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1976

03 June 2006
Saturday, 10:42 AM

I was born on 3 June 1976. Today, I am thirty years old.

I share 1976 with some important stuff. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed Apple Computer, which would inadvertently revolutionize creative technology and desktop computing. Seminal releases from the Ramones and the Damned—and a legendary television appearance by the Sex Pistols—brought punk rock’s disaffected bite into the public consciousness. We said goodbye to luminaries like Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, and Howard Hughes, and said hello to network television’s future teen idols: Candace Cameron, Melissa Joan Hart, Joey Lawrence, Fred Savage, and Jaleel White. We assumed you must have been talking to Travis Bickle, since he was the only one there.

Aging is subjective. You are, as they say, only as old as you feel. And logic suggests that for Americans, whose measurements are based on arbitrary inches, feet, miles, and degrees of Fahrenheit, the number 30 should be an insignificant supporting player to the 12s, 5280s, and 212s that we hold so dearly. Still, it’s hard not to join my countrymen in this selective ingestion of the metric Kool Aid, and regard this birthday as a milestone (pun intended). For many, it is the beginning of true, responsible, boring adulthood. It is settling for what you’ve got and will have. For me, it is the marriage of the collected experiences and observations that earned me my cynicism to a renewed exultation of the vibrant spirit of youth. This is the paradox I celebrate today, and look forward to conquering.

Filed under: Art/Design, Film, Music, Personal, Technology

Comments Closed (16)

1. bearskinrug says…  |  03 June 2006 / 11:40 AM

Now that you're thirty can I have your hat that says "29 and Feelin' Fine"?

2. Trey Piepmeier says…  |  03 June 2006 / 11:58 AM

Happy Birthday, Rob! I'll be joining you in February for three-oh.

3. Ms. Jen says…  |  03 June 2006 / 5:55 PM

Happy freakin' Birthday, Rob W! I hope you have a lovely day and night. ;o)

4. rob says…  |  04 June 2006 / 10:05 AM

Hey, you can run for senate now!

5. Shaun Inman says…  |  04 June 2006 / 11:13 AM

There are no 30-bit video game systems so I don't see what the big deal is. We'll talk when you hit 32.

6. Maxine says…  |  04 June 2006 / 5:50 PM

Hey, happy birthday Rob! And yeah, you're way to old to be cynical now...Have a great day whatever you're up to.

7. Colin D. Devroe says…  |  05 June 2006 / 9:54 AM

HB dude.

8. Rob Weychert says…  |  05 June 2006 / 11:46 AM

Thanks for the kind birthday wishes, everyone! It was a fun day, evidence of which will be published in the near future. Stay tuned.

9. Rob L. says…  |  05 June 2006 / 1:59 PM

Happy birthday. Maybe in your old age you'll find some more time to write "daily" haikus...

10. Simon Jessey says…  |  06 June 2006 / 7:19 AM

Happy Birthday, young man. Keep one eye in the sink from now on, because stuff starts falling off when you hit the big three-oh.

11. Thame says…  |  06 June 2006 / 10:31 AM

Yeah. Happy Birthday to the both of us...I'm June 3rd too!

12. Keith says…  |  06 June 2006 / 8:03 PM

Happy belated to a fellow Gemini! Hope you had a great one.

13. Richard Rutter says…  |  09 June 2006 / 10:13 AM

Happy birthday fellow Gemini (another one). 30 years old don't mean nuttin. Believe me I went through it and came out the other end.

14. goodwitch says…  |  19 June 2006 / 4:38 PM

Such a young thang u r!

15. june says…  |  12 July 2006 / 7:58 AM

Hey, we share the same birthday! But you've got four years on me.

Hope you had a good one!

16. Facinet Toure says…  |  15 August 2006 / 3:37 AM

I know it's probably late to wish you an happy birthday, but man it's succesful to be and remain into the web thing this deep at your age.
Thanks for keeping the web a fun and cool place for future generations.

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