occasional blogging

We're in for a dark solstice!

devon8 — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 19:25:19 GMT

All are reckoned with a location of W123.4, N49.17, PST (East Vancouver) Solstice: December 21st, 5:22pm New Moon: December 20th, 6:01am December/January - sunrise - sunset - hours of darkness per day: 17 - 8:02am - 4:14pm - 15:48 18 - 8:03am - 4:15pm - 15:49 19 - 8:04am - 4:15pm - 15:49 20 - 8:04am - 4:15 pm - 15:49 21 - 8:05am - 4:16pm - 15:49 22 - 8:05am - 4:16pm - 15:49 23 - 8:06am - 4:17pm - 15:49 24 - 8:06am - 4:18pm - 15:49 25 - 8:07am - 4:18pm - 15:48 26 - 08:07am - 4:19pm - 15:48 27 - 08:07am - 4:20pm - 15:47 28 - 08:07am - 4:21pm - 15:47 29 - 08:07am - 4:21pm - 15:46 30 - 08:08am - 4:22pm - 15:45 31 - 08:08am - 4:23pm - 15:44 01 - 08:08am - 4:24pm - 15:43 02 - 08:08am - 4:25pm - 15:42 03 - 08:07am - 4:26pm - 15:41 December 21st: Moon sets 5:09pm Mercury sets 3:33pm Venus sets 5:11pm Mars sets 3:00pm Jupiter sets 2:49pm Saturn sets 11:14am (but rises 8:47pm) Pluto sets 4:40pm Adhara, second brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, sets 4:36pm Antares, brightest star in constellation Scorpius, sets 2:24pm (but rises 6:58pm) Arcturus, brightest star in the constellation Boötes and the third brightest star in the night sky, sets 4:06pm Regulus, brightest star in constellation Leo, sets at 11:21am (but rises 10:18pm) Rigel, brightest star in the constellation Orion, sets at 4:52pm (but rises 6:00pm) Sirius, brightest star in the night sky, sets at 5:40pm (but rises at 8:13pm) So, the sun, the moon, and all planets in the solar system (plus Pluto and excepting Uranus and Neptune) will have set when the solstice occurs. The moon is also less than a day into waxing so it is hardly illuminated. Five of the brightest stars will have set, and the brightest star Sirius sets 18 minutes after the solstice. It is going to be SO dark!

13 Moons

devon8 — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:28:29 GMT

I've said it before, but I keep seeing the calendar around more and more, and I really have to say it again: 13 moons is bogus. Simple as that. There is an easy way to show this: Go to http://www.tortuga.com/eng/decode/ and look up February 29th, 2008. Then, look up February 28th, 2008. They are both Blue Spectral Monkey. Why are two different days given the same kin? Because the program that correlates dates was not written properly. Look up any "unreal" day (April 31st, November 31st, etc.) and you'll see that the kin stop progressing- that is, after the last "real" day (April 30th, November 30th) the dates do not change. That's fine. The problem is is that although February mostly ends on the 28th, every four years (2004, 2008, 2016, etc.) February 29th *is* a real day. This means that every four years, 13 moons hiccups. If it were only this one program with the problem, it would not be a big deal, but every "official" 13 moons date (including my supposed kin) I've checked out is the same as using the date converter that I know is flawed. February 29th is not some magical leap day where hours add up, or the day is longer. It's just a day some people picked to make a month longer. There is no hiccup at that time in the Hebrew calendar, the Chinese calendar, the Islamic calendar, in *any other calendar* used by peoples around the world. (Check it out: http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/ ) 13 moons just wasn't very well planned out, that's all. Something made with such clumsy disregard for time is not going to be magick, is not going to be cosmic, and is not going to be something you should pour your heart into. If you want an easy to view site to discover your real sign in the real Mayan calendar, check out http://www.resonateview.org/places/toybox/mayan/gal-sign/index.htm

postal codes

devon8 — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 05:33:49 GMT

If ever you need to know the streets which make up the borders of every single postal code in Canada, this massive .pdf file is for you: http://www.canadapost.ca/business/tools/pg/fsamaps/pdf/Canada.pdf