ZoneRat

Thanks Ricky. I appreciate your kind words. She was one of my earliest mentors and champions in the sport, and although many went into the raft on that dive too, it was my hit that sent her to surgery. Even though she's fully recovered, she more or less stopped jumping since the incident. I may do one again someday, but for now I'm still kinda soured on the whole raft dive thing 'cause of that. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Oooh. Progressive! btw I hope you get your Birthday Present! lol... (If anyone gives ya grief about it, you can flick your hair, strike a pose and coolly state "Oh yes, that. Well. What can I say, I have a penchant for dadaist art..... Martini?" ) “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

It's ok not to get it. I don't get much of it either anymore. A lot of art requires a firm understanding of art history (both old stuff and what's been happening in the past few years) to truly understand. They're building on the concepts and ideas of those that came before them. Kinda like having to learn basic math or philosophy before you can appreciate the advanced stuff. It's often not really targeted for the layman or casual art enthusiast. I liked your responce. A typical layman's responce is usually far more indignant. "You call THAT art? Looks like a bunch of crap to me... Emperors new clothes for sure." That's pretty much what common people have been pre-conditioned to do. ( The 1960's and 70's produced a ton of crappy, poser art and snake oil artists... mass media quite understandably made a lot of fun of them. Now when a layman is confronted with art they don't understand, they often parrot the jokes/ stances of 70's tv sitcoms). The art equivellent of wuffo. A better responce is curiosity. Or at least respect even though you don't understand. It's hard to get stuff into a major museum. Really hard, I'd imagine. There's a reason why it's there. Nothin' says you have to actually like it though. But the mature responce is to accept that it may have value you may not understand and wander over to the stuff that you do enjoy lookin at. Decapitated heads or what have you. Kinda cool that a company would take their employess to a museum. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Using rafts/ toys that are durable or have ropes/ straps on 'em should be carefully considered prior to use. A $9.00 raft could potentially do a lot of damage to an airplaine tail... or so I've been told. Not particularly fond of raft dives myself. They have a burble like a battleship... very easy for the wing fliers to slam onto the people in the raft, especially on exit. Yall may have seen that the new cover of the SIM has a pic from a raft dive on it. Here's the video of that jump. Sim Raft Dive Note the ugly exit. I was invited onto that jump, but I just don't do the big, 5-man type raft dives anymore. A while back I was on a raft dive as a wingman, went into the raft, landed on the head/ neck of a good friend. Later she crashed at my house for a few weeks recovering from neck surgery. She got a couple blown disks from that jump. Not sayin' no one should do 'em, but like all novelty jumps, they have additional risk to consider. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

An image to match your word. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Sorry I didn't make it "clicky"... I is a lazy man. To copy paste: Highlight what you want to copy and depress "ctl and C" To paste: depress "ctl and v" You can practice with this: http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=507291&item=319259 12 bucks. Ships in 24 hours. Art made easy. Kiss Brad and Jen fer me. :-) “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Sounds like Escher. I found it mispelled as Esher. Is this the one? http://riemann.unica.it/attivita/colloquium/esher.jpg or you can image google "escher face" “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

got it... sorry. No morning coffee yet... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

