Every week for the past while, I've been posting a list of upcoming birthdays for the local Furry group. Each post also has a list of up-coming holidays and events. The birfdays part hasn't changed in a while; the holidays and observances part has changed and expanded quite a bit since I started, but its purpose has always been to give local furries a heads-up on what to look out for that week. I thought I'd show you all an example of these posts. Here's this week's entry, (leaving out the birthdays of course because you probably don't know them.)
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On the Holidays and Observances Desk, today, (Sunday, May 15th), is International Day of Families, (which is what it sounds like.) Today is also International Conscientious Objectors Day; the traditional date of the International Conscientious Objector's Meeting. And on this day in 1928, Mickey Mouse's first cartoon, "Plane Crazy," had its debut.
Tomorrow, (Monday, May 16th), will be Scratch Day; a day to promote Scratch, the game programming language. It will also be Middlesex Day in Middlesex, UK. And on this day in 1866, Charles Elmer Hires invented root beer.
Tuesday, (May 17th), will be Buddha Day, (aka Buddha Purnima, Buddha Jayanti); the day Buddha was born, the day he died and the day he achieved Total Enlightenment. Tuesday will also be International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, which is what it sounds like. (http://www.homophobiaday.org/) Tuesday will be World Information Society Day, (formerly World Telecommunication Day), which is what it sounds like. And on this day in 1990, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of psychiatric diseases. And canidae please note that Tuesday will be the full moon. This will be the Full Flower Moon for the flowers that bloom at this time of year; also called the Milk Moon or the Corn Planting Moon.
Wednesday, (May 18th), will be National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day; a day to encourage candidate vaccines and the research and development of better ones. It will also be International Museum Day. And Wednesday will be World Hepatitis Day, (which is what it sounds like.)
Friday, (May 20th), will be World Metrology Day; a day in support of world-wide standards of measurement. And Friday will be Draw Muhammad Day; a day to make gestures of disrespect at Islam.
Saturday, (May 21st), will be World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, (aka Diversity Day), which is what its name says. And as we've all heard, Saturday will be The Rapture according to eBible Fellowship; God will lift his Faithful up to heaven, while the Faithful Dead will be transformed into eternal, living beings and lifted up, too; the rest of us will suffer 155 days of chaos and confusion, then burn in hell forever starting in October. And Saturday will also be Armed Forces Day in the USA.
Bizarre American Holidays: today is National Chocolate Chip Day; Monday will be Wear Purple For Peace Day; Tuesday will be Pack Rat Day; Wednesday will be Visit Your Relatives Day; Thursday will be Frog Jumping Jubilee Day; Friday will be Eliza Doolittle Day; and Saturday will be National Memo Day and National Waitresses and Waiters Day in the USA.
And heads-up for next Sunday, which will see the Jewish festival Lag B'Omer begin at sunset. Next Sunday will also be International Day for Biological Diversity. And next Monday, May 23rd will see the Baha'i observance of the Declaration of the Bab begin at sunset. It will also be the Sikh observance of the Guru Amar Das's Birfday and World Turtle Day. And don't forget. Monday 23rd will be Victoria Day holiday; a day off for some, not to mention the day of the Annual TorFur Island Picnic. (Let Deucecat know if you'll be coming.)
And as usual, if you want to be included in the UBL, or if you want to be removed or to have your entry changed, just email me and I'll fix it for you right away. (Please note that the UBL is not linked to the TorFur list so you have to notify me separately.) And just so you know, after nearly getting Wookiee mad at me, I don't add people to the UBL unless they ask to be added, changed or removed themselves; please don't ask for somebody else.
I give no credibility to those promoting 21 May as Doomsday, even though one longtime religious group (who own the oldest-surviving non-governmental shortwave broadcaster in the US, WYFR, aka Family Radio, which has been on the air for 50-60 years) took out a full-page ad this week in the USA Today newspaper, which uses some very dodgey logic to claim its correctness in the bible, particularly by first stating that "no man shall know the day and time of the end", then quoting a passage that said that humanity will increase its knowledge of the world as proof that we will know when the end times are... (Excuse me? That's jumping to conclusions without supporting the claim properly!)
Idiots, the lot of them! (And that's why I'm Deist-- I do believe in God and all that, but not the bullshit that biblethumpers spew out!)
d.m.f.
I give no credibility to those promoting 21 May as Doomsday, even though one longtime religious grou
I'm quite dubious about their claims myself, I mentioned it mainly for entertainment value. I'm considering accepting Jesus as my personal Saviour Friday night, just in case... but maybe not, Jesus didn't like hypocrites.
I'm quite dubious about their claims myself, I mentioned it mainly for entertainment value. I'm cons
The only Doomsday I'd promote is the book, but it's been out of date for centuries. :p
I see those who promote other Doomsdays as quitters. They want to give up and die, hoping fervently that some undefined event will make things better for them. As for me, if I want a better world, I've got to make it myself and not rely on some mystical entity to wave a magic wand and make things better.
The only Doomsday I'd promote is the book, but it's been out of date for centuries. :p I see those
I don't know if this is of any interest to you, but some time ago, I made up the gag holidays of Norther, Souther, and Wester, although I'm certain few actually get them.
To explain the joke: there are four seasons and four cardinal directions, right? If Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox (generally speaking), might Wester fall on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Autumnal Equinox? How about Norther and the Winter Solstice? Souther and the Summer Solstice?
So naturally, I had to some up with some animals to go with them. Hence, the Norther ferret, the Souther squirrel (formerly just a rock), and the Wester hedgehog.
Ah, well. I'm not actually asking you to include them in your list. I just thought you'd find them amusing, hopefully.
I don't know if this is of any interest to you, but some time ago, I made up the gag holidays of Nor
Holy s***, that's brilliant! I never even thought where the word Easter came from. (According to Wiki, it comes from the old English "Eostur-monath," which means "month of Ēostre," (possibly now called "Ostara"), the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility. Eostur-monath is now called April. of course.) But creating equivalents for the other seasons is a great idea! May I steal it, please?
BTW, why those critters?
Holy s***, that's brilliant! I never even thought where the word Easter came from. (According to Wik
Yes, you can steal them. :p To be tactlessly honest, I was hoping you would want to, but I didn't want to be so rude to ask as they are just gag holidays.
I was noodling about with the idea of "deriving" the other names in the same manner as Easter was derived, but decided that was too much effort when I looked at the Wikipedia entry for Easter. I simply don't know enough of Anglo-Saxon or related languages to fake it very convincingly. I guess they can always be explained away as being "derived" later on by someone who didn't know any better (which is the truth :p ).
About the animals, my criteria was that they needed to be small, cute mammals familiar with Europeans, available more or less as pets, and could be paired with an Australian mammal, using Easter bunny -> Easter bilby as a base. At the moment, that would mean Norther ferret -> Norther quoll; Souther squirrel -> Souther sugar glider; Wester hedgehog -> Wester echidna. Other than that, I went with whatever animal looked good for the season.
Yes, you can steal them. :p To be tactlessly honest, I was hoping you would want to, but I didn't wa
A gag holiday? You mean like Kitchen Sink Day? (last Monday in July - a day to celebrate anything you can think of that doesn't have a day of its own) Or Star Wars Day? (May the 4th be with you - I wish I could claim that one!) I used to make up local animal holidays when there weren't enough real holidays to mention. (Then I started looking through Wiki and it never happened again.) Anyway, thanks! ^_^
A gag holiday? You mean like Kitchen Sink Day? (last Monday in July - a day to celebrate anything y
Maybe I ought to hunt down some of my old issues of GAMES magazines from the late '80s. Some of them had off-the-wall holidays like National Nothing Day and National Howdy-Hoo Day.
May the Forth be with you? That's a good one. :p
You're welcome. :) Maybe I ought to hunt down some of my old issues of GAMES magazines from the lat
BTW, I worked out the dates: - Easter 2011 was April 24th. in 2012 it works out as April 8th and that's the date I found according to two different calendar sites; - Souther 2011 will be July 18th, in 2012 it will be July 9th; - Wester 2011 will be October 17th, in 2012 it will be September 30th; and - Norther 2011 would have been January 23rd, in 2012 it will be January 15th. ...and I'll be sure to credit you as the creator of the days. (Yes, I have much too much free time.)
BTW, I worked out the dates: - Easter 2011 was April 24th. in 2012 it works out as April 8th and tha
Thanks. I needed this poke to make me quit stalling and figure the dates for Norther, Souther, and Wester from 2010 (when I made my first Norther picture) to 2020. I'll put them up as a journal entry when I have the time.
My reckoning almost agrees with yours, except that I have Souther 2011 on July 17, Wester 2011 on October 16, and Souther 2012 on July 8. (Your dates are Mondays trying to pull one over on you. :o )
There's also Wester 2012, which made me wonder what the rules should be if the Full Moon fell on a Sunday. Easter 1984 (Full Moon: April 15; Easter: April 24) indicates that it's still the first Sunday after] the first Full Moon after the equinox/solstice. Accordingly, Wester 2012 falls on October 7.
An interesting thing to note is that the spring equinox Easter falls after isn't the astronomical one (which can be on March 19, 20, or 21), but the ecclesiastical spring equinox of March 21 (a difference that won't be obvious until 2019). Fortunately, Norther, Souther, and Wester don't follow any ecclesiastic calendar, only the Gregorian. Good thing too, because figuring their dates is enough of an effort as it is. :p
Thanks. I needed this poke to make me quit stalling and figure the dates for Norther, Souther, and
Oh, drat! This is a long weekend in Canada, (Victoria Day Holiday), and we have this Monday off. It's been on my mind because the local furries have a traditional picnic and fireworks out on the Toronto Island parks. I mixed that up with Good Friday somehow. Derpy otter is derpy... Anyway, thanks for the correction.
Oh, drat! This is a long weekend in Canada, (Victoria Day Holiday), and we have this Monday off. It'
You're welcome, and don't feel bad. When I determined the dates, I had a few that were more screwed up than putting them on Monday instead of Sunday. Dates are tricky things, I guess. At least these weren't with women. :p
You're welcome, and don't feel bad. When I determined the dates, I had a few that were more screwed
By the by, I sent you an email with those dates I said I'd glean out of my old GAMES magazine issues. I threw in a couple of brainteaser puzzles I ran across, too.
By the by, I sent you an email with those dates I said I'd glean out of my old GAMES magazine issues
And you should have another two emails from me, one with a cryptogram calendar puzzle and one with a link to the South Ontario Elephant. Apologies if you live in Owen Sound, but it's not my map nor did I remember you lived in Canada until after I sent the email. :o
And you should have another two emails from me, one with a cryptogram calendar puzzle and one with a
Sorry. I did get both emails. I'm afraid there wasn't much in the cryptogram I could use, but I have add Elephant Appreciation Day, (just now.) *hugs* You're good to me. I really do appreciate it, even though I'm bad about showing it. Forgive me? BTW, I'm 'way the heck down in Toronto, (I'm sorry, it was my parent's idea), around the beasty's knee.
Sorry. I did get both emails. I'm afraid there wasn't much in the cryptogram I could use, but I have
That's okay. You're forgiven. I just was wondering if what I had sent you was of any interest, much less use. If I find any more dates, they won't be from GAMES now, unless I somehow stumble upon some older magazines. (I have found a calendar-related cover puzzle from GAMES, but it's a what's-wrong-with-this-picture puzzle.)
Part of why I hunted up those days for you is because I wanted to help you add to your collection of days. I thought I could be of use and I'm glad I have been. Also, you get bonuses like elephants in Ontario. :p
That's okay. You're forgiven. I just was wondering if what I had sent you was of any interest, muc
