Beach Time.

So I have returned to the required energy levels of a semi-pro blogger!

My trip out the the ocean, was a solo venture; no one could/wanted to go for that many days or perhaps no one wanted to DEAL with me for that many days....

I went out to a place called Strawberry Point, on the Southern Wilderness Coast part of Olympic Nat'l Park. A 5 mile hike in, ait's about half beach walking, and the other half is going over headlands. The walk in was great, as was exploring the low tides after I had set up camp. The aquatic life in the tide pools was incredible- the tides were very low.

Saturday, a misty coastal drizzle came in, and I was lucky to find a sheet of plastic to build a shelter. It wasn't a crazy downpour, more than just making things wet to the touch. But I did fine. I was glad I had my rain pants.

Sunday, I went on a day hike to these waterfalls in the woods where I had lunch and read my book Cal gave me to read when I was still in New Zealand. I've been saving it for a long trip, and here was the perfect venture! The wind came up fiercely on the walk back- it was a proper Welly Wind too. But by evening, it had died, and the sunset was incredible. I sat on the beach, leaning on driftwood, drinking Fighting Cock neat and thinking that this is what life is about. It's not so much about the whole working thing in the city! That's rubbish (I just got finished watching Top Gear, so that word is in my mind)!

On Monday I awoke to fine weather, ate a leisurely breakfast, which was the same as my other meals really, dehydrated lentil soup (I won't enjoy some anytime soon). And packed, then walked back to the car, and a 4 hour drive home. With a fried chicken lunch break on the way.

Returned.

I am back from the ocean. I am tired- will write tomorrow all about my time there.

But be excited, as here are the pics!

ocean.

I am going to Strawberry Point, and the rest of the coast south of La Push, for a few days.

I will keep in mind these lyrics,

"Singing to an ocean, I can hear the oceans roar
Play for free, play for me and play a whole lot more, more!"

Pictures and maybe a baby seal will be found here next week....

Have a great weekend children.

LocalVeg

I received a phone call yesterday from the T-Man, who informed me that the farm stand near my house was open.

I decided a little stroll was in order. When I say close, I mean, 3 blocks away. And the food is grown right there too. Food miles: .33!

And I didn't use any plastic bags; I just threw the bok choi, radishes, salad mix, and rainbow chard in my satchel.

So anyways, enough blowing of my own horn. I came home and cooked the chard with dinner, doing so "in the Italian way." Rip the ribs off, dice them, cut up some onion and garlic, sweat them together, add fennel seed and black pepper. When that's soft, add the chopped leafy part, and cover, steaming quickly. Season and dash on some lightly flavored vinegar on top. I ate most of it.

I was too busy eating, so I didn't take any pics of the final thing! Crap!

NanerSlugz.

This is the photographic evidence of getting lost in the woods the other day with Seamus.

I am getting ready for an extended camping trip. I am trying to decide if I want to go to the ocean, or go up into the mountains with bears and glacial views....

Mima Madness.

I went out to the Mima mounds area today. I took pictures, but I can't find my cable at the moment...so you get to imagine what I saw:

The are is a a prairie, on the Southwest side of the Capitol forest, and the mounds are a bunch of...well mounds of dirt. I like that they're also known as "Hogwallows."

My friend Seamus and I went out there, and hiked, looking for the falls that are of the same name. In the old-ish growth forest, our trail went past a bunch of ripe salmonberries, which after reading the fact that often they are referred to as "insipid," I knew I wasn't crazy. One out of a few were kinda good....

But we hit a point where the trail was temporarily re-routed, and that ultimately, got us to a fork in the road, and we didn't know which fork to take. So we turned around.

We trekked back, through a mud hole we hadn't wanted to go through to begin with, and it ended up being 8 or 9 miles of walking. A nice day in the forest/backwoods Meth free trade zone!

Unbloggable.

My life has become relatively uninteresting/unbloggable. Who really cares that I helped my mom all day (besides my mom)? It's not good stuff.

What I need is a Friday Linky. But I probably lack that ingenuity. It is a complicated process, as well as requiring one to sort through the internets to find fine things.

So instead, while reading my previous blog post's comments, I realized I had more old pictures to share.

A trip to Orcas Island 4th of July weekend with Kyle Wachter; pics taken on film (crazy to me now!).

