I have a job!
I'll get paid a lot and I'll have something cool to put on my resume woop woop.
Now I get to bike from Brooklyn to 73rd street every weekday (and bike back home too).
I get to wear fancy formal clothes.
I can even sit in an office all day and hang with my two pals phone and computer, they're machines!
I'll never have to worry about what to do with all the time between 9AM and 5PM ever again (on a weekday, I dread the boredom I'll experience on the weekend).
I got a job at the French Consulate, I'm sure it won't be that bad.
I went and saw Yula Berri and the Extended Family tonight, it's "romantic punk" which sounds pretty awesome, kinda a mix of ska, punk, the Spin Doctors, horror movie sound tracks and a few elements I can not name.
Excited for Saturday, punk show with Cipher and Crisis (but no traveling in August with Cipher since I have work now), Ithaca gets back, and probably going clubbing :D
Showing posts with label Cipher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cipher. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Local, organic, mutual aid and travel
Went down to the garden about an hour ago to water the plants, a neighbor and her daughter saw us walking with the watering cans and came along to see how the garden was. She was telling us about getting grants and possibly buying the lot from the city or owner for $1 since it's been abandoned for years. After we finish watering it we're standing around talking and some guy rolls buy on a skate board and asks who's lot it is, it's a squat. He tells us he's down to help out and has a truck and experience and some people who would be down to help out which is cool. I passed him my number and later he called and we decided to set something up for later in the week. It's cool to just get help like that, visibility helps a lot I guess.
Also talked to Cipher a bit and we're gonna travel around a bit in August, set aside the 1st until the 20th. We want to do the Anarchy Summer Camp (http://selfdescribed.org/?p=447) and then do the Western Maryland Zine Fest (http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100607002621901) then come home. We'll probably hitch there and back. It's be cool to find some people heading there or back to NY though to make things easier but if it doesn't happen than whatever.
Also talked to Cipher a bit and we're gonna travel around a bit in August, set aside the 1st until the 20th. We want to do the Anarchy Summer Camp (http://selfdescribed.org/?p=447) and then do the Western Maryland Zine Fest (http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100607002621901) then come home. We'll probably hitch there and back. It's be cool to find some people heading there or back to NY though to make things easier but if it doesn't happen than whatever.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Dirt and glass
Hung out at home all morning, tried giving Virgil a call but he was asleep, never called back, whatever. Since told me last night to expect a call from her so we could meet up and hang out at the MoMA, but you know it's Since and all our plans seem to fall through...
Only one thing to do, go the squat garden with my sister. We moved out more debris, turned most of the earth and-
Wait, phone call from Since, basically: come to the MoMA, there's a documentary. Oooh okay, sounds like a plan.
Head home, remove sneakers, put tools away, wipe away some dirt, prepare to leave while explaining plan to my mother and she's sayin-
Wait phone call from Since, basically: the movie is full, umm iunno, yea ok I'll call you when it's over (I guess she's still in the movie...)
Return to the squat garden with plants and sister and water and mom and tools. Finish turning the earth. Make a pathway from discarded bricks and rocks, cut finger on glass, dig holes and plant things, add water, take picture, go home, half expect Since to give a call, eat dinner, stay upstairs and read a bit (the phone has reception there and you know Since might call :-/ ), lose patience and go down stairs, hope Ithaca is online, have to tell her about possible change in plans for the day she gets back, check random websites, get inspired to travel, send a message to Cipher about potential travel, read a bit more, write blog...
Here's a pic of the squat garden so far: except the uploader put it at the top so yea...
Haven't been feeling as upbeat and awesome as of late, can't pinpoint why, *shrug*
Oh also, talked to Pagoda online about squatting got some tips which was cool :)
Friday, May 28, 2010
(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.
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.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Homer, NY...
I feel strange being so close to NYC, to home, friends, family, a new scene to discover, yet I'm here in Homer with Ithaca, it's not bad per say, but the anticipation combined with a lack of excitement is getting to me. Here's what I've been doing since I got here:
hitched into Homer and met most of Ithaca's immediate family. Her parents are split so we checked out both houses and we stay at her mom's in a room upstairs.
The weekend Ithaca worked at a bakery doing catering, I worked on Saturday but not Sunday, both days I went into Ithaca on a bike and checked that out, it was alright, on Sunday I had an alright time, dumpstered some donuts for lunch after getting told off for trying to table dive some lunch. Bought a book, yea with money and all that, cause you know it was a local store and all (Resistance: The Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East Side). Other than that just biked around, met a parkour guy at Ithaca University and we talked a bit but didn't jam. Other than that I've just been hanging around with Ithaca in Homer, it's getting to me, I want to be in a large city again wear I can dumpster all the time, and ride a bike around and do parkour and interact with a much larger amount of people.
