JJohnson

AAAWWWW!!!!!!!!! MY eye!, I'm blinded!!! JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I've never seen a shark in the sky, so I'll stick to skydiving. My one overwhelming fear is Shark attack.....so for this kid even the chance of running into a Cadillac with teeth is too much risk. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Does this mean all you limey jumpers have mad cow disease now? It might explain some of wierd things you guys do and say. Like just the other day I heard one Englishman say to another: "Hey you bloke, take that bloddy spotted dick out of yer arse, stop smoking that fag and get back to work!!!" JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I base this by my Protrack and by watching my wrist mount. I got curious how many feet I was burning up during the opening sequence. So the last few jumps, I dumped with my altimeter in my face and watched through to being under a fully inflated canopy. I was getting an average of about 500 feet. I know this has room for error, but its gotta be close. Compare this to the Crossfire I got rid of and I swear....sorry Phree....that I was burning a grand. If I kept that canopy I would have had to go with a smaller slider. If you want to see a really freaky opening, try a Samurai. That work of art opens like...right now and is so soft as to not be believed. I was in awe of the openings on it. It would not suprise me to see a 300 foot opening on it and soft as a prom queen's thighs. Anyone else got experience on a Samurai? I only got a few jumps in on one, but I was damn impressed by it. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

In general the Cobalt opens pretty quick, and as of yet I have not been slammed or had a prolonged snivel on a sub terminal opening. I even use a pilot chute larger than what Atair suggests and I pack the canopy real loose. Tail is not rolled much, I don't push the nose in either. I think the openings on the Cobalt are awesome. At terminal I can get a nice soft 500 foot opening and maybe 700 to 800 at sub-terminal....just slightly longer than terminal. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Sorry, I don't think I could buy into that fashion statement!! JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Yeah right, as if. My dog would eat that pussy for lunch. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

There is no assumption about it. A bio lab can be set up in the back of a step van. And when those pesky inspectors show up at your front door, just drive your lab out the back one. As for the rest of your question, let's break it down into a few areas: 1) Unprovoked??? Invading Sweden would be unprovoked. Invading Iraq is long over due. He needs to be out of power, period. If he has not done things against the U.S. directly, he's pulled the strings behind the stage. Had lame ass politicians not stopped at the end of the Gulf War this situation would be different now. So if there is an invasion coming up just think of it as rematch fight. 2) Invading the region may not make the situation better. But neither will doing nothing. We did nothing the last few years and got airplanes stuck in our ass, ships blown up and embassies attacked. I'm all for peaceful resolutions and I'm a firm believer that the first person to resort to violence is normally a moron. However mankind's long run at attempting civilization is not exactly panning out. The current governments attempts at staging other puppet govenments, to basically take over those countries is about the same as the English trying to breed out the Scottish by raping the newlywed brides. Our methods have changed but not the reasons. Man is still a war mongering, greed motivated, lust filled, fear based creature. No matter the clothes we wear we have not really changed all that much in the last few thousand years. So when you boil it all down, one country is not any better than another and chances are good that their reasons for doing dirty shit is basically the same. But hidden behind different flowery rhetoric that politians spout out their asses. What it comes down to is who has the might to enforce what they want...or who can influence enough other countries to ally with them and enforce what they want. This is just my opinion here and I'm not saying it's right or wrong. There are two versions of every story and the truth lies somewhere inbetween. I'm sure all the Islamic terrorists have great stories to back up their shit as well. If you happen to know a better solution let it fly. I'm all ears. Then you and I can run for office and solve the worlds problems. My first official act would be free jumps every Friday and mandantory nudity for all females on Saturday at my DZ. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I have followed this thread with a bit of interest and offer a few points. 1) Iraq is a more immediate threat to US well being. They have the attitude and conviction to attack us and the means. How much biological technology have they bought from Russia? Tons. It takes next to nothing to produce biological agent, nothing to smuggle it into our country and only a moron to activate it. It is hard as Hell for us to find and protect against. A bio weapon the size of a beer can holds the potential to kill 30,000 people. This scares me more than nukes, which we can at least target and destroy. Iraq and any Islamic or religious terrorist holds a key advantage over a government like Communist Korea. Korea would attack us with the thought of profiting from it. If they nuke us, they don't profit. Cause we strike back and everyone loses. Nukes have been up to this point a defensive weapon only. Cause the first moron that uses them causes everyone to use them. We would not have used the bomb on Japan if we had thought Germany had on as well. It would have beena stalemate. A terrorist attack using bio agents is no different than ramming a plane into the WTC. We spend years tracking the individuals responsible and those who are responsible don't care to profit. So long as they serve their holy cause they are happy. They don't give a rat's ass who suffers from their actions either, or they would have turned Osama over when we started bombing their rock pile country. So the terrorist gets to strike with relative anonimity and without fear of repurcusion. This makes Iraq more of a threat than Korea. A country does not want to start a war unless it profits by it. 2) Diplomacy should be our first step at resolving any issue. Once it fails, break out the guns and stay out of the way of the professionals. Once we wage war, we should do so with no holds barred. 3) We should be allowed to bomb where we wish. We have the might to do, and the right. Not saying that our government is not as corrupt as any other in the history of the world, but I doubt we would target anything that did not have military value, unlike the suck ass scum we are facing. This is a bit different than how you phrased it. There is a measure of responsibility in our actions. MHO JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Every man stumbles into the bathroom at night, drunk or out of it and sits down and gets his ass wet.........ONCE! After that we learne to never sit down without looking first. Why do women seem to be unable to learn this basic survival skill. Of course another survival skill for me is always remembering to put the seat down. This ensures I stay on my wife's good side and get laid on a regular basis. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

And a hello to you. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Dude, Send me the link as well, I missed the party that night. But the golf cart on the pump house was classic. Thunder has quite the sense of humor. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Saw them both last weekend, they will be here at Chicagoland till the end of the season. Where they winter at, I'm not sure. They just got a killer Pit Bull puppy though. Way cool dog. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Don't wear either. Never have. I hate the feeling that they are crawling up my ass and trying to strangl;e my nuts. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Most of this is personal taste. I choose the VooDoo for it's looks, comfort and Mr. Reid's impeccable service and knowledge. He is damn proud of that rig and stands behind it. I'm currently looking to get a second rig and I'd feel guilty if it wasn't anothe VooDoo. Although I have to say the Mirage is up there as a contender. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I've used Tube Stows, they work quite well. Potential for baglock is there, mostly if you use them with a seam and the seam pointing up. If the tube stows have a seam or joint, use that portion to wrap around the stow on the main bag. I have seen one bag lock due to improper use. I believe they make tube stows now that are continous, with no joint. I'm using sky bands now and they work really well. No draw back that I can see at all. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Dali, always enjoyed his bizarre style. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Dig brother. coming up on 13 years as a friend of Dr. Bob and Bill. Your are in good company. Email me anytime or call if you need to b.s.. Peace. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Ignorance can be defined as lack of knowledge. It is a curable ailment. Stupidity can be defined as proceeding full steam ahead, despite obvious lack of knowledge. Stupidity is supposed to be painful and even fatal. It ensures we learn our lessons and keeps the species from polluting itself. In everyday life people do stupid things, and most of the time get off pretty lightly. Skydiving however is an activity that is quite unforgiving of stupidity. The greatest names in our sport have had their lives claimed by stupidity. None of us are immune. Early skydivers paid a heavy price in paving the way for the common knowledge we take for granted today. The only thing we can do is learn from their mistakes......and lets face facts, most of us only learn from our own mistakes. I do not know of one single skydiver that has not done something above their knowledge or ability. It is how we get better at what we do. Occasionally we are going to bite off more than we can chew. Hopefully we will only have to pay for our mistake with minor cuts, bruises, sprains and such. Sometimes we die. Thats a bitter fact of life for we skydivers. Even more bitter is that we may still die, even if we do everything right. We choose to be adrenaline junkies, to have our fun 14,000 feet over Mother Earth. We accept those risks and each one of us sets our own limitations. I have made my share of dumb mistakes in this sport. Hopefully I have learned from them. I hope I can learn from everyone elses mistakes as well. But let's try to not judge others too harshly. Chances are good, they thought what they were doing was within acceptable risks. Very few skydivers are so vulgarly stupid as to do something against all advise from others. If so, they have relinquished any bitching rights on the adverse outcome of their actions later. I am pretty sure that if I die skydiving, I was having a pretty damn good time up until the dead part. Thats a lot more than the average joe can say when getting hit by a bus in traffic. No real point to this, just kinda philosophically rambling. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

If you go online and search I'm sure you can get a PC9 for about $800. I got mine almost two years ago for about $1000 and its still running strong with no problems. They even threw in a soft case, small tripod and a better battery. The firewire card for the PC was cheap as well. As much as I'd love to have state of the art stuff, I can't justify it for the amount of video I shoot. Besides the scarvy bastards are just gonna upgrade and improve it next year, making what you buy obsolete anyway. MHO JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

The Jedei had no taper on the leading edge, The Samurai does. Samurai has lighter front riser pressure and is less ground hungry than the Jedei. Check out Big Air Sportz web site. They describe the differences very well. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

In the Old West you got hung for stealing a horse. why? Because you are taking a persons way of life, a way to get to their work, to town...however you want to say it. The thief knew he ran the risk of bodily injury. He had to expect a reaction, the reaction he got may be excessive. But he certainly did not take into account how his actions were going to effect anyone else. If I tell your wife she's a fat ugly warthog, in front of you at dinner....I can expect to get the shit kicked outta me. If you happen to kill me in the process...it may be excessive, but my stupidity still caused it. Level of stupidity does dictate the repercussions of your actions. Stupidity is supposed to be painful, even fatal....for the good of the species. Shooter goes free. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

No, I travel a bit for work and miss quite a lot of good debate and shit slinging. So I am sorry to sound like an ignorant debating shit-slinger. What was the thread, I'll go look it up. Thanks, JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

TJWAAR Fund The Jeff Wants Another Rig fund...we promise that 0.0% go to admin and overhead, all proceeds go direct to Jeff's gear. Any surplus recieved goes to local DZ's. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I have always used a soft link on all my rigs/canopies. Never had a problem. I use PD slinks now and they hold up great. If anyone has words against softlinks or slinks, I'd love to hear them. My rigger, whom I trust pretty much with my life has never offered me opinion against, so if someone knows something I don't.... JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"