Huzzah! Yes. Quite ready for it. It's gotten off to a good start... not that I expected it to do anything else, but you never know. I know tomorrow will go by quickly and then I'll be at the weekend already... but the good thing is that whole part about only working three days next week.
Hello four day weekend!
And it'll be Thanksgiving. Which means food will be involved. I like to eat. I like to eat turkey. There will also be football involved. I like football. I like watching football. See? A good holiday. Not as good as July 4th... nothing beats The Three Bs... beer, bbq and blowing shit up. Nothing!
Work
We were short staffed, but it wasn't any sort of problem. It just meant that nobody would be anywhere near me all night, unless they were giving a break. Not that they tend to come hang out with me, anyway, but leaving less people just means less possibility. 'Tis a good thing.
Paper work & area searches were completed... Letterman & Ferguson were watched... the remote control to the dvd was unhidden and I watched House all night. Thought about playing video games, but setting everything up is annoying... not that it's difficult or even time consuming. It's just more time consuming than slipping a dvd into the player and pushing play. I didn't feel like doing much more than that, so I didn't do much more than that.
As for the dvd remote control...
The fucking school teachers. We have school in our building. It is part of the city's public school system. We have our our dedicted school teachers (I mean that in both ways that it can be taken, by the way) and our own principal. Our detained youth go to school all year round, with week long strategically placed breaks. (The thought is that most are so far behind in school, they can use their time in our facility to try to get at least somewhat caught up... or not lose any ground, as the case may be.) School is mandatory. You don't go to school, you stay locked in your cell for day.
Anyway...
These fucking school teachers (most of whom I actually like, by the way) come into the facility and think they run shit. (Some more than others.) It's very nerve wracking. Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday of this week the motherfuckers hid the remote control to the dvd player. It's not their remoteortheir dvd player, for that matter, but that's how they roll. They come in and think everything istheirs. It's very annoying.
The remotes for the tv (I have my own, so I don't care about the facility's) and the dvd player have always been kept in the teacher's supply closet on top of the filing cabinet. They keep them there because it's locked and the kids don't have access, but all the teachers and staff do. See?
Well... for this week, they decided to remove both of the remotes and hide them in their office. Now... I would say that this wasn't intentional are their part if they had just left the remotes lying on their desk. But no. First it was in one filing cabinet... the next day, it was in a desk drawer... the next day? Elsewhere yet again.
So, I basically spent 15 minutes three nights in a row, looking for the damned thing. Rifling through their desk drawers and filing cabinets in their office trying to find it.
Of course... if they realize you've been IN their office... let alone rifling through their shit? Then they get all bent out of shape. Staff has no business in there... and no business getting into their desks...
I told Kelly on Tuesday night that if the motherfucking dvd remote was hidden, again, for the 3rd day in a row I was going to find it and then join them in their game. Let's see how they like them apples. Kelly just laughed. I'm not sure if she laughed because she thought I wouldn't doit or laughed because she knew I would. I would expect the latter... but you really never know with these people.
So. Of course, they did hide it again. And I rifled through their shit and found it again. And when I was done with it, I hid it from them. In their own supply closet... just not any place that they'd ever think to look for it. Motherfuckers. Ha. Take that.
When I came onto my pod last night, the first thing I noticed was a note from the teachers written on the white board which asked if any staff had knowledge of where the dvd remote was, could they please return it to the supply closet where it belongs?
That amused me.
Granted. It doesn't take much. So. I used the remote all night and when I was done, I returned it to it's proper place. Hopefully, the motherfuckers learned a lesson. If I have to go hunting for it again, I'll make sure they never ever see it again after I find it. Ever never. They want to play hide and go seek? I can play that game, too. Waaaaaaaaaaay better than they can even imagine.
And yes. I do realize it's childish. I don't care. They started it!!!
Home
It was mighty nippy outside this morning. Under 30F. Still haven't thought about a coat or even a jacket. Had to do a little scraping on the windows to leave work. I hate scraping windows. With a passion. But driving blind is a pretty silly thing to do, so I scrape.
It was foggy, foggy, foggy outside. Like I picture the English Moors would be... like a scene from An American Werewolf in London... couldn't see a damned thing. Really don't appreciate that type of fog so much.
I had to stay in the city (driving wise) since I had to drop of Dexter at Blockbuster. Fortunately, that's on my way and on a main road that leads back to the interstate... so it's all good. They little bit of delay also allowed some of the fog to lift... so the interstate wasn't so foggy by the time I was back on it.
And, amazingly enough, no ice on the bridges.
Which was good since the traffic was skipping along at it's normal well over the speed limit pace. I try to stay off the interstate if the roads are icy... big rigs sliding all over the place and little rigs with idiot drivers who insist on driving 85 mph despite the road conditions... I'd really rather not share asphault with them...
Had the dogs out, ferrets out. Messed around on the computer a big. My nephew was texting me from home and eventually, from school. He found a tattoo he wants to get. He's 16. My sis & bil said that he could get one if he picked one out and then didn't change his mind about his choice for one year. So... his one year officially started today. We'll see if he keeps his choice for the next 364 days. (I think he will, honestly...)
Slept well. Had a dream I no longer remember. I think my sis was in it... but I don't recall.
Mom woke me at 4p and said she didn't feel like cooking anything so she wanted to take me out to the local bbq place. Well... hell... I'm down with that! BBQ? Seriously? I'm all on that. Had a half rack of ribs, those fat ass fries, cole slaw and a cornbread muffin. I love cornbread. I was stuffed when I left.
My nephew had been texting me while I was waiting for food... and I had been answering, but obviously had to stop that when the ribs came. Don't want a messy phone, after all. Ate, came home and the boy started texting me again. He wanted to show me the flash (tattoo art) he had picked out. So I told him to come over. Pretty cool tat... a dagger with a dragon wrapped around it... and some cool smokey type edging.
He stayed after that and we spent the next several hours playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Two man co-op missions. Blasting the shit outta bad guys. Fun stuff.
Now?
Just chillin'. My fingers are cold because before the boy left, we were standing outside bsing... talking about Monte Python, actually, and laughing at ourselves while running lines from The Holy Grail. I hope my fingers warm up. I hate for my hands to be cold. Makes all the rest of me cold, too. (Same thing with the feets.)
It's only 1230a so I suppose I'll be up for a while yet. A couple hours at the least. Then I'll head off to bed. To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub!
Of course... not meaning the same variety of sleep that Hamlet was refering to... oh no. Not that sleep. I would never, ever pull the Dutch act... unless there were some serious extenuating circumstances, anyway. I like myself entirely too much for that business.
Anyway...
I'm doing nothing but rambling on...and quoting literature, apparently, so I think it's time for me to post up an illness of the day and a video of the day... and be on my merry way! (Hey! I rhymed! )
And yes. I know what it is. I knew what it was before I linked it. And no... I didn't get this one from House... though it has been mentioned on House before. I actually got this from The X-Files many moons ago. This is one illness you do not want to get. It is uncontrollable and incurable. Nasty, nasty stuff...
Today's Video
I had so much fun laughing with the boy about Monte Python, I thought that a Python video was an all together fitting and proper way to end this post...
The work week. Almost done. I'm glad. I'm ready. At least I don't feel so tired this evening... I was really tired all last night and had that damned annoying ass headache, too. Not terribly bad... just annoying. It stayed with me most of the night. Got worse during Ferguson... because Ferguson & Lewis Black amused me half to death, and all that laughing made my noggin' hurt more. But it was worth it.
But, regardless... I'm ready for the weekend. 8 more hours of... work... and then I'll be done. And have a short week next week. I'm quite ready for that... though I know it'll zip by like nothing. They always do.
Work
The population hit the big 50. That's still low... but the mid to upper 40s were nicer. The pod that was closed was reopened after one day. See... told you it would be. Shit like that never lasts very long.
Not much else happened. There really isn't much going on. Inmate wise, staff wise or admin wise, honestly. The last edict that admin issued was promptly ignored by everyone. Of course... we all knew such would be the case. I certainly didn't have any intention of paying it any sort of mind, that's for sure. But... that's me and I tend to play by my own rules most of the time, anyway. But... nobody else is paying it any mind, either. Amusing, eh?
I watched Letterman & Ferguson... then played NCAA football on the PS2 the rest of the night. Ferguson was awesome... David Duchovny, who I like a great deal (I love his sardonic sense of humor, the fact that he's not an idiot... and he was Mulder for 9 yrs. How can you not like that?), was on the show. I was amused by David & Wavy the Croc/Aligator's back 'n forth. And Lewis Black following Duchovny. Brilliant!
Black & Ferguson were making fun of the Twilight movies (as well they probably should) and Black commented that he'd rather do what the young people call "cutting" than watch that movie. Ok... that made me start giggling pretty good cuz I think all this Twilight stuff is really silly... and then I started thinking of my supervisor, Kelly, who is all into the books/movies and Robert Pattinson and I knew she was watching Ferguson... and I knew that was going to annoy her... so that made me laugh even more...
And then she called me over the radio to whine about it.
Ok... when she did that? That pretty much sent me right over the edge. Took me about... 2 or 3 minutes to regain my composure enough to answer her over the radio without falling out into giggle fits.
And... yes. I am easily amused.
Home
Dogs out, ferrets out. Isaac ferret is really feeling better now. Last night before work he was beating up Roran... who is much, much bigger (not to mention younger) than he is. Not sure what got that started up, but Roran was trying to run away and Isaac was hot on his heals. And then when Isaac would catch Roran, he (Isaac) would scream like he was being killed. Isaac is deaf, you may recall... he screams bloody murder when he wrestles... win or lose, doesn't matter. Of course, he had no idea how loud he is... but man, he can let loose with some ear-shattering pitches. Wow.
Skipped around Xanga a bit, read my email... sent an email or two. That was about that.
Went to bed... finished up The Gun Seller in bed. Nice read, all told. Laurie did a really nice job. He could probably have a decent career as a writer, if he chose. (Or a musican or probably 10 others things. How the hell does one guy get so much talent and someone like me gets shit? That's soooo not fair!) Everything made sense in the end, he tied it up in a neat little package. A tad predictable... but not horribly so. The protagonist, Thomas Lang, is an entirely likable kid... and, as I mentioned before, quite amusing. Good read. I'd recommend.
I finished the book... I think there were only two chapters left... but one was long as fuck... and by the time I was done, my eyeballs were suitable worn out. Good enough for sleeping, then. (I had not be at all sleepy when I went to bed... had hoped reading would push me over the edge and it did.) And off to sleep I went.
Dream
Strange little dream. Though it sorta made sense. It was a combination of my work, House & The Gun Seller... sorta. Yes, I know... my brain decided to weave a bunch of stuff together. Silly brain.
I was at work... but my work was at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hosptial... only it wasn't... it was my building. But it wasn't a jail, it was a hospital... but the parts that I saw of it, looked exactly like my facility. Minus the jail cells, of course. Funny how you're brain'll do that to you, huh?
I was in the main break room... the one that has an outdoor break area... and I could hear someone trying to break in from the administration area into the break room. That door doesn't lock in real life... but, in the dream it did... there were two people trying to get through it. I kinda thought... "Oh shit", but wasn't really that worried. One voice was a female, the other male... and I was hoping they wouldn't get through.
But they did, of course.
The male person was Dr. Robert Chase... the female was faceless, but her name was Latifa... she came from The Gun Seller. Chase had a gun. Sweeeeeet. Latifa might've two, but I don't think so. And she sorta disappeared, never to be seen again, after Chase got into the break room with me.
So... Chase is there with his assault weapon... and I'm there with my cigarette, wanting to go outside and smoke it. And we both know each other and stuff... and finally, I'm like... I'm going outside. He told me not to because he had a gun. I just looked at him, shook my head at him and told him again that I was going outside. He said he'd shoot me... but I didn't believe him and I told him so... and I went outside. And he didn't shoot me.
When I came back in (yes... I could've gotten away at that point, but I came back into the building. Go figure.), I didn't see Chase anywhere. I went around and started warning other people that he was taking over the building by force. Or with a gun, at the very least. That seemed to freak people out a bit. It didn't really freak me out because I knew he wasn't going to shoot me. And probably wasn't going to shoot anyone else, either.
The last I remember is later finding Chase & Foreman way out back of the facility, burying a dead baby. Chase, apparently, had killed the baby... that was the reason behind the whole take over thing... and Foreman was helping cover up the whole situation... and by default, I suppose I was too, since I didn't tell on him. (If you don't watch House, Chase recently killed a patient intentionally... James Earl Jones, as a matter of fact... but obviously not an infant. And Foreman did help him cover it up... so there ya go.)
The guns and taking over a building came from the last two chapters of The Gun Seller.
I'm amused that I'm as unaffected in my dreams as I usually am in real life. (I'm not an excitable personality... not prone to fear or panic or anything like that typically.) In my dream, I got a guy with a gun threatening to shoot me and I'm still going out for a smoke... ya bastard. That is so me. Of course... if I pulled that shit in real life, I'd probably get my head blown off, huh?
Ah, well...
The God Son
Haven't heard a peep from him since 11/4. I'm not really sure I'll hear from him again for a while... maybe a long while. I'm sure I said a thing or two that hurt his feelings. I usually do. Those things are typically called "the truth" by the rest of us. You know... all those things he wishes not to hear.
His mom told me that his sister said that he came into the bank (she didn't see him, but one of her coworkers did) to cash a check from McDonald's... so at least he seems to have a job. That's something. Also said he was riding with an older lady... so hopefully, he did find some place else to stay, other than his friend's drug dealing parent's house.
I hope so.
I hope that he's not writing me because he's so busy busting his ass working. That's what I hope. I don't know if that's the case... I doubt that it's the case, because history tells me to doubt it. But, I hope. I do. I want him to do things the right way and have a decent life instead of being wrapped up in the criminal justice system his whole life. It's a craptastic way to live... he needs to figure that out before he gets himself dug into a hole he can't dig his way out of...
I just don't know what to think...
Today's Video
I've posted this once before, a while back. This is the digital drum set I'm going to get. (The Roland HD-1) This is by far the best soloist I've found on youtube using this drum set. I love this guy's beats... especially in the beginning. Very cool. Hopefully around the first of the year, I'll own this set!
The weekend. It's almost here. Tonight & tomorrow night, right? Yup. (Had to check my calendar and confirm today actually was Wednesday. Sometimes I lose track.) So. Yeah. Tonight & one more. Not much... but tonight, it seems like a lot. I'm ready for the weekend. I'm tired and right now I have a stupid headache that I woke up with... it's annoying me. It's not so bad that I need to call in sick... on the other hand, it's not so good that it won't get worse and make me miserable later on. Especially, if I stay tired.
Swell.
I'm sure I'll be fine. I probably just need to wake the rest of the way up. I slept really well and woke up still feeling like I needed to be asleep... I dunno. Hard to explain, I guess. It's like needed to catch a second wind before I've ever caught the first one, basically.
Work
Still not too much going on there. It is incredibly quiet. Our population rose a wee bit, but it's still under 50. We worked with only 6 staff last night. (Two of those were supervisors) One of the pods was completely shut down because it was empty. How's that? We even had a sick call for our shift and didn't need to find coverage for that person, because we didn't really need them to begin with... crazy.
How long this trend continues remains to be seen. I'd expect not very long. I'd expect and certainly wouldn't be surprised, to find out that the pod that was closed yesterday is open already today. I don't know that, of course, but I'll assume it's so... because it likely is.
I watched the last season two episode of Dexter last night... then continued on with the 2nd season of House. That was after watching Letterman & Ferguson, of course. And doing the local & LA Times crosswords... completed them both again. Again left the evidence of my superior intellect behind on the male pod staff desk for the idiot staff on 1st shift to contemplate. I know. Not very nice. Don't care.
At least the night went by quickly. Having something to watch... even if it's House... again... passes the time. And I get pretty engaged in House, even if I've seen the episodes before. (I could say the same for The X-Files... I could literally sit and watch the episodes over and over and over and never get tired of them. I should finish off my X-Files dvd collection... I have seasons 1-4 on dvd... just need to get the five that followed.)
The Job
Just a follow up from yesterday, really. Because I wanted to say that, you know... not every single one of these kids fails to make something of their lives. Every now and then... and it is a rare event, believe me... one of these kids will get themselves squared away and end up doing good things with their lives.
In the almost 11 yrs that I've been working in this facility... of all the thousands of kids that have come through the doors and out again in that period of time, I can think of two that have turned themselves around. Now... there may be more. I don't know what every single kid that's been there in the past 11 yrs is doing now. I know where a lot of them are... I see their names in the newspapers or on TV when they've committed their latest crimes or have been murdered or whatever the case may be. But these two stand out.
One is Brandon. Brandon was a bad, bad, bad kid. Nice kid... which sounds contradictory, I suppose... but I always thought he was a nice, pleasant kid. I always liked him and I never had any trouble in dealing with him. But he was a naughty one. He was a hardcore gangbanger, drug dealer... he started coming into our facility when he was 12... he was in and out until he graduated to Big Boy Jail. I always assumed that Brandon would end up killing someone... or someone would end up killing him and he'd spend the rest of his days away from society, one way or the other.
It didn't play out like that, though. Brandon was lucky. Religious folks might say that "God had a plan" for him. I'm not religious so I won't say that. Brandon got caught up in a federal drug investigation. His friends that weren't already dead (13 of his best friends had been murdered in gang violence) ended up in prison. He somehow managed to escape any charges in this drug bust... and it was that bit... having lost nearly all his friends to gang violence or prison, that made him take stock of his life and start doing things differently.
He works now. And he's a rapper. He's actually quite good at it, too. He's not your ordinary rapper. Instead of rapping about the glory of gang life, drugs and what not... he's rapping about the negative aspects to that life style and rapping about positive stuff. He's come into our facility twice in the recent past to talk to your detained youth... it's good to show them that there are other ways of doing things.
At any rate, I'm glad that Brandon is doing things differently. Like I said, I always liked him and thought he was ok... even though he was a bad ass. He's 24 yrs old now... and doing things the right way. That's cool.
The other success story is Armando. Armando was another likable kid. He wasn't in our jail much as a juvenile, but his charges were serious. Armed robbery and the like. He never was never charged as an adult, though, because shortly after he left our facility for the last time, he had a son... and decided that he needed to do things differently for the sake of his kid.
He got a job working at the state pen... and he works part time for us. And yes... that was quite weird at first. For me, anyway. A former inmate is now a coworker... how often do you suppose that happens??? Not often. I like Armando. He is a very, very nice kid. (He's also 24 yrs old now) Hard worker, always on time... nice and pleasant to talk to... no bullshit.
So. Sometimes, there are happy endings. Just not very often.
And, for the record... it may seem like I hate my job... but I don't. I really, really, really dislike a lot of my coworkers and administration and the bullshit that comes along with the job because of idiot coworkers and administration. If the place was well run (and it's not), I'd probably love my job.
But. Since it isn't that way? I'm rather... well, I don't hate my job, but I don't love it either. It's just sorta there... a place I show up 5 days a week to get a paycheck and not much more than that. Just so you know.
Holidays
Next week starts the holiday season, yes? Cool. I like the holiday season as it means time off work and time I get to spend with the family. I like my family. Well. Most of them, anyway. Let's just say I like my immediate family... and I like spending time with them. So the holidays are cool.
On the other hand...
There are members of my extended family that I don't much care for... not after last year's events, anyway. Not that I cared all that much for them prior to last year. I didn't. But, beings as they were family and all, I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
But no longer.
Nope. They crossed a line and it's one that you can't uncross once you've crossed it. You know? What gets me rattled during the holiday... well... as rattled as I'm likely to ever be, anyway... is the fact that now, around this time of year, I have to start thinking (dreading) about having to spend the holidays with these people. Last year, they were kind enough to remove themselves from the equation by traveling to Florida to spend the holidays at their friend's condo on the beach. (You can run that last line through again, with the snottiest Richy Rich voice you can muster... cuz that's how it was presented, when it was presented.)
I was soooooo happy about that last year. I could give two shits where those motherfuckers spent their holiday... on the fucking moon, for all I care. As long as I don't have to share oxygen with them, I'm quite happy. And last year? I was quite happy. They were nowhere in site! It was awesome!
Of course...
Not sure that such will be the case this year. I am crossing all my crossable parts. Because I don't wish to share oxygen with them. Ever. For any reason. The problem is... if they stay here, they will invite us. And if they invite us... my dad will want us to go. And if my dad wants to go? We will all drag our sorry carcasses there, whether we want to or not. For him. Because that selfish ass is his only remaining family, besides us. And despite the fact that his brother is a first class asshole? He still loves him. What're you gonna do? I will not hurt my dad by saying no. Yes... it sucks to be me, cuz I don't want to be around them. But everyone else, but us, has fucked my dad over and hurt him... be damned if I'm going to join that little club. Fuck. No.
So. I hope the motherfuckers find somewhere to go. Somewhere that's not HERE, thanks a bunch. Otherwise, Christmas or one of the days around Christmas is going to suck balls.
What I'd really like... is for them to retire and move the fuck out of the country. I know that sounds like a "that'll never happen" scenario... but that's not true. They've actually talked about it. They lived in Australia for a year and they've talked about retiring and moving there. My uncle is already retired... just waiting on my aunt to be retired. It's probably wishful thinking to think they'll actually do it... but I hope they do.
Of course, I'd owe an entire country an apology... but at least they'd be out of my hair.
Today's Video
Just to prove that all rap music isn't about violence, I present you with this...
For me, anyway... I'm a day ahead of y'all since I work nights. I'm glad. That it's hump day, I mean. We're on the downhill slide. That's a good and happy thing.
And next week is Thanksgiving... right? So a short week as I have Wed, Thurs, Fri & Sat off. I'll only have to work three days. That will be nice. Won't be nice having to go back after, but... I'll take what I can get.
Work
Uhm... not a whole lot going on, truthfully. The overall population has now dipped below 50. That's pretty amazing, considering it's a week before Thanksgiving. Usually, this time of year our population tends to start rising, not falling. Go figure why it's doing the opposite this year.
Nobody is complaining. We haven't had this sort of thing happen for a good long while. Like... years. It would be nice if it got to the point where they started offering people who wanted it, time off. It's happened before... when this building first opened. The population would get low and they'd have too many people working. They wouldn't force anyone to leave... but if people wanted to go home and burn a vacation day, they could. It's nice to have an option, if you want to take it, you know?
Of course... that's when the building was almost completely fully staffed. (We've never been 100% fully staffed. Ever.) Now we're running on fumes, staffing wise. If the population dipped that low, it would likely have zero effect on 3rd shift as we're already a skeleton crew.
Whatever.
Not going to cry about it. And not going to complain about the low population. You enjoy such things whilst you can in corrections. Yes... it makes things downright boring, truthfully... but that's not necessarily a bad thing when you're speaking of corrections, as you might imagine.
Most of last night I spent watching Dexter... after watching Letterman & Ferguson & finishing both the local & LA Times crosswords. I finished both of the puzzles (they seemed really easy, for whatever reason) and left them on the male pod staff desk... because those idiots always try to do the crosswords and always fuck them all sorts of up. I like letting them know that not everyone that works there is as dumb as they are. And I always do my crosswords in pen... so there's no doubt about how many tries it took me to get the right answer. (Their puzzles are always so scribbled up or fouled up from excessive erasing that you can't even try to finish what they've been working on...)
Yes. I can be one conceited, egotistical bastard.
Tuesday
IHop. Didn't have to wait long for my friend to arrive this time around. This is our 2nd stop at IHop since she's moved back with her parents. Since she now lives on the opposite side of town from the IHop, I can no longer stop at her place and pick her up. (She used to live 2 blks from IHop... now she's clear across town.) So, we have to meet there. The last time I was there for a good 15 mintutes before her. This time, it was more like 5 minutes, if that. We're going to have to get our timing squared away.
What helped this time around was that she was awake at 0430 this morning... so she was already to go by 0600 when I got off work. Of course, I still beat her there... despite the fact that I was further away (waaaaay on the other side of town), stopped to get gas and had to drive through downtown rush.
Some people would be late to their own funerals, you know?
My Job
I have some new subbers... or newer subbers, anyway... and I keep getting peeks from people from hither and yon... coming here from someone else's comment section. (Either because they liked my comments or hated them... haven't really determined which. Knowing me, that could go either way. )
I am a detention officer (correctional officer, if you prefer. Technically, we'd be detention officers, but I usually use the CO abbreviation cuz DO looks stupid and people more people know what a CO is than a DO.) in a juvenile detention facility.
Yes. A kiddie jail.
It is a jail not a prison. And yes... there is a difference. Jail is for people who have not yet been found guilty for the charges they are facing. Prison is where people go after they've been found guilty. Ok?
The average stay for an inmate in our facility is two weeks. But depending upon the charges they face and whether they are in the adult or juvenile court systems, inmates may be held up for years. The average stay numbers are really skewered by the fact that we get kids that come in from out of town/out of county placements to go to court hearings they have here... they come in, they spend the night, they go to court, they go back to their placement. Making it a "one day" stay.
I would guess the real average stay to be somewhere around 4 to 6 weeks... for those in juvenile court. Those in adult court? Depends upon what they're accused of doing... a week to a year or more. (The adult court system moves much more quickly than the juvenile court system, unless you have captial offense crimes such as homicide or things of that nature.)
Our average inmate age is about 15 to 16 yrs old. Inmates can be in this facility until they turn 19, if they are under juvenile court jurisdiction OR are in custody of the state department of health & human services and until they are 18 if they are under adult court jurisdiction. There is no minimum age limit.
We have had a child as young as 10 yrs old in our facility... and we almost always have a few 18 yr olds.
The youth that I deal with on my job are gangbangers, drug dealers, murderers, rapists, car jackers, armed robbers, burglars, etc. Some are in for minor shit... shoplifting, disturbing the peace, petty theft, joy riding... others are in because of status offenses (a status offense is an offense that is only illegal if you're a minor) such as minor in possession of alcohol or tobacco, truancey, etc. Many of our detained youth have addiction issues and mental health issues. Some have histories of being abused and abusing. (Vicious circle, that.)
The 10 yr old, because I'm sure someone will ask, was in our facility because he shot and killed a 4 yr old with a BB gun. It was not a malicious act. More like a freak accident, due to lack of supervision. The little boy had no idea of what he had done. None. (And he didn't stay but 2 or 3 days.) What happened was that he found a BB gun (I believe in a trash can, but this has been a couple yrs ago so some of the details are fuzzy.) and was playing with it. He & his little friends were taking turns shooting each other with it.
Eventually, they ran out of willing volunteers to be shot... I have to assume this is because they're realized getting shot with a BB gun smarts a little bit, but that's just a guess on my part. When nobody else would volunteer, the 4 yr old boy did... I suppose he just wanted to be like the older kids. That's how little ones are, right? So... the 10 yr old shot him in the chest. Freak accident... the BB went right between two ribs and into the 4 yr old's heart. And he died.
Currently, I work in the area that is essentially a group home type situation. It is in the same building as the jail proper, but they are seperate. The youth in my area have been set to a "less restrictive" placement by a judge. Typically, these kids are less hardcore, if they're older kids... and just beginning their life of crime, if they're younger kids. They also tend to be somewhat younger or if not younger, less mature.
In my area, we don't have cells... we have bedrooms. With real beds & real blankets and comforters. They also have real desks. The doors do not lock from the inside, which means these inmates can leave their rooms at will. (They do lock from the outside to keep inmates out of each other's rooms.)
Honestly, there is really very little that ever happens back there. Which is why I get to sit and watch TV all night. I'm like in the Romper Room area of the jail, you know? Like criminal kindergarden.
Also
If I mention an inmate's name... or a coworker's for that matter (or cop, judge, probation officer, etc) understand that the names I write here are assumed names, aliases... whatever you want to call them. I never ever ever use an inmates or coworker's real name. Ever. I need to be able to maintain plausible deniability if anyone from work ever stumbles across this little bunch of nonsense.
This also means I won't tell you my name, where I live (specifically, anyway) and I won't post any photos of me. Period. No matter how many times you ask, it won't happen.
I always use first names for aliases for everyone... even though I would be hard pressed to tell you some of my coworker's real first names... because we all go by our last names at work. I only do that because it's much easier to come up with a multitude of first names to give everyone than it is sur names.
