Lunar New Year

You might be wondering, “What’s the big deal about the lunar new year, anyway?”

Some cultures in the world base the calendar year off of the phases and cycles of the moon. Months in a lunar calendar are still twelve in number, though they tend to be shorter than months in other calendars. A lunar cycle is 27 days, so a lunar month is about 27 days, depending on the culture. This shortness of months tends to drift the year. After using a calendar with lunar months, an adjustment has to be made so the calendar doesn’t slip from one end of the seasonal year to the other. In other words, lunar calendars sometimes have 13 months.

You may have heard of the ox as well. “Why is this the year of the ox?”

For some cultures the year isn’t only based on the phases of the moon, the astrology is also. China and its people, for example, use a zodiac with the following symbolic characters.

  1. Rat
  2. Ox
  3. Tiger
  4. Rabbit
  5. Dragon
  6. Snake
  7. Horse
  8. Sheep
  9. Monkey
  10. Rooster
  11. Dog
  12. Pig

Their zodiac uses these symbols on a yearly basis. More specifically, an entire year will be assigned one of the animals in the zodiac. The year 2021 (on the Julian calendar) is a year of the ox. The previous year was the year of the rat. For those interested in the entertainment of astrological predictions, remember your astrological sign is for the entire lunar year you were born. If a baby is born before 12 February 2021, then that baby is assigned the symbolic character of the rat. After 12 February 2021 (and before 1 February 2022), the baby would be given the sign of the ox.

Aside from the astrology of another calendar, the big deal about a lunar new year is the celebration of differing cultures. You can look at the way other people divide the days, the way they celebrate life, and how they generate their own ideas.

Plus, who among us would turn down a reason to celebrate the new year twice?

Best / Worst Date Ideas

In an effort to find the magical and memorable things to do for Valentine’s Day, people turn to polling each other, striking up conversations at work, and even graffiti on public transit (strange but true).

If you’re looking for some ideas of what to do, and what not to do, for a Valentine’s Day event, there’s no need to look beyond this article. If these ideas don’t spark your interest, they may still spark your creativity.

Below are compiled the best ideas and the worst ideas. Peruse and choose.

BEST DATE IDEAS

Space walk

Jet ski

Moonlight ice skating

Book store / Record store

Ice cream

Bike ride

Road rally

Double / Group date (Bowling, Mini-golf)

Hiking Hawaii

Pony ride / State fair

Science fair

WORST DATE IDEAS

Abandoned mine / Gravel pit

Walmart

Snake hunting

Strip club / Vape store

Wedding

Funeral / Graveyard

STD clinic / Hospital

Standard movie with fast food

The dojo

His mom’s house

Murder basement

Syria

Ground-Hog

There’s a wacky tradition for some wacky folks on Feb-you-ary second. It has something to do with a critter named Punks-ah-whatever-you-want-to-call-‘im the prairie hog. “Ground” hog, if you’re hungry. Well, we in Great Salt Lake City are hungry! That’s why out west we have a tradition similar to the one out east but more fun and it ends in food. Who doesn’t love a tradition that ends in food?

Our tradition is similar in that it involves animals. They have their Punks-ah-hoggy and we have our Salty Stewart.

Salty Stewart is the name we give to the unlucky groundhog in the groundhog family who pokes his head up first sign of Spring. Maybe he sees his shadow, and maybe he doesn’t, nobody’s ever really talked to a groundhog before. The point of the tradition isn’t to go talking to critters. The point is to celebrate Springtime with a good hearty mess of pottage. After all winter waiting for the snow to melt and chewing on dried up old carrots out of the cellar, it’s nice to get a decent meal.

The whole reason we name the groundhog Salty Stew is because it isn’t just a fancy-pants title—it’s also how you find him on the menu. Salty Stew is our hero, our mascot, and our dinner.

Should you want to join the festivities, here’s how to prepare:

Salty Stew

2 lbs. ground groundhog

2 lbs. kielbasa, sliced

2 lbs. black beans, cooked

2 lbs. carrots, sliced

1 lb. peas

1 lb. tomatoes, diced

4 medium potatoes, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

4 cups water

2 tsp. inland sea salt

2 tsp. cumin

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. black pepper

Brown meat with garlic and onions. Drain off the grease and transfer to a large pot.

Add beans, carrots, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, and water. Stir. While stirring, add salt, cumin, chili powder, and black pepper.

Cook on medium/low for at least one hour.

If you can’t seem to catch you a groundhog, and your local market doesn’t carry any, substitute the meat of your choice.

Cables

Front brake ((Origin8))

Swearing is a powerful thing, when you’re taking an oath, or making a promise. And I did.

I promised myself that the next time I had any trouble whatsoever with my hydraulic brake system, I’d make it one hundred million times better by switching to a mechanical, cable brake system.

I swore it and then I did it. Here for evidence is the picture positive proof. Above is the front and below is the rear brake.

First kudos go to northwestbicycle.com for having and delivering the absolute best parts in the known mountain biking universe. The delivery was prompt, even though I chose to make an order at a difficult time of year. One of their sales associates described the past two weeks as “nuts”. Probably a good sign for their business, if they’re so busy to call it “nuts”.

I seriously hope this shameless plug for them makes it even more nuts. Do all your bike shopping through Northwest Bicycle. They’re the best!

Hopefully you’ll notice from the pictures that I didn’t have to get new discs. I used those from my previous brake system.

Rear brake ((Origin8))

Second kudos go to Origin8.

(I purchased the Origin8 Slick Compressionless MTB Brake Cable/Housing Kit Front and Rear 3000mm/1500mm & 2800mm 5mm/1.5mm Black, along with the Origin8 Vise II PM MTB Mechanical Disc Brake Front or Rear Black X2)

Origin8, who made this brake system, makes it easy to install, and everything necessary was included. By the way, if you plan on upgrading to this particular system and purchase the same items listed above, keep in mind you’ll need some brake levers. I didn’t buy any because I already had some that would work with this mechanical cable brake system.

The immediate reward is this: I had the extremely happy job of trying out, or in other words, test driving, my new brakes and they are phenomenal. They perform beautifully. In fact, the difference between the stopping power of the mechanical versus the hydraulic is not even discernible. The real test, of course, will be time: How much maintenance will go into the upkeep of this cable brake system. I suspect much less, and truly my experience is this: cable systems are worth much more in the long run than hydraulics. I had some of the first hydraulic brakes when they were a new idea for mountain bikes, and though they were built well (I had Magura back then), they still failed due to aggressive riding—or should I say aggressive crashing? Hahaha!

Anyway, unless you want to carry a syringe or two, oil, and tubing with you on the trail, fixing hydraulics in the middle of a ride is not an option. When hydraulic systems fail, you have zero brakes. ZERO. These are the main reasons I wanted to upgrade to cables: they’re less likely to become completely powerless, you can inspect them and actually see any potential defects, and they’re easy to maintain on or off trail.

Remember: Less trial, more trail.

Time To Slow Down?

There are moments in life when everything seems to slow down—and there are times when life needs to slow down.

A person can only take on so much before they’re overwhelmed. For instance, how many jobs can you have in a day? Most of us can only accomplish a finite number of tasks in a day. Most of us can only handle a set amount of responsibilities in a day.

“Burning the candle at both ends,” they say. And the old chestnut is fitting in some circumstances.

Your circumstance may be one.

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed trying to get ahead, or even just trying to stay alive, it might be time to slow down. It might be time to redefine your meanings.

The purpose of life and the meaning of life. Are they the same?

I would argue they’re different. To me, the meaning of life is a reason to say it; the purpose of life is a reason to do it.

So now you might be thinking, “Great philosophy, but it doesn’t help with the stress of my life.”

It could though. Once you’ve defined life the word and life the event, and separated the two, you can start to define the attributes of the two. If you’re struggling just to stay alive, but you can redefine what it means to be alive, or all of the necessities of life, then you can make it simpler. The simpler the goal, the easier it is to achieve.

For example: A man might think he needs to shave his face to keep himself in the game. But if he stopped shaving for a time and realized no changes to life have manifested, couldn’t he remove that false idea from his definition? Does he need to hold on to an idea that he has proven non-essential to life?

Likewise with many of the ideas we assign to the purpose or the meaning of life. They can be altered, rearranged, or even removed, and life continues onward.

So do you.