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Looking to study up for the new J2EE 1.5 Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD) exam?
This book will get you way up to speed on the technology you'll know it so well, in fact, that you can pass the brand new J2EE 1.5 exam. If that's what you want to do, that is. Maybe you don't care about the exam, but need to use servlets and JSPs in your next project. You're working on a deadline. You're over the legal limit for caffeine. You can't waste your time with a book that makes sense only AFTER you're an expert (or worse, one that puts you to sleep).
Learn how to write servlets and JSPs, what makes a web container tick (and what ticks it off), how to use JSP's Expression Language (EL for short), and how to write deployment descriptors for your web applications. Master the c:out tag, and get a handle on exactly what's changed since the older J2EE 1.4 exam. You don't just pass the new J2EE 1.5 SCWCD exam, you'll understand this stuff and put it to work immediately.
Head First Servlets and JSP doesn't just give you a bunch of facts to memorize; it drives knowledge straight into your brain. You'll interact with servlets and JSPs in ways that help you learn quickly and deeply. And when you're through with the book, you can take a brand-new mock exam, created specifically to simulate the real test-taking experience.
Bryan Basham is a Software Architect and Developer with extensive experience in Java web technologies. He has a keen eye for identifying core, reusable modules and crafting effective interfaces between subsystems. He has excellent OO analysis and design skills and quickly learn new domains. He is also skilled in information architecture and UI design.
View Bryan Basham's full profile page.
Kathy Sierra has been interested in learning theory since her days as a game developer (Virgin, MGM, Amblin'). More recently, she's been a master trainer for Sun Microsystems, teaching Sun's Java instructors how to teach the latest technologies to customers, and a lead developer of several Sun certification exams. Along with her partner Bert Bates, Kathy created the Head First series. She's also the original founder of the Software Development/Jolt Productivity Award-winning javaranch.com, the largest (and friendliest) all-volunteer Java community.
View Kathy Sierra's full profile page.
Bert Bates is a 20-year software developer, a Java instructor, and a co-developer of Sun's upcoming EJB exam (Sun Certified Business Component Developer). His background features a long stint in artificial intelligence, with clients like the Weather Channel, A&E Network, Rockwell, and Timken.
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(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)
Great book
By FryGuy
from Kaiserslautern, Germany
About Me Developer, Educator, Sys Admin
Comments about oreilly Head First Servlets and JSP, 2nd Edition:
I used this book for a reference and to increase my knowledge on this topic during a Web Applications Programming class and I will say that the information contained in this book is very helpful and explains ideas and concepts well. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about this topic.
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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Great style with great information.
By Jelloskins
from Lincoln, NE
About Me Designer, Developer
The teaching style of this book is highly effective and pleasing to read. As an introduction to J2EE, I would recommend this to anyone.
Amazing Book, Superb
By b
from Brighton, England
About Me Developer
This book is amazing, the diagrams are superb and the explanations are really good. I have actually remembered things as I have went along and learned something as a result of reading it.The book really explains things in a way that makes sense and makes you understand the concepts and more importantly remember them.I am studying for the web component EE 6 exam so I also bought the book OCEJWCD Study Companion by Charles Lyons, which really is very poor, putting it politely, he just lists the API methods and it is pretty dire. For example the important points are in the middle of a paragraph and the book is in black and white and has very few diagrams. The complete opposite to the Head First book. Unfortunately the book by Lyons has the monopoly as it is, at the time of writing, the only study guide for the Java EE 6 exam. The Lyons book is a good cure for insomnia…. I really had to push myself to read it, as it was so dull. Whereas the Head first book is a joy to read! I never knew servlets and jsps could be so fascinating!I wish I had just bought this Head First book and then read a bit about async requests and annotations/updates to EE 6 elsewhere, on the web for example. (The Head First book only covers EE 5).From now on, if I want to learn anything new, I will always check the Head First series first.
Something should've been added
By Benjamin
from Belarus
About Me Educator
I'm still reading the book, enjoying reading it. I really like the way this book is written, very easy to take in JSP and servlets though English is not my native language. However, I've noticed a thing that should have been a bit disclosed there, IMHO. No, it doesn't look like a mistake, it's not a mistake, but it caught my attention. I'm talking about pages 362-362:We know that "class Employee extends Person" and our bean (id="person") is of type="…Person", class="Employee" which means that normally, when we use plain old Java, we can't do something like:person.getEmpID() because Person doesn't include that method. Yes, we can do: "((Employee) person).getEmpID()" because in fact "Person person = new Emplyee()".Once I had noticed that fact I thought "jsp:getProperty property="emplID" name="person" wouldn't work out. However, I checked, it works. I looked at the proper TestBean__jsp.java (source code of the JSP servlet) and saw, yes(!), Tomcat had added the casting required itself.So, according to my opinion, there should be some more details regarding that, just to let readers know that in such situations a Container (all Containers?) does some work (like (cast)) for us.
Book needs to be updated: (SCWCD) 1,6
By webdesigner
from IL
Missing new information for taking the SCWCD 1.6 exam.
(4 of 4 customers found this review helpful)
The only book of it's kind
By thejartender (The Jar Bar).
from Borgund, Norway
This book is average. Not because it is outdated (2012), but because when I first got it the JEE Web framework was well into it's shift to the next phase - JSF.This book was useful for passing the SCWCD exam, but if you're looking at this post 2011, then consider a Facelets book (there's an excellent short cut here at O'Reilly). In it's current state this book may be ueful for those seeking certifications, working on legacy code and can still asist with learning how to configure an application through the web.xml file as this book provides excellent documentation for.
By Andre Pinheiro
from Slovenia
I used this book for the Servlets and JSPs oracle certificate for java ee 5. I was a really easy reading with everything that I needed to know, with enough tips and tricks. There were like one or two things that came on the exam and were not on the book. But that would still give you a 98% passing grade. I loved the reading! Waiting for the Web Services one!
(12 of 21 customers found this review helpful)
Head first java
By Md Hussain
from Undisclosed
Hi all, any one who wants to learn Java programming it's better to go for this book. This book is different when compared to other books who give just the plain text old fashion. For programming simple steps has given. But a few examples are there you have to implement them thats the one beauty of this book. It is just like catalog how to use it after knowing that its entirely depend on the person who is using it and how he/she wants to use it.All The Best.
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Chael Sonnen Fails Random Drug Test
- Published in MMA News
So if most people were betting on someone failing a drug test going into UFC 175 between Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen, the smart money was on Vitor. So consider the shock today when it turns out that Chael Sonnen has failed a random drug test by the NSAC and will be pulled from UFC 175.
According to ESPN he was tested randomly last month at a UFC press event where he tested positive for two banned substances, Anastrozole and Clomiphene. He will most likely receive a suspension and will not appeal that suspension. He is supposed to address the media later on today and we'll keep you posted on that.

subset: commoncrawl


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Discussion in 'Chevy Silverado Forum (GMC Sierra)' started by rileyjr16, Dec 29, 2011.
Can ball joints squeak when they go bad?
Yes. When a ball joint is going bad typical signs include a clicking or snapping sound later followed by squeaking at the following times: the end of a stop, when your ride first lurches forward as you mash the gas, and when hitting bumps (basically any up/down motion that causes the ball joint to move substantially from its current position).
Certainly, they can also clunk, click, or snap whenever you have movement in the front suspension.
So I guess its time to replace them
How about some grease.
Grease nipple is stuck shut and the boot is torn not allowing grease to stay in. Might change them tomorrow. Gotta change that, knock sensors, wheel bearing, door hinge, passenger 3rd door outside handle.
If you actually feel the ball joints click, or any other type of noise. You are on borrowed time. Most the time you hear squeeks I would check sway bar bushings, and upper and lower control arm bushings. Pretty much any original rubber bushing. Shocks can also squeek as well. A way I check for bad suspension components on my truck is to feel the tires(as long as your alignment is good). If I feel cupping or high spots on my front tires I'll shake down my front end. But I shake it down and rotate every oil change anyway.
Not the shocks. If its sway bar bushings and such oh well. The boots are torn on them so I just assume to replace them anyway. Gonna do that tomorrow and hopefully change my knock sensors as well. Gonna change it all before I put a lift anyway.
I've got an intermittent squeak/chirp at times too. It doesn't always do it though. I seem to hear it when I start driving, or when I slow down, and at times when I'm turning. Once I get up to speed I don't seem to hear it and like I said, it doesn't always do it. Never heard it on any of my old Silverados. Not sure what it is.
Separate names with a comma.


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Visitors' Feedback
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text: Got the Pie in the Sky top sashed. Now working on borders. The handsewing of the binding on my Strip Pineapple is taking longer than anticipated. I am on the night shift with my Mom. Thought I would get lots of sewing done, but helping her get dressed, eat, bathed, etc. is taking up all my time right now. Ah well....just glad to be able to spend some time with my mom.


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The Village Theatre Art Gallery offers its popular Young @ Art gallery program for children during the upcoming art exhibition, All Figured Out. Children will join gallery staff and Debbie Wardrope, Art Instructor, for a tour of the third annual Juried Exhibition from 3:30-5 p.m., Thursday, July 11. Children get to learn about local artists and create their own masterpieces.
Registration required, all materials are included. To register, visit www.danvillerecguide.com and search for barcode 31452, or call 314-3400.
Read the full story here Web Link posted Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 5:15 PM
Town Square
Young at art with All Figured Out
Original post made on Jul 10, 2013
Like this commentPosted by Geoff Gillette
a resident of Danville
on Jul 10, 2013 at 9:20 am
Geoff Gillette is a registered user.
Good morning,
Sorry folks, but we will be having to cancel this go-round of Young @ Art due to low enrollment. Don't worry though, there will be more Young @ Art to come!
Geoff Gillette
Public Information Coordinator
Town of Danville
(925) 314-3336
e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Nor-Son assistant project manager receives national Design Build certification
Jordan Frank, Nor-Son assistant project manager, recently received accreditation through the Design Build Institute of America (DBIA) as a certified associate DBIA.
The DBIA awarded designated status to Frank upon his successful completion of coursework and formal examination in all aspects of design-build project delivery. By completing these requirements, successful candidates earn the right to display "Assoc. DBIA" after their names, identifying them to design-build end-users and the industry at large as professionals experienced in design-build project delivery.
Assoc. DBIA certification demonstrates a commitment to design-build done right. Individuals holding this certification have mastered the best practices associated with the entire design-build process — from project procurement through post-award.


text:
Town Square
Principal Banning Parents from Entering Pleasanton School Grounds?
Original post made by What?, Mohr Elementary School, on Sep 28, 2012
I looked at the principal's website and from the postings (that have not been answered yet), it looks like other parents have been given the boot (like I was this morning) as well:
"I would like clarification on the school's policy for times permitted to walk through your school grounds. I was just told this morning that I could not walk through the school common area after having dropped off my son at your school. Are parents also not allowed to walk through your school grounds on their through your school grounds on their way to drop children off? You may have mentioned this policy in your annual introduction talk at the beginning of the school year but I cannot remember the details."
Web Link
Comments (44)
a resident of Amador Estates
on Sep 28, 2012 at 12:29 pm
It's on the PUSD website
Web Link
a resident of Oak Hill
on Sep 28, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Yes, we were told about it. Our daughter goes to the late-start staggered session at Lydiksen Elementary, and we drop her off at the children loading/unloading curb right in front of the gate.
We were told that the restriction is in place for safety reasons. They don't want unknown adults walking around on school grounds in the middle of school hours for obvious reasons. So for our daughter's late-start arrival the school is already in session so we're not supposed to enter school grounds. However, since the entire school has been dismissed for the day when it is time to pick her up, we are free to enter school grounds. I believe that the situation is vice-versa for early-start parents: OK to enter school grounds to drop off their kids, but have to wait outside the gates in order to pick up their children.
I have no problem with the rule since it is there for the safety of my daughter as well as all other children. Of course, we could avoid this rule altogether if the schools had sufficient funds to eliminate early- and late-start sessions so that all children start and end their school day at the same time.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Sep 28, 2012 at 1:11 pm
"Of course, we could avoid this rule altogether if the schools had sufficient funds to eliminate early- and late-start sessions so that all children start and end their school day at the same time."
They do. Implementing staggered reading did not save the district money, it was a choice.
A point regarding funding: From the board meeting last night, it sounds like the State owes our school district millions of dollars. Perhaps the focus should be on getting this money back. There is no point in giving the state more money for education if they are allowed to withhold it and spend it on other things. That is what they do.
So the overpaid prison guards and the able bodied guy next door who refuses to work at "menial" jobs since he gets decent money from the gov't. They are paid for out of the general fund, which is not fulfulling it's obligations to schools because they are unwilling / unable to negotiate with the unions or look at our generous welfare provisions and try to hone them in on people who actually need help. Think about this the next time you vote.
a resident of Mohr Elementary School
on Sep 28, 2012 at 1:27 pm
It isn't on the PUSD website, and my question and the questions on the website at Mohr are about prior to the school day beginning.
This is not parents walking on campus in the *middle* of the school day or to bring late start children to school, but at the very beginning of school prior to 8:15 AM and prior to classes beginning.
What other elementary schools don't allow parents on campus PRIOR to the start of classes (8:15 AM) in the morning?
a resident of Oak Hill
on Sep 28, 2012 at 2:50 pm
"This is not parents walking on campus in the *middle* of the school day or to bring late start children to school, but at the very beginning of school prior to 8:15 AM and prior to classes beginning. What other elementary schools don't allow parents on campus PRIOR to the start of classes (8:15 AM) in the morning?"
I don't know. I'm pretty sure that the early-start at Lydisksen isn't like that and as I've said we're free to walk onto the campus to pick up our daughter at the end of her late-start session.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Sep 28, 2012 at 3:04 pm
hmmm replied as follows:
"Of course, we could avoid this rule altogether if the schools had sufficient funds to eliminate early- and late-start sessions so that all children start and end their school day at the same time."
They do. Implementing staggered reading did not save the district money, it was a choice"
I believe that this policy is in direct response to the budget situation....
if the class size was not increased to to 30 kids per class from 20... they would not have had to implement the staggered start program at all.
So while staggered start isn't saving the district money in the most technical sense, it would have not been implemented if there was enogh funds to allow smaller class sizes.
We have been in school just around a month. It is time to let the kids walk into class by themselves. They can do it.. it is confidence building for them and good for mom (or dad) to let them do it on their own.
a resident of Mohr Elementary School
on Sep 28, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Get over it, if you lived on the East coast where there are No Exterior hallways you could never walk your kid to the door or stake out the staff for unscheduled meetings and reports. The kids are safer this way and the staff can get their work done. And No I'm not a teacher so get over it already.
The kids can do it alone and some parents just need to let go once in a while.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Sep 28, 2012 at 5:12 pm
I sort of agree me. But they did not HAVE to make this decision, they chose to.
They decided that 45 minutes of instruction with a smaller class would be better than an hour and a half of instruction with a bigger class. Maybe they are right, maybe not. Let's see how it goes. Teachers are saying to the kids that they don't have time for "xxx" this year, so they are missing things in the 45 minutes being given up, but hopefully it's worth it.
Another possible choice was to teach bigger class sizes, but divide by assessed level in reading and math. That was a decision not taken. There are choices here even with the financial situation.
The remarks about "if a parcel tax had passed this never would have happened" are the ones I have issue with. A parcel tax would have had to be for much more money than was asked to have classes at 20-1 or even remain at 25-1. And when you see the board members talk about the various things needed for schools, you know that not all parcel tax money would be dedicated to CSR, not even close. So it is very unlikely that the last parcel tax, which I did support, would have made any difference to class sizes or the staggered reading decision.
I would like the community to talk about real solutions rather than finger pointing at impossible ones like the last parcel tax, where the people hired to survey were doing a tick the box routine and asking leading questions.
I don't know the exact numbers, but I think a parcel tax would have to be several hundred dollars a year just to have classes at 20-1, excluding anything else.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Sep 28, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Another example of low level "professionals" not understanding what it means to be a parent. Listen, they are my children and I will do whatever I damn well please with them. Just try to stop me from walking them to class, I dare you.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Sep 29, 2012 at 2:47 pm
What is the visitor policy at the schools, say if you came on campus to volunteer etc.?
Maybe if you want to be on campus during school hours you should stop in the office and sign in and get a visitor tag?
To Typical... they are your children and you can do what you want but when you are on DISTRICT property, you have to follow DISTRICT rules.
And you'd set a better example for your children if you followed the rules. LOL.. otherwise I can't wait till your teenager tells you they are getting piercings and tattoos and it is their body so they can do whatever they damn well please with it. Just try to stop them.
a resident of Mohr Elementary School
on Sep 30, 2012 at 12:43 am
Actually, I learned recently that:
+ even though the principal said the District prohibited students from being assigned to teachers at registration in the whole school district, this was not true. Only Mohr failed to assign students to teachers and hand the teacher assignments to parents at registration.
+ there is no District rule saying parents can't be on the school campus prior to the school day. Parents are free to walk on any campus prior to the school day to take their children to their class or to the on-site day care or Kids Club.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Sep 30, 2012 at 2:07 am
Yes, I will follow all rules, no matter how degrading .... I will be a good slave. I will not question authority, even when it comes to the saftey and health of my children. I will allow government employees to tell me what to do at all times and I will follow their rules. I will be a good slave.
And why do you think I would want to stop my teens from tattooing or piercing themselves? It IS their body and they can do what they want with it. It's usually MY money though....
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Sep 30, 2012 at 11:24 am
I'm sure you have heard about this incident just a week ago in San Mateo- Web Link A man hid in the bathroom and accosted a 9 yr old. Now they are locking the campus.
At some point I hope this community stops the confrontational attitude, and actually listens to those who care deeply about the education and safety of the children. The insults and bully tactics from the parents is something I see being passed on to the children- "I don't have to do what I'm told" attitude is not something to be valued in our schools. If this is the route you are encouraging or pursuing to fight against, then we will be having a much greater issue to deal with.
a resident of Mohr Park
on Sep 30, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Can anyone explain if the headmaster of Mohr actually ever was the principal of Mt. Eden High School in Hayward. Yesterday people exploring the neighborhood around the new Cameron Park subdivision said to us in the park that they were from Hayward and that they can't remember him being principal or vice principal?
Web Link
Was he really a principal or vice principal at Mt. Eden High School
Web Link
District names new VPs for Amador
Fobert comes to Pleasanton from the Hayward Unified School District where he was previously vice principal of Mt. Eden High School. Before entering school administration, he taught history and instrumental music at Mt. Pleasant High School in San Jose.
--Rebecca Guyon
The prospective home buyers said the principal and vice principals of Mt. Eden High school were the following people and the SARC from Hayward Unified supports this.
Mr. John Davini
Associate Principals:
Ms. Connie Spinato (A-GL)
Ms. Anne Scurr (Go-O)
Ms. Dolores Connors (P-Z)
Web Link
John Davini was listed as principal in the SARC, not Fobert.
a resident of Mohr Elementary School
on Sep 30, 2012 at 8:49 pm
The 2005 to 2006 SARC from Hayward Unified also lists Davini as the Principal of Mt. Eden High School in Hayward, not Fobert. Fobert on Linked In says he was Principal at Mt. Eden High School, but the Hayward Unified Mt. Eden High School SARC says John Davini was the principal. Web Link
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 1, 2012 at 9:00 am
Typical, you are such a common example of the Pleasanton helicopter parents. Get over yourself. My kids WALKED to school, about 6 blocks, every day. I walked with them for most of their first year, then they walked together after that. It is not necessary for parents to drive their kids to school and then walk them up to the classroom door. What is so wrong with you that you cannot get past your severe attachment disorder and allow your kids to function as real humans?
a resident of Mohr Elementary School
on Oct 1, 2012 at 9:51 am
"Raised 3 kids," you mean you had 3 children simultaneously in K-5 at the same time walking 6 blocks to school to Mohr Elementary? Which 6 blocks? I don't think it would be Mohr Elementary, because 6 blocks down Stoneridge Drive would land you in a neighborhood West of Santa Rita and put you in the Alisal attendance area or if East, put you outside city limits and 6 blocks south would also put you also in the Alisal attendance area. Please provide a description of this 6 block route on Google Maps. 6 blocks north would put you in the Fairlands attendance area. Did your kids swing with ropes over the Arroyo Mocho or swim or paddle with a boat over it? Can't wait to see your 6 block route.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 1, 2012 at 10:54 am
Where did I say that my kids went to Pleasanton schools? We did not live here then. I am merely commenting on the excessive helicoptering of Pleasanton parents.
a resident of Amador Valley High School
on Oct 1, 2012 at 11:17 am
Walk your kids to class, folks. Seems like Fauxbert was moved from AVHS to Mohr shortly after it came to light that he was using cameras to film videos on the AVHS campus and broadcasting them. The lemon shuffle is the term used in the school system to shuffle staff from one school to another.
Here is one of the videos. He knocks over a special needs child so that the special needs boy falls to the gym floor while Fauxbert is doing a basketball move. He goes into a darkened room with girls with a flashlight while rapping to his music video "gotta keep it clean or else I'll see." Then at the end he chases a boy going over a fence, then hurls him to the concrete. Here is the youtube video Web Link
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 1, 2012 at 2:34 pm
To "lemon shuffle",
Do you honestly not have anything better to do than look up youtube videos of principals? Really? If you look at this video, you can easily see that this is a fun, "joke" video. He is not pushing a special needs kid on the basketball court, it's all done in fun. Going into a dark room with girls? I think it's the gym and that's where the dances take place and I would think that they have flashlights to monitor the kids since yes it is dark, it's a dance! This is a fun video that Mr. Fobert did with students. You are looking for stuff to stir up.
a resident of Mohr Park
on Oct 1, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Anyone who makes fun of children with disabilities by knocking them over is mean-spirited even if it is a 'joke video.' My nephew has Down Syndrome, and this video both offends and disturbs me.
I am also disturbed that the August 7, 2006 edition of the Oakland Tribune and Hayward newspaper has an article called Veteran of Mt. Eden quits after 27 years written by Katy Murphy. It says:
"John Davini is hardly emblematic of the principal turnover problem in Hayward. He led Mt. Eden High School for 27 years, outlasting about 10 superintendents. But Davini, 58, made a surprise decision this summer. He decided to retire from his post and take a job as director of human resources at St. Rose Hospital in Hayward.
....But King and other teachers said they were relieved that Mt. Eden's associate principal, Anne Scurr, was named interim principal of the school. Scurr, who taught everything from English to cheerleading at Mt. Eden for 27 years before becoming an administrator four years ago, said she plans to be "highly visible, and have all administrators be visible." "
There is no mention in that article that Fobert was ever headmaster of Mt. Eden High School.
a resident of Oak Hill
on Oct 1, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Concerned said: "Anyone who makes fun of children with disabilities by knocking them over is mean-spirited even if it is a 'joke video.' My nephew has Down Syndrome, and this video both offends and disturbs me."
Gee, "Concerned", for someone who habitually throws scorn and vitriol on others in these forums, you sure do have a surprisingly thin skin. You need to lighten up.
a resident of Amador Estates
on Oct 1, 2012 at 7:35 pm
This whole thing sounds fishy. Why the sudden change at the school with parents on campus
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 1, 2012 at 9:13 pm
How do you know it is a special needs student? I can't tell by the video. It does not appear to be a special needs student. This video looks like it was done by students. If you are that concerned about it, why don't you contact the school district and ask about it instead of complaining on a blog.
a resident of Mohr Elementary School
on Oct 1, 2012 at 9:49 pm
This explains alot. How many ustream channels and various blogs and social network accounts can *one* person possibly have including streaming videos to Japan? Must take up whole rooms full of servers. And 2,189 youtube videos watched?
No wonder the Mohr principal hadn't assigned students to teachers by registration and parents had to go not one, but three times to the school to pick up the info regarding what teacher was assigned. Would be hard to fit in real work during all the blogging and video time.
a resident of Amberwood/Wood Meadows
on Oct 1, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Stacey is a registered user.
What the heck?! Pleasanton students have a bit of creative fun with their VP by making a neat video for some project and all you can do is distort it to make personal attacks?
a resident of Downtown
on Oct 3, 2012 at 10:10 am
"Typical", "Concerned", "Lemon shuffle", and "What"--I believe you are the same nut. Let the kids breathe. I think they are right to keep you off campus--you sound crazy! Feel sorry for your kids.
a resident of Mohr Park
on Oct 3, 2012 at 11:44 am
Mohr Park-Concerned, the development is called Cameron Place, not Cameron Park. I live directly behind there. Fobert attempted to 'counsel' the parents of Mohr on how to raise children without any nurturing and without parent involvement in his so-called 'Parenting Book Club' where he pontificated about psychology and psychiatry.
How would parents dropping their kids off to class in anyway interfere with district staff getting their work done? The only downside is that parents would see certain staff with internet addictions 'surfin' the net.'
Wouldn't be surprised if he is posting the helicopter parent and various other posts. Let the 5 years olds walk 6 blocks themselves! Yes, absolutely!
Ponderosa is the developer and maybe they can get the new housing plot mapped for pupils to attend Alisal. There is widespread knowledge that Fobert did not have class assignments available at walk-through regtr this year. Plots will sell faster.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 3, 2012 at 12:33 pm
This thread has taken multiple turns.
Is this issue that parents are not allowed to walk their children to class (those that are late-arriving for staggered start) or is it an underlying issue with the principal?
I can understand why the school/district wants to limit random adults on campus after school has started. They need to control people on campus for safety and to limit disruptions. Can't they have you sign in at the office like any other visitor would do? Or issue passes that you keep and wear to drop off your child?
I've raised three kids (not here) and while I agree that you accompany them to the school grounds, I don't see why you have to walk them to the classroom door. My kids all rode the bus and were perfectly able to get to classrooom on their own. DO you think if they need to go to the office or nurse or library that an adult is taking them these places? I doubt it. Pronbably another student goes with them.
Is the issue that school is not safe? Really? Can you work with the school to come up with a solution? Can the students wait together till school starts and walk to their classroom in a group.
It would be much more productive to form a group and address the issues with the school in a rationale manner than to keep posting all this hatred on the PW.
It is starting to sound to me that the underlying issue is with the principal. If that is true, then have a meeting with someone that can make a difference. Can a group of parents or pta meet with the principal to discuss concerns or meet with the district.
Be the change you want to see.
a resident of Mohr Elementary School
on Oct 3, 2012 at 2:26 pm
I originally started the thread to ask why parents, like dogs and skateboards and soda sales, were now banned from walking on campus at Mohr at the beginning of school.
The replies mainly concerned children being accosted in a bathroom (from Be Positive), accusations that Mohr parents have "severe attachment disorder" which from Google seems to be some sort of syndrome common in children adopted from orphanages like in Romania..no I did not adopt my child from a Romanian orphanage (from Raised 3 Kids).
Get Over It said parents "stakeout" school staff for unscheduled meetings prior to the beginning of school. I've never seen that nor do I know what staking out school staff actually means. Online, it says the meaning of stakeout is:
stake·out [steyk-out]
1.the surveillance of a location by the police, as in anticipation of a crime or the arrival of a wanted person.
2.the place from which such surveillance is carried out.
Viewing parents as some sort police or law enforcement agency or SWAT team and teachers as some sort of wanted persons seems extreme to me.
Does anyone know of any 9 year olds being accosted in bathrooms like the posting from Be Positive? What is this bathroom issue even about? What the heck? I haven't heard of any 9 year olds accosted in bathrooms in Pleasanton unless the District has covered it up. Does anyone know?
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 3, 2012 at 4:14 pm
What? you are going too far. There have been incidents in other school districts, so it is worthwhile to have a policy regarding when and where adults are allowed at the school. During school hours of course they should be cleared and vetted by the police as per the volunteer policy.
This conversation is about just before school starts. You think it's safer to walk your child to the door. Other parents think it's safer if there are not a bunch of adults around on campus as it's hard to track who is authorized and who isn't. They are both valid points of view.
a resident of Oak Hill
on Oct 3, 2012 at 5:18 pm
"What" said: "I originally started the thread to ask why parents, like dogs and skateboards and soda sales, were now banned from walking on campus at Mohr at the beginning of school."
It should be apparent by now that this is not the practice followed at other elementary schools in Pleasanton. Why don't you go walk into the main office at Mohr elementary and ask them why they are apparently the only elementary school in Pleasanton that prohibits parents from walking on the campus before the beginning of school? Go on. It's a legitimate question.
a resident of Mohr Elementary School
on Oct 3, 2012 at 5:30 pm
The school district has to abide by the law and individual principals or school boards can't make up its own rules without a statute supporting it. Dogs and skateboards aren't allowed on school grounds because there is a law. There is no law banning parents from school grounds prior to school. Since there is no law in place, parents cannot be prosecuted for trespassing on school property by walking on public school property to walk their children to school.
Hmmmm at your school
1) is no off-street driveway drop-off or U shaped drop off on school property but only on-street drop-off?
2) are regular mountain lion sightings and alerts in the area?
3) is it located next to several quarries?
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 3, 2012 at 7:55 pm
What? - I assume from your questions that you did not read the press release that I spoke of, so Im posting it again to solve your confusion. Web Link
Our parent community is working with our principal to make the new policies work, we have a very positive and supportive climate at our school- makes all the difference.
a resident of Mohr Elementary School
on Oct 3, 2012 at 9:37 pm
The link you provided isn't a PUSD press release, nor is it a press release. It is a KTVU news story about Bradley Mrazek and Parkside Elementary School in San Mateo County. Please forward a link to the announcement from the PUSD Communications Office which indicates that all Pleasanton campuses have been locked and that there have been changes to parents dropping off students procedures prior to the school day based on this event in San Mateo County.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 3, 2012 at 9:52 pm
What? are you talking about- no where did I say that PUSD is now locking their campus because of this event. I simply posted it since you were ranting about why a school would be locked. I said "I'm sure you have heard about this incident just a week ago in San Mateo..." I curious as to why you now choose to twist my words?
There has been numerous notifications, e-connects, principal coffees, and most important, our principal visible every day during drop off and pick up for any questions or concerns we may have. This is a not a controversial issue at our school.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 3, 2012 at 10:30 pm
To what? No to 1, 2 and 3 at our school! Have you talked to your principal? How did things work last year? Why the change this year? We have an on site drop off area so it is different.
a resident of Mohr Park
on Oct 4, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Visit fobertreport.blogspot.com for up to date information about school procedures, information and updates. All are welcome to call on the principal if they have questions or concerns. Oftentimes individuals are mistaken about information, and these forum comments are no exception.
Show your Eagle Pride.
Ben Fobert
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 6, 2012 at 9:28 am
Look at your blog? What does that have to do with district policy. I think the reports in this blog and the information that the principal has put out before is grey. This blog is a huge red flag on how Pleasanton does not do any follow up on principals when they take over a school.
Ask any teacher at Amador most of the time you will not get positive feed back about Fobert.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 12, 2012 at 8:15 pm
I actually teach at Amador and can tell you that Mr. Fobert is very well liked and respected the teachers on our staff. I'm shocked that you can find a teacher who would say otherwise.
a resident of Vintage Hills Elementary School
on Oct 21, 2012 at 5:47 pm
"staking the teachers for unscheduled meetings" - good luck with that. many of the teachers (not all) show up at start and rush off wtih the final bell. impossible to schedule meetings because they are off picking up kids or coashing or whatever. never mind that they claim to do lesson plans or correct homework. i know that is not accurate because classmates correct homework and the lesson plans are given to them (or should be) in August.
the no parent on campus rule is just another way to get the parents out of the picture so they can be totally unaccountable for the education of our children.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Nov 8, 2012 at 8:26 am
Is there any update to this situation.
a resident of Mohr Park
on Nov 9, 2012 at 11:46 am
Update...I'm not sure which update you are wanting, but if you have any specific questions about visitors on campus, please contact the principal. I am more than willing to answer any questions about our procedures here at school.
a resident of Amberwood/Wood Meadows
on Jan 9, 2013 at 2:42 pm
It is happening everywhere! I am from Rockwall, Texas and we were banned from entering our elementary school unless you have an appointment! We were told that there would be members of the KC club (whom are 6th graders) that would stand there in the morning and assist with drop off. So in other words us parents are to drive up to the curb at the cafeteria and allow a 6th grader whom we don't know, get our children from the cars and they are supposed to make sure that our children get into the building!! First of all I think that is way too much responsibility to put on any 6th grader! Second of all I have every right to drop in on my child in school! I am livid and appalled that they can get away with this!!!!!
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text: A comment on another forum got me thinking: How much do athletes have the right to protection from spectator distractions? What is the appropriate way to deal with intentionally distracting fans? I'm torn about some issues. Competitive athletes should have the ability to see past their distractions and not be a whiny sore loser or sue event organizers for losing. But I also dislike the idea of engineered attempts to sabotage an athlete. It's one thing to cheer for your favorite athlete. It's another to deliberately mess with another athlete. Here are some common issues and my take. What are your opinions? Flash photography When it raises safety issues, such as with gymnastics and diving, it should be banned, and spectators violating the policy should be dealt with swiftly and harshly. But what happens if people take photos anyway? Should Tom Daley have been given another dive because of camera flashes? Free throw shots Home town advantage is a given, but with free throws, I feel kind of uncomfortable with the idea of visually disorienting opponent players. It appears the NBA, and its players, accept the practice of fans on the court ends waving to distract a free throw shot. What about rotating disks that screw with a player's sense of orientation? What if people coordinate flashing lights to maximize the visual disorientation? Heckling At what point does heckling become harassment, and even if it is harassment, should it be banned if it does not involve physical threat to the athletes or other spectators? Dealing with distracting spectators What should be the rules, who should set them, and how do you ensure that they are consistently enforced? Should these rules be made clear to spectators before they buy their tickets? Should athletes have a say in it? From this article: Other spectators' right to enjoy the experience Should that factor into the issue? Personally, I think it should, but I don't know to what extent. When athletes are heckled and harassed, the other spectators suffer too because they're put in an uncomfortable volatile environment. Heysel is an extreme example and thankfully very rare. But I do feel that by allowing excessive heckling and harassment, event organizers are being unfair to other spectators.


text: geh_wilson_ahc099253002a ahc099253002a wilson geh yes Murphy High School Integration Wilson, Bill (William Bryan), 1914-1993 Segregation--Georgia--Atlanta Civil rights movements--Georgia--Atlanta School integration--Georgia--Atlanta Atlanta (Ga.)--Race relations School children--Georgia--Atlanta Schools--Georgia--Atlanta Students--Georgia--Atlanta Murphy High School (Atlanta, Ga.) View of the exterior Murphy High School in Atlanta, Georgia on the day it was first attended by African American students after becoming a desegregated school. Murphy High School was among the first all-white schools in Atlanta, Georgia to desegregate. The other schools were Brown High, Henry Grady High, and Northside High, all of whom admitted African American students on August 30, 1961. Atlanta, Ga. : Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center 2006 Black-and-white photographs http://collections.atlantahistorycenter.com/u?/Wilson,862 JPEG 35 mm black and white negative Bill Wilson Photographs, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, Ga. 1961-08-30 Atlanta (Ga.) Fulton County (Ga.) This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required. 20100708 144326


text:
I want to say yes but I feel the voters will snub him (again)
No questions he's a HOF coach, and this fan misses his humor with the media and outlandish attitude on the sidelines.
Giants fan since the early 80s
i remember Parcells as a hard nosed leader who took no crap whatsoever! he reminded me of a general in the military directing his troops into battle!
the shot of him on the sidelines telling Simms to stfu and sit down was one of my favorites and lmao every time i see it!
i dont know how close him and Strahan are but i think they go in together!
If he announced today that he wanted to coach again he would get snapped up in a minute.
Absolutely great football mind will get a lot overlooked, and I suspect he will walk into the Hall because of it.
Every single day I log onto this message board thinking i've seen it all, every single day I am wrong...NYGiants2120


text:
Lv70 Relaxed nature || ALAMOS Event
x3 Lv50 Hardy,mild,bold nature || WIN2011 Modest flawless nature
x2 Lv50 docile,naughty nature || GAMESTP
x2 sassy,nasty nature || Oblivia
adamant flawless nature || TRU
Jolly flawless nature (MAY2010) || TRU
Shiny Event || TRU
Shiny Event || TRU
Shiny Event ||
Looking For any shiny(Prefer Pokeradar's)
Lv70 Relaxed nature || ALAMOS Event
x3 Lv50 Hardy,mild,bold nature || WIN2011 Modest flawless nature
x2 Lv50 docile,naughty nature || GAMESTP
x2 sassy,nasty nature || Oblivia
adamant flawless nature || TRU
Jolly flawless nature (MAY2010) || TRU
Shiny Event || TRU
Shiny Event || TRU
Shiny Event ||
Looking For any shiny(Prefer Pokeradar's)
You can pick another fossil.
''In the Twist Mountain Cave, there is a man who will give you a fossil once a day after you have obtained the National Pokédex. These fossils are the fossils of the Kanto, Hoenn & Sinnoh Pokémon.''
Hey everyone!
My friend safari type is fire and the pokemons that can be found there are: Magmar, Larvesta, Fletchinder.
My shinies. Just click the links~
~Shiny Banner 1~
~Shiny Banner 2~
~Shiny Banner 3~
My shinies are not for trade or cloning.
Shinies are not listed in order, for example the last shiny on the banner is not always the latest shiny I've obtained.
Banner 1 made by Light Venusaur, thanks ^_^
What counts as being international? Does the pokemon have to come from a game of a different language? or does it also include pokemon which share the same language but come from different region games?
For instance when I bought Black at my local store it turned out to be a USA game whilst my Black 2 version which I've had since release is an AUS game. If I was to get a flawless ditto on Black 2 and trade it over to my other game would I be able to use it to get shinies?
Alright guys I need help. I have a good enough team to get through the game, but it's incomplete. I have a Sigilyph, Scrafty, and Lampent all with decent movesets and okay-ish stats, but i need to fill 3 more slots. I need grass, ground, water, and electric type pokemon to fill up these slots. For the grass type I was thinking maybe a Simisage with Toxic, Seed Bomb, Crunch, and Rock Slide. For the other 3 slots I was thinking that I might do a Seismitoad and maybe Eelektross. I'm really open to anything but before you suggest pokemon just make sure that they have decent stats. Thanks guys.
Sigilyph: Air Slash - Thunder Wave - Psybeam - Fly
Scrafty: Brick Break - Crunch - Strength - Hi Jump Kick
Lampent: Toxic - Flame Burst - Hex - Inferno
(Sorry I didn't put any stats up but since that's not really what this is about I figured I didn't need to)
- Cam
HI guys first time poster, just have a question regarding the pokedex on Pokemon White.
If I get a pre generation V pokemon from trade or dreamworld and I evolve it (before beating elite four etc), will the prior evolution be added to pokedex after i beat the game and unlock the full pokedex?
Or will i have to get the prior evolution again after unlocking it?
thx in advance for any help
The Pokedex records the info of all the Pokemon you get even before you get the National Dex.
thx for the quick reply, now i can keep levelling all those pre gen V pokes i have
Is it possible to transfer pokemon from Gen IV games & below to Black and White and then EV train them when @ lvl 100? Or does the latter only apply to pokemon caught in Black / White?
Please help me! I'm going to start playing again and I'm taking the whole IV and EV training method seriously and need a game plan before I start. The question I pose is a crucial one that needs answered before I start my journey to become a Pokemon freakin master.
hey guys its my first time playing the game.
im now at elite four and cant beat it !
here is my team
throh 49
samurot 55
simisear 50
rufflet 46
leavanny 54
umbreon 44
any suggestion as to switch pokemon that would help me ?
pokemon White
Cool thx a lot Ill try the Audino trick
So I plan on breeding my Meganium and I want to know how can I make it learn Giga Drain?
