AlanS

I was lucky enough to jump out of that DC-3 when I visited Skydive Arizona in this spring. Never saw so many skydivers packed into one plane. Wow...

OK. I try to learn something from every single thread. Let's say you are in this guys situation. What do you do next?

What you chose will depend on the video you have. For our vacation video my (new) 14 year old daughter used Freeway by Flux Pavilion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLPSqbBBSts She went bungee jumping for the first time, and I thought it worked really well with the bungee jumping scenes and the speed boat we took thru the Inner Passage. Here is the actual video. Dad doesn't appear in the video until the end because he was behind the camera, and it wasn't running when I did my bungee jump. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1JRPG9CyhI Alan

Come on JWest you keep this thread -about jumping with a camera- alive for 483 posts. And then while telling us you jumped with a camera you refuse to post the video. I don't get it. What a tease you are. Just post the damn video so we can close this thread already. :) Anyway since I'm here might as well post a video my 13 year old daughter made of our summer vacation. We went kayaking/camping/orca watching in the San Juan Islands then then my daughter did her first bungee jump while we were visiting friends on Vancouver Island (Canada). We also did some zip-lining and whale watching while there too. It was a fun vacation. I think she makes good videos (and being her dad I'm totally objective) and look forward to her making a skydiving videos for me later when I've some something even remotely interesting. https://youtu.be/d1JRPG9CyhI BTW, and to keep this relevant. :) I have 151 jumps (at the time of this post) and don't plan on jumping with a camera until sometime after 200 jumps, but do look forward to it. The sport have rules for a reason and even it you don't agree with with the rules if you respect the sport you should follow them.

Cool, I just love this stuff. Why we ever left the moon once we got there is beyond me. We would have a base on the moon right now having never left, if it we up to me.

Same here, except it is AppleTV instead of NetFlix.

I think part of the problem is I'm still very active and finding someone willing to do similar active things on a vacation is hard. Some of the things I do, are go kayaking in the open ocean with six-foot waves to see the Napili coast (along Kauai) and explore caves the are only accessible by kayak or small boat. Swim the Alcatraz or Tiburon mile swims in the SF Bays cold water. Do 35 mile/2 day treks in the backcountry of Yosemite. Scuba dive into a lava cave off Lanai to see a large eel. Forget skydiving. I'm just looking for someone that like will occasionally scuba dive, or kayak in the open ocean, or zip line. These generic sites (i.e starts with an M) don't seem to have people like that on them, and to make matters worse people are exaggerating how active/adventerous they are, so when you meet them in person and realize they exaggerated, you are left disappointed. It seems there needs to be a site for more active/adventerous people (former college athelets) that want to be active on their vacations too. Maybe I'm just looking at the wrong site.

I'm now a month into this after a recent break up. This is still hard for me because I'm not quite over my previous relationship which I hoped would turn into marriage. I'm now trying to decide if online dating it is worth the effort. I'm so far still in the "meet for coffee" or "go on a hike" phase, and have been on about a dozen of those. From those dozen I've only been on one 2nd date. And few more that I talk with on the phone, but they seem to be turning into friends more than dates. One of the things that is beginner to wear on me is explaining my life story over and over again to different people that are just getting to know me. I'm not sure I can sustain that for a long time and might just give up. And about that one 2nd date, so far. Well I really messed up. The date was going well, when my previous relationship called. (She called me over the weekend and hinted at the possibility of getting back together and possibly inviting me to Yom Kippur dinner with her family on Wednesday), and this call was possibly that invitation. So I had a super dilemma, do I end the date early to return the call or ignore it. I chose to end the date early, (eliminating the chance for a 3rd date) and returned the call. She told me she called, just to say she wasn't going to invite me to dinner on Wednesday. I do need to get over her, and I think that call helped. It unfortunately ruined a very nice evening with a nice person and I feel bad about it. Flowers are on the way, but that potential relationship is done. Back to square one.

Driving to the hospital where my daughter was about to be born. My daughter was "due on Aug. 2001", but she was late so instead my (now ex-)wife and I were driving to the hospital for an appointment at 8 AM (California time) on 9/11 for her to be born. Below is the story of the day my daughter was born. My daughter was due in August but, since she was stubborn and refused to come out by her due date, we had an appointment to meet the doctor at 8 AM sharp California time to induce labor. As a result, we didn't listen to the radio that morning or turn on the TV. We just get up and went out the door. Even in the car we didn't turn on the radio. But while driving we saw ZERO cars during what should have been "rush hour". So we turned on the radio to see what was going on. The first words we heard were "The south tower has just fallen...". We looked at each other and said "what is that?", but we could tell it was serious. By the time we got to the hospital, it was very clear the scope of the tragedy. We checked into the hospital room. When my wife's doctor walked in the first thing she said to us was "My husband flew to NY yesterday and should be near Wall Street right now. I've been try to call him to find out where he is." She then walked out of the room. We didn't see her for two hours after that. It was surreal watching this day on TV from a hospital room. The hospital staff induced labor and by about 9 PM in the evening on 9/11 a doctor said "Well your baby can come out any time now". My (now ex-)wife looked at the doctor, thought for a bit and said "Come back after midnight". She endured labor pains for an extra 3 hours to make sure her birth certificate wouldn't say 9/11. When my daughter was born just after midnight, I cut the cord and held her in my arms. The first thing she did was squeeze my finger really tight with her hand. A new life born on a day when so many people died. My daughter Sarah was born at 1:10 AM Sept. 12th, 2001. What a day.

OK. Here is another side. I'm unfortunately doing the online dating thing since a long-term relationship I hoped would turn into a marriage ended. I hate online dating, but what else can you do. I'm right now in the "let's meet for coffee" phase. This morning I met someone for coffee that I had really high hopes for. Her profile and interests looked great to me. She travels/hikes a lot and has even been to some of the places I've been to like the Galapagos Islands in addition to places I want to see like Antartica, Africa safari (several times), Borneo, Alaska etc. Since she wasn't available due to being away for work, we exchanged about 12 emails during the week. Everything we talked about by e-mail I thought went great, she had flown gliders and was asking about skydiving and even considering a tandem. So, anyway I finally got to meet her for coffee this morning. I thought it would go great since we seemed to have a lot in common. We were in line together, I ordered and then she ordered. But when she ordered she was so rude to the person behind the counter, that my hopes for her immediately collapsed. The bubble had burst. Before we even sat down to talk, I know I didn't want to ask her out. I stayed for the hour and talked until it was time to go. But in this case, I knew it was over immediately after she made her order. It was funny how quickly my hopes were dashed.

Hey Nataly, I think you should thank him because he gave you back 30 minutes of your life instead of wasting your time on something that wasn't going to work out in the long run, anyway. You seem like a strong person and won't be phased by it.

I live near you and go to Byron on the weekends. That would be my choice.

I like Charles Schwab and have been using them since the 90s. They have great customer support

Ironically I think your A-license is just when things start to get really fun, so by bailing at that point he would do all the hard stuff and miss out on the fun that follows - when jumping with others is an option. I honestly don't think the OP will follow through. He either quits now, or once he gets his A-license, realizes that what he was complaining about is now in the past. I'm not going to judge the validity of what he says. Weather-holds happen to all students because that aren't ready to deal with high winds yet. He should spend that time learning how to pack his parachute, or bring a book to read. Life is what you make it. I challenge the poster to come back. My popcorn is sitting here right by the computer but is starting to get stale.

This would take a lot of skill not to get hurt. There is a MythBuster episode where the show how to minimize the impact from a high fall. If you are not feet first going in you are going to get hurt.

It was indeed bloody, but the Japanese tactics were getting smarter and more bloody for the Americans the closer they got to Japan. Many people considered Iwo Jima the test for how Japan was going to fight on the mainland, and the result was lay in wait and ambush from pill boxes and well hidden and fortified tunnels, instead of the ineffective bonsai charge out in the open. Nobody surrendered at Iwo Jima. At Okinawa, they added Kamikaze planes into that mix. It wasn't going to get any easier. Blockading would not have been easy. At any moment, a Kamikaze plane or submarine could attack.

My great uncle served aboard the USS Pensacola in the Pacific during WWII. See link for details. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pensacola_(CA-24) He fought in several important naval battles, including at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He didn't see any sign of the Japanese giving up, in fact, his observation was the closer they got to the Japanese mainland the harder and more desperate they fought. At Iwo Jima his ship was providing cover for the mine sweepers the day before the landing and took fire and direct hits from guns on Mt. Suribachi. In a single instant, his commanding officer and another close friend died from one of those hits and the ship had 114 men injured. The next day the invasion of Iwo Jima began. In the next battle at Okinawa, Japan packed planes full of explosives and sent them on suicide missions to ram into ships. Nothing from what he observed first hand indicated Japan was going to surrender. The emperor might have written a letter here or there, but he wasn't the one fighting. And the ones that were fighting didn't show any signs of giving up. From his perspective the sooner the war ended the better.

You had me at "boobies"! He means the "blue footed" kind.

If you haven't been to the Galapagos Islands yet, I highly recommend it.. Have been to the Galapagos ... VERY COLD WATER. I don't think it was VERY COLD. All I needed was a long-sleeved synthetic shirt and could snorkel for an hour or more. Most other people with us put on a wetsuit, but they were wimps. :) To get VERY COLD WATER, that would be snorkeling or scuba diving in the Monterey Bay of California.

If you haven't been to the Galapagos Islands yet, I highly recommend it. I didn't scuba diver there but did a lot of snorkelling and WHEN I GO BACK. I want to scuba dive. First the sea lions will come right up to you if you are snorkelling, but I want to scuba to see the marine iguanas in action under water.

Given her recent statements, she clearly is a narcissist who thinks she is always right, and what she wants is the only things that matters. This is likely encouraged and reinforced by her family/friends. She will not stop which will prove costly to friends and family around her. I think that $100,000 bill is only starting. If I were Mile-Hi, I would pursue re-payment of the $100,000 very aggressively. I'd allocate half to her, and divide the rest among the people involved in the appeal. If people drop out of the appeal then allocation their portion to Ms. Gibbs. I don't think she stops until the expense of this forces those around her to quite/leave/stop enabling her. Only when her enablers are gone will she not have the ability to continue. My prediction is an few years she moves away(finds some others that enable her behavior), and then starts to harass someone else in the new place she lives. I hope some point to stop by Mile-Hi and jump there. just to show some support for you guys.

Happy Together by the Turtles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRCe5L1imxg The more interesting question. What was the #1 song nine months before were born. It that case is was: Hanky Panky by Tommy James and the Shondells perhaps more relevant. https://youtu.be/bsgKZb9jQ1s

Easy Come, Easy Go. with Elvis Presley. Not sure what to think about that. I was hoping for 2001 A Space Odyssey or something.

Would I do that? Hell yes, that looks fun. I love zip lining and that would be a great way to check-out of your room.

I got this video of a playful sea lion with a go-pro. Watch him hold his fin at the end and then float to the bottom and stand up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtldcUeQXEg