NWFlyer

So... anyone remember this "little" guy that I adopted a year ago? Yeah ... well, he weighed in at 15 lbs, 6 oz today at his checkup at the vet. And she says he's at a healthy weight, the boy's just tall, and long, and is just a big, big kitty (though being an indoor kitty, I do need to keep an eye on him to make sure he stays at a healthy weight). "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

Damn, why didn't anyone tell me Saturday ... I could have delivered spankings in person. Have a great one, Phil! "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

LOL I figured someone was going to go there! Been in a meeting all day and haven't had a chance to log on till now, but y'all didn't let me down. I recall noticing Lisa with the camera right *after* this shot was taken. "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

1000 teams? That's gonna take a while to judge. It also made it into the Southwest Airlines magazine's calendar section this month. The print version has a nice photo. Here's the online version ... fourth item down the list. http://www.spiritmag.com/calendar/2008_10.php "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

Usually only when I'm trying to go home earlier than my already-confirmed flight. I've had decent luck, except during "irregular operations," of course. Hope you make it on. That SEA-BOS flight is a bitch, though - it's always pretty well packed. "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

FTW!

Muttley must be out of town. "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 gonna go Maverick on your ass, Obama." "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 he's not registered to vote (if this blog is accurate), so I'm going to go with no impact ... at least not directly. "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

Nah, less than that. The lovely folks at Tri-State Skydivers (I met a bunch of them at Skyfest this year), which appears to be your closest DZ, will take you up for $180. http://www.tristateskydivers.com/learn/learn.asp#Static If the corporate overlords won't pay that, start a collection here. We can have that covered in no 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

He should know better and do a thorough inspection of the gear and/or repack it. An experienced jumper should know how to pack so if chooses to let someone else pack for him, he's accepting the quality of that pack job. Period. You pay a packer, you take your chances. As an experienced jumper, it's incumbent upon you to check a packer's work before you jump it. A bridle misroute is generally apparent with a good gear check. If this happened when you were still a student, it should have been caught by your instructors when they did a gear check (or by you as you were learning to do a gear check with them). So far, you've given piss-poor examples of gross negligence or intentional conduct. "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 it's a short play. "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 pretty sure you meant something other than what you said. And I agree with what I think you meant...I've always had a blast at LP. Blues, Dave Yeah, uh, that doesn't make much sense, does it? I had to re-read it about five times to realize why it made no sense. Blonde moment. "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

Hmm... In a lot of cases, the first time is the best, and though I try to keep an open mind, I wonder if it's just that my excitement about being at a boogie for the first time is what makes it so memorable, or if the boogie really did get worse the next time I went? 1) 2005 DZ.com Memorial Day Boogie. It's funny, as a boogie, this one was pretty low-key... it really felt like just another weekend at Perris. I think there was a BBQ and keg one night, but that was about it as far as boogie shenanigans go. But if I think back to all the good friends that I met there for the first time (skybytch, flyangel2, B2, mjosparky, billvon, dgskydive, champu, genoyamamoto, and many others I'm sure I'm forgetting) and all of the cool jumps I got to do (my 100th jump and subsequent pieing, Pixie's famed "human jungle gym" jump ... TWICE, a couple jumps with Sparky before he "retired," my first sunset cross-country), and the fact that a very special relationship started that weekend at the front door of the IHOP, that one has to go down as the most memorable for me. 2) Lost Prairie ... every year. That one was amazing my first year, but has never, ever failed to disappointed. edited for blonde moment 3) Skyfest 2008 ... even though I resisted Skyfest when it was in Texas because of the heat and finally went when it moved to South Carolina ... and it was 100 fucking degrees , I still had an absolute blast. Next year I'm going for a lot longer than just 2 days if I can swing 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

Happy b-day, Nick... let me know if you want to go back to Lucky's and try to find your glass. I'll buy you a birthday ! "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

Laura - my first suggestion would be to talk with Valinda Mitchell (vskydiver here on dropzone.com) - she can tell you all about her experience setting up the Leap for Lupus foundation over the past few years and running the Leap for Lupus boogie for three years. I'll be happy to make a formal intro if you like, but I'm sure a PM will get you guys going in the right direction. If you're hoping to get people/organizations to kick in big cash or in-kind donations, you may want to go as far as setting up a not-for-profit foundation so that people can get the tax benefits, and/or figure out a way for people to write checks directly to the not-for-profit to which you'll be making the donation. Of course, skydivers dig free stuff, so raffles with lots of cool big ticket items are always a good thing - I have helped out getting raffle items for Leap for Lupus for the last couple of years, and the trick to that is ask everyone you can think of and ask more than once. Most of the manufacturers I asked were willing to help, but some had to be "reminded" with a second email or phone call to actually get action. Generally found it was easier if I had a personal contact at a company than just cold calling, but I'm sure being in Florida you've already got lots of good contacts. "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 are such a drama queen! But y'all should definitely get together with BIGUN. He's good peeps. Oops, have I ruined his reputation? "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

Is green jello considered "raw"? (Sorry, couldn't resist). "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 tried the QC-3s, but I have a pair of QC-2s, and that's what I like about them - the fact that they don't sit on the ear, but that they surround the ear. Maybe it's just psychological, but the fact that they surround the ear is also part of the "cocoon" effect that they create for me, and I think it contributes to the noise-canceling effect. To the OP - every review I read before I bought my QC-2s a few years ago said "there's BOSE and there's everyone else." No contest - if you travel a reasonable amount, they're worth every penny. They make it possible to watch movies without subtitles - with regular headphones watching DVDs on my laptop, I usually had to put subtitles on or I'd miss some of the dialogue, even at full volume. If I'm trying to sleep I'll usually put them on and put on some mellow music as well because like Scott said they don't get rid of all the noise in the spectrum, so I'd rather have my music than have certain noises coming through to wake me up. "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

Have a great one, Jenn! "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

First, read page 17 of the Governance Manual about S&TAs qualifications and how they are appointed. http://www.uspa.org/Portals/0/Downloads/Man_GovMan_2008_07.pdf Then, read the S&TA handbook: http://www.uspa.org/Portals/0/Downloads/Man_ST_handbook_2003.pdf Reading those may answer your questions, or it may keep things nice and muddy. "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 sorry you had to watch that. That had to suck. Take care of yourself.

I can't answer your poll because you didn't give the option for multiple answers. It depends on how lazy I'm feeling, how hot it is, how flush I'm feeling with cash, whether there's packers around that I trust. I probably pack for myself around 50% of the time on average. However, I started packing for myself regularly as soon as I got my own gear. I learned to pack on student gear and jumped most of those pack jobs (except the first couple of really ugly ones). I had my own gear before I had my A license, and fortunately had a packer around who refused to take my money till I learned to pack and pack well (thanks karenmeal!). I actually packed more early in my skydiving career than I do 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

In a way, the possibility of not dying in this sport scares me more than the possibility of dying. It's why I am glad to be back in a job with a big company with great benefits where I can buy up to 60% long term disability insurance so if I fuck myself royally in this sport, I am not also totally fucked financially. It's why I am never without health insurance, even for a day. If I fuck myself up (or get fucked up by someone else), I don't ever want to wonder if I can pay for every bit of care I need to get as "better" as I can get. The only traumatic injury I've been through (unrelated to skydiving) took about 11 months to fully recover from, and I was able to get back to 100% functionality. Though I bear some physical scars from the incident that will be long-term reminders, they don't affect my quality of life. All the preparations listed above can't begin to prepare me for an injury that might affect my long-term quality of life. And that's the big, scary unknown. But all I can do is take away some of the scary parts by preparing myself as best I can financially so I have the resources to deal with whatever comes my way. "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

Welcome to the real world. You do know what the A stands for in S&TA, right? Hint: it's not Authority. "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