23

[davidn]

I don't know if I ever mentioned this here before, but around the end of school and the end of university, I was convinced that the number 23 was following me around. Several significant dates in my life added up in some way to 23, I had locker number 23 in the Purdie building, I found one morning that someone had stuck a "23p" label to my doorframe, and so on. Yes, exactly like that film, so mentioning this would probably have had a greater impact if I'd mentioned it years ago. I was shocked enough to discover that that was what it was about yesterday. And now I am 23, so either it's going to be very good or utterly terrible.

As it happens, today I was honoured with the entirely new experience of receiving absolutely no presents on my birthday. Work was hectic (and because of the wonder of the Internet, still continues to be hectic, seeing as I'm sitting on the sofa with the laptop and debugging things from home) because catastrophic faults in the system always emerge 24 hours before we send it off to the client, and the weather outside was drearier than Scotland has ever managed, so it was quite hilariously gloomy all round. Still, let's look on the bright side - tomorrow I'll have a six-hour flight, followed by a cocktail party for the over 80s the next day, then a six-hour drive through a featureless barren desert to get to Whitney's parents' house.

Happy birthday, sleigh82. Happy birthday, Glenn Barry from Kamelot. Happy birthday, Mrs Hill who was my teacher in fifth year of primary school. Happy birthday, me.

Comments

[diarytypething.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday! You know, the over 80s cocktail party might not be that bad, it could even be entertaining once people start to forget their inhibitions (or perhaps their zimmer frames).

The number of people who share one's birthday always seems statistically unlikely. I know at least 6 people (actual people who I have met, not celebrities or fictional characters) whose birthdays are the same day as mine, but for this to represent an even distribution it would mean I would have to know about 1800 people well enough to know when it was their birthday. It's quite strange and there are probably some good crackpot theories to explain why this happens.

[davidn]

There are! The Birthday Paradox says that even though it seems like you would need about 300 people before finding double birthdays, the chance is almost certain with only around 30. Then a page down it threw some deadly maths at me (including the number 23) so I had to run off.