3ringheathen

I've never met you XXL, but Gork tells me that you are so ugly that when you cry, the tears roll down the back of your head to avoid touching your face. Gork's quite the ball grabber, aint he? -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

Your mommas so fat that she has smaller fat people orbitting around her. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

I'm an atheist, so I voted for "other". However, atheism is not a religion. Atheism does not require faith, and atheists do not claim to be able to prove that god(s) don't exist. OK, some probably do, but they are the rare exception. -Josh Atheist Skydivers Association #1 If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

Hydrogen peroxide works very well, but might be a bit tricky on vertical surfaces. On counters, you just let it sit for a few minutes...magic! Test in an inconspicuous place before putting it everywhere, but it's pretty mild and effective. Also, try scrubbing with plain old baking soda. If you manage to get it clean, go buy a grout sealer and apply it at least once a year. Those are trade secrets, so don't tell anyone. Excuse me, I've got to do some insider trading now. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

Too much radiation will do that no matter what kind of climb it is. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

What kind of law do you practice? If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

That's not fair! Sure I *tried* to burn a Christian at the stake once, but I couldn't get the damned matches lit. Stupid rain. Maybe I should move some place where it's easier to get fires started? -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

It's been suggested by a few posters in this thread that the bible explicitly condemns homosexuality. It isn't nearly as clear as they would have you believe. I'm not going to rehash it all here but if you're interested check out this link: http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibl.htm In the not too distant future, I think our society is going to look back on this the way we presently look back on segregation. That is, an injustice and an embarassment to a country that supposedly values personal freedom. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

Shit. I'm getting divorced and was sort of hoping that there would be some cynical angle I could take to make myself feel better. However, it actually sounds like you might be making a good move. Congratulations.

Republicans are WAY too interested in Democrats sex lives. Too much sex, not enough sex...sounds like everyone I know. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

That's the funny thing. This was the first checking account I'd ever opened, it was and is my primary account, and I opened it when I was 17. My numbers were somewhere above 2000, and I'd actually written all but 100 of them. Still too low for them. Whatever. Next computer I get will be purchased online, or built myself. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

3 examples hardly constitute firtile ground. Granted, there are probably more examples than that. I suspect that neither of us are familiar enough with the political and educational systems of those countries to draw sound conclusions either way. What I say makes no sense? I've no idea what your point is here, so I guess I feel your pain. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

Wow. That sure is some assertion! I'm "higher educated" and I'm a happy mix of "right" and "left" and "center" views... Sure as hell, though, the "logic" of prohibitionist policies is not owned by either the left or the right. The left wants to prohibit guns despite evidence of abject failure of such attempts to decrease crime. The right thinks we can use prohibition against drugs and abortion, despite obvious proof that those don't do squat, either. Both sides have no legitimate explanation regarding why they have failed to learn the lesson that "the" Prohibition should have taught us. There is no excuse for continuing to believe in that folly, but still they argue for it, left and right. - I pretty much agree with you. The labels liberal and conservative are useless at best. They are often misleading, usually misnomers and worst, used as derogatory terms that contribute nothing to healthy debate. "Liberals" tend to be fairly conservative when it comes to government intrusion into personal lives. "Conservatives" tend to be rather liberal on the same issues, strongly endorsing the war on drugs, meddling in our bedroom affairs and so on. The terms are somewhat more accurate when one is talking about government regulation of business. That is, liberals tend to endorse government intervention in business practices, and conservatives do not. Like you, I don't fit neatly under such labels. I take a variety of stances on different issues. Some generally considered liberal, some conservative, and some inbetween. I think if one digs a little, they'll find that "intellectual bill of rights" is aptly named for all of the wrong reasons. Oops, I mean the extreme/religious right reasons. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

If this is true, then why open the can of worms that Horowitz proposes? The article that started this thread quotes professor Stanley Fish out of context: "It's hard to see how anyone who believes (as I do) that academic work is distinctive in its aims and goals and that its distinctiveness must be protected from political pressures (either external or internal) could find anything to disagree with here" The reader is led to believe that even this liberal professor endorses the "Intellectual diversity bill of rights". He does not, and makes an excellent case for why it's a bad idea here: http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i23/23b01301.htm -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

46% dixie, barely yankee Bogus test. Seattle born and raised, couldn't get much further from dixie than that. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

It's a non-issue. There hasn't been any conspiracy to limit political conservatives from higher education. It's just that the critical thinking skills that are learned and refined via higher education generally lead to more liberal viewpoints. We go where logic takes us. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

I didn't want to rain on your parade when you got the job, so I didn't say anything at first, but Best Buy sucks! Way too much bureaucracy, not enough common sense. A couple years ago, I ordered a custom computer from them. It was going to take two weeks for it to be completed and delivered to the store. I was supposed to pick it up from there. So go up front to pay for it with a check and they refuse to accept my check in payment. Since I'd never bounced a check anywhere, have excellent credit, and had just deposited a $10,000 check in my account from a home refinance, I was sure it was a silly mistake. I asked for the manager. Long story short, they acknowledged that I had no negative information on my credit history or checking account, but since my check numbers were low, company policy wouldn't allow them to take a check for such a large purchase. Nevermind that the check would clear (or not) in 3 days, and the computer wouldn't be ready for 14 days. Nevermind that I'd had that checking account for over a decade. They were impervious to reason. I haven't shopped there since, but I do go in once a week and unroll all of the toilet paper in the mens restroom, stuff it in the toilet, flush 3 times, and run like hell! -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

I disagree to an extent: Skydiving doesn't necessarily involve much in the way of very short delays, but they are there to be had and experienced. Particularly if one goes through the old school static line training. Hop and pops. Clear and pulls. Go and throws. Whatever. You have a ritualized exit count, whether it's "ready, set, go" or "3,2,1, C-ya", and a very brief delay, i.e: "arch one thousand, look one thousand, pull." or something similar. Quality skydiving intruction includes emphasis on trusting your eyes, your inner time clock, and NOT relying on an altimeter. A clear and pull from 2000' is still different from a go and throw from 250', but the mental rehearsal is similar. Maybe AFF grads miss out on that? -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

Personally, I'd be wary of making such a big deci$ion based upon what you read here. There are going to be people that are happy and very unhappy with each. Drop a couple bucks on a Consumer Reports membership, and see what they have to say about them all. They are an unbiased source of info on all major manufacturers, and typically have comparison charts, relative reliability ratings, estimated costs of ownership and so on. Not to mention very good advice on purchasing/negotiating once you decide on a make and model. FWIW, I'm really happy with my F150 5.4 gas truck. I've hauled some *extremely* heavy loads, but haven't towed anything yet. Oh, one last thing: I don't know about the others, but my Ford is programmed to shift smoothly. That is, it feels more like a car, which is probably what most people want, since they aren't usually hauling or towing. I've been told that if you're going to really put your truck to work, you'd be better off with tighter shifting parameters, which can be programmed with an aftermarket chip. Take that with a grain of salt, though. This is my first truck and I haven't looked into it yet. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

