Dead Ro

LiveJournal peek

deadro — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 22:56:16 GMT

Just seeing who is sill on this.

deadro — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:48:20 GMT

Seattle folks: Need a cat groomer to shave my fluff ball. Any recommendations?

hawaii

deadro — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:09:34 GMT

Tomorrow, Friday May 29th, I fly back to Paia, Maui. I figure I may as well write about leaving Maui in the first place! Here's my account of the 5th week in Hawaii, "The Move From Maui."
(I think I missed a week in there somewhere)

After my week in Lahaina, I decided to jump ship and fly off the island. Next destination? Kona, Hawai'i (Big Island).

Kailua-Kona (Kona for short) is on the western shores of the Big Island. It's like Lahaina was transported here. Only with less fishing boats (umm...where are they again?) and less surf (Oh! there's a swell...oh, wait...no, that's just s big tourist). There are bars and restaurants along the "strip" but they are not what you want, and close "late" at 10p. There is also the Kona Brewing Company, which, if you saw my twitter or facebook post on that, you know how THAT went.

There are two redeeming things I found here to make it kinda worthwhile to visit here: The hostel "Patey's Place" and the Manta-ray Night Dive"

Unfortunately, I never saw the latter, so I'll talk about the former. Patey's place is pretty rad. Mostly the people, to be honest. Cool place with cool people. I'm starting to kinda hang out with staff more than visitors...well...mostly!

The weekend I first got there, I met up with:

Hello!....
(Left) Me! Aurelian (Belgium), Eric (Everywhere, but first Texas), and Berttina (Holland)!!

That was us traveling to the Volcano National Park. Kalauea(Kal-eh-way-ah) volcano precisely for this trip.

And pictures:

This is an awesome colorful bird that I saw:

Ummm...the Visitor Center. Exciting, huh?

Before the hike in!

This is the Crater In a Crater also supposed to be the home of the fire goddess Pele:

Aurelian was our "tour guide" He had gone the day before on a crappy "boos" tour and so took over the more interesting guide down the way

On the trail down

These ferns are actually very important to Hawai'i. These make good stable ground cover and breaks down the old volcanic lava rocks to help create soil. For the life of me I could not find the name, but Ferns are this weeks "fruit of the week"

The path up was criss-crossed with steam releases. Though you cannot see the steam, this was the first we saw. I also took this picture because at this point, the light became simply irresistible for someone who fancies herself as an aspiring photographer

Oh look, steam!

This is a great shot of one of the many many differing flora landscapes of the Hawaiian islands. That's the plume in the distance

Cool light on Bertina and Aurelian!!

Why can't I ever take a normal picture?

Aurelian before we went into the more touristy lavatubes found on the Big Island

These lava tubes are simply AWESOME!! There are many scattered across the Island. Lava tubes are created by the stages of cooling by molten lava. The outside cool first including the surface, sometimes leaving a tunnel where the still hot lava can move through in a tunnel. This slowly cools in stages, each leaving a personal band in the lava walls. Once the lava stops flowing, the left over makes an almost perfectly flat surface. Think of a lake in a tunnel that suddenly hardens. These also can make wonderful stalactites! but, these I'll show you in a future post

Yay wikipedia!! Ok...this one is in Oregon I guess, but gives you an idear:

Lavatubes are notorious for collapses, at least from what I saw. So each one can last miles, but may be shortened by breaks that could be a small amount of rock, to an entire forest growing on sections that used to be tubes. This more popular one is the first, more touristy "safe" section of the popular lavatube in the Natl Park.

But we were not about to stop there! The next section, while traveled often and also considered safe is also without lights and beyond 20 feet, completely black. Aurelian though ahead ( what a good tour guide he was!)and brought some lights.

Oh look! Lava POO!!! Yes, I'm 6.

There were many sections that had some minor collapses. Not terrible for someone with claustrophobia, but they would sure feel it.

This was in one of the sections that dropped down and we had to climb over and around rock falls:

Finally, we reached the end. Here, we found this green plant. Left by some other passer-by. Perhaps as a careless drop, or a spiritual offer, perhaps even a peculiar hat. Whatever the reason, it needed photo evidence

Afterwards we went in search of Real Flowing Lava(TM)!
It's a bit of a drive, not bad, but we took some breaks. I noticed then the wonderful colors fresh lava could become. I was tempted to pShop this to bring out the colors more, but decided against it

Finally, the road ended. But, not as it really was supposed to. No, a few years ago a new eruption took out the road, a town, changed the coastline, and raised general havoc with the area.

Ripples in the rock:

But life grows on:

This rock was simply awe-inspiring, breathtaking, jawdropping and all that. It looks just like heavy drapes haphazardly tossed on a rock, only it is the rock:

Again, the light. Simply amazing, truly. As you can tell, I was addicted to it. Here's one of the landscape with my dreads in the wind

And my favorite pictures for sure for sure, though it's too dark:

Ok, this week's fruit of the week, well, is NOT a fruit. But these are simply amazing to look at. The monkey tail look of new ferns looks incredibly alien to someone who has not seen this before:

Travel blog hawaii week 3.

deadro — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:45:03 GMT

I told you all last week about the mass exit of many of my new-found friends. It was a tougher time for me, as I had to say goodbaye to many people I had grown very fond of. So, instead of hanging around Paia, I spent the week with some folks in a different city, Lahaina.

I met Tommy and Jay at the Hostel when i first got here. Tommy is from Hungary, and Jay is an american and has lived in Hawaii for about 13 years. They needed some help with rent, and since it was in a new place, Lahaina, I decided to go.

Well, it wasn't the greatest idea, I have to say, but it was a good experience as I was glad to get out of Paia for a little while. I do hav to say one thing, the place itself was AMAZING. here is a picture of what's right outside the balcony:

And here's Tommy and I hard at work:

A little about Lahaina:

Lahaina is the largest city on West Maui. It's a much more touristy attraction than Paia on the north shore is. In Lahaina, you can find buskers, beggars, tourist shops filled with coconut bikini tops and "I got leid in Maui" t-shirts. It's also the place to go to charter fishing boats, and take boat rides to supreme snorkeling areas like Molokini.

Many of the islands resorts are just north of here in Kaanapalii, including the one I wrote about last week. Beautiful, but very obviously sculpted land is laid along the coast pretty much all along the west coast.

Though still sleepy compared to the mainland, there is more nightlife here for bar-goers. These are your usual top 40's, house, or sportsbars. But at least they are open past 10 on weekends.

If you are interested in the more touristy locations, with the nicest resorts, I suggest Lahaina. If you want to see Hawaii more locally, then perhaps it is not your best option.

==========

I ended up incredibly broke this week, so I had rice and ramen for the week and didn't do too much. I mostly swam and snorkeled outside the apartment and rode my (piece of crap crap) bike for a few miles a day.

The most exciting thing to happen was a beached monk seal. While we were waiting for NOAA to come help her, I took a shot of her from the apartment.

she was ok, but we were all worried about her and were relieved to see NOAA get her back into deeper waters.

As I said, overall, pretty dull, but incredibly beautiful. Here are a few of my favorite shots:

twitter

deadro — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:06:19 GMT

I am finally using my twitter account. I'm just connected all over the place now. Yowsa!

name: deadro

Travelling

deadro — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:43:46 GMT

There are a lot of photos here so it may take some time loading!

Been too long since I wrote! I'll try to remember everything.

I've been in Paia Maui Hawaii for 3 weeks now. I really do love it here, but I need a change. I'll be going to Lahaina for the next week, which is on the west side of the island. It's more touristy and has a lot of resorts, but it's a good change of scenery.

The past two weeks or so were fairly busy. Work has me going like crazy, so it was difficult to get to do much during the week. But I tried. :)

There are amazing places to see here, ones tucked into places you'd never expect. One of the greatest things here, as that the entire coast is open to the public. So all the pristine beaches you see at resorts and behind people's houses actually belong to the people and should have access. My friend Mike (Mikey Mayhem) is a travel kid, and has been here on Maui camping on the beaches for about 6 months. He knows all the secret spots. He showed me these cliffs, right in Paia by the beach!

Mike n Jessica

The view at sunset. That's the other side of the island, Iao Valley.

Later on, we went the the local sushi bar/night life bar for Brown Chicken, Brown Cow.

Rosanne, Juana, Me, Jessica

BrownChicken BrownCow

The weekend was when we got out and had some real fun. Donna (Newfoundland, CA), Roseanne, (Vancouver BC CA), Juana (Germany), and I went to the other side of the island to check out some snorkel spots. Donna had flown on a helicopter ride the previous day and wanted to show us some things she saw. We stopped at one specific place to look for the big blow hole...which is a place where the rock formation near the ocean is set in such a way that when a wave crashes, water spouts from a hole in the ground inland, looking like a whale.

On the walk there, the formations by the lava made the place look like mars. Incredibly creepy and amazingly awesome.

The ladies: roseanne, Juana, donna

We came across this place...and what a great secluded place to live. I couldn't get a good picture, but there was a tree-house to the left of this picture which just looked so peaceful.

This stand next to the crazy windy road is supposed to have the best banana-bread on the island. And ya know, it actually was damn tasty.

Once we were done, we went to black rock beach and did some swimming and snorkeling behind the Sheraton Resort in Kaanapali. We then snuck into the resort and went to the outdoor bar, just in time for their friday night "luau" (quotes because those are NOT real luaus)

Lighting the torches along the Black Rocks ridge

Donna and Roseanne joining in the Hula training

I stayed out to take pictures ;)

But was asked to join this photo, with the Hula dancer!

This is the Resort we snuck into:

And on the road from Kaanapali back to Lahaina you may feel a little afraid, and not know why...then you look up and see this on a building:

Sounds so ominous!

We spent a touch of time in Lahaina before going back to Paia. This tree is the worlds largest Banyan tree. Every tree "stump" you see in this is one tree, it's roots growing from the branches to the ground. Pretty amazing to look at.

This is the base of the tree here:

The next day Donna, Roseanne, and I took a boat snorkeling tour to Molokai'i. Unfortunately, we never made it to the island because it was too windy. So the boat took us to other smaller snorkeling areas. It was just ok, and it was pricey for not seeing what you signed up for. :(. But, the photographer guy was nice, and gave me his card. Seems he has a place in Haiku that has a great hiking trail behind it. Better yet, some of the locals use the trail to hunt boar for the real lauas. That would be incredible to see. So, I may call him soon to do that!

After the boat docked in Lahaina, we went back out to the Sheraton beach and this time played more around the pool area:

Ok, some beach:

Roseanne has this jumping thing, so they jumped, I took pictures:

One thing many people hate about Paia, and Maui in general is that the night life is too slow. And generally, that's true. But we go out when we can. One night, everyone at the hostel went to another town (whose name I forget, Makawao maybe?) to a bar/restaurant called Casanova. We were wishy-washy about going in, but ended up doing so. What a great thing we did! We had a ton of fun there:

Dave (Montreal, Canada) and Melissa (Portland OR) before showing their acrobatics on the dance floor:

I actually found some people of the alternative swing of things, rockabillies, goths, punks, and gay folks here! I thought they were all drowned upon arriving! It was great to meet up with them, but I didn't get any numbers. That is frustrating, but they mentioned casanova's is the one place in Maui for anything other than the frat/soro/tourist. I'll be going back.

Here's a little picture of a gecko that was hanging by me while I was working outside:

Sadly enough, 90% of the people I was hanging out with left this week. So, on Monday afternoon after I got done working, we gathered down at Paia bay for some beach fun.

Afterwards, Mike and I showed Roseanne the cliff place for sunset. This was good bye to both of them. Roseanne left the next day, Mike left just this last Friday:

Now that everyone has left, I moved out of the hostel for a bit with some locals outside Kaanapali/Lahaina. This place is beautiful, but I miss everyone. I'm feeling very friend-sick. I don't miss Seattle, but I miss my friends from there.

Now, for your Fruit of the Week(ish)

Banana

The banana tree is a palm-like tree, but with thicker leaves. The banana fruit begins as a big pod:

As the pod ripens, the leaves of the pod pull back, exposing the banana fruit underneath:

Once all the fruit is out, the leaves of the pod drop out, leaving just a little at the bottom.

The fruit is picked while still green to avoid the bugs.

Personally, I like bananas more on the green side. eating a fresh banana is really awesome. It has more sweetness, more flavor overall.

Now you know!

Travelling - Paia, Maui, Hawaii

deadro — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:24:47 GMT

This has been a great time so far. Strange though, it feels different, but not different, from the rest of the trip. I think I know why that is though. I am technically homeless right now. So everywhere I go is "home" to me. This place is amazing, and it feels like home, but no more than everywhere else. More on that later perhaps.

On to the good stuff!

I flew in on April 10th. I packed only one small backpack and my laptop, which has made traveling here very nice. As I was standing in line to get on the plane, most people had 3-6 huge check in bags, not including their carry-ons. For a 2 week vacation, that seemed excessive! What do you bring that takes up that many bags! But I do realize I think differently. I have always had very few possessions, so 3-4 carry on backs would be my whole house!

Since I did not have a check in bag, I just walked straight outside. Instantly, I smiled. I found summer! Of course, soon after, it started raining. Bah! So walked down the way a bit planning on calling the folks at the hostel. I didn't get very far before I hear "Hi! Hey, Miss, Are you Rowan, waiting for Riki?" I look, and it's the airport security guy. Ah....yes? "He said you'd be obvious with the red dread hair and all!, he'll be right here"
Riki soon pulls up in his truck, he's an older skinny Hawaiian surfer biker. I jump in and off we go. We hit it off right away, and soon he's talking about trading rent for a web page.

Riki's truck:

The hostel is clean and filled with people from all over. Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Hungary, Canada, GB, Israel, just to name a few. It's really wonderful to work in the main living room and hear accents and languages from all over the world.
There's even a token Goth Guy. He's from Poland, but lives in Toronto and is a major wind surfer. He's going to teach me how to wind surf. He's also kinda cute. but he won't let me get a shot of him. heh. anyways, I lost my flirting skills about 5 years ago. The hot guys, oh, they are in abundance here.

Hostel and some of the hostelers:

Hostel KITTY!!

That night, me and two other went to the Marc Arelia cafe in Wailuku to see a band called "Brown Chicken Brown Cow" which is a rock/folk bank of 20 somethings that seriously rocked. They were a treat to watch. They should be touring the mainland soon, I hear. You should go see them! There would be pictures, but again, I forgot my camera.

The next day Lee, Brittany, John, and I went to Hana. The road to Hana is amazing. It's not for the faint of heart as it is a tight road hugging the mountains with space only for one car much of the way. There are supposedly 617 hairpin turns and 54 bridges on the Road to Hana. It took us 3 hours to go 40 miles. But it was so worth it. The drive is beautiful and Hana is a nice place to camp at the end.

We stopped at the black beach, and hung out a bit:

Here's one of my closest friends favorite cartoon characters, in Live Action:

We rented a cabin that night and chilled. Everything closed early, so we cooked a dinner together and went to bed early.

The next day we went down the other side of the coast. Again, the road was pretty crazy...even crazier than the other side! Thank god Lee rented a jeep! We stopped at a winery and did some tasting. A lot of the wines were awesome, and they had a ton of Pineapple flavored wines, most of which were a bit too fruity. I did buy a bottle to send to a friend.

This was a neat little coffee/fruit bar/stand on the way out of Hana. The smoothie machine is powered by a bicycle built into the floor that you ride yourself. Pretty funny. The smoothie machine was down, so I didn't make one :(

The road to Hana is pretty hair-raising. But NOTHING compared to the way down the other side. This is where the land turned more arid, more desert like. We hugged jagged cliffs pretty much the whole way. It was a real blast though!

A little friend flew onto my bracelet, and I love the color match:

The interesting thing about Maui is how different the climate is in different parts of the island. After the winery, the landscape evened out and became more arid.

After the road, we went directly to a beach party. It's at "Little Beach" and includes a huge drum circle, dancing, and even fire dancing at night! Umm...it's also a nude beach, so there were a number of nekkid hippies. Why is it, dear friends, that the people who need to be naked are never the people you want to see naked?

Lee! Here's that sunset picture you wanted!!

heh:

I forgot my fire tools in Seattle, much to my chagrin. So I was watching people practice and play, and jonesin' to play myself! I finally just asked someone if I could play with their equipment. I soon remembered how hard it was to dance in the sand. What was frustrating, was as soon as I was ready to dunk and light, everyone had to get off the beach. There is an 8:00 curfew on that beach. WHAT? So, I still have not lit up. Bah.

The next few days were pretty boring. I stayed in the hostel during the day to work. It was incredibly busy this week, so I ended up working pretty much 10-12 hours everyday. At night I would go get sushi, then practice poi for an hour or so.

One fun thing about Hawaii is all the fruit and vegetables that grows out here. And some of it is shocking! So, I decided to do a "fruit a week" in my journal.

This week, I'll teach you about the Star Apple

This is a Star Apple. It's called "Star" because the pulp has a start-like pattern. No idea why they call it an "apple".

It is a tree fruit and is usually picked once it turns a dark purple. (though there are green varieties).

You cannot eat the skin or the rind. So people usually bite into the fruit, and spit out the skin to get into the flesh of the fruit.

The flesh is really soft...even squishy, like tapioca or gelatin. You eat around the rind and the few large black seeds. This seems easiest to do with a spoon.

It's a super sweet fruit and reminded me of a honeydew in flavor. It was really good, but not something I'd have everyday.

There is a star apple fruit tree just outside of the hostel here, though I don't think the fruit is ripe yet.

So, that is week one. I am very behind in writing about this as it feels there is just so much to write about!

