Deuce

I got my AFF from Jay back in May, and then got to jump and hang with him a little when he did the AFF course up here in Byron in August. Out of all the people who ever taught me anything important, he's in the top 5.

Derek Smalls

Just so long as you realize the best present for kids that age is the big box the bikes will come in. I'm really glad it worked out for you.

I hope your holiday surprised you by being fun like mine was. My mom had our next door neighbors over from 30 years ago and her new boyfriend, and my inlaws were there. Mom was nice enough to do it at her house. The neighbors and the boyfriend watched the DZ.com Holiday Boogie 2003 DVD and asked nice questions. I was in my manic comic mode so we were all laughing, my mom, feared that at any moment I was going to drop an "F-bomb". I expected tension and wierdness but I won, and we all had a nice time. I hope you all did too.

Will must have busted out the crack pipe since he hasn't posted this much in over a year.

How fun. Happy Thanksgiving and see you soon. JP

It's a little too long. I also think you might be better off doing the same sort of riff from a dropzone setting. Your website is exceptional.

Me too. First thing I'd do is resign. Be open to maybe not knowing everything you suspect. For example: Being me might not be anything like what you might expect. I have no expectations about what it might be to be Dr. Kallend. Be open to other people being good. They may be evil, but be open to the possibility they might be good, and surprise you. Or not. I'd be interested in being John Kerry for a day, I'm open to him being a good person, but he is not high on my list.

I want to hit my head on your rack.

I'd like to be George W. Bush. Just for a day. I think I like the guy, and his wife and children, and I'd like to know for sure what I suspect is true. I'd like to know his heart and thoughts. Whether he's evil or good. Another one for a day? A marine 2nd Lt. in Iraq or Afghanistan. Last one? My wife. What am I really like? Scary.

I love first person shooting games. The problem, Andrea, is, as you said, parenting. (overuse of commas, jp) Everybody has said, at one time or another, " I would love to just punch that idiot in the mouth" (or some other violent acting out. Violent video games are a fun outlet for that frustration. It needs to be in that context, though. "This is fantasy". There are so many "over the shoulder" parents out there, who put their schedules and lives ahead of their children's, that some of those kids may not have the necessary perspective.

I am feeling the love!

Pets should never have thumbs.

If he was trained on your DZ, there are some questions about the groundschool training. I like to use a logic train when teaching adults. At some point you may find a gaping whole in the training. Trainer: "What is your hard deck for going for your reserve?" Student: Trainer: "At what altitude does a sport cypres fire?" Student: Trainer: "How much altitude does it take to deploy a main parachute that malfunctions and then cut it away and deploy a reserve?" Student: The student probably will get more than one of those wrong. Think about finding out why the student doesn't know those things.

Monster, that line you have in your signature makes your text box so long I have to scroll over to reply to you. I can't find it on the B&H site. What Lewmonst is talking about is an adaptor that Canon makes that allows direct coupling of the Conceptus switches to the 10D. Clay Bonavito showed me the one he is using and I keep forgetting to get the box and call The Monster with the product number. It's like this one, but it connects older remote switches to newer cameras. I have looked, Lew, I just haven't been able to find the dang thing, and I get jump-silly when I'm on the DZ. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=12957&is=REG

That's cool Jake! Don't blame me, it's McGowan's fault! You'll crap when you see the setup that Lichtle is jumping these days!

Whatever it takes, MonoUno. I didn't realize the Monkey Class of '03 was so distinguished, other than me. "Gaylord" I like that one. I'll be using it on my packer this weekend. "Dude, you pack like a gaylord!" Maybe on our pilot, too. "Geez, Mike. You fly jumprun like such a gaylord." Oh, yeah.

Happy Birthday, Jen!

You got nothing to lose going with the baptism. I'll never forget my first summer camp with the USMC. The Sergeant Instructor asks "How many y'all Catholics? How many y'all Protestants? How many y'all didn't raise your hand? Y'all Protestants now." Plus, some older folks think that children that are not baptised and die are condemned to purgatory (I think that's bullshit, but faith is weird like that) so, since the kid is just getting his head wet, I'd go ahead, if it's not a big deal with your wife.

Continued... Holy Cow, I left out Zephyr Hills and the current 121-way sequential world record (Cough-I'm a current world record holder-Cough!) where I was leg-humped by the one and only Skyangel2 in front of all the other participants! What an honor! I also met a lot of nice folks at Skydive San Diego while getting my AFF-I. It just goes on and on. And I have pictures.....

Ya know,.... My first post was about me travelling on a business trip to SoCal and wondering which DZ to visit. Emily (where the hell are you, girlie?) invited me to Perris and off I went. I had a blast with folks I just knew from DZ.com until then. Even met some folks from Otay later the same trip. Then Emily and Brook came up to visit us a couple times, and I subsequently went to Monterey (met ChopChop for the first time) Eloy (Betsy, Mouth, Mujie, Will, Willem), Lodi, Hollister, Perris again (Amy, BillDamnit, Quade, Lori et al), Eloy some more, Lodi for some big ways (Ari, Eddie et al) and then Sweden where a ton of folks walked up to me and asked "you are le Deuce, eh?" or some lingual equivalent. On my epic Herc Boogie trip, a DZ.commer set me up with killer hotel rates, and a DZ.commer let me sleep on his couch for a week after in London. I also spent a nice evening with the London Drunken Skydiver network and Cpoxon posted the most unflattering photograph of me ever. But it was taken at the Swedish Herc Boogie, so how bad could it really be? Desperate popularity contest? Yeah, I guess it is sometimes. Mostly we get to meet other skydivers and not be strangers at any dropzone anywhere. And that is cool. -Tell you what, I'll post pictures and you tell me what DZ's they are from. There may be more than one from Eloy, but that's DZ.com central. In all the others I'm hanging with or photographing DZ.commers. Name the place and the posters.

Withdraw your money from an ATM in the US. It will save you a ton. Whatever your bank is, it should have an ATM service that is supported in the US. Just withdraw your money in dollars. If you earn any money while here (gosh I don't know how) you can have the money posted directly back to your bank account if it is a check/Visa type card. I've heard this happens in Sweden from time to time. And it is reportedly the best exchange rate that can be found!

No. Put "Gear Empress" in there or something. "Skydiving Equipment Magnate" is cool, too.

I had an 80 year old guy in ground school, and I just asked him what he was thinking. He had accomplished a lot in life, and had another box to check. He had a note from his Dr. that OK'd him for skydiving. I asked him how he felt about breaking some part of himself, and that at his age, a full recovery was unlikely. He knew all that and we went through the groundschool and he did fine. He had gotten a textbook on skydiving, so we went round and round a little about my instruction vs. the book, but he did fine. He aced his level one (I wasn't on it). A little stiff, but OK. He is done with skydiving now, but he checked his box. I think you handled them fine. If they really can't progress, I think you have to tell them you won't teach them anymore. I am against age limits.

Employer: Bay Area Skydiving Byron, CA Job Title: Instructor/Camera Flier Job Duties: Instruct skydiving students via the tandem or accelerated freefall methods. Operate camera helmet to record skydives. That was fun! It's for a job with a Health Plan Admistration too! I'm thinking I should put this on my cards too: J. P. Kelly, M.P.A, AFF-I Government employers love little acronyms after your name! Anybody else list skydiving on job apps? Does it make for a good interview?