skydiver30960

Something to consider... Elvisio "and soon there will be phones in cars" Rodriguez

Most importantly, don't buy a machine preloaded with Vista. I'm currently tick-tickety-ticking away on my two-day-old Dell laptop preloaded with Windows 7 and other sundries. While it definitely wouldn't meet the needs of some of you silicon (not silicone) freaks out there, for me and the wifey it's plenty. I'm still learning about the little differences between XP and 7, but overall I'm pretty happy. Oh, and before some hoser chimes in, I DID look at macs, and was going to have to pay almost three times as much for a similarly sized Mac. Given our propensity for being hard on our electronics, the Dell seemed like a better bet. Elvisio "gotta get ready for work, but mezmerized by the HD screen compared to my old 2004-era POS screen" Rodriguez

Man, I wish I had your problems! Elvisio "I can't complain either, really" Rodriguez

Sorry dude, I just got it off the "market" thingy on my droid. The full name is Babel Fish Voice: English to Spanish. If that doesn't work, like others said, learn Spanish. Or for that matter, learn any second language: it makes you (at least seem) refined and the ladies totally go for it. Elvisio "worked for my wife" Rodriguez

Can't help with the crackberry. But, does the Hero use the same android apps as my Droid? OR do the writers have to make a new app for each one? I ask because there is an absolutely SEXY translator app for my droid. It's the babelfish translator for spanish, and it's the bomb. You speak the sentence you want translated into the phone, it translates the text on the screen, then it speaks the spanish translation back to you! The translation isn't perfect, but it gets the job done. I speak enough spanish that I don't really need the program, and can tell when it is or isn't doing a good job of translation. It's just cool to have, especially since it does voice-to-voice. AND the voice it speaks in is relatively easy to understand. The Russian version of the program, however, needs some work. I honestly can't tell how well it's translating, but the speech sounds like Yakov Smirnoff with a bad head injury. I could bring my phone and this app to Rodriguez Brothers initiations in lieu of a dictionary, except for the fact that by the time we get around to initiations I would fear for the welfare of my phone. AND who I might call in that condition. Elvisio "writing from my new laptop, woot!" Rodriguez

On Saturday I attended an educational day for one of our local air medical service providers (i.e. helicopter medevac), and the medical director for the service mentioned that more and more doctors are returning to the use of ketamine for anesthesia for various things including intubation. Elvision "that which is old is new again" Rodriguez

Flying used to be fun. It used to be an event. It used to be one of the most exciting parts of the family vacation, when I was younger. Now, it's just a pain. All the service is gone from the industry. They will say it's because of skyrocketing costs, we will say it's so the companies can make a buck, and both parties are probably right. We're reaching the point where we're just cargo, not human beings. Every time they start charging for something that used to be free, they make it painfully clear. IMO, they really should just start charging by the pound. You, your checked bags, your carry-on, the whole shebang: get on the scale, pay so much per pound. If you want to pack heavy, pay the price. If you go light, you don't get hit as hard in the wallet. If you weigh more than so much (without your stuff, just you) then you automatically get two seats, because if you weigh that much then you're pretty much paying for it anyhow. Plus, that'll encourage people to shit/piss before getting weighed, so it will help deal with the OP's original issue. Elvisio "flying commercial in May, NOT looking forward to it" Rodriguez

SERIOUSLY! Doesn't anyone realize how hard you have to work to develop an ego as big as Felix's? Elvisio "meh" Rodriguez

Congrats on 3,000! I worked all weekend. Had some pretty interesting trauma patients. Otherwise, just two more 12-hour shifts in three years of "putting in my time." Elvisio "August can't get here fast enough, career-wise" Rodriguez

And HOW MANY people are jumping canopies named after this guy? Elvisio "I used to be one of them" Rodriguez

It's been a LONG while since I read it, but I'm pretty sure it's from Catch 22: the old guy who (I think) was the pimp at the brothel that Nately's whore worked in was talking to one of the American servicemen about how many different governments had ruled over his homeland since the fall of Rome. Anyhow, it ends with the old man grinning at the serviceman and asking something like "What, did you think the United States will last forever?" It made me pause and think for a moment at the time; but I find myself thinking about it more and more lately. Regardless of the administration, there always seems to be a certain amount of background noise from people screaming "the end is nigh" and blaming the current administration for it. Anyhow, my personal interest is not so much in arguing whether or not the current, past, or coming administrations are responsible for the fall of America. Instead, how do you think it will happen? Financial collapse? (this may be the easy choice, but then what CAUSES the financial collapse?) Civil war or revolution? Multitudes of mushroom clouds of Chinese or North Korean manufacture? Environmental disaster? Elvisio "and what will happen to my 401K?" Rodriguez

