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Gobsmacking really. http://www.wimp.com/altitude/ "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

How much did that paint job set you back? Looks nice dude "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Hi, it went really well thanks. I ended up making sure i brought a real assortment of music - and because they were Texans getting married in the UK (the groom is English) i even brought a little bit of country etc. By and large, because it was a mixed crowd, they seemed to really go more for the classics, the disco and classic funky soul stuff, some Jackson 5, Sly and the Family etc and whatnot, but i put on some more recent stuff, like Outkast, Madonna etc and they were into that too. I played some contemporary funk like Jamiroquai, some hip hop/reggae like Sean Paul etc, basically mixing up a bit of everything. We even had a dance off at one point between the groom (a UK marine) and the brother of the bride (a US marine) and they got down to some Tom Jones, then going into some Village People, to really get all the guys in uniform into the spirit. I ended with the track from The Wedding Singer - Grow Old With You - sung by Adam Sandler as they did their final slow dance. All in all i think they were happy, which is the main thing!

Thanks mate "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

did try a search, the only thing i came up with was a post i made several months back before they were out, if anyone was looking into getting them. Please feel free to link me to anything if you managed to find anything though. Many thanks. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I'm dying to know what this thing performs like. The price is damn good - £100 - and seriously thinking about picking one up. Anyone used one, or know someone that has. I'm particularly interested in how the LED works. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Seconded. I read FFN almost 5 years ago. I used to eat Burger King once a week perhaps. I have had a Whopper meal once since then, about 3 months ago, because i was stuck on a 5 hour journey and the guy driving stopped at a place where that was all we could get. I could have not eaten it, but i was also somewhat curious to see what it tasted like after all these years. I can honestly say if i go another 5 years without eating it, i wouldn't lose much sleep over it. One thing a lot of people seem to be forgetting - the big fast food chains cater largely to the poor and uneducated. As more people are watching and reading things like Supersize Me and FFN, their market share is declining. McDonalds last year - for the first time in it's history - closed restaurants down. Normally it just expands. Yes there are lazy people who will just want something and want it now, instead of cooking something at home, yes there are people who just like fast food in general, even though they can afford something healthier, but a lot of people see it as a means to live on a restrictive budget, especially things like "2 burgers for 99c type deals" - saying Americans are fat, dumb and lazy is generalistic - and from my experience - generally not true at all. As others have mentioned, prolification of companies to "sponsor" schools, where the only drinks on campus are soda's with 40g's of sugar for every 350ml of drink. Canteens that serve processed shit. Supermarkets that stock unhealthy junk because it tastes better and keeps for 7 days instead of 3, and is cheaper to source. The US is blessed with a bountiful eco system and abundant natural resources, allowing for a plentiful food supply. Buying power and economic trade deals massively offset the cost of food imports, and let's not forget the many millions of illegal immigrant workers who keep employment costs down, allowing those savings to be passed on to the consumer, either the supermarket shopper, or the person in the hamburger joint ordering their lunch. Americans, per capita, ARE the largest and fattest people on the planet, but to try and pin it down to any one thing would be missing the bigger picture of the many contributing factors, socio, political and economic, that account for their size. Also, to say they are ALL like that is a sweeping generalisation and incorrect, and i'm not just talking about the "body beautiful" Californians. I saw plenty of slim/average bodied people in Texas too (although there were people there that were huge too). Edited for tipoze "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks very much! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thats a good price - sort of my budget too, and with a similar spec to what i had in mind. Your story brough back glimmers of the only sort of techy work i have ever got myself into - trying to install an after market graphics card into my current PC. It took over 2 hours just to work out how to get the old one OUT (the littler spacer that was holding it down, the metal thing, i didnt know you could unscrew that thing from the front of the metal panel of the board. I tell you, when i put a screwdriver in that thing and twisted and it turned, it felt like the heavens had opened and God or whoever had smiled down on me, damn i sound like a geek here. Anyhoo, yes, i understand what you mean about it being a "oh my GOD im about to kick this piece of technology out the window - literally - but, oh ok, THAT'S how you do it. Well that was an interesting waste of an evening" etc. So yeah, it's the one thing thats sort of holding me back. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

If i may, could i simply ask, what in the doo lally are you talking about? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks, ideally i won't be up for overclocking anything, as i know, while it can bring about an increase in performance, it also brings the associated mess of global PC meltdown/instability with it, which i'm not really into. Ideally i want to create a monster that won't necessarily need to be overclocked to handle the latest software/video etc, but will just be a bit of a powerhouse on it's standard settings, and will be future proof for a little while (i guess 2-3 years). Anyway thanks again. I like your analogy of the narcoleptic chimp which about describes me when it comes to technical stuff. I'm up for giving it a go, i just have this horrible nightmare on spending a lot, and not knowing how to make everything a) fit together; b) work c) work properly and be stable "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks. Just out of curiousity, how much was it to replace your melted mess? Is watercooling easy to install (relatively speaking)? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

good links, thanks! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks for the input mate. Did you end up building your own? Sounds like it. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

LOL thanks mate, have a good day at work.

You know - components - a motherboard, hard drive, video card, processor etc, all the usual stuff a PC has A collapsible PC, a lap top? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Is it hard? I'm not very technical, but i think i could probably plug a few components together. Let me know if you have tried and what the in's and out's were if you can. Many thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I'm dj'ing a friends wedding on saturday and am looking for any and all inspiration for music that makes you just go "OH GOSH!", break out in a smile and want to start getting crazy on the dance floor. I am not looking for sappy, romantic drivel! I want tunes that will rock your socks off and back on again. Thanks in advance "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I like that, good one! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

orgasmic swoon! /me goes to change shorts "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

This is what i'm trying to get at that - what are there things? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

If you describe someone as successful, what are you using to measure that success? If there is more than one way to measure it, get crazy and list em all!

Yes, but for some reason that escapes my understanding, some people feel compelled to continously have the same discussions over and over again that center around the fact that (news flash) skydiving can kill you........ I think it's just some people's way of dealing with their fears to continually talk about it, to each ther own I guess. And for anyone about to call "bullshit", ask yourself, why is this post in General Skydiving and not the Instructors or Safety & Training forums? Its in General Skydiving for shock value, so more people can keep talking about "burning in" and "bouncing"..................and "views" and "replies" will be higher. I didn't see any previous discussion on this, sorry if i repeated something already discussed. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I read a thread in General where someone had posted the really sad video of the poor young kid who went in because his parents wanted him to be the worlds youngest skydiver or something like that. Generalising somewhat, the reactions seemed to go like this: Newer jumpers were appalled and called for a ban on the video Older jumpers thought it would help stop making people complacent and could therefore be a learning aid. I think someone even suggested running it at manifest. Although i don't think they were being completely serious, i could see the point that person was trying to make. I read often - and agree with - that often, due to being new, and equipment advances and AAD's, RSL's etc etc, newer jumpers can feel immune and not appreciate the dangers and the "it can happen to you even if you do everything right" scenario. Should scare tactics be used to make people realise what they are getting into to try to quash irresponsible behaviour or to bring about a greater sense of realisation of the consequence of actions? When i say "scare tactics", i mean "tactics that are scary to achieve results". I don't mean "tactics used to scare people where the outcomes are never as bad as what they might appear to be". Obviously we all know what the outcomes can be, but i think we have all run across people that see themselves as immune, or above what perhaps others might be saying as a way to keep them safe, either from themselves or others on the load. I heard somewhere what aspiring TI's have to see fatality pictures to make them realise what they are getting into. At first i was shocked by this, thinking it was quite morbid, then i realised - if true - it could really help shock them into realising it is more than just their own ass on the line, as well as a means to appreciate the extra complications of tandem gear. Thoughts on what is admittedly a largely hypothetical situation? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

i know this is old news by just over a decade, but i'm curious to know about the trial, not having followed it too much when it was happening. I just remember thinking at the time "if you were innocent, why were you in the back of a truck with a gun to your head threatening to kill yourself?". What's the perception of OJ - that largely he killed them but got off? If anyone has any links to a summary account of the trial itself, that would be cool. I seem to remember it coming down to something about a glove being found that didn't fit on his hand? Thanks. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts