Space Blog

There’s some quote about how if you only have one day at yosemite, you should spend it at the river crying because you’ll miss soooooo much. I did it anyways and tried to see as much of the park as possible in 6 hours. I climbed lower and upper yosemite falls trails, bike rode through the main meadow and went through a trail near the chapel where the first pioneers here prayed at.

Los Banos is the worst town ever. Doesn’t that mean “the bathrooms”?

Los Banos is the worst town ever.

Thanks everyone! And Umi.

I finally got these photos from Amito showing my fo’ real induction into the community. This ceremony is to show the Sangha (spiritual community) that you’re serious and want to partake. You get a mala (necklace with 108 prayer beads, there’s a bajillion explanations for the number, and a mirror so I reflect everything and attach to nothing) and a spiritual name. This name is supposed to take you away from yourself and whatever conceptions “Etan” might have with it. My name is Vimal which means clarity. This happened like 10 days ago and I’m already used to my name. At first they had to shout at me a bunch but eventually I got used to it.

While that was awesome, there was a miscommunication because they thought I was going to stay there, forever. Sooooo, I was eventually stripped of my mala and my ability to wear blue but I still got my name!

There’s a huge area behind the Zenness that you can access hiking trails, a huge tepee and the community’s spare wood pile. They’ve been planning on turning the area into another garden for stuff like peppers, squash maybe even corn. (I keep pushing for avocados.) Apparently soil is expensive (but it’s just the ground derr) so they mix it with manure to get the most of it.

For 15 bucks this nice rancher will bring his backhoe around, fill it with manure and dump it in your truck. There were lies of cars waiting for this man’s poop.

Here they are after being dehydrated.

It was super rainy today so that meant that we’d be off all chores and staying indoors all day. Instead, Dayso and I went into Santa Cruz so I could explore for a bit and he could chill with his friends.

We first stopped at a cliff overlooking the Pacific where a rainy day surf competition was being held. There was an incredible number of people watching for such a crappy day. I felt bad for the surfer from Australia that came all the way here for one day of beautiful Cali surf but instead got the dreariest day of the year. The coastline was still beautiful though and some contestants caught some really gnarly waves, bro.

The next stop was the funniest. We went to some hippy tea shop and the only seats were next to this ridiculous new age couple and this white Sikh dude. Each were peddling something. The couple had this, excuse me, completely retarded board game called “the experience” where your “intentions” were the play pieces. People are supposed to place these intentions on different chakras according to how they feel and something something I spaced out. Basically, you’re supposed to get really close and intimate with your fellow players which I didn’t really wanna do. The Sikh guy was selling some powder that was a stimulant of your lower chakras aka herbal Viagra. It tasted horrible and made me feel sad. He also sells a product called Chai-ya-ya. These people want to start a cafe that has this board game on every table with drinks serving crap that the Sikh man makes. Hilarious.

The rest of the day was spent at a tea house with infinite refills and good music. At 8 an awesome Italian classical guitarist performed but I had to be in bed by 9 so I couldn’t stay very long.

Yup so I spent 3.5 hours one morning and cut all this here wood. I’m awesome.

It’s actually a really intense experience trying to split the wood in exactly half every time. When you use the maul, you’re supposed to swing it using it’s own weight as opposed to just your own power. The more I focused on it the more I messed up and vice versa. It’s pretty Zen. At least Umi said so.

Yup so I spent 3.5 hours one morning and cut all this here wood. I’m awesome.