Deuce

(Doctor McCoy voice) Dammit NacMac! I'm a doctor, not a musician! I am actually confused enough this morning that I checked the lyrics thread. I drink 12 ounces of espresso coffee every morning, and I've only gotten through about a quarter of it. Messing with me this early is about as challenging as kicking puppies. He's not in Europe, is he? (Hey, Sangiro, can we get one of these little icons with a beret to represent our European friends?) Morning NacMac!

How many new posters will it take to replace the prolific Nathan? Where's he at? If I hadn't gone skydiving with him, I'd have thought he was an entire freshman year psychology class experiment at our expense. Where's he now?

I'd like to buy a consonant, Vanna.

BWAH! HAR! Somebody get me a paper towel for the monitor and another cup of coffee!

I wanted one forever, but couldn't find the right artist. Finally found her in San Francisco. I love mine, it's on my inner right bicep, and it pokes out just a little when I'm wearing a T-shirt with shorter than average sleeves. Outside of skydiving I have this real Ward Cleaver life, so when people see the tattoo, they wig. I love it. I would have gotten mine just a little smaller if I did it again, or a little higher on my arm so it's easier to conceal with a smaller t shirt. But get one, pay big money, get a really, really good one. Be sober, and don't be afraid to have the artist move the drawing around or make it bigger or smaller. I want to get digital photos of all our tattoos at Eloy and post them asking the question "Who is this on?". Should be fun. Get one. JP

Oh man, I just heard the voice.... Southern accent, smokey bear hat... CANDIDATE KELLY! You got Michelins' disease BOY! We gonna CURE you of that during your little stay with us here at Quantico! Lummy, please, make the bad man stop!

Rabbit. But my wife could have told you that. But then again, what does she know, she's a pig.

You are awesome. (Wayne's world voice) "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy" Thanks for the story. JP

Neither! Everything you said was true!

You know, if I didn't shoot stills for tandems, and only was getting photos for coaching and publicity, I'd definitely be shooting digital. The Canon D60 is way cool and is friendly to the conceptus shutter releases. If you don't already have a still camera preference, get a Canon, they have the 2.5mm jack that makes hooking up a shutter release easy. For the digital video if weight is a concern, get the PC 101 series. I have a 120, but I use it to take stills and stuff of my kids too. The aircraft you use has some impact on what kind of helmet will work best. Top mounts can be a little bit of a pain in small door planes like Cessnas and Kingairs, but they align easier. I use a hawkeye LT and I'm happy with how it's holding up. When I get close to my subject, though, I have to be conscious of which camera I'm using, and I have to compensate when I take stills up close. If I was using a helmet with both cameras on top, I wouldn't have that concern. Also, the side mount is really akward at first. I'm totally used to it now, but at first it was really akward and uncomfortable and I wished I had gone top mount. Quade's site has some great info, and there's great links already posted. The Tandem and 4 way stuff is real helpful, so I encourage you not to overlook it. The guys that shoot for money HAVE TO BE CONSISTENT and even if you're not shooting for money that consistency will really improve your video. Welcome! And good luck! JP

LOL! Bill, I appreciate your expert opinion

Isn't it libelous since it would be written? Or does posting count more as talking?

Yeah! She sent me a very thoughtful PM regarding the ratchet latches on my helmet, but I couldn't PM her back! She probably doesn't want to Read Dumb People either!

Is Brad at Hollister now? We have a mutual friend who recently quit jumping who has his rigger's ticket. No. I wouldn't let someone who doesn't jump, often on the same plane as me, pack my reserve.

The lion one in Zodiac. I'm a rabbit in the Chinese one, though. Go figure.

This is the difference between us. This is what defines what side you are on. The United States has Imams in it's Military, we don't care what religion our citizens practice, so long as it does no harm to others. Try to practice Catholicism in any Islamic governed country. This faction of Islam will convert you at the point of a sword or kill you. If they could get here and do that, they would. We would not be going there if they weren't blowing up and beheading our folks.

Most of them probably think "DAMN I HAVE REALLY FREAKIN GREAT HAIR....

Dude, do you know that you said that out loud? "YOU ARE POOP!!!"

Well, my Mrs. was getting her haircut and was trying to tell the beautician about how YESTERDAY she was at the DZ watching me jump, and the stylist just wouldn't stop about telling her how brave she was, and how cool, and she's trying to tell this haircutter "No, my HUSBAND..." but the stylist won't listen, so she answered the questions like she was a skydiver. "Yes, there's two jumpmasters CHECK-IN, CHECK-OUT, TOP, UP-DOWN-OUT. Aw the stylist was just eating it up. My wife pays attention, so she actually could pass for somebody right off AFF. We laughed for quite a while over that one

I'm lucky. We've got a 206 we use during the week, and we switch to the KingAir when we get enough people. 4 skydivers and we're flying!

Can I be Vice-Relevant?

Exactly. The kind of enlightened response I was referring to. If I'm what's wrong with America, ignore me. I don't mind at all. I think people with that kind of viewpoint would more productively spend their time looking past what they think is wrong, and focusing their time and attention on what is right, or on guiding people and events towards what is (or they think is) right. I doubt I'm alone in my response to being told I'm full of crap and that I'm what's wrong with America. The person saying that gets ignored. And my second point is that they are unlikely to say it to my face. I LOVE spirited discussion! But responding to another person's point by saying "You're an assh*le for having that opinion!" ends discussion, and initiates argument.

Um...to correct a genuinely incorrect item: conniption is the proper spelling... ...... Ahh, thank you! JP

I'm really not very good at arguing. I think I'm pretty good at making my point, but if you disagree, I really don't care, unless you are going to correct a genuinely false reliance on fact on my part. I appreciate somebody when they give me information I don't have, and thus help me to be right about something, but if they don't have that, their opinion is just entertainment. If it isn't even entertaining, I'm finding something else to do. Do you find that people in the "real" world are as argumentative as they are on line? I'm reading some of these hypothetical situations in some of the threads and I'm thinking OMG! Why create such a disaster so far removed from real life just to have a hypothetical coniption (SP?) about it. "Yeah, well what if you were an Arab? Yeah, well what if you were poor?" Ach. It's what Talkback is for, and I'm grateful for the forum, but some of the sniping that goes on is distasteful, and I don't think many of the snipers would be so snotty in person.

Yeah, I can hear you now! Thursday is not likely. Not impossible, but not likely. Pile of work. Got a kid birthday to go to on Saturday too, so I'll definitely be out on Sunday. Dudelio, committing to skydiving is like buying a nice car. You can't justify that you NEED it, it's just something you WANT really bad, to the tune of a couple hundred dollars a month. The two women I did ground school with and I never did a tandem. They both did their AFF 1's successfully and never came back. See, Matt, it's like shooting heroin. There's "chippers" and there's "mainliners". Chippers shoot the smack into their skin next to ther vein, and get a nice mellow buzz. Guys like you and me tie off and hit the big blue vein in order to get that fuzzy view of the face of God. Yeah, I'm an airbath junkie. Skydiving makes me well.