tbrown

They should've run him over with a truck a couple times to finish him off. What did Eddy Murphy used to say long ago (I forget where) ? If you hit somebody, you gotta back up over them and then run them over again. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

HMM I wonder what company owns the SOURCE CODE running on the machines that count the votes....I dont suppose its a company that supports Berlusconi now would it.......That could never happen in any other country other than here. Yeah, I'm wondering myself. Because now, a day later, Belusconi's refusing to concede the election. He appears to be attempting to duplicate the GWB post election fraud of 2000, Italian style. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I am pretty sure that is the last time I will watch that show! I stopped watching it after seeing a commercial for it - the whole storyline is so implausible it's ridiculous. I've got better things to do, like the dishes, or cleaning the catbox. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

if I had no rsl, I would push the cable back in as much as possible, watching altitude, then dump the main and see what happens. This approach smacks of improvised rigging, something we're always warning people not to do with a pilot chute in tow. You're a bit higher with a bit more time, but the ground is still coming up just as fast. And you're fixating on trying to do something you've never done before, that requires a degree of dexterity. Our gear really isn't designed for high dexterity tasks, everything's designed for grabbing, pulling and throwing, not threading, weaving, or reinserting when we can't even see under the riser to know whether it's working or not. And the ground has not declared a time out, it's still coming at you. So throw out the main or else pull the reserve, but don't try to compound a major fuckup into a fatal one. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

A friend of mine shattered his thigh while flying in a formation. He was hit by a diver who had told people she "liked closing her eyes in a head down dive". She broke her neck and went in (pre-Cypres days). He had the presence of mind to get something open (no Cypres either) and somehow landed on the other foot I guess, in sheer agony. Only bright spot was that he fell in love with and married his physical therapist at the hospital, they're still together and have teenage sons. He still jumps too. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This is good news and by all means good riddance to the bastard. But this was his second time around if I'm not mistaken. What's to keep him from coming back yet again ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

White chocolate in any size, shape, or form. The stuff simply isn't safe around me. If you had Pamela Anderson naked behind Door #1 and a pile of white chocolate behind Door #2, I'd grab Pammy and run next door to Door #2 so I could throw her down and do her in all that glorious white chocolate. Sound good to you ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Hopefully you've still got at least one of your logbooks. Logbooks and licenses are a huge help, otherwise they might just think you're a poser - and they do have to deal with those types. I found 2 of my 4 old logs and brought them with me. Took some class time to learn about BOC pilot chutes, which was something new, and to review and practice emergency procedures. Then it was up & away with one instructor for a recurrency that was roughly equivalent to AFF Level 4. And that was that, he signed me off as good to go. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's a little late in the month to get started and I'd have penalties clear into the month of June by now. Plus I've got our 25th wedding anniversary coming up, with a weekend away and probably the kids want to throw us a dinner as well. But my Irish genes have been acting up a bit lately and I'm watching this thread with great interest. Want to give everyone a lot of encouragement, as well as not to be discouraged if you slip up, just get back on the beam. I'm going to unofficially participate from the sidelines and then after the anniversary things are over with I'll see what I can do about the month of May - including Memorial Day weekend - if I get that far, the weekend, or even a boogie should be no problemo. If April's a success, consider adding a Part Deux for the next month ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Kirrz, great job on your EP's. No, technically you did not cutaway from a malfunctioned main but you did the right thing with a pull that just wasn't happening. Everybody's making a big deal about it because we all care about the students and we hope this doesn't scare you away. If anything, you've "seen the elephant" and now you know your EP's really do work. By the way dear, you owe beer, but you're Australian so I guess you know that. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

One of the reasons I hung it up back in 1981 (I eventually returned in 2003), was that too many friends had gone in or had close calls. I had a feeling that all I had to do was keep jumping for another season or two and my number would come up. That and I got married, my wife never asked me to quit but life has its chapters and I was ready to turn the page. Since coming back there have been some deaths here in So. Cal. Not anybody I knew especially well, really I only ever ever met one of them just once. But when I hear about people getting hurt or dying I can't help but think, "Oh God, here we go again, this is one part of the sport I didn't miss at all when I was out". No matter what other people say, I personally believe the sport is safer than it used to be, even with new hazards like hotter canopies. But if a close friend were to go in I don't honestly know how I'd feel about it. It's never easy and in my experience back in the old days there was always somebody who gave it up every time somebody else went in. This is a hardball game we play, thankfully bad things really don't happen very often. The decision to jump and to keep on jumping is always a deeply personal decision that you have to make and which nobody can judge you for. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Andy, maybe if we fall fast enough we will go back in time and we will be young again ! I fall fast enough to feel young again, but it hasn't brought back the days of an $8 ride to 12.5. Distance and time may not be absolute, but ground rush and impact certainly are, so I go along with the Newtonian notion of getting something over my head by 2 grand. USPA must be run by a bunch of Newtonians, though only Einstein can explain some of the weird delivery dates of my Parachutist Magazine (nyuk-nyuk). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

About twenty years ago I happened across a bulletin board at a Bay Area community college that had a notice, or an essay posted. The essay advocated warning your date that you would sue them if they gave you a STD. I'd been working for the last few years as a paralegal in a product liability/personal injury/wrongful death project - asbestos lawsuits on behalf of many retired shipyard workers. I concluded that this essay advocating lawsuits over STDs was written by some well meaning college sophomore who had no idea in the world what he or she was talking about. The person obviously thought the legal profession could ride to the rescue, like the cavalry. They had no idea at all of what a nasty business litigation is and how much "fun" you would have being cross examined about the details of your sex life by some unprincipled viper of a defense attorney. Or that even if you won a judgemnet, your health insurance plan would then demand reimbursement from any judgements or settlements you received. And in the end, you'd still be sick and very likely friendless as well. Maybe the author of that essay is a sitting justice on the Cal State Supreme Court, nothing surprises me anymore. I mean this is a state that mails me things I don't want to read, then bitches and moans on the envelope about how many trees they had to kill to print whatever piece of crap it is they mailed me that I don't want to read in the first place. So why shouldn't they open up a new can of worms, uh avenue of redress, for "the people". AIDS transmission among married couples is a worldwide problem and a leading cause of heterosexual transmission. And the offender is usually (not always) the husband, who thinks it's prefectly okay to stop by the local brothel on his way home, but that wearing a conom with his own wife is somehow "unthinkable". It's a tough problem that flies in the face of a lot of cultural norms, but only in the Peoples' Soviet of Kalifornia does anyone seriously think litigation can solve the problem. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You just might be. I never liked him at all, not even when he was Governor of Texas. Used to tell everyone "heaven help us if that nutjob ever gets elected to the White House". I think it's just a matter of the bill coming due for all the unbelievably stupid bullshit he's caused since the day he took office. He never won by a landslide, the last election was pretty close and the first election came down to a few Justices on the Supreme Court. But he's never been shy about taking the ball and running with it, I'll give him that. If you let a bull loose in a china shop, you might as well tie a string of fireworks to its tail, that seems to be his governing philosophy, except he's too dumb to understand what a china shop is, thinks it's something you'd have to go to China for. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This is the most paranoid piece of anit-Clinto crap I've ever read in my life, and by now there are some real doozies out there. The guy's been out of the White House for five years now AND he left a balanced budget AND a surplus. I've got a better conspiracy theory for you. A president (lets give him an imaginary name like "W") authorizes the leaking of classifed material that reveals the name of a CIA operative. Then he sicks the Justice Dept. on the newspapers he authorized leaking the story to. All while sending the nation into a war that is little more than a personal and family vendetta to show up his old man, who he never has got along with very well. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

And he's on his way to prison too, depending on whether he goes to trial or cops a plea. I hear he's even registered at Wal Mart for his upcoming prison wedding to Bubba. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

All too true, but considered also that beer has a legitimate use in teaching white people to dance. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, just think. You could complete AFF, get your "A", buy a really nice rig and take the summer off to hit the boogie circuit. All for some degrading hummers, and you're not even the hummer, but the hummee. Hey, we all gotta work. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's possible and some people have done it. But it wastes precious time and fixates you on another task while the ground is rushing up at you. I knew a guy who died messing around with a p/c in tow. Truth is, there is NO "perfect" system for dealing with these nasty malfunctions. If somebody can develop an improvement to our gear that will deal with it better, then I'll buy their rig. Until then, simply decide whether or not you're cutting away before you pull silver, but always pull silver - it's the ONLY handle that saves your life. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I had a set of velcroless risers that had no provision for stowing the excess brakeline. I improvised a system that worked really well, by S folding the excess line and placing it underneath the toggle when I stuck the stiffened toggle ends into the elastic keepers. That way the toggle itself holds the excess in place. Later, when I switched canoies I got a new set of risers that had stow loops built in, so I use those now. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

She's pretty enough, but I've seen a lot of her pictures in the catalogs where she just tries too hard for a "porn star" look. May sound odd from a guy, but I don't care for that kind of look. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

By the time I was 24 I was defintely looking - and TIRED of being single. Married the following year at 25. I'd sort of wonder if anybody, not just a man, would still have much interest in marriage if they were 43 and never married. They'd have pretty well hit their stride in life and marriage would be more of a giving up of long held independence I'd think. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I think at the very least some video of stuff like Airspeed or the 400 Way are inspirational. However I do NOT like coercive "team building" projects, whether it's forcing people into Transcendental Meditation or (God forbid) jumping out of an airplane. Skydiving is dangerous, or so they tell me in these Forums. At the very least, it's a highly personal decision. What kind of joy are you supposed to get from a tandem jump if you're only doing it so you won't miss a promotion or get fired ? It's too horrible to contemplate, let alone the liability issues (you can bet a waiver wouldn't be worth the paper it was printed on). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I don't think ignoring them is enough. I'm thinking water-cannon filled with sewage. mh Live ammo would be the American way. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Go down to the nearest convenience store and buy a can of Raid. You don't happen to own a shotgun, do you ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !