Showing posts with label Parkour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parkour. Show all posts

Monday, April 4, 2011

Spring and all that it's arrival entails...

Going to the park
Exchanging massages
Kissing new people (!!!)
Fixing bikes
Patching clothes
Staying up late with clothes
Pillow fights (!!!)
Biking with your friends
Cooking huge meals for everyone
Ridiculous weather
Traveling (coming soon)
Making new friends
Sleeping everywhere but home
Making music
Jumping and climbing and parkour
Dancing :D

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Long week!

Saturday was a protest march against the austerity measures being taken by the Quebec government. 10 people were arrested before it even started and charged with conspiracy and possession of a weapon, for sitting on the grass and wearing black. On Monday there was a march to the municipal court and the palais de justice to demand their release. The 10 had their court date that day at 2pm but I didn't make it, I ended up falling asleep at home.
Later that evening I went to UQAM with Dreads and met with Cinema Politica there and watched Dive which is a fun documentary about dumpstering. Dreads and I brought a whole box of found cheese and some others had prepared fruits, vegetables, muffins and dips (all dumpstered). The movie was ok I had seen it before with my parents but I enjoyed it still, there was a quick discussion afterward, which was interesting.
Later in the night I went to Katakombes with Chef and Crow, once we got there we ran into Rainbow and Crass. There were lots of awesome bands (five played that night, all for Radical Queer Semaine), I really liked the Sissy Fist (check out their song welfare http://www.myspace.com/sissyfist) and the Mistake Makers (http://www.myspace.com/mistakemakers). The night was rad, there was good moshing and I ran into a bunch of friends through out. I even kissed someone!
Woke up today, kinda worried. Today was the march in protest of police brutality. Last time I went I just managed to not get arrested (mostly by running through alleys and a bit of climbing). I talked to Kunoichi and we got ready to meet everyone (she took forever, bleh). Dreads was there, as were, Rainbow, Crass, a friend we met recently Kunoichi and I, we got into pairs (I was with Dreads) then headed off.
Once there we mostly stuck to our pairs. There was less people than we expected. Once we started marching things were going fine, and people were chill. However once we arrived on St Denis the cops kettled the majority of the crowd. Stuck between two lines of riot cops people threw projectiles and demanded to be let out. Cops completely ignored the demands, held up their shields and shot off a few stun grenades, yay cops, the kings of douchebaggery!
Luckily a apartment building that was between the two lines was opened somehow and by running through the parking garage and back up some stairs one could arrive into an alley behind the building :D
Some running ensued, a fence was climbed, friends were joined in the process and not long after we had made good our escape (not all of us mind you, at least a hundred people were arrested).
Dreads, the two friends we ran into and I went back to the house and ate and tried to figure out what happened to our friends. After a while everyone went home tired. Final results:
Everyone is free
Rainbow and Crass (and Igs who showed up during the march) were held in the kettle and dropped off at random points in the city and fined $488.
Our friends' friends are fine, as am I and Dreads is good too.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

transfolk and trouble

legal trouble in the past, it's over now and I'm good to go, was a close call though...
Thanksgiving was super awesome, hung with roomies and guests and friends at DJ's house and we ate a ton of foods. A cat came by and hung out, apparently she does that on and off. Later I went to a party at Rainbow's house which is this awesome trans/queer friendly house. Danced it up, dressed genderfuck and generally had a good time hanging out and meeting people. Came home late as shit and when I woke up was told we have two new kittens woop woop!
Also Kiwi came by the other night and we hung out and watched Pickaxe, a documentary about the Cascadia free state and anti-logging actions. She left the next morning but couldn't meet up for parkour because she had to meet people and stuffs. I went to Olympic Stadium with Chibi (she used to live at the house before I moved in) and met up with some activist kids and we did some parkour for a few hours, before heading home for thanksgiving.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Too much for a single title

