lurch

Can she sue the authorities for being psychotic? This is the second time Boston's powers-that-be have come across a homemade lighting project and immediately declared it a "fake bomb" and treated the creator as if it were in fact the case. Their inability to distinguish a bunch of fucking leds on a breadboard from a detonator should not be her problem, but she will be treated as if she had in fact deliberately shown up at the airport with one. Christ. If they had bagged me with the bizarre homemade electronic gizmos I used to build as a teen I'd never see the light of day again. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Just one more weight to add to the fly-conservative crowd here... Flew a sabre2 170 @ .9-ish for years, zero issues. Now flying sabre1 135 tuned for quick openings at low fallrates. Even this can dive on you. Had my first cutaway-in-anger this season, started as line twists, got one twist undone, suddenly was on my back staring at sky. Tried to continue untwist, but canopy motion countered it... All I did was wiggle back and forth, couldn't get the untwist started again, and the fact that I was still pulling several Gs and was horizontal under the canopy were a big clue. Saw spinning planet off my right shoulder and got rid of it FAST. That said, I recently ran into a gear issue where 4 of 5 jumps on that same canopy resulted in bad bad twists. Every time, it just flew straight. No dive. But don't be TOO trusting of your docile canopy eh? I've seen Perry's video, and we had a couple others up north here try their luck with HP canopies, didn't work out well. How much adrenalin do you need, really? -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

The outcome of this is a foregone conclusion because it is actually a civics lesson disguised as mindless trash TV intended to teach simple lessons about cooperation and self-organized teamwork to children of the same age as the ones depicted in the show. The kids will succeed alright, after several major crises in which they all had to pull together give and take orders and work as a team with a great deal of rah-rah enthusiasm and dramatized "will they make it?" fear and tension intended to keep the kids in a "what do we do?" learning mode. The adults the show tries to make a viewer believe aren't involved will make sure the suggestion is conveyed at the peak of crisis that they should find the kid who knows what to do and do what he says, which will mostly be "form teams and figure out what to do." Theres been leaps and bounds in the use of media and videogames to disguise schooling and lessons, a techno version of parents hiding vegetables in tastier food, and is a far more efficient way to convey the complex lessons involved. Most role-playing world-of-warcraft build-your-character videogames are nothing but lessons in resource management with flashy frontends and stories that make you want to succeed, so you learn how and get good at it. Different games use different names... ammo, mana, health, experience, warcraft gold, whatever, its just all quantities and relationships. Forcing a kid to sit through a grinding monotonous lesson about how important it is to behave in a civilized manner is a good way to make them want to go all lord-of-the-flies. But show em flashy TV they like with loud music frequent visual field changes and lots of dramatized glitz to keep the short attention spans on their toes and they'll be enthusiastic about the idea of being civilized cause thats cool and on TV. Its a very clever attempt to counteract influences like gangster culture, a kind of memetic vaccine. If the kids mind is already occupied by the idea that civilized is cool, they're effectively immunized against the diseased notion that its cool to go to jail, kill people for "dissing" you, and be a gangster. Bout damn time. Its a sneaky and manipulative way to teach a kid, but hey, if it works... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

This "user fee" thing has been all over the grapevine last few months. There was a petition circulating around Jumptown, my guess is a lot of DZs might have done the same. Is there anyone on these boards "in the industry" so to speak, who actually knows something about how such things are done who can give us an educated guess as to the chances of citizen action successfully killing this thing? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Whoa, bad image, bad image! WHERES PERRY! If any of my brothers were harmed, so much as a feather in the making of that bread, I'm gettin medieval. Has anyone seen Perry lately? I am SO not eating that bread. Dammit Scott, you've ruined my evening. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

I cannot believe you looked that up, Steve. You hardcore, no doubt. I'm really not too sure I want bread to "put a cock-a-doodle-doo" in my morning. I'm not a morning person, and loud noises directed at me before about noon are likely to attract high velocity paintballs and similar projectiles. Although I'll admit the sound of turbines spooling up stand a chance of me being one of those flying projectiles, and I AM known for crowing occasionally when landing... -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