Travel Blogging!

deadro — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:25:57 GMT

The first part of this was written a few days ago:
I'm on the plane right now, about 45 minutes away from Maui. They are about to give us the arrival customs forms to fill out (Um...I think...?).
I should have begun this journal entry before watching the in-flight movie, "Marley and Me" which I can't say I liked at all.

Wow, it is just breathtaking watching the horizon of water stretch out forever....

So, I have not yet written up my latest travel blog! Many reasons for this. But the biggest was a sudden lack of interest or energy.I have been back in Seattle for the last few days, and unfortunately, it was pretty disappointing.

After New Orleans/Biloxi, I flew into San Francisco. I had left my Jeep there from the visit to Reno, so I finally had my wheels back! I went out to the city on Thursday for Tricky with Juliet and Dawn, the later who also flew in for the show. I ran into Dom and Jesse there, and caught up with them a bit. The show was great, and after the show, Tricky came out and gave hugs to people as they left. How cool is that? And me...I forgot my camera.

After that, I went to Meat where I ran into a ton of people: lilmissnever, netik, kalischild, bigdonkeyretard, and a few folks who's LJ I don't have or they don't have one. It was awesome, as always, to catch up, no matter how short.

I was staying at my friend Juliet's place. She recently bought a place in Oakland. Its a total fixer-upper, but beautiful and I fell in love with it.

Saturday, Juliet had a BBQ out in her yard. This is Dawn washing the new grill for the 5th time:

Here's the group, and Juliet's awesome yard. She's worked very hard at this

And Renah showed up here as well:

I love these dolls. Creep.

On Saturday, Dawn and I went out to Annie's Social club to see Dom. There was a fun band playing, "Fat Bottomed Ladies" which was 3-4 old, chubby white guys dressed in bad drag and doing Queen cover songs.

DOM!

Fat Bottomed Ladies!

After that, we went to Cat Club, where I ran into Rachel again, met Kym, and generally had a good 30 minutes that we were there. Dawn got her dance on. Which is good, because after that night, she got incredibly sick and stayed the rest of the time on Juliet's couch.

Sunday was my birthday. I have an old school friend in SF that I met at Burning Man...1999??? Back when I was more innocent than I am now. He's someone I always need to see when I go out to SF. This year he, dtk, gave me the best birthday present ever. We went out on a troller and went fishing for Halibut!

Dave found a friend:

And I had to bribe him to be MY friend!!

Me all bundled up, because DAMN it was cold.

This was my only catch for the day:

But, Dave took me out to get SUSHI to make me feel better.

Dave will be in Seattle very soon to DJ with JQ. DJ Decay is the name. And when he plays Ocean's Rising, think of me there!

After SF I went to Reno to visit the family again. Then back to Seattle for a few days.

It took me about 4 days to write this. I'm in Paia, HI, which is on Maui. And there has been so much going on. It's actually easier for me to work here than it has been anywhere else.

Next update will be soon. I have a lot to write!

Travel Blog 5

deadro — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:27:01 GMT

This is not really a travel blog, but mostly a story with a few comments after.

Ah! Oakland!!

(Mom, I know you read these. You should ah...go play with the birds or something. Nothing to see here)

I got here on Sunday, at about 5ish. I scanned the area and found a local 24 Hour Fitness. So, at about 8pm, I went to check it out. It was on the corner of Webster and Grand. Well, I forgot everything: book, ipod, water, towel. So I decided it wasn't going to happen. I jumped back in the car and headed around to find a grocery store.

I don't recall exactly what street I was on, but it was pretty busy. So, when I hear a girl screaming, I think nothing of it. Until she starts screaming "Help! Help!" I look around and I see this girl chasing after some guy with a huge gold bag. "He stole my Momma's purse!!"
So, I think to myself, "You fuck! Steal from some old lady!!!" I was coming to the same intersection he was, so I took a hard left to cut him off with my jeep. But, before he got to the intersection, he swerves into a little open parking lot. I just have time to see him drop something in the bushes before he jumps in his car.
well, my left turn took me to where the parking lot opens to the street. I think, "Ok, asshole, think you're gonna speed away! I'm going to block your car in with my jeep, see how far you get then!"
So I take a hard left into the parking lot and head towards his car. Unfortunately, he had enough time to rev up and was now heading towards me. I swerved out of the way, and turn back the way he came. At this point, the girl got to my car. I open the door: "Get it!"
We drive to the opening of the parking lot, I saw he had gone left. She starts talking about how this guy knocked over her mom and that she just had surgery. I stop and I ask where her mom is, and she points to the right. I look at her and ask. "Ok, your call, which way"
She opts for her mom. So I take her to where she indicates. The cops are already there, and there's this big black lady just cursing a storm up and down the cops. Comically, she had a huge flower in her hat.
The girl turns to me and says "It's best we didn't go after him, prolly would have shot us both"

(I heard that Mom...I told you not to read!)

Afterwards, I stopped at Whole Foods and did some organic shopping.

Ah, Oakland. Everyone I tell from here says "Wow, that's odd!" and truthfully, it's not as bad as it's made out to be.

But I did get a chance to chase down a bonifide old-lady's purse snatcher!

Other observations:
- I love the houses here.
- The ratio of SUVs declines with the rise of funky hair colors
- Buying a house in Oakland is stupid cheap. But expect a lot of fix-up.
- Gastropubs are more annoying in SF.

travel journal 4

deadro — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:46:29 GMT

What a weekend, my friends, what a weekend. As a warning, this post is very photo heavy and may take a bit to load :)

There were about 12 of us from around the country: Biloxi, MS; Burlington, VT; Akron, OH; Madison, WI; New York, NY; San Diego, CA; Cleveland, OH; Chicago, IL; Seattle, WA.

As my last journal posted, I was on my way to New Orleans, and finishing up my last few sober moments of the weekend. Saturday was the New Orleans St. Patrick's day parade in the Garden district. We met everyone at a place called "bulldogs" and watched from there.

