NWFlyer

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3969158 "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 traveling very often, and when I'm traveling a lot, I just fax the previous report when I'm in the out-of-town office on the subsequent trip. It's not worth getting either a land line or an efax account for something I have to do once every couple of months. If I really gave a fuck I could go to the local copy shop to fax it. It's an excuse to make an appearance in the office, and I was more commenting on some of the silly choices my corporate IT department (of which I am a part!) sometimes makes, than presenting a problem for dizzy to solve for 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

Two lane highway down the street from a Casino, skinny shoulders, no sidewalks, lots of drunks. I can't tell you how many fatal accidents have happened just outside our company gate over the years. I've walked it some, but man, my head is on a swivel. Yeah, I was gonna give you grief for being a lazy American, but I know you're not and I had a vague recollection of the terrain from my visit there a few years back. "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 can't walk two blocks? That *does* sound like a first world problem! (Especially if it's one of those two block stretches with no sidewalks and four lanes of traffic trying to kill ya). "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

Yes, I would do that if only I worked at a company that, when it totally replaced its expense reporting system 2 years ago, offered attaching scanned images as an option. Instead, they went with a system (or a configuration thereof) that still requires that we FAX the receipts (which get attached to said expense reports anyway - but there is no way to attach the scanned receipts directly). So I go into the office to use the fax machine there. And flip the calendar on my desk to a new month. It's wee todd did, I know. "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 funny when I think back. My first job out of college (1992), I had my own office. My first job out of grad school (1997) I had my own office. Even though I've moved into more senior positions, I haven't had my own office since. The companies I've worked for have moved towards open floor plans, collaborative environments, hoteling/shared office space, or I've been at client sites where you get shoved in an empty conference room. For my current job, I used to work in a cube in an office that was a mile from my apartment in a downtown area, so I'd walk to work and go in pretty regularly. Then they moved my office cube 27 miles away into the burbs to one of those soul-sucking suburban office parks where you have to get in your car to go anywhere off-campus. It's a more modern facility but that's about all it has going for it. With gas at $4/gallon (or the BART ride being $8/RT and more than doubling my commute time), I'm taking full advantage of the flexibility to telecommute. Most of my work is on the phone/Webex anyway, and it's just as easy to do it from my home office as my "real" office. And I can open windows here. My coworkers joke when I do come into the office "So, you need to turn in an expense report?" They're pretty much right... that's about the only time I go in. "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

How about you actually *have* air conditioning? When I lived in the dorms (only one year, actually) there was no A/C. However, we'd waste the school's utilities in the other direction. Heat was on for a fixed time of the year (October through March, IIRC). But in Virginia, there are often unseasonably warm days during those months - at that point we'd just use the window to make the room a tolerable temperature... sending all that lovely heat right outside. "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

How so? "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 assume we're talking about teaching the basic-intermediate level rather than someone to help the top 10% of jumpers fine-tune their 450s? Yes, perhaps I should have been more specific (and I should still be able to edit my original post) that I'm talking about the "basic skills" canopy courses aimed at people who are generally not doing high performance landings. "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 seems like a qualification that would eliminate all but a few people. Is that what you were going for? I started this thread to see if we could get some thoughts on how to actually expand the availability of canopy education; your proposal seems like it would keep the ranks of canopy instructors fairly small. Am I missing something? "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

A comment skybytch made in this thread brought back a question I've mulled around in my mind for a while and which comes up (at least indirectly) on here a lot when people ask "Should I invest time/course fee/travel cost to go to [insert big-name canopy course] here?" [In this context, when I say canopy course, I'm talking about the "basic/fundamental skills" courses aimed at the "standard pattern" jumper, not those aimed at people trying to work on high performance canopy skills] I'll state up front this is not meant to be anything against the big name canopy courses or their instructors. The folks who have spent a lot of their time and energy to develop and refine the courses they (and their successors) teach today deserve much credit for taking that on. That said, there's a limited supply of "big names" (and their time is not unlimited, either) and it seems like there's probably a place for local instruction to supplement. I've taken Scott Miller's course back when he was still teaching, Brian Germain's course, and a course taught by local instructors (based on the Flight-1 curriculum), I'm curious as to whether people believe that you need a big name to have a successful canopy course. I personally got a LOT out of each of the courses I took (at various points in my skydiving career) and I like the fact that local courses are being taught at my DZ so it's super-easy for me to do a course as a refresher every year or two. I was very happy with the quality of instruction locally, but I have called that out as a possible con below depending on the available folks at a dropzone. My thoughts: Pros of the big name: They are typically a known quantity - their courses and instructors have a reputation and history teaching canopy control. The big name might draw in students who might not otherwise be drawn to a canopy course (the "ooh I can learn from this skygod" thing can be a powerful motivator). Cons of the big name: The cost is necessarily going to be higher as the instructor's travel costs have to be taken into account and those costs are generally totally or partially funded by the students. There's also the possible discrepancy between what a "big name" would charge for their time vs. a local instructor, which is another discussion in and of itself. Another con is that a dropzone is typically only going to bring in someone from the outside once a year (or less frequently) as there is an up-front cost to scheduling the course and the DZ will want to make sure it is recouping the cost of holding the course. Pros of local instruction: Ability to offer classes more frequently/reach more people. If your instructors don't have to travel, it's a lot easier to put a 1-day class on the calendar several time a year. Ability to provide ongoing feedback/have ongoing involvement in the students' development. If most of the attendees are local jumpers and you teach at that dropzone, it gives you a chance to continue supporting their learning on a more informal basis after the class is over. Cost can be much lower as you're not including travel costs. More flexibility to reschedule courses due to weather. Cons: Not necessarily a known quantity in terms of instructor quality. Not a known quantity in terms of course content/quality (though this can be mitigated by using some of the available tools/curricula out there). Lack of "big name" draw (for most DZs, of course, some have the big names resident). "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 back to the actual article - much of it parallels my (brief) career in engineering school. I was an above-average student in high school who was pretty good at math and science on the high school level, though it was hardly a passion of mine. Because of that, I was encouraged (particularly by my mother) to look at engineering. I think the encouragement from her came about largely because it was an opportunity she felt that she didn't have when she finished up high school in the 1950s. I was 17, didn't really have any idea what I wanted to be when I grew up (I still really don't!) and I wound up in a small but competitive engineering program at the University of Virginia. I turned down Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech (both with arguably stronger overall engineering programs) because I figured 1) if I'm going to stick with it I like the idea of being in a smaller program and 2) I really don't think I want to stick with it, so going to a school with other strong departments was a good way to hedge my bets. All this is setup to say that I was a pretty lukewarm candidate to be successful in an engineering program, mostly because of my lack of true, passionate interest in it. Get to college, realize that no one's MAKING me go to class, have way too much fun on extracurricular activities, and spend way too little time focusing on my classes and end my first semester with a whopping 1.8 GPA. I couldn't get out of the engineering school fast enough (no, seriously, I couldn't get out because the College of Arts & Sciences required a 2.0 to transfer in). The rest of my first year was an exercise in getting out of engineering (took the minimum number of credits in the e-school, the rest in liberal arts - got my GPA up enough to transfer), and continued my reign of mediocrity for my second year. Got my shit together and focused my last two years and even made dean's list at some point. All that is to say - engineering was difficult - but then again, college is difficult (and it should be if we're trying to train the next generation of critical thinkers). I might not have floundered quite so much in the beginning if I'd started in liberal arts, but I think my challenges were more due to self-discipline (I completely lacked it) and motivation/interest (again, kinda lacking). In retrospect I might have been one of those kids that could do with a year or two in the "real world" before going to college. I blame engineering for none of this. I blame the university for none of this. I made a choice to start in engineering, without any real concept of why I was in that major. I decided not to stick with it, but it wasn't because it was too hard (though it was hard) it's because it was hard AND I wasn't interested/motivated. I don't think any amount of hand-holding or support would have helped (it might have even been there had I looked for it, I don't know). I had a similar decision to make several years later when I was considering grad school options - I was torn between law school, business school, or a joint degree. By that point I had time to watch several friends go through law school, and I talked to all of them as well as several colleagues that had graduated law school (some practicing, some not), and all of them said "If you don't really want to do law school, don't go to law school." I couldn't find the absolute passion for it, and decided to go to business school, and was really happy about my decision. I worked my ass off in business school but I had fun doing it because I was interested in the subject matter. It's amazing how much better informed decisions tend to turn out. (And of course, now I've come full circle and do software/application design work ... not hard core engineering, by any stretch, but definitely a more techie role than most MBAs play). Edited to add an actual point: the point is, engineering (as with a lot of different professions) isn't for everyone. How do you tell how many of the "wash-outs" are flaky 17 year olds like me who really weren't in the right place to begin with vs. highly-motivated future engineers who get burnt out on the grind of the work? I'd be willing to bet that those who leave are more the former than the latter. And I should also add that since I got my liberal arts degree, the only burgers I've flipped have been in my own kitchen. I had a couple office temp jobs upon first graduating to get my feet wet, one turned into a long-term gig that turned into a professional position as a consultant (that was all within a year of graduating). A college degree in any discipline is not a guarantee of professional employability, but a liberal arts degree is far from a guarantee of burger-flipping, 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

Everyone's given you great advice so far. I'd like to add what NOT to do ... do not schedule the phone interview then forget to note down the time. Early Friday morning, I've just gotten up and am puttering around the house considering a shower. Phone rings (land line, no caller ID). Me: Hello? Voice: High this is John [so-and-so]. Me (testily): Yes? Voice: From [target company] Me: Oh my god I completely forgot. Voice: [Laughs] How about you get some coffee, I'll call you back in 5. Believe it or not, I actually went on to the next round and to get the job offer after all that, but I do not recommend the approach. Not all interviewers are going to be as cool and laid back as he was (as I later learned, he was one of the few cool and laid back people in the company - most of the rest of 'em had serious stick-in-ass disease and it was NOT a good fit for 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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk "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

Remind me where I degraded you for yours? I was talking about your rhetorical style, not the viewpoints it represented. "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

Genuine feedback on your rhetorical style: Here's where I think you get off-base on your arguments, generally. You take your personal experience and you generalize it to an entire population. Then you push back or take offense when people challenge that notion. Your personal experience is what it is. Your perception of the experiences of the people in your circles is what it is. But extending those out more globally is where your rhetorical style has failed, time and time again, and it's what causes people to react negatively. If you just said "I feel like I've made the wrong choice with engineering and here's why" I think there would be less pushback. But you've tried to generalize it to all engineers, despite being presented with contrary evidence that not all engineers are unhappy with their choices and not all of them felt the workload as students was inappropriate. Same goes for your taste in women. If all you said was "This is what I'm attracted to and here's why" you'd get a lot less push back. But you try to generalize your personal preferences and personal experiences across the entire straight male population. "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

Then why do I know lots of people who manage to skydive regularly or even frequently who make much less than the "norm"? People who are happy and fulfilled in their lives despite making a low(er) income? "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

Head down? In AFF? I'm going to assume you mean that you exited in something other than a stable belly-to-earth position? (Because if you're doing head down freeflying as an AFF student ... uh ... ). As others have said, the "max" values on an Altitrack are often anomalies on the data. What were your average speeds? Those are more likely to be realistic measurements of your actual speed. "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 how did things turn out for your friend with the flat spin? When did he recover? Was he able to make it to the landing area safely? "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 best way to network is simply to become friends. If your goal in networking is advance yourself, then the friendship aspect is doomed from the start and self defeating. Try just being a nice guy to everybody. If a career opportunity grows out of that, fine, but if people find out that the only reason you're being friendly to them is so you can use them . . . well, you get what you deserve. Excellent point, quade. So many people get this idea that networking is always goal-oriented. Networking is building relationships in all parts of your life. When my brother was in his MBA program, he talked about how uncomfortable he was in the networking aspect of it. He talked about one of his classmates and how she was always aggressive and pushy at the networking events and he didn't want to emulate her. I said "So remind me again how you got your summer internship?" He said "I found out about it through one of the parents in the scout troop I volunteer for - he's the administrator at the hospital I'm going to be working for." I reminded him that what he had done to get that job was networking, the best kind, actually, because the conversation clearly happened so organically in the course of doing something that was important to him, that my brother hadn't even identified it as "networking." But it was, and it paid 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

When I was looking to move to Northern California, I used the yahoo group for skydivers in Northern California (which has 400+ members) as a networking tool. By that time I knew a lot of the skydivers in the region from my many visits down there, but didn't know what most of them do professionally because it often just never comes up in DZ talk. The moderator of the group (who tends to be pretty heavy-handed at moderating posts of newer group members in an effort to control the spam that often infiltrates yahoo groups) was reluctant to send my message and wondered why I would use a skydiving mailing list to get a job when I could go to Monster or Hot Jobs (I kid you not - his exact advice... which I knew to be a recipe for continued unemployment ). Fortunately I was able to talk him into sending the message anyway. I got probably a dozen replies with leads (in addition to general encouragement, which is always nice) and I think I got at least 4 or 5 actual interviews out of that one email. Many were from people I'd met before, some were from people I'd never even met. The job I ended up accepting came through a connection from a friend from college, but the skydiving community (in addition to networking with college, grad school, and professional contacts) helped to give my job search some serious traction. So it's probably a decent topic to bring up during down time during the day or after hours, but maybe as a way to set up a conversation outside of the DZ rather than forcing it to take place at the DZ. "Oh, you work [at company x or in industry x]? I'd love to talk to you more about it sometime - maybe I can call you during the week or we can meet up for coffee near your office." That gives them the option to put off the discussion till later when they're in "work mode" but you're still making the connection. "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 figure at least I can listen to some good music today... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHCdS7O248g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY "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

As with all grown children, you really do not want to know what your parents are doing. JerryBaumchen Excellent point. I'm still scarred from finding the Viagra bottle in Dad's nightstand when I was looking for the remote for the bedroom TV. "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

Possibly because you're starting to gain a greater understanding and appreciation for the risk that you're taking. I remember when I was a student, some days I was calm, other days I spent the entire drive out to the DZ thinking "WTF am I doing?" I spent several plane rides (later jumps, in the 10-15 jump range) thinking "I can always ride the plane back down. I don't have to jump." I was well into my student jumps (single JM jump but can't remember the exact number) when my instructor asked "Are you ready to skydive?" and I just stared at him for a long time and had to take several deep breaths before I finally said "Yes." He told me on the ground he was starting to get worried about the spot because I'd taken so long (and he was so used to me giving a rapid "Yes" response). What helped me (and continues to help me when I get performance anxiety or anxiety about a new experience for me) is to visualize - from beginning to end, as much in "real time" as I can. Visualize getting on the plane. Visualize the ride up, and the activities you'll do on the ride up. Visualize gear checks and preparation for exit. Visualize the door opening. Visualize climbing out. Visualize exiting. Visualize the skydive itself and all of the activities you'll do in the air. Visualize wave-off and deployment. Visualize your control checks. Visualize your canopy flight and any skills you'll practice in air. Visualize landing safely. Going through that in your mind, on the ground, in a calm, quiet environment can not only help you to remember what you are supposed to do on the skydive, it also helps you envision a safe and successful skydive and every step involved in that. I find that makes the actual skydive itself much less of a shock to my system, since I've internalized all of what to expect already. "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 some retail therapy is in order Good idea. I mean, if the world really is ending I won't have to pay my credit card bill when it comes due. I can go nuts! Today is also my dad's 75th birthday. He's probably celebrating extra hard knowing that it's his last birthday ever. (Actually I fully expect it's business as usual - a quiet day with my mom and maybe dinner 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