CLARIFICATION!: December 31st, First Day of the Year
>> 01 January 2009
So, as many of the faithful readers of this e-blog know, I have been involved in a blogging competition with Mary. The competition was simple - a race to have the most posts by the end of the year. Now, Mary, in her blog has claimed a victory in this competition, but as far as I'm concerned, the issue is still not settled.
On December 31st, Mary posted SIX TIMES, to bring the final score to 114 posts for me, and 118 for Mary. It seems like she won, doesn't it? Don't be so sure; it depends on whether or not you count New Years Eve as part of 2008 or 2009.
There is a lively and vigorous debate going on between researchers in the field of calendar-science about whether or not New Years Eve is the first day of the year, or the last. The arguments are technical and fairly difficult, but I'll try to simplify for the sake of clarity.
Imagine that you are looking at a digital clock with the following readouts:
11:58 PMWhy did this clock jump so abruptly from PM to AM? Wouldn't it have made more sense for it to go like this?:
11:59 PM
12:00 AM (SAY WHAT?!)
11:58 PMOf course that would make more sense. Why would you begin counting with twelve? It's insane!
11:59 PM
12:00 Pm
...
12:59 PM
1:00 AM
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. Not 12,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. THIS IS AMERICA, PEOPLE! WE START COUNTING FROM ONE, NOT TWELVE! So, at midnight on December 31st, we weren't actually celebrating the New Year, we were celebrating the end of the first day of the New Year, which began at 1:00 AM on December 31st.
I know the response I'm going to get...but Joel, I see that you are right about the clock thing, but that doesn't change anything. Jan. 1 is still the first day of the year. If that's the case, then why did the celebration happen at midnight, an hour before the supposed first day of the year began at 1:00 AM? I'll tell you why? We celebrate New Years Day on December 31st because it is the TRUE first day of the year. Therefore, all posts made by Mary after 1:00 AM on December 31st, cannot be considered for this blogging contest, since they were made after the deadline of 12:59 PM on the night of December 30th. Clearly, in this light, I had the higher number of posts, although, being a gentleman and a magnanimous competitor, I would be willing to accept the result of a tie, with the $1,000,000 prize money being shared equally between participants.
So, what do you think? Vote and leave your comments below:
4 comments:
Sorry Joel, but I do have to say that's the worst (albiet creative) excuse for losing I've ever heard. Although, blogging 6 times in one day doesn't seem like it should be legal either (sorry Mary, if you're reading this)... but then again, I don't remember all the rules.
So... I agree. You both tied. Congrats!
Blergenstein, Joel D. Mikkelsen! I KNEW you would come up with a way to explain yourself out of not losing. I KNEW IT! I thought you would go for Christian's posts not being valid (which they are -- you'll find at least one original paragraph that I wrote in each), or some made-up rule about multiple posts in one day not being allowed, but never that all my hard work on December 31st didn't even count. Blerg! This is completely ridiculous.
Here's the thing: there's no way I'm going to accept defeat right now. There's no way I'm even going to accept a tie right now. I declared victory, and I stand by that declaration.
So I see a few options for you: 1. take back your ludicrous claim that December 31st is the first day of the year (preferable), 2. stop voting on your own poll and then abide by the decision of your and my blog readers, or 3. extend the blog war to the end of January (midnight on January 31st, 2009), on the grounds that the occurrence of the end of the year is a moot point. I'll leave the decision up to you, but know that I am VERY put out.
I did a google search for Joel on Internet. I went through several pages and didn't see a link to this blog. What gives? Google has let me down.
In military time, 12:00 am is 00:00, and since 0 comes before 1, I think you lose. Sorry to burst your bubble.
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