Happy Winter Times!

Yesterday was the 21st of December, which means all you Druids, Mayans, and astronomers must be recovering from one hell of a party. The winter solstice has come and gone, and the fourth and final season now begins!

If you don't know what the solstices are then stop reading and go bury your head in some sand.

It sure as shit felt like a short day (which was oddly satisfying); but that may have been because I woke up so late in the afternoon.

From here on out each day will get minutely longer (pun intended). The sun will bake the landscape for longer periods of time and it will inevitably become warmer as a result. At least that's what my intuition tells me should happen. I mean it only makes sense, sun is shining for longer, it must get warmer as a result, right?

Based off of that logic; what we call winter should be spring, spring should grow hotter and hotter like summer, and summer should be the cool off like winter is.

This pissed me off for the longest time!

Time for some fun information guys! Basically, being in a temperate climate fucks with everything.

You see down at the equator it's pretty straightforward. They really only have two seasons, the wet season and the dry season. The two coincide pretty well with winter and summer, respectively. Way to the north and south at the poles, the same is true but with a cold/dark and warm/light season.

The reason why temperatures change more slowly is because of seasonal lag, a phenomenon mainly caused by atmospheric conditions in given climates and, more importantly, the presence of water, which has a relatively high latent heat.

Basically, because water changes temperature without changing heat, we get some fucking retarded ass shit.

Seasonal lag is different for every place on earth. For example, San Francisco, which is surrounded by water on three sides, has a summer lag of almost three months, with temperatures spiking in late September and early October (makes no sense, I know).

I'm not very satisfied with this answer... I need more... someone explain it to me.

Until then I guess I'll just have to deal with it and have my coldest months in January and February. Science man...

Happy Winter times everyone! Let's strap down for some coldness! Also, hurray for Christmas coming up soon. I don't care if you're not Christian, fuck you Jesus was a saint, A SAINT!

Double Post (Breakin' the Law!)

I hope you all enjoy the poem I posted earlier this morning, I sure as shit do. Also, if you feel like you've already read a lot of the poems I'm going to be posting for the next few months it's because I'm cleaning them out of my Facebook Notes so that now they have a more permanent and safe home. For many of the poems I will be editing and making them better so it might not totally be a waste of your time. If you particularly like one, tell your friends about, link to it on Facebook, or, God-forbid, FAVORITE IT!

Anyways...

The main focus of this short little posting is to remind you all that if you live in North America, especially the United States, there is a very good chance that you're going to be in sight of the total lunar eclipse occurring tonight.

In case you don't know what a lunar eclipse is, it's when the moon passes into the shadow of the earth. I know intuition brings us to the simple conclusion that this must happen all the time but in reality it doesn't!

The reason why this particular eclipse is special is because, for one, it's already bad-ass because it's a fucking eclipse (science man...)

Secondly, this particular eclipse will be occurring during the Winter solstice which is annual date with the least amount of daylight, the beginning of winter.

The last time a winter-solstice-total-lunar-eclipse occurred was 372 years ago in 1638, so it's a pretty rare thing to say the least. In fact it even has NASA all wet and bothered, so much so that they've decided to lay aside their geekiness and lay down some solid poetic justice for the event:

For 72 minutes of eerie totality, an amber light will play across the snows of North America, throwing landscapes into an unusual state of ruddy shadow.

Now if my physics-sense is correct the prominent times of the eclipse should be the same for everybody, no matter where you are, and the times are as follows:

• 10:30PM Eclipse begins, it will be partial until...
  
• 11:40PM when the total eclipse begins and the moon will look blood red!
  
• 12:50PM the total eclipse ends and the shadow slowly recedes.
  
• 2:00AM the eclipse ends and we all go to sleep.
  

I expect you all to be up all night, celebrating the winter solstice like pagans and hailing the red moon goddess!

Cheers!