Here's a video of the Marshallese at one of their churches on Christmas.
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Sunday, December 25, 2016
Monday, December 19, 2016
some things about the philippines...
A few differences from what Americans might be used to....
-they don't remove the bones from much of anything. you have to eat around them. Fish especially.
-toilet paper is for drying off. They have a hose with high pressure for cleaning.
-in the bathrooms toilet paper is used for paper towels after you wash your hands
- the napkins at the tables are very small
- the portions of food are very small, but more than sufficient
- the brooms are all made local and they only use one hand to sweep
- no one has time for too much recreation, besides just hanging with family
- lines on the road mean nothing. In the city or in the country.
- if you fight one Philippino you fight all of them. Don't fight.
- the hoses in the bathrooms are a better idea than what we have going
- they might be a little poor, but I think their lives are better.
- a 125cc motorbike can hold 6 people if you are creative
- guys usually get up to dance first at nightclubs, then women come up
-they don't remove the bones from much of anything. you have to eat around them. Fish especially.
-toilet paper is for drying off. They have a hose with high pressure for cleaning.
-in the bathrooms toilet paper is used for paper towels after you wash your hands
- the napkins at the tables are very small
- the portions of food are very small, but more than sufficient
- the brooms are all made local and they only use one hand to sweep
- no one has time for too much recreation, besides just hanging with family
- lines on the road mean nothing. In the city or in the country.
- if you fight one Philippino you fight all of them. Don't fight.
- the hoses in the bathrooms are a better idea than what we have going
- they might be a little poor, but I think their lives are better.
- a 125cc motorbike can hold 6 people if you are creative
- guys usually get up to dance first at nightclubs, then women come up
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Back in Makati
If I ever won the lottery, so I don't play the lottery, but should I ever play and win.....Makati is the first place I'd go. Maybe the Philippines in general. Maybe this is the first place I've visited where the US dollar stretches so far. All of southeast Asia is probably in a similar situation.
This place down the street where the Berjeya Hotel is, is a melting pot, sort of. It's two business's down from the hotel. Its a restaurant, but very open. Run by women, as far as I have seen, the kitchen is sunken but almost street level. From the street you walk up an area full of tables until you reach a counter full of similar items they sell in the Philippines. Individual cigarettes, small candies, and other individual small stuff you can eat. That counter is waist level for the patrons, but head level to the lady cooks. Its on a corner, and its all open. No walls except the back of the kitchen. So the roof is several different levels put together as time went on.
Sitting at the higher level near the counter you can see everything the tables at the street level even though they are about two feet lower. Its just a great spot for watching all the different sorts of people go by without getting so close that you get solicited for stuff. Its a gathering spot for local Algerians. Last night one was arguing and insulting one of the waitresses. I've got no idea really what was going on, but it was loud, she was mad, and he was insulting. They were there when I was here the first time. Many have told me they are very social. The only real complaints I've heard is about the "Arabs" and how they treat women. "They come here to do things to women they can't in their country".
The first time I came here in early November, it was afternoon, and I sat and had a few beers. It's such a great place to people watch. There was this lady there, mixed Philippino and something darker, pretty, but emotionless. She was sitting facing me against the wall in a bench seat. I was trying not to stare even though there was little else to look at. She had a beer in front of her and she was just chillin at the table. I went up at some point to get another beer and she walked up and introduced herself as Jane. So a bit later some strange shaved headed white guy showed up and sat next to her. He looked a little hollow eyed and acted odd dancing around a bit. I kept eye contact with her, smirked a bit at the crazy man bothering her...which shortly after is when she introduced herself. Ok, well fix the timeline yourself, the crazy guy came up at some point before she introduced herself.
After returning from Palawan (pronounced Puh-LAUW on) to Makati, I went out to get something to eat and maybe find another good people watching place. I ended up returning to the Resto Bar down the street from the Berjeya. I bought some old guy selling hats dinner, but told the waitress not to tell him where it came from, the other waitress didn't get the memo. Nothing came of it, I mean of her pointing at me and telling him who bought his dinner. I know he would have spent the 350 pesos ($7) better had I just handed it to him, but he seemed to enjoy the meal.
So after a few beers on my part, Jane showed up and sat down in the table in front of me. I got up and sat down in front of her at her table and said hi. She told me her name wasn't "Jane"...."my name is Rose". I argued a bit with her, she recognized me from 3 weeks ago, she thanked me for the dinner, but insisted her name was Rose. I gave up on Jane, kind of. I'm pretty good with remembering peoples names, and knew she introduced herself as Jane. We talked awhile and at some point she gave a little concession and said her name was "Rosie-Jane". I'm not sure how she couldn't have confessed that a little earlier, or didn't get that connection, but, well, whatever. She told me she was homeless in Makati, that she slept next to "that building" and pointed somewhere behind me. By the way she was dressed, with a lite blue dress on with shoulder straps that looked new, it was hard to imagine she was homeless. It wasn't just the dress, it was the way the waitresses interacted with her, and she was pretty. While sitting in front of her, across the table, talking I noticed a few things. She kept wiping sweat from her forehead, and it wasn't that hot, it was comfortable, maybe 75 degrees and lower humidity. I was wondering if she was nervous talking to me. It was kind of cool to find out she was. She kept taking the shoulder straps of her dress and pulling them down to the sides of her shoulder, and the waitress kept complimenting my looks in front of her. It felt good, I'm not going to lie. Then the guy from before came in and started talking to her. The hollowed eyed white guy who it looked like was bothering her 3 weeks ago. She directed him to sit at the table behind her, and he did. Apparently they were friends and both homeless. George sat back there and I ordered beers and food for him. We sat apart like that for a while, until some late 60 something Finnish guy sat at the table next to us and got a little disrespectful. He started out just interrupting our conversation, like she wasn't even there and was talking to me. "Are you Finnish?" ....."in Finland we learned everything about all the states and the U.S. in school, but what do you Americans know about Finland?". I told him I was German to which he told me there is a lot of "Finish" blood in Germans. I agreed that American schools are not up to par with the world, and geography and all. At some point he said something about "getting a little pussy will............", and I told him I'm not talking to him anymore. "I'm done with you"......"Why because of the way SHE reacted when I said that?"......."No, because what you said is completely disrespectful, regardless of how she took it". He kept trying to talk. I got up with her and went to her friends table behind us. The Finnish guy got up all frustrated saying "Jesus Christ" and walked off.
George, Janes' friend was an Australian. He was a bit off, but mostly normal, but hard to understand. He kind of had this fast cocaine mumble. I bought them a few more beers as we talked. The old Finnish guy passed back thru and held his hand out for me to shake and said he was sorry. I shook it.
Before I left that night I gave Jane and George, 1000 pesos ($20).
I walk down the street the next day around 8 am past that Resto Bar looking for breakfast not really paying attention to the place. After breakfast, heading back to the hotel, I passed the place again. There was Jane and George sitting there with their heads down and their arms over their heads on the table I left them at the night before. I sat down and said their names. There was no movement at all. I looked over at the guy selling Viagra or Cialis and IPhone 5's on the street and he was smiling.
I ran across the portable pharmacy/apple store later after coming out of the 7-11 down the street the opposite way from the hotel. He held out his little box of pills in front of me, then made eye contact. I told him I was good and that I didn't want the pills, but asked if "they" woke up. He said they did, and left the place....
This place down the street where the Berjeya Hotel is, is a melting pot, sort of. It's two business's down from the hotel. Its a restaurant, but very open. Run by women, as far as I have seen, the kitchen is sunken but almost street level. From the street you walk up an area full of tables until you reach a counter full of similar items they sell in the Philippines. Individual cigarettes, small candies, and other individual small stuff you can eat. That counter is waist level for the patrons, but head level to the lady cooks. Its on a corner, and its all open. No walls except the back of the kitchen. So the roof is several different levels put together as time went on.
Sitting at the higher level near the counter you can see everything the tables at the street level even though they are about two feet lower. Its just a great spot for watching all the different sorts of people go by without getting so close that you get solicited for stuff. Its a gathering spot for local Algerians. Last night one was arguing and insulting one of the waitresses. I've got no idea really what was going on, but it was loud, she was mad, and he was insulting. They were there when I was here the first time. Many have told me they are very social. The only real complaints I've heard is about the "Arabs" and how they treat women. "They come here to do things to women they can't in their country".
The first time I came here in early November, it was afternoon, and I sat and had a few beers. It's such a great place to people watch. There was this lady there, mixed Philippino and something darker, pretty, but emotionless. She was sitting facing me against the wall in a bench seat. I was trying not to stare even though there was little else to look at. She had a beer in front of her and she was just chillin at the table. I went up at some point to get another beer and she walked up and introduced herself as Jane. So a bit later some strange shaved headed white guy showed up and sat next to her. He looked a little hollow eyed and acted odd dancing around a bit. I kept eye contact with her, smirked a bit at the crazy man bothering her...which shortly after is when she introduced herself. Ok, well fix the timeline yourself, the crazy guy came up at some point before she introduced herself.
After returning from Palawan (pronounced Puh-LAUW on) to Makati, I went out to get something to eat and maybe find another good people watching place. I ended up returning to the Resto Bar down the street from the Berjeya. I bought some old guy selling hats dinner, but told the waitress not to tell him where it came from, the other waitress didn't get the memo. Nothing came of it, I mean of her pointing at me and telling him who bought his dinner. I know he would have spent the 350 pesos ($7) better had I just handed it to him, but he seemed to enjoy the meal.
So after a few beers on my part, Jane showed up and sat down in the table in front of me. I got up and sat down in front of her at her table and said hi. She told me her name wasn't "Jane"...."my name is Rose". I argued a bit with her, she recognized me from 3 weeks ago, she thanked me for the dinner, but insisted her name was Rose. I gave up on Jane, kind of. I'm pretty good with remembering peoples names, and knew she introduced herself as Jane. We talked awhile and at some point she gave a little concession and said her name was "Rosie-Jane". I'm not sure how she couldn't have confessed that a little earlier, or didn't get that connection, but, well, whatever. She told me she was homeless in Makati, that she slept next to "that building" and pointed somewhere behind me. By the way she was dressed, with a lite blue dress on with shoulder straps that looked new, it was hard to imagine she was homeless. It wasn't just the dress, it was the way the waitresses interacted with her, and she was pretty. While sitting in front of her, across the table, talking I noticed a few things. She kept wiping sweat from her forehead, and it wasn't that hot, it was comfortable, maybe 75 degrees and lower humidity. I was wondering if she was nervous talking to me. It was kind of cool to find out she was. She kept taking the shoulder straps of her dress and pulling them down to the sides of her shoulder, and the waitress kept complimenting my looks in front of her. It felt good, I'm not going to lie. Then the guy from before came in and started talking to her. The hollowed eyed white guy who it looked like was bothering her 3 weeks ago. She directed him to sit at the table behind her, and he did. Apparently they were friends and both homeless. George sat back there and I ordered beers and food for him. We sat apart like that for a while, until some late 60 something Finnish guy sat at the table next to us and got a little disrespectful. He started out just interrupting our conversation, like she wasn't even there and was talking to me. "Are you Finnish?" ....."in Finland we learned everything about all the states and the U.S. in school, but what do you Americans know about Finland?". I told him I was German to which he told me there is a lot of "Finish" blood in Germans. I agreed that American schools are not up to par with the world, and geography and all. At some point he said something about "getting a little pussy will............", and I told him I'm not talking to him anymore. "I'm done with you"......"Why because of the way SHE reacted when I said that?"......."No, because what you said is completely disrespectful, regardless of how she took it". He kept trying to talk. I got up with her and went to her friends table behind us. The Finnish guy got up all frustrated saying "Jesus Christ" and walked off.
George, Janes' friend was an Australian. He was a bit off, but mostly normal, but hard to understand. He kind of had this fast cocaine mumble. I bought them a few more beers as we talked. The old Finnish guy passed back thru and held his hand out for me to shake and said he was sorry. I shook it.
Before I left that night I gave Jane and George, 1000 pesos ($20).
I walk down the street the next day around 8 am past that Resto Bar looking for breakfast not really paying attention to the place. After breakfast, heading back to the hotel, I passed the place again. There was Jane and George sitting there with their heads down and their arms over their heads on the table I left them at the night before. I sat down and said their names. There was no movement at all. I looked over at the guy selling Viagra or Cialis and IPhone 5's on the street and he was smiling.
I ran across the portable pharmacy/apple store later after coming out of the 7-11 down the street the opposite way from the hotel. He held out his little box of pills in front of me, then made eye contact. I told him I was good and that I didn't want the pills, but asked if "they" woke up. He said they did, and left the place....
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Nagtabon Beach....November 14th
Ok, apparently it was actually the 13th I was there. A Sunday. I didn't really get it at first, why it was so crowded, and I was nearly the only white guy there. I didn't get it mostly because of just wanting to learn to get on the 6'4" surfboard they had for rent there and try to surf what little break they had. It wasn't about surfing, it was about learning to get on a smaller board. What a beautiful place to learn. Nagtabon beach is this beautiful valley about 30 minutes from Puerto Princesa. You have to travel through rural countryside to get there, a lot of curvy kind of uphill and rural but concrete roads to get there. Once away from Puerto Princesa the road goes down to two lanes, not that anyone here really cares about what a lane is. The rural people dry there rice on the roadways. They put tarps down, half past the white stripe that is the official edge of the road and half into the grass that is what we would refer to as the berm. So 4 feet into the road in a place like Hocking County in Southern Ohio where the roads are all curvy and hilly, they would have a tarp halfway into a lane or nearly so, with rice on it. It seemed the only flat dry sunfilled, windfilled area they might have available, so they use it. The sun provides the heat, and the passing cars and scooters, and tricycles, and etc provide the wind. It just seems odd, from the Ohio boy standpoint, that someone would clog up half a lane on a blind curve to dry their rice. They also use the side of the road to graze their Ox. Nose ring tied to a tree or whatever, you come blasting around a corner to see what, as far as I know, a 2000 pound water buffalo standing next to a road you could be doing 45 mph on. The Ox don't care, neither do the goats they tether there. Dogs here on the other hand bring new meaning to "don't care" as far as roadway etiquette might be concerned. Near the city or out in the middle of no where, the dogs just chill. Halfway thru the lanes, in the middle, they just seem not to care. Many of them, probably are wanting suicide, most I've seen are fairly healthy, none are overweight.
So the last bit of journey into Nagtabon is way downhill. When going today, I stopped to take a picture from the roadway before heading down the hill. It was too tree covered to really get a good shot, but I tried. While I was standing there, a silent scooter went by with a Filipino guy on it. The engine was off, he was saving gas. I followed suit, didn't start my motor and coasted downhill to the beach. The locals, I'm guessing, have a spot for cars and such, but the tricycles and motorcycles and scooters just kind of squeeze into the end of the road before the beach starts and before the two huts that kind of mark the beginning of the beach. I'm guessing its all privately owned. You go between two beach huts (picture what you might consider a well built tiki hut) and there is the south china sea. To the left there are a few more beach huts that sell stuff, canoes with outriggers, and more "rental huts" that are basically a picnic table covered in Tiki hut style. To the right there is the same except more huts that sell stuff. I settled in on one to the right. This beautiful Palawan girl missing all her front teeth had a kind of big stand with 4 picnic table size tables under shade/rain cover all palm leave covered like most of them. Her daughters and mother worked it all with her, I'm guessing they all just lived right there under the cover from rain. The bugs are not really an issue except maybe the flies, but they go away at night. Flies/ bugs must not be too big of a deal here because many ride their cycles full bore with no eye protection.
So Nagtabon Beach is around 6km long, if one were to walk it from the one side cliff to the next. The beach at low tide and high tide is still much larger than what I've taken for granted living in the Marshalls. (yes I feel cool saying that). The sand is a dirty blonde. They report no sharks, but the whole valley beach has no reason to have a bunch of fish that sharks may feed off of...so no sharks. This place is probably the most beautiful beachy spot I've ever witnessed in my life. Its just the remote untouched feel of it mainly I'd guess.
So today, Sunday, I came here to rent the surfboard from the guy who rents surfboards, kind of. Dominic, my friend from the hotel, helped me find him. The waves aren't really good for surfing, but they are good for learning to get on/ride a shorter board. After spending two hours in the water today, I went to the beautiful lady missing most her top front teeth. She had some food that looked kind of good, chicken based. I can see why Americans are so big, versus the Asians. The servings here are more realistic based on the energy output of the Philippinos. They are small, very small even if you include the rice. Its been no secret to me that we eat too much, that I eat too much. Even given my active nature, my caloric intake is more than I need.
So the beautiful jet black haired, nearly thirty something Philippino beach lady missing most of her top front teeth, with several cute kids, and a mother working the hut too, gives me grief about not having a smaller denomination than what I have had. I give the grief back. All is good.
After spending a few hours surfing, returning the board, then getting something to eat, I sit and wait, just watching all the people on the beach. Its then I realize that its Sunday and the Philippinos are big time family people and that is why the beach is so crowded. It starts to rain. It rains hard for a long while. I'm under cover, half of the people are under cover of tiki huts made of palm leaves, just like you might picture from a perfect beach deal. The other half of the people just don't care. They play volleyball, they continue to play in the water. The group in front of where I'm sitting tries to avoid the rain for a while, hiding under their hut and the tarp that covers the area in front of me. They are drinking beer as evidenced by the empty Grandes under their benches in the hut. Then they kind of embrace the rain. They use the water off the tarp to do their dishes, after hiding under the tarp long enough to realize the rain is not going to stop. Women with jeans on, that were initially trying to stay dry, gave up and come back from the ocean soaked.
After a while, I give up, and ask for a San Miguel Grande. Its a fourty ouncer of San Miguel, a Filipino made beer. So the toothless woman says.."so you're drinking now". It continued raining until I finished the beer. A Spanish couple was under the cover of the toothless girls hut also. The rain continues and rather than try and drive my motor bike home in it, I decide to go body surfing. The body surfing was going well, but these kids around 14 had a 4 seater kayak with two paddles. They were trying to surf the waves in. It was kind of working. I yelled at them when they were out there perched to catch a wave, and screamed for them to paddle as a wave approached. It was hilarious. They kind of rode a wave in, but mostly the kayak just turned on them and they wiped out and dumped everyone. They offered me a seat....and hell yea I took it. One asked me if I spoke Taglog. I only recognized that one word and said no. He said "English" and after that I was guessing he was yelling "paddle white dog" although I doubt it because they are so nice an respectful. There was a lot of screaming going on as we tried to catch waves. It nearly always ended in the kayak full of 4 or 5 of us side shifting and dumping and more screaming. A few times there was pain, but mostly it was all just a bunch of laughing as we came up. Others came out and wanted to ride. They had to, we were the loudest things on the water. I saw some people throwing a Frisbee and was quick to say thank you and leave. Trust me, I was sooo happy to play with them on the kayak. So I gave the guys on the beach firs thing my light up Frisbee. It was middle of the day, I don't think they got the coolness of it. We had a huge Frisbee circle going then a midget field of ultimate started. Perfectly awesome! Playing ultimate in a foreign country on the most beautiful huge beach I've ever been to with a bunch of guys who just scream a lot for fun.
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| Chicken and Hen islands. Not sure if that is the name of those islands, but I got it from somewhere, and besides none of you will know anyhow |
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| So, this was NOT family day, but you can see the beauty. |
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| So gorgeous. |
Thursday, November 10, 2016
The Philippines.....Makati
Beginning of November...
It took a while to get here, even from Kwaj. The United flight stops at Pohnpei, Kosrei, and Chuuk, before getting to Guam. I might have the order wrong, along with the spelling. Amber told me I could get off the plane on each island. I boarded the plane with a guy I barely knew from Kwaj that works with San Juan. I convinced him we need to get off the plane, and have a beer at each island. The islands were about an hour away, and it took around 45 mins to exchange passengers each time. The first stop, we started to deplane, but the announcement said basically that you shouldn't, so we sat back down. We both noted that others got off and came back anyhow. So the next little island, we both got off the plane. Dom is a smoker, and that had to be his motivation. There wasn't a place to smoke, but they did sell beer. He forgot his boarding pass, and started to wig out a bit after I asked him about it. I think the wigging out was the nicotine withdrawal. It worked out of course and we got back on the plane after around 45mins in the terminal. The next stop he said he wasn't going to get off the plane. I pushed. He stayed, well for a bit. There was a smoking part outside at that airport.
Dom and I were heading to the same final destination in Manila...well Makiti in Manila. So in Guam we ran together thru the airport to make it to the final flight to Manila. Dom was only spending the night there and heading to Thailand the next day. Turns out his hotel was right around the corner from my hotel in Makati.
Makati/Manila is a huge area,....a huge city. Manila probably has around 1000 buildings over 30 stories high. I would guess its bigger than New York. After spending 5 days in my hotel in Makati, its safe to say its a dirty city with nice people, and a ton of homeless and desperate people. That part of it has to be worse than New York because the weather is so much warmer. The exchange rate here is great for the dollar. 48 Philipino Peso's for one US dollar. The hotel, a very nice 50 story hotel downtown was 250$ for 5 days. The doorman and staff were super super nice and cordial. The streets were full of people asking for nearly anything at night. It seemed every store had a security guard in front of it. The guards all had police looking uniforms on, navy blue pants with a dress white shirt and the belt full of implements. Many had shotguns leashed in a way around their necks that they rested their hands on them. So they looked ready to be used at any timetime. The bank guards had M-16 rifles. It was fairly depressing in the beginning. After the second day, after sitting in an outdoor corner open air restaurant drinking beer and just watching people, a few women stood out. One was in the place when I got there.....and I kept making eye contact with her as this strange (American) guy sat next to her and kept bothering her kind of. She was Philipino, he was sunken eyed, dancing strangely and sitting next to her. She was facing me, and he was facing her. It looked uncomfortable for her. She didn't really waver, she just looked at me (at least for the few seconds I let my eyes meet hers) with a blank stare. Later when I was getting another beer a the counter she was too and introduced herself as Jane. I went back to my seat, and at some point the weird guy left. I ordered and ate dinner, which was a great chicken curry, while she sat there and brought something out of her purse to eat. I couldn't really figure her out, she was there way too long, but had a beer in front of her the whole time. At the same time another girl came around in front of the place begging for money. She approached a few people with with no luck. She stopped after a while and just sat in the chairs of the restaurant closest to the street. The chicken curry was good. I ordered another meal and asked the server to split it between the two women. I paid and left. It felt really great to do something nice for those two...it felt even better cause I didn't wait around to get a thank you. Hell, maybe they didn't even get it. It was GREAT chicken curry. It was $6. The grin lasted at least a few hours, the good feeling, a while longer.
The next night, maybe my 4th night there, after finding my way to the "Tequila Bar" that overlooked a very busy sketchy area in Makati, but had a security guard there ushering away street people. It was an open air bar/restaurant with a great view of the bordellos, and the skinny little street children, the skinny little street vendors, and just all the activity not seen in most of the Midwest or the states. I ordered a meal, then a second meal that first night. There was a guy, that couldn't have weighed more than 120lbs selling some feathery kind of thing. I couldn't tell what he was selling. He was incredibly small, and had some wares that he laid out in front of him on the corner. He sat in front of them on his feet, the way most adults in the US can't, still on his feet but his butt was resting on them. After watching him for a while, his (?) kids came by and he gave them some of what he was selling and he ushered them off. These kids were like 5 and maybe 8 years old. They got my second meal. I just walked out of the place handed it to them and walked back in.
The next night was very different. Ten pizzas went out. I passed them out so quick their reactions were missed. I wonder if altruism can also be hedonism. The next night I didn't go so far, there was a Korean restaurant that had the most THE MOST incredible seafood cake. It was a meaty 14 inch egg based pizza shaped deal. After first looking at it and thinking that'll make a great meal tomorrow too, I ate the whole thing. Across the street before I went in the place, there was this nearly seventy year old woman sleeping next to her probably older husband on a concrete stoop to a place that looked abandoned. The other seafood pizza went to this lady. It felt really good.
After getting a ride in the hotel cab for what someone told me later was a ridiculous price of 600 pesos, I used my "Uber" app on my phone for the first time. Pretty cool. It showed me how much the fare would be, who would pick me up, what the license plate number was, and the kind of car. So for around 3 dollars you can go nearly anywhere in Makati which translates into about thirty to forty five minutes on a weekend. The "Mall of Asia" was my first destination, with getting a decent pair of sunglasses in mind. I am pretty sure I've never been among so many people and been the only one with blonde hair.
Traffic in Manila is crazy. The main form of public transportation is these Filipino made buses with no windows called a Jeepney. To be more precise, they have windows, but no glass. Built anywhere from 1945 to present, they are half bus and half jeep. Most are pretty colorful and ornately finished. They just look like they are from a different era. They would make a great "coffee table" book, if someone took the time to photograph a few hundred of them. All Jeepney's have the same basic design, the same look, but they are customized by the owners sometimes very ornately. "Multicabs" are another form of privately owned public transportation. Smaller than the Jeepneys, they are basically a Toyota van with benches running along the sides and window openings with no glass in the back. Its amazing how many people can fit in one of these. They aren't as nearly ornate and colorful as the Jeepney's. Tricycles also carry a few people. These are 155 cc motorcycles with a roof covering the sidecar that can hold 3 small people. These little engines are way overburdened. Scooters and two wheel motorbikes are pretty popular too, and the people that drive them are insane. They don't wait. If they can squeeze between a semi and a bus to get to the front at an intersection, they will. They will fly between two cars going 45mph like it was a tunnel all to themselves. None of the above listed forms of transportation have any sort of emission control, and the smog shows it. I was told when leaving for the airport, since it was on a Monday, that I should leave the hotel 5 hours early to be safe. If there were no cars on the street, that's a 20 minute ride.
It took a while to get here, even from Kwaj. The United flight stops at Pohnpei, Kosrei, and Chuuk, before getting to Guam. I might have the order wrong, along with the spelling. Amber told me I could get off the plane on each island. I boarded the plane with a guy I barely knew from Kwaj that works with San Juan. I convinced him we need to get off the plane, and have a beer at each island. The islands were about an hour away, and it took around 45 mins to exchange passengers each time. The first stop, we started to deplane, but the announcement said basically that you shouldn't, so we sat back down. We both noted that others got off and came back anyhow. So the next little island, we both got off the plane. Dom is a smoker, and that had to be his motivation. There wasn't a place to smoke, but they did sell beer. He forgot his boarding pass, and started to wig out a bit after I asked him about it. I think the wigging out was the nicotine withdrawal. It worked out of course and we got back on the plane after around 45mins in the terminal. The next stop he said he wasn't going to get off the plane. I pushed. He stayed, well for a bit. There was a smoking part outside at that airport.
Dom and I were heading to the same final destination in Manila...well Makiti in Manila. So in Guam we ran together thru the airport to make it to the final flight to Manila. Dom was only spending the night there and heading to Thailand the next day. Turns out his hotel was right around the corner from my hotel in Makati.
Makati/Manila is a huge area,....a huge city. Manila probably has around 1000 buildings over 30 stories high. I would guess its bigger than New York. After spending 5 days in my hotel in Makati, its safe to say its a dirty city with nice people, and a ton of homeless and desperate people. That part of it has to be worse than New York because the weather is so much warmer. The exchange rate here is great for the dollar. 48 Philipino Peso's for one US dollar. The hotel, a very nice 50 story hotel downtown was 250$ for 5 days. The doorman and staff were super super nice and cordial. The streets were full of people asking for nearly anything at night. It seemed every store had a security guard in front of it. The guards all had police looking uniforms on, navy blue pants with a dress white shirt and the belt full of implements. Many had shotguns leashed in a way around their necks that they rested their hands on them. So they looked ready to be used at any timetime. The bank guards had M-16 rifles. It was fairly depressing in the beginning. After the second day, after sitting in an outdoor corner open air restaurant drinking beer and just watching people, a few women stood out. One was in the place when I got there.....and I kept making eye contact with her as this strange (American) guy sat next to her and kept bothering her kind of. She was Philipino, he was sunken eyed, dancing strangely and sitting next to her. She was facing me, and he was facing her. It looked uncomfortable for her. She didn't really waver, she just looked at me (at least for the few seconds I let my eyes meet hers) with a blank stare. Later when I was getting another beer a the counter she was too and introduced herself as Jane. I went back to my seat, and at some point the weird guy left. I ordered and ate dinner, which was a great chicken curry, while she sat there and brought something out of her purse to eat. I couldn't really figure her out, she was there way too long, but had a beer in front of her the whole time. At the same time another girl came around in front of the place begging for money. She approached a few people with with no luck. She stopped after a while and just sat in the chairs of the restaurant closest to the street. The chicken curry was good. I ordered another meal and asked the server to split it between the two women. I paid and left. It felt really great to do something nice for those two...it felt even better cause I didn't wait around to get a thank you. Hell, maybe they didn't even get it. It was GREAT chicken curry. It was $6. The grin lasted at least a few hours, the good feeling, a while longer.
The next night, maybe my 4th night there, after finding my way to the "Tequila Bar" that overlooked a very busy sketchy area in Makati, but had a security guard there ushering away street people. It was an open air bar/restaurant with a great view of the bordellos, and the skinny little street children, the skinny little street vendors, and just all the activity not seen in most of the Midwest or the states. I ordered a meal, then a second meal that first night. There was a guy, that couldn't have weighed more than 120lbs selling some feathery kind of thing. I couldn't tell what he was selling. He was incredibly small, and had some wares that he laid out in front of him on the corner. He sat in front of them on his feet, the way most adults in the US can't, still on his feet but his butt was resting on them. After watching him for a while, his (?) kids came by and he gave them some of what he was selling and he ushered them off. These kids were like 5 and maybe 8 years old. They got my second meal. I just walked out of the place handed it to them and walked back in.
The next night was very different. Ten pizzas went out. I passed them out so quick their reactions were missed. I wonder if altruism can also be hedonism. The next night I didn't go so far, there was a Korean restaurant that had the most THE MOST incredible seafood cake. It was a meaty 14 inch egg based pizza shaped deal. After first looking at it and thinking that'll make a great meal tomorrow too, I ate the whole thing. Across the street before I went in the place, there was this nearly seventy year old woman sleeping next to her probably older husband on a concrete stoop to a place that looked abandoned. The other seafood pizza went to this lady. It felt really good.
After getting a ride in the hotel cab for what someone told me later was a ridiculous price of 600 pesos, I used my "Uber" app on my phone for the first time. Pretty cool. It showed me how much the fare would be, who would pick me up, what the license plate number was, and the kind of car. So for around 3 dollars you can go nearly anywhere in Makati which translates into about thirty to forty five minutes on a weekend. The "Mall of Asia" was my first destination, with getting a decent pair of sunglasses in mind. I am pretty sure I've never been among so many people and been the only one with blonde hair.
Traffic in Manila is crazy. The main form of public transportation is these Filipino made buses with no windows called a Jeepney. To be more precise, they have windows, but no glass. Built anywhere from 1945 to present, they are half bus and half jeep. Most are pretty colorful and ornately finished. They just look like they are from a different era. They would make a great "coffee table" book, if someone took the time to photograph a few hundred of them. All Jeepney's have the same basic design, the same look, but they are customized by the owners sometimes very ornately. "Multicabs" are another form of privately owned public transportation. Smaller than the Jeepneys, they are basically a Toyota van with benches running along the sides and window openings with no glass in the back. Its amazing how many people can fit in one of these. They aren't as nearly ornate and colorful as the Jeepney's. Tricycles also carry a few people. These are 155 cc motorcycles with a roof covering the sidecar that can hold 3 small people. These little engines are way overburdened. Scooters and two wheel motorbikes are pretty popular too, and the people that drive them are insane. They don't wait. If they can squeeze between a semi and a bus to get to the front at an intersection, they will. They will fly between two cars going 45mph like it was a tunnel all to themselves. None of the above listed forms of transportation have any sort of emission control, and the smog shows it. I was told when leaving for the airport, since it was on a Monday, that I should leave the hotel 5 hours early to be safe. If there were no cars on the street, that's a 20 minute ride.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Halloween night 2016
A week or so ago, Jobe and Amber came up with the idea of going to Ebeye and pass out Halloween candy. Their thinking was, besides that the Marshallese are great people, that all the kids over there want to come to Kwaj for Halloween, but only a small handful, like 100 including the parents, get to come here to collect candy on Halloween. So they said we should get some people and go over there.
Ebeye used to and may still hold the title "most densely populated place on earth". I think I read once 15,000 people on 90 acres. Along with that, if I recall, the percentage of preteen children was like 65%. That's a lot of kids. I've not spent enough time over there, a mere two hours in two years. It reminded me of Nogales Mexico. A dilapidated little border town. The homes are pieces together out of plywood of various colors and degrees of solidness. The roofs are similar but usually made of some kind of metal. Everything is pieced together. Its dirty, streets are filled with bits of trash, and random dogs are walking around. The dogs all look very similar but amazingly healthy. The streets are narrow , but two cars can still pass between the ones that have curbs. Some of the streets have pavement, and some of the buildings are built well.
I don't know what I spent on candy, but 12 bags of jolley ranchers, starbursts, twizzlers all individually wrapped filled up the one piece of luggage I'll be living out of for the next month on vacation. Jobe ordered 16 pounds of candy from Amazon. The 4 others had some, but not quite the amount we had. In total we probably had 50lbs all together between the 8 of us. Amber suggested we get a "taxi", which is a small pickup truck, and ride around in the back of it throwing the candy out. Great, Great plan. We would have been swamped and smothered by all this kids if we tried to just walk around. With the truck we were able to stay in front of them a little. It was like we created a little midget Zombie apocalypse. The "zombies" weren't the "Walking Dead" version, they were so more nimble and quick like the "World War Z" zombies, except they were the cutest little zombies you have ever seen.
Ebeye used to and may still hold the title "most densely populated place on earth". I think I read once 15,000 people on 90 acres. Along with that, if I recall, the percentage of preteen children was like 65%. That's a lot of kids. I've not spent enough time over there, a mere two hours in two years. It reminded me of Nogales Mexico. A dilapidated little border town. The homes are pieces together out of plywood of various colors and degrees of solidness. The roofs are similar but usually made of some kind of metal. Everything is pieced together. Its dirty, streets are filled with bits of trash, and random dogs are walking around. The dogs all look very similar but amazingly healthy. The streets are narrow , but two cars can still pass between the ones that have curbs. Some of the streets have pavement, and some of the buildings are built well.
I don't know what I spent on candy, but 12 bags of jolley ranchers, starbursts, twizzlers all individually wrapped filled up the one piece of luggage I'll be living out of for the next month on vacation. Jobe ordered 16 pounds of candy from Amazon. The 4 others had some, but not quite the amount we had. In total we probably had 50lbs all together between the 8 of us. Amber suggested we get a "taxi", which is a small pickup truck, and ride around in the back of it throwing the candy out. Great, Great plan. We would have been swamped and smothered by all this kids if we tried to just walk around. With the truck we were able to stay in front of them a little. It was like we created a little midget Zombie apocalypse. The "zombies" weren't the "Walking Dead" version, they were so more nimble and quick like the "World War Z" zombies, except they were the cutest little zombies you have ever seen.
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On the ferry to Ebeye, CaCaro is the Marshallese guy with the yellow stripes on his shoulder. He can operate any piece of equipment. Jokin, has his back to us.
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Saturday, October 29, 2016
Just before Halloween....2016
This is outside of the family and friends and people I miss. I heard a cricket in a movie I was watching. Its strange how the senses pick up on things and root them deeply in your head.
The awesome sounds of crickets on a warm summer night in Ohio. Everywhere they keep calling to each other. Lightning bugs fly around in august with little beacons of random yellow dim light. The heat of the day is gone and 70 degrees feels cool. Bats flutter around, or rather the silhouettes of bats fly around sporadically eating mosquitos. Stars are everywhere. The air smells earthy. It smells like organic. Saying it smells like decomposing organic material isn't the right description even though it is exactly the right description. The summer daytime clouds are like popcorn everywhere, sometimes the kernels are really big, but mostly they are scattered about and small, unless there is a front coming in. The smell of grass after its been cut, it smells like that a lot in August. In late October, the smell of burning leaves or burning hardwood is incredible, when backed up with some cooler temperatures. There's dust there too in August. All the organic material breaks down to smaller and lighter particles than here. There is also more activity to kick up dust there. Big tractors harvesting, cars everywhere going fast, pollen from all the trees that make it soo green in the summer. The lack of water holding every little particle down. Late summer and fall are gorgeous in Ohio. So much an attack on the senses.
The smell of the air out here is pretty much the same all the time. It can only be described as clean. There isn't a scent to the air here. Probably because there is nothing in the air here except salt, which doesn't seem to have a detectable odor. This may take away from the poetic nature of everything else I've just written, but because the air is so clean here, you don't get boogers. You blow your nose in Ohio in the summertime, or mainly anytime, and the color of what comes out is not clear. It's clear here, and there are no "eye boogers". Apparently, the price of all those beautiful smells in Ohio is boogers. I guess this is my salute to Ohio boogers.
The clouds here are completely different. Much like popcorn, but huge HUGE Kernels, at least in summer and late fall. Winter is the windy season. The clouds blow by so quick they are hard to judge on beauty in winter. So the rain moves thru quick in the winter because the clouds do. In the summer and late fall, which we happen to be still in..in late October, the winds are very light, so the clouds build. They build so high that when the sun goes down they are still high enough to hang on to the light 'til the very last minute before dark sets in. The sunsets are amazing. AMAZING...and they last forever. The sunrises are no less amazing but I don't have enough experience with them to comment too much. Its the clouds that go so high and hold the orange light of the sun coming up. My discovery out here of beauty has been the underwater world. Snorkeling. Snorkeling while holding a spear gun. Its the most relaxing thing I've ever done. Its soo quiet. The only noise you hear is your breath and the crackling of the coral. Listening to your breath while getting relaxed snorkeling is like what they always have tried to teach me in the random yoga classes I've been to.
The awesome sounds of crickets on a warm summer night in Ohio. Everywhere they keep calling to each other. Lightning bugs fly around in august with little beacons of random yellow dim light. The heat of the day is gone and 70 degrees feels cool. Bats flutter around, or rather the silhouettes of bats fly around sporadically eating mosquitos. Stars are everywhere. The air smells earthy. It smells like organic. Saying it smells like decomposing organic material isn't the right description even though it is exactly the right description. The summer daytime clouds are like popcorn everywhere, sometimes the kernels are really big, but mostly they are scattered about and small, unless there is a front coming in. The smell of grass after its been cut, it smells like that a lot in August. In late October, the smell of burning leaves or burning hardwood is incredible, when backed up with some cooler temperatures. There's dust there too in August. All the organic material breaks down to smaller and lighter particles than here. There is also more activity to kick up dust there. Big tractors harvesting, cars everywhere going fast, pollen from all the trees that make it soo green in the summer. The lack of water holding every little particle down. Late summer and fall are gorgeous in Ohio. So much an attack on the senses.
The smell of the air out here is pretty much the same all the time. It can only be described as clean. There isn't a scent to the air here. Probably because there is nothing in the air here except salt, which doesn't seem to have a detectable odor. This may take away from the poetic nature of everything else I've just written, but because the air is so clean here, you don't get boogers. You blow your nose in Ohio in the summertime, or mainly anytime, and the color of what comes out is not clear. It's clear here, and there are no "eye boogers". Apparently, the price of all those beautiful smells in Ohio is boogers. I guess this is my salute to Ohio boogers.
The clouds here are completely different. Much like popcorn, but huge HUGE Kernels, at least in summer and late fall. Winter is the windy season. The clouds blow by so quick they are hard to judge on beauty in winter. So the rain moves thru quick in the winter because the clouds do. In the summer and late fall, which we happen to be still in..in late October, the winds are very light, so the clouds build. They build so high that when the sun goes down they are still high enough to hang on to the light 'til the very last minute before dark sets in. The sunsets are amazing. AMAZING...and they last forever. The sunrises are no less amazing but I don't have enough experience with them to comment too much. Its the clouds that go so high and hold the orange light of the sun coming up. My discovery out here of beauty has been the underwater world. Snorkeling. Snorkeling while holding a spear gun. Its the most relaxing thing I've ever done. Its soo quiet. The only noise you hear is your breath and the crackling of the coral. Listening to your breath while getting relaxed snorkeling is like what they always have tried to teach me in the random yoga classes I've been to.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
This is the strangest life I've ever known.
Early October...
I received an email from someone from my past. I used to be an organizer for a group in Columbus Ohio that did outdoorsy things. In my beginning to the group it was mainly winter hikes and football. Spring came around and someone told me about ultimate Frisbee. I was very new to the group and now understand what being new to a group is. Its the same on this island, it was the same then. You have to put your time in, you have to be sane enough for a while to be trusted...
So, because of my sanity, and general good nature they began to trust me and made me a leader of the clan. Group...clan..whatever. So 3000 online members were part of this clan, with around 400 maybe being randomly active in it with the hikes, the football, the ultimate Frisbee, and a few other social outdoor deals. I swear I only met one jerk, and he wasn't an jerk all the time. The worst of them were just a bit off, and they were very few and far between. I met a girl who spoke a language of some south African tribe that only 1000 people in the world spoke. Maybe she was bullshitting, but it was a good sell. She worked at a grocery store stocking shelves, but had no lacking of articulation, and had the slightly over 40 graying hair a woman would have if her hair isn't one of her main concerns. She was interesting.
Please, keep this in mind as you read the email(s) from one of the girls from this group. I do not mean to ridicule, humiliate, or anything like that. I hope that if she ever finds this blog that I respect the hell out of her because she is only trying to help me. That being said ...this is the strangest life I will ever know:
ben,
I hope you are well and happy.
Still failing to attend frisbee-it never was my life, but boy did I learn a lot. More so not playing frisbee, but volleyball and football. I finally up and quit meetup after Dave Koczur asked me to join the Mafia group. Oh the good old days... Fun times. And your love of elipses...
Something bad is going on and I just can't put my finger on it. It's already been a bad year for me and I feel it's only going to get worse. Seeing too many familiar faces lately. A vision of you in a meeting and being stressed. Hector was in town but didn't catch up, saw John Alfaro at the theater and ran into Brian Fulcher at Deweys Pizza.
And, instead of going to visit friends in Phoenix I suddenly decided I'm going to Colorado. The Denver airport and those murals! Yikes! And Peterson AFB.
Day of Atonement is Oct. 12.
So, I wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened. I wasn't prepared for that at all. Clearly, you knew. I guess I know things I'd rather not, but I wouldn't be where I am or the person I am today.
Lots of books are very informative, helpful and familiar-I especially enjoyed Heiser's The Facade and The Portent recently. Mind control, operation Paperclip, implants, The Watchers, nanotechnology and more all in the story line.
Also, just to be clear-I never said I hated you, I said I hated the SETUP.
I actually thought you were funny and kind in your own way. You asked why we never socialized. (Because I was afraid of you and didn't understand what was going on. C4ISR) We aren't so different and that's probably why so many Columbus Outdoor Adventurers questioned why I didn't like you, which wasn't the case.
I admit I didn't understand nor appreciate your toes to the bar fall as I was incapacitated at work that Friday for at least an hour and your poison ivy fun gathering wood and I had itchy arms when going skiing in Lake Tahoe with friends who questioned why I kept itching my arms raw-so not funny! I still don't get how that happened to me, too.
Anyways, I think in a different world we probably would have socialized, had fun adventures and been good friends.
Take care and may you have many fun adventures,
Toes to the bar fall, refers to me breaking some ribs doing an exercise on faulty equipment I built in my Harn. I don't remember her ever going on a camping trip with me, and gathering firewood. I don't know what C4ISR is either. This email came out of the blue, completely. I only remember her as someone I defended against the one jerk in the group. This could be entertaining only for me, but this blog is basically my journal, not that I ever reread the original journal....so my response:
I received an email from someone from my past. I used to be an organizer for a group in Columbus Ohio that did outdoorsy things. In my beginning to the group it was mainly winter hikes and football. Spring came around and someone told me about ultimate Frisbee. I was very new to the group and now understand what being new to a group is. Its the same on this island, it was the same then. You have to put your time in, you have to be sane enough for a while to be trusted...
So, because of my sanity, and general good nature they began to trust me and made me a leader of the clan. Group...clan..whatever. So 3000 online members were part of this clan, with around 400 maybe being randomly active in it with the hikes, the football, the ultimate Frisbee, and a few other social outdoor deals. I swear I only met one jerk, and he wasn't an jerk all the time. The worst of them were just a bit off, and they were very few and far between. I met a girl who spoke a language of some south African tribe that only 1000 people in the world spoke. Maybe she was bullshitting, but it was a good sell. She worked at a grocery store stocking shelves, but had no lacking of articulation, and had the slightly over 40 graying hair a woman would have if her hair isn't one of her main concerns. She was interesting.
Please, keep this in mind as you read the email(s) from one of the girls from this group. I do not mean to ridicule, humiliate, or anything like that. I hope that if she ever finds this blog that I respect the hell out of her because she is only trying to help me. That being said ...this is the strangest life I will ever know:
ben,
I hope you are well and happy.
Still failing to attend frisbee-it never was my life, but boy did I learn a lot. More so not playing frisbee, but volleyball and football. I finally up and quit meetup after Dave Koczur asked me to join the Mafia group. Oh the good old days... Fun times. And your love of elipses...
Something bad is going on and I just can't put my finger on it. It's already been a bad year for me and I feel it's only going to get worse. Seeing too many familiar faces lately. A vision of you in a meeting and being stressed. Hector was in town but didn't catch up, saw John Alfaro at the theater and ran into Brian Fulcher at Deweys Pizza.
And, instead of going to visit friends in Phoenix I suddenly decided I'm going to Colorado. The Denver airport and those murals! Yikes! And Peterson AFB.
Day of Atonement is Oct. 12.
So, I wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened. I wasn't prepared for that at all. Clearly, you knew. I guess I know things I'd rather not, but I wouldn't be where I am or the person I am today.
Lots of books are very informative, helpful and familiar-I especially enjoyed Heiser's The Facade and The Portent recently. Mind control, operation Paperclip, implants, The Watchers, nanotechnology and more all in the story line.
Also, just to be clear-I never said I hated you, I said I hated the SETUP.
I actually thought you were funny and kind in your own way. You asked why we never socialized. (Because I was afraid of you and didn't understand what was going on. C4ISR) We aren't so different and that's probably why so many Columbus Outdoor Adventurers questioned why I didn't like you, which wasn't the case.
I admit I didn't understand nor appreciate your toes to the bar fall as I was incapacitated at work that Friday for at least an hour and your poison ivy fun gathering wood and I had itchy arms when going skiing in Lake Tahoe with friends who questioned why I kept itching my arms raw-so not funny! I still don't get how that happened to me, too.
Anyways, I think in a different world we probably would have socialized, had fun adventures and been good friends.
Take care and may you have many fun adventures,
Toes to the bar fall, refers to me breaking some ribs doing an exercise on faulty equipment I built in my Harn. I don't remember her ever going on a camping trip with me, and gathering firewood. I don't know what C4ISR is either. This email came out of the blue, completely. I only remember her as someone I defended against the one jerk in the group. This could be entertaining only for me, but this blog is basically my journal, not that I ever reread the original journal....so my response:
Hi,
Me in a meeting getting stressed? lol. I don't get stressed, especially now. Sorry to hear you're having a bad year, but you can't say "it's only going to get worse". Stay positive, it works.
I'm not certain what you're apologizing for, I vaguely remember you being a little standoffish, but I can't recall what it was about...unless it had something to do with David Savage. I don't remember you saying or anyone telling me that you hated me, I just remember some bad looks, and wasn't exactly sure why, so clearly I didn't know.
I'd love to hear what you thought I knew...gossip is fun sometimes.
why are you having a day of atonement? what did you do wrong?
I'm no longer in columbus. I left two years ago to go to work on a island in the south pacific, where it turns out, I belong :). I still have 2 houses in Columbus..so maybe in a few more years I may come back, but I doubt it...I love the water too much....
Me in a meeting getting stressed? lol. I don't get stressed, especially now. Sorry to hear you're having a bad year, but you can't say "it's only going to get worse". Stay positive, it works.
I'm not certain what you're apologizing for, I vaguely remember you being a little standoffish, but I can't recall what it was about...unless it had something to do with David Savage. I don't remember you saying or anyone telling me that you hated me, I just remember some bad looks, and wasn't exactly sure why, so clearly I didn't know.
I'd love to hear what you thought I knew...gossip is fun sometimes.
why are you having a day of atonement? what did you do wrong?
I'm no longer in columbus. I left two years ago to go to work on a island in the south pacific, where it turns out, I belong :). I still have 2 houses in Columbus..so maybe in a few more years I may come back, but I doubt it...I love the water too much....
And...her response.....and whoever may be reading this...its for me...because....well...I guess its like taking a picture...
You don't remember anything do you? You don't remember telling me you were moving? Goodness, maybe if you have a DVD player there in your paradise you can watch The Manchurian Candidate. Do some hard thinking. I'm glad if you don't know, but I always disagreed with my former coworkers ignorance is bliss attitude. What you don't know can hurt you. Think hive mind, mass mind control, artificial telepathy, Neurophone, psychotronics. If you start to feel triggers or confused then stop. That's mind control programming.
I've really had to do lots of research and this stuff is crazy what they're doing. Read the book Operation Paperclip by Jacobsen - the nazis were recruited here to US by OSS now called CIA. The crazy human experimentation never stopped.
I've been to Alaska but didn't get to see HAARP-look that one up, too. I was sad I didn't see the aurora, but I did see what seemed like electrified air.
Gossip about what I think you know. I can't say for sure what you know, but I'll tell you what I know:
Your brain is like a fingerprint, your activity unique to you. Brain to brain communication, artificial telepathy. Look it up if as you must have computer access and got my email. (I confirmed this with someone who works at Battelle on DARPA projects.)
You don't remember working on a patch up project on 315 and turning to watch me drive by? Don't remember the military people and all the people coming out of the woodwork going to meet ups. I ran into George and Joanna at the farmers market and got an "oh no, oh no" message on my phone. Actually, my phone has been hacked regularly for some time so that wasn't a big surprise.
I don't know why but you guys just kept bleeding me CIA secrets during football. I don't even really like football I was just so intrigued by what was going on and you were like a magnet and the weird music stuff and is talking through comments. Made no sense. I had fun and it was exercise, but not why I went. Seriously, that's how I knew what I found out after I stopped going to meetup. You and your hand signals XO those awful people at XO communications making a mess at my work. Peter Pan. Operation Peter Pan mind control and Cuban children. I had to really do research. I mean I've seen a picture of you as a child and I can't figure out where or why. I still don't get it.
I was a trip to Lake Tahoe with friends and when I was there my forearms itched. I thought maybe I had a reaction to laundry detergent chemicals, but when you said you had poison ivy I knew. You fell at toes to the bar and all I knew was something happened and you were unconscious. Because of it, I too was affected and couldn't think straight. I knew something had happened to you. I think we were part of some black project, a CIA whistleblower project or we've been set up in some weird family bloodlines thing by Masons. I simply don't know which might be true.
I wasn't standoffish-I was actually quite friendly. I never introduced myself to you because I recognized you, but I never figured out how. I definitely knew you and only recognized you. From the very first frisbee game something weird was going on. I remember you running into me telling me I was going in the wrong direction playing frisbee and I was going the right way only I was thinking in my mind it was Aaron Deal working on something for Battelle.
Booz Allen Hamilton (think Snowden) contracts with the Air Force in black projects. Bases are plentiful in Colorado and I saw Andrew from frisbee whom I also ran into on the bike path two rows in front of me last year at red rocks concert toking it up with a group.
Eugenics now called genetics-David Savage blurted that out at vertical adventures and I suspect that's the reason they picked us. I don't know, there's lots I never figured out.
David Savage was always so troubled, but maybe it was because he knew too much. Very dark and I got lots of dirty looks from him. Very troubled soul.
My looks at you were because I was always trying to figure out what was going on. That staredown at Antrim when I asked in my mind who it was look at me and it was you and you looked at David Savage to make sure he saw us and then the very weird and long staredown.
I didn't do anything awful except maybe grow up in the wrong family-Masons.
Day of Atonement well not because I've done something bad. I'm a sinner like everyone else, but haven't done anything really awful. At least not that I know of. Actually, from what I've found lots of other people have and like the devil comes to collect, God comes to punish. He also saves so not to sound so much like that.
You really don't remember?
BRANDON ring a bell? I mean I got that email.
I had hoped you'd retire. I'd prayed for you to get out. Still pray for you often. Some friends and coworkers say how I've gotten free and they hope they can. I see the world differently and I'm thankful to know the truth even if the rabbit hole goes down a long ways.
I've made a change myself and it's funny you guys thought I was in fashion and I am now. God is good. I feel blessed.
Mike and his special skills? Oh well. You have a tabula rosa so good for you- I think.
You're probably out surfing and swimming all day so that's great! :-)
I'm baffled, but I'm glad you're doing so well. Not baffled you're doing well, but that you seem to know nothing.
I'll keep praying everything works out for all of us. God is good always.
I'm happy to answer questions or help if I can.
I've really had to do lots of research and this stuff is crazy what they're doing. Read the book Operation Paperclip by Jacobsen - the nazis were recruited here to US by OSS now called CIA. The crazy human experimentation never stopped.
I've been to Alaska but didn't get to see HAARP-look that one up, too. I was sad I didn't see the aurora, but I did see what seemed like electrified air.
Gossip about what I think you know. I can't say for sure what you know, but I'll tell you what I know:
Your brain is like a fingerprint, your activity unique to you. Brain to brain communication, artificial telepathy. Look it up if as you must have computer access and got my email. (I confirmed this with someone who works at Battelle on DARPA projects.)
You don't remember working on a patch up project on 315 and turning to watch me drive by? Don't remember the military people and all the people coming out of the woodwork going to meet ups. I ran into George and Joanna at the farmers market and got an "oh no, oh no" message on my phone. Actually, my phone has been hacked regularly for some time so that wasn't a big surprise.
I don't know why but you guys just kept bleeding me CIA secrets during football. I don't even really like football I was just so intrigued by what was going on and you were like a magnet and the weird music stuff and is talking through comments. Made no sense. I had fun and it was exercise, but not why I went. Seriously, that's how I knew what I found out after I stopped going to meetup. You and your hand signals XO those awful people at XO communications making a mess at my work. Peter Pan. Operation Peter Pan mind control and Cuban children. I had to really do research. I mean I've seen a picture of you as a child and I can't figure out where or why. I still don't get it.
I was a trip to Lake Tahoe with friends and when I was there my forearms itched. I thought maybe I had a reaction to laundry detergent chemicals, but when you said you had poison ivy I knew. You fell at toes to the bar and all I knew was something happened and you were unconscious. Because of it, I too was affected and couldn't think straight. I knew something had happened to you. I think we were part of some black project, a CIA whistleblower project or we've been set up in some weird family bloodlines thing by Masons. I simply don't know which might be true.
I wasn't standoffish-I was actually quite friendly. I never introduced myself to you because I recognized you, but I never figured out how. I definitely knew you and only recognized you. From the very first frisbee game something weird was going on. I remember you running into me telling me I was going in the wrong direction playing frisbee and I was going the right way only I was thinking in my mind it was Aaron Deal working on something for Battelle.
Booz Allen Hamilton (think Snowden) contracts with the Air Force in black projects. Bases are plentiful in Colorado and I saw Andrew from frisbee whom I also ran into on the bike path two rows in front of me last year at red rocks concert toking it up with a group.
Eugenics now called genetics-David Savage blurted that out at vertical adventures and I suspect that's the reason they picked us. I don't know, there's lots I never figured out.
David Savage was always so troubled, but maybe it was because he knew too much. Very dark and I got lots of dirty looks from him. Very troubled soul.
My looks at you were because I was always trying to figure out what was going on. That staredown at Antrim when I asked in my mind who it was look at me and it was you and you looked at David Savage to make sure he saw us and then the very weird and long staredown.
I didn't do anything awful except maybe grow up in the wrong family-Masons.
Day of Atonement well not because I've done something bad. I'm a sinner like everyone else, but haven't done anything really awful. At least not that I know of. Actually, from what I've found lots of other people have and like the devil comes to collect, God comes to punish. He also saves so not to sound so much like that.
You really don't remember?
BRANDON ring a bell? I mean I got that email.
I had hoped you'd retire. I'd prayed for you to get out. Still pray for you often. Some friends and coworkers say how I've gotten free and they hope they can. I see the world differently and I'm thankful to know the truth even if the rabbit hole goes down a long ways.
I've made a change myself and it's funny you guys thought I was in fashion and I am now. God is good. I feel blessed.
Mike and his special skills? Oh well. You have a tabula rosa so good for you- I think.
You're probably out surfing and swimming all day so that's great! :-)
I'm baffled, but I'm glad you're doing so well. Not baffled you're doing well, but that you seem to know nothing.
I'll keep praying everything works out for all of us. God is good always.
I'm happy to answer questions or help if I can.
my response to her email...and yes I do feel slightly guilty making this public:
I've seen the Manchurian candidate.....It doesn't apply to me.
Life is good out here. I do surf, finally I've gotten good at it. I even organized ultimate Frisbee games here. Sometimes the military guys play. I like outrunning them. Snorkelling ..well..spearfishing is my new favorite deal.
I do have a lot of questions...because I don't really remember a lot when you were around...
BRANDON rang no bells
her reply:
You live in an island that also has a bunch of military people. Oh my.
Snorkeling is a favorite of mine. Went to John Pennekamp last year on key largo and the best I've done since they opened the cruise port at Turks and Caicos. Saw two sharks because it was overcast. I've never been surfing, but I'm not sure I would be so good at it after trying snowboarding. Lots of bruises!
My great grandfather liked spear fishing.
Yeah, you always liked outrunning people. I don't know why. You were trying to race me one day. It was funny I knew exactly what your were trying to do. I'm a slow runner overall, but could sprint quickly.
I always felt like I was in training. But training for what exactly I'm not sure.
I've always been sensitive to things, had premonitions, maybe what one would call high Psi and I think we were used as remote viewers or something. Maybe parapsychology. I don't know. I remember Pete asking me if I had a premonition before playing sand volleyball with you. So strange.
Of course you don't remember. I saw you all the time and you don't remember anything. It was like people constantly trying to get us together and you pointing at yourself and me and implying something. You giving me a thumbs up making sure I was ok and calling yourself superman and me superwoman. I corrected you-wonder woman not superwoman. It's fascinating you have no idea.
One time at football Steve Kelly mentioned Wright Field (precursor to wright-patt) so that is involved somehow.
Do you remember your crazy girlfriend Tracy? My older sister and her got along well for a time-out of control alcoholics.
Chris Mahin do you remember him?
You don't remember taking pictures of people playing frisbee and posting them on the COA website on "who's helping and not helping"?
I'd say based on one game at Tuttle when you left cause "your knees hurt" and I asked Shauna Sergeant where they were going "they had to go work some other muscles." I'd say Shauna, Mike Bond, Aaron Deal and Dan Baker and someone else all left right after you to work on whatever it was they aimed to achieve. Very strange. The rest of us stayed and played and had fun.
Remember Shauna's boyfriend Drew was an Air Force boy and into physics? Jack Bradley an army vet? Then there was the OU professor, David, who told me he used to work for the white house but didn't know my photo professor Marcie who was part of the white house press Corp. However, he did know fellow political science professor Tom Walker, an ex cia guy I interviewed for a journalism class in college. He also had lots of computer coding skills, which I thought was odd.
Drew disappeared for quite some time, too, and you joked he was on the back of a milk carton. I remember we went camping and him and Shauna didn't seem to get along so well.
It was always strange. I mean weird beyond comprehension.
I tried very hard to make you pay attention. Especially when we went to have drinks at the little bar. You seemed to for a minute question what was going on looking out the window, but I don't know.
I've never figured out exactly who was doing it or why. Military collusion with evil via Col. Michael Aquino maybe.
I've read books where other people say similar things happened to them. I feel it was some sort of weird brainwashing about climate change and aliens. I don't believe in aliens, only fallen angels and the watchers. I learned about the nefilim because of you. I had no idea! For years misunderstood Genesis 6 in the bible and the flood, Goliath, giants and Canaanites.
I guess I'll just consider it an experience and be glad for what I've learned.
Work became weird, too. My boss always talking about delta, no delta and black magick. (Alpha, beta, delta, theta brainwaves) A coworker later told me after I quit it's the twilight zone and like they're playing a game she doesn't know how to play. Pretty spot on for how I felt.
The person I know at Battelle did tell me they were working to erase memories. You know, to help with PTSD-yeah right. It won't help-just put the awful memories and guilt they feel into their subconscious and make them more screwed up.
You've watched the Manchurian Candidate and you don't think at all maybe you have been brainwashed and mind controlled, because I know I have and you were part of it. Sorry you don't remember, but maybe that's good.
There are so many things I remember and you don't. It's weird. Really should read "the facade" and "the portent" in your downtime.
Looking back, I guess it was an answer to a prayer. Over the years, I prayed not to be deceived when the time was near. It's amazing what I know now that I had no clue about 4 years ago. You opened my eyes to a world I didn't know existed. So much I had to figure out and learn about. So, for that I am thankful.
Like I said, I'll answer any questions you have.
I'd give her the biggest hug if I saw her tomorrow. Strangest life I've ever known.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Great day, busy week, Sept 29, 2016
I might have a spear gun, much like I have a surfboard, but my skill level at either may never qualify me to call myself a spearfisherman or a surfer. Ok, so no one calls themselves a "spearfisherman", that's like a caver calling himself a "spelunker"...very nerdy. It's more used as a verb than a noun. So it will be a long while before I tell someone "I'm going spearfishing" because what I really do is go snorkeling while holding a spear gun and see how deep I can free dive with it. Occasionally, I pull the trigger while its pointed at a fish. Occasionally the spear hits a fish. To date though, my tally is 1 in 6. 1 "jobfish" to 6 misfires. Maybe my use of the word "occasionally" is stretching the definition, which of course I have to look up. So it says "every now and then" or "once in a while" so I'm golden!
