It's on to day three of a potential month long stint at muay thai camp. The firts day was a murderous three hours of calisthenics, learning to punch and kick, sit ups, push ups, etc. followed by a nice 5k run followed by anotehr round of the sit-push ups. I've not felt so out of my elelment since being near lost, hungry, and water deprived in the desert. Self inflicted discomfort is really the best kind though. It's going to be an intense month, and my thai instructor said it'll probably be about a week before my body adjusts to the heat, workout regimen, and general abuse. Needless to say my instructors are these hard as nails thai guys who have no problems taking full power kicks in the stomach pad for 8 hours a day. They're real funny though. The thai's seem much more smiley and goofy than either the koreans or the Indians ever did. I raelize I'm paying these guys, but they could be like those mean instructors you see in kung fu flicks.

In the meanwhile I'm usually too exhausted to really go exploring in depth so I spend a lot of time goofing on the itnernet. my first order of business is to find a bookstore that sells english books, because I'm dreadfully short on reading materials. So if anyone has any links of interest to send me, please do often and without hesitation so that I may keep my brain working on a higher level than world news and videos of people getting hit in the nads.

I'm thinking about spending the last of my dough on a new Lappy 486, because the one I've got here can't handle any editing and is a PC which means its just a waste of time. Plus all teh down time would give me time to finally learn illustrator, quark, and other boring things that are more useful than watching pirated DVD's and obsessing over my protein intake and electrolyte levels, which seem to be the main concerns of many of the guys here.

I'll keep yall posted on new kill moves as I learn them.

Hitting The Wall and Learning to Fall,
Oopey

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rainy days and a bad batch of pabst don't normally make me happy, but it seems to be working right now. makes me miss oregon. i've been working a shit ton at four different jobs, trying to store up some funds. i'm trying to start up some sort of business, most likely a custom screen printing venture partnered with bradley. whatever happens, i'm looking to get my hands on a four-colour press.

big bike bidnezz. i rode a big dummy for the first time yesterday and i love it. i've been pulling a lot of weight recently while pedicabing so i'm familiar with a heavy load. i felt that the big dummy handled well and the load was well positioned. i hauled maybe ~120 lbs of tools and whatnot to burnaby (near paul's house) and i was really impressed with the ride. if i had another car to scrap, it'd be for a cargo bike. cross bike soon, daily ride dialed. i need a new avocet ti o2 race saddle though.

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Costa Rica in two days, we say goodbye to Thor tomorrow. It's going to be really really rough without the big guy, but I think it'll be good for me too. Devin moved in, it's super nice having him around. holy crap ton of photos in the next 3 weeks. love ya all!

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Soo...

Crazy happenings in the Rotten Apple, I've been asked to stay and be assistant manager at Brooklyn Bicycles with my buddies, so I've been mulling it over in my head since they dropped that in my lap a few days ago. Either way, my girl's heading home on Friday(!) before heading to Seoul, South Korea on the 21st(!!) to teach English for a year(!!!). Kinda hasn't really hit me, I'm sure I'll get emotional about it when I go home the 19th to send her off. My sublet in Still Little Fingers land is coming up in September, so I have to make my decision pretty soon, so that's stressing me out.

I'm thinking about it on these terms, thanks to some wise words from a few important people:

One of the reasons I love Vancouver is because I feel like I can be young there, whether that is just nostalgia from going to school and having those experiences there I don't really know or care, I do know that it's hard to have that same experience here in the city due to the sheer cost of living and having job responsibilities, which would increase of course if I took shop keys and ass't manager position. Because of this I think my move to Vancouver needs to happen soon, while I'm not tied down and still able to fuck off for awhile and just enjoy living with little responsibilities to anyone besides myself.

On the other hand, I want to help my buddies out when they go to Interbike, and I do appreciate their recognition of my hard work and their trust in me, and I do enjoy working at the new shop a lot more than at Gotham of late. I'm thinking I'll help the guys at Brooklyn Bicycles out until the end of the year, when business will inevitably slow down and it will be rough times for the new business owners, and they won't need me and would help not to have to pay another full time employee at assistant manager wages. Sort of the best of both worlds.

I am going to sit down and talk to them about this, and I think they will find it agreeable, and delay my move to Vancity for 3 months-ish, put away a bit more cash monies and just grab a sub let here.

Again, none of this is set in stone and I just came up with this idea talking with Arianna tonight, so we'll see if I continue to vacillate back and forth between the coasts.

Blah, that's life I guess. Stuck between two really great opportunities that are great for totally different reasons, and afraid of feeling like I miss out on either one.

Chime in if you've got advice.

Vancouver, I'm still coming for you, I just need to figure out when and under what circumstances!!!

<3
chou

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i had a conversation with luke some time in the last year where i tried to argue that i just didn't like parties or any large social gatherings due to how i'm wired- introverts cannot choose to be more extroverted. luke refused to accept that, told me it was a cop out, and told me i just had to learn how. at the time i thought he didn't understand. the past few days i've been thinking how great it is to have a brother that knows me better than i know myself. you can choose anything you want. that's what choosing is.

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