Casch

Hey all, it's been a pretty long time since I've posted here. I haven't jumped since summer of '04 when I made a poor judgment call on a new canopy and crossed the runway on landing taking a good-sized portion of skin off my leg in the process. After that I decided not to jump again until I could afford to jump at least a few times every month. A year after my last jump I was in a head-on collision with a dump truck on the back roads. I crushed the right-half of my face on the steering wheel which left me with one eye (but no other handicaps thankfully). During the three years following my accident, I gained a significant amount of weight (went from 220 to 350). In October of this year I decided to take control of my life and I have lost 55 lbs on Nutrisystem. My goal is to drop another 100 lbs this year, but be no heavier than 250 by the summer (this was my weight when I first started jumping). I'd really like to start jumping again in July, and I'm curious whether I will be approaching it as a first time jumper, or if I can ease back into it with a few coached dives? Also, are there any other one-eyed divers here? What are some of the issues you run into?

Good on you for rescuing this little girl. The first thing in my head when I looked at her picture was "Tweak". Maybe I've been watching too much SP though...

I've been busy for the last couple of years - can anyone summarize what's happened in the skydiving community since '06? And I mean besides the boobs, beer. Clay and his sheep

My heart goes out to the families and friends of those involved. I just heard about this from a co-worker... not a pleasant morning at all. Blue skies friends

I just had my performance review and found out I'm getting a 24% raise as of July 1st Technically I'll still be underpaid for my job in my area, but I also get my communication bills (cell/internet) reimbursed, and they are going to pay for any training/certifications I want which will increase my worth when the next salary evaluation comes around

This is the first I've heard of this... I've never met JP, but I've read his posts over the years and grew to like and respect him. It's truly a shame that I will never get to meet his acquaintence.

I really hope that's not because of your job... I thought I liked mine. Ass Looks like a lot of fun

I absolutely love the Pacific NW and will likely never live anywhere else (by choice). The Portland area is great, you've got skydiving, hiking and bike paths in great parks. You can ski and surf in the same day. The weather is mild all year round with the hottest temperatures in August at around 104. Average temperature is probably low 90's in July/August. The summer season seems to stretch from mid-May to October. There are are a lot of rainy days over the course of a year, but not actually that much rain. There's no risk of hurricane or tornado, and low risk of major flooding. Cost of living isn't high but it isn't necessarily low either. The west coast seems to be a good environment for .com's too.

Ugh, you ass! I'm working for $18k less than I should be!! Well, the good news is my 1-year is coming up, I've far exceeded all of their expectations (21yo techy from craigslist without a degree or much experience) and the company is pretty generous. It's pretty incredible how much it says I should be making even without an "education"

Are there any one-eyed jumpers here in Oregon? I've been out of the sky since the summer of '04, and lost my right eye in '05. Lately I've been really craving the sport and I think I'm going to try to get back into it this summer after I shed some pounds (currently 280 or so). I sadly don't know anyone in the sport anymore

So I'm sitting in the support office minding my own business when our administrative assistant walks down the hallway to the printer room while on the phone with the wife of the president of the company. All I heard was "...and you know, if he just takes the penis ring off it will be fine." When she saw the support team looking at her, she turned beet red with her hand over her mouth and left as quickly as possible...

I just got home from a trip to Denmark and was sorely disappointed... The only free jugs to be seen are on late night television. Yep, we have "Late Night with Conan O'Brian", they have Sexskulen (sex school) and Debbie Does Dallas

Firefox seems to have fewer security holes, and better (less annoying) popup blocking IMO. It's also more customizable with hundreds of different skins and plugins of all sorts. (mouse gestures, tabbed browsing, winamp widgets, and a hell of a lot more). It also tends to be nicer from a web development viewpoint. It's more standards compliant than IE, and things tend to behave more consistantly. That said, a lot of sites are still built "for" IE, using ActiveX components, or HTML/Javascript specific to IE. Microsofts browser is a lot better than it used to be, but it can still be a pain in the ass from time to time.

Hey Heather, long time no hear

I just picked up a couple mountain bikes. One is a new-to-me Trek 800 which is built mostly for street/city trails. The other is a Kona Blast for cross-country and trail riding. I bought the bikes to help myself get into shape again so I can eventually get back into the sport comfortably. I ride with my dad, but we both just started riding and neither of us know of any good trails. I know there're a lot of places to ride in the Tillamook St. Forest up at Browns camp and such. Then there're good trails out around Hagg lake. I just don't know where everything is specifically, and I'd be awesome to start riding with another skydiver. I don't have a whole lot of friends in the area that actually DO anything