Tonight, after work at 5pm friends invited me out to go spearfishing. These friends, who as you may know, have to remain anonymous due to the small island community and all that that entails. These two know what they are doing. We go Oceanside just outside one of the passes. At the marina here, and during the boating classes the "passes" are only named a "pass" if a boat can go thru them. Usually a boat that can handle the ocean a bit. My Hobie can go thru most of the areas between the islands on this atoll at a decent mid to high tide because it has a really shallow draft of say a foot. I don't really trust the Hobie in the open Ocean, although I will have it out there someday soon. Anything with more than 2 feet of draft at mid to high tide should probably use the "passes".
So we go out in a 12 foot inflatable Zodiac deal, toss the anchor and one of the guys gets in to have a look. A quick look under the water and he proclaims "this is a good spot". I jump in and see some big fish that I have no clue what they are, except kind of big, and I proclaim using my vast knowledge of the sea gained in Ohio..."yea this is a good spot". The last of our third jumps in and less than 3 minutes later a "dogtooth tuna" appears about 45 feet down. This ....this makes me right as a "second motion" even though I used all of my Ohio Sea knowledge to proclaim this spot a "good spot", this Dogtooth Tuna has given me "street cred" (not). So "3rd guy in" goes down and thinks about shooting it, but runs out of air before getting a shot off. Ok, well, the 40lb fish did swim away with a bit of a strut. So I go down, with the spearfishing equivalent of a BB gun, to shoot the equivalent of a whitetail deer.
The difference between spearfishing and hunting a whitetail is huge. Not to dismiss the great white deer hunter, but deer hunting is so much easier than hunting a dogtooth tuna with a spear gun. Especially if you cheat and use a game camera, or even worse feed them apples all year in front of your game camera. Sorry...LAME. Ok, I am dismissing the great white deer hunter (that uses a game camera and a rifle or shotgun slug). Make it sporty, track them, shoot them with a bow and arrow. You have to be close for that. Diligence.
So a few of the bigger differences are: Whitetail deer live on ground like we do, and not under water. Yes, they both breathe oxygen, but its just different....I think a big difference is at least these days, is if you shoot a whitetail deer, it dies and that's that. You don't have random bears that recognize the distress of the deer coming running from who knows where and try to steal the deer from you. In fact, you don't have these bears patrolling the woods right before you shoot the deer. You shoot the deer, its over. Oh, I just thought of another one. If you shoot the deer and don't kill it, you track it, breathing oxygen, over the hills and all till you find it all dead or whatever and you end it. You shoot a tuna that's kind of big 40lbs or so, 45ft below the water and 45 ft from the air you need to keep on keepin on.....if you don't kill it, it dives. So you have your gun tied to a spear that you just shot a very strong fish with that happens to live in a place where you can't. He dives, you go up with you spear gun. Your spear gun has 50 ft of line....you almost make it to the top holding your spear gun attached to something you had no business shooting. So close. The spear gun stops letting you go up at about 5feet from the surface. Your giant free diving fins are no match for the panicked tuna. You lose your speargun.
The other problem is of course having a shark show up with a panicking fish in the water. Sharks panic when fish panic. They go a little weird. They bite stuff that's in the water....like spear guns and stuff until they figure out what's panicking and take a real bite. Bears ...well we don't have many of them around whitetail territory...don't do that.
I made this all dramatic and all, but the real truth is ...you just go out to "the drop off" and snorkel with a spear gun. See what swims by. Sharks show up, sharks leave. Don't shoot a fish, if you can get close enough to shoot one, if a shark has been by recently. Actually shooting a fish isn't so easy either, the ones that know they taste good are very skiddish.
Tonight, after work at 5pm friends invited me out to go spearfishing. These friends, who as you may know, have to remain anonymous due to the small island community and all that that entails. These two know what they are doing. We go Oceanside just outside one of the passes. At the marina here, and during the boating classes the "passes" are only named a "pass" if a boat can go thru them. Usually a boat that can handle the ocean a bit. My Hobie can go thru most of the areas between the islands on this atoll at a decent mid to high tide because it has a really shallow draft of say a foot. I don't really trust the Hobie in the open Ocean, although I will have it out there someday soon. Anything with more than 2 feet of draft at mid to high tide should probably use the "passes".
So we go out in a 12 foot inflatable Zodiac deal, toss the anchor and one of the guys gets in to have a look. A quick look under the water and he proclaims "this is a good spot". I jump in and see some big fish that I have no clue what they are, except kind of big, and I proclaim using my vast knowledge of the sea gained in Ohio..."yea this is a good spot". The last of our third jumps in and less than 3 minutes later a "dogtooth tuna" appears about 45 feet down. This ....this makes me right as a "second motion" even though I used all of my Ohio Sea knowledge to proclaim this spot a "good spot", this Dogtooth Tuna has given me "street cred" (not). So "3rd guy in" goes down and thinks about shooting it, but runs out of air before getting a shot off. Ok, well, the 40lb fish did swim away with a bit of a strut. So I go down, with the spearfishing equivalent of a BB gun, to shoot the equivalent of a whitetail deer.
The difference between spearfishing and hunting a whitetail is huge. Not to dismiss the great white deer hunter, but deer hunting is so much easier than hunting a dogtooth tuna with a spear gun. Especially if you cheat and use a game camera, or even worse feed them apples all year in front of your game camera. Sorry...LAME. Ok, I am dismissing the great white deer hunter (that uses a game camera and a rifle or shotgun slug). Make it sporty, track them, shoot them with a bow and arrow. You have to be close for that. Diligence.
So a few of the bigger differences are: Whitetail deer live on ground like we do, and not under water. Yes, they both breathe oxygen, but its just different....I think a big difference is at least these days, is if you shoot a whitetail deer, it dies and that's that. You don't have random bears that recognize the distress of the deer coming running from who knows where and try to steal the deer from you. In fact, you don't have these bears patrolling the woods right before you shoot the deer. You shoot the deer, its over. Oh, I just thought of another one. If you shoot the deer and don't kill it, you track it, breathing oxygen, over the hills and all till you find it all dead or whatever and you end it. You shoot a tuna that's kind of big 40lbs or so, 45ft below the water and 45 ft from the air you need to keep on keepin on.....if you don't kill it, it dives. So you have your gun tied to a spear that you just shot a very strong fish with that happens to live in a place where you can't. He dives, you go up with you spear gun. Your spear gun has 50 ft of line....you almost make it to the top holding your spear gun attached to something you had no business shooting. So close. The spear gun stops letting you go up at about 5feet from the surface. Your giant free diving fins are no match for the panicked tuna. You lose your speargun.
The other problem is of course having a shark show up with a panicking fish in the water. Sharks panic when fish panic. They go a little weird. They bite stuff that's in the water....like spear guns and stuff until they figure out what's panicking and take a real bite. Bears ...well we don't have many of them around whitetail territory...don't do that.
I made this all dramatic and all, but the real truth is ...you just go out to "the drop off" and snorkel with a spear gun. See what swims by. Sharks show up, sharks leave. Don't shoot a fish, if you can get close enough to shoot one, if a shark has been by recently. Actually shooting a fish isn't so easy either, the ones that know they taste good are very skiddish.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
just thoughts....now that I've had time to think...and be surrounded by people who have time to think....
Sept 21? 2016..
So I visited a friend out here who was watching the old Moses movie with Charlton Heston (sp?). As the movie went over the Egyptians enslaving the Jews to build all their stuff, my friend made an odd comment. He/She said "See that's bullshit, that the Jewish people want equality. It's the same bullshit that black people want equality here, they just want power over other people, otherwise they would be complaining and bitching about the Chinese, the Taiwanese, the Marshallese, the Indians, the ..............fill in any other sets of people that are "enslaved". There was more to her/his ideology on all of it, but that part kind of stuck with me, as I hadn't really thought about things that way. So She/he was saying ...if the oppressed race really wanted equality, they would want equality for all". I told him Muhamed Ali is the only one I could think of (because of my ignorance of history) that has spoken out in the way he/she is speaking of. Ali, protested the Vietnam war saying that ....I found this online............
Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion.
But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality
There's more to his speech/quote....but it matched the argument against "if they truly want equality they would be fightin for other less fortunate races equality..." I love that speech, and the strength of Muhamed Ali, and the strength that all dark skinned people in the US have. My friend is white, and maybe there are only a few like Ali, putting the rest of the oppressed front and center. I'm guessing there are more less notable.....than again...the media is controlled by rich white guys.
Maybe some day we'll figure out that people with green eyes aren't any less than people with blue eyes...nor less that people with ....brown eyes......its sooo stupid...its a color.....
So I visited a friend out here who was watching the old Moses movie with Charlton Heston (sp?). As the movie went over the Egyptians enslaving the Jews to build all their stuff, my friend made an odd comment. He/She said "See that's bullshit, that the Jewish people want equality. It's the same bullshit that black people want equality here, they just want power over other people, otherwise they would be complaining and bitching about the Chinese, the Taiwanese, the Marshallese, the Indians, the ..............fill in any other sets of people that are "enslaved". There was more to her/his ideology on all of it, but that part kind of stuck with me, as I hadn't really thought about things that way. So She/he was saying ...if the oppressed race really wanted equality, they would want equality for all". I told him Muhamed Ali is the only one I could think of (because of my ignorance of history) that has spoken out in the way he/she is speaking of. Ali, protested the Vietnam war saying that ....I found this online............
Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion.
But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality
There's more to his speech/quote....but it matched the argument against "if they truly want equality they would be fightin for other less fortunate races equality..." I love that speech, and the strength of Muhamed Ali, and the strength that all dark skinned people in the US have. My friend is white, and maybe there are only a few like Ali, putting the rest of the oppressed front and center. I'm guessing there are more less notable.....than again...the media is controlled by rich white guys.
Maybe some day we'll figure out that people with green eyes aren't any less than people with blue eyes...nor less that people with ....brown eyes......its sooo stupid...its a color.....
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Middle of Sept...but...............birthday pictures
Ok, so I hide my birthday from everyone. It's not a big deal to me, and well, the facebook thing involves a few hundred birthday wishes from people who are more acquaintances than friends. It just seems a little disingenuous when its announced by facebook because you posted it there. So I don't have it there. However, my old neighbor, great lady and great friend, made a post on my "page" saying happy birthday. Several of the good people out here that I play Frisbee with, Ted and Sarah, picked it up from last year, and somehow used my conversations against me to figure out exactly how old, and what week my birthday was. That is not disingenuous. It's extremely nice....and they would try to get the exact date out of me, in what they thought were not obvious ways.
