Jake’s Life

Ii have never been so happy to see rain before. Most of the snow and ice are gone, and I hope I’m gone by the time it gets back.

This snow is killing this entire city. It took me almost two hours to get from I-5 Lake City Way exit to 125th, and the traffic from the Seahawks game from yesterday evening was still going on at 5am this morning. Nobody knows how to drive in it, myself included. I was just stuck at the Starbucks parking lot until some hottie in a Chevy came and offered to tow me out. I have no clue how I am going to get to work tomorrow night. The weather is supposed to be pretty cold tonight, which means the ice will most likely stay. Not good for my nightly commute.

Which brings up another realization: Guys treat conflict reparation much differently than women and gay men I notice. For example, when my roommate and I were stuck in the parking lot laughs and banter went to shit after a while and frustration set in. After a few words, the problem was overcome and things went on. With women and other gay men I know this shit lingers, and lingers, and comes back to bite you in the ass.

I ordered my jumpsuit almost two weeks ago, but won’t look nearly as hot as this guy does in it. Hopefully I’ll get it in time for it being useful.

Here’s some photos of my car at work the other night.

Pic of the bird I promised.

Great song by Cut Chemist, especially the She Wants Revenge remix.

I know that this may seem insensitive or grumpy, but would everyone please stop asking how my Thanksgiving was? And while we’re at it, leave Christmas out of the picture too please. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Nothing big and unusual at work. Some interesting sights on the side of the road, and I almost stacked it up big time in the car when someone went to turn left in front of me from the center lane. I guess they didn’t see a two ton piece of metal with headlights on and reflective markings in their mirror. If they did, they would know that it is closer than it appears. As for the incident the other night, you’d think someone would drop an 8″ screwdriver when they’re staring down the barrel of a Glock 22, but nope, some just won’t. He also didn’t know who he got there with, if the car they were in was stolen, but he did have a phone book entry in his cell phone labeled “Bail.” Too bad you don’t get to use your cell for that one phone call, dumb ass!

Well, I’m working on my Sunday Morning Sixpack, but I’ll post some shite later. And don’t forget the All V. Diddy post coming up.

I had the distinct pleasure of picking up a travel pack of Tylenol Go-Tabs today, which work great. I always try to keep a stock of things in my duty bag or seat organizer at work (headache medicine, Sudafed, hand sanitizer, hand wipes, etc.), and they’re perfect for that. Instead of suffering until other things decide to kick in, these work pretty fast.

My combined total of buddies on AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! have now reached three. Oddly enough, only one ever really chats with me and I’m getting pretty tired of him because I’m always the one to say hi. It’s been one of those things where you talk to them a few times online, then the phone, then never again.

Speaking of things that suck, I found a relatively new social networking site online: Beautiful Gay Guys. It’s not just a new “Gay MySpace” like LifeOUT, but it’s specifically targetted to so-called “beautiful guys.” Just take a look at their main page or a few of their members’ pages and you’ll get a better idea. (Just as FYI to my straight friends, which happens to be most of them, this is what the average gay guy looks for, which also happens to be most of them.) Taken from their About page:

BeautifulGayGuys.com is a unique online social networking site for like minded gay men. The concept was designed for those who are searching for other quality gay guys. To this end, our members decide who is allowed to join our online community.

This concept isn’t new in the gay community…they do it all the time, which is obvious through other sites like Gay.com, MySpace, Connexion, and every other site that allows you to “friend” others. When you find a guy that is what most find to be “hot,” generally everyone on their friends list are too. At a certain point they all start to look alike, act alike, and disseminate their individuality into the ether. This is what’s expected. So next time, my straight friends, that you ask why I don’t look for more gay friends, check out these sites and see why.

The UCLA Taser incident has been making big news. Below is a video taken from someone’s cell phone, which doesn’t quite add up with eyewitness “accounts” of the person being compliant and peaceful. When the officers tell him to stand up, he says, “Fuck off.” One other thing that pisses me off is duringthe event the officers also had multiple students asking for their badge numbers. Geez, let them get the situation under control, because then they need witness statements, and can give it out then. It’s a matter of public record so they’ll have access to it. Typical youth impatience.

Got my car back from the shop, and $400 later the transmission is great. They did a full assessment for me and there’s still some things that need fixed, but I can’t afford to get them all done at once. It occured to me that I haven’t even taken a photo of my car yet, so as soon as I get it washed again I’ll post one.

Wednesday: Slow night at work…good thing for my Monday. Nothing interesting. Upgraded web site to Wordpress 2.0.5.

Thursday: Proactive night…not many calls at work, mostly self-generated stuff.

Friday: Busy, busy, busy. Cleared some buildings, handled some loud parties, backed my Sergeant with a female who had moved into a crawlspace under a building (she had more belongings than I did, BTW) and her DOC warrant-holding friend. Before work I fell when I woke up and smacked my head against the stove then on the floor in our kitchen. Most of the night I felt like I had been drinking. Not a good thing.

Saturday: Defensive tactics 1 before work, which ensured I was sore all night. It was fun nonetheless, although I need to practice my armbar takedowns a bit more on people with larger arms or else I just get whipped around when I try to force compliance. Another busy night at work. Not much of anything exciting, just a high call volume. Less dizziness from my fall.

Sunday: Defensive Tactics 2…compliant handcuffing, non-compliant handcuffing, ASP, OC. This time around we didn’t have primary exposure to OC, just secondary. The instructor first discharged Punch II but it was more “Wow, this tastes kind of sweet and smells like grandma’s bathroom.” We switched to Fox Five Point Three fog and that hit the spot. We also had to defend ourself in a 60 second altercation using baton strikes, elbow strikes, palm strikes, etc. At one point the instructor who was holding the bag backed off and kept walking backwards and asked why I wasn’t attacking him. I told him if someone wants to end a fight and start walking away I wasn’t going to beat him up for it (becoming the aggressor). By the way, 60 seconds is a hell of a lot longer than a minute when a 250 pound man is attacking you, training bag or no bag.

I took my car to the shop today for LOF and a transmission assessment, so I am without wheels until tomorrow. I know that the transmission needs fixing (hopefully not replacement–I’d like to be able to eat for a while).

Well, that’s about it.

First off, a few mornings ago another Seattle Police officer was taken from our community. The driver of a stolen vehicle was speeding without headlights between 0100 and 0200 and struck Officer Beth Nowak and killed her. Lucky for him, he was also killed. This driver has 16 prior felony convictions and is thought ot be under the influence when the accident occured. Chief Kerlikowski has already put political chess pieces in play to work with DOC to more closely monitor offenders’ releases, who has already promised a “comprehensive review” of current policy. That’s just not enough.

This officer is a sister (in more ways than one, if you catch my drift), and died in a similar situation as another East Precint first watch officer, Ofc. Joselito Barber, just a few months ago, who was also killed by a career criminal who was under the influence. Niether driver had a valid license. It makes me sick.

Linkage: http://www.komoradio.com/news/4671911.html

Work is still going okay, ecxept for some reason people seem to be taking me differently nowadays. Well, okay, District Officers are taking me differently, a few in particular. I am not trying to go out of my way to be different, but I am watching my interactions with people now that I am a supervisor here. Just because I don’t meet up for coffee with you doesn’t mean I hate you, it means I have things to do. I’ve also noticed my patience level decrease very much since the promotion, mostly because poeple aren’t taking me seriously enough. This can only last for so long before I stop being Corporal Jake and start being Corporal (insert my last name here) to them. Hopefully it doesn’t have to come to that though.

My days off this week are solely dedicated to midterm essays and exams. Three days…one would think that I can get two of each done, but it’s not that easy. There’s so many distractions! My midterm essay for Police Operations scored 100% (kudos to my professor for grading them before the due date was here). My midterm essay for Human Relations is not going so smoothly. Even a 3 a.m. trip to 7-11 didn’t spark anything. Hopefully a run through Dallas SWAT on OnDemand will help. On a side note, I’ve been thinking of posting some of my school papers online for others to review and comment on.

You will also begin to notice password protected posts popping up here and there. First off, let me say that they are not details of my sexual exploits (I would have to reach too far back into my memory for anything remotely sexual). They also do not contain any sensitive information from work. Now that is said, moving on.

I recently had to format my laptop and reinstall Windows XP, thanks to a roommate’s adventures in online porn. I had a whole host of virtual STDs when he was done. To make a long story short, my CPU usage was at 100% from the time Windows would boot and nothing would open before the three minute mark when the BIOS would shut the thing down so it wouldn’t overheat. Lovely. This means I couldn’t back anything up: e-mails, school work, photos, music, videos, my own porn, or anything else I would have wanted. While going through my nine spindles of CDs I’ve self-accumulated over the last few years I found a lot of things I forgot I had, namely music and photos. I’ll try to get those posted soon. Meanwhile, enjoy the following random pretties (even a Federal Signal AeroDynic for you old timers!):

Mid-terms are here and currently being worked on. Not fun, but at least they’re pretty easy this time around.
We have our Defensive Tactics refresher courses coming up. Those should be fun, especially the OC part. Good thing I don’t have to actually get sprayed again…that wasn’t fun the first time.