Teacher Lady tagged herself so I am tagging me.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I love gift bags but this year I’m about half and half.
2. Real tree or artificial? Er, is this what we want or what we have? I have a real tree. And it’s very nice. But it doesn’t hold up some of my favorite ornaments, the pewter ones.
3. When do you put up the tree? We had it up the week after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime between the 27th and the 1st.
5. Do you like eggnog? No.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A red headed doll as big as I was in a brown tie dye miniskirt given to me by the elderly couple who lived next door to us. I was 4 or 5 and we had no money.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. One handcarved out of walnut, with just the holy family. One from South America which a friend picked up for me while he was down there; the angel looks like a zombie and there is a multicolored chicken.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Me.
9. Easiest person to buy for? My husband. His wish list is always available.
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever got? Never got an awful one. But it turns out I gave one. My gpa-in-law wouldn’t tell me anything he wanted for Christmas except pigs. They live in town so I knew he didn’t mean live ones. I was at a white elephant trade and saw some pig salt and peppers, so I got them and gave them to him. He hated them and I got a reprimand from my FIL later.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? I send real Christmas cards to the soldiers. I don’t send any others.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It’s a Wonderful Life and White Christmas.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? early December, for the next year!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Candles.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Turkey, mashed potatoes, and grama’s green beans.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear. I like colored ones too, but then I’d have to have one color of ornaments and I like many colors.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Mary Did You Know and a country song by the Statler brothersthat says

“There are people who are whispering, and the rumors are running wild. There’s a woman who’s not married and she’s going to have a child. She’s a virgin from down in Nazareth, now listen close. She’s going to marry a man named Joseph but the baby’s father is the Holy Ghost. Now who do you think would believe such a thing, would believe that the story is true?… Here’s hoping to heaven you do.”

No one ever plays it on the radio, but I love it.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We switch holidays every year. One year we go to Arkansas for Thanksgiving, the next year we go for Christmas. When we’re at my parents’ for Christmas we go to… Disneyworld, Belize, and North Carolina…
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers? Why, yes. Isn’t that a requirement for third grade graduation? (Okay, I appropriated [nice word for stole] that answer. But yes I can.)
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I have a silver star. It’s not on the tree because we have too big a tree. So there’s an orange ornament that’s hanger is broken and it’s turned upside down.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve. Thankfully my hubby’s family did the same.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Traffic.
23. What I love most about Christmas? Having time off with the family.

My hubby took the Right Brain versus Left Brain creativity test and ended up 50%-51%. (He is 101%! I always knew he was wonderful.) But I’m at 66%-34% with left brain dominant.

Left brain
54% verbal
47% reality-based
37% linear

Right brain
32% nonverbal

What does that mean?

[M]edium to high scores (30 – 50%) are desireable, as they show an ability to utilize a processing method without an abnormal reliance on it. Special focus should be paid to highly dominant (50% or above) or highly recessive (0 – 30%) methods, as they tend to limit your approach when learning, memorizing, or solving problems.

If you have Highly Dominant characteristics, your normal thinking patterns will naturally utilize these methods. Conscious effort is required to recognize the benefits of other techniques. Using multiple forms of information processing is the best way to fully understand complex issues and become a balanced thinker.

So my normal characteristics are verbal/reality-based/linear/nonverbal.

You are a highly verbal person. Using this method you process your thoughts and ideas with words. You use exact, technical logic for the descriptions of your thoughts and seldom use illustrations.

I remember once I gave a guy I was dating a map on how to get to my place. The closer you got to my apartment, the more exact the map was. So as far as scale went, it was very off.

I guess that is why I don’t use illustrations much.

You process information with a basis in reality, but are not limited to it. You may recognize the repercussions of you actions, but proceed to do something anyway, in the heat of the moment. You can complete projects to which you are emotionally attached as well as random tasks.

That’s a really weird set of comments. Who is not limited by reality? Does that mean I’m crazy? Who doesn’t sometimes see repercussions and do them anyway? And, please, someone tell me, who doesn’t complete projects to which they are emotionally attached?

In this process, the left brain takes pieces of information, lines them up, and proceeds to arrange them into an order from which it may draw a conclusion. The information is processed from parts to a whole in a straight, forward, and logical progression.

This is the reason that I can only see one possible solution. Too bad I don’t do more mapping or something. I’ll look at the problem and come up with a single solution. And I will keep working toward that solution even when it doesn’t matter anymore. UNLESS I talk to someone else about it, usually my husband, and he gives me other alternatives.

Honey, one of the reasons I appreciate you so much (not that you will know because this section isn’t in the RSS feed) is that you help me see the big picture and not just the road I think I’m on.

According to the site, my nonverbal processing:

Nonverbal processing is a method used by the right hemisphere to process our thoughts with illustrations. Reliance on this method is why it is occasionally difficult for right-brained people to “find the right words” in certain situations. A right-brained person cannot just read or hear information and process it, but first must make a mental video to better understand the information they have received. For example, through nonverbal processing, a person giving directions may say, “Continue going straight until you see a big, red-brick courthouse. At the courthouse turn right, and go down that street for a couple of miles until you se a gray stone church which will be on your right. Straight across from the church is the road to the left you need to take.” With nonverbal processing, the directions that are given are extremely visual compared to the exact, sequential directions that would be given by a left-brained person.

Your Nonverbal Analysis

When processing your thoughts and ideas, you use tend to use both illustrations and words. When giving directions, you probably use both visual illustrations such as, “keep going until you see a McDonalds on your right; then turn left at the Home Depot”, and technical terms such as, “travel for two miles and turn east onto First Street.”

Actually, I do give directions that way a lot. My mom says it is a consequence of being fat. Fat people give directions based on restaurants.

But I would say, “You’ll pass the railroad tracks. The next light has a gas station on the right. Then the next light has a Walgreens. The NEXT light is where you turn right. If you get to the light with the Shell, you’ve gone too far.”

So I guess I’m verbal/nonverbal dominant. Or something.

Don’t move around your house unless you have to. Stay in your room. Call 911. Get your gun. If the intruder goes towards your kids, then ge gt him. If he comes in my room’s door, I will be at the ready and challenge him- Loudly!

I’ve said I would shoot someone in my house, because I would be in fear for my life if they were in my house. But I hadn’t thought of how I would shoot them. If I heard them walking around the kitchen, I shouldn’t go in there looking for them.

I can see where this could be a problem.

I don’t want someone getting to me to hurt me once they’re in my house. But I don’t want to go looking for them either.

Also, how do I know the noise in the kitchen isn’t the boys rummaging for a snack? I’ve heard of too many people killing family members because they didn’t make sure of who they were shooting.

I think it is much more likely that if an intruder is in my home, I won’t know it and I will think it is the kid.

Use sense of smell. I can smell cigarette smokers at a long distance. Lots of bad guys stink. If I can smell him, he is close.

Physically move carefully, slowly, quietly. I need ot only move as fast as I can guarantee the hits. I need to be able to hit the bad guy and not hit the boys.

Use the structure to maximize my distance to the bad guy. I don’t want to grapple over my gun.

Some bad guys are good shooters. I should not count on being able to outshoot them. They may be dedicated opponents.

Here, again, you have to be aware of the fact that you may have to take a shot and then keep going.

I should move slowly. I should carry my normal fifring stance with me. I should move one step and then bring the one foot towards the other. I should not bring my feet together nor should I cross my feet. I am not stable if I do those. What if he runs into me?

…
Remember stay as far from a potential shooter as possible.

I am going to copy all my notes on moving through a house later.

Under what circumstances would I shoot?

Would I shoot if my spouse were in danger? My boys? My parents?

That was a question they asked at Front Sight.

Here’s my answer then.

If they’re in my house, I will shoot.
If someone I love is in danger, I will shoot.
If I am in danger, I will shoot.

What constitutes danger?
Gun? yes
Knife? yes
Carjacking? yes
Stolen car? no, not if we’re not in it
Stolen purse? as long as no other threat, no.
Insulted? No. I won’t shoot.

If someone comes at me with a gun or a knife, they’re a threat. I don’t know what they want. I don’t know what their plans are. But if they’ve got weapons, they are obviously threatening my life.

I personally have a bad attitude towards purse snatchers. One stole my greatgrandmother’s purse and hit her over the head with it. She had a stroke at the time which left her with no short term memory. But as long as I’m not in my 80s, as long as they don’t try to use the purse as a weapon, there is not anything in my purse that is important enough to shoot someone.

The point of shooting someone is to keep me and my family/friends safe. It is not to keep my property safe.

So why would I shoot if the bad guys are in my home? Because I don’t know what they want and if I wait to shoot till I find out, I may be dead.

My house is my space and they should not come in. Since the neighbors were killed, I’ve been locking my doors even when I’m home. I used to not lock them even when I was gone sometimes. I don’t even open the door for the Jehovah’s Witnesses who come about once a week now, it seems.

I actually like not answering the door. I’d never thought I could not answer the door before this. And that woman who was screaming at me because I wouldn’t buy her product scared me. I don’t want to answer the door anymore.

Of course, in the women’s case, it wouldn’t have saved them. They knew their killer. But I still feel unsafe without the door locked. So now I lock it.

Other notes:

What do I do if I’m at work? There’s only one door out of the office (not that I’m in there much) and I can’t legally (carry at the college).

If you have time to think about whether or not you should shoot, you shouldn’t shoot.

Would I shoot if someone I don’t know were being approached/held at knife/gun point?

Sould I? Yes. Would I?

I didn’t answer that last question.

I am not sure I know the answer. If somone I don’t know is being held, I would probably think of the guy at FS who said he was going to shoot and it turned out they were making a movie. I think I would worry myself into not shooting until the person was actually shot or cut.

Unless it were a child. I am fairly sure I’d shoot anyone who held a child with a knife or a gun. But I need to be able to shoot better to do that. I’m not as good as I need to be to shoot someone where another person is a shield.

In the middle of my notes on this it says:

Write a letter about what I would be willing to shoot for.
Include Front Sight notes.
Send self a registered letter w/ those.
Sign. Don’t open it.

I was so sure I’d do that as soon as I got home. But I haven’t done it yet.

I also wrote “opportunity= distance 21 foot rule”

Even with a knife, a guy 21 feet away can kill me, unless I shoot him first. The time it would take me to pull my gun and shoot him, even if I were as fast as a trained police officer, would still let him kill me. So if he’s as far away from me as one end of the living room to the other, he could kill me.

That’s part of why if he’s in my house, I am going to shoot him. He’s not supposed to be there. I don’t know why he’s there. And I am not going to let him kill me or my family because I was dithering about whether or not I should shoot him. I will be in fear for my life and my family’s life if someone is in my house who does not belong there.

I looked at an article on the 21 foot rule. In case I don’t have a gun (which I won’t outside my house. I haven’t taken my CHL.), the best way to foil an attack attempt that you can’t get away from is to move forward, toward the attacker, at a 45 degree angle. The article is really talking about trained police officers, but if that’s my only option, it’s best to go with what is most likely to keep me safe.

One of the things we learned at Front Sight was color awareness. It’s a color code, like the US one for threat levels.

I wrote in my notes:

In White, the lowest level of threat awareness, you aren’t aware of anything. You are living like there is no threat and never will be. And that is when you get

Most people have 2.3 to 3 seconds of unawareness. On the street all the time you have to react is 1.5 seconds. The lag time is what the bad guys are counting on.

Yellow= relaxed, aware of your environment. If you think “How can anyone live like that?” you won’t live.

Orange=hinky. Something’s wrong. You have identified a specific threat. Determine their intent. Form a plan (scream, call police). Continue to stay in condition yellow because rats travel in packs. Keep looking for the bad guys. If you make four consecutive turns and they are still behind you, they’re bad guys.

The orange here reminded me of the time some stupid guys followed my sisters and me down a road. We sped up and so did they. I made a plan, drive to the police station. But when I passed a cop, I didn’t pull over. I’d made the plan, so I kept going to the police station. By the time I realized I could have stopped where the police officer was, I was past him and it was a two lane road with the bad guys right behind us.

Now I try to make a more general plan. “Get help.” “Find a police officer.” “Get to the police station if I have to.”

C a friend of S, A’s daughter, was out driving and a guy did a U-turn across four lanes of traffic to follow her. That was defnitely hinky. So she turned left across several lanes of traffic, without warning, to get away from him. He followed her. She did several other turns, then called her parents on her cell. She drove home, into a culdesac. He followed her. Her parents were out in the yard waiting. He reversed and drove out. A’s husband said that if she had trouble again, come to his house. He’d come out into the yard with a gun and let the guy know it was dangerous to follow girls home.

It is worrisome how many people don’t have a plan for when things go wrong.

Red: a specific threat. Draw a line in the sand or set a mental trigger. If A, then B.

For example, if I pull into this gas station and the guy pulls over too, I will… What I did was get out of the car, call my family and give them the guy’s license plate number. I figured if I didn’t make it home, they could at least find the guy. I was eighteen and scared and driving in from out of town.

Black: Opponent has tripped the mental trigger. At this point you need a combat mindset.

How to develop a combat mindset:
1. Know that the world IS violent.
2. Get mad, not afraid. “How dare this dirt bag.”
Understand your opponent.
2.2% are true anti-social murderous
Your opponent will probably be a dedicated criminal.
Even in pain, keep going. Be the last one standing.
3. Training
Train the way you want to fight.
You lose 50% of your ability under stress.
Therefore it is easier to win a gun fight if you’re a good shooter.
You should include simulators, hone physical and mental training.
You want a scenario that promotes success.
4. Visualization.
See it before you do it.
Pay attention to real world examples. Think through them.
See yourself winning.

Put little stickers up to remind you to be in condition yellow.

I also wrote in my notebook something very personal.

I think I used to always be in orange. Got sick of it so I hide in books.

I did, in fact, used to be in orange all the time. I was on the ragged edge of sanity. But I pushed back too far. R says they should add another color, clear.

Clear: (he says) is what I am when I am reading. I don’t hear you when you talk. I don’t see you come into the room.

He says that’s a problem because I am out in public and I zone out. For instance, he came to pick me up at school the other night because I locked my keys out of my car. And I was reading under the lamp post. I was highlighted and no one else was.

He wasn’t too happy about that. I did tell him that I knew where all the people were, and told him so he’d believe me, but that it makes me less afraid to read. However, I know that it probably does drop my seconds of reaction, even when I know where folks are.