This past weekend some friends and I visited Vancouver, B.C. We arrived around 8pm Friday night at our couch surfing host just a few minutes from downtown Vancouver. We went to dinner at India Bistro on Davie St. and started chatting.
Dave, our host, was in his 20s. I forgot what subject the conversation was on, but at one point, Dave mentioned that his parents bought their house in 1983. Earlier he had mentioned being born after they bought it, so I said, "Oh, you were born in 1984? What month?"
Dave said, "August."
I continued, "What day?"
He replied, "The 16th."
Immediately I whipped out my wallet to show him my driver's license, which proved to him that my birthday is also August 16, 1984.
CRAZY COINCIDENCE. Considering that Vicki, my twin, was there as well, there were three of us at the table of six sharing the exact same birthday.
I've heard of the "birthday paradox," how statistically, the probability of sharing a birthday with someone in a room of 23 is actually pretty high: 50%. But that's just sharing the same date, not both the date and year. And the reason it's so high is because it's the probability that ANYONE would share a birthday with ANYONE ELSE in the room. It considers that EACH of the 23 people may share a birthday with THE OTHER 22, so that's a lot of different pairs of people being considered. (In a group of 23 people there are 23×22/2 = 253 pairs.)
In this case, I'm only considering myself paired with Dave. I already know that I don't share a birthday with anyone in our travel party other than Vicki, so Dave is the only person the calculation applies to, so just one pair, rather than 253, which drastically limits the odds.
The odds of having the same birthday as anyone are 1/366 (counting the extra day of a leap year). Knowing that Dave was in his 20s, the odds of sharing the same birthyear are 1/10. So the odds of sharing both a birthday and birthyear with any 20-something in the world, randomly, are 1/3660.
Crazy.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Dangerous Driving
Tonight after I dropped off Vanja and was on my way home, I almost got hit by a car.
Before I get into that, though, let me tell you about my friend.
Last night I had dinner with my friend Drew, who told me about his own scary driving experience recently. This past Monday night around midnight, he was driving home and (an obviously drunk) driver turned out of nowhere onto the street when he didn't have the right of way, crossed the center line, and was driving straight toward him approaching a head-on collision. Drew said it seemed to be happening in slow motion and before he knew it, he was swerving and honking and the guy swerved the other way to correct himself, but not before side-swiping my friend and knocking off his driver-side mirror and driving away in what is essentially a hit-and-run accident.
Two days ago 22 year-old L.A. Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed after a drunk driver ran a red light.
So tonight, I was driving south on 15th Ave W and was just a couple blocks from my turn on Dravus. It was pretty quiet on the roads, no one in front of me. I was replaying my conversation with Drew and thinking about all the crazy drivers out there and, I kid you not, about 2 seconds later I encountered a crazy driver myself.
I glanced a little to my right about a half a block down the road and see a car that is parallel-parked with its lights on. I figure he's waiting for a friend to come out and he's just parked temporarily. Then out of nowhere, he pulls out onto the road without signaling, just as I am a few feet away from him. Immediately I react and swerve to my left into the center turn lane to avoid him, skidding and honking all the while. I was literally less than six inches from his car at one point and, had I not noticed him prior to that, he would have hit me.
I could not believe it.
If I hadn't had the topic of collisions on my mind then perhaps I wouldn't have been as aware of the guy and prepared for him to do something stupid. And then the d-bag proceeded to drive in front of me at 20 mph in a 35 mph zone.
I know I'm not the greatest driver and can scare my passengers sometimes, but never due to something as blatantly stupid as that driver.
WHAT THE EFF.
Before I get into that, though, let me tell you about my friend.
Last night I had dinner with my friend Drew, who told me about his own scary driving experience recently. This past Monday night around midnight, he was driving home and (an obviously drunk) driver turned out of nowhere onto the street when he didn't have the right of way, crossed the center line, and was driving straight toward him approaching a head-on collision. Drew said it seemed to be happening in slow motion and before he knew it, he was swerving and honking and the guy swerved the other way to correct himself, but not before side-swiping my friend and knocking off his driver-side mirror and driving away in what is essentially a hit-and-run accident.
Two days ago 22 year-old L.A. Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed after a drunk driver ran a red light.
So tonight, I was driving south on 15th Ave W and was just a couple blocks from my turn on Dravus. It was pretty quiet on the roads, no one in front of me. I was replaying my conversation with Drew and thinking about all the crazy drivers out there and, I kid you not, about 2 seconds later I encountered a crazy driver myself.
I glanced a little to my right about a half a block down the road and see a car that is parallel-parked with its lights on. I figure he's waiting for a friend to come out and he's just parked temporarily. Then out of nowhere, he pulls out onto the road without signaling, just as I am a few feet away from him. Immediately I react and swerve to my left into the center turn lane to avoid him, skidding and honking all the while. I was literally less than six inches from his car at one point and, had I not noticed him prior to that, he would have hit me.
I could not believe it.
If I hadn't had the topic of collisions on my mind then perhaps I wouldn't have been as aware of the guy and prepared for him to do something stupid. And then the d-bag proceeded to drive in front of me at 20 mph in a 35 mph zone.
I know I'm not the greatest driver and can scare my passengers sometimes, but never due to something as blatantly stupid as that driver.
WHAT THE EFF.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Concert Calendar
April 11th: Cage the Elephant, The Gaslight Anthem, and White Lies
April 19th: 100 Monkeys (Vancouver, B.C.)
April 28th: Yann Tiersen
May 2nd: Sam Bradley (Vancouver, B.C.)
May 31st: Relient K
July 11th: Coldplay
October 18th: U2 (Vancouver, B.C.)
MORE TO COME! :-)
April 19th: 100 Monkeys (Vancouver, B.C.)
April 28th: Yann Tiersen
May 2nd: Sam Bradley (Vancouver, B.C.)
May 31st: Relient K
July 11th: Coldplay
October 18th: U2 (Vancouver, B.C.)
MORE TO COME! :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
