Introducing Balkan Bee

I met a very cool Croatian girl a while ago. She posted on Couchsurfing asking if people wanted to join her in dumpster diving and I thought that sounded cool and sent her a message. I saw another post from her asking if people wanted to play board games so of course I said yes. I met her at my first Food Not Bombs Toronto serving and we went dumpster diving after. We, along with her friend Anastasiya, found a lot of great stuff – chocolates, fruits, vegetables, yogurt, bread, and more. I invited her to a friend’s gathering where they were probably going to play board games. When we were leaving we saw that she might not have been able to make it to her host’s place before the public transit system shut down so I offered my couch. On the way to my house we went dumpster diving again and found some random stuff – probably 8 packages of hot dogs, pillows, adult diapers, and maxi-pads, among other things. We donated the hot dogs, diapers, and maxi-pads to the Really Really Free Market the next day. She told me a lot of interesting hitchhiking and dumpster diving tips and stories. Apparently, it’s really easy to hitchhike in Turkey and that she hitchhikes alone frequently; the latter sounds all the more difficult when you know that she’s a cute small Croatian girl . In short, she is one serious anarchist and I am amazed by her.

I’m still alive

Not that anyone cares, but I was out of the country for a couple years and didn’t feel like adding anything to this blog.  It’s weird that WordPress kept it around, actually, but I guess it wasn’t too much of a drain on their servers anyway.  I don’t know if I want to write stuff on here again because frankly, it was kind of a pain coming up with stuff to write way back when.  This might well be the last post on here, or it might be the beginning of a new series.  Stay tuned and find out.

Carson to Santa Monica Pier Bike Route and Public Toilets

Do you own a bicycle? Do you live in the Carson, CA area? Have you ever wished you could bike to the Santa Monica Pier but didn’t know a route? Do you get nervous if you’re too far from a toilet? Are you a cheap bastard who won’t buy something just so you can use a store’s john? Well, worry no more because I wasted a couple hours making the following map (click on the picture to go to the Google map):

The route is clearly marked along with many points of interest, including public toilets. Now you can bike to the Santa Monica Pier while remaining aware of how far you are from the nearest john! No more will a weak bladder or an unexpected diarrhea attack inconvenience you!  Start living your life today!

Ichiro Suzuki: the next Yogi Berra?

Slate has an article on the oddball sayings of the Mariners’ outfielder. Here’s some samples:

– “I do not have the dog’s permission.” (When asked what his dog’s name is)

– “It’s not surprising. At the same time, it’s not that usual. It’s somewhere between usual and surprising.”

– “Tiger [Woods] is a great golfer, but … when you say athlete, I think of Carl Lewis. When you talk about [golfers or race-car drivers], I don’t want to see them run. It’s the same if you were to meet a beautiful girl and go bowling. If she’s an ugly bowler, you are going to be disappointed.”

– “To tell the truth, I’m not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to. If I ever saw myself saying I’m excited going to Cleveland, I’d punch myself in the face, because I’m lying.”

“If She’s an Ugly Bowler, You Are Going To Be Disappointed”

Slouching towards Bethlehem

Okay, first post. I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and get my own blog. The primary reason is because I wanted to force myself to write and a blog is a fancy, high-tech outlet for that kind of stuff. I’ve no idea what I’ll write about but hopefully I’ll figure something out. Maybe I’ll eventually get bored and quit – stay tuned and find out.

Incidentally, I’d initially wanted to start this blog over at Blogger since I already have an account over there but somebody already had freakflag.blogspot.com. It has only one post, way back in 2004. A bad omen, perhaps?