The job can be physically and emotionally taxing. There is very little reward in doing the job, to be prefectly honest. You hope you are impacting some of these kids in a positive way, but the truth is that most of the kids that pass through our facility will go on to more sophisticated criminal careers... or, at the very least, be petty criminals their entire lives. Many, many, many end up in prison. Repeatedly. Until they kill someone. Then they go and stay for ever and ever.
Two things you learn working this job: How to talk to people and how to keep an emotional distance. If you don't learn to effectively communicate, you will get your ass beat at some juncture. That's a given. If you can't talk to people (inmates) respectfully and without being judgemental, you're going to get your ass beat. If you treat inmates like animals, they will behave like animals and YOU will be their victim. It is that simple. And... if you don't learn to keep an emotional distance (which is hard for some people because, regardless of what they've done, these are children that we're dealing with...) you will not survive in this job and you will make yourself bat shit crazy. You can like a kid. You can really like a kid... but you can't put an emotional investment into that kid. You just can't do it.
Which sounds really cold, I suppose. But it's the truth. We get hundreds of kid through our doors every year. Hundreds... maybe even a thousand a year. If you emotionally attach yourself to every kid that walks in the door, your cheese will slide off your cracker in about 6 months time. Because they never stop coming in the door and they never stop going out. If each one of them takes a little bit of you with them when they go? Soon there won't be any of you left. Know what I mean?
So. That's how that goes.
If you have questions about the jay oh bee, just ask. I'll be happy to answer what I can.
Weather
It hasn't snowed. It's not even in the forecast any more, thank goodness. It is colder though. I'm inside and I'm cold. Especially my toes. That annoys me. If I didn't have to work (and had wood on hand!), I'd build a fire, make my futon into a bed and lounge in the warmth whilst watching TV and cuddling with my pup.
But, alas... such is not the case. Off to work I must go.
It's supposed to be back in the mid 50s in a day or two. That's good I guess. Better than freezing one's ass off, anyway. At least I think so. Your mileage may vary.
If You Can...
Spare a nickle or dime (or dollar or three) or if you're in the area of this shelter (Oregon), help them out if you can. This shelter just pulled 47 ferrets from known ferret hoarder/collector named Jen Morrison. Due to the influx of rescued ferrets, their shelter population increased by 200%.
Dontations do not need to be monetary. You could donate cleaning supplies (paper towels, trash bags, cleaning fluids, etc), bedding (old towels and blankets or store purchased items). food and/or litter (contact the shelter to see what they use), gift cards to stores like Wal-Mart, etc.
If you're close, you can probably even donate your time. (Most shelters appreciate a helping hand, but contact the shelter if that's something you'd be interested in doing.)
The best way to find out what the shelter really needs is to contact them. (Contact info is at the top of the page on the link above.)
House
Just a couple of House photos from director/co executive producer Greg Yaitanes...
Yaitanes said we should not trust Jesse Spencer.
I guess you can figure who's office this might be...
An Amusing Headline
As tweeted by Stephen Fry...
Only a European paper would print such a smashing headline!
Today's Videos
The first is a very cool wildlife story from a National Geographic photographer. Very, very cool. The 2nd is a promo from next week's House epsiode.
How awesome is that???
"I feel like Mike Tomlin... probably not as much as you do..."
Had to add the photo or that amusing (to me, very amusing) comment makes no sense to anyone but Steeler's fans who happen to also be House fans. (Like me.) Omar Epps on the left, Mike Tomlin on the right.
The weather missed us. I'm glad. I hate snow. Some places to our south got around 8" of the stuff. Good place for it, I say. It was snowing at work when I went outside at 0100 on my break... but by the time I headed back in, it had changed back to rain... sprinkly rain, nothing serious. It's just to warm here at the moment.
Though it feels colder because now the wind is blowing at a fair clip and out of the north as well... so the air temp may be around 45F, but with the windchill, it's in the 30s some place. Still haven't broken out a coat. I have a windbreaker in my truck (and two blankets... I'm not stupid), but I haven't worn it yet, excpet one day when it was pouring rain.
It's that cold tolerance thing. I'm usually the last person (that I know) who moves into a coat for the winter and the first person who moves back out of it when spring rolls around. I don't really like wearing coats. They're bulking and annoying and only good when you're outside... the minute you walk indoors, you're hot. (Well... I am, anyway.) Just a pain in the ass, as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather avoid them as long as possible.
Work
Went by quite nicely, actually. Due to the fact that I had books to read. I spent the entire 8 yr shift (well... probably 7 hrs of it, anyway) reading The Gun Seller. I started with that since I'd already started reading it at home. I suppose I am a good 2/3 of the way through the book now. I like the book quite a lot, I think. What I can tell you of the book so far... without giving anything away, in case you decide to read it some day...
The book is funny. Sometimes, most of the time perhaps, it's chuckle funny... but every now and then you get a good laugh out loud moment. The protagonist, Thomas Lang, is a funny kid. Quite witty and his internal ponderings are where most of the laugh out loud moments come.
The story makes sense. So far. I mean... everything seems rational and orderly and in it's place... plot wise. Which is good cuz there seems to be a hell of a lot going on that both Thomas & the reader need to figure out. Can't say if Laurie manages to tie up all these ends into a pretty bundle at the end, because I'm not at the end.
As I said before, the prose & dialogue are very much Hugh Laurie... or more correctly, what I know of Hugh Laurie. (I surely don't know the man personally, so I can only honestly say only that much, right?) I've had a hell of time pushing Hugh out of my head and making Thomas Lang not be Hugh Laurie because of that fact. I've managed to get him pushed out a bit... but only a bit. I could maybe push him out completely, but by then the book will be finished and it won't matter, right? I believe Laurie wrote a screen play for this book... (and he's written or writing a second book The Paper Soldier... no idea when that's to come out.) and I think it would make a decent movie... and I think, Hugh Laurie would've made a wholly believable Thomas Lang. 15 years ago. I think he's a bit too old to carry the role now... though I suppose anything's possible.
It's not a serious book. It's... I wouldn't say it's fluff, because it's not. It's something fun to read, that you don't have to think too hard about... a nice way to spend a few hours, if you've got a few to spare.
The main thing that is distracting for me is the Brit English. Not the slang. I know a fair amount of Brit slang... so I haven't gotten lost on any of that. It's the Brit spelling of words... and it's only distracting because the different spellings catch my eye and I immediately go into editor mode and want to "correct" the spelling. Then I have to calm down and tell myself it's not misspelled, just spelled differently. 2/3 of the way through the book, I'm getting better at ignoring it.
It's not words like humour or armour or theatre that bug me. I spell theatre that way myself. (No idea why) and about 75% of the time I try to spell armour like I just did. (It looks better to me, but I always correct it back to the American version.) No... not those words. It's words like authorisation or some such thing... where in American English, we'd use a "z" and not an "s". Or tyre. My brain about exploded when it saw that.
A decent read, really.
Wasn't much else...
Work related, you know. Had a couple of kids come in. The PD kept one of them. He wasn't going to be an inmate either way, as he was considered a runaway. We were just going to hold him until placement could be found for him... but the officer that brought him decided to keep the kid himself until placement could be found. Firstly because he knew it would leave us short staffed (you can't lock up a runaway, so somebody has to sit with them the whole time.) and perhaps he was having a slow night? I really don't know the reason. I just know that stuff like that never happens. Usually the cops can't get out of the building fast enough. I told Jake that we needed to send that officer a Christmas card & a bottle of scotch for being a stand up guy.
The 2nd kid came in shortly after the 1st one left. He was drunk. But cooperative and all that stuff. He's not a bad kid, really. He just keeps coming into jail (he just left a couple of weeks ago) because he enjoys alcohol and weed. So, there ya go. I was listening to him, the officer & our people on the intercom... kid was drunk... but honest. Owned up that it was his own fault. He wasn't mad at all... actually, he was in good spirits.
That was about the grand extent of it at work. Malachai called me and we chatted for a while. About what? I honestly can't remember, to be truthful. The goings on there, that I remember... just can't remember what specifically. Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, I suppose.
Tonight
House! Forty five minutes from now, I'll be curled up on my futon, under my most lovely blankie... watching my favorite program. That is a good thing. My week started out bad with the Steelers losing... being swept yet, by the stooooopid Bengals. Ack. But... now we can set the week right again! House! IHop Tuesday! (Yes. I am easy. Thought that would've been clearly evident prior to now. )
At work, I'll be back on my regular post... watching Letterman, Ferguson... and then Dexter. Finishing up season 2 of Dexter, I think. I don't really know. My friend really wants to me really like this show. But... to me? It's just an ok show. Not great, not terrible. Just ok. I'd probably really like the show, as I've said before, if I really liked Dexter himself. But I don't. I mean... I don't dislike him, either. Actually feel sorry for him, but... there is nothing about the character that draws me to him. Nothing. I do like the character of Angel, though. He is the bright spot for me in the show.
On the bright side... having two discs to watch will give me something to do for a couple of days. At least she's helping to keep me entertained at work. Right? Right.
That'll probably be the grand extent of my night. Exciting, I know.
Today's Video
A video trailer for Modern Warfare 2. Which I've already finished. Good game... too short. Graphically, very nicely done. I do think they need better voice acting, but that's just me. Everyone else is buying it to blast the blazes out of pixalated human beans. Well... I bought it for that, too, but I like everything to be good... like in the Uncharted games. No such luck with this one, I'm afraid...
True
Premium
Yes. Quite ready for it. It's gotten off to a good start... not that I expected it to do anything else, but you never know. I know tomorrow will go by quickly and then I'll be at the weekend already... but the good thing is that whole part about only working three days next week. 
That's pretty amazing, considering it's a week before Thanksgiving. Usually, this time of year our population tends to start rising, not falling. Go figure why it's doing the opposite this year. 
