livendive

I'm guessing that's what it feels like to find out you're being traded to either of those teams. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

You must mean something besides what I'm thinking, cuz otherwise that's just wrong. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

All taxpayers were. And then to rebuild the disaster in waiting. Well, as Channmann points out, that was the special Negro Fund. I'm only pointing out that a town with only a few minutes warning was completly removed from the map, as apposed to a city and its people that could see pending doom do nothing. I'd think that tornados in Kansas are at least as likely as hurricanes in New Orleans. Which do you think happens more times each year? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I don't think it would do any good to demand that you surrender your man-card, as it probably spontaneously combusted while you typed that. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

God hates fags? I replied before reading all the way down, but that's basically how it reads. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

How in the fuck did you arrive at the conclusion that the actions of ultra-conservative religous zealots are the fault of liberals. That's like the Westboro Baptist folks saying that our tolerance of homosexuality is to blame for the IED-related deaths of our servicemen. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

On a marginally related note, there's a nice little story on CNN.com right now about a girl who took her dad to prom, days before his deployment to Iraq.

That. They buy the warranty for a certain price and then sell it for as much as they can. The full price mark-up is absurd. If you'd like I can refer you to a family member who does F&I for a Toyota dealership, just so you can price shop him (no promises of a lowest price). Personally, I don't buy extended warranties on anything (including my last two and my next vehicles...all Toyota's). They wouldn't sell the warranties if they weren't going to make money on them, so it's all about your acceptable level of risk. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Agreed, but neither should the design of the harness be compromised by the instructor's poor judgement. I'm sure you're right, and so is he at least 90% of the time. Should the other X% be chocked up as "shit happens, skydiving's not a perfectly safe sport"? Not knowing the guy or what he's been through, I can't say for sure, but I'd have gone for at least a year on the tandem rating. I'd be ok with reinstating his other ratings if he's managed a demonstrable change of attitude. It'd be easy for him to go out & do tandems without doing this kind of shenanigans, but the question (in my mind) would be whether he'll put his students' safety above his own enjoyment of their jump. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

:7:0 6 tandems and an AFF jump...and I'm damned tired! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'll try two. A - The potential for a student to fall through "the hole" of the harness increases as the instructor gets farther away from them. I'm not positive of this, but I'm pretty sure. B - An instructor's ability to regain control of a whacked student is decreased by reduced leverage. How much tougher would it be for you to control a fucked up AFF student if your grips were a foot away from his body? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

There were an awful lot of TMs who condemned his actions, including myself. One need not have tried those stunts to see the obvious additional risk he was intentionally exposing his tandem students to for no reason other than goofy video. If USPA has already given him his tandem rating back, shame on them. I've not heard one single defense that included an explanation of how his gimmicks were as safe for the students as any normal tandem and provided them a better overall experience. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

You ain't big enough to scare me. Wait...scratch that.... Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I guess. I just don't think it makes sense to analyze at skydiving using those units. Each skydive takes such a short time... I think it makes more sense to look at it like this: Jack drives 2 hours to the dropzone and 2 hours back home, for a total of 4 hours, which equals 240 minutes. He jumps 4 times, with a total freefall time of 4 minutes. Therefore, with respect to the activities Jack does that day, he has a higher chance of being killed on the way to the DZ than he does jumping. Doesn't that make more sense? It's about what is gonna be more likely to kill him in the long-run as opposed to how dangerous it is per minute, right? There are (ballpark) 30,000 members of USPA, and (ballpark) 30 of them die each year. That's one per 1,000. Per this page, we're averaging about 22 fatalities per 100,000 drivers each year. That's one per 4545, and over 20 percent of them are motorcyclists or non-vehicle occupants. Also note, as to the time thing, traffic fatalities are running around 1.5 per one hundred million miles. Assuming the average jump is made from 2 miles up, there are 30 skydiving fatalities per year, and 2 million jumps per year, skydiving results in a fatality every 133,333 miles, or about 750 per one hundred million miles. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Using that analogy, the colleges (USPA) have decided to no longer offer degrees to anyone who doesn't already have one. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Using your number of an average 66 jumps per year, and a generous estimate of four minutes per jump, that means the average jumper spends about four and a half hours skydiving each year. This works out to one fatality for every 4444-5333 hours (depending on 25 or 30). The average car is driven what, 12000 miles per year? Being generous and assuming it's all 60 mph, that means the average driver (only...no passengers) spends 200 hours behind the wheel each year. If one out of every three thousand dies, that's one fatality per 600,000 hours of driving. Notice the two orders of magnitude difference? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Too Late... I called her Fuck! Blue skies Gail. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Umm...how YOU doin'? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Washington state breeds serial killers. And no, I'm not kidding. Edit to add: That said, there are a bunch of skydivers on the west side of this state that I'd trust, including several dz.commers. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'm more of a dog person, but that is a seriously cool looking cat. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

My guess on the first one was Italy, and jeezus there's some money in them boats! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I mostly agree with you, but consider the exception a bit less shaky. Some of my students make me proud, as does my daughter, but that's about it. On a related note, I don't get the whole pride in one's heritage thing. We can't control where or to whom we're born, so what logical justification would there be for pride in such details? I'm happy that I'm an American, and I respect the lineage that produced my mostly Polish ass. But I'm not "proud" of either...it just wouldn't make sense to me. Edit to add for relevance and humor: "Gay pride" could at least involve an action. While I see no point in being proud of who you're attracted to, I can see someone being proud of how they meet the criteria. I can be proud of how I eat pussy, and see no reason a gay man couldn't take pride in similar skill-based activities. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Last week, I received another notice from our local police department about a convicted sex offender moving into my neighborhood. It was the second one in the last year. The first guy moved in across the street from me. He'd been convicted of molestation on two occasions, once while he was 17ish and the child 4, the other while he was 21ish and the child 11ish. He declined going through a "treatment" regimen and instead served his full sentence. The community notification seemed totally appropriate to me (actually, I think his punishment should have been much more severe). This most recent one was a bit different. One conviction, while he was 13 and the victim 9. The offender is now 31, with no further problems of that sort, and still having his picture, name, etc distributed wherever he goes. It does say in the notice that he's gone through a psychological evaluation and is estimated to be less likely than more to re-offend. I totally sympathize with this guy's victim and am resolute in condemning whatever his actions were, but I'm still wondering if this is the most appropriate treatment of him. In a few years he'll be three times the age he was when he committed his crime, with no further indication of pedophelia. Who thinks the benefit of community awareness of a crime committed 18 years ago outweighs the odds of this "scarlet letter" type stigma causing him to act out in some violent and/or anti-social manner? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'm part mutt, but mostly Polish. I'd certainly like to go spend some time wandering around there. I tried to learn to speak Polish with some audiobooks, but that was a miserable failure. Oh yeah, and the Republicans and Democrats can suck my Pole. We have the Beer Lovers Party and actually elect them to parliament!

He's a man. That answer would be "no". I'm a man, and I'm "multi-tasking" right this very second. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)