Rotundus.com

I have a simple rule when it comes to celebrating holidays: ignore the common and celebrate the weird. Naturally, that means that pi day is a key event on the calendar (marked by a yearly post here).

I was debating if an appropriate way to celebrate would be to use circular logic as much as possible in conversations that day. It didn't take too long before I concluded though that that might drive people insane and cause them to call me loony. (Although that would be a great time to point out how round the 'o's in loony are.)

I decided that a better way to celebrate might be to spend the day eating a few spherical or cylindrical foods. At very least, one pie.

To help inspire your celebrations, here's a piem I found:

Now I, even I, would celebrate
in rhymes unapt, the great
immortal Syracusan, rivaled nevermore,
who in his wondrous lore,
passed on before,
left men his guidance,
how to circles mensurate.
(Adam Orr)

(For those unaware, a piem is a poem wherein the i-th word contains the number of characters in the i-th digit of pi)

You could also practice for any pi recitations throughout the course of the day.

There's also a list of suggestions for ways to mark the day.

When Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States, ... [he] was wearing a stylish bulletproof suit, and there is only one company in the world who makes them.

Miguel Caballero, the famed Bulletproof Tailor of Bogota, has for years been designing high-end armoured fashionware for the world's paranoid elite.

Employees are dedicated and committed to the product, so much so that everyone who works for Miguel Caballero is required to try on a vest, and be shot by Mr Caballero. And you thought your job interview was tough.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Cpl. Alex Perry, a member of the Princess of Wales' Own Regiment who is now posted in Kandahar with the Royal Canadian Regiment, wants to become a paramedic when he returns to Canada in two months. He has been accepted to Niagara College's program but is in a bizarre bureaucratic limbo.

Perry's G-2 license expired while he was deployed and one of the college prerequisites is that applicants show proof they have booked an appointment for their 'G' licence test -- they don't actually have to have taken the test to be accepted.

The provincial transportation ministry -- which was honoured Friday with a certificate from the Armed Forces recognizing its support of the reserves -- says Perry can't book an appointment until he retakes the written test and he will have to return to Canada to do so.

He can't possibly do that before the college's deadline expires, meaning he may have to wait another year to start his studies.

... Her son works as a member of a force protection unit at a forward operating base in Zhari District, just west of Kandahar City, where his team provides security to civilian reconstruction projects, such as roadbuilding.

Ironically, he drives armoured military vehicles as part of his job. That's because a member of the Forces can drive a vehicle owned or leased by the Department of National Defence -- everything up to a tank -- with a special permit issued by the federal government known as a 404.

Source: Kingston Whig-Herald

(It's amazing how many acronyms, like SNAFU, have military origins)

A MELBOURNE father of three has been jailed for sending a birthday card to his daughter.

The man ``Mick'' -- who cannot be identified for legal reasons -- was locked up in a suburban police station for seven nights and spent another in the tough Melbourne Custody Centre. He says he was surrounded by drug addicts and people charged with violent offences during his ordeal last month.

Mick claims he is a victim of a family law system that is biased against fathers. ``I was jailed for nine days and eight nights for sending my 11-year-old daughter a birthday card,'' he said. ``Apparently I broke an intervention order. It's ludicrous and it breaks your heart.''

The 51-year-old is estranged from his wife and claims she has brought a series of intervention orders against him, banning him from contact with his children, without any evidence.

... Mick says the experience has cost him $20,000 and his career as a writer.

Source: Sydney Herald