2014-01-18
2014-01-15
2014-01-13
Post 500: Welcome To My Empire
All weekend long, I have been trying to think of something suitable to put in this, my 500th post for To Scape The Serpent's Tongue. And you know, the only thing I can think of is to show you the blogs of my little empire.
Here, to begin with, is The Plainclothes Clown - the first dedicated blog I ever ran. Still active, but showing its age.
I also run a Dreamwidth blog, in case you're interested, though I update that even less frequently than The Plainclothes Clown above.
In addition to this blog, of course I run four other blogs here on this site, and yet another four on tumblr. Here they are; just click on the pics.
So far, then, that is my empire as of five hundred posts to this blog. These are all the blogs I'm going to have, unless I decide to cancel a blog or two in the distant future.
Here, to begin with, is The Plainclothes Clown - the first dedicated blog I ever ran. Still active, but showing its age.
I also run a Dreamwidth blog, in case you're interested, though I update that even less frequently than The Plainclothes Clown above.
In addition to this blog, of course I run four other blogs here on this site, and yet another four on tumblr. Here they are; just click on the pics.
My Blogger Blogs
 Hypnotic Erotic |  Perchance To Dream |
 The Stainless Steel Blog |  tlhIngan paQDI'norgh - Klingon Teachings |
My tumblr Blogs
 HExEr |  Hypnotic Enticement (NSFW) |
 The Daily Klingon |  What Dreams May Come |
So far, then, that is my empire as of five hundred posts to this blog. These are all the blogs I'm going to have, unless I decide to cancel a blog or two in the distant future.
2014-01-10
Experimental Transparent GIFs
Just want to try these transparent gifs out. See if they work here on this blog.
Edit: Apparently, they do.
From Totally Transparent.
2014-01-06
Sunday's Exercises - Answers
Here are the answers to Sunday's exercises:-
Just keep practising.
| July 19 2019 - Friday | January 2 2016 - Saturday | September 6 2017 - Wednesday |
| February 11 2015 - Wednesday | March 25 2016 - Friday | August 7 2018 - Tuesday |
| October 13 2019 - Sunday | May 29 2015 - Friday | December 14 2017 - Thursday |
| June 29 2015 - Monday | April 23 2018 - Monday | November 20 2017 - Monday |
Just keep practising.
2014-01-05
Month Numbers for the 2010s Part 2 - 2015 - 2019
The previous post covered the months of the years 2010 - 2014. This article looks at the second half of the teens, and the years 2015 through to 2019.
As before, we make use of the figures for the month tables and year tables, and the method is as described in the previous post.
The unadjusted month figures are:-
The year numbers for 2010 to 2014 are:-
And the day numbers are:-
2016 is the leap year in this group.
The adjusted month figures for 2015 through 2019 are:-
Other than that, the game is the same.
Practice on the following dates:-
The answers to the previous exercise are:-
As before, we make use of the figures for the month tables and year tables, and the method is as described in the previous post.
The unadjusted month figures are:-
| Month | Month Number |
|---|---|
| January | 0 |
| February | 3 |
| March | 3 |
| April | 6 |
| May | 1 |
| June | 4 |
| July | 6 |
| August | 2 |
| September | 5 |
| October | 0 |
| November | 3 |
| December | 5 |
The year numbers for 2010 to 2014 are:-
| Year | Year Number |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 3 |
| 2016 | 5 |
| 2017 | 6 |
| 2018 | 0 |
| 2019 | 1 |
And the day numbers are:-
| Day Number | Day of The Week |
|---|---|
| 0 | Sunday |
| 1 | Monday |
| 2 | Tuesday |
| 3 | Wednesday |
| 4 | Thursday |
| 5 | Friday |
| 6 | Saturday |
2016 is the leap year in this group.
The adjusted month figures for 2015 through 2019 are:-
| Month | Unadjusted | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| February | 3 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| March | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| April | 6 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 0 |
| May | 1 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| June | 4 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| July | 6 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 0 |
| August | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| September | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| October | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| November | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| December | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Other than that, the game is the same.
