In this day and age, when a kid can get cancer and a 71 year old can compete in the Olympics, your age is really just a number. Here are some random thoughts though, in no particular order, on this birthday of mine:
I heard that most people reach athletic peaks somewhere in the mid-20s, which means I should step up my workouts if I ever plan to dunk or do a triathlon.
Ten years ago, I was a freshman in high school and I wanted to be a lawyer for the ACLU. How times have changed…
I remember when I was 11 or so, I found out about perfect numbers, which are numbers that equal the sum of their factors. The only two that people will reach age-wise are 6 and 28, so I was really sad that I didn’t realize it when I was 6. Now, I’m a step closer to being 28! On the bright side, 24 is a semi-perfect number…one that is equal to the sum of a few of its factors.
I realized that my first day of grad school (which went well by the way, great class of students) was the last day my age was a prime number (23). My goal now is to finish my PhD when my age is a prime number again (hopefully 29!). As a friend pointed out on Facebook though, this could be 31, 37 or 41, but I’m hoping those years will be for finishing post-docs and getting a real job.
While we are on the subject of math, 24 is also a fun little math game. Deal out four non face cards and see who can devise a way to make 24. You can use any of the standard operations but you have to use all the numbers.
24 is also the number of a lot of great NFL cornerbacks for some reason, though I never quite traced this back to a particular person. It’s also obviously the number of hours in a day, the number of carats in pure gold, and some TV show where Kiefer Sutherland can’t die but is still somehow dramatic. It’s also the atomic number of chromium, so I have filled the d-shell halfway.
Anyways, I don’t have internet at my new place yet so I can’t easily upload pictures from my DC/Maryland trip. Here’s a little preview though:
Having an ACME moment
Now it’s time to head off to bed since I have to get up early in the morning to learn about animal safety. How exciting…imagine the ethics dilemma if we discovered yeast cells actually feel pain when you lyse them for their proteins.
