As of 7:03pm tonight, I will have reached the geek-significant age of 42. It's also the age at which Elvis died. I knew a couple of people who were sure they would die at age 27 because that's the age at which both Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison died. However, both of those folks were world-class poly-addicted drug abusers, and even though these people I knew were partiers neither one was in Hendrix or Morrison's league. Both of them survived well beyond that age. Actually there's quite a list of entertainers who died in their 20s on Wikipedia.

This is a really 'bad mojo' number for the Japanese. The numerals four and two can be pronounced as shi-ni in Japanese, which is a homonym for the verb "to die." If I'm not mistaken it's the Chinese-inflected reading, so there is probably a similar anti-42 superstition in China.

Anyway, hopefully this will be a fairly decent birthday. I have been taking it easy this morning and afternoon because...well, just because. Once Richie gets back home we will be first going out to Little Tokyo to grab some grub, then going to FIDM for the Star Wars costume exhibit, then going back to the Valley for an SFVLUG meeting.

Tomorrow I will be taking the first of two days of training to be a Rape Crisis Advocate. I think it will be quite a feather in my cap to do this. It directly relates to my major and is a way of making amends for being too chicken to report being raped when I was younger. If I didn't have the guts to do it I should stand by someone in a similar situation and help her find the strength to make the bastard pay. There is a bit more protection for the rights of the victim now than there was in the late-'70s early-'80s, but I'm sure it's still like walking into hell.