And out of the rubble of the new world order it appeared: A new post

It has occurred to me that a casual observer of my blog to whom other knowledge was not available might conclude that the world indeed had come to an end, or at least, that my life had. The rumors of my death, blah blah mark twain reference blah.

I don't like this post so far. It doesn't taste good. It tastes sort of off-the-cuff and un thought out. This has a lot to to with the above statement's striking resemblance to reality.

I suppose I should dedicate this post, in all its horrendous..ness? To those of you who asked me to update. And actually, jibbing aside, alot of you did. Thanks, your cool.

Okay- so the main reason (read:excuse) for me not updating is all Gwyns fault. Yah, that's right. Basically, Gwyn, my sister and I all went to have a swell old time at the mouth of Port. Since Gwyn and Abi are the artsy type and are into photography, they took nice pictures on nice cameras. Since I'm "funny-pathetic" (as opposed to "funny-haha") I brought my camera.

This is Gwyn literally laughing out loud at my shabby excuse for a camera:

(Note my finger partially in shot, wrong date stamped on the picture, and the world being unusually distorted... like I said, "funny-pathetic")

But I'm okay with it now. I just try and think of it more as a prop for humorous scenarios then a real camera, and suddenly my qualms subside.

All in all, it was a fun trip. It was a very very wet trip though. So how does this relate to my diliqent posting? Patience, Iago. I am getting there. You see, Gwyn sort of off handedly said something about all of us blogging this together. We sort of all off-handedly agreed. So there- I couldn't blog until I could blog about this....though Gwyn seems to have no moral attachement to her own word, but thats another story. Here is a cool shot that possibly you will see from two additional angles if the other parties get there act together:

As you can see here, I'm taking a picture as my sis is professionally snapping a shot of Gwyn and Gwyn herself is cleverly shooting at me from the hip.

Heres another shot- one of the few that are not distorted from my weird camera:

Gwyn and my sister, but not in that order, display the classic "too cool to look at the camera" pose.

The day eventually got so wet we decided to go watch POTC 2- but not before we saw a small water fall forming underneath a gutter and decided unanimously to all rush it and take a split second bath. The water was a lot of fun, but it led me to have to iron my shorts, underwear and socks before we could go see the movie...and reports indicate that Gwyn's car finally dried out last week.

Good times! But is that all that happend since I last posted? Goodness no! I also went to Soulfest 06...yes yes, quite the time there. However, I have opted to go ahead and post this to get it off of my metaphorical chest, which, by the way, really sounds weird to me.

Catch you all later,

....M.e...

What world?

Just thought you'd all like to know- the world is coming to an end, just FYI.

Heres what I know- I'm trying to stay up on things, but I don't know everything, so feel free to correct or add something in the comments.

Hamas captured two Israeli soldiers and demands they be negociated for Palestine prisoners of war (AKA Terrorists/suspected terrorists). Israel of course says something to the effect of "like heck we will" and says that it will only accept no-condition release of their prisoners. Hamas keeps trying to talk about a deal, but apparently Israel has stopped listening:

And started bombing. If theirs one thing that I admire about Israel, its that, holy cow, they don't mess around when it comes to standing up for themselves. They hit a bunch of Hamas, Hezbollah and Lebanese targets including crucial structures like bridges and the runways:


My dad works for an company that has a lot of people in Israel and he said that they can't reach most of them because the reserves are being called up. He's heard that Israel claims they will take Lebanon back 20 years. It appears that they are well on their way- They took out an airport and allegedly Lebanon has no fixed-wing aircraft left. But that hasn't stopped them from retaliating:


Lebanon has been firing missiles over the border into Israeli towns all day, including one that has made it all the way to the coastal town of Haifa- no one died in this particular hit (though several were injured badly) but apparently it is a big deal- its the farthest rockets have ever gone from Lebanon.

Israel of course has only increased their attacks and their scope. Today they came back to the airport and shot missiles and machine gun fire into the fuel tanks to finish it off:
Things are getting very serious. Israel has says it is a war (key word) that they did not want to start, but that they will finish. They have cut off Lebanese ships in the ports and isolated Gaza, which means they basically can't get supplies in and out. Israeli aircraft have dropped leaflets all round Lebanon telling citizens that it is in their best interest to get as far away from Hezbollah people and buildings as possible. Over 120 rockets and mortars have been fired from Hezbollah into Israeli towns. The Lebanese continue to protest and say that they can't be held responsible for Hezbollah because politically it is to hard to crack down on them and to dangerous. Israel of course basically doesn't care about how hard it is, they (along with the US) just want them to do everything they can to shut the terrorists down.

Of course, this is not even looking at Iran or N. Korea's situations... My, what exciting times we live in!

And I know I have some readers who aren't that political, but this affects us directly in a way everyone can relate to: the black gold we all have come to know and love, Oil. It is going up, up and up. I predict prices will be probably at least $3.20 by tomarrow, maybe higher. The whole bombing thing really effects the supply side of things.

(BTW I'm not depressed or anything, I'm just fascinated. And I am gratefull to everyone for your comments in the previous post; my chin is indeed "up" and I am doing fine. :) Thanks!)

Not at world view

Hey everyone, not much to say right now except that I am not at world view as my previous post would indicate...

I don't want to fib, so theres not much I can say except that I somewhat anticpated this might happen... basically there were some things happening that might have made it better for me not to be there this year, and I had thought of withdrawing earlier- but of course we didn't decide until the absoloute last second. There was a small meeting with top World View brass, including Randy Sims (who, btw is still the man) and we all decided that the wisest thing for me to do was to return home. The rest of my fam. is of course still there.

Don't know exactly what I'm going to do this week, but I'm going to try and commit it to the Lord in some way... maybe a bike-retreat, I dunno. And speakin of bikes, I just learned that I am worse then broke because of my last bike trip- a 5 dollar package of Ace bandages I forgot to calculate caused me to go into overdraft and incur fees. I would put some money in to solve it, but I can't because I don't have any. The only money I was anticpating called in sick.

Just not my week, I guess.

World view

Hey everyone, I'm off to World View academy. Should be fun- I'll be sentient enough to talk sometime saturday morningish. Until then, here, have some random pictures!


Here is us setting up ourselves to leave from the Kittery Trading post.... last minute checks, etc.




dX getting trying to fight insanity from the bugs while I tell him to stop so I can take a picture...


This is about where I discovered my wheel wasn't in that hott of shape...


Some mandatory down time, courtesy of dX's ankle...

Proof that we did indeed go Kayaking... (M. Fam, you are seriously the best!)

"Four Winds", the RV we stayed in...
(The camera is weird and distorted the image; it wasn't really bent like that...)

...aaand last but not least, dX (who henceforth wants to be called "ghost") sitting in the front seat of CJ's car shortly before deciding to chuck the directions.

Thats all folks, have a good week!

Night 4 and day 5- Concert and church

Greetings everyone, from Londondenderry NH! The trip is complete; we have returned to our respective drop off points and I for one miss it allready.

I posted Day 4 a bit early since I didn't know what was going to happen that night. Well, enough happend to warrant disclosure on this here blog. Note: I still don't have my USB cable, so I will have to upload pictures later. Possibly tonight, when I can put my SD card into my Dad's camera.

Shortly after posting the last blog, dX got off of the phone with his friend CJ. He said CJ was going to a show in Epping, and he could take us. Epping... we drove through there on the first day of our trip! Since biking was out of the question, the hudson home was kind enough to let us leave our bikes with them and pick them up later.

After waiting a long long time, CJ finally found us and picked us up. We threw our packs in the back seat and drove off... CJ and dX go back along way and were talking about the old days while I sorta chilled in the back seat. It was funny just to listen to their conversation. Eventually dX told CJ to take a left at exit seven, meaning to take a left after pulling off the highway. But CJ interperted it as "exit 7 will be on the left". So we missed that road. He decided to get off on the next exit, but it wasn't the right highway. They puzzled over the map just a bit and then CJ looked at dX and said

"Dude, do you want to find this the like we used to back in the day?"
"I'm game."

With that, CJ took the directions and crumpled them up into a ball, then threw them into the backseat.

"You must swear to not open and offer advice from those directions."

"Upon my honor." I replied.

We pulled out in the general direction of the concert laughing and having a good time, deciding that getting unlost could be just as much fun as the concert, but actually we found it very fast. We had pulled over to get gas and CJ chanced to ask where the venue was. The girl gave him a weird look and pointed out the window and said "Right across the street." We got there in time to still see 3 or 4 opening bands, though one of the bands that CJ had freinds in had allready played.

I was going to try and describe what the concert was like, but it was so huge, I think I will save it for another post. I'll just go into a little detail this time:

Okay, the music. I will be honest- Hardcore can be somewhat of an aquried taste, and even for me, I am not always in the mood for it. Its got alot of energy though and there really is alot of talent to be heard in it. The first band that played was "Our last night". They were a 5 peice band- drummer, guitarist, a singer who I think played guitar as well, a screamer and bass player. The unusual thing was that the screamer was 13. But he was incredible.

Trevor, the lead screamer of Our Last Night, in all his adolesent glory

He was having so much fun, jumping around, interacting with the crowd- the band was AWESOME. He got the crowd going, too. The other band that I thought was really good was Sparks the Rescue- they had two guitarists and a bass player and an amazing drummer. They played what I've heard reffered to as "fantasy guitar" though I'm not sure if that is the proper name- its the kind of almost cheesy sounding guitar sound used alot in the 80s. But it really sounds cool with these guys, and they are REALLY REALLY tallented. They kept doing call and answer stuff back and forth with the guitars really fast- playing a riff partly on one guitar, then on the other, then back on the first one all within a second or two, then playing the chords together in perferct sync- very technical and really impressive sounding. They did this all while jumping around and dancing all over the stage, just short of hitting eachother. I'm not sure if this does the music justice, I suppose you just would have to be there.

The dancing was inSANE.... but I will leave that and my analyztion of it for another post.

After the show we went back to CJ's house in Wilton and crashed there. His room was so crowded with music stuff- guitars, drum kits and cymbol peices everywhere, a keyboard, a piano, sheet music- it was ridiculous. The room was small too- there were two futons, but both were full of stuff. They basically just started grabbing stuff off of it and throwing it in corners and under the beds- wherever they would fit. I got the floor, but I had to twist my self into unatural shapes even to fit on that. It was cool though.

The next morning was Sunday, and we went to dX's old church. He suprised alot of people by showing up, and it was neat to see so many people thrilled to see him. He caught up with alot of people briefly and then we left since CJ had to drive us back to Hudson to pick up our bikes before he went to work. We had accepted an offer for Lunch at someone's hosue in Merrimack but we called back to cancel since it would have meant putting at least 20 more miles into our trip and by this time we were needing to get home.

We arrived back in Hudson got our bikes out, thanked the family again for their awesomeness, and headed off. We made good time, though we got sore quicker then usual and took a breather. I had a peice of jerky and a crumbled poptart, but it occured to me that dX hadn't had any breakfast at all. He was feeling it I think. We got back on our bikes though, and I even pushed mine to 25 to say that I did it.

Somewhere between 1:30 and 2:00 we rolled back into our home turf and let oursleves in. It was a good feeling, though no one else was back from Church yet.

So thats it- the trip is over! It was alot of fun and yet it seemed shorter then expected. We learned alot. The tone of the trip was totally different then we had thought orginally. At first, we thought there was going to be alot more camping, but it turned out to feel only like a bike trip when we were on the road- we had so much fun with everyone at our host homes that when we were off the road it only felt like hanging out with our friends- which is fine, I assure you. dX kept mentioning how amazed he was at how nice all my friends were that we stopped at.

Though sometimes it seemed taxing while we were on the trip, we know we didn't ride nearly as much as we could have. Next time I do this I plan on doing something bigger.

All in all, we traveled 99.6 miles or so according to my calculations. I might as well say that we biked 100 because I'm sure some of the unrecorded stuff totals .4 miles easy.

100 miles in 4.5 days. Not bad at all. But it has only wet my appetite- I know I can do more. I mean, we didn't even get to make our smores or light a fire outside for crying out loud- we went house to house so quick there was no camping needed. Next time I think, I want to use the tent or loose the tent- poor dX carried that and a blanket- I only carried a blanket- that we ended up never using. We ate the ramen only at our host homes. Same with the hersheys. It was really fun, but in retrospect it seems a pity we packed that much stuff we didn't need. Of course, on a longer trip with out such cool friends we would need it... but I am rambling. In the end, it was an amazing experience and I got to have fun not only with dX but with everyone that I hung out with- I really feel blessed that I got to get to know so many awesome people better.

To everyone who helped us out on the trip: Thank you so much!! You made our trip go waaayyy better then either of us planned for. You were all so wonderfully nice, and I think I got to know all of you better. Sharing your home with someone you know for a day is awesome enough, but sharing it for two vegabonds is incredible. I dedicate this trip (is that possible?) to you guys.

Until next post everyone... thanks for reading.

Day 4- Best coffee EVER

Greetings all- this is an early post for me, as the day isn't really over yet and I'm still in Hudson. But I don't know exactly when I will get to a computer next, so I figured it would be good to post the happenings of the day here.

Last night we slept in an awesome camper- very very comfortable. The family was going to a party from 11 to 1ish, but they said if we wanted to come back after that we could go Kayaking (sp?) with them in a local pond. We of course, agreed to the arrangment.

Before we went down to the water though, we had some time to kill. So we decided to head over to Nashua to check out some trails that our hosts told us about. After making a short stop at Showtime computers, we ended up at Mines Falls. It was pretty neat- a few nice wide easy going trails and alot of water. After that we decided to just sort of chill and talk by the river for a while.

Then came one of the coolest discoveries to come out of this trip: Riverwalk Cakery & Coffee House. They are in Nashua- 35 Railroad Square, to be exact. dX saw the words coffee shop and he suggested we check it out. I was game, so we locked up our bikes and went in.

The second we got through the doors, everything screamed CLASS at us. The colors, the chairs and tables- imported, the lot of it as we later learned, from all across Europe. dX got a chia latte and I got a Irish cream iced latte. The coffee was unbelivable. It was strong, but not acidic. It was bloody perfect- the only words I can think of to describe it. I also got a expresso brownie and we sat down and talked for a bit in the shop. I noticed that it had its own blends, and that there was a large obscure and expensive looking machine in the far end of the room. I asked him about it-

"Oh, that is the roasting machine."

So yeah- he roasts his own coffee. This got me interested, and I started talking with the owner who was the only person on staff at that hour. The shop has been here only 5 months and he says he allready has regulars. Its not hard to see why- he knows coffee. He buys his own beans still 'green'-and he buys them straight from importers he knows in New York and Boston. He makes his own blends by knowing the crop they came from and using different beans to counteract eachothers weaknesses and compliment their strength. He's from Germany and hes awesome. I now know an awesome place to go for coffee- and if I ever have to impress some girl by buying a 5 dollar 59 cent peice of cake I know where to do that to.

After that we went Kayaking- wow, sooo much fun. It was dX, Lyndsi and I in occean Kayak vessels across the lake. When dX heard that they we could go Kayaking he said "dude, you'll love it. Kayaks are like the moter cycles of cannoes." Boy, we he right. We went so much faster then in our big cannoe and we had a ton of fun- though apparently biking endurance does nothing for the upper body strength it takes to Kayak. Lyndsi pWnd! us- and she said she only went once, bah! All in all it was a great day.

Right now I am waiting for dX to see if he has enough money to cover us going to a show. If he does, were going to the show then going home. If not, we'll just be going home.

I'd post some pictures of the mobile homes and of the Kayaks but sadly I seemed to have misplace my USB cable.

Well, thank you all for reading. Have a great one!

Day 3- Just chillaxin

Greetings from Hudson everybody!

We woke up today around 9:00. When I got out of the couch I was sleeping on I went over to the room dX had crashed at.

"Dude-" he said, "we have a problem."

The problem was his ankle. He had hurt it last night while flipping off of his bike, but it didn't look like it was going to be that big of a deal. When he woke up on it though, he could barely limp with it.

This, to say the least, complicated our plans- eventually we decided to get some ice on it, and he wanted to rap it in a bandage- but oh wait! The bandages we bought were in his backpack. Where was his backpack? In Jakes car. Well thats fine, but- wheres Jakes car? Not at his home. You see, dX had left his pack in the trunk of the car, which should have been fine- but as it turned out, the van one of the family members was using broke down, so they had to use his car. And that put us with out bandages.

So, after a little bit of griping and a lot of good strong coffee (they make the best coffee over there, seriously) I biked off to shaws, which was really just a stones throw away from the house I was at. I got an Ace bandage there for a ridiculous 5 dollars and 59 cents. Talk about a rip off...

Anyway, we got back and he applied it to his poor aching foot. By this time it was probably 11 or so. He could barely walk on it still, but I was trying to convice him that biking would be different. Renee said that she thought it wouldn't be good to work much on it. There was a slight back and forth, but we did in the end relent to chilling out there for a bit. dX could still work on computers, and thats what he did:

This picture very much sums up the tone of the day. We chilled, we watched some videos, we talked. And thanks be to Renee and their family for letting us- we don't know what we would have done otherwise. Thanks again guys for your generosity and everything, your flipping amazing!

About 3ish or so, dX was walking around on his foot LIGHTLY. I had convinced him to try riding his bike earlier to see what it was like, and he concluded that it was possible and as I suspected, it was actually better then walking. So at 3 or so in the afternoon, we decide to try and visit some of his friends in the area. We found out Renee had a bike, so she got to come too since it was so close. We headed up the road about a mile or 2 really fast since dX and I were not wearing those huge backpacks we were used to. Renee was actually keeping up pretty well. We got to the place where we suprised a few of dX's old friends and then we decided to move on for a good trip down memory lane. After catching her breath and downing some water, Renee went all hardcore and said she was down with it too. We biked over to dX's old house, all the way to amherst where we stopped at a cafe for food. It was really nice, and I played a pretty evenly matched game of checkers with Renee (but I won in the end). Then we biked back- About 20 miles in all.

When we got back, it was allready 5ish. We were trying to figure out what our next move was... we wanted to camp, but we didn't know what place we could camp at that was near enough. In the end, we decided to stay over at our lovely stop at Hudson- as it turned out, we were just 10 miles out anyway. We biked down through Nashua, only stopping once- there was a concert going on in some park for free. The musicans playing were all in their middle to late ages, but they were playing some funky music and they were good. dX and I stayed there for just as much as we could afford, then we got back riding. We arrived at our new destination at about 7.

This host home is awesome- They gave us cold cuts to go along with our ramen, they gave us icecream, and we've got to just talk with them and have a ball. They are into everything cool here... I don't know how specific I can get with names and things since it is 1:26 and they are all in bed. I got to watch The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe with two people who haven't seen it yet. It was an interesting experience- they watched movies with captions on, and I actually got little bits of dialouge and background chatter that I never quite got before.

Well, thats about it for me- I am devilish sleepy and I must be off to bed. Today was pretty much just a chill, relaxing day. We, once again, don't really have tomarrow very much planned out but I'm sure it will be great.

Till next post- farewell.

Day 2- Blowouts and bruises

Greetings friends and fiends, from lovely East merrimack!

We got up today at Mr. and Mrs. C's home welcomed by the smell of blueberry pancakses, ham and coffee. Thanks again, Mrs. C!

dX packing up at Mrs. C's house- beginning of day 1

I read more of "Out of the silent Planet" and ended up calling the bike shop in Derry to make sure they would be there- a good thing, as "the number you have dialed is not in service at this time". We talked it over very briefly, and Mrs. C gave us the number to a place she recomended on Kelly st- Jakes Bike shop, 25 miles away. We took off at about 9 o'clock.

It was tough going with the wheel- even though I had unlatched the rear brakes, it was still lightly touching the side once every revolution. We were on our way to route 28, but we only got about 4 miles out:


I was riding down a slight hill when suddenly there was a loud bang- for a split second I wondered what it was, then for a split second I thought I blew out the tire and should try to slowdown, and the last few second I felt myself riding increasingly on the rim. But suprisingly, I didn't loose control. I yelled up ahead at dX "BLOWOUT, MAN BLOOWOUT!!!" It took him a little while to get the idea and slow down, but in the end I pulled over and we took a look. On the plus side, I didn't have to use my bike kit to to take the tire off or the innertube out- I don't know how it stayed on the wheel at all. When I pulled over, they were off.

We ponder our prediciment. The verdict is unanamouse: cRaZy!

We discussed shortly putting on my spare and inflating it, but we decided rather quickly that it was crazy-talk. The wheel was in BAD shape- I knew that, and putting another one would be tirecide (you know like homocide...). So we went up to a nearby house and bummed a phone to call Mrs. C with. Thankfully, she had offered to pick us up in the case of an emergency. We sat around and wait for a while. I read more of my book.

Eventually Mrs. C came to the rescue and after taking the wheels off our vehicles, we put it into her minivan. She took us to the Jakes shop, which is now one of my favorite bike places- the guy there was really nice and knew what he was talking about.



It was in bad shape- spokes that were stripped, spokes that were broken- it was a bloody mess. In the end I had to replace the wheel, the innertube AND the tire- for the tire had a gash in it from the blow out as well. All in all I dropped $75 on it- alot of money, yes- but actually a VERY good deal.

From there, we biked to our first real destination of the day: Barns and nobooks.

I would tell you how many miles it was, but I sort of broke my bike computer- I sent it back into configure mode and I don't have the instructions that tell the computer what wheel size I have. Anyway, we got to the store early so I read the rest (more or less) and met up with my group. It was great to see the people again, though of course Brad and Kiaya were missing, which was too bad. :(

After the book meeting was over, me and dX were pretty much playing it by ear. We had the vauge notion of entering Merrimack because we knew several people there- we just couldn't get ahold of any of them. But we headed out anyway, having to back track a couple miles to hit the right rode, and the storm started coming up. We put on our ponchos this time, but the wind was much worse then the rain- and pedalling against it wasn't as bad, probably, as the stupid flapping sound it made right in your ear. Also, dX almost got ran over by an absent minded moterist. But at least we were mostly dry.

Eventually we got on route 3. dX wanted to pull over at a dunkin d. You see, he's been away so long in Kansas (Where allegedly there is only 1 dunkin donuts and its an 1 hr 45 minutes away at that) that whenever he sees a Dunkin Donuts, he gets impullsive. We pulled in, I situated my backpack differently (the straps are killing me) and we went inside for a second. dX goes up to the counter and comes back a minute later. Dramatically, he throws a box of a dozen donuts down upon the table with a loud thud. I look up at him-

"Dude..."

"I hope you don't have anything against maple or choclate."

With this he flips open the lid- the box is split evenlyh between the two flavours, six each.

All I can think is that there is no way we can eat this many donuts quickly and not get cramps while riding. I had maybe 3, I think he had 5. We gave one to a person I knew from co-op that happend to walk in and we squished the rest into my backpack while dX made some calls on a payphone. When I had got my backpack back on (a difficult and painful ordeal) I went out to meet him again. He was smiling "Dude, I talked to Jake and Renee- they can meet us at the library in about half an hour. Lets get going!"

We started back up. It was tiring work- the weight of the packpack was heavy and it seemed to bounce up and down more then usual, which really irritated me because it made the pain in my arms more noticable. We climbed two large hills- they were murder. Finally we came upon the library, and for some reasons we had beat our companions there, which gave me a chance to get online and work on the blog a bit. It was really open there and nice- just give the receptionist your first name and BAM!! full xp box with adminstrative rights- even a USB port! Very nice indeed.

Jake and Renee made it but we we were talking too loud for the library, so they took us down to this place called King Cone. We each got a small, which was huge- more then I could eat before it melted and made a mess of me.

Renee and Jake in waiting in line at the King Cone

After hanging out there for a good 45 minutes, they drove us back to our bikes and took our packs with them to their house. With all that weight off of us, we flew down to their home in double time- it felt really really great. And thats where we are now.

Tim and I are having a blast over here- and to pay to pay for it we've been trying to work on their PCs and cook them Ramen. I got one of there boxes in substantially better shape then when I found it, and I unloaded 4 packs of the ramen here for part of our meal. I'm excited because that means my backpack will be that much less bulky. Rock rock on!!

Tomarrow, we don't have totally planned out. We are basically a day or two ahead of schedule and a little bit off of the planned route. We will probably bum around Milford for tomarrow, visiting a bunch of dX's old friends and hang outs. Should be a nice easy going day I think maybe. Then perhaps tomarrow we can find a place to actually "camp out" at and use some of this ramen and alcholioc fire starter!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and comments they really are apprecited.

Mrs. C: Thank you so much for the emergency services and hospitality. dX was really blown away by the pampering we got there; it made his day.
Lyndsi: Oi, it is looking like possibly saturday for your place. Hopefully I can call you tomarrow to let you know for sure- it might change. Don't know how much time we will take with Milford, and Hudson is a large journey and we have two days left.
Mum: Thanks for the ponchos, they work pretty good when applied to the body. Who would have thunk it?
To ladyofnarnia: Thanks so much for letting me take the book so I could read it. You rock.
Jake and Rennee- dude you people are awesome. Thanks for everything! And Renee, sorry about not getting all of your face in that picture.
Bander: Dude, sorry I didn't come over today. It just didn't work out- our plans were shifting all over the place and it would have meant backtracking and loosing preacious time. Sorry though!
Kiaya: Thank you for trying to solve our weather problem. Actually, it might be working. Today didn't rain much at all, and when it did, it only rained breifly. Whatever you did over there seemed to mess with the forcast, so keep it up next time you see rain in our future.

More tomarrow, guys! Thanks for reading.


Update: dX flipped/flew/jumped off of his bike last night (end of day 2), and hurt his ankle. Apparently worse then I thought- he sort of limps with it now and its in to much pain to walk on much. We've got ice on it but dX's backpack is in a car that got taken to work unexpectedly since another vehicle died.... so the bandages aren't here. I'll be biking down to shaws for some emergency supplies. We'll try to fix him up here and see what he can do. Okay, that will be all- as you were.

Day 1

Update: Library found, pictures fixed. :)

More at eleven.

"It would rain, wouldn't it?"

Hello, it is I and dX here- reporting live from Fremont at host home 1. To get a few things out of the way: Yes, were not dead and yes we are dry (it took a while though). Also, for those of you trying to get ahold of us via dX's cell- don't. We'll call you, somehow. The phone situation is that we don't have one, basically- only for fire or medical emrgencies. Which is nice. And lastly- ignore the dates on the pictures below. The camera has amnesia.

Okay- I think a picture is in order to start this post off proper: here is us, just heading out from the Kittery Trading post:

You know, looking at this picture, it looks like its a nice day in Maine. That goes to show you just how crummy my camera is. Or perhaps, it means that this was taken during a break in the storm- we had a few of those that gave us false hope our journey would be a boring one. But don't worry; it wasn't.

Shortly after this was taken, we began on route 1 heading south. This was really fun- we were going about 16 to 18 miles an hour over a road that was just shy of an interstate, with water spraying up in our face and everywhere else. We were totally soaked within 5 minutes, and I mean TOTALLY soaked. But we weren't bummed- we were almost giddy even-we finally had left. We made great speed to Portsmouth and went on to fnd the next turn we needed to make. I was happy; we hadn't become lost yet.

Somewhere along route 33, we were going up a hill and we one of those awesome red bull trucks went past us. Just as dX started to mutter a "sweet" it started slowing down and pulling over in front of us.

"What?"

"Dude" we both said at the same time. The vehicle stopped and the doors opened. Out of them came bounding some young woman.

"Where you guys headed?" one of them asked.

"Towards newfields- trying to hit some trails up there"

"You guys camping or something?"

"Nah, were doing this bike thing- four days, starting today in Kittery, going around the state.

"Dude, you guys are ANIMALS!"

Me and dX smiled. It was a compliment of the obsucure variety- but we enjoyed it.

"Well how about we give you guys some red bulls for the ride out?"

We responded with exclamations that of "sure", "thank you", "sweet", "heck yes!" or some such. They sped off and our morale was boosted. Now dX doesn't have a water bottle mount, but I do. It was being used though, and I hadn't enough room in my backpack to take it out. So we started off chugging half the red bull cans at first, then we got back on our way down 33 driving with one hand and drinking with the other. Hmm... maybe I should have brought the tiki mug, Brad.

The trip went on pretty well and uneventful for a while. I have so far been pleasently suprised with my navigation skills- I am not geographically inclined like my father, and when traveling at high way speeds or in a moter vehicle for that matter, I tend to have to turn around and miss roads twice and some such nonsence. But I didn't lead us wrong at all today, for which I am stupidly proud. Because, eventually, it wasn't easy.

You see, I had a map of my estimated route that I printed off. I put it in my pocket for safekeeping and quicktaking. Dad wanted me to spray it with some waterproofing material or something like that- but COME ON dad, it will be in my pocket- how could it get wet there?

Well I'll tell you how it can get wet there- very very easily when its raining and the tires are spitting up water into your face, lap and everywhere else. So the map slowly became unusable- I took it out a few times on the way to and in portsmouth, but each time I realized that it was getting in worse condition. By the time we really started to need it, I could tell it was falling apart. Eventually, the papers resembled a large wad of cheap gum that has been chewed for 5 hours to long. From there, I had to go by memory of what I knew while planning out the trip and by verification of passers-by. It actually worked out very well. Everyone was really nice.

Okay, back to the main story. We got on a bike trail that goes all the way from newfields to Manchester. Its pretty impressive- mostly well packed dirty gravel- almost like a highway for bikes, I commented. We rode that thing at about 16 miles an hour sometimes, just about the same as we would a road.

These pictures are of us stopping for a little jerky and water break. Good stuff.

So this road was impressive, but we had to get to fremont, and my plan was to follow another trail that goes down a good ten miles or so from this one into the general area of fremont.

Thats where stuff started getting interesting:

Again, the camera is really not doing reality justice here. Everythings over exposed- let me fill in for you what the camera can't. You see those puddles of muddy water? Thats all there is for several miles- I'd say probably 4 at least, but I was to busy swatting flies and trying not to fall in to count them. This was easily the worst part of this day- we started off by riding through them but I stopped trying that when I sank almost up to the top of my wheels and almost fell in head first. It was like quick-sand mud in some places. We had to get off our bikes and walk around 4 our of 5 of the holes. There was also some rough terrain around here; when I got back on the road I eventually noticed my wheel was out of true- in other words, it was bent up.

Not much else to report of the trip that would be too exciting to you: we stopped at a school for another breather:

I got a rock out of my shoe there. That was good.

And then we finally made it to our host home! Mr and Mrs. C are so cool; they gave us an awesome homeade meal that filled us up much better then beef jerky, they let us have showers and they let us exist in an air conditioned house, all while making us laugh. Thank you!

Tomarrow we go for manchester, but we make a little detour through Derry to get my wheel taken care of. You see, I tried to true it but I made it worse- as usual. And its bent up bad- keeps hitting the breaks, and you can even see visibly where the wheel is bent just by looking at it. Soo... how am I going to get there? Well, on my bike of course. The work around I finally settled on was to unhook my rear brakes. Now before you all freak out, don't worry don't worry- I stop mostly with my front brakes anyway- my rears had some trouble to begin with. And actually not having rear brakes is no where as dangerous as my rear wheel anyway, so don't worry. But if you do want to pray for our saftey, as I know there are alot of awesome people who are reading this that do, pray specifically that my wheel does not collapse and that it does not cause me to break my axle. I'll be babying it the whole way to the shop, so I don't see why it should but its still a kind of big deal. I've never seen what its like to drive a wheel to destruction; on the one hand I'm curious what it would look like and on the other hand I'm really not wanting to find out just yet.

Now if you will excuse me, I have a book to read for tomarrow's lit class- if all goes as planned, I should still show up via bike.

Till the next entry,

---Us

The journey begins

Chances are, by the time you read this dX and I will have left for the beginning of our trip. Yes, that's right- for the few of you who didn't know, we did not get to leave Monday as expected.

This was probably better though, as we got to have more time for packing and bike tuning, etc.

And boy, did we need it- check it out:



We ended up leaving a little bit of the stuff we bought behind- we only took something like 18 packs of ramen instead of the whole 24. For shame- thats 78 cents just wasted! But you should see the ramen I have managed to cram into that pack already- I have practically created a super structure for the pack by bracing it horizontally and vertically, using exclusively ramen noodles. We also have a lot of jerky and these other preserved tasty meat products.

Oh, and somewhat impulsively, we decided to get smore supplies... we were walking down the aisle and saw the marshmallows and hersheys and sort of made a dash for it- reason be darned.
I don't know how it will work out, but I tried to pack the breakable stuff- pop tarts and gram crackers- surrounded by marshmallows. My idea is that it serve as a sort of edible shock absorber. We shall see.

Speaking of impulse buys, I also got a bike computer! It was only 8 bucks at walmart but it was so cool- has a speedometer and a odometer function, as well as some other stuff. We also decided to kill two birds with one stone- instead of getting kindling or lighter fluid, we just got an extra big pack of isobrupo-something... thats nasty stuff you put into your cuts to clean them. Its 91 percent alcohol, so it should serve as fire starter just fine. Actually, its already been tested. Trust me- it works like a charm. ;)

I know its hard to tell from this picture, but this backpack is totally crammed:

...and I haven't even been able to fit my Bible in there. I know the blanket can go on the outside, but I'll have to see what I can do about getting a pocket Bible for the trip... I dunno. Really wanted to bring one.

Oh, and here is our method of contact with the outside world:

Great, eh? Except this bring us to our mandatory "last-minute-crisis"- we left the charger in Fitchburg, MA. So yeah, hopefully we shall pick one up early in the first leg of the trip.

Well thats it for now... like I said, by the time you read this we should on our way!

See you on the road everybody!

(dX performs an unsolicited display of pyro-technics at an undisclosed location while bored last night)

New ride, new life idea(s)

Hello, everybody. I'm back. For those of you who were looking for new material, sorry. I was sort of busy with life things and not updating my blog. But for those who’ve been checking, thanks. It’s cool to be read.

Alright- so I will start this off with a picture of my new friend:

(Tiki mug for display purposes only. Uttereast.blogspot.com does not condone drinking and cycling. Check your local state laws before drinking anything, eating anything, or breathing in certain restricted state wildlife zones. Buckel up, even when cycling if at ever possible. Voidware prohibited.)

That’s right, them right dere is my new wheels, yo! And don’t be hate’n just cause It’s 2 wheels instead of 4- for one thing, I’m sitting on 26’s and this baby has taken me 40 miles already and will take me over 133.16 more. It is a Schwinn S-30 and whenever it is not breaking, it is my friend. Its lighter then my old hard-tail (which in retrospect must have been made from some sort of lead alloy) and it climbs and accelerates really nice for soft-tail, or any bike for that matter. It even makes me feel cool sometimes, which is quite the fringe benefit. But wait- I’m getting ahead of myself, I know. Let me start at the beginning.

Probably as far back as two years ago, my friend (hereafter referred to by his alias, “dX”) and I talked about doing some crazy-go-nuts trip across New Hampshire over the power line trails. We decided to try it next summer, when dX would make a return visit to NH from his new residence in Kansas. He came up, but for various reasons I don’t recall, we never made the trip. This year, we have decided to right that wrong.

Originally, we planned on starting up in Canada and riding our way back south for a week or two over the power line trails. But eventually, due to the current restrictions of reality (such as our inexperience, flood levels and the difficulty in securing complete maps of power line trails) we decided to shorten the trip- From Maine, across New Hampshire as far as Milford, and then eventually back to my house, in 4 days.

That’s where the new bike comes in. You see, I had one already- a Boulder SE hard tail. Nice bike, but I killed it years ago. I took it in for estimates and it would have cost me as much as $230 to get it back into working condition. I figured if I looked hard enough, I could find a good deal on a better, newer bike for less money. But where?

I found “the one” astray in a police auction of seized possessions. I took it under my wing and had it fixed up. It had some loose bolts here and there and a bent wheel, but other then that it was in FINE condition. And though I’ve had to have the rear wheel trued twice since getting it, it now seems to be holding up very well… I’ve been trying to ride it far and wide to train myself up, and it is performing marvelously well. I love it… And I am so psyched to get going on this trip.

Just being on the verge of this adventure has birthed ideas that tantalize my brain- I’ve always been fascinated with under-the-radar, obscure ways of living: hoboing , truck driving, eeking out power and water beneath forgotten subway tunnels in New York, the cowboys of old and so forth… But I have come up with an idea that seems more immediately accessible to me: Nomadding Bicycle tech-gypsies. Or just “Bike Tribes” for short. In case you are still not clear on what I am talking about, think of it like this:

Gypsies; only with bicycles, a little less smelly, and hooked into the Internet wirelessly.

