things happening as of late

Some fun things:
*Seeing Crisis and other NY friends
*Driving down and hanging out in Burlington with Giggles and her roomie.
*Bringing my parents to a freegan (ugh I hate that word, read: dumpster diver) movie night where we saw two movies about dumpstering:
1- The Leftovers
2- Dive
The second was more cool than the first and connected a lot of issues, which I liked
*Going to Food not Bombs and running into the same people as I did, also talking about squatting in Oakland to this cool punk girl.
*Biking across the Manhattan Bridge!
*Hearing loud obnoxious people have loud obnoxious conversations on their cell phones in public places.
*Making stuff for Christmas (a buttflap for my sister, a bag for my mom, for my dad, a drum stick holder?)
*Hanging with family
*Helping out with the free store


Some shitty things include:
-my zipper getting stuck for long periods of time
-going to court
-(kinda) having a cell phone

Talked about my future with my parents a bit, and I'm probably gonna pursue learning permaculture to gain a skill of some sort that will last forever and can be used as work. I'm pretty happy with my craftiness at the moment. I've made a buttflap for my sister and it looks awesome, I'm working on a bag for my mom and I realized I can easily make stuff from trash and people like it. I'll probably make pouches and flaps and stuff and sell 'em on the mountain in the spring or give them to friends or something...
Looking forward to go to dumpster at Trader Joe's at some point before I leave.

Star Fucking Hipsters and arrivals

Went to an awesome show with Crisis and a friend of his, was a bunch of local bands (including the infamous) Star Fucking Hipsters. We moshed and skanked and moshed and skanked, until the music stopped. Afterward I went home on my bike hoping Ithaca would be back, she wasn't, but after maybe 15 or 30 minutes she walks into my room and I smiled. She'll probably be home by Tuesday which is soon which I think sucks but whatever.

Work and a show

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

Cancelled plans and free movies

Today's plan was as follows:
See Since
watch a movie together
cuddle
feel less shitty
Today actually happened as follows:
Call Since about once an hour until approximately 7, at which point I had decided that I'd leave to the Anarchist Black Cross and possibly meet up with Wedge at a party. So roll out on a bike to Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)and hang out there, spent most of the time there learning the basics of their set up and wrapping dictionaries in brown paper to send to prisoners. A guy showed up and told me that the ABC no Rio Food not Bombs was up and running which is good news to me (I'll go next next Sunday, this Sunday is Manhunt, hopefully Crisis will show up). When ABC ended I gave Wedge a call and asked about the party, he said it was dying and that they'd probably go see a movie (shit yo! movies cost money) I told him I'd show up, but that I was broke as fuck.
At the party we just talked and hung I recognized and conversed with a few familiar faces. Then we all got kicked out (time is up) and headed to some bar, hung out there for a while just kicking it (I still don't drink, straight edge since forever yo). After the bar people started heading toward the movie, I wanted to bounce at this point but was told we would see it FO FREE! so I stuck around. On the way to the theatre Since gave a call and apologized for standing me up which I told her was okay because I didn't sit around at home doing nothing anyway. Also on the way there I ran into some friends and one of them told me a cool place to get messenger work so I'll check that out. Got to the theatre, put our bikes inside because we're fancy like that (you know how we do on some VIP shit up in here, lol 'cept not) and walked into the room to watch Inception for free. It was an awesome movie, see it (I'm encouraging you to see it, not necessarily to pay for it). It's kinda a mind fuck throughout especially the ending, watch out.
Afterward just rode home while I was on the phone with my mom, riding mostly with no hands. Made me realize how fast I am, made it home in like ten minutes going slow with no hands, imagine how fast I would've been tearing it up with handle bar usage and no phone pressed to my ear!
Home now, gonna read some "Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing" which just came in the mail today or yesterday, I don't remember and then hit the sack. Also supposed to meet up with Since tomorrow and go to a museum, in the morning I'll probably work on the garden with Virgil if he's down. I'll see...

Summer heat

It's been a while since I last posted on here, a lot has happened since my last post.
First off Ithaca is back in BK which is cool, we're finally spending time just us two which is turning out pretty good: interesting and deep conversations, nice hang outs, good sex. I'm not sure what we're doing right but it's enjoyable. We talked about all kinds of things and turns out the night she left she was feeling mad because of a phone conversation we had but we straightened that out. Things are going good at this point although I feel some distance at times but that's always been there. I realized that I don't fall into my expectations in terms of jealousy, I learned that Sara slept with an ex while I was in NY and she was still at home and I was totally okay with it, completely calm and unperturbed, I always heard such terrible things about jealousy but I guess like so many other things I feel differently about it than most people do...
Since is a girl I've know for a very long time since my childhood in fact hence the name. I've had a crush on her forever, and her brothers are pretty alright I hang with them on and off. We talk online occasionally and I always felt that she was bored with her life and very interested in the "adventures" that took place in mine, I kept telling her to go out and live dangerously, to make her own fun etc, but to no avail. When I got to BK I told her and we agreed to hang out, hanging out of course took forever to come by and kept skipping ahead when I felt I was close to it. But we finally got to hang out and it was good. I told Ithaca about it but she wasn't too warm to the idea (I'll get to this later). At Since's place I hung with her and her family, making and eating dinner and watching a Miyazaki movie (Ponyo) which was actually pretty awesome and super cute. I forgot how it came up but we ended up talking about the roof and I of course suggested we go up. We hung with her family more, after bugging her a bit and various family members branching away to do their own thing we went up to the roof.
The roof was great, a nice view, a decent temperature, lots of open space, I need to climb roofs more again. We went to the top of a structure on the roof and just as we sat down it began to rain lightly, clearly nature has a great sense of romantic timing, I mean what better way to enjoy a first kiss with a long time crush than on a roof immediately after it begins raining? We danced and kissed and ran around and got soaked and finally went back inside. I hung there a bit more then headed home. (Yes I did tell Since I was seeing someone else, being a douche isn't something I wanna strive for).
Back at home Ithaca was already home and in bed, her day with her pal turned out to be shitty, we talked about that and we decided to make some agreements about our poly habits; she wants to know about what I may/plan on doing with other people and she also wants to say what she feels about it and give her take, etc, I guess I didn't realize it but each time I went off to see other peeps I would tell her but never ask how she felt about it, if she was okay with it, etc. so we agreed on doing that which I feel totally makes sense. This is also when I found out she slept with an ex while I was here.
Some cool things we've done recently are: picnic in the park, long and interesting discussions, making jam, dumpstering to say a few.
Today was my aunt Robbie's funeral, Ithaca came to Philadelphia with the family and met the family on my father's side which she found interesting.
I wanted to go to Punk Island 2010 (look it up) upon returning, but after calling Crisis to find out about it we were both disappointed to discover that I had ended at 5PM :-/, whatever, I plan on hitting the beach tomorrow so it's all good.
Also it's supa dupa hot out.

Posterbombing, stickers and food theft

Yesterday was an alright day. Hung out at home along in the morning being productive and picking up my sister and stuff. Later on in the day I was going to meet up with Ithaca in the city see museums and all that but I got a call from Crisis who I had called earlier and we met up and hung out in Manhattan instead. There we got food at whole foods and ate while we watched this guy break dance and also watched a guy try to feed a pigeon out of his hand which was hilarious because the pigeon was crazy and just strolled around and occasionally went for the food before flying away multiple times.
After we left Union Square we went to blue stocking and read books for a bit and picked up some stickers. We put a lot up on the way back to Brooklyn (note: doubling someone who isn't my sister or a light girl on my bike is much harder and them doubling you is scary as shit). We went to my house and hung there a bit, made some wheat paste and cut out posters. Once we finished that we headed to Park Slope and put them up, which went by much more smoothly than I thought it would have.
We were gonna sticker the neighborhood as well but Ithaca called and they were outside the house but afraid to ring the bell and wanted me to let them in so after we put up the last poster I headed home and we prepared for Ithaca and her friend's departures. Ithaca will be back either Mon or Sun. We ended up in the bathroom (her friend sleeps in the same room as us, we have to use space creatively) and were messing around and I think I gave Ithaca a crazy orgasm that I've never seen before, so I'm happy with that because you know I learned something new and did something cool. Went to bed, woke up, saw everyone off, returned to bed.
I wanna go to a post office soon so I can get blank stickers to put up my own stuff.

Ithaca isn't New York and the LES isn't the MTL

Summer is upon us! Alas I've been disappointed socially in a few areas of my life in terms of my summer so far. Ithaca and I are going through a rough patch, at first I thought I was jealous (wow, I didn't even know I could feel that way, this is new to me) of her spending time doing fun stuff without me, but we talked a bit tonight and yesterday and she feels smothered, we've been spending so much time together in close proximity living together and alla that, that it seems less meaningful and also that I'm not "doing what I want" the same way I did in Montreal, (ie just following whatever impulse led me to whatever event and if Ithaca wasn't there whatever) which makes sense since in retrospect I was trying to make sure I spent a lot of time with her while since she was here. I'm probably gonna try to make an effort to spend time with whoever I feel like, I never thought I'd be clingy but I guess that's kinda what I was doing...
I was thinking to myself that I should start seeing someone else as well as Ithaca like I was in Montreal, that kept her "on her toes" so to speak and also made sure I didn't make any one person or group feel that I was giving them too much attention (think: Ice Cream and Pagoda). I have a few people in mind that I would be happy to be in some kind of relationship with, it may be a problem of course since you know when Ithaca is in NY she sleeps at the house.
The Lower East Side, highly romanticized both in my head and in the book Resistance is very cool, but isn't what I expected of it. I mean I guess I was looking for a militant youth scene like in Montreal but that's not the case and I may have to create that scene on my own (Crisis and some other peeps maybe). The scene is a lot older and seems to be less about direct action in the militant sneak around at night or yell at protests sense.
In other news Ithaca is gonna head home on Wednesday until probably Monday to work more. This'll let me get into a good social routine that doesn't revolve around her and allow me time to (pretend) to look for work and see all the friends I haven't seen yet (potential lovers included). I guess it was ridiculous to think that any one person could fulfill any and all desires any other one person has, you need a network of friends and lovers and family and acquaintances and strangers and all that.
Also I wanna start a squat at some point in the not too too distant future, probably in Brooklyn in my neighborhood. Ideally I'd fix it up, throw up some solar panels and only pay property tax and maybe internet (fuck cable TV, fuck land lines, I'll find a way to heat up water fo free too probs). Of course the house would be green as fuck; recycling, compost (shit included), water reuse/conservation, bike stuffs, dumpstered and gardened and shoplifted foods, maybe some chickens, etc...
Yar it's summer I feel that there's a lot of potential!

(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.

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.

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...

NY Trash is also delicious

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Operation: Pitt's Parkour

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

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

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

CTF!

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

Gear and meetup plans

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

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

Summer Roofing II

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

Recent News

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

Kenjutsu and Choreographed fights

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