TriGirl

"All the way" Faye. Mae That was a great show. We got it on DVD somewhere. FIFY! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Except when you use the word "jihad," which means "struggle" (loosely translated). The Greater Jihad, as outlined in the Qu'ran, is the internal struggle within yourself. That's where you have to fight the desires within yourself and still act the correct way (e.g. the desire to sleep with your neighbor's spouse, take what is not yours, lie, etc). The Lesser Jihad is physical warfare. BTW, all the suras that talk about violence also say that God is most merciful. I do also recall reading that no one can judge another Muslim's practice -- that's only God's job. So for one Muslim to say they will kill someone else for not being the "right" Muslim is going against the original text. Also known in Islam as the Word of God. Pretty sad. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

A League of Their Own See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

As it should be everywhere. It's 2015 kids. You can get ID and frankly I don't know how in 2015 you live life without one. The voter ID laws have been put in place for one reason only. That is to prevent old people, and poor people who don't have IDs, from voting. That is all that those heinous laws accomplish. Hmm. According to the article (bold mine), one could infer that voter ID laws are put in place to keep military or others living out-of-state from voting. I do wonder how a voter ID law would be enforced for an absentee voter. (that's not rhetorical -- I really do want to understand how that would happen) See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Nah, that just makes me sneaky and resourceful. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Early on in the story I thought perhaps the stickers were placed by people accusing those businesses of discriminatory practices. Though there isn't much more supporting information -- simply reporting that these stickers showed up -- it seems as though they were placed by bigoted people making their statement. Anyone else? See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Okay, now I have to "front-door brag" about my race on the same day. I've decided this year to do a bunch of Rock 'n' Roll series half marathons, and Sunday's race was in Washington, DC. It was also cold and rainy -- and I finished 16 min ahead of my goal time. I'm still floating on that particular accomplishment, so though I tried to resist making this about me, I just couldn't any longer once I saw your "wind and rain" post. In solidarity, however, I can totally relate to your experience on Saturday! Swore off half marathons for many years after two very unpleasant events. And you certainly deserved that beer for the distance you ran!

But the rest of us could block ALL of the flame throwers and stay out of their drama entirely! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

But since they won't LET nuclear inspectors in, and breaking contact (with sanctions) hasn't worked, my idea is another option. They claim they only want to develop technology for civilian power purposes, so they can sell more of their oil. They say it's a win-win for their economy and their population. The ball is now in our court (international community, particularly those who don't believe them) to prove Iran wants to do something different. What have we done on that front? Simply called them liars and cut them off (yeah, I know we have more than just our "gut," but I'm keeping this simple). Their argument sounds reasonable to many other countries, and we can't convince anyone else Iran is doing anything different. So, let's call them on it. This way, they would be proving their intent. If they say, "oh, thanks! we would appreciate the help," then we look reasonable (of course, there would be conditions -- again, this is the simplified version). However, if Iran's reply is, "ah... well... no, thanks -- we'll just keep doing all this on our own," the world will be much more skeptical of their true intent. It goes to Iran's credibility. Of course, this all should have been done decades ago -- at this point, that course of action wouldn't work. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

It's a nice thought and I'm sure you offer it in good faith and well thought through and OBTW, I'm not falsely or immodestly patronizing your comments. But even under the conditions you describe would not guarantee that Iran would halt their intent to develop nuclear weapons. No, but it would put dozens, if not hundreds, of international nuclear experts on the ground. Kind of hard to hide it then. (That's why they would decline an offer of help -- to hide their "true" intent) See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

First, Iran is signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It has the right under the treaty to develop peaceful nuclear power. Additionally, how about the world community offering to send experts from other countries that use civil nuclear power to help Iran build their plants? Why should they want to do all that work to develop and distribute it (re-inventing the wheel, so to speak)? Put the ball in Iran's court to accept or decline the assistance. If they're really trying to refine to weapons-grade, not just civil power grade, I'd love to hear their reasoning for declining the help (from neutral countries, of course -- I'm quite certain they'd be able to decline an offer from US nuclear technicians!) See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Feeling better today? See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Tomato soup (and tomato pudding, which tastes a lot like tomato soup). Now, tomato is my favorite soup!

Ahh, that's Fat Mike from NOFX, "The Idiots Are Taking Over" Not Green Day. Blink 182. I just found out that the Green Day version is just a cover, and that it's actually a Harvey Danger song. I was actually referring to Green Day's "Paranoia" which is actually "Flagpole Sitta" by HD. Oops! Well, there I go then. Actually, it was probably the HD version I was thinking of when I put Blink 182. Thanks for doing the actual work to look it up! I know more today than I (thought) I did yesterday. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I used to volunteer for holiday duty so my coworkers could spend time with their families. It also banked some credit when I wanted to take a holiday off as well ("I worked last Christmas and New Year's Eve. I'll take Thanksgiving this year, but I'll be on leave for the December holidays!"). The problem I have with Marine Corps family policy is more about assignments. I'm not blaming the people with the families, but the assignment managers. My next-door neighbor was stationed in Tampa for the seven years before he retired. He was in N.C. for six years before that (he has twin boys). I finally stayed in one place for three years on my last tour -- overseas. Before that, of the past 18 years, I'd only been in one place for more than two years twice. Usually it was more like 15-18 months and I'd have to move again. That gets old. I did start to notice at one of those jobs (basically a weekday duty, though we had some responsibilities on nights and weekends) that the married guys with kids would be sure to get out of the office by a certain time because they had to be home for their kids. The boss of the section might come around at 4:30 and say HIS boss needed some information compiled on a hot topic, and needed someone to stay behind to take care of it, no matter how late it got. The guys with families would be able to get out of it. I started scheduling other life requirements during duty hours as well, to balance it all out. For example, I'd schedule time with a tax preparer whenever the appointment was available -- not just in the evenings. I'd renew my car registration during the day if I knew there was nothing pressing at work, instead of wasting a weekend day. If one of those hot taskers came down before I left for my appointment, the other guys in my section would take care of it. Stuff like that. The command didn't bat an eye -- we all took off for the stuff we needed to do in life, but we also all knew that sometimes you have to come in on a weekend or stay late. We all made it work. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Ahh, that's Fat Mike from NOFX, "The Idiots Are Taking Over" Not Green Day. Blink 182. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Um... see the post above yours. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

White -- Embassy Black -- Pearl Jam See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

[LIKE] See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Happy to be back in the US for good! Hate my current job, but that won't last long. I've decided to pass the time here by entering a lot of competitions -- running, cycling, skydiving. Of course, the majority of skydiving competitions I'll be attending, I'll be the judge and not the competitor. It does generate a bit of interest at work. Just got back from a 196-mile Ragnar relay in the FL Keys (weather was excellent, BTW!), and all the guys at work are asking me "what's next?" They're a little taken aback when I tell them I'm competing in skydiving this weekend. Great to hear from you! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

You have a handsome guy in your basement???? And you took pictures?? (Happy Belated, Johnny! ) See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Just going with the largest -- 105 mm See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

"Shima" means "Island." Too bad you couldn't hang around with the island det at the end of the jumping day. They have a really fine bunk house, and a great bar! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

The more of these lists I read, the longer my list gets, since I remember more countries I've visited. Iceland was by accident -- well, avoiding an accident really. My Lot Airlines flight out of Warsaw was about 90 min into the flight when the passengers were informed we needed to stop in Iceland to check out an engine that had to be shut down. After about 15 min on the ground, they emptied the plane. When I left two days later, I saw the plane still there (obviously there really was something wrong!). We were all put up in hotels, so I got to explore as far as I could on foot. Gorgeous place! It may have been an accidental trip, but it made me want to plan a real trip there sometime. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!