Out last, Out wit, Out play.....

That is right I have survived, and was not even voted off the island.
What an adventure the last 4 and a half months have been. A true test of heart, desire, and humility. I won't lie, there were certainly moments where I questioned the decision I had made. I mean I had a great thing going at Nordstrom. It was comfortable, paid the bills, and I was surrounded by quality people. However, my inner civil servant, as cheezy as that sounds, kept waking me up and calling me in a different direction. So, I came to the conclusion that I did not want to look back in twenty years and regret not following my heart. I certainly could not have done it with out the love and support of my family, especially my girls (Susy, Hailey and Cam). They put up with me through all my cramming for tests, exhaustion from physical training, and the pressure of performing when your career and means of supporting your family was held in the balance. I can't thank them enough.

When I look back on day one of the academy, I see someone who was intimidated as hell, much like the deer that prances onto the road in front of you. Not sure which way to go, and not sure which way you came from. However, now with two days to go I see someone who is confident in their abilities, and ready to serve. No regrets!

I know some of you have expressed interest in attending the graduation ceremony. Please feel no obligation, but if you do want to come I would love to see you and you are more than welcome.

The Graduation Ceremony for BLEA Class 663 is this Thursday the 22nd @ 1pm. It will be held at the Academy located at 19010 1st Ave. S., Burien WA 98148. Come one come all.

Take Care,
J

and down the stretch they come.....

Believe it or not I am 3 and a half short weeks away from completing the academy. It has seemed like a marathon, but at the same time it has flown by. Over the next 3 weeks the work load is extremely high. We will have a series of what are called mock scenes where we respond to a call as an officer, and we our graded on whether or not we make the right decisions (arrest/ no arrest). In addition to these scenes, I will have a couple of more written examinations, two more defensive tactics scenarios, and a final firearms exam.

What an unbelievable ride this has been thus far. From day one, when to be honest I was pretty intimidated by the environment, to now where I feel like I have the confidence to take on whatever might come my way. Early on we were pushed beyond what we thought to be our physical limits, but it all makes sense now as we are all both physically and mentally stronger than we ever could have been on our own. Frankly, in my mind it is the mental toughness that is the most important. Often when we have been through a grueling workout, and you feel as though you do not have one more drop of sweat to give is when you see the toughness emerge. You may be tired, you may be in pain, but you must keep going. As our trainers say time and time again, "We win every time!"

Until next time,
J

P.S. If you are interested Police Academy Class 663 graduates on July 22, 2010 @ 1pm everyone and anyone is welcome let me know and I can give you the details.

I'll take 500 stars on that bathing rama....

This Tuesday was hands down the worst pain I have ever experienced. As a class we were sprayed with OC or Pepper spray. Lets see how I can help you imagine what this felt like... Okay, imagine you call up the local radio station to win a free trip only to find out that luxurious trip is a one way ticket straight to hell. When you get there you are met by Satin himself, and he cordially invites you to stick your face (eyes open) into his oven. You are almost there, he then takes his pet cat Lucifer and lets him use your eyes and throat as his scratching post. Alright, I will spare you any further description.

Really, here is how it went down. You close your eyes, while three people in front of you are armed with cans of OC spray. They count to three and than you open your eyes while they rain down loads of spary right onto your face and in your eyes. You than have to locate a punching bag, and began striking and kicking it until directed to stop. Once you stop you are asked a Legal question which you must answer before you can move onto the next station. The next station consisted of using a stick to strike a dummy , only the catch is the instructor has hidden the stick somewhere in the parking lot. It is all I could do to pry an eye open and track it down. Once I made it through this station you had to find another instructor answer another legal question at which point you could than move onto the final station. This station required that you pull out your plastic gun take a person into custody (handcuffs and all), put them in the back of a patrol car, and than get in the front seat find a license on the dash and run the name. One would hope that the name would be something like Joe Smith, but instead it was a 15 letter first name and a 12 letter last name that you have to read using the phonetic alphabet.

Phew, you were done. Ya right the fun was just beginning. You now had to decon or try and get teh stuff off of you. This involved washing your eyes with soap, scrubbing your face, etc... Honestly, more than 30 hours later, and multiple washings I can still feel the effect.

My words of advice if you ever find yourself staring down the nozzle of a can of pepper spray, do the right thing and comply.

Sincerely,
Spicey Eyes

Go Speed Racer, go Speed Racer.........

Wow what a blast last week was. By far the highlight of the academy. I actually got paid to go drive around a race course and get professional driving instruction. This is only slightly more interesting than hours of push-ups. The course was located at the Washington State Patrol Academy located in Shelton, WA. We spent the whole week there learning how to make emergency lane changes, evasive stops, high speed backing, lower speed skills, and how to handle corners at top speeds.

