What were you doing last leap day?
29th Feb, 2008
Reply
It's Friday, so I'll be working (as a Junior Developer), and then out drinking. Mrs Grim... is very pregnant, I am living in London and still actually have some money.
I'm going to play Texas Hold'em and Devil May Cry 4 on the 360 when I get in from work / drinking, and I'll probably post some angry messages on the Internet - it's around the time of the WoS split, as Beex is only one month away from creation.
Oh, and three days ago the seats in my Range Rover got broken, which will eventually lead to the decision to turn it into a Tomcat.
I would have been working as Tech Consultant for HP

I was playing EVE at the time, I think I would be getting ready to play Rugby on the Sat.

I don't have a status updatde on FB for the day..
Brilliant thread is brilliant.

I'm going to have to research it though. I had to look in my CV to even confirm what job I had at the time.
I was sat at this desk, waiting for the weekend.
Craster wrote:
I was sat at this desk, waiting for the weekend.


This desk.. What were you doing in Reading?
Probably sitting in a lecture or something.
I seem to have broken Yahoo! Mail while looking up my old shopping stuff. Huh.
Judging from my gmails I was chatting to my ex who was volunteering and organising a charity shoe auction at the time. I emailed a client a reminder about an overdue invoice. I organised a meeting with the guy who was to become a colleague in a couple of months time in my last job. Apparently I was also keen to see if my race pack had arrived in the post for the London marathon that year, but it didn't. I also noted in conversation that I ran 101 miles in February as part of my training (I ran around 17 miles this month in 2012), aaaand, I think I had steak for my tea. If I recall I cooked it really badly and it was not good.

I don't have an update for the date, but on the 28th my facebook says I'm the king of badly installed door frames. Sounds about right.
Turns out I bought something today - quite a substantial something :S
I have no idea why I bought it.

I also fired up this web site for guessing the sex and birthdate of the Grimlet, (which has the wrong year in the date at the bottom).
All my e-mails from that day were folks asking how to use music on Objection!.

Nothing has changed.
Because it makes you look so pretty?
My memory is rubbish.

I was working in a job I didn't like and was doing up the house it seems as B&Q features quite heavily on my bank statement.

I also spent over £40 through Paypal.. I wonder what that was for?

I imagine I was sat at a desk looking forward to lunch time/home time this time 4 years ago... much like today.
TheVision wrote:
My memory is rubbish.

Doesn't matter, though - I figured all my stuff out from looking in my work and personal email, at pictures on Flickr and on Facebook and my calender stuff.
Well, you picked a great date to ask what I was doing.

I was just over months away from my wedding, so was looking at wedding rings for myself (the missus was sorted long before). I had recently been told that my job in the computing department was disappearing and if I wanted to stay with the uni I would have to apply for the new Creative Campus support tech position* so I was updating my CV. I was still studying at that point and a few of my emails on the day in question are emergency backups of some 3d modelling work. Pretty stressed actually.

Oh and I was lurking at WOS.

*best thing I ever did, incidentally.
That £40 on Paypal was for a guitar that my dad bought.

I haven't got a Facebook account so I can't search that and I don't think my emails go back that far as I clean them out.

It's like I could just vanish without a trace if I wanted too.
TheVision wrote:
It's like I could just vanish without a trace if I wanted too.

We'd be able to find you by following the trail of grammatical errors :DD
Absolutely no idea. I don't recall ever thinking "oh, hey, it's a leap year", or doing anything special for it.

Now I really want to make today interesting!
ElephantBanjoGnome wrote:
TheVision wrote:
It's like I could just vanish without a trace if I wanted too.

We'd be able to find you by following the trail of grammatical errors :DD


That's alright. I'll just hide on Facebook. You'll never find me amongst all those errors!
YOG wrote:
Absolutely no idea. I don't recall ever thinking "oh, hey, it's a leap year", or doing anything special for it.

Now I really want to make today interesting!

Get a woman to propose to you. That'd be an interesting start to the day. I thought women were 'allowed' to propose any day in a leap year, but internetland going in about it today suggests maybe not.
I'm currently discussing the reasoning behind the current definition of a second, and the use of the leap second, with my phd physics mate. So in 4 years time I'll be able to say I was doing that.

Woman are allowed to propose on any day of any year Mimi. Just like men are allowed to give their girlfriend a card and flowers on any day that's not February 14th. Social expectations can sod off.
I would have been working the last few days of my notice at Arriva before having a week or so off and starting my current job at Network Rail. I'd also be the proud new owner of a new (to me) Honda CB500.
Mimi wrote:
YOG wrote:
Absolutely no idea. I don't recall ever thinking "oh, hey, it's a leap year", or doing anything special for it.

