I'm not sure whether I'm a baby boomer or if I belong to Generation X. Being born in the year that I was (and I'm not saying when), apparently puts me at the end of the former and the start of the latter.
Had I been born 10 years later, I wouldn't have enriched the coffers of record companies (are they still called that?) by nearly as much as I have.
Let me explain.
If you read this column regularly, you might have noticed that I have more than a passing interest in music.
In my teenage years, pocket money that was meant to be spent on lunches and bus fares was often invested on the latest 45 (kids, ask your parents) or LP.
By the time I got to university, I was not only noticeably thinner and fitter, but I had a respectable collection of vinyl.
But the advent of the CD in the early 1980s changed everything.
No more clicks, scratches, jumps (or so I thought) and the sound was amazing.
Of course, this meant I had to replace my vinyl collection with CDs, thereby essentially buying every album I owned twice.
The record companies must have loved me.
One of the first LPs I replaced with a CD version was The Nightfly by Donald Fagen.
Twenty-seven years after its release it is still one of my favourites, and if you've never heard it, you should.
The first track on the album is entitled IGY, and is a song about the International Geophysical Year.
This "year", which actually spanned 18 months over 1957 and 1958, was the brainchild of the International Council of Scientific Unions, and was timed to coincide with a maximum in sunspot activity.
Following its success, the United Nations decided to get in on the act, and since 1959, it has devoted particular years to myriad causes; in fact as 2009 comes to an end, so too does the International Year of Astronomy, the International Year of Natural Fibres, the International Year of Human Rights Learning and the International Year of Reconciliation.
Now, I'd have to say I was unaware such celebrations were going on this year, and until I started doing the background for this column, I also didn't know 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures.
I'd like to think I'm relatively well-informed and so I can only put my lack of knowledge concerning these "international year of" events down to the fact that a) the organisers didn't publicise them enough or b) I'm not really that interested in the subjects being celebrated.
In truth, it's probably a little of both.
So finally, 450 words in, I come to the chemical point of this apparent ramble.
You may, or may not, be aware that 2011 has been designated by the UN General Assembly as the International Year of Chemistry.
And this, to me, and to a whole heap of people like me around the globe, is seriously important.
Which is why I'm asking you, dear readers, for your assistance.
The year 2011 is a chance for chemists all over the world to publicise our discipline to the general populace, but how do we best go about this?
What do you think we should be doing?
What do you want to know about chemistry?
What could we do to involve you in this year?
We chemists know the importance of chemistry but how do we go about communicating this importance to those who are not experts in the field?
If we can't do this effectively, then the whole celebration is pointless.
So please, if you have any ideas as to what we chemists should be doing for you in the International Year of Chemistry, please email me at 2011@chemistry.otago.ac.nz
And to return briefly to the start of this story, I'm still giving the record companies too much money.
I've just bought my third copy of The Nightfly, this time in 5.1 Surround Sound.
And needless to say, it sounds amazing!
- Dr Blackman is an associate professor in the chemistry department at the University of Otago
