Have you ever wondered how many days you've been alive?
If you want to calculate it in your head, it's a little bit of a slog. There are leap years, you have to work out how many days you are into the current year, you have to remember certain numbers while calculating other numbers and, if you're as clumsy with math as I am, it's a whole meal.
But, killing time in a slow commute in 2001, I managed to do it (I checked my answer with an Excel spreadsheet when I got home that night). It stuck with me. I started recording the number every day.
It did not, as it turns out, prove to be useful at all.
But, it did sort of assert a different perspective on time-keeping. Each day is distinct and unique to the people who were born on a specific day.
But, on the other hand, you get to do stuff like this. May 11, 2008 (day 14224) was the day I had spent exactly half of my life with my wife, whom I dated for the first time on November 20, 1988 (day 7112). She eventually admitted that this was sweet of me to commemorate. It helped that I made dinner.
My thing, inasmuch as I have a number thing, was prime number distribution. So much so, that I wrote a program that would tell me that day's number and whether or not it was prime. It would also tell me when to expect the next set of twin primes (prime numbers that are two apart). It's the only software I've ever written as an adult. I had to learn Visual BASIC. As soon as my executable was running, I forgot how to do everything.
Here are some screen caps from the days before and after I crossed the halfway point to the day when I am statistically likely to die.
Because I'm super fun.
I don't have a copy of this program anymore. I thought I had sent it to myself as an email attachment, but no amount of searching has turned it up. Now, if I want to do any sort of inquiry, I have to use Wolfram Alpha. Like some sort of animal.
If you want to calculate it in your head, it's a little bit of a slog. There are leap years, you have to work out how many days you are into the current year, you have to remember certain numbers while calculating other numbers and, if you're as clumsy with math as I am, it's a whole meal.
But, killing time in a slow commute in 2001, I managed to do it (I checked my answer with an Excel spreadsheet when I got home that night). It stuck with me. I started recording the number every day.
It did not, as it turns out, prove to be useful at all.
But, it did sort of assert a different perspective on time-keeping. Each day is distinct and unique to the people who were born on a specific day.
- My 10,000th day was October 16, 1996.
- My 11,111th day was on 11-1-99.
- I was 44 on April 9, 2014 16384, which is the last power of 2 I'm likely to see unless I limp along to February 16, 2059 -- I'll be 89.
But, on the other hand, you get to do stuff like this. May 11, 2008 (day 14224) was the day I had spent exactly half of my life with my wife, whom I dated for the first time on November 20, 1988 (day 7112). She eventually admitted that this was sweet of me to commemorate. It helped that I made dinner.
My thing, inasmuch as I have a number thing, was prime number distribution. So much so, that I wrote a program that would tell me that day's number and whether or not it was prime. It would also tell me when to expect the next set of twin primes (prime numbers that are two apart). It's the only software I've ever written as an adult. I had to learn Visual BASIC. As soon as my executable was running, I forgot how to do everything.
Here are some screen caps from the days before and after I crossed the halfway point to the day when I am statistically likely to die.
Because I'm super fun.
I don't have a copy of this program anymore. I thought I had sent it to myself as an email attachment, but no amount of searching has turned it up. Now, if I want to do any sort of inquiry, I have to use Wolfram Alpha. Like some sort of animal.
It's just as well. There's a part of my brain that gets noisy when it's preoccupied with things like numbers and patterns.
Someday, I might take a shot at making this into a phone app. There might be someone out there who's looking for a different way to watch the slow tyranny of time.
Someday, I might take a shot at making this into a phone app. There might be someone out there who's looking for a different way to watch the slow tyranny of time.
Ggg
12/7/15
(16991)
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