Because January 3rd is the Festival of Sleep! Today is dedicated to those many hours of sleep you lost last year. To celebrate, you simply sleep. Don't let anyone call you lazy for it, but instead just tell them that they have no holiday spirit. Now, I realize that some people may have work or school today, which will make sleeping tricky. But rest assured there are many different methods of sleep for you to use. Anything above the 8 hours you always get (because that's healthy and you always do what is healthy) can and should be counted as a celebratory sleep session. Nodding off in a boring meeting? Consider each of those head bobs a nod of recognition and remembrance towards an hour of sleep you lost last year. Got a study hall and you have nothing to study? Power nap for the rest of those 45 minutes like you weren't already going to. You could even pay tribute to specific parts of sleep. Do you like the dreams you have? Then day-dream (also called using your imagination) today and discuss what the odd machinations of your inner mind are creating with your fellow dreamers. I'm sure you'll find a way to celebrate, and I'm sure there are many. As for myself, I'll be taking a few cat naps or doing something I like to call "Sleep Zoning"
Thanks for reading!
~Kyle
Monday, January 3, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
New Ideas
The second day of celebration is underway, and I once again find myself with a somewhat easy day to celebrate. "Run it Up the Flagpole and See Who Salutes" Day is the holiday for January 2nd, and I at first thought "I have no flag or flagpole, and I hardly want to wait around all day under one and count who salutes as I can probably ballpark that number at somewhere under 10." Luckily for me and my immune system (it's 30ºF outside and a little windy), that is not what the holiday is truly about.
No, "Run it up the flagpole (and see who salutes)" is an old phrase from around 60 years ago and means something to the affect of "Put out a new idea to see the general reaction to it." Much easier than standing under a cold pole in the winter resisting the urge to see if my tongue would really stick to it, right? If you truly thought hard about it, we are at no shortage for new ideas, but our filtering system has gotten so quick at auto-deleting the ones we deem as "stupid", "inefficient", or "incredibly life-threatening" that we may never run them by anybody. We have also become a little quick to shoot down others' ideas if they inconvenience us. In simpler terms, we've replaced our childhood's "What if" with a grown up "How about not?".
So today, I will resist no urge to suppress any idea I have, no matter how outlandish. If I think of a solution, I will recommend it instantly. All thoughts of innovation will be noted and then scrutinized by others, but I will have at least tried. None of my ideas may work, but I will have contributed all that I possibly could, and who knows, maybe pieces of my ideas would work with another person's idea.
After all, it would seem to me that other people's strange ideas have worked at at least some level of success for them.
No, "Run it up the flagpole (and see who salutes)" is an old phrase from around 60 years ago and means something to the affect of "Put out a new idea to see the general reaction to it." Much easier than standing under a cold pole in the winter resisting the urge to see if my tongue would really stick to it, right? If you truly thought hard about it, we are at no shortage for new ideas, but our filtering system has gotten so quick at auto-deleting the ones we deem as "stupid", "inefficient", or "incredibly life-threatening" that we may never run them by anybody. We have also become a little quick to shoot down others' ideas if they inconvenience us. In simpler terms, we've replaced our childhood's "What if" with a grown up "How about not?".
So today, I will resist no urge to suppress any idea I have, no matter how outlandish. If I think of a solution, I will recommend it instantly. All thoughts of innovation will be noted and then scrutinized by others, but I will have at least tried. None of my ideas may work, but I will have contributed all that I possibly could, and who knows, maybe pieces of my ideas would work with another person's idea.
After all, it would seem to me that other people's strange ideas have worked at at least some level of success for them.
1879
1908
2004
Thanks for reading!
~Kyle
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Your New Year and You
Well, it's a new-fangled year again, and people everywhere are making resolutions that are more than likely vague and easily "loopholeable". I'm not saying that I am in any way immune to this pattern, but like everyone else, I am also saying "This year will be different!" You see, a few years ago I came across a handy list of holidays. There was at least one holiday listed for every day of the year, and I began simply using it as a conversation starter in such ways as "Did you know today was (insert obscure, question provoking holiday here) day? How do you even celebrate that?" However, after a year of what I can only describe as a down with about two ups, I've decided to make this year a little more exciting.
It took a while for me to find out how, but then it came to me. The list of holidays. I will celebrate every holiday on that list to the best of my ability. Luckily, after I post this post, I will be accountable. If I stop, I lose. However, some holidays are obviously out of my budget or past my ability to fully celebrate, so I may have to come up with my own way to celebrate them, but they WILL be celebrated. What better way to add a little uniqueness and excitement to a possibly boring day? ... Well there is probably plenty better, but this is what I'm doing.
I'v already celebrated one of today's holidays: First Foot Day. At first I thought I'd just find my first footprint and do some kind of artsy-fart activity with it, but then I found out the TRUE meaning of First Foot Day. In summary, during the viking days of old, Scotland had a tradition where a dark haired male being the first to step into your house on new years day was good luck, but a light-haired male or a woman was not. The man would bring coal and salt to wish warmth and flavour for the new year. Having walked into my house at about 1:45 a.m. last night after getting back from a new year's party, I have already celebrated, and luckily, I have darkish hair right now. I DID forget the coal and salt, but I'll just put extra salt on everything I eat today that merits having salt on it.
The OTHER holiday today is "Z Day". Now, I looked this one up, and supposedly it is a day when a class could celebrate by allowing the children with names that begin with "Z" be the first in line for everything, as they never are or will be when it comes to alphabetical order. This is not to be confused with "Zeitgeist Day", which is on March 13th, or the dreaded "Zombie Day" [Date unknown]. However I am out of school, and to my knowledge know only one person who has a "Z" name. They will be the FIRST person I tell "Happy New Years" to, though. As that's all I can really think to do, as I will most likely not see them today.
Now it seems I have gotten off easy for today, but rest assured, it will get more intense. It's always good to have an "ease-in" to such a large commitment, after all. I wouldn't want to rush what could be a beautiful thing.
Thanks for reading!
~Kyle
It took a while for me to find out how, but then it came to me. The list of holidays. I will celebrate every holiday on that list to the best of my ability. Luckily, after I post this post, I will be accountable. If I stop, I lose. However, some holidays are obviously out of my budget or past my ability to fully celebrate, so I may have to come up with my own way to celebrate them, but they WILL be celebrated. What better way to add a little uniqueness and excitement to a possibly boring day? ... Well there is probably plenty better, but this is what I'm doing.
I'v already celebrated one of today's holidays: First Foot Day. At first I thought I'd just find my first footprint and do some kind of artsy-fart activity with it, but then I found out the TRUE meaning of First Foot Day. In summary, during the viking days of old, Scotland had a tradition where a dark haired male being the first to step into your house on new years day was good luck, but a light-haired male or a woman was not. The man would bring coal and salt to wish warmth and flavour for the new year. Having walked into my house at about 1:45 a.m. last night after getting back from a new year's party, I have already celebrated, and luckily, I have darkish hair right now. I DID forget the coal and salt, but I'll just put extra salt on everything I eat today that merits having salt on it.
The OTHER holiday today is "Z Day". Now, I looked this one up, and supposedly it is a day when a class could celebrate by allowing the children with names that begin with "Z" be the first in line for everything, as they never are or will be when it comes to alphabetical order. This is not to be confused with "Zeitgeist Day", which is on March 13th, or the dreaded "Zombie Day" [Date unknown]. However I am out of school, and to my knowledge know only one person who has a "Z" name. They will be the FIRST person I tell "Happy New Years" to, though. As that's all I can really think to do, as I will most likely not see them today.
Now it seems I have gotten off easy for today, but rest assured, it will get more intense. It's always good to have an "ease-in" to such a large commitment, after all. I wouldn't want to rush what could be a beautiful thing.
Thanks for reading!
~Kyle
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