Day 78

78/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

I had a day jam-packed with screenwriting, so I didn't get to go outside much. I went with Jordan to get some dinner, and we ran into the one-and-only pirate bum on our way home. Who is the pirate bum, you say? 

In all honesty, I don't think anyone really knows. He's a local celebrity, and for a bum is kind he is of hard to find. I'm my short tenure here at UCSB, I can only say I've seen him on 3 or 4 occasions. He's definitely on the top of the local homeless hierarchy. He isn't looking too good lately, his skin is peeling away and he was actually using a walker today (he may have just been too drunk to stand, though), not to mention the fact that he doesn't have an eye (the patch isn't just for show). Still, his spirits are high. If you do find him, he will show you his tricks, which include but are not limited to drinking/smoking out of his empty eye socket and shredding harmonica. And surely he will tell you stories of the fair maidens of Isla Vista and share a few jokes, all in the hopes that he can scrounge up some money to buy a beer or twelve.


Pirate is a real class act, but our encounter was kind of scary. He had two bum friends who were characters themselves. I wasn't afraid of getting ripped of or beaten up, though. The scary part is one of the bums claims to have graduated from UCSB with a physics degree, and actually showed a spark of intelligence. Apparently the job market is worse then I thought...