Holiday Loot 2016

Happy Holidays! I hope everyone had time to reflect on friends, family, and the meaning of Christmas. And now that we're done with that, on to the loot!

My parents kindly sent me a cash gift that I could use to obtain a new tablet, since mine died a few months back. I did a brief poll of some friends and decided on an ASUS ZenPad 10. It's not the most powerful or feature-rich tablet, but all I really want is a good-sized quality display suitable for reading comics and playing simple mobile games (i.e. Star Realms). This tablet fills that need admirably, at a reasonable price.

From my brother, a fine paper book! Literally and in terms of subject matter. Most of what I've been reading recently has been in eBook format, so this will be a nice change of pace back to basics. And it goes nicely with The History of Writing series from Extra History, which I just finished watching the other day.

I also participated in a Secret Santa gift exchange this year with some folks from the QT3 forums. For my part, I shipped gifts all the way to Norway. The distance meant it was a good idea to keep it small, so the only physical item was a small model Viper ship from Battlestar Galactica - my giftee is a fan of the forum game based on that show. I also added some Kindle books (no shipping costs there): a cookbook full of video-game-related recipes and a couple of sci-fi novels.

From my secret santa came some reading and listening material, along with notes mentioning that some of the posts on this very blog helped with ideas. Star Trek - Ships of the Line is a 350-page book of artwork featuring all sorts of ships from the Star Trek universe (gift idea inspired by this post). The Amory Wars is an epic sci-fi comic collection, which I'd never heard of but looks very interesting. Even better, it comes with an accompanying metal album of songs related to the story! Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez is also the writer of the comics. Looking forward to checking out the set. (Update: There was also Randall Monroe's Thing Explainer book! It came a couple of days later in a separate box.)

Hope everyone out there had a Christmas as enjoyable as mine - happy holidays!

Ahoy, Donuts

Ahoy, mateys, it be Talk Like a Pirate day!

The pirate face donut was a little worse for wear after the trip home. But hey, what pirate doesn't have scars?

Krispy Kreme donut stores have been celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day for the last few years with free donuts. Ask for your donuts like a pirate, get an extra donut. Dress like a pirate, get a dozen free donuts.

I generally need very little excuse to eat donuts, and not much more to say "Arrrr." So this worked out very nicely. It's a bit of a drive up to the nearest Krispy Kreme store, but I justified it to myself by running a couple of errands while I was out.

When I arrived, there was a group all dressed up as pirates picking up their dozens of donuts. Wish I'd thought to bring my camera! Once they'd claimed their booty, I picked up some of my own (pictured). I only got the one extra donut since I didn't dress up, but I did get to place my order by saying "Ahoy, matey, I be needing them pirate donuts."

It be September 19th, so go forth and talk like a pirate, me hearties!

Happy Programmer Day!

The 256th day of the year is Programmer Day in Russia. Good idea for the rest of the world to follow.

Per Wikipedia, Programmer Day was first proposed by Valentin Balt and Michael Cherviakov back in 2002. It took until 2009 for the idea to catch on sufficiently that the Russian government recognized it officially. This year, 256 days falls on September 12. (That's because of the leap year...on non-leap years, it's September 13.)

Why the 256th day of the year? In programming, powers of 2 are very important numbers. 2^8 is 256, the largest power of two that's less than the number of days in year. It's especially important because 256 is also the number of values represented by a byte, one of the most basic units of memory in a computing environment.

The Programmer Day logo shows a full byte's worth of binary digits: "1111 1111". Those familiar with binary have probably noticed that's actually the value 255, not 256. That's because zero is also represented by a byte - "0000 0000" - giving a total of 256 values. This is called zero-based numbering and is used extensively in computer science. It's a common mistake for novice programmers to forget the zero value, so their total count ends up being off by one.

That logo could just have easily used hexadecimal (or "hex") as binary. Hex is a base-16 numbering system, using 0-9 and A-F as digits. It's often used as shorthand rather than writing out full binary values. The full byte value is "FF" in hex. Anyone who spends much time learning what's under the hood of computers will encounter hex sooner rather than later.

I don't do a lot of programming any more, but there were times in the past when it was pretty much my whole life. And I still dabble occasionally. I applaud the Russians for their official recognition of my fellow programmers!

Labor Day

It's Labor Day in the United States. (Also, Labour Day in Canada.)

Per the US Department of Labor, Labor Day "constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country." It's been around for more than 100 years, beginning with union celebrations, then state holidays, and eventually a federal holiday.

These days, Labor Day is known more as the unofficial end of summer than for celebration of workers. Growing up, I mainly remember it as the signal that it was time for school to start up again. That's no longer as much the case, as many schools start up in August now, but the long weekend is still a yearly milestone.

As with most holidays, I spend most Labor Day weekends at home, avoiding the extra traffic on the roads and in public places. When I was consulting and doing a lot of traveling, that was especially relaxing - a chance to not drive or fly somewhere. That lifestyle has changed, but spending holidays quietly at home is still my preferred celebration method.

Apparently, it's also National Cheese Pizza Day on September 5th. Probably won't bother going out to get a pizza to celebrate, but I've had enough cheese pizza (as well as with other toppings) in the last year that I feel I've done my part.

So, Happy Labo(u)r Day! Enjoy the remaining summer weather while it lasts.

Happy Fourth of July!

It's Independence Day in the United States!

There wasn't much of a country back on July 4, 1776. Just the representatives of the thirteen colonies signing the Declaration of Independence (which had actually been adopted two days earlier). The Revolutionary War wouldn't be over for another seven years. And the United States government as we know it wouldn't come into being for another thirteen years, when the Constitution was adopted in 1789. Nonetheless, July 4th has become the day when the country remembers its founding.

The traditional celebrations are many: parades, fireworks, picnics, etc. I like watching big fireworks displays as much as the next guy, but rarely bother with any of the rest unless I'm joining friends or family. My anti-social tendencies showing, I suppose. As a general rule, I enjoy myself more with solitary actives like reading or video games than being in a crowd. Especially when I'm likely to get a sunburn.

My least favorite part of the holiday is when everyone and his brother decides they have to set off their own little fireworks show at night. I'm fairly sure some of them aren't even bothering with visual displays. It's just making noise, and lots of it. Happens for a good 3-4 days around the holiday every year, usually for at least a few hours after sunset.

The fireworks can be dangerous, too, as you can see in the news just about every year. Do a quick Google search for "fireworks accidents" and there's no lack of stories about people losing fingers and hands and occasionally eyes. And fire marshals around the country are constantly trying to remind people that exploding things are terrible fire hazards. I'm happy to leave it all to the professionals.

So have a happy Fourth of July, but please be safe in the process. And consider keeping the noise down.

Happy Canada Day!

July 1st is Canada Day, celebrating the formation of the country back in 1867.

I live in Michigan, but not near enough to the Canadian border for it to be a significant presence. So why do I know it's Canada Day? Baseball, of course. Every July 1, the Blue Jays play an afternoon game, even on days when everyone else is playing at night. (Well, at least on years when they're at home that day.) I first noticed it a few years ago when I started subscribing to MLB radio broadcasts through MLB.com. This year's game is against the Cleveland Indians, which makes it especially interesting since they've won 15 games in a row.

There was a good amount of ceremony pre-game, much like you'll see at all the USA stadiums on Monday for the 4th of July. Giant Canadian flag in the outfield, various armed services members doing the national anthem and presenting the flag, and even several members of the Canadian Olympic team introduced on the field. They also showed a list of all the Canadian players around MLB, and it was pretty long. Not all the kids in Canada are growing up to play hockey!

I'd never really looked at the history of how Canada was formed, so I figured today was a good time to at least read the Wikipedia page. Almost 100 years after the American Revolutionary War, Canada became an independent county through the British North America Act of 1867 (now called the Constitution Act). There wasn't a war involved, although there had been uprisings 30 years earlier which started the process that eventually led to independence. Unlike the USA, Canada stayed in the British Commonwealth. There's never been a civil war in Canada like the USA's War Between the States, but the province of Quebec has had a couple of referendums on secession. Neither was successful, and Quebec seems to be content to stay as part of Canada for the time being.

My personal experience with Canada is fairly limited, just a few visits over the years. Most notably, I went up to Toronto for LASIK eye surgery way back in 2000, when it was still a fairly new procedure. My eye doctor here in the USA recommended that I make the trip since the doctors there had much more experience with the process, and it worked out great.

Happy birthday to our neighbors to the north! May the Canada Day celebrations be safe, plentiful, and a whole lot of fun.

Happy Father's Day

We are all shaped by our parents, to some extent. In most cases, a very great extent. On this Father's Day, a small part of what my dad has given me. (If this sounds familiar, that's because I said much the same thing on Mother's Day.)

Dad and I have pretty much always looked a lot alike, so I think a lot of my physical genetics came from his side of the family. Medium height and build, glasses, and an unfortunate tendency toward allergies. I've been told that people have even mistaken us from a distance, although that probably wouldn't happen any more due to hair color. 

My dad has always loved music. He has a wonderful singing voice, and loves to play the guitar. I have a lot of childhood memories of family nights of singing and stories. Often Dad would lead worship songs at church as well. I attribute much of my love of music to growing up with so much of Dad's music around me.

Dad is an engineer by trade, spending most of his working life as part of team that built very large buildings (power plants and such). The detail-oriented approach and mathematical skills that made him great at that job were passed on to me, and are the basis of my own academic and professional career in computer science and information technology.

My father is deeply invested in his faith. Not "deeply religious" as such, since that phrase carries the connotation of being devoted to a church. Dad is indeed active with churches and other such organizations, but what I see most in him is the desire to live according to his faith. He's followed Biblical examples in many ways, including working with the homeless and prisoners, and being a missionary to foreign lands. Often things don't work out perfectly, of course, but that doesn't stop my dad from doing what he believes is God's will in his life.

I'm afraid I'll need to also admit to inheriting much of my sense of humor from my dad. The family car rarely passed a graveyard without hearing that "people are dying to get in there," and I don't have time to recount all the puns. Everyone has some bad "dad jokes" they remember from childhood, but I'm sure mine were the worst. (Just like you're sure that yours were.) If anyone has a problem with a terrible joke they heard from me, please direct the blame up a generation to my dad.

On this Father's Day, I'm several thousand miles and many time zones from my dad, so I can't visit in person. Fortunately, technology gives me the means to say "I love you" and "Happy Father's Day" from wherever we each happen to be. Love you, Dad!

Happy Flag Day

In 1777 on June 14th, the Second Continental Congress adopted an official flag for their new country. We in the United States also celebrate the birth of the US Army on this day - that same congress had reached consensus on the army two years earlier.

Flag Day isn't one of the most well-known holidays, but in my family we always paid attention. Not so much for the flag part; more because it happens to be my Mom's birthday. Very fitting that she was born on a day with such historical importance, given how much she loves the subject of history.

For a year or so when I was a kid, my family lived in Baltimore. I don't remember a lot about our time in Baltimore, but a trip we made to Fort McHenry has stayed in my mind. I particularly remember viewing the original Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that was flying over the fort during the Battle of Baltimore. It was that flag which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that later became our national anthem. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to visit that part of the country.

So happy birthday to my Mom, the US Army, and the official adoption of the US flag. Many happy returns to all three!

Forty-One

Doesn't feel any different than forty, really.

Thanks, Google.

Which is always the case, right? Each day or month or year feels much the same as the one before. Then you look back a bit further and see how things have changed little by little. Forty-one may not feel any different than forty, but it's a far cry from thirty or twenty!

