tmccann

Tell tandem passengers on the load behind you that their TM taught you what little you know. Then, when you do something dumb on that very jump, they will seek you out to give you some more teaching... Also, beer. Once my ears are finally good enough to jump again, I've got to bring some homebrew (I've had more time to brew while not jumping!)

Well, if a bank sent a foreclosure notice on the loan that they had already paid off, they could get $2k! Score! A friend of mine got one of those - a foreclosure notice on his house by the lender to the person who sold him the property. Easy to handle - the release of their lien on the property would be in the transaction documents from the sale. Worst case situation, you would have the Title agent of lawyer (depending on location) send the paperwork to the bank. The banks lost the original paperwork on a lot of loans/houses. There are companies who figure out which properties these are, and help people squat in them long enough to gain legal title to the property. Others who get people to stop paying their mortgage, because the bank doesn't have the documentation to enforce it. How is any of that OK, but a bank that lends you the money you ask to borrow from them, and then actually expects you to repay it is Evil?

See, you have it totally wrong, as usual. The problem isn't that you put 20% down, it's that you *borrowed* the 20% to put down. Dumb move. How the bloody blazes did you get into grad school, let alone college? If the 20% down had come out of your savings, two things would be different: 1) you could have walked away from it much easier and 2) your ex-wife would have been giving up more in giving you the condo in the divorce, and would have shared the loss. Sure, it's conventional mortgages that are at fault, not the low-down loans that led to the condo boom and elevated housing price inflation in the first place. Give me a break.

Wait a second - the article mentions the Scientology creation story as one of the multiple religions they would have to teach. I'm all for the idea of teaching from all sides, but to do so, they would need source materials. The Bible (new and old testaments), you can get for free, since it's well out of copyright. Same for the Quran. Scientology's creation story (per the Scientology website) is contained in The Factors, which is still under copyright, and is sold by the Church of Scientology for $250... That sure sounds like an expensive curriculum.

First, it's 3.5%, so $7k, and second, they're worried that if someone can't scrape together a down-payment, they won't be able to pay their assessment when the building needs a new roof and your HOA doesn't have the reserves to afford it. IMO, it's a reasonable worry. If you don't have the discipline to save a few bucks while paying rent, how much saving will you be doing when you're covering an amortizing mortgage on 96.5% of the purchase price, plus mortgage insurance?

Sounds a lot like E.S. Posthumus, but I don't recognize the track.

"Flare!"

As said before, if #2 is truly what your doc said, find another. Or just find another and get a second opinion anyway; can't hurt. If he also suggests them, take the damned pills. If you've gotten to the point where you are so displeased by how things are going that you have sought professional help to deal with it, it's usually a good idea to follow the advice the professional gives you. Hopefully once your meds do their job, you'll be able to crawl out of your head and apply some of that fancy "learning" from b-school and take a crack at actually doing something about your financial problem with your condo. If the unwashed masses can get through it, you with your good job, flashy car, and god-given good looks should be able to put it behind you in a jiffy. Then, if you feel better and think you've put the problem behind you and your super-sized ego can't handle taking prescription medication, talk to your doc again about the meds. [Mods please take this as "tough love" as opposed to "personal attack"]

I haven't been fired yet. My boss even sent me one of those Experience Human Flight videos when he found out. However, I don't think it'll ever make my resume. I interviewed a guy who listed "skydiving" as a hobby while I was working on my A and very excited to talk to anyone and everyone about skydiving. Turns out he did a tandem once. Made me wonder what else he had exaggerated on his resume. Guess who didn't get hired?

Take the job. Ask for a larger raise, or if that isn't possible (set pay guidelines, etc), ask for some additional perks. Sounds like upper management knows the lay of the land as well as you do. You'll save them a fortune in retraining costs by keeping up employee retention.

Good job not getting dead. Sounds like you temped fate right there, though. You were very lucky his buddy didn't have a twitchy trigger finger.

YMMV on the Liquid inserts depending on how "very nearsighted" you are. Good company, great glasses, but as wraparounds, they face the same challenges as Oakley, etc, and are much smaller with less experience at it. See below (including my own experience): http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4117376;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

...and badass, if I recall correctly, while a Boxter is a baby Porsche, and an embarrassment to the name. The baby beemer/beamer/bimmer seems like it is a proper representation of the brand. As an added plus, I think Shah's post-divorce attitude is right in line with the brand's inside-out-porcupine image. Shah, man the eff up and ditch the pity-party. Boo-effing-hoo, your lady left you and you were too much of a pussy to stand up for yourself while you were with her so now you have a few minor first-world problems. So? Your own piss-poor mate selection process is to blame, not women as a whole. You don't need a "how do you trust again" thread, you need to start listening to the nice, knowledgeable, and well-meaning guys and gals who have been telling you how it's done for months now. The answer is easy - find a good woman and do your best to be worthy of her. (And when I say "good woman", if you're thinking waist and bust size, you've missed the point yet again.)

