Urban Adventure - Behind the Keep Out sign
UE
Blog.
Web journal of an Intercontinental Urban Explorer
.12/09/05
One of these days some one must write an in depth news report on the dark side of Urban Exploration. I'm not talking about the exploration of dangerous sites, or exploring of tunnels. I'm talking about the in fighting and Politics. The little turf wars. The "I disagree with your opinion so I'm going to call you a fucktard" arguments. Heaven knows I've been involved in a few of them so I'm probably well qualified to write about them. But the recent ones involving Avatar-X make any I was involved in look like mere misunderstandings.
Avatar-X for those who don't know, runs one of the biggest Urban Exploration web sites around. It has a large and popular UE forum on it. When it first was created the forum was duplicated on to a number of established UE web sites, allowing it to be accessed from those sites. This meant that the forum became well distributed and popular very quickly. However, there have always been disagreements among people as how it should be run, as it was seen by many as an online community. Avatar-X saw it though as his web site, with him in charge. Many of the people who replicated the forum on their web sites disagreed with this, especially with the aspect of Avatar-X having final say with a lot of aspects of the web site.
One of the very contentious issues is the Location database. This is a huge database featuring Urban Exploration web sites from around the world. It provides precise location details of hundreds of sites. It was started as a gallery, I think it did not initially have location details included. However you can now get GPS coordinates to locations. A lot of people do not think this is appropriate because it could lead to vandals researching the location and trashing it. Others argue that information should be free, that the sites will be vandalised anyway and that it helps people explore. I can see both sides of the argument. On one hand I don't give out locations myself unless the place is open to the public and/or pretty much unvandalisable.
Another controversial aspect of Avatar-X's web site is that it is often impossible, or deliberately difficult to remove content that you have added. If you decided that you do not wish to have content that you added to the web site removed, it can be very hard to get it removed. Although I have never created a 'location' in the locations database, I have read that these can not be deleted, or that they can be queued for deletion but are not deleted. My information may not be accurate there, as I have read this information second hand. A number of people have advised me that they have asked for their material to be removed but it has not been removed even months later. My personal opinion about this is that a person's material, particularly their photos are theirs. If they choose to withdraw permission for a web site to use them, then that should be honored and the material removed, gracefully and in a timely manner.
Then there is the trolling, fights and arguments. I have been involved in a few of these though I try to avoid them. Quite often I'll post an opinion on something, and generally one of just a few people will start up an argument with me. This happens to all sorts of people, not just me. Personally I try to play nice, but some times I almost feel like I have to drop to the person's level of personal insults. I've been avoiding this more often now, just ignoring the people involved, but that allows them to say whatever they want about you. Often these arguments are allowed to run their course, with comments becoming personal instead of to the topic
Recently perhaps the most controversial aspect of Avatar-X's management of is site has taken place. A number of prominent Urban Explorers have been banned from his site. These are people who made Urban Exploration what it is today. People like Chainsaw from Colorado, Jester from Vancouver, Asher Archive who introduced Avatar-X to draining, Noah Vale who almost single handily started up UE in Texas, Glass who explored asylums in New England, Big Poppa Mikey who despite being controversial at the best of times, was never the less a great explorer. Some who have been banned seem to have been banned for very trivial and petty reasons. Porcelain Princess was banned apparently for trolling, but in reality simply had a different opinion than Avatar-X. One explorer from Chicago was banned because he never liked the site and was a troll, yet I had never seen him talk down about the site, nor had I seen him troll at all. Indeed, Avatar-X's good friend El Nerdo was well known for posting random personal attacks at people and has never been banned or suspended for his actions. Similarly El Gordo Uno has posted a huge number of trollish posts, doing everything from calling some female explorers fat to making numerous racist posts about Mexicans. Not that I've always been an angel myself.
Perhaps worst though is Avatar-X's own breaches of his rules. Early on in his web site's life Avatar-X hacked into one of his user's Hotmail account as the user had used the same password for Hotmail as on Av's web site. Hardly ethical behavior from a web master. At other times Avatar has sent threatening emails or private messages to individuals which were a lot more offensive or threatening than those that caused some people to be banned.
Yet, despite all this, do I dislike Avatar-X? No, I don't. I've met him in person, and he's an okay and even nice guy. Would I refuse to explore with him if I met him again? Of course not. I'd be okay with exploring with him. Would I avoid him or avoid talking to him? No, not at all. Why? Because Most of this is a difference of opinion. Just because I disagree with some one does not mean that I have to hate them or dislike them. I may disagree with their opinions, I may disagree with their actions, I may even consider them to be immature, or think they have made some poor judgment calls but I don't have to make it personal. There is differences of opinions, and there is exploring. I do think Avatar-X needs to make a greater effort in sorting out his differences of opinions, and to treat people with more respect, but that's his call not mine. I am not in his shoes, I don't know the pressure he is under and when it comes down to it, well if his web site was mine, I'd probably have kicked people off of it for personal reasons too. That does not make him a bastard, he's just as human as the rest of us. Still it would be nice if he could make some steps towards reconciliation and would treat people with respect.
11/09/06
September
11. Probably all sorts of people remembering the 911 attacks. It is all over
TV.
I had to deal with one of the more immature urban explorers yet again. Kowalski. Or to give him his real name, Michael Cook. Michael clearly has a personal agenda with me. In the entire time I have known him both on line and in person the guy has not said a single nice thing about me. He has never complemented me on my achievements, my trips overseas or my drain driving and explorations. Yet he will rush like a bull towards a red flag whenever he thinks he has a chance to say anything he can against me. In my recent posts about copyright issues he yet again went on the personal attack. His favorite tactic is to make an accusation and challenge me to refute it, implying that if I don't then I must be guilty of whatever he has accused me of. I guess I finally decided to stop playing the game so I sent a private message to him saying I was not going to respond as he clearly has a personal issue with me and that I was not going to respond to him any more. I then blocked his replies because I wanted to have nothing to do with him. He has continued to make accusations about me though. Childish ones.
Another favored tactic is to accuse me of portraying myself as a victim. This of course pisses me off, because it generally means that to refute his crap I have to become embroiled in yet another Internet argument. I've decided to ignore that as well. The only thing I am a victim of is Michael Cook's bulcrap. It is interesting to note that he's been particularly aggressive around the times he's been having issues in is own life, such as his recent break up with a former girl friend.
On the campervan front getting repairs done is taking longer than expected. The company that did the damage has been less than helpful, and less than polite to me.
01/09/06
Well as I mentioned a short while ago I was looking forward to taking my camper van for a spin. So tonight I took it out for its' first drive. Barely 30 minutes down the road I smell smoke. I looked around expecting smoke to be coming from the engine compartment. I slowed down and looked behind me to see flames about a foot high in the campervan!!
I immediately pulled over, switched off the engine, applied the hand brake, jumped out of the seat, yanked the fire blanket off of it's hook pulled it out of the plastic (flammable) cover and tossed it over a large cardboard box which was on fire. I then grabbed the box and puled it back with the intention of throwing it out of the camper. I had to let go because it was already hot and my jumper caught fire. I let go of the box, patted out my jumper with my other hand (not big flames thank goodness and no burns on my hand from that.). I then opened the side door, grabbed the box again and threw it out.
While the box was sitting on the floor as I patted out my jumper, it set fire to grease on the bottom hinge of the fridge so I looked at that, quickly determined that I could probably blow that out and blew hard. Out it went.
I could still see and hear burning embers from a small hole in the floor of the bus. I grabbed my fire extinguisher just as the smoke detector finally decided to go off. The pin from the fire extinguisher would not budge no matter how hard I pulled it. I grabbed a bottle of water and poured that on the smoldering hole. I then rushed outside again and tried to put out the now well alight cardboard box but figured it was not going to go out so I kicked it away from the bus and salvaged as much dishes from it as I could in a few seconds.
I then ran around to the other side of the bus and checked beneath it for the cause of the fire and to make sure it was out. The cause of the fire was the new exhaust I had fitted less than 2 weeks ago to comply with NSW requirements that the exhaust must exit through the back of the vehicle instead of the side. The people who had fitted it had ran it up against the wooden floor for about 20 CMS in order to pass over the rear dif Sheer stupidity. Anyway, I rang my insurance company on the phone, sat waiting for several minutes, then got cut off as my pre-paid credit ran out. After establishing that the fire was well and truly out I snapped a few pictures of the incident, doused the exhaust in water and drove off to the nearest police station to report the incident. The female police officer was not interested. So clearly not interested that it was actually annoying. Here I was, having almost been killed due to some one's negligence and she didn’t even want to take down a report. I rang up the following Monday to report the incident.
What the heck. So I doused the exhaust in water again and drove home, stopping every 5 minutes to cool down the exhaust. Using my land line I rang my insurance company and spoke with claims. I explained the situation. They were not interested either. In fact, their lack of interest bordered on rudeness. They explained that they did not insure for mechanical defects then when I asked about fire coverage they explained that it was not offered in NSW. They were very condescending when they said that I should have read my policy statement. I explained that I had, and that I was under the impression that I was covered for fires. They reiterated that they did not offer fire coverage for cars in NSW.
So, that pretty much leaves me with a burnt camper, a desire to change insurance companies as soon as possible and the need to call the exhaust place on Monday and explain to them how they came very close to killing me on Saturday and how I'd like things back to how they were before they stuffed around with my bus. I think it would be very reasonable to ask that the exhaust be realigned to move it away from the floor, that the floor and lino be repaired and that the fridge door be replaced. If they give me even an ounce of grief I think I might calmly blow my top at them and explain very clearly what would have happened if I had not caught the fire when I did and what would be happening to them if I had been burnt. I don’t normally get mad or angry and rarely swear, but I think I might if they start to quibble.
27/08/06 pm
I had a good day today. More volunteer work, and a good drive out in the country.
I was just reflecting back on OPEX86 in Vancouver, and in particular on the people who I met and explored with. Three people really stick in my mind. The first was Chainsaw. A brilliant guy. Years ago we met online and he struck me as a great explorer, doing missile silos out in the middle of the USA. I wrote to his email at his Subciety web site and soon we had agreed that when I could make it his way we would explore together. Finally after so many years I made it there, met the guy and explored with him and others.
Have you ever spoken to some one on a phone, or emailed some one and got a first impression of em? If you have communicated with some one online or via the phone but never met them or never seen their face have you ever formed an opinion of them? I guess I can say that over time I got an idea of who I thought Chainsaw was. A mature, responsible and very likable person. I really wanted to meet him. To my joy, Chainsaw is even better in real life than he is online. The guy is a gentleman. He was great, a real, genuine explorer and an all round nice person. Very intelligent, generous and good to talk to. I am so glad that after all of these years I finally got to meet him. I am also some what frustrated that he is banned from UER, as my gosh we need people like Chainsaw to be able to be active in the UE world even if some people don't agree with what he has to say. The guy is not only knowledgeable, intelligent, level headed and nice, but he is also experienced. He has explored. He is the living face of missile silo exploration in the USA. He is an Urban Explorer's Urban Explorer. I am glad to see that he participates on the forums at Wraiths and The Asylum. The Internet aside there will always be Chainsaw, and he will explore, Internet or no Internet Some people do Urban Exploration for the experience, and Chainsaw is one of them.
Another two great people were met in Vancouver. The first was Team Leader. Now how's this for a solid guy? Before OPEX 86 he and I emailed back and forth as I was looking for accommodation. He offered to let me stay at his place. I mean he'd never met me. He'd just heard of me and looked at my web site. I must also say that after the end of my 2004 trip when I was majorly depressed I didn't have a great reputation either. So it was a bit of a leap of faith on his part to agree to put me up in his place. I'm very thankful and glad that he did.
Team Leader is another gentleman. A brilliant person and a great host. Despite his demanding job he met me at the airport, rode with me back to his place and let me stay in his bed room while he slept in the lounge. He even laid out a towel for me along with toiletries and wrote a huge welcome sign for me on his white board. I can tell when you get to a strange city where you have never met anyone before a greeting like that can make a huge difference between feeling scared and alone, and feeling welcome and relaxed.
