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Messages - Christopher Riner

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World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) / Good program experiences!
« on: September 07, 2005, 10:31:00 AM »
Oh yeah, When you click on that link you need to scroll down and click "essays," then scroll down to the bottom right and click the number 5.  Sorry.

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World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) / Good program experiences!
« on: September 07, 2005, 10:19:00 AM »
Well, once again I have ventured into the cyber-bickering of the fornits web forum.  I don't have much to say, really.  I'm not going to say that the program was the best thing ever to happen to me, because it just doesn't happen like that.  Anything, everything, everyone-- they are all what you make of them.  I went to 'the late' Dundee Ranch Academy, which closed down in may of 2003.  Regardless of what I made of the program (or didn't make of it), it is now just a big story of a big mean school with big mean staff and a big, mean, greedy incentive.  

BUT, if you want to hear my story, then you can visit this web page:  http://www.nr.edu/creativewriting/ and scroll to the bottom and go to the number 5 author.  This is a personal essay that I wrote for a creative writing class after I graduated from Dundee Ranch.  I've been reluctant to put it on here because I know it will only cause more commotion and drama, and so please do me a favor and keep this in mind while reading it:  there was a hot girl in my creative writing class, and I was trying to look tough so I juiced it up a little bit  :smokin: It might seem like another big story about a big mean school, but if you look deeply into my words then you'll find the real meaning.
And don't forget also that if I were to actually put my entire program experience into words, then my hard drive would become full.  In fact, most of my good program experiences were left out:  the friends, the seminars (which sucked ass but made great memories of my friends and me), my nights singing elvis songs to the school, my days at the beach, or the rainforest, or the mall, or just being out and realizing how much I used to take for granted.  Everything I learned while I was in Costa Rica were priceless lessons, and I wouldn't trade them for anything on the planet.

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World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) / Ex-programee's, post your name!
« on: July 08, 2005, 11:49:00 PM »
Christopher RIner,
International Elvis Impersonator.
Dundee Ranch, Costa Rica, Jan. 2002- May 2003.

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World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) / Ex-programmee, baby
« on: July 08, 2005, 11:48:00 PM »
Actually, no, but I do have his phone number.  And I think I am going to give him a call right now.

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World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) / Ex-programmee, baby
« on: July 08, 2005, 04:50:00 PM »
Christopher Forrest Riner.
Dundee Ranch Academy
January 2002-May 2003.

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The Troubled Teen Industry / To all who experienced WWASP
« on: February 18, 2005, 02:39:00 AM »
Hello, my name is Christopher Forrest Riner.  I don't think it matters who you are-- if you wound up in a program for some reason, then you probably have a nack for mischief.  I'm sure that there are success stories out there, but not the kind you think of.  Life is tough-- whether you've been in a program or not.  When you leave the program, your life changes drastically.  The best advice that I could give you, is that the change after you get back is nowhere near as drastic as the one that you experienced your first few weeks in the program.  So hell, if you could adjust to that one then you should definitely be able to trudge through this ordeal.  
And friends?  It's hard finding good friends when you have a world of time on your hands.  I wouldn't try and rush things.  It's better not to let something expand so much in your own world that it takes over necessary priorities, ya know?  If you waste all of your time trying to find friends, then all you will end up doing (more than likely) is going through hand fulls of useless, ephemeral relationships that will do nothing other than point you away from what's going on inside of you (pardon the jargon).  

But honestly, how's school?  Are you trying to get a job?  Do you have any goals set?  I guarantee that if you got a job and went to school somewhere then you would make tooooons of friends.  People are all over the place.  I mean hell, if making friends is the most important thing to you right now, then you should go to school and get a job just for the friends, hehe.  Hell, why not?  You'll make money at the same time.  I dunno, I'm not sure exactly what to tell you to do, because everyone's struggle is different.  I don't know anyone who's never felt alone, and my best advice would be that this is all a part of your rehabilitation back into society, and its only a small part.  Don't forget yer important shit.

a little about me (I love this part):
Christopher Forrest Riner:Academy Dundee Ranch, Costa Rica
2002-2003: 18 months, graduate
President: Boys Student Council
Chairman:  (Boys) Public Relations Committee, Activities Committee, Dundee Ranch Zoological Preservation Committee (Vice-chairman Bowdy Lewis-- bless your little heart).
International Elvis Impersonator.

P.S.  if you need someone to talk to, email me at allhailslipknot@hotmail.com and I'll give you my aol screen name.  It never hurts to have a buddy.  I have msn, too.

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The Troubled Teen Industry / Dundee students-- tell me how life is.
« on: February 09, 2005, 10:58:00 AM »
Yeah man, I totally forgot to put all of my info on here.  If anybody wants to talk, email me at allhailslipknot@hotmail.com.  There's a good chance that I might not post here for a little while.  If anybody wants to talk to me about anything, I'm a SWM ISO SWF, and I enjoy long walks along the beach and candlelit dinners.  Nyuck nyuck nyuck.

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The Troubled Teen Industry / Dundee students-- tell me how life is.
« on: February 08, 2005, 10:49:00 PM »
I really don't know if anyone that went to Dundee reads this, but if you remember me then give me a holler.  I would love to know how a bunch of people are doing.

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The Troubled Teen Industry / Just seeing if anyone knows me.
« on: November 29, 2004, 07:48:00 AM »
There are a lot more kids on here than I realized.  I'm sure there is a smorgasbord of programs that kids who respond on here come from, but I just thought it'd be cool to see if anyone out there went to Dundee.  I know a couple of people from other WWASP facilities (through pc seminars), and so if my name rings a bell then feel more than inclined to give me a holler.  I'd like to catch up with a lot of people.  My email is allhailslipknot@hotmail.com.

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The Troubled Teen Industry / Gameplan, baby.
« on: November 15, 2004, 11:18:00 PM »
Most messages I see are just a bunch of complaints about what is going on or what went on in the schools.  I don't really see a whole lot of ideas about what could better any of these situations.  Do you guys have kids in the school (or have you had any?)  I know that there are tons of people who think that a huge injustice went on with the schools, but hell-- we can move forward, ya know.  This website kind of reminds me of the presidential election that just went on.  Everybody is choosing their side and going to war against one another, and all it is doing is making EVERTYHING difficult for EVERYONE.  I mean, maybe we could come up with like government programs that are designed to train staff and make sure that they are adequate for the job-- I know that in Costa Rica, it was really really difficult finding staff that were willing to put the effort (and integrity, for that matter) into their jobs that these schools require.  I mean, I haven't looked at this website for about 8 months, and I notice practically no difference/progression with the situation.  I guess that's enough time for me to miss a lot that has happened, though.

But yeah, the past is the past, the future is now.  I think we all agree with the concept that there ARE teens who DO need to be taken out of their environment for their own safety, and hopefully one day we'll have such a school in our system that won't draw so much negativity. Right now I am taking baby steps everyday to one day be able to open a school of my own, because I was in the school and know what worked and what didn't. Hell, the people who notice all of the problems should make a school somewhere, because they see things that could be handled differently.  Behavior modification schools are like raising a kid:  there's no right way to do it (but there are apparently thousands of wrong ways).

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The Troubled Teen Industry / "SUCCESS" STORIES
« on: November 15, 2004, 07:39:00 PM »
I haven't posted to this thing in a while because I always ended up just like yelling at other people's opinions and trying to defend my own.  

I am not sure if there are still parents reading this thread like the person who made the first post, but the advice I would give you is not to feel like you have totally lost control, but don't feel like you are a failure and you did everything wrong, either.  The programs aren't made to 'fix' people, they just give families a way to kiond of make a strategy for what to do with a life or a family that seems to be going down the tube.  Don't ever give up, you can always keep thinking of ways to show your kid that you guys are on the same team, and that no matter what you'll get through it all.  And don't ever stop letting them know how much you love them.

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The Troubled Teen Industry / 18th Birthdays
« on: April 16, 2004, 10:58:00 AM »
I spent 18 months in costa rica, and turned 18 after about 10 months of being there.  I graduated the program and then turned nineteen like a few months later.  In Costa rica, it was hard as hell to leave when you turned 18.  A lot of kids wanted to.  There are TONS of things that get in your way; first of all, after doing months and months of work to get where you are, just WANTING to leave showed signs of lack of progress.  You were SUPPOSED to be there to help yourself, and wanting to leave showed that you weren't committed to that.  We were told that at 18 we were allowed to walk through the gates and right out the door, but only like one person actually did it, and he was picked up by staff after a while.  We weren't promised plane tickets or anything- that's what we were told. There were 18 year olds who did successfully leave, and it was always a complicated situation.  When you are limited to your communication with your parents (which is pretty much the only outside communication you had), it is hard to find someone to come and pick you up or something.  The secret to actually getting out was very hush hush.  I personally think that when kids know they can get out when they are 18 retards their progress, and I am hella glad that I stayed.  It really did suck while I was there though.  Another influencing factor is the family rep.  To my knowledge, this is the person that has control over the situation when you turn 18, in terms of booking plane tickets or whatever.  We all knew we could walk out the door, but what if we didn't make it back to the states?  We would be illegal residents in Costa Rica.  And like I said, if you acted on it and failed, then you were level one, with zero points alllll over again...

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The Troubled Teen Industry / WWASP and possible Mass Tort Lawsuit
« on: March 05, 2004, 12:48:00 AM »
So what exactly is being handed out to the victims of this mass tort law suit?  Cash? Post on here (you might not know exactly what the compensation is going to be given in) if it is money or not, I would definitely be interested into reading into that.

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The Troubled Teen Industry / Gooooo Media!!! Whooooo Hooooo!
« on: March 03, 2004, 04:45:00 AM »
Deborah, I was just wondering what school your children (or child) went to.  If you wouldn't mind telling me, I would like to know.  I think that the story about the children eating vomit at the school in Mississippi(?) is pretty interesting.  I am not sure why but for some reason I believe it (based on support from a post earlier on in the thread).  I am not sure if your kid went to Dundee, but if they did tell them I said hello.  I love talking to people that I went to school with down there.

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The Troubled Teen Industry / The Horror's of Dundee Ranch in May 2003
« on: February 27, 2004, 03:09:00 PM »
Noone can be legally punished (for the drug)because they cannot prove they have induced LSD into their system; spinal taps are the only possible way to detect the acid and are illegal (to my understanding).  

I had never injected heroin- heroin is actually the drug I have done the least.  I started out smoking crank once or twice a week in the ninth grade (after pot and trying acid in the eighth grade), and after about six months had moved up to every other day.  My friends and I would steal money from our parents almost every day, and also pawn stuff for money, or sell drugs to kids who didn't know how much they were supposed to get or something.  Before long we had our own little enterprising system of keeping a steady income of drugs, and had moved up to doing grams of cocaine a day.  I was introduced to glass (methamphetamine), and knew someone who would get tons of it (not literally) to sell, and he would always give me some for selling it for him.  I never injected this, either; I usually smoked it.  After a while I started doing something called "hotrails", where I would use a blow torch to heat up a glass tube, and then sniff a "line" through the glass tube.  What it did, was melt the drug as it went up the tube, and it would hit your nasal passage as a boiling hot liquid- but the heat would cook it and also cause it to smoke, so you inhaled smoke during the process (smoking cased your buzz to increase the fastest- the actice drugs go directly from your lungs into your blood stream carried on hemoglobins with the oxygen).  It was painful, but strangely addictive.  

You are right, I have no idea what stockholm syndrome means.  I didn't think that it caused you to lie about abuse though.  So are you saying it like creates a defense mechanism to care about your "captors" so you don't get abused by them?

"Regarding the idea that tough treatment is necessary to get to the top, ever hear of George W. Bush? Not that I personally think he should rightfully be there, but it's simply not true that only people who have been through really tough times make it big. In fact, the people who have been through the worst of things are often stunted by their experience and do not achieve as much as they would have done if they didn't have to spend so much time recovering from the toughness-"

I took this from your message.  I suggest you read Wayne W. Dyers line of books.  How well we manage our emotions, and how long it takes to deal with them, is entirely up to us.  I believe in it.  I think we all can be stronger once we have fallen, and learned to pick ourselves up.

As far as the independent study went- like I said, it was a lot harder for the first month or so not having any instruction.  Right now I am a sophomore and an engineering major, but I am applying to have my major switched to biochemistry.  I have taken multi-variable calculus (four semesters of calc total), two years of physics, organic chemistry, applied statistics... I think that the time when I learn and understand the MOST of what I am studying, is when I take the book home, and go through and study it.  At dundee, it took most of us a while (even kids who were bright and excelled academically) to adjust to self study, but we always had a teacher that we could go to if we needed any assistance.

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