mmytacism

Thanks. (:

Approach it as though you're negotiating scholarship money with a group of colleges you have to choose from. You get offers from a bunch of different institutions, but you don't just choose the place with the best offer--you tell all the other colleges about the highest offer, and they'll (often) compete by raising the amount of your scholarship. Don't just stick to that one dealership. Visit others in the area with similar deals. Even if you want to buy from the first dealership, express genuine interest at the other locations and get the salesman to invest in you as a customer. That means, don't mention your other offers right away--wait until the salesman has already spent a lot of time with you and *expects* you to be a buyer. Car dealers don't get paid a very high hourly rate--they make most of their money off of sales. So if the salesman has just spent an hour of his workday giving you special attention, it'd be a waste of his time to let you go. Tell him about your better offers, and he'll try to compete by improving his offer. Then, take the offers from these other dealerships and go back to the first dealership. Tell the dealer that you think you have to go with the best offer, so unless the dealership gives you another discount, you're going to take your business elsewhere. That first dealership has probably invested a lot of time in you. Chances are, you'll be offered a better incentive to keep your business there. It's a time-consuming process, but it's worth it if you want to save money. I negotiated this way for the car I bought three years ago, and after three weeks of all the hassle, I got the car for a few thousand less than invoice price. Plus free inspections and two years of free oil changes. So...good luck!!

Yes, I'm a total nerd: "Baby, can I be your derivative? Because I want to be tangent to your curves."

Warning: This post was composed under heavy influence. Yes, it's 2:34 on Monday, and I'm drinking at work. Bosses wouldn't chill out, so co-worker and I decided we should. Point is, this post might be wildly incoherent. --- So, because of cranky weekend weather, unfashionable PennsylTucky living, work-related torturefests, jams and recording sessions, cross-country debauchery, and various other "thwartations," I haven't been in the sky for three months. But, like Batman in 1992, I return. My question: what is Cross Keys' policy for re-training AFP grads who had a 90-day hiatus? The SIM doesn't have any information about this case, specifically. Do I have to take ground school again? How many jumps do I have to do to "re-graduate"? And, the most important question: what kind of beer do y'all want when I come back? Info much appreciated in advance! Blue Skyy (that's what we're drinking now), Jess

Hahahaha, excellent ideas, all (the only kind you have, of course). Thanks to your creative suggestions, I'm now actually looking forward to WWIII with the little fucker, but now I can't find him. He's probably getting more sleep than I will tonight, and he doesn't even have to drag his ass to work at 8 a.m.!! Now I'm hatin' on him because I'm just jealous.

Well, I *did* light my kitchen on fire the other day. I guess I could do it again and let the wasp go down in flames! Yay!! Now, if only I could find him... he must be mocking me from somewhere. If he is under my futon cushion, I'll have to burn it!

Now we're talking. Although...I just went into my kitchen to evaluate my options, and he's GONE! Maybe he committed suicide out of guilt? Where would you hide if you were a wasp?

The door idea would be great, but I'd have to get the wasp to follow me down a flight of stairs. I do own a shoe (actually two!), but he's buzzing around so quickly that I don't know if I can catch him!

A frying pan? I don't even own silverware let alone a pan! I *do* have some heaps of paper here, but... what if I take a swing, miss the bastard and he comes back with a powerful strike? I will not let him win this battle!

So, I came home from work today to find a fat, angry wasp buzzing around my apartment. And no, I don't mean a white Protestant. This is one gargantuan ugly mofo. Basically, I need to kill it. But I don't have any spray available, and I'm afraid my heavy-handed blows will get me stung. I'd prefer to come out of this battle unwounded. I've spent the last 20 minutes soliciting advice from friends, but they keep recommending stuff like cleaning supplies (I don't clean much) and Pam (I don't exactly cook, either). In fact, all I really have at my disposal is a futon and a plastic knife. Oh, and toilet paper. Okay, yeah, and a bunch of synthesizer keyboards, but I'd like to keep wasp guts off the pitch wheels if at all possible. So, what's the best way for an insect-timid girl to murder a wasp in one fell swoop? Tips much appreciated. Oh, and people willing to come to my apartment and kill the wasp *for me* especially appreciated. I'll even buy you a beer and wrap your wounds...with toilet paper and Scotch tape. I'm locked in my bedroom until I have a battle plan! FREE ME!

You can leave early if I can leave early. I'm always stuck at work on beautiful days. :( I can't wait to quit my job (hopefully in June) and find one that does not require sitting at a desk all day. Any ideas?

Okay, so I've been wasting the last three hours at work playing with this Virtual Earth site: http://local.live.com It's a bit slower than Google Earth, but the imagery for many addresses seems to be more detailed. And...the best part is the "birdseye view" for many large cities. I can actually see my dad's car parked in front of his house in Philadelphia. I looked up a few drop zones, but they only have satellite images. But check out the colorful birdseye view for Skyventure Orlando: clicky If you scroll south, you can actually see the Disney water parks and people riding the water slides! SOOO cool. Yeah, I'm easily entertained, especially at work. Post birdseye views of your drop zones if they're in big cities!

Skydive Sebastian has Wi-fi.

You know, that's not a bad idea! I'm going to try that! Mine: When you try to PLF with a giant hang glider on your back. That was fun!

Thanks so much--that's really helpful! I'll definitely try that route next time. Oh, and sorry for the thread hijack!

Cool, thanks!! I usually take the Ben Franklin Bridge to get to X-Keys... where does the Walt Whitman drop you off? I'm used to fighting traffic on the Schuylkill, but yesterday's was just absurd!

It *was* a beautiful day, and my plan to spend it at Cross Keys was thwarted by the wretched Schuylkill (Sure-kill)! When it took an hour and a half to drive 9 miles on the Expressway, and the radio warned that the same congestion lasted through the bridges into NJ, I knew I wasn't going to get to the DZ until the sun had already set. :( (I had already spent the morning driving from central PA). Hopefully next weekend will be jumpable and I can plan a route that avoids the Schuylkill as much as possible!

Hi, Liz! I haven't been able to jump since the Invasion (weather + being *under* the weather). Can I make a re-currency jump on Saturday? Plus, I'd probably like to attend some of the seminars. Is there a schedule posted somewhere? Thanks--see you this weekend!

So, in case anyone was interested in an update, the research group offered to pay me $30/hour. Yay! I'm really happy with the outcome, especially because I enjoyed working with these people last year and the study is pretty interesting. Now I'll have more money to jump (well, when the weather cooperates again...argh)! Thanks again for all of the advice!

So, this is the first weekend I can make it down to Cross Keys since the Invasion, and the weather wants to be all windy and rainy and stuff. I'm going outside to sacrifice myself to the sunset and do a reverse raindance on my hands. And maybe consume a few mystical earthworms. Yeah. The forecast for Sunday (a la weather.com) keeps changing from partly cloudy to UBERWINDY to partly sunny to UBERWINDY (I've been checking every 5 minutes--I'm at work, what else am I supposed to do??). It's making me dizzy. Is there still going to be a Fest, even if we don't have the Freeze?

Again, excellent advice, all. Thanks for helping a naive new graduate understand how stuff works. Seriously, I'd be totally clueless without all the responses to my post. One other thing: I do already have a full-time, salaried job (though in an unrelated field). So, I already have a decent package of benefits (including health insurance). Should I really be charging the hospital extra because of no benefits when I do get the benefits from somewhere else? I already work 40 hours a week at my current job, so any work I do for the hospital will be during my "free time." If that matters. Thanks again! Much-appreciated advice!

Very helpful advice, all. I really appreciate it! Shows how little I actually know about the real world!

If you have mIRC, copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar: irc://irc.supremechat.net/dropzone

Thanks, guys, for taking the time to read this and offer advice. I really do appreciate it. There's some tedious coding of responses/data entry involved, but I'll also have to do some programming to run the tests (the statistical software relies on syntax written by the end user to produce the analyses) and use a little bit of math to interpret the results. Also, I'll have to write a report that explains the results in lay terms--what the statistical differences mean practically--and present this to the hospital staff in a way that's understandable. So, yes, some of the work will be really simple, though other parts will be a little more complex. To answer Phree's question, I know the hospital made some policy changes last year based on the results of the study (which assessed, among other things, client satisfaction), so it is useful research. Not sure if the policy changes were directly related to profit, though. Ideally, as mdrejhon said, I *would* like the hospital team to quote a price before I do. I have to admit that even $15/hour sounds very high to me, but as a student I spent years doing technical work for cheap (e.g., I built hand-coded web sites for several departments and professors and only got paid $8/hour, because that was the highest the college was allowed to pay a student worker). I'm salaried for my current full-time position, but even before taxes this pay barely comes to $15/hour. Is it a general rule that I should be making more per hour for a consulting job than I do for a salaried job (because the salaried job comes with benefits)? Thanks again for the tips. I'll do some research on consulting and pay negotiation. Again, I really appreciate the advice! Jessica

Here’s the story: Last year, as a senior in college, I earned independent-study credit by doing some statistical “consulting” (I think that’s the right word) for a research team at the local hospital. The team had sent questionnaires to a group of organizations that had applied for grants within the last year (some received funding, others didn’t), and I coded all of the data, ran a bunch of statistical tests, wrote a formal report, and presented the results to the hospital staff. Good stuff to put on my transcript and resume. Anyway, the head of the research team e-mailed me this week asking if I’d do the same thing for this year’s study. She said the staff would pay me however I wish: either by the hour or for the project as a whole. She also asked how much I’d charge for my work and said the team would be very willing to accommodate my price. Here’s the problem: I’m really, really bad when it comes to negotiating matters of money. I’ve never been paid for this kind of work before (ah, so many years as a student peon…er, I mean research assistant), so I have absolutely no idea what I should charge. I’ve asked my former professors, but even they’re not sure what’s reasonable. My friends and co-workers think I should charge at least $15/hour, but only because “that sounds about right.” Basically, it’d be nice to have some extra money for a while (so I can actually afford my own altimeter/goggles/etc. sometime soon), but I don’t want to rip anyone off. I told the head of the team that I’d contact her by next week so we could discuss details. So, if anyone has expertise in this area, I would LOVE to hear (well, read) your suggestions. Should I charge by the hour or for the project as a whole? What exactly determines a reasonable rate? Should I suggest a price range instead of a single number? Is my work more valuable now than it was last year because I earned my degree? Yeah. I’m totally clueless. Help? Thanks!!