NWFlyer

I love having a company cell phone (BlackBerry). It gives me the freedom to telecommute when I want/need to. It allows me to have a phone number to give people at work that is NOT my personal number. I only use it for work calls/work e-mails. It has an off button that I generally use on weekends/evenings. It allows me to be productive in airports when I'm on work travel. It's all about how you set the expectations. I recall when I started in this job I discussed getting a work mobile with my then-boss. I suggested a BlackBerry and he said "Do you want to be that accessible?" I said I liked the flexibility it would give me with travel, but that I also had no trouble ignoring it. 2 1/2 years later that's still true. "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

One of the things I appreciate about the DZ I jump regularly is that they have an anemometer and established thresholds and measurement techniques for wind holds (one threshold for student/rental gear, and a higher one for all jumpers). Hearing the student/rental hold is usually a good indication for me to sit my ass down, but it's also good to have an objective number that is non-negotiable and well-enforced. This. I'm usually pretty conservative about jumping in wonky winds, and I'll happily tell people about it (particularly newer jumpers). I like to take 'em out to the landing area to watch the folks that *are* still jumping so we can see exactly how the wind conditions are affecting canopies (and often the quality of landings). Usually you won't see an injury, but you'll often see a less-than-graceful landing or someone being drug by a canopy or canopies doing all kinds of interesting things in the air. I've been out 3 1/2 months now from a turbulence-related injury. I was fortunate - my injury (high ankle sprain in my left ankle, torn MCL in my right knee) didn't require surgery and was treatable with time and physical therapy, but I'm still kicking myself for it. As I've told everyone who's asked about it "The winds were fine when I went up; if I'd seen evidence of the kind of turbulence that was present when I landed, I probably wouldn't have gone up." There were several ugly landings on my load; as I was riding the golf cart back to the hangar, we saw a dust devil go through. My incident shows that you can't always predict when weird winds are going to come through before you get on the plane, but often there are plenty of clues (wind socks with hard-ons in multiple directions, dust devils, a bunch of ugly landings, etc). I was at the ER getting x-rayed for most of the rest of the afternoon so I don't know if I "inspired" anyone to stop jumping, but maybe a couple sat out. "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 bringing the beer when there's people to enjoy it is the right thing to do. At many DZs there is a beer fridge where the beer fines go; if there is, you can bring beer tomorrow and stock it up. But, to truly keep to the spirit of the beer fines, bring them on a day when there will be a lot of people around, and walk around (after the "beer light" is on, of course) offering beers to experienced jumpers, letting them know who you are and why you're paying your "beer fine." It's a fantastic way to meet people. "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

*golfclap* (Of course, if you've read any of shah's bonfire posts, you know that is apparently exactly how he learned to fuck ) "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 used it for years (10+ I'd guess). I don't use it to do a lot of trading - I use it for my IRA account, which is almost all in funds, not individual stocks. I've found it to be easy to use, though other than checking my account from time to time, I don't do a lot other than occasionally roll over 401(k) money into the account when I leave a company and allocate the new deposit into my IRA portfolio. "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

Who do you need in a relationship? Trust. Wait ... is that question supposed to be "who" or "what"? If it's who, I'll say "Someone I can trust." What do you want? A partner who I love spending time with. What are you not willing to accept? Drama or passive-aggressive behavior (which, come to think, often go hand-in-hand). "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

Sometimes it just takes being in the right place at the right time. "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 she said. Low-carb is the way to go to keep it managed. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ One of my favorite sites on the topic of eating real food and avoiding grains, sugar, rice, etc... all the simple carbs our body hasn't evolved to eat. I'm not diabetic (but it does run in my family, so I'm very aware of it) but I know a lot of people who've been able to successfully manage diabetes through lower-carb eating. "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

Most original one I went to was a 30th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination party. The guy who came as the Magic Bullet had the best costume, by far. I guess the fact that the party was over 17 years ago gives you an idea of how few theme parties I go to. "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

That's why it says "about." Much of what's in the SIM assumes a belly-to-earth orientation, but yes, even at that orientation there's a fairly wide range of speeds. But for a "rule of thumb" what's in the SIM is a good one. "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

Pussy! That's the best slot because you get to spend the next day counting bruises underneath your left arm. "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

33,430 AGL. That was Shin Ito and he did it last September at SkyDance Skydiving in Davis, CA in a PAC. My shoulders hurt just thinking about it. "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

Mine always seem to be around major jet lag. I don't usually sleep well on planes, so on long redeye flights I'll arrive pretty sleep deprived. One time when my brother was stationed in the UK, we decided to meet up in Ireland and travel together for a week since neither of us had been there. I did the redeye into Dublin, went to the hotel and checked in, and he was set to arrive at a more humane time a few hours later. So, I took a little nap till he got there. When he got there, he said he'd been banging on the hotel room door for about a minute or two before I got there. Even after I got up I was completely disoriented as to where I was, or who would possibly be at the door. Fortunately, I did recognize my own brother when I did open the door. "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

Good luck with it, Keith. You gotta come out of that one on the other side - you still owe me a skydive or five. "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 'Twardo said. "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

Orrrrr .... if we're going to make generalizations, perhaps we could say that it's the very narrow standard of beauty that is expected of women (particularly in the U.S.) that can cause issues in many girls and women who either do not meet that standard, or who believe they do not meet that standard, or who live in fear of no longer meeting that standard. Till we as a society start valuing and judging our girls and women on more than their aesthetics, this'll continue to be an issue for many women. Even the ones who are intelligent, educated, and accomplished are still evaluated on their conformance to the beauty standard. "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 ways to keep people updated without the blow-by-blow. For example, a FB friend did the following yesterday: Yesterday morning: "Hospital called. [Wife] says 'it's go time!'" No updates for 7 hours. Yesterday afternoon: "She has arrived! [baby name, weight]. Mom and baby are doing very well. Pictures later." Later yesterday afternoon - photo of dad with baby. Now, I don't have mom on FB, so I don't know if she was doing any more detailed updating of her own, but it seems like dad's approach gave plenty of info without needing to detail every single step of the process. "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

Good one ... but I figured you were going here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqImkDgDwHU&feature=related "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

Wow, a skydiver setting high goals and actually accomplishing them. What's this world coming to? Sounds great. You'll totally rock an MBA. Skydiving will still be here when you're rich and powerful. I just want to be more like Remi!

To learn the basic "Look down to go up, look up to go down" move in the tunnel? Not all that long. All the various refinements and inputs that you can use ... that's something that you can keep working on every time you go. As a fast-faller, every tunnel session I do I work on fall rate to some extent, whether it's asking the tunnel "driver" to slow the air down so I really have to work just to stay off the net, or popping myself up above the door and doing turns and side slides while staying up, or working with different inputs and combinations of inputs to have more in my arsenal. A lot of what I've learned in the tunnel has helped me to prevent even going low in the first place on a skydive - learning to stay up while turning or sliding or taking grips - which is preferable to getting low and having to use all your tools to get back up quickly. "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

The interpretation of "supervision" can vary from dropzone to dropzone - you might work with an instructor to plan a solo dive flow, or have an instructor review a solo dive plan, or the instructors may just be accessible to you as needed. For some of your post-AFF jumps (commonly called "coach jumps") you'll be working with an instructor or coach to do some in-air skill evaluations. For other skills that you need to complete for your A license (such as some of the canopy skills), you'll be able to do them on solo jumps and discuss them with an instructor to get them signed off when you're back on the ground. As for cost, how much solo jumps and coach jumps cost varies by dropzone, and can vary depending on whether gear rental is priced separately or as part of the jump. As for radio, again, that can vary from dropzone to dropzone and even from student to student, depending on how the student is doing with canopy control. Some will no longer use radio after AFF, others may use it for jumps after AFF. While we can give you general information on here, your best bet is to do two things. 1) Get yourself a copy of the USPA SIM (I'm making an assumption that you are in the U.S. - if not, sorry!). You can buy it from USPA or from a dropzone, or download it, or browse it online. http://www.uspa.org/SIM.aspx 2) Talk to the people at the dropzone where you're intending to learn. They'll have the best information about the student program and what you can expect. Make sure you have clear information about what to expect for AFF jumps, solo jumps, coach jumps, gear rental (as I said above, sometimes it's baked into the cost of the student jump, sometimes it's priced separately), packing classes, USPA membership (you can join on your own, but some dropzones include this in the price of the program for some reason), SIM (again, you can get it on your own but it might be "included" in the cost of your program). "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 still remember having about 60 jumps and busting out 12 or 14 points on a 2-way with a friend who had around 1300 or 1400 jumps at the time and was an active 4-way competitor. In the middle of the dive I recall thinking "She's making me look really good 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

Having an A license will make it a lot easier to move from one dropzone to another, but moving from one dropzone to another once you've completed AFF (or even before you have completed AFF) is not impossible. However, before you're A licensed, instructors at the new dropzone may want to do a jump or two with you to assess your skills prior to letting you jump solo. Once you have your A license, you are presumed to be an independent skydiver who comes in with the right qualifications to make a jump without any further validation. As long as you meet the USPA requirements for staying current, you'll be able to go into most dropzones and make a jump without further validation of your skills. I say most because there are a few dropzones that restrict their jumping to folks with higher licenses (B, C, or D depending on the circumstances) because of difficult / very small landing areas or landing conditions. Those are fairly rare, though. "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 probably a social services department at the hospital where she's being treated; they may be able to help put her in touch with the right folks. "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

Hope you at least checked the calendar before you made the drive over! Sunny here but I'm giving the old MCL a couple more weekends to feel ready. Hopping into the tunnel tomorrow night so I can knock the rust off before the 2-way tunnel comp on Wednesday night. "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