narcimund

Four and a half years together. About 2 years ago he and I decided to skip the Mexican vacation and get him into and me back into skydiving. Now we jump at least two weekends a month in good weather and he's become an active base jumper as well. It's a nice thing to do with someone you love. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I don't feel stupid for not knowing where every dropzone is by name -- even if it's a big, well-known one. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Whew! 11 CRW jumps this weekend at Eugene Skydivers. And nobody got hurt! This was my best weekend of skydiving I can ever remember. Now we just have to get some real CRW equipment. This semi-elliptical CRW is a bit scary. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I didn't laser it, but there's a flagpole in the Zona Hoteleria that LOOKS at least 200'. Unfortunately, I don't know how it could be climbed, and the flag itself (at least 60' long) would be a serious hazard, but you should at least go look at it and fantasize. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Given that dropzone has an international audience, it might be nice to explain where this will be located. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Think of it this way. Star Trek is sci-fi. Dune is science fiction. Sci-Fi is for kids. Sci-Fi makes good TV. Sci-Fi inspires the goofballs to dress up for Sci-Fi conventions. Science fiction is literature and would be taken more seriously if sci-fi weren't giving the whole genre a bad name. Another modern suggestion: American Gods by Neil Gaiman. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Solaris comes married to expensive hardware. We're a FreeBSD shop. (It also helps that the man who builds our hardware was a founder of FreeBSD.) First Class Citizen Twice Over

I got Apostrophe and Overnight Sensation as a dual album about 10 years ago. First Class Citizen Twice Over

It's easy to say "There's no excuse for this kind of behavior" but there very well might be an excuse. When you tell the story, I'm wondering, "What is the other guy's side of the story?" In fact, that's usually the first thing that goes through my head when anybody tells a story about any event. "How did this look to the other guy?" In the end, you might decide the other guy is wrong, but I don't believe you can conclude that until you figure out what the other guy is wrong about. As my mother once told me, "You can never tell who's waiting for the results of a blood test." First Class Citizen Twice Over

I'd just like to say the apostrophe problem has gotten MUCH better around here recently. Congrats everyone! First Class Citizen Twice Over

I'd convince everyone the security risks of using Microsoft products was unacceptable and change to a unix deployment. First Class Citizen Twice Over

My lowest exit is 1800'. Lowest pull was on that jump just a couple of seconds out of the plane. On the other hand, I watched my boyfriend static line off a 155 foot bridge a couple of weeks ago. So I'm not quite as sure of what it means to be "LOW" anymore. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Loose indeed. Personally, I don't mind loose. In fact I love it. But the looseness at Sheridan was a reckless looseness. I don't believe Ted respected the seriousness of the consequences of a fuckup. Letting someone jump without credentials? Well, honestly, I think any experienced jumper can identify a real jumper in five minutes. Who needs paperwork? The craziness I object to isn't people using their own judgement, but using BAD judgement. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Ted Mayfield's DZ is closed and being sold off in parcels now. I've heard but can't confirm that he's still living in his old house at the west end of the runway. Some of the bouncing out there wasn't obviously his fault, to be sure. But as a regular jumper from the mid 80s, I look back and wonder why more people didn't die. As a very early student, I had a floating ripcord malfunction because he replaced a worn elastic ripcord handle pouch with a rubber band. First reserve ride on my first 10 second delay. I was too young to buy beer and I refused to buy Ted a bottle of booze for a reserve packjob that he caused me to use. On heavy overcast days he spotted his aircraft from the ground by engine sound. Once this ended in our entire load landing 8 miles out. Admittedly, we jumpers made our own choices to go along with his ridiculous methods. On the other hand, his role as DZO should have been one of leadership and encouraging good choices. Instead, he inspired a generally reckless community. First Class Citizen Twice Over

In case you're curious, deleting an attachment doesn't affect bandwidth in any way. It saves maybe 50k of disk space, but with hard drives running less than $1/Gb, that's substantially less than 1/100 of a US cent. First Class Citizen Twice Over

From the Nasalcrom product literature: Interestingly, I used to get this via prescription as well. Mine was called Nasalcrom then however. When it went OTC a few years ago, the price dropped by two thirds which was nice. It now runs me about $30/month. There was also an eye drop version called Opticrom. It went through some manufacturing problems and was discontinued many years ago. I have heard from my doctor that it's been reissued, so if you have serious itchy eye problems, it might be helpful. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I've been taking Nasalcrom every spring for 20 years. It's absolutely without side effects, toxicity, or drowsiness. I don't believe it's a steroid. It's excellent for diminishing the overall level of allergic response, although it's not a heavy hitter like some of these others. You have to take it every day through the season and it doesn't have much effect for the first week or so. I get sneered at from doctors who say, "That's all you're taking? We can be much more aggressive about your hay fever." But it works and it's harmless and it's proven, so what's the problem? My Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) said when I first mentioned hay fever and nasalcrom, "Well, that's fine, but if you ever take the other drugs, you should know you won't be allowed to fly." First Class Citizen Twice Over

I'm a private pilot and I completely agree with the previous suggestion. Don't give this huge firm your money. Instead, go visit a small local airport and walk around the flight schools. When you find one that looks friendly, professional, and approachable, go to the counter and explain what you want. They'll be thrilled at the idea and will be able to offer a personalized, real training experience. And probably at a similar price, but instead of it going to some clearinghouse, it'll all go to the school and the flight instructor. It's a great gift! First Class Citizen Twice Over

I keep up the Eugene Skydivers in Oregon listing. It's accurate. Lots of others change periodically. It's almost impossible to tell which ones are fresh unless there is a "NEW" tag which seems to mean "Changed within the last so many days" I'm sure there are a number of listings which are abandoned. It would be nice to see a "Last updated on..." on listings, wouldn't it? First Class Citizen Twice Over

Nice. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I have no idea what kind of testing this guy did. But I do know we'd have a somber, respectful discussion in Incidents if the story had read: "An American woman was slightly injured after she jumped from a 180ft cliff in Moab to test her company's new parachute prototype." First Class Citizen Twice Over

Is the funny part that he built a parachute? Didn't ALL base equipment manufacturing start with prototypes? All skydiving gear as well for that matter? Or maybe the funny part is that he's Chinese. Chinese people are funny. Or maybe the funny part is he jumped from 180 feet. No, that's not funny. It's incredibly courageous. Or maybe it's that he only got "minor injuries". After a 180' fall, that tells me his parachute is pretty damn close to perfect. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Oh, those wacky Chinese! Their base parachutes aren't 100.000% successful even during the development phase like ours are! First Class Citizen Twice Over

What a change in tone, Sangiro. The private message you're referring to was completely different than this. I'd say 180 degrees different. Perhaps you'll forgive me for thinking you valued my suggestions when you said so effusively. That private message was in response to my suggestion that an acknowledgement of these suggestions you invite, if not an actual reply, would be more respectful than silence. It's possible you actually read them, but it's also entirely possible that you don't. And since you're the ONLY one who can so much as fix a spelling error or reset a thrashing SQL server, you're the ONLY one whose response means anything. The cute discussions we peons entertain ourselves with are just running in circles. Or is the purpose of these two forums largely to let people wear themselves out? If so, forgive me for being "whiny". It's frustrating to accept an invitation to be helpful then find out what the invitation was really worth. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Sangiro, You are a volunteer and nobody has the right to choose your priorities for you. But on the other hand, there is no apparent rule against members discussing their own wishes and priorities. In fact, you've provided a Suggestions forum and an Errors forum both of which INVITE this sort of discussion. I've become somewhat sanguine about these two forums however. I've made suggestions which I've put a lot of thought into and gotten silence in return. I've even written psuedocode which would solve minor problems hoping that that might make solving problems easier for you. There was zero response to that. Silence is difficult to accept. It doesn't make one feel welcome. If you wanted to collaborate on this particular problem, I might have some diagnostic and development skills to contribute. So far the only comment you've made about your belief as to the cause was something like "Macintoshes handle cookies differently." In my experience, that statement isn't true and from my guesses as to how your forum remembers which threads have been read by which members do not lead me to expect a Macintosh/Cookie irregularity is a likely cause. However, your Mac/Cookies comment was followed by "It's not a priority" followed by a period. This combined with silence when I've previously offered to be of assistance, and also combined with your comments above which seem to sarcastically invite me not to comment about website errors anymore, may continue to get the point through my head. First Class Citizen Twice Over