I was so busy yesterday thinking about Outdoor Adventure, I missed an important date: Wednesday was the seventh continuous day of my blog. One week old! Yay! Really, this is pretty good for a blog. When I was trying to find a name for my blog, I tried “mark.blogspot.com” and “markspot.blogspot.com,” but both of them had been taken. I visited those blogs, just to see what they were like, and guess what? Neither of them had been updated in years! A couple of posts each was all! Go ahead, take a look at them. I’ll wait here. There. Are you back? Did you like that line “I get the feeling that im gonna use it alot” [sic]? We in the English profession like to call that “irony.” And also, “bad spelling and punctuation,” but that’s another point entirely. BTW, not all expressions and constructions I use in this blog will qualify as “standard formal English.” I’m “letting myself loose,” so to speak, for the sake of exploration. Do as I say, not as I do. ;-) I’ll try to set a high standard, though.

Anyway, one week is a good anniversary for a blog. And what did I get for a birthday-present? A letter from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, which started out, “Dear Borrower: Congratulations, this letter acknowledges the payment in full of your loan . . .”! Yay me! It feels really good to be out of debt now. I’ve been really good about not getting into debt, paying off my credit card bill every month and such, but I thought that for education, it would be worthwhile. Once I got under it, though, I could just feel the magic of compound interest grinding away at me – if I ever get in a good position financially, I’m going to do what I can to get compound interest to work for me instead of against me.

January 7 was the anniversary for another famous publication: Dungeons & Dragons. That’s right, the first Dungeons & Dragons game went on sale January 7, 1974. “But wait!” you say. “I thought Dungeons and Dragons was Satanic!” Well, read the other side and decide for yourself. I’m just talking anniversaries, is all.

Speaking of anniversaries, my sister has a birthday coming up later this month. I’ve already gotten her a cool present that I think she’ll like, and I want to give it to her. My sister is one of the few people I can buy presents for easily; for most of the rest of my family, Christmas shopping, etc., is always pretty difficult. My family is decidedly non-materialistic; there’s just nothing that they want or need until you get into the “new car” price range. My sister’s got that interesting twist to her personality, though, that enables me to find all sorts of clever little presents that she’ll enjoy. It’s so much fun shopping for her! For the rest of my family, maybe we’ll have to switch to making a donation to a charity instead of buying a present, like Dear Abbey is always suggesting. It’s a thought, at any rate.