opening the wrong door

A Dallas police officer came "home" from work, actually, went into the apartment that is directly one floor above her apartment, thought it was her apartment, noticed someone was in "her apartment" and shot him even though it was actually his apartment.

And because the police officer is of European ancestry, and the man who was shot & killed was of African ancestry, the race card automatically appears.

An investigation is still ongoing.  

Here's a link to the article about this situation

Joe Setyon, “Family of Dallas Man Killed by Cop Says Officer's Story Doesn't Add Up,” Reason, September 11, 2018

http://reason.com/blog/2018/09/11/family-dallas-man-killed-by-cop-says-off

I want to comment on this quote

According to the affidavit, Guyger lives on the third floor of the complex in apartment #1378, while Jean lived directly above her in apartment #1478. She parked on the fourth floor, then attempted to enter Jean's apartment using her "unique door key," the affidavit says. Since the door was already ajar, it "fully opened under the force of the key insertion." 

This doesn't surprise me much because 2 times, the person who lived in the apartment directly above mines have attempted to open my apartment door and was frustrated that the door wouldn't open! 

The first time was daytime, I was sitting in front of my computer when I noticed that woman trying to open my door.  I looked through the peephole, and yelled "WRONG ROOM, THIS IS ROOM #____". The person looked so shocked and backed away.

The second time was circa 3am when I was sleeping, so just imagine waking up to someone trying so hard to open my door. At that point, I was worried about being victimized by a home invasion! Again, I looked to the peephole, saw the same exact person and yelled "WRONG ROOM, THIS IS ROOM #____". That person looked shocked and then backed away!

I think that person trying to open my door was drunk and didn't realize she was on the wrong floor! Had she tried that to someone less patient than me, she would've shot! If I had to, I would shoot someone trying to invade my home, but I think in this case, the person just didn't realize she was on the wrong floor trying to open the wrong door. I used my discretion carefully!

So it doesn't surprise that this off-duty police officer was just like that person who lived in my building who got off the wrong floor and tried to open the door located in the same part of the hallway, just in a different floor!

======

It's situations like this is why I rather live in a secured apartment than a house.

With a house, there's many ways a burglar can come in. This induces paranoia when there's strange sounds at night, and a person being woken up might feel under attack and get into defense mode.

I live in a secured apartment.  A person would have to get a key to enter the lobby (though sometimes, idiots don't always properly close the lobby door 😡😡) then get into my hallway.  My apartment door has a peephole so I know who's knocking!

The only other way to get into my apartment is to be  Spiderman and have webbed feet that can walk on the wall outside my apartment and fly into my apartment.  

So only 2 points of defense I have to worry about. Whereas a house have multiple points of penetration, bringing more opportunities for burglars, as well as more anxiety about strange sounds outside. 

As for strange noises, as long as it's not in a hallway (that outsiders can't access to) I don't worry much about being intruded on. 

I totally defend the right to shoot someone intruding on your home! It's your life or their life, there's no neutral ground! 

But if you're not in immediate danger, you have to carefully use your discretion.

Is the person not realize it's not his/her apartment. That happened in my case. Then just yell "This is Room # ____, You got the Wrong Room"

======

Is the person pounding the door asking for help? Don't open the door, call 911 and inform 911 that someone needs help!

In one case, a person was pounding the door asking for help after she got into an accident. It was late at night and the person in the home was woken up and worried about being intruded upon and shot the person asking for help. Again, the race card appeared. 

CBS Detroit. “Young Black Woman Killed, Allegedly Shot While Knocking On Door for Help.” November 7, 2017. 

https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/11/07/prosecutors-seek-more-info-after-young-woman-murdered-on-porch/

Had the homeowner used his discretion wisely, he would've called 911 while the other person was still on the outside. Don't shoot unless you have to! 

Surviving as a performing artist

Celebrity news tends to focus on the glitz and glamour.  The most successful actors and musicians have multi-million dollar deals that us mere mortals can only imagine.


Everyone assumes that actors, musicians, and other performing artists are all rich!

Only a few become lead actors of Hollywood hits! Only a few become pop stars with decades worth of mega-hits!

Very few even come close to that status.

Some might achieve their 1 or 2 years of being semi-famous but are quickly forgotten. The money that they made in those 1 or 2 years is not enough to live off on for a lifetime. 

They still need to pay their bills somehow!

Geoffrey Owens once appeared in a minor role in the hit TV show starring Bill Cosby! 

Bill Cosby was not only the lead actor but also an executive producer, getting more than enough money to cover up his misdeeds for a long time!

Geoffrey Owens, however, didn't have enough consistent gigs after the Cosby sitcom series ended!

This is NORMAL for most actors! 

To pay his bills, Owens took a retail job at Trader Joe's.



Erin Donnelly, “'Cosby Show' Star Geoffrey Owens Reacts to Controversy About His Trader Joe's Job: 'I Was Really Devastated,” Yahoo, September 4, 2018, 
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/former-cosby-show-star-geoffrey-owens-responds-controversy-trader-joes-job-really-devastated-131548777.html

from the article 

Owens credited the supermarket chain, where he worked for 15 months, with giving him the flexibility to work shifts around his acting career. He noted that many of his acting jobs are short-term, requiring a backup source of income.

“I’ve been teaching, acting, directing for 30-plus years, but it got to a point where it just didn’t add up enough,” he said. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

“I didn’t advertise that I was at Trader Joe’s, not that I was ashamed of it but because I didn’t want the entertainment community deciding, ‘Well, he’s doing that, he’s not pursuing acting anymore.’ I felt like I had to be careful about that.” 

My facebook post  on that issue

Most actors/musicians or any performing artists don't really make big money. Even when they get some fame, for many, the gigs that give them fame doesn't last forever, and the chump change they make sure doesn't last forever! They have to earn income in between gigs!

I can relate for many reasons.

For one, I'm a digital musician who release instrumental tracks independently.  (look up Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior! That's me)


No major label behind my stuff, and therefore not much promotion budget to advertise my tracks. 

Some people have bought my tracks on iTunes, but not enough to pay my rent! 

But I keep working at it because making digital music is my passion! I also want to make up for lost time! 

I had bills to pay and didn't have much left-over to buy the music equipment I wanted until a few years ago when I finally got my own computer. By then, technology has caught up where the average person can go on the computer to make instrumental tracks without playing instruments and without using very complicated equipment! 

And that's the thing!

We all have dreams, but sometimes, they take a back seat to getting the bills paid NOW!

So we take jobs that we would've considered Plan B or Plan C! When times get desperate, we even have to resort to Plan Z!

I've been lucky to be able to stick with substitute teaching for 13 years and to have a demand for my labor during certain times of the year. Certain times, the demand is so high that I can't satisfy all of it (ie 5 teachers from different schools have asked me to sub for their class on the same day. I can only be at one place at a time).  Other times, school is on vacation, so I have to take side jobs including but not limited to retail, clerical, manual labor, and promotional sign waving (I worked on my Dre Day dance moves for that one 🤣🤣🤣)

I've worked part-time at libraries in the past. I majored in Library & Info Science (LIS)!  I have been applying for full-time library work. So far, no luck on that one

I got bills to pay! I can't just wait for Plan A or Plan B to pan out! I have to roll with opportunities that are available now!

Luckily, I haven't yet had to resort to working in a restaurant, sanitation, construction or any other job that would feel "hell on earth" to me!  But I respect those who do such jobs because somebody needs to get it done!


But when I have time, I make my music, and make promotional artwork, and make "no-budget videos" (basically a series of still images because I have no money to pay directors, actors, etc) to promote my music!

I might be too old to be a teen idol, but I'm not giving up my musical dreams. I got an album of new instrumental tracks coming soon! Stay tuned!

Attention to Kaepernick

I posted this on facebook last week

from 9/6/2018
  

There comes a time when right-wingers have to realize that their complaining about Colin Kaepernick's kneeling only gives him more power in the eyes of his followers! Had they stopped giving him attention a long time ago, he would've been forgotten by the general public by now!

Personally, I think Hawaii should become independent from the USA, but I wouldn't kneel or sit during the Star Spangled Banner.  Just like how Nelson Mandela stated to his followers after the fall of apartheid that we shouldn't disrespect the traditions of the Afrikaners (descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa), I wouldn't want to disrespect the traditions of the USA even though I want Hawaii to separate.

I also cringed with Kaepernick's praise of Fidel Castro! It was a major PR blunder!  Kaepernick later apologized. That was 2 years ago, it's time to move on!

Many right-wingers call liberals "snowflakes" but they're the ones acting like snowflakes and giving excessive attention to Colin Kaepernick's kneeling during the anthem!

Like whatevers, just ignore that guy already!

But the more they complain, the more powerful he becomes.

Just like back in the late 80s, early 90s, the conservatives kept complaining about Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Ice T, and NWA! All that complaining made those artists into cultural icons.


Dan Quayle complained about 2pac's songs in one of his speeches. 2pac was still a relatively obscure rapper at the time.  This gave 2pac a lot of free publicity at a time before his more popular songs came out! 

Meanwhile, radical Left has made political speakers Milo Yiannopolous and Ben Shapiro into stars by making their events (which might've only attracted 10 political nerds and plenty of empty seats) into spectacles that go viral! 

All this nonstop whining about Colin Kaepernick kneeling made him a bigger cultural icon to rally around.  

He was nearly unknown to non-sports fans before the pansy-farting whining from the conservative correctness crowd! 


Had the conservative correctness crowd just left the issue alone, he would still be a relatively obscure athlete, and more importantly, he wouldn't have been a center of a Nike ad campaign! 

Nike is banking on him to be a Muhammad Ali type figure for years to come.  

None of that would've happened if the conservative correctness weren't such whiny snowflakes about the issue!