Not so bad

I've pretty much gotten used to the bracelet by now. So far no bruising, or rashes, or problems.

Not cool

Sorry for the delay, been busy. Anyway the bracelet takes a measure of the ethanol vapor on your skin and when it does, it vibrates. It takes about 3 or 4 seconds, about like a cell phone on vibrate. Problem is, now it makes a little noise when it takes it's reading, like an old cell phone. It has loosened up and is more comfortable to wear now, most of the time I don't even notice it. But now that it vibrates I actually got in trouble for disrupting class the other day. When I asked about it while I was getting it uploaded, they said, "Oh it probably has water in it." What the hell? The whole idea is that its supposed to be discreet. Until next time.

Scram see? (in best mobster voice)

So far the bracelet is more of a mild  annoyance than a painful sort of thing. However the social and psychological ramifications are far greater.

So far, so...

Sleeping with it last night wasn't as much on an annoyance as I thought it might be. I find I notice it more when I take my clothes off, like to get in the shower and it feels weird not being physically able to remove something from your body. It reminds me of some medieval punishment like the Iron mask or something. "I wear the bracelet, THE BRACELET DOESN'T WEAR ME!!!!" Thats the man in the iron mask, incase no one gets the quote. I might have messed up earlier by spraying febreeze around the house because I am supposed to avoid contact with any products that contain alcohol, like most shampoos, body washes, deodorants, which is basically everything. I looked on the label and it doesn't list alcohol but I'm still ridden with anxiety about the hole thing. If it registers, then I have to go explain what made it register and basically my staying in compliance with my probation agreements are in the hands of some employee that gets to decide my fate at the drop of a hat depending on how his or her day is going and what mood their in  et cetera. Basically, I'm just scared to death of violating probation by coming into contact with some obscure source of alcohol and right now that part feels far worse than the actual wearing of the bracelet.

Freedom for sale

Freedom is not for everyone as we are lead to believe, but instead only a privilege for those who can afford it. To avoid a DUI charge (which in the state of TN, remains on your record permanently) I was offered the lesser charge of reckless-endangerment and in exchange, I have 250 hours of community service, a year of unsupervised probation, and to wear the SCRAM bracelet for a year.  I have no problem with this plea bargain except that the scram bracelet costs $100 to put on and $300 a month for as long as you wear it. So for a year that puts the total cost at $3700. As a country that hosts 5% of the worlds population but 25% of its prisoners, their is no wonder why the scram bracelet is alluring to court systems. It cuts down on the prison population while making the injustice system money instead of burdening the budget. After all, why budget the state when they can budget out-of-work class? After going to the city county building (knox county court) so many times, one begins to get a generalized picture of those who find themselves in front of a judge. In my experience with the division of criminal court I was in, more often than not it seems like most are hardworking people who have had a lapse of judgement, probably caused by the stresses of survival--the stresses of trying to simply exist while supporting the ones we love. I count myself very fortunate to have a family that is helping me pay for some of these costs, but for most people, an extra $300 a month simply isn't in the budget and could even keep food off the table. the makers of the scram bracelet list on their website that the typical length of wearing one of their units is 90-120 days yet Knox county routinely assigns sentences  of 12, 18, or even 24 months. I don't know what their true motive might be although, I'm sure we can all imagine what their pre-prepared politically correct statement might be, but from where I'm sitting it looks like they are just making money. Anyway, until next time...

It's on like genghis kahn wearing sean jon in bouton

Yes I'm an Office fan but I got it on now and it's okay.

New to blogging

I should have figured that it would post the date with each post, but now I know and with that knowledge comes freedom for expressive titling. So my appointment to get the scram on is in about an hour and I'm not really looking forward to it. After last week's debacle I'm afraid this will not go smoothly which is the last thing in the world I want. Anyway once I get it on, I'll post a picture on here showing how bulky this damn thing is.