Seven Things

I've been tagged by Debi, who wants me to write Seven Random Things About Ricardipus. So here you are:

1. I am currently suffering from a case of Paronychia on my right index finger. Go and look it up, it's not as bad as it sounds.

2. Last year, I co-authored a thirty page report on new genomics technologies, for Health Canada (the federal government health ministry). I've never met anyone who's read it - at least nobody that I didn't give it to myself.

3. Despite all my waffling on about racing and sportscars and so forth, the first car race I've ever been to was this year, in August. You can read about it in this ridiculous post.

4. Speaking of cars, I got my first speeding ticket ever this year, at the age of 40. I'm not sure if that's pathetic, admirable, or just random chance.

5. I confess to being tremendously lazy when it comes to learning about politics, politicians and policies - federal, provincial, municipal. It's only one of the things I could confess to being tremendously lazy about.

6. I work in a building complex called MaRS. Isn't that exciting?

7. I'm going to Montreal next week, a city I've very rarely visited.


There you go. In the spirit of this, I tag Wyldwoods and new Ricardiblog reader Pinklea, although it occurs to me that since Dawn has tagged the entire internet, I didn't really need to.

Lazy Blogging (again)

Here's a meme, shamelessly stolen from this post at Debi's place. Because I'm too lazy to write one of my typically rambling posts this morning.

1) Go to Wikipedia.
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday.
4) List two important birthdays and one death.
5) One holiday or observance (if any).

I've blogged about my birthday before, so for even more laziness, some of these answers are recycled.

Events
1356 - English defeat the French at the Battle of Poitiers, because they think they own France.
1778 - The Continental Congress passes the first budget of the United States. And they've been in debt ever since.
1944 - Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union signed (End of the Continuation War). They had their own private war?

There are so many events worth mentioning... Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starting their career together (1900), the US banning Charlie Chaplin's re-entry (1952), their first underground nuclear test (1956), the Wheel of Fortune game show being created (1983). But here are a couple more notable ones:

Special Mention - Events (coolness category)
1970 - The first Glastonbury Festival is held. Mud, music, mud, and non-prescription pharmaceuticals. And mud.

Special Mention - Events (silly category)
1959 - Nikita Khrushchev is barred from visiting Disneyland. That communist bastard.

Birthdays
Well, Ferry Porsche obviously, in 1909, links to the Nazi Party notwithstanding. The second, American Actor Adam West. He's the real Batman, you know.

Other candidates: Jeremy Irons, Lol Creme, Twiggy, and Nile Rodgers.

Death
I think I'll have to go with Orville Redenbacher (1995), humorously described in Wikipedia's list as an "American botanist and businessman".

Observance
There can be only one. Talk Like A Pirate Day, of course. Although I gave serious consideration to the sixth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, St. Kitts and Nevis Independence Day, and Chilean Armed Forces Day too.

So there you go. September the 19th. Send me presents.

Facelift, part I

Right. Now that the one-year anniversary is out of the way, it's time to update a few things. Starting with a complaint from a certain person about the size of the sidebar text. Actually, another certain person complained about this a while ago too, so I'm inclined to believe it might be a real problem.

So, if you will, please clicky on the following poll and the Ricardipus Information Services Support Team* will implement your recommendations in a timely** fashion.

Disclaimer: I have no idea if this poll will work.




*i.e., me
**The definition of the term "timely" in this context has not yet been finalized.