Marinus

My next shot of adrenalin might well be administered to me when I don't have decades of skydiving experience strapped between me and my parachute. To some this might be a small detail, to others (me for instance) this could result in a higher yield of adrenaline. Anyhow, I'm sure I'll probably produce enough adrenaline to get 3 loads their fix or so. As for the tandemvid: well it's rather boring, and I've to upload and edit it first, but I'll get to that eventually. Edit: included a link to a still for people who can't wait to see what it looked like when I lost my whuffinity: http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2919/marinus042.jpg Interestingly it's image 42 in the series

I've already looked into the wind tunnel thing, and it'll be very likely that I'm going to take a course. I think it's 350 Euro for instruction + 15 minutes of tunnel time. Or whatever it's called. I'm usually somewhat slow in picking up physical skills, so it makes sense to get a head start that way.

Congrats on passing level 6! While I'm far too noob to comment on anyone who has over 1 (tandem) jump under his/her belt, I somehow can relate to your comics. Well, I did other things that some might consider scary, so that's probably my excuse for it....

As far as I'm concerned I think "race" is a sociological construct, not a biological reality. People shouldn't be treated differently because the way they look, but people also shouldn't whine when their colour/race isn't respected. Because there's nothing respectable about being black, white or being any other so called "race". It's not like you had to do anything to look the way you do. And yes. people whine way to much about racism. (or more precise, whine way to much about what they perceive as racism, there's no such thing as "whining" too much about actual racism.)

I watched loads of AFF vids, but that was in the first phase of this newly found obsession with skydiving. Now I'm a bit worried about picking up the wrong "habits" from watching vids. I know the AFF in NL is slightly different from (most of?) the ones used in the USA, and that the AFF varies with plane types etc. So I'm a bit hesitant to watch them for educational purposes (still watch them now and then though, but only for their entertainment value [;P] ) I've a (legally downloaded) pdf of the SIM on my desktop, that goes without saying. I know I'll hesitate to do the AFF. That's why I intend to book and pay for AFF 1 asap. I'll only book the first jump at first because I've no idea if I'm any good at skydiving, but if the first goes well enough, I'll purchase the whole course. But anyway, AFF 1 will be purchased before 2011 ends. I know for a fact that there were 15 months between me thinking "I want to make a tandem skydive next month" and me actually taking the plunge, and I don't want to repeat that mistake with the AFF.

Thanks for the idea, and while it's probably a good idea (it sounds like one) it isn't feasible for me. First there's of course the extra costs, language might be an issue too and above all try to explain that one to the special other. "I'm going to skydive" wasn't received all that well, "I'm going to skydive in AZ for two weeks" would probably be a large step towards a divorce. But hanging out at a bit at a (Dutch) DZ might be a good idea anyway. As for doing the AFF, there's no way that I won't try it. If it turns out I'm not able to finish the AFF for whatever reason, that would suck, but there's only one way to find out. It'll cost me a good lot of money, but I'm fully prepared to make that offer, whatever the outcome will be. The nervousness is a b****, but it has a good side too. I tend to get nervous quite easily, but it often helps me to achieve things too. Anyway: I've to wait till at least April to start AFF. That's a lot of time to sort things out and prepare myself.

Nice, but it lacks vultures and cursing Russians

But marriage is about trust and..... Nah, F*** that, as we speak money is already disappearing in my s00per sekrit slush fund And I keep details of the costs a little vague, too.

Well that was kind of embarrassing. I've been thinking "I'm going to make a tandem skydive next month" for 15 months before I actually picked up the damn phone and called the DZ. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to call the DZ and book AFF level 1 now and commit a bit more to it. I had a few questions anyway, so what the hell, I thought. So I dialled the number, and the moment the call was answered this little voice started: WHAT!!! THE!! *BEEP*!!! ARE!!! YOU!!! DOING!!! YOU!!! *BEEPING*!!! IDIOT!!! SAY!!! THAT!!! YOU!!! *BEEPING*!!! DIALLED!!! THE!!! WRONG!!! NUMBER!!! AND!!! GET!!! THE *BEEP* OUT!!! OF!!! THIS!!! *BEEPING*!!! CONVERSATION!!! AND!!! I!!! WANT!!! A!!! *BEEPING* CIGARETTE!!! NOW!!! Well, I decided to ask my questions, got my answers, stuttered a lot I think, and this woman called M. is probably laughing her a$$ off right now. I imagine that I didn't really sounded all that committed Anyway, it was a bit early to book AFF 1 for next year, So I've to call again in a few weeks. It might be a good idea to take some Xanax to make it through that conversation without getting a heart attack. Anyway, twas a great boost for my selfconfidence. I called the DZ and I didn't even faint

Nice diversion, now try to dodge this: http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=54&ContentID=23049

I can't really explain how I felt right after my first (and only) jump. I think it was somewhat like a religious conversion, only much better, because someone just gave me a tour through heaven first. I decided to do a tandem jump to get an answer to one of the oldest and dustiest of questions: "Why do people jump from perfectly good planes?" Well, I got a lot more than I bargained for. But at least I now know why people jump out of perfectly good planes. figured that one out within 5 seconds after leaving the plane Yes, I'm saving to do the AFF course next year.

This sounds awfully like "My big brother will kick your a$$, because I can't" And I think I mostly got off easy because my statement was right to begin with. The phrase "common knowledge" is also used in case something is common knowledge. So ,well, the contents of your post are less then impressive, actually there are no real relevant contents to be found.

It's common knowledge in areas where the word "drugs" doesn't cause hysteria. Or in other words. Areas that aren't like the US of A.

No, that's not it, I didn't twist anyone's words, and I didn't put words in anyone's mouth and you know it. Even if you assume my English is 100% perfect, you couldn't even make it plausible that I put words in mouths and/or twisted words. I was decent enough to admit that it's possible that my imperfect knowledge of English could have been the cause of a misunderstanding, and you only took that as an excuse to dodge the fact that you falsely accused me of things. So: Even if You assume I'm fluent at English: where did I put words in mouths and or twisted words?

In other words, you can't really back up your claim that I twist the words of others and/or that I put words in anyone's else's mouth... So you try to create a diversion....

No, I didn't. I even admitted I wasn't sure my words were being twisted and I didn't put words in anyone else's mouth. I'm not native English, so I could be over-looking some major linguistic mistake that does change what I intended to say entirely, but I'm rather sure that isn't the case. Until you provide me with proof of me (accidentally or not) twisting words beyond reasonable doubt, you can consider yourself ignored by me. I don't really have patience with people who refuse to listen to what I say.

I don't really like where this is going. I'm not sure if you intended to twist my words, but if you did I don't really appreciate that. But everyone who thinks it's a good idea to handle any combination of guns and ammunition while being stoned or drunk is unfit to handle guns. People who do understand some activities shouldn't be combined are better fit. whether they're mentally ill or not. I think the mentally ill are generally less fit to handle guns, because you know, their central computer malfunctions. That doesn't mean that everyone with a mental illness is unfit to handle a gun. Some illnesses make someone by their very nature unfit. Mania for instance should never ever being combined with fire-arms. On the other hand, someone that's pathologically obsessive-compulsive might be your safest bet when giving away guns. You claim that mental ill people are as/less violent than normies, but I would want to see some source to go with that.

Yeah, well, that's not the fault of the concept of pills, but the fault of people not trying hard enough to get a better alternative than inhaling the smoke of a tropical plant that's full of harmful stuff. Smoking herbs is a really primitive way to administer medicine. Pills aren't there for nothing, they're usually (probably always) superior to any use of herbs in medicine. Marinol, if I remember it well enough is really just THC, and it's one of the dozens of psychoactive substances found in Cannabis. A combination of cannabinols would probably do a better job. I know space cake also stimulates the appetite, so smoking isn't an essential part of getting the desired effect. But I think it should be legal anyway whether you've got cancer or not. Luckily it's legal enough here...

I think the medical usefulness of marijuana is mostly an urban myth. I also believe that any medically beneficial substances in marijuana would be a lot more beneficial in easy to dose pills, preferably pills with as little adverse effects as possible. I regard feeling stoned as a major adverse effect of medicine (I occasionally smoke(d) weed, I don't think of recreational stonedness as being evil, but medicinal stonedness isn't a good thing) I think most, if not all drugs should be legal but regulated. I think it's completely moronic that in most western countries alcohol is legal and marijuana isn't. While Cannabis has dangers associated with it, it doesn't even come close to the hazards associated with alcohol. Alcohol is right up there with heroine and cocaine, it's safer to take XTC or magic mushrooms than to drink beer. Plus, laws that forbid Marijuana/other drugs use only get criminals richer, they don't really prevent marijuana/drug use.

I quote: Great psychiatrist that doesn't know that mental illness and substance (ab)use go hand in hand. Self medication anyone? Sure, if you take that out of the mix, you take a good lot of the trigger happy head cases along with it too.

And said proof often consists of one or more corpses. But then again, there's a large stock of Americans, and we won't run out of you any time soon, so well, who am I to care about it. I know, and I'm indeed of the opinion that gun ownership, like a drivers licence, should be a privilege not a right.

So you're basically saying here that I failed to ask a stupid question.....

Yes, because statistics that prove that it's much more likely to be killed by a bullet in the US of A than in other Western countries are by their very definition a "preconception". You might want to look up what English words actually mean before you use them.

I don't really see why I should reverse my thinking. Surely even in the US people spend way more time driving than toting guns, so yes, even in the US it's probably more likely to get killed in a car accident. But the argument: "guns, just like cars, are dangerous in unskilled hands" still stands. Quite frankly I don't see how it's possible that people don't see that the US is f-ing up on the fire-arm legislation part. Something dangerous is granted to everyone, the statistics show that other Western countries are much safer then the US when it comes to firearms, and still some people don't seem able to connect the dots.

But cars and guns are different things, right? Well, both use rapid combustion to propel a piece of metal to a dangerous and potential lethal speed. They're close enough for me. I'm not against gun owner ship, I'm against gun owner ship by people that haven't proved to be capable to own a firearm.