In BASE, the available stats are barely reliable enough to reach sound conclusions about gear configurations. You won't find too much argument about the value of a tailgate, for example, but for the most part it goes rapidly downhill from there. The variables involved in mental preparation and training are far more complex than gear related ones are. Anyone that attempts use statistics to back up their opinion on BASE prep is going to fail. IMO, a big problem is the exposure that base has gotten recently. It's in movies, tv commercials, and lots of skydiving videos feature it, too. When everything goes well, BASE looks deceptively easy and safe. Consequently, people approach it without an appropriate level of fear and healthy anxiety. To counter that trend, I'd like to see wider distribution of carnage videos, but I'm sure that's gonna be a hot topic of its own. Approached with the right attitude, skydiving can be a very useful tool for BASE prep. Approached with the wrong attitude, and it can give one a false sense of confidence. The trouble is that attitude is hard to measure. Having said that, I'll weigh in with my .02 on the skills you mention and then consider this dead horse thoroughly beaten. With the right attitude it still has tremendous value. Especially if one makes a point of jumping large 7 cell canopies, which admittedly, not too many do. Even if you only earn your A license, you still learned a bit about stearing, flaring, kicking out of line twists, what openings fell and look like, and so on. If you're jumping in the PDX area, tracking doesn't matter at all. However, if you plan to go to Norway, it can come in really handy. Further, even at somewhere around 3 seconds, you've got enough airspeed to start flying your body. Freefall skills can save your ass in all sorts of situations, not just tracking. Spoken like someone that didn't pursue skydiving long enough to experience the appropriate challenges. Dealing with radical malfunctions, learning how to do high performance landings, aggressive freeflying or competive RW are but a few of the things that can refine one's mental skills. Of course, rock climbing, firefighting, chasing bad guys, and all sorts of other things can provide the same benefits. It's largely what you make of it. If you approach it with the right attitude it can make a huge difference in your mental skills. Lastly, there is the issue that I think is overlooked by all too many of us that actually agree that skydiving is a reasonable prerequisite for BASE. Time in sport. One can satisfy all of the skydiving requirements established by every major BASE course out there, and still be lacking this. I happen to think that seeing a few broken friends carted off or flown out is a very valuable reality check for anyone considering taking even higher risks. After skydiving for over a decade, I've seen a lot of carnage. Some of the victims lived, some did not. Some made stupid, easily avoidable mistakes, some did everything right, but the ground didn't care. YMMV -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

Just make sure that monkey has no skydives! History has shown that monkeys that skydive develop this annoying habit of climbing up the lines and collapsing the parachute. You'll have PETA all over your ass like white on rice. Not just any rice, but the processed, nutritionless white rice that can be cooked in one minute. I can't quite remember the name of the stuff, but you know what I mean, right? Uncle Bens? -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

You've got to play pretty fast and loose with statistics to reach that conclusion. First and foremost, good statistics about BASE are somewhere between difficult and impossible to calculate. Second, most base jumpers had lots of skydives first, so it's not surprising that most dead base jumpers also had lots of skydives. Doug: Your introduction to base is fairly unique. You had a significant amount of experience in climbing, and while it's not skydiving, it is another sport that relies heavily on equipment, knowledge, and an ability to stay calm in highly stressfull, dangerous situations. You also had the good fortune to be mentored by one of the best BASE jumpers in the world. In light of those facts, it's inappropriate to point to your rather unique experiences as evidence that skydiving experience is somehow not advantageous to an aspiring base jumper. Nonsense. I'd agree that some people don't thoroughly appreciate the dangers and approach skydiving as a casual pastime, but make no mistake, it is very much a high risk activity. No where near as dangerous as BASE, but dangerous none the less. How many climbers died in a climbing gym last year? Personally, I'm a big believer in the "skydiving teens" concept. That's the idea that after some modest amount of time in sport and experience, one tends to get cocky and overconfident. It's generally considered to be a particularly dangerous phase of anyones skydiving career. I suspect that if someone starts BASE jumping during their skydiving teens it can be especially dangerous. A little less, *or* a little more skydiving experience prior to starting base might be optimum. Are lot's of skydives mandatory to become a good base jumper? Of course not. Are lot's of skydives likely to enhance ones chances of becoming a good base jumper? Probably. A much bigger factor is one's attitude and motivation for getting into the sport in the first place. Unfortunatley, there's no easy way to assess these factors. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

I'm confused. I just don't get how someone that is so proficient at oral skills would need to kill so many kittens. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

3ring: I've got one tattooed on my shoulder. Heathen: an uncivilized or irreligious person (that would be me) -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.

Come on...it's like skydiving...I mean....what's the worst thing that could happen? Quote In skydiving, the worst that can happen is that you die. With dating...well, you could end up getting duped into another marriage. I'll stick to jumping for a while. -Josh If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me* *Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.