It’s my birthday today, and thirty-five is not one of the great birthdays: it feels sort of milestoney because it divides evenly by 5, but unlike a “divides by ten” birthday it doesn’t feel impressive in any way, and unlike 25 it is not an awesome number. It is just sort of there, blandly saying “well, you’re in your mid-thirties now, and no mistake.”
Plus, having your birthday be right in the middle of the workweek is exceptionally unfair and I wish to complain to management about that.
Anyhow. Those interested in giving me presents (surely there are some of you) – what I’d hope people might do is also consider buying James Young something from HIS wishlist, since James has done a lot of thankless heavy lifting behind the scenes to keep this blog running smoothly despite configuration issues that make Rube Goldberg machines look like inclined planes in terms of ease of use.
Alternately, you can always consult the Paypal button or my Amazon wishlist. Service resumes as normal tomorrow.
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34 users responded in this post
Happy birthday, Chris!
I’ll be joining you in 35-land in a few days, and I feel exactly the same way about it.
But hope you have a fantastic day, and celebrate doubly so this weekend!
Congrats on another lap around the sun.
35 is a milestone, here in the states, anyway. If you weren’t Canadian, you would now be eligable to run for President.
hey my birthdays the same as mgk! wat r the odds i ask u!
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday, Chris!
And, whoa! Thanks! You really didn’t have to do that.
Hey, my 35th birthday was Sunday, and I thought it was great! Of course, it also included my husband getting me a sonic screwdriver: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/e2dc/.
Come on, 35 is awesome. It’s also divisible by 7! You are halfway to 70! If you were Thai, you would be middle-aged! Most importantly, you’re one more person that I’m a tiny bit younger than, gramps!
Congrats on turning bromine!
Happy birthday!
35 is when you realize you were fooling yourself throughout your early 30s when you said “well at least I’m not yet halfway to 40.”
Because at 35 you realize 20 was halfway to 40.
Happy birthday MGK, and thank you for bringing this site into the world! I think tomorrow’s “Who’s Who” should be the DC Universe version of you.
PS Hey, I heard on the news that Human Torch died earlier this year. Has he been revived yet?
Feb 9 is also my Birthday so as my gift to you, I am telling you about it. If you think 35 is sort of milestoney, wait till you get to 45.
Cheers from the land of Oz.
Happy birthday! I turned 35 a little over a month ago. Already booking a nursing home.
Do not go gently into that good night, MGK!
35′s not such a bad age. I’m going to be celebrating it for the third or fourth time this year.
…or maybe just the second or third. Or maybe I’m thinking of 32.
Happy almost-mid-life-crisis.
32 is a pretty great age, I can see why you’d try to hold on to it.
“2 is a pretty great age, I can see why you’d try to hold on to it.”
Agreed.
Happy birthday,
You are exactly nine days older than I. Wait, I forgot to convert from the metric system…
Wow. Glad I’m 23. Does that make me the baby of the posters?
and by that I mena commentors
Many happy returns!
anrwtg said on February 9th, 2011 at 11:09 am
hey my birthdays the same as mgk! wat r the odds i ask u!
Higher than you’d think.
Isn’t it a law that you get your birthday off work? I always take it off…
The probability of someone having the same birthday as mgk is 1/365 (discounting leap years).
However, the probability of two people in a random group sharing *a* birthday is much higher. In fact, you only need 23 people in a group for chances are that two of them will have the same birthday.
Um, no. You only need a group of two people for there to be a chance of them sharing the same birthday. Not a very high one, but definitely greater than zero.
30 seconds of Google later I find that the probability of two people sharing a birthday is 50% in a group of 23 people and 99% at 57, even though it doesn’t reach 100% until 367.
Oh man, 2 is a WAY better age. Don’t let that go. Stay 2 forever, MGK! Baby humans are housebroken by that age, right?
35 isn’t an important birthday? Tell that to Dante Alighieri.
I typed too fast. I meant to say “you only need 23 people in a group for better-than-even chances that two of them will have the same birthday.”
My bad.
Many happy returns — as a guy rapidly approaching the other side of 40: my birthday this year ends in a “9″ — I’m envious.
What Naomi Libicki said! You’re midway through life’s journey, so I’d be careful in the deep dark woods if I were you…
35 was the first birthday that kicked me in the balls…did not enjoy it…to borrow from Dana Gould, its not old, but it the beginning of not young…You are also entering the age of out of control ear hair growth…so congratulations…