fireballgrl

Yes. 1. Smoking-related lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease take a terrible toll not only on collective health, but on the health care infrastructure. Drives up the cost of health care and/or health insurance for everyone. 2. I rather like the fact that smoking in the US & Canada is steadily reducing & becoming less and less socially acceptable compared to the rest of the world. I presume that will correlate to comparatively lower rates of smoking-related diseases, too. 3. I'm selfish. I want to be able to go into the bar of my choice without second-hand smoking someone else's Marlboros or my clothes smelling like shit. Ditto for my teenage kids; I want to be able to have the option of taking them out for tavern food without them breathing smoke. Factoid, FWIW: I used to work at a law firm with about 50 lawyers, 50 paralegals and 100 secretaries/clerks. The lawyers of course all had advanced degrees; all the paralegals had at least 2 years of college & some had bachelor's degrees, and most of the secretaries/clerks had no college at all. Not a single one of the lawyers smoked; about 1/3 of the paralegals smoked, and I'd say about 90% of the secretaries/clerks smoked. Now, you don't have to be a sociologist to analyze the import of this raw data; it plainly speaks for itself. Society is better without smoking than with it. Most things (within reason) done to make it fade away forever are fine by me. Best response so far...

If they allow smoking in the business, it smells like smoke. There is no way around it. Some smell less like smoke (high, open ceiling) but it still smells of smoke. Voting with my wallet would mean the grocery store since no restaraunts/bars are exclusively non smoking. What about the people that work there? Sure they could work at McDonalds but that does'nt quite pay the bills of the college kids. When I was in school the available hours I had for working were late and varied so I had very few options. The restaraunt industry is stronger than ever with busy people eating out more than they eat in. All the people that work these jobs have to reek of smoke every night they come home. You could say find another job but someone else will have to work in this smoky enviroment. In my opinion, smoking is a dirty nasty habit and it should have no place in a place where food is served.

In my midwestern soccer mom suburb (kansas city), they are attempting to get a ban on smoking in restaraunts, bars and other public buildings. If the petitions are sucessful, it will be on the ballot in November. I personally do not smoke. My father has for 40 years and I got all the second hand I will ever need for the first 18 years of my life. I used to bartend as a second job and made some good money, but the smoke was giving me headaches and "hangovers" the next day. What do all of you smokers and non-smokers think? I am one of the volunteers circulating the petitions and would like to hear what everyone else's thoughts are on this.

I think some women assume any man ( married or not) is ok to sleep with as long as she is horny enough and he catches her fancy. This society has told us that men are up for it whether married or not and she may feel she has a slim chance of being turned down if she hits on him. Some women may also see it as a challenge with no strings or comittments to fool with. I have had to remind men of the wedding rings they are wearing before in the bar. Its a total turn-off that they openly disrespect their commitments.

It used to be that small was actually small, Walmart small (4-6) feels more like a medium. I am 26 and people think I am 14 because I am 5'3 and a 100lbs. I'm not complaining :) but America is getting to be too supersized.

I've noticed alot more small snippets of skydiving in seemingly unrelated comercials. Funny, I can't remember most of the products they were selling but the skydivng really caught my attention. Its seems that it may be fashionable to use skydiving for advertising every day things and that HAS to be a good thing for the sport! We even rented and sold gear to a Nokia commercial shoot that shot last year for a freefall shoot they were simulating against a green screen. The actress was my size so they destroyed my jumpsuit to attach her to cables :( The good news was I get to order a brand new suit, even nicer than what I had :)

Really? I know for a fact that neither dropzone was ever contacted. We learned about it from the chief pilot of Lifeflight a week before Paul launched his website. I would like to hear from those drop zones that were contacted (besides Crosskeys) I highly doubt he has any blessings of any dzo within 200 miles, as he has contacted staff members from all 3 KC area dropzones in an "attempt" to get them to work for his dz. All this after claiming he was bringing in his own staff. This insurance was required of the previous dropzone before Paul was even old enough to jump, so I don't think "add" is the word you meant, unless you are trying to mislead your audience. This is a well known, non-disputed fact around KC so I would think you as natives would have known this. The city attorney himself stated in that meeting (that was recorded) that it was required as it had been since '95 and was included in the original lease agreement with the Eriksmoens. I wonder how they intended to sign the lease and attain this required insurance policy... I believe if you were to ask any of the alderman on the board why they voted to not lease the space, it was for the simple reason that the Eriksmoen's could not adhere to the lease agreement no matter how badly they wanted to. The required 3rd party insurance was on the original lease agreement and the board was now aware that Paul and Joanna had known this all along and intended to sign it anyway and hope it slid by without being noticed. I am sure they intended to get slip and fall and pass this off as "the 3rd party liability" insurance. Did the board of alderman know that the hangar "was virtually guaranteed" to the skydivers? Why did they even take it to a vote then...seems like a waste of time to me if their votes don't matter. Why do we need government if the city administrator can work a deal under the table? Who is JavaJunkie? Has anyone read their past posts (crosskeys, kc and rigger related posts only) and their join date of Oct 05 (the same month in which the web domain was acquired)? USPA (without a license #) was originally listed as their licensing organization but was quickly changed to APF after my inquiry of their "true" identity after noticing uspa didnt know of them. Funny, though APF says they have never had a member under that name either. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to fit the pieces together. False. Inga, you are being fed a line of BS...ask your brother for the facts. See above... BTW, I am glad to hear he is only marketing to experienced skydivers b/c of the CONFUSION he will be causing with students with the similarities in name with our established dropzone. I am sure that was a well planned idea to ride on our coat tails and garner our word of mouth, track record and established business. I believe, there was an identical case of this with Skydive Arizona and another wanna be dropzone trying to open as The Arizona Skydiving Center. Larry Hill soundly won this case and established case law for others to follow suit. Never in the history of USPA, has a representive flown out to represent a non-group member. No one was there to represent Dana when he was being thrown off for not being able to acquire 3rd party liablilty. I might also add, KCSC is still not a group member, even after receiving help from the association all the other KC area dz's pay our yearly group member fees to! Talk about a joke! Inga, I would advise you to let your brother speak for himself. You should stick to doing what you do best ~ painting your beautiful paintings and staying out of this drama... p.s. kudos for all your skydiving knowledge, considering your first experience with a dropzone was two weeks ago.

