AlexCrowley

yes SkyDekker, but thats part of the law only. Internet communication is included but I'm not a lawyer and do not have time to research the entire law. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

I'm not sure, but the Secret Service do their job the same way they always have done, it's just now there are different mediums out there. From About.com: According to this law -- 18 USC Sec. 871 -- which reads, in part: "...Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both." edit: added link. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Yeah, as they're putting on their overcoats and leaving the office. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

there's a bunch of sofware packages out there that will let you stretch time, so you can always just randomly strum stuff til something seems to work. Ear training is useful, if you can hear chord 'colors' it makes it way easier to discern things thru the distortion as it'll still retain the same tonal hue, especially if you can take the root from the bass line and build on top of it. I say this without knowing what song you're talking about. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

It's kind of hard to bash a woman who has lived the kind of life she lives. I have an aunt who has the weirdest ideas about 'common people' because she's never really met any, except those who've been servants and stable-hands. She lives in a very different reality than most people I know, but it's like believing in God - it's just how things are for her, you can't challenge or change how her mind interprets things - her social circle all live in that same world with the same attitudes and beliefs about 'commoners'. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Market forces are in play, everyone gets taxed the same. I'm not sure oil is really driven by market forces anyway, in the same way that diamond prices are not driven by market forces - an entity controls distribution and adjusts the supply as it deems fit to artificially control the price. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Any threat to the POTUS is followed up by SS. A few years back a bunch of geeks had a discussion about the best way to circumvent traditional security mechanisms. Basically it was the same thing that security groups across the world were doing in the aftermath of 9/11. Our online community came up with a couple of scenarios, one in particular was very detailed (and ingenious). Even though the thread when read in context was purely theoretical - this was a technical discussion, not a political debate, the original poster was visited at work, taken home and interviewed by two Secret Service agents. This was on a vaguely known geek site that wasnt in the mainstream. So yes, they are out there looking and it is standard protocol to follow up on any threat to the President, in whatever context it is presented. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

I work in technology, every day I have to 'deal with humans', since no one except someone who has my job actually understands what it is that I really do. A large part of my work is simply translating what I do into business speak - and hoping that some of it sticks. My favorite story is the following, from the mainframe days, from ComputerWorld's shark-tank column (with a ton of 'dealing with humans' stories): This IT pilot fish gets a call from his boss's boss. I have a friend visiting, says the boss's boss. He'd like a copy of that custom software you people wrote. Help him out. "This was very custom software to do some very tricky graphics printing," says fish. "You had to have a certain version of the VMS operating system, a certain version of the compiler and a special line-printer driver that had been binary-patched by our local wizard. And you needed just the right model of line-printer. "I gently informed the boss's friend that it was extremely unlikely that anyone can get our program going on his computer center's mainframe. And the two systems had no way to transfer data anyway, having incompatible magnetic media." A few minutes later, fish's phone rings. "It was the big boss," says fish, "gently but firmly insisting that I give the guy the program." Fish thinks hard. How can he make a sincere effort to give the guy the program? Finally he types a few commands -- and not long after hands the boss's boss's guest the 3-in.-thick hex dump of the program and the custom line-printer driver. "I explained to the guy that paper was our only compatible media," fish says. "I told him he should take this dump to his computer center folks and ask them to type it into their computer. "He went away happy. The big boss was happy. I never heard from the guy again." TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

I saw the avatars, it looks like a virtual world thingy that was big news a year or two ago. You could buy hover bikes and it was pretty much commercial whoredom with electronic adidas and gap stuff. We designed some clothes stuff for it even. The big deal was that they were trying to create a real ingame economy. "There" was the name. Played it for a while and then realised it was actually just really annoying due to lack of usable content - there's only so much you can do on a hoverbike, and everything else cost $$$ (real $$$$). It was fun while it lasted, especially when people started custom skinning all the avatars outside of the game. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

It took me ages to get into the game. I found the beginning to be really slow and the new 'realism' to be a little too close to micromanagement territory. I dont play with the camera angles too much and usually play on my PS2. The PC version doesnt seem too bad but I've only played it for 10 minutes before the change in control methods pissed me off. After getting thru the initial stupidity I found the game got more and more interesting. With the PC version I'd probably just download someone elses saved game and have fun. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Newb, thanks for the comments. These are all things that are very useful to know, especially coming from someone who's a little further ahead and still has where I am fresh in their mind. I realize that talking about where I want to be gives the illusion that I am in a hurry to go somewhere, whereas nothing could be further from the truth. For example: my rig is a Spectre 190, which gives me about 0.87 as my wingloading - I *might* downsize in a few hundred jumps to a 170, but for the time being the act of jumping out of a plane is enough risk - I just want to be very good at what I do (this is natural and fun for me). I've enjoyed tracking so far - I probably tend to be a little too conservative in my solo dive flows, something I am going to talk to a coach about. I already have a series of coached dives prepared to increase various skills (which I probably mentioned earlier). I go thru my EPs obsessively, and agree with you that visualization is an excellent technique (i obessively visualize pretty much every activity :-/ I probably have a seratonin inbalance). This weekend I'll finally get to jump my Infinity, which - once I've gotten used to it, would seem to be more secure for what you're suggesting than the student rigs i've been renting thus far. I'm going to be making an active effort to make some more contacts at the DZ. I'm pretty small so I tend to float, and watch my friends plummet away beneath me , so messing with my fallrate is going to be pretty important. Eh, rambling again......thanks for the comments Newbie. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Yeah, "cool" never came into it. mine are markers for specific events. Each are symbolic, and over time they become something more than they were, within a short time they're no longer something ON your skin, but a part of who you are, and something that evolves with you - which people with tats will understand and people without will scratch their heads and wonder what I'm talking about. With the exception of the guy/girl who wanders into a tatoo parlor and gets something generic off the wall you'll find that for many people a tattoo is far more than just ink on skin. Scarification isnt something that most people do lightly, nor is it a new phenomenon. For many its something far deeper, even though they may not admit it if asked. Of course, that doesnt stop the occasional attention whore who likes to show all their ink all the time. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Because I love being here. The country *is* success oriented and values hard work over your background. This might be due to it being the US, or it may be more to do with my perspective and me not understanding social rules and being in an industry that relies on raw talent over pieces of paper. I originally came here to travel and learn, after a year or two of doing the Kung Fu thing I decided that it would be an interesting adventure to settle down and be 'normal'. I dont see myself ever leaving, I love this country for more reasons than the ones I dislike it for. I certainly never saw anything of interest back in the UK, I've gone back once to visit family and it depressed the hell out of me the moment I landed. Oh, and the food DOES suck. It's not just a joke at the UK's expense. Except Fish and Chips, although I've found an almost suitable substitute. I know I care more about the US than I ever did about the UK when I lived there. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

I'm a transplanted Ukian. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

It might also help to 'warm up' before stretching and getting on the plane. Walk around for 10 minutes or so, nothing so strenuous you can't have a normal conversation with someone, but enough to loosen you up. When your body is warm it'll allow more flexibility and lubricate everything nicely. At this point do some stretches, dont bounce a stretch or push too far in a direction your body doesnt want to go. If you do this regularly at home you'll improve your flexibility very quickly and greatly reduce your likelihood of other muscle strains. Do a generic search for warmup exercises on pretty much any fitness site for ideas. Follow what everyone else said about Ab work, thats going to help strengthen your lower back. Do straight crunches and twist crunches. Another really easy ab and lower back exercise is simply to take a broom handle, lay it across your shoulders (to keep them straight) and turn left and right, dont whip yourself around but if you just turn left and right for 10 minutes while you tense your abs lightly you'll start feeling it get a workout. I mention it because she has some back issues also and this helped her. Just throw some music on and do it. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

You're confused Newbie. America is the only real free country in the world. all those other 'free' countries are fakes because of how much the government gets involved. What 'my government doesnt tell me what to do' when heard from an American actually means is: "I'm a selfish fuck, screw you, screw everyone else. I have a right to do this because I have money to do it and I want to do it. So fuck you and your commie pals when you talk about helping others because I gave $20 to the Red Cross for hurricane victims. Fuck you and your pals when you talk about ecology because thats not my problem, corporations are there to make money, not save the environment you retard. There'll be more gas once the wells are drilled in Alaska now those fucking hippy fucks have stopped blocking development out there. I've never had to think of anyone but myself, my fat fucking wife and my fat fucking kids and thats not gonna change for anyone at any time, and if you ever try to make me be more socially aware *on any subject* I will shoot you in the fucking head for being a pinko liberal commie bastard" Remember, this is a country where the middle class conservatives believe that the playing field is totally level and that its the poors fault for being poor so fuck them - they'll "prove" this fact by talking about some stupid general shit that only targets one particular incident (well, you saw the poor looting in New Orleans, that proves that they're all criminals) or something equally invalid. America has the best and worst of everything, for those of you keeping score at home. [myMediaRant] I find the attitude above to be extremely common. The US is a very insular society, usually they only learn about international news if they bombed us or we bombed them, or we're considering bombing them. Americans are raised on a culture of fear and media saturation - noise that doesnt allow a great deal of introspection or rational analysis, and even given the time the quality of information presented to the average American is incredibly low. While they do have a free press (of which they're incredibly proud) that (television) press panders to the lowest common denominator - a victim of free market economics (the shift from costly news team to profit center a couple of decades ago killed TV journalism). There are outlets for "hard" news, but media-wise they're few and far between - certainly nothing on the level that most Europeans would consider a news show. Most of the shows play much like magazine shows for "infotainment" (an Americanism which means 'this is entertainment that might contain a fact or two, but we'll give you the right opinion to have about it'). Take something like 60 minutes, a so called 'hard news program', even the most cursory viewing is laughable given the way the material is manipulated to evoke a specific reaction from the audience. Really it just needs the addition of a laugh track, it already has the editing tricks and background music to help shape each story. [/myMediaRant] Woah, that got dangerously close to a rant about the media :) Yes kids, I know, you have newspapers, but statistically speaking the majority of the US gets their news from comedic monologues on the nightly late shows. The creation of the 'ME' culture in the US leads to the inevitable "fuck you I wont do what you tell me" attitude while the reality is that their government is just as intrusive, and in some areas more so, than most other 'free' countries. It's always good for a belly laugh when you hear about how taxes in Europe are so much higher, once you sit and figure the cost of all the various taxes that your average american pays per year - all with the added benefit of paying through the nose for private healthcare. An update on the score: America's a great country, but there are those who are living in a reality which is greatly different from the one where money is earned and the rest of the population lives. Now I'll sit and watch for some idiot to tell me 'love it or leave it' and completely miss the point of what I was saying edited for spelling TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Addicting? you dont know the half of it. About 5 years ago I licked this chicks tattoo and here we are 5 years later and she's my wife. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Thanks, this is a good idea. I actually owe my coach at least 3 more jumps to cover exactly this subject as he has similar concerns and I'm more interested in learning a decent skillset than just having enough info to have gotten thru my A requirements. My goals at this point are to fly some camera (it's what I do on the ground, I'd like to have the ability to get some shots in the air) and eventually skysurf. So racking up jump numbers and getting some hardcore skills are very important to me. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

You too Airrick, Congrats. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

You're absolutely right. In a perfect world I would be getting laid a great deal. In the meantime I'll be posting on all the forums that are of interest while waiting for the clock to reach the 'its time to go home' hour. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Excellent post as always Trae, thanks. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

That's Rhino's way of saying; "I'd like to talk about this conspiracy theory, but I don't want to admit that I actually believe it." TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

I have too many friends with the ability to say that as an opening volley to an evenings discussion on subjects as varied as "GWBush rigged the election" to "Jeff Goldblum showed some talent in a movie, once", which is why I was hoping for some perspective. Oh, additional question: Is it considered a personal attack if I was to refer someone to this thread as a way of response? TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

Hmm can't speak for the racism but technically they are not refugees. Stepping back to World War 2, the cities evacuated children to safer areas, they were called evacuees. This would seem to fit the current situation, as a refugee is seeking refuge from something whereas the current evacuees are people who were evacuated from the area of a disaster. whats funny is the 'Evacuee does not contain enough dramatic emphasis'. TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.