I must say on day one as the instructors took us on laps around the track and through the different obstacles, I honestly thought there is no way I will be able to pull this off. Many of the obstacles seemed manageable as long as you could use your brakes and pick the speed that you wanted to go. However, they picked the speed and brakes were not allowed. They often referred to the cones that you hit as pedestrians, and if that was the case on day one I took out a whole village. It did not take long before I was quickly being referred to as Ricky Bobby from Talledega Nights, if you have not seen the movie check it out and you will appreciate the dubious honor. Although, once I got a few laps under my belt, and some quality instruction I started to turn it on and everything slid into place. Before long I was flying around the track, leaving all the cones right where they started. As the week went on we took on other parts of the track, where my top speed coming out of one corner was right around 97. Every time I got out of the car, I some how found my face frozen with a smile. It was quite a rush that I will soon not forget.

Next week is 10 of 19. I am officially half way done. It has flown by, but at the same time there is quite a bit of road still ahead of me. I can hardly wait until I get to hit the street and go to work for real.

until next time Shake and Bake...

Wax on Daniel son....

Whoa... what a day. Today we had what is called a DT Scenario (DT as in defensive tactics) It played out as follows you are dispatched as a single officer to some mock apartments where you need to take into custody a person who is less than cooperative.

No problem right, ya only you arrive and the guy is dressed in a padded suit and you are not allowed to strike him in the head or neck. Oh ya and I left out the part that he either out weighs you by 100 lbs, or he is a DT instructor with some pretty wicked skills. The goal, get him down and cuff him up.

What a gut check. I ended up being one of the last people to go in our class, so I had to wait around while I watched all of these bruised, battered, in some cases bloodied recruits stumble out of the rooms. I was up next when the aid car arrived for one recruit inside (he is okay, just a case of azthma) but that for some odd reason made me just a tad bit more nervous. Waiting around for my turn was like being six on Christmas Eve, okay bad analogy as there was nothing joyful about this experience.

In true Jason fashion, I seemed to think I could ust talk the guy into submission, but after a few minutes of that the inevitable happened and I had to go hands on. We restled around a little bit, I got in a few punches, we went to the ground, he threw me off him, we danced around the room, I threw a few Thai kicks, he retreated, I followed, and then as if I was in 7th grade and sneaking up behind my buddy I went for the old knee to the thigh. Evidetially, I hit the right spot and he dropped to the ground, at which point I pounced, and got him cuffed up. Certainly sounds a lot easier in the blogesphere than it was in real living color. There were a couple of times during my cuffing where they had to stop the scene, as in the heat of the moment I seemed to think I could make his arm bend in a way the human body is not designed for. So rather than have me break it we stopped and made sure I was heading in the right direction.

I must say I am not the least bit sad to say that this day on my schedule has come and gone...

See ya next time.

Black Eye Pleaseeeeee.........

No I am not talking about your favorite band, I am talking about my latest badge of honor from the Academy. On last Friday during what was supposed to be a non striking sparing drill, my partner got a little excited and slipped in an elbow. This immediately swelled up and sent my contact somewhere into the middle of my forehead. It wasn't to bad because we only had about 20 minutes left in this drill, so I just battled through with my one good eye. I guess that is why we have two. When I came home it was a little tricky to explain to my girls how I got in a fight at school, and that was okay.

As I strolled around campus today, it was amazing how many friends I made. Everyone stopped and wanted to here the story. The timing is actually perfect as tomorrow I have to play a bad guy for some of the other classes mock scenes. I know this sounds goofy, but with some of the fight scenarios that I have upcoming for my defensive tactics it is kind of nice to know that I can take a shot and keep on ticking.

Go ahead and say it, I know what you are thinking..... LOCO

Later
J

"It takes no talent to....."

For those of you who really know me you can probably finish the above quote, because it is part of the foundation that I live by. For those of you who are still in the dark let me break it down for you, "It takes no talent to hustle, therefore you have no excuses." A little harsh for some, but perfect sense for me. Well this week at the Academy we had a couple of days of incredibly intense physical training, the kind of stuff that makes you want to go find a corner curl up in a little ball put your thumb in your mouth and call for your mommy. Unfortunately, in this line of work that is not an option. These sessions are hard to explain unless you see them in person, but they require the ability to take the pain you are feeling and replace it with some other motivating factor that will allow you to persevere. For me that is my family, I am not about to let them down by quitting as a result of a little sweat and pain. I am not saying I do not have moments where my muscles fail and I fall, but when I fall I always get right back up. To quote Winston Churchill, "If you are going through Hell keep going." Needless to say the Officers who run PT were less than impressed with our classes effort, and they had no problem letting us know how they felt both verbally and by the extra reps they had us do. It was a good reminder that we are not individuals we are a team, and if part of the team is falling behind we all feel the consequences. Yes, tomorrow is Saturday and I should probably sleep in, but instead I am off to the gym bright and early. Come Monday morning, as everyone arrives in class there will be a new quote on our community board, and I know you know what it will say.

"IT TAKES NO TALENT TO HUSTLE, THEREFORE YOU HAVE NO EXCUSES!"

Respectfully climbing off my soap box,
Jrob

Week 2 in the slammer.

Just thought I would check in real quick like. Week two was good, I knocked out a couple of tests, learned some handcuffing techniques, took some boxing lessons, and presented my first legal case. The work load is pretty intense, but very intriguing. I am often sore and exhausted most nights, but I always want to go back. So I guess that is a good thing. This upcoming week is all about firearms, radio procedures, and how to deal with crisis situations, like Fashion Photo Shoots and stuff like that. Hope all is well with y'all.

8 down 712 to go.... HOURS THAT IS

Recruit Robinson Edmonds Police Department!

Well, today was day one of my Academy experience. All and all it was a great day. A little overwhelming at times with a few nerves bouncing off the walls, but bottom line I survived and will gladly rise out of bed tomorrow @ roughly 0430 and do it all over again.

I will say I wish I would have traded a few of those baseball innings for band practice as my marching could use a little more rythym. Upon stumbling over a few about faces, I was asked if I could dance. I replied not very well Sir, and the reply I received was that I need to start thinking a little more like Michael Jackson. I am not sure how I should take that..... I'm going to assume he was referring to his mad dancin' skills, and not the fact that he referred to himself as a Smooth Criminal (Ginny are you walkin' Ginny, you know from the song, oh never mind)

No worries, before I go to bed tonight I will moon walk around the block, and come tomorrow my marching will be tight.

Hope everyone is well, and stay tuned for more updates.

@ Ease...
-j

The ironic irony of it all y'all

For all you photo fans out there you will never guess what my Monday consisted of. Give up.... I spent the day in the crime lab photographing fingerprints which we then loaded into Photoshop and examined for unique identifiers. It was not quite CSI, but never the less it was pretty cool. I will have to start saving my shots, get a fancy leather bound book with my name embossed, and start my very own portfolio. I hear all the good shooters get their big break in fingerprints.

Today, I also went down to the Academy for my physical acceptance exam for the March 16th class. Since I passed this makes it official that I will be starting the Academy in 13 short days. After the exam the Instructors took the recruits (that's my new name) for an extra little work out session that they like to call the "Tune Up". Wow, I mean ouch. I know it was just the beginning, but I got some work ahead of me as I am pretty tired and sore.

At the moment I feel as though I am at the base of Mt. Everest getting ready to start my accent. Lots of stages along the way all of them providing unique challenges, struggles, and opportunities to succeed. I have never fancied myself a mountain climber, but here I go.....see you at the top.

J

C is for Cookie it's good enough for me...

Just sending out a heads up that girl scout cookies have arrived and need to be removed from my garage before they get eaten. I am planning on making it down to the Studio next Friday to deliver them so look for an email this week reminding you how many you ordered and how much you owe. Thanks for participating like I said before that cookie badge is way more important than mine.

Life at the PD is still going well. I passed a big hurdle last week and qualified on the gun range. They run you through a series of timed test in which you are shooting from various distances, reloading on the fly and dealing with mach malfunctions. For a guy who does not have a lot of shooting experience, it felt good to be able to perform at their high standards. I continue to ride along with different officers, and have started to pick up lots of tips as to how I will conduct myself once I graduate the academy.

Take Care, and I hope to see you all this coming Friday.

J

PiXs 4 y'all

Just a couple of pics
from my first week.

Week uNo

Well, I guess it's official Dorthy is not in Kansas anymore and I have nada idea where Todo is. Week one of my new world was filled with information. I feel a little like that sponge that is over saturated and weighs a ton.

From being sworn in by the Mayor, receiving a uniform, getting my service weapon, visiting the Everett Hilton otherwise know as the Snohomish County Jail (I would not recommend making that your vacation destination), to pouring through about a 500 page personnel manual. It has been a fun yet wicked busy week.

Hope all is well with y'all, and until next post take care.

J

To the Peeps of Studio N:
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for such a great send off! You are a bunch of amazing people that I will not forget. When it comes to departures it is always easy to say you will stay in touch, but hard to actually do it. Well whether it be an occasional drop-in at the studio an email, or this blog. I am going to do my best to make it happen!

Always remember work to live, don't live to work.
-J