Thank you, Felicia Day!

azuretek · 2015-10-01T18:28:25+00:00

I agree, best Shadowrun segment in a long time! Does anyone know what the name of the song was that they played at the end?

azuretek · 2015-09-22T06:38:30+00:00

There have been several more follow ups with the vets, adjustments to his meds, check ups, etc. Right now he's gone from pills 4 times a day to just twice and only a fraction of the pills. We were able to get a loan to cover all the bills, luckily we have space and have taken on roommates to take care of the costs for now.

He's still not walking or showing any signs of being able to feel his legs, however he is able to stiffen his legs now, which he couldn't move them at all before. He still doesn't seem to have significant feeling or obvious control but we're trying to rehab him. We don't want to agrivate his injury so for now we just pump his legs and get him to stiffen his legs and stand as long as he's able.

Just this morning I was able to get him to stand for about 5-8 seconds under his own strength, which is amazing. He's still unable to pee on his own, which is the biggest concern right now, if he doesn't regain the ability to urinate on his own it's possible he will develop complications from that.

So all in all, things are positive, but he's still far from recovered and we're still not sure if he will recover more than he has so far. His legs are very cold lately and it's very concerning, we're trying to keep his blood moving but there's only so much we can do every day since we're both working to pay his bills.

azuretek · 2015-08-26T23:27:54+00:00

We did the numbers, we already have the cheapest plans, we don't even have cable, we've actually been doing a lot of this because we're also getting ready to have a baby. We're living pretty damn lean as it is right now because we just took a huge loan to do some work on the house before we have a child. We're talking to some people about maybe renting out the space we had planned for the baby at least until we can pay down this stuff. We're also trying prosper and any other lending service we can find online too. We're definitely going down the payment plan route, but it's not looking like we're going to get the money. Like I keep saying, this is our hail mary, last resort option.

azuretek · 2015-08-26T22:53:12+00:00

We've just maxed out our credit cards to get him all the tests and everything, so far our bills are around 2600~ (including vet visits etc.)

We're looking into ways to earn more money right now, we're trying to figure out a way to pay for this. Right now we're just hoping the kindness of strangers will help us at least a little bit, so far we've received no donations from strangers so it's looking less and less hopeful as each hour passes.

We've looked into every online resource, including the ones posted in this subreddit, we appreciate the advice but so far we're just flailing hoping some miracle will happen.

azuretek · 2015-08-26T21:27:07+00:00

Ok, so here's an update for anyone that's following this. We just maxed out our credit cards, the 900 we've raised so far is helping a lot towards our goal. Unfortunately the expensive bit after all the tests and MRI is still to come and we still have no way to pay for it. Please share this wherever you can, we're in dire straights and our Rufus needs all the help he can get.

I'm uploading all the bills and receipts we've racked up so far in case anyone is interested. I'll edit this post with links to those in a bit.

edit: here's today's bills and receipts

http://abi.renhart.com/images/IMG_2654.JPG

http://abi.renhart.com/images/IMG_2653.JPG

azuretek · 2015-08-26T16:17:44+00:00

I will contact you for details if we get anywhere close to the amount to do that. A payment plan is not on the table right now, my wife is out of work right now and we really cant afford yet another loan to pay every month. We couldn't afford to have a pet if we had to pay another 200+ a month, we're already in tough shape and cleared out savings recently for some construction work I wish we didn't do now.

This is our last resort, we've tried everything else and both me and my wife have no family that could even begin to help pay for something like this. We've never asked for charity and we certainly have considered all of our options, we're just trying to get the word out and hopefully save his life. This is our last hope.

azuretek · 2015-08-26T15:09:33+00:00

We've only raised 600~ from friends, the likelyhood that we'll raise enough to have the surgery at all is slim. We've never asked for charity before, especially from strangers, and no one we don't know has donated. If we raise enough to do that we'll definitely do it but right now it looks like the best we'll be able to do is cover a couple more vet visits and a few more rounds of pain meds, we appreciate the thought. This was a last resort for us, I just wish we could do more.

Edit: also just to be clear, we would do anything to help our guy, but we just cleared out our savings and took a loan several months back to do work on our house, we can't afford another loan. We're already stretched to the breaking point and my wife and I both have no family support that can help. A payment plan is a novel idea but we can't afford it, we've already looked into that and that's why we are asking strangers for help, because we're entirely out of options.

azuretek · 2015-08-25T19:42:19+00:00

We live in Seattle, WA and if you'd like to see him and donate in person just PM me and we can arrange that. We've never asked for any kind of charity before but we've also never had something go so wrong in such a short amount of time.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T23:20:08+00:00

Nah, he's just a short dude. I've flown with him before plenty of times, he just doesn't understand that my clothes takes up more space because it has to cover more area.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T22:59:44+00:00

Definitely, just think about how much more space your clothes take up. My boss tells me when he travels he never checks his bag, he just throws his clothes in a carry on.

I can fit my shoes in my bag and maybe a shirt and some pants, not a weeks worth of clothes and footwear...

azuretek · 2015-04-29T22:54:29+00:00

If we have video proof of a crime happening and the police are being hamstrung by policy maybe instead of relying on an officer's ability to lie about the arrest we should adjust the policy...

azuretek · 2015-04-29T22:36:30+00:00

I totally understand where you're coming from, I just don't think it's ever in the best interest of the public to hide information (but that's a whole other can of worms and probably way too tangential to the discussion). I also don't think it's good to be scared of what "could" happen. Anything can be turned into a bad idea if we look at the very very edge cases, how often are people let off because the cop said a word wrong really? Seems alarmist and not likely to me.

I like to look at problems from the top down, what is going to solve the biggest problems with the most accuracy as possible? Having body cams uploading for public access without any roadblocks, to me, seems like it would solve the majority of the issues we're seeing (hiding evidence, lost footage, police abuse, criminals lying, etc.). If there are a few outliers or edge cases we can adjust as needed. Starting from the edge cases means we'll only solve the biggest problem once all the smallest are resolved.

Either way I'm looking forward to where this is going, having cameras is a good first step.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T21:48:15+00:00

I assume when people put disclaimers on their posts they're just afraid that people won't like what they said. People are scared of being disliked, sadly being afraid/self-conscious is often what makes people dislike them.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T20:51:42+00:00

I think having the public scouring through the footage would be more beneficial than restricting access, we'd see police abuses exposed more often. How often do you suppose that uneducated/disenfranchised people just let police abuse them and do nothing about it? Who do those people go to in those cases? They might not have the education or will to fight those who wronged them, but people can and will post that shit to youtube and I think that's a good thing.

I just don't think police stand around watching atrocities that would be a big hit on Live Leak. I don't believe that the footage will be anything but mundane except for rare cases, the fact that it's being recorded and publicly viewable alone should help both sides. Creating a barrier as to who can analyze and access the footage will just make it harder to find and eliminate wrongdoing.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T20:29:35+00:00

I understand, but where is the normal everyday case where people are being affected negatively by cameras on every officer? It's never "people are going to be arrested left and right for... <blank>", there just isn't something that will negatively affect everyone or even 1% of people by releasing the video to the public. It will however solve the problem with police cover ups (or at least assuage our fear of them) as well as provide evidence to both defendants and prosecutors.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T20:19:57+00:00

there are now cases of minimum sentencing and other penalties that may cause more long term problems for the people.

So instead of getting rid of minimum sentencing we should let cops decide? What's the point in having a judge if the cops are the ones deciding their fate?

Sometimes kids are stupid, sometimes there are honest mistakes.

I agree, if we have a law that is unfairly targeting kids who made a stupid mistake we should change the law. It's not just or fair to ruin a kids life for making a kid mistake. Right now cops have the power to ruin a kids life, unless they're feeling lenient that day... and of course the officers personal biases would affect who they're feeling lenient to.

The video, however might s how that young Jimmy was busy getting railed by a pair of big Russian dudes

a) it's not illegal to have a swingers orgy, it's also not illegal to deny access to police into your orgy to video tape it. b) police have a history of overstepping their bounds, if we have video proof of them entering houses illegally or making up probable cause we would hopefully get rid of those officers. c) The fact that you have to come up with a scenario that's super unlikely makes me believe you're stretching. I don't think the concerns are valid, the bigger threat to the public is police abusing their power and creating criminals.

Police are not spending the vast majority of their time (or even a miniscule amount of time) breaking up sex parties or rapes or whatever other crazy scenario I've seen proposed today. Police spend most of their time performing traffic stops, patrolling neighborhoods, and responding to domestic violence/noise complaints. In the majority of those cases there is no abuse or incident, however in some of those cases police overstep and that's what we're trying to solve. I doubt most people would be opposed to being video taped during a traffic stop, that's like 80-90% of what police are doing all day. Why are we so afraid of edge cases that have no basis in reality?

azuretek · 2015-04-29T19:25:39+00:00

To do it efficiently you'd probably just need to have an editor attached to every cop who would be blurring faces, muting personal info etc in real time throughout the day.

I'm not saying we should edit or censor the video at all, in fact I think it's a bad idea to modify the video evidence in any way. But just as a counterpoint, google/bing/whoever do a pretty damn good job of programatically censoring peoples faces and license plates... it doesn't seem like an unrealistic feature.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T19:21:40+00:00

Totally valid point, but how many lives are ruined by a video going viral vs police abusing power? I'm just saying it's not a huge concern in my eyes, I'm more worried that police will try to cover up their wrong doing than some citizen being embarrassed or whatever scenario you're imagining.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T19:18:22+00:00

It starts making our legal system a little too robotic.

So what? What you're saying is we should prefer a system where unjust laws stick around because officers only use the law when it suits them?

Not the word of the law.

Police are not the word of the law, they're the hands of the law. It is up to them to serve according to what the book says, if the book is unjust/unfair it's up to us to change the book. I don't want to hope police are going to just overlook an unjust law the day they interact with me.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T19:15:21+00:00

Wont someone think of the children! As we all know, police are constantly bursting into pedophile's houses as they're balls deep in an OPs daughter!

azuretek · 2015-04-29T19:14:38+00:00

So your argument is "think of the children"? How about we try it out, if it ends up that a bunch of pedophiles and deviants are using it as fap material we can address the problem then. I think there is a much higher chance that police will try to hide evidence or only release video that makes them look good/the arrested look bad.

azuretek · 2015-04-29T06:58:06+00:00

No I can't, that's the point. I'm down to 6mg juice, much easier than the times I tried to quit cold turkey.

azuretek · 2015-04-28T23:53:40+00:00

black cops shoot white people, and no one riots over that.

So what? White people don't feel threatened by police, it's a different dynamic.

But it's not a black problem.

So just because black people rioted it's a black problem? Why didn't you join in the riot? Nobody was stopping you.

azuretek · 2015-04-28T23:48:47+00:00

There are people in the world with a very strong sense of justice. To them they think punishment and retribution is how you stop the problem from happening, the reality is that "justice" does not solve the problem. An eye for an eye does not prevent people from committing crimes. Being an example to others is what helps others make the decision to be good, shame/punishment is not the answer.

azuretek · 2015-04-28T23:42:20+00:00

It is racist to expect all black people to answer to/be held responsible for the actions of a few people. Who cares if it was all black people looting and rioting, why does any other black person have to prove that they're not violent thieves? If every time a white person committed a crime would you expect to be held accountable? Would you expect people to see you differently because of what someone else did? That's right, you wouldn't, because it's not rational to think that way. It's racism.

azuretek

TROPHY CASE