NWFlyer

Just found this site ... this is pretty slick. Now that I'm back to traveling (a little bit, anyway) for work, this will come in handy. You can put in a street address and do a search for the 5 or 10 closest locations, or search within a X-mile radius to find restaurants. Once you pick a restaurant, you click on it to find the healthiest things on the menu, including instructions on how to adapt your order if necessary to keep the fat/calories down. Seems to be a lot of chain restaurants, but there's a few local places as well. http://www.healthydiningfinder.com/site/diners/findrestaurants/index.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

I always own legal versions of Micro$oft products. I just get my friends who work there to buy them at the company store, so I never pay full price.

I have over 400 jumps and I still suck. You'll find new things to suck at every day at this sport. Then you'll have those jumps where you'll go up and nail the exit and things will click and you'll get all (or at least some) of the points you planned and you'll get to the ground with a big shit-eating grin on your face and you can't wait to go up and do it again. And maybe the next time it'll all go to hell and you'll wonder how you did it on that one jump. But you'll want to try again ... and again... and again. This sport is *not* easy, and don't let those fuckers to whom it seems to comes as naturally as falling out of bed try to convince you otherwise. Just keep plugging away at small jumps, and focus on having fun and learning everything you can about being safe with others in the air (the only concern I had about your post was when you talked about separating at 8K, because leaving before the planned breakoff time is generally considered a bad idea - even if you're low, you want to stay just off to the side of the formation where folks can see you and track off at the planned breakoff time so they know where you are when breakoff time comes around). "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.thedailytimes.com/article/20080920/FAITH/309209993 Aww, they even made the newspaper! "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

Disclaimer: I'm not an instructor, so this is all from my personal experience at the dropzones in question. If you do decide to go that route, make sure before you do that you talk to the folks at Snohomish about transitioning back into their student program after having completed AFF at Kapowsin. Don't make any assumptions as I know (from having been a student there) that the Snohomish program is pretty well structured and defined. I'm not saying that they wouldn't support an AFF to S/L transition, just make sure you have discussed how that might work, if you decide to make the switch. Personally, though, I think you're giving up on S/L far too easily. You've made one jump, and you have bruises that I (at 5'10") also had doing S/L. If you're not communicating well with a particular instructor, well, talk about working with different ones. Not everyone's going to click with all instructors. I haven't jumped at Snohomish for almost 3 years for a wide variety of reasons, and I tend to keep my mouth shut about it on the forums (keeping with mom's mantra of "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all"), but one thing I won't do is speak ill of the student program there - Snohomish runs what I consider to be a very strong program where the students are well-managed from start to finish. The program at Snohomish does a good job of laying out goals and objectives for both solo and coach jumps. This might be a good weekend to quit second guessing yourself and the dropzone on the forums and give jump 2 a try (assuming the weather's good... I wouldn't know, I live in sunny California 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

Well, hell. Say hi next time you're there. We were the ones walking on the slackline last weekend. Definitely say hi to the Bytch. She's good peeps. And I will make it out there one of these days to catch up with you two - it's been too long since Scott Miller's course! I gotta move into my apartment this weekend, though. As for Alameda, I don't know too much about it specifically, but I think that in general it tends to be safer and rents are going to be higher than Oakland. Oakland's going to vary greatly neighborhood by neighborhood safety-wise - having just conducted an apartment search in Oakland, I'll be glad to share my experiences with you, though I'm still a total noob to the area, so I don't know all that much. "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 Laura day! "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 forgot me and Dave! grannyinthesky LisaH monkycndo NWFlyer pattersd "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've received some great advice about spotting and choosing safe out landing areas, but no one's really addressed your real question, and like others have said the truth is "it depends." One search term you might try to look for old threads is "long spot." When I took Scott Miller's canopy course, one of the jumps he has us do is a "long spot" jump, where we exit a ways out (but with lots of safe landing areas between our exit point and the landing area) and experiment with various control inputs to see what works best for our canopies. Rear risers, quarter brakes, half brakes, deep brakes - these are the kind of drills you can do to see which gets you the most penetration. Of course, what works best is also going to vary not only by what canopy you're jumping, but also by whether you're running with the wind or fighting the wind. It's good to get to know your canopy before you *need* to use the control inputs. My Pilot glides well even in full flight, but when I need to get back from a long spot, I've found deep brakes works as well as rear risers, and on a 210, hanging on the toggles is much easier than on the rears. "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

Straight off the Elsinore Web site (because this is definitely Mel's voice, not mine!): I am *finally* going to make it to one of these, and not only that, I'm tagging it onto the end of a work trip to Pasadena, so I don't even have to pay for my plane ticket. Score! So who else is going? "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 just went over to cnn.com to see if I could find some footage of the Team Fastrak 9/11 jumps, and I saw this link on the homepage. Sounds perfect for 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

I have the slightly smaller version of Valinda's HP - smaller screen and keyboard (HP Pavilion DV2000t). The only problem I've had with it is I got a bum battery - it would run out in about 15 minutes; I've replaced it with a knockoff (non-HP) battery and it's fine now - I get about the battery life I'd expect on an average consumer-grade notebook - around 3 hours. The only thing I don't like about the HPs is where they place the wireless toggle switch - it's right in the front of the laptop, so that it's very easy to accidentally hit it if you're actually holding the laptop on your lap. Otherwise, I've been pretty happy with mine as well. "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

Not me. I'm going to give you a big wet sloppy one the next time I see 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

True, but there's a new elections forum that you (and others) could post to. It's kind of quiet over there right now. Since yesterday was the deadline for those who submitted letters of intent to submit their official candidate paperwork, I suppose the election season has officially begun. (Of course, the Nominations and Elections Committee still has to do their work to ensure that the candidates each met the filing requirements and are each eligible to appear on the ballot in November's 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

Did you go somewhere?

But are you bringing a sikh? "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 guess it's not really rumor since they told me themselves. Something about John proposing to Laura in freefall... and Laura saying yes, and half the Farm being there to watch? Congratulations! (Oh, and I did ask for permission to "out" them).

Hope you're not lumping victims of rape or incest into the into the "grossly irresponsible" category. "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 will do my part, if the winds cooperate. If not, it'll just be a social call. And since I'm not driving, that's not a bad thing, either. "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, I loves me a good cover up. But this one isn't even very good. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/30/121350/137/486/580223

This sounds suspiciously like another link in the ongoing Duke/UNC rivalry. [laugh Except that's all about basketball. I'm surprised there were actually any people in Wally Wade to see the skydivers screw 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

Mike, my thoughts are with you.

www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com reminds us that the State of Alaska is younger than John McCain.

That's because if you look at the other photo it's obvious that the other instructor has everything under control since he is actually paying attention to the student, not the camera. "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 he could have gotten more mileage out of other women in the GOP. This one is Qualye like. I'm not sure too many bitter Clinton fans want a woman that badly. Exactly. I think most of the Hillary supporters who are holding out and saying they won't vote for Obama are going to see this as exactly what it is ... pandering. It's as if the Republicans have said "Look, we found ourselves a woman... and the right kind, not like that Hillary bitch. This one can shoot a gun fix her hair and pop out lots and lots of babies!" "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