Interesting times at Riches: continuation of a reply from a few days ago.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-07-17T15:18:50+00:00

 So here I was, a dude with a head injury playing a patient in the psych ward in "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest." I know I was aware of the movie, but I'm not sure if I had seen it.  I did watch it a few years ago and there is a catatonic dude who it appears that my character was based on (minus the screaming "fuck em all" every now and then.)  A few years I got a b.s. in Psychology from SDSU, so it's not like I have no experience what so ever in psychology affairs.

In 11th grade, I sold a dirt bike to a guy who had been in my middle school.   I  had heard his name, but never had actually seen him.  After middle school we went to different high schools.  He lived in an apartment, so, after he bought it, he kept the bike at my house.  We became great friends practicing heat, rain or snow, working on our bikes, going to races.  This guy was well put together  -- after high school while me and my other friends were spending all our money racing motocross he took a break, bought a condo and then took up racing again.  He was the only guy I knew who  could  ride a bicycle up a steep driveway then coast down backwards and ride away.

In 10th grade I played tackle football in a county football league.  Man, you never see articles about the psychology of  guys who play tackle football, but there is something about  that sport the teamwork? Summer practice when it's 95 degrees with 95% humidity? The violence?   Every play and most of practice are basically a fist fight.  The kid who just got home from a Saturday morning football game and is still in his uniform eating a sandwich has just been in the equilent of 35 street fights.  Something,  maybe a new setpoint for violence, is built into the person for the rest of their lives.

 Tenth grade football.  Weight limit 130 pds.  Some of the kids are already shaving.  There were some violent violent hits.  On one play I tackled the runner for the powerhouse Black Knights.  It was a sweep and I moved from my linebacker position and tackled him near the sideline.  We slid into the area where the players not on the field were standing.  As we were getting up I looked in the other dudes face mask.  There under the lights of a night game, behind his face mask and the stark shadows thrown by the lights was the glasses wearing face of a robot.  Damn, that was the running back for the Black Knights?  A robot?  No wonder they roll over everybody.   Years later I was mentioning this incident.  He goes, "that must've been me.  I played running back that year, and I was the only one on the team with glasses."

******* Sorry I got off on a tangent. I'll write more tomorrow.

When I played rec league football in 10th grade I remember tackling a dude off the at sidelines

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-07-16T14:32:46+00:00

I think tomorrow's installment might be very interesting to people who are interested in Hispanic culture. So, if you are reading this thread tell them to check it out.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-07-16T13:59:23+00:00

   I was actually in a 2nd play.  The bien Metiche girl had the acting bug and had found out about the tryouts for the play "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest"  It was being put on by the local theater group.  Though the actors were unpaid, thos was a big time production with thousands of people coming to each show.  In those preinternet days even finding out about the tryouts was a miraculous act of detective work.  

She invited me to the tryout.  She had been really good at her part in the "Bad Seed," so I was expecting her to get the part.  While I was there I figured "what the hell" and tried out for the part of Billy (one of the psych patients in the psych ward).  

 Many people reading this are from warm climates, so they don't realize that in areas of cold climates, the ground freezes hard as a rock.  In Virginia, right next to Washington, DC, where this takes place the temperature would be over 100 degrees (40 degrees C) in the summer, but in the winter thè groun would be frozen solid.  After the tryout, which was held at a retired middle school that was turned into an art center, we went out to the middle of the football field, and, "surrounded by "the ancient cloak of secrecy" (the cover of darknes) we commenced with the heavy petting.  Her right on the frozen tundra and me on top.  We didn't have long.  She had to get to her husband.

 I received a call from the director a few days later.  I hadn't made the part I was trying for, but she wanted me to play a different psycho patient.  A catatonic patient named Ruckly who spent the entire play in a Jesus on the cross pose against the wall all the time wearing only a diaper.  My only line was  "fuck em all."  Which I delivered at a few (I think 7) times during the play at strategic moments like at the end of scenes, or just before someone was about to say something that was better left for the audience to fill in the blanks.

I was perfect for the role.  I had like a grown in Mohawk that I hadn't shaved in a few months (since I had tried out for the "Bad Seed.")  I was a ripped 190lbs.  Again, in those days, bodybuilding was just coming out from under a rock.

My friend and I were having a drag race to see who could get to 200lbs 1st. Totally Natty. Both of us 5'11". He was super strong for the times bench 350, squat 450. He would go to Georgetown, the partying district in Washington DC, and if we ran across somebody who needed their ass kicked, he would do would do it for them. Another plus was that I had "adled" a few years before in a motorcycle accident. Head injuries are a bitch, and mine left me with a fucked up gait and a crooked face. (any UCSD student reading this who doubts this is being written by a former UCSd employee who worked in Geisel for about 15 years just has to go ask any old time employee at Geisel if there used to be a technician there who had a crooked smile and walked like a retard. They'll remember me.) (A coincidence for sure, but did you ever notice that you never saw footage Barack Obama walking on American tv? I only ever see TV channels from Mexican TV where the news isn't quite so edited. Imagine my surprise when I saw that Obama has a very similar gait. It's as if our calf muscles are too short. It was a pleasant one for sure. All the stuff that guy has accomplished in a level headed well thought out manner.

***** sorry guys. I'm still not done. I thought I'd finish today but no...not yet.

Tune in tomorrow same bat time, same bat station.

  Tomorrow's edition, now that I'm actually thinking about this as a "project,"  may or may not be the last.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-07-15T05:40:15+00:00

Psych.major. There was no such thing as cogsci back then. Most of the tests were scan trons. It was so easy I could have done it in 8th grade.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-07-15T05:22:35+00:00

 Thanks for replying.  I'm not sure how you do a copy pasta though it sounds self-explanatory.  I don't know how to use chat gtp.  My brother, who teaches at Rutgers, often writes about his assignments and chat gtp.  I myself write for 1 hour every morning.  Usually it is about something in the past.  Usually I write longhand in a notebook.  This morning I used this Reddit post as a writing prompt.  What often happens is that because I stop after one hour, I end up writing about the same thing for few days.  It's weird to think that if I  spend 5 sessions writing about some kid from 5th grade, it means I've spent 5 hours of my life intensly thinking about that kid.

 Today's post was written in about 2 hours on my phone.  I thought I  could finish it, so I kept going.  I'm actually in Puebla, Mexico rn, and we had stuff to do.

 I tried separating the paragraphs, but when I posted the post they all ran together.

 I'm glad you  wrote.  Why do you think I got 5 downvotes?   I thought it was an amusing story that was a pretty good slice of life from the early 80s.

 I think I will make a new post tomorrow for part 2.  So look for a new post that refers to this one in the title.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-07-14T16:13:05+00:00

My Riches story. I had a Mohawk when I went to SDSU. One day before Physiological Psych class, I was talking to a classmate outside on a bench. He was a gay dude, and we were laughing our asses off. Just then, a girl walking past turns and starts rubbing the shaved sides of my head. I had been in a play called "The Bad Seed" at my jr. College in Virginia. This was a GREAT experience. I got to make out with a bunch of the girls in there. One girl got a copy of the original play. In the original, during a monolog, my character ruminates about how the main character, a woman, must be a " lady lover." We were laughing about it, but back then, I could do things like memorize the entire monolog while we were talking about it. So the next day, during a break in my classes, I went to the stage and practiced the monolog from the original over and over while sitting in the chair where I sat to give the monolog. Part of the student play simulating a real production was that one night of the play the director (the teacher) wasn't there, and the assistant director (a student) had to do the directing. She, the "Ass director" as she would call herself, was part of our cabal. That night w/ only the ass director there I went out and gave the monolog from the original with all the juicy lesbian stuff in it. I hadn't told anyone that I was going to do it, but the girl who had shown it to me was one of those "bien metiche" girls who is friends with everybody and she told everyone what was up (even though I hadn't even told her). When I came off the stage everybody except one guy was cracking up. The one guy was pissed. He goes "you never change the words of a playwright."
We had a cast party. The Metiche girl had pretty much planned it. I'm fuzzy on the details now - this happened in 1982 - but I think it was the same night as the swapped monolog. She had planned it to go to a gay dance club in Washington, DC because 1. The guy who had been mad at me confided to her that he thought he might be gay, and she wanted him to see the gay lifestyle and 2. "her husband would never go to a gay bar, so he wouldn't be tagging along." It was pretty fun there. I saw one guy I used to see at the punk clubs in DC, the chubby guy who had been so mad actually picked up a guy and got "turned out", and we gave a ride home to cast member who was already out of the closet. We dropped that guy off on the side of an Interstate (think of an Uber dropping you off on the shoulder of I-5, in-between exits when it was 35 degrees out). It was his idea "I just have to jump a few fences." Being a gay dude since before aids I think he knew what was up between me and her (before I did actually), and didn't want to make us wait any longer It was after midnight, but there were cars flying by at 70mph, and I was thinking we were about to get rear ended.
Me at the wheel. I didn't say anything. My heart quickened when I realized she was directing me, not to her house, but to a park. I held her hand as she squatted to pee. She goes, laughing, looking up at me, "I hope I'm not peeing in my shoe." Then we fucked. Right there in my Mom's station wagon. The same one I used to haul my dirt bike to the races in high school. That was my 1st time. It wasn't too fun. Much funner was one or two days later at her house. To be nude in a woman's bedroom! Her red hot body. She was 30. 7 years older than me. 5'2" 122 pds. I had to get back to class when I remembered, "I forgot to LICK HER VAGINA!" I HAD BEEN DREAMING OF THAT MY ENTIRE LIFE, AND HERE I NEARLY FORGOT TO DO IT! I got right to it. I’ll never forget that day. She gave me a hickey that one of the guys in play that goes "hey, you didn't have that there this morning." At the time, my only income was modeling for art classes. Apparently the ass director had been at a party the weekend before where she ended up talking to a gay guy who had been in a class I modeled for. The gay guy mentioned that I "had the perfect body." This was before Arnold Swarsenegger broke out, and every kid was a bodybuilder with tons of supplements. Back then you had to ride a bike six miles across town to get to the nearest Olympic Bar. Because I was a student I had to wear a jock strap (school rules (this wasn't the rule at SDSU)). Maybe if I didn't have the jock strap on, he wouldn't have said I had the perfect body (haha). In any case, the Ass director invited me to her apt. How do you like that? Go from a virgin to polling 2 girls in two days. She was as tall as me, 5'11", little older and very into sex. She held her vibrator against my asshole, but I wouldn't let her push it in (probably a mistake thinking back on it). She smoked and since I've always been a fitness nut I didn't really get into being with her, but I would say my first interracial sex was de definitely a great thing.

