36 hour days and green fingernails.

01. 36 hour days.

i received this text message earlier:

Coming October 17, the sun will rise continuously for 36 hours (1.5days) in this time the US countries will be dark for 1.5 days. It will convert 3 days into 2 big days. It will happen once in 2400 years. We are lucky to see it...

the information was quoted to have come from BBC or CNN or some other reputable news agency.

my first reaction was, "what the fuck? somebody actually believed this pile of crap to forward it to me?" but then, i remember receiving other dubious information through text messages. (and emails. and message boards. and egroups.) it's not like there's a shortage of gullibility in the world.

now that i think about it, it's not like a period where the sun could shine for more than 24 hours is impossible; it's called the midnight sun. it happens in places above the arctic circle on some parts of the year; this is due to the tilt in the earth's axis.

actually, the further one is away from the equator, the larger is the difference between the length of day and night during the time nearest the solstices. i was puzzled while reading harry potter 3 on why the sun hasn't set yet at 9 in the evening (this is during the time-turner chapters in the forbidden forest). then i remembered that scotland is much nearer the arctic than manila; of course there will be times in the year when the suns sets really late there.

having said that, unless the earth's axis tilts much further than it does now or its angular velocity slows down, the only US territory that will experience more than 24 hours of sunlight is alaska. still, the message in that text message points to wonky physics, and the geek in me has a strong dislike for wonky physics.

02. green fingernails.

i did go out on sunday night after all. or rather, by the time i went out, it was already monday morning.

i was hanging out at 7-11 near the boni train station and riding on a free wifi connection when i saw an online friend sign in. after a few messages between me and santi, we decided to meet up in cubao in half an hour.

i wanted to drop by cubao x but at 2 on a monday morning, the place was already closed. it's strange how early that part of cubao sleeps on a sunday night. i've always thought that cubao, more than ortigas or makati, would only close its eyes around sunrise then wake up again after two hours. apparently not.

with no where esle in cubao to hang out in, santi suggested we head to a cafe in teacher's village. the place is called republika de kapay (or, as they call it, republika de kipay). the place is a 24 hour coffee house near kalayaan that's next to a karaoke place. neither of us drinks coffee so we ordered iced tea (at 3 in the fucking morning, mind you) and pan de sal.

the pan de sal was good. i had pizza pan de sal, which was warm and freshly baked. it's been a while since i had pan de sal and i realized how much i missed it.

after an hour or so of talking and listening to music in my phone, we decided to go someplace else. i told santi i wanted to have my nails done. my nail polish (black on my left hand's finger nails, various shades of red on my right) was already badly chipped and my nail's too long, i scratch myself grinding pepper using the pepper mill. but where does one find a manicurist at 4 in the morning?

santi said he knows one.

we ended up in anonas and sure enough, there was a parlor open for manicure at dawn. the world is such a wonderful place. i had my nails cut and cleaned and painted in various shades of green arranged in a gradient. i think it's one of the strangest and most amusing dates i've been in, friendly or otherwise. santi joked that next time we hang out, we should have our hairs colored.