HEY! Hands off my sig line! Elvisio "it's cool, i can't act either" Rodriguez

How about the option for "full time employment AND student?" Not there yet, but getting ready to meet with the admissions counselor to start on my degree... My fifth degree, that is... Elvisio "lifetime student" Rodriguez

If that were so, would I be guilty of "downwind shaving?" Elvisio "back on topic" Rodriguez

I've heard from people that whenever you change shaving methods (from traditional razor to electric, or vice versa) that it takes time for your beard to "retrain" to the new shaving style. Do you agree? Or is it just that it takes you a while to learn the new method as well as you knew your old method? Or do you just take a while to adjust to the new standard of what is a "smooth" shave? I ask because for most of my life I've been an "against the grain" shaver. I've never felt I could get a close shave with the grain. But I'm finally biting the bullet to see if shaving with the grain for an extended period of time will somehow make a difference. Whenever I'm shaving against the grain, if I try it more than every third day or so I'm a bloody mess. Weigh in... Elvisio "no more little bits of TP on my face, please" Rodriguez

How old is the video? How many (including pilot) didn't get out? Was the pilot wearing a bailout rig? You can see the cameraman got out, and the other skydiver who was moving to the door gets chucked out right after the video guy gets out, but I didn't notice any other canopies. Most interesting to me was the short period of time between when the first group left and the plane started falling and when everyone got pinned that everyone was just sitting around looking at each other like "WTF?" Was the pilot telling them to stay in? It does look like at one point they got a "get the fuck out" from the pilot because the one guy shoos another out the door right before they got pinned. Somebody please weigh in. Huge educational opportunity here... Elvisio "news to me" Rodriguez

Yo Chile, wazzup? I never got the chance to jump in it but a couple years running I worked ground crew for the guys who did the demo into the Glasgow Games in Glasgow KY. I don't think any of them ever went regimental because they had to be put on over their leg straps (obviously) and were worried about having to land in a demo after being accidentally de-kilted by the relative wind. Elvisio "Fields of Athenry" Rodriguez

I've been a skydiver for 13 years and a scuba diver for about two. One observation I've noticed so far: While it may be a greater or lesser phenomenon depending on what DZ you go to, being a skydiver immerses you in what I have come to call a "culture of safety." Skydivers are taught from the beginning of their careers to make safety something that absolutely permeates their sport. Our training, our rituals, even our discussions while hanging around the DZ between jumps often have to do with the safety of our sport. We work very hard to assess and mitigate risk in this sport. When I started scuba diving I expected the same thing, and was disappointed in what I found. Without a doubt, I feel I received good and safe training from my scuba instructors, and I don't feel my dive buddies are absolutely unsafe, per se. But I find that scuba diving has a much less permeating culture of safety that what I have found in skydiving. People I dive with push the limits on depth, they disregard their computers or tables, they are shoddy in their equipment checks. And I see it everywhere I dive and everyone I dive with; it's not just the local folks. I, being such a detail oriented bastard from over a decade of skydiving, instructing, and rigging, often find myself being the bad guy by reminding my wife that the examples set by our dive buddies are not good ones. But I can think of specific examples from my skydiving career where something as simple as a gear check may have saved a life that I refuse to allow me or my wife to be lost to complacency. Elvisio "in either sport, running out of air sucks" Rodriguez

So the runaway US legal system decided that a movement designed to reign in the runaway legal system is unconstitutional? Why am I not surprised... Elvisio "genie is out of the bottle" Rodriguez

Nah. If I kick the bucket, the overwhelming majority of the stuff that I do online becomes moot. I'm just not that important. The only thing I'd worry about is the online banking. But since we still bank with a normal real-world bank, my wife could just go there with a copy of my death certificate (yikes!) and get full access to all our duckets, which I'm pretty sure she has already (the access, not the death certificate). Elvisio "checking my coffee for Iocaine powder" Rodriguez

It's pretty simple: if one of us is having sex, and the other isn't involved, it's cheating. Elvisio "still leaves plenty of options open" Rodriguez

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment Elvisio "an interesting read" Rodriguez

Dude, consider who the OP is! Obviously, the place is done in "BDSM Chic." Elvisio "go with black leather stretched over chrome steel framework" Rodriguez

On a really good night, they smell like semen! Elvisio "dirty minds rule" Rodriguez

I hear you. Much to my dismay, Otter Box has not yet engineered a product for my Droid. So until then I'll have to get by with the wannabe product I got at the Verizon store. Elvisio "extended warranty and insurance, please" Rodriguez