peacefuljeffrey

I don't have a lot of crazy rituals, I think, but I do have one that I began doing around my early jumps and continue to do. Now, I'm not religious or anything, but I sometimes offer mystical mental respect to ethereal forces involved in the things I am doing. Once I have a good canopy above me, I blow a kiss to each bare foot, then to the sky above me, then to my canopy which saved my life. For me, the "blowing kiss" gesture is mentally linked with loving and/or respecting something. I do it all the time, to my car, the airplane I fly, my cat, my rig... Weird? Yeah, sure. But so what? -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Jesus, go to frickin' Sebastian and if you ain't British, you ain't tappin' NONE o' that shit! or so it seems. Wish I was at least a skygod or something... -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I cloned myself a long time ago: http://crayfish.nu/keely/keelyclones.htm Oh, and leave the XBox alone! Okay, okay, the XBox is to remain yours. If I had one, I'd never leave the house anyway, so it's for the best. You are sure one cute li'l dumplin', you know that? What an adorable smile! And I love the "hi" wave you ubiquitously give! So friendly! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Have some respect! That's Alice, the mannequin... She's not a blowup doll! You should have named the mannequin "Elaine"! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

That is funky crazy cool!! I LIKE it! Now have him clone YOU! P.S. I'm coming over tonight to steal your XBox. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

The government taxes aircraft enough, thankyewverymuch. As for landing jumpers, I've been hoping to land a jumper for some time now... But seriously, I love seeing that people bring their kids to the dropzone. The earlier they start learning, the better. The ones I have seen have been fairly well behaved. Only sometimes do they start to get a little skutchy and bored and someone better occupy them for a time. Back in Pahokee, I was that person, lots of times.

It seems more accurate to say that I've given up sex and replaced it with skydiving. Some have priorities switched around, eh? Congratulations on your baby. Beyond that, I can offer no more advice. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Someone pointed out to me a long time ago that scuba divers that had vanity plates tended to get their cars broken into. Since then I've refused to put anything jump related in plain view on my car and I dumped my vanity plates. Stick an NRA LIFE MEMBER sticker somewhere on the ass end of that vehicle. I do believe that keeps people off your shit, at least to some extent. (More than an Amnesty sticker will...) :rolleyes: -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I do believe it IS the saddest thing I've ever heard in my life. That poor girl. She's so brave, and smart. If I do hear of a fund established for her, I think I will donate. I never say that fuzzy wuzzy "my heart goes out to so-and-so" stuff, but in this case it really does. My heart would go out to this girl if it wasn't broken by the tragedy that was inflicted on her. From the transcript, it seems that unfortunately she IS too old to be "unscathed" by this. She knows enough of death to say that she thought her parents were dead. Horribly sad. I wish nothing but good things for this girl for the rest of her life after what she's now going through. She certainly deserves it. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

It's weird, just a few weeks ago a coworker shared two Mitch Hedberg CDs with me. I had never heard of him before, and then ten minutes later I was laughing my head off! The guy was hysterically funny, VERY insightful, and yeah, his delivery was much of it. Kinda like Jeff Spicoli but smarter in a way. So I saw this thread title and it took me a second as I stared at it... "Mitch Hedberg... WHY do I know that name? Is it a skydiver? ... NO! Wait, that's that funny comedian!" Woe unto the comedian I discover for the first time. They seem to either die or be already dead. Same thing happened when I discovered Bill Hicks. Went on a Bill Hicks google search and found he was already deceased. Now I discover Mitch and he dies. That's horrible. Peace, Mitch. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I think that you demonstrate every right and reason to wear an insignia that says, "I am a skydiver because I have done it and I have fallen in love with it." Your attitude is what I like to see in a skydiver.

I got my private...no commercial. Groom me and check me out in your jump plane, as long as it's single-engine, and I'd fly you all year long without pay for the promise of food for me and my cat, and sex, lots of sex. (Mind you, FAA, this is NOT "compensation or hire," this is friendship.) -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Wouldn't that be a "pipe book"? -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Thanks, Chris. But I'm going on 3 years now without health insurance. And I only go to the doctor if I'm broken or bleeding to death. Hon, I hope you are able to either get medical coverage soon, or scrape together enough money to at least get a checkup now and then. Once a year? Come on, you gotta. I am blessed enough to have coverage through my job. If I did not have it, I probably would never have gone to get the colonoscopy that I got two years ago. (I got it because I wanted a check-out after my mom died of cancer that started in the colon.) They found and removed three polyps from my colon that could eventually have become cancerous in time. (All colon cancers begin as polyps; not all colon polyps will become cancer. You takes your chances.) Please get your health checked out. This numb leg thing does not sound like it ought to be that way. Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Because he did his job that he was paid to do? TRUST ME...I'm not a Cochran fan but.... I don't think God would accept, "I was just doing my job," any more than he'd accept, "I vass just followink orderrrs!" from a Nazi. People pick their jobs. So if your job has you do distasteful -- or worse, immoral -- you don't have to do it!. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Thanks for that link, man. So... the big question: What DZ is gonna front $40 million for its next jump plane? And how many fun jumps and tandems will it take to pay it off? -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Your thoughts make sense, but they're irrelevant. He was Amanda's friend and she is our friend, so we will support her and help her through this. The reason why he was killed, if there is actually a reason, doesnt matter. I'm sorry for Amanduh's loss of her friend too. I have to admit that being of the "gun-nut" variety, one of the things I thought about soon after reading this was exactly what chile said, particularly because people started in talking about "all the hate" in the world. Well, that kind of hate starts somewhere. The reason may not be particularly relevant when offering sympathy, but it surely may explain why it happened. As chile said, it is relatively rare for this type of singling-out-for-murder happens to people who are not, as they say, cruisin' for a bruisin'. Amanduh herself said that the guy was not a straight dealer in his business life. That is not an excuse to murder him, and the scumbag who did it should rot in hell. I don't care if you got took for a couple grand in fancy homey rims! But one way to avoid having this happen to a person is to deal honestly with others. Once again, all that aside, Amanduh, I'm sorry you lost your friend. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Shit, man, just get me to a deployable altitude so Ic can say I jumped the thing! I don't care what it does after that! (As long as it doesn't crash on me!) No, as I understand it, they did some investigation after the crashes and "made modifications" so hopefully it will be a serviceable aircraft soon.

Whoops... the link! V-22 Osprey page -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Okay, I was just looking at a CNN story on it, so I then googled it and found Boeing's page... I took one look at the V-22 Osprey -- this time from the perspective of a skydiver -- and said to myself, "I WANNA JUMP ONE OF THOSE!!" I mean, who wouldn't?! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

You have three jumps now and you still haven't got it down??! What the hell's the matter with you?! It's an intuitive thing. If you don't have it right as you start skydiving, chances are you never will get it. LOL! Of course, I'm totally full of it, there. I myself am going to get coaching and tunnel time soon to learn how to start doing it. And then I'll spend a few thousand jumps working on it. Good luck. Time and instruction and practice. That's what'll do it. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

"Golden palace"? Isn't that a paraphilia where someone likes to... oh, no, wait, it couldn't be that... -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I am a huge fan of what The Simpsons used to be... but I will say that I haven't thought they've been very funny or "on-track" since, oh, about 1996 or so. I know, that's a long freakin' time. But really, something subtle changed in the way the characters are and the way the "plots" go... and not for the better. I sometimes find myself straining to find anything to laugh about. Big name guest stars are not a substitute for funny writing. And Homer whining and getting all bilious and angry is not a substitute for him doing goofy funny stuff like calling all the constellations by cowboy names. I think they should have ended the show while it was reasonably funny, like Seinfeld did. Or Johnny Carson, who is lauded as having known when to quit at the pinnacle of things. In the meantime, The Family Guy is WAY funnier than The Simpsons, and in fact so is Futurama. And Fox has Arrested Development: how can you gripe about that? That show is uproariously funny! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Shoes on in freefall is overrated. Jump barefoot!! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Well... here in Florida, the "jumping season" never really ends. So for the year-plus that I've been actively skydiving, I haven't had to watch it go away for a number of months, like northerners have done. I'm fortunate that way. But I am looking forward to taking 9 days off (a week of work plus the two surrounding weekends) to head up to another dropzone, hook up with a coach, spend lots of money on jumps, tunnel time, food and fun, and come back a far better skydiver than I am now. I see video of people doing stuff I cannot do, and realize that even though I can dock with people, and fly a sit, and sometimes stay on my head for a little while (with about 1% control), and can call myself a "competent" skydiver, I am not a "GOOD" skydiver yet -- but I will be! Instruction, study, practice. I need those, and I'm headed out to get them.