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Sep. 10th, 2009 10:46 am
liralen: Finch Painting (Ukitake_tea_contemplation)
[personal profile] liralen
The Labor Day Weekend was really nice, but I'm glad to get back into some of my routine.

The boys and I went into Boulder on Saturday to do the "end of summer" fair and the Farmer's Market where I got some gorgeous leeks, gold potatoes, and a whole 40 pound box of peaches. Oh, the peaches... Morton's Palisade peaches are amazing, and we've gone through most of that box.

Sunday was church and then we went to a little amusement park on the edge of Golden, it had an alpine slide, go-carts, and lots of little rides. We had a blast just wandering, seeing the shops when it rained a little, eating ice cream, and Jet and I pedaled a swan-shaped pedal-boat all over a small pond and miraculously didn't run ourselves aground.

John and I team prepped two slabs of spare ribs on Labor Day and I did the smoking while he and Jet did their own thing. I got a story I'd promised someone on Y-Gallery mostly done. It was another blocker for me as while I had some ideas of the characters, I didn't know particulars, but I also knew that the owners of the chars would have a harder time telling me about stuff if I didn't have a story to hang the feedback on. So I finally slogged through it on Tuesday and I'll probably post it later today.

In prep for it, and for ideas on Richi of the Misfit Toys, I read Gavin De Becker's Just 2 Seconds: Using Time and Space to Defeat Assassins. It was really, really good. Specific, detailed instruction on primary goals for protectors and exactly why and what data they used to back up their practices. The specifics of how their protection firm works were really, really good as well. The compendium of over 1400 assassination attempts was amazing as well, chilling through the successful ones, heartening through all the unsuccessful ones. The most amazing thing was that the total, combined time from the initiation by the attacker to the conclusion of all those 1400+ attacks added up to less than thirty minutes.

The appendix was really fun, too, including a philosophical bit by an ex-general about sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves. Some lovely quotes in all of it, especially one mob hitman talking about being like an egg in a pan once he's in. Go in, hit the guy, get out, always keep moving because if you're ever still, you start to fry.

Lots of interesting stuff, and I have a new respect for protectors, and even more for De Becker and his associates and their attitude towards how to face and deal with violence or those that would deal it.

Date: 2009-09-10 06:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beckyb.livejournal.com
Mmmmm. Warm, fresh peaches with homemade vanilla ice cream. Mmm-mm-mm. Just saying.

Date: 2009-09-11 04:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] liralen.livejournal.com
Mmmmm.... yeah. Definitely... we're down to our last dozen peaches already. *laughs*

Date: 2009-09-10 07:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] marith.livejournal.com
Oh, cool, I should read that! Both Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift were interesting and useful, and this one sounds like it's got a lot of different material.

Yay tasty peaches!

Your chrysanthemum is up on my cube wall at the new workplace now, and still gets compliments :)

Date: 2009-09-11 04:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] liralen.livejournal.com
Yes! It's quite different, as it's far more from the point of view of a professional protector, and I really enjoyed it a lot, found it at the local library.

Very tasty peaches. I must write a Kyouraku eating peaches fic. *laughs*

Oooooo!! I'm so glad!! Wow. that's so cool to know. Thank you!

Date: 2009-09-10 10:07 pm (UTC)
incandescens: (Default)
From: [personal profile] incandescens
40 pounds of peaches. Wow.

Date: 2009-09-11 04:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] liralen.livejournal.com
Yeah, and we're through most of them already... *laughs*

I guess we eat a lot when they're good, as they're only good this one time in the summer.

Poor Prufrock, where a single peach stymied him... dang, now Goku and Shunsui have perked up, "Peaches?"

Date: 2009-09-11 09:27 pm (UTC)
incandescens: (Default)
From: [personal profile] incandescens
Probably Shunsui eating a peach (with extra juice action) could constitute sexual harassment from across the room, to paraphrase Pratchett. :)

Date: 2009-09-12 03:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] liralen.livejournal.com
It would. Indeed. *grins*

Shunsui.

Date: 2009-09-15 11:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] annieroo2.livejournal.com
Farmer's market for the win!! We get the best stuff from ours. And now that it's fall we're all about the orchard. :D

You read the most intriguing things. I'd never be tempted to tackle most of them, but still... *giggles*

Date: 2009-09-16 03:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] liralen.livejournal.com
OOOooo... orchard? *drools*

Hee. Yeah... I was intrigued by this one very much... and you saw the hitman that came out of it, in some ways. Though Rishi of the Misfit Toys is a protector, trained for it, after a military career, which, oddly enough, actually can be a hindrance as a *good* bodyguard because they really teach you a lot about self-preservation in the military, which a bodyguard has to kind of ignore... they're NOT the target. It's a really odd mindset to bring into a situation with bullets whizzing about...

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