kirrz

I'm watching Australia v Japan at the moment..half time.. Australia doesn't look too bad, I'm surprised! The commentary became so so so so ridiculously biased after the first goal!!!!! It's pissing me off!!! Maybe it's a white supremacy thing...

It's half time! Portugal's up 1-0. Anyone else watching?? Go Portugal!!

I would pick Germany. They are playing flawless football and it seems to be so much less mechanical and so much more colourful and passionate than usual. And they've got past the barrier and scored a few goals for confidence now. And they have home ground advantage. Go Portugal still!

i have big eyes

Ahhh you're right! I didn't even think of that. I guess I'll just have to stay home, take every vitamin I have and try to speed up the recovery as much as I can.

That's awesome! What a cool thing to do for your 1000th! Has it changed your wife's view on skydiving at all? Would she do it again?

I'm going to see the doctor in an hour or so.. do you know what kind of stuff I should ask him to prescribe?

"Red Alert! Red Alert! It's a catastrophe! But don't worry! Don't panic!" No shit your nerves are getting up Hahahahaha I never thought of that. I guess I always looked at these lines: "It's alright, don't panic. And the music keeps on playing on and on.." And intepreted it as they came across this scary event but instead of panicking they just took it into stride and had fun with it. After all it's such a fun song! I can't not dance to it whenever I hear it! I guess that's what skydiving is like for me- scary but such a blast!

I've got a blocked nose, sore throat, a bit of a cough. I am able to do things fine, my body is just a bit annoying at the moment. I hate being sick! I really really want to jump tomorrow. Can I still jump? What is the worst (or some of the things) that can happen if I do? I have no clue about all things biology. Will the answer be different for low altitude hop and pops (4000,3000)? Cheers!

Hahaha that's me! I've got a black cat near my right hipbone. I had always toyed with the idea of a tattoo and a cat but I did it totally impulsively. Was at an expo and there was a tattoo booth.. this guy I dislike said "you won't get a tattoo" so of course I stupidly said "fuck you I will" and went in to get it. I described what I wanted and the woman took about 45 mins to draw it.. it wasn't exactly what I wanted and was a bit bigger than I hoped but I felt bad that she spent so much time drawing it so I got it. Because I was at an expo, I had to drop my pants.. I didn't really want to drop it too low cos people were looking over so I ended up getting the tattoo higher and bigger than I wanted. Needless to say, less than 6 months later it sunk in and I tried to get it lasered off. But it's so expensive! So after about 2 treatments in 2 years I got over the laser thing and now I've got a slightly faded tattoo which I actually don't mind.

Basement Jaxx - Red Alert.. it's my skydiving pump up song. I listen to it when I'm getting close to the DZ and my nerves are kicking in..

I was super-inexperienced (but pretending to be ms.experienced) and literally about 1 minute in, his show was over. He started apologizing profusely etc but I had no idea what was going on or why he was saying sorry so I started laughing. I just pissed myself laughing. I later found out you're not supposed to do that. We never had sex again.

2 words - South Park!

In my assignment sheet we have a sample for input.txt and what is supposed to come up. I'm getting binaries up but they're not what they are supposed to be.. I think somewhere in my code the conversion between integerbinary is messed up. I just don't know where and I don't know how to do it... I haven't tested it against anything else.. Also with the sample file for the second part it is supposed to be error free but it is showing up as an error. So that means both sections of the code aren't working properly because they've been individually tested...

I have this assignment, I've written the code.. the output is not right. It's doing everything but it's just calculating wrong answers.. I'm so stressed because it's due in 3 hours and the marking criteria is - "the code will be automatically tested, if your code has inconsistent outputs you will automatically receive a mark of 0. there will be no manual re-marking." The code & description of the problem is located at http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=741685&tstart=0 Please please please please please if you know what I'm doing wrong help me! Please!!!!

It matters to the people that love you who have to live with it.

This weekend. It's changed everything.

You don't have to think it's genuinely going to kill you, I guess you just have to acknowledge that it could and that it is chance you are willing to take. You can think 'it won't happen to me' all you want but at the end of the day you are only kidding yourself because it could. Also the mindset of 'it can't happen to me' will just make you complacent.. and skydiving is a sport where you can't afford to be complacent. I guess if the fear of death makes you a more conscious/ safer skydiver, isn't that a good thing?

Thank you for that. I am going to stick it on my wall.

Details from an email received: ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: [RWU] Coombsey From: "Rob Tasic" Date: Tue, May 30, 2006 4:45 pm To: "relworkers" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- For those who didn't know, Tony Coombs died doing a BASE jump from the Troll Wall in Norway on Saturday (Norwegian time). There are some details on today's MSN news. Roger Mulckey has set up an account to raise money to send Colinda to Norway to bring Coombsey home. Any contributions, from those that would like to help, will be greatly appreciated. National Australia Bank Account name: Coombsey BSB: 084675 ACC: 79 429 9517 Blu ones Rob

That's so true. I'm one of those low-time skydivers that has been head-fucked by the weekend. I'm so confused. I have been told that if I stay in the sport, I will know people that die and that I could die. I've accepted the risk but when it actually happens, it's so different. I'm scared of dying. I'm scared of being paralyzed. I'm so scared of having someone I know die. I made peace with this fear by thinking that the universe unfolds exactly as it should, if something happens - that was because it was meant to. But now I'm confused. If someone dies jumping, is it because they were meant to or because they were jumping? I always thought (on a personal level) that I will be prepared to deal with every problem that may occur that I am able to fix. What scared me was having a double mal in a case where there was nothing in my control to do. I accepted that risk as my unlucky day. Now I realize that's not true. I can do everything right and shit can still happen. When I started, I looked at all those statistics comparing skydiving to other sports and placated myself. But now I realize that statistics come from somewhere and the people that are going to be a base for these can be my friends or me. I guess I'm feeling like the more I become a part of the community, the less impersonal the incidents are going to be. After all, we're not that big of a community and it's pretty fucking hard not to become like family. I'm so torn between my love of the sky and my fear of death to those I love. I'm not going to quit, I can't. I love it too much. I also think that if I did and got hit by a bus then I would have wasted my life. As quoted, I had accepted the risks intellectually but I never factored in the emotional component. And that's really fucking with me. I dated a BASE jumper once who told me that after a while, he just became sort of hard and indifferent whilst dealing with death. That's not what I want to become. I want people to touch my life. This weekend has changed my perspective because I guess I realized that you never know who it's going to happen to. You can be the best but the best might not be good enough. I guess the reason a lot of low time jumpers have been sending you PMs (dgskydive) is because we had it all worked out in our heads but when it is actually close to home for the first time, we realized that we really weren't prepared at all.

Here is a translation of the page using http://www.tranexp.com. It is the only online Norwegian-English translator I could find. It doesn't make much sense but this is the best there is. Original Text:----- (Dagbladet.no): Mannen skal ha hoppet ut fra Stabbeskaret, men har så blitt sittende fast i fjellveggen omtrent 150 meter over bakken. Helikopteret har brakt ned en mann som er erklært død, sier operasjonslederen i Nordmøre og Romsdal politidistrikt til Dagbladet.no. Mannen er fra Australia og politiet mistenker at han skal ha hoppet ned fra Stabbeskaret i Trollveggen. Han har trolig vært sammen med andre hoppere. Politiet vil gjerne komme i kontakt med alle som vet noe mer om omstendighetene rundt hoppet. Vi vil ikke kommentere hvem vi leter etter. Men det er naturlig å kartlegge omstendighetene rundt dødsfallet så godt som overhodet mulig, sier operasjonsleder. Redningsmannskapene satte i gang det andre redningsforsøket ved 18-tida. Tre klatrere ble fraktet ned fjellveggen. De sikret mannen og kuttet av fallskjermen hans. I 20-tida dro helikopteret opp igjen for å hente ned mannen. I halv ni-tida var mannen hentet ned. Det første forsøket ble avbrutt i fem-tida. Helikopteret måtte snu da det skulle nærme seg mannen, fordi man var redd vinden fra helikopteret ville få fallskjermen hans til å løsne. Politiet og en alpin redningsgruppe er på stedet, i tillegg til et Sea King redningshelikopter. -------- Translated Text:------------- (Dagbladet.no): Man do be about have was ejecting at Stabbeskaret , but has saw been in office fast in fjellveggen approximately 150 meter above salver. The helicopter has brought down a man as am declared dead , say operasjonslederen in Norwegian and Broad politidistrikt at Dagbladet.no. Man am at Australia and police suspect that he do be about have bound down at Stabbeskaret in Trollveggen. He has believable been along with other jumper. Police shall be glad to come in contact along with one and all know any additional about coincides around bound. We'll no matter annotate who we search. But it is the artless to plot coincides around dødsfallet as good as altogether feasible , say operasjonsleder. Redningsmannskapene set going other one redningsforsøket against tida. Three clamber became shipped down fjellveggen. They consolidated man and cut at the redundancy pay his. IN tida was leaving the helicopter up afresh to bring down man. IN half nine tida stayed man fetched down. Facts first attempt were cut off in five tida. The helicopter have got to flip as facts do be about approach man , as a matter of they stayed afraid the wind at the helicopter savage a few the redundancy pay his at to come undone. Police and a alpine redningsgruppe is on the place , in addition to a Sea King redningshelikopter. ------------- Sincere condolences to friends, family and the Australian BASE community.

Don't take this as advice because I am a newbie too but I can tell you the approach I took and why. I found that finding the perfect rig to match your size and experience is the hardest. The helmet, alti and goggles are generic and can be picked up easily. Having a limited budget, my aim is to have a rig to jump ready by the time I get my A so I don't have to pay for rig rentals. Here, after AFF we have to do 10 coached jumps before getting the A and this includes rig rental. I've put all my money into a rig and I figure that if I get past this stage and don't have money for an alti or helmet, they are easy to borrow or cheaper to rent than a rig. The jumpsuit was a bit of a fluke, someone was selling it at my DZ who was my exact size and I loved the colours. It was also a ridiculously awesome deal. I am really lucky I have a jumpsuit, I have been told by many ppl on my DZ that the jumpsuit is the essential first item as it takes weeks to make and to order it before I need it so when I do, it's there. I agree that having my own jumpsuit has made a major difference in freefall control. Edited to add: Most of the student jumpsuits (if not all - I'm not sure) at my DZ don't have grips on them which are essential for the coached jumps, this could be a possible influence on that jumpsuit advice I have been given.

I'm a staunch Portugal supporter but realistically I think the 'golden team' is getting a bit old.. I actually think the US might surprise (as much as I dislike them for beating Portugal in '02) because they play a very technical game.. The South American teams are always good to watch because they have such beautiful skill. I hope one of the Asian teams surprise.. it'll be awesome for Asian football.. But we'll see, world cup is always full of surprises.. I'm excited.. I'm going to Germany for some of the final games!!!!!!!!

I did it! I did it! I did it! My JM today (Adam) refused to push me.. and I actually went myself on the exit count. Did it twice too! Yay!! Exit fear is over!! Diving exits are so much better!!!! Finally!!!!!!!! Tomorrow I'm going to get off AFF (praying for good weather)! Thank you to everyone who gave me advice, you guys are awesome. I learned the trick - don't think about it. Yay!!!! Jason: come say hello so I can put a face to the name!