Me Playing with Adobe PS
So here’s my kiddo and I just being as goofy as can be with my web cam. Then, we decided to compound the goofyness by a factor of 100 by making it into a GIF and posting it here.
Yes, we played with a special effects app. No, my head is not misshapen.
Wait. I guess that last comment is all a matter of perspective.
One Of Those Little Stumbling Blocks
My son was shot earlier this evening.
I have no idea how. He won’t tell anyone in the family any details, out of either some misplaced loyalty to a friend who accidentally did it. Or, some warped sense of machismo and a need to “get back” at those responsible.
I really don’t have a lot to go on yet. I haven’t been able to leave work. Yes, I know that sounds horrible, but that’s the price of working in the security industry where you are assigned to posts that hardly anyone else is trained on to come out and relieve you in such events. So, all the news I’ve gotten on the incident is secondhand and usually from my sister, who is forever overreacting. Heck, even my ex went there to check on her stepson.
All I do know is that he was shot from the back. The bullet entered just above his left glute, bounced off his hip bone, and is now floating in his abdomen. Apparently, the doctors felt that nothing was damaged, and there wasn’t any internal bleeding, because they were insisting that he could be sent home tomorrow–if he did well under one night of observation. All this leads me to believe it was a small caliber weapon with which he was shot. That little bit of internal damage couldn’t have been done by anything larger than a 9MM.
Am I freaking out internally? Yes. But I am one of the most notoriously calm, cool, and unbelievably collected people that I know. Others always trip on how calm I remain under moments and periods of intense pressure, wherein everyone around me is losing their minds. It’s just how I am, I always tell them. Don’t get me wrong. I love my son and it’s hurting me inside not knowing just what the damage to him will be, both physically and psychologically, but I compartmentalize and take into consideration the main fact to consider at this point in time–there is nothing I can do from here.
He’s in good hands medically. His situation has begun to be investigated by the police. He has lots of family there to let him know we care. That being said, the flip side to this coin is that, as a father, I also feel the need to protect my son. However, he’s a man. He’s 20 years old. And he’s very independent. I may not like the people he chooses to surround himself with and refer to as friends, but I can’t do anything about it. As far as I know, it may or may not have been a case of mistaken identity and he was shot by people who think he was someone else. It did happen in a halfway decent neighborhood and he was at someone’s grandparents’ home, not a crack house or home known to the local PD as a gang hangout. So, as far as the criminality of the situation, I’m holding judgment until I know more.
Since I began this blog, I have been able to see and appraise his situation, and he will fully recover. He’s in a bit of pain, but that’s to be expected. I’m honestly just happy he’s alive and will get better. I hope he got some sort of a wake up call and that he will reassess his choices a bit, but I’m not holding my breath. On the way to see him and on the way home, I was a bit lost in my thoughts and contemplated the possibility that I just may end up losing my son to bad choices. Obviously, I don’t want this to happen, because as a war-time combat veteran, I always saw myself as the one who might go at anytime and accepted that possibility. It’s just not the same when you think your kid, who’s not even in any kind of military or law enforcement role, might put themselves in a position to be killed.
I’m trying to think other thoughts, but its hard right now. Very, very hard.
My son Alex is the good-looking kid to the left. My mom and his brother, Andreas, are to the right.
Why I Prefer Bone-crunching Martial Arts/Action Films From Asia to Hollywood’s Idea of Action Films
I’m not sure if it’s something about the various cultural influences in Asia, but when it comes to their martial arts and action films, there is a serious difference in what they perceive and present as “realistic action” and what we usually see out of Hollywood’s need to intersperse everything with special effects.
I just watched “The Raid: Redemption” the other day, and it was incredible. I believe it was made in Indonesia and tells the tale of a SWAT team that attempts to take down one of the area’s most well-known and ruthless drug lords in his high rise apartment complex compound. They become trapped and slowly learn their mission wasn’t exactly “official”, so they must fight their way out, while still trying to apprehend the criminal they went there for. The main protagonist, Rama (Iko Uwais), is a young cop who’s still filled with the type of vim and vigor that drives him to want to both avenge the officers he sees slaughtered by the hood’s many soldiers, as well as survive to get back to his pregnant wife.
Iko’s many incredibly realistic and fantastically thrilling fight scenes are reminiscent of another of my favorites “Ong Bak” (which I’ll get into in a later blog). The actor/martial artist is a whirlwind of devastating kicks, punches, and those nasty knees to just about wherever his acrobatic abilities wish those strikes to be placed. Trust me, check out the preview and you’ll want to check out the movie.
I guess, when it’s all said and done, I just prefer those movies that take a bit of a more realistic view of what a punch or kick does to the human body and then multiplies it by adding the possibilities that training in martial arts to the extremes can give an individual the ability to do such things. I may not be a black belt in any particular martial discipline, but when I have trained (Hapkido, Tae Kwon Do, Kempo) I’ve seen demonstrations of power and skill that were amazing.
We humans are an amazing lot, and I love these movies that make us seem incredible!
