Wednesday, October 30, 2013

reality checking






challenge are great.   i'm pretty lazy and am generally unqualmed by things but lately I've realised that I get strange pleasure out of comfortably dealing with things that should probably make me anxious, i'm not devoid of anxious emotions but the challenge of being casj amongst said tears is what i'm talking about specifically..  I'm going overseas tomorrow and i'm ill prepared as usual, except this time there are more spanners in my generally clunky works as yesterday my car took its final drive, i've lost my visa card, can't buy a visa or my connecting flights from LA-VAN...   I get back from this trip and will be moving house in the proceeding days, for which i've not packed/rallied my possessions apart from clothing, also my broken car's boot is full of skate equipment that i have to deal with before my car gets towed. shiet.    Right now i should be starting to pack or clean my room or do anything mildly productive but procrastination transcends all facets of life.

Canada/USA will be sweet though, classic case of sending myself away in order to bring myself back, and when I get back i'll just buy a motorbike and be sorted until the next trip whereby i lose and forget other important things.   The biggest problem is that I have to pack for Vancouver and LA, with respective temps of 5-10º and 22-29º and i'm bad at packing at the best of the time, usually because i refuse to pack anything and end up wearing the same shirt and shorts for 3 weeks. 

unfortunately my heels still hurt, i went for a wheelyboard yesterday and it's tricky, but this trip is for catalogue production so i'll happily busy myself with photos.

i must stop doing useless shit and pack/organise an emergency visa/get my car towed/move house











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once i learnt something valuable, and it's that trying to forget requires recollection which reinforces the need to remember aka no forgetting.. so if i apply this idea to important things like my passport then i will never lose it!  (although trying to forget my passport seems pretty reckless)



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unlike me, this dude (mark linkous) had real problems and shot himself in the heart at 47









Sunday, October 27, 2013

crux of casj





developments of lamb:-
i can almost skate again.  epic!

informed yesterday that i'll be in canada in 4 days.  woo!


other things have happened but those things aren't of note as they're not directly relating to stoke.  I'm awaiting the return of being content and exhausted from a physical activity, something i enjoy very muchly.  I recall down time being much more difficult in the past but i think its strictly attributable to general levels.  

i'm currently pushing charcoal levels of toast but it's not too bad as i'm wearing my towel dress/tears immunity cloak.  Except really it needs to provide me immunity from time and it's commodity based existence..  i guess it makes sense that the easiest things to spend are the hardest to save.   

epicly i get to have halloween up there and i might even get to get some snowtime whislt in BC woooo!   thankyou feelings associated with knowing certain end to mundanity is nigh and i'll get to skateboard again.  phew... as i'm definitely in the general loss of shit zone.



here are a bunch of photos i took on the day we had in Spokane Washington midway through our northern voyage, it's about 30 minutes from the Idaho border and is a skate paradise!!  Bulk parks, some big mountains and plenty of sanfranesque urban terrain.   plus the people are chilled except theres a big drug problem (perhaps unrelated to the full legality of weed) there, for instance, we went to a park with a 12 foot quarter pipe straight into a 9' concrete wall/death.   The government should initiate some sort of board based rehab scenario as they probably just need some stoke to break up the drabness of the place, it's got drab in spades.







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1st night in Spokane, having just had a of driving from Boise Idaho through Lewiston.   It was an allll day drive but we got to swim in some lakes, bomb a handful of big mountain roads and had the greatest time skating an epicly windy pass with no trees/maximum view on sunset.  when we dropped in i could see corner, when we finished i could no longer see corners, it was wildly ideal.









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fingerbang smanging a run the locals showed us, another epicly long windy mountain road.. there was a few instances of carnage but everyone was fine.










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sorry pat.











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kyle chowing the lurks burger deluxe











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riding a bike











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we smashed our own window










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Spokane is old, 230 years old and it's built around a beautiful cascading waterfall.. the whole place is extremely pleasing to look at in the sense of bricks and old industry, the steamplant is pretty sweet.











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bed in Sprague, a proper ghost town.





But then we woke up, supposed to be heading for Yakima/Wenatchee but they were on fire and we couldn't do that so we lurked back in spokane, skated some sweet estate roads and that night drove to Liar's Cove, the next day we'd be in Canada.








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steveaughn sharing lines with a local grombat













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there's this thing in america called Cabellas,  which to sum up is the walmart of outdoor stuff, from the biggest gun selection imaginable to live fish and Goretex everything.  to be rude, it's Redneck heaven.







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and on and on








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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

mobilezones




much of my life is spent within cars in various manners of shape and intrigue, and it's one of the funnest bits of my general.   Having the option of seeing the world at ultra rate is always ideal as the other option, lurking, is readily attainable at all points in time.  For taking photos it's pretty epic as to execute a drive by shot you generally have to be in a car.. but you can take photos from planes if you're down for the tears multiple layers of bendy windows and every photo kind of looking the same even though a plane's window presents more diversity than any other medium of real world viewing, could be the inability to open the window.   Plus with cars you can stop basically anywhere!   Witnessing yates negotiate our full-blown RV into a small-car spot on Market street, in Melbourne's CBD, extend the patio onto the footpath and begin offering pedestrians goon was something i'd not see from a plane, or a train.     











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this is my car, in adventure mode - it's proudest state.    A VW passat that as of late has begun the inevitable spiral into disrepair but it's fine because i'm forced to get a new, more ideal car and i've had p-tron since shortly after I was licensed about 5 years ago.    It's a 4wd in disguise. 













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the trondola, previously owned by mitchtron6000, Subaru Liberty.   I did some time in this car, snow trips mostly as they take so very long and are so very far away..  An ideal tool for single leg drives that provides no sleep one way, due to excitement, and too much sleep on the other, due to the ultimate tears of leaving the snow.    it's since been replaced by a VW Caddy, the greatest car in the world.  Diggins, Sep 2012.











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Chad's mums car, A Honda CRV which Gabe was intrigued by.  It's not really a photo of the car but I was kind of over trawling for photos of cars...  Mount Keira, Apr 2012.












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This hire car initiated my current must have a wagon mentality, Skoda Octavia.   We got it in Prague, 4 buildings away from the Central Square that's more like a rectangle and it was the first time i'd driven wrong side and there were trams all over and nothing i understood.. was very deep..  But the car was a comfy, autobahn approved moving house which was fully equipped at Tesco (forget walmart) for less than 300, including a fridge.  Innsbruck, Aug 2012













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Am Drem is the car of James Kelly, American Dream.  It cruises around California to the greatest hills in the world at a rate of casual.  Jeep Cherokee Sport, with what i think was the Golden Eagle model and it's epic. Santa Barbara, Jan 2013.














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N-tense d-centz van!  Mercedes Sprinter for 12 people and a bunch of kilometers across NZ's north island.  It's a bus, but as far as busses go it's not too bad, the chairs are semi-captain and comfy for the most part, the number of crew was the best bit.   Although maybe the best bit was the creep potential of those decals with holes, so sly that people of 1 foot away could see zero of the interior. Muka, Feb 2013.













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After europe i was down on wagons, the Skoda was sick, but this wagon (Nissan Wingroad) was the next level and is my current car of choice as we had 4 people and all of required posesions for 3 weeks of roadlife and it was still comfy, agile and highway ideal.  well i drove for the most part so i had ample room but the cosyness was nice, everything was stacked so high.  Even with such stacking it still managed to negotiate japanese switchbacks with maximum ideality.  Ben slept inside with zero qualm.   Mt Fuji, Mar 2013.











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Another not so car oriented photo but we've all seen these big RVs, with rooftop luxury zone/tranq bubble.  Living in this thing was epic, a month was 100% casj but it got ridiculously filthy.........  I went the exterior bed option with yates' swag and that was a definite powerplay, apart from the plane ride home, so i left it in melbourne and paid for a courier.  This is Striker's hair.  West End,  Apr 2013.










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Another exterior bed situation except this time it was highway bitumen in a Utah desert.   Yates on the roof, guff and me on the gravel and kyle + steven + fingerbang melting inside.  I was stoked i slept at all and the bruises on my hips and ankles were a minor sleep taxt as that night there was immense thunder, hectic desert breezes (almost lost my sleeping bag to a ravine) and cars pulling over as there was a van parked nowhere with bodies on the ground. Camped next to this thing for 14 days and everyday was ideal. Landy's american van, GMC something.. Quail Creek UT, July 2013.










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the big van, i spent much time in this.  It's huge and only 1/5 trips was it full.. Adam and i took it around BC with 2 seats of the 14 filled, and for a few days shawty collingwood.    It's pretty good, seats aren't as comfy as the Bear van but the stereo system is too novelty to pass up.  Columbia River Washington, Aug 2013.















Sunday, October 20, 2013

quantum





last weeks hiccup of immobilisation and full restriction on playing with my skateboard is thankfully soon to be but a bitter memory of pain and lack of stoke.  I've almost healed all of my skin, which is crazy but mostly fascinating... fascinating because all I have to do is patiently ignore pain while my central nervous system works away at trying to make amends for my poor decisions, although.. hopefully these marks are not staph.   My heel is still toast, I can't yet walk properly but it's no longer a source of aching pain, unless I stand on it.   

All I know for sure is that I've worked all week thus ticking box number 1 (making money) at a success rate of 100 but box 2 (my sanity) isn't performing so well, which is most likely attributable to a 9 day adrenaline based stoke drought...  

All is well though because I've not completely insaned, but I'm certainly bordering on loss of shit territory with an increasing chance of bringing my self back.





I'm pretty sure this is Ahipara beach in the very north of NZ, a place where you'll find pippies and not much else [apart from a short drive to one of the best roads in the world].  Well if you're lucky, which we weren't in this sense, but one of the better left hand points in the world (teeheee) and I hope when i return in Feb there will be no waves, unless there is board hire... because taking surfboards in a tightly packed skate van is not conducive to anything anyones ever thought was a good idea.  






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L-R  Scabs, American Dream and No Boloney



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Chad and the problems with mazzing too furiously


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Yates' ideal bedding.


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Funky Trunks in the boot of AmDrem, looking expectantly casual. 


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DGM fot that i got at Giant's Head. 


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Brandywine Falls in British Columbia, just off the Sea to Sky.  A pretty tranq place that is definitely worth a visit if applicable.   More moss than I could handle plus there's a train track that runs over the river about 15 meters before the drop off, which we got on and wiggged as incoming trains would result in death, as would jumping into the water as you would shortly be enjoying a 70m drop.



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