News: September 2000

September 30, 2000
Carlotta came in from the coast for a muffler repair to her car and found enough time to spend the night before heading back. The group of us, Carlotta, Erin, and I, attended Matt's pinochle birthday party and were, with Dennis' tutelage, able to keep from embarrassing ourselves more than half a dozen times collectively with the card game. Or maybe that's wishful thinking. Either way, we were able to help Matt celebrate the start of year number 28 by eating lots of yummy food, and in case I've not made it clear up to now, that's one of my preferred methods of celebration. Happy birthday, Matt!

I also took the opportunity to talk up Apple stock which took a giant beating in the market yesterday, dropping from 50-something to about $25 a share. Considering that Apple has $3.8 billion in cash and short-term securities and that they will announced profits of around $110 million for the quarter, I think $25 a share is a steal. The G4 Cube has its problems (namely price and lack of expandability), but the iMac and the G4 Tower machines remain excellent computer purchase options.

Health update: Grandma's neurosurgeon has given her a clean bill of health based on last week's CT scan. Said that a little depression and little memory loss are not uncommon but that those symptoms should get better in 60-90 days. Wants another CT scan in December to make sure that everything's still tip-top.

Heath update, p2: My knee is still bunged up, but I'm now able to walk, and maybe—just maybe—jog lightly on the treadmill. I feel like I've been plumping up like a fatted calf without being able to exercise for the past two weeks, so I'll be thrilled once I'm able to resume an exercise routine.

September 28, 2000
Last night's Citizens' Police Academy covered Gangs and Officer Safety. Here's a brief info dump from the Gangs class:

There are 9 or 10 active gangs in Salem.
Altogether there are about 1200 kids in gangs in Salem and surrounding municipalities. The usual gang member is age 15 to 19, though some kids as young as 10 are being recruited.
The Salem Police Gang Unit is technically part of a multi-agency task force called HIDA (High Intensity Trafficking Areas). This allows them to call on outside resources like the FBI, etc. as needed.
Gang crimes have plummeted in the last few years, something Sgt. Beverly attributed directly to the mandatory minimum sentences of Measure 11.
In the last two years, gang crimes have fallen 37 percent and shootings are down 87% percent. Homicides have gone from 5 in 1998 to zero in 1999. As of last night, it's zero for 2000 as well.
Known gang members in Salem are subject to a "stop and frisk" policy on the basis of the reasonable expectation that they're carrying a concealed weapon. I questioned the constitutionality of this, but apparently the police continue to arrest gang members with concealed weapons, so the "reasonable expectation" continues to exist. The police would be blocked by virtue of the Fourth Amendment from using this "stop and frisk" routine against most citizens in most circumstances.
The police team-up with parole officers to visit gang member parolees together. Because the parole officer has the power to search the living quarters of the parolee (the police officer doesn't without permission or a search warrant), they can combined powers to keep parolees on a lawful path or put them back in jail.
Gang members typically leave gangs for one of three reasons: (1) they're dead; (2) they're in jail; or (3) they have kids and decide they'd rather change their ways and spend life with their kids than suffer options 1 or 2.

The Officer Safety speaker, Sgt. Hayes, was highly entertaining and provided many interesting stories. He also was willing to field any type of police-related question, something I found very helpful. I'm thinking that when I do a ride-along, I may want to try to get him.

One of the questions: What should a driver do if he's pulled over for a traffic infraction, particularly if this happens at night? Officers can't see into the car usually, and nighttime stops are consequently more tension-filled for the officer as a result. The answer: Turn on the emergency lights, turn on any interior lights (so the officer can see in), and keep your hands on the wheel until he can see into the car. If you start digging around under the seat or in the glove box or wherever before he can see in, he doesn't know if you're going for your registration or your gun. According to Sgt. Hayes, 1 in 5 traffic stops leads to additional action, meaning a tow or an arrest.

Good classes. Next week: Recruiting/hiring/training and Patrol techniques and tactics.

Finally, let me say one quick political word—something you, dear reader, should feel free to skip if you don't want to be assaulted with a political pitch:

EVERY police officer I have spoken with is strongly in favor of Measure 11 and the mandatory minimum sentences it brought to the Oregon criminal justice system. At the time of the ballot measure, I was opposed to the Measure 11 (1) on the basis of cost (and it did cost a bloody fortune to build prisons) and (2) because it didn't attack the root problem of crime which I believe is one of education (or lack thereof).

That said, I was wrong in the sense that Measure 11 was clearly needed to insure that criminals went to and stayed in jail. The sentences being handed down by some judges for some utterly heinous crimes were ridiculously short, and, frankly, justice was not being served.

The current ballot measure to overturn Measure 11 is misguided. Measure 11 only deals with personal crimes (meaning murder, rape, assault, etc.) not property crimes. People sentenced under Measure 11 should serve a good long time (though Oregon even with Measure 11 is very soft on crime compared to many other states). Overturning Measure 11 at this point makes no sense. The prisons have been built, the crime rates have dropped, and the violent criminals are in jail. If we repeal Measure 11 expect to see the crime rate shoot back up.

One final note. Those people claiming that their son, daughter, significant other, etc. is serving an unfairly long sentence due to Measure 11 are advocating the release of someone convicted in a court of law, and that someone was convicted of a violent crime (murder, rape, assault, etc.). The easiest way to avoid being convicted of a Measure 11 crime is not to be criminal, and my own opinion is that we could double the Measure 11 minimum sentences and society would probably be even better off.

September 26, 2000
— WARNING! Spoilers for the film Magnolia ahead.—

I watched Magnolia, an extraordinarily well-made film with the important weakness that it was also extraordinarily pointless. A more apt title might have been "To Live and Die in LA," though I know that's already taken. The director, P.T. Anderson (he of Boogie Nights fame), is talented and weaves a magic spell of multiple storylines with a very sure hand, but ultimately, he has virtually nothing to say other than "life sure has a lot of coincidences, doesn't it?"

This is not what I consider terrifically insightful.

A secondary but hardly less important objection is that at almost 3 hours in length, Magnolia represents a powerful dose of depression. We're getting hit with one deeply flawed character after another in very dark storylines. The conclusion is at least moderately hopeful, but this is a lot of bilge water to wade through.

The acting is excellent—particularly Tom Cruise—but the character differentiation is nonexistent. Swap the players' dialogue around. Those same dour, depressing lines could come from any of them, really. Also, the language is some of the more vulgar in recent memory for a major motion picture. That's fine when it serves the story, but this was way over the top and in the case of Julianne Moore, if you were to cut the dirty stuff, she'd almost be a mime.

Still, nothing in the film was worse—including the bizarre climax of frogs falling from the heavens—than Anderson's dreadful choice two hours into the proceedings to turn this into a musical. In one of the most jaw-droppingly stupid moves in modern cinema, characters—comatose and otherwise—literally break into song onscreen for about two minutes. Then the insanity subsides, and it's on with the rest of the show. It's a mood- and meaning-destroying action from which the film never recovers, but in the end, there was no substantial point anyway, so perhaps a better question than "why did he do that?" is "who cares?"

Do yourself a favor. Rent something else.

September 24, 2000
Pretty casual day in the neighborhood until this evening when I had to go down to the park to yell at a bunch of skateboard-carrying dopers about lighting fires. Erin and I noticed them doing it from the house, and I hobbled down to the park—my knee is still less than 100 percent—to give them hell. Fortunately they had stomped all the fires out, but I took down their license plate number and called the police anyway.

Officer Emmons and I walked down to the park where we were able to pick up part of a little plastic baggie. Drug tests showed this to have held "crank"—something that obviously made me feel terrific. Nothing like learning that the dopers have moved on to harder drugs to really make your day.

The drug house where a lot of this crap is coming from is right down the street, and I gave all the information I had about it. Our neighbor Fred also came out of his house and joined in with what things he had observed. In the end it felt like a fairly productive step forward in terms of dealing with neighborhood issues.

I'm looking forward to the Citizens Police Academy session on Drug Enforcement, but unfortunately it's one of the later sessions so I've got about a month to wait. I'm choosing to see that as additional time for me to gather evidence.

September 23, 2000
Today was Emergency Vehicle Operation (EVOC) day with the Citizens Police Academy. Some quick stats:

Patrol officers are 8x more likely to be in a car accident than your average yokel
An average of about 150 officers die in vehicle-related accidents per year (based on 1997 statistics). That's more than are shot.
Nationwide, an average of 5500 people are injured each day and 650 killed each week in vehicle-related accidents.

After two hours of classroom instruction filled with sobering statistics like those, we took six police cars down to an old airfield in Corvallis that's used for police training. Driving the Ford Crown Victorias, each with an enhanced V-8 engine and four-wheel ABS, was just as much fun as one might imagine. Well, maybe more.

We started with a winding road course which we drove through once at a reasonable speed and then with enough acceleration on the straightway to blow your hair back. We used a driving technique called "shuffle steering" which allows one to drive with a minimum of motion and without crossing arms. It's not terrifically easy to unlearn years of driving habits, but I did pretty well with it.

I did much worse with the series of braking tests with followed. All the cars, as I noted, have a four-wheel ABS (Antilock Braking System). Because ABS works, in essence, by quickly locking and unlocking the brakes, the shortest stopping is actually achieved by braking the car before the ABS engages. I found this to be challenging.

My lack of experience in emergency braking showed. My stops were consistently smooth but long—perhaps to the point where I should've just stomped on the brakes to get into ABS. At one point we setup some cones to represent a Girl Scout troop crossing the road (I started this exercise by publicly apologizing to the Girl Scouts of America) and did the emergency braking again. Technically this training session consisted of driving 45 MPH, hitting the brakes and trying to stop within about 40 feet. I took out the Girl Scout troop leader cone at least twice.

Happily, the remainder of the maneuvers were good ones for me. There was a backing exercise which, for a former forklift drive like me, was a piece of cake. Cop cars don't have much in the way of a turning radius but no biggie.

The final test was a reaction test. You drive a car at 55 MPH toward three lanes. The instructor uncovers a signal device which shows red, yellow or green. Depending on the colors, you go through a specific lane (green), tap on the brakes (yellow), or brake entirely (red). The default lane is the center since the car is easiest to control in a straight line.

Examples: A color combination of red, red, green would be a hard swerve into the right lane. Green, Yellow, Yellow = hard swerve into the right lane. Yellow, yellow, yellow = center lane with slight tap on the brakes. Red, red, red = straight hard stop.

Anyway, I did some great swerving and such through this test. I'm happy to report that my reaction times—probably honed through countless hours of Carmageddon—were excellent.

We concluded the day with another series of high speed runs though the road course then I had the privilege of driving one of the squad cars up Interstate-5 back to Salem. Yet another thrill in a day full of them, but I learned a lot about driving as well.

Luck also was on my side as I arrived home in time to see our friends Esteban and Jenn who, with their kids Anna and Lili, were visiting from Vancouver. We talked about all manner of things (jobs, houses, kids, soccer, etc.), and I was particularly grateful to hear about their experience of having and raising kids while teaching since Erin and I will have to contend with that to a certain extent as well.

September 22, 2000
I drove up to Portland this morning with Dad to visit Grandma and take her to the hospital for a CT scan. We won't officially know the results until she meets with a neurosurgeon next week, but Dad and I both sat in the CT control room and observed the scans and everything looked okay to us (and, importantly, to the CT technician). Since the tech didn't see the need to call the Radiologist and Grandma was free to go immediately afterward, we're thinking all is well.

Also significant is Grandma's improved mental state. It's now three weeks since her surgery, and she's a little tired yet, but her mental awareness and conversational abilities are really both almost completely back to form. And physically, of course, she remains fine. It appears, thankfully, that a full recovery is in the cards.

This evening Erin and I watched Erin Brockovich, the highly regarded Julie Roberts flick from last year. Julie Roberts, who've been increasingly impressed with since I saw Notting Hill, is again very good. This movie, a true story, is a good vehicle for her and a touching picture. Ultimately, Erin Brockovich is a good rental (though with a warning for those offended by dirty language), but I'm not sure how well it would stand up to repeated viewing. It wins big points for being a true story, but this also leaves a few things rather unresolved in the end. Recommended anyway.

September 20, 2000
This evening's Citizen Police Academy class covered Dispatch and Crime Scene Investigation. Both were interesting and highly informative.

Some quick facts about the 911 Dispatch center:

Their phone bill from Qwest runs about $25,000 a month. The public pays for this with a 75 cent per line charge on each phone bill.
Much of this bill comes from "enhanced 911" which is essentially like having Caller ID plus an address.
Because there are 13,000 phone number changes in the Salem calling area each month, two 911 staff members work full-time maintaining and updating the enhanced 911 database.
The dispatch center averages 1500 calls in each 24 hour period. Of these, 500 are 911 calls.
The dispatch center coordinates 20 agencies (fire, medical, police) in various municipalities covering a range of 1900 square miles.
Dispatch has 63 employees, each of whom works four 10-hour days per week. Overtime is common. Because the center operates 24/7/365, employees will miss holidays by necessity and are always on call. The center is hiring eight more employees by next spring. (Last hiring session they had 125 applicants.)
Starting salary at the center is $12.69/hr plus benefits.
Although they don't keep stats on it, the training supervisor estimated about 5 percent of all calls are "joke" calls. This can now be prosecuted as a crime, though a few years ago the only recourse on such calls was a letter to the address saying on this date such and such happened. Threatening calls could be prosecuted as harassment.
The testing of potential employees is extensive. The ability to multitask is essential.

We listened to a few 911 tapes, and let me recommend against this as something to do in your spare time. It is very depressing to listen to people panicking and crying for help.

The Crime Scene Investigation session was sort of like going over stuff from TV show. DNA evidence, how evidence is collected, what police detectives look for...we went into all this stuff. One of the things I thought that was remarkable though was just how easy it seemed to be to commit a murder and get away with it. There is a lot of work required to come up with the necessary evidence for an airtight case, and it sure looked to me to be a pretty simply matter to throw off the police trail.

Fortunately, though, most killers are idiots.

September 19, 2000
My cold is just about gone in what has to be one of the fastest turnarounds I've ever made from that sort of thing. The swelling in my leg is down and I've not had any spasming today. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed on that one, though. My leg definitely isn't 100 percent yet.

Looks like Erin will only be teaching five classes this year instead of the normal six. There's an outside chance that another French class could open up because the students per class level is high, but there are definitely no slots in English.

As this means a 17 percent drop in income, we're obviously less than thrilled, though Erin will probably be able to do some substitute teaching throughout the year to make up some of that. And my company—though still in an early building stage—may contribute a little more in the coming year as well.

At the same time, there's always the possibility that if all this leads to a much lower stress level for Erin, these events may become one of those great "blessings in disguise" things. Jury's still out. We'll see.

September 17, 2000
Dave stayed over last night and we spent our time—for the most part—installing a new 40 GB Maxtor hard drive into his Blue and White G3. The B&W Revision 1 has an IDE controller issue which unfortunately prevents two drives from working simultaneously, but the 40 GB Maxtor was a nice space increase over the 6 gig he was using before. (If one wants to use 2 or more drives with a Rev. 1 B&W G3, the solution is to buy a third-party IDE controller PCI card.)

I did a little yard work, but I'm afraid that brought up the level of swelling in my leg (especially around my knee) to painful proportions, so it looks like I'll have to stay off it for awhile longer. Been alternating heat and ice and popping some Advil, but none of those as religiously as I should. Gonna have to do better though, but this condition is leaving me unable to walk in certain circumstances, and that's plainly a huge downer.

On the brighter side, I'm just about over the cold that's plagued me for the last several days.

Happy birthday to our nephew Jared who yesterday celebrated birthday number 1.

September 14, 2000
My knee is still a problem, though I think it's now less the knee itself and more the surrounding muscle tightening up. I'm going to do an ice-heat-ice-heat treatment all day to see if that improves matters. According to Joe, the two treatments actually end up working together rather than negating one another, so I'm looking forward to seeing if it will work that way for me too. What I don't think it will have any impact on is the cold I'm coming down with.

Last night's Citizen Police Academy was another great one. I once again came away very impressed by the Salem Police department. The first course was Media Relations. The bottom line: The department tries to be as open as possible with the media and to develop trusting relationships with the press. One longtime Statesman-Journal police reporter, Jan Davies, received considerable praise from several officers, though it was evident that the Statesman-Journal itself is rather contemptuously regarded. (Much like it is throughout the rest of Salem.)

The second class, Use of Force, was fascinating. We reviewed a "force continuum" and talked about what levels are appropriate and when. Police presence in itself is the first level, but we reviewed everything on up the ladder as well. For example, we went over so-called "pain compliance" techniques—essentially pushes on pressure points which cause pain but no permanent damage—which are used to force people to move in a certain way. The instructor even passed around a Glock 9mm, two different style handcuffs, a leg restraint, ammo, mace, a baton, and other police toys. We concluded with a shoot/don't shoot drill that made abundantly clear how difficult the job of the police is in many deadly force situations, and I for one am glad not to be making those kinds of decisions on a daily basis.

September 12, 2000
Soccer at Bush Park was survivable this evening, given that I iced up my knee afterward. I'm sure I'll be a little hobbled tomorrow, but I've done that scene before, so I figure I'll manage. The game at Bush is mostly 30 to 50 year-olds, and with my bum knee, bad back, and lack of physical conditioning, I fit right in. Actually, I do better than most, something I'd find funnier if I weren't so sore right now.

September 11, 2000
Erin and I rode up to Battleground, Washington yesterday with Matt and Ginger to help Joe and Carol celebrate Joe's graduation from OHSU. While there we had the chance to admire the work Joe's done landscaping the house, and boy is it impressive. I wish I had a quarter of his skill in this regard.

While we were there, I did bug Joe about my knee (as promised), and he seemed to think that the odds were that it is a knee sprain. More ice and Ibuprofen for me.

I've found a new online comic, The Second Coming, which has its moments. A lot of it is crude and vulgar, and the humor is not nearly as consistent as Player v. Player or Penny Arcade. Nonetheless, here are a few of my favorite strips: Let the Games Begin!; Violence schmiolence; Is it gay in here, or is it just me?; It hurts when I do...THIS!; Look ma - no practice!; The leg bone's connected to the...ceiling...; And now, a word from our sponsor; Orientation Day Three: Phi Slappa Tamma; He's just asking for it...; and So he'll have trouble getting through doors...big deal.

Not much in the way of news from Grandma. She's back at home now. Physically she's fine, mentally she's getting more alert all the time. Because she's diabetic, the higher blood sugar levels might be contributing to her memory problems (thanks to Dave for pointing this out) so the nurses are taking more readings per day now and keeping a closer watch on that. We're optimistic.

September 9, 2000
Congratulations to Joe on the successful completion of his Physicians Assistant training at OHSU. I'm sure that this talent in the healing arts will cause friends (like me!) to line up for medical advice (poor Dave can testify as to how I pester him about pharmaceuticals), but hopefully Joe will still think it a worthwhile career choice. Certainly, I count myself among those extraordinarily impressed.

Now what's wrong with my knee? (Hehe)

Our refrigerator went out yesterday, making for some very interesting times as I packed Bret's dinky half-size fridge downstairs full of dairy products. A quick check of the model number revealed our fridge to be 21 years old, well past life expectancy, so after school Erin and I ran to the library, checked Consumer Reports, and then went out and bought a new one.

We ended up getting a relatively cheap and highly energy efficient Whirlpool. It's a solid replacement for what we had and it offers a definite features upgrade, but it's something I picture moving downstairs or in the garage once when we remodel the kitchen. Now that remodel could be 10 years off, but you get the idea. Cheap, solid fridge, limited frills. The expensive cavernous meat locker version comes later.

Bret, Erin and I spent a little time this morning reversing the doors on the fridge, then packing it with food. We'd put everything on ice last night, so we think most things survived. Of course if we get food poisoning in the next week, we'll know we were wrong.

Mom and Dad are back in town after spending a couple weeks in Iowa visiting my Grandma Jeanne and Uncles Steve and Doug. They were in Portland yesterday to visit my Grandma Norma, and it sounds like she continues to improve.

September 7, 2000
I went up to see Grandma yesterday after receiving word from my uncle Howard that she was being released from the hospital. Her awareness level seems to ebb and flow, but it's improved over what I saw the other day, so we'll call it progress and hope for the best. Certainly being back in familiar surroundings (though she didn't initially remember her apartment) should help.

The Citizens Police Academy session last night was fascinating. Police chief Walt Meyer addressed the group, and I came away about as impressed as is possible. Salem is extraordinarily lucky to have such an individual leading its police force. He's intelligent, dynamic, focused, sensitive, progressive. For my money, the perfect police chief.

I'm going to have continuing updates on my experiences with the Salem Citizens Police Academy posted in my Opinions section. I don't have them up yet, but eventually you'll be able to check them out if you're interested.

September 6, 2000
News yesterday from my uncle Howard regarding Grandma was that her confused state continues. This led to a heightened degree of anxiety on the part of all concerned, but news from today seems better. Grandma is still a little slowed mentally, but the fog seems to have lifted, and our best guess (courtesy of my pharmacy manager friend Dave) is that the Valium-type drug they gave her probably induced the reduction in her mental capacities. Now that it's wearing off, we're again hopeful that her recovery will continue unimpeded.

Erin's couple days of school have gone well, but no word yet on a sixth class. Sprague attendance, at least initially, looks down by about 200, so odds seem to favor an academic year of occasional substitute teaching. Better that than getting a sixth class that Erin hates, though.

I've let the goatee go crazy since France and had the pleasure(?) of combing it this morning. That's irrelevant to just about everything of any importance I can think of, but I'm a little dry on topics, so long facial hair gets bumped up the priority list. Aren't you thankful that TV anchormen don't resort to stuff like this whenever there's a slow news day? ("And in other news, my mother's hamster just celebrated its third birthday. Now the weather....")

September 4, 2000—Labor Day
Up once again to Portland to visit Grandma, but the news is less great this time. Apparently, she had a bad night sleeping—to the point where they had to give her a Valium-type drug. This put her in a very confused state today, and I'm sorry to say my visit was probably of limited value to her as a result. Steady conversation was impossible, her thoughts were scattered, and she seemed very groggy. The nurses attributed all this to the effects of the drug and lack of sleep, an assessment with which I'm inclined to agree. You can bet I'm going to call first tomorrow before making another 100 mile round trip.

I've seen a few political ads on each side now from the presidential contenders, and it's obvious to me why Gore has reversed the poll figures and shot out to, in some cases, a 10 point lead. Bush's TV ads are awful. The imagery is all wrong and the audio in many cases isn't any better. This either changes or Gore, whose ads I would put in the "good" category, wins in a landslide (even with Bush carrying Texas and Florida). Personally, I can't wait for the debates.

September 2-3, 2000
Taking a much-needed break from my daily trips up to Portland, I played host yet another of my now infamous LAN parties, this time with Dave, Dennis, and Matt in attendance. This one will probably be known as the great sleepover LAN party since everybody crashed here for the night after hours of QuakeWorld, Carmageddon, and Diablo. Despite some nasty network difficulties—which seem to be the fault of the game itself since nothing else exhibited problems—Carmageddon was my fav of the party. The cooperative multiplayer Diablo was fun, but suffered from some terribly unfortunate lag that ended up being fatal for the game characters in many circumstances. I'd like to see if that's something we can get resolved for next time. On Sunday, we watched the US Men's World Cup soccer team defeat Guatemala 1-0 on a very nice Brian McBride goal, before doing more computer gaming. Thanks to Matt, Dennis, and Dave—my partners in crime—for attending!

Evening of the third, Matt, Ginger, Erin and I went out for Chinese. Three of the four of us start school this week, so this was a good chance to say "hey" before the firestorm hits. At this time, Erin continues to have only 5 of 6 classes assigned to her, and we won't know about prospects for a sixth class for up to two weeks. The good news is that all five classes are full-time permanent classes (versus last year where three classes were perm and three were temp), but we will undoubtedly take a financial hit if Erin is at less than full-time. Substitute teaching and/or the increasing success of my business may help offset some of that, but neither of those scenarios is guaranteed.

September 1, 2000
Another trip to PDX to hang with G-ma as she recovers from her surgery. Physically she continues to do great, and mentally she's much improved over what I saw of her two days ago. She's still hunting for the write word many times, but if you give her choices, she's always able to pick the right one. (Bret describes this as being "Scantron ready.") Nonetheless, she's been taking a phone call or two, which can only be considered a good sign.

Bret will head up to see Grandma tomorrow.

Latest update on September 30, 2000
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