And an ultra-rare classic too.

Ok, you've been good. One cool linky for you.

Private Secretary.

I got a letter today from the Hon. Dr. Jonathan Coleman's office on really nice letterhead.

It read (sorta paraphrased):

Dear Mr. Andrews

On behalf of the Minister of Immigration, I acknowledge receipt of your letter of June 4th, regarding the processing of your application for residence under the Skilled Migrant Category.

The matters you raise will be place before the Minister and reply will be forthcoming as soon as possible.

Sincerely, Private Secretary Lady.

It lacked the obvious sentence: You are so radical that we want you to be the supreme overlord of New Zealand. Or something to that effect. But I see it as positive news at least....for now.

Anyways.

Also, apparently there's only a 6 day letter turnaround. Crazy.

Farm Cook.

I am going to be cooking at a farm in mid July. There is a summer dinner series called "Outstanding in the Field," and a chef I know (and may work for- I'll keep ya posted) is doing one of the suppers.

Actually, here is the link to the exact event I am working. Hanging out on a farm cooking stuff right from the earth? And drinking great wine? Excellent I say, excellent. It should be good.

Today I have 2 lawns and my head to mow. And apparently a letter from the Hon. Dr. Jonathan Coleman.....

Manhattan.

I have only a few minutes to blog before the scheduled outage I am being warned about!

Desperate times call for desperate measures!

No indepth recounts of cool events! No hard hitting, thoughful reveiws of literary classics! No spell checkin!

That said:

My mom broker her leg for those not in the know. I am cleaning toilets, and vacuuming more often. Look both ways before descending stars.

BBQ weekend- now with 50% more pork in casings! All over the area with the damn things.

I also had my dad tell me an insane story while he drank his 1st Manhattan since, he reckoned, 1973, when he had an ulcer from drinking too many in Schenectady, New York. (It was also when he found a love for creative writing, which took him to new, magikal heights!)

OK. I apologize: I just realized I had a little more time than I thought, but I am still not spell checkin' even though I could. Take THAT!

Visitors.

I back up in Seattle again, for a job interview and a meeting with my cousin regarding advertising for the writing project.

It's a beautiful day, and I am at the library checking in with the world community via them internets, and so I figured I post SOMETHING here.

My step sister Heather came up to Seattle from San Diego with her fiance, and we were joined by my dad and brother. This picture will take you to the gallery if you care!

Now I am going to get some iced coffee and read outside; I lack energy to type!

Writings.

I spent beyond an honest day's work writing various things. My head hurts- it's not used to staring this much at the screen. I do not know how people do it.

I worked on 3 different things, 2 of which got second-drafted.

-A piece entitled "Last Supper." It's about a meal I ate in San Francisco. I am saving the world premier of that that one for my website, whenever that is up and running. I gave one person a copy for feedback, and I am still waiting. It is probably the most emotionally honest piece I have ever written. That last sentence makes me sound like a dandy wordsmith.

-The beginnings of the Kumara Junction, in a new format. I created this idea, with Morgue on our roadtrip on the South Island. The idea is basically this: there is a cold German who is doing research in the Westcoast hamlet of Kumara Junction. Hilarity ensues. For all the Kiwis reading this: it's brilliant, you know this. For all other nationalities: "Huh?" is the correct response. But Morgan had the brilliant idea of developing it into a radio drama, ala the olden days. In my research, I found a link to the original War of the Worlds show, as well as other classics. We'll release it via podcast one day. And with Leon Verrall as the voice of the bogan bus driver, Early!

-More content for my foodie creative writing website. The tale of my arrival in Japan, and the journey to the 1st meal. Platform mime-linguists! Bill Murray spying on me! Me acting BOLD!

Second draft posted here for anyone interested in reading my (more than my blog's) writing.

I am going to go listen to the aforementioned War of the Worlds, and think about the fact that this afternoon my Grandma told me she heard it on the original broadcast live.

Random Round-Up.

I've just bought an external hard-drive for back up.

It was deemed a necessary expense, since I planned on doing some fairly important work- attempting to start a new business. And that has lots of bits and pieces that I'd rather not lose to the crap shoot that is my computer.