Went canoeing today in the morning with Ithaca and her grandfather, I always feel weird around him because he's a proud republican guy and I never really talk politics around him but I have my political (read:anarchist) patches all over my shorts and my anarchy bag on my shoulder all the time, whatever...
Either yesterday or the day before I'm not too sure Ithaca's dad dropped us off in Syracuse a bit and we got to hang around there. We (read:I while Ithaca walked away nervously) wheat-pasted some anti-war and anti-consumerism stuff up randomly along with two small anarchist posters. We also checked out the Syracuse Peace Council which seems to be the activist scene there, it's strange for me, I'm used to a youthful militant activist scene slightly associated with punk rock, students and sub/counter culture and definitely associated with bikes, but these people were all older, strictly non-violent and very formal, it was nice to see a different type of scene with different types of people and all that but I feel much more interested in a youth scene that's more fast paced and on bikes and all that. Got some pins, got some condoms and dumpstered bagels, not much else happened. Ithaca is contemplating staying in Syracuse and working there a bit, if she's down with that she should go for it but I couldn't pull that off in a small city with no youth scene, but then again I don't know the city like she does so I can't see it how she does...
I'm anxious to get to NY and see all my friends! Originally we were supposed to hitch to NYC on Monday, but a lot of work opportunities have come up and Ithaca is gonna stay another week, I'm on some "fuck that" because I honestly can't stay here much longer without going crazy or become really docile and passive. So I had planned to take a greyhound on Monday, there's a ska show in Syracuse on Sunday night anyway so I could just go with my back pack and sleep outside and hit the train the next morning. When Ithaca told me that she wasn't gonna hitch with me I decided forget it I wanna hurry home and decided to leave on Sunday morning if she thought I could go with her to work on a farm in the morning (some drama with a clingy ex and potential drama if I'm around while he's there and alla that, bleh), I didn't mind missing a ska show if it meant surprising my parents and being home faster, but I just checked online about 2 minutes ago and the buses for NYC are all on Monday...
I guess I'm gonna have to ask Ithaca if I can go to the farm and try to avoid drama (which I already do, you never see me involved in bull like that) because staying at her mom's place and doing internet and books all day won't cut it. I'm kinda happy to be sleeping outside though especially in a city I don't know I just hope the weather is dry, waking up to rain isn't the most fun (but it's still pretty fun).
I miss NYC, I miss my friends, I want more interesting things to happen around me. This summer I wanna go to punk shows with Crisis, travel with Cipher or TKJ, play urban games with Shorty, dumpster with everyone, go to the beach, get in trouble, climb roofs, do parkour with the whole NY crew (both of them). ugh...
I'll be home soon though.
Also: with Pagoda I think stuff is gonna be finished, I saw her before leaving MTL and we hung out at a drawing club which was super boring. We biked back to her place in St Henri and went to bed. we made out a bit before she told me that lately (the last six months) she's been much more into girls then into guys (which I understand since I feel the same way, unfortunately I'm not bi:( ) so we just slept and nothing happened. I wanna stay friends and will probably try to stay friends when get back to MTL, I mean, bikes, dumpstering and agreement on a lot of political and social issues is till great even if there isn't sex involved.
hitched into Homer and met most of Ithaca's immediate family. Her parents are split so we checked out both houses and we stay at her mom's in a room upstairs.
The weekend Ithaca worked at a bakery doing catering, I worked on Saturday but not Sunday, both days I went into Ithaca on a bike and checked that out, it was alright, on Sunday I had an alright time, dumpstered some donuts for lunch after getting told off for trying to table dive some lunch. Bought a book, yea with money and all that, cause you know it was a local store and all (Resistance: The Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East Side). Other than that just biked around, met a parkour guy at Ithaca University and we talked a bit but didn't jam. Other than that I've just been hanging around with Ithaca in Homer, it's getting to me, I want to be in a large city again wear I can dumpster all the time, and ride a bike around and do parkour and interact with a much larger amount of people.
Went canoeing today in the morning with Ithaca and her grandfather, I always feel weird around him because he's a proud republican guy and I never really talk politics around him but I have my political (read:anarchist) patches all over my shorts and my anarchy bag on my shoulder all the time, whatever...
Either yesterday or the day before I'm not too sure Ithaca's dad dropped us off in Syracuse a bit and we got to hang around there. We (read:I while Ithaca walked away nervously) wheat-pasted some anti-war and anti-consumerism stuff up randomly along with two small anarchist posters. We also checked out the Syracuse Peace Council which seems to be the activist scene there, it's strange for me, I'm used to a youthful militant activist scene slightly associated with punk rock, students and sub/counter culture and definitely associated with bikes, but these people were all older, strictly non-violent and very formal, it was nice to see a different type of scene with different types of people and all that but I feel much more interested in a youth scene that's more fast paced and on bikes and all that. Got some pins, got some condoms and dumpstered bagels, not much else happened. Ithaca is contemplating staying in Syracuse and working there a bit, if she's down with that she should go for it but I couldn't pull that off in a small city with no youth scene, but then again I don't know the city like she does so I can't see it how she does...
I'm anxious to get to NY and see all my friends! Originally we were supposed to hitch to NYC on Monday, but a lot of work opportunities have come up and Ithaca is gonna stay another week, I'm on some "fuck that" because I honestly can't stay here much longer without going crazy or become really docile and passive. So I had planned to take a greyhound on Monday, there's a ska show in Syracuse on Sunday night anyway so I could just go with my back pack and sleep outside and hit the train the next morning. When Ithaca told me that she wasn't gonna hitch with me I decided forget it I wanna hurry home and decided to leave on Sunday morning if she thought I could go with her to work on a farm in the morning (some drama with a clingy ex and potential drama if I'm around while he's there and alla that, bleh), I didn't mind missing a ska show if it meant surprising my parents and being home faster, but I just checked online about 2 minutes ago and the buses for NYC are all on Monday...
I guess I'm gonna have to ask Ithaca if I can go to the farm and try to avoid drama (which I already do, you never see me involved in bull like that) because staying at her mom's place and doing internet and books all day won't cut it. I'm kinda happy to be sleeping outside though especially in a city I don't know I just hope the weather is dry, waking up to rain isn't the most fun (but it's still pretty fun).
I miss NYC, I miss my friends, I want more interesting things to happen around me. This summer I wanna go to punk shows with Crisis, travel with Cipher or TKJ, play urban games with Shorty, dumpster with everyone, go to the beach, get in trouble, climb roofs, do parkour with the whole NY crew (both of them). ugh...
I'll be home soon though.
Also: with Pagoda I think stuff is gonna be finished, I saw her before leaving MTL and we hung out at a drawing club which was super boring. We biked back to her place in St Henri and went to bed. we made out a bit before she told me that lately (the last six months) she's been much more into girls then into guys (which I understand since I feel the same way, unfortunately I'm not bi:( ) so we just slept and nothing happened. I wanna stay friends and will probably try to stay friends when get back to MTL, I mean, bikes, dumpstering and agreement on a lot of political and social issues is till great even if there isn't sex involved.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Back in MTL
I just got back to Montreal. The break was alright, last years was better; no buildings climbed, no parties successfully attended (the cops shut them all down), no crazy adventures for the most part. I showed my parents dumpster diving and they're alright with it. Planned the traveling summer trip a bit with Cipher and Crisis, it should go down in August, we'll probably head down to Key West and then come back up taking a total of 4 weeks. Cipher doesn't seem too down with hitching around which surprises me, there's stigma around it I guess, but riding trains is dangerous shit if you don't know what you're doing, so I'd wanna learn from someone before hopping out on my own.
Now that I'm back here I'm gonna be diving food again, and exploring new places to dive with my bike :). I also have to make up for the vacation's lack of parties...
Now that I'm back here I'm gonna be diving food again, and exploring new places to dive with my bike :). I also have to make up for the vacation's lack of parties...
Sunday, December 20, 2009
NY Trash is also delicious
I'm in NY now, hopefully there will be some jams and all that. Crisis is here and Cipher gets back tomorrow so we'll all meet up and plan and scheme and all that. It's covered in snow here, I wanted to get back to some dryness but I guess that won't be the case. I did check a NY dumpster map and went out to get some food, you know to show my parents that trash is awesome, they we're already pleasant surprised by my trash jeans. I went to a supermarket and brought back:
5 Pomegranates
3 Apples
2 Bags of Bananas
1 Bag of Oranges
Some Broccoli
2 Peaches
I went out on the bike and dad was totally thrown off when I told him I brought everything back from the trash. Bombarded my with questions and I think he'll be down once he learns more. Also I feel that you can't really deny results, if the fruit is sitting there looking delicious what can you say to make it less so?
5 Pomegranates
3 Apples
2 Bags of Bananas
1 Bag of Oranges
Some Broccoli
2 Peaches
I went out on the bike and dad was totally thrown off when I told him I brought everything back from the trash. Bombarded my with questions and I think he'll be down once he learns more. Also I feel that you can't really deny results, if the fruit is sitting there looking delicious what can you say to make it less so?
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Trash craft, trash trades, and trash pics among other things
I think it's fair to say at this point that I Heart Trash. It's pretty cool, I'm all over craigslist trade it off left and right. I'm trading the speakers and blowdryer I found for some sweaters, and I made a pair of jeans that I actually like (baggy-ish work jeans + cargo pockets + hand sewn = Win Pants). Also made an Xmas gift and found something that I'm going to give as one also. Here's what I got last night, complete with bad laptop webcam pic:
Here's what I got:
12 Bags of Various Kinds of Chips
1 Bottle of Vitamin Water (not shown)
1 Bottle of Some Kind of Italian Spice Mix
1 Tube of Toothpaste (with fancy sparkly things in it)
1 Container of Taboule
2 Containers of Tzatziki
2 Containers of Onion Dip
1 Bottle of Cough Syrup
1 Ionic Blow Dryer (probably gonna trade it or pass it to Kunoichi's house)(trading for a sweater)
9 Boxes of Nut Thins (Pecan flavor for those of you that voted for that in the poll)
I'm also gonna get a bike on the cheap from craigslist, so I can move around to further spots on the dumpster maps and hopefully get even crazier finds, but only after I attach a milk crate to the back, and make the bike darker. Gonna be in NY soon, can't wait to dive there and scheme with the BSC guys about traveling this summer, Crisis and Cipher seem down with the idea, we gotta make more concrete plans if anything's going to happen though.
Here's what I got:
12 Bags of Various Kinds of Chips
1 Bottle of Vitamin Water (not shown)
1 Bottle of Some Kind of Italian Spice Mix
1 Tube of Toothpaste (with fancy sparkly things in it)
1 Container of Taboule
2 Containers of Tzatziki
2 Containers of Onion Dip
1 Bottle of Cough Syrup
1 Ionic Blow Dryer (probably gonna trade it or pass it to Kunoichi's house)(trading for a sweater)
9 Boxes of Nut Thins (Pecan flavor for those of you that voted for that in the poll)
I'm also gonna get a bike on the cheap from craigslist, so I can move around to further spots on the dumpster maps and hopefully get even crazier finds, but only after I attach a milk crate to the back, and make the bike darker. Gonna be in NY soon, can't wait to dive there and scheme with the BSC guys about traveling this summer, Crisis and Cipher seem down with the idea, we gotta make more concrete plans if anything's going to happen though.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Year one and some pics
This blog has been up for a year at this point, rejoice a year of ninja adventures, mostly in cities. Also last night I found a ton of foods AND took a pic with the webcam, enjoy the deliciousness that is trash:
Not shown eggs and milk
4 Blocks of Cheese
Talked to Cipher and Crisis, they seem to be down for traveling this summer. We're all going to get together and plan it out this winter break maybe over some snowboarding.
Not shown eggs and milk
4 Blocks of Cheese
Talked to Cipher and Crisis, they seem to be down for traveling this summer. We're all going to get together and plan it out this winter break maybe over some snowboarding.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Roof and Food ninjas
Alright so yo, parkour teaching today at the nearby campus. I wanted to do some parkour and lately I've been realizing that I enjoy teaching it as much as I enjoy training or conditioning or just doing parkour, not that I'm a master teaching but I feel a learn a lot about my own style and the finer details behind techniques when I explain them and do them over and over slowly and quickly.
I was teaching Kunoichi, we started with rolling, we had to get over the different hand placement of the parkour roll as opposed to the ninjutsu roll that was in her muscle memory from before. After that we worked on the reverse vault, it's strange, she does it better than the two handed vault. Cipher does the same thing, his "natural vault" is the reverse vault as he puts it. We did a bit of jumping work, playing around with height and distance. The last thing we worked on and by far the toughest for Kunoichi was the wallrun and the climb up/pop vault. We went into a building drank some water and then started heading home.
I decided to check out the gymnasium building from when me, Pines and Kusa did the "roof marathon" at the end of last spring. Well, the route is still there but the fence that was once horizontal and easy to bypass is now vertical and slightly less easy to slip under. We went up all the ladders and appreciated the skyline while keeping an eye on the janitors in the windows (making sure they keep their eyes off us). I tried going down another ladder, to a fire escape and then to ground level instead going down about five ladders but there was a ladder cover and I wasn't sure if Kunoichi would deal with is well yet, I went back up and we took the easy way down. Went back to Kunoichi's a bit, drank tea hung with her roomies etc...
Got home made some soup for dinner, Kusa asked me if I planned on diving, lol, of course. I go to the fruit place with him, the results:
1 box of baby spinach
1 box of baby arugula
2 heads of broccoli
2 limes
16 boxes of raspberries
1 box of black berries (I took all 17 boxes and made jam so it'd last longer)
4 green bell peppers
2 red bell peppers
We dropped those at the apartment and Kusa hit the hay. I went out again, to the compactor and the pharmacy dumpster I brought back:
1 box of Halloween chocolate
1 tube of Colg4te
1 red bead bracelet
1 three set of head/hair bands
2 jars of onion chip dip
1 jar of peanuts
1 can of almonds
2 energy efficient light bulbs
2 40 watt light bulbs
1 can of Pr1ngles chips
1 stack of CD-Rs
1 box of cough/cold throat strips
2 tubes of chap stick
1 tube of facial scrub
1 pair of blue headphones
1 roll of twine
1 can of tomato sauce
2 cans of microwaveable stew
2 AAA batteries
2 packs dill pickle sunflower seeds
4 packs seasoned sunflower seeds
I was teaching Kunoichi, we started with rolling, we had to get over the different hand placement of the parkour roll as opposed to the ninjutsu roll that was in her muscle memory from before. After that we worked on the reverse vault, it's strange, she does it better than the two handed vault. Cipher does the same thing, his "natural vault" is the reverse vault as he puts it. We did a bit of jumping work, playing around with height and distance. The last thing we worked on and by far the toughest for Kunoichi was the wallrun and the climb up/pop vault. We went into a building drank some water and then started heading home.
I decided to check out the gymnasium building from when me, Pines and Kusa did the "roof marathon" at the end of last spring. Well, the route is still there but the fence that was once horizontal and easy to bypass is now vertical and slightly less easy to slip under. We went up all the ladders and appreciated the skyline while keeping an eye on the janitors in the windows (making sure they keep their eyes off us). I tried going down another ladder, to a fire escape and then to ground level instead going down about five ladders but there was a ladder cover and I wasn't sure if Kunoichi would deal with is well yet, I went back up and we took the easy way down. Went back to Kunoichi's a bit, drank tea hung with her roomies etc...
Got home made some soup for dinner, Kusa asked me if I planned on diving, lol, of course. I go to the fruit place with him, the results:
1 box of baby spinach
1 box of baby arugula
2 heads of broccoli
2 limes
16 boxes of raspberries
1 box of black berries (I took all 17 boxes and made jam so it'd last longer)
4 green bell peppers
2 red bell peppers
We dropped those at the apartment and Kusa hit the hay. I went out again, to the compactor and the pharmacy dumpster I brought back:
1 box of Halloween chocolate
1 tube of Colg4te
1 red bead bracelet
1 three set of head/hair bands
2 jars of onion chip dip
1 jar of peanuts
1 can of almonds
2 energy efficient light bulbs
2 40 watt light bulbs
1 can of Pr1ngles chips
1 stack of CD-Rs
1 box of cough/cold throat strips
2 tubes of chap stick
1 tube of facial scrub
1 pair of blue headphones
1 roll of twine
1 can of tomato sauce
2 cans of microwaveable stew
2 AAA batteries
2 packs dill pickle sunflower seeds
4 packs seasoned sunflower seeds
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Gear and meetup plans
I got my hands on a camera for a bit so I have some pictures of some of my gear, not everything but I got a fair bit. Check it out below:
Bokken:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/bokken.jpg
Some books:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/bokken.jpg
Footwear:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/footwear.jpg
Various things:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/layout1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/layout2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/layout3.jpg
Shinobi Shozoku:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/shozoku.jpg
Portable Storage:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/storage.jpg
Woodland BDUs:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/woodlandbdu.jpg
Proof it's me and some face paint:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/proofandcamo.jpg
Black Panther Ninja is in town for a bit so I wanna take BSC and go out and meet him and maybe train together and all that. Not sure what we'll work on, might take a BSC training from last time and do it again with Black Panther there too. We'll see when it happens, expect a post about it soonish...
Bokken:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/bokken.jpg
Some books:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/bokken.jpg
Footwear:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/footwear.jpg
Various things:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/layout1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/layout2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/layout3.jpg
Shinobi Shozoku:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/shozoku.jpg
Portable Storage:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/storage.jpg
Woodland BDUs:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/woodlandbdu.jpg
Proof it's me and some face paint:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/mdemon9991/Gear/proofandcamo.jpg
Black Panther Ninja is in town for a bit so I wanna take BSC and go out and meet him and maybe train together and all that. Not sure what we'll work on, might take a BSC training from last time and do it again with Black Panther there too. We'll see when it happens, expect a post about it soonish...
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Recent News
Today was ugly outside, after working a bit i went to Chinatown with Crisis to pick up a wooden ninjaken (I know, I know the ninjaken's authenticity blah blah, it was to experience the difference with a shorter sword, and possibly experiment with two swords style). They were sold out at the place I usually go to and some other places in the area that we checked, they had a few short bokken but no ninjaken.
In other news, I recently got jumped by around 13 guys in a park, people came up to us started talking nonsense, we started leaving and got blind sided (we is me and a male friend, the girls are all fine), after fighting for a while the guys ran off when they saw that the cops were on their way. I'm ok (had some face swelling and blood in my mouth but now I'm good), but my friend's jaw broke (he'd had surgery done on it before and I guess it's fragile). I learned from it I guess...
I wanna to plan more ninja trainings for BSC, I'll probably focus on hiding and sentry removal. I also want to develop the skills of the ninja no hachimon (8 ninja gates) so that I could have a "legit" ninjutsu ryu, not sure where I'll pick up on spear fighting and all that but I'll see, Cipher might know some stuff.
In other news, I recently got jumped by around 13 guys in a park, people came up to us started talking nonsense, we started leaving and got blind sided (we is me and a male friend, the girls are all fine), after fighting for a while the guys ran off when they saw that the cops were on their way. I'm ok (had some face swelling and blood in my mouth but now I'm good), but my friend's jaw broke (he'd had surgery done on it before and I guess it's fragile). I learned from it I guess...
I wanna to plan more ninja trainings for BSC, I'll probably focus on hiding and sentry removal. I also want to develop the skills of the ninja no hachimon (8 ninja gates) so that I could have a "legit" ninjutsu ryu, not sure where I'll pick up on spear fighting and all that but I'll see, Cipher might know some stuff.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Ninja Training: Stealth and Movement
Today I ran a ninja training session, we focused on conditioning movement and stealth. After training parkour again with NYPK and UVPK I realized how important it is to condition.
Crisis, and Cipher showed up. I invited Ken but he didn't show (I never expect him to, he's unreliable). Here's a basic over view of what we did:
Stretch/warm up
Rolling (On grass)
Jumping
Walking/Running
Dealing with walls, rails and fences
Low Movement
some other stuff.
Cipher needs to work on forward rolls, he has excellent side rolls, but his front rolls are "sideways side rolls". Other than that it went pretty smoothly. I hope to do one again. We didn't get to rolling on cement for conditioning, but it'll happen next training.
Crisis, and Cipher showed up. I invited Ken but he didn't show (I never expect him to, he's unreliable). Here's a basic over view of what we did:
Stretch/warm up
Rolling (On grass)
Jumping
Walking/Running
Dealing with walls, rails and fences
Low Movement
some other stuff.
Cipher needs to work on forward rolls, he has excellent side rolls, but his front rolls are "sideways side rolls". Other than that it went pretty smoothly. I hope to do one again. We didn't get to rolling on cement for conditioning, but it'll happen next training.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Operation: Headlights
This is an exploration op that I've been waiting to do for a while. There are a few buildings in a park near where I hang out a bit that are gated off, I always wanted to find out what that was about. Tonight I had the opportunity to check it out.
Gear:
Me:
Black tank top
Woodland BDU pants
Woodland bandanna on the face
Black water sneakers
Folding knife
Cipher:
Black and brown camo Jacket
Black short sleeve
Black cargo pants
Grey sneakers
Phone
We were chilling with some friends outside when I told cipher we should split off and check out a place in the park. He was already in the gear listed above because I told him I planned on sneaking around. We left and walked towards the park, along it and then into it. Once in the park we see a cop car driving away from us, we slow down and let it pass away.
We head to some bushes, behind them is a tall chain link, I tell Cipher that I'll climb it, check out the other side and then have him climb over.
I get to the top of the fence, look around and then drop down and get behind a truck. I was surrounded by lots of park vehicles (trucks, cars, garbage trucks etc) and shipping containers. I sneak between the cars until I see a clearing of just dirt. I peek around and see an open gate to a huge parking lot, straight ahead is a large pile of dirt and wood chips. I go back to the fence and tell Cipher to climb over. He gets over with the help of a tree.
We slip through the trucks and after listening and looking cross the clearing to the pile of dirt. We get on top of the pile and hear noises from behind it so we freeze for a while (there are bushes between us and the sounds so we're invisible), I then move to the edge of the pile and look into the huge car lot, seeing no one, lots of cover and only dim lighting I tell Cipher that we're going to continue, as I crawl back my knee acts up and I pop it back into place after I get back to the bottom of the pile. We noticed that the pile was really warm and steam was coming out it at some spots, maybe compost does that or maybe there was something weird about it... I move behind two trucks to the gate and wait for Cipher.
While I'm waiting I hear the wind in the trees but also a car approaching, I get under the truck I'm crouching near and Cipher does as well behind me. We see some headlights hit a shipping container then turn away from us and deeper into the parking lot. We decide to continue anyway.
After waiting a bit to make sure no other cars are headed our way we head into the big lot and get under a big truck. Underneath the truck I explain to Cipher that we're not gonna do lots of small sprints between cover because that's the kind of thing that gets seen out of the corner of the eye, we're going to take a slow approach behind the parked vehicles along the fence I looked over while on the pile of dirt. We do just that.
We hit the last vehicle a large street trolley and get under it and plan our next move, a car goes by the headlights hit us but we're ghosts and it keeps driving by. There's a fence to our left, a building in front of us after a few meters of empty space and more cars to out right but they're well lit. There is light spilling from around the right of the building and a camera on top of it overlooking the parking lot we snuck through, good thing we didn't dart about and took it slow :mrgreen: . We decided to crawl along the fence to the building and peek around the corner to see where all the lights coming from. We QM along the fence and get behind a metal box that's along the building, then I move to a car that's close to the building and lay in it's shadow before getting behind a palet that's leaning on the building. Cipher did the same up until the car part, but he had to dive behind a tiny parking lot car stopper cement thing when a car drove by. After waiting around and peeking around a bit and conferencing with hushed voices Cipher thought (correctly) that we should continue via rooftop after I informed him that there was a running truck with it's head lights pointing our way and a security cam doing the same.
Originally I was going to climb up by using the air conditioner but I didn't trust it and took the fence which turned out to be easier. I moved around a bit on the roof and then Cipher showed up. I've been on a lot of roofs and of all of them I'd have to say this one is the worst, it was loud with gravel but the gravel was half attached to the roof with tar, it was painful to crawl and QM on, even QM was relatively loud (by my standards anyway). We moved along the roof, there were many sky lights, each covered with a metal mesh cage that was padlocked. We QM to the corner of the building where the wall is broken allowing us to look around instead of over, we spot another camera that faces the space between our building and another one across a road from us, good thing we didn't stay on the ground. At this point we split up and agree upon a signal to reunite.
I go on my way and explore a certain section of roof that can get us onto the ground and also out of the compound. Cipher goes to see if he can find a way into the building and to pee. After a few minutes I hear some movement behind me and see a cellphone near one of the sky light cages, I move towards Cipher and we discuss out findings in hushed voices, as the people inside the building we are on blast Spanish music, making our quest for silence that much easier. I tell Cipher that I found a way out but no way to the other buildings without being seen on camera. Cipher tells me that we found no way into the building and I tell him it's for the better since we don't have gloves and he has no mask.
We crouch walk behind some overhanging branches to the edge of the roof as close to the fences we need to climb to get out. There are two fences to climb. One is short the other is tall, I climb one, grab the second one, climb up and then down the other side then wait in the bushes for Cipher to do the same. When he's down we wait around a bit then head to our friends.
For those who don't know QM is quadrupedal movement (balls of the feet and heels of the hands).
Lessons learned:
Unless you're spotted then no car is even trying to be vigilant.
Security cameras never cover roofs.
People still don't look up.
Had a great time, stayed invisible, and finally got to see what the compound I had walked past so many times was actually like.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Operation: Empty Grave
I'm back home for the winter break. I hung out with Cipher and I wanted to do an operation to check out a place we went to before (the grave yard from a previous op). There was a building there we saw but didn't really look into.
Gear:
Me-
Black cargo sweat pants
Black hoody
Woodland BDU jacket
Woodland bandanna
Black water shoes/thin sneakers
Cipher-
Woodland BDU pants
Brown and black camo hoody
Black bandanna
Grey sneakers
We went to the outside of the grave yard and circled around until we found our previous infiltration point (I didn't want to enter from the same spot as last time but it the only spot with no barbed wire). Once there I quickly went over the fence and waited on the other side for Cipher. He attempted to climb the fence but could get no footholds due to the size of his sneakers. He decided to go around to climb over the front gate where I would meet him. I tied my bandanna on and went through the brush with a hill to my left to prevent silhouetting, however travel was loud and awkward going. Once I could see the the front gate I crouched near a large pine tree and waited. As I waited and watched Cipher tried to climb the gate but apparently it was too slippery, he signed to me that he was gonna go back to the original infiltration point. I went back using a different path that was much quieter and smoother but would make me more visible from outside the grave yard.
As I reached the fence where Cipher was he told me he would climb over without his sneakers and then put them back on. He threw over his sneakers and climbed over. I led him to where the building was the quiet way, zig zagging from tree to bush to tree. As we approached we walked alongside a hill to blend with it. The building was much less exciting then we had hoped.
The building was basically a small garage with a car door a regular door (locked with a really large dead bolt) and a caged window. We tried all three to get in to check it out but no dice, our complete lack of equipment didn't help either. We left and checked the rest of the graveyard and found nothing of interest. By this point we relaxed a bit due to a complete lack of security and left the way we came.
All in all a boring operation,. Cipher needs to learn to climb better and develop more upper body strength. I learned that you can't always have all the elements of camouflage you want, like sacrificing greater invisibility to greatly reduce noise.
Gear:
Me-
Black cargo sweat pants
Black hoody
Woodland BDU jacket
Woodland bandanna
Black water shoes/thin sneakers
Cipher-
Woodland BDU pants
Brown and black camo hoody
Black bandanna
Grey sneakers
We went to the outside of the grave yard and circled around until we found our previous infiltration point (I didn't want to enter from the same spot as last time but it the only spot with no barbed wire). Once there I quickly went over the fence and waited on the other side for Cipher. He attempted to climb the fence but could get no footholds due to the size of his sneakers. He decided to go around to climb over the front gate where I would meet him. I tied my bandanna on and went through the brush with a hill to my left to prevent silhouetting, however travel was loud and awkward going. Once I could see the the front gate I crouched near a large pine tree and waited. As I waited and watched Cipher tried to climb the gate but apparently it was too slippery, he signed to me that he was gonna go back to the original infiltration point. I went back using a different path that was much quieter and smoother but would make me more visible from outside the grave yard.
As I reached the fence where Cipher was he told me he would climb over without his sneakers and then put them back on. He threw over his sneakers and climbed over. I led him to where the building was the quiet way, zig zagging from tree to bush to tree. As we approached we walked alongside a hill to blend with it. The building was much less exciting then we had hoped.
The building was basically a small garage with a car door a regular door (locked with a really large dead bolt) and a caged window. We tried all three to get in to check it out but no dice, our complete lack of equipment didn't help either. We left and checked the rest of the graveyard and found nothing of interest. By this point we relaxed a bit due to a complete lack of security and left the way we came.
All in all a boring operation,. Cipher needs to learn to climb better and develop more upper body strength. I learned that you can't always have all the elements of camouflage you want, like sacrificing greater invisibility to greatly reduce noise.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Konichiwa
Hey, I've decided to make a blog about my trainings, stuff I learn, etc...
Anything related to martial arts, parkour, ninja (both Hollywood and historical) that I do will go on here I guess.
Here's a list of people I might refer to and who they are:
BSC-The Black Shadow Clan, it's a group that I created with Crisis and Cipher, we train ninja stuff, do some physical infiltration every now and then, and hang out all the time when we can. We're developing our own style of ninjutsu, check out the site at: http://sites.google.com/site/blackshadowryuninpo/Home
Crisis-This guy is a life guard and a traceur, I mean freerunner and is in my clan. We've done our fair share of stuff together, but we still haven't been chased by the cops yet :(
Cipher-This guy has shins of iron, studied Hung Gar and Bo Law Kung Fu, he's also in my clan and is starting parkour kinda. He knows his way around a fight but also in the woods.
Kusa-He's been a boy scout for a long time so he's good at being cold and the woods. I'm teaching him some ninjutsu and parkour.
Urban Nokizaru-That's me :)
Enjoy the blog.
Anything related to martial arts, parkour, ninja (both Hollywood and historical) that I do will go on here I guess.
Here's a list of people I might refer to and who they are:
BSC-The Black Shadow Clan, it's a group that I created with Crisis and Cipher, we train ninja stuff, do some physical infiltration every now and then, and hang out all the time when we can. We're developing our own style of ninjutsu, check out the site at: http://sites.google.com/site/blackshadowryuninpo/Home
Crisis-This guy is a life guard and a traceur, I mean freerunner and is in my clan. We've done our fair share of stuff together, but we still haven't been chased by the cops yet :(
Cipher-This guy has shins of iron, studied Hung Gar and Bo Law Kung Fu, he's also in my clan and is starting parkour kinda. He knows his way around a fight but also in the woods.
Kusa-He's been a boy scout for a long time so he's good at being cold and the woods. I'm teaching him some ninjutsu and parkour.
Urban Nokizaru-That's me :)
Enjoy the blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
