Andrewwhyte

Pacific Skydivers in Pitt Meadows is about a 45 minute drive from Downtown Vancouver and is the closest DZ. They are a seven day a week operation with a king Air and Cessnas. Wednesday nights and weekends rock. They also have another wooden shoed one like yourself by the name of Jaap Suter who is a regular. Abbotsford is a bit further out the valley. They have a Porter and Cessnas, also seven days a week. Chilliwack is no longer open. Kamloops is a small one Cessna DZ 3 1/2 hours from Van except for one weekend of the year when they have a very cool boogie. Lucky for you that particular weekend is two weeks away. email Debbie dz@pacificskydivers.com and she will help you find a ride share to the boogie (the Monday is a National holiday).

I live in Alberta; we sell oil. The labour shortage here is so bad Burger King is paying 100% bonus in scholarship money to all employees. With a $7.00/hr min wage that means $14.00/hr efective wage for flippin' burgers. If you want to come and work an electrician can get a work visa in about 30 days. In the tar-sands projects up north tradesmen are earning $60.00/hr with all the OT you can handle. We are desparate for all skilled workers and hurting for unskilled labour as well.

I have mostly jumped Strong rigs and have found them to be well built, dependable rigs. When I did my conversion training I fell in love with how comfortable and well designed the Sigma is. I think it is clearly a superior rig. I am not nearly as enamoured with the Vector ll. The old Strongs were a very sloppy rig and the vector was probably a superior product, but the newer Strongs have adressed the problems so I would rate the Vector ll third personally from a user's point of view. From an owners point of view you need to look at price and service. The Sigma is quite a bit more expensive. Compounding that, there are quite a few people out there who claim it is very hard to get service from RWS during high season. No doubt service levels from all manufacturers falls during peak season but I think RWS gets acused of it a bit more.

Smell the air! That's the smell of freedom! You are not a slave!

That's the problem with forcing democracy on people; sometimes the ungrateful bastards don't vote the way you tell them to. When you look at the wreckage caused by diamond wealth in Africa you can see a parallel with oil in the relatively more complex economies in Latin America. As the price of oil skyrockets people in areas that have oil want to make sure that they get their piece of the pie. These same factors have caused severe regional tensions within Canada in the past, and are beginning to rise again. When you realize that the oil companies have conducted business in Latin America in the manor befitting the country they are in, i.e. bribing the decision makers heavily and then extracting huge profits with limited benefit for the country as a whole, you can see some justification for the people not really being concerned about being fair to the foreign corps. The situation is no different in Saudi Arabia where the Western friendly government is only in power due to its support from the US. The same was true of the Shaw of Iran prior to 1979. I think a contributing factor in the voting patterns of the Latin Americans is the unpopularity of GWB and by extension the US, and by extension capitalism in general.

Yes, but often it proposes to do no such thing. The various agricultural gods of Paupa New Guinnea were treated as power without moral stipulation; possessing the secret of a particular god enabled one to force the yielding of good crops or fish or whatever. This belief structure is what enabled the formation of the Cargo Cults of the 1950s and 60s. The Greek Gods were not known as examples of moral rectitude, nor were (are) the Norse Gods or the wikkan gods in all cases. My knowledge of Hindu gods is not great, but Kali does seem to be someone more feared for her power rather than one adored for her righteousness. If we are talking about the tendancies of religion in general and the human propensity toward it, we must look beyond the God of the old testament.

Cool! Tax free income! I'll be there every winter. I guess I'll just have to avoid the wire tax by taking my earnings home as guns (can anyone here help me out with this).

Clowns are dangerous. What gets me is that some people just go and dress up like clowns for fun; like its some kind of fucking game.

Religious nuts have always been with us. Why does Fox pay any attention to them. What got me about the video was just how bad the journalism standards are at Fox. That is the first interview I have ever seen where more time was devoted to the interviewer's opinion than that of the subject's

Doesn't it feel good to no longer be a slave.

Yah, and how's that going for you guys?

Is this the beginnings of a move in favour of electoral reform away from 'first past the post?' New Zealand made the switch. There is a lot of grumbling in that direction here in Canada, but no firm action yet. edited for speling

Yep! May20-22.

"Pimp My Zamboni!" CBC television at its best!

Coal miner.

Well I have not been to Venezuela so I'm not going to get into a pissing match about who's aquaintances are better informed. I don't like socialism but seeing as Venezuela is sitting on the largest recoverable reserves of hydrocarbons on the planet (albiet high cost ones), it makes sense for a socialist to be very belligerent towards the Euro/American oil giants and their client governments. Back to the issue of Mexico; Mexican society is much more collectivist in nature than American society. For the Mexican people to elect a socialist/social democrat president should not be a great surprise. Remember they kicked the big oil companies out a long time ago. Personally I think President Fox has done a very good job over the last eight years. The Mexicans, however, are not satisfied with incremental progress. It seems that now that they have broken the PRI stranglehold they are adamant they will elect this leftist character. It will be very interesting to see whether he will endanger the gains to living standards and employment enjoyed by many (but by no means the majority) as a result of the huge influx of foreign investment over the last twelve to sixteen years.

Pacific Skydivers is located on the Pitt Meadows airport (CYPK). It has a class three ATC tower with a control zone up to 3000'. Above that is class 'C' space associated with the Vancouver International Airport Terminal Control Zone. Arriving traffic descend to 5000' as they cross the Pitt Meadows VOR beacon located about 2000' from the edge of the landing area (the jets go directly over the DZ at about 6000'). Pitt meadows has parallel runways and a cross. Runway 26 right (the shorter runway) is closed when canopies are in the air as we land about 100' from the end of the runway. The only exception is when it is too windy for the gliders to use the cross runway. Then ATC has to coordinate between glider landings and canopy windows. There are five flight schools located on the airport. So, is that what you would call busy?

I am not sure things have gotten worse in Venezuela lately. I agree the president is an asshole, but my contacts with Venezuelans this past winter (there were a few) seemed to indicate that times were good. Skydives were way cheaper than in Mexico or the US.

Well the Mexican people do look like they are about to elect a president who wants to take his country down a new path. Some how I don't think this is actually going to sit well with the US government. The leading (Socialist) candidate seems to be a fellow traveler with the presidents of Venezuela and Cuba.

The current administration does not have much of a track record for compromising with anyone for anything. No I don't think this round is going anywhere.

Because the hockey playoffs are on and nothing else matters.

I hope I can still climb trees (albiet poorly) when I'm his age.

How do you tell the Mexicans from the Americans of Hispanic ancestry? Do you carry proof of citizenship on your person at all times? Are you willing to prove it to anyone who asks? Even when youare running late? Or is this just for the little brown folk?

El Jimador? Are you nuts? I got a bunch of that stuff out of a pinyata one night. That shit is poison! Give me Don Julio or give me Death!

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