true stories.

[treelizard]

He didn't get my license #--the way I was parked and the fact that he followed me in the store and stayed there until the cops came. He does kind of know what my car looks like, but the only place I plan on being near that neighborhood is at work... and we have a very extensive security network in place, with multiple people working on different fronts to assure that the environment is safe and orderly. I mean we have extra police surveillance in our area, in addition to an SRO, an on-site probation officer and on and on and on. I am very impressed with our security.

I do think that me working too much, not sleeping enough, not eating enough carbs and just some of the work stress I'm dealing with is probably a contributing factor to my poor decision making as of late. I need to get off the coffee/insomnia ride, first and foremost.

I think the biggest thing I'm going to do is not get gas unless I'm near my house. I just signed a lease to move out of my 'hood, and none too soon-- just this month we've had three break-ins (two last week, one the week before that), two were in broad daylight on Monday between 8 and 2. A laptop was taken from the third one. Also an '89 Plymouth was stolen last week from in front of someone's house. And someone started a fire in the community garden, which burned the compost bins, part of the fence and the wood around the oven. There was also another fire nearby in a city trash bin. And two tanks of gas from someone's truck were siphoned off earlier in July. So it'll be good to move out!! My new place is in the nice part of town and I double-checked the crime stat maps this time.

[Tant01]

Follow-up story: After a good night's sleep, I woke up this morning and decided I really did want to press charges. I called the gas station and asked for the case number. It turns out that the gas station said they'd press charges for theft if he didn't pay the money. The cops came down and then the guy asked for a supervisor, etc. When the sergeant came down they told the guy they'd arrest him if he didn't pay for theft (and they bluffed on other charges related to him using my card) he magically came up with the money he supposedly didn't have. So I guess that's the end of the story.

Moral: As much as I want to believe people are good-hearted and mean well and everything is just a mistake, a lot of people are assholes and liars.

Girl just watch your back! Did that A-hole take YOUR license number down too? Does he know what your car looks like? Could he find you again even by chance?

Can't put anything past some folks... you know?

Stay safe.

[treelizard]

Follow-up story: After a good night's sleep, I woke up this morning and decided I really did want to press charges. I called the gas station and asked for the case number. It turns out that the gas station said they'd press charges for theft if he didn't pay the money. The cops came down and then the guy asked for a supervisor, etc. When the sergeant came down they told the guy they'd arrest him if he didn't pay for theft (and they bluffed on other charges related to him using my card) he magically came up with the money he supposedly didn't have. So I guess that's the end of the story.

Moral: As much as I want to believe people are good-hearted and mean well and everything is just a mistake, a lot of people are assholes and liars.

[treelizard]

True story. I'm on the South side getting gas because my car is running on empty. I have about $15 in my bank account 'til tomorrow (when my contract kicks in) because I quit my last job way before I probably should have and I needed some gas. The woman next to me tells me she accidentally hit pump 7 instead of 8--she is on pump 8 and I am on pump 7. She put in $10 already. Because I am an idiot, I say, no problem, I'll just put $10 on yours. I forgot that you can't pick the amount of money from an outside machine, and the outside machine wouldn't take my cash (too wrinkly) or credit card (only ATM). So she starts pumping and pumping and puts like $46 in her big ass vehicle. I am livid. I tell her to stop pumping and she stares at me blankly. I write down her license plate number and start to drive away. Then I start thinking about bounced check fees and the amount of books I had to sell to get enough money in my account to cover the checks I wrote. I decide to go back into the store.

This really really humongous dude with gang colors and prison tattoos looks at me and says, "What the hell are you doing?" I walk inside and tell him I'm getting some Gatorade and my receipt. He mentions he saw me writing his license plate number down, says that his wife doesn't understand English, it was all a big mistake. I wasn't sure whether it was a scam or a big mistake (it really could have gone either way--she could either not understand what I was saying or just be playing stupid), but he's all posturing and shit so I tell him I'll just pay for his gas and call it even. He gets all huffy and wants to talk to the store attendant and explain the situation. He says his wife doesn't know how credit cards work and he doesn't want this to come back to him for him using someone else's account, etc. I told the woman in the store I would pay for his gas and call it even because, uh, because he's giving me the death stare and I don't know how many buddies he has with him, and I get paid tomorrow so... She says that is very nice of me but doesn't seem right and gives me a $36 refund. Then she asks him for his ID. He doesn't have it or have the money. I tried my damnedest to pay for his gas, because I don't want him to get arrested over something so trivial (I know, I guess I really am a bleeding heart on some level) and besides, the cash won't help me because it takes a day for it to even show up in my account. I mean I really think it could've been a mistake, but I don't know... I know for a fact she could barely understand English. He said she didn't understand how credit cards work, I don't know. In retrospect it totally seems like a scam. At the time it seemed like a big mistake... But yeah, uh, I'd rather get a bounced check than have to deal with the crazy guy...

Anyways, gas station woman tells the guy she's going to call the cops if he doesn't come up with the money, and he tells her to call the cops. In retrospect and judging by his behavior, I really think the guy is on probation and trying to get out of trouble. But he kept trying to follow me out as I was leaving the station. I asked the woman to walk me to my car.

The cops call me about an hour later and ask me if I want to press charges. I say no. Who presses charges over $35? Plus I already got my refund, deposited the money in my account and gave my bank the full story and they believed me and everything--said the check would clear and they would overturn any charges. The cop gives me a huge lecture on how difficult I am making his job by calling him and then not pressing charges when he came down there. I told him I did not call him, the gas station did, and perhaps they would like to press charges. I told him they already refunded me. He is still pissed.

Anyway, the moral of the story is don't go to gas stations in the bad parts of town, don't let strangers use your credit card, don't copy down license place numbers in an obvious way, and don't stay in a potentially dangerous location. In other words, don't be a treelizard.

[Tom Yum]

I usually hold the phone book up with one hand and hit it with the other....

You can afford a phone book?

Ooo la dee da, mister fancy pants...the rest of us have to pick fights with hobos.

[osopardo]

true story- I'm so poor that I can't afford a new punching bag...so I had to duct tape phone books to a tree...

Wow! you can afford duct tape?!? I usually hold the phone book up with one hand and hit it with the other....

[WildWest.]

Jeff,

Good call. You don't need too much sparring though as how long does a street fight last?? Certainly not a 3 minute round. The "sparring" you should do needs to be alive, without all the heavy bag gloves crap (MMA type are sweet though) and realistic. Use dialogue as an instigator too. Having your training partner yelling at you "are you looking at my girlfriend you muthafucker!!!!!!!" helps a hell of a lot in replicating real life situations.

There are many more layers to this but I am but a novice in RBSD so I'm sure Mike can help you a hell of a lot more than me.

[jeff5]

Good question Mike. I think more sparring would definately help. Also training situational awareness and multiple attacker scenarios.

[jeff5]

Okay, guess its time to share. Here's my one street fighting experience.

This happened around 10 years ago now. At the time I was training mostly in Boxing, Kickboxing, some JKD etc.

Some of my employees and I were walking back from dinner. One of my employees somehow got into a fight with a guy. (As I looked back on the incident I think this moron caused it actually) Well this guy had several friends. So they wind up getting aggressive and starting to jump in. Meanwhile myself and a couple other guys who work for me are trying to stop the fight.

Well before I know it, this dumb ass comes to try and hit me. Now let me extrapolate on that a bit. When I say "try to hit me", this idiot took like a jumping step at me and cocked back his arm. He was so slow and telegraphic (to me), that I was able to see it, and hit him with a full right cross. I remember him falling back, but I don't know if he was back in it or out of it after that.

After that it was kind of a blur. Even right after the fight I didn't remember much. All I remember is his buddy hitting me from my right side, then I started to go wild and throw punches etc. I don't remember much of that part at all.

Next thing I knew, me and about 4 or 5 guys were falling down into someone's gang way. I got up, they got up, then they all started to pound on me. The only thing I could do at that point was a boxers double cover so that I didn't get my face beat in. Then after a few seconds, they ran away.

Again, I don't remember much, but I must have done something to these guys for all of them to start beating on me. Also, I went to go pick up my keys and one of the guys was standing there. I was like its cool man its over. He was like GET AWAY FROM ME JUST GET THE **** AWAY FROM ME!!! I was like...what did I do lol.

So that's about it. I got a bit of a bloody nose, a headache the next day, but no bruises or serious injuries.

I think I learned a few things. First, I don't try to stop fights. I'm either in a fight or out of it. If I'm out of it, I call the cops. If I'm in it, I go full bore. Period. Second is that multiple attackers is a fairly difficult scenario. I'm confident that against one, untrained individual, I could handle myself pretty well. Start adding people and the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly.

What's funny is that after the fight happened I was like I should have done this, could have done that, and wasn't really sure that I used my trianing. But when I really looked back I think I accounted for myself fairly well, and I actually did use a lot of the techniques I learned. Its just that the fancy schmancy stuff kind of went out the window, and I pretty much relied on basic attack and defense. (big suprise I know =P)

That's my story for what its worth!

[treelizard]

http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/lowtechhigheffect.html

[Tom Yum]

true story- I'm so poor that I can't afford a new punching bag...so I had to duct tape phone books to a tree...

That's ok. Let's start a thread about cheap training methods? Cheap diets?

Been there, bro.

[treelizard]

true story- I'm so poor that I can't afford a new punching bag...so I had to duct tape phone books to a tree...

Poem I found yesterday:

The State of the Economy by Louis Jenkins

There might be some change on top of the dresser at the back, and we should check the washer and the dryer. Check under the floormats of the car. The couch cushions. I have some books and CDs I could sell, and there are a couple big bags of aluminum cans in the basement, only trouble is that there isn't enough gas in the car to get around the block. I'm expecting a check sometime next week which, if we are careful, will get us through to payday. In the meantime with your one-dollar rebate check and a few coins we have enough to walk to the store and buy a quart of milk and a newspaper. On second thought, forget the newspaper.

[Tant01]

Yesterday I was nearly hit head on by a guy in a white ford station wagon, maybe a mercury? He was drifting into the opposing lane as he tried to use his cell phone right in front of me!

Does DEFENSIVE driving count? I'll tell you one thing. Those airbags go off and I'm going temporarily INSANE. They can call it road rage or murder but I'm going "Garland" on their ass.

No shit.

[Tom Yum]

True stories?

K, so I met this chick online in 2001.

The end.

[Tom Yum]

Whoa! Early 80's toga.