One Second

Have you heard that this year is going to be one second longer than the however many past years? Well, it is, so on Wednesday the 31st, remember to stop your clock for one second just prior to the break of the new year, 2009. Here it is more eloquently and factually written:

Wait a second. The start of next year will be delayed by circumstances beyond everyone's control. Time will stand still for one second on New Year's Eve, as we ring in the New Year on that Wednesday night. As a result, you'll have an extra second to celebrate because a "Leap Second" will be added to 2008 to let a lagging Earth catch up to super-accurate clocks.

By international agreement, the world's timekeepers, in order to keep their official atomic clocks in step with the world's irregular but gradually slowing rotation, have decreed that a Leap Second be inserted between 2008 and 2009.

The extra second, ordered by the world's nominal timekeeper, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, will be marked officially at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday in Greenwich, England, the home of what is popularly known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) – Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to the more technically inclined – the standard time for the planet.

So at precisely 23:59:60 at Greenwich, England, on New Year's Eve, there will be a one-second void before the onset of midnight and the start of the New Year. Wednesday will see the 24th Leap Second that has been needed since the practice was initiated in 1972, and will be the first in three years.

--from Yahoo! news "2009 to Arrive Not a Second Too Soon"

Interesting, huh? I sure find it so. And that first sentence--how punny! ;)

Today exemplified boredom for me. I woke up after ten, which did take me by surprise, since I've been waking up before then for the past several days. It didn't matter much, though, since it wasn't like I had anything to do for the rest of the day, during which I felt so empty due to: 1) no H&S, 2) domination by periodicity, 3) lack of desire to do homework, 4) horrible environment to do it anyway, 5) just plain emptiness. I wallowed all day, annoyed with myself for still not having begun homework, which made me realize how much I hate procrastination nowadays (which isn't necessarily a bad realization), yet not at all wanting to do it in such an un-allowing for education environment because I have long since recognized how much more efficiently I learn in a quiet, empty room where I can monogamously focus on academics like an aspiring East Coast universities student should. Duh. Anyway, around four, I decided that I was going to go to the library and do the chemistry assignment until eight, when it closes, but then a minute later, it occurred to me that the library closes at six on Fridays! The whole time, I thought today was Tuesday. See what being on break does to me? Talk about time distortion. Anyhow, I refuted the idea of going to the library because I knew that I couldn't get much done in two hours. Subsequently, my mother and I went to Costco to buy...things and to print photos that have been awaiting the photo kiosk since June. Here is a tip: if you are ever going to print a lot of photos and you happen to be an advocate of frugality, print them at Costco. It's only thirteen cents each! It used to be fifteen, then seventeen, then somehow it became thirteen, which I do not at all mind. At CVS, it's nineteen cents to get your photos "in hours", but even then, it's only if you have fifty or more photos; and it costs fifteen cents "in days". Rite-aid is fifteen cents as well, I think. But yeah, I recommend Costco from my experience. After Costco we went to Kohl's to get a security thingy off of a pair of pants my mother and sister purchsed last week (it seemed the cashier forgot to remove it, so we had to go back). Despite the line that I had to stand in to resolve that little dilemma, I was surprised at how painlessly quick it passed and got done and whatnot. Then I just walked around looking at photo frames and albums. Blah blah blah, home, dinner, shower, here.

My mother is taking away the laptop for I don't know how long, but she demanded that we unplug it tonight. Dagnabbit.
Hence, I shall be at the library for most of the day tomorrow, in case you need me for anything. I will be there working on chemistry. Sounds oh so fun...

I still have month-late letters to mail, darn it.

Oh, my, it's almost eleven, which means that I must close everything and prepare to unplug. Thus, this will be the end for tonight.

Happy weekend to you all!
Let's hope we can have another "cyber meeting" soon, whenever soon may unfold to be.


I'll travel around the seven seas for you
It's written in the melody, I adore you
I wrote my love a symphony
To show you there's nothing I won't do
Baby, I'll walk around the China Wall for you
If there's a way I'll do it all for you
Anything you want me to, you know I would do

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