tbrown

I got back in at age 47 after a 22 year break. Originally started when I was 18. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But I used to be once, a long time ago. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I was just thinking of Franz Klammer in '76, the guy just flew down the slope like a bat out of hell. The wife and I were also wowed with Torvell & Dean's ice dancing "Bolero" at the '84 Sarajevo Olympics. Right now we're watching the luge event. Even with a shorter course, they're still smokin' 90+ mph. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've always loved The Who, but half the original band is DEAD. Also loved The Grateful Dead, but I don't go see any of the "Dead Guys" retread bands either. I don't even know who "the kids" are listening to anymore - or care. HOWEVER, there are a few rare & notable exceptions, Neil Young and Paul McCartney come to mind. But the rest of them are an embarrassment. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Me too, I remember Gary and Tim well from the year I jumped at Orange before moving west. Gary and Diane were a wonderful generous couple and I remember several weekend nights sleeping over in their A-frame house in Orange. I'm saddened to hear this, my love to Diane and the girls. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Not to be picky, but this was not a settlement. It was a verdict. It was a victory. And it is fantastic news ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I switched from a Spectre (a really fine 7 cell) to a 210 Pilot and jumped it for three years, 'til I blew the poor thing up with a slammer opening. By the way, a slammer can happen to anyone under any canopy. They hurt like hell and in rare cases can even kill you. They're something we all need to watch out for (ask your rigger) and they can happen with any make, model, or brand name canopy. I didn't think the 210 could be repaired (I was right - it was totalled), but sent it back to Aerodyne for a looking over. Sent them a cheerful note too. Aerodyne called me back and told me my canopy was dead as a doornail, but they made me a terrific offer for a brand new canopy off the shelf. It wasn't a free replacement, but get this - I wasn't the original owner of the blown canopy either, and I was open with them about that. The price they offered was well below the going rate for Pilots on the used market. They even offered to build me a custom Pilot, if I was willing to wait. I didn't think I needed custom and was happy to order a beautiful 188 in a blue waterfall color scheme. I've been really happy with both my Pilots and very satisfied with way Aerodyne supported me after losing the first one. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Was there ever a shred of doubt ? What kind of a-hole would put a staff brown-noser up to trying to admit paternity in the first place ? Apparently winning the White House was THAT important to him. While his wife has an incurable cancer all the while... As a historical aside, Grover Cleveland, who was single at the time, fully admitted paternity for a woman he'd knocked up and took responsibility for the child's welfare and education. This was while he was running for his first term in 1884. The (Republican) James G. Blaine campaign tried to make a big stink about it ("Ma, ma, where's my pa ?"), but Cleveland won anyway. It's not a matter of party either. Some of these people are simply such reprehensible excuses for a human being they should never see the light of day, let alone public office. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Air Trash is out in force at Perris the last Saturday of every month, though the jumping for the day is usually finished in time for "lunch". There's also a bona fide chapter at Taft. Lately the guys are jumping a whole lot more, almost every Saturday. Come out and join us, we'll help you earn your Chicken Choker number. With a little luck you might even earn your CCR (Chicken Choker with Reserve ride) - there are already one or two of those ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The guy's a friend of mine and we talked about it a bit. He does his own packing and told me that he'd rushed the packjob to make a short call for the next load. Says he's learned his lesson and knowing him, I know that he has. Jumping to the conclusion that he used a packer is unfounded, as well as your conclusion that it's time to kick anyone's ass, unless that's the way you try to solve all of life's problems. Malfunctions happen happen to us all and more often than not they happen because we did something dumb to ourselves. Live with it, learn from it, and move on. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Harry Nillson's "You're Breaking My Heart". "You're breaking my heart, tearing it apart, so fuck you !" Haven't heard it in years, but just found it with a simple search for Nillson. It still rocks ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, if we'd never figured out how to grow our own food, we'd probably go on for millions of years, until the next big meteor hits. Our population would be small and stable, in balance with the world and other animal populations around us. But since we did figure out agriculture, everything else both good and bad happened. We're way overpopulated by now and don't seem to have the maturity to keep up with our advanced and often destructive technologies. We've come this far in the 10,000 years since we figured out growing our own food. I don't think we have a long extended future, not even for a few thousand more years, maybe not even for centuries. Dinosaurs lived for hundreds of millions of years until the big meteor did them in. We'll do ourselves in and in fairly short order. In the meantime, let's burn some carbon and go skydive. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Biggest surprise of the holidays and one of the funniest movies my wife or I have seen in years. Anybody who thinks sixty can't be sexy needs to take another look at Meryl Streep. Alec Baldwin's character may be a bit of an a-hole, but Baldwin himself is hysterically funny. The mostly middle aged audience was laughing their asses off in the theater. So if you want to find out how funny old fart sex can be, when an ex-wife becomes the "other woman" behind the back of the young bitch who stole her husband in the first place, definitely check it out ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Can you make one with a little spinning propellor ? It would help 98% of the people wearing the hats to escape from the aliens who are trying to rip the helmet off - just run to the edge of the nearest cliff, tall building, bridge, etc. and leap ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Nice work.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgbGaYTkkPU Carries me back to the summer of '78, my cross country trip out west, jumping at the Nationals Boogie in Richmond, and finally reaching the So Cal skydiving scene. Every time I hear that sax riff, I'm running out of a DC-3 all over again. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

So, uh, who's being prosecuted and for what ? I realize we won't hear anything about this in the, uh, liberal news media, but since I don't listen to the right wingnuts either, maybe a little background info might be in order........ I mean ordinarily a prosecution of the military at the behest of the POTUS should make at least page 3, even in a liberal fishwrap.... And by the way, I do support the SEALS, my old high school girlfriend's son is a SEAL. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

So much for lighting your farts. I swear, all the fun's gone out of life. Bless you Andy, you even make me laugh ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel. How about telling us how YOU feel John ? Flying anywhere soon ? Bon voyage.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Bill, I just don't know what to think anymore about this health bill. For starters, I'm a Single Payer advocate, who is just willing to settle for "public option" as a bottom line compromise. But now, thanks to the Senate for not kicking (literally) Joe Liebermann's ass, even the public option is dead. My employer has just informed us that Aetna is upping our premiums 45% for the coming year. As it is, I pay $127 a week for coverage on my wife and one daughter, under a plan that I have so far considered pretty darn good. As long as I don't lose my job, which at least for the moment doesn't seem too likely either. I guess this rate increase is Aetna's "thank you" to Joe Liebermann and the rest of the gutless cocksuckers in the U.S. Senate for gutting the public option. Thank you Joe, come & see me sometime.... But on top of that, I'll not only have to pay 45% higher premiums (unless my employer dumps Aetna for some affordable shit plan), but if my plan is considered a "gold plated" plan, because it actually pays for something, I'll have to pay a TAX on it ??? I mean what the fuck ? What the fucking fuck ??? I am at least consoled that 94% of Americans should be able to get some kind of coverage for themselves. I'm pleased that pre-existing conditions and lifetime limits will be outlawed, and that getting cancer won't be grounds for cancellation of coverage by the insurance industry death panels (the real death panels, thank you Sarah Palin....). But I'm left wondering what the fucking fuck ? I don't blame Obama for this either, except that I wish he'd grown more of a spine for public option. I do blame assholes like Joe Liebermann, Ben Nelson, and a U.S. Senate that makes its own privileged set of rules that aren't even in our Constitution. On the whole I don't blame the Democrats. The Republicans can bloody well go and fuck themselves, since all they've ever contributed to the discussion was that this was their opportunity to "break Obama". The Republicans should be used for medical experiments, ala Dr. Mengele.... it's all they're good for. But Congress has once again gone and fucked up the works. It's the only thing we can count on them to do. It doesn't even matter which party is running the show. They're all a bunch of privileged fuck ups, completely out of touch with how the rest of us live. And they all have free government provided health care. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, I have to fly to Boston tonight from the west coast. Guess we'll just see whether/how bad it is to fly anymore. I'm hearing about how the dumbfuck Feds and airlines won't let you go to the bathroom anymore during the last hour of flight. Fine - I hope somebody takes a SHIT right on the deck - no American citizen should be made to shit in their pants ! Lest the idiot Feds forget, this dumbass Nigerian Muslim was jumped on and subdued by his fellow passengers. Richard Wright, the shoe bomber was jumped on and had the shit beat out of him, again by his fellow passengers. And Flight 93 was stopped from its suicide mission to destroy the U.S. Capitol building by American passengers who fought to regain control of the plane. They may have "failed" in their endeavour, at cost of their lives, but they gave their lives to save their fellow Americans and a building that is heart and soul to everything we cherish. So now Homeland Security wants to make us "safer" by telling us we can't go to the shitter ? Or have a laptop or a book in our laps ? Well, FUCK THEM !! Who gave this dumb fuck third world Muslim shitbag a VISA to visit the U.S., when his name was already on a terrorist watch list ? It wasn't me and it wasn't you. It was the dumb fucks at Homeland Security. And this isn't a Bush or Obama issue either folks, it's all about the dumb fucks who work for the gummint in ANY administration. Remember how back in grade school you had to write fifty lines of "I will not...", just because some dumb shit was firing spitwads in class and it wasn't even you ?? Well, do you ?!? This is the same fucking thing !! Do you feel one little bit safer for enduring this mindless collective punishment ? I sure the fuck don't. I will be reading my copy of David McCullough's "1776" and if some asshole tells me I can't hold it in my lap, I'm going to offer to shove my book right up their ass. When people surrender their liberties for safety, they deserve neither. Happy New Year and best of luck to anyone trying to fly home with their rig..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Don't be so sure about that. Cannabis intoxication does not impair driving ability like alcohol intoxication does. I've posted on the topic previously here and here with links to sources. Oh for Christ's sake, how many times have we all seen some stoner creeping along the interstate at 40 mph, leaning way forward with his nose against the windshield ? From personal experience I KNOW that pot gives you a kind of tunnel vision. Not literally visually, but more like a tunnel focus. In the old days of Mexican dirt weed, or even Columbian, it wasn't so bad. But with today's buds, you can kill somebody. ANY recreational drug use has to be responsible. As far as your argument goes, I know people who say the same thing about how well they drive when they're liquored up. We simply cannot allow any of you on the road. Besides, if you EVER want to see the ganja legalized, you're going to have to compromise as far as allowing for a DUI offense. That's just the way it is. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I smoked the ganja for ten years in my younger days. Quit a whole thirty years ago, just as the moderately strong Columbian of the 1970's was giving way to the killer buds people smoke nowadays. I don't like it anymore and think the buds are way too fucking strong. People smoking bud are IMPAIRED and should never drive, or else be pulled over and arrested same as a drunk driver. That said, I'm also strongly in favor of legalization, taxation, and the same kind of controls that are in place over alcohol. People who smoke are not criminals. But there are too many criminals involved in the sale & distribution and they'll never be taken out of the picture until it's legalized. As with alcohol, some people can handle the weed better than others. Some people handle it quite well and lead capable and responsible lives. Those who can't handle it have a MEDICAL problem. Taxes from the sale of legal ganja can help pay for treatment of the stoners who get messed up. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Soon as you can, buy your own gear. Student gear is infamous for discomfort and leaving bruises, regardless of the dropzone. When you buy your own rig, you'll almost certainly be getting one with a step-in harness, i.e. without B-2 snaps for the leg straps. The padding on just about ANY step-in rig is better than a lot of student gear. Buying your own gear will also offer you the OPPORTUNITY to pack it every jump, which will help you develop an intimacy with your rig that every skydiver NEEDS to have. As for the bruises, well....this is a sport that can maim or KILL you. Bruises will happen, learn to enjoy them ! When's the last time you got a bruise watching TV ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I disagree. The man pulled his cutaway handle - thus eliminating ANY option of using his main if things went to shit with his reserve - which I have SEEN happen (1978 Nationals Boogie at Richmond, IN - she lived). Nothing says the cutaway has to release a deployed main from over your head. Whatever else may have happened, you've decided to disconnect your main and take it out of play. PERIOD. I don't know what military training has to say about cutaway procedures in the event of a total mal. But you had a total, did as you were trained, and lived to tell the tale. GOOD FOR YOU !! In the civilian world there are two schools of thought. Personally, I'd have gone straight to my reserve, especially as there was no main deployment at all (I throw a hand deploy p/c, you'd be pulling a ripcord). But if your training told you to cutaway, you did the right thing, and YES, it was definitely a cutaway. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !