Posts will be up Sunday Night

Hello all, being that Friday (Jan. 30) was my birthday, I'm taking a brief three-day weekend break from posting, though not from celebrations. The posts for Friday-Sunday will be typed and posted tomorrow (Sunday) night, and will be backdated into their proper spots. I just felt like taking a brief break in honour of my personal 20th Anniversary.

Have a nice weekend!

'z'

EDIT: Pushed back to Monday due to slow internet.

State of the Blog - January

January is officially over and I am approximately 1/12 of the way through my project, and I feel... okay about what I have accomplished so far. I feel I could have done better on some of the holidays, as well as some of the posts but all I can do is strive to improve my average quality throughout the rest of the year. I also feel that odd formatting like that of Opposite Day and Binary Day should be avoided at all costs for the rest of the year.

The best holiday so far as far as celebrations go would be a three-way tie between Inauguration Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and New Year's Day and the worst was easily a tie between the aforementioned oddly-formatted holidays.

The biggest disappointment was that I had to miss celebrating the Japanese Festival of Seven Herbs, and my greatest joy was seeing that I could actually celebrate Jackie Robinson's Birthday instead of having to don a gorilla costume for Gorilla Suit Day.

Overall, I think I'm off to a decent start on all this, and I'll be checking back in on my progress monthly, and possibly quarterly. Any opinions you'd like to share on my progress thus far will be welcomed in the comments section.

'z'

January Roundup - Monthly Celebrations

These went accidentally unmentioned in the blog so I think I'll start this as a monthly thing for the blog, though for February onward, I'll have the roundup set at the START of the month's celebrations, not the end. I'll admit it, I dropped the ball on this at first, but better late than never, eh? On to the list!

MONTHLY CELEBRATIONS FOR JANUARY:

-Eye Care Month
-Hot Tea Month
-Natl. Blood Donor Month
-Natl. Braille Literacy Month
-Natl. Health Month
-Natl. Hobby Month
-Natl. Soup Month
-Natl. Staying Healthy Month
-Natl. Thank You Month
-Oatmeal Month

January 31st - Jackie Robinson's Birthday

HOW I CELEBRATED


Not being a sports nut, there really wasn't much I could do. This was only exacerbated by the fact that that afternoon and evening were spent at Great Lakes Crossing as part of my extended Birthday celebrations, but I managed to find time anyway. The History Channel had some documentary about him on in the morning (forgot to write down the title) and I watched that. Not much of a celebration, admittedly, but it's something at least.


HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE


With the Internet Archive up and many sports history books out there, I think that it'd be a breeze for someone more interested in sports than I to dig up recordings of his games or to read about him, or do whatever else they would like to in celebration of his memory.


HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE


Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first African-American baseball player to be drafted into the Major League. This is a landmark event not only in Baseball history, but also a major event in the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. He had a nine-year professional career from 1947-1956 all with the Brooklyn Dodgers during which he played in the World Series six times, winning once in 1955. In 1962 he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.


UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG


I'm uncertain of whether or not the Dodgers have an official number for their seventh-inning stretch or not, so I'm going to go with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer as it is indelibly linked in the minds of most Americans to the sport of baseball.


FOOTNOTES


-Up until the 29th I labored to find a gorilla costume until I decided that I was just going to celebrate this instead.


-Due to slow internet connection at my mom's house, this was back-dated and posted later.


Other holidays and observances on this date include:
-Gorilla Suit Day
-Catholic Feast Days for St. John Bosco, St. Marcella, St. Pedro Nolasco, St. Geminianus, and Blessed Ludovica

20th Anniversary

Today is my twentieth anniversary. On January 30th, 1989, at about 3:00 a.m. I was born. It was the 20th anniversary that day of the Beatles famous 'Rooftop Concert' recording session for the album "Let it Be". Interesting that they would become my favourite band of all time, eh?
Anyway, I took the weekend off posting in order to give myself a break from things for this, my 20th anniversary, and am post-dating this back to the date/time you see there at the bottom of the post.

'z'

January 30th - Croissant Day

HOW I CELEBRATED

I had a few croissants today to eat, one with breakfast, one in sandwich form at lunch and one in the evening at the coffee shop.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

It's a food-related holiday, the rest should be self-evident.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

Croissants come from France. These food ones are as arbitrary as the other made-up holidays.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

Check back on a day that it actually matters.

FOOTNOTES

-Today is also my birthday!

Other holidays and observances on this date include:
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Birthday
-40th Anniversary of the Beatles' 'Rooftop Concert'
-Feast of the Three holy Heirarchs (Eastern Catholicism)
-Caholic Feast Days for St. Mutien-Marie Wiaux, St. Hippolytus, St. Bathild, St. Martina, St. Savina, St. Anthony the Great, King Charles the Martyr, St. Hyacinth Mariscotti, and St. Aldegonde

January 29th - Corn Chip Day

HOW I CELEBRATED

Ok, I'm kinda sick of having to do these food-related holidays due to the crappy quality of the posts relating to them. It's not like I can give you much better, though. Naturally, I had some corn chips with lunch.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

This has just gotten so damn obvious that I don't even feel like typing it. If you have half a brain, you know what to do.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

None, it's another of those random ones.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

Are you kidding me?

FOOTNOTES

-Were I at my mom's I'd have celebrated Natl. Puzzle Day instead as there's a Young Indiana Jones 200 piece one that I'm attempting to do face down. I'm barely past the border, though.

Other holidays and observances on this date include:
-Natl. Kazoo Day (last Thursday of January)
-Natl. Puzzle Day
-Carnation Day
-Kansas Admission Day
-Constitution Day in Gibraltar
-Catholic Feast Days for St. Juniper and Valerius of Trèves

January 28th - National Blueberry Pancake Day

HOW I CELEBRATED

I made some blueberry pancakes and ate them for breakfast. Used the basic Jiffy mix with some store-bought blueberries (pressed first to spread the juice around more), and a little extra sugar.
I tend to have them with butter, but not syrup (I have syrup with regular pancakes, but not blueberry ones). This added info isn't really necessary, but I wanted to make this post significantly longer than the Natl. Strawberry Ice Cream Day one...

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

Preparing and consuming some blueberry pancakes seems to be the only logical option. Seriously, these food ones are being avoided where possible as they don't make for interesting blogging from either end.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

If it wasn't already obvious enough to everyone, this is one that is just there to be there, I found it on a list, and I found nothing else good, so I didn't ask questions.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

I didn't find anything good, sorry.

FOOTNOTES

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-Ernie's Birthday (Sesame Street character)
-Catholic Feast Day of St. Thomas Aquinas

Stephen, Jr! I'm sure your father DOES love you, but...

...yet Stephen Colbert persists in ignoring this one blogger's call for him to acknowledge his oversight. I'm not laying off him, though. I'll go all year on this if I have to.

January 27th - Footnotes

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:

-National Chocolate Cake Day
-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Birthday
-Lewis Carroll's Birthday
-Catholic Feast Days for St. Sava and St. Devota

January 27th - International Holocaust Remebrance Day

HOW I OBSERVED THIS DAY

It feels wholly inappropriate to use words like "celebrate" when talking about such a horrid piece of history, but it's important to keep the memory alive so that such a travesty will hopefully be avoided in the future. The History Channel fortunately had an appropriate documentary on today about the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps and the progression of the Holocaust as a whole. I watched that with a grim appreciation of what was knowingly inflicted upon the people forced to intern there. If I had it, or if it had been OnDemand, I would also have watched "Twelve Angry Men" which is a fantastic dramatic representation of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT OBSERVE THE DAY

Reading through The Diary of Anne Frank or watching a dramatic adaptation of it would be a strong option, as would watching the aforementioned "Twelve Angry Men", or Spielberg's opus "Schindler's List." Another more recent film example that I have read nothing but praise for (though I cannot personally recommend it as I have not seen it myself) is "The Boy in Striped Pajamas" which is about an unlikely friendship between a kid in a concentration camp and the son of the camp's overseer. The History Channel has also aired many documentaries on the subject (as well as the rest of WWII) over the years, and there were probably more of them on today than the one I viewed. If you are a parent or a teacher, talk to your kids about what happened and why it should be kept from happening again at all costs. Simply put, no matter what you do, don't let people forget it, it happened and it is something we as a planet should keep from ever even starting to happen again. Shame that we're letting it happen in Tibet right now... and we let Pol. Pott do it for so long, and Apartheid took twenty years to take down...

People disgust me sometimes with what they'll look the other way on. I'm not going to fucking censor myself, what's going on in Tibet should not fucking be happening! There are literally women being hung up by their wrists and having cattle prods shoved up their vaginas!
Fuck you China!

