GaVak

At the end of the day, who cares what people mutter? If you are happy with your skydiving progression an the balance it has in your life, then problem solved. If it doesn't really bother you, then don't react to it... Semi or full bully personalities don't invest where they don't get the feedback/response they are looking for. It's skydiving, not a numbers race. Have a good time, fuck the peanut gallery. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Passion is a subjective experience. He might not be as "fanatical" about jumping as others perhaps, but who is to say one mans passion doesn't burn as bright as anothers? It is sometimes said unrequited passion tends to burn the brightest of all. Passion doesn't have to equal obsession. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

I would think it would be more a professional requirement than social -- I.E. News anchor, public speaker, etc. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Oh, ok. That explains it. Seems operator/owner strife is common in the industry... It cost the DZ I go to our Twin Otter. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

There is an AD in parachutist for a DZ called "Sky's the Limit". They advertise having 'the only skyvan in the north east'... I'm pretty sure this is a flat out lie. Doesn't Crosskeys in NJ have a skyvan? ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Ok, thanks. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Is it normal to get a request for renewal 4 months before a current license expires? I don't really want to pay now if it shortens the length of time until I have to pay again. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

And as I am sure we both know, what appears to be zero evidence to one may not be equal to nonexistence. It's an un-observable state, as observation requires the senses and the senses no long function in a dead body. People have spent thousands of years speculating and generating potential 'after death' experiences. Using their imaginations. In that view, doesn't a model of 'do exactly what this religious(political) group says and you will go to [insert absolute best imagined world here] and if you don't follow what they say go to [insert absolute worst imagined world here]' sound a little manufactored? Give or take hundres of years and you have a refined carrot and whip system to control the actions of the masses using their fear of the unknown as a tool. Knowing human nature, I see more the hand of man than a God here... I often hear 'I can't beleive in living in a universe without a 'reason' for being here'. Why is the possibility of existence for it's own sake so frightening for people? ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Ok, of all the odd posts to come up when searching the term 'naked' to see how many people have done naked a jump for their 100th. I'm not that keen on (sober) public nakedness, so I've been psyching myself up for it. I figure if I can muster up the stones to do it on a public forum (sober), doing it at the DZ will be a (colder) walk in the park. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Hmm, most boogies have some form of anchor theme to them. Just because any one group sponsors an shouldn't imply excluding others (from my perspective). I mean, we are all skydivers -- it's our duty to maintain our world image by finding as many excuses to have parties at our drop zones as we can, right? ;-) ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Thanks for the post! I've been looking at the Pilot myself and have been having problems figuring out a good color scheme. It helps to see the real deal. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

You sound like an ectomorph body type .. this could be genetic and/or have something to do with a thyroid issue. Google topics like: "Ectomorph weight gain" "Hyperthyroid" "Overactive Adrenal Gland" I'm not a doctor, so I can't really tell you what to do for actual medical problems. Presuming there is no disorder, the key is to eat lots of protien, do weight training with as heavy weight that you can only do 8-10 reps with, and staying away from Cardio. You also need to eat more calories than you burn a day... and if you are a true ectomorph, you have to keep it up. Having more muslce means your daily minimal calorie requirements will go up. I used to be the same way until I hit 30 -- now I pretty much keep the weight level I'm at unless I up or down my eating habits. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Missing is the 'who cares' option. People and labels ... they want to feel like there is some sort of 'I'm special' connotation to the exclusive membership to some group. If it's private group, they have right to exclude on hair color, shoes size, or whatever else makes them feel happy in their exclusive little bubble. If these people wanted to get into an exclusive club with rules, they should have left their blue-pitch-hitter hats at home and drank the pink Kool-Aid. That, or start a Bi-League and require the partaking of cock AND boobs as retaliation... ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Check with the local Cell Phone providers to see what broadband internet offerings they offer. You can get a card (or in some cases, a laptop with the cell card built in) that will let you get on the internet wherever their towers reach. $60.00 isn't terribly expensive for good broadband... I can't imagine the cellular options will be much cheaper. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Depends on what part of town you are in really -- use google maps and search up the type of establishment you are in to. Pretty much anything of interest is down-town, mid-town, buckhead, and little-five-points. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

0:7:0 Got my 99th jump, but had to ground myself after my first freefall on Sunday clogged up both ears to the point of not being able to hear. NOTE TO SELF: DON'T JUMP WITH A COLD. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

I jumped with a cold this weekend. I was taking tons of Mucenex so I thought I would be ok. Saturday was fine, but Sunday things didn't work out so well. By the time I was under canopy I had lost hearing in both ears! This made for the interesting experience of a silent canopy ride... It's a bit erie when you can hear the wind. By the time I got to the ground it felt like little ice picks were being applied to my ears. My left ear has 'mostly' cleared, but I still can't really hear much out of my right ear. It 'feels' clogged. I'm trying out the Pseudoephedrine suggestions from this thread to see if I can get things to clear up. I sure hope it's nothing permanant.. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

While there is merit to the responses that suggest practicing fall rate and keeping track of other divers with smaller groups, that wasn't your question. Add 750-1000 feet to the lowest rated jumpers minimum opening altitude and make it the base. During the jump planning, announce this base and tell the less experienced jumpers that if they get 'lost' to wait until they get to their MOE to pull. If someone has a reservation at pulling at their MOE, they can opt out of the jump or ask the group to agree to a higher base. Jump safety planning should be designed to account for the lowest experience levels on the jump, not the convenience of the highest ones. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

... oh yeah, and if you have a 'windows' keyboard with the Windows special buttons, you will also have a 'right click' button. It would be just to the right of the right 'Windows' button and to the left of the right 'CTRL' button. If that AND the right click on the mouse doesn't work on specific things, it sounds like you need to clean out your toaster. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Something in memory is messing with the input from the mouse. If you have any mouse related add-on software installed (like the ones that change the pointer to custom icons), uninstall it. It would also be a good idea to run a good antivirus/spyware scan to make sure it isn't malware causing your problem. Failing these steps, you could delete the mouse from the hardware manager on the computer and reboot. This will cause the driver to be re-applied with the device is auto-detected on reboot. (Presuming you have at least Windows XP installed on your computer.) ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

What a tragedy. It was a great pleasure to have met you Steve, and the world is that much dimmer with you gone. May you find peace and blue skies now that you have left us behind. You will be missed. BSBD, GaVak Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

My tats were more annoying than the 14G nipple rings or the 4 x 12G earrings. The piercings actually felt kinda cool; there was as sort of rush through my whole body when I got them. ~Gav Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Hmm, there wasn't an entry for 'Migrating Hairline'. Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

I'm having similar problems. My question for you is: Are you accused of being an over analytical thinker? If so, then like me you are probably actively thinking about your landing each and every time vs having a 'feel' for it or a background process that figures it out based on a site picture. (iNtuitive/Thinking vs Sensing/Feeling on the Myers-Briggs scale) After 64 jumps, I still notice when I'm in my landing pattern; the 'Automatic' pilot sort of clicks off and I'm left holding the toggles having to calculate the landing process all over again. I'm working on my problem by going over my landings that are good in my head right after the landing to look for the key visual images that I noticed as I flaired. My thought is if I drill my good landings into my memory, it will be more automatic of a process in my head on landing. Or it could just be I never have had to judge distances by sight before and my brain isn't trained to do it on the fly. Regardless, good luck with it. ~d Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21

Hopfully the case isn't tried in GA; they tend to rule in favor of the mother unless a) there is some very good evidence or b) the father has very good lawyers. Unfortunatly my brother had neither of these things, so the ex-wife gets to keep the child AND the girlfriend she had on the side (yes, you read it right) while he has to pay child support and fight to see his son. Life doesn't need reasons, just participants. D.S.#21