(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.

St Patrick's Day

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

McGill Camp-out

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

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.

Old School and Donuts and Pretty Lights

This weekend was pretty awesome in my book. It all started at 3 PM on Saturday when my roomie Ting woke me to tell me someone was here to see me...
I was supposed to climb up the mountain today with my friend Down (I'll call her down, because she's down with a bunch of my ideas even the weird ones). I told her to come over and get me since I lost my phone. I expected her to show up around 12 since that was the time we agreed on. I woke when she got here and it was three in the afternoon and raining. No fun climbing the mountain in the rain. Instead we stayed in and talked and watched youtube and talked and showed off my dumpster food. After a while we traded massages then decided to go diving before hanging out at her place. My plan at that time was to go there, dive in her area and then see what my roomies were up to and crash whatever party they went to.
It was only seven or eight when we went diving so even the bakery dumpster didn't offer anything. We moved to the train station and went to her place, we helped prepare some food for the next day, also apparently I'm invited for thanksgiving tomorrow night at their place (cool a second one, sure). We cut up veggies and generally help out until around ten before we head out to dive her area. But before we dive, Down had suggested that we check out the abandoned building down her street. Her roomie says it was once a school. As we approach it I decide we should circle around it first to make sure there aren't any security patrols (more cautious now after having been busted trying to climb an abandoned building with Dreads and Guts). First obstacle, a barbed wire fence, but it isn't a problem because it's perpendicular to another fence and we can squeeze through, our patrol is slow and boring but we do admire some nice graffiti while we walk. Once we're sure there's no guards we go back to the building itself. We had brought a hammer and a flathead screwdriver to get through any boarded up windows or anything like that get in. Totally unnecessary the building welcomed us with open arms, it had a nice strong door with the window missing, needless to say we climbed through. We navigated around in the pitch black, read graff with the flashlight. The building was pretty creepy, it was really tagged up by some guys called EMK Crew and some other taggers I never really heard of. It was completely empty except one room in the basement that had a janitor bucket. Living in the building would have been totally feasible, there was even a pipe that seemed to spill water forever. We checked around every room before leaving. Down was reminded of many a horror movie while we walked the dark interior.
After heading back out we went diving at various places but only took things from Fran Prix and some gas station dumpster, he took:
a warm sweater
some mascara
some festive Christmas colored earrings
Three boxes of Krispy Kremes donuts!!!!1
After wandering around trying to find more dumpsters I called Kusa and Ting to see how the house party was and to decide whether I wanted to crash it. Kusa tells me its all drinking and smoking no dancing or anything I'd like, so I tell Down let's watch Princess Bride (I fell asleep the first time I saw it) at her place while we eat the donuts. She's down of course, on the way back I climb a roof quickly for fun. Turns out to be a good movie and the donuts are delicious too. After that I'm tired enough to sleep (but I won't for a while), so I tell Down put some chill music we can fall asleep to. She can't really find any so I play this album I like from Pretty Lights. We lay down and I take off my nasty, heavy pants (mud encrusted BDUs with pockets full of flashlight and wallet and all that) and shirt. We stare at each others eyes for what seems like forever, just holding eye contact while the music plays, at one point Down moves herself up or forward or something and that sparks it. I grab her and pull her towards me and we lock into an embrace. I guess there was some tension that build up during the movie and the exploring and the laying down looking into each others eyes. We cover the whole spectrum of intensity from scratching and biting to breathing on each others necks and caressing each other. I end up in my boxers (well I only had a tank top on before that) and Down is in her pants and a bra. She isn't feeling sex so we keep at it and just end up gazing into each others faces and holding each other and caressing each other until we lay down in a gentle embrace. It's around 6 at this point, Down tells me I'm a bad influence, I laugh, we go to sleep.

Some Links

Here are just some links I like, things I follow etc, to give you guys an idea of some of my influences, how I see things and what I agree with.
Evasion Probably what I consider the best book I ever read. It's all non-fiction which means if you want to (I know I do), you can pull this off.
Buttery Ass Mondays Donovan Strain explains and shows a ton of stuff. He's a skater, hustler, hip hop fan and is just resourceful.
Night Ops For the hardcore ones among you check this out. The real jem here is the forum.
My Youtube Account I don't have much uploaded but there's a ton of parkour and ninja stuff in my favorites (almost exclusively so).
Hobos, Tramps and Homeless Bums a great thread on a graffitti forum that'll teach a ton about, you guessed it hobos, tramps and bum. Goes over hopping trains, diving, jungling up, factions whatever.
Wikihow Learn to do things on your own.
That's it for now, off the top of my head, but that'll maybe give a bit of insight into my mind...

4 Pizzas among other things

Tonight I found a ton of food while diving. I went to the bakery I usually go to and picked up some bread (no pastries tonight), then on my way back I stopped at the dumpster behind the pharmacy. It was locked and there was a cardboard box next to it. I got chicken parm from the box. After looking in the dumpster by holding it open as high as the the chain would allow, I realized the ridiculous amount of food I decided not to let the lock stop me.
First I tried simply loosening and removing the washer and nut that held the chain but my hands were too cold and the buts were tight. After that I decided to simply open up the edge until I could fit my torso in and started pulling stuff out. After a short while I realized that I could actually dive in. I put my gloves on and and went in head first. Inside I piled all the food I wanted in one corner. I peeked out of the dumpster through the cracks until people around left and then snaked out. I took everything out of the dumpster and started putting it in my bag, when this guy comes towards the dumpster.
We talked about the stuff in the dumpster for a bit before trying to get stuff out again. He tried to pull the lock but no luck. Since I'm skinny enough to reach into the dumpster I grabbed a ton of milk bags. After that I rolled home and put everything in the fridge and ate the chicken parm for dinner.

Tramps and Swords

I've taken an interest in tramps and hobos recently. I will probably try to go tramping a bit after school or at some point. It's travel and freedom and... well that's it. Revisiting Evasion (which you should read) as well as reading different train hopping writings, punk zines and that sort of thing. On the more hands on side, I've gotten pretty hardcore into dumpster diving. Last night I brought home lots of strawberries, corn, radish, carrots and a watermelon. I'm getting more used to going out and diving even without Kusa. Ting is accepting it more, because when you see "nasty garbage" turn into delicious food it's hard to say no.
On the martial side I've been working on kenjutsu behind the apartment on and off with the bokken. Doing exercise on and off, mostly when I watch shows online.

Bonus point: I found a way onto the roof of my main school building :)