314

Something about being human makes us want to see patterns, even when they aren’t there.  We want to think that nature is playing some joke on us and every once in a while shows its hand (either on purpose or on accident).  I am no different.  I mentioned a few days back that my birthday this year now makes my age a prime number.  Perhaps I am worse than others in seeing patterns (should this year be better or worse because of this being a “prime” year?).

I recently sold something on eBay.  I have not been a seller on eBay for quite a while as I usually am on the other end of things (the buyer) but for whatever reason my feedback rating has now hit…

Now any good math student can tell you that 3 1 4 are the first numbers of that glorious number, pi (π).  Of course, as soon as the buyer gets my package and (hopefully) gives me a positive feedback then I will move on past 314 but until then I take a certain amount of pleasure in this being my feedback rating.

A month or two ago the wife’s cell phone made an unsuccessful trip through the washer (and I think drier, but I cannot be certain).  Anyway, after drying out (we put it in a sealed container of rice for a few days) it actually did still work but the display screens did not.  We could dial by faith but could not confirm we had done so correctly until the person on the other end picked up.  We were quite a few months away from the completion of our (2) year plan but we were close enough to get a discount on a new phone (with the agreement of another [2] year plan of course).  The phone was almost free but it was only that way due to a $50 rebate.  The rebate came in the form of a Visa gift card.  We were even fortunate to get the rebate before our bill came due.  Anyway, the good and bad thing about a Visa gift card is that you can spend it anywhere but cannot then trust any particular store to tell you how much you have remaining as your balance.  We used the card for some amount more than $10 but less than $15 for lunch one day and then for $35 toward our big school supply purchases.  This left us some unknown balance of $0 to $5.  On the back of the card in very tiny print were instructions on getting the balance.  The preferred method was for them to text it to us by typing in some cryptic code and hitting send.  Since we have incoming texts blocked, this was not an option.  There did not appear to be an online method of doing it so I was forced to punch in the 16 digit code and a few other things before a computerized voice gave me our current balance.  Wouldn’t you know it, it was $3.14.  Coincidence?  Sure but somewhere in the back of my mind I immediate tried (whether it was logical or not) to tie this number to my eBay rating.

I ended up buying a bagel today for $1.34 so my balance is down to $1.80 and try as I might I cannot see 180, 18 or 1.8 as being special (…yet, maybe tomorrow it will make sense like if I get on the scales and weigh 180 lbs).  I will have to keep you posted.

Jon