Tag: Birthday

I remember, about 10 years ago, mentioning to someone that it felt a bit odd to turn 60. He said something to me about himself turning 70 that has stuck with me for the past 10 years. Not actually what he said but the way he said it. I see his point now.

😳

It’s been fun being retired. I simply can’t understand why anyone who can afford it would want to work again. It’s not like I actually needed all that activity to fill my day. I’ve really enjoyed the time to explore the things I always loved. It’s been a bit tough to have to give some of the stuff up and on the other hand a joy to be able to do so much more with the other interests I have.

Life, The Universe and Everything

When I first retired I was very interested in gaining a better understanding of the world around (or perhaps more appropriately within) us. I could draw on my 18 or so years of big brain stuffing to try and understand it. There was much less to distract me.

I started with attempt to understand time, only to find out how little we really know about it. More recently I have become interested in consciousness, something we seem to know even less about. At its core I now understand time and consciousness both to be simply about change and change is simply due to the fact that everything that exists is constantly in motion.

So here I am at 70! QED!

And one peculiar point I see
As one with many ones of me
As truth is gathered, I rearrange
Inside out, outside in
Inside out, outside in
Perpetual change

Yes, Perpetual Change, 1971

I feel lucky to be born in an age that we’ve finally been able to overcome some of the trappings of earlier humanity in order to see existence for what it really is.

Red or Blue?

My brother and I recently talked about why the followers of Abraham have had humankind by the short hairs for so long now. He argues that it’s sort of like the blue pill in the movie the Matrix. Sometimes I feel a bit like Cypher in the movie The Matrix.

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I certainly learned a lot of pithy sayings over time in the cult of Bill and Dave. I’ve tried to use some of them to correct my behavior with limited success. One of my favorites:

Things are exactly the way they are supposed to be, otherwise they would be different.

Pithy AA saying

This certainly does not imply determinism on my part but it does imply acceptance. Alternatively, the only thing I can truly control is the way I perceive and react to any given situation.

Yes – acceptance is the answer for this Dude it seems.

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Free Will & 73

Clan Tubridy, among others, was recently touched by the birth of a baby girl Georgiana Marisa. First female Tubridy in my branch of the Clan since 1891! I have determined that bodes well for me!

I am now facing a legacy of 73: As long as any male Tubridy that I am directly descended from has lived. Wow!

I will choose (because of my free will and nothing else) to look at it like this:

The fact that we have the first Tubridy girl since 1891 surely means I can make it to 74!

Time, what ever it is, will tell. In the meantime, I will continue to relax and enjoy the ride!

Happy Birthday Dude!

I have always been fascinated by numbers. There are two from my early childhood that stick out.

45

When I was in elementary school, I was a crossing guard. If you can believe it, they let elementary school kids stand at the crossing for the other kids attending school. I wanted the job because you got this ultra-cool sash that you wore.

I remember standing at the corner of Minuteman Causeway and Brevard with my cool crossing guard sash on, helping the other kids who basically ignored us 🤣. For whatever reason, I was thinking about the turn of the century, which was still many years off. I did the math and determined I would be 45! I was stunned – I guess it was the first time I actually wondered what my life would be like as an adult. I know for sure now that whatever happened, I would be 45 at the turn of the century.

I thought about this over and over until it actually occurred. At the time, I had gotten married for the second time to a woman with a six-year-old daughter. I didn’t see that one coming! 😳

69

This year, I turned 69. It is a unique number in a couple of ways.

It is known as a semi-prime because it is the product of two prime numbers, 3 and 23. Prime numbers have always fascinated me

If you multiply 69 by all the individual numbers preceding it (aka factorial), you get the value 1.711224524×10⁹⁸. When electronic calculators came out, they had an upper limit of 10¹⁰⁰ (also known as a googol). So, if your calculator had a factorial operation, you could get this number to appear. Any number higher than 69 would give you an error. I remember trying it out on my brand-spanking-new TI-56 programmable calculator when I was in engineering school.

As an image – well – I don’t need to tell you what that means. It is universally known!

♋️

I was in junior high school riding home from school one afternoon. The junior high school was further away than the old elementary school, and in the afternoon, you always had to fight the strong breezes coming from the ocean to get home. I used to dread it 😆.

Somebody earlier in the day told me the ‘naughty’ meaning of 69 😍. For whatever reason, I remember riding home that afternoon fighting the hurricane wind and thinking to myself:

Why would anybody want to do that?

Other than it being my age, it is the largest known number to be the sum of two primes in exactly two different ways: 68 = 7 + 61 = 31 + 37.

I think it looks bold and ready for action!