I am also putting all these discs of pics I made right after what is now know as "The Pohutukawa Tea Incident." There are lots of older images, such as my earlier trips in my life, that I love looking at. Remember the days when you'd have your film images put onto cds? Those images are so odd to look at; they are grainy, but they contain a wonderful richness.

I got the new Eels album, Hombre Lobo, as well as ELO's 1st album yesterday. I need to get that ELO one on vinyl....highly recommend the Eels, not only that album, but in general.

And another immigration thing. The minister of immigration said that the organization is a mess! I wrote another letter to that dude today, and was pleased to use the miraculous phrase: "Perverse and often baffling." Ask Malcom, or read this.

So some random favorite photos:

Aki as TopGun

Trever, the ultimate sumo fan.

Shinagawa Skyline.

In infamous "sliding down the rail in the train station" story.

I had hair? (actually, who is Aki attempting to intimidate?)

The good ole days!

The Longest Answer.

It was asked of me in one of the comments from a certain Jon Ball, if I had given up on NZ, since I seemed to be mentioning the creative writing project lately.

The answer to that is, "No Jon Ball. You will see me again."

But realistically, later as opposed to sooner. Unfortunately. The Immigration office of NZ is being dumb, to put it bluntly. They are troublesome, and have me doing yet more things, some of which are illegal in my country, and others that are beyond the expense I can spare at the moment, since I am jobless.

So perhaps if this writing project is successful, then I can do it from anywhere, say, NZ even. Or a beach in Tahiti. Or anywhere it's summer. I like summer I've decided.

But in the meantime, I have to get a real job, which I never anticipated taking so long to do so. But when I do, I then need to catch up on the saving thing, and take care of a few odds and ends, like fixing the brakes on my car.

One more thing to mention is that I was told by the woman who is dealing with my immigration case that perhaps I should "consider other routes to gain a work permit." She meant, get a job offer, but again, I think I need to have someone create a sham company. Like a catering company, or a "for foodies" cooking school, or that lunch counter idea, or even the farm thing! Hell, that one just needs a person to register the business, and a little bit more!

Ok, I am ranting now. But THAT is going to be the easiest way for me to live in NZ again I feel at this moment.

That's the long answer Jon Ball.

Cone-Dawg.

I just watched The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. He is no longer doing the "Late Show," having taken over for Leno. It is so odd, feeling that the new, bigger set and earlier time takes away from the seeming secret that is, or I should say, was Conan.

He is so quirky, and odd, and not a natural stand-up comedian, which is odd, because that's where all the other late night hosts have come from: Leno and Letterman both came to LA in the same year to start stand up, and even worked together for Jimmy JJ "DYN-O-MITE!" Walker....(I learned that from an Adam Carolla podcast the other day).

Conan's lack of stand up makes him rely on his goofiness, and not the expected punchline timing. There is something really different, like people who watch at 11:30 are still "normal," and the people who watch at 12:30 are asleep or drunk. It seemed watching the show, that Conan has some growing into the post to do. And we'll see if he can ever get it, which I am sure he will.
But here's a vid from his old show, one that he says is the favorite of all time:

Hot. Hot. Hot.

Today was the hottest day of the year so far. It got super-crazy hot. I couldn't stand being in the direct sun for long, but I spent a few hours working on my car, both under the hood and under the car itself. The last place you want to be when it's hot is to be under a greasy, old car with dust and crap falling into your eyes, and your body contorted.
But the work needed to be done.

I finished my 1st draft of my business plan for my new company, to be named later. The creative writing one. Now I am at the part where I have to find out web advertising info, to basically see if this venture can be something great that might support me, or just a great idea that supports my apparent need to start writing my travel stories. If anyone out there knows an advertiser with web experience, please send them my way! I need a primer I think.

So that's that.

You(tube) Have No Hobbies!

So I've seen this amazing trend in the local paper: in profiles of accomplished teen students, when it says "hobbies" the kids mention "youtube." Since when did kids get to say (internet) tv was a hobby!?! WTF.

But it is fun. You get to debate on which is better:

Turkish Superman

(all I know is that if they played this in an Indian restaurant, we'd eat there ALL THE TIME!)

*or*

Indian Superman

Ok really, it's not close. The Indian one blow is away. For at least 8 different reasons. I posted a linky! Oh, and I ate bbq, then played cricket in the street. And then it got dark. So I watched YouTube!