Hobo Stu

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend, even though I hear that Thanksgiving is overrated.

For those of you who have already started your Christmas shopping, I’m glad to see that you all survived Black Friday. Hopefully you were able to buy presents for your loved ones without being seriously harmed. And hopefully the stores had lots of new items to choose from so that you weren’t forced to pick through the other customers’ sloppy seconds.

If you didn’t do any shopping, perhaps you had time to catch a movie – I just hope it wasn’t that pre-teen garbage Twilight.

We are now only a few short weeks away from Christmas, but I hope you all still remembered to celebrate The Day of the Ninja. Perhaps you noticed those around you getting into the ninja spirit today – although, if they were doing it correctly, you really shouldn’t have noticed them at all.

Here’s what’s new on HoboTrashcan.com this week:

Guest Blog – The 6th Annual Day of the Ninja
Loyal HoboTrashcan readers are already familiar with International Talk Like a Pirate Day, the holiday started by Ol’ Chumbucket and Cap’n Slappy. But you may not be familiar with it’s ninja counterpart, December 5, The Day of the Ninja. This week, Day of the Ninja creator Michael “Aeonite” Fiegel has put together a special guest column explaining this unique holiday.

Murphy’s Law – Black Friday
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has always been a bit chaotic thanks to the large crowds of highly stressed parents and bargain shoppers it attracts every year, but this year the busy shopping day truly lived up to it’s name as three people were killed. Joel Murphy thinks it’s time to put an end to all of the Black Friday craziness.

Note to Self – Sloppy seconds
Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery got suspended by the National Hockey League this week for saying that “it’s become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds.” While Avery certainly isn’t winning any popularity contests in the NHL, Brian Murphy feels that the league never should have suspended him for his comments.

Outside of the In-Crowd – A review of Twilight by someone who hasn’t seen Twilight
Courtney Enlow might not have actually seen Twilight, the blockbuster movie that has teen girls and women of all ages excited about vegetarian vampires, but that’s not stopping Enlow from sharing her thoughts on the film this week.

Overrated – Thanksgiving
You might think that eating delicious food, spending time with your loved ones and watching football on television is a great way to spend a cold Thursday in November, but Ned Bitters disagrees. Bitters believes that the Thanskgiving holiday is incredibly overrated.

- Hobo Stu

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Photo courtesy of Pirates Vs. Ninjas

The Day of the Ninja was founded in direct response to International Talk Like a Pirate Day, celebrated every year on September 19. This pirate holiday has been going on since 1995, but the holiday didn’t achieve widespread renown until 2002, when Dave Barry helped to publicize the event – which is how I, among many, originally came to learn about it.

The following year, as ITLaPD was winding down, I decided that ninja should have a day of their own. After all, ninja and pirates have had a long standing feud with one another, and as is the case with political commercials, equal time to promote one’s agenda is only fair. Scouring the calendar for appropriate holidays, I happened upon December 5. Not only was this a Friday (as good a day as any for a holiday) it was the day that the Tom Cruise epic The Last Samurai was premiering. While samurai are not the same as ninja, some ninja were actually samurai; further, the film contained a scene in which ninja attack a samurai encampment, with some degree of success.

The first year’s events were relatively small, but it caught on quickly. In 2004, a group of French performers decided to stage a photo shoot in front of the Eiffel Tower, an event they have faithfully replicated every year in front of a new French landmark. In 2006, the Ask a Ninja website got involved, releasing their DVD on December 5 of that year (the same day that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was released). Last year was the biggest year ever; not only did several video game companies release ninja-themed game announcements on that day, but several media outlets got aboard, including NPR’s Morning Edition and G4 television (which ran a Ninja Warrior marathon that day).

One of the interesting things about the holiday is that as it’s gotten bigger, it’s gone more underground. I originally organized forums and, later, a wiki dedicated to helping people organize events, but recently Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites have decentralized things. The net result is that more people are getting involved, which is exactly what I had hoped would happen back in 2002.

So you may be asking yourself, what can I do to celebrate the Day of the Ninja?

Well, if you live in The Netherlands, you can celebrate by dressing up as a ninja for Sinterklaas. If you live anywhere else, you can dress up as a ninja just for the heck of it. You don’t need to go full ninja, of course; just a t-shirt tied on your face for a mask will do, or even a black t-shirt and black jeans. Can’t pull that off? Try the ultimate ninja disguise – a t-shirt or nametag that says “Not a ninja.” Just the thing to sneak up on unsuspecting foes.

Counter to ninja instinct, another excellent way to get involved is by taking photos and video of you and your friends gathering together while in ninja regalia. 364 days a year, ninja are encouraged to be sneaky and unseen, but this one day we feel it’s helpful to let the world know that we’re out there. After all, how can you truly fear something unless you get to see it once in a while?

To that end, it’s also important to get the media involved. We need to spread the ninja message of fear to the whole world, so for starters you need to tweet, blog, Flickr and otherwise get your message out there. Post your photos and videos. Then call the local TV and radio station. Get the newspapers involved. Promote, promote, promote.

Of course, dressing like a ninja and getting filming is just the start; this wouldn’t be a holiday without some events. Why not throw a ninja party, or play some ninja games, or perform some ninja tricks or stunts? Think of it as Halloween and the Fourth of July rolled into one, except without any candy. Sneak up on your friends. Toss some paper shuriken. Tape some “backstab me” signs to unsuspecting co-workers. Just nothing lethal or illegal – save that for the rest of the year, when no one is watching. Go out for sushi. Rent some Naruto DVDs. Be imaginative!

By far, however, the most important thing to keep in mind is that this holiday is NOT called Talk Like a Ninja Day. The reason for that is obvious – ninja are not known for talking. Thus, it is important that we as a ninja community make it clear to the world how different we are from our pirate brethren. Where pirates are loud, rude, crass, crude and obnoxious, ninja are quiet, polite, punctual, clean and above all else Freaking Awesome.

The Pirates of the Caribbean movies might have thrown ninja out of the spotlight for a few years, but since the last movie fell on its face it’s time to regain the upper hand. Ninja costumes have outsold pirate costumes. Batman is back in the theaters. Several high profile ninja movies are in the works, and several big ninja video game titles have come around for another go. There’s no better time to be a ninja, and on December 5, there’s no better time to let the world know where you stand.

The Day of the Ninja is upon us. Go ninja, go ninja, go.

Written by Michael “Aeonite” Fiegel. For more information on the Day of the Ninja, visit Ninja Burger.

Similar Posts:

• Getting to Know … Pirates vs. Ninja
• Hobo Radio 99 – Talk Like a Pirate Day 2009
• Hobo Radio 61 – International Talk Like a Pirate Day
• Hobo Radio 199 – Talk Like a Pirate Day 2011
• Getting to Know … International Talk Like a Pirate Day