gloomy japan...

cant wait to get the hell out of here, it has been cold and rainy, and i have no shoes! ive had a cold since flying to korea, finally it seems to be lessening today...
listening to probably too much elliott smith, and too many emails with an old friend, not really uplifting stuff... all combined, i need to get the hell out of here, and get in the ocean!!!!
only one more night, after which i have to spend a night in korea again before getting back to where i should be!!! having some wine, not good wine whatsoever, but since i really have not had wine much of late, it tastes like ambrosia... course i have no clue whatsoever what ambrosia tastes like...
spent a little time toying with my new lens, and even though this shot is completely out of focus and underexposed, it seems to capture something of me (my first self portrait!) in this country (ive been saying that i dont think i am going back to the usa, well, i dont want to come back to japan either!!, probably much more so...)

all you can do now is watch the shells
the game looks easy that's why it sells
frustrated fireworks inside your head
are going to stand and deliver talk instead
the method acting that pays my bills
keeps the fat man feeding in beverly hills
i got a heavy metal mouth that hurls obscenity
and i get my check from the trash treasury
cos i took my own insides out
--elliott smith..

i wanted to shoot this spider thing, but thought the sign made it all that much better..

not sure which focus i like better, i think the one with the spider in focus, but not sure...
these were shot with the new lens (shot at 2.0, i am afraid of 1.2 still!)

since i sold a few lenses and im currently in the land of lenses...

lenses, lenses everywhere but not a picture took.. rainy and cold..

well, figured if i am ever going to get some good pix, i need all the help i can get, so just got the 85L cannon - ive seen so many great images out of this lens, perhaps i can get one to come close! for the price of two really good lenses, i get one really good lens...
so really only need 2 more to make my collection complete - the 35L and the 600L, almost did the 35L here instead of the 85, but have seen so many amazing pix from the 85, figured i should go with that... so dreary and cold here, have no ambition to shoot here - hopefully it warms/clears here... if i get a shot, will post...

finally opened the pix of ulu

not the greatest, but here are a few lineup / wide angle (fisheye) shots....
looking online, these look completely washed out, guess shooting mid-day in the tropics really does not work (they do look better as complete images, trust me!).

in japan..

the 2 hour flight from seoul to tokyo takes about 8 hours... buses, trains, long-ass immigration and customs lines.... north asia is not the place i want to be, perhaps ill back up and move to beverly - hills that is!... not sure where that came from... anyhow, on the flight i found this photo for anyone who ever wants to know where to shop if they are stuck in omtepe (on island in the middle of the lake in nicaragua).

of course when possible, go with the divine baby jesus!!!!

am in a really nice hotel here, tired of staying in dumps in this city - so i would highly recommend that if anyone comes to japan and does not have to pay for the room, stay in the grand hyatt in roppongi, ridiculously nicer than every other hotel ive ever stayed in in this dreaded city....

i really should go out, feeling a bit better, getting over a cold that i caught on the flight up here from bali (all those sniffling assholes on planes get to me - i suppose i was one on this last flight over here)... i do like some of the music here, and jim orourke from sonic youth now lives here, maybe i could find something worthwhile.....

i need to take some new photos!
maybe ill get a lens too, ive had my eye on the 85L or the 35L (canon) for quite sometime.... maybe i can get a deal here (doubt that!)...

shoeless in asia!

well, even if what i have been wearing for the last few years counted as shoes that is... anyhow, packing things up to come up north (korea, japan), i learned that those what i was calling shoes were lost, and not anywhere to be found... so, here i am in the midst of the global corporate world, shoeless! i know silly, but i did laugh when i realized the situation...
now onto the fun of getting a plane ticket out of indo... one would think it would be the same, go to travelocity or whatever website and get the cheapest ticket... well, that process just does not seem possible, or at least i could not find how to, when starting the journey in indo... off i go to one of the many places with airline billboards on the outside of the office... it turns into a mix of computer, phone calls, and them pulling books off shelves to look up prices - the stuff on the computer is not accurite? anyhow, i finally get settled on a flight from bali to korea, and a return from japan to bali (getting from korea to japan once i get there)... well then it turns to payment, and the credit card machine being broked (of course!)... off i go with one of the travel agents to another travel agents office that has a credit card machine (walking in i notice both visa and amex signs...). it turns out that they are not allowed to book a ticket starting in japan... ok - so now i figure ill do a round trip to/from korea, and get a round trip korea-japan-korea once i get here... it comes to the point where we are ready, but i dont have my passport with me, so again with my travel agent buddy by now, off we go to my hotel (about 20 minutes away), get the passport, and return... now, off go my credit card, and passport for a series of photo copies, and finally i get my ticket (of course the amex machine was broken, so had to use visa!)! so instead of 10 minutes on the computer, this took about 4 or 5 hours and required 2 travel agencies and at least an hour of driving around with my initial travel agent friend on the motorbike....

now in korea, feeling crummy due to the redeye (left at midnight, arrived at 9am)... at least i scheduled my work for tomorrow here, not today.....
guess i need to schedule japan still... maybe a nap first!

off to korea/japan tomorrow

i think, but still have to find a ticket... finding tickets online from here is difficult - think i need to go to an airline office (is what i did in singapore as well)...

the "good" thing is i renew my visa, but the bad is that ive only been here about 10 days out of the 30 allowed... surfed a fun beach break this morning down the road a bit, felt good in the water... until i got run over by a kook - actually not a kook, just a young kid learning... i should have gotten out of his way probably, but it is difficult to tell what people are going to do when they are learning, and another learner/kook was paddling for the same wave - was doing my best to stay away from both of them... ended up with my tooth going into my lip a bit, not bad at all, but cut a bit...
wind seems more of the normal trades today, i may be able to get in an afternoon session somewhere or other....

wow shocking that more people than my mom have read this!

lets see, my feet have touched the ground, but more often than not, i am cruising on my steady steed of a motorbike, or floating ontop of water on fiberglass.... have not been able to find the dude daniel just yet, and am thinking of maybe going to the other side of the island, it is a bit less hectic or it seemed so when i went there last... i did check out that wave yesterday, there was too much swell for it - some people were surfing it, but maybe 1 make-able out of 20 or so... so just watched it for a while, and tried to figure out how it changes / when it will be good... oh yeah, of course i found out the place is swamped these days - both with all sorts of surfers in this time of year, and full of japanese surfers starting november... it does look like a fun wave, not super long, but seems to standup and barrel...
surfed canggu today, was alright, but a bit packed with whities and nonwhites all acting like brazzillas at the peak... got a few fun ones, and actually was surfing fairly well, but not at all in the mood to deal with the fools, so just waited in one spot for sets, which did come from time to time (one super annoying person was right in my way on a set, trying to steal the wave, ridiculous completely, so i just backed-off - they got pitched completely over the falls and over again, which is of course exactly what should have happened! - i was in the perfect spot, would have run the over, so obviously they were way too late..)
actually i dont think one brazilian was in the water there - perhaps that desease of assholism is spreading, or has already overrun these waters...
spent a lot of time the last few days working, and the stupid work email is not working for me (they expired my email, and have yet to reset it) - making my life difficult from here for work purposes...
have to give a presentation tonight at 11 - always great fun, even more so being here! hopefully i can take a nap for a few hours, perhaps ill investigate that possibility now...
--your loyal errand boy arturo.

thinking of checking out a different area tomorrow morning

there is a right called something like keramas, sort of newly discussed... since no one reads this, i suppose i am not letting out a secret... course i read about it online, so am sure it is way more widely known than i lead on... --this reminds me of talking about a secret spot in nicaragua during the last trip, course turned out there were about 7 boats at the place, and 50 or so pricks bobbing around there... well, hopefully that will not be the case tomorrow... and hopefully the place is cool, i am not sold on this area just yet, would be nice to find somewhere a little less trampled upon (course i am staying right in the heart of things here)... the good thing about trampled places is the availability of internet everywhere...
had a bunch of surfs at the local beach (including overhead today - riding the 5-6!!!), but i need some quality (more parathesis! - been staying away from the better known spots not to be discussed by the crowds...)... but i need to start shooting more, maybe tomorrow, maybe not though - not sure where i can keep the camera while surfing there...

what else... just had a great meal - fish, shrimp, and squid, all perpared differently all quite tasty... and some nice rice...
and a good lunch - nasi campor, veggie - first tempeh meal since ive been here...

pretty wild, watching the surf contest in france, typing this mostly to the 1 person (my mom! - hey mom, as you know, doing well..) in the us that reads this, while laying on a couch in the bar at the hotel im staying, drinking a bintag basar... oh yeah, in the next room, sports from all over the world on the tvs in the bar...

well, i did bust out the camera...

but did not really get any shots - a few lineup shots of ulu, but it really was not that good at all, so am not gonna bother dl'ing them just yet... when i get some more, will check them out on here... also, tons of shit surfers there, many many blown waves....

since i promised a pic, or at least did to myself - here is mike and his kid quin surfing in sd... gotta love the expression... i tend to try to catch flys with my mouth when surfing as well!

hopefully will get some shots worthy of posting here from here...

marty reminded me about green and here, guess i need to start to look for different background on this..
surfed tiny waves again on the 5-6, had a ton of fun, finally getting used to that board and having a ton of fun on it....

had my first complication, well, maybe not the first, but the first non-work one...
my stupid atm card stopped working, am sure it is due to the deposits going in in the us, while im depositing here....
sent the bank an email, hopefully that will be enough - making phone calls is an issue from here....

first halfway decent surf

in horrible surf... well, for here the surf was probably horrible - chest high or so, kinda closed out beachbreak... but had tons of fun, rode the 5-6, and got the feel of it more than i had during any other sessions ive had on it.... was wild though, not a single person out when i paddled out, and by the time i left - about 15 pricks on my peak!
most of them were horrible so it did not matter - one guy could surf - sharing a peak with one guy is not bad at all... strange from the beach, and when walking/paddling out, i thought it was gonna all be rights, but ended up way more lefts...
tomorrow morning should be about the same, before the swell shows up in the afternoon, and by sunday/monday is looking to be big - guess im gonna have to finally wax up the 6-8, hopefully it will work (ive yet to have a good session on it...)

gonna try to surf early tomorrow, then get on the bike and shoot while cruising around the island - really only have been in this small area (trying to get used to it - finally dont get lost every time i get on the bike...)

dfw

so i just read that david foster wallace killed himself a few days ago...
the book infinite jest blew me away, completely bummed right now.
have to admit i understand it, as uncomfortable as that is to say... only wish some of the souls that off'ed themselves that way could have come up with the idea that there is so much out there in the world without any relationship to them... i suppose it could be those evil mind tricks that the silly brain seems to play on itself that could be the cause... or perhaps all that searching leads to places better left untouched...

think i need to re-read that book, it was worth reading...
dfw - hope the pain has stopped.

the music around here at night turns awful!

woke up, used my credits for the internet at the place im staying (some bs about 33M limit), so drove the bike 2 minutes into town....
holy shit, this place has turned from a sleepy place to the worst club music and full of all sort of characters that do not come out in the day....
i have to finish my beer and get out of here before my head explodes!

day2

Well, woke up with a swollen eye – thinking due to a mozzie bite, they seem to love to find ways to make me uncomfortable… been using that magical ointment, don’t leave home (if you have a home) without it, Neosporin… things seem to have settled, and am glad it is not pink eye from someone rubbing their dirty ass on my pillow case!
Surfed shitty waves today (first surf in indo), onshore beachbreak, a bit overhead and completely closed out… but good in the paddling adventure of duckdiving 10 wave sets – gets the arms going as they need to… new fins felt big though – may go back to the 3’s instead of the 5’s on the quad shortboard…
Traded a mail with my cuz that I have not spoken to in years and years, and it lead me down a very particular path – one guided by the thoughts of that mail and the book I am currently (re)reading, and the place in which I am currently present…
So – the thoughts, or complication I’ve tried to resolve – are compassion and freedom diametrically opposed? Am sure that others have already had this discussion, but I’ve not read anything about it, and only stumbled upon the concept while walking down a path to the ocean considering the compassion required of the people here while also considering the freedoms I so highly touted in my mail to my cuz… when looked at from an extreme level – is having freedom to be compassionless more important than not having that freedom? Compassionless people seem to be the ones that cause most of the worlds biggest problems, and those who squelch the freedoms (including the freedom to be compassionless) seem to be equally guilty of what would be commonly conceived of as crimes against humanity… this is one that does require some nights of thought (nights without mozzies attacking my eyelids!)… freedom or compassion… man oh man they are 2 things I hold dear that only today I see that when viewed from a certain perspective, can be diametrically opposed… sort of bummed and enthralled by the idea…

tired of being lost...

for all those souls out there that know me, at least a little bit, know that i have been searching quite sometime for something outside the idea of a house and stability... humm, but now what is it i seek? a house and stability! albeit half way around the world, and on the other side of the equator, just barely... call me switters, man oh man, i wish i had the forethought to say some such thing to my grandparents... call me marcinczyk, that just does not roll off the toungue all those silly consenents in a row... sometime's c?
so after deciding 100% on moving to hawaii, a few disappointments later, 100% on Nicaragua, here i am in the small town of seminyak in southern bail... without really any clue as to where or how i am going to be living... a bit of background for those of you reading this that do not know me or know my latest flounderings around the world...
spent my last day in my office in nj about a month ago (was going to figure out the date, but really is it significant?, esp. after my 3rd bintang basar!)...

well, it all started with a drive to the airport from my one and only dear sister meghan... although maybe we are not as close as brother/sister could be, meghan and i probably relate to, or maybe empathize with each other more than anyone else... flew solo (because im a dumpshit, and booked the wrong day after canceling the "right" day thinking it was wrong, and paying a surcharge for it...)... met some old and new friends in nicaragua for a few days/weeks, waves were fun, and was great that no one got hurt (we are getting old - and probably do not surf as much as we all would want!) - was the first trip ive had wearing contact lenses, so am not sure what the cause was, but ended up most of the time looking out for my friends in the water than trying to make sure that i was getting in the best position for the best waves... probably a bit of everything combined, as everything seems to be...

lets see, am getting a bit tired of typing/thinking... quickly, stayed longer than everyone else in nic - go some waves, saw some things, but was not great in any stretch of anyones imagination... caught no fish!!!! i will catch fish here!!!
spent a week in sandiego and surfed a day in baja - again nothing great, but a few fun ones (actually only in mex, in ca - was total shit, at least is what i thought of it...).
after ca, flew to singapore for work, worked.... singapore is a weird place, probably the cleanest city in the world, but it seems to be masking much under the surface...
now in bali - hope this place connects with me, just need to give it some time for once!