Merry Christmas!

(via)

You guys! This is my favorite Warehouse comic.

December 12th

Today is December 12^th, or as it is known in America, the 12^th of December.

Seriously, it's another non-holiday. And why not? It's the last x^th day of x^th month of the year!

It's also just a couple weeks before Christmas. Last Minute Panic Day? Hmm.

Suggestions?

Veterans Day

Today is November 11^th, or Veterans Day here in America, Remembrance Day in the British Commonwealth, and Armistice Day in Belgium, France, and New Zealand.

In Commonwealth countries, it is traditional to wear poppies on this day, in remembrance of the end of World War I. Why poppies? Because of the poem In Flanders Fields:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

(McCrae wrote it on May 3^rd, 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before.)

The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders where war casualties had been buried and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day.

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Happy Halloween!

Another month with daily posts, AND not so many far-forward posts like before. (Of course, that leads to yesterday's random crap)

And because it's the end of the month, it's time for my cop-out. ^_^ Tomorrow I'll have something real to post (maybe).

....alright, alright here's something for today: Sexy Halloween Costumes: When Does A Costume Go Too Far?

October 10th

Today is October 10^th, and ... there's really no holiday.

In Japan, this used to be Health and Sports day, but that was moved to the 2^nd Monday of October (this year, it is the 12^th). So... what do we do now? Make up our own holiday?

I could move my birthday forward four days, no problem. I could celebrate it as Phoenix Day! Yeah! It'll be like "The Christmas In September", only, like, in October. The Christmas In September In October? Kind of wordy. Phoenix Day* is much better.

What's really perfect about this plan is that it's also World Mental Health Day today! Mwahahahaha!

*Now, in a few years this search might actually return something! Hopefully not because Felicia Day had a kid named Phoenix. A daughter.

Kiku no Sekku

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Today is September 9^th, or 9/9/9! Also Kiku no Sekku as it is known in Japan. Kiku no Sekku is Chrysanthemum Day!

The Chrysanthemum is the national flower of Japan. When I lived in Takefu, there was a beautiful Chrysanthemum park not too far away.

Anyway, before I went to Japan, I went to a Kiku Matsuri (I think) in Seattle. The pictures for which may still exist somewhere, but my copies were on the drive that died shortly before I returned to America :'-(

ANYway, Maurice and I helped carry around a Mikoshi (a portable Shinto shrine). Well... carry isn't the right term, because part of the job is hoisting it up the the air and screaming. I couldn't understand the chant, so I don't recall what it was. The guy behind me wasn't really lifting the shrine at all (did I mention it's big and metal and HEAVY?), and I ended up hurting my shoulder (and tearing the uniform they had me wearing) and had to drop out. Lame!

If I still had my pictures, there's one where it's CLEAR that the guy behind me is not carrying his weight. Darn it!

Always back up!

Father's Day

Today is August 8^th, or Father's Day in Taiwan (in Mandarin, Ba Ba means father and 8-8, or August 8).

Ba Ba is also Father in Turkish:
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Tanabata

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Today is July 7^th, also known as Tanabata in Japan.

Orihime, the daughter of the Tentei (Sky King) wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa River(Milky Way). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, she was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone.

Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and were shortly married. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven.

In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if Orihime worked hard and finished her weaving.

The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. If it rains, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait till next year.*

*An analog of our Groundhog Day festival?

Huntington's Awareness Day

Today is June 6^th, and National Huntington's Awareness Day. It may be Huntington's, but it's not lupus.

It's never lupus.

(Edit: ARGH. When I wrote this post [half a year ago], there was a House/lupus video. It has since been deleted.)

Don't Panic

Douglas Noel Adams (1952—2001)

Not part of my x/x holiday posts, but today is Towel Day, as it is every 5/5²th of the year.

Some D.N.A. quotes for the day:

• The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and strangeness that is absolutely awesome. I mean the idea that such complexity can arise not only out of such simplicity, but probably absolutely out of nothing, is the most fabulous extraordinary idea. And once you get some kind of inkling of how that might have happened, it's just wonderful. And . . . the opportunity to spend 70 or 80 years of your life in such a universe is time well spent as far as I am concerned.
  • Answering Richard Dawkins' question 'What is it about science that really gets your blood running?'. as quoted in Richard Dawkins' Eulogy for Douglas Adams

• Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
  • Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
    

• [The World Wide Web is] the only thing I know of whose shortened form — www — takes three times longer to say than what it's short for.

Cinco de Mayo

Today is the 5^th of May, or Cinco de Mayo. A celebration, not of Mexican Independence (as many people believe), but of the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla. Know your history!

In Japan, it's also Children's Day, and the end of Golden Week.

Children's Day

Today is April 4^th. It's also Children's Day in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Fapril Mules

Today was (is?) April Fools. Quite a lot of good stuff today.

YouTube made this video even more awesome.

Slashdot added achievements (which will probably stick around)

Google's big show this year was impressively extensive. Although... remember when everyone thought that GMail was an April Fools joke? It did sound too good to be true...

Reddit had a pretty good sense of humor to make itself look like Digg for the day (a lot of content makes its way from Reddit to Digg, and vice versa).

For the end-all be-all rundown, checkout http://aprilfoolsdayontheweb.com/

Hinamatsuri

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Today is the third day of the third month. In Japan, today is Hinamatsuri, or Girl's Day. It is a doll festival.

Update: Found the song that goes with it:

(There are better versions out there, but this one was embeddable. Also, WOW is imeem's embedded player shitty)

Here are the lyrics (via):

Here is a Hinamatsuri song called "Ureshii Hinamatsuri (Happy Hinamatsuri)."

Akari o tsukemashou bonbori ni 明かりをつけましょう　ぼんぼりに

Ohana o agemashou momo no hana お花をあげましょう　桃の花

Go-nin bayashi no fue taiko 五人ばやしの　笛太鼓

Kyo wa tanoshii Hinamatsuri 今日は楽しいひな祭り

Let's light the lanterns

Let's set peach flowers

Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums

Today is a joyful Dolls' Festival

Groundhog Day!

Today is February 2^nd, otherwise known as Groundhog Day. This year, the groundhog saw his shadow, predicting another six weeks of winter.

Interestingly, it is the second day of the second month. New Years is the first day of the first month, Cinco de Mayo is the fifth day of the fifth month... you see where I'm going with this? ^_^ In Japan, there were official and unofficial holidays for most of these. So this year, on the xth day of the xth month, I'll be posting something special.

Happy New Year!

From The Doozies
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In an unrelated note, YouTube lets you choose the size of the embedded video now. Here is the interface:

If you're not colorblind, you won't see (haha!) the problem. Unfortunately, I AM colorblind, and all these look pretty much the same. I get it YouTube, you hate the colorblind. I get it. All the time. :'-(