AndyMan

My wife (craichead) is recovering from shoulder surgery following a series of dislocations. The thing about MRI's is that certain shoulder issues don't show up very well at all. Craichead had an MRI done which really didn't show much of any significant damage. She proceeded with the operation because she was still having major issues with normal life.... Her shoulder would pop-out while throwing a blanket on the bed, for example. They treat shoulder injuries by analyzing symptoms. If you show symptoms they assume you've got a problem. If you don't show symptoms they leave you alone. MRI's, X-Ray's, and other diagnostic tools aren't terribly helpful. They treat shoulder dislocation issues in stages. First they'll just assign PT, and send you away for a few monthes. If you're showing symptoms after a few monthes, then they'll investigate other options. They won't explore more complicated options until you've given a good run of the simpler ones. MRI's are expensive and they probably won't do one after the first event unless you continue to show symptoms after doing PT. In craichead's case, even though the MRI showed very little damage, during surgery they discovered major damage to 70% of her labrum The surgury took 4 hours when they initially expected it to tak 1.5. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Craichead and I shop there regularly. We skip the supplement aile, but love their fruits and vegetables, dried bulk goods, and their meats. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The usual Canon err99 is an older Sigma (or other 3rd party) lens with an incompatible chipset. Sigma is reportedly willing to 'rechip' the lens in this case. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That's what they told me two years ago, and a year ago. If it suddenly appears before I make a decision I'll certainly consider it, but I am definately NOT going to wait for it. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Um... Let me think for a minute..... No. It'd be too small as a BASE rig. :) _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Since the supreme court ruled that these "terrorists" had to go through the minimal of hearings, 129 of them have been released, because there was absolutely NO evidence. None, zilch, nada. Prisoners continue to be released almost daily, because there is no evidence. The fact that there is absolutely no evidence for so many Guantanamo imates, should scare you FAR more than any terrorist group. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

His previous processor was not a sub-gig... I predict any noticable speed improvements is attributed to a newly installed, uncluttered OS, not from hardware. Clockspeeds have gotten so high in the last few years Software rarely maxes out CPU, unless you're into gaming. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

While there's obviously a gap between the level of skill required to fly a modern high performance canopy, and what many skydivers posess... I tend towards the idea that the missing skills are advanced skills, and the way to fix the system is with mandatory advanced training at around the 'b' or 'c' license. I'm curious what parts of the required skills could be taught during student status? What specific canopy skills would you target? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The 855 MHz bus, while not the latest and greatest, is fine. You won't see a huge difference by changing bus speeds. Why upgrade the video card? What qualities of the old one do you not like? Most video cards are fine for video editing. The only market that requires high end video hardware is CGI, which is way over my head, so I'm assuming its way over yours, too. Games like DOOM III are also video card dependent. I would recomend you upgrade the OS, RAM, get the DVD burner and add a second hard disk. I don't like Biggun's idea of using memory cards, becaue the cards he's recomending you use for storage are among the least reliable memory storage devices available. They have low "mean-time-between failures", and often suffer "bit-rot". They're considered innapropriate for long term storage. I would also caution against emachines and gateway, they are known for premature hardware failures, and dificult tech support. Dell on the other hand is known for using good quality components and having very good technical support. If you go with the Gateway or Emachines, expect to be doing all of the repairs yourself. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm not hearing anything that says you neeed to replace that pooter. How much RAM does it have? Upgrade to 512MB, and install XP. You should be able to add a second hard drive relatively easily, you won't even need to remove the old one. Shouldn't cost you more than $400. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

We had "Numero Uno" from Uno last night. To be completely honest, I'm developing an aversion to chicago style pizza. They use the crappiest cheese, and use a ton of it. Cheese is suposed to have flavor, dammit! Using so much of it only amplifies the cheapness of the pizza, because the lack of flavor is rampant all over the pizza. My favorite Pizza in Chicago is from "Got Pizza", which is great because they do New York Style pizza. Thin crust and fresh ingredients. Yummy. Of course none of that compares to Toronto pizza.... If a pizza fan ever finds themselves in Toronto, check out Cora Pizza on Spadina, or Amato's on Queen. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

One more thing: Mini-DV Manufacturers also confuse things terrribly by branding their cams as having so many "Megapixels". They're being a TAD dishonest, because their implying that higher megapixel cameras have higher quality video - which is utter horseshit. The "Megapixel" in cameras being marketed to folks like us, only refers to the size of the digital stills when you use the digital still function, something that's usually COMPLETELY unrelated to the quality of the video, and completely useless to the primary function of the camera. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That'd be funny. I'd be loading it at over 4.3. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

For me it was Peter Legere, at Frontier Skydivers near Buffalo NY. I'd worked with Peter at Molson (accross the lake in Toronto), and he and another guy Jim organized a trip. Well, of the 15 Molson folk who signed up, only two of us ended up making the trip. I'm hooked... but the other guy didn't make it back. That was Aug 31, 1999. Thanks Peter! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

This is new? When I toured Europe 15 years ago, I met 5 different Americans who had all sewn Canadian maple leaf flags to their backpacks. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I've got roughly 500 jumps on a Stiletto 150 that's loaded pretty high - at about 1.8. There's some characteristics of this canopy that I just don't like very well. 1) The recovery arc is too short. I initiate 270 turns at about 500 feet. I'd prefer something I can turn higher. 2) Front Riser preasure is too high, I can not use front risers to extend the dive. 3) Low speed lift is not as strong as it should be. It's dificult to land in no-wind days. I'm not particularly looking to downsize, but looking at the market I realise I might need to do that. The largest Kitana and Velocity are both 120, a big step down from my 150 Stiletto. That would put my wingloading at 2.25 - quite a bit higher than the 1.8 I'm at now. I'm avoiding the Crossfires because of consistent reports of customer service issues at Icarus. As far as I can see, that only leaves me with the Samurai and Vengence as viable options. I don't buy into the concept of airlocks in terms of it being more stable, but I can imagine some value in how the airlock reinforces the nose, in a similar manner to crossbracing. Thoughts? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Disabling the on-board video SHOULD be a striaght forward process of going into the pooters BIOS at startup, usually done by hitting F1 during the memory test, and flipping a switch. XP should auto-detect the new card once you disable the old one and add the new one. Hardware detection under XP is light-years ahead of 95 and 98. If you're worried about doing it yourself, any self-respecting geek should be able to do it relatively easily. It's not rocket science or nuclear fusion. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

If you did not practice a PLF, you did not get "great" training. Ask your instructors to take you through practice PLF's, and keep doing them until it comes naturally. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You're lucky you only got written up. Had I been that HR person, you probably wouldn't have a job anymore. Funny? Yah. Appropriate? definately not. Suck it up, take it like a man, and don't do it again. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The single biggest risk I see with a lot of camera flyers, both new and old - is the ringsite. Avoid using a ringsite until your income is dependent on 'getting the shot'. Leave ringsites to the people getting paid. When you do add a ringsite, do everything possible to make it low profile. Way too many people are jumping with ringsites that look like giant hooks... Just begging for a snag. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

CVS, the pharmacy mentioned in the article is a large chain operating in the mid-west. The pharmacist who refused to fill the 'script was NOT following company policy. She was acting on her own. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Not only shades of grey, but odd shapes, too! Here's a website where they take county by county, apply gradients to show a range of opinion, then display in a cartogram. Really very neat... http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/ I stopped hoping to make people think a while ago, especially in this forum. Now I just hope somebody might find it interesting. tangent: Surprisingly (or not), these images are not coming from traditional political sources. The first image I posted was created by Tannenbaum, a noted author in the Computer Science field. Tannenbaum is recognized for his work in Operating Systems design, and even once wrote one called Minux - a system Linus Torvalds studied before writing Linux. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Click the 'Classifieds' crumb trail from the classifieds search screen results in: Oops, we had the following problem: We don't seem to have a category by the name 'var/home/dropzone/dropzone.com/www/classifieds'. See attached, _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Also this one from 1998: An experienced jumper gave his mother a tandem for Christmas. He filmed it. At pull time he found himself "next to the drogue". He hit the deploying main and became wrapped in it. He worked his way out of the mess but snagged a line with his foot. As he fell clear, the line broke and he hit the Tandem pair. He continued in freefall and deployed his main. He landed safely. The tandem master and possibly the passenger were knocked out. The tandem slowly spun into the ground. The Tandem Master is alive and in the hospital. The passenger (mother) was killed. Colliding with the subject you are filming is a very, very serious error. Everything which occured after this point is only a consequence of that error. -- While this incident happened with a tandem, it could happen on any camera jump where the intention is to film the opening - a very common request from the people we jump with. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Pumkins are largely empty, thus less dense than people. Fall rate would be slower than belly. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.