craichead

Wow, no suggestions yet for a flying monkey (Wizard of Oz)? Or a flying pig (When pigs fly!)? Or maybe a big clock (Time flies!)? _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

He's saying that either "A smart dog knows it's (it is) master" or "A smart dog knows its master" are valid sentences (which they are). You really wouldn't know the difference between the two sentences without proper context. A smart dog knows its master. The dog can pick out its master in a crowd of people. A smart dog knows it's master. When the garage door opens, the dog knows it is master coming home. Granted, an article for master would clarify the second sentence, but as someone else established, grammar and spelling are bullshit for effective communication, anyway. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

For the people who are laying the blame on the parents--what if the teachers and schools are relaying incorrect information? Someone mentioned a hypothetical situation of a teacher shortage where teachers are teaching subjects that are not their areas of expertise. What if the parents DO help and work with their children's school work, but they don't have the correct information, either? _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

That supervisor's memo was not effective, efficient nor clear. It takes a lot of effort to figure out what he's trying to say. Would you rather have your employees wasting time trying to decipher your memos or using that time to do what the memo says? At the heart of every subject is language. If you can't effectively and clearly communicate your subject matter, you will not make a difference in anything. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

It matters because language is the root of every culture, society and community. If you cannot communicate correctly or effectively in your culture or society, you will be viewed as uneducated and not taken seriously within that community. Try changing the world or making a difference, or as illustrated above--simply managing your employees when nobody can understand you because of your horrendous grammar and spelling errors. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Thanks, popsjumper.

I could care less. Alot less. Spelling and grammatical errors bug the hell outta me, too. Having been an editor/proofreader in another life, I used to be more of a grammar/spelling nazi. However, there are too many people who are stuck in their bad-spelling and improper grammar ways. No matter how many times I try to correct them, they continually revert to their bad habits. To me, they're hopeless causes, so I've been learning to ignore the glaring mistakes. I believe it's a combination of things, but the biggest contributor has to be the quality of education available in schools. I graduated from a private/college prep high school in 1995, and I don't have kids, so I have no idea what today's average public school is really like. However, from what I've seen of the younger generation, it seems that the quality of education has severely declined. Then, you have the parents who don't know proper grammar/spelling, either, and that situation makes the home environment equally as bad. Also, kids are communicating with email, texting, and instant messages more--all of which use abbreviated and misspelled words. Lastly, you have the kids who just refuse to learn. Both of my parents are immigrants from Thailand, and their English skills weren't that great when I was growing up. So, it was up to the school to teach the correct information and my responsibility to take that information, study it and learn proper English. From 5th through 12th grade, I always had 20 new vocabulary words to learn every week (Did anybody else suffer through each level of Sadlier-Oxford's Vocabulary Workshop?!). I learned all of my basic grammar and punctuation rules by 8th grade. We had these drilled into our heads with countless sentence diagrams. Then in high school, we had drills in "confused words." The list can be found here: Confused Words (PDF) What bugs me the most are the errors in business communication, particularly memos and emails. Fine, memos and emails are considered informal, but it still represents you and your company. Most executives these days can't spell to save their lives, they don't proofread, and they can't even bother to hit "Spell Check." C'mon people! You can even set up most email programs so that it automatically spell checks the message before you send it! Argh! Okay, there was my grammar and spelling rant. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

I had a pretty slow start in the sport because of multiple shoulder issues. Here's my history that led up to my "Post A-License" tandem jump: August 2002 - Started skydiving school through tandem progression (3 tandems, 7 AFF levels, 10 coach dives). October 2002 - Dislocated my shoulder on AFF Level 3 (on flare). Took the rest of the season off. February 2003 - Spent about 20 minutes in the Orlando wind tunnel. June 2003 - Restarted the AFF progression from ground school and AFF Level 1, and got my A license by the end of the season. January 2004 - About 30 minutes in the Orlando wind tunnel. May 2004 - Dislocated shoulder again (on flare). Took the rest of the season off to do physical therapy. October 2004 - PT didn't help at all, so I had shoulder surgery. April 2005 - Went to Perris wind tunnel and tested my shoulder for about 15 minutes. May 2005 - I still wasn't quite confident in the performance of my shoulder in actual freefall and under canopy, so I did a tandem. I explained all of the above history to my AFF/Tandem Instructor, and asked him to go into a neutral position so that I could fly and test out the strength and range of motion for my shoulder. I maintained a heading, did a few 360s and pulled. When we were under canopy, he reviewed landing patterns and canopy control with me and had me practice some turns and flares. This tandem gave me the confidence and reassurance that my shoulder would hold up in all stages of the skydive, so I proceeded on to an AFF ground school review. Then I did a check dive with my instructor and everthing went great! I had a radio for canopy control for the first two jumps, but I asked him not to talk to me unless it was absolutely necessary. The only problem that I seemed to have after doing that one tandem is that I would pull my legs up when coming in for landing. It was if my legs were on a pulley system--hands went down for flare, legs went up. That's a very hard habit to break. I had to really concentrate on going into a PLF position. Luckily I was on big, docile student Navigators when I started jumping again. So, there's my Post A-License tandem jump story. If you feel like it will boost your confidence before you fully get back into the sport, go for it. Just be sure to let your instructor know what you've done up to this point and what you'd like to accomplish with a tandem (should you choose to do one). Good luck!

Congratulations! You guys look awesome! Welcome to the club!

Bummer, no coverage at all! They just showed a couple talking heads in the studio before kickoff. Well, usually the swoopers wear cameras, so maybe they got some good video... _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Swoopers: Doug Smith, Todd Davis, Nathan Dexter and Matty Wright CRW dogs: Kurt Marsan, Paul Biggerstaff and Keith Paulsen Flag jumper: Eric Bickel _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

ESPN2 College Football Primetime: Miami (Ohio) vs. Northern Illinois Wednesday, October 5, 6:30 PM CENTRAL The Chicagoland Skydiving demo team is doing a jump into the Northern Illinois University stadium this evening to kick off the NIU vs. Miami of Ohio night game live on ESPN2! There are supposed to be eight jumpers: 4 Swoopers, 3 CRW dogs and 1 carrying in the NIU Huskies flag. We're not sure if there's going to be much pregame coverage, but be sure to watch for the CSC team right before the game starts. They're scheduled to appear as the national anthem ends. CSC is also holding a Red Cross fundraiser raffle during the game which will send 2 lucky winners home with free tandem skydives. All proceeds from the fundraiser will go to hurricane relief efforts. Attached is a preview of the jump. Hopefully they won't get weathered out! _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Happy birthday, SkymonkeyONE! Happy birthday, vdschoor! Happy birthday, craichead! Yay for September 14th babies! _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

I think the breakfast starts around 7:30 and goes until noon. Most of the planes show up between 8 and 9. Skydivers are usually the first ones in the breakfast line! _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

AndyMan and I live in downtown Chicago, but we'll be out at Hinckley (Chicagoland Skydiving) all weekend! There's a Midwest Skydiving League meet on Saturday, night jumps on Saturday night, and Hinckley Airport's 10th Annual Fall Fly-in Breakfast on Sunday. Does your friend want to do a jump? _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Ooh, I love Toronto! Good thing I married AndyMan. There are some really nice neighbo(u)rhoods up there...two of my favo(u)rites are: The Beaches - Lots of fun little shops up and down Queen Street (if you want a great burger, stop in at Licks), but the best part is, of course, the beach/park. Queen Street West - Fun, hip, kind of reminds me of Wicker Park in Chicago. The toronto.com website is a pretty good resource for things happening in TO. Have fun, eh!

True, Brian doesn't make kites anymore. However, he did recommend Ozone Kites. Funny that they have one called Samurai...hmm. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Congratulations and Best Wishes to you!!!! How cool is that?! Okay...so you really did have a good reason for missing Marc and Anne's wedding. You and Marc will have to team up and remind each other about your wedding anniversaries. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

I heard on NPR today that Canadian geese (filthy creatures! ) can produce as much poop as humans! _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

As eeneR said...good luck with that. Despite the grossly false assumptions you made about me (sound familiar?) and insults/attacks you laid out on me in PM, I only wish the best for you and hope that your shoulder gets better. Our arms are our wings. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

You don't think that a shoulder dislocation in freefall could put yourself or somebody else in danger? So, what exactly were you saying? My experience with shoulder dislocations makes me freak out, and I have no "freakin' clue" what I'm talking about? Who's making the assumptions here? So, that means that your shoulder is still not performing as well as it should be, even after your recovery, PT, whatever. There's a chance that you can injure/dislocate again. You said you didn't want to get cut. What does that mean? Do you need surgery or not? Uh no, that's really by YOUR false reasoning and assumptions. 1) There is always a possibility that you will dislocate again. 2) Why don't you just CLARIFY your statement of not wanting to get cut and missing jumps? Do you need surgery or not? Or perhaps a better question would be, does your doctor recommend surgery or not? 3) A dislocation in freefall is dangerous to yourself and to others. You made the suggestion--why don't you follow it? You accuse us of being snotty while dishing out the snot yourself? Wow. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Why, exactly, was that an insult? Would a friendly emoticon at the end have made it less offensive? I'd say this is more of an insult than what I posted to you, but "I'll let it slide" since you seem to think that jump numbers qualifies experience in shoulder injuries. Why? Because: 1) You said you were still having pain and problems associated with your dislocation. Hmm, seems to indicate that your shoulder still isn't quite right, don't you think? 2) You mentioned that you didn't want to get cut, implying that you need surgery, which indicates that the damage is bad enough that it will dislocate again unless you get it fixed. 3) It would seem that most people who dislocate their shoulders without the need for surgery do not partake in sports as dangerous as skydiving. I wouldn't have had surgery if my sport of choice were competetive knitting. We're basing our comments on the information you gave. So, if we have no clue as to what's going on, why don't you enlighten us? But then again, you're starting to sound like the type of skydiver who says, "I'll be fine under a 96 sq ft Velocity with 300 jumps!" so I'll stop showing any concern for you, my fellow jumper. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Hi Aimee! The first raft they tried was pretty cool--a huge hexagonal thing that would make for a great raft dive! I wonder how many people they could fit into it! If you miss the replay on August 14th, I'm sure Discovery will show it several times again. They're good (or annoying) that way. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

The replay was last night at midnight (August 11th). The next replay will be August 14th at 3pm Eastern. _Pm __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

AndyMan and I just watched this...pretty entertaining! It will be on again tonight on the Discovery Channel at 12am Eastern, and on August 14th at 3pm Eastern. _Pm Episode 37: Escape Slide Parachute Join the MythBusters as they test three tall tales of high flying and free falling. The first pits them against Hollywood logic with Buster doing his best Indiana Jones impression, the second tests the explosive properties and decapitation potential of hair cream, and the third addresses surviving a fall from 33,000 feet without a parachute. So, basically, it's business as usual at the "Mythbusters Flying Circus"! premiere: Aug. 10, 2005 __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)