13 Facts About Friday the 13th

Today’s Yiddish word of the week has been pre-empted.  Happy Friday the 13th, bitchez!

1.  It is unclear why it is feared.  Some say the day is associated with a French king who gave the orders in 1307 to whack the Knights Templar on Friday 13th while others believe that Jesus Christ was crucified on Friday the 13th.

2.  And yet the myth of bad luck persists.  So much so that some suffer mental illness because of the fear of Friday the 13th.  Friggatriskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia.  Friggatriskaidekaphobia comes from Frigg, the Norse goddess of wisdom after whom Friday is named, and the Greek words triskaideka, meaning 13, and phobia, meaning fear. Paraskevidekatriaphobia is also derived from Greek: paraskeví translates as Friday, and dekatria is another way of saying 13.

3.  The fear of Friday the 13th is contagious.  And affects millions of people.   The profit margins of airlines are especially affected because of the widespread belief that the number 13 is unlucky.

4.  Friday the 13th usually happens in threes.  All years will have at least a single instance of the day but there can’t be more than three in any given year.  The longest the calendar goes without seeing a Friday the 13th is 14 months.

5.  Sunday is to blame for Friday the 13th.  For a month to have a Friday the 13th, the month must begin on a Sunday.

6.  Friday the 13th patterns repeat.  Whenever a common year begins on a Thursday, the months of February, March and November will have a Friday the 13th.  This will happen 11 times in the 21st Century.   The Feb-Mar-Nov pattern repeats in a 28 year cycle.  The cycle began in 2009.  This won’t happen for 11 more years until 2026 and then we’ll wait another 11 years until 2037 to see another Feb-Mar-Nov Friday the 13th trifecta.

7.  Leap years are not exempt.  If January 1 of a leap year falls on a Sunday, the months of Jan-Apr-Jul will each have a Friday the 13th.  This happened in 1928, 1956 and 1984.  This will happen another four times in 2012, 2068 and 2096 thereby perpetuating the 28-year-cycle again.

8.  Alfred Hitchcock was born on Friday the 13th.  Hitchcock is considered the master of suspense and was born August 13, 1899.  He made his debut with a movie called Number 13 but the film was plagued with financial trouble.

9.  It is unlucky but only for some.  Friday the 13th is not universal.  In Italy, it is Friday the 17th that is considered unlucky while the number 13 is considered lucky.

10.  Fear of Friday the 13th is a mental illness, at best.  There is very little to zero evidence that Friday the 13th is unlucky.  Studies have shown that the day has little or no effect whatsoever on accidents, hospital visits and natural disasters.

11.  The day caused a windfall for a film series.  The Friday the 13th franchise includes 12 horror movies, a TV series and several books that focus on curses and superstitions.  Jason Voorhees and his old skool hockey mask is one of the most recognized images in pop culture.

12.  Safety & Accident Awareness.  Finland dedicated Friday the 13th as National Accident Day in 1995 to raise awareness about safety–at home, in the workplace and on the road.

13.  Asteroid on Friday the 13th.  On April 13, 2029, an asteroid discovered in 2004 and named 99942 Apophis will safely fly by Earth.

 

Good News for iPad and Mobile Phone Users

Effective immediately POB is now optimized for usage on the iPad and mobile phone Internet.  I just created and uploaded two brand new images for the logo and launch icon from the home screen.  Please check out the site on your iPad (or your mobile phone) and leave some feedback.

Additionally, Pinterest, LinkedIn and other publicizing features have been enabled to make sharing information even easier.

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Book Review | The Republic of Trees

Off the beaten path best describes this story.  But then, I’m no stranger to the characterization myself.

I consider The Republic of Trees written by former Observer pop culture correspondent, Sam Taylor, to be the bastard, red headed step-child offspring of The Blue Lagoon and the Lord of the Flies.  Published by Faber & Faber in the UK in 2005, it is about four British ex pat adolescents living in France who decide to run away together to form their own utopian society.

Louis and Michael are brothers with a tragic past.  With both parents dead, the boys end up living with their unmarried aunt in the south of France. Louis, the elder of the two, has an interest in the French Revolution, while Michael is the dreamer, and, incidentally, the narrator of the story.  The boys live next to a well-to-do family with a daughter close to the boys’ age.  Isobel is the girl-next-door but in name only.  She likes both brothers equally well, but is especially attracted to Louis. Alex is the boys’ other friend who has more brawn than brains.

While age is not mentioned, it is obvious that the protagonists are on the cusp of  their sexual awakening.  The story is punctuated with snippets of Michael’s teenage angst as he struggles to come to terms with not only his own sexual stirrings, but also with his jealousy as he comes to realize that Isobel likes Louis more than she does him. Meanwhile, Isobel engages in subtle behaviors to egg on the brothers to vie for her affections. The full force of the love-triangle does not come into focus until after the four run away to the woods.

Determined to have an adventure before they must accept responsibility and return to school in the Fall, the bored teens speak of creating their own civilization. But for the most part, it is all just talk.  Then one day they decide to escape the ennui and frustation to live on their own terms.

Once on their own, Louis becomes the intellectual leader, dictating the terms of their society.  Alex volunteers to provide the meat and fish they will need to live, and Isobel, being the only female, passively accepts her assigned role as  cook.  Michael is the sole citizen of the new republic.  The four spend their time idling away the moments sunning themselves, swimming, gathering kindling and other materials for a makeshift shelter, and, otherwise benignly re-enacting portions of  18th Century Genevan philosopher Rousseau’s The Social Contract as an after-dinner activity.  Life is fairly uneventful until another young female happens upon the group.

While Joy is not as attractive as Isobel, and suffers under Isobel’s yoke consequently, she makes up for lack of looks on a baser level. Without her to spur them on to a more substantive interpretation of Rousseau’s writing, the group would have probably become quite bored both with themselves as well as their society.  Indeed, Joy brings a decidedly Gothic element to the plot.

I rather enjoyed The Republic of Trees because I found it to be a breath of fresh air from the usual politically correct, environmentally-conscious, feel good-ism, do-gooder mentality that seems to be becoming a focal point in dystopian society stories in the Young Adult genre.  Having said that, as long as you accept that your favorite characters won’t always sail into the sunset with a happy ending, you will like Trees as much as I did.

©2012 Peyton Farquhar and Prattle On, Boyo™.  Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.  Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Peyton Farquhar and Prattle On, Boyo with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

What is the Fascination with Farmville?

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To the uninitiated, Farmville is just one of many MMOGs on Facebook. With 84 million users and counting, it is consistently in the Top 5 most popular games. The player begins by choosing an avatar (either male or female) and then proceeds to plow, seed and finally harvest his crops, racking up points accordingly on his tiny plot of land.

As the game progresses, so does the size of the parcel of land, crop yields/diversity, infrastructure, and, livestock (provided that you have the coinage). Participating in one of three industries (winery, bakery & perfume) to grow crops for your own usage or for your neighbors is also an option to generate revenue. Beekeeping is nice if you want your crops pollinated.

When your neighbors purchase either bushels of produce or of finished product (such as a bottle of wine) you accumulate coins and experience points, both of which are necessary to advance to the next level. Additionally, the player can also cross-breed seeds for hybrid crops (such as whiskey peat, double-grain, & squmpkin, to name a few), rear exotic ducklings and help neighbors to raze buildings, harvest crops and feed animals on their property.

Issues & Suggestions

On the tech side, like any other massively, multi-player game, Farmville suffers from multiple glitches on a regularly occurring basis, including, but not limited to – Server synching, saving, loading and a whole lot of other aggravations that occur almost always as a direct result of new features having been implemented without appropriate QA in order to determine how it has affected something else.  Occasionally, I become really annoyed, but then I have to remind myself that I’m not paying to play the game, nor would I based on the frequency and duration of technical issues.

As to suggestions for further development of the game, I would like to see the ability to grow hemp & cannabis crops, and then harvest them to be sold as bushels and/or used in baked goods alongside the raspberry blondies and such.  But I seriously doubt Zyngna is that much of a maverick software company.  In this increasingly backwards-headed country with its dicked up politics and moronic (and I use the term loosely) leaders, it is less controversial to develop shoot ’em up games that advocate random acts of violence & vandalism than it is to promote unconventional, but completely natural crop usage even on a virtual platform.

Chill Out

I find Farmville to be an enjoyable way to downshift from the piss-offs of the exponentially fast-tracked, daily grind to third world, shit hole status in these United States of, by and for the well-connected, bailed out billionaires.

It helps me to feel a sense of productivity and accomplishment at the same time I can zone out on the computer. Hey, most folks engage in chemical or substance abuse, over-eat or administer recreational enemas to try to forget their troubles.  I just like to virtually farm to get my giggles.  If that’s my worst vice, then I’m in outstanding shape.

I harvest my crops, plow the fallow land, then re-seed. And depending on which crop was planted, I log back in anywhere between two hours and four days later to do it all over again. If I don’t, then the crops wither. Too bad, so sad.  And although I help out with harvesting on others farms, I don’t especially give a damn  as to what the neighbors may have bought or won by collecting gifts associated with various holiday inspired campaigns such as Christmas, Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s Day.

What my neighbors do or do not have is just not important to me because Farmville is not something you play if you are looking to compete with others. But that is not to say that everyone who plays leads an idyllic life on the farm. Sometimes neighbors are arbitrarily capricious & exceptionally immature.

Snag Bar Controversy

I’ve had a fair amount of now former neighbors that were ever worried about what property I had acquired versus their own. I’ve received demand letters stating that I had X time to remove my account from Gamers Unite because they disapproved. The implication was that I had used the now infamous snag bar to attain property. Suffice it to say, the level of pettiness exhibited by some of these folks was astonishing. I once had a three-member family in Detroit de-friend me because the thirty-something daughter believed I used a cheat to grab some dumb Italian wedding fountain that she wanted. Juvenile much?

Not that I owe it to anyone to justify my actions, but I don’t even use the snag bar. The only reason why I registered the account in the first place was so that I could comment on the forum. Gamers Unite is a great way to know when the game is, once again, experiencing technical difficulties and that the problem is not necessarily my computer or Internet connection causing it.

My usual response to these type of idiotic demands is to immediately de-friend the offending neighbor since (1) It is JUST a friggin GAME, and (2) I’ll be damned if I’m going to take orders from a virtual neighbor who shoots first and asks questions later. And while we’re on this particular topic, let me ask the anti-Gamers Unite freaks a question –Hey Genius–What is the difference between using the snag bar versus gifts sent by neighbors?

The reason I ask is because I recently let the gifts go unaccepted for exactly seven (7) calendar days and ended up having to manually accept over 300 of them in order to clear the counter. Incidentally, this is precisely the result when the snag bar is used.

Do you consider gifts from neighbors to be a form of  “cheating”?  If you do, then you are not only profoundly dense, but you are also high. Step away from the crack pipe and listen up. Using the snag bar is no more of a cheat than sending a gift to a neighbor is. But I won’t waste my keystrokes trying to persuade you to my side. You just keep sending your childish nastigrams in search of your own, private busybody utopia and otherwise whining about a virtual game that is for the most part FREE to anyone with an Internet connection.

Petty neighbors notwithstanding, playing Farmville is a very Amish-oriented activity. I have found that most of my neighbors are friendly and observe the Golden Rule, which is exactly what a community -virtual or otherwise- should be.

©2011 Peyton Farquhar™ and Prattle On, Boyo™. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Peyton Farquhar™ and Prattle On, Boyo™ with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Mordor comes to So Cal

You may have heard of the Santa Anas if you have friends living on the west coast of the United States.  Or you may be familiar with the name because you read about it in popular fiction. But the winds have been around for at least as long as there have been human beings living in the area to notice.  Additionally, the winds have been blamed (among other issues) for various behavioral problems (just like the full moon).  But what, exactly are the Santa Anas and why does it seem to have such adverse effects on some of us?

First off, from a meteorological angle, let’s ID what these winds are.  The Santa Anas are hot, extremely dry, offshore winds that occur seasonally in Southern California, usually during October through December.  They result from the buildup of air pressure in the high-altitude Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. When upper level winds are favorable, this high altitude air mass spills out of the Great Basin and is propelled gravitationally towards the southern California coastline, generally as a northeasterly wind*.  (*source).

Santiago Canyon Fire as seen in Foothill Ranch

The winds primary claim to fame is that it is almost always responsible for spreading So Cal’s infamous wildfires. Having lived on the west coast for over a decade, I can personally attest as to the power of the Santa Anas. It is quite an experience to observe a shapeless, dynamic mass of fire skipping over eight lanes of concrete freeway moving towards dry vegetation (and buildings) as if it were a sentient being, and, then watching it incremate everything in its path.

In fact, the acrid smell of burning wood used to be a pleasant indicator of cooler temperatures because it meant that someone had built a fire in their hearth.  But having lived through several wildfires, one of which actually caused me to have to pack up my shit on a moment’s notice and evacuate to a safe area, the smell of burning wood now causes dread because it makes me wonder where the fire is and how close it is to where I live.

Spreading destruction and devastation via wildfire is one thing, but what is it about this wind that also causes some mentally unstable people to act out?

Is it the actual wind itself that is the causative factor, or are these nutjobs just doing what they think they ought to be because popular culture has glorified mental illness by marketing it as reality television?

As an aside here, American author, Joan Didion wrote an excellent article called The Santa Ana back in 1965 on human behavior and the winds.

I had wanted to include psychiatric hospitalization statistics, particularly  those of an involuntary nature during the months of October through December, however there was no way to intelligently extrapolate the official data from the California Department of Mental Health annual reports.  The State does not track involuntary holds by specific months, and so I have no basis to even speculate as to how many admissions there may be into the psych ward using the Santa Anas as a proximate cause.

Whatever the motivating factor is that causes some to exhibit anti-social behavior and otherwise become a danger to themselves and/or others, I know that this much is certain about the Santa Anas.  Starting in the Fall, the ground is nearly completely covered with palm fronds and bits of paper and unidentified debris each morning. It almost seems like there was a huge block party the night before attended by phantoms. And if you have allergies, then these winds will feel to you like every single asshole on the planet with a leaf blower assembled in town for a four-month long convention to torture your upper respiratory system.

We may never have a scientific explanation as to the psychological effects the  Santa Ana winds may have on the human population, but in the meantime, it serves as an annual reminder to those of us out west that Mother Nature is firmly in charge.

©2010 Peyton Farquhar and Prattle On, Boyo™. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Peyton Farquhar™ and Prattle On, Boyo™ with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Amazing Icebergs

There is apparently an email making the rounds on the web containing the following images and being reported as found in Lake Michigan.  Suffice it to say, just like most Internet rumors, this is erroneous information.   I have to admit, tho, found in the Lake or not, they certainly look like like they’ve been P-shopped.

Still, icebergs the likes of these found in Michigan would be pretty cool.  Alas, they are in the Antarctic and were shot by a sailor from the Aussie Antarctic Division.

Hat tip goes to guest blogger Rachel for alerting my attention to these images.