Probably the best weekend ever, way too many ridiculous things happened. Spent most of it with Igs. I'll start on Thursday. After eating some food at the Potato with Igs we decided to spend time in the greenhouse and try to check out the roof, her friend from geography was there, we all went up to the top part of the roof, this time a worker wasn't there so we didn't have to sneak away. Free roam to the top of the roof! We found this strange structure that can't seem to serve any purpose other than being a hot tub and steam room. We climbed to the top and hung out in the steam, then we opened a small door on the side and removed our shoes socks and/or pants and got in the water, which was super warm. After a long while we came out and got our stuff back on (we were soaked) and went back inside for a bit only to go back up later with a different friend and hang out in the steam. We went to a group meeting, ate nachos and were very bored. to make up for it we ran into a friend, shoplifted and ate a tub of ice cream and hung out in the back room of Frigo Vert until we all biked home in the rain or went to class.
Friday, waking up was shitty, I always want to sleep more, but totally worth getting up. I packed my towel and swim trunks and biked out to meet Igs at Concordia. We went up to the roof and were very disappointed to discover our secret hot tub was cold and very not steamy. However the fact that we already had come with out stuff for the sole purpose of hanging out in some body of water was enough motivation to try to find some substitute.
We tried to get on to the roof of a nearby building but only ran into locked doors, office buildings are hard to blend into with mohawks, dirty clothes and dreadlocks...
We walked around downtown looking for a hotel with a roof pool that we heard about but instead found an outdoor pool protected by a small fence. We kept in mind the location and went to eat at the potato scheming to return and re-appropriate for our own hedonistic desires, which of course is totally okay since, no one was using the pool anyways.
After a quick (free, vegan) meal I put my swim shorts on under my shorts and we set out to swim. Once there we opened the gate, jumped in the water and had the best swim of our lives, except not because the water was freezing cold and the shower room locked and under construction, while we rushed our towels and began to dry off, a security guard asked us what we were up to, "we're leaving, it's too cold to swim..."
We walked back to Concordia barefoot with only towels to cover us, people smiled.
Rhizome is another coop, not too long ago we had decided to go there, we stopped at my house and the coop and the pharmaprix dumpster before getting there. The dumpster stop of course resulted in our eating some rice before heading to Rhizome. While we were biking toward Rhizome we passed a train yard and rode along side it and felt very inspired, the trains moved so slowly you could walk to keep up with it. The trains were so close we could almost wipe the grime off them.
After getting lost a bit we found Rhizome and hung out there a bit. There was a workshop, and a drunk guy talking about apple picking and a community lighter and a huge library with all kinds of zines and books about politics and diy and all that, we spent a good chunk of time sitting in there talking about becoming radicalized.
Before leaving Rhizome they coopers there gave us these small cards, buy 4 get a 5th coffee/tea/hot chocolate free cards for a certain chain convenience store, with three rows and the first four coffees stamped off, they had stolen a stack of them and probably would drink free hot chocolate forever.
On the way back we stopped and checked out a train yard, and almost got caught writing on on trains. We biked out after that, but got kicked out when we were about to leave anyways. Was a close call since I think my name is on their security file and they gave me warning a while ago.
Back at the coop we planned to attend a punk show and found a free one. However, Ool was going to a party in the West Island and she wanted us to come with her. The distance issue was remedied with a car, and we were assured that we would return in time to see the punk show. On the way to the party we stopped a certain chain convenience store to get beer, me and Igs decided this would a great time to grab a stamp to go along with our little cards. The party itself was okay, we were the dirtiest kids there, so we danced and were soon joined by a lot of others. It wasn't enough, we wanted to flail and be wild and loose and unrestricted by slow music or social norms. We took some cookies on the way out and rocked out in the car all the way back to the coop and then all the way to the punk show.
The band was setting up when we got there and for the first few songs people mostly nodded their heads but after a few we started a mosh and went crazy. We left after they finished playing and people went to the car, Ool, Igs and I decided to walk home which was awesome because we saw/painted a painted van, ate free food from the trash, tabled dived, danced in an awesome bar and danced to buskers music.
Finally got back to the coop. We though we'd go to sleep but me and Igs ended up checking the internet and the next thing we knew we were on the roof hoping to see a sunrise. Of course the weather was cold and the sun was slow so we never saw it break the horizon because we wanted to sleep and all that.
It's Saturday, I told people I'd teach them parkour, I didn't want to get out of bed, not enough sleep, not enough energy. Nothing motivates better than a promise of free scammed hot chocolate however. Igs and I walked to a certain chain convenience store and got two hot chocolates for free, one left handed one scammed, tried to left hand some kinder eggs but they were noticed and I played it off that we didn't want to buy them anymore.
As we walked back to the coop, we passed a restaurant were a ton of people were talking over food that was probably getting cold. Shortly after discussing this situation we were sitting at a nearby table with more leftover food than we were able to eat. Best breakfast ever.
Parkour was good times, I was teaching QKF a friend I met the week before, later in the day Kiwi showed up as well. We trained, walls were run up, hands bled, grass was rolled on etc...
On the bike ride home me and Kiwi talked about what you wanted, and poly and feelings and relationships. Good talk to have, especially if most of it takes place while we ride bikes. Looks like there's room for me to regain my ridiculous amount of self confidence/self-esteem and see someone casually at the same time.
Picked up gear at the coop, went home, wasted time, went back to the coop for their party. It was kinda suck, me and Igs and Bum (who had came to the party) left to TKJ's house but he wasn't there and the party there was kinda lame. We almost snuck into a church party be realized we were ridiculously underdressed and decided against it because we'd stick out like sore thumbs.
We ended up checking out an underground venue where we found out there wasn't any shows happening, however we ended spending hours there listening to music, eating pizza and listening to crazy stories with the owner, who was an old hippie.
Went back to the coop at 2.30 in the morning and milled about a bit before going to sleep.
Nothing too ridiculous today, just free food in the trash and a great appreciations of the sun.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Snacks, ups and knowledge

