DSE

I wish it were. We have a bunch of losers in the game on both sides. No, it won't be easy. I just know I won't vote for Romney. Do you really believe someone's religion should make them not electable? If their religion subjugates them to a higher authority (in Mormonism it's their prophet) then yes..I do feel religion should be a consideration. I've watched bills come to the Senate floor that were shoo-ins, only to be shot down at the last moment because the mormon prophet waved his hand against it. I've watched any number of business deals that were nearly complete go to hell because the Mormon leadership stepped in at the last moment. Remember the MX missile system? That was actually started, and then Mormon leadership decided they didn't want it after all. It was stopped in the early stages of the project. Remember ERA? The LDS church single-handedly killed that one. The LDS faith is very politically involved. Weekly, Romney takes an oath to be subject to his prophet. Mormonism isn't a mainstream, rational religion such as the general sphere of Christianity. It's cultic and in many ways backwards. It is intolerant, although their current president recently announced "We need to become tolerant of non-LDS people." Wow...Glad to know they need to tolerate us. Yet I'm the one accused of being a bigot. (I prophesied that PA would stand; it did) Funny how that works. Yes, I think a person's religion should be a consideration. After all, Bush's religion was a consideration as well. He capitalized on it, heavily. i think we all understand what that has brought us. Would America elect a Muslim that ascribed to radical or extreme fundamentalist views?

Caught my friend's mother's kitchen on fire doing this back when I was a kid, trying to make rocket motors. This is *not* something you want to mess with if you have a nice kitchen, lots of flammables/meltables. If it starts to burn...it doesn't stop easily. But it's probably fun to play with if you have a place to safely do it.

1. We're not the UK. Completely different social model. Completely different charitable model. 2. I'm not interested in partnering with *any* third party that has inserted themselves between me and my customer. Some of what you have to say sounds like "OK, my model is somewhat like Skyride, but Skyride is my main competition and so they suck. Work with me and the third-party/booking partnership will suck less." I don't want a relationship with smoeone that is trying to take a piece of my pie that will "suck less." I'd rather see the USPA get a reasonable proposal for promotion of the sport by a party that would work on behalf of the sport, rather than some San Diego charities and their own pocket. I'd prefer that the USPA be the body that brings dropzones together, not a third party. I'd prefer that the USPA is marketing the sport, not a third party that believes it's OK to have a nationwide booking service inserted between me and my customer. I don't see much of an upside. Skydiving isn't hurting because people don't know about skydiving. Skydiving is hurting because people are motivated to do other things with their time such as rock climbing, camping, water sports, BASE, motorcycles... The pie is only 'so big' and we'er all fighting for the same financial slice. Skydiving is hurting because of the general perceived image of the sport. Skydiving is hurting because it's expensive. Skydiving is hurting because it's not the "sport du jour" that it has been off and on in the media. Discovery Channel "Stunt Junkies" and similar exposures will (and are) doing a lot more for skydiving than Skyride or any charitable work could possibly imagine, and DZO's aren't spending a dime for that sort of promotion. Sorry Stuart, but the more I hear of what you're doing, the more convinced I am that we've done the right thing by stepping back from it.

Our discs are pre-printed, but there is a large blue open area for us to hand write name/date on them. Makes em' easier to track, and they have nice advertising value for the DZ.

Good Lord man, . . . why? Friends, family (my mom) and my culture. I like being here. I've learned to tolerate their culture even as they try pretty hard to destroy mine. The latest laugh is the Mormon "permission" for tobacco to be used in Native American "recreation of traditional ceremonies"....so long as "tobacco smoke is not drawn into the mouth..."' and it can't be an actual ceremony, just a recreation of one for purposes of "remembering cultural activities." In spite of this sort of silliness, it's a pretty nice place to live.

You sir, are a bigot. Wow... A personal attack, one I'm sure that will be allowed to stand. I don't consider myself a bigot. I tolerate Mormon philosophies every day. I think they're ridiculous, but I tolerate them (Look up the definition of "bigot"). I live in an all-Mormon community, and have done so for all of my life, have many family members that are Mormon, and have watched the destruction the LDS lifestyle has brought to my culture. All but one of my employees are Mormon. Every day I'm involved in the struggle to reduce teen suicide amongst disavowed Mormons. The Utah/Idaho/Arizona corridor (predominantly LDS) has the highest teen male suicide ratio in the USA, and one of the highest in the top 5 geographic regions of the world. If I'm a bigot for disliking the impact I've experienced, call me a bigot. If you don't think religious affiliations should be a consideration of who governs your country...wow. [edited for grammar/spelling]

Just curious about your strong opposition to Mitt Romney from your personal knowledge you mentioned? I too have know Mitt personally for many years, he is a stand-up guy who just believes he can offer something to the Country. Wheather he can or can't is certainly up for debate and thats what the election process is all about. Just trying to understand your strong opposition as I am proud to call Mitt a friend. Admittedly I am a friend who chooses not to follow politics very closely but I do know Mitt well and IMHO he is a decent, stand-up guy. then you don't really know Mitt. Mitt Romney is a liar who defends his lies, who then tried to force a family member to bury the information about his lies. Romney also told CNN that he'd "commissioned me" to write a torch theme song for the Olympics. That's a lie; I was asked to write the torch theme song by the Director of Indian Affairs long before Romney "saved" the Olympics. Romney is a liar. A yellow-bellied, chicken-shit liar. Who lies more when caught out. Funny how after all these years, he's only now decided to make his wife's illness public. Wow. Great political tool, eh? Romney is a flip-flopper as well, far worse than Bush. Frankly, if given a choice between Bush and Romney for our next pres, I'd absolutely hands-down vote for Bush. Romney claimed to have originated the "Light the Fire Within" campaign as well. Bullshit. I do however, claim the "Fight the Liar Within" campaign against Romney. Even if he was an honest, stand up guy, I wouldn't vote for him. The idea of having Gordon B. Hinckley as the president of the USA scares the shit out of me. You can't compare Kennedy/the Pope with Romney/Gordon B. Hinckley. Kennedy never had to swear allegience and obedience to the Pope, but Romney had to swear and continue to swear allegience and obedience to the prophet of the LDS faith. He's a Mormon, and by that very definition alone, he should not be electable, and by recent polls, apparently most of America agrees with that. Mormons are one step away from being conservative Muslims. I have yet to meet a single person who has spent meaningful time with Romney (who isn't a personal friend or acolyte) that considers him to be anything better than a snake. That list includes ranking politicians in the Utah Senate/House, Dept of Public Safety, Department of Commerce, Agricultural leaders, and top dogs at the University of Utah. He was recently booed outside of BYU, and even our own Republican governor has nothing good to say about the slime; even while his own father is Romney's biggest financial support. Additionally, Romney is too ingrained and owes too much to big money to be president. I'm embarassed to say I know Mitt Romney, let alone having family members still very close to him and his family.

Where's the vid? ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA0ffwe3QFs

Yeah, well read your history. Hitler allegedly couldn't bring the military to bear either. The US Government works on a system of checks and balances. Or at least it's supposed to. Those checks and balances have been deteriorating ever since Nixon was in office, and 9/11 gave Bush every excuse he needed to eradicate what is left. There are very few checks and balances anymore. So no, I don't discount that Bush could bring military power to bear over US citizens. He did it in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, what's to prevent him from doing it again with a different intent? After all, it's for our own "protection," right? One in four Americans are "satisfied" with Bush. Of the remaining three, one is fearful and the remainder merely disgusted with Bush. This administration will be remembered throughout world history as the most criminal, greedy, power-hungry, manipulative, spin-meistered administration in the US. And we're all the more stupid for allowing it while our sheep of Congresspeople and Senators bray on and wring their hands rather than actually accomplishing anything. Libs, neo-cons...they're equally bad.

First one is Alec, second one is Phil W., not Fish. I jump with Fish a lot; he's a great TM.

they could have cut that entire scene and the movie would have improved 50%, IMO. Went from enjoyable and fun to absurd and boring in 60 seconds.

not yet.. but i'm sure i'll get that considering i'm about to be stationed on an Air Force Base LT Badass, you sure are gorgeous, sir.

Jakee, that last line is so tragically truthful, I'd like to borrow it (OK, I'll steal it). I played the WOTM radio stuff at the DZ about 3 weeks ago, and even before greenlight, people were rolling on the floor. And we have a fairly religious crowd at our DZ, no kidding. To topic, is this evidence of evolution? Of course it is. Physical adaptation to environment is an evolution regardless of what label, platitude, or scripture you place upon it, isn't it?

Someone here once posted that they'd purchased Vegas Movie Studio, and it contained a VASST training disc. I'm looking for one of the in-box copies of the disc vs the master that I have on hand. If you've got a copy of the Movie Studio Training Disc that came in the Sony box, would you please PM me?

The discs are non-regionalized, so they'll play in any geographic region. They are NTSC, however *most* PAL systems play them quite well. Many have been shipped to PAL countries.

Stuart, A lot of time was put into investigating what you're doing by myself and someone else at our DZ when you contacted us. While what you are putting together may be entirely above board, it doesn't appear to be entirely so. Getting a comment from anyone in Congress isn't a big deal. I personally have two letters of gratitude from members of Congress for work in my culture. Big deal. I guess I can use them when I run out of TP. Your charities as listed on *your* website that you are inviting people to visit, are exactly as I listed. http://www.standupforkids.org/sreports.html offers financial reports and as I said, they havent filed an annual since 2004 according to their own site. An operating budget of 2M nationwide won't pay the light bill. They appear to be a front for some other organization by the type of website they present. Maybe like yours, their website isn't complete, but without full information, what do you expect? Particularly when you label people that investigate what you're doing as "amatuer sleuths that should stick to Murder She Wrote?" You want our money, you want our participation, but you provide little substantive information. You're looking to more than quadruple their annual donation, but they're still a San Diego-based charity. This response departs entirely from the Skyride thread, so I'll close by saying that the Adventurize.com website, whether fully operational or not, smells exactly like Skyride. The only difference I can see is that you don't have fake listings for dropzones or adventures in cities you're not related to, but rather offer experiences in select cities. Everything else you're saying smacks of exactly Skyride. ~Bringing new blood to the sport ~Money for the DZ ~Skydiving for the masses ~We're a real business ~We're real skydivers ~"We're just trying to help everybody out and make a few bucks in the process" (Didn't Tony Soprano say that once?) The Adventurize.com website is significantly built out with greater depth than the Skydive4free.com website, so it seems odd that you'd say it's non-operational for the remainder of the year. I'm sure (just by the fact that you're posting here under your name) that you have ethics and values, unlike the Skyride creeps. But you've also got to step outside of your position and realize that you're flying in the burble of Skyride's current flight (if I might use relative terms). You'll have to figure some way of combating that image. The mere fact that you're defending Skyride at some level says enough for me. Between looking into your program, and seeing your endorsement of any of Skyride's practices, seals the deal for me. I think this industry and community has earned the right to be skeptical. BTW, the address you sent me to view is http://72.34.43.224/~skydiv4/ If that isn't complete, if it's lacking critical information, why share the link and be asking for money now? How about waiting til we can see some real-name endorsements, real proof of intent, and actual charitible institutions that are genuinely national vs small San Diego organizations?

No, you have that wrong. It's "George Bush's America" and that's all there is to it. His eight years will no doubt be referred to in history as "the Bush Monarchy." There are so many lost souls that need a king, no matter how corrupted, to do their thinking for them, telling them what to do, whilst taking everything he can from them. Don't think for one second that Bush works for us. He'd shrub off an impeachment so fast it would make your head spin. And probably turn the military of the US against it's own citizens as he did it.

There is something that doesn't ring true about the story as told from one side. "He didn't get good video but he got some good stills?" How is that possible? He took his still cam off, shifted from wide angle to tele and shot from a distance when the tandem landed far away from the camera flyer and your canopy? That said, the whole "walked all over my canopy got tangled in the lines..." says something else, and the obvious S turns say yet something else. It doesn't seem the whole story is here as to why cameraman barely beat the tandem to the ground, nor as to what else occurred. Yet everyone seems to be OK with condemning a cameraman that maybe didn't react well to the situation, but it's also not known what was said on the ground that may or may not have provoked a pissy response. How much time is "landing in time with the tandem?" I've been on very bad spots with a tandem and had to pull high, ride rears all the way back, and beat them to the ground by one minute or so. On the flip side to this story, I can see a landing where the cameraman lands, turns his head skyward to catch the tandem high in the air, walks backwards, trips/walks on someone else' canopy and gets tangled in the lines, gets a smartass comment, and gets pissed about it. Biggest question I have is; If he got great stills of the landing, why didn't he get great video of it too?

The files are likely readable from any disc recovery utility such as DataRecovery or OnTrack. Check their demo. Also, SanDisc Extreme III cards come with a disc recovery application. That might help. Had a slammer or two my self, one the other day where I swore a blue streak with the camera still running. When I got down, the newbie packer says "How was your opening?" I was so tweaked that I didn't say a word. I just rewound the tape and hit play with the audio turned up reasonably loud. I usually pack, but on those 12 jump days with 2 rigs back to back and it's 105 on the ground...I'll use a packer, even still.

Not by a long shot. you'd be surprised at how many people think it's OK to use compressed air on vid and still cams. Also, Canon is very adamant about using a fresh battery any time you clean, because if you lose power during a cleaning, you may be hosed.

According to Whois: Adventurize.com +1.18003597046 Phone 181 Rea Ave El Cajon, California 92020 United States www.skydive4free.com stuart livett (619) 590-1166 Phone (619) 768-5510 Fax 181 rea ave el cajon, California 92020 United States stuart@adventurize.com It's great that you are a legit business and not related to Skyride, but at the same time, understand that scams are a dime a dozen. I've looked at your website that is to be launched soon, and found it wanting for substantiated information. The "Adventurize.com" website looks to be very similar in nature to Skyride, even though it is clearly different. Personally, I don't feel it's a related issue, but one worth pondering. IMO, national service bureaus/brokerages don't serve a personalized sport like skydiving very well, and given the scam attitude that Skyride has brought to this industry, you can't fault people for being gunshy. Other than the integrity of being truly associated with a dropzone, what makes you different than Skyride? You're a national company wanting to broker skydives (and other adventure sports) for dropzones. Skyride started out exactly the same way, but got to the point of faking DZ locations and DZ websites. The charity angle may be a good one, and I like the idea. But your website doesn't list the charities you mention here other than Stand Up for Kids. (I'm looking at your DNS/skydiv4 website), and it offers one very small national charity "Stand Up For Kids" and one extremely small charity local only to San Diego. "Stand Up For Kids" hasn't filed an annual charity report (as required by law) since 2004 nor a financial report since 2005. The only active reporting Stand Up For Kids group is in San Diego at San Diego State University and they haven't modified their webpage since 2003, with their last listed meeting in 2004. The last news report related to Stand Up for Kids was listed on April 27, 2002. CAPF, which has two listings on your website, is a San Diego-based Christian organization that is very small, very local, whose last listed press release (echoed on your own website) was in 1999, and appear to be primarily a non-operational arm of the Women's International Center. WIC is predominantly a female awards/recognition group, it doesn't appear that they donate much back to the community. I'm not the person that compared, sleuthed, nor reported you being involved or the same as Skyride. But I'm not an "amateur sleuth" either. I did my research when your email was sent to me by my DZM and wasn't excited about what I found, or rather, didn't find. I was looking for a solid foundation behind what you're trying to accomplish, and found only two local charities in the San Diego area. If there is more information, it's not listed ANYWHERE on the web, as I spent a long time trying to find it. You might well be involved in something great, but by all appearances with a bit of time looking around your website, the websites of the two charities on your website, and the information you provided in your letter and this posting....all add up to a local benefit (San Diego) that you are asking DZ's across the country to fund. If it's all a wonderful thing, I'd be pleased to find myself having misread what you're attempting, and will be the first to admit it if I am. Bu something doesn't seem entirely up front. Maybe you're letting too much out too soon? The website needs finessing? More information? You can't blame people for being suspicious. Blame Skyride for screwing with the integrity of this industry if you want to be pissed at someone. Everyone wants to do charitable work, and if that's truly what you're doing...more power to you. But in the face of what your website offers and in the shadow of Skyride...skepticism is healthy, from where I sit. It's terrific that you and your partner are skydivers, but so are Ben Butler and party, so that can't carry much water. Skyride also says they're bringing new blood to skydiving. Obviously, people here don't agree. Now back to watching "Murder She Wrote."

It really sucks when you're the one shooting the naked tandem student, especially when she's a 22 y/o with a big smile.

These settings would not be applicable if you want shallow DOF. You want a wide open aperture which means a faster, not slower shutter. Since we have serious mountains/water here, I prefer distance to be out of focus. YMMV

Not only will spraying air inside your camera just "blow things around" but compressed air can permanently damage your camera, particularly if you tip it upside down and hit the imager with high pressure cold. Compressed air and imaging devices of any kind don't mix. Either learn to clean it or take it to a camera shop that can do it for you.

When using your camcorder (not stills) do you use auto exposure/shutter? Or do you use manual settings? Combination of auto/manual? Yes, 'nother "research" question I set my exposure manually, set focus manually, unless it's a tandem, in which case I set exposure to auto, and focus to manual. Do you bother with White Balance/WB? Are you a set-it-and-forget-it shooter, or are you a knob tweaker?