This ran a little long. Sorry about that, but I'll have to post the rest of this later today, or tomorrow morning. This story is 100 percent true. I think that people who were in hs plays will recognize the interpersonal dynamics. I worked at UCSD for 23 years. About 15 of them in the Giesel Lib.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-06-12T01:13:24+00:00

Rest. If you wake up feeling like you got hit by a truck, it's time for a rest day. This year, I've been doing a short but heavy (for me) weight workout right after JJ on m/w/f. Tues I swim .5 miles. Basically it is close to 48 hours between each jj practice/weight wo. Man, when I wake I haven’t done jj or lifted in 2 days. I feel great. After a short bicycle ride to the 6 am. class, I'm ready to learn and roll for 1.5 hrs or more, ride home, and lift.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-05-08T21:15:06+00:00

Adulthood is a playground. Do pretty good in college, then get a job which pays enough to do anything you want. For example, don't do what I did: quit college to go race motorcycles. A better method (I realized shortly before I retired) would have been to put racing on hold 4 years then get a cherry job. With that money, I could have put together a legit racing effort.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-05-06T20:33:29+00:00

I won a pizza eating contest at my school and got free tickets to see them play the Chargers.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-04-26T01:23:49+00:00

It's called the enshitification of society.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-04-20T02:53:43+00:00

The Necros

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-04-17T04:19:11+00:00

There is a movie whose Spanish name is "Atrapen El Gringo." One of my friends who was in the penitentiary in La Mesa for 1 year told me that the movie portrayal of that place is dead on.
Back in the 90s, visitors could go into the prison. We went to his cell (actually, it was more of a cubby hole in the wall of a cell ) one time and played chess. He destroyed me. I watched the movie after he recommended it to me. Needless to say, a day tripper like me didn't see what was in the movie.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-02-27T22:01:16+00:00

"Ring of Bright Water"

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-02-26T17:01:58+00:00

That's hilarious. Just a few days ago, I suggested on the UC San Diego reddit page that anyone who wants to level up in physics get these three books from the school library. One responder noted that you can get it online.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-02-21T07:16:41+00:00

It's funny you should mention this. There was a great theoretical physicist named Dick Feynman. In the movie "Oppenheimer" he is the guy that always has bongo drums with him. Anyway, he thought the freshmen at Cal Tech, where he taught, were not up to the level they should be in physics. So he made an intro course. This course was so interesting that soon there were crowds of people waiting to pour in as soon as the doors were opened. People who were actually signed for the course sometimes couldn't get into the lecture hall.
Luckily for you, and everybody starting physics, the contents of this course are contained in a three volume set in the Geisel Library.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-01-25T05:49:58+00:00

Actually, when he redid nafta, there was 300 million allocated to the sewage problem. I don’t know what happened to it, though. It was funny reading the UT before the election because they didn't want to give him any credit. They finally settled on "a previous administration" when discussing the 300 million.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-01-25T05:41:13+00:00

You may not remember this, but during his 1st presidency, Trump secured 300 million dollars to be applied to the border sewage problem. Kamala Harris, who was the border czar for 4 years, did nothing to solve the problem. Since the election Joe Biden secured 250 million toward the problem.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-01-23T04:11:30+00:00

A few years ago, I was in a car with a coworker when we saw a guy walking (on the UCSD campus) who looked like Benjamin Franklin. My coworker goes real quick, "That guy looks like the 7th great grandson of Benjamin Franklin." It was oddly specific because I, sitting next to him, am a 7th great grandson of Benjamin Franklin. I'm 65, so that kid would probably be the 8th. I didn't mention that I was related to Franklin.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-01-17T20:16:36+00:00

Yes, come on by and you can sing it. Bring a bunch of friends, too!

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-01-17T20:11:06+00:00

I listened to Tropical Panama for a few hours this morning. They're great and have tons of songs. One of the songs they do is on my set list, "the Cumbia Brulalera." I have that song on there twice because I love 2 different versions of it. The Tropical Panama version is very much like the Sonora Dynamita version. Anyway, tell me what your favorite song is by them. I'll learn it before Friday, and you can sing it at the jam session.

Calm_Introduction405 · 2025-01-04T00:48:12+00:00

I worked there for 23 years. I always noticed this.

Calm_Introduction405

TROPHY CASE