PalmettoTiger

All praise and glory to the Google Search!! Enjoy. There she was just a walkin' down the street Singin' Doo Wah Diddy Diddy down diddy do Snappin' her fingers and shufflin' her feet Singin' Do Wah Diddy Diddy down diddy do she looked good, she looked fine, she looked good And I nearly lost my mind Before I knew it she was walkin' next to me Singin' Do Wah Diddy Diddy down diddy do Holdin' my hand just as nat'ral as can be Singin' Do Wah Diddy Diddy down diddy do We walked on, to my door, we walked on Then we kissed a little more. I know we were falling in love Yes, I did and so I told her all the things I'd been dreamin' of. Now we're together nearly ev'ry single day Singin' Do Wah Diddy Diddy down diddy do We are so happy and that's how we're gonna stay Singin' Do Wah Diddy Diddy down diddy do Well, I'm hers well I'm hers and she's mine, and she's mine I'm hers she's mine wedding bells are gonna chime PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Dude, I wasn't complaining, it was just a jumping-off point for some musings.

Why do we always ask "OK, but what's beyond that?" People who lived along the coasts weren't satisfied with that. Thousands died trying to cross the sea and discover its limits. After that, people everywhere dreamed of flight, not content to merely breathe the air. Instead they strove to travel through it, to change it from an image beyond our grasp to a palpable expanse. But even after we conquered that, we've turned our attention to space. Humankind has an insatiable urge to travel through hostile environments, tame them... and then take up the next challenge. Why? Will there ever be a point where we accept what we've accomplished and refrain from pushing our boundaries yet again? The universe we live in may well be infinite. But we have finite minds, and so regardless of what technologies we've developed, no matter what limits we've conquered, the next generation will still strive to expand our reach further. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

*golf clap* Well struck, sir!! PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

The MS Word grammar check markings are a nice touch. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

click on "NSL News" then scroll down past the reserve competition. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

I never played Tribes, but I listened to people bitch about the bugs and support, and figured it must be fun if they kept playing it anyway. As far as FPS games go, I never play anything long enough to get really good at it. I just have the basic skills, and play until I get bored (or repeatedly owned)... PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped. -- Sam Levenson PTiger P.S. I know which specific site that "fill it with sand" and lamp lingo is from. It's just wild to see it linked back from another message board.

Hmm.... NYC auto show or help Speedy move. Concept cars, booth babes, and a day of relaxing vs. moving vans, sweaty men, and a day of lower back strain. So tough to decide. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Haha, funny. We've got something similar here at school: "You know it's close to exams when the Californians put on parkas and the Canadians put on pants." PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

A bit of statistics. If you've got events that could happen at any time (i.e. randomly), it's very very unlikely that they'll be spaced out evenly. We see clumps all the time, but aren't picky about what exactly makes a clump. (If things all happen at the end of the year, it's a clump. If they happen at the beginning of the year, or the middle, or in late March then again in mid April, etc. etc. it's a clump.) But we have a very specific idea about even spacing, so the number of spacings we see and think "even" is waaaaaay smaller than the number of spacings we see and think "clump." PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

I don't know how many people this actually applies to, but one advantage of the 120 day cycle is that more jumpers will get a rigger inspection twice in the season.With the 180 day cycle, folks who don't jump during the winter could conceivably get an inspection and repack at the beginning of the season only, so any problems that develop during the season could go unnoticed. The 120 day cycle gets their gear thoroughly inspected midseason, after the wear and tear of the season has been accumulating. Of course it's up to the individual jumper to look over his/her gear after every jump, or weekend, or whatever. But some people don't seek the necessary expertise or don't exercise it. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

I'll be there. Not sure about accomodations, though. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Well, you see, when a skydiver loves his parachute very much, and it's cold out, they'll snuggle together, and... Well, your jumpmasters should have really explained this when you were younger... but I guess lots of people turn to the internet for this kind of information these days. Seriously, it refers to 're-arming' collapsible pilot chutes so that they are fully inflated when you release them during deployment. Most systems do have a way to check that without actually unpacking the pilot chute. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

I'll never be current enough to be an aggressive canopy pilot. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

You, yes YOU, have the opportunity to practice a crucial skydiving skill, right here, right now, sitting on your ass in front of your computer. "Wow, which one!?" you ask? Why, learning from the mistakes of others, of course! The Short Version. --other person to learn from: me. --mistake: Amtrak. --solution: fly, or drive, or walk, or bike, or don't go at all... but whatever you do, don't go Amtrak!! The Epic Tale of Sadness and Woe. I'm headed home for a few days over Spring Break. Driving from here to home is an 11 hour, 650 mile journey. Gas for the round trip, a few cups of coffee, a few fast-food meals, and fixing the headlight or windshield wipers or whatever else fell victim to Murphy's Law moments before I set out runs the cost to about $160. Of course, for the low low price of $263, I could let Amtrak do the driving, and only spend an extra 3½ hours en route. Plus, I could sleep (not recommended while doing the driving myself), or even study (yeah right) while riding the train. I can even put off the decision until the day before, unlike flying. WHAT A DEAL!!! The first part of the trip wasn't so bad. Although I arrived in the dead of night, my train actually made it to Columbia 10 minutes early. Dad and I figured we'd better make good use of those bonus minutes and go check and make sure Krispy Kreme still made donuts, and ensure that those donuts are still ranked somewhere between nectar and ambrosia on the deliciousness scale. Right on both counts. (We're incorrigible.) Fast forward to the return leg of the trip. I find myself all packed and ready to go at 8 Friday evening. Since my train won't leave for another five hours, I decided to go see a movie with my best friend and sister. After the movie I switch my gear into my sister's car, since my friend is really tired and my sister can drive me to the train station instead. Unfortunately, I forgot to switch my ticket too. CRAP. I realize this about one block from the train station, with ninety minutes to go. No sweat, Mike left because he's tired, he probably went straight home, we'll just swing by his house... um, of course, he's kinda moved since I last went to his place. I'm almost certain that he's in a new apartment two houses over... Fuggit. My options are buy a new ticket, or hope Mike lives (or at least parks) near his old apartment. I choose the latter, and am rewarded with the sight of an empty parking lot. F[*censored, Mrs. Radloff wouldn't approve*]!!!! I run to another friend's pad (he lives close by), hoping that he knows where Mike has moved, or that I can at least use his phone to call Mike. Of course, that would require my other friend to actually be home, which he isn't. On a whim inspired by sheer desperation, I go prowling through all the backyards in the block, and finally find Mike's car. Locked. My ticket cackles triumphantly at me from the floorboard where it fell when it squirmed out of my backpack in its bid for freedom. Oh sure, it thinks it has the last laugh... but I spy a Swiss Army Brick™ lying nearby. HAH!! Just what I need. I can smash the window, open the door, grab my ticket, and have my getaway driver speed me to the train station with plenty of time. ("Whoa, bummer dude, someone broke into your car after the movie? Well, did they take anything? No? Damn, you got lucky.") Mike doesn't have an anti-theft system, but he does have good insurance. Besides, I have a great alibi for my fingerprints to be all over his car - I just rode with him to the movie! Fortunately for him, I decided to knock on all the doors of the apartment block he's parked behind, and find my friend on the second try. Ticket in hand, I make it to the train station with twenty minutes to spare. My train leaves Columbia at 12:42 AM and gets into Trenton at 2:32 PM... theoretically. When I get to the station, the train is already listed as one hour late. Time passes... and the train is now listed as 2 hours and fifteen minutes late. As I groggily stare at the clock, two things come to my attention: first, if I hadn't had the little drama with the ticket, the train would be on time. Second, some moron steps out onto the platform every time he hears a whistle, and proceeds to pace in front of the automatic doors for ten minutes, so the doors keep popping back open and dumping cold air onto the waiting area. After the appointed hour arrives, someone announces over the PA that our train is stuck behind a disabled freight train forty minutes south of Columbia, and won't be able to move until a maintenance crew can come fix the freight car. Now maybe I'm cynical, but I'm not really confident that the CSX maintenance crews will respond with the alacrity (or preparedness) of your average paramedic or firefighter at 3 am on a Saturday morning. And of course, I'm right. After apparently trying to fix the freight train with duct tape, voodoo dolls, and really mean stares, the situation is finally resolved and the Amtrak train rolls into Columbia at SIX AM. For those of you keeping score at home, that's over FIVE HOURS late, or over one third of the (theoretical) total travel time. Of course, it gets better from here. We're forced to wait several hours outside Camden, SC for a replacement crew, because our current crew has exceeded the 12-hour shift limit, and cannot legally operate the train. The replacement crew is awaiting us somewhere to the north, where our train should have picked them up and made the switch two or three hours ago. Once that's resolved, we wait for a few more hours outside Raleigh, NC... for no apparent reason. The passengers are all restless, groggy from waiting so long, and grumpy at having their Saturday plans wrecked. Even better, since the train was supposed to be in Washington, D.C. and get resupplied before lunch, they've run out of food. Can you feel the love yet? The kicker is that all track south of Richmond isn't owned or maintained by Amtrak - the freight companies are in charge. So the tracks are in worse shape (max safe speeds are lower), and all the switching and routing forces us onto sidings to let TRAINLOADS OF FREAKING WOOD CHIPS AND COAL pass us. No, I'm not bitter. Not at all. I finally made it to Trenton at 10:45. Again, for those of you keeping score at home, that's over eight hours late - I could have driven the whole route at 35 mph and still beat the train. I barely caught the last NJ Transit train of the evening back to school. Now I'm back, my sleep cycle is completely inverted, I'm hungry but the pizza guys don't deliver this late, and as long as I have a viable alternative like riding a unicycle backwards through a blizzard, I'm never taking Amtrak again. GRRRrrrrrrr. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Hey, don't be so glum! Look at it this way: you know you're current on emergency procedures, and now you've got a decent nickname with a funny story to it. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Found this hilarious video on another board. They took chatroom dialogue and shot it in a waiting room-type setting. Old guys masquerading as young girls, middle-aged guys hitting on teenage girls, moderators... everything gets parodied. Comedy at its finest!! (It's an 11-minute streaming video, so you might not be able to watch it if you're on a modem.) PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

You forgot courteous, cheerful, and reverent. Don't think honest was part of the 12 Points either, kinda ironic. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Putting yourself at risk is a lot different than putting your next-door neighbor at risk. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Well it's not like I can be picky about which senator I work for. My other choice was Strom Thurmond. Hmmm.... tough decision. But about the anti-piracy tech. Of course it's gonna fall flat on it's face. The DEA is always a step behind the smugglers, that's the nature of the game - initiative lies with the other side. Same with electronic copyright protection. But come on. Stealing is stealing is stealing. Doesn't matter how rich the victim is. PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Heh. Yeah. here and here for the history. (Skreamer came up with the idea of 'hump loadings' and I expanded it. I didn't think it would take off though.) PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

SWEET!!!!! Just got a call from my senator's office and I got an internship this summer!! Awesome! Senator Hollings is on the Commerce Committee too, so he has a big part in telecom, internet, and consumer electronics-oriented legislation. This is gonna be fun. Only downside is that it doesn't pay crap (Congressional interns are specifically exempted from minimum wage legislation), and it's only one month long. And of course it's the month in the middle of my summer, so whatever I end up doing to try and earn some money will have to be a piecemeal kind of thing. Doesn't really matter though. I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!! PTiger I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

Let me put it this way. There's bad sex... and then there's GOOD skydiving. Hrm, crap, that didn't work without the hand gestures. OK. Visual learners.. visual learners.. ***** ****

AAAAAAAAAAHahahaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! I am such the magician. [b][black]P[/black][orange]Tiger[/orange][/b] I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way