NWFlyer

I've recently done a lot of cleaning up, and I took a similar approach to what BIGUN advocated; I gave away and sold a few things on my neighborhood's NextDoor site (which is very heavily used, so I got enough interest in those things pretty quickly). The rest I identified local charities for - Wardrobe for Opportunity (similar to Dress for Success) for dressier work clothes, Goodwill for the rest of the clothing & shoes, the local children's hospital thrift store for board games, the Lions Club for old eyeglasses, and the Friends of the Library bookstore for books. I took everything except the books around yesterday and today, and it didn't take me more than a couple of hours to get rid of it all. Probably took another 30 minutes or so to write up an inventory of everything and file it away for tax time. Granted, I had nothing particularly large, so I was able to get it all into my car for donation. That said, I think you'll find the honor system yard sale pretty interesting.

I know, right? Definitely shouldn't claim to be a skydiver with that weak-sauce excuse for a jump total and no camera to show how badass I am. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I'm not that familiar with the student program at Perris, so I won't comment on that, but once you have your A, I'd encourage you to take advantage of the Perris Organizers, who are super friendly and welcoming to jumpers of all experience level. They'll do a great job of getting you on fun, experience-appropriate jumps! https://www.facebook.com/perris.organizers?fref=ts "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Your video is going to suck, too, and be of limited (if any) utility as a debriefing tool. It's a weaksauce justification for using one. Everyone wants their GoPro on the skydive, and they want all their friends to have GoPros on the skydive so they can maximize the chances that out of 13 minutes of crappy footage (2 minutes in the plane, 1 minute of freefall, 5 minutes of canopy ride, 5 minutes of running around the landing area high-fiving and talking about how totally fucking badass that jump was, dood we almost got a dock this time) you might have one or two or three screen grabs that aren't ridiculously boring that you can put up on Facebook or Instagram or whatever the fuck social network is the new new thing these days so your friends can all be like "OMG dude you're so fucking rad!" or whatever the fuck adjective is the new new thing these days for expressing that you're totes impressed that your friend is a skydiver. And you kids get off my lawn. (All that said, TK brings up some interesting points about trying to rethink the approach to this given that teeny tiny cameras aren't going away, nor are the kidz that want to use them. As someone who, in 10 years/1400+ jumps in the sport never once slapped a camera on my head, I'll defer to the folks who know more about camera stuff than I do). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I've heard 12 footer through the local grapevine. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Please tell me I didn't misinterpret you to mean that her death wouldn't have been a waste if she wasn't beautiful. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Wait, what, we're saying that 30 jumps isn't adequate for planning and executing a surprise demo into a high-profile sporting event? "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Glad I could help. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

You're not doing it right. (Sorry for the smart-ass response, but really, how's anyone supposed to help diagnose the problem if you're not specific about what you tried to do?) "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Makes sense. I've hacked "noise canceling" headphones (when I've forgotten to pack my real ones) on a plane by putting in earplugs then using regular headphones on top of them when watching a movie on a flight. Works remarkably well! "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Yes. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Surprised no one's mentioned creeper injuries. Finger under creeper wheel isn't much fun. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

If only we had a place where we could go to search for these things. http://bfy.tw/Zdd "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Troll? .......................................................... Lawyer? What is the difference? Whether the statute of limitations has passed? "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

She asked me, thus maintaining the total element of surprise on me. Of course I said yes., and she also suggested simple golden bands for both of us. It's not often someone gets the chance to be a future ex Mrs Lalor. I think ll just go with the having one custom built. Thanks for all of the wonderful advice. Congrats! But one question - and maybe I'm not understanding your intent here; if she suggested simple gold bands, isn't it going against her specific requests to go out and drop $5K on an engagement ring? Seems to me (only based on what you've relayed here, so maybe there's more to the story) she's made it pretty clear what she wants so it seems like you're imposing your idea of what she should want on her. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I notice almost all the responses here are from men (and, for the record, I'm a woman who agrees with the "don't do it" argument re: diamonds). But what matters is your girlfriend's tastes and what's important to her. Hollywood has convinced us that the dramatic surprise proposal is required, and DeBeers has convinced us that only a big shiny rock will do. Your girlfriend may well be someone who has bought into both of those things, or she may be someone who values one but would smack you upside the head if you did the other, or she may be one who values neither and would prefer a straight up discussion of your future and whether that includes marriage. She may be pro- or anti-diamond, and that's important to know. Hopefully you know her well enough to know where she stands on all those things before you go out and drop 5 grand on a rock. If you do want to do the romantical surprise proposal, I'd personally recommend getting something that can be a placeholder rather than trying to guess her personal style. As Wendy noted, that can be very personal and may vary based on her lifestyle but also her personal style. If you get a placeholder ring (and it could be something really goofy like a plastic toy ring, to make it super obvious it's not intended to be the real thing), then you can find something together that's to her liking. Yeah, it means you'll have to have a straight-up conversation about your budget, but you'll probably learn a lot about what's important to each of you in that single conversation. (All that said, sorry, no experience whatsoever buying jewelry at Costco as I'm not a jewelry person in general, but overall, I've been a very happy Costco shopper for every type of purchase I've made there from electronics to oversized muffins to travel to insurance). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Even more sad when you see students start pigeonholing themselves before they've even got a license. 'I'm going to be a freeflyer!' One person's pigeonholing is another person's focus. Leaving aside the rush to freefly without being able to fly and dock stable on their belly, there's some advantages to picking one thing and focusing on it, at least for a while. If you're someone who's never going to jump more than 100 times a year (which, though I don't have hard numbers to back it up, is my gut instinct of what the "average" weekend jumper does), flitting around through a bunch of disciplines means you're not going to build skills in any one of them. 100 jumps a year in a single discipline is probably just enough to make slow progress, but 25 jumps a year in four disciplines will keep things pretty stagnant for most people. If the desire is to progress your skills, "pigeonholing" can be a good thing. Of course, as you spend more time in the sport, and have that baseline of skills in one discipline it's easier to maintain that when you explore other things. But the new(er) jumper who flits from zoo dive to zoo dive in various disciplines never has a chance to get very good at anything. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Kind of a bummer to hear that the audiences are so small; the movie is getting very strong reviews and a fair amount of coverage that I've noticed. Then, again, I guess it's the rare documentary that approaches anything close to blockbuster status... "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Also, hope it goes without saying but just in case - a group of 20 is definitely a "reserve ahead" situation! Even the biggest DZs would have trouble absorbing a group that large on a walk-up basis. And if you're the organizer, one thing to be aware of is that 20 people saying they're interested probably will not equal 20 people paying deposits and showing up on the day of the jump ... people have an interesting tendency to come up with excuses once the rubber meets the road of planning. Just keep that in mind so you don't personally get screwed by covering deposits from people. The good flip side of that is that if you can actually get that many folks to show up there's a good chance your jump could be covered by the DZ. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Because opinions are like assholes, and everyone's got one? There are certain areas of gear choice (particularly at your level, as a relatively inexperienced jumper) where it's a really good idea to take advice and recommendations from other people. For example, they can help you understand which types/brands of canopies are good values, and which may not hold their value well. This might be an important criteria to you as most skydivers buy and sell at least a couple of canopies throughout their career. More experienced folks can be good sources of information as to the types of canopies that would be appropriate choices for someone of your experience level - they should be able to give you a list of canopies that would be good ones for you to consider. Some of those will be 7 cell, some'll be 9 cell, some will have flatter glide, some will have steeper glide. Flare points will be different, etc. That's where your opinion becomes the one that matters most - choosing within that group of potential appropriate canopies. A Pulse, appropriately loaded, will be an appropriate choice for your experience. But only you can decide if it's a canopy you love, or don't. If you can narrow down to a few canopies that you're interested in, demoing will be the best way to find out whether it's the right canopy for you. You might be able to borrow if someone in your area has what you're looking for, or you might need to demo through the manufacturer or a large gear store. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Clearly you missed the Golden Raspberry Award-winning Village People movie, Can't Stop the Music. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Well considering Jenner has never served in the military, Jenner would be ineligible as either Bruce or as Caitlyn. So that's sort of a silly distraction from the fact that people are uncomfortable with the idea that heroism comes in many different forms, not only from distinguished military service. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Really? You're taking something that vaguely and conditionally stated as fact? I personally have no knowledge or facts to add. But if I read the above account I would not say "Tom Piras was taken out by an AAD misfire." I would say that "Someone on the internet once made vague reference to the possibility that maybe perhaps but he doesn't really remember or know that a contributing factor to Tom Piras getting knocked out might've been an AAD misfire. Maybe but he doesn't really know for sure but he might've heard that at some point." "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Oh, but I appreciate the ones who can keep up. They're so few and far between, though. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke