craichead

Pah...a tool that only does one thing is a waste of kitchen space. Andy uses his kitchen torch to make crême brulée, flambé, light the chandelier candles (or any other candles), light the grill...I'm sure he'd use it to light cigarettes if he smoked. Hmm...I may have inadvertently invited you to describe weird things you do with your crême brulée iron/salamander. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Oh yay! I'm so glad you restarted this because I had a bad week when AndyMan and I went on vacation. We ate very badly while we were in Perris last week! Current weight: 191 Mini Goal: 180 Ultimate Goal: 170 (Maybe 160--we'll see what I look like when I get to 170! ) _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

http://www.localcelebrity.net Made it clicky.

please touch my monkey _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

LOL! Those are great, too! Thanks for the link! _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Forgive me if this has been posted already...I just found them to be really funny! From their FAQ: Q: I don't get it. What do the shirts mean? A: We don't either. Nothing. http://www.besttshirtsever.com/index.html I thought this one might be good for jumpers : http://store1.yimg.com/I/yhst-64134122938649_1843_9628330 _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Hehe, when we were there last week, the weather forecast was the complete opposite of reality! When watching the weather reports, we were confused on whether or not Perris was considered valley, desert or just part of the whole "Inland Empire" thing. Anyway, we got two days of sun and two days of rain. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Gosh, from where we live (2.5 blocks from Union Station) it usually takes us only an hour to get to/from Chicagoland Skydiving in Hinckley (the other dropzone). _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Yeah, tell me! I like seeing pictures of boobies, too! _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

I grew up in Tennessee, and I knew that jingle as a kid from watching WGN on cable. My brother and I also used to sing the jingle from the Lincoln Park Zoo commercial when they reopened (after rehabbing)? It was a bunch of cartoon animals singing in a cappella, "It's brand new, Lincoln Park Zoo!" They looked like Sandra Boynton cartoons... Does anybody else remember this commercial?! Most Chicagoans look at me funny when I mention it... _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

A very big THANK YOU to all of the people at Perris Skydiving who made me and AndyMan feel so welcome and a part of the family! It was great to see old friends and meet new ones--diablopilot, hipgnosis (contact this man for great deals on tunnel time and belly coaching!), dgskydive, billvon, quade, Frenchy68, 1010...et al! For those we didn't get to meet, we hope we can make it back the area soon to remedy that! And an extra special thank you to the folks at Bonehead. Linda (hottamaly) gave us a tour of their factory, and Chris pulled their last sheet of carbon fiber and cut a custom plate for Andy's Flat Top Pro. Those guys put in a lot of work to provide us with badass helmets to jump! _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Your arguments regarding Body Worlds have been deemed invalid and lacking credibility by your own argument regarding the value of knowledgeable criticism. What more is there to talk about? You seem to be desperately grasping for something to argue so you throw in completely irrelevant controversial topics. I already corrected you. Obviously you haven't taken enough science and psychology courses to know the difference. If you have, then you had crappy teachers. I don't see why this information is relevant. If you think Body Worlds is immoral, then fine, you think it's immoral. We'll agree to disagree. What makes you an expert in morality? Are you an ethicist? Maybe your arguments would have more credibility if you could demonstrate that you're well-informed in anything that you argue. I'm not talking about if he's a "great guy" or not. His accomplishments are great. Why doesn't he do it for free? Do you think all of this came out of a vacuum? Or maybe he had a magic wand to generate the exhibit without costs? How is he going to pay for the materials? The tools? The workers? Gosh, if doctors really wanted to help fix people, they'd do all of their medical services for free! And if teachers really wanted to educate and make a difference, they'd do it for free, too! Forget all of the expenses incurred to provide the services, they should pay everything out of their own pockets and out of the goodness of their own hearts! No, I don't see anything wrong with it. Yeah, it's possible to judge something without knowing it, but you'd look pretty silly doing so since you already argued that such a judgment would have little value. The more you know about the issue, the more credibilty your argument has, right? As far as your analogy of female circumcison is concerned, you're applying your western/european views of sex and the body to their culture without knowing about their culture. If you can demonstrate that you have researched the culture, tradition and first-hand accounts from both sides of the issue, maybe I'd respect your opinion more. For now, in my eyes, you're just an angry zealot spouting off ignorant opinions. It's not about determining whether it's "okay" or not. It's about having an INFORMED opinion, which you clearly do not have. Anyway, I think it would be interesting to talk to a necrophile...probably not pleasant, but interesting. Since you can do it, why can't I? Okay, fine...what have you learned from your first-hand observations of people who have just seen the Body Worlds exhibition? What did those people have to say when you asked them what they thought of it? Oh, wait, you HAVEN'T learned anything about what they're thinking or how they reacted because YOU DON'T KNOW! Shocking. Ha! Construct your arguments more carefully. As far as most people in this debate are concerned, we've been referring to the corpses in the Body Worlds exhibition which are dead, were dead, and will continue being dead. No pain, no suffering. You're the one taking them out of context and putting them into your own reality. We were originally talking about appreciation only. The true sense of value of appreciation can only be determined by the person it's bestowed upon. Sure, everyone else can assign value as they wish, but who cares how other people value the appreciation? "It's all good." _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Have someone video your landings! One with your chest strap tight, and one with your chest strap loose. That'd be interesting to see and compare on a bigger canopy... AndyMan sent me this link to help illustrate what I was talking about in my post (legs in front, upper body in back): http://www.strongparachutes.com/Pages/zpo.html Kind of interesting once you start thinking about it! Towards the end of of my student progression, a friend (who's also a USPA coach) told me that I should really try to lean forward to make stand-up landings easier. I never really understood that piece of advice until now. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Leeches are still used in modern medicine...they're even approved by the FDA! http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-07-07-leeches-maggots_x.htm You may now return to your regularly scheduled Pope thread. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Flyrags has a version...you can see it online at Square 1. Here's the catalog page frame (scroll down, it's near the end): https://www.square1.com/Manufacturers/Square1/cat235.html _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

AndyMan calls me Sweetpea! Usually he just shortens it to "Pea," though. I call him "Munky" or "LuvvyMunky." Some of our friends refer to us as AM and PM. We're so disgusting. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

AndyMan and I will be at Perris April 21-24. Who will be there this weekend? Wanna hang out? PM either of us for our cell phone numbers.

Good luck! As I wished Brains: I hope everything turns out better than expected!

Why would you be exempt from your own belief? I have news for you. What you think are scientific facts of psychology are NOT facts. They're theories, some supported by evidence, some not. You have very little evidence for your theory since you 1) haven't been to the exhibition, and 2) haven't gathered data from a large number of people who've been to the exhibition. I don't know. I haven't asked. Neither have you. Stop trying to present your unsupported theory as fact. Why is it immoral? The bodies are dead. They were dead at the time of plastination. The people gave their permission for these things to be done. I haven't even presented any kind of argument or opinion regarding this topic. What does it have to do the present discussion? And if you really want to know, I have no opinion on this issue because I really don't know enough about it to have an informed opinion. I'd like to know the culture, history and tradition behind it, and if possible, talk to women who've experienced it to know what their experiences were like. I don't form strong opinions on topics I know very little about and try to present them as fact. I'm not sure what I would do. Until I experience that actual situation in reality, I couldn't tell you how I'd react. Are you that necrophile? We're talking about skinning and gutting DEAD people who no longer feel pain because they're DEAD. Reasonable and sane people who go to the exhibit know that the bodies are DEAD and were DEAD at the time of plastination. So it shouldn't remind them of whatever evil experimentations or scenes in movies that you're referring to. Yeah, so? I never said they weren't entitled to form and express their own opinions. I also made the distinction between appreciation and criticism, which you failed to understand. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

I was actually thinking more about people who have already finished their student progression. I guess I understood "lowbies" to be "not a student" and "less than 200 jumps." _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Well, if you want to see the contents of the post...Purplesky just registered on the Chicagoland Skydiving forums and posted the same question there! http://www.skydivecsc.com/zone/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21 _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Yeah, I was confused when I didn't find the red leaf variety in my search. I usually find the red kind in a "spring mix" salad. Found this site in my search, too: http://www.foodsubs.com/Greensld.html More information than you ever wanted to know about salad greens! _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Arugula, I think.

Okay, I would like to continue the hijack since kelpdiver also mentioned loosening his chest strap. I'm kind of curious about what other experienced people think about "lowbies" loosening their chest straps and leaning forward to set up landing (NOT for swooping). Being a really low "lowbie" who can't jump right now, I've decided to be a lot more proactive in learning as much as I can while waiting to get back in the air. Last week, I took Brian Germain's canopy course, and he actually encouraged everyone (experience levels ranging from uncurrent me with 26 jumps to current jumpers with 60 to 800 jumps) to loosen up their chest straps after opening so that it's got some slack (not completely undoing it, of course). There were also drills of flying in deep brakes; flaring; harness, toggle and riser turns; and comparing how these maneuvers felt with/without the chest strap loosened. He also encouraged us to get familiar and comfortable with practicing these up high so that we're calm and in control when we're actually close to the ground. Anyway, here's my understanding of why pilots loosen their chest straps (please correct me if I'm wrong): 1) Loosening the chest strap (often in addition to pulling the slider down) allows the risers and lines to spread out, thereby flattening out the wing, which allows for better flight (more stable, better glide ratio, allows true harness input, etc.). However, it has been noted that these things aren't as noticeable on big, fat canopies with lower wingloadings. 2) On flare, the angle of attack is increased, causing the canopy + pilot to change in pitch. The canopy is flying slightly up and back (lift) while the pilot is still going forward. So with these two opposing forces, the pilot is now in an awkward position of legs in front, upper body in back. A loosened chest strap allows the pilot more room and ability to actively push/lean forward to change his body pitch so that he has better leverage and better control of his flight and landing gear (upper body should ideally be over the lower body). So, if loosening the chest strap allows for better flight, and consequently a better landing, should a basic technique be taught to "lowbies" so that they have a better understanding of how their canopy flies and how it affects their landings? If taught, when should they put it into practice? As a result, they would also understand why swoopers use these (albeit more advanced) techniques, too. Just curious. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

No problem!