I just bought tickets for Penn and Teller, at the Rio in Las Vegas. This is going to kick SO much ass.

Speed cuffing and Redman. This was a LOT of fun. I had trouble doing the speed cuffing because of the size of my hand; it was blocking the loop (the “single strand”) on the cuff from zipping all the way around and locking around the guy’s wrist.

As for the “Redman” demo, we got to learn some different stances (interview, caution, combat) and some strikes for when the poop really does hit the fan. We learned the palm-heel strike, elbow strike, and a really great move where you grab around the back of the head and raise your knee up at the same time.

Next week we’re doing the bicycle training - I haven’t ridden a bike in YEARS. I’m going to break my neck.

I just finished my first night in the Advanced Citizen Police Academy. What a great time! I was out at the Roanoke County Police Department, since the Advanced academy is a joint effort between City and County. I’ve created an album for any photos I can snag over in the gallery.

Tonight’s session was about crime scene investigation. We got to investigate a mock crime scene, and I was the “official” photographer. I took photos of the crime scene, including the drugs and gun and blood. One thing I learned was that on the tv show CSI, they’re not just showing off when they use flashlights all the time. It’s a technique called “oblique lighting”, which is used to show prints and marks, as well as smaller fragments of evidence that aren’t immediately visible.

Next week we’re going to do handcuffing techniques (I’ll try not to get too excited.. Rowr!) and something called a “Redman demonstration” where an officer wears this majorly padded suit and we get to try to whomp his ass. Then he shows us how he can respond to that, and kick OUR asses without having to resort to lethal force.

More to come as it happens.. Hopefully I’ll be in one piece at this time next week.

Alrighty then, the Gallery is back up and running. I’ve even got a kickass random photo block that shows up in the sidebar (over this way ——->)

It’s running Gallery 2, which is sort of not released yet. If there’s bugs in it, don’t worry - it’ll get fixed.

The full gallery is at http://www.birdbrained.org/wordpress/wp-gallery2.php

Want your own Gallery? If you run your own server and you have PHP.. You can get Gallery at http://gallery.sourceforge.net

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Zombie Day (or Easter, for the truly stuffy amongst you). I didn’t go out of town, stayed home and watched Dawn of the Dead. Awwww, yeah.

My wife is so tolerant of me.