narcimund

As I work late into the night on a project that's going to make me a lot of money, I'm taking a break to enjoy how much I love my work. So many people bitch about lousy bosses, lousy pay, lousy working conditions, lousy job duties, and just plain lousy attitudes about their work. Eight years ago I felt the same way and struck out on my own. I couldn't imagine ever working for someone else again. I love owning a company with my partner, choosing what lines of business to undertake, what business relationships to enter into, who to hire, how to reward them, where to be located. I love being proud of every decision that goes right and I love that there's no one else to blame when they go wrong. I love the extra resources available to me to achieve my heart's desire. Why aren't you doing the same thing if you hate your job so much? First Class Citizen Twice Over

And you people don't go start your own businesses because ... ? First Class Citizen Twice Over

Does the USPA consider BASE jumps towards the requirements for their A,B,C, and D proficiency levels? I figure they don't (beauracracies love strict definitions,) but I can't for the life of me come up with a good reason. If anyone can, I'd love to know what it is. (No, it doesn't matter to me personally. I have enough airplane jumps to qualify for D. I'm just curious.) First Class Citizen Twice Over

One summer in college a friend asked me to keep her two ferrets. Another friend asked me to keep her hampster. Bad combo. I kept the hampster alive for almost the whole summer. Eventually the ferrets found a way into a locked, weighted, solid glass cage. There was hampster fluff all over the room, but nothing else was ever found. First Class Citizen Twice Over

How about adding "What is 'post whoring' and what are the top ten reasons not to do it?" First Class Citizen Twice Over

There's a subtle but important difference between agreeing with everything Sangiro says and recognizing that disagreeing confers no rights. First Class Citizen Twice Over

How about old Arthur, for replacing the doctrine of Might Makes Right with the rule of Law? Oh wait. Bush Jr. reversed him. Forget I said anything. First Class Citizen Twice Over

No no no. Those are the things we're LEAVING IN talkback. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I've suggested before that watched threads should show some flag or mark. I sure think that would be handy. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Good for you. I only see my locals when I can make it in which is about once per month. Also there are about 5 other DZs within what I consider my "region". In fact, someone from eastern Washington started a thread a few months ago about a Washington-Oregon-Idaho DZ.com get-together. What a great idea! Unfortunately it takes time to organize something like that. Guess what happened? It died quickly when boobies and beer shoved it off page 1. End of idea. Lost opportunity. First Class Citizen Twice Over

But the dropzone's becoming REALLY popular and the loft's too small. It was probably once big enough to contain all the conversations. But now it's so crowded that only the noisiest conversations can exist anymore. Everyone else is being drowned out. By the way, thanks for bumping the sausage thread. Can you do that once per hour until Saturday? Thanks! First Class Citizen Twice Over

Erno, I think you're the only one who read my post. I guess that's what I get for writing more than 50 words. Everyone's scared of losing their global forum even though Sangiro explained that he isn't contemplating that and I explained just one of many ways to avoid fracturing the community. It took less than an hour for my thread on the really cool local Verboort Sausage Festival to move to page 2* and thereby die. It got 4 sexual double-entendre responses and one local who seems to be interested in coming. Any local who logs in after that hour won't know it's there. Admittedly the Festival isn't skydiving related, but it shows how things work. Unless it's about Clay, women's breasts, or major boogies, it's gone in minutes: *poof*. How on earth can TalkBack serve everyone for everything? It can't. It's not exactly "broken" but it's sure a lot of lost opportunity. It comes down to Sangiro's vision for dropzone.com. Does he want this to be a cacaphonous drunken party plus forums for technical questions, or does he want it to be those things PLUS a worldwide skydivers' community resource? TalkBack is a fun party, but it can't contain EVERYTHING and until there are more resources here it's all there is. * Assuming the default value for threads-per-page. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Verboort Oregon: a tiny town nestled in the woods. Most locals have never heard of it but they might have heard of the Sausage Festival. All you can eat church-made sausages, kraut, sides with the local school band and crafts tables and a bake sale. 8000 people fed in 10 hours in the barn-sized church in shifts by little old ladies in lace aprons. Since 1938 the festival's been the town's only source of funds for the entire year. Yum. Hope all the local jumpers make it this Saturday! First Class Citizen Twice Over

Well, the sentiment is strongly against it so far, but it sounds like the arguments aren't so much, "We don't want a regional forum" as "We don't want to lose the global one." I wonder if there's an implementation of regionality that doesn't isolate. Sure there is. Here's a simple idea I just came up with: Mix regional postings in with TalkBack. Only show each member regional postings from regions they select in their profile. Mark regional postings with a little flag of some sort. Now everyone would still be watching talkback and learning to speak Finnish and they ALSO get to post boring local stuff only to other locals. You know, here's the kind of new value you could have: * "Can anyone give me a ride to {local DZ} on Saturday?" * "Little local boogie coming up" * "Did anyone see my wallet in the loft?" * "Can someone take my packing/video/manifest shift next weekend?" These are the kind of postings that are utterly LOST in talkback, but could really help people, especially those of us who jump at small DZs. You guys at Perris and Deland own TalkBack and it'd be nice for the rest of us to have a way to talk to our locals as well. Also, TalkBack moves so fast these days that if a posting doesn't get continual replies, it moves off the first page and is therefore dead within hours. Local postings could be very valuable to locals even if they take a day or two to get responses. There. I made my pitch. Vote on. First Class Citizen Twice Over

You said there are diamonds involved? A good friend of mine was helping me decide what to do with my old ring. He had the best suggestion for the diamonds: "Glue them to your ex's windshield wipers." In the end I gave the diamonds to a waitress as a tip. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I melted mine down and made a new ring that I designed, just for myself, from the gold. When it came time to get rid of some of the other symbolic stuff, I gathered it together (some official papers, a photograph, a favorite hat, a voodoo doll) and flew over the crater of Mt. St. Helens. In it all went! Into the maw of fire. Too much Tolkein in my youth? Naw... First Class Citizen Twice Over

My advice: Every time you make a post, before you click "Post", do this little ritual: 1. If the post actually has to do with skydiving, I mean REALLY something interesting or important about leaving airplanes in flight, skip to 3. 2. If not, flip a coin. If it comes up heads, close the window before clicking "Post". This will solve half the problem. 3. If the coin comes up tails, walk away from the computer for 5 minutes. Come back and read your post again. Ask yourself, "Will anyone who reads this care?" Be honest with yourself. If you can't imagine a lot of people caring, and I don't just mean one or two, close the window before clicking Post. Use your past performance as a training tool. 4. If you still think someone might care about what you have to say, spend a minute -- a WHOLE SLOW 60 SECONDS -- rereading your post for spelling errors, punctuation errors, doubled words, swapped words, unintended phonetic variations, etc. Fix them. No really, this isn't just elitist college graduate bigotry. Terrible writing really does diminish the final result. 5. If you've passed all these steps, think about the content ONE MORE TIME then click "Post." Prepare yourself for people who will object to your post. Be nice to them. Absorb their comments for your future decisions. Try to get better at this. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I nuked myself real good a few weeks ago with tequila. Honestly, it's more trouble than it's worth to me. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Not drinking anything now, but if I get in the mood I have several things to choose from: 43 Single Malt Scotches 5 Blended Scotches 13 Cognacs 4 American grape brandies (cognac style) 1 Apple brandy 1 Pear brandy 1 Pisco (Peruvian grape brandy) 7 Grappas 125 bottles of miscellaneous wine 4 bottles of champagne Oh, and about 20 bottles in the basic bar list as well. No vodka. No tequila. No beer. Darn. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Interesting question. I'm building a library of books about skydiving. None yet that are fiction, but I'd be interested. In the meantime, I have about a dozen books, going back to the mid 50s. I might post a bibliography someday. First Class Citizen Twice Over

How incredibly convenient and well-timed for the president's party. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Totally true. Point the airplane, oh, any old direction with the nose on the horizon. Look out the window every minute or so for traffic. Enjoy! First Class Citizen Twice Over

Yes, and I was piloting at the time. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Totally dependent on context. You can use the word kindly or unkindly. It's usually pretty obvious. First Class Citizen Twice Over

He jumps and so do I. I got him into the sport a year ago and now he's got 100 jumps including one BASE. I love our two-way team.