THE SCENARIO
Take some time to read the web page. Or don’t, in which case I’ll sum up this new calendar. Basically, the HH (Hanke-Henry) Calendar is a new calendar that makes every day of the year fall on the same day of the week, i.e. Jan. 1st is always on a Sunday, Feb 16th is always on a Wednesday, etc. This feat is accomplished by slightly adjusting the number of days in each month, keeping the JFMAMJJASOND month system, and on some years adding an extra week onto the end of the year, called the Extra “month”. Now, the only months with 31 days are March, June, September, and December. All the rest, even February, have 30 days.  To figure out which years have the extra week, just remember the Gregorian calendar, and if the year starts or ends with a Thursday, that year gets inflated. The upcoming years that get the Extra treatment are: 2015, 2020, 2026, 2032, 2037, 2043, 2048, 2054, and 2060.

Also, our time system is changed, too. Hanke and Henry suggest dropping time zones entirely, and instead use the GMT time everywhere. This means that when Greenwich time hits 00:00, everyone is in a new day, everywhere.

PROS
This date system is creative, and I applaud the creators for the effort that went into making this. With a system where every day is on the same day of the week every year, holidays that used to depend on a particular day of the week (Easter, Thanksgiving, etc) will always be on the same numerical day. When you give a date, there’s no more fumbling to figure out if it’s going to be a Monday or a Tuesday.  Times, being standard everywhere, will make phone calls and business shenanigans easy.

CONS
HH says they want to have a global switch by 2017. Getting a ~7 billion planet to switch to a new date would be EXTREMELY hard. They argue that a system switch was done before, with the system we have today. True, but in 1582, the world has a lot less people and was definitely less complicated. Today, you’ve got so many things you’d need to change, it would not be practical. Another thing is this “Extra” system. The Gregorian’s leap years are easy to remember, every four years, February gets another day. With this system, you have to remember a weird pattern that goes 56656656565… instead of 44444444444…

Personally, I think it won’t fly. Too much of a hassle. Considering not very many people have heard of this, acomplishing a full-blown world switch is near-impossible.

Anyways, those are my thoughts for today.

• 6,783 all-time views
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• June 16th, 2011 as my top day, with 140 views
• June 2011 as my top month, with 790 views
• August 2010 as my worst month, with 75 views
• “w32.sillyfdc.bdp” as the top phrase that people searched for to get here
• “http://blogging2learn.wordpress.com” as the site that referred the most people (not including search engines)
• “Why Anything ÷ Zero Is Impossible” being my top post, with 471 views
• “http://kittenspurring.wordpress.com” as my most clicked on link

And now, for a timeline of posts per month, generated in Microsoft Excel.

Note the increase in posts in the fall (as indicated by the arrows) and decrease in the winter. I honestly have no clue why that is.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this snapshot into my blog! Goodbye now.

Excuse me while I laugh hysterically.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Seriously though, I have no idea why people are getting so hyped up about the Mayan calendar ending on the twenty-first of December. I bet the reason it does what it does is something that went down like this:

Calender maker guy 1: *sighs* Why do we have to have dates for stuff that will happen LONG after we’re all gone? I say we just stop here. We’ll all be dead, anyways.
Calender maker guy 2: Yeah. I’m tired. *puts down his calendar that he’s engraving* Let’s go home.

The Mayans leave. Three days later, some priest looks at the penguin calendar he just ordered.

Mayan priest: Hmm, it stops on December 21st, 2012. That must be the end of the world! I shall spread the news that the world ends there!

- – - -

Now, I’m sure something else is the reason that it stops in this year, but I like to think of it that way.

But seriously, how do I know for sure that the world won’t end on Dec. 21st? One simple object. The Bible. Matthew 24:36 says, referring to the Second Coming;

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Matthew 24:36
New International Version 

Thus, ANY prediction for the end will be wrong. Not even Jesus knows when. Note that I am not saying it won’t happen this year, as there is definitely the possibility of that, but I am saying that it will not happen on December 21st. The Bible is the TRUTH. Anything it says is God’s word, and it’s true.

On that last thought, Gecko Out.

Over the holidays, me and my family visited our relatives, as you may have deduced from my Christmas post. When we got back home on the 30th, I noticed the light that provided Castelo heat was stuck, and the switch wouldn’t turn on. There was also a burnt smell to the air. Now, I didn’t really think that was a problem, because I just spent over 8 hours in the car. In the morning, I ignored the light, and went about my day, not really caring that a failed electrical device was still getting power. Of course, I didn’t realized that this dangerous device was potentially still a threat.

–SMALL INTERMISSION–

This is what I did the night of December 31st.

7:30-10:00 PM: Watched The Bourne Ultimatum on TV.
10:00-10:40 PM: Took a walk with my dad.
10:4o-11:58 PM: Watched the last half of She’s The Man.
12:00 AM: Watched the ball drop.
12:15 AM: Went to bed.

–INTERMISSION OVER–

So on the first morning on 2012, I checked the light again, then realized something was very wrong. I immediately unplugged the malicious light socket and showed my father, who is an Electrical Engineer, so he’d know what happened. As it turns out, the light short-circuted, got very hot, and caught fire. Yes. Caught fire. Fire in the house, while we were gone, ignorant of the danger that was happening at home. God protected our house in this possible disaster, and I praise Him for that. All in all, nothing serious happened, except that we lost a light.

• Moved to Selenia (which is my codeword for where I really moved to)
• Lost Morton
• Went to summer camp
• Stayed in touch with Kitten and Random Friend
• Got hooked on Joy Electric
• Went for a car ride to Wichita that, in total, lasted over a day
• Got glasses
• Failed NaNo (again)
• Posted 72 times, which, amazingly, is one more post than the number of posts I posted in 2010
• Started Calculus
• Missed a lunar eclipse
• Had a white pseudo-Christmas
• Obtained Castelo
• Started Physics
• Kept my blog alive
• Made it into the Order of the Arrow
• Went under a pseudonym on this blog for the whole year
• Ran out of things to put on this list

Whew. What a year. Interestingly, a few things on this list and the one I made last year coincide, such as “Missed a lunar eclipse”, or “Failed NaNo”.

So, what have you people done this year?

Really, Merry Christmas. I’m going to stress the CHRIST in CHRISTmas, because today’s society seems to forget what it’s about.

Excuse me for my brevity, my other aunt is here and I need to go.

Merry Christmas!

The main story is that we’re traveling to the state that is somewhere east of where I am now to visit my relatives.¹ We’re having Christmas today, because we’re having the actual 25th at my grandparent’s house. It’s going to be stressfuldelightful having all my relatives around again. (Just kidding, Grandma!)

Image by paparutzi via Flickr

It doesn’t feel like Christmas, but it does. It’s been snowing here since early last night, and still going. We have at least 13 inches and it’s piling up. Welcome to –.- – .– .–. -. .– -.-!²  Anyways, what inspired my title is the brightness of outside at night. The snow reflects all that light pollution, which reflects off the clouds, which reflect the light again, etc, until even at midnight, there’s as much light as sunset on a normal, clear, not snowy day.³

As you may have noticed a while back, I drastically changed my theme. Veteran readers of my blog with recognize this theme as my very first theme.⁴ I decided to change it because a) it’s winter, and b) it looks cool. I plan on keeping this theme all throughout winter, then switching it to something warmer as soon as we hit the Vernal Equinox.⁵

On the day after Christmas, look west for a beautiful sight. The crescent moon and Venus will be in conjunction, with Jupiter staring down from above.⁶ It happened before just last month, and if you missed it then, check it out after Christmas. Also in astronomy news, if you’re reading this in the Southern Hemisphere, get up before sunrise and look for Comet Lovejoy. This comet was supposed to dive towards the sun and blow up on the 15th, but it survived and is visible to many in the south part of this planet. Northerners, sorry, you luck out.

FOOTNOTES:

¹ Hint: I’m in Hawaii. Not I’m not. Why did I even say that?
² That’s not Morse Code. Well, it is, but it says QTWPNWK. I just randomly typed things.
³ Manet will probably hate me for that last sentence. Too many commas.
⁴ Almost. I didn’t have the fancy icey background then.
⁵ Spring.
⁶ http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/23dec_nightafter/

This post was mostly written on Dec. 22, but posted on the 23rd. :P