Nightingale

8 levels at Perris. I didn't have any repeats. My issue was actually exiting the plane, rather than freefall. Freefall stuff I could do fine, it was just the "door monster" that got to me sometimes. you can read all about it at my website (linked below). According to my instructors, they have about 10% of people who make it through with no repeats, and if someone's going to repeat something, they repeat level 4, 5, or 6, usually. If you have to repeat a level, its just another opportunity to jump with instructors and learn. The jump still counts towards your A, so don't feel like you're wasting time. 90% of people repeat. It's not a big deal!

bah. sorry. 90% of the time when people want $$ for skydiving, they're talking about AFF. I know one of the container companies (mirage??) finances gear.

see if the DZ will let you pay a portion every month till you have enough, and THEN start AFF? otherwise, you can investigate "personal loans". you'll probably need a co-signer, though.

yeah... what she said... except, Michele, you are more of a hottie than you think. You have an amazingly bright spirit that seems to outshine everything around you.

actually I have... for some reason, the kittens have been quite safe recently. Gee, I wonder why??

All I have to do is listen to Rush Limbaugh or Dr. Laura. Either of them can kill sex drive (as well as appetite! ugh. )

I'm hoping to get a jump or two in on sunday at Perris. no more than 2 jumps, tho... gotta save the $ for law school textbooks

of course the argument is about the benefits. if it were simply about the commitment, well, that's already there. many churches perform gay weddings. however, to have the same benefits, the union must be recognized by the government.

hmm.... with the number I've done in personally, I have no clue.

Quote Maybe I should begin a "Do you know how awesome Ed is?" poll.

I still don't get it. I've heard of polishing dolphins, spanking monkeys, and knocking the hat off the man in the canoe, but killing kittens??? explained here. http://www.hosstyle.com/kittens.htm

there is a space in it because it was pasted from an email that was sent to me, and there were spaces in the email. I wasn't about to go and take them all out!

hehe... I wish I'd been there... course, I wouldn't have been able to keep from giggling, so it's probably a good thing I wasn't.

marriage should be a private issue. Or, there should be a civil marriage and a religious marriage, and one really doesn't have a whole lot to do with another. the former is about your status with the government. the latter is about your church. the only reason it is a public issue is that there are certain legal rights that you have only as a married couple. A lot of this stems from property issues back in the middle ages. homosexual couples are denied the following: Accidental death benefit for the surviving spouse of a government employee; Appointment as guardian of a minor; Award of child custody in divorce proceedings; Beneficial owner status of corporate securities; Bill of Rights benefits for victims and witnesses; Burial of service member's dependents; Certificates of occupation; Consent to post-mortem examination; Continuation of rights under existing homestead leases; Control, division, acquisition, and disposition of community property Criminal injuries compensation; Death benefit for surviving spouse for government employee Disclosure of vital statistics records; Division of property after dissolution of marriage; Eligibility for housing opportunity allowance program of the Housing, Finance and Development Corporation; Exemption from claims of Department of Human Services for social services payments, financial assistance, or burial payments; Exemption from conveyance tax; Exemption from regulation of condominium sales to owner-occupants; Funeral leave for government employees; Homes of totally disable veterans exempt from property taxes; Income tax deductions, credits, rates exemption, and estimates; Inheritance of land patents; Insurance licenses, coverage, eligibility, and benefits organization of mutual benefits society; Legal status with partner’s children; Making, revoking, and objecting to anatomical gifts; Making partner medical decisions; Nonresident tuition deferential waiver; Notice of guardian ad litem proceedings; Notice of probate proceedings; Payment of wages to a relative of deceased employee; Payment of worker's compensation benefits after death; Permission to make arrangements for burial or cremation; Proof of business partnership; Public assistance from the Department of Human Services; Qualification at a facility for the elderly; Real property exemption from attachment or execution; Right of survivorship to custodial trust; Right to be notified of parole or escape of inmate; Right to change names; Right to enter into pre-marital agreement; Right to file action for nonsupport; Right to inherit property; Right to purchase leases and cash freehold agreements concerning the management and disposition of public land; Right to sue for tort and death by wrongful act; Right to support after divorce/separation; Right to support from spouse; Rights and proceedings for involuntary hospitalization and treatment; Rights by way of dour or courtesy; Rights to notice, protection, benefits, and inheritance under the uniform probate code; Sole interest in property; Spousal privilege and confidential marriage communications; Spousal immigration benefits; Status of children; Support payments in divorce action; Tax relief for natural disaster losses; Vacation allowance on termination of public employment by death; Veterans' preference to spouse in public employment; In vitro fertilization coverage; Waiver of fees for certified copies and searches of vital statistics.

dunno about anyone else, but I'm keeping mine at least til I have my first chop. I know its my responsibility to pull my handles, but there's nothing wrong with a little back-up.

hehe... those are great books. not real good for lowering one's sex drive, though. I have volume I and II, and am hunting about for III.

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." -- Thomas Jefferson (letter to J. Adams April 11,1823) "Our Constitution... has not left the religion of its citizens under the power of its public functionaries, were it possible that any of these should consider a conquest over the consciences of men either attainable or applicable to any desirable purpose." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to New London Methodists, 1809. ME 16:332 "The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah Moor, 1800. "I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another." --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799. ME 10:78 "We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Religion, 1776. Papers 1:546 www.virginia.edu I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all." From: The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine, pp. 8,9 (Republished 1984, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY) John Adams, the country's second president, was drawn to the study of law but faced pressure from his father to become a clergyman. He wrote that he found among the lawyers 'noble and gallant achievments" but among the clergy, the "pretended sanctity of some absolute dunces". Late in life he wrote: "Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!" It was during Adam's administration that the Senate ratified the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which states in Article XI that "the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion." James Madison, fourth president and father of the Constitution "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." letter to William Bradford April 1, 1774 Benjamin Franklin, delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, said: As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion...has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the Truth with less trouble." letter to Exra Stiles March 9, 1790. The words "In God We Trust" were not consistently on all U.S. currency until 1956, during the McCarthy Hysteria. The Treaty of Tripoli, passed by the U.S. Senate in 1797, read in part: "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." The treaty was written during the Washington administration, and sent to the Senate during the Adams administration. It was read aloud to the Senate, and each Senator received a printed copy. This was the 339th time that a recorded vote was required by the Senate, but only the third time a vote was unanimous (the next time was to honor George Washington). There is no record of any debate or dissension on the treaty. It was reprinted in full in three newspapers - two in Philadelphia, one in New York City. There is no record of public outcry or complaint in subsequent editions of the papers.

ooooh.... go to the gym. take a dance class or yoga class. get yourself so tired out that you can't even THINK. read a good book that has no sex, or very little, in it (the DaVinci code is a good one) and if you get REALLY desperate, go to your local software store and buy EverQuest. you'll never have time for anything else!

tell your boss. cut out early. go on your lunch break. go NOW! and feel better!!!!!

I'm guessing that link isn't SFW?

the press committed no crime by airing the pictures. IF the photos were a violation of the prisoners' rights (and that has yet to be determined... does the wording of the Geneva Convention apply to photographic material, or strictly to people who are physically there, observing? I'd have to research the legal precedent, and I don't have time right now), the violator is the military who released the photos, not the news broadcasting agency. The news agency, under the first amendment, can print/broadcast what it chooses (barring other restrictions on libel/slander, etc)

doctor. nuff said. your vision is irreplaceable. don't mess around with it. get thee to the doc, pronto.

kill more kittens. if desperate, many kittens can be killed more efficiently with the application of electrical or battery power. see below. www.babeland.com subject matter is probably NSFW. no actual people images, but lots and lots of toys.

well, Chuck over at da'Kine helped too! The three of us conspired (along with Lew, whose job was to keep Ed from ordering another jumpsuit! I think her job was hardest, she had to keep it a secret for months!).

Glad you like the suit, Ed!