EarthSucks

Congrats, dude! I just passed AFF too last Saturday, and I'm gonna do my first solo this weekend. I'm a little nervous, but I'm ready to get out there and start working on my A. Blue Skies

I agree completely... I've never worked in food service, but I've worked in retail, and we all hated it when people would come in 5 minutes before we closed. It's fine if you know exactly what you need and can be in and out by closing time, but those people are rare. Most of the time people didn't seem to give a crap that we were closed... they would make the "We're closed, get out" announcement on the PA, and there were always still people just browsing, like we would stay open just for them. And I know it's worse for food service, because you've got to clean up and do all that other stuff you can't do if people are still ordering food. Although that can be taken to an extreme... I went into a restaurant one day on my lunch break from work. I got there at 5:15, and they closed at 6. I was getting food for myself, and for some people at work, so I decided to just eat my food there, and then get theirs to go. So I told the girl behind the counter that the first part of my order was for dine-in, and the rest was to-go. She gave me this nasty look and said "Umm, we close in 45 minutes. All orders are to-go." Come on. 45 minutes? That's a little excessive.

I'm a police dispatcher, and personally I would never pay for a monitored alarm. First of all, I'd say well over 95% of the residential alarms we get are false. It's more common for commercial alarms to be actual break-ins, but the overwhelming majority of those are false, too. Residential burglar alarms are one of the most common calls that we get, and in my two and a half years working there, I could probably count on one hand how many of those I've seen that were actual. Obviously it depends on where you live, the crime rate, and all that jazz, but in my experience it's very rare to see an alarm actually catch a burglar. And even if it is actual, it's insanely rare that the police actually show up and find somebody still in the house. I can only think of one time that that happened while I was working, and that was at a business. Here's how these things work. The alarm goes off, and the monitoring company gets the signal. They usually try to call on premise, and if they don't get an answer there, they start going down their contact list trying to get a keyholder. Only after they've done all that do they call the police. That usually takes at the very least 5 minutes, sometimes more like 15 or 20. Once we get the call, assuming there's an officer available, it takes an average of around 5 minutes for the officer to get there. If it's a busy night, there may not be anybody available, and the call will just have to hold until there's an officer to take it. So you're typically looking at an average of at least 10 minutes before the police show up. More than enough time for a burglar to get the hell out of Dodge. The cops show up, but they can't do anything but stand around and say "Yup, somebody stole your shit." In my opinion, it might be worth it to have an alarm that makes noise, but isn't monitored by anybody. The noise would scare any potential burglars away, because how are they to know that the alarm isn't monitored? That way you don't have to pay the monthly fee, or worry about getting fined or harassed by the police department if and when your cat starts setting off your alarm. But anyway, that's just my 2 cents, from my experience being part of the whole process. But it's just personal preference... If you've got the money, it really couldn't hurt, but I wouldn't pay for that service, because IMHO it's just not worth it.

On Saturday I made my level 6 and 7 jumps, and finally graduated from AFF! Neither of my jumps were perfect, and I made a few dumb mistakes, but my instructors told me I was good to go, so I'm cleared for self supervision So now the real learning begins, I guess. I didn't have time to do my first solo, since it was already getting dark when I landed from my level 7, but that'll come next week, if the weather holds out. I'm just excited to be able to plan my own jumps, without an instructor holding my hand the whole time. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'm still gonna bug the piss out of my instructors and coaches with questions and "hey is this right?"s, but it still feels good to know that I'm supervising myself. I was thinking for my first solo, I'll work on getting stable after a diving exit (I got stable in a reasonable time on level 7, but my instructor told me I'll need to work on doing it a little quicker before my hop & pop), and then do some tracking (another thing that needs work). Maybe I'll play around with a few flips and the like if I have time... I hear the first solo normally seems to go by really slow. I'm just excited and ready to get started on my A license card. I feel like I've achieved this one goal of getting through AFF, and I can't wait to start doing my coach jumps and everything else I need to do to get over that next hurdle and get my A license. I really love this new sport I've found, and although it still scares the hell out of me sometimes, I'm convinced there is nothing in the world that could compare to the feeling of jumping out of an airplane. I'm completely hooked. So anyway, I just want to say thanks to my instructors Jason, Frank, and Jon at Skydive Alabama for kicking ass and getting me through AFF. Also everybody else at Skydive Alabama, for making me feel welcome... and maybe a little uncomfortable at times. But that's okay, I love it, and I couldn't imagine jumping with a more awesome group of people. I can't wait to jump with and learn from every one of you. You guys rock!!!!