@JamesT Yes, there should be. Let's see what English.SE can come up with.

@Flimzy Where did this start? I can't find the original message.

@fredsbend I'm personally a fan (as in amused by) of the people who think Jesus was was an Indian Guru who learned to slow down his breathing so that somehow he survived being stabbed in the heart and just woke up after 3 days

there is certainly no shortage of crazy theories about Jesus that make no sense at all

or rather have no evidence at all

@JamesT true, but it's also silly to look for that kind of evidence for any major world impact that doesn't leave physical evidence then

since there can't really be any evidence other than written record and really there wouldn't be expected to be evidence from non-religious sources until it was a major thing

I don't expect to hear about my birthday parties in any history books in the near future

@AJHenderson If your birthday parties ever do make the history books, it will be after you've achieved a level of fame. Therefore, by Lennart's reasoning, there will be no evidence that you existed.

@AffableGeek: You only need to work on hell, calvinism, eastern-orthodox, and communion to be the first to get the Generalist badge.

@AJHenderson Anyone who claims to have attended the party is clearly biased and their testimony is worthless. And it is well-known that many other people have claimed to have birthday parties - even including such details as the candles on the cake - so it's more likely that the cultural motif was appropriated by the early party-ists (or partisans?) to make it more acceptable to wider society.

Actually, the candle flame is just a Gnostic symbol for the spiritual emanations that lie above the crude matter of the wax - yet more pagan syncretism, as if the observation of the annual solar cycle were not convincing enough. And the giving of gifts is clearly just part of a vast conspiracy to hoodwink ordinary people into supporting an elite partying caste.

It's shocking that so many people have deluded themselves, and even look forward to a repetition "next year" (a date that, by its very definition, will never come). Perhaps it is a result of their childhood indoctrination, as partisans have been known to offer "party bags" to corrupt these young minds with sugar and toys.

@BruceAlderman yes, that was my point, if I'm not noteworthy I shouldn't appear and if I am noteworthy, then clearly I was invented by the establishment and spread around a lot

@JamesT that is the priceless icing on my apparently non-existent birthday cake

since afterall, the cake is a lie

(oh yes, I went there)

and just to really top it off

ironically, I did just pull out Portal 2 the other day to try and play it, but it doesn't run on my computer anymore for some reason

@AJHenderson I'm still playing Oblivion. I have Skyrim, but I am waiting until I have sufficiently beaten Oblivion before I delve into that.

On a different note ...

Anybody else every find themselves typing markdown in emails and word documents and then for a brief second you are like "Hey, why aren't the links working?"

@fredsbend absolutely. outlook even sort of supports the habit :)

at least for my most common markdown element. the italic

unfortunately gmail makes it bold

@waxeagle I have practically begged the blackboard guys for my online classes to support it. In fact, I told them just to close up shop and hit area51 for a blackboard site proposal. I had so many suggestions based on the SE framework that it just made more sense.

heh