Year 9~XIX Month 12

100 Weeks past, 160 to go theAbysmal Calendar’s launch: 21~12~2012

Year 9~XIX Month 11

96 Weeks past, 164 to go theAbysmal Calendar’s launch: 21~12~2012

96 Weeks past, 164 to go theAbysmal Calendar’s launch: 21~12~2012

the question of non-weekdays

weekdays vs new year’s day and the leap year day?

A common argument against proposed calendars focuses on the use of non-weekdays. In the case of theAbysmal Calendar, there are two such days. The New Year’s Day which falls on the equivalent of December 21st, between the last Friday of one year, and the first Saturday of the next, and; the Leap Year Day which falls on the day before the New Year’s Day every 4 years (with an exception every 128 years, when it is not observed).

Setting the Leap Year Day aside for the moment…

The New Year’s Day is a non-weekday in order that the structure of the remaining 52 weeks remain perpetual from year to year. Thus, every week begins on a Saturday, and ends on a Friday, as does every month (of 4 weeks), every quarter (of 13 weeks) and every year (of 52 weeks).

If the New Year’s Day were to be counted as a weekday, yet remained outside of the 52 weeks of the year, this would create a 7-year cycle of years, that would still remain structurally sound. The first day of each year would begin one weekday later than the previous one.

For example, Year 0 13-XIX, begins on Saturday and ends on Friday. The New Year’s Day falls on Saturday. The first day of Year 1 1-IV would fall on Sunday and end on Saturday. Year 2 2-IX would begin on Monday and end on Sunday, etc… See below for an illustration of the months for each year.

The Leap Year Day, however, should remain a non-weekday, as it would disrupt this otherwise logical progression of weekdays every four years, and again every 128 years. Currently, the observation of February 29th as a weekday causes the Gregorian Calendar to repeat its cycle of weekdays, months and days of the month every 400 years. Not exactly user-friendly.

An argument can be made to either observe the New Year’s day as a weekday or not, however, the Leap Year day should not be observed as a weekday. This simply makes a muddle of an otherwise logical arrangment of the days of the year.

Register your opinion on the Poll at the bottom:

Year 9~XIX Month 10

92 Weeks past, 168 to go theAbysmal Calendar’s launch: 21~12~2012

born on the 4th of January

Babies born in Winter get short shrift.

a recent report notes that babies born during the winter months don’t perform as well (according to a number of metrics) as babies born during other months.

this relates to human gestation – where traditionally, babies would have been conceived near the full moon at the vernal equinox (humans most fertile time), and would be born close to the winter solstice. This would allow pregnant mothers to continue working through the harvest, with the later weeks of the pregnancy taking place after the harvest has come in.

babies are born year round, and as the report notes, children in the same family tend to be born around the same time of year (although YMMV).

Year 9~XIX Month 9

88 Weeks past, 172 to go theAbysmal Calendar’s launch: 21~12~2012

Counting down – now with numbers!

1221 Days until 12~21~2012 and the launch of theAbysmal World Calendar.

That’s right folks. We’re closing in on the 3 year mark before the launch of the most elegant reform calendar proposal yet devised.

A wall calendar, online converter and almanac are all in the works. They shall be distributed starting this Year on Dec 21st (or thereabouts).

Details to follow.

it’s about time.

Year 9~XIX Month 8

84 Weeks past, 176 to go theAbysmal Calendar’s launch: 21~12~2012

Year 9~XIX Month 7

80 Weeks past, 180 to go theAbysmal Calendar’s launch: 21~12~2012

Bloomsday!

In Honour of June 16th 1904 ~ a day in the life of Leopold Bloom

In case this has escaped your notice, today is the day on which the events in James Joyce’s Ulysses take place.

I read this noteworthy tale on and about Bloomsday 2004, and have to say it bears rereading. Fortunately, the work is in the public domain, so for you, here it is:

Ulysses wikimedia version

Ulysses project gutenberg versions