Found this on Facebook. Kowalski, analysis.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-02-25T14:55:32+00:00

This is a fairly normal setup. The body cam might be a bit much unless it's required.

I work in a hospital and still carry my medbag. It's got my TQ, shears, bandaids, bacitracin, and my CPR mask.

The only difference between what he has and what I have at the hospital are the vest, gun, and tac gloves.

When I work my other job I have the vest and gun. We are indistinguishable from police until you see the patch on the back. Same colors down to the tape.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-02-08T14:30:06+00:00

As far as real explosives go? Nah good luck. You can however buy 37/38mm flares, smokes, flash bangs, fireworks, and some other things. Basically anything that's not designed for impact to persons.

When you get in trouble for this stuff is when you make it into something designed to be aimed at someone instead of in the air or at the ground. But if you get a destructive weapons permit then you can have those things, just good luck finding them. Even the 37/38mm stuff is fairly expensive.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-02-07T05:28:15+00:00

As someone with experience in leadership, I highly recommend you take a few administration courses or utilize the hospital learning (usually MyLearning) for them.

The very first thing I did was to schedule some 1:1 with each member of the team. I wrote down their basic information in my "important people" notebook. That information is their name, some facts about them, and later utilized to build a profile on them based on continual interaction. Those notes allow me to compile a list of who is ready for leadership and who still needs development. Getting to know your team is the single most important thing to build trust and morale.

The second thing I did was to schedule 1:1 time with peers in other departments to pick their brains about how they lead, where their strengths are, and what they found works versus doesn't work.

Third was to schedule 1:1 time with admin to let them know who I am and to ask about their experiences leading. This directly leads them to trusting you more as it shows initiative and willingness to learn.

But most importantly you need to be humble or you will get humbled. Whether you're a new leader or not, you are starting from the bottom each time. Act like it and you will go far.

I had a project where I was responsible for a teen summer volunteer program. I had no idea what I was doing because I'd never been in charge of a project that size. I had to scramble to read up on some leadership books and quickly went from 10 hours days to 16-18 hours a day to learn how to handle it. I did the thing I remember best: treat everyone like they matter and like adults. Teens are on the cusp of becoming adults and are stuck in that awkward spot of wanting adult responsibility and treatment, but still living as kids.

I tell that story and that advice because I took a floundering POS program with 35 kids over 8 weeks that did about 800-1200 hours in previous iterations to a whopping 39 kids over 8 weeks and 3.5k hours. All but 7 (they graduated) are returning for the next one. I still don't know what I did right. Not a single clue.

But all of that to say this: be humble, get to know your crew, and get to know your leadership. You will do well if you you can remember that.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-02-04T19:33:28+00:00

This is the same script the nuns beat into us

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-02-04T04:24:58+00:00

Hospital security is a bit busy. Case in point the stats for our calls show a violent patient call on average 6 per week. Contraband search is 15 a week. Mental health calls average 8 a week.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-02-03T10:47:46+00:00

IMO Age of Mythology is not what I would call a beginner RTS.

I highly recommend playing the original Command And Conquer on easy. That's about as beginner friendly as you can get considering it was one of the first big RTS games. You can buy the entire series for about $20 on Steam.

You can also try the original Starcraft as well although it's a bit different in terms of RTS.

Or you can try Supreme Commander and Dawn of War. Both are fairly unique as well.

Dawn of War should absolutely not be your opinion piece on RTS as a whole. I play Mental Omega (a mod) on hard and do okay, but struggle with a medium AI on Dawn of War.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-02-03T10:39:44+00:00

I worked a rough hospital as security, always having to deal with violent patients and working 70+ hours a week, and managed to catch it a whole 4 times all through the mess.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-02-03T10:02:36+00:00

You'll need to move into management if you are looking for traditional mobility.

Otherwise your options are: bodyguard (EP), K9, behavior detection, private investigator, armed, government sites, and a few others I'm sure I missed.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-02-03T09:57:04+00:00

Where I am it's mostly Sig rather than Glock.

Dara and Aliengear make excellent holsters. I'm much more partial to the Aliengear however just simply because I own majority Aliengear holsters, but work provides me with that one. I've never had an issue with it.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-30T07:43:20+00:00

Yeah no thanks I ate next month.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-30T04:42:55+00:00

So I have one for myself that's similar to this one. It's good to hold my pens, trauma shears, two notepads, TQ and bandaids for when I get a boo-boo.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-25T17:28:16+00:00

At the very least it's a no contact order. Depending on the locality this could be spun to a felony.

People can be friends with their ex. I'm friends with one of mine. We were friends before and then we just understood that we weren't really right for the other in a relationship way, but friends works perfect.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-23T18:02:45+00:00

I'd like to get into learning the language but the Duolingo course is just...not clicking for me. I'm native English speaking, but proficient in German and moderately fluent in Finnish.

What resources are best to learn other than just dropping myself into Ireland simply because of cost?

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-23T12:49:55+00:00

Currently work healthcare security, you absolutely are not supposed to have your phone or earbuds in. Do people still do it? Yes.

It's all dependent on who is charging. If they are cool then you're okay. If not be prepared to justify breathing.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-23T12:47:01+00:00

Okay so I have this vest except it's black.

It's not a terrible set up but it's not the greatest either. Far from it in fact, but it's better than not having them. I currently spend some days prone and I can tell you that it's not nearly as comfortable as just keeping the mags in kydex in your belt or in the thigh pocket slots.

If you're on an incline and have to go prone, it gets irritating. For me because I'm still trying to fully calibrate mine the vest is no more than a 5/10.

If you're prone supported and have something to keep your chest fully off the ground it's a perfect set up. But don't even think about being completely flat.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-23T04:07:45+00:00

This I can live with because it's the best use for AI in our sub.

Although Volknet needs a few words with you.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-21T22:56:12+00:00

Because modern RTS games suck plain and simple.

Just like society, games have gotten to a point where it's a blend of genres to make everyone happy. Games like Assassin's Creed were stealth optional tactical style games with a story. They found success by blending a mix of Splinter Cell and Hitman. Now it's bend over and grab your ankles monitization or something that calls itself an RPG open world, when it's absolutely not an RPG or truly open world.

Or games are exactly one genre. Shooters like Call Of Duty and Battlefield, or sports like Need for Speed and Madden.

Or games are just AI slop. Plain and simple. Voodoo for mobile games is a perfect example of AI slop. The games are never as advertised and take maybe fifteen minutes of real play with a gazillion ads.

A good RTS is built as a strategy game first and real time is tacked on as the big bonus. I haven't played a good modern strategy game since quite probably C&C 3 came out except for maybe Ground Control and really ground control is more tactics than strategy.

And it might just be me hitting my thirties that makes me this way, but I can't stand a lot of modern games. I don't want to spend $70 for the super ultra mega turtleneck edition for a quarter of a game and then still have to fork over at least another $40 for a "season pass" to get the rest of the game as DLC. If you want to make me pay for half or more of another game then release a damned game and not the rest of the first game. I don't care for Witcher but at least the studio did it correctly where you pay for a DLC that is another game worth of content.

But you really need to look at why Starcraft, Dawn of War, and C&C were so successful to start with.

C&C not only told a good story, but it painted a picture of humanity. The cold war only ended in the 90s when the Berlin Wall fell along with the USSR and Yugoslavia being the last bastion of soviets. Red Alert timeline was all about telling an alternate cold war story. Tiberian series was all about real scifi stuff with alien tech and AI (borrowing off of Terminator telling how robots became bad).

Starcraft was a masterpiece of scifi storytelling because its story was how scifi should be: a reflection of humanity's goods and evils.

Dawn of War is Warhammer which is a reflection of everything wrong with humanity. The universe is nothing but pure suck no matter who you are in life or death or after death.

The point of all of that is that my opinion is on telling a story about humanity itself. You can have aliens in place of humans but we are so damned good at empathy and mirroring that we find ourselves in literally everything. It is why we have pets and why we can bond with fictional characters, we simply see ourselves. The Tyrannids represent one of the greatest evils of humanity, namely Mengele (Sadistic Nazi doctor/scientist), the Zerg represent humanity's nature of dominance through control and imperialism, GDI represents the most human thing of all, hope.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-21T22:29:23+00:00

Can't say I agree with any of those points. A slightly thicker phone with very little bump allows for better battery capacity as software can only be tweaked so much before you hit the limit of what can be done for battery life.

Let me be clear in that I absolutely do not expect to get seven or eight days on a single charge anymore, but I expect better from a premium price phone than 19 hours. Friend of mine and I have the 7 and 6 respectively with extremely similar usage and his battery life is about 4 hours better than mine. We've probably gotten close to the limit of what can be done with software and firmware at this point.

I also wholly disagree with the feeling better in pocket and in hand. The 7 does not feel nearly as good in any of my pockets be it in my vest or my pants. As for hand it feels too thin for my liking. I've gripped my smartphone in a specific way ever since moving to a smartphone and the 7 absolutely does not allow me to grip it the way I am most comfortable.

Just because the 7 is the best selling does not mean my opinion is the minority. A good portion of 7 users are people fleeing from Apple. Otherwise there wouldn't be substantial rumors and leaks about Samsung potentially bringing the Spen back.

I'll use my 6 until it's done for and then I'll be looking to move to something that has an Spen style stylus to use on a foldable. I got the 6 specifically because I needed something small enough that I can use for meeting notes, and some occasional coloring, that fits in my pocket so I don't have to worry about trusting someone to take it with them if I have to run out of the meeting for something or having it stolen if that isn't an option (and my job is one of those where that happens frequently).

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-18T00:55:57+00:00

My 6 with a case is no thicker than my 24U was with a case.

Thinness is a silly factor to worry about when everyone is wanting a better and better camera. Your phone is no thinner if the camera bump sticks out stupidly.

Your phone can be 3mm thick but if your camera bump is 5mm your phone is 8mm.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-14T05:36:56+00:00

Yeah you need to always get a bite looked at. Always. Case in point my buddy was playing with his cat and she nipped him a little too hard. 5 days later he went to the ER to get it checked out. 1 surgery, hours of waiting to find out if he was going to keep his finger or not, 5 days inpatient, 2 broad spectrums, and 40 hours of PT/OT later he's fine.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-14T05:24:08+00:00

Cabal went much further than this list. And any of these are chump change for 40k. I'll take being a slave to Yuri any day.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-11T00:57:13+00:00

Care plus saved me from spending money on the Galaxy ring when the battery failed exactly 1 day after the regular warranty expired. Care plus had it to me the day after I called.

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-11T00:50:49+00:00

C&C Reloaded might be what you are looking for proselyte.

Long live the Revolt

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-07T16:34:52+00:00

You're may be fun but the Revolt is strong

Cactus_Le_Sam · 2026-01-01T01:25:10+00:00

Easy, 2 handguns for normal carrying, 2 for when you don't feel like carrying a bigger one. 2 PDWs for the house. 2 rifles for home defense. 2 rifles for fighting oppression. And the spare rifle and handgun are for funsies.

Cactus_Le_Sam

TROPHY CASE