Christains, Calendars, and... THIS IS FREAKING WEIRD...

OK, I ranted once to some of you (A long LONG time ago... It's not even in my Gmail logs anymore ;) ) about how Easter is based on being the 14th day after the middle of the moon cycle in march... Or SOMETHING LIKE THAT...  And how I feel like it's wrong for Christians to critisize "peagans" for astrology, yet Christains base one of the biggest holidays of the year off of moon cycles?   WTF...

 

Anyway, this rant isn't about that.  This rant is about the Julian VS. the Gregorian Calendars. 

 

It comes up, because I was reading about the Tunguska Event (AKA, the totally badass explosion that happened in Russia for some unknown reason... Probably a meteoroid or comet exploding in the atmosphere, creating the equivolant of a large nuclear bomb, knocking down HELLA trees....  But I digress...) and it mentioned a discrepency in the dates... Apparently Russia was using the "Julian Calandar" at the time, while much of the rest of the world was using a "Gregorian Calandar."  Some difference of 16 days or something like that.

 

Anyway, so I decided that I needed to look up the difference between the calendars, and this is where shit got weird:  It's all based on how the Julian Calendar had a leap year every 4 years, but that messed up the lunar calandar.  Apparently gaining a day every 300 years... So after 1200 years, the Catholics looked at the moon and said "Damn, we are 3 days behind the moon... Easter is wrong!"  I guess it also caused a conflict where Easter would fall in the middle of Rome's birthday, which is a "Pegan Holiday" and we can't overlap that, no, that would be wrong too...

 

Anyway, long story short, they cut out a bunch of leap years... Something to the effect of "Every year devisable by 4 will be a leap year, unless the year is devisable by 100, in which case it WON'T be a leap year, unless it's a year devided by 400, in which case it WILL again."  Or something like that.  In other words, 2000 will, 2004 will, 2008 will, 2012 will... But 2100 won't, and 2200 won't, and 2300 won't.  But 2400 will!  Stay on your toes!

 

Anyway, so I guess it's more correct now... But why the hell did it have to be fixed JUST FOR EASTER!

 

And what happens every 100,000 years (or so) when we loose a day they didn't account for? And what about the decaying orbit of the earth?  And...

 

OK, I'm done.

 

Here are my sources:

Tunguska Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event

Julian Calendar:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar

Gregorian Calendar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

GIS, Montana, and how Nevada just sucks

There is a certification I want, called the GIS Professional Certification, but I'm no where near qualified for it yet.  I need 2 more years of work experience before I can get it.  But I was hoping to get it as soon as I can, because it's sort of a rare thing, and if you have it, you can go and get a job just about anywhere.

 

In Nevada, that is...  Apparently the same isn't true in Montana... I have been on their mailing list for 2 days, and they are planning their regional user group meeting in Cor D' Leign, ID this upcoming April, so the mailing list is pretty active.  First of all, the fact that they have a user group so big that they need to plan 3 months in advance puts Nevada to SHAME.  But what was more interesting than that, is that every email I have gotten so far, the senders have GISP in their signature blocks.

 

Furthermore, they are trying to get presenters for the conference  and they are making a big deal about how that earns you BIG points for the GISP cert application... Which means EVERYONE is trying to get it up there!

 

I may be the biggest fish in the waters here, just by getting a degree in this stuff...  Which I thought meant I would be REALLY big up there, considering they don't even offer a GIS degree...  But then I just come to realize that their surveying degrees kick our GIS degree's ass...

 

That, coupled with the Surveying program's department head saying a high percentage of his graduates are currently unemployed, pretty much says to me that the GIS community is flooded up there, and I'm not the best in the area...  At best, I am the same as everyone else, and I lack a local connection to put a good word in for me...

 

Conclusion:  I was convinced I had a one up on the world no matter where I go...  But now I am afraid that I'm just up a creek without a paddle. 

 

I also know Utah, Colorado, and Arizona all kick our GIS program's ass as well...  And California has the Spatial@UCSB program starting up, which means I don't stand a chance there either...   So shit...  I may just be in the wrong field. 

 

When I started GIS, all the statistics were saying GIS would be the fastest growing field (Behind medical) in the next 10 years.  Apparently I just accidentally hopped on a bubble that is popping as we speak :(

 

And even if my hopes for a unification of GIS and Civil Engineering does happen... I'm still a solid 5 years away from being able to get in that money pit either....  Frankly, the next 5 years scare me shirtless :(