Quotidian, Festive Occasions: Chronicled

Today is Dictionary Day! This day is tribute to Noah Webster, who is considered to be the Father of the American Dictionary. Allot time from your itinerary and dedicate it to ameliorate your vocabulary. Be careful, though, or you might end up with a sentence that doesn't sound quite right (like the one before this one). Sure, you can use big fancy words, but does the sentence really flow? Simply knowing the meaning of a word doesn't grant you the ability to use it wherever it replaces a shorter word with the same meaning. Spend time learning the history behind a word, and you may find that it's application in the language is actually quite specific. Today's challenge is to add at least one word into your vocabulary that you can use often. My word of choice is: Growlery. It's a word that Charles Dickens apparently coined for a place that one goes when in an ill temper. So it will be a useful word to use whenever I have the mulligrubs.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

'Enry 'Iggins

Today is Eliza Doolittle Day! When I saw this on my list, I KNEW it rang a bell, but googling the name didn't really help until I used the context of the day. Eliza Doolittle is Audrey Hepburn's character from the film "My Fair Lady" (Which you should go watch if you haven't ever seen it). There is a scene in this film in which Eliza becomes so enraged with her mentor that she sings a very catchy song about getting revenge on him, and in her fantasy, the king proclaims the 20th of May to be Eliza Doolittle Day.

The obvious way to celebrate this holiday, is to get revenge on your least favourite mentor practice english. Or you could eat a lot of chocolates and watch "My Fair Lady". Audrey would surely approve.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Blog of Nonsense [Un-lost Post]

This post was originally for the 12th, but Blogger had some problems and lost it. I explained this on the post for May 13th. Just today, I found the draft had been placed back in my post list, so here is the original.

Today is Limerick Day! Edward Lear, the writer who made limericks a cool thing to write, was born today in 1812. Today celebrates his contributions to writing, namely his book Book of Nonsense, since that was the title that popularized the limerick. A limerick is a five-line poem with a rhyming scheme of AABBA. That means that the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, while the third and fourth rhyme with themselves. I wrote a limerick back in my high school days that I am still quite proud of.



"I once was the world's greatest poet,

Though many of you didn't know it.

But I've hit my head

On the edge of my bed,

And now I can no longer rhyme."



Classic me. So spend today coming up with your own limerick, or find some good limericks to read. If you want to really celebrate hardcore, try only speaking in limericks.



Thanks for reading!

~Kyle

Rosie The Ribeter

Today is Frog Jumping Jubilee Day! Today is a celebration that is known for being held in Calaveras County. They have frogs compete to see who's frog can jump the best. The grand prize is $5,000 dollars, which in my opinion is well worth the months of trying to train a frog. However, with my not knowing where to find a frog around where I live (and my non-existent ability to train one), I fear I will be unable to participate in the competition! I can however, watch videos of past races or even just videos of frogs jumping. In slow motion. Like they have on discovery channel. I will also jump more often than I normally do today. That should about cover it, right?

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Monet Makes The World Go 'Round.

Today is International Museum Day! Thousands of museums participate in this day by having some sort of event acknowledging the important role of art, history, and science in culture. I could not find one of these museums near me that I could afford, but I DID go to a museum and snap some pics. Here ya go!

So spend some time enjoying and appreciating a museum or even just one piece of art/time of history/facet of science today. It's easy, fun, and I had a nice 2 hour walk around town looking at awesome stuff! Have fun!

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Mt. Nostalgia

Today is Pack Rat Day! I learned on May 10th's holiday that I was a very large pack rat. So many of the things I own are useful only for instigating nostalgia. However, the title of today's holiday could mean I should celebrate it in one of two possible ways. One: I clean up my hoard, or Two: I embrace my inner pack rat and do absolutely nothing about it. See, After I cleaned my room, I rearranged it completely. As in, everything was moved to another part of the house and brought back in. The problem is, everything but my bed is now in a pile of disarray due to some of my furniture breaking. Until I get a new desk at the very least, most of the things will remain stacked according to their size/purpose. I also bought containers to fill with the things I still wanted, but didn't want in my room. However, due to my not wanting to do work today and the fact that the car I put the containers in is gone for the day, I think I'll celebrate today by not doing anything about my hoard. Maybe I'll even add to it.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Aliens LOVE Purple

