I've been hibernating for the most part. After "the incident" I just stayed indoors for a few days. I did some office work on Tuesday and was able to think clearly enough to work from home all day on Wednesday. We're under a bit of a deadline, so I didn't feel good lounging, and I knew that if I went into the office I wouldn't get my work done. People from work have been *incredibly* supportive, bringing over food after work and during lunch breaks and generally being extra kind. When I did go in on Thursday, a large portion of my day was spent rehashing what had happened so far. I've worked the story down into a very concise monolgue by now.
I meant to work on Friday, but I first needed to in and get my eyes examined and get new glasses. It's been years since I had this done and forgot about what happens when they dialate your eyes. My day was pretty much shot as soon as they put the stoner drops in. I had no control over my ability to focus for the next several hours. I had cartoon character pupils, which made actually choosing frames a bit of a challenge. I felt fortunate I could see well enough to pick up the frames and try them on, let alone decide what looked best on me.
After several years of practically invisible semi-rimless glasses, I decided to go for the full on hipster-geek glasses. If I'm going to make a change and go around with my hair dyed white, I might as well go all the way, right? The problem, however, is that it takes a week and a half to get said glasses back from Kaiser, so I've been squinting, straining my eyes, exhausting my brain and generally not seeing well ever since then.
That said, I was able to see well enough when the police came by on Saturday with some photographs for me to look at.
They caught them.
It seems that there were other victims that night, and one of them got in a car with their sibling and drove around until they saw the thugs and then called the cops and let them know where they were. Absolutely brilliant. I only saw one of them clearly, but was able to give a fairly certain identification based on the photographs. Whether I'll be called in to testify or not remains to be seen, but the fact that one of the victims decided to go out and nail these guys is inspirational. Another victim, however, was apparantly hospitalized. Again, I feel fortunate that they got me in a brightly lit intersection. that might have been me....
Since then it's mostly been staying in, watching movies, trying to read books and play Halo. I can't focus on my laptop too long or my eyes get totally unusable. Since I project on my wall at home, the image is enormous and much easier on my eyes, but even that is a strain. The new glasses come on Wednesday, though. I will be back to normal then, and I can't wait.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monday, October 08, 2007
mugged
I got mugged last night. Some of the folks from the hospital think it was a gang initiation, but I think they just saw me working on my laptop on the BART train and decided to follow me off the train.
It's two short blocks home. I was entering the intersection on Oak and 10th when I heard foosteps behind me. Clearly running. I clenched my bag, which was over my shoulder and not firmly on my back, and the grab failed. I turned and the assailant got aggressive. He had a friend a few feet off. I decided that this was a failed snatch attempt and decided to play my "I'm as big as you, don't fuck with me" card. One of them saw the keys in my hand and warned his friend, thinking I had a knife.
Bravado might have worked, but I glanced behind me for an instant and saw four others running towards me from the shadows. I got sucker punched in the head. Then again, again, again. I finally went down and they kicked the shit out of me. I kept fighting back, blind with anger, and they got away with my wallet, but not the backpack they had clearly been after. It was the middle of a brightly lit intersection. If they had waited another half block they would have had me in total shadow and might have killed me.
Bleeding, without my keys (I still haven't located them) or glasses, I got myself the final block home. I didn't see which way they went. I buzzed the manager, but she didn't answer. There was movement in the apartment right next to the front door, so I knocked on the window and asked for help. I was getting blood all over the doorstep. They let me in, helped me clean up, and got an ice pack for my head which was already swelling at the temple. Most of the blood appeared to be coming from my nose.
They leant me their phone and I called the non-emergency line. After all, it was over and no longer an emergency. I let the cops know where I was and was told to expect them shortly. My neighbors found the manager who came and joined us. She called 911, since it had been 20 minutes since the first call. After what was almost an hour I headed up to my apartment with the spare set of keys the manager had located for me, unsure when the cops would show up. As soon as I got in, and begin figuring out how to cancel the credit cards, the cops and the ambulance arrived. I suddenly had an apartment full of people. The cops said they would meet me at the hospital and the paramedics took me.
I made my statement, wishing I could have been a bit more clear in some of the details, but I only saw one of the six clearly, and only for a second or two. The only actual words I could remember was after they thought I had a knife. "you gonna stick me? you gonna stick me?".
The first question the nurse asked me (a Philipino male) when he learned I was mugged was "black or white?" The first question the orderly asked me (an Afrian American male) when he learned I was mugged was "black or white?". Same with the doctir (a white female). For me, it isn't the color but the age. That was the second question from the orderly. "Young men?"
Yep. Young thugs.
The cat scan shows that if anything was broken in my skull it's nothing that requires surgery. It will heal itself. My nose may or may not be broken, but it's not deviated. I'll be getting more information over the next couple of days. I need new glasses too. I got my cards cancelled when I got home around 4am (thanks to the taxi voucher the hospital provided) and they hadn't tried to use them yet. So, all they got from me was $8 in cash and a couple of checks. If they succeed in cashing those, they probably got around $150, or $25 each.
Me? I'm just glad to be alive. If I had seen 6 men from the start, I would have handed over my stuff. I thought it was a simple foiled bag grab and resisted. I'll be ok, and I'll be a lot more wary, but I'll be ok. But I could have died.. repeated blows to the temple could have killed me, but it didn't. I have a harder head than I thought.
Still. I'm an assault victim.
And I keep wondering how I'm going to tell mom without her becoming hysterical.
