FallingMarc

My parents bought me 6 jump tickets! Woohoo!

Song is "All I Want" by Dial 7, if I am not mistaken... Ahh, there you went and did it, it's in my head, now I have to watch it. Crud... Marc

The 3 most common ones I get are, in this order, "is it fun?", "is it scary?" and "do you pack your own parachute?" When people ask what happens when the parachute doesn't open(always "when" not "if" for some reason...), I tell them about cutting away and the reserve... then they always ask "did that ever happen to you?" I love the look on their face... "Yeah, once. But then I learned to pack." The only one that makes me mad out of sheer cluelessness is "why do you spend all that time and money on it? All you do is fall down." Grr... I've given up on trying to explain it though, now what I do is invite them over and put in Good Stuff. M

Some friends of mine and I were discussing putting characters in inappropriate backgrounds yesterday... as we had just come from watching Lord of the Rings I thought the idea of a ringwraith at a dance club, uneasily trying to fit in and dancing poorly, was fucking hilarious... coffee almost came out my nose when someone tried to demonstrate it in a booth at Denny's... maybe you had to be there... Marc

I'm curious as to why that would affect whether or not you'd cut away...? Marc

I just kept expecting the elf king dude to tell Frodo, "You see... Mr. Baggins... you're going to help us whether you want to... or not..." Right, well, off to read the books again, it's been about 10 years, I should refresh my memory... I was pretty pleased with the movie though... Marc

Hey happy birthday dude! May your landings be soft and your beer ever cold... Marc

Ahem, as I seem to have got here first... BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!! Hee hee hee... can't wait to see it! Oh yeah, and by the way, what's the "FBF & TT1 not PIU" mean? Just kinda curious... Marc

Ahh I know, I can't wait to get back and jump with everybody... maybe I'll be able to afford to run down there the weekend of the 29th... As for shifting focus from you guys to me... ahem... I've seen you guys waaaaaay drunker than I was even when I posted that! Well, I've at least seen Anne that drunk... hehe... Oh and John... yeah, that wouldn't have been able to happen though, because it was kind of a last minute thing as she was leaving to go home for break, we were talking and she just came out and said she had to tell me now before she went nuts, basically... I figure if she's attracted to me she must already be nuts, but hey, who am I to complain? warm blue skies, soon, for the love of God, PLEASE... Marc

Holy shit! Heh... I should not do that. Boy, was I in a good mood! Last night rocked though... Marc

DUDE. Mad props to you for sticking with it through an injury and a reserve ride on student status. I had a massive spinning problem too as a student. I never had a chance to hit a tunnel but I would totally say that's the way sto go. No pressure of hitting the gound at 120 but leanring the muscle memory. Otherwise, stick your feet out and relax... for me it was all my legs, I had no idea where they were, one was back on my ass and one was straight out, I dindn't dtop sopinning until I consciously stuck them both out then felt how the wind was there, then got used to flying with them parallel... as always, aweseome that you stuck with it, and always remember, you CAN do it! Marc

Mw aa hahahahaha... 73 jumps and I havne'nt mebbeen ruit looped bet... hahhaahaha... but then I'm fucking drunk and who knows what I thnk...... hee hee hee..... it's the end uof the semeester and I am done with all my fucking finals! HAHAHAHAH! A month to hopefully save money so that I can skydive more soon... And crazy shit, tongiht siomething happened that DOESN"T FUCKIJNG HAPPEN>>> a girl aske dME out... it's the other way around dammit! Woohoo..>! hahhahahaha... yeah I have been drink heeehehehehee... ha M

Had a dream last night... I almost never remember any dreams, so this is wierd. I remember distinctly gearing up, getting on a plane, but I don't know where I was. I was with some of my whuffo friends but they were all geared up and jumping like regulars. We got out and I made a valiant effort to sitfly, but was stuck on my back for a long time... real long actually... realized nobody else was around suddenly, checked my altitude, and had just gone through 2 grand. So I flipped over and pulled, there was no trouble, and I landed uneventfully. But then I went up and after another uneventful solo, I pulled real low again... wierd. I've dreamt before that I pull at the usual time, but it just opens in time to flare... but this seemed really, well, realistic, I just kept losing awareness until below 2000'. Hopefully this does not portend something to come... Except for my whuffo friends jumping with me, that was cool... Marc

Hey hey hey! Don't jump to conclusions here... just because they say they're "mandatory" doesn't mean we have to actually GO does it?

I remember there was a study of adrenaline production, for students it was exit and opening, and for experienced jumpers it was opening and landing... I think.

Yes, but statistics do not phase the SORF board... "we can't fund those crazy skydivers... people could make a big deal out of it if something happened! Now, back to business... what kind of cars do we want to buy the basketball team this year?" Marc

Hey, sweet, you got the picture just as I fell out from under Tracy! Hehehe...

