Nightingale

American beer is like sex in a canoe.

its a wonder drug. I know Longs Drugs carries it, because that's where I buy it. just look up your local drug store online and punch "Arizona" into their search feature.

they have. Arizona Natural. http://www.bioright.com/ Works wonders, lasts pretty much all day, no sleepy feeling, works in like 20 mins.

I bought mine after AFF2. the instructors keep notes, so I just copied their stuff down for jump 1 and 2 the next time I was at the DZ and asked them to sign it.

so let homosexuals marry and solve the inequality problem.

I know that for my uncle and his boyfriend, the issue is not benefits. they both have wonderful jobs and wonderful benefit packages. the issue is that they want to be married for the same reason hetero folks want to be married. they love each other.

the presumption here is that the same sex partners would choose to marry if they could. most companies require registration with the state as "domestic partners" before extending benefits. the hetero couple chooses not to be married, and therefore chooses to decline these benefits. not a perfect system, but the best we can do at the moment.

lol... NO BURDEN WHATSOEVER. If anything, allowing marriage will take a burden away from the states... the burden of having to appoint court representatives to make medical decisions for incapacitated people who have a domestic partnership type arrangement. The partner cannot make any medical decisions for the other, because they are not married (or protected under a domestic partnership agreement that includes this clause). In certain states, it will relieve some of the pressure off the child welfare systems, because married people are more likely to adopt children if they cannot raise their own, and statistically, gays and lesbians are more likely to adopt older children than a straight couple would be. There are hundreds of reasons to allow homosexual marriages. one of the most important one being: how would you feel if the hospital refused to allow you to see your loved one on their death bed in the ICU unit of the hospital, simply because you were not legally married, and the only reason you were not legally married is because the state prohibited it? because of other's prejudices, you were unable to say goodbye. The above scenario happened to my friend Sara. She was prohibited by the hospital from seeing her partner, Liane, when Liane had been in a terrible motorcycle accident and the injuries were known to be most probably fatal, brain bleeds and strokes and the like from head injuries. Liane lingered in ICU for almost two weeks, getting progressively worse. During that time, Sara sat in the waiting room while Liane's parents and siblings were allowed to say their goodbyes. Liane's family made it clear to the hospital that they wanted Sara to be permitted to see Liane, but since they were not married or immediate family, the hospital refused to bend its rules. They were registered as domestic partners in California, but Utah, where the accident took place, did not honor California's partnership law at that time. I do not know if the state has altered its view since. I will always remember Sara's voice on the phone crying to me about how Liane was dying and they wouldn't even let her say goodbye. Talk about cruel.

so, it seemed like what you're saying is that society shouldn't allow people to marry who can't reproduce. what about: 1. the woman or man who struggles with infertility? 2. the older couple who found each other late in life and are hopelessly in love? should they not be allowed to marry either? we all share in society's resources, married or not. Marriage just grants rights to the spouses, and those rights shouldn't be gender specific. and gays and lesbians most definitely can have and raise children, through adoption, surrogacy, or donor genetic material. THE SAME WAY THAT HETEROS WITH FERTILITY PROBLMES HAVE KIDS.

California (and most other states) no longer require blood tests to get married.

Unfortunately, it does, indirectly. Such unions serve to diminish and de-emphasize (marginalize and minimize) the purpose of the social structure of marriage at large. By doing so, it weakens the social glue that marriage provides. Part of this is based upon a compact between the family and the state - id est, there will be offspring from the union that must be supported if anything should happen to the parents. This is the basis of the "benefit" structure that exists to support the institution of marriage. In the struggle of the individual versus society, I see this as a case where civilization itself is weakened, because the basic family unit must now share limited social resources with those who for the most part won't sustain society (id est, reproduce. Without any replacement units, there can be no civilization. Ergo, it's an indirect attack upon the underpinnings of modern society itself). But this (the whole same-sex marriage thing) is only one silly example. Western civilization is doomed anyway, so it really doesn't make much difference in the big picture. However, I can't help wondering what future historians like Gibbon will make of our society... mh Um... still failing to see how if my uncle marries his boyfriend, how this DIRECTLY affects YOU any more than if my uncle married a girl.

nitpicking: on your new jumper page... how are you getting over a minute of free fall on a tandem from 10K? your tandems will have to be pulling awfully low for that. perhaps a wording change to "almost a minute" of free fall? I like your graphics and the site is easy to navigate. I had fun looking at it.

Congratulations Massachusetts!!!! 2 states down, only 48 (and a couple of territories) left to go...

my answer to that one was: only if I had a bungee cord attached! gosh I was a mouthy kid!

as an aside: pentacle and pentagram are basically interchangable terms for a five pointed star within a circle. however, since the satanists use one that's inverted and the term pentagram, the pagans, who mostly use a right side up version, call it a pentacle to diferentiate. the satanists stole the symbology from the pagans, and the symbol itself has nothing to do with satan.

does she ever go to the beach? is looking at guys in swimshorts wrong?

my mom used to say this. I remided her that the early worm got eaten.

I don't think we're allowed to pack student rigs at Perris, even if we're the one jumping it... we have to wait til we're jumping rental gear or our own gear to pack for ourselves. I like that policy. AFF is nervewracking enough without worrying about your own pack job.

I learned mainly to save cash... at $6 a packjob, three pack jobs = 1 jump ticket! I'm getting a little better at it... it isn't hard, it just takes me a while. Getting faster at it... took me about 30 mins to pack the last one.

where's ivan??

possibly NSFW.

go to www.truecredit.com and check your credit report. someone may have your social security number. if so, they can easily get access to your accounts, and open new ones. Please, check credit reports from ALL THREE agencies (Experion, Transunion and Equifax), because not all credit issuers report to the all agencies. Place fraud alerts on ALL agencies, so no one can issue credit without contacting you first. Its well worth it. I would encourage EVERYONE to check their credit reports. I randomly checked mine two years ago and found $9000 in fraud from a wireless phone account someone had opened in my name. Took almost a year to straighten out the mess. If someone does have your social, you CAN change your SSN... PITA, though, but worth it.

as you can tell from my username... I wanna be a birdie!!!!! Flying is FUN! -Nightingale (who wants to try a birdgirl suit as soon as she gets enough experience)

I thought the only tunnels were in Florida, and the new one in Perris... may have been a portable one, tho.

I was impressed by his speech. It was very well written. I will be even more impressed should he actually follow through on what he said. (this is not an anti-Arnold comment, but rather an observation on how difficult it is to get ANYTHING done in politics today). I didn't vote for him, but I hope he is successful.