Sure, Why Not?

I reject the notion that religion is inherently evil and causes all the Bad Stuff in the world. For one, that view is incredibly simplistic. Yes, many horrible acts are committed in the name of religion, but then again, so are many good ones. And while, yes, the good ones don’t require religion to be done, neither do the bad ones, really.

So by all means be religious if that’s what you want. Just please be the good kind. How can you do that? Well, here’s a handy guide to the Good and the Bad of faith-based actions!

So if your religion inspires you to…

-Donate food, clothing, and other items to the needy? Good!

-Volunteer for some sort of disaster relief effort, such as rebuilding houses? Good!

-Visit people in hospitals or nursing homes? Good!

-Take someone into your home when they’ve fallen on bad times? Good!

-Sing in your congregation’s choir? Good.

-Fight oppression? Good!

-Spread peace and love? Good!
(more…)

It occurred to me recently the way people use microwave ovens. How different they can be. How just plain weird and wrong they can be!

You see, when I’m microwaving something, I set the timer to something sensible depending on the item, very rarely more than two minutes for anything unless it’s frozen solid.

And yet, now and then, whether at work or elsewhere with a shared microwave, I see people just heating up some lukewarm soup or chicken or something and setting the timer to something like three minutes! True, the cans and packages sometimes say to microwave for that long, but it’s sort of a general rule that the amount of time they give is more than you need, unless your particular microwave sucks. Then again, packages also give stove top or conventional oven instructions, which nobody who isn’t my mother is dumb enough to pay any attention to.

Hell, I had a burrito once whose conventional oven instructions said to cook for 65 minutes. Not sure if trolling or really fucking crazy.

Anyway, as it sometimes turns out, the people setting their three ounces of clam chowder to microwave for four minutes don’t actually leave it in there the whole time. Oftentimes not even a minute has passed and they decide to stop it and remove their food. Which sort of boggles me further. If the time didn’t even matter, why not, you know, just set the time lower? And, of course, they take the food out and away, and the stupid timer is still blinking with the remaining time. Which the next person has to clear off.

Okay, it makes some sense if they pull it out early to see if it’s warm enough yet, so they could just pop it right back in if it isn’t without having to reset the timer. But they don’t even do that. And why such a ridiculously high time, heating something for four minutes that would be plenty hot in 45 seconds? Is your tongue made of asbestos?

Meh. I don’t know why anybody does anything.

This has been Day 8 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 13.

And now for a youth rights historical edition of…

Here’s to You!!!

So I raise my glass and say, “Here’s to you, Takoma Park!”

I wondered when it would happen, when some American location would finally do it. NYRA and others have been campaigning for it for many years. Some campaigns came close or at least had promise, until they were stalled by technicalities or just plain fizzled out. For each one that did, another cropped up somewhere before long.

For a couple years now, it seemed the first would be Lowell, MA.

Until last night, when Takoma Park, MD, right in the county I live in, beat them to the punch!

First there was the hearing on April 8, attended by NYRAnians Alex Koroknay-Palicz, Bill Bystricky, Alexander Cohen, and me. All four of us went to the podium during the evening and spoke in favor of the proposal. Almost unheard of for youth rights proposals, most of the room was in favor! I was second to last to speak and urged Takoma Park to be on the right side of history, to be the first, to do what Austria, Brazil, Argentina, and other international locations have already done with success, what Berkeley, CA and New Haven, CT had already attempted, what Lowell, MA was currently attempting.

Then a week later on April 15 was the First Reading, when the city councilmembers themselves expressed their views of the proposal. All but one were in favor! Three even started off saying that at first they thought it was a stupid idea but after thinking about it some more, were now gung-ho for it! The one dissenting councilmember spouted a lot of typical “teens aren’t mature enough, I saw one once who wore saggy pants”. When he realized he was outnumbered he instead suggested the change come with a lot of other changes to include young citizens more. So proposal passed 6-1.

And then came the Second Reading, on May 13. The dissenting councilmember suggested the issue be put on the ballot rather than voted on by the council, and the mayor seconded. Uh oh. So the councilmembers each said their piece about this new proposal. It’s okay. It failed 2-5. And then back to the original proposal and some more councilmember remarks.

And the second and final vote to set it in officially.

Again… 6-1. Proposal passes.

That’s right. It’s official.

