miles jackson

Blue Monday (My Birthday)

My birthday is officially the most depressing day of the year.
(I KNEW IT!!)


Blue Monday (date)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blue Monday is a name given to a date stated, as part of a publicity campaign by Sky Travel, to be the most depressing day of the year.

This date was published in a press release under the name of Cliff Arnall, at the time a tutor at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, a Further Education centre attached to Cardiff University. Guardian columnist Dr Ben Goldacre reported that the press release was delivered substantially pre-written to a number of academics by Public Relations agency Porter Novelli, who offered them money to put their names to it.[1] The Guardian later printed a statement from Cardiff University distancing themselves from Arnall: "Cardiff University has asked us to point out that Cliff Arnall... was a former part-time tutor at the university but left in February."[2]

According to a press release by a mental health charity[3], the formula is:




where weather=W, debt=d, time since Christmas=T, time since failing our new year’s resolutions=Q, low motivational levels=M and the feeling of a need to take action=Na. 'D' is not defined in the release, nor are units.

Arnall says the date was calculated by using many factors, including: weather conditions, debt level (the difference between debt accumulated and our ability to pay), time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and feeling of a need to take action. Writing about the calculation, Goldacre stated: ... the fact is that Cliff Arnall's equations ... fail even to make mathematical sense on their own terms.[1]

This date allegedly falls on the third Monday of January. The date was declared by Arnall to be 24 January in 2005,[4] 23 January in 2006,[5] 22 January in 2007,[6] 21 January in 2008,[7] 19 January in 2009[8] and 18 January in 2010.

Mr Arnall also says, in a press release commissioned by Wall's ice cream,[9] that he has calculated the happiest day of the year - in 2005, 24 June,[10] in 2006, 23 June,[11] in 2008, 20 June[12] and in 2009 19 June.[13] So far, this date has fallen close to Midsummer.

happy new year.

what i want out of the interweb. besides amazon.

you know what, i haven't yet found a website that is pleasing to me in an all-encompassing, one-stop fix. there are a couple that are really fun for their own specialties, but not as a single sweet spot.

i'm thinking that maybe i have to make my own. bikes, music, literature, film, cultural geography, comedy, a dash of politics, maybe some sweet photos... you know, life.


but i don't want to do the work. and i have a.d.d.

transference occurrence

farmington skate usa.

The Walkmen

good morning

its been almost 2 years since i posted anything on this site. i'll have to figure out what this means for me now. back then it was something to keep me from losing my mind in new england. now i live in durango, colorado.

i can ride my bike if i want to. i listen to the music i like. i read a little here and there. i hang out with my girlfriend. we walk the dogs. i get my feelings hurt sometimes. sometimes she does too. we tell each other "i love you." we have drinks. i hang out with friends. we go for rides if we want to. we listen to the music we like. the only part that's tough out here is the money thing. everything else is pretty golden. people out here have to work shitty jobs and say, "thank you for my shitty job."

i have a dog now. miles jackson. he's very handsome and makes for a great friend. i hope the feeling is mutual. i get to see my 2 best buds alot. one lives here (chinatown, currently) and one in ridgway.



i get to talk to my niece every week. she tells me what is hers. i miss her so much. i look forward to her visiting me out here when she is older. i have a feeling she'll love it out here too.

i guess in a way this is a journal. of sorts. and a celebration of what makes life worth living, for me, right now. this is what always gets me. i have this strong compulsion to write but i never know why i'm writing. fiction seems the logical choice but this stuff i do is almost always first person....

i just ran 42 circles around the house trying to figure out what i wanted to do next.

all my good friends have failing relationships. my girlfriend broke up with me this week. we got back together the next day. i broke up with her last night. we're back together again. i'm really trying not to take myself too seriously. i just watched the fountain for the third time. cried my eyes out again.

all i really want is to spend several hours a day on my road bike. i drink a lot of coffee and even more tea. i download music from soulseek. i don't pay because its not possible. i drink different things at night. gin and tonics if i'm home, beer if i'm out with a friend. pastis or absinthe if its a writing night.

i keep telling myself over and over that i just want to write what i would want to read. the closest i've ever come to reading what i would want to read, so far, is eileen myles. well, maybe mark sundeen. yeah. guess its a tie. and neither one has much out.... brian said i'd like michelle tea if i liked eileen, i don't know.

mom's coming out soon. it just turned daylight savings time. its 7:10pm now and still light outside.

JUST KIDDING!!!!!

This Afternoon Rain Hi 37°F

Tonight Snow/Sleet Lo 33°F

Thursday Slight Chc Snow Hi 46°F

Thursday Night Breezy Lo 28°F

Friday Slight Chc Rain/Snow Hi 47°F

Friday Night Slight Chc Rain/Snow Lo 26°F

Saturday Chance Rain/Snow Hi 44°F

Saturday Night Chance Snow Lo 26°F

Sunday Chance Showers Hi 45°F

horse badorties.

its what you put your WEED IN, man.

national anthem

the end! every time i look in sky i see why purple says glow down. you ink loins where time destroys and comic pollution questions apparitions. fire? ranger, tell me where diary sits.

is forestry for you? what would it bring? do voice boxes ring? let's take it down and back. let's walk slower down the same trail we were on. let's hold hands and see what happens when we sit our eyes on and through the blade. it's there. welcome. i said welcome.

i was too caught up most of the time in the drinky state of tennessee's nights to stand next to you on your road. i just wanted you to be on my team. battin' h's. i just wanted to see you next to me in my rear view. always in the rear view. thanks for not giving in old brother. old lover. my sister.

they took off with no warning. giddy, laughing about what they had that no one else seemed to have, and the stuff they didn't that everyone else apparently did. "keep it suckers!!" and they were gone again.

Montana's Official State Lullaby...

From New West:

Montana House members grew dreamy and placid as cowboy poet and singer Ken Overcast serenaded the chamber with the proposed Montana lullaby. Rep. Wayne Stahl, R-Saco is introducing a bill to designate the song as the official state lullaby. If passed, Montana would be the first state to have an official lullaby.

Found a nice old map of the Missouri headwaters.

From the Lewis & Clark Exhibit, Newberry Library, Chicago:

Ac ko mok ki's Map, 1801

This remarkable document illustrates the confidence Native people possessed in their knowledge of their environment. It also demonstrates the relationships that had been forged between Indians and Europeans prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Drawn first in the snow by Ac ko mok ki, a Blackfeet leader, in February 1801, this map was copied onto paper by Hudson’s Bay Company trader, Peter Fidler.

Ac ko mok ki’s map describes a region of some 200,000 square miles. It is drawn with west at the top of the page (wink!); the double line crossing from left to right represents the Rocky Mountains. It shows two rivers running west from the Rockies, and seventeen rivers flowing east. The Missouri River is represented by the line down the center of the map. Fidler added details regarding the Native American tribal populations in the region.

The Jefferson, Gallatin and Madison Rivers come together just north of Three Forks, Montana to create the Missouri River. This is one of the most beautiful wetlands areas I've ever seen... Its been 10 months since I was out this way. I'll be at TMM headquarters in a week and a half. Yes. While there I gotta try and get over to Pony, Lahood and definitely get a steak at the bar in Willow Creek. Gotta pick up a little stone for Steve from the Jefferson. Smooth behind the bar.... Head into Bozeman and say hello to Amanda & Chris. Maybe head over to Big Sky with Amanda for some R&R.

but there's so much Culture!

This Afternoon...Freezing rain...Snow...Rain with a chance of sleet. Precipitation May be heavy at Times. Snow and sleet accumulation around an inch. Blustery with highs in the lower 30s. Northeast winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Tonight...Freezing rain...A chance of sleet and rain in the evening...Then a chance of snow after midnight. Total accumulation of 3 to 5 inches. Lows around 18. Northwest winds 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.