Things have been a little crazy around here lately, and I have not written for a specific reason for which I'll get into later...

Laura had been hard at work threeish weeks ago when I stopped posting.  She was studying hard for finals and I was trying my best to keep up and make sure that her life outside of school was as easy as possible.  She passed all her exams (thankyouverymuch) and has been enjoying a relaxing last few weeks chilling out on the beach and staying as far away from campus as possible.  Laura's mom also dropped by for a bit and took in all that was St. Kitts, and I hope enjoyed herself.  

It was during her visit that things got a little weird:

There was a cruise ship that was stationed here for a few days, which is odd since cruise ships normally don't stay in port for more than a day.  It was small, and its uniqueness led Laura's mom to investigate further into the little ship that was docked here for a week.  So she got online and searched for the name of the boat, "Freewinds".

This search took her to the nearest available wikipedia page found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freewinds

Evidently, this boat has ties to the Church of Scientology, and it is here on this boat that high-ranking members of the church go to train to be better Scientologists.  I don't know how many of you are familiar with Scientology, but I think a good place to start would be the heavily moderated Wikipedia page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology

Members of the church spend a good deal of hard-earned cash to become more advanced members of the religion, which I think is a ludicrously preposterous concept.  At the upper echelons of the religion members literally spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to "level-up" (my term not theirs), on the "Freewinds" especially (do you italicize or put in quotes the name of a ship?  I'll look it up later, I suppose) there are many very high levelled members of the church at a time.

Let's just say--if you didn't read the article or do any other research before reading this entry-- there was a particularly high concentration of batshit crazy people on St. Kitts for a while.

I waited to post this for a number of reasons, as I was afraid some present Scientologists would by some way find this blog and decide to straighten me out, this happens with members from time to time.  Also, the church is infamously and notoriously litigious; I figure my chances were better waiting a tick before I posted anything about them.  Probably overly paranoid, but no reason not to be cautious.

Also, and perhaps weirder than having a crapload of OT8s here, (yes that is theactual name of their level) is I recently ran a sub 6 minute mile.  Weird.

Let's look at some chosen at random pictures!

Really cute newborn sheep (tail down)

An artistic statue at the Nevis Botanical Gardens.  What?  It's Artistic!

Being branded by Dave, our Volleyball 2nd in command.  

Pretty flower found on Nevis (my mom took this one)

I'm Making a Note Here... HUGE SUCCESS

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, our volleyball team, The Pudendals, won the B-League (kind of like JV) intramural volleyball tournament.  If you're wondering what a Pudendal is, I don't blame you, evidently it is the artery that supplies (and I quote) "the organs of shame".

Brian, our team captain, throwing down

Laura, ready and able

I dunno if I hit this one...

There was some tough competition, but in the end, we won some Grey Goose and a case of Heineken.

On this island, often you have to adapt.  Here I've had to change my workout type, the gym I go to doesn't have many heavy weights, and so I've had to move away from a traditional body-building approach to fitness and move towards bodyweight, high intensity exercises.  Burpees, pullups, swimming, and interval running has been the invention of necessity for me as of late:

This is what's known as a "Tabata" protocol 20 seconds of intense activity followed by 10 seconds of rest for eight sets. Doesn't sound like much, but by the end you want to throw up.



Luckily I can still do a good number of core lifts like deadlifts and cleans, unfortunately there is no squat rack in the gym! What a travesty! Ah well. I can say though that I am getting into the best shape of my life, but every step has hurt... badly.

Because of this I've decreased my mile time to almost 6 minutes, and am on the way to 100 (almost) consecutive burpees.  I also know that my maximum volume of oxygen has increased, which for an asthmatic is very important, and I'm able to drill Judo for longer, with more intensity and control.  For the first time in a while, I am feeling pretty good. Thank you Tabata protocol!

Moving on up (to the Eastside)

Moved to a new place further up the hill from where we used to be staying.

Overall, really pleased with the new place, it's clean, well lit and there aren't any dogs I've heard to keep us up at night.

Very small kitchen

New bedroom, very comfotable (I kept Laura's drawer open because she says I always do it). Picture revenge!

Our Bathroom is very colorful at the moment

Our balcony view from the inside

Our car is being a total pain in the ass, I'm thinking that it may be the carburetor, damn thing doesn't start well in the morning, but once it does the first time, it does the rest of the day.   

Our car's (only) moment of glory?

Though this was quite a while ago, my Mom visited and I thought I should put some of the pics up: 

Us at the beach

Mom at Brimstone

The biggest thing I miss from home are no doubt my family and my friends.    

I've also learned of a Judo club on the island, it seems that there are martial arts happening all over the island, but everyone is scattered and disorganized, I'm hoping that there will be an opportunity for me to head to this new club and check it out to see what it's like.  

Some recent uchikomi:

Luckily the internet at our place is more stable, and allows me to upload more videos, pictures etc.  Yay.

I suppose that will be it for now, more to come!

Review

So apparently, tomorrow means sometime in a week (or more).  My bad.

I think that my indiscretion should illicit some kind of response, so here we go, we are going to review some things on here and I'll try to make it a monthly thing (we'll see).

Beers of the Caribbean (an ongoing series?)


I was worried about beer here.  Coming from a German family, and with a heavy tradition of good microbrews in the Pacific Northwest, I have had some good beers.  When I think The Caribbean, for one reason or another beer doesn't spring to mind right off the bat, and with this in mind I was worried that the quality of beer would be lacking.  Luckily, I was wrong (mostly).

Carib:

Alongside Red Stripe, Carib is arguably the quintessential Caribbean beer: it has a light flavor, it's very refreshing, and has a very simple taste (the ingredients read: water, malted barley, sugar, hops).  Luckily its simplicity is part of the charm.  A hint of citrus flavor that really gives it a nice, crisp smack at the end.  However, like many lagers, this one is simple.  It has one note, and though that note is pretty, it might get dull after a while.  When it's cold though (please god, let it be cold), this is a great beer to drink with dinner, with lunch (I even think my Grandfather would like this one), and with friends.

Maybe a lime too.


Game Review (Non-gamers avert your eyes)


Torchlight

Diablo was good in 1997, and hey, it still is.  Everything is like Diablo, everything.  I mean even the music for the town of Torchlight sounds exactly like the music of Tristram from Diablo.  Think David Bowie and Vanilla Ice.

Sure some things have been improved, you have a pet who you can equip with items and spells (and who can make selling runs to town for you), the interface is better than the original Diablo, and the inventory system is way better, but man oh man, it is exactly like Diablo.  Though I do like the steampunk element to the game...

After a while though, you have so many potions, minions, and crazy good spells, there's no need to pay attention any more, just left and right click to win the game.

The being said, I still had fun, though I wish there was a multiplayer component to the game.  This would have been a lot of fun in co-op.

Judo Fail

I was going to put up my uchikomi fail, but the internet is not cooperating here at the moment, so i'll do it when it's a bit more stable.  Until next time!

tl;dr

For those uninitiated: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tl;dr

So I think I've decided to change up the format of the blog a little bit.  What I hope to do break each post into a number of different sections, starting from what would be the most accessible in the beginning, and getting into smaller and smaller niches that many people wouldn't find interesting.

Island/daily life --> cooking --> history --> Judo --> other miscellany (eg videogames, movies, and other niche hobbies)

Hopefully this will save you, dear reader, from any unwanted pains.

More tomorrow...

Exercism [sic]

No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training…[W]hat a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

-Socrates

Growing up I tried to be an athlete, however, one thing that had set me back was that at a young age I was diagnosed with moderate Asthma (which is something of a misnomer, as not breathing is rarely moderate!).  One of the first asthma attacks that I remember was being in the pool at a swimming lesson, I was probably about eight years old at the time, and fancied myself quite the mediocre swimmer, feared by men and loved by The Ladies everywhere!  I recall the exact instances that it occurred...

We were drilling the front crawl:  

Y'know this one?  

Anyway, I remember that I got around halfway through the drill (4 total laps, width-wise, lawl) and quickly my breathing became faster and more shallow, my chest felt like it was full of cotton balls that were lit on fire, and I could feel myself getting dizzy.  My instructor-- who I remember well because of this particular instance-- let me continue on my own for the next two laps back, like any good instructor should, after all it builds character to push through these sorts of things.  Right?

In any case, I continued to swim, and on the last lap back, my arms and legs became lead weights attached to my torso that were dragging me under the water from what I can only imagine came from oxygen deprivation.  I couldn't finish my front crawl, so I doggy paddled the last half-lap back to my waiting classmates (I was, of course, the last one to finish).  

The reason I tell this story is to clarify why I love Socrates' (via Xenophon) above quote.  His comments may seem harsh at first but I think Socrates has it right as he advises that a citizen do what their body is capable of.  We will, for the the purposes of this post, ignore the Greek's (and Socrates') fascination with physical beauty, as the beautification of the body for the Greeks was proportionate to the amount of exercise they performed (the Greeks didn't have the same understanding of diet than we do, but they were still pretty damn smart when it comes to that too).

For me, it is also telling that a person like Socrates, who is and was known for his intellect, spoke often and openly about the importance of physical exercise.  Socrates, like many citizens of ancient Greece fought in a number of battles, and was recorded as quite heroic in the ones that he participated in.  Greek warfare, to oversimplify, was an extremely tiring affair, and it was necessary to be physically fit to remain combat-effective.  

Greek Red-figure kylix (drinking cup, where we get the term chalice) showing a soldier in full panoply (armor set) everything this soldier is wearing/holding would have weighed 60-80 pounds.  Keep in mind also that people were much smaller 2500 years ago, when a large man would have been 5'8" and weighed 180 pounds the average man would have been 5'2" and weighed 160 or less!  

So is there a correlation between intelligence and physical exercise?  I would postulate that there is little to indicate that inherent intelligence has little to do with how naturally athletic someone is (look no further than high school jocks).  However, what I think is of particular importance to the furtherance of one's mind is the ability of the mind to push itself through hardship in a healthy manner.  Physical exercise is the most easily reproduce-able experiment in which one could create an environment to push through hardship.

While I certainly don't equate intellectual exercises with physical ones, I would hypothesize that they are correlated in some ways.  In many fields of study (for normal humans, notwithstanding outliers like Beethovens, Einsteins, etc.) resilience is more necessary than inherent talent.  At least I really hope so!  

I'm no physical dynamo or intellectual titan, and I probably won't be winning any Nobel Prizes or Olympic medals; but I swam those two last goddamn laps, and that's gotta mean something.  

PS (yes I realize the absurdity of adding a postscript over the internet) In semi-related news for those (if any) who care about my Judo posts I broke my rubber bands for uchikomi, even worse I have it on tape.  It was very embarassing, for a number of reasons, and I am debating whether to put the video up on here...

Me, often.

Skies Like Us

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. 

-Rabindranath Tagore

It's been raining here the last two days, something I've missed quite a bit!

Nothing happens in St. Kitts when it rains, nothing gets done (well less than usual gets done) and the locals largely spend their time indoors.  When it's raining on the island I imagine that most Oregonians would feel like Edmund Hillary or Tenzing Norgay here: everyone goes running for cover, and the Oregonian would trudge along happily with naught a care in the world!

Tenzing Norgay = YOU in St. Kitts when it rains

We'll go through a little tour of the house when it is raining, this blog could probably use something a little more conventional...

View from the front yard, raining

View to the south of the ocean

Lawn chair in the front yard: classy

Looking in the backyard: mango, avocado, and juju berry trees to the left.

I've been looking forward to the HBO miniseries The Pacific which details various battles in the Pacific theater of World War II.  It's going to be filmed in the same tradition of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers and so I think that the theater will be represented dutifully.  Check it out if you get a chance!

Another Judo Post

Sorry everyone, but I have to put in another Judo post:

Luckily here on St. Kitts, I was able to find a place to do some Judo/Jiu-jitsu/Submission Wrestling/whatever. There is a small community center up in one of the neighborhoods on the island. This is where we do our practices, and there are some very friendly and knowledgeable people who practice there.

Working on Double Leg takedown (Morote-Gari)

I've also been lucky enough to find someone who has some degree of Judo experience. He did a little Japanese Jujutsu back in the States, and so he knows some Judo techniques and is willing to do some extra practice. Here we are in our "Dojo", also known as the Large Animal surgery wing of campus.

Not exactly an ideal place to do Judo, but the mats are ok, at least.

Tai-Otoshi (Body Drop) is probably one of the most infuriating Judo techniques for me:

A work in progress to be sure. A friend of mine would call it the "Tai-Otoshi of a dabbler", can't say I disagree at this point...

The Just

One of my favorite characters in History was Aristides, son of Lycimachus, an Athenian statesman who lived through the most turbulent times of the city of Athens. Let me tell you why Aristides is such a badass:

1.) He was present at the Battle of Marathon. Aristides led his tribe of to Marathon to fight some Persian invaders. Then he stood guard over the battlefield as the rest of the Athenians quick-marched back to Athens ready to fight the Persians as they attempted a landing near Athens.

2.) He was present at the naval Battle of Salamis, and helped galvanize the Greeks against the Persians during their second invasion attempt. He even worked together with one of his most hated rivals Themistocles, to secure a major naval victory against the Persians.

3.) He was present at the Battle of Plataea. Working together with Greek allies, Aristides led a contingent of 8,000 Athenians against another large Persian force, defeated them and secured Greece's autonomy for at least a while.

4.) Aristides was also responsible for the allocation of the treasury of the Delian League, which was to be a force set up to repel any future Persian invasions. No one else was believed to be as equitable as Aristides, and that's why it became his sole responsibility. The Delian League of the future would come to be the funds for the future Athenian sea empire (Reminds me of the Romulan Star Empire).

Athenian sea empire

Romulan Star Empire

These are some of the most important events in the history of the Classical Greeks. He was present at all them!

Probably one of my favorite stories about Aristides is this one though:

In Athens, there was a custom that was enacted to ensure that in the democracy there could be no single man who could hold more power than anyone else. There would be a vote in the Athenian assembly every year to exile a citizen whose powers had grown too great, 6000 votes were necessary to exile any citizen and after it had passed the exiled citizen would be unable to return to Athens for 10 years under penalty of death.

You can see how this could be abused, you and 6000 of your buddies don't like someone, and that guy gets banished for 10 years. If only that could still be done today... I'm looking at you Lady Gaga.

Someone needs to get punched in her poker face.

So here is how the process works: As everyone gets together for the vote, pottery is broken into pieces, and the members of the assembly scratch the name of the person they want exiled onto the piece of pottery called an ostrakon (where we get the word ostracism today). The votes are tallied, and any citizen voted out of the city has 10 days to pack their stuff and move out.

As the story goes with Aristides, he was present during his own ostracism vote around 480ish BC. While they were scratching the names on the pottery, an illiterate member of the assembly came up to him and asked him to write down the name of 'Aristides' upon his ostrakon. Aristides asked the man if Aristides had wronged him in any way, the man said "No, and I do not even know him, but it irritates me to hear him called 'The Just' all the time." With that, Aristides wrote his own name on the ostrakon and was duly subjected to exile.

I think it's pretty cool that there are some extant shards of pottery left with his name on them!

Engraved: Aristides, Son of Lysimachus, Total Badass

Judo

Prior to moving to this beautiful island of St. Kitts, I had reservations... about a number of things. Probably the thing that weighed 3rd or so down the list of reservations was missing out on Judo, which has by this time been one of my great obsessions. Disclaimer: This post gets weird, and it's about Judo, read at your own peril!

Watch this video to get a little context. It's actually a pretty damn awesome video too (I think).

To the outsider, I can understand why Judo looks confusing, or even nonsensical. Two guys (in an slightly homoerotic wrestling match), wearing white cotton trash bags are grabbing each others' jackets and trying to throw them down on the ground and choke or (almost) break their bones for funzies. I can see why people wouldn't want to watch or do it.

We're taught not to fight growing up (like we should) and that's why for most people, Judo isn't a good fit. That's ok, that's normal; you're probably a person who contributes and is an active and healthy member of society, with no underlying mental condition.

That's why to do Judo, you have to have a little something wrong with you. I'm not saying that in a funny, trying to be cool, "haha" way. I think there is something missing (or present) in a person's mind that makes them mildly or moderately unstable if they like to do Judo; or perhaps more correctly, if someone likes Judo they have some kind of mental issue.

I had a friend once tell me that to succeed in Judo (for yourself) you either have to be an "S"(adist) or an "M"(asochist). Ignoring again the slightly homoerotic undertones, there is a lot of truth to it.

You start off in Judo knowing nothing, (though many-- myself included-- think they do) and you are continually ground into dust on the mat. Consistently, and constantly destroyed, your body slowly breaks down and every day you come home more bruised and bloodied than the last.

For experienced Judo players, though, it is like fighting an infant.

At this point, for almost every beginner, there is a moment when you can stop, when your brain is tricking you to fail:

"Relax... you've been going consistently for a while now. You can miss one practice. No one will even care that you're gone. I'm not even that good"

It's with this idea that people fade away in Judo. And you know what? That's ok. For most, Judo isn't a good fit, it's best to do what you want to do, and if Judo isn't it, don't waste the nice peoples' time.

The people who stay are either the "M's":

"I like this. I may not be very good, but I need this to: get in shape/get stronger/get mentally tough/get ladies."

Or the "S's":

"I like this. I want to: be good/be the best/crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentation of their women."

Both the "S's" and the "M's" are eventually tempered, and probably their view on what they get out on Judo changes. They certainly don't get ladies, they don't necessarily crush their enemies (some do though!), but they always remain "S's" and "M's".

Which does that make me...?

Welcome

Welcome to this blog; I'm hoping this will be a readable, I'll do my best!

On here I'll probably be meaning to write on a number of things on a number of different subjects. Foremost of which will be my life here on the beautiful island of St. Kitts. Let's start off with a shortened history of the island itself.

St. Kitts was a relatively successful British Colony during the early-mid 17th century, and traded largely in sugar, as it was grown very successfully (and still does) on the island. Christopher Columbus introduced sugar cane into the Caribbean (and the island of St. Kitts actually used to be called St. Christopher). The island has traded hands between the French and British, but St. Kitts was eventually returned to the British by the French as terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 which also formally ended the United States' War for Independence.

Caption reads: Natives in a Sugar cane Field (at lunch time) St. Kitts B.W.I. [British West Indies]



Brimstone hill, a (fairly) impregnable fortress located on the Northewesternish side of the island that the British and French fought over in the mid to late 18th century. Interestingly, (to me at least) the citadel is an examples of Trace Italienne architecture. Trace Italienne forts or probably more easy to remember, "Star Forts", were a evolution of the classic castle-type fortification. People always think gunpowder killed the castle, a little, but not quite. Castles instead became these:

Walls were made so that there would always be a line of fire going towards the bad guys, and the bad guys would have a difficult time getting a shot head-on on the good guys (if you are the defender that is). Earth works were also a trend for these forts with stone becoming less important and large packs of dirt behind the walls became more important, this softened the blow of cannon fire allowing the walls to take a greater impact from cannon fire. These forts were in vogue from the 16th century even up to the 19th! Cool stuff.

I did find it interesting that Brimstone Hill is less of a slave to architectural style than it was to the geographical and geological conditions that it rested upon. Most defensive fortifications use the terrain to create the greatest possible defensibility, but Brimstone takes this to a new level! I sure wouldn't want to storm it. It was (according to Wikipedia) known as the 'Gibraltar of the West Indies' [citation needed]. ;)

So fast forward a couple of hundred years and here we are. Sugar cane grows still, but there is no market for it abroad; tourism is now the most profitable industry on the island, and many farmers who had jobs, don't anymore and many are (understandably) upset. I will from here on, however, leave the politics for someone who knows better.

Well that's all for now though, I hope I haven't bored you yet! Much more to come, and more variety too.

PS If any of the above images or any images I ever use are copyrighted and the owner would like them taken down, please let me know in the comments below. I have done and will do my best to only use images that are not copyrighted or are "fair use" images.