Think about it- the idea is insanely plausible. I haven’t run any hard numbers yet, but it would make your cost of living take a nose dive- you could work for maybe a few months and have enough money saved up to live in the outdoors for a few years. You wouldn’t need insurance, and you wouldn’t pay rent. Of course, you could choose to pay for a cell phone, occasional internet access or the occasional campground fees- maybe even a real motel bed if you wanted it- but the only mandatory costs would be food and things relating to bike maintenance. The best part is this: if you wanted to, you could still have a job in many fields. Anything you can do online, obviously you can do on the road now. With services like manpower, it would not be posible that people could get as much money as they needed for life from every industry in any State (and 68 other countries). Not to mention other, more loosley defined resorces such as Craigslist. Seriously, this is huge. It's outdoors, it's tech, it's social and it's wanderlust. All of which are pretty much in my top ten ideas of life. Whats not to love?

Okay… but as for now… Heh, it will just be a 4 day trip for me and dX. Several of our friends have also been nice enough to lend us their homes as hops along the journey where we will have access to modern marvels such as running water and internet. And of course, in addition to refilling water, taking a shower I plan on blogging whenever I can. I will bring my crappy camera and dX will probably have at least one camera amoungst his many gadgets. So- stay tuned.

Lord willing, we should be leaving this Monday (the 26th).

LatSee you on the road!

A boy named Wanderer- A true story.

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Wanderer. He grew up in a good home with good parents and good siblings. But even those so well fortified in life are never truly safe from its darkness- for while he was still young, the boy was visited by an evil. For a season it wreaked a quiet and untraceable havoc on him, making no visible damage but sowing dysfunction. And then it stopped. The boy was spared by the Hand of God.

Wanderer seemed to show resilience to the evil. After a few short years he had all but forgot the dark force that had visited him. He became an ambitious child and continued to grow up as an apparently well-adjusted child. But two forces resided in him that he knew not of.

The first was a parasite. This parasite was an agent of the darkness that had invaded the boy, and its purpose was to corrupt him to the very darkness itself. The parasite hid itself and masked its symptoms behind things normal to a growing child so that it would not be detected. Meanwhile, the boy developed a love for the Cause, wanting and training earnestly to fight the forces of evil as a warrior. The boy became vigilantly on the lookout for The Darkness- he set garrisons about the property and gazed over them with watchful eye. He tried to keep himself informed of the Enemies plans- he knew of all their latest movements. But he never realized the threat within himself- the parasite was so close and so hidden, that he did not see it. And so the greatest danger to all was allowed to grow.

As the child developed into a young man, the second force started to appear. Wanderer grew apathetic and weary. It was another symptom of the parasite, but he did not know it. His far sight was attacked and his Vision blurred. His dedication to the Cause waned and faltered. He always knew the drills, but his heart was not always in it. He knew in his mind what the moves and strategies were and he remained engaged with others in his ranks, but he grew less and less motivated. This force he at least recognized. He called it different things- lack of self-discipline, laziness, and more. He tried to correct it. He decided he needed an infusion of discipline- a personal morale booster of sorts.

He volunteered with the Cause for a dangerous deployment far away. He submitted himself to the riggers of discipline and danger, and he felt the tide turning. He returned to his native shore, alive and stronger. He was no longer weary and for a time it would seem that the force of apathy had been ridded from the man named Wanderer. But the parasite was still there, and though damaged by the Hand of God, it was not destroyed.

The parasite was smaller when Wanderer first came back to his native shore, but it grew past its previous size in mere months. Wanderer was again tired and careless. He knew he was being damaged and so once more volunteered for more missions. Each mission would take longer to restore him then the last and each time he returned his morale and energy would last shorter. Each time his morale was dampened, it became harder for him to get up the courage to volunteer for more missions. He volunteered less frequently, until he finally stopped altogether.

Now the ideals and Man behind the Cause are noble, just and good. But the institution of the Cause is never perfect. A man can sometimes too easily fall aside from the true meaning of the Cause. He becomes weary and dysfunctional, but as long as he maintains the correct drills and courtesies, the commanding officers will never notice the difference. Such was so for wanderer. He attended all mandatory drills and followed proper courtesies and customs. But he was no longer in it. His body was a husk; an empty shell.

He became a man divided, and deeply introspective. His outside mannerisms were controlled by courtesy, by custom and by upbringing. He never lost that. His conversations were intelligent and polite, for the parasite attacks these more visible things last. But his mind was growing more corrupted by every minute. He soon grew worried that his inner demons were stronger then most. He knew everyone must deal with them themselves, and so he never thought to ask for help. He began to question this line of thinking. But still the parasite grew and established more control, all the while unnoticed.

But alas, these were not the only forces working in him as a young man. There were forces called in, forces of Goodness that had been sent by the Hand Of God. They were appointed to him while at the outpost “Love of God”. And they were agents for truth and love and courage. They were forces of spiritual stimulation- forces that began to shake Wanderer’s apathy, even while the parasite struggled to maintain it.

The battle was played low-key. Forces from either side never openly assaulted one another- there were only munitions fired in burst at targets of opportunity, poorly aimed grenades and botched assassination attempts. It was a secret stalemate, each side hiding enough cards to be one step in front of the other and just out of sight enough so that no witnesses were aware of what they were witnessing, even when they saw it.

The struggle awoke ideas in Wanderer. He continued to be introspective and to think on things long forgotten. He watched for patterns. He noticed his mind growing darker and darker. He felt a vague horror. He had disgust for his own thoughts- but yet he held a spellbound twisted fascination with them as well. He was recognizing something… but what was it? He thought on it often. He had seen these thoughts before.

Meanwhile, he continued to try and function for the Cause. He would escort less skilled forces and assist them. An ambush would happen, and his old training and his well-ingrained skills would come back to him. He would lay down a suppressive fire, he would route the enemy. He was commended. But sometimes when this happened, he felt dizzy. He would falter for a second, and in his confusion he would point the weapon at his own forces. He scared some, but it only lasted a few seconds. He would get it under control and retreat for a time. He would wonder what happened- his thoughts…were they were being rendered? Were they really animating him now? And where, where did they come from? He grew tense with the question, and the uncertainty of when it his spells of confusion would strike again. But he continued accompanying younger troops. It was what he did intuitively; his instructors always said he seemed to be born for backup and escorts.

Once, he was accompanying a small group, and there was a surprise ambush. They were badly outnumbered and outgunned. Wanderer quickly created makeshift bunkers, and laid down return fire. It was an intense fire fight- the younger troops hardly fought at all. Bullets were flying everywhere- the air was filled with the stench of sulphur and of the dirt that was kicked up in clouds from the bullets that had missed their marks. It created a haze and freighted the troops who were not properly trained. After an hour of holding the enemy back, Wanderer knew they needed to retreat. He began to think of the plans in his head- who he would call, the platoons he could radio in- but the leaders above him beat him to it. An extraction force came in valiantly and scattered the enemy long enough to make an escape possible.

When Wanderer returned from the battle, he was exhausted but proud. He lay down on his bed and thought. I may be losing my energy, but I still have it. It felt good to Wanderer to know he was apart of such a dangerous mission and that he defended the Cause’s new blood. Just then a medic came up to his bed.

“Were you the sergeant on escort duty for the new bloods today?” the medic asked.

“I was.” Wanderer replied, rising out of bed.

“Come with me.”

He followed the medic into the infirmary. All along his way, the camp was abuzz with the news of something. People were talking in excited tones and almost all who were talking seemed to have on their face a look of disbelief. When they arrived at the examining room, he recognized a recruit a few tables down. She looked sad and in extreme pain; her gaze met Wanderers and her eyes filled with pain. He had never seen anyone look so sad before. She was in bad shape, too. Blood was everywhere- it looked like she had a head wound. The doctors and nurses assistants were buzzing around her quickly, only meeting Wanderer’s gaze for a brief second of recognition before returning to their work. Then, suddenly four fully armed military guards closed in around her, and stood on alert. He could no longer see her.

“Hey!” Wanderer shouted out to the medic “I know that person! She was with me today on the field-“

“Yes sir… she…” the medic looked out into space for a second as if not exactly sure what to say.

“Is she badly hurt?”

The doctor looked back at him. He seemed angry.

“Do you know why you’re here?”

Wanderer was upset with the question. He ignored it and turned to her.

“Lieutenant, your going to be fi-”

The guards tensed and raised their firearms in his direction. The medic grabbed Wander by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eye.

“WANDERER- You are not to talk to the Lieutenants anymore. That is an order.

“What?!?”

“Do you know why you’re here? You nearly KILLED her. Wanderer- you shot that Lieutenant in the face!”

Wanderer reclined slowly on the operation bench. His head was reeling, but suddenly he wasn’t confused anymore. The excitement at the camp, the reason he was here… it all began to snap together. The escort job that day, the pattern in his thoughts… then the piece he was missing, the part he had nearly forgotten so long ago-

The evil that visited me… it didn’t leave. It never left. Oh God…

And he knew he had the parasite. It was the last thing that he remembered for a long time. Whether from fainting, exhaustion, or the needle in his arm, Wanderer fell asleep. They were to try and operate.

THE END.

My summer so far acording to me.

So... I don't really think I am going to do a proper farewell post to the school year. Mostly because my sentiments have been echoed allready by all my friends- basically, go here or anywhere else in my blogosphere where people mention the end of Agape and my sentiments are very much the same.

I suppose I must elaborate a bit though... So, this was my first year at the co-op. I didn't really know exactly what to expect. Beleive it or not, when I'm in a totally new surrounding with all new people I can be intimdated. I don't like to show it and I suppose I'm not technically shy, but its just as awkard for me to try and strike up a conversation cold-turkey as for anyone else. But given enough time, I can make aquantinces anywhere. For some reason I thought there would be alot of HS steryotypes- very steady people; well educated, formal and intelligent but eccentric in nothing. I think my first guess was that 40 to 60 perecent of the people in the co-op would fit this mold, with a strong representation of these characteristics in the leadership.

Boy was I wrong. This group has blown me away with how awesome they are. They are my type of people; I don't know how to describe it. I '"clicked" with so many of them instantly. Knowledge is there, as is to be expected, but so is that weird sence of humor that draws on knowledge, and eccentric interestes abounding. I am frustrated because words are failing me(or perhaps at this hour, I am failing them...) But the point is, I didn't just make aquantinces- I made REALLY GOOD friends. These people felt like just that- a people, if that makes any sence. I relate to them on so many more levels then I do with any other group. They felt like old friends instantly. How else could I have relationships that are intergal to who I am with people I have met only two semesters ago?

I shall miss everyone, yes- but I am always on the AIM network or Gmail and with technology it never seems that there is such a gap between people as once there was. And of course, I'm not making a plan of avoiding my homeschool brothren all summer either- I shall be meeting up with you all as often as I can.

Which is not for the next 2 weeks or so, with limited exceptions. We have a sort of soft stop-order on extranious activites since we want to get our house in working order for the summer. (We still have some flood stuff to work out, though nothing major.)

I have much planned for this summer- I am going to World View Academy once again (and now some new friends Agape are coming too!) as well as going to Inside out Soul festival. In about three weeks I am going on a bike trip with my friend for 5 days. I'm really stoked about it but nervous all the same as I have to make sure both me and the bike are in working order. My friend is coming up all the way from Kansas for this afterall. Between all this I will also be stuffing my summer with as much Math as I can stomach. I need to catch up on that badly, and the classes I have picked out for next school year will fall through if I don't.

Of course, all that anticipation, but nothing exciting has really happened yet. So far the biggest event was my computer crapping out. Yeah, my main operating system hard drive had served me faithfully for over 5 years, and it began going into its death throws two days ago. Alas, we morn for the drive but move on with our lives. Knowing myself, I have stopped storing anything of value on my main disk along time ago. All my personal docs, movies, pictures, music, etc. are on other drives. This is good.

I'll probably be posting back from Frankenstien (the name of my main computer) soon. I just grabbed a drive we had laying around from a scrapped project and slapped it into my box. Things are looking good. Next post should be from the other side.

--
Oh, and don't mind the spelling errors please. Its 12:31 and I have no spell checker on this box. Yes I know there are online options but I'm TIRED. Goodnight.

Of strange donuts

I am not going to go into huge detail about the story of this post because it has allready been blogged elsewhere better then I ever could have (or because I am a lazy butt).

First, click the link above to hear the tail of the now infamous HRMHS (Horse-raddish mustard hot sauce) bostom creme donut. Its the first half of the post. Then, come back and see the pictures here.


Here is the donut being moddeled by the ever photgenic JackLu. Nice smile, Jack.


Now we have the intial reactions. I will confess that I am severely dissapointed with the control that my victim was able to demonstrate under such sensatorial assault- it was good form for her, but bad luck for me:
She saw it coming to many seconds in advance. It allowed her to give me a poker face before washing down the OJ to clear her sinuses, and thus, this picture is lackluster. Way to be K, way to be. You've ruined my blog. Just kidding.

Here is a picture of her moddeling the donut later. I think her face with in this picture actually depicts the sensation of HRMHS donut more accuratly then the first:


Next well- next was actually JackLu. He was even less fun then K- he just kept eating it and asked me in an incredulous tone "What? Like you don't put mustard in all your donuts?".

But probably the best reaction that I was able to catch on camera was my friend, damarque. Basically, I verbally bullied him into it, saying if he could take Basic Training he should be able to take a Horse-raddish Hot Sauce Donut. He complied.

Damarque never actually swallowed it. He took a big bite, then sort of worked his way to the nearest trash recepticle and discarded the offending pastry from his mouth. Someone mentioned to me that this was a huge accomplishment. "You actually found something he won't eat. Dude," the source said on Tuesday, "this kid will eat chalk." This made me feel proud, in a strange nonsensical sort of way.

The last was B. She told us we woulnd't get a reaction out of her. You be the judge:
The prank... overall, it was good- but I am humbly realizing that I need more experience on the delivery. Perhaps staying up till 4 does something to ones reasoning or acting ability though...

You see, the night previous I stayed up till 4 in the morning working on an economics report (which is the pWnZ!!!11!! by the way). I was dead tired, but I was giddy enough not to let it stop me from what I was about to do: a sweet comeback was in the air and I could taste it. It was hot and tangy and kind of stung my eyes.

I retrieved the practice donut my picked up for me from its clever hiding place in the downstairs fridge and ran up to the kitchen with it. I whipped out a plate, some "Chilly Today, Hot Tamali" sauce and some bratworst horsraddish beer mustard. I gleefully found and prepped my tools and began pioneering the extraction methods. When I decided I had finally got enough of the goop out, I started filling the donut in with the speacial sauce. I then pasted the side with some of the extracted creme so that no casual observer would be any the wiser.

Now for the hard part: I had to taste it to make sure the boston creme that was still in the donut didn't neutralize the new sauce. I sort of hesitated for awhile. Then I took a bite out of the side that hadn't been to much affected. Finally, I took a bite from the damage zone. My mouth started screaming at me- I think it was swearing and saying something to the effect of "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?". I ran over to the sink and spit it out. I had milk on hand to wash out my mouth- I used it. After about three rinse cycles, I looked down on the half bitten bite and started laughing. I looked down on what I made, and behold, it was very bad. And on the 5th hour, I rested.

