niolosoiale

Both my nephew who will be turning 4 and I (21) get the 6/6/06 birthday. Still would have been cooler for him to be turning 6 and me turning 18... but I wouldn't do the last 3 years over for it heh.

Just wanted to point out something.... Atheists and agnostics don't necessarily believe that everything came from nothing. Certain individuals, like myself, take the position that all that exists didn't just spontaneously appear. No one really buys into any "big bang" theory or anything else that involves one moment nothing, the next moment everything. There has always been something. I specificially theorize that all that exists is made of energy and force. The energy has always been there and it expands infinitely. There never was nothing. Christians should have no trouble rationalizing this as a possibility. Given the nature of christians and their tendencies to form undeniable answers about things they can't know.

I agree. I just wanted to remind people who may be a little more sensitive to recent events to watch what they read and such.

I'm just saying. When accidents are in the news, you will find corners of the internet, and I wouldn't put it past certain corners of the media, where people will be saying some very insensitive things. I just found one. That's all I'm saying.

Tragic accidents aren't tragic for everyone. Be careful where you browse people.

They are fun but trust me, unless you like paying for tires every 20,000 miles... I'd stay away. (BTW They are not cheap tires.) They are good cars, but I don't know how well they will age. I work at a Nissan dealership service dept by the way.

I will add this though I think it's just a product of everyone being attentive to the bad stuff going on. Best friend's cousin was burned horribly in a fire 3 or 4 years ago. Recovered well. Went back to school, was active etc. Died today. 17 years old. Don't know why. I'm guessing strange medical circumstances.

Appears to be a random homocide. Screwed. Up. Week.

I set my alarm an hour early for this reason.

Same

Not to be the cold, insensitive one here. I'm pretty sure when climbing Everest there is an understanding by all those involved that chances are, you will die. As such, if you die, or are at the point of being near death, there is very little anyone can do to help you that doesn't involve harming themselves. Do you chase someone who is undeployed, unconscious, with no AAD? How far? At which point does it become more harmful than helpful? If ya climb everest, you know the risks, the people you're going with know the risks, and unless you have some sort of ultra close compadre who you can't live without, self-preservation, rationality, many things will be working to let you leave them behind. If that climber would have died instead of being rediscovered to be alive, I doubt there would be as much fanfare about the situation. EDIT: Did it suck that they left him? Yes. Do I blame them? No. Was it wrong? No.

Think of it this way. Clearly, you want to skydive. I don't know how bad, but apparently bad enough to do it 18 times. You also want it enough to wonder if you can handle the emotional impact of losing friends to the sport or being injured. It's clearly important to you. At this point, none of your close friends have went in. I assume you haven't been injured in a devastating manner. You are where thousands of people have already been. Here's what I offer. In life, you rarely benefit from growing bitter, numb, or indifferent to things as significant as death. Death and life require respect. You should respect your life and live it as you would want to live it, while simultaneously respecting the fact that you could die on any given day. You shouldn't let the fear of something which is inevitable and relatively uncontrollable, run your life. YOU run YOUR life. Don't let a fear of death keep you from doing the things you deserve to give yourself. So long as you respect life and respect death, both will have meaning and yield positive effects. I know death is never fun or happy, but it's necessary and inevitable. So focus on appreciating and living life. Cope with death as it comes, don't worry about death, just respect it. It's the most you can do It's not about the stats. They can help you measure and justify risk, but you don't skydive because it's less dangerous than something else. You skydive because you want to. I think you want to. It looks like you want to. So don't let the fear of anyone's death or injury stop you, if it's what you want. Know that just because you stop skydiving, doesn't mean people will stop dying or getting hurt. So if you want to persist, be accepting of the nature of the beast. Respect the beast. And remember that you shouldn't waste life running away from death.

No you tell him to take it back because it likely belonged to someone else. Obviously someone else must have put it there. Yes If you allow him to keep the bike, then you yourself have no sense of objection against stealing that is strong enough to persuade you to not do it, and keep him from doing it. According to society, this would be "immoral". Society says "don't steal" even if the bible didn't. You are the kids parent. You have a responsibility to raise him. Ideally, you should raise him to not do things like steal. You are taking corrective measures by having him take it back, and explaining why he shouldn't steal. You don't have to quote anyone. If he won't listen to you, why would he listen to someone else? If he's listening to someone else in this situation, you are failing as a parent. A simple explanation of why you shouldn't take things from other people, with the example of whether or not he would like someone precious of his to be stolen should drive the point home. All that and you didn't even have to quote the bible. The foundation of all law that you speak of is simply a result of the natural progression of society to develop a code to live by which, through trial and error, has came up with a list of things you shouldn't do as they either harm others or infringe on other's so-called "rights". It's nothing that is uniquely "god-inspired". It would happen anyway. Phil finds rock. Phil likes rock. Phil takes rock for his own. Bob takes Phil's rock. Phil knocks Bob upside the head because Phil don't like Bob taking his rock. The product of the consequences is that taking things that people say don't belong to you, will result in punishment. You've just established moral code. Of course this brings up questions of ownership which the answer comes down to this. You own whatever you say you own so long as you can reasonably enforce your ownership whether with help or not. But that's another thread.

Uh I think the definition of skydiving has a caveat for "With a parachute" Anything else was homocidal, suicidal, or accidental death, which happened to involve falling out of a plane.

You don't jump to die, you jump to live. I figured I might try to direct something at Lisa here: Death only takes the state of living, it doesn't take the life. The life goes on in the hearts and minds of everyone. Don't grow bitter towards death. If you grow bitter and angry, you are giving death the very thing you should be careful to protect; their life as you have within yourself. Grieve and mourn, but do not let dark things have your thoughts and feelings. On another note... One of the things I feel great about related to skydiving, specifically the community of skydivers, is that there is this fertile soil for me to develop. An element of the soil is the death factor. Many skydivers have lost many friends to the sport yet persist (thought not all). The point being this. Here is a sport where the people do something which, according to many people, shouldn't be done. You take yourself and put it in an environment which it does not logically belong. You do something, which logically, would kill you had you not taken steps to hopefully prevent your death. And what do you get for it? Everything that the naysayers and whuffos never will. The experiences which I couldn't even begin to do justice with my limited time/involvement in the sport. But nothing is free. These special things which attract and keep you in the sport do come at a cost: the cost of lives. I believe I read a post on here somewhere about death being the currency with which you pay to partake in the sport. And the focal point of that for me is that you willingly pay. You make the choice to take the risk. It's such a liberating and exhilerating thing to take your life into your hands and say "I will risk all of this for one thing; to skydive." It doesn't make much sense to outsiders but it doesn't have to. But everytime someone goes in, it's as if death and life leave a note on their way out. "Will you risk it all, again? Is it worth it?" And what you find is that there are people that mourn the loss and still get back on the horse. It is worth it. Now here is something to remember. I've already said it in more or less words but it still remains true. Don't focus on the death, focus on the life. The life stays with us when the body can not. The life which was lived made it all worth while. Death serves as our reminder of this fact. Live life, then die. Don't die before you've lived. I think in regards to Shannon, everyone can agree she is a prime example of someone who lived life like no other. Keep that in mind.