GrumpySmurf

Nope, a Can-ook. Supposedly can get a lawyer to push for citizenship due to grandmother being American and father being raised in the US, or some silliness related to that. But I'm happy being a former 'fur trapper and igloo dweller' with a work visa.

Nah, that was just the bare rack that got wonked - thankfully the J3 connector on backplane was configured as 'normal' and not 'packet switched' - or I would have toasted each and every card I shoved in there, and each are R&D prototypes - worth literally, thier weight in gold. Would not have made for a good day.

Just wanted to send an appology to Jennifer Martin of Zute Sute and clear up my mix up over posting Bev Suits attendance at the SDC winter expo, when in fact it was Zute Sute in attendance (the bloody webboard won't let me edit my post anymore to fix the error *ugh*). Sorry.

Pays the bills, keeps me busy. I'm only a geek from 0800 to 1800 Mon. through Fri.

Yup - tell me about it. Got into work and got delivered a new RDK (Rapid Development Kit) - basically a hardened portable Solaris workstation glued to a 6 slot Compact PCI (cPCI) rack used to troubleshoot and develop for telecom switch fabric cards. Well, it appears the backplane wasn't keyed for H.110 spec as I requested, and I proceeded to jam a H.110 based card into it, hard. Let's just say I managed to effectively wreck a $10,000 piece of equipment in 10 seconds. It's a wonderful day

All (well, I didn't see any body shots) occured, and pictures were taken - the parties involved wish them to stay off the board. So we will have to live with boring pics - next time I will get the shots of people who don't know me, and are so drunk they forget what I look like .

Ahh Americans - they always manage to keep things interesting.

The pleasure was all mine. Too bad the weather did not co-operate, thought

Opps, my bad. *heh*

Yikes indeed! I guess they got firsthand practice on an engine out incident..well a 2 engine out incident. Glad to hear nothing harmed worse than a few people problably needing new underwear.

Here, I read the title and thought, "You mean about Canada opening a can of whoop ass in Olympic Hockey'. Silly me .

I came prepared for the bad weather - so it wasn't bad at all (the only downside was with the weather hitting 30+ Saturday, I had to bring my synthetic bag (instead of the goose down one) which was rated for only +15F - synthetics continue to insulate when wet, goose down doesn't - and with temp rising above 30F, moisture became a concern). Appearantly some of the folk in trailers were not so lucky and discovered how un-insulated thier shelters really were. Might pick up a better ground pad for next winter and maybe try out a mylar blanket underneath to see how much better it does. Live and learn. My biggest concern was would the tent hold up to the winds - the manufacturer claimed the regular production 4 season mountainering tents could take up to 50mph easily and the newer AST series 4 season, up to 70mph. It appears they were right - the gusts and snow accumulation on the tent didn't phase it one bit, and that was after the wind shifted from the SW to the WNW and broad-sided the tent all night long. The weather has never been a big issue for me, it's when the guys can't decide where they want to set up the bloody fireworks at 3AM that does - that way I can pitch the tent on the opposite end of the DZ and not have to worry about WWIII openning up overhead . The joys of DZ camping *heh* Oh well, was fun and good to see alot of faces around that haven't been around since the Fall.

And...the PD seminar on canopy maintenance and packing. The Javelin rep was also there to discuss container maintenace and gear checking. One thing I found of note, the PD reps mentioned a slider stop is in the works for use with thier SLinks (if you prefer SLinks but do not wish to pull your slider down over the risers). Oh and one thing to add to this, Missy Nelson gave a talk on her high-speed spinning mal in Arizona with lines twists that went down through the risers and finger trapped the cut-away cables. After this, each of the container manufactures discussed changes in the works or present in thier container systems that should help prevent this in the future (not being able to cutaway) - it was nice to see the manufuctures addressing this problem and discussing it in an open forum (unlike other industries outside skydiving that go, "Problem, what problem? Our product is perfect.").

The Alti-2 Booth

Calibrating and replacing the face plate of my Altimaster by Alti-2.

Opps, here was home:

For everyone at the expo being able to attend every seminar and still make every load - in other other words - 0 loads/0 jumps. Old man winter came back with a vengence (and then some), ensuring a large attendance by expo-goers at each seminar. Sadly, the weather (and winter ills) seemed to hinder attendance by some presenters and vendors - but Mirage, Sun Path, Relative Workshop, PD, Bev Suits, Bonehead, and Alti-2 all made good showings (not to mention great donations for the raffle drawing at the end of Sunday). One of the high points for me was a packing demo by 'Bushman' from PD on a brand spanking new ZP canopy (a Sabre 2) - his pointers and techniques with a PRO pack resulted in the canopy going into the bag with next to no effort and looking picture perfect - there were more than few jaws on the floor after that (and a few jealous packers, I'm willing to bet). The weather certainly didn't hinder the desire to party at the end of Saturday resulting in some rather entertaining pictures by yours truly - you would be amazed what drunk people will do in front you if you have a camera - especially one (digicam) that lets them see the result immediatly. Requests were made the following morn to not distribute said pics - so sorry, guys - if they don't 'sign' the release waiver - I can't post 'em. All in all, a great weekend was had. One piece of advice if you do show up next year - buy lots of raffle tickets, it seems they pay for themselves with prizes. The attached pic was my home for the weekend - 2 thumbs up for Sierra Designs for a tent that could take the snow storm, high winters and near 0F temps and shrug it off like it was nothing.

