The Master Happy Birthday thread

[AmericanBilly]

Oh My...Happy Bridgett! Are you old enough to legally drink now? :smt041

 

[Uncle Max]

Happy Birthday!

Smile as always and be happy!

 

[frankm1342]

I hope you have a very Happy Bday Bridgett

 

[alain]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIDGETT!!!!

 

[Yan He]

\:D/ Happy birthday, girl.

 

[Vlad]

Happy, Happy Birthday Bridgett !
:smt035

 

[Peik Looi]

Happy Birthday and many happy returns of the DAY! :smt030

 

[RussianMike]

Happy belated Birthday Bridgett!

May all your dreams come true!

 

[Eddie]

:smt061 happy bday Bridgett :smt006
am i here in time or what! any celebration going on tonight?

 

[hasan]

Happy Birthday Bridgett!! :smt006

 

[Bridgett]

Wow, what a sweet and wonderful family I have here. Thank you so much everyone!!

I'm borrowing a thankful note from a little girl here and hope that it can help me a little bit with expressing my gratitude to everyone.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Another bump for the birthday girl :smt061
Today is Bridgett's birthday, so there is not belated wishes neccessary :D

can we celebrate your birthday everyday for the sake of getting cookies from you?? [-o< )

Vlad, this means you have to buy cookies today even it's no longer your birthday :smt006

 

[gc6130]

Happy Birthday

:smt035

 

[Yusheng]

It may be a little late :D

Happy Birthday!!! :smt109 :rock:

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Laptop Slides Into Bed in Love Triangle

Is this a problem with you yet?

By KATIE HAFNER
Published: August 24, 2006
Link to article on NYT
LARRY SMITH knows he is treading a fine marital line. Mr. Smith, 37, is the editor of Smith, an online magazine he founded, and he loves to work in bed at all hours — midafternoon, 2 a.m. if insomnia strikes, then again in the morning.

In the morning Larry Smith edits his online magazine in bed while his wife, Piper Kerman, tries not to lose sleep over it.

"Sitting there in bed half awake with a cup of coffee is extremely pleasant," he said.

Yet Mr. Smith is all too aware of his wife's mounting disapproval of his routine and suspects that a laptop-in-bed ban could be imminent.

As electronic devices get smaller, people tote their technology around the house more than ever. And as the number of home wireless networks also grows, laptops — along with Treos, BlackBerries and other messaging devices — are migrating into the bedroom and onto the bed. The marital bed has survived his-and-her book lights and the sushi-laden bed tray. Can it also survive computers that tether their owners to the office or make the bed the workplace itself?

Piper Kerman, Mr. Smith's wife, tries to be understanding about her husband's need to work constantly, but her tolerance has limits, especially when she thinks about the significance of their bed, their first joint purchase when they started out as a couple 10 years ago.

"Not to get too squishy about it, but you kind of want the bed to be a sacred space," she said. "The bed is a restorative place in my mind. It's not a place to work."

Relationship experts and those who study technology in people's lives hold divergent views on the topic.

"The most comfortable spot in the world is in bed, and that's where people start their day and end their day," said Ken Anderson, an anthropologist and a senior researcher at Intel Research in Beaverton, Ore.

Mr. Anderson has been studying people's routines since 2002 in an attempt to understand the role technology plays in their daily lives. In a paper published with three colleagues, he found more technology ending up in the bedroom. One woman Mr. Anderson kept track of for months had trouble sleeping unless her husband was at her side. So he joined her in bed with his laptop as he continued his work.

Mr. Anderson viewed this in a positive light, as the husband's effort to be considerate of his wife's needs. "The whole idea of being co-present is very important these days," he said.

Dr. Enoch Choi, 36, and his wife, Tania, 33, who have been married 10 years, both take laptops to bed to write their blogs. "I suppose I started the trend,'' said Dr. Choi, a physician in Palo Alto, Calif. "But now my wife is just as much the nighty-night PowerBook key-banger, blogging away for her friends."

Ms. Choi, a computer interface designer, said she used to be offended by gadgets in the bedroom. "I don't even have a TV in the room," she said. But now, "it's one of those weird modalities of intimacy I'm just going to have to reconcile myself to.''

She added:"Honestly, if both of us are in there with the computer it's a good night. But if one of us wants to be left alone, we're in different places with our technology. If we want to be connected, then we both bring our technology into the bedroom."

This may be the face of the happy marriage, circa 2006, when according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 30 percent of Americans own laptops.

But as some marital experts point out, in relationships under strain a laptop computer in bed can be used to avoid intimacy, not to foster it.

"There are many people who want a partner close, but not too close," said David Schnarch, the director of the Marriage and Family Health Center, in Evergreen, Colo., and the author of "Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships" (W. W. Norton 1997). "So snuggling up next to them with the computer is for many of us the ideal situation for a feeling of contact but an assurance there won't be eye-to-eye intimacy."

Dr. Schnarch continued: "The problem is not computers. Two generations ago people did it with the television. It's just the latest appliance that galvanizes our attention."

A study by sociologists at Duke and the University of Arizona that gained wide attention this summer found that too much computer use can isolate one further from a shrinking circle of confidants.

Lynn Smith-Lovin, a sociologist at Duke and an author of the study, said preliminary results from a survey conducted in 2004 (but not used in the published study) suggest that those who use the Internet for extended periods are less likely than others to mention their spouse as their first confidant.

Most couples experts said the act of taking an electronic device to bed did not by itself threaten a marriage. "It depends on the relationship," said Marcy Levine, a marriage and family therapist in San Francisco. "If the relationship is a solid one, where the partners are loving and connected, then bringing a laptop to bed is a way of continuing to be with their partner even if they need to do something else."

When a couple lie in bed together, both focused on the computer, Ms. Levine said, they can be said to be engaging in an intimate act.

Such is the case with Teresa and David Sholes of Bennington, Vt., who have been married for 15 years.

Ms. Sholes, a medical equipment consultant in Bennington, savors the convenience and coziness of her bed, and her laptop is something of a fixture there, not just at bedtime.

"Sometimes in the winter, if I want to rest in the middle of the day, I'll bring my laptop and my phone and cuddle into bed," she said."I can be anywhere and connected to anything. It feels very powerful."

Ms. Sholes uses her laptop in bed for more than work. She searches for recipes, plans birthday parties for her 5-year-old daughter, balances her checkbook and listens to audio books.

She also lies in bed and exchanges instant messages with her husband, who is elsewhere in the house on his own computer. "We discuss things, you might even say argue," she said. "The IM will often eliminate a lot of the tone, and we can discuss things a little bit better. "

But the Sholeses also use the computer in bed to watch movies and to look at photographs Ms. Sholes has taken. And they sit together and have instant messaging conversations with friends.

In addition, the laptop has helped their sex life. "There have been a couple of times where we have digital pornography and can play it right there in bed," Ms. Sholes said. "At this stage in our marriage I feel like we should bring our laptop into bed more often."

Laptop computers aren't the only pieces of electronica to work their way into bedrooms.

Candace Falk, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., has grown so accustomed to a constant third presence in her marriage — her husband's handheld Treo — that its arrival in their bed seemed inevitable.

"The big laptop thing in bed was a more obvious statement of having his mind elsewhere," Ms. Falk said. "This small object can be fondled under the covers."

Bitsie, a nickname Ms. Falk borrowed from another couple whose computer is a constant presence, not only lights up. It also vibrates. "The bells and whistles are supposedly there to remind him about everything he has to do, kind of like a vibrating 24/7 secretary," Ms. Falk said.

She said she did not like having Bitsie in the bedroom. "I find her most annoying in her tininess and under the covers," she said. "The buzz that goes off in the middle of the night to remind him of something he has to do is positively annoying.

But because Ms. Falk and her husband, who is a hard-working public-interest lawyer, respect each other's work, they make room for it. "It's a kind of ménage à trois that I didn't choose, but there it is, every day and night," she said.

Mr. Smith, who lives in New York, might soon find his bedtime computer use relegated to business trips. And Ms. Kerman, his wife, clearly wouldn't mind.

"There is something about that tap-tap-tap that makes me a little crazy," she said.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Happy Birthday to Alain Sept 12

Happy birthday Alain. May your wishes come true and many more happy birthdays to come :smt113 :birthday::smt030 :smt038

 

[Eddie]

:smt113
HaPpY bIrTh DaY!

Are you bringing us a cake tomorrow :mrgreen:

 

[Uncle Max]

Happy Birthday Alain!!!

You are the man! :smt024

Have a good party today :drinkers:

All the best wishes to you and your family!

 

[Yusheng]

Alain, Happy Birthday!!!
Best wishes to you!!! :smt034 :smt035 :smt038 :smt113

 

[Bridgett]

Here goes the song for you...

Happy birthday to you~
Happy birthday to you~
Happy birthday dear Alain~
Happy birthday to you~~~~~~~~~

Did you hear that? That is all of us singing the birthday song for you!!! :smt035
Oh what? you missed couple of lines? Ok, here we go again:

Happy birthday to you~
Happy birthday to you~
Happy birthday dear Alain~
Happy birthday to you~~~~~~~~~

Alright, the cake is here, make a wish and blow the candle now, Alain: :smt113

May your wishes come true and enjoy health and good fortune.