02-09-2016, 06:56 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-10-2016, 10:31 AM by Drunk Monk.)
You know I know a lot of pro photographers, right? Remember Justin? The guy that hired me to come down to speak at Otis College back in 2008? He's a Nat Geo photographer and has published two or three photo books. And then there's a ton of concert photographers that I know. One of my good friends recently got one of his concert pix into Rolling Stone. Those guys are bigger shutterbugs than you.
Unless you meant only within DOOM. Then it's only Scapino.
<waits for the 'Aaaugh!' as Lucy whips another football away from Charlie Brown's kick>
Back to SB50. So I got a ride from a nurse I met on facebook who has only 1 year under her belt volunteering for RM, and only a Levi's. She had a nice new car, bought only a week ago, and was a sober driver. What a luxury.
We got to Levi's before sunrise and parked on the golf course surrounded by enforcement vehicles - dozens upon dozens of cop cars plus humvees at every major entry, manned by fully-armed Military Police. We walked over for our first checkpoint - a frisk, a wand, and an ID check - then over to our RM tent behind the Fire Station. On the way, we went past the enforcement lot which had the command vehicles for more officers than I've ever seen in one place: Police, Sheriff, CHP, FBI, Homeland Security, Coast Guard, and more. It was a gun show - a macho flaunting of who had the biggest command vehicle. I felt very safe.
The day before I spent sewing the new RM logo patch on my well-weathered RM M-65 jacket. First new patch in years. Hand sewn. Without a thimble. And I did a really crappy job. It's a monastic meditation - a Buddhist monk is supposed to sew his initiate robe. I never did. I bought my robe. But I've sewn all my patches on my jacket except for the initial ones cannibalized off my original RM jacket. And of course, as expected, I was asked to drop that jacket for the official Levi's one, which I did gladly because the more I saw, the less I wanted to stick out.
Once I got my cool SB50 GOLD nametag and my SB50 photo barcoded laminate on my cool SB50 lanyard, I had to pass another frisk, bag check (I had no bags), wand, walk-through scanner, dogs sniffing, and barcode entry which showed my photo to the guard. Every time I left the perimeter, I had to scan out. Soldiers with big ass guns and body armor were at every gate, every corner, everywhere. Very safe indeed.
I was assigned to logistics - a 4 man team. I was L-3. L-1 was the brother of our director, L-2 was a retired Sacto Fire chief who now oversees one of 3 national emergency resource centers in the nation, L-4 was a college kid, son of one of our best nurses, who is discovering the world of drugs and has taken me on as some sort of mentor. L-1 and L-2 weren't very mobile - L-1 was out of shape, L-2 was old with a bad knee and none of us had great radio skills (actually, I have good radio skills but not with the required earbud - I hate earbuds because they bug the crap out of my ear and prefer pick mics). Plus there was an initial mix up about which of the 3 RM channels we should be on, and anyone who had any of our cell numbers would call right when the radio barked. The 1st few hours were a mess of running around getting the lay of the land and solving random problems. Rm has 3 main medical stations in Levi's, and added 2 more in the fan lot and one more outside of the perimeter in the convention center.
Unless you meant only within DOOM. Then it's only Scapino.
<waits for the 'Aaaugh!' as Lucy whips another football away from Charlie Brown's kick>
Back to SB50. So I got a ride from a nurse I met on facebook who has only 1 year under her belt volunteering for RM, and only a Levi's. She had a nice new car, bought only a week ago, and was a sober driver. What a luxury.
We got to Levi's before sunrise and parked on the golf course surrounded by enforcement vehicles - dozens upon dozens of cop cars plus humvees at every major entry, manned by fully-armed Military Police. We walked over for our first checkpoint - a frisk, a wand, and an ID check - then over to our RM tent behind the Fire Station. On the way, we went past the enforcement lot which had the command vehicles for more officers than I've ever seen in one place: Police, Sheriff, CHP, FBI, Homeland Security, Coast Guard, and more. It was a gun show - a macho flaunting of who had the biggest command vehicle. I felt very safe.
The day before I spent sewing the new RM logo patch on my well-weathered RM M-65 jacket. First new patch in years. Hand sewn. Without a thimble. And I did a really crappy job. It's a monastic meditation - a Buddhist monk is supposed to sew his initiate robe. I never did. I bought my robe. But I've sewn all my patches on my jacket except for the initial ones cannibalized off my original RM jacket. And of course, as expected, I was asked to drop that jacket for the official Levi's one, which I did gladly because the more I saw, the less I wanted to stick out.
Once I got my cool SB50 GOLD nametag and my SB50 photo barcoded laminate on my cool SB50 lanyard, I had to pass another frisk, bag check (I had no bags), wand, walk-through scanner, dogs sniffing, and barcode entry which showed my photo to the guard. Every time I left the perimeter, I had to scan out. Soldiers with big ass guns and body armor were at every gate, every corner, everywhere. Very safe indeed.
I was assigned to logistics - a 4 man team. I was L-3. L-1 was the brother of our director, L-2 was a retired Sacto Fire chief who now oversees one of 3 national emergency resource centers in the nation, L-4 was a college kid, son of one of our best nurses, who is discovering the world of drugs and has taken me on as some sort of mentor. L-1 and L-2 weren't very mobile - L-1 was out of shape, L-2 was old with a bad knee and none of us had great radio skills (actually, I have good radio skills but not with the required earbud - I hate earbuds because they bug the crap out of my ear and prefer pick mics). Plus there was an initial mix up about which of the 3 RM channels we should be on, and anyone who had any of our cell numbers would call right when the radio barked. The 1st few hours were a mess of running around getting the lay of the land and solving random problems. Rm has 3 main medical stations in Levi's, and added 2 more in the fan lot and one more outside of the perimeter in the convention center.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse