allicat

I'm a little late here, but wow, what a party last weekend! We need to do more of that. From the dirty dancing in the hangar, vodka snow cones, the biggest bottle of Grey Goose I've ever seen, ass pyramids, Russian karaoke, playing airplane, head and handstands, and PLFs off the picnic table at 5am...a good time was had by all.

Nothing at all, I tell you. Plus, you look damn good in my RW suit!

Thanks. That was taken on my way back from Nationals. I was flying alone but made friends with the drunk next to me so we got drunk together! I am so happy to see that the atmosphere at CSS has really become awesome. The party habit is back! I guess these things go in cycles but much of it is owed to all the kick-ass new jumpers out there.

Hey kids! I had no idea there was so much CSS action here. Warms my heart. Is everyone jumping this weekend? Don't forget about the big shin dig for Jeff & Nicol Sat. night too. BRING BEER

An awful, awful movie.

Oh come on, not the plant argument! I guess I need to spell out I am talking about living things with CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEMS. so your importance to the 'life cycle' and your place in it is determined by your ability to experience pain? a bit unenlightened dont you think? life is life. somethings are nessesary. Unenlightened? I don't even know how to respond to that. All I am saying is that, no, watching a plant be dismembered does not hurt my feelings. Watching a person or animal be dismembered? Yes that hurts my feelings. Why? The former does not feel pain and suffering, the latter does. It's pretty simple. so your basing a scientific observation (killing animals is bad, but killing plants is ok) on an emotional response? enlightenment is recognizing that ALL life has value and that it is taken to benifit other lives as part of a continuing cycle. Respect for the sacrifice (unwilling in all cases) of another life (any life) is far more important than "feeling' good because carrots dont bleed... Talk about forcing one's beliefs on others. Sheesh! I am not buddhist. My goal is not to become enlightened according to your definition.

Yes, the studies control for sex. Put more simply, female vegetarians live longer than female non-vegetarians. Male vegetarians live longer than male non-vegetarians.

Oh come on, not the plant argument! I guess I need to spell out I am talking about living things with CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEMS. so your importance to the 'life cycle' and your place in it is determined by your ability to experience pain? a bit unenlightened dont you think? life is life. somethings are nessesary. Unenlightened? I don't even know how to respond to that. All I am saying is that, no, watching a plant be dismembered does not hurt my feelings. Watching a person or animal be dismembered? Yes that hurts my feelings. Why? The former does not feel pain and suffering, the latter does. It's pretty simple.

They are still supporting the event by participating in it.

Oh come on, not the plant argument! I guess I need to spell out I am talking about living things with CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEMS.

Based on current research (not the outdated research that you may be thinking of), vegetarians do not lack muscle building ability at all. They are just as strong and are healthier than meat eaters. They live YEARS longer (that says a lot!). l am vegetarian and believe me, I am very strong. I even compete in triathlons. Also, since becoming a vegetarian 5 1/2 yrs ago, I have not been sick once (knock on wood), not even a cold. Go figure....

And who said humans are HIGHLY evolved?, we are still animals who depend on nature to survive. I don't know who said that, do you? It certainly wasn't me. Anyway, yes, we do depend on nature to survive - no argument there. But while I can't speak for you, I like to think that I am "evolved" and intelligent enough to chose not to "torture or kill" lesser creatures. Isn't that the very thing that separtes us from the animals - compassion?

This is a nice thought but it is simply untrue. The meat industry is a business. And their business is producing the most amount of meat in the shortest amount of time, in the least expensive way possible. This is just not conducive to humane treatment, trust me.

And what's WORSE than the slaughter is how they live up until then. People are so deluded - they think that the cows and pigs and chickens they eat roam and graze freely up until that unfortunate time when it's off to the slaughterhouse - the truth is not even close. They live in close confined quarters, in filth, alot of them never seeing the light of day, ever. Why do you think they have to cut baby chicken's beaks off? B/c they are stuffed so tight into chicken coops all their lives that they "go nuts" and will peck each other to death. And that's just one example.

However, killing animals for food, whether it is right or wrong, is still different than torturing them - be it a bull or a fish - for entertainment. ... Keely, I hate to tell you this but the animals you eat for food ARE tortured. In fact their entire lives are torture, not just the last part of their lives in a slaughterhouse. Read about the conditions under which factory farmed animals (which is where your meat comes from) live. You may be more inspired to give vegetarianism another try. And by the way, vegetarians are MORE healthy than meat eaters. They live longer too. Just educate yourself first as to what you need to eat to get everything you need.

Yeah, it may possibly be natural for ANIMALS to torture and kill lesser animals, but as HUMAN BEINGS (who are the much more intelligent species, right?), it's pretty primitive and indicative of a less evolved brain in my opinion. I am by no means a cruel person, but I think it's poetic justice that these fools got hurt doing this. In fact, I laughed out loud when I saw it on the news. The event is cruel - period. I am no activist either, just someone with a bit of common sense.

I stole this from my friend Joe but it cracks me up: Monkeys like butt sex That's great because so do I That's how SARS started

I think these are such good questions. Let me take this a step further. Kryos, when you were jumping, did you have any family? Any parents, siblings, or anyone who would have suffered profoundly had anything happened to you? Is that selfish too? Or maybe not as selfish as being a skydiver with kids? Is leaving a parent to mourn the loss of their child (which they say is the most intense grief a human being can experience) not as bad as leaving children parentless? I am not saying I believe it is, I am just posing a question. These are all important moral dilemas that I bet a lot of us, as skydivers, struggle with. I know I do. I don't have the answers either.

true, lady. Thanks for the encouragement.

I hear you Canuck- I didn't think about jumping when you're metally or physically tired. Probably not the safest thing. Luckily I am healthy (knock on wood) and feel sure I can get these jumps in without exhausting myself. My wallet may disagree though.

Thanks Canuck. No, no kids. But that's another thing my entire family says to me all the time: "I can't wait until you get married and have kids so you'll stop skydiving.", like that's a given or something. Honestly, I do struggle with that idea too. Should you, as a parent, willingly subject yourself to something risky that's not necessary? Is that selfish? Well, I guess I'm not having kids.

Claritin works well for me. But it is expensive now that it's OTC.

I have 106 jumps and my goal is to get 200 by Sept 30, which will probably involve rushing. I was wondering though, what are the safety concerns about rushing? I thought the more current you are, the better.

I am pressured to give up skydiving. I only have 3 1/2 months in the sport and a little over 100 jumps. My family was fine with it before I made my first jump b/c I only intended on doing it once for the experience. Needless to say, I became hooked and have been on the fast track ever since. My parents are a little uneasy about it but still like to see my videos and hear about it (they seem sort of fascinated by it), but my older sister HATES it. When I came into work Monday I had an email waiting for me from her about the plane crash in Pittsburgh. She said that she had forgotten all about the other dangerous aspect of jumping - "those small planes". She goes as far as to call me selfish and inconsiderate for making my family worry about me. To be honest, I struggle with this. I don't want to cause them stress and worry (and God forbid something happens to me and I cause them profound grief), but I am just not willing to give up this thing I love so much. Using the argument that I could die doing anything, including driving my car does not seem to work. She just says that driving is a neccessary risk, but skydiving is not - which is true. I am out of arguments.

Uugh. I am so jealous of all you people. My weekend was 0:0:0 b/c of the crappy east coast weather. God, please let it be nice next weekend!!!!!