pirana

Such as unbuckling before exit? Just funning ya. The time I did that I was sitting with my back to the dash. I swing my leg out the door, 1st jumper out crawls over my knee and begins his way to far hang. I then start my move to the crotch and schtwonk! I'm going nowhere. Brief embarassing moment and humorous interlude while I unbuckle. But, what's with the weird exit from your 206? No step I take it? And what he said. Mix up the Funnel & Flail jumps with the other newbies with some jumps with Guys & Gals who are a bit further up the curve. Buy them a beer for the post-sunset debrief and drink up what is shared (knowledge-wise). " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Keep at it. I just joined a guy for his 200th last week. (And a great dive it was. Smoothest 4-way 206 exit ever for me. One second off the step and we were moving to the next point.) But I digress. He is around 250 now, and has been dropping slowly but steadily since he started. He started under a tandem size canopy in AFF, and has just DOWNSIZED to a 230! I do remember a jump last summer before he got a properly fitted suit. Pretty funny. 2 seconds out the door and he was about 100' below us! Does very well now. Do what you can to get there. It will be very very worth it. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

My observation is that the thrill-seeker types come and go. They constitute the portion of jumpers that contribute to the half-life-of-a-skydiver-is-about-6-years phenomenon. Those that stick with it seem to enjoy the surrealness of the whole thing. It's like living in a surreal dreamscape 1 minute at a time. It's a different kind of high than the big rush; though that part is good too. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

I don't think tandem is the right term. You get all your own equipment and are not attached to the instructor. I've done 4 of them. The first couple were quite extraordinary experinces, both on wrecks, one at about 40' with an instructor and one other tourist, and one at about 70' with just me and the instructor. The last 2 I did were far more tame. Only about 12' deep, though one was to a crashed small plane. On those we had the instructor, a couple of experienced divers and 4 tourists. It was cool, but not worth the $. I'd love to do the 70' dive again, but I think their policies have changed. Probably a good thing, especially if they are just going to take anybody with the cash. If that is their mode of operation, then they are smart to stick to 10 to 12'. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Resources PURCHASED, then consumed or put to productive use. Other countries are free to purchase them instead of us. What's that? Can't afford to purchase what we do? Then you have just learned a little bit about The Market. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Strongly disagree. I never mentioned rights. Introducing rights and privileges available to people on an individual basis is quite a tangent to spin off on. Roads, or the internet, or the ATC are goods and services that exist for use by taxpaying citizens (ignoring the freeloaders for sake of this post). They function because I (or we) pay for them. In fact, we collectively own them, just as we own everything in the public domain. Whether or not there are special qualifications I must meet in order to personally engage in certain specific actions is a whole different issue. And if I'm a OTR trucker I will take my skills to where they are in demand; such as a place with roads that accomodate my rig. Finding such a place in definitely not a privilege. It is responding to the market. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

That question is so loaded, leading, and comes from an obviously very highly biased point of view. Not sure it can even be touched without opening 18 other cans of worms. Since my taxes pay for those services, using them and benefiting from them is definitely NOT a privilege. They are services I pay for and expect to be performed in a satisfactory manner. People I am paying to perfrom a service are doing so on my dime - - regardless of whether they are a government or private employee. So, just the use of the word privilege is completely incorrect - - and reveals the bias of the person asking the question. It's a market for my skills; and my question is how much is somebody willing to PAY ME for my skills, not how much am I willing to pay to particiapte in the market. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

NO.... must not........ do....... it..... will....... not...... Allow me. What does it mean when the flag at the Post Office is at half mast? They're hiring. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Perfectly normal for a right-minded student in training. Which makes you an at least slightly abnormal human. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Blame the court rulings, not the lawyers. Where do you think judges come from? They are lawyers who get to take longer naps. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Agreed. Which is why it will never be an objective (not going to use the word fair) system. It will always be subject to manipulation based on what some interest group or another sees as "right." " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

SO many people want this but nobody can give an answer on how to pay for it. Again, as with many issues, eliminate the loopholes and exemptions and it is within reach. Lobbyists for large companies have manipulated the system so that there are entirely different rules based on the size of employer in most states. The biggest is that self-insured companies are exempt from most state legislation, most importantly the funding mechanisms for high risk pools and state run programs. Many of the biggest exemptions and special considerations are the ones the legislators granted for themselves. They have the fattest benefit package, pay the lowest premiums, and are exempted from most of the health care reform legislation they pass. What a big surprise. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

I'm good with that as a concept; but the whole thing get all twisted about by all the special considerations. In other words, keep it progressive, AND get rid of all the loopholes. Have a level below which there in no tax, then progressively higher tax rates for higher incomes (increases on the margin amount only - not the whole nut), and a cap at somewhere around 35%. Set the percentages at a level that can accomodate for the prevailing characteristics of people in that group; kind of like making up for the discarding of all the special exemptions. The problem with the exemptions is that they are like roots in a crack in the cement. The cracks never go away, and most likely they keep growing and growing because everybody thinks there particular cause or situation is so fucking special. So we keep piling on loopholes and exemptions and credits . What's the saying? "When everybody is somebody, nobody is anybody." A progressive tax, which recognizes ability to pay, without removing incentives to earn, and ignores all whining. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

I won't argue that. I really do have compassion for most humans and their place in life; can't fight who you are. But I also believe in calling it like it is and one of the things I tell them when we have a strange retail encounter (often) is that there is a reason that person does what they do - because they can do no more. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Archaeology provides a much better discipline for studying the origins of religion than that CT diatribe. It only takes a cursory study of the materials found to recognize that all religions have a common foundation in homage paid to the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. Honoring living and dead tribal elders brought in the human and superhuman components. All the rest is just silly BS added by Those Darn Humans who seem to want shit to mean so much more than it does. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Ignoring the issues. Pay attention; we got all the hot issues right here: Paper v. plastic Pie A Golden Gate suicide prevention net Conspiracy theorist rantings about how the US government was the real culprit behind the 9/11 bombings. (Kinda scary that there are people out there participating in the election for our highest office who buy into that. And if they are a single issue voter, I wonder how they decide? Is there a party that has a plank in their platform decreeing that GWB sponsored the bombing of the WTC?) As a single-issue voter myself, I'm voting against whichever party comes out against pie. "You got a position on pie as part of your platform?" "No?" "Out with you then you fucking communist pinko anti-pie basatards. What kind of cold cruel world is it when the very basic rights of pie are not even protected for the children of future generations?!" " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Absolutely. One option - sugar the gas tank of the fucker with the car. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

No way. Those plastic bags are total bullshit when it comes to utility. It takes 4 or 5 of them to do the work of one paper bag. They do not hold any kind of shape, don't stack nice in the car, spill their contents when set down - absolute crap if you are buying more than you could carry in your arms with no bag at all. And I hate that those village idiots they hire for the checkout at Wal-Mart seem to want to give you 15 little plastic bages, each containing 4 items. I tell them to please fill them up, that I'd rather haul 6 full plastic bags that hold no shape and spill shit all over my trunk than 15 partially full plastic bags that hold no shape and spill shit all over my trunk. So they start putting one or two more items in each bag. Me, rolling my eyes, "Oh that's much better." So I grab that little carousel thingy and spin it around and start condensing bags. They shoot me the you're-not-supposed-to-cross-that-line look, but stay back since I'm obviously a bit crazy as evidenced by the 2 kids in tow wearing WHEN-PIGS-FLY skydiving T-shirts. I shoot back the and-to-think-I'm-an-advocate-of-you-morons-receiving-a-decent-wage look just as the handle breaks on the first bag I heft into the cart. I end up just dumping all the contents of the broken-handled bags into the cart, then pouring the contents wheelbarrow style into the trunk of the car. In my last attempt to behave like a decent human, having forgiven them for going plastic so they can carve 1/10th of 1 cent more off the cost of a 36-pak of toilet paper and preserve the right to use that ALWAYS slogan about low prices and that STUPID FUCKING YELLOW SMILEY ICON; I perform my good citizen duty and return the cart to the cart corral only to find that another manifestation of the mouthbreather shopping experience is the total inability to properly nest the carts and get more than 3 carts into that 10' by 20' cart repository. FUCK IT! I full force jam my cart into, over, and thru the ones already there, knowing full well it will take Conan the Barbarian to separate them for the next little blue-hair that needs a cart. But I digress from the issue of the bags. I get home, walk in the door, and Honey asks me if I need a hand with the groceries. I tell her I'm running late, there's barely gonna be time for me to get on 4 loads before dark, that I'm gonna take the van to the DZ, and that it would be really super cool if she would grab the groceries from the trunk. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Egads! Your criteria for proof is religion and astrology? And your evidence is the Bible? You missed your calling as a Consultant to the Emperor, . . . . by about 1000 years. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

No, we are most certainly NOT. I disagree. -one of my friends is a 18year old mother of two African American that was orphaned at age 16. She is a sophmore in college. She is seizing the opportunity despite the challenges. So some people have challenges to overcome while others have their granddaddy buy their way into Yale as "legacy admits", and in your mind that's equal opportunity? Kids in suburban Illinois high schools have twice as much spent on their education as kids in inner city Chicago, and that's equal opportunity? Again with the life isn't fair. I wasn't born with a silver spoon. But my choices are to either to work with what I do have or to whine about those that have more. There will ALWAYS be someone with more and someone with less. Obsessing on what others have that you don't isn't going to get you anywhere in life. I did public high school. State college on scholarship. No money from mommy and daddy... my sisters had EXACTLY the same opportunities. Some times life isn't fair. Sometimes people expect too much "fairness" You got that right. Life is not fair, and life is not unfair. Life is not some sentient entity looking to make everyone as whole or the same as the next person. Letting go of that kind of foolish notion is the first step in taking full accountability for who you are and who you will be. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Allow me to make sure it stays here. You whiny ass fucking bastards (and bitches) should know by this point in your life that your choices have landed you smack dab in the middle of exactly who you are and where you belong. Deal with it in some manner other than by making everything you don't like about your pathetic little inconsequential lives somebody else's fault; while claiming credit for the small morsels of joy you have occasionally experienced while on your way to an inevitable death, after which your past existence will have had roughly the same significance as the ant you stepped on last week. Suck it up, shut up, brush your teeth, comb your hair, put on some clean underwear, and for God's sake stop frittering your day away posting on DZ.COM. On a lighter note; one of my favorite little quips from doing analyst work is that "Your processes are perfectly designed for the results you're generating." A good corollary is that "Your life is the perfect manifestation of what you believe to be true." " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

So, in relation to that other thread, . . . do you do your own laundry, or pay for fluff-n-fold? " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

One of the "old guys" at our DZ who has been around a while and who's guesstimates I respect says the half life of a skydiver is about 5 or 6 years. It's wierd to look around the place and realize that almost all the folks that were there when I started in 1995 have moved on. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

And swooping, and Mr Bill, and . . . low pulls, and . . . . and . . . speed stars. "One last speed star before the end of summer Johny!" Big chuckles last week when we were planning an 8-way. One of the guys says we should just do a speed star, because that is what many of our 8-ways turn into anyway once we funnel. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Well, one thing they've certainly done is make it difficult to watch video. I can't think of any other sport where they rotate the camera 180 degrees every few seconds for "artistic" effect. Ridiculous. I'm trying to watch and enjoy the action and the cameraperson keeps changing which way is up. What is the point of that? " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley