Life Experiences

Here's a list of experiences that I've had. I try to inject little anecdotes on life, and what I've seen or learned. Some have sort of a lesson, some just are what they are. ℹ️ Info           ~ Aristotle Sabouni

Experiences • [27 items]

1987 Skydiving
Yes, I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. Twice. To me, it was no big deal. I just wanted to experience freefall, and enjoyed flying. I didn't think of it as very dare-devilish, though some others do. I had statistics on my side, but gravity and physics was working for the opposition. Then I met a Hustler Honey, and wanted to jump again.

2001.09.11 The Towers Fell
On 9/11/2001, I worked at a Newspaper improving their Internet presence. My office was in the Press building, when a friend came in and said, "A plane has hit the Twin Towers". And I thought, "another silly pilot flew into it while in fog or something, like happened to the Empire State Building in 1945."... but I went to the newsroom to see what's up.

9-11
On 9/11/2001, I went to work at a Newspaper when, "A plane has hit the Twin Towers". I thought, "another silly pilot flew into it while in fog, like happened to the Empire State Building in 1945?"... but it wasn't that. This is about my experiences, how the FakeNews has distorted history and used a tragedy to divide and polarize us.

Air Rifles
There's this common myth that Air Rifles ("BB Guns" or "Pellet Guns") are toys, however, while they don't have quite the velocity of our top of the line modern rifles, they easily exceed black powder rifles that brought down buffalo and won the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. People hunt Buffalo and Elk with them, and they have no problem going through humans.

Airline Attendant
My wife became an airline attendant. These are some stories from her 18 year career with Continental (now United). Then COVID hit, they forced her to retire, then screwed her out of the her flight benefits.

Genius is Insanity
Sanity is behaving normal. Genius is abnormal IQ (usually ≈1.5 times "smarter" or more logical than others. Geniuses insight means they might not act/behave normal (or as a normal person might)... thus to the normal, they are insane. Or at least that's how it worked in my childhood. I had to explain many actions and thought processes, so the muggles wouldn't lock me up.

Getting my CCW
The other day, I went and got my CCW (License To Carry a Concealed Weapon). Well, technically, I took the class to get my CCW, and have filled out my forms (it'll be a couple months before I get them back). It was an experience that I figured I'd share.

Grand Theft Auto (1994)
In my late 20s, from my condo, I saw 3 kids were were peeking in car windows, I investigated. They were stealing car stereos (or cars), as one was inside, the others were lookouts. They had knives: I had drew a gun, and encouraged them to leave at a high rate of speed. They complied.

Housing and Urban Development
HUD (Housing and urban development) has various programs that are meant to help low income and first time buyers into their own homes. Sounds great, right? Too many people can’t afford a house, so a little wealth redistribution ought to help them out? Yet, in many cases the opposite has happened. Here's my story about some of the negative and unintended consequences of HUD.

How I spent Christmas Vacation (1997)
Family, Fun, and driving circa 1997. What an atypically typical Christmas vacation looks like for us. We visit my family on Christmas Eve, and visit my wife's family on Christmas Day. There can be no two more different families on the face of the planet.

Jury Duty 1998
A jury is made up of 12 people too dumb to lie? I had not been called for Jury Duty, ever before… then my luck ran out; I received "the summons". I must admit my curiosity at doing my civic duty, was tempered with the thrill of driving to downtown San Diego (in rush hour), dealing with my fellow man (which I don't always think too highly of).

Jury Duty 2013
After 4 days of picking Jurors, they finally asked me questions and decided I wasn't one of the droid they were looking for, and they let me go. Primarily, it got to questions about why I taught Martial Arts, and saying, "because I really don't like bullies" was all it took for the preemptory challenges to let me go free, with a fist bump from another juror.

Just a burger
I invited a friend to go for a burger, then had to clarify it meant "just a burger". He was OK with it... but a little perplexed at the added clarification. What else would it mean? This is my story, of why I act like a teenage boy and titter to myself whenever someone says they want a burger.

Loading a gun with a broken arm
Besides a Ruger .22 that I had (and a rifle or two), I decided that my first gun should be a hand-cannon: the Desert Eagle .357 magnum Semi-Automatic. (They didn't yet make the .44 or .50). When I broke my arm, I needed it chambered, and I couldn't use my arm. Pinching it between your legs and pulling turned out to be a very strong life lesson on "what not to do".

My experiences with cops
Cops aren't good or bad, they are both. They are people, doing a shitty job, and following the policies (more or less) that they have to, in order to get ahead. There are some areas with worse policies. And there are areas that have some worse cops. Still, I've seen much more cops trying to do the right thing, than bad cops. Even if that perspective gets lost.

Political Events
I like to make notes of things I noticed, observed, saw while attending a dinner, event, rally, or other outings. These are where the commentary on the political ones goes.

Pulling a gun
These are the stories of my experiences pulling a gun to stop crimes, and how it differs from the stereotypes. In my life, I have personally used a gun to end an altercation three times. A rape, an armed car robbery, and a drug dealer or pederast trying to pedal something on a not so helpless young lad. Overstated examples that guns doing more good than harm.

Rape is not OK (1980)
While hunting in the woods where I grew up (rural Orange County). I heard some screaming altercation, and when I investigated, a guy had torn the top off a struggling woman and was progressing towards rape, when I said in my outdoor voice, "is there a problem here?!" He saw the rifle, and decided that it was time for him to leave the scene.

Snakes
As a kid, I used to catch snakes and sell them to pet stores. I read about 20+ books on snakes, and had lots of first hand experience. I've been bit many dozens of times: but never by venomous ones -- despite catching a few of them, and keeping one as a "pet" for a while.

Speed Traps 2002
I became a victim the other day of the oldest racket in the book. The mafia calls it the "protection" racket: extorted to pay them for protection... from themselves. Of course the mafia racket is more humane since it doesn't have the full force of local, state and federal government behind it, or the facade of lawfulness to hide behind.

Story of us
This is the "Story of us"... highlighted trips, events or milestones in our life (my wife and my life's journey), or at least the ones that we got pictures of. Most pictures of trips are boring to me, because I don't have the context: so in this digital scrapbook, I try to offer just a little bit about each picture and why it matters.

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This is the "Story of us"... the list of some highlighted trips, events or milestones in our life (my wife and my life's journey), or at least the ones that we got pictures of. Most pictures of trips are boring to me, because I don't have the context: so in this digital scrapbook, I try to offer just a little bit about each picture and why it matters. And you can tunnel in and see more in each section. I have plenty of gaps to fill, but when I'm done, I think I'm going to print a wall sized poster. out of it.

Suicide is Painless
Suicide is painless, it brings on many changes... at least according to the song. Obviously, I didn't commit suicide, or that would make this article a lot more interesting. These are just a few stories I tell are about me finding bodies, or seeing it happen. I don't know if I'm just "lucky", but things happen around me.

Thinking outside the box
People will tell you to "think outside the Box". I learned early on, they don't mean it. Or more often they mean "not too much outside the box". This came up when I was in grade school. The teacher asked us all to do this, and I did it wrong -- which was ironic considering the goal of the test given was to think outside the box.

Those Hollywood Hills (1978)
Like any other 14 year old kid, I sewed a holster-pocket into my L.A. Dodgers wind-breaker to carry my suppressed (silenced) pistol, and a game bag, so I could hunt rabbit/quail/squirrel in Griffith Park / Hollywood Hills. A large predator guy was following me, until I scared him away with pulled the pistol and dropped a bunny. The rabbit was delicious.

Tired of suppressing my whiteness
Salon ran a stupid race-baiting article by Priscilla Ward, so I retaliate in kind, re-living a few true tales of woe and racism in my past, in a parody of her article. Not to cry "poor me" or act like my victimhood is the only one that matters, but to point out there's a whole lot of backstory in others lives that we may not know.

What’s shooting like?
This is a story of what shooting is like for me, and how it differs from the stereotypes. The plural of anecdote is not data... but lies of omission, are lies. The media bombards us with selective anecdotes about how guns ruined lives, but almost never about the many, many more times a year they are just used for protection, hobby or sport. This is just some of those.

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Aristotle Sabouni This section is all about me (Ari Sabouni). The initial founder/creator of the site.

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