tbrown

I'll be there both days. Looking for some "bellyflyers" (I prefer "gut glider") to do RW with, or else to help us lay a base for some kickin' hybrids. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Jeremy Irons and NO, I do NOT mean Ron Jeremy either ! They're two different people and Jeremy Irons can act. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That's not what's meant by "killing kittens"....you don't need a gun for that, unless it's the one between your legs. So put away the piece (of course if you really had a piece, you wouldn't be killing kittens anyway, now wouldja ?). I can't believe I'm writing this drivel. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

More than once I've notied at the end of the day that I'd forgotten to turn on my Cypres, I never really gave it a second thought -Jim A friend was laughing at me at the dropzone because I tuck a little business card with a note that says, "Turn on your Cypres" into the reserve flap of my Javelin. I've only owned the rig a month or two and just want to get in the habit of turning the Cypres on before I remove my rig from the gear bag. Then I know it's good for 14 hours. At the end of the day, I turn the Cypres off and tuck the card back in the flap. Somehow that's interpreted as weenie-ism by somebody else who boasts about not owning, or needing a Cypres. I also have - and use - a RSL. I used to jump without either back in the seventies, many hundreds of times. I don't rely on them, but jeez, they're so simple, so reliable and have saved so many lives, why not use 'em both ? I'd stuff an inflatable cushion with an AAD down the seat of my jumpsuit if I thought it might help. Take advantage of the technology, use it, and then forget it's there and fly like it ain't there. As for landing in gusty winds, most RSL's have that colored fabric release tab on them. If your feet are on the ground and you need to chop your main, just remember to give the tab a yank first, simple as that. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, supposedly Barbara has stated that this IS his last jump, and well, I think when that women tells you something, you end up listening. I guess so, after all, she IS on the dollar bill... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Our cat "hides" her food after she's done eating by burying it with invisible dirt. What's even funnier is when she comes back to eat some more, she digs it up again. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That same ad with your sweetie is also on the second page of the "Eyes In the Sky" book, by Patrick Passe & Wendy Smith. L&B was one of the four sponsors for the book (along with Airtech, PD, and Sunpath) and they each get a full two page glossy ad in the front pages. It's a beautiful book anyway, so now you've got TWO reasons to run out and buy it! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

As much as I don't like the guy's politics, I think it's great that anyone gets out and skydives - Bush included. Hell, if I picked my jumping friends for their politics - I wouldn't have any ! I just wonder why he doesn't buy a rig and get his A license - he'd always have 4 people ready for a load, if you don't mind his friends wearing black jumpsuits, sunglasses, and a wire in their ear... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Mine: Rolling Stones, "Stray Cat Blues", with honorable mention to ZZ Topp for "Pearl Necklace". My Wife's: "Popsicle Toes", by Michael Franks. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'd sue the fuck out of them all. Have those assholes forgotten this is America ? I mean WTF, WTF'ing F !?! The kid will clean up too, especially if he can prove they were letting white kids do the same thing. That's blatant discrimination and about what you'd expect from a dumb $5 an hr school cop. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

1. Tom Brown 2. 48 years old. 3. Wanted to jump ever since I was 7 years old. Used to watch "Ripcord" every Friday night on TV. 4. Married 5. 2 Teenagers 6. 1991 Honda Accord 7. Plenty of kiss passes, so far all in the old days (seventies). 8. So. Cal. 9. One cat. 10. 617 jumps 11. Eyes are green/gray (they change) 12. Irish-American 13. Internet dating ? Nope, it didn't exist back then. 14. All 3 Lord of the Rings films. 15. Work, sleep, bootleg music collection, reading. A dull life that really needs all the skydiving it can get. 16. Once, El Capitan 1980 (legally). 17. Probably not again, but you never know... 18. 2 brothers and a sister living. One brother died of cancer. 19. New Zealand 20. Green 21 So. Cal. to Seattle Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'd advise against it. I'm currently waiting for my own bout of "pressure trauma", as the doctor called it, to clear up. I made one jump last Saturday. Had hoped to make a few more as well. Had a slight cold, only slightly congested. Dayquil helped, I could actually breathe through my nose. Thought I was okay. Wrong. Every last ounce of snot in my head went into my right ear. It wasn't actually painful, it was more like wearing an earplug 24/7. Now it's Thursday, 5 days out, and things are finally improving. There's an EXCEL camp at Elsinore this Saturday that I REALLY want to attend. Plus a big blowout at Taft the following weekend to say goodbye to Mike Mullins and his King Air. I'm thinking this weekend I'll stay home and do something fun, like my friggin' taxes instead. Otherwise, one jump could screw BOTH the EXCEL camp AND Taft. It sucks, but the doctor says it's like a sprain. Takes time to heal and in the meantime you're more vulnerable to doing it again. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I read somewhere that Mike Truffer has applied for a waiver from the FAA to allow employees of his company, for research purposes, to pack their reserves only once a year. They must be employees, and data is to be kept on their experience with actual reserve use, etc. Anyone heard anything recently about this, or how it's going ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

No, I'd rather have friends. Everybody really IS entitled to their own opinions. As long as we don't try to run each other's lives, I'd just as soon hang out, skydive & be friends. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I would think that adding dive loops to the risers would alter the design cnfiguration, and therefore affect - or possible cancel - the TSO. I can't think of many rig makers who would want to go through another round of TSO testing just to put dive loops on their reserve risers. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Or else fall out with your pants down around your ankles, they'll never notice the rig... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Thank you Gary for the Jefferson quotes, he was probably the origin of the phrase "a wall between church and state". Jefferson also said something to the effect that in his opinion the wal could never be high enough or wide enough. The founding fathers lived in a world where people could be hanged, burned at the stake, headwhacked, or simpley drowned en masse in leaky barges for adhering to the "wrong" faith. Also imprisoned, tortured, their property confiscated and so forth. THAT was what the founding fathers wanted no part of in America. The FF's were by and large God fearing men, though many of them were what would be called "deists". That is, they professed belief in an almighty God, but did not profess loyalty to any particular sectarian or orthodox religious doctrine or denomination. Their era was the time of the founding of the Unitarian Church and other like denominations. All you have to do to observe a church state in action nowadays is look at Iran, or remember Afghanistan in its Taliban heyday, when adulterers were hanged at the soccer stadium (nice, huh ?). Or Israel, where the ultra-orthodox are trying to decree by law who is, or is not a Jew, or even whether a marriage is valid if not performed to THEIR standards. Would you want to have some religious arbiter decide whether YOUR marriage was valid ? Or to hang your brother or sister at the local stadium for a little nooky they had on the side ? I think not. The FF's didn't think so either, so they decided their new country would never have an official church state. One of the most PRECIOUS things about our revolution, that sets it apart from the other revolutions of history, is that it never tried to change human nature. The French tried to change human nature with the guillotine, but no matter how many people they killed, they couldn't "perfect" human nature. The Russians, Chinese, Cambodians, and many others all tried it too. All they ended up doing was killing millions of people, and human nature is still what it is. But we Americans decided to let people be what they are, and as long as we don't rob or kill each other, we'll let it go, and be the better for it. That's what makes us different. And a church state doesn't fit in that picture. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Hey, I remember that too. I was 13 and we were on the final leg of the drive home from a long vacation. We had toured Cape Canaveral on a bus a few weeks earlier and had seen the Apollo 11 on the launch pad from a few miles away, no closer. We were on the NY State Thruway when they landed and my dad sort of stepped on the gas so we'd get home in time to see them get out and walk on the moon. We made it too. Only those of us who were around then probably remember how ghostly the images were on TV - almost like shadows in negative. The clear color pics only came later. The Beatles on Ed Sullivan - 1964 Yeah yeah yeah !!!!! The first really GOOD feeling since JFK was assasinated, it was OK to have fun again. They were SO completely different & so great we laughed because we didn't know what else to do. Thank GOD for the Beatles, I think life would've sucked without them. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Please let's don't forget Goldie Hawn on Laugh-In ! (Also Mrs. Montford, my 7th grade German teacher...). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'd be happy to make a load with you, at QL, or Perris, or anywhere else. Can't tell you much about AFF, as I came up in the seventies under the old static line & gradually increasing freefall system, but it took me something like 32 jumps and one sprained ankle to get off student status. There's no escaping what I've always called the "ugly duckling" phase, it's just been moved around some by modern training methods. But you'll get through it and fly like a swan. Just never forget it and ALWAYS have compassion on those who follow you as they suffer through the same worries. This is your year, be safe and enjoy it. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

1.) Franklin Roosevelt - saw our nation through its two greatest crises of the 20th century, the Great Depression and World War II (basically saving the world from the forces of evil, not to be overly dramatic, but there it is). 2.) JFK for averting a nuclear holocaust, though not for much else really. 3.) Nixon, even though I hated the sonofabitch. He opened up relations with China, worked on building a relationship with the Soviets, negotiated the first SALT treaty (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) with the Soviets, established the EPA and the Artic Wildlife Preserve, signed the Endangered Species Act. Actually if it weren't for Vietnam and Watergate, and that he was basically a dipshit, Nixon had some surprisingly progressive ideas. I recently made peace with the fucker, standing at his & Pat's graves in Yorba Linda. 4.) Teddy Roosevelt - Panama Canal, Sherman Anti-Trust Act and just 'cuz he was so cool. Made America a world power AND won the Nobel Peace Pize for negotiating an end to the Sino-Russian War. Also Pure Food & Drug Act, as well as established the National Parks System. 5.) Harry Truman - for bringing WWII to a QUICK end (by nuking Japan, who had it coming, all their whining aside...). Then he rebuilt the world out of the smoldering wreckage and contained Stalin's ambitions for Soviet domination, without another world war. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I got to Perris late in the day, maybe 2:30 (had to work in the morning). Heard one announcement for a canopy safety seminar in "Room G4", wherever the hell that was. I had hoped to see more and get more out of Safety Day and was disappointed. Obviously, per Kris, there was more going on, but I only heard one announcement the entire afternoon. There's always next year though... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

JFK assasination: Sitting in my 3rd grade classroom, we were cleaning our desks out at the end of the week when the reports started coming over the school PA. Adults started crying (really freaked me out). We said a prayer for Kennedy's soul - this was Catholic school - and were sent home early. My mom was napping, she was pregnant with my little sister. She thought we were making it up and got mad at my brother & me, then turned on the radio and found out it was true. US Out of Vietnam - was playing chess with a friend when the radio cut in for Dickie Nixon's anouncement. When he was done, the station played Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus". John Lennon's death - I was driving home from a Monday night class. Reagan and the Pope shootings, both '81, at work both times, heard about them on radios people were listening to. Challenger explosion, had just arrived at work, people at the front desk were just plugging in a radio and turning it on, there was a whole bunch of people standing around waiting to hear. 9/11 - Very painful, I was working at Boeing's Everett plant, where the widebodies (747/767/777) are built. I was upstairs overlooking the 777 line and could see the 767 line a couple hundred yards over. We wondered briefly if we might also be a target. A lot of people couldn't go on working, they just locked up their tools and went home. I looked at the planes and asked myself how people could possibly want to fly one of them, full of people, into buildings full of people. Saw a lot of big tough guys cry. Columbia disaster - was lying in bed, sleeping in on a Saturday morning. The radio clicked on at 7am and Scott Simon on NPR was saying that there had been no contact with Columbia for half an hour and reports were coming in from all over Texas of debris falling like rain. Kerry beats Bush - took the rest of the week off, went skydiving. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Blah, blah, blah.... First, I don't believe ANYTHING from the web unless I can get it from several sources. Second, any asshole can log on and claim to be a SEAL - I could do that if I wanted to (and never will). Third and finally, politics is so irrational and uncivil by now that anyone will fabricate any LIES they want to discredit the other side they don't like. Vote early, vote often, EFS. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

One jump, a nice 4 way. Jumped with a head cold (BAD idea). All the snot in my head got sucked into my right ear, so I grounded myself and headed for the bar. Ear is gradually improving. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !