bday meme

From kest

The Rules:
1.Type in your birthday (minus the year) in the search bar at Wikipedia.org
2.List three interesting facts, two births, and one death that happened on your birthday

Events:
- 1866 - The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh
- 1970 - Paul McCartney announces that The Beatles have broken up.
- 1988 - The comic strip Fox Trot débuts

Births:
- 1389 - Cosimo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (d. 1464)
- 1929 - Max von Sydow, Swedish actor

Deaths:
- 1882 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter (b. 1828)

The break-up of the Beatles was the talk of my 5th birthday party. My sister and I are the oldest of the 15 cousins on my mom's side of the family, and, along with my two younger brothers, the only grandchildren on my dad's side. So for a very long time, my mom would have a single party for my sister, my brother Pete, and me (our birthdays are all within 11 days of each other) and most of my relatives from both sides would be there. My mom's two youngest brothers had a long conversation about whether or not the Beatles would ever get back together (their opinions were split on this), how good Paul's new album was going to be, how well John would do with a solo career, and what would happen to poor Ringo.

The de' Medicis are somewhat mythically credited as having invented double-entry bookkeeping, which ultimately lead to me being able to have a career in computers, first as a programmer writing business applications for HMOs, and now as a systems engineer for a hospital.

And who doesn't like Fox Trot?

weekend update

I keep a notebook in my bedroom so I can write down things that hit me in the middle of the night. Most of the time it's the mundane tasks of the previous day that were incomplete, forgotten, or require follow-up. Occasionally it's a bit more thoughtful. Friday night's scribbling was of the later type:

I wonder how much of being a writer is having something to say, and how much of it is just having an affection for hearing yourself talk? And, how much of the former is dependant on the later?

I've often said that I'm not creative. I have never considered myself as such. I've dabbled in music, various writing, and have a strong appreciation for painting and scupture but haven't ever tried my hand at either. Some people have pointed to my writing computer programs as being creative; I've conceded the point and stopped arguing that the sort of programs I write have little or no expressive aspect to them. They are pure function. I do have a definite style, in that I write in perl the same way I write in BASIC--but never, ever, any GOTO's.

Yet here I am, fascinated with the idea of being a writer. I really don't have anything to say, any story to tell, no earth-shattering truth to reveal, no beautiful experience to share. Nonetheless, the desire to write is real and even necessary. Not that I have the time for it, but then I suspect that this is a contributor to the underlying push I feel toward it.

I also suspect, that like so many materials in the world that reveal hidden properties under intense heat and pressure, that the stresses that I am going through have, in some way, has brought this desire to write to the surface.

Having the desire, and something of opportunity and medium here on lj, I only need the will to explore it. So, dear readers (if there be any), be prepared for a good deal more rambling in the days to come.