I had no idea. It was a great surprise, here are the pics.....
I had no idea. It was a great surprise, here are the pics.....
 |
| Dorina said....everyone kiss Ben.... |
 |
| So many great people....I could tell a great story about most of them, the rest, well its just waiting |
 |
| They think I'm a hippy....and I love that...whether I am or not |
 |
The surprise was...Dorina wanted to have a volleyball game at the beach ..she would light up the court and I would bring the light up volleyball. I was headed down there, and thought for a second that no one would be there, they are probably bowling or something....and then thought "no one invites me to stuff" for a second, then thought , I don't really care cause I'm too tired to do stuff on Saturday night and I want to get up early Sunday"...then...well this...
|
 |
Alex...and Frisbee stud Aaron
|
 |
Sarah , Caitlyn, and Dorina......key elements for this night that I am thankful for
|
 |
| long exposure.....light up volleyball |
 |
| Caitlyn and Dorina.....in their creation.... |
 |
Taneka and I. I do love this girl..and her spirit
|
 |
| yep....great night |
Middle of Sept...but...............
Ok, so I hide my birthday from everyone. It's not a big deal to me, and well, the facebook thing involves a few hundred birthday wishes from people who are more acquaintances than friends. It just seems a little disingenuous when its announced by facebook because you posted it there. So I don't have it there. However, my old neighbor, great lady and great friend, made a post on my "page" saying happy birthday. Several of the good people out here that I play Frisbee with, Ted and Sarah, picked it up from last year, and somehow used my conversations against me to figure out exactly how old, and what week my birthday was. That is not disingenuous. It's extremely nice....and they would try to get the exact date out of me, in what they thought were not obvious ways.
I had no idea. It was a great surprise, here are the pics.....
I had no idea. It was a great surprise, here are the pics.....
|
| Dorina said....everyone kiss Ben.... |
|
| So many great people....I could tell a great story about most of them, the rest, well its just waiting |
|
| They think I'm a hippy....and I love that...whether I am or not |
|
The surprise was...Dorina wanted to have a volleyball game at the beach ..she would light up the court and I would bring the light up volleyball. I was headed down there, and thought for a second that no one would be there, they are probably bowling or something....and then thought "no one invites me to stuff" for a second, then thought , I don't really care cause I'm too tired to do stuff on Saturday night and I want to get up early Sunday"...then...well this...
|
|
Alex...and Frisbee stud Aaron
|
|
Sarah , Caitlyn, and Dorina......key elements for this night that I am thankful for
|
|
| long exposure.....light up volleyball |
|
| Caitlyn and Dorina.....in their creation.... |
|
Taneka and I. I do love this girl..and her spirit
|
|
| yep....great night |
Middle of September.....2016 - Cabbage Rolls
So...a white guy who has been here for a while told me a story that was told to him by the Marshallese guys he works with. Yes, back to the vagueness, mostly because I don't want to expose the white guy, and I don't want other white guys making the Marshallese laugh so easily. Its a resource out here that I am keeping to myself. Those last two sentences are only because I am white, the Marshallese don't have those hang ups. That being said....the story goes something parallel to this: There was a guy who found a hole in some Ladies house over there and was staring thru it one night, checking her out. I don't know what the Marshallese Police look like but they caught the Marshallese guy looking thru the hole, and called him out. He said "I was looking for cabbage rolls"....the cop laughed and said "No more cabbage rolls". I spent the last few days saying the parallel to "No more cabbage rolls" to some of the Marshallese that work around me. Without knowing them you can't really understand their laughter, their smiles, their energy. They have the best laugh, the best smiles, and they offer them up so easily, it is their best resource, well, at least that's a big one in my eyes. So I spent the day smiling, because I got to make the Marshallese laugh a lot...and smile
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
9-7-16
I do nice things for the Marshallese. It starts out because I'm just nice, because its obvious the position I'm in versus the position they are in. Then it gets a little historical. We screwed them over, well, we were the last ones to do it, but we overachieved. In the end the system we (the good ole US) set up for them left them screwing each other, much like we screw ourselves over, without really realizing it. My kindness towards them, ends up being because they are incredibly nice, fun, smiley, happy people in spite of everything they have to know we have done to them. Its been generations, but they know, and they still just treat you individually. If you are nice to them they are nice to you. Don't take this wrong, I'm not near as selfless as I wish I were, but I respect the hell out of them...and maybe that's as much as my hypocritical self will allow ........sigh
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
The lastday of August, 2016....surfing
Surfing, or learning to surf, parallels life. It is the toughest thing to learn. It's physically and mentally demanding. Some days are good, some are great, and some just completely suck. Either way you learn something more about yourself, or about how beautiful the place is where you are at that moment, even if its challenging.
This evenings session started at 3:30pm, after work, because James and I are going in at 5am these days. High tide was around 4:30. It took me a while to paddle out. It was like a bit of a crescendo...the farther I got out the bigger the waves got. There were some huge sets coming in.
I've described the ordeal getting out in a bigger swell before on here, but that was then, and now there is a little more knowledge in my head about the swell and surf, at least there should be.
There were big sets and small sets, not much in between. John, the grumpy surfer, was out. He's been surfing for a very long time, and is completely tuned in to what's going on out there. He told me tonight that the waves are very hard to catch, but big. Not what I wanted to hear. He said they "close out quickly", which is a common deal here, but him saying that meant they were peaking and dumping even quicker than normal. They were. I took a beating. I'm not bruised or anything, just some little scrapes from hitting the reef, and a renewed deep deep fear of waves. I haven't hit the reef at the "Shark Pit" for a year. I got rubbed along it for a while this evening after thinking I could jump a 7ft tall wave that was getting ready to close (read crest, slam, dump.....) on me. Ok so picture riding a wave. You don't ride the wave 90 degrees to it, you ride it as parallel as it allows. So, you're cruising down this huge powerful wall of water that is peaking (read crest, slamming , dumping) right behind you. Most times here on Kwaj they "close out"....they dump...they stop being this beautiful wall of crystal clear water that is so clear you see the reef like a magnifying glass thru it and the wave starts turning into whit water at its crest.....Its a huge amount of water, and I chose the wrong method to avoid it....so it slammed me. In the midst of being churned around like a rag doll for 5 seconds it rolled me down enough to bump along the reef. Its not so bad, the reef isn't really sharp or anything in that spot, but it is kind of hard and scary.
The problem with the "big sets" and the "small sets" of waves is that the small ones lure you in. Ok, so the big waves break way outside compared to where the small waves break. I like the "smaller" waves so I hang out on the "inside" remaining vigilant to avoid getting slammed by the larger sets rolling in. Tonight it didn't always work out. At least once it didn't. I was sitting a little inside of John's position far enough that a wave got between us and I couldn't see him for a second. The next time I saw him he was "contemplating" a wave. I could see he was going to take it, and I looked at the wave. Huge. Huge. Immediately I put my chest down on the board and started paddling towards the wave trying madly to get out to it before it broke. Going up and down a "swell" is fine. Getting caught under a breaking wave is not. Its such a fine line. The difference can be 5 feet. Tonight some of the bigger waves were probably ten feet. I know this because one came and John was just down wave of me when it went thru. I thought I was going to land on top of him. He thought he was going to get slammed...dumped. I looked down at him as the wave crested under me.....and I guarantee I was ten feet higher.
It can be dangerous, it was more scary for me today than anything. The waves hold you down for a while, but mostly they don't slam you on the reef. The holding down part is a little ordeal, but not too bad.
This evenings session started at 3:30pm, after work, because James and I are going in at 5am these days. High tide was around 4:30. It took me a while to paddle out. It was like a bit of a crescendo...the farther I got out the bigger the waves got. There were some huge sets coming in.
I've described the ordeal getting out in a bigger swell before on here, but that was then, and now there is a little more knowledge in my head about the swell and surf, at least there should be.
There were big sets and small sets, not much in between. John, the grumpy surfer, was out. He's been surfing for a very long time, and is completely tuned in to what's going on out there. He told me tonight that the waves are very hard to catch, but big. Not what I wanted to hear. He said they "close out quickly", which is a common deal here, but him saying that meant they were peaking and dumping even quicker than normal. They were. I took a beating. I'm not bruised or anything, just some little scrapes from hitting the reef, and a renewed deep deep fear of waves. I haven't hit the reef at the "Shark Pit" for a year. I got rubbed along it for a while this evening after thinking I could jump a 7ft tall wave that was getting ready to close (read crest, slam, dump.....) on me. Ok so picture riding a wave. You don't ride the wave 90 degrees to it, you ride it as parallel as it allows. So, you're cruising down this huge powerful wall of water that is peaking (read crest, slamming , dumping) right behind you. Most times here on Kwaj they "close out"....they dump...they stop being this beautiful wall of crystal clear water that is so clear you see the reef like a magnifying glass thru it and the wave starts turning into whit water at its crest.....Its a huge amount of water, and I chose the wrong method to avoid it....so it slammed me. In the midst of being churned around like a rag doll for 5 seconds it rolled me down enough to bump along the reef. Its not so bad, the reef isn't really sharp or anything in that spot, but it is kind of hard and scary.
The problem with the "big sets" and the "small sets" of waves is that the small ones lure you in. Ok, so the big waves break way outside compared to where the small waves break. I like the "smaller" waves so I hang out on the "inside" remaining vigilant to avoid getting slammed by the larger sets rolling in. Tonight it didn't always work out. At least once it didn't. I was sitting a little inside of John's position far enough that a wave got between us and I couldn't see him for a second. The next time I saw him he was "contemplating" a wave. I could see he was going to take it, and I looked at the wave. Huge. Huge. Immediately I put my chest down on the board and started paddling towards the wave trying madly to get out to it before it broke. Going up and down a "swell" is fine. Getting caught under a breaking wave is not. Its such a fine line. The difference can be 5 feet. Tonight some of the bigger waves were probably ten feet. I know this because one came and John was just down wave of me when it went thru. I thought I was going to land on top of him. He thought he was going to get slammed...dumped. I looked down at him as the wave crested under me.....and I guarantee I was ten feet higher.
It can be dangerous, it was more scary for me today than anything. The waves hold you down for a while, but mostly they don't slam you on the reef. The holding down part is a little ordeal, but not too bad.
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