with Australia) and the other team was Ice Cream, Ithaca and TKJ. We found really random stuff, some necklaces, USB speakers and a hamburger phone. The other team didn't find anything but went to a dumpster we know and brought back a ton of bagels. We ate a ton of bagels into the night and Ithaca, Ice Cream and I ended up sleeping over.
Wednesday:
Woke up at TKJ/Dreads/Guts' place, Ice Cream and Ithaca were there. I think the beginning of the day was spent doing nothing particularly interesting, ate at the potato and just hung out. Later in the evening I met up with a few classmates and my old TA from a theatre class I took last semester for a reunion. That was a bit boring and I used the opportunity to take a nap. Afterward I met up with Pagoda for our "hot date" (according to Ithaca). We rode bikes to her neighborhood and locked up near Friendship Cove (where a show was going to start later) and did a bit of roofing while waiting for the doors to open. We went in and listened to live music and met up with friends and explored the rooftops, there was a gap that I really wanted to jump but decided not to because it was night and I couldn't judge the distance (I wanna go back and do it at some point).
After the show we went back to Pagoda's place and chilled and had tea and went to bed.
Thursday:
Pagoda wakes up at around 10 AM, she's off to work, since I'm up that early I decide to fill up my day and actually do what I kinda planned to do. I hop onto the bike and ride to the meeting spot of "Bike against the Pipe", a bike bloc protest against a pipeline that runs through Montreal.
It was good times, a lot of the crew showed up; Ice Cream, TKJ, Australia, West, Dreads, Ithaca and a few friends from everywhere. We rode out east until we got close to some refineries, once there there was a banner drop and some speeches about oil sucking and being bad. We headed to a refinery with a lawn afterward and ate a nice lunch there before heading back towards downtown, taking up two lanes :).
(if you wanna see some footage of the protest check this video out: http://vimeo.com/10634190)
After the Bike against the Pipe we (Australia, Ice Cream TKJ and another friend) went straight to a protest against Quebec's new budget. It was all good at first, music, flags, large amounts of people all that, but it got dicier later on.
A world trade building was open and people stormed in with a huge cardboard bill that said so and so company owes this much. Doors were locked at the top of staircases and they never managed to get to the offices I don't think. Riot cops arrived and tried to clear everyone out, we didn't stick around for that we left through another exit discreetly and went to the front of the building to see what was happening.
Riot cops were lined up in front of the main entrance and people were yelling at them and throwing stuff because they're you know, cops. After a bit people stopped throwing shit and yelling. People were just standing around being protesters when without warning or provocation the cops charge the crowd beating people and kicking shit over. Needless to say that we all grabbed out shit and run, well we did until we noticed TKJ on the ground clutching his arm, his face contorted into a grimace of pain.
He was sitting on the ground when the police charged and had tried to get up to get out of the way, some cop pushed him down and when he tried to get up again he got smashed on the wrist with a night stick! We were pissed. At first we thought there was a fracture but it was just a nasty bruise either way it was stupid, just charging a crowd unprovoked and without warning, I keep losing more and more respect for police as time goes by.
We bounced after that all headed in separate directions, I went with Ithaca and Ice Cream to Ice Cream's place where her family was waiting and immediately left with her to Ottawa. Me and Ithaca went to some boring meeting to plan an event at her school but left early due to ridiculous amounts of boring. Went back to the Coop and fell asleep.
Friday:
Wake, get dressed, find Ithaca, we head to a friend of her's for potluck brunch (pancakes and French toast ummmm). I climbed her friends roof for fun quickly and came back down. We all joked about it a bit since she was the only one who didn't see me get up or down. After a while I decided to show her and climbed up again.
At the top before I could let the sun really warm me, some crazy janitor guy starts yelling at me from street level, talking about how he'll call the cops, and I'll die and a bunch of ludicrous stuff that's all bullshit. Before I have time to react, a neighbor comes onto his own balcony and starts bitching at me as well. I tell them calmly that I'm just gonna come down and I'll be fine and all that. As I'm climbing down the girl's who's place we're at's upstairs neighbor smiles at me from her kitchen, I smile back an embarrassed smile since I'm kinda getting yelled at and trespassing and alla that. After getting back to the balcony I went back in and no police were called, the neighbor calmed down and sympathized and the crazy janitor left (hope I never see that guy again).
We bounced after that, I went home for a bit and hung with friends in the neighborhood.
Since it's Friday I had to jam with the Frozen Monkeys. Got there a bit (very) late but it was good times. We went to a new spot that I discovered on the ride to the second protest on Thursday, it wasn't as promising as I though but it was still pretty cool, lots of wall runs and cats not much in terms of vaulting and small technical stuff. Frozen Monkeys was Lil Jon, Columbia and I, we worked on turn vaulting large obstacles, wall runs and some other stuff. Lil Jon had messed up his leg not too long before and it was acting up so the jam wasn't the longest and we all left early.
After parkour I met up with a friend from home and a friend from here and we walked around the Old Port a bit then headed home.
Time to take a erst for the night, Pillow Fight Tomorrow!!!!!!!!111

Update I guess

Turns out being cold in -15 weather is normal if you're wearing a tank top and a sleeveless, so I'm comforted knowing that. Stuff with Ice Cream is good, we've talked a bit and we've agreed to be something along the lines of "friends with benefits" or "fuck buddies", which is fine with me, and works for her since she isn't into "pda" (public display of affection). Going to a show with Pagoda Wednesday after hanging with my old theatre class, looking forward to that. There's some talk about replacing a highly visible roof flag with another one, that's probably gonna involve Pines and Lil Jon. Didn't really need to sabotage a lock that was on a dumpster, when we got there with the glue the lock was already gone :D Dumpstered with Australia and TKJ brought back some nuts, chocolate, chips etc, just junk food from the pharmacy dumpster, which is new and shiny and unlocked on the sides, so no more night runs squeezing underneath the lid. Life is good. Been hanging with Ithaca a lot lately she's pretty chill and seems like she's usually down for adventures, she lives at the coop and is big into Food not Bombs.

Ethics and Food

Today I ran into Ice Cream, Australia, Thief and Bum at the People's Potato. I took the opportunity to tell Ice Cream I'd probably be seeing someone else at the same time I was seeing her, she seemed alright with it *wipes sweat off brow* she wants to have good communication which I totally agree with.
Food Not Bombs is gonna be busy all week, we're cooking up veggie pate and making sandwiches and all kindsa stuff for a conference this coming weekend about mining and the environment. I was there until around 11.30 at night with TKJ, Australia, Ice Cream and some other peeps. Got some free tofu and also dumpstered some meat (hot dogs and BACON) and a bunch of yogurt (some of which I dropped at Kunoichi's place) on the way home.
I wanna see Pagoda, tell her that I'm seeing someone else at the same time, I don't feel it's wrong seeing more than one person at once, but I don't feel comfortable keep the people I'm seeing in the dark about each other. Pagoda lives in an awesome neighborhood, which apparently has a bunch of punks and has some history of squatting and a nice hop out spot, so I wanna hang out with her there a big and see what's up.
Weather has been ugly but a bunch of us want to return to Jimbo's (our awesome roof squat) and watch a movie, but we'll have to wait until weather permits.

The Bonfire

I like hot weather.
Saturday was the first day of spring.
A while back I was talking to someone and I told them I'd make a fire on the first day of spring, that's just what I did. I even told people to come and enjoy it with me around 8ish.
V and Australia showed up first, I was dead tired when they arrived. Australia was supposed to bring wood but didn't, which made the night more fun in the long term. We napped for literally like 5 minutes then went outside and started the fire with cardboard and paper until I could add big wood that I had left over from the thanks giving fire. we sat around a bit, V went to go grab some marshmallows at a store and I dumpstered wood from across the street (through out the night I would dumpster wood to keep the fire up usually with Dreads). People started to trickle in as time went by, you have to walk down an alleyway to get to where the fire pit is so I left a note on the door (the alleyway is also where the back door to a club and a restaurant are). Everyone was here: Guts, Dread and his girlfriend and their Belgian friend, V, Australia and a friend of hers, Kunoichi and her whole house (four other girls), TKJ and three pals of his from outta town, Ice Cream, and a girl from the neighborhood that I don't hang out with too much.
We all hung around and I brought out the snacks: mini cookies, some pastries, a bag pretzels, candy canes and of course a bucket of frosting to top off whatever you're eating.
Everyone brought some awesomeness to the the fire that night. Some of the more visible awesome took place as follows;
Kunoichi fire span with her hula hoop to acoustic music from one of her roomies on the guitar, it was impressive.
Dreads juggled flaming pins despite being a bit tipsy, his ending was awesome, he vanished into the dark by swinging the flames out.
Three people brought guitars and those rotated between Kunoichi's house, TKJ's crew, Guts and Dreads and his girlfriend, needless to say vocals were switched off and combined through out as well.
V tap danced on some dumpstered wood but I missed it because I was showing someone where the bathroom was, but I heard it was good.
We all hung around the fire talking, Ice Cream tried to gain back some of the time I slept on her shoulder by doing the same time me, but I moved a lot, while talking and gesturing and tending to the fire :-/ At around midnight I get a text asking for the address but it was sent at around 10 so I feel bad and answer without knowing who it is, a bit later my neighbor arrives with a friend and they chill with us.
The night moseyed on and some people peeled off and some people got drunker from passing around tallboys and 40s. Two of TKJ's friends, the two girls were pretty drunk and they started drumming on the back door of a club next door to see if they could get in, we were all still around the fire when we see a bouncer stick his head out the door after they bang hard for a bit and he tells them something then slams the door. They tell us they wanna go clubbing and run out the alley to who knows where.
We keep the fire going, chilling and talking and laughing and making music, when the two girls come back, I thought they danced in the club so I give them high fives for being drunk and awesome and not caring. Turns out coat check is $5 and cover is another $5 so they dropped off their coats and headed off, I wanted to go with as did TKJ and the third friend, I made sure people were watching the fire (Australia and Ice Cream). We walked around the block to a club, and watched as the bouncer turned TKJ's friends down despite their lack of coats. "we're too poor and ugly to get in",
Nah, "fuck that club!"
"yea fuck it!"
We all went back to the fire in a good mood. Wood had just run out when my neighbor Kouka-mono came out and chilled for a bit, he had a dead chair made of wood that he brought out to burn. Ice Cream was tired and wanted to crash the living room, but there weren't any covers so I told her take the bed I'll be up later and stayed out a bit longer with Kouka-mono because people were trickling out slowly until it was just us. Tired from a ridiculous week and an awesome night I decided it was time to bounce and hit the hay. Kouka-mono brought a bucket of water and poured the flames out. A huge cloud of steam appeared and we left quickly so we wouldn't be around if it caught people's attention.
Inside I felt the excitement of the night fade but it didn't disappear altogether. I undressed, got into pajamas and joined Ice Cream in bed. She was freezing so we unzipped the sleeping bag and used it as a second blanket, then lay down and talked and cuddled. I really felt like kissing Ice Cream at one point but she beat me to it; as I was about to turn her head turned around and planted one on my lips! I was really happy with that and we kissed and cuddled until we fell asleep...

St Patrick's Day

Had a great St Patricks day! Original plan was to spend it sleeping out at Concordia to raise money for a different homeless shelter or some organization that helps out homeless youth. When I got there I tipped over my bike and unloaded a crate full of (dumpstered) expensive chocolate and some chips and hung with a friend that I met at a party, but overall the feel was boring and had much less of a community feel than the people at McGill had.
When TKJ and Australia got there we put our stuff down and decided to walk around and enjoy the St Patrick's day atmosphere since we were right near a street that is full of clubs and bars. We walked around a bit and I took them up onto one of the roofs that I explored Pines last year.
We decided to sleep there instead of with the Concordia camp. We went back to where everyone was, took back a bit of chocolate and a bag of chips and left (but not without getting annoyed by some guy who clearly didn't need another bag of chips in his body). We got back to the alley and I climbed onto the roof, TKJ and Australia passed me all their stuff and then climbed up after it. We stashed it all under some vents and headed back to street level.
we spent the best time walking around, finding hats (each of us had a ridiculous St Patrick's day hat before the night was over), table diving (lots of poutine), dumpstering (croissants and pretzels) and tree chillin as one drunk person called it.
After a while we started getting tired and headed back towards the roof. We grabbed some cardboard from a nearby dumpster and set up in between a bunch of tall vent structures where the sun would wake us as it rose. We set up a nice camp, complete with cardboard and a pantry. We fell asleep talking anarchist politics and the world.
Australia left around 7 or 8 to go on her bike trip with Dreads but me and TKJ went back to sleep and slept until 11.30 and then got free lunch and samosas at the people's potato and from the people doing Muslim awareness week.
If you're ever on a roof where "EVERYWHERE IS A PLAYGROUND Everywhere is a bed" is written on the vent, go left pull out the card board and chips and have a great night, just don't get caught sneaking back down the next morning.

McGill Camp-out

Before yesterday Australia told me that people at McGill were sleeping outside to raise money for a local homeless shelter. This meant training to me, if I wanna tramp around in the summer I need to know how to sleep outside.
We decided to dumpster quickly before heading there, and we scored a ton of stuff, more that I care to inventory but mostly snack of some sort or other. We got there said hey to everyone and dropped the food into a box. People were chillin' on their sleeping bags which were on cardboard which was on cement (me and Australia set up on the dirt later). It was a warm night for me but that means nothing since everyone was cold *shrug*, we dumpstered some cardboard for everyone on the bikes which impressed people just as much as the dumpstered food did. Everyone except this one girl who seemed pretty out of place, she looked like Avril Lavigne but a bit paler and probably shorter. She was grossed out by the dumpstered food and wearing something like seven layers of clothes inside her sleeping bag, she was only there that night (it was a five day thing that we were just crashing) because some guy called her out on not being able to sleep outside.
We all just kicked it in the street and asked for donations from people all night. As it got to around 2ish in the morning me and this girl went to the Second Cup close by to use their bathrooms and write that "Everywhere is a playground" on stall walls, (okay, well only I did that). While we were there there was a home-bum that had camped out with the McGill kids earlier in the day, it was really fun that he had a laptop and while I was in the bathroom he promoted us to the people in the cafe and even got some money from it, (which I think he kept lol). As we were rolling out he told us he'd stop in later and camp the night.
We headed home messing around with piggy back rides and just having fun, got there everyone hung and talked until about 4 or 5 in the morning before sleeping. Chocolate was for dinner and when the beeping of trucks backing up woke us it made a great breakfast.
The rest of the day was pretty cool too, it involved: cooking dumpstered stuffs, getting free food, sitting on the ground, getting a free portable DVD player that we got to work, riding bikes around and generally hanging out.

Batons, black blocs and pretty lights

In a class about leisure I was told that "deviant leisure" was a great way to gnaw at social bonds, upon hearing this I felt confused the people I was closest with were those that I got trouble with the most...
Today was pretty great. I went to the protest against police brutality, I went with Ice Cream, Australia, TKJ, Guts and Dreads was there as a photographer (not that it mattered later on). The protest was great and of course deteriorated into a proto-riot at the end. It started out pretty calm, an anarchist marching band playing music, people standing around and a punk throwing some muffins at cops. After we started marching towards the downtown (we never got out the suburbs since we were far and the cops...) a black bloc started to take action.
These guys were prepared and had brought along all kinds of goodies for the police and of course were decked out in head to toe in black. They started by shooting off some fire works at the riot cops who lined up on the sides of the streets we were marching down, it was really spectacular seeing the fireworks blow up against the police shields. They had some flares to throw around also. After their assault they broke up and slipped into the crowd. And for a while we kept marching just fine, As we turned a corner and started up through a playground some black bloc kids were kicking out bricks from the foot paths, but once we reached the middle of the playground people at the front of the march were telling us to change route and be careful because the police had cut off the initial route in their first attempt to break up the protest. As people gathered and looked for a new path we realized that another route was also blocked. As everyone walked into the last remaining street the black bloc kids were hurling bricks and fireworks at the cops to the cheers of everyone present. At this point I was with only TKJ and Australia since we had lost everyone else in the chaos. As we stood in the only clear street left we realized that we had been trapped, at the top of the street was a line of riot cops complete with shields and batons! We weren't immediately concerned until they began charging down the street beating everyone they could reach while shouting "BOUGE!" (French for move). At that point we had already decided we want to get outta the protest since I had an exam to write that I was already late to and Australia wasn't feeling it. We were walking into an alley when one of the riot cops ran past us shouting and or course hitting us with their batons (don't worry riot cop batons are padded), we dashed in to more dealings with the cops. I climbed a wall along with some others and crossed a yard into another street behind a police wall. I looked around having lost track of TKJ and Australia so I called TKJ, went back to the alley, helped a few people up the wall and we all continued to follow what was left of the crowd.
The remaining crowd was only a fraction of its former mass. We walked a few blocks, before having some routes cut off by police again, this time mail boxes and trash cans were upturned and some kids who remained from the black bloc turned over a cart full of woods and set it on fire, we looked around and saw that police were giving chase so we dashed down another alley way. TKJ traded phone numbers with a friend until police turned the corner and we vanished into another alley.
At this point we were set on just leaving (going back to the metro station where everyone locked up their bikes). We passed a gas station were we saw something strange, a group of protesters seemed to be hanging out with the cops right next to their cars; we were confused until we realized they were undercover instigators, they were there to cause enough trouble to "justify" police brutality, *sigh* bastards.
We got the metro without mush trouble after that and I was able to take my exam (I think I did okay).
Later that night I went to hang with Guts, TKJ, Dreads and Australia. We just kicked it, talked about the protest and went dumpstering, we found a shit ton of stuff but I only brought back a bit since the fridge is pretty full at the moment, can't wait to move, I'll be living with 4 or 5 people and will have two fridges!

Sore Legs

Well the parkour on Friday was more intense than I thought it would be, my legs were sore the entire weekend, but that's partly due to the fact that I didn't give them any time to rest the whole time.
After parkour I went to Kunoichi's place to swing dance with the whole crew but there were tired so we watched a movie hung out and fell asleep, except I couldn't sleep so I slipped out, hopped onto the bike and headed to the burned up pharmacy to see what the deal was. I was happy to see that the dumpster was now much improved, without a lid and a lock getting in and digging around was that much easier, I left with a basket full of food and went back to Kunoichi's to sleep.
Wake, hang out a bit, go home, go to TKJ's place and from there we head out to Food Not Bombs.
It was a good time there, we dumpstered a ton of produce and cooked it all up; vegetable stir fry, spicy potatoes and fruit salad. I meet ran into a friend there (Australia) and met a cool girl there too. We served at Berri UQAM and then went back to the Co-op. There we hung a bit and then all split to go our own ways.
Pines was throwing a house party for St Patrick's day but it was meh so I rolled out early. I went to Australia's place. TKJ, Dreads, Guts, the girl from Food Not Bombs, Dreads' girlfriend and of course Australia, the best part was they were all on the balcony in the box fort that they had built earlier from dumpstered cardboard. We all slept outside that night under the cardboard and it was good. The rain and hail didn't get to us except a tiny bit on Dreads. Guts was also pretty sore from training and he went inside to sleep, a wise choice.
We followed up the good night with a fun day at Concordia eating free food from the People's Potato and listening to panel presentations on various social, political, economic and psychological issues. I was very tired at this point and me and the girl from FnB slept on each other's shoulders for a portion of the talks, which is too bad for two reasons:
They seemed interesting
I twitch and jerk when I sleep while trying to remain awake, even when that means hitting people with my head.
Afterwards we hit a few dumpsters on the way to Australia's house were we took down the fort, made smoothies and just hung til dinner which was also partly dumpstered, it's cool being with a crew that's down to hit dumpsters left and right for fun and practicality.
TKJ had left his bike helm at Australia's place so we brought it back to his house and kicked it there a bit before checking the pharmacy dumpster and splitting off home.
Of course, all transportation was achieved via bicycle so my legs never got a chance to recover from the parkour all the way and are still sore...
Will probably be at a protest against police brutality tomorrow with Australia, Dreads, TKJ and the girl from FnB (we'll call her Ice Cream).