skydiver30960

Hope to see all the brothers in Chester! For those who heretofore had not planned on going... the party doesn't start for about 48 hours, which should allow enough drive-time from just about anywhere in North America... Elvisio "better than the deed, better than the memory: the moment of anticipation" Rodriguez

SOUTH CAROLINA ROCKS! Columbia is cool, but Charleston is my fav by a long shot... Elvisio "nuff said" Rodriguez

um.... do a search and you'll find at least one thread about this. It may have spun off a thread from about hardware firewalls and/or routers (now that I think about it I think it was a router thread by skymama). I'm running a Netgear router with ZoneAlarm as a backup on both machines. Feelin' good about it so far. No problems, and ZA is free. Elvisio "virus free is cool" Rodriguez

BUMP! Ha ha, here's a funny manifestation of the same problem... many many moons ago a professor told me about a problem that some Canadian lakes were having with acid rain. The acid rain changed the pH enough that nothing could really live in the water, so there was no little buggies floating around and no fish to kick up silt and no plants growing in the water. Well, during the winter the air temperature would get damn cold (official meterological term) and the top layer of water (few inches or so) would get supercooled: it wanted to form to ice, but there was no silt or anything to act to seed the crystallization. Then, some poor hapless duck would come cruising along, decide to rest his wings, swoop in on the water, and as soon as he touched down WHAM! It would be frozen solid in the ice. He said hikers would sometimes be walking along the lake and find ducks completely stuck. Elvisio "duck pate on the rocks" Rodriguez

I used to jump in SC, and spent a little time at your DZ. Did I hear right that you guys are going to be paving your runway? What about naming the new runway Rafferty Field or something cool like that? Elvisio "spitballing" Rodriguez

I'd be comfortable doing just about anything listed here for free, except for the "scrubbing the cutaway handles" the guy above me listed. But otherwise, loops are always free, as is most of the other stuff. Usually, I'll do everything I can to get a person's rig back to them "ready to jump". When I started rigging I would always give the rigger a fully packed rig, and get back a repacked reserve with a detached, mixed up main shoved into my other arm. Damn, can't make the first load of the day because I'm fiddling with reconnecting my main. Now, the idea was to make sure I was exercising my three rings, but it was still a hassle. When I first started rigging I'd detach the main and reattach it when I was done with the repack. BUT, I was too scared to trust the whole "hold down the risers and they won't get mixed up" thing so I'd end up repacking the main (never found anything wrong). But THEN maybe you're not packing the main the way the owner does, and you might be setting them up for a spanker. So now, I just unstow the main lines and open the d-bag and make sure everything is straight up into the cocoon. If it all looks good, close it back up and everything is ready to go for the first load on Saturday. Elvisio "whew" Rodriguez

First: awesome avatar. Bloom County was my life when it was in the papers... Second: a list of my hobbies includes: Skydiving (obviously #1) Ice Hockey Working out at the gym (5 days a week) Everything I do requires me to be completely mobile, but everything I do has some "injury potential" associated with it. If I got hurt, my life would be REALLY boring until I was back up to full speed again. But I figure the options are: 1.) Enjoy the things I do, try to be as safe as I can, and deal with the injuries when (note I didn't say if) they happen; OR 2.) Live in fear and not do the things I enjoy. It all comes down to the old cliche about the differences between living and being alive. Elvisio "better to live" Rodriguez

Only person I know who flew one was Cajones Rodriguez, he's at Perris now. Try [email protected] and see if he has any input... Elvisio "I wear my camera on my helmet so there's no evidence of my crappy flying" Rodriguez

I know it's post-jacking but all I would like to say is that there are several avatars on this board that are already pretty damn OPTIMAL! I started to make a list, but y'all know DAMN WELL who you are. Y'all wear me out... Elvisio "can't wait to meet dz.commers at Rantoul" Rodriguez

Dammit, so now here I am, at home, with nothing to do, an at-the-moment unused microwave, distilled water that I usually use in the espresso machine, and very mischevious thoughts... Elvisio "idle hands are the devil's playground" Rodriguez edited because I'm stupid

Point 1: What scares me is that all those engineering classes I took in college actually have me understanding the term "shear thickening fluid". The whole thing works like wet quicksand; slow movements and everything moves together, but with quick movements the liquid is "shocked" away and the particles build up on one another to stop motion. Pretty cool. Point 2: I readily agree (from direct experience) that any form of GOOD tequila will make you FEEL invincible. However, it's just a thinly veiled lie... you don't feel the pain of your injuries at that moment, but the next morning is a different story! Elvisio "I did WHAT last night? Oh, that explains the bandages" Rodriguez

Last post here was a few days ago. Any more info or updates? Elvisio

90 mpg? Is that right? Or do you mean 90kmpg? Or would we have to convert to km/L? Oh, I feel like I'm back in engineering classes... how many drams to a peck in a bushel of hectares? I will now play the part of the ASSHOLE Yankee and drop all vestiges of PC: dude, gas needs to be cheap here because compared to Europe everything here is so damn SPREAD OUT! When I look at a map of Europe I see all these cool countries and cultures and cities that I want to experience, all within a stone's throw of one another. Just a quick hop over the Channel and there you are. Here, when I want to jump out of an airplane, visit family, or go to a boogie I have to hump me and my gear over countless states, time zones, and mountain ranges. Hell, I don't even have it as bad as some. Folks in the Southwest US have to drive for a year and a half just to get to a constant supply of water... right AggieDave? Elvisio "spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesty, and fruited plains are all good, but ALL in the same car ride?" Rodriguez

OK everyboy, working the board for more information. I'm a weenie who knows enough about car stereos to know to have somebody else put it in for me! I'm running a Pioneer deck, with a 10" sub pushed by a 2x150 amp. I know I know, strictly bubble gum league, but here's the question: 1.) I need to boost my mains. Can I use the extra channel (150 watts) and split it up to boost them? I'm sure it'd take another black box of some kind. Or do I need to buy and install another, separate four way amp? 2.) Assuming I can't use the extra channel to power the mains, I know I could put another 10" on that open channel. OR, could I take the two channels, and run them together (would it be in series or parallel?) to provide (basically) double the wattage to push something larger than a 10"? Thanks for the help Elvisio "stereophonically inept" Rodriguez

Darlin', you're scaring me. I'm sitting here looking at the Netgear router that is top priority on my list of things to do today. I was hoping it'd be a "plug and play" kind of thing but all this posting with funny letters I don't understand has me much less excited about the job... Funny: you said you're having trouble with Linksys. I just installed a linksys Ethernet card on my computer to get cable run to it and had a BITCH of a time with it. I'm hoping Netgear is a bit more simpatico... Elvisio 'hope my router isn't a pain in the rooter' Rodriguez

Hey everybody, honest question. I tried posting this on an old thread and didn't get a response b/c the thread was so outdated. But I'd really like to know: IIRC, the FAA sez you can't fly for 72 hours after donating blood. Fewer red blood cells means less oxygen can get transported to the brain and so (theoretically at least) it'd be easier to get hypoxic. This, combined with the fact that I'm working out four to five days a week, has always had me saying no to blood donation. My question is: has anyone ever had symptoms of hypoxia on a skydive that they felt they could attribute to donating blood recently before making the jump? I'm referring to "regular" altitude jumps, no high altitude, HALO kinda stuff. Same question, different donation: what about donating/selling plasma? If you're keeping the RBCs, hypoxia should be less of a concern, right? Elvisio "spike a vein for a buddy" Rodriguez

I too met the guy at Mardi Gras. I too was drunk, and as such don't remember his name either. Sorry. That is all Elvisio "not very helpful tonight" Rodriguez

Dude, WAAAAYYYY better than GlamourShots! I'll say it because everyone is thinking it... POST THE PICS! Elvisio "master of the obvious" Rodriguez

C'mon, doesn't look that bad. Hey, the way I see it, now that the plane is on the ground you don't need the tail any more anyhow, right? Also, a sharp aeronautical engineer would use the opening in the fuselage created by the departed tail as an extra exit to allow passengers to leave the aircraft more quickly and avoid that pain-in-the-ass bottleneck going up the jetway. Elvisio "efficiency expert" Rodriguez

I can't imagine that this isn't a repost, but the search didn't turn anything up. If only flying with the spaceball was actually this easy... make clicky! http:/wannaplaygames.com/skyball Elvisio "he only does layouts" Rodriguez P.S. Thanks to skydiveky.com for posting this one!

BUMP! Another question on the same line: IIRC, the FAA sez you can't fly for 72 hours after donating blood. Fewer red blood cells means less oxygen can get transported to the brain and so (theoretically at least) it'd be easier to get hypoxic. This, combined with the fact that I'm above-average athletically, has always had me saying no to blood donation. My question is: has anyone ever had symptoms of hypoxia on a skydive that they felt they could attribute to donating blood recently before making the jump? I'm referring to "regular" altitude jumps, no high altitude, HALO kinda stuff. Same question, different donation: what about donating/selling plasma? If you're keeping the RBCs, hypoxia should be less of a concern, right? Elvisio "wrapping my belt around my arm" Rodriguez

Sorry to hijack, Aggie, but my thought isn't worth its own thread. Anybody who has a good website I can go to in order to find definitions and descriptions and comparisons of the different disciplines? I'm doing a little Martial Art "window shopping" and wanna find the one that's right for me... Elvisio "call me Grasshopper" Rodriguez

Quick note, just for the sake of comparison, the gf was paying $870/month for an admittedly nice clean, but also admittedly small (715 sqft) one bedroom apartment in Prince William Co. She sayz if you're planning on living there for any period of time BUY something, anything. Townhomes are all the rage in the area right now, but even a condo would sell when you move on. Housing is filling up faster than they can build it so it's easy to unload just about anything. Elvisio "hello ma'am, can I show you something in a split level" Rodriguez

Hey Clay wazzup? Remember me... we made a couple "interesting" skydives at the Mardi Gras boogie. ANYHOW, my beautiful and endearing girlfriend, the illustrious Priscilla Rodriguez both grew up and lived on her own in the Northern Virginia region. Her suggestions: If you're making six figures or better, you might consider living in Alexandria. She says Fairfax, Reston, Centerville, and most other places in Fairfax County (where Old Town Alexandria is) are going to be pretty pricey. However, if you find yourself amongst the more moderately compensated, look into living in Prince William County. PWC is quite a bit less expensive, but you're going to suffer on the daily commute. From PWC to Alexandria will start at 30 mins (assuming no traffic) and go up depending on traffic jams. She used to live in the Lake Ridge part of Woodbridge (in PWC) and seemed to find it pretty nice. She says to avoid any neighborhoods that border Route 1 and most of Dale City (insert clip of Eric Cartman singing "In the Ghetto" here). Stafford and Fredricksburg are both great communities with lower costs of living, but you're looking at 1+ hour commute each way. She sez lotsa people are just sucking it up and living with the longer drive to get the lower costs of living. If commutes and traffic bother you (they bug the SHIT out of me, the only thing I don't like about city living) she suggests living in D.C. proper. That way when you drive to Alexandria in the morning and back to DC in the afternoon you'll be going the opposite direction of everyone else, virtually guaranteeing you less traffic. Dude, plus you'd live in DC, man; talk about SCHWEET nightlife and culture. So speaks the beautiful and accomplished Priscilla, and writ here by my hand; Elvisio "maybe I'll take up Realty" Rodriguez

A couple notes from previous posts that I really agree with are: 1.) Cs get degrees. Your GPA will have a bearing on your first job, but beyond that new employers are going to be looking at your diploma and (even moreso) your work experience. Do what you have to do to get the credit and get through the program, but don't worry about straight As. 2.) STAY IN SCHOOL. Even if you end up working in a field totally not related to your degree (happens a lot in my field, engineering) it's always something to fall back on and will inevitably boost your salary no matter what field you work in. That being said, here's a story about my buddy Clark. Clark was, before all else, two things: 1.) Drinker 2.) Smoker Thing is, whenever I saw him he was either stoned, drunk, or a combination of the two. I always saw him out partying when I was studying and figured he was just barely getting by in classes. Turns out after I knew him for a while that the dude was Phi Beta Kappa and ended up graduating with highest honors. His recipe for success was: 1.) NEVER SKIP CLASS. No matter how shitty he felt he dragged his ass out of bed and went to class. Then, he did all his homework AS SOON AS HE GOT HOME. Like, he didn't even take time for a little personal time on the porcelain throne, just immediately sat down at his desk and finished all the work he had for that evening. Even on full days he had it all banged out before dinner. Then, the rest of the day was his to get as messed up as he wanted to. And he did get messed up, I can attest to that. But he always managed to get up the next morning and get to class, and the cycle repeated itself. Hope the story helps. It got him through college with a fat degree and honors, and it taught me not to judge a book by it's cover. Elvisio "Much too laude" Rodriguez