gus

I've always considered the death penalty a bit of a cop-out, if I was sentanced to life I'd *rather* end it right there and then. Wouldn't spending the rest of your life in jail be worse? Surely the whole point of the death penalty is to act as a deterant, to show criminals what will happen if they murder someone or bomb buildings? But it doesn't work, I don't know the stats but it seems to me that the US doesn't have significantly less 'capital' crimes than anywhere else. Just my £0.02 Gus

IMHO if there was god no-one would bounce, but they do. I saw a new friend of mine cutaway yesterday, the only reasone she survived was because she saved herself. Take accountability for your own actions. And if there is a god he/she/it must be a right *^"! for giving all the most gorgeous women this unnatural urge to stay at 0ft AGL, LOL! Stay safe, Gus

Hi guys, I had a job interview yesterday and the woman that was interviewing me said something quite interesting. After she had said "Do you have a death wish?" (I couldn't help but smile at that! LOL!) she said that she had had to check whether the company *could* employ someone that skydives. Do you think this is commom practice? Do you think anyone has been ignored for a job because they skydive? Are they even allowed to do that? I think she was probably just being over-careful but does anyone have any experience of this? Gus

Mine is similar to Albatross's but fortunately has a happier ending. I was taking a break in between jumps, getting some food, sitting out in the sun watching everyone else coming in to land and generally chilling out for a bit. I wasn't really watching the landing area but out of the corner of my eye I saw something moving really quickly, I looked over and saw the last split second of someone's hook turn gone wrong. They can't have been more than 20ft above the ground and they were basically horizontal. I have no idea how but after visibly bouncing they got up and seemed to be ok. There was a huge gasp from the crowd of people sat around and a big silence for a couple of seconds before he got up. It was pretty scary, I would have put money them doing some serious damage - I guess he was just lucky. Be safe, Gus

If you want good, free software try VirtualDub. Get yourself some DivX and mp3 codecs and you're away! Gus

Hehehehe, superGus - I like the sound of that :-) I can't make head nor tail of your dreams: you either love the freefall so much that you never want it to end, or you've been watching too much MTV! Seriously though, maybe you just don't think/worry about hitting the ground? Gus (psych qualifications pending)

I seem to have quite alot of skydiving dreams. Almost all of them involve me having a mal of some kind but I never get injured - weird. Either the canopy opens about 6 feet off the ground or I simply land on my feet, heart beating slightly faster than normal! We must have some psych students/professionals out there, what do they make of all this? Gus

Yeah, another geek here. I'm a CS student at uni, I read /. and built my own computer. I think my skydiving habit is my only saving grace! Gus

I live in Nottingham and jump at Langar. Gus

Hi guys, just a quick question. Finally got myself a DVD drive so I was wondering whether any of those skydiving/BASE videos out there are available on DVD? I can't find any anywhere but it would sure be a good way to start my collection. Blues, Gus

Hey all, Well, Foot and Mouth has my DZ by the crown jewels so what else is there to do? An enlightened wuffo mate of mine sent me this picture a couple of days ago and it reminded me of a huge thread on the old dropzone.com that was started by someone (sorry, can't remember who) posting an 'interesting' picture - so I thought I'd share mine, enjoy! http://members.tripod.co.uk/gusbrown/gallery/0120PICX.jpg Blues, Gus

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll probably hold on to the Spectre for a while yet, it might not be as fun as it used to be but it's hardly boring and I'd much rather spend the £££s on jump tickets! Blues, Gus

Hi all, I have about 110 jumps, the last 60 or 70 of which have been on a Spectre 150. It's a great canopy and I really like it but I've been thinking about what I might get next..... I weigh about 170 with gear, which means my Spectre is loaded at 1.1:1 I keep reading good things about the Safire, if I jumped a 129 it would be at 1.3:1 So I guess my question is: How much performance difference would I notice if I had a Safire 129? Any suggestions for other suitable canopies? Blues, Gus