Scoby
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Everything posted by Scoby
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Now I'm listening to Dead Kennedys' "Give Me Convenience, Or Give Me Death." Not just a great album, but perhaps the best album name ever.
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Er, when I go into one of those places, I black out from the overpowering stench. I didn't realize that people actually went to those stores to buy stuff for themselves...I thought that people just bought last minute presents for their moms there...
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My AFF JM said that his only cutaway in 3500 jumps was a total on a tandem. He told the passenger after they got to the ground, otherwise he wouldn't have known a thing. Now this guys will have a better story to tell... "There I was, seconds away from death..." I think he should see it as a bonus.
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Yeah, The Onion always comes through. The funniest part has to be the yellow shortened C-130.
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I'm listening to GWAR's "Violence Has Arrived." Not their best work, but perfectly servicable over-the-top death metal.
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I got Novembers, but on the day it is considered missing for the month (the 15th). I always get my Parachutist two weeks after my friend who lives nearby.
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Have you known before? (dumb question alert)
Scoby replied to Michele's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
For what it's worth, I've had a number of jumps that I've felt strange about. Nothing happened on any of these jumps. When I did get really whacked by an opening, I felt nothing out of the ordinary beforehand. I think we feel a bit apprehensive on some percentage of our jumps, with that percentage varying by person to person. When the feeling coincides with a mal, or injury, or anything else, we see a connection when there really isn't one there. We conveniently forget all of the jumps where we felt that feeling, but nothing happened. As humans, we are always looking for patterns, but sometimes we are making something from nothing. Or something... -
Very interesting, but shouldn't this be in Talk Back? You might not think much of SAMs, but if a group of terrorists each with a Stinger made a coordinated series of attacks against US commercial flights, it could bring the country to its knees.
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At least you're not requesting it more Flynt...
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Hmmm, the *maximum* wingloading PD seems to be recommending for intermediate jumpers on the larger Stilettos is .8:1, at least on the page Quade linked to. Where does the 1.26:1 figure come from? If the canopy was unstable at that wingload, why would PD be listing it?
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Evil things to say to first time tandems on the way to altitude...
Scoby replied to Cepheus's topic in Tandem Skydiving
Yup, I know the prison speech by heart now. I've heard, "we haven't had a tandem fatality in weeks!" a few times. -
On the average a sheep. However, I don't want to make that a stereotype. I'll just put it this way. I...as a person....changed my entire outlook on the world when I became a Forward Air Controller. I was vastly changed from my years as an aircraft mechanic. The difference between the two is more about mindset than what job you have. Many people only get the warrior mindset from the job though. OK, well, I respect your perspective, even if I don't share it.
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I'm from Ireland, which is well known as a nation of drinkers. My parents have two fridges. One is a food fridge, one is a beer fridge. That said, I've never seen my dad truly drunk, which is probably because he'd have to drink a six-pack an hour at his body weight. My mom occasionally gets a bit tipsy, though.
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So i geuss we can't post Attachments anymore.........
Scoby replied to Viking's topic in The Bonfire
I must say that I'm disappointed, Steve. I was expecting an ugly canopy, but I think it looks pretty cool. You'll have to try harder next time! -
So is someone who pushes around paper in the military a warrior? Or a sheep?
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That's really convenient. It's similar to when people say, "it's a black thing, you wouldn't understand." If you expect me to give your perspective any respect, you are going to have to explain it. Why does serving in the military give someone insight into whether or not the government policies are correct that a civilian does not have?
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For what it's worth, I'm not an american and my country doesn't have much of a military.
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The answer is no, you were not at a declared war. Sorry. I'm sorry for your loss. Truly. But no war has been declared, and your friend's death doesn't change that. You certainly could claim a year ago that we were in a de facto war. You cannot even claim that now. If we are in a war now, then when can we claim victory? The attitude that being in the military somehow gives you special insight is galling. I have massive respect for people who serve and defend the US. I don't see how that confers any sort of additional wisdom that civilians don't have.
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For what it's worth, the official figure for Panamanian deaths in the conflict is 373. The Panamanian military lost 68. The balance of the dead, obviously, was civilian.
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Horrific as it was, I think that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were moral, because they were intended to, and did, end the war early and with far fewer deaths than otherwise. It's odd to me that people find more fault with those attacks than the firebombings of Dresden and Tokyo, which were pure acts of aggression against civilian populations.
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Your wingloading under a Spectre 150 will be 1:1. That's a reasonable first time canopy for a person of your size. That said, don't even think about doing it right now! You need to downsize progressively. Jump a 260, then a 230, 210, 190, 170... Only when you can land the 170 safely in all conditions should you be buying yourself a 150. If your dropzone doesn't have the intermediate canopy sizes to rent, find one that does. Do not downsize 138 square feet in one step! I'm sure the canopy nazis will concur.
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For what it's worth, I thought you were being asinine too, or at least a bit disingenuous. The freedoms that Gawain listed are ones we generally have, and the exceptions to them are mostly harmless and necessary. My objection is that pointing to freedoms we retain is a red herring when we are talking about freedoms we are losing. It is meaningless to say that we are the most free people in the world, if we are not free. It is almost farcical.
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I've heard a few people refer to it as "door fear." Certainly when I was taking AFF, I didn't feel the fear rising up until the door opened and people started exiting. Then the reality of what I was up to sunk home and I got a bit nervous. It always went away the moment I was out the door, though. Freefall was and is about pure, unbridled joy!
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Right...perhaps proficiency tests should be required for both!
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And I submit to you that the rest of the western world has these things too. But it's not enough to point out what freedoms we have left when the important ones are being eroded. Having your speech monitored by the government is a chilling of the freedom of speech. That is a straw man. I'm not arguing against people reading what other people have to say. I'm arguing against the government monitoring and aggregating it. Sorry, if it wasn't obvious, "Rick Kowalski" isn't a real person. Data from savings cards has already been used in lawsuits. I choose to add some random noise to the data.