Stephanie's Skydive Chicago AFP-in-a-Week Video
Added: June 29th, 2009 (tagged with: skydiving, videos)
After playing with iMovie HD and iDVD over the past weekend, I was able to convert Stephanie's AFP videos into something suitable for the web.
Skydive Chicago AFP Part 1/2
Video footage from Stephanie's AFP (Advanced Freefall Program) in a Week course at Skydive Chicago.
Skydive Chicago AFP Part 2/2
The conclusion of Stephanie's AFP (Advanced Freefall Program) in a Week course at Skydive Chicago. NOTE: Looks like Warner Music Group doesn't like the use of Disturbed's Rise as background music, so the video has no audio until I can get around to changing it.
A Skydiving Family
Added: June 9th, 2009 (tagged with: skydiving)
Woo-hoo! Stephanie has completed the Advanced Freefall Program at Skydive Chicago and just received her A License in the mail! This looks to be a summer full of jumps with family and friends :-)
While Stephanie was busy going through the training necessary for her A License, I have been preparing for my B License exam. I went through water training a couple of weeks ago, a requirement for the B License, which involved jumping into a cold pond to practice getting out of your gear in a controlled environment. It was about 60 outside when I did this. Brrr. Other requirements for the B License include totaling at least 50 jumps and a minimum of 30 minutes of freefall time, and passing a written exam. As of today, I have met all the requirements and I am now waiting anxiously for my Class B License in the mail!
In further skydiving news, I am hopefully only about a week away from owning my own rig! More info on that to come shortly :-)
Blue Skies
Grad School Spring 2009 Wrap-Up
Added: May 21st, 2009 (tagged with: grad+school)
Well, looks like I somehow managed to get straight A's in my first semester of graduate school. Some tips for people taking the courses I was in:
- CS525 Advanced Database Organization: start projects early and study the lecture slides for the tests
- CS536 Science of Programming: know the difference between semantic and syntactic, study the homework problems for the test, and I would recommend against taking the night class (there is a lot of information that I found difficult to pay attention to over a three hour class)
- CS549 Cryptology and Network Security: Google and Wikipedia are your friends, the lecture notes are pretty sparse for figuring out homework problems, this class is more about theory than application
- CS586 Software System Architecture: attend the lectures and take notes
Up next, the summer semester with: CS542 Computer Networks I Fundamentals and CS595 Wireless Device Apps at Zoo.




