Birthday Snow and some other notable events today

There was magical birthday snow on my birthday today. Here is a shot of the snow covered rocks and tiny waterfall on Shell Pot Creek behind my house.






Rasputin

Today is also the birthday of Rasputin. His claim to fame is that he is unkillable, heals hemophiliacs (maybe), and brought down an entire empire with his antics.


Roe v. Wade

Today is unfortunately associated with extreme controversy in the United Sates because it is the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion in the United States. I would like to not have my birthday associated with this divisive topic. I feel especially bad for the 34 year olds today.

Most Depressing Day

Today is also the most depressing day of the year according to Dr. Cliff Arnell of Cardiff University. His equation:

[W + (D-d)] x TQ M x NA

combines the weather, debt (from Christmas shopping), time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and feeling of a need to take action to calculate the most depressing day. It seems to fall on this third or fourth Monday in January. The happiest day is June 22nd - damn summercists. I sent those folks at NPR a stern e-mail.

It's crap mathematics, but I fell compelled to report it. I do feel sorry for all you poor saps who have to go through this day without it being your birthday!

Birthday Cake Cliche and DDR

Saturday I reprised my Dance Dance Revolution birthday party and combined it with an open house. Since there was a new version of DDR out (DDR Ultramix 4) I thought it would be time to update my dance moves. Here we have some guests kicking out the dance steps!

Because we were so busy cleaning up the new house for the party, and whirdly was cooking, I had to go get the beverages. I also had to go buy my cake and even get "Happy Birthday Richard" on it myself. Carvel Ice cream cakes are the best but I was going to use the story that the I was the Richard on the cake (true) and that I was going home to eat it all by myself (wishfully true, but shared with guests) right after they were done with it.

My twin sister who was at a fancy Portuguese dinner instead of the party did point out, "You got to have your cake and eat it too". Clever.