Shawndiver

Beautiful jet. I got to see one on the Intrepid when I was in New York last summer.

Wow. (Not aimed at the original poster) Why is it so difficult for organizers to simply say: "No hook turns in the pattern to the main landing area during normal operations? This is a major boogie, attracting hundreds of skydivers from all over, of various (or dubious) experience, many of whom have not flown together, and are in an unfamiliar environment. HP landings have absolutely no place in this equation.Proper pattern education for the boogie should be mandatory, and then enforce it! Three strikes. Warning, grounding, expulsion. Fly your big, fat 240 student canopy opposite direction of the rest of the load on final, same penalty. If HP landings are requested, do a dedicated load, and/or set up an alternate landing area. The last two big dz.com boogies have been tragic. Don't make it three out of three. Shit happens, but senseless, avoidable fatalities like the these are, well, senseless and avoidable! _________________

Condolences and vibes to you and your family on the loss of your baby girl pup... _________________

Its pretty much a given that buying higher end components as part of the package will cost less than upgrading individual parts later, so if there are specific components you know you want, buy as part of the original purchase if possible. However, spreading the upgrade pain over time may not hurt so much as the sticker shock of doing it all at once.. and you may find that the lower end components you thought would not be satisfactory may just work out fine if you are not riding all the time. As far as the disc/V controversy, what they said about wet conditions is exactly right, you don't need to start applying a few seconds ahead of time to dry out the rims to get some stopping power, and on long descents, your hands will thank you to have the power of the disc. However, discs do require more maintenance, and cheap discs can be a real pain in the ass and on the ears if they start squealing as they get hot or dirty. _________________

Also keep in mind that many manufacturers use the same frame for several pricepoints on their models, so if later you decide that mountain biking is for you, you can upgrade the components (shocks, drive train, etc) as your performance and budget allow. My Cannondale Prophet is available in models ranging from around $1000 to $5000. Same frame. Something as simple as a handlebar change can take a bike from a grueling chore to ride to an all day pleasure.

My favorite girl, Lucy... Picked up as a stray in Salinas, she was rescued by the shelter I volunteer at. I fostered her for a couple weeks and the rest is history!

I was there a couple weeks ago for the boogie and saw several structures that were tall enough to jump off of.... once. _________________

A 5 cell Swift. I always felt like Slim Pickens riding the bomb on that thing... _________________

Looks more lavender to me... Nice rig, congrats!

Damn dude, I am glad it went well for you, I have had cortizone shots in just about everyplace you can have a tendon, and by far the most painful was one I had to get in my heel. If I have to ever do that again I'm bringing a case of leather belts to bite on!! _________________

Surely the screening process is supposed to weed out people like this. We all have hormones but most of us refrain from this type of behavior once we reach adulthood. You would think so, it would really suck to wake up finding yourself floating out the shuttle airlock because your mission crewmember is PMS'ing... _________________

Don't give a damn about the Super Bowl, but I bought a square in my local bars pool when my bartender threatened me with bodily harm if I didn't. Certainly felt good about the game when he called yesterday and told me I had won the 1st and 2nd quarters for $500!

I had a jeweler cast one in white gold, and teardrop a blue natural sapphire off the end for "blue skies" for my girlfriend for Xmas. She prefers a "brushed" finish, over polished, shiny jewelry, but you can have it done any way you like it. _________________

Out of curiosity, how do they arrive at a million dollar bill for this? In a country where LE officers scream they are woefully underpaid, just how many of these guys did they send out? Were any of these guys working when the alarm was sent out, or did they all just jump out of bed into automatic overtime? Was there a toxic spill/nuclear waste cleanup? Perhaps it was R&D costs to develop a lite-brite dearmer on the spur of the moment. _________________

Title doesn't say it has to be skydiving related... Visiting a divemaster buddy in Cozumel, while sitting in the bar, we strike up a conversation with a couple of girls just off one of the cruise ships for the day. When they found out we were SCUBA divers, one asks: "How deep do you have to go to dive under the island?" _________________

Why not just advertise it on Craigslist - free to a good home as a pet? I would say that after two days in a snake pit the poor guy deserves a pardon. As for the people saying just kill it for killings sake... karmas a bitch. _________________

19 out of 20 _________________

Yes, its because all the American labradors are jealous of her accent. _________________

it's a good thing, it give CrW dawgs some company A charitable gesture, but I really don't want to subject her to such tawdry behavior. _________________

Ths sad irony of this is I have a beautiful English labrador who is cleaner, quieter, and better behaved, and she would have to be confined to a cage in the cargo hold. _________________

Might be an interesting social experiment to see how long it takes you to go from wanting to do your civic duty will all best intentions to mindless revenue generation drone that most cops (in my experience) end up turning into. _________________

Self agitating anyway! _________________

My thoughts are with you both. If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. -Will Rogers Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace." - Milan Kundera _________________

Pessimists are never disappointed, only pleasantly surprised. _________________

One of my favorite parts was when they sent the midget in the the balloon rig off into the audience. Gotta get me one of those!