MarkM

If you have to use the words "caution" and "conservatively", it's usually something you shouldn't be doing.

Ah, that sucks. Was hoping to have mine for the keys boogie this weekend.

I've had the T-Mobile G1 since it launched about a year back which is the first Android phone that came out. The Android phones are very nice, especially if you use gmail and other google apps. Really stable, syncs up with your gmail contacts without desktop syncing. Has a nice selection of apps too. My main complaints are it's a little thick, poor battery and lousy camera. Looks like the droid fixes those issues though.

Lack of new blood going into it. I see it at the DZs all the time. New jumper comes in, gets off AFF, gets addicted. 6 years ago they would've gone into FF. It was the cool thing to do. Hell, I used to sit at work watching videos of it. Was wicked sick seeing the stuff coming out of Pahoke, poetry. Now, it seems like all the new jumpers end up doing belly. It might be the higher barrier to entry. When FF was younger everyone was slop. Wasn't a big deal to get in with the regulars and be a part of the scene. The scene seems a lot more introverted these days, mad skillz required for highly technical jumps. Very hard to see yourself there starting out. Meanwhile the RW peeps are pulling people into jumps right off their A license and wingsuiting, I was doing 8 ways on my 3rd WS jump. Couple months later I was taking part in 40 ways. I sort of see WS heading the same way. We have guys now with thousands of WS jumps doing really technical stuff. Planning jumps with points and transitions when it's hard for a new guy to just hold a slot and stay there. But "normal" flocking is boring(they've done it a thousand times), so it starts to get exclusive. I see plenty of people trying on a WS, but most end up going "yeah, was hella fun" and then go back to RW jumping where they can play with more people.

Looks like Scotty and Tony are organizing, so they'll be there at the opening days at least. Hopefully Tony for the full event with some nice demo suits to play with. So them, MarkM, Grey Mike, Pilot Paul... anyone else on the roll call for this boogie?

Sorry, you're right, I was thinking refunds on jump tickets. A lot of DZs have different polices on that though. Could be another thread entirely.

There's no legal basis for an age limit, though the USPA has the age set for 16 for non-tandem jumping. The problem is that all DZs use a signed waiver to protect themselves from legal liability and if you're under 18 it gets complicated. In some states a waiver isn't valid even if both your parents sign it. A grandparent could sue if something happened to you. So a lot of DZs have the age limit at 18. Your best bet would be to talk to manifest or the DZO at either DZ.

It's not a low self esteem thing on the girl's side of it. It's mostly a matter of, as a guy, standing out from the pack and/or generating an interest by challenging the girl a bit. You got an attractive girl in a bar or club, maybe she gets hit on 10 times a night. If you hit on her the same way every guy has that night it's not going to work. But if you stand out from the rest you have a better shot. There's other ideas behind this too, like peacocking: wearing something that brings attention to you. A "neg" wouldn't be a "your ass looks fat", but more of a compliment with an additional negative opinion that shows you're not just trying to please her. And I'm sorry, but yeah, this crap works. When I lived in SE Florida I worked with a guy, Alen Bubic, who was a PHP dev under me. The dude was an artist when it came to this sort of stuff. It was insane to watch. He later went on to produce and host a reality based pick up show on Comedy Central: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keys_to_the_VIP Not saying it's the way to a healthy relationship or anything, but to blow it off because we want the world to work differently is silly.

Actually, I never said I did this. It was just a tactic some people use and maybe this guy was taking that approach with Nat. It was familiar enough for shah to know it and even know the name for it.

Keeps me from sitting inside playing World of Warcraft all the damn time.

It all depends on how it's handled, isn't it? Why, you out shopping for a new guy? I haven't been to Bloomington in years, is Caveat Emptor still around? Great book store. Any chance you're a rails dev? We could use more of those in Florida and the DZs down here are killer. Maybe you should visit, I'd be glad to show ya around. Had an amazing girlfriend, actually, but we broke up because our lives were going in different directions. Working slowly to get back on that horse though, but sometimes it feels like a second job.

A drop dead knock out guy walks up to you and gives you a little shit over something and you'd walk away? I doubt it. The poll would be pointless. Women don't know what works on them or what they want any more than men know what works on us and what we really want.

I think you just described 90% of the dating behavior out there. LOL.

One thing to consider is there's a fairly known dating tactic of putting down or slightly criticizing an attractive girl on an approach. He might have been doing that. Or could've just been an asshole.

That's bullshit. You're really very cute. Most everyone hates their own photos. We're our own worst critics and it can be especially bad if we're insecure(and hey guess what, most skydivers are). The trick with getting photos of yourself that you do like is to have lots and lots and lots of photos taken of you. You'll hate most of them. Some you'll find tolerable and a couple you'll end up liking.

Sound like luck had little to do with it. You made a decision before getting on the plane to fly a canopy with a comfortable WL and it worked well for you even if it was new. One thing though is don't be at all uncomfortable with the idea of landing out. It shouldn't be a big deal. Not ideal, sure, but it'll happen to you again and it should always be a comfortable option in your head when you start to navigate home.

My guess would be, girls are easier up until they hit their teens. Then they're absolute nightmares and boys are much more mellowed out.

Not especially. The main cause of the failures is heat related. These are all macbook pro's. It's very possible that normal macbooks and imacs are better because they're not as fast.

I run the IT dept of a company that's all Mac laptops. They do break down, a lot. The build quality of new Macs isn't any better or worse than anything else out there. The big difference is Apple charges a lot more for the components so it's expensive as hell to fix them.

I hate Apple. I think they abuse the hell out of their customers and the Apple fanboys lap it up. But they make good shit. Make a list of what you need your computer to do for you, research up on whether or not Mac supports that well and if they do, go ahead and pick one up. But do buy the extended warranty. Apple support isn't cheap and the warranty will pay for itself easily.

Ran a pirated version of Vista for years. Picked up the full install of Windows 7 home last week to replace that and I love it. Seems very polished. The interface feels really solid, clean and user friendly. Been very happy with it.

Online we tend to go with the trends. So the advice you're going to see here is based on someone being "average" and the WL recommendations are pretty well known and they do a pretty good job. So they get quoted and people get heavily discouraged from going above them. And since most people are average(despite them thinking otherwise), it's generally good advice. There's also another aspect, what's the big rush? Why does this person need to be on a 170 over a 190? Wind penetration? He shouldn't be jumping in winds high enough where this is an issue. More performance? He doesn't have the skill to notice it. Doesn't want to downsize again in 100 jumps? If you buy used/sell when you're done, it costs like nothing to use a canopy for 100 jumps. Same thing with a container fit. Buy a larger used container with room for a bigger main(and bigger reserve). Beat the crap out of it, sell it when you're done and not putting grass stains on your gear anymore. Then you can buy nice, small and shiny. I'd really like to hear the "pro" side to this person being at a 1.2 WL with so few jumps.

ZHills: I'm pretty sure they do refunds. I think they're one of the better DZs around when it comes to taking care of their customers. Sebastian: Pretty sure they don't except for some rare cases.

I think it's fairly rare for mains to get lost. Freebags on the other hand...

So instead of sponsors, we'd have a category where people would have to be rich to compete?