No, I have no idea why Dave. That’s just what my instructor said that particular parachute’s name was. I asked him why not name the parachute wings? Because you know, I mean they kind of keep you up in the air for a few minutes and let you fly around.
Oh, then he told me, they have parachutes that do zero G, and go faster, so I was like, why not zipper? Not sure why we’re naming parachutes, but OK. I guess it’s just something they do up there.
Anyway, we did a whole bunch of spins. After the spins, the parachute would swing each time. That’s what makes you weightless!! I mean of course you’re definitely weightless on freefall. It’s the biggest wall of wind you’ve ever felt. When I say the biggest wall of wind, the person who was with me, and went for the first time, my caregiver’s friend, I don’t think really believed me. You actually lay on your stomach on the wind while freefalling.
The whole time we were flying up there in the airplane, my left leg was right near the instrument panel. I was about to tell the pilot, if you need help flying, my leg will take over lol. Of course I tried to move my leg. I just didn’t put it right next to the flight panel. However the plane was really small. I was sitting on a pad on the floor, the pilot had a seat, my instructor was behind me, and the other two were in the back.
Both times I went last time, I got to put my foot out on the tire. this time there was a step out there. I’ve been able to do the procedures all three times.
I did pay for the entire package. I got video clips. The instructor mounts a gopro camera on his wrist. He recorded 7 short video clips of us all excited and cheering like .banshees before we boarded the plane. I said it’s my birthday and I’m turning 40… in the video!!
I’m going to just post the link here, although the URL is location-specific, I’m going to shorten it. I couldn’t get it to play on the website. I downloaded the files and was able to get them to work. Apparently they don’t give out well… public… dropbox links anymore so I can’t put the files up there, and just post that. I tried sending that to a friend, and he said it made him log in.[https://is.gd/dLvZpy]
Month: August 2023
I leave here in a few hours to go skydiving!! I’m definitely looking forward to doing something I haven’t done in almost 20 years. Am I a little nervous? Sure I am, but that’s a normal part of the process. Oh, and things are different like 20 years later. I’m sure it’s still going to be fun though, no question about that!
Using chat GPT for accessibility and document formatting.
A couple weeks ago all 6 weeks of the Depp V heard transcripts were unsealed. This includes all the side bars. However, they’re all image PDFs. We all know that I followed that case last year, when it was televised. I really don’t need to read the entire transcripts over again, just all the side bars that weren’t streamed. It’s easy to fix image PDFs with screen readers that hve built-in OCR programs. In fact, that’s what I use to fix most of them now. However, it does present a structuring issue. If I could put something in the text files to tel me when the side bars were happening, I’d be able to find them easier. Wait, if I could make them into web interfaces, and read them in the browser, I could read them easier. If I could put HTML headings when a side bar begins, I could really start to have a good document structure happening.
That would take me days. Probably weeks, maybe longer, depending. If I could find someone to do this for me. Nah, too expensive. If I could find something to do this for me. Hey, what about chat GPT? I’ve never really used GPT in my life, except for to play around with it for like a half hour or so. This is how the process will most likely go. My OCR program will turn the image PDF into cleartext, so the screen reader can read it. I’ll take the text out of the virtualized results buffer and place it into a text file so that I have kind of like a forensic working copy. I’ve lost converted documents before, and have had to re-convert.I usually make a second file to edit from after that. Copy and paste the documents into the editing file. I’ll give GPT the increments from that file. I’ll place the increments into GPT with the following prompt:
1. Find: May I approach? may we approach? counsel, please approach. your honor, may we have a side bar? Counsel let’s have a side bar. Judge, can we come side bar?
2. place opening HTML head and body tags in the document.
3. Place level 2 headings whenever the words, “may I approach? or “may we approach?” or “counsel, please approach” or “may we have a side bar?” or “your honor, may we have a side bar? or “counsel, let’s have a side bar,” or “Judge, “can we come side bar?”in the document.
4. Finish the document by closing the head and body tags.
I’ll take the GPT output and paste it into an HTML document named for that particular transcript. I’m thinking all this should work fine. However I’m not really sure. I mean, I tried to do this for a case in 2014 and failed because we didn’t have GPT, oh and it was only one 148 page document that the screen reader’s OCR program choked on. Although I’ve done them since then and it’s been fine. Here’s the prompt generator I used. [hallanalysis.com/chatgpt-p…](https://hallanalysis.com/chatgpt-prompt-generator/) .
My caregiver told me that she was leaving on a week long trip a couple days ago. She won’t be back to work until most likely next Thursday which is the day before my birthday, and the day before we go up to go Skydiving. Needless to say, I was a bit upset. Things happen, but usually not sudden out-of-town camping trips.
I had an epic time at the fair today! I’m pretty sure that we went on almost every ride there was. I think I’ve spun a decent amount, and now I’m done spinning, but only for a short time. I’ll be going skydiving in exactly 15 days for my birthday. those parachute spins are the most fun things!
I’ll be going to the fair today. Something I haven’t done in like 10 years. My caregiver’s son will be taking me on rides. Should be fun
This article actually made me really realize I’m 21 days from turning 40. I’ve followed the case of Wikileaks and Chelsea Manning for 13 years. It’s been 10 years since the judge made the decision in that case. I was turning 30 when that happened. https://thedissenter.org/ten-years-after-the-us-military-verdict-against-chelsea-manning/?link_id=13&can_id=9628d61b9603a5a80293c4bd515b0ad6&source=email-freeassange-update-roger-waters-calls-on-the-world-to-join-the-choir&email_referrer=email_2008996&email_subject=freeassange-update-australians-to-blinken-bring-julian-assange-home
We floated the river yesterday.
Yesterday was a lot of fun. In the end we didn’t start until 4, because my caregiver forgot to bring her truck to work, and the inner tubes were in her truck. She had to run back to her house to get them. The river was pretty shallow in some spots where we were floating. I got stuck on a rock twice and had to push my tube off lol. That’s OK I knew exactly how to let the tube hit rocks without me doing so. The way you do this is if you’ve ever seen bridge pose, that’s exactly what you do. You just want to get the lower half of yourself off the tube, so you don’t hit anything.