Here's how the day started out. My first Jager Bomb ever:

And here's how I felt about that:

the bar had the coolest fountain ever:

The parade started and we got a TON of beads. It was awesome to catch the eye of someone on a float and catch what they threw. And what they threw was anything you could think of. Beads, stuffed animals, bouncy balls, even cabbage and potatoes! History lesson! OK....so that link doesn't work yet because I can't find anything about it for sure. irish immigrants needing food is the best I've found. anyone?

After the parade, the designated drivers drove us to our random hotels,B&Bs, and timeshares. There were 4 of us that stayed at the "Ursulines Guest House." This place was incredible. It was in no way a 4star hotel or anything. It was definitely more for the ones who want something with a little more character. This was at the daily wine and cheese hour.

My friend JJ with one of the "neighbors" dogs. And a lot of St Patty's day color.

And here are some of the boys we hung out with a bit there. David and Sam and their lady friend who's name I can't remember!!, who were totally awesome boys trying to get a weekend together (poor guys had to deal with a third guy who kept trying to get into Sam's pants) The dog from the last picture is Sam's

No pictures from that night. We hung out at bar after bar and partied on Decatur for a bit (always always stay away from Bourbon on the weekend nights. Always) I ended up getting sleepy early (1a) and going to the hotel to sleep.

The next day, off to breakfast with the group! We went to a place called Stanley which had by far the best Eggs Bennys EVER! They were technically Po-Boy Eggs Benedict.

After breaky, we went wandering around and whatnot. We stopped at a bar for cheap beers. While we were there people just randomly decided to start line dancing:

Hello Phia and Neal!

That night, we went out again. We were going on a "haunted tour", so we met at the bar, Flannigan's, where they sold the tickets. We should have just stayed there...worst tour. It was terrible.

Flannigan's is where we stayed for a long time. It was a bit more of a locals hang out, as the bartender gave any of the typical frat boys so much shit when they came in...example:

Two drunken 20 something jock types walk into the bar. They are both carrying Hurricanes:

Bartender: "Hey guys, sorry, no outside drinks in here"

So the two guys walk back out and chug their hurricanes. They throw away the bottles (into the street) and come back into the bar

Bartender: "Sorry guys, I can't serve you, you appear too drunk to legally serve"

Awesome!!

But it gets better. I asked my friend what his name was. "Huggy" was the reply. OK, I know Vlad, he fucks with people as easily as breathing, so I said "No! I don't believe you!" we called the bartender over.

"Ok, what is your name"
"Huggy!"
"Are you fuckin serious?"
"In fact. And my last name? Baher. Yes, I am Huggy Bear. And My brother's name is Theadore."

I still think he's fucking with us.

This next image is for those of you who miss NOLA

Here's the group before we got too trashed:
In order, left to right: Aster, Neal, Liz, Phia, Alexa (in the back), (barely see, next to alexa) Rob, JonJon, Liz, JJ, me, Vlad.

Here's JJ, birthday boy, taking a shot Neal bought for him. This is about when he realized it was a Cement Mixer

Oh, remember Huggy Baher? Here's our awesome 'tender. He ended up hanging out with us after his shift for the night/morning/whatever time we went to bed

No context theatre:

And finally, a few last images of the evening before it turned into real chaos. (Oh, to those on the trip with me, no worries, I am not posting some of the other photos. Those are for blackmail. And damn, are they good ones)

Everyone dispersed on Monday. I had to work, so that was good for me.

I'll be here hanging out with Vlad and Liz until Sunday for some MUCH NEEDED downtime. After that, I'm off to San Francisco to start all over again.

Travel Blog 3

deadro — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:48:11 GMT

But damn, I am definitely in the south. The accents here are pretty awesome. And everyone is incredibly NICE!

I want to take a sec and say thank you to all the emails and messages. The support and comments are really awesome.

Anywho...

I spent the last week in Biloxi Mississippi (I love spelling that, sometimes I forget to stop)
One of my dearest friends lives out here with his wife. She's in the air force and is stationed here. Much to their glee, because it is very close to New Orleans.

The weather is incredible. warm with a soft breeze. Here's where I have been working:

Speaking of work, I have been working a lot this week. Finally! It's been incredibly slow for a few weeks now. The paycheck will like this week. Paycheck. About that: The payroll has an issue right now. This means DirectDeposit isn't working. And I am no where near anywhere that they send the checks. So I have to do financial acrobats for the next month. ARG!!!

Anyways....

My friend, Barry, he is a very interesting guy, and collects the coolest stuff. Here's some from the house. Yes, the arcade games Still work:

This weekend, a bunch of friends from across the country are here for a Friday the 13th party, then a weekend in New Orleans. Here's only some of the cast:

It's awesome. I am writing this on the way to New Orleans. In the car. Yay for the weekend!!

Trip Journal 2

deadro — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:05:49 GMT

This week in Reno I've pretty much just hung out with the family. I have a few people I wanted to see, ut never contacted them. But, plans, they do change. I will be back here after SF trip. See, I didn't get my Hawaii plane tickets until much too late, and in order to get the cheap prices, I had to push out a week. So, I'll be back in town on March 29th. That time will be spent with friends.

Ok, on to the past week!

First off. DAMN YOU SNOW!!!! It's snowed here a few times. I am so tired of the snow. Really. I'm done. If I went to the MTNs more to snowboard, sure, no problem, but everything got in the way of that. So, now I get the snow without the benefits. Luckily, today it's sunny and warmish.

There's a little argument I have going with my Reno friends up in Seattle.

It's about Sushi.

They claim Reno has "The Best Sushi EVAR!" So I asked my sister, Mins (short for Melinda) to take my Mom and I to the best sushi in Reno

It was....interesting. The fish itself was very mediocre. But they had some "sushi" rolls. They were in fact, Very tasty! But, they were fried with hot sauce, cream cheese and jalapenos. Not quite what comes to mind for me when I think of sushi. Over all, it was a good experience. Though, I need more convincing to think Reno sushi is the best.

(Fun fact: after this pic was taken, I left my camera at the place. I came back the next day, it was there! I ribbed them about looking at my pictures and selling them on the internets. The whole place laughed. It was funnier in person)

As Ive stated about a gazillion times, I've spent most of my time with the family. I figure here is a good time for introductions:

Mom, who laughes all day long and whom everyone just loves

Daddy Bear. The best and driest sense of humor, and who loves Halloween

My little sis. She's got a tongue like wildfire and still doesn't know how awesome she is. The only pic she would let me take, with her boyfriend Che

The "Other" family. Mom likes chaos

Oh, right, I mentioned that Dad likes Halloween? Here was his costume two years ago. You have to read the sign:

Now, for a blast from the past, Rowan Style:

As all parents do, my mom has pictures of me when I was younger.

Me at the tender age of 5 (ish?)

I made a terrible Catholic. But, here's proof I was one

OMG, high school. This must have been Jr year, when I dressed normal to impress a popular boy. Silly silly me

I used to be so innocent. I wonder what happened

Today I drive to SF to take a plane to New Orleans. Biloxi, Mississippi, in truth, but we'll be spending a lot of time in NOLA

deadro — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:56:54 GMT

First, a note. These entries will not be friends only so my non-LJ friendly folks can see what I'm doing. I'll keep everything under cuts.

What a trip so far! I'm now in Reno, and I didn't do any adventuring on the way here. For the first few days I stayed at the casino that I pretty much grew up in. My Mom has worked here when it was MGM, then Bally's, then Hilton, and now Grand Sierra Resort.

My parents and I are starting to have a "ritual" of sorts. We all play a poker tourney when I am in town. This time, it was my Moma and I playing in a Lady's tournament. It was so much fun. I became known as River Rowan. I took 3 people out on the River. What awesome luck! But, it did eventually change as I got more relaxed, and I ended up 35th out of 89. Not great, but not like I even imagined I'd get anywhere! My Mom was 45th, so I did beat her. :)

This image was taken when I was up. Look at the chips!!! That was big $$ there! Over 6k at this point I think!

That club really needs to pay me to gamble there. My first night there, I went downstairs to the tables to gamble a little extra cash I had. Every table I went to, I was suddenly surrounded by guys (now, before you're all "whatever, vain girl" I want you to know it happens to anything with tits under 60 and 500lbs). So these guys would start betting, asking me to bet for them, etc etc. Here's the part where I think they need to hire me: My luck is not bad, not great, but where ever I went, every single person at the table started losing big time! I told my Dad and he said that people like that ARE hired. They are called "Coolers" to those that believe in that "hockus pockus" stuff.

I lost way more than I wanted to that night, but came back the second night...

There's a Texas Hold'em table that if you bet on your hole, then you can get bonus $$. The biggest is if you get a Pair of Aces in the hole and the dealer gets the other pair of Aces. on a 5$ bet, you win $5,000.

I got a pair of Aces in the Hole. the dealer turns over her first card....

Ace of Spades

(HAHAHAHA!! LJ just totally hiccuped on me, and this posted at that line. How awesome. If you saw this post before it was finished, Opps!!! Anyways....)

The dealer turns over her second card......

Queen of Spades.

DAMN YOU!!! But, I did win 150 with the Aces.

What was even more awesome, was my next hand? Pair of Aces.
The one after that? A pair of Jacks

So with that streak, I ended up even. I handed all but 100 of my winnings to my Mom with my CCard. I then played that 100 until it was gone, ordered a Prime Rib from Room service and watched Adult Swim for the rest of the evening.

So, yes, an incredible trip so far. Now for the other stuff. I am on this trip for a number of reasons. One, I love to travel, but two, because I need to get my head on straight again. I dealt with depression for most of the last 2 years.

My brain decided it would start from the bottom. So for the entire ride down to Reno, I thought a lot about the bad things about myself. I have become jealous, envious, whiney, cynical, and even mean at times. I have NEVER been like this before. I looked at everything I have done in the last few years and...really...the last few decades. I am gullable, and sometimes dumb as rocks. I am a flake. I am oblivious. I can be hurtful in my utter cluelessness. And these things have hurt a lot of friends in the past. To those people, I am truly sorry. They know who they are, and to them, I have apologized in the past, and will again in the future.

There are also things I have been accused of that I am not.

I am not "arrogant," I am shy. I also have incredibly low self esteem.
I am not a "man eater." Again with the self esteem, but also, I am clueless to someone who likes me. I also try incredibly hard not to hurt anyone.
But, I am a huge flake, and that has been the worst.

One last thing I have to admit to. I have been such a WHINER. I have an amazing life *knock on wood*. I have awe-inspiring friends, I have the most kick ass job, I get to travel, I am not broken in any obvious ways. I am really sorry for being such a little bitchy girl the last few years. I have been so rediculous.

So, yes, what a trip so far! I'm staying at home until sunday, when I fly to New Orleans for two weeks. I just bought my one way ticket to HAwaii. OMFG.

Trip

deadro — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:20:01 GMT

It's been much too long since I have gone on a trip. My travel bones are shakin.

Destination 1: San Francisco

Why: Visit friends
Duration: 1 week

Destination 2: Reno

Why: Visit Family
Duration: 1 week

Destination 3: New Orleans

Why: Visit friends
Duration: 2 weeks

Destination 4: San Francisco (possible)

Why: March Birthday Bash with Juliet and Dawn. Also, Tricky. Also, my old tradition of going to SF Fisherman's warf on my birthday for a fresh steamed crab. This happens infrequently since I moved to Seattle.
Duration: undetermined

Destination 5: Hawaii (NorthShore Oahu, Kaui, Maui, at least)

Why: Surfing, hiking, windsurfing, amazing sushi
Duration: 2+ months

Then back home to dear old Seattle. Probably June.

I will be having a "good trip" get together with friends, but I am not 100% sure when I'll be leaving. it may be pretty sudden...It may be Thursday. Post if you can make Thur.

