Vakkotaur

Sometime in the 1970s the family got a dog, a very young puppy at the time. She wound up named Tippy from the white tip on the end of her otherwise black tail. We didn't ask about the exact date of birth (or whelp, if you must, but we never got that specific about it). Given the n-day old puppies and the day of getting her, we figured that 2 February was her birthday, or close enough. So while February second is Groundhog's Day, that was kind of secondary. It was Tippy's birthday. And, to me, it still is - at least a little bit.

Yep, another anniversary of my birthday.

...interracial marriage was a crime in some states of the U.S.A.
...the U.S. Supreme Court was made up of only white men.
...LSD was legal, if barely, in the U.S.A.
...there had been no successful heart transplants in humans.
...Israel had never controlled the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, or the Sinai peninsula.

...Swedes drove on the left side of the road.
...the Dow Jones Industrial Average had never closed above 1000.0
...NYSE stock performance was given in eighths, not in decimal.
...the 747 had not flown, nor had the Concorde.
...ARPANET (and therefore the Internet) was still in the future.

...nobody had been to the moon.
...NASDAQ did not exist.
...voting age in the U.S.A. was 21.
...Amtrak did not exist.
...Walt Disney World had yet to open.

...the microprocessor had not been invented.
...there were no UPC labels.
...no U.S. President had ever resigned the Presidency.
...there was no trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
...there was a country, the Republic of Vietnam (or South Vietnam) and a city, Saigon.

...smallpox still existed "in the wild."
...food and medicine packages did not have special anti-tampering seals.
...AT&T was the long-distance phone company in the U.S.
...Coca-Cola was just Coca-Cola with no variation - unless you mixed it yourself.
...U.S. television had monaural sound.

...there was no tunnel under the English channel.
...Hirohito was Emperor of Japan.
...ChloroFluoroCarbons were common refrigerants and aerosol propellants.
...there were no "Happy Meals" sold at MacDonald's.
...there was a wall dividing Berlin, and an "Iron Curtain" dividing Europe.

...Eastern and Pan Am were major U.S. airlines.
...there was apartheid in South Africa.
...the U.S.S.R. existed as a superpower.
...Johnny Carson hosted the Tonight Show.
...there was an edict of Inquisition against Galileo Galilei.

...the F.W. Woolworth Company was in business.
...the Peanuts comic strip was in its original run.
...Volkswagen Beetles were rear-engine rear-wheel-drive vehicles.
...all manned spacecraft were government owned.
...no spacecraft had visited Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, any comet, or any asteroid.

And history isn't over yet. I plan on seeing quite a bit more of it happen.

While it is not my birthday, nor the anniversary thereof, there have been a couple folks at work yesterday and today that did have their 40th. They both wound up with black balloons and that sort of thing to indicate aging and such. It seems to be a tradition, but really, it's not so much a tradition as merely a rut. It's a default bit that isn't very amusing as it's been done so many times that it lost any humor value it might have once had.

I expect I'll take my 40th off, when it eventually arrives, just to avoid some of this nonsense. I toyed with the idea having someone call in to work saying I wouldn't be there to my death (if they're going to celebrate it mockingly, why not go further?) - but that might set things in motion that would complicate my life when I showed up the next day.

There's a fascination with numbers divisible by 10 when it comes to age. I was fortunate enough that when I turned 30 nobody really noticed and I didn't have to put up with this unfunny bit of attempted humor. Why not use other numbers? How about a Jack Benny theme when someone turns 39? Or a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy theme at 42? Well, at least for those who'd know and could appreciate it. At least it wouldn't be the same old tired default. But that could require some creativity and effort and not just a couple dollars at a drug store for the by-the-decade pre-fab junk.

It seems to be the day to pester express good wishes to a certain jaguar.

Got a couple cards in the mail. Typical family humor, bad puns and twisted humor. Various wishes from folks around the net, too. And Jay got supper. And I now have a pair of noise-cancelling headphones.

It's interesting to hear/not hear them work. I can switch them on and the sound of the computer fans (mostly) disappears. Jay's voice seems to change, gets more... telephonic. The low end of all sounds gets knocked out. Makes for odd sounding coughing, and the crinkle of opening a candy wrapper, for example, is rather different.

The only downside is that it seems to enhance what hum there is in my soundcard/speakers. It may be interesting to try it on other things, like a dedicated CD player or tape player.

Heh, phone rings sound weird too.

Weather
Friday, the 14th, we had a sample of Winter. A few inches of snow, and wind to blow and drift it. Fairmont was not entirely missed by the storm this time, but still got off rather lightly. The few inches was pretty much dealt with Saturday morning and it's been nice since. Meanwhile other parts of the country got hit and hit hard. This, with jmaynard's traveling has resulted in a curious reversal. He's experiencing more Winter type stuff than I am.

How to Get an LJ Entry Ignored
Take an okkay entry, ideally a longish one, and have it center justified. Centering works for some poems, and short items, but otherwise... BLARGH, say I.

( political commentary )

Scaring Coworkers
Sunday I stopped in at Family Dollar and picked up a few odd things. Okkay, I went nuts. See, they had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Every store has those, you say. Ah, but these were not the regular 2-packs. These were 10-packs. And they were on sale. Very much on sale. Fifty cents per 10-pack on sale. A case holds 36 of those 10-packs. A case for $18 and tax. Like I said, I went nuts. I bought a case, somewhat to the astonishment of the checkout clerk. He started to apologize for not having a bag that'd hold it. No need, they come in a box already. And today I brought them, the Peanut Butter Cups, to work. A third is by the Engineering secretary's desk now. Another third is on the filing cabinets near sales. And the remaining third is on filing cabinets in the Ag. & Force Measurement area. I hit the three main places for goodies on my side of the building. The fellow next to me wonders what I'm up to. I'm being far too nice, he claims. And that scares him. Even more than I usually scare him.

Importance of Birthdays... No, the Unimportance of Age.
A Diplomat is a man who always remembers a lady's birthday but not her age. That's how one saying goes, as I recall it. Birthdays, or the anniversaries thereof, tend to have some importance to a person. It's nice to be remembered and all. (Sharing a birthday with my sister, I don't forget hers, nor she mine, but also we're both used to having one or the other moved celebration-wise... siblings rivalry and such - and two cakes not at once.) But age is different. Age is important only at times. When a little kid "I'm three and a half!" The next time it's of any notice, really tends to be around 16, when one can get a driver's license. Then 18, for voting (if you care enough to) and for men, registration. It used to also be a time when one could purchase alcohol. Now 21 is significant for that. The age of 25 is a marker when auto insurance rates drop. And then, with a few exceptions (like running for some political offices), age doesn't matter until retirement. And after that, it matters not at all except as way to impress the younger that you've survived that many trips around the sun. This is why I have to compute my age if asked. It is not a number that is important to me. "You don't know your age?!" Well, why should I? It's not important. I know the current date, and I know my date of birth. I can compute my age on the vanishingly rare times I need it.