My condolences to you and your family. I had to deal with this myself recently, and the bereavement fares were useless for me. I ended up buying a last-minute fare online at a significantly cheaper rate, and much more convenient (though still 3 legs cross-country through the night, and straight to the funeral home in the morning). The problems I encountered were: 1) it had to be round-trip 2) all legs of the flight had to be the same airline - ones I found online were listed as the same airline, but were a different airline under the other's banner 3) only certain flights were eligible, and the ones I needed were not. In terms of documentation, I was told death certificate or something from the funeral home would work, and I could submit them after my flight for a refund of the difference between full-fare and the bereavement rate. You do have to book through the airline, as mentioned previously. If the airport is convenient and you have the time, I'd go there rather than use the phone; I imagine they would be more likely to be helpful in person.

Thanks for the additional experiences and ideas. I'll go to my opto; hopefully they can do the wraps as well as they do my regular glasses. It'll be a shame to lose the LTD lenses, though. I've used them with contacts, are really like them. As LouDiamond says, Liquid has great customer service. They have since gotten back to me thanking me for my feedback and offering a refund for the Rx insert. (I'm sure the delay was just due to the holidays.) Because their glasses are such high quality, and well-known in the skydiving community, it's easy to forget that they are a small company, and haven't done many very strong prescriptions, or haven't gotten feedback on what didn't work...

A little old of a thread, but I just got a pair of the inserts for my Liquid Gaskets (didn't know about the built-in lenses - not on the site, and they didn't mention them when I spoke to them a couple of times on the phone). I thought I'd add my two cents to the positive things people have said above. My results haven't been good - possibly because my prescription is very strong (-6+). YMMV. The Rx is significantly smaller than the glasses, the Rx is very thick, to the point that it touches my face with the large nosepiece, and there is a lot of distortion looking anywhere but straight ahead. The thickness and smallness of the Rx lenses combine to cut my peripheral vision drastically, and the distortion makes me dizzy and messes up my depth perception. I would never use them for skydiving as they are - lost peripheral vision and depth perception plus dizziness seems like a recipe for getting a femur out of my @ss or worse. I sent them an e-mail at the beginning of last week asking if there is anything that can be done to fix my problems and haven't heard anything back from them yet. I hope I haven't wasted $180...

Yup. That can be hot! But then again, I'm from NY, live in LA, and like country music. So I'm a freak of fashion.

True. Very true. Don't worry, the madness doesn't end when you close. Plenty of other craziness getting seemingly simple things sorted. I finally have a working washer and dryer four months after closing - two sets of machines, one DIY appliance repair, one professional appliance repairman, two electricians and somewhere north of 100 jumps worth of $$ later (I had to stop counting after that).

Sounds like this is a friend whose gear was lost/stolen? 1. If they took out travel insurance, this might be covered. 2. If not, did they book their flight with a credit card? Several credit cards provide some level of travel insurance when you make travel arrangements using their card. Even if they don't they are likely to have a lot more pull with the airlines than an individual; I'd give them a call. That sucks royally. If I ever travel with my rig, I'll learn from this to carry it on.

Spot, this is an interesting comment. Looking quickly through the bill, I didn't understand the process for getting a court order in the first place, and that's where I'd expect a lot of the abuse. Do you know how that would work? Would the copyright owner be able to get a court order before the website owner has a chance to respond to the allegations?

a different Foster the People song has a real interesting video But I think Sledgehammer is the best of all time... [edit = grr, clickies]

my gingerbread house from a couple years back. unintended consequences of melting ice caps...

Ha! My sister is the one with the bad blind/internet date track record in my family. She once showed up for a date to find the restaurant on fire...

How does Uncle Fester manage to make every thread about him? I want to hear more about this staring at boobs on a date being a bad thing.

Wow, you make even make stronger jello shots than I do. I aim for 80 proof jello. I always take care to cool down the hot water and jello/gelatin before adding the everclear, so as not to lose any of the alcohol to evaporation. I start off with a little very well chilled vodka (for flavor) while it's a little warm, and then add the everclear. Sadly, I went to a school of big drinkers, so I got my portioning wrong when I was asked to bring jello shots to my first work party. (probably about right for skydivers) I always put my jello in the larger (5oz?) paper cups, rather than the small (3oz?), so I guess each one is a triple shot... Needless to say, it was an interesting work party.