PeregrineFalcon

Done! Games are up! Was out of the house for a while. Dropzone.com Main - 21:00 EST Dropzone.com Late - 22:30 EST Buy in: $5 password: toggle I should be able to get in the late game, but as usual, it will be a game-time decision. Aw, crap. I just read this. Half an hour too late. Damn me for playing with my kids and being a good father.

"Rosebud!"

It's the reverse of the NRA argument. They argue that if the government takes awaay my right to own an AK47, the door will be open to take away my hunting rifle and revolver. If that argument is valid (and I'm not saying it is) then the converse is valid where someone asks, "What level of weapons are allowed? If you allow an AK47, the next thing they'll allow are cannons, then nukes." It's the same argument. I don't agree with the argument but both sides use it.

Now that you read Butters' post, read it again with the voice of of Butters from Southpark in mind.

Kawisixer touches on a point here. Did your friend pre-pay? I'm not saying that's definitely a reason for being bumped so often, but you never know. It's bad practice, though, because an AFF student not only pays more money for the whole course, but he also may buy equipment and is more likely to refer tandem jumpers and other AFFers than the average 1-time tandem. Has anyone here ever slipped a tip to manifest to get on a load?

Either I never saw the cows before (maybe they were over the hill or in the barn) or they're new, but they're there. It's a huge field (the dz says over a square mile) so no problem avoiding them so far. There are also hanggliders on the far end. WTF? I never saw them there until this Sunday.

I don't have a lot to argue with you about. You know your stuff. I will say Vera is MUCH better as a light-heavyweight than a heavyweight. Jardine's got some surprise wins. He's got to be a contender now. I think this fight is going to be better than the main event. The reason why I say this is because Bisping is a SMART fighter. Whenever he fights a bruiser like Leban, he slows it down, takes it to the ground and eeks out a win. When he fights ground and pounders or submission artists, he stands up and strikes. That's smart fighting. Of course, it doesn't always make for the most exciting fight, but people who like all aspects of MMA can appreciate it. This one is going to be for free, right? I can't imagine this card as a pay-per-view. The names aren't all that big. Bisping has the potential to be big, he already is in the UK, but not quite ppv main event yet. At least that's my opinion. Damn, Anderson Silva is going back down to middleweight and fighting again so soon after is last fight. That dude's a machine.

Category H on the gold-colored progression card of the A license says 180-degree front riser turns (2).

1st time jumping three times in one day. 1st time redocking with altitude adjustments. 1st hop and pop! (not as scary as I thought it would be) 1st time collapsing the canopy (also not that scary) 1st time spotting all by myself (did great, too) 1st time fucking up a spot (The 2nd load was the hop and pop and I didn't really think about the low altitude of the plane and one guy was a little long. He made it, though, so no one was pissed at me.) 1st time someone other than an instructor asked if I wanted to freefall with him. 1st time a newbie asked my advice about skydiving. (I told him to ask his instructor, but it was still pretty cool.) 1st time doing front riser 180's. 1st time riding a C182. (Took forever to get up there and it has no door, so it was a long, cold ride.) 1st time flying over a cow. (Yeah, cows have begun grazing near the landing zone.) 1st time doing an entire skydive; ride up, free fall, canopy control and landing being 100% relaxed! There are a few other more obscure "firsts," but I think I'll stop there. So, I owe beer to everyone who reads this post.

What probably happened was that he knew he was too old to go a full round against Tito Ortiz and realized that Tito ain't that good of a fighter and backed out. Or he had some sort of injury in training, I don't know.

No. The state went after him for THIS crime. He committed ANOTHER crime.

AHHH!! No fair telling. I won't see it for another hour!

My first barrel roll, I was too enthusiastic. I did 1 1/2 rolls and wound up on my back. It was easy to get back to my belly, though. The AFFI said it's not how well I do the roll, it's how well I get stable after being in an unstable position that really counts. Don't worry. You'll do fine next week.

Olberman is one of the BEST.... ...sportscasters in the world. As a political analyst, he's just as hypocritical as Hannity is. The thing is...whenever a host just calls it straight as an arrow, he/she doesn't get ratings. Moderate views and truth do not equal ratings sadly.

As a teacher, I can go a whole hour without farting in front of my students. A twenty minute ride in a Cessna is nothing. Will farting while in freefall help your arch?

You're right. It helps with independents, but it hurts with the conservative base who may not show up in huge numbers because they're not to keen on McCain. They're never going to vote for Obama, but they may just not vote at all.

The mistake that Democratic pundits made was saying that Palin would get slaughtered. That gave people a rubbernecking mentality, and people tuned in to watch a train wreck. It didn't happen. She did better than expected. She lost that debate, but not as soundly as people expected. She did make one MAJOR gaff that might get people talking. I didn't watch the analysis of it, but maybe someone talked about it. On the subject of gay rights, she said that no one in the McCain/Palin administration would prevent someone from visiting a partner in a hospital, which was not bad but then she said something like, "or not honor contracts." This made Biden do a double take. I rewound the DVR just to see his head movement when she said that. That gave him an opening and he took it, saying that it was good that she supports gay civil unions. That's not exactly what she said, but by saying that thing about contracts, Biden was SMART to make it look like she meant civil unions. When the rebuttle came back to her, she just didn't want to talk about it. She knew the base conservatives didn't want to hear something like that.

Yeah, my AFFI teaches extending the legs before moving the arms back. After graduation and solo, I did a coach jump with him and he wanted me to come forward just using my legs. That's the pic in my avatar. To the guy with the wind tunnel video, I learned quite a bit just watching that. Thanks.

Best post I've seen on this site.

It's like religion. I don't mind someone who's very religious, but I don't like them throwing it in my face. If your loved ones don't like that you're skydiving, don't throw it in their face all the time. My brother has had multiple surgeries on his ankles for some stupid stuff he did while skydiving 15 years ago. He's had braces and at one time was in a wheel chair. So, I don't talk about skydiving to my mother. When someone told her I was skydiving, she sent me an email saying that she's praying for my safety. She has no problem throwing religion in my face.

This is not my absolute favorite, but it's something that hasn't been mentioned yet and I find it the most surprising part. I'm less likely to engage in a fight with an asshole. Usually, some asshole is being an asshole and I feel like I have to be an asshole or more of an asshole than him. And believe me, I have the ability to be a major asshole. However, the past few months, I find myself not getting stressed out by the assholes, I think, "Fuck it, don't fight with this asshole. You're jumping from a plane this weekend." This applies to assholes that are also skydivers, so I'm guessing not everybody has this same feeling I do.

Ah, ok. Thanks. So, now I'm wondering why I was taught the lazy-W in the first place. I'm guessing it's because it's good for AFFers who need to focus on altitude awareness and arch and get to more modern positions later on. If I'm wrong in that guess, let me know.

So, I did 5 minutes of tunnel time today and before I started, they told me to put my arms waaayyyy out and below my chin rather than the lazy-W position. I tried both and have to admit that I was more stable their way. Under freefall, I always felt stable with the lazy-W as long as I arched. When I got out, I told one of the tunnel instrctors the difference and he said, "Yeah, we correct skydivers' positions all the time here." (Don't know if he was being arrogant or funny or just factual.) So, my question is: With the tunnel instructor's advice, was I more stable because it's generally a more stable position or was it just that the wind tunnel doesn't really accurately simulate freefalling? Off topic: I saw a guy I met at the DZ two days ago and got to see him do the mantis position. Really cool. I want to try that next.

At least you were spotting well.