That's not very knife....

So, a few of you may know about Angry Guy. He's the fellow that lives downstairs and sounds like he has tourettes syndrome. He throws things, screams obscenities; a real piece of work. But despite all this, we've managed to stay civil ... until recently. He's been much worse the last few days.

The other day, I was coming back from a walk and he was coming out of his apartment. I gave him a nod, and he shouted something back that i didn't hear through the headphones. I pulled them off and said "sorry, didn't catch that.."
"I called you a Bitch!" he snapped.
So I casually replied, "well, you're a loud-mouth off his meds, Whatcha gonna do?"
"I'm gonna fuggin KILL you, Bitch"
Fortunately, I have a couple of inches on him, so I'm able to do the moove where you move in real fast, tall and wide; then stare down at him menacingly. I did so and added something like "you don't wanna try that with me"

This was pretty novel to me. Later I'd realize that move was the very first time I'd done it. Normally on a death threat, even with someone I wasn't too worried about, I'd try to be getting out of it as fast as possible. I'd have butterflies and the shakes pretty bad. But this time I was completely in control. Essentially, for the first time, I was the Alpha, not a big talking Beta, but fully Alpha.

Instead of keeping the shakes under control, I watched time stretch out and examined the situation and my options. He oh so slowly reached into his pocket (from my perspective) and fumbled for his knife. I knew what was coming based on other neighbor's reports. I knew I could trap his arm in his pocket and disable him, but I didn't want to make the first strike. I knew I could dodge this guys best strike, or even use a little judo to redirect him if need be.

So he finally gets the knife out (probably took a whole second, but it was clumsy, even from a normal time perspective), then he had to fumble some more to get it open. While he was at this, the manager popped out of the apartment across the hallway (still putting on his shirt, too... busted!) and got between us. Well it was pretty much over at that point.

Not really a fight. Not really a problem. But definitely a change in me. I can't explain it. I mean, part of it is the 5htp, I'm sure. If I had had this happen before I adjusted my serotonin, I would have been in a dark spiral for a month. But none of that either. I can't believe that serotonin is linked to Alpha/Beta behaviors. Weird...

I'm sooo in trouble

So, my all-time favorite cookie has always been the nestle tollhouse. I've never been able to get enough of them.

Recently, I discovered that they have pre-made tollhouse dough in a tube. Yeah, I know, 'bout time. Give me a break, my mom always made them from scratch. My only way to keep from gorging on them all the time was the fuss it took to make them.

Well, now I've managed to figure out how to make them (well) in my toaster oven (4 at a time). And I can just roll up the tube and keep some in the fridge. I can have my favorite warm melty cookies any time I want.

So much for losing weight... :o/

Handsfree is the way to be.

Okay, so it's one thing to be on the cell and distracted enough that your driving gets impaired. I've even seen people trying to jot things down while on the phone in heavy traffic. But, TEXTING???!?!?

I got on the 101 the other day, got to the bottom of the ramp and had to slam on the brakes. Why? Two cars ahead, a blinged-out SUV had failed to merge and panic-stopped. Needless to say, I made sure to get up next to them (or at least get a good view of their plate) to give them a serious scowling. It didn't work. When I got up next to the craft, I saw the driver fully engaged in an SMS transaction as pictured above. She was even leaning in to get a better view of the device.

Chilling.

So, you nearly miss an accident, anger several people behind you (evidence by horn honking), drive above the speed limit, WHILE texting, on a device that you can't even see properly (can you see well enough to drive??), and are too busy to notice other vehicles around you???? AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHH!!!!!!

Thank goodness for the new laws coming in July 1st.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/09/15/BAG75L6BJC1.DTL
But $20/$50 is not enough for these violations. sure that might be enough for cell phone use, but Texting should have it's own special fee schedule. Something in the reckless driving range.

I think I figured...

think I figured it out.

I got laid so much as a kid because I was too stupid to realize I wasn't going to get any.

I'm smarter now....


dammit

NAFAA 2008 membership drive

NAFAA 2008 membership drive
As an information society, NAFAA only occasionally makes any kind of major change. Typically any activity is involved in updating the regional codes sections. However, on occasion, updates to our codes are needed. And when this happens, we need to first insure that we represent the largest cross section of the North American fire artists as possible. So, we need to start up a membership drive.

In anticipation of this, we have added a new page to the NAFAA site. http://www.nafaa.org/join.html

The join page explains the two current levels of membership with NAFAA. (regular member, and supporting members with links in the regional pages) It also includes a number of buttons that members can add to their website. This will give new prospects easy access to NAFAA site, the regs page, and the join page. Please take a few minutes and drop the cut-and-paste codes into your performance website(s) and encourage members in your community to join.

We'll monitor new memberships carefully and begin the process of the codes update (3.0) shortly after the membership plateaus. We think that fall 2008 is a fairly reasonable estimate for this to happen.

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Please forward this to anyone even vaguely related to fire.

Check that one off...

So, after the 6 million dollar man went off the air, there wasn't a lot of good, kid-friendly action going on. Not until Lee returned in "The Fall Guy" did we see the good stuff. For those not in the know, TFG was a story about a hollywood stuntman who doubled as Bounty hunter working for a bail bondsman. The Title of the show was a double entendre for both jobs. Anyway, that show represented my first peek into the inner workings of the movie industry. And, as a fully functioning teen male, I was /sure/ that I could make it as a stuntman. It was the "Jackass" of my time: inciting many a stupid kid to attempt dangerous stunts like drag racing by the local police department. *sigh* Those were the days.

Well, Today, I picked up the footage from our shoot in Feb, and it so happens that the staff jackets came out today. And they gave a pair to Michelle and I. The picture above is me in mine. :) I guess I can check "become Hollywood stuntman" of my Things To Do list... :)

I got my DTV

Woo Hoo!!!!
It's everything promised. I got my DTV converter box in the mail today, plugged it in and Bang, it's like having basic cable. I get all the analog channels plus another dozen or two more. And their all crystal clear, widescreen, etc. if you watch Tv, DO NOT DRAG YOUR FEET ON THIS! Get a converter box NOW!. If you go to https://www.dtv2009.gov you can get information on getting your coupons (yes, get two) and how to redeem them for a box.

I got the RCA from http://dtv.BSAT.net which has a couple more features for $8, but they have models for $4 ... delivered!

And, as I thought, all v-chipped and such. So, come next Feb, I predict we'll start seeing more baudy programming on broadcast TV, since there will be no excuse for not having a Vchip.