JovialJman - English 101 continued

Budget cuts, they make use very inventive.

On December 5th 2014 I had written a post about some interesting things about English, and more on its origin. I said I would say more on the subject thus I am here. So without further ado here they are.

When it come to point of view somethings can often be mixed up and/or forgotten. You get first, second and third point of view. When writing you will be using one of theses if you are talking about a person or to one like I am doing here. First person - is when the subject matter is about yourself. This would be something like, "I went to the shops to buy some food." I refers to yourself thus making it first person. Words that include yourself would be an indication of this as well, (us, we, me, and so on). The matters are usually subjective so when trying to talk about facts this point of view is not always reliable unless to try and see things from that persons experience.

Second person - is when you are talking about someone else and not including yourself. When referring to someone by name or saying you, you will be talking about one specific person. You cannot use I or me here, since you cannot refer to yourself. Cooking instructions are usually in this point of view. This blog would be a mixture between first and second. I am addressing it to you but also saying things like, "I think", "I found interesting" and things like that. Each blog post will however be more steered to one of these though.

Third person - is when speaking about people in general, or about a specific person. So, "JovialJman was once a younger man", would be Third person since I am not addressing you, and if another person says it, it will still hold its context. For reference, if I say, "you are awesome" compared to if you say it, the person that is awesome would change.

There are a few things that other languages have that English does not, and I say we should start a trend and try and get these things into existence since English might be better off with it. Some words that are in other languages are some that we should have in english, this is a list of 38. Some of them are "Tartle" from the scots, it means the hesitation just before you have to introduce someone whose name you can't really remember. "Mencolek" from the Indonesian means to tap someone on the opposite shoulder that you are on to trick them. Your Grandma might have felt "gigil", it means the urge to pinch or squeeze something that is way too cute. Overmorrow is an old english word that I have used a lot but the Georgians have the word Zeg, it means the day after tomorrow. Lastly there is "boketto" in Japanese which means to stare into the distance for no reason. Hippomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is a word I really like, it is in english but the meaning is rather humorous. It is the fear of long words, and look how long it is. Sorry to those that do have hippomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

I hope you enjoyed today's post, if so, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Stay awesome smarties.

JovialJman - English 101 (Some Interesting English Concepts)

Dictionaries are a good way to show English.

English being one of the most widely spoken languages, spoken by about 1.5 billion people or more, have very interesting roots and things about it that not many people know. Lets talk about that.

Vsauce has done a video with the title of ENGLISH. I will talk about some of the points Michael made, but I highly recommend you watch the video. In the year 400 A.D. and earlier, there were people that were named Angles, (not because they were good at maths, teehee), and after the roman ruling period a lot of the Angles migrated from their homeland Anglii, (what is now northern Germany) to a land called Britannia, (Britain) which was named after the people that lived there. Now so many of these Angles lived on this island that it was referred to as Angel land, which then came to be the county name of England.

This image is taken from wikipedia, showing an early map of North Africa, Europe and a bit of Asia

Now in 1066, the normans invaded the land and won, and this event is believed to be the biggest change to the English language. One of the changes that the normans brought were the words of the meat they ate, (i.e. pork and beef), while the natives still called the animals with their own words, (i.e. pig and cow), and because of this, English is one of the very few languages that have different words for the meat of the animal then the name of the animal itself.

Now if you take that into consideration, you will have Germanic derived words, and Latin derived words. English has taken a lot of words from other languages and calls them english. Greek derived words are used for specific things, like things in science and biology, where as informal, and rude things would be germanic, (this is due to the Normans making that the common tongue offensive) and there are others.

Accents and dialects are something on their own as well. For instance Americans sound quite different to Europeans, and both of those nation speakers would sound different to people that are taught and brought up in another language then learnt to speak english. Some nations have rather Stereotypical accents associated with them. Like in the beginning of this paragraph when I generalized the countries you would most probably think of one accent for the group, where in fact in one country there may be 10's of accents. This to some degree may also lend itself to the spelling differences as well.

Americans spell some words different to those of Britain, or have different words for them entirely. Colour and color is a good example of that, gas and petrol is another, (gas coming from Gasoline and petrol from petroleum). Tom Scott has done a few videos on english in this playlist, and I would recommend watching all of them as it is very interesting. OP english is a widely debated subject on pronunciation. How would people in the Shakespearean era sound like? Well this video may help.

Now English is still evolving and many new words are made every year. Noob has made its way into the Oxford Dictionary, whereas just a few years ago it was only considered slang. Many words like this have slowly made their way into our speech. Now when does a noise become a new word? Well this is hard to answer directly, but Oxford Dictionary, (the place where many Scrabble players and others will look to see if a certian arrangement of letters is a legitimate word) usually adds a word to their list when it becomes apparent that it is used by enough people often enough with a particular meaning for it.

Now english is known to be really confusing to learn if you are not a native speaker already, words have silent letters in them that seem to serve no purpose, (pterodactyl is one), and others words that you would think would mean one thing but means the opposite or something completely different, (these words are known as misnomers one of which is inflammable which I have mentioned before). Then you get words that were in the dictionary that weren't actually meant to be there. Dord is a famous example of this, and Vsauce made a brilliant video on it, (I seem to really like Vsauce, but who wouldn't)

Now, (sadly because it is early morning), I have to end this post. This was more of a history lesson, but don't fret as I shall continue this topic in the next post where I talk about point of view and grammar to a certian extent. I am sorry i have been MIA these past several days, but I am back in action and shall post the following blogs in a more timely manner to suit you, the readers, a bit better. I hope you have enjoyed today's post (supposed to be yesterday) and if you did, or would like to ask, tell me/us anything please do so in the comments below and/or on Facebook/Twitter. If you would like to see the newest post as they are published please follow us on Twitter and/or like us on Facebook using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Thank you for taking the time to read today's post, and I hope you have/had a wonderful day.

Keep learning comrades.

JovialJman - More Special Numbers (And Other Interesting Mathematical Anomalies)

Numbery things again, I wonder if you can see it is an interest of mine?

Numbers can be a rather big interest of mine because with certian parameters it can be said for certian things will come up. Not many other fields can say the same. So let's talk about some of the mathy things.

So in the last post I talked a bit about Pi and things around it, well Brady on his YouTube channel Numberphile uploaded "Mile of Pi" as a thank you to his million subscribers. In the video they talked about some of the interesting things that are in Pi and have printed the first million digits of pi end to end and this is where the Mile of pi comes from. I would recommend watching the video and the extras in the second video as there is really fascinating things in each video.

I have talked a little about the Golden ratio in how things are beautiful and where it crops up in the human body, but I never really got into it. So now I am going to talk more about it. The golden ratio is a relation of 2 lengths. If you have length A and length B, the golden ratio is when you have (A + B) /A is equal to A/B. Now if you want you could go work this out, and find that it only holds true for the one ratio. The way you can work out the ratio is (1 + √5)/2. This is what gives the 1:1.618033... and many people have worked with it in many fields. There are links between this and the Fibonacci numbers. I shall urge you to try and do some research on this and see what you find. Google is your friend here.

I have recently found out an interesting thing about paper sizes. There is a standard way of measuring paper, and it is often referred to the A scale. It starts off with A0 and the area of this size paper is 1m^2. Now most people will know the A4 and A5 as these are the sizes of normal standard books used everywhere, (or at least here in South Africa anyway.) Now there is a cool thing about the A scale, if you were to fold the paper exactly in half along the long edge, you will get the next size paper in the sequence, but the ratio of the long side to the short side will always be the same. So if you fold a paper of A0 in half you will get A1, then if you fold A1 in half you will get A2, and so on and so forth. Now this ratio of these sides will only work like this with a ratio of √2. If it had any other ratio, it would not work at all.

Since we are talking about √2 I think I should mention this video where Numberphile talked about it, along with the paper example, and the maths behind it. Now √2 has had a tough time trying to get recognized, as since in previous times there were people that really acknowledged the works of mathematicians, and they really liked rational numbers. Rational numbers are and number that can be written in the form A over B, where A and B are integers. Now since √2 was not able to be written like this, these people did not like it and tried to dismiss it. By using the Pythagorean theorem you can get it by having a right angled triangles with the short sides being of equal length 1. The hypotenuse will the be √2.

Now we go onto a greek letter Tau. This greek letter, (it looks like this τ , it is like Pi but with one leg.) The main thing Tau is used for is another way to write 2 times Pi, and in some cases it would make equations a lot nicer to look at, and make some of the teachings easier, (as said by a few people), but there is a whole debate amongst people which is better and which we should use. Numberphile did a very entertaining video about it as well. 

Anyways, that is all I have fro today, I hope you have enjoyed reading today's post, which I might add to it later. Thank you for taking the time to read it, and if you know of anyone who would like to read this post, please share it with them, as we would greatly appreciate it. If you liked what you read, or have any questions or ideas, please leave them in the comments below, or on Facebook/Twitter. While you are there, can you please like our Official Facebook page, and/or Twitter account, and if you are not there, you can use the associated buttons on the bar to the left. I hope you have/had a brilliant day, and I shall talk again overmorrow.

Never stop learning.

JovialJman - Special Numbers (And Other Interesting Mathematical Anomalies)

Numbers can make your head hurt, but they are everywhere.

Numbers are somethings that many people tend to hate working with during their High school career, but their are really strange things that can happen with them that are seen to be cool. Let us talk about that.

There is am amazing YouTube channel that is dedicated to all things mathematical, and the videos are really informative. A fair bit of the content of this blog may be found on Numberphile, links will be present where I can fit them in as well. Then there is Vi Hart which is just as awesome. If you have never heard of these people before, I would suggest go and look at their channels and if you like what you see, please show your support and subscribe to their channel.

If I say think of a big number, what would you say? one thousand, or a million? well there is a number so big there is no way to write it in one line. This humongous number is Graham's number. For an easy way to find out how big the number is look at this video. If you cannot watch the video, I hope I can explain it well enough. So Graham used a notation as arrows pointing upwards. Now 3↑3 is 3 to the power of three which equals 27. With one arrow it does not mean much but when we get to to or more arrows things get a bit interesting. Now 3￪￪3 is 3￪(3￪3) which is 3￪(27) which is 3 to the power of 27 this equals 7 625 597 484 987. With more than one arrow, the number before the arrows is raised to one less arrow so many times, this amount of times is the number after the arrows. This means that 3￪￪2 is 3￪3 which is 27 while 3￪￪4 is 3￪(3￪(3￪(3))) there is 4 threes and this translates to a tower of 3's four high.

When we get to 3 arrows thing are really big, so 3￪￪￪3 is 3￪￪(3￪￪3) and 3￪￪3 is that 7 trillion number. So 3￪￪(3^27) has a tower of 3's 7 625 597 484 987 digits high. now the answer to this has over about 3.6 trillion digits. The scientific way to write it, (since I will fill a few pages writing normally), would be 1.258 * 10^(3 638 334 640 024). This is a really big number as it is, but we are not even close to Graham's number yet. So now we have 3￪￪￪￪3. this will be 3￪￪￪3￪￪￪3, just try and picture that large numbers ... got it? me neither. Well now lets just call the answer to 3￪￪￪￪3 is G1, (quick note before I blow your mind, you see how adding one arrow escalates things, well we are about to add a jetpack to it.)

Ok so now we have G1, now this is the amount of arrows in the next one so 3(G1's￪)3, and this is equal to G2. Then repeat to have 3(G2's ￪)3 to get G4. Now you carry on with this until you get to G64 and you have arrived at Graham's number. So we have this really ... really big number, (do you need a new pair of pants like me?) and this is not even the biggest number anymore, there are some that are bigger. I would try and explain them but I don't even know how to explain them.


This video show some of the big numbers

So now that we have experienced large numbers, lets talk about some numbers that some people know about. Pi is one that a lot of people know about but not many know of its properties. Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference and it's diameter, and it is roughly 3.14, which many people know, but it has a string of digits after that, that is never ending and never recursive. This means that it goes on for every and you will never know what it will be after a point where you stoped calculating it to be. Since there is this strange fact people have been calculating digit after digit, and as of 8 October 2014 13,300,000,000,000 digits have been calculated. it took 208 days to computat on a home computer, now supercomputers have gone to 2,576,980,377,524 decimal places on 29 april 2009, and this took 29.09 hours.

There is a day that is celebrated once a year for this magical thing dubbed Pi day. It is celebrated on March the 14th since it is 3/14 the first first 3 digits of pi. Next year is something special though. on
3/14/15 at 9:26:53 mathematicians all over the world will be up in awe since this precise second will be the first 10 digits of pi and somewhere in this second will be a point in time that will contain all the digits of pi. So then, on this you day, you should grab a pie and chow down on it and celebrate this wonderful day.

There is many other things that I can talk about, but that is for another day. If you have any opinions on anything I said, or would like to tell us anything, please do so in the comments below, and/or on our official TCSA Facebook page, and on Twitter as we here at TCSA love to hear from you. If you know of anyone who would like to know stuff about pi or that you just want to blow their mind with maths, please share this post with them as I am sure they would really like to thank you afterwards. Do you want to see more post as they come out, please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Thank you for taking the time to read today's post, and I hope you have/had a wonderful day.

Stay frosty.

JovialJman - Beauty And Attraction

Doesn't that person look beautiful? The lazy behind the hazed glass does as well.

Different people are seen to be attractive for different reasons, Males tend to be attractive when they are masculine and females tend to be attractive when they are feminine. Why is that and what does it mean?

There are many studies that have been done about the attractiveness of people and genders, (most probably since everyone would like to be considered beautiful), and I shall mention some of the results of those studies in this post. Now some of these studies did not have many ethnic groups, so it may be biased towards western cultures, but I shall try be as diverse as I can.

Sight is often the first sense we use when meeting someone new, and often influences the most in the selection of a possible mate. The physique of a person can often be told from far away, so that shall start our discussion. Women tend to prefer men that have broad shoulders a slim waist and is taller than they are. Men generally prefer women who have curves, medium sizes breasts, long hair and that are shorter than they are. These are the most popular and not the only options. There are people who prefer the out of norm body shapes, such as slightly over weight, (this usually being where food may become scarce, like places in mid Africa), really skinny, (this is mainly due to media's distortion on what they perceive as beauty), really short and really tall.

A silhouette of a man

Several silhouettes of females in 60's style clothing

Women often complain that men look at their mammary first, and sorry gents, but science may have proven just that. A research has shown that almost half of the men that very studied looked a the mammaries of the female gender first and spent the most time looking at them in relation to other parts of the body. The size of them didn't affect it too much as men still fixated on them when presented with pictures. Areas that didn't get too much attention were the arms legs and the feet. These area's used to be the most seen place in the times where ladies were wearing layers of clothes along side men. But since of cultural changes, there is more skin showing now so our gaze has shifted.

Facial features also play a role in attractiveness. Facial symmetry seemed to play a big part, (this means that one side of the face looks like the other), however, if a face is perfectly symmetrical, it looks unusual and does not seem to be found beautiful. Women find men with a chiseled chin and jutting cheek-bones, but if they are too pronounced, then these people are perceived to be very dominant and unfriendly. Both of these features are caused by the relative gender hormones, testosterone for males and oestrogens for women. The golden ratio also seems to play a part in beauty. I did mention it briefly in this blog post.

Body scent is a way for people to find a potential mate. In the DNA sequence there is a large strip that plays a part in the immune system calle MHC. MHC influences the hormones that are release in your body odor. People often found scents of people with different MHC than there owns more attractive. One hypothesis for this is since people with very similar MHC are relatives, it may stop inbreeding, and if you vary the MHC you will get healthier children.

With all of these, culture and religion play the biggest part. Those in a religion to look a certian way, then those that do not look that way may be seen as unattractive, like monks with hair, or English men without eyebrows. Everyone is beautiful in their own way, and there is someone out there that will find you irresistible. If the chances of that are one in a million then there are at least 7000 people out there that fall in that.

With that positive note it draws an end to this informative post. I hope you learnt something and if you did, may you share this with others so knowledge may be shared. If you have any comments and/or suggestions please leave them down in the comments below, or on Facebook/Twitter as we here at TCSA love to hear from you. If you would like to see more posts as they are published, then please like us on Facebook and/or Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. I hope you have/had an awesome day, and thank you for taking the time to read today's post.

Stay beautiful people.

JovialJman - Alcohol (What Does It Do?)

I may or may not be eyeing out that cold glass of whiskey.

From drinking and driving to breaking the seal, we know there are somethings that will happen when we drink but how and why do they happen. Let's talk about that.

There are a lot of people who drink to get a slight buzz, while others never really drink any alcohol. Islam consider the consumption of alcohol sinful, while Jainism forbids it completely. Christianity uses a form of alcohol in their religious practice, (during mass christians take a sip of holy wine which is a representation of the blood of Jesus Christ). Buddhists also tend to try stay away from it as it goes against the fifth of their Five Precepts.

If you have ever gone out with a group of friends in their 50's or younger then you should be familiar with the myth "breaking the seal". The meaning behind that is, when you start drinking alcohol, for this example I shall use beer, you can drink 3 or 4 before needing to go to the restroom to relieve yourself, But as soon as you do, you need to then go to the restroom more and more often, not being able to hold it in. Most of the time this is the case, so the myth was born. Now what would happen if you went earlier on?

Well as it turns out, this is just a myth. But you do go to the restroom more often, how come you may ask, well there is a scientific way to say it, but I shall try my best to put it in a way to explain to your next drunk encounter. There is this hormone called ADH, now this hormone tells your kidney to absorb water and put it into the blood so everything stays hydrated. When eating salt for instance, it absorbs salt, so your body will try and get more water to counteract this, so you will have less pee. Now what alcohol does is it starts inhibiting these hormones from reaching the kidneys effectively, (in other words they are chatting to ADH and getting them to waddle off to the next bar and forgetting about the kidneys.)

This image shows some sciency thing of how alcohol reacts in the body

Now since the Kidneys do not know that they need to absorb water they simply filter it to your bladder, and the more alcohol you drink, the more this will happen. So since you are drinking a lot of liquids and the fact that your body is not absorbing water, you need to pee more and more. But now another consequence of this happening is the dreaded hangover. If you have ever drank too much, you will know how awful you feel the next day, and if you haven't gotten there before, either you haven't been passed out drunk, or you have supermans kidneys.

The reason for this is since you are getting rid of all this water that your body needs, it is starting to dehydrate your body. Now when things do not get what they need, they start acting like a child throwing a tantrum. You begin to feel ill, this is to try get you to stop putting the poison in your body, (yes ... alcohol is a poison), and making you dizzy and lightheaded, this is to save energy. You start becoming thirsty, to try and replenish all this lost water. now if you do not get any of this and choose to sleep it off, in the morning, you feel nauseous and have a headache, these are also symptoms of dehydration.

Some of the things you can do to try and make sure this does not happen is; do not drink too much, but if you are insistent on doing that, then listen up. If you slow your consumption of alcohol your body will be able to deal with it a bit more effectively. Since your stomach has less surface area then your intestines, keeping the alcohol there, slows down the absorption of it as well. One way of doing this is to have a full stomach, there is a valve between your stomach and your intestines, and when your tummy is empty, the alcohol goes right through, so more of it gets absorbed more quickly, but when your stomach is full, that valve stays shut while your stomach dissolves the food.

Something that is know to work is eating something greasy before drinking helps you stay sober longer, this is true since that valve at the bottom of the stomach  will stay shut until the food has been dissolved, and greasy food, in general, take longer to break down then other food. Now all of these things slow down the absorption, and not stop it, so you may be more likely to over do it even more with out realising it, so lets say you still wake up with the infamous hangover, what should you do?

This image shows a lady trying to survive a hangover in a place most do.

Well a general rule of thumb is to drink water, or any liquids that do not have alcohol to replenish that missing water in your body. If you were unfortunate to leave your dinner on the side of the pavement, you should try your best to replenish those missing nutrients as well, so something greasy in the morning may also be a good idea. Stay in bed if you can as this will allow your body to sort itself out, and if you are craving something then you should try and get it as cravings are the bodies way of letting you know what it is missing. Bloody Mary's are some's solution to the hangover as well. 

This image shows one of the variations of the Bloody Mary

The Bloody Mary is a cocktail with many variations but almost all contain tomato juice, vodka, and salt or something salty. Now the liquids help replace the missing water, the salt replaces the missing electrolytes and the Vodka numbs the aches and pains temporarily while you start to replace everything that is missing and causing the hangover. Many people have said that this is the only solution that works, while others say it does not work at all. I am in favour of the former a bit more since it does replace some of the needed missing agents but there are others that help as well.

None the less, after the day is out you should start to feel better, and may face it all again next weekend. Thank you for reading today's post, and if you have any ways to get out of a hangover or remedies for them the morning after, please share them with us along with any drinking stories that you may have, down in the comments below or on Facebook/Twitter. If you know of anyone who likes to learn, or needs a way to get over a hangover, please share this with them as I am sure they will thank you for making them read this post when they have to stare at the bright gleaming screen to find the answer, trust me they will enjoy it, (teehee). If you would like to see more posts as they are published, please like us on our official Facebook page and follow us on Twitter, using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. I hope you have/had a fantastic day and that future hangovers do not occur, or are in effect for a very small duration in time.

Stay sober my drinking friends.

JovialJman - RimWorld (Entertaining Colony Sim)

This is an image showing a colony in-game taken from rimworldgame.com

RimWorld is an Indie game, created by Tynan Sylvester. It is a simulation of 3 survivors on a distant planet on the rim of the galaxy, (hence the name). It is a very interesting game and has many aspects to it that make it really enjoyable.

I have spoken about simulations before, and OddballGreg has spoken about RimWorld briefly, but I believe that it deserves a post of it's own. So with further ado, here is the post. When starting the game you are greeted with a message, (it is the picture below), it gives a warm feeling to show that this shall be the home of your colonists for some time.

This is a screenshot of the beginning message in Alpha 7 of RimWorld

From here, you will set up a base, by either creating the walls that will surround you or dig into the earth for some shelter, both having their pros and cons. You shall be visited by a range of people, some being wonders of the galaxy, while some are towns that are somewhere else on the world, some might not be friendly so preparations must be made. Without food you shall starve, without shelter you will go mad, and without defences you might get over run. All of these need to be thought of before beginning any activities as some people might be able to do some things better than anyone else, and others might not be able to do something at all.

I have spent many hours on this game, and is the cause for me publishing some of the posts as late as 11:58 on some nights, since you lose a lot of the sense of time when playing the game because there is nothing telling you what the time is on the screen. Everything in the game has a randomness to it so no two games are the same. If you were to go to a previous save and play from there, you will be surprised at the different events that may take place. One of the reasons that you cannot stop playing. The game is really well made, and it isn't even done yet. There are many features Tynan is still going to add to the game through input of those who play it.

In game development, Alpha is usually regarded to the stage when there is playable content, but there is still going to be new things added to it, which is where the game is at the moment. Beta is the next stage and is usually regarded as the stage where all content is in the game, but it is all being polished and made ready for the final release. However there is no regulation of the terms so some companies may use it in different manners. 

There is a whole community around this game, and some dedicated people have made mods for it already to add features that they would like to see in the game, and some of these might eventually be made into the original game. Many of these people work really hard for these mods and really enjoy making them. Tynan has let people mod it as much as they want, and even has a tab in the open menu for activating these mods. Tynan works almost every day on this game to try get it better than what it was the day before and most changes can almost be seen on the daily basis at this website.

Some people have made walkthroughs of how to best survive in their opinion and some have commentated while playing it. I really enjoyed Pyrion Flax's story telling of his game. It is the story of Rebecca Cain and how she survived. The way he tells the story is really amazing and when something bad happens you really feel it and have symphony for these moving pixels on the screen, it is beautiful.

This is the first video of his 6 part series, I really recommend watching them all

With that it brings today's post to an end. I hope you enjoyed reading today's rather short post on a game I really enjoy, and I hope you are able to play it yourself unless you are in matric at the moment then I hope you are studying for the exams, and you can try the game after you are done with them. Anyways, if you have any comment or suggestions on anything I have said in this post or anythings else, please leave it in the comments below and/or on Facebook/Twitter. Do you know of anyone who might like to read this blog because they enjoy reading, or playing games, or you wish just to contact them, please share this with them as I am sure they will thank you for the thought. If you would like to see more post like this and others please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter, using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. I hope you have/had a really good day.

Enjoy playing friends.

JovialJman - The Origins And Beliefs Of Halloween

Jack-o'-Lanterns are synonymous with Halloween.

It is that day of year where you can dress up as anything you want, from a ghost, or ghoul, to a vampire, or, (as some ladies like to do), a bunny. It is a day of fear and fright, along with getting free candy from houses that you visit. But how did it come about and what are the origins of these traditions.

There are a lot more theories on the things associated with Halloween then there are about the treasures of the sea and UFO's (not really but it is close). There are a few things that have a fair amount of evidence that supports it, while other things are what some just take as always being like that.

This video shows some of the origins of Halloween that I did not cover.

There were people that were called the Celts that lived in what we now would call Brittany, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Ireland, and Scotland. They had many traditions and customs, one of which was to celebrate Samhain, this was celebrated on the sunset of October 31st to sunset of the 1 of November. In the Northern hemisphere, it is the end of summer and the beginning of winter, this meant the they had finished their harvest for the year and brought the cattle from the summer pastures to closer to home, and slaughter those that they needed for the winter. They would light a big bonfire to light a way for the herders to come home. It has also been said that this was the end of the year for the Celts.

This Image shows where the celts lived. For the key please see here.

Since it was the end of the year, they believed that the veil between the living and the underworld was at its weakest and spirits where able to come easily to our world. Since some of these spirits might not have been very pleasant, people dressed up in costumes in what that thought would be unpleasing to these spirits so they would not posses them, (this might be where the dressing up came from.) Pomona was a Roman god associated with the flourishing of fruit, when drawn she is associated with apples and may be a source for our modern tradition of bobbing for apples comes from.

When Christianity was trying to convert people to their religion, one of the methods was to make it more appealing to the Pagans, they decided to make this unholy day, a day for the church and thus made it November the first "All Saints Day". Another word for saint at the time was "Hallow", which now means to make things holy. So the day before All saints day was know as all Hallow Evening and but shortening it, it became Halloween.

The Jack-o'-Lanterns have a very interesting story behind it. In Ireland, there was a story that went as such; There was once a man named Stingy Jack. He called up the Devil himself and invited him to a bar, but since Jack was rather sinister, he didn't bring money to pay for the drinks. He persuaded the devil to change into a coin so Jack could pay, but instead of paying, he decided to put the coin in a box with a silver cross, so the devil was unable to change back to his original form. Once Jack got bored he decided to let him go on 2 conditions, 1 the devil would leave him alone for 10 years, and that he would not take his soul when he dies, the devil agreed and was set free. Once Jack eventually passed away, God did not let him into heaven since he was to evil. Then jack went to the gates of hell asked the devil to be let in, but keeping his word, the Devil refused him entry but gave him a coal that  would burn forever and sent him away, Jack decided to put the coal in a carved out turnip and made a lantern. Since then people could see Jack walk around with his lantern and was referred to as Jack of the Lantern, which was shortened to Jack-o'-Lantern.

Some of the lanterns that may be seen during Halloween. Picture taken from here.

Then people carved out turnips and potatoes and put a light inside to ward off Jack since, they would thought that Jack would think the devil was there. See that it is a Turnip and not a pumpkin, well, pumpkins are not native to Ireland, but when some of them migrated to America during the potato shortage, they came into contact with the pumpkins and found they were perfect for the carvings.

All Hallows Eve was also a time to pray for those who have passed away, and one tradition was going to houses in your neighbourhood and knocked on peoples doors asking for soul cakes, for each one they got, they were ensured a prayer. This might have been the origins to the Trick-or-treating that many children do today.

Now since I have told you where some of the traditions and the name may have came from, I would like to state that we here in South Africa, don't quite celebrate it as those in America. We do try and go trick or treating but since many people don't partake in it, it does become rather hard. I myself have only ever done it once. But we do have parties with a halloween theme, and clubs do make a dress code for it on the night as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read today's post, if you have any comments, and/or suggestions, please leave them down in the comments or on Facebook/Twitter. If you have any friends that would like to read something about halloween, please can you share this with them as I am sure they would like to give it a read. If you like what you see, or would like to show your support, please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. I hope you have/had a lovely Halloween.

Happy scaring people.

JovialJman - How To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse

The women on the track there might be fit for baby sitting, who would hire her?

Zombies are those creatures that indicate the end of the world, potentially. They seem to have an urge to seek out brains or the living, so there are a few that are safe, (maybe they are dead ... don't judge). Some say that the day they walk the earth is just a matter of time, So today OddballGreg and myself will tell you how to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Now the beginning scenario was created by both OddballGreg and myself and we are both using it and expanding on it independently. It is a rather crude scenario one of which just might take place, (you never know). So without further delay here is the gruesome and rather morbid survival, (the Italics are what we both begin with):

My day begins as it usually does, my phone’s alarm going off beside me in it’s typical irritating tone in it’s occasionally vain effort to get me to wake up. 10 to 30 minutes later I'm, busy doing what I usually do in the tired stupor that comes with being awake so early.

Having managed to accurately dress myself with the correct clothing in the correct orientation after one or two tries, I gather up my usual trinkets like keys, phone, wallet, sunglasses, etc, and make my way outside to drive to work. (Yes. Drive. This is South Africa after all. Walking to work can take several hours, not minutes.) my tiredness making me fairly oblivious to my surroundings, I don't find the lack of cars on the road strange in the least, despite it being the middle of the week. “Maybe school term has finished?” I reason, that being a common cause for a lack of traffic.

Whatever the cause, I soon arrive at work, enter, and make my way over to note my entry time when I notice, strangely, that everyone is already clocked in. Must be something happening today that I wasn't told about, the lack of updates on the noticeboard showing everyone is probably somewhere else and hasn't had the time to sort things out here. Suddenly, my phone rings to tell me that I have a new message. Pulling it out of my pocket with a large yawn, I drop it in some ketchup that someone must've spilt on the floor at some point, I remove it and go to wipe it off in the bathroom, wondering at the laziness of my coworkers for not cleaning up after themselves.

Wiped and cleaned, I check who sent the message. It’s from OddballGreg, pressing the conversation to see what they said, I suddenly wonder how much he’s been drinking since his spelling is really bad. “Stsy hme, zomurs apixoltse.” Asking them to repeat what they said, I put my phone away and go to find out what work you need to do today.

Walking into the next room, I find a bunch of scared individuals looking around and throwing various things into bags while one watches the doorways while holding a cricket bat. Noticing me, the blonde haired guy with the cricket bat and something red on his white shirt’s breast pocket walks up to me and says: “Bloody hell man, I thought you were one of them.”
“One of who?” I ask incredulously.
“The zombies. Have you been walking around with your eyes closed man? They're all over the place. Listen, now’s not the time to explain. We're busy getting some food and stuff right. After that the plan is we'll go to me’ mum’s place, kill her husband who’s been bitten, drive through to the local pub, batten down the hatches, sip a beer and wait for all this to blow over. Sound good?”

Me, deciding that I've seen this movie before and that the noob with red on him clearly has no idea what he’s talking about and is probably going to get me unceremoniously killed in some pub somewhere, decide to come up with my own plan to survive:

So, since I have not noticed the events before, I ask a the group of 3 for their names and how it all started and any information that might help us survive. One of the gentleman said, "My name is Trace. I heard on the news that it was some or other diseases or infection that spread when a scientist was doing an experiment without proper preparation." Another person with a rather high voice said, "Yes! I heard that as well. My name is Rose by the way." I was astounded, she didn't really look like a female, since she was wearing rather torn up jeans and long sleeve shirt which was really dirty, which is rather different to the skirts and and skimpy tops you often see.

"Ok, so it is soem or other diseases. What are some of the things you 3 can do that can save our posteriors if the time comes to it," I ask. The man who had the blood stain on his short pocket answer, " My name is Nick, I am an ex-prisoner, I am rather good with sub-machine guns, and I know how to swing a bat." Rose interjects Nick and says, "Posterior, are you an english speaker or something?"
"No, I just tend to use rather obscure words, but there is no time for that. We need to get supplies, what do you have so far." "I have a baseball bat, we have some office supplies, and some food from the kitchen down the hall," said Nick.

"Nick, since you were in prison, do you know where the nearest gunshop is?" "Just because I was in prison does not mean I know where a gunshop is ... it's two blocks down." "Ok, awesome. Oh and my name is Jerome. I have my car parked outside, lets take that to the shop and stock up on some much needed equipment. Lets take whatever we can from here and be on our way." Once we left the office, I had my first whiff of what smelled like a dying animal. After arriving at the Gun shop, we scavenged around taking what ammunition and guns we could. Breaking the class that was between us and some of the weapons.

"There is a safe that I cannot get into. Does anyone know how to crack a safe?" asked Rose. "I might be able to help, depending on what type of safe it is. Wait, lets just search on the net for it. I have my phone with me ... just give me a sec. It is a turn wheel safe." "Yip" "Ok this one website says we need to try and bounce the safe." "Jerome ... It is a walk in safe. You can try if you want, but no. Try something else." Nick disappeared for a bit but none of us noticed. When he came back his pockets looked bulgy. He said really calmly, "everyone just wait outside for a second please." "Why?" we all 3 asked. "Trust me, just wait out side for a bit." We proceeded outside, and Nick was out shortly after, He said "Cover your ears now." We all did and then a loud BANG!!! came from inside, followed by a cloud of smoke. "What did you do man??? are you crazy?" "Relax, Jerome. There was a police station a block up, I got a duffel bag of weapons, along with some grenades." "Zombies are attracted to sound you id10t. We need to move now!" We had managed to get some of the weapons from the safe, with a not destroyed entrance. After we had loaded everything into the boot/trunk of the car, zombies started to chase after us.

If we lived in the game Unturned, these would be the zombies chasing us.

We all got in the car as fast as possible and started to discuss some of the places we could rest, or even better a place to barricade as a safe house. We all agreed that the mall was the worst place since that is where a lot of the zombies are seen to congregate. Parents were also a bad place to go, since they most probably have been turned and you don't want to see loved ones as zombies, they could give you a hug ... then bite off our ear. We decided to go to an old metal factory since there would be a lot of supplies for defences. After getting there we saw a few zombies on the ground. "We have to exterminate them. Remember Rule #1 - double Tap" After a few hours of zombie hunting, we had the problem of the bodies laying around.

When playing Shotgun Fun Fun you can expect a lot of blood, if you survive long enough

In the factory we managed to find a full body heat resistant suit, that would have been used to handle or check things close to the melted metal. We used this suit to move all the now re-dead bodies away from the factory so we can start preparations on the defences. We used metal sheets to block up all the windows and all but 2 entrances. When then made sure that these defences would hold in the case of emergency. Once we were safely locked in for the night, we decide to get to know each other around the campfire. As it turned out, Nick was in prison due to the fact he never paid any of his parking tickets, he broke out of prison when some of the guards were turned into zombies and utter chaos broke, however he was a gun enthusiast, and enjoyed hunting. Rose was a really open minded but spoke her mind all the time, if you crossed her you would be as good as ... a zombie. Trace was a military sniper, and was here on vacation when all of this started and lost his wife to the infection. I must have been asleep for the entire week since I hadn't noticed any of this until that day.

After sleeping through the night on the floor, we went out to try find beds, for better nights and supplies to survive in our safe house. "We must try stay in there as long as we can," stated Nick, while I said, "unless we try find other survivors. There might be some in other cities, look at me I survived without knowing about it for a few days." Rose looked rather confused now, "if we go out there, we will most probably die. If you want to risk your life on something like that, go ahead, but until we are much more prepared I am not leaving."

Me, being me, I wanted to find out if there was more survivors out there. So I let everyone know that I wanted to go out just for a day or two to see if there were any in the nearby towns. They were ok with me going, but did not want to come with, (who would have blamed them? Every time people do that in the movies they always get picked off one by one.) I gathered up some food and weapons and put them into a duffle bag, that was the dirtiest of them all. After stealing a car I went to a gas station to see if there was any fuel I can get. I started filling up my car when all of a sudden a zombie appeared right next to me, Thank goodness for Rule #1 - Cardio. I out ran the zombies, pulled a frying pan out of the car and had some batting practice.

Once I had filled up my car, I went to the mall ... to see if anyone was stupid enough to actually go there. I am to the entrance of Greenstone shopping center and then proceeded inwards. I noticed that one shop, Nandos, seemed to be barricaded so I inspected it. I found it strange that there were little amount of zombies in the mall. Once I was able to get around the barricades, I saw some movement in the back. A woman screamed and started running at me with a shotgun in her hand and pulled the trigger. I was shot in the head, the light faded in a matter of seconds and I was dead. I realized that I still had an extra life and respawned at the entrance to the center again. "Damn, never done that before. I must be really careful." I went back to Nandos and got around the barricades, this time I hid behind a pillar and shouted out, "Is there anyone there?" I heard 2 people quickly mutter and shot up from there chairs.


"Please don't shoot, I come in peace." "Who are you? have you been bitten?" "My name is Jerome, no I haven't. there are hardly any zombies out there, what happened to them all?" I slowly walked to the 2 people there with my hands up. The lady answered, "Hi, my name is Rochelle, we have managed to lure them to the other end of the center, but we couldn't do it with all of them, that is why we have the barricade." "My name is Bobby, but everyone calls me Coach." "Are there any other people here with you 2?" "No, it is just us, we thought there was no one else out there, so we stay here as much as we can." "I was with 3 other people in the town just down the road, if you want you can come and join us, more people, the better we can do things." Rochelle says, "That would be great, do you have a car, all the ones in the parking lot have been syphoned for our generator." "Yes, it is just out side, lets take as much as we can and head on back. I just need to eat something first." I go to the kitchen, and make myself something to eat. There were some canned tomatoes, and some mushrooms, I managed to find some rolls that were not quite steal and just put it all together. I quickly ate that, and we were on our way.

I may or may not have seen something from Plants vs. Zombies

I let Coach drive, since I started to feel rather strange. I felt really tired and started to hallucinate, and saw things on the road that were not really there. I thought I would just tell them where the place we were staying at is and then sleep it off. I managed to just explain where it was before I passed out. When I woke up, I saw people shapes in the daze, since my eyes were not all the way open. I tried to get up but was tied down. "Guys what is happening, why am I tied down" Nick says "you were running a temperature, and for the last 2 days you were having muscle twitches, we were afraid that you might turn into a zombie." "Why would I turn into a zombie? I wasn't bitten, I didn't even get close to any zombies. Wait ... why can't I feel my legs? Guys, why can't I feel my legs?!?" coached explained to me that on the way to the factory, there was a little mishap and one of them had bitten my legs, so they wanted to save me from turning, so the chopped it off.

As the day progressed I started feeling strange again, I was turning into a zombie. I shouted, "Guys, I am turning, you have to kill me and take off my head, you have to stay safe." "But you were getting better." "We can't do that, you are part of our team." No-one wanted to do it. Nick came up to me, leant down and whispered into my ear "do you really want us to kill you? You might not survive." My response was, "Rule #17 Don't be a hero." With that, Nick had decided to do it. He went and got the machete from the back and said, "We will always remember you Jerome." With a quick swoop, the blade went through and made a ding, with the concrete below my head.

Suddenly I got a falling sensation and woke up in bed to the sound of my phone's alarm beside me. "It was all just a dream? It felt so real though. I guess that explains the respawn thing. I must stop playing CoD Zombies." After dressing myself for work after a few attempts, I gather my things and head for the car. Driving to work I notice that there are not many cars on the road despite it being the middle of the week, it must be school holiday I reason to myself.

I soon arrive at work and make my way to the front desk to clock in. I notice everyone else has already, must be something happening today that no-one told me about. My phone rings with a notification that I got a message. While pulling my phone out of my pocket with a yawn, it drops and lands in some ketchup/tomato sauce. Geez I mutter, After going to the bathroom to wash it, I realize that this was way too familiar. I start to shake and unlock my phone, the message it from OddballGreg. It says "stsy hme, zomurs apixoltse" ...

The End

I hope you enjoyed this special feature, of OddballGreg and I today. If you have any comments or any other storeys you would like us to read, please let us know about them in the comments below, and on Facebook/Twitter. If you know anyone who likes a zombie story or just likes to read, please share this post with them as I am sure they will thank you for it. If you like what you see and would like to see more, please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left, to see the latest posts, as they are published. I thank you for taking the time for reading today's posts, and I hope you have/had an awesome day.

Happy zombie hunting. 

JovialJman - More Morbid Sayings And Their Origins

Roses are red, that much has been said. I might be a monster, hiding under your bed.

Halloween is just round the corner, so here is round 2 of the morbid origins to sayings and words that we use every day and don't know it.

*Sorry for the late post, but due to unforseen circumstances I was not able to edit and publish it on time. I hope you understand and enjoy the post.

When you are showing people who you really are you are "showing your true colours". Now this saying comes from the 18th Century of warfare over the sea, and the "colours" were the flags of the ships which represented the country from which they come from. Under the Articles of war, (the Royal Navy's code of conduct), when going into battle you had to raise your flag so the other ships know which side you fight for. Now some captains wanted to get an advantage over their enemies and thought that that was more important then the rules, so they raised the flag of an enemy to show that they are allias. then when they got close enough, they would "show their true colours" and fire upon the enemy ship.

After someone has passed away, they have said to "kick the bucket". This saying has several theories about it's origin, but none can be proven more than the others. One of which is said it relates to a bucket a person will stand on when attempting to hang themselves and after the kick the bucket away, they pass away. Another being from a catholic tradition where a bucket/pail was set at the feet of a loved one that has passed on and on occasion the person would have an involuntary muscle twitch and kick the bucket. A third theory is that a bucket was a word used to describe a beam or yoke that was used to hand and/or carry things on. Now the bucket in the saying was used to refer to the beam on which dead pigs were hung on. These animals may have struggled on the bucket, hence the expression. "Deadline" as all know in a working area means the last moment when something needs to be done or handed in. This term was an actually line during the American Civil War. The guard drew a line on the ground and any prisoners that crossed that line would have been shot in the head thus killed. How nice that you won't be shot in the head if you don't make the deadline at work?

If you are set in your ways and will do anything to achieve your goals, you might be a "die-hard" person. In old times this was a word/phrase that was used to describe the people that struggled the longest when they were hanged. It became rather popular after the 1811 Battle of Albuera during the Napoleonic Wars. You might be "as pleased as Punch" to learn all of these sayings but unless you enjoy killing, you might not be. Punch was a puppet in 1600's puppet show Punch and Judy. Some of the things Punch does in the show is kill babies punches Judy until she dies, kills doctors, lawyers, a hangan and even the Grim Reaper. Now Punch got much enjoyment out of his killing sprees, so the saying came about. So next time someone says they are "as pleased as punch" you might want to run away. Teehee.

After a loved one has passed on, a ceremony may be held to cherish the memories that families and friends spent with them, this ceremony is called a "wake" and is done usually before the body is buried. This word has an origin that stems from the fear of not being buried alive. This again has some evidence but isn't the definite origin. In the 1500's in UK many things that were eaten off of, and drank from. had substances/chemicals in them that could have socken into the peoples food, and poisoned them. Some of these poisons caused their victims to slip into a coma and to the onlooker at the time, they appeared dead. Now since they were thought as dead, they buried the body. A bit later, there was no more space to bury bodies, so they started to dig up the bodies that were buried longer than a certian time, and discovered that some of the coffins (almost 1 in 25) had scratch marks on the lid, and realised that they had buried people alive. After this was discovered they waited to see if the person would "wake" up and had food and drinks during the wait.

The next to sayings also may have links to the fear of being buried alive. If you are at school and need to do a speech that you are not prepared for, you wish to be "saved by the bell." Now this saying has 2 popular origins, one being that it was a boxing term were if one of the boxers were almost knocked out, but the bell stoped it from happening, they were saved from defeat by the bell. But since this is the time of year for horror, I will begin with the following more terrifying meaning. Again in the UK after they saw that people were buried alive, they made safety coffins, that had a bell at the surface, that was attached with a string to the wrist of the person buried and thus, if they were to wake up they could ring the people. Now these people were know as a "dead ringer" as they were thought to be dead but rang the bell. "Dead ringer" now means the same as "spit and image" which means to have an exact likeness, such as twins. Now the "graveyard shift" also came about from here. The people that watched over the dafty coffins for the "dead ringers" was said to have the "graveyard shift" since they had a shift at a graveyard, however now it means any time working really late at night to early hours in the mornings.

That brings us to an end of the death related origins of sayings the we use from day to day. I hope you enjoyed today's post, and if you think any of your friends would like to give this a read, please share it with them, as I ma sure they would thank you from it. If you have any remarks or suggestions on a future post, please tell use down in the comments or on Facebook/Twitter, and while you are there, could you like us and follow us, but if not you can do so by using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. We here at TCSA really love to hear from you, and appreciate any support that is given. I hope you have/had a really good day, and I shall write again overmorrow.

Happy October everyone.

JovialJman - Morbid Sayings And Their Origins

Roses are red, and so is blood, it looks like death, hides in a flower bud.

Some things that we say on occasion and let our children say, may just have a very gruesome origin. Many are not definite, but it is interesting that there are these theories to some sayings and songs

Does that "cat have your tongue?"(... no, I am speaking, teehee). This famous saying that is told to people that are quiet when we expect them to be speaking has many theories to its origins, some include that in ancient times in Egypt, cats were very sacred animals, and when someone said something against the ruler, they would have the persons tongue cut out and fed to their cats. Another theory is that sailors were punished with a cat o' none tails, and the pain was so much that it left the sailors speechless. If you have no tongue, can you still "pay through your nose?" This means, today anyway, to pay something at a very high prices as you have no other option, (like masks and costumes the day before Halloween). The origin of this one is also rather unknown. One theory is that when the vikings where still around they made the Irish towns pay a tax, and those that did not pay said tax, they would slit the noses of the people there as a punishment and warning for others.

When trying estimate something, you can use "the rule of thumb." One theory for this one was a law that was said to exist that a husband may beat his wife as long as the stick he was using was no thicker then his thumb. I might be "pulling your leg", but it is one of the origins. Now to pull someones leg means to say something that wasn't true, and when revealing it you may say "I was just pulling your leg." But in the past, when people where robbing a house someone would be on stand by by the rooms of the owner of the house encase they were to wake up. Now this robber would literally pull the owners leg, forcing them to the ground where they could restrain them.

It was once a custom for rather sinister people to add weight to a persons chest to "press them for an answer", however today weights are not used, but we are still pressed for answers when we must give them in a short period of time. Now people in England a while back, did not press people for an answer when recruiting them to the army. "Bottoms up" means to finish your drink, but in England when people were recruiting for the war, these people would slip a coin into unsuspecting peoples drinks and they would not know until they were finished their drinks, and the recruiters said that they then accepted payment for joining the army. So bottoms up meant to lift your glass before drinking to check for this "payment"

When you have to face something you really don't want to, you must "bite the bullet" and just go and do it." This saying comes from time of war where soldiers that had wounds that needed to be treated and needed some sort of surgery, they were given a bullet to bite as there was no anesthetic back then that would have kept long enough to take to war. When a thief is caught in the act, is is said to be "caught read handed" even if their hands were not read. This originated in a time that it was illegal to butcher animals yourself at home, but having fresh meat was ok, so to arrest these people that were doing these butcherings they would have to be caught in the act with blood on their hands, thus "caught read handed" was a literal term.

After some one has sneezed, we say "bless you", but why do we say that? It turns out that medicine was not as amazing as it is today. When someone got sick, there was a good chance of them dying so since England was rather religious at this time, people would say bless you in case you were to die, and this was especially true during the plague. Speaking of which, the nursery rhyme that children around the world sing, has connections to the plague. "Ring around the rosy", was the rush that came when a person was infected by the plague, and those poises in the pockets was to make them smell nice as it was a belief at the time was that diseases where transmitted through bad smells, and when the people were dead, they would actually fall down, (how nice).

I hope you enjoyed the rather gruesome sayings and their origins. If you did, or would like to tell us anything, please do so in the comments, or on Facebook/Twitter. If you have any friends who like knowing useless things or likes to freak people out, please share this post with them as I am sure they would much appreciate it. If you would like to show your support or see more of our posts as they are published, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Thank you for taking the time to read today's post and I hope you have/had an awesome day.

Stay healthy people.