Notifiblog: Birthday Begins Today!

In case you don't already know, I celebrate every birthday, including my own, for three months. But the first day, I reserve to celebrate my 22nd birthday, every year. That was the one that inspired me to stop trying to cram all that goodness and happiness into only one day.

There's actually a Birthday Problem (aka Birthday Paradox) in probability theory. "In probability theory, the birthday problem or birthday paradox^[1] concerns the probability that, in a set of n randomly chosen people, some pair of them will have the same birthday." Of course, if you have 367 people in the group, the probability is 100%. However, 99% probability is reached with as few as 57 people. There's something about assumptions in there. It's worth reading at least the first bit of the article.

There are maybe limitless reasons to celebrate one's un-birthday.

In East Asia, there are various ways of dating one's age. In Japan, for example, babies are born at "1 year" by tradtional counting -- accounting for the year one is working on. I've also been told by a reliable Japanese friend that everyone's age advances on New Year's Day (solar--celebrated Jan. 1)

In any event, please just be happy about something for me, especially today!

Notifiblog: I'm Gonna Look at This for the Next Eight Years?!?

Congratulations to me: I have finally made good on my theory that one's driver's license photo should look absolutely as dreadful as possible so no matter what one looks like when displaying said form of ID, one looks better in real life.
In Oregon, one must present:

• a completed (and signed) Form 735-175,
• proof of US citizenship (or authorization to exist in the US),
• one's current driver's license or a document of that ilk to prove one's full legal name,
• proof of one's identity and date of birth (can be the same as the document that proves US citizenship if one is a citizen),
• proof of current residence address (if it has changed),
• the fee (likely county-based) on the little renewal card. Mine was US$40.

I think I got my money's worth.

Notifiblog: Back in the Saddle, Again!

It's been too long since I last Notifiblogged on any but Fridays. And the Friday theme is just photos from www.icanhascheezburger and my lame-o commentary. Doesn't translate to the worldwide version of this blog. I'll try to do better.

I got to see my first University of Oregon (American) football game Saturday. We stayed in our seats only for the first half, though. The seats were in direct sunlight, so we experienced the symptoms of heat exhaustion--a precursor to heat stroke, but you haven't stopped sweating at the time.

We also got sunburned. We forgot to bring sunscreen. We weren't being terribly sun-smart.

We saw Planes in "Real 3D" yesterday. Far less dodgy than sitting in full-on sun! It was apparent that Planes was not a full-on Pixar film. It was like the second-string team in (American) football: still enjoyable, but not the top quality. I enjoyed it all the same.