Pick-pocketing and put-pocketing!

    Many of you have received a note with my blog on it, 'twas a test! I was seeing if the pick/put pocket theories were sound, here are some of the techniques used.

Pressure Misdirection

This technique is used to draw the attention for one spot, the pocket, to a different spot, distracting the "mark" from the pocket. One way of doing this squeezing the shoulder or shaking one's hand. This is also used in crowded places, i.e., schools, malls, subway stations, etc.; the thief bumps into the mark, taking the contents of the pocket then graciously apologizes for the bump.

"Thieves at Work"
This one is ingenious in my book, the thief post a sign saying, "Thieves at work". This is where the magic happens, people reading the sign will pat the pocket with their wallet in it, assuring themselves that the wallet is still there. Pick-pockets see this, move in, and bingo! Your identity is stolen.

Sandwiching
This one is utilized on the sidewalks of cities. One pick-pocket stops suddenly in a narrow street causing the mark to bump into them. The second pick-pocket bumps into the mark and lifts their wallet. This takes more than one pick-pocket and is more useful in lesser crowed public places.

"Throwing out the baby..."
This one shouldn't even be considered a proper pick-pocketing. The thief has a baby doll wrapped in a blanket and it thrown at the mark (female), causing them to drop their belongings. The thief then runs off with the dropped purse, bag, etc.


Disclaimer...
I do not recommend this. Pick-pockets receive less jail time then a mugger, because no weapons are used. But, if you are caught you still get jail time. I prefer put-pocketing or pocket-planting, away to give people items, notes, etc. In the UK, ex-pick-pockets give back to the public by "Reverse pick-pocketing", giving people money, without their knowledge of the happenings. It is quite ingenious. Also note, I do not remove any items, unless it's a friend of mine, but I graciously return the item "borrowed".

Thoughts are merely Emotions, not Words

    Have you ever wondered, when you try thinking of a word and you can't seem to produce the right word to show what you are thinking or feeling? This is because we think in emotions (I touched upon this in the "Deaf Individuals" post). It hit me when I was talking to my friend about observations of this girl that I had psychoanalysed, and for some apparent reason, I could not think of a word to explain her emotions. I then noticed that I was thinking and feeling her emotion in my thoughts but I could not develop the emotion into words. I also found it was easier to portray the emotion I was thinking, into facial expressions (I don't mean emoticons i.e., ":)", ":P", ">:(", (they are very ineffective to show real emotion). Another issue is my vocabulary does not span across emotion like, angry, delighted, disdainful, etc; and checking a dictionary to come up with the word decent enough to portray my thoughts, let's face it, it is a hassle. Now the next time you can't think of a word to portray an emotion, make facial expressions or think of similes of the emotion, it may give your audience some clue into what you are thinking or feeling.

Language 101... More or less...

    Did you know that the only thing that isn't genetically passed from parent to child, is the accent? Provokes some thinking. I myself, have always had a problem of mocking, or impersonating accents (I even lost a job because of it, it's a long story). I can analyse accents and dialects, and am able to tell the origin of said accent.
    So, I got to thinking how the American accent came about. As many of you know, the American broke away from the "Crown" seeking independence. Of course, ethnic and vocal independence. I noticed that there were some similarities with the Irish accent, using the "r's." I'll give an example of our dialects, here is a sentence, "The general saw a dog." The American accent would pronounce it like this (phonetically), "Thee gehnerahl saw aee dohg." The English would pronounce it (somewhat) like this, "Thee gehnuhruhl sawr aee dawg." If you are unable to depict the phonetic spelling, watch British television, 'nough said. The English accent has other "side effects." When pronouncing "saw," they add an "r" sound at the end, making it sound like, "sawr." Any "ah" or "aw" sounds, they sometimes add the "r" sound. With some words they even altered the spelling to fit their accent, namely, "arse."
    So this made me think, because every language has a different "rendition" of the english language, the pronunciation must be different. In my studies of the Russian language, I noticed they didn't have the letter "j," pronunciation-wise. To spell out "Jones" in Russian, you have to spell it "d-zh-oh-n-s." In German "w" is "v" like "Voltwagon" is "Voltsvagon."
    So to wrap things up, what I'm getting at is that because the English, Germans, and Russians speak the English language differently, doesn't mean they think the same of us, speaking their language!

Prescription Drugs? Easy!

    This year, I had to write a four page essay explaining a problem and my solution for my english class, I picked "Prescription Drug Abuse in Teens." I learned an abundance of information, so here is this info for your learning pleasure.

There are many categories, these are the ones I learned about:

Depressants, Stimulants, Narcotics,

Baby Mozart = Man Mozart

    Now, we have all seen the commercials about "Baby Mozart," babies who learn at an exponential rate because of listening to classical music. It appears ridiculous. But alas, I had hope in this theory, so I did a little self test (no, I am not a baby), involving being able to focus whilst doing simple cognitive work.
    This was around the time I was doing summer school at 0530 'til 1200. One day, I would listen to my classical music compilation; the next day, simple lyrical music. I had then noticed that the lyrical music affected my focus, thereon affecting my test scores. Classical music, on the other hand, improved my focus and test scores. I'm not saying that the classical music on it's own helped my scores, I'm saying non-lyrical music helped my scores.
    Now, to segway into what I'm getting at. Have you ever wondered why, when you pay no attention around you that you can still hear your name in a crowd? Or when you walk down the street, that your eyes fix on all the faces? Well, that is the subconscious' job, to do minor focusing. The subconscious, pre-installed with facial recognition, with voice recognition, and with word recognition, allows us to do everyday stuff without fully paying attention. What does this have to do with lyrical music? When focusing on one thing (i.e., school, books, art), the subconscious still focuses on outside stuff. When you listen to lyrical music while focusing on this task, the word and/or voice recognition is listening to your music and reminding you, "Hey, the guitar solo is coming up," or "Hey, I really think Lance Bass sounds gay in this song." So, as you are focusing on this task, your subconscious is nagging at you to listen to the music. Now back to the classical music. When listening to the non-lyrical/classical music, my subconscious had nothing to hone onto, improving my focus and concentration. Therefore non-lyrical/classical is today's "Ritalin."