Why would you dial a number designated as a U.S. country code in order to get service in Jamaica? I'm beginning to doubt your legitimate xenophobic reactions to the Dark Man.
Why would you dial a number designated as a U.S. country code in order to get service in Jamaica? I'm beginning to doubt your legitimate xenophobic reactions to the Dark Man.
I don't remember what the number for room service actually was, Abandoner. I was too busy worrying about the safety of my supple white body to pay attention to details.
So people can excuse their false sense of superiority over each other.Originally Posted by ShlupQuack
That clearly was not the point I was making, but it is also true so whatev.So people can excuse their false sense of superiority over each other.
It's not a false sense of superiority when reality reinforces that feeling.
Freaking racist.
Yeah, Roto. >=(
Adventures through Markham
I'd have to say that Markham (the place I spent most of my life) is a pretty uninteresting place superficially. It's this bastion of Chinese immigration (Miriel would have a field day with this place) to such a point where the Chinese population is comparable to the Occidentals. For example, when I went to Chicago (where Blacks and Whites are almost equal in numbers) I exclaimed: "It's a Black Markham!"
Basically what this amounts to from a demographic / sociological perspective is that children no longer have any sort of tradition when they are brought up. Whether they end up adopting hip hop culture or a blend of Chinese/Western culture (I am the latter, I suppose; I do not like to acknowledge my Chinese heritage) is often a matter of chance (ie what year you graduated high school and what pop culture was like then) or maturity.
You'd pretty much think that nothing was interesting here. So when my brother started urban exploration (UE), I scoffed at him and considered it a waste of time. We had explored construction sites before; I quit after this one time we were running around leaving the premises of a residential construction zone. I jumped over a hill and landed on a protruding nail from the ground (!!!). Amazingly, and while I would be loathed to use the word 'luck', my work boots slipped off my feet mid-air, and I landed on the balls of my foot. As you can imagine, the nail would've hit my ankle or heel. So there I was, panicking that I was stuck in the ground. I couldn't stand properly on that foot, and my brother had to yank my shoe out of the nail.
Tetanus, anybody? I'm immune to pain but I don't like permanent injuries.
My brother assured me that UE would be safer by far -- we would only be exploring houses that had been occupied. Hah, if you have any idea what we were doing you wouldn't think it was safe.
The first few places we visited were abandoned houses. Basically places where the previous tenants had evacuated the premises for whichever reason, and had failed to or neglected to find new owners to appropriate the location. What we found almost immediately is that people who abandon houses will often leave...basically, items that nobody will need. Specifically, canned food, and *groan* edible food. You've not lived until you open a rotting refrigerator full of nasty, bacteria ridden milk, foul, rotting pickles, and who knows what else is in there. If you ever find yourself in an abandoned house, I invite you to open the cupboards to see what fun horrors await you. I am genuinely shocked we didn't find any rats.
So basically the kitchen is the most disgusting place imaginable. As for the rest of the house, what we tended to find, expecting zero to no furniture, a great deal of documents and equipment. Oh and old, ugly furniture nobody would ever be caught in the daylight wearing. Ew. Mostly, the furniture is strewn about as if an afterthought; I could imagine the previous tenants, after clearing the house of salvageable parts, decided to stack the remaining equipment in unusual configurations, expecting us (UErs) to find it one day and go 'what the smurf??'
A few places come to mind where exceptionally unusual environments presented itself. Most houses that have been left abandoned for extended periods of time tend to suffer structural decay. Indeed a lot of the time we had backup plans, carried cell phones, and always, always went in pairs. You don't want to be caught dead at the underside of a staircase because the boards broke as you walked up the stairs. Yes, that does happen and I have had to jump (stupidly, looking back) several steps to get to the top floor.
Other places to look out for are the basement, and the attic. The basement tends to get flooded eventually. I think structural decay allows a leak, and because the soil soaks in so much water, it's basically like an open hole for water to go in. Otherwise the basement is typically 'no smurfing way' territory -- there's usually interesting furniture and equipment down there, but the risk of animals is too great.
Speaking of animals, the attic is a haven for bats and birds and who knows what else. There's also typically nothing interesting up there (damn you people do something interesting up there like hide bodies or gold up there!) so we tend to stay away.
Documents and mail is the only thing left. We can usually figure out who the old tenants were from them, and rifling through their mail (a federal offence, apparently) allows us intimate details into the cause(s) of evacuation. Usually it's due to lack of payment of mortgage. Sometimes people just up and go, abandoning their homes. I stumbled upon a person who had a home office which stretched for decades by the time I found it -- I found old equipment with peripherals I have never seen before to educational books like 'how to program in Fortran' and other arcane nonsense. I also found lots of paper trails. If we wanted to, it would be completely possible to find the old tenants of these buildings and stalk them. Bwahaha burp
Getting into the buildings tends to be not as fun. UErs have a 'code' where we must not damage the property so that our fun can be experienced by others. However transients, bums, hobos and potheads also crash at our place. We find human feces and urine puddles everywhere (along with animal droppings). Also often we'll find that those idiots will have given us a way in. Otherwise, the procedure is severalfold.
First, we find a site. Often this happens just by driving around town and noticing that a place hasn't been taken care of (long grass in the yard is a good indicator) in a while. Next, often at night, we do a quick bypass of the place. Go during the wee hours of the morning so that there isn't as much car traffic, and determine point(s) of entry. Locked doors = never mind. Windows we can slide open = okay. 2nd floor windows = last ditch desperate option.
Crowbars and screwdrivers are excellent tools for boarded up, but otherwise manageable doors. I got very good at shoulder checking open doors, and being sneaky. Oh yes you have to be sneaky. At night, anybody can see your flashlights, and often you won't know that somebody called the cops until it is too late. So don't flash lights outside windows, on mirrors, or anywhere that's not the floor if you can help it. My brother managed to get a set of head-mounted flashlights (the kind that you see at dance clubs), which is pretty neat.
Once done, you must make your escape. There should always be multiple escape routes, for first, second, and possibly basement escape routes should be planned in advance. Try to avoid using flashlights, but if you need to and are caught, they are great for disorientating your opponents (police, security guards, pokemon trainers who think they're too good for their own good). I personally suggest that (since you're likely to bring one) you use a camera, and use the strobe light feature (like anti red eye). It will disorientate a person, and ruin their night vision. Be sure to cover your eyes or look away as you do it lest you suffer the same fate.
Escape vehicles should be stashed far away from the site but not too far as to make escape impractical. Have escape points to run to, and meetup places in public areas (coffee shops are good for this) where you can collect your troops and hide from law enforcement.
If you decide to take up UE know that a lot of people think it is illegal, and thus take precautions in that regard. I personally don't believe that a place which no longer has an owner can be trespassed upon, but the state tends to think otherwise. The best is to have a good excuse or story. Go with a person of the opposite gender and claim to be a couple looking at property to purchase. Or use them as an easy excuse to be a randy couple that's too bored (I hope s/he is emotionally stable enough to play the part and not feel 'weird' after). If it is raining or storming outside, you have an easy excuse of saying you were caught in the rain and was just seeking shelter until the storm dies down. Be creative but not silly. If worse comes to worse you can always challenge the guards to a pokemon battle.
edit:
I go for Japanese food before finishing this post and Mandee has to go and remind everybody how amazing it is to go to Jamaica (I've been there too) and have dark skinned people serve you. Yes I was also afraid of being robbed and while it was stupid to stay in a huge band of obviously obvious tourists, we really had no choice (I guess we could have all gone in blackface). The cuisine there was not the greatest but we managed (chicken, rice and beans anybody? Every day? Forever and ever?)
Would I go back? Probably not. But at least I can say I've been there. Then again, is that really that big a deal?
What I learned from the trip, and any trip that isn't to the USA or another part of Canada that is below the Territories: western imperialism is a good thing.
Last edited by Peegee; 09-18-2008 at 06:19 PM.
Walking home from basketball practice was always kinda creepy because I lived in a very very very small town at the time and it got really dark at night. Plus it was freezing and icy, because it was winter.
I live in hick central and it is a horrible place full of scary people. Everyone here is everythingphobic, everythingcist, crazy fanatics. The closest town to me is extremely small. The closest decent-sized place is 45 minutes away. When the sun goes down, this town is full of drunk people with beards wearing flannel being sexist, and teenagers hanging out in front of the one gas station pretending to be black, just waiting for someone to walk by so they can gang up on the person and go "A'yo! A'yo! WHATCHOO DOIN'!" Of course they all hate black people, so it's secretly kinda funny.
But anyway, yeah. And walking down the cornfield filled roads at night is not a good idea, because people do stop, and people here aren't stopping to offer you a ride. Teenagers drive around back roads shooting houses with a shotgun for fun for chrissake. Everyone is too bored here, really. I fully support Rye's stereotype that all hicks are awful because I too like to generalize.
Of course, I wouldn't feel safe in a city either, because I'm a 117 pound pussy that's scared of everything. So my opinion doesn't count for much, as usual. I can't even beat up a spider, let alone anyone attacking me, and my imagination assumes everyone is out to get me and wants me dead. I need a large line of people smacking sense into me when I freak out like in Airplane!.
I love you.
Fixed.So people can excuse theirfalse sense ofsuperiority over each other.
I like Kung-Fu.
If you don't wanna be raped and/or killed, put yourself inside of a bubble and hope for the best.
Walking through a gang of chavs has to be one of the scariest moments ever. I was out round this village on Friday night, cops everywhere and that, but walking past chavs shouting crap at you is scary as. ;_;
I had to walk through a load in some alley way once, oh my god that was scaryy xD
Haha, I've had a group of chavs tell me I'm not black once. xD
I thought you were a witty and hilarious AI but now it turns you're real?! My illusions have been crushed, Quin.
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