MikeJD

If you die in the Matrix, you die here. The body cannot live without the mind. Edited to add: oh wait, we are in the Matrix.

Plus, it makes you drowsy so you go to sleep and stop bothering the cabin crew.

And we have a little place here in England called Greenwich. Which means we must be right.

Wow. Next step, unpressurised cabins. 'In the event of a 1 euro coin being inserted, an oxygen mask will drop from the ceiling.'

Know what I like about that article? Nobody did any 'plummeting'.

Worst of all are the mini roundabouts. They probably call those 'traffic dots' in the States, if they have them. If you don't have them yet, resist! Mini roundabouts are no more than a few feet across, but you're supposed to treat them just like their big brothers when it comes to indicating and right of way. But hardly anyone does. Since they're often just marked out in paint, or maybe a slight hump in the road, most people who aren't taking an early exit just drive right over them. And everyone goes when they don't have right of way, and sits there and waits when they do. Nightmare.

I only like +1 posts when they're replying to mine. Otherwise they're a waste of bandwidth.

Any chance of a link to specific threads? The one I browsed looked pretty civilised. What's the main source of disagreement - is it gear rivalry? Thank God Apple and Microsoft will never get into the BASE or skydiving markets.

If she can afford to keep 20 cats vaccinated, she must be loaded! And if she's that much of a regular at the vet, can't understand why she wouldn't get all of her toms neutered.

Well, I gather he took on the planet and only broke himself a little bit. That's valiant... or something.... Anyway, can we have some more on-topic posts in this thread? I do like to hear how people got into the sport.

Bit stingy with the bandwidth, aren't they? I'm sure lots of those pictures have been spoiled by making them so small and squeezing them to hell - kind of defeats the point of presenting them. I guess it's a symptom of the age (quantity and convenience over quality), but for some reason it really bugs me. I'd like to see the originals in a decent size and without all the compression artifacts. Anyway, sorry for the rant. I voted for your aunt. More power to her.

Not me, but I was once driven through West Virginia by a guy using his hands alternately for steering and making balloon animals. Some of you probably know him, so no names.

Funnily enough, my first trip to the States for Bridge Day was also my first exposure to those bizarre things you call biscuits. If anything, I'd call those scones, although they're not quite the same. Biscuits are only cookies if they have chocolate chips in them.

Can't believe I've been back through 5 pages of posts to find where this thread finally got back on track, and it turns out to be the very last post (probably not for long)! Skittles made a valiant attempt early on, but it didn't stick. Anyway, I'm semi-embarrassed to say I'm Point Break generation. To be fair, I'd made a handful of static line jumps in 88/89, but then run out of steam. It took that movie, and the increasing popularity of AFF, to respark the interest.

I hear NASA have now banned satellite hook turns.

London Skydivers. I'd link to it, but I can't be bothered to go searching for it. Edited to add: I've found it now. London Skydivers Nearly 5 years old and still going strong.

Self loathing and pent up rage. I think one of the saddest things the internet has shown us is how VERY ANGRY many people are. Look at the posts in response to just about any YouTube video. There's always someone who has to put it down. And then someone else who has to put them down. And then there's a lot of pointless bickering, and then the death threats begin.

I doubt there's any point telling skydivers what nature does and doesn't want us to do.

Doesn't quite fit your criteria, but I did once order a book from the States to be delivered to my office in the UK. It didn't appear for literally 6 months, and when it did somebody had stamped Missent to Luxembourg (or some such place) on the packaging. Now I doubt that Luxembourg's mail workers have any such stamp to hand, but I bet the UK Royal Mail does. 'Eddie, I just found this parcel down the back of the sorting shelves. Been there for months by the look of it.' 'Oops, well never mind. Use the Missent to Luxembourg stamp and send it on.'

[Ian McCulloch voice] Fate Up against your will Through the thick and thin He will wait until You give yourself to him. [/Ian McCulloch voice] Don't believe in fate, no - but I guess it depends on your definition. Presumably you mean it in the sense that everything that will happen is predetermined and cannot be changed (which is what makes 'to tempt fate' such a contradictory expression!) To argue that the future is changeable supposes that it exists in a 'default' form in the first place. In reality neither the future nor the past exist, but the difference is that future events will still be influenced by things happening in the present. To bring it back to the emotional angle, we can't affect the future (even our own) as much as we'd like to think we can, and we can't change the past at all, in the sense of what actually happened - which is why we shouldn't dwell on painful memories. I guess one of the reasons we do revisit the past is that we change our perception of what happened, often subconsciously. Reworking our memories is part of human nature, I think. And if the past doesn't exist, and there's no evidence to contradict our version of it, then you could say our version is as valid as any other. So we long for control over both the past and the future. Now karma - there's something that I wish I could believe in. Sadly there's too little evidence of any kind of natural justice at work in the world.

If it's the last load of the day, you can.

I guess this works better in countries where most people have mailboxes that coconuts can fit into. If you have a mail slot in your front door instead, it's hard to deliver a coconut through it (at least without the use of a hammer). If I had to go to the post office depot to collect a 'package' that was too big to fit through my door, and I found out I'd gone all that way to pick up a coconut, I wouldn't be amused.

'Yeah, because the local landowner gets really upset when you leave a crater.'

Reminds me of the FCUK ('French Connection United Kingdom') clothing brand. I'm all in favour a good swear word, but it made me sick to think of those advertising execs sniggering behind their hands. Same with all the bleeping or blanking out of profanity when songs are played on TV or radio. Everyone over the age of five knows what's being said, but we're not allowed to hear it.