JJohnson

Real sorry man. I hate to see any relationship break up. If kids are involved it's even worse. I hope all goes well for you. Peace. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Classic!!!! JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Of course I did believe in them. Until it was proven to me that they did not exist. But I never had a real belief in God. I was self will run riot. I did what pleased me and didn't give a fuck who I hurt. At some point, my human emotions fought back and said to me that I was spiritually dying. My soul cried out for something. God was it. Do not misconstrue. I DO not go to church, have no clue on religion and nowhere did I ever mention the bible. God to me is that love you are talking about. I believe we are all a part of something a bit bigger than what we know. Everything has a source, must come from somewhere. I choose to think that ALL potential comes from God. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I think you have taken me out of context. I did not claim personal intervention by God. I never claimed to have heard God, seen him or had a hand writen note from him. Being one the smartest, most open minded people I know....a veritable legend in my own mind, I do know what hallucinations are like. I felt them first hand. The last one I had was in corn field on lots of LSD. Since May 5th, 1990 I can honestly say I have not had anything of the sort. My distorted reality is a pretty cool place for me. Full of love, strife and challenges. Rewards and setbacks. Take it or leave it, I never said anything about religion. Only God. I have my proof. A feeling everyday, that is so primal it is in my soul. Do you have proof that this is not from God? So my proof may require faith on your part to accept. But it is this proof that gives me my faith. I would put this to a test: If you do not believe in a God of any sort, than simply sell me your soul. Write it out on a piece of paper. I sell my soul to Jeff Johnson for $1.00. Mail it to me and I'll send you a dollar. You make a buck for selling something you don't have, cause God doesn't reall exist. Now if you cannot do this, perhaps it is because on some other level, NOT the level that you logically argue with your girlfriend about why you should go see Rambo 55 instead of the chick flick she wants to see, but on a much deeper level you really know there is a God. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Maybe he did. If so maybe for a reason I don't know or understand. Maybe if I belive in God I need also accept a counterpart to that, like a Satan. Maybe he did that shit. Truth is I don't know. Maybe he put these things in our lives to give us challenges. It must be a rewarding feeling being a doctor and treating someone so that they live instead of die. And look around at the real ugly in the world. Most of it we cause, and could stop anytime we choose. How amny starving people could we really feed?....All of them? How many diseases could we cure or stop?....Lots of them? Lots of questions....I got tons of those. Answers I'm a little short on, but tomorrow holds hope. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

So who set the rules that govern math and science??? Someone smarter than we?? Someone more powerful than we??? Could this person be a God??? Again, I make no claim to know a thing about God, other than I asked for help and got it. For the shit I put my body and mind trough I got no reason to compalin about anything in my life. I got wife, step kids that love me like they were my own, a great job with a boss I hate. I did all of that, but God gave me that potential. I hate math and use a calculator to do addition and subratction, so I can't give credit there. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I do take some credit. Up to the age of 26, I messed my life up. What was the worst feeling was that I was hollow inside, a human shell with no real emotion. The drugs and alcohol medicated those feelings, but only for a awhile. When I hit a bottom, I asked for help. It did not come in any grandiose manner. But it came. A could claim random chance, but choose not to look my gift horse in the mouth. Fear is a great motivator, it makes us do wonderful things. My worst fear is facing God, whatever he may be, and admit to him that I wasted my life. Other than that I claim NO knowledge or belief of God. But it feels better to me to believe than to not. That is my only proof. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I'm not quite sure what you are saying? Have I been insulted here and missed it? Any of my old bad habits have liitle to do with any concept of a God. Please explain. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Nothin is random, everything has a purpose. There is a God, and understand that every concept of God as we know it may very well be incorrect. We learn more about science every day, yet we understand so little. We discover new species on our own planet.......how could we possible understand any power grand enough to create us? Evolution IS creation. I don't think God made us as we are. He set free a spark and let his children go. He gave us opportunity and potential and like any good parent, it is left up to us...the children...to grow up. It is also human nature my friend, to think we are on the top of the evolutionary ladder, becuase to think that we are not the baddest critters in the valley is too humbling for us to deal with. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I am probably one of the most critical, cynical people you'll ever wanna meet.....of myself. I am my own worst enemy. Blind faith however, in a concept of a God cannot be a bad thing. Nowhere did this man tall me how to think of God, he simply gave me a reason to accept that such a power was there. As simple of a reason as it may be, it worked. Look around you at the beauty in the world, did we create this? No. So somewhere there is something witha vision beyond ours. If by asking this power for help in not drinking and it worked...than I'll keep believing it is there. To not accept a God, in some form means that all is random chance. That thought scares me more than any concept of God. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Do I note a hint of Atair bashing? With as anonymous of a profile as yours, bashing any product holds no validity. The Cobalt is a damn fine all around canopy, I love my mine. But a student with 20 jumps does not need to be under one. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I would add the PD Silohuette to that list. F111 fabric/ZP hybrid. Easy to pack, forgiving and fun to fly. Not as high performance as a Safire or Sabre2. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I had the same thing happen, though only for one jump. During flight when I look up, I can see one steering line with twists in it, which shortens that line. If you don't untwist them it'll give you a pressure knot. Now I get in the habit of every couple of jumps, I start at the top of the line and run my fingers down it to work out any twists in it. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Number of jumps certainly counts, currency is a big plus. Ratings and such count as well. I go by what kind of person they are. Listen to them speak for a few minutes. see if they are logical, astute, perceptive....Then I look for scars and ask what their medical history is like in the sport. It is a sad fact that Super-Ego makes many people great skydivers yet assholes as people. I don't care how good someone is at what they do. If I cannot be at ease with them, I ain't gonna learn much from them There are plently of nice people in this sport, who have skills I can learn from. So first thing I look for is if they have a big "A" on their forehead. If their "A" is bigger than mibne, I look for someone else. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

To take the "Do you believe thread" to a different level I submit the following. Not for any other reason than to invite flaming, inspire further debate and cause shit. I make no point of hiding that I am a recovering alcoholic/drug addict. Anyone who knows me is aware of it. Despite doing the A.A. thing for 12 years as far as being anonymous goes, screw it, I was never very discreet when I was wearing puke on my shoes. Any of you who might be familiar with any of the 12 step programs may be aware that recovery kinda hinges on a faith in a higher power....for lack of better terminology.....God. It was at this early stage of recovery that I hit my first obstacle. I had no real belief in God. My mistake is that I was confusing God with manmade religion and doctrine. I met a man at an AA meeting one night. Never seen him since. But he listened to me talk for a few minutes and later he pulled me aside. He said to me," Your probelm is you lack blind faith in God" To which I replied, "No shit." I was not raised in any religion and God's name in my house was normally follwed by Damn it! I grew up thinking it was my middle name. This gentleman then went on to ask me that if he were to lock me in closet, if I could believe that somewhere in the world if the wind was blowing. Depsite the fact that in the closet I could not feel the wind, being a logical person I would have to admit the wind was howling somewhere. This the man said is blind faith. You can accept something despite not having concrete evidence. My reply to the man was that all he had done was take away my need for God to be solid. Something I could feel, touch, see and hold. But that he had not proven to me the exsistence of God. The smile on his face told me he was waiting for that reply. He responded by asking me what I did for a living. I told him I worked on aircraft. He said," Good, you work with your hands!" "What can you make?" he asked me. What can I make???? Well sometimes I think pretty quick, so I glanced around the room and said," I can make a table, a chair, a window....." Now the dude's smile was about splittin his face in two. He says to me....You don't make anything. You destroy things. You chop down God's perfectly good tree to make the wood to make the table and the chair. You rape the sand off the pristine beach to make the glass for your window. You reassemble the stuff to suit your needs, but your potential for destruction by far outweighs your potential for creation. Now the guy had me backed into a corner. So in desperation I blurted out," I can make a baby!!" And I knew as soon as I said the words he was gonna stick them in my ear. He says to me," You my friend do nothing of the sort. You have sex. You enjoy yourself, nothing more. The women, hopefully enjoys herself as well, but she does not make a baby either. All you are doing is starting with the seed, the spark of life that God...and God alone has given." He says to me: You can call God whatever you want. You can contribute whatever miracles you wish to his power and blame him for whatever disasters you wish. But you have to realize, with your own logic that a power greater than yourself does exist. This "higher power" is what makes birds and trees, sunsets and rainstorms. When you look into the eyes of young child and see that pure innocence then you see the evidence of a God. Because no man or woman can make that. Until man/woman can actually make the seed or spark of creation, there is a higher power, who for lack of better terminology we can call God. Do not confuse a faith in God with religion. Smarter people than you have debated God's word and intentions for as long as we have been on this planet. Simply accept the fact that if you ask him for help he is listening. He may answer you, and you being a human male idiot may not understand it. He may speak through other people, so do not discount anyone you meet as a moron. They may be carrying God's answer to you. Don't ask God for things that you can do for yourself, cause he may be busy doing something more important. God does not do windows so to speak. God wants you to be happy, so go make yourself that way. But the trick is to be happy without making someone else suffer for your happiness. You are here on Earth for a reason, everything that happens good or bad is for a reason. You being the dumb ass that you are might not understand the reason, but that is to be expected. After all, in 26 years (my age at the time), all of your best efforts and thoughts have done nothing more than land you in an AA meeting. Rest assured that everything is exactly the way that God wants it, otherwise he would change it. After all he can make mountains and birds and such. To this day I make no claim to understand God or what the purpose of life is. I ask God to keep me from drinking and druggin, so I don't have to live like a animal anymore. So I can enjoy life, and cherish the love I experience from other people. A Buddhist friend of mine once said, " All religions basically teach us three things: Peace with our God, peace with ourselves and peace with our fellow human beings." So not trying to preach anything, other than I can rest assured that if you say God does not exist, you are wrong. I'm still basically the same asshole I was 12 years ago, but I'm getting better and my life is getting better all the time. I love skydiving and I wouldn't have been able to even consider it 12 years ago. MHO JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Of course I believe in ghosts. Who else do you think hides my keys and shrinks the waist band of my jeans in the closet. The angel is the guy who knocks the demon/ghost out and slips my keys out from under the couch so I can find them. DUH! JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I'll second the opinion on the VooDoo. My next rig will be a VooDoo with the Mirage as a close 2nd choice. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