Book Purge

deadro — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:03:25 GMT

(had to repost)

I am purging all my less omgIcanneverpartwiththese books. These are free. Please let me know if I should keep one of these for you

Lots of these are old, when I was like 16, so don't make fun.

Books:

Harry Potter
Order of the Phoenix (hardback)
Deathly Hallows (hardback)
Half-Blood Prince (hardback)
Sorcerer's stone
chamber of secrets
prozoner of azkaban
Claimed by nightwind2323

Master and Commander Series
- Patrick O'Brian
Claimed by geekalpha

HornBlower books
- C.S. Forester
Claimed by geekalpha

Dangerous Angels
- Francesca Block
Claimed by androidheart

Perdido Street Station (a bit waterlogged)
- China Mieveille

Wicked
Son of a Witch
- Gregory Maguire
Claimed by spaceling

Making Money (hardback)
- Terry prachett
Claimed by benevolentia

The Dore Illustrations for Dante's Devine Comedy
-
Claimed by etherspook

Women sailor's and Sailors' women
- David cordingly

Heroic & Outrageous Women
-

Jack the Ripper Companion
- Stewart P. Evans
Claimed by schwarze_krahe

Light
- M. John Harrison

Stardust (Torn cover)
- Neil Gaiman
Claimed by benevolentia

The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
- Philip Pullman
Claimed by gkr

Shadowmarch
ShadowPlay (hardback)
- Tad Williams
Claimed by schwarze_krahe

Gardens of the Moon
Deadhouse Gates
Memories of Ice
House of Chains
- Steven Erikson
Claimed by schwarze_krahe

The Lance Thrower
- Jack Whyte

Outlander
- Diana Gabaldon

The Complete Kama Sutra
-

Feast of Souls
- C. S. Friedman
Claimed by schwarze_krahe

Dune
- Frank Herbert
Claimed by dgenerator

Learn Astrology, Math and interpretation techniques
-

A history of the Bysantine State and History
- Warren Treadgold
Claimed by

Nostradamus
- J.H. Brennan
Claimed by androidheart

A Witches' Bible
- Janet and Stewart Farrar
Claimed by seedmoon

Leaving the Body, a guide to astral projection
- D. Scott Rogo

============
Graphic Novels

SandMan Graphic novel series
- Neil Gaiman
Claimed by nihil_duce

Death
- Neil Gaiman, Tori Amos
Claimed by benevolentia

The Dreaming, through the gates of horn and ivory
- A neil gaiman sandman knockoff

The Crow
- J.O'Barr
Claimed by nightwind2323

the Books of Magic, Girl in the Box

=============
Artists' Books

Realistic figure drawing
- Joseph Sheppard

Drawing Dynamic Hands
- Burne Hogarth

Dynamic Anatomy
- Burne Hogarth
Claimed by etherspook

On Vox: oh Noes!

deadro — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:30:12 GMT

http://deadro.vox.com

To those not on in the seattle omggossip line:

http://valleywag.gawker.com/5124184/the-russian-bear-slashes-a-social-network

LJ doomed? Who knows. But I realize I use this site as such a large part of my social networking that losing it would be pretty shitty.

Yes, yes, I need a website for my social life. I am that lame.

So, I signed up for vox.com, which is owned by the previous owners of LJ and I hear has many of the same features.

Originally posted on deadro.vox.com

android

deadro — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:50:50 GMT

Ok. This is awesome. I'm using my Android for my LJ fix.

I found this after installing the auto Netflix application to add a movie to my queue so I wouldn't forget to.

I do love this thing.

Yes, I know you can browse to lj on a blackberry. But this is just damn cool.

For being a microsoft dev for 6 years, you'd think I would be more of a technophile

Decisions, decisions....

deadro — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:56:03 GMT

So, I've seen like a zillion "Election Night" parties going on.

Who is having one and who is going to which one?

Taco Taco

deadro — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:23:46 GMT

We're going to be going to Flare Taco tonight for their "Opening" tonight at 10. I heard that the news stations are doing a quick story about it and I want to see what that is all about. If you have nothing to do and you're not drunk off your ass from Golf, then you should come down and support it!! The guy who is doing it is one of our own and totally excited/nervous about it. If you know Angel, please come and support! It's in Fremont across the street from the free Theatre

Duri

deadro — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:01:45 GMT

Has anyone heard from Duri in the last few weeks? A friend who is going to Thailand is looking to hang out with him out there.

ETA: I have gotten the sad news, I am on the original emails and call list. I just don't know how to post about sad news, so I did not update this.

I spoke with my friend, who may have been one of the last people to talk to Duri. Good news was that he did seem in good spirits 2 weeks ago. We can hope he was until the final day.

RIP man. it's been a year or more since we were 'best friends'. I'm glad you kept the ring as long as you did. I only wish we didn't grow apart this last year and that I didn't get so mad at you. I miss you.

deadro — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:40:38 GMT

my cat is refusing to eat cat food.
Again.
I've tried ~~every cat foor known to man~~ over a dozen different cat foods, but he simply stops eating it after a few months.
this is so frustrating.

deadro — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:38:50 GMT

facebook is nothing but a spam-o-matic.

Trip08

deadro — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:53:23 GMT

I actually wasn't going to write about my last few days before turning back. But, I realized that there is a lot that happened during this time that I would like to have in my end post when I get home. So, here we go!

I was not going to write about this time because not too much happened that I thought anyone would find interesting. After Reno, I decided to take some time to myself along the coast of California.

After only about 10 minutes on the road, I settled back into the trip. Still on my desert ghost town kick, I stopped in Truckee to take some pictures. This is a tourist/working old mining town. It was actually pretty cool to see the old buildings, though a lot outside of the 'tourist' area were completely run down.

And, of course, Lake Tahoe. Where I learned how to snowboard. Seriously a beautiful lake

That night, I stopped back by flavio's place and crashed. I ended up going to bed earlier than she went to bed, and left before she got up. Believe me, this was a feat.

After SF, I jumped on some more back roads (35, thank you bittergourd)

I ended up travelling through some winding, country roads where I got close to nature:

This here is a picture of my truck. See, I was trying to find a road with a cow in the middle of it. I wanted to take a picture of my jeep with a cow in the road in front of it. I would have made some really witty commentary about Road + Cow = No Me. You would have laughed, "oh, that rown, she's funny." But, there was no cow.
So you get a picture of my truck with an imaginary cow in front of it.

FINALLY, I make it to my new home. I stayed here for about 3 days:

I saw some of the most amazing animals while I was out there. Squirrels, chipmunks, ravens (in my granola!!), a wolf, blue jays, hummingbirds, and a bob-cat. This reminds me, I saw a desert fox while taking pictures of the spikey trees in the desert. Each of these animals looked at me, and calmly walked away. It was really exhilerating. Not once did I feel fear, just surprise and awe.

These, my friends, are my left overs from my night of casino success and a can of beans. Seriously no better way to make left over steak. yum yum.

Never ever ever leave home with out it:

After the first night, I came out and found that I had a bandit in camp. Here's a shot of the fingerprints from the thief. He really wanted my granola.

Tonight I am spending the night at an over priced motel on I-5. I figure, why not. A shower and a bed would be simply marvelous right now.

Now, I leave you to contemplate this:

Trip08

deadro — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:14:27 GMT

Whew! After almost 3100 miles, I am about exhausted. I have decided to finally make my way back home. I have done nearly everything I set out to do. I have done Everything I wanted to do mentally. I have spent way too much on gas, but every mile was worth it. I miss my friends, I miss my cats, and I desperately miss Avery.

I have had an awesome time these last 4 weeks. I won't be racing home, but it won't take me 4 weeks to get there :)

Once I come home I'll do a little 'wrap-up'

Thanks for following along! Hopefully I'll see you all soon!!!!!!

Edited to add: Yes, this is 2 weeks sooner than planned, but there have been some unexpected financial issues. :(
Next time!

Images from the last week:

Trip08

deadro — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:58:45 GMT

Current location: SF. Again. :)
Current Miles: 3034.6
Gas cost: No Idea. I lost count at 426.

The last week has kinda gone by in a blur. I'll try to get it all in. I won't be doing the most recent few days individually. Hell, I don't even remember what happened on what day! By the way, a lot of the casino shots are blurry because I couldn't be 'obvious' about taking pictures

I guess I got in on Tuesday. Though that seems really early to me. Well, whatever. So I got in on Tuesday and instantly got lost! I drove in from Carson City on 395 and at one point, I saw a sign for HWY 431/341 to Tahoe and Virginia City. This was very odd, because when I left Reno 11 years ago, there was nothing but desert for MILES before even getting close to that freeway. Mom got a huge chuckle out of it.

Later that evening we went to Olive Garden. I want you to understand something. I LOVE going to the Olive Garden when I go back to Reno. It is the only time I really get to. And the Olive garden is special to me. One, it serves my ULTIMATE comfort food: Angel hair pasghetti with meat sauce. (No, Pasghetti IS spelled right). And two, it was the first place I went and felt like I was "rich" and could "afford such places". Yeah, silly now, but you may understand later.

I met up with my Dad the next day at Mom's work, the Grand Sierra Resort. He just got a new golf club and he just HAD to try it out a little:

After he got that out of his system, we went to the casino floor, towards the sports center. There, we relaxed and smoked cigars together. (No Mom, Avery, it really didn't make me want to smoke again. I promise). While there I saw something that I think yougimmepanda and others would have drooled over

Dad went home, but I stayed a bit. That Roulette table looked like an AWFUL lot of fun. So, I slid my way in and started betting a bit. The other people at the table were very friendly, so we all got to talking. They told me they were in for a tradeskill convention.

No shit, these are the Chimney Sweeps of America!

I died. I didn't think they existed anymore. But, I'm kinda naive sometimes. :)

After playing for a bit, I wandered away to get myself some dinner. On The House! Even after that, I came away with PROFIT.

The next day, I convinced my Dad to play in a poker tournament with me. Mom showed me how to play, some tricks, and the casino rules. She and my Dad both got me online playing a few games before hand. This was all because I RARELY play cards. Growing up around gambling, it really turned me off of it. But, I figure, Why Not!

No, I did not win. Dah! My first ever? Not so much. But, out of 24 players I came in 11th! That, my friends, is not so bad for a newbie! Also, I was the youngest in the room and one of only two women. It was awesome.

Oh, and I just LOVE how classy Reno is. I tell people it's the type of place that Tom Waits would sing about, Bad whiskey, nicotine stained hotel room that smells like yesterday's whore.
On that note, guess who wandered by while I was there:

During this week, I also received some potentially devastating news about Mins, my sis. I am really trying not to think about it, but it is really affecting my trip. She asked me not to elaborate.

Ok, on a MUCH lighter note, let's start a little "getting to know you" session with your Host, Me.

My Mom:

My Dad:

My Sis:
I FAIL! I actually only saw her once and completely forgot to take any pictures :(

My Mom's Parrot, Rosey:

My Mom's other bird, Angel: Here, he is singing to his reflection in the camera lens so I couldn't focus on him

Me scaring my Dad's little poodle:

Me NOT scaring Angel so much. And I try so hard to be mean

Where we lived when I was born:

Where we lived after that: (the duplex in the middle, the one on the left

Where I spend most of my young childhood:

The house we moved into when Dad came into our lives when I was ~13:
Ok, so, I didn't even THINK to get a photo of this place. But it is a lot nicer than those above! By a LOT!

This one. This one here is weird for me. This is where my biological father lives. I did not want to meet him, because Mom is still nervous about him knowing where she lived. I also highly doubt he'd be a fan to find me on his doorstep. I was just going to do a stake out to see him and follow him to his work. But, then I remembered, I'm in an ORANGE jeep, and not one that blends in either. So, I just drove by a few times and took pictures on the fly. I do not know if I will ever meet him:

And in other news, I saw this little guy. I scared him to death trying to get his picture for Avery:

That, was Reno.