Weekend has been pretty awesome so far; nice trash (read chocolate and cookies), interesting workshops and parkour :).
Friday I went dancing at a party/venue with TKJ and Rainbow and met some cool peeps and just danced and hung out, good times. On the way home I checked some dumpsters and ended up going back with a backpack to carry shit back home :D
Yesterday was all about activist workshops part of a forum called "Got you back." Super interesting, learned about prison abolition/solidarity, some projects about safer neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and this morning a workshop on confronting perpetrators of sexual assault as a community, which was very interesting. Afterward I met up with Pines and we did some parkour at McGill, we're both clearly rusty as shit, we fell a bit and did some sloppy rolls. Pines is on the track to getting front flips which is fun to watch. I'm happy with the weekend, might go to a party tonight at TKJ's place, I might study with Barracuda, ideally both I guess...
We'll see.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Friends, food and uh school...


Today; good times with some doubts lingering in my head.
Wake up, try to sign up for classes, fail at doing so. Biked (on my brand new/used awesome bike) to the people's potato and ate there, ran into Pagoda, TKJ, Bum and a bunch of other people who don't have cool names on this blog (yet?). Hung around a with TKJ and Bum mostly, Bum wants to get into parkour again and I told Pines and V I'd start it up again, looking forward to that.
After the potato went to Rainbow's house but she wasn't there, dumpstered a ton of carrots with TKJ instead and started cooking up a huge dinner at his place with his awesome roomie Liberty. A bunch of peeps ended up coming over and I met cool people and shared a dinner table with them all. In the end me and a girl biked home in the rain together with was fun times, I def thought biking in the rain would suck but it was very enjoyable. Now I'm back here did some school stuff. Time to chillax and waste time being unproductive.

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.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Tuesday until now; In chronological order

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

Friday, March 19, 2010

Return to Jimbo's and three boots

Last night me and TKJ went back to the same roof to sleep, we dumpstered everywhere and found nothing, we tabled dived a tiny bit of French fries and went up to the roof. We found some storage shack full chairs, we took four and brought them near our sleep spot. We also discovered that there are about 12 electrical outlets out on the roof right next to the chairs and the sleep spot so the next time we sleep up there we'll probably bring the portable DVD player we found in Australia's building's trash. We walked around a bit, ate some chips we had stashed from last time and then went to sleep.
The next day we hit the people's potato and ate some lunch. I helped TKJ pick up some friends from outta town then went home to rest before Frozen Monkeys. We met up at McGill and trained there a bit, it was Thief, his friend Bum, and this guy with a parkour/ninjutsu sweatshirt who we'll call Red. After a bit Kusa met up with us and we all trained various things. We found a huge thick pole and we swinging around it trying to go full circle and landing on a ledge when I bailed hardcore in the sand falling backwards, I saved my head with a back roll but my legs still took a bit more impact than I would have liked. After a bit we got kicked out by security, we moved to Square Victoria on Red's recommendation which turned out to be an awesome area. We got kicked outta two more places but overall it's a great place to train, lots of variety and challenge for every level there. Just got in, TKJ and his pals might dumpster and sleep out tonight and I have to attend a house party so I'll see how the weekend unfolds.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sore Legs

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

Friday, March 12, 2010

Frozen Monkeys Unleashed

Had a great jam today with the Frozen Monkeys crew, we had Guts, Pines, V, and two new guys Lil Jon and Columbia. It was good times we were at McGill, we moved around the campus and jammed for maybe two hours, about halfway through we were working tic tacs and wall runs when we ran into Kunoichi's roomie who's friend joined us for the rest of the jam he found us online and I hope he keeps showing up.
We started with a warm up, did a bit of wall stuff and then went off to play tag at a new spot we found it was great times, after that we did wall runs where we added the new guy. We went back to playing tag and working at random spots around. We all parted a bit after it got dark. I wanna jam again next week since it was such good times.
I might go do some UE on Sunday with Pines and a friend of his.

Cops, fires and swords

Went to the fruit dumpster, the bakery and the pharmacy. In between the fruit dumpster and the bakery the popo stopped me, told me I didn't have lights on my bike which of course makes me hard to see (oh really?) and that it was illegal to ride with headphones in (I'm gonna look this up because it's a practice I really enjoy and it hasn't hindered my awareness in the slightest). After looking at ID they kept asking me if I had a screwdriver *shrug*, which I didn't, then they left. At the pharmacy dumpster I saw something that troubles me; the lids were missing and the dumpster seemed to be full of half burned store furniture and shelves, I didn't get too good of a look since I didn't stick around but it looked and smelled of ash and old fire. I can only hope that the place will continue running as it does and will keep throwing out ridiculous amounts of foods. Dropped of a ton of food at Kunoichi's place, got home with:
2 heads of broccoli
1 baguette
3 small loaves of bread
2 bell peppers
1 bunch of green onions
1 yellow onion
1 bunch of parsley
2 bok choy
Earlier today I did some bokken practice out back and set the firewood from the fall to dry since it was covered in snow. My arm strength isn't where it should be so I'm doing upper body workouts again. I noticed that my arms got weaker when I went to do parkour with V, I have stronger legs from biking but my arms have gotten weaker from disuse. If all goes well there will be a nice Frozen Monkeys jam tomorrow.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Triumphant Return

I'm back in MTL. The city of course welcomed me back with open arms, nice events and great weather. It's so nice out I'm often in a sleeveless hoodie with a t-shirt. Acting on the nice weather I called up V and we did some parkour yesterday, it was good revisiting the old spots but there's still a bit of snow everywhere so it's annoying but not too problematic. My wall runs are ridiculous, I get really high but my climb ups and general upper body strength seem to have deteriorated, I'll get on that with push ups and sword conditioning. Have been dumpstering as usual, haven't bought food since... well honestly I don't even know when the last time I bought food is lol *shrug*
I got my housing situation pretty much figured out for next year but I'm unsure of exactly how I'm going to structure my summer.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Tired legs at the end of a long day...

Longest day ever...
I actually woke up early despite knowing that I wouldn't go to class, no idea why, but of course I couldn't fall back into a nice dream, I ended up watching lost then making food etc, normal morning stuff. At around 11.30ish me and Kusa headed out on bikes to take part in this unusual event with Uberculture; we were reclaiming space in one of the buildings in the downtown campus. We all met up ahead of time and were briefed while we waited for a few people to show up.
A few weeks earlier I had received an email asking for artists to take part in something from an email address that I didn't recognize, I answered that I was a traceur if that was among the kind of artists they were looking for, after the reply I followed the instructions provided to me and ended up at the briefing. The idea behind the event was to reclaim the space in the building and show up the ridiculous security policy, everyone but me and Kusa brought instruments. We all splintered off into groups and enter the building from a variety of entrances and each person set about playing music where they say fit, once everyone was settled in me and Kusa found a nice spot and started training then moved around a bit until one of the coordinators told us the something happened related to security cameras and we had to stop, the rest was boring, just standing around while a few peeps played music.
Afterward Kusa and I headed to McGill for a protest but ended up being early, we went in and did some quick parkour then left to the protest, which frankly was boring and I won't really cover.
Thinking I could go relax a bit we went home a bit and just chilled for a bit before my phone rang. It was for a craigslist trade, a food swap. I put on something with longer sleeves and went out to trade. I gave some dumpsters fruits and veggies with a bit of bread in exchange for some rice, mashed potatoes and some pork and beans, not bad for a bunch of stuff I got for free.
I got home, watched the Fresh Prince a bit and planned on going on a bike run nearby then going to sleep. I start putting on my dumpstering clothes and just as I'm about to step out, I get a text from V, he wants me to be at the student bar tonight...
After some convincing I'm there in a t-shirt waiting in line, of course this opens the peeps next to me to start a conversation about how I should be cold and how I'm crazy for coming on a bike, hiding my coat on a roof and generally being a strange type of hardass. Turned out to be a pretty awesome night aside from being molest by this insane girl me and Kusa know; I met a cute girl who I was happy to see found me on facebook, I ran into a jillion friends, I danced all night but somehow didn't get covered in sweat and I ate pizza with two girls I had met the previous Thursday at their friends place before going home.
Needless to say my legs were tired from the day and I couldn't stay up long enough to write this in it's entirety (I finished it this morning).

Saturday, November 28, 2009

More parkour

Worked on more parkour today. Was supposed to jam with the Frozen Monkey crew but the communications were fuzzy and only me and Kusa ended up going out. We went to the campus nearby and worked on rolling, wall landings (cat, half cat, crane etc...), drops with and without forward momentum. I'm better at the huge wallrun, and I got three times to the top with much less effort, but I did cut my palm open because the cement is rough and my hands were cold. I need to condition my left leg because I feel that my right leg is getting stronger than my left and I'm not happy with that.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Frozen Monkeys

I've created a group called the Frozen Monkeys, it's a small local parkour crew. so far it consists of me, Kusa, Kunoichi, Pines, Guts and V. Guts and Kunoichi are just just starting so we'll guide them through the basics and keep them progressing. I've told other people who have come to me inquiring about parkour about the crew so that they can come learn or train or jam. Our first meet up will be this Saturday if the weather permits, and will be either a jam or a class depending on who shows up.
Frozen Monkeys because once it gets cold we'll just be jumping around in the cold like frozen monkeys.

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.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Just dancin and jumpin and dancin and jumpin...

Yesterday was the last day my friend from home was going to be here so we went out clubbing, a his dad had a friend who had a daughter who goes to school with me so I had met her the day before and she ended up coming out with us. She's fun to go clubbing with, she's a good dancer and pro at photo bombing. Later we all chilled here with Ting and Kusa and the neighbors, dived a bit of pastries. We cuddled it up until I had to get my friend to the train station to the airport. Afterward I went back to bed til at least four. Later the girl left also and I ate some food.
Me and Kusa went to the nearby campus to train parkour. It was a great time. We worked on vaulting, rolling, a little bit of fluidity but mostly on wallruns, I progressed to the top of a wall we found that had some gradual slants so you could work up to heights, really happy about that. We met a guy there who was telling us about how he used to train and a place with open gym and different traceurs. I haven't pushed myself in a bit and neither has Kusa we felt the training more than we would have liked to. We went home after that, now we're resting up and gonna go to a party in half an hour-ish, great weekend so far.

Monday, November 16, 2009

More Kenjutsu

I did some kenjutsu after watching B13 Ultimatum tonight. Just went out back and did various cuts from the above the head. Worked on having my hands in regular and in switch. It was conditioning as much as an arm/shoulder work out. I did a small workout before going out, I need to do more exercise, I'm still more in shape than most people that don't exercise but I feel that I was in much better shape this summer. I found out today that my friend (the guy from Spain that I did the TKD lesson with) will be coming up from Wednesday until Saturday morning. I guess we're gonna go out clubbing probably or crash as many parties as are happening. We'll call my friend Nin-nin (after the Afro Samurai character), because he shares some of the same traits.

A lot of people didn't like the second B13 but I really enjoyed it, I realized it's a lot more stylized but it's an action movie first and a parkour popularizer second so I didn't really expect it to stay "true to parkour" as much as many people felt it should.

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