Moon, Decade, News, Teeth, and Visits

Happy June, everyone!

As I'm sure many of you have heard, there was a full Moon yesterday at 21:04 ET, which was a "calendar Blue Moon" in much of the Western Hemisphere. However, in most time zones further east, this full Moon fell on 01 June, and so their Blue Moon won't be until the next one, which is at 00:48 UTC on 30 June (29 June, 20:48 ET).

In this time zone, the last "calendar Blue Moon" was on 31 July 2004, and the next one will be on 31 December 2009. But the whole "second full Moon in a calendar month" is not the original definition of a Blue Moon. The name was originally given by the Maine Farmers' Almanac to "the third full Moon in a season with four," so that the other Moons, named for an activities appropriate to the time of year, can stay in time with the seasons, which typically only have three full Moons each. The confusion was obviously caused by lack of explanation by certain experts in certain papers, which is further explained in this article.

Based on the original convention, this is not a Blue Moon at all, and the next one won't be observed until 19 May 2008 (ET). These "tropical" Blue Moons are slightly rarer than the "calendrical" ones most people observe, but they can never happen at the same time. So what to do about it?

Celebrate both, of course! Why not? Both are interesting and relatively rare astronomical events, and they get people interested in what's going on around them. And when is that ever a bad thing?

It is interesting to note that this Blue Moon also fell on another notable day, Emily's 20th birthday. I had mentioned this back on her non-existent half-birthday, but I figured that not many of you would've cared to remember. On her blog, she reflected on her life in the past year, and is looking forward to her third decade on Earth.

As far as current events go, it's sad when anyone dies and it's in the news. But when it happens locally, and it's big enough to become a national story, that's really sad.

Also, one of the world's "most prolific spammers" was apparently arrested on Wednesday. On Thursday's evening news they said that many of us could be seeing a dramatic decrease in the amount of spam we receive. Well, I'll believe it when I see it; I got about the same amount Thursday as normal... and yes, I keep track. More on that next week.

On to my own life.

I had an appointment with an oral surgeon Thursday morning, and he looked at my wisdom teeth, and all of them need to come out. So that'll be taken care of on Tuesday 17 July at 09:00 ET. That's right after Music Camp, and before my scheduled orthodontist appointment on 26 July. Band camp isn't until a month after the surgery, so I should be fine, so long as I take it easy the first couple days.

The oral surgeon (a good friend of my father's) was very down-to-earth with me and quite friendly. He said that in the grand scheme of things, this particular operation is not a big deal, but he acknowledges that it is indeed a big deal for the patient. And I've got some time to mentally prepare for everything that'll happen. As we get closer to 17 July, I'll remind you guys so that I can be in your prayers.

In other news, I'm going to be heading down to Pittsburgh later today to visit people over the weekend. Just so you're aware. It's mostly a celebration of Emily's birthday, but I'm also using it as an excuse to see a certain cousin I almost never see. For you Erieites, I'll be back Sunday evening.

That's all for now. More later as it's deemed necessary.

Random tangent: My father I also went to GHS on Thursday during the normal Concert Band period to practice music for graduation on 08 June. My brother being the only trumpet player at the high school who isn't graduating this year, Dearbeck roped us into helping out.