Complex Numbers

Reflection

PROMPT September 7th

Reflect on WDC’s 19th Birthday week! I don’t know any other online community that celebrates like we do What was your favorite activity to participate in? What is the favorite thing you wrote? What is the favorite thing you read? Did you win anything? (or hope to? ) Tell us!

Yeah... honestly, I didn't do as much as I'd hoped. I've been trying to write at least one contest entry a week all year, but none of the prompts I saw really did it for me, this time. Most of them were about birthdays, and at my age, that's not something I care to think about. Except, of course, when it's my birthday, at which point I want ALL the presents.

So now I'm behind on that. I'm sure I'll be able to catch up, though.

Hey, that's odd. Usually, that sort of thing makes me give something up as hopeless. Maybe I have changed.

Anyway, I was glad to see all the participation. This is a unique venue, as the prompt above alludes, and I like to see it thriving.

Next year is the 20th. Because we're programmed by society to give greater emphasis to numbers that end in 0, I expect that'll be an even bigger deal.

A slightly pedantic aside:

I've seen references to something's nth year. Usually, in context, it goes something like this:

"Jack is 50 years old."

"Amazing! He made it to his fiftieth year!"

While technically correct, if Jack is 50 years old, that means that he also made it to his 51st year.

That sounds odd sometimes, but just think about it: When was your first year? Chances are you don't remember it, but your parents did. They measured your age, then, in months. When you're born, you're 0 years old. A year later, you're 1 year old. In the meantime, you're in your... first year. Consequently, your second year stretches from your first birthday to your second birthday, and so on. When you're 10, you're in your 11th year of life. It's like with centuries: we're in the 21st century, and all the years start with 20.

Put another way, right after you're born, you're not in your 0th year.

You're 29? Then you're either lying, or you're in your 30th year. You can tell someone "I'm 29" or "I'm in my 30th year." The latter will make people think you're 30, because they haven't read this blog entry, so don't do that if you have a youth vanity thing going on.

Point being, as of right now, WDC is in its 20th year, and that's an amazing feat for a relatively small online community.