Monday, August 25, 2008

A closer look at... The Best Number


It's always kind of neat to find out that someone out there likes the same things as you; neat, unless, also like me, you think that liking things that are sort of obscure is neat, too, and you secretly don't want people to like the same things because you don't want to share those things with people. I am a walking catch-22 that way -- I want all the things I like to be popular because then I can share them with people and when we both like the same things, say stuff like "I know, me too, right?" but I also would prefer that most things I like be my little secret.

Most of what I like tends to fall into that latter category anyway; when you think like I do and like the things I do, there are not hordes of people out there saying I know, me too, right? about those things. Especially when those things are things like The Best Number, which is i, which is the square root of negative one -- a number I picked as The Best to celebrate hitting 10,000 readers a few years back.

Very few people, I think, share my enthusiasm for numbers that may or may not exist. That's why I was so excited to see a comic on xkcd which made reference to i, a comic that I can't find because I saved the link on my "work" computer and I'm at home now, having told my boss I was going to "work" from home.

In looking for that comic though, I then stumbled across the xkcd blog, which I bookmarked disconsolately, because I realized that although the writer of xkcd and I may share a similar love of i, he is almost certainly a lot smarter than me, and also he gets to meet Cory Doctorow. So I'll keep reading his comic, but secretly I am resentful, and someday, when we both meet and we're both wearing shirts that say i on them, and we say "I know, me too, right?" I'll probably be kind of bitter.

At least until he introduces me to Cory Doctorow. Then I'll forgive him.

As it turns out, xkcd and I also have a fascination with turn signals synching up. Here's his:


And mine can be found by clicking here.


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