All skydivers must carry a Third-Class Medical Certificate, granted by a doctor, in order to participate in a jump. Visit your doctor and ask if you have any medical conditions that will prohibit you from skydiving. Ask if you are on any medications that will impair your ability to skydive, and talk about your medical history with your doctor. Request a Third-Class Medical Certificate and bring it with you on all future skydiving jumps. Avoid alcohol or other impairing drugs. Any person that has drunk alcohol or is on any drugs or medications that impair judgment and cognitive abilities is not allowed to skydive. If you are under the age of 18, it is illegal for you to participate in any skydive activity in the United States. If you are over 16 years old, you may be able to participate in some training in the United States, depending on the school, if you are granted parental consent. Before booking an appointment at a drop zone, ask what their age requirements are. If you are skydiving outside of the United States, ask your specific drop zone what their age requirements are before spending any money. Some countries will allow people of 16 years and older to skydive. Visit http://www.dropzone.com/dropzone/ to find the nearest drop zone and assess whether it is right for you. Consider the location and read reviews of the drop zone online. Be sure that the drop zone is affiliated with the USPA, which all U.S. drop zones should be, and ask if they offer first jump courses. Make your appointment with the drop zone of your choice.  Each drop zone will offer different services at different costs. Ask what elevation you will be diving from and whether the drop zone offers video footage to document your trip. Consider joining a skydiving club offered through a university or other organization. This will ensure you visit a reputable drop zone and you may make some friends along the way. As skydiving is an “extreme” sport, there are some very legitimate risks that must be taken into consideration before you pursue a skydiver’s license. The United States Parachute Association (USPA) has recorded an average of 35 skydiving fatalities every year, with hundreds of thousands of jumps recorded every year.  Take this risk into consideration before making your first jump and committing yourself to the skydiving school. Skydiving fatalities are rarely a result of equipment failure, as skydiving equipment has become more and more reliable over the years. Fatalities are often a result of human error, so becoming a safe skydiving demands a high level of commitment and dedication.
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One-sentence summary -- Meet the USPA medical requirements. Meet the USPA age requirements of being 18 years or older. Find a drop zone near you. Be aware of the risks.


Brainstorm a list of ideas that reflect what your artwork is about. It can be simple, such as “trees” or “girl,” but it can also be thematic or subconscious, such as “friendship” or “childhood.” Think about what the meaning of the artwork is, and how the title can convey that meaning. What drove you to create this piece of art? Reflect on your feelings about this artwork and what you’d like to share with your audience. How does the artwork make you feel? Identify the story you want to tell. With artwork, there are certain areas of the piece that the artist wants the audience to see first or to pay the most attention to. Think about the focal point of your artwork. What do you want people to focus on when they observe your artwork? Naming your artwork after the focal point can help people understand your artwork better. Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” draws attention to the small jewel in the ear of the subject. Oftentimes, titles help audiences understand what they’re looking at. Titles can give tools to the audience to know how to interpret the piece. What do you want audiences to know about your artwork?  Do you want your title to direct the viewer towards a particular interpretation? For example, a work of art of a dog sitting on a beach can be interpreted in a number of ways. But if you title the picture, “Abandoned,” the viewer will assume that the dog has been abandoned on the beach. If you title the picture, “Best Friend,” people will react differently to the dog’s presence. Some artists prefer not to tell the meaning of their artwork, deliberately leaving the title ambiguous. No matter your reasoning for choosing a particular title, make it meaningful for you. You are, after all, the artist, and the artwork is made primarily for yourself. Some artists like to have titles that convey certain meanings so that they remember certain details about the process of making the artwork, what inspired the artwork, and so on. Frida Kahlo titled one painting, “I Belong to My Owner,” during a tumultuous affair with exiled communist Leo Trotsky. The painting of wild flowers in a vase symbolizes her overwhelming love for Trotsky coupled with her need to remove herself from this affair.
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One-sentence summary -- Make a list of themes central to the artwork. Identify your motivation behind the artwork. Pinpoint the artwork’s focal point. Consider what audiences need to know. Make the title meaningful for yourself.


The highly aggressive Sydney funnel web spider resembles a glossy tarantula and is found in dark, moist environments in South-Eastern Australia. A bite requires immediate professional medical attention as envenomation symptoms progress quickly. Initially the intensely painful bite will show little inflammation or blistering, but the person will sweat, have facial twitches, and may feel tingling around the mouth. Anti-venom does exist, and should be administered at a hospital as soon as possible. Brazilian wandering spiders are large, aggressive nocturnal spiders found in South America. They are usually are brown and hairy, with a two inch long body and a black marking on the belly. Wandering spiders build no webs, roam at night, and can be found in banana clusters or hiding in dark environments. Their bites produce localized swelling and pain that radiates toward the torso, and may be accompanied by symptoms of nausea, vomiting, hypertension, breathing difficulties and, in males, an erection. Anti-venoms exist to help relieve symptoms, and deaths are rare. Brown recluse spiders can be many different shades of brown, but they have a violin-shaped marking on their back and long, spindly legs. Their bite initially stings, then deepens into intense pain over the next eight hours. A fluid-filled blister that turns into a steadily-enlarging open sore appears, and permanent tissue damage is preceded by a blue and red “target sign” around the wound site.   Other symptoms include a fever, rash, and nausea. Brown recluse spider bites can produce scarring, but have caused no deaths in the United States. There is no anti-venom, but treatments of bite lesions exist via surgery and antibiotics. Black widows are large, glossy black spiders with a red hourglass shape on their belly. They are found throughout North America. The bite may feel like a pinprick, and the site of the bite will be slightly red and swollen. Within thirty minutes to a few hours, however, intense pain and stiffness will begin.  Severe abdominal pain, nausea, fever or chills may develop. Black widow bites are generally not fatal to healthy adults because a vaccine is usually readily available. However, if left untreated, people can lose limbs. It’s important to note that black widows and brown recluses are the only two types of dangerously poisonous spiders in the US. They both reside in warm climates and prefer dark, dry places like closets and wood piles. Closely related to black widows, redbacks are found all over Australia, particularly in urban areas. Only female redback spiders are dangerous. These have a black (sometimes brownish) pea-sized body with a red stripe on the upper abdomen and an hourglass-shaped reddish orange marking on the underside of the abdomen.  A redback bite will produce sweating, vomiting, nausea, muscular weakness, and pain, which may be excruciating. Since the invention of redback anti-venom, no deaths have occurred as a result of a redback bite.
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One-sentence summary --
Look for a Sydney funnel web spider’s tarantula-like body. Notice the Brazilian wandering spider’s large, hairy body. Look for a fluid-filled blister to indicate a brown recluse bite. Keep an eye out for the red hourglass marking on a black widow. Take note of the redback spider’s red abdominal stripe.