Post by Admin on Jul 17, 2022 10:12:32 GMT -7
Jul 17, 2022 8:06:54 GMT -7 @jasoninsd said:
Jul 17, 2022 2:46:21 GMT -7 @jamesp said:
I don't know why I bought that book up @jasoninsd other than it's devious nature. It is actually a bad book that describes some rather evil terrorist info but it does have some great ideas on some more innocent ways to be devious. As kids we were had some overly creative pranks. My buddy and I used to initiate pranks on high school bullies from the wealthy side of the tracks. That way we felt justified since they usually deserved what they got. Being a prankster sort of stayed with me just to keep life on the fun side.I attended a highschool divided by the rich hood and a(my)poor hood. Lots of bullies and rich brats at that school.
My older sister(senior in high school) had a boyfriend that used to pick on me and buddy neighbor Cliff. We had to do him, we despised him. So we tied threads to telephone lines(in a subdivision) every 200 to 300 yards up the street and tied them to telephone poles with eggs taped to them at early dark. About midnight Fri/Sat when he was bringing her home(loud mufflers and could be heard far off) we would swing the eggs out at windshield height quickly on our 10 speeds. He would hit the first egg and stop and get out to find the kid that threw the egg. We would already be up at the next egg yelling 'come get us !'. He'd burn rubber up the road only to get another egg on his windshield. While he was screeching up and out of his car trying to find the culprit we had already run thru the woods to the third egg yelling 'come get us !'. He's really mad by now. By then you knew he was going to KILL us if he caught us. The first time he hit a total of 4 eggs lol. We mastered this technique and it became one way of targeting the arrogant upperclassmen on their date night that harassed us. They lived in our neighborhood and we knew their patterns. Of course we would provoke these guys a bit at school to get them on our bad side lol. It wasn't any fun unless the prank was played on older bullies and jerks. Sort of a Robinhood thing. We graduated to other(mostly juvenile) night time pranks like dumping a 5 gallon bucket of pea gravel at the right drive wheel track at a steeply sloped intersection forcing the tires to spin giving enough time to throw eggs and escape via a preplanned escape route. Seemed cowardly but we felt justified by the risk of them catching us. Maybe karma is catching up !
Here's what's interesting. I was a serious brawler as I got out of high school, into college, during my time in the Army...and for several years afterward. I had NO issue going toe to toe with ANYONE - and I do mean anyone. Some people who knew me, thought I just liked to fight...which was only partially true. Never once...and I can't stress that enough...never once did I start a fight. Don't get me wrong, there were many times where I knew which buttons to push to make the other person start it! The common factor about every single altercation I was ever in...they always involved the other person trying to be a bully in one way or another.
I was always short...and always skinny in grade school through high school. Which meant I was an easy target for being picked on or being bullied. When I went to college, I started lifting weights and putting on putting on the pounds...and by the time I went into the Army, I was 5'7" and 175 pounds of muscle able to bench press over 300 pounds. I had decided I was done being or seeing other people being bullied. There's very few things in life that I hate more than seeing/watching someone trying to bully someone else. The vast majority of "scuffles" I got into was from stepping in when I saw someone else being bullied. Did I mention I hate bullies!
WHAT MAKES A BULLY?
A Bully is a very insecure person who tries to make himself "SPECIAL" by putting other people down in any number of ways - physical, mental, sexual, . . .
The bully first converts the target into some kind of cartoon in their minds, then tries to get others to accept the cartoon version. Once that is accomplished the target is fair game to be attacked at will.
The bully depends on US to allow him to become special.
Unfortunately the only way I know of to stop a bully is to really DRUB them at whatever they are doing.
As I get older, I'm FAR less likely to want to get into a physical altercation with these type of people. However, I find the vast majority of bullies are easy enough to "counter-intimidate" mentally. Most of them are not used to reciprocation - nor are they prepared for retaliation. I get the whole concept of "turning the other cheek"...but for me, it only happens ONCE!
I learned a phrase a long time ago, and it wasn't until I just Googled it to learn the source was Al Capone. While he is FAR from someone whose existence I would want to emulate, I can appreciate his quote:
I learned a phrase a long time ago, and it wasn't until I just Googled it to learn the source was Al Capone. While he is FAR from someone whose existence I would want to emulate, I can appreciate his quote:
“Don't mistake my kindness for weakness. I am kind to everyone, but when someone is unkind to me, weak is not what you are going to remember about me.”