MTFBWY
Not Mike. Do not be an expert like Mike. Be like Dorothy.
Dorothy is the young lady who pioneered digital video analysis instruction, imho. The young lady who I met at a class held at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA. She was teaching. She is smart. She is accomplished. She is educated., Sorry about that. 🤔
Dorothy has accomplished so much for the forensic video analysis community and is still going, I'm pretty sure. ☺️ Anyway, she's the one that also gave me my first national teaching gig. She asked me to stand-in for her at the Government Video Expo in 2003 or 2004, I think it was.
Years pass. We each keep going. One day after not having spoken with her in years, I find out she's the opposing expert on a case I'm assigned. My first thought...
I'm going to get to speak to Dorothy!
True story. I wasn't supposed to be happy, she's THE best. You shouldn't be excited to go against THE best., I was, because I wasn't going against her. It wasn't a competition. She was looking at the evidence for one team; I was looking at the evidence for another team.
Only in New York City
By this time, I live on the west coast. I have to travel 16 hours to get to my hotel in NYC. Long story. Connections. Anyway, I'm there by myself with my go bags wandering around in the middle of the night looking for the little brownstone-like hotel I was staying at. Made it, checked-in, slept 3-4 hours. Woke up.
Next thing I know I'm walking toward the office building I was to report to along with the attorney that hired our company. Here comes Dorothy down the damn street with an attorney in tow. I wanted to run. I think I jogged.
I hugged her without asking, as I recall. The attorneys must have sthi and even Dorothy looked a little stunned. I noticed how weird I was being and we moved on. Did the jobs we were hired to do. Didn't need to go to court. The end.
Don't make life difficult
It's easy to. Don't do it. Don't complicate it. Make it stupid simple or you'll mess it up, no matter how smart you are.
I'm not very smart, but you can trust me on this one. Guaranteed.
