Dilemma

I have less than 2 hours to post to this blog today and still make it count. How can I come up with something meaningful in that short amount of time without making it seem like a patchwork quilt of other's people's work?

The answer is, I can't. So while I may not promote today's blog post - there was nothing in the NaBloPoMo rules that said I was supposed to promote it exactly - at least something will show up here for today's date.

It's too bad, too, because there were a few things going on today that were of mild interest to me: Sewing Machine Day and IBM PC Day. Vinyl records make today's list as well. Today was also International Youth Day.

• Sewing Machine Day - Okay, nothing to be found here except for discrepancies on exactly which date this is observed, and neither of those dates were for today! Click here for the one source that gives today's date as Sewing Machine Day. Click here to see what another source says about the June 13th date (which also acknowledges Sept. 10 as another date it is observed). Here is yet a third source with any information on this event, however it is listed as a June event.
• IBM PC Day - I really couldn't find anything about this day either, other than a blurb in an online article that mentions today's date and an event that took place nearly 30 years ago: on August 12, 1981, in a ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in NYC, the world's first IBM personal computer was introduced with a pricetag of only $1,565.

The $1,565 price bought a system unit, a keyboard and a color/graphics capability. Options included a display, a printer, two diskette drives, extra memory, communications, game adapter and application packages — including one for text processing. The development team referred to their creation as a mini-compact, at a mini-price, with IBM engineering under the hood.

For more on the birth of the thing few people can live without in this day and age, click here.

• Vinyl Record Day - Finally, something with a whole entire website attached to it! Vinyl Record Day is,

  "the First Nonprofit organization dedicated to: The Preservation of the Cultural Influence, the Recordings and the Cover Art of the Vinyl Record."

  Coooooooooool!!!!! Now this is something I can totally appreciate. Music lovers of all ages should definitely check out this website, it is chock full of goodies. Maybe if I ever finish this blog post and I have time before I go to work at 3am I will check it out myself. If nothing else you should check out their links page - tons and tons of resources there. Turns out Edison invented the phonograph on this date in 1877. I'd say that's a good choice for celebrating Vinyl Record Day.
• International Youth Day - Our future ... yes, I'd say setting aside a day to honor the world's youth is definitely a good idea. The United Nations endorsed the recommendation of making today's date the day we honor young people across the globe at their December 1999 General Assembly. So the first observance was August 12, 2000. Now I kind of feel guilty I didn't jump on writing this up 24 hours ago, so that way my social media network would be notified, because I truly do believe this is such a worthy cause, worthier than most. Children are so precious; they totally deserve to be honored. How often do we shove them aside, drop them off at the babysitter's, and just generally ignore them, not because we're not interested but because we are simply too busy as adults trying to keep the roof over their heads and ours? Well today reminds us that, for one day at least, we can spend all day showing them just how important they are to us. So if you're reading this now, don't feel bad about celebrating Int'l Youth Day a day or two late - main thing is, if you have kids or nieces, nephews, best friend's kids, etc. ... show them how truly special they are: just spend some time with them. They will always remember you for that.

The link above takes you to "Children International" which is more colorful than the UN's website which I found to be rather text-heavy and dry. The United Nations' theme this year is: "Sustainability: Our Challenge. Our Future." To read more about that, click here.

---

Okay - I guess I'm finished. 11:30pm. Shameful!

But what I'm going to post tomorrow was what I had intended for today and just never got around to finishing. It's mostly finished ... but believe me, it's worth waiting for. It's a doozy. There is one, lone, unique holiday for tomorrow which I may just post separately if I have time - International Left-Handers Day, 2009.