- Logtar's Blog -

While I was looking forward to the geekfest that was going to be Blizzcon and hanging out with 14 guildies including DeGuia, I was super excited when months ago one of them offered to take me on a “ride-along.” Ever since that day I have been thinking of the Cops – Bad Boys theme playing over and over in my head.

I honestly had no clue what to expect. Watching a TV show and being there in the cop car do not compare. The first thing was to see Charlie in uniform. We had spent most of our time joking and even though I had cop questions before and heard his professional voice he is a funny guy with a great sense of humor. The uniform did not make him intimidating to me since I do know him and have had a couple of drinks with him before, but I could see all the people around me change.

The first stop was the station where I got to fill out a form that pretty much said I could not sue anyone if anything happened to me while I was doing the ride along. It did not scare me, because I do trust Charlie and his capabilities; however, it did make me think of what many reporters do all the time to “get a story.” Thankfully this was no war zone and the weather was nice, but not too nice so not too many crazies would be out.

Even though I could probably go into many of details of the day, I rather talk about what I learned from the experience. I know for a fact that I don’t have the patience to deal with people in this setting. Even though most people see a cop as someone they should respect, it seems like the brain does lock up. Simple instructions are ignored and even though the officer is giving mostly monosyllable commands, people just don’t listen.

One of the biggest challenges I saw was the language barrier. The neighborhoods we were patrolling had some pockets of minorities both Asian and Spanish. He had to deal not only with illegal immigrants driving without a license, but with elderly Asian woman that did not understand the word “stop.” While officers do have the option of getting an interpreter over the phone, it is something that might require time that the officer might not have.

Even on what he called a “slow” day there was call, after call, after call. Even though we were not doing traffic enforcement (I learned quite about this, and its a lot different than here in Chicago out in California.) people still do stupid stuff right in front of a police officer. One thing I will share with you that none my cop friends here in Chicago admitted me is that the older or dirtier the car, the more likely it is that you are going to be pulled over. There really was not much down time.

Any time you are stopped in a parking lot you are checking the computer for pending calls, calls in progress, finishing reports. We had a chance to stop for some food, but he admitted to me that on busy nights he sometimes does not even have a chance to eat. Also the area that he patrols is huge, and even though during his shift he has other officers helping him (and back up from adjacent vicinities) I now understand why the Police in many places feels so understaffed. It has nothing to do with how many people they need, it has all to do with funding.

Charlie has been doing this for a years and he is a very patient man. Most of the cops I have talked to would not be a nice as he was on some of the situations we faced. It was awesome to see all the little details of how he approached situations in a very methodical way and had my safety as one of his priorities. Maybe it was just that we had partied the night before, but after half of his shift I was pretty tired. My back did not like sitting on the car for that long, I cannot imagine what it would be like to sit in a car every single day.

I feel privileged that I had the chance to do this ride along and came out of it with a lot more respect for the job they perform. I have always had a soft spot for law enforcement because I have met so many cops through martial arts and the motorcycle world; but this game me a great view of what is really like. Thanks for an experience that I will never forget Charlie.

We will be in Kansas City very soon, and then later in the month we will be in California. We are looking forward to both trips because of the trips we will be taking.

One of my friends from KC just spent a couple of days up here and we had a blast. You cannot beat going downtown, eating Chicago style pizza and watching the Bears beat on the packers on Monday night football. That memory will last a life time for sure.

It was nice to drive around the city and show him why I love this place so much. He had an awesome time and was thankful for being able to experience the little out of the way places that he probably would have never been to otherwise.

I cannot wait for Daniel to get up here hopefully soon, but better than that we will be spending some time with him at the end of the month. There is also another propane powered go kart race night coming up! so October is looking pretty good.

I have a bunch of stuff half written that will get posted this month, just need some time to finish it up. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and see you soon KC.

My favorite Nurse spammed me… so I figured I would spam Ya’ll

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

Yes, My Dad… the tradition in my family is that my name shall become my Son’s middle name… Daniel John is the name that is currently in the running if mini Logtar shall arrive.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

A couple of weeks back watching an anime that is pretty close to my heart.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?

I do

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?

Salami

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

Nope

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?

YES! I am awesome.
Read more…

So little time to edit and post. I have been writting a while over the past month, but not posted much. It seems like every single time that I sit to edit a post I end up either going in another direction or just making one paragraph a whole post on its own.

Summer is almost over and even though we did not travel around the country as much as I would liked, we die end up traveling internationally and that was awesome and well needed.

I have some extra help at work that is making things a lot easier, so hopefully I will be working less hours overall. It was getting crazy, and it will probably be crazy for a while with some big projects we are working on but I love a challenge.

I am hoping to finish up some posts this week and get back into a good posting routine now that the summer heat is leaving the fall start to set in. It seems writting with the cool weather and the leaves changing is a lot easier.

Hope you all had an awesome labor day weekend.

“One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.”
-Mother Teresa

I think that envy is one of the worst feelings in the world. I think selfishness and envy can feed of each other and corrupt people to their core.

Growing up I went to a private school. Even though my Dad had a good job and he could afford a good education for me, we did not have enough for me to compete on the ratrace that some of my other classmates used to partake on. I could not get the latest Reeboks or Levis, I had to wear knock offs that were often made fun of. Back then I used to hate that, but it taught me a lot of life lessons.

We are not what we wear, what we drive or how much money we have in the bank.

I consider myself a very giving person. I really don’t get too attached to personal possesions (*excluding the ones that have personal sentimental value like the gold necklace that my Mom gave to me.) I have been in sutations where I either had no money, or lost a lot of personal posessions. That also taught me that you don’t need things, and little by litte I understood the difference between the need and the want.

Being sucessful matters little if you don’t have anyone to celebrate that success with.

I constantly see how people are very attached to “things” to the point that they forget about the really important thing, which is people. The fact that we can share both accomplishments and things with others is what makes them really sweet. I will never understand a hermit. I believe that when we interact with other people with true freedom, envy never enters a relationship. We are then able to be truly happy for what others have or achieve.

The biggest lie that envy tells people is that they are above the person they feel jelous about.

Envy comes from feeling inferior to someone else… the problem with this starts when instead of feeling equat and trying to attain the same thing we desire, we start to look for flaws in that other person and try to put them bellow us. That is where I think people begin to give into selfishness. When you start feeling that inside of a community it creates issues, but more important, it messes with your inner peace. I guess I am a little crazy for thinking that strong relationships with other human beings is what makes me rich, rather than the money in the bank or the zip code I live in.