(no subject)
ok, so. Quite a bit to power through.
With festival season in full flow, there's a couple things I want to see. I'm going to try to go to one day of Pitchfork and Lollapalooza each, and looking at the line ups I think it's going to be sunday for both. As per usual with pitchfork, I don't really know many of the bands, but Spoon should be good as well as Apples in Stereo, and there a couple other names that pique my interest for that day. Lollapalooza, as per usual there's a spread of decent bands intermixed with crap, but Sunday seemed the best with Iron & Wine, Girl Talk, gnarls Barkley, Nine In Nails, and a couple more I'm completely forgetting about.
Outside of the festivals, Gogol Bordello and the Ting Tings are playing august first, I'm thinking of that one as well.
My parents are coming in to town in july 15th-25th. yaaaaay. It's for my cousin's reception about getting married, which is a bit ridiculous (short version: her uncle is throwing this huge thing just because he wants to/has to reciprocate for synagogue related invites) but I should be able to get out of Sunday to go to the show instead.
I need to plan my august a little better. ordered my gencon 4-day pass, but haven't signed up for events again. Means a lot of generics, and such, but I still need to solidify my position on gaming these days anyway.
looks like early september is going to be the time for my long road trip out east. I'm leaving it a little late, but september should still be nice enough for the ride. The plan to go to the adirondack 46 is out, as my friend who was going to come can't make it. Still, I'm planning to head over to New York first, then down the coast to Ft lauderdale to meet an old high school buddy there. From there I can decide whether to head back to chicago across the flatlands, or get over to new orleans to finally see what that town is like. Still a lot to think about there.
Speaking of motorcycles, I just rolled over 1k ridden on Remus. This makes me happy.
Finally, Sky diving. A note before I begin: I'm going back out there for a second jump july 12th, camping only saturday night. If people are interested, you should get in touch with me quick, as it's only a couple weeks away.
Now, the experience itself. It's... pretty indescribable, and it seems immensely personal. We had a pretty big group of people turn up, so we split in to three groups. While we were sitting there waiting for people/waiting for our turn, you would suddenly look up and just see parachutes dotting the sky. Sometimes they would catch you offguard, and you would suddenly look up at this ripping sound as one of the more experienced divers swooped down for a landing. And this get's you excited, and a little offbalance.
Everyone seemed to handle the nervousness differently. Before getting in the plane, I was only really freaked out during the safety class ahead of time. This was because they started talking numbers: you're travelling 120 mph, you'll fall an additional 1000 ft between when you pull the chute release and it actually opens. For me, that 120 mph reminded me that I don't even really like going 90 on my bike, because it feels like I don't have enough time to react. So then I got a little unnerved.
But, that passed. Then I was just exhilarated, happy, etc. It was one of those situations where, since I was the only person who really knew everyone jumping and had set it up, my more gregarious/social side came to the fore. Always kind of weird. I was pretty calm, collected.
Once I was sitting waiting to board the plane though, it got really intense. Not upset, not afraid, I just... stopped thinking ahead. Talk about zen, when you just sit there and say "ok, now I'm getting on the plane. Now I'm getting hooked to the other guy. Now the door is opening. hello door."
The only time there I had a brief flash of panic was right at the door. To explain, when you jump tandem, you don't really jump. What happens is the tandem master jumps, and you just get taken with him. In order for this to happen, you end up for a couple of seconds where you're kneeling on the edge of the doorframe, your hands tucked in to the harness, and you can't hold on to anything. That startled me until I just forced myself to trust the guy behind me.
And then... freefall. Wow. It's only a minute, but it feels longer. You do a couple of checks to get in to the feeling of the fall and control, check your altimeter, and then you just watch. I fell in such a way that the clouds just came drifting on either side of me, and it's... well, indescribable. Incredible.
Then the unfortunate bit. I kept my eye on the altimeter, pulled the chute at the right time, everything was set. Since it was a windy day, and I'm kind of a bigger guy (hence we were falling faster) the tandem master did pretty much all the steering under canopy. And, for whatever reason, I started to get really motionsick. I mean, we were doing some high speed turns and the like, which was awesome, but after a while it got to me. When we touched down, I was probably about 30 seconds from vomiting. This bothers me. The rest of the experience was so amazing, I would hate to think that the only thing stopping me is that I can't stand being under canopy.
So, as I said above, I'm going again. July 12th. I hope they'll let me steer a little more, since being in control myself usually helps with my motion sickness.
The camping was also fun. While I knew there was a devoted subculture that went with the skydiving thing, I didn't realise it was that active/fun. The facilities were beautiful, and all the instructors and regulars were having a barbecue friday night, and casual as can be invited us to join them. Then the little bar opened up, and promptly filled up with with more regulars and instructors. There are people there who give up whatever life they had before, buy a trailer on the site for the summer months and just ... jump. Become instructors, or camera people, or anything jsut to jump more. Very cool.
*grin* and that, they say, is that.
With festival season in full flow, there's a couple things I want to see. I'm going to try to go to one day of Pitchfork and Lollapalooza each, and looking at the line ups I think it's going to be sunday for both. As per usual with pitchfork, I don't really know many of the bands, but Spoon should be good as well as Apples in Stereo, and there a couple other names that pique my interest for that day. Lollapalooza, as per usual there's a spread of decent bands intermixed with crap, but Sunday seemed the best with Iron & Wine, Girl Talk, gnarls Barkley, Nine In Nails, and a couple more I'm completely forgetting about.
Outside of the festivals, Gogol Bordello and the Ting Tings are playing august first, I'm thinking of that one as well.
My parents are coming in to town in july 15th-25th. yaaaaay. It's for my cousin's reception about getting married, which is a bit ridiculous (short version: her uncle is throwing this huge thing just because he wants to/has to reciprocate for synagogue related invites) but I should be able to get out of Sunday to go to the show instead.
I need to plan my august a little better. ordered my gencon 4-day pass, but haven't signed up for events again. Means a lot of generics, and such, but I still need to solidify my position on gaming these days anyway.
looks like early september is going to be the time for my long road trip out east. I'm leaving it a little late, but september should still be nice enough for the ride. The plan to go to the adirondack 46 is out, as my friend who was going to come can't make it. Still, I'm planning to head over to New York first, then down the coast to Ft lauderdale to meet an old high school buddy there. From there I can decide whether to head back to chicago across the flatlands, or get over to new orleans to finally see what that town is like. Still a lot to think about there.
Speaking of motorcycles, I just rolled over 1k ridden on Remus. This makes me happy.
Finally, Sky diving. A note before I begin: I'm going back out there for a second jump july 12th, camping only saturday night. If people are interested, you should get in touch with me quick, as it's only a couple weeks away.
Now, the experience itself. It's... pretty indescribable, and it seems immensely personal. We had a pretty big group of people turn up, so we split in to three groups. While we were sitting there waiting for people/waiting for our turn, you would suddenly look up and just see parachutes dotting the sky. Sometimes they would catch you offguard, and you would suddenly look up at this ripping sound as one of the more experienced divers swooped down for a landing. And this get's you excited, and a little offbalance.
Everyone seemed to handle the nervousness differently. Before getting in the plane, I was only really freaked out during the safety class ahead of time. This was because they started talking numbers: you're travelling 120 mph, you'll fall an additional 1000 ft between when you pull the chute release and it actually opens. For me, that 120 mph reminded me that I don't even really like going 90 on my bike, because it feels like I don't have enough time to react. So then I got a little unnerved.
But, that passed. Then I was just exhilarated, happy, etc. It was one of those situations where, since I was the only person who really knew everyone jumping and had set it up, my more gregarious/social side came to the fore. Always kind of weird. I was pretty calm, collected.
Once I was sitting waiting to board the plane though, it got really intense. Not upset, not afraid, I just... stopped thinking ahead. Talk about zen, when you just sit there and say "ok, now I'm getting on the plane. Now I'm getting hooked to the other guy. Now the door is opening. hello door."
The only time there I had a brief flash of panic was right at the door. To explain, when you jump tandem, you don't really jump. What happens is the tandem master jumps, and you just get taken with him. In order for this to happen, you end up for a couple of seconds where you're kneeling on the edge of the doorframe, your hands tucked in to the harness, and you can't hold on to anything. That startled me until I just forced myself to trust the guy behind me.
And then... freefall. Wow. It's only a minute, but it feels longer. You do a couple of checks to get in to the feeling of the fall and control, check your altimeter, and then you just watch. I fell in such a way that the clouds just came drifting on either side of me, and it's... well, indescribable. Incredible.
Then the unfortunate bit. I kept my eye on the altimeter, pulled the chute at the right time, everything was set. Since it was a windy day, and I'm kind of a bigger guy (hence we were falling faster) the tandem master did pretty much all the steering under canopy. And, for whatever reason, I started to get really motionsick. I mean, we were doing some high speed turns and the like, which was awesome, but after a while it got to me. When we touched down, I was probably about 30 seconds from vomiting. This bothers me. The rest of the experience was so amazing, I would hate to think that the only thing stopping me is that I can't stand being under canopy.
So, as I said above, I'm going again. July 12th. I hope they'll let me steer a little more, since being in control myself usually helps with my motion sickness.
The camping was also fun. While I knew there was a devoted subculture that went with the skydiving thing, I didn't realise it was that active/fun. The facilities were beautiful, and all the instructors and regulars were having a barbecue friday night, and casual as can be invited us to join them. Then the little bar opened up, and promptly filled up with with more regulars and instructors. There are people there who give up whatever life they had before, buy a trailer on the site for the summer months and just ... jump. Become instructors, or camera people, or anything jsut to jump more. Very cool.
*grin* and that, they say, is that.