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Just Because It’s 2/29 FOUR bloggers blogged today, and only Snively mentioned this fact: TODAY IS LEAP DAY! Leap Day, Im sure you already know, comes from the fact that the earths revolution around the Sun is not perfectly 365 days. So, every 4 years (or, in the case of years that satisfy yr# mod 100 = 0, yr# mod 400 = 0 must also be true), we get one of these odd days. Anyhow, I just wanted to point out and celebrate the 5th Leap Day in my life. Going wayy back (1988) I was born on a leap year, but I guess it doesnt count because my birthday is in December, and I have already missed Leap Day. =( 1992, 1996 Probably playing in the sand pit somewhere and crying because I hated getting shots. 2000 Mm, 5th grade. Got pretty excited because I can now write the date as 2-0-0-0 rather than 1-9-9-9. Went to sleep at 9:30 every night because staying up past 10:00 was a crime in my young mind. 2004 Ah finally I remember something . It was freshman year of high school. I was obsessed with AMC 10 I spent 2 months preparing for it and was so depressed when I got 116, 4 points away from making AIME. Other than that, I remember the long, 7-hour road trip back to school because all the roads were clogged from Chinese New Year (the trip normally takes 3 hours). I didnt know what SATs were (honest! I didnt find out about SATs until the summer of freshman year, when I was in Mathcamp ah, the naivety of young minds). And now, 2008: 12:00 woo! midnight! STUDY STUDY STUDY STUDY 4:10 AM completes 14.01 (economics) pset. (ever want to know what a study room looks like at four in the morning?) 4:30 AM returns to dorm. 5:40 AM completes 5.111 (chemistry) pset. 6:15 AM welcomes in the sunrise of the leap day. One of my dormmates come up: Hey Chris, good morning! Youre up early today! ActuallyI havent gone to bed yet. =/ 1:10 PM wakes up, and thus begins my Leap Day (which wasnt eventful, unless you count the fact that I almost couldnt turn in my pset because it was overdue (it was due at 12:00) but everythings fine now) Four years from now, I (hopefully) wont even be at MIT anymore. Its kind of curious how my last Leap Day was my freshman year of high school, this Leap Day is my freshman year of college, and next Leap Day? Where will you be, when February 29 rolls around again? Keep 2/29 special. Until 2012! (and happy birthday to the Leaplings! Hope you had a good one. Youre my hero.)