Amen to that. It's your best friend - right after your main/reserve.

"Power Point" - "The tool of liars and cheaters worldwide - betterly known as the 'Sales and Marketing Department' - when you have nothing useful to say, or want to hide the truth in lots of pretty pictures - use Power Point(tm). Ask for it by name." Sorry, a Dilbert-esque moment.

Traveled to and from Costa Rica with my rig barely two weeks ago, as a carry on. Wrote up the experience after getting back. To sum it up: 1) put it in a container of some sort - I used a wheely bag. 2) Try to find an airline that explicitly states you can bring it on. I used Continental - they have a published policy on thier webpage about it - under passenger services->baggage->sports equipment. It says a sport parachute can be taken as a carry on, as long as it fits under a seat. 3) check your helmet, altimeter, etc - everything but the rig and the log book Since they are the two things you can't live without. I also took my Pro-Track - and made sure to shut it off (see the instructions on how to do this). 4) Arrive extra, EXTRA early - you never know, even though the airline says it's ok and the DoT says the CYPRES is safe, the high school dropout, minimum wage 'security expert' might think otherwise - unless you are in the mood to argue and ask for a supervisor. They may still make you turn around and go back to check it. With the baggage matching requirements in place - I have a feeling more effort is going to be put into making sure your checked bags are on your plane with you - or at least not on some other plane. I think most airlines only allow up to $5K of insurance to be bought - the rates vary wildly on the price per $100 of insurance you buy. Shop around. I think Conti was selling it for $1 per $100 over $1250 while United was $5 per $100 over $2500. 5) Bring a copy of the airline policy on parachutes, the CYPRES stuff, and it certainly would hurt to have a copy of FAR 105.43.b that says a reserve can only be packed by a FAA certified rigger. To paraphrase what diverdriver said once - try to use the words, "FAA certified Senior Rigger" as much as possible if they try to get into the reserve compartment. 6) Like it has been said, don't draw attention to yourself. Don't even hint nor joke about jumping out of the plane. 7) getting past the X-ray people was no big deal in Newark or Madison, Wi for me but I'm sure the folk in San Jose, Costa Rica would have flipped if they saw the CYPRES, but they pretty much ignored my bagage as it passed through - they were too busy giving a woman hell for having tweesers in her purse. 8) When they call the flight at the gate - watch how the gate security people are picking people out - sometimes it is by boarding pass code, sometimes by random. If you are not picked, you won't be hassled. I hope they implement a pre-screening mechanism like the US and Canada Immigration and Customs folk have for INSPass - they do a background check on you and issue an ID with a biometric that allows you to skip the lines and just enter everything into a kiosk. Wishful thinking I guess? Guess you folk heard about the WWII Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who *ALMOST* had his medal confiscated and destroyed at security station in a airport due to the pin on it? Caused quite a stink, it seems.

Just giving Chris a hard time

Ditto on that thought - I put an order through the website for r.blue/ash silver freefly pants back in the fall (even had g/f double check it before submitting). Somehow they showed up blue and green. Contacted Mike about it - even got him to fax me the order form from the webpage, and lone behold, it said blue and green. So for all intensive purposes (from the vendors point of view), it was my fault - but Mike was totally kewl about it and told me I could even jump the old pants if I wanted till the new ones showed up. Not a cent extra charged. Sent them back right away - knowing my luck, I would have face planted in a mud puddle followed by a slide across the runway, if I did wear them. In short, definitely 2 thumbs on Michigan Suit customer service.

Hate to break it to ya, but in Wisconisn - EVERYTHING is an excuse to drink beer

Yeah, and they're rev'ng up the trucks to go pick up the tandems that have landed in the next county

Yeah - you don't know if she is going to kidnap you for ransom or just shoot you for being an infidel. But it's a fun way to go, eh? Totally off topic: Speaking of Columbians - a company I used to work for in Canada had a product in the works that used our geo-sync satellite to transmit GPS location data, continuously or on demand (originally developed to track movement of containers of nuclear material) - from trucks, cars, small planes, etc - we had enough interested private buyers in Columbia that there was talk of shipping me down to help get them set up and running. I thought it would be neat to see a new country - till I found out what thier #1 import was - gringo employees of large firms that they would kidnap and hold for ranson. I quit that job 2 weeks later.