What to do, what to do.

Sometimes, I'm just not motivated.

Like today.

There is a lot that I need to get done.  But I can't figure out what I want to do or in which order I want to do it.  I took Adorable Preciousness in to Day Care in order to have a day to myself to get stuff done.  And I have a process of doing stuff.  My Step 1 of any process is to make a list of what I will be doing.

I'm still making my list.

I know that I need to take down the Halloween decorations.  But I need to see what my wife wants to keep and what she wants to throw away.  My wife sees herself as thrifty but we seriously don't need to keep everything.

I need to get a haircut...  but I've been playing around with growing my hair out.

I thought about Early Voting but I get off at 6pm and I should be able to get to the voting booth before 7.  (As long as nothing happens.)

At least I can wash clothes.  I just don't want to go through all of my daughter's stuff to stain treat it.  Plus since we are making the transition from summer clothes to winter clothes, I need to pack the old stuff up.

It's an hour after lunch, and I'm still playing on the computer.

Music for Halloween IV: Saltatio Mortis by Arany Zoltán

Another video stolen from Chris Ex Machina.  This video is Saltatio mortis by Arany Zoltán.  I love the historic imagery of the video.  Plus I'm a big Hurdy Gurdy fan myself.

Music for Halloween III: Lothlorian - "The Black Cat"

The band Lothlorian out of New Zealand put out a CD a few years ago by the title of "Greenwood Side."  Their CD is available from CD Baby.  I first heard this song while listening to WDVR's "Mists of Avalon" hosted by Walt Haake.

Music for Halloween II: Garmana - "Brun"

This is a creepy tune from the northern reaches.  (IE: From Sweden.)  I had first heard their tune from Chris Ex Machina.  Which lead me to purchase a CD of the band.  (Yes, I still buy CD's which I then rip on to my media player.)

The song is played slow.  It is not in English, but the link I provided offers a translation.

Time for Halloween Videos!

This is a parody of "I'm Sexy and I Know It," by LMFAO.

It was produced by the crew of "Nightmare on 13th" according to the YouTube comments.

"Earning Respect" is not what you think it is.

I work in Corrections.  I've been at my agency for a pretty long time.  I've been involved in a lot of the operations at my facility and I'm cross trained in just about everything.

Suffice it to say, I get transferred around a lot.  A lot of the supervisors want me in their section.  I work hard and I try to not push stuff up the chain of command unless it warrants it.  I have a good reputation at my agency and I do my best to uphold it.  

However, the down side of being transferred all over is that I don't normally get much time in a section.  I stay in each section for approximately a period of two years, so I'm often the "new guy" in the group.  

What irritates me is that there seems to always be a group of people with whom I have to "prove" myself to.  I have to show them that "I've got it."  

Guys, I've got a message for you.  I was dealing with drunks and 10-96's before you were out of high school.  I've dealt with some variation of just about every issue that we could have at our facility.  (I will admit that I've not experienced everything that could happen, and for that I am thankful.)  

But there are those that think everyone needs to "earn their respect."  Nothing I do is good enough to satisfy their ego.  If I'm working with an officer, I give them time to prove themselves.  If they make mistakes I work with them and help them improve.  

Recently we had a situation where an inmate had a shank.  (A shank is slang for an improvised knife.)  Two of the officers who demanded that I earn their respect and I were on scene dealing directly with said inmate.  They rushed on in and were hopping about and shouting, just out of arms reach of the inmate.  I'm behind them and I'm taking note of the scene.  I direct other responding officers into locking the other inmates on the unit down and I directed my focus on the inmate with the shank.  

The inmate had the shank in their hand, but their body language was not threatening.  As a matter of fact, the inmate was not saying anything at all, while my two irritants of an officers were gesturing and babbling like baboons.  

First lesson to take from this.  Concise verbal commands help greatly.  If you are shouting and panicking and talking over someone else, no one knows what you are talking about.  I pulled the first officer behind me and stopped the second officer from talking.  I addressed the inmate quite simply.  "Sir, it's not a good idea to have a weapon in the unit.  Do me a favor, please turn around and place your hands on the wall."  Voila!  Compliance.  The baboons did not realize that the inmate had gotten in over his head and wanted an easy way out.  

Second lesson.  There is the "21 foot rule" for edged weapons.  It's the reaction time against an attack.  My fellow officers had gotten just outside of arms length   They did not even position themselves with the tables between them and the inmate.  I had to put myself in a disadvantaged position just to protect two morons.  

Third lesson?  I'll write more up later, as it's getting late.  

After the incident, my to co-workers come up to me and let me know that I've earned their respect.  Really?  I'm so happy that I now have the respect of two fools who put me in danger.  

I tried to explain to them what they did wrong...  but they would not listen.  They didn't care.  I was hoping that our supervisors would light in to them...  but it was all grins and handshakes.  

I don't need your respect.  Do you think that was awesome?  I've had worse shank encounters the first year I was working!  I've got the scars to prove it!  OK, the scars are really tiny and only show up if I've got a deep tan...  but you get my point.  

Supercell "Odds & Ends" w/Hatsune Miku.

Supercell has a new music video out.  "Odds & Ends" featuring Hatsune Miku.

Oddly enough, the digital pop star gets more video time than the artists themselves.

Holding off on posting.

Posts will be sporadic.  My PC went bust and until I can fix it, I'm stuck with borrowing laptops and using computers at the library.  

A tribute to Owain Phyfe

"Mayhemlok" created a heartwarming tribute to Owain Phyfe and posted it on YouTube.  I share it here.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy mateys!  Today be the tenth anniversary of "Talk Like a Pirate Day!"  Take advantage of such a treasured moment.  Pour yourself some grog or rum, pull up a stool, and share tales of high adventure!

Talk Like a Pirate Day

So tired.

I don't post much because it just seems that I have so little time to do so.  I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off and I can't seem to keep up with anything around the house.

I want to write some brilliantly funny or scathing posts.  Most come out reading like dribble.  I have brilliant ideas, but they all turn to vapor as soon as I sit at a keyboard.

I want to write like Piccolo.  Brilliant and funny writing.  Not too many followers, but obviously he has more than I.

I just want to be more creative.  Blah.

Sometimes things go boom.

So...  There was an "item of interest" in the local news.  One of the blogs that I follow (may not be linked on this page yet) is written by an officer who works for the responding agency.

Am I odd just because I got excited because I can figure what he may be writing about next?

Owain Phyfe has passed.

I have just been told that Owain Phyfe has passed away.  Owain was the voice for the New World Renaissance Band and often performed at Renaissance Festivals across the United States.

He reignited my love of historic music.

I'm quite sad.  I shall post more of him later.

Playing Diablo III

I purchased Diablo III when it first came out.  It took me a few days before I installed it.

I never played it until last night.

It's a neat little game.  I played the original Diablo and it brought back some memories of that game.  (I only played a friends Diablo 2 and I recognize some of the elements there also.)  There is a learning curve, but I'm doing better with it.  Movement and attacks are handled by clicking on to the target/point...  so I've had a few problems where I kill my target then I run into the middle of it.  I need to get used to holding down the Shift key which keeps you in place.  I still try to move as in WOW, which is awkward.

Since I was playing a low level, there weren't anyone online I could play with.  I had a friend hop on with me, but she's the only one that I know that plays Diablo any more.  It was fun playing online with her.

I will state that the online factor is what made me love the original Diablo.  I loved it!  While I have always enjoyed video games, I've always preferred playing with other people.  At college there were several arcades but I was always drawn to jump in with other players.  (Street Fighter and Mortal Combat!)  I've often picked up MMORPGS for my PC.  Cooperation has always been what I've loved about such games.  I've little interest in the one player games any more.

Mozart Opera Rock

It's been a little bit since I've posted either music or videos from YouTube that I like, so here is another one!

Another break from WOW.

Taking another break from WOW.  They will have a new patch soon, but I'm rather tired of the grinding.  Being that I have a lot of IRL stuff to do, I don't get the time online in order to get the quests/achievements accomplished.  I only finished the Molten Front dailies on one alt, and it took me much longer because I could not do the dailies every day.

I'm half tempted to try to take the day off when Pandera is released and spend a whole day leveling, but I think I'll pass.

Security Failures at the Y-12 National Security Complex

The Y-12 National Security Complex is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and it's purpose is related to the support of the United States nuclear weapons.  On July 28, protesters cut through three fences and were able to get into the nuclear plant's uranium storage facility.

Knox News - A lot went wrong at Y-12

Apparently there were multiple issues.  First note, the cameras were not working. For any agency that utilizes cameras for physical security, they must make sure that the cameras are properly positioned and operating.  If one goes out, then the appropriate paperwork must be filed or the proper people contacted in order to make notification that they must be repaired.  Sadly, the major problem in fixing cameras is often money, or the lack there of.

Second, there appeared to be apathy on the part of the staff.  There were alarms going off in the location of the problem, however the security staff failed to respond in a timely manner.  What causes this?  There could be a culture of apathy at the plant.  This could be caused by low morale, or possibly by the fact that the staff had no motivation to do their job properly.  IE: they had no expectations of punishment if their job was done poorly and there was no expectation of rewards if they did their job right.  Or worse, we can tie the apathy back to a lack of proper maintenance or equipment.

Personal story:  At one DOC facility I personally witnessed their electronic perimeter fence security in failure.  They were constantly getting false readings and were constantly checking out the fence.  I could not get the assistance of the perimeter gate security to secure my firearm because as soon as they arrived they had to leave to check out a perimeter alarm.  When I finally had my firearm secured, the officer assisting me inside the sallyport was called twice to check on perimeter fence alarms immediately adjacent to his location.  These areas were in plain view of the sallyport.  (The sally port was simply a fenced in area and the electronic perimeter fence alarms to be checked only covered approximately 40 feet on each side of the sallyport, possibly even less.)  I could see no people, no animals, not even wind blown leaves to set off the system.  As it was explained to me, the system was exceptionally faulty and there false alarms were constant.  It was stated that fixing the perimeter alarm system was too expensive.

The news report only covered the basics of the problem.  However, I'm sure the problems with the security at Y-12 may be much deeper than we realize.  And the contractors and Federal Government may not even comprehend the problems if they uncover them.

Training in DT's.

I recently attended an advanced Defensive Tactics course.  It was rather informative and I walked away with some concepts that I'll definitely pass on.

I would like to state that when training in DT's, things may get a little rough.  I expect some pain, some bruises, and maybe even some bleeding.  It will happen. what I don't expect is other DT Instructors whining about people being too rough.

Seriously, I was asked to "go soft" a few times.  (Generally we go about 20% of full force for training but some want even less force used.)  Now, those same people would then resist the take down maneuver and laugh that I didn't have it.  When I applied additional force to lock in the take down, people would get upset.

If you want to resist, really resist and don't just pretend you are getting one over on me.  A few of the Instructors were very good sports and we did go at it a lot harder.  We actually had to use skill in order to get down to T-3.  That was a lot of fun!  There was one Instructor whom I will admit was stronger and much more skilled than I was, and I had a blast training with him.

Training.  Do it for real.  Don't just attend.

Life intervened.

I got on my computer just before lunchtime in order to write a post about teaching Defensive Tactics.

Then life intervened.

So, I'll just leave this here and hopefully I'll get a chance to write the post another day.

Ignorance can be bliss.

Earlier this week, at the Palms Internet Cafe in Ocala, Florida, a gentleman by the name of Samuel Williams defended himself from two people who attempted to rob the cafe.  The two were armed with a handgun and a baseball bat.

I have no argument against using lethal force against multiple subjects with weapons.  Yes, a baseball bat is a weapon!  It can maim and even kill when used, and does not take much training to use.  I will go into detail about the 21 foot rule for hand held weapons in another post in the future.

Now, I did have some comments about the video posted.

ABC News-Florida man shoots alleged robbers

About 14 seconds into the video that I linked, you see the behavior in the crowd. My first comment is that everyone just turns around and looks once the subjects enter.  It's obvious that they have done something to draw attention to themselves.  Reading the news reports, I will assume that they announced that their intentions were malicious.

I'm assuming at this point that everyone was in "condition white."  I can not disagree, as you can not maintain a "condition yellow" 24/7.  Watching a movie, playing on the computer, even eating dinner your attention will be drawn elsewhere.  I will admit that once I was in line at the bank behind an off duty Deputy from a local jurisdiction.  (I knew him in a professional sense and recognized him in out of uniform.)  I can tell you that we were both carrying a concealed handgun.  A gentleman walked in to the bank and loudly announced "This is a stick up!"  Even in "condition yellow," there was that half second delay for the both of us to process what was going on.  Fortunately we realized that the gentleman knew the cashiers and was making (what he thought) was a joke, so fortunately no harm came to him.  The Deputy and one of the bank managers had a nice long talk with the gentleman.

Back to the video.  The problem that I see is that many people maintain a "condition white" for the entire time of the incident.  At 14 seconds in to the video Samuel Williams engages the suspects.  There are two bystanders standing beside him as he fires upon the suspects.  One man is standing with his hands up, while another woman is walking and covers her ears.  The man at least looks in the direction of the gunfire.  The woman keeps her hears covered and continues to walk.  Neither drops to the floor or seeks cover/concealment.  Most patrons appear to stay seated.  They stayed in "condition white."  They did nothing, not even to protect their own lives.

I find it difficult to understand why a person would not try to protect themselves or their loved ones.  Many people are under the impression that some vague "other people" will take care of them.  Most people don't know how to properly take care of themselves in an emergency.  Sometimes, when "something" happens, you have to at least do "something."  It might not be the best idea or the brightest, and it may cause more harm than good, but at least you took action.  Often the worst thing is to do nothing at all.  Sadly, I understand that those who could do nothing may be ignorant to the fact that they could have helped themselves.