MarkM

I doubt your average HR person even knows the difference between a BA or BS. Some look for certs, others will probably just want real world experience. I never studied CS in college and it hasn't hurt me any, I've done lead developer roles and am currently our lead 'nix admin. But then I'm one of those "Matrix" geeks so I might not be your best role model. Frankly to anyone thinking about a career in CS I'd recommend that they take up plumbing instead. The money is about the same, there's more job security and studies have shown that plumbers are happier in life than CS peeps.

I guess I have the same "issues". I wouldn't say I'm hugely addicting to skydiving, I could take up hang gliding, flying, rock climbing or something, but the sport adds a certain degree of balance to my life. I'm addicted to that sense of peace I feel when I stare out across the sky and feel my soul reach into it. I know this was why we were put on the earth.

I don't know how it is for other noobs, but for myself the biggest issue I have right now is understanding that what may not at first seem dangerous can still kill you. As an AFF/SL student I learned all the obvious dangers. If you don't get something out, you die. If you don't do X on mal Y, you die. If you don't pull by X, you can die, etc. But I think my instructors did a lot to protect me from other dangers I didn't even know about. As I've moved onto jumping onto my own the challenge has been to recognize those dangers and minimize any damage they can cause me. Maybe that's why someone here(I think it was Ron) said he expects sub 100 jump wonders to burn in. There's a lot of things I see done which are out of my skill level that don't appear immediately dangerous to me, because I'm watching skilled people operate and they keep the mistakes minimal. If I didn't trust them when they say to me "no, you can't do that yet" I could easily see myself getting in over my head, because when things went bad I wouldn't have the skill to dig myself out of a bad situation.

Yep I saw it. I like how the show doesn't sugar coat anything. It ain't your typical Law and Order, CSI or whatever the hell the other channels are showing.

Well duh, then we just say "Are too." Course if he comes back with a "prove it", we might be in trouble. But such are the risks you take in international politics. But did anyone else read the following quote The Stalinist state's official news agency accused Washington of "driving the military situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war" with plans for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea. as they were afraid we'd do a preemptive strike on them? After all, does NK even have a missile delivery system that can reach the US?

If you're talking mainly about canopy WL, then I think this has mostly been a matter of changing attitudes. When I bought a 1.05 loaded canopy 4 years ago, it wasn't at all uncommon for new jumpers to start at a lot higher of a wing loading. Heck, read this review of a Sabre2 from 2 years ago by Aggie: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=148338;search_string=sabre2;#148338 He loaded a demo sabre2 150 at 1.43:1 with 140 or so jumps to his name and would've bought one if he had the money. If he posted that review here today the people would've ripped him a new one. I took that Tri 160 I bought 4 years ago and still own to a DZ last weekend and had the owner caution me that it was aggressive for my experience level. Attitudes have changed in a lot of places, but don't expect miracles overnight.

Except that Airtek has over a decade in experience fielding a reliable AAD and the Cypres 2 is hardly a big change in technology from the Cypres 1. I hope the Vigil ends up doing well, having 2 companies producing solid AADs should keep the both of them on their toes in an effort to keep us happy.

Here's a really crappy pic of my rig, but it's all I got.

0:5:1 5 fun jump where I got to chase clouds at Miami, 1 case owed for jumping my own pack job for a change.

I took two years off and played around with some other sports to see if I enjoyed them as much as I did skydiving.

When I was about 12 or 13 my friend and I got put in the back of a squad and taken to the station for stealing halloween candy from other kids. It scared the crap out of me and I behaved pretty well after that.

Nooo, our plane, bring it back, we ain't got nothing to jump now down at Pahokee Oh well. Hopefully we'll get another otter as nice as that one. That thing is fast.

Correlation doesn't prove a cause an effect. Maybe brilliant scientists/criminals just aren't marriage material, therefore the results are skewed in their favor? You can't assume that marriage kills the drive, it could've been that the drive to "excel" dried up because their life priorities changed and then the person found they had time to get married and raise a family.

Yep, whenever it's bad you just gotta focus on that it'll be good again soon.

It doesn't matter what the % would be without AADs, we're not talking about taking away AADs just mandating their use. That 4% figure is in a country where their use is not mandated. People are using them on their own, you don't have to require them. And if your goal is to save lives then why not mandate canopy training or WL instead? The stats I quoted are from the April 2004 issue of Parachutist.

In the US last year no/low pulls accounted for only 4% of the fatalities and they're not mandated here, people just tend to use them on their own. Is it really any different in the UK? Edit: oh, and comparison to other causes of death, landings were 44%.

I think you have to have your A license before you can get the B license. Otherwise I'd skip my A as well.

Currently don't jump with one even on my normal rig. Maybe I should start. I wonder how many people normally jump / don't jump with them though.

LOL, man I get that shit all the time. Unfortunately I can't quit unless I have another job lined up. Too many damn bills to pay and the tech market blows.

Depends on my mood. I usually use a mach3 turbo, but every now and then I pull out my Dovo ice tempered 5/8 straight. I always use a brush and cup/shaving soap though. The shaving cream in the can stinks.

Wonder if it was the bright red color. Did it darken it or do something else screwy? I have a total tie dye rig that's blue/black, blue/white and purple/white mixed on various parts of the rig. I used a couple light coats of scotchguard and had no problems with it.

Dave. He was pretty sure it was broken, but it didn't look too bad.

0:5:0 Home DZ is down so I road tripped up to Sebastian for some jumps on Saturday. Winds were a bit squirrely, watched one of their packers break an ankle on landing. Went up to Homestead on Sunday but the winds where a "steady" 25 mph, so no jumping for me that day. I have no idea how someone else here did 22 jumps over the weekend. I'm wiped out from the 5 I did. Guess I'm an out of shape wimp.

Sorry to hear that, I've been real disappointed with the tech industry as a whole myself. A lot of times I wish I had just become a plumber and kept computers as a hobby.

Hmm, was in a car wreck once, no one was hurt but the cars were pretty much totaled. The chick driving the other car was in hysterics over the damage. I really couldn't have cared less even though the accident was her fault. No one was injured, the rest is just property, easily replaced. I doubt I'd think twice about chopping a rental or even a friend's main. It's just a thing, easily replaced. People aren't. Besides if you die under it you're likely to get it all bloody and what not. That'd be downright rude. The polite thing to do is cut it away from your malfunctioning butt so it clears the crater and avoids the mess. But maybe I'm just more considerate than you