Gato

Damn my bad simile. I should have researched it further. To actually answer the OP's first question, I drank about one a day, and actually really liked the taste of the blue Monster - like grape Sweet Tart soda. Kicked ass, without the vitamin flavor. Now if I could just convince myself that it wasn't out to kill me...... T.I.N.S.

I started drinking the no-carb Monster last year in September - and promptly stopped when I started developing chest pain. Went to the doctor, had EKG, blood work, chest x-ray, all normal. Going for my stress test in a couple of days. Doc says I'm ok, but my cholesterol needs major adjustment. One thing: I'm very glad this sport has sponsors, and I wouldn't ever badmouth any of those companies....However, I do not understand why, in an already amped-up and dynamic environment such as skydiving, energy drinks are necessary. In my mind, having a Monster or Redbull (or Dew, for that matter) during the jumping day is a bit like pouring AV fuel into a the gas tank of a Ferrari - sure, it's gonna go fast as fuck (no pun intended) and then it's gonna blow up. According to my doctor, the effects of caffeine last up to 8 hours, and God only knows how long the caffeine in Monster lasts. I don't mean to go off-topic, I just see a lot of jumpers drinking this stuff, and I'm puzzled by it. T.I.N.S.

I bought the Da Vinci action figure for my wife on her last birthday. Comes with an easel, a couple of mini-paintings, and you can put your own picture in the frame. Funny shit. http://www.giftapolis.com/davinci.html T.I.N.S.

Carothers, The God of Nylon, reaches out and gently snatches us from certain death. Thank you, Carothers. In your wisdom, you have given us fine parachutes, fishnet stockings, and wondrous thong panties..... T.I.N.S.

I'll jump in to this one, since I was 223 pounds on the doctor's scale the other day...Yikes! I think my ideal is around 180 or so - probably not going to lose 43 pounds in 90 days, but I'll put myself down for at least 20. I'm about 5'9'', and stocky already, so I'm going to have to really increase the cardio, and stick with low-weight, high-rep training. Does that sound correct? T.I.N.S.

I just learned about this, strangely enough, while surfing Eddie Izzard's website. http://www4.earthhourus.org/ Sounds like a damn good idea - let's see what happens..... T.I.N.S.

Silly Woodpecker - you've made my noob-sense tingle again. I can't have another guy doing that. Going for recurrency training, this saturday. Hope I can get my one for the year. T.I.N.S.

I am a raging noob who doesn't know shit.....yet I'm compelled to respond to posts that I shouldn't, that are beyond my (skydiving) experience level. Would somebody please tell me off properly??? I need to stop. T.I.N.S.

PM rec'd from skydriven to me: That I don't know shit, as I've stated before. That no matter what level I achieve, there are folks here with thousands and thousands of skydives, and they generally know better how to stay alive. That listening to them will probably keep you out of the hospital, or the morgue. Ask any one of them, and they'll tell you Marko is new to the sport. From what I gather, everybody is kind of new until they have 4 digits in their logbooks. As such, we are all students. I never meant to offend anyone, skydriven, and if you really have been in the sport for 13 years as your profile states, then I apologize. Edited to add: By the way, the "noob-sense" is about me, not you - buddy. I have noob-sense about me. I was making fun of myself, ok? T.I.N.S.

My noob-sense is tingling...... 3 things: 1. The "kid" began this thread asking for opinions. With your 13 long years in the sport and class F license, surely you must realize how dangerous it would be to limit responses to his question with only "happy happy joy joy everything's gonna be ok, so don't you worry...." The kid (your kid?) made some questionable choices. 2. The question he asked absolutely should not be ignored by anyone, especially those who would "bash" him. I think we can all agree a verbal bashing hurts a lot less than a terrestrial bashing. 3. Marko may be able to tell people how to avoid spinning yourself into a line twist, but only if he is alive to do so. Right now, he has no more business advising people about skydiving than I do. T.I.N.S.

That is exactly why these forums are important - sometimes to get some truth, it comes at the expense of your feelings. I certainly wouldn't want it any other way. And I think most of the folks here with thousands of jumps aren't trying to prop themselves up; they're trying to save the sport by saving lives. I contend that it's better to learn some lessons from others' experience - the universe teaches much, much, much harder lessons. T.I.N.S.

What you are describing, unless I am mistaken, is one of the many benefits of the Skyhook, i.e. the reserve comes out so fast, you don't have chance to rotate. I personally believe (though still a noob, mind you) that having a Skyhook is one of the main things leading Marko to think it's ok to fly such an unsafe WL. False sense of security, yes? T.I.N.S.

(Personal disclaimer: I'm a noob, and I don't know shit, but I have seen someone broken already.) Amazing performance on this video. And that's markovwgti???? Here's a question for you, markovwgti: What are you going to do when you have a malfunction that tangles your lines in your camera helmet? Can you say, "Death by Skyhook?" (Note: This is obviously not an anti-Skyhook statement. If you don't know why, you shouldn't be jumping a camera.) Also, the fact that you had a problem getting both cables to release PROVES you need to do a lot of hanging-harness EP training. A lot. I have a theory about you, sir. I think you read everything you could get your hands on, learned all about gear, and deduced that if you just buy the safest, most idiot-proof, and technologically advanced hardware, you'll be just fine. Quote from Brian Germain - whom you should listen to: "Your gear is going to look lovely sitting next to you in the hospital." Seriously, Marko - Don't bounce, man. Go back to your 170 and fly the shit out of it. T.I.N.S.

Just a note - make sure you know everything about "training" your new battery. What you do in the beginning of a battery's life determines how it's going to perform for the rest of its life. For instance, some units will "learn" bad recharging habits if you regularly recharge from below a certain level, i.e. recharging when you're seeing 65% charge - you may be advised to wait until it's below 40% or 25% before plugging it in. Be sure to read the manual to your specific model of laptop about calibrating and maintaining your battery. Best of luck. T.I.N.S.

I must respectfully ask: Did you listen to or read all of his speech? He did not excuse anything. He said he condemned what Wright said. Your comparison is not appropriate to this argument. What Don Imus said was not a "stupid remark" - it was a racial slur on public radio waves. I'm pretty sure there not broadcasting Rev. Wright all over the country. There's a big difference between leaked/posted video and sponsor-funded tv and radio, don't you think? I mean no disrespect, just my opinion. Which can be wrong. Edited to add: It should also be noted that Wright was referred-to as his "former pastor" in Obama's speech. T.I.N.S.

When I first met my wife, her knowledge/obsession with Buckaroo Banzai was like a sign from the creator - I HAD to marry this woman. For a very long time, I thought only my geek friends and I were the only ones who knew of it. I salute you. "Home is where you wear your hat; I feel so break up, I wanna go home." - Dr. Emilio Lizardo, aka Lord John Worfin, aka John Lithgow T.I.N.S.

Sorry, that wasn't my intention. I googled it when I got home from work last night, watched it, then I came here. I know you prefer transcripts, and that's cool. I didn't mean to imply anything about you; I was trying to point out that his speech had power, in the same way JFK, Dr. King, and Roosevelt had power when they spoke. The written words of what the man said pale by comparison. I maybe jumped a bit at the word "paragraph" because so much of what we end up hearing on the evening news is just that - a paragraph. And so many of us are content to leave it at that, and do no follow-up, no research to see if anything we are told is actually true. T.I.N.S.

If only some of us had asked those questions more thoroughly before the last election......or two. T.I.N.S.

If you have the time (37 minutes), it's worth sitting through the actual speech. MSNBC has it on their website in its entirety. I think it's worth pointing out that it's a speech, not an essay, and as such, it needs to be heard in context from the man. I personally don't believe anyone believes every single word coming out of a preacher/priest during a 20 year attendance. As Obama said, sometimes the unspoken finds a voice in church, in the barber shop, in the beauty shop. If he spent more time talking about Wright, he would have taken away from what the real problems actually are - and as much as we all know how racially divided this country is, I think it's pretty ballsy of him (Obama) to stand up and say what a lot of us have been afraid of expressing out loud. You want to know what's really amazing? Check out Hillary's speech right after. She begins by saying "I haven't heard or read Senator Obama's speech, but I'm glad he made it...." A bit condescending and disrespectful, in my opinion, and certainly unnecessary. T.I.N.S.

Thank God we have someone in office now that we can trust. T.I.N.S.

This is what I don't get - are we more interested in the overall well-being of the country, or which particular god a candidate chooses? Do any of you honestly believe that a politician's moral compass is really affected by religion? I personally think you can have a sense of right and wrong without God telling you which is which. For instance, I don't need a Bible, Koran, or Buddhist text to tell me that killing another human is wrong. It just is. Conversely, we can find plenty of immoral, unfeeling, and cruel motherfuckers who were raised by good families with deep convictions to their faith. The religious thing is not, in my opinion, an important component of leadership. Religion is a tool some politicians use to divide us, just like being a conservative, liberal, or whatever. "A good ruler doesn't need to be a prophet; not even god-like. A good ruler must be sensitive to the ones he rules." -Leto Atreides II T.I.N.S.

Libertarian. I couldn't agree with you more. T.I.N.S.

Thanks for posting that, Speed. I'd never heard of that before. I took the quiz, but I'm not sure if I want to post the results. T.I.N.S.

Without resorting to sarcasm, can anyone tell me how I can know whether I'm conservative or liberal? I'm not interested in the bashing of either faction - I honestly want to know. Think of it this way: If you had a room full of 12-14 year olds ask you this question, and you wanted them to be able to make up their own minds, what would you say? Again, sarcastic and insulting responses are not appropriate. T.I.N.S.

The clearest example of target fixation possible. Thank God there wasn't a tree in the LZ, or he might have hit that instead. T.I.N.S.