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Archive for May, 2010 
Hullo Adventurers. I have been hiding under the covers in pyjamas all weekend waiting for my acceptance/rejection letter from Oxford. I am a hot mess. In other words, my dear adventurers, I had no adventures this weekend. Instead, I lived vicariously through Unacceptable, the robot, who would do anything to be accepted.
Meet Unacceptable the Robot
Unacceptable has few morals. He would stoop into the chasms of depravity to seek mere scraps of acceptance. To expedite delivery of a letter, Unacceptable would have no qualms in bribing the postman with baubles and sin.
Unacceptable would use common trickery to infiltrate the postal service.
Unacceptable would call Oxford three times in a row to trick the administrator into telling him the results. To avoid detection, he would use different accents each time.
Unacceptable would play mind games.
Unacceptable would not sleep.
And eventually, Unacceptable would become so desperate that he’d wile away the rest of the time by drawing pictures of stupid robots in disguise. ——————————————————————————————— For those of you who can’t relate to Unacceptable, check out this student animation Second Wind by Ian Worrel. I’ve watched it about 50 times. Whilst waiting for that letter.
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Please allow us to introduce our new friend, adventurer and operations guru, Jordan T Adams! Jordan is very sweet and very tall and has a history of producing mega-events. As Executive Producer/Director of Operations at SCOPE Art Fair, Jordan was responsible for overall operations, design, logistics and general management of multi-million dollar art fair exhibitions held internationally in such venues as Miami, New York City, London, The Hamptons and Basel, Switzerland. With SCOPE Jordan profitably managed a 3.2 million dollar annual budget, successfully negotiated all third-party contracts, city, and venue permits, facilitated client relations with over 250 international gallery owners and designed venue floor plans. Jordan is a singer in a band called Spurm and the drummer in Idle Times, Dad Hands. Jordan is now a full time Adventurer, we are totally stoked to have him on the team. Anyone this handy with a contractor’s tape measure and a glitter canon is a crucial leader on Team Adventure!!! Stop by the studio and say hi to the newest member of our safari of fun. Get to know more about the man behind the MANventure blog, Jordan T Adams, in his profile below. What skill do you want to learn? Food and drink you don’t want to live without? The scariest thing you can think of? Your favorite book of the moment? Describe your dream party place. What is the evil version of you like? Tired and Grumpy. Never helps anyone move. What gives you confidence? Friends, Family, myself, being awesome. Name four essential elements of a good party. Music Flexibility a secret SURPRISE! What do you appreciate most about a party When they are smiling.
Pith Helmet
It involved a plane trip to a jeep ride to a helicopter ride to a boat ride to a plane trip to a boat ride to another boat ride to a truck ride to a dinghy drive to an island in the middle of the ocean to take a nap. Most amazing party EVER. Hotel room or campsite? Either. Do you have a style icon? Jordan T Adams. Where is your next adventure destination? The Salish Sea. If you could teach a class about anything in Treasure hunting. Your motto? “You don’t learn anything by doing it right the first time.” What is your spirit animal? Eagle. But today I’ve pulled the Wild Boar.
Hello, this week’s adventure supply is produce. This grapefruit comes individually wrapped in a hearty package with flavor bursts in every bite.
Have you ever been to Orcas Island? If not, go and go now. I was fortunate enough to spend this last weekend there at a friend’s home right on the water. I spent my mornings waking up to mist that clung to the shores surrounding Wasp Passage, watching it rise and swirl away while sipping tea and eating sliced local fruit out on the patio. In the afternoons I checked out local haunts: Cafe Olga, the bookstore in Eastsound, the baths at Doe Bay Resort & Retreat. My favorite adventure on Orcas, though, was exploring the island’s farmer’s market that takes place on Saturdays, and which I was fortuitously able to happen upon as its season only began two weeks ago. What luck!
I ambled around the tables of local craftspeople, admiring pottery that had been made up the street, feeling the gorgeously woven blankets and knit-wear made with wool from local shearers. Though I felt completely inspired by what I found on these tables, it wasn’t until I arrived at a food stand run by a family-owned business called Local Goods that I knew I was in my element. The owner, Rob Kirby, and his teenage son were manning the station that day. While his son poured made-to-order drip coffee (excitingly similar to how Blue Bottle Coffee does it at Bay Area farmer’s markets) that they had roasted themselves a few days prior, Kirby tended to the barbeque, grilling and frying fresh oysters. Heaven on a hot plate. Not only does the family roast their own coffee and cook up some amazing bivalves, they also make their own condiments and granolas with, literally, the local goods of the San Juan Islands. How inspiring and magical is that?
It’s important to be reminded of how far we have distanced ourselves from knowing how the food we eat has reached our dinner plates, and even more important to be reminded of how easy it is to return to having a much closer relationship with it. So get out there and plant a few veggies on your apartment balcony, in a portion of your yard, or help out a local farmer with his or her own crops. If you have any interest in leasing a space in a community garden here in Seattle, check out the City’s website on neighborhood P-Patches for more information and locations. For our Bay Area readers, The Edible Schoolyard, set up by The Chez Panisse Foundation, is a great way to get to know your greens while supporting local schools, as is Novella Carpenter‘s Ghost Town Farm in Oakland. Other places and people to check out are the documented feats of Perennial Plate in Minnesota, the workshops held at Sowing Circle Farm in Portland, and Temra Costa‘s new book Farmer Jane. For a bit more inspiration, click here to view a video about Brooklyn Grange, a team working on planting a sustainable organic farm on the rooftop of a building in their city. Get to work!
Hullo Adventurers. I hope you had as glorious a weekend as I did. I spent the better part of the morning sunbathing in my garden. The other half, unfortunately, was spent engaging in awkward encounters with the racoon, Algernon, who lives at the bottom of my garden. After hustling my partner to spend time outdoors (He is English and wilts under direct sunlight), we finally decided on an adventure around Greenlake. This adventure, my dear readers, came in the form of the Green Lake Mini Golf Course. One of the upsides of being in a relationship with a Statistics PhD is that you rarely have to calculate the tip and tax at the end of the meal. One of the downsides, however, is that they, in their John Nash ways, think of everything in numbers. Engaging in sports of any form thus requires imagination. In other words, adventurers, you must cheat. For those of you who don’t think in angles and probabilities – here is an illustrated guide to cheating your way to success. Rule 1: Misdirection
Usually, I am able to use my quaint accent to misdirect people. It often gets me out of bar fights. However, in the case of my partner, this is not possible. I thus resort to making up words. If you continually repeat these words as if they mean something, your opponent will spend their energy on attempting to assimilate to the lingo, as opposed to playing well. Note, moreover, that it is important to also include real words to throw them off. Rule 2: Always carry the right equipment.
It is always important that you are well equipped for the golf course. This often means thousands of dollars spent on suitable shoes, clubs and balls. This money spent, however, does not necessitate victory. To win, you must know how to use your equipment. Thus, instead of using the traditional white golf ball, I like to camouflage my golf balls to blend in with the natural surroundings in case I need additional ‘support’ in maintaining a good handicap. Rule 3: Wear suitable attire.
The dress code often enforced on golf courses are usually established to maintain a certain atmosphere. However, you can often use attire to your advantage, by dressing in unusual outfits. By sporting, say, an umbrella and a disguise, you can both confuse your opponent, and subvert his ability to look at you in the eye. An alternative is also going naked. (Last resort). Rule 4: Find a suitable caddy.
In proper golf you need a proper caddy. In miniature golf, you need a suitably miniature caddy. The squirrel is nature’s miniature caddy. Compact, fast, and distractingly cute, these little runners are all you need to hide/find golf balls.* *To train a squirrel, one must be willing to sacrifice a jar of peanut butter, a lot of balls, and time. Thus is the cost of winning. Rule 5: Only golf in ideal conditions.
These ideal conditions, however, must only be ideal for you. Condition A – is ideal for both parties. Steer clear. Condition B – Fake Snakes. Good for ruining their shot. Condition C – Suspicious orange substances – only to be used in the long game. Results:
Ultimately, Cheaters prosper. As can be seen by my amazing score.
Hullo Adventurers. This morning’s special post was written by our foreign correspondent Robin Evans in regards to the UK Elections on Thursday. It also, I’m ashamed to admit, reflects my own ignorance of British politics. I’m quite sure that I recognise some of the questions as direct quotes. *** I know Americans everywhere have been gripped by events on the other side of the pond, and are once again looking to the ‘mother of all parliaments’ as a shining example of how to conduct an efficient and civilised election. I stayed up late Thursday night to watch the election results come in, only to wake up extraordinarily confused. Dire scandals concerning Bigotgate, The Dethroning of Peter Robinson, and the Wrath of Jeremy Paxton were all central features of a hung parliament wherein no one won anything, really. For those of you who had better things to do, here’s some explanation.
Oh, did you have an election? Err… yes. Time for Brown to go? So who replaces him? Well, the election was… inconclusive. Inconclusive? You mean there are hanging chads in Surrey? No. The Conservative party (Tories) got the most votes and the most seats (over 300), there’s no doubt about that. So what’s the problem? They still got less than half the seats, so if all the other parties ganged up on them, they’d still lose. Not a great recipe for making unpopular decisions to, say, fill the UK’s large budget deficit. So who’s this Nick Clegg then? I heard he was the new Obama. Well, not quite. He’s the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who won about 50 seats. Why so few? Well, imagine what would happen if the US Green party got 20% of votes in every congressional race. How many seats would they win? Err… none? Exactly. I see. Wait, who is ‘everyone else’? Mainly the Labour party of Gordon Brown (who has now resigned), with about 250 seats. There are also Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties, Northern Irish MPs (who tend to do their own thing) and one Green MP. So what happens now? Well, the Conservatives are trying to team up with the Liberals to get enough seats to win. Conservatives and liberals... sounds like a one party state! Well it won’t be easy – as the names suggest, there are some serious differences between the views of the parties’ MPs – notto mention the party activists. If it doesn’t work out, then the Lib Dems might team up with Labour, meaning Labour’s new leader (whoever that may be) might be the next Prime Minister. Why is a Scottish man the Prime Minister of England? Aren’t they different governments? Well, it is all the same country... although you wouldn’t know it from the election results. Scotland elected huge numbers of Labour MPs, and only one Tory. This is worse than when you tried to teach me about cricket. ***  For those of you who prefer a televisual summary of the election – Have I Got News For You is possibly one of the best political commentaries around.Keep tuned in. Gordon just resigned as Labour Leader, and Nick and David might be getting pally.
Robin Evans is a graduate student in Statistics at the University of Washington, and part-time political anorak.
Hi guys, I am in Miami. Just got here, so I still have lots of Seattle adventure news to share from this week. But make sure to stay tuned for next week’s all Miami edition of Cori’s Corner: The Week in Adventure (MIAMI). The most fun news is that Team Adventure is settling quite naturally into its new studio space. We threw a wee little open house for some former and future clients and other adventure supporters. Lindsay, Erin and Gao Gao did most of the work. They really wowed the guests (and me!) with their culinary creations and fantastic hospitality skillz. We had our friends over at Cairo create a new run of adventure tees in new colors and new softnesses. These new tees are like baby cheeks compared to the alligator hide-like old models, that may be an exaggeration but these Cairo tees are as soft as rainbows. You have to touch them to know. If you want one you can have one. Just email me: cori at theadventureschool dot com. And I will hook you up (for a fee, unless you are a celeb, like, Salma Hayek, in which case I would want you to wear one in Vogue or something so I could just lend it out). Anyways, back to the party. The new classroom is really shaping up. Lindsay made rainbow cake and even our youngest Adventure Nuts had a fully excellent time.
The fun and adventure, never stop around here and as the little soiree was winding down, a perfect opportunity to shoot a music video turned up. The Adventure Studio became HQ to some scenes for the latest Sleepy Eyes of Death video shot by our favorite videographer and all around great guy, Patrick Richardson Wright and his friend and ours Kyle Johnson. All the remaining guests donned green choir robes then we pretended to be a cult. Then we had a dance party on film. All in a day’s work at The Adventure school.
If you would like to be invited to the next super secret Adventure Hour, hit us up for details . . . info at theadventureschool dot com. Also, I saw Iron Man 2 last night, I don’t think you should see it, it’s not very good. However, I do recommend you read Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. Let me know how you enjoy it: cori at theadventureschool dot com.
Sam Rousso can make any day and any task into an adventure and any adventure into a party. He is a DJ, talk show host and performer so every party is better if Sam is there. Whenever I have dinner with my grandma she says, “this is a party!” It is sort of like that with Sam. Everything can become a party. Lucky for me, I live with Sam so I get to partake in the festivities very often. I am sad because Sam is moving to Sam Francisco. Hire Sam Rousso Presents to DJ at your wedding, Bar Mitzvah or high impact corporate function. Sam is into taking time to make time and facing up to facts. Sam made me this alarm clock ring tone: LISTEN If you would like your very own personalize ring tone please write to sam {at} indolentmagic.com. Sam would like me to make it clear that he will not offer technical advice. Sam makes a dish that includes Cheez-Its and canned octopus and another dish that includes noodles and garbanzo beans. Sam also makes a tv show called Indolent Magic: low key television for HI NRG times. This episode’s guest is Anne Mathern, friend of The Adventure School. He also has interviews with Nite Jewel, Tilson of The Saturday Knights and PWRFL Power. More episodes are forthcoming. See you at Cairo this Saturday! There will be some magic. Not kidding.
The Adventure School threw a party last night at our new studio and it was OVER THE TOP. I’ll leave the juicy details out, as I’m sure one of my fellow Adventurers has something up his or her sleeves in terms of blogging about the fete, but I will say that the food that was served was beautiful, eclectic, and downright yummy. From Gao Gao’s sausage rolls, to Lindsay’s rainbow cake, to my homemade marshmallows, our guests were feasting throughout the evening.
In great appreciation of the partygoers who complimented my marshmallows, I am posting the recipe I used, taken from The River Cottage Family Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall & Fizz Carr. This book focuses on simple yet fun dishes that are perfect for kids’ (and, obviously, adults’!) experimentation with cooking. It gives in-depth descriptions of where staple foods come from, why they’re important in certain recipes, and what tweaking various techniques or measurements will do to the outcome of a dish. Fearnley-Whitingstall & Carr do a fabulous job, and, in fact, I would recommend every book in the River Cottage series Have fun! Homemade Marshmallows Kitchen Gear: Candy thermometer, medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, measuring cup, wooden spoon, standing mixer, measuring spoons, shallow baking pan (about 8 inches square), butter knife. Ingredients: Method: 1. Sift the confectioner’s sugar and the cornstarch together.
Heaven in your mouth!
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