Happy 3rd Birthday, Cadence!
Posted on 2007-08-04 at 15:27
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear Cadence
Happy Birthday to you
In Honor of the Holiday Season
Posted on 2006-12-20 at 08:14
I present a history of the religions of the world in 90 seconds. Enjoy.
Phear My Pumpkin!
Posted on 2006-10-31 at 07:21
Placed for maximum evilness...
...And carved for raw scarytude...
Your fear is natural. Embrace it. My 'leet pumpkin carving skillz are beastly and awesome.
A Halloween Followup
Posted on 2006-10-28 at 22:06
As you may know, I get the occasional comment about my blog from the provided "Make a Comment" links. The door is always open should someone really want their comment made public. This is the case today with Shep. He's requested that I include his addendum to my Origin of Halloween post. So, without editing or censoring, I present tonight's guest blog entry from Shep:
My favorite part of Holloween is when teenage kids unsuspectinly bite into an apple with razor blades stuck in it. Then they turn to you with eyes wide and a razor blade stuck between their two front teeth, like some kind of demonic dental floss. They mumble something like "Help me!" but you can't understand them because it comes out like, "Helphmpfp Muuhhh" Hahahaha! Good times.
So, now you know. If you reply to an entry of mine and want your comment known (as long as it's not just "Tom is the g@y sux0r!" or something like that) just make it known in your reply that you want it posted. As you can see, I'll post just about anything.
So Shep, now that you're famous, you'll be beating the womenfolk off with a stick! Look forward to your riches and glory.
The Origins of Halloween
Posted on 2006-10-14 at 12:31
There has been a great deal of misunderstanding about the Halloween holiday and in some cases, outright lies designed to eliminate its practice. Here is the actual history of the holiday. If you read this and still decide not to celebrate the holiday, well, then at least you've done so knowledgably. Personally, I like th eholiday. As secular holidays go, it's one of the funnest, not to mention it heralds my favorite time of year---from Halloween to the end of the New Year's celebration.
Halloween began 2000 years ago with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts of the British Isles began their year on November 1st. This was for agricultural reasons. The growing season was ended and the winter came, with it a new year dawned. As you might expect for an ancient civilization tied to agriculture for its sustenance, with winter came death. It was on the day before this "season of death" that the Celts believed the veil between this this world and the next was at its most thin. The ritual of Samhain helped the Celts ward off the evil spirits (that might otherwise cause all manner of deadly mischief) and to allow the Druids to soothsee the next year's future---thus allowing them to plan for the foreseen problems and events. They would offer burnt sacrifices to the the Celtic deities and engage is various nature rituals to appease the Gods, warn the spirits, and scry for impending dooms. Of course, they would dress as animals, which may be the origin of our costumed tradition.
Much later, during the Roman occupation, a couple fo Roman festivals began to merge slowly into the Celtic festival of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a Roman day of the dead, and the second was a holiday devoted to Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruits and trees. Though her symbol was the apple, there exists no direct proof that this might be the origin of our modern apple bobbing tradition.
...continued after picture...
As the middle ages bore close and Christianity's influence began being felt in all things across Europe, Pope Boniface IV designated the 1st of November as All Saints' Day to honor the Catholic saints and martyrs who've passed. There is some evidence that he coincided his new holiday with that of Samhain as a way to take some of the focus off the older pagan festival. The Catholic celebration was also called All-hallows and the day before, which was the day of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve or Halloween. Later, the church added All Souls' Day to it's roster of holidays on November 2nd. With a celebration quite similar to the older Samhain, the three holidays became lumped together in the minds of the people celebrating and were referred to collectively as Hallowmas.
Much later, as European immigrants began their migration to America, they brought with them the traditions they'd grown to practice---among them, Halloween. Of course, due to Puritan interests in the New World, celebration of Halloween was limited and rare, but it did not die out, particualrly in southern America, where Puritanism had no substantial foothold.
As the traditions of the colonists and the American Indians began to mix, a distinctive American holiday took shape. They would hold public parties to celebrate the harvest---remember that for early colonists, the harvest held almost the same public importance and worry that it held for the early Celts. At these "play parties", the celebrants would whisper ghost stories and soothsay, and generally revel into the late evening. All-around mischief-making became part-and-parcel with the ghost stories. Though all this was done to celebrate the harvest, and it borrowed memes from the earlier Hallowmas festivals, t was not actually a celebration of Halloween itself---not directly, at least.
By the 1850s, America was awash in immigrants, many of whom brought with them a fresh practice of the Hallowmas. Takng a cue from the English and Irish immigrants, the colonists began to dress in costume and go house to house asking for food or money. As the popularity of the Hallowmas grew, so too grew a movement to shape this "new" holiday into something more modern and less superstitious. By the end of the 1800s, the holiday had begun making its transformation into a festival that, while having the trappings of a pagan celebration, had more to do with community and fun than ghouls and goblins.
...continued after picture...
Around 1900, parents were encouraged to remove the superstition from the nightly celebrations. References to ghosts and witches were replaces with princesses and animals. By 1920, the holiday had become wholly secular in practice in the Unites States. By 1950, the practice of begging for food and money had been reborn as the more modern "trick-or-treat".
Commercially-speaking, Halloween is the second largest holiday practiced in the Unites States, with Americans spending an estimated $6.9 billion annually.
While I've left some details out (like the Soul Cakes and bowls of food and drink left out for the spirits) you should now have the gist of the history of Halloween.
My Halloween Costume
Posted on 2006-10-12 at 19:55
Eat it, Bitches! I'm going as Easy Reader from The Electric Company!
Hells yeah! I'll be pimplicious, sporting my Kangol hat and plastic Morgan Freeman face. What?!?!? You don't remember Easy Reader? Or The Electric Company? Let me help:
Happy Pi Day!
Posted on 2006-03-14 at 07:19
The mathematical constant Pi is a real number which is defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference (Greek Piεριφέρεια, periphery) to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, and which is in common use in mathematics, physics, and engineering. The name of the Greek letter Pi is pi (pronounced pie) in English. This spelling can be used in typographical contexts where the Greek letter is not available. Pi is also known as Archimedes's constant (not to be confused with Archimedes's number) and Ludolph's number.
In Euclidean plane geometry, Pi may be defined either as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, or as the ratio of a circle's area to the area of a square whose side is the radius. Advanced textbooks define Pi analytically using trigonometric functions, for example as the smallest positive x for which sin(x) = 0, or as twice the smallest positive x for which cos(x) = 0. All these definitions are equivalent.
The numerical value of Pi, truncated to 50 decimal places (sequence A000796 in OEIS), is:
3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510
Although this precision is more than sufficient for use in engineering and science, the exact value of Pi has decimal places that never end. Much effort over the last few centuries has been put into computing more digits and investigating the number's properties. Despite much analytical work, in addition to supercomputer calculations that have determined over 1 trillion digits of Pi, no pattern in the digits has ever been found. Digits of Pi are available from multiple resources on the Internet, and a regular personal computer can compute billions of digits with available software.
Pi is an irrational number; that is, it cannot be written as the ratio of two integers, as was proven in 1761 by Johann Heinrich Lambert.
Pi is also transcendental, as was proven by Ferdinand von Lindemann in 1882. This means that there is no polynomial with rational coefficients of which Pi is a root. An important consequence of the transcendence of Pi is the fact that it is not constructible. Because the coordinates of all points that can be constructed with ruler and compass are constructible numbers, it is impossible to square the circle, that is, it is impossible to construct, using ruler and compass alone, a square whose area is equal to the area of a given circle.
The value of Pi has been known in some form since antiquity. As early as the 20th century BC, Babylonian mathematicians were using Pi=25/8, which is within 0.5% of the exact value.
It is sometimes claimed that the Bible states that Pi=3, based on a passage in 1 Kings 7:23 giving measurements for a round basin as having a 10 cubit diameter and a 30 cubit circumference. Rabbi Nehemiah explained this by the diameter being from outside to outside while the circumference was the inner brim; but it may suffice that the measurements are given in round numbers. Also, the basin may not have been exactly circular.
The most pressing open question about Pi is whether it is a normal number -- whether any digit block occurs in the expansion of Pi just as often as one would statistically expect if the digits had been produced completely "randomly", and that this is true in every base, not just base 10. Current knowledge on this point is very weak; e.g., it is not even known which of the digits 0,…,9 occur infinitely often in the decimal expansion of Pi.
Bailey and Crandall showed in 2000 that the existence of the above mentioned Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe formula and similar formulæ imply that the normality in base 2 of Pi and various other constants can be reduced to a plausible conjecture of chaos theory. See Bailey's above mentioned web site for details.
It is also unknown whether Pi and e are algebraically independent. However it is known that at least one of Pie and Pi + e is transcendental.
In non-Euclidean geometry the sum of the angles of a triangle may be more or less than Pi radians, and the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter may also differ from Pi. This does not change the definition of Pi, but it does affect many formulæ in which Pi appears. So, in particular, Pi is not affected by the shape of the universe; it is not a physical constant but a mathematical constant defined independently of any physical measurements. Nonetheless, it occurs often in physics.
The above stolen liberally from the Wikipedia article on the subject. The text of this entry falls under the GNU Free Documentation License. Now you are edified. Go forth and spread the wisdom of Pi.
Lest I forget Bryan on this most special of days
Posted on 2006-02-14 at 19:01
Bryan,
May your legs grow together and your back hair be knotty and twisted til Eternity gets old and dies. May you one day know the pain of a white hot dagger shoved through your ribs and deep into your chest cavity. May your last words on this earth be "That bitch...she stabbed me..." and may I be there to laugh aloud as death's chilled hand covers your mouth and smothers the last faint breath from your enormously overweight body.
I love you, man!
If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
Posted on 2006-02-14 at 08:01
Happy Valentine's Day.
Gung Hay Fat Choy
Posted on 2006-01-30 at 06:54
The Year of the Dog.
The Years of the Dog are: 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, (and every 12 years going on).
Born in the Year of the Dog, you possess all that is good about humanity. You are honest, loyal, and trustworthy. Though sometimes selfish and eccentric, you don't much care about money (though you always seem to have it!). In social situations, you can appear to others as cold or distant, but you make a good leader, nonetheless. You are most compatible with those born in the Years of Horse, Tiger, and Rabbit.
This gift-getting stuff is serious business
Posted on 2005-12-31 at 20:58
I've centered my chi and I am prepared for the excess of presents that you have purchased for me. Commence with your offerings so that I may show you that I am pleased:
Out of town til Monday
Posted on 2005-12-21 at 08:06
I'll be out of town til this coming Monday. Everyone have a Merry Christmas (or Enjoyable Festivity of your Religious or Secular Preference) and I'll see you on the flip side.
As always, I leave with a topic for discussion:
Is Shakespeare's Measure For Measure a Comedy, a Tragedy, or a Comedy of a Tragedy? A quote of Angelo making his dire proposal to Isabella should help get you started:
My unsoil'd name, th' austerness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place i' th' state,
Will so your accusation overweigh,
That you shall stifle in your own report,
And smell of culumny." (Act II, Scene iv, Lines 154-159)
Just 'cause of Halloween
Posted on 2005-11-01 at 08:03
Here's a costume of someone dressed as the FreeBSD devil mascot. You're welcome.
Your very own cyber-pumpkin
Posted on 2005-10-31 at 08:05
To carve to your heart's content. Happy Halloween, everyone.
All Hallow's Eve
Posted on 2005-10-31 at 08:02
Tonight will be Cadence's first Halloween. She will go dressed as a ladybug. She will beg the neighbors for cady that her mother and I will then take from her and eat. This is the way of Halloween. Don't judge us.
The Case of the Haunted Hayride
Posted on 2005-10-31 at 08:01
I, Denise, Cadence, Brent, Kyoko, Hanna, Chris Susko, and Chris Susko's woman all went to the Hunt Club Halloween thingy last night.
Firstly, regardless of what lies others might spread in the wake of this event, I carried myself with dignity and respect.
Secondly, much fun was had by all. There were long lines and stupid, lying pizza men, but once you get past that, the night was brisk but not cold and the events were well done. Those that didn't go are worse for having abstained.
Denise and Kyoko and the children (Hanna and Cadence) spent most of their time in the main barn area with the music and dancing and *GASP* karaoke! You haven't lived til you've seen a drunk dude in a poor wolfman costume singing along to Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London. It hurt my ears and soul in ways unspeakable.
Memorial Day weekend
Posted on 2005-05-31 at 08:01
All went well. I visited Dr. and Mrs. Kessler (who mentioned that they'd seen my blog!), finished upgrading Meghan's computer to Ubuntu Linux, played some D&D, and took Delaney to breakfast. I also chilled out a great deal.
Thomas Mann, novelist, Nobel laureate (1875-1955)
Posted on 2005-01-03 at 08:01
"Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols."
Happy New Year!
Turkey...
Posted on 2004-11-28 at 08:01
...and much of it. I partook of the holiday spirit til I nearly burst. This is a good thing.
Creatures crawled in search of blood!
Posted on 2004-11-01 at 08:01
Well, technically, giraffes, Supermen, Dorothy, a Care Bear (I think), and some other assorted beings crawled in search of candy, but that sounds much less dramatic. Halloween went well.
The Cornfield...OF WAITING!
Posted on 2004-10-17 at 08:02
The Hunt Club was a no-go. The lines were way too long. We are gonna try again in a few days.
The Cornfield...OF EVIL!
Posted on 2004-10-16 at 08:01
It's that time of the year again, when the guys all go to the Hunt Club's Halloween Festival. We are going tonight. I dig it. You should too.
No foolin'
Posted on 2004-04-02 at 08:01
Note how nice I was. There were no stupid April 1st postings.