If you were to compare the working week to an animal what would it be?  A dog, because of how hard you work from Monday to Friday? Probably not.  A rat because of the way you’re constantly racing around to get that hard earned cheese before you hide away in your house for the weekend?  Well, close but no cigar…actually not even a clove cigarette.  If the trending topics are any indication of how the real-time internet user treats the working week you’d be hard pressed to find a better comparative creature than a good ol’ Dromedary Camel.  Something seems to happen in the minds of a good deal of search engine users once they hit the weekday wall known as Wednesday.  If I’ve noticed anything about real-time trending topics , it’s that like clockwork around noon on Wednesday  the word “Hump” seems to be a hotter topic than the latest Lohan-fueled travesty or celebrity death-athon.

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It’s October. One of our favorite months, actually. The leaves change, first in the high country and then down here in the slightly less high country where OneRiot makes its (second) home. The air starts to get crisp and fire-kissed and smells like nothing else any other time of the year. It’s definitely a time for Ben Folds and The Shins (Rocktober), and lots of other atsy folky indie things like cardigans (Octovercoat, Frocktober), light scarves (Smocktober), and yes, even Ugg slippers (they’re from Octstralia). It’s a time for football (Jocktober), and seasonal ales (Amber-Bocktober). It’s a time when we must all prepare for the many fires we’ll burn all winter (Choptober). It’s a time for the corn and potato harvest, which means amazing food right before the deep freeze of winter chokes out what’s left of the natural food supply (Croptober). Oh, and who can forget those Scarecrows and Farm Hoes frat parties (Brocktober)! (more…)

Today millions upon millions of people worldwide ditched their morning glass of milk and vitamin tablets that they reserve for their daily AM kick in the pants, instead opting for that rare beverage delicacy often referred to as a “cuppa joe.” Today is National Coffee Day, and people are celebrating by ordering all forms of the strange hot drink brewed from beans harvested in lands as near as Colombia and as distant as the Isle of Java, hoping it can provide the same pick-me-up as their normal, staid regimen.

While there’s no definitive evidence that suggests the caffeinated concoction will become an everyday staple of the public’s consumption, business upstarts such as Dunkin’ Donuts and the little known “Starbucks” are banking on it, by offering a vast array of café lattes and au laits (whatever that means) in the hopes that they’ll soon become the best part of waking up. While we wish those companies good luck on this fine holiday, we politely say, “No thanks.” We can’t see ourselves straying from our morning glass of milk.

In America, every important thing- no matter how big or small- gets its own day. Veterans, Jesus, Earth, and now, punctuation.

We at OneRiot deeply value what these little lines and dots do for the seemingly endless painters’ pallet that is our language, as we embrace it on the daily. However, you’re probably wondering, as we did, what the hell Punctuation Day entails. As far as we can tell, besides refreshing us on the use of various types of punctuation, the central activity is making punctuation meat loaf. Now you’re wondering, ‘Where can I get punctuation meat? They don’t have that at the market. I’ll have to hunt, kill, gut and clean one myself. Am I up for this? Do parentheses scream when they die?’ Worry not. It’s the same reshaped Grade F beef dish your mom used to make; this time it’s just shaped like a semicolon.

It’s the same reshaped Grade F beef dish your mom used to make; this time it’s just shaped like a semicolon.

So, though you may feel inclined to, don’t hate on punctuation day. And on the other side of it, don’t include non-punctuation symbols in the fun. They are just here trying to take away jobs from the regular punctuation and it’s best if we ignore them. Like that bastard *. Ha! *. Who the f$%# does * think its @^$ing with it’s #$!ed up #$$ and #@#$% $#&@^?