We Cobalt jumpers are being singled out man. All you mainstream canopy pilots are like picking on us. You PD and Icarus people have us so sterotyped, next thing we'll have to ride in back of jumpship. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Too funny. When describing to friends that are taking a first jump, sensory overload is howe I describe it to them also. For me it is a matter of currency in my jumping. If I take a few weeks of, or coming out of a shitty winter, I notice that my perceptions, recollections and reaction times are off. Normally in about 5 to 10 jumps I'm back to normal. Coming off of student status, I think it was about 30 jumps before I remeber seeing things in freefall. Not having tunnel vision, watching someone else take grips, seeing some one across the formation struggle to put the brakes on and not overshoot their slot. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I demoed a 120 and a 105, stock model. I had both within a few days. On the comp model....who knows. As for performance, I think you'll be pleased. The 105 I had had a long recovery arc, longer then the 120. Riser pressure was less on the 105 as well. The flare on both was great. I downwinded the 105 at Elsinore in about a 5 mph wind. (do not look at the tetrahedron thing, it lies) I ran it out like I normally would under those circumstances and just at the end I popped the brkes and the 105 lifted me up about a foot and set me down. I should not have ever set my feet down. If the comp model is better than this, I gotta try one in the next few hundred jumps. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

I gotta give Lost Prairie my vote as the best view I have seen. Mountains as far as you can see, snowcapped, pinetree forests and deep blue lakes. Truly awesome. Night jumps in Chicagoland, with clear skies and you can see the city lights.....cool view, but that's as good as the Midwest can offer. THe plus side to the Midwest is you can always find an out for an off field landing. If you hit something around here, you were aiming at it. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"

Great friggin canopy. Cobalt 120 loaded at about 1.55. Openings are awesome. I can pack it to open as quick or slow as I choose. In flight it is responsive, quick, stable..just a joy to fly. The landings are sweet. Tons of flare. Glide ratio rocks with a touch of rear risers. The steering lines are too short, I'll have to have those let out about 3 inches. But even with lines too short the canopy was still rock solid. I was getting on the front risers quite a bit. I could see the tail of the canopy pulling down and yet the canopy remained stable. No breathing or bucking. Atair delivered within the 6 to 8 weeks time slot (7), which was greatly appreciated. The plastic bag it came in had a cut in it, so I spent a few minutes looking over the canopy to see if it was also cut. The canopy was cool, no damage. The only thing Atair did, which was an inconvenience, was when they sent me a 105 demo, it arrived without risers on it. At the time I was in Elsinore with my rig and my risers were sitting back at home in Chicagoland. Cost me $90.00 for a set of risers, but the smile on my face was still ear to ear. Thank you Atair for a canopy that is all it is advertised to be. I look forward to getting a second rig to put put a 105 or a Comp 105 in. JJ JJ "Call me Darth Balls"