Through out my stay at Vancouver and OPEX 86 Team Leader had to work much of the time but he was still a brilliant host. He made me one of his famous egg sandwiches which was really nice and filling, he made me smoothies, told me of the history of the suburb he lives in, took me out walking around, explained how the transit system works and attended the barbecue start of OPEX with me. He also shared some of his tales of Urban Exploration, and his dreams and ambitions for film making. It was a real pleasure to stay with him, and I feel a lot richer for the experience.
It was also at OPEX 86 that I met Nobody. No, I did not say I meat no one. I met Nobody, another Urban Explorer. To use Nobody's own language, the guy was "good shit." We both hit it off well. I guess we were both at similar age levels and had similar experiences in life that we just clicked. Plus Nobody is also another great host and he showed me all around Vancouver. He was also a great cook, we cooked Koala at the OPEX 86 Barbecue. It was really interesting to hear Nobody talk, and to see his initiative and drive. On the Buntzen trip we got to talk a lot, because we're both a bit over weight so our walking pace was a bit slower than the others. That was good though, because we cold all set our own pace pretty much.
Nobody was a great surprise of OPEX 86. He was a great guy, an excellent driver, very knowledgeable about his city and also an all round great person.
Which brings me to a conclusion. Having met Urban Explorers from countries all around the world I have to say that they are some of the best people you could ever hope to meet. I have been able to meet people who did not know me from a bar of soap but have shown a sort of generosity and friendship you would expect from close relatives and life long friends. These are good, genuine and honest people. They are intelligent, hard working and often times poor financially but rich in experiences. These are the sort of people I look up to and thank my lucky stars that I met. Any one who would even suggest that Urban Explorers are disreputable or a low type of people should take in to account that he vast majority of true Urban Explorers are honorable, deacent and good people. These are people that would be proud to call family.
27/08/06 am
Well some interesting developments over the past week. The first is kind of sad. I do volunteer work on weekends helping out people who can not drive get around. One of the people I see has had a bit of a run of bad luck recently. Well she had had bad luck for quite some time. I first met her about 8 months ago now. She is very over weight and very self conscious about it. She also suffers badly from depression and has a nasty habit of self harm. For some time I have been a bit worried about her as she has been trying suicidal behavior and did not seem to be getting out of the depression she was in. It was becoming quite hard for me to cope with. She would also do things which just did not make common sense like for example spending her money on preprocessed food and binge eating instead of paying the rent.
Of course things like that catch up eventually and de to being very behind in the rent she is being evicted from her home. To me this is bit of a blessing as well as being sad. I was thinking of leaving the volunteer program because I was having trouble coping with this person. I mean I've gone through bad depression before but nothing that bad. This woman was cutting her wrists almost every week for a while. And she was heavily over weight but would still insist on going to McDonalds for lunch and would do no little or no exercise. I have to say she did come up with some novel ways to try loose weight and I was not in her position. I was worried though that if I was to leave the program that maybe this woman would commit suicide because she has just so little social contact and is so badly depressed.
This kind of solves the issue as the person will have to move away to another town now. So hopefully this will force her to be a little more independent and to get back on track with her life. I don't want to sound callous but she has to make a conscious decision to get on with life.
On a lot more positive note my camper van is now registered! This will mean that I can head out to explore surrounding towns and head down to the coast on the week ends. I can even head to Sydney or Melbourne on long week ends. Once I get the toilet, hot water service and shower installed I will be completely independent I'll just need to add water and fuel now and then..
23/08/06
Well just a short entry today. I have not been doing much trip planning but I have been wondering about raising finances for the trip. I mean surely what I do is interesting to people? I get quite a few people visit this site. So surely there is market out there for the videos and pictures I would take on the trip? Perhaps people would be willing to donate a little money to see this trip go ahead. Or what about film companies, national film boards, or organizations like National Geographic? I'll never know if I don't ask, so I should ask. Though a little research shows tat you have to ask by filling out specific forms etc. I don't like filling out forms as a lot of them are poorly designed and confusing. I guess I'm going to have to start learning how to fill out forms.
20/08/06.
Well it had to happen sooner or later. Time for an on line diary, a BLOG /web journal. I was sitting on line in chat on UER making out with Sara Bellum (she's so cute) when MattsB2000 suggested I create a Blog. I have been thinking of one for a while, but I didn't have a reliable FTP program to up date it. Now that I have one, well why not? I have no shortage of things to write about. With the 2007 trip planning just beginning, my 2006 trip just finished, work being done on my campervan which I hope to get registered soon and lots of online friends, there's lot to chat about. Besides, I am an opinionated person. I have an opinion about a lot of things. But let's start with the basics.
I have for some time now considered getting my campervan registered and on the road then living in it full time. The allure of course is being able to live cheaply and more simply. I realise it would mean a lot less space to live in, but that's not a big deal. As it is I spend most of my time at home in bed. I sleep in it, I sit on it to watch the television. I sit in it to use my lap top. I mean I even surf the web sitting in bed. The bed in the campervan is plenty big enough to sleep in, sit in and work on the computer from. Also, if my bath room was just near my bed it would not be an issue. I mean I hardly ever use my lounge room except for storing things in and walking to the kitchen area. I suspect that I could live in a lot less space than I do now if it was organised better. So space is not an issue. I mean I lived in a caravan when I was a kid for several years.
I think life's little luxuries could be a bit of an issue. Right now the campervan does not have a toilet, hot water service or shower installed. To do that costs money. I could probably install the plumbing and pump, they are easy. But cutting holes in the side of the bus is not. So I guess I'd have to get a professional to do that. Especially the hot water service as it needs gas plumbing done. I figure once it has the toilet, hot water service, water pump and a shower or small bath in place that I will have everything that I need.
Apart from curtains. Oh the dramas I have been having getting curtains made. I have material for them, but do you think I can get anyone to make some for me? No, impossible! The material shop won't do it because they only make curtains with their own material and I have also brought extra material. Then I offered some one at work $200 to make some but after waiting a month I got fed up. Ten I offered a fellow campervan owner the same amount to make them but he got sick and could not do it. It is driving me to distraction. I need good quality curtains to block out the light so I can get to sleep at night.
The main reason why I am not really all that keen to go full time living in the van now is the cost. It will take a fair amount to get the van ready for living in. I am trying to save for this 2007 trip. Even if I do get the campervan ready I would have to free camp a lot. This means camping on public land. Or I would have to stay in a caravan park. Now I pay only $125 a week rent on my little unit. Most caravan parks charge around $22 a night or more. So that's $22 by 7 nights which is $154. And that might not even be for a powered site. Then I'd have to pay extra to use a laundry mat, for driving around and other costs. It might just be cheaper to stay where I am. At least I can park my cars here free and no one will bother me. However I have to do something about all the junk I have and get rid of some of it.
Sooner or later though I'd have to live in the van. I'm planning to head over seas next year for a road trip so I will need to put my things in storage or live in the van.
I announced the idea of RTEX97 online on a few forums recently. I have wanted to head for Europe and buy a van and travel for a while. Since it is so expensive to get out of Australia I may as well go road tripping in the USA and Canada as well. I am hoping that a few other Urban Explorers will join me on parts of the trip. It would be great to see so many of the Urban Exploration sites of the world. I also love to meet fellow Urban Explorers. I have met many of them, and stayed with some. I'd especially like to return the favor to those I have stayed with, and let them travel with me with free accommodation and some meals. I like to pay back what I owe, even if it is not expected of me. It is a karma thing.
Of course I'd love it if I could get some of the female Urban Explorers along. Not just because I like female company, but because I'm a very feminine person and like just chatting with women. I generally find women are less full on and competitive than men. But to be honest the chance at female company would be nice. I can't imagine living in a van and traveling all around Europe without some female company. Some one cute like Sara would be nice. :)
I've also got to figure out a bit more about producing and making better quality video for documentaries, because I would love to make one or more for the trip. It would be nice to sell it and off set some trip costs. It would be nicer to make a good doco and move on to making them for a living.
