this weekend rocked!

there was a competition going on at the orange county sherriffs academy this weekend that a bunch of local explorer posts were in, so i hung out with josh and a handful of the hb explorers all day saturday. they were competing in a bunch of different police-related activities, like building searches, domestic violence disputes and hostage negotiations.

what was cool was for some of the stuff, josh was able to sneak me in so i could see what they were doin'... howard from the hb fire department was the bad guy for the hostage negotiations, and it was hilarious listening to him yell into the phone about how his wife was out bangin' the milkman and he didn't have a problem he was just shooting at her picture on the wall, and his kids are fine and they're not coming outside and how he wasn't going outside to get his pizza because there were cops all over the place, and where the hell was his beer?!? good times, man. good times.

josh was also able to sneak me onto a police car simulator like this one in between groups. it felt just like that arcade game cruis'n usa. completely disorienting, because there's stuff to watch on the side screens and not just in front of you... sort of like real driving... which is maybe why i did so bad?

okay i didn't do that bad. but i did crash into a bambulance, and that was neato. but when i went out to pick up burgers later, i was still in cop car mode. it was like my driving after seeing an action flick - very crappy with a bit of speeding involved...

one of our guys ended up doing a flip over the freakin' wall in the obstacle course... i still don't understand how that worked out without him breaking his neck. i wish there hadn't really been that many people around because i kinda wanted to find out if i could make it over that wall, after watching some of the highschool girls have so many problems with the entire course. i'd tell em all to get off their asses and stop watching degrassi, but damn that's a good show.

there was a massive amount of time in between the obstacle course and the officer down events, and it was boring but it wasn't, you know? nothin' better than sittin around with a bunch of funny people being funny, just shootin' the shit. i was informed that josh would someday be Briefcase, this dude a couple of the guys talked to on the 4th of july who was planning on blowing up the city. with his briefcase. which doesn't really sound all that funny typed out, but i'm thinking about this shit and just laughing my ass off right now, so suck it.

i think the thing i liked about all this is that i really had absolutely no clue as to how cops learn how to be cops, you know? and the whole tactical thing - every time josh uses that word it cracks me up inside because I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT IT MEANS. but going to this, even though there were big chunks of time where we weren't doing anything, it was really fun because shit, this is what they do. maybe not so much the explorers, because rumor has it most of em are gonna be firemen, but i loved seein the stuff in action.

and i think i understand the word tactical better.

which brings us to the coolest event to watch, the tubular assault.

no, i did not say tubular salt.



i also did not say tubular salt assault.



i don't know if it just applies to buses, but in this case they had an octa bus that was "hijacked", and the guys had to storm the bus and arrest the bad guys. we were able to get on the bus and sit in the back row and watch the group come bustin' in and DAAAAMN that was cool. there's just no other word for it. when i grow up i wanna be a tubular assault. or a tubular salt. you know, whatever.



so cheers to josh and the hb explorers for havin' me out there. i hear they got 2 awards the next day. i was at home, sleeping in like a chump.

p.s. - rumor has it i'm getting a newer scanner at work soon. what does this mean for you? better color on my scribbley stuff, dude. you may actually be able to see all the colors on the drawings instead of just the bright ones.