So I have this summer job while I finish writing my dissertation. My teammate and I go around the big city, to randomly generated locations, and measure a standard size plot, counting trees, shrubs and other plants as well as building cover, cement, etc. We get a picture of the urban forest this way, to determine effects of the forest on air quality, cooling of the environment, etc.
Sometimes the random plot falls in a park. Sometimes on the landing strip in the airport. And sometimes in the back yard of one of the many businesses. Like Friday, when we went to a shop that converts vehicles to run on propane. Lots of trucks, cars, etc. parked all over the gravel lot. We asked for permission to go to the back and count and measure trees.
The young guy we first asked pointed to another guy, who spoke in a heavy Russian accent and said it was OK, but we should check with the boss. So we went to the boss. After our spiel on what we do, he says, again heavily accented, "Sure. Go ahead. Ve are de good guys."
*ALARM* I wonder what really goes on in that shop.
Peter
Full Version: Real LIfe: alarm goes off in my head
certainly no front for the vory v zakone . . no sir, not at all, because they would not say that they are the good guys *g*
Luckily when they tried to kill you while you were out back you used your monowhip and your Improved Reflexes III to pwn them, right?
Right?
Right?
In Soviet Russia, the trees count you.
And that incredibly lame joke suddenly turned into a horrific vision of malevolent spirit-possessed trees with evil predatory grins and huge wooden teeth pointing to people with their gnarled claw-like branches and counting them one-by one and the frightened humans wet themselves in fear and anticipation.
And that incredibly lame joke suddenly turned into a horrific vision of malevolent spirit-possessed trees with evil predatory grins and huge wooden teeth pointing to people with their gnarled claw-like branches and counting them one-by one and the frightened humans wet themselves in fear and anticipation.
Guess you never had the chance to casually chat with an old chinese guy surrounded by 2 younger guys in suits during a concert in Hong Kong before realizing (and getting the confirmation) that he was a Triad boss... Nice guy, really.
ok, i don't have huge crime syndicats to offer . . but without realizing i met and chatted with members of both hells angels and bandidos . . of course not at the same time and i made damn sure to stay away from those places later on x.x . .
Never refuse the hospitality of an Iranian gangster from the East End when it is offered a second time. It's not lightly offered and is uniformly excellent. Refusing once is allowable as modesty of the guest not wanting to impose, but more than that implies mistrust and practically open enmity unless you have a watertight reason that you can't at that time.
QUOTE (hyzmarca @ Jul 6 2008, 03:21 PM) 
In Soviet Russia, the trees count you.
And that incredibly lame joke suddenly turned into a horrific vision of malevolent spirit-possessed trees with evil predatory grins and huge wooden teeth pointing to people with their gnarled claw-like branches and counting them one-by one and the frightened humans wet themselves in fear and anticipation.
And that incredibly lame joke suddenly turned into a horrific vision of malevolent spirit-possessed trees with evil predatory grins and huge wooden teeth pointing to people with their gnarled claw-like branches and counting them one-by one and the frightened humans wet themselves in fear and anticipation.
Ha, that reminds me of this...http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05042002.shtml
QUOTE (hyzmarca @ Jul 6 2008, 04:21 PM)
In Soviet Russia, the trees count you.
And that incredibly lame joke suddenly turned into a horrific vision of malevolent spirit-possessed trees with evil predatory grins and huge wooden teeth pointing to people with their gnarled claw-like branches and counting them one-by one and the frightened humans wet themselves in fear and anticipation.
And that incredibly lame joke suddenly turned into a horrific vision of malevolent spirit-possessed trees with evil predatory grins and huge wooden teeth pointing to people with their gnarled claw-like branches and counting them one-by one and the frightened humans wet themselves in fear and anticipation.
This reminds me of something from a web comic called Something Positive. The Redneck tree folk. Imagine Deliverance, but with tree sap in uncomfortable places.
-paws
(Oh internet, how I hate thee...)
paws2sky, see previous post... 
D'oh. That's what I get for trying to post between phone calls... 
The Vory, huh? I just pegged it as a front for a chop-shop. Seems a little pedestrian for their tastes...
Satan's Choice used to have a nice clubhouse in my hometown. Unfortunetly, IIRC, they didn't have enough members any longer to keep a charter, so they're gone.
That said, I think I found a front of some sort close to where I used to live. It was a butcher shop, where half the fridges were empty, 2/3 of the shelves were empty, and the canned goods on the shelves were old and covered in dust. The service was bad as well.
It might have just been the bad service, however.
That said, I think I found a front of some sort close to where I used to live. It was a butcher shop, where half the fridges were empty, 2/3 of the shelves were empty, and the canned goods on the shelves were old and covered in dust. The service was bad as well.
It might have just been the bad service, however.
We had a oriental restaurant that could have been a front. The place was way to up market for Rotherham and there where some interesting people walking into the back quite often. But that said it disaperd a few months later for no reason it had really good bisnusse.
There were a couple places in town that my friends and I always joked just had to be some kind of front.
The first was a fondue restaurant, which remained open for years despite us having never seen more than five or six cars in the parking lot at a time. And that was on a Friday night...
Another is a drug store north of campus. Last time I was in there, which was about 9 years ago, they had stuff on the shelves that was:
1) covered in a layer of dust
2) had products with boxes that had faded from sunlight
and
3) had a couple items that had been recalled at least years earlier for causing birth defects
-paws
The first was a fondue restaurant, which remained open for years despite us having never seen more than five or six cars in the parking lot at a time. And that was on a Friday night...
Another is a drug store north of campus. Last time I was in there, which was about 9 years ago, they had stuff on the shelves that was:
1) covered in a layer of dust
2) had products with boxes that had faded from sunlight
and
3) had a couple items that had been recalled at least years earlier for causing birth defects
-paws
I wrote some stuff about the Russian Mafia, but it is none of your business. Carry on. Just that because Italian mobsters in movies follow a code does not mean such a code actually exists.
However if you think you are hardcore I could introduce you to some of the Albanian Mafia for a price. You pay first and we'll talk after your meet and greet.
-Chrysalis
However if you think you are hardcore I could introduce you to some of the Albanian Mafia for a price. You pay first and we'll talk after your meet and greet.
-Chrysalis
codes of honor are no longer as stringently upheld as the ones was...
in one way thats a bad thing, but to much focus on honor can be just as troublesome...
in one way thats a bad thing, but to much focus on honor can be just as troublesome...
To be quite honest I could delve deep in to the underground with the contacts I know. Pro hackers pyromaniacs how can make OK guns from steel BBs and some steel. Ex and current drug dealers and suppliers. The black market could be wide open to me if i had the time money and determination to follow though the leads I have. I even know an underground Resistance group focus on resiting invaders or a croupet governments if such things ever happen.
QUOTE (hobgoblin @ Jul 7 2008, 03:08 PM)
codes of honor are no longer as stringently upheld as the ones was...
"Bah! Kids today, no respect! In my day, we had respect! Sure, we'd wack a guy, but we'd do it right, yaknow. Allow him to have a nice burial and all that. Open casket and everything."
"What about Jimmy Two-Noses?"
"He was a rat, and had no family, he deserved the burial at sea."
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