105th night jump? I've done... let's see... um yeah... 7. Group night jumps scare me too. I almost bowed out of this one. There were 2 skydivers on there whose opinion I respect far more than my own. Had they not sanctioned it, I wouldn't have gone. We had 3 really experienced jumpers a few intermediates and a couple with less than 200 jumps on there. Outside of Cat2, Duran and Terry, all the rest of us had single digit night jump experience. I felt better once I learned my assigned pull alt would be 4500. 1500' of track can solve a lot of problems. I was able to locate only 2 of the other 7 jumpers under canopy as I patterned in for landing. But everyone followed the plan. No one spiraled down or hung in breaks... Vertical sep was maintained. There was a nice little time gap between each landing- every one a stand-up too. Maybe I'm making too much of it but top to bottom, that jump just went well. Properly planed. Formed up quick. Even when we spun it there wasnt undue tension in the grips. Rick was even playing with the fallrate a little to see who'd notice. And people did the right things under canopy. Yeah. That one made my top ten list. That's for sure. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I've enjoyed mine. Bought it new and put about 600 jumps on it. It's never given me a reason to cut it away. In that time it's given me 1 hard opening, and a couple brisk ones. Opens in about 750'. Surfs fine. Flares fine. Toggle pressure's fine. Anytime I've had line twists it was nice and stable... hasn't thrown me on my back or spun up on me. Very forgiving of sloppy pack jobs. You can pro-pack it or psycho pack it and it opens about the same. Flies through turbulance well. I don't hook turn landings so I can't comment on things pertaining to that, but I can build some decent speed using double fronts. Pentration into the wind may be a tad less than my friends get with their sabre 2's. It's been a while since I jumped other canopies, so I can't really do the compare contrast thing. But these have been my experiences with it. I guess I'll get a line set one of these days and put another 500 on it. Might think about that 1.4 wl thing. Pretty sporty... Is this the kind of feedback you were looking for? “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

1. A while back I was crewing a sailboat for my oldest friend who was going around the world in it. In the middle of the Indian Ocean, late at night, I did something stupid that he had expressly trained me not to do. It resulted in wrapping a floatline around the prop shaft. Someone had to swim down and cut the rope. My mistake, so I took the first crack at it. I tried, but I couldn't shake the idea that I might be concked in the head by the boat and float off unconscious into the darkness. There were maybe 5' swells... nothing insane... and I'm a decent swimmer, but I just couldn't shake the fear. I KNEW intellectually that I was physically capable of the task, that the same forces that were causing the boat to go up and down would do the same to me... but I just couldn't make my body stay under that boat for more than a couple seconds. I tried for about 45 minutes, but just couldn't do it. Once I finally admitted I couldn't do it, he got it done in about ten. I was ashamed. No man wants to think himself a coward. But you just can't set something like that up to try again... so for years I kinda kept a thought in the back of my head that I would like to set up a some kind of situation where I could again test my resolve. The guy that installed my cable internet had a Skydive sticker on the back of his clipboard. It caught my eye. Could I make myself jump from an airplane? I didn't know. But it seemed to be as equivallent a test as I was likely to find. I thought it over for a couple months and eventually convinced myself to try it. I was, at the time, critically bored with my life. Bored and sad. Marriage had failed about a year earlier. Mom died about that time as well. Bored with my job. Stuck in a rut. Etc. Seemed like a good time to shake things up a little. I went to the DZ alone. If I failed to jump, I didn't want anyone to know. I was scared, but I jumped. I realized that I was very overwhelmed by it all. I could tell there was a lot of cool stuff going on that I was unaware. I wondered if I could get to a point where I could actually be relaxed in freefall so I continued the student progression. Then I wondered if I could maybe become good at this skydiving thing so I bought gear joined a couple rookie teams and later an intermediate team and continued on. Now I enjoy watching new jumpers face their fears. Some remind me of me, some don't. But it's facinating to watch how their lives change as they grow in the sport. I'm tired of the team belly thing, so I'm toying with the idea of going for my I next season. Maybe dabble in Crew rotation. See what I can learn there. 2. 2.5 years. Just a pup. 3. AFF seemed to fit my little test thingy better, so I chose that. I've never done a tandem. 4. More confidence. More friends. More pleasant memories. Less money. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Hey man, it sucks, but these things happen sometimes... Have faith, Bee positive, and if you need a little pick me up, turn to Panama...

Go for it. If the idea excites you, explore it. There's a gal at my DZ that gets groups of folk together for discount tandems. She does it by sending out emails to friends and family stating the group rates, the date of the jump, and a firm confirmation date. It becomes a word of mouth thing. If someone expresses interest in doing a tandem to me I send them to her. She answers their questions, meets with them the day of their jump, whatever they need. Her emails are never pushy, nor are they frequently sent. More of a public service announcement. In the past year or so, she's had 6 or 7 groups of 40+ tandems run through. The DZ gets tandems they might not have otherwise got, The students get a cheaper jump, and she gets a pat on the back and maybe a free jump here and there. Everyone wins. No one asked her to start doing this. Like you, she got excited, saw the need and addressed it in a way that made sense to her. It's been a great success. So if active recruitment makes sense to you. What the hell, give it a shot.

This one's more my speed. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Last time I checked, you had to be of consentual age to skydive. But just because your "of age", doesn't mean there's not a right and wrong time to have sex. Hey, if lil' Sissy Moistfist and lil' Joey Reacharound want to hookup after the beer light goes on, that's their perogative. But if they don't get any sleep that night and show up on for the Early Bird load all bleary eyed and yawning, that puts ME in danger, and that's just not right. It was bad enough when people would disappear to do their "Safety Dirt Dive" inbetween loads, but when they flaunt it so brazenly as to actually "Dirt Dive" on ride to altitude, that's just going too far. Should dzs take a stricter stance on nekkidness to keep us all safe? SGC has a very strict policy that I applaud them for: they kick people off the dz if they masturbate on the plane. I totally agree with this. I mean if they continue all the way out the door, they may be so concentrated on pulling they might forget to pull! I understand the DZ's a playground for adults, so do what you want, but I'm not goin' on some Sunset Bukkake Load just because some people think that kinda things "cool". Just my .02. If you don't like what I say you can blow me... just not on ride to altitude, thank you very much. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

For this and future reference: Any time you hear or think that phrase a big ass warning flag should go up, man. Hey. It's just a couple months. Just so you know: No belly skills means no sunset formation load, being crappy on hoop dives, raft dives, scr attempts, etc. Maybe none of these things appeal to ya, but you can cut yourself out of a lot of fun if you don't have half decent belly skills. When you first start into the sport, I dunno, it seems like every new skydiver has to iron out a few wrinkles. Goofy things happen now and again for a while. Funneled exits, line twists because the deployment position may not be exactly perfect yet, troubled landings, ya accidently pull a little low, whacking someone during break-off, minor packing malfunctions here and there... your general awareness isn't what it will be and that can cause some odd things to happen.... whatever. Just... little things that will work their way out as you become more seasoned. It makes sense that while these various little events are goin' on, you stick to a discipline you already kinda know. Just a thought. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Ah hell. I may be totally off with MD, but I do like stuff that puts you off center. Memento is great fun. Tricky, but accessable. Haven't seen the others mentioned. Jacob's Ladder worked me over pretty good when I saw that the first time. One thing I really like about Lynch. He seems to work very intuitively, but not arbitrarily. I get this niggling feeling there's always reasons for all his choices, but It's not always apparant what those are. That mystery, at least for me, tends to invite further thought and study. An old college buddy and I used to jokingly describe strange days or events as being very David Lynch. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Lynch is an odd duck to be sure. Seems like every one of his movies takes a different kind of aquired taste to appreciate. It's been a while since I've watched MD. But I remember thinking that the blond gal was comitting suicide and the movie was her personal daydreamy- nightmarish mental recap of her life as she saw it in the moments just prior to ending her life. As though Lynch was guessing what it might be like in the mind of a suicidal gal in the the very throws of heartbreak, depression and denial. To show things as illogically and confused she might be seeing them. That would explain how disgustingly polly-anna the blond gal was portrayed. It's her revisionist perception of herself. Her way of lying to herself to say "I was so sweet and so naive and I was tricked and taken advantage of". Another example would be her reaction to how the other gal got the part she auditioning for. In her mind her audition was so amazingly good, that the girl that got the part just had to have some kind of innapropriate connection or angle. No one is that sweet and no one does that good a job at her first audition, but in the denial of her mind that's how she saw it. It may be that the entire director plot-line was nothing more than a crazy story she daydreamed up to rationalize why she may not have gotten the part. Her audition was so good, there just had to be some off the wall reason why she didn't get it, right? Every once in a while Lynch would kinda pull a reverse flashback going from her fantasy world to the real world. That was when the blond gal looked like a broken down druggie. She arrived in hollywood a normal girl, and became embroiled with lesbianism, drugs & whatever, and couldn't handle it. And the the blue box? Maybe that was her personal symbol of death or maybe that's where she kept her heroine. or both. dunno. Is this what MD was about? Hell if I know. Just my best guess. One thing I always respected about Lynch, he doesn't hand it to you on a platter. The bastard demands you work for it. Took me a while, but I loved Fire Walk With me. I still haven't aquired the taste for MD. I've had a copy in the drawer for years... haven't been able to bring myself to watch it more than once or twice. It's very hard to enjoy. Then again, a lot of respected art is. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Not if you replace it. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

In cases like that, screw the first man down. He can't kill me anymore. But those still in the air can. I do what they do. If they want to follow him down, that's fine by me. If for some reason they don't, ok, I can adjust. If they want to land cross or down wind. I can handle that too. If the group can't seem to figure out what pattern they want, I go away. If i'm kinda at the head of the group, and I missed the direction the FMD landed. I go away. At the end of the day it doesn't matter who was right or wrong, the only thing that matters is that no one gets hurt. Here's my personal favorite. When the load pre-agrees on one direction and the first idiot down impulsively chooses a different way. Some follow him. Some follow the agreed direction. Everyone feels like they're right, but it's still a cluster fuck. FMD's safe, but the rest get caught in the confusion. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

>"Big canopies are boring..." Quote Amazing. There we are hangin' by some nylon and string, our feet danglin' a thousand feet above the ground... and we yawn and go "man, this boat is sooo slooow..." lol. Skydiving's so wierd. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Still smiling about hiting the peas on a night jump are ya?!? Well. I tried to hit them all, (but only managed a nice 1.5' wide trough through the center), lol. Brought a drunken cheer from my friends anyway. naw. Night jumps are a special kinda cool. Flying through the nightime sky.... 90+% of my jumps I'm working to improve something. Turn more points or improve a skill... Night jumps though, are to be savored. Enjoyed for what they are. Magic. Thanks again for the jump, Ron. It was a good one. Kiy, no need to go big to have fun. Often it's more than enough to slow down and simply enjoy the experience. You can always go big later, when you know how. btw: Technically, a night jump has to do with how long the suns been down or how long before it comes up, not how much light is left. You really should, as Tonto suggested, re-read that section of the SIMS. (They didn't make him a greenie fer nuthin', ya know...). Anyway, have fun and good luck with it. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I like to just relax and enjoy. A nice slow 360° to look at the city lights, then a few seconds on my back to check out the sky. On a night jump one of your main senses is reduced, so you tend to use your other senses a little more. My first night jump, I was suprised by the temperture change of freefall. I'd never noticed it before. That was a nice moment. For the group jump, should you do one, a fun no pressure dive is to form a round, then break it into a line and howl like animals at the moon. The louder you howl, the better the beer'll taste. (Form a round again prior to break off so you have a center to turn from). Had one of the most enjoyable dives in a long time last sat night. I was afforded the honor of participating in a good friends first night jump. A fun little 3 way. We didn't howl at the moon, but we turned 14 points. Even hit the peas. Yep. Still smilin' a bit from that one.

While you're giving your report, have somone on the side kill, bleed, skin, dress, debone and fry-up a chicken in class. Then feed it to the the audience. That interactive enough for ya? Bonus points: The sound, sight and smell of the cooking chicken uses the element of synethesia, a useful tecnique to engage the audience. If you have them pet the chicken or help kill, debone or skin it, then that includes touch as well. When you feed it to them, that includes taste. The shock of watching something die so they can eat should make a pretty convicing argument for why some folk might choose veganism. It should make for a lively group discussion afterwards. Hey. You asked for creative ideas to actively engage the audience... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Good for you! Way to face te fear and get back up! How was the boogie? I hated missing it. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”