For my 18th birthday I decided I wanted to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. If you have never gone skydiving you will never understand the rush of it all. I was to do a static line jump. This means I jump out of the airplane alone with a rope tied to the parachute that pulls it open.

I was the first of 4 to jump that day. The instructor opened the small door of the plane and the wind was insane.

Step 1: Climb out the door and grab on to the wing strut with 100 mph + winds making the skin on my face flap

Step 2: hang from the strut and look over at the instructor for the thumbs up as I am dangling from the wing.

Step 3: Release !

I remember my neck snapping back as the static line ripped the chute out of my pack.. then I blacked out for a few seconds… then I remember grabbing at my emergency release… I think I was in shock.. then I looked up and my chute lines were twisted- (like a kid that swung in circles on a swing) I pulled the lines apart and everything seemed ok.  After all that it was an amazing view and a great descent down, floating through the air, it was so quite and peaceful.  As I neared the ground I realized just how fast I was descending. I had a rough landing – flaring up a second too late. It was one hell of a ride.

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We were pretty broke growing up. Broke and bored. We lived in a crappy apartment and had nothing to do. One day I told my 11 year old sister I would pay her $1 to jump off our second story balcony. It was pretty high- I wouldn’t have done it. After a bit of trepidation she made the jump. She didn’t get hurt.

She ran up the stairs, she was pretty proud of herself- she said “give me my dollar ! give me my dollar”

I said “nope- and if you don’t stop asking me I am going to tell mom what you did”. Not a very nice brother…

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When you see a sunset there is a lag from the time the light passes into your eye to the time your brain decides what it is seeing. This time is thought to be nearly instant, but it is not instant. Your senses, sense before your brain computes. Everything your brain computes has already happened. We define the present as now , but now has already happened.

What if our brains lagged more than a few microseconds ? If the lag is consistent for everyone , no one would notice. What if our brains lagged 24 hours ? If this was the case and I died right now- my brain wouldn’t know it until the next day- but I would be brain-dead now. So my brain would die 24 hours before my life ends and I would never see it coming.

What if our brains lagged until our deaths? Then everything we have done is complied and we realize it then. If this is the case we would have already done all of this.

The future as we realize it is actually the past…

We are all time traveling…

and all of us are already dead…

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I come from a family of hardcore gamblers. My grandma once came back from Las Vegas with a sling on her arm. Apparently she pulled the one armed bandit too many times.

I started sneaking into casinos at age 16. Blackjack is my game. I use a special betting strategy- I call it the “Take it , Leave it” method. It’s based on streaks. When I win I take my payoff , if I win again I leave my payoff (doubling my bet)- If I lose I reduce my bet to the minimum and start over. I’m strict to this strategy, I never waiver. The bets can build up fast. For example if you start with $10 here is what could happen with a streak of wins.

Bets- $10 W $10 W $20 W $20 W $40 W $40 W $80 W $80 W $160 W $160 W $320 Lose- start over at $10

If I hit a blackjack the number grows even faster. So it makes the game all about waiting for the streak- but when the streak happens- it’s one hell of a ride.

The above scenario played out for me once. When I was of legal age. When I got to $320 level (and the entire table is looking at me like “who is this crazy kid?” including the pitboss who must of thought I was a card counter) I got an 11 against the dealers 15 showing. I had to double down- no breaking strategy… $640 total bet ! And I got my 10 for a 21 ! … I lost the next hand and dropped back down to 10 bucks. But it was one hell of a rush for a young kid like me to bet $640 on one hand of blackjack.

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We just arrived in Vegas…After leaving our room we got in the 300 and headed to the  fricken lodge. (Bellagio) A tradition of ours. We go to the fricken lodge to bet on the fricken horses. They have the best sports book in the world at the lodge. We valet the car and walk in the front door. Leather swivel chairs and private flat screen TVs. And you can bet 2 bucks a race if you want. Or you can bet on one race and drink free fricken drinks all night long! And that is what we did. Kurt was drinking Heineken and I was drinking captain and coke.

After the lodge while waiting for the valet to return our 300 Kurt decided to run after a pigeon and kick it. He really nailed that sucker. I asked him what was wrong with him. He said “Pigeons are just rats with wings, I hate F***ING pigeons”. “Wow I didn’t know you had such anger towards them”…he asked me if I hated them too. I told him I don’t have an opinion either way. “Go kick it again so I can take a picture.” He ran after it and missed it I took a great picture on my phone too.

After the pigeon-kicking incident we headed downtown to drink some more and play some fricken “Worlds Most Liberal 21” at the Vegas club. Another tradition. You can double down with 3 cards if you want. Only in Vegas.  While leaving the parking garage Kurt decided to test the emergency break. The only problem was he wasn’t driving, I was. He scared the crap out of me. He yelled “EMERGENCY” and pulled the E-break. The car came screeching to a halt nearly crashing into the wall of the parking garage. Most people would have seen how dangerous and stupid this was, but not us. It was unfortunate that this discovery had to happen on the first day. I can’t count how many “EMERGENCIES” we had that week. We nearly rolled over on the freeway.

The ghost bar was pretty cool. We drank ourselves to a stupor. We ended up leaving the car at the Palms and taking a taxi back to the Vegas Club for breakfast. $2.99 steak, eggs and hash browns. Kurt was so obnoxious while we waited for our food. “Where the hell are my eggs? Why are we eating at this ****hole? He then asked the waiter if he spit in our food. “I told him no but he will now you *****” Kurt put his head down and passed out. I said why don’t you sleep on the floor. He collapsed down on the floor of the diner. The waiter said, “Sir get up, you have to get off the floor”. Kurt just lay there I thought he was dead. I couldn’t stop laughing. We got booted out of there with empty stomachs! We headed back to the room. We ordered room service. Burgers and fries. While I was placing the phone order Kurt kept yelling “ HOMO ordering room service” The lady on the phone was cracking up. I awoke a half hour later and let the room service bring in the cart. Kurt was laid out on the floor. I had to literally kick him to get him out of the way to let the cart get through the door.

He was so drunk. He got up looked at me straight in the eyes and said “Where are you?” “Where are you?” I started laughing. “I’m Here ***hole, now eat your fricken burger. He picked it up and threw it at me.

“You dumbs**** “ I said, “You just throw a $25 burger at me.” I yelled “ Have some Fricken tomatoes and I proceeded to throw a tomato at him. He picked up his plate and pathetically threw the entire thing at me. It missed me by like five feet and splattered all over the curtains. “You pigeon kicking bitch, I spent the next hour throwing up. We woke up the next day at noon with food and vomit all over our the room. “Room Service Please!”

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