Lots of good birthday wishes today. Some came in the old-fashioned way, by mail and in person, over the last week or so. Many showed up on Facebook, which seems to be the standard well-wishing platform these days. Even an email or two, kind of in-between the old and the new.

Gift from my parents, a nice T-shirt featuring Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh.

I'm not doing anything special today, but next week I've got a trip planned with friends to the Origins gaming convention in Ohio. That's my birthday present to myself. Should be a good time.

Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes and/or gifts. Appreciate the good thoughts!

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day in the United States, dedicated to honoring those who fell in defense of the country.

As a US citizen, I benefit daily from everything that those fallen soldiers fought to protect. We civilians are grateful for their sacrifice, and also for their comrades who continue to serve. In an ideal world no fighting would be necessary, but unfortunately the real world isn't so fortunate. Those who take up that burden deserve our respect.

I found this article about the roots of this holiday to be interesting from a historical perspective. The holiday originated as Decoration Day, not from a grateful civilian populace, but from the soldiers themselves. The original Decoration Day was declared by General John Alexander Logan, the leader of a Union veterans organization, in 1868. The circular that Logan wrote asked his fellow veterans to use May 30th to decorate the graves of their fallen comrades.

It's a bit hard to imagine today, when the country is united in honoring the holiday, but not everyone appreciated the original Decoration Day. After the Civil War, the civilian populace was eager to put all reminders of the war behind them, particularly in the North. And in the South, honoring fallen Union soldiers was naturally a deeply divisive concept. Over time, as the experience of war faded, observance became more widespread. And as other wars came and went, the meaning expanded to include all fallen soldiers.

The Memorial Day we know today didn't come into being until 1967, when it was declared a federal holiday. I'm young enough that I don't remember a time when we didn't have a Memorial Day, and so is a large portion of the American populace. It's sometimes easy to get caught up in all the other things that surround any federal holiday - time off work, all kinds of sales advertisements, picnics and parades - and miss the original reason. I hope today that everyone takes some time to remember and honor the sacrifice of the military veterans who helped make all those things possible.

Happy Towel Day!

Don't panic!

March 25th is Towel Day, a celebration of the works of Douglas Adams. Why towels? Adams' most famous work, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, describes a towel as "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have" and recommends carrying one at all times. So when a fan recommended a remembrance of Adams be held two weeks after his passing on May 11 2001, the towel was an obvious choice of symbol.

I first read the Hitchhiker's Trilogy around 30 years ago. I can't be more specific because I don't remember exactly...pretty sure it was sometime during junior high. Before high school, anyhow, but I must have re-read the four books that existed then at least half a dozen times before I was out of college. And I continued to read the additional books as they were added to "the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy." That includes the sixth book written by Eion Colfer in 2009, years after Adams' death.

Science fiction has been a favorite genre of mine as long as I can remember, whether serious or parody. The genre first attracted me to the series, but Adams' dry, tongue-in-cheek humor made it a classic. There have been radio dramas, video games, and movies made from the original source material, although none of them are exact translations. It wouldn't be Hitchhiker's Guide without some inconsistencies.

The Hitchhiker's Guide was such a favorite of mine that I used it as inspiration when I needed to come up with an online identity. In Mostly Harmless, Arthur Dent spends some time on the planet Lamuella, where the local priest/madman worships the Almighty Bob. He preaches the "ineffable will of Almighty Bob" to the villagers, usually when he wants something, such as the best sandwich. That inspired me to use "ineffablebob" when I needed a name to use for online forums and such.

So have a happy Towel Day, and whatever may happen...Don't Panic.

Happy Mother's Day

We are all shaped by our parents, to some extent. In most cases, a very great extent. On this Mother's Day, a small part of what my mom has given me. (We'll get to dad later.)

Genetics is the most obvious part of inheritance, though in my case I don't think about those aspects too much. I'm pretty sure mom's side of the family gave my brothers and I a good portion of our height, since we're all taller than either parent, and her dad was a tall man. Thick and dark hair from her side as well. And a tendency toward poor eyesight, although I think both parents may be equally to blame for that one.

Whether dealing with a herd of rambunctious sons, teaching elementary and middle school, or dealing with the many twists of life, my mother has consistently showed amazing patience. I can count on one hand the number of times I remember seeing her truly angry. I know she gets frustrated like anyone else, but most of the time you'd never know it. She's my example when I need to keep my own cool.

I first learned the facts about my faith from my parents. Some of my earliest memories are family Bible story times and songs. (The singing was mostly dad, as one of my mother's few faults is a tendency to be only in the general vicinity of the melody.) More important than the facts, though, was that my parents lived the tenets of their faith through their actions. My mom's patience, empathy, and constant support of everyone around her taught me more about those aspects of life than any Bible story ever could.

My mom is a historian and a fan of trivia. (Which one could argue is the same thing in many cases. Not that I'd ever make such an argument.) My fondness for either of those isn't as deep as hers, but I've certainly been known to watch the occasional Jeopardy episode or play a game of Trivial Pursuit with no outside prompting. I absolutely love historical or alternate-history fiction, which largely depends on knowing the real history on which it is based. Mom instilled the desire to learn that history in me, and to this day I'll go out of my way to find interesting takes on historical events (such as Extra History).

On this Mother's Day, I'm several thousand miles and many time zones from my mom, so I can't visit in person. Fortunately, technology gives me the means to say "I love you" and "Happy Mother's Day" from wherever we each happen to be. Love you, Mom!

Happy National Beer Day

On April 7 1933, people could legally buy beer for the first time since Prohibition began. Sounds like a good excuse to celebrate!

By happy coincidence, some friends and I met for beers last night out at Hudsonville Pike 51 Brewery. Three of us had beers, anyway, and the fourth tried a few wines. Which was easy enough to do since the same location holds the Hudsonville Winery also (same ownership).

I had two sets of four sampler flights. Began with a couple of different cream ales, neither of which did a whole lot for me, but my friend Joe liked them. My taste runs to darker beers, so that wasn't a big surprise. The other two beers in the first flight were the Q-Hut Red and Knight's Brown, both of which were a little more bitter than I like, but not too bad.

Then I moved on to the darker beers. A honey wheat stout, a coffee-infused stout, the Sinister Kid imperial milk porter, and a special blend wild ale. All four of these were good, but the last two really stood out. Supply of the wild ale was limited since it's apparently pretty complex to make, but I was able to fill up my growler with the Sinister Kid porter.

Good times with the fellas, and some good beer to take home. That's the way to celebrate National Beer Day!

Happy PB&J Day

You can accidentally learn all sorts of things while poking around the Internet. On a totally unrelated search, I happened to stumble across the fact that April 2 is Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.

As I've mentioned previously, I like simple foods, and it doesn't get a lot simpler than the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'll have at least a couple every week, often more. I've even been known to go out of my way in the Detroit airport to hit the PB&J shop there, although sadly I think it closed down last year.

I prefer the basic PB&J sandwich: smooth peanut butter, strawberry or grape jelly, sandwich bread. People will make all kinds of additions, though. Grilling, deep-frying, multiple types of peanut butter and/or jelly, interesting breads, bananas, potato chips, and so on. And it's not just sandwich day. I've seen recommendations for PB&J used with cupcakes, waffles, pancakes, crackers...all kinds of variations.

There are people who use peanut butter and jelly as more than just a food. The PB&J Campaign is a project within A Well-Fed World, a group concerned about providing food for the world in an environmentally-friendly manner. The campaign uses the PB&J sandwich as an example of how eating more food products from plants and fewer from animals is a smaller environmental impact. Environmental impact isn't my main reason for eating PB&J sandwiches, but it's a nice bonus.

It's not clear from my cursory Google searching where Peanut Butter and Jelly day started, but it sure seems to have caught on. Even has a Twitter account. Happy to do my part to celebrate.

Leap Day

It's February 29, Leap Day. If you somehow didn't notice on your own, the Internet will be happy to tell you about it. Repeatedly.