A relative sent me these images from a corner store in San Fran. The official food of wingsuit pilots everywhere. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Hmmm.... Personally for winter wingsuiting I use: 1 layer of either "mechanic gloves" or thin leather gloves, one layer latex gloves for warm air trappage, and one inner layer of the same thermasilk liners a lot of other jumpers use. The combo has been proven to -47 windchill, keeps enough dexterity to unzip wingsuit zippers without fumbling and keeps my hands comfy even through prolonged freefalls. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Sorry bud, I didn't forget, I wasn't fully aware, all I knew at the time was that it hurt like hell to breathe, I was scared to try to move cause I didn't know if my back was broken or what, and after a bit people came and tried to get my gear off. I didn't see anything cause I was facedown in the grass, I just remember Allison's voice first, followed by a bunch of voices. I owe you one, big time. What goes around comes around, and probably will this weekend. -Tweet! -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Quiver in fear... Man. I haven't done THAT to anyone since I got cornered in a mens room in a school in Manila, and after a rather brief bit of violence finished off the first guy and turned my attention to the next one. I was ANGRY. And this time, all I had to do was beat hell out of mySELF. Who'd a thunk it? Sorry if I scared you guys eh? And since I was in no condition to take names at the time, I have no idea who got my gear off but I recall you guys (whoever you were... I know Allison and I think Carolyn were there, the rest is vague...) made sure they didn't cut my suit and rig off me, I remember them trying to figure out how to unfasten the mod wings and they succeeded cause my suit is intact. THANK YOU! -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Right now I'd say I'm about 85% ok. Still sore when I wake up but I got the spring back in my step and can run, jump and do my customary hang-by-my-toes thing from the awning by the hangar if I felt like it. Reed, the priceless bastard actually hung his ass in the breeze and got my ride back out of a tree for me so all my gears accounted for and being reassembled. Friends like THAT are hard to come by... I would NOT have taken him for the treeclimbing type. I been feeling pretty awestruck at the number of friends who've got my back lately. Nik called from Russia just to see how I was doing, and messages came in from Jumptown, Florida and all over the place. I'll be going to SNE's tikibar burning but will be taking it very easy. I'll make the go/no go decision when I get there, still not certain I'm fit to jump just yet, but my guess is I will be by Saturday or Sunday. Just wanna finish buffing a few dings out of my titanium feathers and I'm good to go. -Chirp! -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Owch. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

No, and it ain't gonna be. Being reduced to gasping roadkill is a bit embarrassing actually. Jeff saw it cause I'm guessing the guys played it back after they got my gear off me and I got hauled away in the blinky box. I don't mind a few friends having seen it, but I ain't broadcasting a moment like THAT. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

I ain't indestructible my friend, I'm just so fucking evil Satan is scared to let me in, took one look at me, kicked my ass OUT. They say the more you beat on your skeleton the tougher it gets... Apparently my rather rough formative years just came in handy cause aside from drinking lots of milk I have no idea why I didn't shatter a bunch of important bits. I went and watched the video again and again and I just shouldn't have survived that. I hit so hard it knocked the camera out of focus when my feet hit and scrambled the image, and thats without actually hitting my head, either. Still damn glad I wear a helmet, that ugly gaudy chunk of carbon fiber came in handy at last. Gimme a week. I'm a bit sore, but went to work today like normal, no problem. -Chirp! -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Thanks man... I'm still here, barely. Had some trouble breathing, turned out I picked up some nasty chest trauma from pounding in, didn't show till a few hours afterward when the byproducts of metabolizing that much crushed tissue fucked me up real good for awhile. They cut me loose from the ICU this afternoon with strict instructions not to pick a fight with the planet again anytime soon and no skydiving for at least a week or two. So worry not birdpeople, I'm down but not out and have no plans to hang up my wings just yet. See you at FnD... -...chirp.... -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

You haven't met OUR Manifest Bitch. Its a self-granted title, and most of us still think shes underrating herself. Shes packing at least 2 microphones, a red plastic button that says "easy", and throws things when you're late to a load. Get her mad and Stacey will kick you in the squishy. Repeatedly. You were warned. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Closest encounter I ever had was under canopy somewhere around jump#120-ish 5 years ago... 1200 feet, looked down and there was a redtail hawk 10 feet below my boots. Same heading, same speed, it was at a standstill relative to me, just enjoying the thermal off the hilly scrubby stuff just northwest of the DZ. I only had a few seconds to enjoy the birds' presence, then had to break off the bird-CRW, enter pattern and land, but I never forgot the shock of realizing I saw exactly what the hawk sees. The bird appeared totally undisturbed by close proximity to what must have looked to it like the biggest bird in the universe. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Holy shit, Scott. I figure the only thing running through those birds heads was "...!!!..." Pity the camera fogged on you. That sort of close encounter will never, ever happen to you again... Unless you've routinely got buzzards. LOTS of buzzards. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

"Germans?" I can hear people say. "That's silly! They're white, and they have no problems learning our language and customs!" We will say the same of hispanics in 50 years." ...Bill, I didn't think they were getting that much lighter, that quickly, really... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Have any of you noticed yet that the word "catholic" is nowhere to be found in that article? The cops think its "dissident republicans", whatever the hell THEY are. Religion not specified. Locality assumption is an invalid argument- It could be a group of angry Aum Shinrikyo exchange students from Osaka for all you know. True? -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

I'm good for it... I've taken maybe a dozen rodeos, 3 of which went haywire. 2 were riders didn't follow directions and one was just plain poor planning and rehearsal on my part. One recent one I had 2 other birds flying with me at the time resulting in awesome video, 100% successful dive plan, rider deployed off my back. Gimme a passenger, lets do it. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

"Over the past year, I've noticed complacency in the pilot/WS jumper communication department. Just a few weeks ago, I was on a 5-way with some visiting jumpers, none of whom told the pilot they were on board. When I did, the response I received was, "I'm sure he knows. Wingsuits are pretty common these days". They also didn't tell manifest. " Second this bit. I almost never jump wingless, so I got complacent about it fast because I usually interact with the pilot in some way, even if only visually, at some point before any given jump. The assumption is if I'm present, theres wingsuits aboard. There are wingsuits on most loads at my DZ as well, so nobody bothers to notify the pilot because he knows the wingsuit crowd and a load going WITHOUT suits would be almost unusual. Visiting other DZs, I DO take the trouble to notify the pilot unless I'm at a place like z-hills at a wingsuit event. I think notifying the pilot will become almost completely redundant in time, though. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

"What?! No Lurch?! Say it isn't so!!" (steps into thread looking like Perry after a party) ...You rang? Tentatively... Very tentatively.... I'm in. I may have to sleep on the field and live on ramen, birdseed and cheesy peas. If I'm gonna dig myself a hole this deep, we better do something really cool. Not as if we didn't last time. Don't suppose we'll have high altitude? I LIKE high altitude. -B 1. Scott B. (Notsane) 2. Mike M. (Gray Mike) C. Sean H. (Monkycndo) 4. Scott Gray (The Brothers Gray) 5. Chris Gray (The Brothers Gray) 6. Justin Shorb (Flock U) 7. Ryan Desjardins (Soon to bee Canadian Flocker) 8. Bob Futrell (FlyinBob) 9. Mark M 10. Phil Peggs 11. Matt Hoover 12. Mike Rinehart (Missingparts) 13. Frank Boluk 14. Scotty Burns (scottygofast) 15. Robert Kelley (ROK) 16. Jeff Nebelkopf (Heffro1) 17. Tony Uragallo (Tony Suits) 18. Chuck Blue (SkymonkeyONE) 19. Todd S (DaMan) 20. Michelle (EmLo) 21. "The" Le Roy (leroydb) 22. Dan M (arai) 23. BJ Alexander 24. Tyler (jumpinfly) 25. Mark (normiss) 26. Lurch (Flock U) Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

As long as I live, I'm never, ever going to be able to figure out what you just said. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Damn. I don't know whats gonna happen when you fly that thing but its gonna be impressive. -There IS this one suit nailed to a ceiling in Z-hills... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.