Also, I was thinking that for a posible moveset it could go like this: Toxic, Body Slam, Giga Drain (if posible) and Leaf Storm/SolarBeam


text:
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Understanding Mental Illness
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Other studies have reported that about 25% of all adults in the United States have a mental illness, and that nearly 50% will develop at least one mental illness in their lifetime. If you or someone you know suffers from a mental illness, one step you can take is to understand how and where to get help.
If you're not sure about where to go for help, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests talking to someone you trust who has experience in mental health, such as a doctor, nurse, social worker or religious counselor. Ask their advice on where to seek treatment. You can also contact local university departments of psychiatry or psychology — they may offer private or sliding-scale fee treatment options. In times of crisis, the emergency room doctor at a hospital may be able to provide temporary help, and will be able to tell you where and how to get further help.
Here in Georgia, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities has many resources available for adults and children, including hospitals, community-based services, and a 24/7 call center, the Georgia Crisis and Access Line. This access line provides language assistance, help during emergencies, crisis management, and other routine service assistance. You can call the center at 1-800-715-4225 if you or someone you know needs help.


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text:
Extreme (Part 1)

The noir master Don Winslow takes sport to new heights in this exclusive serial.

For example: Kurt and Paige hold hands and jump off the Royal Gorge Bridge. This is great, intense, not reasonable, farthest out, severe and (definitely) sensation seeking. They plunge through the sky together like hawks in love. Mile-High Club, bullshit. Try hurtling together through the sky at triple digits. Jump out of the plane, launch together through the open air, there's a reason they call it falling in love. Human beings have only two innate fears. Snakes and falling. Both come from our days in the trees.
Kurt and Paige.
Free-falling in love.
Adrenaline merge.
The Arkansas River is just under a thousand feet straight down (although Kurt would observe there is no such thing as crooked down) and you'd better fall straight because the gorge is narrow and if you miscalculate by even a little bit you're going to smash into its rock walls at 80 miles an hour.
(Limestone is considered a "soft" rock, but at 80 miles per hour there is no such thing as a soft rock.)
Two seconds after Kurt and Paige jump, they throw their arms and legs out into a double X shape to open the fabric of their wingsuits.
A wingsuit—a.k.a. a birdman suit, a bat suit and a flying-squirrel suit—is just what it sounds like. Basically a bag that makes a human being resemble a flying squirrel. Its fabric stretches out from under the arms and between the legs to increase surface area, which allows said human to glide through the air.
In technical terms, the suit increases the amount of lift as related to the amount of drag, creating a glide ratio of 2.5:1. Which is to say that the flier moves forward two and a half feet for every foot he or she drops. A free-falling parachutist descends through the air at speeds between 90 and 140 mph. Proper technique with a wingsuit slows you down to somewhere between 70 and 90 mph.
Now Paige and Kurt push their shoulders forward to gain velocity and straighten their legs to reduce drag. They tuck their chins into their necks for the same reason—reducing drag increases speed.
Words to live by.
BASE jumping off a bridge through a narrow gorge is dangerous, duh.
Tandem BASE jumping off a bridge through a narrow gorge is DD2 (dangerous duh, squared) because one partner can knock into the other, which at that speed and relatively low altitude could send both of them into an unrecoverable spin and smash them against the rocks.
Turning your wingsuit into a bag of (broken) bones.
It's STCKY. Pronounced sticky. Stuff That Can Kill You.
But that's the point.
That's what hypes the adrenaline.
That's why they do it.
Their adrenaline screeches. The limestone walls flash past them, the river lunges up. One mistake—
The wrong tilt of an arm.
The wrong angle of a spine.
An errant gust of wind—
Can kill them.
Paige and Kurt are not interested in dying.
They're interested in living.
At the highest possible level.
The max.
So at the count of 10 they let go of each other's hands and pull the ripcords. (Now there's a metaphor for a successful relationship.) They want a little distance from each other when the parachutes deploy, lest they get tangled up and fall to their deaths in a twisted knot. (Now there's a metaphor for a successful relationship.)
There are sounds to like and sounds to love.
Sounds to like—
The cry of a red-tailed hawk.
The wail of a Sonny Stitt sax riff.
The crackle of a fire on a cold night.
Sound to love—
The pop of a parachute opening.
Better, in this case, the sound of two parachutes opening. (The sound of one parachute opening would be very depressing for both parties involved. But let's be stone honest—much more depressing for the party in closer proximity to the nonsound.)
They aren't big parachutes. They don't have to be; they just have to be big enough to slow them down before they hit the water, because water at 80 per isn't that much different from rock (as any suicidal bridge jumper knows or should know). The chutes jerk Kurt and Paige up and then float them down to the river where Latchkey and Lev—fresh from their own jumps—wait in a Zodiac to haul them out.
Kurt—bigger, heavier—hits first. Reaches up and detaches the chute before it can smother him under the water. Then he comes up and sees Paige in the water just upstream, clear of her parachute and swimming.
"Fun!" she yells.
He smiles and nods and they swim toward the boat.
Yeah, fun. A thousand-foot tandem free fall through a narrow canyon into a river.
It was just a warm-up. The real adrenaline rush goes off tomorrow.
Adrenaline (n.): a hormone secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress.
The problem with adrenaline is the same as with any drug. Tolerance.
That is, it takes more and more of it to get you off.
Until you die from it.
"But," Kurt says, "you die high."
Kurt, Paige, Latchkey and Lev sit at the bar at the Quality Inn & Suites in Cañon City, Colorado, the nearest town to the Royal Gorge Bridge. The jump is two hours behind them and they're knocking back a few celebratory beers to sand the adrenaline edge a little bit.
Latchkey got his name because, come on, he was a latchkey kid who used the PAT (parental absence time) to jump off the garage roof, the house roof and the neighbors' roofs when he was not performing physics-defying stunts on his skateboard that put him on a first-name basis with most of the staff at the Glenwood Springs emergency room. ("Mrs. Latchkey? We have your son here.…")
Latchkey—there is a remote memory that his given name is Kevin—has broad shoulders, shaggy brown hair and a beard. He comes off as sort of a clown, but don't let it fool you. Bozo don't BASE jump off the Royal Gorge Bridge (and a cat as cool as Kurt isn't going to trust a clown to fish him out of the water).
Latchkey can flat-out fly.
He's a birdman.
In fact, Latchkey has often expressed his belief that he actually is a bird—a Fijian peregrine falcon to be precise. He says it's a reincarnation thing, but Paige thinks it's more of a peyote thing. She came across him sitting outside the motel the morning of the Western States Ultramarathon, dutifully scraping the strychnine out of the peyote buds, but she sort of doubts he got it all.
Now beer foam bubbles on his mustache as he crushes another pint and listens to Kurt hold forth on the subject of adrenaline.
Adrenaline, Kurt explains, is a chemical released by cortisol that gives you the physical and mental energy to do what you have to do.
"Neanderthal days," Kurt says. "Bonk and Gronk—"
"Bonk and Gronk?'" Paige asks, laughing.
"Bonk and Gronk," Kurt insists, "go out after the mastodon. Mastodon gets wind of them and charges. Bang—the body releases adrenaline that gives Bonk and Gronk the wherewithal to run. Fast. It's Darwinian."
"I don't think," Paige says, "adrenaline was designed to give you the biochemical wherewithal to jump off bridges. That's counter-Darwinian."
Every chemical in your brain and body screams at you not to jump off a bridge, a cliff or the top of a building, or an antenna at the top of a building—all of which these four people have done. Darwin would indicate that people who do such things have less chance of reproducing and would therefore be selected out of the population.
A professor of biophysics, Paige knows about these things.
"It's an abuse of adrenaline," Lev adds.
Lev means lion and Paige says it's an aptonym, because there is something leonine about Lev. Not that the young Russian has a mane—in fact his head is shaved—but he has the lean, killer look of a cougar, a.k.a. (mountain) lion. It's the eyes. Slate gray.
You don't want to mess with Lev. Don't want to jam him on the trail, cross him on a ski run, take his line on a cliff face or a big wave.
He'll give you that headstone look.
Then run you down.
Lev is a world-class speed climber. A free-soloist without belays or protection, and not on artificial walls in tony suburban gyms where the thwack of you falling onto a thick mat makes someone spray his cappuccino foam. No, on mountains, real mountains, where the thwack of you falling makes someone puke his guts out—and he holds the current solo record on Half Dome.
He and Latchkey jumped the bridge together—albeit not holding hands—swam to the Zodiac and then crewed for Kurt and Paige.
If you're looking down a thousand-foot drop, those are two people you want to see waiting for you. You really do, because they are ultracompetent, maximum frosty, and they are never going to give up until they pull you out of whatever shit you got yourself into.
An example—
Kurt got sideways at Mavericks one time. First wave of a set, so he's in the impact zone with three more waves scheduled like German trains to come down on his head—and Lev and Latchkey roar in on the Z between waves. The next wave could crush them—flip the Z over and roll it like a toy. But they come in anyway—Lev driving and Latch behind him—and Latch reaches down and grabs Kurt on the first try (there isn't going to be a second try), pulls him onto the sled and they bust out of there with the next wave looming over them like a pissed-off giant cheated of its fee-fi-fo-fum.
The sound that Kurt remembers from that wasn't the wave going off like a hissing fuse, but Latchkey giggling like a 12-year-old girl.
What he also remembers is that Latchkey and Lev didn't hesitate.
Neither would he.
Now Kurt lifts his Dos Equis and says, "Here's to adrenaline abusers."
"Adrenaline addicts," Paige corrects.
As usual, she's right.
Forget about nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, cocaine and heroin. You get hooked on adrenaline, game over. You will chase that dime until you just can't run anymore.
"A drug you can't buy," Lev says, "but can only earn."
They clink their bottles in a toast to that.
"Everyone," Kurt sums up, "has the biochemistry to survive. Few have the biochemistry to live."
Dig the scene at the bar. Extreme athletes, photographers, video artists, support people (pilots, gear riggers, EMTs), groupies and sponsors quaff designer beers and check out the clips from the day's activities on iPads. They talk about who made it onto YouTube, how many views, who's trending, who got that great shot, that clip that's going to go viral, make a household name, grace the cover of a mag.
Adrenaline porn, Paige calls it.
The room is filled with literally beautiful people. Young, healthy and decked out in North Face, Patagonia and Nike, these are people who run, who bike, who ski, who climb, who jump, who fly. Negative body-fat percentages, serene resting heart rates, natural tans. Chemicals so thick you could scoop them out of the air with a spoon—adrenal, cortisol, testosterone.
A lot of testosterone, hence the groupies.
These aren't rock (and roll) groupies—or baseball, basketball, football semipros—these are mostly beautiful, accomplished, intelligent women who are usually athletes in their own right. They just like to go to bed with guys who jump off bridges.
Danger is an aphrodisiac.
Kurt could hook up 58 times a night if he wanted to.
He's drop-dead (okay—unfortunate) good-looking. Broad shoulders, V-shaped frame, legs designed to run down those mastodons. Killer handsome face. Deep brown eyes, thick brown hair cut short now.
And he's an extreme sports superstar—a runner, skier, surfer, climber and flier whose rugged face is all over the net and the mags.
The A-Male, the current king.
But he's already hooked up.
With Paige.
Talk about beautiful, accomplished, intelligent women.
Tall, short sandy hair (but don't call it a "Paige Cut," like one of the mags did; just don't do it), all legs, abs and taut muscle. A face that would be described as more handsome than pretty. Mensa-level IQ, youngest full prof ever at Colorado State, owns the women's records at Leadville and Western States. Speed-climbed the Nose at El Cap and then BASE jumped down.
An extreme sports celebrity, Paige could hook up too, with any of the guys and more than a few of the women, if her gate swung both ways, which it doesn't. In any case, she doesn't want to.
She has Kurt.
Latchkey and Lev, different story. Even now they've started to check out the potential candidates. More Darwin.
The fit mate with the fit.
Although it's an open secret that Latchkey has, and has had, an unrequited crush on Paige that would pancake an elephant.
Paige is a little discomfited by it but otherwise doesn't mind, although she does wish Latchkey would "find somebody," and for more than one night.
Kurt doesn't mind either. He's an emotional libertarian.
Strike that—
He's an Emotional Libertarian.
He doesn't believe anyone has the right to tell anyone else whom, or what, he or she should love.
Gatherings like this happen all over the world. In North Shore, Oahu when the big waves go off, in Chamonix for the Mont Blanc Ultramarathon, here in Cañon City for the Speed Thrills Games at Royal Gorge.
Anywhere anyone is shredding the freaking envelope.
A photographer comes up to Kurt and Paige at the bar.
"Show you guys something?"
They know him. Brian Bentner, a freelancer who shoots for Outside, Men's Journal, SI. He holds up his Nikon and shows them the digital screen. Taken from the bridge, it shows Kurt and Paige, hand-in-hand, spread out in full flight, the gorge and the river beneath them.
"Beautiful," Paige says.
"It'll be on Outside's website in the morning," Brian says. "But I just tweeted it."
Brian has 100,000 followers.
"You going to shoot tomorrow?" Kurt asks.
"I'm thinking," Brian answers, "of harnessing off the bridge and getting a shot as you come past. Would I be in the way?"
"Hopefully not," Paige says.
Brian laughs. "Domani."
He walks away.
"Nice of him to ask," Paige says.
"Brian's cool," Kurt says. "We should go talk with Jay."
They get off their stools and walk over to a booth where Jay Michaels sits tapping into his laptop. Sandy Burrows sits across the table. Sandy's with a hot young ad firm out of Palo Alto.
Jay is his client.
His outdoor clothing line sponsors Kurt for Speed Thrills and other events. Jay is 41, looks 33 and is a multimillionaire. He moves over so Kurt and Paige can sit down and points to the screen. "Sandy was showing me your footage from today."
Kurt and Paige wore GoPro cameras on their helmets to record the flight from their POVs.
"Good?" Kurt asks.
They'll put it up with an ad banner for Jay's company and it will get half a million hits.
"What are your thoughts about tomorrow?" Sandy asks.
"I'm thinking we go," Kurt says.
Jay shakes his head.
"What?" Paige asks.
"The forecast calls for gusting winds out of the west." He punches up a weather site. Kurt and Paige lean over and look. "I think we should shut it down."
Because it's already crazy.
To wingsuit out of a plane at 12,000 feet, hit a speed of a buck 20, "slow" to 90 and then fly under the bridge. Close under the bridge. Like, at arm's length, close enough to reach up and grab little plastic red banners attached to the bottom beam on your way through.
The slightest miscalculation, the tiniest mis-execution and you smash into a steel girder at 90 per. Not strapped in a car. Or in a plane. Just you in a plastic suit. Will make a great video if it works. (And a better one if it doesn't, is the ugly truth.)
Now you throw gusting winds into the equation and you have something that's truly out of your control. If a gust occurs at, say, 10,000 feet, okay, maybe you have time to deal with it, but if it hits when you're near the bridge?
Totally random.
"We already announced it," Kurt says.
"Who cares?" Jay says.
Kurt shrugs.
"Don't think about letting me down," Jay says. "I'm not that guy. I'm not that ghoul."
Kurt chuckles and looks at Sandy.
"I want great video," he says. "I don't want snuff video."
"Let's see what tomorrow brings," Kurt says.
It's the West—weather changes on a whim. Truth is that they'll probably make the decision in the plane.
No sense worrying about it now.
Life is short.
Q: How many people who previously attempted to fly under the bridge were killed?
A: Both of them.
Postcoital comedown.
Kurt and Paige, up in their room.
"Tomorrow," Kurt says.
"I don't think we should do it."
Kurt, the Über-Man, she thinks. Nietzsche would have gone gay for him. Shit, Nietzsche would have blown him. Her friends warned her: Paige, he has testosterone dripping out his eyes.
"I wonder," she says now, ignoring the topic, "if there's such a thing as a rehab center for adrenaline addiction."
"You go there for a month and do dull things?" Kurt asks.
She riffs with him. "If you want to BASE jump, you call a friend and she talks you out of it."
"The meetings must be boring," he says. "And how do you know when you're 'recovered'?"
"I don't know. I guess you just live."
Just live, Kurt thinks.
The phrase itself is instructive.
Kurt comes from a family of ski bums who cobbled together a living working Colorado's slopes, lodges, bars. He moved seven times before he was 16, went to three different high schools—in Vail, Telluride, Steamboat. He didn't mind; in fact, he liked it. New mountains, new slopes, new snow, and he made friends easily. Skied in the winter, climbed in the summer. Hiked, biked, chased (and caught) girls, drank beer, smoked a little weed. Easygoing, genially messy loving home—two parents, three sisters—so he was used to feminine attention.
Three semesters at Northern Colorado, then he decided it wasn't for him. Dropped out, trained his ass off and caught on with the Aspen Mountain Ski Patrol, the elite of the elite alpine rescue squads. Made some dramatic, risky saves, saw some pretty grisly shit. (You pick up the pieces of someone who's fallen 200 feet down a cliff face, it's grisly shit.)
Training, he discovered that running was more a joy than a chore. Made the progression from marathons to ultras. One of the latter took him out to California and he stayed to explore surfing. Hopped over to Kauai and North Shore to do the big waves.
Here's the thing—he was just skin-popping adrenaline; now he's mainlining it. Marathons—cool, but why not run more than a hundred miles across a mountain range with no rest? Downhill skiing—cool, but maybe instead heli-jump onto a recent avalanche and ski down that? Rock climbing? Absolutely, but let's do it without ropes or protection and see how many slopes we can summit in a given period of time.
Surfing—nice, but how about we go out to a freezing, shark-ridden mid-ocean reef into a north swell and try to survive a 70-foot bomber? Parachuting? Try BASE jumping. BASE jumping? Go for wingsuiting. Wingsuiting—let's do it out of a plane instead.
He does it all—the world's greatest poly-extreme athlete.
Because the high lasts for a while, but it doesn't last. He B.B. Kings.
The thrill is gone.
He needs more and more adrenaline.
Now it has to be Xtreme.
Has to do something no one's done.
Feel something no one has felt.
Without that, life is just life.
Paige took an alternate route to the same location on the psycho-physiological map. She grew up in Boulder, the daughter and only child of two respected academics. They had expectations.
A 4.0 GPA wasn't good enough when there was extra credit to be had. She needed 4.2s and 4.5s. Honors classes and Advanced Placement in every subject. (Shit, she thought, I'm going to be halfway through my B.S. before I get out of high school.) If she got a B on a test, tutors were brought in to "get her grades up." (Shit, I might as well be Chinese.)
She needed a sport for her résumé, so she joined the cross-country team.
Time on her own with no one yapping at her, and she loved the simple left-right left-right that seemed to get her brain back in the center. Of course, she was Paige, Perfect Paige, so she had to be great at it. She had expectations. She had to be state champ, state record holder, and with her reindeer legs she was built for it.
But still, it was a relief.
Her against distance.
Her against time.
Her against herself.
She loved it.
Then she discovered rock climbing.
Her parents were appalled.
"What if you fall?"
"I won't fall."
"But what if you do?"
Then I'll be in a peaceful coma and maybe you'll stop nagging me, she thought but didn't say. Other girls were sneaking out to get high or sleep with boyfriends; Paige was lamming it on dirty weekends in Moab.
Climbing was good, free climbing better.
(Look, Ma, no ropes.)
It was her against height.
Her against fear.
Her against gravity.
(If you can escape gravity, you can escape anything, even your parents. It's the ultimate rebellion.)
Spurning Yale, Smith and Georgetown, she stayed home for undergrad so she could be close to the running trails and the mountains. Did varsity cross-country, but her heart was with the crazies running for three-day stretches across ranges or racing up faces and jumping off them.
Did a semester abroad in Switzerland. Where they keep a good portion of the Alps.
Did her M.S. at the runner's paradise of Corvallis, her Ph.D. at Berkeley, close enough to the Sierras to get in a run and a climb.
The job market was basically a smorgasbord for her, but she selected the relatively modest Colorado State to be close to her beloved mountains and her passion.
Adrenaline pursuit.
Ultramarathons and free climbing.
Now she's hooked.
Just another thrill whore on the cover of Trail Runner.
Stanford is trying to steal her. But she doesn't know if she wants to go to Palo Alto.
It would have to be Palo Soprano.
Palo Tenor, Palo Alto, Palo Soprano. High, higher, highest.
"When do we hit the max?" she asks Kurt now. "How will we know?"
"We won't," he says.
We'll be dead.
They'd met at the starting line of the Leadville Trail 100, in the freezing predawn. He asked her where she thought she'd finish.
"In the women's?"
"First," she repeated.
First is first, there are no qualifications.
The LT100, also known as the Race Across the Sky, forces racers to ascend (and descend) 15,600 feet at elevations that range from 9,200 to 12,620. Fewer than half of the starters finish in the maximum-allowed 30 hours.
Ever see a football team gas out in the fourth quarter playing Denver? That's at 5,280 feet. For one hour. With halftimes and huddles and TV time-outs. Gatorade, steroids, pain-numbing injections and multimillion-dollar motivations.
This ordeal starts at 9,200.
That means you can't breathe by the time you get there.
Unless you're a mountain goat, like Paige and Kurt.
And then you run, over rugged trails, up and down, sometimes in the dark, sometimes at an elevation more than twice that of Denver's stadium, for almost four marathons. And you'll get some Gatorade or other energy drink, and some protein goop and a granola bar, and maybe some Advil or Tylenol, some Band-Aids for your blistered, bleeding feet, and you do it for more than a full day and at the end of it you'll get.…
You won't even go to Disney World unless you pay for it yourself.
Just the glory.
The satisfaction.
The joy of pure, unadulterated insanity.
That's extreme, Jack.
The story goes that the founder of the LT100 started it in order to make Leadville famous, and when someone objected that he'd get someone killed (STCKY), he answered, "Well, then we'll be famous, won't we?" Kurt loves that story.
You ask him, he'll tell you he fell in love with Paige right there, when she repeated "First," even though he could barely see her face under the woolly she had pulled down half over her eyes. You ask her, it took her more time. She didn't even like him when she met him, thought he was a sexist, arrogant asshole.
The thing is, he literally chased her.
For 100 miles.
That's love, Jill.
Another way of saying that he chased her is to say that he pushed her, because every time she looked back she saw that asshole coming and it motivated her because she was not was not was not going to let that arrogant prick catch her, no way.
Of course, another way of saying that he pushed her is to say that she beat him, which she did. As hard as Kurt tried, and he tried hard, he couldn't catch her, and the last 10 miles Paige found her kick and left him way behind. She finished first (among women), sixth overall, wasn't happy with it, but she was there waiting when he staggered across the line, 11th among the men.
She rang a cowbell for him.
"Thanks," he said.
"I owed you."
"For what?"
"You paced me."
"You outpaced me."
"Yeah, well." She saw blood seeping out of his left shoe. "You'd better have that taken care of."
"You offering?"
"Hell no," she said. "But I'll show you to the aid station."
She walked beside him as he limped to the big tent, and she would now tell you that she started to fall in love with him when she realized that here was a man who damn near killed himself just to keep her within sight.
And it doesn't get much better than that.
They slept together that night.
Literally slept. They were too tired to do anything else.
Kurt was, anyway, and while Paige was a little offended, she had to like a man confident enough to admit that, for one night anyway, he preferred sleep to sex. A little humility, after all, is the difference between an A-Male and an A-Hole.
But should he let her do this tomorrow, he wonders?
Let her? Like I can stop her.
The Basic Rule of their relationship.
They each do what they want.
One force of nature you can't beat.
You can't even negotiate with it.
Ain't no wingsuit gonna give you glide ratio against time. Ain't no parachute gonna slow it down. Ain't no Zodiac gonna pull you out of it. Maybe someday science comes up with the perfect pharmacological cocktail and you live forever, but
Don't count on it, because
It ain't here yet, and
Time will still move on.
So even if you believe in living for today—as Kurt does—tomorrow is going to come, with the day after hard behind, and the brutal truth is that your legs aren't the same at 30 as they were at 20 because nature is planned for designed obsolescence. Dig it, we were born to wear out and be replaced.
There will come a time when you just can't do what you used to could.
And if you try?
Nature will kill you for it.
They say speed kills?
Nothing kills like slow.
Just ask Bonk and Gronk. One day they slowed down and became mastodon toe jam and somebody younger told their story around the old fire.
Time kills.
This is all a three-in-the-morning insomniac meditation for Kurt. He lies there knowing he can't keep doing this extreme shit forever. He has to either
Die young
A real possibility, or
Do something different. Or
Discover another option before he runs out of
And money.
Because, let's face it—he's making enough to keep doing what he's doing but not enough to put any away. Another way of putting it is that he's not living from paycheck to paycheck, but he is living from extreme to extreme.
He's good with that but here's the problem—
What happens when he can't do the cash-worthy extreme?
And the extreme has to keep getting extremer.
That is, no one's gonna cut him a check to shoot him going over a bridge anymore. Only under the bridge. And if he does that, they're not going to sponsor him to do it again.
Compare and contrast—
Elite extreme athletes to other elite athletes.
LeBron can make the same shot 50,000 times and that's a plus. He's setting records. Peyton and Tom B. can complete the same pass over and over again and it's a good thing.
But if Kurt does it—it's boring.
What if LeBron had to slam-dunk a ball into a basket while hurtling down the Grand Canyon? Very cool, yes. Say he does it and survives. Ain't no one interested in seeing him do it again.
Say Peyton and Tom had to thread the needle to a receiver while plunging down the face of an 80-foot wave that's about to crash on their heads, or while trotting through Death Valley, or free climbing El Capitan?
Trust me—we'd watch them do it
Dig it, Kurt would BASE jump, big-wave surf and ultramarathon run just for the sheer joy of it. Over and over again and be blissfully happy. And he'd keep doing it—happily—in the knowledge that he's not getting better at it, but worse, that the replacement parts, as it were, are already on line. But that would be okay. He doesn't need the attention, doesn't need the admiration, ditto the adulation.
He does need the money.
Extreme sports are expensive.
Equipment, transportation, food, lodging, ibuprofen.…
Somebody got to pay for it.
And Kurt can see a day when he can't and the sponsors won't.
He can see
Time coming up at him like a canyon floor.
Kurt and Lev talk about it.
One of those steely-silver predawn we-might-die-today conversations.
Tends to cut down on the small talk.
Lev is a smart guy.
He's thought about these issues.
He's even come up with an answer.
"What we need is a big score," Lev says.
"What?" Kurt asks. "A book that turns into a movie? It's been tried; it doesn't work. Maybe if Paige does it, she gets on Oprah, but—"
"You're talking millions." Lev goes Carl Sagan on it. "I'm talking billions."
Billions, Kurt thinks.
That's extreme.
Oligarch (n.) 1: a ruler in an oligarchy 2: (esp. in Russia) a very rich businessman with great political influence.
We're more or less concerned with definition number two here.
It turns out that Lev's stepfather is a very rich businessman with heavyweight political connections, especially Russian.
Lev and his stepfather hate each other.
Let's be sure we understand each other here:
Lev and his stepfather hate each other.
Lev thinks that his Yegor Chubaiv is a philistine criminal. Yegor thinks that his (trophy) wife's only child is a spoiled brat, a condition he tried to remedy with his big fat oligarch belt until (16-year-old) Lev got a belt (black) of his own, after which Yegor resorted to alternative weapons such as sarcasm, insult and (eventually) exile.
Lev is now proposing to rob him.
"I'm not a thief," Kurt says.
While Lev generally agrees with Kurt's moral rectitude on this subject, he goes on to explain why it shouldn't be a concern in this particular case.
"Yegor makes his billions," Lev says, "from the illegal sales of armaments. He'll sell to anyone—governments, insurgents, terrorists, drug cartels, mafias of any ethnicity. He is a criminal and a mass murderer. My beloved mother is a disgusting whore for marrying such a man. Taking his money to finance our lifestyle would be a public service."
"That's your rationalization, anyway," Kurt says. Lev won't take his stepfather's money but he will take his stepfather's money.
"The root word of rationalization," Lev counters, "is rational. I'm merely saying, we're not talking about mugging nuns here, and if it salves your conscience, we could drop a few million on the worthy charity of your choice."
"But we would be the primary charity of our choice."
Lev is sort of a Robin Hood of meritocracy—he believes in robbing from the rich to give to the worthy.
"It's guilt-free money," Lev says. "A rare commodity."
As previously discussed, Kurt is used to making leaps.
Now he has to make the leap from whether to if to how.
"Yegor has a yacht," Lev says.
"Periodically," Lev continues, "he loads that yacht up with cash and sails it to the Cook Islands, where it is stored and laundered."
"I thought they did all that electronically these days."
"They used to," Lev says, "but Interpol has gotten very good at tracking digital transfers. So the criminals have gone retro and now move actual physical cash. What I am proposing is that we use our extreme skills to drop onto that boat in mid-Pacific, relieve it of its ill-gotten gains and escape."
"Sort of Ocean's 11 with an actual ocean."
"I have no idea what that means," Lev says, "but if it helps your comprehension, yes, all right."
"Theoretically the boat is also heavy with security," Kurt says.
"Not theoretically—actually," Lev answers. "Armed to the clichéd teeth."
"So we'd have to kill people," Kurt says. "Sorry, not in."
Kurt has few scruples, but he knows he can't live—happily, anyway—on blood money.
"It's all in the execution, isn't it?" Lev says. "Pun intended. If we execute properly, we won't have to execute anyone."
Kurt's entire adult life has been about proper execution as a matter of life and death. It's appealing.
"Won't they come after us?" Kurt asks.
"Of course."
It doesn't matter, Lev basically responds, because we're just better than they are. Whether it's up (a mountain), down (a wave, the sky), across (desert, ocean), they just can't catch us.
"We put together a team," Lev says, "of like-minded individuals—you, myself, Paige, Latch, whomever we need—with a highly developed and diverse skill set. Fortunately, we know such people, and there will be more than enough money to share out."
"If we survive," Kurt says.
"There's always that," Lev admits.
But, Kurt thinks, there is always that.
That's a daily reality.
Kurt's life is a constant risk-reward equation.
Lev's proposal has high reward.
But the risk?
It doesn't pencil.
It's too…
Kurt says no.
Paige wakes up sad.
Scared, yes, excited, juiced but ennui-blue.
Like, what's next after this?
What's the next bigger high?
The junkie's lament.
Kurt says, "I'm beginning to think that maybe you shouldn't do this."
And this, Paige thinks, from a man who is so absolute he doesn't believe in adverbs.
"You don't think I should jump?" Paige asks.
It is windy.
The hotel window rattles.
"I don't think you should go under the bridge," he says.
"If you're going, I'm going," she says.
"It's not a competition, Paige."
Since when? she thinks.
Run harder, ski harder, fly harder, fuck harder, come harder—"er" is a competition.
To wit:
"Maybe I don't think you should do it," she says.
His shrug is eloquent.
I have to. You don't.
I'm the YouTube sensation.
"So superior," Paige says.
But he is.
Übermensch is by definition superior.
"I'm doing it," Paige says.
Kurt shrugs again.
Übermensches believe in individual freedom and responsibility.
Take that from someone, you've taken her life.
You don't do that to someone you love.
Kurt's wingsuit is black-and-white (of course).
Paige's is pink.
"A girlie-girl wingsuit," she says.
She calls that skyrony.
Latchkey rocks a Superman motif. (Would have gone with Underdog but they don't make them.)
Lev's is midnight blue.
They look like Marvel Comics super-heroes as they walk toward the plane.
The wind, gusting in out of the west, freaks the sponsors out.
"Maybe not today," Jay tells Kurt.
Even though a crowd waits on the bridge and the cameras are in place. But no one wants that deposit in the karma bank. No one wants that weight tilting the scales of astral justice.
"No," Kurt responds.
Today is fine.
Today is the day we have.
"Doesn't have to be," Jay says.
"The forecast says it's a three-day blow," Kurt answers. "It will be fine."
"Any doubt," Jay says, "pull out."
Again, words to live by.
Walking to the plane, Paige says to Kurt, "You're afraid of being afraid."
"Isn't that a tautology?"
"You're not afraid to free-fly under a bridge, but you're afraid that other people will think you're afraid," she says. "What is that?"
"Totally true."
"Something is either true or it isn't," Kurt says. "You can't have relative degrees of truth."
This is the plan.
Kurt and Paige go out first and do their thing.
Land in the river, gather up their stuff and crew for Lev and Latchkey, who do the second jump.
"Fair is fair," Paige says regarding pickup duty.
They do it for us, we do it for them.
And just as if you're Kurt and Paige, you want to see Latchkey and Lev waiting down there to fish you out, if you're Latchkey and Lev, you want to see Kurt and Paige because you know that they would die, if necessary, to bring you back.
You get tangled in the chute underwater, you want Kurt diving for you because (a) he's a world-class waterman, and (b) he's never going to give up, and © you'll have cool-headed Paige directing him what to do.
So that's the plan.
That's the way you visualize it with everything going perfectly.
You do your jump.
You live.
You let the adrenaline settle as you watch your friends come down and then you pick them up.
Beer time.
The four of them get into the plane.
Your basic Cessna 182.
From 12,000 feet above the Royal Gorge.
They can see the bridge.
The people on the bridge, looking up expectantly.
Can see Brian the photog lowering himself off the bridge on a harness, getting ready to shoot.
Can't see the red flags, but then again, they're under the bridge.
Can see the red canyon walls.
Way down they can see the silver ribbon that is the river.
They strap on their helmets. Headsets inside the helmets and throat mikes so they can talk and listen to each other.
This is the Information Age.
They turn on the GoPro cameras to record the trip in HD. This is the Information Age. Nothing is real without a video record. More info, more data.
Computers like wristwatches tell time, distance and speed.
Kurt takes one more shot at it. "You sure you want to do this?"
"No," Paige says.
But nothing is duller than certainty.
Jumping out of a plane is fundamentally different from launching off a cliff or other static structure because the plane is moving, already creating airspeed. You have to be more careful coming out of the airplane because you might go Veg-O-Matic, i.e., fly into (or more accurately through) the propellers.
Once airborne (the word is cautionary if you really explore it), the flier controls his or her descent through body posture, angle and maneuver against or with the wind, by changing the relative tension of the squirrel-like fabric until she or he comes to a place where it is deemed desirable to pull the ripcord and float gently to earth or water.
That's the theory, and among Kurt's favorite passages of instructional copy may be found the following: The absence of a vertical stabilizing surface results in a little damping action around the yaw axis, so poor flying technique can result in a spin that might require an active effort on the part of the flier to stop.
Kurt isn't sure what a passive effort might entail, but he knows that when you go into a spinout you'd better give it "active effort" in a hurry or you'll die, because the velocity of the spin causes thousands of microconcussions that soon render your brain incapable of any effort, active or passive.
Latchkey actually likes to spin out.
("What's a little more brain damage?")
Yeah, Latchkey's crazy but not that crazy—he's flying over the bridge.
"I know my limitations," is what he says.
A blast of wind knocks the plane sideways.
The nudge of a psycho on a subway platform.
The shark bumping against the life raft.
What they should do is call it off.
But these are people who have rarely done what they should.
Paige goes out first.
Kurt goes tumbling after.
Kurt spreads his arms and legs to activate the fabric wings, then he pushes his shoulders forward to get velocity.
Straightens his legs to reduce drag.
Tucks his chin into his neck.
Then he brings his arms back in.
The greater the mass of the wings, the slower the flight.
A flier can slow himself down to just over 60 with maximum spread.
Kurt isn't interested in slow.
Only fast.
Keeps his arms in to hit a buck 50.
Paige has maybe 15 seconds to decide.
Over or under.
Try to grab the flags or don't.
You have to make small moves in a wingsuit.
Small adjustments.
Big moves can send you into a spin.
She sees the bridge below her and knows that it's the moment to spread her arms, open the wings, maneuver, decide.
But it's so hard.
So hard to let go of the speed.
Tamp down the adrenaline.
Break off their dance, their lovemaking.
As the bridge comes up at her—
"Break off!" Kurt yells.
She does.
Opens her wings and "slows" to only 100.
Arches her spine downward to control her angle of attack and turns her neck to the right to look at him and he looks back but he doesn't open.
One eighty-five.
Fast, faster, fastest.
Even the tiny act of raising his right arm to look at the dial knocks him off course but he shifts his left shoulder and straightens.
Seventy-degree angle.
Running out of clock to pull up.
But it doesn't get any better than this.
Adrenaline coursing, wind slapping him, this is freedom, the will to live or die, he aims for the bottom steel beam and sees the flags.
It will never get any better than this, so—
What's the fucking point?
The wind takes her.
Throws her sideways and sends her spinning.
Out of control.
The world whirling around her—the sky, the bridge, the canyon, the sky—her neck feels like it might fracture, head fly off. She sees him for only a microsecond as she spins, his black figure plunging, and she knows he's hit the max but Paige…
Decides to live.
Superb athlete.
Prime conditioning.
Cool head.
Indomitable will.
She gets very active, arches her back up, points her face up toward the sun and flies.
A graceful arc up and over the bridge and then she arcs down, tucks her chin and hits the ripcord.
Floating down toward the river.
Looks back toward the bridge and sees Kurt coming.
Like a stooping falcon diving at its prey.
Paige has seen a falcon kill.
The violent impact, the spray of blood and feathers.
Kurt aims at the bottom of the bridge at an impossible speed, aiming for the bottom, cutting it so close, too close.
Wind in his ears, he can't hear the scream of the crowd.
He spreads his wings.
The steel beam comes at his face.
He goes under the bridge.
Reaches his arms up for the flags and grabs them.
The motion throws him up toward the steel beam.
She loses sight of him.
He's gone.
Then he emerges under the bridge.
His chute opens.
And Paige, the scientist, thanks the gods of earth and air.
They meet in the water and swim to the Zodiac.
"Amazing!" Kurt hears Jay scream through the headset. "Freaking amazing!"
They climb into the raft and look up.
"I hate you," Paige says to him as they watch Lev's flight.
"Easy to do," Kurt says. "And I understand."
Lev's flight is beautiful.
This is the day that we have and it's a beautiful day.
Then it goes wrong.
Latchkey is coming fast.
Wind buffets him but he's in control.
He is, after all, a falcon reborn.
Almost over the bridge when the downdraft hits him.
And drives him into the railing.
At 80 per.
Paige has seen a falcon kill.
The violent impact.
The spray of blood and feathers as the crowd on the bridge screams, moans, "Oh no oh no."
Look or shield their eyes as Latchkey makes YouTube.
They scatter Latchkey's ashes in Moab.
Among the red rocks that he scrambled up and jumped from.
Kurt cries.
Paige sobs.
Lev bought a falcon ($57K on the black market, no wonder he needs money) and releases it.
Into the vast blue Western sky to be reborn.
That night the tribe gathers at McStiff's (the name is cautionary if you really explore it) for the wake.
The fliers, the jumpers, the climbers, the runners, the ultras, the extremes, the restless, the mad souls—
And drink beer and whiskey and tell Latchkey stories.
Remember when, remember when, remember that time Latchkey.
Somewhere in there Kurt takes Lev outside into the parking lot.
Under a yellow moon and says…
"I'm in."
"Let's do it."
This last thing.
(To be continued….)


text:
Death threats force Colombian reporter to relocate
I was on assignment in a slum in the town of Aguachica, Cesar Province, on February 24 when gunmen cut me off and threatened to kill me. "Journalist, shut up or die," said one of the men, who identified themselves as members of "Los Urabeños," a criminal gang that operates in Cesar and neighboring provinces. They didn't mention any specific story I had covered. They just said, "Be careful; if you open your mouth or sniff into things that are none of your business, your family will be punished."