Nightingale

your own helmet! they're expensive... but better than wearing all the nasty ones the school has. I'm looking at one of the bonehead ones for myself.

I guess they didn't remember this: If you allow any legally qualified candidate to use your station, you must afford equal opportunities for all opposing candidates who also want to use your station. This requirement applies to candidates for state and local office as well as candidates for federal office. However, the rule does not apply to elections involving districts that are beyond a station's principal service area. If they air stuff in favor of one candidate, the other candidate can request air time, and they have to give it.

I jumped with Ed on Monday. He was really nice and I learned a lot. Thanks for the heads up on the plane descent. hmm... maybe I'll just stay on the ground and wave at everyone. lol.

when do you waste a perfectly good packjob? when you didn't watch the student to make sure it was a perfectly good packjob. at least, that would be my feeling. If I'd watched and everything looked okay, that's one thing, but leaving someone who's very inexperienced to pack without being watched, that would make me awful nervous.

I can grab on to the front riser on my student 240 canopy and I can barely move the thing! I can get the canopy to turn VERY slightly, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to learn from that...??

hehe... I'll try. I'll try my hardest! I promise!

I'm gonna try to stop by Elsinore tomorrow, depending on if I feel up to it. I'm still really tired cause of this flu thing, and not really feeling great (though the doc swears I can't pass it along to anyone else anymore!) so I don't know if skydiving would be the smartest idea, so I thought an observer ride might be fun.

anyone know how much it is to do an observer ride at Elsinore?

my oral surgeon knocked me out with an IV. I told him not to... but I was 17. he told me he was gonna put the iv in anyway, so if I needed to be put out later, like if the tooth was in a different position or whatever, then they could. my dad told him to put me out for the whole thing. since I was a minor, he did what my dad said. I was just afraid of being put out... I'm kinda glad he did.

having no energy is an indication that something you are doing is not healthy.

well... um... you asked.

nope. Bad manners. (I didn't know the answer to this one, so I looked it up for ya) Wedding ceremony manners for guests: It's bad manners to skip the wedding ceremony and to attend only the reception. If you do, you'd better have a very good reason, because – no matter how much you paid for the gift – it'll look as if you're leeching off others for food and booze! Get to the ceremony on time – preferably about 30 minutes before the time printed on the invitation. If you do arrive late, seat yourself quietly at the back. If the procession has already arrived, wait until the bride reaches the altar before slipping in and finding a seat. You're not required to participate in religious rituals, for example, if you're Jewish and are attending a Catholic wedding, you will not be expected to genuflect or take communion. It is polite, however, to follow the lead of family members sitting in the front as far as standing and sitting goes but you don't have to kneel or do anything else that may make you feel ill at ease. You will be told (probably by the person conducting the ceremony) if you are to meet the couple outside or if you are to stay seated while the couple leaves the building. Either way, remain in your seat until the families of the bride and groom have been escorted out after the ceremony. If the couple, their parents and attendants form a receiving line after the ceremony, get in line to congratulate them on this special occasion. If the ceremony is held in a garden or in the same area as the reception, keep your ears open, you will probably be told what to do or where to go after the ceremony. M Collins Source www.theknot.com www.hitched.co.uk

looking for a total career change, or wanting to stay in the industry? do you have a 4 yr degree?

my dad gave my mom a toaster for christmas ten years ago. he has yet to live that one down.

congrats!!! so, what's the degree in?

