(x, why?) Mini: Bottom of the Hour

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(C)Copyright 2020, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

Originally, I wasn't serious about doing an update on what bottom of the hour means. Joke's over, I guess.

If you face an older clock, the 12 is at the top of the hour, and the 6 is at the bottom. So half-past is the bottom of the hour. After that, you start getting closer the next hour. Like the Romans with their I before V (even after C). By the time the hand is on the 8, you'd be "twenty to" or "twenty of" instead of "twenty past".

The concluding portion of the comic came to mind because I was going to make an "Okay, Grandpa" joke in the dialogue. Or maybe Great Grandpa if I wanted to invoke a different period of history.

While my uncles served in the U.S. Navy, my Dad and oldest brother were Army. My knowledge of Bells comes from Capt. Jack McCarthy who hosted not only the St. Patrick's Day Parade coverage in NYC but also afternoon cartoons on a local station. Popeye cartoons, of course. He'd come on TV every afternoon and announce "Six Bells and All's Well!" And with cartoons, it definitely was.

Last "bells" reference. Keep in mind, this was told to me by an Army vet I looked up to, when I was maybe 7 years old, and he heard it from a Navy vet. So consider this some intra-military rivalry jocularity:

The announcer on Naval radio gave the time: "It's six bells! For you Army soldiers, it's 1500. For you Marines, the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 3."

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Happy Back to the Future Day!

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Really, why do you need to kill his grandfather when you only have to kill the mood with some annoying, badly-timed phone calls and interruptions. Smaller chance of going to prison, and it leaves out the whole murder thing -- although whether or not knowingly preventing a known conception from occurring is akin to the murder of a future individual should be left to the philosophers.

As for the movie trilogy timeline, time travel is one of those devices which can be handled in a thousand different ways. As long as a story is internally consistent. The argument ensues from the fact that many viewers don't think Back to the Future is actually consistent. The Rules are what the Rules Need To Be at whatever point the script calls for them to be that.

Last two notes: since my early days on social media, I have been seeing Photoshops of the DeLorean's dashboard clock saying "today is the day Marty McFly landed in the future" -- and in every instance, it has been wrong. Oddly, I haven't seen it posted recently.

Secondly, as of tomorrow, Back to the Future is a time travel movie that takes place totally in the Past. This is actually a cool sub-genre of movies, watching a past time portrayed as future events extrapolated from some either further point in time. Cheesy results, sometimes, but cool.




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(blog): Happy Consecutive Number Day!

It's seems like every day, like every number, has something special about it, but as George Orwell might've said, but wisely chose not to, "Some dates are more special than others". (Had he said something about some numbers being more equal than others, that could've been a problem, but would've fit well into his theme. But that's a subject for another blog post.)

Today is Consecutive Number Day because it is 12/13/14. We've had a Consecutive Number Day for each of the past 11 years -- TWO, if you use the Commutative Property of Dates (also known as the DD-MM-YY format). This last fact makes this year's date even more special because there won't be a 12-13-14 is London or Madrid or pretty much everywhere else in the world where they use that format because there isn't a 13th month.

Finally, it's special because after 12 years in a row, this one will be the last one for a long time. Now, don't fret yourself into a worry. You don't have to wait until 2103 for another one ... unless you're some kind of crazed purist. Me? I like to run the numbers, have fun with the numbers.

The first Consecutive Number Day that I took note of happened when I was in ... kindergarten, no, wait, Pre-K! Yeah! That's the ticket! ... in 1978. It was 5/6/78 and we even had to pause at 12:34 pm (I was asleep for 12:34 am) to note that it was 12:34 5/6/78.

Eleven years later, digital watches were common and we knew the correct time to the second, if we ever bothered to set it correctly, so we knew when it was 1:23:45pm 6/7/89. We could do the same the following year, although 7/8/90 wasn't quite as much fun.

Two thoughts come out of this. First, given the accuracy of today's computing, I had to wonder if the atomic clock could tell us when it was exactly 1:23:34567891011 12/13/14 (and, if so, did some geek take a selfie of it?). Second, it gives us something closer to look forward to.

Hold the date now in your datebook app for 1/2/34. Sadly, there isn't a 5:67 am or pm. Not even in London. Or even in Pasadena, where they'll be hosting the Rose Bowl because New Year's Day is on a Sunday.

Keeping Time With Music

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(C)Copyright 2014, C. Burke.

Doesn't anything before 11 or after 8 in the morning?

She cried, "Moe! Moe! Moe!" Nyuk, nyuk! Wiseguy!

Day 26 of 30: Long Day Tomorrow, But Is It Really?

This is Day 26 of the 30-day blogging challenge. Final burst of speed.

I've been sitting here at my desk by the computer for a computer of hours now writing exams (and not writing exams, when I should have been), and I'm ready to call it quits for the evening. I have to, if I want to get ready for tomorrow and retire at a decent hour, and not make an excuse for not writing an entry for today. Last thing I remember thinking is that it's going to be a loooong day tomorrow.

But is it really?

The day will be the same approximately 24 hours that every other day is.

The daytime hours will be slightly longer than today's not much more appreciable that one would easily notice. For that matter, the next day will be even longer, and the day after that longer still. I might have to contact my local representative to let him know about the global daylight problem which, if nothing is done about, I can extrapolate that we'll have 24 hours of daylight by sometime in December. How would I sleep? I'd need a mask.

It also occurs to me that the daytime hours can be stretched tomorrow more than the following day if I take a sudden trip to, say, northern Canada tomorrow, and then come back after dark. Alaska wouldn't work as well because it would require me to fly across the entire continent, whereas I can fly due North to Canada (assuming that's the route a direct flight takes).

No, tomorrow will just seem longer because I have to give a couple of tests, but I still have to prepare work for a couple of different classes. Loaded day. To make matters worse, I always have to make multiple versions of tests to discourage cheating because when I don't, the temptation is to great to try to put one over on me. It's too late in the year for me to fail someone for this, so best to remove the temptation. Trouble is that only one version is written at the moment, so some tweaking will occur in the morning. Lunch will be spent finishing (and proof-reading) the other test for the other class. What can you do?

So it's just a day where things might weigh a little heavy on me, and there will be times when I busier than usual because the deadline just can't be pushed back any further. However, the workday will be just as long as any other.

Oh, wait a minute. Tomorrow's Thursday? I have after-school tutoring on Thursday until the end of the school year.

It's going to be a looooong day tomorrow.

Spring Ahead, Just Not Out of Bed!

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(C)Copyright 2014, C. Burke.

What is it always a Sunday morning I have to get up sooner instead of sleeping late? Can't they just cut an hour out of work in the afternoon? They say that you get it back, but you don't get it back with interest, so what kind of lousy savings in this?!

Three Limiting Factors

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

I love it when a Venn comes together.

Those three factors influence this comic (well, not the money, except for when I'm spending time making money) and a lot of other things I do, or more likely, don't do. So I enjoy when three things happen at once, like a movie with friends, or Comic-con, or a sci-fi convention.

Lottery

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(C)Copyright 2011, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

It's also great to go back in time to swipe some of your old comics and make them new again, particularly when work has you down -- and you didn't hit that lottery jackpot, so early retirement is out of the question.

The Time Machine

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(C)Copyright 2010, C. Burke. All rights reserved.


And you know that she isn't mad. She's just so disappointed.