February 29th and What We Should Do About It

Ah, February 29th, the most annoying date of the year. And not for the usual reason of "so-and-so is celebrating his 8th birthday today even though he was born in 1976." No, February 29th bugs me for other reasons:

1. It messes up March. Every year, it is usually so easy to know what day of the week a certain date will be in March because it follows the same pattern as February. If February 20th was a Wednesday, then March 20th will be a Wednesday. Except, for this year, where now all the days in March will be thrown off the usual pattern.
2. The weather almanac shows nothing for this date. I am a little obsessed with weather. I believe that if I couldn't be a professor, I might try to be a meteorologist. I love the weather. I usually like to look on my favorite weather website and see what the Almanac predicts for the upcoming days, what the averages are, and what we should expect. Well, February 29th has no almanac info. So I have had no way of knowing whether the weather will be warmer or colder than usual. This bugs me.
3. Our electric bill this month will have one additional day charged to our account. Same for the water bill.
4. For those of us who get paid on the last day of the month, we have to wait one extra day to receive our paycheck. (And of course that paycheck is less per day this year due to the extra day.)

If I were in charge of the world, on my first day in office, I would do away with this silly day. If we need to add 24 hours every 4 years to make sure the earth stays on proper orbit, I propose a better way. Basically, each year is short 6 hours. That's 30 minutes a month. So I propose:

1. Add one minute to everyday of the month for the first 30 days of each month. (Of course February screws this up having only 28 days, so take the extra two minutes and add it to January 31 and March 31.) This would make much less hassle. An extra minute of sleep per day, and extra minute to do all those things we didn't quite get done. I think this would be great. And it wouldn't mess things up like February 29th does. Or,

2. Once a month, add 30 minutes to a Saturday night, like we do during the time change. Could you imagine having an extra 30 minutes to sleep a month? This would be great.

If you think we should have more time to do things, then you should agree with me on this issue. Whether or not these two plans would throw off our days and nights, I am not sure - and it doesn't matter. What I do know is that we need a "change." We need change, and we are the ones to do this. I believe it is time to get rid of February 29th forever. So, in summary, the current February 29th has led to a history of confusion and misguided policy. I am for change (don't worry too much about the specifics of my plan, because I am for change and that is all that matters.) So will you please support me for ruler of the world?

And the Oscar Goes To... ZZZZZZ

OK, so I have three kids and we don't go to the movies much. But for the last two years, I had seen and accurately predicted the Best Picture Winner (Crash 2005 and The Departed 2006). This year, I had only seen Juno. So I was hoping it would win as we sat down to watch the Oscars.

As for the Oscar presentation… pretty, pretty, pretty dull. The White Witch Ice Queen won Best Supporting Actress; an actress I had never heard of from a movie I had never heard of won Best Actress. Seriously, did anybody see that movie? La Vie en Rose has grossed a whopping $10 million. So apparently, only the voting members of the academy have seen it. Pretty much goes for all the nominated films. Aside from Juno ($130 million), the other Best Picture Nominees have pathetically limped through the Box Office: No Country ($64 million), Michael Clayton ($49 million), Atonement ($49 million), and There Will Be Blood ($35 million). So the competition for most of the awards involved movies no one had seen, Jon Stewart, who is normally very funny, was not so much(apparently the writers haven't quite gotten back on their game yet, or they are ticked that Stewart started his show back without them), and the acceptance speeches were so-so, nothing memorable. The best moment goes to the winners for Best Original Song from the movie Once, which was basically just a movie made to publicize their soundtrack, but I was glad they won - I had actually seen the movie(well, kind of, I remember struggling to keep my eyes open at the end of the movie.) Anyway, maybe I'll see more of the nominees next year.

Here's to better movies in 2008.

Just Words and the Clinton Machine

Many months ago, I predicted, along with all the other pundits, that Hillary Clinton would coast to the Democratic Nomination. Everybody has been surprised at her struggles thus far. But remember this - Hillary and Bill Clinton are two of the most astute, nasty, go-for-the-jugular politicians ever. For the last few weeks, Clinton has consistently labeled Obama as just a talker. This has caused Obama to defend his promises and lofty speeches, which is definitely his strong point. However, in what I believe was calculated from the start, the Clinton campaign is now accusing Obama of plagiarism. That his "great oratory skills" are not his own, but stolen from others. (Never mind that Thomas Jefferson stole much of the Declaration from John Locke, or that Matthew and Luke apparently read Mark.) It turns out many of his words are not his own. Is this a big deal? Not really, but the Clinton political machine will beat this plagiarism drum until Obama's one strength, his oratory skills, will be so maligned in the public's eye that Clinton will comeback to win. And if this tactic doesn't work, I am sure the Clinton's have many more ways to go about destroying Obama. Their only miscalculation may have been waiting too long. While the Democratic race is certainly exciting to watch, I have not changed my mind…yet… that Clinton will still win the nomination. We'll know more after Wisconsin tonight. How many Republicans will vote in the Democratic primary just to throw off the results? While Obama leads McCain in the polls now, I really think Obama would be a much easier candidate for the Republicans to defeat in November than Clinton would be.

If Grant Were God

During the past week, we have been reminded just how crazy Texas weather is. We have gone from freezing temperatures to record highs of 82 and now are heading back down to freezing again. Our kids love the warm weather. Over the weekend (with highs close to 80), they pretty much lived outside - in the sandbox, playing on the back porch, etc.

In Texas, we usually go from extreme hot (Spring and Summer) to pretty cold (Fall and Winter). We rarely get to enjoy a true mild fall or spring. I am not sure if Grant was referring to this or if he was commenting on the recent crazy weather, but the other night as he was going to bed, Grant asked: "Why does God make it hot then cold, hot then cold, hot then cold?" Before I could answer he said: "If I were God, I would make it hot, hot, hot, then cold, hot, hot, hot, then cold - so we could play outside longer."