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Go educate yourself on this one, read as much as you can on the subject and realize why it should never happen again. I'm not going to do your job today, that's the whole point of the day, really, to educate or re-educate yourself on the subject.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

"Red Sector A" by Rush. It was written to simulate some of the horror of Concentration Camps and much of the lyrical content was inspired by Geddy Lee's own mother's experiences living in one as a child. It is haunting and is the song that best helps keep the somber mood of the day in my opinion. Even if you don't like Geddy Lee's voice, go look up the lyrics.

FOOTNOTES

Other Holocaust related memorials today include:
-Holocaust Remembrance Day in the U.K.
-Gedenktag für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (Commemoration Day for the Victims of National Socialism) in Germany
-Giorno della Memoria (Memorial Day) in Italy
-Auschwitzdag (Auschwitz Day) in Denmark

All other footnotes will go in their own post.

January 26th - Chinese New Year and Backwards Day

HOW I CELEBRATED


I wore my shirt backwards for Backwards Day. Despite it being an official holiday in the Discordian faith, with yesterday's nearly migraine-inducing bout of Opposite Day, I'd had enough with reversing things, so I went simple.

Chinese New Year was a bit of a let down for me. I intended to go and find a restaurant in the area properly celebrating the Year of the Ox, but ended up just coming home with some take-out General Tso's Chicken.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

Backwards Day is simple enough, but I bet it comes as a surprise to most people that it actually has an official date like this. Do something backwards, wear your shirt backwards, walk backwards, read a book from end to beginning, something like that.

Chinese New Year has so much going on, and is actually a week-long celebration, though I'm only celebrating the start of multi-day celebrations with this blog. Make some paper lanterns, have a Dragon Dance, visit friends and relatives, blow off some fireworks (if it's legal in your area, I'm not going to put myself at legal risk by telling you to do something illegal), do SOMETHING for it. It's a huge cultural tradition, and can be a lot of fun if you take the time to get into it.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

As with all Discordian holidays, I'm at a loss as to the actual significance of Backwards Day to their faith, but I've decided to just not question that sort of thing and go with the flow.

The traditional twelve year cycle of animal-themed years comes from an ancient Buddhist legend stating that those twelve animals (Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Boar, and Rat in order from this year through the cycle) that have been granted years recieved that honour as they were the only ones that came when the Buddha called a meeting of all the animals of the world. Or, at least that's what I've read, and I may be wrong.

OFFICIAL THEME SONG

There is in all probability an official tune for this day, though my research hasn't shown its identity. I'm erring on the side of caution in not looking up another one.

FOOTNOTES

-Some Discordians apparently celebrate Backwards Day on January 10th in their reforemd calendar, but in the traditional calendar that was Binary Day, so I went with their traditional dates.

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-Australia Day
-Liberation Day in Uganda
-Republic Day in India (one of only three National holidays there)
-National Peanut Brittle Day
-Catholic Feast Days for St. Paula, Timothy & Titus, St. Alberic, and St. Margaret of Hungary

Wow, I can't believe I almost missed Winter-Een-Mas!

The week of the 25th through the 31st is the holiday Winter-Een-Mas which is a specific week set aside for playing video games. It was created by Tim Buckley (not the famous musician) in his comic Ctrl+Alt+Del. I can't believe I almost forgot to post about it, especially since I'm sorta a gamer!

Go! Get your game on!!!

January 25th - Opposite Day

HOW I IGNORED THIS HOLIDAY

I certainly didn't just choose select words and phrases to include or cut from my sentences in conversation in order to reverse the meaning. Doing so was very easy. It also failed to confuse anyone, and did not result in a massive headache. This post is also not in this form, nor was my filler when I was having computer problems. Now that I am unable to post this or edit the proper post in, you'll have to settle for a stupid filler rather than this post.

HOW NO ONE WOULD CELEBRATE

If anyone wishes to go through the mind-numbing bliss of celebrating this holiday, it's really pretty easy. You have to do everything the opposite of how you normally woult. It's not enough to just reverse the meanings of your sentences.

FUTURISTIC\UNCOUTH INSIGNIFICANCE

This is the absolute most significant thing ever. It is completely serious and not random in the least. Every society practices it religiously and it was very specifically given this date for indelible reasons.

SILENCE FOR THIS DAY

I actually made an effort and found tons of songs that could apply amazingly.

HEADNOVELS

-I wrote this entire post (except the footnotes themselves) in as opposite of a way as possible, and yes, I realize that some of the reversals don't make much sense, like 'Headnovels' instead of 'Footnotes' but I was just having fun with it.

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-Burns Night
-Criminon Day
-Tatiana Day aka. Day of Russian Students
-Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
-St. Dwynwen's Day in Wales
-Catholic Feast Day for Gregory the Theologian