Take a minute to notice the path behind you. Appreciate the lessons from each step. Reflect on the journey.
Be grateful for where you are.
Definitions matter
Entrapment
entrapment /ɪnˈtrapm(ə)nt , , ɛnˈtrapm(ə)nt/
▸ noun [mass noun] the state of being caught in or as in a trap:
the feeling of entrapment grows as the roads close and the power goes out
nerve entrapment often occurs in throwing sports.
▪ the action of tricking someone into committing a crime in order to secure their prosecution:
his style of investigation constitutes entrapment.
Investigation
investigation /ɪnˌvɛstɪˈɡeɪʃ(ə)n /
▸ noun [mass noun] the action of investigating something or someone; formal or systematic examination or research:
he is under investigation for receiving illicit funds.
▪ [count noun] a formal inquiry or systematic study:
an investigation into fresh allegations of malpractice
a murder investigation.
– DERIVATIVES
investigational adjective
– ORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin investigatio(n-), from the verb investigare (see investigate).
Looks like entrapment to me. LAPD might better use their time investigating their unsolved burglaries and murders, but what do I know.
The threat of an Uber/Lyft driver is probably more important.
A Day and the Confused
This post was written by a friend of mine named Jenny who spent several years of her life as a Drill Sergeant. She tells a good story!
Reason #53 why Drill Sergeants should never be released back into the wilds of the Army… (part 1)
I was out at the M4 range today, we call in for a hot time and Range Control ask over the radio, “Do you have the range flag up?” (This flag is like a giant 8-12 foot red triangle flag, for my civillian friends reading along).
I step out on the deck of the tower and yell about 150 yards to the PVT that’s on gate guard.. “HEY!! PUT THE FLAG UP!”
Said PVT responds with a muffeled, “The other SGT told me to wait”. (Good thing I speak broken PVT).
Me: “What?” <waiving my arms around and mouthing nonsense> (PVT jogs up closer to the base of the tower).
PVT: (totally out of breath) “The other SGT told me to wait”.
Me: (looking at my rank, then back to the PVT, then slowly back at rank and back to the PVT, then to the SGT who is standing right next to me): “You think I have some kind of giant red flag fetish and I just want to see that thing majestically flap in the breeze?”
PVT: <blink><blink>
Me: “it ain’t a trick question”
PVT: “well ummm”
Me: “do I look like I like the color red?”
PVT: “uhhhh”
Me: “do I look like flags are my favorite hobby?”
PVT: “huh?”
Me: “I said, do i look like a vexillologist to you?”
PVT: “I… I don’t, I don’t even….”
Me: “how about this? how about you go put the flag up like you were told to do? Then Google vexillologist and then later on let me know what your favorite flag is and why …. you better not take the easy way out and say USA. It better be dam creative since you’re stuck down there on gate gard ensuring the Atropian* insurgants dont come get us”
PVT: “the Atropian?”
Me: “oh come on, now you’re going to tell me you don’t know where Atropia is?”
PVT: <blink><blink>
Me: “well looks like you have something else to research, you may want to get out of here and get that flag up before you have an essay and a book report due”.
PVT: “uhhh”..
SPC at the ammo shack: “dude, shut your mouth and move out, I had to write an entire S2 security report on Atropia and present it to MSG Cook”
PVT: <eyes wide open staring back at me>
Me: “GO!”
<PVT sprints away>
Me: <waving> “Have a fantastic Army day on gate guard, we’ll chat later”.
*Atropia is a made up country that the Army uses to simulate operations during exercises and training.
Does daylight savings kill people?
Today, it might feel like it. But what does the data say?
Invitations to happiness
I have an aunt who is terrible with directions. Each holiday where she attends I end up on the phone with her and guide her in to the destination as if I were air traffic control helping an airplane land.
On one trip I thought I’d set her up with Google Maps, and so we spent some time connecting it via Bluetooth to her car and showing her how it worked. It may have worked for that trip, but it didn’t work long after. She didn’t use it again.
Remembering to have her audio system connected to her phone meant she couldn’t hear the directions. She wasn’t tuned in.
On this most recent trip we changed one setting. One setting! We adjusted Google Maps to not use the Bluetooth audio, but instead broadcast instructions directly from her phone.
It worked. She’s loving it!
We often see someone telling us a path to walk down as someone telling us what to do. But, what if we didn’t? What if we saw that as simply directions?
Directions can be liberating. My aunt now feels she has the freedom to go anywhere because she knows how to get directions to anywhere she wants to go.
The commandments are our directions. When we follow them they liberate us from the feelings in life that are so uncomfortable, guilt, remorse, anxiety, fear. All the things we feel when we have someplace else to be and choose a wrong path.
The commandments aren’t restrictions. They’re our invitation to happiness.
Don’s Ducks
I grew up reading comics, but not the typical comics you see idolized in shows like the Big Bang Theory. For me I couldn’t care less about who Superman was fighting, or what the Joker was doing to Batman. I read Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck and loved them.
There’s a real playfulness to the stories and a sense of adventure. The antagonist is always a riddle to solve, not a person to beat up.
There are many great artists that have been licensed to created these comics over the years. Carl Barks did the work in the 1950’s that made the books an international success, and in my generation it was Don Rosa.
I prefer Rosas’ drawings and his stories over all the others and one of the things I love about the era we live in is that I can purchase full books of his works for the Kindle and read them on all of my devices.
What comics did you grow up with? Is there a ready-to-download collection for you to revisit some of your childhood memories?
Calligraphy Fonts
Back in the day my teachers didn’t mandate Times New Roman, because the font wasn’t common enough to make a standard. I remember turning in a paper using a calligraphy font.
Nowadays I don’t have the need for calligraphy fonts as much, but they remain a popular style of font font download. Here’s a website with several free options.
If you’re using calligraphy fonts today, where do you find them most effective?
