Downtown Albany and the Bronx Zoo - an Educational MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
301

If I had woken up during the incident, I would have let him push his way all the way into the house, and then I would have beaten his ass. I am a gimpy woman, I use a nice thick hunk of diamond willow as a walking aid around the house, it is always with me. For that matter I still have my trusty old axe handle from my years in the village, it has knocked a few Nates in it’s time. After that incident a friend brought me a .22 and a buttload of hollow points and I kept it loaded and next to me at all times. I let it be known that I was armed and dangerous, and he stayed away for almost a year. This time it was still daylight, I heard the knock, but my husband was closer and he opened the door. Then, without saying a word, he shut the door and locked it. It’s a cultural thing, I understand why he (my husband) is the way he is (very non-confrontational) but it still pisses me off. I, on the other hand, have no problem whatsoever with confrontation. I looked at his face and asked who was at the door, and he replied “T”. I hopped up, grabbed my stick, and said “Oh no, that is not the way we are handleing “T’s” bullshit!” and went to the door. “T” was actually knocking at the door again, so I flung the door open and started yelling “Get the fuck off my property “T”!” and other even less feminine epithets. He just stood there looking stupid until I hollered for the phone and began calling the Troopers, at which time he headed off. As it was after Trooper time I got KPD dispatch, and I was pretty hot, but the dispatch woman asked me who I was having trouble with and when I told her she took my name and number, and said the Trooper would call me. (We only have one Trooper on duty from 5:00 pm - 8:00 am, and I live outside of the city limits. KPD responds to emergencies if the Trooper is otherwise occupied or too far away to respond in time) The trooper called in less than 5 minutes, and checked for anything he could arrest “T” on, and unfortunately there was nothing, then he asked me if I wanted him to pay “T” a visit and give him a Criminal Trespass warning. “Hell yeah!”, I was hoping that the Trooper would walk into a situation in which he could arrest “T”. I told the Trooper that I was gonna take my stick to “T’s” head if he came back. So, about 20 minutes later there was a knocking on the door and anticipating “T” I headed toward it with my stick. My husband got the door first, and swung the door wide open when he saw who it was. It was the Trooper and I must have looked as pissed as I was, cuz the Trooper got a big grin on his face. We chatted, and basically it is the same old document/call the Troopers every single time there is any issue involving, or suspected involvement by, “T”.

continued…

302

This is why I do not live in the village any more, there is no law out there, and the (this is not the Pit, use your imagination here for an appropriate epithet) are allowed to hurt and domineer over the weaker villagers. It has gone on for generations, and while there has been an improvement in the quality of life out there, any of you walking into the village would be appalled at what goes on daily, and what is tolerated. I was “That G-D White Woman” for years, because I called children’s services and spoke out when women were being brutalized. There were several men who tried on many occasions to “put me in my place”. Yeah, right. I finally reached a point when I knew I had to get out of there. One reason was “T’s” interest in my oldest daughter, another was when, after a party during which one guy went and dragged his very drunk wife out and took her home and beat her, and I heard myself saying that she knew how he felt about her partying, and she deserved what she got. I realized I had been in the village too long, and needed to get back to something resembling The Real World.

So here I am in Kodiak, and I have been to court many times on both child abuse/neglect and battered woman cases from the village, and will continue to stick my big G-D White Woman’s nose into every nasty little secret I find out about.

303

Kai, I don’t know whether to cry or cheer at your posts. Coming from a culture that this stuff does happen in, I thank you, thank you a thousand times for standing up for women and girls (and boys) who can’t stand up for themselves. Please keep being that G-D White Woman we need more people like you, white or otherwise.

304

kai, thank you for everything you’ve done. Thank you for being brave, and for meddling. May you be blessed a thousand times, and I hope that fucker gets his ass in jail for a long, long time. Keep up the work. Your children and family and village are lucky to have you.

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where has SurrenderDorothy been lately? Are you out there dottie? we miss you in here!

306

egad :eek: I’m an engineer and I didn’t even know it :eek: :smiley:
{{{{{{kai & co}}}}}}} I gotta say, scarier than “T” and his antics are the other family’s (and other villagers?) attitude of brushing it under the rug. That’s how “T” and his kind continue to get away with crap like that.
In other news - does anyone recall the Oreo Idol contest this past summer? Well, the winner is a Sweet Adelines quartet. They recorded the radio spot(s) last month which will begin airing next year. So YEA for Women’s Barbershop! Go here and click on Acapella Gold

307

Wow, Kai. I have tears in my eyes. I know I don’t really know you, but you make me so very proud to call you a friend. You’re one hell of a woman.

308

You guys are all truly kind friends, and I appreciate the support more than you can know. It’s sometimes a lonely battle, and always an angry and sad one. It’s a scary world, this stuff goes on everywhere, here it’s more condensed, you are either related by blood or marriage to just about everybody, and the rest are people you know. The just-ignore-it-and-it-will-all-be-okay attitude drives me mad, there are times when it becomes a huge issue in my marriage, and I refuse to look the other way. No one saved me, or my brothers, or my mom. Even after I told, when I was 11, no one did anything. I’m just trying to put a little more good into the world. Ya know?

BUT…my daughter is safe, as is my son, and they and my older two know that it’s not okay for people to treat them badly, in any manner, and that it’s okay to protest that sort of thing loudly, and they will have support from family as well as legally.

Other than that, I am living in Remodel Hell, my flooring is on the slow boat from Seattle, and it’s making me crazy!

309

Okay:

Zoos: I practically lived at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle as a kid, one set of Grandparents lived only a couple of blocks away. The Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, the big zoo in Vancouver B.C. and Sea Land or World in Victoria B.C., and the Honolulu Zoo in Oahu. Funny, I have been here for 17 years and I still haven’t been to the zoo in Anchorage, probably because it seems a bit redundant! Good OP mika, great pictures!

Job: Presently a SAHM, I have had some interesting employment in my time though.

Dreams: I have had multiple dreams about a particular house which does not exisit. The house is always the same, but there is a different scenario every time. I have another recurring dream in which I am looking for someone (in particular, who died by his own hand) and I keep catching glimpses of him just as he’s going around a corner, and I am so frantic to find him and I feel such a deep sense of loss throughout the dream, which lingers long after I waken. I have naughty dreams too, and apparently my subconcious has no repression whatsoever!

Am I caught up now? :smiley:

310

Morning all! It’s the start of another workweekend. Oh well, I’m off Monday, so I could sit on my stoop drinking beer at 7:00A.M., and watching all you sad sacks go to work. :stuck_out_tongue:

311

kai I remember other posts of yours about the effects of alcohol on native Alaskans. Still does not excuse “T” and the culture of just ignoring rape, abuse, molestation, etc. Good on you for standing up for those who need standing up for. Dang, reading what you posted makes all my tales of whiny people and payrolls seem like nuttin’. They really are nuttin’ compared to what you wrote about. Vent away anytime you see fit.

I like y’all lots and lots. Everybody knows that, right?

Bobbio I was anticipating another request for a pound of somebody’s butt. I was kinda let down. :smiley:

312

So was I. I never heard back from the trucking company…
(Background: I was bitching to a trucking company about one of their drivers, who nearly killed me and the wife by running us off the road…)

313

Friday the 13th has bitten my ass hard.

I set the alarm for 4 AM, in an effort to get to the Y to swim, since it’s coming up on 2 weeks that I was there last… Never made it out of bed.

I did get up in time that I’d be early by a half hour, and I could then justify getting out fashionably early this afternoon. On theway, I drive a narrow country road that the locals use as a bypass around a small town, and if you’re not doing 10 MPH over the posted limit, you’re a sluggard.

The road was blocked by a truck in the ditch. It looked like the back axle was busted, and the tow truck was having a hell of a time trying to drag it out. I sat there 20 minutes watching before I decided to turn around. Got turned, and started to backtrack. Someone else tried to do the same thing, and he got stuck in the ditch, too, bottling the traffic jam. I managed to get around him.

The upshot: instead of 1/2 hour early, I was 10 minutes late. :mad:

314

Youare in denial. Embrace your inner engineer - you’ll have a happier life.

The only one of those I take exception to is the last one. A glass is neither half full nor half empty, it’s at 50% of capacity.

315

I laugh in the face of Friday the 13th!

Virtually every team I played on since I was in high school, I wore # 13. Only got hurt once in a game, and that was the time I had to wear a different number for a softball team, because the captain wanted 13.

The day I found out I made a 33 on my ACT, and would get most of college paid for was Friday the 13th.

