the special days of April, pt 2

Now we continue our look at the special days / celebrations / observances in April.  (Click here to see part 1.)

  • 15 Income Tax Day — Honestly, I’d rather not celebrate this.  To me, it’s a deadline, not a holiday.  Nonetheless, it is found on some holiday lists.  Whatever…
  • 16 National Stress Awareness Day — We should aim to live stress-free lives.  That’s a lofty goal, I realize, but it is possible.  That doesn’t mean there won’t be stressful circumstances, but we don’t have to get stressed out.  We can’t completely conquer it on our own, but with the peace of God, we can live without stress and anxiety.
  • 17 Blah, Blah, Blah Day — Apparently this is a day for rambling.  Do you know how much fun it can be to ramble on and on randomly?  It can be hilarious, too.  But you must not force it to happen, because it needs to be spontaneous.  And I don’t mean just talking about the same subject for a long time, to the point that your listeners are totally bored — I mean letting the conversation jump around randomly.  (Some examples are here and here.  Our free-for-all stories are also very random.)
  • 17 National Cheeseball Day — Mmm…  cheeseballs and Ritz crackers…
  • 18 International Juggler’s Day — I know, juggling may not seem as cool as it once did, but it can still be fun.  Try juggling various office supplies in your cubicle at work.  If some go over the walls, that just adds to the excitement.  Your co-workers will get a kick out of it.  🙂
  • 18 Pet Owners Independence Day — This sounded strange to me, so I glanced online to see what it’s about.  No one knows for sure, but one place suggested making your pets go to work while you stayed home to just sleep and eat.  It sounds like a good idea in theory (especially the staying home part), but your pet may not have the experience necessary to competently do your job for a day.  But imagine how funny it would be to see your office filled with pets!  🙂
  • 19 National Garlic Day — Look at it this way : garlic cheese biscuits.
  • 19 Humorous Day — Obviously this means you should be humorous today.  (And, of course, this blog is a great place to do so.)  Some people really need to be humorous more often.  There seems to be an increasing number of humorless people these days, from politicians to lobbyists and special interest groups and the “politically correct” crowd.  We all need to laugh — it’s good for you, and it helps you get through life easier.
  • 20 Look Alike Day — On this day you can choose to look like anyone you want.  You can even choose to dress up like a pirate or a ninja.  Come to think of it, a great holiday would be that everyone had to dress up as a pirate OR a ninja.  That would make work a lot more interesting, plus you would see where everyone stands in the infamous debate over which is superior.
  • 20 Volunteer Recognition Day — I volunteer for this blog, so I qualify.  My salary for providing all this original entertainment is zero, zip, nada.  So if you want to thank me, today is a good day for it.  (FYI, I accept cookies, U.S. currency, free lunches, gift cards, and, of course, verbal thanks.)
  • 20 Cuckoo Day — I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!
  • 21 Kindergarten Day — Perhaps we should all go back to Kindergarten on this day, to realize how far we have come.  We should spend the day coloring, having cookies and milk, and taking naps.  I’m sure there was probably more to kindergarten, but that’s what I remember most.  🙂
  • 23 Lover’s Day — We’ve already got Valentine’s Day, which is enough of a hassle.  Next…
  • 23 Take a Chance Day — What you do today is obvious — take a chance.  For example, suppose there’s a girl you’ve been wanting to ask out on a date, but you’re scared because you don’t know what she’d say.  So on this day, you take the chance.  Even if she totally rejects you and never speaks to you again and gets a restraining order against you, at least you took a chance.
  • 23 World Laboratory Day — I’d like to take a tour of a mad scientist’s laboratory.  (I hear that the Important Evil Genius (E.D) has a lot of retro equipment which would be neat to see, if he still has any working secret lairs.)
  • 23 International Sing Out Day — Sing out, and enjoy singing.  If singing isn’t your gift, you might want to keep it in your car or in the shower, but enjoy your singing.  If you have musical talent, let others enjoy it.
  • 24 Pig in a Blanket Day — This isn’t anything too special, except that you get to eat, which is why I included it.  (There’s not nearly enough eating holidays this month!)
  • 27 National Prime Rib Day — Ahh, here we go, a day to eat steak!  And remember, diets don’t apply on holidays, so order a large steak and get a loaded baked potato to go with it.
  • 27 Tell a Story Day — I’ll tell ya a story, lad — it’s about a guy who got in my way, and it’s not a happy ending.  Oh, wait, that’s not the point.  Today you should exercise your imagination, let your creativity run wild.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a great author or not.  Just write what you enjoy.  Also, we have an outlet here on this blog for such things : our free-for-all stories.  There’s usually one in progress, so click the link to check it out.  You’re all welcome to participate.  It’s a good time.
  • 28 Kiss Your Mate Day — Hopefully you don’t need a reminder for this…
  • 29 National Shrimp Scampi Day — This is what I’m talkin’ about!  Red Lobster, here I come!  They should offer an all-you-can-eat shrimp platter on this day, which includes shrimp scampi.
  • bad hair day30 Hairstyle Appreciation Day — I don’t really care how other people style their hair — that’s their business.  Although some folks’ hair does look a mess, like they didn’t fix it after going to bed with wet hair.  I have trouble appreciating that, even if it is a holiday.  But to each their own, I suppose.
  • 30 National Honesty Day — We should be honest every day.  Of course, that doesn’t mean we have to say everything we’re thinking — there is something called tact.  But we shouldn’t ever lie or be dishonest.

That concludes the special holidays in April.  I hope you found something you could celebrate.

the special days of April, pt 1

As we’ve done in previous months, we’re going to look at the special days and holidays of this month.  As usual, this is not a complete list — those can be found elsewhere.  But I guarantee you will not find another list like this one.  This is not a mere list, because we add our own unique commentary and analysis.  In other words, we try to make it more fun.  And you are welcome to add to the discussion in the comments section.

Let’s get started with the month-long celebrations and observances:

  • National Humor Month — Then this is a great time to be reading this blog, because we’re all about humor!
  • National Pecan Month — To me, this says “eat pecan pie”.  Mmm…
  • International Guitar Month — Rock on, dude!
  • National Garden Month — This is when Mango-Man starts his infamous all-natural “survival of the fittest” garden.  That is, he doesn’t use chemicals and pesticides, and he doesn’t even bother watering it much.  It truly is survival of the fittest.  🙂
  • National Mathematics Education Month — I hope you already know the basics that are needed to get through life.  As far as the advanced stuff, I took Calculus I & II in college, learning all about derivatives, integrals, differential equations, abstract algebra, matrices, etc., and I use absolutely none of it in real life.  A few people might need to know it, but I didn’t need it for the computer programming I’ve done.  But I digress…
  • National Grilled Cheese Month — We’ve already discussed this before.  You can also add ham or bacon to your grilled cheese, and Miracle Whip goes well with it, too.  Mmm…

The only week-long observance I want to bring up this month is:

  • Week 1 Read a Road Map Week — Being a man, I don’t need road maps or directions.  However, in the spirit of this holiday, we should do what is implied here: take a road trip!  Does anyone want to take off for Colorado?  🙂

Now we’ll look at the individual day holidays:

  • 1 April Fool’s Day — You already know about this.  You play pranks and jokes on people.
  • 2 Children’s Book Day — I usually don’t read children’s books, because too many of them are dumbed-down (unnecessarily so in some cases).  But if you consider The Chronicles of Narnia to be a children’s series, that one is definitely worth reading.
  • peanut butter jelly sandwich2 National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day — I like the food holidays.  🙂
  • 3 Don’t Go to Work Unless it’s Fun Day — I figure most people would choose to stay home.  Although even with my current job, where I get to do work I enjoy, I still could use another day off.  After all, we have to work more days than we have off, and we should strive to be balanced in life.
  • 4 National Walk to Work Day — So you get a day off, then they want you to walk to work. Ideally, though, this is a good idea, and a good time of year for it. But sometimes it’s just not practical.
  • 4 Walk Around Things Day — This is vague.  But I suppose if you’re walking to work, you’ll have to walk around buildings and parked cars and such.
  • 4 Tell a Lie Day — You shouldn’t do this.  Why is this even a holiday?  It’s immoral!  Even if it’s a “holiday”, we’ll still have to give an account to God for all that we say…
  • 7 Caramel Popcorn Day — I prefer cheese popcorn, but still, it’s a food holiday.
  • 7 No Housework Day — This is a great idea!  I’ll have to tell my wife about this one!  🙂  Instead of housework, we could do something more fun, like play games or watch movies or play sports outside.  Almost anything is better than housework!
  • 8 Draw a Picture of a Bird Day — Uhh… I’ll pass on this one.  But, if it’s your thing, go ahead…
  • 9 Name Yourself Day — On this day, you can change your name for the day.  So if you don’t like your name, or if you’d rather be known by a nickname, this is the time.  I’m thinking about going with “Master of the Universe”.  So all my co-workers (including my bosses) will have to refer to me as such, or I will ignore them.
  • 11 Eight Track Tape Day — I barely remember these (because I’m not that old).  I never owned any, but one of my friend’s parents did.  They were interesting, and some argue they were better than cassettes, which replaced them.  But now they’re relics, replaced with CDs and MP3s.
  • 11 Barbershop Quartet Day — Is it a coincidence this is the same day as 8-Track Tape Day?  Just kidding!  This would be a good day to check out the musical style of barbershop quartets.  Try something different for a change.  You can probably find some online to listen to.
  • 12 Big Wind Day — This day blows me away!  (Sorry…)  This is a holiday because on this day in 1934, the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory recorded the highest surface wind ever measured, anywhere on earth.  This big wind was officially recorded at 231 miles per hour.  To celebrate that, take notice of the wind outside, watching its effects and listening to it.  If there isn’t any natural wind, feel free to create your own big wind.  (AWW-RIGHT!)
  • 13 Blame Someone Else Day — I think politicians already do this every day, along with much of the mainstream media.  It seems like everything is President Bush’s fault, somehow.  I don’t care for this holiday, because people already do this too much.  We need to take personal responsibility for our lives.  If you’re going to enjoy life, it’s up to you to make it happen.
  • 14 International Moment of Laughter Day — On this day, you should take (a lot of) breaks to have a moment of laughter.  After all, laughing is like jogging on the inside — it’s good for you.  So for your health, make time for laughing.  And, of course, this blog is a good source of laughter.  🙂
  • clouds over island14 Look up at the Sky Day — Go figure out why the sky is blue…  Seriously, take a moment to enjoy the clouds.  It’s even better if there’s a storm coming through, with dark clouds and lightning.  I enjoy storm chasing, but it can get dangerous…

This is getting really long, so I’m going to break it up into two posts.  To be continued…  (Click here for the next part.)

vote for us in the Blog Cup

This blog has been nominated to participate in iBlogCup, which is an International Blog Cup Competition.  The only way for us to get votes is if you go to their site and vote for Buffet o’ Blog.  Here’s the link : April 2008 competition.

You can only vote once per round, and it checks your IP to make sure you aren’t voting multiple times.  This round is open from April 1 thru April 7.  I would really appreciate it if you’d take a few seconds to go there and vote.  There’s no prizes, but it would get us more recognition, which might translate into more regular readers.  The more, the merrier.  🙂

[ Edit: I’ve been informed that the vote button doesn’t always show in IE, i.e., Internet Exploder (that is, Internet Explorer).   See the pic below for how it should look.  Also, note that you have to enter a password at the top of the page for your vote to count.  This keeps people from using bots to automatically vote for them. ]

vote button

viewer mail, issue #11

It’s been a while since I’ve answered viewer mail, so here goes.  Like always, these are actual search terms used to find this site, followed by commentary and analysis.  There wasn’t any questions to answer this week, but if you have any, use the “Contact Us” link to send it to us.

  • flavor of poop — I haven’t ever researched this (for good reason), so I’m going to resort to a third-party on this one.  I have read of someone who actually ate some, and he said it tasted about like what you would expect.  I wish I could find the reference to it, because I’d give him a few seconds of additional fame for his feat.
  • i would like 17 super powers please — Doesn’t that seem kinda greedy?  Of course it would be great to have more superpowers than you know what to do with, but then some would get wasted.  Besides, can you think of any superheroes that have 17 super powers?  That would offset the balance on both sides, and it would be really bad if you decided to use your powers for evil.  So, sorry, on this request you’ll have to be DENIED.
  • coworker is an aliencoworker is an alien — If this is true, then you need to be very careful!  An alien is not going to come to Earth just to sit in a cubicle and do work; he obviously has some ulterior motives.  He could be here for research, spying, infiltration, or kidnapping.   But regardless of that, there’s another aspect of this to consider.  Do you have any idea how much fame and fortune you could get by discovering an alien?!?  People have tried to prove the existence of UFOs for decades, and if you could, you’d be so famous.  So document all your encounters with him/her/it, and keep your proof in a safe place.  Write a book with an accompanying DVD, then hit the talk show circuit.  You’ll easily make millions!
  • words like discombobulator — That word makes me feel discombobulated…
  • why do pickles explode — BECAUSE THEY’RE EVIL!!!  Actually, I didn’t know they explode on their own, but I do know for a fact that they’re evil.  Does anyone have any evidence or explanation of them exploding?  My plan of shooting all pickles into the sun would cause them to explode, but if there’s any natural exploding of pickles, I’d like to know about it.
  • unbreakable stuff — That’s just a myth.  Nothing is unbreakable.  I’ve worked with people who were naturals at breaking anything.
  • why should i eat chocolate — This one is really easy — because it tastes great!  What other reasons do you need?  But if someone is trying to convince you that it’s not healthy, that’s just because they want the chocolate for themselves.  Chocolate actually does have nutritional properties to it.  It has antioxidants, which nobody understands, but they say your body needs them.  And chocolate is a great source of sugar.  I know, sugar gets a bad reputation these days, but did you know your brain runs on sugar?  It’s true, look it up.  Of course, your body can create sugar from foods like fruits and vegetables, but why not save the time and effort by eating chocolate, which has your daily sugar needs in highly concentrated form (plus it tastes much better).
  • how safe is buffet eating? — I’ve never had any problems with it.  But, since you brought it up, I should research this.  I think this calls for a trip to Larry’s Pizza!  WOOHOO!  Would anyone like to join me to offer a second opinion?  Before you quickly volunteer, know that this may require multiple visits to local buffets, so we can reduce the standard deviation and stuff.  🙂

That’s it for this week.  Now you know more than before.  You’re welcome.