Happy New Year

In Today's New Years Eve Issue

New Year
New Year Facts
Top 10 New Year's Resolutions
Random Joke of the Day

It’s the end of the year

Lets bid it farewell

The chimes will ring

Their bye decibel

The past has gone

Let's welcome the future

A new stitch in time

An annual Suter

If the last twelve months

Have been a test

The I hope the next

Are all the best

So from this small blog

And this poor writer

Thank you for reading

And making life brighter

In the Gregorian calendar (today mostly in use), New Year’s Eve, the last day of the year, is on December 31.

New Year’s Eve is all about numbers. Indeed, we spend the entire day counting down the hours until 11 p.m., when we start counting the minutes, which we do until 11:59 p.m., when we start counting the seconds.

December 31, 2017 and January 1, 2018 – New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are on a Sunday and Monday.

The International Date Line, located at 180 degrees longitude and on the exact opposite side of the earth of the prime meridian, denotes the passage of a calendar date from the day before. The countries west of the line move into a new day first, and other countries (moving westward) follow.

Samoa and parts of Kiribati are the first places to welcome the New Year while American Samoa and Baker Island in the United States, are among the last.

Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner.

Common traditions include attending parties, eating special New Year’s foods, making resolutions for the new year and watching fireworks displays.

The earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C.and was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March.

A variety of other dates tied to the seasons were also used by various ancient cultures. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their new year with the fall equinox, and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solstice.

The early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year. The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March.

In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as New Year’s Day.

In present day, with most countries now using the Gregorian calendar as their de facto calendar, New Year’s Day is probably the most celebrated public holiday, often observed with fireworks at the stroke of midnight as the new year starts in each time zone.

A New Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behavior.

“Auld Lang Syne” is traditionally sung at midnight on New Year’s Eve. It was written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788. He may have based it on a folk song. The words auld lang syne mean “times gone by”.

Popping champagne corks at the stroke of midnight is a mainstay on New Year’s Eve, whether at swanky parties or home celebrations.

Each New Year’s Eve 1 million people gather in New York City’s Times Square to watch famous ball drop. Another 1 billion people from around the world will watch the famed ball drop on TV.

At midnight on December 31, Buddhist temples all over Japan ring their bells a total of 108 times to symbolize the 108 human sins in Buddhist belief, and to get rid of the 108 worldly desires regarding sense and feeling in every Japanese citizen. A major attraction is The Watched Night bell, in Tokyo.

Mexicans celebrate New Year’s Eve, by eating a grape with each of the twelve chimes of a clock’s bell during the midnight countdown, while making a wish with each one.

In some cities of Colombia, Cuba and Puerto Rico, there is a tradition of making a male doll that is stuffed with memories from the past year, all dressed with the clothes of the outgoing year and is called Mr. Old Year. At midnight, the doll is set on fire symbolizing erasing of the bad memories.

There is a music festival every New Year’s eve in the Antarctic called ‘Icestock’

In Italy, people wear red underwear on New Year’s Day to bring good luck all year long.

Until 2006, the Space Shuttle never flew on New Year’s day or eve because its computers couldn’t handle a year rollover.

• Lose Weight and Get Fit
• Quit Smoking
• Learn Something New
• Eat Healthier and Diet
• Get Out of Debt and Save Money
• Spend More Time with Family
• Travel to New Places
• Be Less Stressed
• Volunteer
• Drink Less

The Parce lForce New Year Eves party has been moved to next door and starts anytime between 8am - 6pm

Thank you for reading !

You can find my authors page on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neville-Raper/e/B0759Z1D25

Movie Review

In Today's Issue

Movie Review
Sylvester Stallone
That's Amaaaazing
Random Joke
Top 100

I have recently been approached by an American web site/blog, who've seen my writing, and have asked if I'd consider doing something for them. They gave me several options that they wanted a 'Brits' point of view of.... As a big movie fan I picked it as an option. They've asked if I can add some of my 'Wacky' English humour ( their words, not mine ) so here is my first piece.... if you like it, I'll post more, if you don't..... I won't lol...

Rambo Last BloodCert RRun Time 89mins

Now before I start, I must confess that I do have a soft spot for old Sly and when I say old, I mean old. At 73 this is a more reflective John Rambo.

I was a big fan of First Blood the denouement of a damaged soldier cast aside by the society he fought for, I thought that this was particularly poignant. The following three films were diluted down to cartoon superhero vs foreign baddies. I found them a bit like a pot noodle, tasty but ultimately lacking substance.

In this film he’s back in the old USA, has found himself a small ranch, a Hispanic housekeeper and has become a surrogate father to her young granddaughter.

In his spare time, he likes to train horses, have war flashbacks, build tunnels and fashion big eff off knives… (imagine that as your profile on Match!)

So, without spoilers, the young girl decided to go to Mexico to find her real father and this is where the trouble starts.

The story, such as it is, then leads him on a rescue mission into drug cartel land. The finale takes place back at his ranch where those naughty Mexicans, who went under a tunnel in Trump’s wall, turn up to marmalise our mate John. Cue what appeared to me to be a very messy version of Home Alone. Each baddy is dispatched in a more and more inventive fashion with home made killer traps. They are so good in fact I think I’ll design one for my shed… Crimewatch my %rse.

Oh, and yes, he does get to use his bow and arrow.

This is a slow starter of a movie and be warned there are a lot of subtitles when John gets down to Mexico.

In conclusion originality is missing from this film, and when boiled down is nothing more than a generic revenge story. What rises it above, slightly, is the nostalgia felt for the character and Mr. Stallone. This may be Last Blood but there Is certainly buckets of it…

AN ERRANT PAIR OF FORCEPS GAVE SYLVESTER STALLONE HIS DISTINCTIVE LOOK.

Many comedians have paid their bills over the decades by adopting Sylvester Stallone’s distinctive lip droop and guttural baritone voice. The facial feature was the result of some slight mishandling at birth. When Stallone was born on July 6, 1946 in Manhattan, the physician used a pair of forceps to deliver him. The malpractice left his lip, chin, and part of his tongue partially paralyzed due to a severed nerve. Stallone later said his face and awkward demeanor earned him the nickname “Sylvia” and authority figures telling him his brain was “dormant.” Burdened with low self-esteem, Stallone turned to bodybuilding and later performing as a way of breaking through what seemed to be a consensus of low expectations.

SYLVESTER STALLONE WAS OFFERED THE LEAD ROLE IN BEVERLY HILLS COP.

In one of the more intriguing alternate casting decisions in Hollywood history, Stallone was originally offered the Axel Foley role in 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop. Not wishing to make a comedy, Stallone rewrote the script to focus more on the action, as Detroit cop Foley stampedes through Beverly Hills to find his friend’s killers. Stallone described his version as resembling “the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan on the beaches of Normandy” and said his climax involved a game of chicken between a Lamborghini and an oncoming train. Producers opted to go in another direction. It became one of Eddie Murphy’s biggest hits. Stallone would later use some of his ideas for a rogue cop in the 1986 film Cobra.

SYLVESTER STALLONE WANTED TO CREATE A PUDDING EMPIRE.

In 2005, shortly before Rocky Balboa resurrected his film career, Stallone embarked on a line of fitness supplements. His company, Instone, produced a pudding snack that was low-carb and high in protein. Stallone even appeared on Larry King to hawk the product. A legal dispute with a food scientist over the rights to the concoction dragged on for years and Instone eventually folded.

That's Amaaaaaaaaaaazing

Rambo is based on a real life war hero.

The writer of First Blood, David Morrell first thought of writing a book about a decorated war hero struggling to assimilate back to civilian life when he read about the real-life exploits of World War II soldier Audie Murphy. Murphy was the most decorated American soldier in World War II, earning every possible U.S. military decoration for valor as well as five separate decorations from foreign countries including France and Belgium.

Following the war, Murphy starred as himself in the film adaptation of his own autobiography, To Hell and Back, and would go on to have a film career, appearing in 44 feature films. Murphy—who later suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, which also inspired Morrell’s characterization of Rambo—tragically died in a plane crash in 1971. The Canadian-born Morrell decided to update his novel to the post-Vietnam era due to the political and cultural climate he saw as a grad student at Penn State in the late 1960s.

Morrell would go on to write the novelizations of the second and third Rambo movies. Since he had Rambo die at the end of the first book he had to retroactively change that to have his hero alive and well in the subsequent books.

Random Joke of the Day

Just seen a car being driven by a sheep in a swimsuit.....

It was a Lamb Bikini

Top 100

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