tbrown

We kept my mother in law home with us while she died of throat cancer caused by smoking. By the end I was wheeling her out on the porch and lighting smokes for her as a comfort thing - not like it was going to give her cancer or anything at that point. You just hang in there and you'll be over the physical part soon. The HARDER part will be the mental part later, when your body doesn't need the nicotine anymore, but your mind will be looking for something to do. Seriously, I'd suggest you take up something that demands hard excercise and a lot of breathing. Maybe not marathon running, but are there any 10K races coming up where you live ? Or if running isn't your thing, find a local pool and start swimming laps. I'm not kidding. You need something that demands plenty of oxygen and keeps you busy. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've always believed Afghanistan was the "good war" and this only proves it. The falling price of high grade heroin should decrease the amount of crime necessary to support habits, as well as increase the number of overdose deaths. Sounds good to me... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Certainly an unusual circumstance, but I did notice that there's also training that goes along with this. I'd much rather have a pack of the mischevious little shavers running around armed to the teeth than have one of them end up feeding the bears just to keep the PETA types happy. Polar bears can sniff you out miles away and they will patiently stalk you - because they're hungry and they know you're good to eat and can't fight back. Unless you're a little six year old with one of those damn shotguns... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Um, yeah, but not since I started getting flu shots about 12 years ago.... The preferred position is to be sitting ON the can, with a sufficiently large bowl in your lap. It's fun. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

How times change. And that's about it, the styles change too. Look at any picture from the seventies, all the guys have at least medium length hair and shoulder length or longer was not uncommon. Guys with short hair were thought to be squares. Which was a bunch of crap of course, but that was the consensus. That goes for skydiving too, look at the old pics of guys like Jerry Bird or BJ Worth. Or world champion teams like Mirror Image. Bunch o' no-good long haired dope smokin' heathens, ever' last one of 'em... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Three times. Once, long long ago for a sprained ankle, for about a month. Three years ago I was out for a broken leg and trashed ankle. Had a pin in my ankle for 4 months, about a month after the pin was removed (lucky me), I was ready to jump again. Right now I'm out for a month at my doctor's suggestion after being really beat up by an unbelievable slammer opening that blew up my canopy. He says I look like some people he's seen who were wearing their seatbelt & shoulder harness in a pretty good car wreck. I'll be back though. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Attention Cheryl Stearns, now call for Cheryl Stearns.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

First of all congrats on being drug free for fifteen years. If you're just having a drink or two a month (or a week, or even a day for that matter), I don't see what the "problem" is. There are always people willing to crawl out from under a rock and take a cheap shot at you for not living up to their standards. But I'm guessing that crawling around under some rock isn't your style either. I'd ignore them, or else politely tell them to fuck off. And once again, as a former teenage stoner myself, congrats. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Cheryl Stearns is also supposed to be in a race with Fournier to do her own version of the dive. She's planning on wearing a NASA Shuttle suit, ostensibly to research te viability of astronauts surviving a high altitude bailout. She's also encountered a lot of problems and delays. this ain't your average balloon jump, it's really 'spensive. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You know the type that just Drink all your beer, Never have any cash and just sit around to see what they can get free next? Basically Bums. These are the people for whom such terms as "fuck off" were invented. If you won't use these phrases on them, you're missing out using a vocabulary that goes back to Shakespeare - and beyond. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

