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omg, I'm so happy to see you guys are still around. I took a few years off from jumping regularly, now I'm back and have plenty to listen to :) cavete terrae.

Well done, well done. Wildcard451 got video of me drinking a bottle of MDX in freefall at the Holiday Boogie back in '05, I'll have to dig that up cavete terrae.

Nah cant be, Turbo and Redline Burned in. Probably Vic, Boom Boom and Groundrush This year's halloween costume: Zombie BASE jumper cavete terrae.

Tony Soprano sleeps with the fishes cavete terrae.

My dream job is to be a consultant to tech companies where they pay me a lot of money to tell me why their ideas or products are stupid (in excruciating detail, often for reasons that only apply to me, or perhaps nobody at all), without really giving any ideas on a better way to go about it. I would be willing to do this Tuesday to Thursday from 11am to 4pm, and be paid $150/hr + expenses. cavete terrae.

Slowly, slowly we have been transitioning all of our users to Macs. We've got a few people who still have to RDC into a virtual host to run some archaic Windows-only crap, but that's easy enough to administer. I think we've got two Windows boxes left in the company and that's only because both of their users are old and I'd rather wait for them to retire and/or die than have to teach them how to use a new operating system. As for Flash and Java: Both are avoided on all machines unless the user presents a case for needing it. I don't particularly care what the reason is, I'll install it for "I need it to play Farmville" but it's not going on unless someone asks for it. I'd rather live in New Jersey than install either on my machines, though. For the cases where I MUST have Windows or Java (web admin stuff for various devices, I'm looking at you), I've got VMWare set up with a virtual machine, and of course that's nicely sandboxed. And before the anti-Mac elitists show up, I've got 3 Windows installs at home… how else am I gonna play games?? cavete terrae.

Some of that is kinda misleading. I've learned more about breast augmentation recently than I'd ever have expected and there's so very much more to it than I thought! cavete terrae.

My whole life I've been an extremely avid reader, averaging 4-6 books (average-length fiction books around the 400pg mark) per month. When I was younger I had bookshelves in my bedroom with hundreds (perhaps more? I don't honestly know) of volumes, and I'd frequently re-read them. Then I moved overseas in 2006, and couldn't really bring any books and where I moved they were quite expensive relative to what I was used to, so I sort of stopped reading except when I could borrow from a friend or library. 4 years ago I bought a Kindle on a lark, and have been back to my old habits, averaging at least a book per week. I recently bought a Kindle Paperwhite and it's even better than my first one. But it wasn't until about a week ago that I had an interesting realization: With very few exceptions, I don't think I ever want to buy another physical book. Don't get me wrong, I love the feeling of paging through a book, and I love having shelves of great things to read, but the (usually) higher costs to buy, the huge pain in the ass that is storing them, and worse yet traveling with them, means that they're just too inconvenient. That's not to say ebooks are perfect: The DRM drives me banana sandwich (I strip the DRM from all the books I buy), having to charge the reader (even once every few weeks) can be a bit annoying, and of course you can break the damned things as well. But here's the kicker: I don't want other people to give up reading, because I love browsing bookstores to find the books I'll buy online later! So what's the feeling out there? Anti-ebook, pro-ebook, don't give two shites or a frick? cavete terrae.

http://www.amazon.com/Chickenhawk-Robert-Mason/dp/0143035711 Damn the publisher and their ripoff Kindle version pricing… cavete terrae.

Always charge for anything worth doing. cavete terrae.

I'm on my second Fusion now. I've also test jumped Sabre2 and Safire2 a few times My first Fusion was a little weird but I had to work like hell to pack it into my container, which is aggressive for my current 190, let alone the 210. Ask AggieDave or NWFlyer how funny it was to watch me pack that fucker at Eloy a few years back. After about 50 jumps with it I had a brisk opening that broke a brake line, which I repaired and then a few jumps later had an absolute bitchslap of a slammer which tore open a few cells, snapped a couple of HMA main lines and tore a few attachment points off of the canopy itself. I sent it off to PA to get it looked at and ended up buying a 190 since I was ready for a downsize anyway. It's been much more predictable, which again could be because it's the size I had the container built for in the first place. If I ever downsize again (not being an HP canopy sort and not wanting to have wildly disparate reserve vs main sizes, I don't know if I will) I'd reflexively say that I'd probably grab another Fusion just because I'm thrilled with the glide ratio, it's got enough performance to make me grin (or did last time I jumped, when I was 40lbs heavier… yar…), and I've been very happy with Precision's customer service. But on the other hand, I'd test fly everything I can get my hands on, too :) cavete terrae.

Fusion 190 in the main tray, Smart 220 in the reserve. cavete terrae.

A little under three grand, the 206 made a few funny noises and the instruments made new colors. Pilot said "Y'all can get out quick or land with the plane, your call". You've never, ever seen 5 corn fed guys, most on the on the far end of 200 poundsm get out of a Cessna that fast. cavete terrae.

So what? Our standard of living here is different to either Canada or the USofA, that has ZERO to do with our sports governing body. Fuel alone here is more than 2x that of the USofA. Do you work for your National Association? NO I have no affiliation other than a member. But I don’t piss and moan about things I consider fair and reasonable. Our jump tickets are expensive, that has nothing to do with our APF. The APF membership fees are not exorbitant, and they allow me to jump as an FAI affiliate almost anywhere in the world. Im fine paying 4 jump tickets a year for that (and the liability insurance). Did APF membership drop? I remember when I still jumped in Aus I used to rage about it quite a bit. I figure if I can find myself a reasonably priced AAD with a few years left on it I might get back in the Aussie skies around September-ish. cavete terrae.

One time I recorded my commute on my motorcycle with the GoPro, intending to highlight all the stupid shit I'd see in fifteen minutes, and upload it. Ended up being too much work so I shelved it and try not to think about how many people there were following at unsafe distances, fucking around on their phones in their lap, not using turn signals, not turning on headlights after dusk, having burned out brake lights/running lights, etc etc. Girlfriend thinks I should be a traffic cop, but I'd never pull anyone over for speeding as long as they're not being idiots about it, and I'd only grab people for stuff like the above. cavete terrae.

Every time she sounds like she might go back to it, slap her in the face. In all seriousness, it seems like my friends who have quit quitting ( ) all got back into by having a smoke when they're drunk and it just snowballs from there. Soooo you can stalk her when she drinks, I guess? Just remember, folks, if you only do something when you're drunk, you're still doing it. "I only beat my wife when I'm drunk" doesn't mean you're not a chick puncher. cavete terrae.

Lame thing 'bout diet… I lost a bunch of my weight I lost wingload, too. cavete terrae.

How is it that the phoropter, aka "interchangable flippy spin mclens goggle thing", has not yet been replaced by something that doesn't depend on the patient's ability to reliably differentiate between "which is better"? I'd have figured by now that there'd be some sort of scanning unit that goes "ah yes, with your eye scan, you need with "? Or does the absolute shape/build quality (for lack of a better term) of the eye only matter to an extent, and how the brain choses to interpret the signals it receives matters as much as the physical side? This thread spurred by having an eye exam, obviously :P Prescription hasn't changed in the decade I've been wearing contacts, about time for LASIK I reckon… and speaking of, isn't that EXACTLY what the wavefront system for LASIK does? cavete terrae.

That's one of the ways I figured it out cavete terrae.

By the thread title I thought this was going to be about me. Out… cavete terrae.

Could be not knowing better. Hell, you know how much time I've been spending at the gym and only just recently realized I've been doing my bench press wrong. cavete terrae.

What sort of incentives are you being offered for that? Just curious... Reduced calorie clam juice. cavete terrae.

I'm too lazy, but I once used Siri in the car to send a text message informing a coworker "I'm going to the Prahran market to grab some juice and meat, and I'll be back a little later" Apparently she sent "I'm going to the organ market to get some jews and meat, and I'll be back a little later" cavete terrae.

That's like choosing between sodomy with a telephone pole or a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. cavete terrae.

Short sighted, and inaccurate. There are a legitimate reasons you could have to land downwind. Off field landing FMD Pattern set the wrong way Variable wind conditions, or winds switched after takeoff (on a preset landing direction DZ for example). etc Ian Too right. My first jump back after a 14 month layoff was set downwind by FMD, that was amusing in a "Welp, let's see if I can remember how to fly this thing" sort of way Wasn't most picture-perfect tippy-toe landing ever, but you were a witness to the ugliest one I've ever had and this was better than that :P cavete terrae.