The most overhyped pointless day of the year.

This week was busy again. I had to do a geology writing assignment (which wasn't too hard or long, it was just getting it done) and study for a semantics test (which I think I did pretty well on, thanks to the Google doc I filled out almost entirely by myself). One of the few good things about lemits is the weather. That's actually a hard thing to say, because lemits is characterized by unpredictable weather. Right now it's snowing, which I like. But this week it was sunny and warm, which, surprisingly, made me happy too. Unfortunately, I had to spend so much time inside studying. I was able to run once this week. That was good because my goal was to run 55 minutes and I ran 57. I only have to run three more minutes to get to my goal of an hour. But I will also be busy this week (due to my student journal wrapping up). I have already planned out the hours for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I won't be able to run until Thursday, unless I run late on Wednesday night (which I used to do all the time).

Wednesday was Pi Day. It surprises me how popular this is. BYU did a big event; I didn't participate because I was busy and because I would have felt guilty since I'm not even in any math classes. But I was surprised by all the comments on Facebook by non-BYU people about Pi Day. It's really a silly day. I know pi itself is very important, but the day is just a day that happens to be 3/14, so it might just as well be 22/7 day. (I remember once seeing the stupid comic strip B.C. have a strip in which there was a pumpkin that said "22/7=π." Which is veritably false. 22/7=3.14, but 3.14 is NOT pi. I sure hope the cartoonist got a lot of hate mail for that. But what can you expect from someone who thinks dinosaurs and humans coexisted?) And we eat pie. I wonder if they eat pie in non-English speaking countries--on the one hand, pies are round, but on the other hand, there wouldn't be the same homophony in other languages. I don't dislike Pi Day. I just find it funny it's so popular.

Thursday was the Ides of March. Which people only care about because of Julius Caesar. Well, I should say that's the only reason they know about it. Nobody cares.

Friday night I went home and went to five stores to find green pants and green shoes for the pointless day we had Saturday, St. Patrick's Day. I was unsuccessful at finding shoes, but I did find green pants. I don't know how much I'll wear them (they're a little big, and green), but they were on clearance.

St. Patrick's Day is really a pointless holiday. It's a day honoring Ireland's patron saint, which isn't bad, but it's really got nothing to do with that now. Suddenly anything Irish becomes relevant. And beer becomes glorified. And green becomes popular. None of this is bad (well, except for the beer part), but it leaves me wondering--why don't we have days that glorify blue or England? Well, I'm sure we do, but they aren't as big as St. Patrick's Day.

You may wonder why I even bothered buying green pants and celebrating the day if I'm so cynical about it. I wonder the same thing. I'm especially confused at why I wanted to go to the Salt Lake City parade yesterday, since I'm also cynical about parades.

But I talked my parents into going. I wore green glasses, a green shirt, green pants, green socks, and shoes with green on them (since I couldn't find all-green shoes). The last time I went to the St. Patrick's Day parade was in 1996, when I still falsely believed that all holidays were created equal. It was moderately enjoyable for a time, but it was way too long for such a meaningless holiday.

Like all parades, there were some weird things. There were lots of kilts. Which are weird in the first place, but they're traditional Scottish clothing, not Irish. There were, of course, lots of bagpipes, which are annoying instruments. And lots of dogs. I don't mind the dogs in the parade, but I find it weird when people take their dogs everywhere. Though I adore dogs individually, I think that as a group they're rather stupid.

Like all parades, there were firetrucks that blared their sirens, and muscle cars and motorcycles that revved their engines. Like there isn't already enough noise! I hope those people go deaf. OK, maybe not. But they should pipe down.

There were painted dogs and painted horses.
The radio station X96 had a theme entirely about beer. Now, if people want to drink responsibly, whatever--although I think the term "drink responsibly" is an oxymoron. But there were children among the group! There was even one young person dressed as a beer bottle! One of the children was a boy my mom recognized from her school--a boy who has behavior problems. That explains a lot of things! I suppose that could be considered a post hoc argument (I was tested about logical fallacies this week), but nevertheless I know about alcoholic families, having seen them firsthand. I hope all these drunkards get in crashes and kill each other. OK, maybe not. But they should keep the kids away from the alc-y.

There was a group called "Mutts Against Mitt" that was devoted to making fun of Mitt Romney. I found this to be in rather poor taste. Not because they disagree with Mitt, but because they were attacking someone in a parade! I don't follow politics; I would have been equally enraged if they were against Obama or anyone else. Campaigning in a parade is one thing--but campaigning against someone? Those people should be dipped in boiling oil. OK, maybe not. But they should be banned from parades.

There were lots of Catholic churches and schools. I'm glad of this, even though I'm not Catholic. But I feel bad for them. We Mormons have our Pioneer Day parade. These Catholics have to share with souses and other idiots.

Now we have a holiday coming up that actually means something: Easter!

And I'm excited that in six months from now the Halloween season will be starting. Not that that holiday is any less pointless than St. Patrick's Day. But it sure is a lot more fun.