It's two short blocks home. I was entering the intersection on Oak and 10th when I heard foosteps behind me. Clearly running. I clenched my bag, which was over my shoulder and not firmly on my back, and the grab failed. I turned and the assailant got aggressive. He had a friend a few feet off. I decided that this was a failed snatch attempt and decided to play my "I'm as big as you, don't fuck with me" card. One of them saw the keys in my hand and warned his friend, thinking I had a knife.
Bravado might have worked, but I glanced behind me for an instant and saw four others running towards me from the shadows. I got sucker punched in the head. Then again, again, again. I finally went down and they kicked the shit out of me. I kept fighting back, blind with anger, and they got away with my wallet, but not the backpack they had clearly been after. It was the middle of a brightly lit intersection. If they had waited another half block they would have had me in total shadow and might have killed me.
Bleeding, without my keys (I still haven't located them) or glasses, I got myself the final block home. I didn't see which way they went. I buzzed the manager, but she didn't answer. There was movement in the apartment right next to the front door, so I knocked on the window and asked for help. I was getting blood all over the doorstep. They let me in, helped me clean up, and got an ice pack for my head which was already swelling at the temple. Most of the blood appeared to be coming from my nose.
They leant me their phone and I called the non-emergency line. After all, it was over and no longer an emergency. I let the cops know where I was and was told to expect them shortly. My neighbors found the manager who came and joined us. She called 911, since it had been 20 minutes since the first call. After what was almost an hour I headed up to my apartment with the spare set of keys the manager had located for me, unsure when the cops would show up. As soon as I got in, and begin figuring out how to cancel the credit cards, the cops and the ambulance arrived. I suddenly had an apartment full of people. The cops said they would meet me at the hospital and the paramedics took me.
I made my statement, wishing I could have been a bit more clear in some of the details, but I only saw one of the six clearly, and only for a second or two. The only actual words I could remember was after they thought I had a knife. "you gonna stick me? you gonna stick me?".
The first question the nurse asked me (a Philipino male) when he learned I was mugged was "black or white?" The first question the orderly asked me (an Afrian American male) when he learned I was mugged was "black or white?". Same with the doctir (a white female). For me, it isn't the color but the age. That was the second question from the orderly. "Young men?"
Yep. Young thugs.
The cat scan shows that if anything was broken in my skull it's nothing that requires surgery. It will heal itself. My nose may or may not be broken, but it's not deviated. I'll be getting more information over the next couple of days. I need new glasses too. I got my cards cancelled when I got home around 4am (thanks to the taxi voucher the hospital provided) and they hadn't tried to use them yet. So, all they got from me was $8 in cash and a couple of checks. If they succeed in cashing those, they probably got around $150, or $25 each.
Me? I'm just glad to be alive. If I had seen 6 men from the start, I would have handed over my stuff. I thought it was a simple foiled bag grab and resisted. I'll be ok, and I'll be a lot more wary, but I'll be ok. But I could have died.. repeated blows to the temple could have killed me, but it didn't. I have a harder head than I thought.
Still. I'm an assault victim.
And I keep wondering how I'm going to tell mom without her becoming hysterical.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Phishing
One of my colleages pointed me to this article about an online teaching tool to help people identify scams and keep their information from getting phished.
It's a somewhat cheezy game, but it does a very good job at teaching people how to identify phishing scams, so if you consider yourself to be at all at risk I recommend spending a little time playing with it.
In other news, I saw Chinese Angle again on Friday and the cast completely nailed it. I was extraordinarily happy with the show and I think it bodes well for our final weeks of performance.
My weekend was fairly mellow. A birthday gathering in the park, a farewell party in the evening for Chris DeJong and Ann Speyer, and time with my Mom and Aunt Bev on Sunday. No high drama, no excitement. I've actually been feeling pretty exhausted, as if the last few months have decided to settle on me with a vengeance. I sort of have another mellow night tonight, but I need to work on a retirement montage for the Berkeley Superintendent of Schools, Michele Lawrence. This will be similar to the montages I do for the ELC conferences, and I have a vague idea of what I want to do, but she needs it by this time next week. My time is fairly booked between now and then, and if I don't get it done tonight, I'll be spending my Friday night working on it. I would have worked on it yesterday, but all my media clips were in the office. I need to start carrying that drive with me, I think.
Yeah, not a very exciting entry, but it hasn't been a very exciting weekend. I'm really ok with that.
It's a somewhat cheezy game, but it does a very good job at teaching people how to identify phishing scams, so if you consider yourself to be at all at risk I recommend spending a little time playing with it.
In other news, I saw Chinese Angle again on Friday and the cast completely nailed it. I was extraordinarily happy with the show and I think it bodes well for our final weeks of performance.
My weekend was fairly mellow. A birthday gathering in the park, a farewell party in the evening for Chris DeJong and Ann Speyer, and time with my Mom and Aunt Bev on Sunday. No high drama, no excitement. I've actually been feeling pretty exhausted, as if the last few months have decided to settle on me with a vengeance. I sort of have another mellow night tonight, but I need to work on a retirement montage for the Berkeley Superintendent of Schools, Michele Lawrence. This will be similar to the montages I do for the ELC conferences, and I have a vague idea of what I want to do, but she needs it by this time next week. My time is fairly booked between now and then, and if I don't get it done tonight, I'll be spending my Friday night working on it. I would have worked on it yesterday, but all my media clips were in the office. I need to start carrying that drive with me, I think.
Yeah, not a very exciting entry, but it hasn't been a very exciting weekend. I'm really ok with that.
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