Blog du Wren

Weekend Wall Building

At one point in my life, I was a stone mason's assistant/landscaper guy*. The job mainly entailed carrying heavy rocks and shoveling gravel. As I worked my way up the not-at-all-corporate ladder, however, I got to get in on the actual building part. And while I never did a wall all by myself, I was involved in all the different parts of wall building, at least enough to get the general idea of things.

Fast forward 5 years. I got a chance to put those skills to use. My brother is now a homeowner, and as such, he is on a home improvement kick, as with most new homeowners. A layer of paint here, a new floor there, new gardens here, there, and everywhere. When he started talking about putting in a rock retaining wall/terrace, I couldn't help but give my two cents. To make a long story short, 2 cents became 2 tons over 2 days. This weekend, I went down and acted as director for the wall you see before you. Jule and Katy did the majority of the actual building (as my wrist has recently put in for its 2 weeks vacation for the year and refused to work). I stood by and imparted sage wisdom.

The results, IMHO, are spectacular. With the materials we had in the time we had, we created something pretty freaking nice. It felt good to be back out working with the rawest* of building materials, creating from . And with the way the wall turned out, I now have an even greater appreciation for those skills that I learned so many years ago, with a yoke on my shoulders, an ache in my back, but almost always a smile on my face.

Monday November 24 2008

File under: work, misc

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FC 52 - Facepalm

I had a different comic all lined up for this week. It was another multi-panel one, but not so much story based. In fact, it is one that I have been thinking about for a while and the idea held significant meaning for me recently. With the way it turned out, however, it is unlikely that anyone else would get as much enjoyment out of it. And since last week's comic got more comments* than any other one of late, I figured I'd go ahead and continue that saga.

While I will go ahead and say it for legal reasons, we pretty much all know it isn't true: resemblence of any persons in this, or any other Friday, comic is strictly coincidence. As the story evolves, however, that might become more true. Plus it is good to have out there in case wrath is incurred.

Thursday November 20 2008

File under: comic

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Solo Kayamping

I've always respected those people who can do things by themselves. I'm not talking tie their shoes by themselves or eat a whole large pizza by themselves*. I'm thinking more about those people who get out and do stuff, not letting the lack of people who are willing and/or able stop them–whether it be checking out a new restaurant, going to the movies, or travelling.

The movies and restaurants I've conquered, although it was tough at first. My travels, while often times in practice a solo event, always have some non-solo aspect to them, usually people I'm visiting or meeting up with. It works as a nice balance, but I imagine someday I will take a truly solo trip.

Anyway, with all the respect for and thoughts of true solo travel in my head, I recently set out on a mini- solo kayamping adventure. I kayaked out to Cypress Head, a 4.3 mile paddle, in calm seas and minimal wind. With my recent camping experiences in parking lot style state and national parks, arriving at Cypress Head to find no one else around was a pleasant surprise. I hiked around a bit, collecting firewood and admiring the rare of a secluded island on a gorgeous fall day in the NW. When the sun when down (at 4:30!), I started possibly one of the best fires of my firemaking career*. After 11 hours in my one man tent and a strong hike to the island's deserted airstrip in the morning, I paddled back to Anacortes.

In the grand scheme of things, this hardly ranks as a true solo adventure. But it gave me reminders of what traveling alone really means, both the good part and bad. And while I am glad to get this experience under my belt, I think for my next adventures, I will continue to seek travel partners. After all, it is so much friendlier with two.

Wednesday November 19 2008

File under: Anacortes

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Quote for Monday 5

It never hurts to be reminded that life rocks (even if it is by a defaced road sign*.)

Monday November 17 2008

File under: quote

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FC 51 - 6 Panels for Hannah

My first foray into the multi-panel genre of comic creation is dedicated to my dear friend Hannah. If you didn't follow the little thread that was started by my post last month and rebutted by Hannah's post, you probably won't find this funny. In fact, even if you did follow it, you might not find it funny. Perhaps I should change my comic series name to Unfunny Comics du Wren. I could corner the market. Too bad Family Circus already has such a head start. ZING! (Oh how it hurts even seeing my comics compared to that of Family Circus.*)

As for this multi-panel format, I could see myself getting into it. I took the Red Meat* approach: essentially repeating the same panel over and over just changing the words. Huzzah for cut and paste!

Friday November 14 2008

File under: comic

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Family Circus

When I see young 'uns outperform me, whether it be in sports, language comprehension, or circus arts, I like to think that if I got started at an early enough age, I could be juggling polyglot soccer star. But that ship has sailed, for me at least. Enter Punksto.

I've touched before on the story of The Trick and how I attempted to planted to the circus arts seed at an early age. Now that seed is growing. It looks like she's moved on from acro-balance to . Give it a few more years, and maybe she'll take after her old uncle and pick up juggling! And when she does, Barnum and Baily watch out!

My plan: to tour the country. Punksto will open with her act and I will follow with my (mini-video of combo trick can be seen .)

Yes, I predict we will be quite the hit. Get your tickets now.

Tuesday November 11 2008

File under: misc

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Serious Ultimate

I like playing Ultimate [frisbee]*. In fact, I list it among my top pastimes (whenever I am asked to list pastimes, which isn't very often). But this weekend, I realized that I am not nearly as serious about ultimate as some people. Oy!

On an invitation from a friend, I cruised over to join in the fun at the Sundodger Ultimate tournament. Though I should have known better, I was not expecting what I saw. Ultimate players as far as the eye could see. There were 24 fields packed with players. (Quick math: ((24 fields x 2 teams per field)+4 or so bye teams) x 11-17 players per team = about 700 ultimate players in one place!) The place was so vast, in fact, that after roaming around and not finding my original adopted team, I was recruited by another team to get a couple games in. Then, during their bye, I went and found the original team, and played a round with them. Three all out competitive, high quality games is enough to point out that I'm not hardcore like so many of the folks there.

But worth noting: the fact that I could just show up at a tournament and find not 1 but 2 teams (on which, I only knew 1 player on each team) to join up with goes to show you the prevailing attitude of the sport: acceptance, camaraderie, and easy-goingness(?). It is why I ditched the high stress world of Div III track back in college and took up with those hippies throwing a frisbee around. Yep, good times.

Sunday November 9 2008

File under: misc

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FC 50 - Options

This is the last election comic, I promise (at least for this election cycle). Friday Comics are supposed to be fun, to cause a giggle, not to gripe or make a statement. I know I've thrown in an "editorial" comic here and there over the past 50(!) comics, and I will probably throw a couple more in during the 50 to come, but I'll try to keep it to a minimum.

I was going to claim that this was a guest comic artist who did his own thing so as to deflect some of the democracy fervor that might manifest itself in the form of nasty comments. But after looking at the finished comic, it was plainly evident that this is done in my style. Then I got kind of excited that I have a style*. It ain't no Rose Is Rose, but I might go as far as to say that, artistically, it puts some of those stick figure comics to shame. Syndication, here I come!

Thursday November 6 2008

File under: comic

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If She Could Vote...

If Punksto (front row left, dressed as a pegasus) could vote, I'm sure she would vote to re-elect Governor Christine Gregoire (back row right, dressed as Dora the Explorer).

Tuesday November 4 2008

File under: misc

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Rate My Mullet

I'm usually not one to dress up for Halloween, although recently, I've been getting more into it. When I commented recently how I was due for a hair cut, someone suggested that I do a mullet for Halloween. A good idea is a good idea, so I put the plan into action. Since a mullet by itself isn't really a costume, I tried to branch out a little. is what I came up with. 72 hours later and the mullet and mustache are still here. The question is how long should I keep it?

Halloween is slowly growing on me. While it used to be one of my least favorite holidays, I'm realizing how neat it can be when you surround yourself with creative, cool people and lots of candy. I hope you all had a great Halloween too. (If you have any leftover candy, I know someone who could give it a good home.)

(P.S. Occasionally, over the weekend, I joked about rateMyMullet.com not knowing that it is a real site. Weird.)

Monday November 3 2008

File under: holidays, beard

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