MakeItHappen

There will be a book out on April 1, 2010 (no-fooling) that includes, but is not limited to: - My 6 years on the board of directors of USPA - My 29 years of USPA membership - My contributions to the world of parachuting and skydiving - My opinion of the current state of affairs in the skydiving world - Anything else that I think you might want to know about The contest is very simple. Submit a proposed title for the book. If your title is chosen, then you'll get 5 free autographed copies of the book and recognition on one or more of my web sites. You can submit as many titles as you wish. You must submit your name, email, phone number and title to Aerosoftware_AT_MakeItHappen.com before March 1, 2010. Replace _AT_ with @. Proposed titles may not include profanity, Skyride or USPA or any verbiage that is or may considered injurious to any particular business or persons, whether or not it is true. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Your numbers or anyone's numbers don't mean jack. The best way to find out if your tracking is flat enough is to have a vidiot go level with the base and watch you (an outside person) track away. When the picture shows that the trackers gain altitude on the base, then the trackers did good. Sorry I don't have video on hand to show you, but I've seen it many times before. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Hey Tim, I got your postcard yesterday. It says in part I was wondering what your views are on 1-800-Skyride. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

check this out http://www.timvote.com/index.php/shop/category/skydive-with-tim/ all for the low, low price of $250. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I think the more important number is the actual minutes used divided by monthly cost. ie how much do you actually pay per minute? I have a pre-paid plan about $250 spent over 2.5 years & have 50 minutes left. Of course, I'm not a phone person. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I'm on the opt-out list and got the ad too. I think HQ thinks this is one of the incentive benefits of membership - like the Hertz rental coupon. eg If USPA gets a cut then they can send you advertising regardless if you opt out on your renewal form. BTW, I've never used the Hertz coupon because they are still more expensive - even with the discount. Big red flags went off in my mind when I read that they would give $5 just for filling out a quote form. That is data mining, confirmed by Tom. The first page of the form says "(Optional: for marketing or research only.)" twice. USPA should stick to skydiving. It has hard enough time doing that right. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Don't forget that you can use google street views to get an idea ahead of time too. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

There is a place called Sierra Dawn,951-925-6502, that is a nice, well maintained large mobile home park for seniors. It's pretty much independent living, but you can hire someone to clean, cook, shop and whatnot. It's around the corner from The Village too. Hemet West is another upscale independent living place, but out west of Hemet. Eden Roc is nice too, not as pricey. They have the voter booths there. Hemet has a Senior Center, Senior-Olympics and a plethora of activities for the older folks. Scrabble at the library. Lawn bowling at Himmel Park. http://www.cityofhemet.org/housing/mobile_home_rv.htm Let me know if I can help you find care takers. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You might try places in Hemet, CA. It's a retirement community. The best place is the Village. http://www.thevillagehemet.com/ It has residents that are pretty much self-sufficient mobility wise that have people check in on them. They have apartment type accommodations. The Village provides transportation to the mall, casino and other ventures around the area. They also get lots of perks from local business. They also have a wing or two with people that need help dressing and bathing. Their rooms are like large up-scale dorm rooms. Meals are served in a cafeteria or in their rooms. They even allow cats as pets in those wings. Another place is Camelot. A bit too pricey for the size of the rooms, but it is nice, clean and has adequate staff. There are a couple of other places too, but when I was there I only saw the residents that were in near-hospital type rooms and were very bed-ridden. The reason I know of these places is from my volunteer work with the library's home-bound program. The home bound program has been recently canceled, but I'd be happy to run books, tapes, dvds out to the Village or any of the other places. If your mother-in-law can live on her own, but needs someone to check up on her or run errands or cook & clean there are many senior parks around too. Cheaper, more living space, but fewer helpers on demand. Helpers are available for hire. There was a very nice lady that cooked and cleaned for another one of the library's home bound client. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Marshmallows melt too. I was looking for a cheese replacement in my patented corn tortilla gringo sammiches. A loaf of bread always went stale before I could finish it, so I switched to toasted corn tortillas as the 'bread'. But chopped chicken, onions, green peppers, spinach etc would fall out unless you melted cheese over it. I can use larger pieces of the food too and the fall out problem is not so bad. The sammiches are sort of a cross between quesadillas and tacos. Yeah I know I could use flour tortillas and make a wrap sammich, but I don't like raw tortillas. The toasted corn tortilla gringo pizzas and gringo ham & cheese sammiches are good too. The key is to first toast the corn tortilla until it is firm, but not too crisp or brittle. Then add the innards and toast again until everything is hot and the cheese melted. My gringo tacos are made by first toasting a corn tortilla draped over two rungs of the toaster oven until crisp. Then adding chicken with a little soy sauce, green peppers, onions, garlic and spinach. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

http://www.mysuperpc.com/ I had to buy Artic Silver separately. Download latest drivers for everything first and have them available on a thumb drive and CD, just in case one doesn't work at first. I also installed components one at a time. Troubleshooting is much easier. ie get the system to boot, then add the CD/DVD. Get that to work then install OS on HD. Get that to work then add cards one at a time. Be careful about CMOS updates because you can fry the MB if you do it wrong. If you are making a multi-boot system, you always have to start with the oldest and work up to the newest OS. If you are making *nix plus Windoze - go read the web sites on that. Lots of info on setting up the partitions correctly. Knoppix is a good trouble shooting/ recovery CD that will work no matter what OS combo you have. Document all CMOS settings as you change them. See crucial.com for memory. They've always had the lowest prices when I was adding memory. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

http://www.wfsb.com/news/21574971/detail.html . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

A sidewalk can be deadly for a bicyclist. http://bicyclesafe.com/ Not only can someone open a store door into your path someone can walk out in front of you. At intersections, cars may not be able to see you approaching the intersection and can turn into you. Bike clubs recommend riding in the street and specifically getting IN FRONT of cars at a stop light (when the light is red) so that they see you. Some cities even have painted areas that bikes should be in at the intersections. I make sure I do this at all signaled intersections, especially when I have my dogs with me. Most cyclists that blow thru stop signs are kids, not adults. Most vehicle drivers try to change the rules of the road from inside their vehicle by directing traffic. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

That pool used to be planted in the ground at Coolidge. I used to teach backloops to students in it - in the summer anyway. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I am looking around for foods that melt when heated and then coagulate on cooling. So far I have cheese, butter/margarine, peanut butter, chocolate. What else is there? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

For a situation like that, you might look into buying a van or PU w/shell on your first day here and then selling it when you leave. That would be the cheapest, but it does have some extra logistics. Rentals of mobile RVs will cost much more than a motel or onsite DZ housing plus rental car for the same time period. See autotrader.com etc There may be some Class C RVs that may be ok, but usually they are old and have high mileage. You could rent a van too from regular rental places. Bring a sleeping bag and you should be set. A trek from Perris to Eloy - even in winter - should be done with a good vehicle and lots of water. There are looooong stretchs of desolation, where you don't want to break down on. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

If you have wheels, Hemet has a bunch of motels that rent by the week and month. Check out Verizon's yellow pages. Look for places on Florida Ave from Sanderson to Palm Ave. From the outside most of those motels look ok. I don't think the RV parks have rentals per say. Hemet is 20 min from Perris and 45 from Elsinore. If you have to take the bus, double those times and you won't be at the DZ either, so you'd have to have a plan for that. But I have an extra bicycle that you can use. They have bike racks on the buses. Of course, if it's raining you'll get wet. Perris is a high crime area. Sun City does not have the cheaper motels - just the major brands. Elsinore only has a few motels. There's one or two motels in-between Perris & Elsinore. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Go to your registrar and change the name servers to the new host's name servers. If your old hosting company registered your domain name for you, then that become a bit more difficult because they may have listed themselves as the technical contact. If you have any questions email me at aerosoftware_AT_makeithappen.com or call 951-658-3526 . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

This incident is a strong reflection on many attributes of society as well as mob mentality and bystander indifference. This girl probably knew some of the kids she went off to drink with around the side of the school. She trusted her immediate social contacts not to harm her. It is not very plausible to think that she was a strumpet and went off with a bunch of strangers or that she was a milquetoast. There is no reason to impute the girl's character or actions. The timeline (according to other articles) was within an hour or maybe two of leaving the dance. It does not make sense that someone could get inebriated in such a short time. The timeline indicator points to drugs. It's quite possible someone slipped her a date rape drug without her knowledge. Her state of incapacitation does not give permission to do what you want. But apparently that's what the perpetrators thought. I seriously doubt that this young woman was out to get drunk, do powerful drugs or partake in group sex when she knew her father was going to pick her up within the hour. The bystanders that did nothing or perhaps recorded the assault on a cell phone are reacting to two very pestiferous customs. One is voyeurism and the other is a whistleblower social penalty. It's well documented that many people like to watch others having sex. The porn trade makes a lot of money on this. They may have interpreted the situation as consensual. Yet that is a poor excuse, as a public display of group sex at a prom is not a typical manifestation of porn type activities. The neighborhood has gangs. Gangs can inflict physical and social harm to people that 'call the cops'. Society, in general, does not embrace people that stand up and say 'this is not right' and try to correct an injustice. In fact, society usually extracts untold penalties upon those that are tattletales. Two high profile examples are the woman that called the police on Gates and the guy in the NY subway that intervened when he saw an altercation and shot the perpetrator. Much more insipid factors are when the general population diminishes the status of women and girls by inculcating sexual attractiveness as the most important attribute or berating female intellects. All those comments along the lines of boobie threads contribute to the misogyny of treating women and girls as equal partners in society. Eg "They think it's cool," Vargas said of the alleged perpetrators. "They weren't raised to respect girls." . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Blame Bill Gates or the hyphens. Skydivers know – the refreshing feel of cool air rushing around them as they fly towards the earth – dancing through the sky with the greatest of ease - the thrill of victory – the agony of the feet – a swoop towards the ground to a perfect stop – and most especially why birds sing. We opened up the can of peas. We were cooking now. Little green dots were everywhere. There were many a pair of shooters taking pictures of the tiny green dots. The can of peas, dispersed by the wind, landed all over the countertops and floor. Ah, the good old days. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Here's some made up stories. I went to an airport to make my first ever skydive. The jumpmaster said, "After you jump, pull this cord to open your parachute. I asked, "What if that doesn't work?" He said, "Then pull this cord." I asked, "What happens if that doesn't work?" He said, "Isn't it obvious?" Skydivers know – the refreshing feel of cool air rushing around them as they fly towards the earth – dancing through the sky with the greatest of ease - the thrill of victory – the agony of the feet – a swoop towards the ground to stop perfectly – and most especially why birds sing. It's almost like the twitter game, only longer. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Ok Here's another true story. I knelt down next to my black rig and started to stow the brakes. A woman came up to me and stood over me. She asked what I was doing. I was on the next plane and had to pack quickly. Then she asked, "Why are you packing my rig?" . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

This is a story Twardo told me. I pulled up to the intersection and waited for the light to change. Cross traffic went left and right. A car made a left in front of me. People were directing traffic from inside their cars. How annoying is that? Then I realized that I was at a stop sign. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

That was changed at the winter 09 mtg. It was an arbitrary number pulled from the sky. A way to beat it is to come to the US for a week, sign up using your US address & get your LT membership and then submit a change of address to overseas when you move back home. Then they'll probably ask for the $9 difference each year. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

See DiveMaker . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker