Posted

Sep 11th 2006

Mood

Inspired

Music

Mega Man 2 - Dr. Wily's Castle

There should be an "Inquisitive" or "Curious" mood in the list. I couldn't find a good approximation. Anyway, this is just a silly personal anecdote.

I like finding places. It has nothing to do with the places being useful, or cool, or important, though some of them are. The goal is exploration. There are more places than you would think, even in some urban areas. So the other day I went out and explored this building that they closed for renovation. When they close buildings here on campus, they don't close them very thoroughly. I literally walked in an open door with no warning sign on it. And once you're inside, everything's open.

The stuff lying around construction sites is boring for the most part. Insulation, ducts, bricks, tiles, wood beams, power tools, dust, sawdust. Sometimes the innards of the building are exposed: heating and cooling and circuit breakers. This is okay to see but usually meh. The way to find new places is to find doors, stairs, ladders, and the occasional improvised passage. And then go through, up, down, over, or across them.


Here's a picture I took from a flat roof in an interior courtyard. There's ladders onto most of the roofs. See that rooftop up there? There's a ladder up to the rooftop, but I'm currently too chicken to climb more than about two stories up an outdoor ladder. I just hung there for a minute or so, laughing. Fear beat out curiosity that day.

I'll have to try again.

On my way out, I saw a police vehicle parked outside. I think it was just parking enforcement looking at cars on the street, but I decided to use an exit on the other side of the building post haste.

Today I discovered how to cross under a nearby street instead of over it. In the process, I startled a few pigeons and climbed an eight-foot stone wall that nobody in their right mind would have built in California because the rough-hewn blocks are just stacked one atop another and they would come right down in an earthquake. Exploration is probably the reason I find parkour so cool.