Now I really want to make today interesting!

Get a woman to propose to you. That'd be an interesting start to the day. I thought women were 'allowed' to propose any day in a leap year, but internetland going in about it today suggests maybe not.


I believe it's just today, traditionally, although one of the blokes in the office seems to think it was actually Valentine's Day in a leap year. Either way, we've had no proposals in the office, but the day is young.

Looks like I had a bit of a purge of my emails so mine only go back to May 2008. According to Paypal I had a refund for some batteries (exciting!) and looking at my bank account, I got paid about £400 less than I got paid today, so that's progress. Mind you, look at the historical entries, about £600 then went straight out to a gambling site. Oops.
ElephantBanjoGnome wrote:
Woman are allowed to propose on any day of any year Mimi. Just like men are allowed to give their girlfriend a card and flowers on any day that's not February 14th. Social expectations can sod off.

Happy Birthday!
ElephantBanjoGnome wrote:
I'm currently discussing the reasoning behind the current definition of a second, and the use of the leap second, with my phd physics mate. So in 4 years time I'll be able to say I was doing that.

Woman are allowed to propose on any day of any year Mimi. Just like men are allowed to give their girlfriend a card and flowers on any day that's not February 14th. Social expectations can sod off.

I know why I put the word 'allowed' in little quotation marks, because I don't think like that, either. But then if people do want to save it for a particular day because of tradition (how did that tradition come about, by the way? Does anyone know?) Then I guess it makes for a cute story for the grandkids one day. I believe my mother proposed to The Wizard on Leap Day. I guess four years ago.
Sorry, that should say 'that's why'
Grim... wrote:
Happy Birthday!

*bzzzzz* Incorrect. Society doesn't obligate me to do anything with my birthday and doing something with it is my choice - one that I can dictate by simply not telling anyone about it. Your birthday is a specific day individual to you, and not a dready commercialised nonsense for the masses.
Mimi wrote:
ElephantBanjoGnome wrote:
I'm currently discussing the reasoning behind the current definition of a second, and the use of the leap second, with my phd physics mate. So in 4 years time I'll be able to say I was doing that.

Woman are allowed to propose on any day of any year Mimi. Just like men are allowed to give their girlfriend a card and flowers on any day that's not February 14th. Social expectations can sod off.

I know why I put the word 'allowed' in little quotation marks, because I don't think like that, either. But then if people do want to save it for a particular day because of tradition (how did that tradition come about, by the way? Does anyone know?) Then I guess it makes for a cute story for the grandkids one day. I believe my mother proposed to The Wizard on Leap Day. I guess four years ago.



Lazy copy and paste from Wikipedia -

Quote:
In the British Isles, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years. While it has been claimed that the tradition was initiated by Saint Patrick or Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland, this is dubious, as the tradition has not been attested before the 19th century.[8] Supposedly, a 1288 law by Queen Margaret of Scotland (then age five and living in Norway), required that fines be levied if a marriage proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to £1 to a silk gown, in order to soften the blow.[9] In some places the tradition was tightened to restricting female proposals to the modern leap year day, February 29, or to the medieval (bissextile) leap year day, February 24.
ElephantBanjoGnome wrote:
Society doesn't obligate me to do anything with my birthday

If you say so.
I don't think society obligates women to propose today, either :D

Thanks for the info, DM. I thought I had remembered it being any day within leap year, and that suggests I was correct on that point, but I guess a lot of folks see today as the obvious choice.
Grim... wrote:
ElephantBanjoGnome wrote:
Society doesn't obligate me to do anything with my birthday

If you say so.



You should all purchase lots of cards.
I was being a scientist, I think, and possibly MfrsA hadn't moved in yet, so I would have had a lodger. Apart from that, I dunno.
I was stuck in a world seemingly the same as this one but empty of every living soul on the planet, dislocated from the regular time-stream, trying to escape sinister men riding around in garbage trucks who wanted to remove me from chrono-reality.

That's the last time I buy a leap-year calender with the February 29th missing.
I was working on a new contract, a luxury apartment block, that turned out to be the worst job I have ever worked on. I was still working on site at the last school we built, so had an early finish and lived less than 5 minutes walk away. I was also probably getting a little excited about booking festival tickets at the end of the following week. The children were probably causing me some degree of stress and Ramsea was probably pissing me off by spending too many hours on his PC, while moaning about how cold he was having to sit by the front door :D
NervousPete wrote:
That's the last time I buy a leap-year calender with the April 29th missing.

I wouldn't buy any calendar without April 29th.
Grim... wrote:
NervousPete wrote:
That's the last time I buy a leap-year calender with the April 29th missing.

I wouldn't buy any calendar without April 29th.


GAGH!

Stupid brain.

Sorry, been answering this long, extended enquiry involving April 29th among other days. And now it has ruined my beloved Eerie Indiana ref. Hyurrgh.
Honestly have no idea what i was doing last leap year...probably plumbing. But this thread has had me looking back at how Beex came about on the web from WoS, wow all that drama from Stu, just reading the Subs thread now.

So am i right in thinking that the_bouncing_hedgehog was a previous incarnation of mimi?
When was the first Beardy Beard Beer meet? Wasn't that around this time 4 years ago? It might have been earlier than this, if so, then this was about when My Dad got ill for the first time, in the run up to both him and my mum dying in May/July later in the year!

I think I was probably in Spain with my brother, helping my mum if that was the case...

Malc
My emails indicate that I was organising drinks with Riles.

How depressing.
Mimi wrote:
Get a woman to propose to you. That'd be an interesting start to the day. I thought women were 'allowed' to propose any day in a leap year, but internetland going in about it today suggests maybe not.


Capital idea! Perhaps I should head to the city centre with a cardboard sign reading "LADIES! Bored of knowing where your books and games are?"
Neither of my email accounts I can get to from here go back that far, but timesheets and bank accounts tell me...

I was working as a UAT manager for a client in London doing offshore development, and had just returned from a week in Bangalore. On a friday lunchtime I was probably down the greasy spoon (which no longer exists) with a couple of colleagues, getting a horrific but extremely tasty burger and slagging off work.

Mrs T had gone to uni by this point I think (and I think we had broken up then), so I had moved down south and was crashing with my parents while I waited for my new flat to be built. The house up north had been rented out and all my stuff was split between the garage in the house up north and the conservatory and spare room of my parents place.

Not the most joyous of days, I imagine.
Malc wrote:
When was the first Beardy Beard Beer meet? Wasn't that around this time 4 years ago? It might have been earlier than this


Much earlier. It was well before 'the unpleasantness'.
Grim... wrote:
If you say so.

Aside from generic adverts saying 'buy this shit for someones birthday', but I can subvert that really easily because it's very general and non-specific.

But this predictable 'here is a day to do something people!' is really stupid and arbitrary. What woman would actually propose today? It's so predictable and lacking in imagination. Ugh. It's like people are drones that only do things because they think they're supposed to and can't muster an independent thought.
ElephantBanjoGnome wrote:
It's like people are drones that only do things because they think they're supposed to and can't muster an independent thought.


I agree.
Trooper wrote:
ElephantBanjoGnome wrote:
It's like people are drones that only do things because they think they're supposed to and can't muster an independent thought.


I agree.

Me too.

What next?
I think the world implodes.
Craster wrote:
Malc wrote:
When was the first Beardy Beard Beer meet? Wasn't that around this time 4 years ago? It might have been earlier than this


Much earlier. It was well before 'the unpleasantness'.


I wanted to go to that. Dunno why I didn't.
ElephantBanjoGnome wrote:
Grim... wrote:
If you say so.

Aside from generic adverts saying 'buy this shit for someones birthday', but I can subvert that really easily because it's very general and non-specific.

But this predictable 'here is a day to do something people!' is really stupid and arbitrary. What woman would actually propose today? It's so predictable and lacking in imagination. Ugh. It's like people are drones that only do things because they think they're supposed to and can't muster an independent thought.


Or because sometimes tradition can be sentimental, and some people like being sentimental and embracing tradition. (Obviously) you do not, and I totally agree that you shouldn't only show your love for one day a year on February 14th, but I wouldn't want to take that special day away from the people that want to mark it with soppy stuff. My February 14th was amazing, and a little soppy in the best possible way. For myself, after chatting about it, I decided to give something on the day that could be opened bit by bit for a month or more, because I wanted to take part in the day but not just for the day.

Also, chocolate is great.
[quote="Mimi I decided to give something on the day that could be opened bit by bit for a month or more...Also, chocolate is great.[/quote]

Several selection boxes are great, aren't they?
Page 1 of 3 [ 148 posts ]