ANNOUNCEMENT: Wallpaper – HalfEatenMind rings in the New Year 2013

By Vijay Shah

Here at the Half-Eaten Mind, I hope you have all had a smashing Christmas, enjoyed the Queen’s speech and that hour-long episode of EastEnders where Derek Branning dies from a heart attack (not presumably from eating too much Paxo turkey stuffing). It is a great occasion to spend with family and friends, as I did yesterday. I spent Christmas Day at my sister’s in-laws’ bungalow near Seven Kings enjoying a meal of fresh turkey and chicken with a generous helping of gravy, vegetables and even baked beans. That certainly was a new take on the traditional Xmas roast!. The living room had by then already turned into a festive pop-up social club, with games of cards, checkers and dominos bringing in punters young and old from all over the house, crowding the living room as the children ran around with buggies pretending they were shoppers running frantically from one Boxing Day sale to another.

And speaking of games, how is this for entertainment? – a five or so hour-long family game of Monopoly in the kitchen. I went to jail THREE times, accidentally paid rent with the money of the player to my left and had to negotiate my playing piece – a dog  – past another improvised piece which was just a broken piece of resin which looked like a gherkin!.

The Monopoly Game 2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But now Christmas 2012 has moved on by into the annuals of recent history. Some will be packing their trees and decorations away, if only to make room for all the presents that Santa has dumped at the bottom of their trees. Everyone will be gearing up for the New Year less than a week away, especially prepping for the legion of swanky parties, soirees and get-togethers that mark every changeover of calendar.

As part of our continuing theme of wallpapers for special occasions, I have opted for a simple, but nevertheless pleasantly pictorial representation of New Year cheer for 2013. The wallpaper is based on an image from the picture website Wonder Scraps which offers downloadable scraps, wallpapers, graphics and greetings for the social network Orkut. Invented by and named after a Turkish website engineer employed by Google, Orkut is incredibly popular in India and Brazil, but is largely unknown here in the United Kingdom. The website, which runs using software supplied by the same blogging platform the Half-Eaten Mind uses, is not however affiliated in any actual way with Orkut. They have a nice selection of images for many festivals and is primarily aimed at Indian usersYou can find animated and static images for the Tamil New Year, Bengali New Year, Baisakhi and Ganesh Chaturthi, among others. Also there is a decent catalogue of transferrable pictures for use on more personal occasions (birthdays, weddings, leaving ceremonies etc).

I chose this image as it is simple yet still has all the sparkly stuff that I subconsciously gravitate towards whenever I am traipsing through the internet for a hot new pic to beautify my blog. It looks inviting to welcome in potential readers/viewers and could remind them possibly of either seeing their festive decorations through a glass of cherryade (or Vimto or Ribena or red wine!) or the reflections of  lights on a Xmas bauble. The graphics look fun and modern, perfect in that we are embracing a new year with new resolutions and changes. And did I mention, it sparkles!!

Here is a commentary on the year 2013 from Wikipedia, as well as 2013 in other calendar systems across the world. Meanwhile, the Half-Eaten Mind wishes you and yours a very Happy New Year!!!

2013 (MMXIII) will be a common year starting on a Tuesday in the Gregorian calendar. It will be the 2013th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations; the 13th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century; and the 4th of the 2010s decade. It will also be the first year to be denoted by four different digits in 26 years (since 1987).

2013 in other Calendars:

• Armenian: 1462 or ԹՎ ՌՆԿԲ
• Assyrian: 6763
• Baha’i: 169–170
• Bengali: 1420
• Berber (North African): 2963
• British regnal year: 61 Eliz. 2 – 62 Eliz. 2
• Buddhist: 2557
• Burmese (Bama or Myanmari): 1375
• Byzantine: 7521–7522
• Chinese: 壬辰年十一月二十日 (4649/4709-11-20)— to —癸巳年十一月廿九日 (4650/4710-11-29)
• Coptic (Egyptian Christian): 1729–1730
• Ethiopian: 2005–2006
• Gregorian: 2013 or MMXIII
• Hebrew (Jewish): 5773–5774
• Hejira (Islamic): 1434–1435
• Iranian: 1391–1392
• Japanese regnal year: Heisei 25 (平成25年)
• Juche (North Korean): 102
• Kaliyug (Kali Yuga – Hindu): 5114–5115
• Korean traditional: 4346
• Saka (Shaka Samvat – Hindu): 1935–1936
• Thai: 2556
• Vikram Samvat (Hindu): 2069–2070

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SOURCE:

“2013” – Wikipedia LINK

IMAGE CREDIT:

“Animated Happy New Year 2013” – Wonder Scraps LINK