If my previous post seemed a bit abrupt, it’s because I was trying to get something down in a hurry before the big day when Deanna and I threw ourselves out of a perfectly good airplane came. Just in case we became one of those rare statistics who don’t survive their first jump.

Obviously we did, and what an amazing experience it was. As we started getting ready that morning, I decided to call the place we were jumping, Skydive Spaceland, and confirm our reservation. Turns out the time was not 10:30 as we somehow remembered, but 10:00. Oops. So after a bolted down breakfast and a rush to the car, we were on our way to a little townlet south of Houston for our trip on the Freefall Express.

As we approached the complex, we saw numerous skydivers floating in for landings. Next to me in the car, Deanna began making little noises of apprehension, but with nowhere to go but into the parking lot, she quickly rose to the occasion. We arrived right at 10:00 and then proceeded to hurry up and wait… filling out forms, filling out more forms, paying, and filling out even more forms. Every one of them said the same thing: skydiving is dangerous, and you promise not to sue us if you get injured or killed. Then it was upstairs for a training video, opened by a lawyer who had to be the lost fourth member of ZZ Top. Seriously. I thought it was a joke as he droned on about how (once again) we promised not to sue anyone involved in our jump should things go awry, even showing an ambulance driving off the jump zone to punctuate the point. Then it was five minutes of what to do, including pulling the ripcord.

After the video, it was more hurry up and wait, until they called our names Suddenly it was blur of motion: into the suit, more quick instruction, out to the plane, up the ladder, and on to the bench. Before I knew it, we were taking off and climbing at a steep angle as the videographer asked me silly questions. The flight up took longer than I thought, but all too soon we were leveling off, the door opened, and the single divers ahead began falling out like dandelion seeds blowing in the wind. I didn’t have time to think before I was staring out the plane, my tandem instructor giving the ready hoist.

And then we were out. Floating for a second before gravity gripped us and yanked us down. It wasn’t so much a feeling of falling as it was being in a hurricane. Wind whipped at my face, roaring in my ears as the horizon flipped around my field of vision. Suddenly we were level, and I was staring out at blue sky and clouds below. My arms came away from their deathgrip on my harness… tentatively at first, then exuberantly, as the videographer flew in close. It was 70 seconds of a giddy rush, but all too soon my instructor was shoving my altimeter in my face. With a quick wave, I reached back and yanked on the golfball on the pack, sending the billowing chute flying out.

What a change of pace! The air suddenly calmed, and I could hear again. We floated through the clouds, lazily at first and then in fierce barrel rolls as we pulled the lines. It was incredible. The air, chilly and cold at 14,000 feet, now slowly warmed up as the ground approached. Coming in for our landing, we approached a bit too fast and were forced into a slide instead of the gentle tap you see so often. In a heap in the grass, the butterflies launched with a vengeance as I slowly regained my bearings. Then I was back up, walking toward a glowing Deanna who had landed not far from me.

It was really much easier than I expected. Much of what happens in a tandem jump is carefully controlled by the instructor. If you can master your own fear, then you’re 90% done. Everything else is gravy. Easy does not mean blase, though. The experience was absolutely incredible, and hard to describe with my poor writing skills. If you want a better description, check out Deanna’s writeup. You can also see some pics of the dive, starring me in all my dorkiness, at my Flickr page.

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So I”m in Houston right now, and tomorrow morning Deanna and I will be jumping out of an airplane. With parachutes, of course, and strapped to a trained jump instructor, but still - leaping out of an airplane into space at altitude. Deanna keeps teasing me that we’re going to die, so I decided I might as well make a blog entry in case it’s my last. Someone please check on kitty if you don’t hear from us by tomorrow afternoon!

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What is it about Legos? Why are these little colored plastic bricks and pieces so fascinating to people? I’ve always liked Legos, from the time I was a little kid and got my first basic building sets, to my first Space sets. I retained that love into college when, as an anthropology major, I went gah-gah over the very limited run Islanders offshot of the Pirates line. When my nephews first expressed their love of Legos, I was overjoyed, and when Lego released Star Wars sets I thought I was in geek heaven.

But all of that pales in comparison to this. Lego has a vault in their Denmark headquarters that contains a pristine, unopened, mint copy of every single set the company has ever produced. Not only is it a goldmine for collectors, and insurance of copyright, but it’s a heartwrenching walk down memory lane for those of us who love Lego. Seeing some of those old Space sets, pristine and unfaded, as if they were sitting on the shelf at Toys R Us, nearly brought a tear to my eye. So many memories of building, playing, tearing down, and building again.

Thank you, Lego, for being such a huge part of my childhood. And thank you for being successful, and hanging around to ensure you’re still a part of my adult life.

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Several lucky residents of Southern California will be the first (and only) Americans to get a chance to drive Honda’s new FCX Clarity, a Prius-sized sedan that runs on hydrogen fuel cells and electricity. Even these few will only be able to lease the car as opposed to buying it. Why SoCal only? My guess is that interest there is high, plus it’s one of the few places with the infrastructure to support vehicles requiring hydrogen. The car will go on sale to the general public in Japan in the fall; who knows when it will see wider release here.

This brings up another point. A Japanese automaker was able to do this because the infrastructure of that country (apparently) supports it. We can’t do the same here, because no one has done much with hydrogen fueling, certainly not Detroit. Given the greed of the Big 3 the past decade, however, I doubt they would have pressed for hydrogen stations and poured money into technological development. Why should they, when they can slap a frame on a truck body, mark up the price 100%, and have people buy the result in droves?

Wonder if they’re wishing they had paid more attention to such things now. I also wonder when we’ll see Mercedes follow Honda’s lead, given that they’ve been working on a fuel cell vehicle for several years, too.

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M. Night Shyamalan’s newest film, The Happening, has to be 90 minutes of some of the worst film making I’ve ever suffered through. It’s an absolute train wreck; the script is god-awful, the dialog is atrocious, the acting is wooden and stilted, and the meandering plot never really goes anywhere. What begins with some promise and a healthy dose of creepiness is soon overwhelmed by characters we don’t really care about in relationships that seem to be a joke, stuck in ridiculous situations awash with cliches. While the movie certainly has its moments, they are far and few between. Rather than bright spots, they’re more like sandbars you can stand on to rest as you swim through this sea of absurdity.

This is even more painful given that the basic premise, which I won’t state here just in case you still want to see the movie, is intriguing and could have made a great movie. Sadly, The Happening isn’t it, and whatever magic Shyamalan had with the Sixth Sense is utterly gone. As a friend said, he’s managed to pull a George Lucas in less than a third of the time.

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Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones, two personalities from the early 90s, have started up a website together dedicated to their alleged affairs with Bill Clinton. At the website, you can buy videos of them describing their trysts and thoughts on Bill for the low, low price of $2. Is it just me, or does this really sound like a desperate attempt to either remain relevant, or continue to cash in on stories that are long since dead and buried? Think they offer correspondence classes in necromancy?

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It should not come as a surprise that I dislike Scott McClellan, Bush’s ex-press secretary who has turned on his former master with a scathing tell-all book. The sheer audacity he displayed while press secretary made him a poster child for the Bush Administration; the amount of spin emerging from his lips could have jump started a helicopter. For me, he was the American version of Saddam’s information minister, who blithely spoke of pushing back the coalition forces while bombs were practically dropping on the city in the background.

Whatever you think of his new book - shocking, revealing, moneygrubbing, obvious, what have you - I still feel it takes some courage to so vehemently attack those to whom you once felt loyalty. It speaks volumes of how the Bush White House and its apologists operate that a once-darling of their own is now considered “disgruntled” over “sour grapes,” to paraphrase Dana Perino, the current Press Secretary. Condi Rice says that Scotty should have spoken out while he was on the job if he felt such trepidation.

That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. If this administration has proved anything beyond a shadow of a doubt, it’s that critics get shouted down, scapegoated, and made examples of. Valerie Plame, anyone? Can you imagine what would have happened to McClellan had he spoken out while serving? His career and his life would have been targeted with a vengeance by the Bush smear machine. He would have been discredited, kicked out, and left for the wolves. No, whatever I think of his performance as Press Secretary, he really had no choice but to wait until after he was out before releasing all this information.

I don’t know what my opinion of him is now. His brother Dudley is a great guy; I suspect Scott isn’t really a bad person. I hated how he performed his job, but it’s what a press secretary does. I disliked how at the time he could seem so disingenuous. But maybe he really was duped. People can have a change of heart, see the light, and so forth. What he has to say should be carefully considered. After all, this isn’t some “disgruntled ex-employee.” This is someone who was a long-standing member in good standing of the Bush noise machine. If he’s now saying what so many on the left (and increasingly in the center) suspected all along, perhaps more in the country will listen.

At the least, those who are turning on him can be exposed as opponents of the truth, whatever it may be.

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American Airlines recently announced that starting June 15, all coach passengers will be required to pay $15 each way for their first piece of checked luggage, with additional bags costing even more. They must implement this change, so they claim, to battle rising fuel costs. Time Magazine has a brief analysis of this policy change and what it might mean to the airline industry in general.

In a nutshell, some people feel a bag surcharge is better than increasing ticket fares, as online price searches rarely (if ever) provide a total cost inclusive of fees until the consumer clicks the “purchase” button. This still allows American’s prices to seem competitive, but as the article states it’s really just making it more difficult for travelers to compare apples to apples when shopping for air fares.

Also, a charge on bags will inevitably force people to go the carry-on route, already popular for avoiding the perils of lost luggage and standing among throngs of people at the baggage claim. Overhead bin space has been at a premium for a long time, and this will make it worse. Passengers, normally not the happiest of people, are likely to get downright surly as they fight for space to avoid having to drop even more cash for travel.

Is this a sign of things to come? I hope not, but I have a feeling it will be. Airlines have been busy turning coach into cattle class for a while, first by removing meals, then by making the distinction between coach and business more noticeable, and now bag surcharges. What I do know is this makes me highly unlikely to fly American unless I have a free ticket. Whether or not the industry is fated to go in this direction, I will not go quietly. As a consumer, my only vote is with my wallet, so I will avoid giving American my money unless it’s the equivalent of pocket change.

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I really wonder about our oh-so-intelligent president sometimes. Does the man honestly believe he has any credibility left when talking about the Iraq war? For instance, two economists, Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, have suggested the total cost of the war will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 trillion dollars. Bush, of course, claims that price tag is “grossly inflated,” and says that because people can “no longer” say the war is going badly (debatable) that they now attack the price.

He might have a point, except for two glaring facts:

1. So far, the war has cost the American people approximately $608 billion dollars, and most experts agree it’s not over yet. McCain says he’d keep troops in Iraq for 100 years if necessary.

2. Back in 2002, Bush threw his own economic advisor, Larry Lindsey, out of the White House for having the audacity to suggest the cost would be between $100 and $200 billion total at a time when all the NeoCons were claiming $60 billion, tops.

So yeah. I don’t believe a word that man says about the Iraq war… or anything, for that matter.

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Yesterday I made the prediction that the dream ticket for the Democrats would be Obama-Clinton, or the OC, based on the way things were looking. This was in the morning, though, before I heard that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (CA-D) was very pessimistic that any kind of dream ticket with Clinton and Obama was possible. Actually, I believe the word she used was “impossible.”

Combined with a comment from Enrique on my post from yesterday and a conversation I had with Deanna, I’m going to retract my position. Enrique actually posits a very real possibility: Edwards will be Obama’s running mate. While I do think this is an interesting ticket, I also want to point out that Republicans are going to have a field day with it. One of the major points they harped on Edwards in 2004 was his inexperience. One of Clinton’s major gripes with Obama is his inexperience. Regardless of whether or not this is true, they are going to leap on this. If the OE comes about, the Dems will have to work hard to show the rest of the nation (not just other Democrats) that they have the experience where it counts.

Another possibility: Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and ex-presidential candidate himself. He’s well-liked by his state’s population, he’s smart, moderate, and has heaps of foreign affairs experience. He’s also Hispanic, and in touch with border issues; something that will undoubtedly be of concern among the border states, and where Obama is weak. Would an African-American and Hispanic ticket be of concern to older white voters? Possibly, but no more than an African-American and female ticket would.

On a completely random side note, Mary Ann apparently smokes the Mary J. Always the quiet ones.

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