McDuck

Dude, you obviously have yet to break the code. "Don't get me anything for Christmas/birthday/other special event days" means "I don't expect anything, but I'd love to have you surprise me." Yeah, yeah. Love isn't about gifts, but it doesn't hurt to make at least a minimal effort. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Hmmm, I'll have to make sure we put ourselves in a poition to have the most fun, and that includes learning as much as we can with a liberal dose of partying mixed in with the skydiving. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Why, will she accidentally stumble into ours and think we're the bedding? Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Heh. I don't think I'm brave enough to venture into Pembroke. I actually value my cranium, and I'd rather not have it cracked open with a whiskey bottle. Okay, so WFFC it is. If I remember Rantoul at all, I imagine quality lodging will be scarce. Will camping be allowed at the event? Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Instead of pursuing the American dream further and immersing myself in debt (after working hard to eliminate all but one of my bills), not to mention cutting back on skydiving for a few months (unacceptable), Cora and I have decided not to go to Thailand this year for the boogie. However, we are batting around the idea of going to WFFC in Rantoul. Might be good for me to see some of my old stomping grounds while in tech school years ago. So, who else plans on going to WFFC? Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

But pictures like that can be considered "artsy"...at least until the origins are known. As for your sig line...it's funny when people think they know even the least bit of inside information about what makes someone else tick, especially when their own lives are less than ideal. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Life is one continuous learning process. I'm just going to keep doing whatever it is that I do. It certainly makes for some interesting introspection about the life I've led so far. As long as I'm learning, I'm living. So I suppose I'll just resolve to live.

I could blather on and on about my gifts, but I'll just say that I realised I had been given the best gift I've ever received: a wonderful holiday season with someone who loves me for who I am. Next to that, material things just don't have the same appeal they used to. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

That is wonderful! And it gives me an idea for my sweetie's birthday. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

If I was liquered up, would those pics be MORE or LESS blurry? Just kidding Lisa. It looks like it was a wonderful evening.

Right on! I got some wonderful gifts, including the one my sweetie let me open early, which was a "Freefly Pimp" long-sleeved t-shirt. TRY to get me to wear something else around the house. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Oh, I can think of some dark substance I might feel obliged to leave in that little scat's stocking. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Hmmm, I was mainly just being selfish when I copied and pasted that from an article that was copied and pasted to send in an email to me from my agent. "Selfish" being the word that I use to describe my posting it here in the first place due to the fact that if that movie were filmed here, there might have been an opportunity for my agent to get me a bit part on it. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Present and accounted for...and the clock refuses to move an inch. I'm locked in limbo here at work. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

You aren't missing anything. Think "Spy Hunter" only less entertaining. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

My agent sent me this, so I thought I would share it with the crowd: "Cold Mountain," the highly-promoted movie based on the best-selling novel, opens Christmas Day. Americans need to know that this film, set in Virginia and North Carolina against the background of the Civil War, the most wrenching period in our history and a time whose impact is still felt today, was shot almost entirely in Romania. In a recent interview on the ABC newsmagazine show "20/20," Anthony Minghella, director of "Cold Mountain" and partner (with Sydney Pollack) in Mirage Enterprises, one of the film's producer, told Barbara Walters he shot the film in Romania because he had looked at locations all over the American South and could not find any large expanses which "had not been touched by the twentieth and twenty-first centuries." Anyone familiar with Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia knows that that is completely untrue. What is true is that wages for workers in Romania are considerably less than wages anywhere in America. Interestingly enough, the producers of "The Patriot," the Mel Gibson movie set during the Revolutionary War, were able to find plenty of places in South Carolina which were apparently untouched by the nineteenth century as well as modern times. There is currently a great deal of discussion about outsourcing and its impact on our economy. We are outraged that many companies have exported their customer service and technical support jobs to English-speaking foreign countries or that American furniture manufacturers now send American hardwoods to China to be made into furniture for the American market instead of making it domestically. "Cold Mountain" is no different. This movie represents many hundreds of jobs, not just in Hollywood, but in the well-established communities of film workers throughout the Southeast and in the cities and towns in the region whose stores, restaurants, hotels and countless other small businesses would have benefited had it been shot in the part of our country where it is supposed to take place. When such an American story is taken away from its roots it loses its soul. Those who have already seen the film and know the South say that Romania does not really look like the Blue Ridge Mountains, and have observed other discrepancies as well. Daily Variety's December 8, 2003 review of "Cold Mountain" says it best: ". . . there is an intangible something missing . . . . It's impossible to say ether this stems from the fact that the film was mostly shot in Romania, from its being made mostly by foreigners, or from the variability of the accents by a significantly Anglo-Aussie cast, but there's something of a void at the bottom of things where bedrock ought to be." You can send a message that these economic losses and artistic choices compromised in the name of saving money are not acceptable to Americans. Do not contribute to "Cold Mountain" profiting literally at your expense by buying a ticket (or buying the DVD or renting the cassette when they become available.) Because of its ripple effect throughout the economy, even if you are not directly employed in the film industry your job could still be ultimately impacted. You can also send a message directly to the people responsible for the decision to take the production of this most American story and the many jobs it generated to a completely foreign country by writing the producers of "Cold Mountain:" ---------------------------------------- PM me if you want the names and addresses of the people and companies you can write to. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Get her that and a photo printer to go with it. Sony makes a great photo printer made especially for their cameras. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Her very own digital camera? Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

I'm sick and tired of doing the "Two-dozen cops in the trunk" gag and being the last guy out. They NEVER wait for me. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

I don't care WHAT those jerks at the office say, that hooker was dead when I climbed in there! Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Charlie Brown had gone too far in his pursuit of the little redheaded girl when he hired "professionals" to get her attention. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Another chuckle wrested from me here at work. No easy task. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

"If you call me a helmet wearin' fashion victim one more time, I'm gonna face-plant you on the gravel, and hogtie your sorry ass! Yeah YOU, mom!" Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Once my girlfriend gets her commercial license, I'm going to see if she'll try flying one of THOSE...after the prerequisite 35 hours of training, of course. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Damn! It just dawned on me that Cora and I are actually IN one of these videos on the site. He's called it "Banging Spider", and we're the second group he filmed for it. Cora and I form the (spinning) base and the other two attempt the crawling spider on us. Go take a peek. http://www.skydivebang.com/skyvideo.htm Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.