NWFlyer

I saw some comments on the FlyerTalk forum that indicated that the size of the taxiway space at JFK is pretty tight - such that people weren't all that surprised to see this happen with the wingspan of an A380. There was a link to this, which gives a nice visual comparison of the humongo planes (scroll down for wingspan comparisons). "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

Absolutely not. I tend to just start typing whatever comes to mind and when I go to revise it, it sounds good to me . I tend to have scattered thoughts so I don't notice my main points being spread out through the paper instead of being organized in a logical flow. Does making an outline of your ideas work for you? Sometimes if I've got too many thoughts bouncing around, before I sit down to write I'll outline the main points I want to cover (just a few words on each) and see if I can find a logical flow to them before I start writing. "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 one's new. They've done a bunch before (many of them at Skydance). "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

Be sure to check out tonight's new episode of MythBusters, featuring Bay Area Skydiving and the ever-charming Gareth Holder (poor guy apparently had to spend the day strapped to Kari ). 9 p.m., Discovery Channel (repeats at midnight for those of us who also want to record Modern Family ). "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've never paid for LinkedIn and I've gotten a ton of value out of it. Give the free version some time before you hop on the paid bandwagon. "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. I'm lucky - I'm definitely a "natural" at writing. It's easy for me. But if I think back to what really tightened up my writing - it was good teaching and lots and lots of practice. Learning not only to write but to edit (my work and the work of others) has helped me to strengthen my own work. That started junior year of high school when each quarter we'd have four papers to do on various topics. For each paper, the first draft went to a peer for review. The second draft was the edited version based on your peer's feedback. That was the draft that went to the teacher. She could accept it as is, or give it back for revisions. This process repeated until she accepted the paper, or until you hit five drafts. At that point, you moved onto the next paper in the sequence. That process of writing, editing, and rewriting was frustrating* but also hugely valuable (and much more like the "real world" applications of writing that I use today, where things I write are reviewed and edited multiple times). Then I went to college and joined the newspaper so I was constantly writing with space limitations, under deadline. Being able to tell a story in that format was also good discipline - you don't have a lot of space most of the time but you've got to get a lot of information in. *I should add this was in the olden days of the 80s when not a lot of us had word processors or PCs at home to do our work, so every rewrite involved completely retyping or rewriting. "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

Definitely with you on that - dishes get washed or put in the dishwasher immediately after use (with the exception for soaking, of course). "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

Remarkably, no one was hurt ... just goes to show why you should leave your seat belts on till you are parked! More info here: http://nycaviation.com/2011/04/air-france-airbus-a380-clips-smaller-delta-jet-at-kennedy-airport-in-new-york/#video Also, ATC audio ... pretty calm all things considered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WjuCI2yAVD8 "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

They do out here, anyway. Costco's cheese section rocks. They really do have some good stuff. "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 stock up on the logs of Laura Chenel at Costco. (And by stock up, of course, only as much as I can eat in the time before the use-by date, of course). I sprinkle a bit on my salads that I have nearly every day, so I go through it reasonably fast. "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

Wait, you like goat cheese but would leave it off? Yeah, you're just weird. I found the combo of flavors/textures to be really pretty awesome. (BTW I didn't come up with this totally on my own - I adapted it from a recipe I found online but since I didn't have everything for the recipe I improvised). "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

Funny, I JUST today whipped up the most amazing beet salad (yet another reason I love working at home): Trim and peel 3-4 medium beets, then grate into a bowl. Slice up some red onion really thin (I used about 4 really thin slices from the fattest part of a large onion). Add a handful of chopped walnuts. Toss with about a tbsp of red wine vinegar and 2 tbsp of olive oil. I also added a shake of salt and pepper, and a small spoon of sugar just to cut the bitterness. Top with a whole bunch of crumbled goat cheese. This was surprisingly filling ... and very tasty. "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 get really excited about this, too. Which is why I mostly stick to basic tidying and "keep it from getting too gross" cleaning, and call in the professionals a few times a year to give it a deep clean. Seeing how clean they make my place is very exciting. AFAIK they work fully clothed. "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

Future fatality. Unfortunately he will most likely take someone else down with him..... I looked through his other videos posted - one was of him going bowling with two broken legs (on his knees). The video description didn't indicate it was a skydiving accident, but if I were a betting woman ... "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

Headhunters don't work for you, they work for the company that hires them to find someone. Good ones are rare. The Ladders ... well, read some of this. It's a blog category called "Job Scams" and notice how many entries are about The Ladders? http://corcodilos.com/blog/category/job-scams And read the rest of this site, too. It's a pretty good source of info on how people really find a job (in a word: network). http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/ The way I use "the internet" to find high-paying jobs? I use it to identify target companies and learn more about them. I look directly at company web sites and job listings. I use LinkedIn (and sometimes Facebook) to find connections at target companies, then I work with those connections to find my way to hiring managers. I do not use any of the big job boards. I don't pay to list my resume anywhere. I will sometimes look at LinkedIn job postings (I find the signal-to-noise ratio is better there and I can usually find a connection at the company so I'm not doing a blind submission of my resume). I use email (how old school!) to reach out to people I've worked with, people I know from college and grad school, people I've met through skydiving and other activities to find and follow up on leads. My current job came about this way. I was looking to relocate from Seattle to the Bay Area. Called an old friend from college who lives in San Francisco just to catch up and get his take on the local market. We chat for a while, he offers a couple leads, says "Let me give it some more thought and get back to you." Next day he emails me and says "Can't believe I forgot about this guy - my friend is the finance guy for the new VP of IT at [target company in my industry]." Email and quick phone call to this guy later and my resume is on the desk of said VP ... within a week I'm being called to talk about my current job. (Actually I take that back. They called me to talk about a different job - when I came in for the interview with the hiring manager, he suggested the job that I now have as a much better fit. Just goes to show don't totally write something off if it doesn't sound perfect at first). At the time I accepted this one I was looking at two other opportunities seriously. One was working for a former vendor of a past employer of mine - they were consdiering me for a job that was a big switch from what I'd done in the past but because I was a somewhat known quantity, we talked. Another was working for a startup I found listed on LinkedIn ... by searching my network on LinkedIn, I found out that a guy who was a year behind me at my business school also happened to work there, so of course I reached out to him. ALL about working those connections to get noticed. So far, I've not worked with a head hunter who's added any value. YMMV. "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

Okay, so if I do get a DSLR it's going to stay on dry land! Judging by the quality of the one set of underwater photos I did take (with a borrowed compact point and shoot back in the pre-GoPro days) I've got a long way to go before I have both the diving and photographic ability to get any decent shots anyway. My GoPro will probably be juuuust fine. "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

Of course it can be done, but the guy who's throwing roofies around is much more likely to do it in a place where alcohol is served so that he shifts the "blame" for the impairment to the alcohol rather than the drug in the alcoholic beverage. While it seems likely that the man was trying to start up a conversation with Nataly, it didn't sound like a terribly threatening environment and a roofie would probably be the farthest thing from my mind were I in her situation. As for the original question - if nothing else, altruism at the very least makes the giver feel good about themselves, so it always has at least some benefit to the giver even if nothing else is expected or hoped for in return from the recipient. "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 have never felt that the problems are airport-specific, they tend to be screener-specific or supervisor-specific, but here's my experience nonetheless. I think this includes everywhere I've gone through security with my rig (so far). No problem: ONT PHX SFO SEA PDX ATL MCO TPA CLT FCA GEG MDW PNS SMF BZE DFW MIA Minor problem: YYZ - my rig is too heavy to carry on per Canadian regs, so I'm allowed to take it through security but have to check it. OAK - this is now my home airport so most of my travel originates from here and it's generally a total non-issue. Only once did I have a problem - a supervisor asked to see "my orders" and wasn't going to allow me to carry the rig on. We eventually worked it out. BOS - mostly not a problem - once had to talk a supervisor out of forcing me to check the rig because of the AAD, but it took convincing him to look at the x-ray himself rather than relying on the rather overblown description of his staff "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

Thanks for the visuals, Robin. I've never felt like the grass area at Perris is "too small." If it were the only place to land ... yeah, then it might feel "too small" given the overall size of the operation at Perris. But for most of the jumps I've done there (not a local but between team training last year and various other visits I probably have 150ish jumps there), it's felt plenty big. Certainly during bigway events not everyone can land there, but during normal operations it doesn't feel overly tiny, especially knowing that there's plenty of other space to end up landing safely (and that the grounds crew will be out to get you before you've even gathered your canopy up). One other contributing factor to FMD working at Perris is the shape of the landing area. When you take landing east or west off the table because of the narrowness of the landing area (and the fact that, at least when I've been there, the prevailing winds seem to be north or south), there's really only two options for FMD - to the north or to the south. So someone watching for FMD just has to figure out which of two options has been chosen, not four. At least in my case, if the winds are strong east or strong west, I've made my decision early that I'm landing out - I can but prefer not to land in a strong crosswind and will take the out landing to get into the wind. "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

See, that's the thing. You can't run a sustainable business if you continue making deals like that. I've heard many many people who got deals that were "too good to be true" with Gary ... eventually that house of cards is going to topple; seems that it has. It reminds me of the first web bubble. I remember ordering a single pint of Ben & Jerry's from a company called kozmo.com. The pint was priced the same as a convenience store, there was no minimum amount required to buy for delivery, and they brought it to my house with no delivery fees. I remember thinking "This business is only doing this because they have a ridiculous amount of venture capital to play with; this isn't profitable and this business is going to go tits up before too long, but fuck if I'm not going to enjoy it until it does." But my risk in engaging with what was clearly an unsustainable business like kozmo.com was very low. My risk in engaging in a company like Gary's is very high, as many have found out here. "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 something to be said for Facebook's ability to hide/unfriend/never friend the people that bug you. (edit to add: come to think, Squeak unfriended me on there so I'm with Remi ... this post really is rather suspect ) "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

Yeah, somewhere along the line I would like to invest in a DSLR and learn to take photos for realz. But that probably won't make it into the budget this year. I do SCUBA dive but not regularly (so I haven't even invested in much of my own SCUBA gear, let alone cameras to take with me). "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, you mean my "What kind of camera should I buy?" thread didn't challenge you? I haven't gone anywhere, but my daily post-loading has definitely gone way down as the signal-to-noise ratio here has deteriorated. "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

Thanks for the ideas, folks. Sounds like I need to take a look at the Olympus Stylus Tough and the Canon Powershot D-10.

I don't know if it's mad skillz or pure luck (I'm leaning towrads pure luck ) but I (knock wood) have yet to wipe out on a rafting trip (and that's including a bunch of Class IV-V rivers). "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