Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Fun With 42
So we have this portable white board where I work. It is rarely used for any business purpose, so there is usually some sort of question at the top intended to generate responses. Of course, the question could be about anything; the weather, movies, TV shows, etc. The idea is that the responses are to be related, but somewhat nonsensical and (if possible) funny.
For instance, one of the questions was "If I were King, I'd..." One of the responses was "Make Angelina Jolie the queen." Another answer was "Put Chuck Norris in charge of security." (I just had to respond to that one; I put "bad idea; he'd take over." Try going to Google and putting "find Chuck Norris" in the search field and click the "I feel lucky button". The result is rather funny, in my demented opinion.)
Whenever I feel compelled to put up an answer to one of the questions, I always try to incorporate "42" if at all possible. Sometimes I can't think of anything witty to add, so I just put "42" and leave it at that.
One of the more recent questions was "If I could put time in a bottle, I'd..." Another individual put "Blow it up" for one of the answers. Once again, not being able to help myself, I decided the answer needed a bit of augmentation. When I was done with it the entire line read "Blow it up (with C4-tytwo).
I know, I'm my own best fan. But it was fun and I like to share, so there you go. By virtue of it's popularity alone, I believe that 42 WILL become "the answer to life, the universe, and everything" eventually. I surely wish Douglas Adams were alive today to witness the phenomenon that his silly little random number created. I realize he was aware of it to a certain extent prior to his death, but I don't think he quite understood just how pervasive it would turn out to be. Cheers to Mr. Adams!!!
For instance, one of the questions was "If I were King, I'd..." One of the responses was "Make Angelina Jolie the queen." Another answer was "Put Chuck Norris in charge of security." (I just had to respond to that one; I put "bad idea; he'd take over." Try going to Google and putting "find Chuck Norris" in the search field and click the "I feel lucky button". The result is rather funny, in my demented opinion.)
Whenever I feel compelled to put up an answer to one of the questions, I always try to incorporate "42" if at all possible. Sometimes I can't think of anything witty to add, so I just put "42" and leave it at that.
One of the more recent questions was "If I could put time in a bottle, I'd..." Another individual put "Blow it up" for one of the answers. Once again, not being able to help myself, I decided the answer needed a bit of augmentation. When I was done with it the entire line read "Blow it up (with C4-tytwo).
I know, I'm my own best fan. But it was fun and I like to share, so there you go. By virtue of it's popularity alone, I believe that 42 WILL become "the answer to life, the universe, and everything" eventually. I surely wish Douglas Adams were alive today to witness the phenomenon that his silly little random number created. I realize he was aware of it to a certain extent prior to his death, but I don't think he quite understood just how pervasive it would turn out to be. Cheers to Mr. Adams!!!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Random 42
Today we have an example of how 42 will show up in the oddest and most random places.
I am diabetic (have been for 26 years) and so have to take note of every gram of carbohydrate I eat. Today I put one of my favorite turn-and-burn meals into the microwave, but looked at the carb count first to determine how much insulin I needed to eat my meal. If you are wondering how many carbs were in the meal at this point, you probably just don't get my blog.
It had never really registered with me before that it was exactly 42 carbs. I always just glance at the numbers then program my pump to deliver the appropriate amount of insulin. As my awareness of the number 42 increases, however, these little details seem to jump out at me.
Are there any more random 42 stories out there? Are there any that are really REALLY odd? Submit a post and lets find out together.
I am diabetic (have been for 26 years) and so have to take note of every gram of carbohydrate I eat. Today I put one of my favorite turn-and-burn meals into the microwave, but looked at the carb count first to determine how much insulin I needed to eat my meal. If you are wondering how many carbs were in the meal at this point, you probably just don't get my blog.
It had never really registered with me before that it was exactly 42 carbs. I always just glance at the numbers then program my pump to deliver the appropriate amount of insulin. As my awareness of the number 42 increases, however, these little details seem to jump out at me.
Are there any more random 42 stories out there? Are there any that are really REALLY odd? Submit a post and lets find out together.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
42 - The answer to life, the universe, and everything
Yup, that's right. 42. The number is everywhere. We see it in literature, music, television, films, and even video games. But of course the most popular use of the number is found in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" series as the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
Where did this number come from? Why 42? What inspiration led Douglas Adams to choose this number as the ultimate answer? Well, based on a quote by Mr. Adams himself, he just thought of it one day. Randomly. He needed a number for his literary progress with "Hitchhiker", he wanted a very ordinary, nothing special number, and that's what he came up with.
It started a movement.
The number now amazingly appears in so many places it almost boggles the mind. When I ask somebody about the number and they have no understanding of its significance, I must carefully suppress the urge to ask "what century (and/or planet) are you from again?"
My personal favorite is the way it is used in programming instruction manuals. I dare say there is [likely] not a single programming book that has bee made since 1980 that does not contain 42 at least once as an example for a variable or some other piece of code.
That is what this blog is about. Where do we see 42? Where does it show up? Why does it show up there? Does the individual(s) responsible for its use understand the significance of the number and where its popularity originated? Or is it just so ingrained within society now that it is a number that people naturally gravitate to when they need to come up with a random number for one purpose or another?
Also included will be some posts on some of the the mathematical trivia associated with the number 42. There are some rather interesting (well, interesting to me at least) properties of the number. Of course, there are some rather boring properties of the number as well, but we probably won't be bothered with addressing those particular facts.
Do you have some interesting knowledge regarding 42? Send me a post request and if it is worthy of discussion I will get it added. In the mean-time, enjoy the little trivia and discussions you find here about this amazingly ordinary number.
Where did this number come from? Why 42? What inspiration led Douglas Adams to choose this number as the ultimate answer? Well, based on a quote by Mr. Adams himself, he just thought of it one day. Randomly. He needed a number for his literary progress with "Hitchhiker", he wanted a very ordinary, nothing special number, and that's what he came up with.
It started a movement.
The number now amazingly appears in so many places it almost boggles the mind. When I ask somebody about the number and they have no understanding of its significance, I must carefully suppress the urge to ask "what century (and/or planet) are you from again?"
My personal favorite is the way it is used in programming instruction manuals. I dare say there is [likely] not a single programming book that has bee made since 1980 that does not contain 42 at least once as an example for a variable or some other piece of code.
That is what this blog is about. Where do we see 42? Where does it show up? Why does it show up there? Does the individual(s) responsible for its use understand the significance of the number and where its popularity originated? Or is it just so ingrained within society now that it is a number that people naturally gravitate to when they need to come up with a random number for one purpose or another?
Also included will be some posts on some of the the mathematical trivia associated with the number 42. There are some rather interesting (well, interesting to me at least) properties of the number. Of course, there are some rather boring properties of the number as well, but we probably won't be bothered with addressing those particular facts.
Do you have some interesting knowledge regarding 42? Send me a post request and if it is worthy of discussion I will get it added. In the mean-time, enjoy the little trivia and discussions you find here about this amazingly ordinary number.
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