Takoma Park, MD has lowered the voting age to 16, the first in the United States.

This is real. I saw it happen. This is a thing that has actually happened. Just like that.

In Takoma Park’s city elections in November, there will be the first legal 16-year-old voters in the country!

And this is just the first, with many to follow. Lowell. And who knows where else? It’s not just a lot of failed campaigns and foreign examples. Here is a domestic success, an inspiration to all others in the country. The beginning of what will lead to larger cities lowering their voting ages, and counties, and then whole states. And the entire country.

May 13, 2013 – NEVER FORGET!

I hereby decree…

Your pets are not your children!

And as such, you are not your pets’ parent.

Now I’ll admit I’ve never liked the term “owner” for the person in that position, since the idea of ownership of an animal just sounds icky. I don’t care for “master” either. I like to just refer to the human as the, well, human. But referring to these people as the pets’ parents or guardians is just way too far in the other direction.

You know whose parents you actually are? Your children! Your human children, born out of a human woman’s womb, whether yours or your partner’s or someone else’s. The dog? Not your child.

I have nothing against elevating the status of one’s pets to “member of the family” consideration. But they are still their own category. The actual children are the HUMAN family, moreso than the pets. Equating the kids to the dog just dehumanizes the kids. And it outrageously ignores the VERY different needs that actual human children and the dogs or cats you call “children” have.

I mean, aren’t there enough people out there who have children with this idea of having a permanent baby or toddler? Completely forgetting they are bringing forth a person with their own mind? Treating their children like their sole purpose in life is to obey their parents and live as their parents dictate and to their parents’ pleasure?

You see, those are the reasons one should get a dog or cat! Dogs and cats aren’t going to grow up to be members of your own society. They’ll go their whole lives wanting your affection and, while not necessarily obeying you, being around when you want them. You don’t have to worry about differences of opinion since they don’t (usually) tend to have that many.

Granted, the idea of seeing pets as children is out of affection, yes. Not intending to make any statement either way about the status of the actual children. But if the pets are being elevated to the status of children, where does that leave the actual children?

Or is it the idea that the pets, like the children, are those within your home that you are obligated to serve? Yeah… I don’t think I need to get into everything that’s wrong there!

Now for a quick-thinking, death-stopping edition of…

Here’s to You!!!!

So I raise my glass and say, “Here’s to you, Cypress Lake hero!”

I don’t actually know his name. Very few people do. But he’s a high school student who, when another student on his school bus pointed a gun at someone else and threatened to kill, he and two others leapt up and tackled him, likely saving one or more lives. Yay! They’re heroes!

So they went to school where they got awards and medals not unlike the final scene from Star Wars…

Oh, no, wait, actually he got suspended. For being involved in an incident “where a weapon was present”.

Well, NYRA and others are on it! My always awesome fellow board member Jeffrey Nadel is on the case and has appeared on a couple of news spots and radio shows talking all about it.

Also, here: SchoolBusHero.com

Go there, watch the video, and sign the petition. And get others to do the same.

Seriously, that principal just isn’t backing down on this, insisting that she “knows the full story”. After the original suspension, they made up some junk about the heroic student being insubordinate and uncooperative, something they added after this story got media attention and they wanted to cover their tracks. Yeah, sure, okay.

Because the student should totally have instead done nothing like a good little boy and watched his fellow students get killed. And because he didn’t allow people to die in front of him, he now has this suspension blemish on his record because “only I know the full story, he was uncooperative! uncooperative!” Genius!

Come on. Expunge the suspension and move on. The school fighting this is nonsense, even by school administrator standards.

So I’ve finally gotten into Downton Abbey. I’ve pretty much only seen the third season, save bits and pieces of earlier ones. My parents had been watching it from the beginning. And, well, the Crawley family matriarch is played by Minerva McGonagall so who can resist?

Well, it’s been a turbulent season. So I figured I’d share this is the most awesome way possible… with Rage Comics. Enjoy!

(Also, goes without saying, but LOTS AND LOTS OF SPOILERS ahead so don’t click through or read more if you care.)
(more…)

Can I really do another one after last year’s kicked so much ass? Of course I can.

While I sit here on this Valentine’s Day, munching my candy hearts, what is stupid about love and relationships that I feel like blasting now? So many questions…

Wait. That’s it! So many questions!

It’s probably a cliche that when you develop feelings for someone, your common sense pretty much dies. Maybe even your whole brain. And suddenly… everything is suspect and questionable. Usually, things being suspect and questionable means you’re intelligent, but this is a big exception to that.

Ever developed an interest in someone? Or watched a friend do so? Most likely. And you know it’s not pretty. Because you know what it means…

“Why hasn’t he/she called yet?”
“I sent him/her a text five minutes ago. Why no reply? Does he/she hate me?!”
“What did he/she mean by that?”
“Oh no! He/She mentioned an ex in the course of conversation. He/She must want to go back to the ex!”
“What was that look he/she gave me? What is that about? What does it mean?!”
“Oh God, I think he/she is mad at me. He/She said [insert completely benign ambiguous statement]! What does it mean? Why does he/she hate me?”
“I called him/her and he/she was busy. I’m sure it’s a lie. He/She is just avoiding me.”
“How soon should I talk to him/her again?”
“Do you think this will EVER work? Or will he/she hate me FOREVER?”

I’ve heard all of these from a number of people over the years. I’ve even said some of these, most regrettably. Not very attractive, is it? Of course not. It’s fucking stupid. It’s the stupidity that is the void left when one’s brain has fallen into a deep dormancy when one’s heart and/or genitals get all “WANT!”

Might have thought this is mostly what those more inexperienced with relationships do, but no, even those who’ve been through many still act this way. Honestly, how anyone ever hooks up after wading through this bullshit is beyond me. Probably just thinking, with their last inkling of brain power, “That sex better be damn good!” I suppose it is.

Oh, well. *eats candy hearts* What does this one say? TALK 2 ME. Oh, isn’t that cute, it uses a 2 instead of “to”. YOU FLIRT. Um, sure. HEAD/HEELS. Ha! It’s one of them puzzles. I’M IN LOVE. Uh oh. Careful, candy heart, before you start saying the shit listed above.

So I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday and looking at the science books, when I see a few that are compilations of the best science articles of 2012. Sounds neat. So I took a look. Good stuff for the most part.

And then something about brains… I had a bad feeling about this one. So I flipped to it…

*headdesk*

Yup, you guessed it. It was more “teen brain” bullshit. It starts off about how we all know teenagers are reckless and stupid and whatever other choice stereotypical traits. And says this is because their brains are still developing.

Stuff we hear over and over. But then the realization that this was a best of the year thing. That right alongside advances in real stuff like molecular biology or analytical chemistry, you get this teen brain bullshit being touted as some great discovery.

This is what’s in the mainstream and influencing policy and encouraging discrimination and making the lives of my young friends more and more difficult. While guys like Robert Epstein and Mike Males are still mostly unheard of. Shit.

This year began with what felt like a theme park boat ride, the craft drifting into a dark tunnel, and up ahead you can hear the splashing of rough waters, as the drifting boat moves steadily quicker. To… what?

Well, to all this…

January: Sorting Socks

-Starting the year with something sweet. And Brookside.
-Rocky Horror Picture Show at WES: your argument has never been so invalid
-Ow! Why is my side hurting now?
-And why is… my chest pain back?! Noooo!
-Ash is dead! Ash lasted a while. Awww.
-And now I don’t feel so good…
-Stomach virus! Ack! Haven’t had one in eleven years!
-Supervisor: “Stomach virus? WTF? Go home!”
-Me: “I have to change the temperature chart first!”
-A NYRA board meeting that didn’t devolve into fighting? Holy crap!
(more…)

So this past spring, the Washington Capitals got into the NHL playoffs. They usually do. They’re a good team, despite the city for which they play. They were playing against the New York Rangers, for best four out of seven, when we were six seconds from winning Game Six, and therefore the whole thing and going forward. But then the Rangers scored and tied it up and won in overtime. And Rangers won Game Seven. Caps had it… and lost it.

Then the Washington Nationals, who usually suck, had a great year. And, look at that, National League East Champions, got into the playoffs! It was best three out of five against the St. Louis Cardinals. We made it to Game Five, after Jayson Werth’s walkoff homerun saved Game Four for us. We began Game Five with a six to nothing lead on the Cardinals. Then they seemed to be scoring a run each inning… But then it was the ninth inning, we were up by two still, and were just one strike away from winning and going on… we kept walking them and then they hit a couple of base hits, giving them the lead, and we lost nine to seven. Fuck. -_-

And now, the Washington Redskins, having gotten into November having a typical craptastic season, has just won six straight games in a row, in the running to get into the playoffs. Beat the Eagles. Then beat the Cowboys on Thanksgiving! Then beat the Giants. Then the Ravens. Then the Browns. Then the Eagles again. And tonight we have to beat the Cowboys again, so we can get into the playoffs. Otherwise, we don’t but the Cowboys do.

I’m scared.

Go Redskins!!!!

EDIT: FUCK YEAH!!!!! 28 to 18!!!!!

Wait, shit, we play the Seahawks next week. Our last two playoff berths ended against them. Oy…

Alright, here’s another Harry Potter gripe.

Complete with Harry Potter spoilers, in case that’s an issue five years after the final book came out and a year and a half after that book’s movie.

Bellatrix Lestrange.

She was all-around terrible, having among many other things killed Sirius Black, tortured Hermione, and crucio’d Neville Longbottom’s parents into permanent brain damage.

But who kills her in the end? Molly fucking Weasley.

I mean, that is what brings us the famous “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!” line, as Molly went toward Bellatrix when she saw she was battling with Ginny at the time, and was already grief-stricken from having lost Fred.

But it should have been Neville. True, true, Neville already showed his stuff in slicing Nagini in half with the Gryffindor sword. Yet it seemed like part of his growing strength should have also included avenging his parents. After finishing off Nagini, he should have sliced off Bellatrix’s head.

Instead, Molly Weasley had the honors. Yeah, she was clearly aching to show her badass side, too, after all the coddling she does the rest of the series. Just seems like Augustus Rookwood, who caused the explosion that killed Fred, should have been the better target. Or at least Antonin Dolohov, who killed the Gideon and Fabian Prewett, who were her brothers.

Or maybe she was avenging Sirius, with whom she had some constant friction. That’s a weirdly sweet way of looking at it.

Still, though… Neville was due!

Yup, Eight Mine Fortress is seven years old today. I’m so proud!

Seven years of sitting here with whatever crazy crap I write to it.

On to the eighth year… of Eight Mine Fortress.

Ha. This anniversary post next year is going to make a stupid joke about that.

Well, two more until the 2012 recap…

Why the “Katie Ka-Boom” segment? What the fuck?

I watched this show 20 years ago, though rather on and off. Why? Because every now and then, some of the segments just bugged me. Really, I think the only ones I consistently liked were the Yakko, Wakko, and Dot ones, and maybe Slappy and Skippy, Goodfeathers, and Rita and Runt. The rest is either frustrating, like Mindy and Buttons. Stupid, like Chicken Boo. And, of course, just wildly offensive like Katie Ka-Boom.

There was a marathon of it on the Hub on Christmas Eve, and I like their Christmas specials. And seems the show is coming on that channel regularly in January. First thought was, yay, I like that show, get to see an old show of mine again! Then I remembered the love-hate relationship with it, that so many segments of the show I prefer to change the channel from.

Particularly Katie Ka-Boom, the teenage girl who explodes in hulk-like fury at the slightest unhappiness, something of which her parents and little brother live in constant fear. Every segment has something frustrate her, usually her family doing something stupid or a guy being a minute late for a date, and then she screams and turns into some kind of fire-breathing monster or some shit, and afterward she reverts to normal and is even friendly, and to close out the segment her parents make some disgusting comment about teenagers.

There’s a certain sadness in seeing blatant anti-teen sentiment in cartoons meant for an audience that has yet to reach their teen years (”fingerprints” joke notwithstanding). Spongebob Squarepants is about as bad when Mr. Krabs’s daughter Pearl is in an episode, behaving like every teen girl stereotype the show’s writers could come up with.

Why are children being told that in a few years they are going to grow into an age group during which they’ll be horrible and their parents will hate them? Or is this being done hoping the kids will behave differently once they reach their teens? Except their behavior doesn’t actually matter, since all anyone will care about then is their age, and every single action they make will be derided as “stupid teenager”. They can’t win, and their elders just want to make fun of them for it. What the fuck?

You know what I fucking hate? Ridiculous and fallacious applications of survival of the fittest to human society. And it’s almost always made to mean not so much survival but rather lack of survival of the weak or stupid. While this does apply in certain areas, the idea goes way overboard a lot, to the point of sociopathy.

For example, when looking at history, one might look at, say, the conquest and deaths of the Native Americans at the hands of white settlers to be what can be expected naturally. Why? Because a nice dose of Social Darwinism states that the Native Americans were clearly the weaker and less fit party, that therefore they’d only lose out to the surviving white settlers because they were clearly the fit and strong ones. And that with the weak ones dying out and those strong ones surviving, this would somehow be beneficial to our species.

Another example. A few years ago, I wrote about kids being left to die in hot cars. The comment on that was someone signed in as “Darwin” and saying, “See my theory of Evolution for an explanation of the purpose of this behavior.” That post was mentioned in a forum thread on SnipeMe last year, and the comment got a bit of agreement. Well, there are a lot of problems with that! For one, it reduces the child from personhood and makes him merely a vessel for his parents’ supposedly-faulty genes. And for that reason makes out the child’s unfortunate death to be a good thing for our species! Not to mention that the death had nothing to do with anything the child did, that this death was because his parents killed him through THEIR neglect and stupidity.

It also broadly applies biological determinism where its appropriateness is at best poorly understood by even the people who actually would know what the fuck they are talking about.

And where the fuck does anyone come off saying the deaths of innocent children at the hands of stupid parents, or tribes at the hands of resource-hungry invaders, or any number of people who died in avoidable accidents, are beneficial to our species? That one would make a statement so outrageously callous and defend it by pretending it’s science?!

You see, there is something very advantageous to our species, and that is our ability to discover and solve problems and, you know, help each other! We are supposed to be well beyond leaving the little sick and weak ones to die, so to speak. We are supposed to know better than to assume only those whose genes are “correct” have a right to live. Because maybe, just maybe, we’ve evolved into being better than that!

It began with some gift gathering and organization. Eating some cookies.

And, look at that, it’s snowing outside!

And after some wrapping, some Christmas TV, and whatnot, scraping off the car.

Christmas Eve.

Sushi!

Off to late night church. The usual.

Except for some weird “riu riu chiu” song they sung.

And at last… Silent Night.

I might have shouted the third verse for some reason: “RADIANT BEAMS FROM THY HOLY FACE! WITH THE DAWN OF REDEEMING GRAAAAAAAACE!”

And stepped outside…

o snap, it’s a foggy Christmas Eve!

And the last of the wrapping.

And cookies and hot chocolate!

Bed.

In the morning, a bizarre AC/DC parody of “My Favorite Things”.

Also, the Christmas tree fell down last night and is propped up against the wall.

LOL awesome

The brand new train didn’t work.

Until it did on a different track. Weird.

Mario games, old and new!

And the feast. The feast of roast beast.

Unremarkable. Unwavering from last year. For the most part.

I guess that’s a good thing. It is a good thing. Nice to have some things be somewhat constant.

I don’t know. I’m not interested in thinking too hard about it.

Hope you all had a good one!

Caroling, caroling now we go
Christmas bells are ringing
Caroling, caroling through the snow
Christmas bells are ringing

Joyous voices sweet and clear
Sing the sad of heart to cheer
Ding, dong, ding, dong
Christmas bells are ringing

Caroling, caroling through the town
Christmas bells are ringing
Caroling, caroling up and down
Christmas bells are ringing

Mark ye well the song we sing
Gladsome tidings now we bring
Ding, dong, ding, dong
Christmas bells are ringing

Caroling, caroling now we go
Caroling, caroling through the snow

Joyous voices sweet and clear
Sing the sad of heart to cheer
Ding, dong, ding, dong
Christmas bells are ringing

Ding, dong, ding, dong
Christmas bells are ringing!

New Christmas music gets made still. Sort of. I think Rod Stewart released a new Christmas album. Michael Buble released one a year or two ago. Plenty of singers like to do the usual Christmas album, because why not?

Except it’s usually the same damn songs. Do we really need more versions of Let It Snow, or It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, or It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, or I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus? Or any others that have already been done to death?

Writing a new Christmas song, of course, takes extra work, and God knows that one is a crapshoot anyway. You might get something fun like Christmas Wrapping, something cute like Dominick the Donkey, something depressing like Same Auld Lang Syne, or something godawful and fit for the bowels of hell like Christmas Shoes.

But there’s a zillion Christmas songs already, lots of material for an album of covers. They don’t need to stick to the same old ones. There isn’t a lot of chance they’re going to contribute much to them that hasn’t been done before. Just open up a few Christmas song books and look for stuff that people might generally know but doesn’t get done much. Even excluding the Jesus ones (an exclusion not usually made, though) there’s still a decent selection.

And yet even with all that considered, they’ll still be like “hey, you know what? there should be another rendition of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town!”

Either that, or the same old Santa Claus Is Coming to Town or Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree are the only ones anyone is willing to promote or play.

So, in response to Sandy Hook, the National Rifle Association came out and said words.

On one hand, you’d hate to be them right now, immediately after an incident where everything they stand for just feels especially evil.

On the other hand, what the NRA does end up saying is some stupid shit.

They’re calling for ARMED GUARDS in every school. So in response to one guy with a gun going into a school and shooting some little kids, let’s have every school have a guy with a gun who has a lot more access should he decide to do the same! Genius!

Oh, and they blamed violent video games.

So, basically, guns don’t kill people, but video games do! Of course!

You know… personally I don’t feel very strongly about gun rights either way, but if this is the thought process of those who choose to carry deadly weapons around, I’m thinking there’s something to this whole gun control thing after all!

I went outside earlier and looked up at the sky. Though mostly cloudy, to the south I could see it. A weak, distant sun.

Alright, sun. Come on back.

To which the sun replied, “Why should I?”

Because it’s the winter solstice. It’s dark here.

“But when I leave this nice Tropic of Capricorn, it’s gets dark in the south. Why are you so special?”

Not a matter of special. It’s just time.

“That’s your only reason? It’s just time? What if I want to stay over here?”

Pretty sure that’d be a natural disaster.

“And why should I care about that? You know, Earth, you are some piece of work. Expecting everything from me.”

We can’t help that.

“Not that you are so appreciative. Six months ago, when I was shining all brightly around you and leaving the south in the dark, weren’t you all just bitching about the heat?”

True, true.

“And why should I shine anywhere on your stupid planet? The crap you all do to each other. Should just let you all rot in darkness.”

We’re much more than just humans.

“Yeah, well, don’t get me started on spiders!”

And even so, what is this? Your own little naughty or nice list?

“Please! Santa is the one who stole that shit from me!”

Okay.

“But you know what I hate most of all? You humans and your little solstice celebrations and the like. I send light and energy your way, and you all decide to attach more shit to me than that. I’m a star that happens to be close to you. And you benefit from me and have life. A life of stupidity.”

Um… sorry?

“Stupidity! In that every six months, whichever hemisphere is dark wants me to come back the other way, but I’m not even the one who moved. It’s your own stupid planet that keeps spinning around me and tilting certain ways at certain times, and yet I catch flak for it. Well, I’ve had it.”

Going to turn yourself off? Going supernova so fast?

“No. I’ll just let you have what you want. Your northern days will steadily get brighter now, from your own planetary revolving and tilting. But come summer I’m giving you some massive heat!”

Well, okay. Though if all you actually do is sit there and cast out light and energy, some of which happens to reach us, how much control do you have over that?

“No need. Your greenhouse gases are doing that one well enough.”

Um… I think I’ll just go Christmas shopping now…

“You do that.”

What I refer to as a “Day of Many Things” is a certain day of the year that, on seemingly every year or most years, that date somehow ends up significant in some way. I don’t mean days that have built-in annual significance, such as birthdays or Christmas or something. I mean days that otherwise are ordinary but through a lot of coincidences, it keeps being important, even in the most minor ways.

Today, December 20, is one of those days for me. Ten years ago today I took the GRE (verbal 370, quantitative 770, woo!). Five years ago today my grandma became ill from what killed her a month later. Four years ago today I found that ageist fye store. Eight years ago today I came down with a cold. Plus a bunch of other things.

Plenty more days throughout the year are like this. March 20. May 12. May 21. August 30. September 6. October 16. November 18. Those are the main ones, I think.

Yeah. Just days that it seems something or other that’s somehow important or at least memorable happens most years. Be it an appointment, discovery, first time meeting someone, fun activity, tragedy, disappointment, a very strange occurrence, or something else.

I’d add that I got the name from a card in the game Munchkin, but I’m worried that would push the dorkiness of this over some sort of threshold and endanger the universe.