SivaGanesha

Caffeine is a stimulant. Alcohol is a depressant. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Yes the subject of the thread is "flirting" but the scenario described by Nataly involved not just flirting (although he did do that as well) but also he was asking her for a date. So it seems natural that the thread would morph into discussing dating and, by extension, relationships. Yes, if you are going to date people you meet at work, it is probably better to focus on people who only have a temporary connection to the company, and then preferably after they've left. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

But that's what relationships are all about. Until the heart trumps the brain, it's not a relationship--it's just a business transaction. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Because relationships are risky. Always have been, always will be--although the exact nature of the risks may change depending on the climate of the times. People whose risk tolerance level in this area is temporarily or permanently low don't get involved in relationships period--at work or anywhere else. There is no risk-free way to do this. People who choose not to pursue relationships at work have to pursue relationships elsewhere. That means--necessarily--spending less time at work. In a work climate where very hard work is often expected, that, too, can be a career limiting move. For most people the bar scene doesn't work. That means you have pursue relationships in some social network that you are a part of--and pursuing a relationship always runs the risk of causing damage to that network. Some people choose to take that risk at work; some people choose to take that risk at the DZ; some at a church/synagogue. People who don't take risks at all don't get involved in a relationship. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

If I felt a strong connection with a woman in particular at work, and was receiving signals that it was reciprocated, then yes, absolutely. It's been awhile since I've felt that at work but I definitely would under such circumstances. What I would NOT do is try to cast a really wide net at work and try to date every woman I could find who I could claim to be 'riveted' by. The risk of just one woman being offended and causing real problems would be too high. Work is not a meat market. But for people who are passionate about their work it definitely IS a place where there is a chance of finding someone with whom there is a real connection. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

With such worthy competitors--it is truly a shame that there needs to be a winner and a loser--but my vote is for Olympia: 1. The other girl's ass is nice but just isn't quite as perfect as O's. 2. This is a thread for the best SKYDIVER ass--and the other girl is a whuffo. I think we need to declare O the winner--the best we can offer the whuffo from Skydive Dallas is an honorable mention. Sorry skydiverkeith--you offered a wonderful addition to this competition and it is definitely appreciated--but it is hard to top perfection. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

USCIS has a page on facebook. Only 9 people like USCIS on facebook. Even the IRS and the Selective Service System are more popular on facebook . "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Thanks for the heads up. I don't believe we've ever met but I DID think of friending you on FB because you're a skydiver or because I think you're hot (no need for me to specify which category is there

Depends who you count... Would you count duplicates (friends with the same person but multiple facebook accounts)? Friends with yourself (multiple facebook accounts)? Friends with an organization (eg a drop zone, etc)? People who haven't confirmed my friend request? People who friended me but I haven't confirmed? People who are deceased (eg died in 1998 but their real-life friends created a FB account for them in a creepy attempt to pretend they are still alive)? People who are deceased (recent BASE fatality)? My official friend total is 151 but if you remove all of the above questionable categories it is probably about 140. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Going back home and then applying to re-enter is usually not the best immigration strategy if one is married to a US citizen. The most likely scenario is that the daughter is a US citizen (born in the USA) but the wife, while here legally, is not a US citizen. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I'm sorry folks but I'm voting with the minority on this one. This doctor may have crossed a line but nothing that has been said suggests that this is anything other than an honest misunderstanding. If he's a good doctor, apart from this misunderstanding, and if his hugs have been friendly, not romantic advances, then there's no reason to believe he is being creepy. A 30-second conversation with this man should resolve the problem. If a word to the wise doesn't fix the problem, or if there is more to the story than we've been told, then I'd be willing to reconsider my vote. But right now that's how I see this one. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

In which case he doesn't deserve to be called creepy. Talk about it with him face to face. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Then talk about it directly with him. If you trust him then there is no reason to believe that this is anything more than a genuine misunderstanding...in which case I think it's only fair to discuss this with him face to face. If he's 10 years younger than you then he is fairly young as doctors go...and may be trying to establish his own style of treating people. In general I've noticed that people who are younger are more 'huggy' than older generations...even when the older folks were younger. Sometimes 'professionalism' translates into 'uptightness' (which IMHO is sometimes a cause of physical pain BTW) making it difficult to communicate the underlying human cause of medical, etc, problems. The fact that older doctors do things differently doesn't necessarily mean the older doctors are right. Sometimes younger folks have good ideas about how to do things. But if it makes you uncomfortable he should be willing to listen to you and change his behavior...direct communication should always be your first step and nothing you've said suggests otherwise in this case. Some of the responses you've received on here seem less than helpful and, even if they were intended tongue in cheek, don't take into account that this may be just a younger doctor trying to make the doctor-patient relationship a little less stiff. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

What it seems to me that you are saying is that you don't trust your doctor as much as you trust your friends and family. I think that's what you need to look at--I think the hugs thing is, if you'll pardon my pun, just a symptom of the underlying problem. I think it's a problem if you don't trust your doctor because there is a great deal at stake with your doctor--in some ways more than even with friends and family. It would be one thing if you weren't a huggy person and didn't really like anyone hugging you. But that's not what you're saying--you're saying you generally like hugs but something about this guy hugging you is creeping you out. To me that says loud and clear that you don't trust this guy--and your intuitions in that regard may be quite valid, but if he's not someone you feel you can trust--why are you trusting him with your medical care? "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

America needs tough immigration laws to keep the Canadians from coming in and stealing all the illegal aliens' jobs . "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Which is rather ironic because there usually isn't much evidence of god's existence in foxholes either. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I think it's a terrible way to live. People who truly believe these platitudes just set themselves up to be walked all over by others. All religions teach some variant of the above platitudes because they are trying to set their followers up to be walked all over by the leaders. But that doesn't make it a good way to live. Don't get me wrong--I think there is a time and a place for helping others. But just blindly helping people we know nothing about ('love thy neighbor') or who have actively abused us ('turn the other cheek') reinforces dysfunctional behavior on the part of others and isn't a good way to live. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

The history is not nearly so long. The modern state of Israel is only 62 years old--less than a human lifespan and offering some hope that new ideas for peace may surface when the older generation--on all sides--dies out. When the Jewish people last controlled Israel, Islam did not even exist. It's easy to vaguely talk about "thousands of years of conflict" in the Middle East but the current configuration is fairly new by historical standards. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I don't get the sense that either the Jews or the Muslims want Armageddon in their area. It seems to be mainly Christians who don't actually have to live in the area who are warmongering for Armageddon in the Middle East. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I can't find an immediate reference but it definitely WAS in some official context like marriage, religious burial, immigration, etc--so it is quite possible it doesn't apply generally. I guess I was thinking on hearing this story that they must have taken some official steps towards marriage and that at some point his non-Jewish status emerged and an official line had been crossed. The article is silent about exactly how she found out he was not Jewish. Presumably he must have been circumcised or she would not have agreed to sex in the first place.

I thought that lying about being Jewish was itself criminal in Israel--regardless of whether the reasons for telling such a lie have anything to do with sex or not. Although I might not fully agree with such a law, I do understand why Israel, given its history as a nation, might find it necessary to have such a law on the books. And I would think that any time you commit another crime to obtain sex, that surely must be considered rape. So the legal reasoning here does make some sense actually. It's not so much that he lied to obtain sex--it's that he committed a crime under Israeli law to obtain sex. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

What you are essentially doing in this case is: (1) Firing your administrative assistant. (2) Offering to immediately re-hire her in a different role--no longer an administrative assistant but now a prostitute. If you believe the following two things: (1) Employment should be at will. (2) Prostitution should be legal. then there should be no problem with this scenario. Of course, if she does choose to leave rather than accepting new employment as a prostitute, she should be considered to have left through no fault of her own, and should be entitled to unemployment which you should be paying through higher employer unemployment taxes. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

When it comes to this poll I think everyone needs to get on the same page

Ultimately my advice regarding both parents is the same: make only short term decisions for now. Hold off on the long term decisions until things have had a chance to settle from the divorce a bit more. I think shropshire offered some good advice. Rent the place out and save money that way--and let things settle from the divorce for a bit before making longer term decisions like selling. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Well that's not a very friendly response given that our advice was sought and I've invested a little bit of time in providing it--and also I have some experience in life dealing with divorced parents which I'd hoped would be helpful. I hope that Anvil himself feels differently than you do. I hope that he appreciates the advice that he sought and was offered even though I would agree that the final decision as to what to do is up to him. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014