I've been around... just not on the computer much. Sorry! Didn't feel that anybody really reads this much anyway.
I've been keeping myself busy with so much other stuff. My involvement in that other volunteer organization I belong to has picked up quite a bit, so I'm tossing most of my free time straight into that. I used to also be a member of an emergency squad, but I left there in September. Internal politics took over and it just wasn't worth anything anymore.
On to dispatching... I'm still Dispatcher 6. My department actually hired another dispatcher toward the end of the year, and she's on her own at this point. She's on midnights as well, so we end up working together for 2 days our of our 4 day rotation. It's nice having somebody else in Dispatch. I get to talk to somebody besides myself... plus, when it's busy - there's somebody there. The best part - I can pee when I want to!
I was by myself last night. Pretty uneventful for a Saturday night, but it still went by rather fast. Enough happened to keep me from being bored... and we did have most of the guys in HQ halfway through the night because arrests and reports, so I had someone to talk to... which is probably why the night went by so fast. My nutty "friend" that calls about random stuff in the tunnel that doesn't exist didn't call last night. She must be back on her meds. She did call a few days ago, though.
That's enough for today. Need to go take a power nap before work tonight.
Welfare check complete, everything is 10-4.
Clear and Unavailable,
Dispatcher 6
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Friday, August 15, 2008
"Call 911"
So while I was bored at work one night last week... I saw a commercial for this show called "Call 911" on the Investigation Discovery channel.
I had this past Wednesday night off, so I finally had a chance to watch it.... it's not bad! Too bad some of the useful stuff that's on the show I'd never be able to do in my town. I work by myself... I can't stay on the phone with someone and dispatch police, fire, EMS, and medics all at the same time. Plus, by the time I'm done with all of that, the police would be there anyway. It only takes 5 minutes to get across town WITHOUT going lights and sirens...
Anyway, check it out... Call 911 on Investigation Discovery
I had this past Wednesday night off, so I finally had a chance to watch it.... it's not bad! Too bad some of the useful stuff that's on the show I'd never be able to do in my town. I work by myself... I can't stay on the phone with someone and dispatch police, fire, EMS, and medics all at the same time. Plus, by the time I'm done with all of that, the police would be there anyway. It only takes 5 minutes to get across town WITHOUT going lights and sirens...
Anyway, check it out... Call 911 on Investigation Discovery
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Just Another Ducky Day In Dispatch
Finally a day off! Got some stuff done today for the other organization I belong to. Damn paperwork! It all looks the same after a while.
As for the dispatch world, it's been the same old stuff. My crazy friend that calls about non-existent stuff hasn't called. Maybe about a month ago, a mental health screener went to her house to talk to her and she was shipped off to the happy hut in a local hospital. I'm sure she's home by now... probably heavily medicated, too. Other than that, it's basically been the same as always... drunk illegals, a domestic or two, traffic stops, barking dog complaints. Blah. It has given me some time to get some other work done.
Speaking of other work, I did order that laptop I mentioned a few posts back. It was just under $500 after shipping. It's working out well with the exception of battery life (or lack thereof). I was going to order a new battery, but at $165, I think I'll just deal with it for now. Damn laptop batteries aren't cheap, WTF?!
Still haven't figured out what domain name to use. I don't even know what to put on it. We don't even have Internet access at work, so I don't know how much good that'll do. Any suggestions?
As for the DUCKY image and the title of this post... check out www.911cares.com, their store has some great 9-1-1 dispatch items... such as the DUCKY! I'd get one to toss around Dispatch, but I guarantee it'll disappear.
That's it for now...
Dispatcher 6
Saturday, August 2, 2008
3 to Headquarters. Hello? Helloooooooo?
I'm still around. Sorry I've barely been posting. It's just been the same old stuff, as I'm sure you know. I'm getting really frustrated with my job and once again I'm thinking about going back into the computer field... and being more serious about it this time.
There's been a lot of stuff bugging the hell out of me in just the last week and I don't think I can accomplish any of it while still being a low-paid dispatcher. I wouldn't make much more in the computer industry, but it would certainly help. The problem I'm running into, though, is have I been out of the field for too long already? A perfect example of that is Windows Vista. I only used it a few times since I was last a tech, back in early September 2007. I haven't really touched it since. Sure, maybe on my girlfriends laptop, but that's hardly administering a computer from the business perspective. I'd be lost if I walked into a company that just upgraded to Vista computers.
Dispatching is an "easy" job. WAIT! Before you shoot at me for saying that... I meant I don't have to drive all over the place fixing computers and listening to stupid people who don't have a clue what they're doing. Instead, I sit in my cell, staring at the same 4 walls, answering phones where there's usually a stupid person on the other end of the line. When there's no calls, I sit there with my feet up on the desk and watch TV, play sudoku on my phone, or talk to myself.
It's fun sometimes. Especially since I'm on midnights and the only people around are about 3 patrol officers and a patrol sergeant. Unless they come in for reports, arrests, or to randomly read the paper, I'm on my own.
We'll see how it turns out. I'll keep you updated. I'll also try to post more. There's been some stuff I wanted to bring up, but I have my hands in too many different things right now and I'm being stretched thin.
Dispatcher 6
There's been a lot of stuff bugging the hell out of me in just the last week and I don't think I can accomplish any of it while still being a low-paid dispatcher. I wouldn't make much more in the computer industry, but it would certainly help. The problem I'm running into, though, is have I been out of the field for too long already? A perfect example of that is Windows Vista. I only used it a few times since I was last a tech, back in early September 2007. I haven't really touched it since. Sure, maybe on my girlfriends laptop, but that's hardly administering a computer from the business perspective. I'd be lost if I walked into a company that just upgraded to Vista computers.
Dispatching is an "easy" job. WAIT! Before you shoot at me for saying that... I meant I don't have to drive all over the place fixing computers and listening to stupid people who don't have a clue what they're doing. Instead, I sit in my cell, staring at the same 4 walls, answering phones where there's usually a stupid person on the other end of the line. When there's no calls, I sit there with my feet up on the desk and watch TV, play sudoku on my phone, or talk to myself.
It's fun sometimes. Especially since I'm on midnights and the only people around are about 3 patrol officers and a patrol sergeant. Unless they come in for reports, arrests, or to randomly read the paper, I'm on my own.
We'll see how it turns out. I'll keep you updated. I'll also try to post more. There's been some stuff I wanted to bring up, but I have my hands in too many different things right now and I'm being stretched thin.
Dispatcher 6
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Just when you thought I was gone...
OK, OK! I'm sorry. I know... I haven't been around in FOREVER, but I've been really busy and haven't had much to say.
The last few weeks have been quiet with our resident nut... at least while I've been working.
It's been the usual BS stuff that goes on working midnight shift.
We had the fireworks on Wednesday night. It sucked. Lasted 14 minutes, as timed by the Deputy Chief. Then my girlfriend and I went to the firehouse to hang out and shoot the shit with everybody.
Last night was annoying. A few noise complaints and fireworks complaints. Handful of traffic stops. 1 arrest of a drunk Mexican. 4 EMS calls. 1 fire call. Again, the usual BS.
On another note... our dispatch room sucks. The chairs are standard office chairs. We have a pretty bad CAD system (although it's new and was a LOT of money). The radio system kinda sucks. We have NO Internet access besides the 1 state system. I found a copy of 9-1-1 Magazine from a few months ago and I'm just looking at all of the ads for dispatch furniture and electronics...drooling. They keep complaining the town doesn't have enough money. We'll never get anything good. Dispatchers are one of the least recognized people anywhere. How many times has something BIG happened and they never think of the dispatchers? Not that I'm looking for any recognition or anything... I actually hate being in the spotlight. But it's just annoying when everybody on scene of some event takes all of the credit. Hey buddy, don't forget who took the call and sent you there! Where would this world be without dispatchers?
Anyway... without getting too far off topic. I decided to try to get some dispatch resources together to make my life somewhat easier at work. 3 of the 5 dispatchers (myself included there) have found a little trick to get the Internet... and the higher-ups don't know about it...yet. It's our little work-around for when we need weather or tide information or to look up the coordinates for a 911 call from a cell phone.
My new idea was to create a website that includes all of the information we need either right there or by links that go directly there without clicking around too much. I already have a web hosting service with 2 domain names included... I'm only using 1 domain name at the moment... and I've had it for about 6 months. Sucks that I've been paying for 2, I guess. I'll let you all know how that one turns out.
It would be SO much easier if I had a laptop that I could actually bring to work with me so I can work on this stuff. My current laptop has basically turned into a desktop. I broke the screen on it a few months ago, so it's sitting on my desk, closed, with an LCD monitor, keyboard, and mouse connected to it. TigerDirect has a decent 0ff-lease IBM for about $499.
I've been doing one other thing to make my life at work a bit easier. I created a bunch of templates in Word for stuff I use often... fax cover sheets, memo templates, prisoner confinement records. I even made a new phone list, organized it nicely, and saved it to my folder on our network so I can update it when something changes. That's going over really well. I've told some of the cops who work the desk and it's making their lives easier, too.
That's about it for now. I'll be back when I have more. I'm going to go register a domain name... once I think of one.
Dispatcher 6
The last few weeks have been quiet with our resident nut... at least while I've been working.
It's been the usual BS stuff that goes on working midnight shift.
We had the fireworks on Wednesday night. It sucked. Lasted 14 minutes, as timed by the Deputy Chief. Then my girlfriend and I went to the firehouse to hang out and shoot the shit with everybody.
Last night was annoying. A few noise complaints and fireworks complaints. Handful of traffic stops. 1 arrest of a drunk Mexican. 4 EMS calls. 1 fire call. Again, the usual BS.
On another note... our dispatch room sucks. The chairs are standard office chairs. We have a pretty bad CAD system (although it's new and was a LOT of money). The radio system kinda sucks. We have NO Internet access besides the 1 state system. I found a copy of 9-1-1 Magazine from a few months ago and I'm just looking at all of the ads for dispatch furniture and electronics...drooling. They keep complaining the town doesn't have enough money. We'll never get anything good. Dispatchers are one of the least recognized people anywhere. How many times has something BIG happened and they never think of the dispatchers? Not that I'm looking for any recognition or anything... I actually hate being in the spotlight. But it's just annoying when everybody on scene of some event takes all of the credit. Hey buddy, don't forget who took the call and sent you there! Where would this world be without dispatchers?
Anyway... without getting too far off topic. I decided to try to get some dispatch resources together to make my life somewhat easier at work. 3 of the 5 dispatchers (myself included there) have found a little trick to get the Internet... and the higher-ups don't know about it...yet. It's our little work-around for when we need weather or tide information or to look up the coordinates for a 911 call from a cell phone.
My new idea was to create a website that includes all of the information we need either right there or by links that go directly there without clicking around too much. I already have a web hosting service with 2 domain names included... I'm only using 1 domain name at the moment... and I've had it for about 6 months. Sucks that I've been paying for 2, I guess. I'll let you all know how that one turns out.
It would be SO much easier if I had a laptop that I could actually bring to work with me so I can work on this stuff. My current laptop has basically turned into a desktop. I broke the screen on it a few months ago, so it's sitting on my desk, closed, with an LCD monitor, keyboard, and mouse connected to it. TigerDirect has a decent 0ff-lease IBM for about $499.
I've been doing one other thing to make my life at work a bit easier. I created a bunch of templates in Word for stuff I use often... fax cover sheets, memo templates, prisoner confinement records. I even made a new phone list, organized it nicely, and saved it to my folder on our network so I can update it when something changes. That's going over really well. I've told some of the cops who work the desk and it's making their lives easier, too.
That's about it for now. I'll be back when I have more. I'm going to go register a domain name... once I think of one.
Dispatcher 6
Sunday, April 20, 2008
There's a beating in the tunnel...
Yup, she called again last night. Twice, actually. Then she must have fallen asleep or the beatings finally stopped. Somebody needs to beat her. I wonder what's with her and the tunnel anyway? WHAT DAMN TUNNEL?!?!?!?!
I just conveniently ignored her - I was too busy to deal with her. There were real emergency calls going on at the time. Well, not necessarily emergencies, but there were calls that actually had some sort of a purpose.
It was definitely the calm before the storm - last night was NUTS. Two accidents - one of which had somebody complaining of back pain so they went to the hospital.
OH - how could I forget the crazy call I got maybe 20 minutes into the shift?! Another PD from NOT NEARBY called us saying they got a call from someone in their department about a man armed with two knives threatening to harm himself and possibly others in the residence. Just what I wanted to hear 20 minutes in on the last day of my rotation. Turns out he didn't want to harm others, only himself... because he got pissed off about something stupid. The guys on scene had me call out the squad for a mental health transport. About an hour later the hospital called bitching that we brought a homicidal person to them.
SAY WHAT?! Um, no. He wasn't threatening the life of anybody but himself. Stop your baby whining and evaluate the moron. Better yet, just throw him in the happy hut with padded walls, he'll be fine after a few hours (or years).
Other than that, the same old noise complaints, abandoned 911 calls, beatings in the tunnel... you know, the normal.
That's about all I really have right now... more to come soon.
Clear and Unavailable,
Dispatcher 6
I just conveniently ignored her - I was too busy to deal with her. There were real emergency calls going on at the time. Well, not necessarily emergencies, but there were calls that actually had some sort of a purpose.
It was definitely the calm before the storm - last night was NUTS. Two accidents - one of which had somebody complaining of back pain so they went to the hospital.
OH - how could I forget the crazy call I got maybe 20 minutes into the shift?! Another PD from NOT NEARBY called us saying they got a call from someone in their department about a man armed with two knives threatening to harm himself and possibly others in the residence. Just what I wanted to hear 20 minutes in on the last day of my rotation. Turns out he didn't want to harm others, only himself... because he got pissed off about something stupid. The guys on scene had me call out the squad for a mental health transport. About an hour later the hospital called bitching that we brought a homicidal person to them.
SAY WHAT?! Um, no. He wasn't threatening the life of anybody but himself. Stop your baby whining and evaluate the moron. Better yet, just throw him in the happy hut with padded walls, he'll be fine after a few hours (or years).
Other than that, the same old noise complaints, abandoned 911 calls, beatings in the tunnel... you know, the normal.
That's about all I really have right now... more to come soon.
Clear and Unavailable,
Dispatcher 6
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Calm before the storm
With an almost full moon and the weather being so nice, it really wasn't that crazy.
The usual few traffic stops, bars weren't busy, a noise complaint or two...oh, and the crazy bitch called again.
She called about something at the start of the shift, but I conveniently forgot about it. Then she called again at around 3 AM complaining that there's somebody teaching somebody how to kill an animal near her house. Of course, when the cops got there, it was dead silent and nobody was outside.
Maybe that's just the calm before the storm. It's still pretty nice out now. Also being a Saturday night, I can only imagine what's in store. Hopefully it's not too nuts, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.
Until next time,
I'll be out teaching somebody how to kill animals
Dispatcher 6
The usual few traffic stops, bars weren't busy, a noise complaint or two...oh, and the crazy bitch called again.
She called about something at the start of the shift, but I conveniently forgot about it. Then she called again at around 3 AM complaining that there's somebody teaching somebody how to kill an animal near her house. Of course, when the cops got there, it was dead silent and nobody was outside.
Maybe that's just the calm before the storm. It's still pretty nice out now. Also being a Saturday night, I can only imagine what's in store. Hopefully it's not too nuts, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.
Until next time,
I'll be out teaching somebody how to kill animals
Dispatcher 6
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