Rocky 7... the final final chapter

Rocky 7 will feature Sylvester Stallone taking on a new opponent and a new style of fighting. Rocky's desire to be back in the ring in combination with his maturing, philosophical mentality will lead Mr. Balboa to join the Tokyo Fighting Club. His fight this time around will be another classic rocky epic battle, this time with Taewondo and heavy kickboxing influences. I dreamt the movie last night. It was sweet. It had a kickback to old school kung fu with a touch of Undercover Brother (pictured). If I could invite you into my dreams I would.

This reminds me of a dream Apayo had. We woke up one morning, around 2PM. Apayo was a little groggy and began recounting a dream she had to me.

Apayo: I brought you a present.
Brady: What?
A: A present, wrapped up like a stork would do...
B: Ummm... and?
A: When you unwrapped it...
(dramatic pause)
A: ... it was a turkey.
B: Ha. A turkey huh? That's nice.
[end scene]

My dreams a freakin sweet. I've heard a lot of people say we only dream in black and white, but that's bull. I dream in color (Sly's gi was white with green trim last night). I often dream in 1st person, and while dreaming in 1st personI remember all the other dreams I've had in 1st person. I've been doing this my whole life, but just realized it about 2 years ago. Memories of my dream world and reality were fairly independent. I woke up one morning after my second trip to Europe and realized that I had not been to Europe twice (or even once in reality). Once I realized I had this other set of memories I started remembering more dreams when. I fly often, but it's not like I have a supernatural propensity for flying. Flying is always telekinetic self levitation. I often get mad at my dream self for how bad I am at flying, but I have improved over the years.

Lately, in my dreams I've been working as David Haffner's assistant (COO Leggett ande Platt). It's a good job, I stay motivated and Mr. Haffner gives me problems that are difficult to solve, but we're on the same wavelength so communication is always stellar (Haffner graduated from Mizzou's IMSE program that I will graduate from in Dec.). I haven't been to Europe since 2005... My dreams are often like a reality show with me as the star... they just chronicle (for the most part) things I could actually be doing. I dreamt about the Blue Note alot, and mountain decents during biking dreams are sweet. The dreams I really enjoy usually aren't too outlandish.
I've died a few times, I was run over by a bus when we lived in Tucson (88-91ish)... I'm pretty sure that was my first dream of my own death (I was about 5 years old). When I die my dream memories are reset. I remember that mom and Drew just crossed the street as if nothing had happened (awfully imo for a 5 year old don't you think). Dying in dreams was therapeutic because it allowed my to forget about and move from nightmares that I had. Mentionably I had a recurring nightmare involving an angry cross between the Hulk and the Jolly Green Giant. This was always on a highway in the middle of the Sonoran desert where there was no place to hide, also the road was prefectly straight so there was only constant terror. Oh yeah, the dream like part is that I was always running uphill and he was always running downhill. That's just not fair. The other recurring nightmare was with that wolf that chased the indian guy through the swamps in "the never ending story" movie. Those were rough. Of course I never got caught... the terror of being chased is much worse than acutally being caught.

Anyway... I like sleeping because my dreams freakin rock.

I'm head off to a beach up the coast to relax for the weekend. Pictures and tales to follow.

I'm pregnant.

I just found out, I've been pregnant for 1 month. In December I will give birth to something... I'm thinking about calling it adulthood. No... I'm not having a real baby, it's a metaphor (jeez mom, take your estrogen pill and have some vodka with breakfast).

So, in 8 months I will graduate college after a short 5 and 1/2 years. I'm expecting to get a real job as an industrial engineer. It should be fun. Well, that's an understatement... it's going to be a blast. I'm going to take my new baby (still not a real baby) and move to a new city where I don't know anybody, start getting paid in checks instead of cash, and get a mortgage payment.

Don't worry, this isn't one of those sappy "I'm kinda scared... the world is so big" type rants. No way, the world doesn't have anything on me. It's going to rock. I'm actually really excited about living as a bachelor on an engineer's salary. As the date of graduation approaches I keep thinking more and more about all the things I'll be able to do with the freedom gained by raising above the poverty line (and also cutting the financial umbilical cord I still enjoy). I don't feel the need to have a traditional house... but I am enamored by the prospect of having a space I can really make my own. I do understand this is all pending on a lot of variables going my way, but my extensive procrastination(see last post) has led to a higher percentage of variables swaying in my favor. What's true is you can expect my car to be old, my furniture to be second hand, guest room without a bed... but you will probably be able to climb from the front door to the back without touching the ground. The kitchen will most likely contain the most technologically advanced equipment in the house (quote source).

If I live someplace hot I'm also going to have a snow cone machine... with only piña colada and french vanilla flavorings... if you want something else you'll have to bring it.

So I'm not sure where exactly I'll end up, but I'm really leaning towards the rocky mountain region (maybe Durango), the pacific northwest, or Canada ( guess I like coniferous forest). Overseas is not out of the question. I have one great connection that may require me to live in southwestern Missouri for a couple of years before I move out, but I'd have a lot of options when I did. I realize that most of the things I want will not allow me to live in a major metro... that's fine... the close I am to open roads and trail heads, the better. As long as I live close enough to a city that can provide me with the social networking I crave... I'm all good.

Anyway... it's going to take a little time, but my house is going to be small and probably old (to me this means it will have flavor), but will be a playground for me. I'll go ahead and invite you all to drop by any time. As long as you realize you'll be sleeping on the couch or a cot. These are all things I've been wanting for several years (including the snow cone machine). Others seem to have the idea that happieness is moving into larger and larger houses. I think happieness is having 3 or 4 small houses in locations to satisfy (mountains, water, hot, cold). I'd like to live a

Other things I will likely bring into my life:
-a person climbing space
-weimaraner
-garden
-music recording equipment
-a synthesizer
-a brass instrument of some kind (perhaps a flugel horn)

Things on my 10 year to do list:
-Pay off a small house. (emphasis on small... it's just me, no need for much)
-Hike Kilimanjaro (Erika, are we still on?)
-Continue education in the theoretical side of industrial engineering (lots of stat), psychology, and logic(only basics here).

Things I'd like to do:
-Write an editorial (I guess that'd be making this analog and official)
-Run for public office (only if I think I could help)
-retain all the neat little skills I've acquired throughout my life, improve if possible (languages, instruments, math, etc.)
-and of course, pick up some new skills... like bo staff skills.

Only 8 months... I'm already anxious. If I want this to happen I need to take some notes from the roomie Greggles who did a stellar job of job searching and ended up landing a teaching job in Torreon, Mexico next year. School is going to take a back seat to job search this semester.

All this excitement about being young and beaming with life force has led me to realize aging may be a very difficult process for me... but that won't be happening for awhile.

My college career has been anything but normal, you can expect the real world to be similar.

Fotos...

And now for some well anticipated pictures.... I am worried that my blog is becoming too much of an update on life rather that me being pissed at random things. I guess that's a bit of necessity since I am south of the equator. Nonetheless, risking my blog becoming lame, here's another post about my life and little else.

This is the view from the top of the building where I'm staying until April. As you can see, I'm 3 blocks from the beach; it's around a two minute walk. As of April 1st I move to an apartment that is about 4 blocks away from here (parallel to the coast), its closer to the bus stop and mall the same distance from the beach... and I'll have my own room.

The streets in this area are very busy. With cars, motorcycles, busses, bike messenger types (more on that later) and pedestrians. You can definitely judge the security of an area by its traffic. If you see a lot of cars... you're good. Things change fast... on one of my runs last week I transitioned from a nice road with plenty of cars to a road that had no motorized vehicles of and kind in around 3 blocks. I wasn't in a favela (explain later), but this area was only one step above it. I don't even think I saw bikes, only people sitting in the sun or the shelter of their poorly constructed living quarters looking at me like I was from another planet. Needless to say, I did a little interval work back to the main road.
The city is so busy running is difficult. This forces me to do most of my runs here: I know it looks rough, but keep me in your prayers and I'm likely to survive.
This is the beach at the closest point to my apartment. The rocks in the water are the reef that gave this city it's name (a recife = the reef). During high tide you usually can't see more than a few feet of sand. The picture shows a lower tide, but it gets lower. The beach is great for running, chilling, bathing, or playing sports (there are several volleyball nets, tennis courts further down, and pickup soccer games everywhere). I say "bathing" because the beach is not good for swimming.

Why? Well that's an interesting story. Once you cross the reef your chance of shark attack goes up exponentially. Its not just because the reef shelter's bathers, but also because there are more sharks in this area, and they're ill-tempered.

Keeping in mind causal relationships, scientists have shown the massive industrial development near Recife closed off fresh water estuaries where bull sharks nurse their pups. So shortly after the developments really took off, the shark population moved up the coast. Then, pollution killed quite a bit of the local marine life. Ipso facto the bull sharks are swimming around starving, and if you're near them, you're probably close to their cute, little sharklings... we all know this is a bad combination. Also, surfing is prohibited due to all this.

If you aren't being eaten, the beach is a pleasure. It's basically a full service ala carte buffet. Local vendors provide you with chairs and shade umbrellas for free. You order drinks from them, and just bask while other vendors come by. A veritable mobile smorgasbord is provided by the impoverished street vendors: fresh coconuts with hole and straw, shrimp, fried cheese, roasted cashews, bottled water, beer, juice, liquor, hot dogs, sunscreen, jewelry, soccer jerseys, sunglasses, night lights, hats, parakeets, CDs, DVDs. Basically most anything you might want while on a beach. You feel satiated and a little like a scumbag while enjoying the beach and the amenities that it provides because of the large population below the poverty line. Not to mention prices are great. Vendors definitely try and rip me off... prices start off higher for me than my dark skinned beach neighbors... but my Portuguese negotiation skills are quickly improving. Even so... the prices they try and rip me off at aren't even that bad (Gotta LOVE that exchange rate!), but I talk them down because I need to buy more frivolous items like Rocky VI in Portuguese... I guess if they want that extra loaf of bread they'll have to work a little longer.

After the sun sets, the vending moves away from the beach about two blocks. The prostitutes (not legal) come out right after dinner. Like 7PM... they don't waste time. Then again, maybe they're just nice girls waiting for the bus, on the wrong side of the street.

Sex, sun, food, liquor, action (when that tourist gets eaten by a bull shark)... Recife has it all.