Excellently put... it doesn't matter if you want to have fun with your canopy, or see it only as a means of getting to the ground safely. If you're ignoring the basics of survival in order to have fun, you're dangerous. Learn to walk before you run... and learn to land slowly, hit accuracy, crosswind, traffic, etc., before you swoop and spiral into the pattern... Marc

Training students on the type of equipment they will be buying is one thing... but you don't need a Ferrari to learn to drive. Sure people can be taught on a wing loading over 1:1, but the margin of error is reduced. I haven't even been in the sport for a year, and I've seen students ignore the radio, not flare, bury a toggle at 30 feet, etc... We use ZP 290 Skymasters for students. The guy that turned low would not have walked away from his landing if he had been under a smaller sport canopy. Luckily for him, he had a lighter wingloading, and did decide to listen to the radio quickly enough to brush himself off and get nothing worse than a long lecture about low turns and target fixation. Some people need that margin of error before they learn the way to fly safely. I went from the student gear(loaded at something like .5:1) to a Triathlon at 1.1:1 at jump 35. I've put almost 50 jumps on it since then, and it still seems like a lot of canopy for me. I can't see myself downsizing anytime soon. I want to learn to swoop eventually, but not for a long time. I just don't see how it's safe to put brand spankin new canopy pilots under something that takes quicker thinking and reactions, until they are comfortable and safe flying something more forgiving. Marc

21. Find a suitable harness and parachute. Shove the parachute into the container, strap it on, and hitch an airplane ride to 14000 feet. Get out. Repeat until out of money. Works for me...

Yes... I'm having pretty much the same trouble, complicated by my tendency to spin when I do get sat up... what's helped me the most is realizing that it's not like flying on your belly, where you can just arch your back and everything will kind of fall into place. You have to actually push down on the wind with your legs in a sit. Whenever I'm sitting and forget to do that, I flip up onto my back again. Like Tomas said though, it just takes some time. It's just starting to make sense to me now, and I've been trying for a month... Of course, I'm not the quickest at learning this stuff... I spun on my belly for 3 or 4 jumps before I figured out how to hold a heading there too... Again though, that illustrates the "not giving up" thing... at that point I never thought I'd be up there turning points on a 7 way either, but Sunday was a good day... Marc

So guess who was stupid and took the midnight desk shift again. No, you dork, it was me. So here I am again with nothing to do for a full 8 hours but watch the cameras to make sure people don't drag a keg in the back door and answer the phone, which rings maybe four times the whole night, which is all at once of course. I think I need more caffiene. Thank God I don't have class on fridays. Otherwise I would shoot myself. I do, however, have a job interview tomorrow afternoon... but four hours sleep is plenty for that. Yeah. I'll tell myself that. I'll just drink a lot of coffee beforehand. It's good to ask to cut an interview short because you have to pee that bad. Ok, maybe not that much coffee. I could bitch about women. But I won't. There's no feeling of satisfaction quite like filling out a course/instructor evaluation form with as much frustration and spite as you can muster in 10 minutes. My favorite phrase from today: "The instructor obviously has no idea how clueless the entire class is. He comments before every test on how easy he made it and that it will not take anyone the entire period. I got done with each test with 5 minutes or so to spare and was always one of the first people out of a room full of frustrated and frightened students. I felt uttely stupid after each test, not even recognizing half of the material. I got a B on each one after the curve." That was fun. Ok, I lied. Women suck. They say they want one thing, but they pursue the opposite. Dammit. Ok, that was only a short bitch. To clarify that, the last paragraph was a short bitch, not the woman I had in mind. I can't wait until saturday... whoever said they "live for the weekend" has nothing on skydivers. And I hope to see each and every one of you at Archway for the Chili Party boogie this weekend. Yes, all of you. I went ice skating last night. I've never been ice skating before, so I fell down a lot. It was fun! Not like skydiving falling down kind of fun, but the chicks I was with taking pity on me because I couldn't skate and fell down kind of fun. Yeah, I'm a loser. You knew that already. Ha, this is supposed to keep me sane, not depress me. So pardon me while I think of words that amuse me. Dipthong. Onomatopoea. Dichotomy. Willy Wonka. Newsletter. Hee hee hee... newsletter... I'm hungry. Immediately the slogan "hungry? why wait?" popped into my head, so I'm going to be a good little consumer and obey it. Also Snickers is good for you! Well, better than crack anyway. Call me crazy, but I really like flannel. If I had a super power, I would want the ability to make people orgasm with just a thought, and from long distance. Screw invisibility. And I already fly, albiet for short periods of time. But even without the obvious sexual benefits, I think it would be hilarious to make someone have a spontaneous orgasm while giving a public speech, or something. Or, if I got pulled over, make the cop orgasm as he walks up to the car. Like you're going to write someone up after that, you'd be happy and confused and all messy. Yeah, that'd be a fun power. I just ran out of thoughts. Lucky for you guys, I've got nothing else to do, so if anything else pops into my head, have no fear! It will be posted RSVP. Haha, I tricked you! I mean, of course, it will be posted toot sweet. Blue skies and bored nights Marc

I'd always thought it would be fun but I'd never have the balls to do it, so one day last year I just decided, fuck it, I'm gonna go, and that's just the way it is. So I did. Now I can't seem to stop... Oh yeah, I did static line, because I'm a cheap bastard. I mean college student. Marc

Ooooooohhhhhh... Spam... See ya Saturday! Marc

Only if you follow it with The Wall... and hell, maybe Willing to Fly...