MY LIFE: 3 Halloween Questions

Well, I got thes questions for my work newsletter, so I thought I could put the answers here on my blog too! - OlderMusicGeek

1. What was your favorite Halloween costume as a child?

I can’t remember that far back, but I do remember one year dressing up as my childhood hero, Doc Savage, a kind of pseudo-Superman from 1930s pulp magazines. Of course, no one knew who he was, so no one knew who I was being!

Then one year, when a friend and I were passing out candy, we ran out. So we put on our clothes backwards, walked up to the doors backwards, stood with our backs to the people, told the answer to the joke, then the question, then said trick or treat!

My daughter was Queen Amidala from Star Wars for 3 years in a row. We offered to buy her a new costume, but no way!

2. What is your favorite scary movie?

“Alien” always has been and will be my favorite movie. Every time I watch it, I get chills and jump! Especially during the scene in the escape hatch!

But I also love Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". Found out recently that I apparently let my daughter watch that movie at too young an age! She told me that she tied the bathroom door shut for a week when she took a shower after she saw it!

3. What is your favorite Halloween candy?

Peanut M&M’s all the way! Though I can't eat too many of them now with my high cholestrol!

But I loved Snickers too! Anything that mixes chocolate and peanuts!

Unfortunately, with the low-fat, low cholestrol diet I'm on now. Can't really eat too many of them!

Other Halloween blog posts

CULTURE/SOCIETY and HUMOR: An Interesting Army Holiday Story

This is from my work newsletter. - OlderMusicGeek

One employee’s travel ordeal was so risky he asked that his name not be shared. Brock (not his real name) writes in an e-mail that his story began when his doctor told him, “If we can prevent infection, we won’t have to amputate.”

It was December 18, and Brock was serving in the U.S. Army in Europe. He had been evacuated to the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, in what was then West Germany. His injury was so serious it made one medic turn green but was not serious enough for him to be sent stateside for treatment. Much to his disappointment, Brock’s doctor wanted him to stay until December 28.

Brock did not want to spend Christmas in a military hospital. Landstuhl (Germany) Regional Medical Center pictured today.

Spending Christmas in a military hospital overseas was not a festive prospect for the young soldier. “I had to find a way back to my unit, now more than 120 miles away,” he says.

As he signed into Hospital Ward 4C and was issued his hospital pajamas, he noticed a small phone booth near the nurses’ desk. He also noticed he was the only patient who was not bed-bound and that none of the patients looked like they wanted to be spending Christmas in the hospital.

He received permission to call his unit. Brock pleaded with the staff duty officer of his unit to send someone to get him. A nurse overheard his attempted hospital break, and Brock says his uniform and boots were confiscated shortly afterward.

Looking forward to the change from Army C-rations to tasty hospital food, he was disappointed to be placed on a strict liquid diet as a potential surgery patient. “My fellow patients and I discussed our favorite holiday foods while I sank my teeth into lukewarm chicken broth,” he says.

On December 21, the duty nurse asked for suggestions to improve the patient morale in the hospital ward. After Brock suggested going to the Noncommissioned Officers (NCO) Club across the street for a beer or two, his hospital slippers were confiscated.

“The next day the nurses decided that if the patients weren’t in a festive spirit being in the hospital over Christmas, then they would make us happy and jolly,” he says.

After a nutritious breakfast of Jell-O, Brock was drafted into helping hang decorations around the hospital ward. After all, he was the only patient who could walk. “We had no Christmas tree; the best we could come up with was an IV pole with green paper and tinsel,” he says.

When the decorations failed to improve morale that afternoon, the nurses decided to try Christmas music. A scratchy tape of holiday songs recorded from the Armed Forces Network radio broadcasts was piped into the hospital ward, Brock says. The tape featured a small selection of songs, including “I’ll be Home for Christmas.” It was obvious none of the patients would be home for Christmas.

Brock and his fellow patients staged a protest after being forced to listen to “I’ll be Home for Christmas” and “Silver Bells” too many times.

The next day, Brock and his co-conspirators, “Stitches” (76 stitches in each leg from a jeep accident), “T-Bone” (fractured femur, same accident), “Halo” (in traction for a broken neck, and not much of a talker), and “Dewey” (hit by a DUI driver while in a crosswalk on base) worked out a plan to end their torment.

