Birthdays

It's well known that I have a large family. It's interesting to see where the birthdays lie, though. Gene's in Janurary; Jenny's in February; Beth, Emi, and Dad are all in March; I'm in May; Greg and Becky are in July (or is Becky the tail-end of June?); Tim is August; Mom is September; and Josh is October. So March has the bulk of our birthdays.

On Sunday, Beth turned 12. I think. The only thing I have to go on is the fact that I was 12 when she was born, and I'll be 24 this year. If I'm mistaken on any of that, Beth could easily be a year older or younger than I claim. But I'm pretty sure she's 12. Beth has taken to books like a fish to water, and I enjoy encouraging that. (In truth, I enjoy encouraging all my siblings to read more, but Beth has be the most responsive.) For her birthday I got her a copy of Gulliver's Travels (might as well start them on the classics, ne?) and Alanna: The First Adventure, which I think no fewer than three of my good friends all said they read as little girls. Beth also said she wanted Anime, specifically mentioning Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura; so I got her Castle in the Sky, which I think is generally a superior work.

Yesterday, Dad turned younger-than-I-though-he-was; I did the math this morning and it turns out he's only 48. He's always been young for having so many kids (he was 23 or so when Jenny was born, that's younger than I am now!), but 48 seems really young to have several adult children and four grandchildren. I haven't yet gotten him any sort of gift because he's significantly harder to shop for than my sisters and I haven't had much time.

Emily's birthday is on the 7th, and she's about to turn older-than-I-thought-she was. I think Emily was born older, really. I'm pretty sure that she was born in... 2000? 2001? Something like that. So she's 6 or 7. I need to get a better reference for her. Anyways, I bought her a plush cat from Amazon. Nice and easy, and how could she not like a plush cat?

Meme Interview: Gene

1. You say you lack the faith you wish you had. What is it you see missing?
Well, faith in general. Usually I mean faith in God. I believe in God, and that he's up there and has our best interests in mind and all that. But... It comes down to I don't trust that things will work out. If I'm not making it happen, it isn't going to happen. I don't trust that God takes an active hand in our lives. That sort of thing.

More generally, though, it expands to how, really, I can't depend on anyone but me. Not because other people are untrustworthy, or don't have good intentions, but because they often can't or won't act in my favor. If I want a thing, I'm the only one I can depend on to act toward that end. If I don't do it, it won't get done.

2. As wonderful as marriage is, not everyone gets married between the ages of 20 and 22. Why is it you feel like you're running out of time?
Not everyone gets married at all, either, but I don't find that very comforting. It's not so much that I feel I'm running out of time as a combination of two simple facts. First and foremost, I very much live in the present. If it's not happening now, it's not happening. Very much like an infant -- when an infant is hungry, he's always been hungry and always will be hungry. I can be short-sighted like that. Additionally, there's really nothing else I really want out of life. It's not so much that I'm 'off schedule' as it's just I'm not doing what I want to be doing. It could be argued that what I'm doing is setting up the necessary ground work for what I want to do, but that just means it's taking quite a bit more set-up than I expected, which isn't any less frustrating. Never mind the fact that I'm still single...

3. If money were no object, how would you choose to spend your life?
If money were no object, I would live with my wife and children in a large house at a reasonable distance from some town or another such that we could enjoy the fresh air and see stars at night yet still take advantage of such modern amusements as the movie theatre, Quiznos, and Domino's Pizza. I would alternately spend my time reading and writing, and each of those would be alternately about fantasy or fact as the mood struck me. I would continue learning about all sorts of things from number theory to philosophy to history -- yes, I say it again, history. And... I think that would be a pretty nice way to spend my life.

4. Technology is a wonderful thing. However, it seems to be viewed these days as a modern necessity, rather than a modern convenience. Particularly the automobile. How do you think the world would be different had the automobile never been devised?
I think, for one, our populations would not nearly be as centralized, not as interdependent -- the first being a good thing, generally, and the second a bad one. We'd also be physically healthier, in a sense, at least because we would have to walk (or ride some sort of HPV) everywhere, though we'd also all probably be farms of one stripe or another as well. Frankly, I'm not sure the automobile could have *not* been invented; it was really only a matter of time.

5. If you were made chief arbiter and autocrat of Magic: the Gathering R&D, how would you change M:tG?
First and foremost, out with Wrath of God and in with Damnation. By all rights White should be 3rd in creature kill, and Wrath keeps it up there competing with Black and Red where it ought not be. For the sake of brevity I won't address here arguments about what this might do to the role of White in the game, but suffice it to say I think it would be good over-all. I would consider making a lot of planar Chaos standard fair, like the White taxing counters and the aggressive Blue shape shifting, but not all of it -- like Red bounce or Green's mass card draw. I might press to have the frames changed again to match the new Planar Chaos timeshifts, but only because I think they're far more aesthetically pleasing. I'd work to firm up the what's, why's, and how's of what the colors do, but that may now just be a lack of understanding on my part, due to NOT being behind the scenes. They may very well know what the colors are doing and why and how; recent sets have shown they do, and I trust MaRo on that.

(Meme: Request to be interviewed in a comment, and I'll ask you 5 questions, which you then answer in a post on your journal, opening yourself up to give interviews as well.)