angrypeppers

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Posts posted by angrypeppers

  1. Quote

    surprise surprise - almost everything goes in as 'Weather Related'. It must look better on their record.



    In the airline world, weather is an "uncontrollable" delay or cancellation...which improves their operational stats. Missing/un-qual'd crews are an example of a controllable delay/cancellation. For example, an a/c has a radar problem and there's weather enroute or at the destination. There are no parts/techs to fix the radar, so the airline cancels the flight. Management will enter that as a weather cancellation since if the weather wasn't an issue, the a/c could have completed the flight. Drove me nuts the way my airline gamed the system, though honestly, they all do the same thing.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  5. Hey Superman, I've got a green one too! Love it.

    The story I read was that starting in 2010, Toyota reduced the quantities imported to the US from 75000 to 25000/year, in order to keep prices up along with demand. There is some wiggle room in negotiations, but not much. The "ending production" stories have been out for years, but would be surprised if it happened any time soon.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  7. I have a 2010 FJ. The only real complaints I have is the visibility out the back isn't great and the windshield gets pitted quickly since it's almost flat and vertical. Putting some little convex mirrors on the rear views and increasing your following distance a little bit will help a lot. Starting in 2010, the engine was changed a bit which upped horsepower, and allowed the use of non-premium gas. The FJ has a ton of power, and is very offroad capable right out of the box.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  8. Quote

    Quote

    When I sold my rig, it had a fresh inspection and repack. I wanted to verify that I was selling a rig with no problems (hadn't been jumped for a while), and also wanted to know that the buyer's rigger wouldn't find any problems.



    I get the inspection before you sell it. You were probably shipping it to someone, and there's no reason to waste everyones time shipping a faulty peice of equipment. The inspection let's you advertsie the condition of the item with confidence.

    Why include the repack? The buyers rigger is just going to have to fire the reserve to inspect it anyway, so why waste the money on a repack? Beyond that, what if your gear doesn't sell as a complete rig and you have to part it out? Then you have to open your own 'fresh' repack. One step further, what if it takes more than 6 months to sell? The repack was useless in that case.

    It's said that the majority of the wear on a reserve is from packing, so the better move is to have everythying inspected, then bag it all up in some sturdy plastic bags. and put it in a closet until it sells.



    In my case, I had the repack done to verify there were no problems with the reserve after having been stored...it was for my peace of mind knowing that the buyers rigger couldn't and wouldn't find any problems. I didn't mind spending the bucks for the repack, as I could then sell it confidently knowing that the rig was perfect. As far as parting it out, that was not something I was willing to do, though I got a lot of requests to sell the main and Cypres separately. I agree about the wear and tear on reserves on repack cycles, but in my case, I had skipped one while I wasn't jumping, so cyclewise, the reserve was the same as if I had been jumping it regularly.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  10. I read the updates from my friends, but otherwise don't do much with it. I've actually started collecting emails addresses, etc from my friends, 'cuz I know I'll quit FB completely soon.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  11. Quote


    You've clearly not done any large chain pizza sales marketing before.



    That there is funny, I don't care who you are...
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  12. Go to the DZ. Learn to jump. Jump. Hang out with the other skydivers and make friends. Bring beer and stay late enough to drink a few with your new friends. Immerse yourself in the culture and you'll find your subject. If you don't want to go to a DZ, read through the threads here. Something will stick out that is interesting to you and to your audience. Good luck and congrats on your first jump!
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  13. Neck surgery two years ago grounded me. But it wasn't so much the surgery really. I was a very conservative jumper, very happy flying around on my tuna boat sized Pilot. But I knew that there was still a chance I could be injured severely, and didn't like the thought of being paralyzed for the next 40 years, and more importantly, didn't want to put my wife in the position of having to care for me for the rest of my life. I was never able to reconcile the risk vs. reward sufficiently. I'd love to take another look at jumping again in a couple of years. I feel fortunate that I was able to jump when I could, and meet the people I did along the way. No regrets about quitting, but I miss it every day.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  14. I bought my rig long distance. I talked to the owner a few times on the phone, and lots of times by email. When we finally agreed on everything, I FedEx'd him a check for half the price, and he sent the rig to my rigger for inspection. When the inspection was complete, I sent another check for the second half by FedEx, and once the check arrived, the seller called my rigger to release the rig to me. Worked out great. There is a lot of trust involved, but I felt comfortable with the seller, else I wouldn't have sent the check.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  16. Best: Pink Floyd at RFK Stadium in DC. Just an amazing experience, and hearing Dark Side of the Moon live didn't suck either. The jackwagon "helping" Nick Mason with percussion really wasn't necessary.