Dorinda, We are so so sorry for your unimaginable loss. Our deepest condolences and prayers are with you and your family at this time. Please let us know if there is anything we can do...

I was asking who she was and where she learned/came from... finally got a pm (3 days and two messages later) I think posting here helped

Does anyone know who JavaJunkie is? I am having a hard time getting her to respond to Pm's...

I think there are peopleon here who don't like me simply because of where I work...and that is sad

This is all I am going to post...and it is the opinion of those who must rely on the dz for their income. We have, and always will cater to our students first. The numbers are steadily declining...just ask USPA. Some skydivers do not appreciate having to wait in line in order for a first timer to experience the sport we all love. It is hard enough to make it through student progression with weather and obligations. You were given this courtesy when you were a student. These are also the same jumpers who don't want to be staff or help the dz and only want to hand us their $20 dollar bill and be put on a plane. We try to accomodate everyone but showing up on a saturday in June at 3:00 will probably make you wait for a while. Yes, you are a customer. We also may have 30 other customers for the day. Customers that our expensive phone book add and our website brought us. Customers who will spend $160-$300 with us each. We do not turn away students, come one come all, because we know there are certain months that no money will come in and we will still need to pay the bills. If skydiving was just my weekend hobby and I worked full time/wife/kids, etc obligations I would probably want to make my 3-4 skydives and get out of there. Who wouldnt want to jump a turbine for $20 with no wait? Harrisonville says they are the most fun jumper friendly drop zone. Go there and enjoy it. Vote with your wallets... Most of the people on all these posts do not jump at our dz's anyway. We have not told anyone they are not welcome back if they jump there...or grovel for that matter. That being said, I appreciate each and everyone of our staff, they have a spirit that enjoys working with and seeing themselves through their students. These are the people who give back to the sport and know what being a mentor truely is. The politics in this area are largely due to the skydivers themselves. The rumors abound and no one wants to ask the dzo's themselves. Has anyone tried that? ~just an opinion of a manifestor that knows the business Please show your maturity when addressing me...I do not give out attacks and expect the same.

Could it be possible that "big tobacco" with its billions could "buy" statistics and doctors to back up those claims? They have done just about every other deceitful and underhanded thing to get people to be addicted to their product.

I actually can give you the opinions of over a hundred people because I do promotions part time. I sampled it for 6 hours in Febuary and people either loved it or hated it. It took me awhile but I can put my finger on what it tastes like...kind of like Werther's toffee...too sweet for my taste. I also don't care for coffee or Coke so take it for what its worth. I prefer Go Fast for my energy kick.

lol...Thats a jumper's little girl...isn't she cute? The wedding I attended was my boyfriend's sisters nuptials. Yes, I am happily taken by the hottest camera man/dzo in Kansas City

Thanks for the compliment :)

Vanilla sky girl, you are gorgeous babe!!! wow! p.s. to all those that have PMed me and asked if the pic was really me... regular pics attached

South Padre, a few weeks ago, Spring Break 06

Just wanted to say again...since my old post got recycled...lol I really was impressed with the vibe and the friendliness that was shown to me and my gang last weekend. It just goes to show that we are all one big dysfunctional family As Skydive Chicago would say "feel the love"

I believe it is foose ball for anyone that cares We have a vornado tournament table in our living room in place of our dining room table, we love it so much. Just can't bear to take it down to the DZ to get the rods bent and trashed

I just wanted to thank all of those who put on the KC boogie this weekend. Everyone went out of their way to make me and my friends feel welcome and like honored guests. I have been part of the kc skydiving community for almost 5 years now and I can say that I didn't see any politics this weekend. There was nothing but great vibes, good food, ammenities and friendly faces. I got to know some of you around the bonfire and heard some hilarious stories. I was also inspired by all the female jumpers there and got a chance to compare notes with some of the best (thanks Jen :) Seeing things from the business side helps me understand what people around here call politics. It was nice to see other mindful jumpers, following rules, and still having a good time. I would jump at MRVS any time and feel good about the people as well as the aircraft. In all, I left this weekend, full of great ideas and excited for the coming season! Check out my pics from this weekend, warning...there are party shots feel free to add some more guys [url]http://sdkc.shutterfly.com[url] http://sdkc.shutterfly.com