Today Is... 📆

[GregRedd]

Good morning!

It’s Monday, 15 March 2021
(W11/D74/291 rem)

Today is: Napping Day

On the surface it may seem that Napping Day is just another way that Americans are trying to emulate their more advanced and cultured European cousins. First they steal our language and our food. Now they want to take our naps and siestas too?! Next thing you know they’ll be using metric measures and start driving on the left. Sacré bleu!

However, the real reason behind this day is easier to understand when you hear that it was created by a Boston Uni professor and his wife to highlight the health benefits of napping.

William Anthony, Ph.D., a Boston University Professor, and his wife, Camille Anthony, created National Napping Day in 1999 as an effort to spotlight the health benefits to catching up on quality sleep. “We chose this particular Monday because Americans are more ‘nap-ready’ than usual after losing an hour of sleep to daylight saving time,” Anthony said.

It always happens on the Monday immediately after the Sunday that Daylight Savings Time starts in the US and everyone there turns their clocks back an hour. Or forward an hour? I don’t know. It’s a stupid system.

Anyway… where was I? Oh yeah, National Napping Day. Not only does the observance encourage a nap, it reminds us that there’s no shame in taking one either.

While preparing for the time change can offset the shock to our internal clock, many other things in our life may not handle the change so well causing us to still lose sleep. Young children and pets do not adjust as easily and certain work schedules do not permit early adjustment, either.

Mid-afternoon naps are an integral part of many cultures, and scientifically proven to be good for you. A needed rest can make you feel better and also improve your mood. After having the extra amount of sleep, a person will notice that they will be more productive and energetic.

Numerous studies have shown that short 10-20 minute naps are the most effective when midday fatigue hits. Improvements in alertness, productivity and mood have all been shown to improve with this type of snooze.

No less an authority on all things healthy, the Mayo Clinic, lists the benefits of adult napping:

• Relaxation
• Reduced fatigue
• Increased alertness
• Improved mood
• Improved performance, including quicker reaction time and better memory

Now who wouldn’t want that? Go on, close your eyes, take a snooze. You deserve it.

Some tips on good napping technique, courtesy again of the big brains at the Mayo Clinic:

To get the most out of a nap, follow these tips:

• Keep naps short. Aim to nap for only 10 to 20 minutes. The longer you nap, the more likely you are to feel groggy afterward. However, young adults might be able to tolerate longer naps.
• Take naps in the early afternoon. Napping after 3 p.m. can interfere with nighttime sleep. Individual factors, such as your need for sleep, your sleeping schedule, your age and your medication use, also can play a role in determining the best time of day to nap.
• Create a restful environment. Nap in a quiet, dark place with a comfortable room temperature and few distractions.

After napping, give yourself time to wake up before resuming activities — particularly those that require a quick or sharp response.

Though there are some of us who are just not the napping kind, even you can reap those benefits, find a cozy spot for 10 minutes on Napping Day. You won’t regret it.

And who knows, maybe it’ll be the start of an excellent new habit and you’ll gradually start feeling the benefits. That you’ll automatically become more cultured and refined is a given too.

Have a magnificent Monday!

[murfle]

Monday’s are usually the only day where I can’t squeeze in a nap… But I’ll see what I can do

[GregRedd]

@murfle

I’ll see what I can do

Good man! Do it for the Queen and the metric system! Huzzah!

[DarthMol]

[TechThief]

tried to take a 20min nap, only to have it interrupted by a whatsapp message T_T which always happens, I rarely get to have a peaceful nap

[czc]

There are options. Silent or Airplane mode.

[TechThief]

yeah, but if it wasn’t the whatsapp message it would have been a family member.

[murfle]

I got to hockey practice early. While the juniors were on the ice, I tried taking a nap. 2 minutes in, I head the coach yelling at me from the ice to wake up.

[GregRedd]

Good morning!

It’s Tuesday, 16 March 2021
(W11/D75/290 rem)

Today is: Panda Day

Pandas are some of the most unique and beloved creatures on the planet. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in the world who didn’t know what a panda bear looked like.

Unfortunately, much of the panda’s popularity is due to the fact that they are one of the world’s most endangered animals. It is for these reasons and more that we celebrate these amazing animals every March 16.

National Panda Day is dedicated to the appreciation and continued conservation of these beautiful bears. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness about the plight of the estimated 1,800-1,900 pandas still living in the wild, and the 400-odd pandas in captivity.

These bears are native to the mountains of southwest China, where they subsist almost entirely on bamboo. It’s this combination of specialized diet and relatively small ranging areas that makes them so vulnerable. Loss of habitat is the biggest threat to the current panda population, though hunting and poaching are also contributors.

You can celebrate National Panda Day by sharing your love of pandas with the world. You could dress in panda black and white, bake panda-themed snacks, and spread the word across social media by using the hashtag #NationalPandaDay. You could also donate to local wildlife sanctuaries or conservation organizations.

Donations help to fund initiatives that protect the panda’s natural habitat and breeding programs that might bring them back from the brink of extinction. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) uses its donations towards a number of panda conservation projects in China, including nature preserve protection, which stops deforestation and hunting near protected panda habitats.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

[murfle]

@GregRedd

the 400-odd pandas in captivity

I know we all find their tumbles and bumbles amusing, but do we really need to call them odd?

[Avatar]

Probably shouldn’t sleep on the ice, then.

Silly Canadians.

[murfle]

I was on the stands, but I have been known to have a good lay down on top of a mound of snow in my time

[GregRedd]

Good morning!

It is Wednesday, 17 March 2021 my dudes
(W11/D76/289 rem)

Today is: Saint Patrick’s Day

Faith and begorrah! It’s St. Paddy’s Day! Éire go Brách!

Saint Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.

The day is also known as the Feast of Saint Patrick, Lá Fhéile Pádraig, Patrick’s Day, St. Paddy’s Day, or just plain Paddy’s Day.

Some, most notably North American Irish wannabes, call it Patty’s Day. But that’s because they’re ignorant and dumb.

“Paddy” is, and always has been, the accepted Irish nickname for anyone named Patrick, and an accepted colloquialism for Irish people in general. Calling it Patty’s Day is just wrong. No self respecting Irish person would ever call it that. Don’t you go do it.

So who exactly was this St. Patrick anyway, and why does he deserve an all things green and all things Irish celebration?

His life was pretty eventful. He was born in Great Britain in the 5th century and then kidnapped as a child and enslaved by Irish raiders. He escaped back to his home country after six years.

Later, as an adult, he dreamed that a group of Irishmen were calling him back to their land. Believing he’d received a message from God, he returned to Ireland as a one-man missionary, spreading word of the Christian faith across the pagan island and baptizing people left and right.

Legends surround his stay there. He’s best known for having driven all the snakes out of Ireland (which is probably a metaphor for driving out the druids). He’s also said to have raised 33 people from the dead, some of whom had been buried for years.

He’s even said to have placed a curse on an Irish clan who didn’t take kindly to his promotion of a new deity. Their spirit animal was a wolf, and they howled at Patrick when he came close. Patrick retaliated. The legends say he put a curse on them that turned one couple, every seven years, into wolves—wolves that spoke like humans and craved human flesh. You could say he turned them into werewolves.

On a more peaceful note, St. Patrick is also supposed to have illustrated the Holy Trinity of Christianity by using a shamrock, showing its three leaves growing from a single stem. Partly due to this legend, shamrocks have become the national flower of Ireland, and are symbolic of all things Irish, especially St. Patrick’s Day.

Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated worldwide by those of Irish descent and increasingly by people of other ethnicities as well, notably in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish and, by association, the colour green. Both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish food and/or green foods, imbibing Irish drink and attending parades, which have a particularly long history in the United States and in Canada.

Have a wonderous Wednesday! Sláinte!

[Wyvern]

Cheers

[TechThief]

[murfle]

Perfect day for it!

[Avatar]

My patron saint, I will celebrate with a beer and Boondock Saints tonight!

[czc]

r/MechanicalEngineering - TIL that St Patrick is the patron saint of engineers....

[Avatar]

Told ya

[GregRedd]

Good morning!

It is Thursday, 18 March 2021
(W11/D77/288 rem)

Today is: Awkward Moments Day

Have you ever called someone by the wrong name, tripped over nothing, walked into a door, had the completely wrong words come out of your mouth or just forgot what you were doing?

The list could go on and on. Sometimes, things just do not seem to go right and something happens that may make you feel like you want to run and hide. No matter the day, today or any other day, everyone has them.

Awkward Moments Day is an annual day that everyone can relate to. We have all had our awkward moments from time to time. They are a part of life, they just happen.

Awkward moments happen all the time, and to some folks more than others! For anyone who’s ever wished the ground would open up and swallow them, Awkward Moments Day is a celebration of all awkward moments. From walking out of a public toilet with loo roll on a shoe, to realising you’ve been speaking to someone everyday for a year, and don’t know their name, life is full of these moments.

Find the ability to laugh at yourself, see the humour in your awkward moments and have fun with them. Relive old awkward moments by telling stories about them. Laugh over them and enjoy the memory. They may be embarrassing at first. However, as time goes by, the humour in these moments reveal just how human we can be.

After all, don’t we all start out somewhere? We learn something new or misunderstand someone’s meaning. No one is perfect, ever. And it’s important to keep that in mind on this day and take a little humility with us as we celebrate it.

Share an awkward moment with us here - it’s cathartic. And we’ll be laughing with you, not at you - remember, we’ve all had them.

Have a top notch Thursday!