NWFlyer

Um... do I have to sign up for an AOL email account to find out the story? "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 of them are slightly more subtle ... but probably get no less attention. "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

Ding ding ding! That's what's most frustrating to me... since I got sick last Wednesday afternoon, I've had three crap workouts with my trainer and haven't worked out on my own at all. The workouts with my trainer are maintenance-only; I'm definitely not making any forward progress at this point (and in fact my cardiovascular fitness feels like it did 10 months ago when I started, even though I know it's only temporary). "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 cold and flu season ... which of these would you prefer? As I enter week #2 of an annoying cold, I'm kind of leaning towards #1, but maybe I'm just forgetting how bad it feels to really get your ass kicked by a cold or flu. "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

He has some funny posts, but be careful of any attachments related to nutwaxing. "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

So for those of you who have the issue - does Marge take it all off? "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

Should be fairly easy to connect the dots. The blog says that the team (an 8-way intermediate team) received a 0 for the round because of the stunt. There's only one team that had a 0 for any round in 8-way intermediate. "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

Call it an educated guess. "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 whole balloon boy story definitely smells kind of funky to me. Anyone else? "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, but those who try to do formations at that altitude under modern gear (and let's remember we're talking about a formation in this scenario) often pay the price. Solo hop & pops are a very different scenario from being in the middle of a formation at 1500 feet. "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

Are you willing to spend every (or at least almost every) marginal-to-good weekend out at the dropzone for the next few months? That's kind of what it takes to get licensed in the winter in Washington (and this is the voice of experience - that's how I did it - the majority of my student jumps were between December and March, and I spent the first four years of my skydiving career living in Washington). The days that are clear - it'll be cold - but that can be solved with warm clothes and good gloves. It's the days where you spend much of the day hanging out hoping for a break in the clouds that can wear you down. If your schedule is flexible enough that if it's a good day you can drop everything and head to the DZ, I'd say go for it, but if you don't have much flexibility in your schedule and can only devote a couple days a month to it, you may have a tough time staying current in the winter months. Another option is to see if you can transition into the IAD program - the earlier jumps in the IAD progression are from lower altitude and there may be more weather days conducive to those jumps than to AFF where you'll need full altitude right away. It's a different style of training that'll get you to the same place as AFF if you stick with it - an A license. "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'm not really sure which I fall into, but I really enjoyed it. Was it deep? No, but I thought it was well-executed for what it was. "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

Apparently one of the intermediate 8-way videographers vidiots pulled a stunt the judges didn't really appreciate. http://www.uspanationals.com/blog/2009/10/nationals-day-5-friday-1016.html (scroll down to the 2 p.m. update for more detail) "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.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi "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 get your face slapped with a riser or line while decelerating from 120 mph, you may think differently. I'm old and boring and only have my ears pierced, but I think Vader's got the right idea of removing all of the exposed piercings. "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

At least this pageant is up front 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

If it's just me, sometimes, or I'll read at the table (a lot depends on how messy the food is!). If my SO is over or I have family or others visiting ... at the table. Growing up dinner was almost always at the kitchen table (dining room was reserved for special occasions). As we got older and would sometimes be on our own schedules, sometimes we'd eat alone in front of the TV, but we maintained a pretty good track record of dinner with the whole family. Heck, we even did breakfast together - well, Mom worked later so she'd sleep in, but Dad would make sure that my brother and I were up and getting breakfast. He'd work on his newspaper and the bro and I would read whatever we were reading, but we were at least together.

Hey that looks like the one you left at Lucky Baldwin's! Happy birthday, Nick. I may be doing the Pasadena work travel thing again next spring ... if so I'll buy you a belated birthday beer. "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 looks like a giant mushroom (assuming the link LisaH posted is the same thing you're watching). "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

Clearly RW isn't your discipline of choice, but to bust into the RW forum and insult those who have chosen it as their discipline of choice (or one of many disciplines they enjoy doing) reflects poorly on you. We get that you enjoy freefly - I think it's a cool discipline. I also think wingsuiting and CRW and canopy piloting are cool. I love watching a good accuracy competition. The only discipline I currently do is RW, but I have friends who enjoy each of those disciplines and I respect the fact that they love it and respect what they do to improve at it ... that's one of the cool things about the sport is that we can all find something that we dig. My boyfriend's big into wingsuiting and was on the 71-way jump last year. To be honest, the videos aren't that exciting for me to look at, and I *could* look at that and say "Well, jeez, all you guys are doing is flying *near* each other, you're not even taking any docks!" ... but you know what, I'm fucking impressed with what they've done and how far they've taken the discipline even if I don't get as giddy watching the videos as they do all the time. And even as a relatively new RW jumper, I can look at what Spaceland Force has done with this jump and be really goddamned impressed. Here's a story ... at 20 jumps, I was at the tunnel in Perris and sitting with the guy who was about to coach me. He pointed in the tunnel and said "see these guys? They're some of the best skydivers in the world. Watch those two and see how little they move in the tunnel." It was two members of Airspeed coaching two other guys. Even at 20 jumps, I could appreciate the difference in skill between Airspeed and the guys they were coaching (who were pretty good themselves). I'm just sorry that at many more jumps than I had then you still don't seem to be able to appreciate the skill and hard work it takes to be good at whatever discipline you choose. "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 a different model/network so it may not be the same but from within mail, I click to get to the mail menu, scroll down to options, then email settings. You can turn "use autosignature" to "no" or change what's in the autosignature. "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 TaylorC said. But if you want a space that time of year, reserve it now, since the holiday boogie starts on the 25th and space will start to fill up quickly then. The bunk house is clean, has lockers and a fridge available (though last time I was there the fridge wasn't really keeping things much colder than room temperature), and the showers / laundry are right next door. You'll never have to leave the dropzone (though you might want to go get groceries so you don't have to eat three meals a day at the Bent Prop). "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'd like to wear gloves but I'm concerned about not being able to feel the hackey well enough. I haven't researched it yet, but I'm guessing there are some very thin polypropylene or goretex gloves that don't inhibit movement or tactile sensations too much. Anyone got a particular glove they can recommend ? Been discussed a lot of times. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_forum=all&search_string=gloves&search_type=AND&search_fields=sb&search_time=&search_user_username=&sb=score&mh=50 I use gloves year-round. I just bought a nice lighter-weight pair from Under Armour that I'll wear year-round, and I have a pair of ice climbing gloves that I got at REI that I'll wear when it's colder (similar to the ones linked below though the styling looks like it's changed a bit since I got them 4 years ago). http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/search/results/pid1202496-Men-s-Pursuit-Glove/1202496-001 http://www.rei.com/product/787063 I've found I prefer them to be tight enough to stay on securely without any bagginess (which means I might wear a smaller size than I would for gloves that I wear for everyday use). Also, velcro or some other closure at the wrist really helps - I made that mistake once and bought a pair that just had elastic at the wrist and tried tucking them under my jumpsuit wrist - sure enough, the gloves were slipping down my hand. I was able to pull them back on (noticed it very early in the skydive) but I'd really hate to be dealing with flapping fabric at pull time. Those got retired immediately. "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

Haven't had to do that yet, but I have been able to put it where I want it so far - it did take a little bit of time to dial in and my first landings went long, but I've since learned how it flies and can adjust much better. Accuracy's a matter of knowing your canopy at your wingloading and being able to adjust to conditions. No, I'm not going to be shooting at the disk in classic accuracy on this canopy, but I'm no less confident in my ability to handle this canopy on an off landing. It'll shut down nicely in no wind / downwind - the flare point on it actually higher than the Pilot (which I put 300 jumps on prior to this). My personal experience - a 210 fits nicely in a container that is sized for a 190. I'd previously squeezed a Pilot 210 and Spectre 230 in that bag, but it really should have a 190 in it, and it's much happier with the Pulse in it. I have about 45-50 jumps on mine now and it's broken in nicely. Even the first few pack jobs were not nearly as slippery as a brand new all-ZP canopy would be. "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 page 24 of the October Parachutist. "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