    Worst: The Cars. Wang Chung opened, and as bad as they are/were, The Cars were worse.

    Honorable Mention: Benny Goodman. Not my type of music, but I went with my Dad who is a Clarinetist. One of those times I'm glad now I was able to spent some time with Pop, even if I didn't appreciate it at the time.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  21. Seriously, no way would I do that. If I'm riding to the DZ, my rig is in a gear bag strapped down to the rear seat and rack. I don't want that weight shifting me and the bike around while I'm riding.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  22. Revenue generating for the municipality, AND the vendor. Here's an older snippet from Car And Driver's Patrick Bedard...the info may be a bit dated:

    "In effect, Mesa had shortened its yellows to raise the take. It helped, but not enough. So the city and Lockheed set to renegotiating the contract. Instead of pocketing $48.50 for each paid violation, Lockheed would reap $73 for the first 900 each month, $65 for the next 300, then it was back to the original rate. The city also agreed to ease Lockheed's labor in writing out complaints, but if the vendor's costs didn't drop enough, the city promised to renegotiate again. Talk about a sweetheart deal!"


    Red-Light Cameras and the Secret Gotcha!
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  23. For commercial beers, I've been in a hoppy mood lately:
    Pliny the Elder
    Stone Sublimely Self Righteous
    Boulder Beer Hazed and Infused
    NB Ranger IPA
    and my new favorite is Deschutes Hop in the Dark, a Cascadian Dark Ale. Hoppy goodness...

    Otherwise, I have four batches of homebrew in the basement, so the fridge is usually stocked well with my own stuff.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.

  24. "I have had a Lumbar Fusion; L3-L5 with a femoral allograft bridge, a pair of rods with screws fixating the site posteriorly, and a cage that was ultimately packed with the ground-up bone chips of what was left of my L4 vertebrae anteriorly. "

    Substitute "cervical" for lumbar, and I had very similar surgery 9 Oct last year. I had a bone spur that was deforming my spinal cord, bulging and calcified discs, and stenosis at C5/C6. The docs removed all of C5, most of C6, then put in a cage around my spinal cord, a plate in front from C4-C7, and two rods in back. The bone they removed was ground up and used to pack the surgery site. I was in for a total of nine hours of surgery: seven on the front, and two more for the rods in back. I was in ICU for a day and a half, a regular room for another day and a half, and out of work for two months. I had to wear a hard cervical collar 24/7 for three months, which sucked a lot because I wasn't able to sleep well with the collar on.

    I haven't jumped yet, and probably won't even consider it for another 3-6 months. My goal is to be current by the Eloy Holiday boogie this year. I didn't have symptoms before surgery, except I could make my back go numb on command if I tilted my head back. No pain, weakness, numbness, paralysis. The doc told me post-surgery I lost 12 % of the up and down movement in my neck, though I can't tell the difference pre and post surgery. I don't see a real need to rush back to jumping. I tried on my rig and helmet a few weeks ago, and can still arch hard and see my handles. As much as I love and miss jumping, I only have one chance to heal correctly, and honestly, being able to feed and clothe myself is much more important to me than jumping. My wife doesn't want me to jump again, and that's a real factor for me too.

    I've heard that if the bone graft is taken from your hip, that not only is that procedure painful (more so than the cervical surgery), but takes longer to heal too. The chance of rejection may be less than with a cadaver graft, but my original choice was to go with the dead guy's graft.

    As far as my recovery, I was able to walk from post-op to my room, and took visitors the next day. I was on morphine while in ICU, and artificial morphine while in the regular room. I was off all prescription meds completely after two weeks. My pain was located in my shoulders and neck mostly. The procedure requires quite a bit of tissue to be moved aside to reach the surgery sites, so I had to deal with strained muscles and tendons. I have a four inch vertical scar on the left front of my neck from that incision (superglue'd shut), and had sixteen staples for the incision on the back of my neck. Looks kinda like a zipper. The worst pain of the entire process was when the catheter was removed...no lie.

    My goal with the surgery was to get things fixed so I could go back to doing the things I love to do. I'm not a doctor and don't play one on TV, so you have to make the choice on your own. In my case, I feel VERY fortunate that I was able to go through the surgery before something permanent happened to me. The sky will be there when/if I'm able to go back up.
    Burn the land and boil the sea,
    You can't take the sky from me.
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