My avatar across the web: a photo of my feet in grey-white socks and brown sandals.

Ben Babcock

I read, write, code, and knit.

10 Articles Tagged with “birthdays”

  1. 18

    Is there something special about turning 18?

    Heck yes.

    Normally I'm not one to get excited about birthdays. One year older ... but the 18th is special since it's the age of majority. Apparently on September 19, 11:59:59 PM, I am not mature enough, but one second later I have magically matured to just the right amount. I am now mature enough to participate in the democratic process by ticking boxes on a piece of paper. I am now mature enough to die for my country if the need should arise. I am now mature enough to make my own decisions, or so they say. But who are "they" anyway? And let's face it--any of "them" have probably not been 18 for a very long time.

    I don't really want to grow up. Growing up is scary. It means responsibility, leaving the safe world of adolescence behind. It means a different sort of arena for relationships, interaction, and criminal justice. Being an adult (that sounds very weird) is good in some ways though. Much less troublesome when it comes to doing the nitpicky stuff like conducting online transactions or signing legal forms that donate my soul to a needy demon.

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  2. Celebrating birthdays in style

    Today I had a party today, with about eight friends over, where we just hung out and watched movies. First we watched A Night at the Roxbury, which I had never seen before, although I love "What is Love". Then we played two games of Scrabble; the first was a standard regulation game, and then we played one where "anything goes". And uh ... yeah. :ermm: We had some pretty interesting combinations of letters (I won't say words, because honestly, they weren't. :D). After that, we watched Love Actually (which neither Cortney nor Rhiannon had seen before!). Then we just talked until people went home.

    I had a blast, and the only reason I don't do this more often or be more "social" is that it tires me out, although I wouldn't mind having two or three friends over; I enjoy more quiet atmospheres where we can have enthusiastic conversations but we don't have to raise our voices or interrupt each other.

    I love my friends, and my parents are awesome. Honestly, I would go insane without my friends. I am not a social person by any definition of the word; I don't do much with friends. People don't…

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  3. Kubuntu, Birthdays, and Deaths

    The order is arbitrary, incidentally.

    I've been playing around with Kubuntu recently. My laptop used to overheat and shutdown in Kubuntu due to poor power management issues with the CPU. A few weeks ago, however, I took a shop-vac to the fans and sucked out the dust, and now it runs beautifully. I decided to try Kubuntu again, and although the fan is louder than in Windows, it doesn't get hot at all, which gives me the green light to start playing. ^_^

    Seth was a big help and was patient enough to answer my many questions as I poked Kubuntu and tweaked it to my satsifaction. If it weren't for him I would never have been able to get up and running so quickly. As it stands now, I feel comfortable enough to use it to do things like write this blog entry, chat, etc., after only three days!

    The best part about learning Kubuntu is that it's fun. Learning Windows is not fun; learning Windows is a chore. Although the terms "Linux" and "command-line" can seem scary, they aren't that scary as long as you go at your own pace. And the terminology is awesome. For…

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  4. Spatial sense (get some)

    I'm helping out with the backstage portion of my school's production of The Outsiders. Today after school, we needed to paint a set of stairs grey as a piece of the set. The tech department had graciously attached a railing to the stairs (which are just white pieces of wood), and then deposited them on the stage. We planned to carry it into the drama room, which is relatively adjacent to the stage (separated only by a hallway) and paint in there. Easy, right?

    Wrong. There's a ladder up to the lighting booth in between the stage proper and the door on stage right that leads to the hallway. As a result, the stairs were too wide to fit through either gap around the ladder, and we had to carry them down the steps at the front of the stage, across the entire length of the gym, into the main hallway, up another set of steps into the cafeteria, and then across the entire cafeteria to another set of doors.

    This is where we encountered our biggest problem--apparently the stairs wouldn't fit through those doors either. We even tried to jam it through using brute force, but no such…

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  5. Happy birthday, mom!

    Today my mom turns 49. Due to the fact that I have a website with a modest readership, I think it is cool that I can wish her a happy birthday and have many people who neither know me nor my mom know about it. It just goes to show how wonderfully disturbing this whole concept of blogging is.

    Oh, and yeah, happy birthday, mom! :hug:

    /me pokes loyal stalkers.

  6. Life's an adventure

    You think that driving near a bus is scary? Try being on a bus. :fear: I just noticed today that buses are big, heavy machines that are too large for most streets, and that you need to be insane to operate one. (Of course, this is true for any piece of modern equipment. I'm insane for even typing this under the delusion that someone will read it.)

    I thought of a cool new design for a T-shirt. :D (As I order my own from Rock-It Air Wear). An arror pointing up to me, and then the words "Proof of Intelligent Design". And the best part is that very few people would actually get it. ^_^ Next time I need a new T-shirt, I'll consider actually getting it made.

    Today's my dad's birthday. So to all those nonexistent people who are actually insane enough to read this delusional tripe, please give him some birthday wishes, as I know he's reading this . . . right now. Well, actually, now . . . yeah, hi Dad.

    I should go write my novel. I need to get to 50 000 words. But I also need to get my mom to finish her essay…

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  7. Talk Like a Pirate, eh--er, Arr

    Yes, I know I'm a day too late. I was just too lazy to blog yesterday. But yesterday was indeed Talk Like a Pirate Day, and if you weren't talking all piratical-like, you should have been!

    Not much else really to say . . . oh yeah, it's my birthday.

  8. Happy Pi Day

    Happy birthday, Tovan! Indeed, have a nice day.

    Also to all others: Happy Pi Day. Click the link over there to find out more. Have a nice day!

  9. Happy Birthday, Dad!

    It's my dad's birthday today . . . so happy birthday, Dad. If you're reading this, then it's time to close the browser and play some Freecell. . . .

    I've added a great new feature to the VSNS. With v2.3.3, you will be able to pin items at any time, or unpin a pinned item rather than deleting it. Version 2.3.3 will be released shortly.

  10. Another day, another year older

    Happy Birthday, eh . . .

    I'm 15 now. Nothing much is different, save that I'm 15. One year older. Hmm . . . one more year until I have to think of a new excuse not to drive. Up until now it's been "Oh, I'm too young" . . . in a year it will be something different altogether.