First of all, I may very well owe my existence to the atom bomb. My father was on his way to his pre-induction physical on V-J Day, on the elevated New York Subway when all the bells and sirens in NYC started going off because the Japs had thrown in the towel. If they hadn't called it quits that day, he might very well have been killed in the invasion of mainland Japan, and not met, married, or "made whoopee" with my mother. Let's not forget that all the estimates were leaning towards the war going on for another SEVEN years. That's right folks, 1952, that's how long they thought it might take, even with our Soviet allies invading Manchuria while we hit the beaches on the homeland islands. Our experiences on Iwo Jima and Okinawa earlier that year, with the Japanese Army dug into caves and civilians jumping en masse off cliffs rather than surrender to American forces weren't inspiring any degree of confidence among those attempting to plan the end game against the Empire. We'd already spilled enough blood and guts getting rid of Hitler and frankly America was not looking forward to another seven years of carnage with the Japs. When I see these annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day remembrances, I am of two minds. When the people of these two cities remember their suffering and call for all nations to eliminate their nuclear weapons, I can't help but think that would be the better thing to do for all of us. I don't dicount their sufferings for a moment. In terms of modern nuclear weapons they "lucked out", only being hit with early primitive models nowhere near the destructive power of today's nukes. Their suffering really SHOULD be a lesson to us all. But the other side of the coin is that the U.S. didn't just decide to drop the bomb on the Japanese for no apparent reason other than the meanness of our white skins. These people had tried to conquer their part of the world. They were assholes, not just to British and American prisoners, who they starved, beheaded and bayoneted, but also to their Asian "brothers". The Japanese treated their Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Burmese, and Phillipine "bothers" like shit. They were just as EVIL to their Asian neighbors as they were to the Brit and American white devils. To this day they won't apologize for any of it, not even conscripting Korean women to be their involuntary whores. I do NOT feel sorry for the Japanese. They brought their misfortune and suffering on themselves. If anything, the U.S. did them - and certainly ourselves - a kindness in bringing the Second World War to a quick and decisive end. And I think our post war policies that raised Japan back up to a major world economic power are proof of that. So yes, I do get sick and disgusted about how picked upon the poor fucking Japs feel about getting an ass kicking they richly deserved. Fuck 'em, we had five more bombs ready to go and we didn't use them. And that's a fact as well. We had more plutonium bombs ready to go, and we were taking one more uranium bomb apart to convert into another five plutonium bombs. We were ready to go on dropping those nukes for as long as it took to bring that war to an end. And were right to think that way. The only reason we even bombed Nagasaki was that asshole Hirohito didn't surrender after Hiroshima. he had three fucking days and according to the historic record, his only concern was maintaining HIS royal staus. So we had to drop another one before he got the message that we wouldn't quit until he would. We should have hung his ass, and never let him visit Disneyland. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

We used to routinely throw junkies down the stairs in an apartment building I lived in. Our street was the frontline between the stable side (artists, musicians, people with steady jobs) and the shitty side (junkies and dealers) of the neighborhood. In those days, everybody and their mother smoked pot. But we had to fight to hold the line, because if you gave the junkies an inch, they'd take a mile. So there was no mercy or compassion about it, down the stairs they went and we told them if they came back we'd kill them. As a result, none of our apartments were actually broken into and our street held the line for the rest of the neighborhood. Plus the cops didn't make a fuss about it. None of those scum would've called the cops anyway, they were all holding dope and would've gone to jail and had to go cold turkey and they knew it. These cops sound like real assholes, maybe one of them should fall out the window...... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

How will learning about my gear help me diagnose a clamped reserve hiding behind a rigger's seal? Anybody who would close a reserve with clamps still on the canopy should LOSE HIS/HER TICKET. For life. this has killed people in the past. It's simply unforgiveable. And anybody who finds it and says nothing is an accomplice. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Hope they do a better job than they did in Rwanda or Srebrenica (sp ?). When the going got tough, the UN got going and deserted the people they were there to protect. In Bosnia, smooth tongued UN negotiators, like Yusushi Akashi, orchestrated the orderly surrender of thousands of civilians to the Serb militias - who promptly slaughtered them all, after taking time out to rape the women first. I wish the UN would hire the French Foreign Legion to go in there and do the job right the first time and every time. Those guys don't fuck around and the local African warlords and their thug armies know it (they don't like having to deal with real trained professionals who shoot back). See, there are still reasons not to hate the French. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

There are a lot lies like this circulating about condoms, alleging that they don't work. They do work and can be highly effective, if used properly. HIV infection rates in most european countries that promote condom use are quite low. Of course in Europe, most parents are willing to admit that young people like to fuck. In some countries, notably Denmark, it is acceptable to have a boyfriend or girlfriend stay overnight, though generally not on school nights (wise choice IMHO). About ten years ago, Dr. Alexa Albert, a young MD who works in public health and STD issues conducted a study on condom usage within the controlled environment of The Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada. She found that the rate of STD transmission among the ladies (verified with weekly examinations and blood tests, and a monthly HIV test, all as required by law for the licensed establishments) was extremely low - lower not only than among illegal street hookers & escorts, but lower than control groups of sexually active young women in general. She also found that the incidence of condom breakage was extremely low among the working ladies who understood how to use them correctly. There were a number of breakages that occurred repeatedly with the same two ladies and their breakage rates also vanished after a little bit of training from the other ladies of the house. Condoms won't prevent HPV though. HPV can be spred from skin to skin contact, such as the grinding of groins (I like the sound of that...) that occurs during intercourse, the virus simply goes around the condom. But there's already one new vaccine for HPV and there will soon be a second competing vaccine in another year or two. So the religious right had better get cracking with some fresh new lies about the HPV vaccines, God forbid they would ever want to protect their children from the divine punishment of cervical cancer. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, let us know if you sart seeing color patterns or vision of Coyote. I may have to try this myself... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I was eighteen. My parents refused to sign off any earlier, so I just had to wait. And than I started jumping. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But on a serious side I'd like to see them banned in public like the hijab is in Turkey. Its not a Islamic requirement its a Saudi custom, so lets get rid of it. I think Europe should simply deport its Muslim populations back to the Muslim sewer states of their choosing, where they can blow themselves up, kill each other, and treat their women like livestock to their hearts' content. There's not a reason on earth to tolerate one inch of their bullshit. Your cultures are at stake, so what the fuck will you finally do about it ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I think it's a good idea. We didn't start this war, they did. And it's already upon us. For starters, Muslim is a gutter religion, opposed to all our values. Please don't tell me there are "moderate, peace loving" Muslims either. If there were, they would be ratting out their co-religionists who are supposedly giving their religion a bad name. The tough thing about war is that it sucks. People get killed in the name of bigger stupider shit. The Muslims have already started it. So the deal is simple; either they can knock it the fuck off, or we can simply destroy their religion, period. I have no moral qualms at all about nuking Mecca or any other of their stupid filthy religious sites. Kill them all, before they kill us. They started it, now they can knock it off or die. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Actually, as a father who got clipped after our second child, I disagree. Paul Ehrlich himself, the original author of Zero Population Growth, in an interview perhaps seventeen years ago ( ??) on NPR explained. He acknowledged that there are some magnificent loving couples capable of raising huge families. While on the other hand there are a great many people who should never have any children at all. It was not his intention, Ehrlich stated, to limit those loving couples capable of giving many children a loving home and family, from doing so. His vision of Zero Population Growth was more of an average, which included discouraging those who didn't want children and those who really should never have any children in the first place. So what would you do with this family ? Force either or both parent to sterilize ? Take away any or all of their children ? Or follow a bigger picture that would "average" them into a ZPG picture with other couples who have two or less children ? I vote for averaging them, with no binding legal consequences. Because even IF they might not be "the best" parents according to God only knows who's standards, we still live in America, and I'll simply be God damned before I allow the state to tell me or anybody else how many children we can have. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

He said it was a drunken mistake... I have an unintentional relationship with a woman that has gotten knocked up accidentally by 3 different guys. One of them she married after the third pregnancy (second baby, one abortion), and that lasted 3 months. Suddenly she's dating the daddy fromt the first baby again. Actually, she's telling everyone that they're married -hard to hear that without laughing, because he was still married to his other wife he has 2 little babies with when they started banging each other. She got his name tattoo'd all over her body, and they haven't spent all of 3 months under the same roof together. I am waiting for the next phone call saying that she's pregnant again, they hate each other, and she wants to move in with us with their 4 pitbulls. Sounds a lot like Britney Spears & Kevin Federline, except she at least has money.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's starting to get interesting lately. Talk of perjury. I think Bill Clinton was impeached for that. And folks, this ain't about no blowjob either. This is about lying under oath to questions about wiretapping American citizens without warrants. Even though there are special courts created to issue those warrants in secret proceedings. Secret as they are, those courts were bypassed by our Monarchist President and his torture happy AG. An impeachable offense. Fuck yeah ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

NASA's got enough problems without having to scrub a mission because one of the crew is trashed. No way would they own up to something like that. Besides, launch time is critical to a lot of these missions if they're to get where they're going on schedule (rendezvous with the Space Station, etc, etc) and if they can't go on time it might be WEEKS before they go again and a lot of overtime pay on the ground is accruing for all those techies who make these things go. The one that I find especially amusing is that one of the astronauts was flying on a Russian Soyuz launch, which must've been since the Columbia disaster, as Soyuz was the only way to get Americans into space while the Shuttle was grounded. The NASA mouthpiece admitted that, "drinking a lot of toasts is quite common in the Russian space program, even several hours before launch time". So in other words kiddies, the Russkies are launching shitfaced on a pretty regular basis. I'm starting to think they're the ones having more fun up there. Disclaimer: I'm a little shitfaced myself, anyone wanna launch ME into space ? I'm ready baby ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

How the fuck do you expect people to answer a question like this when so many of us have our pictures right next to our posts ?? I'm sure as hell not gonna say, never mind that I "might" have an interesting story or two.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Glad you did. Eventually, and for the rest of your life, you will be too. May God give you peace and strength now, in your hour of need. And with all of our prayers for you - and your dad too. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !