Interesting stuff I get in my email

So, yeah, I'm throwing a big event. The Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon. But WTF ever made this guy think we needed a guy who lifts weights with his ear to come along and add to the festifities?!?! Nonetheless, I like the guy anyway.


Sub: - Information Required about Festival. and show
Sir/Madam,
It is pleased to inform you that i am Zafar Gill Guinness World Record Holder lifted with one ear. i visited your web site and know about your festival.
i wish to participate in your festival. what is a criteria to participate in your festival ? what is a requirement? Because i have all that things which you required like press release, photos, cd's, Guinness Certificate etc... You can see me on google (write down zafar gill ear lifted).
I will provide you all things which you required about festival but very first i want to know about festival that can i participate in your festival? show.
Last year i beat my new record in Germany (Impossible Challenger) i lifted with one ear 61 kg.(13 sec). Now i wish to beat this new record in your festival. i wish to lifted 65 kg. above 10 sec.
i hope you will reply me nice
Thanks:
Zafar Gill
Guinness world Record Holder
Lifted with one ear.

Here's an article I found:
Pakistani athlete sets new ear lifting record
Staff Report

LAHORE: Zafar Gill, a boxer from WAPDA, has got his name registered in the Guinness Book of World Records by lifting 51.7 kilogrammes by one ear on May 26, 2004.

He broke the earlier record of China’s Li Jian Hua who lifted a column of bricks weighing 50 kilogrammes by one ear for 9.3 seconds on December 17, 1998. Talking to Daily Times on Friday, Zafar said: “I appeal the government to provide me all the facilities to maintain this record and raise it to 55 kilogrammes. I am waiting for a multi-national company for a sponsorship so that I can enhance the image of the country in the sports world.”

Fourth of July

Nice day. Ran 11 miles in the morning with the lovely Francine, followed by a detour through an orchard where the black sweet cherries were pretty yummy. Then saw Evan Almighty in the afternoon, and went to Lynne's house for fireworks later. A very pleasant day.

Evan Almighty is a pretty fun movie, even has a couple good messages in it. Morgan Freeman plays God. Nice concept: When you pray for patience, you don't get it right away. Instead, you get opportunities and situations in which you can develop patience. Pretty good thought.

Usually, for me to consider a movie a "good movie" it needs some kind of a decent message or philosophy lesson to it. This one had it. I expected just to be entertained, and I was. The bonus was that it made me think too.

Quote for the day

"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude." William James

Blue Moon?

We got invited to a Blue Moon party Saturday night. Blue Moon beer had a promotional thing going, so the hosts had Blue Moon tshirts, etc. Pretty fun party. I was a little confused though.

A "Blue Moon", the second full moon of the month, actually happened in May, not June. The second full moon of May was on May 31. So, I was having a little mental conflict with the calculations there. Apparently, Blue Moon beer people were as well. Or were they?

I looked it up. These are Eastern Standard Times.
May 2, Full Flower Moon 6:09 am
May 31 Full Blue Moon 9:04 pm
June 30 Full Strawberry Moon 9:49 am.

Now, Blue Moon, being a Belgian White beer, maybe figured out that they should go by the moon phases in Belgium instead of the US. Which would have put the full moon on June 1 at 1:04 am. And then again on June 30 at 1:49 pm, Which would, of course, make the it a blue moon in June instead of May!!!!!

I went to bed last night, thinking I had solved the mystery.

Thanks to the Internet, however, I find that Blue Moon is actually created and brewed by the Molson Coors Brewing Company, in FREAKIN' COLORADO!!

More Internet work--seems that most of the places you go to look up moon phases post it in Greenwich Mean Time, which is, of course, a few hours ahead of us. Apparently that's the time all the calendar makers use too, since everything BUT the Old Farmer's Almanac site have things posted in GMT. So again, mystery solved.


Here's the NPR story that prompted me having such a bunch of confusion in my mind (copyright NPR):

Blue Moon on Thursday? Not So Fast

All Things Considered, May 30, 2007 · There is a prevailing myth about what a blue moon is. Thursday, May 31, will bring the second full moon of the month. But that does not constitute a blue moon, as is popularly believed.

Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine and executive editor of Sky and Telescope, tells Robert Siegel that a blue moon actually refers to the phenomenon of having four full moons in a season, which ordinarily has three.

Beatty also acknowledged that his magazine had a hand in giving the misconception credence. Sky and Telescope magazine recently put out a press release explaining its role in perpetuating the myth. It read, in part:

Our 1946 writer, amateur astronomer James Hugh Pruett (1886-1955), made an incorrect assumption about how the term had been used in the Maine Farmers' Almanac, where it consistently referred to the third full moon in a three-month season containing four. (By this definition there is no blue moon in May or June 2007, and the next one happens in May 2008.)

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/moon/3304131.html for more interesting stuff