The Coast Track Hike (and story of my busted foot)

Over the last week I've been hobbling around on crutches with a foot that should not be such a blotchy purple colour. A lot of people have asked me “what have you done to your foot”. So to avoid telling the story another hundred times, this post should answer all your questions.

Early December (3-5th), I went on a hike along the coast track with some friends from church. We started from Cronulla and caught the ferry across to Bundeena, then headded south along the coast track. Our group set a leisurely pace as our trek was about 28K's over three days.

Here I'll jump forward to day three where I broke my foot.

We were toward the end of our journey, about three klicks north of Otford station at the time. Our company of seven was split up, four of us were at the top of a cliff, ready for lunch, the others were lagging behind, about four hundred metres away, at the bottom of a steep descent, down a pathway and through some overgrown scrub.

My friend suggested he and I go and help the others with their packs, he ducks off, I drop my pack and left it with two of the girls at the top who were enjoying some hard earned rest. I finish my snack and follow after him by myself. Passing a small gurgling stream I head down the first steep descent. Each step was carved deep into the stone of the mountain side. It would be tough getting back up these steps (even without a pack), and I was already exhausted from the day's up and down hills. It was a good thing I'd eaten a snack to keep my strength up. The high steps gave way to a level pathway once more so I continued on.

I'm now about two hundred and fifty metres away from the two at the top. I've gone through thick sound dampening scrub and descended to the bottom of many high stone steps. I've now gone a further hundred and fifty metres along a pathway and my foot slips on a rock and rolls our from underneath me.

Like rice crispies, it goes snap, crackle, pop.

From the time I lose my balance and my foot goes pop, my brain has enough time to register some facts before the pain reaches it:

• I've just done probably the most serious damage I've ever done to myself,
• It's going to take ages to heal, and
• If all things work for good for those in Christ, how does this?

And then my foot goes “No more” and I crumple in a heap.

My screams could be heard from all the way up the top where the two girls were. 

At this point I figure it would be prudent to abandon my quest of helping the others with their packs (sorry guys) and to head back to the stream I passed earlier and try to ice my foot in the relatively cool water. Even so, it takes three times as long to get back up those steps. The stream was only about thirty metres from the top, so I call out to them and one kindly brings me some bandages.

She looks at me like I'm such a muffin and says “What the heck? You're the biggest guy in the group.” as if to say 'of all the likely people in the group, how could this happen to you'

I look at my foot, it's swollen up faster than anything I've ever seen before. Looks like I'm trying to smuggle an orange where my ankle should be. I'm shaking a fair bit too, (probably shock). Anyway, I find a stick and hobble the three k's to the station at Otford. Now I'm the one slowing the group down. )-:

And that's pretty much more or less the story of why I'm hobbling around doing a good impression of the way a zombie walks.

and now I'll jump back to the first night of the trek.

We set up camp in a secluded grove of eucalipts. There was a swimming hole nearby, complete with it's own waterfall. The frigid water was ice cold and crystal clear, you could see right to the bottom two metres deep and about fifteen metres across. So good to have such beautiful places in creation, yet better still that I've been made able to enjoy it.

On the near bank of the water was a large flat rock big enough to comfortably seat all eight of us. Sam stood in the water, letting it soothe his aching feet after the day's hike. The rock was about waist height, so he was able to tend to cooking dinner “like a teppanyaki Japanese barbecue”. One of the girls was the first one to discover there were eels in the water. She discovered this when it swam out from under the rock and curiously nibbled at her toes. Only Sam and I were game enough to remain in the water after that.

I could tell that he was just a bit apprehensive about 'Freckles' (by this stage the eel had been named :D ). he's turned away to talk to someone and I've seized my opportunity. Kneeling down, I quietly tickle his foot. Thinking it was the eel, he jumps out of the water and came *very* close to squealing. I'm such a troll tehehee.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable hike with some really cool people and I truly had a great time.

Points of reflection:

Good things about having a broken foot:

- foot that changes colour like a human chameleon (I'm so artistic without even trying)

- PAINKILLERS!!! : P and the subsequent trippy dreams thereof.

- not looking like a slob when I put my foot up on the desk
- only needing to wash half as many socks

- Thunderous exercise for the other leg

- getting intimately acquainted with the floor of my room

and,

- the subsequent motivation to clean said floor

Then suddenly my mind is ambushed by a...

Random thought:

I will never in my lifetime know what dinosaur tastes like. This saddens me.

And so my story continues...

last Thursday I saw an specialist, who confirmed that I have torn ligament damage and it will take many weeks to heal properly. Fortunately I won't need surgery (I hope) as it's got lots of little tears rather than having snapped clean away from my other foot bones (I'm sure that's not even remotely close to the accurate medical name for 'foot bones', but that's what I'm calling them).

So I'm on crutches for the next week.

I had a really good bad idea the other day. How about, instead of using crutches, use POGO STICKS!! then I could jump along much faster like a kangaroo. Is perfect plan, no?

Today I was issued with one of those 'moon boots' to keep my foot from moving in unhelpful ways. That thing is so bulky, when I wear it, I feel ready to go to space.

Spaaaace! With this boot, I'm ready to go to space.

The physio I saw today said I should be fully healed in about eight weeks.

It's a shock to my ego to need to rely on the help of others. I can't carry my groceries when using crutches, places take much longer to get to, and I really shouldn't be driving. But good does come out of this. This is how I can tell God loves me, because he teaches me by giving me situations in life where I have to learn to be humble (very useful thing to know).

James the heavy is not so impervious to injury.

until next time, I'm going off on other adventures.

Peace out.

Holy smokes, Batman!

Disclaimer: this post has nothing to do with Batman.

There's a fire of biblical proportions throwing up plumes of ash and steam, blotting out half the sky. It's in plain view, only about a thousand metres away. It started at Heatherbrae and headed mostly eastwards (and upwards). It flared up from a fire that started last Sunday, I heard it on the wireless that it was caused by some careless asshat throwing out a durry from their car. The fire then grew into a consuming monstrosity, devouring all in its path. It was very hot and there was a very strong wind of 41knots all day.

Here are some photos I took of the fire. It was only a few thousand metres away

view from over my carpark

the fire was nearby, on the other side of the runway

At times, I could see flames leaping up over the treeline. I wished I'd brought a better camera than my phone. 

 I'm going to need a wider angle lens to capture all this

the smoke plume went kept going out to sea and beyond 

(note the white cap of steam here)

There were 130 fire fighters and eight water bomber choppers working overtime to put the wet stuff on the hot stuff. In the immediate photo above (one of my favourites,) you can see a white-cap of steam sitting on top of the smoke on the left. This was from the absolutely mental amount of water that had been poured onto the fire, only to be instantly converted into steam, rising up and forming cute little man-made clouds. There were many such white-caps of steam on top of the smoke, these were the most impressive part, the fact that people were effectively manufacturing clouds. I'd never seen anything like it on this scale. 

...

Working at my desk, but for the talk about what was going on outside, there were no signs of any trouble. Some hours passed and work finished for the day. I walked outside the comfort of the perfectly breathable air conditioned office to find this:

 The sun turned blood red, it was only mid afternoon

any minute now, four horses will ride out of this.

It was an eery twilight outside. It was not due to start getting dark for another few hours. the wind had changed and was now blowing thick smoke for miles around. Not the sort of smoke you can move out of if you're at a campfire, it was the type of smoke that follows you, makes it hard to breathe and no matter where you move, it follows you and there is no air, it gets in your eyes and burns. It started raining, except it was raining ashes. That's when I thought it would be a good idea to go indoors. 

There's only two things to do during a bush fire:

- Get drunk, and

-  ... ...

No, just one thing to do. 

I retired to the base watering hole. Damn. It was closed. Apparently the civvies couldn't get through the smoke on the roads to open up the bar for me. Ah well, good thing I've quit drinking. 

the land that has burned out so far

With the strong wind and the very hot and sunny day, it looked like the fire was not going to stop until it had burned everything in it's path until it hit the ocean. By night time it had burned 2,819 hectares of land. Countless litres of water had been used and it was finally beginning to slow down. 

I would like to end this with a little song I learned, back when I was playing Team Fortress Classic.

*clears throat*   (sung to 'Jailhouse rock')

Fire is good,

fire is great.

it helps you burn,

those you hate.

It's pretty and orange and cooks the best meat,

fire is something you just can't beat!

TFC, good times.

But seriously now, this was a terrible thing, people lost a lot of property, brave men worked tirelessly to get it under control, many people were displaced after being evacuated and my prayers go out to every one of them. 

Until next time, Here's a picture for you of me fighting off dragons:

yes, I did make dragon sounds with my mouth while I made this picture.

James out. 

Last minute before zero hour

Thursday 12 Sep 13

This has been the most fun costume I’ve made and the hardest costume I’ve made. This is also the first costume I’ve completed. I had to give myself some leeway as I knew it wouldn't be perfect as this is my first one and I left a lot to the last minute (like painting things which is very time consuming to let it dry properly).

Painting the layers, PVA x2, Plasti dip x2, Plastic primer x1, spraypaint x2-3. So much drying time but worth it for the work you see below. Nothing is glued yet here.

 Did I ever mention how fast I came to appreciate hot glue?

Several hours later of work and reading bleach online and viola! Happy Cosplayer.

“Hi Jaune,”                          “oh hai James”

Animania is tomorrow and I’ve just now completed my costume. Mostly. Didn't worry about the sword, shield or belt pouches but it doesn’t have to be perfetc. Besides, I can save those for version 2.0.

It’s now in the wee early hours of Friday morning and I’ve just realised that Animania doesn’t start until Saturday, not Friday (like Supanova did). As I’ve already booked my hotel and have leave, I have no choice but to enjoy the sights of Sydney for the day.

Sydney. So much to do. Never a dull moment. Shops, markets, sights, sounds, people, homeless people, sleeping people (or passed out). Sydney is a veritable melting pot of humanity.

Last time I was there I discovered this *great* place that does delicious Ramen. Great place for a guy that takes quality food very seriously. This little restaurant will be my first point of call. If I lived in Sydney, the owners would probably know me by name by now.

I’ll update more after I get back from this weekend.

as for now, I’m going off on adventures

-James

 

 

RWBY Cosplay part 2

So that you know what I'm talking about, here's a picture of Jaune Arke from RWBY (he's the one on the right).

 Awkward: it's going to be depressingly easy for me to get in character.

 

This task is a lot biigger than I thought   D:   

Someone once told me: “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”.

I discovered that doing this:

1.       Make Jaune Arke’s armour

2.       Job done. time for cake

Does not work. So I broke it down into steps:  

1.       Gather required materials

2.       Foam armour

2.1 Pattern pieces for: chest plate, back plate, joiners, shoulders and gloves.

2.2 cut them out in foam

2.3 heat gun them to shape

2.4 paint with PVA glue (3-4 layers), coat with plasti-dip, and paint with spray paint. (fine detail can be added with a permanent marker).

2.5 cut the vinyl into strips

3.       Cloth bracers – hem tape required (because screw sewing that by hand)

-          Not sure if or how pattern pieces are required here.

4.       Cut gloves to size

4.1 finger holes,

4.2 hot glue on the ‘metal’ plates

4.3 hot glue on the armour plate

5.       Belts

5.1 cut vinyl to size & glue together

5.2 attach eyelet holes

5.3 attach buckles

5.4 new belt  

5.5 for extra bonus points, make the leather pouches from the spare vinyl

6.       Cut sleeves off shirt and hem them (careful about size, I want to get this perfect on my first try)

7.       Wait for wig to arrive in the mail

8.       Try it on, take photos and congratulate myself for being one damn fine looking otaku : D

 

Yay! The task itself has remained the same but is somehow easier now that I know what I need to do. Sort of. Its my first costume that I’m making myself and I know that I don't have the experience or skills to get things perfect, so I shall have to go easy on myself when/if I don't get things one hundred percent on the first try. This won’t be easy. Maybe my standards are too high. Homer Simpson once said this:

“You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”

Which is strangely encouraging in a subverted sort of way. There is so much that’s wrong with that statement. If you never try, there’d be no point to doing anything and you may as well be dead. You just need to keep trying different ways until something works and then you get better at it and it builds character. That’s why hard times are called “trying times”.   Yay wisdom!

 

Someone once told me that art is about "not telling yourself you suck, and just going for it". so here I go, one Jaune Ark costume coming up.

I don't know how to do some of the finer steps such as sewing hems on things. If anyone knows of easy ways to put hems on stuff (I don’t have access to a sewing machine) please let me know in the comment area below ↓

Also on a different topic, I’d like to get good at drawing pictures/landscapes/scenery. the plan is to eventually draw something good enough for the background to this blog. I may play around with sketching first but I would like a better program than MS Paint to edit things on PC when I scan them in or maybe to even draw straight in to the program itself (I’d like to draw like what you see in anime, but not sure how they make the pictures the way they do). If anyone knows of any good freeware programs that will help I’d appreciate it if you let me know.

 

For now I'm going to get as much done as possible because Animania is only three weeks away. For the next few weeks I will have to put my hectic social life on hold if I want to get this costume done in time. If you don't see me please don't worry I'm not becoming a recluse and I still care about you all, I'm just working on this project.  

Love you all and until next time,

This is James signing off.

Costume Stuff

Costume Stuff 

SPOTLIGHT:  I swear it's bigger on the inside

If you’ve been to Spotlight before you know it’s not your average type of shop. The. Place. Is. Massive. and full of every different type of cloth known under the sun (among other things). To give you an idea on size, Spotlight is like the Bunnings Warehouse of all things involving thread. Walking through the doors and being confronted by rows upon rows of hundreds of various sorts of special fabrics and who knows what else, I realised how little I actually know about what to look for. As someone who doesn’t know the difference between any sort of fabric, this was fairly intimidating.

I’d been there with a friend once last year. The place was *exactly* as daunting as I remembered

One of the ladies that works there was able to help me out with selecting some fabric. There was also the issue of being able to sew the cloth together later on. I dont own a sewing machine. I found the answer in the next isle.

Holding up the tube of glue I asked:

“Hey, I’m too lazy to sew stuff together, will it work just as well if I just use glue instead?”

“absolutely” answered the assistant. By the surprised look on her face, maybe no-one had asked about using glue instead of sewing stuff together before. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. I dont know much about how costume making works, but I'm going to trust in the professional advice given to me by the department store clerk on using glue being okay. Time to find out.

Sometime last year, a friend of mine and I made plans to make Spartan armour like the Master Chief uses in the Xbox game Halo. Construction started this year and she finished her's several months ago. This has involved a lot of time and effort so far and I’m nowhere near finishing (hopefuly by November).
 

Papercraft helmet. It's a legitimate strategy.

I’ll be making the armour out of foam, hot glue, PVA glue, paint, plasti dip ("it’s really cool stuff": http://www.plastidip.net.au/), blood, sweat and tears. And I’m starting from zero experience level. Fun fun fun.

On a side note, I accidentally cut my thumb with my stanley knife while cutting foam to size. To put a short story shorter, superglue is magical stuff for holding you together.   : )  

Anyways: cosplay. Armour that will look *awesome* but not skilful enough to make it yet, which brings me to a side-project:

Jaune Ark cosplay (much simpler armour. A good starting point)

For those of you that know about RoosterTeeth.com and Red vs Blue, congrats for being a person of refined taste and quality. You'll probably know  that Roosterteeth (henceforth referred to as RT) recently started branching out into making an animated series called Red White Black Yellow or RWBY (pronounced ‘Ruby’).  For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, I recommend checking out their most recent series here: http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=7872. Their work has improved greatly over the last ten years and its nice to see them branching out into other forms of animation. I have highly enjoyed the RWBY series so far.

Rooster teeth. check them out. really cool stuff.

Note: pictures will be added for this post later.
*UPDATED* pictures added.

 

Preface

G'day,

 

Many people have told me "you should write a book", "I hope you keep a journal" or "Have you thought about working in comedy" and one person even said (directed at someone else) "I want you to follow Jim around and write down everything he says, put it in a book and get back to me, it'll be full of laughs". Until now I've been content with keeping a journal and updating my Facebook wall now and then.

 

Well, I've heard your pleas and at long last, here are the much anticipated  writings of someone who sees the world just that little bit differently.

 

This blog won't be all entertaining. Some parts will be informative, other parts will be about thing's I've learned, or about adventures I've been on and I'll try not to boor you by including too much angst.  I'll know what else I'll include in this blog after I've written it.

 

For now, I'm going off on adventures so that I've got something for you to read about in post number 1.

 

enjoy   ( :