ChasingBlueSky

I've heard otherwise from a few mechanics. They said it depends on the make of the car. American cars? Sure, use what you want. But with imports use only the same parts (after playing with 3rd party replacements with my old Toyota, I have to agree with that). I'll just hit the Dodge Dealership on my way to work tomorrow morning - I think there are at least two 5-Star dealers on my route in. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Yes, I meant all over the outside of the engine. I'm around 45k miles...but I want to trade it in this year hopefully. It's not that oil changes are that hard to do - but living in Chicago with no garage, driveway, etc...there really isn't a place to work on it while on ramps. If I had better work hours, I could take it to a jumper friend that works at a garage, but that isn't an option these days. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

On the way home last night I stopped to refill my wiper fluid (damn salt all over everything). Thats when I noticed that my oil cap was not in the right place, but up in the corner where Jiffy Lube placed it during my last oil change. Now I have synthetic oil all over the inside of my engine. I've been trying to reach that store all day to ream them out for being idiots but no one answers. That cap has been off since Christmas Eve and I have traveled A LOT in that time. I took care of topping it off this morning. Here are my two questions: 1) Will Synthetic Oil cause any damage inside the engine? I'm half tempted to pay to have someone clean it off - there is someone around here that offers that service. (yes, I baby my car) 2) Do you think I should flush it out and put in all new oil? I'm wondering if there is a chance that debris could have gotten into the engine in the last few weeks of driving, esp with the 20-50mph winds we have had in the last couple of weeks. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

When I went to the dealership looking to buy one last month, they tried to sell me on the Corolla, Matrix and the Camry...then they showed me the new Scion line as well. Since they were out of stock, they figured these cars were in the same category. They let me know that most people in the market for this car tend to buy midsize cars (like me) but there is also big demand in Hollywood for them as the "it/now" thing to have. As you know, the pricerange on midsize can go from $11-$30k, so it is a large group to choose from depending if you want American or import. There is no direct comparison to another car, not even the original Prius since this is a new design altogether. At least with Honda you can compare the cost of the Civic to the Civic Hybrid. The Prius is not big on options. You have to use very specific tires, there is no sunroof to help keep drag down and mileage up, an only cloth seats (IIRC) for it. Most likely they are going to save the luxury upgrades for their Camry Hybrid when/if it hits the market....expect to see it if the Accord Hybrid takes off. There are some cool "geek" items like bluetooth, DVD navigation and 6-disc in dash CD changer. The sound system is middle of the road. Toyota has a calculator on their Prius page so you can get an idea of how much you would save in gas. However, do not buy this car if you are looking to save money over a typical midsize...there are cheaper options. It will take about 10 years or more of these cars being mainstream before they are competitive in price....they are trying to recoup some of the R&D cost by taking advantage of the hype. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Ok...so I am coming into this conversation late and haven't read the entire thread yet. After finding out how cheap the flights are, I'm thinking of going now. What are the cheapest options for lodging? I may even think of renting a car at Ft Myers and sleeping at a local KOA or some such thing. Any ideas? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Maybe around Chicago they don't...I use my truck as a truck more often then you would probably think. That's why I got a truck in the first place.

Screw SUVs. I like large trucks, they can do more, hold more and haul more. Which most truck owners never do. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I contacted them Monday morning for help when I couldn't get into the servers, I thought I'd pass on what their tech support is like: _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

The Prius is on backorder pretty much everywhere. You cannot get it for a discount, and often find a markup. Also, to get one, you need to put down a decent down payment to get hold of it. The Prius will run you anywhere from $21k to $30k depending on the options you get. The new Acura starts at $29k and goes up from there - it will be a V6 and the mileage will be the same as a typical Civic or Corolla. Someone in my work complex drives a Prius and I've had a chat with him. In the cold Chicago weather it handles fine but mileage does dip down into the 40's in stop and go traffic. On the highway its a little less. In the summer even with the AC on he says he gets into the 50's without a problem. I tend to stop most owners and ask them what they think about it - at the moment I've talked to about 23 Prius owners and I've yet to hear a complaint. A jumper friend of mine is a certified Toyota mechanic and has worked on quite a few of them (there was a small recall on them and Toyota payed for anything connected to that recall). He told me he would recommend them to anyone that likes smaller cars that want good mileage. He says they are built great and the repairs on them will most likely be in the typical cost range of bringing a car to the dealership (there are very few people certified to work on them yet outside of the dealerships). Basically he said that Toyota is going to do anything it takes to make the hybrid owners happy so they continue to sell. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Yup, same version in the same box. They just passed up 600,000 units sold recently and there were a few stores around here that were sold out. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I was wondering how long it would take for that link to get posted. The pics were passed on to me Monday morning. Gotta love the speed of the internet! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

You are looking for used copies? Careful on that Blizzard is strict with those Auth Codes. I got mine at Fry's for less than $50. The first 30 days are free. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Come on...everyone else is doing it! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

haha - care to share how you got the sweet deal? Yea - we need to pick a server and pair up. A Skydiver/DZ.com guild sounds like a fun time. We might have to start new characters, but we should level up faster if we are in a group. Besides, it's probably the only time I would ever be on the same team as an Airspeed member I was kicked off Dragonbain a few times last night, so maybe we should pick a low population server? I read last night that they gave everyone with an account 48 hours of free play due to the server issues over the last week. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I don't see that he is showing disrespect to what our troops are doing. He is saying the reasons they are there are wrong and are a real disrespect to their promise to defend this country. 2nd Inaugurations are stupid and boring. What the hell is the point? As pointless as the RNC was in NYC (yes, and the same for when Clinton was going for the 2nd term). Is GW going to make more promises about stuff he won't do? Still, who is surprised that both Bush and Clinton liked to throw a big party? Look at their past! Does anyone have any links from the White House on these donations that paid for the party? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Since I am a student of the sport I know what most would say. Plus there are plenty of these old time skydivers you speak of at my dz that like to tell stories (including one with a three digit D number). But think about this - there were even less jumpers back then, how did they have so many DZs? Because they were small cesna DZs running off of grass strips and most likely a club (re: not a tandem mill cash cow). These days you would need to have turbines to support the extra crowd. Imagine Deland or Zhills trying to run off of four or five cesnas. Speaking of Deland...how much money do you think it makes for the town? It has a few companies there, and draws visitors from around the world. How is it that they still have problems dealing with the locals on things like the RVs. A bunch of jumpers with a few bucks in their pockets will not have any sway - that is what the USPA and our presence on Capital Hill is for. Nope. Not negative at all about newbies. In fact I am part of a group that deals with all the new grads at my DZ. I love the newbies. Don't make assumptions. Most of us were not around when the first free/freak flyers were out there. Freeflying started over 20 years ago....it was called freakflying back then. How successful is skydiving in the countries where it is an excepted sport? How much has that helped further the sport? There are jumpers that earn their living from their gov't sponsoring them. I don't see that making a huge wave within the population. Could the sport be made bigger and better? Sure, why not. I even have a few ideas on how to do it, and along with some strong managment methods put into place, you could do it (plus I have some media connections I could probably call in as well). But I don't see why we should. Like Mary said - we are realistic. Increase the size of the membership and everything about this sport will scale - both the good and the bad. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Like it did in the Philippines? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

But there is a limited amount of airplanes and airports. I've been in the sport the same length as you and I have seen it in that short period of time. There are plenty of DZ's that get shut down by the locals or FBO. Even DZs like Sebastian and Deland have airport access issues and they have been around for some time. A popular DZ in WA has a local McNasty sitting at the edge of the airport taping any FAR/BSR violation he can notice. Planes? The Skyvan fleet will be gone within ten years, if not sooner due to mandatory cost of maintenance. IIRC the Casa and the TO will follow that a few years later. Newer planes will be needed and most DZs cannot afford to purchase a used TO or KA, let alone a PAC. Every time a bounce happens it brings the wrath of sensationalized press down upon the entire sport. Some reporters get a bug up their ass and crusade for closing down a DZ (read up on Lodi) because they think they are doing good and trying to win an award for investigative reporting. Yes, more people will bring more money, more coaches, more TMs, etc. It will also bring in more that will try to steal money from other jumpers, steal gear, or websites. It will also bring more ratings to people that don't deserve them and are not safe - word of mouth safety will be harder. You would probably introduce a new fatality category "fatalities caused by instructor error." More money will also drive unsafe gear sales. The vibes will die, the bullshit will get worse and those that were in the sport because it was their passion will leave. The quality of the game will not be the same. Speaking of death - there will be more blood on the ground. The numbers we have now will scale with the larger population. We are over 50% with good canopy fatalities - imagine what that would be like with 10,000 more jumpers. Now imagine with 100,000 more jumpers. Do you want to see 100+ deaths in a year (per country)?? It will happen because jumpers always find ways to kill themselves (or imagine everyone getting the new toy and it turns out to be as safe as the Nova). How much press do you think we will get with two or three people going in per weekend?? How many locals will want that in their backyard? How much of an airport access issue will we have then? How tired will the NTSB and FAA get with constant skydiving reports? FYI - USPA tried the "Skydiving is Mainstream" advertising approach a few years back. Doesn't look like it worked. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

When I saw the teaser trailer in the theatre, I said out loud "It Better Not Suck." (which got a bunch of laughs) My biggest concern is that it finally went from years of preproduction hell into greenlight once he died. I have the same fear about "Watchmen" _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

It dawned on me last night that my lappy might be powerful enough for it. Therefore if/when I am on the road I can play it. I was surprised at just how low the system requirments were. The game does look sweet in 1280*1024 (I'm running a BFG Nvidia 6600GT OC with an XP2000+ CPU). It'll be interesting to see how it looks when my new 3200+ arrives. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Yea, it was reallly a hard choice for me as well. I've watched my roommate play City of Heros for months on end and he seems to get his money's worth from that. Everyone said that WoW was even better. I did my research and read just about every good and bad review on the game. I was getting tired of playing Counterstrike Source into the ground and needed something new to get me thru the winter. I made some changes in some luxury items I don't use anymore and that allowed me to use the cash. I will be canceling my account once the weather clears and we can jump again. I tell you what - I should move to CA and get into the gaming industry - those f*ckers know how to make ca$h! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Nope, not free. $14.99/month or they have a 3 month and 12 month price. It has its own server setup seperate from battlenet. If you liked Ultima Online you will LOVE this game. It's worth the cash _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Not going to pick up Evercrack 2? I had been toying with the idea of switching my gym time to the morning before work and I think I will do that now just so I have an extra hour to play at night _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Life is Good. Had the DVDs on last night while playing Warcraft _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

The ending of HL2 is boring I tell you that much. Sorry if I spoiled it, it's sad but true. Finished it twice. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....