FallingILweenie

Now that you are off static line, it's time to start freeflying. :) "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Looking at other numbers i feel kind of guilty posting this..... 0:23:0 One of the best weekends ever, bar none. Holy shit. It was Memorial Day boogie at Archway and Skydive Chicago's Otter came to visit (the one wiht the stereo). Missy Nelson was on hand to do freefly coaching. I had never met her before, she is super-nice and an incredible skydiver. I got 9 in Saturday, 10 in Sunday on the perfect skydiving day--sunny, 78 degrees and NO wind, and 4 today only because we were all so tired by like 4 no one wanted to keep going.... I got 4 or 5 coached jumps in with Missy as well as several others with Chris and Orion and went from barely flying headdown somewhat stable to taking multiple docks headdown.....these are the best skydives Medic refers to--and the second one is on video so it actually happened!!! Wow, what a kickass weekend. Also, I took part in Jabeln's 200th and Canopycuddler's 200th. I lead a 15 way tracking dive that worked really well and all in all skydived my ass off. Now, i gotta save up some money to be able to do another weekend like this. and i plan to pay the folks in Ottawa a visit soon, i hope. blue skies Tomas "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Sorry, Joe...it's become somewhat of a superstition.... "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

JOE--DON'T GO TO ARCHWAY SATURDAY!!! It's sposed to rain and stuff, but maybe it wont..... "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Sunshine, Vallerina, FallingMarc, Skymedic, Jabeln, carrietoth, Fallinwoman, CanopyCuddler, Indyz, JumpinJohn, AndyMan, Scottbre, Billo, Slowfaller, Jjohnson...i think that's everyone.... blue ones Tomas ps. ok, so it's warming up, and sunny out, so it HAS to be windy...that is SOOOO Chicagoland. "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

what kind of plane is that? it looks like a mosquito. "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

My friend and I determined that the most embarrasing way to die would be to fall off a pyramid. In Mexico, they used to let you climb the mayan ruins and at the top there is nothing to prevent someone from falling if they should be accidentally bumped or something. I think thta would be pretty stupid. blue skies Tomas "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Batmans a scientist. The only thing that could make my computer fast is freefall. "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Like the sunsets...but this begs the question...where are the freeflyers???? "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

If you give 20 bucks to certain people, you can probably see a lot of things.... "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

I am a court interpreter....seeing a lot of domestic abuse cases makes you wonder how fucked up some people are that they end up together.... "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Personally, the songs that do it for me are the ones from the skydiving videos i've seen. All i want by Dial-7 for example, that is in Good Stuff, or the offspring songs from Chronicle 3. Personally, calling all freaks by the crystal method and learn to fly by the foo fighters are in my own videos and i think of skydiving whenever i hear em. blue skies Tomas "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Anyone know of the prices of the specialty aircraft at WFFC? I dont see anything on their page...maybe i'm not looking in the right place. If in fact they haven't said yet what it will cost, what has it cost in previous conventions? blue skies Tomas "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Hell yeah, i plan to go! I am only doing 2 jumps tomorrow, so people, let me know when you will be there so i can show up. I work till about noon so i dont think i'll be there before 1. blue skies Tomas "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

"Yeah they are. Until I got my '00 Pontiac Grand Am, I didn't know that cars weren't suppose to smoke, leak all fluids, not work in the winter, lose their transmissions.... " You mean they arent??? "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

I drive a 95 Ford (anal) Probe GT....man Fords are pieces of poo. "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

What's wrong with being a jump whore? "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Carrie!!! I didn't know ya posted here! I'm sad I missed out the dz.com outing, but I'll be joining you guys down at archway for the memorial day boogie. blue skies Tomas "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

The funniest thing i've seen happened at Skydive Illinois. A couple of years ago i was on a load where the TM was going through all the stuff they do on the ride to altitude (checking the altimeter at 5 grand, etc). The student was just fine. Then when we get to the altitude where the tandem gets strapped in, the instructor leans over and tells the guy: "ok, you have 2 choices. 1: we can go together or 2: you can jump out and i will chase after you and i will strap you in when i catch you." the student actually believed him...and to make matters funnier, actually wanted the second choice! blue skies Tomas "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

If i have any doubt by 1600, buh bye. "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

What was that plane doing flying so low over Vandalia, anyway? The DZO must have shit a brick. "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

I'd love to go down and play with ya...the money for a road trip isn't there right now. But maybe in the fall, when the weather starts to suck up here I'll make my rounds down in the southern US and hit Texas, Florida, AZ, etc. In the meantime, have that button fixed by next weekend cuz I have a 20 jump weekend planned and I need good weather! blue skies Tomas "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

OK, to respond to some of what was said.... Yeah, for better of for worse, I agree with you, Dave...cinema will go digital. I just hope it takes long enough so that the technology is able to catch up in terms of quality. I would hate it if in the next 3 years the digital pro jectors became affordable enough for the multiplexes (which i think also help ruin cinema, but that is another story altogether) to be able to equip each theater. I think that then picture quality that we have come to appreciate in film will be lost because people will assume that whatever they currently have is "good enough". Just my opinion, of course. As far as the CGI stuff...of course i knew Yoda was CG. What i mean by saying that live creatures can't, in my opinion, be animated right but that robots and other things can is that when doing live creatures (like Yoda) the animators tend to overdo it. For example, you will see close-ups of a CGI character in which they will make his face twitch and move in overly exaggerated ways to make them seem more lifelike. I think that until the animators realize they don't have to do it, CGI won't work for lifelike characters. The other part of CGI i don't like is the fact that any CGI work looks too glossy for my taste. The dirt, grit, and grime that you get from having an actual puppet there (in Yoda's case, again) isn't there....the image, even if they add drool or what have you, looks way too shiny. I think that they are improving rapidly as far as the way CGI looks, but I don't thinik it's there yet. One of the friends that saw the movie with me said they liked Yoda better as a puppet. Now, this friend isn't a big film buff or anything and he was able to tell the difference... Oh, and i was quite blown away by some of the CGI stuff...like the big battle scenes...that stuff was really impressive. I'd say better in some respects than Final Fantasy (which i also saw in the theater---best tech demo ever...shitty story tho). I'm just saying i dont like the way they animate organic creatures. To more directly refute the point about LP's and CDs....if you take a film shot in digital and one using celluloid and transfer them to DVD, chances are you won't see too much of a difference cuz of the limitations of the consumer equipment (namely the dvd player and the television set). It was mentioned that it would be like watching a DVD on a huge screen....that's just it, it's supposed to be WAY BETTER than that. If you think that the film was just like watching a dvd, with the only difference being a bigger screen, then you didn't notice the letdown in quality. If this was home equipment, i would agree in that digital and film wouldn't matter that much, but when you are watching it a the theater where they have the expensive projectors and big screens, i think i have a valid gripe. And maybe today's director's aren't fully taking advantage of the medium...at least mainstream ones aren't. But i will say this: a few weeks ago i got to see 2001 on the big screen--a 70 mm print of it. I own the film on DVD and have a 27 inch tv (which isn't huge but is still pretty good). There is no comparison. None. I love seeing 2001 at home, but seeing the scope of the vision how it was meant to be seen was unbelievable. I haven;t seen the DVD since and I don't know if i will be able to see it in the same light again. But, bottom line, the movie was entertaining. Yoda's fight seen was fun, if a bit cheesy. I don't usually get really passionate about many things but film is one of them. I think Hollywood is destroying film as an art and it pains me to see people praising stuff like Episode 2 as the greatest thing ever. Please, don't think i am inferring anything to anyone that has replied...i'm speaking in more generic terms.... It;s just there are films out there that are true works of art that no one sees becaues they are overshadowed by the eye candy films of the summer blockbuster and it's a real shame. I will see the film on a digital projection soon, i hope, and i really expect that it will change my mind because if nothing else i expect more professionalism from Lucas with Star Wars than what i saw. I'm sure that some things will look better. My main point from before is just that if it had been shot on film and projected on film it would look better than shot digitally and projected digitally because the expensive equipment to project the film is already out there and the technology to make digital look as good as film does not yet exist. I just hope this response makes sense...i have been flipping back and forth to see what the other responses were and tried to tie everything together into one cohesive argument. Cohesive being the operative word. Good discussions everyone. The points you bring up are valid. I just disagree. Now, can someone make it nice here so i can skydive? blue skies Tomas ps. saw a preview of the matrix sequels.....oh shit that's gonna be cool. "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Actually, Dave, I'm not wrong on the digital thing. I've heard that the digital projection looks really nice and i'm sure it does (i am going to go into Chicago sometime soon to see it for myself), but the fact is a movie shot on film, and projected on film, looks better than a movie shot digitally and projected digitally. The upside of digital is the movie wont scratch or wear out, and it will be cheaper to make once the equipment is in place (which i think is something like 150,000 per projector). But the range of colors and tones that 35 mm or 70 mm film gives simply isn't there. With Episode 2, the action sequences and special effects were incredible so seeing subtle differences like that while all hell is breaking loose on screen is kinda hard, but it was visible on the darker scenes in the movie. Blacks were more like dark blues or grays, and there were shots where there was a sort of hazyness that almost looked like a TV screen. I'm not the only one that saw this. On a related note, Roger Ebert has a film festival at U of Illinois every spring. A couple of years ago, the topic of their panel discussion was this very thing: film vs digital. The panel talked about other things but I remember that the biggest thing they talked about, and that htey mostly agreed on, was the lack of quality of digital imagery vs. the film medium. I'm not saying digital quality can't be better than film. I'm just saying it's not there yet. "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Troy Hartman did it for Senseless Acts of Video. He jumped from a balloon with a bungee cord thta was a couple thousand feet long i think (they were setting a record for longest bungee) and then he cutaway from the bungee cord and opened a parachute to land. The bungee cord went over some powerlines after they cut it from the balloon and cut the power for some of southern Cal, i think. blue skies Tomas "Marge, it takes 2 people to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer