Sunday, 25 February 2007
Archthousand! Twothousand! Threethousand! Fourthousand! Check Canopy!
Dear children of the sun, the moon and the stars,
Yesterday I had my first Skydiving training session. I got there at 9am and left at 6pm. And yet it was fun.
So what did I do?
Obviously we learned about the gear (or "kit") and how it works. How to maneuver in the sky. What happens when you pull this or that handle and what to do in case of a malfunction.
There's a drill that you have to be able to do when your parachute fails to open or something else really shitty happens.
You scream:
"Malfunction" (So your brain recognizes that you are going through a procedure)
"Look" (you look for your cut away handle which releases the broken parachute)
"Cut away" (you pull the handle and the malfunctioning parachute is cast off)
"Reserve" (you pull the reserve handle to open the emergency parachute)
"Arch" (you arch your back to be stable in the sky, instead of hurling around).
Arching your back and spreading your limbs is really important when leaving the plane also because otherwise you might get entangled in your parachute. That means you're f***** (fucked). You have to disentangle yourself while falling because if you just cut the parachute away you might still be caught in the strings and when you open your reserve it will just get caught up in your main parachute.
That's why after jumping you have to yell: "Archthousand (you arch your pack and spread your limbs), Two thousand, Three thousand, Four thousand (the Parachute should be fully deployed by now), Check Canopy (you check the canopy to see if it's alright or if there's a malfunction).
I haven't actually jumped yet because we finished rather late yesterday and the weather was bad. Maybe if I had gone to the airport today I would have been allowed to do my first jump.
The first couple of jumps you are connected to a static line that is connected to the plane. You jump and the static line gets the parachute out of your kit. So you don't have to do anything except take on a stable position in the sky.
It all sounds really exciting and I'm looking forward to my first jump. Hope I'll do well, because then I can move to free fall jumps afterwards.
t
Yesterday I had my first Skydiving training session. I got there at 9am and left at 6pm. And yet it was fun.
So what did I do?
Obviously we learned about the gear (or "kit") and how it works. How to maneuver in the sky. What happens when you pull this or that handle and what to do in case of a malfunction.
There's a drill that you have to be able to do when your parachute fails to open or something else really shitty happens.
You scream:
"Malfunction" (So your brain recognizes that you are going through a procedure)
"Look" (you look for your cut away handle which releases the broken parachute)
"Cut away" (you pull the handle and the malfunctioning parachute is cast off)
"Reserve" (you pull the reserve handle to open the emergency parachute)
"Arch" (you arch your back to be stable in the sky, instead of hurling around).
Arching your back and spreading your limbs is really important when leaving the plane also because otherwise you might get entangled in your parachute. That means you're f***** (fucked). You have to disentangle yourself while falling because if you just cut the parachute away you might still be caught in the strings and when you open your reserve it will just get caught up in your main parachute.
That's why after jumping you have to yell: "Archthousand (you arch your pack and spread your limbs), Two thousand, Three thousand, Four thousand (the Parachute should be fully deployed by now), Check Canopy (you check the canopy to see if it's alright or if there's a malfunction).
I haven't actually jumped yet because we finished rather late yesterday and the weather was bad. Maybe if I had gone to the airport today I would have been allowed to do my first jump.
The first couple of jumps you are connected to a static line that is connected to the plane. You jump and the static line gets the parachute out of your kit. So you don't have to do anything except take on a stable position in the sky.
It all sounds really exciting and I'm looking forward to my first jump. Hope I'll do well, because then I can move to free fall jumps afterwards.
t
Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Baptised at St. Longbar
Dear congregation,
In an attempt to test my levitation skills I've joined the local Skydiving group. Let's see whether defying gravity will make me any more vain. Now all I need is a red pair of pants and blue tights. Hum.. might have those somewhere in my drawers.
My training session is going to be this Saturday (24.02.07) and if everything goes alright I might be able to jump that day.. yay.
Financially it's quite feasable: 120GBP (180€) for a training session and 25GBP (38€) a jump. Considering that you are actually getting somebody to fly you up into the sky just so you can jump out of a perfectly working plane - it's justified.
After the meeting we went to the longbar for a chat. Strangely enough there were quite a few "computer studies" students there. Now being a bit of a computer wizkid (or nerd/geek as some bigots might call us) myself I won't talk badly about them. In fact since technology is the driving force in our society for advancement, I regard the work they do (i.e. play world of warcraft all day) as highly important. I just suppose that after sitting at a computer all day trying to figure out why the bloomin' program won't get "hello world" on the screen, jumping out of a plane can be rather liberating.
Ok this post:
t
In an attempt to test my levitation skills I've joined the local Skydiving group. Let's see whether defying gravity will make me any more vain. Now all I need is a red pair of pants and blue tights. Hum.. might have those somewhere in my drawers.
My training session is going to be this Saturday (24.02.07) and if everything goes alright I might be able to jump that day.. yay.
Financially it's quite feasable: 120GBP (180€) for a training session and 25GBP (38€) a jump. Considering that you are actually getting somebody to fly you up into the sky just so you can jump out of a perfectly working plane - it's justified.
After the meeting we went to the longbar for a chat. Strangely enough there were quite a few "computer studies" students there. Now being a bit of a computer wizkid (or nerd/geek as some bigots might call us) myself I won't talk badly about them. In fact since technology is the driving force in our society for advancement, I regard the work they do (i.e. play world of warcraft all day) as highly important. I just suppose that after sitting at a computer all day trying to figure out why the bloomin' program won't get "hello world" on the screen, jumping out of a plane can be rather liberating.
Ok this post:
- Used the words "gravity", "levitation", "vain" in the first two sentences. This was a hint towards the words "gravitas", "levity" and "vanitas". Be aware though that although similar sounding each word has a different meaning. Bitch.
- Made a hint towards superman and pretended I had tights and red pants in my drawers.
- Outed me as an Ubergeek and all the cool people didn't understand my incredibly funny geek jokes. Haha. They are funny. Seriously. You suck too.
- Claimed that society was driven by technology instead of the other way round. Fo shizzle!
t
Monday, 19 February 2007
What do all those words mean?
Hello dear followers of the sacred path of levity through elucidating the conflict of gravitas in an existance dominated by vanitas,
FAQ:
Q: What the *bleep* are you talking about?
A: Let me explain grasshoper:
Hello: A form of greeting somebody
dear: Word that shows I hold you in high regard
followers: Somebody who follows somebody
of: A word that associates someone/thing with the word that comes afterwards
Ok I'll stop this shit and get on with it:
Gravitas: seriousness in bearing or manner; dignity
Vanitas: reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure and the certainty of death, encouraging a sombre world view.
Levity: lightness of manner or speech, frivolity
lack of steadiness
quotations: * "...it would really seem as if there was something nomadic in our natures, a principle of levity and restlessness..." — Robert Montgomery Bird (1806-1854)
fickleness
Now my dear alcolyte I am no great philosopher or master of the arts, in fact I was just looking for words that sounded cool and so I came up wit those three.
Combined they do ask an important question: How do we live a life that is basically futile, where everything we do will become dust with time, how do we live it sincerely with each other and how do we bring in our frivolous nature to spice everything up a bit?
Don't have a clue. But perhaps this documentation of my live will shed light on this very well formulated question. I don't think so though.
Q: Will you write about how you clipped your fingernails just the other day? How you stubbed your toe? How nobody understands you? How your life is a mess because your boyfriend is such an idiot and goes to pubs with his pals but never asks you to come? How bored you are just now and that nothing is actually happening but you thought it was important to tell this everybody in the whole world?
A: Of course. Apart from the boyfriend thing.. I'm not a 13 year old girl. Although I'd like to be.
Yours faithfully
t
FAQ:
Q: What the *bleep* are you talking about?
A: Let me explain grasshoper:
Hello: A form of greeting somebody
dear: Word that shows I hold you in high regard
followers: Somebody who follows somebody
of: A word that associates someone/thing with the word that comes afterwards
Ok I'll stop this shit and get on with it:
Gravitas: seriousness in bearing or manner; dignity
Vanitas: reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure and the certainty of death, encouraging a sombre world view.
Levity: lightness of manner or speech, frivolity
lack of steadiness
quotations: * "...it would really seem as if there was something nomadic in our natures, a principle of levity and restlessness..." — Robert Montgomery Bird (1806-1854)
fickleness
Now my dear alcolyte I am no great philosopher or master of the arts, in fact I was just looking for words that sounded cool and so I came up wit those three.
Combined they do ask an important question: How do we live a life that is basically futile, where everything we do will become dust with time, how do we live it sincerely with each other and how do we bring in our frivolous nature to spice everything up a bit?
Don't have a clue. But perhaps this documentation of my live will shed light on this very well formulated question. I don't think so though.
Q: Will you write about how you clipped your fingernails just the other day? How you stubbed your toe? How nobody understands you? How your life is a mess because your boyfriend is such an idiot and goes to pubs with his pals but never asks you to come? How bored you are just now and that nothing is actually happening but you thought it was important to tell this everybody in the whole world?
A: Of course. Apart from the boyfriend thing.. I'm not a 13 year old girl. Although I'd like to be.
Yours faithfully
t
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