Jake’s Life

Sandro and I broke up. Other than saying that it was a repeated infidelity issue, I’m not willing to go into it any more than that. There’s no reason to when pictures tell a thousand words.

Man, finally two things together that I love.

Wow it’s been busy lately. Life has been good, but there hasn’t been much time for it to be anything else. Sandro is still doing the school and work thing so it’s hard to spend the amount of time that I want to with him, and not living together makes it even more difficult to see him. We’re okay though because he understands my schedule working nights, and I know where he’s coming from working and going to school (it’s only been six months or so since I was doing the same thing). Blogging has obviously been lacking lately, and I apologize for it, but once things slow down it will happen more

Work is busy. Busy busy busy. The new RMS that I’m working on is going great to say the least, and I’m looking forward to its deployment (and payment from it!). I started this job with equal pay to my last and a lot less responsibility when it comes to overall operations, and with the introduction of a new supervisor that changed a bit. I’m one of three people with the same rank, but I am the go-to guy. I don’t mind it, as with the more responsibility I have the more purpose I feel, so it works out in the long run.

Here’s some lil’ diddies for you guys.

I was on a kick last night with this one, so here ya go.

This post is in response to a few comments and e-mails from a previous post asking for information on firearm handling.

First off, I feel that I would be irresponsible if I didn’t outline the fantastic four before getting to anything else:

1. All guns are always loaded. (This is a mindset you have to get into, not a requirement for your gun to always actually be loaded.)
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target. (Index your trigger.)
4. Always be sure of your target, and what is behind and beyond it.

More safety information. Even more. Read it. Seriously, don’t move on until you review this information if you’re interested in getting into firearms for defense of safety.If you are seriously considering buying a gun or shooting one and don’t already know all of this information, don’t buy one. Instead, go to your local gun range or NRA chapter and take a class. They will provide the handgun while you can provide your attention to learn this in a practical manner.

Now, from here on out I’m going to talk about basic firearm information, and only as it relates to my firearm (a Springfield XD .45 ACP), not tactics or training. You can’t get training from a web site alone, and frankly I don’t feel qualified to impress much more than basics and then some upon people when it comes to firearms. I’m not an instructor, I only have four years experience of carrying a firearm everyday, and don’t get out to the range as much as I probably should. 

This is my gun, which I purchased new about three years ago now. I originally narrowed it down to a Glock Model 22 .40 or the Springfield XD. Why did I choose this gun? After renting both from the range and doing research online, I chose the newer XD for some features the Glock didn’t have.

Choosing a firearm is like choosing a car, or a computer, or even clothes, albeit the extra responsibility.

Would you carry a gun…To church?
A personal web site that asks a big question for religious packers. I know my answer.

Open Carry
The only time I “open carry,” meaning carrying a firearm not concealed, is when I’m at work or at the range. Sometimes when I’m in my car I will if it’s a warm day, but otherwise I would prefer people not know. Still, there’s way more than open carry discussion at this site, along with some great firearm law maps of the US.

XD Talk
A forum made for enthusiasts of the Springfield XD, of which I carry the .45 ACP variety.

Ethics and Concealed Carry
A personal site regarding just that.

This entire week was weird. I’m sorry, I thought it was April, but evidently Mother Nature had different ideas for our Spring in the Northwest.

Complete with winds which knocked trees down into roads and parked vehicles.

I was getting into my work car the other night and forgot my bluetooth headset was in my lap. It ended up in the storm drain.

Gas prices are also pretty ridiculous right now. Thank god we have fleet fuel cards at work.

Taser arc, just for fun.

This weekend was weird, too. I was off work at 0200 Monday morning and slept from about four until noon, then again from one to nine. Back to sleep at two, then up at ten, back to sleep at one, then up at six. I got way too much sleep, which explains why I’m up so early for work today. If I didn’t have things to do I would run to work early and take my patrol car to the car wash and detail it out (it was just assigned to me and still…has the last person in it).

Yesterday I had a killer headache, so I popped half a Percocet (which, by the way, was prescribed to me for headaches when I had shingles…which I still have but that’s another story) and napped. Sandro came over and brought “headache medicine” for me.

We ran a few quick errands to get dinner, pick up something from my work (where he met one of my more attractive co-workers and confirmed my suspicion that he would find him pleasant to look at), and then came home, cooked dinner, had a few drinks, then made babies. Well, tried to anyways.

I got the schedule I wanted at work, which is 7pm to 3am. This leaves me enough time during the day to run errands and spend time with Sandro during the week, and allows me to unwind after work for a while and still get to sleep before it’s light out, which makes it really tough to sleep. I was also put in charge of vehicle maintenance supervision, so that allows me some flexible overtime in overseeing their condition and repairs during the week or one my days off.

I’ve been working on this for a few weeks now and it’s coming along quite nicely. It’s an application for field deployment in all of our patrol vehicles which allow officers to access and store information on subjects, vehicles, locations, special details, and monitor others’ activities in real time. It also integrates state court records and open county warrants. What’s great is that it’s not a generic public safety solution, instead it’s custom tailored to our specific needs right down to being able to chose themes based on where you are viewing it (for example, dark colors for use at night in the patrol vehicles and light colors for reading in the office).

[I will for the record state that it is in no way devised from reverse engineering my previous employer’s similar system, which is archaic in comparison. Instead it is built from the ground up so-to-speak (and ten times better I might add).]

Sveet, ja?

Cue inspiration, please…