Today is Wear Purple For Peace Day! My extensive three pages of google research tells me that today is a day to wear purple for a very special kind of peace: Intergalactic. That's right! For years, aliens have been watching our horribly cruel ways, and this is the only thing that keeps them from making contact with us. The remedy is, of course, to wear purple. You may not be aware of this, but I just drew myself up a degree in Alien Colourography (Pictured Below).

Purple is the universal colour for signifying that the location at which the purple is found has an undeniable and unquestionable peace. After seeing purple in mass quantities, such as the Purple Plateau in Pennsylvania, they will forget all about our past wrong-doings and come down to earth and bestow upon us the "Essence of Purple". They've given us a taste of this essence before as you can see here:

Hopefully if we all wear enough purple, they'll visit us soon. My crayon doesn't fit in the sharpener anymore.

Thanks for reading!

~Kyle

Goes Great With Everything.

Today is Chocolate Chip Day! Chocolate chips are to thanks for some of the best cookies, cakes, muffins, and most importantly: cookie cakes. They are one of the only key ingredients in some of the best baked goods (by best baked goods, I mean anything with chocolate) that can also be eaten as a snack. In fact, chocolate chip cookies, if made from scratch, are the only thing I know I can make and snack on during almost every step of the baking process. From dough to done, it's all good. So celebrate today by grabbing a bag of chocolate chips and eating as many as you can allow yourself before feeling sick/guilty.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Early Bird Gets the Earworm

Today is Dance Like A Chicken Day! I like to imagine that all the peoples of the world know this dance by heart. It's played at many social events to "break the ice" or "get things started" or "make everyone equally foolish looking so that we are all on the same playing field by the end". I've heard that, along with the Cupid Shuffle and organ music, it's also popular at weddings. Why? I dunno. Probably for the same reasons PLUS the memory making capability. This song burns itself and any moment you dance to it into your brain forever. So today, take some time out of your day to dance like a chicken. Your worries will flow away like water off a duck's chicken's back.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Leprechauns Wrecked My Blog

Today is Leprechaun Day! Most people throw leprechauns into their St. Patrick's Day celebration in March, but these crazy little guys deserve their own day. There is a plethora of different kinds of leprechauns from kind and child-loving to cruel and mass-murdering. You can celebrate today by hanging out with any quirky, short, red-headed people you know, OR you can spend the day in search of gold. Go buy a small pot and put a bunch of dollar coins in it! (Dollar coins are about as close as you can get to real gold coins on short notice).

Also, yesterday was Limerick Day, but leprechauns blogger seemed to invade the internet have technical difficulties and has absconded with my creative writings deleted my post about it. I would re-write it all if I remembered what I had written, but just know that it was and will be a day to write/read limericks. A limerick has a rhyme scheme of AABBA, which means lines 1,2, and 5 should rhyme while 3 and 4 have a separate rhyme. Here's my favorite limerick I've ever written:

"I once was the world's greatest poet,
Though many of you didn't know it.
But I hit my head
On the edge of my bed,
And now I can no longer rhyme." - Kyle

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

I Want to Eat a Cornfield.

Today is Eat What You Want Day! Being in college, I can't really say that this isn't what I already do every day. however, for those of you that are at an age where you usually aren't the decider of your meals, take advantage of today! Go to a place where you can be creative. Subway lets you make your own sandwhich, Whataburger lets you make your own burger, Chipotle allows creativity in your burrito, and there are countless ice cream and yogurt stores that let you decide everything to which/how many flavours and which/how many toppings you want. In fact, try to go to as many create-your-own-food places as you can today. I think I'm just going to have cereal, though, because that is quite frankly what I want right now.

Today is also Twilight Zone Day! Possibly one of the best t.v. shows of all time, Twilight Zone is still good and scary today because it uses things that are universal (most of the time). Before I get to into this, let me just say: We are talking about the old, good, classic Twilight Zone, alright? None of that new 2002 now-in-color stuff. The old Twilight Zone had such classics in it's repertoire, that almost every other show worth it's salt has taken aspects of it for parodies or references. I used to watch Twilight Zone with my mother whenever she would find a station playing it, and if there's one thing I learned from it all, it's that there is ALWAYS a Twilight Zone marathon on some channel somewhere. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat cereal while watching the "Time Enough at Last" episode.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

It was incredibly hard to come up with a title for this. Why wasn't there a Twilight Zone about food?!?! Anyways I apologize for the lackluster title.

Mt. Falderal

Today is Clean Up Your Room Day! Today has finally come, and I feel a strange combination of excitement and indigestion. Knowing that there was a holiday dedicated to cleaning my room, I've spent at LEAST a month not cleaning it. Needless to say, the effects of that have piled up quite literally. This isn't any kind of normal messy room. This is worse than it has ever been. There's trash, books, papers, receipts, dishes, laundry, and possibly even small pieces of furniture that have been gathering in lumps. Today is the day that I have to force myself to wade through it all and clean up this mountainous mess. The only thing that will keep me going is the knowledge that I will no longer have only two "safe step zones" when I'm done. Wish me luck.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Helping Socks

Today is Lost Sock Memorial Day! This is a loss that we can all relate to. Sure, yesterday without socks was fun, but what if they all went missing? Hundreds, possibly even thousands of socks are lost every day. How have we overlooked such a tragic fact for so long? Whether they were lost during a routine load of laundry, a pet has stolen it a way to some unknown place, or a they've simply slipped into another place in time/space, we can no longer simply ignore their plight. Today is a day to remember all of your lost socks. Take some time out of your day to look for them or console the other sock. Who are they to work with now? The socks are still an unfortunately racist community, as two different colors in a pair are still looked down upon. Most socks without their other half are simply half-matched with another brand or even thrown away! Take time today and find out what you can do to fight against lost socks.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

I Want to Give the World a Sock.

Today is No Socks Day! Today is a day to let your feet breath a little easier, while possibly hindering YOUR breathing depending on how thorough of a foot washer you are. Wear shoes with no socks or just no shoes at all! You won't have to do as much laundry the next day, and you won't slip and fall on hardwood floors nearly as much, either! ... Is that... just me who does that? Well, fine then. I still say that wearing socks on hard wood can be risky business.

Today is also Have a Coke Day! If there were ever a combination of holidays that perfectly suits my desires, this is one of them. Drinking a  Coca-Cola (Yes, Coke is Coca-Cola, the other ones are Sodas)  with no socks on is one of the few pure pleasures in life. Coke comes in many flavours, sizes, and varieties (much the same as socks... hopefully sans flavour). So go grab a can/cup/bottle/mug/liter/jug of your favourite kind of Coke (Hint: It's Original), wriggle out of your socks (it's hard to kick socks off, plus i wanted to save the verb 'kick' for this next step, and kick (see?) back/relax to truly enjoy the day.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Vanilla Coke and Lime Coke are also acceptable choices. Diet, too I guess. My dad tells me that Coke and Diet Coke are outselling regular Pepsi. Fun fact?

Lamb Paste

Today is Paste-Up Day! This celebration is aimed at anyone who works in industries like newspaper, magazines, or anything that involves typeset and illustration. I used to have a subscription to Nintendo Power when I was younger, and loved it because it was all that I needed to know without me having to search the internet for each individual article. I do NOT want to see newspapers and magazines be 'outdated' by the internet, which is one of their main fears. So go do them a favour and purchase some hard copies of your favourite paper or magazine, and maybe even think about getting a subscription.

Today is also National Roast Leg of Lamb Day! Now, I learned last year in Wales that lamb is delicious. When I saw this holiday coming up, I got pretty excited because it gives me an excuse to both have it again, and to try making it on my own. If there were a restaurant that I knew served lamb, I would be going today, to be quite honest, so instead I'm settling for making it on my own. I've already found mint sauce, which is what they gave us as a delicious, yet optional addition in Wales, so in my beginner-cook mind, I'm already half-way there.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Free Refill

Today is Beverage Day! Over the year, we've seen a LOT of food holidays, but not very many days dedicated to any particular drink. Today is just vague enough to allow everyone to include themselves, too. Whether you like Coke from a can, Iced Tea in a cool glass, or a glass bottle of J2O because that's one of the best bottled beverages in existence but they only sell them in the UK and you are having withdrawals... *ahem*... then you can celebrate this holiday. I'll most likely be celebrating with water, juice, and tea (iced peach tea in the day and hot chamomile at night) because I'm trying to not drink coke as often as I did when i was younger. I could power through a case of coke in 1 or 2 days. Which isn't good for an 8 year old. So, enjoy your favourite beverage today!

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Nuttin' Bedda'

Today is National Hoagie Day!  A 'hoagie' is a term for a large sandwich (usually a sub from what i've seen) that is usually used in Philly. That is what google tells me about the term, anyway. I already knew there were a lot of names for sub sandwiches like grinders, hoagies, and i've even heard train-wreck once? But that guy was weird. However, since today is "Hoagie" day and not "Sub" Day (Which we already had btw), I think I'll go purchase and subsequently eat a Philly Cheesesteak.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

A-peel-ing Snacks

Today is National Candied Orange Peel Day! You may not know exactly what a candied orange peel is, but if you've had fruitcake, then you've most likely eaten some. It's fairly simple to make some without the fruitcake if you wanted to taste their flavour alone. Just peel strips of the orange peel off, boil them, wash them, boil them again, wash them again, boil some sugar into some water, add the peels, wait a little bit (somewhere under half an hour), take the peels out, let them dry for about an hour, dip 'em in chocolate, put 'em in the fridge, let the chocolate harden, eat 'em. Simple right? Is actually is and can probably be done in just around an hour and a half total. It's almost... TOO easy... I'm gonna go make some for breakfast. Breakfast is always better when it involves sugar. And chocolate. Don't judge me, there's oranges in it, too!

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

I'm proud of myself for using that title pun on a day that wasn't about bananas, by the way.

Rugged Day

Today is Lumpy Rug Day! It is apparently a day to celebrate rugs that are not lumpy! Which is kind of misleading. Here I was looking ahead at my calendar thinking "My, what a strange and fantastically unique holiday to celebrate such a random item. AND the random item has such an odd adjective attached to it." when in reality the day celebrates the opposite of what it says. However, under the current circumstances of my home having recently obtained new rugs, I choose to celebrate their lumpiness and ability to trip you randomly. For some reason, rugs are not packaged in such a way that they are already flat when you purchase them. They are almost always lumpy, or at least bumpy. In case you don't know the difference, bumpiness is like a ripple while lumpiness is like moguls.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Rhino and Goose

Today is Mother Goose Day! Mother Goose is pretty much the mother (haha) of all fairy tales. Or at least the ones that don't involve the vicious tearing apart of the lives of people both innocent or guilty with very little discretion. (I'm looking at you Grimm Fairy Tales!) Spend some time today reading your favourite tale from Mother Goose. Even better: find a small child that has been as of yet deprived of such tales, and retell them to him/her as best as you can remember them. It's okay if it isn't perfect. The personal touch is what makes fairy tales so... well... personal.

Today is also Save the Rhino Day! I wasn't aware that the rhino was in any danger. Now I am though! That's pretty much the gist of this holiday. If you want to help rhinos survive life, then donate to a charity that puts money towards the cause of trying to crack down on all the poaching thats going on. Poaching is one of the biggest problems when it comes to animals going extinct. It's rarely ever nature's fault. Usually ours. So it's basically us doing all the harm. In case you were unaware, that also puts the blame on us. I don't know about you, but I don't like being blamed. And I DO like rhinos. So try to find a way to help 'em out. That is all.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle