February blahs

[Glitch Girl]

Back in college, I discovered February is the suckiest month.  At the time I thought this was a fluke that all of my friends and myself were having a depressing or rotten time (in fact, on March 1st, we had a small party that February was over) but I'm starting to think otherwise. I find myself almost chronicly depressed in February every year and only just two days ago, I had a major snafu with my powerbill that almost got my power shut off.  [sigh]

So... your thoughts: does February suck or is it just a relative thing?

[Dweomer Knight]

Well, by February I'm pretty tired of the crappy Winter weather, but other than that it's no worse than any other month for me.

DK

[Reepicheep]

Well, this week has been pretty sucky for me. This week was february...

I think you might be right!

[Alaric]

The Romans considered February to be a bad luck month- that's why they took a few days off of it, making it the shortest month.

[UnfluffyBunny]

i've had an exceptionally good week thus far.... time off work, GW event, free ipod, my credit limit was upped, picked up mudbox, I think i'm stealing your karma o_o

[El Condor]

GG,

I agree, and I believe it's sort of a "perfect storm" of factors that tend to make it thusly sucky.  First, winter weather has usually been going on for while by now, and the charm of the first snowfall has given way to the repetitive drudgery of cold, shoveling, scraping, pipes bursting, power going out, and cabin fever.  Next, we've been through the mad rush of Christmas/Chanukah/New Year that heightens the joys and stresses associated with winter and leaves us exhausted and hung over by January. Finally, for many, Valentine's Day looms large.  For those of us with hearts and flowers in our eyes and a warm snuggle-bunny to cuddle with by the fire, Valentine's Day can be a day of exquisite delight.  For the rest of us..... ;)

EC

[Alaric]

Finally, for many, Valentine's Day looms large.  For those of us with hearts and flowers in our eyes and a warm snuggle-bunny to cuddle with by the fire, Valentine's Day can be a day of exquisite delight.  For the rest of us..... ;)

EC

And for me, it's my brother's birthday.

[Uncle Yuan]

The Romans considered February to be a bad luck month- that's why they took a few days off of it, making it the shortest month.

Sort of.

By the Roman calendar, February was the last month of the year, and this was a big part of why it was considered unlucky.  Under the Julian calendar (the first modern solar calandar used in Europe and intiated by Julius Caesar) the first month of the year had 31 days (March), the next 30 (April) and so on alternating though the year.  This gave the last month of the year (Feb) 30 days, but also made the year 366 days long.  This works in a leap year, but in non-leap years they gave February 29 days.  This also contributes to the unlucky thing in that it is a doubly odd month.  This set up also explains the names of September (the seventh month) October (the eighth), November (the ninth) and December (tenth) by their original order in the year.

But astute readers will note three things.

One: the year now ends in December.  This is believed to be a Roman Catholic church thing and was intended to have the birth of Christ (which is somewhat aribtrairily set as Dec. 25th*) as well as the New Year associated with the winter solstice to impress the pagans.

Two: The nice pattern of month lengths that was established by the Julian Calendar got goofed up by Julius' successor.  See, they had named a month after Julius (July - of course), and when Augustus came to power he had to have a month too - August.  But his month was only 30 days long, and that obviously wouldn't do, so he "moved" a day from the end of the year to make his month the same length and reset the ordering of the rest.

This fact also gives us difference three: that Februaury has 28 days and 29 in a leap year.

Other cool calendar facts:
The first month of the Roman calendar (March) was named after Mars, the god of war and the patron of the Roman state.
June is named after Juno, the goddess of the home and marriage, and to this day June is the traditional month in which to get married.

*Nobody really knows when Jesus was born.  It is not explicitly stated in the bible, but an educated guess would put it some time in March.  Recall that Mary and Joseph were traveling to Jerusalem to be counted for the census.  Since December in Isreal is a generally cold and rainy month.  Most people would have had to walk and the roads would not have been very passable.  By the same token spring, summer, and fall would have been difficult for farmers (a very significant portion of the population).  Late winter seems to be the best time for such an event to be held - once the wather has started to improve, but before farming really takes off.  But again, no one really knows.

[Deaths Jester]

Well...Feburary has just been a continuation of the already mental breakdown inducing crap that's been haunting me since Christmas...so...ummm....I don't know!

[Alaric]

The Romans considered February to be a bad luck month- that's why they took a few days off of it, making it the shortest month.

Sort of.

By the Roman calendar, February was the last month of the year, and this was a big part of why it was considered unlucky.  Under the Julian calendar (the first modern solar calandar used in Europe and intiated by Julius Caesar) the first month of the year had 31 days (March), the next 30 (April) and so on alternating though the year.  This gave the last month of the year (Feb) 30 days, but also made the year 366 days long.  This works in a leap year, but in non-leap years they gave February 29 days.  This also contributes to the unlucky thing in that it is a doubly odd month.  This set up also explains the names of September (the seventh month) October (the eighth), November (the ninth) and December (tenth) by their original order in the year.

But astute readers will note three things.

One: the year now ends in December.  This is believed to be a Roman Catholic church thing and was intended to have the birth of Christ (which is somewhat aribtrairily set as Dec. 25th*) as well as the New Year associated with the winter solstice to impress the pagans.

Two: The nice pattern of month lengths that was established by the Julian Calendar got goofed up by Julius' successor.  See, they had named a month after Julius (July - of course), and when Augustus came to power he had to have a month too - August.  But his month was only 30 days long, and that obviously wouldn't do, so he "moved" a day from the end of the year to make his month the same length and reset the ordering of the rest.

This fact also gives us difference three: that Februaury has 28 days and 29 in a leap year.

Other cool calendar facts:
The first month of the Roman calendar (March) was named after Mars, the god of war and the patron of the Roman state.
June is named after Juno, the goddess of the home and marriage, and to this day June is the traditional month in which to get married.

*Nobody really knows when Jesus was born.  It is not explicitly stated in the bible, but an educated guess would put it some time in March.  Recall that Mary and Joseph were traveling to Jerusalem to be counted for the census.  Since December in Isreal is a generally cold and rainy month.  Most people would have had to walk and the roads would not have been very passable.  By the same token spring, summer, and fall would have been difficult for farmers (a very significant portion of the population).  Late winter seems to be the best time for such an event to be held - once the wather has started to improve, but before farming really takes off.  But again, no one really knows.

I considered explaining about the whole July/August thing, but I figured it wasn't really on topic for this thread...

[Midnight]

My February thus far has been hellishly busy... so... no blah. :D

[ow_tiobe_sb]

My February thus far has been hellishly busy... so... no blah. :D

Same here, for I am overseeing graduate admissions to the MA and Ph.D programs in English.

Hang in there, GG.  April, National Poetry Month (and also "the cruelest month," incidentally), is just around the corner to chase the blahs away! :)

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and You Know the Rest

[Midnight]

My February thus far has been hellishly busy... so... no blah. :D

Same here, for I am overseeing graduate admissions to the MA and Ph.D programs in English.

Hang in there, GG.  April, National Poetry Month (and also "the cruelest month," incidentally), is just around the corner to chase the blahs away! :)

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and You Know the Rest

o.o Aaahhh! FACULTY! I'll have my paper to you TOMORROW, I SWEAR!

...*twitch* Sorry.

I've been busy with the show that's going up... a week from today. Been in the theatre between 8 and 12 hours a day. Tack classes onto that and I'm too busy to be blah. Or do homework. :)

[Dweomer Knight]

Hang in there, GG.  April, National Poetry Month (and also "the cruelest month," incidentally), is just around the corner to chase the blahs away! :)

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and You Know the Rest

In Japan, April is sometimes called the month of death and few couples get married during it.  On the plus side, I was born in April which I'm positive makes up for any negativity the month might possess.

DK

[konbiz]

Funny you say that I have just been diagnosed with Lyme Disease this very week... although I think I would have probably been bitten by the tick (or ticks hehe) back in summer..... since I'm a whitewater raft guide I think thats about as close to nature I can get... just this time nature had won. Although to my defense i moved to America in April, from jolly old England, so I was unaware of the effects or consequences of tick bites. Ahwell life goes on, persevere and everything will be good. I mean March is one of my favourite months of the year, the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

[gdaybloke]

June is named after Juno, the goddess of the home and marriage, and to this day June is the traditional month in which to get married.

Maybe in YOUR hemisphere... wacky Northerners...

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Well, at the end of January, it looked like a had a new job, but while they keep assuring me the job is mine, it's taking forever to actually get me back to work, while I watch my previously fat bank account dwindle down to nothing.  So yeah this month is kinda depressing.

[El Condor]

Funny you say that I have just been diagnosed with Lyme Disease this very week

VERY sorry to hear!  :(   Hope everything turns out okay.

EC

[lugaru]

Well I was in a good mood but a new boss is taking over and kicking out our old boss. Our old boss was awesome, all he would do was smile and never ask questions, exactly what we needed. The new boss dosent know anything yet so he's cracking down on trivial things such as dress code and attendance.

Oh, and my tax return is $100. Yup.

Beyond that Im doing good but its creepy to see boston with no snow this time of year.

[Sevenforce]

I think its a pretty much 50/50 thing. 50% of the population get a horrible february, and 50% don't. I was inclined to go with other people in this thread and class myself as a "Good" february...but looking back, I ALWAYS get ill sometime in this month. Not bad in and of itself, because it could be a lot worse, such as having my car crashed into, house broken into, death in the family etc. etc...but that doesn't exactly cheer me up when I'm in the thick of it. To be fair, this years illness has probably been the worst so far - usually its just snotty colds and doesn't even lay me up, but this years has knocked me flat on my kaboose for days :(

[Mr. Hamrick]

for numerous reasons i will not go into here

i agree . . . february generally is a horrid month for me.

[Tortuga]

Here in Alberta, and perhaps some other provinces, "Reading Week" is a week off of university that's always 2/3 through February.  It was put there because the suicide rate amongst University students was alarmingly high near that time -- so it was originally nicknamed "Suicide Prevention Week".

So, yes, statistically speaking, February is known to be a downer month.

[Rick Battlemage]

Actually I have to agree, February sucks  <_<

Maybe we should start some kind of cheer event every February  ^_^

Don't worry the sun will come out behind those thick rainclouds, though not for the next 3 weeks.

Anyways when you get down just think of babies and pancake bunnies, they're great with chocolate sauce.

[Sevenforce]

Are you MAD man!?

...Everyone knows barbeque is what makes babies taste good. Chocolate just makes you realise how stringy they are :thumbdown:

[stumpy]

*HULPFF!*   :blink:

I should be careful what I read when I'm eating.

[stumpy]

BTW, I don't have any real issues with this time of year besides people walking around in six layers of burlap, but the close timing of "Suicide Prevention Week" and Valentine's Day is interesting. It might be worth checking out birthrates in November to see what people are doing to ward off depression in February...  :ph34r:

[Edit]
*looks up the data*
Apparently, not much. Kinda makes one want to reconsider the effort put into a certain upcoming holiday...
[/Edit]

[The Pwime]

February is all about Valentines day.   :wub:





















BLEH!  :angry:





















































okay, i'm just lonely.  :lol:

[lugaru]

See I grew up enjoying valentines day. Yeah, I was single all the way until I was 18 BUT back home they call it the day "of love and friendship" so it is customary to trade gifts with your close friends and at least some chocolates or paper hearts or stuff with the rest of your class. It was always cool walking around with a half dozen paper hearts pinned to your shirt. And while dating valentines was usually the day we were too busy to do anything special, so for me it's just another day.

If anyone read my prev thread you would notice that I found a good cure for the bleh's... we had a ton of booze, my excelent crock pot of bean stew and played Red Steel for the wii. The game reminds me of Max Payne left and right... you are mostly invulnerable thanks to your deadpool level mutant healing factor (never explained) and the cut scenes are comic book style (it would of rocked if they had gone with manga). Multiplayer is fast and furious without worrying about aiming with annoying analog sticks (never liked those guys) although the wii crashed (yes, crashed) after our first multiplayer game. I like this system but thank god I havent bought one, I can tell it will have problems.

[UnfluffyBunny]

*dousnt believe in valentines Day*

(ps. *DOES believe in easter*

(pps. Easter Bunnies RAWK)

(ppps. yes I know i'm early -_- )

{ppps. Gimme chocolate :P)

[The Pwime]

*dousnt believe in valentines Day*

(ps. *DOES believe in easter*

(pps. Easter Bunnies RAWK)

(ppps. yes I know i'm early -_- )

{ppps. Gimme chocolate :P)

You should ask to have your name temporarily changed to Unfluffy-Easter-Bunny around that time.  :P