Quarter-Century of Fandom

Today is my 44th birthday, and also approximately the 25th anniversary of my entrance to convention-attending fandom, as I attended my first SF genre convention, L.A.con II, the 1984 World Science Fiction Convention, around this time 25 years ago.

I don't have anything profound to say. Most years I get a Worldcon for my birthday, or else I'm traveling to or from one. Before that, birthdays were merely the Day of Doom as it meant school started the following Tuesday. So I've rarely done special things on my birthday. Indeed, today is an ordinary work day for me, so I'd better get back to it.

Mid-October Plans

Lisa informs me that she sometimes sees these LJ posts, as she sometimes reads them off of her father's computer. If she reads this before the next time she calls me here, this will be the first she'll hear about this: Alaska Airlines sent me a discount coupon that expired on my birthday and had to be used for a flight within sixty days thereafter. After getting permission from my supervising senior engineer to work from Oregon for a week in October, I booked a flight from Oakland to Portland for the afternoon of Friday, October 9, returning Sunday, October 18. Fingers crossed that the weather is good enough for us to get more work done on the things that still need doing. I'll need to keep earlier hours at work in order to be able to knock off early enough to get stuff done around the property. And I really need to get a set of coveralls, I think.

Birthday Present

Not at all related to my birthday, my company brought in In-N-Out Burgers for everyone for a company lunch. (This is a thoroughly toned-down luncheon, in keeping with the economic climate.) Part-way through the lunch, one of the organizers said that everyone should look under their seats, because there were prizes randomly distributed throughout the seats. Although there wasn't one under my chair, the seat next to me was vacant, and when I looked under it, found an envelope, and by finders-keepers it was mine. It was a $10 gift card from Target stores. A pleasant coincidence, getting a gift on my birthday like that. As a co-worker said, "Hey, now you can buy some new socks."