I know Leap Day only comes around every four years (mostly), so it's something out of the ordinary. Still, the sheer number of times I came across it in just my normal daily routine surprised me. Without going out of my way to look anything up, it still popped up quite a few times.

First there were the ad emails. I had four by noon, and I expect a few more will come in later on. Not surprising, as marketers will seize on anything to try to sell you something. My favorite was from the Bacon Freak "Bacon of the Month" club. It's so obvious...nothing says "only once every four years" like "give me new bacon every month," right?

I spotted Leap Day mentions on the Google Doodle, Facebook, Twitter, and various places in my RSS feeds. Everyone wants to you to notice that it's February 29. And comment about it on their site, of course.

The Farmer's Almanac has a nice little write-up of the history behind the leap year. Goes all the way back to the Roman and Julian calendars. Although as I said back on January 1, it's a bit arbitrary to pay attention to a particular day in the year. Still, if you're going to pick a day to be special every four years, why not February 29?

Leap Day always reminds me of the leap second, which happens much less regularly and doesn't get nearly as much press. I guess that's to be expected from something with zero impact on most people. I remember having to apply various patches to the computing systems I helped to manage to account for it, though. Even the smallest change in timekeeping does have its impact.

Anyway, Happy Leap Day! Enjoy your 24-hour reprieve from the beginning of March.

Happy Arbitrary Celebration of the Passage of Time!

I'd never really thought about it, but there's really no good reason to celebrate the new year when we do. It's important to keep a calendar that everyone follows for the purpose of communication and business, of course. (Although plenty of folks still use other calendars for various reasons, as the Wikipedia calendar page mentions in the comments.) Picking a New Year's Day other than January 1 wouldn't make sense now. But it had to start somewhere.

I did a little searching around the web and it seems that our current tradition of celebrating on January 1 didn't start until the 16th century. That's when the Gregorian calendar reform set January 1 as the standard first day of the new year, among other things.

Prior to that, there really wasn't a standard start to the year. March was the most common time that the new year was celebrated. That actually makes more sense to me - springtime feels like a more logical place to start a new year than the dead of winter. (In the northern hemisphere, anyway.)

On the other hand, January does have some logic behind it when it comes to the length of the day. The December solstice is the shortest day of the year, so the days are getting longer by the time January 1 rolls around. A good time to start the new year, as the days lengthen.

If the Gregorian reform had a slightly different thought process, we might be all sitting at home quietly every December 31. And staying up late every February 28th! (And sometimes 29th.) Regardless of how arbitrary the date may be, it's good to celebrate the passage of another year. Happy New Year, everyone!

Hallow-humbug

I'm not a big Halloween person. It's a holiday based around things I mostly dislike.

Costumes: What I wear hasn't ever been particularly important to me. Dressing up as someone else, even less so. I'll do it when there's a good reason, but I can't say I'll ever enjoy it. The problem with Halloween specifically is that you're expected to dress up somehow. No matter how much people may say it doesn't matter, the peer pressure is still there. I'll just stay home, thanks.

Fear: I don't much like being frightened. Weird, right? All the haunted houses, slasher movies, etc the are everywhere around Halloween do very little for me. That's not to say I don't enjoy suspense; I do, such as in spy thrillers or mystery novels. Just not the kind of "give you nightmares" stuff that is pushed at Halloween every year.

Trick or Treating: As a single middle-aged man, I realize I'm way out of the demographic for this one. But I still hear about it all the time...the local news talks about the weather for it all week, every store has candy on sale, the Internet is covered with stories about the cute little ghosts and witches. On the bright side, at least living in a condo building means I very rarely get anyone knocking on my door.

Nothing is all bad, of course. That cheap candy is nice, especially if you shop in the first week of November when they put all the leftovers on clearance. Sometimes other people's costumes are interesting to look at. And there are some fun Halloween events in my favorite online games each year. Overall, though, I could do without Halloween.