45

          (Originally posted on May 17, 2010 - 12:40)

         Some trivia about the number 45: 

         - 45 (forty-five or XLV in roman) is the natural number following 44 and followed by 46.

         - 45 is the sixth positive integer. 

         - It is the atomic number of Rhodium. 

         - Messier object M45, a magnitude 1.4 open cluster in the constellation Taurus, also known as the Pleiades. 

         - The New General Catalogue object NGC 45, a magnitude 10.6 spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus. 

         - 45 is a type of gramophone record classified by its revolution speed of 45 revolutions per minute (rpm). 

         - "45 and Fat" is a 1996 song by Babybird. 

         - "Forty-Five" is a song by The Atomic Bitchwax.

         - "45" is a song by Elvis Costello, with "45" both referring to the 45 rpm singles and to the artist's age when he wrote the song.

         - Forty-five is the name of a card game. 

         - A football match consists of two periods of 45 minutes each. 

         - .45 is a caliber for some guns and ammunition. 

         - +45 is the telephone country code for Denmark. 

         And finally, 45 is also the number of years that I have survived so far. 

         And by the way, if you're asking yourself what the picture above means, I suggest you consult your ophthalmologist. On the other hand, if you can read this then your problem may not be so bad, so don't panic.

 

42

         (Originally posted on May 17, 2007 - 01:28)

         42, also written as "forty-two", is a number that, if you are counting correctly, comes after 41 and before 43. It is made of two digits, both of which are even numbers. 42 is also an integer and natural number.

         According to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, researchers from a pan-dimensional, hyper-intelligent race of beings constructed the second greatest computer in all of time and space, Deep Thought, to calculate the Ultimate Answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. After seven and a half million years of pondering the question, Deep Thought provides the answer: "forty-two." 

         The reaction:

         "Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?"

         "I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."

         There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something more bizarrely inexplicable.

         There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

         Curiosities about 42

         - The atomic number of molybdenum

         - The number of teeth wolves and dogs (canines) have.

         - Scientists calculated that the Hubble Constant, the rate at which the universe expands, is 42.

         - The light leaving a rainbow is spread over a wide angle, with a maximum intensity around 42°

         - The number of minutes it would take a theoretical "gravity train" to travel to any point on earth.

         - In one Grand Unified Theory, the Georgi-Glashow model, the inverse of the coupling constant is approximately 42.

         - 10! (10 factorial) seconds is exactly 42 days.

         - In Geometry, a solid with 42 sides is called a tetracontakaidigon

         - In binary, 42 is 101010.

 

         - In the Messier catalog of astronomical objects, object M42, is a magnitude 5.0 diffuse nebula in the constellation Orion, also known as the Orion Nebula

         - In the New General Catalogue object NGC 42, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus

         - The planet Uranus' north and south poles face the sun 42 years before switching, (example) the north pole experiences 42 years of summer and 42 years of winter and vice-versa.

         - In January 2005, Asteroid 2001 DA42 was given the name Asteroid Douglasadams, named for the author Douglas Adams that popularized the number 42 and died in 2001. With even his initials in the provisional designation, Brian G. Marsden, the director of the Minor Planet Center and the secretary for the naming committee, said, "This was sort of made for him, wasn't it?"

         - The number of generations from Abraham to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew

         - According to the Book of Revelations, 'The Beast' will hold the Earth for 42 months.

         - There are 42 lines on each page of a Gutenberg Bible.

         - In the common computing language codification, ASCII, the decimal code '42' represents an asterisk - ' * ' - which is another common computing symbol used to represent a wildcard or an indicator of "everything"

         - The code number for the Microsoft .NET platform is 42, since it is their answer to "The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything". It also happens to be the building number that the Microsoft .NET CLR is built in. Coincidentally, it was the 42nd release build which was ready to ship as the final version 2 .NET framework, and so is present in the file version (2.0.50727.42) of every binary file

         - 42 is the default number of days a password can be used for before expiring in Windows Server 2003.

         - If you search "answer to life, the universe and everything" on Google, the calculator function will display '42'

         - The number of hours that the potion caused Juliet to sleep for (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene 1, line 105)

         - If you rearrange 'tea for two' you get 'for tea two'

         - In Japanese, 4 (shi) and 2 (ni) are together pronounced like "going to die". Because of that, in Japan, 42 is considered as a disastrous number

         - There were originally 42 columns and 42 figures from Greek myth in the Parthenon

         - The age at which Elvis Presley died

         42 also happen to be the number of years that I complete today.

Never say never again

         (Originally posted on Apr 25, 2007 - 00:15) 
 

         A long time ago (yep another of those old stories), when I was 15 I used to skateboard. And I was not bad at it. Long hair, dressed in red and yellow and doing crazy things like hitch hiking several Km out of the city and skateboarding back to the city on the interstate road (Me and 2 friends got caught by the highway patrol twice) and constructing a 2.5 m tall half-pipe in my backyard... Lots of fun. 

When I turned 16 I kinda outgrown my skateboard fever and abandoned it for a guitar and I thought I would never go back. And I certainly never imagined that 25 years later I would do it again.
Until yesterday. 


         A friend of mine invited me to go roller skate in the park with some friends. I told her I don't know how to roller skate. That didn't stop her. She said she doesn't know either and she just got her rollers and is going to try for the first time so we could do it together. Hmmm... I knew she wasn't going to let me off the hook easily, so I had to think fast. And it went on these lines: If I get some roller skates it may be fun and it will be good to go out and enjoy the fresh air... IF I learn how to skate. And that was a huge IF. Otherwise the only fun would be that of the people watching me get a mouthful of asphalt every time I get on my feet. It was Saturday evening. Damn. No way I could go buy some rollers and have a crash course till tomorrow. And I certainly wasn't going to go buy the rollers on Sunday and put them on my feet for the first time in a crowded Herastrau!

         So I decided to take the path of less resistance. I told her that maybe I could consider the hint of a possibility of perhaps getting myself a skateboard instead of rollers because I used to skateboard when I was a kid, so who knows... maybe I could, perhaps, you know... kinda... try it again. She said bine. I thought she would probably forget it the next day. 

         In that same evening I had the birthday party of another dear friend of mine to attend. I didn't drink much, just some beer and some champagne. And a frappuccino to be able to walk home safely. I mean, I wasn't even dizzy but I took the coffee thing just in case. No, really.

         Next day I woke up at 11:00 with a headache the size of Belgium. I checked the damage report: 

         Dehydration level, 45%. 
         Recall of previous evening, 2%! 
         Embarrassment factor, 91%!! 

         Whoah!! I didn't know the frappuccino was THAT strong!! Oooo I knew I shouldn't have taken it... erm... :-D 

         I stumbled to the kitchen and made myself a big coffee. Stumble to the living room. Sat in front of the computer. Log in on Yahoo msgr to tune LAUNCHcast on Classic Rock because I wasn't in conditions to choose mp3s. As soon as Y! Msgr logs in, up pops a msg: "I really hope that right now you're getting ready to go buy a skateboard" Ooooo I had forgotten about it! (No wonder, with a recall level of 2%!) But apparently she hadn't! So I put on my poker face (which wasn't necessary because we weren't on webcam. But come on! I was in deep mahmurish mode! I wasn't thinking clearly. Or at all.) and told her, sure I just got dressed to leave and I was going to ask you what time we meet at the park. She said we meet in 120 minutes. But I swear it sounded like "you have 88 minutes to live, doc. Tic-tac, tic-tac" with the digitally muffled voice and all.

         So off I went to Carrefour, carrying my Belgium sized headache. I found the section with the roller skates but... no skateboards... Oh dear... What to do? It was such a nice day for the race outside... But jogging after my friend on rollers doesn't sound good... She said she's going to try the rollers for the first time. Oh what the hell... Be brave. I'll get myself some rollers and try it for the first time too. 

         Ok. I've decided. Let's find a nice one that fits me. 
         Now that's when Murphy's Law rules, right? If it looks nice, it's expensive. If it looks right and the price is right you can't find the right size. The only ones that fits your size, either you wouldn't get yourself caught dead wearing it or are so cheap that they would break just by looking hard at them.

         And in my case it was even worse. I chose one. Good looks. Good price. They have all numbers. What can go wrong? Well, my shoes are 42. I tried 42: Too tight. 43: Still tight. 44: STILL tight! 45: too big!!. Huh? Helloooo? Is there a 44.5 somewhere? No, of course not. I give up. 

         I'll either stay home or jog around. Stay home, most likely.
         Then I was browsing other sports gear. Tennis rackets, ping-pong rackets, baseball bats, skateboards, golf putters... Stai... Skateboards?? There they were, among rackets and clubs and bats. Well maybe here they use it for something else than skating... Then I overheard this comment from two kids checking the baseball bats: "Hey, these are good for smashing cars!" Yep. No wonder I thought the skateboards were in the wrong place. Maybe they use them for swatting bikers off their bikes or something like that.

         So I got the board. A fair cry from the custom assembled one that I had 25 years ago, with Tracker Trucks axles and Sims (Pure Juice!) wheels and a beautiful mahogany board, but I thought that for the moment it would do. 

         Well, it would have to do.
         Off to the park. 

         I met the gang at Herastrau. My friend was not the only one trying the rollers for the first time. I felt better. I was not going to be the only one embarrassing myself.

         So, after 25 years I was skateboarding again. I was quite rusty and the skateboard that I got wasn't performing its duties properly. It wasn't turning as well as it should. But I guess you get what you pay for. 

         As for my friend, she got proficient in her skating surprisingly fast. Now if I decide to switch to rollers I'll have a lot to catch up. 

         I also played something that I've never done before: Badminton.
Now that's a weird sport. I mean, I used to play tennis when I was young so I feel like all the physics of badminton is wrong. The air resistance of the bird is too big and that of the racket is too small. And the dynamics of it is also wrong. You hit the bird hard and yet it flies too slow. And because there's no bouncing on the ground you have to move yourself faster to keep the bird in the air. But after I got used to it, it was fun. 

         And then there's the day after.
         Ooooo... There's a big price to pay for moving like that after 25 years without practicing any sport. I feel pains in muscles that I didn't know existed. Actually I feel like my muscle pains start 2 meters from my body.
And I received a threat from my friend: We're going again next weekend and the next and this is going to become our regular activity. In her own words: 

         "You will wish it will rain in the weekends!"
         Oh dear.
         I guess it's no pain, no gain, right?