Zennie

Glad to see you're OK sis. Send all of our best wishes to everyone who was on that ride (or who had friends or family on that ride)! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Great stuff! You've got a lot of talent. Did you use any special filters for the sunset shots? They're beautiful. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

She does. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

As God is my witness, I don't know whether to assemble a gang for a mercy mission to grab you, throw a rig on your back and toss you out of an airplane or keep you grounded permanently because you're damn funny when you're pissed off and drunk. Seriously dude. Chin up! It'll happen sooner or later, and it will be all the more worth it when you finally do. If it's any consolation, I'm having to buy a rig piece-by-piece. You know how much it's gonna suck having an empty container laying on the floor saying "Jump me. Jump me."? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

MMmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... chocolate pudding....... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I'm going off memory here, so someone correct me if I'm wrong. Your closing loop passes through a hole in the cutter component of the device. One side has an anvil and the other side has a cutter blade. An explosive charge fires the cutter blade into the anvil, severing the closing loop. Because it uses an explosive charge, some airlines got bent out of shape over whether it violated FAA regulations. That's why Cypres issues a card to carry with you when you pass through airport security. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Ben Franklin was an amazing guy. I need to read a good bio of him one of these days. Drunk & horny little bugger too from what I've read. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Correcting myself.... you're right. It measures only barometric pressure. It calculates rate of change. Now you see why I drive my wife crazy with my hyper-technicalities.

Not to be overly-technical... well, OK, I will be since I'm an engineer and can't help myself... Doesn't the Cypres actually measure barometric pressure as well as it's rate of change? It measures pressure to determine altitude and rate of change to determine fall rate. If it concludes that you're falling too fast at X feet, it cuts the closing loop. Of course, it can't do both simultaneously due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, but... oh... nevermind... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I had one of those last week. I was in a hurry to make the first load of the day. I reminded myself to still check my gear, which I did. I got a gear check before I got on the plane. Right as we're about to take off the guy across me goes "Got altitude?" I look down at my alti and DOH! I forgot to calibrate it. I was reading about -100 feet. It's amazing the difference a storm front (or lack of one) makes. Funny thing is I busted the guy next to me trying to secretly calibrate his alti in his helmet after he overheard our exchange. Same flight I asked a guy for a pin check.. which he did. Right before my jump run, one of my instructors (I still consider them instructors, even though I'm not a student anymore) noticed the reserve flap wasn't closed right & fixed it. I've heard enough of chest straps not being fastened that I always check mine multiple times on the ground and in the plane. Lesson: Be paranoid about your gear. Get checks early & often! I've also started looking around more in the plane as well. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I take it there's no vaccine for this? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Going off on yet another tangent... If you like reggae and funk, check out some old Big Audio Dynamite. It's this wild punk, funk, reggae hybrid. Founded by ex-Clash member Mick Jones. In college I listened to a lot of Bob Marley, the Dead, Zeppelin & Little Feat. The B-52's, Devo and They Might Be Giants are fun too. My musical tastes are all over the place. Oh! Before I forget. New Tool album is coming out April 17. That's Maynard's and my birthday. Only diff is that he's got me by one year. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

BTW. That last post was from me. For some silly reason my computer logged me out. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This is why I try to avoid getting sucked into political debates. I hate acrimony. So, in the interest of maintaining the good faith that's prevalent on this board, I apologize for calling you a hypocrite. I'll even provide a response for you: "Well gee Zennie. I guess I'm no more a hypocrite than an anti-government person thinking some government regulation is OK." Touche... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Oh wait, my bad. You admit to being "victimized" by evil, greedy Big Business as well. Yet I don't see you quitting your job (which apparently is not part of the Big Business apparatus), giving up skydiving and running out to the woods to live in a hut and off the land. So that does that make you? Hmmm. Oh, what's that word I'm looking for? Ah! A hypocrite. Yes! That's it! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Oh I see. You're free from consumerism and we're all slaves to evil Big Business. So where'd that parachute that you wear come from? Off a tree? How 'bout the plane that takes you to altitude? Or the fuel it uses? How 'bout the food you eat or the clothes you wear? How 'bout everything that makes your current lifestyle possible? I suppose all that just fell into your lap unsolicited and untainted by Big Business' nasty, greedy, polluting little hands. You're no less a consumer than the rest of us. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Carrie: I'll add one little comment about monopolies, since you brought it up and I alluded to it a little in a previous post. Let's assume for a moment that California's power plants are all owned and operated by one private entity (which they aren't, but that's OK for discussion purposes). I would agree with you 100% that such a situation is bad for consumers. I think where we disagree is in the nature of the problem and it's solution. The problem in the case of a monopoly isn't the existence of a free market, but the lack of it. Once again, competition doesn't exist and thus there is no incentive to keep prices low or provide good customer service. My answer would not be government intervention (after all, you're just substituting one large, monolithic, inefficient bureaucracy for another), but the introduction of real competition to the market. Here in Houston, SW Bell pretty much has a monopoly on phone service. Guess what? Their rates and service is terrible. Now Birch is coming into the picture and they've been clobbering SWB in the small business market. They're poised to move into the consumer market very soon. And they're going to clobber SWB again if SWB doesn't clean up their act. The free market works. But you need to have a truly open market with real competition in order for it to work. That's why, even though I'm a Libertarian, I support antitrust regulation. I don't like big anything having complete control over something. It stifles innovation and harms consumers. My $20.00

Your right in that respect. You can't be half-pregnant. You either have to make the utilities totally public or totally private. You can't do this half-baked scheme that they did. Being a big anti-government person, I think the free market is better equipped to deal with California's problems. So I guess I'll answer my own question.... With the high tech explosion, and general population growth over the past several decades, California's demand for energy increased dramatically. However, California also prohibited the construction of new powere plant due, ironically enough, to it's extremely stringent environmental regulations. So you have a limited supply of energy (i.e. a fixed number of old power plants) and an increasing demand. Thus prices naturally skyrocketed. To make matters worse, the existing plants can't increase output because the environmental restrictions won't allow it. More output == more pollutants. These are old power plants using old technology so they can't produce more energy without going over their emissions alottments. So why not build more power plants? Well, for starters, current environmental regulations won't allow more pollutant discharge than already exists. Thus you would need to de-commission an existing plant (they've already been retrofitted about as good as can be done) and build a new one that uses more modern technology. Problem is, the permitting process in California is a labrynth of red tape that takes years between when a plant could be proposed, permitted and built (as opposed to Texas, where we can build a new plant in six months). So California needs to bring energy in from outside, but they don't want to pay open market prices. They want to pay government-regulated prices. That is, they want the consumers of other states to subsidze their current energy pricing scheme. Naturally, I'm not to thrilled with that idea. California's lesson: you can't have three cakes and eat them too. You can't have stringent environmental regulations that hamper energy production, a ravenous energy appetite and expect prices to remain low. One of them is gonna have to give. But Californians don't want to give any of them up. Californians are going to have to make up their minds as to what's most important. Is it their precious electricity? If so they're going to have to increase production to increase supply and stabilize prices. Is it the environment? Fine, but that means paying more to leech off everybody else's existing supply. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

You have no idea how many of my favorite bands have split up over the years. It sux. I had a feeling the Rage splitup was coming because Zack didn't record TBOLA with the rest of the band. The band recorded all the music and Zack came in later and did the lyrics and singing. That's usually not a good sign. Tom Morello is a God, but Rage isn't Rage without Zack (or Tom). Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I'm glad you managed to work through it and see that life is worth living. You're a wonderful person, even if we have political disagreements. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I didn't want to get into a political debate, but oh well... California's problem is not under-regulation but over-regulation. Capitalism isn't the problem. California's governmental interference with the free market has caused this mess. I'll make my point in the form of a question. What happens to prices when you dramaticaly increase demand & yet keep supply fixed? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

All of your concerns are legit ones. But remember that Republicans aren't the only ones beholden to special interest money. The Democrats are equally bought & paid for. I'm a Libertarian. So many of my views would probably truly scare you, but the environment and antitrust are two sets of regulations that I think are important. I don't think that it's right that a company poison us and future generations in the name of profits. And there's certainly no economic incentive to run a clean operation. I'll leave antitrust to another discussion. I personally don't think loosening California's environmental restrictions is necessary. They *can* build more power plants to deal with the energy shortage. The problem is they seem to be fixated on dirty antiquated technology: plants that burn fossil fuels. There is another efficient, clean source of power: nuclear energy. The problem is that most people freak out as soon as the "N" word is mentioned. And it's all based on emotion rather than fact. Japan and Europe have been using it for years and it is *much* more environmentally friendly than burning fossil fuels. We're in the 21st century, technology has progressed far beyond Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. And don't believe everything you read. Animal rights activists come up with some of the most bizzarre "scientific facts" I've ever seen (and I'm a vegetarian). Everyone, particularly in environmental issues, has their own agendas. When I see a nice round number like "100 times", I get really suspicious. Just how are they calculating that figure? How "independent" are the people citing this statistic? Think for youself -- to find the truth you'll have to filter through the rhetoric on both sides of an issue. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

What? I'm gonna be 36 in April. You mean you don't listen to Rage? How 'bout Tool? KoRn? Offspring? It's OK. My wife hates my music too. My kids prolly will as well. "Daaaaaad.... what is that horrible stuff?" I trimmed the lyrics down to the salient parts. My point is, we're sort of renegades, and while everyone else may think that's a bad thing, I don't. I've just sort of realized that I'm not the type of person to just go with the grain. I've always been that way. It just took a while to realize that and stop trying to fit into some persona that I'm not. I work at a big company and I am one of the most-un-big-corporate persons you'll see. I just do my thing (write software) & wear what I want. If they don't like it... tough. Fortunately, my group is cut from similar cloth so I haven't gotten any flak from management. If I ever do. Fine. I bail. No biggie. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie Edited by Zennie on 3/29/01 02:29 PM.

The one thing about Dubya that worried me a little was how he'd deal with environmental issues. Still, the fact is that the US has one of the most restrictive (if not the most) sets of environmental regulations in place. Sure the US has it's problems, but I really think the problems on the global scale are the other industrialized nations that have little or no regulations (S. American countries, Asia, Eastern Europe). That doesn't mean we should slack off, I just think people's global concerns are misplaced. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I've been listening to Rage's version of "Renegades of Funk" addictively lately. Besides having an absolutely killer groove, the words strike a chord with me... No matter how hard you try, you can't stop us now No matter how hard you try, you can't stop us now We're the renegades of this atomic age This atomic age of renegades Renegades of this atomic age This atomic age of renegades Since the Prehistoric ages and the days of ancient Greece Right down through the Middle Ages Planet earth kept going through changes And then no renaissance came, and times continued to change Nothing stayed the same, but there were always renegades Like Chief Sitting Bull, Tom Paine Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcom X They were renegades of their time and age The mighty renegades .... Now renegades are the people with their own philosophies They change the course of history Everyday people like you and me We're the renegades we're the people With our own philosophies We change the course of history Everyday people like you and me ..... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie Edited by Zennie on 3/29/01 02:16 PM.

OK, I'm cheating a little here, but I'm off student status, but I hope I always consider myself a student. You can never stop learning. Never stop asking questions... even after you have your "D". ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie