Who am I? Who are you?

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Out of a random sample of 60 people you have a very very good chance of any two people sharing a birthday, if not year. In my school of ~220, there were 3 of us born 6/3/63.

Look at it like this: 2nd person - 1/365 chance. 3rd person - 2/365 chance. 4th person - 3/365 chance. And so on. So with X people there is a 1+2+3+....+X chance in 365 of a match. Obviously you would need 367 people to be guaranteed a match, but its a good bet for winning a free pint. Never give a sucker an even break.;)
 
I'm Jodie, British and aged 26, I'll be 27 in November. I was born in Stepney, East London in 1978. When I was born my dad was in hospital after breaking his neck and was left permanently paralysed from the neck down; this happened when my mum was pregnant with me. My dad's name isn't on my birth certificate as my parents didn't marry until I was almost 2 and he couldn't be there when I was registered.

I had a mostly crappy, utterly crapy and something I wouldn't wish on anyone, childhood. My mum suffered with depression, anxiety and was on tablets for over 20 years which I believe contributed to why my childhood was so bad. No intentions of going into it but suffice to say it was awful and it still makes me cry today. I don't blame anyone anymore as it didn't help and I understand, to a degree, why what happened did.

As a teenager I didn't really think of consequences and so partook in lots of drinking and other things that weren't good for me. I was lucky. I often walked home alone and didn't even think of the dangers that would concern me now.

I started to self-harm as a teenager and carried on to try to cut my wrists with a razor blade when I was 18; I still have the scars today of which I am ashamed and hate to see. I was diagnosed with depression and took antidepressants for a few months. I was so close to my nan but she died of cancer just after my 15th birthday and I think that was what attributed to me doing that. She was like a mother to me and was such a wonderful woman. She had lung cancer but it spread to her brain and she died on Jan 2nd just 6 months after she was diagnosed. She had said to me that all she ever wanted was to see me grow up and be married and have children and I really hope that she might be able to see me now (even though what I believe about the afterlife is shaky). I miss her now just like she died yesterday and it's been 11 years.

My life started to get better when I travelled to Ibiza at 19 with a friend and there I met my future husband Cliff. I knew right away that he was something special and I was right :D We met a few times, overcame a few missed meetings after thinking we were meeting at different times and ended up seeing each other for 2 years when we got back to the UK. We saw each other at weekends as he lived in Milton Keynes and I lived in London and then moved into a flat in London together.

After about a year of living together Cliff proposed to me and we were engaged. Shortly afterwards I fell pregnant with our daughter and while it was unplanned it was a wonderful thing.

We were married when I was 34 weeks pregnant and it was a lovely day. W had a civil ceremony and only close family and friends there. We didn't have a honeymoon for obvious reasons and just as well seeing as when our daughter made an appearance :) I loved that day we were married and will always remember every detail.

Our daughter was born 4 weeks early and weighed 5lb 14 and a half oz, she had to stay in the special care baby unit for 5 days and was tube fed and given oxygen but the day we brought her home was fantastic and such a relief. I had pre ecclampsia in pregnancy and would probably have been induced had my waters not broken early.

We moved into a 3 bed house in London about 2 weeks after our daughter was born and had lots of happy times there. When she was 3 months old I found out that I was pregnant again after a careless night but we were happy about it and glad to be having another baby. Sadly I miscarried that baby but we then decided to try for another baby. I went on to have 3 more miscarriages before conceiving our much wanted son and he was born 2 weeks early at 38 weeks and weighed 7lb 12 and a half oz. We were back at home 8 hours after the birth :D It was wonderful to be able to bring him home with us right away :D

Our children grew and were amazing (still are) and we were very happy as a family. In Oct 2004 we moved to Cambridge and now have a lovely 4 bed house here which we all adore.

We decided to try for another baby but I miscarried again just a couple of months ago and it was so hard for me that I really don't know if I can go through it again. Obviously Cliff was upset as well but he has left the decision up to me as to whether we try again or stop. At the moment I am enjoying my children and loving being a stay at home mum to them. After all that's happened it makes me appreciate them a lot more. Thet are wonderful and I have a great husband that helps and supports me.

A lot of that sounds down but I feel so happy now really with the way my life is (other than the losses) and with my children.

I've just started a course with the OU and I am hoping to complete a Physical Science degree which I am fascinated with :)
 
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Treefrog said:
Out of a random sample of 60 people you have a very very good chance of any two people sharing a birthday, if not year. In my school of ~220, there were 3 of us born 6/3/63.

Look at it like this: 2nd person - 1/365 chance. 3rd person - 2/365 chance. 4th person - 3/365 chance. And so on. So with X people there is a 1+2+3+....+X chance in 365 of a match. Obviously you would need 367 people to be guaranteed a match, but its a good bet for winning a free pint. Never give a sucker an even break.;)
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You have the right idea, but the wrong working! See my "an experiment" thread for clarification ;)

With 60 people, you actually have a better than 99% chance that two of the people in the group share a birthday.

This is worked out as

P(two people share a b'day, in a group of 60) = 1 - 365!/[(365^60)*(365-60)!]
 
JodieG said:
I'm Jodie, British and aged 26, I'll be 27 in November...bio...
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Interesting read, sounds like you had a lot of difficult things in your life, but things have turned out well for you, so that's good :) Good luck with the degree :)

Reading stuff like that is precisely why I don't see myself as courageous in the slightest (as Jenjey said, after reading my mini biography), people have gone through a lot worse than me, and I've actually been very lucky in how my life has ended up and is continuing to progress.
 
James. Could have been anything, turned out to be nothing. Mind atrophied. Enthusiasm for life sapped by experience, potential reduced by time. No defining moments, only years of non-defined failure. Innocent childlike spirit trapped and rendered dormant within the misbegotten, jaded shell of a man old before his time.
 
Hardhuddy said:
Am i the oldest person on these forums :(
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Nope, I'm five months older :(

Vertigo1 - I'm Toby.

I was born in Bristol in 1967 and spent a large part of my young life moving around with my parents. From Bristol we moved to Solihull, then to Beaconsfield, then back to Solihull, then out to Holland then back to Solihull yet again. I have one sister, who is 3 years younger than me.

I've had a varied education, attending three state schools here, two infant and one junior, followed by three years at the ISA in Amsterdam, then five years of public school in Solihull and three years at Loughborough university.

I met my girlfriend in 1997 and we currently live in a 3-bed detached house in Hall Green, Birmingham. We have no children nor do we plan to.

I work as a software engineer and part-time sysadmin for a small local company writing quality control software for manufacturing industry and more recently business process management software for the sign-making industry. I've been there for over 14 years now, and was actually the very first employee back when the company was only a year old. Our customers include many of the well-known car manufacturers, including Ford, Vauxhall, Land Rover, Jaguar, Bentley & Aston Martin.

My interests include computers, cars, sci-fi and online gaming. I currently have four PCs, drive an Audi A3, am addicted to Stargate and play Quake 3. I currently run the Jolt Q3 CTF league on Sunday nights, the next season of which starts tomorrow.

For anyone interested, I've been using the Vertigo1 nickname now for 8 years, everywhere from online gaming to IRC to various forums. Far from having any links with Hitchcock films or a fear of heights, it was actually the name of the ship in the original Descent game, for anyone old enough to remember.
 
xyphic - I am Dave, David (or, once-upon-a-time, Eddie)

I'm 24 years old and ever so quickly approaching the quarter-century. I was born in a reasonably small town in South Yorkshire, and didn't have a particularly interesting childhood. When I hit my teens, I got into something of a rut - the same friends, the same places, nothing new or exciting. I became very self-conscious and found it difficult to meet new people. So when the opportunity came along to go to University, I jumped at it.

My Uni of choice was Durham - never one for the big city, it seemed an ideal choice. I fell in with a fantastic group of people, who made the experience extremely enjoyable. However, my self-consciousness didn't go away; instead it continued to grow. I graduated with a first, and instead of moving back to South Yorkshire I looked for jobs further afield.

So, I'm now in Cambridge (where I've been for over three years). I'm back in a rut, struggling to overcome my fear of getting a life, and promising myself that one day soon I will do something about it.

My interests include photography, sports (mainly badminton and cricket), puzzles, and computers (specifically programming them). I don't do as much of the first two as I would like.
 
Moo, your post really saddened me :(.
It also made me realise how trivial some of the problems I make a big deal of actually are. I feel so confused and down at times, yet I've never experienced anything like you've gone through over the years.
You're doing so great :) Good luck with your uni course, hopefully things will go well for you from now on hunny. x
 
Jenjey said:
Moo, your post really saddened me :(.
It also made me realise how trivial some of the problems I make a big deal of actually are. I feel so confused and down at times, yet I've never experienced anything like you've gone through over the years.
You're doing so great :) Good luck with your uni course, hopefully things will go well for you from now on hunny. x
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Writing that was kind of like therapy :p It brought a few memories back and made me cry but now I feel better for it :)

Luckily the past is the past and can stay that way. Everythings great now :)
 
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