10 things I look forward to! (14/11/2007 17:03)

Last year, I made a blog about Being Spinner in December, which is an incredibly busy month for me (and many others!).
This year, I decided to rather point out all the things I look forward to, great or small.
The list comes in a random and meaningless order.

- My birthday
December 9th is my birthday, and I am about to turn 33. 33 is a magic number, as it contains two identical numbers. This happens only every 11th year and is thus more rare than "round" numbers. My birthday-parties are known to be both entertaining and exhausting, involving Karaoke, Dancing, Big-Screen Guitar Hero and a number of "fluids". Always a lot of fun!
Facts about the number 33:
- 33 is the largest positive integer that can not be expressed as a sum of different triangular numbers. It is also the smallest odd repdigit that's not prime (unless we consider 1-digit integers to also be repdigits).
- It is also the eighth distinct biprime comprising the prime factors (3.11). Its aliquot sum is 15; itself a discrete biprime (3.5) in the following Aliquot sequence 33,15,9,4,3,1,0.
- The sum of the first four factorials is 33. Adding up the sums of divisors for the 1 through 6 yields 33. 33 is the smallest integer such that it and the next two integers all have the same number of divisors.
- It is also the first member of the first cluster of three biprimes (33,34,35); the next such cluster is (85,86,87).
- It is the atomic number of Arsenic (!)
- It is also the number of innings played in the longest baseball game in history (a 1981 minor league game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox in Pawtucket, Rhode Island).
- Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three. Let's hope I can outlive him!
- The title of the first episode of the new Battlestar Galactica television series is "33"
- "33" is a street code name for Cocaine. (WTF?)
- 33 is the code for international direct-dial phone calls to France.

Amazing what you can find on Wikipedia, isn't it?

- Christmas
It isn't just the presents, I promise!
I am an old man now, apprently, and need to look forward to other things than my egocentric presents, like making sure it's a memorable Christmas for my family as well. Things like lots of good food and seeing the entire family helps to make this something to really look forward to.
Unfortunately, this also means meeting up with Kjappfotgutta in Norways 1/1, which is always embrassing as he brags about how much better he is...drat..

- A better forum-structure in ManagerLeague
More players also mean more forum-threads and posts. More players from more countries also mean more language-differences, and we don't cope too well when it comes to the forums. I am therefore working on restructuring the forums to make it easier to use them, divide the forums more according to language, and make it easier to "avoid" threads cluttering up the forums for people who only want the ML-related stuff. I am happy to tell you this will be in place for next season.

- A bug-free ManagerLeague
The latest development of ManagerLeague has been a huge effort to iron out ALL bugs, and I do mean ALL. This season, a lot of them went away, but there are still a few to get rid of. And so, work has progressed and we can all look forward to more fixes. There are some challenges of course, like dealing with Javleetcodes, special characters and UTF8 (ok, that's techie stuff, never mind), but we are actually getting there. Soon I hope :)

- Getting a bigger apartment where Tobias can have his own room
Ah, yes, I hope that time next year, our family economy will allow me to sell my 2 bedroom apartment and get a 3 bedroom apartment in stead. Anyone with small children know what I mean. :)

- Getting a new computer at home
I am afraid my old computer is far from optimal, both as a workstation, but also as an entertainment-center like they are nowadays. I have had this computer since 2001 and it really needs to be replaced. It's not even upgradable tbh, anything but the cabinet is completely useless. However, with my birthday and Christmas coming up, my wishlist is basically Money, Money and Money so I can buy a new one! Here's to hoping!

- Guitar Hero 3
November 23rd is the date when Guitar Hero 3 is launched in Norway. I simply can't wait!!!
But I have to, or so I am told. Yepp, thats right, I can't buy it when it hits the shops, sigh, someone is apparently planning to buy it for me for my birthday! (Maybe, anyway!) Gah, I'll be 2 weeks behind then, compared to my friends!!! Will I ever catch up?
Hahahahahaha, who am I kidding, of course I will :-P

- Getting a new colleague
There is reason to hope for this to happen fairly soon. These days, we are finalizing the budget for 2008, and hopefully it will have room for another geek like myself. SO KEEP BUYING THOSE CREDITS, I NEED HELP!!!
:-P

- Improving the ML-simulator to the point where matches can be WATCHED
Mmmmmm, this is something I have always wanted, and I hope that 2008 is the year it will finally happen. It's no small task though, it's HUGE, and will require some pretty fancy coding, storage and simulating. Smells like new hardware too, to be honest!

- The next blog by Wojteker
My great nemesis here among the bloggers, and, if I was gay, which I am not, someone I would clearly fall in love with just due to his writing skills.
No worries, Wojteker, I am about as straight as they come :)
But I do look forward to what your creative, articulate and amusing mind will come up with next.

Have a great month everyone, and feel free to make your own blog about what YOU look forward to!

- Spinner