Lone Pine Trip

This weekend was very long and yet tons of fun!

Friday I got up early and headed out to Pasadena to pick up this guy Jimmy, from there we headed up to Canyon Country to meet up with George, Jason, Merot and Lewis. Headed from there up to Red Rock Canyon. Hung out there for a little bit and did some running around. Nothing to crazy.

My big ass Rock climbing.After that we drove from there up to Fossil Falls for some rock climbing. We setup up at the top of the canyon and then rappelled down. I did some pretty good climbing, I was very impressed with myself. One of the climbs that I did you had to climb up to this small ledge about 15 feet off the ground, and then the rock comes out over your head. You have to put your hand in this little slot in the rock and make a fist to lock it in there, then pull yourself up while trying to get your feet into this tiny hole that was about waist level. From there you have to get both your hands up over this rock and then pull yourself the rest of the way up. I made it up that, but fell just as I was trying to make the last move to get my feet up on top of the ledge. 🙁 It was our last climb, so I’m very impressed I even made it that far.

From there we headed out to this place called Dirty Sock. It was this very interesting hot spring pool out in the middle of no where. It was really weird because when we would throw in a rock, it would bubble and create this neat fizzing sound. After that we headed up to Lone Pine and at dinner at this little cafe and then went to the GHETTO hotel. There were 6 people in our one room.

Saturday we got up at 5am and started a 13 mile hike across the desert! We started in a little town called Keeler, CA and then hiked somewhere between 10 and 13 miles across the salt flats/desert/swamp to get back towards Lone Pine. It was a lot of fun to do and not as hard as I thought it would be. The weather was wonderful. There were these two little kids with us who were lots of fun, but they were very slow so I stayed back with them for a little bit and sang old scouting songs with them and told stories. Sadly I can’t remember any of the good scouting songs any more so that didn’t last very long.

From there we headed up to the Obsidian Domes up by Mammoth lakes. On the way there we stopped at Erick Schats that was kind of hard for me up there because that was the bakery that Constantine and I stopped at on our way back from Mammoth Lakes, and played a big part in my realization that I loved him… It was there, at that bakery that I looked at him and said to myself. “Oh my god, I love this guy.” … Ugh. Anyways, there was lots of snow on the domes which was fun!

Lone Pine Hot CreekWe headed down from there and went to this place called Hot Creek sadly it was closed currently to swimming, but it was still very pretty. Wish we could have got in.

That night we to this crazy party in a small town called Darwin. It was very strange and very scary. Everyone was wearing these weird ass costumes and shit. I felt like we were going to be killed!

After that I drove back to the hotel and hung out with Alisa, Edder and Matt for a while and we had a drink. Went to bed and got up at 6am to drive back. We did a lot of random driving to strange places. We stopped somewhere that morning, but I can’t remember exactly where, drove through Trona and then stopped at a tiny little ghost town run by these two crazy hicks. They let the children shoot black powder rifles. They also had what they claimed was Charles Manson’s old truck. Stopped off in Atolia as well which was fun, but they put up fences around everything since the last time Constantine and I were there. So that’s sad.

Overall it was a really great trip and I’m really glad that I went.

In sad news though, Tuxedo is missing. He’s been gone since Friday Morning for sure, but maybe even since Thursday afternoon. I left my door open while I was packing up my car. I do this a lot, and have never had problems before. Friday morning I went to say goodbye to my kitties and couldn’t find him anywhere! I spent nearly 30 minutes outside calling for him and looking for him, but I just don’t know where he is at. 🙁 I am hoping that he’ll come back. I have put food out and will be putting up posters later today.

I stayed home from work this morning and am working from home. I’m also watching this movie Wild Tigers I have Known. I KNOW that I’ve seen this movie before, but I cannot remember where or who I saw it with. Very annoying.

So that’s about it.

You can download the tracks with pictures of the weekend for google earth here. I’ll update this post when the pictures are all uploaded as well.
UPDATE:// Photos are now posted on the photodump.

Adios.

Mystery Biking Ghost

So apparently my office has a biking ghost…

Yesterday morning I brought my bike in so that I could start riding over my lunch hour. Sadly I forgot my shorts yesterday, so I didn’t go anywhere. My bike didn’t get moved from the time I brought it in in the morning till the time I left at 2:30 that afternoon. I brought it in the door and left it facing towards the conference room.

This morning I get in and the bike is now facing the opposite direction. I assume that maybe the cleaning people just knocked it over or something and start my work day. After an hour of struggling with some MySQL code, I’m parched and hungry so I get up and head over to the kitchen for some sustenance. On my way over there I notice this nice fresh black mark extending 4 or 5 feet on the carpet. I instantly notice this as a skid mark from my bike.

I head back to my cube and grab my bike and take it over there. Sure enough, it’s the exact same width as my tire… I inspect my tire a little more and quickly find a fresh cut of rubber off the rear tire….

Really makes me upset to think that I can’t trust the people I work with enough to leave my bike IN THE OFFICE overnight without someone fucking with it! Are we still in high school or something. Grow up people!

Fall Colors in Mammoth Lake!!

Have I mentioned how cool my life has been lately! Things are really going great around here. I’m loving it!

This weekend was of course no different! Friday night I got home from the gym and was planning on just staying in and doing my laundry and other random stuff that I’ve been falling behind on. But instead Sirin knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to go see Anything Goes up in Northridge. I said, “Sure!” and called up Constantine to see if he wanted to go. I changed and then we headed out to pick him up. The play was pretty good. Very funny. It wasn’t professional or anything. But it was still lots of fun. We went out after that to Marie Calendars for pie!

Saturday morning Constantine and I got up early and headed out to Mammoth Lakes to see the Fall Colors. On the way north we stopped at Fossil Falls. It was pretty cool. Some neat lava flows and stuff. From there we headed on up to Mammoth. Got there about 2 and then went and ate at some crazy Cafe which was pretty good and then headed north a ways to see the trees. Started out in the areas around there, then up north to Mono Lake. After that we continued north to the Ghost town of Bodie, CA. This was a really cool ghost town and I highly suggest you go check it out! We got there at “The golden hour“, so Constantine was running around crazy taking pics!

We headed back south after that and stopped again at Mono Lake to take some more pics. Went to be pretty early.

Sunday we got up and headed back south. Stopped at a bunch of lakes, including North Lake, South Lake and Sabrina Lake. All VERY pretty. Next year about this time I’ll have to take a group up there to camp. It was a bit chilly but the weather the whole weekend was just perfect. It was nice and crisp and refreshing! Stopped in Bishop, CA where there is this GREAT bakery called “Erick Schat’s“. Oh my god. Amazing! You have to stop here!

Got back to LA about 5ish and then we watched Flyboys. Constantine left shortly after that was over.

BTW, he’s amazing. 🙂

Pics from the weekend are here.

Adios!

Holidays are a comin’

Well, one week exactly till T-day. Blah! I’m already getting very depressed about it because I’m going to be spending the whole four day weekend alone. I haven’t decided yet if I want to actually go to all the work of cooking shit for myself or just be boring and not do anything.

Yesterday was an alright day, we had a 2 hour meeting which was nice cause it wasted my day. lol. Other then that I spent the day investigating sites that no one knew about… Finding out where they are located, why they were created, when they were last used, so on and so forth. Very boring shit

I was listening to a pod cast the other day and they mentioned this band: Steadman I downloaded all the music they have on the website (like 150 songs) and I’m really enjoying it. I’m listening to “Live in There” which is a live set 44 minutes long. I just heard a song that I really love by them, but they sadly didn’t mention what the name was! I hate that. Damnit. Anyways.

I went to bed about 6:30 last night because I was so damn tired. I dunno what’s wrong with me. Blah!

Back to the topic of holidays, I’ve been contemplating how much I want to decorate for Christmas. I really don’t feel like putting all the energy into it because there will be no one there to share it with, but at the same time I’m thinking it might help make me happier. Who knows.

I’m out.

Edit:// I meant to post this too: Very funny.. Thanks Blake.

Scouting

Following is an article I’ve written over the last two days… It’s in a very VERY rough form and is NOT completed… In fact, it probably never will be completed… I didn’t even spell check it, nor do I care too…Also, I ask a lot of questions that I then don’t answer.. So whatever. I just wanted to be done with it, it’s making me too sad… Plus I have another more fun sounding project in mind. About the Nuclear Bomb. 😀 So If I get off my ass, you can read that probably next week. but don’t hold your breath….

Every gay boy has one major stuggle in his life. Between choosing one thing and hiding who he is, or accepting who he is and casting off or coming to terms with the other thing. For most gay people this typically comes down to family, others it’s religious upbringing and for many others there’s a vast array of conflits within your life in which you have to make this choice.

For me, the struggle lies within an organiztaion I have been a part of all my life. An organization that helped to raise me and make me become who I am today, a moral and repsonsible adult in our culture. My stuggle has not to do with my parents, for they were accepting, it has not to do with my religion, as I was brought up in a non-religious household. My stuggle has to do with The Boy Scouts of America.

I started my life in the Boy Scouts at the age of 5, as a tiger cub. I worked my way up, eventually becoming a Webelos Scout and then moving into the Troop. Within the troop, I struggled to be active, I was the only one, but I persisted, I built up a troop, of which I was the Senior Patrol Leader by the age of 14. I organized the camping trips, I went to summer camp, I organized and performed our first crossing over ceremony, I became a Brotherhood member of the OA, I did it all. I never missed a meeting, my parents were involved. and I eventually got my Eagle Scout Rank. By this time the troop had grown to a size of 20, with a large group of Webelos about to cross over.

The summer of ’00 I made my first trek to Philmont, and although my health prevented me from participating in the typical 10 day trek through the back country, I spent a week there in a less intense back country trek and 2 days of COPE instruction, in which I earned my COPE Instructor certification.

My life was the Boy Scouts, I lived and breathed Boy Scouts. I had amassed a collection of Patches from every council west of Iowa, I had attended three different summer camps in two different Councils. I had gone to the Idiol of Boy Scout camping experiences and I spent two summers of my life working on Camp Staff as a model employee. Instructing the youngest of Scouts on the basic esecntials that would make them model scouts and model citizens. I took pride in my work and pride in my life as a Boy Scout/Eagle Scout.

However, my second year on camp staff was a turning point in my life. The Boy Scouts were entrenched in a legal battle over allowing homosexuls to be adult leaders, I was becoming more and more active in Scouting for All and Inclusive Scouting.

It was late one summer night my one day off for the past two weeks, as I has been assigned to back to back Cub Scout sessions in addition to my Boy Scout sessions. As I sat in my room that night reading about the battle, and thinking about the boy that I had met just recently I decided it was time for me to come out. To end my time in the closet. My parents already knew. I ahd told them earlier that summer, but at that time had decided to stay active in the scouting that I loved.

This night was different. I woke my mother and explained to her what I was thinking. She suggested that I do what I felt I had to, and by that point I felt like I had to quit. I couldn’t continue to be a part of this organization that was kicking people out just because of who they choose to love in private.

I went back to camp at 4am that morning, I walked it one last time. Remembering all the fun and wonderful times that I had there. The 8 years of summers I had spent there, the hundreds of hours I had spent setting up and tearing down tents, the hundreds of hours I spent teaching the kids there, the next leaders of our country, all the times that I had walked it late at night coming home from OA outings deep in the woods. I thought about how working 100 hours a week here was probaby the hardest job I’ll ever have.. And yet, it was probably the most fun, the most rewarding job I’ll ever have.

And then I went to my boss and turned in my resignation.

That was the last active interaction I’ve had with the Boy Scouts. I’ve gone back to camp a few times, to watch the cerimonies and to catch up with old friends, but that’s it. And I’ve missed every minute of it.

Even though I’ve already written two and a half pages, the point of this article is not about my history in the boy scouts, but it is about what’s wrong with the scouting structure, and current thoughr process of ousting homosexuals as well as those who do not belive in god. I’ve seen this process work, sadly enough, in person. While being employed at camp I witnessed an adult leader being escorted from camp because it was found out he was gay. Where does it start, and where does it end. Who put this in place and why?

The Boy Scouts was founded in 1910 to shape future americans to be model citizens and to prepare them for active duty in the armed services. They were founded simply because a man was lost in London fog and a young boy helped him find his way. So why do the executives in Irving, Texas think that homosexuals and athiests can’t be a part of the boy scouts?

Lets start at the bottom, the local Troops and packs. Here is where the real revolution starts. Up until Feb 2002, the local troops and packs were basically free to declare their own discrimination policies. Around the country one could find troops which had stated that they would not discriminate based on any reason, be it sexuality or religion. There’s even councils which had made that same statement. However these troops and councils faced having their charters revoked by the national council. Most of them were not very open about these policies and thus didn’t make a huge impact on the national councils policies.

In Feb 2002, the national council of the BSA issued an order stating that the national polcy was to not allow homosexuals or anyone who did not belive in god into the boy scouts. What brought forth this policy? The Boy Scouts of America is in the minority in this policy. Of all boy scouting operations around the world 2/3rds of them have no such policy and openly allow homosexuals to join. Many of them even allow girls to join the ranks.

Since this order the boy scouts enrollment has dropped. 13% for cub scouting and 3% for boy scouting. However, these numbers are not relevant, as it is widly known that councils inflat the numbers of troops. My troop backhome was inflated by 100% while I was a scout. We had a total of 10 ghost members, scouts who had joined and then quickly left were never taken off the rooster. So it’s unknown the true effects of this order. However, we do know that it’s had a downward effect on enrollment.

But what effect has this policy had on the grassroots efforts of scouting for all and inclusive scouting? Sadly, it has not had that great of an affect. These two organizations are far too small to really make a difference right now. They are not well known enough and do not have the funding to start a real scouting oranization. Although they are working on mirror the boy scouts, with a more accepting policy, the true experiences of being a boy scout can never be mirrored or relpaced.

The boy scouts of america needs to get out of bed with bush and his cronies and get real on what’s happening in the world. Americans today are more accepting then ever of homosexualality and athiestism. The BSA will not survive for the next 100 years unless they change these discriminatory policies.