316

Being the Pointy Haired Bear whose brother is the Prince of Insufficient Light, Friday the 13th means nothing to me! Except it’s payday. How can payday ever be bad?

So far no whines or even mean looks. Who knows, maybe this is settling down. I will delude myself with that thought.

317

I met my highschool bf on a Fri 13th - we dated for 26 (2x13) weeks broke up for 13 days and got back together for another 13 weeks, his birthday fell on the 13th, which while we dated, was on a Friday

318

You might be an engineer if . . .

– you have no life and can prove it mathematically. (extra points because I can do it by the principle of mathematical induction)

– you enjoy pain. (Nope. Work is pain. Engineers are lazy, because they spend their life trying to get out of doing work)

– you know vector calculus but you can’t remember how to do long division. (Not only can I do long division, but I can do hexadecimal long division as well as simple and compound interest)

– you chuckle whenever anyone says “centrifugal force.” (Yup)

– you’ve actually ever used every single function on your graphing calculator. (Yup)

– when you look in the mirror, you see an engineering major. (I see an engineering god)

– it is sunny and 70 degrees outside, and you are working on a computer. (of course)

– you frequently whistle the theme song to “MacGyver.” (McGyver was a wussy)

– you always do homework on Friday nights. (Only when I’m taking classes, and BSG ain’t on)

– you know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water. (Yup)

– you think in “math.” (Actually, I dream in C++)

– you’ve calculated that the World Series actually diverges. (When I swim, I do math in my head for entertainment, and frequently contemplate Zeno’s Paradox)

– you hesitate to look at something because you don’t want to break down its wave function.

– you have a pet named after a scientist. (No; Norse gods and smelly cheeses)

– you laugh at jokes about mathematicians. (And physicists)

– the Humane Society has had you arrested because you actually performed the Schroedinger’s Cat Experiment. (That’s what Og created cats are for)

– you can translate English into Binary. (I know several languages. Want to hear me say something in FORTRAN?)

– you can’t remember what’s behind the door in the science building which says "Exit.”

– you have to bring a jacket with you, in the middle of summer, because there’s a wind-chill factor in the lab.(The author must have worked for the Coast Guard)

– you are completely addicted to caffeine. (and your point is…?)

– you avoid doing anything because you don’t want to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe. (Yup. See the point about pain)

– you consider any non- science course “easy.” (Yup)

– when your professor asks you where your homework is, you claim to have accidentally determined its momentum so precisely, that according to Heisenberg it could be anywhere in the universe. (I’ll have to try that out when I miss the next project deadline)

– the “fun” center of your brain has deteriorated from lack of use. (I plead the 5th)

– you’ll assume that a “horse” is a “sphere” in order to make the math easier.(Spherical coordinate systems are the easiest to integrate)

– you understood more than five of these indicators. (or redefine them)

– you make a hard copy of this list and post it on your office door. (I have a cubical w/o a door)

– you think it might be a neat idea to send this message to all of your friends in the form of email. (Or repost it to a thread on a board after commenting on most of the points)

– you know the glass is neither half full nor half empty; it’s simply twice as big as it needs to be. (from mduffin3) (and Sean already provided the proper answer)

319

Thankfully I am an Arts and English girl, and I know nothing of engineering.
It snowed a little bit yesterday, and the temp dropped to freezing by the time I left work. I was dancing around outside waving at the snowflakes. I love winter.

Mr. Lissar phoned in sick, so he’s still in bed. I have physio at two this afternoon. I guess I should wear exercise clothes, right? Should be barrels of fun. Oh, well. Anything to have a functioning knee again.

Mr. Lissar said RCIA went exactly the same except with less drama- the priest in charge continues to be a terrible speaker, and no one appears interested. Sigh.

Nachos for breakfast? I made salsa yesterday.

320

Wow kai, you are one incredibly strong-minded woman! Keep up the good fight. The world really needs more people like you who are not afraid to speak out. As to the “T” situation, give him several knocks upside the head from me. I would have whacked him to a fair-the-well. No one, but NO ONE, messes with my kids.

I am not an engineer type. I’m all about literature and history. Math sucks!

Vbob, make sure you keep on the trucking company. If you had the truck number, hopefully (if it’s a good company), they’ll make sure the driver is reminded of how to drive responsibly.

My husband’s company takes safety to the extreme. One driver messes up, and they ALL have to watch safety films and do safety checks and take tests.