----
Yes, I know... promotion night is not mentioned up there. I think this post is long enough, and I am tired. To everyone, just in case I don't get around to making a farewell-everyone post: Dude, your all stinking awesome. I got mad love for all of you- Agape has made my year. I totally wish I met you all earlier, even though now with most of you it seems we've been friends our whole life. Remember when ? Such good times man! Can't wait till next year,

----Signature

Life as illustrated by the many faces of Zeke

Greetings to all! To the one (or possibly two; depending on which way the sanity check goes) of you who actually care: Sorry about not getting a new post up. I know, horrendous. My last one I had a good excuse for; I was trying to be somewhat formal and post a specific topic. I don’t know what excuse I’ll use for this one. Can I call in sick to blogging?

one more apology to get out of the way before I get started. To all of you who have lame connections (I think that’s just you Anders) I apologize for this post’s perfuse employment of images. I like images- they make things so much easier- but sorry about the whole waiting thing. But you’ll get over it I’m sure.

You see, life often seems like a kaleidoscope- hundreds of different images and events happening just barely far apart enough from each other to appreciate them. This is, after all, why we like art- movies, books, songs- because we like to capture and savor these moments. And it is with that in mind that I present “My life in the past few weeks, as told by a crappy montage of images thrown together painstakingly in mspaint” as a discussion springboard:

The picture of me with the tux in the center is myself as Henry Higgins. The one on the bottom left is probably the only non-frightening off stage picture of me with makeup. These of course, represent the now seemingly small blip of time that was the play production of Pygmalion at my home school co-op. Two small pictures- but behind them so much- I know not even where to start. This play has been (though so much work) SOOO much fun. I think this production has been the one I have enjoyed the most- and I say that feeling slightly guilty, since everyone else I’ve worked with before has been awesome as well. But honestly, everything about this play was great. I got to play British jerk- this is much more accessible, I think, then any of my other big roles (Aslan and Prospero). I could draw from more common, ordinary things and I could take them further. I was really able to slip into the role. The other ones I’ve played were good and I enjoyed them, but this one gave me so much liberty to mess around, because I wasn’t as- insecure?- about who the character was. I rarely second guessed myself as the character while onstage. Not that I was overly confident; it still had its moments of difficulty and anxiousness but… I guess, for whatever reason, I was able to believe myself as the character more so then I ever have in a play. The script has a lot to do with it, but I think that another part is probably the great acting stuff I’ve done with my awesome drama teacher…I’ve taken an acting exercise class this semester from her and a play writing class from her last semester, and I see so (and appreciate) so much more in a production now. And speaking of this production…

It wasn’t just the source material and MY experience that was so wonderful for me, it was EVERYONE involved in the play. I am doing a mental double-check right now to be sure, but- yes, I can accurately say that EVERYONE who was involved in this play made it a better experience. I cannot think of a single person that contributed negatively or did not contribute at all. This all starts of course with the amazing director- Mrs. M. She is right in between the last of my directors extremes- laid back and aggressive. Again, I almost feel bad saying this because I loved both of my directors and think they did a marvelous job- but the fact remains that I am awed by how this director was personable and calm through everything, yet could still exert authority or give criticism. She gave us A LOT of space to come up with our own interpretations and ways of delivering lines, so much so at first that it frustrated me a bit. She only made real changes to my deliveries twice. But those times- wow. It is amazing how these little tweaks can change the emotion onstage.

Paragraph six, and I’m still talking about Pygmalion. Oh dear, this is going to be a long post. But so be it, because this experience was that great. It was a book-post-in-your-blog great. It doesn’t stop at the director: all the behind the scenes people were amazing. I’ve never seen a support staff like this. Makeup, sets, props, clothes- all were handled so well. Behind the scenes people really are the unsung stars of the play- they make or break a production of this scale. And in this case, they made it. But the best part of this production, which spans over every memory I have of it, is by far the people. I have become friends with people I did not know well before, and I have become closer to those on the crew and cast that I did know. I didn’t know the actor that played opposite me as Pickering at all until we started the play and now we joke around with each other all the time. I got to know and laugh with the people who (often against my will) applied my makeup. They are all awesome. I knew most of the people on the set crew, but I got to know and respect them more during the play. I am so pleased with the production, not only because all did such a good job in their part, but because all of them were such awesome people.

This actually, brings me to the top left picture… me, with cake all over my face and silly string a’ plenty draped about my person. You see, I am SO loved that certain people took it upon themselves to prank me. I don’t believe I have really been seriously pranked like I was that night ever before in my life. I got to experience what it felt like to have cake smashed into your face, which was good and ended a life long curiosity I held. I got an excuse to put cake in various girls face, which was even better and satisfied an immaturity that I have had to suppress for a very long time. Then I got dragged outside, mobster style, and was assaulted with silly string. This was all fun and good, but I am still hitting myself for such a wasted opportunity. You see, I got wind of a prank involving silly string, and last minute I was able to get a supplier to give me a partially used can for my self defense. I hid it cleverly in my jacket pocket, and when they pulled the caps off to open fire, I drew mine as well. Unfortunately, in the darkness and confusion of that fateful night, I failed to properly make out which end of the nozzle the silly string would actually spray out of. And as such, what was supposed to be my valiant last stand was totally batched and actually aided the enemy I was trying so hard to regain my dignity from. Overall- it was AWESOME. Thank you everyone who was involved in that prank and in the play. I have some great memories I will tell for years to come.

Now we get to top right and bottom right images. These represent a past time I have become increasingly involved in- paintballing. I have a new friend I met a few months ago who is extremely into paintballing, and has got me active in it after several years of owning a gun but rarely if ever, using it. As you can see by the top right picture, I got pWnd pretty hard. Direct hit to the eye and mouth vent. The bottom shows how I actually got to taste the paint, since the ball exploded through the vent holes. By the way, it wasn’t that good- though it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be though. The paint had a rather strong tang to it that somewhat disagreed with me.

I’ve played paintball I think 2 weeks in a row now- and one of them was a several hour cookout/shootout. That was a lot of fun- even though I was the first to get cut down almost EVERY game. I blame the gun and me being a n00b. But it doesn’t matter; the game is a lot of fun. Hard, painful fun, but fun nonetheless. I have several happy welts all over me now thanks to my little binge of sporting, and I am proud of them.

The other pictures get more and more vauge as I was trying to fill spaces in the montage, but I’ll give them meaning anyway. The in the middle right of me on the computer, represents me on the computer. Its something I do a lot- I think I live a good deal of my life the through the avenue of cyberspace. Its my social hub when not at my co-op or church, its my source of information, of entertainment, and the sole recipient of the meager bit of organizational skills I have. Almost all of my creative outlets pass through the computer at one time or another- either blogging, or writing something for school or listening to music. So I suppose this image does show an important picture in my kaliscope of time.

The others- are me with hair. I suppose this isn’t directly related to the last few weeks, but I am going to tie it in anyway. You see, I have had a fro and it looked cool. I have had wanna-be dreads, and they did not look that cool. I have had a beard for awhile, and in my humble opinion, that looked cool. I now have no beard and I believe I am not alone in thinking that I made a drastic mistake. One that re-growth will solve, but a mistake nonetheless. But wait, you say- why the picture of the fro and not the picture of the beardless man? Because

a) I don’t have any pictures of me with out a beard and

b) That is as it should be and will likely remain so.

And that, my friends, concludes this broadcast. It was a long one, I know. I'd say I'm sorry, but that would imply the notion that I will try to change my habbits and in the future will post small episodes. This will probably happen again, I shoudn't wonder. Sorry bout that. Oh wait... dang it. And finally, since I like to be unconventional, and also to make you all slightly annoyed, I will end this post with a whimper instead of a bang.