… 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).