New Year

Hope everyone is having a happy and safe New Year's Eve. Today was also my mom's birthday. I really like how January 1st hits each time zone with each successive hour. I used to think that it might be fun to experience New Year's several different times by racing the clock, jetting from Sydney to Hong Kong to India to Moscow to London to New York. On that note, I have to bring up the International Dateline. I did a project in computer class in 8th grade; we pretended like we were travel agents and did all the research necessary to plan a trip somewhere. I chose Australia. In the course of my research, I found that you lose an entire day when you fly from LAX across the International Dateline to Sydney. However, on the return flight, you arrive at LAX before you even left Sydney. It's primitive time travel at the very least. As a fan of the Back to the Future movies (particularly I and II), I realize that this feat is nothing compared to actually time travel, but it's still pretty cool. You have to admit that. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well and will continue to do well into this new year. 2009, I welcome thee.