I tried it. It made me very sick. No energy, nauseous, and in a VERY foul mood. I just felt completely and totally sick. My doctor, who was the main sports medicine doctor for the Rams when they were in LA, read me the riot act bigtime when she found out. what she told me: 1. its too high in fat to be heart-healthy. **PLEASE NOTE: DR ATKINS HIMSELF HAD A HEART ATTACK A YEAR OR SO AGO** 2. ketosis is not a healthy state for your body to be in... if you are in ketosis, your body thinks its starving. your metabolism slows down. this is not what you want when you're trying to lose weight. 3. the diet does not contain enough calories. this is why your enery levels will drop. if you have low energy, you are unlikely to exercise, which is the best way to lose weight. her recommendations: 1. if you MUST try a high protein diet, try the Scarsdale diet instead. lower fat, more fruits and veggies. 2. Exercise. don't worry so much about what you eat. if you're exercising regularly, your body will begin to crave what it needs to maintain itself (ie: healthy stuff) 3. if you want to lose weight, eat fewer calories than you burn. period. it doesn't matter if its carbs or protein or whatever. its better if the food is low fat and high vitamin. 4. No food is bad for you WHEN EATEN IN MODERATION. Even chocolate can be good for you... chocolate is very high in magnesium. A lot of times a craving indicates that you require some kind of nutrient in that food. Its okay to give in to cravings, as long as you only give in a little bit (a mini hershey bar is ok, a king size is not). 5. you spent a long time putting the weight on. don't expect to lose it overnight, because if you do, you'll put it back on just as fast. SLOW weight loss is the key to keeping it off. 6. remember: thinner does NOT always mean healthier, because all ways to lose weight are not healthy. After receiving the above advice, I followed it. I started exercising more (I was at karate a lot, but had been doing more teaching than training, so I made a point of getting in my own training time too, and working out with the students more), and the eating right thing was a lot easier... I didn't crave the sweets and fried food as much, and when I did eat it, it was easier to only eat a little bit. I lost 25 pounds over the course of a year, and I've kept 20 of them off. Sure, like practically every female, I'd love to drop 10 more, but I'm okay with it if I don't. I look fine, and I'm healthy. After dropping the weight, I saw an aunt of mine who I hadn't seen in a while. She said "oh my god! you look great! you lost weight! what's your secret?!" I just laughed and said "Eat right and exercise." She looked SO disappointed! She frowned and said "oh. I was hoping there was some trick!" My own tip to add to my doctor's: get a digital scale that reads to the 10th of a pound. If you start the week out at say, 145 on monday, and the scale reads 145 still on friday, you may think you haven't accomplished anything... what I learned by accidentally getting a scale with the 10th of a pound breakdown was that you can start the week out at 145.9 and finish at 145.1. you've lost almost a whole pound, and you wouldn't know it with a regular scale. A better judge, though, is to pick a pair of jeans that are snug or that you can't zipper or whatever, and see how they fit once a week. If you're exercising, you can gain weight (muscle weighs more than fat!) and actually lose fat and inches. Scales don't lie, but they can decieve. If you're having trouble figuring out what to eat, see your doctor. He or she can refer you to a nutritionist.

One of my martial arts students is a Riverside police officer. He brought in a taser (not sure if it was cop issued or not, he told us, I just don't remember) and, if we were brave enough, he hit us with it. The taser has a 30 second cycle (a seven second jolt, with a few two second breaks followed by more jolts), so you can hit someone with it, and then put the thing on the ground next to the person, and run. You'll have a couple of minutes before they can follow you. Sure, they'll have your tazer, but you'll have a head start of more than a minute, which is more than enough time to get yourself out of a bad situation. Every single one of us who got hit ended up flat on our backs staring at the ceiling with no voluntary muscle control. We were dazed for a few minutes, and some people had a few muscle spasms, but we were all fine within a short period of time.

14 mph. My instructors told me "when we ground the students, there's a REASON we ground the students. Wait til you have quite a few more jumps under your belt to make that call for yourself." I should have my A in a few weeks, but I'm still going to pay attention to what the school does with the students. If they're grounded, I'm grounding myself until I'm DAMN sure about my canopy control, because if the winds make me land out in a tight spot, I want to be sure I can do it safely.

see here: www.nightingalesnest.net click on skydive link, then on jump diary. you'll find out exactly what was going on in my brain to make me want to jump out of a plane.

I was talking with an AFF instructor a couple of weeks ago about this. Cashwise, we bring home about the same. However, I have a lot of benefits through my job that he doesn't. My health care's paid for. I get paid time off and paid vacations. I am eligible for paid family leave. Independent contractors have to pay for all that... and then pay taxes on top of everything. I wish more DZs would provide health care for their employees... it seems that if they're out there every day, doing something that can be as physically dangerous as skydiving, their employer ought to make sure they're covered if they get hurt. Health insurance is cheaper the more people you get into a policy group... If all the DZs got together and formed one health care group under Blue Cross or something, the premiums would be low. The DZ wouldn't even have to pay the whole premium, just a percentage, and let the employees cover the rest (or even the whole thing!). It would be way cheaper for the employees to have a group insurance policy than it is to buy an individual policy...the difference can be a couple hundred bucks!

personally, I was feeling pretty rotten for at least four or five days. 7eleven slurpees help a lot! they taste good, plus they're cold, so it helps with the swelling. once you feel ready, try on your helmet and see if the straps are going to hurt you.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

I get a lot of whuffos reading my online logbook, and a lot of newbies. My logbook has a pretty detailed chronicle of what I went through during AFF, and for some reason people seem to like reading it. I just started it for myself, as a way for me to remember all the details of my jumps (not just the stuff that fits in the little square in the regular logbook), and people seemed to like reading it.

I don't drink soda, and I'm not much of a coffee person, so I guess I'm still kinda sensitive to it.

its got so much caffeine in it that stuff would keep me awake for a week!