Life

That bullying video

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

There’s a video that’s been going around lately where some small skinny kid is picking on some larger kid. The small kid gets in some punches to the big kid, and eventually the big kid has enough, grabs the small kid and slams the bully to the ground. Backstory is that the big kid has been bullied for quite some time.

Here’s a story telling what’s happened since then.

My personal feeling was the bully got what he asked for. I also bet the victim won’t be picked on any more now that people (everyone around the world, in fact) know he’s willing and able to stand up for himself.

What bothers me more is some typical reactions:

 

“We don’t believe that violence is ever the answer,” Mr. [John Dalgleish, head of research at Kids Helpline and Boys Town] says. “We believe there are other ways that children can manage this.”

[…]

 

[An older girl] physically stops a friend of the younger boy from going after the older boy, telling him to “back off”.

“The longer term way is about developing better relationships between kids in the school, that will then empower young people to not be passive bystanders when these acts occur but to stand up and say ‘this is wrong’,” Mr Dalgleish says.

[…]

St Marys Police duty officer Inspector Jason Green said posting the video had the effect of glorifying violence in schools.

 

 

 

 

Violence is never the answer. I used to believe this myself. The trouble with this belief is it takes our value system and imposes it upon someone else, someone who does believe violence is the answer or violence is the first resort. When someone is punching you, what are you supposed to do? Politely request them to stop punching you? It doesn’t work out very well. Walk away? They’ll follow you and keep punching you. Hope and pray for someone else to step in? If someone finally does step in, what happens when that person is no longer around to protect you? I do believe one needs to try to resolve situations in the best manner possible (e.g. maximize enjoyment of beer & tv), that we should work for non-violent dispute resolution, that we take steps to avoid such a situation in the first place. But when you are dealing with a predator that won’t back off, sometimes bearing teeth in return is the only response they will understand.

To deny violence’s place, to deny realities of violence, is a cover-up and a lie. When we don’t talk honestly and realistically about things, we do a disservice to all involved, including greater society. Jack Donovan wrote a great essay titled “Violence is Golden”. Give it a read.

 

 

Various rambling

/ hsoi

Oldest and Daughter are now American Red Cross Babysitting, CPR, First Aid and Water Safety certified. Very awesome. Proud of them. Skills they can use for a lifetime.

I’ve been out of it. Many things going on in my life right now. Nothing necessarily bad, just some positive, some negative, some turbulence, some change. Some of the change is from myself, some of it comes from others. In fact, there’s some things I’m trying to change but still haven’t been able to… like the inability to get back to regular martial arts classes. It all adds up to just being in an odd state right now. I’ll get through, no big deal. Just makes it hard to find motivation to do things like blog. 😉

I am happy that my Hsoi Enterprises work is coming along well.

Still need to get tax paperwork to my accountant. *sigh*

Some hog hunting would be nice.

Going to be helping out with a women’s self-defense clinic. What’s cool about this is it will be something more than the “that’s my purse, I don’t know you!” sorts of clinics, which I think is great. It gives some hard skills, but also some more things to think about. I like it. More details as I have them.

I’ve gained some unexpected insight into the dog. It’s been very enlightening. Some of the things we suspected were there, and some of the things we suspected we were flat wrong about. I’ll write more on this sometime in the future.

Oh… and be careful what you wish for in life. You just might get it. 🙂

Why should we learn lifesaving skills, like CPR?

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

The local chapter of the American Red Cross has this babysitter boot camp. It’s a two-day course that teaches not just stuff about babysitting (and certifies you in that), but there are aspects of how to run a business. While that’s good, the “boot camp” adds CPR and First Aid certification. It was an opportunity that knocked, and I enrolled Oldest and Daugther in it.

Daughter wanted to be there. Oldest was made to go. I want Oldest to take the course because no only do I think it will help his gift in working with small children, but First Aid and CPR certified? To me, that’s worth it.

I think about the notion of CPR and the notion of First Aid. Why do we encourage people to learn these skills? Here’s what Citizen CPR of Tulsa, OK says on their website:

Why Learn CPR?

Cardiovascular disease is very common — it’s the #1 killer in US and in Oklahoma.
Heart attacks can happen suddenly, especially if you and your family have one or more risk factors (family history, overweight, poor diet, smoking, etc).

Most medical emergencies occur in a person’s home or other place of recreation.
You can’t count on medical personnel to be nearby when you have an emergency, because chances are greater for sudden cardiac arrest to occur at home. If your family and friends don’t know CPR, life can be lost in mere minutes while waiting for help to arrive.

The reasons for learning CPR and first aid are simple: because when a situation that requires those skills happens, the fastest person to respond is the person right there when it happens. In a case like CPR of course it has to be someone else. For first aid, the situation may be something you can perform on yourself and certainly no one can be closer to you than you nor respond faster to you than you.

So we seem to grant and acknowledge that life-saving skills are important to know. That the more people we have on our streets with those skills, the better it is for society in general. Just ask Howard Snitzer.

