Jake’s Life

In the last few days I’ve been in a few sticky situations, both literally and figuratively. Literally speaking, Sandro would kill me for speaking of them. Figuratively is a free-for-all.

We all get into situations once in a while where when all is said and done, and even during the course of an event, a possible outcome is affecting you much more than the actual outcome. It didn’t happen, but the mere possibility that it could have happened is what bothers you most.

Thursday evening I was parked inside an apartment complex doing some paperwork. I constantly check my rearview mirror when parked out of habit for safety. Well, mid-paperwork I look up and see something I didn’t really expect to in the form of a younger male about 20 yards from the back of my car walking horizontally across my mirror. What tripped me out? He had what looked like an M-16 against his shoulder and was aiming it at something.

I won’t go into the entire event and what happened, but to make a long story short he genuinely didn’t understand—and didn’t care—how close to getting hurt someone could have been. It was an airsoft rifle, full size, with the 2-inch orange tip painted black to match the rest of the rifle except for a centimeter or two of the very tip (which from twenty yards away is indistinguishable). To him it was okay to walk around with that, pointing it at cars and people, ducking behind things and aiming, all because it wasn’t “a real gun,”and the “tip is orange.”

I don’t have to go into what his parents are like when you know his view on the issue is that.

With all of the news stories about children having guns and killing others, and children getting killed for pointing realistic guns at people (Here’s a news flash kid…see the gun on my waist? I carry it in case someone points a gun at me.), you’d think someone would have a brain about them when they pick something like that up, see a fully marked two thousand pound piece of Ford Crown Vic 20 yards away, and begin pretending to inflict violence.

Part of the reason I am so pissed, and this is a personal character flaw of my own, is that he won’t understand the feeling of my heart jumping into my throat when I first saw him. He doesn’t get what was going through my mind as I was calling out on the radio what I was out with, and the mental preparation I was giving myself as I was making my way towards him on foot. It was funny to him, that I would make a mistake like that.

Silly me.

“I already knew one of your cars was totaled by a hit and run last night…who do you think was driving?!”

“I don’t give a fuck! Dat badge make you a tahget to me! We handle this next tahm ‘cuz I’m comin’ back! You see mah record from Cali?! I don’t have no pro’lim hittin’ one o’ y’all!”

“I miss laying next to you. I love falling asleep while you’re playing on your laptop and picking on me every other minute…”

“On the long arm of the law, we’re the middle finger.”

The cute Russian boy gets ready to wash my car at work.

 
The clean car.

Sandro and I were really excited about going to the annual Washington Beer Lover’s festival today, but once we got there they ran out of parking. There was also at least a two mile line of cars waiting to get in the other direction. We scrapped the idea and went to the Taphouse instead, then went to see The Happening. It wasn’t all that great.

Well, last night was interesting. Most of my shift was boring. Not that there wasn’t anything to do, but just in the fact that it was small stuff. Boring calls. Around 11pm we got a call from an apartment resident saying that there was a burglary in progress in the vacant apartment above her. As my Lieutenant and I were about to leave where we were talking and fly down there smoke started billowing from his hood. We popped it and there was a slice on the underside of the radiator hose, something the shop just curiously cleaned that morning. Two others meet me at the call, and my Lt. shortly after taping up the hose. Well, to make a long story short, nobody was inside and the caller had a sign on her door that said “Psychic Readings Available.” Enough said.

I already had to pee pretty badly, and our usual spot is a gas station/convenience market in pretty much the center of our areas. I go up there, head inside, lock the deadbolt, and enjoy some real refreshment. Then, I turn the latch on the deadbolt…won’t engage the lock. I kid you not, I was locked inside. The following is what I remember from the conversations that followed:

(There are three others outside the gas station talking.)

Me: “Paul-4, Sam-2!”
P4: “Go ahead.”
Me: “[Name], get in here dude I need you.”
P4: “Uhhh…okay.”
Me: “I’m locked inside…the deadbolt’s not unlatching! It stinks in here!”
P4: “Okay I’ll be right in after everyone’s done laughing.”
Me: “Get in here!”
I can hear laughing as they walk inside…
P4: “Habib’s getting the keys should be here in a second.”
Habib arrives and find the keys aren’t working either. I figured I’d try to get the screws off the deadbolt with my pocketknife but he kept trying the key and spinning the knob.
Me: “Quit it! Just hold the deadbolt against the door so I can unscrew it!”
He fiddles with the key again.
Habib: “It’s not working boss! It’s stuck boss! What are you doing?!”
Me: “Stop it! Just hold the deadbolt against the door! Like a young, fresh goat on your honeymoon! Don’t let it move!”
Customer comes in and Habib abandons me.
P4: “Dude…you okay?”
Me: “It smells like piss and shit in here. Hold the deadbolt.”
P4: “I am but it keeps moving…”
Me: I’m getting the screws out of it, so hold it down! Harder [name], just ram it in here. Don’t be shy.”
Command Staff: Laughing…”This is being recorded you know, I’m gonna tell this story for weeks.”
Me: “Fuck you! If you’re not gonna help go away!”
After a few more minutes I got out and gave the cashier the deadbolt and walked outside to four others who were laughing at me.

And that’s what I have to deal with at work.

A few folks have e-mailed me lately and asked what tools I use on my blog. Well, on top of the visible ones, being Wordpress and Windows Live Writer (I’ve blogged on how much I like WLW before), I use a lot that may be invisible to my readers. This post will be dedicated to them (and how free they are).

ScribeFire: A great blogging tool I haven’t talked much about is ScribeFire. It’s a Firefox plugin which embeds a blogging app into your browser and makes certain things a lot easier. For example, when a tab is open and you create a new entry, go to insert a link and the URL of that page is automatically there for you. It gives you a WYSIWYG editor as well as a raw HTML code view. Control your previous entries and Wordpress categories from ScribeFire as well.

Paint.NET: Paint.NET is something I’ve used for a while now. I have Photoshop, but if all I need to do is create a thumbnail, modify a screenshot, or crop a photo, Paint.NET is much faster and more streamlined.

WebShot: If all I want is to grab a quick screenshot of a particular web site I usually use WebShot. It’s a very small app that lets you grab a screenshot and output it to a certain size. The great thing about it is that it will grab the entire page, not just one monitor’s worth, but everything from top to bottom.

I had to restore Vista to a factory install last week due to a nasty set of viruses I contracted. Luckily my 300GB external drive had plenty of free space to backup my files. While rebuilding my bookmarks (the only file I forgot to backup) I found some other web services that are worth mentioning:

Wiki-send: A simple file upload service which allows unregistered users to upload files which are “alive” for ten days. Registered users are able to password protect and manage the life of their files.

Overpic: A picture hosting service which also does not require registration, has multiple upload boxes on its main page for quick uploads, and can share with several social networking and blogging platforms.

My Hours: Straight-to-the-point time records service which allows users to create projects, then track the time and simple expenses while working on those projects. Also provides a variety of reports based on the information you submit.

Me. I know, not very spectacular. 

Things have been going lately, definitely a lot differently than I thought. I’m not going to go into it very much but the break up was reversed. I’m not going to post to the entire world the details I know, but thank you to those who have expressed concern over the situation and listened to what I’ve had to say about what’s going on inside.  

On a different, yet similar note, I’m almost completely broke. The large contract job for the RMS I was working on is waiting for some other things to happen, and in the meantime it’s at an almost complete standstill. I am looking ot pick up other remote web work, so if you happen to know of any “odd jobs” or site redesigns that are needed, pass my information along.