counter

I know web traffic tends to be measured in millions but I'm still oddly pleased that my counter has hit 10,000. I just noticed it was on 9,999. I used to occupy myself on long journeys by avoiding looking at the milometer and trying to guess 5, 10 or 20 miles. 99s and 999s were always special somehow. Logically they shouldn't be but then logic and numbers, although natural bedfellows, have to combat the powerful force that is some sort of combination between superstition and the attractive aesthetics of sequences and patterns. As far as probability is concerned 1,2,3,4,5,6 may as well be your lottery numbers but I bet there aren't many people that choose those. I suspect that if they actually came up there'd be an outcry and claims of a fix. I always used to use that notion to help illustrate why buying lottery tickets was a stupid waste of money. Of course a massive jackpot win by someone very close made me look pretty dumb. Likewise we go bonkers on December 31st and especially bonkers when the year counter hit 2,000. Nerds all over the AD world deseprately tried to point out that the new millenium technically didn't start until 2001 and that's when the big party should be but surely they missed the point: why celebrate at all? It's just another day surely. We like to mark time, lives, events and web pages so decimal landmarks are easy to target and then celebrate I spose. I will try to break that mould and henceforth look forward to 14,324. What a day that'll be.