Watching the Wonders of a Winter Solstice

Today is the Winter Solstice, The shortest day of the year, and therefore the longest night. It’s also considered in many cultures & historical cultures to be the end of the year, and the start of the new. It all its a very spiritual time.

This year the special day has been made even more so with a full lunar eclipse. Ancient man (and woman) saw the lunar eclipse as a omen of great importance, so this omen appearing on the actual solstice is very Important. And could herald a special/interesting time ahead.  The last time this happened was in 1638,  So 2011 should be a special year!

So We here at the Ninja Temple wish you all a very happy *INSERT YOUR CELEBRATION NAME HERE*.

So can i ask everyone to throw a huge party and celebrate. For we need to make a big noise so that Amaterasu comes out of her cave and brings the sun back to the people, so the days can start getting longer, and I can start getting warm.

Midway Review PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH)

Ha! I bet you thought I had forgotten all about PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH) didn’t you? Well sorry to disappoint you all, especially the person who keeps poking me to ask have I given up on it yet. I know I originally mentioned spamming you with 31 posts giving a day by day review of my attempts. When I though about it afterwards I realised that would be unnecessary, and probably very boring to both write & read.

The new plan is to do a run-down post at the end of the challenge, and maybe the odd relevant post along the way. I think that’s a better way to organise it,  I just need this post to let those who are interested know what’s going on, and to announce that I have not forgotten or given up on PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH).

Dec15Update

Challenge Chart up to Dec 15th

Sometimes doing the Sensible thing bites you in the Arse

I recently installed an application on my iPhone called “System”, Its a handy little app that gives you information on you phones memory, processes, disk, batter, and general info.  It’s a handy Application for checking your phone, or getting info from it.

The first time I used it, after installation it told me off. “Apparently” I had never done a “Full Charge” since having the phone. What my phone explained to me was this, “Batteries degrade with time, and the memory and life of the battery is constantly getting smaller. So over time the charge lasts less and less. Now if you do a full charge every so often you can extend the life of your battery” This is a good thing, so I read the instructions which were as simple as 1)let your battery get below 20% charge, 2)start system, 3)plug in charger and accept full charge. So I made a mental note to do this at some point.

Last night was that point. I noticed about 10pmish that my phone was down to 6% battery and needed charging, so I figured why not do a full charge. On plugging in the phone and accepting the prompt for full charge, I was given a message saying “Time to full charge 1h 50m”. So I left the phone plugged in and went to watch Star Trek (the reboot one).

<Sideways Tangent>

So the reboot Star Trek ends with Spock Prime going off with the few surviving Vulcan’s to try and build a new world. Now am I the only one thinking this is a stupid ending?

How many times in the TV series & Films has Spock gone back in time? He’s almost a big a time traveller as the Doctor! And he just lost his homeworld, and most his race. Surely that would be a good reason to go back in time and fix it. You could go back a few weeks and evacuate the planet so that no Vulcan’s die in the attack?

Or he could jump back a few years and use his knowledge of future technology to help build a starship with weaponry & shielding to defeat the attacking ship?

Hell he could even just go destroy Romulus now, which means Nero would never be born, and hence be unable to come back in time to change the future. Or do nothing since now Vulcan has been destroyed, then they will not be the technologically advanced race in the future, and so will not be able to invent and build a red matter powered ship, thereby preventing the wormhole being created that brought Nero back into the past to destroy them. Of course If they don’t invent the red matter ship, then they will not get destroyed allowing them to advance to the point they create the red matter ship.

Arggghhhh. This film just created an unending time loop.

</Sideways Tangent>

Before going to bed I checked the phone, it claimed the full charge was done, and it was just doing a trickle charge test which would not take long. So I left the phone plugged in and went to sleep.

at 4AM I was woken by a large siren going off. Turns out that there’s a hidden option on “System” to have a full charge finish alarm or not. And that the soon to be finished trickle test goes on for quiet a while. *mutter* *mutter*

So, where as I recommend people to do their best to extend the life of their phones battery, I suggest they turn off any annoying alarms.

What did we do before the Internet?

Today at the Asylum we lost the interwebz for a reasonable length of time. And everyone looked confused over what to do, while those with iPhones tried to grab bits of the net to hug and pet, and remember the good times.

This led to the question being asked “what did we do before the Internet

Suggestion 1 was read.  Err I read ebooks these days that I store online till I need them

Suggestion 2 was chat to people but with every flavour of I’m down how could we chat. And how exactly do you LOL or use smilies without a keyboard?

Suggestion 3 was write. Apparently with pen and paper?. Then you would put the letters inside other bits of paper and write someone’s name on it and drop it in a box. A box on the side of the road?. Some people would come along then and take it to whoever’s name you wrote on the envelope? It could take days to get there, if it got there at all. Well without ip’s or mx records no wonder it would take so long.

So there you have it, in these days of working online, using cloud services, VoIP phones, emails, even IM for internal communication, the average office worker is lost and unable to be productive without the Internet.

Personally I was scanning the area for unsecured wifi to deal with my addiction.

From The Archive: Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

Nephew: Why do they say every cloud has a silver lining?

Me:It’s because the outer edges of clouds, where the condensed moisture particles hit the ionised atmosphere, interacting with pollutants in the air causes a peculiar affect where the particles oxidise forming silver particles.

Nephew:WOW!” *looks back at sky*So you could fly aeroplanes through clouds and collect silver?

Me:No, don’t be silly!

Nephew: *dejected look*

Me:Aeroplanes travel too fast, the air pressure they form in front of them pushes the clouds away preventing them collecting the silver. What they use is air ships, which the float slowly through the clouds with special collectors attached to the basket. they just float about in twelve hour shifts harvesting the cloud silver. It also means they make more money from it, sinceit uses much less petrol than planes.

And that was the moment my Sister banned me from answering any questions my nephews may ask. Well There was an incident when one of my nephews got excited in school when the teacher asked a question that he knew the answer too, because his uncle had told him.