shall555

Beatles. Capitol 45 record: "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". This, of course, makes me approximately 397 years old. shall

Man, I feel for you. After the great tech downturn a few years ago I left Seattle for *anyplace*. It was really tough to go to interview after interview and hear "We selected a guy with a PhD to write the installer" or "We were looking for someone with 4 years of experience with version 3.1.4a of the development tool." It's insane, irrational and just frustrating as hell. Drink more beer... and rub a dab behind your ears before you go in for the next one ! Can't hurt! Good luck, though, really. You'll find something soon. You seem literate and sane, which gives you a leg up on 90% of the other candidates out there! shall

I don't believe in karma, but I believe you can make the world around you just a tiny bit better by trying to be decent, charitable and generous. Not the same as karma...more of a "pay it forward" sort of thing, for me. shall

Oh *Seattle* .. heh. I rented a room for my first month in Seattle, before my house purchase there went through. The gal that owned the place told me that the neighbors had been "The Presidents of the United States of America". Which was cool, I'd guess. I'd never heard of 'em. But Seattle had lots of great bands around, that's for sure. shall

Well, Lynyrd Skynyrd played at my high school prom. Does that count ? I am not kidding... shall

Something to keep in mind when considering Sigma is that they will simply refuse to repair their own products that are more than 4 years old or so. I bought a second-hand lens and sent it to them for repair. They wouldn't touch it. They said that they wouldn't repair an item that "old" -- 4 to 5 years old! Sheesh.. I'd stick with original manufacturer stuff, even if it's more expensive. You know Canon will stick by their products. shall

0:1:0 One jump Friday at the Skydive New Mexico Water Boogie. Nice view over the lake. shall

Yes. S#$% happens. However, it's like the odds of a shark attack immediately after being struck by lightning during a terrorist incident. You can minimize the odds by remaining alert and heads-up before and during your jump, jumping gear with which you're familiar and not putting yourself in one of those "hey, watch *this*!" positions. Reserves work. Harness/container/canopy manufacturers sweat the engineering details. USPA and others have figured out the smart way to progress in the sport. Pay attention. Don't let your 'nads out-think your analytical capability and you just might get to be one of those 72-year old guys still jumping and teaching first jump students. Blue skies, shall

Ayn said it best: "...man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose..." Lots of ellipses there, and lots of reading is required to understand her meaning, but I think it's just about right. shall

Take a cigarette lighter with you and pretend that you're going to set fire to the gondola. It should be plenty fun when the owner chases you off the edge ! shall

Q: Are Reported UFO Incidents Real? A: Only if you think storing your razor under a plastic pyramid-thing will keep it sharp shall

1) She must really want to cultivate odd vegetables. 2) Her car must be painted tangerine and puce. 3) She must be a music lover and play Respighi sonatas on her trombone. 4) She must never eat disc-shaped food of any kind. 5) She must bathe on Wednesdays. 6) There should be almost no methane Should be easy to find, right ? shall

Says: "this guy thinks this says something cool in Chinese" shall

I gotta tell ya: Kristian at Square One helped me get set up with new stuff over the past couple of months. He did a terrific job. Just thought you might wanna know... shall

Lent my gear to a pal for the weekend. She brought it back looking a little, shall we say, "higgledy piggledy" ? Since I was such a great 43-jump hero, I ignored it, jumped the dang thing, did a subterminal deployment and enjoyed a sleeve-lock for a couple-hundred feet. Called her up that night and teased her while she spluttered on the phone.... Now I *always* pack my own rig. Always. shall

I know the feeling. It seems like such simple things trip us up, sometimes. But brainlock happens. You're squeezing lots of work, all the "what if" stuff, the sensations, the sounds and visuals into 40 or 50 seconds. And you're trying to acquire new skills. Just replay the events in your head until you jump again. My guess is that it'll go like clockwork next time. shall

The book's not a bad read, either. shall

Weren't they popular back in the Steam Age ?

"Who!" The sound you make after landing your new, hot canopy for the first time. "Whom!" The sound you hear when somebody exits. Easy.

I know this is likely to be viewed as heresy, but: There is no "hill". When you leave the airplane, you're encountering "relative wind" that's horizontal. As you accelerate vertically, the relative wind's angle changes gradually to the vertical. The solution you'll eventually discover ? Flying your body on the wind. Watch DVDs of these hot RW teams flying formations together a second or two after exit. They don't fly significantly differently 1 second after exit than 30 (ok, maybe tiny changes to compensate for lower airspeed). Sure, the air's "softer" right after exit, but just fly -- you've had success flying stable when you're 10-15 seconds into the dive, right ? It's the same.. the picture's just different. Cheers, shall edited: because I just saw that the OP still had relatively few jumps and I thought I should tailor my response a bit.. ack...

Madness ! shall

Heh.. Yes, several times. It was owned by Martin Caidin, a prolific aviation and science fiction author. He lived in Gainesville, FL and would sometimes just get inspired and fly out to the dz and let us jump out of the plane. Details here It's a Junkers Ju-52, a 1933 German transport that Caidin rescued from the Brazilian jungle and had restored. The name "Iron Annie" is a nickname given the Ju-52s by German troops during the war. The planes were also sometimes referred to as "Tante Ju" where "Tante" means "aunt". Caidin also referred to her affectionately as an "aluminum overcast" ! I even taught the first jump course to one of Caidin's pilot friends and then put him out on his first jump ( static line ) from Iron Annie the next day. The plane had a turret in the back , on the top. Really, just sort of an open-air seat that could be uncovered. It was a blast to ride in. What a view ! We also did some jumps where we climbed out on the wings. More than you wanted to know, right ? Cheers, shall

retired(apparently):3:0 Coupla low altitude jumps, then a 2 way with Dave H. with DZ pal Amanda shooting video. How fun! 3 points ( which is not bad considering I wasn't much good at RW *25 years ago* either ). Nice to do RW again after all this time.... shall

Heh.

I hang from that part of the helicopter... you know that part of the helicopter that hangs down ? shall