I don't know if it is any secret to anyone out there, but birthdays don't really mean much to me. Oh, by the way, I am 27 now...happened some time last week. Anyways, my father and I have our birthdays back to back. When he "gets a year older" I likewise do the next day. All very exciting, I am sure. Well, this year, on Dad's birthday, I called home to ask him some questions for my sister-in-law. About half-way through the conversation, I realized what day it was, and that I was an ass for forgetting. I quickly went through all the "happy birthday" motions that had I remembered would have been at the begining of the conversation. And it is not like Dad is an idiot, he knows I don't care one way or another about birthdays and that I am lucky to remember my own name let alone what day of the year holds significance to other people.
But it got me thinking. When asked, I am quick to say that I dismiss the importance of my birthday because of basketball. My home town used to be one of those towns people knew because of our basketball team. We had a Hall of Fame coach and we kicked ass nearly every year (couldn't tell you what is going on now). And my birthday happened to land in either the Sectional or Regional week every year. Because of the games, I never really got the kids partys or whatever "normal" kids would do. To be honest, I never really missed them or even thought about them, but it always seemed a logical excuse. I suppose now that I think about it, this is probably a fairly poor reason. I am the youngest of five in a middle class family, with nearly 5 years between me and my next oldest sibling. It is not like we could have afforded to have a party had my birthday fallen in a more convenient timespan, and it is not like I was even social enough to have really wanted one.
When pushed, I fall back to the idea that you do not actually age going from one day to another. And the idea that it is one special day that is just for you is amusing when there are several billion people and only 365 days in a year...even people who are bad at math should understand that one. And you know, it is not like I have problems with other people enjoying their birthdays and seeing it as special to them. The wife's family is very big on birthdays and make a point to celebrate them, and I am cool with that. I probably ought to learn to put a little more emphasis on birthdays...Oh well, enough about birthdays.
I got a new keyboard today. The EX 110...I am not sure how I feel about it. It is a standard keyboard, as opposed to my ergonomic Freedom Pro that I have been using for the past six(?) years. I still love my ergo, but I am starting to have problems with keys getting stuck or just not working for awhile. I think the most amusing error producing thing it would do is after not being used for a bit I would start typing and one of the first two keys I typed would not go through. Anyways, I hit the local stores to see what they had. Logitech just had these square jobbies, all the Microsoft ergos felt like square jobbies and were ugly as hell, and all the other brands were either corded or misshappen, so I decided to try this one. I am already having issues with it. For some reason, there is a close application button on the left side, which is normally where I pick up the keyboard...so I disabled that. I have never liked the F-lock idea, even though it is hard to get away from it anymore. But mostly, I am just used to typing on an ergo. Ergos make great lap keyboards and square ones just don't. I have two weeks to try it out, so I guess we will see.
