Thursday, December 31, 2009

Goodbye Hello

[click on picture to humongafy]

This is the last actual post for Clarity2009, since the year is about to end.

There is a moon out tonight. A full moon. I am beginning to turn into a werewolf and all my neighbors have their guns loaded and ready to celebrate the new year at midnight. What to do, what to do.

Debbie told me tonight's moon is a blue moon. My calendar this year didn't have the moon cycles shown on it, so I didn't know that. I love blue moons. OWwwoooooooo....

It is the last full moon of the year of course, though not the last full moon of the decade like SOME of you think. I'm looking at YOU Alison... :)

I don't know if tonight's blue moon is the last blue moon of the decade. Wait here and I will go figure it out. [tap tap tap tap] Ok, I'm back. Nope, no more blue moons this decade. No more until August 31, 2012. Sigh. I love blue moons. I guess I already said that.
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How to count.

Ask your child to count to ten. Write down the number he says first. Remember it. See?... Easy as pie.

We start counting with one. If we count to 10, the last number is .... wait for it... TEN!

1 A.D. was the first year. 1900 was the last year of the 19th century; 1901 was the first year of the 20th century.

So we still have another year to make the first decade of the new millennium a rousing success. I hope you do. I will do my part.

Happy New Year to you all.

13 comments:

Alison said...

What, what did I say?? Happy new year to you too. I hope this means you will still be around somewhere even if this blog is about to disappear?

Stephanie Barr said...

I thought about mentioning that the "next" decade started with 2011 in my post, but realized it doesn't matter because a "decade" is ten years. "This decade" can be any definition you like. It could be the 0's which would start with 2000.

By all means, start a debate. I just didn't feel like starting one on my blog. I didn't *care* enough to try to be a purist.

Relax Max said...

I don't think there's any debate. I agree, and I think other people also agree, that saying "The Decade of the 60s" means something else than simply counting years correctly. I have no problem with talking about "The 1980s" as a grouping entity simply because all the years have an 8 in them. That's just because it feels (though technically incorrect) comfortable to do so. But, at the same time, we can know, intellectually at least, that "The 1980s" included a year from the previous decade and did not include the last year of the decade. Technically and mathematically, two different issues, I think, and room for both contexts. (Just my opinion of course.) Happy new year.

Relax Max said...

Alison, I don't know what happened to my long and witty response to your comment, but it was really a good one. I accused you of counting from zero instead of one, and I asked you if you put lights on the castle for Christmas, and many other things that would have delighted and amused you immensely. Too bad, huh? :)

Blogger is so like that all the time.

Relax Max said...

Alison, I also mentioned I am resuming BritishSpeak and the Slap & Tickle and more or less demanded that you therefore come around more often. Something like that. Boy, it was a long comment to your comment!

And Clarity2009 will be replaced by Clarity2010 (so cool, no?) so I can still pontificate. Win win win. Heh.

soubriquet said...

The day I get a slight excitement watching my odometer in the car is the moment when lots of zeros line up, not when it gets to 100001...
Mind you, the old one was on close-on a quarter of a million, this ones on 72k, so I've a while to go yet.

Happy New Year. It's 2010 here. We've got flying cars and personal robot butlers. Whereas you folk are still in dreary old 2009, I'll bet you're wearing spats and trimming the wick on your whale-oil powered steam-computer.

Relax Max said...

Stephanie, if you can find someone who counts by starting with zero instead of one, then I will agree that it doesn't matter. But you are certainly free to advance your "floating decade" theory without any real reasoning to back you up. In the meantime, 1985 to 1995 is ten years, not a decade. Unless you are using metric. Then it wouldn't matter.

Relax Max said...

Never mind. A decade is ANY 10 years. What a fool I am. Stephanie is right.

And I don't care.

Relax Max said...

Hey, Soub. Happy 2010. I get excited with all eights. Snake eyes. Oh, boy. :)

Stephanie Barr said...

You think you'd have *learned* by now.

Alison said...

I will give short answer, yes we had lights at castle, and yay about the other blogs!

Relax Max said...

SB, sometimes giving in is much easier than arguing. :)

Second the yay, Alison. Be there or I'll come and get you. Don't make me do that. :)

Janet said...

Well, I was going to thank you for getting it right, but apparently we're the only two that care.
As to the 1980s, I have repressed them in their entirety. Starting with 1974 right up through 1989.

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