The next time Bing Crosby sang “Silver Bells,” they all simultaneously hit their call buttons for the nurses in perfect timing with the bells playing the melody line. When they told the angry nurses they were trying to get in the spirit of Christmas by participating in the song, the nurses decided to punish them by not playing any more Christmas music.

Brock’s morale improved even more when he learned his unit was sending a jeep for him and it would arrive by 8 p.m. that night. He could be back with his unit by the morning of Christmas Eve. “Surprisingly, the nurses did not wish me a Merry Christmas as I was signed out of the hospital ward to await my transportation,” he says.

A link to all my Christmas posts

Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you're celebrating!
MY CHRISTMAS INTERNET RADIO STATIONS
OlderMusicGeek Radio - Christmas Edition
OlderMusicGeek Radio - Christmas Rock and Punk Edition
OlderMusicGeek's Christmas QuickMixpowered by PANDORA
But if you don't have Pandora, you can hear some of songs at http://www.playlist.com/oldermusicgeek

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Employees Tell About First July 4 In U.S.

Hmmmm, I seem to have become something of a holiday blogger. Oh well, that's cool by me!

This is from my work newsletter. - OlderMusicGeek

Employees tell about first July 4 in U.S.

L (name deleted) was surprised by the differences between Fourth of July and Canada Day, which is July 1. “I thought the celebrations would be similar,” she says. “Not so much!”

L, finance/recoupment specialist in Recoupment and Medicare Secondary Payer at (town name deleted), grew up in Canada and experienced her first Fourth of July as a U.S. resident two years ago.

“We have the picnics, parades, you know, the whole deal,” she says. In Canada, however, only licensed professionals are allowed to set off fireworks for community shows. “Not in the U.S.,” she says. “Anyone can go to the local fireworks tent and stock up on various explosives.”

That’s just what Laurie and her husband did. “My husband took me to a local fireworks stand and told me to pick out whatever I wanted,” she says.

She and her husband also grilled hot dogs, tried to teach each other the words to their national anthem and attended a parade and fireworks show.

“The fireworks would have been romantic except my husband and hundreds of people around us were setting off their own fireworks,” she says. “So there I sat on our blanket alone, happily holding my sparkler!”


Fireworks of another kind

D (name deleted), process analyst in Preprocess at NAS, grew up in (town name deleted), Manitoba, which is 15 miles north of the International Peace Gardens located on the Canada-U.S. border.

The only time D paid attention to the American holiday was when she was planning a shopping trip to (town deleted), N.D., and wanted to make sure the stores would be open, she says.

In April 2004, D married a North Dakotan, and their wedding reception was held on the Fourth at her in-laws’ cabin on Lake Metigoshe near (town name deleted), N.D. D experienced another kind of fireworks when the grill was engulfed in flames.

“We were still able to eat the potatoes,” she says.

D says she sees more flags and festivities on the Fourth of July than she did on Canada Day. D has noticed “Americans are more patriotic.” To her, Canada Day meant a day off work. “The patriotism is nice to see,” she says. “I’m so happy to be here.”

SCIENCE: Leap Year 101

I was clued into this webpage from infoplease by my work's newletter.

I know I should have done this post on February 29! What can I say. I'm a great procrastinator!

And I didn't know Leap Day was such a big deal! I don't remember it being this big of a deal before. Maybe cus it fell on a weekend this year - well, Friday, close enough. I'll have to remember to see how people react in 2020 when it falls on a Saturday. :) - OlderMusicGeek

Leap Year 101
Why and when we have leap years
by Borgna Brunner

2008 is a leap year, which means that it has 366 days instead of the usual 365 days that an ordinary year has. An extra day is added in a leap year—February 29—which is called an intercalary day or a leap day.

Why is a Leap Year Necessary?

Leap years are added to the calendar to keep it working properly. The 365 days of the annual calendar are meant to match up with the solar year. A solar year is the time it takes the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun—about one year. But the actual time it takes for the Earth to travel around the Sun is in fact a little longer than that—about 365¼ days (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, to be precise). So the calendar and the solar year don't completely match—the calendar year is a touch shorter than the solar year.

It may not seem like much of a difference, but after a few years those extra quarter days in the solar year begin to add up. After four years, for example, the four extra quarter days would make the calendar fall behind the solar year by about a day. Over the course of a century, the difference between the solar year and the calendar year would become 25 days! Instead of summer beginning in June, for example, it wouldn't start until nearly a month later, in July. As every kid looking forward to summer vacation knows—calendar or no calendar—that's way too late! So every four years a leap day is added to the calendar to allow it to catch up to the solar year.

A Quick History Lesson

The Egyptians were the first to come up with the idea of adding a leap day once every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the solar year. Later, the Romans adopted this solution for their calendar, and they became the first to designate February 29 as the leap day.

But Wait! It's Not Quite that Simple!

The math seems to work out beautifully when you add an extra day to the calendar every four years to compensate for the extra quarter of a day in the solar year. As we said earlier, however, the solar year is just about 365 ¼ days long—but not exactly! The exact length of a solar year is actually 11 minutes and 14 seconds less than 365 ¼ days. That means that even if you add a leap day every four years, the calendar would still overshoot the solar year by a little bit—11 minutes and 14 seconds per year. These minutes and seconds really start to add up: after 128 years, the calendar would gain an entire extra day. So, the leap year rule, "add a leap year every four years" was a good rule, but not good enough!

Calendar Correction, Part II

To rectify the situation, the creators of our calendar (the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582) decided to omit leap years three times every four hundred years. This would shorten the calendar every so often and rid it of the annual excess of 11 minutes and 14 seconds. So in addition to the rule that a leap year occurs every four years, a new rule was added: a century year is not a leap year unless it is evenly divisible by 400. This rule manages to eliminate three leap years every few hundred years.

It's Smooth Sailing for the Next 3,300 Years

This ingenious correction worked beautifully in bringing the calendar and the solar year in harmony, pretty much eliminating those pesky extra 11 minutes and 14 seconds. Now the calendar year and the solar year are just about a half a minute off. At that rate, it takes 3,300 years for the calendar year and solar year to diverge by a day.

A link to the original infoplease webpage
The Wikipedia entry on leap years

HUMOR and CULTURE/SOCIETY: What to Say about That ‘Special’ Gift

This is another piece that comes from my work newsletter. - OlderMusicGeek

If you receive a holiday gift that leaves you speechless, try one of these responses found on the Internet.

1. I really don’t deserve this.

2. To think, this is the year I vowed to give all my gifts to charity.

3. Sadly, tomorrow I enter the Federal Witness Protection Program.

4. I love it, but I fear the jealousy it will inspire.

5. If the dog buries it, I’ll be furious!

6. Gosh. I hope this never catches fire! It is fire season, though. There are lots of unexplained

fires.

7. This is prefect for wearing around the basement.

8. Boy if I had not recently shot up four sizes, this would’ve fit.

9. Well, well, well…

10. Hey! There’s a gift.

A link to all my Christmas and holiday posts

Happy Christmas and/or Boxing Day and/or Kwanzaa and/or Hannakah and/or Bodhi Day and/or Sanghamitta Day and/or Shabe Cheleh and/or Makara Sankranti and/or Junkanoo and/or Dong Zhi and/or Toji and/or Soyal and/or Yule and/or Seva Zistane and/or Alban Arthan and/or Long Night and/or Mean Geimrech and/or Brumalia and/or Dies Natalis Solis Invicti and/or Saturnalia and/or Lenaea and/or Wren Day and/or Tekufah Tevet and/or Winter Solstice and/or ChriFSMas and/or any other December or winter solstice holidays i missed!

Oh, and Bah Humbug to those who don't celebrate the holidays! :)

CULTURE/SOCIETY and SCIENCE: U.S. Life Expectancy Lags Behind Other Countries

I found this originally in my work newsletter. But it's from Associated Press. I edited it down. Here's a link to the complete article. - OlderMusicGeek.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries.

Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan and the Cayman Islands.

A baby born in the United States in 2004 will live an average of 77.9 years. That life expectancy ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Andorra, a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, had the longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years, according to the Census Bureau. It was followed by Japan, Macau, San Marino and Singapore.

The shortest life expectancies were clustered in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that has been hit hard by an epidemic of HIV and AIDS, as well as famine and civil strife. Swaziland has the shortest, at 34.1 years, followed by Zambia, Angola, Liberia and Zimbabwe.

Researchers said several factors have contributed to the United States falling behind other industrialized nations. A major one is that 45 million Americans lack health insurance, while Canada and many European countries have universal health care, they say.

Among the other factors:

• Adults in the United States have one of the highest obesity rates in the world. Nearly a third of U.S. adults 20 years and older are obese, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

"The U.S. has the resources that allow people to get fat and lazy," said Paul Terry, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "We have the luxury of choosing a bad lifestyle as opposed to having one imposed on us by hard times."

• Racial disparities. Black Americans have an average life expectancy of 73.3 years, five years shorter than white Americans.

Black American males have a life expectancy of 69.8 years, slightly longer than the averages for Iran and Syria and slightly shorter than in Nicaragua and Morocco.

• A relatively high percentage of babies born in the U.S. die before their first birthday, compared with other industrialized nations.

Forty countries, including Cuba, Taiwan and most of Europe, had lower infant mortality rates than the U.S. in 2004. The U.S. rate was 6.8 deaths for every 1,000 live births. It was 13.7 for Black Americans, the same as Saudi Arabia.

Another reason for the U.S. drop in the ranking is that the Census Bureau now tracks life expectancy for a lot more countries -- 222 in 2004 -- than it did in the 1980s. However, that does not explain why so many countries entered the rankings with longer life expectancies than the United States.

Murray, from the University of Washington, said improved access to health insurance could increase life expectancy. But, he predicted, the U.S. won't move up in the world rankings as long as the health care debate is limited to insurance.

Policymakers also should focus on ways to reduce cancer, heart disease and lung disease, said Murray. He advocates stepped-up efforts to reduce tobacco use, control blood pressure, reduce cholesterol and regulate blood sugar.

A link to the complete article

CULTURE/SOCIETY: My Work Newsletter on The Corporate Home Town

This is me, OlderMusicGeek, not a reprinted article.

The newsletter at my work included a brochure from its hometown, Fargo-Moorhead, North Dakota. It said the following things about its hip and happening hometown...

-National Geographic has been to Fargo Moorhead. So has National Public Radio, which recently aired a piece noting our budding “reputation for high-tech jobs and hipness.” The Los Angeles Times characterization was even more straightforward: “trendy.”

-For those who live here or have recently visited our thriving community of nearly 188,000, this is not news. Fargo Moorhead is a diverse, stimulating and family-oriented city with all the amenities that make for a satisfying and fulfilling life.

-Those with firsthand experience talk about Fargo Moorhead’s exceptional K-12 and higher education systems, world-class health care, affordable housing, relatively low cost of living and myriad cultural and entertainment opportunities. They mention stress, crime and traffic jams, too, but only to say there isn’t much of that here.

-CNNMoney.com ranked Fargo as the 9th least violent city in the nation.

Then hidden later under photos, we find out why it's the 9th least violent city in the nation and why there's no crime. And why this such wonderful town has less then 200,000 people and can't get any higher!

average winter high: 20 F/-7 C
average winter low: 2 F/-17 C

HUMOR: If One Was CEO

More silly stuff from my company's newsletter. They asked us to submit what we would do if we were ceo. These were some of the better responses in my humble opinion. - OlderMusicGeek

“I would have all announcements over the intercom sung to the tune of the song that's being interrupted.”

“Eliminate the usage of e-mail for one day. It is just amazing how much we as a society and company have become so dependent on it. It would be really neat to see people have to communicate a day without e-mail.”

“I'd encourage all employees to ride goats to work. Here's why: 1. Employees will save tons of money and less headache on surging gas prices because goats do not run on gas, they run on grass. Ha! 2. The company will save money on parking lot expansion projects because we can fit more goats there than cars. 3. Every day will be like Ride a Pet to Work Day, which will drive up productivity and make everybody happy at work because we all love our pets. 4. The goats will likely ‘produce’ more goats when they're ‘parked’ in the parking lots, so that will guarantee all future new hires will each get a goat. Oh, my mum can FedEx us some goats for starters if we need to get this plan in action.”

“After a lot of prayer and sincere soul searching, I dug deep down and came up with simple plan that, if I'm only given the chance as CEO to declare it Martial Law, will satisfy the deepest needs and dearest wishes of every employee. We must act now...for the children. Here is my simple plan: If I were CEO I'd suggest that all employees walk to the nearest beautiful piece of farmland, remove the current occupants and start an egalitarian, self-sustaining commune of peace and love. We have plenty of farmers, doctors, masseuses, carpenters, guitar players, belly dancers and gourmet chefs. We won't need money or jobs, just a love of fresh farm food and free massages. At night, if we can be torn from the rampant free love (metaphysically speaking), we will all hold hands in a song of harmony and peace, as days are mostly dedicated to plotting revenge against all our enemies, because Fargo is not that high on hippies. The only rule will be a mandatory two-hour nap and a communal agreement that, although cute, cats are not to be trusted. If they infiltrate, they will turn the commune into a licking and picking station and all of a sudden we will need vacuum cleaners, in which case, we may as well just remain in our office chairs here at (company name deleted)."

I should note all the answers weren't frivolous and there were some good serious responses given - like having a small shop in the building to buy stuff we might need for lunch or at home, various ideas on to better organize our paid time off, getting our anniversary date as a paid holiday and some ideas on how to make our company more environmentally.

ENTERTAINMENT: My Comments on The Odyssey in My Company's Newletter

Ha ha! I made our company's newletter! :) - OlderMusicGeek

Employees share their favorite books

A great book is the most faithful of companions. After you've read it, it'll never leave you. Today, nine employees share books that have made memorable impressions on them....

The Odyssey by Homer. Epic poem. “I have read it about eight times, have listened to it on audio books twice, and I have it on my MP3 player, so little bits and pieces of it come up randomly with my alternative, punk, swing, bluegrass, reggae and whatnot."

(Actually this is a pretty big deal for me, because Oedipus the King is the only other book I've read more than 3 times. - Some day, I need to explain why Oedipus should be looked up to instead looked at in horror. Thanks Sigmund Freud for making Oedipus look so bad. I will let you know that Oedipus did NOT know that she was his mother and was horrified when he found out! -

But back to The Odyssey and reading. In fact, I rarely read - or listen to - a book twice, because I feel that's taking time away from reading or listening to a new book. So that I read The Odyssey eight times and listened to it twice should give some idea what it means to me!)

"I’m not exactly sure why this books speaks to me, but part of it is because of Odyseus’s dedication. In the 20 years he was gone, no matter what happened, what stood in his way, he was determined to return to his wife and son."

"And Odysseus got out of all of his troubles by using his head. He didn’t just use his sword to get out. In fact, he realized his sword would sometimes get him in bigger trouble. He is a thinking man’s action hero."

"Finally, Odysseus wasn’t perfect. He lost all his men, and he lost a number of them because of wrong decisions he made. And he admitted to himself that he made those mistakes.”— (I do NOT put my name of the internet!), quality assurance review analyst, Iowa Medicaid (no directory photo available)

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Men Wearing Pink Shirts

This was in my work's newsletter and I just found it interesting. Can't say I would comfortable wearing a pink shirt. :) - OlderMusicGeek

Pink Shirt Guy (alias to hide where I work) issues the pink shirt challenge

Pink Shirt Guy, programmer/analyst in System Support Services at (business name removed), encouraged his male coworkers in Information Services to step outside their comfort zones last week.

With permission from IS management, Pink Shirt Guy invited IS employees, but males in particular, to wear pink shirts on August 10. “For most guys, wearing the color pink is a big no-no,” he wrote in an e-mail to IS. “For others, it’s a sign of confidence in one’s self.”

Recently, men in IS had been discussing whether they would wear pink, and many said they never would. One of those employees was Tech Support Analyst II. Then he lost a weightlifting bet to Pink Shirt Guy, and his end of the deal was to wear a pink shirt to work. The day Tech Support Analyst II wore the pink shirt, Pink Shirt Guy and Technical Support Intern were wearing pink shirts, too. That’s when Pink Shirt Guy got the idea to propose a pink shirt day to all the men in IS.

Pink Shirt Guy hadn’t been a fan of the color pink until someone bought him a pink shirt, and he made the bold move of wearing it to a job interview. One of the interviewers commented that his choice of attire conveyed confidence. Pink Shirt Guy was later offered the job. “It makes you stand out when you wear a color you don’t usually wear,” he said.

Pink Shirt Guy noticed there were a lot of first-timers Friday, including a few who said they never would wear pink. “As the saying goes, ‘real men wear pink',” he said.