tbrown

This has been a good election a really good election. It's not going to make the war in Iraq go away, but it's a start. Rummy quitting is good news too. But the best news of all is that BUSH IS A LAME DUCK PRESIDENT !! Oh how I wish I had a duck hunter's duck call thingy, I'd call the White House right now and start quacking. qUACK QUACK YOU FUCKER, YOU'RE A LAME DUCK !!! YEEE-HA !!! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That's funny because several years ago NASA actually sent a married couple up on a Shuttle mission together. But they were so terrified the couple might want to love each other in zero-g that they scheduled their workload ina way to make anything so un-American as "sex" impossible. The crew mutinied and called a meeting in orbit. The command pilot did what he could to re-shuffle schedules and the best he could do was give the couple half an hour together, telling the couple to go below decks and "make history". Which they did. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I like "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum". It's ridiculously funny and just delightfully naughty. The local high school kids just put on a good production about a month ago and I enjoyed it all over again. "Oh, oh, oh, oh, everybody ought to have a maid...." Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Voters' rights are for those who "vote right". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The punch cards were better than what Ohio has now, for sure. Which is why Los Angeles County is using paper ballots marked with ink spots. When you're done, you may opt to run your ballot through a reader to spot mistakes (voted for 2 candidates for governore, voted for the wrong person, etc), at which point you may choose to have your ballot destroyed and exchanged for another. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I have this funny feeling tht life will learn to adapt. Life adapts, but it takes time and meanwhile we all have to eat. By "all" I mean more than just the people. Scary thought #2 is that the land and sea food chains are both based on UV sensitive micro organisms that live within 2 ft of the surface of both land and water. On land it's nitrogen fixing bacteria that make it possible for plant roots to do their job. In the sea it's all the plankton floating around. Take either one away and the rest of the food chain starves. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've done it before, but this time around it's already come & gone and I missed it. Have to wait for Election Day now. Our local polling place is pretty good though, I've never had to wait more than a few minutes, if at all. There's something nice about hanging out with a crowd of voters, everybody's pretty friendly and on their best behavior. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Not necessarily , Tim. I was doing a jump at Cal City, at their grand opening, a hundred years ago and a guy named Jim Carr swooped in and planted one on me....yuck, yuck patooey ! Been there, done that. Both ways I might add...though women are a lot more fun. And the name is Tom. You an Outlaw or sumpin' ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

There are MANY packing methods (Flat Pack, Pro Pack, Psycho Pack) and all are acceptable. The last thing we want is FAA and/or Other Agency regulating how we pack our mains. In point of fact, the FAA does regulate how we pack our mains. Technically, according to the FARs (and don't ask me which one), a main can only be packed by a rigger, a packer working under the supervision of a Master Rigger, or the person who will be jumping the rig. And that was a deal that USPA cut with the FAA long ago, after FAA and our wise politicians in DC wanted to make rigger packing mandatory for ALL parachute jumps. I think a simple course in pro packing gives a newbie the basics needed to find their own way to their own style. I really really like the idea of the guy who teaches with his rig and jumps his students' packjobs. When they finally jump their sixth packjob, they already know the first five have all opened, so they're hopefully not worried about it anymore. Technically not legal, unless the guy's a Master Rigger, but I won't tell.... Nothing worth learning is ever free. When I started back in the seventies, we packed for our first freefall. Talk about a stressful double whammy - first you had to pull the thing and then you hoped it would open. Of course it worked out just fine and the beer tasted SOOOO good afterwards. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I took 22 years off when I got married. My wife NEVER asked me to stop and always said I could jump again anytime I wanted to. When the kids came, it just didn't feel right for me to be jumping and I mostly forgot about it for many years. Sold my rig to a kid who was just getting started, it was late seventies gear (piggyback, hand deploy, 3 Ring, 7 cell main, round reserve). Then we moved back to So Cal and went out to see what time had done with Perris and I knew I had to start jumping again. Fortunately I found 2 of my logbooks, so they believed me that I had a D license. Took an hour or so of recurrency training, how to find a BOC pilot chute, reviewed emergency procedures and was ready to go. Honestly, I went dry mouthed on the ride up. I wanted to jump, but part of me felt just like a first jump student all over again. As soon as we "got busy" though with final gear check and moving to the door I was fine, exit went very well. Frefall was familiar and yet brand new all over again. Ya never can quits da mob.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Yeah we do support them. Send them mail and packages, pray for them a lot. Because some of them are the kids our kids grew up with. I'm against this war in Iraq. Always have been, it was stupid then and it's stupid now. Dreamed up by America's stupidest President. I'm thankful that the kids we've known who have gone over have so far come back alive and in one piece. We're people just like you, we just vote differently. I was under the impression that was allowed..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Finally saw the video of the speech on a break at work this morning. Paid close attention. Yep, he said exactly what they said he said. What an asshole. He's got no excuse. And I'm (still) a Democrat. We're not all assholes, just embarassed as all hell at what a big one he is. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Boys and girls ? And skydiving ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I remember a whole bunch of different rigs that used the Yanta type releases, where stiffened levers would flip flop and release. But there was also a true wraparound type of release and I think Strong Enterprises made it in '77 or '78 - it was called the Strong Eagle. Never actually saw one, but there were some full page age ads with color pics in Parachutist. When you pulled the cutaway ripcord, these wraps would unravel around each other. They weren't around for very long either. Lever types were around through '78 and were on Hanbury, Classiflier, Green Star, and Security rigs. I guess at the time some manufacturers were still hoping they might compete with the 3-Ring system, but once Bill Booth started licensing the 3-Ring system to other rigs the marketplace sorta voted and it's been 3-Rings ever since. Bill Booth ran an add once (late seventies ?) comparing 3-Rings to lever types and stated he'd considered lever releases, but rejected the idea after too many test failures. The ad had a drawing of each type system side by side. It would be interesting to hear Bill's recollection of those days and how the 3-Ring won the day. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

- John Kerry (speech on behalf of Phil Angelides) Is Kerry the one who went to Vietnam, or is he the one that stayed home? No spin on this, the guy's a jerk, plain and simple. Poor Phil Angelides, who hasn't got a prayer against Arnold, is probably wishing the hell he'd told Kerry to stay the fuck out of California. What really pisses me off about what Kerry said is that it's the kind of rich man's elitism that knows no party affiliation. It's the kind of arrogance that will take you a long way in life as a Democrat or a Republican. It ignores the ideal of service to country, or to anyone else beyond one's own bank account. And yet these swine see themselves as fit to run our country, calling the shots, and sending the best of our young men and women into harm's way on a whim. Service to them is for losers. And of course those losers had better make it snappy. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Dont forget their abject hatred of Jews.. maybe they just want to be one of GOD's chosen people and cant. They may not be black, but their grandma might be. To this day the white branch of Thomas Jefferson's family refuses to recognize Jefferson's black descendants by his slave Sally Hemmings, inspite of mounting DNA evidence. I remember once reading about some Klansman who committed suicide because he couldn't reconcile his shame at being a Jew himself. He'd been able to hide it, but couldn't live with it. It stands to reason that a man who is raised to believe being gay is sinful or shameful would hate and fear his own attraction to other guys. He sees them and fears becoming one of "them". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

As a California voter (who voted for Kerry in '04), I wish he'd have stayed the fuck out of our election. He was speaking at a rally for Phil Angelides, the Demo candidate who is running against Arnold the Governator, background for those of you non-Cali types. He said something like "you can do well in school or end up stuck in Iraq". It pissed me off because even though I'm against the war in Iraq (no apologies either), I know a lot of well educated people who have gone and served there. I deeply respect their service and oppose the war entirely because I've always believed it was a poorly planned strategic blunder that is only squandering a lot of lives and treasure in the wrong place. Anyway, lets see if I can wrap this up. I should've said I held my nose and voted for Kerry in '04. Ever since losing the election, he has been a complete asshole. The guy has an uncanny knack for showing up in the wrong places at the worst possible times and saying stupid things that embarass the shit out of me as an American AND as a Democrat. And yet this joker thinks he can actually win the noimination to run again ? Fuck it, I gotta go (so does Kerry). At least I have trick-or-treaters at my door... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

There are occasionally good bands in the Pioneer Square clubs (though you also have to deal with the drunken frat boy crowd). Also check out The Crocodile Cafe, Tractor Tavern, El Corazon, or the Showbox. After the show, go up to 45th and check out The Blue Moon Tavern. Believe it or not, that dump is actually a preserved historic site. Has a tie dyed pool table and hopefully still has the "Drinking Man" sculpture outside. Go to the Pike Place Market, just a short walk from there is the Moore Theater, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Lusty Lady Theater (if you're so inclined...). And - oh yeah, almost forgot - ride the monorail from Seattle Center to Westlake and back. It's only a mile or so and is a showpiece from the 1962 World's Fair of a future that never happened. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

There are some days when those damned meth labs kick up one hell of a haze though.... If we stop to worry about that haze, then the meth labs win and we'll never give in to that ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

King Kong and the Empire State Building (complete with biplane) get my vote !!! (26x.jpg; Post #11) Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I came, I saw, I conquered. - Julius Caesar (very famous quote) I saw, I conquered, I came. - Caesar's buddy Rocco (not so famous) Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm glad to see this issue addressed, as I've been wondering myself. I returned to the sport after many years off, having jumped in the days before RSLs and AADs. I currently use both on my rig. I have heard some negative opinions about RSLs putting a kink in the ripcord and have just sort of gone on thinking "if I have to replace the ripcord, then I'll just have to replace it". It's nice to know that a RSL kink in a ripcord is not necessarily grounds for having to replace it. There really are NO dumb questions in these forums. Sometimes newbies ask the questions we should be asking. And we should never think we're so smart that we've run out of questions either. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Dude, they're ALL power hungry. Anybody who runs for President (even weirdos like Jimmy Carter) are power hungry. They have to be, or else the election process would eat them alive before they even got started. It's like saying rock stars have big egos, "so your point is ????". Hillary broke the mold when it comes to First Ladies. She is smart and VERY ambitious. But why should she be content to just be some guy's wife, especially when she nearly left the guy while they were in the White House ? Yeah yeah, it's a marriage of convenience. So FDR never left Eleanor either, not after she remeinded him that a divorcee could never get elected (true in those days, though times changed and Reagan got past being divorced to become a very popular President). Hillary won't divorce Bill because he's a brilliant strategist and campaigner and IF she gets elected, it will be in large part because of Bill's advice and coaching. And she knows it. I'm not sure I like Hillary and I'm not at all sure I'd vote for her. At least not during the Primaries. But IF she wins the nomination, I'd probably vote for her against almost any Republican. As for who wants Clinton back in the White House, the answer is that plenty of us would. Every time the guy says anything at all, it makes me yearn for the days when this country had an intelligent educated President who could speak English and put two thoughts together without the guys from Halliburton writing his script for him. Don't forget that Bush was narrowly elected BOTH times, that HUGE portions of both thhe Popular and Electoral vote went to Gore and Kerry. And by 2008 there will be a Democratic Congress (in both houses), this country will be trying to dig itself out of the HOLE that Bush and the Reptialians have dug us into. It might be Hillary, or not. Might be Barak Obama. Should be interesting, let's see what the voters have to say..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Believe it or not, you can do worse, especially after a hard opening. Think about that now. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

He could only be more of a pig if he grew a cute little corkscrew tail. About 12 or so years ago, when she was just 13 years old, that asshole called Chelsea Clinton "the White House dog", and held up her picture. I saw this on my TV, after coming home from work late one night. The way I see it, Bill & Hillary might be fair game, but anybody who would say a thing like that about a 13 year old girl is a complete shit. I wouldn't piss on Limbaugh if he was on fire. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !