Today is ...

Other than that: Enjoyable story. Especially if it didn't happen to oneself. Those are always the best ones. Hope you get to enjoy your trip! :)

Oh I too find the story enjoyable. Now. Afterwards.

Pibbur who's got yet another story to tell his grandchildren. If he ever gets any of those.
 
… yet another day in San Antonio.

I've come to realize I'm i Texas. Outside the conference hotel where I'm staying I found a sign on the front doors with the following message: "holder of the license to carry a concealed gun … may not enter the property with a concealed handgun". I'm not going to argue against or (more likely) for gun control, but let me put it this way: I've never seen such a sign in Norway. And that does not mean that you are entitled to carry guns (concealed or waving them openly) into hotels there. I have to admit it felt a bit strange.

Otherwise things are about as they used to be. Toilets aren't built for normal (=Norwegian) people, they're too low, and there's too much water in them. And all bank notes still have about the same colour, despite my complaints about it. Fortunately I've learned to read the numbers on'em which makes things a bit easier. I still can't exclude that I've bought something for 9.95 and given the-one-behind-the-desk a 50 dollar bill, saying "keep the change". (actually, that happened a couple of years ago at Starbucks but the-one-behind-the-desk, kindly informed me that I probably had made a mistake.

Some more things worth mentioning:

0613 - Constantine ver 3.0 (born May 3rd 612) was crowned co-emperor by his father on 22 January 613 and shortly after was betrothed to his cousin, Gregoria, a daughter of his father's first cousin, Nicetas. Well, you know me and emperors, I don't want the job, as it tends to last not very long, and they don't retire with a healthy pension. Said Constantine lasted until may 641, but as a senior emperor only for 4 months after his father died of not natural causes for emperors, that is, he was not assassinated. Neither was Constantine, but he still lasted only four more months before dying from tuberculosis. I can't verify the diagnosis, as they didn't obtain a specimen of sufficient quality for bacterial culturing.

1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.

1521 – Emperor Charles 5.0 opens the Diet of Worms. As I've told you I'm attempting to be a 5 of 7 days a week vegetarian. And when eating raw vegetables I can't guarantee there aren't worms or worm-eggs in them. But I'll never eat worms as a main course. Can't say the diet is unhealthy, though as this particular emperor lasted until 1558.

1899 – Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederationing. Just a thought, wouldn't it be nice for the ozzies to have neighbours, in stead of being the all alone down there? And wouldn't it be nice for us all if there were at least one country down under without all types of deadly animals, just a couple of spiders, a snake and a marsupial or two?

1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. But of course, you didn't hear that from me (an admittedly obvious pun, but I'll keep it)

1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood, California. According to Wikipedia (assuming I'm reading it correctly), I am west of the Mississippi, but I haven't seen any sign of it. Actually I haven't seen TV at all, just wasting my time writing these notes for the watch.

1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space. And only 1 1/2 year after this they landed on the moon!!!!

1970 – The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service. I must confess that I was more excited when I traveled on the A380. But then, both these planes are too big to lift themselves up into the sky. No one can convince me otherwise, despite the fact that I've flown in both of them.

1973 – The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo moon landing mission

1984 – The Apple Macintosh is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial. I refuse to look it up on youtube. And I'll curse anyone who dares post it here with a permanent itching spell.

1990 – Robert Tappan Morris is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet Computer worm.

1992 – Space Shuttle program: Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first neurologist in space. I once thought I would want to specialize in neurology. Things could have been very different if I had followed that instinct. It might have been just the job for me. Lots of fine diagnostics, very little treatment (this page is NSFN, hope no neurologists reads it)

2002 – Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

No googles (at the moment of writing) for pibbur and concealed handgun. Pibbur is very satisfied with that.

pibbur who at the meetings today forgot to say he was from Norway when it was his turn to present himself. I swear that has never happened before (when abroad).
 
Last edited:
Pibs, I didn't realise you were a 'broad'!! I thought you were male!!!! :D
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,805
Location
Australia
It's all those strange things you Norwegians get up to during your 9 months of winter; must freeze the brain or something!! :)
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,805
Location
Australia
Yepp. Faster processing demands better cooling. Just look at the trolls. (Discworld version).

pibbur can write much faster bfiaerjt yhen kt woudlendt be as elasly to read it.
 
Yup, Texas likes their guns.

Just today I got to mess with a coworkers new 9mm pistol which of course he brought to work. Then another coworker brought in his new night vision scope to show off because who doesn't need a night vision scope. Why everyone shows me all their gun toys I do not know.

My last house which was right on a park (texas park so who knows what happened in there at night) had a bullet go through a window, a picture and a wall before it got lodged in another wall one night while I was on the couch about 10 feet away. Friggin' texas kids ....
 
… is the day pibbur came home from San Antonio.

The journey was fairly uneventful. A bit more turbulence, but nothing the planes couldn't handle. Departure from San Antonio to Atlanta where our intercontinental craft was waiting was 25 minutes late, but due to good winds the trip took little more than 1 1/2 hour so we were there on time. The plane from atlanta was a completely new boeing 777. And the good ol' 737 took me home to Bergen. Yesterday there was a storm overhere, but that was yesterday, and not now.

Normally my wife would have been at the airport to pick me up, but the last couple of days our car has refused to cooperate at the first stage of driving, getting the motor to start. The battery is 10 years old and has been narly discharged a couple of times, and when it's cold it tends not to like that. So methinks it's time for a new one (battery, hopefully not a completely new car).

I have once again demonstrated strength of character as the only thing I did today with my new PC which arrived just before my trip to TX was unpacking it, and - this is important - putting away all the emballage into my chaos room. Some of you might think that is my den, but I can assure you, I have an even more chaotic room where I stuff things.Some times there are attempts at sorting things in there, but I tend to soon drop the system, and after a while coming up with a new ome. It's not safe going in there, at least if you want to keep your feet on solid ground. Much better in my den where I can walk freely, as long as I don't insist on walking straight lines.

Other things

41. Roman emperor Caligula died of natural causes for roman emperors, after ruling (there should have been a "z" in there, but I found nowhere to put it) for 4 years. The perps were the Praetorian guard of the senat.His uncle Claudius somewhat unwillingly took over and wasn't killed before 0053. Then Nero payed his dues until he was asassinated in 68. For a short period Rome was ruled by Galba, who didn't finish his oath before being put to death
.

1742: Charles 5.0 becomes holy roman emperor, lasted not longer than till 1747

1986: Voyager II is 81500 km from Uranus


Notable last time appearances

2015: Last completion of today ,,.is.

pibbur who
 
Last edited:
… the day I saw (part of) a game of cricket. Between Pakistan and India. On Norwegian TV. It's of course still a weird sport (why do they throw the ball in that strange way?). But I understand more of it. Enough to understand how points are scored. But not enough to know if it was a good game or not.

Its also the day when

0706 - Byzantine emperor Justinian ver. 2.0 has his predecessors Leontios and Tiberios ver 3.0 publicly executed. He was himself executed of course. In 711. Emperors!!! Say no more.

1637 - Ferdinand ver. 3.0 becomes holy Roman emperoir. He died of (for emperors) unnatural causes in 1657, after concluding an alliance against Sweden. So maybe his death wasn't (for emperors) unnatural after all.

1690 – Prince Constantin Cantemir and the Empire sign a secret treaty stipulating that Moldavia would support the actions led by the 7th house (House Habsburg) against the Ottoman Empire. He died 3 years after. He was illiterate. He exeecutede a man of letters in 1691. Coincidence?

1835 – The first constitutional law in modern Serbia is adopted. 1835. Modern?

1870 – Stevens Institute of Technology is founded and offers the first Bachelors of Engineering in surprise, surprise, engineering.

1921 – Kingdom of Romania establishes its legation in Helsinki. Should probably be listed in the "things you don't need to know" thread.

1946 - ENIAC.

And especially:

1971 – The decimalisation of British coinage is completed!. Well, it's a beginning!

There are 1060 googles for "pibber" (no it's not a typo) and "cricket". 405,000 for "pinner" and "cricket". While pibbur gets away with 154.


pibbur who stopped watching the game before it was over.
 
Last edited:
Which is probably why you misspelled it as crocket with no Davey in sight!! :p :)
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,805
Location
Australia
Which is probably why you misspelled it as crocket with no Davey in sight!! :p :)

Heh, one might suspect a Freudian slip, there. But the most simple explanation is the juxtaposition of the 'o' and the 'i' keys on my keyboard.

pibbur who admittedly has played more croquet than crocket.

Edit: Misspelling corrected. Partially.
 
Last edited:
Ah yes, a mixture of croquet and cricket would make for an interesting game!! What do you think the rules should be? :)
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,805
Location
Australia
… 190 years ago, the day after the first batch of migrants from Norway to the US set sail from Oslo@Norway. The ship was the "Restauration", carrying 52 people, delivering 53 upon arrival. All in all 800 000 Norwegians migrated over there from 1825 to 1929. 200 000 decided this was stupid and returned home.

Other things:

1295 - Scotland and France form an alliance against England. It lasted for 265 years. No doubt, as part of the alliance France got access to bagpipes, to use against their unprepared enemies. A crime against humanity.

1687 - Isaac Newton releases "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica", covering his laws of motion and gravity.

1775 - The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Second Continental Congress in a final attempt to avoid full-on war between the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain.

1803 – The Convention of Artlenburg is signed, leading to the France occupying Hanover.

1809 – The largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Wagram is fought between the French and Austrian Empires.

1813 – The slightly delayed War of 1812: British raids on Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh@New York commence.

1814 - The even more delayed War of 1812: Jacob Brown pwns Britain at Chippawa@Ontario. Huh?

1865 - Rheilffordd Talyllyn was allowed by law from the brithish parliament to carry people. In Wales. I like trains.

1980 - Bjørn Borg (famous for his underpants collection) won his 5th wimbledon in a row.

Notable first time appearances:
1937 - Spam, spam, spam!
1943 - Robbie Robertson
1946 - the bikini. In France.
1948 - NHS@UK
1954 - That's all right
1954 - Less than 6 months before pibbur
1962 - Algeria@Algeria
1975 - Cape Verde@Cape Verde
1996 - Dolly
2012 - The Shard

Notable last time appearances:
1962 - Algeria@France
1975 - Cape Verde@Portugal

pibbur who counts 1350 googles
 
.. is the day before 15th of October. If you live in Poland, Portugal or Spain. And the year is 1582.

It's also a day when pibbur is going nowhere.

And:


1227 - al-Adil is assasinated. He was not, as you might think, a Roman emperor, but a caliph. And, as the story goes, a really bad one (Wikipedia uses the words "disastrous" and "incompetent".). And he did murder his predecessor.

1535 - The first complete English language Bible.

1636 – The Swedish Army pwns the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire. I think we were friends with the Swedes at that time, so it was probably a good thing. Sweet Brother!!!!

1777 - Battle of German Town. Strange, I thought that took place 500 years later.

1830 – Creation of the Kingdom of Belgium after separation from the Netherlands. I think they managed to install a government fairly quicjkly at that time, unlike recent history.

1927 – John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (Gus among friends?) goes to Mount Rushmore.

1957 - The launch og Sputnik (No, I not talking about the Norwegian singer).

1957 – Apparently the Avro Arrow roll-out ceremony, which I have no idea what is and don't bother looking up, took place in Canada (which I know something about)

1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 1,019.468 km/h, driving Thrust2 at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. He's the guy behind the slightly faster, and probably not street legal, Thrust SSC

1993 – Russian tanks bombard the White House

2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space.

Notable first time appearances:

1895 - Buster Keaton.

Notable last time appearances, excluding the usual bunch of assassinated Roman emperors:

1989 - Secretariat
1989 - Graham Chapman

pibbur who is recognized at 1250 sites, but not on Wikipedia, claiming Mr, Pibb Xtra is completely unrelated.
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,893
Location
Old Europe
Back
Top Bottom