NWFlyer

Below is a blog entry I just wrote this morning about a guy I met at SkyDance yesterday. Thought it might provide some nice perspective in Bonfire as we all whine about the little things in our lives. Yesterday at SkyDance, I met a gentleman named Ben. He saw me walking by and commented on the Leap for Lupus t-shirt that I was wearing. I explained that it was a skydiving event/fundraiser to raise money for lupus research. He mentioned that he had ALS and that last year he’d known some folks doing skydives as a fundraising event for ALS research as well. I asked if he was out to do a jump himself and he scoffed and said “No, no interest!” But his son had done one several months ago, and his wife was there that day to do one, so he was the cheerleader. I did point out that if he were to decide to do one, the folks at Skydance had lots of experience working with folks with ALS. I also learned that Ben, who I’d guess is in his mid 50s, had been diagnosed with ALS in 1993*. He told me that he’d been able to actually improve his condition since 2005, when his doctors thought he was near the end. He said “I’m still here! I’m still moving, still talking - I can do everything but walk!” His energy was absolutely infectious, and I asked what had changed for him to be able to improve in the last few years - was he doing some sort of novel therapy? He said he was doing mental therapy - using his mind to make his body work better. I have no doubt about that. It was easy to see how Ben’s attitude and energy could have a positive influence on his physical health, even as ALS did its best to keep his body down. When I started talking to him, I quickly reminded myself that although he was speaking slowly and carefully so that I could understand him, I didn’t need to do the same - or at least no more slowly or clearly than I’d speak with anyone else. Because though his body was being ravaged by the disease, his mind was still all there and he was as sharp as ever. I’ve been thinking about Ben today, and how powerful his mind has been at keeping him alive and as active as ALS will let him be, and seeing the closeness he shared with his wife and son. And I’m grateful. So grateful for my health and fitness, so grateful that I could pick up the phone this morning to wish my mom a happy mother’s day, and have a great conversation with both of my parents. I’m grateful for their health, too, and the fact that I fully expect to be able to spend time with them for many years to come. Meeting someone like Ben also makes you realize that the mind is a powerful thing, and it’s really up to us to find happiness with whatever life throws our way. We may not control the fates, but we have a lot more control over our own joy than we think. *Yes, I was astounded, too, since I just looked up an article that says that only 25% of people with ALS survive for longer than 5 years, and 18 years is a true medical miracle. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4108123 "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

You go back to the photos I posted of Christie ... you know she had world-class photographers, hairstylists, makeup artists, lighting, etc. - every advantage to enhance her natural beauty. But her body still looks like a real body. I'm cool with that image (even if I know I'll never have her body, at least I'm pretty confident it's an image of her body as it actually existed at the time under those conditions). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Let's see ... sending an "overpayment." Asking for the refund via Western Union. No offense, but this is one of the oldest scammer tricks in the book. In fact, there's a whole "sticky" thread about it in the "Security and Scam Alerts" forum. Also in the Classifieds. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3461406 http://www.dropzone.com/content/Detailed/593.html And you might want to use the email on here to notify so this person gets flagged. http://www.dropzone.com/content/Detailed/670.html "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Having seen the massive contusions on the thigh and upper arm of someone who hit the tail of a PAC ... let's just say I'm really, really glad that he took the impact there instead of on his head. (In his case, the proximate cause of impact was getting tossed out after a stall, not a poor individual exit. The tail definitely won that one - no damage to it at all). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Bump.... good thing to do as many of us are starting the season. This can help in case of theft or other loss (saw a recent post about needing to file an insurance claim after a storage area got flooded). Reminder to myself to update my info for my newer gear. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

This reminds me of one time I stumbled on some old SI Swimsuit Issue photos of Christie Brinkley, so we're talking photos from the 80s. I found a couple of them again today (attached for reference ... SFW unless your work is really uptight). Christie Brinkley has a pretty amazing figure, but what struck me about the photos was that her figure looked real. Her limbs attached to each other in a normal way, and the small folds where a limb bends were not 'shopped out. Her body parts exist in proportion to each other. In today's photoshop world, the fold at her waist that naturally occurs (in both photos) because her leg's bent up would be 'shopped out. In the one where she's in the surf, I'm sure her waist would be whittled down to the width of her head. Her body may be unattainable for a lot of people, but at least it's attainable for some. The fact that we feel the need to photoshop already excellent bodies is sad. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

It's in Montana. But you can't come unless you learn how many i's there are in Prairie. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

What was the point again? The question? Yeah, I can't answer that because I haven't realized that. Either I'm doing okay at relationships, or I just haven't come to the realization yet. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

If that's a typical response, maybe that's why you're finding the need to turn to Monster.com to find a job. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

If you do decide to get some, batting gloves (baseball) or receiver's gloves (football) are good options that are commonly available at sporting goods stores. Make sure they have a nice snug fit and have velcro at the wrists to secure them (I learned that one the hard way by trying some gloves that just had elastic at the wrists... they wanted to slide off in freefall). I did my static line jumps in August, so unfortunately have no experience with cold hands on DRCPs. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

But I'm enough of a language geek that I think it's fun to try. I learned a new one this weekend, thanks to The Economist. The phrase "just deserts" (as in, you got what was coming to you) is spelled just as I spelled it. The magazine used it several times in a single article, and since they usually get stuff right, I found myself looking it up and learning something new. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/just-deserts.html http://www.snopes.com/language/notthink/deserts.asp "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I haven't been a student since I finished up graduate school in 1997. But it's only been in the last year or two that I stopped having the "It's the last day of the semester and I am an hour late for the exam and I can't find the exam location and I haven't studied or done any of my work for the entire semester anyway" dream. Hopefully reading this thread won't bring it back. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I think I'll just listen to this a lot. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Once you have an A license, it'll be up to you, but I have yet to observe a student program that won't require closed-toed athletic shoes for a student... so you'll probably want to think about something else as an option. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

It's why I changed the news feed on my Google homepage from CNN (Celebrity News Network) to Reuters.... so I'd be more likely to get actual news. And why I get most of the rest of my news from The Economist and NPR (okay, and The Daily Show too ). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=Japan&cf=all&as_qdr=w&as_drrb=q I'm not sure I'd call 48,172 results in the last week "no news." But if you're getting all your news from Bonfire, then maybe there's "no news." "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

If it's late July you should spend the last week of the month in Montana at the Lost Prairie Boogie. The rest ... up to you. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Since there are many, many more active skydivers than there are people who are making a living in skydiving, I would say that skydiving "for a living" is not the ultimate goal for the majority of skydivers (or, if it once was, they've looked at the cost/benefit and decided that the "living" they can make skydiving is not worth the tradeoffs required to get there. I suppose I flirted with the idea of "cutting away" and "living the dream" early in my skydiving career, but as I settled into it I realized that I like skydiving to be a part of my life, an important part, but not my entire life. And I've grown comfortable with the lifestyle I'm able to lead by working a 9-5 professional job and I'm not willing to give that up right now. So, I'm a weekend jumper, who averages about 150 jumps a year but stays active in a whole lot of other things in my life. I have a coach rating, which allows me to work with newer jumpers, but not anywhere close to a full-time basis, and that works well for me right now. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

There are lots of options for trying out canopies before you buy. You can use what your DZ has in its student or rental fleet. You can visit a DZ with a large gear shop and try what they have in their rental/demo fleet. You can get demo canopies directly from manufacturers (either through the mail for your own use for a couple of weekends, or at boogies where you can try them for a few jumps until someone else wants to try that same canopy/size). Or, someone at your DZ may have a canopy that you can borrow for a few jumps. As for trying a certain size only 7 or 8 times before moving smaller ... that might be okay at the largest sizes, but when you get into smaller sizes, it's generally advised to stick on a certain size more than 7 or 8 jumps. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

In the earlier part of your student progression, it'll be a "take what they give you" type of situation. The DZ may only have a certain subset of rigs that are set up for static line jumps. As you progress through, you may stay on the same gear, or you may start to jump smaller canopies depending on your size and how your instructors feel you're doing on canopy control. Depending on the size of the DZ and what they have available in the student/rental fleet, there may be an opportunity to try different canopies, or you may have limited options Relax about gear right now; wait till you have more jumps under your belt and are confident you're going to continue this to even begin thinking about buying a rig. Waiting a while will help you to build relationships in your local DZ who can help you evaluate options and assess the available used gear options. If you're really excited about buying something now, think about the basics like an altimeter or gloves or goggles. There's often used altis in the classifieds here, and gloves/goggles are relatively cheap to purchase new (and I think most people wear theirs to death so they don't tend to wind up on the used market). To directly answer your question, I started looking at about 20 jumps and had everything pieced together by about 30 jumps. I consulted with my instructors and a local rigger to get a sense of good options to keep an eye out for, and found items that met my needs in the classifieds within a few weeks after that (I was lucky - sometimes you need to be patient longer than that). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I can't believe the day has come when discussing Donald Trump in a thread means it really ought to be in Speakers Corner. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Probably more placebo effect than anything, but that can be a powerful effect that gets you moving in the right direction. Of course, remains to be seen how long this will last. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke