I just saw this piece on ABC news (I recommend reading it for context ;-). It made me very sad as I think I can empathize with the kid and could offer some perspective for the mom.
The mom obviously is having difficulty with her son. If she is to the point of "hot saucing" him, giving him cold showers and ordering him to do jumping jacks to the point of exhaustion, I think she should ask herself why her son is having such discipline issues.
My mom went to some pretty extreme measures in disciplining me because I offered such a challenge to her. In hindsight it is so obvious as to why. I had ADHD, as well as a number of other learning disabilities and she had no experience with this. Because I was otherwise very bright, it was assumed I must just be "willful".
If I had been diagnosed at age five--or even 10 or 15--instead of 30, we could have avoided a lot of trauma on both of our parts.
The article says that the boy (and his twin brother) was adopted from Russia. That in itself could be part of the issue. I don't know how old he was when he was adopted, but if he was old enough to remember it he could have very easily be traumatized by the process of being given up for adoption and/or the adoption apparatus in Russia. I don't know why he was given up for adoption, but he could have been the victim of abuse by one or both of his biological parents, his biological mom could have been an alcohol and/or drug addict during her pregnancy, or any other number of traumatizing incidents could have occurred. Or, he could "simply" (relative) have a learning disability like me.
As in my case, it seems like his behavior is being attributed to his character, or lack thereof, rather than the more likely presence of traumatic history or "faulty" wiring.
I hope that somewhere in the legal process that appears to be developing over the case the boy gets a good and thorough mental health evaluation and a therapeutic plan is put into place for him. Otherwise I'm guessing he will be in for a rough ride for the foreseeable future.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
A self-defense story:
Last night, after the nightclub I work at had closed but while I was still hanging out, I went out to the parking lot to put my jacket, hat, gloves, radio mic, etc. in my car. While doing so I heard someone yell. I looked to my right and saw two men on the corner of the next block. Making note of them, but not thinking too much of them otherwise, I continued to my car, opened the door and began to put my stuff away.
As I was doing so I heard someone running behind me. I turned around and saw a man running down the sidewalk in my general direction. As he got closer he changed course and actually headed directly at me while yelling, "Hey! Can you give me a ride?!"
Not wanting to simply take him at his word I assumed, for safeties' sake, that his question could have been a ploy to get me to lower my defenses. I pulled my flashlight out (kind of a "Frankenstein" light using a SureFire Z2 body with Solarforce crenelated bezel, SureFire click on tailcap, SureFire Combat Ring and an Malkoff Devices M60 drop in bulb assembly, just in case you're wondering ;-), pressed the tailcap button and pointed the light in his face. He immediately stopped short (about 15-20 feet away), put his left hand up to block the light and said, "Get that fucking light out of my face!"
With the light on him I recognized the man from having been in the club earlier. I also remembered having had some problems with him that night and the previous night. Because of this, and because I could tell that he was very drunk, I replied--in an uncharacteristic use of profanity--"NO! BACK THE FUCK UP!" To this he reiterated, "Get that fucking light out of my face!" I told him that I would turn the light off once he backed away. He then actually took a step toward me! I responded by deploying my baton (an ASP DuraTec Airweight), with its trademark "SNAP!", and rested it on my right shoulder in a "relaxed-ready" position.
He didn't seem to recognize what I had done and continued to belligerently tell me to get the flashlight out of his face. We went back and forth about it for what seemed WAY too long until I noticed his buddy walk up behind him. At this I began to circle to my right to avoid getting stuck between them and my car. Thankfully his buddy seemed to have his wits about him a little more and said, "Dude, that's a cop. Leave him alone". He then looked at me and said, "Are you a cop?" I replied, "No, I'm a bouncer at (the nightclub I work at)." Guy #2 recognized me at this point and again told his buddy to "leave (me) alone".
About this time a cab drove by and stopped on the next corner. Guy #2 said to guy #1, "Come on, there's a cab!" at which point they both ran away toward the cab, got in and drove away.
I finished putting my stuff away and went back inside the club.
Thus endeth the story.
As I was doing so I heard someone running behind me. I turned around and saw a man running down the sidewalk in my general direction. As he got closer he changed course and actually headed directly at me while yelling, "Hey! Can you give me a ride?!"
Not wanting to simply take him at his word I assumed, for safeties' sake, that his question could have been a ploy to get me to lower my defenses. I pulled my flashlight out (kind of a "Frankenstein" light using a SureFire Z2 body with Solarforce crenelated bezel, SureFire click on tailcap, SureFire Combat Ring and an Malkoff Devices M60 drop in bulb assembly, just in case you're wondering ;-), pressed the tailcap button and pointed the light in his face. He immediately stopped short (about 15-20 feet away), put his left hand up to block the light and said, "Get that fucking light out of my face!"
With the light on him I recognized the man from having been in the club earlier. I also remembered having had some problems with him that night and the previous night. Because of this, and because I could tell that he was very drunk, I replied--in an uncharacteristic use of profanity--"NO! BACK THE FUCK UP!" To this he reiterated, "Get that fucking light out of my face!" I told him that I would turn the light off once he backed away. He then actually took a step toward me! I responded by deploying my baton (an ASP DuraTec Airweight), with its trademark "SNAP!", and rested it on my right shoulder in a "relaxed-ready" position.
He didn't seem to recognize what I had done and continued to belligerently tell me to get the flashlight out of his face. We went back and forth about it for what seemed WAY too long until I noticed his buddy walk up behind him. At this I began to circle to my right to avoid getting stuck between them and my car. Thankfully his buddy seemed to have his wits about him a little more and said, "Dude, that's a cop. Leave him alone". He then looked at me and said, "Are you a cop?" I replied, "No, I'm a bouncer at (the nightclub I work at)." Guy #2 recognized me at this point and again told his buddy to "leave (me) alone".
About this time a cab drove by and stopped on the next corner. Guy #2 said to guy #1, "Come on, there's a cab!" at which point they both ran away toward the cab, got in and drove away.
I finished putting my stuff away and went back inside the club.
Thus endeth the story.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
(Barefoot) and fancy free!
I've long been enamoured with the idea of having the ability to go barefoot at will. I'm often envious of people I see who I've noticed walk around barefoot in their daily lives. Although the idea may seem to have romantic origins in the concept of the "noble savage", there doesn't seem to be any real reason, outside of social convention rooted in the Victorian zeitgeist, to not feel comfortable going barefoot most all the time. "Barefoot-ness" is, after all, how the majority of the worlds human population conducts itself (not to mention all of the earths non-human population).
Although the idea of it has been tumbling around in my head since at least early high school, I had never really given it much thought until I discovered a book about thirteen years ago titled "The Barefoot Hiker" by Ritchard Frazine. Later I discovered Tom Brown Jr. and his concept of "fox walking". Still later I discovered Cody Lundin and was inspired by his 20+ years of going barefoot and his "The More You Know The Less You Need" ethic. Despite this, I still couldn't muster the courage to shed my apprehension of going "shodless". This all changed this morning.
For reasons that I'll not go into here (a whole other story in itself) I took my car out to get some fast food tonight but ended up having to walk home, which was 3.68 miles (thank you MapQuest). I don't mind walking, and in fact enjoy it quite a bit. This is a good thing, considering I didn't get my drivers license until I was 26 yrs old. Unfortunately, because I was driving and had only intended to go out for a short period of time, I didn't wear any sock. This caused me to start getting some blisters on my feet on the way home. I just couldn't walk with the "hot spots", so I took off my shoes and walked home barefoot for 1.22 miles (again, thank you MapQuest). To my surprise, this was a very enjoyable and--dare I say it--"enlightening" experience. Even more so considering I walked primarily on concrete and asphalt.
I was amazed at the the sensitivity my feet had and how not painful it was. Everything felt cool and refreshing. I actually felt JOY when I walked across a golf course as a shortcut (I know, I know. I really shouldn't have, but I got a giggle thinking about what the early bird golfers will think when they see barefoot prints going across the green :-). The feel of the squishy mud and grass going between my toes was exhilarating! The cold wet grass felt wonderful! Frankly, I don't have the words to adequately describe it and trying to do so makes me think I'm beginning to sound like a "hippie-dippy tree hugging dirt worshiper".
Needless to say, I think I'm going to start making a walk around the block a daily--or at least twice or thrice-weekly--habit, to get my feet conditioned. I'll also attempt to do a couple of barefoot hikes once the weather gets better.
Although the idea of it has been tumbling around in my head since at least early high school, I had never really given it much thought until I discovered a book about thirteen years ago titled "The Barefoot Hiker" by Ritchard Frazine. Later I discovered Tom Brown Jr. and his concept of "fox walking". Still later I discovered Cody Lundin and was inspired by his 20+ years of going barefoot and his "The More You Know The Less You Need" ethic. Despite this, I still couldn't muster the courage to shed my apprehension of going "shodless". This all changed this morning.
For reasons that I'll not go into here (a whole other story in itself) I took my car out to get some fast food tonight but ended up having to walk home, which was 3.68 miles (thank you MapQuest). I don't mind walking, and in fact enjoy it quite a bit. This is a good thing, considering I didn't get my drivers license until I was 26 yrs old. Unfortunately, because I was driving and had only intended to go out for a short period of time, I didn't wear any sock. This caused me to start getting some blisters on my feet on the way home. I just couldn't walk with the "hot spots", so I took off my shoes and walked home barefoot for 1.22 miles (again, thank you MapQuest). To my surprise, this was a very enjoyable and--dare I say it--"enlightening" experience. Even more so considering I walked primarily on concrete and asphalt.
I was amazed at the the sensitivity my feet had and how not painful it was. Everything felt cool and refreshing. I actually felt JOY when I walked across a golf course as a shortcut (I know, I know. I really shouldn't have, but I got a giggle thinking about what the early bird golfers will think when they see barefoot prints going across the green :-). The feel of the squishy mud and grass going between my toes was exhilarating! The cold wet grass felt wonderful! Frankly, I don't have the words to adequately describe it and trying to do so makes me think I'm beginning to sound like a "hippie-dippy tree hugging dirt worshiper".
Needless to say, I think I'm going to start making a walk around the block a daily--or at least twice or thrice-weekly--habit, to get my feet conditioned. I'll also attempt to do a couple of barefoot hikes once the weather gets better.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
"MMA sucks, traditional martial arts suck more":
While reading back posts on Wim Demeere's blog I came across one that he had written with the above title. I thought it was a pretty good read and so thought I'd pass it along.
Frankly, there's not much that I can disagree with in the post, or really add to it (or part two of it) but I thought I'd offer my two cents on the subject anyway.
First off, I believe that the "this martial art style vs. that martial art style" is a false argument. As Bruce Lee said, "...there are no superior martial arts, only superior martial artists." In my interpretation, this means that any martial art will work to defend its practitioner assuming that he or she is using it to defend their life and/or wellbeing rather than their ego, i.e., human (generally male) ritual combat or "the monkey dance". For a really good introduction to the realities (rather than fantasies) of self defense, check out Marc "Animal" MacYoung's website page on the subject. In fact, I would highly recommend you read everything on his website!
False argument or not, it can be a fun one to have. But rather than the "martial art (a) vs. martial art (b)" argument, I much prefer the "martial artist (a) vs. bad guy (x), martial artist (b) vs. bad guy (x)". I think that perhaps the best point Mr. Demeere makes is that you must take context into consideration.
According to Marc MacYoung, there are five categories of martial arts: 1) Self Defense/Professional Use of Force, 2) Tradition/Physical Art/Self-Discipline, 3) Spiritual/Health, 4) Sport/Tournament and 5) Demonstration.
So, I guess the real question is, "mixed martial arts suck at what?" and, "traditional martial arts suck at what?" Which one of the above categories do they suck at? Which one are they good at? Remember, it's all about context.
As I mentioned in my first blog post, very few, if any, martial arts teach everything you would need to know for every scenario you may encounter. MMA is no exception. Believe it or not, there are techniques and strategies in both MMA and traditional MA that can, and will, fail you on the "street".
Referring back to the above Bruce Lee quote, I believe superior martial artists will come to similar conclusions regardless of what style they practice, and their personal interpretation and manifestation of their style will reflect this.
Frankly, there's not much that I can disagree with in the post, or really add to it (or part two of it) but I thought I'd offer my two cents on the subject anyway.
First off, I believe that the "this martial art style vs. that martial art style" is a false argument. As Bruce Lee said, "...there are no superior martial arts, only superior martial artists." In my interpretation, this means that any martial art will work to defend its practitioner assuming that he or she is using it to defend their life and/or wellbeing rather than their ego, i.e., human (generally male) ritual combat or "the monkey dance". For a really good introduction to the realities (rather than fantasies) of self defense, check out Marc "Animal" MacYoung's website page on the subject. In fact, I would highly recommend you read everything on his website!
False argument or not, it can be a fun one to have. But rather than the "martial art (a) vs. martial art (b)" argument, I much prefer the "martial artist (a) vs. bad guy (x), martial artist (b) vs. bad guy (x)". I think that perhaps the best point Mr. Demeere makes is that you must take context into consideration.
According to Marc MacYoung, there are five categories of martial arts: 1) Self Defense/Professional Use of Force, 2) Tradition/Physical Art/Self-Discipline, 3) Spiritual/Health, 4) Sport/Tournament and 5) Demonstration.
So, I guess the real question is, "mixed martial arts suck at what?" and, "traditional martial arts suck at what?" Which one of the above categories do they suck at? Which one are they good at? Remember, it's all about context.
As I mentioned in my first blog post, very few, if any, martial arts teach everything you would need to know for every scenario you may encounter. MMA is no exception. Believe it or not, there are techniques and strategies in both MMA and traditional MA that can, and will, fail you on the "street".
Referring back to the above Bruce Lee quote, I believe superior martial artists will come to similar conclusions regardless of what style they practice, and their personal interpretation and manifestation of their style will reflect this.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Bullying:
I was bullied a lot growing up. In hindsight, although I'm not happy it happened, I do recognize that it made me a stronger and more empathetic person. That being said, I still wonder what--if given the chance--I would suggest my young self do to combat it happening at the time. Of course this would all apply to someone I might be trying to help with the issue in present day as well. Because it wasn't around when I was a kid I'm not going to comment on "cyber bullying". I just don't have any experience with it. Also, I think this will mostly be geared toward boys rather than girls. Again, I just don't have any experience with the female perspective in regard to this subject
First things first, I would explain--in no uncertain terms--that in the adult world what we call "bullying" when we're children is a crime and can go by a number of different names to include: menacing, harassment, assault, etc. If it happens in the workplace (an adult analog to school), people get fired. If it happens on the "street" (public spaces), people can end up in jail. As this is the case, I would want to have learned to use the resources I had available, e.g., teachers, councilors, administrators, even, if it came to it, police. Get the "good guys" on your side and have them help create a paper trail. This will help down the road to "build a case".
One of the most visceral memories I have of my bullying experiences is of the fear I felt in the face of intimidation, i.e., the knot it my stomach, uncontrollable shakiness, etc. After having been in a lot of fights since that time I now know that the "fear" I was experiencing was actually just an adrenaline dump. I wish that I had known then how to recognize and take advantage of it. Perhaps the best thing for this, assuming you don't find yourself in situations that create adrenal dumps on a regular basis, is a course in "Adrenal Stress Conditioning". I don't know if anyone is offering classes in this for kids but I believe this could be one of the best experiences available for a kid who is being bullied.
In this vein, I would also suggest taking up a martial art. This is really about building self confidence rather than teaching a kid to how to fight. Although there are a lot of options out there, and it is important to find one that fits a kids personality, I would suggest one with a fair amount of contact and competition like western boxing or wrestling, Muay Thai, Judo or Brazilian Jui-jitsu. Another reason I would suggest one of these is that they are relatively straight forward and uncomplicated. Because of the focus on both competition and simplicity, techniques can be applied soon after they are learned. The reason I recommend a martial art with contact is that one of the hardest things for people who are unfamiliar with rough contact to deal with is the shock of being handled roughly against their will. I have seen people--especially women--flip out when they are handled roughly against their will. Learning to keep ones composers during a bullying encounter will go a long way to building self confidence and a positive reputation in ones peer community.
I've often wondered why I was singled out to be bullied. The conclusion I've come up with is that, because of my ADHD, I was just different. I thought a little differently, I acted differently, I was awkward and, very often, goofy. All of this caused me to be a little short on self confidence. This lack of self confidence was reflected in my body language. One of the things I have learned through my work and my study is that human predators, like animal predators, learn to seek out the young, the weak and the old in the "herd". Because we're talking about kids here rather than adults, and bullying tends to happen within peer groups rather than between different grades and/age groups, this leaves the weak. Now, I would say that in an ideal world, just as in the case of rape, I believe that bullying is never the victims fault. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world and there is a lot one can do to at least help minimize the likelihood one will become a victim. If you were to ask the predator, s/he will probably offer some insight as why they chose one person over another. There was a study done some years ago (Grayson, B. and Stein, M.I. (1981) Attracting Assault: Victims' Nonverbal Cues. Journal of Communication 31 (1): 68-75.) that suggests that ones body language can influence whether or not a predator perceives a person as a potential victim. Looking back on myself, I'm sure that I sent out some pretty strong victim tells.
I'm no expert on this topic and this is just some stuff I've thought about on the subject, but I think this might be some good "food for thought". If you have any suggestions or comments on this post, I'd love to hear them. I intend to have kids at some point and I may face having a kid who is bullied. I'd like to try to "have my ducks in a row" as best I can if that time ever comes.
First things first, I would explain--in no uncertain terms--that in the adult world what we call "bullying" when we're children is a crime and can go by a number of different names to include: menacing, harassment, assault, etc. If it happens in the workplace (an adult analog to school), people get fired. If it happens on the "street" (public spaces), people can end up in jail. As this is the case, I would want to have learned to use the resources I had available, e.g., teachers, councilors, administrators, even, if it came to it, police. Get the "good guys" on your side and have them help create a paper trail. This will help down the road to "build a case".
One of the most visceral memories I have of my bullying experiences is of the fear I felt in the face of intimidation, i.e., the knot it my stomach, uncontrollable shakiness, etc. After having been in a lot of fights since that time I now know that the "fear" I was experiencing was actually just an adrenaline dump. I wish that I had known then how to recognize and take advantage of it. Perhaps the best thing for this, assuming you don't find yourself in situations that create adrenal dumps on a regular basis, is a course in "Adrenal Stress Conditioning". I don't know if anyone is offering classes in this for kids but I believe this could be one of the best experiences available for a kid who is being bullied.
In this vein, I would also suggest taking up a martial art. This is really about building self confidence rather than teaching a kid to how to fight. Although there are a lot of options out there, and it is important to find one that fits a kids personality, I would suggest one with a fair amount of contact and competition like western boxing or wrestling, Muay Thai, Judo or Brazilian Jui-jitsu. Another reason I would suggest one of these is that they are relatively straight forward and uncomplicated. Because of the focus on both competition and simplicity, techniques can be applied soon after they are learned. The reason I recommend a martial art with contact is that one of the hardest things for people who are unfamiliar with rough contact to deal with is the shock of being handled roughly against their will. I have seen people--especially women--flip out when they are handled roughly against their will. Learning to keep ones composers during a bullying encounter will go a long way to building self confidence and a positive reputation in ones peer community.
I've often wondered why I was singled out to be bullied. The conclusion I've come up with is that, because of my ADHD, I was just different. I thought a little differently, I acted differently, I was awkward and, very often, goofy. All of this caused me to be a little short on self confidence. This lack of self confidence was reflected in my body language. One of the things I have learned through my work and my study is that human predators, like animal predators, learn to seek out the young, the weak and the old in the "herd". Because we're talking about kids here rather than adults, and bullying tends to happen within peer groups rather than between different grades and/age groups, this leaves the weak. Now, I would say that in an ideal world, just as in the case of rape, I believe that bullying is never the victims fault. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world and there is a lot one can do to at least help minimize the likelihood one will become a victim. If you were to ask the predator, s/he will probably offer some insight as why they chose one person over another. There was a study done some years ago (Grayson, B. and Stein, M.I. (1981) Attracting Assault: Victims' Nonverbal Cues. Journal of Communication 31 (1): 68-75.) that suggests that ones body language can influence whether or not a predator perceives a person as a potential victim. Looking back on myself, I'm sure that I sent out some pretty strong victim tells.
I'm no expert on this topic and this is just some stuff I've thought about on the subject, but I think this might be some good "food for thought". If you have any suggestions or comments on this post, I'd love to hear them. I intend to have kids at some point and I may face having a kid who is bullied. I'd like to try to "have my ducks in a row" as best I can if that time ever comes.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
My second post:
Unfortunately and coincidentally, I've started this blog under similar circumstances to when I started my fist blog some 3+ years ago.
At that time the Virginia Tech shooting had just occurred. As I start this blog, the Arizona Safeway shooting has just happened, resulting in the deaths of six people. Eight others, including Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, remain hospitalized at this time.
In a tragic instance of the "six degrees of separation" phenomenon, Rep. Giffords is related to a number of prominent individuals. Her husband is United States Navy Captain and NASA astronaut Mark Kelly. Her brother in law and Capt. Kelly's twin brother is Scott Kelly, also a USN Captain and NASA astronaut.
Representative Giffords is also the first cousin of director Bruce Paltrow. His daughter is actress Gwenith Paltrow.
Although Representative Giffors is the most high profile of the victims, there are a couple of others who I would like to mention here. The first is Christina Green. She was nine years old, having been born on September 11, 2001. Although I have to admit not knowing who she is, her cousin is Sophia Bush, an actress on the TV show "One Tree Hill".
The other is Dorwan Stoddard. In what I would consider a selfless act of love and courage, Mr. Stoddard shielded his wife Mavy from gunshots. He gave his life saving hers.
According to an article published in the LA Times, "Dorwan and Mavy Stoddard had known each other as children in theTucson
In my first blog, when I wrote about the V-Tech. incident, I tried to make sense of it, offered some martial arts and self defense training tips for such occurrences (I think I failed miserably on both counts) and "ranted" a bit about the state of the current mental health system and the general ignorance of people's perception of mental health issues.
I don't think I'll do anything like that this time. Although I do have my opinions, I don't think that a) I can adequately describe them here and b) I'm not sure voicing them would really make any difference in the whole scheme of things.
This time I think I'll simply be satisfied with offering my thoughts and prayers to those affected by the shooting.
At that time the Virginia Tech shooting had just occurred. As I start this blog, the Arizona Safeway shooting has just happened, resulting in the deaths of six people. Eight others, including Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, remain hospitalized at this time.
In a tragic instance of the "six degrees of separation" phenomenon, Rep. Giffords is related to a number of prominent individuals. Her husband is United States Navy Captain and NASA astronaut Mark Kelly. Her brother in law and Capt. Kelly's twin brother is Scott Kelly, also a USN Captain and NASA astronaut.
Representative Giffords is also the first cousin of director Bruce Paltrow. His daughter is actress Gwenith Paltrow.
Although Representative Giffors is the most high profile of the victims, there are a couple of others who I would like to mention here. The first is Christina Green. She was nine years old, having been born on September 11, 2001. Although I have to admit not knowing who she is, her cousin is Sophia Bush, an actress on the TV show "One Tree Hill".
The other is Dorwan Stoddard. In what I would consider a selfless act of love and courage, Mr. Stoddard shielded his wife Mavy from gunshots. He gave his life saving hers.
According to an article published in the LA Times, "Dorwan and Mavy Stoddard had known each other as children in the
In my first blog, when I wrote about the V-Tech. incident, I tried to make sense of it, offered some martial arts and self defense training tips for such occurrences (I think I failed miserably on both counts) and "ranted" a bit about the state of the current mental health system and the general ignorance of people's perception of mental health issues.
I don't think I'll do anything like that this time. Although I do have my opinions, I don't think that a) I can adequately describe them here and b) I'm not sure voicing them would really make any difference in the whole scheme of things.
This time I think I'll simply be satisfied with offering my thoughts and prayers to those affected by the shooting.
My first blog post:
Hello and thank you for visiting my blog "Delta Juliet Papa"!
For whatever reason, I like to talk about myself. Well, that's not entirely true. More accurately, I enjoy compiling, analyzing and editing my story. This is not to say my perception of this story is accurate. I'm not sure it's possible to be objective in regard to ones own story. All I can do is offer it as best I can, hope I accomplish something worth noting and, if I do, let history be the judge.
As I don't believe the "about me" section offers enough room for me to adequately elaborate on who I am, I thought I'd use my first blog to finish the job. Because everybody is the "hero" of their own story, I suspect I will do my share of self aggrandizing. Also, I tend toward loquaciousness (I'm a big fan of the thesaurus ;-), so prepare yourself; this is going to be a long one. I won't blame you if you don't get all the way through it...
I grew up in a small city with a population of approximately 154,620 (as of 2008. I'm unsure of what it was as I was growing up). My mom was a single mother and a high school teacher. My dad was a railroad engineer.
I come from Scots, Irish, English, Welsh, Dutch, German and Austrian/Hungarian heritage. My fraternal grandmother says that her mother also claimed to be part Native American, but we have no way to verify it.
Politically, I'm a registered Democrat, and fairly liberal at that. Despite this, I am very pro Second Amendment and have been known to display occasional bouts of irrational hawkish patriotism.
Religiously/spiritually I consider myself to be an agnostic humanist with an interest in the transcendental/mystical experience, having had a couple myself that I can't explain in rational and logical terms. Because of my background in martial arts and my interest in natural history, "primitive" technologies and bushcraft, I am also drawn to Taoism because of its focus on the intense observation of the patterns in nature. Yeah, I know. I'm just a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. ;-)
As I view it, there are two things that most influenced the nature of my primary interests. The first is being bullied a lot while growing up. The second is being kicked out of the house a lot--or at least being unsure of the status of my living situation--while I was growing up and later spending time homeless.
The first caused me to be interested in and pursue martial arts while the second caused me to be interested in being prepared for the unknown, i.e., "prepping".
That being said, in both cases, I believe that both being bullied and being kicked out of the house were caused by--or at least exacerbate by--having a number of undiagnosed learning disabilities. Finally, at the age of thirty, I was diagnosed with ADHD (Inattentive Type), Sluggish Cognitive Tempo, Dyslexia/Dyscalcula and, although it's not a learning disability, Dysthymia. These diagnoses immediately put my life in perspective. It also explained my poor performance in, well...just about everything I had ever pursued. Thankfully, with the help and support of my family and good therapists, I am on my way towards a bright and productive future!
As I mentioned, I am a longtime private security professional. I've spent about seventeen years--off and on--in the industry and have had quite a wide range of experiences in various fields. Although I've spent my fair share of time as an archetypal uniform guard/officer, I have also spent ten years--again, off and on--as a bouncer and about seven years straight as a retail loss prevention agent.
In the uniform officer category, I've performed site, armored car, patrol (foot, bike and vehicle), strike, event, hospital and campus public safety duties.
Although I suppose nightclub security would technically be considered "uniform" security, those who do it--or at least those who do it well--usually consider themselves to be in a category by themselves and, I believe, rightly so.
Similarly to being a bouncer, retail loss prevention is in a category by itself as far as private security is concerned. As far as I'm aware, LP professionals make more citizens arrests than just about any other security category. I was once told by a deputy sheriff who responded to one of my arrests that he suspected that the average LP officer makes more arrests than the average cop. I have no way of verifying whether or not this could be true, but it sounded cool to me.
Between being a bouncer and being a LP officer, I've been in hundreds of fights, or what I like to term "interpersonal physical conflict". Admittedly, the people I've fought were not generally interested in fighting me specifically, i.e., they weren't trying to go "toe to toe" with me, but rather they were trying to kick someone else's ass (in the case of being a bouncer) or trying to fight to get away from me (in the case of loss prevention). Although this is the case, it doesn't make the encounters any less dangerous. I’ve been in foot chases, had people attempt to run me over with their car, been dragged by people’s cars, had to tackle people in the middle of traffic and then pull them back to (relative) safety, had people pull weapons on me, had suspects friends try to come to their “rescue”, etc., etc., etc.
Although I started my martial arts career years before I started doing security, my practice and training has served me well and the two have come to intimately inform each other.
I started martial arts in Aikido and have practiced Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido ("Ki Society" Aikido), Tenshin Aikido (Steven Seagal's style), Yoshinkan Aikido, Seikikai Aikido, Aikikai Aikido and California Aikido Association Aikido (formerly the Aikido Association of Northern California) through my local university.
After starting to work as a bouncer I began to have the feeling that I would not be able to make Aikido work in "real life". Because of this I eventually left it in search of a style that I felt was geared toward the threats I felt I may encounter in contemporary American society.
After going through a number of styles I happened upon Kung Fu San Soo as taught by Master Greg Jones. Once I had participated in my first class I thought I had discovered the mecca of martial arts. This was because I was taught how to pinch, bite, eye gouge and break a neck, all in the first week of class! Although I now know that this is not a reliable indicator of quality martial arts instruction, it really impressed the heck out of me at the time. Thankfully it turned out that it was quality instruction.
Unfortunately this only lasted for about two years. My instructors decided (as I understand it) that they were going to focus on teaching law enforcement and their current black belts only--neither of which I was--so I was "left out in the cold".
After some time I discovered Jeet Kune Do concepts as interpreted/taught by Dan Inosanto and Paul Vunak. I practiced this for about five years and loved every minute of it. Although I think much (but definitely not all) of it focuses a little too much on the type of fight one might find themselves in while defending their ego, rather than their life, it offered a new way of looking at martial arts training methodologies as well as some phenomenal weapons training. I wouldn't trade my time in JKD for anything.
About a year ago I got back into working as a bouncer and, with a lot of experience under my belt and some new perspectives, I decided to reevaluate my martial arts training. Although JKD was great for learning how to go "toe to toe" with people, I rarely find myself doing so. Instead, I usually find myself breaking up fights and arresting people. With this in mind I began to research martial arts that would best lend themselves to these scenarios. Although it, like most--and probably all--martial arts, doesn't offer all the answers, I eventually decided upon old fashioned Kodokan Judo. Although I've only practiced this for a short period of time, I am very happy with my choice. Unfortunately it isn't available in my area but, if it were, I would also be interested in Small Circle Jujitsu for the same purposes (just in case you're looking for an art to practice for the same reasons).
Because very few, if any, martial arts teach everything you would need to know for every scenario you may encounter, I have learned to look outside individual styles for supplemental information. So far the best sources I have found have been Marc "Animal" MacYoung, Rory Miller, Payton Quinn and Loren Christensen. There are few others I can recommend, but this post is getting pretty long as it is. ;-)
In terms of my other interests, I consider myself an amateur "prepper" (as compared to a "survivalist"). I consider myself an "amateur" because I'm not really that hardcore about it. I also have become very interested in "primitive" technologies and bushcraft, and learn about and practice them as much as possible. My biggest influences in regard to this is Tom Brown Jr. (Tracker School), Keven Reeve (On Point Tactical) and Ray Mears. Although he's geared more toward practical and expedited survival and rescue, rather than bushcraft, I am also a fan of Doug Ritter.
To move on, I love to travel. I have been many places both inside and outside theU.S.
Much of my travel has been with family. When I have done this it usually takes the form of the archetypal "family vacation", i.e., traveling by car or plane, staying in hotels, eating in restaurants and visiting tourist traps and traditional "points of interest".
Although I am by no means opposed to this and am grateful for the opportunity to have done it, because I am not wealthy (or really have any disposable income for that matter) I have found that I have become very interested in traveling by more, um...unconventional...methods, e.g., freight hopping, hitch hiking, etc.
Fundamentally, I suppose, I believe travel should be an adventure!
Because I believe that one should give back to the community from which one comes, I have performed a great deal of volunteer work though the years. This has ranged from working in the local animal shelter, homeless/at risk youth services, low income medical facility and juvenile corrections center. I also was the longest serving member on the board of the areas only stand alone (i.e., not associated with a martial arts school) woman's self-defense program.
Presently I volunteer with my local CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program and a local "warming center", a space available for homeless, and others in the community, without adequate shelter once the temperature reaches 28 degrees Fahrenheit or less.
Well, if you're not bored with me going on and on about myself yet, I'm duly impressed. Thank you for getting this far and I hope you enjoy any other posts I may make to this blog. If you have any questions about me, please feel free to ask. As you may have noticed, there's not much I mind sharing about myself...;-)
For whatever reason, I like to talk about myself. Well, that's not entirely true. More accurately, I enjoy compiling, analyzing and editing my story. This is not to say my perception of this story is accurate. I'm not sure it's possible to be objective in regard to ones own story. All I can do is offer it as best I can, hope I accomplish something worth noting and, if I do, let history be the judge.
As I don't believe the "about me" section offers enough room for me to adequately elaborate on who I am, I thought I'd use my first blog to finish the job. Because everybody is the "hero" of their own story, I suspect I will do my share of self aggrandizing. Also, I tend toward loquaciousness (I'm a big fan of the thesaurus ;-), so prepare yourself; this is going to be a long one. I won't blame you if you don't get all the way through it...
I grew up in a small city with a population of approximately 154,620 (as of 2008. I'm unsure of what it was as I was growing up). My mom was a single mother and a high school teacher. My dad was a railroad engineer.
I come from Scots, Irish, English, Welsh, Dutch, German and Austrian/Hungarian heritage. My fraternal grandmother says that her mother also claimed to be part Native American, but we have no way to verify it.
Politically, I'm a registered Democrat, and fairly liberal at that. Despite this, I am very pro Second Amendment and have been known to display occasional bouts of irrational hawkish patriotism.
Religiously/spiritually I consider myself to be an agnostic humanist with an interest in the transcendental/mystical experience, having had a couple myself that I can't explain in rational and logical terms. Because of my background in martial arts and my interest in natural history, "primitive" technologies and bushcraft, I am also drawn to Taoism because of its focus on the intense observation of the patterns in nature. Yeah, I know. I'm just a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. ;-)
As I view it, there are two things that most influenced the nature of my primary interests. The first is being bullied a lot while growing up. The second is being kicked out of the house a lot--or at least being unsure of the status of my living situation--while I was growing up and later spending time homeless.
The first caused me to be interested in and pursue martial arts while the second caused me to be interested in being prepared for the unknown, i.e., "prepping".
That being said, in both cases, I believe that both being bullied and being kicked out of the house were caused by--or at least exacerbate by--having a number of undiagnosed learning disabilities. Finally, at the age of thirty, I was diagnosed with ADHD (Inattentive Type), Sluggish Cognitive Tempo, Dyslexia/Dyscalcula and, although it's not a learning disability, Dysthymia. These diagnoses immediately put my life in perspective. It also explained my poor performance in, well...just about everything I had ever pursued. Thankfully, with the help and support of my family and good therapists, I am on my way towards a bright and productive future!
As I mentioned, I am a longtime private security professional. I've spent about seventeen years--off and on--in the industry and have had quite a wide range of experiences in various fields. Although I've spent my fair share of time as an archetypal uniform guard/officer, I have also spent ten years--again, off and on--as a bouncer and about seven years straight as a retail loss prevention agent.
In the uniform officer category, I've performed site, armored car, patrol (foot, bike and vehicle), strike, event, hospital and campus public safety duties.
Although I suppose nightclub security would technically be considered "uniform" security, those who do it--or at least those who do it well--usually consider themselves to be in a category by themselves and, I believe, rightly so.
Similarly to being a bouncer, retail loss prevention is in a category by itself as far as private security is concerned. As far as I'm aware, LP professionals make more citizens arrests than just about any other security category. I was once told by a deputy sheriff who responded to one of my arrests that he suspected that the average LP officer makes more arrests than the average cop. I have no way of verifying whether or not this could be true, but it sounded cool to me.
Between being a bouncer and being a LP officer, I've been in hundreds of fights, or what I like to term "interpersonal physical conflict". Admittedly, the people I've fought were not generally interested in fighting me specifically, i.e., they weren't trying to go "toe to toe" with me, but rather they were trying to kick someone else's ass (in the case of being a bouncer) or trying to fight to get away from me (in the case of loss prevention). Although this is the case, it doesn't make the encounters any less dangerous. I’ve been in foot chases, had people attempt to run me over with their car, been dragged by people’s cars, had to tackle people in the middle of traffic and then pull them back to (relative) safety, had people pull weapons on me, had suspects friends try to come to their “rescue”, etc., etc., etc.
Although I started my martial arts career years before I started doing security, my practice and training has served me well and the two have come to intimately inform each other.
I started martial arts in Aikido and have practiced Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido ("Ki Society" Aikido), Tenshin Aikido (Steven Seagal's style), Yoshinkan Aikido, Seikikai Aikido, Aikikai Aikido and California Aikido Association Aikido (formerly the Aikido Association of Northern California) through my local university.
After starting to work as a bouncer I began to have the feeling that I would not be able to make Aikido work in "real life". Because of this I eventually left it in search of a style that I felt was geared toward the threats I felt I may encounter in contemporary American society.
After going through a number of styles I happened upon Kung Fu San Soo as taught by Master Greg Jones. Once I had participated in my first class I thought I had discovered the mecca of martial arts. This was because I was taught how to pinch, bite, eye gouge and break a neck, all in the first week of class! Although I now know that this is not a reliable indicator of quality martial arts instruction, it really impressed the heck out of me at the time. Thankfully it turned out that it was quality instruction.
Unfortunately this only lasted for about two years. My instructors decided (as I understand it) that they were going to focus on teaching law enforcement and their current black belts only--neither of which I was--so I was "left out in the cold".
After some time I discovered Jeet Kune Do concepts as interpreted/taught by Dan Inosanto and Paul Vunak. I practiced this for about five years and loved every minute of it. Although I think much (but definitely not all) of it focuses a little too much on the type of fight one might find themselves in while defending their ego, rather than their life, it offered a new way of looking at martial arts training methodologies as well as some phenomenal weapons training. I wouldn't trade my time in JKD for anything.
About a year ago I got back into working as a bouncer and, with a lot of experience under my belt and some new perspectives, I decided to reevaluate my martial arts training. Although JKD was great for learning how to go "toe to toe" with people, I rarely find myself doing so. Instead, I usually find myself breaking up fights and arresting people. With this in mind I began to research martial arts that would best lend themselves to these scenarios. Although it, like most--and probably all--martial arts, doesn't offer all the answers, I eventually decided upon old fashioned Kodokan Judo. Although I've only practiced this for a short period of time, I am very happy with my choice. Unfortunately it isn't available in my area but, if it were, I would also be interested in Small Circle Jujitsu for the same purposes (just in case you're looking for an art to practice for the same reasons).
Because very few, if any, martial arts teach everything you would need to know for every scenario you may encounter, I have learned to look outside individual styles for supplemental information. So far the best sources I have found have been Marc "Animal" MacYoung, Rory Miller, Payton Quinn and Loren Christensen. There are few others I can recommend, but this post is getting pretty long as it is. ;-)
In terms of my other interests, I consider myself an amateur "prepper" (as compared to a "survivalist"). I consider myself an "amateur" because I'm not really that hardcore about it. I also have become very interested in "primitive" technologies and bushcraft, and learn about and practice them as much as possible. My biggest influences in regard to this is Tom Brown Jr. (Tracker School), Keven Reeve (On Point Tactical) and Ray Mears. Although he's geared more toward practical and expedited survival and rescue, rather than bushcraft, I am also a fan of Doug Ritter.
To move on, I love to travel. I have been many places both inside and outside the
Much of my travel has been with family. When I have done this it usually takes the form of the archetypal "family vacation", i.e., traveling by car or plane, staying in hotels, eating in restaurants and visiting tourist traps and traditional "points of interest".
Although I am by no means opposed to this and am grateful for the opportunity to have done it, because I am not wealthy (or really have any disposable income for that matter) I have found that I have become very interested in traveling by more, um...unconventional...methods, e.g., freight hopping, hitch hiking, etc.
Fundamentally, I suppose, I believe travel should be an adventure!
Because I believe that one should give back to the community from which one comes, I have performed a great deal of volunteer work though the years. This has ranged from working in the local animal shelter, homeless/at risk youth services, low income medical facility and juvenile corrections center. I also was the longest serving member on the board of the areas only stand alone (i.e., not associated with a martial arts school) woman's self-defense program.
Presently I volunteer with my local CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program and a local "warming center", a space available for homeless, and others in the community, without adequate shelter once the temperature reaches 28 degrees Fahrenheit or less.
Well, if you're not bored with me going on and on about myself yet, I'm duly impressed. Thank you for getting this far and I hope you enjoy any other posts I may make to this blog. If you have any questions about me, please feel free to ask. As you may have noticed, there's not much I mind sharing about myself...;-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)