lurch

Viewing it as "degrade" is the nature of your problem. You think those "dz bums" consider themselves "degraded" for living in a tent? They are the freest men who have ever lived. Those tents are palaces. They are living the dream. 30 years from now I doubt even one of them will tell you they regretted it. Personally I held on to a nightmare job 12 hours on my feet per shift in some hellhole factory and I clung to that job tooth and nail because it paid my way through AFF and beyond, all the way to wingsuit bigways and invitationals. If you want it bad enough you will allow nothing to stop you. If it means picking up a rake, do it. Do whatever you have to. Spend mass amounts of time at the DZ and people will notice your dedication and help will come to you from places you don't expect. In this sport, dedication will get you everywhere. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Oh, shit, I've just totally ruined my image. Next thing you know I'll be running around listening to old James Taylor tapes in a cheap walkman and wearing a lot of plaid. My life is over. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Spot, methinks you been hiding your light under a bushel or something. WTF. The 60 second snippet of your work I've heard was good enough I'm considering picking up a couple of your albums... I seldom buy that type of music, my usual fare is a bit more hard, think Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory, Soilwork, Sentenced, Killswitch Engage etc. Your stuff comes off like Enigma meets Enya but not as fluffy as either, and I used to listen to both. Is all your stuff melodic instrumental? If it is I'm gettin' some. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Yeah but the record under discussion here has nothing to do with speed and everything to do with... Spots. And I'm not talking about the Indian guy either. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

No shit! Dude, you're fuckin' better than Enya! I had no idea you were a musician, man. Not bad! -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Spot, the second one says music by DSE.... Is that you actually playing the instruments in that? -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Yo Spot, the videos ROCK... Both of them, although maybe I'm just partial to the second one cause I get to look cool chillin in the door, but you know, you picked well for that because the mood you set with that piece was kinda the way I was feeling when I was hanging out the door then so the video fits the memory... plus the soft focus and gold lighting look awesome. Good havin' ya back, man. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

If I had to set a bar, myself, I'd call anyone pulling 3:00 or better from 15.5 or less and pulling above 2k a member. Realistically that admits anyone who can manage mid-40's sustained. I'd also allow for things like 16.5-3500-ish (Justin's first at 3:09 I think, bigwall cloudsurf and we all pulled high and landed 3 miles out, recently he managed 3:24 from quite a bit less in Chicago) and managing 2:45 or so from 12 or under "technically" qualifies since if you'd had "standard" altitude available you'd have easily had the big 3:00. My first was 3:11 from 15.2-3200 at Lebanon in a GTI 4 years ago and it felt like one hell of an achievement at the time. Its still a level of "perfect flight" I can only nail maybe one out of three, one out of four tries although part of that is likely because time solos are rare for me these days, now that we have a flock its all tech flying, students and ex-students and occasional acro. I did one a few weeks ago from 13.0-3200 and got 2:50 in an S-6 with the mods taken off which ain't bad but nowhere near my best. Tells me I ain't lost the knack but definitely a bit rusty and got me wanting to do em more again just to get back up to speed and try to break my old numbers again. The really psychotic shit up to 3:30 and beyond from 14.5 or less was ragged as hell, perpetually on the edge of potatochipping six different ways at once and I didn't get there till after a string of solos building up over a couple weeks when testing suit mods timing it by video and even then, could still only fly that well for that long maybe 50% of the time depending on my energy level for the day, overall mental state and whether I had to fly a loop or got out far and flew mostly straight lines. Flocking is easier and a LOT more social. Now, so far, I'd call Pete Luter the oldest 3+ pilot I know of, at I think 62. Anyone else? -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Pretty good? Um, yeah. If thats your best, managed while being shortchanged to the tune of 4,000 feet of thick air at the bottom, remind me not to try to beat you in an endurance race... your cardiovascular system would beat the shit out of mine. You're already bigger so I know not to bother arm wrestling you... Mental note: Don't try to outswoop Spot on his home turf, either. I'd dig a nice trench even with my rather unswoopy Sabre 135. A man's got to know his limitations. Seeya soon... -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Couple questions for my own education... What were your... Exit Deployment and exit weight? Incidentally 3:20 is freakin' outstanding, by the way from almost ANY altitude. I'm aware of maybe 8 or 9 of us who have managed it or could... myself, Scary Perry, Jeff Neb, Soby, Mike Masheff, a few of the Euro bigwall guys and a VERY small handful of others, plus a few I don't know but would bet that they have, Ed Pawlowski, Scott Campos and Chuck Blue come to mind. Probably less than 30 worldwide. Although its getting crowded in the ranks of the 3+ minute club these days, breaking 3:15 is VERY rare still. Congratulations! 3:20 is NOT easy. Bet your arms were burnin a bit come pull time, eh? -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Yo. Funny how these things go. I'd been bitching about the old site. Just in time to see the new one go up. I feel like an asshole.... the new one rocks. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Bill, I think he's an expert in electronic metastability management. I read somewhere its possible for a flip-flop to be caught basically occupying both high and low states simultaneously if there is sufficient noise in the system when changing signals are propagating through the gates. He's just too advanced to argue with, thats all. Wheres my logic probe? (wanders off, muttering in assembly code...) -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Yes. You say you don't hate anyone, but in your posts you seem to take a certain vicious vindictive enthusiastic pleasure both from their deaths and the mocking of them. I think I speak for everyone who already spoke up when I say "sure looks like hate to us." -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

You know, I'm a pretty judgemental critter myself. I tend to be particularly harsh on religions and certain umbrella culture groups, the hispanic/black/asian "gangsta" self-identification for example. Nothing to do with race, everything to do with mindset. Islam is another mindset I wouldn't call myself a fan of. But you know, I AM cosmo enough to have made one Muslim friend... Darius11. And you know, that guy is like way cool. Hes a big jolly friendly and intelligent critter and the last time I spent a few hours hangin out on a DZ with him I had a ball, the guy loves to fly. Hes one of those people every time I ran into him somewhere I got an instant big smile on my face cause Darius is just like that, he is a brother and I'm glad to see him when I do. After that, you know, no matter how hard I try I just can't seem to summon any blind unreasoning hatred for muslims. I think you'd feel a lot better about yourself if you learned to let go of the hatred and tried looking for good reasons to respect people instead. It goes a lot further than hate, doesn't poison the soul like hate does and tends to earn you friends. "Hatred is a weakness. You become the victim." -Killswitch Engage If you met Darius, and he didn't know you're that guy posting hate threads, could you look him in the eye without shame? -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Birdman GTI, '03. Put about 450 on it. Good suit... needed something a bit faster though, settled on an S-6, still flying it. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Oh, and Rick? Might wanna be ready for more burbling than Justin's grudge match cause I'm gunnin' for Soby, myself. Last weekend I got took out bigtime, Soby landed on me dead center while I was flying a docked line with Reed and Steve, I could feel him buzzing around at the edge of my burble, then, WHAM he got sucked in. Whaddya think.... a scaryroll ought to do it eh? Something like that over-the-top aerial bodyslam video? I mean WTF, since Soby's outtahere we ought to send him off with style, he'll see a flash of blue and white followed by a lot of rotating sky... video!!!! -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

J let me know when you're gonna make your move and I'll handle the video. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

J my brother you've been smacked by the photoshop ninjas, ouch.... Thats worse than the Edward Hardcase image. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

That was funnier than the cat on the ceiling fan thing. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Scotty that pic is sheer genius! Awesome!!! -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

1. Justin Shorb (Flock U) 2. Jeff Donohue 3. DSE 4. Scott Gray 5. Lurch Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

"Mister Gideon, you're not paying attention." -Eric Draven Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Justin, you look all serious and shit like you're about to throw him a beatin'. Wicked. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

You know the rules for cyberpunk don't you? Johnny Mnemonic said it best... when they expect crude, go subtle. When they expect tech, go crude. In this case I went crude, enlisted the help of a friend for the heavy lifting, ran around and bought tools and stuff... Turns out once we got the engine apart the lifter was bad but for obscure reasons associated with synthetic oil. In certain cases synthetic is actually TOO good and here it inhibited friction enough to stop lifter spin causing the lifter to get self-machined down to a wedge shape. Sucks.... engine went together ok but #3 cylinders got cam wear and the engine may be of limited lifespan, but it'll run great for awhile anyway till I know for sure if its gonna go bad again. Nuts. Howd the flying go? I expected SOME kinda "we're killin' it out here" post by now... What'd you get weathered out or something? Come on, gimme some details here, just cause I can't always be on the WS circuit don't mean I don't wanna know how its going. You guys fly or just stand talkin about it or what? Besides, its a bitch trying to heat-treat a bolt while its still in the engine. Couldn't I just use the right socket for the job instead? I can't ALWAYS do the technoninja thing, it'd be out of character. They wouldn't let me borrow the laser from work anyway. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Have fun, guys... weathers perfect here now but no skydivin for me this weekend... Busy pulling the cylinder head off my jeep. Sometimes I hate being right, sucker's got a bad exhaust valve lifter, getting the valve cover off confirmed 1 slack pushrod. Actually getting the head off looks like about a 10 hour ordeal, last thing left keeping me from lifting off the head and getting at that pesky lifter is the head bolts and of course my 400 lb 14 year collection of tools turns out to be inadequate and the only possible tool is a 12 pt 1/2" deepwell 1/2" drive impact socket. The 3/8 drive version I've got just shears off. Someone at Jeep figured it'd be a great idea to use head bolts with tiny heads and tighten em right to the edge of the failure limits of the steel. Engines are SO much fun. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.