Snow in UCD and Other Tails…

Posted by donal on February 18th, 2009 filed in Entertainment, Fitness, Funny Photos, Funny Pictures, Hiking, Marathon, News, UCD, computers

First of all, it was snowing here! In Ireland! It’s didn’t sit or anything, but the country still fell apart. Here’s a picture of the snow in U.C.D., taken by Lar Judge.

UCD’s egg lightly dusted in snow – February 2009

Anyway, onto some trivia. According to Wikipedia, and a few other sites, National Geographic included, cats have a non-fatal terminal velocity. Thanks to their body shapes, cats, once they’ve righted themselves, fall at approximately 60km/h, at which speed it is possible to survive impact with the ground. Highly flexible spines and their padded paws help in dissipating the forces involved. To give a point of reference, a human reaches around 240km/h. Now, I’m not going to cite references on this, because, for one, I don’t want to, and two, you know how to use fucking Google, eh?

I think this is a pretty cool fact. It’d be very cool, except that guys have used it as a rationale in order to dump cats out the back of Cessnas at a couple hundred metres, and from the higher floors of US skyscrapers. It’s still a nice-to-know, and it’d fantastic if we lowly humans had the same property, although a bipedal creature with a terminal velocity of 60km/h would probably look retarded. Ah well. You can’t win ‘em all.

Onto other news. I haven’t updated this blog in a long time. I could make excuses, but I won’t. I’m in my final year in University, working on a large enough project, which you can look at TheAdmirableAdmiral.com. I set up a very simple webpage in December, BackToTheThemeTune.com. I’m still trying to work out what to put on it. Maybe I’ll write a Web 2.9 site. It’s like Web 2.0 social networking, except I decide who your friends are. Maybe a Michael J. Fox themed porn site. Who knows?

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been playing in a six-a-side football competition in University. It’s called ToePeg, and we have to have at least two girls on team, and one on the pitch at any given time. Each goal they score counts as three. Equality, eh? Here’s one  of the publicity shots. I’m the Irish dancer in the black T-Shirt (If you’re in the tournament, you’ll know me as the excessively angry guy).

Irish Dancing or Football?

I took the photo from the ToePeg page. We’ve lost one game and drawn another. Ah, well. You can’t win ‘em all. Oh, wait, I’ve said that before. Ehhhhhh, you can’t play a player? That’ll do.

In January, I spent 5 days hiking in awful weather. I didn’t bring a camera, and it’s probably a good thing, as it would have been destroyed. Some of my gear, like a new saw and my sleeping system, turned up trumps, and some of it, including, sadly, my raingear, turned out to be worse than useless. Ah, well. You live and learn.

In October, I ran the Dublin Marathon, and knocked 51 minutes from last year’s time. For my troubles, I was rewarded with this lovely image.

A Recurring Theme?

It healed after a few weeks, but the outline is still visible. The other foot was worse. My investment in quality running footwear has increased dramatically. This coming year, I may even manage a respectable time.

Last summer had it’s highs and lows, mostly in temperature. I spent a week cycling (and drinking) along the banks of the Loire River in Loire-et-Atlantique and Loire-et-Indre, in France. I fell in love with the place, and a few girls, but I also spent an un-Godly amount of money. Ah, well. It was worth it.

At some point, a friend and I had a barbeque, while simultaeneously recycling. The Dell box was tougher than I thought it would be, but it most certainly doesn’t run anymore. Ah, well. It was running hot, anyway.

A Dell Machine Finally Finds It’s Calling

I’m afraid I probably won’t be updating this blog too regularly. I like blogging, but it does take time, and my life isn’t all that interesting. My opinions are even less so. You can work out my political views by reading Starship Troopers like a newspaper, or, alternatively, by reading a newspaper like it’s fiction. I suppose I will update as necessary, or when I’m bored, or more probably, like now, as a way to relieve stress.