Practice on the following dates:-
| July 19 2019 | January 2 2016 | September 6 2017 |
| February 11 2015 | March 25 2016 | August 7 2018 |
| October 13 2019 | May 29 2015 | December 14 2017 |
| June 29 2015 | April 23 2018 | November 20 2017 |
The answers to the previous exercise are:-
| July 4 2014 - Friday | January 21 2012 - Saturday | September 16 2010 - Thursday |
| February 13 2012 - Monday | March 13 2012 - Tuesday | August 27 2011 - Saturday |
| October 3 2013 - Thursday | May 4 2010 - Tuesday | December 4 2010 - Saturday |
| June 19 2013 - Wednesday | April 26 2010 - Monday | November 1 2010 - Monday |
2014-01-04
Month Numbers for the 2010s Part 1 - 2010 - 2014
Following on from this previous post, here's a shortcut to help you to work out what day any particular date falls on in any year between January 1 2010 and December 31 2019: the 2010s. I will do something for the 2020s later; this is to help you to work out the days that dates in the Teens fall on.
This is the guide to the first five years of the Teens, between 2010 01 01 and 2014 12 31. The second part covers the five-year period between 2015 01 01 and 2019 12 31.
The method, as explained in the older article, is simple. First, reduce the date of the month to a number below seven by removing the highest multiple of 7 from it. Thus the 23rd of a month yields the date number (23 - 21) = 2.
Second, add to this the month number, followed by the year number, as determined in the tables in the previous post. The month numbers for all years are the same:-
So, for instance, for the 23rd of September, add the month number for September (5) to the reduced date number (2); that yields 7.
Now adding the year number for the given year results in a number which can be reduced by further multiples of 7. Let's take the example of 23rd September 2014, chosen because 2014's year number is 2.
The date number + month number are 7; 7 + 2 = 9. Reducing this number yields (9 - 7) = 2.
Lastly, this final figure yields the day of the week on this lookup table.
In the above example, 23rd September 2014 falls on a Tuesday.
The year number for each year in this decade are worked out by adding the difference between the year and the last leap year, which in this case is 2008 (before the scope of this article) and 2012. The leap year in the second article falls in 2016.
The year numbers for 2010 to 2014 are:-
2012, being a leap year, has its own special rule: when working out a date in January and February in a leap year, after adding the month number subtract 1 before reducing the number by casting out the 7s.
Let's take 17th February 2012 (leap year: year number 0) as an example. 17 - 14 = 3; 3 + 3 = 6; 6 - 1 (for the leap year) = 5; 5 + 0 = 5. 17th February 2012 falls on a Friday.
Let's take a shortcut, now, and put the month numbers and year numbers together, preloading them before using them to work out the days any date falls on. These numbers have been reduced, where the adjusted numbers come to 7, 8 or 9 (a number reduced to -1 is changed to 6, etc).
Don't worry! You won't have to memorise the whole table above! Just the month and year tables. The big table just contains the month and year figures already worked out for you.
Some examples using the big table:-
June 30th, 2013
30 - 28 = 2. The figure for June 2013 is 5. 2 + 5 = 7; 7 - 7 = 0. June 30 2013 fell on Sunday.
April 26th, 2012
26 - 21 = 5. The figure for April 2012 is 6. 5 + 6 = 11; 11 - 7 = 4. April 26 2012 fell on Thursday.
August 8th, 2014
8 - 7 = 1. The figure for August 2014 is 4. 4 + 1 = 5. August 8 2014 will fall on a Friday.
Now try it out for yourselves. Work out your birthdays in 2011, 2013 and 2014. Now work out your friends' or relatives' or loved ones' birthdays in 2010 and 2012. Make a game of it.
Practice on the following dates:-
Part 2 tomorrow, covering the years 2015 to 2019.
This is the guide to the first five years of the Teens, between 2010 01 01 and 2014 12 31. The second part covers the five-year period between 2015 01 01 and 2019 12 31.
The Method
The method, as explained in the older article, is simple. First, reduce the date of the month to a number below seven by removing the highest multiple of 7 from it. Thus the 23rd of a month yields the date number (23 - 21) = 2.
Second, add to this the month number, followed by the year number, as determined in the tables in the previous post. The month numbers for all years are the same:-
| Month | Month Number |
|---|---|
| January | 0 |
| February | 3 |
| March | 3 |
| April | 6 |
| May | 1 |
| June | 4 |
| July | 6 |
| August | 2 |
| September | 5 |
| October | 0 |
| November | 3 |
| December | 5 |
So, for instance, for the 23rd of September, add the month number for September (5) to the reduced date number (2); that yields 7.
Now adding the year number for the given year results in a number which can be reduced by further multiples of 7. Let's take the example of 23rd September 2014, chosen because 2014's year number is 2.
The date number + month number are 7; 7 + 2 = 9. Reducing this number yields (9 - 7) = 2.
Lastly, this final figure yields the day of the week on this lookup table.
| Day Number | Day of The Week |
|---|---|
| 0 | Sunday |
| 1 | Monday |
| 2 | Tuesday |
| 3 | Wednesday |
| 4 | Thursday |
| 5 | Friday |
| 6 | Saturday |
In the above example, 23rd September 2014 falls on a Tuesday.
The year number for each year in this decade are worked out by adding the difference between the year and the last leap year, which in this case is 2008 (before the scope of this article) and 2012. The leap year in the second article falls in 2016.
The year numbers for 2010 to 2014 are:-
| Year | Year Number |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 4 |
| 2011 | 5 |
| 2012 | 0 |
| 2013 | 1 |
| 2014 | 2 |
2012, being a leap year, has its own special rule: when working out a date in January and February in a leap year, after adding the month number subtract 1 before reducing the number by casting out the 7s.
Let's take 17th February 2012 (leap year: year number 0) as an example. 17 - 14 = 3; 3 + 3 = 6; 6 - 1 (for the leap year) = 5; 5 + 0 = 5. 17th February 2012 falls on a Friday.
Let's take a shortcut, now, and put the month numbers and year numbers together, preloading them before using them to work out the days any date falls on. These numbers have been reduced, where the adjusted numbers come to 7, 8 or 9 (a number reduced to -1 is changed to 6, etc).
| Month | Unadjusted | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 2 |
| February | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| March | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| April | 6 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| May | 1 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| June | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| July | 6 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| August | 2 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| September | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 0 |
| October | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| November | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| December | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 0 |
Don't worry! You won't have to memorise the whole table above! Just the month and year tables. The big table just contains the month and year figures already worked out for you.
Some examples using the big table:-
June 30th, 2013
30 - 28 = 2. The figure for June 2013 is 5. 2 + 5 = 7; 7 - 7 = 0. June 30 2013 fell on Sunday.
April 26th, 2012
26 - 21 = 5. The figure for April 2012 is 6. 5 + 6 = 11; 11 - 7 = 4. April 26 2012 fell on Thursday.
August 8th, 2014
8 - 7 = 1. The figure for August 2014 is 4. 4 + 1 = 5. August 8 2014 will fall on a Friday.
Now try it out for yourselves. Work out your birthdays in 2011, 2013 and 2014. Now work out your friends' or relatives' or loved ones' birthdays in 2010 and 2012. Make a game of it.
Practice on the following dates:-
| July 4 2014 | January 21 2012 | September 16 2010 |
| February 13 2012 | March 13 2012 | August 27 2011 |
| October 3 2013 | May 4 2010 | December 4 2010 |
| June 19 2013 | April 26 2010 | November 1 2010 |
Part 2 tomorrow, covering the years 2015 to 2019.
2014-01-01
The End Of 2013
So we come to the end of 2013. There are just so many entries posted this year, on so many different topics, that I can't possibly do this blog justice by posting links to them all. So I'll just focus on the here and now: and here and now is me sitting here, with the TV off, a fresh diary at my side ready to record my dreams and my folks planning the end of the year.
Some things about this year, I can't say I will ever miss. The swollen gall bladder, for one. This awful UK government, for another.
But some things I will cherish. My birthday; my friends, who turned up for it; my f'lists on tumblr, Facebook, G+.
A 50th anniversary Doctor Who special that was worthy of the best, and the Christmas special last week which saw Matt Smith leave the scene and Peter Capaldi to begin his reign.
Pick TV (later just Pick) showing Stargate Universe, Stargate Atlantis and the final two series of Stargate SG-1, letting me see the episodes I never got the chance to and giving me some closure. Also, showing The Dresden Files, and letting me see that wizarding drama for the first, and last, time. And Pick is not the only channel which has been memorable this year - Agents of SHIELD premiered on Channel 4.
Camp NaNoWriMo, for giving me that one chance last Spring to write a full novel this year - The Shadowed Art, featuring a scene between two protagonists - Osric and Seren Mai - that is one of my favourite scenes. I very nearly had to drop out of Camp NaNoWriMo due to that aggravating gall bladder; I did have to drop out of NaNoWriMo in November, due to the surgery to remove that gall bladder being far more aggressive and complicated than the surgeons had thought it would be.
That gall bladder. It was the bane of my existence for most of this year. Even its removal became a disruptive source of aggravation. It was meant to have been a simple laparoscopic cholecystectomy. I woke up with a long scar across my upper abdomen that will be there for the rest of my days. But at least, I guess, there will be no more gallstone worries - certainly not next year, when I hope to have novel projects going for Camp NaNoWriMo next year, not to mention next November's NaNoWriMo, including the rebooted novel The Empty Shadow, not to mention my third neuro story and "Island of Stars."
I will always remember the joy I got from writing this year. Writing for Mongoose Legend, for NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo, and writing for the Chester Fantasy Writers club - which I joined late this year. I just love imagining the shocked expressions on their faces when they read the likes of "Scarred" or "Hypnotrice," with their heavy sex scenes.
This was a year for hard politics, too. The government are hell-bent on ruining this country, then running off with all the money. And we're going to have to stop them, even if it does end up with troops being deployed in the streets and cars being overturned.
Still, among all the downbeat news about the tories, there was a real cause for celebration. Margaret Thatcher died, at long last. 2013 03 08 will be a day marked with joy for a generation.
New Year's Eve has always been a bit problematical, at least regards getting online. I'm scheduling this thing to post at midnight, but chances are I won't be online to see it come on because of all the internet traffic. However, in 2014 I may well do a few minor retrospectives of the past year's blog posts - not just here, but on Hypnotic Erotic and elsewhere.
All I can say right now is, even if you don't see me online tonight at midnight, I wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2014. See you all there.
Some things about this year, I can't say I will ever miss. The swollen gall bladder, for one. This awful UK government, for another.
But some things I will cherish. My birthday; my friends, who turned up for it; my f'lists on tumblr, Facebook, G+.
A 50th anniversary Doctor Who special that was worthy of the best, and the Christmas special last week which saw Matt Smith leave the scene and Peter Capaldi to begin his reign.
Pick TV (later just Pick) showing Stargate Universe, Stargate Atlantis and the final two series of Stargate SG-1, letting me see the episodes I never got the chance to and giving me some closure. Also, showing The Dresden Files, and letting me see that wizarding drama for the first, and last, time. And Pick is not the only channel which has been memorable this year - Agents of SHIELD premiered on Channel 4.
Camp NaNoWriMo, for giving me that one chance last Spring to write a full novel this year - The Shadowed Art, featuring a scene between two protagonists - Osric and Seren Mai - that is one of my favourite scenes. I very nearly had to drop out of Camp NaNoWriMo due to that aggravating gall bladder; I did have to drop out of NaNoWriMo in November, due to the surgery to remove that gall bladder being far more aggressive and complicated than the surgeons had thought it would be.
That gall bladder. It was the bane of my existence for most of this year. Even its removal became a disruptive source of aggravation. It was meant to have been a simple laparoscopic cholecystectomy. I woke up with a long scar across my upper abdomen that will be there for the rest of my days. But at least, I guess, there will be no more gallstone worries - certainly not next year, when I hope to have novel projects going for Camp NaNoWriMo next year, not to mention next November's NaNoWriMo, including the rebooted novel The Empty Shadow, not to mention my third neuro story and "Island of Stars."
I will always remember the joy I got from writing this year. Writing for Mongoose Legend, for NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo, and writing for the Chester Fantasy Writers club - which I joined late this year. I just love imagining the shocked expressions on their faces when they read the likes of "Scarred" or "Hypnotrice," with their heavy sex scenes.
This was a year for hard politics, too. The government are hell-bent on ruining this country, then running off with all the money. And we're going to have to stop them, even if it does end up with troops being deployed in the streets and cars being overturned.
Still, among all the downbeat news about the tories, there was a real cause for celebration. Margaret Thatcher died, at long last. 2013 03 08 will be a day marked with joy for a generation.
New Year's Eve has always been a bit problematical, at least regards getting online. I'm scheduling this thing to post at midnight, but chances are I won't be online to see it come on because of all the internet traffic. However, in 2014 I may well do a few minor retrospectives of the past year's blog posts - not just here, but on Hypnotic Erotic and elsewhere.
All I can say right now is, even if you don't see me online tonight at midnight, I wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2014. See you all there.
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