With that in mind, let’s do a little word substitution. Same sort of importance about life-saving skills, just a different skill:

Violent crime can happen suddenly.

You can’t count on law enforcement personnel to be nearby when you have an emergency, because chances are greater for sudden violent crime to occur anywhere. If your family and friends don’t know how to defend themselves, life can be lost in mere minutes while waiting for help to arrive.

If we believe it’s important to know how to save lives, why are there people who say saving lives with CPR is permissible but saving lives by carrying a firearm is not?

Syd said it best.

No TV for Lent

/ hsoi

I asked Kiddos what they were giving up for Lent. Wife said that it’s going to be a group thing.

They’re giving up TV.

I’m impressed. It’s been a couple of days now and I haven’t heard the TV on and you know, that’s kinda refreshing. A little TV now and again is fine, but the kids have gotten into a bit of a rut and if they’re bored turn to the TV.

I think it will be cool to see what they opt to do to pass time, even if it’s just having to deal with being bored. And more curious, how will they come out on the other side? Will they just revert back to old habits? Or will they discover something new, something else worth spending their time on?

This will be an interesting journey. 🙂

What does it say about a person – blood donor

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Yesterday I went in to donate blood.

I was answering the donor questionnaire when it hit me: by virtue of being a blood donor, it says a lot about you.

Previously, I wrote about being a gun owner and concealed handgun license holder, and what that says about you. For instance, I’m not a felon, or even a class A or B misdemeanor. I’m not delinquent on taxes. I’m not chemically dependent. I’m mentally fit. I’m not subject to a restraining order. I’m a citizen of the US. And so on. So by simple virtue of saying “I’m a CHL holder” you can tell a lot about the person I am.

Well, the same can be said for being a blood donor. I asked the people at the center about the questionnaire. They said that yes there is an FDA list, so you can be pretty sure that all donor centers across the USA ask these same questions. But then each center may have different questions of their own. For instance, I think she said that some of the blood materials here go to Europe and thus some questions specific to those companies there need to be asked. Makes sense.

I found a copy of the FDA questionnaire here. Some things it tells you about me:

  • I’m eligible and still eligible to donate blood
  • I’ve not recently came in contact with someone who had a smallpox vaccination
  • I haven’t had organ, tissue, or bone marrow transplants, or skin grafts.
  • I’ve not had sexual contact with an HIV/AIDS positive person.
  • I’ve not been with a prostitute.
  • I’ve not stuck myself with needles for drugs or steroids, other than what a doctor may have done.
  • Haven’t been treated for syphilis or gonorrhea
  • Haven’t been in jail for more than 72 hours
  • Haven’t been outside the US or Canada in the past 3 years.
  • Didn’t spend a lengthy amount of time (months, years) overseas
  • Haven’t received money, drugs, or other payment for sex
  • Never had sexual contact with a male, even once.
  • Don’t have HIV/AIDS, never had hepatitis, never had malaria, never had Chagas disase, never had babesiosis, never had a dura mater graft, never had cancer, no heart nor lung problems, never been in or has sexual contact with someone who was born or lived in Africa, never had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

This isn’t something to judge as good or bad. It’s just factual information to take for whatever it’s worth. You cannot and should not read into responses.

I just couldn’t help but think about that while filling out the questionnaire. You tell someone you’re a blood donor, and this is what they can know about you.

Random homeschooling stuff

/ hsoi

I recently joined a mailing list about livestock guardian dogs, and many people on the list of course own farms and ranches. Came across this website for the Red Falcon Ranch and lo, they are homeschoolers. What was interesting to me was seeing their particular approach, because certainly we overlap, but they have some different takes on a few things which I think could be useful for us.

Elsewhere I found this fun little blog called Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Because yes, that’s how a lot of the world looks at us. Fine with me, I’m used to going against the grain and having people stare at me; if all you want to look at is the surface, just shows how shallow you are. *shrug*

What brought me to the WUH webpage was this: The Public School Parent’s Guide to Homeschool Parents. It hit home because yes, so much of the critique and criticism of homeschooling surrounds the children, so it was nice to see something about the parents. She’s pretty spot on and I think even-handed in her treatment of the matter, giving fair insight into the mind and life of a homeschooling parent.

It’s paying off

/ hsoi

So I’ve only been doing it for a couple of weeks, but paying myself first sure feels good.

I’m getting things accomplished, and the day job isn’t suffering either. I feel a bit more balanced, and more things are getting cleaned off my plate. Heck, my email inbox doesn’t require scrolling any more to see the complete contents! 🙂

Yes it requires a higher level of discipline. I can’t keep doing “my work” all morning lest “their work” suffer, so I have to watch the clock and cut myself off. Or I may have to portion and schedule tasks because that task will take two hours to do so it’ll have to wait for tomorrow. I also have found that I’m spending less time on less important things, like keeping up with Facebook. Heck, I’ve given up almost every game on there… well, to be fair I only played Mafia Wars (yeah yeah I know) and Poker, but MW isn’t fun any more and was just a huge time sink. I haven’t touched it in a while now. And poker is poker… no big deal there, I’ll keep that one indulgence (along with Angry Birds on my iPhone). But that I’m doing less of the less-productive stuff is also good. Oh sure, I still make time to play with Wife, Kiddos, and dog (went out and had a nice cigar yesterday evening in the backyard with Wife and Puppy; finished reading book 2 of the “How to Train your Dragon” series to Daughter). All work and no play is closer to how my Dad operates, not me. 🙂

But I’m happy with how this is going. The real test will be if I’ll still be in this mode 3-6 months from now. I’m going to try.

And because of this mode well… I’m going to do something fun later this morning. I’ll report back later.

Breaking into a garage, and how to prevent it

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

A while ago, someone sent me this video on how to break into a garage with a coat hanger and a few seconds:

It relies upon a few things:

  • A garage door with an automatic opener
  • The automatic opener has the pull to release the door from the opener’s track
  • The door has windows, so the person can see what they’re doing. Someone with enough practice and experience could probably do it without a window, but certainly being able to see what you’re doing makes it a lot easier.
  • The door is likely a daily opener, thus there’s no cross bars or other physical devices that prevent the door from opening.

They straighten out the hanger but for a little hook at the end. Wedge the top of the door just enough to fit the hanger in. Hook the hanger on the door release, and pull. Ta da.

There are some things you can do to make life more difficult, like not having windows. If you have windows, covering them or making them harder to see through is better than nothing. If the door is not a daily opener, like for a shop, consider using cross bolts or other hard and fast means of securing the door.

But there’s also something else you can do: zip ties

Wonderful idea… if you have a second hole to put the zip tie through.

I have Genie garage door openers and there’s no second hole. But thankfully, the big black plastic housing has some airspace in the front, in the area just above the release lever. A few seconds with a drill, a hole through the housing, and viola.

She loves texting

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Daughter loves texting.

Wife and I have been conservative in our mobile phone use, which parlays into our choice of service plans. Once Wife got her own iPhone (instead of the old crappy phone we once had), then her friends learned about it, Wife started to receive and thus send lots of text messages. The same happened to me, I blame Jay. 🙂  Originally we did AT&T’s minimum 200 msg/month plan, but I quickly realized that as each month passed we got closer and closer to our limit.

I caved and went for the Unlimited plan. It was only $5/month more, so why not.

I’m glad I did.

Daughter LOVES texting.

My father-in-law had a triple bypass surgery a couple of weeks ago. Wife and Kiddos have travelled up to be there, help out, etc.. I would go, but there’s work and well… Sasha is still a high-maintenance dog (we’re working on this, another topic for another time). So since they are gone and I am home, Daughter misses her Daddy.

She makes up for it by texting.

She uses Wife’s iPhone and folks… I’ll tell you this girl can type. I think texting is improving her spelling, her typing speed, everything. Plus, I think it’s great that she finds it a fun way to be close to Dad even when she can’t be close to Dad.

At this point what I want is an iPhone service plan that doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg. 😉

Basic Home Security

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

Apparently there are a rash of break-ins happening, middle of the night, in neighborhoods in South Austin. We know one of the families that got hit, 2 laptop computers stolen. I’m still trying to get hard details, but the impression I’m left with is they removed the screen on a window, opened the window, got into the house, took 2 laptops, then left by the back door. Nothing broken, just stolen laptops, and easy access to them.

Like I said, I’m still trying to gather information, but I can think of a few things from this:

  • Lock your doors and windows! So many crimes like this are crimes of opportunity. Yes, locks ultimately can’t keep out a determined enough person, but if a criminal wants an easy target, why make yourself an easier target?
    • Make sure they are locked. Close, lock, then tug and ensure. I’ve had a few times where I thought I closed the window the whole way and locked it, but then when I tug-checked the window came up.
  • If you have an alarm system, use it. I know many people with alarm systems but they don’t use them or maybe only use them when they go away for vacation. Why? Do you know when something bad is going to happen? Probably not, so why are you gambling?
    • One of our window sensors went stupid a couple of weeks ago and had to be replaced. The tech noted to me that he was amazed at the number of “zones” (sensors and other things) we had in our house. He said our setup is rare, most people just get something like their doors and a motion detector. While I understand the cost factor (it wasn’t cheap to put a sensor on everything), I don’t understand how “swiss cheese security” actually works well here. Need to have everything secure.
    • Oh, and test your alarm regularly, at least monthly. Ensure the monitoring center is getting the signal.
    • If you have an alarm system, be sure signs and stickers are posted in the yard and on the windows. Make sure they know there’s a warning system.
  • Got dog?
  • Sure a firearm is nice, but let’s put perspective on it. The one family we knew that got hit, by the time they realized what was going on the guy was long gone. And while legally in Texas you can use deadly force in such a circumstance, should you? It will of course depend upon the exact circumstance at the time, but just remember: maximize beer & TV enjoyment.

A truly determined person is going to get what they want. But why make their life easy? Granted, it’s also a balancing act between making your life difficult in exchange. But there are some simple things we can do to minimize such violation and disruption in life. It behooves us to do them.